THE TURBULENCE AND TRANQUILITY OF “THOMAS”

William Andrew Dillard

Ranking high among the pleasures of reading God’s Word is vicariously identifying with its cast of characters. Perhaps it is the unshakable focus and patience of Noah that inspires us or the unwavering faith of Abraham. Isaac brings calmness to the soul, while adventuresome excitement flows from trickster Jacob. Joseph inspires us in all our troubles as does Job, but what could be more of an emotional roller coaster than the life of Moses. On and on the chronicles of life itself in so many contexts speak loudly to us of what is right or wrong, good and bad. Who could have had a greater storybook life than David or Solomon, or the austerity, faithfulness, and fortitude of the impressive prophets. But some largely prefer to identify with the apostles. John was so trusting and loving. Peter was so impulsive and often wrong. Paul was a trail-blazing evangelist and doctrinal instructor. But there is another that claims a lion’s share of connection in many disciples in every generation. It is Thomas who is more often than not referred to as “Doubting Thomas.”
Often pushed into the back recesses of heart and mind, the more open doubts of our “Thomas” are hidden away. Out of view by others, he will command the mental easy chair of meditation or the center stage of a mind unwilling to surrender to nightly rest, calling into question some things deeply embedded as unchangeable truth. Our personal “Thomas” seems to strongly raise questions, affirm denial, and cause one to flounder in the pool of amazement over what is long known to be truth in the absolute.
The biblical Thomas knew the Lord, he received heaven’s baptism at the hands of John the Baptist, and positively responded to the call of Jesus. He loved the Lord and soaked up so much of Jesus’ teachings. The crucifixion threw him for a loop as it did most of the apostles. But not being present at the early appearances of the resurrected Christ, his knowledge consisted of the reports of the others who had seen Him. But no one rises from the dead. Four thousand years of consistent history proved it. But his brethren were not given to false statements. He wanted so much for it to be so, but determined he would not believe it until he had personally seen Him himself. What a time that was when Jesus appeared to them all inside a locked room, and he was bidden both to see and to feel the body of Jesus. A new level of solidification enveloped him as the turbulence gave way to tranquility.
That process of turbulence to tranquility is the prospective joy for every disciple who will stop long enough to meet with Jesus in the room of His Holy Word. When your “Thomas” finds his way to center stage, allow Jesus to speak as He did so long ago: “Then saith he to Thomas, Reach hither thy finger, and behold my hands; and reach hither thy hand, and thrust it into my side: and be not faithless, but believing.” John 20:27.

THE AGE OF EXPERIMENTATION

William Andrew Dillard

Just imagine a world in which clocks and calendars were either non-existent or largely meaningless if they did exist. This world would host men of great talent in musical arts, metal craft, animal husbandry, etc. Moreover, this imaginary world existed in an ideal climate all year long, century after century. Additionally, there were not a lot of regulatory laws, making human freedom the best humanity has ever enjoyed. Furthermore, the diseases that plague humanity today were unknown in this pristine environment. Does this sound divine; too good to be true; something that could only exist in one’s imagination? Well think again!
The world under consideration did in fact exist for a long 1656 years, from Adam to Noah. The antediluvian world though devoid of most conveniences enjoyed today, had a lot going for it including individual longevity approaching one thousand years. It could be called the age of experimentation. What will sinful mankind do, left largely to himself? Will he be grateful for his blessings, and seek after his Creator? Will he respect himself and his neighbor, and seek to make a better world for himself and his offspring?
In Genesis Chapter Six, God looked down to see what was going on in the world of men. What He saw was corruption; moral degradation, base sensuality reigning as king in an epicurean, drunken, sex crazy world. It was a world of faithlessness. Thus, it repented Him that He had made the human race, and He determined to destroy it.
Today, in spite of vaunted progress, the world is quite similar to that ancient society. It is a sign. Jesus said that when He comes again, the world will be as it was in the days of Noah. Matt 24:37-39.
But consider that it is not the absence of sin that divinity seeks in mankind. That is impossible. But it is the presence of faith. When the Son of man shall come, will He find faith on the earth? Luke 18:8. In the absence of faith, men, nations, and the world are wrong, and they degenerate into the sensual, violent quagmire of Noah’s day.
The good news is that Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord. Noah was a man of faith; a righteous man, perfect in his generations. It would be his lot to inherit a new world, a new beginning. Do you see a pattern here? People of faith in God and His eternal Word will inherit the universe with Christ Jesus, while those who submerge themselves in base pleasures of the flesh are destined to loss of life’s reward at best and eternal condemnation at worse. How much of your life is given to matters of faith in God and His Word? Every person is either contributing to the cause of Christ and goodness in the world or else to the cause of Satan and evil in the world. Sin cannot be eliminated from our world, but it can be repented of, and faith can find a dwelling and growing place in human hearts. The age of experimentation is history, but it bears unerring witness of an inevitable conclusion. In keeping with the pattern of the ages: in the absence of faith, no one may be right in the sight of God.

ANTEDELUVIAN LONGEVITY

W A Dillard
Methuselah is the longevity record holder at 969 years. Back then, proper names were often prophetic. “Methuselah” is a transliterated, composite word from at least three other words and translates, “When he dies, he will send it.” The reference is to the Noahic Flood. Methuselah’s father, Enoch, so named him because he was aware of the coming catastrophe. Consequently, he walked with God and was not because he was translated, being a mere 350 or so years old. Sure enough, in the same year that Methuselah died, the flood came: that was in 1656 Post Adam or 2344 B.C. So, Methuselah’s father is one of two men in human history to be translated rather than die, and his grandson built the ark to the saving of the human race. Hummmmm. Aside from all other indicators, what a strong argument this is that it pays to serve God.

BAPTISM AND THE NOAHIC FLOOD

HEBREW HONEYCOMB

William Andrew Dillard
BAPTISM AND THE NOAHIC FLOOD

“For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit: By which also he went and preached unto the spirits in prison; Which sometime were disobedient, when once the longsuffering of God waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was a preparing, wherein few, that is, eight souls were saved by water. The like figure whereunto even baptism doth also now save us (not the putting away of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience toward God,) by the resurrection of Jesus Christ:” I Peter 3:18-21
From earliest Sunday School Days, most Christians are enthralled with the story of Noah and the Flood. But, its implications extend to the church age with underscored import to modern day saints. Some attempt to deny the denotations and connotations of the verses of scripture at hand; others do their best to explain them away as meaningless. Still others make them to mean much more than they are intended to mean. So what might one rightly infer from them? Noah was a righteous man. Accordingly, he and his family found grace in the eyes of the Lord. He was blessed to build the Ark., and he is listed as one of the heroes of faith in Hebrews 11. When the sloosh ways of heaven were opened, the fountains of the deep surfaced, and rains came for forty days and nights, water bore up the Ark to the saving of their lives. However, the same water that bore up the Ark to the saving of their lives also caused the death of all others who drew the breath of life.
Now consider the parallel. Let it be understood that there is only ONE THING in the entire universe that is purgatory of sin: the blood of the Son of God. Yet, many of the people who drown in the flood were spiritually saved, but disobedient people. So it is the obedience of life that is under consideration in the figure. It is through obedience that a good consciousness toward God is created. Baptism is the first step of obedience for every saved person. Additionally, it is in that good consciousness toward God that His will is advanced in and through men. The obedience in water baptism brings a good conscience toward God, but the same water refused leaves one devoid of that good conscience. The difference is symbolized as gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble at the fiery Judgment Seat of Christ as shown in I Corinthians 3:9-15. So, it may be spoken of as the saving of one’s life to the glory of God, and to one’s personal reward. Therein is the figure spoken of in the verses under consideration.
Remember this the next time you hear some immature Baptist say, “Baptism is not important.” It is important, so much so that it is likened unto the difference between those in the Ark and those outside it.

Days of Noah

Author – Bob Hess
TODAY AND THE DAYS OF NOAH ARE LIKE LOOKING IN A MIRROR:
“As were the days of Noah, so will be the coming of the Son of Man. For just as in those days before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving marriage, up to the day Noah entered the ark; and they knew nothing about what would happen until the flood came and took them all away. That is how it will be at the coming of the Son of Man. Two men will be in the field; one will be taken and the other left. Two women will be grinding with a hand mill; one will be taken and the other left.” Matthew 24:37-41
What are these verses telling us? We are told that Noah was a preacher of righteousness (Contrary to how the new movie portrays him), according to 2 Peter 2:5. He was a righteous man (living a life that was right in the eyes of God), blameless among the people of his time, and he walked faithfully with God, according to Genesis 6:9.
When Noah began building the Ark, I can just imagine how those who observed what he was doing reacted. Being a “preacher of righteousness”, I can see Noah telling the people what God was planning to do. But in spite of watching this faithful man of God, being obedient to God, the people continued on in living each day as though Noah was crazy for doing what he was doing. A flood? It doesn’t even rain. Where is all the water going to come from that will cover our city, let alone the whole world? I can just hear them saying, as days became months and months became years. Then came the 119th year, and still no rain, let alone a flood. But, Noah kept building and making the preparations that God had instructed him to do.
But people STILL continued on with their same lifestyle of “eat, sleep and be merry”. Noah was “crazy” – “Building an ark because it is going to rain and kill everyone?”. Finally at the end of the 120th year from the day that Noah was told that God had had it with man, Noah had completed the task that God had given him – completely and he made sure that every “I” was dotted and very “T” was crossed (Genesis 6:22). God told Noah to get into the ark with the seven members of his family, and GOD SHUT THE DOOR OF SAFETY.
Today, many of God’s people are telling the people of this world that Jesus is about to return. But, life goes on as usual. Things are becoming more and more evil as each day passes bye, just as they did in the day of Noah. Right is becoming wrong and wrong is becoming right – homosexuality, abortion, etc. (Isaiah 5:20-24 and Malachi 2:17). In Malachi, God said that He is tired of them saying that “All who do evil are good in the eyes of the LORD and He is pleased with them”. Sound familiar? We are facing a day when people spit in the face of God by saying that homosexuality is OK in God’s sight when God’s Word says otherwise.
Well folks. Jesus IS COMING BACK SOON. People can deny it if they want to. But Peter warned the Christians of his day that “Above all, you must understand that in the last days scoffers will come, scoffing and following their own evil desires. They will say “Where is this coming He promised? Ever since our ancestors died, everything goes on as it has since the beginning of creation.” (2 Peter 3:4)
The scoffers are becoming the majority today. But we can’t give up and we can’t give in. We need to be “preachers of righteousness” just as Noah was as he waited for God’s promise to be fulfilled for 120 years. I honestly don’t believe that we have 120 years. Who knows? We may not even have another 120 minutes.

Hebrew – Marriage (1)

 

bā‘al, lāqach, yāḇam, ‘’iššāh

 

Several Hebrew words are translated “married,” “marry,” or “marriage,” each of which provides insight into what this relationship should be biblically. One is bā‘al (H1166), which means “to marry, have dominion, or to rule over.” It is used, for example, to demonstrate political dominion (1Ch_4:22) as well as God’s dominion over His people (Isa_26:13), which in turn is pictured as a marriage (Jer_3:14). This does not mean a husband rules like a little Napoleon over his wife, rather that he leads in a godly way and cherishes her as his own body (Eph_5:25-29). It is used also in the contexts of both virginity (Isa_62:5) and adultery (Deu_22:22), the latter of which was punishable by death. These demonstrate that purity should be part of both the foundation and continuing structure of marriage.

 

Another word is lāqach (H3947), which is used more than one thousand times in a variety of ways. With the basic meaning “to take, to grasp, to take hold of,” it is used for Noah taking hold of the dove to bring it back into the ark (Gen_8:9), taking vengeance (Isa_47:3), or even figuratively for “taking on” commands, a metaphor for obedience (Pro_10:8). It is, therefore, easy to see the significance of taking a wife (Gen_25:1), as this word also includes the idea of keeping what one takes (Gen_14:21).

 

Another word is yāḇam (H2992), which specifically addresses the custom in the Mosaic Law called “levirate marriage” (Latin levir, “brother-in-law”), which required that upon his brother’s death, if there was not already a male heir, a man was to marry his brother’s wife so the family name could be passed on (Deu_25:5-10). Obviously, we have no such custom today, but it does at least illustrate the importance of having children.

 

One other word is ’iššāh (woman or “wife,” H802, February 5). It underscores that the woman is part of the man. God has instituted marriage to make two people into one person (Gen_2:24; Mar_10:6-8; Eph_5:31; 1Co_6:16) so they can function to the fullest. While God leads and empowers some Christians never to marry so they can more fully devote themselves to the Lord’s work (Mat_19:11-12; 1Co_7:7-9), the general rule is marriage. Let us each cherish the one-person relationship God has given us.

 

Scriptures for Study: There was much Scripture mentioned in today’s study. Read those verses that particularly interest you, and consider the critical importance of marriage.

 

 

 

HEBREW WORDS – Name

 

Name (1)

 

šēm

 

Today we begin a study that will continue throughout the month, one which I pray will touch our hearts and lives like nothing else can, namely, a study of the names of God used in the OT. This is critically important in our day, for many of the problems we see in the church come from a wrong conception of God. We simply do not know who He is. To combat this, instead of the shallow fluff (and even heresy) that lines the shelves of many Christian bookstores, would that pastors encouraged their people to read books such as A. W. Tozer’s The Knowledge of the Holy, or Arthur W. Pink’s The Attributes of God. To go deeper, Puritan Steven Charnock’s, The Existence and Attributes of God, will furnish them with a lifetime of depth and meditation.

 

Before plunging into the many names of God in the OT, however, let us first consider three words that will help lay a foundation: name, remember (January 5), and meditation (January 6). While the etymology of the root šēm (H8034), which appears some 864 times, is uncertain, some scholars believe that it comes from “the Arabic root wšm ‘to mark or brand,’ hence an external mark to distinguish one thing or person from another.” Names in the Semitic world—the “Semites,” descendants of Noah’s son Shem, were the racial family to which Israel belonged—were much more significant than in our Western culture. A person’s name, in fact, “often carried more significance than an identification mark; it was considered to be a description of character or conditions.” Nabal’s name, for example, reflects the fact that He was a fool (1Sa_25:25);Eve means “the mother of all living” (Gen_3:20); Isaac means “he laughs,” a reminder of his parents’ laughter at the thought they could conceive a child in their old age; and Babel means “confusion,” hence the name of the tower where God confounded earthly languages.

 

The names of God, therefore, are extremely significant. So important are His names that some theologians call this “name-theology.” I like that term. “Theology” is the study of God, and to know His names is to know Him. As we study “name-theology,” let us seek God with a dedication of mind, devotion of heart, and depth of soul.

 

Scriptures for Study: What do Psa_20:5; Psa_44:8 encourage us to do concerning God’s name? What, then, is our responsibility, according to Exo_9:16?

 

 

 

9 Year-Old Recaps The Entire Bible!

9 Year-Old Recaps The Entire Bible!.

NOAH’S WISDOM

Noah Webster understood what it means to claim Christ as Lord of his life. He understood the term “Lord” meant ruler of his life. Not just while in the house of God but applying Godly principles to every aspect of our life. No decision should ever be made without going to the Lord about that decision. When Christ is “truly” Lord of our life, our every decision is dependant upon His doctrine, and His principles. Few want to live such a dedicated life. Our Nation is in a terrible condition, economically, spiritually and morally because we have chosen to elect men that are spiritually and morally bankrupt and therefore they are bankrupting our nation and states. We have done this for personal gain but have been led to the place we did not really want to go. We must draw closer to the Lord and incorporate Him into every aspect of our life and elect men that have these same principles.

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