Israel, A Model (Part 3)

See the series here

A Review

 

The Lord selected Israel to be His model of a righteous nation, first, to all the nations and city states across the vast land of Canaan; and subsequently, to all future nations. He patiently equipped them to perform this role by painstakingly teaching Jacob’s early descendants His ways and requirements. But when the national cohesiveness and fidelity of subsequent generations increasingly waned, they eventually rejected the covenants their ancestors had entered into, and broke their intended special relationship with The Lord. That break initiated centuries long strife between Him and them, culminating in His decision to turn them over to their enemies to be killed and captured as slaves in foreign lands. But The Lord ‘stuck to His plan’ to become a man through a small remnant of that errant people—the remaining core tribes—Judah (with Benjamin’s remnant). Just over 3 decades after His birth as a man, Judah’s national leaders demanded for His crucifixion by Rome. They had considerable public support across, its capital, Jerusalem.

 

Neither the leaders nor general population of Judah ‘connected the dots’ between Heaven’s selection of their (post-Egypt) nation, and The Lord’s birth and crucifixion. The Bible reveals the core purpose of this selection was to serve as (1) a model nation of righteousness among observing nations, and (2) the ethnic group through which The Lord would be born as their Messiah and the Savior of the world. ¹ Thus, Jesus Christ was effectively the intended ‘fruit’ or culmination of their selection—the Seed He had predicted in Genesis 3:15.

 

Just as their centuries-earlier rejection of their selection initiated a long period of strife between Him and them, not by Israel’s causation, but by its representation, the same pattern of rejection spilled across all nations. History reveals the culmination of their rejection (i.e., His crucifixion) likewise initiated a much longer period of strife between Him and all nations! Here’s why…

Israel, A Model (Part 2)

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Reading Part 1 of this series, you may have wondered why it only discusses strategic patterns across The Bible, with no reference at all to Israel. My intent was to lay this  hopefully insightful foundation for Part 2: Repetitive patterns across history, especially those paraded in The Bible, serve as The Lord’s ‘pictures on the box’ of His ‘puzzle pieces’ strategy for humanity.

I perceive His intent is for us to recognize and study His repetitive patterns to discern Who He is, and to decipher what He intends us to learn about His plans for us, collectively and personally. Ignoring His ‘pictures on the box’, we mis-interpret life, mis-read history, and ergo, mis-understand and therefore reject His plan for us. Throughout its ancient history, and even today, Israel did this repeatedly, and continues to do so today. You might correctly think, ‘ALL nations have done that, so why focus on Israel?!’ Here’s why…

Israel, A Model (Part 1)

See the series here

The Lord Jesus is The MOST strategic-minded thinker ever! And that’s an understatement. Moreover, He has a BIG soft spot in His heart for humanity. That’s the spot from which His immeasurable GRACE emanates for and toward us. As our Creator, He knows our weak spots, and had planned for them in the ways He developed to connect with us. The kingpin of His plan is His Bible. In it, we learn He inspired the men who wrote it across the 1st and 2nd ages of our history. Then He carefully preserved it over the millennia, and raised up hegemon empires to play assigned roles to facilitate the unfolding of His GRAND strategy.

 

He knew we would think The Bible is too difficult for the average person to comprehend, and that most of us would give up, and delegate the study of it to professionals. And history proves, we have all paid a high price for that decision as it severed the deeply intimate personal links between Him and us, personally, as He had planned.

 

Repetitive Patterns

Ezekiel's Prophetic 'Quadfecta' (Part 1)

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Context: The prefix, quad, refers to four, and fecta is the root of the Spanish word 'perfecta,' meaning perfect, which relates to achieving a specific outcome. I created the portmanteau, ‘quadfecta’, to refer to 4 chapters in The Book of Ezekiel—chapters 36 through 39. Those chapters quite vividly confirm The Lord’s strategic plan to perfect a relatively small remnant of Jews who will embrace Him as Messiah during the pending Millennial Reign age—the 5th Biblical age of human history. (NB. We are currently transiting the closing part of the 3rd Biblical age of our history.) 

 

The Old Testament is replete with what I call ‘puzzle piece’ references to His plan. The above-noted remnant (and hopefully all of their offspring during that age, if they don’t rebel against The Lord) will join ALL of His saints from across the earlier ages of history, plus any new saints from the 6th age, to love and serve Him forever as glorified, immortal humans, on a massive, new Earth that He first predicted in Isaiah 65 and 66, and later described in a vision to Apostle John, in Revelation 21 and 22. 

Predictions vs. Possibilities

In September and October, 2025, Pastor Joshua Mhlakela, not only once, but thrice predicted the rapture of The Lord’s 3rd age saints, first, ‘on the 23rd and 24th of September 2025’, and later, ‘on October 6th and 7th’. While of that day, Jesus said, ‘But of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, but My Father only’, He spoke in the (then) present tense. Over 2 thousand years hence, who knows ‘who knows’ of that day by now?! Clearly, this pastor didn’t, nor have others who dared to predict dates in the past.

This post is not about this pastor, or his predictions. Rather, it’s about what is clearly available for all of us, saints and sinners alike, to study and learn—not about specific dates, but about relevant repetitive patterns, and precursor signs of/about that approaching date, and the subsequent age transition. Moreover, in 1 Corinthians 15:52, Paul informed us that the next ‘first’ rapture event, would occur ‘in the twinkling of an eye’, not stretched over a 2-day period. (Keep in mind that some references to ‘one’ and ‘first’ in The Bible, do not mean a numerical reference. Good examples are the concept of ‘first fruits’ and ‘first resurrection and rapture’.)

 

A Relevant Repetitive Pattern

Secret Agent Christian (Poem)

See the Secret Agent Christian series here

If you bump into a cup that’s filled,

And not a drop of what’s in it spills,

Then about that cup, what would you think?

 

If with Christians you have encounters,

And no signals of Christ are ‘rendered’,

About those Christians, what would you think?

 

If nothing in your life ‘testifies’,

And by you, Christ is never glorified,

Why wear the title that bears His Name??

The Trinity in The Bible (Q&A)

Q. Jesus Christ was a Jew who was sent to Jews to educate them, and remind them about The Torah. So Christianity was never a separate religion. Also, there are many different, conflicting versions of The Bible, and none of them include references to the Trinity, only to Monotheism.

 

A. Thank you for your statements, which I will address as if they are infer underlying questions. 

 

Jesus was sent to all humanity, not just to Jews

 

I agree with your core premise: Jesus absolutely came to bring, not only Jews, but also the world to the recognition of One True God. However, His mission was not only about returning the hearts of Jews to God, but was about what the fullness of that unity (what you call monotheism) entails, as revealed progressively throughout The Bible.

The Sovereign's Symphony

While listening to several National Public Radio (NPR) reports about the recent rediscovery and satellite mapping of the entire Roman road network, I was reminded how those ancient routes once carried, not only soldiers and merchants—but also the earliest messengers of The Gospel. The thought stirred this reflection on how The Lord has conducted the rise and fall of hegemon empires, each ‘playing’ its part in His unfolding ‘composition’.

 

Like an expert orchestra conductor,

On His cue, The Lord directed empires,

For ‘lead section roles’ in His strategy.

For each one, He pre-composed unique parts,

To facilitate His ‘musical score’.

Thus, on the world scene, right on cue, they rose!

He Twice Said, 'Shortly!'

Curiously, The Book of Revelation opens and closes with the phrase, ‘…things which must shortly take place.’ That was written circa AD 95. Since then, over 22 centuries, the world has been waiting…or not, for some evidence of the veracity of the prophecies in that book, possibly thinking 'shortly' meant QUICKLY. Most people may have thought, ‘bah humbug’, and have moved on with their lives—those prophecies totally out of mind!   

 

God gave the contents of those prophecies, to Jesus, The Lord God, for Him to show them to us, His servants. (Revelation 1:1) Jesus concluded John’s visionary presentation with the words, ‘I am coming quickly…’. Again, ‘bah humbug’, the likely reaction, not only from the world at large, but I imagine perhaps by many, if not most Christians over the past 22 centuries!

 

Since neither God nor Jesus is capable of lying, then the onus is upon us, to whom these prophecies were sent, to decode their words, shortly and quickly. What if most of us may have just dismissed these words altogether, and thus may not benefit from insights they intended us to perceive? 

Worship or Warfare? (Part 2, dominionists)

See the series here

 

In Part 2, we saw that The Lord’s overt objective for the exodus of ancient Hebrews from Egypt was for them to form an exceeding army:

 

     (a) to be His ‘battle axe’ against the Amorites, a grossly sinful people in Canaan, to whom He had extended another 400 years of Grace, and who were then ready for His judgment (Genesis 15:6); and

     (b) to initiate the much longer set of military campaigns to capture the entirety of the land He had promised—from the Brook of Egypt-to-the-Euphrates river—to Abram’s descendants through Jacob, whose name The Lord had changed to Israel. (Genesis 15:18)

 

The exodus was planned to initiate a massive, qualified land deed to the ex-slaves, one with a faith proviso!  As a nation, they would be required to demonstrate sufficient, sustained faith to believe The Lord would ensure their success through a lengthy set of invasions across that wide swarth of land that was fully occupied! Their faith would be demonstrated and tested in the extent to which they would keep His laws. We know ‘the rest of the story…’.  

And Today?