Why is it that the little country of Israel is more often than not in the evening news? Let’s take a trip and see.
Imagine that! God uses 31 verses to describe the creation of the vast worlds He spoke into being, then takes the rest of the Old Testament (except for the first 11 chapters) to tell the story of one man, Abram, and the family-nation that came from him. God must be a people Person! I may, like David, feel small when I look out at the star-glittered heavens, and say, “What is man that You are mindful of him?” (Ps 8:4). But did you know that the universe is just the temporary stage God built on which to enact His love story with us? Hebrews 1:10-12 tells us that, when He’s finished with the universe, He will fold it up and put it away like work clothes: “You, Lord, in the beginning laid the foundation of the earth, and the heavens are the work of Your hands. They will perish, but You remain; and they will all grow old like a garment; like a cloak You will fold them up, and they will be changed.” But we’re told in Daniel 12:3, “Those who are wise shall shine like the brightness of the firmament, and those who turn many to righteousness like the stars forever and ever.” Well, Abram took a detour on his way to the Promised Land, ending up 600 miles later in the city of Haran. I’m afraid I get off-track sometimes, too. Thankfully, the Lord doesn’t give up on us once we begin the journey of faith. Eventually Abram’s father died, and the Lord nudged him to keep going. Four hundred miles later, his family arrived in Canaan. The KJV poetically says, “And they went forth to go into the land of Canaan; and into the land of Canaan they came” (Gen 12:5). Here they were, in the country where someday the Son of God would fulfill Abraham’s words, “God will provide…a lamb.” And so He did, sending “the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!” (Jn 1:29).