God's Vision

"I will say to those called 'Not my people, ' 'You are my people'; and they will say, 'You are my God.' " (from Hosea 2:23 )

Open invitation

"I do not want you to be ignorant of this mystery, brothers (and sisters), so that you may not be conceited: Israel has experienced a hardening in part until the full number of the Gentiles has come in . And so all Israel will be saved, as it is written: "The deliverer will come from Zion; he will turn godlessness away from Jacob. And this is my covenant with them when I take away their sins." As far as the gospel is concerned, they are enemies on your account; but as far as election is concerned, they are loved on account of the patriarchs, for God’s gifts and his call are irrevocable. Just as you who were at one time disobedient to God have now received mercy as a result of their disobedience, so they too have now become disobedient in order that they too may now receive mercy as a result of God’s mercy to you. For God has bound all men over to disobedience so that he may have mercy on them all." (Romans 11:25-32)

Thus God's vision covers all of all humanity: male and female, young and old, wealthy or poor, sick or healthy, black or white. God is not limited to artibitrary human divisions of race, colour, nationality, denomination, gender, political alliances, cultural history. God does not see reconciliation through our works or our history, but rather through our faith in Him and willingness to abide within His covenants.

This third I will bring into the fire; I will refine them like silver and test them like gold. They will call on my name and I will answer them; I will say, 'They are my people,' and they will say, 'The LORD is our God.' " ( Zechariah 13:9 )

Enough!

In Genesis 22 , God tests Abraham's faith by calling for the sacrifice of his son to Sarah, Isaac. Isaac dutifully prepared the wood and took the wood on a donkey with his son and a knife to a mountain.

When they reached the place God had told him about, Abraham built an altar there and arranged the wood on it. He bound his son Isaac and laid him on the altar, on top of the wood. Then he reached out his hand and took the knife to slay his son. But the angel of the LORD called out to him from heaven, "Abraham! Abraham!"
      "Here I am," he replied.

"Do not lay a hand on the boy," he said. "Do not do anything to him. Now I know that you fear God, because you have not withheld from me your son, your only son." (Genesis 22:9-12)

There are moments in history where we sacrifice child after child and are so entangled in the deceiver's illusions that we can no longer hear the voice of God calling us to desist. We are leaving such a moment, where billions of souls were meaninglessly sacrificied to prove their loyalty; or were intimidated, mutilated and sacrificed by those enslaved by the deceiver's delusions. By 2005 the only way to stop the debarkle of unnecessary descecration and destruction was for God Himself to intervene and say "Enough!" He is now trying to woo humanity out of the jaws of distress  Job 36:16-21 .

This is not the first time that the biblical God has directly intervened. The bible cites example after example of God restoring sanity and decency to those who repent, accept God's full authority and abide within His covenants. It is not surprising to see recurring patterns in the bible, like in the rest of creation, there are fractal patterns, and those who are full of pride and the whisperings of the deceiver recognise themselves and foolishly think it gives them license to act out their vile delusions. Thus biblical revelation often parallels and builds on precedent, thus there are some common recurring themes and a tendency to evolve into more abstract definitions. For example the pattern of idolatory evolves from the physically visible e.g. wooden idols, to figurative imagery e.g. kingship, to metaphysical models e.g. paradigms.

This is not surprising, considering that for all our intellect, humans are still mammals with reproductive and survival urges. Issues of viable family or society structures, controlling reproduction or sexuality, drives for domination or security, mitigating fear or pride, recognising and managing disorders such as sociopathy and narcissm are not new. They are an intrinsic part of what it is to be human. 

Another recurring theme are those who crave power and domination colluding to create social structures that garnish them wealth and secure their position. God's vision is for a reconciled humanity that can see beyond the short term to more enduring possibilities. God grants the grace of the Holy Spirit to enable such souls to espouse godly wisdom and to lay down tracks towards more positive and pleasing futures. However, God also knows that such prophetic souls are often despised by those who have control of corrupt systems and that such souls are often violated or killed. God is particurly wrathful when such distortions are done by the priestly castes, and doubly wrathful when the priestly castes collude with the state or military authorities to justify repression, desecration and destruction of God's creation, particularly oter human beings.

One way the biblical God mitigates against such perversion is to give such souls enough time to make fully manifest the depth and breadth of their disorder, and then when they can no longer hide what they are, God moves to expose the truth. (Thus these souls can not dispute God's assessment of their character nor dispute God's right to mete out justice e.g. Job 34:21-20 ).For those of non-biblical background, if you want to invoke the wrath of God, start a Holy War in God's name based on lies and self-interest. You're bound to get God's attention and in due course God's appropriate justice e.g.  Job 35:4-8 and Job 36:1-12 .

Rebellion

"Yet they rebelled and grieved His Holy Spirit. So he turned and became their enemy and He Himself fought against them." ( Isaiah 63:10 )

There are periods when the deceiver and minions have the priestly castes so enmeshed in snares that the only way out is for God to do the unexpected. Because humanity loves precedent and the deceiver loves to deny and sabotage God's creation, the bible also foreshadows precedents that have not yet been made manifest but are part of God's reconciliation plan. For example: Psalm 9:1-16

Thus the biblical precedents and foreshadowings give fair warning on the character of God, the scope of God's power and authority, and clear boundaries that are not to be violated. In more prudent times, the deceiver and his minions recognise that if they over-indulge their excesses they will invoke the wrath of God, and these periods in history have reduced atrocities and the deceiver's activies are more covert. However, there are times in history where they think that God is gone or ignoring earth, and they go full-pelt to garnish as much power as possible and to pervert as many souls as possible.

It is very dark times in history when misogynistic pedophilic sociopaths openly collude to intimidate and violate individuals and whole societies and act out their visions towards world domination. 

Spoilt Children

Isaiah wrote when there was a belief that God's people only covered the Jewish nation, and there are examples in the Old Testmant where the Jewish sages prayed to God for victory over their neighbours. Historically, there has been a tendency for those faiths of biblical origin to believe that God only covers their people, and that peace will only come when God's "purest" religion has world domination and supremacy over all the other nations and peoples. It should be pointed out that there are many such examples in non-biblical religions, and as we have seen. However, that is an error fostered by the deceiver and an anathema to God Himself. This human tendency is not unique to the Jews and continues into moden history. As we have all seen, in our globalised world the consequences of the delusional ripple into everyones' communities.

It is true that God throughout biblical history, God has called on His people to keep themselves apart, but this was always for the preservation of that which is loved by God and to act as a beacon of attractive hope and redemption for those around God's chosen servants.

This desire to be God's exclusively chosen ones has been used by the ungodly to instigate humanity's worst atrocities and wars. It is a favourite method of the deceiver, who exploits "divide and conquer" to keep humanity disoriented and thus unable to overcome the deceiver's illusions. Should any person or group looks like they might be getting close to a viable solution, start a propoganda war (preferably religious) to discredit them, suppress them; or, if all else fails, kill them.

Unfortunately God's biblical children have repeatedly behaved like spoilt toddlers. Daddy brings home a new child from the hospital, and existing toddler chucks a mega tantrum and proceeds to work on how to eliminate the new child. "My daddy!" screams the child as He hugs the newborn. "It was an accident" or "It was dolly" as the elder child tries to explain away the bruise on the baby's leg. As the younger child grows the methods of sibling rivalry might become more sophisticated. The younger sibling gets "lost" in the forest when they are taken for a walk by their older sibling, or gets into trouble because they do something they shouldn't at the older sibling's suggestion, or withdraws into themselves as the older sibling demands attention and runs interference whenever Daddy tries to talk to the younger child. Then we have the sociopaths who think if they eliminate their sibling they will get a bigger inheritance, or if we discredit the sibling the Father will disinherit the other child.

Then there are the obnoxious children who seek to become the favourite child be being seen to be the prettiest or the smartest; including taking credit for others' works. They try garnishing favours by trying to wheedle their way with insincere flattery, or by big mouthing at other peoples' expense "Mine's nicer than yours. Mine's smarter than yours. Mine's worth more than yours." Then there are those who seek to claim their inheritance or dues in their own time or set the scale of their rewards.

When you are dealing with human observation, such naughty children have a reasonable chance of getting away with it. Particularly if they are clever. Jesus once said that it was "it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God." (Matthew 19:24). A corollary to this is that it is easier for the meek and humble to enter the kingdom of God than for the famous or sociopath. Thus the sociopath, the famous, the powerful or the rich might be able to accrue favour, wealth and accolades in this earthly realm; but God knows how such rewards were obtained and God makes a judgement over what is worthy for the kingdom of God.

This is the final judgement which none of us can avoid for all of us come to God for final judgement before proceeding through the gates of Zion or being pulled into the fiery abyss. In the words of Isaiah 26:12-15.

LORD, you establish peace for us; all that we have accomplished you have done for us.

O LORD, our God, other lords besides you have ruled over us, but your name alone do we honor. They are now dead, they live no more; those departed spirits do not rise. You punished them and brought them to ruin;you wiped out all memory of them.

You have enlarged the nation, O LORD; you have enlarged the nation.You have gained glory for yourself; you have extended all the borders of the land.

Grace

Early in biblical folklore ( Genesis 11 ), there were a group of humans living in Shinar who decided to build a tower but God confounded them: 

Then they said, "Come, let us build ourselves a city, with a tower that reaches to the heavens, so that we may make a name for ourselves and not be scattered over the face of the whole earth." But the LORD came down to see the city and the tower that the men were building. The LORD said, "If as one people speaking the same language they have begun to do this, then nothing they plan to do will be impossible for them. Come, let us go down and confuse their language so they will not understand each other." (Genesis 11:4-7)

This curse was put in place to protect us from ourselves and from the machinations of the deceiver. It confounded and limited the expansionist plans of those who craved ungodly power and glory. It slowed down the ability to seduce others into unsuitable ideology and to incorporate others into the culture of an invading empire. Unfortunately, in these times of globalisation, the curse that was meant to protect has now formed walls that create shadows where evil can hide and fester. Therefore there is the chance to lift the curse in certain areas. The curse has not been fully lifted and there are boundaries which should still not be crossed, some because they should never be crossed (more later in this paper) and some because the new vistas and boundaries are far enough for this generation.

The bible exists because God exists, God wants humanity reconciled to Him, and God seeks to communicate how that is to happen. The biblical God and Zion are non-denominational. Later in this paper we will explore more of what God despised about the Baals and thus why God exhorts His peoples to remain separate from those who would desecrate the name of God and His temples. At this point, we are to consider that God wants all humanity to recognise and bow to the biblical God, and that God has gone to extraordinary lengths to make this possible.

Let us take some time for a story. Imagine that you have a television in your back pack and you've just walked into a village that has no electricity. It is a mains operated television and you do not have any source of power with you. You remove the television from your back pack and place it in the middle of the village meeting space. You boastfully announce to the locals that with this television they will be able to see wondrous visions, hear beautiful music and learn immeasurable wisdom. At this point, you look like a real dork. At this point, the only use for the television is as a table top to keep the dust out of the food, or as a weight to hold something under water. There are no visions, there is no music. It's just a box, and a pretty ugly one at that.

Now imagine being a biblical messenger. You arrive in a village with a bible. You commence explaining what the bible is about, what it does, and how it helps you see and understand things that you would not otherwise appreciate. If no one in the village has ever experienced grace, if there is no folklore about wise souls who see and understand things without any obvious explanation, if there is no history of miracles or spiritual comforting, then how do the souls in the village recognise that you have been sent by God?

(This last paragraph is obviously premised that you have grown beyond the spoilt toddler and are not trying to deprive others of the glory and grace of the biblical God).

Thus, in order to reconcile all the peoples of all the world back to God, God has at various times granted grace to souls to act as beacons on the path back towards His kingdom. There are the jealous toddlers now yelling "His MY God", they're just pretending that He's their God too! Shame on you!

God's vision for this moment in history is that He has burst forth in full glory and power, to demonstrate beyond reasonable doubt that God exists, that God has full dominion over every corner of this planet, and that no human or angelic contrivance will obstruct God's long term reconciliation plan. It's a bit like the Clairol  hair washing add, where the beauty, scope and majesty of God's glory leads those who can see in Spirit going "Yes! Yes! Yes! That's God!" Now you are all meant to look sheepishly at each other, give a slight smile, and get on with God's reconciliation plan, because you now realise that you all have something to learn from each other.

Reconciliation

The biblical God made a promise in Ezekiel that He would make a new, everlasting covenant not just with the existing Jews, but also with their older and younger brothers and sisters. God's vision is that this new covenant would cover all humanity for all time:

“ ‘This is what the Sovereign LORD says: I will deal with you as you deserve, because you have despised my oath by breaking the covenant. I will remember the covenant I made with you in the days of your youth, and I will establish an everlasting covenant with you. Then you will remember your ways and be ashamed when you receive your sisters, both those who are older than you and those who are younger. I will give them to you as daughters, but not on the basis of my covenant with you.   So I will establish my covenant with you, and you will know that I am the LORD.   Then, when I make atonement for you for all you have done, you will remember and be ashamed and never again open your mouth because of your humiliation, declares the Sovereign LORD.’ ”

Ezekiel 16:59-63

When God moves to reconcile, He typically begins by making manifest His wrath ( Isaiah 63:3-6) "For the day of vengeance was in my heart, and the year of my redemption has come"; and then God seeks to bring humanity back by reminding us of His kindness and compassion ( Isaiah 63:7-9 ) "In his love and mercy he redeemed them; he lifted them up and carried them all the days of old". 

Then God calls on His peoples to come back into a proper relationship with Him. Where He finds hardened and rebellious hearts, He then continues giving examples, initially to gain peoples’ repentance and later to demonstrate their defiance e.g. Ezekiel 3:17-21.

The next stage is demonstrating to humanity beyond reasonable doubt that there are those that are so rebellious, that no amount of force by God will bring them into line. However, in the process it becomes absolutely clear that this group is spiritually evil and moribund e.g Zechariah 11:3-17.

Next God starts to woo those away Ezekiel 34. God sees the snares and walls that have been used to lure or enslave his flocks in ungodly paradigms. He proceeds to demolish those walls with truth. This includes removing the lies that there is no hope of redemption and that souls are condemned by the sin of association e.g. Ezekiel 18

^{Ezekiel 18:4}For every living soul belongs to me, the father as well as the son—both alike belong to me. The soul who sins is the one who will die.

 “I would like to reply to you and to your friends with you. Look up at the heavens and see; gaze at the clouds so high above you. If you sin, how does that affect him? If your sins are many, what does that do to him? If you are righteous, what do you give to him, or what does he receive from your hand? Your wickedness affects only a man like yourself, and your righteousness only the sons of men.

Job 35:4-7

Finally, God reminds us of His absolute sovereignty and demands that we repent and put our lives back in order with Him. This includes working to find peaceful solutions to problems Ezekiel 37:15-28 . There are times when an evil is so vicious and so persistent that the only way to deal with it is with violence e.g. the book of Esther. However, in most cases treaties, conditional withdrawal plans (e.g. you don’t bomb for 1 month and we’ll remove 5000 troops), recompense and surrendering the problem to God is sufficient.

Fond Memories

Then there were those who remembered the days of old where God set His Holy Spirit upon His people to guide them so they did not stumble, to make a glorious name for God Himself ( Isaiah 63:11-14 ). Then finally God's people realised that God Himself had hardened their hearts and realised they need God to redeem and bring back grace to His people (Isaiah 63:15-19 ).

Isaiah 53 to 56 shows God's grace. Jesus the atoning sacrifice for all humanity for all time. God's compassion and mercy. God's inclusiveness, even to the eunuch. The bible is also demonstrates that God is simply beyond human comprehension and yet goes to ridiculous lengths to redeem humanity, often despite ourselves or our leaders.

Let us conclude this passage with God’s Word and vision of reconciliation from Micah 4 and 5 :

^{Mic 4:1}In the last days the mountain of the LORD'S temple will be established as chief among the mountains; it will be raised above the hills, and peoples will stream to it.Many nations will come and say, "Come, let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, to the house of the God of Jacob. He will teach us His ways, so that we may walk in His paths." The law will go out from Zion, the word of the LORD from Jerusalem. He will judge between many peoples and will settle disputes for strong nations far and wide. They will beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation will not take up sword against nation, nor will they train for war anymore. Every man will sit under his own vine and under his own fig tree, and no one will make them afraid, for the LORD Almighty has spoken. All the nations may walk in the name of their gods; we will walk in the name of the LORD our God for ever and ever. "In that day," declares the LORD, "I will gather the lame; I will assemble the exiles and those I have brought to grief.I will make the lame a remnant, those driven away a strong nation. The LORD will rule over them in Mount Zion from that day and forever. As for you, O watchtower of the flock, O stronghold of the Daughter of Zion, the former dominion will be restored to you; kingship will come to the Daughter of Jerusalem. Why do you now cry aloud—have you no king? Has your counselor perished, that pain seizes you like that of a woman in labor? Writhe in agony, O Daughter of Zion, like a woman in labor, for now you must leave the city to camp in the open field. You will go to Babylon; there you will be rescued. There the LORD will redeem you out of the hand of your enemies. But now many nations are gathered against you. They say, "Let her be defiled, let our eyes gloat over Zion!" But they do not know the thoughts of the LORD; they do not understand his plan, he who gathers them like sheaves to the threshing floor. "Rise and thresh, O Daughter of Zion, for I will give you horns of iron; I will give you hoofs of bronze and you will break to pieces many nations." You will devote their ill-gotten gains to the LORD, their wealth to the Lord of all the earth.

^5:2"But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, though you are small among the clans of Judah, out of you will come for me one who will be ruler over Israel, whose origins are from of old, from ancient times.Therefore Israel will be abandoned until the time when she who is in labor gives birth and the rest of his brothers return to join the Israelites. He will stand and shepherd his flock in the strength of the LORD, in the majesty of the name of the LORD his God. And they will live securely, for then his greatness will reach to the ends of the earth. And he will be their peace.