God intervenes in our lives when we invite Him into it! Jesus is the fulfillment of God’s promises to Abraham and David. By faith they believed those promises. By faith so do we!
There is a period of time set aside to bring in the Body of Christ.
Luke 4:16-19 So He came to Nazareth, where He had been brought up. And as His custom was, He went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day, and stood up to read. 17 And He was handed the book of the prophet Isaiah. And when He had opened the book, He found the place where it was written: 18 “The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, Because He has anointed Me To preach the gospel to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, To proclaim liberty to the captives And recovery of sight to the blind, To set at liberty those who are oppressed; 19 To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord.”
While in the synagogue Jesus proclaimed who He was. The Redeemer King of the Jews, Jesus, stopped before Isaiah’s prophesy of the the day of vengeance.
Isaiah 61:2-3
To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord,
And the day of vengeance of our God;
To comfort all who mourn,
3 To console those who mourn in Zion,
To give them beauty for ashes,
The oil of joy for mourning,
The garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness;
That they may be called trees of righteousness,
The planting of the Lord, that He may be glorified.”
Isaiah preached of the coming of the Lord and the days of tribulation that would come upon the earth.
Romans 11:5-12 Even so then, at this present time there is a remnant according to the election of grace. 6 And if by grace, then it is no longer of works; otherwise grace is no longer grace. But if it is of works, it is no longer grace; otherwise work is no longer work. 7 What then? Israel has not obtained what it seeks; but the elect have obtained it, and the rest were blinded.
8 Just as it is written:
“God has given them a spirit of stupor,
Eyes that they should not see
And ears that they should not hear,
To this very day.”
9 And David says: “Let their table become a snare and a trap, A stumbling block and a recompense to them. 10 Let their eyes be darkened, so that they do not see, And bow down their back always.” Israel’s 11 I say then, have they stumbled that they should fall? Certainly not! But through their fall, to provoke them to jealousy, salvation has come to the Gentiles. 12 Now if their fall is riches for the world, and their failure riches for the Gentiles, how much more their fullness!
The nation of Israel was temporarily blinded to the deity of the Son of God by their unbelief. In their season of unbelief the Gentiles, the Body of Christ, was formed. When the fullness of the Gentiles is complete then Jesus will return to His chosen people, the Israelites. Carla
Remnant refers to a small number of people who remain faithful to God despite the unfaithfulness of others around them. In Romans, the remnant is composed of Jews who have put their faith in Christ. The existence of this remnant is proof that God has not rejected all of Israel. Paul reminds his audience that God’s election of a remnant is based on His grace, and not on works. The elect Identifies those who are part of God’s people due to His sovereign choice. Paul combines three partial quotations (Deuteronomy 29:4; Isaiah 29:10; 6:9). Each one comments on the Israelites’ failure to recognize God’s work among them. The inability of the senses relates to Romans 10:14–18, where Paul asked if Israel had “heard” the gospel message. Jesus also quoted Isaiah 6:9 in relation to the religious leaders’ blindness. In Romans 11:9–10, Paul quotes Psalm 69:22–23, implying that the Jews stumbled over Christ and failed to recognize Him as the Messiah. All four gospels reference Psalm 68 in relation to Jesus’ crucifixion (Matthew 27:34; Mark 15:23; Luke 23:36; John 2:17; 19:18), suggesting that Paul is again identifying Jesus’ death by crucifixion as the cause of stumbling for the Jews.
The quotation from Psalm 69:23 describes God’s judgment upon faithless Israel: They will experience spiritual blindness and will be unable to recognize God’s work among them. Israel is not past the point of redemption.
Paul’s word of trespass recalls the references to the transgressions of Adam and humanity earlier in the letter (Romans 4:25; 5:15–20). This declaration relates to the historical sequence of salvation described in the book of Acts. Peter first preached the gospel to the Jews at Pentecost (Acts 2). Then, because of the threat of persecution, many believers fled to Judaea and Samaria and consequently reached Gentiles (Acts 8:1–3). Likewise, Paul initially went to synagogues, but when the Jews rejected the gospel, he turned to the Gentiles (Acts 13:46–47; 18:5–6). Faithlife Study Bible
Paul cites Elijah as an illustration. Elijah thought that the whole nation of Israel had fallen away, but he was wrong. The remnant in Elijah’s day was proof that God had not cast off His people, and the remnant in Paul’s day was continuing proof of His faithfulness.
If by the grace of God, then it is no longer of works: Grace and works are mutually exclusive. God’s election was established solely on the basis of grace.
What Israel seeks is righteousness. The elect have obtained righteousness by faith. The others were blinded because they did not believe. Paul quotes Isaiah and David to show that Israel’s spiritual indifference was a continual pattern. Their rejection of Christ would bring untold misery on the nation.
Does Israel’s rejection mean the end of God’s program for the nation? Certainly not! Israel’s unbelief brought salvation … to the Gentiles, and it will ultimately lead to Israel’s salvation. The nation of Israel, chosen by God to receive salvation, will be saved along with believing Gentiles, resulting in great blessing for everyone. The NKJV Study Bible
Psalm 69:22–23
Let their table become a snare before them,
And their well-being a trap.
Let their eyes be darkened, so that they do not see;
And make their loins shake continually.
Isaiah 29:10
For the LORD has poured out on you
The spirit of deep sleep,
And has closed your eyes, namely, the prophets;
And He has covered your heads, namely, the seers.
Romans 11:25 For I do not desire, brethren, that you should be ignorant of this mystery, lest you should be wise in your own opinion, that blindness in part has happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in.
Deuteronomy 29:3–4 the great trials which your eyes have seen, the signs, and those great wonders. Yet the LORD has not given you a heart to perceive and eyes to see and ears to hear, to this very day.
Matthew 13:13–15 Therefore I speak to them in parables, because seeing they do not see, and hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand. And in them the prophecy of Isaiah is fulfilled, which says:‘Hearing you will hear and shall not understand, And seeing you will see and not perceive
In a world where people often need to see to believe, faith can seem like a stretch. It requires trust in a God who is not usually visible, though He is always present. Still, other unseen realities like wind, gravity, cell phone signals and iCloud storage remind us not everything of value can be seen or touched. Some of life's greatest gifts, like love, loyalty and hope, are intangible, yet they profoundly impact our hearts and guide our actions.
Abram was a man of faith who had numerous reasons, like his old age and his wife's barrenness, to doubt God's promise of offspring who would outnumber the stars (Genesis 15:5). Yet Abram believed that the God who is invisible would do what seemed impossible. First5
To sit still is a spiritual endeavor.
To sit still is to practice Sabbath–meaning literally, to quit.
To stop. To savor uncluttered time.
To be gentle with yourself.
And yes, to waste time with God.
Because sometimes, without even knowing it, we need times and space to decompress.
We need times and space to be at home in our own skin.
We need times and space just for puttering and futzing.
We need times and space to live quietly.
And here’s the good news: from that “power of pause” space, we are saturated (yes, and I love that verb) with the capacity and wherewithal to spill kindness and empathy and compassion and replenishment to the world around us. Sabbath Moments
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