Editorial

Heartland Express

Delegates representing eight states: Kansas, Missouri, Iowa, Nebraska, Texas, N. Carolina, Washington and Florida came to our weekend conference in June. The theme was “God’s Plan for God’s Land.” We came to a delightful small city, Bethany, Missouri. As brought out in the keynote message by John Stembridge (God’s Plan for His Land & People), it was significantly named after the Biblical city by that name. Incidentally, if you’d like to see such a conference in your area, let us know.

God choose Israel and gave them the land:

1. Not because they were more in number. “The LORD did not set his love upon you, nor choose you, because ye were more in number than any people; for ye were the fewest of all people” (Deut. 7:7).

2. Nor did He choose them because of their righteousness, but rather to MAKE them a righteous people (Deut. 26:16-19).

Does Israel’s possession of the land depend now upon their obedience? Nahum 1:15 links with Isaiah 52:7, “Behold upon the mountains the feet of him that brings good tidings, that publishes peace! O Judah, keep thy solemn feasts, perform thy vows: for the wicked shall no more pass through thee: he is utterly cut off.” Isaiah 26:2, “Open you the gates that the righteous nation which keeps the truth may enter in.”

In Deuteronomy 27:1-8 we learn that the first time the Children of Israel entered the Promised Land, they were told by God to set up landmarks with the Torah written on the stones of the altar. (See the article, “Honoring the Land and the Landmarks of God” in Bible Light on the News Vol. 7, No 4.) Concerning this passage in Deuteronomy, the Jewish sage Nachmanides wrote: “The inscription of the Torah on the stones by the banks of the Jordan was to serve as a reminder to the people that they were to observe those laws in their daily life, and thereby be worthy of entering and possession the land.”

Scattered through the pages of this issue are maps depicting man’s plan for God’s Land. They contrast God’s plan which reaches from the Mediterranean to the Euphrates, from the River of Egypt to Lebanon. (Joshua 1:4; Gen. 15:18).

Israel has never possessed all of this and has no plans to do so now. But God has said it and He will accomplish it in His due time. It will all be needed for the center of His Kingdom on earth for “Out of Zion shall go forth the Torah and the Word of the Lord from Jerusalem” (Isaiah 2:3 & Micah 4:2). The True U.N.!      -