Ephesians Lesson 18 of 39 part 2

Remember the whole idea of the Abrahamic Covenant, and its being enlarged upon to Moses was what?

Exodus 19:6a
"And ye shall be unto me a kingdom of priests, and an holy nation,..."
When we share this we ask the question, "What even today is the role of a priest?" Well he's a go between. In the future every Hebrew is someday to be a “go between” for Gentiles and Israel's God. Now that was the whole idea, but Israel lost sight of that, and so Israel begin to look within themselves, in the most literal, religious since and had no time for the Gentile world. We know from the prophets that they failed to listen to God or receive His Word, “to obey His voice”, delivered through them and this is why. This is also the problem in the church of this day as well, it fails to hear the warnings of Paul because many fail to read Paul's letters. Not in a literal but rather in the figurative since and this causes them great confusion and distress not to meant perplexities of soul. All right but now come back to verse 6.

Exodus 19:6a
"And ye shall be unto me a kingdom of priests, and an holy nation...."
The word holy does not mean sinless, does not mean like God is Holy, but rather it means "Set apart." And that's what the nation of Israel understood. They were a set apart nation of people, and this is what God told Moses to tell the people. They were to be a set apart people, but on the other hand stop with me in the Book of Isaiah as we go back to Ephesians and we'll show you what we're talking about. These are some verses we haven't looked at in a long while. But in chapter 42 we'll see this is what the Hebrews lost sight of. 

As we get the Jerusalem Post, on the web a year or so back there was this article written by a Rabbi where he was speaking of the coming of their Messiah. The Messiah would be a God King who would not only just bring goodness and prosperity and peace to Israel, but to the whole world. The Rabbi had the right idea, because that is the purpose of Christ's return. He's going to be King of kings and Lord of lords. Yes, first and foremost over the nation of Israel, but to the whole world, not just Israel. Now here's where prophecy alludes to that here in Isaiah.

Isaiah 42:1
"Behold my servant, whom I uphold mine elect, in whom my soul delighteth; I have put my spirit upon him: (upon the servant) he (the servant-Christ, the Messiah) shall bring forth judgment (or rule, government) to the Gentiles."
Well who's the servant? The Messiah, the Christ! But see Israel lost sight of this. But nevertheless in the divine purposes, God was going to use Israel as a nation of priests to bring all these Gentile nations to a knowledge of Himself, so that He wouldn't be just the King of Israel, but that He will one day rule and reign over the whole earth. This He has already started through the promise of Genesis 3:15 as our Redeemer. Through whom His Salvation will be operative within us.

Now the next verses are over in chapter 59 of this same Book. This is prophecy. This is all going to be out in the future from Isaiah's time, the last part of Psalm 2 verse 9 and continuing, it's still in the future from our time, but we feel we're getting awfully close. We just don't see an awful lot of time left. But then again the early mystics were saying the same thing, weren't they. If I were a Futurist and a Literalist this would be my reasoning but because I'm a "figurativist". I see things in a spiritual sense in other words in the Spirit as being now, the now of faith for faith is our substance and evidence of all things hoped for. For Christ is substance and substance is Christ, just as Christ is Faith and faith is Christ our evidence of all things.

Isaiah 59:20-21a
"And 'the Redeemer shall come to Zion, (Heavenly Jerusalem) and unto them that turn from transgression in Jacob', saith the LORD. 'As for me, this is my covenant with them', saith the LORD;..."
Then the Lord repeats the then promised new covenant that is in Jeremiah 31:31 which he expresses, but now to complete the thought about Israel being a light to the Gentiles let's drop on down to Isaiah 60:1 but before we do listen to the rest of this verse:
LORD: "My Spirit that is upon you, and my words that I have put in your mouth, shall not depart out of your mouth, or out of the mouth of your offspring, or out of the mouth of your children's offspring," says the LORD, "from this time forth and forevermore." This is His doing and it started at Pentecost in Acts 2 when He returned as the Holy Spirit the revealer of all Truth to those who would receive and believe Him.
 
Isaiah 60:1-2
"Arise shine; for thy light is come, and the glory of the LORD is risen upon thee. (Now here we've got to watch our pronouns. Who is the thy to whom the LORD's glory is coming? Well the nation of Israel. And the glory of the LORD is risen upon you, Israel, the nation) For behold, the darkness shall cover the earth, (a spiritual darkness, the reasoning of religion) and gross darkness the people: (Israel. And did it? Sure it did this is what Paul is calling a mystery in Romans 11:25 the hardness of heart caused by reasoning's religion) but the LORD shall arise upon thee, and his glory shall be seen upon thee." Remember this is all future, but again, we're getting close.