Mount Moriah

Something was pointed out to me this week-end that I had never seen before.

In Genesis 22, very early on in the forming of the foundation of the Judeo-Christian faith, God told Abraham to take his son Isaac to Mount Moriah, and offer him up as a sacrifice to God. Now, of course, after Abraham went through all the motions, up to trussing Isaac up and placing him on the altar, and raising the knife to end Isaac’s life, then God told him, essentially, never mind, you have proven your faith, that’s all that was necessary.

Now, in First Chronicles 21, David sent Joab out to number Israel. Joab tried to talk David out of it, but David insisted, and he was the king, so all the men of Israel were numbered (except Benjamin and Levi, because Joab saw the folly in actually numbering Israel). God decided to punish Israel for David’s sin, but David saw an angel (the death angel?) by the threshingfloor of Ornan the Jebusite. David, and the elders that were with him, cried out to God for mercy, and God stayed the angel. God then commanded David to build an altar at the threshingfloor of Ornan. For some reason, 1 chronicles doesn’t really tell us where Ornan’s threshingfloor was, but, in Second Chronicles 3, we are told that Solomon began to build the temple at the site where his father had seen the angel. In other words, the temple was built on the same mountain where Abraham built the altar for Isaac. So Abraham built an altar there, David built as altar there, and Solomon built an altar there. That’s not a coincidence.

By the way, the term Moriah means, chosen by God. Apparently, this was the spot chosen by God for building altars. In Genesis 22, there is a messianic prophecy, as Abraham and Isaac are headed to the mountain, Isaac asks his father why they didn’t bring anything to sacrifice, and Abraham tells him that God would provide Himself a lamb. Of course, in the New Testament, when the Lamb of God is sacrificed for our sins, the veil of the temple (used to separate the common people from the Holiest of Holies) was torn in half. It is through that sacrifice that we have access to God Himself.

Friends of God

Relationships with God are interesting, to say the least. At one point, God told Miriam that He would speak to Moses directly, but that He would only speak to most prophets through their dreams. To be honest, not many people have had that kind of relationship with God. God spoke to Abraham directly, long before Moses. God also spoke to Balaam directly (and he wasn’t even a Jew). There were, a lot of faithful men in the Bible to whom God never spoke to, even in a dream. I’m sure God had His purpose for maintaining a relationship with Balaam, though.

In the New Testament, we find that God spoke to a few individuals here and there, and not all of them because they were good Christian people. God talked to Saul the Pharisee on the road to Damascus, evidently because Saul thought he had a relationship with God, and God particularly wanted Saul to have such a relationship, and because God had a laundry list of things for Saul to do as a Christian. Interestingly enough, God told Saul to go on to Damascus, to see what he needed to do, and then God told Ananias to go meet with Saul. In fact, God told Ananias that He had already told Saul that Ananias was coming. Peter, on the other hand, seems to have been one that God would only speak to in a dream.

Jesus said that we are His friends if we do whatsoever He commands us to do. Of course, Jesus understands that we are human, and we will never be able to do everything that we are commanded. Keep in mind, though, that He can see what’s in your heart, so He knows whether you are honestly giving Him your best. He knows whether we are His friends or not. Jesus also said that He laid down His life for His friends.

It’s clear that we should want to be friends with God. Some among us are happy to be just servants of God. Certainly, you won’t hear Him say the words, “Well done, thou good and faithful servant” unless you have actually been a good and faithful servant. Jesus isn’t going to lie to you and call you a servant if you haven’t been one. More importantly, though, you shouldn’t want to be just a servant of God, you should want to be a friend of God. Why settle for anything less?

When the Prodigal Son came to his senses, he realized that he would be better off as a servant in his Father’s household than feeding swine (and feeling jealous of how much food the pigs got). He knew that his Father was a just individual, and took care of His servants, whereas whoever he was working for cared more about the pigs than the servants. The prodigal didn’t feel right even asking to be let back into the family again, he just hoped that his Father still cared enough for him to put him on the payroll; he would have been happy just to be a servant in the house where he grew up. The Father wouldn’t have it, though; this was His son, who was back from the dead. We have the Spirit of adoption, God wants us to be His servants, but He also wants us to be His friends, and, more than that, He wants us to be His children.

God Is Manifest

In Genesis 18, Abraham is visited by three “men” and he puts forth a great deal of effort to ensure that these three are well taken care of. He has Sarah bake fresh bread, he has one of his servants kill a fatted calf, and he brings out milk and butter… Clearly these three are important, even though we are never specifically told how Abraham recognizes them. As the chapter progresses, though, we find out that one of the “men” has a plan to destroy the city where Abraham’s nephew, Lot, is living. As they discuss this, the other two head towards Sodom. In Genesis 19, we find out that the other two “men” were actually angels, but they are going to test the people of Sodom, and give them a chance to show their worth before making a decision whether to destroy the city or not. The men of Sodom prove themselves to be the scum of the earth, and fire and brimstone rains down as planned, but not until after they escort Lot and his wife, and the two daughters that didn’t marry Sodomites out of the city. By this point, we understand that God has taken human form, specifically so that He can talk with Abraham face-to-face. Abraham must have realized who he was talking to, as evidenced by the preferential treatment he gave his visitors. How did he know? I would have to say that he probably felt God’s presence and so just knew. Of course, it’s possible that Abraham recognized God in human form because he had met God in human form before.
In Genesis 14, Abraham met up with someone named Melchizedek, the King of Salem, and Priest of the Most High God. Where did he come from? It doesn’t say in Genesis 14, but it does say that Abraham paid tithes to Melchizedek. In Hebrews 7, we are told that Melchisedec is without father or mother or beginning or ending of days, which would suggest that he was God Himself. It does seem odd that if God used the same manifestation in chapters 14 and 18 of Genesis, that it would not have referred to Him as Melchizedek both times. I am forced to conclude that God appeared to Abraham differently on those two occasions. Of course, this begs the question, why is it that Abraham is the only person in the entire Old Testament that God net with in the form of a man? (NOTE: I realize that Jacob seemed to think that he wrestled with God, but I personally don’t think that it was God Himself, but even if it was, then why only those two?)
Moses met with God once, in Exodus 3, but God spoke to Moses out of a burning bush. The Bible says that Moses could see the flames in the bush, but he could also see that the bush was not being consumed by the fire. Was it necessary to show Moses a miracle in order to get his attention?
After Moses accepted his assignment, he led the Children of Israel out of Egypt, and they were led through the wilderness by a pillar of smoke by day, and a pillar of fire by night. That was the only manifestation of God that most of the Israelites ever saw.
1 Timothy 3:16, talking about Jesus, refers to Him as God manifest in the flesh. We have a tendency to think of Jesus, in the flesh, as being the Son of God (or God the Son), and, while Jesus was in the flesh, there was a definite difference between that flesh, and God the Spirit. In very many ways, however, Jesus in the flesh was just another manifestation of God. God did not want us to attribute divinity to that flesh; perhaps that’s why Abraham was the only person in the Old Testament to meet God in the flesh.
Nebuchadnezzar may have seen Jesus before his time, though. In Daniel 3, we are told that the king had the three Hebrew children, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, thrown into the fiery furnace, but when he looked in, he saw four “men” walking around in the furnace, and the form of the fourth was “like the Son of God.” How would Nebuchadnezzar recognize a Son of God? Perhaps, like Abraham, he simply felt God’s presence…

Nobody's Perfect

Some have posed the question, “Why would God use people like ______ to do His work?” Fill in the blank with just about any character in the Bible you would like. For example, Abraham, father and patriarch of all of Israel, the man to whom the Promise was given, tried to pass off Sarah as his sister once because he was afraid that he would be killed by a man or men that wanted Sarah for themselves. Of course, the man that he feared most was indeed attracted to Sarah, but, since he believed that Abraham and Sarah were brother and sister, he just took her. It turns out that he wasn’t the kind of guy that would have killed a man just to take his wife, anyway, but even if he had been, shouldn’t Abraham have trusted God to protect him? Of course he should have. So, basically what we have learned about Abraham is that he suffered from cowardice. So why would God use someone like Abraham?

If that were not bad enough, apparently Abraham was so ashamed of himself for his actions that he didn’t tell Isaac about it. Many years later, Isaac and Rebekah were in the same city, Gerar, under the same king, Abimelech, and Isaac told the same lie for the same reason. So why would God use someone like Isaac?

When David was king over all of Israel, he found himself attracted to a woman that was one of his neighbors, in fact, she was the wife of one of David’s mighty men. He had her brought into his home, and later had her husband killed, so that he could marry her. Why would God use someone like David?

Peter denied the Lord three times, after promising Jesus that he would follow Him into death if it came to that. I can somewhat understand that Peter’s world had just been rocked; he followed Jesus for three years, and, even though Jesus tried to warn him what was coming, Peter was not ready for the arrest. While he was trying to figure it out, to reconcile what he thought he had known with what had just happened, some people started talking to him about being one of Jesus’ disciples. Why would God use someone like Peter?
To be honest, we could go down the list of all the people in the Bible, and they all have faults, except for Jesus Himself. Some of them were fortunate enough to not have their faults actually mentioned in the Scriptures, but every one of them had faults. Paul even talked about his thorn in the flesh; how he sought God to remove it, but God finally told him that he needed the thorn to keep him from being exalted above measure (in other words, God didn’t want Paul to get a big head).

So why is it, that all through the Bible, God used imperfect people to carry out His perfect will? Let me ask you a question: What other kind of people would He have used? The Bible tells us that all have sinned, and all have come short of the glory of God. Let me ask you another question: If God hadn’t been able to use imperfect people all through the Bible, then how would He ever manage to be able to use you? Or, for that matter, how could I believe that God could ever use me? To be honest, I still struggle with that concept. But, if you and I wait for someone perfect to come along and do the work of God, we are going to have a long wait. He has already been here, and He has left it up to us, now. We just need to open up and let Him work through us.

Polygamy

The practice of polygamy has been in the news some, lately, and, even though it is a controversial subject, I thought that I would weigh in on it. It has been pointed out that it was generally accepted in the Old Testament, and never specifically forbidden in the New Testament. Let me first point out that just because something isn’t specifically forbidden, it doesn’t necessarily follow that it is okay.
Let me also say that it may not have been as common as you may think, even in the Old Testament. Granted, David had multiple wives, and so did Solomon, but they were both kings, they were not commoners. Abraham had a wife, Sarah, and a concubine, Hagar. He did marry another wife, but not until after the death of Sarah(?) It’s an interesting discussion, because Keturah had six sons by Abraham, and he was already old when Sarah died, so perhaps Keturah was a concubine (in fact, 1 Chronicles 1:32 refers to her as such), that had sons while Sarah was still alive—possibly even while Abraham was still young. I have to question that, though, because if Abraham had sons when God promised to make a great nation from Abraham’s seed, then wouldn’t Abraham and Sarah have assumed that God meant from his existing sons? There would have been no point in enlisting Hagar as a concubine, if Abraham already had a concubine that had already given him children. Isaac only had one wife, Rebekah. Jacob had four wives, or two wives and two concubines, depending on who you listen to. Gideon also had multiple wives. Very rarely is there any mention of anyone else having multiple wives. (Some have said that Moses had two wives, but the Bible only names one: Zipporah. Zipporah’s father has two names, though, and is sometimes called Reuel, and sometimes called Jethro).
The question arises, though, what is the difference between a wife and a concubine? Easton’s Bible Dictionary says that a concubine was a wife of secondary rank (it says more than that, but I only have so much space, and I don’t want to get sued for plagiarism). Smith’s Bible Dictionary points out that a wife could be divorced, whereas a concubine could not. Smith’s goes on to catalog four types of concubines: A Hebrew girl bought from her father, a gentile captive taken in war, a foreign slave bought, or a Canaanitish woman. The first two had rights under the Law of Moses, the third did not, and the fourth was actually prohibited by the Law (not to suggest that it didn’t happen, though). I should point out that, although Zilpah and Bilhah are mentioned as being Jacob’s wives, they were only with Jacob because they were Leah and Rachel’s slaves, and, in fact, Bilhah is mentioned as being Jacob’s concubine in Genesis 35:22. Apparently there wasn’t considered to be much difference between a wife and a concubine at that time.
By the way, from what I understand, a supporter of Biblical polygamy once challenged Mark twain to find any place in the Bible where polygamy was forbidden. Twain responded with Matthew 6:24. Quite frankly, though, even though one of the parables that Jesus told seems to support the idea of polygamy, Jesus also made it clear that when God created marriage, he created Eve to be Adam’s wife. He did not create a harem for Adam, he created a wife. The parable was intended to convey the idea that although many people can be saved, only those that are ready when He comes will be. Keep in mind that Jesus used parables to relate spiritual things to physical things that people could understand, but not necessarily physical things that he approved of; remember the unjust judge?

The Salt of the Earth

Some years ago I heard a song that I believe was named “The Hands of an Angry God,” and it seems to me that it was a Scott Wesley Brown song, but I haven’t been able to find any mention of such a song by him, anywhere, but I did find a reference to a song that was, at least, very similar by Steve Camp, but I can’t find it in his discography, either. I personally really liked the song, even though I found it somewhat convicting. I suspect that the song was not as popular as I think it should have been because a lot of other people were convicted by it as well. The verses talk a lot about why God is angry at mankind in general (and the listener, specifically), but then the chorus talks about the sacrifice that God made on the cross. “The hands of an angry God are pierced and bleeding…” We, as a people, have done much to make God angry. We, as a people, deserve to have the wrath of God poured out on us. We, as a people, should be extremely grateful that God has chosen to make a way for us to escape. In the story of Sodom and Gomorrah, before God sent His angels to destroy the two cities, He told Abraham about His plan. Abraham, understandably, became very concerned, because, although he knew the type of people that lived in those cities, he also knew that his nephew Lot lived there. Abraham attempted to bargain with God. “Wilt thou destroy the righteous with the wicked?” That was a gamble, in and of itself, because he hadn’t seen Lot in some time, and couldn’t be completely sure that Lot hadn’t adopted the lifestyle of the Sodomites, but he thought Lot was still a righteous man. Abraham probably wondered to himself why a righteous man would live in Sodom, but he had faith in his nephew. But, in keeping with his assertion that God would not destroy the righteous with the wicked, he asked God if he would destroy the city if He found fifty righteous there. God assured Abraham that He would not. Abraham talked God down to ten (which, of course, was easy for God, since He already knew there weren’t ten moral people living in the entire city of Sodom). Think about that for a moment, though. How many people lived in Sodom? We don’t know, but probably several thousand, maybe tens of thousands, maybe even hundreds of thousands. How big of a percentage is ten out of the population of an entire city? I think we can safely say less than one percent. Statisticians sometimes use the term, ‘statistically significant.’ To be statistically significant, a result must be unlikely to have occurred by chance. It is entirely possible for a result to be statistically significant, and still not be actually significant. The point is that there was a very small number of righteous people living in Sodom when the angels arrived and met with Lot. The experts would probably say that the number of moral people was not statistically significant. I would have to agree, if only because God destroyed the city anyway; at the same time, though, He offered them an escape so those people were clearly actually significant.Jesus said that we are the salt of the earth. Salt can be used for a lot of different things, but these days we mostly use it just to add flavor to foods that we eat. Not too many years ago, though, sailors used salt as a preservative. Meat that was salt-cured could be eaten many days after, without refrigeration, and with no ill effects. Think about that for a minute: If Lot had a bigger family, Sodom might not have been destroyed, they might have been able to preserve the city. We are the salt (the preservative) of the earth. We have a tremendous responsibility to remain righteous, because salt that has lost its savor is good for nothing but to be cast out and trodden under feet of men; if we stop being righteous (if we lose our savor-the quality that makes us salt), then we are no longer serving as a preservative, and all we are is dirt (fit to be walked on); just as we were before God gave us life (we become spiritually dead-even if our bodies are still walking around).

Father's Day

I was reminded this past weekend that, some time ago, my pastor preached a message on Abraham and Isaac. He pointed out something that I think most people miss; I know I had always missed it up until then. He asked us to try to imagine the difference it made in the relationship between that father and his son when Abraham took Isaac up to Moriah. We have a tendency to read that story, already knowing how it turned out: the angel of the Lord stopped Abraham from offering up Isaac as a sacrifice, but Abraham didn’t know, on the way to the mountain, that he would be stopped, and Isaac thought, on the way to the mountain, that they were going to sacrifice a ram. Granted, there was a very short period between the time that Isaac found out that his father had lied to him, and when Isaac was reprieved, but that had to have changed the way Isaac felt towards Abraham for the rest of his life.
After that service, we had one young man that told me that didn’t make any sense. The incident, in his opinion, shouldn’t have changed their relationship at all, because in Hebrews 11:17-20, it says that Abraham knew that Isaac was the son of promise, and that if Abraham had actually had to kill Isaac, then God would have raised Isaac up from the dead, to fulfill the promise. That’s an interesting point, but, even though Abraham knew that at the time, Isaac still would have felt differently towards his father. We discussed this for a while, and this young man still couldn’t see it, and kept insisting that Abraham knew. Finally, I told him, “but Isaac didn’t,” and he replied, “But Abraham did,” and I just said, “You’re missing the point,” and walked away. One party knowing that he isn’t really throwing the other party under the bus isn’t going to keep the second party from feeling badly about the whole thing. I guess I should be grateful to him, though: Thanks to him, I don’t think that I will ever forget that message.
God wants those of us who are fathers to be good fathers. He also wants those of us who have fathers to love and to respect our fathers. For some people, that’s hard (I can’t really speak to that too much, because I’m not one of those people). God is our Heavenly Father, and, to some extent, our earthly fathers should mirror our Heavenly Father. Notice I said ‘should.’ The problem that you run into is that of an imperfect, flesh and blood human being placed in a position to emulate a perfect, Spiritual being. Some people do that better than others (although even the best of us falls way short), and some don’t even try. For those whose fathers were about as far from God as one can get, the idea of God as Father can be difficult. The idea that God would still want them to honor that flesh-and-blood father may be as difficult, if not more so. But God does want us to honor our parents, no matter how flawed or imperfect they may be. Keep in mind that we are all flawed and imperfect. Some people just manage to inflict more damage with their imperfections than others. God wants us to love our neighbors, but there should be a special place in our hearts for our own family members, even a family member that has treated us in a manner that could only be termed, ‘despicable.’ If you can’t forgive your flesh-and-blood family, then how can you forgive the members of your spiritual family? They’re going to let you down, too, you know. We’re only human; that’s just the way it is.

Sodom and Gomorrah

There’s an interesting story in Genesis 18 and 19: God appears to Abraham in the form of a man, with two angels, also in the form of men, and He warns Abraham that the city of Sodom is going to be destroyed. Abraham knows that his nephew Lot is living in Sodom, and he is, understandably, concerned for his nephew’s life. For whatever reason, though, Abraham doesn’t want to just come out and say, “God, you aren’t going to kill my nephew, too, are you?” So, instead, he tries to bargain with God. “But, God, surely there are some righteous people in Sodom (they can’t all be wicked—I know, my beloved nephew is there), you won’t destroy the city if there are, say, fifty righteous people in Sodom.” That’s not a direct quote, by the way, I’m paraphrasing. And God says, “If there are fifty righteous in the city, I will not destroy the city,” knowing full well that there aren’t fifty. So Abraham decides to push his luck—God answered much too quickly, there must not be fifty righteous people in Sodom, “But what if there’s only forty-five? You wouldn’t destroy an entire city for the lack of five people, would you?” Again, God answers immediately, that He would not. Now Abraham realizes that there must not be forty-five. “What if there’s only forty?” Eventually, Abraham talks God to ten, dropping five people each time. But, after God promises not to destroy Sodom if there are ten righteous people in Sodom, He tells Abraham not to ask Him again.
Of course, God did spare Lot, even though He did destroy the city. The two angels that were with God when He spoke to Abraham went to Sodom and got Lot, and his wife, and two of his daughters out of the city. They tried to get Abraham’s other two daughters out, but they, and their husbands, thought Lot was crazy, or drunk, or playing an April Fool’s joke; they wouldn’t leave. Even then, the angels told Lot’s family not to look back, and Lot’s wife looked back, anyway. Why? Apparently she had friends in Sodom; she had become accustomed to her way of life in Sodom, she didn’t want to give that up. When your way of life becomes more important to you than your life itself, then you have a problem.
There are a few things that we can learn from this: The usual moral attached to this story is don’t look back. Of course, Jesus told us that any man, putting his hand to the plow, and looking back, is not fit…In Romans chapter 6, Apostle Paul asks the church at Rome what good were they able to do before accepting Christ, that now they have regrets. That’s a good moral, but I think that there is more.
Abraham tried to bargain with God. It is a testament to Abraham’s faithfulness that God allowed him to try, but, I think that it’s important to note that it didn’t do any good. God still destroyed the city of Sodom, even though Abraham tried to talk Him out of it, but God saved Lot, even though Abraham never specifically asked Him for that. It’s what Abraham wanted, but he never did ask. It occurs to me that it’s better to just ask God for what you want—He may say no, but you aren’t going to bargain anything away from Him that He isn’t willing to give you, anyway.