Joshua and Judges: The allotment of the land, part 9 - Predestination; Jos 14-17.

Title: Joshua and Judges: The allotment of the land, part 9 - Predestination; Jos 14-17.  

 

Announcements / opening prayer:  

 

[Intro to video] Currently it has been fashionable and hip to disrespect the flag of the United States and therefore the nation itself. The justification of this is perceived injustice against minorities. The truth of the matter is that minorities have the greatest chance of success in our nation since it remains a free nation. The truth of the matter is that data clearly shows that our nation's police officers do not target blacks or any other minority group. The truth of the matter is that our nation's military is also being disrespected; men and women who have sworn to uphold the constitution and to dedicate their lives to Loyalty. Duty, Respect, Selfless Service, Honor, Integrity and Personal Courage, and to renounce any conduct unbecoming. While in uniform a soldier may not march in a protest or political rally, and yes, every soldier is expected to stand at attention, face the flag and proudly salute it upon hearing the National Anthem. Even out of uniform veterans are authorized to salute the flag.

 

America, since its beginning was ever to be one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. In a free nation there will always be some who behave badly. The solution is not to remove our protections of liberty that have been in effect for over two hundred years or to disrespect them. By doing so we choose to cut the knot rather than endeavor to untie it. It has been fifteen years since confused cowards flew planes into the World Trade Center, the Pentagon, and due to the courage of a few Americans, a field in Pennsylvania. Satan has been always striving to destroy the free republic of America, since from sea to shining sea, she has been a beacon of God's unalienable rights, the most gracious nation in history, and the most prolific expounder of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Satan's ministers are deceived by him into thinking that they are actually doing good. We ambassadors for Christ declare His truth, freedom, and salvation without fear and relentlessly. Our Lord rules earth, heaven, and hell and His brethren will ring the bell of liberty today and every day until He sees fit to return. Please enjoy this video and count yourself blessed to have lived in the greatest age and in the greatest client nation that the grace of God has ever created. [end intro]

 

The writer of Hebrews quotes Psa 8 in emphasizing the importance of the message that has come to man directly from our Lord and the apostles. This message of grace and majesty and rulership in our predestined plan has come to man only and not angels. God has established strength in the weakest of creatures.

 

PSA 8:1 For the choir director; on the Gittith. A Psalm of David.

 

O Lord, our Lord,

How majestic is Thy name in all the earth,

Who hast displayed Thy splendor above the heavens!

 

PSA 8:2 From the mouth of infants and nursing babes [under three years old] Thou hast established strength,

Because of Thine adversaries,

To make the enemy and the revengeful cease.

 

PSA 8:3 When I consider Thy heavens, the work of Thy fingers,

The moon and the stars, which Thou hast ordained;

 

PSA 8:4 What is man, that Thou dost take thought of him?

And the son of man, that Thou dost care for him?

 

The most natural thought would be: frail, puny man is as nothing before all this; but this thought is passed over in order to celebrate, with grateful emotion and astonished adoration, the divine love which appears in all the more glorious light-a love which condescends to poor man, the dust of earth.

 

PSA 8:5 Yet Thou hast made him a little lower than God [Elohim],

And dost crown him with glory and majesty!

 

The writer of Hebrews translates Elohim as angelos or angels. Elohim is used of angels in the phrase "sons of God" in Job. This would make sense since man is not a little lower than God, but almost infinitely lower than God. Plus, the context is man in comparison to the objects of the heavens and thus is a physical comparison and not a spiritual or positional one. Physically, compared to angels we are a bit lower if we take the scale to range from God at the top to man at the bottom, but yet, God has purposed for man to rule and thus crowned him with glory and majesty.

 

PSA 8:6 Thou dost make him to rule over the works of Thy hands;

Thou hast put all things under his feet [by means of Christ],

 

In Christ, man will serve Him and with Him rule earth, heaven, and hell.

 

1CO 15:25-26

For He must reign until He has put all His enemies under His feet. The last enemy that will be abolished is death.

 

God has made man, in Christ, His deputy-king. The High Priest and King has priests and kings who will reign over the earth as was God's purpose from the beginning, and further, through Christ, the body of Christ will be seated with Him at the right hand of God and rule heaven and hell.

 

The earth will be restored as the scene of man's dominion, but only through and under the God-Man.

 

ISA 11:1 Then a shoot will spring from the stem of Jesse, And a branch from his roots will bear fruit.

 

ISA 11:2 And the Spirit of the Lord will rest on Him, The spirit of wisdom and understanding, The spirit of counsel and strength, The spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord [golden lampstand].

 

ISA 11:3 And He will delight in the fear of the Lord, And He will not judge by what His eyes see, Nor make a decision by what His ears hear;

 

ISA 11:4 But with righteousness He will judge the poor, And decide with fairness for the afflicted of the earth; And He will strike the earth with the rod of His mouth, And with the breath of His lips He will slay the wicked.

 

ISA 11:5 Also righteousness will be the belt about His loins, And faithfulness the belt about His waist.

 

ISA 11:6 And the wolf will dwell with the lamb, And the leopard will lie down with the kid, And the calf and the young lion and the fatling together; And a little boy will lead them.

 

ISA 11:7 Also the cow and the bear will graze; Their young will lie down together; And the lion will eat straw like the ox.

 

ISA 11:8 And the nursing child will play by the hole of the cobra, And the weaned child will put his hand on the viper's den.

 

ISA 11:9 They will not hurt or destroy in all My holy mountain, For the earth will be full of the knowledge of the Lord As the waters cover the sea.

 

DAN 7:13-14

"I kept looking in the night visions,

And behold, with the clouds of heaven

One like a Son of Man was coming,

And He came up to the Ancient of Days

And was presented before Him.

"And to Him was given dominion,

Glory and a kingdom,

That all the peoples, nations, and men of every language

Might serve Him.

His dominion is an everlasting dominion

Which will not pass away;

And His kingdom is one

Which will not be destroyed.

 

PSA 8:6 Thou dost make him to rule over the works of Thy hands;

Thou hast put all things under his feet [by means of Christ],

 

Our reign is not to wait until the return of Christ. We are to reign in life, not physically, but in the soul by spiritually overcoming all enemies.

 

ROM 5:17

For if by the transgression of the one, death reigned through the one, much more those who receive the abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the One, Jesus Christ.