GOD’S WORD FOR NOVEMBER 29 ~ ~ Ezekiel 12:28 ~ ~ “Therefore say to them, ‘Thus says the Lord God: “None of My words will be postponed any more, but the word which I speak will be done,” says the Lord God.’ ”
From the book How to Read the Bible by Dr. Michael Youssef
Continuing with chapter 6 entitled, David and Soloman: Foreshadowing God’s Kingdom
The Origin of Israel’s Monarchy
The Israelite people originated as an ethnic and religious community in the Middle East during the second millennium before Christ. Their ancestry begins with the patriarch Abraham, his son Issac, and Isaac’s son Jacob. God gave Jacob the name “Israel” after he successfully wrestled with the angel of the Lord (see Genesis 32:28 and 35:10; see also Hosea 12:5). The Twelve Tribes of Israel are descended from the twelve sons of Jacob.
Jacob’s son Joseph was sold into slavery in Egypt, and he later rose to become Pharaoh’s right-hand man. At the behest of Pharaoh himself, Jacob and his family moved to Egypt to live with Joseph. The descendants of Jacob were later enslaved in Egypt for four hundred years. The enslavement of Jacob’s descendants, the Israelites, ended when Moses led them out of Egypt. In the wilderness, God gave His Law to Moses.
After Moses died, his successor, Joshua, led the Israelites out of the wilderness. They crossed the Jordan River and conquered the Promised Land – the land God had given them according to His covenant with Abraham. At that time, Israel was not true nation. It had no borders or central government. Israel was a loose confederation of clans ruled by local elders. These clans were united by their common worship of one God.
During this time, the Israelites occasionally flirted with the idea of having a king. In the book of Judges, after Gideon led Israel to victory over the Midianites, the people said to Gideon, “Rule over us – you, your son and your grandson – because you have saved us from the hand of Midian.”
But Gideon refused to be the king of the Israelites. “I will not rule over you,” he said, “nor will my son rule over you. The Lord will rule over you.” (See Judges 8:10-23)
Over time, the people increasingly clamored for a king. It wasn’t enough for them to be ruled by God. Now they definitely wanted a monarchy. Why? Because that’s the way pagans were ruled. Israel’s demand for the monarchy was a flagrant rejection of Yahweh’s authority – and that is one reason why the prophets rose up and condemned the idea of monarchy for Israel.
Meanwhile, the Philistines – a fierce, well-armed people – began to menace the Israelites. In their first few clashes, the people of Yahweh were crushed. This emergency led the Israelites to demand the leadership of a king.
The book of 1 Samuel records that a man named Saul, a member of the tribe of Benjamin, was anointed king by the prophet Samuel. In spite of Saul’s bold courage, he lacked the mental and emotional stability to unify and lead his people. Although his reign would end in failure, Saul’s kingship eased Israel through the transition from a tribal society to a true nation-state.
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Helen Steiner Rice:
I have prayed on my knees in the morning, I have prayed as I walk along. I have prayed in the silence and darkness, and I’ve prayed to the tune of a song.
I have prayed in the midst of a triumph, and I’ve prayed when I suffered defeat, I have prayed on the sands of the seashore where the waves of the ocean beat.
I have prayed in churches and chapels, cathedrals and synagogues, too. But often I had the feeling that my prayers were not getting through….
And I realized then that our Father is not really concerned when we pray, or impressed by our manner of worship of eloquent words that we say.
He is only concerned with our feelings, and He looks deep into our hearts and hears the cry of our souls’ deep need that no words could ever impart.
So it isn’t the prayer that’s expressive or offered in some special spot, that’s the sincere plea of a sinner, and God can tell whether or not…
We honestly seek His forgiveness and earnestly mean what we say, and then, and then only, God answers the prayers that we fervently pray.
Psalm 2:6
“Yet I have set My King On My holy hill of Zion.”
Psalm 10:16
The Lord is King forever and ever; The nations have perished out of His land.
Habakkuk 3:19
the Lord God is my strength, and He will make my feet like hinds’ feet and He will make me to walk upon mine high places. …
Romans 8:37
Yet, in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him that loved us.
I John 5:14 &15
And this is the confidence that we have in Him, that, if we ask any thing according to His will, He heareth us:
And if we know that He hear us, whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we desired of Him.
John 14:12
“Most assuredly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do he will do also; and greater works than these he will do, because I go to My Father.