GOD OF A SMALL NATION

Suresh Manoharan – Hyderabad, India

For a good 2000 years of its scriptural history tracing back to the call of that Father of Faith Abraham…the Almighty Creator has indeed been God of this small Nation in West Asia, Israel. Its land area is only 0.85% of our great country of India? Israel celebrated its 66th year of “rebirth” on May 14th. Now what is it about Israel that interests all keen Bible students? The reason is simple and profound. The world’s future events are inter-twined with Israel’s second birth, as it were. Yours Truly has attempted to bring to the fore the significance of Israel to all follower’s of the Lord God.

Israel’s selection in God’s grand scheme of things to bring the Savior and Salvation to this world can be put down to His grace alone. Firstly calling Abraham out from his idol-worshiping relatives and entering into a covenant with him (Gen. 12:1-4, & Ch. 15, & Joshua 24:2-3). “The Lord did not set his love on you nor choose you because you were more in number than any of the peoples, for you were the fewest of all peoples, but because the Lord loved you and kept the oath which He swore to your forefathers, the Lord brought you out by a mighty hand and redeemed you from the house of slavery, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt” – Deut. 7:7-8.

Israeli liberation from the Egyptian captivity foreshadowed the Redemption plan which Christ by His atoning death on the cross completed. Anyone who puts his trust on Christ to take away his sins, immediately experiences liberation from a slavery far more dangerous than the Egyptian bondage – SIN. God did not liberate the Jews from their slavery because they were good and holy but rather to make them good and holy. The Law was given to them after their liberation and not prior to it. Similarly Jesus liberates a Christian from sin to make for Himself a “Holy Bride.” He uses His Word and the Spirit to mold a saved Christian into a spotless, beautiful bride ready for the ethereal marriage (Rev. 19:7-9).

continued