Rightly dividing the Word of Truth. 11
Rightly dividing the Word of truth
This is part 11 in a series of 53 articles about RIGHTLY DIVIDING GOD’S WORD OF TRUTH. All scripture quoted will be from the King James Bible.
In part 11, we are going to start looking at scriptures specifically related to the nation of Israel; God’s chosen people under the earthly program. I need to show you what happened to Israel, so anyone reading these articles will not get confused about the one and only salvation message for the church of today, the Body of Christ. Many people today are being deceived because they are using scriptures for salvation that were intended only for the nation of Israel. No one can be saved today by obeying instruction given only for the Jewish nation of Israel. Again, this is the reason for these articles; the scriptures MUST be rightly divided to find the truth for all people living today.
God’s chosen people
Genesis 12:1-3: 1Now the LORD had said unto Abram, get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father’s house, unto a land that I will shew thee: 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: 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.
Prophetic writings given to Israel continually prophesied Israel’s rise to superiority over the Gentile nations. The Creator of all things chose the nation of Israel to be a unique people that would witness to His reality, Deuteronomy 7:6: 6For you are a holy people to the Lord your God; the Lord your God has chosen you to be a people for His own possession out of all the people who are on the face of the earth. The Jewish nation of Israel waschosen to be a witnessof God’s reality to a world that had fallen away from God, Isaiah 43:10-11: 10You are My witnesses, declares the Lord, and My servant whom I have chosen, in order that you may know and believe Me, and understand that I am He. Before Me there was no God formed, and there will be none after Me .11I, even I am the Lord; and there is no Savior beside Me.
The nation of Israel was special to God, and in fact God was married to his people Israel, Isaiah 54:5: 5 For thy Maker is thine husband; the LORD of hosts is his name; and thy Redeemer the Holy One of Israel; The God of the whole earth shall he be called. Ezekiel 16:8: 8Now when I passed by thee, and looked upon thee, behold, thy time was the time of love; and I spread my skirt over thee and covered thy nakedness: yea, I sware unto thee, and entered into a covenant with thee, saith the Lord GOD, and thou becamest mine.
God said He entered into a covenant with Israel, and thou became mine. This was the Old covenant or a marriage contract between God and the nation of Israel, and they were married at Sinai in the desert after God brought the children of Israel out from slavery in Egypt How do we know that the “Old Covenant” was a marriage covenant? We know because of their subsequent divorce in Hosea 2:2, where God stated that Northern Israel “is not My wife, nor am I her Husband!” God could only divorce Israel if He had once been wed to her. In Jeremiah 3:8, God specifically stated that He gave the northern Kingdom of Israel a certificate of divorce and put her away. ——–To be continued