The Lord instructed Noah to build an ark for the safety
of his family, because He was going to bring a flood upon the earth to
destroy every living thing. It took Noah 120 years to build the ark,
and during those years he many opportunities to witness to people
about the coming flood and the grace of God, but they would NOT
listen. Instead, they laughed at his words, because it had never
rained upon the earth before then. A mist watered the earth. (Genesis
2:5,6) At the end of the 120 years, God
opened the fountains of the deep and the windows of heaven and brought
rain upon the earth for forty days and forty nights. The waters
prevailed upon the earth for 150 days, and all flesh in whose nostrils
was the breath of life, died. After many days, Noah, his wife, their
three sons, Shem, Ham and Japheth and their wives came out of the ark,
along with the animals God had instructed them to take with them into
the ark. When they finally stood on dry land again, Noah built an
altar unto the Lord and offered a burnt offering to Him. The Lord
accepted Noah's offering, and He placed a rainbow in the heavens as a
visible promise that He would never again destroy the earth with a
flood. (Genesis 9:11)
In 2 Peter 3:6,7 we learn that God has
ordained a future judgment for this present earth. Fire is being held
in storage for the time when Satan, his angels and all mankind who
refuse to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ as their Savior will be
judged. However, until that day, it is the Lord's desire that all men
should come to a change of mental attitude about Jesus Christ, who
died as their substitute on the cross more than 2,000 years ago.
MOSES
Because Moses relied on the Lord, he was able to
withstand tremendous opposition from great numbers of people. For the
first forty years of his life, Moses learned the ways of the Egyptians
and may have become a great Pharoah if he had not learned that he was
Hebrew, not Egyptian, and then made a decision to be identified with
the people of God.
In defending a fellow Hebrew, Moses killed an
Egyptian official and fled into the desert to escape the wrath of
Pharoah. During the next forty years, the Lord trained Moses in the
desert of Midian. There he married and became the father of two sons.
(for further details, see Acts 7:22-34 and Exodus chapters 2, 3 & 4)
One day while Moses was taking care of his
father-in-law's flocks, the Lord spoke to Moses from the midst of a
burrning bush saying, "Moses, I have seen the suffering and oppression
of My people who have been Egyptian slaves for four hundred years. I
will send you to Pharoah, and you shall deliver them out of bondage
and bring them to this mountain where they shall serve Me.
Thinking that he would stand alone against
the power of Pharoah, Moses objected. However, the Lord said, "Surely,
I will be with you. All those who wanted to kill you are now dead."
Then Moses returned to Egypt, and, in the power of the Lord, he
demanded that Pharoah let the Israelites go. When Pharoah refused, the
Lord sent ten plagues upon Egypt by the .hand of Moses and his brother
Aaron. After the last plague, which killed all the firstborn in the
land, Pharoah agreed to release the slaves, and two million adult
males, their children and their flocks followed Moses into the desert.
That great exodus from Egypt occurred exactly as God had promised
Abraham four generations earlier. God's timing is always perfect.
(Exodus chapters 5 through 13)
Then the Lord instructed Moses to take the
people and camp beside the Red Sea where He would allow Pharoah and
his army to pursue after them. The Children of Israel were hemmed in
on all sides ... mountains on two sides, the Egyptian army behind
them, and the Red Sea in front of them ... and even though the Lord
guided them with a cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night, they
panicked when they saw the Egyptians. They cried out to Moses,
"Weren't there enough graves in Egypt that you brought us out here to
kill us? It would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than
to die here in the wilderness!" Now Moses was facing not only the
problem of the advancing army, but he also had to control millions of
complaining, frightened people. Moses stood above the people and said,
"Stand still and watch the deliverance of the Lord, which He will show
you this day . You shall never see these Egyptians again, because the
Lord will fight for you, and you will be silent!"
The Lord removed the pillar of cloud that
led His people and placed it between them and their enemies. To the
Egyptians eyes, it was a cloud of darkness, but it gave light to the
Children of Israel. Moses stretched out his rod over the sea, and the
Lord caused the sea to go back by a strong east wind all that night.
The sea was divided into two heaps, with a wall of water on either
side of a dry path that would take the people to the other side. When
the Egyptians pursued, the Lord took off their chariot wheels, and
they cried out, "Let's turn back from these Israelites, for their God
fights for them, and we will be destroyed." (Exodus 14:21-25)
Once the Children of Israel were all
safely on the other side, the Lord told Moses to stretch out his hand
over the sea, and the Lord closed the waters so that all the Egyptians
who came into the sea after them were drowned.
When the Israelites saw what the Lord had
done for them, they had respect for the Lord and for Moses until other
problems arose to test their faith during the forty years of wandering
in the wilderness.
Possibly because of jealousy and a strong
desire for power, Korah, a priest and cousin of Moses gathered several
of his friends plus two hundred fifty princes in the assembly and
convinced them to stand before Moses and Aaron and challenge their
authority. The Lord upheld Moses' authority, and the rebels who stood
with Korah perished in an earthquake.
(Numbers chapter 16)
GIDEON (Judges chapters six and seven)
Because the Children of Israel refused to learn and
follow God's will for their lives, the Lord put them under the
authority of their enemies, the Midianites, for. seven years. When
they cried out to Him, the Lord raised up a timid farmer by the name
of Gideon to deliver them.
The Midianites and their allies were so
great in number they were impossible to count, and when they saw the
Israelites preparing to fight against them, they gathered their armies
and prepared for battle.
Gideon assembled 10,000 fighting men, but
the Lord said, "There are too many. Bring all of them to the water's
edge, and I will show you which men to take with you." While they were
gathered at the water's edge to drink, the Lord said to Gideon,
"Separate the men who put their hand to their mouth and lap water like
a dog from those who get on their knees to drink." Only 300 lapped the
water from their hands, and the Lord said, "By these will I deliver
you from the Midianites. Send the rest away." By these few men, the
Lord delivered Israel, and He received the glory.
DAVID (1 Samuel chapter 22)
For about ten years, David had to hide in the rocks and
caves, because king Saul pursued him with thousands of fighting men in
an attempt to kill him. The men of David's family heard of his plight,
and they went to join him in the cave. Also some others who were in
distress, in debt and generally discontent went to David and made him
captain over them. The number of those with David was about 400 men.
In eternity past, the Lord had decreed that David would
be king over Israel at the proper time, and nothing Saul tried to do
was able to change God's plan.
MICAIAH (2 Chronicles chapter 18)
Ahab, king of Israel, asked Jehoshaphat, king of Judah,
to help him fight his enemy in Ramoth-Gilead, and Jehoshaphat agreed
to do it. After the two kings were seated in Ahab's palace, Ahab sent
for 400 false prophets to ask whether or not they should go into
battle. Every one of the false prophets said, "Go into battle, and you
will surely be victorious."
Jehoshaphat knew they were not God's
prophets, so he asked Ahab, "Don't you have one of the Lord's prophets
here that we may question?" Ahab looked disturbed and replied, "Oh yes
... there is one man, but I hate him, because he never prophesies
anything good about me!"
The king of Judah replied, "You shouldn't
be disrespectful of one whom God has chosen." Then Ahab summoned two
soldiers and said, "Go to the prison and bring Micaiah to me." On the
way back to the king, the soldiers warned Micaiah that all the other
prophets had spoken favorably to the king and that he should do
likewise, but Micaiah answered, "I can speak only the words that the
Lord gives me to say." However, when Micaiah stood before the two
kings, and Ahab questioned saying, "Micaiah ... tell us if we will be
successful against the enemy in Ramoth-Gilead or not," he 'answered,
"Go, and you will defeat them!"
Ahab stood up and pointed a finger at
Micaiah as he shouted, "How many times have I told you to speak only
truth the me?" Then Micaiah replied, "The Lord has told me that if you
go, you will be defeated in battle."
When he heard those words, Ahab sat down
and said to Jehoshaphat, "Didn't I tell you this man had nothing good
to say to me?" Then he spoke to the soldiers and ordered, "Take this
man back to prison and give him moldy bread to eat and stale water to
drink until I return victorious' over our enemies." As he was being
dragged along, Micaiah turned back and said to the king, "If you
return again, the Lord has not spoken through me!"
Ahab insisted on taking the advice of his
400 false prophets and was killed in the battle just as the Lord had
said through His prophet Micaiah.
ELIJAH (1 Kings chapter 18)
Because Ahab brought idolatry into Israel,
the Lord withheld rain from them for three years, and there was a
terrible famine in the land. At the end of those three years, the Lord
spoke to His prophet Elijah saying, "Go and tell Ahab that I will send
an abundance of rain upon the earth."
When Elijah found the king, Ahab said to
him, "So you're the one who's responsible for this drought upon
Israel!"
Elijah replied, "No, Ahab ... it is
because you have forsaken the commandment of the Lord and followed the
false god Baal! Now take your 450 false prophets of Baal, and the
other 400 who serve your wicked wife Jezebel, and the people who serve
your god, and bring them to me at Mt. Carmel. We will offer a
sacrifice there unto the Lord."
Ahab did as Elijah said, and when they
were all gathered together, Elijah stood before the people and said,
"How long will you be double=minded? H the Lord is God, worship Him,
but if you believe that Baal is god, worship him!"
No one in the crowd dared to say a word.
Then Elijah said, "Only I am a prophet of the Lord, and I stand here
against all the false prophets of Baal. Let them take a bullock, build
an altar, and prepare to offer a sacrifice to their god, and I will
prepare another altar and sacrifice to the Lord God. The God who
accepts the offering by sending fire to consume it, let Him be the One
who deserves worship."
The prophets of Baal built an altar,
placed wood under the sacrifice and cried out to their god from
morning until noon, but there was no answer. Elijah began to mock them
saying, "Cry a little louder! Maybe Baal is on a journey or sleeping."
Then the false prophets cried even louder
and cut themselves, thinking to find favor with their god, until it
was time for the evening sacrifice, but they still did not receive an
answer from Baal.
Elijah gathered the people around his
altar, set up 12 stones ... one for each of the tribes of Israel...
and then placed wood and the sacrifice upon it. After that he made a
trench around the altar and had the people fill it with water. When
all was ready, Elijah prayed, "Hear me, 0 Lord, and show these people
that you are the only true God."
The fire of the Lord fell from heaven and
burned up not only the sacrifice, but also the wood, and the stones,
and the dust, and licked up the water that was in the trench. When the
people saw what was done, they fell on their faces and confessed, "The
Lord is truly God!"
Elijah destroyed the prophets of Baal and
sent Ahab back to his palace in Samaria.
DANIEL (Daniel chapter 6)
As a teen-age boy, Daniel was taken as a
slave to Babylon after king Nebuchadnezzar's army destroyed Jerusalem.
Daniel found favor in the eyes of four very powerful kings through the
years, and was promoted to positions of great authority under each of
them over a period of eighty years. The last of those kings was
Darius, of the Medes and Persians.
Darius was very pleased with Daniel and
set him over 120 princes in his kingdom. The princes became jealous
and envious of Daniel and wanted to find a way to destroy him, so they
went to the king with a proposition, "0 king, may you live forever! We
wish to make a request that you establish a decree, prohibiting anyone
to worship any man or any god except you for thirty days. If any man
will not obey that decree, let him be cast into the den of lions." The
idea appealed to Darius, and the decree was established and signed by
him.
Daniel was not afraid of the king's
decree, but continued to kneel down and pray to the Lord three times
every day in plain sight by an open window. The princes went before
the king and bowed before him saying, "0 king Darius, you have
established a decree saying that anyone worshipping any god other than
yourself for thirty days would be cast into the den of lions, and we
have found this Daniel refusing to obey your decree."
Darius felt badly that he had made such a
decree, but he was forced to put Daniel into the lion's den. Darius
spent a sleepless night, and in the morning he went to the mouth of
the cave and cried out, "0 Daniel, servant of the living God, was your
God able to deliver you from the lions?"
Daniel replied, "0 king, live forever.
Yes, my God sent an angel to shut the mouths of the lions, and I have
not been harmed."
Then the king ordered the men who accused
Daniel to be cast into the lion's den, and they were destroyed.
PAUL (2 Corinthians 11:16-33)
The apostle Paul suffered in many ways to
glorify the Lord and to further the Word of God. His adventures are
recorded in the book of Acts, beginning with his conversion to
Christianity in the ninth chapter.
During his ministry, Paul suffered hunger,
thirst, shipwreck and even death by stoning at the hands of his fellow
Jews. However, the Lord brought Paul back from the dead, and he was
given many more years in which to preach the Gospel to unbelievers and
to teach and encourage growth in those who believed in the Lord Jesus
Christ as their Savior.
The majority of the New Testament epistles
were written by Paul, many of which he dictated to a scribe while in
prison. Paul was undoubtedly the greatest Bible teacher for Church-Age
believers. The 'mystery doctrines' for the Church Age in which we live
are found nowhere but in the New Testament epistles.
Those who opposed Paul's teachings most of
all were the religious Jewish leaders who were responsible for his
final imprisonment and execution. Paul was arrested several times, and
once, the Jewish leaders brought out nearly an entire city in an
attempt to have Paul stoned to death, but the Lord used the power of
Rome in the person of a Roman centurion and his men to protect Paul.
While a prisoner of Rome, Paul defended
himself before several powerful kings in the empire and finally before
Nero himself, who was Caesar at that time. During his last few days in
a Roman prison, Paul had only two or three friends who stood by him.
Many others who had become Christians through Paul's ministry were
afraid to testify on his behalf, because they feared that their own
lives might be in danger.
Through all his years of suffering and withstanding great opposition
to his teaching, Paul was faithful to the Lord who always stood by him
to strengthen him.
JESUS
Each of the 4 Gospel accounts ...
Matthew, Mark, Luke and John ... record events that took place during
the 3-year earthly ministry of our Lord Jesus Christ. Much of the last
half of the book of Revelation tells us about Jesus' glorious return
to the earth to set up His kingdom for 1,000 years and His final
judgment upon all who rejected Him as Savior during then- lifetime
throughout all the ages.
Great leaders of the past, like Moses,
David, Elijah and Paul, had tremendous opposition to their message of
salvation and the grace of God, but the Lord Jesus Christ was despised
far more than any of them. During His ministry, the common people
responded gladly to the tea~h1ng of the God-Man, Jesus Christ, but it
was always the religious, Jewish rulers who opposed Him and wanted to
destroy Him.
At a future time ... at least 1,007 years
from now if the resurrection of the Church were to take place in this
present generation, (1 Thessalonians 4:13-18) Jesus Christ will come
back to the earth in His resurrection body to set up a kingdom of
perfect environment for 1,000 years, over which He will personally
rule. During that time, Satan will be locked up in the abyss in the
heart of the earth and not be able to influence mankind. Also, during
that period, people will marry and have children. There will be no
sickness, and death will occur only when capital punishment is
admini!3tered.
When the thousand years has ended, Satan
will be released to test all who had enjoyed perfect environment, with
perfect justice administered by the Lord Jesus Christ, and that will
be the final test of man's sinful nature, because, when faced with a
choice between the Lord and Satan, multitudes numbering as the sand on
the seashore, will revolt against the Lord, and they will be cast into
the Lake of Fire with the devil and his angels to bum forever and
ever.
(Revelation chapter 20)
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