20.m. “Has God rejected his people?”

Romans 11:1   I ask, then, has God rejected his people?

Psalms 77:7     “Will the Lord spurn forever, and never again be favorable?

Amos 9:8-9    Behold, the eyes of the Lord GOD are upon the sinful kingdom, and I will destroy it from the surface of the ground, except that I will not utterly destroy the house of Jacob,” declares the LORD.  “For behold, I will command, and shake the house of Israel among all the nations as one shakes with a sieve, but no pebble shall fall to the earth.

Hosea 9:17   My God will reject them because they have not listened to him; they shall be wanderers among the nations.

When a person, city, town, state, or nation has an attitude of deadness towards spiritual things of God it is easy to see how people would ask Has God rejected His people?  These “people” are those who should know God and what is pleasing to Him.  Rather than have an attitude towards spiritual things of God, they have replaced this attitude with an attitude of human origin – doing what is right in their own eyes – and they have a deadness towards things of God.  In this deadness, their eyes have become blind and their ears deaf.  It is not that God has rejected them first and they had no choice, but rather, they chose to reject God and His plan of salvation through Jesus Christ.  It is in this state of rejection that Paul says “has God rejected his people?”  Is there no hope for them?  Has it been set in stone? Loving parents will discipline their children for willful disobedience.  Does this mean the parents have rejected their child?  Does this mean the parents have abandoned their child?  God will discipline in order that some may come to their senses and call out to Him and when they do He is there with open arms.  Others will remain the course they are on and continue rejecting the spiritual things of God.  They will keep trying to perform their way into good favor with God.  They will try to do it on their own, doing what is right in their own eyes and thereby remaining spiritually dead in these attempts of self-reliance.  Though they may feel good about themselves, they are blind and deaf to God’s rejection of them. Any human claim of being good enough to receive salvation through Jesus Christ is to reject the sufficiency in what He has done.  Sin carries the penalty of death in this life and carries forward into eternity with eternal hell and torment.  Though the curse of sin results in our physical death, it does not need to result in eternal hell and torment. We can have eternal life in heaven.  “For God so loved the world, that He gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believed in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.”  Spiritual blindness and deafness happen when we try to add anything other than complete humble surrender, belief, trust, reliance, and obedience in/on Jesus Christ.  In no way can we ever be right with God by any other means or approach to salvation.

10.f. “I will fix my eyes upon them for evil and not for good.”

Amos 9:1  I saw the Lord standing beside the altar, and he said: “Strike the capitals until the thresholds shake, and shatter them on the heads of all the people; and those who are left of them I will kill with the sword; not one of them shall flee away; not one of them shall escape.  “If they dig into Sheol, from there shall my hand take them; if they climb up to heaven, from there I will bring them down. If they hide themselves on the top of Carmel, from there I will search them out and take them; and if they hide from my sight at the bottom of the sea, there I will command the serpent, and it shall bite them. And if they go into captivity before their enemies, there I will command the sword, and it shall kill them; and I will fix my eyes upon them for evil and not for good.”

Deuteronomy 28:15    But it shall come to pass, if you do not obey the voice of the Lord your God… And it shall be, that just as the LORD rejoiced over you to do you good and multiply you, so the LORD will rejoice over you to destroy you and bring you to nothing; and you shall be plucked from off the land which you go to possess.

Leviticus 26:23     And if by these things you are not reformed by Me, but walk contrary to Me, then I also will walk contrary to you, and I will punish you yet seven times for your sins. And I will bring a sword against you that will execute the vengeance of the covenant.

This was God’s way of telling Israel that they could run, but they could not hide from Him and His judgment. Even if they tried to dig into hell or climb up to heaven, they could not escape their responsibility before God. A high mountain (Carmel) or the bottom of the sea could not hide them from judgment.  I will set My eyes on them for harm and not for good: An essential part of the Old Covenant was the promise of blessing or cursing based on Israel’s obedience. If Israel was in chronic, systemic disobedience, they could expect that God’s eye toward them would be for harm and not for good.

How much better is it to live under the blessings of God?  Who would choose to take harm over good, and yet we do this every day we choose to walk paths disobedient to what it means to honor, glorify, follow, trust, and obey Jesus Christ.  Walking each day with Jesus Christ is an intentional choice to deny self and live for Him. Life has a way of capturing our focus and it does it very subtly.  Soon we find ourselves adopting things into our lives that are not honoring Jesus Christ or to our benefit.  Keep a deep hunger and thirst for not only honoring Him but for growing in wisdom and understanding of His Word>