Holy God, Fallen World

David W Rece

Description

Holy God, Fallen World is a collection of fascinating individual, stand-alone stories taken from the Old Testament of the Bible that reveal and discuss what the Bible has to say about the intense and ongoing conflict between our Holy God and the rebellious people of the fallen world. That this conflict is still continuing can be seen clearly in the turbulent and unrighteous world of today. Chaos, rebellion, immorality, and violence have reached a level of intensity not seen in my lifetime, apart from the great wars.

Many of the stories involve, or relate to, God's covenant people, the Israelites.  For centuries, they rejected God's principles, and turned away from Him to embrace the influence of the fallen world. Tragically, for most of their history, the people of Israel disobeyed their promises, and abandoned their covenant relationship with God. Most often, they chose instead to live in the fallen world, in a constant state of rebellion to God's principles. Ultimately, their unfaithfulness resulted in their destruction. 

Even though God has total control of the world, He has allowed Satan to have limited power for a period of time. You will recognize satanic influence in many of the characters in the stories and the decisions they made and the actions they took. The stories reveal what God's response was, and the consequences of the characters' sinful actions. God's interaction in response to the people of the fallen world over the centuries has included advice, support, discipline, correction, and punishment, even to include destruction when all else has failed to bring sinners to repent and return to Him. 

While these events took place more than two thousand years ago, the lessons they convey remain totally relevant. The nature of the people of the fallen world has not changed. Every day throughout the world, we see the evidence of the immorality and violence that come when God's righteous principles are ignored. The conflict is not over; in fact, it seems to be intensifying! 

Learning how God responded in the past to the behavior of the people of the fallen world is vitally important in helping us better understand who God is, what He requires from His people, and what He might be expected to do in response to the sinfulness of the world today.

We are living in perilous times, and it often seems that the forces of wickedness and rebellion are taking control of the world. Of course, that is not the case. God controls all the actions and events of the world, so we can be assured that He knows and is permitting this rebellion for a time. You will see the same sort of rebellion from earlier centuries in the stories in this book. God was in total control of the situations then, and by reading those examples, and learning how He responded, you can have confidence that He remains in full control today. 

These are timeless lessons that are relevant to every person.

Sujets

• Religion
• Christianisme
• God's Word
• Christian Standard Bible
• Bible Stories
• Biblical Studies
• Philosophie et théologie
• Religión
• Word of God
• Christian
• Bible

Informations

• Publié par: David W. Rece
• Date de parution: 01 août 2021
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781087965666
• Langue: English

Extrait

Holy God,Fallen World
Holy God,Fallen World
Book 1Fascinating Old Testament StoriesThat Reveal God’s Interaction with Sinful Mankind
David W. Rece


David W. Rece
Copyright
Copyright © 2021 by David W. Rece
 
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.
 
First Printing, 2021
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
To Jan, my wife, my partner,
my faithful friend, and the love of my life.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
July 2021
Contents Preface Acknowledgments Section 1 --- The Fallen World Introduction 1 The Beginning of the Fallen World Section 2 --- Old Testament History 2 The Great Flood 3 Abraham’s First Son, Ishmael 4 The Beginnings of Babylon 5 Abraham and His “Sister” Sarah 6 Facing the Trials of Life Faithfully 7 Melchizedek, Priest of God Most High 8 The Theology of Elihu 9 The Cave at Machpelah, a Powerful Symbol of Faith 10 The Love Story of Naomi, Ruth, and Boaz 11 Joseph, Son of Jacob—A Man of Great Faith 12 Nebuchadnezzar’s Three Lessons from God 13 The Ascension of the Tribe of Judah 14 The Supernatural Power of the Ark of the Covenant 15 The Descendants of Abraham 16 The Influence of Persia on Christianity 17 The Rise and Fall of Nineveh and Assyria Section 3 --- The Exodus 18 Israel’s Rebellion, with Victory in Sight 19 Israel’s Ancient Enemy, the Amalekites 20 The Changing Generations of Israel 21 Jethro, the Midianite Priest 22 Conditions Required by the Mosaic Covenant 23 God’s Program for Land Management 24 The Year of Jubilee 25 The Firstborn Belong to God 26 The Mosaic Sacrificial System 27 The Scapegoat 28 Lex Talionis—an Eye for an Eye 29 Atonement for Unsolved Murder 30 The Rebellion by Moses’s Family 31 Caleb, a Bold and Faithful Servant of God 32 Balaam, the Pagan Prophet 33 Israel’s Immorality at Shittim 34 The Emergence of the Transjordan Tribes 35 A Witness between Us 36 Gilgal, Israel’s First Camp in the Promised Land 37 The Conquest of Jericho 38 Rahab, from Harlot to Ancestor of Christ 39 The Day the Sun Stood Still 40 God Bars Moses from Entering the Promised Land 41 Moses’s Final Instructions Section 4 --- The Period of the Judges 42 The Changing of the Guard in the Promised Land 43 The Tragedy of Gideon’s Ephod 44 The Disastrous Vow of Jephthah the Gileadite 45 Samson, a Flawed Instrument of God 46 Samson and His Unsolvable Riddle 47 Micah, His Idols, and His Levite 48 The Near-Extinction of the Tribe of Benjamin 49 Samuel and Eli, a Study of Contrasts 50 The End of the Priesthood of the House of Eli 51 Deborah and Jael, Women of Victory 52 Samuel, the Last Judge of Israel Section 5 --- The Kings of Israel and Judah 53 Saul, the First King of Israel 54 Two Unfaithful Kings—Solomon and Jeroboam 55 King Josiah’s Ungodly Sons 56 God’s Rules for Kings 57 David Spares Saul’s Life, Twice 58 The Ascension of David as King of Israel 59 The Sword Comes to David’s House 60 Uzzah and the Ark of the Covenant 61 David’s Last Instructions to Solomon 62 Rehoboam’s Heavy-Handed Mistake 63 The Ungodly Jehoram and Athaliah of Judah 64 Micaiah’s Prophecy of Ahab’s Death 65 Ahaziah’s Search for Medical Advice 66 Josiah, the Last Good King of Judah 67 Ahaz and His Syrian Altar 68 One Punishment Too Far 69 King Hezekiah Faces the Assyrians 70 The Repentance of Manasseh 71 The Gibeonites Avenged 72 Important Stories Hidden in Lists of Names 73 Associating with Unbelievers—the Error of King Jehoshaphat 74 King Saul’s Irrational Fear of David 75 The Tragic Fall of King Uzziah 76 Jezebel s Brutal Murder of Naboth 77 Jeroboam, Architect of Apostasy 78 God’s Miraculous Deliverance of Samaria 79 Jehu, God’s Instrument of Judgment Against Ahab 80 The Threshing Floor of Araunah 81 The Final Hours of King Saul 82 The Disobedience of the Man of God from Judah 83 King Asa of Judah, from Faithfulness to Rebellion Section 6 --- The Prophets 84 The Amazing Life of Elijah the Prophet 85 Elisha and His Many Miracles 86 Amos, Sheepherder and Prophet of God 87 Daniel and the Seventy Sevens 88 Ezekiel and the Valley of Dry Bones 89 The Spirit of God Departs from the Temple 90 The Restoration of Sodom 91 Malachi, the Final Prophet of the Old Testament 92 Malachi’s Prophecy of the Messenger 93 Micah, Challenger of Judah’s Sinful Leaders 94 Habakkuk—A Prophet’s Cry against Unrighteousness 95 Haggai and the House of the Lord 96 Hosea, God s Prophet to Israel 97 The Unlikely Love Story of Hosea and Gomer 98 Isaiah’s Prophecy of Cyrus the Persian 99 Isaiah’s Prophecy of Immanuel 100 Judah s Weak and Ambivalent King Zedekiah 101 Zechariah, Prophet of Encouragement 102 The Day of the Lord, According to the Prophet Joel 103 The Day of the Lord, According to the Prophet Zephaniah 104 The Destruction of Edom Afterword Index of Stories Bibliography About the Author
Preface
About five years ago, I published a book named, Did You Know?  Two Hundred Short and Simple Bible Stories Having Eternal Significance. That book was a collection of  short Bible stories I had written over the years for the participants in Bible Study classes I was teaching.  My objective in writing the stories was to stimulate the interest of my students so they would be encouraged to spend more time reading the Bible and studying God's Word.
Since that time, I have continued to teach Bible Study classes, and have given considerable thought to rewriting, refocusing, refreshing, and republishing some of the stories from my earlier book.  Given the almost unprecedented violence and immorality that is sweeping over the United States and the entire world at the present time, I decided to rewrite my stories in order to make them more informative, and make readers more aware of the dangerous similarity between the rebellion and unfaithfulness of earlier ages to the turbulent times we are experiencing.  Holy God, Fallen World is the result of that decision. 
Like my earlier book, Holy God, Fallen World is a collection of short stories I have written.  However, the central theme of this book reveals and discusses what the Bible has to say about the intense and ongoing conflict between our Holy God and the people of the fallen world.  This is exactly what we see in the world around us today.  Chaos, rebellion, and immorality have reached a level that I have not seen in my lifetime, apart from the great wars. 
Of course, this rebellion and conflict is not new!  Since the earliest days in the Garden of Eden, men and women have repeatedly been unfaithful to God, and have rejected His righteous standards and instructions.  Those rebellious people chose to disobey God's commands, and turned instead to actions of darkness and immorality conceived by their own flawed reasoning.  The descent into immorality is understandable and inevitable.  When you reject the foundation of God's righteous standards, you fall under the Satanic influence and immoral principles of the fallen world.  It is alarming how closely the apostle Paul's assessment of the fallen world resembles the world today!
And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient; Being filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity; whisperers, Backbiters, haters of God, despiteful, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, Without understanding, covenantbreakers, without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful: Who knowing the judgment of God, that they which commit such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them. (Rom. 1:28-32)
 
Except where indicated, every story has been written as a complete, individual story.  I have organized the stories into six sections: The Fallen World; Old Testament History; The Exodus; The Period of the Judges; The Kings of Israel and Judah; and The Prophets.  This was done solely to place the various stories into some logical order.  In no way do I intend to limit the scope of any of the stories. In fact, many of the stories could appropriately be placed into more than one of the categories.  Within the individual sections, there is no particular order to the stories except for their inclusion in the section that seemed most appropriate.  All scriptures used in the stories are from the King James Version of the Bible.
I hope you will find these stories interesting and helpful in dealing with the events of your life.  We are living in perilous times, and it often seems that the forces of wickedness and rebellion are taking control of the world.  Of course, that is not the case.  The Bible teaches that God controls all the actions and events of the world, so we can be assured that He knows and is permitting this rebellion for a time.  You will see the same sort of rebellion from earlier centuries in the stories in this book.  God was in full charge then, and by reading those examples, and learning how He responded, you can have confidence that He remains in full control today.  
The Bible teaches its readers how to enjoy a victorious and joyful life on this earth.  Many obstacles can prevent Christians from experiencing joy in their lives.  It is all too easy to become captivated and programmed or even frightened by the violence, the distractions, and the temptations of the world.  The Bible repeatedly warns us that the things of the world will draw believers away from their relationship with God, and will encourage them to follow the inferior wisdom of the world.  We must reject the efforts of the fallen world to take away our joy.  Jesus has given us His peace.
Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid. (John 14:27)
 
I hope this book will stimulate a great hunger in