Tag: Spiritual Land of Canaan

  • God’s Promise in the Passover: Inheritance of Canaan

    God’s Promise in the Passover: Inheritance of Canaan

    In the previous two articles we have studied that we can receive the promises of the forgiveness of sins and eternal life through the Passover. In this article, we are going to see the ultimate purpose of God giving us the Passover.

    What does God want to do for us when we keep the Passover and receive the precious promises of the forgiveness of sins and eternal life. To understand the matter, let us first take a look at the Passover of the Old Testament as copy and shadow so that we can know the will of God for us.

    Passover and Canaan

    God’s Will in the Emancipation of the Israelites

    In Exodus, God explains the reason why he gave the freedom from the Egyptian slavery to God’s people.

    Exodus 6:6  “Therefore, say to the Israelites: ‘I am the Lord, and I will bring you out from under the yoke of the Egyptians. I will free you from being slaves to them, and I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and with mighty acts of judgment. 7 I will take you as my own people, and I will be your God. Then you will know that I am the Lord your God, who brought you out from under the yoke of the Egyptians. 8 And I will bring you to the land I swore with uplifted hand to give to Abraham, to Isaac and to Jacob. I will give it to you as a possession. I am the Lord.’”

    The will of God for them was clear that he wanted to take them to the Land of Promise Canaan and give the land to the Israelites as inheritance. He did not want them to live in Egypt after the freedom.

    Journey to Canaan the Promised Land

    After keeping the Passover, we can see the Israel people leaving out of Egypt the land of slavery right the next day. They started their journey toward the Land of Promise Canaan.

    Exodus 12:31 During the night Pharaoh summoned Moses and Aaron and said, “Up! Leave my people, you and the Israelites! Go, worship the Lord as you have requested. 32 Take your flocks and herds, as you have said, and go. And also bless me.” 33 The Egyptians urged the people to hurry and leave the country. “For otherwise,” they said, “we will all die!”

    The Egyptians got terrified after they experienced the power of God in the last plague the plague of the first-borns and in the Passover that gave the protection to the Israel people from the disaster. And they urged the Israel people to leave the country and to go wherever they wanted. So the Israel people could leave Egypt as free men right next day.

    Entering Canaan

    Conquering the Promised Land Canaan

    After the freedom and the forty year’s journey in the desert, they could enter the Land of Promise in the end. And they could inherit the land just as God promised them.

    Joshua 1:1 After the death of Moses the servant of the Lord, the Lord said to Joshua son of Nun, Moses’ aide: 2 “Moses my servant is dead. Now then, you and all these people, get ready to cross the Jordan River into the land I am about to give to them—to the Israelites. 3 I will give you every place where you set your foot, as I promised Moses.

    To fulfill the promise of God the Israel people could conquer the Promised Land. And they could receive the land “flowing with honey and milk” as their inheritance.

    True Meaning of Inheritance of Canaan

    Slavery of Sin and Death

    All these things in the Old Testament were just a copy and shadow for the reality which would be revealed to the true Israelites or God’s people in Jesus Christ. (Colossians 2:16) Then what is the reality God have wanted to teach through the Law of Moses in the Old Testament?

    As we have seen in the previous article, all mankind is the people of God in the spiritual sense. (Romans 2:28) They were once angels in heaven. However, because of the sins they committed in heaven, they were cast down to this earth, living in the agony of death.

    About the life on this earth, Christ teaches us that we are living as slaves to sin and death.

    Freedom Through the Passover

    However, God took pity on the people who are suffering the pain of death and listened to their prayer for salvation. To give them freedom from sins and death, God came down to this earth and gave himself as ransom on the cross. He took up our sins in our stead and gave us the forgiveness of sins, the freedom from sins and death through the Passover.

    Through the sacrifice of Christ on the cross we could be freed from the slavery of sins and death. First, Christ gave us the forgiveness of sins through the Passover. (Matthew 26:26) And also he gave us the freedom from death or the eternal life through the Passover. (John 6:53)

    Spiritual Canaan the Kingdom of Heaven

    Then what was God’s will for us in giving the freedom from the slavery of sins and death? Does God want us to live on this earth forever? In the Old Testament the will of God for the Israel people after the emancipation from the slavery was to lead them to the Promised Land, not living in Egypt.

    Likewise, God’s will for those who have been set free from the slavery of sin and death is to lead them to the Promised Land or the spiritual Canaan, that is, the Kingdom of Heaven.

    Both Apostle Peter and John testifies about the spiritual inheritance God’s people would receive through the redemption work of God. Apostle Peter prophesies about the destruction of the earth we are living in and the creation of new heavens and earth (or the Kingdom of Heaven) where the saved would receive as inheritance.

    2 Peter 3:7 7 By the same word the present heavens and earth are reserved for fire, being kept for the day of judgment and destruction of the ungodly, ,,,,, 13 But in keeping with his promise we (the saved) are looking forward to a new heaven and a new earth, where righteousness dwells.

    New Heaven and New Earth

    And Apostle John testifies about some characteristics of this new heaven and new earth.

    Revelation 21:1 Then I saw “a new heaven and a new earth,” for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea. ….. 4 ‘He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death’ or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.”

    The most important characteristic of the new heaven and new earth is that there is no death there, which means there is only eternal life in the new heaven and the new earth. Since we cannot receive this inheritance with the body of sin and death, God eagerly wanted to give us “the forgiveness of sins” and “eternal life” that we may enter the new heaven and new earth. This is the reality of the Promised Land God wanted to show us through the Law of Moses.

    Conclusion

    God gave us so many precious promises through the Passover of the new covenant. The message of God in the Passover can be summed up as inheritance of Canaan the Promised Land. Even though we are sinners from heaven, God made the plan for the creation.

    Through the creation work of God, the elect will be made into a perfect creation and they will receive the kingdom of heaven as eternal inheritance. All the forefathers of faith made their journey toward heaven through the faith in God. As chosen people of God, people in Zion should follow the Spirit and the Bride, Christ Ahnsahnghong and Heavenly Mother New Jerusalem to the end.

  • [WMSCOG] Diaspora of Jews and Restoration

    “Diaspora” means “dispersion” or “scattering” of Jews outside the land of Israel. Throughout the Jewish history Jews got invaded and lost its nations and they became scattered all throughout the world many times. It happened during the Babylonian Captivity which happened around 600 BC and also it happened again by the Roman Empire when it captured Jerusalem and all the Jews got scattered around A.D. 70. All these dispersion or Diaspora happened to fulfill the prophecy of the bible. Again and again God warned his people that he would destroy them and scatter them because they did not listen to the laws of God.

    Deuteronomy 29:25   And the answer will be: “It is because this people abandoned the covenant of the Lord, the God of their ancestors, the covenant he made with them when he brought them out of Egypt. 26 They went off and worshiped other gods and bowed down to them, gods they did not know, gods he had not given them. 27 Therefore the Lord’s anger burned against this land, so that he brought on it all the curses written in this book. 28 In furious anger and in great wrath the Lord uprooted them from their land and thrust them into another land, as it is now.”

    In the time of Jeremiah, this words of God was fulfilled by the Babylonian Captivity. God warned his people to keep the covenant of God and not to worship the idols, but God’s people did not listen to the messages of God sent by Prophet Jeremiah. So they fell into the Babylonian Captivity and sent into Diaspora, living in the land of Babylon for 70 years as slaves to them.

    Jeremiah 16:12   But you have behaved more wickedly than your ancestors. See how all of you are following the stubbornness of your evil hearts instead of obeying me. 13 So I will throw you out of this land into a land neither you nor your ancestors have known, and there you will serve other gods day and night, for I will show you no favor.’

    Diaspora can be used to describe the spiritual condition of God’s people. Just as the physical Jews got scattered because of their sins and wickedness, the spiritual Jews, the true people of God got dispersed from heaven to this earth because of their sins in heaven. The bible testifies that we were once beautiful angels or the sons of God, but because of our rebellion against God we were cast down to this earth, the land of slavery of sin and death. Through the Diaspora of Jews, actually God was teaching the story of heaven. God’s people got separated from each other and scattered among the nations of this earth. Even though they were once glorious angels, they now lost the memory of the heaven and are living on this foreign land, going through many pains and suffering without knowing their origin.

     

    In Korea there are stories of family reunion. Recently there was a movie describing the life of the generation who went through the cataclysmic times in the modern Korean history: the Korean War, the reconstruction period after the war, and the Vietnam war. The movie Gukjesijang or International Market illustrated the life of Koreans who lived through the painful times in the Korean history. It is a story of man who lost his father and sister while they are travelling to south to escape the Korean War in 1950. Finally, he arrived at Busan and started his new life in Gukjesijang, a famous market place in Busan as a teenage boy. To feed himself and his family he volunteered to go to Germany as coal miner and met his wife who was working as nurse there. He became crippled during the Vietnam war.

    This is not just a story of Deoksoo Yoon who was the main character of the story; rather it was a story of all the Koreans living through the turbulent time. More than 25 % of Koreans were living the life of a diaspora like him, separated from his family members. Their life was harsh and difficult, and they had to put their lives in danger many times to feed the remaining family. Finally, at the end of the movie, we can meet a scene which is working as moment of “catharsis” through which all the pain and suffering built up throughout the movie can find its vent to produce a emotional purification with a lot of tears and joy. This was the moment of climax of the movie: the family reunion. This was what actually happened in Korea.

     

    To commemorate the 30th year of the Korean War, KBS, a broadcasting company in Korea prepared a program for the scattered family members: “Finding Family Scattered.” They planned this program for the families who lost their family members during the war. This program was a great hit and so many people came to KBS to tell their story through the program that the company had to extend the five-day program into 4 month project for about 138 days. The number of families who could find their lost family members were 10198 families. For 138 days all the Koreans had one mind with the families who were telling their stories: where they lived, who they lost, how they looked like, what their name were, all the information they could remember of their lost family. Family after family told their stories, and when there came a phone call to the studio from a would-be lost family member or his relative, all the people in Korea waited silently to see the result. Through the phone call they checked every bit of information they could remember even about small scar or mole they had on them and if they turned out to be the family, they wept and called each other’s names loudly. All the things happening in the studio was directly sent to all the people who were watching the program. When a family got united and wept out of joy, all the Koreans wept too. This was truly a great moment of reunion after a diaspora.

     
    This would be also true with the spiritual Jews who are in Diaspora all throughout the world. Over and over again God said that he would bring them back to their land again. Even though once they got scattered because of their wickedness, God also had compassion on them and let them come back to their own land.
     

    Jeremiah 12:14   14 This is what the Lord says: “As for all my wicked neighbors who seize the inheritance I gave my people Israel, I will uproot them from their lands and I will uproot the people of Judah from among them. 15 But after I uproot them, I will again have compassion and will bring each of them back to their own inheritance and their own country.

    After 70 years of the Babylonian slavery, God’s people were restored back to their own land again. Also in the time of Vespasian, a Roman Emperor, the city of Jerusalem was destroyed and God’s people got scattered all throughout the world, but they got restored back again after World War II. Through this history of the physical Jews, God is actually teaching a lesson for the spiritual Jews, the true God’s people who were scattered because of their wickedness and sins and will be restored back again to their original land, that is, the kingdom of heaven.
     

    Ezekiel 34:11   11 “‘For this is what the Sovereign Lord says: I myself will search for my sheep and look after them. 12 As a shepherd looks after his scattered flock when he is with them, so will I look after my sheep. I will rescue them from all the places where they were scattered on a day of clouds and darkness. 13 I will bring them out from the nations and gather them from the countries, and I will bring them into their own land. I will pasture them on the mountains of Israel, in the ravines and in all the settlements in the land. 

    This is a prophecy of the last days, the day of clouds and darkness and God will gather them back to the promised land even though they got scattered among the nations. In the last days, God himself would come as shepherd and gather all his flock together and bring them back to the land of Canaan, the promised land. This would be a glorious moment for God’s people who will inherit the kingdom of heaven. At this time of Restoration, God will check his people of all the information to find out if they are truly his people just as Koreans asked their age, hometown, family members, their appearance, the words they used to say, the surroundings of their town. All the information they could remember were used to find out if the person is truly the one who he is looking for. Likewise, God will check all the characteristics of his people to find out if they are truly the ones who belongs to heaven.
     
    If they turn out to be his lost ones, they would be gathered back again to the promised land, their original hometown. This completion of restoration is the end of God’s work on this earth. According to the prophecy to complete the restoration and to gather all his people God himself will come in the last days. Finally, this prophecy was fulfilled by God Ahnsahnghong the true Shepherd coming down to this earth where his people got scattered and gathering them together to Zion, the City of David. And our Mother the New Jerusalem came down to this earth to lead us to the promised land, the Kingdom of Heaven.
     

    Jeremiah 50:4   4 “In those days, at that time,”
    declares the Lord,
    “the people of Israel and the people of Judah together
    will go in tears to seek the Lord their God.
    5 They will ask the way to Zion    and turn their faces toward it.
    They will come and bind themselves to the Lord
    in an everlasting covenant
    that will not be forgotten.

    According to the bible, God’s people who were in Diaspora would gather together to Zion in the last days. Now Father and Mother are calling their children to come back to Zion. We must listen to the voice of God and with the tears of repentance and tears of joy let us return to God in Zion and keep the new covenant with God.

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