"Israel, My Servant"

Isaiah 41:8-11 ESV

“But you, Israel, my servant,

    Jacob, whom I have chosen,

    the offspring of Abraham, my friend;

you whom I took from the ends of the earth,

    and called from its farthest corners,

saying to you, “You are my servant,

    I have chosen you and not cast you off”;

fear not, for I am with you;

    be not dismayed, for I am your God;

I will strengthen you, I will help you,

    I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.

Behold, all who are incensed against you

    shall be put to shame and confounded;

those who strive against you

    shall be as nothing and shall perish.”

First, I want to say that not everything written in the Old Testament applies to our lives today, although we can learn from the Old Testament Scriptures as well as from the New Testament with regard to what our lives are to look like if we are true followers of Jesus Christ. For example, we are not under the Old Covenant, so we do not have to obey those old liturgical, ceremonial, sacrificial, purification, and dietary laws and restrictions.

But I believe this passage of Scripture can be applied to our lives today if we are of genuine faith in Jesus Christ via dying with Christ to sin and being raised with Christ to walk in newness of life in him, no longer as slaves to sin, but now as slaves to God and to his righteousness (Romans 6:1-23). For if we are of true faith in Christ, then we are true Israel, according to the Scriptures. And we are now God’s chosen people, the offspring of Abraham.

For it is not all who are physically descended from Abraham or from Israel who belong to Israel or who are the children of Abraham. For it is not the children of the flesh who are the children of God, but the children of the promise. And the promise was given to Abraham and to his seed, and his seed is Jesus Christ. So if we belong to Christ, then we are Abraham’s seed, and we are heirs according to the promise.

For, via Jesus’ death and resurrection, God’s purpose was to create in himself one new humanity out of the two (Jew and Gentile), thus making peace, and in one body to reconcile both of them to God through the cross, and by faith in Jesus Christ. So, we who are Gentiles by physical birth, if we believe in Jesus Christ, are now fellow heirs with the Jews who also believe in Jesus Christ, for we are now members of the same body, and partakers of the promise of Christ Jesus through the gospel.

So, according to God/Jesus, the Jews who do not believe in Jesus Christ cannot claim Abraham as their father or God as their father, for their father is the devil, and they serve him. For since they did not receive Jesus Christ as their Messiah, they do not know God the Father. So they are not of God. But they are antichrist, denying the Father and the Son, and they are of Hagar, the slave woman, and not of free woman.

For they were cut out of the vine of Israel, and the Gentile believers in Christ were grafted into Israel. But the unbelieving Jews can be grafted back into Israel through genuine faith in Jesus Christ. So all Israel is both Jew and Gentile by genuine God-given faith in Jesus Christ and not by physical birth. And the physical city of Jerusalem is not the holy city. We who believe in Jesus are that holy city, and we are now the temple of God.

[John 8:18-19,38-47; Romans 9:4-8; Romans 11:17-25; Galatians 3:16,26-29; Galatians 4:22-31; Ephesians 2:14-18; Ephesians 3:6; 1 John 2:22]

Therefore, these words spoken to the Israel of old can now be applied to our lives, for we are now Israel, God’s chosen people, the offspring of Abraham, friends of God, whom God has called from the ends of the earth. And if we are of genuine faith in Jesus Christ, then we are to also be the Lord’s servants, doing his will for our lives. And regardless of what we are going through in this life, God has not forsaken us. He is there for us.

But sometimes in our lives we may feel as though God has forsaken us. But it we are his servants, and if our faith in him is God-given faith, and so we have died with him to sin, and we are living to his righteousness, in his power, then no matter what we are going through God is there with us, and he will give us the strength that we need to endure whatever trials we may be facing or may yet will be going through.

So we can be encouraged that no matter how bad things get, and we are not promised that they are going to get better, that God is on our side if we are indeed on his side and if we are following him with our lives. And he will uphold us with his righteous right hand if we will let him, and if we will yield control of our lives over to him, and if we will trust him with our lives and with our circumstances and believe in his sovereignty over our lives.

Now some of those trials are going to involve persecutions for our walks of faith in Jesus Christ. And there are people who are and who will be incensed against us if we are truly following Jesus with our lives and not the flesh. And they will strive against us because we are following Christ and not the flesh, and some of them may be others who profess faith in Jesus, and even some pastors who are worldly and so they will reject the truly godly.

Now, one day our enemies are going to be dealt with by God because of how they have treated the Lord’s servants. This may not happen in our lifetime, but we do know that both the Old and New Testaments teach that the enemies of the cross of Christ will one day perish in their sins. We should be praying for them that God will change their hearts and that they will come to true faith in Christ. And we should pray for God to give us strength to endure what we are now going through and what is yet to come.

Video Talk

https://youtu.be/tc7xJsvxFo4

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Pray, Pray, Pray  

An Original Work / September 6, 2012

Based off Various Scriptures

Pray that eyes may enlightened be,

So they may know Christ.

Pray that they may Him better know,

Strengthened by His pow’r. 

Pray that they may grasp 

How wide and long

And high and deep

Is Christ’s love.

Pray that they may be filled

To the fullness of God’s love.

Pray with thanksgiving.

Pray for an open door for me,

So I may share Christ.

Pray when the gospel is proclaimed –

Shared with clarity.

Pray words are given me so

I declare the gospel fearlessly.

I pray for you to be active

Sharing your faith, too.

Pray continually.

We oft not know for what to pray,

So we ask for help.

The Spirit intercedes for us – 

Words cannot express.

Just keep on praying for the saints

With all kinds of requests to God.

Pray they may have faith to 

Please their God in ev’ry way.

Pray with joyfulness. 

https://vimeo.com/119259373