Old Testament Wars

When God said to the Israelites, wipe the pagans from the land. You know, people say when we read the Old Testament, this God of you guys Christians you believe in, this God says go and kill so and so, chop them, chop them, chop them. So how come this God of the Old Testament is the same God of the New Testament? When we come to the New Testament, this God is totally different and utterly different.

This God says if somebody, you know, strikes you on your cheek to give him the other one. If somebody takes you by force a mile, go two miles, love your enemy, pray for those who persecute you. Totally different Gods.

You Christians, you don't know what you're doing. No Habibi, come I teach you, come I teach you. So when God said to the Israelites, wipe the pagans from the land.

Now why God said to the Israelites, go and wipe the pagans from the land? Because in Isaiah chapter 8 verse 8, look what Isaiah is saying in 8 verse 8, he will pass through Judah, he will overflow and pass over, he will reach up to the neck and the stretching out of his wings will fill the breadth of your land O Immanuel. So whose land is it? It is the land of Immanuel. So Israel is not the land of the Israelis nor the Palestinians, it is the land of Immanuel.

And who is Immanuel? When we come to the New Testament, Immanuel is Jesus Christ of Nazareth. That is his land. Very controversial thing to say in our time and age.

But I'm just good looking. So the land is Immanuel. And what does the word Immanuel mean? God with us.

For he shall be called Immanuel, also Isaiah prophesied. And who was called Immanuel? Jesus of Nazareth. All glory to his holy and mighty name.

So the land belongs to Immanuel, Isaiah 8 8. And for those who believe in the Torah, they better believe in the prophecies, the Old Testament prophecies, they need to believe the land belongs to Immanuel, no one else. Now God was never bloody. All it was, the land was his.

And he gave it to the Israelites. He chose to give his land to the Israelites. And God is free when he chooses to do things in certain ways.

God has the right and no one can say no to God. So he said, this is my land and I'm giving it to the Israelites. And for as long as, so I don't want anyone to misunderstand here, and God is saying, for as long as the Israelites worship me, God said to them, go and wipe the pagans from the land.

But the day the Israelites disobey me, I will send the Assyrians and the Babylonians and they will wipe the Israelites. God, our God is very fair and very just. So when he gave the land to the Israelites, he didn't give it just so they can do whatever they wish.

They need to obey him. And if they don't, he will bring other nations to discipline them. But as long as they are obeying him, he gave them the right to go and wipe the pagans.

Why? Because pagans cannot exist in a land that belongs to the true living God. And for them to dwell in the land that belongs to Immanuel and they worship false gods, God will never accept it. God will never accept it.

You see, God is saying, you walk right, you will be all right. You walk right, you will always be all right. This is the law.

You break the law, you don't expect to be all right. Don't expect to be all right. And for this reason, God says in the Old Testament, if you fulfill the law, I will bless your produce.

I will bless your children. I will bless your home. I will bless your health.

I will bless your possessions and I will keep your enemies away from you. But if you break the law, the opposite will happen to you. The opposite will happen to you.

In Isaiah chapter 1 verses 19 to 20, it says the following. If you are willing and obedient, you shall eat the good of the land. But if you refuse and rebel, you shall be devoured by the sword, for the mouth of the Lord has spoken.

So you follow my rules, God says, you will be good, but you disobey my rules, the sword will devour you. And when you look at the Israelite nation in their entire history, every time they worship Yahweh, the true living God, they conquered the lands and they conquered their enemies. But the day they came and disobeyed the true living God, the Assyrian people came and smashed the daylight out of them.

And this is a lesson for all of us. We are the Israelites in a way of the New Testament. We obey the Lord Jesus, we will live happily ever after.

We disobey the Lord Jesus, all hell will break, will break loose on us and against us. It's the same God, for God's sake. It's the same God.

Now, so our beloved and worshiped God is not bloody at all, is not a harsh God, quite the contrary. Our God treats the human being according to their level, exactly the same way parents treat their children according to their level. Would you treat your child when they were one year old the same way they are now 18? Of course not.

When they were one, you treated them according to their level. And when they were 18, you treated them according to their level and so on. So the older you grow, the treatment will change depending on the level you are at.

That's how God treats us. So the level of the Old Testament was the level of humanity. For every action, there is a reaction.

I'm not asking too much, I'm asking what you are capable of and what you're capable of as a human being outside of God. Love the one who loves you and hate the one who hates you. That's all you can do.

But when grace came, it's a different level. Therefore, the treatment of God is now different to all of us. If you hadn't broken God's word, none of this would have happened to you.

So the law came as that x-ray machine and revealed my problem, but that's as far as the law can go. I can't heal. So I took the x-rays and he said, oh, you've got a lump, Bishop.

You've got a lump. So what do I do now? I put the x-ray on the lump. Come on x-ray, heal me please.

Come on x-ray, heal me please. The x-ray will say nothing. The x-ray will say one thing, you've got a problem, you've got a lump.

So how do I heal this? You need to take the x-ray back to the doctor and the doctor will prescribe you the medications for your illness. The law is the x-ray machine, Christ is the doctor. And it is with Christ, medication is readily available.

But who referred me to the x-ray machine? Christ. Why? Because I need to know what my problem is. I need to go back to the law for the law to tell me where I went wrong.

And when I realize where I went wrong, I'll go back to the doctor and I'll say, doctor, please heal me. That's when we come back. You see, if we do not admit that we are sinners, if we do not confess our wrongdoings, the doctor cannot heal me.

And without the x-ray machine, I will never know what my problem is. I don't know why I'm in pain, but the x-ray machine revealed the source to my pain. So the law revealed the source to my problem, but until I acknowledge it, until I confess it, until I take that result to the doctor who is Jesus Christ, and then bow before his feet, holy feet, and beg him for mercy, for forgiveness, and beg him for healing, the doctor cannot heal someone that does not wish to go and see the doctor.

The doctor cannot heal someone that refuses to see the doctor. You need to go willingly, you need to go freely to the doctor and beg the doctor to heal you. That's the only time you are giving permission lawfully to the doctor to prescribe you medications for your illness.

And the medication Christ the King, the true doctor, gave us are the seven sacraments of the church. Medication to our illnesses or illness. Illness is me.

Illness is the result of me, which we'll talk about next week. Now the law, the x-ray machine, revealed three things in me. Number one, there is sin in me.

That's what the law revealed, that there is sin in me. Number two, the law revealed that all humans are corrupt. And number three, the law revealed that the healing is coming through the Messiah.

So the law revealed that I'm a sinner, the law revealed that I am corruptible, but also did not leave me at losing hope. It gave me hope as well. The law said, even though you're a sinner, even though you are corrupt, even though you are dying, but there is good news coming in the near future.

The medication is coming through the doctor of all doctors, the Messiah, Jesus Christ of Nazareth. He is the only doctor that can heal your illness.