Beth-El: House that will Not Die:III-broadcast

Genesis 13-14, Strife, Famine, Division and War Meet the House that Will Not Die

The House That Will Not Die begins with a call to an unknown man, in the city of Haran, to go out into the desert to a particular place, where God will tell him what to do. He was not famous, or a great preacher, for at that time, the House of God was not yet fully come into vision. But Abram obeys and before the story is over, there is the wonder and mystery of Beth-El, the house that will not die, and the High Priest who receives a tithe of men, and a Father of Faith willing to sacrifice even a son of Promise on Moriah.

The House That Will Not Die, is established at Beth-El, and a second altar between Beth-El and Hai, or Ai. It is met immediately with opposition: first of famine, then of division and strife after a return from Egypt where the flesh won out for a time,

Gen 13:6-7 And the land was not able to bear them, that they might dwell together: for their substance was great, so that they could not dwell together.
And there was a strife between the herdmen of Abram's cattle and the herdmen of Lot's cattle: and the Canaanite and the Perizzite dwelled then in the land.
then outright war, and the temptation to worldly riches.

This satanic opposition to the House Eternal fails because of faith, and surrender of Abram, and each time his faith is rewarded with the great plan and house of God moving forward in a powerful way.

Gen 13:13-7 But the men of Sodom [were] wicked and sinners before the LORD exceedingly.
And the LORD said unto Abram, after that Lot was separated from him, Lift up now thine eyes, and look from the place where thou art northward, and southward, and eastward, and westward:
For all the land which thou seest, to thee will I give it, and to thy seed for ever.
And I will make thy seed as the dust of the earth: so that if a man can number the dust of the earth, [then] shall thy seed also be numbered.
Arise, walk through the land in the length of it and in the breadth of it; for I will give it unto thee.

There are set in the foundation of this House the following:

A. An Altar of Sacrifice-Ch13
B. A Promise of Land and Seed-Gn 13-15
C. The Wine and Bread Gn 14:18-
D. The High Priest and a priesthood 14:18-
E. The Tithe Gn 14:18
F. The Presence of God

A pattern of faith is set by Abram in the following:

A. Surrender to God's will and call
B. Faith over sight
C. Humility
D. Prefering the Spirit over the flesh
E. Repentance from 'dead works' in the flight to Egypt

Even after a momentary fall to the carnal in the escape to Egypt, when rectified, Abram returns to the second altar near Beth-El, and calls on the name of the LORD.
Faced with division and strife in the 'cattle war' Abram takes the 'less desireable' land preferring peace to contention, and prevails and grows. Faced with war to regain the more carnal Lot, he expends his own riches and men, and wins Lot back and defends and establishes the safety of the fledgling but growing house of God. His move adds another altar. Turning down the riches of this world offered by the King of Sodom, he is instead enriched by God, and the presence of the High Priest, Melchisedek, the King without ancestry, graces the growing House.

Each step of faith leads to the firm foundation of Beth-El. Each act of faith resulted in promise, blessing, and foundation of a House that Will not Die and has lasted till today.

The Prophetic Vision and the Healing of a Nation

In the previous discussions regarding the healing of a nation, the 'broadest' healing spoken of in the Bible after the Salvation of mankind, we have seen that

1. A Nation Must Recognize their sin or be shown it
2. A Nation must own their sin and admit it
3. A Nation must turn in Mourning from their sin
4. A Nation must plead with God for forgiveness, mercy and direction and guidance
5. A Nation must obey God

In the course of this healing process, which is very simply bringing a nation into God's correct order and to obedience, the Prophetic Utterance often occurs and is seen in prototype in the Assyrian/Babylonian exile. Warnings occur regarding the 'ill' or dissensioned nature of the nation long before the actual overthrow, as Isaiah and Micah prophesy long before the event. Nearing the time of Nebuchadnezzar's overthrow of Jerusalem, after Assyria has already taken Hazor and the North of Israel, Jeremiah cries in constant pleas to heed God's Word and call for repentance, but except for a few Rechabites, Jeremiah and a few at court, none hear.

The Affliction of Jerusalem

After Jerusalem falls, and the Jews are carried away into captivity the demoralization, alienation and 'dissolving' of the national spirit of the Jews takes place to the point that after 70 years in captivity, their national identity has waned, their resolve is gone. At the end of the period as mentioned before, Daniel discovers the time of a prophesied return is at hand by reading the book of Jeremiah. But other things happen near the end of captivity as well, heralding the healing of the nation that is to come:

-Nehemiah becomes the King's cupbearer and mourns for the re-establishment of Jerusalem (Neh 1:1-6)

And they said unto me, The remnant that are left of the captivity there in the province [are] in great affliction and reproach: the wall of Jerusalem also [is] broken down, and the gates thereof are burned with fire.
And it came to pass, when I heard these words, that I sat down and wept, and mourned [certain] days, and fasted, and prayed before the God of heaven, And said, I beseech thee, O LORD God of heaven, the great and terrible God, that keepeth covenant and mercy for them that love him and observe his commandments: Let thine ear now be attentive, and thine eyes open, that thou mayest hear the prayer of thy servant, which I pray before thee now, day and night, for the children of Israel thy servants, and confess the sins of the children of Israel, which we have sinned against thee: both I and my father's house have sinned.

-Cyrus declares for Ezra the rebuilding and restoration and replenishment of the Temple,

-Hadassah, or Esther, ascends to Queen in Vashti's place, and implores the King under Mordecai's guidance for the deliverance of her people from Haman's edict of genocide.


The time is at hand in the above passages for the healing of the Nation of Israel, but a few things are going on-

1. Certain key Jews are moved into position in a pagan nation: Daniel as court advisor, Ezra as courtier, Nehemiah as the King's cupbearer, Mordecai as the King's rescuer, Esther as the Queen of Artaxerxes.

2. The discovery of the prophesied time is determined for healing

3. Mourning and Repentance are called for and accomplished,

4. The Remembrance of the Afflictions of Jerusalem is made, e.g.

The remnant that are left of the captivity there in the province [are] in great affliction and reproach: the wall of Jerusalem also [is] broken down, and the gates thereof are burned with fire. Neh 1:3
or
I Daniel understood by books the number of the years, whereof the word of the LORD came to Jeremiah the prophet, that he would accomplish seventy years in the desolations of Jerusalem. Dan 9:3And I set my face unto the Lord God, to seek by prayer and supplications, with fasting, and sackcloth, and ashes:
or
Esther 7:4
For we are sold, I and my people, to be destroyed, to be slain, and to perish. But if we had been sold for bondmen and bondwomen, I had held my tongue, although the enemy could not countervail the king's damage.

The Remembrance first is made, followed by mourning.

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More to follow....

Healing: Prayers of National Repentance Part II

Daniel continues in the prayer in Chapter 9, that will lead to the healing and restoration of Israel back to

1. Who She is as a Nation and
2. A recognition of what she has done which caused the Captivity and
3. The Supplication for God's Healing of the nations and return from Exile.

When Daniel makes the supplication to the God of Heaven, as has been mentioned, he is aware that the timing of the Return according to Jeremiah is at hand, and that the Lord is faithful:

I Daniel understood by books the number of the years, whereof the word of the LORD came to Jeremiah the prophet, that he would accomplish seventy years in the desolations of Jerusalem. Dan 9:2

and

...the great and dreadful God, keeping the covenant and mercy to them that love him, and to them that keep his commandments; Dan 9:4

Here is a critical issue in the healing of the Nation of Israel: THE ACKNOWLEDGMENT of THE COVENANT. The COVENANT is EVERLASTING and holy and has been from the beginning. This means that the 'RIGHT' state of Israel is when she is keeping COVENANT with her GOD. When Israel moved away from GOD 'missing the mark', a definition of sin and national sin, then she was in a 'diseased' state, and the intervention of God became necessary to bring her back into a whole and right state.

Blut und Boden

In Germany in WWII, there was a concept of 'blut und boden' or blood and soil, which entailed the identity of the German people or 'Volk' being so tied up in the land they lived in and on, that to be German was to be on Aryan soil, and to be on Aryan soil was to be German by necessity. This concept, many are not aware gave rise to the modern environmental movement, but caused a severe persecution of the Jews to drive them out of the bloodlines (blut) of Europe and off of the land (boden) to create a pure 'oneness' of people, spirit and land.(See Blood and Soil In the case of Germany, the concept was used against the Jewish people.

In God's Covenant with the Chosen people though throughout history, the promise of the Seed and Land, a Jewish form of blut und boden, was essentially different though because it was holy, set apart, in the purposes of GOD and meant for the salvation of the world. The late German form was merely an emulation of the COVENANT, essentially opposite from the COVENANT of the Everlasting nation and meant not for the preservation of the Jews, the oracles and vehicles of the Word of God but for the opposite. Why is this important in the discussion of the healing of a nation? Because there really is an issue of the healing of the Jewish nation being tied to them being:

1. In the Covenant
2. In Obedience
3. In the Land

in order to be in that perfect, healed state, an equilibrium and balance when all is as it should be, when they are in a 'RIGHTEOUS' state.

Why does this matter in the national healing of Israel? Because Israel, to be healed needed to be back in the Land!. It was part of her 'wholeness'. Is this true for all nations? It is somewhat difficult to answer because virtually all nations are on their own land. During WWII, a few monarchs and heads of state had to flee Nazi occupation: without their heads, nations such as the Netherlands felt downtrodden and hopeless: they were in a dissensioned state.
When their rightful leadership was back in place, their form of government, etc, they began to HEAL as a nation. Israel is a special case of the nations having survived in and out of the land for 5000 years, depending on how some historians count origins.

BACK TO REPENTANCE

The Prophet Repents for a Nation in Captivity

One of the first things to realize as Daniel prays, is that without their 'permission' or even knowledge, Daniel, the prophet of exile takes it upon himself
to pray vicariously in repentance for the good of the nation. Why would God receive Daniel's prayer in this way? Would it not take the whole nation repenting? Well, it happens both ways: in Daniel, the prophet prays in Proxy as a representative of the whole nation of Israel in Babylonian captivity. In Esther we see the whole nation called to prayer for their self-defense and protection, including severe repentance.

We have sinned, and have committed iniquity, and have done wickedly, and have rebelled, even by departing from thy precepts and from thy judgments:
Neither have we hearkened unto thy servants the prophets, which spake in thy name to our kings, our princes, and our fathers, and to all the people of the land.
O Lord, righteousness [belongeth] unto thee, but unto us confusion of faces, as at this day; to the men of Judah, and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and unto all Israel, [that are] near, and [that are] far off, through all the countries whither thou hast driven them, because of their trespass that they have trespassed against thee.O Lord, to us [belongeth] confusion of face, to our kings, to our princes, and to our fathers, because we have sinned against thee.-Dan 9:5-8

In Esther:

And in every province, whithersoever the king's commandment and his decree came, [there was] great mourning among the Jews, and fasting, and weeping, and wailing; and many lay in sackcloth and ashes. Esther 4:3

Now in Daniel, the Prophet stands in proxy of the people, declaring unto God in heart and soul, his sorrow over his and their sins which set them in captivity to a pagan nation. In Esther, we see both: Esther intercedes with the pagan King Ahasuerus for the nation of Israel, Mordecai 'stands in the gap' for Israel when he sees the nation about to fall to the wicked Haman, and later all Israel mourns, weeps, fasts, wails and lays in sackcloth and ashes, begging for the great hand of God to again defend the beleaguered nation. Is this merely about begging for protection? No, it is also about the healing of the nation beginning with repentance.

If a soldier is wounded on a battlefield, his wounds are not neatly attended to there: he needs to be dragged off the front, to a place of safety and some rest so that he can be healed and made whole. Rest is required. In the case of a nation, they are substantially asking to be 'dragged off the battlefield' to a place of rest where they would be made whole again, by the hand of GOD. REPENTANCE, both via a representative in this case a prophet or a Queen, or leader of Israel (Mordecai), brings the desired intervention and in all three cases, a miraculous healing of the nation. For Daniel, the Repentance is intense and severe and occurs amidst a pagan atmosphere, and risks the wrath of the king and courtiers.

Daniel notes that the nation has fallen to CONFUSION because of rebellion:

O Lord, to us [belongeth] confusion of face, to our kings, to our princes, and to our fathers, because we have sinned against thee.
To the Lord our God [belong] mercies and forgivenesses, though we have rebelled against him; Dan 8-9

and that the failure to obey the LAW (Torah) of GOD, has resulted in the 'diseased' condition of the captive nation:

Neither have we obeyed the voice of the LORD our God, to walk in his laws, which he set before us by his servants the prophets.

Why is national repentance needed? Because a whole nation sinned:
-

all Israel have transgressed thy law, even by departing, that they might not obey thy voice; therefore the curse is poured upon us, and the oath that [is] written in the law of Moses the servant of God, because we have sinned against him.

We will continue with this study again shortly but a few points in summary are applicable not only to the Israel of long ago, but to all nations today:

1. We have fallen to a 'curse' by
-disobedience,
-sin,
-failure to hear God,
- failure to walk in His Law or Way
[I am the WAY , the TRUTH and the LIFE Jn14:6)

2. The 'Curse' of National Sin results in
-Confusion
-Inability to hear from GOD
-Captivity and brutal treatment
-A lack of Clarity as in confusion, lack in decision-making
-Lack of leadership and direction
-'Dissension' of the fabric of society

3. Both Prophets and Ministers of God need to Repent for the Nation and Themselves


4. The Nation Must Repent in Seriousness
-Calling on God with Praise, Fasting and Supplication
- Turning from the way they are on by obeying Christ's commands
-Spending the time necessary to seek out GOD's forgiveness and will.

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This study will continue at a later date. by Elizabeth Kirkley Best

Prayers of National Repentance: Daniel, Esther, & More

The national repentance which is required for the Healing of a Nation is clearly seen in several passages of scripture. The Ninevites turned in national repentance at the prophesying of Jonah; Daniel's repentance brought the vision of the future of Israel clear to the end of time, along with a Return to the Land, the national repentance of the Jews saved them in Medo-Persia from India to the Meditteranean [the following is by Elizabeth K. Best] from the foes raised by the edict Haman procured. Ezra demands by God a national repentance and the putting away of 'strange wives' in the purification of Israel, and there are a number of other times as well. [e.g. the repentance of Israel during certain wars ] Corporate confession of national sin came either by
1) The whole nation praying a confession or
2) By a person praying in Proxy for the sins of the Nation

Daniel's prayer is the essence of the prophet praying in Proxy for the Sins of Israel, supplicating God for the time which has been determined as the prophesied time for the end of captivity.

And I set my face unto the Lord God, to seek by prayer and supplications, with fasting, and sackcloth, and ashes:

The form is worth noting: First there is the
-ACKNOWLEDGING OF THE MAJESTY OF GOD,
-THE CHARACTER OF GOD, and the critical
-COVENANT

Dan 9:4 And I prayed unto the LORD my God, and made my confession, and said, O Lord, the great and dreadful God, keeping the covenant and mercy to them that love him, and to them that keep his commandments;

Following the praise and essential declaration of Covenant, which has kept Israel alive and protected her throughout captivity, the major tenets of the sin are listed:

Dan 9:5 We have sinned, and have committed iniquity, and have done wickedly, and have rebelled, even by departing from thy precepts and from thy judgments:

Dan 9:6 Neither have we hearkened unto thy servants the prophets, which spake in thy name to our kings, our princes, and our fathers, and to all the people of the land.