“When Serug had lived 30 years, he became the father of Nahor. And after he became the father of Nahor, Serug lived 200 years and had other sons and daughters.”How can it be that people could live so long in the early centuries of the world? Isn’t that stretching things a bit? Isn’t it just folklore? Here’s more.
Noah had his first son at age 502 (Genesis 5:32, 11:10). Noah lived a total of 950 years (Genesis 9:29). Noah’s son, Shem, had his first son at age 100 and lived a total of 600 years (Genesis 11:10-11). Now we have Serug, the 7th-generation grandson of Noah, who had his first son at age 30 and lived a total of 230 years (see above).
Do you see the trend downward of ages after the flood? Most of Noah’s life was lived before the flood. Some of Shem’s life was lived before, but most of it was after the flood. All of Serug’s life was after the flood.
Many scientists believe that the earth originally had a constant cloud covering like the planet Venus does. Genesis 2:5-6 says it had not rained yet, but a mist rose to water everything. The King James Version of the Bible regarding the flood in Genesis 7:11 says the windows of heaven were opened. Genesis 8:2 says the windows of heaven were stopped.
Notice, it did not say the windows of heaven were closed; they were just stopped, meaning it could rain again periodically after that. If indeed, Earth did have a constant thick cloud covering before the flood, then humans would have been protected from radiation from the sun and therefore could live longer. After the change in Earth’s atmosphere after the flood, humans being exposed to more radiation would have lived shorter lives.
Something to think about…. And, one more thought ~ rainbows wouldn’t be possible with a constant cloud covering. The flood brought us rainbows! (Genesis 9:13)
#Flood, #BibleEvidences, #Noah, #Faith
The scripture for today, November 20, is Hebrews 11:20ff as found in the New Testament of the Bible:
“By faith, Isaac blessed Jacob and Esau in regard to their future. By faith Jacob when he was dying, blessed each of Joseph’s sons….By faith Joseph, when his end was near, spoke about the exodus of the Israelites from Egypt and gave instructions about his bones.”
Do we have children that were so loving and good when they were young, but when they became older they changed? Do we sometimes wonder, “How could I have gone so wrong with my children?” True, they have free will. But do we feel like failures because our children did not turn out the way we had hoped and prayed?
Have faith ~ the faith of Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph. Isaac blessed his sons with his land, even though he did not yet own the land. Jacob blessed his sons with power, even though they did yet not have power. Joseph blessed his sons and his brothers’ sons with the land, yet they no longer lived in it.
They all blessed their children with something they believed would happen some day, even though the evidence was not there. Why? Because they had faith in their children? Actually, it was mostly because they had faith in God. They had faith in what God would do for their children.
Let us keep on keeping on. Let us never stop having faith in what God (even after we die) will (not can, but will) do for our children.
#Family, #Children, #Hope, #Faith, #Restore, #Reform
The scripture for today, November 18, is Deuteronomy 11:18f as found in the Old Testament of the Bible:
“Then the Lord’s anger will burn against you, and he will shut the heavens so that it will not rain and the ground will yield no produce, and you will soon perish from the good land the Lord is giving you. Fix these words of mine in your hearts and minds; tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads.”
Sometimes the country we live in goes through very bad times. We pray for the bad times to end, but they do not. What is going on? The above warning was to the Israelites just before they entered their promised land. God had just said through Moses, don’t worship idols.
Perhaps our country is going through bad times because of idol worship. Probably not like the hand-made idols of ancient times, but idols of money and power and immorality. There have been times in the Bible when a good man prayed, “God, I am the only one left who worships you.” God would reply that there were a few others. But he did not reply that he was going to stop the punishing. The nation hadn’t turned back to God yet.
Therefore, when we are suffering unjustly for what a majority of our countrymen have been doing, we must do it bravely. And while we “wait it out”, let us continually remind ourselves, our families, our neighbors, our countrymen of the righteous ways they should be acting.
In bad times, this is our assignment. Let us be brave and spread the news. Let us keep reminding and be as patient with them as God is with us.
Perhaps some day they will listen.
#government, #nation, #punishment, #assignment, #problems, #troubles, #wars
The scripture for today, November 17, is 1st Chronicles 11:17f as found in the Old Testament of the Bible:
“David longed for water and said, ‘Oh, that someone would get me a drink of water from the well near the gate of Bethlehem.’ So the Three broke through the Philistine lines, drew water from the well near the gate of Bethlehem and carried it back to David.”
The people who followed David admired him because he knew how to be a good leader. So many were willing to do anything to make “Captain David” happy. David had been born and raised in Bethlehem. Now he was grown and had a following of those evading power hungry King Saul, many of whom were brave soldiers. They had traveled throughout the country either evading or defending themselves against this and other enemies.
Their travels took them back to David’s hometown which was being held by enemy Philistines. For old-times sake, he wanted a drink from the well he had drunk from many times in his youth. Three of his men risked their lives to bring their captain, David, that drink of water.
How much do we admire the Captain of our Salvation, Jesus? How much are we willing to sacrifice for him? Do we say, “I’m too busy to do anything for Jesus and his kingdom today”? Do we say, “I’m afraid if I say something about Jesus to so-and-so, s/he will insult me”? Do we say, “Someone at church offended me, so I’m not going to worship anymore?” Do we admire Jesus enough to put ourselves in the slightest danger just to do the smallest thing for him?
#captain, #salvation, #KingDavid, #soldiers, #service, #loyalty, #sacrifice
The scripture for today, November 16, is John 11:16 as found in the New Testament of the Bible:
“Then Thomas…said to the rest of the disciples, ‘Let us also go that we may die with him.’ “
This apostle is most often called “Doubting Thomas.” We’ve all heard the story about Thomas being absent when Jesus appeared to the other apostles, then later said he wouldn’t believe Jesus was alive again unless he could touch him. Well, the other apostles hadn’t believed until they saw him either.
After returning to life, Jesus first appeared to the women. Then, “when they came back from the tomb, they told all these things to the Eleven and to all the others…But they did not believe the women because their words seemed to them like nonsense” (Luke 24:9-11).
Now let’s look at our scripture for today. In the months before Jesus’ death, he had been traveling everywhere except to Judea where Jerusalem and the religious leaders were. Those leaders were after Jesus’ life, and everyone knew it. Then Lazarus died and was buried about six miles from Jerusalem. It was dangerous for Jesus to go there.
John 11:7-8 says, “Then he [Jesus] said to his disciples, ‘Let us go back to Judea.’ ‘But Rabbi,’ they said, ‘a short while ago the Jews tried to stone you, and yet you are going back there?’ “
After explaining that he needed to get to Lazarus, it was Thomas who bravely spoke up and said, “Let us also go that we may die with him!”
Doubting Thomas? Far from it! Brave Thomas. Devoted Thomas. Thomas who was willing to follow his Lord to the death. That was the real Thomas.
#Thomas, #DoubtingThomas, #Judging, #Faith
The scripture for today, November 11, is Romans 11:11a as found in the New Testament of the Bible:
“Again I ask: Did they stumble so as to fall beyond recovery? Not at all!”
We weak humans may decide to live for God. But we are still weak humans. So sometimes we stumble and fall.
God stands with us. And when we fall, we are not beyond hope. For God holds out his hands and says, “Take them. I will lift you back up.”
So we do. And so he does.
He is so amazingly patient with us. He loves us so
#stumbling, #falling, #rescue, #restore
The scripture for today, November 10, is Acts 11:10 as found in the New Testament of the Bible:
“This happened three times and then it was all pulled up to heaven again.”
Acts 11 is about God telling Peter that his new heavenly kingdom was for the whole world, not just the Jews. What was pulled up to heaven again was a “sheet” holding all the unclean animals which the Old Law of Moses commanded not to eat. Now God was saying, “Eat it. The Old Law of Moses isn’t in effect anymore.”
This was hard to grasp. So hard that, even though it was God telling Peter directly a new spiritual concept, Peter refused it. So hard for him to believe it, that God had to tell him three times!
Isn’t this the way many of us are? We read something in the Bible that we never believed before. We read it and re-read it and re-read it, and it never sinks in. After all, we never believed that before. None of our religious friends believe it. None of our religious leaders believe it. No one on Christian radio/TV or in Christian magazines believes it.
But God’s Word remains, and so over the weeks and months and years we pass through that scripture and read it and re-read it. Over the weeks and months and years, its meaning for our life goes right over our heads.
Then one day, the light goes on! Viola! We see it! We get it! We are blessed!
#Scriptures, #Understanding, #Rebellion, #Blindness, #Blessing #Bible
(Yesterday we gave you the scripture for today, so today we give you yesterday’s.)
The scripture for today, November 7, is Psalm 11:7 as found in the Old Testament of the Bible:
“For the Lord is righteous, he loves justice; upright men will see his face.”
The face of God! How we who believe in God long to see his face. We cannot comprehend it. But we can comprehend this…..
God’s eyes ~ “The eyes of the Lord are everywhere, keeping watch on the wicked and the good” (Proverbs 15:1).
God’s mouth ~ “I have put my words in your mouth” (Isaiah 51:16).
God’s nose ~ “The Lord smelled the pleasing aroma….The smoke of the incense together with the prayers of the saints went up before God” (Genesis 8:21; Revelation 8:4).
God’s ears ~ “The eyes of the Lord are on the righteous and his ears are attentive to their cry.”
Perhaps when we continually watch both good and bad people around us with the same kind of care that God does, perhaps when we speak the words that come out of the mouth of God, perhaps when we send our prayers like sweet incense to God, perhaps when we are attentive to the silent cry of those around us ~ just perhaps, in some way, we are seeing the face of God.
Just perhaps.
#GodsEyes, #GodsEars, #GodsMouth
