Jacob’s trouble – the last sifting of Israel. The role of the Church in the drama at the threshold of the Messiah. Lars Widerberg Chapter 01 a The Kingdom of God and the issue of being chosen “A lamb without blemish and without spot, who verily was fore-ordained before the foundation of the world.” 1 Pet 1:20 “He hath chosen us in him, before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy…” Eph 1:4 For us there is a “before the foundation of the world”. To hand it over to fantasizing would bring disaster. God’s personal will provides a revealing, which fills every available measure. Before the beginning of the world there was a choosing, a choosing to create. Included in the drama of creating, one finds the choosing of men and a nation for priestly purposes. One finds a covenant setting, and more men with broken hearts and unsteady voices speaking up against the breaking of the covenant given to the chosen nation by their God. Thus saith the LORD, who giveth the sun for a light by day, and the ordinances of the moon and of the stars for a light by night, who divideth the sea when its waves roar; If those ordinances depart from before me, saith the LORD, then the seed of Israel also shall cease from being a nation before me for ever. Thus saith the LORD; If heaven above can be measured, and the foundations of the earth searched out beneath, I will also cast off all the seed of Israel for all that they have done, saith the LORD.” Jer 31:35-57 Before us and ahead of us, we find a “for ever”. It is set in motion and is operative in many realms of reality. It is a heavenly measure, an eternal measure, a measure which holds absolutes. The English vocabulary offers a compact word for this particular kind of measure – “irrevocability”. It is God as He is – a Rock, the Rock of salvation, never changing. The realm which is offered by Heaven is one which will not and cannot change – it exists as an ever present continuum. This realm manifests in a practical manner, according to a profound formula: “speaking the truth in love, growing up into Him in all things, who is the head, even Christ”. Items belonging to the eternal realm, belonging to the Covenants of the Lord, are to be made identifiable, they are to be apprehended and they are to be reckoned as irrevocable markers at the threshold of the Messiah – when the days are made short and time itself reefs and takes in its sails. Eph 4:15 Eternal measures – expressed in a Davidic framework “The Rock of Israel spoke to me, ‘He that ruleth over men must be just, ruling in the fear of God. And he shall be as the light of the morning, when the sun riseth, even a morning without clouds; as the tender grass springing out of the earth by clear shining after rain.’ Although my house is not so with God; yet he hath made with me an everlasting covenant, ordered in all things, and sure.” 2 Sam 23:3-5 The Redeemer, the Messiah, the Lord Jesus Christ, presents Himself in a Davidic framework, and He does so also when the redemptive efforts of Heaven is about to come to a conclusion. “These things saith he that is holy, he that is true, he that hath the key of David, he that openeth…”. “The Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, hath prevailed to open the book, and to loose its seven seals.” “I am the root and the offspring of David.” The Gospel of God finds its factual references within a Davidic framework – its good news is to the larger part the announcing of the restoring of the fallen tabernacle of David, based on a new and different covenant which guarantees credible reconciliation at all levels. Rev 3:5, 5:5, 22:16, Acts 15:16-17 The Redeemer allows, through the Apostle John’s writings, the Church at Philadelphia to become aware of a certain key – a key which when used, doors open to stay open, the key of David. This key is partly an interpretive key, which when inserted into the large body of texts and segments of writings brings forth a pattern – a pattern of royal intention, with its very focus in Zion, in that strange city which has its existence in two places, in Heaven as well as on Earth. Its existence in Heaven – a walled city with twelve gates, with no impurity, rather filled with the beauty of holiness, and the irrevocable promise of its coming to Earth stirs certain emotional reactions, some far beyond rationality. Nations rage and the rulers take counsel together against its existence as well as against its values. Rev 3:5, Ps 2 The everlasting covenant which David, the sweet singer of Israel, found secured for him and his descendants, rests fully in God, in His choosing. Vengeance, a concept which is foreign to the Sunday Church of these last days, stays thoroughly tied to the revulsion and revolt produced among mighty men in their petty kingdoms. The second Psalm allows us to see something in God’s face which defines and substantiates the fate of the haughty mind and its rebellion – a smile. The Son, the coming Redeemer has already taken His seat in the heavenly realm. He is waiting for the set time to engage with full force, waiting for “the day of the LORD’S vengeance, and the year of recompenses for the controversy of Zion”. For this salvation, including the aspect of vengeance, prophetic men have inquired and searched diligently. So do the maturing Church of the last days. To the Church, defined by “micros dunamis” and by a strict faithfulness to the Word of God, a name will be given – “the name of the city of my God, which is new Jerusalem”. 2 Sam 23:3-5, Isa 34:8, 1 Pet 1:10, Rev 3:12 -- -- -- Further reading to be found at: One final Sifting - Israel and the Church during Jacobs trouble https://facebook/groups/310252642490160/
Posted on: Fri, 26 Sep 2014 06:31:54 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015