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Issue link: http://magazine.kcm.org/i/1463174
Notice, God didn’t give the Israelites His commandments to make life hard for them. He didn’t tell them how to live and what to do because He wanted to boss them around and burden them with a lot of unnecessary rules. God gave them His Word to obey because His Word is His wisdom, and walking in God’s wisdom would make the Israelites 100% victorious. It would enable them to defeat all their enemies; take possession of everything God had provided for them; put God’s greatness on display in their lives so the nations around them could see His goodness and power; and live near to God so that when they called on Him, He could hear and do for them what they asked. Wow! Talk about a wonderful way to live! Any one of those benefits should have been enough to convince the Israelites to hear and do what God said. So, you’d think that from then on, they would have followed His plan. But they didn’t. Instead, God would tell them over and over what to do, and they’d do something different. They’d go their own way, get out from under God’s blessing and the curse would come on them. Then the devil would start stealing from them, killing them and destroying them. Often, after living under the curse for a while, the Israelites would turn back to God. When they did, because He’s so good and merciful, He always took them back. Sadly, however, they kept repeating the cycle, which not only cost them but also grieved the Lord: “O that there were such an heart in them, that they would fear me, and keep all my commandments always,” He said, “that it might be well with them, and with their children for ever!” (Deuteronomy 5:29). “But Gloria,” you might say, “the Israelites were living under the old covenant. What they did doesn’t have anything to do with us as new covenant believers today.” Yes, it does. According to 1 Corinthians 10:11, the things the Israelites did under the old covenant were written for our benefit. Their mistakes were recorded to serve as examples to us of what not to do. Granted, we have a lot of advantages today that they didn’t have. We have a better covenant with better promises, a covenant that’s established in Jesus’ precious blood. But as I said before, God’s plan hasn’t changed. His desire for us as His new covenant people is the same as it was for His old covenant people. He desires for us to live in victory. For us to take authority over the devil and drive sin, sickness, poverty and every other work of Satan out of our lives. God wants us to dwell in our new covenant promised land, take possession of everything that belongs to us in Christ, and walk in “the blessing of Abraham” (Galatians 3:14). What’s more, God’s plan is for us, like the Israelites, to be billboards for Him. He wants everyone around us to be able to see His blessing on us. He wants to be able to manifest His power so fully in our lives that it causes nations to tremble—to do so many good things for us that people look at us and think, I need to find out more about this God these Christians keep talking about! BVOV : 7