Obedience.
Romans 9:15 (NIV)
For he says to Moses, “I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.”
We might begin to wonder why God chose the Jews as His peculiar people. Back in those days, most of the tribes that existed were so rooted in idol worshipping and they have a mixture of intermarriages too among what we call the 'gentile' nations. God desires to have His people to Himself. He wanted people who will preserve the purity and continue in the laws He would give unto them. He wanted them to marry from within and rather than marry outsiders which was why most idol-worshipping came into the camp of the Israelites based on intermarriage. God knew ahead of time.
God entrusted the Jews with His laws for them to reproduce it and entrust it also into the hands of their children. This is why it made sense when Joshua said, "As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord". God wanted to maintain a pure and complete lineage and He found Abraham worthy.
The covenant God had with Abraham is key and it was tied to his faith because of His obedience to the things of God. This is why despite all they went through, they still grow and flourish anywhere they were planted. They grew in Egypt and spent 430 years there and even though they were slaves, their growth and strength became a threat to the Egyptians.
When Adam fell, we already passed sinful nature into our DNA and that's why the Bible said we have all sinned and come short the Glory of God. Obedience to God's laws would guarantee all the things we can ever dream of - loving and caring family relations, success in building business wealth while still maintaining our personal, physical and emotional health.
God punished His people back then due to their lack of Obedience just as Adam and Eve were chased out of the Garden due to the same. They always get punished for their disobedience but God knows how to restore them when they come back to Him.
Psalm 51:16-17 (NIV)
You do not delight in sacrifice, or I would bring it; you do not take pleasure in burnt offerings.
My sacrifice, O God, is a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart you, God, will not despise.
Even when they spent 70 years in Babylon and before they were carted away, the temple of God was broken down to the rubble as predicted by Jesus and Jeremiah and reiterated too in the book of Isaiah, God still found a way to bring them back where they even came to lay the foundation of the new temple as recorded in the book of Ezra chapter 3.
For the Jews, the promise of the blessings that comes from God based on His covenant with Abraham became the motivation for them to walk in obedience to God. God will never change His standards to suit man. When we pray, we are not praying to change God but to change ourselves so our will and desires can be subjected to His will for our lives.
Isaiah 1:19 (NIV)
If you are willing and obedient, you will eat the good things of the land;
...to be continued...
Thank you for your time.
My pen doesn't bleed, it speaks, with speed and ease.
Still me,
My tongue is like the pen of a ready writer.
Olawalium; (Love's chemical content, in human form). Take a dose today: doctor's order.
Nice post