Faith in Old Testament
Genesis 15:6 Abram believed the Lord, and He credited it to him as righteousness
1 Kings 12:25-33 The Jeroboam fortified Shechem in the hill country of Ephraim and lived there. From there he went out and built up Peniel. Jeroboam thought to himself, “The kingdom will now likely revert to the house of David. If these people go up to offer sacrifices at the temple f the Lord in Jerusalem, they will again give their allegiance to their lord, Rehoboam king of Judah. They will kill me and return to King Rehoboam.”
After seeking advice, the king made two golden calves. He said to the people, “It is too much fpr you to go to Jerusalem. Here are your gods, Israel, who brought you up out of Egypt.” One he set up in Bethel, and the other in Dan. And this thing became a sin; the people came to worship the one at Bethel and went as far a Dan to worship the other.
Jeroboam built shrines on high places and appointed priests from all sorts of people, even though they were not Levites. He instituted a festival on the fifteenth day of the eighth month, like the festival held in Judah, and offered sacrifices on the altar. This he did in Bethel, sacrificing to the calves he had made. And at Bethel he also installed priests at the high paces he had made. On the fifteenth day of the eighth month, a month of his own choosing, he offered sacrifices on the altar he had built at Bethel. So he instituted the festival for the Israelites and went up to the altar to make offerings.
Proverbs 4:23 Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it
Romans 7:15-20 I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good. As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me. For I know that good itself does not dwell in me, that is, I my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. For I do not do the good I want to do, but the evil I do not want to do – this I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it.
Ephesians 4:2,3, 22-25, 32 Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love. Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace. . . . You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; to be made new in the attitude of your minds; and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness. Therefore each of you must put off falsehood and speak truthfully to your neighbor, for we are all members of one body. . . . Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, as just as in Christ forgave you.
2 Thessalonians 2:13 But we ought always to thank God for you, brothers and sisters loved by the Lord, because God chose you as firstfruits to be saved through the sanctifying work of the Spirit and through belief in the truth.
James 1:21-22 Therefore, get rid of all moral filth and the evil that is so prevalent and humbly accept the word planted in you, which can save you. Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says.
Ephesians 2:4, 5 But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions – it is grace you have been saved.
Ephesians 2:8-10 For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith – and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God – not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.
Do you ever wonder why Abraham or Noah or any of the others listed in God’s Word believed Him? They had to have gotten personal, up-close conversations and KNEW it was God. Don’t you think? We are told that God told Noah, and Noah and his family responded, following what God told him to do.
Abraham was the “Father” of all the Hebrews. At 100 yrs, he fathered Isaac, and then when God told him to go sacrifice that same son, he willingly went forward to do it. At, seemingly the LAST second, God told him to stop and to grab a ram that was captured in some brush and use the ram as his sacrifice. Abraham believed God would supply, but he went forth as though he would have to kill his son.
And Moses was born while still enslaved in Egypt and the fearful Egyptian leader had demanded that all the male children be killed at birth. Two mid-wives swore to Pharaoh that the Hebrew women were stronger than the Egyptian women and the children were already born when they arrived. He then ordered all to be snuffed out. But Moses’ parents defied this edict. They hid and cared for Moses for 3 months, then put him in a waterproof basket and set him out in the river; his elder sister Miriam watched, and spotted Pharaoh’s daughter gathering the child. She took him in as her own, and Miriam volunteered to get a nurse to feed the child.
It amazes me that these biblical heroes KNEW it was God speaking and telling them to move on “to a place I will direct you.” To tell a mother of an infant to put him in the basket and trust that he would be okay. Thankfully, he had older siblings who could help watch out for him. But along that line, what was Aaron doing. He must have been working as one of the slaves—making bricks? Carrying stones, carving stones to fit? He would not have been educated unless it was in some technical job—cleaning, building, carving stones, perhaps as a house slave caring for the family of Pharoah, maybe a cook. But the Torah had not been written, so there was no Word of God to study and try to understand. But Aaron was younger than Miriam, but older than Moses, so he had to be working at something. Was he close to God? Did he believe what he heard from God?
He obviously heard or was led by God after Moses fled after killing an Egyptian and realizing he had been seen. Aaron showed up a few years later, and together they went to Pharaoh to get the Hebrew slaves freed. That seems an arrogant dangerous plan to me—Moses knew he had a couple witnesses who saw him kill the Egyptian. Now he was returning to “an uncle or a cousin” raised in the house with this leader, and demanding the slaves be allowed to go and worship their God. I do believe he now felt the assurance of God and the Holy Spirit. He was given the ability to persuade Pharaoh.
Eventually, in fear, anger, and frustration Pharaoh did demand they ALL leave. Yet, they left with Egyptian gifts of jewelry and priceless items. They left with the knowledge that they had sprinkled a lamb’s blood over their door, ate the lamb with bitter herbs, and suffered NO loss of a firstborn. But can you imagine the numbers of people carrying their belongings, their herds of animals and fleeing? The numbers are staggering to me.
Yet Moses led all these Hebrew folks for years. It could have been a much shorter time, but with fear and doubt, ten of the men who went out to assess the Holy Land returned with frightening stories which convinced the others it was entirely too risky and a losing battle to even try to get into a battle!
Long story short, only two men from the original greater than a million, entered the Promised Land, saw and felt God’s promise. Moses got to see the land, but not to enter it.
But these original people had no written stories of what God had done. Moses wrote Genesis as God told him what to say; Moses learned the story of Adam and Eve and disobedience in the Garden; Moses was told about Noah building an Ark and a great flood brought about by God Himself to wipe out sin.
We get to read, study and be amazed at the story of creation and God’s first chosen people—and how they sinned and sinned and God would finally punish them by being captured and enslaved, scattering to man other lands, always being under the rule of others, and yet, they managed to hold tightly to their culture, to teach others the importance of Passover and what that means, and they held fast to their faith.
Were they always obedient? No. Were they at times arrogant? Yes. Were they disrespectful of God’s commands, choosing to live by their own judgments and sins? Absolutely. Did they learn God is patient and full of grace? Yes. And did it keep them from sinning after years of being persecuted and punished by others? Did they always seek God’s will and follow it fully? No. They are just like all of us sinners. We want what we want. But we have an entire book about how God loves us, wants the best for us, wants to lead and guide us in His way. We have many stories of God’s love, forgiveness, and how He sent His only Son to be our sacrifice. As the Hebrews wandered in the Wilderness and would choose a sin offering, atonement offering and on and on, killing these animals—it was to imprint on our brains the cost of our SIN on a poor animal.
I mean, after all, we have the ENTIRE book—we know the beginning and we know the turbulent but glorious end. They did not have the book. Moses wrote the first five books, and he was after Abraham and his family, and after Noah. Noah was the first family to procreate and cover the earth with various cultural groups after the Flood. It is estimated there was almost 1700 years between the Flood and the freeing of the slaves from Egypt. Impressive that there were about one million people led out of Egypt after being enslaved for 400 hundred years.
I can’t count the number of times I have read something in the Bible that has shocked or amazed me for any number of reasons. But the idea of these very early Hebrews—Abraham, Lot, Sarah and Moses and so forth moving on His command—how did they know it was His command. They all must have had an internal knowledge of God. And I know all seek something—trying to fill a void. But these knew it was God. Heavenly Father, I am so thankful for these biblical leaders who have left their example—both good and bad example to educate us, to show us the way, sometimes via mistakes, but it is a wonderful book of Your love, patience, kindness, grace and forgiveness for us. Thank You for all You the blessings bestowed on me and ‘mybellaviews.’
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