THE DIVINE PURPOSE OF GOD continued

THE DIVINE PURPOSE OF GOD continued

Act 2:23 

"Him, being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God,"

"Him, being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of  

God, ye have taken, and by wicked hands have crucified and slain: Act 2:24

Whom God hath raised up, having loosed the pains of death: because it was

not possible that he should be holden of it." 

          We have seen the entrance of death, the growth of sin, the punishment of sin in the great universal flood of Noah’s time, and the covenant God made with Noah.  None of this was a surprise to God.  In His eternal decree and purpose, these too were seen in eternity past as included in the decree either directly or by permission.  By permission I mean like sin.  God was not the author of sin, but He decreed to permit it, or else there would be no election of grace.

          The time came then when God chose out the man Abraham.  We have in other posts discussed the covenant that God made with Abraham.  My concern at this time is the introduction by God’s immutable purpose to call out a people for His own.  He called Abraham to leave his past and come to a land of God’s choosing. In this God was setting up His plan for Israel, a people, and Israel, a land.  This was not an afterthought with God.  He had decreed it from before the world.  God said He would bless the world through Abraham’s seed.  Then God gave him Isaac, and to Isaac He gave Jacob, whose name was changed to Israel.  It is clear that the nation from which the promised seed would come is Israel, but the Apostle Paul also made it clear that the seed was particularly Christ.  That Seed that would bless the world is the same Christ who was delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God.  Again this is no afterthought with God; it is rooted in the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God.

          In the purpose of God Abraham was promised a large number of children which was also confirmed to Isaac, and again to Jacob.  God promised these patriarchs also a land.  It was all the land from the Mediterranean Sea to the Euphrates River.  What are your thoughts?