What you don`t know can kill you! (Spiritualy)
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· 100 viewsWhy does bad things happen to good people?
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Intro:
The Bible is the true story of the whole world, of every person, and of our deep need for relationship with the God who made the universe. This is the story of how God sought to know us and love us—by sending His Son to die and rise for us, so that we may truly live.
“This Book [is] the most valuable thing that this world affords. Here is Wisdom; this is the royal Law; these are the lively Oracles of God.
God’s people. These are the people who started with Abraham, were known first as the sons of Jacob, the people of Israel, and later as the Jewish people.
I always felt sorry for people who lives in ignorance.
a. People who don’t know, anything about God, or very little.
b. They go on with their daily living, working, making money, getting married, getting old and then they die.
c. But they never knew what their purpose was, why they here, what they suppose to do.
d. Their lives was self-centered, what they can gain, their happiness, their joy and what they can make out of people to enrich themselves.
But I have changed my mind.
a. A lack of knowledge is – because people don’t care to know.
b. They don’t do effort to find out.
For example.
a. Why are we so depraved?
b. Why is this world in conflict, wars and full of evil?
We know about Rebellion1,2,3: Gen. 3, Gen 6, Gen 6.
a. Worldview Deut. 32:8 God disinherit the nations. And taking Jacob as His potion.
People know God
As God, Healer, Maker, Provider, Mighty King, El, Elohim, Adonai, but they don’t know His name.
Where in the Bible does He tell us His name: Himself:
14 God said to Moses, “I am who I am.” And he said, “Say this to the people of Israel: ‘I am has sent me to you.’ ”
I AM - (YHWH)
Go fetch my nation, bring them here and I will tell them how to bear my Name (How yu should Represent me)
At Mount Sinai Israel received the 10 commandment.
a. They study the Torah – 5 books of Law
b. We see it as laws.
c. They see it as the books that teaches them how to live.
Asaph wrote a psalm 73 and made this statement
1 In you, O Lord, do I take refuge; let me never be put to shame!
2 In your righteousness deliver me and rescue me; incline your ear to me, and save me!
3 Be to me a rock of refuge, to which I may continually come; you have given the command to save me, for you are my rock and my fortress.
4 Rescue me, O my God, from the hand of the wicked, from the grasp of the unjust and cruel man.
5 For you, O Lord, are my hope, my trust, O Lord, from my youth.
6 Upon you I have leaned from before my birth; you are he who took me from my mother’s womb. My praise is continually of you.
7 I have been as a portent to many, but you are my strong refuge.
8 My mouth is filled with your praise, and with your glory all the day.
9 Do not cast me off in the time of old age; forsake me not when my strength is spent.
10 For my enemies speak concerning me; those who watch for my life consult together
11 and say, “God has forsaken him; pursue and seize him, for there is none to deliver him.”
12 O God, be not far from me; O my God, make haste to help me!
13 May my accusers be put to shame and consumed; with scorn and disgrace may they be covered who seek my hurt.
God Is My Strength and Portion Forever
a. Like we all do.
b. But do you still do that when you down in the valley?
c. Do you still shout go can heal – when you sick.
d. Do you still say amen to God can provide when you lose your income.
e. Do you still believe God care when your spouse walked out and divorce you for somebody else.
The question on the table:
a. How can a God who, claiming to be a defender of justice, allow so much injustice in the world?
b. How come bad things happen to good people?
c. God fearing people getting sick.
d. Loving and caring people being killed.
e. God's sovereignty in the world is this: that his mercy reigns.
f. Whoever sees the wicked person prosper in life and die in peace, may rightly ask, “Is this all there is to God’s justice? Do the wicked escape so easily?” These texts assure us that they will not escape.
g. But as often as not, people do not reach these destinies in earthly life. The righteous sometimes die in unjust suffering and shame; the wicked sometimes die in prosperity and peace.
Before answering this: Lets first see who Asaph was:
1. In Chronicles, it is said that Asaph was a descendant of Gershon the son of Levi and he is identified as a member of the Levites.
a. He is also known as one of the three Levites commissioned by David to be in charge of singing in the house of Yahweh.
b. He was known as a “seer” or prophet.
c. Asaph is featured prominently in Chronicles.
d. He is described as the chief of the Levites appointed to minister before the ark of the Lord.
2. It is this Priest who is writing this Psalm.
3. In Psalm 73, Asaph said he was jealous.
a. Envy of bad men.
b. Because people commit crimes and get away with it, steal and keep the money, kill and don't pay for it.
c. They don't even get sick.
4. That can kill our faith.
5. Saying that God decrees evil (other than the evil of discipline or the evil of punishment) is dangerous.
a. It is to assume that God is the one who feeds the injustice of the world, it is to say that He not only allows but is the cause of the world being unbalanced.
6. No, God's sovereignty does not work that way.
a. God's sovereignty rules the world all the time with this: his grace, his mercy.
b. He did so so that, in the end, every man could step in front of him and see all the things he did and pay for all of them.
Let me explain what we don’t see:
1. Psalm 82 reveals to us the mysteries of another kingdom:
1 God has taken his place in the divine council; in the midst of the gods he holds judgment:
2 “How long will you judge unjustly and show partiality to the wicked? Selah
3 Give justice to the weak and the fatherless; maintain the right of the afflicted and the destitute.
4 Rescue the weak and the needy; deliver them from the hand of the wicked.”
5 They have neither knowledge nor understanding, they walk about in darkness; all the foundations of the earth are shaken.
6 I said, “You are gods, sons of the Most High, all of you;
7 nevertheless, like men you shall die, and fall like any prince.”
8 Arise, O God, judge the earth; for you shall inherit all the nations!
2. "It is God who presides over the divine assembly; among the gods, he is the judge."
3. 'Gods' here, in lower case, is bené-elohim, a term used repeatedly in the Old Testament to refer to angels and principalities.
God is comparing Himself to other gods in scripture.
8 There is none like you among the gods, O Lord, nor are there any works like yours.
a. Too who is God comparing Himself. – Nobody. That must be silly.
b. Because I can compare mmyslef to nobody – anybody can do that.
c. That is no comparison.
11 “Who is like you, O Lord, among the gods? Who is like you, majestic in holiness, awesome in glorious deeds, doing wonders?
Deut. 32 Worldview
8 When the Most High gave to the nations their inheritance, when he divided mankind, he fixed the borders of the peoples according to the number of the sons of God.
Other gods
1. Nachash – Shining one – Snake like
The noun śārāph would then mean “the burning/fiery one.”
Śerāphîm as Heavenly Beings: In Isaiah 6 The two seraphim had faces, hands, and feet, and were able to sing and communicate through language, i.e., they were rational beings (verses 2, 6, 7). They had six wings and could fly; they were angelic beings. Fourth, they had a specific function. They were “above” the throne of God;
“flying serpents”]” (Isa. 30:6)
2. Laviathan the first creature - Chaos – Mentioned in relationship with creation.
In Jewish mythology, a primordial sea serpent. ... In Isaiah 27:1, Leviathan is a serpent and a symbol of Israel's enemies, who will be slain by God.
Leviathan, a Sea Monster, is 'King over all the Children of Pride
3. Behemoth described From the Book of Job, who dominates the land, as 'the chief of the
Ways of God. '.
These two monsters representatives of war by land and by sea.
14 You crushed the heads of Leviathan; you gave him as food for the creatures of the wilderness.
c. Rahab – a Third Creature
A creature who shares the name of the woman in Jericho who saved the spies and became an ancestor of David and Jesus.
Rahab is mentioned in Job 26:12 as being cut into parts by God. In Psalm 89:10 God crushes Rahab like one of the slain. And, in Isaiah 51:9, Isaiah attributes to God the cutting up of the sea monster Rahab.
Psa 89:10 You crushed Rahab like a carcass; you scattered your enemies with your mighty arm.
d. Yam - Yam or Yamm, from the ancient Semitic word meaning "sea," is the name of the Canaanite god of rivers
He is also called Prince Yam.
Very Prominent at the crossing of Israel at the red sea -Sea of reeds actually.
e. Baal – Baal, a term which means “master
Elijah The Prophet Who Defeated Baal. 1 Kings 18:20-40
Canaanite deity.
Baal – becomes Pan in modern era.Pan
legs, and horns of a goat
Greek gods (12)
In terms of gods, the Greek pantheon consists of 12 deities who were said to reside at Mount Olympus: Zeus, Hera, Aphrodite, Apollo, Ares, Artemis, Athena, Demeter, Dionysus, Hephaestus, Hermes, and Poseidon.
God defeated the 10 gods (mythology) of Egypt.
In Exodus 7:1-5 God told Moses that He would do three things:
1. He would bring the Israelites out of Egypt,
2. He would do it “by great judgments,” and
3. He would do it in a way that “the Egyptians shall know that I am the Lord”—the true God.
In Exodus 12:12 God adds that He was doing something else very important: “Against all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgment.” So the judgments God would carry out would be, on a certain level, against the Egyptian gods.
12 For I will pass through the land of Egypt that night, and I will strike all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and beast; and on all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgments: I am the Lord.
Each of the plagues God sent was a direct challenge to one or more of the gods and goddesses of Egypt.
Europe has 5 main gods.
Africa – 29 gods
God continues in Ps.82:
"How long will you absolve the guilty and favor the wicked? Guarantee justice for the weak and orphans; keep the rights of the needy and the oppressed. Deliver the weak and the poor; free them from the hands of the wicked. I said it myself : I said: you are gods, you are all children of the Most High. "
God is condemning the principalities, the governors of the heavenly regions, which He Himself instituted (Deuteronomy 32: 8 and Romans 13: 1) on the world.
Your children (princes). Because God gave them the power to rule over men (Ephesians 6:12), but they became corrupt and rebelled, they do not judge according to right justice.
12 For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.
7. The hierarchy of existence is this:
a.God rules everything and everyone, He then created beings in his image in the spiritual world: the principalities, and they govern men, and men in turn, govern animals and nature. At least it should be so, but because of sin, everything has been obscured.
8. That is why injustice in the world is nourished, not by God's decree or by his will, but because God is merciful and only allows it. Who feeds the injustice of the world is Satan and his angels, who govern him, the god of that age is Beelzebub, and there are masters and masters, as Jesus himself calls Mammon.
9. God did not leave us orphans, however. Although he did not destroy Satan, God for being merciful is very patient. He established a day when he will bring light to all injustice and burn it with fire.
Psalm 82 even ends with this promise:
7 nevertheless, like men you shall die, and fall like any prince.”
Asaph came to the conclusion:
23 Nevertheless, I am continually with you; you hold my right hand.
24 You guide me with your counsel, and afterward you will receive me to glory.
25 Whom have I in heaven but you? And there is nothing on earth that I desire besides you.
26 My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.
27 For behold, those who are far from you shall perish; you put an end to everyone who is unfaithful to you.
28 But for me it is good to be near God; I have made the Lord God my refuge, that I may tell of all your works.