Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread,"
When the Titanic plowed into the jagged edge of an iceberg, everybody on board suddenly realized his corporate involvement in the ship. No little group or individual could go on feasting and partying to the jazz music; a common fate now faced everyone.
What the captain and crew had done intimately involved everyone--captain, crew, millionaire and steerage passenger. Flooded compartments below deck meant your first class stateroom would soon be flooded. The lights were going out.
Some of us live in lands of peace and prosperity. Can we go on partying while the Middle East is locked in a human struggle that involves an "old covenant" bondage universal in principle? Abraham's family was in reality the human race, for in an "everlasting covenant" God gave him the whole world as "an everlasting possession" (Rom. 4:13; Gen. 17:8, 7).
The Israelis and Arabs epitomize the ancient struggle between Esau and Isaac, both sons of Abraham--one by "the flesh," the other by "promise." But fleshly Jews or Arabs are not Abraham's true "seed": "Those who are the children of the flesh, these are not the children of God: but the children of the promise are counted as the seed" (Rom 9:8).
"If you are Christ's, then you are Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise [covenant]" (Gal. 3:29). That is: neither fleshly "Isaac" nor "Esau" has a divine advantage over the other. The Israelis and Arabs contend for a land and a Temple Mount too small for both; their conflict points to the universal struggle for the domination of this planet. Of the common father both claim, Acts 7:5 says, "God gave him no inheritance in [Canaan], not even enough to set his foot on."
If the Lord and Master of us all had also "nowhere to lay His head" (Matt. 8:20), it's time we should each realize that by right we don't "own" even a "foot" of this present earth. Real security is only "in Christ," "the Savior of the world" (John 4:42). Below decks are already flooded; don't set your heart on a stateroom.
--Robert J. Wieland
From the "Dial Daily Bread" Archive: October 21, 2000.
Copyright © 2017 by "Dial Daily Bread."
