THE WAY GOD RULES
THE LORD HAS ESTABLISHED HIS THRONE IN THE HEAVENS, AND HIS KINGDOM RULES OVER ALL. PS 103:19
Two kinds of Questions
1.Honest 2.Antagonistic
Antagonistic Question
Honest question
Honest questions • Jeremiah 12:1 Righteous are You, O LORD, that I would plead my case with You; Indeed I would discuss matters of justice with You: Why has the way of the wicked prospered? Why are all those who deal in treachery at ease?
Final Judgment God is not intimidated by our questions or doubts, nor is He afraid to tell us the truth.
What kind of God do we serve?
What kind of God do we serve? •We will become like the god we worship.
What kind of God do we serve? • Man becomes like what he worships b/c the object of worship becomes his standard of perfection, ďƒ a man condemns in himself whatever does not conform to that standard. He hates everything that is not like what he worships.
Final Judgment Review: God’s 5 means of direction 1. Acts of Lovingkindness 2. Law and Consequence 3. National Judgment 4. Governmental Providence 5. Final Judgment
Final Judgment THE TOTAL EXTERMINATION OF A CULTURE OR PEOPLE. WHEN NO OTHER RECOURSE IS POSSIBLE, IT IS THE LAST RESORT OF GOD WHEN DEALING WITH A CULTURE OR PEOPLE.
Final Judgment GOD CONTROLS BY REMOVING EXTREME EVIL AND INCORRIGIBLE REBELLION
When does this Happen? • At a few junctures in history (probably only four times during the 4,000 years of Old Testament history) humanity moved far away from God’s direction and purpose. Every person in an entire society became incorrigible – absolutely refusing correction and bad beyond correction.
When does this Happen? • They despised God’s tender love and kindness. They rejected His loving and reasonable laws. They absolutely refused God’s correction through God’s wise and necessary judgments.
Final Judgment -The entire pre-flood world -Sodom & Gomorrah -The Canaanite kingdoms -The Amalekites
Case 1: The Flood Genesis 4: 25 And Adam knew his wife again; and she bare a son, and called his name Seth: For, said she , God hath appointed me another seed instead of Abel; for Cain slew him. 26 And to Seth, to him also there was born a son; and he called his name Enosh. Then began men to call upon the name of Jehovah.
Case 1: The Flood 26. And to Seth also to him a son was born, and he named him Enosh; then it became common to call by the name of the Lord.
Case 1: The Flood • then it became common Heb. is an expression of profaneness: to name people and idols with the name of the Holy One, blessed be He, to make them idols and to call them deities. -Rashi
Case 1: The Flood "In the days of Enos the sons of Adam erred with great error,and the counsel of the wise men of that age became brutish, and Enos himself was (one) of them that erred; and their error was this: they said, Forasmuch as God hath created these stars and spheres to govern the world, and set them on high, and imparted honour unto them,
Case 1: The Flood “and they are ministers that minister before him;it is meet that men should laud, and glorify, and give them honour. For this is the will of God, that we magnify and honour whomsoever he magnifieth and honoureth; even as a king would have them honoured that stand before him, and this is the honour of the king himself.
Case 1: The Flood “and this was the root of idolatry, process of time there stood up false prophets among the sons of Adam, which said that God had commanded and said unto them,Worship such a star, or all the stars, and do sacrifice unto them thus and thus; and build a temple for it, and make an image of it,that all the people, women, and children may worship it.
Case 1: The Flood “And the false prophet showed them the image which he had feigned out of his own heart, and said it was the image of such a star, which was made known unto him by prophecy. And they began after this manner to make images in temples, and under trees, and on tops of mountains and hills, and assembled together and worshipped them,
Case 1: The Flood “images with services different one from another, and to sacrifice unto and worship them. So, in process of time, the glorious and fearful name (of God) was forgotten out of the mouth of all living, and out of their knowledge, and they acknowledged him not.� -Rabbi Maimonides
Case 1: The Flood
6:4 The Nephilim were in the earth in those days, and also after that, when the sons of God came in unto the daughters of men, and they bare children to them: the same were the mighty men that were of old, the men of renown. 5 And Jehovah saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.
Case 1: The Flood 6 And it repented Jehovah that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart. 7 And Jehovah said, I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the ground; both man, and beast, and creeping things, and birds of the heavens; for it repenteth me that I have made them.
Case 1: The Flood 11 And the earth was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence. 12 And God saw the earth, and, behold, it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted their way upon the earth. -Genesis 6
Case 1: The Flood 13 And God said unto Noah, The end of all flesh is come before me; for the earth is filled with violence through them;
and, behold, I will destroy them with the earth. -Genesis 6
The Flood: What Happened? 1. The people had grown unbelievably wicked. The earth was “filled� with evil. Violence is mentioned specifically, and crimes of lust are very strongly implied.
The Flood: What Happened? 2. God places His representatives in their midst.
-Methuselah: his name meant “when I die, the flood will come� -Noah preached for over 100 years, warning people to turn back to God
The Flood: What Happened?
3. God is patient and merciful -Methuselah lives for 969 years with his fateful name -Noah preaches for over 100 years
The Flood: What Happened?
4. God shows that He is willing to spare those who listen to Him.
Noah and his family are protected from the flood.
The Flood: What Happened? 5. Finally, when all other options are exhausted, God destroyed them. The flood destroyed every living on the face of the ground. Only Noah’s family was spared (Gen. 7:23)
Case 2: Sodom Gen 18:20 “And the Lord said, ‘Because the outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah is great, and because their sin is very grave, I will go down now and see whether they have done altogether according to the outcry against it that has come to me, and if not, I will know.”
Case 2: Sodom Gen 18:32
“And [the Lord] said, ‘I will not destroy it for the sake of ten [righteous].’”
Case 2: Sodom Gen 19:1, 4,5 “Now the two angels came to Sodom in the evening... Now before they lay down, the men of the city, the men of Sodom, both old and young, all the people from every quarter, surrounded the house.
Case 2: Sodom Gen 19:13 “... ‘We will destroy this place, because the outcry against them has grown great before the face of the Lord, and the Lord has sent us to destroy it.’”
Case 2: Sodom Gen 19:24-25 “Then the Lord rained brimstone and fire on Sodom and Gomorrah, from the Lord of the heavens. So He overthrew those cities, all the plain, all the inhabitants of the cities, and what grew on the ground.�
Sodom: What Happened?
1. The people had grown unbelievably wicked. -Violence and sexual perversion -Greed, and lack of generosity -Pride - they did not even try to hide their faces in sin (Isaiah 3:9)
Sodom: What Happened?
2. God places His representatives in their midst. -Lot had been living there for 25 years -Abraham, the mighty man of God, was no stranger to Sodom -Melchizedek
Sodom: What Happened?
3. God is patient and merciful -God gives them a chance to repent by sending his angels to the city. -Abraham intercedes for Sodom. God is willing to spare the city for a meager 10 righteous men!
Sodom: What Happened?
4. God shows that He is willing to spare those who listen to Him. -Lot and his unmarried daughters are permitted to escape from the city before it was destroyed.
Case 3: Canaan Deut 7:1, 2 “When the LORD your God brings you into the land you are entering to possess and drives out before you many nations -- the Hittites, Girgashites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites, seven nations larger and stronger than you
Case 3: Canaan Deut 7:1, 2 2 and when the LORD your God has delivered them over to you and you have defeated them, then you must destroy them totally. Make no treaty with them, and show them no mercy.�
Case 3: Canaan Deut 20:16-17 “However, in the cities of the nations the LORD your God is giving you as an inheritance, do not leave alive anything that breathes. 17 Completely destroy them -- the Hittites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites -as the LORD your God has commanded you.�
Case 3: Canaan Deut 7:16 “You shall consume all the peoples whom the Lord your God will deliver to you; your eye shall not pity them, neither shall you serve their gods, for that would be a snare to you.�
Case 3: Canaan Who were these Canaanites & What were their sins?
the gods of canaan Dagon (or El) shadowy figure, who... had three wives, who were also his sisters, and who could readily step down from his eminence and become the hero of sordid escapades and crimes. El (is portrayed) as a bloody tyrant, whose acts terrified all the other gods, and who dethroned his own father, murdered his
the gods of canaan Asherah • Asherah was the wife of El. She was the primary fertility goddess who was said to have nursed all the other fertility gods and goddesses. • Details are sketchy, but worship of Asherah always involved some sort of wooden instrument. Certainly, sexuality played a big part in Asherah worship as well.
the gods of canaan -god, Baal was worshipped under two aspects, beneficent and destructive. On the one hand he gave light and warmth to his worshippers; on the other hand the fierce heats of summer destroyed the vegetation he had himself brought into being. Hence, human victims were sacrificed to him in order to appease his anger in time of
the gods of canaan Originally represented by stone pillars as phallic symbols; later as a kilted warrior w/ a horned helmet and a lightning bolt or spear. Bel to the Babylonians, Zeus to the Greeks, and Jupiter to the Romans
the gods of canaan Mot the god of the dead and all the powers that opposed life and fertility. He was the favorite son of El, and the most prominent enemy of the god Baal. Mot was the god of sterility and the
the gods of canaan Anath galaxy of three Canaanite goddesses ... The other two are Astarte and Asherah. All three were patronesses of sex and war -- sex mainly in its sensuous aspect as lust, and war in its aspects of violence and murder. ... An Egyptian text of the New Kingdom period described Anath and Astarte as "the great goddesses who conceive but do not bear."
the gods of canaan Anath
in a massacre of old and young alike:
She smites the people of the seashore Destroys mankind of the sunrise.... She piles up heads on her back She ties up hands in her bundle.... Anath gluts her liver with laughter Her heart is filled with joy.�
the gods of canaan Anath (Ashtoreth) • Ashtoreth worship generated insane acts of devotion; children were thrown by their mothers from the top of the temple walls during her feast to be afterwards burned on the altar
• But SELF-MUTILATION was the highest and most acceptable offering to Ashtoreth
the gods of canaan Anath (Ashtoreth)
• The Galli, “dressed in women’s clothes, faces and eyes painted like women, and danced to the sound of wild music making a hideous noise – they howled, flew wildly past each other, dragging their hair in the dust. Presently they began to bite their bare arms, and next hack themselves with the two edged swords they carried… in the evening they made up for the bloody chastisements of the day by a debauchery, and if the opportunity offered, gave themselves up to every abomination.”
the gods of canaan Anath (Ashtoreth) • In Ashtoreth, sex, mutilation and death met in a perverse marriage.
the gods of canaan Astarte Anath and Asherah concerned with sex and war and was not always clearly
Anath as goddesses of violence and war, showing them naked astride a
the gods of canaan Molech other hand he has a bowl with the head and the feet of a little child sticking up. He holds this bowl in front of his mouth. To the right there is another bowl, and a god with an animal head holding a knife in his right hand above the bowl ready to slaughter sacrifices as food for the gods."
the gods of canaan • “We have seen how Baal and Moloch were once related as opposite incarnations of the same ultimate deity.” – DTTY • “Moloch worship, at least in later times, may be characterized as the more intense and repulsive form of Baal worship.” • Every first-born male was consecrated to him as a human sacrifice or to enter his priesthood.
the gods of canaan
The
myth
Each year, as the winter season came, it was said that began to struggle with his brother Mot, the god of death. Mot would slay , and barrenness would reign over the land until was revived through sympathetic magic of his worshippers.
the gods of canaan
You will become like the god you worship!
Sins of Canaan
1.Child Sacrifice
• You must not worship the LORD your God in their way, because in worshipping their gods, they do all kinds of detestable things the LORD hates. They even burn their sons and daughters in the fire as sacrifices to their gods. Deut 12.31
Sins of Canaan
1.Child Sacrifice
• 10 Let no one be found among you who sacrifices his son or daughter in the fire, Deut 18.10 • They shed innocent blood, the blood of their sons and daughters, whom they sacrificed to the idols of Canaan, and the land was desecrated by their blood. Ps 106.38
Sins of Canaan 1. Child Sacrifice 2. Incest • "The second myth is often called 'The Birth of the Good and Gracious God.' It opens with a banquet at which wine flows freely. The text is divided into sections, the tenth being the last and most crucial. El is about to create two women who will become either his wives or daughters, depending on his ability to impregnate them.
Sins of Canaan 1. Child Sacrifice 2. Incest He creates these females and seduces them, and they both become pregnant. One bears a child called Dawn (Shahar), and the other a child called Dusk (Shalim).
Sins of Canaan 1. Child Sacrifice 2. Incest Later, El makes love to these same women and they produce seven sons between them. These sons are 'the good and gracious gods.' They are destined to be gods of fertility,
Sins of Canaan 1. Child Sacrifice 2. Incest say to them: `I am the LORD your God. 3 You must not do as they do in Egypt, where you used to live, and you must not do as they do in the land of Canaan, where I am bringing you. Do not follow their practices.
Sins of Canaan 1. Child Sacrifice 2. Incest 4 You must obey my laws and be careful to follow my decrees. I am the LORD your God. 5 Keep my decrees and laws, for the man who obeys them will live by them. I am the LORD.
1. Child Sacrifice 2. Incest
Sins of Canaan
6 "`No one is to approach any close relative to have sexual relations. I am the LORD. 7 "`Do not dishonor your father by having sexual relations with your mother. She is your mother; do not have relations with her. 8 "`Do not have sexual relations with your father's wife; that would dishonor your father.
Sins of Canaan 1. Child Sacrifice 2. Incest 9 "`Do not have sexual relations with your sister, either your father's daughter or your mother's daughter, whether she was born in the same home or elsewhere. 10 "`Do not have sexual relations with your son's daughter or your daughter's daughter; that would dishonor you.
Sins of Canaan 1. Child Sacrifice 2. Incest
11 "`Do not have sexual relations with the daughter of your father's wife, born to your father; she is your sister. 12 "`Do not have sexual relations with your father's sister; she is your father's close relative.
Sins of Canaan 1. Child Sacrifice 2. Incest
13 "`Do not have sexual relations with your mother's sister, because she is your mother's close relative. 14 "`Do not dishonor your father's brother by approaching his wife to have sexual relations; she is your aunt.
Sins of Canaan 1. Child Sacrifice 2. Incest 15 "`Do not have sexual relations with your daughter-in-law. She is your son's wife; do not have relations with her. 16 "`Do not have sexual relations with your brother's wife; that would dishonor your brother.
1. Child Sacrifice 2. Incest
Sins of Canaan
17 "`Do not have sexual relations with both a woman and her daughter. Do not have sexual relations with either her son's daughter or her daughter's daughter; they are her close relatives. That is wickedness. 18 "`Do not take your wife's sister as a rival wife and have sexual relations with her while your wife is living.
Sins of Canaan 1. Child Sacrifice 2. Incest
3. Bestiality This practiced was outlawed in most of the Ancient Near East, but was wholeheartedly embraced in Canaan. Consider the example from the Baal Epic:
Sins of Canaan Baal, on his way to the underworld, has sexual relations with a young heifer:
Puissant Baal complies. He desires a calf-cow in Dubr; A heifer in Shihlmemat-field; Lies with her times seventy-seven, [...]...times eighty-
Sins of Canaan 1.
Child Sacrifice
2.
Incest
3. Bestiality
Lev 20:23 and defile yourself with it. A woman must not present herself to an animal to have sexual relations with it; that is a perversion.
Sins of Canaan 1. Child Sacrifice 2. Incest 3. Bestiality
4.Cultic Prostitution
Canaanite texts refer to qadesh and qadesha
Sins of Canaan 1. Child Sacrifice 2. Incest 3. Bestiality
4.Cultic Prostitution
Deuteronomy 23:17:
qedesha) of the daughters of Israel, nor a sodomite (qadesh
1. Child Sacrifice
2. Incest 3. Bestiality
Sins of Canaan 4.Cultic Prostitution
5. Destruction
morning even until noon, saying, O Baal, hear us. And they cried aloud, and cut themselves after their manner with
-1 Kings 18:25-28
• “Merlin Stone describes similar rites by a young male devotee of the goddess in Anatolia and Rome. He cut off his genitals, and ‘ran through the streets still holding the severed parts. He eventually flung these into a house along the way, custom decreeing that the inhabitants of the house should provide him with woman’s clothing which he wore from then on.’
• Small wonder then God jealously guarded His people from unhealthy fascination with the corrupted religions around them. Israel was like an unspoiled girl in love with God, surrounded by cities of worshiping pimps, hookers and perverts devoted to murder, lust and death.” – DTTY, Winkie
Sins of Canaan 1. Child Sacrifice 2. Incest 3. Bestiality
4.Cultic Prostitution
5. Destruction
What was God to do with such a wicked people?
Canaan: What Happened?
1. The people became exceedingly wicked
Canaan: What Happened?
ii. God places His representatives in their midst. • Abraham • Isaac • Jacob
Canaan: What Happened?
Joshua 2:9 "I know that the LORD has given this
land to you and that a great fear of you has fallen on us, so that all who live in this country are melting in fear because of you. 10 We have heard how the LORD dried up the water of the Red Sea for you when you came out of Egypt, and what you did to Sihon and Og, the two kings of the Amorites east of the Jordan, whom you completely destroyed.
Canaan: What Happened? 11 When we heard of it, our hearts melted and everyone's courage failed because of you, for the LORD your God is God in heaven above and on the earth below.�
God is patient & Merciful
•Genesis 15 •400 years
Canaan: What Happened? Then the LORD said to him, "Know for certain that your descendants will be strangers in a country not their own, and they will be enslaved and mistreated four hundred years. 14 But I will punish the nation they serve as slaves, and afterward they will come out with great possessions.
Canaan: What Happened? 15 You, however, will go to your fathers in peace and be buried at a good old age. 16 In the fourth generation your descendants will come back here, for the sin of the Amorites has not yet reached its full measure." -Genesis 15:13-16
Canaan: What Happened? 4. God shows that He is willing to spare those who listen to Him.
-Rahab and her family were spared for helping the spies. -Rahab even became an ancestor of Christ
Canaan: What Happened?
5. Finally, when all other options are exhausted, God destroyed them. This time, He used Joshua’s armies to annihilate everyone by the sword.
What kind of God do we serve?
Canaan: What Happened?
What does the Lord say about Himself?
Nehimiah 9:16-17 “ ‘But they, our fathers, acted arrogantly; they became stubborn and would not listen to Your commandments. They refused to listen and did not remember your wondrous deeds which you had performed among them; So they became stubborn and appointed a leader to return to their slavery in Egypt. But You are a God of forgiveness,
Gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in lovingkindness; And you did not forsake them. Even when they made for themselves a calf of molten metal and said, ‘this is your God who brought you up from Egypt,’ and committed great blasphemies, You in Your great compassion, did not forsake them in the wilderness; the pillar of cloud did not leave them by day, to guide them on their way.’ ”
Psalm 103 “The Lord performs righteous deeds and judgments for all who are oppressed. He made known His ways to Moses, His acts to the sons of Israel. The Lord is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger and abundance in lovingkindness. He will not always strive with us, Nor will He keep His anger forever. He has not dealt with us according to our sins, Nor rewarded us according to our iniquities.
(17-20) The Lord is righteous in all His ways And kind in all His deeds. The Lord is near to all who call upon Him, To all who call upon Him in truth. He will fulfill the desire of those who fear Him; He will also hear their cry and will save them. The Lord keeps all who love Him, But all the wicked He will destroy.�
Assyria
Who were the Assyrians???
Assyria “The army included a highly trained force of chariotry, bowmen, spearmen, and slingers. Ramps and battering rams were used to capture walled cities and the spoil of captured peoples, including people taken as slaves, would go to Nineveh to enhance the Assyrian capital. Hostile rulers were sometimes impaled or skinned alive as a warming to potential rebels.
Assyria The religion of Assyria was similar to that of Babylon and other ancient Semitic nations. Although Ashur was the deity to whom Assyria was devoted - Assyrians are, by definition, “the people of Ashur� - other deities had interests that were not to be neglected. Anu and Adad had temples at Ashur; Ishtar - goddess of war and love - was accorded special worship in Nineveh.
Assyria The Assyrian’s religion was very similar to Canaan’s. Their gods were pretty much the same. Here’s the difference: This was 700 years later
They had more time to delve into the depths of idolatry.
Assyria: What Happened?
#1: The people were exceedingly wicked.
Assyria: What Happened?
#2- God places His representatives in their midst. Assyria had the influence of Israel for Centuries. They had prophets pronouncing judgment on them. They had no excuse!
Assyria: What Happened?
3. God is patient and merciful He withheld his judgment for centuries even though they deserved it. Finally, He sent Jonah in.
Assyria: What Happened? Jonah 3:4 “Then Jonah began to go throughout the city one day’s walk; and he cried out and said, ‘yet forty days and Nineveh will be overthrown.’ Then the people of Nineveh believed in God; and they called a fast and put on sackcloth from the greatest to the least of them. When the word reached the king of Niniveh, he arose from his throne, laid aside his robe from him, covered himself with sackcloth and sat on the ashes.
Assyria: What Happened?
“He issued a proclamation and it said, ‘In Nineveh by the decree of the king and his nobles: do not let man, beast, herd, or flock taste a thing. Do not let them eat or drink water. But both man and beast must be covered with sackcloth; and let men call on God earnestly that each may turn from his wicked way and from the violence which is in his hands.
Assyria: What Happened? • God is patient.
2 Peter 3:9 The Lord is not slow about His promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance. Exodus 34:6 Then the LORD passed by in front of him and proclaimed, "The LORD, the LORD God, compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in lovingkindness and truth; 7 who keeps lovingkindness for thousands, who forgives iniquity, transgression and sin;
Assyria: What Happened? If we can’t understand some aspects of what the Lord did, we can look at Niniveh, and see that He truly is a God who is gracious and compassionate - a God who relents concerning calamity. Trust must be earned, and the Lord has shown Himself to be trustworthy.