Sister HeartSong, I thought you'd be interested in the following Charles Wesley hymn, based on the end of Deu 33.
[i]NONE is like Jeshurun's God,
So great, so strong, so high,
Lo! he spreads his wings abroad,
He rides upon the sky!
Israel is his first-born son;
God, the Almighty God, is thine;
See him to thy help come down,
The excellence divine.
2 Thee the great Jehovah deigns
To succour and defend;
Thee the eternal God sustains,
Thy Maker and thy friend:
Israel, what hast thou to dread?
Safe from all impending harms,
Round thee and beneath are spread
The everlasting arms.
3 God is thine; disdain to fear
The enemy within:
God shall in thy flesh appear,
And make an end of sin;
God the man of sin shall slay,
Fill thee with triumphant joy;
God shall thrust him out, and say,
"Destroy them all, destroy!"
4 All the struggle then is o'er,
And wars and fightings cease,
Israel then shall sin no more,
But dwell in perfect peace;
All his enemies are gone;
Sin shall have in him no part;
Israel now shall dwell alone,
With Jesus in his heart.
5 In a land of corn and wine
His lot shall be below;
Comforts there, and blessings join,
And milk and honey flow;
Jacob's well is in his soul;
Gracious dew his heavens distil,
Fill his soul, already full,
And shall for ever fill.
6 Blest, O Israel, art thou!
What people is like thee?
Saved from sin, by Jesus, now
Thou art, and still shalt be;
Jesus is thy seven-fold shield,
Jesus is thy flaming sword;
Earth, and hell, and sin, shall yield
To God's almighty Word.
7 God's almighty Word shall stand;
Thine enemies shall fall,
Fade away at His command,
And sink and perish all;
Liars shall they all be found -
All who cried, "It cannot be
Sin should ever quit its ground.
And have no place in thee."
8 Christ shall make thee free indeed
When He appears within;
Thou on self and pride shalt tread,
On all the strength of sin;
Thou shalt more than conquer it;
Thou shalt see it all depart,
See it dead beneath thy feet,
No longer in thy heart.
9 God, the gracious God and true,
Hath spoke the faithful word;
He the mighty work shall do,
Our trust is in the Lord;
He the mountain shall remove,
He the sinner shall restore,
He shall perfect me in love,
And I shall sin no more.[/i]
When the Hebrews left Egypt, the mixed multitude (synagogue) carried with them, Egyptian gods (idols - such as Rachel worshipped later, and Michal, David's wife). They didn't have the ark of the covenant until God had given the pattern to Moses early in their wilderness journey, after Aaron had made the golden calf. Later still, in the split between Solomon's son's followers, and the other ten tribes of Israel, Jeroboam made [u]two[/u] golden calves, and chose 'priests' from among 'the lowest of the people', devising a worship system of his own making. Eventually, God stops refering to 'Israel', and starts calling the dwelling place of those people 'Samaria', and then, when Judah follows and goes beyond Israel's idolatry, God cuts Judah off as well - apart from the tiny remnant of faithful worshippers of God.
Surely, the Christian life has many parallels with the long drawn out history of Jacob's descendents!
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