Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread,"
People can make God very happy, or they can make Him sad. Abraham made Him so happy that He gave him the title "Friend of God" (James 2:23). He was so delighted with Abraham that He declared that all who embraced the same faith that he had must inherit the whole earth for an everlasting possession with everlasting life to go along with the gift!
Further, God was so happy with him that He promised him and all his descendants to become a great nation, the "head and not the tail," the outstanding example to all the world of what God's salvation is all about. According to the Bible, what made God so happy was that Abraham "rejoiced to see," to perceive, to understand, to grasp, to appreciate Christ as the world's Savior. He "believed in the Lord" (John 8:56; Gen. 15:6). (Remember, the gospel was preached to him as it has been to us, Gal. 3:8.)
Abraham's descendants were to be a corporate body on earth, a "nation," God's church on earth that should evangelize the world. They would corporately honor His name before all the pagan nations.
It was a glorious idea! Israel was to be a nation of special people who would survey the wondrous cross on which the Prince of glory died, whose richest gain they would count but loss, and pour contempt on all their pride. The Lord would fight for them and give them possession of the promised land; they wouldn't need to bear the sword (Ex. 14:14; Deut. 1:30; 3:22, etc.). He would use some agency that the wisest commentators still don't fully understand called "the hornet" (7:20) that would drive out their enemies.
But Israel largely failed. Even their best leaders blew it. God gave King Saul great military success with his sword; but it went to his head. Even David who praised the Lord in all his Psalms committed adultery with the wife of his bravest, most loyal soldier, Uriah the Hittite, and then murdered him. Solomon's vast wealth and wisdom went to his head. Kings such as Hezekiah and Jehoshaphat for whom the Lord wrought great miracles sullied their life record with tragic mistakes of pride. The prophets all longed for a national repentance that never came until Israel crucified their Messiah.
Now God has a world church through whom He longs to glorify His name before a bewildered, confused modern world in gross darkness. There is Good News: what Jesus died to accomplish will yet be achieved in His church--when they can pour contempt on all their pride.
Copyright © 2009 by Robert J. Wieland.
Be sure to check your e-mail for "Dial Daily Bread" again tomorrow.
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Daily Bread - Readings about life and the Word of God.
