"In the
generations gone by He permitted all the
nations to go their own ways; and yet He
did not leave Himself without witness,
in that He did good and gave you rains
from heaven and fruitful seasons,
satisfying your hearts with food and
gladness." Acts 14:16-17
God created
us to be His family. The very first
human was called the "son of God." The
first man and woman knew the Lord well
and would meet Him in the Garden for
fellowship regularly. I can only imagine
what it must have been like to
anticipate hearing the footsteps of the
Lord and running to meet Him in the cool
of the day. What did they do together?
What did they talk about? Did they laugh
and have fun? Were there games that they
played with the Lord? Certainly they had
a hunger for knowledge and we see that
the Lord was teaching them.
Man was
created and designed for divine
fellowship with God and had it in the
beginning. But sadly that all changed
when they chose to disobey God, go their
own way and fell from God’s grace.
Because of the stain of sin there was
now a barrier between God and man.
For
hundreds of years few sought fellowship
with God. We see that Noah was righteous
before the Lord and that Enoch walked
faithfully before Him, but they are
exceptions to the rule. Man was
separated from his Creator but He could
always still be found by those who
diligently sought Him.
Abraham
was one man that so impressed God that
He made a special Covenant with him and
his descendants. Abraham’s great
grandsons became known as the children
of Israel whom God claimed as His own
possession.
Of all
the physical nations on the earth,
Israel alone had fellowship with God.
God even commanded a Tabernacle to be
built that His Presence might dwell
among them. He gave them Laws,
Commandments and Statutes to live by and
promised to protect them always if they
walked in obedience. This was great for
the Israelites, but what about the rest
of humanity that had fallen from grace?
Our text
says that for many generations God
permitted all the nations to go their
own ways. They were without personal
guidance from their Creator. But in
Abraham this was destined to change. For
the blessings of Abraham were to fall on
the natural seed and also the spiritual
seed. The Israelites were the natural
seed of Abraham, but the Gentiles could
become his offspring by being born of
the Holy Spirit.
In
fact, to be a true heir of the eternal
promises made to the great Patriarch all
had to be born of the Spirit whether
they were Jew or Gentile, - "It
is those who are of faith who are sons
of Abraham. The Scripture, foreseeing
that God would justify the Gentiles by
faith, preached the Gospel beforehand to
Abraham saying, ‘All the nations will be
blessed in you.’" - "There is neither
Jew nor Greek. . .for you are all one in
Christ Jesus. And if you belong to
Christ, then you are Abraham’s
descendants, heirs according to
promise." (Gal.3)
