{"id":49,"date":"2012-11-21T21:53:49","date_gmt":"2012-11-22T02:53:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/robgribbin.com\/?p=49"},"modified":"2012-11-21T21:53:49","modified_gmt":"2012-11-22T02:53:49","slug":"following-in-the-middle-of-the-promise","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/robgribbin.com\/?p=49","title":{"rendered":"Following in the Middle of the Promise"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
\u201cHe remembers his covenant forever,<\/em> the word he commanded,
\n<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0for a thousand generations,\u201d ~ Ps. 105:8<\/em><\/strong><\/address>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Psalms 105 and 106 are beautiful for many reasons. They teach us two very important lessons about God. Psalm 105 teaches us that God is present even when we can\u2019t see Him<\/em>. It starts with several verses praising Him for His awesomeness and for the awesome things He\u2019s done. Then the psalmist reminds us that God \u201cremembers his covenant forever, the word he commanded, for a thousand generations.\u201d The reason may for this reminder may be because for much of the rest of this 45 verse psalm we read about how God\u2019s people lived in slavery in Egypt \u2013 oppressed, mistreated, and seemingly abandoned. There were whole generations of Israelites who were born, lived, and died in slavery. Perhaps while in the mud pits they recalled this verse \u2013 about how a God who claimed to be their God had once promised the father of their nation \u2013 Abraham \u2013 a land, a seed (deliverer), and a blessing. They looked around and saw none of the three.<\/span><\/p>\n

These were those who were living in the middle of the promise. They were born after the promise was given, but died before that promise was fulfilled.<\/span><\/p>\n

The psalmist, though, in verses 23-41 lists nineteen specific actions that Jehovah God did for the nation of Israel to bring them out of Egypt and into the land He promised. The next verse is very instructive, as it gives us the reason for God\u2019s intervention. \u201cFor he remembered his holy promise given to his servant Abraham.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Even when God seems absent, He is acting in accordance with His promise.<\/span><\/p>\n

A look at Psalm 106 continues this theme of God being a covenant making and covenant keeping God. The lesson here, though, is that God keeps His covenants even when \u2013 and especially when \u2013 we give Him compelling reasons not to<\/em>. In fact, between verse 6 and 39, the psalmist lists 29 sins that the Israelites had committed against God. This angered God so much, that in two separate instances, it was a man (Moses first, then Phineas) who pleaded with God to relent from the harm He intended against His people. In the end, \u201che took note of their distress when he heard their cry; for their sake he remembered his covenant<\/span>
\nand out of his great love he relented.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Even when we give God reasons not to, He acts in accordance with His promise.<\/span><\/p>\n

We are a people today who are also living in the middle of a promise. We\u2019ve been told that Christ will return for us, and yet there have been hundreds of generations who have been born, lived, and died between the time the promise was given and its fulfillment. We find ourselves today, \u201cin between.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

We are in the middle of the promise, but we are not alone.<\/span><\/p>\n

We have been given a great commission, but also a great resource. And the difficulty of the mission is implied by the greatness of the resource \u2013 \u201cI am with you always\u201d.\u00a0 Interesting. Old Testament heroes, called upon to do incredibly difficult things, were never given this promise. Moses, David, Daniel, Nehemiah & others operated without this assurance even though their lives were marked by doing difficult things for the Lord.<\/span><\/p>\n

Our task? Disciple the world. Our resource? The Spirit of God resident within every disciple. The purpose? To accomplish the task of world evangelization.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0Luke 19:20-27 records a story Jesus told about a servant who was labeled as \u201cwicked\u201d because he squandered the one mina his master gave him to manage. The other servants had invested the master\u2019s resources and were commended for doing so. But this servant \u2013 the wicked servant \u2013 wasted what his master gave him.<\/span><\/p>\n

So what will we say if one day we stand before our Master and have no disciples to show for our efforts? If wasting a small amount of money makes a servant \u2018wicked\u2019, what does wasting the Spirit of God make me? The inevitability of this interaction is assured, for we will all stand before Christ one day. What will that conversation be?<\/span><\/p>\n

The promise of His return is not yet fulfilled, but it will be. It certainly will be.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cHe remembers his covenant forever, the word he commanded, \u00a0for a thousand generations,\u201d ~ Ps. 105:8 Psalms 105 and 106 are beautiful for many reasons. They teach us two very important lessons about God. Psalm 105 teaches us that God … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/robgribbin.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/robgribbin.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/robgribbin.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/robgribbin.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/robgribbin.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=49"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/robgribbin.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":53,"href":"http:\/\/robgribbin.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49\/revisions\/53"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/robgribbin.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=49"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/robgribbin.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=49"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/robgribbin.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=49"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}