Save us, O LORD our God, and gather us from among the heathen

Time and time again God's chosen refused to listen to Him. Now we have to understand that those who weren't God's chosen, weren't chosen for a reason. They were worshippers of false gods. They did not believe in our Creator God at all whatsoever. They worshipped the sun and made gods for the sun, they worshipped the moon, they worshipped objects, they worshipped situations- fertility and so many other things. They chose to NOT follow God and because of this God granted them their desire to NOT want to follow Him and He chose a man among men that sought Him, believed in Him. Noah, Enoch, Abraham each of these men chose God over the worshipping of other gods. Each of these men chose the Creator God over false gods. When these men chose to follow our Creator God they found favor with God. God DID NOT force anyone to choose Him. God DID NOT force others to worship false gods. Lest it appear that God favored a people over another lets be perfectly clear here- the other people that God did not favor DID NOT want His favor! People REJECTED GOD! When God wanted His chosen people to destroy the heathen nations it was because they lived in a time when it was kill or be killed, adapt or be destroyed. People were constantly warring with each other for land rights, for so much. Today we still have battles for land rights but NOTHING like it was then, nothing. When God wanted the heathen nations destroyed He was NOT destroying the innocent and we are tremendously naïve if we believe that. Some will throw out the children - how could God want the children destroyed. Stop right there! God did NOT want anyone destroyed, not a single person. But people rejected Him and chose the opposite of Him and His love, they chose a path of destruction and yes, parents chose the path for their children. Will the truly innocent destroyed be destroyed of the second death? I really don't think so. Every single child as individuals in accountability determined by God will be judged by Him and they - if they are innocent God will give them eternal life. Not a single innocent will be destroyed eternally, not one and we can't forget that!


Read this...

Psa 106:34 They did not destroy the nations, concerning whom the LORD commanded them:
Psa 106:35 But were mingled among the heathen, and learned their works.
Psa 106:36 And they served their idols: which were a snare unto them.
Psa 106:37 Yea, they sacrificed their sons and their daughters unto devils,
Psa 106:38 And shed innocent blood, even the blood of their sons and of their daughters, whom they sacrificed unto the idols of Canaan: and the land was polluted with blood.
Psa 106:39 Thus were they defiled with their own works, and went a whoring with their own inventions.

This is discussing God's chosen people who did NOT truly follow God with their hearts and rebelled against Him. They did NOT listen to God. God wanted them to destroy the heathen nations. They not only didn't destroy those God commanded them to destroy but they MINGLED with them! They learned from the heathen! They served the heathen idols. They sacrificed their sons and daughters to devils! They shed INNOCENT blood, the blood of their own children because they were being taught by heathen to sacrifice these children to their idols! These were God's people who apostatized from God! They defiled themselves when they stopped following the true Creator God and chose instead to follow false gods.

Psa 106:40 Therefore was the wrath of the LORD kindled against his people, insomuch that he abhorred his own inheritance.

Imagine it! Take a moment and truly imagine it! Our LORD abhorred His own PEOPLE!

WHY do we believe we can do whatever we please and our LORD will not care but love us no matter what? WHY?! Because this was old covenant and not new covenant time?

Remember this verse from yesterday--

Mat 23:37 O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not!
Mat 23:38 Behold, your house is left unto you desolate.

Read this--

'Into this picture comes the issue of accountability. The Jewish leadership sealed their probation in their action against Jesus Christ in securing His death by Pilate. This can be deducted from Peter's defense before the same council who had tried Jesus (Acts 4:5-12)

He offered them no opportunity to repent as he had in preaching to others in Jerusalem (Acts 2:38; 3:19).

The nation as a corporate body sealed its fate in the stoning of Stephen in AD 34 (Dan. 9:24).

The Israel of the Diaspora as well as the Jews of Jerusalem had to decide whether their leadership did right in pressuring the Roman authority to kill Jesus, or was He indeed the Messiah. If they decided that their leadership had denied "the Holy One," and killed "the Prince of life," they had a choice to make. They could no longer remain in that corporate body under that leadership sharing in that guilt (Acts 3:13-15; 17-19).


Act 4:5 And it came to pass on the morrow, that their rulers, and elders, and scribes,
Act 4:6 And Annas the high priest, and Caiaphas, and John, and Alexander, and as many as were of the kindred of the high priest, were gathered together at Jerusalem.
Act 4:7 And when they had set them in the midst, they asked, By what power, or by what name, have ye done this?
Act 4:8 Then Peter, filled with the Holy Ghost, said unto them, Ye rulers of the people, and elders of Israel,
Act 4:9 If we this day be examined of the good deed done to the impotent man, by what means he is made whole;
Act 4:10 Be it known unto you all, and to all the people of Israel, that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom ye crucified, whom God raised from the dead, even by him doth this man stand here before you whole.
Act 4:11 This is the stone which was set at nought of you builders, which is become the head of the corner.
Act 4:12 Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.

Act 2:38 Then Peter said unto them, Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost.

Act 3:19 Repent ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord;

Dan 9:24 Seventy weeks are determined upon thy people and upon thy holy city, to finish the transgression, and to make an end of sins, and to make reconciliation for iniquity, and to bring in everlasting righteousness, and to seal up the vision and prophecy, and to anoint the most Holy.

Act 3:13 The God of Abraham, and of Isaac, and of Jacob, the God of our fathers, hath glorified his Son Jesus; whom ye delivered up, and denied him in the presence of Pilate, when he was determined to let him go.
Act 3:14 But ye denied the Holy One and the Just, and desired a murderer to be granted unto you;
Act 3:15 And killed the Prince of life, whom God hath raised from the dead; whereof we are witnesses.

Act 3:17 And now, brethren, I wot that through ignorance ye did it, as did also your rulers.
Act 3:18 But those things, which God before had shewed by the mouth of all his prophets, that Christ should suffer, he hath so fulfilled.
Act 3:19 Repent ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord'

We CANNOT let ourselves believe that we have no accountability to our God just because Jesus came and did away with the ceremonial laws all of which were answered in His existence. The rituals geared towards needing a Savior, a Redeemer and that Savior, that Redeemer was realized in Jesus Christ our Lord.

Did Jesus destroy the moral law of God? NO.

Mat 5:17 Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil.

Mat 5:18 For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled.
Mat 5:19 Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven: but whosoever shall do and teach them, the same shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven.

Mat 22:36 Master, which is the great commandment in the law?
Mat 22:37 Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.
Mat 22:38 This is the first and great commandment.
Mat 22:39 And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.
Mat 22:40 On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.

The moral laws of the Ten Commandments encompass loving God (1-4) and loving mankind (5-10). NONE of these was done away with. Jesus lived this law to perfection, it was His perfection in living the law of God that gave Him the innocence He took to the cross, the sinlessness He took to His death so that we may live.

We were NEVER told that we could now ignore God's commandments- that they were no longer necessary. Jesus NEVER told us that, NEVER!

Always God's moral law remains from Creation to Eternity, it will NEVER change, not ever! To have His moral laws change is to deem them imperfectly given and if imperfectly given they are given from an imperfect source which God has never and will never, ever be!

Old testament or new, God remains unchanged. His people then, His people now have the choice to disobey Him and that choice will result in certain consequences. Sometimes the temporary consequences for those who abandon God and seek to worship other things including themselves, will have detrimental effects here and now. Most assuredly the eternal consequence of disobeying God- of NOT believing in our Creator God- is eternal death.

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God chose a people to be His to come from the ancestry of a man who loved Him. These people often trampled on the love of God, disobeying them. God...

Psa 106:41 And he gave them into the hand of the heathen; and they that hated them ruled over them.
Psa 106:42 Their enemies also oppressed them, and they were brought into subjection under their hand.
Psa 106:43 Many times did he deliver them; but they provoked him with their counsel, and were brought low for their iniquity.
Psa 106:44 Nevertheless he regarded their affliction, when he heard their cry:
Psa 106:45 And he remembered for them his covenant, and repented according to the multitude of his mercies.
Psa 106:46 He made them also to be pitied of all those that carried them captives.

God loves us but despises our rebellion against Him, our lack of love, of faith, of trust in Him. God allowed His people to be taken captive time and time again and just as often God heard the cry of His people and remembered the covenant He'd made with them.

Psa 106:47 Save us, O LORD our God, and gather us from among the heathen, to give thanks unto thy holy name, and to triumph in thy praise.
Psa 106:48 Blessed be the LORD God of Israel from everlasting to everlasting: and let all the people say, Amen. Praise ye the LORD.


God's true people, those who truly love God among the chosen people of the first covenant or those among the gentiles who were given the message of the kingdom of God through Jesus Christ and the new covenant, all of these will forever be His and loved by Him as long as their love remains true to God and not caught up in anything else at all.

We've been studying Jerusalem and this plays into that study because Jerusalem was a city of God- chosen by God to represent God in many, many ways.

More tomorrow on Jerusalem, on God's people, on God's most amazing LOVE!

In His mercy, in His grace, by HIS righteousness all through His love in the forgiveness of His Son, Jesus Christ.

All praise, all thanksgiving, all honor, all glory to God!

Amen.