FOCUS POINT #14

"Greetings, without meetings." That's the good news. You don't have to attend yet another meeting. The bad news is, we can't sit down with a cup of coffee or a coke and just chat and visit awhile.

I want to write about a VERY IMPORTANT fact concerning the Angelic Conflict, the biggest war, the greatest battle in the history and the future the world has ever known or ever will know. If you're interested you can read this Focus Point. If not, hit "delete." You can do either because I believe you have a free will - you can read or not read.

In this and the next one or two Focus Points, I want to go down this road and deal with a very important issue. The question, the issue is: Did God, in the Old Testament, make promises to the Jewish people that could be nullified or revoked if they didn't keep their end of the bargain? The answer is a resounding yes! Just read through chapter 26 of Leviticus. Read the "ifs" in verses 3, 14, 18, 21, 23, 27 and verse 40. As you read those "ifs," those conditions, you will also read God's responses. God says, in essence, "If you will, then I won't." Or, "If you don't, then I will." Some of the promises in the Old Testament are conditional. In these contracts God says, "This is what I'm going to do regardless of what you do or don't do. It makes no difference."

I want to give you and identify for you one of the major covenants between God Himself and the Jewish people. An unconditional covenant. This covenant is so huge and so relevant that it was made over 4,000 years ago and we have yet to see just how God will go about to keep every detail of this promise to the people we call "The Jews."

First, a little background. After the fiasco at the Tower of Babel, Terah took his three sons and went to the area of Ur among the Chaldeans, a real first class, low life bunch! They tried to think of wrong things to do and be everyday. Terah, the father, the patriarch, had three boys, Haran (who died in the move), Nahaor and Abram. Nahor was the father of Lot (the loser.) You remember Lot who moved his family to Sodom and Gomorrah. He never got Ur out of his mind. But get this - look at II Peter 2:7. I'll do it for you. "And delivered just Lot." That doesn't mean that Lot was the only one that got away. It means that Justified, or righteous Lot was delivered out of that blankety blank bunch of losers in verses 5 & 6 of II Peter 2.

Well, back to Abram (Abraham). Terah, Abram and his kid brother Nahor are now living in one of the most anti-God slime pits in the world and God Himself comes to Abram and says (my own impression as to how this all went) "Abe, you don't know me, but I know you. I am God and I'm going to tell you where I want you to go and what I want you to do. Will you believe me?" Abe says, "Yes sir, I do believe you and I will obey you." (Sort of like the way God dealt with Paul (Saul) on his way to Damascus to kill a few Christians). Right there on the spot, right there on skid row, God then says to Abram in Genesis 12:1-3 (1) "I will show you a land" (the present land of Israel). (2) " I will make of you a great nation." (3) "I will bless you, make your name great, and you, Abe, though you are now living in the slime area of the worst neighborhood, you are going to be a blessing to the whole world." (4) "And I will bless all of those who bless you and I will curse all of those who curse you. And on top of that Abe my boy (get this), in thee, in YOU shall all the families of the whole earth be blessed!" Now listen!! God never said that to Caesar of Rome or the King of England or the President of the United States. He never said that to the Southern Baptist Convention, the Episcopalians, Catholics, Reformed Presbyterians, unreformed Presbyterians or anyone else! He said that to the FIRST JEW who ever walked on the face of this earth. Period! And what's more, there are NO ifs, buts or maybes in this UNCONDITIONAL PROMISE!

And then, just to show the rest of the human race that He meant what He said and said just what He meant, God has Moses, years later, record an experience that Abraham had with God Himself. You MUST READ CAREFULLY Genesis chapter 15:7-21. I'm going to just mention the highlights.
(verse 7) "Abe, I'm going to give you, the father of the Jewish race, the land" - spelled out in verses 18-21.
(Verse 8) - Abraham says, "Lord, how do I know or how will I know you'll do this?"
(verse 9) - God said, "Abe, take a heifer (young cow), a she goat, a ram, a dove and a young pigeon. Slice the heifer, the goat and the ram (not the birds) those three animals down the middle." Ugh! He did it....and waited. While he waited, some vultures and birds of prey landed on the carcasses and started pecking away. But Abe shooed em' away. Finally, when the sun started to set, Abe got sleepy, went into a deep sleep and dreamed a bad nightmare. God spoke through his dream and told him just exactly what was going to happen. And would you believe?....it happened! Yes, what God promises, He performs! Maybe not by our clocks and calendars, but in His own time. Remember my friend, God's delays are not denials. Well anyway, you well know that what God promised and prophesied in Verses 13 - 16 happened. They were slaves in Egypt for 400 years.

Then in verse 17 God revealed Himself in the form of a smoking furnace and a burning lamp. God passed between the divided carcasses of the heifer, she goat and the ram! This was a Far Eastern custom. The sealing of a covenant or contract, an unconditional agreement was the two parties passing between both sides of the divided animals, looking at the slain animals and saying "May what happened to these animals happen to either one, or both of us if we do not keep this covenant! So God, NOT ABRAHAM, God alone passed between the carcasses and said to Abraham, "MAY WHAT HAPPENED TO THESE ANIMALS HAPPEN TO ME IF I DON'T KEEP MY WORD AND KEEP THE PROMISES I MADE TO YOU." Abraham was in a deep sleep when God said this. Genesis 12:1-3, Genesis 15:1-5 and Genesis 15:13-21.

How can any frail, limited, finite human being make the claim that GOD CHANGED BECAUSE ISRAEL, THE JEWS FAILED? Neither the success nor the failure of the Jews has ever been a part of this covenant. W. E. Vine says the verb form of this word means "To cut, to divide." Abraham may have done the cutting, but he was "out cold" when GOD SIGNED the deal and to the best of my knowledge, I can't find one verse in the Old Testament or the New Testament that nullifies, cancels out or changes this UNCONDITIONAL covenant.

Until next time, pray for the peace of Jerusalem. Shalom! Oh yes, remember MALACHI 3:6 "For I am the Lord, I CHANGE NOT, therefore ye sons of Jacob are NOT CONSUMED.

Blessings.....Bro. Bob