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PREPARING AND PREPARED (Part 3 of 4) A PORTION PREPARED (Amplified--unless otherwise specified) Following His works of Creation, God reserved for Adam two work-related assignments (portions), keeping the garden and naming the animals. First, "...the Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to tend and guard and keep it" {Gen. 2:15}. Next,"...out of the ground the Lord God formed every [wild] beast and living creature of the field and every bird of the air, and brought them to Adam to see what he would call them; and whatever Adam called every creature, that was its name" {Gen.- 2:19}. Thus man became, as it were, a co-laborer with his Creator. As Sovereign Lord, God chooses various instruments (portions), for example, nature and dreams, through which to execute His judgments. About nature, He questioned Job: "Have you entered the treasuries of the snow, or have you seen the treasuries of the hail, Which I have reserved for the time of trouble, for the day of battle and war?" {Job 38:22-23}. To establish Joseph in his preordained position, God sent Pharaoh two dreams, both warning of "seven years of hunger and famine" {Gen. 41:30} following the same number of years of "Great plenty throughout all the land of Egypt" {Gen. 41:29}. Called forth from prison to interpret these dreams, Joseph explained, "The [two] dreams are one... That the dream was sent twice to Pharaoh and in two forms, indicates that this thing which God will very soon bring to pass is fully prepared and established by God" {Gen. 41:25,32}. Of the Father's acceptance of the last Adam's sacrifice, Isaiah prophesied, "He shall see the fruit of the travail of His soul and be satisfied; by His knowledge of Himself [which He possesses and imparts to others] shall My [uncompromisingly] righteous One, My Servant, justify and make many righteous... Therefore will I divide Him a portion with the great [kings and rulers] and He shall divide the spoil with the mighty; because He poured out His life unto death..." {Is. 53:11-12}. Like Adam, like Joseph, and like Christ, we, too, are called to preordained works, "For we are God's [own] handiwork (His workmanship), recreated in Christ Jesus, [born anew] that we may do those good works which God predestined (planned beforehand) for us, (taking paths which He prepared ahead of time) that we should walk in them--living the good life which He prearranged and made ready for us to live" {Eph. 2:10}. The Father determines the portion(s) prepared and kept in store for His own. Just prior to Samuel's anointing of Saul".. Samuel took Saul... into the guest room ... in the chief place. And Samuel said to the cook, Bring the portion which I gave you, of which I said to you, Set it aside. And the cook lifted high the shoulder and what was on it [indicating that it was the priest's honored portion] and set it before Saul. Samuel said, See what was reserved for you. Eat; for until the hour appointed it was kept for you... " {I Sam. 9:22-23}. Representing "overflow" or "abundance," the shoulder portion points toward the New Testament proclamation, "...What eye has not seen, and ear has not heard, and has not entered into the heart of man, [all that] God has prepared--made and keeps ready--for those who love him... Yet to us God has unveiled and revealed them...the profound and bottomless things of God--the divine counsels and the things hidden and beyond man's scrutiny" {I Cor. 2:9-10}. Of the inheritance belonging to those who are Christ's, Peter wrote, "...By His boundless mercy we have been born again. Born anew into an inheritance which is beyond the reach of change and decay (imperishable), unsullied, and unfading, reserved in heaven for you, Who are being guarded (garrisoned) by God's power through [your] faith till you fully inherit that final salvation that is ready to be revealed [for you] in the last days" {I Peter 1:3-5}. In contrast, Paul described the plight of those who remain outside of Christ, i.e. "...in the world without God, "...excluded from all part in Him, utterly estranged... strangers with no share in the sacred compacts of the [Messianic] promise--with no... right in God's covenants... no hope--no promise... {Eph 2:12}. An invitation, reward or inheritance prepared and reserved does not guarantee automatic bestowal, as demonstrated by Esau's forfeiting of birthright and blessing. Similarly, It was to the Jews that God initially offered His Adoption, Glory, Presence, Covenants, Law, and Worship. But after their rejection of His Son, in and through Whom all these were fulfilled, He extended these blessings to the Gentiles {Rom. 9:4-5}. To those rejecting His Rule, God had warned, "And the wonderful heritage I reserved for you will slip out of your hand..." {Jer. 17:4 TLB} In like manner, the writer of Hebrews warned, "THEREFORE; while the promise of entering His rest still holds and is offered [today], let us be afraid [to distrust it]..." {Heb. 4:1}. Of those who did not believe, God said, "As I swore in My wrath, They shall not enter into My rest; and this He said although [His] works had been completed and prepared [and waiting for all who would believe] from the foundation of the world {Heb. 4:3} Of these who"...forfeited their part in it,.. He said, They shall not enter into My rest" {Heb. 4:5}. As a Father, God reserves portions for those who are His: "A good man leaves an inheritance [of moral stability and goodness] to his children's children, and the wealth of the sinner [finds its way eventually] into the hands of the righteous, for whom it was laid up" {Prov. 13:22}. For example, after God's amazing victory over the people of Ammon, Moab and Mount Seir, "When Jehosaphat and his people came to take away their spoil they found among them an abundance of valuables...and precious jewelry...more than they could carry away; and they were three days gathering the spoil because there was so much" {2 Chron. 20:25}. To the needy, God is not unmindful to reserve a portion, for in mercy, compassion, and lovingkindness, "God places the solitary in families and gives the desolate a home in which to dwell; and He leads the prisoners into prosperity... {Ps. 68:6}. Portions from His Hand came not as an afterthought, for, "... the King will say to those at His right hand, Come, you blessed of My Father... inherit; --receive as your own--the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world" {Matt. 25:34). Truly, our inheritance has been laid up in store, for "... when we are among the full-grown--the spiritually mature Christians who are ripe in understanding--we do impart a (higher) wisdom [that is, the knowledge of the divine plan previously hidden].. what we are setting forth is wisdom of God once hidden [from the human understanding] and now revealed to us by God; [that wisdom] which God devised and decreed before the ages for our glorification [that is, to lift us into the glory of His presence]" {I Cor. 2:6-7}. Throughout the book of Ruth, we find portions prepared, awaiting God's timing, as well as His people's readiness and acceptance. "But Naomi said to her two daughters-in-law, Go, return each of you to her mother's house... The Lord grant that you may find a home and rest, each in the house of her husband!" {Ruth 1:8}. Ruth's loyalty to her mother-in-law, and her trusting in Naomi's God, prompted Boaz to speak the following blessing" "The Lord recompense you for what you have done, and a full reward be given you by the Lord, the God of Israel, under Whose wings you have come to take refuge!" {Ruth 2: 12} In addition, "...when she got up to glean, Boaz ordered his young men, Let her glean even among the sheaves, and do not reproach her; And let fall some handfuls for her on purpose, and let them lie there for her to glean, and do not rebuke her" {Ruth 2:15-16}. Later, as the wife of Boaz, Ruth entered a rest unattained by her sister-in-law who had refused to pay the price of remaining loyal to Naomi, choosing rather to remain in the world of the familiar. The rest which Ruth found as the wife of Boaz speaks prophetically of the rest the Bride of Christ will find in the Home of her Husband. May we, like Ruth, go on to follow our Boaz and to obtain that portion of rest and reward reserved for us. - Ruth French
March 1996 Newsletter | Battle-Ready Mind | Pastor's Journal March 1995 Our Confessions | Preparing and Prepared part 3 of 4 Revised: June 25, 2008. |
Biblical Counseling for Leaders
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