God is patient. But as the Israelites–His Chosen People–caused Him to reveal, His patience is limited. Throughout the Holy Scriptures the Lord recorded numerous individual (myself included) and corporate cases in which He displayed His grace and longsuffering toward those who, having sinned against Him, truly repented and turned or returned to Him. Many of these individuals and groups rebelled against Him several times. Not wanting any man to perish, the Lord in each case extended His hand of forgiveness toward the wandering believer(s). But as His Word also tells us, there came a point at which His saving hand was withdrawn. Let us consult the Old Testament in order to observe how the Lord’s patience, as well as its removal, affected the people involved.

Following His extraction of Israel from Egyptian slavery, the Lord’s people immediately rebelled against Him. Fortunately, He had sent them a human savior in the person of Moses who coaxed them through the removal process. After witnessing the numerous miracles God performed in bringing them out of Egypt, the Israelites immediately rebelled because of a water problem. He patiently bailed them out. Later they complained about a food shortage. Again He met their needs. The capper came with their refusal to enter the Promised Land due, unbelievably, to a lack of faith in Him. His patience having run out, the Lord–later known as Jesus of Nazareth–sent the “church in the wilderness” (Acts 7:38) with Himself at the helm (1 Cor. 10:4), into a 40 year wandering trek throughout the wilderness of Sin. Finally, under the leadership of Joshua, God’s Chosen People took control of what had been gifted to them a generation earlier. The first “Great Awakening” had begun. It lasted approximately one generation. As would be the case in future awakenings, the people would “get religion” and vow to obey their Maker Who would lift them out of the mire into which they had deliberately stepped. But in every case they eventually lost their zeal for God and turned to idolatry. This cycle would be repeated many times until, His patience depleted, God caused them to be defeated, exiled from the Holy Land and enslaved by the Assyrians and Babylonians. He later scattered them throughout the world. See White Fields. Today the tribes of Judah, Benjamin and Levi, numbering some 15,000,000 globally, are identified as “Jews” by the world and themselves. The other tribes, called the Lost Tribes of Israel, are identified as Israelites neither by the world nor themselves. Because these Israelites have assumed the social and spiritual characteristics of the Gentiles among whom they live, they are known by the world and themselves as Gentiles. “Lost” relative to their true identity, they number in the hundreds millions, perhaps billions world-wide.

Not long after the establishment of the New Testament/Covenant Church in 31 A.D., Simon Magus’ church–later called Catholicism–rose up and began to infiltrate the Church of God, causing much turmoil and resulting in many defections. It was against this religious monster that the apostles waged a continuous war during the days of their ministries. In a future series of postings I will lead the readers through the history of God’s Church. Here we will see in detail the disasterous effect of Satan’s war against God and His people. Readers have already been introduced to Simon’s apostate church which began in Rome in 33 A.D. as Satan’s heathen-centered option to the Church of God. See Simon of Samaria–the Legacy. As had her spiritual ancestor, the New Covenant Church soon began to weaken relative to the lure of the devil’s user-directed version of the church. The apostles’ letters to the church contained numerous warnings about Satan’s primary weapon against them–Simon Magus’ church. The apostles, along with millions of other believers, were martyred for fighting against it.  To be continued. L.J.