Tag: My Father

51.c. Wilderness – 15.i. “Chosen you to be a people for his treasured possession”

 

 

Deu 14:1-2  “You are the sons of the LORD your God. You shall not cut yourselves or make any baldness on your foreheads for the dead. For you are a people holy to the LORD your God, and the LORD has chosen you to be a people for his treasured possession, out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth.

 John 1:12    But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God,

 Jeremiah 3:19   “‘I said, How I would set you among my sons, and give you a pleasant land, a heritage most beautiful of all nations. And I thought you would call me, My Father, and would not turn from following me.

 1 Thessalonians 4:13     But we do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about those who are asleep, that you may not grieve as others do who have no hope.

“The cutting of the body and the shaving of the head were common mourning rites in the ancient Near East and are referred to in many places in the Old Testament (Isaiah 3:24; 15:2; 22:12; Jeremiah 16:6; 41:5; Ezekiel 7:18; Amos 8:10; Micah 1:16).” (Thompson)

 Among Christians today, there is something wrong if our burial customs are just as the rituals of the ungodly. Paul wrote in 1 Thessalonians 4:13: But I do not want you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning those who have fallen asleep, lest you sorrow as others who have no hope. We may certainly mourn the passing of our loved ones, but as those who have eternal hope in Jesus, we should be different in our mourning. (Guzik)

Ye are not only the creatures, and the offspring, but the peculiar people, the worshippers, the servants, and those of you that are truly pious, the adopted children of Jehovah, the one living and true God, who is your God in covenant; and therefore you should not dishonour him, your heavenly Father, nor disparage yourselves, by unworthy or unbecoming practices. (Benson)

God’s people are required to be holy, and if they are holy, they are indebted to the grace God which makes them so. Those whom God chooses to be his children, he will form to be a holy people, and zealous of good works. They must be careful to avoid every thing which might disgrace their profession, in the sight of those who watch for their halting. (Henry)

Ye are the children of the Lord your God,…. Some of them were so by the special grace of adoption, and all of them by national adoption; which was the peculiar privilege of the people of Israel, and laid them under great obligation to honour and obey the Lord their God, who stood in the relation of a father to them, and they of children to him. (Gill)

The Israelites were not only to suffer no idolatry to rise up in their midst, but in all their walk of life to show themselves as a holy nation of the Lord. (Keil)

27. “And I thought you would call me, My Father”

 

Ephesians 1:5 In love he predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved.

 Daniel 4:35  all the inhabitants of the earth are accounted as nothing, and he does according to his will among the host of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth; and none can stay his hand or say to him, “What have you done?”

 Romans 8:29-30   For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.  And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified.

 Jeremiah 3:19   “‘I said, How I would set you among my sons, and give you a pleasant land, a heritage most beautiful of all nations. And I thought you would call me, My Father, and would not turn from following me.

 John 1:12   But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God,

 Philippians 2:13     for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.

He predestined, According to His will, He called, He justified, He glorified, He works in you, He gave, He foreknew, and He has blessed us. If you were asked why God created?  Why did He create all there is?  Why did God do this if He foreknew the outcome?  There are a host of other questions but that certainly is being asked by souls every day.  God is God and for us to think we have the mental capacity to understand more than a thimble worth of knowledge about Him in an ocean of who He is we are more than foolish.  We know He is holy, righteous, loving, full of grace, mercy, and love. We know that He sent His only son to bear our sin burdens on the cross and redeem us from eternal hell at the proper time. How can we even grasp the laws that govern time, space, earthly, heavenly, eternity, etc….We can’t.  We try as hard as we might but at the end of the day, we aren’t really any closer to having this understanding.  I have heard people reject the offer of salvation through Jesus Christ because they don’t believe there is a living God because Their god would act differently.  There would be no sickness, death, wars, or famine.  Their god would not dream of creating sinful man., sickness, death, pain, suffering……  

Here we read of God foreknew, God, predestined, according to His will.  My God, and hopefully yours too is awesome in power, strength, wisdom, knowledge, grace, mercy, and love.  His plans are perfect.  His ways are Holy.  His creation points toward Himself as the author.  His will can never be questioned because His purposes are right and true and holy.  

How should we act when we know the creator of all there is and ever will be has called us to Himself so that through belief in His Son, Jesus Christ, we are set free from the judgment and penalty of sin.  I can think of nothing worse than a person who has been given a glimpse of God and an elementary understanding of the need for salvation, and knowledge of the gospel of Jesus Christ, and then reject God and Jesus without a second thought.  I guess I can think of something else that is worse.  Those who have tasted of the love of Jesus Christ and choose to neglect God’s Word and deafen their ears to the leading of the Holy Spirit.  Blessed are those who hear His calling and believe in Jesus Christ for they are sons of the Most High.  In all you say, think, and do make sure that it honors and glorifies Jesus Christ.  Worthy is the Lamb that was slain.

17.s. “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.”

John 12:20   Now there were some Greeks among those who went up to worship at the festival. They came to Philip, who was from Bethsaida in Galilee, with a request. “Sir,” they said, “we would like to see Jesus.” Philip went to tell Andrew; Andrew and Philip in turn told Jesus.

Jesus replied, “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. Very truly I tell you, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds. Anyone who loves their life will lose it, while anyone who hates their life in this world will keep it for eternal life. Whoever serves me must follow me; and where I am, my servant also will be. My Father will honor the one who serves me. “Now my soul is troubled, and what shall I say? ‘Father, save me from this hour’? No, it was for this very reason I came to this hour. Father, glorify your name!”

 Isaiah 49:5-6   And now the LORD says, he who formed me from the womb to be his servant, to bring Jacob back to him; and that Israel might be gathered to him— for I am honored in the eyes of the LORD, and my God has become my strength—  he says: “It is too light a thing that you should be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob and to bring back the preserved of Israel; I will make you as a light for the nations, that my salvation may reach to the end of the earth.”

 Isaiah 53:10-12    Yet it was the will of the LORD to crush him; he has put him to grief; when his soul makes an offering for guilt, he shall see his offspring; he shall prolong his days; the will of the LORD shall prosper in his hand.  Out of the anguish of his soul he shall see and be satisfied; by his knowledge shall the righteous one, my servant, make many to be accounted righteous, and he shall bear their iniquities.  Therefore I will divide him a portion with the many, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong, because he poured out his soul to death and was numbered with the transgressors; yet he bore the sin of many, and makes intercession for the transgressors.

 Luke 9:23-24     And he said to all, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.

Jesus’s thought of the cross just a few days away, His main concern was that God was glorified.  His purpose on earth was to redeem, save, and demonstrate God’s love for mankind.  It is hard for me to come close to understanding the commitment and longing and desire of Jesus to honor and glorify God, knowing what just a few days away would yield great physical and emotional pain.  He knew what He was facing.  He knew His purpose and was willing to die on the cross for it to honor and glorify God and redeem mankind.  

I can wrap my mind around taking a bullet, fast death, for someone you love, but willing to be tortured, beaten, whipped, and nailed to a cross for the sins of every human being is an act of love so humble, pure, and holy it seems beyond understanding. What a Savior we have in Jesus Christ.  In light of this, how should we live our lives?  The writer of Hebrews said: Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us,  looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.