1.
Genesis 1:3 – Revelations 22:21 covers a period of approximately
four thousand years.
2.
The Bible was written over a period of fourteen hundred years
3.
The Bible was written by more than forty authors from varying
backgrounds.
Some
of the difficulties that are associated with interpreting the Bible
originate with the theologians. Theologians does not teach the Bible
based on dogma and so when questioned in the right settings these
theologians readily confess to not being sure of what they believe or
they admit that they are unsure how to interpret the Bible.
It
is within reason to believe that there was a time span between
Genesis 1:26 when the Lord God created man and Genesis 2:7 when the
Lord God fitted man with a body. This time span would allow for the
trees of the garden of Eden to grow and for Adam to learn to be
responsible before Eve is fitted with her body and she is introduced
to Adam.
The
Bible indicates that the Lord God caused the plants to grow from out
of the earth. The question become whether the Lord God created mature
fruit trees that were producing fruit or did the Lord God follow the
process a seed germinating then growing through the process of years
as happens now. If this happened then it would allow for Adam to have
spent much time alone with the Lord God.
The
crowning piece of God’s creation was man (Adam and Eve). Man was
created to look like the Lord God, to behave like the Lord God and
man breathed the breath of the Lord God. The breath of the Lord God
subjected man to inspiration and enabled man to have fellowship with
the Lord God. Man also enjoyed the exalted position of the Lord God
coming to the earth to have fellowship.
The
Lord God condescended to come down to fellowship with man and man was
tricked into believing that he could rise to being on an equal status
to the Lord God and this led to man rebelling against the Lord God.
Since that time man continue to rebel by believing that he can live
without the Lord God on the one hand while others seek to find ways
to once more enter into a right relationship with the lord God.
One
man that discovered the secret of fellowship with the Lord God was
Enoch because after walking in close fellowship with the Lord God for
three hundred year the Lord God took him and did not allow him to see
death.
The
story of the people of Israel and their deliverance from slavery in
Egypt until they finally entered the promised land after more than
forty years highlights several things.
1.
The pillar of cloud protected from direct exposure to the sun during
the day
2.
The pillar of fire gave light and heat during the night
3.
Each morning for six days each week the people collected their daily
supply of food for more than forty years
The
people of Israel was to soon learn that the Lord God had a special
role for them. They were to become a nation of kings and priests and
to be uniquely distinct from other nations because their lives were
to be governed by the principles and laws of the Lord God. The Lord
God had demonstrated through Moses and Aaron that he was mightier and
more powerful than all the gods of Egypt and now the Lord God was
going to living among them. The people of Israel at the time were
living in tents and the Lord God directed that a tent (tabernacle) be
constructed so that he may live among his people.
The
Lord God would now be easily accessible to his special people and
everything that they experienced as a people the Lord their God would
experience also.
This
tent (tabernacle) lasted for about five hundred years. The time came
when the people of Israel built permanent residences and King David
felt really bad because he lived in a house of wood and stone but the
place where the Lord God lived was a tent. King David desired to
construct a temple to be the place where the Lord God permanently
lived among his people but it was his son Solomon that the Lord God
permitted to build the temple.
The
tabernacle and later the temple served as the place where the Lord
God lived among his people and also as the place where those who
sought reconciliation with the Lord God through sacrifice and
atonement could do so.
The
animals that were sacrificed in the tabernacle and later the temple
to atone for sins and bring reconciliation to the Lord God could not
adequately deal with the sin problem and had to be constantly
repeated. The Lord God through his prophets had promised a redeemer
that would restore the lost fellowship with the Lord God.
Jesus
of Nazareth came on the scene teaching, preaching and doing miracles.
The religious experts of the day examined the works of Jesus of
Nazareth and refused to certify it as the works of the Lord God but
instead credited the works of Jesus of Nazareth to Beelzebub the
prince of demons. The rejection of Jesus of Nazareth by the leaders
of the nation of Israel was regarded as a national rejection of Jesus
of Nazareth as the Son of God and their Messiah.
Jesus
of Nazareth was eventually arrested, tried and sentenced to death for
his claims to being the Son of God and Israel’s long expected
messiah. Jesus of Nazareth was found guilty of being the King of the
Jews and was executed and buried.
During
the time that he went about teaching and preaching Jesus of Nazareth
had trained twelve disciples. A few days after the execution of Jesus
of Nazareth rumors circulated that Jesus of Nazareth had risen from
the dead and that he was very much alive. Six weeks after the
execution of Jesus of Nazareth the religious leaders in the nation of
Israel had to deal with the disciples of Jesus of Nazareth because
the message that Jesus of Nazareth preached continued and the
disciples were also performing miracles.
The
message of the disciples of Jesus of Nazareth went further because
the disciples of Jesus of Nazareth proclaimed that Jesus of Nazareth
was the Son of God, the Lord God had raised him from the dead and
Jesus of Nazareth was now the way to righteousness with the Lord God.
This message in effect declared that the religious leaders were of no
effect and Jesus of Nazareth was now the one to respect.
Jesus
of Nazareth during the time that he taught and preached knew that the
people of Israel looked for a king to set up a political kingdom on
the earth. Jesus indicated to his listeners that he was establishing
a kingdom where the Lord God reigned in the hearts and minds as king.
Just before his execution Jesus told his disciples that he would be
killed and then he would return to heaven but when he returned to
heaven he would send another divine person to permanently live with
the disciples. This divine person’s presence while not necessarily
obvious to the world would live in the believer and make known the
works of the Lord God through the believer. The apostle Paul
understood this when he asked the believers in the city of Corinth if
they were not aware that their bodies were the temple of the Holy
Ghost. The Apostle Peter also pointed out in his epistle the exalted
position that believers in Jesus now occupy. The body of those who
believed that Jesus of Nazareth was the Son of God and the
Messiah/Christ became the temple out of which the Spirit of the Lord
God operates.
The
rejection of Jesus of Nazareth did not take the Lord God by surprise
neither did it take Jesus himself by surprise. It simply delayed the
Lord God’s plans for the nation of Israel. The benefits that the
nation of Israel would have received had they accepted Jesus of
Nazareth as the Messiah has been extended to the whole world. These
benefits included among others:
1.
Being indwelt by the Spirit of God
2.
Being adopted into the family of God
3.
Becoming joint heirs with Jesus
4.
becoming members of the body of Jesus (the church).
The
first man and woman rebelled against the authority of the Lord God
because they wanted to be like the Lord God. Man continue in
rebellion today because he does not desire to submit to the authority
of the Lord God.
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