Am I Really Desired By God?Sample

The giving of the Ten Commandments was a kinship ceremony, like a solemn set of marriage vows or a business contract. God really wanted a nation of priests who all had direct access to Him and represented Him to the rest of the world. He wanted a treasured possession and a holy nation. Instead, the people asked Him for a kinship arrangement, like what they’d seen in Egypt. In reality, the grant covenant was too big of a blessing for these slave-minded people to comprehend or accept. On that mountain, God famously wrote the Ten Commandments on two slabs of stone, front and back, creating a solemn contract. Moses brought down the tablets and put both copies of the commandments in a ceremonial box called an ark, which became the ark of the covenant. The new kinship covenant was now in force and placed God in the position where He had to punish Israel whenever they violated the covenant. This happened frequently. The grant covenant God originally offered came from God’s heart, while the kinship covenant of the law came from the people’s hearts. That covenant did not fully represent Him or His heart toward humanity. It did not represent His interests or what He wanted to do on earth. Thus, the new kinship covenant and the law put a veil over God, disguising the true desires of His heart. As a result, for the next 1,300 years, people were confused about God and His intentions for humankind. Many still are, because they look back at the law and how it was carried out, and it obscures what God is actually like. This misunderstanding is why so many of us have or have had, a wrong idea of God.