Acts 13:16-18\u00a0<\/b>\u2013 Standing up, Paul motioned with his hand\u00a0and said: \u201cFellow Israelites and you Gentiles who worship God, listen to me!\u00a017\u00a0The God of the people of Israel chose our ancestors; he made the people prosper during their stay in Egypt; with mighty power he led them out of that country; 18\u00a0for about forty years he endured their conduct\u00a0in the wilderness; 19\u00a0and he overthrew seven nations in Canaan,\u00a0giving their land to his people\u00a0as their inheritance.\u00a020\u00a0All this took about 450 years.<\/i><\/p>\n
\u201c<\/b>Standing up, Paul motioned with his hand\u00a0and said: \u201cFellow Israelites and you Gentiles who worship God, listen to me!<\/i>\u2019\u00a0 Paul stood up to preach.\u00a0 That is thought to possibly be the tradition of Hellenist Jews.\u00a0 Certainly Paul wanted their full attention.\u00a0 He wanted them focused and attentive. He had something of eternal value to say.\u00a0 Just as our pastors want our focus and full attention to be on the Word of God as they preach and teach it to us.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe God of the people of Israel chose our ancestors; he made the people prosper during their stay in Egypt; with mighty power he led them out of that country;<\/i>\u201d Jesus said to us that we did not choose Him, but that He chose us and appointed us to do His will (John 15:16<\/b>). \u00a01 Peter 1:2<\/b>\u00a0makes it clear that we did not choose God, but God Himself chose us, He saved us and He keeps us and sanctifies us through Jesus Christ \u201cwho have been chosen according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through the sanctifying work of the Spirit, to be obedient to Jesus Christ and sprinkled with his blood: Grace and peace be yours in abundance<\/i>.\u201d\u00a0 God chose and called Abraham (Genesis 12<\/b>) and it was solely by the will God that He Himself saved the people of Israel as He promised Abraham.\u00a0 Israel was saved by the grace of God.\u00a0 If God had not chosen Abraham, then there would never have been a people of Israel.\u00a0 Israel was saved by the grace from God.\u00a0 Believers in Jesus are saved by grace (Ephesians 2:8-9<\/b>).\u00a0 So any person who was ever selected, called and kept by God, whether in the Old Testament or the New Testament, has been saved by the love and grace of God.\u00a0 We are all the same.\u00a0 We are all born with the sin nature we inherited from the physical forefather and foremother of all, Adam and Eve.\u00a0 Their sin was passed down to every one of us.\u00a0 So we are all in need of God\u2019s love and grace to save us.\u00a0 After all, remembering His omniscience, it took great love and grace for Him to even create us.\u00a0 If not, we like Abraham, would have remained eternally cursed.\u00a0 Praise God who chose to love us and call us and make us His own.\u00a0 Oh, forever and with all our hearts let us praise God!<\/p>\n
When Israel was in another country, in Egypt, God prospered them more than the people of the land.\u00a0 Family, God can prosper us wherever we are (Genesis 47:27<\/b>).\u00a0 God caused them to prosper so much that the new king grew concerned that they were a possible threat so he put them into slave labor and then ordered the Hebrew midwives to kill the male babies when they were born (Exodus 1:8-16<\/b>).\u00a0 Kings and governments become proud and think they are the ones who bless people with life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.\u00a0 They are not!\u00a0 It is God who is the ultimate one who blesses us.\u00a0 We may live in a wonderful nation, a great state, a great city or county, and a great neighborhood, but that all is a blessing from God and not something we or anyone else has made happen.\u00a0 Israel, as can we, may look upon a person and declare that blessings have come from them but that has never been so, it has always been the Lord.\u00a0 It is the same thing for us.\u00a0 God is the one from whom all blessings flow (James 1:17<\/b>).\u00a0 By the will and might of God was Israel brought to Egypt to save them from the famine.\u00a0 By the will of God Israel prospered in Egypt.\u00a0 And by the will and power of God was Israel rescued from Egypt.\u00a0 Joseph and Moses were merely men called by God to do His will.<\/p>\n
\u201cfor about forty years he endured their conduct\u00a0in the wilderness; 19\u00a0and he overthrew seven nations in Canaan,\u00a0giving their land to his people\u00a0as their inheritance.<\/i>\u201d\u00a0 As the people were rescued from Egypt we see miracle after miracle of God saving the people with His own supernatural signature.\u00a0 Moses was God\u2019s chosen vessel, but there is no doubt that their Rescuer was God.\u00a0 He protected them, fed them, provided water, made their clothes to not wear out and He even, not Israel, was the one responsible for the overthrow of seven nations in Canaan.\u00a0 We obviously see a theme.\u00a0 It is God who does the work and not us as we see in\u00a0Zechariah 4:6<\/b>\u00a0\u201c\u2026Not by might nor by power, but by my Spirit, says the Lord Almighty.<\/i>\u201d\u00a0<\/i><\/p>\n
\u201c<\/b>All this took about 450 years.<\/i>\u201d\u00a0 Most like referring to four hundred years in Egypt, forty years wandering in the desert and ten years of acquiring the promised land.<\/p>\n
Family, by the will and might of God He created all men and women.\u00a0 Also by His will was Israel created, and by His will did Jesus come to be our Savior and were people called to be the body of Christ.\u00a0 All by His will and might and love.\u00a0 It is all, in hindsight, so easy to see.\u00a0 Paul is about to lecture how Israel was not grateful for all of God\u2019s blessings.\u00a0 May we learn from them.\u00a0 May we look upon our many blessings from God and be thankful to Him and never doubt Him.\u00a0 We know that He has always been faithful to us.\u00a0 Let us not doubt, but praise and give thankfulness and glory to Him.\u00a0 It is right and all who love Him will do so.\u00a0 Praise our God!\u00a0 Praise God!<\/p>\n
Psalm 150:6<\/b>\u00a0–\u00a0Let everything that has breath praise the Lord.\u00a0 Praise the Lord!<\/i><\/p>\n
Micah 7:7<\/b>\u00a0–\u00a0But as for me, I watch\u00a0in hope\u00a0for the\u00a0Lord, I wait for God my Savior; my God will hear\u00a0me.\u00a0<\/i><\/p>\n
Micah 6:8<\/b>\u00a0–\u00a0He has shown You, O man, what\u00a0is\u00a0good; And what does the\u00a0Lord\u00a0require of You but to do justly, to love mercy, And to walk humbly with Your God.<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Acts 13:16-18\u00a0\u2013 Standing up, Paul motioned with his hand\u00a0and said: \u201cFellow Israelites and you Gentiles who worship God, listen to me!\u00a017\u00a0The God of the people of Israel chose our ancestors; he made the people prosper during their stay in Egypt; with mighty power he led them out of that country; 18\u00a0for about forty years he…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1192],"tags":[82,1841,2257,1865,1700,100,94,90,17,874],"class_list":["post-1714","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-devotion","tag-acts","tag-ephesians","tag-exodus","tag-genesis","tag-james","tag-john","tag-micah","tag-peter","tag-psalm","tag-zechariah"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1714","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1714"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1714\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1715,"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1714\/revisions\/1715"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1714"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1714"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1714"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}