God’S Response to Man’S Rebellion

Copyright © 2010 Jerry Waite

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ISBN: 978-1-4497-0734-7 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4497-0736-1 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2010939518

WestBow Press rev. date: 11/17/2010

Table of Contents

Preface

Chapter 1: Man’s Rebellion

Chapter 2: Abram Chosen

Chapter 3: Israel’s Deliverance

Chapter 4: The Promised Land

Chapter 5: Rule by Kings

Chapter 6: The Nation Divided: Israel’s Rebellion

Chapter 7: Foreign Rule: Babylon

Appendix I

Appendix II

Preface

We are all in rebellion against God and face the consequences of that rebellion. This summary of Old Testament history gives the record of man’s rebellion against God and His response to it. The Apostle Paul wrote, Now these things which have happened to our ancestors are illustrations of the way in which God works. (1 Corinthians 10:11, Phillips translation) Knowing how God works should be a warning to us and our nation to turn from our rebellion, seek to obey God, and worship Him alone.

God’s first instructions for living and worshiping Him, as found in the books of the Law, are given in Appendix I, and the warnings He gave to His prophets to give to a disobedient people are summarized in Appendix II.

Changes have been made in some large numbers noted by (VT) where the Hebrew `lp is a troop describing men in the army or a clan, family, instead of a thousand. This gives realistic numbers for the number of Israelite men leaving Egypt, and those conquering the ten acre town of Jericho. See my paper, The Census of Israelite Men after their Exodus From Egypt, Vetus Testamentum 60, (2010) 487-491

The quotations from the Bible given in this book have been taken from the Authorized King James Version, but modified to conform to modern English and improve understanding.

I greatly appreciate my wife, Kathy, and daughter-in-law, Kelsa Waite, who read the initial manuscript, found typographical mistakes, and made helpful suggestions to clarify English construction. I am also appreciative for the formatting and editing help given by my son David. I am indebted to my friend Dr. Harold Holmyard who edited the text for Biblical accuracy, made suggestions to clarify unclear passages.

Jerry Waite

Revised 2010

Chapter 1: Man’s Rebellion

The God to Whom Man Rebels

God is introduced in the first sentence of the Bible as the creator of the heavens and the earth. The word for God in Hebrew, the original language of the Old Testament, is Elohim which is the plural of el, Hebrew for a god. This plurality is first seen when God decided to make man for He said, Let us make man in our image (Genesis 1:26-27). In the New Testament, the apostle John introduces Jesus as the Word declaring, In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God (John 1:1). Jesus said, I and My Father are one (John 10:30), and when Philip asked Jesus to show the disciples the Father, Jesus said, He who has seen Me has seen the Father (John 14:9). In the last instruction Jesus gave to His disciples, He told them to make more disciples and baptize them in the name (singular) of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Since God created man in His image, man gives us an understanding of God being one, and yet functioning in three parts. As man is body, soul, and spirit, so God is body, the Son; soul, the Father; and spirit, the Holy Spirit. So Jesus, as the body, is the only part of God that has ever been seen.

God does have a personal name for He told Moses to say to the children of Israel, I am the LORD (Exodus 6:6). The name for LORD in Hebrew is YHWH, or YaHWeH with vowels. This personal name first appears with Elohim in Genesis 2:4-22 in the record of God creating man and giving him instructions so he may continue in fellowship with God. In some translations, this personal name is given as Jehovah from combining YHWH with the vowels of Adonay, giving YaHoWaH. To Abraham, God said, "I am God Almighty, El Shaddai (Genesis 17:1), and Abraham called the LORD, my Lord, Adonay. Other names of God like this that describe His character are El Elyon, God Most High (Genesis 14:19); El Shaddai, God Almighty (Genesis 17:1); Yahweh Shalom, the LORD is peace (Judges 6:24); and Yahweh Rohi, the LORD my shepherd (Psalm 23).

Creation, Genesis 1-2

Where did all that we see and know about come from? God says He created the heavens and the earth, brought them forth out of nothing. Not only we, but also His angels, the sun, moon, and stars are to praise the name of the LORD for He commanded, and they were created (Psalm 148:1-5). By His word, God made the earth to be a habitation for man. He spoke and made light to shine, separated the water and the land, made grass, herbs, and trees to grow. Then God created the living creatures, male and female, some to live in the water, some able to fly through the air, and some to live on the land. These were to multiply and fill the earth. God created man last in His image, and gave him dominion over all other living creatures. And God saw all that He made, and it was very good.

Now we see that the universe God created is following laws we call the first two laws of thermodynamics. First, there is nothing being created now, but all things are being preserved in one form or another. Second, the state of disorder of the universe must increase. (Biblical Cosmology and Modern Science, Henry M. Morris, p.18). Why did God create a universe that would increase in disorder, and not continue to be perfect? Is it not because He knew He would destroy it because of man’s rebellion, and then make an everlasting one? The Apostle Peter writes that the present heavens and earth are being reserved for the fire that is coming in the day of judgment of godless men and their destruction (2 Peter 3:7). A new heaven and earth are described in Revelation 21.

God created man out of the dust of the ground and gave him the breath of life. Man was given for food every herb yielding seed, and every tree yielding seed-bearing fruit. He could eat of the tree of life, but was forbidden to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. The penalty for eating of that tree was death. Man was created innocent, but had to prove himself to be righteous. Though God created the other living creatures, male and female, there was not a female helpmate for Adam. So, God took from the side of the man and made woman to be his wife.

Rebellion by Adam and Eve, Genesis 3

The Serpent introduced here is described as being more subtle than any other beast of the field. He is Lucifer, son of the morning fallen from heaven because he desired to ascend into heaven and make himself like God. (Isaiah 14:12-15) The king of Tyre is seen to be one like that anointed cherub who was perfect until unrighteousness was found in him and he was cast away from the presence of God (Ezekiel 28:13-16). In the last book of the Bible, he is identified as the Devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world (Revelation 12:9).

The Serpent promised Adam’s wife Eve that she would be like God if she ate the forbidden fruit of the tree of the know-ledge of good and evil. He tempts us as he did her. First, he sowed the seed of doubt by questioning God’s word. Then he denied God’s word saying, You shall not surely die. Finally, he gave desire to Eve saying, Your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil. This led Eve to look and see that the forbidden fruit was desirable for food and would make her wise. So she took some of the fruit, ate (partook) of it, and then gave some to her husband, who ate of it. As the serpent said, their eyes were opened, but not to what they expected. They must have lost the covering God had given them, for they knew they were naked and made for themselves coverings of fig leaves. When the LORD God came to have fellowship with them, they were afraid and hid themselves among the trees of the garden. The LORD God called to the man who admitted he had eaten of the fruit and said to God, The woman you gave to be with me, she gave me some of the fruit, and I ate it.

This suggests that Adam blamed God for giving him the woman as his mate, and his choosing to eat of the fruit that she gave to him. Paul wrote that Adam was not deceived, but the woman was deceived, and transgressed (I Timothy 3:14). Since Adam knew the consequence of his rebellion against God, did he not so love His wife that he was willing to die with her? Eve blamed the serpent for deceiving her, but was it not her desire that caused her disobedience? The scripture says, "Each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own desires and enticed.

Then, desire conceives and gives birth to sin, and sin, when it is full grown, brings forth death (James 1:15-16). Our desires cause us to sin, and the wages of sin is death."

God cursed the serpent, saying that He would put enmity between the seed of the serpent and the seed of the woman. Her seed would bruise the head of the serpent, but the serpent would bruise the heel of the seed of the woman, the Son of God, Jesus. The woman will have great sorrow in conception and pain in birth of children, and be under the authority of her husband. The ground was cursed because of the man’s disobedience, and he would eat of it in toil and by the sweat of his face until he died, became dust. Adam and Eve died spiritually when they did not obey God. They lost their innocence, their glorious covering, their intimate fellowship with God, access to the tree of life, and their oneness with each other. In His mercy the LORD God shed the first blood to make tunics of skin to cover their nakedness, the outward appearance of the sin of Adam and Eve. He drove them from the Garden of Eden, placing cherubim and a flaming sword to guard the way to the tree of life.

Why would an omniscient God create one who would disobey Him? Did He not create Lucifer, Satan, who rebelled against Him? Jesus answered this when He told the Samaritan woman that true worshipers of God worship Him in spirit and truth, and such the Father seeks (John 4:23). God tested Adam to see if he would be a faithful and true worshiper, but even before God created man, He knew man would fail. He revealed His plan to show him love and mercy in the sun, moon, and stars that God made for signs (Genesis 1:14). He asked Job if he had power over the stars to bring in its season the Mazzaroth, the twelve signs of the Zodiac (Job 38:31-32). These signs begin with the virgin who brings forth the coming one, Christ, and shows the conflict with the serpent, Satan. They include a cross and a crown, and end with the lion as victor and ruler revealing God’s final victory over Satan and the reign of Christ. For all of these signs and their meaning, see The Witness of the Stars by E.W. Bullinger, and The Real Meaning of the Zodiac by D. James Kennedy, who gives additional references for research of these signs.

Rebellion of man multiplies, Genesis 4-7

Having been driven from the Garden of Eden, Adam and Eve started a family. Eve named their first son Cain, for she said, With God’s help I have created a man, (The Living Bible). Doubtless she thought he would fulfill God’s promise that her seed would wound the serpent’s head, but Cain was the seed of Adam, not her seed. They had a second son named Abel, who became a keeper of sheep while Cain became a farmer. Each came to the LORD with an offering: Cain brought of the fruit of the ground, and Abel brought from the firstborn of his flock and their fat. Did God have respect for Abel and his offering because Abel followed God’s pattern shown to his parents? He shed the blood of an innocent animal to cover his nakedness before God. God did not respect Cain and his offering, making Cain very angry. Was it not that Cain had refused to cover himself properly and was naked before God, for God told him if he did right, he would be accepted, but if not, sin lay at the door? Cain attacked his brother in the field and killed him. This rebellion caused God to confront Cain and curse the ground that absorbed Abel’s blood. God told Cain that he would be a fugitive and a wanderer in the earth, and put a mark on him to show that anyone killing him would have sevenfold vengeance taken on him. Defiant Cain went to the land of Nod, married, and built a city he named for his firstborn, Enoch. Lamech, the sixth generation of Cain, took two wives, killed a young man for wounding him, and said that anyone taking revenge on him would be avenged seventy-seven times. Thus violence continued in the descendents of Cain.

But Adam and Eve had another son, Seth, for Eve said that God had appointed her another son in place of Abel. To Seth was born a son named Enosh, and during his life men began to call upon the name of the LORD, YaHWeH, as His witnesses. Adam and his descendents had long lives; Adam lived 930 years before he died. His son Seth lived 912 years, and died; his son Enosh lived 905 years, and died; and the line continued to Jared, who lived 800 years, and he died. But his son, Enoch, the seventh generation of Adam, lived 365 years, and he did not die because he walked with God and God took him to be with Him. Was He not a son of God?

Enoch prophesied of the coming judgment of God in the time of his son Methuselah, who lived longer than any other man, 969 years, showing God’s long suffering. He died in the year God destroyed the earth and all its inhabitants. Why did God do this? God was grieved when He saw how great man’s wickedness was, and that his thoughts were always evil. Men of violence filled the earth. Where did they come from? Unlike Enoch, the other descendents of Seth, called sons of God, saw how beautiful the daughters of the line of Cain were and took them for their wives. The children of these marriages were mighty men known for