Psalm 33 :12-22 (NRSVCE)
"12 Happy is the nation whose God is the Lord,
the people whom he has chosen as his heritage.
13 The Lord looks down from heaven;
he sees all humankind.
14 From where he sits enthroned he watches
all the inhabitants of the earth—
15 he who fashions the hearts of them all,
and observes all their deeds.
16 A king is not saved by his great army;
a warrior is not delivered by his great strength.
17 The war horse is a vain hope for victory,
and by its great might it cannot save.
18 Truly the eye of the Lord is on those who fear him,
on those who hope in his steadfast love,
19 to deliver their soul from death,
and to keep them alive in famine.
20 Our soul waits for the Lord;
he is our help and shield.
21 Our heart is glad in him,
because we trust in his holy name.
22 Let your steadfast love, O Lord, be upon us,
even as we hope in you."
In 1521, 500 years ago, Spain brought Christianity in the Philippines. Before Catholicism became the dominant religion in the Philippines, pre-colonial Filipinos expressed their faith in a variety of ways— from animism and folk healing to traces of Buddhism, Hinduism, and Islam. Juan de Plasencia, a Spanish friar of the Franciscan Order, penned the Doctrina Christiana—literally, the Teaching of Christianity—in the year 1593 and shared it among the locals. At the start of 1900, Americans also introduced other religion to Filipinos, the Protestants, bringing Christianity in different way of worship.
If we check the number of years of Colonization with Evangelization, Philippines took 72 years after introduction to Christianity, before it was penned down. Then Philippines took 333 years of Spaniard colonization from 1565-1898 before American colonized Philippines and introduced Protestantism in 1900. (www.funtrivia.com/en/History/Philippines).
Now, it is amazing that if you ask some Israeli tour guides, they say: Israel may be three hundred miles long, thirty miles wide, but it’s three thousand years deep (https://www.factsaboutisrael.uk/history-of-israel-timeline). According to the Holy Scripture in The New Testament, Jesus started His public Ministry when He is about 30 years old (Luke 3:23), and died around 33 years old.
It should take us to ponder how did this numbers 72 and 333 are numbers symbolical in the Scripture. Because GOD is Almighty, surely what happened to Philippines is under His knowledge, control, and supervision. It is His Numbers, and it is His Plan to make Philippines a Christian Nation, believing and accepting Jesus as the Messiah. Matthew 28 says, “19 Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” Not only this, Jesus Christ instructed Saint Paul to be an instrument whom Jesus Christ have chosen to bring His Name before us, the Gentiles.... (Acts 9:15). Jesus also told His disciples at Matthew 24:14, “And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in all the world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come”.
What happened to Philippines is also a fulfillment of prophecy told by Saint Peter in in his letter Chapter 2:9-1. “9 But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s own people,] in order that you may proclaim the mighty acts of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.
10 Once you were not a people,
but now you are God’s people;
once you had not received mercy,
but now you have received mercy."
We owe to no one but to GOD our Spiritual freedom from slavery of Sin (Romans 6:18). Ephesians 1:11-14 says, “11 In Christ we have also obtained an inheritance, having been destined according to the purpose of him who accomplishes all things according to his counsel and will, 12 so that we, who were the first to set our hope on Christ, might live for the praise of his glory. 13 In him you also, when you had heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and had believed in him, were marked with the seal of the promised Holy Spirit; 14 this is the pledge of our inheritance toward redemption as God’s own people, to the praise of his glory."
Let’s now celebrate and thank GOD in Christ Jesus through the Holy Spirit that GOD chose our nation to enter His Covenant of Love and Mercy and obtain His Promise of Eternal Life in Heaven through Jesus Christ, Our Lord and Savior. AMEN
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