|
(Bible
questions continued) Q: What is sin? A: The Bible gives no definition of sin, but relates it to an attitude, a rebellious ignoring of God's commands and "going one's own way." Sin is an action by which humans surrender to evil, temptation, or rebel, resist or put off surrendering to God. As a result these persons not only miss God's purpose for their lives, but they miss out on eternal life in heaven. The cause of human separation from God, the enormous moral and debilitating problems humans face in life are basically rooted in sin. Because of their wrong choice to disobey God's command, Adam and Eve were punished; they were put out of the Garden. God had tremendous love for them, but freedom of choice means nothing unless the person choosing receives the full consequences of that choice or decision. God's love and fairness required that he deal with Adam and Eve according to their disobedience. In the process, they forfeited their eternal life and acquired a sinful nature. They also became subject to physical death and evil. The Bible says all wrong doing is sin. Adam had worked in the Garden of Eden to care for it under perfect conditions; now he would be faced with working hard ground containing thorns and thistles. Eve would face much pain in child bearing; all humans, down through the ages, would inherit a sinful nature. The Bible tells us that everyone sins. "for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God" (Romans 3:23); Isaiah 53:6 says, " We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him (Jesus) the iniquity (sin) of us all." Sin, sickness and death entered into the world as a result of Adam and Eve's fall, and with it all manner of evil and strife: disharmony, anger, murder, hatred, abuse, divorce, immorality, sexual perversion, wars, tortures, terrorism, terrible diseases, violence, greed, persecution, starvation, wars, terrorism and much more. As a result of his love for Adam and Eve, God shed the blood of an innocent animal and made garments of skin (leather) to clothe them. They learned how to offer certain animal sacrifices for their future sins. The shedding of an innocent animal's blood became a Covenant in blood that God accepted as atonement and covering for human sin. Through this blood covenant, Adam and Eve, and their descendents could again enter into fellowship with God with the promise of redemption and eternal life through a promised Savior who would come to earth. Satan was severely judged. God spoke in Gen 3:15 and said, "And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel." God was saying that one of Adam and Eve's descendants would be attacked by Satan, but would completely crush Satan in the process. Eve must have been thrilled with this promise that one of her children or descendents would be the Savior. Q: Who was this Savior and when was he coming? A: The Savior of the world was to be a descendent of Adam and Eve. People looked forward to his coming, but didn't know the time of his arrival. When Eve was 130, she gave birth to Seth who committed his life to God when he was young. As a married couple, Seth and his wife taught their children to live and walk in the ways of God. The descendents of Adam and Eve became more and more numerous. Eventually the majority of them turned from God and decided to go their own way and evil grew in the lives of many people. Only a small number faithfully followed and obeyed God. It seems it has always been that way. Evil grew so much on earth that God reluctantly stepped in and decided to wipe out earth's people.. You can read about it in Genesis chapter six. the condition on earth was remarkably similar to the condition that exists today. It is 2002 AD and wickedness is growing throughout the world. We may be dangerously near to the plagues, nuclear, and environmental destruction predicted in the Book of Revelation, the last book of the Bible. These events are predicted to occur near the end of this age. Q: Was there really a Noah's ark and a flood that covered the earth? A: Definitely. The Bible gives the account in Genesis chapter six. Noah's ark was approximately 450 long, 75 ft. wide, 45 ft tall with three decks, one door, a window and many rooms. It was rectangular and took Noah and his family, 120 years to build. There was no water nearby and the Bible says people scoffed at Noah even though he preached to them about sin, repentance (turning away from sin) and God's coming judgment of the wickedness of the people on planet earth. If the people would have listened, perhaps the flood would not have occurred. The people did not listen; because they wished to go their own way, they ignored God. The Bible says they partied and married and did their own thing until the flood came and swept them all away. Only eight people were saved: Noah, his wife, their three sons and their wives were saved along with the earths creatures, male and female, who God summoned in pairs to come and enter the ark under Noah's direction. It rained for 40 days and nights. The flood covered the land to a minimum of 22 ft; It took more than a year for the waters to recede. Other phenomena happened at the same time: earthquakes and openings in the earth from which great fountains of water gushed forth and disturbances which pushed portions of sea beds upward into mountains. Paleontologists, a science dealing with the life of past geological periods as known from fossil remains, have discovered many of earth's areas where aquatic life is deposited high up on mountain cliffs and ridges. Anthropologists have found the records and folklore of numerous cultures and primitive tribes telling of a great flood upon earth in the distant past. Why a flood? Again, the reason lies in the matter of people's disobedience, their rebellion toward God and their wickedness. Numerous generations have followed the same pattern: a small part of the world's people clinging to God's Word and living for him, and the majority of people going their own way in selfishness, greed and other sins. An interesting fact: the Bible says that God made a covenant with Noah and told him he would never flood the world again. God said he would put a rainbow in the sky when it rains, as a reminder of his promise never to flood earth again. After the flood, the world became populated once more. David, a teenager, chosen King over Israel back to top The Bible gives account of Abraham, who was called of God to journey from the land that today is Iraq, where his home was near the Persian gulf, to a land called Canaan. The land of Canaan is where modern Israel is in today's world. His nephew, Lot and his family accompanied Abraham. The Bible tells about their adventures and the story of the destruction of Sodom, Gomorrah and surrounding towns because of the sins of adultery and fornication by heterosexuals, and homosexuality and other perversions of many of the people. God loved the people, but hated the sin. This should be a Christian believer's attitude: hate the sin, but love the people. Isaac was the only son of Sarah and Abraham. Isaac married Rebekah who bore him twin sons, Esau and Jacob. God later changed Jacob's name to Israel which means "prince of God." Jacob had twelve sons, one of them was Joseph who rose to great power in Egypt as second in command to Pharaoh, king of Egypt. God gave Joseph a dream about a famine that was to take place in that part of the world and Joseph took the action which saved Egypt and surrounding nations from a great famine. Joseph's family moved to join him in Egypt and Pharaoh, king of Egypt, assigned Joseph's family to the land of Goshen, a fertile land encompassing the Northeast section if the Nile River delta.. A new Pharaoh came to power after the death of the Pharaoh who Joseph served. The new Pharaoh treated the Hebrews as slaves and made life utterly miserable for them by forcing them into hard labor under cruel taskmasters. The Bible tells the stories and events of the Israelis being in captivity in Egypt for four hundred years and in their misery, they cried out to God for help. God came to their rescue by sending Moses and his brother Aaron to demand Pharaoh set the Israelis free. Pharaoh would not listen to God's commands given through Moses, and God sent nine different plagues against Egypt. But Pharaoh would not let Israel leave. Then, God brought the final event which was to cause the first born of all Egypt's children and animals to die. You can read about it in the old testament book of Exodus, chapter 12. We find in the story that God's spoke to Moses to tell the Israelites to slaughter a special lamb without blemish and sprinkle it's blood on the sides of the doorpost and on the beam above the doorway of their dwellings. Then, when God's angel came throughout Egypt that night, all who had the blood on their doors would be spared; the angel would pass over them. Once again God was using a blood sacrifice to save the people faithful to him. The main Israeli feast celebrated in Israel each year, in memory of their deliverance from Egyptian bondage, is called the "Passover." God instructed Moses to lead the Israelites out of Egypt. God, by a miracle, caused a path to open through the upper Red sea. They crossed safely but Pharaoh, with thousands of his troops, was drowned in the sea when they tried to pursue Israel. Moses led the people of Israel through the wilderness toward the land of Canaan, which God promised to them. They could have made the journey in a month or two, but in spite of the supernatural miracles that God provided them, time after time, they rebelled and let their hearts grow hard toward God. As a result, it took them 40 years of living in the desert before the Israelis under Joshua, Moses' assistant, led the people into the land of Canaan. It was during Israel's wanderings in the wilderness that God gave the Ten Commandments. You can read about it in Exodus 34:27-28. In the wilderness, in spite of the miracle presence of God, The Israelites began to ignore
Him and turned to their own ways. God was so displeased because of their
sinful actions that only the children of the people
who Moses led out of Egypt were alive and allowed to enter the promised land
when they arrived at Canaan's border. You can read about it in the books of Exodus and Joshua. Q: I've heard that God commanded Joshua and the Israelis to wipe out all the people of the cities of Canaan they had to fight against. If God is a God of love, how could he tell them to do that? A: We don't know all of the reasons for God's decisions about things. It is worth noting that the Bible tells us the people of the land of Canaan were especially wicked. They were very immoral, perverted and cruel. They worshipped false Gods and one of their common practices was to sacrifice their daughters and sons, who were just little children, to their idols by burning the children with fire while they were still alive. God hated that. He considered these people as extremely wicked, judged them for it, and warned the Israelites not to be like them nor worship their false Gods. Israel fights for possession of the promised land - let me tell you how the the Israelites fared in their new promised land. Joshua followed the Lord's directions and apportioned a certain section of the land to each of the twelve tribes of Israel. They didn't just walk in and settle down, they first had to fight with their armies to defeat the inhabitants of the land. The book of Joshua describes fighting for and settlement of the land, as seen from Joshua's perspective as the General who led the campaigns. The next book, the book of Judges, tells the story of subjugating the Canaanites who were left, but tells this history from the perspective of the common soldier. And the next book, the book of Judges, indicates that the different clans had to also overcome pockets of Canaanite resistance to fully settle the land. The Tabernacle tent, Israel's worship center, was moved to Shiloh in the land of Canaan. The Israelites would prosper and as they did, a majority would "fall away" from following God. They would copy the ways of the world nations around them. As a result, they ended-up joining the worship of false, foreign Gods and even many of the Israelites began to burn some of their children alive as sacrifices to canaanite Gods. It made God angry. The history of the next 400 years involve the same sequence of problems over and over again: Israelites turn away from God (apostasy), God allows foreign armies to invade and conquer Israel, then the Israelites in their pain and hard times would repent by turning away from their sins and come back to God. Then God would raise up a man like Gideon or a woman like Deborah who would gather an army and defeat the invaders and Israel would be delivered. This same pattern often holds true in the lives of Christian believers. God only puts up with his people ignoring him and going their own way for a while then, He sends trouble to wake them up. Today, many Christians in nations around the world have grown cold, halfhearted in following God and Jesus, the Lord. Are we going to experience the same judgment as Israel experienced down through the ages? Could the terrorism America has experienced, be our wake up call? When terrorism strikes, there may be no second chance for some people to get right with God. It may be too late for some people. This is a dangerous world and it is getting more dangerous as the days go by. What will you do for protection, peace of mind. As surely as I write these words, I know that terrorists will strike again at America and other countries. Are you willing to turn your back on God and Jesus. Can you afford to take that risk? Christ is the answer. The most important thing in your life is what will you do with Jesus? Will you surrender your life to Him, or will you continue to go your own way? The Israelis would obey the Lord for a while, then gradually grow cold and half-hearted towards God. He would allow invaders to come and conquer the Israelites. In their pain and bondage to these foreign armies, they would repent and turn to God. He would raise up a leader and an army once again and put his hand of power behind them to deliver Israel. This sequence was repeated over and over. I wonder, what the Israelis would have been blessed with if they had continued to love God and walk in all his ways as Joshua encouraged them to do? It seems apparent that God's people didn't believe God's way was really the best way for them to live. They kept looking at the nations around them and copying their ways. When they did, the Israelites experienced hard times and things went "south" (downhill) for them. Incidentally, the book of Judges is a good read: exciting adventure stories! Q: What is the story about David being chosen as King of Israel when he was a teen? A: It is true, he was chosen as king when he was a teenager, but didn't start to rule until he had grown up a bit more. Below, read how he was chosen. It is an interesting story. David was born in Bethlehem. The birthplace of King David was Bethlehem. David’s father was Jesse, son of Obed. Saul, the nation of Israel’s first king, became disobedient to the Lord and God rejected him as the king and sent Samuel, the Prophet, down to Bethlehem to anoint David, a shepherd boy, king over Israel. The story is found in 1 Sam. 16:4. Samuel did what the LORD said. David is chosen as king.
When Samuel arrived at Bethlehem, the elders of the town
trembled when they met him. They asked, "Do you come in peace?"
Samuel replied, "Yes, in peace; I have come to sacrifice to the
LORD. Consecrate yourselves and come to the sacrifice with me." Then he
consecrated Jesse and his sons and invited them to the sacrifice.
When they arrived, Samuel saw Eliab and thought, "Surely the
Lord's anointed stands here before the LORD." But the LORD said to Samuel, "Do not consider his appearance or his height, for I have rejected him. The LORD does not look at the things man looks at. Man looks at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart." Then Jesse called Abinadab and had him pass in front of Samuel. But Samuel said, "The LORD has not chosen this one either." Jesse then had Shammah pass by, but Samuel said, "Nor has the LORD chosen this one." Jesse had seven of his sons pass before Samuel, but
Samuel said to him, "The LORD has not chosen these."
So he asked Jesse, "Are these all the sons you have?"
"There is still the youngest," Jesse answered, "but he is
tending the sheep." Samuel said, "Send for him; we will not sit down
until he arrives." So he
sent and had him brought in. He was ruddy, with a fine appearance and handsome
features. Then the LORD said, "Rise and anoint him; he is the one."
So Samuel took the horn of oil and anointed him in the presence of his
brothers, and from that day on the Spirit of the LORD came upon David in
power. Remember what God said to Satan in Genesis 3:15?
" And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel."
It is evident that the seed or offspring of the woman was to come through the
Israelites and benefit the whole world. David was the king who had the
promise of the Messiah to come through his line of ancestry. The Bible clearly states that this
promised Savior would be known as the "Son of David." He would be
born in Bethlehem from the Davidic line, which was from the tribe of Judah. David was
of the tribe of Judah. |
