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Man, from the very beginning, possessed a somewhat rebellious nature with a desire to be independent and self willed. He proved this by his disobedience to God even though he was placed in an enviable environment of life everlasting with all his needs filled. Truly a paradise that men since, have only been able to dream of and long for. This was not surprising to God since He had created man as a free moral agent who had/has the right to choose to do right or wrong. In fact, God knew that this creature would fail and thus introduce sin and death into the world and He planned, before the creation, to make a way for man to be reconciled unto Him even though he would separate himself from God by sinning.
This very incident depicts to us, the nature of man as well as the nature of God and what we might expect from both. Man, with only one restriction as to his life in the paradise, failed to measure up to the task and succumbed to the temptation before him simply because he wanted to have the knowledge and the enjoyment he could foresee from his action. And God, with the desire that his creation would worship and obey Him and live holy and without blame before Him in love, knew that he would not. But, God would not give up on him without at least providing a way of atonement if man would but accept it.
The nature of God, and the nature of man, has remained constant throughout the ages and we see instances of this from the very beginning. Cain, son of Adam and Eve, chose to offer sacrifices unto God that were convenient and easy to acquire, rather than to offer the sacrifices directed by God. Due to jealousy of his brothers pleasing sacrifices to God, he slew him and this brought punishment from God even as He had punished Adam and Eve. So the pattern was set very early, that man would be rebellious and that God would punish the disobedient while bestowing blessings upon the obedient. It was also established that God had the right and the power to administer these blessings and punishments.
As the earth became more populous, God issued his governing laws to man by speaking directly to the heads of households whose responsibility it was to pass these laws on to their wives, children, servants, or whoever was counted among his household. These patriarchs were truly heads of their families and possessions and were held responsible to a large extent, for the actions of that family. But, as before, the edicts of God were largely ignored by man and the earth grew more and more wicked in His sight. Even to the point that God could no longer tolerate the evil that existed and, finding only eight souls who were still faithful, destroyed the entire world with water except those eight people and sufficient other creatures to replenish the earth.
Once more, the earth began to become populated by descendants of the eight survivors of the universal flood and once again, evil, and disobedience by man, was rekindled. Noahs sons, Shem, Ham and Japheth each raised sons who settled in various areas and large populations of peoples sprang from them, many of whom are later involved in the continuation of the purpose of God to bring forth his Son, the messiah. Most of these nations of peoples grew farther and farther away from God. Although many of them were ungodly people, God later used some of them to punish His people who were straying from the paths set before them.
Although evil became rampant once more, the omniscient God found submission in a man of strong faith and obedience, Abram, later to be called Abraham. This man proved his faith and loyalty to God on numerous occasions to the extent that he was chosen to be the father of the people who would furnish the lineage of the savior of the world, Jesus, the Christ. It is imperative that we mention a few aspects of Abrahams life in order to keep our focus on our objective of this article. There will be other areas of historical incidents that will also be necessary to discuss in depth.
Abraham was born to Terah approximately 350 years after the universal flood which may appear to be a very short time for the world to increase so drastically in population. However, the normal lifespan during this period was several hundred years. For instance, Noah lived some 350 years after the flood to within two years of Abrahams birth. Some had multiple wives and the size of their families was enormous in many instances. What is perhaps most amazing is the fact that Abraham was such a Godly person, full of strong faith in God. He apparently was reared amidst idolatrous worship, and seemingly, the scripture implicates his father in this worship of false gods (Joshua 24: 2). As we have stated earlier, Gods laws were passed from the patriarchs to their families and many in that period were contemporaries of Noah and his sons. Terah may well have been acquainted with Noah and, without question, he had heard many times of the devastation of the flood and its cause. Therefore, even if Terah was a worshiper of idols, Abraham had been told enough to know and understand Gods will and to hold the faith in God that he did.
Regardless of the circumstances of Abrahams life, he did hold unwavering faith in God. And due to this devotion, God chose him to become the father of a great nation, the Israelites, Jews, through which would be the birth of Jesus the saviour. He was instructed to leave his native land, his fathers house (who was now dead), and to go into a land that God would show him. He did this not knowing where he was going, yet he trusted God. The promises God made to him are recorded in Genesis 12: 1-3, 15: 1-5 and 17: 1-13 and are referred to in other scriptures.
The promise fulfillment of a great nation was not long in coming. Isaac was born of Abraham and Isaac was the father of Jacob whose name was later changed to Israel. Israel had twelve sons, born of two wives and two handmaidens of his wives. These twelve sons became the fathers of the twelve tribes of Israel or, the Israelite nation, the Jews. This part of history is of vital importance, in that this is where the references to Gods chosen people is derived. Many have misunderstood that phrase and the meaning of it. They were, truly, Gods chosen people, however, they were never chosen to be saved eternally without faith and obedience. They were chosen as the people to furnish the lineage to Christ. It was for this reason that he saw fit to give them a written law, to them (the Jews) only, to bring them to Christ! (Galatians 3: 24) Keep in mind that the remainder of the world lived under the original dispensation of Gods law given to the patriarchs, albeit few made any effort to live for God and most were engaged in idol worship. The children of Israel (Jacob) multiplied from the time of his first marriage to the time of the exodus out of Egypt to a conservative estimate of 2,600,000 or more.
At this point, let us consider what we have covered. By calculating the ages and other statistics given us in the Bible, it is normally accepted that the children of Israel crossed the Red Sea out of Egypt 2513 years after the creation. This is significant in that it represents the period of time normally recognized as the Patriarchal Age since, after this, the biblical record primarily follows the history of the Israelites. Again, we remind the reader that this period did not end for the non-Jewish nations, however, the Bible only mentions those nations as they relate to the history of the Jews. It is also significant to know that, henceforth with few exceptions, Gods recorded word is directed to the Jewish nation, and to them alone, for some 1500 years. Essentially, the remainder of the Old Testament becomes a history of the Jews.
Author Biography: Joel Hendon was born September 20, 1930 near Gadsden Alabama. He attended public schools in Cherokee County, Alabama and after serving a tour of duty in the U.S. Army during the Korean War, attended Jacksonville State University, Jacksonville, Alabama majoring in Business Administration. He became a Christian in 1948, and although he followed secular work as a career and retired from Allied Signal Aerospace in 1997, he is an avid student of the Holy Bible and related works as well as biblical history. He has an extensive website of religious and political conservative articles and links to many other sites. http://hebronics.org/index.html
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