Ask Mr Bible

The patriarch Abraham who lived and died some 2000 years ago continues to serve our generation as a glorious example of God’s faithfulness.

How Abraham could have reflected on his life:

I still miss Sarah.  Let’s see, how long has she been gone?  I was 137 when she died at age 127.  On my next birthday I’ll be 175.  Nearly 40 years.  That’s a long time to be separated from someone you love.  I can still vividly remember when she and I packed up and left Ur a century ago!  What a handsome couple we were back then.  Of course all our friends and relatives thought we were crazy!  They told us it was bad enough to leave the comfort and safety of city life, but to head out for an unknown land at the command of some invisible God, well, that was sheer insanity!  I wonder how Ishmael is doing these days?  As I remember, he’ll be 88 on his next birthday.  The last report I heard was that he had married an Egyptian girl and had fathered 12 sons.  That’s good!  I hope the best for him.  My heart still grieves when I think back on those events which made it necessary for us to go our separate ways.  Keturah has been a good wife to me, certainly a fruitful one, giving birth to six healthy sons.  But it is Isaac of course, the heir of the covenant, the miracle son, who is the source of my joy and comfort.  Again my thoughts turn to Sarah.  So much has happened since leaving Ur.  God’s righteousness has been imputed to the both of us.  Her barren womb bore us our beloved Isaac.  Each of our names has been changed for the good.  From our seed the Messiah Himself will someday come.  No, old girl, our friends—not us—were were wrong.  You probably did on occasion miss the comfort and safety of big city life.  I know I still do at times.  But not to worry, beloved daughter of the covenant, for we both look for “a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God.”

1.      The believer’s relationship to the world is never the same after his conversion (Gen. 12:1-3).

2.       I am never to depend upon Egypt (a type of the world) in time of trouble (Gen. 12:10).

3.       Lying always increases, but never decreases, our problems (Gen. 12:13).

4.       My sin can affect unsaved people (Gen. 12:17; 20:18).

5.       Righteousness is only imputed by faith (Gen. 15:6).

6.       Never substitute God’s revealed plan for one of your own (Gen. 12:2; 16:2-3).

7.       The purest kind of faith is accepting from God those terrible things you cannot possibly understand (Gen. 22:1-2, 15-18; Heb. 11:17-19).

8.       Make every attempt to see that your children marry believers (Gen. 24:1-4).

9.       Anticipate the “sweet by and by” while living in the “nasty now and now!”

          (Heb. 11:10).

Father:  Terah (Gen. 11:26)

Spouses:  Sarah, Hagar, and Keturah (Gen. 11:29; 16:3; 25:1)

Sons:  From Hagar: Ishmael (Gen. 16:15-16).  From Sarah: Isaac (Gen. 21:2-3).

           From Keturah: Zimran, Jokshan, Medan, Midian, Ishbak, and Shuah

           (Gen. 25:2)

Brothers:  Nahor and Haran (Gen. 11:26)

Sisters:  Half sister was Sarah (Gen. 20:12)

First mention:  Gen. 11:26

Final mention:  1 Peter 3:6

Meaning of his name:  “Father of a multitude”

Frequency of his name:  Referred to 307 times

Biblical books mentioning him:  27 books (Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, Joshua, 1 Kings, 2 Kings, 1 Chronicles, 2 Chronicles, Nehemiah, Psalms, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Micah, Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Acts, Romans, 2 Corinthians, Galatians, Hebrews, James, 1 Peter)

Occupation:  Patriarch

Place of birth:  Ur of the Chaldees (Gen. 11:31)

Place of death:  Near Hebron in Canaan (Gen. 23:19; 25:9)

Age at death:  175 (Gen. 25:7)

Important fact about his life:  He was the father of the Hebrew nation and the ultimate role model for faith (Gen. 12:1-3; 1 Chron. 1:34; 2:1-2; Heb. 11:8-10).

Two sets of brothers learned this, as recorded in Luke 5:1-11:

Four fishermen (Andrew, Peter, James, and John) had toiled all night without catching one single fish.  However, at Jesus’ command, Peter rowed out into the deep waters of the Galilean Sea and let down his nets.  Immediately they caught so many fish that their nets began to break due to the huge catch, which fish soon filled their boats.

SIGNIFICANCE

● This is the first of 4 miracles done upon the Sea of Galilee. 

●   It is the first of two miracles resulting in a supernatural catch of fish.  Note the contrasts and comparisons however:

1. The comparisons
a. On both occasions they had unsuccessfully fished all night (Luke 5:5; John 21:3).
b. On both occasions they obeyed Jesus’ command and were successful (Luke 5:5, 6; John 21:6).
c. On both occasions Simon Peter was the key figure (Luke 5:3-8; John 21:7-11).
 
2. The contrasts
a. On the first occasion the fishing net broke.  On the second it did not (Luke 5:6; John 21:11).
b. On the first occasion Jesus instructed Peter to “catch fish,” while on the second He would command him to “feed sheep” (Luke 5:10; John 21:15-17).

SPIRITUAL TRUTHS

● Peter would later fulfill Jesus’ two-fold command to catch fish and feed sheep.  Thus:

1. He caught fish!
“Then they that gladly received his word were baptized: and the same day there were added unto them about three thousand souls” (Acts 2:41).

2. He fed sheep!
“As newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby: If so be ye have tasted that the Lord is gracious” (1 Peter 2:2-3).

“The elders which are among you I exhort, who am also an elder, and a witness of the sufferings of Christ, and also a partaker of the glory that shall be revealed: Feed the flock of God which is among you, taking the oversight thereof, not by constraint, but willingly; not for filthy lucre, but of a ready mind” (1 Peter 5:1-2).

● It should be noted most of Jesus’ apostles were busy at work when He called them, as were the God-called Old Testament men.  Note:

1. Moses and David were tending sheep (Exod. 3:1-2; 1 Sam. 16:11).
2. Gideon was threshing wheat (Judges 6:11-12).
3. Elisha was plowing a field (1 Kings 19:19-21).
4. Amos was herding cattle and picking fruit (Amos 1:1; 7:14-15).
5. Matthew was collecting taxes (Matt. 9:9).
6. Andrew, Peter, James, and John were fishing (Luke 5:1-11).
7. Saul of Tarsus was arresting Christians in his misguided zeal as a Pharisee (Acts 9:1-6).

The intended lesson here seems obvious—God’s call upon a person is rarely (if ever) dependent upon his (or her) brain capacity, brawn, blue blooded history, or banking achievements, but rather just how busy that individual is at the time!

Abraham’s faithful servant had once given an eloquent testimony to this:

“And he said, Blessed be the LORD God of my master Abraham, who hath not left destitute my master of his mercy and his truth: I being in the way, the LORD led me to the house of my master’s brethren” (Gen. 24:27).

● Finally, it should be noted that these experienced fishermen did exactly what Jesus told them to do, even though it must have seemed unreasonable at the time.  King Solomon once wrote:

 “Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths” (Prov. 3:5-6).

A very significant event transpired during that first Easter Sunday afternoon following the glorious resurrection of Jesus Christ.

Luke records this for us:

“And, behold, two of them went that same day to a village called Emmaus, which was from Jerusalem [about] threescore furlongs … And it came to pass, that, while they communed [together] and reasoned, Jesus himself drew near, and went with them … And beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he expounded unto them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself” (Luke 24: 13, 15, 27).

Just what “things” did the Savior report?  It would have no doubt included the following:

 ● The offering up of Isaac (Gen. 22:1, 2, 10)

“By faith Abraham, when he was tried, offered up Isaac: and he that had received the promises offered up his only begotten [son], Of whom it was said, That in Isaac shall thy seed be called: Accounting that God [was] able to raise [him] up, even from the dead; from whence also he received him in a figure” (Heb. 11:17-19).

 ● The Passover Lamb

In Exod. 12, a lamb was taken and killed, then its blood was sprinkled upon the door post.  That blood then saved the life of the oldest child in that household.  The New Testament says that Christ has become our Passover (1 Cor. 5:7).

 ● The giving of manna (Exod. 16:14, 15)

  Jesus would later say:

“I am that bread of life. Your fathers did eat manna in the wilderness, and are dead. This is the bread which cometh down from heaven, that a man may eat thereof, and not die. I am the living bread which came down from heaven: if any man eat of this bread, he shall live for ever: and the bread that I will give is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world” (John 6:48-51).

 ● The smitten Rock (Exod. 17: 5, 6)

  Moses recorded this event:

“And the LORD said unto Moses, Go on before the people, and take with thee of the elders of Israel; and thy rod, wherewith thou smotest the river, take in thine hand, and go. Behold, I will stand before thee there upon the rock in Horeb; and thou shalt smite the rock, and there shall come water out of it, that the people may drink. And Moses did so in the sight of the elders of Israel” (Exod. 17: 5, 6).

Paul explained its significance—

“And did all drink the same spiritual drink: for they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them: and that Rock was Christ” (1 Cor. 10:4).

 ● The brazen serpent (Num. 21:5-9)
  
“And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up: That whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life. For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life” (John 3:14-16).

Well, all these things happened to them in the past.  So how do they apply to us at the present hour?  In a word, Everything!  Note the following admonitions:

“Now all these things happened unto them for ensamples: and they are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come” (1 Cor. 10:11).

“Let us therefore fear, lest, a promise being left [us] of entering into his rest, any of you should seem to come short of it … Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need” (Heb. 4:1, 16).

Who is this controversial candidate whose platform promises universal peace and justice?  Can He really deliver, or is this just some more political mumbo jumbo?  Can we trust Him?  Will He raise our taxes?  Here is His resume.  Read it and decide for yourself!

● His place of birth: Bethlehem (Lk. 2:4-7)

● The nature of His birth: Born of a virgin (Matt. 1:18-23)

● His own personal nature: Said to be both fully human and divine (Isa. 9:6)

● His father: The first person of the Trinity (Lk. 1:35; 2:49)

● His mother: A virgin named Mary (Lk. 2:7)

● His half-brothers: James, Joseph, Simon, Judas (Matt. 13:55)

● His half-sisters (Matt. 13:56)

● His famous ancestors: Abraham and David (Matt. 1:1)

● His first historical reference: The seed of the woman (Gen. 3:15)

● His overall occupation: Creator (Jn. 1:3), redeemer(1 Peter 1:18, 19), shepherd (Jn. 10:11), judge (Jn. 5:22), and prophet
(Matt. 13:57)

● His platform: Given in detail by the Sea of Galilee (Matt. 5-7)

● His temperament (Matt. 11:29, 30; 12:19, 20)

● His recent accomplishments: Healing the sick (Matt. 4:23, 24), raising the dead (Jn. 11:43, 44), feeding the hungry (Jn. 6:5-13), comforting the comfortless (Matt. 11:28)

● Place of death: Outside Jerusalem on a hill (Matt. 27:33)

● Manner of death: Crucifixion (Jn. 19:18)

● Age at death: Approximately 34 years old

● Place of resurrection: From a Garden Tomb (Jn. 19:41; 20:11-17)

● Place of ascension: The Mount of Olives (Acts 1:9-12)

● Current Activities: Serving as a Great High Priest in heaven, praying for His earthly followers (Rom. 8:34; Heb. 7:25; 9:24)

● Anticipated place of His return: The Mount of Olives (Zech. 14:4)

● Final assignment upon returning: To rule over all creation’s realm as King of Kings and Lord of Lords (Rev. 11:15)

This brief resume has been prepared by the Third Person in the Trinity (the Holy Spirit), upon the approval of the First Person in the Trinity (the Father).  Its accuracy is thus assured! 

What Moses, the Author of Genesis, Might Have Asked Each of the Main Participants

If only I could have known them, even to interview them for an hour!  What questions I would have loved to ask Adam, Noah, Abraham, (especially Abraham), Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph!  In fact I’ve often framed some of them in my mind: Continue Reading »