We are picking up where we left off yesterday in examining an often quoted verse found in 2 Chron. 7:14 where God promised to ‘heal the land’ of ‘His people’...if certain conditions were met. This promise of healing begins with ‘IF...My people’. Today, we are looking at just who exactly ...God’s ‘people’ are.

And let me establish up front here, that God truly did/does...’so love the world’, (John 3:16), He desires for ‘all men to be saved’ (1 Tim. 2:4) and He is not willing that ‘any perish, but that all come to repentance’. (2 Pet. 3:9; Acts 17:30). Failure to do so comes with a very sobering warning – Luke 13:3,5; Acts 3:22-23.

I cannot stress enough the fact this is indeed a warning, and not a ‘threat’. When rescue workers climbed the towers on that fateful day back on 9/11, they found people huddled up in smokey rooms and came to rescue them from impending death and destruction. Instructing them to ‘follow them out or else’ was a loving and caring warning filled with hope, and not a condemning threat. The mission of Jesus, our Savior, is no different. (John 3:17) So in seeking to establish just who...are ‘God’s people’, we do so because of the fact that ‘many’...have or will falsely assume...they themselves are God’s people...and will find out that ‘He never knew them’. (Matt. 7:21-23) The ones He ‘does know’...hear His voice... and follow Him’. (John 10:27;Luke 6:46)

So when it comes to the promises of hope, peace, provision and protection that is extended to us by God (not to mention ‘eternal life’)...it is to those who respond to His call...that fall under the heading of “My people” and they are the recipients or benefactors of those promises. Yes, there are indeed, ‘conditions’ attached to such promises, despite His unfailing love that He has for the whole world. (John 3:16) Just saying one ‘believes’...is not enough. (Matt. 7:21; James 1:22)

I’d like to focus our attention now back to Exodus 6:1-9. I have said on more than one occasion that in this book, along with others in the OT, God made available to us a set of ‘spiritual blueprints’ that foretold of the day (or dispensation) that we are living in now that offerup types and foreshadows of what His plan would be for us from the time of Jesus till today. So the story of God raising up Moses to deliver the Israelites from the bondage of Egypt and their oppressor, the Pharaoh, is a beautiful picture of what Jesus would eventually be sent to do for all of humanity.(Acts 26:18) But it is not a Pharaoh or Egypt today that we need deliverance from as I’m sure you understand. Please begin by reading Ex.2:23-25 and then 6:1-9.

I want to lay some more groundwork here that hopefully will help us progress with this study. God was basically needing to re-introduce Himself to the descendants of Abraham (and Isaac and Jacob). God reminds them of the covenant He established some 400+ years earlier with Abraham which began with a ‘calling out’ of from his native homeland, Haran. Abraham was actually born in Ur, the land of the Chaldeans where much idolatry existed. (Gen. 11:27-31). Genesis 12:1-4 then fills us in on the beginning of this relationship between God and Abram (his name before God changed it). If you need or desire to become reacquainted with the story, chapters 12-18 would be worth your time reading through later.

But for now, I leave you with why this is all so relevant to us today. First – God began this relationship with Abram by ‘calling him out’ of his homeland. Did you know the word ‘church’ comes from a Greek word, ‘eklesia’ which basically means the ‘called out ones’? Go take a look at what we are ‘called out’ from.(1 Pet. 2:9; Luke 1:79)

Next, the passage in Ex. 6:5-7 informs these people in bondage that God is going to ‘bring them out’ and take them as ‘His people’. These ‘children of Israel’ (the Jews) were descendants of Jacob (Abraham's grandson), whose name was changed to Israel (5) And lastly, we read in Gal.3:26-29 that those who are truly ‘in Christ’ and the true ‘children of God’ (Rom. 8:14)...are now ‘Abraham’s seed and heirs according to the promise’.

Up until this time, the distinction of people on the earth was made like this: Jews = descendants of Abraham. Gentiles = anyone not a Jew. Paul suggests that label (Jew) is no longer relevant in Gal. 3:28.

Here is how John separates people today: either you are a ‘child of God’ or a ‘child of the devil’. (1 John 3:10). And it should be clear just who is who. (John 13:35)

Join me tomorrow?