In the last three sessions we have seen the patterns in which God in his great wisdom deals with us. We concentrated particularly on the line of the seed of woman through Israel and the promises God made and the covenants that he cut with them. That pattern shows us that God is always faithful to his promises and covenants and that his faithfulness does not depend on our faithfulness to him. We saw this pattern both in the Old and New Testament. But while we saw the pattern, we also saw the reality, though we did not mention it specifically. The reality in Biblical history is that since Genesis Three, sin has been spreading and impacting nature and every area of human life. It has destroyed much of the good that God created in the world and has impacted every area of life. We see the cruelty of people and governments through horrible wars, and the murdering and raping of innocent people. Even in our day we see how dictators destroy their own people. Think of the North Korea, Syria and Iraq. We see how the lust for money causes people to enslave small children and abuse women and men only for a bigger profit. All of these examples are the result of sin, originating in Genesis Three. But also we see the reality in which nations and individuals tried and continue to try to annihilate Israel so many times, and in so many ways and through different means. It suffices to mention the Egyptians, the Canaanites, and the Philistines, Haman in the book of Esther, the Crusaders, the Russian Pogroms, the Nazis, and today, the PLO, Hamas, Hezbollah and Iran. And this is only a partial list. And even in these very days in Israel we are witnessing another round of terror. Since the beginning of the month in the last three weeks, 10 Israelis have been killed and 120 injured. Some are in critical condition. But thankfully this is not the only reality.
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