"Particularly So!" - Too

 "Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day when I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt; because they continued not in my covenant, and I regarded them not, saith the Lord." (Hebrews 8:9 KJV)

  "When Jesus woke up, he rebuked the wind and said to the waves, "Silence! Be still!" Suddenly the wind stopped, and there was a great calm. Then he asked them, "Why are you afraid? Do you still have no faith?" The disciples were absolutely terrified. "Who is this man?" they asked each other. "Even the wind and waves obey him!"" (Mark 4:39-41 NLT)

 For starters, what we have been looking at, in the verse from Hebrews, as well as these two portions of Scripture from Mark, is the simple message of faith; you either have it, or you don't! Not that I have any kind of perfection in having faith, because I truly believe that we all have days when doubt enters in and our faith is tested, in one way or another. As for the children of Israel, after being delivered from Egypt; they were given a covenant, which involved the law of Moses, which, believe it or not, put them back into bondage. They were in bondage in Egypt, delivered from the physical bondage they were given there; and they were put into a spiritual bondage when God gave them His commandments. 

 Basically, there was really no way that they could perfectly keep from breaking God's law! As I have shared about myself, that was the thing that caused me to rebel and give up on serving God; even though my motives where all about works. When I truly discovered I could not keep God's laws, I turned away and excepted my fate of being damned to hell. Once that was my reality that I settled for, nothing I did mattered any more, and I just did whatever I wanted to do. 

 Now then, here is the message of the powerful love of God! He does not let you go! When God said that He regarded them not, it didn't mean that He gave up on them, but He let them do what they wanted to do, which basically means, He knew their fate. But He also had a plan that was greater than their fate! There is really no way to simply explain it, because God's ways are way above our understanding.

 But, as far as my own personal testimony, there is a very good example of how this all works. The children of Israel surely are a mirror of the Normal Christian Life; whichever journey you have been down, there is some sort of a connection with what Israel went through, and how God manifested Himself back into their lives. The people that He has chosen, do not get too far away from Him; even if they try, He will pull them back, one way or another...

"When a potter makes jars out of clay, doesn't he have the right to use the same lump of clay to make one jar for decoration and another to throw garbage into? In the same way, even though God has the right to show his anger and his power, he is very patient with those on whom his anger falls, who are destined for destruction. He does this to make the riches of his glory shine even brighter on those to whom he shows mercy, who were prepared in advance for glory. And we are among those whom he selected, both from the Jews and from the Gentiles." (Romans 9:21-24 NLT)