Scripture: Deuteronomy 6 v 4 - 7: "Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God is one LORD:
5 And thou shalt love the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might.
6 And these words, which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart:
7 And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up."
This was the foremost command of God, that His people should love Him with all their heart, soul and strength. Here it was to the Israelites coming out of Egypt following Moses to a land they had never seen before, but which had been given to their patriarch, Abraham, and to Isaac and Jacob and his descendants.
These are also the descendants of Adam and Eve who disobeyed Him in Eden and paid a heavy price. Shut off from the Tree of Life because they chose the knowledge of good and evil. They all have a fallen nature which seems to prevent them loving God of their own free will.
We who are born again are now like Adam and Eve before they ate the forbidden fruit. We have fellowship with God and are forgiven of sins. He still wants to feel our love and companionship as any Father would desire.
Jesus reduced the ten commandments to just two. First, love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul and strength. Second, love one another as I have loved you. All other commands flow out from love. If we love we don't envy, murder, lie, steal, covet or commit adultery. If we do those things then we deceive ourselves that we are acting in love.
1 John 3 v 11 - 16: "For this is the message that ye heard from the beginning, that we should love one another.
12 Not as Cain, who was of that wicked one, and slew his brother. And wherefore slew he him? Because his own works were evil, and his brother's righteous.
13 Marvel not, my brethren, if the world hate you.
14 We know that we have passed from death unto life, because we love the brethren. He that loveth not his brother abideth in death.
15 Whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer: and ye know that no murderer hath eternal life abiding in him.
16 Hereby perceive we the love of God, because he laid down his life for us: and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren."
Cain was the firstborn son of Adam and Eve, and the first person born a sinner. He inherited the fallen nature of his parents. He committed the first murder, killing Abel his younger brother in a fit of jealous rage. This happened in Genesis chapter 4. By Genesis 6 God was sorry He had made man and instructed Noah to build an ark.
Genesis 6 v 5 - 8: "And GOD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.
6 And it repented the LORD that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart.
7 And the LORD said, I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth; both man, and beast, and the creeping thing, and the fowls of the air; for it repenteth me that I have made them.
8 But Noah found grace in the eyes of the LORD."
Jesus said that in the last days, just before His return to Earth, life on this planet would be as it was in the days of Lot and Noah. Just before God could not stand the stench of sin any longer. He has an even more righteous ark now, the Body of Christ.
If we are truly born again and following Jesus in the way He intends us to follow - Reading the Bible and obeying the word. Then we are safely in the Body. On God's appointed hour, the Body of Christ will be raptured to join Jesus, the Head of the Body, in the sky above Earth.
Colossians 1 v 16 - 18: "For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him:
17 And he is before all things, and by him all things consist.
18 And he is the head of the body, the church: who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead; that in all things he might have the pre-eminence."
The church is His Body and bringing Head and Body together will complete the Bridegroom. John 3 v 28 - 29: "Ye yourselves bear me witness, that I said, I am not the Christ, but that I am sent before him.
29 He that hath the bride is the bridegroom: but the friend of the bridegroom, which standeth and heareth him, rejoiceth greatly because of the bridegroom's voice: this my joy therefore is fulfilled."
The Bride is Israel, who rejected Jesus as an imposter. He said, I came unto my own and they received Me not. It is only after the Rapture when the Antichrist declares himself God in the Holy of Holies in Jerusalem that her eyes are opened to the truth. She flees to the mountains around Petra which leads to the Battle of Armageddon and Jesus arrives and stops the army of 200,000,000 with His Word. Two thirds die instantly, the rest run.
He rescues His beloved Bride from her enemies and brings her at last to the Marriage Feast and they are finally united forever.
Revelation 21 v 9 - 12: "And there came unto me one of the seven angels which had the seven vials full of the seven last plagues, and talked with me, saying, Come hither, I will shew thee the bride, the Lamb's wife.
10 And he carried me away in the spirit to a great and high mountain, and shewed me that great city, the holy Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from God,
11 Having the glory of God: and her light was like unto a stone most precious, even like a jasper stone, clear as crystal;
12 And had a wall great and high, and had twelve gates, and at the gates twelve angels, and names written thereon, which are the names of the twelve tribes of the children of Israel:"
This is the Lamb's Wife. The New Jerusalem. It took 5 years for the Lord to finally convince me that the Church was not the Bride. I had been taught it and believed it without any real proof. It shook me for days to the very core of my being but once I knew it I could never not know it.
Israel was the chosen race, set apart in her own land with her own laws, disciplines, the Covenants, her prophets, kings, judges. Moses being sent to deliver her from Pharoah. Jesus being sent to Israel to deliver her from sin and bondage. She was not allowed to marry outside the Jewish faith. No other gods. They have the feasts, the Blood moons, the jubilees.
We were Gentiles no matter where we lived. We had to try sort ourselves out until Paul became the Apostle to the Gentiles and started building the Body of Christ. What he started has grown until the whole world has had a chance to submit to God or choose sin and death. It's not complicated when all the pieces fall perfectly into place.
The most important way of separating the sheep from the goats, the wheat from the chaff, is our attitude to Israel. If we are the true Body of Christ we love her. If we are false we are anti-Semitic. If we love that Jerusalem is restored as the capital of Israel, we love her. If we want to see Jerusalem divided so Palestinian militants can have equal rule in order to finally wipe Israel off the map, we do not love her and are in fact her enemy.
God wants to know if we love one another because love is of God. We can't get it anywhere else.
Prayer: Heavenly Father, as I write I get excited thinking about the time ahead where we will see all these marvels unfolding. I pray that nothing will draw Your people to reject You in any way. That we may all be together when Your Kingdom comes. In Jesus' name. Amen.