Jesus: Our Promised Land

The angel said to Joseph: [Mary] will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.” (Matthew 1:21)

Scripture Says
Jesus means 'the Lord Saves' in Greek, and corresponds to the Hebrew name Joshua. Joshua led the Israelite conquest of the Promised Land, and Jesus gave His life as a ransom for sinners, to lead them into the Promised Land of their souls. And as Joshua saved the Hebrews by God's mighty power and outstretched arm, Jesus, in the Gentile language of the day, came to save us all.

Jesus has a Promised Land for all of us. Salvation is part of it, and the promise of eternal life in heaven. But He has a plan for your life and your heart, and to the degree that you claim that plan you claim your Promised Land.

Taking the Promised Land wasn't an easy chore, nor was their guaranteed success outside of faith. Joshua led the people in many wars, struggling to take over the land God had granted them as their inheritance. Eventually the Israelites did take it - except where they settled for less than God's best for them, and did a halfway job, co-existing with the original inhabitants. And, correspondingly, we get our Promised Land to the degree that we choose to obey, pray and trust Jesus.

The tribe of Reuben, with two others, saw opportunity where they were and pleaded to stay on the far side of the Jordan River, outside the Promised Land. (Num 32) Moses finally said to them, in essence, your families can stay here, but your men must fight for the other tribes, to conquer the Promised Land. Then you can return and settle east of the Jordan, with no inheritance of your own in the Promised Land and no further obligation to the Lord or Israel.

The tribe agreed, which I find heartbreaking and a poignant lesson in watching our agreements and decisions. The probably figured they would keep serving the Lord their own way - and they probably did for awhile.

They were given the tableland east of the Dead Sea and north of the Arnon Gorge, bordered on the south by the pagan Moabites, on the east by desert tribes and on the west by the Dead Sea. Only to the north did they have a brotherhood, the tribe of Gad. Left as easy prey, they quickly lost their inheritance.

A Personal Note
As a band of predators will seek to isolate their prey from the herd before attacking, so Satan seeks to isolate you and I. Where you leave yourself vulnerable to outside influence, he will take advantage and you will lose your Promised Land. You need to be aware of his tactics and set up guards on those vulnerable borders. For example, the body of Christ is Jesus' hands and feet, and participating in the family of God protects us from Satan's lies and exposes his tactics.

Do Satan attack you with self-esteem? Depression? Anger? Keep close to Christian friends that will build up your self-esteem. Get rid of what's getting you depressed, where possible. Forgive whoever you need to forgive, and peace will fill a fresh part of your heart. Jesus gave us His peace; it is part of your Promised Land, but you must claim it by forgiving. And that is work. But then, they didn't conquer the land without a fight, and we fight with weapons of prayer, obedience and faith. Without those, your Promised Land is going to land in Satan's hands.

Study Questions
1. Where does Satan attack you?
2. How can you make that more difficult for him?
3. What plan does God have for your heart (e.g., peace) or your life (e.g., a ministry) that Satan is stealing via a busy calendar, fear, etc.?

Immanuel: God With Us

OK, so this is an experiment. It's a year+ later, I totally forgot about this blog, and I don't feel like sticking to the Gospels. Instead, I thought I'd jot down what I felt the Holy Spirit revealing to me last night. Which has to do with the names God gave in the annunciations.

All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet: “The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel” (which means “God with us”). (Matthew 1:22-23)

Scripture Says

Immanuel, God with us. Sometimes it doesn't feel like it, granted, but the history the Word of God spells out says, 'Don't doubt it.' First came God's ideal, walking with Adam and Eve in the garden - I like how the Bible adds 'after the heat of the day was past.' Adds a personal touch! Then the original couple messed up, oops, and they were cast out of the garden. Yet later on, Cain, punished for killing his brother, said, "I will be hidden from your presence." (Gen 4:14) Apparently, between the garden and later history was a special intermediate time, when God seemed closer.

Then humanity turned wretched and God seemed absent, but in the midst of it all was one righteous (and probably lonely) man, carrying out the strangest instructions to build the biggest boat anyone had ever seen. Nobody had a clue how to build boats that big way back in yonder years, but God knew, and He used divine revelation to save a holy remnant. The world seemed to be abandoned, but God was with us. (Gen 6-9)

The world turned wretched again, but God made a covenant with one man, saying He would build an entire nation through Him. (Gen 12) (But, um, God - are you sure? Because I can't even sire a child with my wife!) Finally a single child was born, Isaac, and to him just two children, twin sons. And then God's blessings exploded in the form of children - twelve sons to one man! And they all lived, which back then was several miracles wrapped up in one. God was with them the whole time - they just couldn't see it.

The pattern goes on - 400 years as slaves in Egypt with no word from God, they felt forgotten - yet the prophecies came true. God hadn't forgotten them. He raised up a leader to bring them out of Israel. (Exodus 1) God led them very personally through the desert, a pillar of cloud by day and a fire by night. The tabernacle was called the 'Tent of Meeting,' - meetings between God and man - and 'housed' the Presence of God.

He was with them as they fought their enemies in the Promised Land. (Joshua 1) He provided judges to lead them, and then kings. Prophets taught them the right way. He was with them.

Then - ugh - another four hundred years issue. The prophets fell silent, and all the people had was holy Scripture and the messianic promise it contained. Yet God was with them - what seemed to be the case was not, in fact, the case at all. God had neither changed nor abandoned them. He had simply altered how He was dealing with them. And while they didn't have contemporary prophets guiding them, they did have the written Word.

And the written Word proved true. Isaiah prophesied a Messiah that would be called Immanuel (Isaiah 9), and seven hundred years later He arrived. Revelations says that God will descend to earth to live with His people (Rev 21:2-3) - to be with us. Immanuel, in the final and truest sense.

The Personal Note

Sometimes, it feels like God isn't around, but He is. Believe it. He hasn't abandoned you. You still have His Word to guide you, and even when you can't tell He's guiding you He knows exactly what you need and will lead you into that place.

If it feels like God is absent, maybe it's because there's a sin in your life that He wants to deal with. Or maybe it's just God testing you, seeing whether you'll trust Him and bringing you into a better place. In which case you might want to read 'Dark Night of the Soul,' by St. John of the Cross. Richard Foster also deals with this in his book on prayer, saying that you must keep studying His Word even when you don't sense His revelation, feel satisfaction from fellowship, get anything out of your Bible study, etc. He claims it is a period of testing that God brings all Christians of a certain maturity into - which has always frightened me a little!

Incidentally, the times that God seems the most clearly absent - when they were slaves in Egypt and when He ceased speaking through the prophets - both preceded a time when God seemed particularly close and personal, Immanuel in the clearest sense, guiding them through the desert as a pillar of cloud and sending His Son to live with them.

So if you're in a dry spell, take heart - after it's past, God may seem closer than ever before.

Study Questions
1. What biblical basis do you have for believing God is not with you in a certain situation or in life as a whole?

2. How much effort did God expend to prove to you that He is with you?