03/09/2021 - JACOB’S GLORY

• 
• 
• 
• 

He will choose our inheritance for us, the excellence of Jacob whom He loves. (Selah) Psalm 47.4

Here is the promise made to the Israelites: they would achieve the glory of Jacob. This patriarch was very important for them, for he knew how to persevere and fight to receive the blessing that was destined for him. Although his father-in-law changed his wages ten times, Jacob went to God, who turned Laban’s fraudulent proposal into a rich and powerful reward (Genesis 31). That glory would accompany them as their inheritance forever!

The prophet Isaiah saw that the works of the descendants of Israel were evil, so their inheritance would be less: “In that day it shall come to pass That the glory of Jacob will wane (Isaiah 17.4). People who don’t persevere in following the Lord will also see their portion diminish. Some will not even be saved (Matthew. 7:21; 10:22). Examine yourself and see how you have been walking on the Way!

As there were good things in them, God assured, for Jacob’s glory, that He wouldn’t forget the good they did: The Lord has sworn by the pride of Jacob: “Surely I will never forget any of their works (Amos 8.7). For those who understand God’s will and fulfil it, doing what Jesus commanded, there will be a far greater inheritance because of their love and faithfulness to Him. Hallelujah!

After the Babylonians destroyed Jerusalem because of Judah’s sin, Jeremiah wrote five poems in elegiac style, telling what happened to the glory of Israel: How the Lord has covered the daughter of Zion with a cloud in His anger! He cast down from heaven to the earth The beauty of Israel, and did not remember His footstool in the day of His anger. (Lamentations 2.1).  May this never happen to the Church of Christ!

Micah was a prophet in Judah in the days of the reigns of Jotham, Ahaz and Hezekiah. He was used to comfort future Israel. After they went into captivity and returned, there would still be a long time until the coming of the Messiah: I will yet bring an heir to you, O inhabitant of Mareshah; the glory of Israel shall come to Adullam (Micah 1.15). Jesus is the heir, who has bought us eternal salvation and will give us His glory.

Paul, writing to the Thessalonians, spoke of the glory of Christ and no longer of Jacob: But we are bound to give thanks to God always for you, brethren beloved by the Lord, because God from the beginning chose you for salvation through sanctification by the Spirit and belief in the truth to which He called you by our gospel, for the obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ  (2 Thessalonians 2.13,14). Such a great inheritance! 

The future of those who acknowledge Jesus as Saviour and serve Him with dedication and integrity of heart will be glorious. Nothing will separate us from this eternal prize, if we persevere in following the blessed Lord. Don’t take your eyes off the glory that will be granted to you in the consummation of the centuries, for the devil will propose much to rob you of it.

In Christ, with love,

R. R. Soares