You know the story. David committed adultery with Bathsheeba. He had her husband Uriah and several other men killed by telling Joab to put them in the front lines of battle and withdraw, leaving them stranded to be killed by the enemy. He married Bathsheeba and hid his sin till the child was born. Nathan confronted him and David repented. Unbelievable, God forgave David even though he was due several capital death sentences. But he was given two punishments.

1) The baby died. David fasted and lay on the ground for 7 days while the child was dying, begging God to spare the child. When he found out that the child had died, he washed, changed his clothes, and ate. His servants thought his behavior strange, but ²² He said, “While the child was still alive, I fasted and wept; for I said, ‘Who knows, the Lord may be gracious to me, that the child may live.’ ²³ But now he has died; why should I fast? Can I bring him back again? I will go to him, but he will not return to me.” (2 Samuel 12:22-23). He “moved on from that punishment”, accepting God’s “no” answer to his prayers. No doubt he would live in guilt over the child’s death for the rest of his life. Many parents can’t move on after the death of a child if they feel responsible. One sad story of a man who backed over his child whom he didn’t see behind his car. The book and movie “The Shack” is a similar sad story. Mac could not move on till Papa showed him that his little girl was happy playing in the meadows in the afterlife somewhere.

2) God would raise up evil from David’s own household. This one would stay with David till he died. He never got to move on from this one. His son Amnon raped his half sister Tamar. His son Absalom killed Amnon. Absalom tried to take the throne and kingdom from David, causing him to flee Jerusalem. Absalom was also the son who lay with David’s concubine on the roof in plain view of those watching in order to show his defiance of David (2 Samuel 16:21,22). David still grieved over Absalom’s death after Joab killed him while he hung from a tree by his long hair. His son Adonijah tried to take the throne as David was dying even though David had decreed that his son Solomon would take his place as king. David had Solomon kill Adonijah after he died. David had 8 wives and 19 sons total, but these three are the ones who caused David much grief. These 3 fulfilled God’s predicted punishment on David. I wonder if his guilty coscience over his sin with Bathsheeba played a role in how he dealt with his children? He did not punish Amnon for raping his sister, but instead exiled Absalom for 2 years for killing Amnon. He mourned the death of Absalom, even though, as Joab reminded him, many had suffered and died perhaps trying to defend David from Absalom trying to kill him. He spoiled Adonijah: ⁶ His father had never ^[c]crossed him at any time by asking, “Why have you done so?” (1 Kings 1:6) which contributed to Adonijah rebelling against his father when he was dying. We see an example of a father who just could not practice “tough love” on rebellious children.

The tragedy of this story is that it all started because of one act of adultery with Bathsheeba. David apparently didn’t go up on his roof with the intent of watching Bathsheeba bathing. But when he saw her, he should have turned away and prayed for God to help him not be filled with lust over what he saw. James 1 says that sin is like a birth: the conception, the gestation period, and then the act which brings death. David should have aborted that lust he had when he saw her, but he didn’t. Jesus said, ¹⁹ For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, ^[i]fornications, thefts, false witness, slanders (Matthew 15:19). His heart was full of lust and eventually that led to the act of adultery. You have heard, “a picture is worth a thousand words”. Well a pornographic picture will stay in a man’s mind for many years. I do believe there is a link between porn and sex crimes. One report said in 80% of sex crimes that porn was found at the scene or in the home of the perpetrator. Yet some say porn is harmless for adults, even a safety valve to keep men from committing sex crimes. Porn is perhaps the main issue to deal with, even among Christian men. Surveys have shown that about a third of men in church on Sunday morning had viewed porn within the last month. Even a third of the ministers admitted struggling with watching porn. Porn is not just on a paid TV show in a cheap hotel. It is on TV and movies, all around us.

David’s lust led him to adultery, covering his sin for a year, and murder. He was forgiven, but he paid dearly for his sin. If he could have just looked into the future in a crystal ball and seen what his little, exciting sex affair was going to do to his family and life, do you think he would have had sex with Bathsheeba? Don’t you think he would have restrained his lust? He might have struggled with his lust, but he might not have acted upon it. I think that is the key for Christian men struggling with lust today. They might struggle their whole lives with lust, and maybe even pictures or image in their head or on paper, but can they restrain from acting on their lust? I know Jesus said: “You heard it was said, ‘Do not commit adultery,’ but I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman/wife in order to covet her has already committed adultery with her in his heart (Matthew 5:27,28)”. But to commit the act of adultery is far worse in consequences. The effects adultery has on the children is devastating. The example it sets for them. It destroys their perception of what marrital commitment should be. Surely grown children know that most, if not all, fathers were guilty of lust over years because the male children would struggle with it also. But it is awesome to know that his/her dad never committed adultery in 40 or 50 or 60 or more years of marriage. In the meantime, we Christian husbands struggle with how to get those pictures out of our heads and hearts. Paul had a great suggestion: ⁸ Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is ^[e]lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, ^[f]dwell on these things (Philippians 4:9,10). It’s almost impossible to be thinking of two different things at the same time. If I can picture something in my mind, it blocks out other pictures. If I can picture Jesus hanging on the cross, bleeding, suffering, then tha picture blocks out some lustful picture I was struggling with. Try it. And don’t just let your mind picture that good image, but let your mind dwell on it. Or, picture how your child would react if he/she walked in to your bedroom while you were having an affair, committing adultery and being unfaithful to his/her mother, your wife. Wow, that’s a pretty bold picture, huh? Whatever it takes, come up with a picture that will help you remove the lustful picture or image. Then pray for God to forgive you and for the Spirit to help you in your struggle. We must struggle to cope with lust. We can’t just let it become a habit in our lives that we do regularly, hoping that grace will cover it. Romans 6:1 What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin so that grace may increase? ² May it never be! How shall we who died to sin still live in it? Colossians 3:5 Put to death therefore what is earthly in you: sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry. Job 31:1 “I have made a covenant with my eyes; how then could I gaze at a virgin? Proverbs 6:25 Do not desire her beauty in your heart, and do not let her capture you with her eyelashes; 1 Thessalonians 4:3-5 For this is the will of God, your sanctification: that you abstain from sexual immorality; that each one of you know how to control his own body in holiness and honor, not in the passion of lust like the Gentiles who do not know God; 1 Peter 2:11 Beloved, I urge you as sojourners and exiles to abstain from the passions of the flesh, which wage war against your soul. Hebrews 13:4 Let marriage be held in honor among all, and let the marriage bed be undefiled, for God will judge the sexually immoral and adulterous. Galatians 5:14 And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. Psalm 101:3 I will not set before my eyes anything that is worthless.

Psalm 127 Unless the Lord builds the house,
They labor in vain who build it;
Unless the Lord guards the city,
The watchman keeps awake in vain.
² It is vain for you to rise up early,
To ^[cz]retire late,
To eat the bread of ^[da]painful labors;
For He gives to His beloved even in his sleep.

³ Behold, children are a ^[db]gift of the Lord,
The fruit of the womb is a reward.
⁴ Like arrows in the hand of a warrior,
So are the children of one’s youth.
⁵ How blessed is the man whose quiver is full of them;
They will not be ashamed
When they speak with their enemies in the gate.

Is it always a blessing to have a quiver full of children? What about those children who turn out bad, rebellious, a shame to the family? What about Eli’s 2 sons, Hophni and Phinehas (1 Samuel 1-5)? They were “worthless”, keeping a forbidden part of the offerings of the people for themselves. They had sex with the women who came to offer sacrifices. Eli did rebuke them verbally, but that is all he did. They would not listen. He should have taken them before the elders as rebellious sons to be stoned to death. God rebuked Eli for not being firm enough in the discipline of his sons. He said that Eli “honored his sons more than he did God”. By allowing his sons to get away with abusing the sacrifices offered to God, he was placing more value on his sons than’s God’s offerings. God told Eli that the priesthood would be taken from his family and all his offspring would die early in life. God told Samuel of this punishment of Eli and his house: 1 Samuel 3:13 ¹³ For I have told him (Eli) that I am about to judge his house forever for the iniquity which he knew, because his sons brought a curse on themselves and he did not rebuke them. ¹⁸ So Samuel told him everything and hid nothing from him. And he said, “It is the Lord; let Him do what seems good to Him.” Eli accepted his fate and punishment.

A battle followed with the Philistines, and Israel was defeated. They decided that God would give them victory if they took the ark of the covenant with them into battle. 1 Samuel 4:4 ⁴ So the people sent to Shiloh, and from there they carried the ark of the covenant of the Lord of hosts who sits above the cherubim; and the two sons of Eli, Hophni and Phinehas, were there with the ark of the covenant of God. At first this scared the Philistines and excited the Israelites, but Israel was defeated again and the ark was captured and Eli’s 2 sons were killed. A man from the battled came to tell Eli of the battle. 1 Samuel 4:13 ¹³ When he came, behold, Eli was sitting on his seat ^[e]by the road eagerly watching, because his heart was trembling for the ark of God. Eli asked him how the battle went: 1 Samuel 4:17-18 “How did things go, my son?” ¹⁷ Then the one who brought the news replied, “Israel has fled before the Philistines and there has also been a great slaughter among the people, and your two sons also, Hophni and Phinehas, are dead, and the ark of God has been taken.” ¹⁸ When he mentioned the ark of God, ^[f]Eli fell off the seat backward beside the gate, and his neck was broken and he died, for ^[g]he was old and heavy. Eli was 98 at the time.

What a sad story, but one that has been probably repeated hundreds of thousands of times over the course of history. What makes it sadder, as is often the case, is that Eli seems like a godly man. He revered the ark and it sounds like it was the news that the ark had been captured that caused him to fall backwards, not the news that his 2 sons had died. He tried, as many good parents have done, to rebuke his sons. He just didn’t do the “tough love” that was called for in their case. How many parents have done that? How many parents have bailed their children out of trouble over and over when maybe they should have used tough love? I say that realizing how hard it must be to use tough love. What does a parent do when his/her child is in deep pain or trouble because of his bad choices? Do you just let them suffer endlessly without intervening? Do you try one more time to help them break an addiction or a life of crime? Do you just write them off until they come to their senses and repent? I would never judge a parent who just could not apply that tough love because I can’t imagine what they have gone through with their children. All I can we do is pray for them to have the wisdom in dealing with their children. And pray for their children.

It is interesting that this story of Eli’s sons follows one of the best stories of motherhood in the Bible. ! Samuel 1-3 tells the story of Hannah. She was barren. Elkanah her husband had 2 wives: Hannah and Peninnah. To make it worse, ⁶ Her rival, however, would provoke her bitterly to irritate her, because the Lord had closed her womb (1 Samuel 1:6). Elkanah tried to make up for Hannah’s grief. He would give a double portion of the sacrifices he offered (some sacrifices could be shared with the offerers) to Hannah, but that did not help. 1 Samuel 1:6-8 so she wept and would not eat. ⁸ Then Elkanah her husband said to her, “Hannah, why do you weep and why do you not eat and why is your heart sad? Am I not better to you than ten sons?” Hannah went to the tabernacle (there was no temple yet) and prayed for a son. 1 Samuel 1:10 ¹⁰ She, ^[a]greatly distressed, prayed to the Lord and wept bitterly. She made a vow to God, that if He would give her a son, that she would give him to the Lord all the days of his life.

Her prayer must have been very intense. Eli noticed that her lips were moving but her voice was not heard, and she was weeping bitterly while she prayed. He thought she was drunk, and rebuked her. Hannah told him that she was not drunk, but was “pouring out her soul before the Lord”. Have you ever been at that point in your life, where you are so desperate and sad that you fall on your face, weeping, praying incoherently? Not just weeping, but weeping bitterly, maybe because of some tragic events or unfulfilled expectations (things don’t go as you hoped but go terribly astray)? I remember doing that a few times, almost a nervous breakdown, panic attacks, etc. When she explained her situation to Eli, he said: 1 Samuel 1:17 ¹⁷ Then Eli answered and said, “Go in peace; and may the God of Israel grant your petition that you have asked of Him.” ¹⁸ She said, “Let your maidservant find favor in your sight.” So the woman went her way and ate, and her face was no longer sad. Apparently she became pregnant soon after that and bore a son, Samuel. She kept him home until he was weaned (maybe even 3 years old) and then she brought him to Eli to spend the rest of his childhood ministering to Eli in the tabernacle at Shiloh. Over the years they would visit Samuel each year and bring him a little white robe to wear. Eli asked the Lord to reward her with more children, and God blessed her with 3 sons and 2 daughters in addition to Samuel. Samuel would go on to be the last judge and the first great prophet. God would use him to anoint the first king, Saul, and go through difficult times with God’s rejection of Saul as king due to his bad heart and disobedience. He would then anoint the 2nd king, David.

What a contrast in child rearing! The thing that always impressed me about Hannah was her conviction that, if she was blessed with a child, she would give him back to serve the Lord. Shouldn’t that be the mind set of every parent. We are only given the task and responsibility of raising our children for a few years (even if 18 or so years, still relatively few. We enjoy watching them grow from toddler to teen. We fill our scrapbooks and phones with hundreds of pictures of them growing up. We celebrate their accomplishments and special times in life: when they started school, when they first rode a bike, when they started cheerleading, when they played sports, when they dressed up and went to the prom, when they won a state championship, when they graduated high school, when they went off to college, when they graduated college, when they got married, etc. Sure, they might have gone through some bad “attitude” times, even a little rebellious, but overall they turned out pretty good. But did we train them to be mature Christians? Paul puts the leadership of parenting on the fathers: Ephesians 6:4 ⁴ Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord.What if we spent the same amount of time, energy, and money on training our children in spiritual disciplines as we do sports, cheerleading, academics, etc.? Those things are not wrong in and of themselves, but they should not be the main priorities in raising our children.

But what about when one or more of our children turn out to be like Eli’s sons. Proverbs 22:6 says, ⁶ Train up a child in the way he should go,^[a]And when he is old he will not depart from it. Is that a false promise? No. It is however, a general rule, just like many of the other proverbs. Yes, there can be exceptions. Also, there can be other factors involved in addition to the parenting of the parents. God Himself trained Israel and yet they rebelled as His children. Was God to blame for being a bad Father to them? Ezekiel 18 gives the example of a righteous parent who has an unrighteous child, and then an example of an unrighteous parent who has a righteous child. He says that each parent and child will be held responsible for his/her own sins, not the sins of his/her parent or child. I’m sure the righteous parent in that example was not a perfect parent, but was overall doing what is right. Only God is the perfect Father who gives the proper training and discipline, as the Hebrews writer points out: Hebrews 12:9 ⁹ Furthermore, we have had human fathers who corrected us, and we paid them respect. Shall we not much more readily be in subjection to the Father of spirits and live? So parents who tried to raise their children in the Lord should not feel guilty if any of their children turn out “bad”. Sure, they made mistakes and they could have done a better job but good children will not hold that against them, and nor will God. Each child will have to make his/her own choices and be responsible for those choices.

I have been preaching, teaching Bible, involved in Christian schools, and doing mission work overseas for about 45 years now. You might think that, with that track record, my faith was stronger than ever. I am ashamed to admit that I struggle with faith at times. Not just the faith to do great things, but just to believe that God really exists.

I was driving to school the other day and praying. But then I looked out at the bright sun shiny morning and thought, do I really believe there is a God who is a spirit who fills the universe who is listening to my prayer. Not some elderly, white haired Father figure that I picture up in the sky, but a spirit of some sort. Yes, the Bible does give us a picture of God as seated on His throne, the Ancient of Days, with cherubim all around and 4 living creatures (Isaiah 6 and Revelation 4), but then Jesus said that the Father is a spirit who exists everywhere. Now, with the Hubble, we know there are thousands of galaxies out there in an unlimited, continually expanding universe. So God is a spirit who fills that infinite space?

But my mind keeps wandering. I personally believe that the Bible claims that the earth is only about 6,000 years old (my blog article on the age of the earth). Other believers in God (and most atheists) believe the earth is about 5 billion years old. For the sake of argument, let’s say it is 5 billion. But as they say, our God is outside time. He existed in eternity before the creation of the earth 5 billion years ago (or 6,000 in my mind). The Bible claims that we can have great security knowing that: “The eternal God is your refuge, and underneath are the everlasting arms….” (Deuteronomy 33:27). But wait a minute. You mean to tell me that God existed “backwards” in eternity before He ever created the universe as we know it 5 billion (or 6,000) years ago? What was He doing all that time? Just to tell me that He is outside of time doesn’t help. He existed forever before the “beginning” (Genesis 1-3), before the creation of time as we know it, before the creation of the universe.

So when did He create all those angels who are constantly around Him worshiping Him? How long before the creation of the earth was it when He created them? They are created beings, right? So did God get bored with angels worshiping Him? The angels had freedom of choice, didn’t they? I mean Satan was probably a fallen angel, along with his cohorts. We have no direct teaching on this, but several verses allude to Satan being lifted up in pride in the Garden, a rebellion of angels, and a war in heaven with the bad angels being cast out. Ezekiel 28:16: ¹⁶ “By the abundance of your trading
You became filled with violence within, And you sinned; Therefore I cast you as a profane thing Out of the mountain of God; And I destroyed you, O covering cherub, From the midst of the fiery stones. Isaiah 14:1 ¹² “How you are fallen from heaven, O ^[a]Lucifer, son of the morning! How you are cut down to the ground, You who weakened the nations! Revelation 12:7-9: ⁷ And war broke out in heaven: Michael and his angels fought with the dragon; and the dragon and his angels fought, ⁸ but they ^[a]did not prevail, nor was a place found for ^[b]them in heaven any longer. ⁹ So the great dragon was cast out, that serpent of old, called the Devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world; he was cast to the earth, and his angels were cast out with him. Did that rebellion of angels cause God to decide to create men instead of more angels and start this great experiment of humans with the ability to choose good or evil?

All I can hear right now is the voice of a Christian sister at my house one night during our small group study. Someone asked a question that asked questions like I am asking, and she had one comment, “That is foolish speculation”. That ended the discussion right there! No one dared to “foolishly speculate” after that! But bear with me. Actually, Paul is my example here. 2 Corinthians 11:16-19 ¹⁶ I say again, let no one think me a fool. If otherwise, at least receive me as a fool, that I also may boast a little. ¹⁷ What I speak, I speak not according to the Lord, but as it were, foolishly, in this confidence of boasting. ¹⁸ Seeing that many boast according to the flesh, I also will boast. ¹⁹ For you put up with fools gladly, since you yourselves are wise! Paul is telling them that they put up with a lot of foolish teaching from the false teachers among them, so at least let him speak “foolishly” to make some points!

Why did God decide at some point in eternity to create this vast universe with humans on only one planet. I know many think there is life other than on the earth, but there is absolutely no proof of that. Some even believe that there was a race of humans before Genesis 1 who were destroyed, along with a previous earth, plants, and animals, but there is no proof of that either. So did God just decide that he wanted to try free will with humans instead of just angels? When asked why God created humans, I always respond with “why did my wife and I have children?” Did we not know that some or all of them might turn against us and what we believe, might become rebellious or drug addicts, might hate us, might blame us for all their faults? Sure we did. But we saw the potential of children choosing to love us, so we took the risk! BTW, it turned out pretty good so far! We are blessed with 3 godly children, mostly due to my wife, not me. So God wanted to love on some humans with the hope they would return His love. Is that it?

But just the idea that He existed in eternity and decided to create man at some point 5 billion (or 6,000) years ago blows my mind. Do I really believe that? And He knew that He would give them freedom of choice, free will, and good or bad choices to choose from! And He knew they would choose the bad. And He knew He was a just God who would have to punish them when they chose bad. So He gave them this idyllic, perfect Garden with a tree in it that they were not allowed to eat from. But He knew they would eat from it, and that He would have to kick them out of the Garden. He knew that all their descendants after them would sin also. Romans 5:12 ¹² Therefore, just as through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men, because all sinned. But He created man anyway, and set them up for the fall. Of course, the only other option would be to create robots with no freedom of choice, and apparently He didn’t want that. Did anyone besides me watch the movies, The Stepford Wives (1972) and The Stepford Children (1987)? Husbands have this secret process of transforming their imperfect wives into perfect robot like replicas, and in the follow up movie, the parents transform their children into perfect robot like replicas. God could have done that! If you are bored, read the Wikipedia summary of the plots of those 2 movies. As weird as all that sounds, did Hitler not try to do that with his “master Aryan race”, breeding a superior race and eliminating all weak or inferior races or imperfect humans? Of course, Darwin actually proposed this as a result of his conclusions about the evolution of man. He observed in The Descent of Man that “the civilized races of man will almost certainly exterminate, and replace, the savage races throughout the world”. To him, the natural and logical conclusion of his survival of the strong would and should be the extermination of the weak. He considered the Negro race to be inferior. He also considered women to be inferior to men intellectually, although he didn’t suggest exterminating women, thank goodness! Are we headed that way also? Did you read the article about Iceland proudly boasting that they had eliminated all Down Syndrome children being born? “Since prenatal screening tests were introduced in Iceland in the early 2000s, the vast majority of women — close to 100 percent — who received a positive test for Down syndrome terminated their pregnancy.” I guess if you think abortion is ok, and I don’t, then you might think this is perfectly ok. My son and his wife just adopted a sweet, 3 year old Down Syndrome girl who has been a blessing to them and their 4 “normal” boys. I’m glad the child’s mother wasn’t one of the Iceland mothers who would have aborted her!

Wow, I think I got off track! God didn’t want to create perfect robots. The fall left us with a cursed earth with disease, deformed babies, tornadoes, etc. It even left us with evil men and women making evil choices that hurt others. But out of all that, God knew that good could come from evil and suffering, so He allowed evil and suffering. And if it just doesn’t seem as if any good can possibly come from evil and suffering, He prepared an eternal place of bliss for His children where an entire life of suffering on earth will seem but a brief moment of pain. Paul said, 2 Corinthians 4:16-18 ¹⁶ Therefore we do not lose heart. Even though our outward man is perishing, yet the inward man is being renewed day by day. ¹⁷ For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory, ¹⁸ while we do not look at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporary, but the things which are not seen are eternal.

Anticipating the fall of man, God had to plan on what to do after man would fall. Would He just doom them all to extermination, as He was about to do with the flood before He saw the righteousness of one man, Noah? Would he give mankind a chance, but then if they got too evil, just exterminate the human race? Would He come up with a system of works where if you did more good than evil that He would give you eternal life? Apparently the just nature of God would not allow Him to do that even if He wanted to. Assuming God loves his created humans, what plan can He come up with that would allow Him to be both just and merciful and would enable Him to receive fallen sinners into eternal bliss with Him? Now read what Peter wrote about that: 1 Peter 1:18-20 ¹⁸ knowing that you were not redeemed with ^[a]corruptible things, like silver or gold, from your aimless conduct received by tradition from your fathers, ¹⁹ but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot. ²⁰ He indeed was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was ^[b]manifest in these last times for you. Peter tells us that God decided that He would become flesh in a God-man called His Son in the distant future, and that He would allow evil men to kill His Son in order to redeem and forgive fallen sinners if they would put their trust in His Son. They would not have to earn salvation but instead would be saved by grace even though salvation was conditional and would require active, working faith. They would not be required to be obey every command perfectly or have some net good works over bad works record. Now why would the death of His Son satisfy His requirement that would allow Him to be just and the justifier of those who have faith? Romans 3:26 ²⁶ to demonstrate at the present time His righteousness, that He might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus. I can’t answer that. It’s not like we met with God and came up a plan that would satisfy both parties, us and God. God had to come up with a plan that would satisfy Him and His wrath. 2 Corinthians 5:18-19 ¹⁸ Now all things are of God, who has reconciled us to Himself through Jesus Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation, ¹⁹ that is, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not ^[d]imputing their trespasses to them, and has committed to us the word of reconciliation. To think that God came up with this plan to save fallen man before He even created the earth and man is amazing.

So now we have the belief in a God who fills the universe but who also comes up with this amazing plan to save fallen man before He even creates man! If I struggled with belief in the existence of God, am I going to struggle even more with this plan? Back to our original question on the existence of God. Here are my final thoughts on my doubt. The alternative to believing in God is far less believable than believing in God. Paul said in Romans 1:20 ²⁰ For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and ^[g]Godhead, so that they are without excuse. I look at His creation and see order and design that is simply not possible by random chance as the atheists claim. The “Intelligent Design” advocates will point to many examples of design, but my favorite example is the periodic table. That example has stuck with me more than any other. Every one of the 100+ successive element in the table increases the number of protons in its nucleus by +1 (with an equal number of electrons in the outer shells). Then based on the number of electrons in the outer shells, the elements can be arranged in rows and columns with very specific common properties. Now, if the universe began with an explosion of a few elements only (scientists still debate which elements that think that was), then how in the world by random chance would the periodic table evolve into the design I have pointed out? There must be an intelligence that designed that periodic table. I might not want to believe there is a God, but the periodic table itself forces me to believe there is an intelligence that designed the universe. That example alone would force me to believe in an intelligence that created the universe. I don’t know if Paul in Romans 1:20 had the periodic table in mind since the periodic table was not discovered till the 18th century, but the example surely applies to what Paul said. We could give many more examples of intelligent design.

I recommend you watch Lee Strobel’s DVD “Case for a Creator”. He points out dozens of laws of nature and formulas, such as the “Universal Gravitational Constant”, that must all be present exactly as they are on earth for life to exist on earth. They can’t vary at all and life still exist. They must all be present and not just most of them. When you look at the formulas for those laws, it blows your mind that there is a formula that dictates the laws, and that there are these “constants” (i.e. specific numbers, not variable) that are built into these laws by God. We finally got smart enough to discover a lot of them during the “scientific revolution”, and continue to discover new ones. Then it blows your mind that dozens of these laws could all come together on one planet in the universe, allowing life to exist. The odds of that happening by chance are staggering. It is more credible to believe in a designer of the universe than to believe these laws came together by chance. Why are there mathematical and scientific laws and formulas that govern the universe if it is all by random chance? Again, I am forced to believe that God exists because the alternative is so unbelievable. So much so that now many scientists have come up with the idea of multiple universes created by nature in a “universe generator”. The thought is that would help reduce the odds of it happening by chance! Seriously?

My next example would be the design of the human body and the principle of “irreducible complexity”. Behe gives the following definition of irreducible complexity: By irreducibly complex I mean a single system composed of several well-matched, interacting parts that contribute to the basic function, wherein the removal of any one of the parts causes the system to effectively cease functioning (Darwin’s Black Box: The Biological Challenge to Evolution, p. 39). A car must have all the parts of the engine for the engine to work smoothly. The human body must have all the parts of the different systems (nervous, muscular, endocrine, respiratory, etc.) working together for the human body to function. When God made the first. man, He built his body with all these systems and parts, full grown. Before each human is born, he/she already has the DNA and RNA to form all the unique parts in each person, and then over the 9 months of pregnancy the parts are formed. Psalm 130:15,16 ¹⁵ My ^[h]frame was not hidden from You,
When I was made in secret, And skillfully wrought in the lowest parts of the earth. ¹⁶ Your eyes saw my substance, being yet unformed And in Your book they all were written, The days fashioned for me, When as yet there were none of them. If atheistic macro-evolution happened (which would include evolution of a species to another species and not just minor changes within a species), then you would never have a few parts of the body evolve on a partially formed but inoperative body that would live long enough to allow more parts to be added when it takes all the parts at one time for the human body to live! If that makes sense! It’s either all the parts added at one time or not at all! God did put them all in the first man! So the design of the human body would another example of intelligent design.

Ok, this article is already long! I struggle to believe in a spirit God who fills the universe, but I see no plausible alternative. Maybe that is why some atheists are suggesting that aliens might have created everything (Richard Dawkins suggested this possibility although he said that the idea of a God creating everything was impossible). Wow! So where did the aliens come from? Who created them or were they eternal? An interesting cult is the Raelians. Raëlians believe that life on earth—as well as many religions of the world—was the work of extraterrestrial influence. They believe these were scientists and that ancient people saw them as “gods” and gave the name “Elohim”. Supposedly the aliens landed and invited the cult founder Claude Rael into their spaceship. They explained to him that it was them, the aliens, who cloned Adam and Eve and placed them in the Garden, and that they have directed the history of man all along by sending more clones. The aliens told him they thought man was now able to communicate with them since we are starting to clone. So they want Rael to raise money and build a building for them to come back in a few years and meet with our scientists. Read Wikipedia for more of their beliefs and practices. Can you believe there are about 40,000 members worldwide? They do believe in intelligent design, but that the aliens are the designers! Reminds you of thre old staying, “if you don’t believe in something, you will believe in anything”.

So I close this article with the saying, “Lord, I believe; help my unbelief” (Mark 9:24). Hebrews 11:6 ⁶ But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him. I do believe “that He is” even though I struggle. I hope and do believe that He will accept my imperfect, struggling, weak faith. I think a loving Father would do that. Jesus talked about the faith of a mustard seed would move mountains. I hope that is true since it seems that all I have is a tiny bit of faith compared to some of the great giants of faith, like Abraham. I truly hope this article resonates with some of you who struggle as I do. Or that it gives you some material to use when you are teaching others. Pray for me that I can speak boldly about my faith in God instead of talking about my struggles to believe in God.

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Moses delivered Israel from 400 years of slavery in Egypt. They spent 40 years wandering in the wilderness of Sinai because of their unbelief and rebellion. After that 40 years, the new generation heads via the east side of the Jordan River through the plains of Moab (look at a map). Moses is not allowed to enter the Promised Land because of his sin of hitting the rock and speaking rashly. God will bury him on Mt Nebo, but before he dies he gives a few “sermons” to Israel. These are found in the last book of the Pentateuch, the book of Deuteronomy. The name of the book means “2nd law”, which comes from Moses repeating the 10 commandments to the new generation, most of whom were not born 40 years earlier when Israel received the 10 commandments at Mt. Sinai.

So what would Moses tell Israel in his sermons right before he died? What warnings would He give them? What laws would he emphasize for them to keep? Let’s study the book looking at the answers to these questions. Certainly a main theme is the shema: “Listen, O Israel, the Lord our God is one” (6:4). Monotheism (the belief in one God) is unique to 3 world religions: Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. This belief would be key to Israel coming out of Egypt, having observed the many gods (polytheism) of the Egyptians, even worshiping those gods at times. Stephen says they worshiped the gods Moloch and Rompha in the wilderness (Acts 7:42,43). God continually sent prophets over the next 1500 years rebuking Israel from violating the 1st 2 commandments: No other gods and not worshiping images. They repeatedly worshiped the gods of the Canaanites (Baal, Ashtoreth, Molech, etc.). It was only after God sent Judah into captivity for 70 years in Babylon that the sin of idolatry was eliminated.

Moses commands them to teach their children the laws of God (6:5-9). Parents are to teach their children when they get up, when they lie down, in their homes, as they walk around, etc. Parents often leave the responsibility of teaching their children to churches, youth groups, Bible teaches, etc. It is the parents’ responsibility to teach the word of God to their children. That means teaching them the Bible stories to increase their faith in God. My mom and wife wore out several Bible stories books while teaching their children. Children need to believe that God defeated the gods of the Egyptians in the plagues. They need to believe that God made the walls of Jericho fall. On and on we could go. In just daily life with your children, how often did you parents mention God, His creation, His working, trusting in God when problems arise? An interesting command is that a rebellious son should be stoned to death (21:18-21).

God has several warnings to the people as a nation. He tells them that God chose them to be His chosen people, but that they should not be puffed up with pride because of that (7:6-11). If they disobey Him, they will be rejected as His chosen people (8:11-20). He reminded them of how God had tested them for 40 years in the wilderness to see if they would trust him for the daily manna (8:1-10). He warned them to not imitate the detestable practices of the Canaanites, such as offering their children to their gods, divination, witchcraft, mediums contacting the dead, etc. (18:9-14). He told them that a very special prophet like Moses would arise in the future whom they better listen to (18:15-22). Peter said that Prophet was Jesus (Acts 3:23). He gave them very special laws on marriage, premarital sex, rape, etc. (Ch 22) that would make them different from the nations around them with all their sexual immorality. He told them they would be given many physical blessings if they would obey God, such as fruitful crops and fruitful wombs, no diseases or sickness, protection and defeat of their enemies, etc. (7:12-16). The blessings of the old covenant made with Israel were primarily physical blessings such as these. The new covenant that replaced the old covenant would be primarily spiritual blessings, the forgiveness of sins and eternal life. He reminds them to celebrate the 3 main feasts: Passover, Pentecost, and Feast of Booths (Ch 16). This was important to each year remember how God had delivered them from Egypt and to bring their first fruits of their crops to show their gratitude. He commanded them to support the priests, Levites, and the poor with their tithes (14:22ff).

One of the greatest lessons Moses taught is found in 10:12-22. It begins, “Now Israel, what does the Lord your God require from you?” Moses gives all these other laws, but how would he sum up the essence of the main thing that God required of Israel? Was it the animal sacrifices? Was it observing the feasts? Was it not eating unclean meats? Now read this section and see what Moses says that God required of Israel. Fear God, walk in His ways, love Him, serve Him, keep His commands, circumcise your heart, show love for orphans, widows, and strangers, cling to Him, and praise Him. These are the main things God requires instead of animal sacrifices, etc. These are the main things God requires of us today as His chosen people, are they not? Moses concludes His sermons with a simple choice for them to make (30:15-20). “I have set before you life and death, the blessing and the curse. So choose life in order that you may live, you and your descendants” (30:19). God has always allowed free will choices of man. How would diehard Calvinists deal with this passage? They believe in
unconditional election”: i.e. God predestines certain ones to be lost or saved not dependent whatsoever on their free will choices. Moses obviously believes that Israel is free to choose life or death, and the consequences that go along with each choice. It’s that simple. We can choose life or death. Just be prepared to accept the consequences, eternal life or eternal damnation. The book ends with Moses dying on Mt. Nebo and God burying him. Joshua will take his place and lead Israel into the promised land.

Why is the 4th book of the Pentateuch (the books Moses wrote, the 1st five books of the Old Testament) called “Numbers”. Simple. The book begins with the numbering of the men over 20 in the 2nd year after Israel came out of Egypt when they came to Mt. Sinai and God made them a special chosen nation and gave them the Law of Moses. The book ends with the numbering of the men over 20 in the 40th year after Israel spent almost 40 years wandering in the wilderness because they refused to enter the Promised Land due to their unbelief. Most all of the events in the book took place in that 2nd and 40th year. Aside from those two years, the 38 years spent in the wilderness are passed over in silence.

Maybe we should start with the New Testament when we study Numbers. The main lessons from Numbers are “don’t do as Israel did as recorded in that book”. Paul in 1 Corinthians 10:1-13 makes several points taken from the book. 10:1-3 Israel ate the manna and drank water from the rock, which he says was Christ Himself, during the full 40 years. He mentions several of their sins.

1) 10:6 When they complained about lack of meat and God gave them quail and struck them with a plague because of their greed (Num 11). It was at that same time that God took some of the burden off Moses by putting the Spirit on 70 of the elders to help him lead.

2) 10:10 When Korah led a rebellion against Moses and Aaron and God opened up the earth and swallowed a large number (Num 16). It was right after that when only Aaron’s rod budded to show that God had chosen Aaron to be the high priest (Num 17).

3) 10:9 When they complained and God sent serpents to kill many of them, and then put the bronze serpent on a staff for their healing (Num 21), which Jesus said was a type of Him being lifted up on the cross for our healing (John 3:14).

4) 10:5 When they sent the 12 spies out and 10 of them said they could not conquer the giants of the Promised Land and then they refused to enter Canaan (Num 14). BTW, if Moses had not interceded for them, God was going to wipe them out completely and start over with Moses. Instead, He sentenced them to wander 40 years in the wilderness with all those over 20 dying in the wilderness.

5) 10:8 When they acted immorally with the daughters of Moab and worshiped their gods, and God sent a plague killing 24,000 until Phinehas pierced two of them while in the very sex act (Num 25). That event was planned by Balaam to have a way that Balak the king of Moab could cause Israel to be cursed by God (Num 31:16). Balak had hired Balaam to curse Israel as they passed by on the way to Canaan, but 4 times when he tried to curse them, the Spirit took over and blessed Israel instead (even predicting the coming of the Messiah in the distant future (Num 24:17).

Paul concludes this summary of their sins by saying, “These things happened to them as examples and they were written for our instruction…therefore let him who things he stands take heed lest he fall” (1 Cor 10:11,12). So, what sins do we commit that will cause us to not enter the Promised Land? Probably very few of us just openly rebel against the Lord. But many of us probably complain often about our circumstances, even though we have been very blessed materially compared with most of the world. We probably even complain about our leaders, like Israel did! Paul does tell us to rebuke elders when they deserve it (1 Timothy 5), but often we just like to criticize our leaders. Hopefully our leaders will be like Joshua and Caleb instead of the other spies sent out. How many great things could have been accomplished by faith that were scuttled because of negative faithless leaders who influenced the flock. Many leaders lead out of fear instead of faith.

In addition to complaining, the sin of idolatry is one that many of us commit, just like Israel. They idols they worshiped were the idols of Baal, Molech, Asherah, and the other gods of the Canaanites. Our idols are usually not physical images of some kind made out of wood or stone. They are the gods of wine, or money, or careers, or sorts, or hobby, or compulsive buying, or drugs, or houses, or popularity, or houses, or cars, etc. Everything God created is good and can be used for good, but it can also be used for evil, and it can become our god. Paul even talked about some false teachers whose “god was their belly” (Romans 16). Just about anything can become an addiction. So how do we know when something has become our idol? John says that it is when we love the things of the world. 1 John 2 ¹⁵ Do not love the world nor the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. ¹⁶ For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life, is not from the Father, but is from the world. ¹⁷ The world is passing away, and also its lusts; but the one who does the will of God lives forever. So how do I know if I have “loved the world”? There is no line we can draw for others. God draws that line where we start to love things instead of or more than Him. But I imagine it would be like marriage. You kinda know when your. mate is spending more time, money, energy, passion, affection, and love for someone or something other than you. I think in our hearts we all know when we have crossed that line with God. We are the bride of Christ, and should be totally in love and faithful to Him and Him only. I think in our hearts we know when we are flirting with other lovers, or even when we have committed spiritual adultery with them. Israel was accused of whoredom with their foreign gods by Ezekiel, Jeremiah, Hosea and other prophets. We have often been raised to think of faithfulness to God measured by how many times we go to “church”, and whether we smoke, drink, or curse! But we can go to church, not do bad things, and still have a heart that is in love with our idols.

Then we turn to Hebrews 3 where the writer talks about God sentencing Israel to wander 40 years, die in the wilderness, and not be allowed to enter the Promised Land because of unbelief (Num 14 again). The writer warns those he is writing to not to have an unbelieving heart and miss the rest (Hebrews 4) that God promised them due to unbelief and disobedience. He points out that Christ was superior to Moses as deliverer and that they should not harden their hearts as Israel did. I see a parallel between the 40 years of testing in the wilderness by Israel and the 40 years of the testing of the early church from the beginning of the church in Acts 2 in 30 AD and the destruction of the temple in 70 AD. Both 40 year periods were filled with miracles as both groups were tested to see if they would be faithful and enter their rest. Many in both groups did not make it to their rest. That rest in Hebrews 4 for Christians is the final spiritual rest in Jesus, as was promised to Daniel (Daniel 12:13; when he would be raised at the end of the Jewish Age in 70 AD).

There are a few other interesting things in Numbers. The arrangement of the camps around the tabernacle in the center (Ch 2). The Nazarite vow, abstaining from wine and cutting the hair (6:1-8). The benediction to Aaron the high priest (6:22-27). The leading of Israel with cloud by day and pillar of fire by night (9:15-23). The criticism of Moses by Aaron and Miriam (due to her jealousy of Moses’ authority) which led to God making her a leper and Moses praying for her leprosy to be removed (Ch 12). Two and one-half tribes are allowed to settle on the east side of the Jordan River (Ch 32). 48 cities spread throughout the land are given to the Levites to live in as they teach the Law (35:1-8).

A sad story happens when, in the 40th year when the new generation complains about lack of water (20:10-13). God told Moses to speak to the rock and give them water, but Moses spoke rashly (Ps 106:32,33), hit the rock instead, and was not allowed to enter the Promised Land because of this sin. God would bury him. But don’t worry for Moses’ eternal fate. Jude says that Satan wanted the body of Moses but Michael rebuked him. Moses might not have entered the Promised Land, but he would have eternal life. He would also join Jesus, along with Elijah, on the Mt. of Transfiguration in Matthew 17. Then another sad story happens when Aaron’s high priesthood is taken from him (due to his sin of making the golden calf) and given to his son while Aaron dies on Mt. Hor (20:22-29).

Israel had come out of Egyypt after 400 years of slavery, as God had foretold to Abraham in Genesis 15. Moses had delivered them from Pharoah with the 10 plagues and the crossing of the Red Sea. God had officially made them into his chosen nation when He gave them the 10 Commandments and the Book of the Law at Mt. Sinai in Exodus 19-23. They will camp at Mt. Sinai for about a year as they build the tabernacle. While at Sinai, God will give them more instructions they must follow to be his holy nation. These instructions are found in the book of Leviticus.

The theme of Leviticus is: “Be ye holy as I am holy” (11:45; 20:26). The word “holy” means “set apart”. If Israel is to be set apart from the other nations, they must observe His special laws for moral and ritual purity.

God initiated a system of animal sacrifices (Ch 1-7) that would horrify animal lovers of today. The blood of animals would “atone” for or “cover” the sins of the people. A poor, innocent animal would die for their sins. These animal sacrifices would not permanently take away sins (Hebrews 10:1-4), but they would “cleanse the sins of the flesh” (Hebrews 9:13), keeping them in good standing as a member of the nation. Much like our keeping of the laws of the land today. This system of animal sacrifices required a system of priests appointed by God to offer those sacrifices (Hebrews 5:1-4). A high priest would be chosen, with Aaron as the 1st, and his sons as priests. Only the high priest could enter the Holy of Holies in the tabernacle where the ark of the covenant with the mercy seat of God was located. The high priest would have special duties, especially on the Day of Atonement, the holiest day of the year for Israel (Ch 16). On that day, the high priest would make two trips into the Holy of Holies, the first to offer animal blood for his sins, and then the second to offer blood for the sins of the people. He would then transfer the sins of the people onto a “scapegoat” that he would drive off into the wilderness, symbolically carrying the sins of the people away for yet another year.

The book of Hebrews tells the typology and symbolism of this Day of Atonement. Jesus is the High Priest in the new covenant. He entered the Holy of Holies of the new covenant, which is in heaven where God sits, to offer His own blood which would provide for the atonement of sins past, present, and future. He did not need to make two trips, since he had no sins of his own. He did not need to repeat this year after year: His offering of His blood would cover sins “once for all time” (Heb 9:12). He would be a high priest after the order of Melchizadek, not Levi (Heb 7 and Psalm 110). The Hebrew writer is showing the Jews of his day that they have a superior high priest in Jesus because, unlike their priests of the old covenant, He is not a sinner himself and He will not die and need to be replaced. That change of the priesthood required a change of the Law. That old Law of Moses was “ready to disappear” when the book of Hebrews was written in the early 60’s AD. In 70 AD, God would send the Romans to destroy the temple. They also destroyed the genealogy tables, thus preventing any priests from qualifying to be priests from then on (Ezra 2:61-63). No temple has been rebuild and no animal sacrifices offered since 70 AD. Hebrews 9:8 says that the way into the new holy place had not yet been fully disclosed while the old tabernacle (by the time of writing, the temple not tabernacle) was still standing. God, in one final act of sending the Romans to destroy the temple, would show in 70 AD that the old covenant system was done away with and that the new covenant was the permanent way of salvation, not just for the Jews, but for all Jews and Gentiles who would trust in Jesus’ offering of Himself for their sins. It is amazing to me how many Christians and theologians still look for that temple to be rebuilt in our future even though God made it clear that He was through with that system.

Leviticus 23 gives the 7 feasts that the Jews were to observe every year. These feasts commemorated their history, reminding them of God’s redemption of Israel from slavery. In the spring in the first month of their calendar there was the Passover feast (and Unleavened Bread) reminding them of God passing over their houses, sparing the death of their firstborn in Egypt. 50 days later was the feast of Pentecost where they offered their first fruits. In the 7th month was their Feast of Trumpets, or New Year’s Day for them. In the middle of that 7th month was the Day of Atonement and the Feast of Tabernacles where they would live in booths for 7 days, reminding them of their time in the wilderness. These feasts were, for the most part, joyous times even though they also involved the offering of animal sacrifices and the first fruits of their harvests.

God gave them many laws for remaining holy or set apart from the other nations. Some of those laws seem to be given for health purposes and to avoid the spread of disease. There were laws for eating only clean meats (Ch 11). Jesus would later say that food eaten does not defile a man, but it is what comes out of the heart of a man that defiles him (Matthew 15). The new covenant allows eating of all meats (2 Timothy 4:1-4) even though some “Christian” groups today still don’t allow the eating of unclean meats. There were laws for the diagnosis and treatment of skin diseases and leprosy (Ch 13,14). Leprosy was a big problem back then, and could be spread. There were laws for moral purity and social justice, such as caring for the poor and the handicapped, sexual integrity, justice in the court system, etc. (Ch 19). 19:18 gives the command that Jesus quotes, “Love your neighbor as yourself”, the 2nd of the greatest commandments of the Law. They were especially warned not to offer their children to the god Molech of the Moabites. Amazingly, King Manasseh of Judah actually violated that command. Lands were to be left fallow (unplanted) every 7th year (the Sabbatical year). All debts were to be cancelled and all lands returned to their original owners every 50th year in the Year of Jubilee. In this way, Jews could “rent out themselves and their land” in hard times, and yet get to start over without losing their land. The rich would not get richer while the poor got poorer. The law for kinsman redeemer (25:25-34) would even allow a closest relative to redeem or buy back property for a relative, as Boaz did for Naomi and Ruth. You might think of the laws of the Jews as just animal sacrifices for sins, but it was a complete law system for caring for one another and social justice also.

Someone once said: the book of Exodus was getting Israel out of Egypt and the book of Leviticus was getting Egypt out of Israel. Peter tells Christians (1 Peter 1:16-17) that they are to be “holy as God is holy” just as God commanded Israel in Leviticus. God wants Christians to be set apart from unbelievers. He wants us to remain pure, to love others, and to practice social justice. He removed a lot of the rituals and replaced them with common sense principles. The best part is that we don’t have to keep the laws of the new covenant perfectly to be saved. The blood of Jesus cleanses us continually if we walk in the light (1 John 1:7). We are saved by the grace of God through faith in Jesus’ offering.

I found this interesting. I respect the work of one particular debater who goes all over the U.S. debating atheists on college campuses. But I noticed that in his debates with atheists, he doesn’t get into the issue of the age of the earth. That is, is the earth 6 billion years old or is it 6,000 years old. Many Christians debate and argue over that issue. They might even call each other false teachers. I am a “young earth” proponent (i.e. the earth is 6,000 years old), so I will throw in my arguments here.

First, the genealogies in Genesis 5, Genesis 11, and Matthew 1 are very specific and list about 6,000 years of human history from Adam to today. Genesis 5 and 11 cover the genealogies from Adam to Abraham and about 2,000 years. The years listed are very specific: Adam lived 130 years and became the father of Seth; Seth lived 105 years and became the father of Enosh, etc. Each person listed lived a lot longer (Adam lived 830 years total, etc.), but the genealogies can be added up based on how old they were when they had the next person in line. These specific years (130 or 105) don’t sound like some figurative numbers as used in the book of Revelation (the 144,000, etc.). Then in Matthew 1 we have the genealogies from Abraham to Jesus as being 42 generations all together. If a generation is about 40 or 50 years, that’s another 2,000 years from Abraham to Jesus. Of course, we are now living 2,000 years after Jesus. Thus the Bible genealogies specifically claim the time from Adam to today to be about 6,000 years. It is very difficult to deny this. If you don’t accept this, you almost just have to say that you don’t believe the Genesis and Matthew genealogies. You almost end up having to believe that the record in Genesis is some kind of a myth with figurative numbers, which I refuse to do. Once I accept the Bible claim of this 6,000 year old earth, I might have to try to answer the claims of science that say the earth is 6 billion years old (or some some similar figure).

For example, science uses radiometric dating to get their dating of the age of the earth based on the half-life of radioactive elements. The half-life of such elements is definitely true science, with the mother element decaying into the daughter element after a half-life, which could be very long periods of time. The half-like of Uranium 238 isotope is 4.5 billion years. A sample of pure Uranium 238 mother element will decay into its daughter element, losing half of its original mass over one half life. So, the idea is that we can measure the relative amounts of mother and daughter elements in a sample of Uranium 238 and determine how old the sample is. I am not a scientist, so I do hope my little summary of radioactive dating is accurate. So how do I reconcile my young earth views with radioactive dating methods that say that the earth is very old? My probably overly simplistic solution to this dilemma is this. If you came into my room and saw a sand hour glass on my desk and half of the sand was in the bottom and half on top. I might ask you how long it had been flowing down from top to bottom? You would probably say, “30 minutes”. But then I tell you that I had just started the hour glass flowing right before you came in, so it had only been flowing about 1 minute, not 30. What you did not know is that when I started it flowing that it was already almost 50% of the sand in the bottom and almost 50% in the top. My point? Why would we assume that when God created Uranium 238 in the beginning that He created it 100% mother element with no daughter element present? He could have made it with a mixture of mother-daughter element from the very beginning. Since we don’t know how it was created, we can’t assume that there was no daughter element in the beginning. So radioactive dating methods are based on certain assumptions that can’t be proved. Since those assumptions contradict the Bible claim that the earth is about 6,000 years old, then I choose to accept the Bible claims instead of the scientific assumptions that contradict the Bible claim to a young earth. Also, if God created the original Uranium 238 with a mixture of mother-daughter element, then radioactive dating doesn’t really contradict the Bible claim since we don’t know the original mixture. So I am not denying some scientific law, but instead I am disagreeing with some scientific false assumptions.

That brings us to “apparent age”. It might seem hard to believe that God would make the first radioactive elements with both mother and daughter elements present. But not if you read about the creation as Genesis 1-3 presents it. God could have made all life and creation over billions of years process, but Genesis claims that He created everything “full grown”. Trees, animals, and man were created full grown. Now, if you looked at Adam, one minute after he was created, you might think he is about 30 years old, a full grown man, but you would be mistaken. He would be one minute. We call that “apparent age”: i.e. he appears older than he really is. That would apply to all creation. Radioactive elements could appear older than they might look based on false assumptions about their half-lives. After all, God put all kind of jewels in the ground in the Garden for man to enjoy. Those jewels did not have to be formed by hundreds of thousands of years of organic matter under great pressure. So, you either accept that God created things full grown as the Bible claimed, or you reject the Genesis account. If we can’t believe the Genesis account to be reliable historical facts, then why would we accept anything else that Moses wrote (the Pentateuch). Why would we accept Jesus who said in Matthew 19 that God created man and woman in the Garden and joined them in marriage just like Genesis claims?

Secondly, I always look at the fourth day of creation when discussing the age of the earth. Genesis 1:14-19 says that on day four He created the sun and moon to govern or rule the day and night, for signs for seasons and days and years. Moses wrote this about 3,000 years after the creation during his life in Egypt. They knew how the sun governed a 24 hour day, and they knew what a year was. They would have clearly understood that Moses was saying that day 4 was a 24 hour day. If so, then days 4-7 were 24 hour days, and could assume that days 1-3 were also because Moses called them days with mornings and evenings. If so, all this leaves no room for the evolution of man and animals over millions of years. On day 6, God creates man full grown in a 24 hour period. We either accept that as true historical narrative or simply reject the Genesis account all together. I choose to believe the Biblical account! But what a bout all the proof for evolution over millions of years that science has claimed? Well, there is no proof. At least no proof of “macro-evolution”, i.e. the evolution of one species to another totally different species. There are no irrefutable missing links between species as there would be if evolution occurred. There might be instances of “micro-evolution”, i.e. minor changes within a species, but not macro-evolution. So, again, we are not rejecting scientific laws, but instead are rejecting the theory of evolution. BTW, many scientists have reject Darwin’s theory of evolution simply on the basis that it has no proof.

Oh, wait a minute. I started out this article saying the age of the earth doesn’t matter, that we should debate atheists without confusing the debate with our internal disagreement among believers in God over he age of earth. But now, after listening to my own arguments for a young age, I thing the age of the earth is a very critical issue. If atheists see that we don’t even believe our own Bible account of creation and the genealogies, then how can they expect us to argument that the Bible is the inspired word of God to be trusted in all matters of life and salvation??????????? BTW, pull up articles defending the belief in a young 6,000 year old earth. There is plenty of scientific evidence for a young earth. So don’t be afraid to stand up and express your belief in a young earth as the Bible claims. Most agnostics believe the earth is billions of years old and that macro- evolution occurred over millions of years, but can’t give a single illustration to prove their beliefs. They are simply accepting what scientists and teachers have told them. I hope this article stimulates your interest in this issue and will cause you to dig deeper into this study on the age of the earth. I do think that it is important!

^{Let’s start with Galatian 3:6-14 6 [j]}Even so Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness. ⁷ Therefore, ^[k]be sure that it is those who are of faith who are sons of Abraham. ⁸ The Scripture, foreseeing that God ^[l]would justify the ^[m]Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham, saying, “All the nations will be blessed in you.” ⁹ So then those who are of faith are blessed with ^[n]Abraham, the believer.

¹⁰ For as many as are of the works of ^[o]the Law are under a curse; for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who does not abide by all things written in the book of the law, to perform them.” ¹¹ Now that no one is justified ^[p]by ^[q]the Law before God is evident; for, “^[r]The righteous man shall live by faith.” ^12 [s]However, the Law is not ^[t]of faith; on the contrary, “He who practices them shall live ^[u]by them.” ¹³ Christ redeemed us from the curse of the Law, having become a curse for us—for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who hangs on a ^[v]tree”— ¹⁴ in order that in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham might ^[w]come to the Gentiles, so that we would receive the promise of the Spirit through faith.

I don’t think we talk enough about Christians being the sons of Abraham, the father of believers. The promise that all nations (that brings us Gentiles in) would be justified by faith, just as Abraham was justified by faith. Paul goes on in Gal 3:16 to say that the seed promise (Gen 22:16 in your seed shall all nations be blessed) was fulfilled in one seed, or descendant, i.e. Jesus Christ. ¹⁶ Now the promises were spoken to Abraham and to his seed. He does not say, “And to seeds,” as referring to many, but rather to one, “And to your seed,” that is, Christ. God had great plans for his chosen nation, Israel (the Jews), but his final plan was to bless both Jew and Gentile through one of Abraham’s special descendants, Jesus Christ. The Old Covenant had may physical blessings for Israel if they would obey Him (which usually they did not obey Him), but the New Covenant is about spiritual blessings, the forgiveness of sins primarily. Those spiritual blesssings are available to Jew or Gentile through faith in Jesus, not through the keeping of the Law of Moses. When a Gentile is saved by faith in Jesus, he/she becomes a “son of Abraham”, a spiritual child of Abraham. He/she has imitated the faith of Abraham. In Genesis 15:6 God promised him that he would have many descendants, as the stars or sand on the shores, and Abraham believed. It was then that God reckoned it to him for righteousness, declaring him to be righteous in God’s eyes even though he was unrighteous. That is called reckoned righteousness (see my blog article). Paul, in Romans 4:1-6 says that was when God declared him righteous: 4 What then shall we say that Abraham, ^[a]our forefather according to the flesh, has found? ² For if Abraham was justified ^[b]by works, he has something to boast about, but not ^[c]before God. ³ For what does the Scripture say? “Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness.” ⁴ Now to the one who works, his wage is not credited as a favor, but as what is due. ⁵ But to the one who does not work, but believes in Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is credited as righteousness,

Abraham would go on to prove his saving faith by his works. ²¹ Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered up Isaac his son on the altar? ²² You see that faith was working with his works, and ^[s]as a result of the works, faith was ^[t]perfected; ²³ and the Scripture was fulfilled which says, “And Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness,” and he was called the friend of God. ²⁴ You see that a man is justified by works and not by faith alone. (James 2:21-24). It seems almost contradictory for James to use the same verse as Paul did (i.e. Genesis 15:6) to say he was justified by works, not faith alone. This seeming contradiction is what caused Martin Luther to wan to reject the book of James. James does not contradict Paul. Paul is saying that the basis of Abraham’s salvation was his faith, not his works. We are saved 100% by grace through faith, not works. ⁶ But if it is by grace, it is no longer ^[d]on the basis of works, otherwise grace is no longer grace (Romans 11:6). In Philippians 3:9, Paul defines this salvation on the “basis of faith”, not our own righteousness: ⁹ and may be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own derived from the Law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith,

James, the Lord’s brother and author of the epistle of James, did struggle with the issue of Gentiles keeping the Law of Moses. In Galatians 2, some men from James went to Antioch and caused quite a problem. They persuaded the Jewish Christians to quit eating (basically a very serious withdrawal of fellowship) with the Gentile Christians. Even Peter and Barnabas were caught up in this, for which Paul rebuked Peter to his face. ¹¹ But when Cephas came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face, because he ^[i]stood condemned. ¹² For prior to the coming of certain men from ^[j]James, he used to eat with the Gentiles; but when they came, he began to withdraw and hold himself aloof, fearing ^[k]the party of the circumcision. ¹³ The rest of the Jews joined him in hypocrisy, with the result that even Barnabas was carried away by their hypocrisy (Galatians 2:11-13). Paul rebuked Peter to his face. He told him that when he made such eating issues as a test of fellowship with the Gentile Christians that he was no longer trusting in the grace of God that should cover such issues. BTW that has happened repeatedly in Christian fellowships over the centuries.

Did James not understand that all men are saved on the “basis” of grace through faith, not works? Well, in Acts 15 there was a great council to decide if Gentiles converts had to keep the Law. James actually spoke up and said they didn’t. ¹³ After they had stopped speaking, ^[e]James answered, saying, “Brethren, listen to me. ¹⁴ Simeon has related how God first concerned Himself about taking from among the Gentiles a people for His name. ¹⁵ With this the words of the Prophets agree, just as it is written,¹⁶ ‘After these things I will return, And I will rebuild the ^[f]tabernacle of David which has fallen, And I will rebuild its ruins, And I will restore it,¹⁷ So that the rest of ^[g]mankind may seek the Lord, And all the Gentiles ^[h]who are called by My name,’. He went on in Acts 15 to say the Gentile converts did not have to be circumcised although he said they should do a few things, mainly to keep from offending Jewish brethren, such as eating blood. In our time in Trinidad, West Indies, we observed eating of blood sausage and blood pudding, but it wasn’t an issue. If there were Jewish Christians in Trinidad, it might have been an issue. So, it seems strange that in Acts 15 James is outspoken in saying that the Law should not be made a test of fellowship with Gentile Christians and yet in Galatians 2 men from him made a command from the Law (not to eat unclean meats) a test of fellowship. Apparently James struggled with fully applying the principles decided by the council in Acts 15, even though he endorsed them.

Again, this has happened many times in Christian fellowships through the centuries. Many good preachers have made minor issues to be tests of fellowship even though they would agree that we are saved by grace through faith, not works. Maybe they do that with ulterior motives to obtain power and control over others. Maybe they just believe in obedience to the Lord’s commands so much that they get carried away. Either way, they should be rebuked to the face for their legalism and for causing splits in the body of Christ.

Back to James 2, we can see how James would have emphasized works based on knowing his tendencies. But what he says in James 2 is not a contradiction with Paul. James is simply saying that saving faith is perfected by works and that “faith alone” will not save. He is stating a practical truth. It would be easy to take Paul’s statements and say, “just believe and you will be saved and it can’t depend on you doing works after that”, which is basically what Calvinism says. In Romans, Paul is dealing with Judaizers who are making the Law a test of fellowship with Gentile Christians, so he hammers on salvation by grace through faith not works. Bu James is dealing with Christians in congregations who apparently were not as obedient as they should be in many issues, and so he stresses that saving faith is perfected by works, and salvation is by works, not “faith alone”. So both statements by Paul and James are true. The context clarifies the meaning and intent of each statement.

We seem to always end up with extremes in Christian theology, don’t we? In Calvinism, we see the extreme of grace only. Calvin said it would be good for one of the saved elect to quit being a drunk, for example, but not really necessary for him to quit to be saved. He said that salvation does not depend on man’s works at all: it must be all God’s grace and God’s grace is magnified when it saves a man who continues to sin. That’s taking Paul’s teachings to the extreme and contradicts many Scriptures. Then there is the other extreme: the James’ extreme, making minor issues a test of salvation and fellowship. Issues like instrumental music, which day to worship on, frequency of taking the Lord’s Supper, etc. When you think that grace won’t cover disagreements over issues like that, you apparently have gone to trusting in your own understanding and obedience on such doctrines more than trusting the grace of God. Keep whatever law it is according to your conscience, but don’t impose that as a test of fellowship on other believers (as in Galatians 2 with James).

Let’s get back to Galatians 3! ¹⁵ Brethren, I speak ^[x]in terms of human relations: even though it is only a man’s ^[y]covenant, yet when it has been ratified, no one sets it aside or adds ^[z]conditions to it. ¹⁶ Now the promises were spoken to Abraham and to his seed. He does not say, “And to seeds,” as referring to many, but rather to one, “And to your seed,” that is, Christ. ¹⁷ What I am saying is this: the Law, which came four hundred and thirty years later, does not invalidate a covenant previously ratified by God, so as to nullify the promise. ¹⁸ For if the inheritance is ^[aa]based on law, it is no longer ^[ab]based on a promise; but God has granted it to Abraham by means of a promise. ¹⁹ Why the Law then? It was added ^[ac]because of transgressions, having been ordained through angels by the ^[ad]agency of a mediator, until the seed would come to whom the promise had been made. ²⁰ Now a mediator is not ^[ae]for one party only; whereas God is only one. ²¹ Is the Law then contrary to the promises of God? May it never be! For if a law had been given which was able to impart life, then righteousness ^[af]would indeed have been ^[ag]based on law. ²² But the Scripture has shut up ^[ah]everyone under sin, so that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe.

Having stressed that the promise of salvation to Jew and Gentile goes back to “the gospel preached to Abraham”, his next discussion is quite logical. So why was the Law given then? If it is really all about faith, then why even add the Law 430 years later? He goes even further. The Law added later cannot change the basis of salvation through faith. The Law can’t change that basis to salvation by works. Again, pay attention to the word “basis”. He always required obedience, but the basis of salvation has always been God’s grace, not man’s works or righteousness. Otherwise, Paul says Christ died in vain: ²¹ I do not nullify the grace of God, for if righteousness comes through ^[u]the Law, then Christ died needlessly.” (Galatians 2:21). The Law can’t “set aside or add conditions” to the promise of salvation on the basis of faith as promised to Abraham. For example, if you take out a 30 year mortgage with a bank at a fixed rate of interest. Years later, you can’t just change that rate of interest or the conditions of the loan without the consent of the bank. God is the one who established the basis of salvation to be by grace, not Law or works. He would have it no other way, or else salvation would be impossible since man cannot keep the Law perfectly. Also, if man could saved himself by keeping Law (as Pelagius claimed), then God is not glorified and Christ died in vain. So God would never give a Law 430 years later that would change the basis of salvation as promised to Abraham.

So, why then was the Law added? This may be my oversimplification, but it was added to convince the Jews that they needed grace. Or at least, that was God’s intent. And not just a few laws. God added so many laws that should cause a Jew to see how sinful he was. Hopefully, a Jew would end up saying, “no one can keep all these laws!”. Then, when Jesus brought grace, he would be so grateful and ready to receive that grace. ¹⁷ For the Law was given through Moses; grace and truth ^[p]were realized through Jesus Christ (John 1:17). Unfortunately, the Jews used the Law as a means of establishing their own righteousness, and felt so self-righteous that they did not see the need for grace when Jesus came. Paul comments on this in Romans 9 and 10 in depth. ³⁰ What shall we say then? That Gentiles, who did not pursue righteousness, attained righteousness, even the righteousness which is ^[t]by faith; ³¹ but Israel, pursuing a law of righteousness, did not arrive at that law. ³² Why? Because they did not pursue it^[u]by faith, but as though it were^[v]by works (Romans 9:30-32). ³ For not knowing about God’s righteousness and seeking to establish their own, they did not subject themselves to the righteousness of God. ⁴ For Christ is the ^[a]end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes (Romans 10:3,4).

It is must be frustrating to God to see how churches and preachers have added conditions to the new covenant of grace. They may mean well, but they end up making the new covenant of works not faith. There are some basic commands under the new covenant which are essential, such as belief that Jesus is the Son of God, the only propitiation and atonement for our sins. Also, a sincere effort to not practice sin (sin as defined by God), and the command to love (1 John gives these 3 conditions of fellowship with God and with other believers). But even when we obey these 3 conditions of salavation, we are still saved on the basis of grace, not works. In Galatians 4, Paul speaks of the necessity of “faith working through love”. He is not making salvation by works in saying that. He is talking more like James in James 2. If your faith doesn’t cause you to love as a general tenor of your life, then it is not really sincere saving faith. In Galatians 4, he goes on to say that a true believer will not “practice sin”: Galatians 5:24 that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. He is not saying making salvation by works or by our own righteousness in saying that. Like James, he is saying that if your faith doesn’t cause you to try to quit sinning then it is not really sincere saving faith.

Most Christian groups would agree with these “conditions” of being saved by grace through faith, but hen they add all kind of commands as conditions of salvation or fellowship in their group. For the Seventh Day Adventists, it is the observance of the Sabbath, although that was a command given to the Jews and not to Gentiles (Exodus 31:13-17: ¹³ “But as for you, speak to the sons of Israel, saying, ‘You shall surely observe My sabbaths; for this is a sign between Me and you throughout your generations. They argue that is was a command given to Adam, Abraham, and to Gentiles in general, but I disagree with that. I believe that under the new covenant, all days of the week and year are holy to God. But if an Adventist feels that he/she should keep the sabbath, then he/she should keep it. But don’t make that a test of fellowship with those who believe that it was a command for the Jews and not for Gentile converts. Often churches come up with creeds and anyone joining that church must comply with their creed. Often those creeds add conditions based on human interpretation of minor doctrines.

In the church I was brought up in, the Church of Christ, we did this. We might have meant well, seeking to obey God’s laws fully, but we ended up making minor doctrines and issues as tests of fellowship with all the other other Christian groups. I remember as a youth the preacher using Galatians 1:6-9 to condemn all the other Christian groups: ⁶ I am amazed that you are so quickly deserting Him who called you ^[c]by the grace of Christ, for a different gospel; ⁷ which is really not another; only there are some who are disturbing you and want to distort the gospel of Christ. ⁸ But even if we, or an angel from heaven, should preach to you a gospel ^[d]contrary to what we have preached to you, he is to be ^[e]accursed! ⁹ As we have said before, so I say again now, if any man is preaching to you a gospel ^[f]contrary to what you received, he is to be ^[g]accursed! The preacher said that the other groups were preaching an accursed gospel because they allowed instrumental music in worship, didn’t keep the Lord’s Supper every Sunday, didn’t have the right name on their sign, didn’t have the Biblical form of church government, etc. What the preacher didn’t realize is that he was the one violating Galatians 1:6-9. He was the one preaching an accursed gospel by making these issues a test of fellowship with other Christian groups. Paul makes it clear that the accursed gospel he spoke of in Galatians 1 was that of making circumcision a test of fellowship with Gentile converts. It wasn’t that if a Gentile convert chose to keep circumcision or not. Galatians 5:6 ⁶ For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision means anything, The accursed gospel was making circumcision a test of fellowship with other believers. It was my church, not the other Christian groups or denominations, that was preaching the accursed gospel by making minor issues as a test of fellowship. And yet we as a group felt so self-righteous as if we were the only ones preaching the pure gospel! Most preachers in my church felt they were defending the truth, but that doesn’t justify the harm they were doing to the gospel.

Paul says in Galatians 3 that if there was ever a perfect law, it was the law of Moses, but the problem was that men could not keep it perfectly, and it did not provide for ultimate forgiveness of sin. ⁷ What shall we say then? Is the Law sin? May it never be! On the contrary, I would not have come to know sin except ^[e]through the Law; for I would not have known about ^[f]coveting if the Law had not said, “You shall not ^[g]covet (Romans 7:7). The sacrifices in Leviticus 1-7 did provide for “atonement” for sins, but that was just to keep them in good standing with the Law as a Jew. For example, if I pay a fine for speeding, that keeps me in good standing with the laws of the land, but it doesn’t forgive me of the sin of speeding! I have to appeal to God’s grace for that forgiveness. Maybe I should have used an example of a sin that we don’t all commit regularly! Men like David understood that even while living under the Law: ¹⁶ For You do not delight in sacrifice, otherwise I would give it; You are not pleased with burnt offering.¹⁷ The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; A broken and a contrite heart, O God, You will not despise (Psalm 51:16,17). David knew that the basis of salvation could not be by animal sacrifices. Church groups and preachers today keep trying to come up with the perfect list of commands and doctrines that must be believed and obeyed, but what they end up doing is making the new covenant a law of works, nto grace. They make the new covenant a law of works, just like the old covenant, the only difference being the specific laws that must be kept but kept perfectly in order to be saved.

Well, that was a lengthy discussion! I started out just wanting to discuss Galatians 3 but it just kept growing! I hope it has been worth your time if you read the whole discussion.

I personally relate to the patriarch Jacob in the Old Testament. Why? First, let me summarize his story. It begins with stories you are no doubt familiar with. Isaac and Rebekah have twin sons, Jacob and Esau. Esau was the firstborn but Jacob was trying to pull him back in the womb so that he could be the firstborn. His name Jacob means “he who takes by the heel or supplants”. The Lord predicted that the older (Esau) would serve the younger (Jacob).

Years later, Jacob took advantage of Esau’s hunger by giving him stew and bread for his birthright. What kind of a brother would take advantage of his brother like that? We. begin to wonder why God would choose to make the seed line of the Messiah through a man like Jacob. Hebrews 12:16 may answer that as the writer calls Esau an “immoral and ungodly” man for selling his birthright. Jacob had a lot of flaws, but apparently Esau had no appreciation for the spiritual, which would make it impossible for God to use him in His plans. We wonder even more when later, as an aging Isaiah’s eyes are too dim to see, he steals Esau’s blessing that Isaiah was trying to give Esau. With Rebekah’s help, he lied 3 times to his father, telling Isaiah that he was Esau, not Jacob, and deceived his father into giving him Esau’s blessing. What kind of a man would lie to his father like that and steal from his brother?

So Rebekah sends Jacob to Haran to her brother Laban, supposedly to get a godly wife (Esau had married Hittite women) but really to get him far away from Esau who was going to kill him as soon as Isaiah died. On Jacob’s first night away from his mom, he sees the vision of that ladder to heaven, wakes up and said, “Surely this is the house of God”. He named it Bethel, which means “house of God”. God assured him that He would be with him on his journey, and Jacob promised to give a tenth to God if He did bless him! I guess Jacob thinks he can make a deal with God and get what he wants! But God patiently works with Jacob. I think I know what it’s like to be away from a sheltered home life for the first time. When we got on the plane to go do mission work in Trinidad, West Indies, I remember feeling all alone, just me and my wife, without all the security my mom and dad had provided me. But it was important for Jacob, and me, to find my own faith with God instead of relying on my parents’ faith and protection.

So Jacob spends the next 20 years with Laban: the first 14 working to get his two wives, Rachel and Leah, and then the next 6 working for Laban to accumulate a lot of animal wealth. Laban was Jacob’s equal at trying to outsmart Jacob and take advantage of him, but God always thwarted Laban’s plans (he changed Jacob’s wages 10 times) and blessed Jacob at Laban’s expense. Upon leaving from Laban, Jacob acknowledged that it was God who had blessed him and thwarted Laban, and not Jacob’s own cunning (Gen 31:6-10). Perhaps Jacob is learning to trust in God instead of his own cunning? Have you thought your cunning was making you successful only to realize that it was really God blessing you? It seems like I have always relied more on my own cunning and intellect to get what I wanted and needed, and have been fairly successful at it, only to realize later it was God who made me successful.

If you want to read an inspiring story, read about George Mueller. He ended up establishing 5 orphan homes in late 19th century Bristol at a time when orphans were sent to the. workhouse and treated terribly. But the thing I admire is his philosophy on raising money for the homes. He would take no salary and always relied on God to provide what they needed on a daily basis. He would simply pray and then wait on God to provide. We in America are so blessed with material things and money that it is hard to really just rely on God for our daily bread. We typically have all kind of government and private funds to provide for our futures.

On the way back from Haran (and Laban), Jacob was told that Esau was coming to meet him with 400 men. I know what I would have thought! That Esau was coming to take vengeance on Jacob for what Jacob had done to him. After all, the last he had heard from Esau was 20 years earlier when he was told that Esau was going to kill him. Jacob is not doubt terrified (Genesis 32:7). It is interesting that God’s angels meet Jacob on the way. Jacob called the place, Mahanaim (God’s camp). I assume that was a message from God that He would protect Jacob when he met Esau. Jacob, as we would expect, started his own tactical plan to keep Esau from killing him. He sent droves of animals as bribes and made escape plans. He did pray for protection, so that’s a good step of faith. He sent the animals and his family across the river, but he stayed alone on the other side (was this a cowardly act to preserve his own life if his bribes failed to appease Esau?). A man wrestled with him all night, but then in the morning touched the socket of Jacob’s thigh, dislocating it. Well the man could have done that in the first minute of the wrestling match, or even worst (if he could do that, he could do anything to Jacob). An interesting observation about Jacob’s character appears here. I would have simply backed off wrestling with this man and hoped that he would go away. Jacob, however, realized this man was God Himself in the form of a man. Jacob then demand that the God-man bless him or he would not let him go! As if he could keep the man from getting away? He named the place Peniel (“face of God”). The man changed Jacob’s name to Israel (he who strives with God). Perhaps this is another growth step in Jacob’s faith. He sees a great need to obtain God’s blessings. Again, I can relate to Jacob. I am ashamed to say that much of my life has been striving with God, relying on my own ability, instead of just complete trust in God. At least Jacob seems to be learning spiritual lessons.

The next day, Esau greets him with a hug and kisses, and they both weep. Esau had no desire for vengeance. He doesn’t even mention what Jacob had done to him. Jacob said, “I see your face as one sees the face of God” (33:10). Esau’s forgiveness gave him peace from his past deeds, just as if God had met him, hugged him, and kissed him. That statement has meant a lot to me. One time I was about to have a nervous breakdown worrying about something. I couldn’t sleep and would wake up in panic attacks. Finally, someone took me to a friend whose advice we trusted. I told our friend my worries, and He looked at me and said, “You don’t have a thing to worry about, and if something bad comes out of this, I will help you”. I slept for the first time that night. Seeing that friend’s face was like seeing the face of God and getting peace of mind. But why couldn’t I have just talked to God 2 months earlier and found that same peace? Probably because my faith in God wasn’t what it should be. I was too busy worrying, planning on what I would do if things went bad, coming up with plans B,C, and D, instead of just trusting in God to provide and protect. I have other things from the past that continue to haunt me, and future possibilities that scare me. I am making plans A,B,and C. I hope I can just trust God and be at peace. Even if we have, like Jacob, made mistakes in the past, God and others hopefully will forgive us and restore relationships with us that have been broken.

So Jacob arrives at Shechem and he builds an altar (33:20) and calls it El-Elohe-Israel (God , the God of Israel). That’s quite a change for Jacob. Abraham built altars everywhere he went, it seems. This is Jacob’s first altar that he ever built to God in worship. But then his daughter Dinah is raped by Shechem, a Hivite. Jacob is apparently afraid to confront the Shechemites for fear it would cause all his enemies in Canaan to unite and attack him (34:30-31), so he does nothing. Instead, Simeon and Levi trick the Shechemites into being circumcised and then come in and kill all of them. Jacob rebukes them for doing that. He later withholds blessings for them for what they did. Jacob might be growing spiritually along the way, but his is still controlled by his fears. I can so relate to that as I get older, being controlled in my thinking and actions by my fears. Can I do what is right without being afraid of how others will react? If I trust in God, I can.

You probably know a lot of the rest of the story. His favorite wife Rachel dies giving birth to Benjamin. His favoritism toward Joseph and Benjamin causes problems in his family and Joseph’s brothers sell him into slavery in Egypt. (Read my blog on “Joseph’s Epiphany” here to summarize how Jacob’s family came to move to Egypt). But let’s fast forward to Jacob’s last days in Egypt. When Jacob met Pharoah, he said, “The days of my sojourning have been few and unpleasant” (47:9). He bemoaned that he had only lived 130 years, which was less than Abraham’s 175 years. But what a sad commentary on your whole life: “few and unpleasant”. His striving with God all his life had robbed him of the joy he could have had. Compare that with Abraham who died “satisfied with life” (25:8). But to Jacob’s credit, when blessing Joseph’s two sons, he said “The God of Abraham and Isaac has been my shepherd all my life to this day, the angel who redeemed me from all evil” (48:15). Apparently in his last days he looked back and acknowledged that it was God shepherding him all along, providing and protecting him. Kinda like the story of the man looking at the footprints in the sand? The two sets of prints became only one set as they went along, and God told the man that was because God started carrying him! Or something like that! Jacob finally maybe finds peace and realizes it has been God carrying him all his life. I hope I can find that in my last days.

His very last days also reveal a growth in Jacob’s faith as he approached his death (47:29-31). He made Joseph swear that he would bury him in the Promised Land and not in Egypt. He then “bowed in worship at he head of the bed”. Hebrews 11:21 “as he was dying, he blessed each of the sons of Joseph, and worshiped, leaning on the top of his staff”. Genesis 49:33 “he drew his feet into the bed and breathed his last”. So in the end he has faith in the promises God made to him, to Abraham and to Isaac. He has faith that God will eventually lead his descendants out of Egypt to the promised land where they can bury him in the cave where his ancestors are buried. So maybe this helps us understand why God chose Jacob to be in the seed line. God knew Jacob’s weaknesses but also knew that, in the end, Jacob would appreciate God’s promises and that God could use him to fulfill those promises. That gives me hope. In spite of my weaknesses and striving with God, God can use me to do some good things for Him. He can use me to save some souls before I die, which is God’s ultimately plan. I hope one day I can look back at my life, even if I didn’t have the joy I should have had, and worship at the top of my bed, anticipating God fulfilling the promise of eternal life that he has for me. I hope this story will bless you as it has me.

I hope I used that word correctly, but thought it sounded like I was intellectual, so I used it. From a dictionary, it means: A sudden realization about the nature or meaning of something. An epiphany can often come about due to some experience that may trigger the sudden realization.

I believe Joseph had just such an experience that triggered a sudden realization about what all had happened to him since he was sold into slavery in Egypt. It is found in Genesis 45:1-15. You probably know the story well. Joseph is Jacob’s favorite son (along with Benjamin, his 2 favorites sons by his favorite wife Rachel who died in childbirth with Benjamin). His jealous brothers sell him into slavery in Egypt to Potiphar. Joseph is a man of integrity (i.e. honest with strong moral principles), however, and is a faithful master over Potiphar’s house. He was probably bitter, but he made the best of his situation. He might have wondered why his father did not come rescue him, but, of course, he did not know that his father thought he was dead. But when Poliphar’s wife tried to seduce him (he was “handsome in form and appearance” Gen 39:6), he fled, refusing to sin against God and his master. Potiphar sent him to prison.

He could have been filled with self pity, but instead became such a model prisoner that he was put in charge of all the prisoners. He is a man of integrity. He interpreted the dreams of Pharoah’s cupbearer and baker, which led to the restoration of the cupbearer, which led (2 years later) to Joseph interpreting Pharoah’s dreams and being made 2nd in command of all Egypt. He had asked the cupbearer to mention him to Pharoah and help get him out of prison because he was innocent (a prisoner who really was innocent!), but 2 years had passed and the cupbearer forgot Joseph until Pharoah had his dreams. At least he remembered him then.

God sent the famine and Jacob sent 10 of his sons (except Benjamin) to Egypt to buy food. Joseph recognizes them but they do not recognize him. This begins a series of things that Joseph did to his brothers. He accused them of being spies on their first trip to Egypt, knowing they were not. To prove they were not spies, he kept Simeon in prison until they would bring Benjamin to Egypt. He also put their money they paid for grain with into the sacks of grain, making them look like thieves.

As the famine continued, Jacob was forced to allow the 9 brothers to take Benjamin on a 2nd trip to Egypt for food. They expected to die, but were instead treated to a meal at Joseph’s house. They were astonished that they were seated in order, from the youngest to the oldest. He released Simeon and allowed them to head back to Egypt with grain, but also planted his diviner’s cup in the sack of Benjamin. He sent his steward to stop them, and found the cup in Benjamin’s sack. He perfectly content to send the 10 back to Jacob, keeping Benjamin in Egypt; probably content to never see the 10 again. He would of course later tell Benjamin who he was and take care of him.

But then Judah tried to explain to Joseph that Jacob would die of grief if Benjamin did not return. Joseph hears for the first time that his father Jacob thought he was dead all this time. Judah offers to stay as a prisoner if Joseph would allow Benjamin to return to Jacob. At this point, Joseph had his epiphany. He broke down crying loudly. He apparently saw remorse in his brothers for selling him into slavery. He revealed himself to his brothers and then he said: ⁷ God sent me before you to preserve for you a remnant in the earth, and to keep you alive by a great ^[f]deliverance. ⁸ Now, therefore, it was not you who sent me here, but God (Genesis 45:7-8). He kissed them all and wept on them. He told them to go bring Jacob’s whole family (about 75 in all) to Egypt where he could take care of them during the last 5 years of the 7 years of famine.

So what was his epiphany? He realized that God had been working in all the past events to get Jacob’s family to Egypt to survive the famine, “to preserve a remnant of God’s people”. Perhaps he knew and remembered God’s promise to Abraham in Genesis 15 that Abraham’s descendants would be slaves in a foreign land for 400 years before they would be freed and allowed to possess the promised land. Perhaps he finally put 2 and 2 together and saw that all the past events were part of God’s plan to get that remnant to Egypt to make a great nation of Abraham as promised in Genesis 12. He also was able to forgive his brothers, whereas he had obviously been bitter with them up to that point. He could even say that it was not them who sent him to Egypt, but God, even though he knew it really was them. He realized God could use the bad deeds of men to accomplish his will. Yes, they should be held accountable, but don’t be bitter about how someone treated you in the past. Try to see the good that God can do using even the bad deeds of men.

The lessons from this story are many. Have you had some bad experience in the past, maybe from being mistreated by someone? You are still bitter towards that person? Or maybe just some tragic events in your past that, like Naomi, have left you full of bitterness, anger, and self pity? But then later, something happened, some experience, that made you realize that God was working out something in your life or the life of others that would eventually be good, not bad? Like Joseph, do you find yourself “playing god” with people who have wronged you, testing them, instead of just forgiving them? How do you handle false accusations made against you? How do you handle punishment that you don’t think you deserve? What about your integrity, your moral conviction, your honesty? Could you have resisted Potiphar’s wife’s advance if you were Joseph? How do you handle it when you help someone out but they forget you when you need help?

Maybe you can look back and see how God was working through tough times in your past. Or maybe you are right in the middle of tough times and can’t see anything good that God might be working out. Can you simply relax and leave the outcome to God? Can you have faith that something good can come of the bad? Has this study of Joseph helped you? Would you pray for your own epiphany to help you? Can you use the story of Joseph to help others who might be struggling to understand how God might be working in tough times in their lives? Where does prayer fit in all this?