No other god besides Jehovah who gives all explanation

Lots of people do think they are not able to understand God’s Word without the explanations of theologians. They are mistaken and have a wrong idea about the Divine Creator Who is a God of order and clarity.

From the beginning of creation the Maker of everything let His Voice resound in the universe. He wanted everything to hear His Voice. He also came to make human beings in His image and wanted that they knew Him and listened to His Voice, His commandments, His statutes and would follow His Wishes.

Being created in the image of God each human being has certain elements or qualities of God in him or her. Every created human being has something in him or her which has the quality or feeling of the Divine Maker. As such every human should be able to feel that there is a Divine Creator. He is the Father of universe Who let His Voice hear and let His products of His Hands show the wonders and glory of His Majesty.

Wherever people dwell they can look around them and see the wonders of nature. Nature can speak for itself. In the magnificent glory of the universe every human being should be able to recognise the Hand of God.

Those who are willing to seek the Lord God shall be able to find Him whenever they shall seek Him with all their heart, and with all their soul in their affliction.

Deu 4:29 NHEBJE  But from there you shall seek Jehovah your God, and you shall find him, when you search after him with all your heart and with all your soul.

Deu 30:1-3 NHEBJE  It shall happen, when all these things have come on you, the blessing and the curse, which I have set before you, and you shall call them to mind among all the nations, where Jehovah your God has driven you,  (2)  and shall return to Jehovah your God, and shall obey his voice according to all that I command you this day, you and your children, with all your heart, and with all your soul;  (3)  that then Jehovah your God will turn your captivity, and have compassion on you, and will return and gather you from all the peoples, where Jehovah your God has scattered you.

2Ch 31:21 NHEBJE  In every work that he began in the service of God’s house, and in the law, and in the commandments, to seek his God, he did it with all his heart, and prospered.

Psa 119:2 NHEBJE  Blessed are those who keep his statutes, who seek him with their whole heart.

Jer 29:13 NHEBJE  You shall seek me, and find me, when you shall search for me with all your heart.

Page of Polish "Biblia Nieświeska" (...
Page of Polish “Biblia Nieświeska” (Nesvizh Bible) translated by Szymon Budny (1572). Including God’s Name “Jehovah” (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

In the beginning of times nor in the old times there where people who called themselves theologians or had the idea that they alone could truly understand the Words of God and give people insight. Those who claim to be the only ones who can fully understand the Bible and give the only right explanation are passing God’s Words and forgetting that it is God Himself Who calls and gives insight.

To come to know God we can look around us and see what nature has to offer us. We should open our eyes and see the micro-cosmos with its many wonders. Becoming aware of the nissim or miracles in nature we shall be able to recognise the invisible Hand of God.

Jehovah also has raised up for us prophets, men of God, His servants who wrote down God’s Words and tried to help people find the Most High Lord of the universe. Jehovah of Hosts, the Elohim of Israel, wants us to find Him and has taken care that His words were correctly written down and delivered from one generation unto the next.

The Elohim has gone forth to take to Himself a nation from the midst of a nation, by trials, by signs, and by wonders, and by battle, and by a mighty hand, and by a stretched out arm, and by great terrors, according to all that He, the Most High of all beings, shall be known as the One Who Is The Being Itself, the I Am Who Is’ or “I am that which I am” [ayah ashar ayah. This is not His Name, but it is an explanation that leads up to the revelation of His Name in v. 15, namely: יהוה  {Jehovah}] Who did so many things for those who lived on the earth, so that they could come to see Who is behind it all.

Elohim His a strong hand and outstretched arm we should allow to come over us. We should allow it that by great fearsome deeds, according to all that יהוה  {Jehovah} our Elohim has done in the past we shall get to know Him better by having our eyes and ears open for Him more than for human words and tricks. When opening ourselves for Him He shall let Him be known and shall recall to our heart that יהוה  {Jehovah} Himself is Elohim in the heavens above and on the earth beneath; there is none else beside Him.

God has at all times given His Words and has provided means so that people could find Him and could come close to Him. The only thing what He requires is that people listen to Him and guard His laws and His commands which He has given to man and which are recorded in the Book of books.

Deu 4:34-40 NHEBJE  Or has God tried to go and take a nation for himself from the midst of another nation, by trials, by signs, and by wonders, and by war, and by a mighty hand, and by an outstretched arm, and by great terrors, according to all that Jehovah your God did for you in Egypt before your eyes?  (35)  It was shown to you so that you might know that Jehovah is God. There is no one else besides him.  (36)  Out of heaven he made you to hear his voice, that he might instruct you: and on earth he made you to see his great fire; and you heard his words out of the midst of the fire.  (37)  Because he loved your fathers, therefore he chose their seed after them, and brought you out with his presence, with his great power, out of Egypt;  (38)  to drive out nations from before you greater and mightier than you, to bring you in, to give you their land for an inheritance, as at this day.  (39)  Know therefore this day, and lay it to your heart, that Jehovah he is God in heaven above and on the earth beneath; there is none else.  (40)  You shall keep his statutes, and his commandments, which I command you this day, that it may go well with you, and with your children after you, and that you may prolong your days in the land, which Jehovah your God gives you, forever.

Exo 3:14 NHEBJE  God said to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM,” and he said, “You shall tell the children of Israel this: ‘I AM has sent me to you.'”

Jehovah gave His remembrance to all generations and His Word’s notated in the Holy Scriptures should be sufficient for us to come to knowledge. when we are willing to hear God speaking to us in His infallible Word, the Bible, we should not worry about learned scholars, theologians or not being sufficient educated to find and understand God. God does not hold back necessary information for any body. He wants to give everybody, learned or not educated the chance to find Him and to worship Him.

God stretches out His Hand and, like all that Jehovah our God did for His people in Egypt before the eyes of the world, He is still present to bring trials and signs and wonders and even war, with an outstretched arm and with great and awesome deeds. Many may find it strange God allows fighting and wars going on, but may not forget that man himself wanted to be master of the world and arrange everything themselves. It is up to man to take care of their own life and their own environment, though those who want God near them, God shall not leave them abandoned but shall come to their guidance and help.

With the Holy Scriptures we have been given a very handy tool and a manual for life. We all are shown the wonders of God in order for us to acknowledge that Jehovah is the God; there is no other God besides him.

Exo 15:11 NHEBJE  Who is like you, Jehovah, among the gods? Who is like you, glorious in holiness, fearful in praises, doing wonders?

We should trust God and follow His words. No other man or god besides Jehovah shall be able to  give all explanation and would be mightier or better than the Word of God itself.

It is by reading the many books of those prophets that we can come to know God, His Works  and His son, who also used those books to explain what he came to do and to show who the Messiah was.

Luk 24:26-27 NHEBJE  Did not the Messiah have to suffer these things and to enter into his glory?”  (27)  Beginning from Moses and from all the prophets, he explained to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself.

Luk 24:31-32 NHEBJE  Their eyes were opened, and they recognized him, and he vanished out of their sight.  (32)  They said one to another, “Weren’t our hearts burning within us, while he spoke to us along the way, and while he opened the Scriptures to us?”

Luk 24:44-45 NHEBJE  He said to them, “This is what I told you, while I was still with you, that all things which are written in the Law of Moses, the Prophets, and the Psalms, concerning me must be fulfilled.”  (45)  Then he opened their minds, that they might understand the Scriptures.

Like in the old times many persons their eyes may still be closed. Many people their minds are also still closed. Our minds may like the apostles their mind still being covered with the same veil as they read the books of the old covenant. We should know that it are not the theologians who are going to remove that veil because it is removed only when a person is joined to Christ.  Even today, whenever they read the Law of Moses, the veil still covers many so called ‘Christians‘ their minds.  But it can be removed, as the Scripture talks about Moses his veil being removed when he turned to the Lord Most High. Also at the time that Christ Jesus was afraid for what was going to come he wondered why God had abandoned him and cried unto God. We too like Christ can call unto his heavenly Father and in the same way as Christ found guidance from God in the Holy Scriptures, we too can find guidance in it. God’s Spirit accompanied Christ Jesus who was keeping to the Word of his heavenly Father, the Only One God. Like him we, when letting the Spirit come into our heart can find liberation of human doctrines and find freedom.

Those who call themselves followers of Christ Jesus should listen to his words and to the words of the heavenly Father Who sent Jesus to this world. Those willing to become a Christian should get to know the Holy Scriptures like Jesus knew the Scriptures very well.  With uncovered faces, not afraid to take the words of the Bible like they are written down, we should reflect the glory of God  יהוה the Spirit, and where the Spirit of יהוה {Jehovah} is, there is freedom, finding transformation into His likeness in an ever greater degree of glory.

2Co 3:14-18 NHEBJE  But their minds were hardened, for until this very day at the reading of the old covenant the same veil remains, because in Christ it passes away.  (15)  But to this day, when Moses is read, a veil lies on their heart.  (16)  But whenever one turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away.  (17)  Now the Lord is the Spirit and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.  (18)  But we all, with unveiled face beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are transformed into the same image from glory to glory, even as from the Lord, the Spirit.

Isa 29:18-19 NHEBJE  In that day, the deaf will hear the words of the book, and the eyes of the blind will see out of obscurity and out of darkness.  (19)  The humble also will increase their joy in Jehovah, and the poor among men will rejoice in the Holy One of Israel.

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Preceding:

Gone astray, away from God

Necessity of a revelation of creation 11 Believing and obeying the gospel of the Kingdom of God

Necessity of a revelation of creation 12 Words assembled for wisdom and instruction

Necessity of a revelation of creation 13 Getting wisdom

Necessity of a revelation of creation 14 Searching the scriptures

Theologians and a promised Spirit to enlighten us

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Additional reading:

  1. The business of this life
  2. A Living Faith #5 Perseverance
  3. A Living Faith #10: Our manner of Life #2
  4. Seeking for God
  5. Lord and owner
  6. Without God no purpose, no goal, no hope
  7. Trusting, Faith, calling and Ascribing to Jehovah #3 Voice of God #6 Words to feed and communicate
  8. Blinkered minds
  9. Looking at three “I am” s
  10. True God giving His Word for getting wisdom
  11. Counterfeit Gospels
  12. I can’t believe that … (3) miracles can happen
  13. Truth, doubt or blindness
  14. Wisdom lies deep
  15. Something Most False Christians Have In Common
  16. Being Religious and Spiritual 5 Gnostic influences
  17. Being Religious and Spiritual 6 Romantici, utopists and transcendentalists
  18. Increased in wisdom in favour with God
  19. Glory of God appearing in our character
  20. Be like a tree planted by streams of water
  21. Change
  22. God is good to those whose hope is in him, to the one who seeks him
  23. Daily Spiritual Food To prepare ourselves for the Kingdom of God
  24. Genuine message of salvation
  25. Good or bad preacher
  26. Writers needed to preach to non-believers
  27. Perishable non theologians daring to go out to preach

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Further reading about theologians:

  1. Quotable Quote
  2. To Know What Is Real
  3. I Believe
  4. Devotional for the Theologian (official and unofficial)
  5. A Man and His Vision
  6. … 506 years ago
  7. The Severe Handicap of a Traditional, Western, Religious Mindset…
  8. Dr. Cornelius Van Til – The Christian View of Education and Culture
  9. Essay – Out of the Abundance of Struggles the Mouth speaks
  10. Faith That Yields a Bountiful Harvest
  11. Why I’m Passionate About Lancaster Bible College
  12. Richard Hays on Being Pastoral-Theologians like Paul
  13. May 2 – Athanasius
  14. Nov 3 – Richard Hooker
  15. Book Recommendation … Jonathan Edwards
  16. I Resolve …
  17. John Piper
  18. Puritan John Owen – The Power of Sin in the Lives of Professorsur
  19. Timothy Keller
  20. The Golden Dawn
  21. Catharsis and the Nous
  22. Who am I to be a Theologian?
  23. The 36 Doctors of the Catholic Church
  24. On the Question of Doctoral Studies (By a “lay” theologian)
  25. Do you want to be a Pastor?
  26. Theologian ~ Pain of the Saints
  27. The Theologian as Artist
  28. The hardships of Biblical Scholar’dom (or, Beware the buzzwords, my son!)
  29. Paul Molnar’s Advice on How to Get an Academic Job
  30. Every Christian is a Theologian
  31. I think that every Christian ultimately is a theologian…
  32. Why Theological Study Is for Everyone

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Necessity of a revelation of creation 10 Instructions for insight and wisdom

In Necessity of a revelation of creation 9 Searching the Scriptures we looked at the reason to go searching in the Book of books for truth. Throughout history man sought to get more wisdom and insight and therefore looked for the wisdom of the gods, but the world should know to find the true wisdom they best go looking for the Words of the One and Only One God, the Elohim Hashem Jehovah.  He is the best Instructor for mankind. He created man and knows what is best for them. He is willing to talk to them when they are prepared to listen to Him. He also provided His Word for them which is available to all in book-form so that nobody has an excuse not having been able to come in touch with it. This God of gods is always there to give you wisdom, insight and understanding.

English: The Apostle Paul
The Apostle Paul (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

This God of gods also send forth His only begotten beloved son who educated his disciples to become apostles bringing the Good News proclaiming the Word of God of salvation. In such a way we for example find the apostle Paul as a prisoner of Christ Jesus on behalf of the Gentiles,  the non-Jews and those who were not part of the chosen people of God to bring them the news about the administration or stewardship of the grace of God which was given him toward us; how that by revelation the mystery was made known to him, as he wrote before in few words.  He, bestowed this privilege, of making known to the Gentiles the unfathomable riches of Christ, mastered this secret of Christ’s and wants others to master it too. With his many writings we now have that opportunity.

Eph 3:1-3 NHEBJE  For this cause I, Paul, am the prisoner of Christ Jesus on behalf of you Gentiles,  (2)  if it is so that you have heard of the administration of that grace of God which was given me toward you;  (3)  how that by revelation the mystery was made known to me, as I wrote before in few words,

Those who know the Word of God and call themselves Christian should follow the masters teachings and follow up the task of going out into the world preaching the Word of God. By reading that Word of God, God will know how you long for Him and long for others to be apart of that Body of Christ as well. By continues study of that Word of God you, with the tenderness of Jesus Christ himself, will make it that you come to more insight and will have your love grow richer and richer yet, in the fullness of its knowledge and the depth of its perception, so that you may learn to prize what is of value. Though we should be careful not to let us be carried away by human teachings or man’s doctrines which may cloud your faithfulness to Only One God and will make cloud your conscience or hinder your progress till the day when Christ comes. If you take the words of Jesus Christ for what they really say and mean you shall find that you may reap, through Jesus Christ, the full harvest of your justification to God’s glory and praise.

Php 1:9-11 NHEBJE  This I pray, that your love may abound yet more and more in knowledge and all discernment;  (10)  so that you may approve the things that are excellent; that you may be sincere and without offense to the day of Christ;  (11)  being filled with the fruit of righteousness, which are through Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God.

In the knowledge that we are all limited in time and that we if we are dead with Christ, we shall also live with Jeshua, Jesus the Messiah, this with the understand what is said in the Book of books have to be taken as words given to us so that God may give us understanding in all things so that we may obtain the saving health which is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory.

2Ti 2:7-10 NHEBJE  Consider what I say, for the Lord will give you understanding in all things.  (8)  Remember Jesus Christ, risen from the dead, of the seed of David, according to my Good News,  (9)  in which I suffer hardship to the point of chains as a criminal. But God’s word is not chained.  (10)  Therefore I endure all things for the chosen ones’ sake, that they also may obtain the salvation which is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory.

Already in the times of Moses God called man to come to Him and to follow the tables of stone and the law and commandments which He has written to teach man. Men of God could teach the statutes and rights, which God Had ordered them to tell others, that they might do them in the regions they were going to live. Man has to know that until heaven and earth pass, not one jot or one tittle shall pass from the law until all is fulfilled.  They also had to be conscious of it that the ones whosoever shall undo even one of the least commandments and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of the heavens; but whosoever shall do and teach, the same shall be called great in the kingdom of the heavens.

Mat 5:18-19 NHEBJE  For truly, I tell you, until heaven and earth pass away, not even one smallest letter or one tiny pen stroke shall in any way pass away from the Law, until all things are accomplished.  (19)  Whoever, therefore, shall break one of these least commandments, and teach others to do so, shall be called least in the Kingdom of Heaven; but whoever shall do and teach them shall be called great in the Kingdom of Heaven.

Moses commanded us a law, an inheritance for the assembly of Jacob (Deuteronomy 33:4). Those who take Jeshua as their rabbi, as followers of him (Christians) should also be happy to be members of that inheritance, which means they also shall have to comply to those laws and instructions God has given.

Neh 1:8-9 NHEBJE  “Remember, I beg you, the word that you commanded your servant Moses, saying, ‘If you trespass, I will scatter you abroad among the peoples;  (9)  but if you return to me, and keep my commandments and do them, though your outcasts were in the uttermost part of the heavens, yet will I gather them from there, and will bring them to the place that I have chosen, to cause my name to dwell there.’

Though many may ask us

Job 22:12-13 NHEBJE  “Isn’t God in the heights of heaven? See the height of the stars, how high they are!  (13)  You say, ‘What does God know? Can he judge through the thick darkness?

Many man will you keep the old way, which wicked men have trodden, who were snatched away before their time, whose foundation was poured out as a stream, who said to God,

‘Depart from us;’ and, ‘What can Shaddai do for us?’ (Job 22:17)

The Elohim though, is always there, available for those who want to go looking for Him. They that from their heart are willing to go searching for the Truth shall receive instruction from God His mouth, when they are willing to look in the Holy Scriptures and lay up His words in their heart. (Job 22:22)

Psa 50:7-17 NHEBJE  “Hear, my people, and I will speak; Israel, and I will testify against you. I am God, your God.  (8)  I do not rebuke you for your sacrifices. Your burnt offerings are continually before me.  (9)  I have no need for a bull from your stall, nor male goats from your pens.  (10)  For every animal of the forest is mine, and the livestock on a thousand hills.  (11)  I know all the birds of the mountains. The wild animals of the field are mine.  (12)  If I were hungry, I would not tell you, for the world is mine, and all that is in it.  (13)  Will I eat the flesh of bulls, or drink the blood of goats?  (14)  Offer to God the sacrifice of thanksgiving. Pay your vows to the Most High.  (15)  Call on me in the day of trouble. I will deliver you, and you will honor me.”  (16)  But to the wicked God says, “What right do you have to declare my statutes, that you have taken my covenant on your lips,  (17)  seeing you hate instruction, and throw my words behind you?

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Preceding articles:

  1. Necessity of a revelation of creation 1 Works of God and works of man
  2. Necessity of a revelation of creation 2 Organisation of a system of things
  3. Necessity of a revelation of creation 3 Getting understanding by Word of God 1
  4. Necessity of a revelation of creation 4 Getting understanding by Word of God 2
  5. Necessity of a revelation of creation 5 Getting understanding by Word of God 3
  6. Necessity of a revelation of creation 6 Getting understanding by Word of God 4
  7. Necessity of a revelation of creation 7 Getting understanding by Word of God 5
  8. Necessity of a revelation of creation 8 By no means unintelligible or mysterious to people
  9. Necessity of a revelation of creation 9 Searching the Scriptures

To be continued with: Necessity of a revelation of creation 11 Believing and obeying the gospel of the Kingdom of God

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Additional reading:

  1. Materialism, would be life, and aspirations
  2. I Only hope we find GOD again before it is too late !
  3. Believing in the send one and understanding that one does not live by bread alone
  4. Colour-blindness and road code
  5. 8 fears caused by the fear of Man
  6. If we, in our prosperity, neglect religious instruction and authority
  7. God’s wisdom for the believer brings peace
  8. Challenging claim
  9. Building up the spirit of the soul
  10. Creator and Blogger God 6 For His people
  11. Creator and Blogger God 8 A Blog of a Book 2 Holy One making Scriptures Holy
  12. Trusting, Faith, calling and Ascribing to Jehovah #3 Voice of God #4 Words in Scripture
  13. Fear of God reason to return to Holy Scriptures
  14. A Living Faith #3 Faith put into action

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Necessity of a revelation of creation 6 Getting understanding by Word of God 4

Book of Genesis, Jianning (Jian'ou) Bible.
Book of Genesis, Jianning (Jian’ou) Bible. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Offering, sacrifice and worship are only mentioned casually in the book of Genesis. The stories of those who continued to populate the earth are also offered in the Book of books, the Bible, which we consider as the infallible Word of God. There is no reason to give a historical detail and the person who wrote down the Words of God had also no such intention. We are also reminded that it is the glory of God to conceal a matter, but that man has the task to find God and to search all things, making it possible to receive glory by searching matters out.

Pro 25:2 NSB  It is the glory of God to conceal a matter, but the honor of kings is to search out a matter.

In our life we shall have to search for God and should come to know what God’s expectations are and why God listens to some one and does not come to help to others. In Genesis 6 we can see how God was patient and gave enough time to people to come to other ideas and to stop our egoistic life, giving us opportunities to come to live the way God wants us to live.

The Bible assumes and asserts the existence of God,

“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth”;

and is itself the most illustrious proof of his existence, as well as our chief instructor as to his nature and will. It puts a voice into the mute lips of creation; and not only reveals God in His works, but illustrates his ways in providence, displays the glories of His character, His law, and His grace, and brings man into true and saving communion with him. The Book of books reveals Him to us as a Spirit, the only being from everlasting and to everlasting by nature, underived, infinite, perfect, and unchangeable in power, wisdom, omniscience, omnipresence, justice, holiness, truth, goodness, and mercy. He is but One God, Who gave His Name to the world to be known all over the world. The proper Hebrew name for God is Jehovah, which signifies that “He is the Being” or that “He is the Essence of Being” or “Essence of life”. As time passed by the Jews, from a feeling of reverence, started avoiding pronouncing this holy name, substituting for it, wherever it occurs in the sacred test, the word Adonai (Lord); except in the expression, Adonai Jehovah, Lord Jehovah, for which they put, Adonai Elohim, Lord God.

Tetragrammaton YHWH Je-Ho-Vah, God's Name illuminating
Tetragrammaton YHWH Je-Ho-Vah, God’s Name illuminating

This usage, which is not without an element of superstition, is very ancient, dating its origin some centuries before Christ; but there is no good ground for assuming its existence in the days of the inspired Old Testament writers. The proper word for god or God is elohim or Elohim, which is plural in its form, being thus used to signify it is a higher or important person (a god) and in this case even the Most High God of gods, signifying the manifold perfections of God, or, as some wrongly think, the Trinity in the godhead. In Exodus 3:14, God replies to Moses, when he asks Him His name,

“I AM THAT I AM”;

which means either, “I am He who I am”, or, “I am what I am”. In either case the expression implies the eternal self-existence of Jehovah Who is Only One God “Who Is”. He “Who is Who He is” is the Source, Owner, and Ruler of all beings, foreknows and predetermines all events, and is the eternal Judge and Arbiter of the destiny of all. True religion has its foundation in the right knowledge of God, and consists in supremely loving and faithfully obeying him.

In the early times that holy Name and what this Only One God wanted from His creation was told from one generation to the next.  But after the situation had become so bad that God had made the choice to destroy that ungodly population we can see a sufficient reason why the sons of Noah renewed the tradition of presenting the stories and name and titles of God and godly people in their families, as they were naturally disposed to perpetuate the memory of their distinguished ancestors.

The Flood came that God’s purpose might be fulfilled. The course of nature was interrupted, the arrangements of social and domestic life were overturned, all the works of men were swept away that this purpose might be fulfilled. It was expedient that one generation should die for all generations; and this generation having been taken out of the way, fresh provision was made for the co-operation of man with God. On man’s part there is art emphatic acknowledgement of God by sacrifice; on God’s part there is a renewed grant to man of the world and its fullness, a renewed assurance of His favour. There was made a covenant with Noah on the plane of nature. It is man’s natural life in the world which is the subject of it. The sacredness of life is its great lesson.

Men might well wonder whether God did not hold life cheap. In the old world violence had prevailed. But while Lamech’s sword may have slain its thousands, God had in the Flood slain tens of thousands. The covenant, therefore, directs that human life must be reverenced. The primal blessing is renewed. Men are to multiply and replenish the earth; and the slaughter of a man was to be reckoned a capital crime; and the maintenance of life was guaranteed by a special clause, securing the regularity of the seasons.

The sons of Noah (Sem/Shem, Cham, Japheth) continued the tradition of telling the Works of God and having to face the difference in tongue spoken with the different languages the Word of God became told in different languages as well.

You would expect the people to have more sense after the flood and after the experience of Babel but lots of people kept ignoring what God wanted from them. They did seem to have difficulty to learn from the Flood that wickedness must not be allowed to grow unchecked and attain dimensions which nothing short of a flood can cope with. It may be felt that the matters about which God spoke to Noah were barely religious, certainly not spiritual. But to take God as our-God in any one particular is to take Him as our God for all. If we can eat our daily bread as given to us by our Father in heaven, then we are heirs of the righteousness which is by faith. It is because we wait for some wonderful and out-of-the-way proofs that God is keeping faith with us that we so much lack a real and living faith.
Only a small amount tried to stay faithful to the Creator. One of them was Abraham. The consequences of Abraham’s movements and beliefs have been limitless and enduring.

With Abraham there is introduced the first step in a new method adopted by God in the training of men.

The dispersion of men and the divergence of their languages are now seen to have been the necessary preliminary to this new step in the education of the world — the fencing round of one people till they should learn to know God and understand and exemplify His government. It is true, God reveals Himself to all men and governs all; but by selecting one race with special adaptations, and by giving to it a special training, God might more securely and more rapidly reveal Himself to all. Each nation has certain characteristics, a national character which grows by seclusion from the influences which are forming other races. There is a certain mental and moral individuality stamped upon every separate people. Nothing is more certainly retained; nothing more certainly handed down from generation to generation. It would therefore be a good practical means of conserving and deepening the knowledge of God, if it were made the national interest of a people to preserve it, and if it were closely identified with the national characteristics. This was the method adopted by God. He meant to combine allegiance to Himself with national advantages, and spiritual with national character, and separation in belief with a distinctly outlined and defensible territory. {Expositor Bible}

God revealed Himself to Abraham who knew about the deities worshipped by his fathers in Chaldea, but his ears were open to the God of gods and he wanted to follow His instructions even when He asked to offer his son.

Had Abraham abandoned Charran at the command of a widely ruling monarch who promised him ample compensation, no record would have been made of so ordinary a transaction. But this was an entirely new thing and well worth recording, that a man should leave country and kindred and seek an unknown land under the impression that thus he was obeying the command of the unseen God. While others worshipped sun, moon, and stars, and recognised the Divine in their brilliance and power, in their exaltation above earth and control of earth and its life, Abraham saw that there was something greater than the order of nature and more worthy of worship, even the still small voice that spoke within his own conscience of right and wrong in human conduct, and that told him how his own life must be ordered. While all around him were bowing down to the heavenly host and sacrificing to them the highest things in human nature, he heard a voice falling from these shining ministers of God’s will, which said to him, “See thou do it not, for we are thy fellow-servants; worship thou God!” This was the triumph of the spiritual over the material; the acknowledgment that in God there is something greater than can be found in nature; that man finds his true affinity not in the things that are seen but in the unseen Spirit that is over all. It is this that gives to the figure of Abraham its simple grandeur and its permanent significance. {Expositor Bible}

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Preceding articles:

The very very beginning 1 Creating Gods

Genesis Among the Creation Myths

Something from nothing

Necessity of a revelation of creation 1 Works of God and works of man

Necessity of a revelation of creation 2 Organisation of a system of things

Necessity of a revelation of creation 3 Getting understanding by Word of God 1

Necessity of a revelation of creation 4 Getting understanding by Word of God 2

Necessity of a revelation of creation 5 Getting understanding by Word of God 3

Next: Necessity of a revelation of creation 7 Getting understanding by Word of God 5

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Further reading:

  1. I am that I am Ehyeh-Asher-Ehyeh אהיה אשר אהיה
  2. Attributes to God, titles ascribed to Him or Names given to JHWH, the God of gods.
  3. Titles of God beginning with the Aleph in Hebrew
  4. Pluralis Majestatis in the Holy Scriptures
  5. Hashem השם, Hebrew for “the Name”
  6. The Divine name of the Creator
  7. Jehovah Yahweh Gods Name
  8. God about His name “יהוה“יהוה
  9. YHWH and Love: Four-letter words
  10. Creator and Blogger God 8 A Blog of a Book 2 Holy One making Scriptures Holy
  11. Between Alpha and Omega – The plan of creation
  12. What date was the Flood?
  13. Warm-blooded, feathered vertebrates
  14. An anarchistic reading of the Bible (2)—Creation and what follows
  15. Louise Weiss building and towers after Ziggurat Babel

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  • Things The Bible said would happen, but didn’t (ask.metafilter.com)
    Outside my work today I got to talking with a Jehovah’s Witness. When talk turned to the Bible, I said I didn’t take any of it literally. None of it Reall happened like that.
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    According to my very religious parents there are no biblical prophesies that haven’t happened, just ones that haven’t happened yet.
  • Your best personality. (yoursuccessinspirer.com)
    There are people whose best personality is in the Old Testament.
  • The God Who Sees (theloveliestlifeblog.wordpress.com)
    God saw Hagar when she was in her lonely wilderness, and he went to her.  This passage has reminded me so much of God’s sight and concern for us, each of us.  No matter our standing or background, God’s eyes are on each of us at all times.  He knows where we are and what we’re going through.  We are never alone.
  • What To Do About The Old Testament Law (jsparkblog.com)
    Though the Old Testament Law was entirely fulfilled in Christ for us, the OT Law still stands in principle for us today. Even the weird things about shellfish and fibers shows a very meticulous God who was perfect, even quirky, and shows a God we could’ve never made up.
  • Against The Flow by John C. Lennox (create-with-joy.com)
    Unlike many books that primarily focus on the prophetic aspects of the book of Daniel, Against The Flow delves into all aspects of the book, looking at Daniel from a historical, cultural and theological perspective.One of the author’s primary purpose for writing Against The Flow, however, is to highlight the similarities between our modern culture and the ancient Babylonian culture in terms of antagonism towards people of faith – and to provide insight and inspiration into how God empowers His people to go against the flow – to stand up for what they believe in – to cling to what is right, even when there is a high cost.
  • Open Heavens Sunday, 29 March 2015 : Emmanuel (emmanuelayeni.com)
    For you to fully key into the revelation of “God with us”, you need to understand who God is. God revealed who He is in discrete parts through His redemptive Names to the saints of old. He said to Moses in Exodus 6:3:
    “And I appeared unto Abraham, unto Isaac, and unto Jacob, by the name of God Almighty, but by my name JEHOVAH was I not known to them.”
    An understanding of His redemptive Names gives us insight into His personality and allows us to profit from the consciousness that this personality is with us.
    God is the Elshaddai: He is the All-Sufficient One. This means that He has enough resources to meet all your needs – be it spiritual, physical, emotional or psychological. Also, God is Jehovah Jireh: the Great Provider. He has the ability to turn your austerity to prosperity and poverty to wealth (Philippians 4:19). Another Name for God is Jehovah Rapha: the Healer.

Genesis Among the Creation Myths

When we look at different myths about creation we can see that in several of them that though details may differ the essential lines of the stories or the elements of the astronomical and biblical accounts of Genesis are the same. For people it was found important to tell what happened in the past and by the years the stories grew. Having continents getting out of each other, spacing out by sees in-between people got estranged from each other and stories went their own way.

The Hubble Ultra Deep Field, is an image of a ...
The Hubble Ultra Deep Field, is an image of a small region of space in the constellation Fornax, composited from Hubble Space Telescope data accumulated over a period from September 3, 2003 through January 16, 2004. The patch of sky in which the galaxies reside was chosen because it had a low density of bright stars in the near-field. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Those who want to analyse the beginning of the world will always come to a point where there shall be something which they are not able to place. Some of them may think that there is nothing that exists that they cannot analyse under the rules of science, say the Big Bang theory can only be explained by other theories that sound like faith. Honest and maybe agnostic scientist should come to realise that in the previous centuries it where humans who did not want to see what was really explained in the Bible being close to the theories they scientifically could find. Man has to agree that the Bible said it all a long time before science got there.
That the Big Bang theory proposes that the universe started from a singularity – a dense wad of matter that for reasons not yet known suddenly exploded outward in an immense pulse of energy and light, is in a way not contradiction with the void spoken of in the Holy Scriptures. Scientific consensus has pretty much decided that is how the universe we currently live in started, but they still cannot explain more or say what made the mass to have a black hole or an action taking place somewhere in time.
That time could be placed under the name of day or phase, but at the start there was not such an indication because light and darkness were the elements to be forming the differences in time. The book of Genesis wants to give the synopsis of Creation in a few sentences, saying it took six periods or phases of coming into existence. In the later books of the Bible it is indicated that people do have no idea about the space and about the time in God’s eyes. Time for God is totally different than for the creatures who can find darkness and light as elements dividing the space in countable or measurable units to give an indication of the now, before and after. The indication of that time also changed in the course of history, bringing it to seconds, minutes and hours, days, weeks, months and years which may be divided differently or follow another calendar. Man should know, according Scriptures, that for the eternal Creator our time indications are like nothing to hold on, because what is a day to an eternal Being when there was no sun to calculate a time period and when there is no beginning and no end to Its existence.

Book of Genesis, Ningpo Bible.
Book of Genesis, Ningpo Bible. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The gods we may find in all the different myths are not self consistent and are not exactly creators of all elements. Though the God presented in the Scriptures and presented by the Israelites, the people of God or People of Jehovah, is One God Who was before everything and Who is responsible Himself for everything. The oral tradition brought the history of mankind and the Word of God from one person to the other. That it was penned later than other stories of the beginning of the world does not make it less believable or untrue. The way the story was presented had to bring understanding to all, educated and non- educated and it should have been able to tell it from one generation to another. Short lines were the easiest to get it recounted; told over and over again, making sure it got through time with the same lines. That not everything is exactly the same in the genesis stories we can find by the different cultures takes not away that we can see the ‘grosso mode similar line’. The perspective by which is looked at the beginning of the elements says a lot of the people but also can give an indication of the connection of the people with that Creator, having the Israelites having kept their relationship on good terms and seeing human being as major part of creation and as the only elements being in the image of that Creator, placing them more in the centre than in other cultures. For them it was also more important to know what their function is in this creation and where they stand opposite the Creator.
In the God’s People version of the beginnings of the universe the Elohim as Most High All-knowing Supreme Being wanted Him to be known and supplied a description of Who He is, who man is and why man existed and then allowed the people of that era to cast it into terms that they could understand rather than in terms that we would readily recognize in the 21st century.

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Preceding articles:

 

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Additional reading:

  1. Creator and Blogger God 9 A Blog of a Book 3 Blog about Prophecy
  2. Creator and Blogger God 6 For His people
  3. Trusting, Faith, Calling and Ascribing to Jehovah #7 Prayer #5 Listening Ear

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  • One Hundred Years of Relativity (project-syndicate.org)
    Einstein’s theory not only describes our universe, from the Big Bang to black holes; it has also taught physicists the relevance of geometry and symmetry – lessons that spread from particle physics to crystallography. But, despite the similarities that Einstein’s theory has with other theories in physics, it stands apart by its refusal to fit together with quantum mechanics, the theory that explains the dominant behavior of matter at the atomic and subatomic scale.
  • Today’s Scrip-Bit 2 March 2015 Psalm 27:10 (randyobrien50.wordpress.com)
    Can you imagine too that we’re already into March, and it seems like only yesterday we were singing Old Lang Syne, and wishing each other a Happy New Year. It’s already been a couple of weeks too since we were singing: ‘Mas in yuh mas! Play mas!’
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    And all of that was just to say my people that time is swiftly moving by and who knows what will happen, or when, so it is essential that we get our house in order, just in case…just in case Jesus returns unexpectedly and we’re not ready. The same way we’re seldom ready for Monday mornings. The big difference though is that we have something to counteract our Monday morning blues – our Monday Morning Battle Hymn.
  • 1 Samuel 13 (asorensen.wordpress.com)
    The people of Israel see they are in trouble, and cry out to God.  Saul is waiting for Samuel to show up and seek the Lord about the situation.  When he doesn’t come as quickly as Saul expects, Saul takes things into his own hands and offers a burnt offering to the Lord on his own.
  • The Word (carolynwebbrussell.wordpress.com)
    Secular scientists suggest that Big Bang Theory is different than creation that they are two different things. I’m not going to even bring up evolution because Darwin himself just thought it was a theory and didn’t even believe it.
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    I feel that if in the book of Genesis it is written that God spoke everything into existence. The sound of His voice, brought form to this world, hung the stars and called them each by name all in 7 days. All throughout the Bible it talks about how powerful God’s voice is. We read that it can make mountains tremble and so much more. So…what if when God spoke everything into motion at that moment that is when the “Big Bang Theory” happened. God created even that theory that scientists have come up with in trying to figure out all He created. As I study the voice and essential oils through science it keeps pointing me back to the fact that God is so much bigger than “science” because He created it all because He loves us so much.

aurorawatcherak

There are well recognized parallels between Genesis 1 and 2 and other ancient Near Eastern creation myths. Archeologists tell us that the Mesopotamian and Egyptian myths predate the Biblical account.

imageOh, my! I’ve been wrong about this faith thing all this time! Thank you for setting me straight!

No, seriously – my faith does not rest on scientific or archeological research. I find the study of these things interesting, but the study of creation should never take precedence of the Creator.

Before the mid-19th century it was possible to read the Old Testament in isolation and marvel at the creation stories in Genesis, to believe without equivocation that they were a unique special perfect revelation delivered to Moses during the sojourn in the wilderness.

Multitudinous discoveries over the last two centuries have challenged this view in deep and profound ways. Tablets were found dating from the mid-7th century…

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