 Chapters

God & Man

Exploring the relationship between God and Man, from God’s point of view.

 

This article, called “God and Man”, is the first part of a trilogy.
The second part is called “Understanding Salvation”.
The third part is called “Finding Salvation”.
It is highly recommended that they be read in this order.

 

To many people these days, God seems so distant. So removed from the events on Earth. Almost as though there were no relationship between God and Man. Even for many Christians, who understand they can pray, prayer often seems to be a one-way communication.

Why is that? Why doesn’t God appear to be more involved with us? To find out, one must understand that Man’s relationship with God goes back a long way, a very long way. As with any long term relationship, there’s a lot of history. And the only way to understand the present condition of the relationship, is to understand that history.

God wasn’t always distant. On the contrary, for thousands of years God had a great deal of interaction with Man.   But every long term relationship has its ups and downs. Unfortunately God’s relationship with Man, has had a lot more downs than ups. Through the years, Man has treated God deplorably.

Every relationship has 2 sides. When we think about our relationship with God, we tend to think about it from our point of view, as if it’s just God and me and now. For insight into these questions, one must really understand the relationship, from God’s point of view.

If you were asked, “How well do you know your Mother or Father?”. What would that mean, and how would you answer that question?

What we mean is, “Do you know what he or she is like. Their temperament, their personality, their character, the way they think, their likes and dislikes”.

If you’re fortunate enough to have grown up with your parents, you probably know them pretty well.

There are many benefits for knowing them very well, like:

1. Being more intimate with them, feeling closer to them.
2. Knowing how to grow or deepen your relationship with them.
3. Knowing what to expect from them.
4. Having confidence or faith in them, to know that you can count on them.

So how did you get to know your parents or even your friends so well?    Simply, by spending time with them.

If asked, “How well do you know God?”. His temperament, his personality, his character, the way he thinks, his likes and dislikes”.  How would you answer that?

The same benefits from knowing your earthly father well, apply for knowing your Heavenly Father well.

1. Intimacy.
2. A deeper relationship.
3. Knowing what to Expect.
4. Confidence and Faith.

So how then, can you get to know your Heavenly Father well?

The same way. By spending time with Him:

1. In Prayer
2. Through Praise
3. But most of all, by Spending Time in His Word — Reading the Bible.

You likely don’t know much about your earthly father’s life, before you were born. You weren’t there.

What if you had a book that explained all about what he did and things that happened, before you were born. Would that help you understand him better? Would you read it?

That’s what the Bible will tell you about God. A lot happened between God and Man, before you were born. Very important things. Spending time reading the Bible, is like spending time with God.

There is certainly no shortage of questions that cross one’s mind, about God.

Even non-believers question, “if there is a God, why does He do the things He does, and why doesn’t He do other things?”. No one can answer every question. But the Scriptures answer many.

Finding answers to some of these questions, can go a long way toward building a relationship with God.

There are really 2 main reasons for this life on Earth. To build a relationship with God. And to learn how to get along with other people. In this study, we’ll concentrate on the first reason.

The first step in building any relationship, is getting to know the other party. Only then, can you begin to understand the why’s and how’s of their actions. At that point, you can decide whether their actions appear to be fair and just, or not.

The more you learn about God, the more you will find that God’s dealings with Man have been more than just, and more than fair.

The goal here, is to first get to Know God. Then to Understand God; His actions, His reactions, His decisions.

Understanding that God has been truly just and fair in His relationship with Man, will lead to Respect, and then ultimately Love. Because Loving God is our ultimate goal.

Let’s get started. For a better understanding of the relationship between God and Man, we need to go back to the very beginning. The creation of the world, and of Man himself. We need to understand, why God created Man, in the first place.

Jeremiah 31: 3   (God created Man to Love.)

³ The Lord appeared to us in the past, saying: “I have loved you with an everlasting love;     I have drawn you with unfailing kindness.

 

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One thing the reader is requested to understand. In much of the Scriptures, as in this study, the
word “Man”, when it is capitalized, is intended to mean mankind. Not man as opposed to woman.

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Genesis 1: 27     (God created Man, in His image. Now exactly what that means, God didn’t say. It could mean to some extent physically. It could mean mentally, emotionally, or any number of characteristics. But one thing we do know, is that God doesn’t Die. So if we were created in His image, why would God have created Man, only to die?)

²⁷ So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.

 

Genesis 2: 7   (Somewhere along the creation process, God gave Man Life.)

⁷ Then the Lord God formed a man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being.

 

Genesis 2: 9   (God created a garden with two very important trees in it.)

⁹ The Lord God made all kinds of trees grow out of the ground—trees that were pleasing to the eye and good for food. In the middle of the garden were the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

 

Genesis 2: 15-17   (Then God gave Man His first instruction. At this point, you can call it a rule, a law, or a command. Either way, God made it clear what He wanted, and even explained what the consequence would be for violating God’s Law. Death.)

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 from it you will certainly die.”

 

Genesis 3: 6   (But Man disregarded God’s warning, disobeyed God, and broke the Law.)

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.

 

Genesis 3: 19   (God found that Man was untrustworthy and unreliable. So God has no choice but to keep His word, and tell Man that he will Die.)

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.”

 

Genesis 3: 22-23   (And so, God prevented Man from having Eternal Life.)

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.

So what happened? God created Man, and God created a perfect environment for Man to live in. God gave man everything he needed. Then God set down one simple rule or law for Man to follow. Man could eat from every tree in the garden except one, the Tree of Knowledge. And even after God warned Man, that the consequence for violating the rule would be Death, Man still was disobedient and broke the law.

Violating God’s law is called Sin. So Man brought Sin and evil into this world. Man also betrayed God’s trust. Since God is Holy, He cannot co-exist with sin. Therefore, God cannot co-exist with sinful Man.   So God could no longer allow a sinful, untrustworthy Man to live forever, and give that evil access to eternity.

Notice that Adam didn’t die after he sinned, he lived many more years. So when God told Adam he would die, God wasn’t speaking of instant death. God meant that Adam would not live forever. Hence God prevented Adam from having access to the Tree of Life, which would have given Adam Eternal Life.

Genesis 5: 5   (Adam did not die when he sinned. he lost his opportunity for eternal life.)

⁵ Altogether, Adam lived a total of 930 years, and then he died.

 

Romans 5: 12   (The Apostle Paul confirms that God didn’t intend for Man to die. Man dies because of sin.)

¹² Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all people, because all sinned.

 

God is the Creator. He created Man. God gave Life to Man. He was not required to do that. He is certainly entitled to limit Man’s Life to whatever duration He wishes. When God found that Mankind was not suitable for Eternal Life, He took that option away. And God is privileged to offer Eternal Life to whomever He will.

Isaiah 45: 9-12   (God spoke these words, through the prophet Isaiah.)

⁹ “Woe to those who quarrel with their Maker,     Does the clay say to the potter, ‘What are you making?’ Does your work say, ‘The potter has no hands’? ¹⁰ Woe to the one who says to a father, ‘What have you begotten?’ or to a mother, ‘What have you brought to birth?’

¹¹ “This is what the Lord says — the Holy One of Israel, and its Maker:    do you question me about my children,     or give me orders about the work of my hands? ¹² It is I who made the earth and created mankind on it. My own hands stretched out the heavens; I marshaled their starry hosts.

Summing up, Man dies because he has proven to be sinful, disobedient, and unfaithful to the one who created him, God.

Man’s only hope for a Life after Death, is for God to allow it. Then to do whatever God requires, in order to receive it.

The granting of this Life after Death, this Eternal Life, saves us from Death. We call it Salvation, or being saved.

When you read the account of God’s creation of the world in Genesis, you can see that there’s no detail included, as to how God actually created Man and the Earth. God gave this account to Man many years ago, long before Man would be capable of understanding even the simplest aspects of the creation. So this is a very simplistic description of the creation, that all men can understand. But that doesn’t mean that the creation itself, wasn’t extremely complex.

Proverbs 3: 19-20

¹⁹ By wisdom the Lord laid the earth’s foundations, by understanding he set the heavens in place; ²⁰ by his knowledge the watery depths were divided, and the clouds let drop the dew.

And so we can consider that the description of Adam’s sin, may also be a simplistic description of it. Was there literally a tree of life, a tree of knowledge, and an apple, as we know of those things; or was those metaphors, for something more complex? We really don’t know. When God gave this explanation to Man, many years ago, He wanted all men, regardless of their education, to be able to understand it. So He may have simplified His description of all this, so everyone can understand it, just as Jesus did when He spoke in parables.

Proverbs 3: 5 & 13-18

⁵ Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding

¹³ Blessed are those who find wisdom, those who gain understanding, ¹⁴ for she is more profitable than silver and yields better returns than gold. ¹⁵ She is more precious than rubies; nothing you desire can compare with her. ¹⁶ Long life is in her right hand; in her left hand are riches and honor. ¹⁷ Her ways are pleasant ways, and all her paths are peace. ¹⁸ She is a tree of life to those who take hold of her; those who hold her fast will be blessed.

As an example, God’s use of the tree of life here, is obviously a metaphor.

When Adam sinned, he not only lost eternal life, he lost something of equal or even greater importance. He lost direct fellowship with God. God actually walked in the garden, with Adam, until Adam’s sin.

Genesis 3: 8   (God walked in the garden, to speak with Adam.)

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.

Because of sin, Man lost his fellowship with God. Although Adam lived 930 years, once he sinned, God removed him from the Garden, and there is no further record of any fellowship between Adam and God. When Adam’s son Cain sinned by killing his brother Abel, he also lost his fellowship with God.

Genesis 4: 14 & 16   (After Cain killed his brother Able, Cain said to God:)

¹⁴ Today you are driving me from the land, and I will be hidden from your presence

¹⁶ So Cain went out from the Lord’s presence and lived in the land of Nod, east of Eden.

God and sin cannot coexist, because God is Holy. Before Man sinned, God spoke with and walked with Man. But afterward, God had to limit his interaction with Man, primarily to his prophets and very select people, because Mankind became progressively more wicked and sinful. To help minimize the damage, sin was doing to mankind, God would reduce Man’s time on this earth, from 900 years to just over 100.

Genesis 6: 3   (Because of Man’s wickedness, God limits Man’s lifespan.)

³ Then the Lord said, “My Spirit will not contend with humans forever, for they are mortal; their days will be a hundred and twenty years.”

Thousands of years ago God made this statement, recorded in Genesis, limiting Man’s lifespan to 120 years. After all this time, and all that modern science has accomplished, God’s decision still stands.

But Man continued to degenerate further and further into sin and wickedness. No matter how much God tried to help, Man did not respond. Finally mankind reached the point of being unsalvageable, and God would no longer tolerate Man’s behavior.

Genesis 6: 5-6   (Man’s wickedness and evil increased beyond what God could bear.)

⁵ The Lord saw how great the wickedness of the human race had become on the earth, and that every inclination of the thoughts of the human heart was only evil all the time. ⁶ The Lord regretted that he had made human beings on the earth, and his heart was deeply troubled.

Genesis 6: 7   (God made Man as a companion. God must have been heartbroken, to be forced to take such a drastic step.)

⁷ So the Lord said, “I will wipe from the face of the earth the human race I have created—and with them the animals, the birds and the creatures that move along the ground—for I regret that I have made them.”

Many years passed before God found another man He could fellowship with. Noah was righteous and followed God’s law, so God worked with Noah. But the rest of Mankind was so sinful, God had no way to redeem them. So God decided to destroy His Own Creation and start over.

Genesis 6: 8-9   (God continued to interact with Man (Noah) when He could.)

⁸ But Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord. ⁹ This is the account of Noah and his family. Noah was a righteous man, blameless among the people of his time, and he walked faithfully with God.

 

Genesis 6: 12-13   (God decided to destroy His Creation, and start over.)

¹² God saw how corrupt the earth had become, for all the people on earth had corrupted their ways. ¹³ So God said to Noah, “I am going to put an end to all people, for the earth is filled with violence because of them. I am surely going to destroy both them and the earth.

 

Genesis 6: 17-19   (God explained his plan to Noah.)

¹⁷ I am going to bring floodwaters on the earth to destroy all life under the heavens, every creature that has the breath of life in it. Everything on earth will perish. ¹⁸ But I will establish my covenant with you, and you will enter the ark—you and your sons and your wife and your sons’ wives with you. ¹⁹ You are to bring into the ark two of all living creatures, male and female, to keep them alive with you.

This was the first covenant between God and Man.

Genesis 9: 8-16   (God makes a Covenant with Noah and all the Earth.)

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 destroyed 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.”

Just listening to God’s words here, you can feel the remorse in His heart for having had to take such drastic action against Man. A covenant normally requires some effort on the part of both parties. But God made this commitment to us, without asking for anything in return.

Genesis 9: 18-19   (Noah’s family repopulates the Earth.)

¹⁸ The sons of Noah who came out of the ark were Shem, Ham and Japheth. (Ham was the father of Canaan.) ¹⁹ These were the three sons of Noah, and from them came the people who were scattered over the whole earth.

Some would view God’s destruction of his Creation as cruel, but consider this. As bad as Man behaved, God was still willing to give Man a second chance.

So far, we know why we die, and that Man had betrayed God with sin and wickedness. But God gave Man a second chance by renewing the earth through Noah.

So let’s review. We know we need Salvation, because Man dies, and because sinful man cannot coexist with God. And since God is in heaven, sinful man could not be allowed to enter. We are told the only way to achieve Salvation, is by accepting Jesus as Lord. But why? How does that get us Salvation? After finishing this article, please read “Understanding Salvation” and find out.

From the very beginning with Adam, God wanted a relationship with Man. And God continues to want a relationship with Man. After Noah, the next Man God found to be worthy, was Abram. Try to imagine how you would react, at 75 years of age, if these were God’s first words to you.

Genesis 12: 1-3   (God’s tells Abram at 75, to permanently leave his home, his friends, everything Abram new and loved, and leave his country for an unknown land. Then God promises to bless him. Would you go?)

¹The Lord had said to Abram, “Go from your country, your people and your father’s household 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

 

Genesis 12: 4   (Abram believes God and obeys. Other than Noah, Abram was the only man to show real Faith in God.)

⁴ So Abram went, as the Lord had told him; and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he set out from Harran.

 

Genesis 12: 7   (God honors Abram’s Faith, and appears to Abram.)

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.

 

Genesis 13: 14-18   (Again God makes promises to Abram, and Abram shows Faith in God.)

¹⁴ The Lord said to Abram after Lot had parted from him, “Look around from where you are, to the north and south, to the east and west. ¹⁵ All the land that you see I will give to you and your offspring forever. ¹⁶ I will make your offspring like the dust of the earth, so that if anyone could count the dust, then your offspring could be counted. ¹⁷ Go, walk through the length and breadth of the land, for I am giving it to you.”

¹⁸ So Abram went to live near the great trees of Mamre at Hebron, where he pitched his tents. There he built an altar to the Lord.

 

Genesis 15: 2-6   (Even though Abram was now about 79, he had Faith that God could give him a child.)

² But Abram said, “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 who is your own flesh and blood will be your heir.” ⁵ He took him outside and said, “Look up at the sky 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.

 

Genesis 17: 1-8   (Everyone wants God to act on their timetable. But 20 years later, God had not yet moved. Again God speaks to Abram, declaring His second covenant with Man. God changes Abram’s name to Abraham, and reveals the details of this Covenant. Abraham will become the father of God’s Chosen People, the Israelites.)

¹ When Abram was ninety-nine years old, the Lord appeared to him and said, “I am God Almighty; walk before me faithfully and be blameless. ² Then I will make my covenant between me and you and will greatly increase your numbers.”

³ Abram fell facedown, and God said to him, ⁴ “As for me, this is my covenant with you: You will be the father of many nations. ⁵ No longer will you be called Abram; your name will be Abraham, for I have made you a father of many nations. ⁶ I will make you very fruitful; I will make nations of you, and kings will come from you. ⁷ I will establish my covenant as an everlasting covenant between me and you and your descendants after you for the generations to come, to be your God and the God of your descendants after you. ⁸ The whole land of Canaan, where you now reside as a foreigner, I will give as an everlasting possession to you and your descendants after you; and I will be their God.”

 

Genesis 17: 7   (This was the Old Covenant, between God and Man, more specifically Abraham and his descendants, the Israelites.)

⁷ I will establish my covenant as an everlasting covenant between me and you and your descendants after you for the generations to come, to be your God and the God of your descendants after you.

 

Genesis 17: 1   (This was Man’s key obligation under the Old Covenant. To give God, Faithfulness and Righteousness.)

¹ When Abram was ninety-nine years old, the Lord appeared to him and said, “I am God Almighty; walk before me faithfully and be blameless. ² Then I will make my covenant between me and you

 

Genesis 17: 15-22   (God changes Abraham’s wife’s name to Sarah, and continues to make promises that are seemingly impossible. At 99 years of age, Abraham’s Faith falters, but doesn’t fail. This time God gives Abraham a time frame. Abraham will know within a year, if God is true.)

¹⁵ God also said to Abraham, “As for Sarai your wife, you are no longer to call her Sarai; her name will be Sarah. ¹⁶ I will bless her and will surely give you a son by her. I will bless her so that she will be the mother of nations; kings of peoples will come from her.”

¹⁷ Abraham fell facedown; he laughed and said to himself, “Will a son be born to a man a hundred years old? Will Sarah bear a child at the age of ninety?” ¹⁸ And Abraham said to God, “If only Ishmael might live under your blessing!”

¹⁹ Then God said, “Yes, but your wife Sarah will bear you a son, and you will call him Isaac. I will establish my covenant with him as an everlasting covenant for his descendants after him. ²⁰ And as for Ishmael, I have heard you: I will surely bless him; I will make him fruitful and will greatly increase his numbers. He will be the father of twelve rulers, and I will make him into a great nation. ²¹ But my covenant I will establish with Isaac, whom Sarah will bear to you by this time next year.” ²² When he had finished speaking with Abraham, God went up from him.

 

Genesis 18: 10-15   (God sent 3 men to confirm His plan for Sarah, but her Faith was not as strong as Abraham’s.)

¹⁰ Then one of them said, “I will surely return to you about this time next year, and Sarah your wife will have a son.”

Now Sarah was listening at the entrance to the tent, which was behind him. ¹¹ Abraham and Sarah were already very old, and Sarah was past the age of childbearing. ¹² So Sarah laughed to herself as she thought, “After I am worn out and my lord is old, will I now have this pleasure?”

¹³ Then the Lord said to Abraham, “Why did Sarah laugh and say, ‘Will I really have a child, now that I am old?’ ¹⁴ Is anything too hard for the Lord? I will return to you at the appointed time next year, and Sarah will have a son.”

¹⁵ Sarah was afraid, so she lied and said, “I did not laugh.” But he said, “Yes, you did laugh.”

 

Genesis 21: 1-5   (A year later, God kept his promise, and Isaac is born.)

¹Now the Lord was gracious to Sarah as he had said, and the Lord did for Sarah what he had promised. ² Sarah became pregnant and bore a son to Abraham in his old age, at the very time God had promised him. ³ Abraham gave the name Isaac to the son Sarah bore him. ⁴ When his son Isaac was eight days old, Abraham circumcised him, as God commanded him. ⁵ Abraham was a hundred years old when his son Isaac was born to him.

 

Genesis 22: 1-18   (After God gave Abraham the miracle of Isaac, Abraham’s Faith was strengthened. So God gave Abraham the ultimate test of Faith.)

¹Some time later God tested Abraham. He said to him, “Abraham!”

“Here I am,” he replied.

² Then God said, “Take your son, your only son, whom you love—Isaac—and go to the region of Moriah. Sacrifice him there as a burnt offering on a mountain I will show you.”

³ Early the next morning Abraham got up and loaded his donkey. He took with him two of his servants and his son Isaac. When he had cut enough wood for the burnt offering, he set out for the place God had told him about. ⁴ On the third day Abraham looked up and saw the place in the distance. ⁵ He said to his servants, “Stay here with the donkey while I and the boy go over there. We will worship and then we will come back to you.”

⁶ Abraham took the wood for the burnt offering and placed it on his son Isaac, and he himself carried the fire and the knife. As the two of them went on together, ⁷ Isaac spoke up and said to his father Abraham, “Father?”

“Yes, my son?” Abraham replied.

“The fire and wood are here,” Isaac said, “but where is the lamb for the burnt offering?”

⁸ Abraham answered, “God himself will provide the lamb for the burnt offering, my son.” And the two of them went on together.

⁹ When they reached the place God had told him about, Abraham built an altar there and arranged the wood on it. He bound his son Isaac and laid him on the altar, on top of the wood. ¹⁰ Then he reached out his hand and took the knife to slay his son. ¹¹ But the angel of the Lord called out to him from heaven, “Abraham! Abraham!”

“Here I am,” he replied.

¹² “Do not lay a hand on the boy,” he said. “Do not do anything to him. Now I know that you fear God, because you have not withheld from me your son, your only son.”

¹³ Abraham looked up and there in a thicket he saw a ram caught by its horns. He went over and took the ram and sacrificed it as a burnt offering instead of his son. ¹⁴ So Abraham called that place The Lord Will Provide. And to this day it is said, “On the mountain of the Lord it will be provided.”

¹⁵ The angel of the Lord called to Abraham from heaven a second time ¹⁶ and said, “I swear by myself, declares the Lord, that because you have done this and have not withheld your son, your only son, ¹⁷ I will surely bless you and make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and as the sand on the seashore. Your descendants will take possession of the cities of their enemies, ¹⁸ and through your offspring all nations on earth will be blessed, because you have obeyed me.”

 

God finally found a Man, worthy of His Love. Abraham was not Righteous as a young man, he sinned. But he was the first man to have real faith in God. His faith wasn’t perfect. He had moments of doubt. But he purposed to overcome his doubt, and kept his Faith in God. And because of Abraham’s Faith, God started a chain of events, that would affect every one of us, today. You see, Jesus was one of Abraham’s descendants. The covenant God made with Abraham influenced the relationship between God and Man for the next 2,000 years. Then God made a New Covenant with Mankind, through Jesus Christ.

God did everything that He had promised Abraham that He would do. Genesis 24: 35 says “³⁵ The Lord has blessed Abraham abundantly, and he has become wealthy. He has given him sheep and cattle, silver and gold, male and female servants, and camels and donkeys”. Abraham lived a long and satisfying life, here on earth, and was buried with his wife.
 

Isaac — When Abraham’s son Isaac grew up, God came to him,
as God told Abraham He would.

 

Genesis 26: 1-5   (God confirms his covenant with Isaac, Abraham’s son.)

¹ Now there was a famine in the land—besides the previous famine in Abraham’s time—and Isaac went to Abimelek king of the Philistines in Gerar. ² The Lord appeared to Isaac and said, “Do not go down to Egypt; live in the land where I tell you to live. ³ Stay in this land for a while, and I will be with you and will bless you. For to you and your descendants I will give all these lands and will confirm the oath I swore to your father Abraham. ⁴ I will make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and will give them all these lands, and through your offspring all nations on earth will be blessed, ⁵ because Abraham obeyed me and did everything I required of him, keeping my commands, my decrees and my instructions.”

 

Genesis 26: 12-14   (God blesses Isaac, as He did Abraham.)

¹² Isaac planted crops in that land and the same year reaped a hundredfold, because the Lord blessed him. ¹³ The man became rich, and his wealth continued to grow until he became very wealthy. ¹⁴ He had so many flocks and herds and servants that the Philistines envied him.

 

Genesis 25: 21 & 24-26   (Isaac gives birth to his son, Jacob.)

²¹ Isaac prayed to the Lord on behalf of his wife, because she was childless. The Lord answered his prayer, and his wife Rebekah became pregnant.

²⁴ When the time came for her to give birth, there were twin boys in her womb. ²⁵ The first to come out was red, and his whole body was like a hairy garment; so they named him Esau. ²⁶ After this, his brother came out, with his hand grasping Esau’s heel; so he was named Jacob. Isaac was sixty years old when Rebekah gave birth to them.

 

Jacob –As with Abraham, God blessed his son Isaac throughout his life. Then God began to deal with Isaac’s son Jacob. God blessed Jacob as well.

 

Genesis 26: 1-5   (God confirms his covenant with Jacob, Isaac’s son.)

¹³ There above it stood the Lord, and he said: “I am the Lord, the God of your (grand)father Abraham and the God of (your father) Isaac. I will give you and your descendants the land on which you are lying. ¹⁴ Your descendants will be like the dust of the earth, and you will spread out to the west and to the east, to the north and to the south. All peoples on earth will be blessed through you and your offspring. ¹⁵ I am with you and will watch over you wherever you go, and I will bring you back to this land. I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you.”

 

Genesis 32: 28   (God changes Jacob’s name to “Israel”, as God had changed his grandfather Abram’s name to Abraham. Jacob is therefore the father of all the Israelites (Jews).)

²⁸ Then the man said, “Your name will no longer be Jacob, but Israel, because you have struggled with God and with humans and have overcome.”

 

Jacob’s 12 Sons –As with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, God kept His Covenant, and blessed Israel.

 

Genesis 35: 23-26   (Jacob (Israel) gave birth to 12 Sons. Each would become the Farther of one of the 12 Tribes of Israel.)

²² Jacob had twelve sons:

²³ The sons of Leah: Reuben the firstborn of Jacob, Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar and Zebulun.

²⁴ The sons of Rachel: Joseph and Benjamin.

²⁵ The sons of Rachel’s servant Bilhah: Dan and Naphtali.

²⁶ The sons of Leah’s servant Zilpah: Gad and Asher.

These were the sons of Jacob, who were born to him in Paddan Aram.

 

Genesis 46: 1-4   (God tells Jacob (Israel), his 12 Sons, and their families to go to Egypt.)

¹So Israel set out with all that was his, and when he reached Beersheba, he offered sacrifices to the God of his father Isaac. ² And God spoke to Israel in a vision at night and said, “Jacob! Jacob!” “Here I am,” he replied.

³ “I am God, the God of your father,” he said. “Do not be afraid to go down to Egypt, for I will make you into a great nation there. ⁴ I will go down to Egypt with you, and I will surely bring you back again. And (your son) Joseph’s own hand will close your eyes.”

 

Genesis 47: 27   (Israel goes to Egypt, and is blessed by God.)

²⁷ Now the Israelites settled in Egypt in the region of Goshen. They acquired property there and were fruitful and increased greatly in number.

 

God walked and talked with Isaac and Jacob throughout their lives. They honored the Covenant their father Abraham made with God, with Faithfulness and Righteousness, and God honored the Covenant as well, blessing them greatly. God blessed Jacob, his 12 sons, and their families. They had a full satisfying life, and grew old in Egypt.

Exodus 1: 1-14 & 22   (Jacob (Israel), his 12 sons, and all that generation grew old in Egypt, and died.)

¹ These are the names of the sons of Israel who went to Egypt with Jacob, each with his family: ² Reuben, Simeon, Levi and Judah; ³ Issachar, Zebulun and Benjamin; ⁴ Dan and Naphtali; Gad and Asher. ⁵ The descendants of Jacob numbered seventy in all; Joseph was already in Egypt.

⁶ Now Joseph and all his brothers and all that generation died, ⁷ but the Israelites were exceedingly fruitful; they multiplied greatly, increased in numbers and became so numerous that the land was filled with them.

⁸ Then a new king, to whom Joseph meant nothing, came to power in Egypt. ⁹ “Look,” he said to his people, “the Israelites have become far too numerous for us. ¹⁰ Come, we must deal shrewdly with them or they will become even more numerous and, if war breaks out, will join our enemies, fight against us and leave the country.”

¹¹ So they put slave masters over them to oppress them with forced labor, and they built Pithom and Rameses as store cities for Pharaoh. ¹² But the more they were oppressed, the more they multiplied and spread; so the Egyptians came to dread the Israelites ¹³ and worked them ruthlessly. ¹⁴ They made their lives bitter with harsh labor in brick and mortar and with all kinds of work in the fields; in all their harsh labor the Egyptians worked them ruthlessly. ²² Then Pharaoh gave this order to all his people: “Every Hebrew boy that is born you must throw into the Nile, but let every girl live.”

 

 

For those who still think God hasn’t been fair with Man, or wonder why God isn’t more involved with us here and now, on Earth, this next group of Scriptures will answer those allegations. During this period of time, recorded in the book of Exodus, God went above and beyond anything that anyone could possibly expect of Him. God literally poured out His love on the Israelites, in every way imaginable. Read on, and see what God got in return.

Exodus 2: 1-10   (The birth of Moses.)

¹ Now a man of the tribe of Levi married a Levite woman, ² and she became pregnant and gave birth to a son. When she saw that he was a fine child, she hid him for three months. ³ But when she could hide him no longer, she got a papyrus basket for him and coated it with tar and pitch. Then she placed the child in it and put it among the reeds along the bank of the Nile. ⁴ His sister stood at a distance to see what would happen to him.

⁵ Then Pharaoh’s daughter went down to the Nile to bathe, and her attendants were walking along the riverbank. She saw the basket among the reeds and sent her female slave to get it. ⁶ She opened it and saw the baby. He was crying, and she felt sorry for him. “This is one of the Hebrew babies,” she said.

⁷ Then his sister asked Pharaoh’s daughter, “Shall I go and get one of the Hebrew women to nurse the baby for you?” ⁸ “Yes, go,” she answered. So the girl went and got the baby’s mother. ⁹ Pharaoh’s daughter said to her, “Take this baby and nurse him for me, and I will pay you.” So the woman took the baby and nursed him. ¹⁰ When the child grew older, she took him to Pharaoh’s daughter and he became her son. She named him Moses, saying, “I drew him out of the water.”

 

Exodus 2: 23-25   (The Israelites pray for God’s help.)

²³ During that long period, the king of Egypt died. The Israelites groaned in their slavery and cried out, and their cry for help because of their slavery went up to God. ²⁴ God heard their groaning and he remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac and with Jacob. ²⁵ So God looked on the Israelites and was concerned about them.

 

Exodus 3: 1-14   (God speaks to Moses, and tells him to tell Pharaoh, to let the Israelites go.)

¹ Now Moses was tending the flock of Jethro his father-in-law, the priest of Midian, and he led the flock to the far side of the wilderness and came to Horeb, the mountain of God. ² There the angel of the Lord appeared to him in flames of fire from within a bush. Moses saw that though the bush was on fire it did not burn up. ³ So Moses thought, “I will go over and see this strange sight—why the bush does not burn up.”

⁴ When the Lord saw that he had gone over to look, God called to him from within the bush, “Moses! Moses!” And Moses said, “Here I am.”

⁵ “Do not come any closer,” God said. “Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy ground.” ⁶ Then he said, “I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob.” At this, Moses hid his face, because he was afraid to look at God.

⁷ The Lord said, “I have indeed seen the misery of my people in Egypt. I have heard them crying out because of their slave drivers, and I am concerned about their suffering. ⁸ So I have come down to rescue them from the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land into a good and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey—the home of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites. ⁹ And now the cry of the Israelites has reached me, and I have seen the way the Egyptians are oppressing them. ¹⁰ So now, go. I am sending you to Pharaoh to bring my people the Israelites out of Egypt.”

¹¹ But Moses said to God, “Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?”

¹² And God said, “I will be with you. And this will be the sign to you that it is I who have sent you: When you have brought the people out of Egypt, you will worship God on this mountain.”

¹³ Moses said to God, “Suppose I go to the Israelites and say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you,’ and they ask me, ‘What is his name?’ Then what shall I tell them?”

¹⁴ God said to Moses, “I am who I am. This is what you are to say to the Israelites: ‘I am has sent me to you.’”

 

Exodus 3: 18-20   (God continues, and tells Moses that He will perform Great Wonders to make Pharaoh release the Israelites.)

¹⁸ “The elders of Israel will listen to you. Then you and the elders are to go to the king of Egypt and say to him, ‘The Lord, the God of the Hebrews, has met with us. Let us take a three-day journey into the wilderness to offer sacrifices to the Lord our God.’ ¹⁹ But I know that the king of Egypt will not let you go unless a mighty hand compels him. ²⁰ So I will stretch out my hand and strike the Egyptians with all the wonders that I will perform among them. After that, he will let you go.

 

Exodus 3: 21-22   (God tells Moses that He will also enable the Israelites to plunder the Egyptians.)

²¹ “And I will make the Egyptians favorably disposed toward this people, so that when you leave you will not go empty-handed. ²² Every woman is to ask her neighbor and any woman living in her house for articles of silver and gold and for clothing, which you will put on your sons and daughters. And so you will plunder the Egyptians.”

 

Exodus 4: 1&10&11&13&14   (Moses has little faith, and considers his own abilities instead of God’s power.)

¹ Moses answered, “What if they do not believe me or listen to me and say, ‘The Lord did not appear to you’?”

¹⁰ Moses said to the Lord, “Pardon your servant, Lord. I have never been eloquent, neither in the past nor since you have spoken to your servant. I am slow of speech and tongue.”

¹¹ The Lord said to him ¹² Now go; I will help you speak and will teach you what to say.”

¹³ But Moses said, “Pardon your servant, Lord. Please send someone else.”

¹⁴ Then the Lord’s anger burned against Moses and he said, “What about your brother, Aaron the Levite? I know he can speak well. ¹⁵ I will help both of you speak and will teach you what to do. ¹⁶ He will speak to the people for you.

 

Exodus 5: 1-2   (Moses and Aaron make their first visit to Pharaoh. Pharaoh refuses.)

¹ Afterward Moses and Aaron went to Pharaoh and said, “This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: ‘Let my people go, so that they may hold a festival to me in the wilderness

² Pharaoh said, “Who is the Lord, that I should obey him and let Israel go? I do not know the Lord and I will not let Israel go.”

 

Exodus 7: 7   (Moses followed God’s instructions, even though he was 80 years old, at the time.)

⁶ Moses and Aaron did just as the Lord commanded them. ⁷ Moses was eighty years old and Aaron eighty-three when they spoke to Pharaoh.

 

Exodus 7: 8   (God performed incredibly Great Wonders and Miracles to free the Israelites from slavery by the Egyptians, going well beyond His obligations under the Old Covenant. For the sake of expediency, these Scriptures have just been listed, instead of shown. But reading through them, will show the amazing effort God made to protect and save the Israelites.)

1. Exodus 7: 9         Turning Moses staff into a Snake
2. Exodus 7: 14       Turning the Nile River to blood
3. Exodus 8: 1         The plague of Frogs
4. Exodus 8: 16       The plague of Gnats
5. Exodus 8: 20       The plague of Flies
6. Exodus 9: 1         The plague on Livestock
7. Exodus 9: 8         The plague of Boils
8. Exodus 9: 13       The plague of Hail
9. Exodus 10: 1       The plague of Locusts
10. Exodus 10: 21     The plague of Darkness for 3 days
11. Exodus 11: 1       The final plague. The death of every firstborn son, of all the Egyptians, including Pharaoh’s son.  And the firstborn of all their animals.

 

Exodus 12: 31-32   (Pharaoh finally submits to God, and lets the Israelites go. They left will all their possessions, and the gold and silver given to them by the Egyptians, and they went to Succoth.)

³¹ During the night Pharaoh summoned Moses and Aaron and said, “Up! Leave my people, you and the Israelites! Go, worship the Lord as you have requested. ³² Take your flocks and herds, as you have said, and go. And also bless me.”

 

Exodus 13: 20-22   (The Israelites traveled by day and night, with God leading them in a pillar of smoke and fire.)

²⁰ After leaving Sukkoth they camped at Etham on the edge of the desert. ²¹ By day the Lord went ahead of them in a pillar of cloud to guide them on their way and by night in a pillar of fire to give them light, so that they could travel by day or night. ²² Neither the pillar of cloud by day nor the pillar of fire by night left its place in front of the people.

 

Exodus 14: 5-9   (When Pharaoh fully realized that he had lost the benefits of his Israelite slaves forever, he changed his mind and gathered his army to pursue the Israelites.)

⁵ When the king of Egypt was told that the people had fled, Pharaoh and his officials changed their minds about them and said, “What have we done? We have let the Israelites go and have lost their services!” ⁶ So he had his chariot made ready and took his army with him. ⁷ He took six hundred of the best chariots, along with all the other chariots of Egypt, with officers over all of them. ⁸ The Lord hardened the heart of Pharaoh king of Egypt, so that he pursued the Israelites, who were marching out boldly. ⁹ The Egyptians—all Pharaoh’s horses and chariots, horsemen and troops—pursued the Israelites and overtook them as they camped by the sea near Pi Hahiroth, opposite Baal Zephon.

 

Exodus 14: 10-11   (After all the great miracles God had just performed for them, the Israelites still had no faith. Instead of praying to God for help and strength and guidance, all they did was complain.)

¹⁰ As Pharaoh approached, the Israelites looked up, and there were the Egyptians, marching after them. They were terrified and cried out to the Lord. ¹¹ They said to Moses, “Was it because there were no graves in Egypt that you brought us to the desert to die? What have you done to us by bringing us out of Egypt?

 

Exodus 14: 19-22   (Even in the face of their terrible attitude, God performs perhaps his greatest miracle to save the Israelites.)

¹⁹ Then the angel of God, who had been traveling in front of Israel’s army, withdrew and went behind them. The pillar of cloud also moved from in front and stood behind them, ²⁰ coming between the armies of Egypt and Israel. Throughout the night the cloud brought darkness to the one side and light to the other side; so neither went near the other all night long.

²¹ Then Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and all that night the Lord drove the sea back with a strong east wind and turned it into dry land. The waters were divided, ²² and the Israelites went through the sea on dry ground, with a wall of water on their right and on their left.

 

Exodus 14: 23-28   (Then God brought about final judgment on the Egyptians.)

²³ The Egyptians pursued them, and all Pharaoh’s horses and chariots and horsemen followed them into the sea. ²⁴ During the last watch of the night the Lord looked down from the pillar of fire and cloud at the Egyptian army and threw it into confusion. ²⁵ He jammed the wheels of their chariots so that they had difficulty driving. And the Egyptians said, “Let’s get away from the Israelites! The Lord is fighting for them against Egypt.”

²⁶ Then the Lord said to Moses, “Stretch out your hand over the sea so that the waters may flow back over the Egyptians and their chariots and horsemen.” ²⁷ Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and at daybreak the sea went back to its place. The Egyptians were fleeing toward it, and the Lord swept them into the sea. ²⁸ The water flowed back and covered the chariots and horsemen—the entire army of Pharaoh that had followed the Israelites into the sea. Not one of them survived.

 

One would think that after such an extraordinary display of power, and the miraculous rescue that God just blessed them with, the Israelites would now have unshakable Faith, Love, and Respect for their God.

 

Exodus 15: 22-24   (Just 3 days after God miraculously saved the Israelites, they complain again instead of praying, and still have no faith.)

²² Then Moses led Israel from the Red Sea and they went into the Desert of Shur. For three days they traveled in the desert without finding water. ²³ When they came to Marah, they could not drink its water because it was bitter. (That is why the place is called Marah) ²⁴ So the people grumbled against Moses, saying, “What are we to drink?”

 

Exodus 15: 25-26   (So God ignored their grumbling, and gave them good water. When God saw how little Faith the Israelites had, after all He had done for them, God had every right to be angry with them. But instead, God offered to add a blessing of Healing to their Covenant, if the Israelites would honor their obligation of Righteousness under the covenant.)

²⁵ Then Moses cried out to the Lord, and the Lord showed him a piece of wood. He threw it into the water, and the water became fit to drink.

There the Lord issued a ruling and instruction for them and put them to the test. ²⁶ He said, “If you listen carefully to the Lord your God and do what is right in his eyes, if you pay attention to his commands and keep all his decrees, I will not bring on you any of the diseases I brought on the Egyptians, for I am the Lord, who heals you.”

 

Exodus 16: 1-3   (Instead of graciously accepting God’s offer, the ungrateful Israelites continue to complain instead of praying, and they still have no faith.)

¹ The whole Israelite community set out from Elim and came to the Desert of Sin, which is between Elim and Sinai, on the fifteenth day of the second month after they had come out of Egypt. ² In the desert the whole community grumbled against Moses and Aaron. ³ The Israelites said to them, “If only we had died by the Lord’s hand in Egypt! There we sat around pots of meat and ate all the food we wanted, but you have brought us out into this desert to starve this entire assembly to death.”

 

Exodus 16: 11-15   (Once again, God forgives their behavior, and blesses the Israelites, by miraculously feeding them.)

¹¹ The Lord said to Moses, ¹² “I have heard the grumbling of the Israelites. Tell them, ‘At twilight you will eat meat, and in the morning you will be filled with bread. Then you will know that I am the Lord your God.’”

¹³ That evening quail came and covered the camp, and in the morning there was a layer of dew around the camp. ¹⁴ When the dew was gone, thin flakes like frost on the ground appeared on the desert floor. ¹⁵ When the Israelites saw it, they said to each other, “What is it?” For they did not know what it was. Moses said to them, “It is the bread the Lord has given you to eat.

 

Exodus 16: 31-35   (God went on blessing and feeding the Israelites for the next 40 years.)

³¹ The people of Israel called the bread manna. It was white like coriander seed and tasted like wafers made with honey. ³² Moses said, “This is what the Lord has commanded: ‘Take an omer of manna and keep it for the generations to come, so they can see the bread I gave you to eat in the wilderness when I brought you out of Egypt.’”

³³ So Moses said to Aaron, “Take a jar and put an omer of manna in it. Then place it before the Lord to be kept for the generations to come.”

³⁴ As the Lord commanded Moses, Aaron put the manna with the tablets of the covenant law, so that it might be preserved. ³⁵ The Israelites ate manna forty years, until they came to a land that was settled; they ate manna until they reached the border of Canaan.

 

Exodus 17: 1-4   (Shortly thereafter, the Israelites once again grumble and complain, and still have no faith.)

¹ The whole Israelite community set out from the Desert of Sin, traveling from place to place as the Lord commanded. They camped at Rephidim, but there was no water for the people to drink. ² So they quarreled with Moses and said, “Give us water to drink.”

Moses replied, “Why do you quarrel with me? Why do you put the Lord to the test?”

³ But the people were thirsty for water there, and they grumbled against Moses. They said, “Why did you bring us up out of Egypt to make us and our children and livestock die of thirst?”

⁴ Then Moses cried out to the Lord, “What am I to do with these people? They are almost ready to stone me.”

 

Exodus 17: 5-6   (And once again, God provides for the needs of the Israelites, and forgives their lack of faith.)

⁵ The Lord answered Moses, “Go out in front of the people. Take with you some of the elders of Israel and take in your hand the staff with which you struck the Nile, and go. ⁶ I will stand there before you by the rock at Horeb. Strike the rock, and water will come out of it for the people to drink.” So Moses did this in the sight of the elders of Israel.

 

All this took place within just 2 months after leaving Egypt, and the following day the Israelites camped in front of Mount Sinai. Up to this point, no matter how much God loved and blessed, and did miraculous works for the Israelites, the Israelites were ungrateful, selfish, and had developed little or no faith in God. But God’s Love is so enormous, instead of chastising the Israelites, God doubles down on His efforts to build the relationship between God and Man.

Exodus 19: 3-6   (God offered the Israelites a unique and special relationship with Him. All God asked for in return was for the Israelites to meet their obligations under their existing covenant, which they had already committed to. God wants nothing more than a deep, loving relationship with Man.)

³ Then Moses went up to God, and the Lord called to him from the mountain and said, “This is what you are to say to the descendants of Jacob and what you are to tell the people of Israel: ⁴ ‘You yourselves have seen what I did to Egypt, and how I carried you on eagles’ wings and brought you to myself. ⁵ Now if you obey me fully and keep my covenant, then out of all nations you will be my treasured possession. Although the whole earth is mine, ⁶ you will be for me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.’ These are the words you are to speak to the Israelites.”

 

Exodus 19: 7-8   (The Israelites say they will accept God’s offer, and promise to be faithful.)

⁷ So Moses went back and summoned the elders of the people and set before them all the words the Lord had commanded him to speak. ⁸ The people all responded together, “We will do everything the Lord has said.” So Moses brought their answer back to the Lord.

 

Exodus 19: 9-11 & 17-19   (So God did a most amazing thing. For the first time, God appeared to, and spoke to, all of the people at once. That was over a million people that were eye witnesses to this event.)

⁹ The Lord said to Moses, “I am going to come to you in a dense cloud, so that the people will hear me speaking with you and will always put their trust in you.” Then Moses told the Lord what the people had said.

¹⁰ And the Lord said to Moses, “Go to the people and consecrate them today and tomorrow. Have them wash their clothes ¹¹ and be ready by the third day, because on that day the Lord will come down on Mount Sinai in the sight of all the people.

¹⁷ Then Moses led the people out of the camp to meet with God, and they stood at the foot of the mountain. ¹⁸ Mount Sinai was covered with smoke, because the Lord descended on it in fire. The smoke billowed up from it like smoke from a furnace, and the whole mountain trembled violently. ¹⁹ As the sound of the trumpet grew louder and louder, Moses spoke and the voice of God answered him.

 

Exodus 20: 1-4X   (So God spoke directly to the Israelites, and gave them the Law (the 10 Commandments). Notice the importance God placed on the First Commandment.)

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 image 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 parents 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 male or female servant, nor your animals, nor any foreigner residing in your towns. 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 male or female servant, his ox or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor.”

 

Exodus 20: 18-21   (So now all the Israelites not only saw the miracles God performed for them previously, but they actually saw His presence and heard Him speaking directly to them. How many other generations of people would have given everything for a moment in God’s presence?)

¹⁸ When the people saw the thunder and lightning and heard the trumpet and saw the mountain in smoke, they trembled with fear. They stayed at a distance ¹⁹ and said to Moses, “Speak to us yourself and we will listen. But do not have God speak to us or we will die.”

²⁰ Moses said to the people, “Do not be afraid. God has come to test you, so that the fear of God will be with you to keep you from sinning.”

²¹ The people remained at a distance, while Moses approached the thick darkness where God was.

 

Exodus 20: 22-23   (God emphasizes the importance of Faithfulness to Him.)

²² Then the Lord said to Moses, “Tell the Israelites this: ‘You have seen for yourselves that I have spoken to you from heaven: ²³ Do not make any gods to be alongside me; do not make for yourselves gods of silver or gods of gold.

 

Exodus Chapters 21, 22 & 23   (Many people think the 10 Commandments was the extent of the Law. But God elaborated on these commandments in great detail, giving Moses a thorough understanding of right and wrong. To this day, this is the basis for our current day laws and justice system. For a better understanding of God’s law, read Exodus chapters 21, 22 and 23.)

 

Exodus 23: 25-26   (Once again, God gives the Israelites additional incentive to want the relationship with God. Again God offers protection, Healing and a long life, in return for the Faithfulness of the Israelites.)

²⁵ Worship the Lord your God, and his blessing will be on your food and water. I will take away sickness from among you, ²⁶ and none will miscarry or be barren in your land. I will give you a full life span.

 

Exodus 24: 3-4&7   (And again, the Israelites promise to be faithful to God, and Moses records all the words of the Covenant in a book, and reads it to the Israelites.)

³ When Moses went and told the people all the Lord’s words and laws, they responded with one voice, “Everything the Lord has said we will do.” ⁴ Moses then wrote down everything the Lord had said.

⁷ Then he took the Book of the Covenant and read it to the people. They responded, “We will do everything the Lord has said; we will obey.”

 

Exodus 24: 1-2   (So God invites 74 of the Israelites to come to Him, and worship at a distance. But Moses is invited to approach near to God.)

¹ Then the Lord said to Moses, “Come up to the Lord, you and Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel. You are to worship at a distance, ² but Moses alone is to approach the Lord; the others must not come near. And the people may not come up with him.”

 

Exodus 24: 9-11   (As incredible as it might seem, God actually met with these people.)

⁹ Moses and Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, and the seventy elders of Israel went up ¹⁰ and saw the God of Israel. Under his feet was something like a pavement made of lapis lazuli, as bright blue as the sky. ¹¹ But God did not raise his hand against these leaders of the Israelites; they saw God, and they ate and drank.

 

Exodus 24: 18   (Moses stays with God for 40 days.)

¹⁸ Then Moses entered the cloud as he went on up the mountain. And he stayed on the mountain forty days and forty nights.

 

Exodus 25: 8-9   (God tells Moses to build a sanctuary, and God will come to earth and actually dwell with the Israelites.)

⁸ “Then have them make a sanctuary for me, and I will dwell among them. ⁹ Make this tabernacle and all its furnishings exactly like the pattern I will show you.

From the rest of Chapter 25 through Chapter 31, God gives Moses very detailed instructions as to how to build His Sanctuary.

 

Exodus 29: 42-46   (Then God reaffirms that He will actually come to Earth and Live with His people, the Israelites. Does that sound like a God that doesn’t care about a relationship with Man? God gives these instructions.)

⁴² “For the generations to come this burnt offering is to be made regularly at the entrance to the tent of meeting, before the Lord. There I will meet you and speak to you; ⁴³ there also I will meet with the Israelites, and the place will be consecrated by my glory.

⁴⁴ “So I will consecrate the tent of meeting and the altar and will consecrate Aaron and his sons to serve me as priests. ⁴⁵ Then I will dwell among the Israelites and be their God. ⁴⁶ They will know that I am the Lord their God, who brought them out of Egypt so that I might dwell among them. I am the Lord their God.

 

Exodus 31: 18   (God gives Moses the Tablets with the 10 Commandments.)

¹⁸ When the Lord finished speaking to Moses on Mount Sinai, he gave him the two tablets of the covenant law, the tablets of stone inscribed by the finger of God.

Exodus 32: 1   (After all that God had done for the Israelites, and all of the times the Israelites swore faithfulness to God, at their first opportunity they completely betrayed Him, the God of the Universe. It is unbelievable.)

¹ When the people saw that Moses was so long in coming down from the mountain, they gathered around Aaron and said, “Come, make us gods who will go before us. As for this fellow Moses who brought us up out of Egypt, we don’t know what has happened to him.”

 

Exodus 32: 3-6   (The faithless Israelites made and worshiped worthless idols, false gods.)

³ So all the people took off their earrings and brought them to Aaron. ⁴ He took what they handed him and made it into an idol cast in the shape of a calf, fashioning it with a tool. Then they said, “These are your gods, Israel, who brought you up out of Egypt.”

⁵ When Aaron saw this, he built an altar in front of the calf and announced, “Tomorrow there will be a festival to this God.” ⁶ So the next day the people rose early and sacrificed burnt offerings and presented fellowship offerings. Afterward they sat down to eat and drink and got up to indulge in revelry.

 

Exodus 32: 7-10   (God saw what the Israelites had done. He is furious, and threatens to destroy them.)

⁷ Then the Lord said to Moses, “Go down, because your people, whom you brought up out of Egypt, have become corrupt. ⁸ They have been quick to turn away from what I commanded them and have made themselves an idol cast in the shape of a calf. They have bowed down to it and sacrificed to it and have said, ‘These are your gods, Israel, who brought you up out of Egypt.’

⁹ “I have seen these people,” the Lord said to Moses, “and they are a stiff-necked people. ¹⁰ Now leave me alone so that my anger may burn against them and that I may destroy them. Then I will make you into a great nation.”

 

Exodus 32: 15-20   (Moses returns to the Israelites equally furious, and disciplines them.)

¹⁵ Moses turned and went down the mountain with the two tablets of the covenant law in his hands. They were inscribed on both sides, front and back. ¹⁶ The tablets were the work of God; the writing was the writing of God, engraved on the tablets.

¹⁷ When Joshua heard the noise of the people shouting, he said to Moses, “There is the sound of war in the camp.”

¹⁸ Moses replied: “It is not the sound of victory; it is not the sound of defeat; it is the sound of singing that I hear.”

¹⁹ When Moses approached the camp and saw the calf and the dancing, his anger burned and he threw the tablets out of his hands, breaking them to pieces at the foot of the mountain. ²⁰ And he took the calf the people had made and burned it in the fire; then he ground it to powder, scattered it on the water and made the Israelites drink it.

 

Exodus 32: 25-29   (Moses continues to discipline the Israelites.)

²⁵ Moses saw that the people were running wild and that Aaron had let them get out of control and so become a laughingstock to their enemies. ²⁶ So he stood at the entrance to the camp and said, “Whoever is for the Lord, come to me.” And all the Levites rallied to him.

²⁷ Then he said to them, “This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: ‘Each man strap a sword to his side. Go back and forth through the camp from one end to the other, each killing his brother and friend and neighbor.’” ²⁸ The Levites did as Moses commanded, and that day about three thousand of the people died. ²⁹ Then Moses said, “You have been set apart to the Lord today, for you were against your own sons and brothers, and he has blessed you this day.”

 

Exodus 32: 30-35   (Moses returns to God, to make Atonement for the sins of Israel.)

³⁰ The next day Moses said to the people, “You have committed a great sin. But now I will go up to the Lord; perhaps I can make atonement for your sin.”

³¹ So Moses went back to the Lord and said, “Oh, what a great sin these people have committed! They have made themselves gods of gold. ³² But now, please forgive their sin—but if not, then blot me out of the book you have written.”

³³ The Lord replied to Moses, “Whoever has sinned against me I will blot out of my book. ³⁴ Now go, lead the people to the place I spoke of, and my angel will go before you. However, when the time comes for me to punish, I will punish them for their sin.”

³⁵ And the Lord struck the people with a plague because of what they did with the calf Aaron had made.

 

Exodus 33: 1-3   (After the Israelites betrayal, God still honors his Covenant with Abraham, although God is forced to remove His presence from the Israelites because of sin.)

¹ Then the Lord said to Moses, “Leave this place, you and the people you brought up out of Egypt, and go up to the land I promised on oath to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, saying, ‘I will give it to your descendants.’ ² I will send an angel before you and drive out the Canaanites, Amorites, Hittites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites. ³ Go up to the land flowing with milk and honey. But I will not go with you, because you are a stiff-necked people and I might destroy you on the way.”

 

Mankind could have had the most wondrous relationship with the God of the Universe. But we blew it. That’s right, it wasn’t you or I, it was other people. But could anyone guarantee that we would have responded so much better? Who knows. We’d like to think we would have.

Either way, God was not about to let anyone disrespect Him to that extent, ever again. God is not going to dwell with us, here on Earth, with all of the sin, evil, and wickedness, that Man continues to produce.

But even though God had done for the Israelites, more than what He did for anyone else on earth, before or since, and the Israelites betrayed God. God still didn’t give up on them. Believe it or not, that was just the beginning of God’s relationship with the Israelites. As we go through the rest of the Old Testament, we find that God forgave their sin, and blessed them again, and they betrayed Him again, and He blessed them again, and they betrayed Him again, and He blessed them, and they betrayed Him, again — and again — and again — and again, over and over and over again, for the next 1,000 years.

And yet, during that 1,000 years, God continued to teach, bless, and help the Israelites through all of their difficulties.

As God continued to work with the Israelites, He found certain people who were righteous and faithful. God built a special relationship with them, as He did with Moses, and they became intermediaries between God and the Israelites. They were called prophets. God would often speak to His prophets and instruct them to relay His messages to the Israelites.

1 Samuel 3: 19-20   (One such prophet was named Samuel.)

¹⁹ The Lord was with Samuel as he grew up, and he let none of Samuel’s words fall to the ground. ²⁰ And all Israel from Dan to Beersheba recognized that Samuel was attested as a prophet of the Lord.

 

1 Samuel 8: 4-22   (No matter how much God did for the Israelites, they were never satisfied. Although God met all their needs and led them from slavery in Egypt to the land of milk and honey, which He promised to their patriarch Abraham, that wasn’t enough. They saw that other nations were led by kings. So they wanted a King.)

⁴ So all the elders of Israel gathered together and came to Samuel at Ramah. ⁵ They said to him, “You are old, and your sons do not follow your ways; now appoint a king to lead us, such as all the other nations have.”

⁶ But when they said, “Give us a king to lead us,” this displeased Samuel; so he prayed to the Lord. ⁷ And the Lord told him: “Listen to all that the people are saying to you; it is not you they have rejected, but they have rejected me as their king. ⁸ As they have done from the day I brought them up out of Egypt until this day, forsaking me and serving other gods, so they are doing to you. ⁹ Now listen to them; but warn them solemnly and let them know what the king who will reign over them will claim as his rights.”

¹⁰ Samuel told all the words of the Lord to the people who were asking him for a king. ¹¹ He said, “This is what the king who will reign over you will claim as his rights: He will take your sons and make them serve with his chariots and horses, and they will run in front of his chariots. ¹² Some he will assign to be commanders of thousands and commanders of fifties, and others to plow his ground and reap his harvest, and still others to make weapons of war and equipment for his chariots. ¹³ He will take your daughters to be perfumers and cooks and bakers. ¹⁴ He will take the best of your fields and vineyards and olive groves and give them to his attendants. ¹⁵ He will take a tenth of your grain and of your vintage and give it to his officials and attendants. ¹⁶ Your male and female servants and the best of your cattle and donkeys he will take for his own use. ¹⁷ He will take a tenth of your flocks, and you yourselves will become his slaves. ¹⁸ When that day comes, you will cry out for relief from the king you have chosen, but the Lord will not answer you in that day.”

¹⁹ But the people refused to listen to Samuel. “No!” they said. “We want a king over us. ²⁰ Then we will be like all the other nations, with a king to lead us and to go out before us and fight our battles.”

²¹ When Samuel heard all that the people said, he repeated it before the Lord. ²² The Lord answered, “Listen to them and give them a king.”

 

So the foolish Israelites got their kings, one after another. Although some of the kings, loved God and led the Israelites honorably, like David and Solomon, many of their kings were wicked, and led the Israelites into all kinds of evil, sin, and false gods. Even Solomon, who was gifted great wisdom by God, who built the first House of God, the great Temple, drifted away from God toward the end of his life.

Eventually the Israelites sinned and fought amongst themselves in a civil war. They divided themselves into 2 separate kingdoms. The northern kingdom in Samaria was still called Israel and the southern kingdom in Jerusalem was called Judah. Israel and Judah were both were very sinful, but Israel was worse.

God warned the Israelites through His prophets, over and over again to repent and return to Him. But they refused. Finally after countless attempts to get the Israelites to reject sin, evil, wickedness and false gods, God saw that they were hopeless. And God stopped protecting them. He allowed the Assyrians to invade and conquer the northern kingdom of Israel in Samaria first, giving the southern kingdom of Judah in Jerusalem the opportunity to repent. After another 100 years, it was evident that Judah was also hopeless, so God allowed the Babylonians to invade and conquer them.

The invading armies destroyed the cities, killed many of the Israelites, and took the survivors into captivity, carrying them off to Assyria and Babylon. But God would not allow the Babylonians to completely annihilate His people, as wicked as they were, because of His covenant and commitments to their ancestors, Abraham, Moses, and others.

 

Jeremiah 25: 1-6   (God’s final warning to Judah, through His Prophet Jeremiah.)

¹ The word came to Jeremiah concerning all the people of Judah in the fourth year of Jehoiakim son of Josiah king of Judah, which was the first year of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon. ² So Jeremiah the prophet said to all the people of Judah and to all those living in Jerusalem: ³ For twenty-three years—from the thirteenth year of Josiah son of Amon king of Judah until this very day—the word of the Lord has come to me and I have spoken to you again and again, but you have not listened.

⁴ And though the Lord has sent all his servants the prophets to you again and again, you have not listened or paid any attention. ⁵ They said, “Turn now, each of you, from your evil ways and your evil practices, and you can stay in the land the Lord gave to you and your ancestors for ever and ever. ⁶ Do not follow other gods to serve and worship them; do not arouse my anger with what your hands have made. Then I will not harm you.”

 

2 Kings 17: 6-23   (Having disregarded all of God’s warnings, God abandons the northern kingdom of Israel in Samaria.)

⁶ In the ninth year of Hoshea, the king of Assyria captured Samaria and deported the Israelites to Assyria. He settled them in Halah, in Gozan on the Habor River and in the towns of the Medes.

⁷ All this took place because the Israelites had sinned against the Lord their God, who had brought them up out of Egypt from under the power of Pharaoh king of Egypt. They worshiped other gods ⁸ and followed the practices of the nations the Lord had driven out before them, as well as the practices that the kings of Israel had introduced. ⁹ The Israelites secretly did things against the Lord their God that were not right. From watchtower to fortified city they built themselves high places in all their towns. ¹⁰ They set up sacred stones and Asherah poles on every high hill and under every spreading tree. ¹¹ At every high place they burned incense, as the nations whom the Lord had driven out before them had done. They did wicked things that aroused the Lord’s anger. ¹² They worshiped idols, though the Lord had said, “You shall not do this.” ¹³ The Lord warned Israel and Judah through all his prophets and seers: “Turn from your evil ways. Observe my commands and decrees, in accordance with the entire Law that I commanded your ancestors to obey and that I delivered to you through my servants the prophets.”

¹⁴ But they would not listen and were as stiff-necked as their ancestors, who did not trust in the Lord their God. ¹⁵ They rejected his decrees and the covenant he had made with their ancestors and the statutes he had warned them to keep. They followed worthless idols and themselves became worthless. They imitated the nations around them although the Lord had ordered them, “Do not do as they do.”

¹⁶ They forsook all the commands of the Lord their God and made for themselves two idols cast in the shape of calves, and an Asherah pole. They bowed down to all the starry hosts, and they worshiped Baal. ¹⁷ They sacrificed their sons and daughters in the fire. They practiced divination and sought omens and sold themselves to do evil in the eyes of the Lord, arousing his anger.

¹⁸ So the Lord was very angry with Israel and removed them from his presence. Only the tribe of Judah was left, ¹⁹ and even Judah did not keep the commands of the Lord their God. They followed the practices Israel had introduced. ²⁰ Therefore the Lord rejected all the people of Israel; he afflicted them and gave them into the hands of plunderers, until he thrust them from his presence.

²¹ When he tore Israel away from the house of David, they made Jeroboam son of Nebat their king. Jeroboam enticed Israel away from following the Lord and caused them to commit a great sin. ²² The Israelites persisted in all the sins of Jeroboam and did not turn away from them ²³ until the Lord removed them from his presence, as he had warned through all his servants the prophets. So the people of Israel were taken from their homeland into exile in Assyria, and they are still there.

 

2 Chronicles 36: 11-21   (After giving them more opportunities to repent, God abandons the southern kingdom of Judah in Jerusalem.)

¹¹ Zedekiah was twenty-one years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem eleven years. ¹² He did evil in the eyes of the Lord his God and did not humble himself before Jeremiah the prophet, who spoke the word of the Lord. ¹³ He also rebelled against King Nebuchadnezzar, who had made him take an oath in God’s name. He became stiff-necked and hardened his heart and would not turn to the Lord, the God of Israel. ¹⁴ Furthermore, all the leaders of the priests and the people became more and more unfaithful, following all the detestable practices of the nations and defiling the temple of the Lord, which he had consecrated in Jerusalem.

¹⁵ The Lord, the God of their ancestors, sent word to them through his messengers again and again, because he had pity on his people and on his dwelling place. ¹⁶ But they mocked God’s messengers, despised his words and scoffed at his prophets until the wrath of the Lord was aroused against his people and there was no remedy. ¹⁷ He brought up against them the king of the Babylonians, who killed their young men with the sword in the sanctuary, and did not spare young men or young women, the elderly or the infirm. God gave them all into the hands of Nebuchadnezzar. ¹⁸ He carried to Babylon all the articles from the temple of God, both large and small, and the treasures of the Lord’s temple and the treasures of the king and his officials. ¹⁹ They set fire to God’s temple and broke down the wall of Jerusalem; they burned all the palaces and destroyed everything of value there.

²⁰ He carried into exile to Babylon the remnant, who escaped from the sword, and they became servants to him and his successors until the kingdom of Persia came to power. ²¹ The land enjoyed its Sabbath rests; all the time of its desolation it rested, until the seventy years were completed in fulfillment of the word of the Lord spoken by Jeremiah.

 

Even after all of this, God did not totally forsake His people. He allowed the remnant of Judah to be captive in Babylon for 70 years. After that wicked generation passed on, a new generation would return to Jerusalem and the promised land.
 

Jeremiah 25: 8-12   (Even after all of this, God did not forsake His people.)

⁸ Therefore the Lord Almighty says this: “Because you have not listened to my words, ⁹ I will summon all the peoples of the north and my servant Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon,” declares the Lord, “and I will bring them against this land and its inhabitants and against all the surrounding nations. I will completely destroy them and make them an object of horror and scorn, and an everlasting ruin. ¹⁰ I will banish from them the sounds of joy and gladness, the voices of bride and bridegroom, the sound of millstones and the light of the lamp. ¹¹ This whole country will become a desolate wasteland, and these nations will serve the king of Babylon seventy years. ¹² “But when the seventy years are fulfilled, I will punish the king of Babylon and his nation, the land of the Babylonians, for their guilt,” declares the Lord, “and will make it desolate forever.

 

Jeremiah 29: 10-14   (God once again forgives His people, the Israelites)

¹⁰ This is what the Lord says: “When seventy years are completed for Babylon, I will come to you and fulfill my good promise to bring you back to this place. ¹¹ For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. ¹² Then you will call on me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. ¹³ You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. ¹⁴ I will be found by you,” declares the Lord, “and will bring you back from captivity. I will gather you from all the nations and places where I have banished you,” declares the Lord, “and will bring you back to the place from which I carried you into exile.”

 

Ezra 1: 1-11   (Here the 2 prophecies God just gave to Jeremiah (above) are fulfilled. God punished Babylon by having Cyrus II King of Persia conquer Babylon (Jeremiah 25: 12), and God not only had Cyrus release the Israelites, but caused him to facilitate rebuilding God’s Temple, which the Babylonians had destroyed.)

¹ In the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, in order to fulfill the word of the Lord spoken by Jeremiah, the Lord moved the heart of Cyrus king of Persia to make a proclamation throughout his realm and also to put it in writing:

² “This is what Cyrus king of Persia says:

“‘The Lord, the God of heaven, has given me all the kingdoms of the earth and he has appointed me to build a temple for him at Jerusalem in Judah. ³ Any of his people among you may go up to Jerusalem in Judah and build the temple of the Lord, the God of Israel, the God who is in Jerusalem, and may their God be with them. ⁴ And in any locality where survivors may now be living, the people are to provide them with silver and gold, with goods and livestock, and with freewill offerings for the temple of God in Jerusalem.’”

⁵ Then the family heads of Judah and Benjamin, and the priests and Levites—everyone whose heart God had moved—prepared to go up and build the house of the Lord in Jerusalem. ⁶ All their neighbors assisted them with articles of silver and gold, with goods and livestock, and with valuable gifts, in addition to all the freewill offerings.

⁷ Moreover, King Cyrus brought out the articles belonging to the temple of the Lord, which Nebuchadnezzar had carried away from Jerusalem and had placed in the temple of his god. ⁸ Cyrus king of Persia had them brought by Mithredath the treasurer, who counted them out to Sheshbazzar the prince of Judah.

¹¹ In all, there were 5,400 articles of gold and of silver. Sheshbazzar brought all these along with the exiles when they came up from Babylon to Jerusalem.

 

For a while, after the Israelites returned to Jerusalem, they followed God’s law. They rebuilt God’s Temple, and rebuilt the wall around Jerusalem. But their relationship with God was more limited than before their exile. Although they had mostly given up the practice of worshiping false gods, they married women who did; against God’s orders not to do so. So they returned to their practice of disobedience to God. About 100 years after their return, the Old Testament ends, and there is no further record of God’s interaction with the Israelites, in the scriptures. In the last scripture of the Old Testament, the prophet Malachi affirms that the Israelites have once again slid back into sin and disobedience to God.
 

Malachi 2: 11-12   (The prophet Malachi describes the last known condition of the Israelites)

¹¹ Judah has been unfaithful. A detestable thing has been committed in Israel and in Jerusalem: Judah has desecrated the sanctuary the Lord loves by marrying women who worship a foreign god. ¹² As for the man who does this, whoever he may be, may the Lord remove him from the tents of Jacob—even though he brings an offering to the Lord Almighty.

 

Then Malachi begins to prophesy about God’s future plans. After 1000 years of blessing the Israelites, since He began with Moses, It appears that God concluded that the Israelites as a group, would never respond to Him, as they should. But He would give them another 400 years on their own (the period between the Old and the New Testament), without His interaction, in order to give them a last opportunity to fulfill their obligations to the covenant. After that, God would do the most fantastic thing imaginable, to save Man from destruction. His ability to forgive and love, sinful, disobedient Mankind, is unexplainable.

God would come down to earth Himself, to save all mankind, face to face, man to man, in the form of a human being. And allow Himself to be mistreated, tortured, and killed, to save you and me, from destruction. The Apostle Paul put it this way, in Romans 5: 6-8, “⁶ You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. ⁷ Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous person, though for a good person someone might possibly dare to die. ⁸ But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”
 

Malachi 3: 1   (At the end of the Old Testament, Malachi begins to prophesy about the coming of the Messiah, Jesus Christ. Malachi gives us God’s words, telling us that His messenger, John the Baptist, will prepare for Gods arrival on earth, in the form of Jesus Christ.)

¹ “I will send my messenger, who will prepare the way before me. Then suddenly the Lord you are seeking will come to his temple; the messenger of the covenant, whom you desire, will come,” says the Lord Almighty.

It is absolutely deplorable, the way Man has treated God throughout the ages. It can only be through the ignorance of these facts, that anyone today could be foolish enough to criticize God’s treatment of Man, or of them personally.

First God tried to dwell with Man (Adam) in the Garden. But Man was disobedient and betrayed God’s trust. So God was forced to take away Man’s eternal life.

Then God tried to dwell with Man (Adam’s offspring, Cain) in the Earth. But Man became more and more wicked and evil, to the point where Mankind could not be saved, and God had to destroy His whole Creation and start over, with Noah.

At that point, it appears that God concluded that all Mankind in total, could not be saved, and so God found someone (Abraham) that was faithful and trustworthy, and through Abraham’s offspring, God created a special group of people which God devoted Himself to for 1000 years, the Israelites.

God loved his chosen people, the Israelites, and did everything possible to be with them, dwell with them, and ultimately save them. But the Israelites failed to respond to the incredible patience, kindness and grace of God’s Love, and repeatedly betrayed God, degenerating into wickedness and evil.

But God still loved Man enough, not to give up. He would make one final offer to Man, for Salvation. But this time it would be on an individual, person by person basis. Each Man, individually will have to commit to a relationship with God, and prove himself faithful, to receive Salvation.

The end of the Old Testament finds the Israelites slipping back into sin, even after God punished them severely, by allowing the Assyrians and Babylonians to kill, capture and enslave the Israelites for many years, before God released them and brought them back to Israel. Even then, the Israelites were still disobedient to God.

There is no scripture during the 400 year period, between the end of the Old Testament and the birth of Jesus at the beginning of the New Testament. However, historical documents indicate that the Israelites were not leading holy lives, during this period, and it appears that God had very little involvement with the Israelites. Logic would indicate that the Old Testament would have continued, if God had continued to support, protect and work with the Israelites during this period, because His prophets would have recorded it.

Instead, Jerusalem and the Israelites were invaded and ruled by a host of conquerors during this period, including: Greece, under Alexander the Great; Egypt, under Ptolemy; Syria, under Antiochus III; Rome, under Julius Caesar; and culminating with an occupation by Rome, under Herod the Great.

At this point, the New Testament begins, and Jesus gives us new insights into God’s relationship with the Israelites. By this time, the Israelites, who now called themselves Jews (short for Judah), had a very strained relationship with God. Yet God would make one final attempt to save the Jews. God would come down to earth Himself, in the form of His Son, Jesus Christ, to offer salvation to save the Jews.

Matthew 15: 24   (Initially, God sent Jesus to save His people, the Jews.)

²⁴  Jesus answered, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of Israel.”

 

Matthew 10: 5-6   (Jesus sent His Apostles out to offer salvation specifically to His people, the Jews.)

⁵ These twelve Jesus sent out with the following instructions: “Do not go among the Gentiles or enter any town of the Samaritans. ⁶ Go rather to the lost sheep of Israel.

 

Matthew 3: 7-9   (Although some of the Jews accepted God’s Salvation, through Jesus, most did not. God gave them a final warning, through John the Baptist.)

⁷ But when John saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to where he was baptizing, he said to them: “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath? ⁸ Produce fruit in keeping with repentance. ⁹ And do not think you can say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father.’ I tell you that out of these stones God can raise up children for Abraham.

 

John 1: 9-13   (The Apostle John, explained it this way.)

⁹ The true light that gives light to everyone was coming into the world. ¹⁰ He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him. ¹¹ He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him. ¹² Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God— ¹³ children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God.

 

Unfortunately most of the Israelites/Jews ignored John’s warning, and rejected Jesus. At which point, God’s exclusive covenant with the Jews / Israelites ended. God now offered His salvation to all mankind, in a New Covenant. Jesus wanted to make sure that the Israelites understood that they were losing their place in the Kingdom of Heaven, which God had prepared for them since His covenant with Abraham, thousands of years earlier. So He explained it in this parable. In the parable, the King represents God; the son is Jesus; the servants are God’s prophets; the people invited are the Israelites, and the banquet is Heaven.

 

Matthew 22: 2-10   (Jesus explained the state of the Old Covenant, in a parable, this way.)

² “The kingdom of heaven is like a king who prepared a wedding banquet for his son. ³ He sent his servants to those who had been invited to the banquet to tell them to come, but they refused to come.

⁴ “Then he sent some more servants and said, ‘Tell those who have been invited that I have prepared my dinner: My oxen and fattened cattle have been butchered, and everything is ready. Come to the wedding banquet.’

⁵ “But they paid no attention and went off—one to his field, another to his business. ⁶ The rest seized his servants, mistreated them and killed them. ⁷ The king was enraged. He sent his army and destroyed those murderers and burned their city.

⁸ “Then he said to his servants, ‘The wedding banquet is ready, but those I invited did not deserve to come. ⁹ So go to the street corners and invite to the banquet anyone you find.’ ¹⁰ So the servants went out into the streets and gathered all the people they could find, the bad as well as the good, and the wedding hall was filled with guests.

 

Over and over, God sent His prophets to tell the Israelites how to inherit the Kingdom of Heaven, and over and over the Israelites disregarded God’s instructions and mistreated His prophets. Finally it became evident that the Israelites / Jews rejected God’s final offer, and God offered Heaven and Salvation to all mankind.

 

Matthew 21: 43   (Jesus told the Jews.)

⁴³ “Therefore I tell you that the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people who will produce its fruit.

 

Matthew 5: 20   (Jesus confirms God’s decision.)

²⁰ “For I tell you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven.”

 

Matthew 23: 29-36   (Jesus condemns the Jews that failed to accept His Salvation and repent.)

²⁹ “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You build tombs for the prophets and decorate the graves of the righteous. ³⁰ And you say, ‘If we had lived in the days of our ancestors, we would not have taken part with them in shedding the blood of the prophets.’ ³¹ So you testify against yourselves that you are the descendants of those who murdered the prophets. ³² Go ahead, then, and complete what your ancestors started!

³³ “You snakes! You brood of vipers! How will you escape being condemned to hell? ³⁴ Therefore I am sending you prophets and sages and teachers. Some of them you will kill and crucify; others you will flog in your synagogues and pursue from town to town. ³⁵ And so upon you will come all the righteous blood that has been shed on earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah son of Berekiah, whom you murdered between the temple and the altar. ³⁶ Truly I tell you, all this will come on this generation.

 

Matthew 23: 37-39   (Immediately after uttering that harsh rebuke; Jesus uses these poignant words to illustrate God’s painful disappointment with His people. God had invested so much time, energy, patience, and love in His relationship with the Israelites. By telling them “your house is left to you desolate”, Jesus let them know that God had removed His presence from their temple, and until they accept Jesus, God will not be with them.)

³⁷ “Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you were not willing. ³⁸ Look, your house is left to you desolate. ³⁹ For I tell you, you will not see me again until you say, ‘Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.’”

 

Matthew 27: 24-25   (In the end, at Jesus’ trial, the Jews ultimately convict themselves.)

²⁴ When Pilate saw that he was getting nowhere, but that instead an uproar was starting, he took water and washed his hands in front of the crowd. “I am innocent of this man’s blood,” he said. “It is your responsibility!”

²⁵ All the people answered, “His blood is on us and on our children!”

 

Luke 19: 41-44   (Jesus is so distraught over the failure of God’s chosen people, the Israelites, to respond to God’s final offer to save them, that He breaks down and weeps for them. He then prophesies their fate.)

⁴¹ As he approached Jerusalem and saw the city, he wept over it ⁴² and said, “If you, even you, had only known on this day what would bring you peace—but now it is hidden from your eyes. ⁴³ The days will come upon you when your enemies will build an embankment against you and encircle you and hem you in on every side. ⁴⁴ They will dash you to the ground, you and the children within your walls. They will not leave one stone on another, because you did not recognize the time of God’s coming to you.”

 

Matthew 24: 1-2   (Finally, Jesus prophesies the ultimate fate of the Jews.)

¹  Jesus left the temple and was walking away when his disciples came up to him to call his attention to its buildings. ² “Do you see all these things?” he asked. “Truly I tell you, not one stone here will be left on another; every one will be thrown down.”

 

Upon leaving the temple, Jesus explains in His prophecy that since God has abandoned His temple, God will no longer defend it, or the Jews.  Throughout the old testament God repeatedly warned the Jews, that if they didn’t repent, He would scatter them among the nations, and would allow their enemies to destroy Israel.

 

As early as Leviticus 26:33,    (God told them)

“I will scatter you among the nations and will draw out my sword and pursue you. Your land will be laid waste, and your cities will lie in ruins.”

 

The Jews rejected God’s final offer for redemption, through Jesus. So Jesus let His disciples know, through this prophecy, that what God had warned the Israelites about, was going to happen.

 

Hebrews 8: 7-13   (God explains the end of the Old Covenant, and the beginning of the New Covenant.)

⁷ For if there had been nothing wrong with that first covenant, no place would have been sought for another. ⁸ But God found fault with the people and said:

“The days are coming, declares the Lord,when I will make a new covenant with the people of Israel and with the people of Judah. ⁹ It will not be like the covenant I made with their ancestors when I took them by the hand to lead them out of Egypt, because they did not remain faithful to my covenant,  and I turned away from them, declares the Lord.

¹³ By calling this covenant “new,” he has made the first one obsolete; and what is obsolete and outdated will soon disappear.

 

The temple and all Jerusalem were destroyed, and the Jews who survived were scattered among all the nations of the world. Just 35 years after Jesus made the prophecy, all those things came to pass. The Romans, under Titus invaded Jerusalem and destroyed the temple and the city, just as Jesus prophesied,   and the Israelites were scattered throughout the nations, and were homeless for the next 2000 years, until 1947 when the United States recreated the nation state of Israel after the holocaust.

Some people still think: “Why doesn’t God meet with us, like He did with the people years ago? Why doesn’t He do big miracles and wonders like he did for the Israelites, years ago? If He did, then I would believe and have faith.”   The answer is simple. When you do something that doesn’t have the effect you want, you stop doing it. When God did those things for the Israelites, the people were ungrateful, unrepentant, and still had no Faith.

There are many things that can only be understood, after all the background information is known and understood. We tend to form opinions, based on our life experiences. So we tend to ask: What has God done for Man in MY lifetime? What has God done for ME?

The first step in putting things into perspective, is understanding that I, am only one of billions of people, that God created. The universe does not revolve around ME. The second step involves an attitude adjustment. It’s not, how will God fit into MY world? But how can I, fit into God’s world? Because whether we want it, like it, or believe it, — it is God’s world.

So understanding the history between God and Man, that occurred over thousands of years, is crucial to having an accurate perspective, and making the right decisions for one’s destiny.

Romans 8: 38-39   (For those that have accepted God’s offer of Salvation, the Apostle Paul has these words.)

³¹ What, then, shall we say in response to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? ³² He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things? ³³ Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies. ³⁴ Who then is the one who condemns? No one. Christ Jesus who died—more than that, who was raised to life—is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us. ³⁵ Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? ³⁶ As it is written:

“For your sake we face death all day long;     we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.”

³⁷ No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. ³⁸ For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, ³⁹ neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

For those that have not yet accepted God’s offer of Salvation, don’t miss out on the most important decision of your life.  The difference is between total destruction after death on Earth, and Eternal Life with God in His Paradise.  Read “Understanding Salvation” on this website, and find out what you need to know.

 

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