PHOTO: Walkworthy.com
Israel has been a land of war since before God promised Abraham its title deed. In advance of Joshua’s crossing The Jordan, the kings of “The Promised Land” had been warring and double-crossing each other when they weren’t making alliances to double-cross their allies.
Inbred wickedness of all manner was to be rooted out through the taking of the land, the annihilation of the pagan inhabitants and their practices and the upholding of the Mosaic law.
A great DAD or GRAD present:
Centuries later, because of Israel’s own wickedness, the land would be controlled by the most powerful empire on earth who subjugated it by even further wickedness which made the Jewish religious leaders actually feel superior about their fake righteousness.
Like a huge flock of sheep encircled by two tiers of government and religious shepherds, Israel was like sheep among wolves.
Heaven dispatched its best soldier and his two sandals landed on behalf of the lost sheep of Israel.
It was as if one Marine was assigned to take territory single-handed after centuries of enemy occupation. The depths of Israel’s ensnarement can only be understood through a lifetime of studying the skirmishes between Jesus and the Pharisees and Sadducees and, eventually, the Roman leader Pilate. They were so trapped by religion and current events they didn’t have the sense to turn red yelling at God to his face!
Heaven’s-Best did his job and the enemy was uprooted so every soul could be free. He trained up a platoon and the rest is history.
Flash forward 20 centuries. We know the drill because of Jesus. Tie your sandals.
PORTAL TO HEAVEN: The fiercest battle on earth has been turned over to The Church. Do we have the same cunning, training, mindset and heart for the lost sheep as history's greatest soldier?
On that day the Lord made a covenant with Abram and said, ‘To your descendants I give this land, from the Wadi of Egypt to the great river, the Euphrates— the land of the Kenites, Kenizzites, Kadmonites, Hittites, Perizzites, Rephaites, Amorites, Canaanites, Girgashites and Jebusites.’…You must completely destroy the Hittites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites, just as the LORD your God has commanded you.This will prevent the people of the land from teaching you to imitate their detestable customs in the worship of their gods, which would cause you to sin deeply against the LORD your God…See, I will punish you [Israel] because you say, ‘I have not sinned.’…Leave them; they are blind guides. If the blind lead the blind, both will fall into a pit… Jesus answered, ‘You would have no power over me if it were not given to you from above. Therefore the one who handed me over to you is guilty of a greater sin.’…And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross…Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.
Genesis 15:18-21NIV, Deuteronomy 20:17,18, Jeremiah 2:35 NLV, NLT, Matthew 15:14 NIV, John 19:11 NIV, Colossians 2:15 NIV, Matthew 28:19,20 NIV