The Bible Story,
An
academic circumspection:
Is
there truth in this Story?
By:
David Freed 11/01/2006
Part two,
the
cultural manipulation of the Jewish people
Hopefully,
one day, I’ll have a chance to tell this story in some type of recorded media,
because I fully understand the slow read of scripture, but for now, this exercise
will help to build the perfect script. It would be impossible to include all
aspects of the entire story, without reproducing the Bible itself.
I
know that there is a lot of information to cover, just in the origin stories
alone; therefore I have abridged the information as much as possible and will
only focus on two parts. Part one begins with our initial creation and covers
the de-evolution of man. Part two Ponders the cultural manipulation of the Jewish
people and their role in twenty-first century current events.
Remember,
Heavenly inspired or not, the Bible is one of the most complete records of mankind
throughout our history. Actually, it claims to start at the very beginning of
our creation and predicts our future demise. So, not only does it claim to cover
the entire history of our reality, but also it is additionally supported by
a wealth of reference material and commentary, both pro and con.
Genesis
is the oldest text in the Bible and its authorship is debated. Therefore, every
argument about the Bible being “not-factual,” and full of transcription and
translation errors, must apply to Genesis in spades. So, lets just examine this
Bible Story, from our larger and more cosmologically academic perspective.
|
Abram City
of origin, Ur Country
of origin, Present
day Iraq |
|
People
are scattered around and speaking different languages, then from a place called
Ur, which is located in the heart of Iraq – momentary pause for reflection on
current Middle Eastern events – came Abram, his wife Sarai, and their nephew
Lot.
Gen
12:1 “”The Lord said to Abram, ‘Leave your country, your people and your
father’s household and go to the land I will show you.’”
Gen
12:2 “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.”
Gen
12:3 “I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse;
and all people on earth will be blessed through you.”
I
am sure that Abram sure sat up and took notice upon hearing the Lord. Just a
simple boo would wake me up for sure, but to be told all these amazing and wonderful
things. Here I am only to page twelve of the NIV Bible I am using to write the
essay, and already there is a hint of the Christ to come. So, what does Abram
decide to do?
Gen
12:4 “So Abram left … and Lot went with him…”
Abram
was 75 years old when this adventure begins and where does God send him to claim
as his own?
Gen
12:5 “…they set out for the land of Canaan…”
Gen
12:7 “The Lord appeared to Abram and said, ‘To you offspring I will give
this land.’ So he built an alter there to the Lord, who had appeared to him.”
Of
course, where else, they went to the homeland of the descendants of Hamm’s son
Canaan. Again, here I am only to
page twelve of the NIV Bible I am using to write the essay, and already there
is a hint of the roots of today’s Middle Eastern current events. Abram goes
into the land of Canaan and calls it his own, just as the Israelis did to the
Palestinians in 1948 when Israel once again became a nation and the Dome of
the Rock, upon the Temple Mount, is built on around this most sacred rock alter.
Abram
in Egypt
Gen
12:10 “Now there was a famine in the land, and Abram went down to Egypt to
live there a while…”
Gen
12:11 – 16 However, Abram has this weird idea to pretend that his wife Sarai
was actually his sister. She was beautiful and Abram didn’t want to be killed
for her, so they played this little game. Then Sarai wound up as the Pharaoh
concubine anyway
Gen
12:17 “But the Lord inflicted diseases on Pharaoh and his household because
of Abram’s wife Sarai.”
Gen
12:20 “The pharaoh gave orders about Abram to his men, and they sent him
on his way, with his wife and everything he had.”
Interesting
story, Abram and his people go to Egypt because of a famine, the Pharaoh’s household
is afflicted by a plague of sorts and Abram and his people are booted out of
Egypt. Isn’t this the same story as retold by the Exodus?
Abram
and his people move back to the very place where Abram built his alter to the
Lord, Gen 13:4, and just where again was this place?
Gen
13:7 “… The Canaanites … were also living in the land …”
Gen
3:8 –11 However, the land couldn’t support every one and their flocks. So to
prevent conflict between the peoples of the area, Abram decides that they should
all separate and gives his nephew Lot first pick of all the world by saying
to Lot,
Gen
13:9 “Is not the whole land before you? Let’s part company. If you go to
the left, I’ll go to the right; If you go to the right, I’ll go to the left.”
Sure
can’t fault Abram for being a nice guy.
Gen
13:12 “Abram lived in the land of Canaan, while Lot lived among the cities
of the plain and pitched his tent near Sodom.
Gen
13:14 “The Lord said to Abram after Lot had parted from him, ‘Lift up your
eyes from where you are and look north, south, east and west.’”
Gen
13:15 “All the land that you see I will give to you and your offspring forever.”
Gen
13:18 “So Abram moved his tent and went to live … where he built an alter
to the Lord.”
Now
I am into the 13th page of my NIV Bible and again here is the story
of Abram being given the land that is already populated by the people and culture
of the Canaanites. And possibly Abram is living in modern day Jerusalem near
the alter on the Temple Mount where is now located The Dome of the Rock. The
correlation to current Middle Eastern Events is staggering and sure hints of
credibility, if not validity, to the Story as a whole.
Abram
rescues Lot
Then
war erupted between “… among the cities of the plain…” and Sodom and
Gomorrah both fell to their attackers and the spoils of war were carried off,
Gen 14:1 – 11.
Gen
14:12 “They also carried off Abram’s nephew Lot and his possessions, since
he was living in Sodom.”
Gen
14:13 “One who had escaped came and reported to Abram the Hebrew.”
So
now Abram is a Hebrew and he went and,
Gen
14:16 “… brought back his relative Lot and his possessions…”
What
a nice and heroic man this Abram is. Again, I am only on page 14 of my NIV Bible
but the principle of God’s chosen becoming the tool of salvation of the righteous
has been set. This act not only wins Abram many new allies in the area, but
he is also honored by a special visitor.
Gen
14:18 “Then Melchizedek king of Salem brought out bread and wine. He was
the priest of God Most High, and he blessed Abram … “
He
was the priest of God Most High… and He brought out bread and wine, the communion
meal.
Gen
14:20 ”…The Abram gave him a tenth of everything…”
And
in enters the concept of tithing.
God’s
covenant with Abram
Gen
15:1 “After this the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision …”
A
clear and no nonsense statement of clairvoyance, and acknowledging the fact
that some people actually see things shown to them from the outside.
Gen
15:2 “But Abram said, ‘O Sovereign Lord, what can you give me since I remain
childless…’”
Gen
15:4 “then the word of the Lord came to him… a son coming from your own body
will be your heir.”
Gen
15:5 In fact, the Lord say that Abram’s descendants will be as numerous as the
stars themselves.
Gen
15:6 “Abram believed the Lord….”
Gen
15:7 – 11 God instructs Abram to make a sacrificial offering and afterwards
Abram falls asleep.
Gen
15:12 “…Abram fell into a deep sleep, and a thick dreadful darkness came
over him.”
Gen
15:13 “‘Know for certain that you descendants will be strangers in a country
not their own, and they will be enslaved and they will be mistreated four hundred
years.’”
Gen
15:14 “But I will punish the nation they serve as slaves…”
Gen
15:18 “On that day the Lord made a covenant with Abram and said. ‘To your
defendants I give this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the
Euphrates.”
Once
again information is imprinted during a deep sleep, clairvoyant event, and all
the land from the Nile to Baghdad and the Euphrates River is given to Abram’s
descendants, but predicted (or perhaps programmed) expectations for their future
sounds packed with perils, and once again, Abram is promised some one else’s
land.
Hagar
and Ishmael
Gen
16:1 “Now Sarai, Abram’s wife, had born him no children…”
Gen
16:2 “so she said to Abram … Go, sleep with my maid servant; perhaps I can
build a family through her.”
Gen
16:3 “So after … living … in Canaan ten years …”
Gen
16:4 “He slept with Hagar, and she conceived….”
It
only took Abram to go from believing in the promises of the Lord and being persuaded
by his wife, and helper, to do things their own way. Is this another example
of the Adam and Eve story?
Gen
16:4 “… When …(Hagar)… knew she is pregnant, she began to despise her mistress.”
Gen
16:5 “Then Sarai said to Abram, ‘You are responsible for the wrong I am suffering…’”
It
was Sarai’s idea, but Abram is responsible. There can be no doubt they were
married and not much different than you and I.
Gen
16: 6 “… Abram said, ‘Do with her whatever you think best.’ Then Sarai mistreated
Hagar; so she fled from her.”
What
a soap opera this plays out to be. Reminds me of the people in some of the stories
we hear today. Abram and Sarai are just ordinary folk just like you and I. However,
as Hagar is running away into the desert, an Angel of the Lord found her and
told her to,
Gen
16:9 “…Go back to your mistress and submit to her.”
Gen
16:10 “The Angel added, ‘I will so increase your descendants that they will
too numerous to count.”
Gen
16:11 “The Angel of the Lord also said to her: “You are now with child and
you will have a son. You shall name him Ishmael …”
Gen
16:12 “He will be a wild donkey of a man; his hand will be against everyone
and everyone’s hand against him, and he will live in hostility toward all his
brothers.”
Ishmael
becomes the father of the Islamic Nations of the region and the predictive (or
programmed) ability to describe the attitudes and behavior of the peoples of
those nations. The amazing predictive ability to describe current Middle Eastern
events and only 16 chapters, and 16 pages, into my NIV Bible.
Also
notice here that it is the Angel that promised to increase her descendants.
The text doesn’t say that the “Lord said” anything. The Angel said, “…I will
do it.” Then Hagar turns right around and calls this Angel her God.
Gen
16: 13 “… You are the God that sees me…”
Gen
16:16 “Abram was eighty-six years old when Hagar bore him Ishmael.”
The
Covenant of Circumcision
Gen
17:1 “When Abram was ninety-nine years old, the Lord appeared to him and
said, ‘I am God Almighty….”
Gen
17:23 “I will confirm my covenant between me and you and will greatly increase
your numbers.”
Gen
17:5 “No longer will you be called Abram; for your name will be Abraham…”
Gen
17:6 “… I will make nations of you and kings will come from you.”
Gen
17:7 “I will establish my covenant as an everlasting covenant between me
and you and your descendants… to be your God and the God of your descendants
after you.”
Gen
17:8 “The whole land of Canaan where you are now an alien, I will give as
an everlasting possession to you and your descendants…”
Yet
again, God give the Hebrews the land occupied by the Canaanites.
Gen
17:11 “You are to undergo circumcision, and it will be a sign of the covenant…”
Gen
17:15 “… As for Sarai, your wife, … her name will be Sarah…”
Gen
17:16 “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 people will come from
her.”
Gen
17:17 “ Abraham fell face down, 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-nine?
Gen
17:18 “… Abraham said to God, ‘If only Ishmael might live under your blessing!”
After
all, in every cultural tradition at the time and today, Ishmael was the first-born
and the rightful heir.
Gen
17:19 “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…”
Gen
17:20 “And as for Ishmael, I have heard you: I will surely bless him … he
will be the father of twelve rulers, and I will make him into a great nation.
Ok,
it is God himself that promises to make Ishmael into a great nation; but is
this in addition to the Angels promise? Who was it that Hagar called her God?
Gen
17:21 “But my covenant I will establish with Isaac, whom Sarah will bear
to you…”
First
there was Cain and Able, where the first-born didn’t get the inheritance, but
rather it went to a replacement. Then there was the first pre-deluvian age of
man that was replaced by modern times, and now again, it is not the first-born
that gets Abraham’s inheritance, but the replacement.
The
three visitors
Gen
18:1 – 8 Then the Lord appeared to Abraham with two other visitors. Abraham
hurriedly prepared them a meal and while eating asked,
Gen
18:9 “Where is your wife Sarah…?”
In
the tent, says Abraham.
Gen
18:10 “Then the Lord said, ‘I will surely return to you in about this time
next year, and Sarah your wife will have a son. Now Sarah was listening at the
entrance to the tent…”
Gen
18:11 “Abraham and Sarah were already old and well advanced in years, and
Sarah was past the age of childbearing.”
Gen
18:12 “So Sarah laughed…”
Gen
18:13 “Then the Lord said to Abraham, ‘Why did Sarah laugh…?’”
Gen
18:14 “Is anything to hard for the Lord? …”
Abraham
rescues Lot again
As
Abraham three visitors leave they tell Abraham about their plan to go to Sodom
and Gomorrah and destroy them. However Abraham’s nephew Lot lives over there.
So, Abraham begins to plead in Lots behalf.
Gen
18:23 Abraham asked, “… Will you sweep away the righteous with the wicked?”
And
evidently, Abraham’s plea was adequate because when the three visitors got to
the two cities two Angels went into the city ahead of the destruction and told
Lot to gather up his family and leave town. This is the story where his wife
looked back at the destruction and turned into a pillar of salt, Geneses chapter
19.
This
is the second time that Abraham intervened to save Lot from harm. The second
time that Abraham was responsible for rescuing, or saving, Lot from evil. Additionally,
the second salvation also accompanies the destruction of wicked man, just as
the second coming is the final solution to our end-times.
The
birth of Isaac
Gen
21:5 “Abraham was a hundred years old when his son Isaac was born to him.”
However,
Sarah becomes upset with the living arrangements with Hagar and Abraham’s eldest
son Ishmael still living with them, Gen 21:8 – 9.
Gen
21:10 Sarah said “… to Abraham, ‘Get rid of that slave woman and her son,
for that slave woman’s son will never share in the inheritance with my son Isaac.’”
So
Hagar and Ishmael are sent away, which saddens Abraham because Ishmael is his
son and he will miss him, but God tells Abraham again,
Gen
21:13 “I will make the son of the maidservant into a nation also, because
he is your offspring.”
Three
times a blessing is given that Ishmael will become a nation of much population,
once by the Angel to Hagar, and twice by God to Abraham. No wonder Ishmael’s
descendants fill the Middle East today as the Arab States and Islamic Nations.
Abraham
Tested
Gen
22:1 “Some time later God tested Abraham…”
Gen
22:2 “Then God said, ‘Take your son, your only son, Isaac whom you love,
and go … sacrifice him … as a burnt offering.”
But,
at the last minute an Angel of the Lord called out to him from Heaven.
Gen
22:12 “Do not lay a hand on the boy…. Now that I know that you fear God,
because you have not withheld from me your son, your only son.”
Interesting
that the true test, the proof if you will, is the sacrifice of an only son.
Islamic
tradition tells this same story as the moment when Abraham disobeyed God by
not going through with God’s commandment. The birth-right, the inheritance,
belongs to Ishmael as the first-born, and therefore, all the land between the
Nile in Egypt and the Euphrates River belongs to them by God’s very own covenant
with Abraham. In fact the Islamic Koran calls for a return to obedience to the
God of Abraham.
I
Ponder the location of this alter, can anyone tell me?
Only
twenty-two chapters in the Bible Story and already world history is laid out
in front of us. The battle for the land of Canaan is set in stone. Our species
has de-evolved and our progress stunted over and over to insure a slow progressive
crawl to the inevitable Armageddon solution. As long as there is evidence that
religious zeal is genetically imprinted, then genetic manipulation and programming
possibly plays a role in our larger societal reality.
Isaac
becomes Israel
Gen
24 When Abraham was old and advance in years he called his chief servant to
him and made him promise, in the name of the Lord, that Isaac will not have
a wife from the land of Canaan. Instead, a wife was to be found from Abraham’s
home country and his relatives there. Rebekah is found back in modern day Iraq
and become Isaac’s wife. At first, Rebekah was thought to be barren, but when
Isaac was sixty tears old she gave birth to twins.
Gen
25:23 “The Lord said to her, ‘Two nations are in your womb, and the two peoples
within you will be separated; one people will be stronger than the other, and
the older will serve the younger.
Jacob
and Esau
Gen
25:25 “The first to come out was red, and his whole body was like a hairy
garment; so they named him Esau.”
Gen
25:27 “The boys grew up, and Esau became a skilful hunter, a man of the open
country, while Jacob was a quite man, staying around the tents.”
Gen
25:28 “Isaac, who had a taste for wild game, loved Esau, but Rebekah loved
Jacob.”
Gen
25:29 “Once when Jacob was cooking some stew, Esau came in from the open
country, famished.”
Gen
25:30 “He said to Jacob, ‘Quick, let me have some of that red stew! I’m famished!’”
Gen
25:31 “Jacob replied, ‘First sell me your birthright.’”
Gen
25:32 “’Look I am about to die,’ Esau said. ‘What good is the birthright
to me?’”
Gen
25:33 “But Jacob said,’ Swear to me first.’ So he swore an oath to him, selling
his birthright to Jacob.”
Gen
27 Years later when Isaac was near death, he called his eldest son, Esau, to
him. He instructed Esau to go hunt some game for a meal, at which, Isaac would
pass over his inheritance with a blessing. Rebekah heard this conversation,
and as Esau disappeared into the countryside to hunt, she went to Jacob with
a plan. Jacob was to go into Isaac pretending to be Esau to receive the inheritance
and blessing by deceit and when Jacob appeared the least bit hesitant,
Gen
27:13 “His mother said to him, ‘My son, let the curse fall on me. Just do
what I say…’”
Jacob
put on some goatskins to simulate his brother’s hairy appearance, and then he
put on some of Esau’s clothes to simulate his brother smell, and tricked Isaac
into giving him, the younger brother, the birthright of Esau’s. Once again,
the first-born did not get the birthright, just as the first-born of Adam, Abraham,
and now Isaac. Just as the first age of man was replaced and as the Second Coming
becomes the ultimate conclusion, and again a wife, helper, and this time a mother,
is involved.
Jacob
becomes the father of the twelve tribes
Gen
28 Naturally; Jacob is told – not to marry a Canaanite woman – but to go back
to Abraham’s homeland to find a wife from the same genetic pool as Sarah, and
Rebekah, yet another genetic reference from the Old Testament.
However, on his journey through Canaan to find a wife,
Gen
28:12 “He had a dream in which he saw a stairway resting on earth, with its
top reaching into heaven, and the angels of God were ascending and descending
on it.”
Gen
28:13 “There above it stood the Lord and he said, ‘I am the Lord, the God
of your father Abraham and the God of Isaac. I will give you and your descendants
the land on which you are lying.”
Again,
the land of Canaan is given to the peoples of Abraham, Isaac, and now Jacob.
Gen
29 On his journey Jacob comes to well where he meets Rachael. She must have
been something because at this very first meeting,
Gen
29:11 “Then Jacob kissed Rachael and began to weep aloud”
Jacob
makes an arrangement with Laban, Rachael’s father, that he could marry Rachael
in exchange for working for seven years. However, on the wedding night, Jacob
wound up with Rachael’s older sister Leah, by surprise.
Leah
was the older sister and deserved to be married first, at least, according to
her father, Laban. So Jacob, married Rachael also, and stayed to work seven
more years. Now Jacob has two wives, Leah that he didn’t choose, and Rachael
whom he desired enough to work fourteen years just to have her as his own.
The
sons of Jacob
Gen
29:31 “When the Lord saw that Leah was not loved, he opened her womb, but
Rachael was barren.”
Gen 29:32
Reuben
first-born of Leah
Gen 29:33
Simeon
second-born of Leah
Gen 29:34
Levi
third-born of Leah
Gen 29:35
Judah
fourth-born of Leah
By
now Rachael is really anxious about not having children. So, just as Sarai gave
Abram Hagar, she gave her servant Bilhah as a wife to Jacob.
Gen 30:5-6
Dan
first-born to Bilhah
Gen 30:7
Naphtali second-born
to Bilhah
Leah copies Rachael’s idea and gives her servant Zilpah to Jacob.
Gen 30:10-11 Gad
first-born to Zilpah
Gen 30:12-13
Asher
second-born to Zilpah
Gen 30:17-18 Issachar
fifth-born to Leah
Gen 30:19
Zebulum sixth-born
to Leah
Gen 30:21
Leah also had a daughter named Dinah
Gen
30:22 God remembered Rachael and allowed her to conceive.
Gen 30:23-24 Joseph
first-born of Rachael
Joseph
was the favorite of Jacob, because he was born from Rachael. Jacob displayed
this favoritism to the extent that siblings became jealous.
Joseph
then began having clairvoyant dreams of his brothers bowing
to
him and the jealousy became so bad that some of the brothers wanted to kill
Joseph. In the end, the brothers sold Joseph to a passing Ishmaelite caravan
Gen
35:16-20 Benjamin
second born of Rachael
Pharaoh’s
Dream,
and
the unification of Israel
Gen
39 The caravan of Ishmaelites that bought Joseph from his brothers took him
to Egypt, where Joseph becomes enslaved, employed, by a prominent official.
However, there was some soap opera type of saga that found Joseph innocently
imprisoned. In prison where he gained a repetition for having the ability to
accurately interpret dreams.
Gen
41 Two years later when the Pharaoh has a dream, his staff remembers Joseph’s
gift. Although, Joseph points out that it is not his gift, but only God can
interpret dreams. Pharaoh tells
Joseph the dream and Joseph correctly interprets it as a foretelling of seven
years of plenty followed by seven years of drought and want. Pharaoh is so impressed
with Joseph that he makes him the second most powerful man in the kingdom.
Gen
42-50 Once again famine precipitates the clan of Abraham moving to Egypt, where
Joseph had organized huge granaries in preparation.
Once
Joseph, Jacob, and the brothers are reunited, the twelve tribes of Israel are
finally together as one people, as one nation. However, they spend the next
four hundred years as slaves to the Egyptians.
The
Exodus
Finally,
Israel is a nation of one people, although, they are trapped in bondage and
servitude. The world stage is set. All the players are in place and even the
land has been prepared. Now here comes the push that puts everything in motion
toward that final battle, which will play out in the Middle East.
Exodus
1-13 During a time when, all male Israeli children are being killed at birth,
In order to prevent the Israeli people from becoming too strong for Egypt’s
control, a male child is born and is hidden from harm. But instead of running
away to Egypt with is family, Moses was cast afloat in a basket of reeds, found
and raised by a princess. Raised in a culture that is separated from his father's,
you might say. Moses tried to run away from Egypt as an adult, then, the Lord
spoke to him, from a burning bush, and Moses returned to Egypt to deliver them
from bondage. Taking Aaron along as his spokesperson.
Moses
and the plagues
Hollywood
has been kind to the Judeao-Christian Heritage and we are all aware of Moses
and the Exodus story. I am personally
fascinated with new correlative evidence that the Exodus of Moses was synchronous
with the explosion of the volcanic island of Santarini.
Look
for a future paper in this series about the –The Exodus of Moses and a Volcano.
The
Lord kept telling Moses to say to Pharaoh,
“Let my people go!” And of course, the Pharaoh’s heart was hardened through
each plague until the last one.
Ex 7
The Plague of Blood
Ex 8
The Plague of Frogs
Ex 8
The plague of Gnats
Ex 8
The plague of Flies
Ex 9
The Plague on Livestock
Ex 9
The Plague of Boils
Ex 9
The Plague of Hail
Ex 10 The
Plague of Locusts
Ex 10
The Plague of Darkness
Ex 11
The plague on the First-Born and Passover
Once
the Pharaoh yields, the Hebrew nation of Israel packs up and leaves town.
Ex
13:21 “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...”
But
it doesn’t take Pharaoh long to change his mind and sent the army after them.
This is where Moses parts the Red Sea long enough for approximately two million
Israelis to cross the sea. Then it falls back in on the perusing army of Pharaoh,
destroying them to every man, Ex 14.
Ex
14:22
Interesting
that the very first story about Israel as a united nation involves the birth
story of the male instrument of salvation and punctuates it with the sacrifice
of sons.
Ponder
this, one man, with a sidekick, went to the most powerful nation on the earth
and performed the impossible, both diplomatically and militarily.
This
was also the most culturally developed religious system on the planet at the
time; and the power of the Lord of Moses, who is the God of Abraham, and the
God of Isaac and Jacob sure turned out to be greater than any god the Egyptians
had ever encountered before. Therefore, since Pharaoh was considered a God himself,
not only did one man defeat the most powerful nation on the planet; but that
man also defeated all the gods of that nation.
The
Exodus and the Arc of the Covenant
The
next step in this great Exodus from Egypt was to spend the next forty years
wandering around the wilderness of the Sinai. Using those forty years to redefine
them selves as a nation. Since their unification as a people, they have only
known servitude. What a unique cultural heritage to take into a wilderness for
forty years. Two million, or more, people in a desert wilderness totally dependent
on the Lord, and Moses as his messenger, for their very survival, a dependence
on the very source that is molding their culture along a programmed direction.
When
needed, food came from Heaven in the form of manna, and Quail flew into their
camps, Numbers 11, Exodus 16, and Joshua 5.
When
the masses were parched, all Moses had to do is strike his staff upon a rock
and a spring of water appeared, Numbers 20.
This
is also the time that all Jewish religious practices are established.
Moses
receives the Ten Commandments from God in person.
Moses
smashes the Ten Commandments to destroy idolatrous secular religious practices
forever, and thereby, raising the Jewish cultural consciousness to a more spiritual
relation with their God than is possible with anything made by man.
The
Jewish priesthood is established, ordained, and all of the Laws, traditions,
practices, dos and don’ts of the Jewish religion are given by God, through Moses,
to the people of Israel and recorded in the books of Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers,
and Deuteronomy.
The
Ten Commandments are replaced (once again it is the replacement model)
and very precise instructions are given to build the Arc of the Covenant to
house the stone tablets. The Jewish priesthood is provided with special garments
to wear near the Arc. Special instructions are given for the storage and handling
of the Arc.
A
temple is built to house the Arc and it is in this Temple that the priest are
in communication with God, right there in the midst of the people.
In fact, it becomes the mission of the people to carry this Temple and Arc around
the desert of the Sini for years.
Sequestered
away from the rest of the world, becoming more and more culturally unique and
ethnically pure. Subservient to their newly defined Lord and Master, the God
of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Then to complete this cultural conditioning,
a cultural cleansing is performed by not allowing anyone that physically walked
across the Red Sea floor into the Promised Land, not even Moses.
The
Promised Land
Joshua,
Palestine, and the Arc of the Covenant
Just
where is this Promised Land?
Abram
was 75 years old when this adventure begins and where does God send him to claim
as his own?
Gen
12:5 “…they set out for the land of Canaan…”
Gen
12:7 “The Lord appeared to Abram and said, ‘To you offspring I will give
this land.’ So he built an alter there to the Lord, who had appeared to him.”
And
again,
Gen
13:12 “Abram lived in the land of Canaan, while Lot lived among the cities
of the plain and pitched his tent near Sodom.
Gen
13:14 “The Lord said to Abram after Lot had parted from him, ‘Lift up your
eyes from where you are and look north, south, east and west.’”
Gen
13:15 “All the land that you see I will give to you and your offspring forever.”
Then,
while journeying through the land of Canaan and camping for the night, Jacob,
Gen
28:12 “…had a dream in which he saw a stairway resting on earth, with its
top reaching into heaven, and the angels of God were ascending and descending
on it.”
Gen
28:13 “There above it stood the Lord and he said, ‘I am the Lord, the God
of your father Abraham and the God of Isaac. I will give you and your descendants
the land on which you are lying.”
This
land was never the original property of the Jewish people. God gave it to Abraham,
some 600 years earlier, and again, God gave it, to Jacob, some 500 years earlier.
In the meantime the Jewish people have been limited in growth and culturally
isolated from the rest of the world. A nation of Israel that now has a Jewish
religious faith that is indistinguishable from its government. Sounds pretty
much like today.
In
the mean time, the land of Canaan and the surrounding Middle Eastern Area saw
great population growth. The Canaanites were only one of many tribes, bands,
or nations inhabiting the area. There were many cities and communities of many
ethnic backgrounds, but they were pretty much all of a central Middle Eastern
heritage.
Just
look at a map. The Middle Eastern culture extends all the way from the Sarah
Desert to the boundaries of Russia, China, and India. This entire area is Arabic,
potentially Islamite by heritage, and today predominately Muslim.
Rename
the Land of Canaan to Palestine and how can any one not acknowledge the
predictive accuracy of this story, in light of Modern Day World Wide Current
Events?
After
Moses dies, Joshua takes over leadership and as a general leads his people into
the Promised Land. Marching always, with the Arc of the Covenant, the symbol
of the Lord God, at the front of his army.
At
the very first battle, the army of Israel announced to the entire area that
God was on their side. Jericho was a tremendously impenetrable citadel fortress
with huge perimeter walls, undefeatable, until now.
Joshua
6:3 The Lord told King Joshua to “March around the city once with all the
armed men. Do this for six days.”
Joshua
6:4 “Have seven priest carry trumpets of ram’s horn in front of the Ark.
On the seventh day, march around the city seven times, with the priest blowing
their trumpets.”
Joshua
6:5 “When you hear them sound a long blast on the trumpets, have all the
people give a loud shout; then the wall of the city will collapse and the people
will go up, every man straight in.”
As
instructed by the priest, Joshua marched the Arc of the Covenant around the
city for six day, while blowing trumpets, and the walls just fell down by themselves.
Talk
about shock and all, president Bush!
People
are so worried these days about the Middle Eastern countries developing weapons
of mass destruction. The Arc of the Covenant turned out to pack quite a punch
itself.
1
Samuel 6:19 Just for looking into the Ark some Hebrew manuscripts record that
70 men were struck dead, but most Hebrew manuscripts, and the Septuagint, record
that 50,070 men were struck dead.
1
Samuel 4 Tells the story of the Philistines capturing the Ark in battle.
1
Samuel 5 & 6 Then describes how the idol god, of the Philistines, mysteriously
falls with its face in the dirt before the Ark. Once re-erected, it falls again,
only to have its head, arms, and legs broken off. Then the Philistines suffered
plagues of tumors to the point that they gladly returned this weapon of mass
destruction back to the Israelites, their mortal enemy.
Talk
about a cool weapon, not only is it a powerful Weapon of Mass Destruction, that
out classes all the weapons of the enemy, and it also, genetically incompatible
with your enemy.
Lets see the CIA and the American Military Complex do that.
Is
there truth in this story?
If
we were to stop reading the Bible story right now, what type of conclusions
could we draw? Is this story not a complete and accurate to guide to modern
day? Doesn’t his ancient text, possibly full of transcription and translation
errors nail the big picture for predictive world wide current events?
Fact
# five:
There
does seem to an element of predictive accuracy contained within the Bible Story.
I am not going to discuss individual verses and phrases, but the overall story
is as obvious as a forest
full of trees
and I believe that there is truth to be found in the Bible Story, at least in
the biggest of pictures.
Fact
# six:
What
are the chances of nailing the big picture so accurately, if a lot of the smaller
points within that same scripture are incorrect? Something to Ponder - isn't
it? So, I am expanding Fact # five to the possibility that a lot of the smaller
scriptural points may also be closer to factual that previously considered.
img in this paper are from: thebiblerevival.com/clipart
