Silence of Time
Visiting the oldest geographical areas of the world such as the Great Pyramid at Giza, Egypt, dating 12000 BC. Close by, the Sphinx, dating 700BC. Egyptologists, geologists, historians, tell us that the Sphinx was at one time mostly covered with sand from the Sahara. Even today, archaeologists with their sophisticated instruments predict that there are cavern-sanctuaries underneath the Sphinx, yet to be explored. I went into the tomb of King Tut in the valley of the Kings. Archaeologist Howard Carter, the first to open the tomb, one of the few tombs which had not been robbed centuries before, was amazed at what he found. Most of the gold there now, displayed in the Egyptian museum. Significant, after thousands of years, germs still there which made members of his expedition very sick. Silence and time does not lessen our interest in those who built these great monuments to history, now for our study. Only when you visit Thebes-Luxor, see those great columns, realize the tools and knowledge at their disposal, at that time, do you gain a renewed spiritual dimension in your life.
As I have stated so many times, you must put flesh and blood on the people of history. When you do, our 21st century “brilliance” dims.
Every word in God's book, there for a purpose.
God's book is the handbook straight from the manufacturer, in spite of those who hate God, hate His Book, there is no other place for them to go for every problem and discipline regarding life. Much to the chagrin of the Apostate deceivers, it is a racial Book, a sex book, almost entirely Jewish with Gentiles only as they affect the Jews. The modernists, communists, would not even, today, accept Darwin's book, because of it's very title including “Preservation of the Races”. Again, the modernists, even atheist theologians deny basic Christianity. Even to the extent that Methodists, Presbyterians, Lutherans, describe abortion as “elective surgery”, further show their “spite” for God's Word by accepting the evils of homosexuality, same-sex marriage, gays and lesbians in pulpits. God always gives warning signals for the disaster of pagan-agnosticism along the way.
Such evil, God destroyed human kind in the great flood of Noah's day, 5000BC. Just from the eight souls God chose to save, a new, vibrant, civilization. God decided to try again, one of Noah-Seth's ancestry, Abraham, between 75 and 100 years of age, God called him, by faith, to leave all and travel 600 miles north to a land without a forwarding address. On the way, to rid Abraham of all thoughts of idol worship, his father, Terah, worshiper of idols, died. When Abraham's family arrived in their “promise land”, there was famine. Always, to the end of his life, he lived in tents. Even a face to face relationship with God, he picked up his tent and moved to Egypt. Sarah, over 65 years of age, was still considered a beautiful women and Abraham decided to lie about her marital status, that she was his sister, not his wife. Pharaoh, large harem, sharp eye for beautiful women, probably took Sarah into his harem. The crux came when a plague hit Egypt and Pharaoh learned that Sarah was married to Abraham. This “first Jew”, later to become the world's richest man, his wife, his possessions, including a hand maiden of Sarah, Hagar, were kicked out of Egypt by Pharaoh. Significant, the place of the world's most advanced civilization in the life of God's chosen. Later, Joseph brought his father Jacob to Pharaoh and Jacob blessed Pharaoh (Genesis 47:10)... the story of another famine, the never ending story of going down into Egypt and coming up out of Egypt.
Abraham returned to the place which God had directed and again pitched his tent between Bethel and the ruins of Canna. Of course, tottering along against God's wishes, Abraham's self-centered nephew, Lot. We know the story of Lot and Abraham's herd possessions, strife between herdsmen, Lot selecting the best land, future destruction of the cities of the plain and Abraham's continued involvement.
Significant to the 21st century Christian, God's “safety-net” before the law of Moses, and, thank God, after the cross of Christ, lying, disobedience, generalized backsliding, God still loves us, His chosen, in spite of ourselves.
Abraham, like later Moses, face to face relationship with the God of the universe, the one who actually threw the millions of stars into space, must have thought, why did God direct me into a desolate land of famine? Even after God had told him to look in every direction, that he owned it all, even after Abraham walking north-south, east-west, “mine, mine, mine”. He knew the hardship, the testing, which accompanies, always, God's Sovereignty. “Forever, Blessed [is] the man whose strength [is] in thee; in whose heart [are] the ways [of them]. They go from strength to strength, [every one of them] in Zion appeareth before God.” (Psalm 84: 5,7)
I have said all of this to encourage the disabled, the disenfranchised, the depressed of this world, to spend time in the arena of silence, waiting, not working. It is more difficult to wait than to work in a world fraught with noise and activity, silence is your best therapy, in spite of failures, warts, listen for that still quiet voice... better than all the pills. The taking of medication for anxiety has increased 1700% in just five years. The sin of escape is easy for a season. “For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.” (2 Timothy 1:7)
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