Free - Take One “Beware lest any man spoil you through · the power to do the things Israel needs as they cross over Jordan to take the land of promise. Moses points out that God

We ended our last segment still inour overview of the Book of Deuteronomybut very near the end of that book. Incovering the last days of Moses' life we seehow he spent his time not just passing hisleadership role to Joshua but emphasizinghow important the work Godhad given the nation wasto their lives. He doesthis by, once again,making the point theyneed not blame Godwhen everything inthe nation starts tofall apart atanytime, becausesuch a thing would onlyhappen if the nation refused tofollow the Laws of God which they hadcommitted to follow. We see Moses givingLaws concerning how often to review theLaws of God. This was to be a continualverbal thing, but also included the nationbeing told to read the Law every sevenyears. As Moses had finally done all hecould do to bring the nation into what theyneeded to be, he ends his time by givingblessings and prophecies concerning eachtribe and nation as a whole. Covering all

this brought us through the end ofDeuteronomy chapter 33 verse 25, and wewill begin with verse 26 of that chapter thistime.

After speaking about the future ofeach tribe, Moses would now turn to speakspecifically of God in reference to Him

being the God of Joshua whowould lead the nation intothe promised land.Moses points out how

God is He who rides uponthe wind, which is a

reference to the fact God isnot some false god with the

power of the wind or the winditself. No, God is the God who

created the wind, and thuscontrols its every motion. In Him lays allthe power to do the things Israel needs asthey cross over Jordan to take the land ofpromise. Moses points out that God willthrust out Israel's enemies and tell Israel todestroy them. This is an interesting smallpiece of information Moses is giving as hedescribes the enemy as being thrust outbefore Israel is told to destroy, and that isexactly the case. God had already done the

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Part LVI

work of defeating these enemies, all Israelhad to do was be the physical tool to destroythem. This would be done for all the eyes ofmen to see. Israel could easily do thisbecause God would be the refuge theycould always count on. In the end, Israelwas suppose to dwell in the land alonewithout other nations to hinder them, andthere they would be safe.

Moses also refers to the wells ofJacob, and if we remember our stories ofIsaac's and Jacob's lives, we know they hadto fight to protect the wells Abraham andthe family in general had built. These wellsare what kept the flocks watered and caredfor the needs of the people living on theland. It was very much the land's lifeblood,and so Moses uses this as a reference to thefact God would give them the very placesand blessings their fathers Abraham, Isaac,and Jacob had worked to bring about. Thefaithfulness of past generations to live in thepromises of God and the blessings thatbrought were to be fulfilled and enjoyed inthe days Israel now lived. Moses points outhow blessed Israel was/is to have God astheir protector and caregiver. It would causethe nation to easily overcome all who cameagainst them, and even take the lands oftheir enemies as their own. These are thewords Moses ends his life as leader of Israelspeaking to the people. What more could hedo but encourage them one last time to trustthe promises God had given them were trueand follow the Laws which were vital tothem seeing these blessings. This was neverabout punishment for not appeasing Godsuch as men think concerning false godswhich they create. This was about Israelhaving a job to do in the plan of God, whichis that none perish but all come to

repentance in a life lived walking beforeHim. It was about giving Israel the toolsand instructions needed to see physicalland bloom and wealth created. It wasabout God wanting them to stand in a placeof continual desire for righteousness sothey would be in a place God couldcontinually bless them!

With these words Moses would nowgo into the mountains of Moab where Godhad instructed him to go as his life wouldcome to an end. As God had promised, Hewould show Moses all the land Israel wasto initially take as they crossed over Jordan.In the description we see a list of thehighlights of what Moses saw, and in itthere are two things. First, we are toldMoses sees a greater distance than just theview from even this high mountain ofPisgah would allow. However, even if youbelieve this is still just a generalization ofseeing a vast land laid out in front ofMoses, there is the second point that Mosessaw some details one would not be able tosee by just standing on this mountain. Itwould seem in this God allowed Moses aview of the land that came with some verytelescopic vision. Some might be temptedto say Moses was taken on a flying tour ofthe land, but we are told nothing about Godtaking him on anything of the kind. Thereis also the point that if he had even in aspiritual way flown over the land therewould be more details than just the city ofJericho, which would be the first city thenation would take. Thus, what we see hereis Moses being allowed to see what nohuman on their own would be able to seewith just your eyes. Moses was given theability by God to see enough to get a realpicture of what the land looked like from

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end to end and from the Jordan to theMediterranean Sea. This view would bepermitted Moses before he left this world,for it is specified again here that God wouldnot allow Moses to go into the land. This isthe land God specifically promised toAbraham, Isaac and Jacob for their futuregenerations.

Next we are not only told again thatMoses would not be allowed to enter theland of promise, but as the next verses tellus of Moses' death it goes on to specify itwould be here in the land of Moab Moses'body would be buried. This is a strikingfact as even Joseph, who yes had been bornand lived many years in the promised landbefore being sold into slavery, instructedhis bones one day be carried out of Egyptto be taken back to the promised land.(Josh. 24:32) This was to be done when theday came the children of Israel left Egypt toreturn to the land God had promised theirfathers. So we are told that as Moses leadsthe nation out of Egypt, the bones of Josephare indeed taken with them and carried overthese long years of travel through thewilderness in order to be buried in the land.However, Moses, the man who had led thepeople all this way, the man to whom Godhad given the Law which Israel was tofollow, the man who had communed withGod face to face, that man's body would noteven be carried over the Jordan to be buriedin the promised land.

Was this because the children ofIsrael would not have went to the effort todo such a thing? Of course not! It was thefact God had said Moses would not step

foot in the promised land that we are toldeven Moses' body was buried by God herein the land of Moab. However, it is alsospecific that to this very day no man knowswhere his grave is! Israel was specificallynot to take Moses with them into the landin any way, and while some would look atthis as Moses' great punishment, it is notreally so much about that. Not only havewe talked before of how this was not allabout Moses making one unforgivablemistake in striking instead of speaking tothe rock as God had instructed, it was reallyabout keeping Moses from becoming a godof some kind to Israel. We see right off thatas Israel is coming out of Egypt they didnot even last long enough for Moses toreceive the Law from God on Mount Sinaibefore they had built for themselves a falsegod to worship, and claimed it was the godwho had brought them out of Egypt. (Ex.32:1-5) However, after being punishedwith forty years of wandering in thewilderness for their distrust in God as theywere suppose to enter the land, they wouldstill be tempted again and again by falsereligions.

Now, one of the affects of the Towerof Babel is that every culture desires to bea little different while being enough thesame as to not be left out in the world. Thisis our constant contradiction. We want tobe unique but we are not willing to live inthat uniqueness if it puts us on the outsideof whatever is considered the norm. Thus,while Israel would say they wanted to belike other nations in so many ways, theywould also look to something veryculturally theirs to build a false religion

around. The fact each culture desires tohave something uniquely theirs is why Godcreated a nation all His own. Israel was tohave a very unique culture not because itwas designed to be that way so much, butbecause man had turned so hard from thetrue ways of God that any culture focusedon serving the ways of God in this worldwas going to be very different from theways other people choose to live. This iswhy over and over Moses stresses the pointIsrael was not to leave off following theLaw and also not reinterpret It as the yearspassed. They were to know It, remember It,and follow It generation after generation.This would give them the correct ways tolive, and God could bless them as Hedesired to bless all people.

This would be Israel's great struggle.They would constantly struggle with theirown desires to go in the same ways all menwanted to go for the same reasons othermen chose those ways. They would alsostruggle with the fact following God'sLaws would make them very different inthe world from others. They would betempted by the fleshly pleasures other waysof life offered. They would be persecuted attimes and looked at as strange for living inthe ways God told them to, not becausethey were/are not the ways we all shouldlive on many levels, but because other menhave not chosen to live those ways at all.All these things would be pressures onIsrael as they attempted to do what Godwas asking them to do. The last thing Israelneeded was to be tempted to worship a manwho was very unique to them. A man whohad shown greater wisdom and power thanthey had seen in all their lives andexperiences. Moses had overcome the

powerful magicians of Egypt and destroyedthe pharaoh who himself was suppose to bea god! Moses had parted the Red Sea sothey could escape Egypt's army, and Moseswould cause the sea to come in on thatarmy to finish them off once and for all.Moses had talked with God so closely atone point his face glowed with the power ofGod until it made the people request hecover it because they feared it. Moses hadcaused bread to appear for the nation as ifit was the morning dew, and brought quailto eat as if they were locust. Moses hadbrought water from a rock twice, and morethings than we have space to list here. Allthese things were done by the hand ofMoses, and, of course, we should allunderstand that these things were not doneby Moses but by God. However, we havetrouble with that so often as humans. Wehave a great tendency to look at only thephysical.

People often feel they are alrightbecause they do, in fact, believe in the truththere is a God, but the problem lies in whatwe think God is. It seems to be way tooeasy for us to believe God is nothing morethan a distant force of some kind. I haveseen it far more often than I care toremember. People believe it is up to themto shape what we believe and how we liveon the basis we know best how to make theGospel message most appealing to ourgeneration and time. It's as if we think Godneeds our help or that He is such anambiguous power, it needs to be up to us tofigure out how to use that power for good.The world over is filled with stories abouthow people are oppressed by somepowerful being only because a hero braveenough to manipulate the powers that be

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We ended our last segment with Hagarand Ismael in the wilderness of Beershebawhere they had wandered around until all thewater they had with them was gone. Wediscussed a lot about how the two of themhad very different ideas on what they thoughtshould happen from this point and time.Also, how those thoughts had brought themto this situation in which they now stood, farenough away from each other so as not tohear each other and both praying to God. Inthe end, it was not Hagar's prayer, which weare told the details of, that was answered. Itwas Ismael's prayer, of which we are told nodetails, that was answered. However, fromwhat God tells us he said to Hagar we get apretty clear picture of what Ismael prayedfor, and it's important we keep thosethoughts in our mind as we begin this time.All this brought us to Genesis chapter 21verse 17, but we did not finish verse 17 so wewill continue with it in this segment.

While it's true God makes it clear inthis verse more than once that He heard theprayer of Ismael in this situation, the voice ofan angel calls out to Hagar, not Ismael. Aswe talked about last time, this has to do withher truly being the one whom Ismael needed.He needed the care of his mother, and so Goddoes not go to Ismael and tell him somethingsuch as, “I will take care of your mother, butas for you.....” No, God goes to Hagar andasks her what is troubling her? I love this partof the story because it reflects where most ofus are on so many occasions when we thinkeverything is so bad off. I don't mean to bring

Following the Biblical Stream:By Philip E. Busby

pain to anyone who is truly suffering becauseit does come to that at times, but even then,if we hold on to God, the point here isultimately true. The problem is it is so hardfor us to see it even in not so bad situations!Sure, Hagar and Ismael were out in thiswilderness with no water left and noimmediate or nearby source to get more.Sure, as humans this would cause any of usto cry out to God, but as we talked aboutHagar had put herself into this situation. Shehad left Abraham's house with the hope herson would go on without her and live his life.Now, here they were, both their lives at risk,and she was desperate, or was she?

In the human mind, we think we aredesperate so often when we are not, as longas we have God on our side. Thus, God doesnot even respond to what Hagar said in anydetailed way. God basically ignores herthoughts and asks Hagar to examine what isreally troubling her. You see, what wastroubling Hagar was not that they had nowater. What had been troubling her for solong now was the fact she did not want to goon after having to leave Abraham's house.This was at the core of what Hagar did notlike, and all the actions she had taken whichled to this moment were because of this. Inthis we see she had led her son into a deathtrap as well, which was the total opposite ofwhat she desired to do. We can obviouslyblame that on Ismael for staying with her, butin spite of the fact his choices are involvedhere, he never would have made them if ithad not been for what his mother did. This

shows us how much our actions, no matterthe intent behind them, can and do effectthose around us. Hagar had ended up in thissituation almost by intent, but had notanticipated the loyalty of her son.

So was the situation desperate? Byhuman standards yes, but nothing was goingto be solved by God simply pulling them outof this situation. If Hagar could lead theminto this due to core feelings she had inside,pulling them out of this situation was onlygoing to lead them into another one just asbad. Probably the best example we have ofthis is the children of Israel as they gothrough the wilderness. Over and over theycomplained to Moses that he had led themout into this wilderness to die or that Godbrought them out there to kill them. Ofcourse, none of this was true, and in thosesituations they were not even as bad off asHagar and Ismael were here. What thechildren of Israel saw were supplies of waterand food getting low, and with the greatnumbers of them and little to no sources ofwater and food around, it seemed as if theirnext meal was their last. This frightenedthem over and over again. However, aninteresting fact is given to us inDeuteronomy 29:5 where we are told at theend of all those years they spent wanderingthe wilderness and getting to a more stableplace to live, their shoes and clothing hadsomehow made it through without wearingout. We never hear them murmuring abouthow they would not have shoes to wear orthat their clothing supplies were almost goneand so Moses and/or God needed to dosomething about it!

Many would argue this is simplybecause as long as they had decent clothesand shoes I'm sure they did not worry about

it, whereas food and water are moreimmediate concerns. This is true but it is thepoint in many ways. They simply neverthought about it! They gave little to nothought about how strange it was they wentyear after year with this being the case.Why? Because when it came to shoes andclothing God simply took care of it. Becauseno clothing, and certainly no shoes, wouldlast so long under these circumstances, weknow this was a miracle. It is a big miraclewhen one looks at the fact they walked mileafter mile many days. Shoes and supplies ofclothing should have been a major concernover such a time of living as they lived, yetit was a non-factor in their journey;something they did not even notice or reallythink about until God pointed it out. Insaying that, I will point out that for all theyears of growing up hearing about themiracles God did for the children of Israelthis is not one we remember or think muchabout. You don't hear an entire lesson taughtor a sermon preached on the basis somethingsimply never needed replaced.

Why? Because the provisions Godgives us to simply get through each day andcircumstance are not the spectacularmiracles we remember or even are aware of,and how can they be? For all the space I haveused in this writing to talk about Israel'sshoes and clothes, what more can be said? Itsimply happened, but what if it had not?These are the things we need to think about.God so often brings us through things, andwhile there may even be spectacularmiracles of healing and provisions that weremember, there are more little things wewould never have thought to ask for but Godsimply did for us anyway. We not only didnot give such things a second thought, wemight not have given them a first! This is

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what Jesus was telling us about the grass ofthe fields and the birds of the air. (Matt.6:25-34) He said they do not toil, and whilewe may think that about grass, birds seem toput in the work. In spite of this, they simplydo not worry or fret about their life. Thisdoes not mean they don't have instincts thatguide them to be afraid at times and takecertain actions. It does not mean they willnot go out in search of food when suppliesare running low or that grass does not takedamage when the rain does not fall. All thataside, they still do not worry. They just takeit as it comes.

What Jesus was pointing out is that inGod they live and in God they pass away.Such is the physical existence God createdhere. Natives of the Americas as well asAfrica and other places around the worldclearly have and have had in their culture theidea that everything is connected. Theybelieved the fact the tree grew and the waterflowed was connected to the fact the groundand rocks were not as dead as one tends tothink. They believed these things becausethey saw how it is true a tree clearly had life,but that life is sustained by the water and soilit takes in. The soil is replenished with theleaves that fall from the tree, and when thetree itself dies one day even its very trunkwill return to the earth. They understoodman seemed to be no different in this cycle,and so they believed humans were connectedto all this as well. Of a truth, we are!However, it is only our physical forms thatare connected, and that only in the death partby the fact we fell into sin and lost our accessto the Tree of Life. However, this did notchange our spirit, which is eternal, andancient cultures could not deny that, at least

not to the degree so many people in“modern” societies attempt to today. Thisled them to believe things such as everythingliving and many things we would say are notliving actually had a spirit as well. Much ofthese same philosophies give us the thoughtthat our spirit is only a piece of a largerwhole of what is the spiritual realm. There'sthe idea that when we are born a piece of thatspirit comes to have a unique experience asan individual, and when we die it simplyreturns to the whole. There are otherthoughts such as the idea our spirit lives as ahuman for a time and then goes on to besomething else. Maybe we have been ananimal at some point, now we are a human,and after death maybe we will be a tree.Others think more streamlined in that wesimply keep coming back as another person.

All these thoughts are based in theunderstanding all humans have, regardlessof what people say with their mouth, whichis that we are all more than the physical shellwe see on the outside. Problem is, they arean attempt to explain the reason for whyand/or how it all works without learning thetruth from God. As with the fact Eve shouldnever have taken of the Tree of Knowledgeof Good and Evil after talking to the serpentwithout first discussing it exhaustively withGod, this is what very ancient people shouldhave done. After God formed the chosennation and gave within them His oracles theanswers became even easier to find! (Rom.3:1-2) However, even this was only going tohelp those who chose to seek the truth, andto this day that is what we all need to do. Inthe end, the truth is that we live and we die.There is nothing we can do about it. We canchoose to live in very unhealthy ways and

we will most likely shorten our life here. Wecan try to live as healthy as possible andmaybe extend our lives here, but even thesethings come with no guarantee. Thus, wedie. It will happen at some point, and whenit does our body will lose all hope. It mightbecome a part of the ecosystem but that isnot hope or new life, just the physical doingwhat it was created to do. For from dust wewere formed and unto dust we will return.(Gen. 3:19) The difference between us andthe animals, trees, etc. is that into us Godbreathed the breath of life. This part of uswas not formed from the dust and it will notreturn to the dust. So where does it go? Theanswer to that is in what God said about dustto dust and ashes to ashes. If our bodies weremade from the dust and return to the dustthen all we need to look at is, where did ourbreath or soul come from? The answer issimple, “And the Lord God....breathed intohis nostrils the breath of life; and manbecame a living soul.” Genesis 2:7 Our soulcame directly from God and that is where wewill return. When we say Jesus is the Word,it is a truth deeper than we understand. Whenwe talk about how in Him we live andbreathe and have our being, it is truly ourvery existence we are talking about. (Acts17:24-28)

As much as it is true, God created itall, including the physical form we live in,that which is not of the body came from thatpiece of a greater whole like some ancientcultures believe. The real difference is thatthe piece of Himself that God used to makeman a living soul was not given in order tolive for a time and simply be reabsorbed byGod. No, it was truly the gift of life intohumanity, and every child who is bornshares in that gift! Every child that is bornbecomes an individual, and that is a

permanent thing. Our soul will go on foreveras the individual thing it now is, and whatthat means is that what should concern us isnot what happens to us here, for we knowthis life will end one way or the other, butwhat happens to our soul when it leaves thisearthly life. It should concern us that ourexistence will be incomplete due to losingour physical part. When we see life in thecorrect way, the day by day events of ourlives take on a whole other light. Theproblem is we far too little look at our livesfrom that perspective. Instead, we look at ourlives from the perspective of what is goingon around us at any given moment. We gowith the emotions at the time, and that iswhat Hagar was doing. No doubt Hagar hadbeen greatly discouraged for the future of herson when it became obvious that Abrahamwas looking for God to still provide a sonthrough Sarah. While Sarah certainlyshowed she had her doubts right up to asclose as a year before Isaac's birth, andAbraham had at least some trouble wrappinghis head around it, this does not mean theknowledge God had said it would happenhad not been made clear to the household.No doubt someone such as Hagar, being themother of Ismael who would be displacedwhen it did happen, was fully aware.

This likely means she lived for sometime at this point with the knowledge her sonwould not have the life she originallythought he'd have. The idea he would simplybe just another son of Abraham had time tosink in, and the fall to where they now stoodwas not as far as it might have been if theseevents had happened all at once. That beingsaid, we tend to look at the half-full glass asone that is half empty, and no doubt that is abit of what really got to Hagar. She hadprobably lived with great disappointment at

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God established a nation among usspecifically instructed to follow a set of lawsHe gave them. This is part of the issue thatmakes it so wrong to argue even Jews shouldleave the Law behind now that Jesus hascome. It is still true the nation can show usourselves, and this trying to defend a beliefsystem instead of seeking the truth above allis what happens in all religions. Thus, it'snever about if the Jews should drop the Lawor change to something more like Christianpractices, but if they are following the trueLaw or just as a man-made religious system,is the question. Following practices of men,no matter what their base, is what led theJews to kill the very Messiah the Lawshowed them they should have been waitingfor. It also caused them to go on to persecutethose who did accept The Messiah! Not onlywas this later used as an excuse by thosecalling themselves Christians to persecuteJews, but before anything claiming to be ofJesus was a powerful enough political entityto do any damage to the Jews, this earlyaction by the religious leadership left a realblack mark on the nation as a whole.

As we talked a bit about last time, theRomans had been very accepting of theJewish religion. So much so it had becomeone of the officially recognized religions inthe Roman Empire. This means whereverJews lived across the empire, they wereallowed to follow their beliefs and customswithout official government interference. Ifthat interference did come, they could appealto the high rulers of Rome for relief. This is

“Is it true that the Jews are God'schosen people? I have a Christian friend whosays the Jews were not God's chosen people.”

We ended last time talking about howmuch the persecution of those who believedin Jesus was not helpful in the long term forthe Jews. While they felt they were doingwhat they could to stomp out what they sawas a false religion that was corrupting thebeliefs of Judaism, those from the outsidewere watching with interest. That point abouthow the Jews who did not accept Jesuslooked at those who did is an important oneto look at. The religious leadership hadalready gone to the great length of killingJesus in an attempt to stop this movementfrom going forward, but that did not work.Thus, in the same spirit the religious leaderswent and asked Pilate for guards at Jesus'tomb (because they did not want the disciplesstealing the body and claiming Jesus hadrose), they now went out to try and cut offthose who continued the work of Jesus andthe message about how He rose from the dead.

As we have covered so many times,this is the ultimate example of how muchgood intentions can be the very worst thing.The religious leadership believed it best to doall these things on the basis they wanted theirpower to remain intact. However, they wereable to justify it all by seeing themselves asthe guardians of their faith and beliefs. Thisis not a uniquely Jewish trait by any means,but as with so many things the Jews show us,a human trait and one of the main reasons

Large Print Issue #100 - January & February 2019

What About God’s Chosen People?Part XXX

From Living Springs’ Questions and Answers

a unique situation for the Jews as almostalways their religion was rejected andpersecuted by ruling powers. However, thisdid not mean the Jewish way of doing thingswas seen as normal by any means. There arestories about how Jews ended up in servitudeand were sold off or even set free solely onthe basis their masters found their customs soodd they just wanted them out of theirhousehold. This is how the ways of God arelooked at in the world, and why most whocall themselves Christians today want tobend what they believe in order to fit in or sotheir religion will fit in with their everydaylives. We don't want to be seen as odd,strange, or different to such a degree thatothers would reject us simply on the basis ofthe way our faith makes us live.

For Christians the true test of this iswhen we so desire to follow the ways of Godthat it separates us from what calls itself thechurch. If we don't want to look at the groupof believers we are with as so official, thenI'll add, the same thing happens no matterhow big or official any group feels it is at anymoment. That “feels” part can even changerapidly by who else is in our lives. Otherpeople we work with or need/want to bearound on any regular basis can affect us. Ifthey are part of a larger more “successful”group, then often we want to be too. If theyseem to look down on the fact our group is sosmall that can discourage us as well. In theend, it can also come down to sheer numbers.If our group becomes too small or - dare I sayit's just you and maybe a family member ortwo, will we hold to the truth or look for agroup to fit in with? You see, as believerswhen we say we are in this world but not ofit, that is a truth beyond what most who sayit even understand. You can make the excusethe Jews are very strange because of the way

they follow the letter of the Law more thanthe spirit, but this is a dangerous mindset.First, it is never good to attempt to sogenerally judge others in this way, but weshould really shy away from doing so whenit comes to those who follow a Law given byGod. Why? Because no matter how much theJews show the truth of how we tend to takereligion over truth, the set of Laws they areattempting to follow were commanded byGod, and if nothing else, given by God. Nomatter how good or bad all they do mayseem, that point is at its core!

And that point is what should havedriven them to be far more cautious inpersecuting the early believers. Not onlyshould everything the believers in Jesus weredoing have made them stop over and overagain to rethink their position on Jesus andWho He was, if nothing else, they shouldhave seen how little others likely saw the linebetween the Jews and the Christians. Theview that is so hard for us to keep in mindtoday is that in those early days to beChristian was to primarily be Jewish butbelieve The Messiah had come. In no waywas it looked at as a Jews versus Christiansthing! We get that impression today becauseof our current political and religiouscondition which exists due to centuries ofhistory between those who accepted Jesus asThe Messiah and those who did not. We alsoread the stories of how the apostles went outto win the world for Christ, and we oftenmiss how they went first to the synagoguesand the Jews at large. We get focused on thefact they ended up finding great acceptanceamong the non-Jews. What we forget is thatthe apostles would never have gone out intosuch far reaching areas so fast if there had notbeen great acceptance first among the Jews.

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This point is also what made theJewish religious leadership so upset. Theywere always afraid Jesus was going to cut inon or take away completely their authorityand positions among the people. However,after doing what they thought would get ridof Him, they went on to find there was aneven greater number of Jews already wonover to Jesus than they probably imagined.To them it must have seemed like a growingcancer that was spreading fast and wouldchange the entire Jewish nation. Truth is theywere right! It was on track to do just that, asit was meant to be. The Gospel was changingthe fabric of the nation by turning them backfrom the religious ways and to the truth oflooking for and now following The Messiah.It was true in the physical sense that Jesuswas God with us, but that point is key to theunderstanding of what was going on. Manneeded God to be more physical because thatis where his eyes had turned to completely.Whether Jesus was with us long term or shortterm, the point stands that God being with uswas a way for all men to be assured Godtruly was still in the picture. No governmentsor empires man could build was going tochange the plan of God. He created us tocommune with Him, and He will draw allthose who want what they were created forunto Himself.

That is what Jesus came to do. He wasto be lifted up so all men would have thechance to see him. In doing so, all who caredto know and have the true ways of Godwould be drawn to what He did and said.(John 12:29-36) This would be true of Jesus'work no matter if people were or were notpart of the chosen nation. This would be trueno matter if the person knew anything about

what a Jew was or not. Jesus was the simplemessage that God was and is with us. He isavailable to us and wants to be with us. Jesusis the simple message of how much God willnot push Himself on us or force us to choosewhat He created us to do. God did not evenforce the chosen nation to accept Jesus. Whatmore could God do to show us how much Hewill not force us? However, what happenedalso shows us how much God will not justsave us in the end if we do not choose arelationship with Him for ourselves. (John1:11-13) This is why we see so many Jewsboth accepting and rejecting The Messiah.There were those who said, yes this is TheChrist sent to save us from our wicked ways.Then there were those who said, no ourreligion is more important than the truth itrepresents. For the latter we see a greatcontradiction, but not one uncommon amongmen. We also see a main point in ourdiscussion about the persecution of theChristians.

The very fact Jesus was the truefulfillment of the prophecies and all the Lawthe Jews followed on a daily basis was notlost on the world any more than it was on theJewish religious leadership. I have said itmany times, they did not kill Jesus becausethey did not believe He was The Messiah butbecause He was not The Messiah theywanted! Thus, the church that was growingout of His work was not what they wanted tosee the Jewish nation and/or religion turninto. This transition is what those on theoutside were able to see. If you doubt that, allyou need to do is look at the Book of Actsand see how the apostles went into placesand headed straight for the synagogue.Whether the Jews in such places took their

message to heart or not, there was so oftennon-Jews waiting to hear the messagethemselves. This is why Peter had to beshown it was good to take the message to thenon-Jews in spite of them having little to noknowledge of the Law and prophets. Therewas enough knowledge out there of who theJews were and what they stood for that thisnews of Jesus was very interesting to them.Surrounding people were eager to hear whathad happened among the Jews. That interestwas heightened by the fact they could tellwhat Jesus had done was of great interest tothe common Jew but hated by thebureaucratic religious leaders. They sawhow much Jesus had brought life tosomething that the religious leaders hadalways presented in such a dead way!

As God puts it in Revelation over andover, those who had ears to hear the messageof The Messiah were truly taking note. (Rev.2:29) A great example of how others in theworld knew it was special that the JewishMessiah had come is that wise men (ofwhich the Bible never tells us there wereonly three) came following a star to findJesus. These men gave gifts worthy of beinggiven to a king, and they had traveled far todo so. How shocked they must have been tosee the ruler of the region did not knowwhere or who The Messiah was. Howamazing it must have been to them to findMary and Joseph with the baby in a commonhouse with no fanfare surrounding them.These men came to see The King of Kingsand Lord of Lords among the nation towhom God had said He would be sent, andyet they laid their gifts down before a simplefamily living in an everyday home. Neverthe less, they rejoiced at seeing what theycame to really see, and they listened to thevoice of God telling them not to return to

Herod. In the end, it did not matter to themwho did or did not react the way they did,only that The God whom they served hadfulfilled a promise they understood we allneeded!

It's interesting because we oftendistinguish non-Jews from Jews by callingthem Gentiles, but the word really does notdenote simply a non-Jewish person. Gentileis really talking about the people of thenations which surrounded the chosen nation;people who had constant exposure to theJews. This had been even more far reachingdue to the nation being taken off their landand sent into many areas of the world. So,many people who would not have been sodirectly exposed to the nation by sharing aboarder with them were exposed by havingJews live in their communities. This truth isstill with us today. In spite of the millions ofJews who have returned to the land of Israelto be back on their land, there are Jewishcommunities all over the world. Thedifferent customs God's Law causes them tofollow still sets them apart and makes manyof these communities and/or familiesdistinct. This was true in the days after Jesusto be sure. Jews were living in all the placesthe apostles took the Gospel. They even hadsynagogues to which the apostles could go inorder to present the Gospel. What this kindof exposure meant for the non-Jews was thatthey saw the difference the message of Jesusmade to what the Jews lived, and it intriguedthem. This was always meant to happen, andit's important we remember that. Just as withthe wise men, it did not matter how many orhow few of the Jews accepted the Gospel, theapostles would have always turned to thenon-Jews to teach those among them whowould listen. We tend to think the Gospel

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went only to the non-Jews because so manyJews rejected it, but that is not what thewords in the Bible mean. When we see thingsabout how God turned to the Gentiles, andsuch, it is not telling us He would not have ifthe Jews had come in mass. It is telling ushow direct this had to become. It was inGod's perfect plan that the Jews be theministers of the world! I am not saying therewould have never been those outside thenation who became ministers, but theleadership role was the nation's to take. As Ihave hammered on before, the heart of notjust the Jewish nation but all believers is inJerusalem, and the Jews were alwaysintended to administer that city. Because theJews did not want to administer the Law indirect representation of what Jesus hadfulfilled, the ministry was left with a void andit seems Christians have no part in Jerusalem.However, this left no void because no matterwhat happens we can all turn our eyes toJerusalem. (I Kin. 8:27-30) The void in theministry did need to be filled, and it would befilled by non-Jewish men being called intothe ministry.

The fact there had to be a dependenceon the non-Jews to be so heavily used inteaching the multitudes that came to Jesus iswhy we see what we think of as a moredistinct line between the Jews and Christians.Instead of a church where Jews primarilyteach the Gospel, using their unique insightof being raised in the Law as they did so, wesee a vast amount of churches which containno Jews at all. As the church grew by leapsand bounds, instead of having a ready-madepool of Jews going out to minister in thechurches, we see Paul carrying a heavyburden of traveling from church to churchattempting to bring along many who hadmore questions than he had time to answer.

This is where we get the bulk of what we callthe New Testament. Paul writes so many“books,” as we see it today, because he couldnot keep up with it all. He could not make itback or around to a certain place wherepeople were writing to ask questions, or heheard news of them looking at somethingincorrectly. Thus, he would write a letter tothat church, often starting with things suchas, it was my great hope to come to youand/or if The Lord wills I will come to you ata later time, but until then follow what I havesaid here.

These letters would then get passedaround among the churches and they beganto keep copies of them for themselves. Why?Because especially among a church withoutJewish ministers versed in the Law to teachthem, they all had a lot of the same questions!Paul's letters gave the answers they neededand/or enough guidance for them to startdown the path of understanding a lot ofissues in their walk with The Lord. Thisbecame so necessary and heavily dependedon that Paul's letters ended up being reveredas Scripture. Don't get me wrong, they areordained by God, but what we lose track of ishow meaningless they are without the Law.All Paul wrote, along with the other letterspreserved from Peter, James, etc. were anattempt to explain what Jews might haveintuitively known but which non-Jewsneeded a lot of help in order to even begin tosee. Paul even deals with the issue of howthere was no difference between the Jew andthe Greek in God's eyes, but the Jews had agreat advantage in every way, because untothem was committed the Oracles of God!(Rom. 3:1-2) This should cause us to see howuseless the letters of Paul and all the NewTestament is without the Law. Set on theirown they are nothing more than a jumble of

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what seems to some no more than a fewtidbits of morality here and there, and in away that is not far from true.

This came about because we are notwise men. We see that church does not seemto contain any Jewishness. We see how theJewish religion is opposed to Christianity.We then see the two as totally separate fromone another and shy away from the HebrewBible, even calling it the Old Testamentinstead! The damage of all this runs so deepthat when a church does attempt to turn andteach the Law, we easily get confused andbegin to debate how much non-Jews mustfollow the Law like a Jew. If there is even asign a church teaches the Law by observingand/or just teaching the feasts and/or havingother things that obviously appear Jewish,people immediately ask, are you Jewish?They see it as something strange which theydo not belong to, can not be, or do not wantto be a part of. That is the saddest part. Whatmasquerades as Christian today is so farremoved from not just its roots but its beatingheart and thus, its very life and truth, theseeking of the truth is not exciting to them asit was to the Gentiles of the apostles' day.Instead, it is often seen as something to shyaway or even run from!

This has both a Jew and non-Jew causebehind it. Yes, the Jews as a nation did notreceive the truth, and that set the stage forthere to be a separation between the Jewswho accepted and those who did not acceptJesus as The Messiah. However, it was thenon-Jews who took advantage of thisseparation and brought persecution to boththe Jews and the Christians. The problem iswe feel empowered when we see things

going well. For the Jewish leadership at thetime of the apostles all things were good withthe Jews and Rome. While one of the mainreasons the religious leaders wanted to killJesus had to do with them wanting a Messiahwho would set them free from Rome, thevery thing that empowered them to takeJesus had to do with their comfort in dealingwith the Romans. This would never havebeen the case with the Greeks, or even theMedes & Persians before them who had beengood at times to the nation. Never would theJews have wanted to ask of any ruling powerwhat they asked of Rome in killing Jesus.

That is so often the very problem wehave in thinking we can judge the ways ofGod. We not only look at the outwardappearance of individuals, but of situations.(II Cor. 10:7-11) We tend to live for themoment without care for what the verypossible near future holds. This, even in spiteof the fact our very actions will play a part inwhat that future is. It was not so bad for theJews to exercise their freedom in persecutingthe believers in Jesus, but once cracks in therelationship with Rome began to form, theyfound, as had often been the case, no lovelost for their religion in the empire. I knowthere is the argument this would have alwaysbeen the case, but one of the reasons theywere trying to stomp out the Christians hadto do with the fact they feared Christianitywould be seen as a distortion of the Jewishreligion. Once cracks started with Rome thisdid not matter. If Rome saw it that way andpersecuted the Jews, they would persecutethe Christians. If they did not see it that way,even the Jews ability to stomp out theChristians completely would not havestopped Rome from persecuting the Jews.

Copyright © 2019, Living Springs Shaqah® (Shaw-kaw’) is a publication of Living Springs Institute.

The problem is that what people of God haveneeded for a long time in this world is theability to follow the ways of God in spite ofhow few agree.

Thus, it certainly was not helpful forRome to see the Jews themselvespersecuting any other religion of the empire.If Rome was showing a hate for the religionmaybe this could come off as helpful toRome, but with that not being the case, itonly heightened the argument that Jews tookliberty to persecute others. If Rome was atolerant government entity this in and ofitself brought a division between the nationand Rome that never should have even beenhinted at. All this aside, it simply does notmatter if we think it will make a differenceor not, the point is, it hurts our witness toothers. We show ourselves no higher thanany other religion, belief, or people, whenwe do such a thing, and this stands true evenof the later groups who call(ed) themselvesthe church who were/are responsible forpersecuting God's chosen nation. None ofthis kind of activity should be carried out bythe people of God. This is not to say weaccept other religions and their thoughts withopen arms. It simply means we should dowhat we know is right in order to be the bestwitness we can be no matter what it maycause others to do to us. This we do whileletting other people know what Jesus showedus so clearly - it is up to each individual tomake up their own mind! (Rom. 12:1-2)

In any case, that is not what thereligious leaders did, and when the rift camebetween the Jews and Rome it was only amatter of time until things went wrong. Tosee how that happened we go back to thehistory of the Roman leaders. If I am notmistaken the last Roman ruler we talked

about was the man best known to Biblestudents as Caesar Augustus. This was theman who was ruling at the time Jesus wasborn, and the man I mentioned in our lastsegment as having carried on the Romanpolicy of recognizing the Jewish religion asone of the officially accepted ones in theempire. This man was emperor until hisdeath in 14 A.D. After him a man namedTiberius Claudius Nero came to power. Hewas the son of Augustus' third wife byanother marriage, and he married one ofAugustus' daughters. Augustus would adoptTiberius and that would make him part of thefamily more officially as a son, and his namewould become Tiberius Julius Caesar. Thiswould pave the way for him to succeedAugustus, and that he would do. Tiberiuswould rule from 14 to 37 A.D., and thatwould make him the ruler during Jesus'ministry and death, along with thebeginnings of the church.

As we look at the history, Tiberius wasnot a man who comes into play during allthis. It was Pilate that we are more familiarwith who was the Roman governor of theregion. It is likely the story of what happenedbetween Pilate and Jesus was somethingTiberius knew nothing about until it was allsaid and done, if at all. On many levels helikely did not care. The case of Jesus to himwould have seemed a trivial matter in themidst of the many affairs of the empire.However, it had to be a more notable thing tohim when the Jewish leadership beganpersecuting the believers in Jesus. Thiswould become more predominant with thefact believers in Jesus would not remaincontained to just Jews. Jewish religiousleaders dealing with some internal Jewishreligious matter would have been one thing,but once the church began including greater

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numbers of non-Jews, the issue became moresensitive to Rome. One should keep in mindthat one of the great reasons Pilate evenlistened to the religious leaders the day theybrought Jesus, had to do with keeping thepeace. Pilate did not want an uprising amongthe Jews, but this had to do with the waysuch a thing would effect the generalstability of the region and empire.

Tiberius no doubt had his eye on allthe Jews were doing at this point, and aboutthe last thing Rome wanted to see was Jewsreaching outside their direct territory andeffecting non-Jews who would surelycomplain to Rome about it. To some degreeRome was use to these religious leadersreaching out across the empire to deal withJews, but this was mostly to set ordinancesfor how to follow the Law. The fact thiscould be handy probably had some to dowith motivating Rome to accept Judaism asan official religion. What should be kept inmind is that this kind of thinking has to domore with not caring about Jews than it didcaring about them. Other citizens of theempire might have been very angry thatRome would not help them against somepower, especially a religious one, thatreached out to wherever they might be in theempire. However, Jews living as Jews wassomething no empire understood well. Thus,keeping these strange people in check ismore of the best case scenario. However,keeping Jews from arguing amongthemselves or with others through thereligious leaders giving ordinances aboutJewish things is not what persecuting thebelievers in Jesus was. That was clearly thereligious leaders little by little over steppingtheir bounds.

In spite of this, the peace between theJews and Rome was not really disruptedduring the reign of Tiberius. However, thisman would die and a man named Caligulacame to power in 37 A.D. This man wasTiberius' grand-nephew, so in that way thedynasty continued. To give the timeline a bitmore, Jesus died in approximately 29 A.D.,and by the time of Caligula in 37 A.D., weare through the events of approximately theninth chapter of the Book of Acts. This is theconversion of Saul to Paul. From this, it is abit easier to see how the persecution wasbuilding during Tiberius' reign, as we know,Saul was one of the main people in thoseearly days with the zeal to go out and directlyact against the believers in Jesus. Up untilsuch times, the believers had mostly beenpersecuted by just the local leaders theycame in contact with, and those incidents didnot always have to do with more than anattempt to discredit what they had to sayabout Jesus. Thus, as God calls Saul,changing his name to Paul, and he along withothers go out to preach the Gospel, we seethe transition from Tiberius to Caligula.Caligula would be a man who would spend agreat fortune in a short amount of time nearthe first of his reign. He then went outlooking for any excuse to commandeerfinances, and that would lead to the firstopen break between the chosen nation andRome!

Until next time, may we each continuallychoose to be the people God wants us to be!


Questions submitted to the Institute,answered by Philip E. Busby.

the step down for her son from being the heirto the house to now just a son, if even hewould be looked at in that way. Now, theywere being sent forth from the housealtogether. Hagar had no idea where theyshould go or would go. She had no idea whatwould become of her son, and she did notcare so much about her own life. All thisweighed on her to the point she did not evenwant to see what the end result was, and itwas with this attitude she went wandering inthe wilderness. However, just like thechildren of Israel, what she was not puttingenough emphasis on was one factor and onefactor alone. Ismael was still a biologicalson of Abraham and nothing was going tochange that fact!

To pretty much everyone in the worldat that point and time this would have meantlittle to nothing. Being the son of Abrahamwould be seen as a privileged position in theeyes of those who knew who Abraham wasbecause he was a man of great wealth!However, being sent out of the house, Hagarknew they were headed out into a largerworld which may not know who Abrahamwas, and to them the fact her son wasAbraham's son would mean nothing. Evento those who might know something aboutAbraham, this might raise questions or evenbe seen as an opportunity at revenge on aman they could not touch otherwise. Peoplemight have wondered why Ismael was sentaway from the house, and obviously thiswould seem to mean he would get none ofthe wealth. For those who might haverespected Abraham they may have thoughtit best not to have anything to do with a sonwho for unknown reasons was sent out of hishouse. Thus, there was no reason for muchof anyone to treat Ismael any better than

they would any common stranger, or evenworse, on the basis Ismael was a son ofAbraham.

However, all this, again, is the glasshalf empty way of looking at it all. In manyways, it is worse than half because the otherside of this is the fact God had said Abrahamwould be the father of many nations. One ofthe best ways for this to happen is obvious,and that is by his sons becoming nations orat least the beginnings of them. To do thistheir lives need to go a certain direction.That direction is not necessarily one of greatcomfort and/or wealth, but it certainlymeans they were going to build a life wherethey too had children who could go on to bethe nation(s) God spoke of. Let us not forgetthe entire reason Ismael was born had to dowith the fact Abraham and Sarah believedthey needed to do something in order to havea child for just such a purpose. In any case,being a son of Abraham certainly meanttheir life was not coming to an end, andanything that did happen which seemed badto us as humans is nothing more thanmistakes of men (such as the place Hagarand Ismael were in at this point), orsomething that needed to happen in order tomake them something in the long term (suchas what happened with Joseph being soldinto slavery in Egypt). The point is, Ismaelwas not going to just die here in thiswilderness. The bottom line is that with Godall things are possible and God was withthem. It simply did not matter what fleshlythoughts Hagar may have had about thesituation not going well, God had alreadydetermined to use Ismael, so nothing wasgoing to be as bad as she thought.

This is why the first thing we see Godsaying to Hagar is the question of what ailed

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her? In the flesh she had a lot of problems,but if she would put her hope in God, therewas nothing to fear. She did not need to beout here in this wilderness with no water.She did not need to die or give up in anyway. God tells her He had heard the cry ofIsmael and he had prayed for somethingdifferent than Hagar. God's answer toHagar's prayer was that she needed to simplytrust God knew what He was doing. ThenGod gives Hagar another instruction weoften think of as having to do with the ideaIsmael was just a child. When we do this weenter verse 18 with a different interpretationof the words in that we think God is sayingpick up your baby. Instead, the instruction to“...lift up the lad,...”, is about going to Ismaeland encouraging him. This would be acomplete reverse from what she had beendoing up to this point on the journey as shehad discouraged him greatly! God goes on totell her to hold him in her hand. This againis not about holding a child but about herneeding to continue to guide him in his life.She was not to leave him with the selfishthought she did not want to see whathappened to him. She was to take whathappened to him into her hands and guidethe unfolding of his life, looking to Godcontinually for the answers as to how to dothat.

This is directly connected to the nextfact that God would make of Ismael a greatnation. The idea he would be one of thenations God said would come fromAbraham is a fact I don't believe Ismael wasold enough to really grasp, nor might hehave cared if his mother had simply left himto fend for himself. However, Hagar knewthe promise of God to Abraham. She knew

how Abraham and Sarah had used her tohave Ismael because they intended him to bethe child of Abraham who would fulfill thispromise specifically. The loss of this verything is what Hagar was lamenting becauseshe did not believe that would happen now.Yes, it was true Ismael would not be thechosen nation, but God said he would still bean important one, or more than one as weknow today. Hagar was the one who couldcarry that dream for her son and help himlive his life with that understanding. AsIsmael grew and figured out how to truly bethe man he needed to be, Hagar would bethere helping him. As he went throughdiscouragement, Hagar would be there toencourage him with the truth she knew andwhich God was telling her was still true. Asopportunities to gain the right relationshipscame along Hagar would be better suited tosee them and turn her son's life in the rightdirection. All this was so important she do,and Ismael was certainly in no place to losehis mother. Thus, the door for her to take thisrole was right in front of her, and this storyis a great example of how much God caneven take our mistakes and turn them intosomething useful if we will finally stop andlisten. (Rom. 8:28)

Hagar would look up to see anotherthing right in front of her at this point, andthat was a physical item. That physical itemwould save their lives, for there was a wellof water in this place. We are told Godopened her eyes to see this well, and whenwe read this we can take it one of two ways.The first is the idea that God simply causedher to see something that was there all alongand which she had not bothered to look for.The second is that God performed a miracle


in order for this well to appear. It is my beliefthe second one is correct. Not just because itis more spectacular and we like that in ourstories, but because I believe God wanted toshow Hagar how little she needed to worry.When she thought it was all hopeless andthey were going to die, she found, just likethe children of Israel would later experience,God can provide something from nothing.God can literally save us from our ownmistakes and shortcomings. This well ofwater was the symbol that no matter whatlife might bring to her and her son, Godcould make a way for it to come out as Heplanned. Man and life's circumstancescannot stop God. All Hagar had to be willingto do was put forth the effort to get up andtake hold of what God could provide. Sheneeded only to stop this pouting andwhining, get up and walk to that well, get thewater, and take it to her son. Then they couldget on with their journey in a legitimatedirection!

Now, the next two verses do not gointo details about where they went or whathappened to them next. They do not even tellus any kind of condensed version of Ismael'slife and the circumstances which led to himbecoming a nation. What we are told is thatGod was with Ismael and because of this hedid not die. Instead, he grew in strength andin knowledge of how to make a way forhimself in this world. We are told they didnot end up in Egypt. In truth, they did notend up anywhere very specific at all. Ismaeland Hagar simply stayed in the wilderness,and there Ismael became an archer. Yes,becoming an archer is a specific thing, butwhat it is really telling us here is the factIsmael did not become a farmer, herdsman,or anything in the same line as his father. Healso did not become the merchant his later

descendants would grow into being.However, trading for supplies was likelysomething he and his mother got very goodat out there in the desolate wasteland. Maybethe best way to look at it is that Ismaelbecame a survivor. He lived in a harshenvironment where others feared to stay, andthere he was able to make a life. He not onlyhad the ability to hunt the food they needed,he could protect what was theirs. This is allimportant because it shows us Ismael did notgo out to depend on the generosity of others.Like his father Abraham, what Ismael hadwas due to his own willingness to put in theeffort and accept God's provisions in his life.No one made Ismael a king or gave himgreat wealth. What he and his mother hadwas all something to give God the glory for!

In verse 21 we see one specific factthat shows us they did end up much furthersouth than where they had run out of water.We are told they end up in the wilderness ofParan. This is an area that lays along the eastshores of the Red Sea from the top of the eastfork of that sea (which creates the SinaiPeninsula) all the way down to about wherethe north boarder of Yemen is today. Thefact Ismael took up residence in this area iswhy his later descendants were still part ofthe region and Israel's history. What we alsosee in this, is the fact the Arabian populationthat came from Ismael does not in any wayhold claim on the land God promised to giveIsrael. Israel's land is much further north,and God never even sent Israel as far southas the area Ismael's people lived. What todaywe call the Arabian Peninsula is what Godallowed Ismael to settle in, and thus itbelonged to his descendants. Due to this,there really was no conflict to speak ofbetween Ismael and Israel in ancient times.

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The other fact we are given in thisverse is that Hagar got a wife for Ismaelfrom Egypt. This makes perfect sensebecause Egypt would be the place withpeople she was most familiar with.However, this brings up an important point,and that is the genetic thing again. Egyptianblood is what Hagar had in her already.Abraham, of course, was fromMesopotamia. Abraham works to keep Isaacfrom taking a wife from Canaan, and, ofcourse, Jacob would go back home to get histwo wives. As we have talked about before,this gave the chosen nation a base geneticmarker distinct from the people of thisregion, including Egypt. However, there isthe truth that later Jacob clearly had anEgyptian wife, and as much as the Egyptianswere suppose to be separate from Israel dueto them being herdsmen, I doubt this was arare example of such a marriage. However,this worked to ensure the chosen nation wasalso distinct from the people ofMesopotamia. Both Ismael's line and Israelwould have considerable Egyptian blood inthem, but the bloodline of Ismael would nothave as strong a base genetic to hold onto asIsrael. This would make both Israel and thedescendants of Ismael very traceable as totheir being related, but they would also bevery different from one another makingthem distinct people from one another.

These are the facts which areimportant to us concerning Ismael. Therereally is no reason for the Bible to follow hislife any further in the specifics except forthose times when it crossed over withAbraham and/or the descendants who didbecome the chosen nation. This all goesalong with what we have been talking about


in that we need to trust God. We can believeGod kept His promise or not after readingthis. The choice is simply ours to make.However, Ismael did not go on in Biblicaltimes to play much of a factor in the lives ofthe chosen nation, so we do not hear alotabout him or his people. That aside, theywould no doubt intermarry with the nation attimes as God always intended to place Israelin the midst of a place where they would besurrounded by related people. This wouldstrengthen the genetic markers as Ismael'sdescendants had the blood of Abraham inthem, and Lot's had the same genetics asAbraham's family because he wasAbraham's nephew. What we do see as welook into our history is that Ismael'sdescendants did play a part in the nation'shistory. This role is not one many people,even students of the Bible, often see orstudy, but it's there. Then clearly we see, inour modern time, Ismael's descendants haveplayed a major role in the lives of Israel asthey chose to follow a false religion whichgrew to teach hatred for the chosen nation.Whether we see this as good or bad is notimportant. God fulfilled His promise toHagar, and God is using the nation(s) whichcame from Ismael in order to work Hisultimate plan to this very day.

Until next time, Shalom!

has not yet arisen. The happily ever after ofmost of these stories has to do with thathero arising or some person having orfinding the knowledge it takes toaccomplish what needs to be done to freethemselves, others, or simply bring lifeback to normal after a curse of some kind.The truth is, we don't want an all powerfulGod who created us. We want the power toget what we want to be within our hands,and the best way to make it seem that is trueis to believe we just need the rightknowledge or enough bravery to gain thecontrol we want. The best way to hold onto the hope we can do this is to believethere are examples of other people whohave shown it can be done, and what betterway to have this than to revere and/orworship someone.

In Israel there would have been nogreater person to put in such a place andcall the god of their culture than Moses! Forall the times he had told them it was nothim but God they needed to look to. For allthe times Moses was actually upset by theirmurmuring to him as if it was all up to himinstead of going to God themselves, theystill did this. Almost everything God didfor Israel, at least of those things that werespectacular and obvious, He did throughMoses in someway. Nothing Moses couldhave said during his life could havepersuaded Israel to not begin worshipinghim as some form of a god at some point.In someways it's hard even for people whostudy the Bible today not to see it that wayin some facet. That's why God told Moses,and it was made clear to the nation, he wasnot even worthy of the high honor theywere going to be given of going into the

land. Moses was the last great example ofthe generation that had been full adults atthe time the nation came out of Egypt andwhich was to die in the wilderness withoutseeing the land due to unbelief. Thus, thishad great impact on the nation that he toowas not allowed to enter. This wouldgreatly dampen the nation's immediate urgeto make him a god. That truth would go onto greatly dampen the next generation'surge to do such a thing. After that, thedirect knowledge of who Moses waspersonally, and certainly those who hadactually witnessed what he did for thenation, would have faded and died off.While they would always read about him inthe pages of the Torah, they would livewith the knowledge he had never beenrevered as a god, was not to be revered assuch, and that God had not even allowedhim to enter the promised land. This is whyGod would go the extra mile of notallowing even Moses' body to be taken intothe land. They would not even know wherehe was buried and so there would be noshrines to build over his grave no matterwhere that might have been.

Next, we are given facts which tell usMoses was also living a miraculous life inthat his body had not aged. Remember,again, that Israel wandered in thewilderness for the purpose of allowing thegeneration that did not trust in God to dieoff. Moses was part of this older decisionmaking generation to be sure! The facteveryone God intended to die for thatpurpose had died by the time God callsthem out to go around to this east side ofthe Dead Sea and Jordan, makes it amazingthat Moses was still alive. However, thefact he was showing no sign of old age was

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The Bible As A Book continued from pg. 4

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a miracle to be sure. This would be anotherpoint in taking Moses home here and now.This kind of miracle survival of Moseswould have needed to continue in order forMoses to lead the nation as Joshua went onto do in taking the promised land. If this hadhappened, it would have heightened thenation's thoughts about revering Moses as agod. Instead, what the nation would see isthat there was no reason for Moses to diedue to old age, yet his life would come to anend because God said it was time.

Another fact in all this is that it trulywas Moses' time! We are told Moses was120 years old. This is the age God cappedman's age at during the flood of Noah's day.God had determined that no man needed tolive in this life of sin for hundreds of years,and while some experienced longer than120 years just after the flood, we see theages drop until it stabilized under this mark.Moses was well into a generation of peoplewho were living with this truth having takenfirm hold, and he had made it to the upperlimit. We should also keep in mind that oneof the reasons God said 120 would be theupper limit is because no person who servesGod should have to live in this world of sinfor longer than that. If we have lived forGod, we have either grown to be so close toGod and heavenly minded we are of no realearthly good or we are still struggling towalk with God in this world. If the first oneis the case, it is pointless for us to continuethis earthly experience any longer than Godcapped the years at, if even that long. If weare the second, we have truly fought thefight, and in spite of our mistakes, we haverun the race. We have had our time to show

what the desire of our heart is, and it's timeto receive our eternal reward.

Moses was at this age, and it was afar greater blessing for him to get to be outof the struggles he had faced for so manyyears of having to carry the burden of thisnation on his back than it would be to enterthe promised land. Moses no doubt hopedto get there because it was the promise ofGod, and God respects that in showing himthe land before he dies. Moses no doubtalso looked forward to settling down andgetting a break from all this work so hemight live in peace upon the land.However, what awaited Moses on the otherside of death was/is so much more than thepromised land could ever have hoped togive; Moses would never lament notgetting to enter the promised land once hewas with God! What Moses mostly worriedabout was the nation itself, and the childrenof Israel would weep for Moses too at thispoint. They would spend 30 days mourninghis death, but once that was over it was timeto get on with the business at hand. Thatbusiness was the job that had been put offfor forty years now. Thus, what we see nextis a rare example of a ministry work, whichGod had given to one man, needing to bepassed on directly to another.

I say directly because God hadchosen Moses for the task not of justleading the children of Israel out of Egyptbut also into the promised land. It did notwork out that way and that was not Moses'fault or God's! However, it becamenecessary for another man to be given thework to finish, and if we look at what this



means, we should see that Joshua did notget whatever work would have been his hadthis not happened. What might that havebeen? Only God knows the answers to suchquestions, but what is clear is that if Moseshad been able to lead the people into thepromised land forty years prior to thisevent, Moses would have had plenty of timeto complete the work we see Joshua dobefore his death. Even if the nation had notaccomplished in Moses' lifetime all of whatthey did under Joshua, the circumstances ofwhat would have happened next woulddefinitely have been much different. Sinceonly God knows what He would have calledJoshua to do, we only know it did nothappen. Due to the nation's sin Joshua hadto inherit the ministry of Moses to finish thetask.

The other prominent example of thishappening is when Elisha took over forElijah. (I Kin. 19:9-21, II Kin. 2:1-15) Thiswas not a case where Elijah had come to theage it was time for him to leave this world,but he had come to a place where God felthe had made as much progress as he couldin his faith while walking this earth. Godwould take Elijah home for that reason, butElijah's ministry work was not finished.What we are shown in the story is thatElisha had such a desire to do what Elijahhad done, he asked for a double portion ofthe Spirit that was on Elijah to fill him. Ithink the same kind of thing can be said ofJoshua. In spite of the fact Joshua's lifewould have been different had he notneeded to take over where Moses left off,Joshua had been by Moses' side from thebeginning. It was a long journey, but henever stopped wanting to be there. Thismade him the perfect person to take over

Moses' work. He knew what he was gettinghimself into, so to speak. He had seen whatIsrael had done, how they had reacted tovarious situations. He had seen this in thegeneration that died in the wilderness, andhe had been here to witness those of thenext grow up and become the adults. Thismade him more personally knowledgeableof the people than Moses had been, at leastto start out with. I'm sure this was an asset,but more importantly, if Joshua had gainedand kept the respect of the people all theseyears, surely that was not going to changeanytime soon.

That is basically what the closingverses here in Deuteronomy tell us. Thesame Spirit that had been on Moses wasnow on Joshua, and the people listen to himin following the instructions God had given.However, the very closing verses of thisbook go back to point out there has not beena prophet in Israel since Moses who wasanything like him. Only Moses knew Godface to face as he did. Only Moses showedas many signs and wonders as he did. OnlyMoses presided over such great works andevents that they terrified the nation. Nowthese might sound like they mostly camefrom someone after Moses' death wantingto write a tribute to Moses, but they are not.You can believe that if you want, but thesewords were given by God in the same waythe rest of the words of the Torah were. It isnot important that Moses was not the one towrite these very last words, this is how Godwanted the book and Moses' life to end. Itwas true at the time and would continue tobe true. In reading the rest of the Bible wecan see there was never again anyone likeMoses. It would not be until God Himselfcame down as a man there would be a man

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Coming to the end of the Torah andits review means that next time we will beready to begin our look at the history booksof the Bible, and we will talk much, I amsure, about how they are that simple historyof showing us the ways in which the nationand the world unfolded living under thecircumstances we see put in place by theend of the Torah. Times will always changeor seem to. Knowledge will increase, andmany times it is forgotten and then has to beregained. Nations and rulers of nations willcome and go throughout time, but theWords of God will never change. Thesefirst five books show us all what we reallyneed to know about what God wants of usas humans. We can debate and argue overthe details of particular things, but theoverall view should be clear. If it is not thenlet me answer the question so many haveover and over, which is, where should I startreading the Bible, a little different than justthe obvious of, at the beginning. Keepreading just the Torah over and over inorder to absorb it more thoroughly beforeyou go on. In it is the perspective tounderstand not just the rest of the Word ofGod but life as a whole. If we immerseourselves in it we can find a perspective onlife that is unclouded by all the hustle andbustle of our modern world and time. TheTorah is not old, it is the clear view of lifeand the existence of it. Make it a point toemphasize your knowledge andunderstanding of it always!

Let’s stay in God’s Word!

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greater in the power of God than Moses.What a thought and tribute, yet it needs tobe remembered, Moses was still only a manas we all are. His mission put him in aunique situation and caused severalmiracles to be performed through him thatno one else would ever need to be workedthrough them.

However, what the life of Mosesshows us is that any of us can live a life thisclose to God. How can we know that?Because it was never about just the jobMoses had to do, it was about hiswillingness to yield to God in order to getthe work done that was important. Thiswillingness can cause us to be used inspectacular ways, but in the end the workthat it accomplishes for the Kingdom ofGod is all that is important. What we havebetween us and God is of much greaterpersonal relevance, and that's what faith isall about. It is appropriate that the Torahends with the death of Moses not just in thathe wrote these first five books. Not evenbecause it is the clear core of God's Word,but because with Moses we see whatbrought man from the creation to the pointof God building a nation through whom Hewould work throughout the rest of thisearth's history. The die had been cast, so tospeak. Man had been created and man hadchose how he was going to live. Uponseeing this, God had chosen how He woulddeal with that truth. Here Israel stood on thebrink of the promised land ready to taketheir place on that land and among the truenations of the world. The stage was set, andGod would never stop using this nation ofpeople to work through.


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Free - Take One “Beware lest any man spoil you through · the power to do the things Israel needs as they cross over Jordan to take the land of promise. Moses points out that God