The Final Events.
Divine Compassion and the Covenant of Peace.
Part Fifty-one in a Series.
https://www.secondcoming.org/blog/
God designed that the children of Israel, and we also, should learn that the law is infinitely above the reach of all human effort, and to make it plain that, since the keeping of the commandments is essential to the salvation which He has promised, He himself will fulfill the law in us.
These are the words of God: “Hear, O my people, and I will testify unto thee; O Israel, if thou wilt hearken unto Me, there shall no strange God be in thee, neither shalt thou worship any strange God.” Psalms 81:8,9.
“Incline your ear, and come unto Me; hear, and your soul shall live.” Isaiah 55: 3.
God’s word transforms the soul from the death of sin to the life of righteousness, even as it brought forth Lazarus from the tomb.
The covenant with Abraham was a covenant of faith. Israel could keep it by keeping the faith. God does not ask us to enter another covenant with Him, but only to accept His covenant of peace, which He had long before given to the fathers.
The proper response of the people therefore would have been, “Amen, even so Lord let it be done unto us according to Thy will.” On the contrary they said, “All that the Lord had spoken we will do” and they repeated their promise, with additional emphasis, even after they had heard the law spoken. It was the same self-confidence that led their descendants to say to Christ, “What shall we do that we might work the works of God?”
Think of mortal men presuming to be able to do God’s work! Christ answered: “This is the work of God, that he believe on Him whom He hath sent.” Even so it was in the desert of Sinai, when the law was given and the covenant made.
Their assuming the responsibility of working the works of God, showed lack of appreciation of His greatness and holiness. It is only when men are ignorant of God’s righteousness that they go about to establish their own righteousness and refuse to submit themselves to the righteousness of God.
“For they being ignorant of God’s righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God.” Romans 10:3
Their promises were good for nothing because they had not the power to fulfill them. The covenant, therefore, which was based on those promises was utterly worthless, so far as giving them life was concerned. All that they could get from that covenant was just what they could get from themselves and that was death.
To trust in themselves was to make a covenant with death, and to be at agreement with the grave. Their entering into that covenant was a virtual notification to the Lord that they could get along very well without Him and they were able to fulfill any promise He could make.
God did not give them up.
The Final Events will end with the splendor of the Second Coming of Jesus Christ also known as the Parousia. The Signs of Parousia are detailed in the Final Events Blog series and emphasize the Imminent Return and Second Coming of Jesus Christ, and the Love of the Father for all mankind.
“He said, Surely they are My people, children that will not lie; so He was their Savior.” Isaiah 63: 8
He knew that they were moved by good impulses in making that promise and that they did not realize what it meant. They had a zeal for God, but not according to the knowledge. He had brought them out of the land of Egypt, that He might teach them to know Him, and He did not become angry with them because they were so slow to learn the lesson.
He had borne with Abraham when he thought that he could work out plans God’s plans, and He had been very patient with Jacob when he was so ignorant as to suppose that God’s promised inheritance could be gained by sharp bargains and fraud. So now He bore with their children’s ignorance and lack of faith in order that He might afterwards bring them to the faith.
God meets man just where they are. He has “compassion on the ignorant and on them that are out of the way.” Hebrews 5: 2
He is always and everywhere seeking to draw all men to Himself, no matter how depraved they are; and therefore, when He discerns even the faintest glimmer of a willingness or desire to serve Him, He at once nourishes it making the most of it He can lead the soul to greater love and more perfect knowledge.
Although the children of Israel had failed in this supreme test of their trust in Him, He took advantage of their expressed willingness to serve Him, even though it was only in “their own weak way.”
Because of their unbelief they could not have all that He wished them to have; but that which they did get through their lack of faith was a continual reminder of what they might have if they fully believe.
Because of their ignorance of the greatness of His Holiness which ignorance was expressed by their promise to do the law, God proceeded, by the proclamation of the law, to show them the greatness of His righteousness, and the utter impossibility of their working it out.
The Final Events will end with the splendor of the Second Coming of Jesus Christ also known as the Parousia. The Signs of Parousia are detailed in the Final Events Blog series and emphasize the Imminent Return and Second Coming of Jesus Christ, and the Love of the Father for all mankind.
https://www.secondcoming.org/blog/
The Final Events.
Divine Compassion and the Covenant of Peace.
Part Fifty-one in a Series.
