Trusting God

Go…to a place I will show you. This was the instructions God gave Abraham when He called him out from a pagan people to create, through him, a chosen people. God didn’t give Abraham any details; He just expected him to go and trust God each step of the way. Recently, I have been studying through the book of Ephesians and came across the heading, The Mystery Revealed above chapter 3. I have read this passage many times and never really saw this. I always thought this chapter was talking about the unity of all believers in Christ, which it does, however I saw it in a new light today. I just love how God does that!

God chose Abraham. He wanted to create a people that He would set apart and use to bring redemption and reconciliation. Adam’s sin in the Garden had brought with it death and suffering as well as separation from our Creator, who we were meant to have a personal relationship with. God did this through the miracle of Isaac’s birth; and so, the Israelites were born.

God slowly began to reveal His plan to His now set apart chosen people. In the generations that followed, He reestablished over and over His promise to make them a great nation and bless all nations through them. This continued all the way to Joseph who was sold into slavery in Egypt by his brothers only to be used by God later to save those same brothers as well as his entire people from famine. After Joseph died, the Isrealites grew in number and prospered in Egypt. So much so that future Pharoahs saw them as a threat and enslaved them. This went on for over 400 years until God sent a deliverer, Moses, to set them free from the bondage of slavery.

Through Moses, God gave His people the law, the appointed days, and the sacrificial system. These gave the Isrealites routine, traditions, and a way to teach future generations about God. The sacrifices covered their sins for a time but never took them away completely, leaving them to have to do it again and again, year after year. In the years between Moses and Jesus, Isreal got into a routine of sacrifice and traditions and began to think this was their way to salvation and right relationship with God. So when Jesus the Messiah came on the scene, they had completely dismissed and forgot all the prophecies that said He must suffer and die and clung only to those that said He would be a reigning King who would deliver them. They were waiting for a King who would free them from Roman rule not a suffering Messiah who taught us to love our neighbor as well as our enemy.

Jesus is and will be our reigning KING however, He had to make the ultimate sacrifice first. This is where the Mystery Revealed comes in.

Isreal had come to believe, and rightfully so, that they were God’s chosen people, set apart from everyone else. In this thinking, they thought salvation and redemption was for them alone. That’s the Mystery Revealed. God’s plan was to bring His people back into right relationship with Him. The law and sacrifices were given to show them that they could never be fully completly right with God. There is no possible way to live completely sinless and the sacrifices only covered their sins until they sinned again only to have to offer it once more. They could never be good enough to come before our HOLY God. That is why Jesus had to die. He is God in the flesh. A perfect sinless sacrifice, once for all.

The Mystery is that His sacrifice didn’t just bring reconciliation and redemption to Isreal but to ALL people who trust and believe Jesus as Savior and Lord. ALL people, both Jew and Gentile now have access to God through Jesus. God used the Jewish people to bring salvation to ALL. What a wonderful gift!

Ephesians 3:5-12 NLT

5. God did not reveal it to previous generations, but now by his Spirit he has revealed it to his holy apostles and prophets. 6. And this is God’s plan: Both Gentiles and Jews who believe the Good News share equally in the riches inherited by God’s children. Both are part of the same body, and both enjoy the promise of blessings because they belong to Christ Jesus.

7. By God’s grace and mighty power, I have been given the privilege of serving him by spreading this Good News. 8. Though I am the least deserving of all God’s people, he graciously gave me the privilege of telling the Gentiles about the endless treasures available to them in Christ.

9. I was chosen to explain to everyone this mysterious plan that God, the Creator of all things, had kept secret from the beginning. 10. God’s purpose in all this was to use the church to display his wisdom in its rich variety to all the unseen rulers and authorities in the heavenly places.

11. This was his eternal plan, which he carried out through Christ Jesus our Lord. 12. Because of Christ and our faith in him, we can now come boldly and confidently into God’s presence.

This Mystery was hidden from them until the death and reserection of Jesus the Messiah. God’s plan all along was so much more awesome than just creating a people all for Himself. His plan was to use this chosen people to bring restoration and redemption to all mankind, the way God intended in the beginning. His plan will be complete in the future when He comes back to rule and reign, completely restoring all creation to the way He created it to be.

OH how GREAT is our God!

How about you? Have you gotten so caught up in religion and traditions that you have missed the plan God has for you? I want to encourage you to seek Him and ask Him to reveal the mystery of who He’s created you to be, and then walk in that Truth.

I would love to hear from you about what God is doing in your life. Let me know in the comments.