Gifts and Calling

As the apostle Paul wrote to the Roman church about the Jewish people’s rejection of the messiah (Romans 11), he said the gentiles have benefitted from that loss to the Jewish people. It was a gift to the gentiles of eternal life. It promised a redemption of Paul’s extended family at a point future. “The gifts and calling of God are without repentance (in the KJV) irrevocable in the New Revised Standard Version. We see this idea being played out in real time as they say between King Charles III and his son, Harry. Harry rejected his inheritance in a sense, but he can never be denied his bloodline. 

God has given each of us gifts and placed a calling on our lives. This knowledge builds us up when we find ourselves failing at one endeavor or another. Too often we fail because we lose sight of who we are as believers and try to accomplish great feats in the flesh. We try to do “it” (whatever “it” is at any given time) in our own strength, our own intelligence, our own personality and likeability. 

But God reminds us that he is the God who sets up kings and, in a sense, just regular people according to his eternal insights and understandings. 

Read the story of Nebuchadnezzer when he looked at the fabulous city of Babylon and congratulated himself on his accomplishments. His kingdom was the golden kingdom of the statue in his dream which Daniel interpreted to him. (Daniel 4) He spent seven years living like an animal because of his arrogance. At the end of that time, he returned to himself and realized that God was the only God and sets people in positions of authority or not as He pleases. (Dan 4:17) God opens doors that no one can shut and shuts doors that no person can open. (Job 12:14, Joshua 6:26 and Revelation 3:8). God gives us favor with himself and with other people (Genesis 39:21, 1 Samuel 2:26, Esther 2:15, 17; 5:2, 8; 7:3; 8:5; Daniel 1:4, 9, Luke 2:52, Acts 2:47, Acts 7:10)

God never gives up on us. Israel was dispersed among the nations. Mark Twain visiting that area along the Mediterranean before 1948 commented on the desolation. Who would want to live here?! Like the dry bones of Ezekiel 37, the breath of God blew on them. God brought a nation back to its land without a language, with a dispersed population. Life from the dead! (Romans 11:15) The fig tree Jesus cursed for lack of fruit has put forth leaves (Matthew 24:31 – 33). And though the fig tree does not blossom, we rejoice in the Lord, and joy in the God of our salvation. (Habakkuk 3:17 – 18)

The Father of the prodigal child scans the horizon in hope of his child’s return. “Come home.”