Repent -- Turn Away From the Lies

We have been considering unbelief and how that distorts the image of God and our own personal identity in Him.   I am going to  partner some texts so that we can, hopefully, see a bigger picture.

"So we see that they [the Children of Israel] could not enter in [the promised land] because of unbelief" (Heb. 3:19)

Matthew 3:1-2 In those days John the Baptist came, preaching in the Desert of Judea [2] and saying, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near.”

The promised land is symbolic of the kingdom of heaven.  The kingdom of heaven is a heavenly place, a person (Jesus Christ), and a work...the work of grace on the heart.  (See the kingdom parables.)

The children of Israel could not enter the promised land because of unbelief.  They died in the wilderness.  Oh, this is sad.  Are we dying in the wilderness because we refuse the Kingdom in the form of the person and work of Jesus Christ...His work of divine grace upon the heart.

In Luke 17:2, Jesus is talking to the Pharisees who are demanding that He tell them when the kingdom would come.  You have to understand that for the Pharisees, the kingdom meant a worldly kingdom that was to their advantage.  This is the kingdom about which they were asking. 

The answer Jesus gave them was not going to answer their question.  Jesus answer was that the kingdom was "within" or in some translations, "in your midst."  I do not think "within you" fits the context of Jesus talking to Pharisees who knew nothing about the Kingdom of Heaven.    

Unbelief develops when Heavenly Truth seems too much for the rational mind.  God leading us from Egypt into a wilderness experience doesn't look like our perception of the promised land.  We see what is NOT instead of what is.  That is what happened to Eve in the garden.  The truth that she already had in God what Satan was offering her, caused her to prostitute herself to a false god. 

Jesus, the Kingdom of Heaven is in our midst, is the truth.  Any implication from the world or the church that we are lacking this kingdom, is false.   Our identity must be based on the truth of God's identity.  Lordship...a right relationship with God...is the difference between the pillar of fire and light being darkness and death to the Egyptians and light, warmth, and safety to Israel.   Same power, different relationship.  What a wonderful example of cosmic principles!