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The Age of Promise: Escape the Shadows of the Law to Live in the Light of Christ
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Overview
Many Christians struggle to understand Old Testament teachings. We look at the laws and rituals and wonder how those long-ago practices could possibly be relevant to our lives now. Randy Robison believes they are not only necessary but are, in fact, vital to a closer walk with Jesus.
In The Age of Promise, Robison introduces us to ten foundational promises made in the Old Testament and transformed in Christ, ten mysteries now revealed in Jesus that offer us a deeper, more powerful relationship with the Father. These ten promises, which bring God’s intricate plan of redemption to fulfillment, include:
- The promise of deliverance
- The promise of the chosen people
- The promise of the temple
- And much, much more!
When we learn from the past and apply it to the present, we determine our future. The Age of Promise invites us to uncover the glorious riches of our heritage of faith and experience real transformation in our everyday lives. With the light of Christ shining on the shadows of the past, we develop a more complete perspective and discover a deeper, more powerful relationship with the eternal Father who is the same yesterday, today, and forever.
Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9781400207534 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Nelson, Thomas, Inc. |
| Publication date: | 01/30/2018 |
| Pages: | 240 |
| Product dimensions: | 5.80(w) x 8.40(h) x 1.10(d) |
About the Author
Read an Excerpt
CHAPTER 1
The Promise of Deliverance
Many are the afflictions of the righteous, But the Lord delivers him out of them all.
Psalm 34:19
As I walked into the brothel in southeast Asia, accompanied by a missions team equipped with hidden cameras and microphones, I couldn't help but think, If my daughter was in here, I' d do anything to get her out. Images of Liam Neeson in Taken flashed through my mind, and I saw myself blasting through armies of bad guys as these young girls cowered behind me, desperate for freedom. But reality wasn't anything like that.
There were no locks on the outsides of the doors, no cages, no Mafia types around. In fact, we didn't see a single man. It was a dumpy motel with older women cooking food and managing the girls. We sat in a karaoke room as they served warm beer we didn't drink and snacks we eyed with suspicion. I sipped a Diet Coke, sang an American rock song on the karaoke machine, and talked to a couple of girls. After we determined they were all adults and seemed to be there of their own volition, we said subtle prayers for them, left a large tip, and politely excused ourselves, much to their dismay.
It was not quite what we expected when we went into that small town to explore potential ministry opportunities for Rescue LIFE, our ministry's program to end sex trafficking. Even so, we all recognized the great need that exists in all such places: deliverance.
Since the fall of mankind, we have all needed deliverance. Each person's individual smallness in a vast universe demands something or someone bigger to step in and take the reins. We need protection from natural disasters, human evil, and the spiritual Enemy who seeks to steal, kill, and destroy. And you know what? God promises us that deliverance in the Bible.
The concept of deliverance appears throughout Scripture in several forms. Jacob's first prayer for deliverance from the hand of his brother, Esau, was one seeking rescue. He pleaded with God to rescue him from one who had evil intentions toward him. This need for rescue was repeated throughout the Old Testament. David prayed to be delivered from King Saul, who sought to kill him. Those pilgrims following Ezra to Jerusalem were delivered from ambush. The Israelites' history is one story after another of God delivering them from foreign armies.
Another catalyst of God's deliverance was the need for escape. Jacob and his sons escaped the famine in Canaan because of Joseph's wisdom and authority in Egypt. When the Israelites rebelled against God under the reign of King Rehoboam and King Shishak's Egyptian army came to destroy them, they humbled themselves before God and escaped death, although God allowed them to become slaves. In Joel's vision of the coming judgment on the "day of the Lord," he foresaw the destruction of Jerusalem in AD 70 but noted that "whoever calls on the name of the Lord / Will be delivered; / For on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem / There will be those who escape" (Joel 2:32). Those who heeded the warnings of Joel to flee Judea into the mountains when certain signs appeared escaped that awful judgment and death. Whether we find ourselves in the middle of a bad situation or we escape the situation altogether, God is our deliverer.
The New Testament introduced deliverance as a response to the need for healing. The hemorrhaging woman who touched Jesus' garment was delivered from her illness. The lame beggar at the Beautiful Gate was delivered from his disability when Peter and John spoke to him in Christ's name. James wrote that believers should pray for the sick so that they would be delivered from their sickness and "made well." Deliverance from disease can be part of God's overall plan to make us spiritually whole.
The last function of deliverance is addressing the need for salvation. This type of deliverance is what the psalmist wrote about and what Paul knew was coming when he was in prison facing possible execution. This is the ultimate deliverance from the evils of this world; resting in this inevitable future enables us to remain strong in our faith regardless of the earthly outcome of our difficult situations. The worst that can happen is death, which leads to eternal life in a glorious heaven.
Maintaining an eternal view of creation gives us hope during the hardships of our lives, but I want to focus on how deliverance relates to the trials of this life, the promises given in Scripture, and the expectations we can have as we journey through this temporal place.
Deliver Us from Evil
When Jesus asked his Father to "deliver us from evil" as he modeled prayer (Matt. 6:13), Jesus highlighted deliverance. The Greek word we translate deliver has two meanings: "rescue" and "God drawing us to himself."
The concept of being rescued needs little explanation. There is evil in the world that God can keep us safe from, so we ask that of him. This encompasses deliverance from the physical threats of this world as well as deliverance through Christ from spiritual threats. The same Greek word in Christ's prayer is employed in Paul's declaration: "For He rescued us from the domain of darkness, and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins" (Col. 1:13–14).
The other meaning of rhoumai, the Greek word for deliverance, is not used as commonly in Scripture, but it expresses a remarkable truth. Our deliverance, whether physical or not, is directly tied to God drawing us to himself. When Paul wrote to the church in Thessalonica, he warned them about what would soon happen to them, paralleling Christ's warnings of their tribulation. But he also wrote that before it happened, there would be deliverance for followers of Christ because God would draw them to himself and thus take them out of harm's way (1 Thess. 1:10).
Though the vast majority of us have never faced the persecution the first-century church did, I can't help but wonder how many of our personal tragedies, failures, and hardships could be avoided if we simply drew closer to God. I know I could have avoided a few! Peter noted that "the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from temptation" (2 Peter 2:9). We need not fear temptation if we're walking closely with the One called Jehovah Mephalti — the Lord my Deliverer. It is common for us to wait until we are in dire need of rescue to cry out to God, but rescue is already here if we will just stay close to Christ. When we do so, we hear more clearly his direction for each step along the way and can steer clear of unnecessary problems we are prone to create in our shortsightedness.
Sometimes, though, God has a plan for our hardships. In another letter Paul wrote, he remarked to Timothy, "What persecutions I endured, and out of them all the Lord rescued me!" (2 Tim. 3:11). Note that Paul didn't say he was rescued from persecution, but rather he endured persecution and then the Lord rescued him. Of course, we all want to be delivered from problems, but I dare say it's more common for us to be delivered through our difficult situations.
James wrote, "Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. And let endurance have its perfect result, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing" (James 1:2–4). If God hasn't delivered you from something, it's most likely because he wants to deliver you through it, in order to build endurance and make you whole.
Endurance is a tool God uses for our growth. When Jesus warned his disciples of the coming tribulation and destruction of Jerusalem, he said, "By your endurance you will gain your lives" (Luke 21:19). (The word for lives is sometimes translated as "souls.") As a coach pushes his players through tough workouts so that they can perform better in competition, God allows us to go through difficulty to build us up, not tear us down. This perspective offers hope and confidence, and once we understand this, we will discover joy in the process.
Keys to Deliverance
God is our deliverer, but does that require anything of us? Absolutely. The story of the Israelites' deliverance from slavery in Egypt described what we must do today to take hold of our own promised deliverance. Their journey foreshadowed the mental, emotional, spiritual, and (in some cases) physical journeys we must take. As we explore the story, we'll find key steps of obedience we should incorporate into our own lives, as well as numerous principles that are as true today as they were thousands of years ago.
Let's start with the story of Moses, as told in the book of Exodus. After Joseph rescued his family from famine and they had relocated from Canaan to Egypt, the tribes "were fruitful and increased greatly, and multiplied, and became exceedingly mighty" (Ex. 1:7). This eventually caused problems for the Egyptians. A new king rose up — one who did not know Joseph — and he feared the Israelites, even though they presented no threat. He began oppressing them. He made them slaves. Then he ordered all newborn males to be killed on the spot. When the Hebrew midwives skirted that command, the cruel king commanded all infant males be thrown into the Nile River. Against this backdrop, God delivered one infant from the river, placing him in the king's court. His name was Moses.
Moses grew up as an adopted son to the pharaoh, but as he got older, he began to notice the suffering of his people. When he came upon an Egyptian savagely beating an Israelite, Moses killed him and then fled east across the Sinai Peninsula to the land of the Midianites. He eventually found a wife there, and she bore him a son. Meanwhile, back in Egypt the Israelites continued to suffer. God appeared to Moses and said, "I have surely seen the affliction of My people who are in Egypt, and have given heed to their cry because of their taskmasters, for I am aware of their sufferings" (Ex. 3:7).
This is the first truth we need to know about suffering: God sees it. He is aware. "Are not five sparrows sold for two cents?" Jesus asked. "Yet not one of them is forgotten before God. Indeed, the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Do not fear; you are more valuable than many sparrows" (Luke 12:6–7). Suffering can bring a sense of isolation and make us begin to think we are alone in our troubles, but we are not forgotten. Our Deliverer knows, and he is able to change the landscape of the world to rescue us.
God called Moses to deliver his people out of bondage. He said, "I have come down to deliver them from the power of the Egyptians, and to bring them up from that land to a good and spacious land, to a land flowing with milk and honey" (Ex. 3:8). That's the second truth we must understand: he wants to deliver us. And not just from one bad situation to a less miserable one, but to a place of fulfillment and fruitfulness.
We are not supposed to live in bondage. Paul wrote, "It was for freedom that Christ set us free" (Gal. 5:1). If you have been convinced that freedom is unattainable, then you have bought into a lie. When you give yourself willingly as a servant of God, he does not want you under the rule of anyone or anything else. And though we offer ourselves as servants, he raises us up as his sons and daughters, making us heirs to his kingdom. We are meant to be free.
When Moses received the call from God to bring this freedom to his people, he hesitated. He knew he wasn't qualified, capable, or worthy to be such a leader on his own. In fact, he wasn't even looking to rescue the Israelites when God called him. He was "pasturing the flock" of his father-in-law when he noticed the burning bush that wasn't burning up and thought, That's weird. He was minding his own business when God dropped in on him and called him to one of the greatest roles in human history. Moses' response was as human as it gets: "Who am I to do that?" But with God's promise to be with him, Moses had hope, because he understood that he simply had to be obedient and allow God to make it happen. That's the next principle: God delivers out of his goodness, not because of our abilities or merits. Paul wrote, "For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast" (Eph. 2:8–9).
Deliverance is usually beyond our capabilities. Sometimes our problems are a result of our own faults. If we think we can deliver ourselves, then we're doomed to fail. We have to humble ourselves and say, "Deliver us from evil," as Jesus instructed us to pray, because deliverance is beyond our grasp. Our hope lies in the fact that it is never beyond God's. In our weakness, he is strong.
With God strengthening him, Moses went to Pharaoh and demanded the release of the Israelites. Of course Pharaoh refused, so God unleashed a series of plagues on the Egyptians, forcing that mighty empire to beg the Israelites to leave in the end. God's people walked away from their lives of slavery with their heads held high. And that's the first step of obedience you and I must take to obtain the promise of deliverance: walk away from what has been holding us captive.
How often do we stay in bondage simply because we don't walk away? Granted, there are things we can't escape that easily. If you're battling health issues, it's not so simple. But many of our prisons have open doors if we'll just choose to leave. With God's power, we can walk away from anger, bitterness, unforgiveness, strife, jealousy, and so many other shackles. We can leave bad habits behind by staying away from places that draw us in, cutting off avenues of temptation and sin, and removing ourselves from situations that do nothing but keep us bound. If you're waiting for deliverance, take a good hard look at whether or not you need to simply walk away from your Egypt. You may not know exactly where you're going, but if you can get out, do so quickly and leave behind everything that enslaves you.
After the Israelites left Egypt, Pharaoh did a really dumb thing. He changed his mind and sent his armies after them. Frankly, I've never understood this. He had just been brought to his knees for his defiance of God. He had seen inexplicable natural disasters. His people had suffered like never before. His own firstborn son died, along with the firstborn of everyone who wasn't covered by the blood of the sacrificial lambs. And Pharaoh hadn't simply let the Israelites go. He had said, "Go, and bless me also" (Ex. 12:32). He'd actually asked for their blessing, and then he tried to kill them!
Of course, that didn't go so well for him. His armies drowned in the Red Sea. But in that there's another lesson for us today. When we walk away from bondage, it may pursue us. That addiction may try to overtake you again. Your thoughts may return to that thing that's held you. But keep going. Sins are doomed to be destroyed. Continue moving in the right direction. Even if an endless sea seems to stand in your way, go with God. He'll part that sea and use it to swallow up your enemies.
Once safely away from their captors, the Israelites began their journey to the promised land. It was not right next door to their land of captivity, so they had to start walking, as is typically the case with us. Sometimes God does deliver us from things instantly, as when Jesus healed people or when an earthquake opened the prison doors for Paul and Silas, but most of the time it's a journey. Reaching our own "promised lands" requires time, effort, and a constant pursuit of God. Such was the case with the Israelites. Before long, they were complaining: "Would that we had died by the Lord's hand in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the pots of meat, when we ate bread to the full; for you have brought us out into this wilderness to kill this whole assembly with hunger" (Ex. 16:3).
When I read that, I think, Seriously? You'd rather have been struck down by God than be free? I know the desert is a rough place to live, but at least you're alive! Truth be told, captivity can sometimes bring a perverse form of satisfaction. Live Free or Die makes a fine state motto, but when put to the test, many people would rather live bound than face suffering. The Israelites demonstrated this kind of thinking and an astonishing lack of faith. They had seen the plagues, been rescued from generations of slavery, and watched the mightiest army in their known world drown in a nature-defying phenomenon. But in their shortsightedness, all they knew was that they were hungry — hungrier than they had been when they were slaves. They were petulant children, but that didn't change God. He was still a good Father.
(Continues…)
Excerpted from "The Age of Promise"
by .
Copyright © 2018 James Randall Robison.
Excerpted by permission of Thomas Nelson.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.
Table of Contents
Introduction: The End Is Here ix
Chapter 1 The Promise of Deliverance 1
Chapter 2 The Promise of Sacrifice 21
Chapter 3 The Promise of the Law 39
Chapter 4 The Promise of the Chosen People 61
Chapter 5 The Promise of the Priest 93
Chapter 6 The Promise of the Temple 113
Chapter 7 The Promise of Judgment 131
Chapter 8 The Promise of the Kingdom 153
Chapter 9 The Promise of the End 175
Chapter 10 The Promise of Eternity 195
Conclusion: A New Beginning 211
Acknowledgments 213
About the Author 215
Notes 217
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