God’s loving covenants with His chosen, chapter 27
Saturday, January 29th, 2022T0: 35,027 subscribers to ‘Original Jerusalem Church of God teaching.’ God’s 12th Mo, Sh’vat 27, 5,782, 1/29/22
Its revealed, “followers of Jesus are chosen and temporary residences in the world but not of this world.” Believers in are as Abraham, Isaac and Jacob who realized “their citizenship was in heaven with the Lord Jesus. Genuine called believers’ names are written in the Lamb’s book of life and should never be overly involved in this world system of things.
Until Jacob’s descendants crossed the Jordan river and occupied gifted lands, they were citizens of no particular country. Their history of keeping the Feast of Tabernacles (Festival of Booths) reminded them of their temporary status with a permanent one in the age to come. Long before the flood ‘the seventh from Adam-Enoch’ preached the kingdom of God’s coming on earth. (Our Lord’s brother Jude wrote)
(Jude 1:14-16; Now Enoch, the seventh in descent beginning with Adam, even prophesied of them, saying, (Look; the Lord is coming with thousands and thousands of his holy Ones, to execute judgment on all, and to convict every person of all their thoroughly ungodly deeds that they have committed, and of all the harsh words that ungodly sinners have spoken against Him.) These people are grumblers and fault-finders who go wherever their desires lead them, and they give bombastic speeches, enchanting folks for their own gain.) Few teach Enoch’s message, because they’re about their own gain.
BACK TO JACOB’S BEING IN ROUTE TO FIND A WIFE. (Gen 28:10-17; Meanwhile Jacob left Beer Sheba and set out for Haran. He reached a certain place where he decided to camp because the sun had gone down. He took one of the stones and placed it near his head. Then Jacob fell asleep in that place and had a dream. He saw a stairway erected on the earth with its top reaching to the heavens. Angels of God were going up and coming down it, the Lord stood at its top. He said, “I am the Lord, the God of your grandfather Abraham and the God of your father Isaac. I will give you and your descendants the ground you are lying on. Your descendants will be like the dust of the earth, and you will spread out to the west, east, north, and south. All the families of the earth will pronounce blessings on one another using your name and that of your descendants. I am with you! I will protect you wherever you go and will bring you back to this land. I will not leave you until I have done what I promised you!)
(Isaiah prophesied of Israel’s future deliverance to these lands at, chapters 22,35,51,53 & 65. Jeremiah at chapter 31 and other places and Amos at 9:11-15)
God repeated these blessings to these, ‘chosen by promise persons.’ Likely Rebekah shared God’s prophetic words to her with Jacob, “the older will serve the younger.” Jacob’s physical and spiritual descendants will be recipients of millennium blessings as prophesied, and its written in ‘Revelations to John’ that the gates of New Jerusalem are named for the twelve tribes.
(Gen 28:18-22; Then Jacob woke up and thought, “Surely the Lord is in this place, but I did not realize it!” He was afraid and said, “What an awesome place this is! This is nothing else than the house of God! This is the gate of heaven!” Early in the morning Jacob took the stone he had placed near his head and set it up as a sacred stone. Then he poured oil on top of it. He called that place Bethel, although the former name of the town was Luz. Then Jacob made a vow, saying, “If God is with me and protects me on this journey I am taking and gives me food to eat and clothing to wear, and I return safely to my father’s home, then the Lord will become my God. Then this stone that I have set up as a sacred stone will be the house of God, and I will surely give You back a tenth of everything You give me.) (So, how and to whom would Jacob give a tenth? There was no physical temple nor serving priest mentioned at this point. No record of Melchisedec communing with Jacob as with Abraham. Perhaps Jacob fulfilled his promise, by blood sacrificing clean animals as Abel did, and by helping others.)
Jacob meets a future wife. (Gen 29:1-20; So Jacob moved on and came to the land of the eastern people. He saw in the field a well with three flocks of sheep lying beside it, because the flocks were watered from that well. Now a large stone covered the mouth of the well. When all the flocks were gathered there, the shepherds would roll the stone off the mouth of the well and water the sheep. Then they would put the stone back in its place over the well’s mouth. Jacob asked them, “My brothers, where are you from?” They replied, “We’re from Haran.” So he said to them, “Do you know Laban, the grandson of Nahor?” “We know him,” they said. “Is he well?” Jacob asked. They replied, “He is well, look, here comes his daughter Rachel with the sheep.” Then Jacob said, “Since it is still the middle of the day, it is not time for the flocks to be gathered. You should water the sheep and then go and let them graze some more.” “We can’t they said, until all the flocks are gathered and the stone is rolled off the mouth of the well, then we water the sheep.”
While Jacob was still speaking with them, Rachel arrived with her father’s sheep, for she was tending them. When Jacob saw Rachel, the daughter of his uncle Laban, and the sheep of his uncle Laban, he went over and rolled the stone off the mouth of the well and watered the sheep of his uncle Laban. Then Jacob kissed Rachel and began to weep loudly. When Jacob explained to Rachel that he was a relative of her father and the son of Rebekah, she ran and told her father. When Laban heard this news about Jacob, his sister’s son, he rushed out to meet him. He embraced him and kissed him and brought him to his house. Jacob told Laban how he was related to him. Then Laban said to him, “You are indeed my own flesh and blood.” So Jacob stayed with him for a month.)
Then Laban said to Jacob, “Should you work for me for nothing because you are my relative? Tell me what your wages should be.” (Now Laban had two daughters; the older one was named Leah, and the younger one Rachel. Leah’s eyes were tender, but Rachel had a lovely figure and beautiful appearance.) Since Jacob had fallen in love with Rachel, he said, “I’ll serve you seven years in exchange for your younger daughter Rachel.” Laban replied, “I’d rather give her to you than to another man. Stay with me.” So Jacob worked for seven years to acquire Rachel. But they seemed like only a few days to him because his love for her was so great.
(Gen 29:21-27; Finally Jacob said to Laban, “Give me my wife, for my time of service is up. I want to have marital relations with her. So Laban invited all the people of that place and prepared a feast. In the evening he brought his daughter Leah to Jacob, and Jacob had marital relations with her. (Laban gave his female servant Zilpah to his daughter Leah to be her servant.) In the morning Jacob discovered it was Leah! So Jacob said to Laban, “What in the world have you done to me! Didn’t I work for you in exchange for Rachel? Why have you tricked me?” “It is not our custom to give the younger daughter in marriage before the firstborn, Laban said, So, complete my older daughter’s bridal week then we will give you the younger one too, in exchange for seven more years of work.”)
Jacob the trickster gets tricked, but all in God’s plan. Laban’s family, “people of the east” unlike Abraham and Isaac’s, lived among people of their own nationality. They too were descendants of Noah’s son Shem and Abraham’s father, Terah. These were being allowed to go the way that seems right to their nature and intellect, ‘the broad way’, each desiring to be his own god. Jesus addressed this human problem, revealing to His apostles that result.
Unlike God’s chosen, ‘Abraham, Isaac and Jacob’ He allowed them go the way that seemed right.
(Matthew 24: As Jesus was sitting on the Mount of Olives, His disciples came to Him privately and said, “Tell us, when will these things happen? And what will be the sign of Your coming and of the end of the age?” Jesus answered them, “Watch out that no one misleads you. For many will come in My name, saying, ‘I am the Christ,’ and they will mislead many. You will hear of wars and rumors of wars. Make sure that you are not alarmed, for this must happen, but the end is still to come. For nation will rise up in arms against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. And there will be famines and earthquakes in various places. All these things are the beginning of birth pains. “Then they will hand you over to be persecuted and will kill you. You will be hated by all the nations because of My name. Then many will be led into sin, and they will betray one another and hate one another. And many false prophets will appear and deceive many, and because lawlessness will increase so much, the love of many will grow cold. But the person who endures to the end will be saved. And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached throughout the whole inhabited earth as a testimony to all the nations, and then the end will come.
“So when you see the abomination of desolation – spoken about by Daniel the prophet – standing in the holy place (let the reader understand), then those in Judea must flee to the mountains. The one on the roof must not come down to take anything out of his house, and the one in the field must not turn back to get his cloak. Woe to those who are pregnant and to those who are nursing their babies in those days! Pray that your flight may not be in winter or on a Sabbath. For then there will be great suffering unlike anything that has happened from the beginning of the world until now, or ever will happen. And if those days had not been cut short, no one would be saved. But for the sake of the Elect those days will be cut short. Then if anyone says to you, ‘Look, here is the Christ!’ or ‘There He is!’ do not believe him. For false messiahs and false prophets will appear and perform great signs and wonders to deceive, if possible, even the Elect. Remember, I have told you ahead of time. So then, if someone says to you, ‘Look, He is in the wilderness,’ do not go out, or ‘Look, He is in the inner rooms,’ do not believe him. For just like the lightning comes from the east and flashes to the west, so the coming of the Son of Man will be. Wherever the corpse is, there the vultures will gather.
“Immediately after the suffering of those days, the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light; the stars will fall from heaven, and the powers of heaven will be shaken. Then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in heaven, and all the tribes of the earth will mourn. They will see the Son of Man arriving on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. And He will send His angels with a loud trumpet blast, and they will gather His Elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.”
“Learn this parable from the fig tree: Whenever its branch becomes tender and puts out its leaves, you know that summer is near. So also you, when you see all these things, know that He is near, right at the door. I tell you the truth, this generation will not pass away until all these things take place. Heaven and earth will pass away, but My Words will never pass away.”
“But as for that day and hour no one knows it – not even the angels in heaven – except the Father alone. For just like the days of Noah were, so the coming of the Son of Man will be. For in those days before the flood, people were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day Noah entered the ark. And they knew nothing until the flood came and took them all away. It will be the same at the coming of the Son of Man. Then there will be two men in the field; one will be taken and one left. There will be two women grinding grain with a mill; one will be taken and one left.”
“Therefore stay alert, because you do not know on what day your Lord will come. But understand this: If the owner of the house had known at what time of night the thief was coming, he would have been alert and would not have let his house be broken into. Therefore you also must be ready, because the Son of Man will come at an hour when you do not expect Him.”
IT GETS INDIVIDUAL AND PERSONAL. “Who then is the faithful and wise slave, whom the Master has put in charge of His household, to give the other slaves their food at the proper time? Blessed is that slave whom the master finds at work when He comes. I tell you the truth, the Master will put him in charge of all His possessions. But if that evil slave should say to himself, ‘My Master is staying away a long time,’ and he begins to beat his fellow slaves and to eat and drink with drunkards, then the Master of that slave will come on a day when he does not expect him and at an hour he does not foresee, and will cut him in two, and assign him a place with the hypocrites, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”