When reading the Bible and when I ponder over decisions I need to make, I find it helpful to keep in mind these two major themes in the Bible: God's cosmic plan for the world, and His uncanny strategy to achieve this.
God's cosmic plan is to build a holy nation and a royal priesthood. This is found in Exo. 19:2-6, Isa. 61:6, 1 Peter 2:9, Rev. 1:6. God's plan to achieve this is through the suffering servant, prophesied in Isaiah 52 and fulfilled in the life of Jesus, and to be co-participated by Christians all over the world. It is through the bearing of each other's burden (Gal 5:1), enduring of hardships that come our way (2 Tim. 4:5), and through a life of denying ourselves and servanthood like Jesus, that we are to become priests and a holy nation for God, bringing humankind to God and revealing God's glory to the world.
Unfortunately, Israel in the Old Testament did not get this. They expected a mighty warrior like David to bring deliverance. That did not happen. They misinterpreted the promise in 2 Samuel 7:12-16 on how God will establish His Kingdom. Their hope then turned to the Maccabees and Bar-Kochba with their revolts during the inter-testament time. That did not last either. So when Jesus came, that was a real shocker. Are we Christians any different? Do we wish that some mighty deliverer will come to take us out of all our pains and sufferings, curse those who are against us, and vindicate us? God will eventually wipe all our tears (Rev. 21:4) but, in the meantime, we are called to take up our cross (Matt. 16:24) on earth just like Jesus. It is through partaking of Jesus' suffering that we can only begin to redeem this world. It's daunting to think how this really looks like in our daily living, and how we make our decisions in any matters!
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