Daily Bread

Monday, August 20, 2012

The Two Men Who Never Had a Funeral

Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread,"

Have you heard about the two men who never had a funeral? Their friends never received a death notice. No one ever said goodbye to Enoch and Elijah.

The Old Testament says simply that “Enoch walked with God, and he was not; for God took him” (Gen. 5:24). The New Testament says that Enoch was “translated that he should not see death; and was not found, because God had translated him: for before his translation he had this testimony, that he pleased God” (Heb. 11:5). One man reconciled to God!

The New Testament also says that there will be other people who “please God,” who in the last day “are alive and remain [who] shall be caught up ... in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall ... ever be with the Lord.” In other words, they will be translated at the second coming of Jesus, as Enoch was (1 Thess. 4:14-17). Paul calls this “the blessed hope” (Titus 2:13).

Elijah also was “not,” for God “took” him with a whirlwind of a chariot of fire (2 Kings 2:11). We never get a sight of Enoch again, but we do meet Elijah on the mount of transfiguration when he appeared with Jesus in glory (Matt. 17:3). Moses also was there, but he had died and experienced a special resurrection (Jude 9). So, Moses represents the vast hope of sleeping saints who will be raised in the first resurrection when Jesus comes again; and Elijah and Enoch represent the living people who will never experience the “sleep” that the Bible says is the first death. Amazing!

Now we come to our question: is it really possible that a “body” of people, many in fact, could be “translated” without “seeing death”? That’s when “this mortal” shall “put on immortality” (1 Cor. 15:51-54). Yes, Revelation 14 describes such a corporate “body” of people who will be “redeemed from the earth,” who “follow the Lamb whithersoever He goeth,” in whose “mouth [is] found no guile: for they are without fault before the throne of God” (vss. 1-5).

It makes sense to see them as the fulfillment of Paul’s prayer in Hebrews 13:20, 21 that “the God of peace ... make you perfect in every good work to do his will.” Apparently He will do just that! Hopefully the number “144,000” is symbolic for if literal that would be a tiny representation from the billions of present world population.

It also makes sense to see this group as the “bride” of Christ who finally “makes herself ready” for “the marriage of the Lamb” (Rev. 19:1-9). Something’s happening today! Tune in.

--Robert J. Wieland

From the “Dial Daily Bread” Archive: July 14, 2003.

Be sure to check your e-mail for "Dial Daily Bread" again tomorrow.
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Robert J. Wieland's inspirational "Dial Daily Bread" messages are availalbe via e-mail to anyone who wishes to receive a daily portion of uplifting Good News. "Dial Daily Bread" is FREE. Due to travel or other circumstances, there may be intervals when "Dial Daily Bread" will not be sent.

Sunday, August 19, 2012

An Important Place in "The Great Controversy"

Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread,"

Someone wrote an essay about how Jesus Christ needs help in His gigantic struggle in His great controversy with Satan. It's a different idea; their essay is breaking new ground for many.

We know that God is omniscient--that is, He knows everything; ... but wait a moment, in His incarnation Jesus was God but He was not omniscient, for sometimes we read the phrase, "When Jesus knew it …" (Matt. 12:15; Mark 8:17). And He tells us that He does not know the day nor the hour of His second coming, only the Father knows that (Mark 13:32).

We know also that God is omnipotent--that is, He can do everything; ... but wait another moment, He cannot barge through anyone's locked door (Rev. 3:20). He cannot (because He will not) interfere with anyone's choice to believe or to disbelieve His gospel truth.

We know that the Holy Spirit is the most powerful force in the universe; He can convict of sin, righteousness, and judgment (John 16:8), but He steps back and yields the sovereignty to every individual human will. (But thank God He can reveal a greater measure of the constraining love of Christ and can take away hindrances to faith; but there is a point beyond which He will not and cannot go.)

Christ cannot refuse to be crucified. We must have our way.

When there was "war in heaven" and one-third of the angels were "cast out into the earth," the essay's author suggested that He needed the help of the two-thirds who remained loyal to Him (Rev. 12:7-9).

Yes! And now as that same "war" is nearing its end, He desperately needs you and me to help Him. Hold your head high! You have an important place to fill in "the great controversy" that no one else can fill as well as you.

--Robert J. Wieland

From the "Dial Daily Bread" Archive: July 1, 2006.

Friday, August 17, 2012

A Promise to the Birds and Beasts--And to Us

Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread,"

While parts of North America bake in the sizzling dry heat of drought, other parts suffer torrential rain and dangerous flooding. Oh that the Lord would equalize our climates! (We'll probably have to wait for the new earth to see this.)

But we can see something encouraging even today: the rainbow. It's a pledge on the part of our Creator-Savior God that He will never again permit a flood to wipe out life on earth. It's a simplistic promise that appeals to a child's sense of wonder, but even our most sophisticated university scientists can wonder like a child and sense the rainbow tugging at their heart.

As we read the story in Genesis 9 we find a most curious detail: God says, "Behold, I establish My covenant ... with every living creature, ... of the fowl, of the cattle, and of every beast of the earth" (vss 8-13). Can that be true? It seems fantastic--God "making a covenant" with all the birds and animals!? Doesn't He have more important things to do than make bargains with elephants and mice and sparrows?

But wait a moment: He didn't make a "bargain" or a "contract" or a "transaction" with these dumb creatures! Yes, He did humble Himself to make a PROMISE to them, but He did not exact from the birds and beasts any promise in return. If you'll look at the fauna of the earth, they simply receive the favor at the hand of God, and go on living--enjoying the gift of life at His hand, even eating out of His hand (see Psalm 145:15, 16).

But wait a moment more: that PROMISE of God was made to you and me just as it was to the birds and beasts (Gen. 9:9). You can't be a Christian unless you humble your heart and line up with them, awaiting your turn, and eat out of His hand, too (see John 6:51-53).

That PROMISE of God to us and the creatures alike is His blessed New Covenant. Don't kid yourself into thinking that now you must reciprocate by making promises to God. You must reciprocate, yes--a million times over: but not in promising Him obedience and good works. Your job is to BELIEVE His PROMISES to you. And then, wonder of wonders, all the obedience flows from a heart where He has written His law of agape love, His ten commandments.

--Robert J. Wieland

From the "Dial Daily Bread" Archive: July 12, 2003.

Thursday, August 16, 2012

Reconciling the World to God

Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread,"

The great Crusades of the 11th to 13th centuries grossly misrepresented to the Arab world the character of the God whom Christians profess to worship. A significant portion of present Muslim hatred of Christianity can be traced to that time. The very word "Crusade" inflames them with what they consider is moral outrage.

Jesus commands Christians, "Go into all the world and proclaim the gospel ..." (Mark 16:15), which must be GOOD news--or it's not truth. Its essential element is a message of reconciliation with God: "We implore you on Christ's behalf, be reconciled to God," pleads His messengers (2 Cor. 5:30), but many portrayals of God's character does anything but reconcile alienated people to Him.

If an enemy sticks a pistol in your face and demands, "Love me or I'll pull the trigger!" could you be reconciled to him that way? This is not an oversimplification of the issue; human beings who have never understood the gospel (due to its being distorted to them) are not by nature reconciled to God. "The carnal mind is enmity against God, for it is not subject to the law of God, nor indeed can be" (Rom. 8:7). That "enmity" has been created by the lies and distortion of Satan ever since Eve was deceived in Eden. God pities these confused people who have been lied to. The Father sent His Son into the world to correct these misapprehensions, and those of us who believe in Him are to represent Him aright to the world.

Thus there are two basic approaches to the task of reconciling the world to God: (1) the method that employs fear as the principal motivation (there is anecdotal evidence that it is hugely successful, but can you trust the supposed evidence?), and (2) "the everlasting gospel" outlined in Revelation 14--the message of three special angels in the last days (vss. 1-14). This can be identified as "the third angel's message in verity," a presentation of the reconciling message of God's grace and His agape that is yet to come into its own worldwide.

God has promised that when the message is revealed to the world in its clarity, it will cut through all the confusion that "Babylon" has amassed; all the hindrances that block people's pathway to the Father through Christ will be exposed in the final message, "Babylon the great is fallen, ... Come out of her, My people"! (Rev. 18:1-4). We need to understand the message more clearly!

--Robert J. Wieland

From the "Dial Daily Bread" Archive: November 28, 2004.

Wednesday, August 15, 2012

Make Psalm 139 Your Own

Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread,"

The Lord Jesus says to each one of us personally, "I have loved you with an everlasting love: therefore with loving kindness I have drawn you" (Jer. 31:3).

That is personal, individual, intimate love; not a cold electronic thing. It's the love of a Father--our heavenly Father. As intimate, close, personal as any earthly father's love can be. Only far more so.

Some dear people feel that they have never known an earthly father's love; what can the dear Lord do for them? But truthfully, none of us have ever had a human father who could perfectly portray the love of our heavenly Father, for us. So, let no one be the least discouraged if you have never known an earthly father's love: kneel on your knees and make a choice to BELIEVE what you cannot SEE. He will respond to that prayer!

The dear heavenly Father will not forsake you or neglect your prayer; He has already loved you with "an everlasting love," now ask Him to grant you the spiritual eyesight, the discernment, to recognize the gift He has already given you. If His love is "everlasting," that means that He loved you while you were still in your mother's womb. He was working on you even then, with that love.

Please read Psalm 139: it is devoted to the pre-natal influence that the Holy Spirit exerted on your behalf. The "everlasting love" of the Lord Jesus is very real; now let your own choice be to respond to that love, to thank Him for it, to ask forgiveness where you have doubted it. Such a prayer comes "out of the depths" of your soul; "Out of the depths have I cried unto Thee, O Lord" (Psalm 130:1). And immediately comes His assurance: "There is forgiveness with Thee, that Thou mayest be reverenced" (vs. 4).

Now make Psalm 139 your own. May millions of prayers rise tonight based on that blessed psalm.

--Robert J. Wieland

From the "Dial Daily Bread" Archive: April 14, 2009.

Monday, August 13, 2012

Please Do Not Wound Your Lord

Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread,"

You may have dreamed of doing some great work for the Lord. He has put that vision in your heart. If you have had success, thank Him in humility. It was all His blessing.

But if you feel that you have accomplished little of what you had hoped to do, please do not wound your Lord by doubting His love and faithfulness for you. He has heard your prayers; if you can receive this brief message, that proves that there is still opportunity for Him to bless the meager offering you have to give Him. The little boy in the big crowd of 5000 plus women and children had only his two fish and five barley buns his mother had baked for his lunch--but in love and boyish faith he gave them all to the disciples to give to Jesus (Matt. 14:15-19; John 6:9-11; did you know that John is the only one of the four Gospels to give the “lad” credit for his loving offering!).

You know how the Lord Jesus blessed that humble gift!

Now ask the dear Lord to show you what little thing you can do to bring some truth or some blessing in another way, to someone. The angels keep the record books; don’t even think about a reward for yourself. Forget that. But do pray that the Lord will bless your tiny little offering and trust Him that He will for the good of someone, somewhere. Someday someone will walk up to you and thank you for what you gave or what you did TODAY.

--Robert J. Wieland

From the "Dial Daily Bread" Archive: December 10, 2005.

Friday, August 10, 2012

Thank God for Love!

Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread,"

When somebody important loves you and tells you so, you are flooded with happiness. As a wise writer once said, such love is a precious gift from Jesus. It begins with mother and father loving you; but we are to "leave ... father and ... mother, and cleave" to that other somebody important. Thank God for love!

But can you imagine how the biblical Daniel felt when a holy angel from heaven addressed him, "O man greatly beloved," individually, especially (9:23; 10:11, 19). At this time, it was Medo-Persian rule. Likely, his three loyal friends of youth, Shadrach, Meshach, Abednego, were no longer around (we never hear of them again). He was lonely, still in exile, engulfed with perpetual paganism all around him, hated, envied by the leadership of the nation; he probably had no family; he had suffered an intimate personal violence unspeakable for a Hebrew—castrated in his teenage youth, apparently abandoned of heaven as a deserved spoil of divine national retribution.

But now an angel as a personal friend (unusual!?) throws into a conversation parenthetically this tidbit of information—the intelligences of heaven, what Paul calls "the whole family in heaven and earth" (Eph. 3:15), talk about him behind his back in endearing terms. He means something special at the headquarters office of God. They love him as an individual!

Daniel's "works" did not evoke this special affection; it was his faith. He was respected as a kind of hero; when he had prayed with his windows open toward Jerusalem he had risked his life for devotion to this "family in heaven" (6:10). When he went into the lions' den it was with a committed resignation, partly in trust that the Lord might deliver him, partly as surrender in case his being devoured by beasts might somehow honor God (as with Christians later in the days of pagan Rome). This reliance on God as "Father in heaven" knit Daniel's soul with that of the Son of God who from eternity had committed Himself to be one with us. He was "greatly loved" by Him, and the angel realized it.

Wait on your knees, "wait, I say, on the Lord" (Psalm 27:14). The same angel has a word for you, too. Your happiness will lead you to total obedience to all God's commandments, to loving service (2 Cor. 5:14, 15).

--Robert J. Wieland

From the "Dial Daily Bread" Archive: September 14, 2006.

Thursday, August 09, 2012

In Thanks, What Will You Do for Him?

Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread,"

That divine cry of dereliction on Christ's cross, "My God. Why have You forsaken Me?" is the world's moment of truth. In becoming the Son of man, the Son of God became our second Adam, the new corporate Head of the human race. When the first Adam sinned in Eden, "we" sinned in him, because each of us is "adam"--that is our name. Each of us is his fallen descendant; he could do nothing other than pass on to us his fallen, sinful nature in alienation from his Creator, destined to "perish" eternally.

From Christ's birth in Bethlehem, He lived in the sunshine of oneness with God. "Unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government [of the world and of the universe] shall be upon His shoulder" (Isa. 9:6, KJV). But He took on His sinless nature our sinful nature that He might meet the awful problem of sin in our flesh, sin's last lair; God sent Him "unto us" "in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, [He] condemned sin in the flesh" (Rom. 8:3). As our second Adam, Christ won the awful battle.

But now as Head of the human race He enters into the darkness of hell on His cross, dying our death, doing what in John 3:16 He says He doesn't want us to do--He tastes what it means to "perish." It's terrible beyond any words. We can't grasp it unless we understand Galatians 3:13: "Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us: for it is written [quoting Moses], Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree" (cf. Deut. 21:22, 23, KJV). Thus He was "made to be sin for us, who knew no sin" (2 Cor. 5:21). For you personally, intimately--not only instead of you but as you--He dies your second death. Now in thanks what will you do for Him?

--Robert J. Wieland

From the "Dial Daily Bread" Archive: February 17, 2005.

Wednesday, August 08, 2012

Let No Idle Word Escape Our Hearts

Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread,"

Why is there so much opposition when truth is proclaimed, even sometimes in the church?

For example, Bible teaching is clear as sunlight that the New Covenant is the "better promises" of God, and the Old Covenant is the worthless promises of the people (cf. Heb. 8:8-10): yet Old Covenant ideas keep cropping up, and there is tension and suspicion where there should be pleasant fellowship and harmony among the people of God ("Behold how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity"! Psalm 133:1).

Like the prophet Jeremiah who was hounded and cursed in Jerusalem by God's own people until he longed for a place in the wilderness where he could cry and cry ("Oh that my head were waters, and mine eyes a fountain of tears, that I might weep day and night ... in the wilderness ..." (Jer. 9:1, 2); people who love the truths of the Bible weep today. Jeremiah was not a psychopath; the truth is that his opposing people were at war with God Himself. After Jeremiah's death, the Jews began to recognize how he was the greatest of the prophets whom God had sent to them; yet they made his life a hell on earth for him.

The Son of God came one Sabbath day to a congregation of God's true people in the town of Nazareth, and told them He was the true Messiah their people had looked for, for millennia. Result? The people of God who "kept" the holy Sabbath tried to kill Him (cf. Luke 4:16-29). The common people "heard Him gladly" but the higher you went in the hierarchy of the true church of that day, the more bitter was the hatred that the meek and gentle Jesus provoked (Matt. 12:37; John 1:11).

A delegation from the intellectual capital of the then world came to invite Jesus to come and teach them in Greece. The temptation for Him was enormous--get away from this bitter prejudice where he could go and teach receptive people; but He chose to stay and go to His cross and be crucified by the leaders of God's people (cf. John 12:20-27).

He has told us not to be surprised by the painful opposition coming sometimes from God's true people in the last days. As Jesus prayed, "Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do" (Luke 23:34), so He prays today.

And the prayer will be answered: God does forgive His people for opposing and rejecting the beginning of the latter rain and the loud cry; but He will also be very severe. He gives any generation only one chance to accept or reject "the beginning" of that rare and most precious gift of the latter rain. Let no idle word escape our hearts from now on!

--Robert J. Wieland

From the "Dial Daily Bread" Archive: November 28, 2007.

Be sure to check your e-mail for "Dial Daily Bread" again tomorrow.
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Robert J. Wieland's inspirational "Dial Daily Bread" messages are availalbe via e-mail to anyone who wishes to receive a daily portion of uplifting Good News. "Dial Daily Bread" is FREE. Due to travel or other circumstances, there may be intervals when "Dial Daily Bread" will not be sent.

Tuesday, August 07, 2012

Jesus Taught Us How . . .

Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread,"

Again, what does it mean to "live under the new covenant," or the promise of God?

All God's promises were made to the "Seed" (singular), which is Christ (Gal. 3:16), and the only way we come into the picture is "in Christ." But thank God, that's our "way."

Christ was known as "the son of David" not only through physical ancestry, but because in His incarnation He "lived" in David's psalms. As the leadership of God's true church condemned Jesus, so the divinely appointed leadership of His true church in the days of King Saul condemned David. Saul was "the anointed of the Lord," and David's agony was not only the physical exertion of constantly fleeing from Saul but wrestling with the greater temptation to doubt that God had truly anointed him to be king of Israel, when "the anointed of the Lord" condemned him. He had to overcome, to believe that God would take care of him.

Thus we have David's psalms written during his exile (57, 59. for example); repeatedly, the future king begins by wrestling with fear (old covenant-inspired!), and before the end of the psalm he erupts in new covenant joy of believing that the LORD will not forsake but vindicate him.

A millennium later the Son of God, sent "in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh" (Rom. 8:3) which He had taken upon Himself, wrestles with the same temptation. Again He is "tempted in all points like as we are, yet without sin" (Heb. 4:15), triumphing again over our old covenant fears, emerging day by day into new covenant sunlight (cf. Isa. 50:4, 5). This goes on continually in His earthly life until the greatest temptation of all to old covenant unbelief as He hangs on His cross in the darkness crying, "My God, why have You forsaken Me?" And there on the cross He wrestles His way through the darkness into the sunlight of new covenant faith, crying out joyously as His heart was already bleeding to death, "You who fear the Lord, praise Him! ... He has not despised nor abhorred the affliction of the afflicted [Me!], nor has He hidden His face from Him [Me!], ... He heard"! (Psalm 22:23, 24).

Jesus has taught us how to live under the new covenant.

--Robert J. Wieland

From the "Dial Daily Bread" Archive: November 6, 2006.

Monday, August 06, 2012

What Is the "Everlasting Covenant"?

Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread,"

A thoughtful person wrote asking to understand more clearly about the two covenants: (a) What is the "everlasting covenant" (Gen. 9:16; Heb. 13:20)? (b) What does it mean for us to live under the New Covenant today?

May the Lord save us from controversy and confusion!

Obviously, "the everlasting covenant" of Genesis 9:16 and Hebrews 13:20 has to be the same, for "God is not the author of confusion"(1 Cor. 14:33). And Genesis 9:16 makes clear that it is apromise that God makes to "every living creature of all flesh that is on the earth," symbolized by the rainbow. God's covenants are never bargains He strikes with man; they are unilateral promises He makes.

But we humans are in love with the idea that we can make bargains with God; we want to be able to help save ourselves. It is too humbling to our proud souls to realize that we are dependent 100 percent on God fulfilling His promise to save us. The rainbow is a "promise" from God to every human being, good or bad. Because of that promise, God is able to treat every human with grace, as though he/she had never sinned. The grace in that "everlasting covenant" makes it possible for Him to make "His sun rise on the evil and on the good, and [to] send(s) rain on the just and on the unjust" (Matt. 5:45).

The same "everlasting covenant" is God's promise to every human being on earth to "make you complete in every good work to do His will, working in you what is well pleasing in His sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever" (Heb. 13:21). That's why the Father gave His Son that "whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life" (John 3:16). Christ loves the world, He died for the world, He redeemed the world, He died the world'ssecond death (Heb. 2:9), "made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us" (2 Cor. 5:21), the "us" being "every man." He wants "all men to be saved, and to come to the knowledge of the truth" (1 Tim. 2:3, 4; if we had the courage to tell "every man" that "knowledge of the truth," the full truth, more would believe).

But every man has freedom of choice, and many resist and reject what Christ has already done for them, promised them, and given them because acceptance includes deep humbling of heart before God. They deny and nullify His grace for them and so they condemn themselves.

Thus the "old covenant" is always based on man's promise; the "new covenant" is always God'spromise. Come, get under the "new."

--Robert J. Wieland

From the "Dial Daily Bread" Archive: November 5, 2006.

Sunday, August 05, 2012

An Invitation From the True Witness

Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread,"

The apostle John was an old man when he wrote the Fourth Gospel. From his perspective of many years he discerned the outworking of a mysterious principle of enmity against God which had embedded itself in the leadership of the one true church. Up until the rejection and crucifixion of Christ, yes, up until three and one-half years later, the stoning of Stephen, it was the one true church in the world. Jesus had said, “Salvation is of the Jews” (John 4:22).

But in John’s gospel he details the development of that deep and bitter enmity that progressively possessed the hearts of those “men of God” until they screamed “Crucify Him!” in Pilate’s judgment court that fateful Friday morning.

The aged John is also the author of the Book of Revelation in which he speaks of a true church in the last days of earth’s history which is distinguished before the world as the “remnant church” which keeps the commandments of God and has the faith of Jesus (12:17; 14:12).

John also reports the Lord Jesus as deeply disturbed about the leadership of that same church because they arrogantly claim to be “rich and increased with goods” when in reality they lead the “seven churches” of history in pitiable ignorance of their true spiritual state: “You ... do not know that you are [the one, Greek] wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked” (3:14-21).

The true church leadership two millennia ago led their people to reject the Messiah whom God had sent to them; that Laodicean leadership in the last days can lead the true church again to repeat the sin of the ancient Jews by rejecting the Loud Cry message that God sends them to “lighten the earth with glory.” It’s Revelation 18:1-4 thrown into reverse gear. Instead of “lighten the earth” they can hold the message back for generation after generation while the world degenerates.

There is a blessed solution: “Be zealous, therefore, and repent,” an invitation from the “faithful and true witness” (3:19, 14).

--Robert J. Wieland

From the "Dial Daily Bread" Archive: April 5, 2007.

Friday, August 03, 2012

Believe Today and Skip All the Depression!

Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread,"

Of all people in the world, the last one you would expect to be living in the darkness and bondage of the Old Covenant is Abraham, "the father of the faithful."

And God had already given him the sunlit promises of the New Covenant! (Gen. 12:2, 3). His taking Hagar for a second wife was entirely Sarah's foolish, unbelieving, Old Covenant idea. God had nothing to do with that foray into darkness. Nonetheless, Abraham plunged into it. Paul says that the Hagar chapter of Abraham's life was pure Depression--"this Hagar is Mount Sinai," which because of unbelief, Israel turned into Depression. These "things are symbolic," says Paul in his clear understanding, in Galatians. The covenant "from Mount Sinai ... gives birth to bondage," which is always the horror of Depression (read Gal. 4:21-31).

Some 430 years after Abraham, God tried to renew those bright New Covenant promises to Israel as they had come out of dark Egyptian slavery on their way to the Promised Land (Ex. 6:4-9). But Israel were Abraham's descendants who had to learn as he did the folly of Old Covenant promises. Likewise, God had nothing to do with Israel embracing their Old Covenant ideas at Sinai. He wanted to renew the same New Covenant with them (see Ex. 19:4-6), the same promises He had made to Abraham.

We lock ourselves into confusion if we try to interpret the covenants at Mt. Sinai in any other way. Israel's slavery in Egypt had been a massive case of national Depression. Would God at Sinai lead them back into that darkness? If we picture the character of our loving heavenly Father as One who deliberately led His people Israel into an Old Covenant spiritual bondage at Sinai, we distort His character. The Old Covenant was not a preliminary step toward national salvation--that's twisting little text snippets with our own pre-set Old Covenant philosophy. Yes, He ratified their choice with animal blood; only in that sense can it be said that He "made" the Old Covenant with them--because that was what they insisted on. He had to let them take their long detour "under the law" until they could come to the place to be "justified by faith" as Abraham was (Gal. 3:19-24).

Now, you can believe today and skip all the Depression!

--Robert J. Wieland

From the "Dial Daily Bread" Archive: May 21, 2006.

Thursday, August 02, 2012

The Time for Rich Blessings Is Now

Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread,"

Jacob, the famous "Supplanter," tricked his father Isaac into giving him the birthright instead of to the elder (by-a-few-minutes) Esau. Esau was so angry that when he discovered what had happened, he threatened to kill him, and Jacob fled.

The first night on his exile the disheartened man dreamed of the ladder to heaven, and the Lord Himself appeared and renewed all the new covenant promises He had made to grandfather Abraham (Gen. 12:2, 3). Then the Hebrew says that next morning Jacob "went on his journey" (29:1) light hearted and light footed. That's what believing God's new covenant promises does for anyone!

Most commentators regard Uncle Laban's subsequent trickstering of Jacob as payback for his own trickstering to get the birthright. The idea is that the Lord overrules our lives into judgment for our wrongdoing; Jacob must suffer now.

But the Lord has solemnly promised at Bethel to bless him in everything! No mention of a payback. God has intended from the beginning that "the elder shall serve the younger," just backwards from human planning (Gen. 25:23). "I will not leave you," He has promised, "until I have done that which I have spoken to you of" (28:15). In other words, Jacob is invited to claim the equivalent of the 23rd Psalm, "The Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not want," and entitled to pray "the Lord's Prayer," "My Father which art in heaven," with all its attendant blessings. Well might Jacob walk on air from now on throughout his life.

But as he grows old, he has to confess to Pharaoh, "Few and evil have the days of the years of my life been" (Gen. 47:9). Much sorrow and disappointment shadowed his entire life. And yet God had made those wonderful promises to him at Bethel!

The only possible conclusion: Jacob didn't always believe them with new covenant faith. The inspired prophecy from before his birth said that he should receive the birthright; that was a new covenant promise from the word go! Doubting or disbelieving it created his problems. All during his later anxieties with Laban he could have sailed through those trials with Solomon's [once] "merry heart [that] does good like a medicine" if he had only believed (cf. Prov. 17:22)!

Surely we have come to the denouement of sacred history when we as a people should learn to believe how good is God's good news! One thing is sure--the 144,000 will (cf. Rev. 14:1-5). And the time for rich blessings is now. And it's time for unbelief to go.

--Robert J. Wieland

From the "Dial Daily Bread" Archive: December 17, 2006.

Wednesday, August 01, 2012

Dial Daily Bread: The Miracle of Unity Is Certain

Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread,"

The Bible speaks of unity within the church; how Christ prayed for it (John 17:20, 21), how Paul said that Christ's agape will produce it (Eph. 4:13-16), how the very doctrine of God demands it (vss. 2-6). But we have to face reality: churches often have disagreements and divisions, even within one denomination and even within one church body.

In a church that has for 150 years stood for creation in six days, a literal reading of Genesis 1, 2, etc., there are now powerful voices advocating evolution. There are divisions about women's ordination, about music in church worship services, etc. And for many, "the blessed hope" of the soon second coming of Christ is receding into the background, and a materialistic earthly lifestyle is taking its place.

Why does disunion seem to flourish so? And how can the church enlighten the earth with glory if it is in a divided state? And what can bring the true unity Christ prayed for?

THERE IS A SOLUTION. If God is real and if His Bible is true, it follows that God has a solution for the problem of disunity.

GOD WILL BRING HIS PEOPLE INTO UNITY. That which to doubters today seems impossible, the Holy Spirit will accomplish. He brought the disunited eleven apostles into unity before the Day of Pentecost. They were "with one accord in one place" (Acts 2:1). That was "the former rain," and the "latter rain" is promised to be even greater. God cannot use force to accomplish it. For Him to burn down the churches or strike them with lightning, wouldn't solve the root problem.

Ephesians tells us the solution: for those "tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine," is the message of agape (4:14, 15). Such a message is the objective gospel, the message of what Christ accomplished, the pure biblical truth of justification by faith. Christ has promised solemnly that if He is lifted up on His cross, that is, if His agape is clearly proclaimed, He "will draw all men unto [Himself]," and that of course is perfect unity (John 12:32). Let the leadership of a church that is being fragmented receive that most precious message of Christ's righteousness; the miracle of unity is as certain as day follows night.

--Robert J. Wieland

From the "Dial Daily Bread" Archive: October 24, 1999.

Copyright © 2012 by "Dial Daily Bread."

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