We
have been studying about God’s covenant with Abraham and his descendants
(Genesis, chapter 17). God’s covenant was an everlasting covenant and it
promised to give Abraham and his descendants the
After much study of the scriptures it has become obvious the
true promise was to Abraham’s descendants by faith and it is promising an
everlasting heavenly
The old covenant with its earthly land promise
was given as an earthly copy of the new covenant promise for that heavenly
land. The Hebrew writer tells us how that old covenant was a faulty
covenant. Our new covenant is not faulty because it has the perfect
atoning blood of Jesus.
Another thing that is obvious is that the old covenant salvation story of that Hebrew nation was caused to come about as an earthly copy of our spiritual story. God made that story come about as it did when He hardened Pharaoh’s heart.
Remember what Paul said about that
Pharaoh who refused to let God’s people go free? He said, “the Scripture says to
Pharaoh, "FOR THIS VERY PURPOSE I RAISED YOU UP, TO DEMONSTRATE MY POWER
IN YOU, AND THAT MY NAME MIGHT BE PROCLAIMED THROUGHOUT THE WHOLE EARTH” (Romans
We read what Paul also said about Christ being the creator. Paul spoke of Christ and His creation work and said, “He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation”, he says, “For by Him all things were created, both in the heavens and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities--all things have been created through Him and for Him” (Colossians 1:16).
Christ is the creator
of all things and that includes all rulers and authorities. That means
every authority and king since the beginning of time until now. That
means His creation work is still going on today. It means that every
ruler and president on earth today and in all times past were put there by
Christ.
Jesus is the creator and He put that Pharaoh
into his position and then He directed his actions to make that old story begin
to happen as it did. Paul said that He did it to demonstrate His power
throughout the whole earth. Is that old story telling us something of the
power of the gospel to save? It is a gospel that is to be preached to all
nations.
We saw a parallel of our story when we saw
Moses being sent to bring that earthly nation out of slavery to the Egyptians
as a copy of how Jesus has been sent to bring God’s spiritual people out of
slavery to sin in this world. They were led through the wilderness toward
their land just as Jesus is leading those who have been saved from slavery to
sin toward their spiritual land.
If we have been brought out of slavery to sin,
we have been brought into a spiritual wilderness in this world. They had
to overcome the obstacles of their wilderness just as we have been commanded to
overcome this world. Both Paul and the Hebrew writer tell us that what
happened to that earthly nation happened as examples for us. Paul says
that what happened to them happened as examples for us and it was written for
our instruction (1Corinthians, chapter 10). We said that it sounds like
God caused it all to come about that way as an earthly copy of our story.
We have seen how that
old story teaches us about our story. One thing that it teaches us can be
seen in who was to inherit that earthly land. The soldiers in God’s army
were to be the heirs. The promise of becoming an heir in that earthly
Moses was commanded to, “Take a census of all the congregation of the sons of Israel, by their families, by their fathers' households, according to the number of names, every male, head by head from twenty years old and upward, whoever is able to go out to war in Israel” (Numbers 1:2-3).
God’s army consisted of all men twenty
years old or over and who were able to go to war (Except for the priestly
tribe). After completing that census, scripture tells us there were a
total of 603,550 men who had been recorded. They were the ones who were
to inherit that land. It was to be divided among them after the land was
taken.
Of those fighting men
that Moses led out of slavery in
After forty years of wandering in the
wilderness, God commanded Moses to take another census of the sons of
God began to fulfill His promise when God’s army entered that land. In Numbers 26:53, Moses records what God said about the army of God that was to enter that land. He said that “Among these the land shall be divided for an inheritance according to the number of names”. Those soldiers that were faithful to the end became heirs in that land. No one else would receive an inheritance.
In the years that followed, as each one of
those heirs died, the land was passed down to their sons. Daughters
received no inheritance in that land. They shared in the inheritance in
the house where they lived but females were not heirs. Only sons were
heirs. A man’s sons were his heirs with the firstborn son receiving a
double portion.
If that old Hebrew story happened as an
earthly copy of our spiritual story, then what the scriptures tell us about
that earthly army becoming heirs in the earthly land is telling us about our
spiritual inheritance. How can that be true? We know that all
Christians have been promised that heavenly land and that includes females as
well as males. How, then, can the old Hebrew story of God’s earthly army
being the heirs tell us anything about how all Christians will become heirs in
that spiritual land?
Paul tells us how females are now included in
God’s covenant promise:
Galatians
3
26 For
you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus. 27 For all of you who
were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. 28 There
is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free man, there is neither
male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus. 29 And if you
belong to Christ, then you are Abraham's descendants, heirs according to
promise.
There is "neither male nor
female" in Christ Jesus. If we have been
clothed with Him in baptism, we are all one in
Christ and if we belong to Him then we are sons of God, descendants of Abraham
and heirs according to the promise. We will have become soldiers of the
cross.
The old earthly copy
that promised an earthly land to the circumcised army of God was telling us of
God’s heirs to that heavenly land. All spiritually
circumcised descendants of Abraham are sons of God and heirs according to the
promise. They have become sons of God by faith in Christ Jesus. As
Paul said, “For he is not a Jew who is one outwardly, nor is circumcision that
which is outward in the flesh. But he is a Jew who is one inwardly; and
circumcision is that which is of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the letter;
and his praise is not from men, but from God.”
Those who have believed the gospel message and
who have obeyed the Great Commission by having become clothed with Him in
baptism are spiritual descendants of Abraham and heirs with him. If we
have followed Jesus through that sea, He will have led us out of slavery to
sin, but we will find ourselves in the wilderness of this world. We must
follow Jesus and fight for our land.
Our war is a different kind of war. Our
war is a spiritual war, not an earthly war. As Paul told the church at
(2 Corinthians 10:3-5).
In our spiritual war we use spiritual weapons
to fight a different kind of enemy. We use weapons that are not fleshly
but divine. We are fighting against Satan and what he has raised up
against the knowledge of God.
Paul again describes how we fight in
Ephesians, chapter 6. Beginning in verse 11, he says that we are to put
on the armor of God so that we can stand firm against the schemes of the
devil. He says that our struggle is not against flesh and blood, “but against the
rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against
the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places”.
He says that we must take up the full
armor of God and stand firm. He tells us to stand firm, “HAVING GIRDED YOUR
LOINS WITH TRUTH, and HAVING PUT ON THE BREASTPLATE OF RIGHTEOUSNESS, and
having shod YOUR FEET WITH THE PREPARATION OF THE GOSPEL OF PEACE”. We are to take
up the shield of faith so that we can extinguish the flaming arrows of the evil
one. He also tells us to take the helmet of salvation and the sword of
the Spirit. The sword of the Spirit is the word of God.
Our fight is a spiritual fight for an everlasting land, not an earthly war for an earthly land. We do not fight against flesh and blood but against spiritual forces of wickedness and darkness. Our war is against Satan and his kingdom. Our armor is spiritual and our weapon is spiritual. Included in our armor is truth and righteousness.
Remember, God’s word is truth (John
The Hebrew writer describes our spiritual
sword as being sharper than a two-edged sword. He writes,
“For
the word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword, and
piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow,
and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart” (Hebrews 4:12).
That sword will cut unbelievers asunder. The sword that we carry will
save those who will believe its message but it will slay others who will not
believe.
Looking at how that earthly nation fought may
help us to see something about how we are to fight. Remember, against
those evil and ungodly nations God’s army was to be merciless. Before
When God’s people wanted to pass through the
God caused it to
happen like it did when He hardened that king’s heart. Moses records, “Then Sihon with all his
people came out to meet us in battle at Jahaz. The LORD our God delivered
him over to us, and we defeated him with his sons and all his people. So
we captured all his cities at that time and utterly destroyed the men, women
and children of every city. We left no survivor”.
The same thing happened to the
When we read about the wars that happened when
God’s people were fighting against those nations, we sometimes wonder if we are
seeing the same God as the God of love that we know. How could the God of
John 3:16 be the same God that would command His army to kill every enemy
soldier and then spill the blood of every woman and child in those earthly
kingdoms? How could our God of love do that?
It happened for our instruction. We may
not be able to understand it all but God is telling us about our spiritual war.
He wants us to get the message of what is happening in our war by showing us an
earthly copy. Sin is not to be allowed to live in God’s spiritual
kingdom.
As we go forth in our war, we are to take the
sword of the Spirit (The word of God) and preach the gospel to every
person. When Jesus gave the great commission He told us to “Go into all the world
and preach the gospel to all creation. He who has believed and has been
baptized shall be saved; but he who has disbelieved shall be condemned” (Mark
He was giving us our marching orders.
Faithful soldiers will follow Jesus into battle and fight for their land.
We must preach the word to everyone, man, woman and child. Children are
not responsible until they become adults but we must tell them while they are
young anyway. When they are older they will be held accountable for how
they respond to what they have been told.
When we obey Him and preach that gospel
message we will save some but most of those that hear the message will be killed
because most people will never believe what the word says and they will be
condemned for not responding to that message. The true descendants of
Abraham will believe the message and they will follow Jesus through the sea and
become a soldier recorded on the list for God’s army. Their names will be
recorded as heirs but they must do their duty and fulfill their commission to
fight for their land.
We need to hear the message. The army of
God that was fearful and refused to fight died in the wilderness. The
army that obeyed their God and destroyed the evil nations before them were the
ones who were allowed to enter and take possession of that land. If we
are fearful and fail to do what Jesus has commanded, we will be the ones who
will die by that sword. The gospel message will kill us if we refuse to
believe and obey Him and carry that sword into battle. If we don’t really
believe in the cause that we are fighting for, we will give up and want to
return to slavery just like those unfaithful soldiers of the earthly
copy.
Paul tells us about our war and our fight by
showing us how he was fighting to obtain that land. Paul described how he
was fighting when he said “Therefore I run in such a way, as not without
aim; I box in such a way, as not beating the air; but I discipline my body and
make it my slave, so that, after I have preached to others, I myself will not
be disqualified.” (1 Corinthians 9:26-27) Paul did not want to be disqualified
and lose out on his inheritance.
Remember, the original army of that old Hebrew nation gave up in their fight and was disqualified and they lost out on their land. Paul said that he was fighting against his body of flesh so that it would not happen to him. If Paul could be disqualified, then we can be disqualified.
We need to get the message. We must learn from Paul
and keep fighting and pressing on toward the goal. As He told the
Philippians, “Brethren, I do not regard myself as having laid hold of it yet;
but one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what
lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call
of God in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 3:13-14).
When Paul was nearing the time of his
departure (From this earth) he told Timothy that he was already being poured
out as a drink offering. He told him, “I have fought the good fight, I have
finished the course, I have kept the faith; in the future there is laid up for
me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award
to me on that day; and not only to me, but also to all who have loved His
appearing” (2 Timothy 4:7-8).
Paul kept the faith and he won the
prize. If Paul said that he had kept the faith to win the prize, then the
possibility existed that he might not have kept the faith. That is why he
spent his life pressing on toward the goal. He tells us to follow his
example.
That reward will also be ours if we learn from
Paul and keep the faith to the end. He encouraged Timothy to follow his
example when he wrote and told him to, “Fight the good fight of faith; take hold
of the eternal life to which you were called, and you made the good confession
in the presence of many witnesses” (1Timothy 6:12).
When we become Christians we are committing to
begin our fight when we are first called and brought into the body of
Christ. If we are to be good soldiers of the cross we must look to what
is above, not what is on this earth. We must be like Paul and keep faith
until the end.
Paul wrote to Timothy a little later and told
him more about his responsibility as a soldier of Christ. He told him to,
“Suffer
hardship with me, as a good soldier of Christ Jesus. No soldier in active
service entangles himself in the affairs of everyday life, so that he may
please the one who enlisted him as a soldier”
(2 Timothy 2:3-4).
We have been called to active service in God’s army. If we are now in active service in God’s army we need to be at the front lines fighting the enemy, not behind the lines getting too involved in the things of this world. We may not be the ones who are preaching the gospel but we must give support for those who do.
We must hear Paul tell
us that if we have been raised up with Christ, we are to, “keep seeking the things
above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your mind on
the things above, not on the things that are on earth. For you have died
and your life is hidden with Christ in God” (Colossians
3:1-3).
Paul tells us that “our citizenship is in
heaven, from which also we eagerly wait for a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ” (Philippians
Abraham was living in the earthly land of promise but scripture
tells us “he lived as an alien in the land of promise, as in a foreign
land, dwelling in tents with
Isaac and Jacob, fellow heirs of the same promise; for he was looking for the
city which has foundations, whose architect and builder is God (Hebrews
11:9-10).
Abraham knew that earthly land was not the
real promise and he made no attempt to fight for that land. He lived in
the earthly
There are many causes
that we might become involved in that can make this world a better place.
When we see evil things taking place in our nation we want to do something
about it but that is not what we have been called to do. Where we can
help with our prayers and some good works, we may want to help somewhat but we
must remember what our priorities are. We should not become concerned
with spending too much time trying to make this a better world to live
in. This world is not our home; it is the wilderness that we are fighting
in as we journey toward our land. It is not the land that we are fighting
for.
This
world has many people and governments doing ungodly and evil things but our
job is not to change those governments or those people so that they will become
less evil. If we are not converting them to Christ, they will still
be lost even if we are able to cause them to be less evil. Changing the
behavior of lost people to cause them to live less evil lives on this earth is
not our mission in life. Our job is to save the lost of this world so
they can have everlasting life in the world to come.
We need to stop trying to make this wilderness a better place to live in and
try to recruit as many soldiers out of it so that they can join the fight for
the only land that is worth fighting for. As a soldier of the cross we
are not to entangle ourselves in the things of this world because we are not
fighting for earthly causes in an earthly land we are fighting a war for an
everlasting land.
Paul and the other New Testament writers did
not concern themselves with trying to make this world a better place.
They did not try to correct the injustices and evil in the world around them
even though they lived in a world that was full of evil and injustice.
They also did not try to change the behavior and practices of the governments
that they lived under. They did not go against their governments and they
encouraged Christians to be in subjection to those governments.
When Paul wrote to the church in
Herod and his descendants that ruled in the first century were evil rulers but Paul did not speak against them. He told the faithful that God had placed them in their positions and anyone who opposed them was opposed to God’s ordinance.
We who live in this free
country have the right to vote for those that we believe would be the best ones
to fill government offices but we should not oppose those that have been
selected for their positions. We have a right to let them know how we
think they are doing but we should not be protesting against them.
Those rulers will answer to God for what they
do and how they rule and God makes the decisions of what actions will be taken
against them. The Herod that had James (The brother of John) executed was
put to death by God (An angel of God struck him and he was eaten by worms –
Acts 12:23) because of his arrogance and self glory when he did not give God
the glory for his great speaking ability rather than for his actions that
resulted in the death of James.
Paul and the other writers did not try to
change the outside world but they did pray for things to happen in a way that
would allow the gospel to spread and they prayed for the saints to be able to
endure the persecutions that they encountered at the hand of others. They
tried to save the lost out of this world and then they encouraged them to live
godly lives and to hold fast to their faith and to be true to their mission.
God’s covenant promise
of that everlasting
We must take up our
cross and follow Jesus into battle. We must obey the gospel of the death,
burial and resurrection of Jesus with our death, burial and resurrection.
We must hear Jesus as He speaks through Paul to tell us that if we “have been baptized into
Christ Jesus”, we have been baptized into His death (Romans, chapter 6).
He tells us that if we have been united with Him in the likeness of His death, “certainly we shall also
be in the likeness of His resurrection” (Romans 6:3-5).
We can’t be made like
Him if we have not become one with Him by having been clothed with Him in
baptism. When we have crucified the old self (circumcised it away), our
body of sin will have been done away with and we will no longer be slaves to
sin. We will no longer be slaves to sin we will be soldiers of the
cross. Our mission is to overcome this world and gain the victory.
We can’t overcome this world unless we overcome that old body of sin. We
do that as we carry our cross and follow Jesus.
It takes effort to carry a cross and suffer
with Jesus every day but that is a part of our fight. We must fight
against that body of sin because it is our enemy. That earthly body of
sin is fighting against us and it will kill us spiritually if we fail to press
on like Paul pressed on. That old body will make us its slave if we are
not careful. We can see it all in that old story of God’s army and their
fight. They were not faithful in their duty and they lost their
inheritance.
We must hear Paul tell us to hear what the old
story is teaching us. He said that the things that happened to the old
Hebrew nation happened for us. The Hebrew writer said the same
thing. He said, “Now Moses was faithful in all His house as a
servant, for a testimony of those things which were to be spoken later; but
Christ was faithful as a Son over His house--whose house we are, if we hold
fast our confidence and the boast of our hope firm until the end” (Hebrews
3:5-6).
He finished the chapter by telling of that
nation who did not hold faithful until the end and how it applies to us.
He tells us to “Take care, brethren, that there not be in any one of you an evil,
unbelieving heart that falls away from the living God”. He says that
we will become partakers of Christ, “if we hold fast the beginning of our assurance
firm until the end”.
The day came when that Hebrew nation no longer
believed His word and they refused to follow Him. It caused them to be
cast down in the wilderness. The lesson is to us. When we pass
through the sea and the waters cover our adversaries and those slave-masters
have all died in the sea, we may believe His words and sing His praise for a
little while but when things get tough we can lose faith and fall. We
need to keep faith in His word and remember that pleasant land is the
promise. If we forget what has been promised, we will be despising that
land.
We heard Paul describe our wilderness travels
as a race. The Hebrew writer also described our journey as a race.
In chapter 12, he describes us being surrounded by a great cloud of witnesses
as we run. He tells us to put aside any encumbrances and the sin that
entangles us and “let us run with endurance the race that is set before us”. He tells us to
look toward Jesus and observe how He ran and how He is now seated at right hand
of the throne of God. He says, “You have not yet resisted to the point of
shedding blood in your striving against sin”.
Later in that chapter the writer tells us that
our race has not brought us to an earthly mountain like the one where the
LORD’S presence was shown in blazing fire, “But you have come to
Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to
myriads of angels, to the general assembly and church of the firstborn who are
enrolled in heaven, and to God, the Judge of all, and to the spirits of the
righteous made perfect” (Verses 22-23).
God appeared on that wilderness mountaintop in
blazing fire. When He spoke the mountain shook. The writer says
that we have come to a different mountain. As the writer compares that
old story to our story he tells us to “See to it that you do not refuse Him who
is speaking. For if those did not escape when they refused him who warned them
on earth, much less will we escape who turn away from Him who warns from
heaven” (Verse 25). Notice, “much less will we escape”.
Jesus is speaking to us in that old story. If Jesus made that old story come about to give us an earthly copy for our instruction then we need to make sure that we get the message. They were unfaithful and refused to listen to the LORD’S instructions.
He
caused it to happen that way to impress upon us what the consequences are for
those who refuse to hear Him now. We must make sure that we do not refuse
Him because if He spent two thousand years creating the old story for our
instruction and we refuse to listen, our fall will make their fall look easy.
We may have been saved from slavery but if we
forget what God has done for us, we will fall from following the same example
of disobedience. As the Hebrew writer also says, “Therefore let us be
diligent to enter that rest, so that no one will fall, through following the
same example of disobedience” (Hebrews 4:11). Remember, Paul said, “Therefore let him who
thinks he stands take heed that he does not fall”.
Jesus is the one speaking through both Paul
and the Hebrew writer and we must believe Jesus. If we return to that old
life of slavery to sin, we will be despising the sacrifice that He made to set
us free. Just as that old Hebrew army wanted to turn away from the fight
and return to slavery in
The covenant promise
has only been made to those who have met their covenant conditions and who
become spiritually circumcised sons of God. Those who have believed the
gospel message and have followed Jesus out of slavery to sin will have their
names recorded on the list as soldiers in God’s army and heirs to the
promise. God’s soldiers need to keep looking toward and fighting for that
land.
Peter says of those who have been saved from
slavery and have escaped the defilements of the world by the knowledge of
Christ and are again entangled in them, “the last state has become worse for them
than the first” (2 Peter
He says that it would have
been better for us to never have known the way of righteousness than to know it
and then turn back. He says it is like the proverb, “A DOG RETURNS TO ITS
OWN VOMIT," and, "A sow, after washing, returns to wallowing in the
mire”.
If we have been saved from slavery to sin and
have been recorded on the list as a soldier in God’s army, we must not look
back and want to return to that old life of slavery. If we forsake our
duty our condemnation will be greater than it will be for the ones who never
volunteered to join God’s army in the first place.
Johnny Rogers
Revised
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