Читать книгу God's Interventions In Secular History - Kenneth B. Alexander BSL JD Deacon - Страница 19

God’s purpose at all times during earthly history has been to set up a righteous nation set aside for Himself alone. Israel is and was to be His special people He could rule, love and bless. Although ancient Israel failed to live up to that calling, spiritual Israel under Christ’s New Covenant will be those who will walk perfectly in His word (Hebrews 8:7-13; Jeremiah 31:33 et seq). This spiritual nation will be called the Kingdom of God and will be an eternal Kingdom (2 Peter 1:11). As Christ told us to pray: “[The Father’s] Kingdom come, His will be done, on earth as it is in Heaven” (Matthew 6:10). Some believers are reaching into that even now.

The twelve Biblical books stretching from Joshua to Esther are conventionally designated “The History Books.” But the word “history”, used in the colloquial sense, doesn’t tell the whole story, for Biblical history is attentive to what God is doing in the earth in order to accomplish His purpose. The History of the “world”, at least how it’s written in the history books, seems largely indifferent to God. Current secular history primarily describes the works and glorification of man. The countless temples and pyramids of the Egyptians, the wonders of the Babylonians, the knowledge and architectural accomplishments of the Greeks and the great societal, architectural and war machines of the Romans. Babylon and Chaldea had knew the sciences with great works in mathematics, astronomy (astrology) and temples as did the Persians, Mayans and Alexander the Macedonian. Humans are awed by these works dedicated to these false gods but God hardly gives them a passing glance. As to the nations He says: “Behold, the  nations are like a drop from a bucket, And are regarded as a speck of dust on the scales;…All the nations are as nothing before Him, They are regarded by Him as less than nothing and meaningless” (Is 40:15-17). This is God’s verdict of the works of man and the pagan nations which populated and populate the Earth.

This is evident in secular history as empires rise, rule and fall in regular intervals throughout history. Many nations conquered and ruled the known world (Sumeria, Babylon twice, Egypt, Persia, Greece/Macedonia, Rome and the Roman Church) only to fall from power for a variety of reasons. We are seeing this happen today as mighty empires seem to disintegrate before our eyes including the United States, Britain and the former Soviet Union. Without God no people can sustain itself over any extended period of time no matter the innovation and technical advances they obtain. God will let no nation take any glory from Him. His attitude concerning all mighty nations is quoted above. He is the Creator and only He knows the answers to nation sustainability.

Science and man regard the universe as an object of awe and look to it to find the “meaning of life” or how we “fit in”. To God, the vast, almost unending universe with all its mysteries seem to be an afterthought. “God made the two great lights, [Sun and Moon] the greater light to govern the day, and the lesser light to govern the night; He made the stars also” (Gen 1:16). Most nations built their civilizations around observation and interpretation of the stars of the heavens calling them “gods”. The Egyptians orientated their pyramids in line with certain stars (constellations and stars Orion, Sirius and the Pleiades) who whey considered to be gods. The Mayans of Central America did the same thing. The Chaldeans and Babylonians were master astrologers, as were the Canaanites. On the other hand God told His people not to regard the stars. He left it to the Gentile nations to use the cosmos for instruments of worship, divining, idolatry and prediction. He said: “And beware not to lift up your eyes to heaven and see the sun and the moon and the stars, all the host of heaven, and be drawn away and worship them and serve them, those which the Lord your God has allotted to all [other] the peoples under the whole heaven” (Deut 4:19).

God’s Biblical history is single minded. If you base your faith in the Bible there are no real mysteries. He created the nation of Israel to be a special nation set aside for His use only. God’s special nation was to live outside secular history and create a small nation that was to be His own. He always treated them as His own, affording special privileges to them not given to other nations. He would allow Israel to be victorious inn battle. As long as they obeyed Him He would bless their lives in every area. All the nations belong to God, but Israel was to stand in a place of special privilege and enormous responsibility (See Deut 7:6; 14:2; 26:18; 28; Ps 135:4; and Mal 3:17). He would sovereignly protect Israel but the other surrounding nations would not enjoy that protection. The Hebrew noun is סְגֻלָּה (ségullah), which means a special possession. Israel was to be God’s special possession.

Deuteronomy put it very clear as Moses addressed the Israelites before entering the Promised Land: “For you are a holy people to the Lord your God; the Lord your God has chosen you to be a people for His own possession out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth. “The Lord did not set His love on you nor choose you because you were more in number than any of the peoples, for you were the fewest of all peoples, but because the Lord loved you and kept the oath which He swore to your forefathers, [Abraham-Moses] the Lord brought you out by a mighty hand and redeemed you from the house of slavery, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt” (Deut 7:6-8, 14-2, 28:9).

Isaiah says:” And they will call them, “The holy people, The redeemed of the Lord”; And you will be called, “Sought out, a city not forsaken” (Is 62:12). They are also to be “a holy nation.” They are to be a nation separate and distinct from the rest of the nations. Here is another aspect of their duty. It was one thing to be God’s special possession, but to be that they had to be priestly and holy. The duties of the covenant God initiated with man will specify what it would mean to be a holy nation. In short, they had to keep themselves free from everything that characterized pagan people (S. R. Driver, Exodus, 171). So it is a bilateral covenant: they received special privileges but they must provide special services by the special discipline (See also H. Kruse, “Exodus 19:5 and the Mission of Israel,” North East Asian Journal of Theology 24/25 (1980).

Later however, after Israel began to sin with idols and foreign gods, the prophets narrowed the nation to a faithful remnant who had not sinned against God. Isaiah said: “The Lord has  removed men far away, And the forsaken places are many in the midst of the land. “Yet there will be a tenth portion in it, And it will again be subject to burning, Like a terebinth or an oak Whose stump remains when it is felled. The holy seed [remnant] is its stump” (v. 6:12-13). Whereas there had been a nation there was left only a remnant, one-tenth left. “But I will leave among you A humble and lowly people, And they will take refuge in the name of the Lord. “The remnant of Israel will do no wrong And tell no lies, Nor will a deceitful tongue Be found in their mouths; For they will feed and lie down With no one to make them tremble” (Zep 3:12-13).

To clarify God sought a nation who would walk with Him and be His special family. However the great majority of Israel and Judah sinned against God to the point that He allowed Assyria and Babylon to conquer them. But He promised He would leave a remnant who had not sinned. A remnant is the portion left over after a part has been removed. In biblical thought, the remnant has been or will be saved and redeemed by God. This concept is frequently mentioned in prophetic writings since it is the obverse of the idea that God will punish the sinning people with near total destruction (cf. 1 Kings 19:15-18). Thus, Amos speaks of a nonviable or pitiful remnant in his prophecies of rebuke (3:12; 5:3; 6:9; 7:1-6; 9:1; cf. 1:8), although if the people repent, destruction of ‘the remnant of Joseph’ may be avoided (5:14-15). A remnant will return’ to both God in repentance and the land in redemption (Isa. 7:3; 10:20-22; 11:10-16; 17:5-8; 28:5; 30:17-19; 37:4, 31-32; cf. 6:13). In Micah, ‘remnant’ is already a term meaning ‘those who will be redeemed’ (4:6-7; 5:2-8; cf. 2:12; 7:18-20). This understanding is evident also in Joel 3:5 (cf. Obad. 17). In Zephaniah, the righteous remnant of Israel will be redeemed (3:11-20; cf. 2:3, 7, 9).

Compared to other nations whose grand architecture stands today God did His work it seems in secret. Archeological findings, when it comes to God and Israel, in many respects leaves a silent record. Rather than trumpet the triumphs of the accomplishments of man, God low-keys His presence and acts so that our relationship with Him must be based entirely on faith. Scientific evidence of God that would give the earth physical evidence of His presence on earth is largely non-existent. For instance: the Ark of Noah has not been found where in this scientific age it seems it surely would have by now. The Ark of the Covenant has never been located. Israel spent 40 years in the desert of Sinai and there is no evidence of that—not even a shred of pottery. There is no clear evidence in the Egyptian record of the Hebrews or Moses (cf Armana Letters). There is no real evidence of the Garden of Eden, Adam and Eve or even that King David ever existed. For that matter there is no scientific evidence that Jesus Christ ever walked the earth. In contrast the Egyptians glorify their existence with pyramids and temples. A clear record is left by the Sumerians, Babylonians, Persians, Alexander the Great, the Hittites and the Romans. Most ancient civilizations have left clear evidence that they existed, shouting forth the great accomplishments of man for all to see and marvel at. The accomplishments of God are ignored even though He is manipulating all things from His thrown in the heavens (the Spirit realm). As Jesus put it: “…for He causes His sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous” (Mt 5:45).

Can God’s actions be detected scientifically? “I’ll believe in God if you can prove scientifically that He does things!” How can we respond to such a challenge? The first thing we must do is disentangle the questions involved here. First, what do we mean by “God’s actions”? Second, what do we mean by “science”? And third, can science detect events as God’s actions? Let’s take them one at a time.

It appears God covered His tracks, so to speak, so man would have to walk by faith, not venerated objects. The acts of God violated our precious Laws of Physics so why wouldn’t they be invisible. For example, the more we know about how babies come about, the more clearly supernatural becomes the conception of Jesus: There is no natural explanation for it. As C. S. Lewis put it, “No doubt a modern gynecologist knows several things about birth and begetting which St. Joseph did not know. But these things do not concern the main point—that a virgin birth is contrary to the course of nature. And St. Joseph obviously knew that:” Advances in medical science have only sharpened the point. We could say the same about Jesus’ resurrection: Dead bodies stay dead unless someone with extraordinary power interferes.

This kind of detection works best when it’s based on knowledge, not ignorance. It’s not just that we don’t know how it could happen; rather, we have every reason to believe that it can’t happen unless something else is added. The sciences can help us to know better the natures of the things involved and thus to know when “something else” is needed to explain what we see”

This deeply pervasive sense of history—the dignity of man’s place in history and the presence of God in history—accounts for the way in which the Hebrew people talked and wrote. They did not, as was the fashion in the ancient world, make up and embellish fanciful stories. Their writings did not entertain or explain; they revealed the ways of God with men and women and the world. They gave narrative shape to actual people and circumstances in their dealings with God, and in God’s dealings with them. But for the Hebrews there simply was no secular history. None. Everything that happened, happened in a world penetrated by God. Since they do not talk a lot about God in their storytelling, it is easy to forget that God is always the invisible and mostly silent presence in everything that is taking place. But if we forget for very long, we will understand neither what is written nor the way it is written. God is never absent from these narratives and never peripheral to them. As far as these writers were concerned, the only reason for paying attention to people and events was to stay alert to God.

This is a difficult mindset for us to acquire, for we are used to getting our history from so-called historians, scholars, and journalists with whom God is not involved or present in what they study and write. Historians write what has occurred on earth compatible to the natural laws. We are thoroughly trained by our schools, daily newspapers, and telecasts to read history solely in terms of politics and economics, human interest and environmental conditions. If we have a mind for it, we can go ahead and fit God in somewhere or other. These historical books—Joshua through Esther—are radically and refreshingly different. They pull us into a way of reading history that involves us and everyone around us in all the operations of God.

The ultimate result is that we are blind to God-His works and His presence on earth or in the heavens. This is the work of Satan who would rather God be forgotten and man be exalted. The great ruins, temples etc. of the great civilizations are to be awed at by man because they were built by unconsecrated man. They are one more cover-up by Satan who loves to show off the works of his servants and the gods for which they were made. Paul said: “And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing, in whose case the god of this world [Satan] has blinded the minds of the unbelieving so that they might not see the light of the gospel of the  glory of Christ, who is the image of God” (1 Co. 4:3-4).

God did not fail in obtaining a people for His own possession. The promises and Covenants He gave and made with His people still stand today. Unlike the crumbling ruins of previous empires His promises are as fresh today as they were when He spoke them. Isaiah, God’s mouth piece said: “Arise, shine; for your light has come, And the glory of the Lord has risen upon you. “For behold, darkness will cover the earth And deep darkness the peoples; But the Lord will rise upon you And His glory will appear upon you. “Nations will come to your light, And kings to the brightness of your rising” (Is 60:1-3). “Whereas you have been  forsaken and hated With no one passing through, I will make you an everlasting pride, A joy from generation to generation. “You will also suck the milk of nations And suck the breast of kings; Then you will know that I, the Lord, am your Savior And your  Redeemer, the Mighty One of Jacob” ( Isa 60:15-16). And: “For behold, I create new heavens and a new earth; And the  former things will not be remembered or come to mind. “But be glad and rejoice forever in what I create; For behold, I create Jerusalem for rejoicing And her people for gladness” (Is 65:17-18).

“I will also rejoice in Jerusalem, and be glad in My people; And there will no longer be heard in her The voice of weeping and the sound of crying. “No longer will there be in it an infant who lives but a few days, Or an old man who does not live out his days; For the youth will die at the age of one hundred And the bone who does not reach the age of one hundred Shall be thought accursed. “And they shall build houses and inhabit them; They shall also plant vineyards and eat their fruit. “They shall not build, and another inhabit, They shall not plant, and another eat; For as the lifetime of a tree, so shall be the days of My people, And My chosen ones shall wear out the work of their hands. “They shall not labor in vain, Or bear children for calamity; For they are the offspring of those blessed by the LORD, And their descendants with them. “It will also come to pass that before they call, I will answer; and while they are still speaking, I will hear. “The wolf and the lamb shall graze together, and the lion shall eat straw like the ox; and dust shall be the serpent’s food. They shall do no evil or harm in all My holy mountain,” says the LORD” (Is 65:19–25).

“And I heard a loud voice from the throne, saying, “Behold, the tabernacle [God’s presence] of God is among men, and He will dwell among them, and they shall be His people, and God Himself will be among them, and He will wipe away every tear from their eyes; and there will no longer be any death; there will no longer be any mourning, or crying, or pain; the first things have passed away” (Rev 21:3-4).