| << | Contents | >> |
Colonizing the Creation
God has prepared a city for the sons of faith (Hebrews 11:10, 16). O Lord help us to both recognize this emerging city from heaven and to then find our place in it.
By faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac, and he who had received the promises was offering up his only begotten son; it was he to whom it was said, “IN ISAAC YOUR DESCENDANTS SHALL BE CALLED.” He considered that God is able to raise people even from the dead, from which he also received him back as a type (Greek, EN PARABOLE – in a parable).
For Abraham, gaining the fulfillment of God’s promise was simply an impossibility. To succeed, he would need the intervention of Heaven. And God did intervene; Isaac was born. But the temptation Abraham now faced was to think that his son was the key to the ultimate fulfillment of God’s promise. Would the patriarch’s hope lie in Isaac or in the One who had promised that Isaac would live and become a father? And so, God tested Abraham. And Isaac died in the heart of his dad. When God raised the boy from this place of death and gave him back to his father, Abraham became suddenly acquainted with the resurrection power of God. And that event became a parable of a greater offering many centuries later when God’s resurrection power would reveal His salvation among men. Some have suggested that it was at this time in Abraham’s life that he foresaw the coming day of Christ and began to rejoice (John 8:56).
Clearly, receiving revelation from heaven in order to learn the ways of God can sometimes be quite costly to His servants.
By faith Isaac blessed Jacob and Esau, even regarding things to come.
Considering his two sons and their lifestyle choices, it really was an act of faith for Isaac to pronounce blessing over them. Even after he realized that Jacob had deceived him, he still believed that what God had given him to say over his son would come to pass (Genesis 27:33). By faith he considered the promises and the faithfulness of God to be greater than the present spiritual condition of his sons.
By faith Jacob, as he was dying, blessed each of the sons of Joseph, and worshiped, leaning on the top of his staff.
When Jacob blessed Joseph’s sons Ephraim and Manasseh, he crossed his hands and prophesied that Ephraim the second born would be greater than Manasseh the older brother. Here was an act of faith as he recognized God’s calling on them. It was also an act of faith because he was pronouncing blessing on grandsons who had been born of Joseph’s marriage to a daughter of an Egyptian priest (Genesis 41:45, 50 - 52). But Jacob knew that God had strategically sent Joseph into Egypt and had been with him in order to accomplish His purpose. So, he could bless his grandsons, the fruit of God’s work with his son Joseph.
By faith Joseph, when he was dying, made mention of the exodus of the sons of Israel, and gave orders concerning his bones.
Joseph knew that God would visit His people in Egypt and fulfill His promise to Abraham. So, when he was near death, he made the sons of Israel promise that when the people went forth from Egypt, they would take his bones with them; he wanted nothing of himself left behind. His identity was tied not to Egypt but to God, Israel, and the land of promise. He saw what was yet unseen and planned accordingly.
By faith Moses, when he was born, was hidden for three months by his parents, because they saw he was a beautiful (Greek, ASTEIOS – belonging to a city, i.e., urbane, elegant, comely) child; and they were not afraid of the king’s edict.
In his final proclamation of the gospel, Stephen used the same word to describe the infant Moses. But he added a phrase. Moses was beautiful in God’s sight (Acts 7:20). Frankly, I think that his parents probably thought he was beautiful no matter what he looked like physically. But it is a bit difficult to think that they also thought that he was urbane and elegant at the age of three months. But the further insight that God gave to Stephen reveals that it was a beauty from Heaven’s perspective – which saw Moses’ life from beginning to end. Moses had a beauty pertaining to a city. The city that the writer to the Hebrews had already mentioned twice was the one that Abraham saw, the one designed by God, and that was now under construction by the Holy Spirit based on the resurrection of Christ (Hebrews 11:10, 16). It seems that Moses’ parents saw in their infant son a beauty connected to something that God had designed and would construct among men.
By faith Moses, when he had grown up (Greek, GINOMAI MEGAS – became great), refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter, choosing rather to endure ill–treatment with the people of God than to enjoy the passing pleasures of sin, considering (Greek, HEGEOMAI – this word conveys the idea of taking the lead) the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures of Egypt; for he was looking to the reward.
When Moses had become great in Egypt, he had the prestige, power, and wealth of an empire beckoning him in a worldly direction. But at the same time, he had begun to catch a glimpse of a far greater reward. And it had to do with Israel’s coming Messiah. At first, it seemed as though he thought he could deliver Israel from slavery on his own – one Egyptian at a time. Obviously, that wasn’t going to work. Though it may not have occurred to him at the time, when he fled into the wilderness and became a shepherd, he was beginning to take the lead in God’s deliverance program for His people.
Sometimes Heaven’s leadership training program for His servants is not what we would have foreseen. But He is not looking for those who can simply sway crowds with their speaking ability. Rather, He looks to bring His servants to the end of all confidence in themselves, to recognizing that apart from His grace they will never be able to deliver anyone including themselves from the bondages of this age.
And so, like Abraham, Moses caught a glimpse of the foundation of God’s heavenly city – even Christ. And he saw that the way of Israel’s Messiah would be a way of reproach to all who were blind to Heaven’s ways. But that very reproach and rejection from the world would be but the first fruits of an eternal wealth found in learning the depths of God’s heart. And so, Moses began learning the way of faith, even though on the surface it looked like he was simply fleeing for his life.
By faith he left Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king; for he endured, as seeing Him who is unseen.
Endurance is established in those who find and behold the eternal unseen One in the midst of their particular circumstances, including their failures. He not only sustains His people by His power, He lets them see that having Him in their lives is the whole point of life. As a result, success as measured by those who are spiritually unseeing simply does not concern them. And the desire to achieve a certain attainment that is impressive to men dies – although sometimes a rather slow death. But as we choose to consistently behold Him, He will establish in us a life of perseverance/endurance – key to our obtaining what He has promised (Hebrews 10:36).
As a result, Moses endured the stubbornness of Pharaoh and refused to compromise with him when it came to the freedom of God’s people. And as he kept his eyes fixed on the Lord, he discovered Heaven’s route to Israel’s future. The first step on that path was to lead them unscathed through the destruction of all the first–born in Egypt.
By faith he kept the Passover and the sprinkling of the blood, so that he who destroyed the firstborn would not touch them. By faith they passed through the Red Sea as though they were passing through dry land; and the Egyptians, when they attempted it, were drowned.
What a deliverance!
And so, in the epistle to the Hebrews, God listed for us some of His mighty men and women of faith who conquered kingdoms, from weakness were made strong, and through the knowledge of God became mighty from Heaven’s perspective (Hebrews 11: 30 - 38).
And all these, having gained approval (having obtained a good testimony – NKJV) through their faith, did not receive what was promised, because God had provided something better for us, so that apart from us they would not be made perfect.
As faithful as these heroes of faith were, they could not come into the fulfillment of God’s promise apart from those Jewish believers in the first century who had come into that fulfillment through personal relationship with the promised Redeemer, the promised Son of David, the promised Branch of the Lord who would build God’s temple while combining the offices of priest and king (Zechariah 6:12). This One, the foundation, the designer, and the builder of the city – even the Lord Jesus Christ was now being made known not only in the hearts of Jewish believers, but also arising into the nations of the whole earth. The realization of what was in God’s heart when He first created man would now unfold in every nation.
Search Comments
This page has been visited 0001 times.
| << | Contents | >> |
10 per page