When I teach in the Bible School one of my favorite courses is Bible Study Methods. Its nickname is TCR or Thmpson Chain Reference which incidentally is a great reference Bble -- if you don't have one you should take the course, one of the by-products of taking the course is you get one, you need it for the course. The reason I like teaching the course is simple, for about 14 hours I have each of the students, I have that time to plant in them a desire to study the scripture (that's plan A) and I have that time to teach them the scripture in case I fail in plan A there is plan B. Now 14 hours isn't a lot of time to generate a desire for the scripture but I'm going got give it my best shot.
Over the years I've heard many people talk of their Favorite part of the Bible, and I too have some parts that I really like. There are two parts that are my favorites and today I want to tell you about the first one of the two. I'm going to do it in a story form, like a story teller, because I think that is how it should be taught. When you figure out what part it is, just put up your hand. The part of the Bible I'm going to talk about begins with the beginning and ends with the promise of the Son of Righteousness rising with healing in his wings.
It contains stories of submission and rebellion, righteousness and depravity, love and hate, Godliness and Godlessness, men and women of Faith, giants and men who felt like grasshoppers, a warrior who could still be called a man after God's own heart, women who were delivered of bareness and others who were condemned to it. It is the story of how God dealt with his people under the law.
My favorite part of the Bible contains covers a period of history about 3600 years long. If that time were an hour, my time on this earth would span fifty two seconds.
It begins with Heaven and earth being created, then all of the things on earth. It sees man alone in the garden, the creation of woman, man's reign in the garden, his fall, his being put out of the garden and his separation from God. Do any of you know how long Adam and Eve were in the garden? Most people teach it like it was a day or two, but I think it must have been longer, because God had a custom of talking with them in the cool of the day. To have a custom takes more than a couple of days. I don't want to build a theology here, I just want to show you how easy it is to read in what we want to see or continuing with what we have been taught.
Then follows two thousand years, from Adam to Noah, with righteous Abel, and Cain who slew him out of jealousy and hate, with Enoch who walked with God and was not because God took him, with Methusal who lived for nearly a thousand years, and finally with the men of the earth who became so depraved that God finally repented that he had made man. God decided that sin had abounded and grown and he decided to destroy the Earth with a flood.
But there was one wrinkle in this plan, imagine a plan of God with a wrinkle. God honors righteousness, he still does today, and there was one righteous man and his family. He couldn't carry out His plan without making provision for His elect, for those who loved Him. So God provided a way of escape. God came to Noah with a plan for that survival, he always works through a man in the earth. And Noah built an ark, he and his family were saved and after the waters receded Noah received from God a promise that he would never again destroy the earth with water. That promise is the bow in the clouds, the rainbow.
But although the men of sin were taken out of the world, the sin was not taken out of man. It would take some stronger medicine for that. Noah got drunk, the demon rum was already a factor in man's depravity, and his nakedness was seen by his son Ham. His daughters committed sin with him. Sin was back in full force, on earth Satan and his forces still reigned. There had to be cheering in hell that day, the plan of God had been thwarted, he had destroyed man to destroy sin and sin had survived. On his own, man could not live a righteous life.
The earth was repopulated after the flood, and soon the men had come together and decided to build a tower to heaven. And God saw them and realized that what they say they will do, they will do. With one language and unity, they would accomplish what they set out to do. At the tower of Babel God confounded their language and no man could understand another. And they were set against each other and scattered.
But God would have a people in the world, and he found a righteous man named Abraham, and he promised him that he make of him a mighty people and his descendants as the sands of the sea. Abraham was tested in many ways and he was not found wanting. He wasn't perfect in everything, but his heart was toward God. And there is much recorded about the deeds of Abraham, and how he dealt justly with those around him, how he messed up from time to time, and how in his old age God's promise to him of becoming a mighty nation seemed impossible. And Abraham was a lot like us in some ways, when God didn't seem big enough to do what he promised, he and Sarah tried to help God. And they made a mess of it, the result was Ishmael, a child of a slave who himself became the father of nations, the Arabs. In God's time Sarah conceived and Isaiac was born, but God was not through with Abraham, when Isaiac was a young man, God asked Abraham to offer him as a sacrifice. Abraham was obedient but just before he would have slew Isaiac, an angel stayed his hand and God provided a sacrifice, a ram caught in the bushes. And some centuries later God provided another lamb as a sacrifice, His only begotten son, Jesus, and by being willing to offer his son, Abraham opened the door for our redeemer.
And Isaiac became the second in the line and he had two sons, Esau the older and Jacob the younger. But Esau did not respect the blessing and sold his birthright to Jacob for a bowl of soup and when Isaiac became old and it was time to pass on the blessing to the eldest, Rebecca, Isaiac's wife conspired with Jacob to have him deceive his father and accept the firstborn blessing.
And Jacob fled for his life and wrestled to the Lord. And he came back to continue the line of Abraham. He had twelve children, with Joseph and Benjamin being the youngest, and Joseph was favored and his brothers became jealous. So they sold Joseph into slavery in Egypt and told Jacob he had been killed by wild animals. If any of you have messed up and think God could never love you, care for you, do anything for you much less be able to use you for his kingdom, look at the impressive line of liars and cheats in the line of Abraham. But remember that these men saw their faults and repented. While in Egypt Joseph nearly lost his life in an incident with his master's wife. He was falsely accused but he could easily have been sentenced to death rather than placed in jail. Eventually by interpreting dreams he was brought to the forefront of the Pharoah's government and was able to influence the policies of that government to save the people during a time of famine in the land.
His family was impacted by the famine and they came to Egypt for food. After some time he revealed himself to his brothers and ultimately his family moved to Egypt. The family grew into a nation of nearly a million and the Egyptians became fearful of them. They were enslaved and oppressed by the taskmasters. As a nation they cried out and God sent a deliverer, a boy who was saved from death by Pharoah's daughter. His name was Moses and he was raised by his mother in Pharoah's court. They got desperate, before the enslavement they were content to remain in Egypt in spite of God's plan, when things got bad enough there they decided His plan was better.
When Moses grew older he chose the life of his brethern rather than to be called the son of Pharoah's daughter. He killed an Egyptian to spare one of his brethern and fled to the wilderness. There he married and God called him to return to Egypt to lead his people to freedom.
God sent plagues on Egypt and finally Pharoah set them free, and they left with much of the Egyptian treasure. But Pharoah changed his mind and followed them with his army and caught up with them at the Red Sea. God parted the waters, they crossed on dry ground and when the Egyptians tried to follow, the breach in the Red Sea closed and they were drowned. But the children of Israel disobeyed God and he caused them to wander in the wilderness for forty years, till the generation of disobedience died off, and then he took them into the promised land. I wonder how many of our fathers have died in the wilderness because of disobedience.
But God raised up Joshua and he took them across the Jordan into the land of Cannan where there were many "ites", those who inhabited the land that did not recognize God as father. And God gave them victory as they took Jerico with a shout.
And do you know how the early fathers of the faith passed the story of this nation? They passed it from one generation to the next the way I passed it on to you today. They sat down with their children and told the story, because God commanded them to do that.
And you need to do this too. Tell your children. Tell them the stories of the faith, of Abraham, Isaiac, Jacob, Joseph, Judah, Manassah, Samuel, David and down the line. Tell them of the faith that wrought miracles in the desert, how water ran out of the rock. Tell them how the walls of Jerico fell flat.
Then tell them of the virgin who bore a son, (that's the other half of my story, I'll tell it some time.) Tell them of the ordinary men he taught to become extraordinary. Tell them of the men who faced death for the gospel and the ones who died, and tell them of the common people who clung to the words of Jesus and how the word was passed down from one to the next. Then tell them of the men of the faith in the centuries past, of Luther, Simmons, Wesley, and the others. Of Billy Graham, Kathryn Kuhlman, Clifton Erickson, Theodore Gaylor and the others more recent that have carried the line of faith. Of Bill Hammon, Glenn Miller, Ivan Tate, Doug Slay, Chuck Clayton, Barry Falkenstine, Sandy Falkenstine and others who are carrying the faith today. And finally put your name into the story and tell them of how your faith has brought you here, and how you are looking to the Lord to guide you on.
This is part one of the story, Part two to come.
Soon to come..
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