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3 Israel on God
 According to the Scriptures…
1. The God of Israel2. The Election of Israel3. Israel as Man with God4. Man is Given Responsibility5. Talking Back6. The Hope of the Nations
 
1. The God of Israel
The Divine Assembly and Council
The Lord is surrounded by his assembly. This assembly is made up of the righteous,who echo the judgment of God. They stand around the Lord and enjoy watching himbringing justice. They sit in judgment on the judgments of God and find his decisionsgood.
The name of the Lord will be declared in Zion and his praise in Jerusalem when the people and the kingdoms assemble to worship the Lord 
(Psalm 102.22)
In the council of the holy ones God is praised 
(Psalm 89.7).
 Let them exalt him in the assembly of the people and praise him in the council of theelders
(Psalm 107)
.In the council of the upright and in the assembly I will extol the Lord with all my heart 
(Psalm 111).
He is the Lord of hosts, that is, of armies. The elements of creation are those armies,and all nations and the leaders are included in them.
The Lord thunders at the head of his army; his forces are beyond number, and mighty are those who obey his command 
(Joel 2.11)
  A chariot of fire appeared and separated the two them, and Elijah went up theheaven in a whirlwind. Elisha saw this and said ‘The chariots and horsemen of Israel’ 
(2 Kings 2.11)
 
The forces of the Lord are innumerable.
‘Do not be afraid. Those who are with us are more than those who are with them.The Lord opened the servant’s eyes, and he looked as saw the hills full of horsesand chariots of fire all round’ 
(2 Kings 6.17).
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Sometimes these lights or stars appear to be the gods or rulers of the nations.(Psalm 24) They are the host of Heaven. Sometimes they reveal him to us,sometimes he conceals himself from us behind them, and they are so numerous thatthey appear as ‘cloud’, or ‘smoke’.
I saw one like a man coming with the clouds of heaven.. To him was given dominionand glory and kingship, that all peoples, nations, and languages should serve him.
(Daniel 7.13)
 Look! He is coming with the clouds; every eye will see him…
(Revelation 1.7)
 There was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne
(Revelation 7.9) 
Creation makes way before the Lord
Israel makes no strong distinction between cosmological events and political ones.She recognises that cosmological changes reflect the disorder between nations.Cosmological disorder is a reflection of political disorder, which breaks out becauseman has not exercised the office given to him of subduing creation. The roaring of the seas is an expression of the tumult of the peoples:
You silence the roaring of the seas, the roaring of their waves, the tumult of the peoples
(Psalm 65.7)
All creation recognises its master and makes way before him. He alone cancommand it. He can judge, divide and separate any creature from any other. Hebring together what has been separated. No material or mortal or created thing isany barrier or impediment to him. That all creation recognises him in this way is thedemonstration that he is indeed Lord of creation.
Look the Lord is coming from his dwelling place; he comes down treads the high places of the earth. The mountains melt beneath him and the valleys split apart likewax before the fire, like water rushing down a slope
(Micah 1.3)
Fire goes before him and burns up his enemies on every side. His lightning lit up theworld; the earth sees and trembles. The mountains melt like wax at the presence of the Lord, at the presence of the Lord of the whole earth
(Psalm 97.3)
.
The Lord leads his people
The Lord leads his people through creation.2
 
He rebuked the Red Sea and it was dried up; so he led them through the deep asthrough the wilderness. He saved them from the adversary’s hand and redeemed them from the hand of the enemy.
(Psalm 106.9)
By day the Lord went head of them in a pillar of cloud to guide them on their way and by night in a pillar of fire to give them light… neither the pillar of cloud nor the pillar of fire left its place in front of the people. Then the angel of God who had beentravelling in front of Israel’s army went behind them and the pillar of cloud stood behind them, coming between the armies of Egypt and Israel 
(Exodus 13.21, 14.19)
He breaks open the way and leads them forward; they will break through the gateand go out, their king passes through at their front, their Lord is at their head 
(Micah2.13)
 
Creation as the Provision of the Lord for Man
All creation is the hospitality and provision of God for man. Creation serves us, for man is God's representative in creation.The Lord goes through the world, looking out for the righteous. As the Lord leads hispeople through creation, it makes way for them too. As the Lord passes the violentare subdued, the uprising is put down, justice and order are restored and the landbecomes fertile again. All creation opens to provide water and food for his people.The Lord turns the world from barren in inhospitable to fertile and productive.
He opened the rock and water gushed out, like a river it flowed in the desert 
(Psalm105.40).
 
The clouds shelter his people from the harshness of the sun, and provide the rainwhich grows the grass that feeds the cattle and all those who depend on them.
He makes grass grow for the cattle and plants for man to cultivate, bringing forthfood from the earth: wine that gladdens the heart of man, oil to make his face shineand bread that sustains his heart 
(Psalm 104)
His blessings shower down with the rain. They renew the face of the earth andmakes people flourish. The sacrifices make Israel fertile.
The land that you are crossing over to occupy is a land of hills and valleys, watered by rain from the sky, a land that the Lord your God looks after. The eyes of the Lord your God are always on it, from the beginning of the year to the end of the year. If you will only heed his every commandment that I am commanding you today--loving the Lord your God, and serving him with all your heart and with all your soul- thenhe will give the rain for your land in its season, the early rain and the later rain, and you will gather in your grain, your wine, and your oil; and he will give grass in your fields for your livestock, and you will eat your fill’ 
(Deuteronomy 11. 11-15).
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