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now, to the FACTS!
God did take a people- a family
of sorne two mi Ilion SLAVES, children
of God's friend Abraham- a nd
offered to set them up as a special
nation UNDER HIS GOVERNMENT!
To any people- whether an indi–
vidual, a nation , or even all
nations- who will voluntari ly sub–
ject themselves under God's GOV–
ERNMENT, God says the SAME
THING-he is no respecter of per–
sons! What he said to these Israel–
ites, he says to ALL:
He said, " . . . if thou shalt indeed
obey his voice, and do all that
1
speak; then
1
will be an enemy unto
thine enemies, andan adversary unto
thine adversaries ... and
1
will cut
them off'' (Ex. 23:22-23).
God promised supernaturally to
fight any invading enemy to protect
the nation and people under HIS
government. God, ONLY, has
the
right
to take human life! He
created
human life . All li ves
BELONG tO him.
But, did you notice? There were
CONDITIONS to God's promise of
divine and supernatural protection.
During the first 6 ,000 years of
man's sojou rn on earth, it is not in
God's Master Plan to
force
any
nation, or individual , to come under
his GOVERNMENT. That is left to
man's free CHOICE!
Man must choose which way he
will go-the way of give and of
submission to God's law and gov–
ernment, or the way of get, of self,
of rebellion against the law and
government of God.
But these freed slaves- the Isra–
elites- accepted God's offer, and
became his nation. They AGREED to
obey him and his laws- his govern–
ment- and he agreed to give them
PEACE,
as long as they obeyed and
trusted him.
But human nature is human
nature- and facts are facts .
Human Nature at Work
And HUMAN NATURE? Yes, these
Israelites were full of it!
These Israel ites, even while
being blessed and delivered by God
with MIRACLES, still were rebel–
lious. After the MIRACLES God had
performed in FREEING them from
slavery in Egypt, these people
began to gripe, grumble, complain
and DISOBEY God.
16
These people- 600,000 men,
besides women and children-came
to the Red Sea. There were no
ships, no bridges. They could not
swim such a distance. They could
not walk on the water. They were
STOPPED by this obstacle beyond
their own power.
They looked, and within eye–
sight, Pharaoh's ARMY was coming
after them.
Right here, God
demonstrated
he would preserve his people from
having to undergo military service,
or fighting war, or taking human
life!
In spite of their faithless com–
plaining in this initial EXAMPLE of
God's faithfulness, he was deter–
mined to fight
this
battle and save
them.
"And Moses said unto the
people, Fear ye not, stand still, and
see the salvation of the Lord which
HE WILL SHEW YOU to day.. ..
The Lord sha/1 fight for you, and
ye sha/1 hold your peace"
(Ex.
14:13-14).
The Israelites were not to
fight-but STAND STILL! God
would fight their wars for them!
They were to remain at PEACE!
How GOD Fights for Usl
"Moses stretched his hand out over
the sea; Then the Eterna) swept the
sea along by a strong east wind, all
night, till the bed of the sea was
dry, and the Israelites marched
through the sea on dry ground, the
waters forming a wall to right and
left. Thus did the Eterna! save
Israel that day from the Egyptians.
Israel saw the mighty act of the
Eterna! against the Egyptians ..."
(Ex. 14:21, 22, 30-31, Moffatt).
After this miraculous delivery
from disaster- from a w AR- a
whole army of a then great nation
destroyed-those Israelites mur–
mured against Moses and Aa–
ron ... and said " ... would to God
we had died by the hand of the
Lord in the land of Egypt ..." (Ex.
16:3).
Again and again , " .. . they
tempted the Lord, saying, Is the
Lord among us, or not?" (Ex.
17:7.)
Repeatedly, God had given these
people awe-inspiring and miracu–
lous demonstrations of his intention
to
fight their batt/es for them.
After all of this OVERWHELMING
PROOF, these people DOUBTED
God's faithfulness-DOUBTED bis
power- even DOUBTED his very
existence. They disobeyed. They
went
the way
of SIN!
Moses was distraugbt, his nerves
shattered, his patience about
exhausted. After all, Moses was
only human!
"What shall
1
do unto this
people?" Moses appealed to God,
"they be almost ready to stone me"
(Ex. 17:4) .
At this juncture, Amalek carne
against the lsraelites in great
st rength with an invading army.
This time God ALLOWED the !sra–
elites
to write the lesson of experi–
ence.
He allowed them to SIN. God
does not forcibly prevent humans
from sinning.
Moses, at the end of bis patience
trying to induce these stubborn,
rebellious people to believe in and
TRusT God, said to J oshua,
"Choose us out men, and go out,
FIGHT with Amalek" (Ex. 17:9).
It
was altogether unnecessary for
these lsraelites to arm themselves
and wage WAR. l t was WRONG!
Jt
was SIN. But God let the decision
be theirs!
This incident was the
turning
point.
God' s PURPOSE Stands!
Even though God ALLOWS humans
to make their own decisions-nev–
ertheless God's PURPOSE must
stand! His PURPOSE was to settle
these descendants of Abraham in
the land he had promised Abra–
ham- "the PROMISED LAND."
God's faitbfulness demanded
that he plant these people in that
land, regardless of their conduct!
These descendants of Abraham
had
made their decision
to be a
fighting, war-waging nation. That
decision was theirs to make. And
since they had made it, God used
them
to do the figbting in driving
out the inhabitants illegally pos–
sessing the land God had allotted to
Abraham's descendants. Conse–
quently God gave orders for
them
todo what fighting- and killing–
was necessary to accomplish God's
PURPOSE of putting them in the
land of Promise!
But that did not make war
RIGHT. Whether to DO right or
The PLAIN TRUTH