This seems like an important passage to have "under my belt" as I prepare to go back to the beginning to search for promises. A couple of years ago I sought out all the passages in the Bible in which a covenant is mentioned. I did this by reading through the Bible in paragraph form. This was an important exercise for me in preparing myself to enter into a covenant relationship with the body of believers that God has brought me to. I was specifically looking for examples of covenants made between people, but the overwhelming majority of covenants mentioned in the Bible are the covenants that God made with his people. It is time for me to revisit those covenants - and this message in Ephesians to the Gentiles helps to point me in the direction of receiving God's promises to his people.
"You were excluded from citizenship among the people of Israel, and you did not know the covenant promises God had made to them. You lived in this world without God and without hope."
Yes, God's promises bring hope. I have mentioned before that eschatological (what will happen in the end) hope somehow escapes me. It has been suggested that I look to the book of Revelations, the foretelling of the coming apocalypse, to find promises. It was also commented that I am a "glutton for punishment" for looking into the Old Testament for promises. (See my entry on Zephaniah.) This passage in Ephesians affirms my vision to dig toward the foundations of my faith. What promises did God offer his people from the beginning?
"So now you Gentiles are no longer strangers and foreigners. You are citizens along with all of God's holy people. You are members of God's family. Together, we are his house, built on the foundation of the apostles and the prophets. And the cornerstone is Christ Jesus himself. We are carefully joined together in him, becoming a holy temple for the Lord. Through him you Gentiles are also being made part of this dwelling where God lives by his Spirit."
There is something about the structure of my faith which has been called into question, so I am wanting to go back, reexamine and rebuild - just as Nehemiah did with the wall in Jerusalem. I want to read well the promises of redemption so that I know better what I should expect from God. If there are promises of destruction (as I found in Zephaniah) - I want to hear those as well. I am not easily led to despair. This journey is about knowing well the place of faith I find myself in. There may be blocks of stone that I assume to be there which are not (expectations I have of God which are not based on his promises) - if I find this to be true - I want to replace the phantom blocks with real promises as the foundation of my faith.
I have also begun to contemplate the source and the reasoning for a few very personal "words" I have heard (in my head?) - and have attributed to God - mainly because they were very clear and have stuck with me. The first was a prophetic warning - which did indeed come to pass. One was a promise - which has yet to be fulfilled. The last was an instruction - which I continue to follow, but it is an instruction that implies a hope - and I sometimes wonder if it is unfounded. As a part of my process I hope to analyze these words in the light of the promises I have found in the Bible. Do they fall in line with God as he has revealed himself in Scripture? Can I trust them, or should they be taken only with a grain of salt? These are not the most important words from God in my life - but they do seem to significantly influence my actions.
I am having trouble finding a way to end this well, so I will simpldy do so here.
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