The Testimony of the Scriptures
[Excerpt From God’s Active Sovereignty]
I urge you to search some of these scriptures and draw near to this God — the true God — who is actively sovereign, and not reactive to the schemes of evil. Look at how He punishes not only the wickedness on the earth, but even those whom He has chosen — His people. See the character of a loving Father toward a rebellious child. See a faithful Husband to an unfaithful bride. Indeed, these are not just cherry-picked verses from the breadth of Scriptures that are telling some other story. This IS the story, and it is crucial that we find our place in it and know God’s heart lest we misinterpret who He is and let our love grow cold as the culmination of the Scriptures draws near (Mt. 24:12).
To begin, let’s zoom out and look at the big picture of the story God is telling through Scripture, starting with Egypt and the Exodus for the sake of our study.
God’s people were essentially ‘birthed’ through slavery, growing up from 12 into a great multitude and then suffering a sort of ‘labor pains,’ and did God not multiply them all the more in the midst of this mistreatment, before being freed into the world to take a land of their own (Ex. 1:7–14) (Gen 35:11)?
When Moses followed God’s first instruction (Ex 5:1), things only got worse for a time (Ex. 5). I wish I knew how much time was passing, but surely days at least, without any follow-up instructions from the Lord. They did their job, and waited…and for a moment it looked like God had led them into a worse situation…so they questioned Him (Ex. 5:22). Of course, God graciously responds, and the next time He sends Moses, He tells him what to expect (Ex. 7:4). But even then, in obedience, it would seem that Israel goes through the first three plagues sent directly from God, for it’s only just before the fourth plague that God creates a dividing line and says that His people won’t be affected (Ex. 8:22–24). Would they not have suffered during these first three plagues? There were demonic forces at work (Ex 7) but would we argue against the fact that God was utterly in control of this whole epic story, which the Hebrew people still to this day point to as the birth of their nation and the focal point of their history, when their God brought them out of Egypt? I think it’s noteworthy that it was not void of tremendous struggle for them, forcing them to depend on God and determine that He had their best interests in mind. What great faith it would take to leave the abundant land of Goshen and everything they knew (indeed they were often tempted (in the midst of their future trials) to actually return to slavery and familiarity (Num 11:4–6, 11:18, 14:2–4, 20:2–5, 21:4–5)), but they needed to learn dependence on God before they got there; what good is God’s land without relationship with God Himself (Ex. 33:15, Ps 73:25–26)?
It seems that there is no deliverance, no new life and abundant blessing, but that which comes through trials.
What a mystery indeed, that we can draw near to God who is indeed fearful, and yet be confident that He lovingly tests and refines us to make us holy (Ex. 20:18–21, Heb 4:14–16). Were not the Israelites quickly approaching a time (Exodus 32), where they would have great need for this testing referred to in Ex 20:20? Can’t it be said that God’s loving preparations, refinements, and lessons, may be painful and fearful at the time, and yet will prove incredibly valuable later (Heb 12:11)?
Might we say the Lord was preparing and purifying His bride, Israel?
This takes us to God’s marriage covenant between Him and His people (Israel) at Mount Sinai.
To the Jewish reader reading the Hebrew text, Mount Sinai (and even the Abrahamic covenant prior to Sinai) has ‘wedding’ written all over it (for more information on this, see “Sinai To Zion” Part 1, Bema Discipleship season 1, episode 10 and season 1, episode 22). God intended to marry this people (Israel) as His bride, and to partner with her in His work on the earth. That is, to ‘put the world back together’ after the fall, and to persist in the original work of the garden, filling the earth with humans who reflect His character and glorify Him while cultivating, expanding, and protecting His created order with beauty and righteousness. Indeed, God’s election doesn’t come without mission and purpose, a privileged ambassadorship and priesthood to carry out His work on the earth. From the very beginning God defined the terms of this partnership, this eternal covenant.
Deut 28 is worth a bit of time. This chapter essentially sets the stage for a repetitive story we will see played out through the rest of Scripture. The people have been betrothed to their God, and have honeymooned with Him in the wilderness. In Deuteronomy, Moses provides some commentary for all that has taken place, and we see that discipline is very much a part of the story of the Lord’s greatness and love toward His people (Deut 4:32–40, specifically v.36). As Moses continues to recap all that has happened in the previous generation to the new generation, Deut 8 gives us a great picture of God’s loving discipline, in the context of all the incredible bounty that He is giving His children. I suggest reading the short chapter, but note verses 5 and 16 in particular. As you keep reading Deuteronomy, you’ll see this continue to come up; in chapter 11, Moses says “consider the discipline of the Lord your God…and what He did to the army of Egypt…and what He did to you in the wilderness…for your eyes have seen all the great work of the Lord that He did.” (11:1–7) Now in chapter 28, Moses’ final words to this new generation spell out what the future will hold for Israel according to whether they either keep the terms of the covenant or don’t, and accordingly receive either God’s blessings or curses. It goes something like this:
Israel breaks the covenant and commits idolatry
God disciplines them first with various national calamities
The land is invaded.
The people are exiled from the land.
They repent.
The Lord restores them back to the land.
As is common in Scripture, there are smaller micro-stories which point to the bigger overarching narrative. In the context of this theme, we can look at the book of Judges, where we see a similar repeated theme that looks very similar to the main story being told:
The stories of Judges is not really one of these bigger stories because Israel isn’t actually exiled from their land and doesn’t incur all of the covenant curses, but we might argue that the writer of Judges (and God) beckons the reader to consider the broader narrative and to remember the blessings and curses that God promised through Moses in Deut 28 as they are continually doing the things that warrant the curses. As such, we should consider the patience of God. It is impossible not to read through Judges and see that God loves to show mercy. The few times that God doesn’t seem to do what He says He will do always have a mercifully positive outcome for people who deserve His wrath (Jonah 3:10, Ex. 32:14, Ex 33). We can never say, “God changed His mind and punished them,” but we can often say, “God said He would punish them but chose to show mercy instead.” His bent is toward mercy. He punishes those who hate Him to the third or fourth generation (Deut 5:9–10) and yet shows mercy to those who keep His covenant to the thousandth generation (Deut 7:9–10). God is making a point with this 3:1000 or 4:1000 ratio. This is why some argue (https://www.bemadiscipleship.com/36) that even though many might call this cycle in the book of Judges a ‘sin cycle,’ it is more accurately a ‘redemption cycle.’ God’s heart and sovereignty is seen most clearly in the entirety of the cycle, which is characterized by patience, mercy, and redemption/restoration.
We could even zoom further in on these ‘mini-cycles’ and draw smaller circles to represent this similar process in the life of an individual as they pointed to the continual provision of forgiveness and restoration within God’s ordained sacrificial system, which was kind of a small-scale version of the great national restoration expected.
And indeed, a great national restoration should be expected. There will sadly be one final exile of the Jewish people from the land of Israel at the hands of the antichrist (Mt. 24), and Jesus, Yeshua, our [Jewish] Messiah is coming back to gather the people of Israel from the wilderness and march them gloriously back into the land a final time, the final exodus, restoring their hearts to Him (Ezekiel 36–37), destroying the antichrist (Ezekiel 38–39), and building a new temple in Jerusalem to rule and to reign from for a thousand years (Ezekiel 40–48).
(Recommended reading: “Sinai To Zion” and “When A Jew Rules The World” by Joel Richardson)
Israel had to pass through the ‘brick kiln’ before the first Exodus (Ex 5:7–21, 6:1–9) and things increasingly got worse for her through the plagues before she spent time in the wilderness with the Lord her Husband, honeymooning and learning who He is. Finally He ‘rested’ her in the land (2 Sam 7:1) (just like Adam was ‘rested’ in the Garden (Gen 2:15)) and made the other nations who remained in the land pass through the ‘brick kiln’ (2 Sam 12:31). In the same way, during the final cycle, the final exile, the final exodus, she will again pass through a process of purification which will increase in intensity before Messiah returns and leads her out of the wilderness back into the land, and where the nations that came against her will finally be judged by fire at the hands of Messiah (Joel 3).
(Recommended study: “The End Of The Age” by FAI)
As Gabe Caliguiri rightly states, “Just as the Bridegroom Himself was battered and bloodied, the bride will be battered and bloodied during the time of ‘Jacob’s Trouble,’ (Jer 2, 4, 11, 14, 15, 16, 51, etc) which is the ‘Great Tribulation’ (Mt. 24, Rev 2, 7). Both Head and Body endure (and overcome) an “hour when darkness reigns.” The Greater Moses will lead His people out of bondage by greater plagues, signs, wonders. The Greater Joshua will invade the Land & conquer it. The Greater David will subdue all enemies & take His throne. The Greater Solomon will judge the nations with wisdom, power and glory.”
It should not surprise us that there is a ‘Great Tribulation’ just before Jesus returns — that the Light of the world comes back in the midst of the darkest darkness the world has ever known. It should not surprise us that God uses the imagery of a woman in labor for this fact. He’s built this into His created order so that all may know that new life comes through a process of incredible pain. It should not surprise us that He is coming back for a bride who is pure and that she will have been purified through fire. God’s people will increasingly long for Messiah’s coming, not because of gossip and exciting geopolitics, but because of injustice, evil, and sorrow.
It should also not surprise us that this future period of time takes us back to our discussion of the wilderness. The desert — the very same desert where Moses, Israel, Elijah, Paul, and Jesus spent time — is where Jesus tells the people to flee to in the final Jewish exile at the hands of the antichrist (Mt. 24:16, Rev 12:6), and where He Himself brings her and nourishes her and allures her and speaks tenderly to her, where she repents and trusts in Messiah, and where He will save them from their captivity and hiding and bring them back into the land (Rev 12:14, Hosea 2).
This is the story of Scripture. This is the story of the Jewish family that we Gentiles have been grafted into as a wild branch grafted into “their” tree (Rom 9–11). God betrothed this people, Israel, at Sinai. Thus, His faithfulness and character is at stake if He does not restore them and consummate the marriage. If, as so many suppose, God divorced this people (Israel) for a younger and more beautiful and obedient wife (the Church), then how can this new bride presume upon His faithfulness? Rather, there has always been one bride and God is undeniably and steadfastly faithful to her. Gentiles are grafted into her, into the Jewish family, by faith, and look forward to the final marriage ceremony with our [Jewish] Husband and King. The Jew will be humbled that the Gentile was allowed in, and the Gentile will be humbled that the story is not about them. It is about God being abundant in mercy and loving whomever He will (Rom 9–11). Consider this article or this poem on this topic.
