And we exist. We are created to be able to make a free choice to have a relationship with the Creator. He gives promises of what He can do if we accept a relationship with Him, and He lets us know what the alternatives are.
God came to Noah, commended him for his obedience, and made a covenant with Noah for his descendants. God then appeared to Abram (who became Abraham) and said “I am God Almighty; walk before me, and be blameless. (Genesis 17:1) The Lord then appeared to Abraham's son Isaac, and his grandson Jacob, and said, “I am the Lord, the God of Abraham your father and the God of Isaac, ... and all the families of the earth shall be blessed in you and in your offspring. (Genesis 28:13 )
God also spoke to Moses and said to him: Say therefore to the Israelites, ‘I am the Lord, and I will free you from the burdens of the Egyptians and deliver you from slavery to them. I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and with mighty acts of judgment. I will take you as my people, and I will be your God. You shall know that I am the Lord your God, who has freed you from the burdens of the Egyptians. I will bring you into the land that I swore to give to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; I will give it to you for a possession. I am the Lord.’” (Exodus 6:2 -8)
And then God spoke all these words: I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery; you shall have no other gods before me. (Exodus 20:1-3), followed up with the basic principles of this relationship. The calling for this group of people was the challenge to be an example to the rest of humanity: to demonstrate the advantages and disadvantages of a relationship with the Creator. Moses' final words of advice and warning: " See, I have set before you today life and prosperity, death and adversity. If you obey the commandments of the Lord your God that I am commanding you today, by loving the Lord your God, walking in his ways, and observing his commandments, decrees, and ordinances, then you shall live and become numerous, and the Lord your God will bless you in the land that you are entering to possess. (Deuteronomy 30:15-16)
God gave these people 1500 years to work it out; but it became obvious that they couldn't do it on their own. So a time came that there was a cultural potential to reach beyond a single nation; that it was time to call Moses' people to a wider challenge, and also to provide a Way that would enable all of humanity to live in obedience and fellowship with God Himself. It cost 33 years of living in our midst as one of us, and to demonstrate total obedience and total fellowship--and to break out of the boundaries of the people God originally chose as His messengers and teachers. In the past 2000 years, the Word has spread; often in fits and starts, and successes and failures, but the miracle of the Word is still alive, still spreading, still real in the real world.
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