Month: November 2020

1. All Families Blessed

Genesis 12:3 And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed.

God promises to bless those who bless Abraham. “Abraham” in this promise signifies the Church of believers, all those who have the faith of Abraham. Those who believe in Jesus have Abraham as their father. He is our father in the true faith, and, like Abraham, our faith is counted as righteousness. The promise says that those who bless us will be blessed.

God will bless those people who do good things for us and say good things to us. Jesus is in us. We are “the least of these my brethren,” If the people of the world only knew of this promise all believers would be treated kindly. Even we believers ourselves would treat other believers kindly, for then we would be blessed. One thing we can do to receive blessings from God is to treat bothers and sisters in Christ kindly. Of course, the true believer treats all people kindly, but Galatians 6:10 says, “let us do good to everyone especially to those who are of the household of faith” Contrariwise, God will curse those who curse His children. This blessing and cursing of God’s people actually does work out in the Bible stories. We need to believe it also works out in our regular lives as well. It is as if God were saying, “This one is my child, my own special person; treat him/her nicely. I will bless you or curse you according to your treatment of him/her.”

God promises to bless all families of the earth in Abraham, that is, those who believe God and His promises. The words “in thee” means that in the Seed of Abraham, who is the Messiah Jesus, all families will find blessing. Jesus brings blessing to everyone; He died for all; God so loved the world. All families of earth will be blessed in Christ, by faith in Christ. The blessing is in the Promise to Abraham: the Seed, Jesus, is the promise; Jesus is the blessing. The Lord is saying that not only is Abraham’s descendants and family blessed, but all families of the earth will be blessed in Christ. Yes, God chose the Jews to bring the Savior to all the earth, but also God chose your family to be blessed.

1. Will be a Blessing

Genesis 12:2 And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing.

This seminal promise given to Abraham sets in motion the rest of salvation history and forms the foundation of our salvation story. The Abrahamic Promise is three-fold: land, offspring, and blessing to the nations. These were fulfilled completely and only in the Messiah Jesus. Jesus brings us into the Kingdom (land) of God, heaven, paradise, the blessed presence of God. Jesus is the offspring, the Seed of the woman, the God entering human flesh to save created humans. Jesus is the blessing to the nations, all the people of the earth who can secure blessing only in the Christ. The unfolding story of God’s salvation begins in Genesis 12 with the call to Abraham.

God promises Abraham that he will become a great nation. The nation is the church, made up all believers in Jesus Christ, just like Abraham, who believed God and it was counted unto him as righteousness. Abraham will have a Great Descendant who will usher believers into the great nation by faith in Christ. It is edifying for us as individuals to realize that each of us is a part of something really big and eternal, even though for now it is spiritual. In order for Abraham to become a great nation he would first have to have a son. God granted a son, Isaac, 25 years later.

God promised Abraham that He will bless him and he will be a blessing. This came true symbolically as God made him materially wealthy and blessed. God blessed him spiritually for He gave him faith to believe God for what seemed impossible. The promise for us is that God promises to bless us with the faith of Abraham. We, too, may believe God for the impossible. We are truly blessed in the Christ, the promised Descendant of Abraham. We enjoy God’s rich blessings every day. Our name will also be great for we have the name of Jesus, the name of God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, placed upon us and powerfully working within us. Those named by God with God’s name do not bear (carry) the Name in vain.

Then, carrying God’s Name, the promise is that we shall be a blessing. We need to believe this promise since we don’t see how we are a blessing to the people in the world around us. We are a blessing. That’s a promise.

1. Seasons will Continue

Genesis 8:22 While the earth remaineth seedtime and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and sinter, and day and night shall not cease.

After the devastating Great Flood the Lord God makes a promise: not only will there not be another global flood, but also predictable seasons will continue as they are now, and earth people can count on it. Catastrophes that change life on earth and disrupt the flow of created things will not come, but regular life goes on and will continue. This kind of predictability makes science possible. There will always be seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, and day and night.

The sun will rise tomorrow. If you plant something a harvest will come. Seasons do not last forever. Predictable change will come in its time. The Flood changed the earth dramatically and permanently, but that will not happen again. There will be the cycle of life that one can count on. Be assured, whatever season of life you are in presently will pass and another season will follow. The principle applies to life and death, sickness and health, weal and woe. This too shall pass. Just as day follows night and seasons come and go you can be sure that what you are feeling at the moment, whether good or bad, will not last. This is not the way it always will be. Another day or another summer or will follow. 

Everything changes. But another prophecy and principle of life is that everything you presently experience and know about will pass away. But, Jesus says, My words will never pass away. There is only one constant: God and His Word and Promise. That lasts forever without change. Also, the outward life is wasting away, but the inward life is renewed day by day. That life lasts forever.

But while we wait for that eternal, unchanging, full and rich and beautiful life to be seen and enjoyed, we will see change and decay, ups and downs, good times and bad, summer and winter, day and night, and so on. If things for the moment look gloomy and dark, rejoice for morning light and joy is coming. If things for the moment look bright and cheerful, remember that this good time, like life on earth, is temporary. So we do not pin our hopes upon what is temporary and changeable. We live by faith above the seasons and changes of life. We live in the eternal, unchangeable love of God. That will not pass.

1. No further Curse

Genesis 8:23 And the Lord smelled a sweet savour; and the Lord said in his heart, I will not again curse the ground any more for man’s sake; for the imagination of man’s heart is evil from his youth; neither will I again smite any more every thing living, as I have done.

After the Flood and after Noah sacrificed to the Lord, the Lord made a covenant with Noah (and all his descendants, which is everybody). He promised that He would not again curse the ground. He would not ever again send another great flood to kill every living thing on the earth. The original curse in the Garden came upon the earth because of the sin of man. Again the Lord cursed the earth with the Flood on account of the sin of man. Sin and violence increases on the earth until the Lord must put a stop to it with a judgment.

The next time the judgment will be by fire, not by water, and it will be final for it will burn up everything in the universe. God will create a new heaven and a new earth (universe) in which righteousness dwells after the final judgment by fire. Until then, we enjoy the promise that a global flood will never again cover the earth. The ground has been cursed enough, and we live with it.

The original curse was placed upon the innocent man, Jesus, on the cross. “Cursed is every man that hangs on a tree.” Jesus took the curse of sin upon Himself and suffered the judgment of God in our place. We have received the judgment of God upon our sinful self when we were baptized, which is a picture of the Flood. Just as the Flood drowns and destroys living things, so also does Baptism drown and destroy the old self so that a new self may arise to life. 1 Peter 3:20-21: “Eight persons were brought safely through water. Baptism, which corresponds to this, now saves you…through the resurrection of Jesus Christ.” 

We activate and energize this Event when we remember our baptism through daily repentance and faith. God will not again curse the ground more than it has been cursed in the Garden. Jesus has taken the curse, but we still live with the results of sin and curse. We live in two worlds, the cursed one and the non-cursed one. The watery judgment destroys the self-life in the spirit. The fiery judgment will destroy it forever. Meanwhile, there will be no further curse, or major upheaval, until then.

1. Live Forever

Genesis 3:22 And the Lord God said, Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil: and now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever.

The most glorious promise of the Gospel is that we have eternal life. The promise begins in the beginning. The Word does not state explicitly that Adam (and all people) was created to live forever, but we can firmly make this inference. Before Adam disobeyed, the Lord’s only command was that he could not eat of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. However, he could eat of the Tree of Life, and when he did he would live forever. Human life was created to go on and on without end, with the body constantly renewing itself to stay perpetually young and energetic. In a sin-cursed world that is hard to imagine, but it is still true.

God warned, “In the day you eat of it, dying you will die (you will surely die).” There was no such thing as death before the Fall into Sin. Everything God created was good, and on the sixth day creation was finished and everything was declared to be “very good.” There was no death, for that would not be a very good thing. Separation from God, from life, from the soul, and from loved ones can never be a good thing.

Sin causes loss, loss of everything: loss of God, of life, of love, of joy and peace, of fulfilling relationships, and of good. The promise of the Seed crushing the devil and all Evil restores everything that was lost, including life forever. Access to the Tree of Life has been opened to us by the death of the Son of God and Son of Man on the tree of the cross. Because of Christ now we may eat and live forever. God, in love, forbids humans to eat of the Tree of Life and life forever under the curse of sin and death. Life on a sin-cursed earth is no way to want to live forever. There must be something better, and there is. This is the promise.

Through faith in Christ we are permitted to take of the tree of life and God promises we shall live forever. Thankfully, we will not live forever in the present condition of life under Sin, Death and Evil. This is not life. It is not full, rich, abundant, or eternal. We are constantly losing pieces of life as earthly life goes on weakening, decaying and dying. But Jesus is the Tree of Life. Take of Him.

1. Man and Wife will be One Flesh

Genesis 2:24 Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh.

A promise is embedded in this historical event, fact, truth and principle. The Lord God married Adam and Eve after He created them and brought them together. Marriage and Family is God’s idea; it is the foundation for stable and productive living on earth. If the foundation fails the building falls: If the marriage breaks the family crumbles; if the family fails society disintegrates. Secure life falls apart and some outside force, like government institutions, take over life and society.

Faithful, committed, and life-long marriages are the foundations of stable societal living in community. For this reason, the moral sins of adultery and divorce are so vitally important for happy, stable and productive lives. If the world would just keep this one Commandment in all its meaning, life on earth would be a wonderful utopia, a safe and happy place to live. Just as sex creates life, so unlawful sex destroys living. This is why God wants us to keep His Commandments: so we can be happy. Illicit sex and its result, divorce, cause untold damage. God knows this, so we should just listen to Him. Cleave! No adultery, no divorce, and the whole family lives happily afterward.

The promise implied in this institution of marriage and family is this: the husband and wife shall be one flesh. The husband and wife are bound intimately together physically, but it’s much more than that. The promise means that the two will be intimately bound together in the soul. Their minds, wills, and emotions become united and solid together. This mutual commitment to each other builds a soul tie. Therein is the promise. They will be one. 

There are many times when a married couple does not feel like, or act like, they are one. That is a deception; it is not true. The promise of God’s Word, His institution, His will and His intention is that they are one. The promise is true whether the two people act like it or not. They are one. Thus, we will not separate what God joined. He made a promise. Use that promise to repair, reunite, reconcile, become bound up and be tied together. There is power in the promise to recreate and make new. The love that brought two people together is not lost; it may have just been ignored. In other words, God promises that the two will love each other. He/she does not have to ask, Does he/she love me? Do I love him/her? God says, “Yes, you both do.” Enjoy the promise.

453. Tread down Wicked

Malachi 4:3 And ye shall tread down the wicked; for they shall be ashes under the soles of your feet in the day that I shall do this, saith the Lord of hosts.

We already have the prophetic promise that the Seed of the Woman shall crush the head of the serpent (Jesus destroys the devil’s power). But because of that historical event on the cross the remarkable promise is this: “you shall tread down the wicked.” Romans 16:20: “The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet.” God does the crushing, but He crushes under our feet. Jesus crushed the serpent once for all time, but that crushing must be applied in real life and worked out in real time. It happens when we preach the Gospel.

In the day when God did this, all sin, wickedness, evil, enemies of God, death and the devil have become ashes under our feet. No spiritual enemy will be able to get the upper hand over us and bring us down. They threaten and scare us, but we apply the Word of God and attack, and the wicked must flee. We tread down the wicked in the name of Jesus. Jesus always wins. Jesus never fails. Truth crushes lies; light pushes back darkness; Life defeats death: Love is stronger than hate; Good overcomes evil. The child of God treads down the enemies of God.

We need to believe this promise so that we may exercise the authority of Jesus Christ and speak in His name and tread down wicked temptations, evil thoughts, harsh words, harmful deeds, and all the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. We are sitting with Christ in those heavenly places and ruling with Him in the spiritual world. The promise is: you shall tread down the wicked. Believe it. Do it.

452. Sun of Righteousness will arise

Malachi 4:2 But unto you that fear my name shall the Sun of righteousness arise with healing in his wings; and ye shall go forth, and grow up as calves of the stall.

God promises a Sun of righteousness to arise with healing for us. Of course, this is a prophecy of the Messiah who is to come and arise on the earth. The dawning of that day was Christmas Day, the birth of Jesus. The Christ arises, like the sun, for those who fear the name of the Lord, that is, those who believe God. 

Jesus is the light of the world; Jesus is the sun rising. Isaiah 9:2: “The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light: those who dwelt in land of deep darkness, on them has light shined.” We, all humans born on earth, live in a land of deep darkness. The dark land is called “the world” with its godless philosophical, religious, political, temporal, material, self-centered ways of thinking. The world system is blinded by the lies of Satan and shrouded by Death. People do not even know the darkness in which they live until they see the light of Christ. We all need the revelation of the Spirit to shine a light upon our dark ways through the Word of God. We are blind until we see. When the Sun rises and the Light shines in our dead spirit, then we believe. Believing is seeing. Now we walk in the light as He is in the light, and the blood of Jesus cleanses us from all sin. God is light, and in Him is no darkness at all. Jesus is light. The Light penetrates the heart and pushes back the darkness. This Sun needs to rise in our hearts every morning, for the darkness threatens to engulf us every day. Darkness wants to swallow us up and smother us, but it cannot. The Sun shines. The Light comes. 

The promise includes healing. The metaphor seems mixed: does the sun have wings? But the truth is that healing comes with the Sun. Jesus is truth and righteousness. We are righteous by faith; righteousness heals broken hearts, damaged emotions, deceived minds and unhealthy bodies. Healing arises. Healing comes. Receive Him and go forth.

451. A Delightsome Land

Malachi 3:12 And all nations shall call you blessed: for ye shall be a delightsome land, saith the Lord of hosts.

The further promise on condition of tithing is that you shall be a delightsome land. When one person, one family, one church, one people group, one nation is thankful, respectful, worshiping and believing in God, that one will be delightsome. You will be a land of delight, pleasure and happiness. And all the peoples of earth will call you blessed.

The “land”’ is the kingdom of God. Enter into the kingdom by faith and you enter into a happy place. The kingdom comes (as we pray) among us and into us. The reign of God rules our hearts and lives. When we believe God and give Him His due respect and regard, then we are blessed; the world’s people notice, and we are living in a land of delight. 

The world seeks thrills and pleasures of all kinds for the body and the soul. “If it feels good, do it.” But whatever the world offers to make the body, mind and emotions feel good is momentary and shallow. The thrill passes, we crash, and the same boredom and dreary routine returns. But the joy of the Lord and of living in His kingdom does not stop, crash and disappoint. This deep and lasting joy and peace lasts forever and even grows stronger as we mature in the knowledge of Jesus Christ. The world can’t give it and the world can’t take it away. The delightfulness of the kingdom of God abides through all the ups and downs, pains and pleasures, sorrows and joys of life.

This kind of delightedness comes from being in the Word and Spirit, and it is expressed in prayer and thanksgiving. This is the exciting cycle of the Christian life. We hear the Gospel and read the Word and we respond with prayer and thanks and doing loving deeds and saying kind words. This is a delightful land and it is a joyous place to be alive. We get on the cycle by listening to Jesus and responding to Him. This precious cycle keeps us rolling through life in a corrupt world. “The joy of the Lord is your strength.” The Lord promises delight; you shall live in eternal joy.

450. God will Rebuke the Devourer

Malachi 8:11 AndI will rebuke the devourer for your sakes, and he shall not destroy the fruits of your ground; neither shall your vine cast her fruit before the time in the field, saith the Lord of hosts.

This is a further part of the unconditional promise for bringing in the tithe to the storehouse. Since good crops and a good harvest were dependent on the Lord’s blessing in response to our taking care of the things of God and the work of God, in addition to timely rain the crops also need protection from locusts and vermin and other insects that destroy the harvest of the fields.

The “devourer” is the enemy that destroys the food and drink sources that sustain life. The Lord promises to rebuke the devourer so that good crops will grow up to a hundred-fold. The devourer is the devil and our spiritual enemies that seek to kill, steal and destroy spiritual life. And if the enemies can diminish the spiritual life then the physical and social life is also affected. This is really good news for the believer in Jesus Christ: the Lord will rebuke Sin, Satan and Death to make the Enemies take their hands off us and stop eating into the full enjoyment of God’s life in us. The life of God within does affect the physical and social life. 

Pay attention to God and He will pay attention to you. Trust the Lord to provide blessings and mitigate the effects of the Curse. The Spirit of Life that is in us is earned by Christ and given to us by grace. He is always there to provide and protect us in all the aspects of life. Our response is to thank and praise the Lord, listen to Him, and keep alive in Christ by believing and enjoying the Gospel. Live your life with daily repentance and faith, and trust the Lord to do the blessing and rebuking. 

Tithing is simply an outward product of a heart that lives by faith. Tithing is our response to the grace and goodness of God. Tithing is our opportunity to thank God for promised blessing and protection. We don’t know how often the Lord has rebuked the devourer and delivered from evil, but we thank Him for it anyway.