Beginning in the Book of Genesis and ending in the Book of Revelation, the Holy Bible is a contractural agreement (covenant) involving two parties: God and the individual. God officially placed His contract before the children of Israel (Jacob) at Mount Sinai where He told them (and us) that if they would “… obey My voice ….” they would be His people and He would be their God. He then spoke and placed in permanent stone-etched writing the Ten Commandments–His “voice.” God–the “party of the first part”–never changes (Mal. 3:6). He is the same yesterday, today and forever (Heb. 13:8). His promises are “Yea and Amen”–yes and so be it (2 Cor. 1:20). All of God’s promises came voluntarily from Him without man’s input or request. By this we know that His promises constitute His will for His most prized creation–man. Concerning God’s promises, the Holy Bible was written to, for and about His Chosen People–the Children of Israel (Jacob). Beginning with their extraction from Egypt God’s people would include the “mixed multitude” of Gentiles who came out of Egypt with them (see Exodus 12:38). These people, probably slaves won through warfare, had shown their desire to serve the God of the Israelites by observing Passover both before and after gaining their freedom. Following their extraction from Egypt, these Gentiles (Heb.– heathen) were absorbed into the various tribes by obeying the Israelites’ God, thereby becoming spiritual Israelites. As Ruth the Moabite would do many generations later, these Gentiles would take God’s people as their people and the people’s God as their God (Ruth 1:16). This woman would later become the grandmother of King David of the line of Judah, from which would come the Messiah.

What God has promised, He will produce. However, as Ruth knew, there is a caveat–the God of the Israelites must be treated as God–the Eternal and Almighty. From His point of view, the caveat begins with two words: “If you.” The contract (covenant–Bible) states numerous times that receiving or not receiving God’s promised blessings depends entirely on the “party of the second part”–man. Adam and Eve were free moral agents, as have been every man and woman since their creation. Man has God-given “power of attorney” over all things in their lives. The spiritual always dominates the material. Therefore, man’s fate, both now and forever, is determined by his heart (mind), over which he has total control. But man does not exercise that control. He yields it to one of two overriding powers:God or Satan. The latter choice, no matter how right it may appear to be, always leads to death: “There is a way that seems right to a man, but that way ends in destruction (Prov. 14:12). Note that to the wayward man, his way “seems” to be the “right” way. This deadly error is caused by ignorance of or lack of faith in God’s Word. The Lord’s Word/Truth (Jn. 17:17) eliminates the “seems” problem totally for those who truly seek Him. The vast majority of professing Christians do not accept God’s “right” way and therefore choose a way that “seems right” to them. Proverbs 14:12 has resulted in two divisions and hundreds of mini-divisions of man’s version of the church. The unchurched have created hundreds of various other “isms” (Hinduism, Mohamedism, etc.) by which they worship and serve their various gods. In order to join the true God man must die to self–the “old (Satanic) man” which is led by the devil. He must then allow the Lord to create within him a “new (Godly) man” which is led by God’s Holy Spirit to ever-increasing holiness, without which man cannot be saved (Rom. 6:19-23). L.J.