and we all saw just how well all the religious leaders understood the Word made flesh!
I have to admit
it is a very difficult matter to come to grips with.
so much for them thinking they knew the law, the vail over their heart did not permit them to see the truth.
They could not. God Himself blinded them and did not give them a heart to see or perceive. The very last thing on my mind is to blame any of them when it was Divinely Purposed.
If we looked at how harshly the Jews have been treated over their interactions with God they deserve every bit of MERCY we can find for them all.
And that IS Gods Sight of them as well.
but the prophets knew Christ and Moses knew Christ.
Moses died in the desert because of UNbelief.
Does that mean Moses is now or will be in the future burning alive forever or is or will be eternally dead?
Some blinded people actually see it that way. Pity on such sights.
however it was hidden from most people,
Don't you find it pretty incredible that how many ever thousands or even millions by some estimates came out of Egypt by the Direct Hand of God and yet ALL of them over the age of 20 died in the desert from UNbelief except TWO!!!
To me that is just an amazing statement of fact. Just amazing!
After seeing ALL of that they still died from UNbelief!!! Nearly every last one of them.
God in Israel was certainly no TEMPORAL favor to them when it came to DIRE JUDGMENTS.
There is much to be learned about God in Christ from ALL of those engagements. I would not be so quick to toss those lessons aside.
People paid for them WITH THEIR LIVES and FOR US.
and when Jesus came, it was manifest to many more people than it had been, because Jesus is awesome. the religious leaders kill the prophets and build their tombs. woe are they for they do not enter the kingdom of God and refuse to let others enter, their vain blindness make God into a lamb with a dragons voice.
If Jesus wanted to He could strike every last one of us down just like He did with Paul and voila, EVERYONE would believe.
But He doesn't.
wicked wolves in sheeps clothing! being blind and leading others to their pit. woe to them, for they exalted themselves as wise, though they had evil hearts and love money and they desire the respect from men rather than God. they murdered Christ because they don't know God.
Jesus' Own Disciples were sent out as sheep in wolves cloth.
Matthew 10:16
Behold,
I send you forth as sheep in the midst of
wolves:
be ye therefore
wise as serpents, and harmless as doves.
The above statement was not about 'them and the other people' but about THEM.
if only they would have kept the passover feast, then they would have gotten rid of all their wicked leaven.
It's perhaps quite a bit more interesting.
What a lot of believers don't see about Law is that it is just as much judgment about and against these POWERS:
Ephesians 6:12
For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but
against principalities,
against powers,
against the rulers of the darkness of this world,
against spiritual wickedness in high places.
All of these 'bolded' matters exist in and with man in the flesh. It's not about 'us' and the 'other people.' Those matters we wrestle with, personally.
Nevertheless WE are CHILDREN OF GOD who are called to and rise up into BATTLE with these matters.
God has commanded LIGHT to shine from DARKNESS.
Few of us perceive where that darkness IS.
It is withIN US.
There, let the battle begin.
s