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God did take a people- a family
of sorne two million SLAVES, c hil–
dren of God's friend Abraham–
and offered to set tbem up as a
special nation UNDER HIS GOVERN–
MENT!
To any people-whether an indi–
vidual, a n at ion or even a ll
nations- who wi ll volu ntari ly sub–
ject thcmselves under God's GOV–
ERNMENT , God says the SA ME
THING- he is no respecter of per–
sons! What he saíd to these l srael–
ites, he says to ALL:
" But if thou shalt indeed obey
[my] voice, and do all that
1
speak;
then
1
will be an enemy unto thinc
enemies, and an 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 lífe. A ll lives
BELONG lO 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 Iaw and gov–
ernment, or the way of get, of self,
of rebellion against the law and
government of God.
But these freed slaves- the Is ra–
elites- accepted God's offer, and
became his nation. They AGREED lo
obey him a nd his Iaws-bis govern–
ment- and he agreed to give them
PEACE,
as long as they obeyed and
trusted him.
But human nature is huma n
nature- a nd facts are facts.
Human Natura at Work
And HUMAN NATURE? Yes, these
lsraelites were fu ll of it!
T hese lsrael ites, even wh ile
being blessed and del ivered by God
with MIRACLES, still were rebel–
lious. After the MIRACLES God had
performed in FREEING them from
s lavery in Egypt, these people
began to gripe, grumble, complain
and DISOBEY God .
October 1984
These people- 600,000 men,
besides women and children-<:ame
to the Red Sea. There were no
ships, no bridges. They could not
swim such a distance. T hey 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
a fter 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 M oses said unto the
people, Fear ye not, stand st ill , and
see the salvation of the Lord, which
HE WILL SHEW TO YOU lOday....
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!
T hey were to remain at PEACE!
How GOD Fights f o r Usl
" Moses stretched his hand out
over the sea ... Then the Eternal
swept the sea along by a strong
east wind, all night, till the bed of
the sea was dry ... and the l srael–
ites 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.... Is rael saw
the mighty action of the Eterna]
against the Egypt ians ..." (Ex.
14:21 -22, 30-31, Moffatt transla–
tion).
After this miraculous delivery
from disaster- from a WAR- a
whole army of a then great nation
destroyed- those Israelites mur–
mured against Moses and Aaron
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 , say ing, Is t he Lord
among us, or not?" (Ex. 17:7).
Repeatedly, God had given these
people awe- inspiring and miracu–
lous demonstrations of his intent ion
to fight their battles for them.
After all of this OVERWHELMING
PROOF, these people DOUBTED
God's faithfu1ness-oousTED his
power- even DOUBTED bis very
existence. T hey disobeyed. They
went
the way
of SIN!
Moses was d istraught, his nerves
shattered , hi s patience about
exhausted. After all , Moses was
only human!
"What s ha ll 1 do un to thi s
people?" Moses appealed to God,
" they be almost ready to stone me"
(Ex. 17:4).
At this j uncture, Amalek carne
against the l s r ael ites i n great
strength with an invading army.
T his 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 sinni ng.
Moses, at the end of h is patience
tryi ng to induce these stubborn,
rebellious people to believe in and
TRUST God, sai d to Joshua,
"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. lt was WRONG! Jt
was SIN. But God Jet the decision
be theirs!
T his incident was the
turning
point.
God's PURPOSE St ands!
Even though God ALLOWS humans
to make their own decisions- nev–
e r theless God 's PURPOSE must
stand! H is PURPOSE was to settle
these descendants of Abraham in
the land he had promised Abra–
ham-"the PROMISED LAND."
God 's faithfulness 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 fighting in d r iving
out the inhabitants illegally pos–
sessing the land God had allotted to
A braham 's descendan ts. Conse–
quently God gave orders for
them
to do what fighting-and killing–
was necessary to accompl ish God's
PURPOSE of putting tbem in the
land of promise!
But that d id not make war
(Continued on page 29)
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