Part 1 of 36
An ongoing study of the Book of Genesis to the Book of Exodus Ch 19 (first two books of the Bible)
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* Current Will of God
(Genesis 1:3-5)
(The Creator God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob establishes the 24 hour day to start at Sunset, not midnight) *at bottom.
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This study primarily seeks to post scripture passages that reveal teachings that are a part of the ‘righteousness’ conduct that Jesus Christ teaches in Matthew 6:33. It will examine this from Genesis chapter 1 until Exodus chapter 19, the chapter prior to the giving of the Ten Commandments (“Mosaic Covenant”) in chapter 20.
The posts will typically begin with a summary of the subject matter followed by a personal though biblically objective commentary on it.
This is being posted in this time to observe how people were governed by and lived under God’s ‘applicable’ truths (that apply today) ‘under the Law’. These truths represent the time before God officially gave ‘the Law’ (the “Old Covenant”/the Ten Commandments) to the prophet Moses in Exodus chapter 20 as a culmination of God’s teachings which found their representation in Exodus 20 for the purpose of revealing sin (Rom 3:20) and its consequences to the whole world.
The further purpose of this study is to communicate Biblical foundations and teachings found across these two Books to illuminate the relevance and relationship of aspects of the Law (as a whole – first five books of the Bible) to the New Testament. This is being examined in the light and overall context of the biblical concept of Grace which I assert certain aspects of the ‘Law teachings’ were not overturned by the Cross and the Work of Christ.
Significantly, this study is also being posted due to revelation from the Lord. Specifically, that is, the need for the Church to better understand the wider and deeper teachings of our faith (Acts 20:27) which is a call for God’s enduring and full truths to be promoted amid these prophetic times where biblical truth is increasingly being eroded by secularity as well as aspects of the Church of God itself.
In saying this, there will be some posts that do not necessarily constitute a need for the status quo of societal realities to be changed but are merely highlighted to consider what God’s Will was originally and is currently. This first post concerning when a day begins is an example. Furthermore, other posts may examine a topic of significant interest and which may take the form of a bible study without necessarily highlighting a need to consider God’s Will as it may be obvious or there may be other reasons which the post will hopefully imply.
It is hoped that by posting this study that it will reveal many Scriptures in the Old Testament that are still applicable today and if not followed impact directly upon a believer’s Walk and eternal condition in the context of Matthew 6:33, Matthew 5:17, 2 Timothy 3:16-17 and Hebrews 10:26-27 as relevant examples.
* Part 1
(The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob establishes the 24 hour day to start at Sunset, not midnight)
(Genesis 1:3-5)
3 ‘And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. 4 God saw that the light was good, and He separated the light from the darkness. 5 God called the light “day,” and the darkness He called “night.” And there was evening, and there was morning—the first day’.
-God originally established 24 hour days to begin at evening (sunset), followed by daylight hours.
(The world’s midnight start for a new day is not of God, but was sinfully changed to this by Man).
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Part 2
* Current Will of God
(God created two distinct genders, male and female)
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(Genesis 1:27)
“So God created man in His own image,
in the image of God He created him;
male and female He created them”.
-About 6000 years ago (in accordance with Bible chronology counting), God originally created two people with two distinct genders only, male and female, which represent His creation of Man/humankind.
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Part 3
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* Current Will of God
(A command to the first two humans on Earth – be productive, populate the earth and control it, rule over the animals/creatures)
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(Genesis 1:28)
‘God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and over every living creature that moves on the ground” ‘.
-Be fruitful and increase the human population.
-Fill the whole earth and subdue/control it.
-Rule over all the fish and birds, and every creature that moves on the ground.
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Part 4
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* (Genesis 1:29-30)
(God designed humans and animals to be, in modern terms, “vegan”)
This is the current Will of God in the sense that it was Man’s original and only diet from God at the Beginning. Though, God in Genesis 9:1-4 permitted the eating of meat following the Great Flood thus God’s ‘full’ Will is that both plant and animal products can be consumed by humans.
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(Genesis 1:29-30)
29 ‘Then God said, “I give you (Man) every seed-bearing plant on the face of the whole earth and every tree that has fruit with seed in it. They will be yours for food. 30 And to all the beasts of the earth and all the birds of the air and all the creatures that move on the ground—everything that has the breath of life in it—I give every green plant for food.” And it was so’.
-God designed Man to only eat food from seed-bearing plants, and to eat seed-bearing tree fruit.
-God designed animals to eat from green plants only.
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Part 5
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(God created the Earth in 6 days, in all its vast array; He rested on the 7th day and made the 7th day holy)
(Genesis 2:2-3)
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* Current Will of God for all human beings to ‘rest’ on God’s recurring and fixed seventh-day of each week, between friday and saturday sunsets.
2 “By the seventh day God had finished the work He had been doing; so on the seventh day He rested from all His work. 3 And God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it He rested from all the work of creating that He had done”.
The verses state that God made the 7th day of the week holy (or, ‘sanctified’), setting the 7th day apart as holy/sanctified.
Briefly, this specific and recurring seventh-day ‘Rest’ (friday sunset to saturday sunset) from the Beginning is later commanded in among other places Exodus 16:23 and Exodus 20:8-11 and is reaffirmed in Mark 2:27 as created for all Man, and is revealed in Colossians 2:16-17 as not being a part of verse 17.
That is, the sabbath(s) mentions in Colossians 2:16 are clearly not referring to the Fourth Commandment Sabbath in Exodus 20 but rather to the ‘sabbaths’ revealed in Leviticus 23 which marked the occasions of the ceremonial feasts of ‘trumpets’, ‘day of atonement’, and ‘tabernacles’ in verses 24, 32 and 39.
These four practices in Colossians 2:16 all come together in Ezekiel 45:17 and are the ones that Paul the Apostle is referring to in verse 17 of Colossians 2 as the ‘shadows’ of the ‘reality’ being Christ. Also, and importantly, the Fourth Commandment Creation Sabbath is not found in Leviticus 23 as a part of the Feasts of Israel. Thus, this is a major reason it has not been cancelled by the Cross because it is not a ‘written code’ with its regulatory ‘handwriting of requirements’ as found in Colossians 2:14 in reference to the four practices but rather it is a part of the enshrined and enduring Moral Law of the Ten Commandments (Matt 5:17; James 2:10).
Another reason the Sabbath has not been cancelled or discontinued in Scripture is because Jesus Christ is not the Creation Sabbath, that is, The ‘Rest’ ‘day’ (Exod 20:8-11), as wrongly believed, but rather He ‘gives rest’ (Matt 11:28), which is an important distinction. Therefore, biblically speaking, Jesus is not the cancelling ‘fulfillment’ of the Fourth Commandment Sabbath in Exodus 20.
Furthermore and importantly, the Creation Sabbath was established before sin and therefore cannot be termed to have been ‘fulfilled’ by Christ because it was originally created to last forever and irrespective and ‘independent’ of sin following its establishment. Therefore, the 7th day Sabbath cannot be a shadow (Col 2:17) of Christ because it existed before sin just like the previous six days of Creation which in using the same logic must equally be ‘shadows’ of ‘things that were to come’ (Christ) which of course they are not.
In this regard then, The 7th day Creation ‘Rest’ would of course still be functioning and forever if there was no sin on earth and for the above reasons was intentioned by God to continue to at least until the re-creation of the world as revealed in Revelation 21 where all things are made new and where no sun or moon exists in the New Jerusalem.
Lastly, due to the Sabbath recurring on the same day in every week since Creation, it is not scriptural but sin to say that a person who keeps the Sabbath can do so on any day that one desires.
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Part 6
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*
(God taught the first man Adam how to live right; He taught him what to do and what not to do; He warned him that disobeying His commands will result in death – the ‘natural in God’ consequence of sin is death)
(Genesis 2:15-17)
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* Current Will of God
15 “The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it. 16 And the Lord God commanded the man, “You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; 17 but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will surely die.”
-The Lord God places the first man in a specific location, in the ‘East” (Gen 2:8), called the Garden of Eden.
-He gives the first man the ‘task’ of ‘gardening’ in the Garden of Eden, the world’s first profession (Gen 2:15).
-He commands the man to eat from any tree in the garden, except one.
-He commands the man that he must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, otherwise he will die.
(God teaches the first man how to be obedient in life and how to be blessed, by showing him that every tree in the Garden, except one, is permissible to eat from;
The trees that are allowed to be eaten from represent the good and godly way that God desires people to live. It is the pathway of obedience;
The one tree of the knowledge of good and evil represents the road of both good and evil ways that God does not want people to ‘travel’ on – it is the road of disobedience, or sin, and causes spiritual death (eternal separation from God/perishing).
God warns the man that if he eats of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, he will die (spiritually – eternal separation from God, and physically).
God did not originally create people to die but to live forever. Their disobedience of Him incurs the consequence of death. God is the Creator and He is Holy so there must be a penalty against man for sinning against Him and profaning His holy Will. This is how God has set it up.
Disobeying God’s commands equates to sin. God instructs the first man that engaging in sin will bring death to him. ‘The wages of sin is death but the Gift of God is Eternal Life through Christ Jesus our Lord’ – Romans 6:23).
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Part 7
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(Genesis 2:18-25)
(God made woman for man, equal to him; God made woman from the first man’s rib; A man is joined to his own wife to become ‘one flesh’ with her; human beings are made by God alone)
(Genesis 2:18-25)
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*Current Will of God
18 ‘The Lord God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him.” 19 Now the Lord God had formed out of the ground all the beasts of the field and all the birds of the air. He brought them to the man to see what he would name them; and whatever the man called each living creature, that was its name. 20 So the man gave names to all the livestock, the birds of the air and all the beasts of the field. But for Adam no suitable helper was found. 21 So the Lord God caused the man to fall into a deep sleep; and while he was sleeping, He took one of the man’s ribs and closed up the place with flesh. 22 Then the Lord God made a woman from the rib He had taken out of the man, and He brought her to the man.
23 The man said,
“This is now bone of my bones
and flesh of my flesh;
she shall be called ‘woman,’
for she was taken out of man.”
24 For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and they will become one flesh. 25 The man and his wife were both naked, and they felt no shame’.
-God said it wasn’t good that man was alone.
-He thus made a helper for him in the form of a woman, comparable and equal to him.
-He took a rib from Adam and used it to make a woman for him.
-God brought the comparable woman to Adam to be his wife.
-Adam saw in the woman a person that was produced from him, and therefore was like him and equal to him (v 23)
-As Adam’s physical substance (rib) was taken from him and used to make the woman, a man leaves his parents and consummates with his wife in marriage and they become ‘one flesh’. This ‘one flesh’ reality communicates an interdependent unity that is designed to be so close in God that the two function as ‘one flesh’ (Gen 2:23) in a Covenant relationship (Mal 2:14-16) with diverse purposes within the marriage, and is a picture of the union between Christ and the Church (Eph 5:31-32).
-Man came from the dust of the ground (Gen 2:7), woman came from the rib of man.
-Mankind was made by the Creator God (Psalm 139:13-14), who is Spirit (John 4:24), and not an animal. Therefore, man is not an animal nor does man evolve from an animal because man’s Maker is not an animal.
(God Himself established a man to be with a woman only, as his wife. She alone is the one that God has Willed to overcome a man being ‘alone’ – v 18. It is a man and his wife in Covenant relationship that satisfies God’s original and continuing command which is to “increase in number” (Gen 1:22; 28).
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Part 8
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* (The Fall of Man; The cause of death in humanity)
(Genesis 3:1-13)
(Man falls for God’s adversary satan’s lies; Man’s disobedience/sin begins in Genesis chapter 3 where human beings begin to die as a natural consequence of sin – which was not God’s original plan/design – Man was supposed to live forever;
Human beings begin to view good things as bad because the first sin of humans ‘opened their eyes’ (Gen 3:7) and changed them into being afraid, and to hide from God; innocence and truth became diminished from then until now through Man’s ‘original sin’).
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* Original Will of God that human beings live forever; This is still God’s current Will; The consequences of sin is death (Rom 6:23); Immediately following Man’s sin, God revealed His Restoration Plan for humanity to be able to live forever by revealing that a Person (Jesus Christ) would crush the work of the source of sin which is satan, through the Cross (Gen 3: 15 – ‘He shall strike your head’ in this verse represents the destruction of the power of sin from satan which originated spiritual and physical death upon humanity, and which the victory in destruction of it is actualised by grace through faith in Jesus Christ (Rom 6:23; Eph 2:8-9).
(Genesis 3:1-13):
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(The Fall of Man)
1 “Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden’?” 2 The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, 3 but God did say, ‘You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.’” 4 “You will not surely die,” the serpent said to the woman. 5 “For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” 5 “For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” 6 When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it. 7 Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves. 8 Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the Lord God among the trees of the garden. 9 But the Lord God called to the man, “Where are you?” 10 He answered, “I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid.” 11 And he said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?” 12 The man said, “The woman you put here with me—she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate it.” 13 Then the Lord God said to the woman, “What is this you have done?” The woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate”.
-God and Man’s adversary satan speaks through a serpent (crafty nature – Gen 3:1) to the woman.
-Satan attempts to plant doubt in the woman about which trees God had commanded Man to eat from, asking her, “did God really say you must not eat from any tree in the garden?”
-The woman replies satan that we (her and the man) can eat from all trees except the one in the middle of the garden, otherwise they will die.
-Satan replies with the lie, “you will not surely die”, thus blatantly changing God’s Word/Commands to the man and woman.
-Satan then lies to the woman that the reason why God doesn’t want her to eat from the tree of (good and evil – Gen 2:17) is because He doesn’t want her to be like Him (God), thus falsely accusing God of having unworthy motives and being “selfish”.
-The woman then considers this and saw that the fruit was good to eat, and good to look at, and that eating it would make one wise, and thus she ate it, and therefore sinned by deception.
-The woman gave some fruit to her husband who was with her (Gen 3:6), and he ate.
-Both their eyes were opened to the fact that they were naked in appearance, and consequently they covered themselves up with fig leaves. Due to the power of sin, the first two people suddenly regarded a previously ‘good’ and holy thing like being innocently naked before God as something bad and therefore they were afraid to be seen naked. They lost their innocence through sinning and thus began to possess the knowledge of both good and evil things in life which was not the will of God and is the same today.
-On an important point, the Genesis account does not attribute the act of the woman eating the fruit as the point at which Man’s “eyes opened”, but only when the man ate the fruit. This likely reveals that it was the man that was chiefly responsible for the sin, as he was the one that God had firstly and ‘privately’ commanded not to eat it (Gen 2:15-17). In saying this, while the woman evidently knew the Command of God herself and therefore is not absolved from responsibilty (Gen 3:16), the man should have told the woman not to entertain taking the fruit and eating it when the serpent was talking to her.
-The man blamed God and the woman for his eating of the forbidden fruit when asked by God if he had eaten it.
((Satan above brought a word to Man that was different and false from the specific divine Word that God had commanded Man to obey, thus changing the Word and Truth of God to Man;
Man completely ignored God’s original Commands/Word to obey Him in the face of this different word from another source – acting upon the voice of disobedience;
This disobedience by Man changed the course of human history by bringing physical death upon all of humanity (Rom 5:12) by the deterioration of the body due to this original sin which is a spiritual act. Human beings die due to sin against God;
In this regard, every sin committed by Man is ‘spiritual’ because every Command from God is holy, who is Spirit (John 4:24). Thus, the contravention of God’s commands results primarily in ‘spiritual death’ (eternal separation of a person (a soul) from God – the ‘Perish’ state/Hell – John 3:16 – Luke 16:19-31). The sin of the first humans immediately ‘attacked’ their souls (Eze 18:20)(Gen 2:7) and physical bodies which is subject to the ‘spirit’ realm arising from the ‘superiority’ of sin’s ‘spiritual’ nature consequently causing detrimental effects on the body which leads to death (humans live and survive because of the superior ‘Spirit’ breath of God in every human being (Gen 2:7).
At the creation of Man, God did not design nor intend that humans should ever die, but to live forever, as like God, who is eternal. Human beings voluntarily chose to sin because they are free moral agents in God. Gloriously, upon the first sin, God had already provided a Restoration Plan for every person in order to regain living forever. That Plan is Jesus Christ –
“For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son (Jesus), that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have Eternal Life” (John 3:16)).
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Part 9
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(The God of this Earth’s Immediate Salvation Plan for Human Beings after Man first sinned approx. 6000 years ago)
(Genesis 3:14-19)
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* Current Will of God for every person on earth to know and receive God’s Restoration Plan arising from sin (1 Tim 2:4), and therefore avoiding the final curse of eternal judgment from God due to faith in the Redeemer.
((God addresses each person’s sins in the verses below (the serpent, by satan; the woman Eve; the man Adam), and assigns penalties against each; Because of His immeasurable Love, Mercy and Grace toward Man, God immediately declares a Redemptive and Prophetic Plan for the Salvation and Restoration of Man. He does this by pronouncing that He (“He”, v 15 below – the (Redeemer/Messiah Jesus Christ) is the One who will destroy sin’s power (sin is inherently of satan)(John 8:44) at the Cross – God’s Redemptive response to Man’s sin of disobeying God’s Commands – enabling Man to escape the penalty of sin: ‘spiritual death’/eternal separation from God, by God’s forgiveness of sins by grace through a person’s faith, and continuing belief in Jesus Christ – Eph 2:8-9/Col 2:6/Matt 24:13)).
(Genesis 3:14-19)(verses):
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14 ‘So the Lord God said to the serpent, “Because you have done this,
Cursed are you above all the livestock
and all the wild animals!
You will crawl on your belly
and you will eat dust
all the days of your life.
15 And I will put enmity
between you and the woman,
and between your offspring and hers;
He will crush your head,
and you will strike His heel.”
16 To the woman He said,
“I will greatly increase your pains in childbearing;
with pain you will give birth to children.
Your desire will be for your husband,
and he will rule over you.”
17 To Adam He said, “Because you listened to your wife and ate from the tree about which I commanded you, ‘You must not eat of it,’
“Cursed is the ground because of you;
through painful toil you will eat of it
all the days of your life.
18 It will produce thorns and thistles for you,
and you will eat the plants of the field.
19 By the sweat of your brow
you will eat your food
until you return to the ground,
since from it you were taken;
for dust you are
and to dust you will return” ‘
–**Verse 15:
“And I will put enmity
between you and the woman”:
God says to satan here that he (satan) and the woman (the world) will be as enemies;
“And (‘will put enmity’) between your offspring and hers”:
-God states here that He will make satan and the multitudes of spiritual (demonic) entities and humans that follow him (John 8:44), and, her ‘offspring’ – the world from the time and extending to Christ and the Church – to be enemies;
-There has therefore been an ongoing ‘spiritual’ and real battle between ‘good’ and ‘evil’ in this world from the beginning, between the ‘unseen’ though constantly active demon called satan and his fellow demons (originally angels but fallen due to sin) (1 Peter 5:8), and the people of the world and the Saviour Jesus Christ and His Church;
-God says (later) in this verse that in the future (a prophetic statement) Jesus Christ will come (and He came 2000 years ago) and destroy the works of the devil (d – evil), that is, satan (1 John ch 3, v – by destroying the power of sin that incurred the consequence of ‘spiritual’ death (below);
-God destroyed the eternal consequence of unforgiven sin (spiritual and physical death) by sending His Son Jesus Christ to die on the Cross of Calvary – as the ‘sin offering’ to God for the Salvation of Mankind (Jesus thus crushed/struck satan’s head’ (satan’s power – v 15) – the enemy of God and Mankind, the originator and ‘father of lies’ (John 8:44)/sin – by ‘nailing’ Sin to the Cross – as Jesus became Sin (2 Corinthians 5:21) according to the wisdom of God – as willed by God – Jesus Christ the Son of God paying the Price for Humanity’s sins by His Death on the Cross thus enabling forgiveness of sins and Salvation for every person on earth by God through repentance and belief that Jesus Christ is Lord and Saviour (Rom 10:9)(Acts 2:36):
* ‘And you (satan) will strike His (Jesus’) heel’ (v 15),
-God tells satan that he (satan) is the one that (through the use of human beings) will ‘hammer’ the nail into Jesus’ heel, into the wooden Cross at the place called Calvary. This is the crucifixion of Christ, God’s Acceptable Sacrifice and Will for the Forgiveness of Man’s sin, through faith in Jesus Christ.
-God addresses the sin of the serpent (satan using the serpent), the woman, and the man, assigning penalties to each in turn; It is apparent from the text that God did not explicitly hold the serpent responsible for the disobedience of the man and woman – as God had fore-told the man and woman of the consequences of (their own) sin; God held the serpent responsible for his own lies and deception.
-Because of His love and mercy, God immediately pronounces a Plan of Salvation for Mankind following Man’s sin, through His Son Jesus Christ, to overcome the consequence of sin, which is spiritual death (eternal separation from God), by His (Jesus’) Death on the Cross, (“He (Jesus) will crush your (satan) head”.
-Approximately 4000 years after Man first sinned, God raises up Jesus Christ the Redeemer in the flesh (John 1:14), the Saviour of the world, to die in place of you and me and the whole world, satisfying God’s Requirement for a Sacrifice that forgives and removes sins. The Word of God states that the wages (result) of sin is death – Romans 6:23, and that every human being has sinned and fallen short of the glory of God (Rom 3:23).
-Every person was due to suffer the penalty of spiritual Death (eternal separation from God/eternal felt suffering and torment – Rev 20:11-15) due to the original sin and one’s own sin (“the wages of sin is death” – Romans 6:23).
-However, God, by His Love and Grace offered up Jesus Christ, His one and only Son (John 3:16), to die for all Humanity, taking the place of due Death for All, so that, as a result of what Jesus did – to die and rise again (the Resurrection – defeating the grave by the Will and Power of God) – God would accept Jesus’ Sacrifice, and believers would receive the righteousness of Jesus Christ – not one’s own righteousness or goodness – but the Righteousness of Christ (2 Cor 5:21) through His Sacrificial Death on the Cross and Resurrection – for the Restoration of Humanity. The Word of God states that Jesus Christ took our place of deserving death due to sin so that we would not have to die spiritually (eternal separation from God) (1 John 2:2; 4:10);
-Only those that repent (Matt 4:17; Acts 2:38) and believe that Jesus Christ died for all of Humanity and for oneself can be Saved and escape spiritual death – God has made the standing and continual Invitation and Offer of His Son to all of Humanity in the Gospel of John chapter 3 while a person is still alive
16 “For God so loved the world that he gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life. 17 For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through Him (John 3:16-17).
-Jesus’ Sacrifice ‘bought’ Salvation and Redemption for Mankind by a Price, His Blood, enabling forgiveness of Man’s sin(s) by God (in God, without the shedding of Blood, there is no remission of sins – Hebrews 9:22). That is, a person cannot be forgiven of his or her sin(s) without putting faith in and believing that Jesus Christ is Lord and Saviour, the ‘Blood’ Sacrifice of God for Man’s sins. Jesus’ Sacrifice takes away your, and the world’s sin (John 1:29) by faith.
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((The first ‘positive’ act after the fall of Man was that God immediately pronounced Salvation for all of Mankind because of His Great Love and Grace (John 3:16; Eph 2:8-9);
The God of the Bible is a ‘natural’ Restorer of his Creation, human beings. It was His Will to bring Jesus Christ to Earth and to die so that each individual on Earth would not have to bear the unimaginable penalty of one’s sin(s), which is the eternal and felt ‘Spiritual Death’ – the ‘Perish’ state, the everlasting and Real fire of ‘Hell’ (John 3:16; Luke 13:1-5; Matt 25:31-46);
A person can only be Saved from spiritual death through believing, by faith, that Jesus Christ is the Saviour of the world, and consequently by doing His Will unto the end of one’s life on Earth – Romans 9:10; John 3:16; Acts 2:36; Phil 2:5-11; Matt 24:13; Matt 7:21);
“I am the Way and the Truth and the Life. No-one comes to the Father (God) (no-one can be Saved and be with God forever), except through Me” (Jesus Christ, in John 14:6)).
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Part 10
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* (A human being, ‘woman’, is the mother of all the living)
(Genesis 3:20):
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“Adam named his wife Eve, because she was the mother of all the living” (v 20).
* The Will and the Work of God that every human being is traced back to a human being called ‘Eve’, and before that, Adam, her husband, who’s rib she bore in being made by God (Gen 2:20-23).
-In verse 20, God gave Adam (meaning ‘man’, ‘mankind’), the first human (Gen 1:26-27), the right to name his wife – ‘Eve’ (meaning ‘life’, ‘living’, ‘the first woman’), having earlier authorised him to name all the livestock, the birds in the sky, and all the wild animals (Gen 2:19-20).
-Adam called the first woman “Ishshah” (Gen 2:23), meaning ‘woman’, ‘wife’, ‘female’.
((Every human being originates from the first human beings, Adam and Eve, who are ‘Mankind’. There is no animal lineage before them in the Word of God. Mankind was created by God in His (Elohim’s) image and likeness – (Gen 1:26-27), on the sixth day of the seven day Creation ‘week’ (Gen 1:26-31; Gen 2:1-3), approx. 6000 years ago according to the Bible’s counting chronology)).
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Part 11
*
(God reveals that a specific Sacrifice atones (makes ‘amends’) for sin; God is the One who executes the atonement; The ‘means’ of Eternal Life was already present in the Garden of Eden before Man was tempted and sinned; Jesus Christ, God’s Sacrifice for humanity’s sins against God, gives Eternal Life)
(Genesis 3:21-24)
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* God in in His love and mercy, and Will, revealing from the Beginning the Way in which every human being can be Restored from the original, and personal sins against God, and to escape judgment from it (Rom 3:23; 5:12; Rom 6:23).
(Genesis 3:21-24):
21 “The Lord God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife and clothed them. 22 And the Lord God said, “The man has now become like one of us, knowing good and evil. He must not be allowed to reach out his hand and take also from the tree of life and eat, and live forever. 23 So the Lord God banished him from the Garden of Eden to work the ground from which he had been taken. 24 After He drove the man out, He placed on the east side of the Garden of Eden cherubim and a flaming sword flashing back and forth to guard the way to the tree of life”.
-verse 21: God sacrificed an animal and clothed Adam and Eve with the skin, signifying that God’s requirement of a sacrificed life and the shedding of its blood was His way of pardoning, or forgiving sins (Lev 5; 6:1-7), thus covering their sins. This to God was the acceptable sacrifice for people’s sins until Jesus Christ the Saviour and Son of God came to Earth 2000 years ago to be the True and Final Sacrifice for Man’s sins.
This sacrifice of an innocent animal at the first sin, and throughout the ‘Old Testament’ as stated symbolised God’s later Sacrifice of His innocent Son for the Salvation and Forgiveness of Humanity, which did greater than covering sin but took them away completely:
Jesus is “The Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world” (John 1:29) – through His Death, by His Blood (“…Without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness (taking away of sins)” – Heb 9:22; 10:3-14).
-Verse 22: Due to sin, Man now “knows” evil, that is, like God, he consequently witnesses and experiences the existence of (good) and ‘evil’ (sin). Thus, having become imperfect on account of sin, Man participates in it throughout the course of human history.
“He must not be allowed to reach out his hand and take also from the tree of life and eat, and live forever”: –
It was not possible for God to allow Man to eat from the ‘tree of life’ and live forever at the time. This is because a person can only live forever due to the Salvific Work by Christ through His Death on the Cross.
Sinners like Adam and Eve, and all of humanity, could not live forever until Jesus would later and first die and shed His Blood on the Cross of Calvary, paying God’s Price in order to enable a regaining of Eternal Life lost through sin. Allowing Adam and Eve to eat from the ‘Tree of Life’ (a symbol of Jesus Christ), and live forever, without Jesus’ Blood first being shed, would have meant that sinners could come to God and enter Heaven without the Work on the Cross occurring and subsequently putting one’s faith in Jesus Christ.
This is not possible by the Great Wisdom of God. Those who went to Heaven prior to the Cross like Enoch, Elijah (2 kings 2:11-12), and, Abraham (Luke 16:19-31; Gen 15:15) did so because they were faithful (Heb 11) and ‘walked with God’ (Gen 5:24). Specifically, as mentioned, God’s shedding of the animal’s blood from whom He made clothing skins for Adam and Eve in mercifully representing the symbolic shedding of the Blood of the Messiah Jesus Christ on the Cross enabled them and the faithful to ‘formally’ qualify for Heaven. That is, faithful believers from the Old Testament times until now were and are able to partake in Eternal Life through this formalisation by the Cross of Redemption and Jesus’ shed Blood and Resurrection and importantly by His soon return to Earth to collect believers (Heb 9:28; 1 Cor 15:51-54; 1 Thess 4:16-18)) . They will in turn be formally resurrected unto Eternal Life at that time according to the Scriptures.
-Verse 24: “After He drove the man out, He placed on the east side of the Garden of Eden cherubim and a flaming sword flashing back and forth to guard the way to the Tree of Life” – God prohibited access to Eternal Life because Jesus had not yet come to Earth to die for humanity, and to thus be resurrected and glorify believers unto Eternal Life, through His Blood.
Importantly, the ‘Tree of Life’, represents Jesus Christ, the Saviour of the world – Salvation by grace through faith in Him – (Ephesians 2:8-9).
That is, this ‘physical’ ‘Tree of Life’, in the Garden of Eden, represents the presence and eternal existence of Jesus Christ at “the Beginning” – (John 1:1-3, “The Word was God” (Jesus Christ – John 1:14; 8:58; Rev 22:13; Heb 7:3; Isa 9:6-7).
By the Grace and Mercy of God, the ‘Tree of Life’, and therefore the symbol of Salvation and godliness were already present in the Garden before Man first sinned (Gen 2:9).
Some Bible examples below where a ‘tree’ signifies a human being, the first example represents the Son of God and Son of Man Jesus Christ (Matt 16:13-15; Luke 19:10) –
1) “I (Jesus Christ) am the vine, you (believers) are the branches” (John 15:5).
2) 1 “Blessed is the man
who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked, or stand in the way of sinners
or sit in the seat of mockers.
2 But his delight is in the law of the Lord,
and on his law he meditates day and night.
3 He is like a tree planted by streams of water,
which yields its fruit in season
and whose leaf does not wither.
Whatever he does prospers.
4 Not so the wicked!
They are like chaff
that the wind blows away” (Psalm 1:1-4).
3) “…They (believers) will be called oaks of righteousness,
a planting of the Lord
for the display of His splendour” (Isaiah 61:3).
4) 7 “But blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, whose confidence is in him.
8 He will be like a tree planted by the water
that sends out its roots by the stream.
It does not fear when heat comes;
its leaves are always green.
It has no worries in a year of drought
and never fails to bear fruit” (Jeremiah 17:7-8).
—
((Only through faith in Jesus Christ, the ‘Tree of Life’, can a person live forever:
“I am the Way and Truth and the Life, no man comes to the Father except through Me (Jesus Christ, John 14:6);
25 “I am the Resurrection and the Life. He who believes in Me will live, even though he dies; 26 and whoever lives and believes in Me will never die. Do you believe this?” (Jesus, John 11:25-26).
27 “My sheep listen to My voice; I know them, and they follow Me. 28 I give them Eternal Life, and they shall never perish; no one can snatch them out of My hand. 29 My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all; no one can snatch them out of My Father’s hand. 30 I and the Father are One” (Jesus, John 20:27-30)).
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Part 12
*
Current Will of God that He regularly requires certain types of ‘offerings’ from human beings including tithes which biblically was never discontinued in the New Testament in the case of tithes; God requires His own tithe ‘part’ as well as ‘giving-offerings’ from what people ‘produce’ in their ‘work’ in life, or, through some source that enables an offering to be made to God; Bringing an ‘offering’ to God correctly is critical to Him – it is sin if done incorrectly; The bringing of ‘offerings’ in Genesis chapter 4 is a revelation from God, that, from the beginnings of human existence, it is compulsory that human beings ‘give’ to God as, among other things, doing so is an act of recognition and gratitude that He is God and the Source of life).
(Genesis 4:1-7):
—
1 ‘Adam lay with his wife Eve, and she became pregnant and gave birth to Cain. She said, “With the help of the Lord I have brought forth a man.” 2 Later she gave birth to his brother Abel. Now Abel kept flocks, and Cain worked the soil. 3 In the course of time Cain brought some of the fruits of the soil as an offering to the Lord. 4 But Abel brought fat portions from some of the firstborn of his flock. The Lord looked with favour on Abel and his offering, 5 but on Cain and his offering He did not look with favour. So Cain was very angry, and his face was downcast. 6 Then the Lord said to Cain, “Why are you angry? Why is your face downcast? 7 If you do what is right, will you not be accepted? But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must master it” ‘.
-Abel’s task involved keeping flocks, Cain worked the soil, they had different ‘tasks’/”jobs”.
verse 3: Cain brought “some of the fruits” to God as an offering.
verse 4: But, Abel’s offering to God were “fat portions” from his flock’s firstborn.
verse 5 states that God did not favour Cain’s offering, resulting in Cain being very angry and downcast. In verse 7 God tells Cain that he did not do right by his offering and that, as a result, his sin of ‘not doing right’ acts as a temptation for him to sin. That is, sin ‘attracts’ further sin, desiring to dominate a person’s life.
God further says that the response required in order to not sin is to master it. Thus, a person must have superior and full control over sin because sin’s natural desire is to “have” (v. 7) a person. That is, to take over a person’s life, that it is always close (“at your door” – v. 7), “hiding”, ready to ‘strike’ and inflict ‘trouble’ on a person, and ‘master’ a person: “sin is crouching at your door” (v. 7).
* Cain’s bringing of “some” of the ‘fruits’ to God was not ‘right’ in God’s eyes. God did not want Cain to bring just “some of the fruits”, or just any, or mere “left-overs” from his fruits produce, but the ‘special’ part that belonged to God, from the first produce of the fruits.
This need by God is evidenced in Abel’s offering to God of “fat portions” from the “firstborn” of his flock which exemplified the correct manner of bringing an offering to God. In Leviticus 3:16, the LORD told Moses that all the “fat” of the ‘fellowship offering’ belongs to Him, and also that the animal must be without defect (Lev 3:1;6).
The LORD further stated in Leviticus 7:23 that the fat should not be eaten. Thus, because Abel brought God ‘His part’ (the “fat”) of the offering, which derived from the God-honoured ‘first’ of his flock, it was deemed as ‘right’ before God, incurring no disfavour from Him.
-As stated above, the offerings from Cain and Abel are known as a ‘fellowship offering’. It was offered as either an expression of thankfulness (Lev 7:12), as a result of a vow, or as a freewill offering (v. 16).
Note that as the Bible reveals that Cain and Abel brought their offerings to God as a natural and innate practice, it is thus proper and expected that human beings would also naturally and regularly bring God an offering of some sort that is acceptable to Him and represents a means through which He is glorified as God – regardless of whether or not a person has the ability to ‘work’ like Cain and Abel.
-As seen above, God expects human beings to bring an offering to Him as this is precedented from ‘the Beginning’. With this said, perhaps it may not be unreasonable to suggest that Adam, the first man, may have also been giving his garden (Gen 2:15) ‘offerings’ to God in his tendering and keeping of it (v. 15).
In any event, it is clear that from ‘the Beginning’, and perhaps plausibly done by the first two humans, God gave human beings the understanding that it was and is His principle and requirement to return back to Him a portion of what we ‘produce’, or have, and, fundamentally, doing so is a recognition of God’s graciousness in creating and sustaining us and humanity.
-Therefore, as earlier alluded, this ‘bringing’ to God (v. 3) is essentially an act of love and respect and gratitude towards Him and is an appreciation of who He is, a loving and giving God. As mentioned above, ‘bringing’ to God is a natural act and practice towards the Creator, who gives life to humanity and Creation and therefore He naturally must receive from human beings His own reciprocal ‘part’ of what He has given to, and blessed Man with. The word ‘brought’ in verse 3 denotes that at least an apportioned part of the financial increases that human beings gain Already belong to God and therefore they must be brought to Him as an ‘offering’.
In this respect, human beings cannot selfishly and ignorantly keep for themselves all that God has given them the power to produce or show for His glory. Rather, God has willed that ‘bringing’ (v. 3) to Him is an innate and normal practice expected of human beings which reflects the truth that all which is produced by man wholly belongs to Him.
-This ‘Bringing’ principle is different from “giving” which the latter denotes that an offering is made by way of choice though nevertheless “giving” is something that is supposed to be done, and withheld unreasonably, and with cheerfulness (2 Cor 9:7).
Now, as seen with Abel’s offering, the offering we ‘Bring’ to God must be the ‘first’ “produce” of our increase (the “firstborn”), of which a portion of it (the “fat portions” – Lev 3:16) belongs to God, and, therefore, must be ‘Brought’ to Him by Principle.
To illuminate this principle of Bringing by way of example, Abraham knew that it was right and proper to give a “Tithe” (ten percent) to Melchizedek, the King of Salem (a ‘foreshadowing’ representation of Jesus Christ) (Gen 14:18). In doing so, Abraham would have brought to Melchizedek the first and apportioned ‘part’ of his increase following the Battle he (Abraham) won, which God wrought for him.
In our modern context, if one were tithing, the money that is required to be brought would be taken then from the “first appearance” (the “firstborn”) of one’s money received, that is, from one’s ‘gross’ pay figure, and therefore is one-tenth of this ‘gross’ amount, as stated above. The tithe (“fat portion”) is taken from the ‘gross’ amount because this amount is what the particular task or job is ‘advertised’ for and is worth of which this ‘tithe’ portion belongs to God (Lev 3:16).
This therefore must be removed ‘first’ for God before taxes or other expenses and fees etc are deducted. If there are no taxes and expenses etc then of course the ‘advertised’ or ‘gross’ worth of the job position would in any event be given fully to the worker where in the same way a tithe of this amount to God must occur.
Relevantly, tithing on the ‘net’ amount reveals that the tither has not put God ‘first’ but has rather allocated Him just “some of the fruits of the soil” (v. 3) in the manner of Cain, and therefore, it is an incorrectly given tithe.
-Moreover and importantly, most church leaders and believers alike believe that Cain’s offering of his fruits to God was not accepted by God because he brought Him ‘fruits’ instead of an offering of flock. That is, that Cain was supposed to offer God portions of a slain animal as an expression of contriteness arising from personal sin and therefore a foreshadowing of the Blood sacrifice of Christ.
This is not correct. This is because there is no evidence in the surrounding bible accounts that Cain was expected to bring the same offering as Abel. Clearly and evidently, God’s disfavour is directed towards Cain’s failure to bring to God His (own) ‘part’ of the fruits from his ‘first produced’ fruits which is highlighted by the key words that “Cain brought (some) of the fruits of the soil as an offering to the Lord”. There is no mention or implication that God was displeased because Cain did not offer an animal to Him. That is, fundamentally speaking, God does not weigh our offerings based on the type of ‘task’ or ‘job’ that we do but rather on whether in His eyes we have ‘correctly’ brought our offering arising from our (own) particular “jobs” or material increases.
In this regard, obviously, people do not typically do the same ‘tasks’ as others, otherwise, and logically speaking, countless other “worthy” types of ‘work’ in life would not be acceptable to God as an offering and, therefore, with this understanding, there was nothing improper about the type of offering Cain brought. If this were not the case, then one must unfailingly conclude that God only judges and accepts offerings brought to Him with strict regard to the type of task or “job”/’presentation’ that people are engaged in or express at any given time.
Clearly, this would not be logical, and further, God’s expectation for Cain and Abel to bring an offering was evidently not purposed as a ‘sin offering’ to Him in terms of a need to sacrifice an animal on account of sin or for some misguided reason as a need to represent the Cross atonement of Christ in doing so. Rather, the words “in the course of time” in verse 3 mean that it is customary in God for human beings to give an offering to Him which derives from their material gain upon that gain occuring and which is consistent with the instruction in Proverbs to honour the Lord with one’s increase and ‘firstfruits’ of one’s crop (Prov 3:9-10).
-Further, in terms of the ‘merits’ of tithing itself, there is not a single mention or proper basis found in both the Old and New Testaments that has cancelled or discontinued tithing beyond ‘the Cross’. Rather, among multiple places, 1 Corinthians 9:13-14, written after the Cross, clearly identifies the New Testament pastor and overseeing ‘church preachers’ (‘antitype’ of OT priests) as needing to collect tithes (and offerings) in order to sustain the Church as a whole in the same manner as the Old Testament levite priests on behalf of the Israelites, the people of God. In this respect, a short series on the current biblical need to tithe will be presented on about October 31.
Finally, as mentioned, ‘Bringing’ to God, and the way we ‘bring’ is of utmost importance to Him. It is a fundamental principle of God and is compulsory and expected for human beings to do it as evidenced by the offerings Brought by Cain and Abel at the beginning.
Continuing, although Bringing and offering to God is mandatory, God desires that naturally it should be done cheerfully with the understanding that He expects His creation to offer something of substance to Him in reflection of His own intrinsic giving and selfless nature.
((Lastly, Bringing to God is intrinsically a ‘sacrifice’ of worship to Him. Thus, the way we ‘bring’ and ‘offer’, and our not bringing and offering for no proper reason, is a reflection of the state of our heart and attitude towards God. In this Bible account above, Cain’s wrong manner of offering revealed that he did not put God ‘first’ which was a reflection of the unrighteous state of his heart)).
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Part 13
—
*
(The Will of God that humans should not sin against each other; People must not lie to God; Everybody has a responsibility to love, protect, and take care of their family and other people; God sees everything and demands answers for sins; Sins (any trangression of God’s laws and rules) have penalties; Though human beings sin, and commit grave crimes, in this case below God is merciful to grant the ‘plea’ of the guilty)
(Genesis 4:8-16):
—
Background: (v. 7)(God to Cain, Adam and Eve’s son):
“If you do what is right, will you not be accepted? But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must master it”.
8 ‘Now Cain said to his brother Abel, “Let’s go out to the field.” And while they were in the field, Cain attacked his brother Abel and killed him’. 9 Then the Lord said to Cain, “Where is your brother Abel?” “I don’t know,” he replied. “Am I my brother’s keeper?”
10 The Lord said, “What have you done? Listen! Your brother’s blood cries out to me from the ground. 11 Now you are under a curse and driven from the ground, which opened its mouth to receive your brother’s blood from your hand. 12 When you work the ground, it will no longer yield its crops for you. You will be a restless wanderer on the earth.” 13 Cain said to the Lord, “My punishment is more than I can bear. 14 Today you are driving me from the land, and I will be hidden from your presence; I will be a restless wanderer on the earth, and whoever finds me will kill me.” 15 But the Lord said to him, “Not so; if anyone kills Cain, he will suffer vengeance seven times over.” Then the Lord put a mark on Cain so that no one who found him would kill him. 16 So Cain went out from the Lord’s presence and lived in the land of Nod, east of Eden’.
-verse 8: Cain did not master sin as God instructed him in verse 7: He told his brother Abel to go to the field with him for the secret purpose of killing him.
-verse 9: Cain lied to God about not knowing his brother’s whereabouts and, disdainfully and dismissively, through his question, stated that it was not his responsibility to take care of his brother.
-verses 13-15: God is merciful. Even though Cain killed his own brother, God, in His love and mercy, had mercy on Cain by hearing his fears and protecting him from death by those who may wish to kill him in being a wanderer.
-verse 16: Cain’s punishments were that he was under a curse; he lost his task/”job”; no crop return for his land farming outside of the Garden of Eden and; was driven out from the presence of God, signifying separation from God.
* God’s judgment of ‘separation’ for Cain from Him represents the ‘wages’ of sin, which is death (Rom 6:23). That is, when a person sins without repentance in Jesus Christ, the penalty is ‘spiritual death’, and which is ultimate eternal separation from God, as a consequence and punishment for sins.
As stated in Parts 8 and 9, the first sin by human beings also caused physical death for all of Mankind (Rom 5:12). However, and although human beings die physically, the most critical matter is where one’s ends up “spiritually”, which reflects whether or not one has received Jesus Christ as Saviour (Rom 10:9) and has lived for Him as well as lived a life of repentance (Col 2:6; Matt 24:13; Matt 18:3; Heb 10:26-27).
The ‘restless’ condition of Cain represents the ‘spiritual’ state of eternal separation from God. It is in a sense symbolic of the biblical abode and final place of ‘Hell’ where there is no rest for the wicked, that is, the sinning (Isa 48:22; 57:20), and, as a foretaste of it currently, it is the ‘state’ for those who reject Jesus Christ or do not repent of their sins as believers.
Cain’s parents, Adam and Eve, suffered the same fate of separation from God. This occurred when they sinned against Him resulting in their being driven out of His presence (Gen 3:22-24) which represents spiritual death arising from God’s pronouncement of death upon them if they were to sin (Gen 2:15-17). To illuminate this further, when any believer sins, they are separated far from God (Isa 59:1-2), and, if a believer continues to sin without repenting and they die, they will be eternally separated from God in the place called Hell (Luke 16:19-31; Rev 20:11-15).
((That people should not lie to God; Human beings have a responsibility to love and look after their fellow human beings; God is always seeking an explanation for sin (v 10; Gen 3:9); Every sin has a detrimental consequence; God is merciful to answer a cry of fear to Him; Sin causes separation from God – Isaiah 59:1-2; A person must “master” sin so that one is not tempted to commit other sin(s) that are ‘close’, “hiding”, and ready to “strike” – v 7; God is gracious and merciful to grant Eternal Life (John 3:16), and to ongoingly forgive sin in repentance – 1 John 1:9)).
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Part 14
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*
Current Will of God that God established from the beginning that a person should not have more than one wife or husband; After the third child (Seth) of the first two people on Earth (Adam and Eve) was born, people began to call on, or ‘proclaim’ the name of the LORD)
(Genesis 4:17-26):
—
(Background – vv 13-16):
13 ‘Cain said to the Lord, “My punishment is more than I can bear. 14 Today you are driving me from the land, and I will be hidden from your presence; I will be a restless wanderer on the earth, and whoever finds me will kill me.” 15 But the Lord said to him, “Not so; if anyone kills Cain, he will suffer vengeance seven times over.” Then the Lord put a mark on Cain so that no one who found him would kill him. 16 So Cain went out from the Lord’s presence and lived in the land of Nod, east of Eden’.
* 17 ‘Cain lay with his wife, and she became pregnant and gave birth to Enoch. Cain was then building a city, and he named it after his son Enoch. 18 To Enoch was born Irad, and Irad was the father of Mehujael, and Mehujael was the father of Methushael, and Methushael was the father of Lamech. 19 Lamech married two women, one named Adah and the other Zillah. 20 Adah gave birth to Jabal; he was the father of those who live in tents and raise livestock. 21 His brother’s name was Jubal; he was the father of all who play the harp and flute. 22 Zillah also had a son, Tubal-Cain, who forged all kinds of tools out of bronze and iron. Tubal-Cain’s sister was Naamah.23 Lamech said to his wives, “Adah and Zillah, listen to me; wives of Lamech, hear my words. I have killed a man for wounding me, a young man for injuring me. 24 If Cain is avenged seven times, then Lamech seventy-seven times.” 25 Adam lay with his wife again, and she gave birth to a son and named him Seth, saying, “God has granted me another child in place of Abel, since Cain killed him.” 26 Seth also had a son, and he named him Enosh. At that time men began to call on the name of the Lord’.
-verse 19: Lamech, the descendant of Cain, had two wives. However, it was not, and is not, God’s Will that human beings would marry more than one person at the same time, practicing bigamy or polygamy. In Genesis 2:22-24, God clearly reveals that humans should only be married to one person:
22 “Then the LORD God made a woman from the rib He had taken out of the man, and He brought her to the man. 23 The man said, “This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called woman, for she was taken out of man.” 24 For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and they will become one flesh’.
Lamech’s polygamy is the first record in the Bible of it and it happened from the line of Cain, the murderer of his brother Abel.
The Old Testament contains instances of Israelites having multiple wives. However, this is not to mean that God ‘approves’ of polygamy, as seen in Genesis 2 above. Polygamy was permitted by God due to the fallen state of man in the ‘pre-Grace’ period but at ‘the Cross’ things necessarily became different of which this passage below illuminates the fullness of God’s truths and Will from the beginning:
29 “Therefore since we are God’s offspring, we should not think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone—an image made by man’s design and skill. 30 In the past God overlooked such ignorance, but now He commands all people everywhere to repent. 31 For He has set a day when He will judge the world with justice by the Man He has appointed. He has given proof of this to all men by raising Him from the dead (Acts 17:29-31).
In His mercies and infinite wisdom, God permitted polygamy in for instance the cases of Kings David and Solomon. However, as alluded to above, such “permissive will” does not establish God’s instrinsic acceptance of it as it is contrary to His prevailing original Will, which is an important distinction to be made. In this ‘New Testament’ ‘Grace’ period, polygamy is strictly forbidden of which we find in Scriptures such as Jesus’ reaffirmation of God’s Will:
6 “But at the beginning of creation God ‘made them male and female.’ 7 ‘For this reason ‘a man’ will leave his father and mother and be united to ‘his wife’, 8 and the two will become one flesh. So they are no longer two, but one. 9 Therefore what God has joined together, let man not separate” (Mark 10:6-9)(1 Tim 3:2;12).
-verse 25: At the time Adam and his wife Eve had Seth, and Seth had Enosh, people had begun to call on the name of the Lord. Seth means “put”, or “placed”, which refers to Eve’s statement that God had “appointed” another child in place of her second son Abel who was killed by her first son Cain.
Enosh means “man”, “humankind”, “mortal” ‘man’. Seth’s birth represents the godly (ancestral) line of Seth that Enosh continued, which led to the patriarch Abraham. To “call on the name of the Lord” would seem to mean that Seth and his son Enosh represented a God-fearing way of life and reliance on God. This is in contrast to the non-God fearing attitude of Cain and thus beginning the generation of the line of godly patriarchs through which Jesus Christ was born (1 Chron 1:1-3; Matt 1:1-16; Luke 3:25-38).
((Take-away:
God commands that people have only one wife or husband. The birth of Seth reveals the God-fearing line of patriarchs which represents obedience to God as well as His unfolding Redemption plan for mankind. This is the line that ultimately led to the birth of the Rescuer and Saviour Jesus Christ)).
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Part 15
(Genesis 6:1-3)
—
* (This writer’s view that “spiritual husbands”/”spiritual wives” are the subject of Gen 6:1-2. That these are two of numerous spiritual “personalities” which are ‘demons’ (evil spirits); It may appear that human beings will not live beyond 120 years at a certain time in the future, if not already).
—
* This post is done as a mention of the reality that demons exist and play a very significant role in countless people’s lives across the world. The topic is also pertinent because it has been said that many Christians do not believe that they exist or do not understand the way they function. This post does not delve deep into the latter but considers some known realities of their presence.
|| (Genesis 6:1-3):
1 ‘When men began to increase in number on the earth and daughters were born to them, 2 the sons of God saw that the daughters of men were beautiful, and they married any of them they chose. 3 Then the Lord said, “My Spirit will not contend with man forever, for he is mortal; his days will be a hundred and twenty years’.
-Verses 1-2: The interpretation of “sons of God” differs. Below are possible explanations (a-c), taken from an abridged Commentary of the Bible.
(a) ‘The phrase “sons of God” here has been interpreted to refer either to angels or to human beings. In such places as Job 1:6, 2:1 it refers to angels, and probably also in Psalm 29:19 (where it is translated “heavenly beings”). Some interpreters also appeal to Jude 6-7 (as well as to Jewish literature) in referring the phrase here to angels’.
(b) ‘Others, however, maintain that intermarriage and cohabitation between angels and human beings, though commonly mentioned in ancient mythologies, are surely excluded by the very nature of created order (see ch 1; Luke 20:34-36 and note on 20:36), Elsewhere, expressions equivalent to “sons of God” often refer to human beings, though in contexts quite different from the present one (see Deut 14:1; 32:5; Psalm 73:15; Isaiah 43:6; Hosea 1:10; 11:1; Luke 3:38; 1 John 3:1 – 2,10). “Sons of God” (vv 2,4) possibly refers to godly men, and the “daughters” to sinful women (significantly, they are not called daughters of God”), probably from the wicked line of Cain. If so, the context suggests that verses 1- 2 describe the intermarriage of the Sethites (“sons of God”) of ch 5 with the Cainites (“the daughters”) of ch 4, indicating a breakdown in the separation of the two groups’.
(c) ‘Another plausible suggestion is that the “sons of God” refer to royal figures (kings were closely associated with gods in the ancient Near East) who proudly perpetuated and aggravated the corrupt lifestyle of Lamech), son of Cain (virtually a royal figure), and established for themselves royal harems’.
‘Two key phrases in the Hebrew of this verse are obscure: the one rendered “contend with” and the one rendered “for (he) is mortal”. The verse seems to announce that the period of grace between God’s declaration of judgment and its arrival would be 120 years (cf 1 Peter 3:20). But if the NIV text note reading is accepted, the verse announces that the human life span would henceforth be limited to 120 years (but see 11:10 – 26)’.
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(Personal (Eguavon) commentary):
The interpretation of “sons of God” that I favour is they are formerly angels of God that fell in rebellion against God (Isaiah 14:12-15; Rev 12:3-12).
Consequently, countless many have taken on the form of a “spiritual husband” or “spiritual wife” which is a demonic “personality” in reflection of the “demons” that these former angels have become. These demons (or evil spirits), have “married” (‘spiritually’ – Gen 6:2) countless numbers of people all over the earth throughout history, usually by force, in order to dominate, control, and destroy people’s lives.
Though demons are always seeking to negatively influence every person on earth, unfortunately, there are people who make covenants with the demonic world which is sin. They do this with the knowledge (or without knowing) that they will become “tied” to them in some way which results in the demons controlling or negatively influencing their lives and often times dwelling within a person’s body which includes many believers that may not even be aware of this.
Oftentimes, those who willingly or unconsciously enter into demonic covenants find themselves in an exchange for certain “fortunes of life”, which, in truth, unfortunately deceive them into perilous bondages with the demon(s) and the demonic world.
The number one constant objective of demons is to do everything they can to prevent people from accepting Jesus Christ as their Saviour. Furthermore, demons seek to and often hinder many believers from being obedient to God and repentant so that they will not be eternally Saved (Hebrews 10:26-27). As is the case for people who are more ‘directly’ afflicted by demonic influences, with their certain “characteristics”, these “spiritual husbands” and “spiritual wives” above usually dwell within a person’s body.
Given that one-third of the huge number of original angels of God became evil (demons) through disobeying God (Rev 12:3-12), one can appreciate that the impact and extent of their influence on humanity is very great (Eph 6:10-18; 1 Pet 5:8-9; Jam 5:13-18; Jam 4:6-8; Mark 11:22-26). In this regard, demons manifest and operate in very diverse “expressions” and I assert afflict most human beings in one way or another, and, they pervade every area of society across the world. Indeed, 2 Corinthians 4:4 states that, satan, the “chief” demon, is ‘the god of (this) age’.
-Verse 3: ‘Then the Lord said, “My Spirit will not contend with man forever, for he is mortal; his days will be a hundred and twenty years” ‘.
God determines, and has control over the lifespan of man. He has limited it to the age of 120. This may mean that at a certain point in time, if not already, God will not extend any human being’s life beyond 120 years.
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Part 16
*
(The Will of God is that the ‘qualification’ for Heaven is ‘righteousness’, or, ‘faith’ in Jesus Christ)
(Genesis 7:1)
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Background:
In Genesis chapter 6, God saw that the wickedness of Man was great in the earth, and that man’s intent of his/her heart thoughts was only evil continually.
He saw that the earth was corrupt before Him and was filled with violence and that all flesh had corrupted their ways on earth. He was grieved in His heart and regretted that He had made man and thus concluded and declared that He would destroy man and beast and all birds and creeping things by a Great Flood.
“But Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord (v. .
God then told Noah to build an Ark and to bring into it the male and female of every ‘kind’ of an animal and creeping thing, to preserve them, and to bring in food for his family and the animals. Noah did this (v. 22).
(Genesis 7:1):
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‘The Lord then said to Noah, “Go into the ark, you and your whole family, because I have found you righteous in this generation” ‘.
-From the beginning God has always desired ‘righteousness’ from Humanity He created. It is a righteousness that comes from and is of God – it is not self-righteousness. In 1st Corinthians 5:21, the Bible states that, “God made Him (Jesus Christ) who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God”. 2 Peter 2:5 says that Noah was a “preacher of righteousness”.
Righteousness is synonymous with faith. Hebrews 11:7 states that, “By faith Noah, when warned about things not yet seen, in holy fear built an ark to save his family. By his faith he condemned the world and became heir of the righteousness that comes by faith”.
The “father of Faith”, Abraham, was also regarded as righteous. In Genesis 15:5-6, he believed the LORD’s word to him that he would be the ‘father’ of all (who believe God) which was “credited it to him as righteousness”.
Other examples of ‘righteous’ or ‘faithful’ people in the Bible are Job, who is described as “blameless” (Job 1:1), and, Enoch, who “walked with God” (Gen 5:24).
Significantly, the Bible states that Enoch was “no more” but was “taken away” which Hebrews 11:5 reveals to mean that he did not experience death because he pleased God. In context, Genesis 5:23-24 states: “Altogether, Enoch lived 365 years; Enoch walked with God, then he was no more, because God took him away”. Enoch’s ‘walking with’ and pleasing God and consequent entry into Heaven reveals that a ‘righteous’ or faithful follower of Jesus Christ is also ‘walking with God’ and will therefore not spiritually die but will gain Heaven if they remain faithful in God’s eyes (Matt 24:13; Heb 11).
-Lastly, God’s instruction to Noah in Genesis 7:1 to enter the Ark upon its construction signifies a person becoming Saved and entering God’s kingdom of Eternal Life (John 5:24; Eph 2:8-9). That is, those that are regarded as ‘righteous’ by God through receiving Jesus Christ and living a faithful life until the end (Matt 24:13) are Saved from Death and ‘perishing’ (John 3:16). Therefore, they will escape God’s forthcoming ‘end time’ Judgment (Matt 24:36-44; 1-35) in the same way that Noah and his family did so in being protected in the ‘Ark’ of God (due to being Saved) from the ‘foreshadowing’ historical Flood (Judgment) that was to come as occurred in Genesis 6:17-18, 7:7, and 7:10.
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Part 17
*
(Below is the first recorded occasion in Scripture where God permits the eating of ‘meat’ after some 1700 years of Creation; a consideration of the biblical restriction on certain animal “meats”;
It is the continuing and current Will of God that all human beings eat only certain ‘meats’, if they choose to eat ‘meat’. It is sin against God to eat contrary to His Will in His Word).
(Genesis 9:1-7):
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1 ‘Then God blessed Noah and his sons, saying to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number and fill the earth. 2 The fear and dread of you will fall upon all the beasts of the earth and all the birds of the air, upon every creature that moves along the ground, and upon all the fish of the sea; they are given into your hands. 3 Everything that lives and moves will be food for you. Just as I gave you the green plants, I now give you everything. 4 But you must not eat meat that has its lifeblood still in it. 5. And for your lifeblood I will surely demand an accounting. I will demand an accounting from every animal. And from each man, too, I will demand an accounting for the life of his fellow man. 6 “Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed; for in the image of God has God made man. 7 As for you, be fruitful and increase in number; multiply on the earth and increase upon it’’’.
–Verse 1: Following the Great Flood upon the earth (chapters 6-8), God repeats the instruction given to Adam and Eve in Genesis 1:28 by blessing Noah and His sons and telling them to be fruitful and to increase in number and fill the earth. God has not since changed this instruction in Scripture. Human beings are still required to be productive and responsible stewards of the Earth and to increase in number and fill the earth.
–Verse 3: This is the first time that the Bible records God permitting human beings to eat ‘meat’ after some 1700 years of Creation according to Bible chronology.
God says to Noah and his sons that ‘everything that lives and moves will be food’ for them in regards to meat in the same way that He gave Adam and Eve every green plant to eat in Genesis 1:29. Though, in doing so, it is important to discover what this “everything” means. Does it literally mean that human beings are allowed to consume any meat and animal they desire? (Bibleref.com) considers this briefly:
‘At this point in God’s relationship with humankind, no restriction is mentioned about defining certain animals as edible or inedible: clean or unclean. This may have been understood, in the sense that Noah would have considered those animals not previously defined as “clean” as inappropriate to eat (Genesis 7). The other possibility is that humans may have been free to eat animals categorized as “unclean” until God made them off-limits for His people in the Law (Leviticus 11, Deuteronomy 14).’
As the comments above reveal, in verse 3, God did not mention which foods were defined as edible and inedible. That said, I believe the comments make an important point about how God had previously instructed Noah to bring both clean and unclean animals into the Ark (Genesis 7:2-4; ch 8; 20) which obviously reveals that Noah knew which animals were edible (“clean”) and which were not.
Therefore, I assert that God’s distinguishing between clean and unclean animals in Genesis 7 is consistent with His instruction to Adam and Eve in Genesis 1:29 concerning which types of (“vegan”) foods were permitted to be eaten before meat was introduced into the human diet. Thus, Genesis 1:29 reads: ‘Then God said (to Adam and Eve), “I give you every seed-bearing plant on the face of the whole earth and every tree that has fruit with seed in it. They will be yours for food’”.
We can see here that at Creation God gave human beings a diet of plants that bear seeds and trees that produce fruit. Thus, although human beings were instructed in Genesis 9:3 that “everything” had been given to them to eat in terms of meat, I suggest that out of dietary and bodily propriety the meat that were to be consumed by humans were likewise foods that were fit for human consumption (“clean”) as seen with God’s distinguishing between “clean” and “unclean” animals in Genesis 7, and which is consistent with His specific instructions in Genesis 1:29 concerning the types of plants to be eaten and the trees to eat from as stated above.
Therefore, it can be concluded that God qualifies His use of the word “everything” in Genesis 9:3 by reference to “every green plant” which as seen does not literally mean the first human beings ate any plant and tree produce that they saw which obviously would be unhealthy and in many cases dangerous for the human body.
-In this regard, Leviticus chapter 11 and Deuteronomy chapter 14 are very useful for knowing those ‘meats’ that God instructs as fit for human consumption and those that are not, which is sin if consumed. Some of the animals in these chapters that God forbids all human beings from eating today by virtue of His instructions to His Example nation Israel are:
Rabbit, Hare, Coney, Camel, Eagle, Vulture, Pig, Ostrich, Bat, Raven, Falcon, Sea gull, Stork, Hawk, Kite, Owl, Rat, Lizard, Fish/’Seafood’ that are without scales and fins.
Importantly, it should be further noted that the animals above relate to those “meats” that are not healthy for human bodies everywhere, and is not just relating to the Israelites. The reason “example nation” above is stated is because God chose the Israelites to serve as the ‘example’ and ‘guide’ to all other nations on earth in His giving of the Law and His Word to them first (Rom 1:16), and which is illuminated in His naming of them as His “firstborn son” (Exod 4:22) and which denotes that God similarly presides over and instructs other “children” of His which are the rest of the world.
Further, as stated, the issue lies with the fact that God established which foods are healthy and are to be consumed for all human bodies. Pertinently, by divine logic, then, the Salvific Work of Christ on the Cross does not in any way overturn or negate the fact and truth that God has instructed that all humans have a ‘restricted’ diet according to His wisdom and for that matter it is logical and wise to say that it is not healthy for anyone anywhere to eat for instance snake or lion or tortoise “meat” or anything else God has revealed as “unclean” or unhealthy to consume in Leviticus 11 and Deuteronomy 14.
* Two important brief mentions here.
In Mark 7:19 Jesus states in various translations that all foods are ‘purified’ or ‘clean’. This must be read in context.
In Jesus saying this, He was referring to the chapter’s context where He revealed that it was not necessary for the Israelites to ‘ritually’ wash their hands by vain tradition before they ate, and that, in not doing so, they would still be “clean” in a physical body health sense. That is, a focus of Jesus was that not having ritually washed hands did not affect the cleanliness or otherwise of foods eaten. So, with Jesus saying that all foods are ‘purified’ or “clean”, He was simply also revealing that ritualistic hand washing does not cause otherwise clean or healthy foods to be “unclean” or unhealthy.
In any event, the central issue in teaching by Jesus was that the mere consumption of foods in the absence of falsely ‘traditional’ and therefore unnecessary hand washing did not ‘defile’ a person or make food “unclean” but that rather it was evil thoughts and schemes and acts arising from people’s hearts that defile people (vv. 20-23).
That is, Jesus’ indirect aim was in effect not to ‘officially’ label specific foods as either clean or unclean, or healthy or unhealthy, or people the “same”. Rather, it was to expose that the continuing observance of false tradition by the Pharisees and scribes and the Jews as a whole arose from evil hearts (v. 21) and thus such ‘traditionalists’ were ‘defiled’ or corrupted by their evil thoughts and actions such as the (false) traditons of men (vv. 7-8).
Secondly, on this, we find further in the New Testament an important reality in regards to a ‘side’ truth concerning healthy and unhealthy foods. Specifically, this is in regards to certain “meats” the first century believers regarded as acceptable in God after the Ascension of Christ.
Briefly, in Acts chapter 10, Peter receives a vision from God where He shows him all kinds of animals and says to Peter, “kill and eat” (Acts 10:13).
Peter responds by exclaiming that he cannot eat anything unclean, or unhealthy in God to which God responds that what God has cleansed Peter should not call common, or unclean. Later in Acts 10:28, Peter has become aware that the “unclean” animals were not referring to animals as such but to gentiles who God had “cleansed” and were to also be recipients of the Gospel of God (Rom 1:16).
The important issue to mark in this account is that we clearly see that Peter made a point to show his understanding of what “meats” (or so he thought), were healthy and unhealthy.
This shows that Peter, his fellow believers and the Jewish people at large were people that had always followed the dietary teachings of God that are contained in Leviticus 11 and Deuteronomy 14. Therefore, importantly, these believers and Israelites as a whole necessarily act as the clear examples to the rest of the world who are God’s Creation that God’s health Rules are consistent with Jesus’ teaching ‘before’ the Cross in Mark chapter 7 above that there is no conflict or change concerning what is healthy and unhealthy and in any event as stated above Mark 7 is not referring to God’s dietary laws.
Therefore, to conclude in this respect, there is perfect consistency and harmony across the Scriptures in the Old Testament and before and after the Cross which reveal God’s ‘dietary’ teachings are applicable for all people everywhere, which began with God’s “first-born son” Israel (Exod 4:22). That is, God had always intended that the example of the Israelites as taught by Him concerning ‘meat’ and every other thing would in turn be taught and spread across the world as stated by Jesus in the context of the Great Commission which included the need to teach and ‘immerse’ all people in everything that He had commanded them and not only ‘Salvation’ specifically (Matt 28:18-20).
Accordingly, God’s dietary Rules need to be taught by both Jewish and non-Jewish believers to the whole world today in order to glorify God that we are One people and one ‘kind’ who have the ‘same bodies’ and are therefore subject to the same overrarching dietary and health Rules of God.
–Verse 4: (“But you must not eat meat that has its lifeblood still in it”).
Leviticus 17:10-14 states:
10″ ‘Any Israelite or any alien living among them who eats any blood-I will set my face against that person who eats blood and will cut him off from his people. 11 For the life of a creature is in the blood, and I have given it to you to make atonement for yourselves on the altar; it is the blood that makes atonement for one’s life. 12 Therefore I say to the Israelites, “None of you may eat blood, nor may an alien living among you eat blood.” 13″ ‘Any Israelite or any alien living among you who hunts any animal or bird that may be eaten must drain out the blood and cover it with earth, 14 because the life of every creature is its blood. That is why I have said to the Israelites, “You must not eat the blood of any creature, because the life of every creature is its blood; anyone who eats it must be cut off.”
Deuteronomy 12/22-25:
22 “Eat them (animals) as you would gazelle or deer [“clean”]. Both the ceremonially unclean and the clean may eat. 23 But be sure you do not eat the blood, because the blood is the life, and you must not eat the life with the meat. 24 You must not eat the blood; pour it out on the ground like water. 25 Do not eat it, so that it may go well with you and your children after you, because you will be doing what is right in the eyes of the Lord”.
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Part 18
(Genesis 9:7-17)
(* God’s Revelation that the Rainbow in the sky is the continuing Sign that reveals God’s Covenant promise to Man and all living creatures that never again will He bring a Flood upon the Earth to destroy all life as He did some 1700 years (approx 2300 B.C) after the Earth’s establishment, due to human wickedness – Genesis chapters 6-8).
Background:
In Genesis chapters 6-8, Noah built the Ark (of ‘Salvation’) that God commanded Him. God brought a Great Flood upon the earth, and after the waters subsided, Noah brought out his family and the animals and made a sacrificial offering to God which He smelt a soothing aroma (Gen 8:20). God then said in His heart that never again will He curse the ground for man’s sake, nor destroy every living thing in the way that He did.
(Genesis 9:7-17):
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7 “As for you (Noah), be fruitful and increase in number; multiply on the earth and increase upon it.” 8 Then God said to Noah and to his sons with him: 9 “I now establish My covenant with you and with your descendants after you. 10 and with every living creature that was with you-the birds, the livestock and all the wild animals, all those that came out of the ark with you-every living creature on earth. 11 I establish my covenant with you: Never again will all life be cut off by the waters of a flood; never again will there be a flood to destroy the earth.” 12 And God said, “This is the sign of the covenant I am making between Me and you and every living creature with you, a covenant for all generations to come: 13 I have set My rainbow in the clouds, and it will be the sign of the covenant between Me and the earth.14 Whenever I bring clouds over the earth and the rainbow appears in the clouds, 15 I will remember My covenant between Me and you and all living creatures of every kind. Never again will the waters become a flood to destroy all life. 16 Whenever the rainbow appears in the clouds, I will see it and remember the everlasting covenant between God and all living creatures of every kind on the earth.” 17 So God said to Noah, “This is the sign of the covenant I have established between Me and all life on the earth”.
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* Verses 8-10: Following God’s judgment of humanity by the Great Flood in Genesis chapters 6-8, God makes a Covenant with Noah, his sons, their descendants, and all animals.
–Verse 11: The Covenant that God makes is that never again will human life and all living creatures on the Earth be destroyed by a Flood.
–Verses 12-13: The Sign of this Covenant that God makes between Himself and the earth is His ‘setting’ of the Rainbow in the clouds.
–Verses 14-15: Thus, whenever the Rainbow appears in the clouds, God remembers His Covenant made between Himself and Noah and his sons (v , and descendants (v , and all living creatures.
–Verse 16: This is an everlasting Covenant that God has established.
((Note: Some bible commentators hold that God had set rainbows in the sky before this Genesis 9 account in light of questions about whether they had existed before the Flood. However, the Bible is silent on whether they had previously occurred on Earth though this does not necessarily mean that God had not enabled them to appear from Creation nor that they existed before the Flood. The biblical evidence does not allow one to venture to make any definite conclusions)).
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Part 19
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(Genesis 12:1-9)
This is an ongoing Study that examines Scripture passages that reveal teachings which are a part of the ‘righteousness’ (Gen 15:6) or ‘faith’ conduct (Heb 11) expected by God which Jesus Christ teaches in Matthew 6:33.
The Scriptures thus far reveal practices and considerations that constitute the Will of God for believers in the current ‘age of Grace’ in the context of the Word of God up until the establishment of the ‘Old Covenant’ in Exodus 20.
* (Abram (became Abraham later) below meekly obeyed God’s Words (faith)(Heb 11:8-10) and consequently became mightily blessed by God beyond his imagination).
(Genesis 12:1-9):
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1 ‘The Lord had said to Abram, “Leave your country, your people and your father’s household and go to the land I will show you. 2 “I will make you into a great nation and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. 3 I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.” 4 So Abram left, as the Lord had told him; and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he set out from Haran. 5 He took his wife Sarai (Sarah), his nephew Lot, all the possessions they had accumulated and the people they had acquired in Haran, and they set out for the land of Canaan, and they arrived there. 6 Abram travelled through the land as far as the site of the great tree of Moreh at Shechem. At that time the Canaanites were in the land. 7 The Lord appeared to Abram and said, “To your offspring I will give this land.” So he built an altar there to the Lord, who had appeared to him. 8 From there he went on toward the hills east of Bethel and pitched his tent, with Bethel on the west and Ai on the east. There he built an altar to the Lord and called on the name of the Lord. 9 Then Abram set out and continued toward the Negev’.
–Verse 1(above): God instructs Abram to leave a life he was familiar with and go to a land that God will show him.
–Verses 2 and 3: In doing so, God tells Abram that He will do great things in his life. They are, that:
- He will become a great nation (Israel).
- God will bless him.
- His name will be great.
- He will be a blessing.
- God will bless those who bless him.
- God will curse those who curse him.
- The whole world will be blessed through him.
Abram above is promised (and received) a complete blessing (a biblical “7” – ‘completion’) from God.
–Verse 4 reveals that Abram obeyed God’s command.
–Verse 7: God tells Abram that He will give the land (Israel) to his descendants (‘offspring’).
–Verses 5-9 detail Abram’s exploration of the land that God said He would show him.
((The biblical Scriptures state that believers of God are to “live by faith (in God), and not by sight” (2 Cor 5:7).
Abram heard God’s Words in the passages above. They revealed what God would do for him and through him. Abram thus obeyed God.
The Book of Hebrews details that Abram (Abraham) showed ‘faith’ when he obeyed God in various situations. It states, in chapter 11 verses 8-12:
8 “By faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going (Gen 12:4). 9 By faith he made his home in the promised land like a stranger in a foreign country; he lived in tents, as did Isaac and Jacob, who were heirs with him of the same promise. 10 For he was looking forward to the city with foundations, whose architect and builder is God. 11 By faith Abraham, even though he was past age—and Sarah herself was barren—was enabled to become a father because he considered Him (God) faithful who had made the promise. 12 And so from this one man, and he as good as dead, came descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and as countless as the sand on the seashore”
Like Abraham, every faithful obeyer of God becomes blessed beyond imagination – in God’s own particular and unique way for each individual)).
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Part 20
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* It remains the current Will of God that,
“If a person sins and does what is forbidden in any of the Lord’s commands, even though he does not know it, he is guilty and will be held responsible” (Lev 5:17).
(Genesis 12:10-20):
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Abram (Abraham) in Egypt:
10 ‘Now there was a famine in the land, and Abram went down to Egypt to live there for a while because the famine was severe. 11 As he was about to enter Egypt, he said to his wife Sarai (Sarah), “I know what a beautiful woman you are. 12 When the Egyptians see you, they will say, ‘This is his wife.’ Then they will kill me but will let you live. 13 Say you are my sister, so that I will be treated well for your sake and my life will be spared because of you.” 14 When Abram came to Egypt, the Egyptians saw that she was a very beautiful woman. 15 And when Pharaoh’s officials saw her, they praised her to Pharaoh, and she was taken into his palace. 16 He treated Abram well for her sake, and Abram acquired sheep and cattle, male and female donkeys, menservants and maidservants, and camels.17 But the Lord inflicted serious diseases on Pharaoh and his household because of Abram’s wife Sarai. 18 So Pharaoh summoned Abram. “What have you done to me?” he said. “Why didn’t you tell me she was your wife? 19 Why did you say, ‘She is my sister,’ so that I took her to be my wife? Now then, here is your wife. Take her and go!” 20 Then Pharaoh gave orders about Abram to his men, and they sent him on his way, with his wife and everything he had’.
–Verses 11-16: In brief summary, the Egyptians were falsely told that Sarai (Sarah) was Abram’s sister.
–Verses 17-20: The Lord inflicted serious diseases on Pharoah and his household because Pharoah had taken Abram’s wife Sarai.
* God’s Righteousness and Standard,
Although Pharaoh above genuinely did not know that Sarai was Abram’s wife but believed her to be his sister, God still had to judge the sinner. This is because a sin had occurred in His sight (Prov 15:3; Jer 16:17) and God is righteous and holy and ‘His eyes are too pure to look on evil and He cannot tolerate wrong’ (Hab 1:13)(Psa 139:23-24; Rom 6:23). In this case Pharaoh had taken a married woman.
Although God does not ignore or overlook sins committed, He deals with sin in a manner that is just (Dan 9:14). Further, He instructs believers to acknowledge their sins and repent (1 John 1:9) regardless of whether or not one believes that God has “overlooked” sins.
In confessing one’s sins, God forgives believers (1 John 1:9) though, as above, His doing so does not necessarily mean that He may not execute a ‘penalty’, as He is sovereign and will do what is right (2 Thess 1:5). God is equally just in meting out rewards when we obey Him (Heb 6:10) and remains gracious if we sin without genuinely knowing it (See Gen ch 20).
Lastly, God’s righteous judgments are seen in His initial ‘penalties’ when He judged individually the serpent, Eve, and Adam in Genesis chapter 3 for their own transgressions, and regardless of how the sins ‘came about’ in the case of Adam and Eve.
“Righteousness and justice are the foundation of Your throne; love and faithfulness go before You” (Psa 89:14).
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Part 21
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(Genesis 14:1-20)
* The ‘Body’ and ‘Blood’ of Jesus Christ is represented by the existence of the bread and wine following Abram’s (Abraham) battle victory;
It is the Will of God that Tithing is required by believers following their Salvation. There is no ‘Old’ or ‘New’ Testament evidence that discontinues or ‘overturns’ the people of God in the ‘age of grace’ needing to bring in God their ‘increase’ to the “priest”/pastor-overseeing church preacher, in order that ‘food’/’meat’ is in God’s House, for the benefit of many.
Biblically, providing ‘food’ for the ‘House’ of God is clearly the responsibility and duty of all members of the Church of God.
(Genesis 14:1-20):
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1 ‘At this time Amraphel king of Shinar, Arioch king of Ellasar, Kedorlaomer king of Elam and Tidal king of Goiim 2 went to war against Bera king of Sodom, Birsha king of Gomorrah, Shinab king of Admah, Shemeber king of Zeboiim, and the king of Bela (that is, Zoar). 3 All these latter kings joined forces in the Valley of Siddim (the Salt Sea). 4 For twelve years they had been subject to Kedorlaomer, but in the thirteenth year they rebelled. 5 In the fourteenth year, Kedorlaomer and the kings allied with him went out and defeated the Rephaites in Ashteroth Karnaim, the Zuzites in Ham, the Emites in Shaveh Kiriathaim 6 and the Horites in the hill country of Seir, as far as El Paran near the desert. 7 Then they turned back and went to En Mishpat (that is, Kadesh), and they conquered the whole territory of the Amalekites, as well as the Amorites who were living in Hazazon Tamar. 8 Then the king of Sodom, the king of Gomorrah, the king of Admah, the king of Zeboiim and the king of Bela (that is, Zoar) marched out and drew up their battle lines in the Valley of Siddim 9 against Kedorlaomer king of Elam, Tidal king of Goiim, Amraphel king of Shinar and Arioch king of Ellasar—four kings against five. 10 Now the Valley of Siddim was full of tar pits, and when the kings of Sodom and Gomorrah fled, some of the men fell into them and the rest fled to the hills. 11 The four kings seized all the goods of Sodom and Gomorrah and all their food; then they went away. 12 They also carried off Abram’s nephew Lot and his possessions, since he was living in Sodom. 13 One who had escaped came and reported this to Abram the Hebrew. Now Abram was living near the great trees of Mamre the Amorite, a brother of Eshcol and Aner, all of whom were allied with Abram. 14 When Abram heard that his relative had been taken captive, he called out the 318 trained men born in his household and went in pursuit as far as Dan. 15 During the night Abram divided his men to attack them and he routed them, pursuing them as far as Hobah, north of Damascus. 16 He recovered all the goods and brought back his relative Lot and his possessions, together with the women and the other people. 17 After Abram returned from defeating Kedorlaomer and the kings allied with him, the king of Sodom came out to meet him in the Valley of Shaveh (that is, the King’s Valley). 18 Then Melchizedek king of Salem brought out bread and wine. He was priest of God Most High, 19 and He blessed Abram, saying,
“Blessed be Abram by God Most High,
Creator of heaven and earth.
20 And blessed be God Most High,
who delivered your enemies into your hand”.
Then Abram gave Him a tenth (‘tithe’) of everything’.
—
Comments.
–Verse 18: Melchizedek, king of Salem, who is ‘without beginning of days and end of life’ (Hebrews 7:1-4), is a ‘type’ of Christ, that is, a representation of Jesus Christ. The bread and wine here symbolises the Body and Blood of Christ, the Sacrificial Saviour of the world. Melchizedek (meaning “King of Righteousness”), revealing Himself as the Representor and Mediator ‘type’ concerning Abram’s (Abraham) Victory over ‘Death’.
The bread and wine is not an ordinary meal as commonly or otherwise thought. Rather, as stated, they symbolise the later and fulfilled Redemptive Act of the Death on the Cross by Jesus Christ, for the forgiveness of sins, as represented by the elements of the ‘spiritual food’ in the practice of “Communion”.
That is, the bread and wine foreshadow the future at the ultimately memorialised Redemptive Work of Salvation for humanity by Jesus Christ at the Cross (1 Corinthians 11:26), as revealed by the ‘type’ Melchizedek. The One without ‘beginning’ and ‘end’ brings a believer into fellowship with God at Salvation therefore the bread and wine here do not represent mere bodily refreshment following the battle victory as if to perhaps (but falsely) say that Abraham’s own strength was the key to victory which somehow deserved bodily refreshment or personal reward when rather the victory came wholly by the grace and power of God.
–Verse 19: Melchizedek confers Covenant blessings upon Abraham, and affirms blessings, or ‘praises’ to the Creator God. A bestowment of being ‘fully satisfied’ (“blessed”), upon Abraham, deriving from a gracious God that is ‘fully satisfied’ and ‘fully satisfies’.
–Verse 20: Further, Melchizedek reveals to Abraham that it was God alone that defeated his enemies in the battle, overthrowing the enemy of ‘Death’ (‘the wages of sin is death’ – Rom 6:23) that therefore would have unfailingly come upon Abraham if not for God’s supernatural intervention in the battle and which effected the symbolic ‘buying’ of soul ‘Salvation’ for Abraham, as like the ‘buying’ of the same for the world by the Blood of Jesus Christ in His victory over the sure Death of man.
Hence, this defeating of Abraham’s enemies is symbolic of the defeating of ‘spiritual death’, that is, the victory of eternal Salvation over ‘eternal death’/’eternal separation from God’ for humanity, by the grace of God, through faith in the Mediator Jesus Christ (Ephesians 2:8-9), as represented by the “high Priest” Melchizedek (Hebrews 4:14).
* Abraham gives Melchizedek a tithe (one-tenth) of the ‘plunder’ (Hebrews 7:4) he gained from the battle. Abraham has an understanding that the priest of ‘God Most High’ receives a tithe of his increase.
In doing so, and as Abraham is the ‘father’ of all who believe (Romans 4:16), his tithe-giving teaches that all believers in Christ following Salvation (Victory over the enemy of sin and death) are to do like him. That is, New Testament believers equally are to bring a tithe of their own ongoing increase to God’s Church/’storehouse’ (Mal 3:10) through the New Testament “priest” (the church pastor/church preacher – 1 Cor 9:13-14; Matt 23:23; Prov 3:9-10), which evidently is not ceased in both the Old and New Testaments.
This is done with the understanding that God is both the Source and Giver of the believer’s ongoing sustenance and material blessings (Mal 3:10-12), and therefore, tithing is a mandatory and ongoing act of faith by all believers after the manner of the ‘Example’ and “continuing” ‘father of faith’ Abraham (Rom 4:16).
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5-Part ‘Tithe’ series commencing in part 22, arising from Genesis 14:1-20.
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Part 22
| Tithe series – Part 1 of 5
‘The Question of Tithing, An ‘Unpopular’ Practice: Tithes (And Offerings) Are Required By God Today’
This forecasted examination of ‘tithing’ arises from the Bible’s first mention of the word in Genesis 12:20 in the current Study of current ‘righteousness’ or ‘faith’ conduct found in Genesis to Exodus chapter 19. The Study will continue as usual following the conclusion of this 5-part Tithe series.
Intro: God’s Word represents legal and eternal imperatives in reflection of the decisions that human beings make in their lives.
The Word of God is necessarily interpreted in broader terms which is among other things founded upon fundamental truths such as Jesus’ statement in Matthew 4:4 that man is required to live ‘by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God’.
* In this post I assert that there is direct proof in the Bible that tithing is required by God and that, by necessity, the ‘church’/”fellowship setting” pastor, or overseeing preacher of today, is the chosen New Testament (NT)(Eph 4:11) representation of the Old Testament (OT) Levite priest.
This reveals that Christians should consider properly everything the OT priests did in order to decipher what is and is not for today. To tackle this, this series firstly examines the question of church finances. Then, it will investigate the legal imperatives of tithing, preacher and member obligations, the role of precedent, and the manner of tithing.
–The position to tithe is predominantly based upon the following Scripture which reveals that preachers had been commanded ‘all along’ to receive their living from the ‘good news’ (the Gospel).
1 Corinthians 9:13-14:
13 “Don’t you know that those who work in the temple get their food from the temple, and those who serve at the altar share in what is offered on the altar?
14 In the same way, the Lord has commanded that those who preach the gospel should receive their living from the gospel”.
*HOW? From tithes and offerings.
The Old Testament priests received the people’s tithes and offerings for the House of God (v. 13 above; ‘food for My house’ – Mal 3:10 – by tithes and offerings).
This was done in order that the House of Israel would be materially sustained as a whole (Deut 26:12) and primarily for the levite priests (and families) for their Service at the ‘Tent of Meeting’ (Num 18:21-24). And, in the same way above (v.14), the ‘equivalent’ ‘Church’ preachers today are required to receive the believers’ tithes and offerings (Mal 3:8; 9; 10). This is so that the Church of God can be sustained and primarily for the purpose of financing these overseeing preachers due to their service to the Church and which includes “non-church” preachers (1 Cor 9:14) by way of offerings only and not tithes being that they do not formally oversee (1 Tim 3; Titus 1:5-9) a ‘church’ or ‘flock’.
Note the words from God in verse 14, “in the same way”. This means that the preacher is commanded to do exactly the same thing as the OT priest did in regards to earning a living from doing God’s Work, and, in the modern context through the Gospel. That is, critically, there is no “breakage” or “demarcation line” here between the OT and the NT by the use of these words (‘in the same way’), and, tellingly, this letter is written years after Jesus Christ had ascended which is clear and dominant proof that God expects believers in this current day to compulsorily facilitate the preacher making a living from the Gospel which will be explored further below.
Therefore, the New Covenant of Salvation by Jesus Christ clearly did not abolish the connection of these NT verses in 1 Corinthians ch 9 to the OT, as is commonly overlooked to the detriment of the Church.
Further, Jesus Himself in Matthew 23:23 explicitly includes tithing as compulsory for all in His mentioning of it to all the people and His disciples (v 1). Furthermore, in this regard, the minimal mention of tithing in the New Testament hermenuetically and legally speaking does not in any way remove or diminish the need to tithe in the present time. This is because just one mention of something in the Bible or in ‘legal’ documentation is sufficient for it to be God’s Will and, in any event, the doing or not doing of something or a truth can be implied from the Bible’s contents even if a subject or word is not mentioned at all. Two examples being that there are no express mentions of the words ‘omnipresent’ and ‘omniscient’ in foundational Bible translations yet the Bible’s contents make it clear that God’s presence is ‘everywhere’ and that He is ‘all knowing’.
–On the subject of ‘offerings’, these are unfailingly required to be given to the ‘church’ and ‘non-church’ preachers by believers as a matter of normal practice, as prompted by the heart and ‘cheerfully’ (Exod 25:2; 2 Cor 9:6-7). Though, in saying this, the ‘absence’ of a cheerful heart is not an excuse for believers to not give or withhold their offerings arbitrarily, as like a sinful habit. This is because God nevertheless expects giving, unless there is a credible and practical reason for not doing so, so that His overseers and house are sustained and therefore by extension His work is advanced.
More pointedly, both Tithes and Offerings* (below) are mandatory because they provide “food” to God’s House. That is, believers are required to ‘Bring’ (Mal 3:10) their tithes to God (through the church preacher) which denotes that people’s tithes ‘Already’ belong to Him, and therefore God is robbed (v. when believers do not do it and consequently such are under a curse (v. 9). Relevantly, in terms of language use, believers also ‘Give’* (at bottom) offerings because similarly not doing so is robbing God and carries a curse (v 8-9) and, importantly, the instruction to give cheerfully (2 Cor 9:6-7) also reflects the believer’s expected and obedient practice in giving to God.
Importantly, therefore, it is sin for believers to not bring Tithes, and to unjustifiably withhold Offerings. This is also because not doing so for instance restrains the preacher from doing the work of God more effectively in terms of not having sufficient time to serve believers and the wider community by effectively being forced to work secularly.
Though, this isn’t to say that a pastor or preacher cannot decide to work ‘secularly’ if he wishes, and is led to do so (1 Cor 9:12-23). This is known as a “permissive will” in God, however, it should be noted that a preacher if it is God’s Will for him has an unequivocal right (vv 1-23) from God in verse 14 to not work secularly which must be accepted and not opposed because God has called him to preach His gospel and live materially from it as with 1 Corinthinans 9:14 above.
Unfortunately, it is sad that the traditional though wrong and at times hostile teaching and beliefs by those opposed to tithing makes it difficult or even impossible for many tithe-believing preachers to raise it as a mandatory practice, not to talk of implementing it. Though, in saying this, it is sadder to witness that many if not most pastors and preachers do not for unbiblical reasons believe nor understand that tithing is mandatory despite the Bible clearly teaching that it is and particularly its requirement being affirmed ‘after’ the Cross in 1 Corinthians 9:13-14.
Importantiy, it’s time for this to change and for believers to cease believing and championing the traditional but thoroughly unbiblical and misinformed view that tithing isn’t for today.
Unfortunately, among other things, this view is often due to a misunderstanding of the role of money in the Church and how the Church is to be financed. Significantly, it must be said that it is also often due to a prevailing mistrust towards many seemingly and actual money-oriented preachers though I suggest that the dominant reason as alluded is that the Church has traditionally but wrongly believed that tithing is only for the ‘Old Testament’ and for Israelites and that it is almost exclusively mentioned in the Old Testament.
In this regard, and critically, there is nothing in both the Old and New Testaments that abolishes the bringing of tithes by all believers. This is particularly because the Salvific work of Christ biblically and legally did not in any way negate the continued need to compulsorily finance the House of God and primarily the leadership ‘after’ the Cross in the same way as the levite priests above (1 Cor 9:14) and the Israelites as a whole (Deut 26:12) were sustained ‘prior’ to the Cross. That is, the NT and OT verses above variously Command (1 Cor 9:14) that the pastor and preacher is ordinarily materially sustained by both the giving of tithes and offerings (offerings only for non-overseeing preachers) as grounded directly by the practices of God’s OT priests in the OT ‘storehouse’ (Mal 3:10) which in the modern context is the local ‘church-house’.
In closing, as the Church of God, we need to be properly understanding of full biblical truth and apply proper interpretation and cross-referencing and identify Typology which illuminate OT practices that clearly point to their continuation in the NT and up till today. This includes having a better appreciation and understanding of the nature and role of ‘precedent’ in the Old Testament and elsewhere in its pertaining to the ongoing perfect will and heart of God and His expectations for preachers and believers alike in the current ‘age of Grace’ dispensation.
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* (Above – asterix)
((The use of the word ‘bring’ in Malachi 3:10 concerning tithes may not necessarily exclude the word and practice of ‘Bringing’ offerings to God’s house. This is because the scriptures may may be conveying that, by word arrangement, it is unnecessary linguistically to repeat the word ‘offerings’ by including it in verse 10 in terms of what should be ‘Brought’ into the ‘storehouse’.
In this regard, Malachi 3:8 states that the people of God rob God by not providing both tithes and offerings. Therefore, the inclusion of both in this verse may mean that automatically there is also a need to specifically ‘Bring’ offerings.
If so, this is not biblically inconsistent with the conventional New Testament directive to ‘give’ offerings and also suggests that the provision of offerings to God is given the same weight as the “bringing” of tithes to Him and, therefore, while given freely, believers are nevertheless required to be givers.
(Compare Mark 16:15-18 concerning the “absence” of the word ‘baptised’ in verse 16 following its use in the earlier part of verse 16)).
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Part 23
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| Tithe series – Part 2 of 5
‘The Question of Tithing, An ‘Unpopular’ Practice: Tithes (And Offerings) Are Required By God Today’
‘Believers Have To Tithe’
In Matthew 23:23, Jesus Christ states:
“Woe to you, scribes (teachers/exponents of the law) and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You give a tenth of your spices–mint, dill and cummin. But you have neglected the more important matters of the law–justice, mercy and faithfulness. You should have practiced the latter, without neglecting the former”.
Of paramount and ultimate biblical and legal significance are the Words of Jesus Christ and the New Testament concerning whether a practice in the Old Testament is continued or discontinued.
In accordance with biblical and legal interpretation, unless there is an irrefutable basis in the Old or New Testaments which abolishes or ends an Old Testament practice, then that practice is still continuing.
For instance, believers do not sacrifice animals today on account of sin as was done in the Old Testament because Jesus Christ is “The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world” (John 1:29) having paid the Price for sin by His death on the Cross, and, therefore, ‘animal-sacrificing’ has ended at the Cross.
First, the various types of tithe-bringing in the Old Testament simply represented the various instances where the people of God fell into increase of those things or ‘jobs’ that sustained their well-being. Proverbs 3:9-10 states: “Honour the LORD with your wealth, with the firstfruits of your crops; then your barns will be filled to overflowing, and your vats will brim over with new wine”. The people of God back then were to honour God with their increased substance each time it arose from all sources by God (Deut 8:18) and therefore in the same way by precedent believers today must do the same thing.
Jesus’ words in Matthew 23:23 are an Express Command to believers that we must tithe. The argument that Jesus in this verse was instructing only the scribes and Pharisees to tithe is error. Jesus would have spoken in the same manner if any person had for instance asked Him if tithing were required in that He may have said something like ‘you should not neglect tithing’ (“the former” above)(v. 23). And, importantly, in this chapter, Jesus is principally instructing the whole crowd and His disciples (v 1) and thus is obviously including them in how to live in His various criticisms of the scribes and the Pharisees.
Significantly, the scribes and the Pharisees were not the only people who tithed their own types of material increases in Jesus’ day but all the Israelites did so as well as His disciples. Then, by necessity, as God’s “firstborn son” (Exod 4:22), Israel serves as God’s ‘Example’ nation to the whole world of the need for all individuals across every nation to bring tithes to God upon Covenanting with the God of Jesus Christ.
In this regard, it is crucial to note that Jesus’ death on the Cross did not “suddenly” discontinue the abundance of teachings and commands that He gave during His ministry.
That is, as if to incorrectly say that His death, and His forgiving of sins, automatically means that the status of being “born-again” extinguishes the need to obey All of Jesus’ instructive Words spoken ‘before’ the Cross. This is especially given that the tithe’s function of sustaining the people of God with ‘meat’/food (Mal 3:10), through its provision to the Pastor or ‘overseeing’ church preacher, as like the Old Testament priest, remains an essential and obvious need for the Church today.
To elaborate, this is the reason God indirectly but explicitly Commands tithing by the mention in 1 Corinthians 9:13-14 that preachers are to live off the ‘food’/’substance’-money given by the church in their ministering of the Gospel.
Further, Jesus’ Death and Blood and Resurrection specifically represent the ‘Act’ by which the Salvation of a person’s soul is effected, due to repentance. That is, then, this Act does not in substance “disturb” nor diminish nor expunge His necessary and separate though related Express instructions of faithful believer requirements such as tithing in Matthew 23:23 which was and is a continuing and unaffected “accompaniment” to His Salvific Work on the Cross and to the life of believers ‘beyond’ the Cross until the present.
In this regard, the words that Jesus spoke in the New Testament “accompany” the New Covenant that He made with His Blood. That is, that, His Redemptive Work is premised on His very Words expressed while on earth which give effect to the establishment of the New Covenant upon His death (see Exod 24:7-8; 3-4; 12 for the instructive features of a Covenant/”Agreement”). These Old Testament Scriptures reveal the necessary ‘binding’ of the Old Testament commands of God to the Old Covenant. And, in the same way New Covenant believers are bound by the “accompanying” Words of Jesus Christ and the New Testament to the New Covenant which, analogically speaking, essentially represent the existence of the “terms and conditions” contained in an “Agreement” or “Contract” (Covenant “obligations”) that all believers are obligated to as adherents to Christ since the time of Christ.
To understand this, in order for the New Covenant to be instituted by the Blood of the Saviour Jesus Christ, He had to by necessity firstly express and explain to the people and the world what the Covenant’s New Testament “contents” or “accompanying Kingdom righteousness” (Matt 6:33) entailed. This was done in order that people have knowledge of the substance and intent of it and therefore also appreciate the realities involved in following Jesus Christ of the New Testament and in turn to seek God and all that ‘accompanies’ His Kingdom (Matt 6:33).
A modern expression of this is in the field of politics where a government firstly explains the rights and obligations (accompanying “righteousness”/factors) of a ‘bill’ or ‘law’ it introduces to its nation and later enacts or effects that bill as official Law by signature typically. Hence, Jesus Christ firstly “introduced” and explained the “content” of the New Covenant ‘laws’ to the world throughout His ministry which were later “enacted” or effected or put into ‘force’ by His Blood.
In this context, we thus can better understand the important role that a practice like ‘tithing’ plays in the New Covenant’s required ‘righteousness’ and which represents faithfulness to God as required throughout the entire New Testament. To illuminate further, and as stated above, among other things, tithes (and offerings) are essential elements for the sustainment of Church leadership and the people of God (Deut 26:12). This, therefore, facilitates the Gospel’s advancement which is driven by God who gives us the power to gain ‘wealth’ (Deut 8:18) and it is thus through tithing (and offerings) that God is recognised as being the first ‘priority’ of honour and gratitude in the disposal of our material gain.
In conducting a thorough study on ‘tithing’ in the Bible, it is found that it is mandatory for all believers to tithe according to scriptures such as Matthew 23:23, Malachi 3:10, 1 Corinthians 9:13-14, and many others and the above statements.
Therefore, to conclude, there is no scriptural evidence whatsoever for the discontinuation of tithing by the early Church and therefore up to the present which means not doing so is robbing God and sin against Him (Mal 3:6-12).
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Part 24
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| Tithe series – Part 3 of 5
“‘The Question of Tithing, An ‘Unpopular’ Practice: Tithes (And Offerings) Are Required By God Today'”
—-‘The Rights of an Apostle’ (1 Corinthians 9:1-14, Paul): –
1 “Am I not free? Am I not an apostle? Have I not seen Jesus our Lord? Are you not the result of my work in the Lord? 2 Even though I may not be an apostle to others, surely I am to you! For you are the seal of my apostleship in the Lord. 3 This is my defense to those who sit in judgment on me. 4 Don’t we have the right to food and drink? 5 Don’t we have the right to take a believing wife along with us, as do the other apostles and the Lord’s brothers and Cephas? 6 Or is it only I and Barnabas who must work for a living? 7 Who serves as a soldier at his own expense? Who plants a vineyard and does not eat of its grapes? Who tends a flock and does not drink of the milk? 8 Do I say this merely from a human point of view? Doesn’t the Law say the same thing? 9 For it is written in the Law of Moses: “Do not muzzle an ox while it is treading out the grain.” Is it about oxen that God is concerned? 10 Surely He says this for us, doesn’t He? Yes, this was written for us, because when the plowman plows and the thresher threshes, they ought to do so in the hope of sharing in the harvest. 11 If we have sown spiritual seed among you, is it too much if we reap a material harvest from you? 12 If others have this right of support from you, shouldn’t we have it all the more? But we did not use this right. On the contrary, we put up with anything rather than hinder the gospel of Christ. 13 Don’t you know that those who work in the temple get their food from the temple, and those who serve at the altar share in what is offered on the altar? 14 In the same way, the Lord has commanded that those who preach the gospel should receive their living from the gospel”.
* (Verses 13-14):
“Donations” from people? Offerings? Tithes? Both? None? Or should preachers only, or always, be in full or part-time employment?
Food for thought, particularly because the Lord Himself in verse 14 has Commanded that preachers should receive their living from the Gospel.
Therefore, the regular ‘church’ preacher should seek to ensure this happens by instructing and encouraging the congregation to bring tithes and give offerings.
To iterate, the divine Command from God above is for a preacher to earn a living from the Gospel. As is clearly evident in verse 14, this Command is not subject to the misguided application of the ‘Grace’ period position, or the influence of “modern times”, or the existence of fraudulent preachers, or, whatever other reasons, which, in any event the latter for instance cannot and should not influence nor stop preachers from requesting what is expected for them according to the Lord’s Command.
In this respect, Luke 10:7 states that a ‘worker’ deserves his wages, and thus, the preacher, being a ‘worker’, is no different to any other ‘job’ or profession in terms of expecting ‘wages’.
Thus, a preacher is not out of order nor sinning if the congregation, who are “beneficiaries” of a preacher’s efforts in God, is asked and reminded to tithe and give. This is because the preacher, as like the Levite priest in 1 Corinthians 9:13 above must see to discharging his ‘overseeing’ responsibility before God (Mal 3:10) and also so that he and his family and the House of God may eat and be sustained (Mal 3:10; Deut 26:12) according to the Lord’s Command (1 Cor 9:14)
Thus, a preacher sins if he does not communicate to a non-tithing and giving congregation the need to bring their tithes and offerings. This is also because not doing so acts to restrain or prevent the people’s required understanding of and obedience to verse 14 with the consequence that both preacher and non-preacher are under a curse (Mal 3:7-12) for not tithing and offering and thereby they cannot reap the inherent material benefits from God (Mal 3:10-11) that are derived by contributing to sustaining the minister and therefore advancing his work for God.
Conversely, it is sin on the believer’s part to not bring and to withhold giving to the preacher (if not brought or given for a compelling reason), as commanded in Malachi 3:6-9 and 1 Corinthians 9:14. This, as highlighted above, is because not doing so fails to facilitate and enable the divine right and duty of the preacher which is to receive tithes and offerings from the congregation on behalf of God in order that there is ‘food’ in His house (Mal 3:8-10) and therefore a believer is under a curse (Mal 3:7-12).
Thus, this serious failure prevents the preacher from rightfully earning a living and in turn prevents the church from ‘eating’ (Mal 3:10) and therefore benefitting from God’s Will and it is especially grave in the preacher’s case if he cannot otherwise find employment or has little or no money to sustain himself.
Lastly, it is the decision and reasons of the preacher alone concerning whether or not he personally obtains a portion of the given tithes and offerings (1 Cor 9:12), or is secularly employed, or does both in light of 1 Corinthians 9:1-23. Relatedly and importantly, it must also be said that a preacher who receives tithes from the congregation must also apportion his own tithe to God. That is, by prevailing principle, he must also set aside his own one-tenth (tithe) to God from the collective tithes of the congregation for the sustenance of His house in accordance with Numbers 18:25-26 and 31 below which states:
25 ‘The Lord said to Moses, 26 “Speak to the Levites and say to them: ‘When you receive from the Israelites the tithe I give you as your inheritance, you must present a tenth of that tithe as the Lord’s offering…31 “You and your households may eat the rest of it anywhere, for it is your wages for your work at the Tent of Meeting”.
Finally, as highlighted above, it is the ‘church’/’fellowship’ pastor or preacher that receives both the tithes and offerings from the congregation. Though, in the case of the “non-church setting” preacher, he will typically receive offerings only being that he does not ‘oversee’ a congregation where tithes are brought into the storehouse (Mal 3:10) which ‘storehouse’ is the biblical Old Testament ‘Type’ of the local ‘church’ or church-fellowship of the New Testament.
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Part 25
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| Tithe series – Part 4 of 5
“The Question of Tithing, An ‘Unpopular’ Practice: Tithes (And Offerings) Are Required By God Today”
‘The Law of Precedent and The Tithe’
* Definition of Precedent:-
Oxford: ‘an earlier event or action that is regarded as an example or guide to be considered in subsequent similar circumstances’.
Merriam-Webster: ‘prior in time, order, arrangement, or significance; an earlier occurrence of something similar; something done or said that may serve as an example or rule to authorise or justify a subsequent act of the same or an analogous kind’.
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Unpopular topic. However, the Church of God needs to come to terms with this topic because it is being ‘starved’ of required finances for the purpose of meeting its essential needs and that of others.
In this context, it must go without saying that the Church as a whole and believers in general are gravely sinning against God by not systematically and properly financing God’s Church by requirement (1 Cor 9:13-14: Mal 3:6-12).
As has been the case in this Tithe study so far, 1 Corinthians 9:13-14 by Paul the apostle has been the focal point:
13 “Don’t you know that those who work in the temple get their food from the temple, and those who serve at the altar share in what is offered on the altar? 14 In the same way, the Lord has commanded that those who preach the gospel should receive their living from the gospel”.
Note the ‘date’ that this letter was written. Many years ‘after’ the Cross of Christ, therefore current from then till now.
The question posted from the outset is, are we as believers sure that verse 13 is not a precedent for how the overseeing ‘shepherd’ or pastor of a church ‘flock’ today would ensure that there is ‘food’ in God’s House (Mal 3:10)?
If the entire 1 Corinthians letter is for today, as it obviously is, are we certain that we would not logically utilise the chief currency of today, which is money, as different to the way of food or agricultural products in order to sustain God’s House with ‘food’/’meat’ as with Malachi 3:10?
Verse 14 states that it is a Command from God that preachers receive their living from the Gospel.
That is, to receive their living from the people of God, through tithes and offerings, and through benevolence in general by way of offerings or “donations” and the like from the Church of God or from others.
As has been stated, this is in order to sustain and advance God’s people as a whole and importantly the ‘overseeing’ pastor or church ‘shepherd’ and others in need as well as called and ‘non-church’ preachers (offerings) in accordance with the overall Scriptures and verse 14.
Relatedly, and as written earlier in this series, it is the remit of the preacher alone as to whether he does secular work on occasions or more according to 1 Corinthians chapter 9:1-12 and verses 14 to 15. That is, it is not for the Church to assume or tell a church preacher or non-church preacher that he must do secular work and especially when he personally and generally has little time to take care of all his church members fully or many people in general because he is ordinarily often busy with people and tasks. This idea or expectation is unbiblical and a false tradition in belief and practice.
Importantly, verse 13 is a Precedent and mandate to tithe which was set by God from Old Testament practices. In this regard, Paul the apostle was clearly and simply affirming what was already practiced by the people of God for the Levite priests, which this Levite ‘type’ giving is revealed as a Command by God (v. 14) for how the ‘age of grace’ Church would continue to tithe and give for the reasons above. There is no difference at all.
Furthermore, the act of ‘tithing’ in verse 13 follows a pattern of many Old Testament precedents that are quoted in the writings of Paul and others and clearly act as the justification for the Church to engage in such acts today.
In the case of tithing, there is no need for Paul to explicitly mention the ‘tithe’ word because it is obvious and normal that the people typically gave ‘food’ to the priest as their “currency” for the tithe (verse 13), and therefore, by modern equivalency, money is obviously the currency for the tithe today. That is, today, the world simply and logically uses the transactional trading form of money which primarily sustains our essential well-being and which is used for general commercial or trading practice just like food for instance was often used for such back then.
Let’s be reminded that Paul wrote 1 Corinthians many years ‘after’ the Cross. That, it is a Command of God in New Testament practice that tithes must be given to the church ‘pastor’, after the Cross, therefore until today. This is abundantly clear. The words, “in the same way”, in verse 14, mean that the people of God today are to do Exactly as the people of God did back then. As said, evidently there is no difference except as above the world primarily uses money today in engaging in trade and human sustainment and advancement and not food or agricultural products.
There are of course various other considerations in respect of Precedents in the Bible. Namely, not only are they established bases for doing acts or engaging in practices that advance the kingdom of God and societies as a whole, but they also carry legal weight. That is, precedents are intrinsically the Law and heart of God and are one major and essential way that God operates and governs His people and the world and which carry rights and responsibilities for human beings.
To elaborate, it is God’s legal Requirement that we must follow His Precedents as is even often the practice of many countries across the world when establishing or following laws and rules for living and the advancement of human progress and which carry attendant implications and consequences for people.
Precedents may have been established centuries or decades in a nation’s past but they still have great legal relevance in the determination of a matter and the understanding of it. Indeed, in Australia, as with many other nations, when the High Court makes a decision on a case then all decisions and practices in the ‘lower’ courts across Australia, and in society in general, must follow and abide by that decision, regardless of when it was made. The decision remains in place perpetually unless there is overcoming legislation or a later High Court decision that overturns it which now becomes the guiding or ‘leading authority’ concerning a topic or matter. This is the law of ‘precedent’ which is abundant in the Bible and is evidenced by numerous Old Testament quotations by New Testament authors and, which among other things, allows for consistency in biblical and societal law and practices past and current and respect for them.
Importantly, there is nothing in both the Old and New Testament that overturns the Old Testament precedent in 1 Corinthians verse 13 concerning tithes. Rather, in verse 14, Paul affirms that it is current New Testament practice for the believers in Corinth and by extension everywhere until today to facilitate their tithes for the preacher and which reflects the letter’s theme which is an addressing of the believers’ Christian conduct.
Therefore, it is important that Christians are aware of and understand the critical nature and role of Precedent in the Bible.
Furthermore, precedents act to point to the necessary ‘leap’ from the Old Testament to the New in terms of the New following established Precedents from the Old and which enable such Old Testaments ‘types’ to be realised and done in New Testament times.
In this respect, below are instances where the Lord Jesus Christ followed Precedent in order to uphold the ‘current’ Will of God and Truth, and even in circumstances where God’s Word in the matter was not so from the Beginning.
Matthew 19:9 and Matthew 5:32 are such examples of teachings in the New Testament that directly follow and affirm an Old Testament teaching, a ‘precedent’ set down by the “High Court” adjudicator Moses (Exod 18:26). In Matthew 19:7-9, Jesus says the following in the context of teaching that man should not separate what God has joined together:
7 “Why then,” they asked, “did Moses command that a man give his wife a certificate of divorce and send her away?” 8 Jesus replied, “Moses permitted you to divorce your wives because your hearts were hard. But it was not this way from the beginning. 9 I tell you that anyone who divorces his wife, except for sexual immorality, and marries another woman commits adultery”.
(Matthew 5:31-32)(Jesus):
31 “It has been said, ‘Anyone who divorces his wife must give her a certificate of divorce.’ 32 But I tell you that anyone who divorces his wife, except for sexual immorality, makes her the victim of adultery, and anyone who marries a divorced woman commits adultery”. Let’s look at the words “sexual immorality” in both passages. They stem from the passage in Deuteronomy 24/1:
“If a man marries a woman who becomes displeasing to him because he finds something indecent about her, and he writes her a certificate of divorce, gives it to her and sends her from his house…”.
The word “indecent” (NIV 1984)(“uncleanness” – KJV) in this verse means “sexual immorality” of some sort. This is the reason Jesus used the words “sexual immorality” in the passages in Matthew above and whereby the Greek for it does not only mean fornication but employs this wider meaning. So, Jesus, while revealing in context that God did not permit divorce from the beginning, nevertheless had to express words that were consistent with the Old Testament teaching on the subject.
To elaborate, Jesus could not contradict what Moses had permitted the Israelites to do, albeit due to the hardness of their hearts, but, had to uphold the teaching and thereby uphold the ‘law’ of God and glorify God. Thus, as above, His use of “sexual immorality” explains what Moses meant by “indecent” and, critically, it also attests that the New Testament necessarily adheres to numerous biblical and ‘legal’ precedents from the Old Testament which require following in order to understand why particular words or reasonings are employed for a related subject occurring at a later time in the Bible such as 1 Corinthians 9:13-14.
Importantly, the use of these examples are not in any way meant to advocate for divorce here and in any event the topic of divorce as well as remarriage is somewhat complex and deserves significant attention. It is merely to show that it unsurprisingly but at the same time tellingly reveals that Jesus Himself could not speak inconsistently with the Old Testament’s rule that the only biblically acceptable ground for divorce in the context of certain acts that constitute ‘adultery’ (Matt 5:27-28; 9:19) is sexual immorality.
Therefore, tithing has absolutely nothing to do with being ‘under the law’ or ‘Old Testament’ only but evidently it is a current Command given by God in 1 Cor 9:13-14 to bring to the preacher’s ‘church-setting’ (storehouse – Mal 3:10) in order that the House of God is sustained and that the ‘shepherd’ and his family would live and that the wider community would be assisted as appropriate (Deut 14:28; 26:12).
This reveals the deep importance and worth of the Old Testament with respect to often providing understanding or answers to topics that people seek information and solutions for today. Importantly, it also illuminates the reality that the New Testament writers were significantly informed by the Old Testament which is evidenced by their numerous quotations from it as well as the fact that they almost exclusively only had the Old Testament to refer to in terms of a written record which perhaps some may overlook or forget.
* The conclusion is that the New Testament authors’ practice of following relevant Precedents from the Old Testament is a ‘legal’ and biblical requirement in God as evidenced in the above statements and scripture teachings from Jesus Christ. This knowledge encourages and enables an understanding of God’s Will and reveals why the authors wrote what they wrote such as with 1 Corinthians 9:13-14 in relation to ensuring that the preacher makes a living from the Gospel through tithes (and offerings)(Mal 3:8;9;10) which is God’s command.
Finally, note again that the word ‘food’ in verse 13 actually represents the tithe, the amount of ‘currency’ through food that God commanded His people to bring to the Temple through the Priest back then. “In the same way” (v. 14), due to 1 Corinthians being a ‘current’ letter and ‘after’ the Cross, the ‘food’ in verse 13 is equivalently and unfailingly money by simple logic of current ‘currency’ used ‘everywhere’ today, as like food back then. As like back then, the ‘money’ today is brought into the “temple”, which is to the ‘Church’, through the ‘New Testament’ “priest” and antitype which is the overseeing preacher.
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Part 26
| Tithe series – Part 5 of 5
“The Question of Tithing, An ‘Unpopular’ Practice: Tithes (And Offerings) Are Required By God Today”
*
‘Gross Or Net Tithing? (Cain And Abel: Genesis 4:1-7)’
This is the final post in this 5-part series on the biblical requirement of Tithing. Up till now, the series has examined several relevant areas concerning the concept of tithing. These are: the role of finances in the church, the legal contexts of tithing, who is responsible in tithing, and the role of precedent.
This last post presents how tithing is done in terms of the ‘point’ at which it occurs and its relation to the ‘quantity’. As is well known, tithe means ‘a tenth’, so it is important to discover how this specific ‘portion’ is applied within a historical context in order to necessarily understand how we can arrive at tithing correctly which importantly we will see also examines the state of a person’s heart before God.
Although the word ‘tithe’ itself is not mentioned in the scripture passage below, the reference is presented so that it can be seen that the concept of ‘bringing’ to God was established and required at the ‘beginnings’ of human history. That is, we are able to understand that the Genesis account establishes an important ‘precedent’ for human beings to ‘give’ to God and the way it is done in recognition of His sovereignty and love and which we witness as an important and dominant theme throughout the Bible.
(Genesis 4:1-7):
Cain and Abel
1 ‘Adam lay with his wife Eve, and she became pregnant and gave birth to Cain. She said, “With the help of the Lord I have brought forth a man.” 2 Later she gave birth to his brother Abel. Now Abel kept flocks, and Cain worked the soil. 3 In the course of time Cain brought some of the fruits of the soil as an offering to the Lord. 4 But Abel brought fat portions from some of the firstborn of his flock. The Lord looked with favor on Abel and his offering, 5 but on Cain and his offering he did not look with favor. So Cain was very angry, and his face was downcast. 6 Then the Lord said to Cain, “Why are you angry? Why is your face downcast? 7 If you do what is right, will you not be accepted? But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must master it” ‘.
These verses reveal that Abel’s bringing to God from the “firstborn” (Gen 4:4) of his flock is represented in modern understanding as the “gross” from “our flock” (‘gross’ – ‘from the very top’/or “the best”/priority ; ‘our flock’ – from our money or whatever type of material substance that sustains us and is ‘capable’ of being offered to God).
Abel’s bringing of the “fat portions” (Gen 4:4; Lev 3:16) represents God’s own ‘part’, which should be properly understood as the type of ‘tithe’ (10 per cent) part that we bring to God (Gen 14:18; Gen 28:20-22).
One way to understand why tithing occurs on the ‘gross’ is for instance when people are offered a job and are told that, for example, they will earn $52,000.00 per year in wages or $1000 per week, obviously everyone automatically knows that this is $1000 gross. This is what the worker’s job is worth, and is one’s actual real wage, and if not for tax to be deducted then one would obviously earn this fully. Pertinently, it is important to note that many people earn various types of incomes where tax etc is not deducted and therefore naturally they receive the full amount which they would tithe on.
Let’s consider a person who in addition to having let’s say $300 tax deducted from his or her $1000 pay per week has $400 per week deducted due to other things, and then spends $100 per week on personal expenses, making a total of $800 in ‘outgoings’ per week. In such a situation it would be a great error and sin before God as well as a “spiritual trap” to agree with or bring to Him a supposed “tithe” of $20 on the remaining $200 left over for the week. This is simply and obviously because the $200 is not represented as the worker’s ‘true’ earnings as above which means that it is not an acceptable base for bringing 10% to the Lord and thus it is incorrect tithing.
In this light, we definitely do not tithe on the ‘net’ amount, and certainly never based on what is left over (which may nevertheless be very small). We tithe on the “gross” and therefore bring to God from the outset at least $100 from the $1000, and if not done immediately then the $100 must be brought from any remaining monies such as the $200 above in accordance with the Command to honour God with the ‘first’ of what we have obtained from Him materially (Prov 3:9-10).
Thus, God simply wants us to live by faith as if we were earning 90% of what our wage or income is.
In this regard, from the time of Cain and Abel at least, God has always required that we do not live on the 100% or on all that we have received. This is because He already ‘takes’ His own part and requires us to rely on Him for living and material advancement and not on the absolute full amounts of our money and income types gained.
This takes faith and trust in God particularly because of various other deductions and expenses above that diminish one’s earnings as above. In saying so, it should again be emphasised that believers are not supposed to keep for themselves the entirety of the material gains that God Himself has given us the power to obtain but rather He requires His own part as evidence of our recognition of Him and therefore He faithfully blesses us materially: “But remember the Lord your God, for it is He who gives you the ability to produce wealth, and so confirms His covenant, which He swore to your forefathers, as it is today” (Deut 8:18)(Prov 3:9-10).
Yet, to reiterate, the temptation to tithe on the after-tax ‘net’ or worse to tithe after all of one’s expenses are paid as above must be avoided by faith. This is because the ‘bringing’ of God’s own part to Him from one’s ‘official’ or ‘officially-stated’ income is mandatory. As detailed above, Cain did not consider his ‘uppermost’ or ‘priority’ “grouping” of his ‘income’ (‘from the top’)(of his fruits/food) and therefore he could not accurately extract or obtain God’s own required portion or part and bring it to Him like Abel did with his own ‘income’ (his flock). As stated earlier, Cain was required to ‘select’ the ‘First’ crop (as like the “firstborn”) of his crop/food increase and then from that bring to God His own ‘Part’ (“fat portions” – ‘tithe’) which already belonged to God (Lev 3:16). Therefore, Cain did not tithe properly which is sin and it revealed the state of his heart.
Moreover, and importantly, it is not as is commonly and wrongly believed that God rejected Cain’s offering because he brought ‘fruits of the soil’ to God instead of an animal ‘sacrifice’ like Abel. Rather, it is due to Cain not bringing properly to God from his own particular field of endeavour whereas Abel did and thus the type of “object” that is brought to God is irrelevant.
To elaborate, obviously believers engage in their own particular and various types of income endeavours and not the same ‘flock rearing’ like Abel. That is, if Cain were only supposed to bring to God an ‘animal sacrifice’ (animals were not his ‘work endeavour’), instead of his ‘soil fruits’, then this implies that God only accepted or accepts tithes from animal farmers. Though, if this were so, then it clearly concludes that God rejected and rejects the bringing of tithes of all people from that time until now that worked and works respectively in all other jobs including land farming and agriculture which is plainly ludicrous and great error.
Lastly, the manner of tithing is one of countless examples of knowing people by their fruits, as the Word says (Matthew 7:20).
That is, by the good or bad ‘things’ that a person is “producing” on the “outside”, or what one is doing ‘outwardly’, like obviously fruit on a tree is seen ‘outwardly’/’outside’. Therefore, anything that people are seen as doing or omitting on the “outside” that is contrary to the Word such as not tithing or improper tithing is sin before the Lord. Some other examples of “outside” conduct in the context of one’s life after Salvation are: a person’s actions, what one says, the type of clothing one wears, how one wears clothes, what a person does to his or her skin from head to toe, and how one keeps head and facial hair (Lev 19) in light of the Word of God. All are important to God.
*Concluding comments
This topic has been described as “unpopular” above. This is mentioned in such way due to the dominant view across the Church of God that believers of Christ are not required to tithe and consequently there are typically varying levels of disdain levelled at opposing, minority views.
However, as this series has asserted and shown, not tithing is a wrong belief because it is thoroughly unscriptural. As the Church of God, we have a personal and collective duty to God to facilitate the provisions of God’s house through our finances and other related ways in order that preachers can live from the Gospel (1 Cor 9:13-14) and that the Church of God can ‘eat’ (Mal 3:10).
This means that God’s house, by nature and necessity, must be adequately financed by the people of God with predominantly monetary assets. This, also, as scripturally evident, is so that the work of God can be done effectively by the leadership without in many situations having to be effectively ‘forced’ with already little time to engage in casual or part-time or often full-time secular work in order to support oneself and family in various ways let alone many members of a church.
It is not the ‘normal’ Will of God for preachers to work in secular settings as revealed in 1 Corinthians 9:13-14. Rather, as seen, the Lord has commanded that the preacher should make a living from the Gospel which as above means the Church is supposed to bring their tithes and offerings to enable this and God’s ‘wider’ Will to happen as found in Malachi 3:10.
It is high time Church, especially in these fast changing and challenging times where there is an increasing need for God’s biblical truths and maturity in His Church, that the Church obeys God’s clear commands and Will and quickly frees itself from erroneous teachings and typically long held and false convictions such as the majority belief on this topic.
It is hoped that, by tackling this topic, the grave practice and yoke of sinning against God (Mal 3:7-12) through not tithing or ordinarily giving offerings would be destroyed. In doing so, it is by consequence that the Church of God would be in a better and more powerful and resourced position to tackle the Great Commission of God (Matt 28:18-20) that we have been tasked to undertake and to do so with greater financial support for the biblical leadership and adequate collective responsibility for God’s work.
—–
Part 27
—
(Genesis 15:1-6):
(Believing God is ‘righteousness’)
—Background: In Genesis 14, God gives Abram (Abraham) the victory in Battle. God ‘introduces’ him to the ‘Type’ of Christ, Melchizedek (meaning “King of Righteousness”), who foreshadows the Sacrifice of the Saviour Christ for humanity through His bringing of ‘bread’ and ‘wine’ (“Communion”) following the battle. Melchizedek blesses Abram and God and Abram responds by giving Him a tenth of his ‘increase’ (battle ‘plunder’/’spoils’ – Heb 7:4; Prov 3:9-10) arising from the battle.
(Genesis 15:1-6):
—
1 ‘After this, the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision: “Do not be afraid, Abram. I (God) am your shield, your very great reward.” 2 But Abram said, “O Sovereign Lord, what can you give me since I remain childless and the one who will inherit my estate is Eliezer of Damascus?” 3 And Abram said, “You have given me no children; so a servant in my household will be my heir.” 4 Then the word of the Lord came to him: “This man will not be your heir, but a son coming from your own body will be your heir.” 5 He took him outside and said, “Look up at the heavens and count the stars—if indeed you can count them.” Then He said to him, “So shall your offspring be.” 6 Abram believed the Lord, and He credited it to him as righteousness’.
* Romans 1:17:
‘For in the gospel a righteousness from God is revealed, a righteousness that is by faith from first to last, just as it is written: “The righteous will live by faith” ‘(“Hab 2:4”).
Hebrews 11:11-12:
11 ‘By faith Abraham, even though he was past age—and Sarah herself was barren—was enabled to become a father because He considered him faithful (Gen 15:5; 21:1-2) who had made the promise. 12 And so from this one man, and he as good as dead, came descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and as countless as the sand on the seashore’.
Mark 11:22:
‘”Have faith in God,” Jesus answered’.
Hebrews 11:6 (two translations):
“Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see”,
“Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen”.
..
((Faith is: ‘believing’ God, and is credited as ‘righteousness’ (Gen 15:6; Rom 1:17; Hab 2:4)).
—–
Part 28
—
(God requires believers to be ‘blameless’ always)
(Genesis 17:1-2):
—
1 ‘When Abram was ninety-nine years old, the Lord appeared to him and said, “I am God Almighty; walk before Me and be blameless. 2 I will confirm My covenant between Me and you and will greatly increase your numbers”‘.
–In Genesis 12, God told Abram (Abraham) to leave his country. In doing so, God made mighty promises to Abraham including that he would become a great nation and that all the families of the earth would be blessed in Abraham.
Abraham left his country at age 75 (Gen 12:4). In Genesis 15, God told him that He would bless him with an heir and that Abraham’s ‘offspring’ would be as the number of the stars in the heavens. Abraham believed God which was credited to him as ‘righteousness’ (v. 6). God consequently made a Covenant with Abraham.
At the age of 99, God told Abraham in Genesis 17 above to be ‘blameless’ (KJV; NIV 1984) before Him. Evidently, the Bible attests that Abraham did such from the time God called him 24 years earlier (Gen 12; Heb 11:8-12; Gen 18:19). A year later, at 100, God enabled Abraham’s heir Isaac to be born (Gen 21).
* Takeaway
As Gen 17:1 states, God required Abraham to be ‘blameless’ in the process of establishing His Covenant with him (Gen 17:2; 7; 21:1-5). This means that God desires believers to be blameless in morality at all times in their Faith walk regardless of how long it may take for God’s promise or promises to be established in one’s life.
Abraham waited patiently for 25 years before God through Isaac established Abraham’s line of heritage and thus his descendants which ultimately became the nation of Israel (Gen 12:1-3; Exod chaps 12-16). Furthermore, God enabled His promises (Gen 12:1-3; 17:3-7) to extend to all believers by faith on account of Abraham being the father of all (who believe)(Rom 4:16).
Among many examples in the Old Testament of ‘blameless’ or ‘perfect’ people is Job. The book of Job describes him as a ‘blameless’ (NIV 1984), or ‘perfect’ (KJV) man, who was ‘upright, feared God and shunned evil’ (Job 1:1). Jesus Christ spoke of the need for believers to be ‘perfect’, and therefore at all times. In Matthew 5:48, He states, “Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect”.
———
(Notes)
‘Blameless’ (Gen 17:1):
Strong’s Number – H8549
Hebrew: תּמים
Transliteration: tâmîym
Pronunciation: taw-meem’
Definition: From H8552; entire ({literally} figuratively or morally); also (as noun) {integrity} truth: – without {blemish} {complete} {full} {perfect} sincerely ({-ity}) {sound} without {spot} {undefiled} upright ({-ly}) whole.
KJV Usage: without blemish (44x), perfect (18x), upright (8x), without spot (6x), uprightly (4x), whole (4x), sincerely (2x), complete (1x), full (1x), misc (3x).
Occurs: 91
In verses: 85
—
‘Perfect’ (Matt 5:48):
Strong’s Number – G5046
Greek: τέλειος
Transliteration: teleios
Pronunciation: tel’-i-os
Definition: From G5056; complete (in various applications of labor growth mental and moral character etc.); neuter (as noun with G3588) completeness: – of full age man perfect.
KJV Usage: perfect (17x), man (1x), of full age (1x).
Occurs: 19
In verses: 17
—–
Part 29
—
(Genesis 18:16-19)
* God requires believers to always do what is ‘right’ and ‘just’ in order that He would fulfill what He has specifically promised to do in one’s life.
||Context: (Genesis 18:1-3):
The Three Visitors
1’The Lord appeared to Abraham near the great trees of Mamre while he was sitting at the entrance to his tent in the heat of the day. 2 Abraham looked up and saw three men standing nearby. When he saw them, he hurried from the entrance of his tent to meet them and bowed low to the ground’.
(Genesis 18:16-19):-
—
16 ’When the men got up to leave, they looked down toward Sodom, and Abraham walked along with them to see them on their way. 17 Then the Lord said, “Shall I hide from Abraham what I am about to do? 18 Abraham will surely become a great and powerful nation, and all nations on earth will be blessed through him. 19 For I have chosen him, so that he will direct his children and his household after him to keep the way of the Lord by doing what is right and just, so that the Lord will bring about for Abraham what He has promised him” ‘.
* Verse 19 states that the Lord had chosen (or ‘known’ – KJV) Abraham in order that his children and household after him would obey the Lord by doing what is right and just.
The Lord required this so that He would do for Abraham what He had spoken to him in
Genesis 12:1-3 below:
1’The Lord had said to Abram, “Leave your country, your people and your father’s household and go to the land I will show you. 2 “I will make you into a great nation and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. 3 I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you” ‘.
It is significant to note that God specifically chooses certain believers to bring about His certain specific plans and Will on the earth.
That is, God has a specific plan for every believer and expects each that He chooses for a role to do what is right and just so that His purposes would be fulfilled for the benefit of the whole world (Gen 12:3)(Matt 28:18-20).
As above, Genesis 18:19 reveals that a believer keeps the Lord’s ways by doing what is ‘right’ and ‘just’. This is achieved through what can generally be described as ‘good works’ that God has pre-prepared for believers to do which need to be undertaken with a right heart before God.
That is, these ‘good works’ entail obeying the written Word of God (Jam 1:22; John 14:23; 2 Tim 3:16-17) and God’s ‘ongoing’ Will (Rom 8:14) as well as one’s unique calling(s) or ‘work’ (KJV), or ‘assigned task’ (NIV 1984) in Mark 13:34 below:
31“Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away. 32 “No one knows about that day or hour, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. 33 Be on guard! Be alert ! You do not know when that time will come. 34 It’s like a Man (Jesus Christ) going away: he leaves his house and puts his servants in charge, each with his assigned task, and tells the one at the door to keep watch. 35 “Therefore keep watch because you do not know when the owner of the house will come back–whether in the evening, or at midnight, or when the rooster crows, or at dawn. 36 If he comes suddenly, do not let Him find you sleeping. 37 What I say to you, I say to everyone: ‘Watch!”
Verse 34 reveals that every believer (Jesus’ – ‘servants’) has been given a ‘special’ ‘assigned task’ or ‘work’ from Jesus Christ (the ‘Master’ of the house) to do for, and under the Great Commission (Matt 28:18-20; Mark 16:15-18). As mentioned, it is a task that is unique to every believer and has been “pre-packaged” by God (Mark 13:34) and requires undertaking following Salvation (Jam 4:15; John 4:34; John 5:19-20).
In order for this ‘full’ Will (God’s Word, Will and ‘assigned task’) of God to be achieved in a believer’s life, God requires that a person be faithful and do what is right and just. Here, Genesis 18:19 serves as a powerful example of God’s plan for Abraham who was called by God to conduct himself righteously at all times as well as specifically to undertake his ‘personal’ ‘assigned task’ by God in order to achieve fully what God promised for him:
“For I have chosen him, so that he will direct his children and his household after him to keep the way of the Lord by doing what is right and just, so that the Lord will bring about for Abraham what He has promised him” (v. 19).
((Final comments
It is evident above that God is always desiring believers to do what is ‘right’ and ‘just’ in order that His plans are established (Gen 17:1-2).
This is irrespective of however long a person has been a believer or whether or not all of God’s promises have been fully fulfilled in a person’s life. In not continuing to do what is right and just in God’s sight, believers will not be able to properly live a fulfilling Christian life of ‘good works’ which God has prepared in advance for people to walk in (Eph 2:10).
In saying this, God is faithful and is willing and able to execute His purposes in a person’s life upon repentance, as like the ‘prodigal son’ (Luke 15:11-32). By doing what is right and just, a believer is able to live a fulfilling and purposeful life as was the case with Abraham who by reason of his obedience and faith (Heb 11) ultimately became the father of all who believe (Rom 4:16)(Gen 21:1-6)).
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Part 30
—
This is the final week of this Study of Genesis to Exodus chapter 19 which has sought to examine and reveal practices that are ‘current’ or the Will of God for the believer today.
These are, among other descriptions, practices that have not been cancelled or ‘overturned’ by the New Covenant. This current post examines more particularly the heart ‘factor’ for believers following their Salvation experience as well as ongoingly.
*
(Genesis 19:26)
(Believers are ‘workers’ for Jesus Christ and can miss out on Heaven if they desire to undertake their own plans or contemplate a return to an undesirable past life).
––
(Genesis 19:12-26)
(12 ‘The two men (2 angels the Word mentions earlier) said to Lot, “Do you have anyone else here—sons-in-law, sons or daughters, or anyone else in the city who belongs to you? Get them out of here, 13 because we are going to destroy this place. The outcry to the Lord against its people is so great that He has sent us to destroy it.”14 So Lot went out and spoke to his sons-in-law, who were pledged to marry his daughters. He said, “Hurry and get out of this place, because the Lord is about to destroy the city!” But his sons-in-law thought he was joking.15 With the coming of dawn, the angels urged Lot, saying, “Hurry! Take your wife and your two daughters who are here, or you will be swept away when the city is punished.” 16 When he hesitated, the men grasped his hand and the hands of his wife and of his two daughters and led them safely out of the city, for the Lord was merciful to them. 17 As soon as they had brought them out, one of them said, “Flee for your lives! Don’t look back, and don’t stop anywhere in the plain! Flee to the mountains or you will be swept away!” 23 ‘By the time Lot reached Zoar, the sun had risen over the land. 24 Then the Lord rained down burning sulfur on Sodom and Gomorrah—from the Lord out of the heavens. 25 Thus He overthrew those cities and the entire plain, including all those living in the cities—and also the vegetation in the land. 26 But Lot’s wife looked back, and she became a pillar of salt).
* Lot, Abraham’s nephew, was told to quickly leave (the region of Sodom and Gomorrah) because the Lord was going to destroy the city (vv 14-15) and the surrounding plain (v. 25). However, Lot’s wife disobeyed the command to not look back (v. 17) at the cities that were being destroyed by the Lord.
There is a parallel in the New Testament to the instruction to not ‘look back’ as Lot’s wife did (v. 26). This is found in Luke 9:62:
57 ‘As they were walking along the road, a man said to Him (Jesus Christ), “I will follow you wherever You go.”58 Jesus replied, “Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay His head.” 59 ‘He said to another man, “Follow Me.” But the man replied, “Lord, first let me go and bury my father.” 60 Jesus said to him, “Let the dead bury their own dead, but you go and proclaim the kingdom of God.” 61 Still another said, “I will follow You, Lord; but first let me go back and say good-by to my family.” 62 Jesus replied, “No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God” ‘.
—One of the things Jesus is revealing here is that ‘putting’ one’s ‘hand to the plow’ is ‘work’. That is, a person that has been Saved from destruction in terms of Salvation has become a ‘worker’, or a ‘servant’ (Mark 13:34) for Christ with a mission to bring souls into the kingdom of God.
Thus, Lot and his family’s escape from God’s judgment upon Sodom and Gomorrah is likened to a picture of ‘Salvation’. That is, it is akin for instance to the manner of Noah and his family who were ‘Saved’ from the judgment of God by the Great Flood upon the sinning people of the Earth. Unfortunately, even though Lot’s wife escaped the destruction of these two cities above, she did not obey the subsequent command to not look back after having become ‘delivered’.
Lot’s wife was told not to look back to her past life but rather to focus on her ‘new life’ in God following ‘deliverance’, which, as said, is likened to ‘Salvation’. Like Luke 9:62 above, she had come into a ‘new life’ from God as His own following deliverance and therefore she needed to focus only on this reality and nothing else at the time. According to Jesus Christ above, believers who have become Saved (‘puts one’s hand to the plow’), and merely ‘look back’ at their ‘pre-Salvation’ life, or desire to do their own will that is inconsistent with God’s Will, are not fit to enter Heaven.
This is because one’s “looking back” interferes with and halts the ‘work’ required as a member of God’s kingdom. This is the case where a farmer for instance cannot see or do the ‘work’ that is in “front” of him because he decides to “look back”. Thus, again, any believer who considers his or her past life in a manner that contemplates or desires a return to it or seeks to deviate from one’s new Walk in God is not able to enter God’s kingdom.
This is because a person who engages in adverse activity above is obviously sinning and, for that matter, without repentance, following ‘Salvation’ (Heb 10:26-27). This is what Lot’s wife did in that she did not change her initial internal desire to look back (to repent) but rather confirmed it through her actual act of looking back. Therefore, she was not ‘fit’ to serve God and thus was judged by Him adversely.
Lastly, not being ‘fit’ for God’s kingdom means that a believer is on the ‘wide’ road of destruction (Matt 7:13-14). Consequently, such a person will unfailingly not make Heaven in the absence of repentance and therefore must focus only on “putting one’s hands to the plow” as an ongoing consequence of the ‘born-again’ life in Christ.
((“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!” (2 Cor 5:17))
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Part 31
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(God established March/April as the real new year commencement for the whole world)
*
(Exodus 12:1-11):
1 ‘The Lord said to Moses and Aaron in Egypt, 2 “This month is to be for you the first month, the first month of your year. 3 Tell the whole community of Israel that on the tenth day of this month each man is to take a lamb for his family, one for each household. 4 If any household is too small for a whole lamb, they must share one with their nearest neighbor, having taken into account the number of people there are. You are to determine the amount of lamb needed in accordance with what each person will eat. 5 The animals you choose must be year-old males without defect, and you may take them from the sheep or the goats. 6 Take care of them until the fourteenth day of the month, when all the people of the community of Israel must slaughter them at twilight. 7 Then they are to take some of the blood and put it on the sides and tops of the doorframes of the houses where they eat the lambs. 8 That same night they are to eat the meat roasted over the fire, along with bitter herbs, and bread made without yeast. 9 Do not eat the meat raw or cooked in water, but roast it over the fire—head, legs and inner parts. 10 Do not leave any of it till morning; if some is left till morning, you must burn it. 11 This is how you are to eat it: with your cloak tucked into your belt, your sandals on your feet and your staff in your hand. Eat it in haste; it is the Lord’s Passover”.
–In verse 2, God told Moses and Aaron that the first month of the year would occur at the time He was speaking to them. This first month is called ‘Abib’ (Exod 13:4) or ‘Nisan’ (Hebrew)(Esther 3:7)(see ‘note’ at bottom).
While God told Moses and Aaron that it would be the first month of the year to them, God was instituting this for the whole world. This is because Israel is God’s chosen Example nation for the entire world and whom God attributes as His “first born son” (Exod 4:22), and through which His plans for humanity revolve and are established.
Importantly, it is essential to note that the first month is the month in which the Messiah Jesus Christ effected Salvation for the whole world by His death on the Cross in Israel. This serves as a sign to the whole world of this month’s importance and which is powerfully evidenced by the dating of world history upon the Person of Jesus Christ the Saviour of the world.
In this context, verse 3 reveals that the Israelites were instructed by God to take a lamb for themselves on the tenth day of the first month, and to kill it on the fourteenth day (v. 6). This act symbolises Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem centuries later as the Sacrificial Lamb (John 12:12-15), on the tenth day of the first month, His dying on the fourteenth day at twilight (v. 6) for humanity’s Redemption, and resurrecting from the dead.
Verses 7 to 11 detail God’s instructions to Israel for the “Passover” (v. 11). These practices symbolise the Israelites’ deliverance from slavery in Egypt as represented by the blood of a lamb or a goat (v. 5), which was applied to their external door posts and lintels. As stated, this act points to the Deliverance by Jesus Christ on the Cross for humanity by His Blood at the same corresponding time at ‘twilight’ in the Gospel (Luke 23:44-46)(Exod 12:6).
God’s Plan through Israel is further highlighted in the Bible where it reveals centuries earlier that God told the patriarch Abraham that He would make him a great nation and that through him all the families of the earth shall be blessed (Gen 12:1-3).
This means that, biblically and spiritually speaking, Israel is the historical focal point of the world and the setting for the establishment of God’s promises on the earth. Accordingly, the Israelites were the first nation to hear the Gospel and therefore they are God’s influencers that reveal His operative ways to the whole world.
In this regard, Romans 1:16 states, “I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes: first for the Jew, then for the Greek”. As is evident, God planned that the Gospel of Jesus Christ would first come to Israel and then spread to the ‘Greek’, or ‘gentile’, meaning any non-Jewish person.
Further, there are numerous evidences in the Bible which point to God’s plans revolving around events in Israel, both historically, and in current times. This is despite the ongoing and difficult challenges that the region has experienced in an historical sense and perhaps most strikingly over the recent period since the establishment of Israel in 1948.
Despite this, Israel remains as the centrepiece of God’s purposes on the earth and which is illuminated by His revealing of the world’s New Year to the nation in Exodus 12 for the world’s use. As a consequence, God further develops the year’s months in Exodus 34 and Leviticus 23 in His detailing of the yearly Feasts. Most importantly, as stated above, it is the month in which God foreshadowed the miracle of Salvation by the Saviour Jesus Christ.
In light of the above, this post seeks to highlight that, while the world at large operates according to the internationally accepted though false and pagan January 1 new year commencement, it is critical that the world, and Christians who perhaps may be unaware, know that there exists a true new year commencement period by the Creator God.
In this context, it goes without saying that the world is obviously deeply beholden to the huge and constant influence of January 1 upon humanity as a whole, and which obviously would be extremely difficult if not impossible to change except by divine Power.
Nevertheless, it is important that Christians strive to acknowledge and understand all of God’s truths particularly where God is defining or establishing a new thing or a particular process for a person or a people which can often occur in the March or April new year period.
In doing so, Christians would at least, at the same time, be able to highlight to the world at large the Plan of God in terms of why the actual new year begins at this period above.
In turn, it would also prompt the world to further consider God’s pre-eminence over the world and His Will which in any event must be illuminated and made known irrespective of the level of significance placed on this topic. This is especially so because knowledge of the new year commencement also reveals that there is a deep Purpose and structure in respect of how the world is governed which in turn reveals the presence of a Creator.
Finally, in light of this and the Bible’s contents, it is clear that God demands that any changes made to His year structure be not concealed or diminished especially because ill-minded people have been and are in the business of changing the structure of God’s Time as we know it (Dan 7:25; 2 Thess 2:7).
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Note above (*)
(The Jewish ‘Passover’ this year was held on sat, 27 March, 14 days after the beginning of the New Year (v. 6). This means that according to Jewish reckoning, the New Year for 2021 began approximately on sat 13 March which is marked by the presence of the New Moon on this date).
A further note.
The new year ‘dating’ here is not necessarily meant to represent that this writer endorses a continuation of the Old Testament Feasts, from a Christian standpoint. It is merely to reveal the approximate period in which the new year occurs and which varies from March to April year to year as stated earlier above.
In any event, the biblical position is that the Feasts have been discontinued at the Cross due to they being ‘shadows’ of the reality of Christ (Col 2:16-17), and which is vividly illuminated in Christ becoming the final Passover Lamb.
In saying this, however, Paul the apostle evidently kept a certain feast or feasts which the biblical text reveals by reason of his adopting a position of being “all things to all people” (1 Cor 9:22). This was so that, in the context of the feasts, he could win the Jews to Christ.
Therefore, Paul’s keeping of a feast was not meant to endorse Jewish ‘feast-keeping’ ‘after’ the Cross nor to contradict his own words in Colossians 2:16-17. Rather, by godly authority and leading of the Spirit, he did as the Jews to show that he essentially was not culturally different to them in strategically desiring to win them to the Truth of the Gospel (1 Cor 9:19-23).
This then would seem to mean that if a Christian desires to keep a Feast then it must occur by true, godly leading for the purpose of ‘becoming’ like non-Christian Jews in order to seek to win them to Jesus Christ.
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Part 32
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(Exodus 20:1-17)(The Ten Commandments)
It is the Will of God that believers and the whole world obey the full Ten Commandments.
* This Genesis 1 to Exodus 19 Study has examined teachings in the Old Testament that God instructs human beings to embrace or practice presently in ‘New Testament’ times.
In doing so, it revealed overall that the Salvific Work of Jesus Christ did not act to cancel certain teachings in the Old Testament which many in the Church believe it did. This, broadly speaking, is because they are teachings that reflect the nature of God in human beings in an ‘ongoing’ sense and therefore comprise conduct that represents one’s Christian Walk as informed by Matthew 6:33 in terms of the righteousness of God’s kingdom.
In this respect, it goes without saying that biblically the Ten Commandments in Exodus 20 remain current in terms of requiring obedience to them chiefly because they pertain to Eternal Life (Matt 19:16-19; Mark 10:17-19).
It is noteworthy to state that the ‘righteousness’ of God’s kingdom seen from Genesis to Exodus 19 is illuminated and “climaxes” in the ‘Old Covenant’ (The Ten Commandments). This righteousness, among other revelations, is exemplified through various representations of Jesus Christ in the Old Testament such as with the Priest of God Melchizedek in Genesis 14:18-20 and the Commander of the Lord’s Army in Joshua 5:14.
The Ten Commandments below represent the perfect law of God, and the Need for the Saviour Jesus Christ, as the ‘law’ reveals the knowledge of sin (Rom 3:20). That is, people become intrinsically conscious of sin because ‘the law’ was established to reveal it.
(Exodus 20:1-17):
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THE TEN COMMANDMENTS
1 ‘And God spoke all these words:
2 “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery.
3 “You shall have no other gods before Me.
4 “You shall not make for yourself an idol in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below. 5 You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the fathers to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, 6 but showing love to a thousand generations of those who love Me and keep my commandments.
7 “You shall not misuse the name of the Lord your God, for the Lord will not hold anyone guiltless who misuses His name.
8 “Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. 9 Six days you shall labor and do all your work, 10 but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work, neither you, nor your son or daughter, nor your manservant or maidservant, nor your animals, nor the alien within your gates. 11 For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but He rested on the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.
12 “Honor your father and your mother, so that you may live long in the land the Lord your God is giving you.
13 “You shall not murder.
14 “You shall not commit adultery.
15 “You shall not steal.
16 “You shall not give false testimony against your neighbor.
17 “You shall not covet your neighbor’s house. You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, or his manservant or maidservant, his ox or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbour.”
* While the Ten Commandments above are the perfect and moral law of God, there exists a major and prevailing contention in the Church of God concerning the place of the Fourth Commandment (vv 8-11) among the Ten. Namely, that the majority of the Church holds that it has been abolished by the New Covenant. Biblically, this is not the case.
Due to this contention, the Fourth Commandment will be examined in a 4-Part series commencing in the next part.
This will conclude this examination of Genesis 1 to Exodus 19 as a ‘bridge’ to the establishment of the Old Covenant in Exodus 20 and in reflection of the place of the Fourth Commandment and the remaining Nine in the diverse contexts of the biblical story leading up to it from Genesis 1.
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Part 33
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Closing series: ‘The Sabbath’ (part 1 of 4)(Exod 20:8-11)
The previous post (part 32) briefly looked into the Ten Commandments as the culminating Law of ‘righteousness’ teachings and requirements that have been examined throughout the course of the Study.
The Ten Commandments form a part of those teachings that comprise the Will of God for believers today and is the formative basis and embodiment of the Old Covenant and acts to formally reveal that all of Humanity have sinned against the Creator (Rom 3:20).
Part 32 also highlighted that there exists a major contention by the majority of the Church of God towards one of the Ten Commandments. That the majority believe that the Fourth Commandment, the Sabbath, has been abolished at the Cross. This series will show that this belief is error, and consequently that not keeping the Sabbath Day is sin. The primary text that will be used to explore this assertion is Colossians 2:16-17.
*
|| Is The Church Majority Sure That Colossians 2 Verses 16-17 Includes The Fourth Commandment Sabbath in Exodus 20?
16 “Therefore do not let anyone judge you by what you eat or drink, or with regard to a religious festival, a New Moon celebration or a Sabbath day.17 These are a shadow of the things that were to come; the reality, however, is found in Christ” (Col 2:16-17).
People of God, are we absolutely sure that the ‘sabbath day’ in verse 16 above and below includes the historical 7th Day that was established by God in Creation Week at the Beginning in Genesis 2, and in Exodus 20?
Are we absolutely sure that the ‘sabbath day’ (‘rest’) is not referring to the ‘sabbaths’ connected with for instance the festivals/feasts in Leviticus chapter 23?
Regarding these questions, if Colossians 2:16 does not include the 7th day Sabbath but only the ‘Lord’s ‘sabbaths’ connected with His Leviticus chapter 23 festivals and other non-Creation Week sabbaths, then wouldn’t that mean that all this time the overwhelming majority of the Church of God has been dismissing and contravening one of God’s Commandments in the TEN (Exodus 20) by believing that it was abolished?
Are we absolutely sure that our pastors, teachers and leaders have been teaching us the right thing all these decades or that we have been interpreting verses 16-17 properly ourselves?
(Colossians 2:13-17):
13 “When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your sinful nature, God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins, 14 having cancelled the written code, with its regulations, that was against us and that stood opposed to us; He took it away, nailing it to the cross.15 And having disarmed the powers and authorities, He made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross. 16Therefore do not let anyone judge you by what you eat or drink, or with regard to a religious festival, a New Moon celebration or a Sabbath day”. 17 These are a shadow of the things that were to come; the reality, however, is found in Christ”.
In all honesty and Truth, can the historical Sabbath REALLY be ‘a shadow of the things that were to come’ in verse 17, when in truth it was established at Creation Week and would have naturally continued until the present and for eternity if sin had not entered humanity?
That is, wouldn’t that then mean that the seventh-day Sabbath should be continuing as normal from the Beginning because it was established before sin first affected humanity? Why would the Lord’s Coming and Redemptive Work affect in legal terms the Establishment of the historical Creation Week elements by God which appeared before sin occurred and continue to this day by God regardless of sin? It doesn’t.
The historical first Sabbath day at Creation is not in a human Redemption context affected or “moved” ‘legally’ in terms of abolition by the presence of sin and Redemption. This is because it was pre-determined by God to last forever beyond the first Sabbath Day at Creation and therefore logically as said it would still be ‘functioning’ if no sin had been committed by humanity. In saying this, God will create a new heaven and earth for the purpose of restoring His Created Work and Plan (Rev 21:1) though in this respect the Word appears silent as to whether a ‘new’ Sabbath day will be established at that time. If so, as pointed out above, it would obviously last forever alongside God’s Plan for believers which of course is to live forever with Him (Rev chaps 21-22).
Critically, the ‘sabbath day’ that Paul the Apostle is referring to in verse 16 above speaks of specific days of ‘rest’ (‘sabbath’ days). These were instituted for instance at three particular Old Testament Festivals/Feasts among seven.
These are the Feast of Trumpets (Lev 23:24), the Day of Atonement (v 32), and the Feast of Tabernacles (v 39), which occurred upon ‘sabbath days’ and which fell on different days of the week as further details of the Festivals reveal in the passages. These are among what Paul the Apostle is referring to in Colossians 2:16 and not the Fourth Commandment and Creation Sabbath Day which clearly is ‘independent’ in that it is not connected with what was to come after it in terms of the unfolding ‘processes’ across both the Old and New Testaments that relate to the Salvific Work by Jesus Christ.
In this regard, the Church has erred and been misled by wrong interpretations and approaches of what the ‘sabbath day(s)’ relates to in verse 16.
To iterate, the Colossians 2:16 ‘sabbath day’ does not, and cannot include the Fourth Commandment stemming from Creation unto the present time. That is, it is ‘untouched’ by way of the need to Remember it (Exod 20:8; Exod 16:23) from ‘Friday’ evening to ‘Saturday’ evening each week (Gen 1:3-5; 2:2-3) and which was formalised in Exodus 20 as also a reflection of its natural observance at the Beginning from the first two people who were of course perfect and therefore unfailingly Rested each seventh day in following what God originally did.
Importantly, obeying the Fourth Commandment Sabbath is no different than naturally obeying and being mindful of the other nine Commandments in Exodus 20 which no genuine Christian would argue about the need to do the latter. Remembering the Sabbath Day by proactively keeping it holy (Exod 20:8) was intended by God to be a normal thing in the same way as observing the other nine Commandments. This is also because it is divinely inconceivable that the first person on earth and for that matter the second who were perfect would sinfully continue to work throughout a ‘Friday’ evening or on a ‘Saturday’ before a holy God at the Beginning. This would not have happened and certainly would have been ‘called out’ by God in the Scriptures as sin before the actual first sin in the Bible was committed by man.
Let’s ask ourselves this question:
Can the historical 7th day Sabbath of Creation Week really be ‘a shadow of things that were to come (Col 2:17)?
If so, then this Must mean that everything else that God created from day one to day six such as ‘light’, the heavens, the moon, animals and ‘man’ etc are equally ‘a shadow of things that were to come?’ No, of course not. Of course the Creation Week Sabbath day is not ‘a shadow of things that were to come’. Hence, verses 16-17 are not talking about the 7th day Sabbath at Creation and Exodus 20.
At the same time, it is impossible that this “fixed” and “constitutional-like” 7th day Sabbath Event that God established at Creation Week, and ‘blessed’ and ‘made holy’ (Gen 2:2-3), can be ‘cancelled’ or ‘nailed to the cross’ (Col 2:14) as erroneous interpretations of this verse conclude.
Such falsity is made much worse by prevailing and misleading teachings established by the Church majority and teachers concerning the Sabbath and its false relation to actual abolished laws in the Old Testament. That is, the effect of this is that most believers have falsely and unfortunately believed that seeking to ‘Remember’ and keep God’s eternally-minded ‘Rest’ Day (Exod 20:8) is ‘under the law’ in the age of ‘Grace’. Therefore, by ignoring the specific weekly and unchanged ‘Rest’ day established for all of man (Mark 2:27) and not just for Jews, they are sinning greatly against God.
No, we are to Not forget, but rather to actively ‘REMEMBER’ (Exodus 20:8) the specific and recurring 7th day ‘Rest’, as God commanded for All people (Mark 2:27 – ‘Sabbath made for (all) of Man’).
Further still, again, we are to practice it (‘to keep it holy’ – v , just like the other nine Commandments, and, as stated, only from ‘Friday’ to ‘Saturday’ sunsets, and not on our ‘own day’ of choice which is thoroughly unbiblical and which this series will address later.
Moreover, if one is intellectually and biblically honest, God’s establishment of the seventh day ‘Rest’ can never be ‘a shadow of things that were to come’ (Col 2:17). This is because the Fourth Commandment, which as emphasised is the seventh-day ‘Rest’ at Creation, cannot in any way possible be diminished or negated through the Work of human Redemption by the Cross as alluded.
This is because as reinforced it was established by God at the ‘Beginning’ before sin, as an essential element of ‘Creation Week’, to last forever. Thus, it is a “fixed” ‘entity’ pertaining to a physical ‘Day’ that is not ‘legally’ changed by the Redemptive Sacrifice which separately and differently pertains to the Salvation of a person’s soul. The Salvific Act does not cause a changing of established practices stemming from Creation Week which involved the need for humans to Rest on one particular and specific Day of the week as God Himself did so and which continuing need for humans is clearly affirmed and implied in Exodus 23:16, Exodus 20:8-11, Mark 2:27 and many other places in the New Testament ‘after’ the Cross including the Book of Acts.
Therefore, such truths can rightly deduce that Colossians 2:16 is simply not relating to the Creation Sabbath at all. Rather, as earlier asserted, it plainly and unequivocally relates to the Feasts’ ‘sabbaths’ in Leviticus chapter 23 as these are a part of the actual ‘handwriting of requirements’ or ‘regulations’ stated in Colossians 2:14 earlier above and importantly are the actual ‘shadows’ (the Feasts – Col 2:17) which were ‘cancelled’ once and for all by the ‘reality’ of Christ’s death on the Cross. This makes all the difference and puts the matter of the ‘continuing’ Creation Sabbath (to ‘Remember’ – Exod 20:8) in perspective and in reflection of the enshrined and continuing and “constitutional” nature of the Ten Commandments. With this in mind, therefore, when God’s standing and unaffected Sabbath Commandment (Exod 20:8-11) is not obeyed, then, plainly, just like the contravening of any of His other Commandments and His Word in general, it is sin requiring repentance.
Pertinently, a long held belief or teaching or a majority teaching may not necessarily be the Truth and especially with those subjects that are very contentious. Consequently, it behoves a believer to the need to always thoroughly check the Scriptures for oneself in order to not be unduly influenced by false ‘majority teaching’ which in this case does not stand the test of truth in the face of the full Scriptures and its proper reading and interpretation.
Therefore, this series will further examine and reinforce the need for believers to ‘rightly divide the word of truth’ (2 Tim 2:15) in relation to this subject and other related areas of contention, and which evidently involves a very different but proper examination of them. As a consequence, believers may find themselves in a situation where they are no longer believing the traditional and false position on a topic but rather have an understanding which embraces both the ‘spirit’ of the Scriptures and in turn the intrinsic intention of its Writer the Almighty God. Part 2 and subsequent Parts will further explore this and other Sabbath-related and connected concepts as well as the false belief and view that Jesus Christ is ‘the Sabbath’ or ‘Rest’.
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Part 34
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Closing series: ‘The Sabbath’ (part 2 of 4)
The previous post (part 1) introduced the topic of the Sabbath and examined several bases upon which the asserted biblical position that Sabbath obedience is required today was advanced.
This part 2 will build upon those bases and will show through further Scripture that the Sabbath was not abolished at the Cross but rather was affirmed by it in terms of illuminating its status as part of the embodiment and expression of the continuing moral Law of God. This ‘part’ will also present various positions that advance not keeping the Sabbath and will be followed by responses that examines such claims.
‘A Critical Word For Believers Concerning The Fourth Commandment’
The video is correct in regards to the need for all believers to naturally ‘Remember the Sabbath by keeping it holy’ (Exod 20:8; 9-11)(Fourth Commandment).
In saying so, the important Colossians 2:16-17 and Leviticus chapter 23 are not mentioned in the video which by observation is at times an unfortunate exclusion by those that support Sabbath keeping according to the Scriptures. This series necessarily examines these important Scriptures which speak to the very heart of the nature and status of one of the Ten Commandments as well as those practices in scripture that do not carry the same weight in terms of eternal imperatives.
Firstly, Jesus Christ says in Mark 2:27 that ‘the Sabbath was made for man’ (all man), not just for Israelites. Thus, the argument that only Jews keep the Sabbath is error.
Importantly, it should be said from the outset that the average believer is ‘forgetting’ to ‘Remember’ (Exod 20:8) the Sabbath Day which means that, like the breaking of any of the Ten Commandments, he or she has broken all of them “in one go”. Even so, this writer asserts that many believers are not aware of this. However, though, James 2:10 states, ‘ “For whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles at just one point is guilty of breaking all of it. 11 For He who said, “Do not commit adultery,” also said, “Do not murder.” If you do not commit adultery but do commit murder, you have become a lawbreaker” ‘ (Jam 2:10).
Also, Jesus Christ says to believers that we prove our love for Him by ‘keeping His Commandments’ (John 14:15).
This should be seen as a normal thing for the believer and is in keeping with Jesus’ admonition in Matthew 5:17 that He did not do away with them with His Coming but that all are to be obeyed. For instance, no true believer would say that for example the first of the ‘Ten Commandments’ in Exodus 20 (‘you shall have no other gods before Me’ – v. 3), and ‘you shall not murder’ (sixth – v. 13) have been abolished. Rather, in truth, the Ten Commandments are ‘natural laws’ in that they are current and universal laws that God desires all to obey not just non-Christian Israelites and believers. It therefore is the task of the believer to communicate the full truth of God’s Word to all men (Acts 20:27).
As stated in part 1, the ‘sabbath day’ mentioned in Colossians 2:16 is referring to the ‘sabbath day(s)'(‘rest’) in Leviticus chapter 23. These sabbaths are an aspect of the actual ‘list’ of the ‘shadow of things that were to come’ (Col 2:16-17) and which were observed in the three annual feasts/festivals called ‘trumpets’ (v. 24), ‘day of atonement’ (v. 32), and ‘tabernacles’ (v. 39), of which, critically, the Fourth Commandment ‘Sabbath day’ in Exodus 20 is not included in the seven feasts mentioned in this chapter.
That is, it is not possible that the Fourth Commandment is found in Leviticus 23 because it is the same Sabbath Day at Creation which was established and “fixed” by God at the Beginning before sin and is therefore ‘independent’ and unaffected by the existence of sin following it and thus continues for all to obey until God makes all things new (Rev 21:1).
Furthermore, and critically, Colossians is written to believers, and many years after ‘the Cross’, and is thus directly relevant and applicable to both Jewish and non-Jewish believers.
Therefore, by Biblical and Legal Convention, this later Word concerning the reality that the Fourth Commandment is not contained in Colossians 2:16, as asserted earlier, and such being revealed to all believers after Jesus’ death and ascension, but are those Sabbaths mentioned in Leviticus chapter 23, means that it is an existing and ‘binding’ Commandment that evidently in no way has been overturned by God or any later Scripture.
In saying so, at this point, this study will now examine some positions that support not keeping the Sabbath.
Firstly, it is often said by many believers both casually and officially that Jesus Christ is their ‘Sabbath’ or their “Rest”. However, this is not correct and is not supported in Scripture. Rather, Jesus Christ ‘gives rest’ (Matt 11:28-30) and is not the ‘Rest’ as if to say that He is a ‘Day’ or entity, as in the Sabbath, and particularly because the original words for ‘give rest’ and Rest are not related and mean different things as is evident.
Furthermore, those who take this position sometimes cite Hebrews chapter four that expresses a ‘Rest’ that the people of God are yet to enter into. However, a careful examination of the text reveals that the ‘rest’ written of in the chapter is clearly referring to the 1000-year ‘rest’ period for believers upon the return of Christ and therefore depicting a rest for them that extends into eternity.
The 1000 years (‘the millennium’) is a ‘Rest’ that is a reward for the faithful believers and represents the ‘Rest’ day on the seventh day of the Creation Week and as understood by the 1000 years that remain for human history amid the approximately 6000 years that Creation has been in existence. The seven days of Creation thus represent approximately 7000 years of human history before God ultimately creates a new heaven and earth as written in Revelation 21:1.
Believer, as these examples above demonstrate, it is biblically mandatory that we keep the Friday sunset to Saturday sunset Sabbath day (subject to any ‘essential’ acts as “exceptions” -for e.g. Matt 12:1-14), as commanded in Exodus 20:8-11. Otherwise, if not, we are sinning gravely against God every week in this respect requiring repentance so that God would not have it against us (Rev 2:4-5; 14).
In this regard, it’s high time that we as Church unlearn the long-time false teachings and beliefs concerning this subject and Walk ‘naturally’ in the Sabbath day as commanded by God and not misconstrue such Walk with legalism. Rather, believers need to be understanding (Prov 4:7) and know that is a part of the natural and “accompanying righteousness” of God’s kingdom that Jesus spoke of in Matthew 6:33 and is implied in the ‘post-Cross’ Colossians 2:16-17 through the non-inclusion of the Fourth Commandment in Leviticus 23 and which therefore rules out the ‘Creation Sabbath’ from being ‘a shadow of things that were to come’ (Col 2:17) like the Leviticus 23 ‘shadows’.
Another important area to address is the wrong belief that the Sabbath is only for Jewish people. This belief stems mainly from the words in Exodus 31 verses 13 and 17 where God states that the ‘Sabbaths’ in these verses were ‘a sign’ between Him and Israel.
Exodus 31:12 states, ‘God says to Moses, “Say to the Israelites, You must observe my sabbaths. This will be a sign between Me and you for the generations to come, so you may know that I am the LORD, who makes you holy”.
Exodus 31:16-17 – 16 “The Israelites are to observe the Sabbath, celebrating it for the generations to come as a lasting covenant. 17 It will be a sign between Me and the Israelites forever, for in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, and on the seventh day He abstained from work and rested”.
Firstly, it is important to say something about the ‘sabbaths’ in verse 13 and ‘the Sabbath’ in verse 17. There is a distinction to be made which is the assertion by this writer that the sabbaths in the former are not the same as the latter. That is, the verse 17 Sabbath refers to the Sabbath-Rest established at Creation.
This is important to note because there is much debate about whether the sabbaths in verse 13 include the Sabbath-Rest in the Exodus 20 Ten Commandments. As noted in this series, the sabbaths in verse 13 were only to be observed by the Israelites because those were contained in the written code’s regulations in Leviticus 23 which represented three of the Feasts of Israel namely the Feasts of Trumpets, Day of Atonement and Tabernacles. Therefore, upon this basis, this section will proceed in addressing the Fourth Commandment Sabbath in verse 17 above which is the correct focus in its reference to being a ‘sign’ that illuminates the week of Creation.
As stated earlier, there are believers that view the Sabbath in verse 17 above as commanded for only Israelites to keep. The reason for wrongly believing such is because the meaning of ‘a sign’ in verse 17 has been misunderstood to mean that the act or thing described or to be done is exclusive to the party that God names in a statement.
In stating that the Sabbath was a sign between Him and Israel in verse 12, God was revealing that it was only Israel in the Old Testament that He established a personal relationship with by Covenant and made holy. Therefore, that, the giving of the Sabbath Commandment could necessarily only be communicated to Israel in the same way that the remaining nine Commandments were revealed to Israel.
In saying so, it is clear that the Ten Commandments are the moral law of God given first but not exclusively to Israel to obey but all of humanity. That is, the Sabbath ‘sign’ equally extends to all of creation to observe and most outstandingly because it is a memorial of Creation before the Law was given but was later formalised in Exodus 20 through Israel to be observed perpetually. In this regard, verse 17 states, “It (the Sabbath) will be a sign between Me and the Israelites forever, for in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, and on the seventh day He abstained from work and rested”.
This means that this ‘sign’ is not to be seen as representing a limitation on who is to observe the Sabbath. Rather, God in the Scripture is clearly saying that Sabbath keeping is a representation of how He Himself ceased from His Work on the original Rest Day which is a feature of Creation Week and which occurred and before the presence of sin.
Therefore, then, the wider reality is that the Sabbath was made equally for all men and is unaffected by the presence of sin in a Redemption context. We find this truth in Mark 2:27 where Jesus Christ states in His ongoing expressions of righteousness teachings that were to premise the New Covenant establishment that the Sabbath was made for man. Importantly, Jesus Christ here is not saying that the ‘man’ in verse 27 represents only the men and women of Israel but all men on earth because of the Sabbath’s status as being the seventh day that God rested on which He desires all men to forever ‘copy’.
This is a reason why God includes it as a Commandment in His moral Law of Exodus 20. In verse 8 He tells the Israelites, as His example nation to the world, to ‘Remember’ to keep it because He knew people would forget to or ignore it.
In keeping the Sabbath, we specially memorialise God’s Creation Work (Exod 31:17), which the other 9 Commandments do not do. God’s Sabbath Commandment for all men in His moral law says, 8 “Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. 9 Six days you shall labour and do all your work, 10 but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work, neither you, nor your son or daughter, nor your manservant or maidservant, nor your animals, nor the alien within your gates. 11 For in the six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but He rested on the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy (Exod 20:8-11).
The above has canvassed two reasons that opponents of Sabbath keeping have in arguing their position. At this point, we will look briefly at several other reasons that those who may not necessarily be opposed to the Sabbath have in advancing a position in not needing to keep the Sabbath on ‘Saturday’.
The first reason is the belief that Sunday is “the Lord’s day”. That is, the day of the resurrection. However, this is incorrect. The Bible nowhere attaches any significance of the day of resurrection to a need to somehow make this first day of the week as in effect the ‘Sabbath Day” which consequently would mean that the seventh Day Sabbath was replaced by the first day as now being the seventh day of the week. This idea is wrong and acts to undermine the historical significance and place and day of the Sabbath from Creation and therefore it must be dismissed.
A further idea that opponents purport for Sunday being ‘the Lord’s day’ and thus as specially significant comes from John the Apostle’s mention in Revelation chapter 1. In this account, John was on the island of Patmos and said that he was in the Spirit on the ‘Lord’s day’ in receiving his revelation of Jesus Christ on the first day of the week.
However, there is no evidence to suggest that the Revelation was given to John on the first day of the week and, in any event, the mention of ‘the Lord’s day’ is either referring to the days of the unfolding judgments by God in the ‘end times’ or the actual Day of the Lord’s second appearing. In this regard, a thorough study of the Bible does not equate ‘the Lord’s day’ as merely representing an actual day of the week but rather a Day or Days where God executes His judgements.
Another basis that those advocating for a significance of the first day of the week as the official meeting day of the wider Church is found in 1 Corinthians chapter 16. On this day, Paul the Apostle sought to meet with the disciples on the first day of the week and therefore some in the Church hold that this is cogent evidence that the first day of the week or Sunday is the actual ‘Church Day’ today and was in the early church.
This is not accurate nor correct. The people as evident met simply for fellowship and doubtless prayer and study of the Word and evidently for giving purposes and whatever other reasons they had for meeting. Furthermore, it would have been entirely improper for the early believers to in effect assign the first day of the week with the same Standing as the Sabbath in their meeting together especially when the first day itself did not involve activities relating to Synagogue or temple activities but rather the dynamics of a smaller and more focused gathering.
Rather, such meetings were clearly in modern terms like a fellowship meeting or even like a “cell group” of sorts where ‘parts’ of the Church came together on the day after the Sabbath (‘Church Day’) for continued fellowship, breaking of bread, and to encourage and strengthen one another. Significantly, as alluded to above, such getting together occurred on a working day and not on a ‘Synagogue’ day where a general assembly of believers gathered to hear the Word of God. Therefore, it goes without saying that the nature of a working day itself was such that a larger gathering of people in Synagogues across different locations would not have been present in observing the usual practical matters and duties that related to meeting at the Synagogue or the temple courts on the seventh day.
Lastly, a further reason for believers against the exclusive ‘Saturday’ Sabbath is that they believe one can assign the official Day to any day. They typically base this argument on the Scripture in Romans chapter 4 verse 5 which states that each person esteems one day above another and another regards everyday as alike and therefore in actuality one can choose their own ‘Sabbath day’ to obey.
In response, firstly and most importantly, the context of these passages is in no way connected to the practice of keeping the Sabbath and certainly does not advocate for assigning a ‘fixed’ and recurring seventh day of the week on any day. Rather, the entire Romans 4 teaches that every believer is at different ‘points’ across diverse aspects of their faith and general functioning and that therefore this should be accepted by all except if a thing that is done will cause undue detriment or stumbling for brethren.
The use of Romans chapter 4 is typically seized upon by many believers to seek to justify their obeying the Sabbath on a day of choice. However, what many believers consistently ignore is that such position fails to recognise that the entire functioning of the universe revolved around God making each element of Creation on different days of the week. This act on God’s part included the making of the seventh day ‘Rest’ in completing the cycle of the week and month and year etc and therefore an “obeying” of the Sabbath on any day except ‘Saturday’ is in a Creation context a re-ordering of the Creation Week and the Universe as made by God.
Thus, the biblical position is that the “fixed” Sabbath Day entails a holy convocation or a sacred assembly of the Israelites on the recurring seventh Day stemming from Creation. This is found in Leviticus 23:3 in the introduction to the seven temporary and annual Feasts of the Lord and which Feasts necessarily and evidently contain the temporary ‘sabbaths’ that the Israelites observed.
The Leviticus 23 Feasts are the subject of the Feasts stated in Colossians 2:16 and which the Fourth Commandment Sabbath is clearly not a part of. This is to mean that the sacred assembly gathering of God’s people or Church today on the “fixed” Day Creation Sabbath could therefore not occur on any other day of the week which is different to the sabbaths in the Leviticus 23 Feasts which fell on any day of the week in accordance with the timing of the Feasts within a given month.
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Part 35
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Closing series: ‘The Sabbath’ (part 3 of 4)(Exod 20:8-11)
‘Further and compelling evidences that shows why the weekly Sabbath (Exodus 20:8-11) must be kept by Christians and all’
In undertaking a study like this that involves practices that may or may not be current for Christians today, it necessarily and naturally calls for thorough examination of Scripture accounts that inform a position. Ezekiel 45:17 is one such further and compelling account that advances the position that the Sabbath Day observance is not a temporary practice that was to be abolished at the Cross.
Ezekiel 45:17:
17 “It will be the duty of the prince to provide the burnt offerings, grain offerings and drink offerings at the festivals, the New Moons and the Sabbaths—at all the appointed feasts of the house of Israel. He will provide the sin offerings, grain offerings, burnt offerings and fellowship offerings to make atonement for the house of Israel”.
Notice in Ezekiel above that the passage contains the four practices listed in Colossians 2:16 below which are:
- Food and drink
- The (annual) festivals/feasts
- New Moon celebration
- Sabbath day
*
16 “Therefore do not let anyone judge you by what you eat or drink, or with regard to a religious festival, a New Moon celebration or a Sabbath day. 17 These are a shadow of the things that were to come; the reality, however, is found in Christ” (Colossians 2:16-17).
Note here that “do not let anyone judge you by what you eat or drink,…” should be taken to mean that, in regards to a sabbath day for instance, ‘do not allow anyone to tell you to keep a ‘sabbath day’. This is correct.
However, as explained in parts 1 and 2 concerning the need to naturally keep the Weekly Sabbath day, as with the other nine Exodus 20 Commandments, the error made by most pastors, teachers and Christians alike is that the ‘sabbath day’ mentioned in Colossians 2:16 does not relate to the Fourth Commandment in Exodus 20:8-11 (‘Remember the Sabbath day, by keeping it holy’). Rather, it clearly concerns the annual feasts which come together in forming a part of the practices in the Old Testament stated in Ezekiel 45:17 that pointed to an obedience to God in representing the Coming Christ ‘at’ the New Testament.
That is, what Paul the Apostle is actually saying is ‘do not allow anyone to tell you that you must continue to keep the (annual) feasts’ ‘sabbath days’ and the festivals and the eating and drinking and New Moon rituals because these are ‘shadows’ that were done away with when Christ came (Col 2:17)’. Thus, Paul is not at all meaning and including the ‘Weekly’, “fixed”, and recurring Sabbath Day from Creation, which Ezekiel 45:17 clearly reveals, which cannot be ‘done away with’.
Relevantly, and as mentioned in the earlier posts, we see these ‘sabbath days’ (days of ‘rest’ – the Hebrew words for ‘sabbath’ are used) that Colossians 2:16-17 above is referring to are a feature of the annual feasts of ‘trumpets’, ‘day of atonement’, and ‘tabernacles’ in verses 24, 32 and 39 respectively as found in Leviticus 23:
Feast of Trumpets
23 The Lord said to Moses, 24 “Say to the Israelites: ‘On the first day of the seventh month you are to have a day of rest, a sacred assembly commemorated with trumpet blasts. 25 Do no regular work, but present an offering made to the Lord by fire.’”
Day of Atonement
26 The Lord said to Moses, 27 “The tenth day of this seventh month is the Day of Atonement. Hold a sacred assembly and deny yourselves, and present an offering made to the Lord by fire. 28 Do no work on that day, because it is the Day of Atonement, when atonement is made for you before the Lord your God. 29 Anyone who does not deny himself on that day must be cut off from his people. 30 I will destroy from among his people anyone who does any work on that day. 31 You shall do no work at all. This is to be a lasting ordinance for the generations to come, wherever you live. 32 It is a sabbath of rest for you, and you must deny yourselves. From the evening of the ninth day of the month until the following evening you are to observe your sabbath.”
Feast of Tabernacles
33 The Lord said to Moses, 34 “Say to the Israelites: ‘On the fifteenth day of the seventh month the Lord’s Feast of Tabernacles begins, and it lasts for seven days. 35 The first day is a sacred assembly; do no regular work. 36 For seven days present offerings made to the Lord by fire, and on the eighth day hold a sacred assembly and present an offering made to the Lord by fire. It is the closing assembly; do no regular work. 37 (“‘These are the Lord’s appointed feasts, which you are to proclaim as sacred assemblies for bringing offerings made to the Lord by fire—the burnt offerings and grain offerings, sacrifices and drink offerings required for each day. 38 These offerings are in addition to those for the Lord’s Sabbaths and in addition to your gifts and whatever you have vowed and all the freewill offerings you give to the Lord). 39 “‘So beginning with the fifteenth day of the seventh month, after you have gathered the crops of the land, celebrate the festival to the Lord for seven days; the first day is a day of rest, and the eighth day also is a day of rest”. 44 “So Moses announced to the Israelites the appointed (annual) feasts (7 stated in Leviticus ch 23) of the Lord”.
* With respect to the Bible’s mention of New Moons, below are three references where ‘New Moon’ appears in the Old Testament as the occasion where the ‘shadow’ of sacrificial burnt offerings pointing to the Person of Christ (Col 2:17) occurs:
10 “Also at your times of rejoicing—your appointed feasts and new moon festivals—you are to sound the trumpets over your burnt offerings and fellowship offerings, and they will be a memorial for you before your God. I am the Lord your God” (Num 10:10).
14 “With each bull there is to be a drink offering of half a hin of wine; with the ram, a third of a hin; and with each lamb, a quarter of a hin. This is the monthly burnt offering to be made at each new moon during the year” (Num 28:14).
5 “So David said, “Look, tomorrow is the new moon festival, and I am supposed to dine with the king; but let me go and hide in the field until the evening of the day after tomorrow” (1 Sam 20:5).
At this point, it is important to further but briefly examine the significance of Leviticus chapter 23 in its outlining of the annual feasts/festivals. In doing so, and as advanced above, one can clearly see that none of them contain the Fourth Commandment weekly Sabbath as an ‘addition’ to the other sabbath days stated within the chapter.
This is because, and as expounded throughout this series, the weekly Sabbath cannot fall in the same category as the four ‘items’ (points 1-4 above) of observance stated in Colossians 2:16.
Why again? Well, unlike these four ritualistic events that are ‘a shadow of things that were to come’, the Sabbath Day at Creation is not a temporary ‘ritual’ or regulation (Col 2:14) but was established by God at the Beginning as “independent” and before sin and therefore to last ‘forever’ and which means that it is not possible for it to be merely a ‘shadow’ of the ‘reality’ being Christ. That is, God obviously did not establish the ‘fixed’ seventh-day of Creation Week for the purpose of it later finding its ‘reality’ in Christ (v. 17) which would be nonsensical because the four practices in Colossians 2:16 and Ezekiel 45:17 were instituted as a result of human sin and as a ‘shadow’ of Christ (v. 17) whereas the weekly Sabbath was to be Unaffected by the existence of sin.
Given the above, this is the reason Colossians 2:16 does not in any way imply that the weekly and historical Sabbath day is among the four practices stated in it nor is it found among those days of ‘rest’ in the stating of the 7 annual feasts in Leviticus 23 above.
And, clearly, as highlighted above, these four practices in Colossians 2:16 all come together in Ezekiel 45:17. This unfailingly shows that they were temporary rituals and feasts commanded by God until such time as the Lord Jesus came to Earth to do away with them in being the fulfilled ‘Reality’ (Col 2:17) of God’s Salvation.
In this regard, Jesus Christ said in Matthew 5:17 that He had not come to do away with the Law and the Prophets but that everything that was said in them needed to be fulfilled. Therefore, as explained above, the four Ezekiel 45:17 practices were fulfilled by the sacrificial death and resurrection of Christ but as shown above the Fourth Commandment Sabbath was clearly and irrefutably not one of those practices in the Old Testament that ‘needed’ to be fulfilled by Christ.
In saying the above, at this point, this study will briefly state further evidence that reveals that the Fourth Commandment Sabbath was not a temporary establishment by God. It will state this in point form:
*It was the custom of Jesus Himself to preach on the Sabbath Day in the Synagogue (Luke 4:16).
*In the Book of Acts Paul the Apostle reasoned with the Jews every Sabbath in the Synagogue in trying to persuade Jews and Greeks that Jesus was the Messiah (Acts 18:4).
*In speaking of the ‘end times’, Jesus warned that people should not flee on the Sabbath (Matt 24:20) amid the judgments that would be taking place at that time (Matt chaps 24 & 25).
Clearly, Jesus here is talking about events that are yet to take place and therefore it is clear that He advanced the continuation of the Sabbath and did not abolish it. This is plain to read in Matthew 24 above.
Finally, here, Jesus’ mention of the Sabbath in Matthew 24 was not merely an acknowledgement that Jews or Sabbath keeping believers would be keeping the Sabbath at that time but rather it was also a Statement which affirmed that the Sabbath is an ongoing Commandment as with the other Nine in Exodus 20 which obviously were to be obeyed ‘beyond’ the Cross.
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Part 36
Closing series: ‘The Sabbath’ (part 4 of 4)(Exod 20:8-11)
‘Faith In Jesus Christ, And The Commandments Of God: The Critical Need To ‘Do’ ’ (A critical and reminding Message for the ‘end time believer and unbeliever)
People, let’s dig deeper about what ‘the Truth’ is, in terms of what the Will of God is and currently, in order to avoid deception and to make Heaven.
I came across some very timely words of scripture below that are critical and encouraging reminders of God’s Will, and especially in these developing and changing ‘end times’ periods.
I was moved to share it as a way of encouraging the Church about answers in God and His revelation of how one can be a partaker of Heaven.
Take heart people that the Word of God is very clear about what sort of Church we are to be at any given time, which reflects a God that loves us with His truth, a God that doesn’t change (Mal 3:6).
This 5-part series on ‘the Sabbath’ has sought to show that this Fourth Commandment in Exodus 20 is very much ‘in play’ in terms of how we may present ourselves overall before God in a fullness of understanding of Him in these end times and ordinarily throughout our Christian Walk.
The small section below is a copied excerpt concerning the place of God’s Commandments in the current and progressing end times. These comments will form a basis of comments from this writer that relate specifically to the Sabbath Commandment that has been examined and advanced in this series so far.
It’s my sincere hope that the below will be insightful and useful in understanding how God’s Word necessarily guides and instructs believers and the world in how to live for Him and more specifically what He wishes us to do (Luke 6:46) so that we do not miss Heaven (Matt 7:21-23).
Copied article excerpt below:
“””””Most “professing” Christians will easily dismiss the idea that Christians today need to keep the commandments of God. The primary reason they will tell you is “Law-keeping will not earn your Salvation”.
While this statement is true and I absolutely agree with it, does this free us from keeping the commandments of God?
This question needs a serious look. After all, if we are really free from any law, would it mean that we can all just go our way and be a “Christian” according to our own standards?
Surprisingly, there are many indications in the Bible, especially in the New Testament, which reveal that commandment keeping is still reinforced and should be observed by true and genuine Christians today.
In this post, let us go to the Book of Revelation and see what it says about commandment keeping. Here are 2 key scriptures from the Book that reveal a lot about the characteristic of the end-time Church.
Scripture #1
Revelation 12:17 – “And the dragon was enraged with the woman, and he went to make war with the rest of her offspring, who keep the commandments of God and the testimony of Jesus Christ”.
Scripture #2
Revelation 14:12 – “Here is the patience of the saints; here are those who keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus”.
“””””(end)
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Firstly, I would have to disagree with the word ‘surprisingly’ used above.
This is because the Scriptures always demand obedience to God’s commandments and commands. Though, at the outset, it is important to state that the Scriptures reveal that principally believers are to maintain a profession of faith in Jesus Christ (KJV) and concurrently to keep His faith (or ‘remain faithful to Him’ – NIV 1984) and to trust Him in order to remain Saved (Matt 24:13).
In saying so, it is equally important to note that the two Scriptures in the Book of Revelation above in combination reveal that the end-time believers should also be carefully mindful of the need to keep God’s Commandments as the evidence of one’s love for Jesus Christ and profession of faith.
Critically, this knowledge should not be lost in a believer’s journey of faith and particularly because there is a significant portion of the Christian community that holds a skeptical and even dismissive view of the need to ‘do’, specifically, to obey the ‘full’ Ten Commandments, as partially determinative in maintaining Salvation.
Yet, the Commandments are directly ‘tied’ to Salvation, and ongoing sanctification (Col 2:6; Eph 5:27), and Heaven, which will further be seen below.
Indeed, Jesus Christ instructs believers that a believer who truly loves Him is one that keeps His Commandments. He says, in John 14:15, “If you love Me, keep My Commandments”.
Jesus here shows that it is not only a believer’s profession of faith or even a faithful and enduring love for Him that places one in Heaven but rather it is the practical ‘doing’ of the things of God that fulfils all righteousness (Matt 3:15) and ultimately enables eternal life (Matt 7:21). ‘Doing’ is another word for ‘obeying’.
The ‘righteousness’ of God’s kingdom (Matt 6:33) can be summed up in the first and second greatest Commandments respectively (‘love God with all your heart…’, ‘love your neighbour as…’), and the Ten Commandments (Exod 20), which, the obeying of them reveals a godly love for Christ and evidence of a believer’s loyalty to Him come what may.
In this regard, we see Jesus in His interaction with the rich young man in Matthew 19:16-22 communicating the importance of ‘doing’ the Commandments in response to the question of how to inherit eternal life, or how one can be Saved.
Jesus responds to him, 17 “… If you want to enter life (eternal life/heaven), obey the commandments”. In verses 18 and 19, Jesus then proceeds to ‘summarise’ the Ten Commandments as well as mentions the second ‘greatest’ commandment when asked which ones should one keep. In the same interaction in Mark chapter 10 Jesus includes ‘do not defraud’, which is also found in Leviticus 19:13.
Jesus’ response intrinsically and evidently reveals that a believer who obeys God’s Commandments in his or her faith journey post initial Salvation is one that loves God and therefore gains eternal life.
Thus, obeying God’s Commandments is inextricably linked with Salvation and maintaining it and, importantly, doing so is an expression of the ‘righteousness’ conduct that “accompanies” a believer that is seeking God’s kingdom beginning with Salvation in Jesus Christ (Matt 6:33).
Similarly, although they are not “Commandments” as such, we see a practical example of the importance of ‘doing’ God’s commands and instructions as a whole when Jesus in John 21:15-19 asks Peter three times whether he loves Him.
In doing so, Jesus was teaching Peter and all that the evidence of Peter’s love for Him must also be found in his obeying of Jesus’ commands for his life which was to ‘pastor’ the believers in ‘feeding’ and taking care of Jesus’ sheep (believers) as part of his position as an Apostle. If Peter had not obeyed this command from Jesus then he would obviously be in sin thus greatly risking his salvation if he did not later remedy this by repentance (Matt 18:3; Luke 13:5)
Saints, the scriptures in Revelation above clearly reveal that ‘end-time’ Christians are those that genuinely profess Jesus Christ and actively obey God’s Commandments and therefore they do not dilute the critical need to do so and the importance of communicating such to others.
As earlier stated, the need to obey Jesus’ and the Word’s Commandments should never be lost on Christians. This is particularly becoming more evident because the mark of a true Christian in these changing and rapidly unfolding ‘end of days’ times will increasingly be distinguished by those believers who understand the need to obey God’s fundamental truths fully as followers of Christ and love and strive to do so without hesitation.
Again, let us look at these verses below that identify the true ‘end time’ believers according to the Word of God:
Scripture #1
*Revelation 12:17 – “And the dragon was enraged with the woman, and he went to make war with the rest of her offspring, who keep the commandments of God and the testimony of Jesus Christ”.
Scripture #2
*Revelation 14:12 – “Here is the patience of the saints; here are those who keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus”.
To reinforce, the Scriptures above say much about what God is always expecting from His people, and especially as His Son’s return nears. Also, the verses are very profitable in cutting through with the Bible’s message of the need to work out one’s own salvation with fear and trembling (Phil 2:12-13) in order to endure for Heaven (Matt 24:13) by ongoing obedience to God’s Word and Will.
In this context, God’s Word reveals that obeying it is so critical that for instance if we disobey one of the Ten Commandments, we disobey them all, according to James 2:10. Such is the profound seriousness and consequences of “just” one unrepented sin in the sight of God and which is soberly represented in the initial sin of man in the Garden of Eden which brought death and judgment to humanity.
In regards to the Fourth Commandment, the Sabbath, there is much at stake for the end-time believer in the context of all the above. That is, it is important that the Fourth Commandment is understood and obeyed from, for instance, a perspective of the ‘fundamental’ nature, and Plan of God (at Creation – Gen 2:2-3), and, a proper comprehension and examination of key Scriptures such as Colossians 2:16-17, Leviticus 23, and Ezekiel 45:17, which have been examined in this study as well as others.
In this respect, it is with great care to say that, it cannot be overstated that a believer who, perhaps by false tradition and teaching, or a non-reading or misunderstanding of the Scriptures, or inadequate, independent study, or otherwise, fails to understand that God’s full Commandments intrinsically represent and reveal Himself and His nature, is putting one’s Salvation at very great risk in being found in unrepented sin (Matt 18:3; Heb 10:26-27), as with any other sin, with respect to disobeying a fundamental, ‘enshrined’, and “constitutional-like” Commandment, the Fourth Commandment, as like the remaining nine in Exodus 20.
This is a very serious predicament for one’s soul.
And, it must be said that, there are much deeper, underlying reasons why this Commandment is contended with greatly, which many believers are unaware of.
One major reason is that the Enemy cunningly and continuously works at keeping believers in any unrepented sins due to for instance false teachings and wrong interpretations and understanding of scripture and ignorance. This is in order that deceptively there would be a ground(s) against them for disqualification from Heaven according to Hebrews 10:26-27 and 1 Corinthians 9:24-27, which of course God Himself cannot overlook according to His Word and nature.
In closing, Jesus Christ states the importance of ‘doing’, which is ‘obeying’, in Luke 6:46:
“Why do you call Me ‘Lord’ ‘Lord’ and do not do what I say?”
Also, He states in Matthew 19:17:
“If you want to enter life (eternal life/heaven), obey the commandments”.
Saints, may we be encouraged and mindful that God’s Word reveals what we need to remain true to in the profession and journey of our faith.
Keeping the full Ten Commandments of Jesus Christ is a critical and essential part of it in order to ultimately make Heaven by ongoing faithfulness as above according to the Word of God (Luke 18:8). The other ‘part’ is obeying the full Will of God stemming from His Word and His ways (Acts 20:27).
Again, ‘the Truth’ above for the end-time believer:
Scripture #1
(Revelation 12:17) – “And the dragon was enraged with the woman, and he went to make war with the rest of her offspring, who keep the commandments of God and the testimony of Jesus Christ”.
Scripture #2
(Revelation 14:12) – “Here is the patience of the saints; here are those who keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus”.
“Work out your own Salvation with fear and trembling” (Philippians 2:13).