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Heart-2-Heart
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Pastor Lynda MacDonald, Nova Scotia
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In
Memory of my MOther’s Promotion
To
God’s Heavenly Office
July
29, 2009
God’s Master Plan
“For I know what plans I have in mind for you... plans for
well-being, not for bad things, so that you can have hope and a future.” Jeremiah 29:11 (CJB)
I have to chuckle whenever
I hear some Christians talk about Israel and how God has discarded them. It
seems to them that the Church has replaced Israel because God’s plan for Israel
failed.
So God had to have a “plan
B”? His first plan was flawed? I think not. As a matter of fact- we can only
know and trust God’s unfailing, unconditional love for us by knowing how He has
dealt with Israel. Israel is what we keep our eyes on to see how God thinks,
works and feels.
In Romans 11, Shaul (Paul)
wrote to the community of believers in Rome. This part of Messiah’s Body was a
mixture of Jew and Gentile believers. It was exactly the same as the Israelite
group of Exodus 12:38.
I think Shaul must have
received an “email” from some of the Gentiles who asked him to explain to the
Jews that God was finished with them being His first born and that HE had
replaced them with the new, exciting Gentile “Christian Church” who would never
make mistakes like Israel did. Let’s take a peek and see.
Romans 11:1-2 “I say then, has God cast away His
people? Certainly not! For I also am an Israelite, of the seed of Abraham, of
the tribe of Benjamin. God has not cast away His people whom He foreknew.”
A scripture that I love
and often refer to when people try to convince me that God has turned His back
on Israel is Jeremiah 31:37, “This is what ADONAI says: ‘If the sky above can
be measured and the foundations of the earth be fathomed, then I will reject
all the offspring of Israel for all that they have done," says ADONAI.”
So, it would be safe to
say – we have never yet measured the sky or figured out totally the foundations
of this earth so- we can assume correctly that God has not rejected Israel.
Let’s go back to Romans 9:
4-5, Of Israel, Shaul says “They were made God's children, the Sh'khinah has been
with them, the covenants are theirs, likewise the giving of the Torah, the
Temple service and the promises; the Patriarchs are theirs; and from them,
as far as his physical descent is concerned, came the Messiah, who is over all.
Praised be ADONAI for ever! Amen.”
Shaul used the present
tense of the verbs –“has been” “are theirs”. This statement that Shaul made was
spoken after Yeshua died and rose again. It was after the works of the cross!
Shaul knew that God “made them His children.” The very presence of God has
been with them”. “The covenants ARE theirs.”
In Jeremiah 31:3, God said
to Israel, “...I love you with an everlasting love; this is why in my grace (my
power) I draw you to me.” How long is everlasting?
God says to us (Hebrews 13:5),
“Keep your lives free from the love of money; and be satisfied with what you
have; for God himself has said, "I will never fail you or abandon
you."
So Israel messed up and
needed God to discipline them. What did God say about that? Hebrews 12:6, “For
ADONAI disciplines those he loves and whips everyone He accepts as a son."
He does the same with us when we fail.
What does all this have to
do with God’s Master plan? How do we fit into this picture? It is the blueprint
to show us how God works. First, He chooses us just as He chose Israel. How he
reacted with Israel is how He will treat us. If we want to know God’s ways with
us, we have but to look at his relationship with Israel.
Ezekiel 20:5 (Israel), Tell them that Adonai
ELOHIM says this: 'Back on the day when I chose Israel, I raised my hand
to the descendants of the house of Ya'akov (Jacob). I revealed myself to them
in the land of Egypt when I raised my hand to them and said, "I am ADONAI
your God."
John 15:16 (us), “You did
not choose me, I chose you; and I have commissioned you to go and bear fruit,
fruit that will last; so that whatever you ask from the Father in my name he
may give you.”
We have been looking at Israel and then us as believers. God only
works in One-ness yet here are 2 distinct peoples –Jew and Gentile. Is there a
Biblical way we can become one?
There sure is! Ephesians 2:11-15, “Therefore, remember your former
state: you Gentiles by birth - called the Uncircumcised by those who,
merely because of an operation on their flesh, are called the Circumcised
- at that time had no Messiah. You were estranged from the national life
of Israel. You were foreigners to the covenants embodying God's promise. You
were in this world without hope and without God. But now, you who were once far
off have been brought near through the shedding of the Messiah's blood.
For He Himself is our Shalom - he has made us both one and has
broken down the m'chitzah (partition) which divided us by destroying in
His own body the enmity occasioned by the Torah, with its commands set forth in
the form of ordinances. He did this in order to create in union with Himself
from the two groups a single new humanity and thus make shalom.”
We call this the making of “One New Man”. That is the Master’s
plan to choose a people (Israel) to reveal Himself to and teach His ways to.
Then, send them forth over all the earth to teach other peoples (us) his ways.
HalleluYAH for the Master’s master plan.
