Still in the Days of The Bible

My words may pass away, but the Word of the LORD will never pass away!  Many of us have a tendency to add to or take away from the Word of God, rather than considering the whole counsel of God in the tension and reality of life it speaks to us.  We don't necessarily intend to do that, and only those without godly fear would willfully do so with eyes opened.

When you hear people say – or perhaps when you say yourself – "in the days of the Bible", what is meant by that?  If we really believe that the Scriptures have been written for us living at the end of the age, and that the Word of God abides forever, and that God will fulfill all that is written in the whole of the Old and New Testaments, then isn't it true that we are living in the days of the Bible?!

You have received a number of e-mails from me recently and over the years.  For those who look at only one and come to any conclusions – whether positively or negatively – I would say, as I began this 'letter', that my words may pass away.  On the other hand, if you consider my letters together over time, a clearer and fuller picture would be discernible that otherwise can not be covered in any one or two letters, and, I sincerely hope, there would be a general consistency in the spirit of truth, even if not in every detail.  So, too, and much more so, with the Bible, which is truth both in spirit and in details!

Why am I concerning myself with this?  Most of the news media you see and hear focus on the perceived disproportion of Gazans being killed or injured versus the number of Israelis being killed or injured. (By the way, as I was now speaking with a friend on the phone, we are only about 1/2 hour drive away from the awful war going on!)  Just as in the last war in Lebanon against another terrorist organization, Hezbollah, the attention is also focused on the disproportionate weaponry being used by the two sides.  Believe me when I say, it's scary enough to have a tree fall on your house during a storm, not to mention larger rockets, or even tons of bombs falling from airplanes in the sky.  As Yeshua advised, before going to war, consider first your enemy and his weaponry, and whether you think you can defeat them or not.  Is not the God and Father of the Lord Jesus Christ the same God as YHVH, God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob?

The size of armor and weaponry is not to be our only concern:  look at Goliath, versus David with his slingshot.  What are we going to do in 'our Bible days' when the Lord Jesus Himself directs the seventh angel to pour out his bowl of God's wrath upon His enemies with great hail from heaven, each weighing about  one talent (62 lbs or 30 kg)!?  And at what force?!  The reaction of the people (revealed to us in advance by the Holy Spirit in the love of our Father) targeted by God is to blaspheme Him! (Rev 16:17-21)

In earlier days of the Bible, the Assyrian king Sennacherib taunted the Jews in Israel that no God of the nations had yet succeeded to defeat him.  With this taunt and blasphemy, the righteous King Hezekiah cried out to the one true sovereign God, YHVH, God of Israel, who sent the prophet Isaiah to encourage and comfort the King and the people, assuring them that Sennacherib and his forces would not succeed.  I am not writing this here simply to say that this situation in Gaza is similar, although I think it is the attitude of these Islamic jihadists to taunt and blaspheme the God and the people of Israel and of the Christians, but rather to go on to the outcome of the encounter in those days (2Kg 19:35):  the Angel of YHVH went out on a certain night into the camp of the Assyrians, and killed 185,000!  Was this proportional?!  Because this figure staggers our imagination and even offends our sensitivities, some Bible translators and commentators try to 'defend' the inspiration of Scripture and the character of our God by saying that this number is obviously an error which mistakenly got in and stayed in our Bibles.

In even earlier days of the Bible, the same Angel of YHVH killed all the first-born in Egypt, from Pharaoh's household to the slaves', plus animals.  Was God disproportionate in expressing what was in His heart, given the objectives He had in mind?  Pharaoh and his army were then drowned in the sea.

Sometime later in Bible times, when the Jews who had not returned from exile at the command of Cyrus to return and rebuild Jerusalem were in danger of being exterminated through the irrational hatred of Haman in Persia (Iran), we read about the second decree by King Ahasueras that allowed the Jews to defend themselves.  On the set day, the Jews killed 500 men in the capital.  Queen Esther then requested that the Jews be allowed to do again the next day more of what they had done on the first.  They hung all of Haman's sons (all of whom were, by the way, descendants of Amalek, himself a descendant of Esau/Edom), and killed 300 more men.  All this was in the capital city.  Around the rest of the kingdom, a total of 75,000 of their enemies were killed, those who had determined in their own hearts and minds that the Jews should be wiped out. (Esther 9:1-16)  Was this disproportionate to the threat that they had faced?  Would the threat have been removed had they not 'finished the job' on the second?  Is not the Lord going to finish His strange work of  judgment in order to remove all things which offend from entering into His Kingdom?  Our own flesh struggles with the magnitude of evil and the necessary righteous judgments of God to put it away.  Maybe that is why Joshua and the Israelis in their 'Bible days' stopped all the killing which God had commanded them to do:  they just couldn't understand it or take it any more.

How many babies were killed in Bethlehem by Herod's hateful self-serving command surrounding the birth of Yeshua?  What was the reaction – beyond the grief of 'Rachel weeping for her children, refusing to be comforted, because they are no more"?  How did they respond towards God, who allowed such a thing connected with the promised Messiah and Savior?!  Certainly we know that the love of God is not self-serving!

Yet for all the suffering and tragedy connected with each of the above events, we celebrate our God and Savior, and what He has done to bring righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit through these events and judgments!

It is a God-given, thus moral, responsibility and authority for a government to protect the general welfare of her citizenry, even by force when required.  It is our responsibility as believers to pray that our leaders not only act wisely and prudently, but even more that they be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth.  Then, the lives of the people may be more quiet and peaceable, appreciative of godliness and reverence, both towards the one true God, and towards our fellow-man.  (Rom 12:17-21 – 13:1-7: 1Tim 2:1-6).

Please, do not misunderstand this one 'article' to think that I am hard-hearted toward what is going on in Gaza, both against a real enemy, and against those innocently trapped in a deplorable situation, not to mention against our own soldiers and sons risking their lives to defeat their enemies and defend their country – and from a higher perspective, though they may not recognize it, to free people to receive true and real life from the living God of the living.  Without Jesus, no one will enjoy life!

How the world and those who are of it evaluate and judge this war is one thing; let us be careful how we do, and be extremely careful that we do not find ourselves judging God.  His Word judges us. (Heb 4:11-13).