The Devotional - R037

The Devotional

Comment:

Have you ever given up on a project? If you are human, “yes you have!” We are very good at placing unfulfilled projects, dreams and outdated clothing in the basement or attic and say in our heart, “I’ll get back to this later only to find that later never comes”. Oh, we talk a good story in the mind when we go into the basement or attic and stumble over one of these “I’ll get back to this another time, projects” but once out of sight again it is forgotten. In enough time someone will come along and toss out all of those unfulfilled dreams and projects; they will even give the old garments to the rag industry or to the Salvation Army. All forgotten in the days ahead; there is no time to war over what is forgotten, nor is there a time speak since time and opportunity have moved on, even the thought of this is lost in time; Ecclesiastes 3:6 – 8. This is the temporal way of what is done by mankind under the sun.

Challenge: Romans 11:1-10

The LORD God does not abide under the sun, He created the sun along with everything else in the universe, Hebrews 1:2 reveals that our Creator is responsible for the existence of the “worlds” or the ages of existence. In other words, God not only created the heavens and the earth, but He maintains it in orderly fashion each and every second in time as we calculate time. Nothing is in the attic and forgotten and too, nothing is in the basement and forgotten by Him, if God would forget that you or your national heritage existed, then quite frankly you would not exist.

The apostle Paul states here in Romans 11; 1 “did God cast away Israel? No! Absolutely not.” However, peoples and nations are destroyed by God, just a brief reading of Genesis 6 and chapter 2 of Deuteronomy will be proof enough that God deals permanently with nations whom reject God’s calling and election. Israel has not rejected God has she? No not at all, the nation did become ignorant of God’s Righteousness by seeking to establish their own standards of good works, but Israel has maintained a zeal for God’s calling and election as they are God’s chosen People. 

Presently Israel is in a stupor, like a spiritual blindness to God’s Righteousness; they have eyes but do not see and they have ears but they do not hear, even to this very day. Their “table” (religion) is a trap and a stumbling block. The weight of their religion has darkened their eyes and their backs are bowed down with the resulting sin. This condition is not permanent. Jesus in Matthew’s gospel reveals that the desolate house of Israel is not permanent – Matthew 23:37-39.

Does our national zeal present itself as being God’s chosen, no not at all! Presently our nation is an abomination to God, our zeal for Him has vanished, being replaced by the worship of self, leading to immorality and misconduct, we have become as Sodom and Gomorrah. So God’s Righteousness, His calling and His election are no longer our national focus. Yet, praise the LORD, there is a remnant who are clothed in the Righteousness of God, who have made their call and election sure by faith in Jesus Christ – 2 Peter 1:10