LEARNING DAILY

 

Deuteronomy 28:1, “Now it shall come to pass, if you diligently obey the voice of the Lord your God, to observe carefully all His commandments which I command you today, that the Lord your God will set you high above all nations of the earth.”   Moses

 

Okay, I cannot get beyond how closely the United States resembles the nation of biblical Israel.  Deuteronomy 28:1-14 gives Israel blessing after blessing as long as they follow the Lord God and His commandments.  They would be blessed in the city, in the country, the produce of the ground, the size of their herds and flocks, blessed when they came in and when they went out.  Their enemies would be defeated in front of them.  They would be blessed with the land He was giving them and all people of the earth would see they were called by the name of the Lord; they would be afraid of them.  God would open to them the treasures of heaven so they would be able to lend to the nations of the world and not borrow.  All they needed to do was heed the commandments Moses would give to them and be careful to observe them.  This was God’s covenant or pledge to Israel and Israel was faithful and blessed.

 

The people of Israel would be shown the ways of righteousness; choosing to follow those ways would set them apart from all the nations of the earth.  God’s people – Israel – would show the character of God as a light to the rest of the world (read John 1:1-13).  By doing so, salvation would be offered to the Gentiles. God’s intention was always to show the way to eternal life to all people.

 

While reading The Harbinger II by Johnathan Cahn, he wrote of a speech John Winthrop had given in 1630 to those on a ship sailing to the Massachusetts’ Bay Colony.  It has been called A Model of Christian Charity or A City on a Hill.  So, I went to the speech itself to see what it said.  Cahn was correct in writing that Winthrop had in essence made a covenant with God.  This is what was in the speech, “The Lord will be our God, and delight to dwell among us, as His people, and will command a blessing upon us in all our ways (my italicization).  So that we shall see much more wisdom, power, goodness and truth, than formerly we have been acquainted with.  We shall find that the God of Israel is among us, when ten of us shall be able to resist a thousand of our enemies; when He shall make us a praise and glory that men say of succeeding plantations, ‘the Lord make it likely that of new England.’”  To understand what seems to be very significant about this, return to Deuteronomy 28 and read the first fourteen verses.  Winthrop used the Lord’s covenant with His people to make a covenant with God.

 

It is not difficult to think back over the history of this country to see the blessings of God upon it.  Like Israel, the United States has been blessed.  Go back and substitute the United States to the above blessing and know that God kept His hand upon this country just like He did with Israel. Johnathon Cahn wrote, “In fact, it [Winthrop’s words] comes from the words that Moses gave just before Israel entered the Promised Land. So now Winthrop gave the same prophesies to the pioneers of the new commonwealth just before they entered the New World.”  Both nations became leaders in the world politically and economically.  The U.S. dollar today provides the basis for currency systems around the world and the agricultural area of the country have provide food for many areas of the world.  Both Israel and the Untied States provided missionaries to be light to those who did not know the God they served.  Both nations were set high above all the nations of earth.

 

But, read the verses that are next.  God also gave warning about what would happen if the Israel did not obey His voice and chose not to follow Hid commands.  We will examine that tomorrow.  

 

 

 

“For this man who needs amazing kind of grace

For forgiveness and a price I couldn’t pay

I’m not perfect so I thank God every day

There was Jesus

There was Jesus!”   Zack Williams

 

Even when I can’t feel it You’re working

You never stop working!    Michael W. Smith

 

 

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