A Second Chance; The Good News We Have Waited To Hear, For A Long Time
Long, long ago, in a kingdom far and away ... . But, this is no fairy tale I speak of here; long ago, and now recorded in the opening chapters of Genesis, we [collective for mankind] made a choice. It is quite possible to argue correctly that we were too immature to be able to make a wise choice, being quite naive about the craftiness of Satan, our ancient foe. We still are.
We should have all perished then and there, if that were the sum total of the story, because God really did say we would die in the day we ate of that particular "tree," which Adam and Eve did eat. Or it might be argued that this day is the long awaited fulfillment of that scene so long ago, if you are of the school of thought that it was more importantly a prophecy [which I personally am]. But, no matter which way you may lean, this day remains one of the most special choices ever faced by mankind, collectively, and as individuals. And how we face this choice will determine what kind of day it will end up being, individually and collectively: a day of darkness, or a day of bursting forth joy and wonder beyond belief. So, this is the day we all get to pick which ending it will be, to this long, long story.
Rev 22:12-17
12 "And behold, I am coming quickly, and My reward is with Me, to give to every one according to his work. 13 I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End, the First and the Last."
14 Blessed are those who do His commandments, that they may have the right to the tree of life, and may enter through the gates into the city. 15 But outside are dogs and sorcerers and sexually immoral and murderers and idolaters, and whoever loves and practices a lie.
16 "I, Jesus, have sent My angel to testify to you these things in the churches. I am the Root and the Offspring of David, the Bright and Morning Star."
17 And the Spirit and the bride say, "Come!" And let him who hears say, "Come!" And let him who thirsts come. Whoever desires, let him take the water of life freely. NKJV
This truly is an incredible day, a real, second chance to choose again, and maybe make a wiser choice this time. And part of the problem about that first time mistake may lie in the spiritual nature of our Lord and King, being for the most part invisible. So to help us understand what all went down back in the Garden, the Lord brought us the physical example of Saul, the first king of Israel:
1 Sam 8:4-9
4 Then all the elders of Israel gathered together and came to Samuel at Ramah, 5 and said to him, "Look, you are old, and your sons do not walk in your ways. Now make us a king to judge us like all the nations."
6 But the thing displeased Samuel when they said, "Give us a king to judge us." So Samuel prayed to the Lord. 7 And the Lord said to Samuel, "Heed the voice of the people in all that they say to you; for they have not rejected you, but they have rejected Me, that I should not reign over them. 8 According to all the works which they have done since the day that I brought them up out of Egypt, even to this day — with which they have forsaken Me and served other gods — so they are doing to you also. 9 Now therefore, heed their voice. However, you shall solemnly forewarn them, and show them the behavior of the king who will reign over them." NKJV™
1 Sam 12:13
13 "Now therefore, here is the king whom you have chosen and whom you have desired. And take note, the Lord has set a king over you. NKJV™
If you look closely at the passage in 1 Sam 8, you can see the central issue quite plainly: God was already ruling over Israel. But they rejected the manner in which He accomplished it, because it was not in a form which they could see: it was through His Word, already being handed to His people through Moses and the prophets. But they wanted a ruler they could see, like all the nations around them had.
Yet it also was about the style of rule too, as we will come to understand through these Promise Of The Resurrected Word studies, and also can be seen and understood in these great examples God handed us in His Word. Saul was not only a king they could see, but also one who "looked the part."
1 Sam 9:2
2 And he had a choice and handsome son whose name was Saul. There was not a more handsome person than he among the children of Israel. From his shoulders upward he was taller than any of the people. NKJV™
This point is ultimately brought to a complete thought when we deeply study out God’s counteroffer for king of Israel, in His choice of David. He was so small in stature that his own brothers hardly regarded him as one of their brothers. It is also set forth in this prophecy of our Lord Jesus, Who was yet to come:
Isa 53:2-3
2 For He shall grow up before Him as a tender plant,
And as a root out of dry ground.
He has no form or comeliness;
And when we see Him,
There is no beauty that we should desire Him.
3 He is despised and rejected by men,
A Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief.
And we hid, as it were, our faces from Him;
He was despised, and we did not esteem Him. NKJV™
But, it needs to be understood that these are visible, carnal versions, seen through these two statures and appearances of men, so that we might comprehend the true issue, which is actually about doctrines. Mankind tends to not only prefer a god they can see more easily [even if it is merely a chunk of wood or stone], but we also tend to prefer more "action" than our seemingly conservative God is [in our view, but not in His reality].
Num 11:4-6
4 Now the mixed multitude who were among them yielded to intense craving; so the children of Israel also wept again and said: "Who will give us meat to eat? 5 We remember the fish which we ate freely in Egypt, the cucumbers, the melons, the leeks, the onions, and the garlic; 6 but now our whole being is dried up; there is nothing at all except this manna before our eyes!" NKJV™
If we just look at the tone of this comment, this last passage truly reveals the heart of this entire issue, about the choice we face; but in a carnal, visible manner we can see, and thus more readily understand. We tend to like more flavor in our lives, more "spice", more pizzaz, than the doctrines of God would appear to bring to us; so we take hold of doctrines of the world instead, since they promise to deliver our flaming desires better. The plain lifestyle of walking with God just doesn’t "ring our bell." King Saul looked bigger and better than David; Satan visibly appeared as the serpent, and that was better than an invisible God to mankind [mankind bing pictured in Eden as Adam and Eve].
This point I am making about doctrines being the heart of the matter really comes home when we consider what we witnessed in the coming of our flesh form of King, in Jesus, the Messiah. They despised His doctrines so much that they could not wait to get rid of Him, limiting His ministry to a mere three years before murdering Him. Like 1 Sam 8 notes, mankind has always rejected God’s doctrines from ruling over them, because they are convinced Satan’s doctrines can deliver better on what we desire. But, now we have thousands of years of rule by Satan’s doctrines, a bloody history leading up to this day of terrorism, with an earth nearly destroyed. I would dare say the evidence is quite clear, as to just how unwise a decision it was, so long ago. Yet so many still believe the empty lies, even with all the destroyed lives we can so clearly see.
We are so obstinate about this issue that God had to make an even more dramatic spectacle of this point, in the example of Jesus. It could be reasonably argued that all we had to do was to stop chasing our destructive desires, and accept the rule of God’s Word in our lives 2,000 years ago, embodied in Jesus, and we could have had an entirely different history from the insane mess it has become. We often make vows that we will follow in His footsteps, and then quickly turn away and return back to the things of he world. Like Peter and the rest exampled, we even make vehement vows to the Lord which do not stand for even one night:
Mark 14:31
31 But he spoke more vehemently, "If I have to die with You, I will not deny You!"
And they all said likewise. NKJV™
A period known as the dark ages soon followed; and man it was dark! And, as we can see, man’s words and vows can be weak at best, and most often cheap. So, God also brings us personal life examples of precisely the same things, so that we might be able to carnally see [ meaning physically seeing], and thus better understand these invisible, spiritual points. Long ago it might have been a choice we could have made, and stayed in, like a better choice in relationships; but we tend to chase the wind instead, awakening the next day to an empty shell of a life we could have had. Like the film by the name, the life we could have lived for all those years is merely "gone with the wind." Yet with all this, from actual historical facts, to a myriad of personal examples God continues to bring into our lives, we remain so blindly stubborn that we would rather die than choose more wisely, even though He has promised that we would discover just how good life can be with Him [and, we can now see how bad life can be apart from Him, having chosen Satan’s doctrines instead].
Little understood by all, the few who do end up trying to be real, and turn their lives over to God, do so with doctrines which are not written in His Word. With the help of the cunning one, over the years we have contaminated the pure doctrines of God’s Word with things of the world, like an adulteress who defiles the sanctity of her marriage, because she just has to have more action in her life, more flare. Truly, there are few indeed on this earth who have chosen to walk out the Bible as their way of life, daily picking up their crosses, and following Him
Well my friends, this is the day when it all comes down; because the Word clearly says that in the day we choose to eat of that tree we would surely die. So, if you would rather die in that choice [that is, to go to hell, a very real and uncomfortable place to end up], then this is the day we ultimately get to again make that choice. But, as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord; because oh, my friends, I testify to you that He is soooo good!
Josh 24:14-15
14 "Now therefore, fear the Lord, serve Him in sincerity and in truth, and put away the gods which your fathers served on the other side of the River and in Egypt. Serve the Lord! 15 And if it seems evil to you to serve the Lord, choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you dwell. But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord."
NKJV™ [the ‘gods’ are actually doctrines]
This is the day when God has finally, and truly allowed us a second chance to choose again which doctrines we want to rule over us: His ways and precepts; or Satan’s. Choose wisely this time, my friends; there is an awful lot on the line.
Here are some Scriptures showing how we chose God, time and again, and then turned against Him every time, just like adultery. This time, those who truly want to choose God will make new vows, and God will help us keep them. This is the first time since this whole thing began, so long ago, in which God now commits to truly helping us to succeed, now that our time of rebuke is done. That is what makes this day different from all other days before it [this fact is written in Scriptures, and well studied out in the study series].
Ex 32:7-10
7 And the Lord said to Moses, "Go, get down! For your people whom you brought out of the land of Egypt have corrupted themselves. 8 They have turned aside quickly out of the way which I commanded them. They have made themselves a molded calf, and worshiped it and sacrificed to it, and said, 'This is your god, O Israel, that brought you out of the land of Egypt!'" 9 And the Lord said to Moses, "I have seen this people, and indeed it is a stiff-necked people! 10 Now therefore, let Me alone, that My wrath may burn hot against them and I may consume them. And I will make of you a great nation." NKJV™
Num 14:20-24
20 Then the Lord said: "I have pardoned, according to your word; 21 but truly, as I live, all the earth shall be filled with the glory of the Lord — 22 because all these men who have seen My glory and the signs which I did in Egypt and in the wilderness, and have put Me to the test now these ten times, and have not heeded My voice, 23 they certainly shall not see the land of which I swore to their fathers, nor shall any of those who rejected Me see it. 24 But My servant Caleb, because he has a different spirit in him and has followed Me fully, I will bring into the land where he went, and his descendants shall inherit it. NKJV™
Josh 24:16-25
16 So the people answered and said: "Far be it from us that we should forsake the Lord to serve other gods; 17 for the Lord our God is He who brought us and our fathers up out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage, who did those great signs in our sight, and preserved us in all the way that we went and among all the people through whom we passed. 18 And the Lord drove out from before us all the people, including the Amorites who dwelt in the land. We also will serve the Lord, for He is our God."
19 But Joshua said to the people, "You cannot serve the Lord, for He is a holy God. He is a jealous God; He will not forgive your transgressions nor your sins. 20 If you forsake the Lord and serve foreign gods, then He will turn and do you harm and consume you, after He has done you good."
21 And the people said to Joshua, "No, but we will serve the Lord!"
22 So Joshua said to the people, "You are witnesses against yourselves that you have chosen the Lord for yourselves, to serve Him."
And they said, "We are witnesses!"
23 "Now therefore," he said, "put away the foreign gods which are among you, and incline your heart to the Lord God of Israel."
24 And the people said to Joshua, "The Lord our God we will serve, and His voice we will obey!"
25 So Joshua made a covenant with the people that day, and made for them a statute and an ordinance in Shechem. NKJV™
Deut 29:19
19 and so it may not happen, when he hears the words of this curse, that he blesses himself in his heart, saying, 'I shall have peace, even though I follow the dictates of my heart' — as though the drunkard could be included with the sober. NKJV™
Jer 11:8
8 Yet they did not obey or incline their ear, but everyone followed the dictates of his evil heart; therefore I will bring upon them all the words of this covenant, which I commanded them to do, but which they have not done.'" NKJV™
Isa 24:4-6
4 The earth mourns and fades away,
The world languishes and fades away;
The haughty people of the earth languish.
5 The earth is also defiled under its inhabitants,
Because they have transgressed the laws,
Changed the ordinance,
Broken the everlasting covenant.
6 Therefore the curse has devoured the earth,
And those who dwell in it are desolate.
Therefore the inhabitants of the earth are burned,
And few men are left. NKJV™
Luke 22:61-62
61 And the Lord turned and looked at Peter. Then Peter remembered the word of the Lord, how He had said to him, "Before the rooster crows, you will deny Me three times." 62 So Peter went out and wept bitterly. NKJV™
Rev 18:9-11
9 "The kings of the earth who committed fornication and lived luxuriously with her will weep and lament for her, when they see the smoke of her burning, 10 standing at a distance for fear of her torment, saying, 'Alas, alas, that great city Babylon, that mighty city! For in one hour your judgment has come.'
11 "And the merchants of the earth will weep and mourn over her, for no one buys their merchandise anymore: NKJV™
Ezra 10:3
3 Now therefore, let us make a covenant with our God to put away all these wives and those who have been born to them, according to the advice of my master and of those who tremble at the commandment of our God; and let it be done according to the law. NKJV™
1 Kings 11:33-35
33 because they have forsaken Me, and worshiped Ashtoreth the goddess of the Sidonians, Chemosh the god of the Moabites, and Milcom the god of the people of Ammon, and have not walked in My ways to do what is right in My eyes and keep My statutes and My judgments, as did his father David. 34 However I will not take the whole kingdom out of his hand, because I have made him ruler all the days of his life for the sake of My servant David, whom I chose because he kept My commandments and My statutes. 35 But I will take the kingdom out of his son's hand and give it to you — ten tribes. NKJV™
Rev 18:4-8
4 And I heard another voice from heaven saying, "Come out of her, my people, lest you share in her sins, and lest you receive of her plagues. 5 For her sins have reached to heaven, and God has remembered her iniquities. 6 Render to her just as she rendered to you, and repay her double according to her works; in the cup which she has mixed, mix double for her. 7 In the measure that she glorified herself and lived luxuriously, in the same measure give her torment and sorrow; for she says in her heart, 'I sit as queen, and am no widow, and will not see sorrow.' 8 Therefore her plagues will come in one day — death and mourning and famine. And she will be utterly burned with fire, for strong is the Lord God who judges her. NKJV™
We have a history of choosing Satan’s doctrines, and it shows. But this is the golden day we are being allowed to choose again. That is why the study series was written: so that we might learn how to acceptably present ourselves before God, and try this one more time. There has never been a day like today, because before this day our discipline was not yet complete.
Isa 51:21-23
21 Therefore please hear this, you afflicted,
And drunk but not with wine.
22 Thus says your Lord,
The Lord and your God,
Who pleads the cause of His people:
"See, I have taken out of your hand
The cup of trembling,
The dregs of the cup of My fury;
You shall no longer drink it.
23 But I will put it into the hand of those who afflict you,
Who have said to you,
'Lie down, that we may walk over you.'
And you have laid your body like the ground,
And as the street, for those who walk over." NKJV™
Isa 40:1-9
1 "Comfort, yes, comfort My people!"Says your God. 2 "Speak comfort to Jerusalem, and cry out to her, That her warfare is ended, That her iniquity is pardoned; For she has received from the Lord's hand Double for all her sins."
3 The voice of one crying in the wilderness:"Prepare the way of the Lord; Make straight in the desert A highway for our God. 4 Every valley shall be exalted And every mountain and hill brought low; The crooked places shall be made straight And the rough places smooth; 5 The glory of the Lord shall be revealed, And all flesh shall see it together; For the mouth of the Lord has spoken."
6 The voice said, "Cry out!"And he said, "What shall I cry?"
"All flesh is grass, And all its loveliness is like the flower of the field. 7 The grass withers, the flower fades, Because the breath of the Lord blows upon it; Surely the people are grass. 8 The grass withers, the flower fades, But the word of our God stands forever."
9 O Zion, You who bring good tidings, Get up into the high mountain; O Jerusalem, You who bring good tidings, Lift up your voice with strength, Lift it up, be not afraid; Say to the cities of Judah, "Behold your God!" NKJV™
We have waited a very long time to finally be invited to make this choice again. Do not underestimate the wonder of this day. Don’t let the long awaited Messiah slip past you, unnoticed.
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