Questions for Thought
- How are we today much like Adam and Eve?
- How are we today much like Israel of old?
At this point, I want to do a quick review putting together the information from the previous blogs along with some content that did not fit the topics of those blogs but is nevertheless very important to know into one short summary and then the next time, we will complete our journey on to the Promised Land. Beginning in Genesis 1, we saw how God created this beautiful world in which we live and how He created man and woman to take care of it. Adam and Eve listened to Satan instead of God and ate of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil which God had forbidden. In doing so, Adam and Eve brought death upon all mankind. Adam and Eve’s son, Cain, continued in the steps of his parents by choosing to not be pleasing to God. He offered an offering of the fruit of the ground and his brother, Abel, offered of the best of his flocks. God was pleased with Abel’s offering and Cain in his jealousy killed Abel; thus, we have the first murder.
God’s human creation continued to be more evil to the point by Genesis 6, God was ready to put an end to His creation, but Noah, a righteous man found grace in God’s sight. God told Noah to build an ark so he and his family could escape the flood God would use to destroy the inhabitants of the earth. Noah built the ark and he and his wife, and his three sons and their wives were saved from the flood. God blessed Noah after the flood and promised him He would never again destroy the earth by water. God put a rainbow in the sky as a reminder of this promise. He told Noah and his family to replenish the earth. As mankind again began to fill the earth, there were some who wanted to build a tower to heaven, but God was not in favor of this tower. Instead, he mixed up the language of the people so they could not understand each other. They gave up on building the tower and moved out to other parts of the world to replenish the earth as God had commanded. This place was called Babel because it was there God caused confusion of language.
We saw how another man of God, Job, was almost destroyed by Satan, but he did not lose his faith. God allowed Satan to take all of Job’s earthly possessions and even his children. His friends turned against him, and his wife suggested he needed to curse God and die. Job remained faithful and God blessed him with double what he had before Satan tried to destroy him.
Then we came to the birth of the great man Abraham to whom God promised three things. He promised Abraham to make of him a great nation, to give the land of Canaan to Abraham’s descendants, and to bless all nations through a descendant of Abraham. God called Abraham to leave his county and do God’s bidding. Abraham obeyed God but he and his wife Sarah were getting very old and he had no children. He and Sarah decided they needed to help God with the promises so Sarah told Abraham to have a child by her servant, Hagar. Abraham and Hagar had a son they named Ishmael. This was not God’s plan so Abraham and Sarah had to wait a while longer and in their old age, God blessed them with a son, Isaac.
Isaac was the son of promise through whom God would fulfill his promise to Abraham. Isaac had two sons, Jacob and Esau. Jacob’s name was later changed to Israel and from him came the Nation of Israel or the Jews as we know them in the Old Testament. One of Jacob’s twelve sons, Joseph, was sold by his jealous brothers to some merchants and he ended up in Egypt where God allowed him to become a servant of Pharaoh and gave him the interpretations to Pharaoh’s dreams. Joseph was able to tell Pharaoh there was a seven year famine coming and he needed to put someone over collecting food in preparation. Pharaoh put Joseph in charge and once the famine began, Israel had to send ten of his other children to Egypt for food. Joseph recognized them but they did not recognize him until their second trip to get food when he revealed his identity. He had the brothers go back home and get his dad and the rest of their families and bring them to Egypt where they were taken care of by Joseph. After about 400 years when they had become slaves in Egypt, God decided to rescue them and take them into the land He had promised to Abraham years before.
Earlier, when the Israelites were becoming too great in number, the king had ordered the Israelites to kill all of their baby boys upon birth but one mama chose to put her baby, Moses, in a box and put him in the water. His sister watched to see what would happen and the king’s daughter found him and took him for her own. The sister asked the king’s daughter if she would like for her to find a nurse for him of the Israelites and she said yes, so the sister got their mother to take care of Moses. After he grew up, when God decided it was time for Israel to claim the Land of Canaan, God appeared to Moses and told him what he was to do. After much hesitation, Moses went to free the people.
Pharaoh was not willing to let the Israelites leave Egypt at first and would not do what Moses asked. It took ten plagues to convince him to let them go. The tenth plague was the death of all the firstborn of the Egyptians both man and best. Pharaoh then allowed Moses to take the people out but after they left, he regretted the decision and went after them. God parted the waters and allowed Israel to cross the Red Sea on dry land but when Pharaoh tried, his army was swallowed up by the water and they drowned.
From the beginning of their trip, actually even before they left Egypt, the Israelites complained. They complained about the food and the water and the trip. They complained about Moses and Aaron. They complained when God punished them. Several times God was ready to destroy them but Moses pleaded for Him not to. God gave Moses several commands for the people to follow, and much of Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy are filled with these commands. Just before God called Moses to Mount Sinai to receive the commandments for the people, his father-in-law had told him he needed to teach the people the expectations and then divide them into groups putting leaders over each group. The leaders would come to Moses with only the hardest questions. Moses did as his father-in-law suggested.
About a year after Israel left Egypt, they should have taken the Promised Land. Moses sent twelves spies to check out the land. They came back with a report in which they told of the wonders of the land. They brought back a cluster of grapes that took two men to carry. Two of the spies, Joshua and Caleb, said they could take the land. But, ten of the spies said there was no way Israel could take the land because the inhabitants were giants and were too strong for Israel. The Israelites were ready to appoint another captain and go back to Egypt. God said of all of those men who left Egypt who were of the age of 20 and older only Joshua and Caleb would enter the promised land. God punished the Israelites with 40 years of wandering in the wilderness which was a year for each day they spent spying out the land.
So the children of Israel wandered in the wilderness for 40 years. As they wandered, they continued to complain. As they were nearing the land, God told Moses he could go up the mountain and look over at the land but he would not be allowed to go in. Moses asked God to put someone over the people to finish leading them to the Promised Land. God chose Joshua, one of the spies who said they could take the land 40 years earlier. In Deuteronomy 34, Joshua took over leading the people and in the next blog, we will go with Joshua and the Israelites into the Promised Land.
Christian Women's Responsibility in Sharing God's Word 