Mike
Scriptures:
Genesis 1
Deuteronomy 32:8-12
Psalm 139
Jeremiah 31:3
Malachi 3:16-17
Charles Spurgeon said: “How are they his? By his own sovereign choice. He chose them, and set his love upon them. This he did altogether apart from any goodness in them at the time, or any goodness which he foresaw in them. He had mercy on whom he would have mercy, and ordained a chosen company unto eternal life; thus, therefore, are they his by his unconstrained election. They are not only his by choice, but by purchase. He has bought and paid for them to the utmost farthing, hence about his title there can be no dispute. Not with corruptible things, as with silver and gold, but with the precious blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord’s portion has been fully redeemed. There is no mortgage on his estate; no suits can be raised by opposing claimants, the price was paid in open court, and the Church is the Lord’s freehold forever. See the blood-mark upon all the chosen, invisible to human eye, but known to Christ, for “the Lord knoweth them that are his”; he forgetteth none of those whom he has redeemed from among men; he counts the sheep for whom he laid down his life, and remembers well the Church for which he gave himself”.
Out of tremendous desire to share Himself, God, in His foreknowledge saw the family that one day He would spend Eternity with, revealing His person and nature to them. In the first chapter of Genesis, God’s beautiful creation, we read how over the void, the Spirit of God, Ruach Elohim, moved/fluttered upon the face of the waters. Then in Deuteronomy 32, we hear that same word Rachaph – Fluttering or moved, used to describe how God likens Himself to the eagle who shows so much care, love and intense watching over their young family. This is how God hovers, ever watchful, over us, His Family.
He places each one of his children into a spot called time, a point at which He would call them to know Him as intimately as He knows them. He is the far-travelled Light of the world. The creator of the universe Who voluntarily left His throne and made a portion of Himself visible, and, in doing so, created the greatest chasm that humanity could ever cross. From Infinite Majesty to death on a Roman cross, that we might be ransomed from death.
Both David, in Psalm 139, and Jeremiah, in chapter 31:3, one of the leading themes of the scriptures, saw that they were known and greatly loved before the foundation of the world. And in Malachi, God’s children are likened to precious jewels, who He will spare as a man spares his own son. Jewels and precious stones are seen by men as highly valuable, and God has chosen to indicate His love for His family through what man regards so highly. it is an intense expression of God’s Love towards His family. My struggle is to believe that God loves me as much as his own Son.
Scripture tells us, “For the Lord's portion is his people, Jacob is the lot of His inheritance.” This is the reason why the Lord so early provided a portion or inheritance for the children of Israel in the land of Canaan; because they were His part, His portion, His inheritance, which He chose for Himself, or allotted to Himself; whom He chose to be His special and peculiar people Yet out of His great, peculiar, jealous guardianship for those He wishes for Himself, He allows failure and defeat, rebuke and tender correction, a narrow way and a strait gate. He lets us fail where others will succeed.
We go unnoticed and defeated while others gain honour and recognition. God makes us small and helpless dependent children out of His love that we may see and know Him as our ever present, loving, protective Father.
God has an infinite anticipation for our Last Day, in the meantime, as we look forward to the day we shall see Him face to Face, we can set our faces to know Him more intimately and deeply, as His precious children.
Prayer: God in mercy, grant us Your Grace to see and absorb how much You love us and desire us to be Your family. As we come to know You more, reveal to us that we are loved by You, as much as You loved Your only Son, Jesus Christ. Amen
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