To Be A Blessing To The Nations

Jeremiah 4: 1-2

"O Israel," says the Lord, "if you wanted to return to Me, you could. You could throw away your detestable idols and stray away no more. Then when you swear by My Name, saying, 'As surely as the Lord lives,' you could do so with truth, justice and righteousness. Then you would be a blessing to the Nations of the World, and all people would come and praise My Name."

This was God's intention for choosing Israel out of all the other Nations. He gave this people His Laws for them to demonstrate to the World how good life can be when it is lived according to His rules. 

But Israel never did fully implement the whole body of Laws for long. Not long enough to really get into their minds and hearts how good God is, and how good His statutes are for regulating their thinking processes and daily lives. Their whole history shows them constantly being drawn away from God's Laws by all the false gods and idols of the peoples around them. 

And now, in these days today, God has placed a veil over their hearts (II Corinthians 3:15), as He deals with His Church. But even today, when individuals of Israel's tribes realize Jesus is their Messiah and turn to Him, they become members of His church, His bride, also. 

And today, we don't "see" those idols and false gods in our midst, but they are still there! We just call them by different names. Instead of Molech we call it abortion. Instead of Baalim and Ashtaroth we give them Saints' and Angels' names. We call the "Queen of Heaven" by the name of Jesus' mother, and call her the Mother of God. We call on Baal of Peor and say that we have sexual freedom to commit fornication. 

We put our trust in our own ability to earn money, when it is God Who gives us this ability (Deuteronomy 8:18). We tend to believe Satan's lie to Eve, when he told her that she could be able to make her own decisions without bothering God, that she could be her own god; and we are smart, we are able to make all our own decisions. But our thoughts and choices are not God's thoughts or choices for us, and we find ourselves in trouble with trials and sorrows as a result of our own decisions and life-styles.

The World will always be susceptible to the enemy's deceits, but God's Church should know better. I pray that God would continue to wake up His own people to see how this world is drawing us all down into the paths that lead to death; and make sure they're on the right path, that narrow road that leads to Life. And live our lives as lights in the darkness of this world system, to show them that God is good, and His ways are the right ways for all of us.

And any Nation that chooses to turn to our Creator and Lord to learn His ways and follow His path--that Nation can be the one to be the "city on a hill that cannot be hid" (Matthew 5:14), to shine His light into the World, and be a blessing to them all. 

Even so, come, Lord Jesus!