THE PEOPLE OF EL SHADDAI Pt 2 (Genesis 17:1-18:15 December 2, 2007)

Transcription

1 THE PEOPLE OF EL SHADDAI Pt 2 (Genesis 17:1-18:15 December 2, 2007) Some time ago, I came across the story of a young teenage girl who seemed to have it all. Wonderful family, good education, stunning looks but she had a dark secret. She was a self-mutilator. She used to take a knife and carve into her flesh words like ugly, fat, not good enough. When this girl looked in the mirror what she saw was very different to what everyone else saw. She never thought she could be good enough in the eyes of friends, family, a husband. Then there was a young nurse I knew. She was convinced she was too wicked, too fickle, too offensive to be loved by God. She had already blown her chance to find God. What is the difference between these two stories? The young girl had a problem with the way she saw herself. She wasn t fat and ugly but she thought she was. The young nurse had a problem with the way she saw God. She was too wicked, too fickle, too offensive but the great news is that God chooses to love us anyway. This is the good news God chose to place His special love on those who most certainly do not deserve it. In fact this whole concept that God El Shaddai the Almighty Creator could love us is so amazing even the prophets of old struggled to understand it. We have accounts such as Hosea who faithfully pursued his wife who was a harlot to show God s love. Jesus gave us the parable of the prodigal son to give us a glimpse of God s love. But this incredible love story begins much earlier. It begins in the ruins of Eden and it is spelled out for us in the covenant God made with Abraham. 1

2 Last week we began to look as God put forth His covenant in Genesis 17. In these verses God lays out: Plan Covenant 17:1-2 Who Chosen Seed 17:3-8 Sign Circumcision 17:9-14 Means Faith 17:15-18:15 Last week we looked at the plan covenant. God made a covenant in which He committed Himself to gather a people for Himself to wash them clean to make them a people for His name. The picture is that out of all of this sinful world God has a people chosen before the foundation of the world and through His love He will draw them to Himself, make them holy, bless them and adopt them as sons. This is what the covenant with Abraham is all about. This week we come to verses 3-8 Where we look at the second aspect of the covenant: Who Chosen Seed. 2

3 Look with me at Genesis 17:3. El Shaddai God Almighty appeared and: Abram fell facedown. Abram knew who this was who had appeared before him. And as all sinful men do before a holy God they fall on their faces. Verses 3-8: And God said to him, As for me, this is my covenant with you: You will be the father of many nations. No longer will you be called Abram; your name will be Abraham, for I have made you a father of many nations. I will make you very fruitful; I will make nations of you, and kings will come from you. I will establish my covenant as an everlasting covenant between me and you and your descendants after you for the generations to come, to be your God and the God of your descendants after you. The whole land of Canaan, where you are now an alien, I will give as an everlasting possession to you and your descendants after you; and I will be their God. I trust you heard these promises. Abram I will choose a seed: You will be the father of many nations I will make you very fruitful I will make nations of you Kings will come from you I will give Cannan as an everlasting possession to you and your descendants after you It has been many years since I called you and gave you the promise of a son. I now affirm My word will come to pass. How certain is this? Look at verse 5: No longer will you be called Abram; your name will be Abraham, for I have made you a father of many nations. Your name will change from Abram exalted father to Abraham father of a multitude as a sign of how certain this promise is. It is so certain what is yet future is expressed in the past tense it is so certain I can say I have already done it. God will call a people for His name. But the question arises who this blessing is for? Abraham, the Jews, the good people who can become the people of God? This passage tells us who. God s covenant is: 3

4 For sinners From every nation As His precious people Forever First, God s Covenant is For sinners. It might sound trite but this is one of the most incredible truths there is. Our holy God loves us even though we are sinners. As we have seen to do this costs God everything it costs the death of His son but God is willing to pay this price to cast His love upon us. Scripture makes it clear that God loves sinners. Have you ever noticed the people God chooses? Moses, the man who has it all throws it all away by murdering an Egyptian and heads into obscurity tending sheep in Midian. David the hidden away runt of the family who later becomes an adulterous murderer. Jonah the Gentile hating disobedient prophet. Saul the legalistic murderer. If the men and women of God were chosen on merit there would be no men and women of God no one merits being chosen. Jesus spent his time with tax-gatherers and prostitutes. Here we have Abram the old man on his face before God. Once he was a pagan moon-worshipper but then God called him. Even after this, his faith had failed, he had sinned in Egypt and with Hagar. 4

5 But despite this God chose him to be the father of the faithful. Why? Why chose someone like Abram? So that no one will ever be able to say I am not good enough for God. How can He love a sinner like me? Abram knew he was a sinner. I am sure he would have echoed Paul s cry I am the chief of sinners. God s love for sinners is the glory of the gospel. God knows that all have fallen short of the glory of God and He loves us anyway. He sent Jesus while we were yet sinners. He chooses to love us in spite of our sin. And what is more God knows that even after He places His love on us we are still sinners and He still loves us. God chose us in spite of our sin and just as crucial having chosen us, God will not reject us because of our sin. God makes His covenant with Abraham. Abraham sees the holiness of God displayed in the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah. And what does Abraham do next? he lies about who his sister is with Abimelech. God knew we were sinners when He called us. He knows we are sinners now and He does not withdraw His love. One of my favourite chapters is Ezekiel 16. Here God uses Israel as an example of how His love reaches out to cover sinners. Have a look at that chapter with me. Ezekiel 16. The word of the LORD came to me: Son of man, confront Jerusalem with her detestable practices and say, This is what the Sovereign LORD says to Jerusalem: Your ancestry and birth were in the land of the Canaanites; your father was an Amorite and your mother a Hittite. On the day you were born your cord was not cut, nor were you washed with water to make you clean, nor were you rubbed with salt or wrapped in cloths. No one looked on you with pity or had compassion enough to do any of these things for you. Rather, you were thrown out into the open field, for on the day you were born you were despised. Abraham was as spiritually impure as the Amorites and Hittites. When He placed His love on Abraham he was one old man nothing despised by the world. Then I passed by and saw you kicking about in your blood, and as you lay there in your blood I said to you, Live! Unless God worked a miracle Israel would never have come into being. 5

6 I made you grow like a plant of the field. You grew up and developed and became the most beautiful of jewels. Your breasts were formed and your hair grew, you who were naked and bare. Later I passed by, and when I looked at you and saw that you were old enough for love, I spread the corner of my garment over you and covered your nakedness. I gave you my solemn oath and entered into a covenant with you, declares the Sovereign LORD, and you became mine. God chose them to be His precious people. But, despite this incredible love they sinned. They sinned in the most despicable of ways. Down to verse 13: You became very beautiful and rose to be a queen. And your fame spread among the nations on account of your beauty, because the splendour I had given you made your beauty perfect, declares the Sovereign LORD. But you trusted in your beauty and used your fame to become a prostitute. You lavished your favours on anyone who passed by and your beauty became his. How bad did it get? Verse 20: And you took your sons and daughters whom you bore to me and sacrificed them as food to the idols. Was your prostitution not enough? You slaughtered my children and sacrificed them to the idols. Read Ezekiel. They committed every form of spiritual adultery child sacrifice, sun worship, witchcraft. But, when God made His covenant to choose a people for His name He knew that we would sin and He chose to love us anyway. Verse 60: Verse 62: Yet despite Israel s persistent sin I will remember the covenant I made with you in the days of your youth, and I will establish an everlasting covenant with you. So I will establish my covenant with you, and you will know that I am the LORD. God s covenant of love stands He will perfect us and finish the work He began. God loved us while we were yet sinners. God loves us even though we are still sinners. Listen to the way God describes His love in Isaiah. In spite of the many sins of the nation in Isaiah 49:15-16 God says: Can a mother forget the baby at her breast and have no compassion on the child she has borne? Though she may forget, I will not forget you! See, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands; your walls are ever before me. 6

7 I could never imagine forgetting one of my children. I could never imagine abandoning them no matter what they did. But as difficult as it is for a mother to forget her child it happens but God can never forget us or abandon us. Our names are engraved on His palms and forever before Him. When God chose to love us we became His no matter what. There is no sin that is so heinous you cannot come to God. There is no sin so heinous it will drive God away from you. Most of us live in fear that the people we love will find out who we really are our sins, weaknesses, failures, secrets. And the reality is that if others really knew what was going on in our hearts and minds they would think of us differently. But God already knows. He knows your failures, your weaknesses, your dirty little secrets and He chooses to love you anyway. That girl I told you about earlier she engraved on her body not good enough. God engraves our name on His palms and says good enough. People will always let you down God will never let you down. Here is the wonder of the covenant God made. He didn t choose to love us because of our holiness and piety and goodness. He doesn t keep loving us because of our holiness and piety and goodness. No he knows our sin and failure and loves us anyway. The Mormons knocking at your door. The Muslims down the street. The Catholics in your workplace. They have to earn the love of El Shaddai and like all of us they fail miserably. They have no gospel no good news for sinful man. But we can tell a lost world God loves sinners God loves you. No matter what you have done there is no sin that is too great for His love. And when you mess up God says: If you confess your sins, I am faithful and just and will forgive you your sins and purify you from all unrighteousness. 1 John 1:9 God s covenant is not just for sinners. It is for sinners From every nation We need to grasp that the Great Commission did not start with Jesus. The gospel has always been for the whole world. 7

8 There are two reasons that this becomes crucial: Faithful sons of any lineage do receive the blessing. Faithless sons of any lineage do not receive the blessing. First Faithful sons of any lineage do receive the blessing. This covenant is a promise that anyone of any tribe and tongue from any nation can receive the blessing and become a child of God. I want you to notice something. Have you ever noticed the difference between the words of God in Genesis 12 and Genesis 17? In Genesis 12:2 when God first called Abram He said: I will make you into a great nation. Here in Genesis 17:4: This is my covenant with you: You will be the father of many nations. Why the difference and who do you think these many nations are? Sometime go to some Jewish websites they major on Genesis 12:2 Israel the Jews are the promised great nation and Abraham is their father. 8

9 But, they say very little about Genesis 17:4 where Abraham is said to be the father of many nations. But who are these many nations? Does this just refer to physical descendents or does it go further? As we read on in Genesis, we find that Abraham became the father of the nation of the Jews through Isaac and the Arabs through Ishmael and you can throw in the Edomites as an offshoot through Esau. Also some of the tribal groups that descend from his sons by his later wife Keturah might possibly be classed as nations. But, overall you really could not say that many nations were physically descended from Abraham. So in what way will Abraham become the father of many nations? Here is where the rest of the promise God made to Abraham back in Genesis 12 comes into play. In verse 3 we read: All the peoples of the earth will be blessed through you. The promised blessing extends beyond Abraham and the Jews. Here is how John Piper describes this: The way Abraham becomes the father of many nations is by those nations coming to share his faith and being united to the same source of blessing that flows through the covenant God made with him. 1 What is the point? In chapter 12 the promise began with a physical nation Israel and then was broadened to include all the peoples of the earth. But here in chapter 17 God starts broadly all the nations will be blessed spiritually through this covenant. Obviously this includes Israel but it covers everyone who places their faith in the promises of God. In other words the Abrahamic covenant was never restricted to Jews. It has always been for all nations for all men and women of faith. How does this blessing come to all nations? Look at verse 6: Kings will come from you. 1 John Piper, Let the Nations Be Glad, (Grand Rapids: Baker Books, 1993), p

10 This is fulfilled when God did raise up a line of Kings. He called David to be King and in 2 Samuel 7:12-14 he said to David: When your days are over and you rest with your fathers, I will raise up your offspring to succeed you, who will come from your own body, and I will establish his kingdom. He is the one who will build a house for my Name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. I will be his father, and he will be my son. This line of Kings would reach to the King of Kings, the Messiah, the true Son of God. Matthew begins his gospel with theses words: A record of the genealogy of Jesus Christ the son of David, the son of Abraham: Jesus is the seed of Abraham, the King in the line of David. He is the One the blessing to the nations will come through. Jesus death His blood His atoning sacrifice on the cross is what washes the unholy and makes us fit to be the people of God. The key to this covenant is the promise that Jesus will come to do what we cannot make us the people of God. In Revelation 5:9 we see the final outworking of this blessing: Because Jesus was slain, with His blood He purchased men for God from every tribe and language and people and nation. This promise of blessing to the nations through Israel, through the line of Kings leading to Jesus the Apostle Paul clearly understood this as a promise for all men. Romans 4:16-17: Therefore, the promise comes by faith, so that it may be by grace and may be guaranteed to all Abraham s offspring not only to those who are of the law but also to those who are of the faith of Abraham. He is the father of us all. As it is written: I have made you a father of many nations. He is our father in the sight of God, in whom he believed the God who gives life to the dead and calls things that are not as though they were. Abraham becomes the father of many nations spiritually. All those who share in the faith of Abraham can call God their Father. They are blessed under the covenant made with El Shaddai. When a tribesman from New Guinea who is not physically descended from Abraham has never heard of Abraham places his faith in Christ the One promised through Abraham he becomes a son of Abraham and a partaker of the blessings of Abraham. Listen to Galatians 3:29: 10

11 If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham s seed, and heirs according to the promise. All who come to God in faith Jew and Gentile men of every nation are Abraham s seed the ones the promises pointed to. Romans 15:8-11: For I tell you that Christ has become a servant of the Jews on behalf of God s truth, to confirm the promises made to the patriarchs so that the Gentiles may glorify God for his mercy, as it is written: Therefore I will praise you among the Gentiles; I will sing hymns to your name. Again, it says, And again, Rejoice, O Gentiles, with his people. Praise the Lord, all you Gentiles, and sing praises to him, all you peoples. The covenant promises made to the patriarchs where for Jew and Gentile all people of every nation. What is the point? When you read these verses these words are not just for Israel they are for all who believe. It doesn t matter what your ethnic heritage is, your religious heritage, where you were born, where you live this promise is for all men everywhere. The Great Commission is rooted in the Abrahamic Covenant. The good news is that all men everywhere can come to know God through faith. God s covenant with Abraham is not some archaic irrelevant pact. It is the gospel. It is good news for every man and woman. It is an everlasting covenant it is for us today. This covenant should drive us into the world proclaiming the love of God for sinners. There is a second reason it is important to grasp that this covenant is for every nation: 11

12 Faithless sons of any lineage do not receive the blessing. The way this covenant is formed makes it very clear that it is faith that makes you a recipient of the blessing not being born into Israel. Look at verses 11-13: You are to undergo circumcision, and it will be the sign of the covenant between me and you. For the generations to come every male among you who is eight days old must be circumcised, including those born in your household or bought with money from a foreigner those who are not your offspring. Whether born in your household or bought with your money, they must be circumcised. The sign of the covenant circumcision was for all who were a part of Israel those born into Israel and those who join Israel. But then we come to verse 23 where we find that having the sign of the covenant means nothing unless you have faith in what the sign pointed to verse 23: On that very day Abraham took his son Ishmael and all those born in his household or bought with his money, every male in his household, and circumcised them, as God told him. Ishmael received the sign of the covenant. Ishmael grew up in Abraham s household. Ishmael would have heard from Hagar how El Shaddai Himself appeared to her and promised that Ishmael would become a great nation with descendants too numerous to count. Ishmael would have known that God Almighty appeared to Abraham and promised that even though he was nearly a hundred even though Sarah s biological clock had stopped ticking they would bear a son the son of promise the one through whom the blessing would flow. Ishmael bore on his body the sign of circumcision that God would keep His promise and send a son and one day send the Son the Messiah the Saviour. 12

13 Finally, when the son Isaac is born I am sure that on one level the teenage Ishmael was disappointed. He probably hoped that the blessings would come through him. But when Isaac was born he should have known that the word of El Shaddai impossible as it had seemed had proven true. He should have known that salvation came from believing the promise of God in a Messiah to come. He should have placed His faith in God and His word. He did not. Listen to what happened after Isaac was born. Genesis 21:8-10: The child grew and was weaned, and on the day Isaac was weaned Abraham held a great feast. But Sarah saw that the son whom Hagar the Egyptian had borne to Abraham was mocking. Ishmael mocked. He had no faith that the seed line leading to a Saviour would come through Isaac. He did not have faith in the promise. And Sarah said to Abraham, Get rid of that slave woman and her son, for that slave woman s son will never share in the inheritance with my son Isaac. This is not just speaking about a physical inheritance it is a spiritual inheritance. Listen to Galatians 4:28-30: Now you, brothers, like Isaac, are children of promise. At that time the son born in the ordinary way Ishmael persecuted the son born by the power of the Spirit Isaac. It is the same now. But what does the Scripture say? Get rid of the slave woman and her son, for the slave woman s son will never share in the inheritance with the free woman s son. Those who lack faith in the promises of God do not receive the blessing of God. What does this mean? It means that just because you are born a Jew or become a Jew or bear the sign of circumcision does not mean you are a true child of God. That takes faith. Paul understood this. Romans 9:6-8: For not all who are descended from Israel are Israel. Nor because they are his descendants are they all Abraham s children. On the contrary, It is through Isaac that your offspring will be reckoned. In other words, it is not the natural children who are God s children, but it is the children of the promise who are regarded as Abraham s offspring. Paul himself was circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews but he was as far from God as can be. He needed faith. 13

14 The application for us is clear. Faithless sons of any lineage do not receive the blessing. Our children need to come to faith not just be born into a godly home. It is very revealing to read the Anglican Book of Common Prayer. In the section on baptism it describes how the parents bring the infant and how they are to answer on the child s behalf. The minister asks the child: Do you believe in God the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth? Etc. And on his behalf his parents reply: All this I steadfastly believe. The minister then asks. Will you be baptised in this faith? His parents answer for the child: That is my desire. Later the minister declares: This child is regenerate, and grafted into the body of Christ s Church. I will deal with infant baptism and the covenant in a later sermon but for now suffice it to say that most of us are amused by the parents professing faith on behalf of a child too young to grasp any facet of the gospel. But while we might grasp the problem in an example like infant baptism we too have to be very careful that we don t make a very similar error. Children who grow up in Christian homes and churches absorb Bible speak. You ask them how do you get to heaven they know to say by believing in Jesus. They say all the right things they know what they are supposed to say and yet how many times have we seen children who grew up in wonderful Christian homes waste that blessing? They go to Sunday School, they learn verses, they grow up in a Christian environment but the problem is that they never personalise that faith. Mums and Dads don t assume that faith just gets through. 14

15 Ishmael saw the power of God firsthand and turned away. Make sure that you pray and teach and lead and guide but ultimately allow your children to personalise their faith. So God is their Lord not just yours. That it is their faith not yours. The blessing of the covenant is for those who come to faith not for those born in a certain home. We have seen that God s covenant is: For sinners From every nation But here is one of the most wonderful ones. His covenant is: For sinners From every nation As His precious people Just listen again to these great words. Look at verse 7: I will establish my covenant to be your God, and the God of your descendants. I will be your God and you will be my people. I will call you, wash you, keep you, protect you and give you every blessing. Listen to these incredible verses: 1 Peter 2:9: You are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God. Deuteronomy 7:6: 15

16 Isaiah 62:5: The LORD your God has chosen you out of all the peoples on the face of the earth to be his people, his treasured possession. As a bridegroom rejoices over his bride, so will your God rejoice over you. 2 Corinthians 6:16-18: As God has said: I will live with them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they will be my people. I will be a Father to you, and you will be my sons and daughters, says the Lord Almighty. Did you hear that?: Chosen people a people belonging to God a treasured possession bride sons. These are terms of endearment. Terms of the closest possible bond. Then think about who this bond is between. It is between El Shaddai the One who spoke and the heavens existed. The Holy One the One without spot or sin. And us. Sinners those who rebelled against God and continually fail Him. The whole concept of sinful, mortal, fallible men being in a relationship of love with God Almighty is incredible. But this is what God did. The Lord promised to be our God and to make us His precious people. To do this cost Him the death of His son. 1 Corinthians 6:19-20: You are not your own; you were bought at a price. But this is the love of God for us. One of my favourite passages on what it means to be the people of God is Jeremiah 32:38-41: They will be my people, and I will be their God. I will give them singleness of heart and action, so that they will always fear me for their own good and the good of their children after them. I will make an everlasting covenant with them: I will never stop doing good to them, and I will inspire them to fear me, so that they will never turn away from me. Isn t that incredible I will never stop doing good to them. I will never let them turn from Me. 16

17 God chose us to lavish His love upon us. Ephesians 1:3-14 Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ. For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love he predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ. In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins. Having believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance. Wow! God chose us to bless us with every blessing in the heavenlies to adopt us as sons, to wash us in the blood of Christ, to forgive our sins and give us an inheritance. These are the blessings of the covenant with Abraham. We become the treasured possession of God. Watch a child with their teddy, their monkey the one they sleep with at night they one they will not be without. That is their treasured possession. That is a pale shadow of the type of love God has placed on us His treasured possession. His covenant is: For sinners From every nation As His precious people Forever. Verse 7 this is an everlasting covenant. It goes from Abram to the promised One Jesus and on into eternity. Read verses 7 and 8 with me: I will establish my covenant as an everlasting covenant between me and you and your descendants after you for the generations to come, to be your God and the God of your descendants after you. The whole land of Canaan, where you are now an alien, I will give as an everlasting possession to you and your descendants after you; and I will be their God. This week in Annapolis in the US there was a Jewish-Arab peace meeting. 17

18 There are many problems to overcome but here is one of them. The Jews declare God gave us the whole land of Canaan as an everlasting possession. The land belongs to us by divine decree. The Arabs believe that Jerusalem is the third holiest site in the world and that the Al- Aqsa Mosque which is built over the site of Solomon s Temple is the third holiest mosque in the world. It is sacred to Islam. The Jews God gave us the whole land of Canaan as an everlasting possession. Jerusalem is our capital. The Muslims the Koran and the Hadith declare the holiness of Jerusalem. The holy city should be the capital of the Palestinian State. Do you see the problem? Zionism claims a divine right to Jerusalem and the land. Every Passover ends with the words Next year in Jerusalem. But they have no Temple for Messiah to return the Muslim mosque sits on the site. Muslims are in the streets crying, We will sacrifice our blood and souls for you, Jerusalem. King Fahd of Saudi Arabia calling on Muslim states to protect the holy city [that] belongs to all Muslims across the world. No wonder there is a problem. While not wishing to minimise the difficulties look at this verse again. I want to put it to you that this was never meant to be a promise limited to the physical land of Israel. The promise is for something far greater. The whole land of Canaan, where you are now an alien, I will give as an everlasting possession to you and your descendants after you. Let me point out a couple of things. First, Abraham never possessed the land. He died and was buried in a tomb he had to purchase off the Hittites. Second, there is much debate as to whether Israel ever possessed all the land of Canaan even under David and Solomon. The various descriptions of the boundaries of the land are vague and hard to pin down exactly. Third, there is little doubt that for long periods of time Israel did not possess any of the land of Israel and even today she only possesses a portion of the land. Fourth, since this promise is for many nations for all those who share in the Abrahamic blessing Jew and Gentile of every age it must point to a fulfilment beyond the mere land of Canaan. 18

19 So, if the word of God cannot fail then this cannot only be speaking of the literal land of Canaan. Instead it must be talking about a greater inheritance. And indeed that is how the New Testament interprets this. Hebrews 11:8-10: By faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going. By faith he made his home in the promised land like a stranger in a foreign country; he lived in tents, as did Isaac and Jacob, who were heirs with him of the same promise. For he was looking forward to the city with foundations, whose architect and builder is God. Abraham was not merely looking to inherit an earthly land and city but a heavenly one. This covenant looks toward heaven where we will enjoy the blessings of God forever. How much of this did Abraham understand? I am unsure. But as Scripture unfolds we have the fuller picture. A picture of God lavishing His love on undeserving wretches. A picture of God calling out a people for His name from every tribe and people and tongue and nation. A picture of God setting His love on them to wash them, protect them, keep them and bless them. A picture of God bringing us home to heaven to be with Him forever. This sounds too good to be true and it is. It is so incredible men find it hard to believe. They want to earn heaven they want to be good enough for God they want to merit salvation. But the account of Abraham is clear no one can earn God s love. We can only receive it with open arms and thankful hearts. We can never be good enough but God washes us and makes us perfect. And as He said in Jeremiah 32:38-41: They will be my people, and I will be their God. I will make an everlasting covenant with them: I will never stop doing good to them, and I will inspire them to fear me, so that they will never turn away from me. Now that is good news to shout among the nations. 19