So what’s with all the predictions on incredible influence and wealth? Did God “over promise and under deliver?”

There are hints of this prophecy fulfilled; specifically when Jesus was born in Bethlehem. (Matthew 2:11) Somehow I don’t think that the exiled Jews of the 5th Century BCE were satisfied with this interpretation – they wanted piles of money! They wanted the honor and recognition of the nations!  ”The flocks of Kedar!  The rams of Nebaioth!  The camels!  Where are my camels?!”

I wonder if this is how Christians understand their relationship with God.  They sense that there is a pile of blessings, maybe even actual money, waiting on the other side of a “right relationship with God.”  They think that if they love God hard enough, if they believe the right things, if they just do it all right, then they’ll have life right where they want it.

Trouble is, life is never quiet as we want it – but its right where God has it. He has sprinkled the fulfillment of his promises to bring blessings to his people from the far corners of the earth – he does it in the birth of Jesus; secretly, and its just enough money to keep a family of three out of the cold and filthy stables and enough to get them down to Egypt, where they can safely escape disaster.

THAT is the blessing of God…the wealth of heaven.

Yes, wealth seen in the light of God’s nature is not something that we can put in a bank account, but something that gives us another chance to dive deeper into him – knowing that we may not have enough to survive on our own, but plenty to keep following…for one more day.

But why would God make all these promises of very specific assets that exiles would gain from as they returned to the holy land of Jerusalem?  I think its important to remember that each of us come to God for personal, selfish reasons.  God knows this, he loves you for it – and he wants you to know that the things you care about are important to him too – even if he sees how short-sighted they are.

So he’ll help you get out of debt if that is something you see as important – and then he’ll remind you that you’ll always be in debt to him.  He’ll help you with as much worldly wealth as he’s called you to…then he’ll call on you to give it all back to him…

In other words, our tangible gifts are only whispers of the real gifts he hopes to give us. The question is, can we let go of the tangibles in order to receive what truly matters…?

The Jews have been exiled from their homeland, the temple destroyed, and now after 70 years away from their homeland, some of the Israelites are returning home under the watch of the Persian King Cyrus.  The year is approximately 516 BCE, and the Temple of the LORD is slowly being reconstructed under the watch of Nehemiah.  We’re also seeing a proliferation of other prophetic voices now in the land of Judea (as its now called), with the ministries of Haggai and Zechariah.

These were heavily transitional times – and it was a critical time for Jewish identity.

What is a Jew if it is not about the land one lives on? The exile squashed their initial interpretation of God’s promise to give them a permanent home here on earth, and now a vast majority of the Jews lived abroad.

What is a Jew if the Temple is not the center of worship? While they were rebuilding a “temple” it had nothing of the splendor of Solomon’s first construction hundreds of years ago.

This is when the Jews truly became “People of the Book” – a book religion, as we know them today.  The Law became central to the Jewish religion, and with a Diaspora covering the Persian…then Roman Empire… it paved the way for a Christian revolution to spread across the land like wildfire.

But first God had something to say to the nations. Even in this time of fragile rebuilding, with the walls of Jerusalem still in shambles, God sees this as his moment to turn the self-obsessed ship of the Jews around, and re-center them on his initial mission – to be a blessing to all nations.

56:3 “Don’t let foreigners who commit themselves to the Lord say,

‘The Lord will never let me be part of his people.’

And don’t let the eunuchs say,

7 I will bring them to my holy mountain of Jerusalem

and will fill them with joy in my house of prayer.

I will accept their burnt offerings and sacrifices,

because my Temple will be called a house of prayer for all nations.

‘I’m a dried-up tree with no children and no future.’

8 For the Sovereign Lord,

who brings back the outcasts of Israel, says:

I will bring others, too,

besides my people Israel.”

God finds a way to use what the Jews see as a setback, and reorients it into the greatest advance in his ultimate mission he’s gone for in several hundred years!  There is no one on earth that Yahweh is not desperately trying to connect with and adopt into his family.  It is not about the calamity of the Jewish identity – for God, it is about the restoration of Creation under his fatherhood, and everyone has the grace-filled privilege of becoming a son or daughter of God.

Interesting video (above), eh?

Each tribe in America has certain taboos that make them cry out to their constituents, “Do not handle, do not taste, do not touch!” ([youversion] Col. 3:21-23 [/youversion]) For liberals, its gluten, genetically modified foods, gas guzzling cars, and the like. Just try to order a steak at a vegetarian restaurant, and see the looks you get! Its amazing how many pious rules and regulations health-conscious have set up for their own personal quarantine. For conservatives, they make no mistake about it – personal ethics like curse words, drinking alcohol, or voting for big government policies. Doing these things or involving yourself with people who do will keep you out of the “inner circles” of the Tribe.

There are literally thousands of other tribes out there with the same spoken or unspoken boundaries on what they are willing for you to accept. Sports tribes, politics tribes, business tribes, family tribes, etc.

When you cross that border, you are no longer considered clean by your tribe. You “are off the deep end” and they now consider you an outsider.

Paul makes the case that in Christ, and in the Christ-Tribe, we are no longer to condemn (or be condemned) with such rules. There may be other benefit in driving a Prius, but your association with Christ is not made or broken on that. More importantly, following all these rules will get you no closer to the real problem – the evil and divine “ME” in all of us. Only Christ can set you free from your selfish desires. You are in his family – and as such you are set free from the bondage of worldly constraints. In a very real way, you have already died – and the limitations of an earthly life no longer apply to you. Now your life is brand new, and following Christ is the only path out of self-centeredness and into resurrected life.