The Law of Noah was for all nations. Any nation hoping to gain the fullest advantage of what God could do to bless them would adhere to the covenant. However, of all the nations in history, God chose Israel for a unique covenant. While the Law of Moses was expansive and precise, it was founded on Noah. But it was most certainly different, and Israel alone was offered this unique opportunity of having things handed to them on a silver platter, as it were, instead of long and deep study by a hoard of scholars piecing together knowledge of Jehovah from unnumbered scraps of revelation. Israel was a nation which knew God differently, uniquely.
God also knew they were uniquely hard hearted. For all the ease with which they could know God's ways, could be made pure enough to come before His earthly Presence in the Tabernacle, then Temple, they would turn out to be more faithless than all other nations. While they invoked the name of their God, they clung to their idols. Let them hear His message to them.
He knew before He chose them they would be unfaithful. He knew He would have to hand them over to Babylon. He knew it before Moses was born. So He waited until they were still about a century out from it, and warned them specifically a nation rising from the ashes of ancient Babylon of Nimrod would come and take them away. It came still way before any demon masquerading as a god could lie to them, still long enough for them to actually have time to forget, if they refuse to hear. Yet He would personally see to it the Exile would come. No mere idol could do that. He revealed that and much more, but waited until the time of Isaiah to ensure they didn't claim to get the knowledge from another source.
Only His concern for His own Name on the earth kept Him from burying their ashes in the sand long ago. Unlike silver, which melts at a rather low temperature, He tried them much harder. He brought afflictions on them to cure their wandering hearts. They tried to give His glory to other deities, including the sky and cloud gods, the stars and moon gods, etc. All those things were creations of His hands, and would rise at His call more reliably than Israel. This was a not so subtle reminder nature was bound to the Laws of Noah and Moses, and to reject those covenants was to call for Creation itself to witness against them.
And when it pleases Him, the stars whom Babylon worships will celebrate her destruction. The Creator has spoken. Indeed, His living Word has spoken to men's hearts from the very foundation of all things. This was the same Spirit of Messiah to come, but it was meant for Israel to be His voice until then. They didn't know His Word, His voice, so how could they speak His message? Had they clung to Him faithfully, prosperity would have been the least of their concerns. Had they but heeded His simple Word in Moses, they would have nature chasing them down to fill their lives with more than they could use. Instead, they worshiped images from nature. Nature rejects worship for itself, favoring God, instead.
So once this Exile has passed, perhaps there will be a Remnant who would embrace His Word in the second chance. Let them hear and remember, and flee from fallen Babylon at the earliest opportunity. These would dance through the wilderness on the way back home. Should they do so, rivers of water would open from dry ground for them. That's the way His Word would carry them to a new life in the Old Land.
By contrast, those who reject His Laws will never know shalom.
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By Ed Hurst
27 May 2009
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