We have been on an epic journey as a people, from Ur of the Chaldeians; when our ancestor Abraham took that first step into the unknown. He, hearing the calling of God, departed from his homeland in Mesopotamia to go into the land of Canaan; a land of one of the sons of Ham. And among these Hamites four generations of God's holy people emerged: Isaac, Jacob and his twelve sons and their sons- the twelve tribes Isreal. It is from this stock, we the so-called Black and Indian peoples of the Americas derive our decent.
We have traveled from that Canaan to this Canaan: Azareth, or being interpreated, Another country. We have gone from closeness with God and freedom, unto forgetting our God and captivity, as it is this day.
How do we change this, our current state? What must we do to be one with our God again? Can we become a people again? What will it take to break our chains of captivity and taste true freedom once more? What will be the conclusion of this epic journey?
The prophet Isaiah wrote the answer to these questions thousands of years ago in the book of God- the holy Bible. In the 30th chapter of book of Isaiah, he stated, " For thus saith the Lord God, the Holy One of Israel; In returning and rest shall ye be saved;...(Is. 30:15)." This verse, as simple as it is and clear as it is, holds one of the universal keys to understanding God and His divine purpose on earth, especially regarding His people Israel.
God requires one simple act of his people for their salvation and deliverance from their current state as captives and strangers in a distant land. The act of returning to him as it is written in the Bible, which is our light in the darkness. It means to come back to Him and to walk with Him as our father Abraham did throught faith. Faith defined through Abraham then, is this: to trust God without any doubt, without holding unto the world you're leaving behind, to believe in His promises, to follow His instructions with complete trust. It is to believe in the unseen. It is to have hope, without ever experiencing the physical presence of God or His ministers, the angels- His great army, in the overthrow of our enemies or the parting of seas. To come back again to God then, as his people, will demand that we posses this kind of faith like Abraham had.
To rest in God, like returning to him, is similar, but it progresses a step further. To rest in God, is to obey Him and only Him. In order to rest in something or someone indicates a sure confidence in that thing or someone. This is the similarity that rest has to returning and faith in God. They both demand our complete commitment to God: the provider of the rest and the one that calls us to return to Him.
Now, to find confidence and comfort in God , we must become students of his laws, statutes, and commandments and do them. The book of Deuteronomy 4th chapter is very clear on this point. It states that God's key instructions for His peoples survival and development as a nation is His law. It is Israel's wisdom and understanding before all nations, who shall witness the great successes that they obtain from obeying it, along with God's closeness to them in all they pray to God for ( Deut. 4:1-8).
The law is also called the word of God and the holy scriptures, in both testaments of the Bible. The apostle Paul, an Israelite, of the tribe of Benjamin, encouraged the believers of God's word to study it and learn it, so that it may impart to them patience and comfort unto hope in God. This is that same kind of rest implied by the prophet Isaiah; a rest that comes from knowing God's Law and practicing it so that with patience, comfort, and confidence in the truth, one can walk out his life's journey with a sure hope.
The Bible is our true guide with proven outcomes and help, as documented throughoutit's chapters, to those that apply it without doubt.
But, unfortunately, not all of us today, as in the past, will return and rest in God. Because, many of us refuse to accept these requirements of God. We, like Lot's wife, have become attached to the things of this world. We trust and hope in our oppressors, a kind of Stockholm syndrome, where we trauma bond with the systems and people causing us harm, hoping they will eventually see how lovely and good we are and love us. We have grown use to the things of this current world: the jobs, money, houses, blocks, hoods, cities, our colleges and universities, sports, the entertainment industry, sex, business, fashion and the latest cars, and newest tech, capitalism, the Democratic party, the Republican party, churches, Evangelicals, preachers, false apostles and prophets, Christian identity and white supremacy, American and Americanism. All these things have blinded us from who we really are. And we've become so attracted to them that salvation, rest, peace, and the ture confidence, which is, God, our Creator and father, will pass us by when He comes to gather His Chosen people Isael from the four corners of the earth in these last days, by His son, Christ, our Lord.
It's not hard to follow God. He doesn't require hard things of us. All He ask is that we have faith in the records He left us of Himself and His Son. He ask that we trust Him and keep his laws as your guide in the dark places of the earth. To return to God then, will demand our obedience to his ways and not our ways or the ways of our oppressors and this current world. We, just as our faithful ancestors, will have to have a sincere faith in God and an unmoveable confidence in His word in order that our hope will be in Him, and only Him, till He comes, once again, to take us back home to our homeland Isreal.
Shalam,
Zarach
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