Dear Family,
Today is Thursday, April 30, 2020, Day 19 in our Counting toward Pentecost. This is the 5th day of Week 3.
God’s people wandered around in the wilderness for 40 years. We are currently counting out 50 days of their long, experience. It was a very important time for Israel. They were on their way to Mt. Sinai, to the official beginning of God’s marriage covenant with them.
How did God’s people come to be in the wilderness? It’s a story that goes back many years to Abraham, to God’s testing of him, and to promises God made to him.
God personally selected the physical descendants of Abraham through Isaac and Jacob to be His special people. And, though they rebelled and He has corrected them severely through the millennia, He has selected that physical people alone to be His – for His purposes. God never chose another nation to take their place. The book of Romans, especially chapter 11, tells much about their future, and how they will be restored.
Romans 11:1-2, 26 (1) I say then, Hath God cast away His people? God forbid. For I also am an Israelite, of the seed of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin. (2) God hath not cast away His people which He foreknew. (26) And so, all Israel shall be saved: as it is written, There shall come out of Sion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob.
In the same way God has chosen US, the spiritual descendants of Abraham, to be His special spiritual people now. He provides all that this spiritual people need to answer His call, to choose all that is right, and to be made faithful.
2 Peter 1:3 (NIV) His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and goodness.
Our movement toward Pentecost is eternally important to us individually. We want to be ready for whatever God has prepared for us.
One way to prepare is to make special note of what the Bible specifically says. To make this day (and others as well) count, let us turn our minds and hearts to the fathers and to the words of God’s servant, Moses, who foreshadowed the work of Jesus Christ. The book of Malachi tells us God desires for us to do this. We will prosper by looking both to our physical fathers and to our spiritual fathers.
Malachi 4:4-6 (4) Remember ye the law of Moses my servant, which I commanded unto him in Horeb for all Israel, with the statutes and judgments. (5) Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the LORD: (6) And He shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers, lest I come and smite the earth with a curse.
May God show us more of what it means to turn the hearts. I believe we can begin by more in-depth study about the lives of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Let’s do Bible studies on these people and share our most profitable lessons.
God bless you richly as we move forward in His will!
Ben Faulkner
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