I n the book of Ecclesiastes Solomon, the king of Israel, ponders the mystery of life. It’s the only book in the Bible written from the point of view of natural man, written no doubt toward the end of his life.
King Solomon started out well. He asked for wisdom and knowledge and as a reward God gave him wealth as well. He used his wealth and wisdom to build a beautiful temple. He built many other buildings as well as putting together all the things that would give him happiness and fulfillment. He greatly enjoyed using his great wisdom to make everything jut right, and apparently did.
Solomon would look forward to the pleasure he would have sitting on his beautiful throne, enjoying all the things he had spent twenty years working for. It didn’t work out that way. When he was all done he had nothing more to live for. He tried
everything both good and sinful in his attempt to find happiness in life.
Now as we think about this we do see the importance of this particular book so that we fully understand the futility of life apart from God. Solomon himself testified in Ecclesiastes 3:22 and 23: “For what hath man of all his labor, and of the vexation of his heart, wherein he hath labored under the sun? For all his days are sorrows, and his travail grief; yea, his heart findeth not rest in the night. This is also vanity”. But the things, both good and bad happened to Solomon largely because of the gifts and talents that God gave him. Can we really blame Solomon?
There had to be a man like Solomon to make the Bible a fully complete book. Here I think we see two things. God is the Great Stage Manager. When we stand on the Sea of Glass we will see that not only is the Bible a perfect and complete book, but that all of history is perfect and complete in every detail. But we also must recognize.that each is fully responsible for his actions and will answer to God regarding his obedience to the divine commands.
To manage a world of people with free will and make the entire story end exactly as planned requires divine intelligence; as in Psalm 147:5: “His understanding is infinite”. Each must decide whither he will be a willing partner in His plan or simply
used of Him. The choice is yours, but all things are going to end up as He pleases.
THE GREAT STAGE MANAGER
July 7th, 2010SHEBA AND DEDAN
July 1st, 2010I wrote the following after seeing an article in the inter-net by the Prophecy Club. See the article at the bottom.. I suppose when threatened with extinction even the Moslems can face the truth. Apparently the Saudis fear Iran more than they hate Israel.
There are two Shebas and Dedans in the Bible which can be confusing. The first are in Genesis 10:6 and 7, great grandsons of Ham. One of the sons of Ham was Mizr which is the Arabic name for Egypt. In II Chronicles 9 we find a descendant
of Ham and of Sheba. She js the queen of Sheba who came to visit Solomon. In Matthew 12:42 Jesus said that she was from the south. From this we can gather that much of the family went to Africa. We can here dispense with this Sheba and Dedan.
The other two (Sheba and Dedan) were grandsons of Abraham (Genesis 25:I-3).
To get the complete picture we need to begin in Genesis 16 where we see the first mention of Ishmael and the story of his mother Hagar. In verse 12 we see that Ishmael “shall dwell in the presence of all his brethren”. In Genesis 21:14 –21 is the story of Ishmael being sent away. Verse 21 tells us that he went to Paran. It is universally agreed that Ishmael is the father of the Arabs.
Now to establish the location of Paran. If you will look at any map it shows Paran to be in the Sinai desert. For this we have Biblical proof:
Amalek was a grandson of Esau=Genesis 36:10-12. He lived in Paran or Sinai. Amalek fought with Israel in Sinai or Paran=Genesis17:8. Again see Genesis 21:21. israel went SE (into Sinai) not NW, the shorter route; Exodus 13:17 and 18.
Sinai in time past was part of Arabia=Galatians 4:25.
Now a couple more things before I move on. In Genesis 1:12 we saw that Ishmael would dwell in the presence of all his brothers. Who were his brothers? Abraham married Keturah after Sarah died. Abraham had six sons with her. They would be Ishmael’s half brothers among whom he would dwell. Notice Genesis 25:17 and 18 where we see confirmed the prophecy of Genesis 16:12. It is also confirmed in Genesis 25:6. Abraham sent his sons to the East and they went to their brother Ishmael. In the verses already quoted, one of the brothers of Ishmael was Midian.
Now here I need to mention something about directions as far as Israel is concerned. For example although Babylon was east of Israel it wfrom. To the east was the desert which their armies could not cross, being on horses. This same thinking held in the case of as always spoken of as coming from the north. To the Israelite the direction had to do with where the armies came the desert although it was really more SE and south. To Israel (and of course to Abraham) the desert was east. More on that later.
In Genesis 37 we see the story of Joseph being sold into slavery. In verse 25 we read that the brothers see the Ishmaelites coming. Then they sell him to the Midianites. Remember Midian was a brother of Ishmael (Genesis 25:1and 2. From a ways off the brothers could see that they were of the tribe of Ishmael but as they came nearer they would see them to be of the family of Midian. Here again we see the fulfillment of Genesis 16:12.
The next passage to look at is Judges 6-8: the story of Gideon and the Midianites. There were not only Midianites but also the Amalekites=6:3. Remember that Amalek was a grandson of Esau. The descendants of Esau were Edomites which was right on the border of Arabia and I think absorbed into Arabia; Jeremiah 25:20-24. Uz was the land of which Edom was a part (Job 1:25 and Lamentations 4:21).
There is a bit more in Jeremiah 25:20-25. In verse 20 we read of the land of Uz, in 21 Edom and in 23 Dedan, one of the cities in Edom. In 24 there is the mention of Arabia with “all the kings of the mingled people that dwell in the desert”.
Back to Judges. The Midianites were from the east and they had camels, a desert creature. When the Babylonians or Assyrians came they rode on horses. In 8:24 we again see the connection between Ishmael and Midian.
Now to Ezekiel 38. In verse 5 the first country named is Persia. In verse 8 are the details regarding Israel in the last days upon their return to the land of Israel:
Brought back from the sword=Israel became a nation in 1948, just three years after the holocaust.
In verse 8 we are also told it will happen in the latter years, they return to the mountains of Israel, they will have returned from many people (102 nations at this date), a land always waste (when Mark Twain was in Israel over a century ago, he saw nothing but waste land and a few wanderers), and thy will dwell safely and after living in places like Russia or the Arab lands they are now a free people.
It is certainly interesting that just now, at this time in history Israel should be threatened by Persia and join hands with Saudi Arabia. Speak of strange bedfellows. In verse 13 there are Sheba and Dedan working in hand with “Tarshish with all the young lions”. Which nation has the symbol of the lion? England. So who are the young lions? America, Canada and Australia. We need Saudi’s oil and with the world-wide recession they need us as a costumer. Is this the prey in verse 12? In Ezekiel’s day the area which was then Sheba and Dedan is now Saudi Arabia. From all we have seen in Scripture we know for a certainty that the descendants of Sheba and Dedan are in Saudi Arabia.
Let me quote from the article I mentioned:
Israel Air Force aircraft dropped off large quantities of military gear
at a Saudi Arabian military base last week in preparation for a
potential attack on Iran, a number of Iranian and Israeli news outlets
have reported.
The unconfirmed report, (note that it is unconfirmed. Nevertheless, the rest
of the article still stands) first published by the semi-official
news Agency Fars and the Islam Times, claimed that on June 18 and 19,
Israeli helicopters unloaded military equipment and built a base just
over five miles outside the northwestern city of Tabuk, the closest
Saudi city to Israel.
The claim follows a report two weeks ago in the London Times
Magazine that Saudi Arabia had given Israel permission to fly
through a narrow corridor of air space in northern Saudi Arabia
so as to shorten the flight time required for Israeli jets to reach Iran.
Anticipated Joy
July 1st, 2010Anticipated Joy and Experienced Joy
Sometimes it troubles us that we don’t experience more real felt happiness when we think of the perfect and endless joy which awaits us relatively soon. The same is true of the person who knows he will spend eternity in hell. For some, at least, they don’t give it a lot of thought. It does not greatly concern them. For them it is more comfortable to think about other things.
There are different reasons for this. Perhaps one reason is that it’s so completely outside of both our experience and any real knowledge that we have of heaven. Also, many of us are quite comfortable here. Then, too, we spend most of our thinking on things down here. We really have no choice: our daily activities require it of us.
As an example of this that we see in the Bible: Abraham spent one hundred years living in a tent. In Hebrews we read that he was willing to do so because he was looking forward to a city. This home would be for ever compared to which the hundred years would be less than nothing. Now I can’t imagine that he woke up every morning dancing for joy because he was looking forward to that glorious home of the future, especially after a sleepless night chasing the cows out of Abimelech’s corn. Even so great a saint as Fanny Crosby wrote in one of her hymns:
There are depths of love that I cannot know
Till I cross the narrow sea
There are heights of joy that I may not reach
Till I rest in peace with Thee
But when all is said it is certainly better to live knowing that infinite, eternal joy will be my experience even though we now live only in anticipation of it. A good passage to think on is found in the I Peter:3-6. Verse four reads: “wherein ye greatly rejoice” that is in the hope of heaven. Verse 6 talks of being “in heaviness through manifold temptations”. Neverheless, it is good to have the anticipated joy.
Moral Laws
July 1st, 2010 .
Many nations, both past and present have their laws, written and unwritten.
The laws of these peoples are in many places somewhat like the ten commandments and
of some of the things we would read in the Old Testament, although they would be imperfect. We see this in Romans 2:14 and 15: “For when the Gentiles, which have not the law, do by nature the things contained in the law, these having not the law, are a law unto themselves: Which show the work of the law written on their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness—“. As God is good He would give to all men a conscience which would be basically good.
An example of imperfect laws would be that most cultures put property ahead of people. Because the Bible taught that man was made in the image of God, a man could not be touched for stealing an animal. He must make it right but only with money or goods. Man was of more value than money, animals or property. Psalm 19 tells us that the law of God is perfect, unlike the laws of men.
The western world was based entirely and only on the Judeo-Christian ethic, which in turn was based on the Bible. In fact, in the dictionary of 1812 by Webster the Bible is often used as a reference point or proof for a word or phrase. It is obvious that even the non-Christians believed the Bible to be absolutely true. The young were brought up accordingly. Their entire upbringing was based on the Judeo-Christian ethic.
My point is that all young people were taught the difference between right and wrong; but we today would not accept the laws of ancient Rome or Greece or the modern laws of Japan or of the pantheists. All that the western world has knowledge of is the laws we have, based on Biblical do’s and don’ts. Therefore when the ten commandments were put out of our schools we left an entire generation growing up with no moral instruction. That was just the beginning. Now more and more any reference to Christianity is being erased.
The entire doctrine of salvation is also a subject of which only the Bible has the answer. All other religions teach that if one does his best, hopefully all will end up alright. This is true of even most Christian religions. The Bible is very clear on this: “Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in His sight”=Romans 3:20.
Galatians chapter 4:1-10 spells out clearly the difference between law keeping and salvation. “Even so we (the Jewish law keepers) were under bondage”=verse 3.
Verse 8 is to the Gentiles; “ye (the Gentiles) did service unto them which by nature are
no gods”. But both must come under the blood of the cross.
WHOSE IMAGE
May 25th, 2010The Pharisees tried to trick Jesus with a question they felt He could not answer. The question was regarding paying tribute to Caesar. If He said they should pay it would insure the wrath of the common people who hated Caesar. If He said they should not, He would be in rebellion against the Romans and be in trouble.
Jesus simply asked to see a coin. They showed Him one . Seeing the coin He asked whose image was in the coin. They acknowledged that it was the image of Caesar. Jesus therefore told them to give to Caesar that which was
Caesars=Matthew 22:21.
There is a strong point made here by the Lord Jesus Himself. The image bearer belongs to the one whose image he bears. In the case of the child God leaves us in no doubt. In the very first book of the Bible we read that Adam had a son in his own image. Every son born since that time is made in the image of his father. Perhaps it would be correct to say that the daughter is more in the image of the mother. Increasingly the state believes that the children belong to them. God would say, “not so”. The child belongs to the one in whose image he is made. It is not the state.
PERIODS OF TIME
May 18th, 2010Periods of Time
1. First World War 1914-1918
Ended “Divine Right of Kings”
Age of Man Began = Nietsyke
“God is Dead”
2. First Modern Despotic Regime’s
Lenin Into Russia 1917
Mussolini 1920
Hitler 1933
3. Second World War 1938-1945
End of Warring Nations of Western Europe
Russia Emerges As World Power
4. The Cold War 1945-1990
Israel Becomes a Nation 1948 Matt. 24:32-35
Arab Oil A Dominant Factor: Rise of Islam
America:
Russia’s Antagonist
Defender of Israel
Rebuilds Europe
Rise of Nations in Africa and Asia
Nation Against Nation
Kingdom against Kingdom
5. Fall Of Communism in Russia 1990
Russia Humiliated
Rise of Islamic Terror
Russia Joins With Islam:
To Be Again Equal With U.S
Protection From Moslem Terror
Rise of the EU
6. Bush Invades Iraq 2003
Islamic World Loses Fear of America
7. America Leaves Iraq
Russia and Islam Sees Israel As Defenseless
Stage Set For Ezekiel 38 and 39
THRU ANOTHER
May 6th, 2010I Receive Christ Through Another’s Teaching
John 17:20
II Timothy 1:5; 3:15
I Must Come To Know Christ By Myself
Matthew 1:21
Romans 3;23
Romans 5:12
Romans 6:23
I Then Go On To A Life Of Holiness: Through The Word
Colossians 1:12-14
Matthew 7:21-23
II Peter1:3
John 6:63; 12:48
Baptism
Matthew 28:19
Mark 16:16
Acts 2:36-38
Acts 16:29-33
I Corinthians 10:1,2
Romans 6:1-5 Identification
Romans 6:6,7 The Doctrine
Galations 3:27
THE HEART
April 30th, 2010 It is true that discipline imposed from the outside eventually defeats when it is not matched by desire from within. This may be true of the young person under his father’s authoritarian ways who kicks over the traces when he leaves home. It is not true of the man in middle years who decides to be more disciplined. It is then a matter of the heart.
Psalm 119:9 reads “Wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his way; by taking heed thereto according to thy Word.” John 14:26 Jesus promised to bring all things to our “remembrance.”
On Bible Study
John 6:63 reads “Thy Words that I speak unto you, they are spirit and they are life. Also in Matthew 4:4 the Lord Jesus quotes Deuteronomy 8:3: “Man shall not live by bread alone but by every Word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.” Joshua 1:8: “This law shall not depart out of thy mouth but thou shalt meditate thereon day and night”. God said “mouth”. We think with words; not with vague thoughts.
C S Lewis has Screwtape saying “The English will always run to the side of the boat that is already gunwale under.” They just call it “legalism”: and do as they please. “let me find my own way to God.” Jesus said: “No man cometh to the Father but
by Me”. Back to the thought on Scriptural study: It’s like Hebrew 10:18 “where remission of these is, there is no more offering of sin:” And so the rest of the chapter. The writer says “I have demonstrated that there is no salvation in angels, Moses, Aaron, sacrifice, or keeping the old law: If you do not trust Christ for salvation I have nothing else to offer.” And so the other Scriptures, also.
Let me just take some of the basic philosophies rampant today:
First, “Our hearts are good.”
But the Bible says:
Jeremiah 17:9 “Deceitful and desperately wicked.”
Mark 7:21-23 – thirteen abominations in the heart.
Second, “listen to our hearts.” But the Bible says:
Proverbs 28:26 – “He that trusteth in his heart is a fool.”
Third, “Listen to your hearts.”
But the Bible says:
Jeremiah 23:16 – The prophets that ‘speak a vision out of their own heart and not out of the mouth of the LORD.’
Job, in Chapter 42:5, 6 finally saw things rightly.
Joy is the result of obedience to the laws of God.
Holiness brings joy. Nothing else does. In Proverbs 29:6 we read “the righteous doth sing and rejoice.”
LORD OF THE HARVEST
April 28th, 2010I’m thankful the Lord doesn’t say, ‘Be successful’, but he says, ‘Be faithful’.”
This gIves a new perspective on Luke 10:2 about praying that the Lord of the harvest would send laborers into His harvest. While trying to obey the command I tended to pray that God would send missionaries to the harvest fields of earth. I still think this is a good prayer. But after getting B___’s letter I saw something more. The ’something more’ is not the thousands of professional missionaries but the millions of little people scattered all over the world. These are the people God is using in many places.
The people I know of include B____ distributing tracts, the man who led a neighbor to Christ, the people with their little Bible studies, the parents bringing up their children in the fear of the Lord.
When you look at this command in Luke you see the relevance of John 15:1-8. The little people scattered all over the world need to do nothing other than abide in Christ. All who abide in Him will bring forth fruit. They are the ones open to His leading. And, also, how much of the time the person is not even aware of being used. How relaxing this is. All I have to do is abide in Him, sit at His feet and learn of Him. John 6:63: “The Word that I speak unto you they are spirit and they are life.”
Is this not very different from the frustration of wanting to be used by God in a great way? Most of us are too prone for pride for that, anyway. We want purpose in life. Paul said that his high calling was to know Christ: Phil 3:10-14. We are called to be obedient saints: That’s all.
This brings us to the second reason to abide in Christ. The first is, of course, so we can be used of God in His purpose. The second reason to know Christ is that we will be judged by His Word. In John 12:48 Jesus said, “The Words I speak will judge him at the last day.” But we can only obey what we know.
GOD MANIFEST IN THE FLESH
April 21st, 2010The gods of ancient people
Of Egypt and of Rome:
Each nation had their tribal gods
Which they could call their own.
The Grecians had their Jupiter
The Canaanites had Baal
And sacrifice of beast and babe
Is not allowed to fail.
The pagan gods demanded all
Both little ones and grain
The god’s demands left all the poor
With never hope of gain
The tribal gods were greedy gods
And took what people had
They only cared if men were rich
But never good or bad
The tribal gods were vengeful gods
Oppressing poor and meek
Their help seemed only for the strong
But never for the week
For centuries men served the gods
Through bitter bondage sore
And no relief was ever felt
But only bondage more
The God who ruled above them all
A different, kinder God
Who thought of more than sacrifice
Nor asked for human blood
A God Who looked for truth and right
A God Who mercy knew
Demanding of the powerful
That they show mercy too
He did not take things from the poor
And give them to the strong
This God had sent the sun and rain
Through generations long
This God, unrecognized by man
The One they did not see
Who freely gave through passing years
Ungrateful though men be
But God did see in sinful man
That justice was not done
Unlike the gods of ancient Ur
Jehovah sent His Son
The blood of men He did not ask
Of beasts would not suffice
But God Himself took our guilt
Himself our Sacrifice
And now in every nation
This message being spoken
With every where the ancient rule
Of demons being broken
For every place the gospel comes
Proclaiming Jesus’ reign
We see that Jesus Name and Might
Is breaking Satan’s chain
And still the ancient powers
Contesting every gain
Will not submit to Jesus’ rule
Or recognize His reign
But powers will be broken
Of evil and of night
And every evil vanquished
When Jesus comes in might