The Meaning Of Life

https://biblehub.com/nkjv/numbers/21.htm

God called on Abraham to be his servant, we know that. And we know that cause Abraham was His “chosen” , his heirs were given the promised land. But why Abraham? Abraham lived in a city called Ur, which reportedly was not a good city, in the same area as Babylon. Why was Abraham so special?

I know, we’ve left the Book of Genesis three books back, so why are we talking about Abraham?

In this chapter, one of the countries in the land of Canaan, goes to war with Israel. And it made me start thinking about why God chose Abraham and what was His purpose for selecting His “chosen” and giving them the “promised land”.

I always have a better understanding of the Bible when I go back to the basics; our life, this earth, from the beginning, has been a struggle between God and Satan, between good and bad. So why Abraham, and why a “promised land”.

We are all sinners. We have been sinners since Eve took that bite, that moment in history that changed everything. God gave us “Heaven on Earth” when He created the Garden of Eden and placed Adam and Eve there, and we messed it up. God didn’t man-handle us, He didn’t physically restrain us, He simply showed us what was right and moral. Satan is the one who approached Eve and physically changed things.

And since Satan wasn’t a physical being, he had to overtake the “serpent”, or send one of his fallen angels to do the dirty work, and go into the serpent as a demon to tempt Eve, and Satan has been using others to draw you away from God ever since. Whether we know it or not, Satan can use us against God.

And every time good prevails over evil, Satan comes back and draws us away from God. And that is what happened after the flood, after the wicked perished and only 8 people remained. Satan wasn’t satisfied, and he had to start all over tempting and making us sin.

Now getting back to the book of Numbers we are studying, I’m guessing the world once again was like it was before the flood. God gave us Eden and we messed that up, God cleansed the earth with water, eliminating sinful people, and we messed that up. And now that I think about that, did God actually send the flood, or did he simply remove His hedge of protection from people, like Job, and let Satan have his way with us, and Satan drew all but 8 people away from God, sent a flood and killed God’s children, then stood back and laughed about it? Is that the way it truly went down?

I know what scripture says, but the more I think about it, scripture was written by man, supposedly inspired, so how did man’s perception of the event may have altered the truth. Could it be that Satan was the one who sent the flood, and man just documented it wrong? The more I think about it, the more a flood sent by Satan makes more since. Sorry, I know I’m rambling, but I’m going down rabbit holes now.

And after the flood, maybe caused by Satan, Noah s family were fruitful and multiplied, God wins again, and Satan has to start over tempting everyone again, which hopefully brings me to my point, unless I pass another rabbit hole.

Perhaps God didn’t call on Abraham. Perhaps God called on many, and Abraham was the only one that answered, and that’s why he was chosen.

Why a “promised land”? Because once again, God was trying to save the world, to save us from ourselves who always sided with Satan.

Just like today, where Islam is worshipping a false messiah named Allah, and where they are raping women and children, they are killing those who aren’t following the Quran, the people of Canaan were worshipping false God’s named Baal and other things, and they were sacrificing children by fire to Baal.

I apologize, but after 46 years in public safety, I admit I’m desensitized. I, unfortunately can read a lot of gruesome things and be relatively unaffected. But think about it. Put yourself standing there, you’re from the land of Canaan, and you’re watching a ceremony where perhaps they tie an innocent young child to an altar and surround them with straw, and set it on fire. I would hope that they at least kill the child first so they didn’t have to endure the pain of burning alive.

God loves us, and watching those innocent children being sacrificed had to tear and His heart. So He called upon someone to save us, Abraham answered the call, and God set His plan in action to defeat Satan and bring us back to Him.

To me, that makes more sense. “If you’ve seen Me….” We know Jesus is like God. Did Jesus ever get angry and kill someone because they were sinning. Or did He call on Peter, and James, and Thomas, and Matthew, and the other 12 disciples to save us?

So, now that I have found my way back out of the rabbit hole, we’re back to the Book of Numbers when God is leading His “chosen” to the promised land, to once again try to eradicate since, to stop the worship of false gods and to stop the slaughter of innocent children.

That is why God sent the children of Israel into the promised land, to clean it up. But Satan keeps drawing us away from God, and we keep following. How many times are we going to fail.

God called Noah and we failed. God called Abraham, and we failed. God called on Moses, and we failed, and even with Moses, we failed right out of the gate. God lead us out of captivity in Egypt and before we got as far as the Red Sea, we were already complaining that the Egyptians were coming and that we couldn’t escape, and the Egyptians were going to drag us back and make our lives worse than it was.

That is why God wanted us in the promised land, to save the world once again from evil. And still, we have failed and are failing. As we move through the Bible, we’ll see where God called on Saul, and we failed. He called on David, and we failed. And God kept sending prophets to warn us about our sinful lives, and we kept ignoring Him. And even after He finally had to send His own sons to save us, we’ve messed that up too.

Time is short, my friends. And if you are a true Christian, you know that God will prevail in the end, that eventually sin and sinners will be eradicated. And you have a choice to make…follow Christ and be on the winning team, to turn your backs on Him and allow Satan to draw us away. God is giving us free-will to choose, just like He gave the angels free-will to choose in Heaven, and we know a third of them chose Satan.

I pray you make the right choice. Amen.

And still the children of Israel complain. And the Bible says that “God sent fiery serpents who bit the children and they died. Then the people repented, so God told Moses to make a fake fiery serpent and put it on a pole, and if the people looked at it, they would be saved.

I know what is written, I can read. But does that make sense? Did Jesus send fiery serpents to kill sinners? Was there ever a story like that in the Gospels? So why would God do that?

And if God did sent fiery serpents, why would He then tell Moses to make a fiery serpent to save the people, why wouldn’t God just withdraw His “plague” if you will.

I may have to go back and started reading the Bible all over again from Genesis 1:1 since I have thought about this new way of interpreting the Bible. What I am now thinking makes more sense.

God is unchanging, right? So why would God send fiery serpents to kill the children of Israel, then change His mind and give Moses the cure? To me, it makes more since that Satan sent the fiery serpents to make the children of Israel be more fearful of God, and to make them think of God as an angry tyrant. And perhaps Satan has tainted the way the authors have perceived God as well.

And perhaps even the simple task of reading the Bible is in itself, a battle between good and evil. Satan has tainted Gods word, and we are here reading the Bible and falling for it.

“If you’ve seen me…..” The God of the Old Testament is the same God that is in the New Testament, even though they have two completely different characteristics, according to the Bible.

This chapter has been very eye-opening to me. I will have to do a lot of thinking about this, a lot of praying about this. Yesterday, I thought I knew where I stood, but today, I’m not so sure.

All I know is that Satan is powerful. He can make us do many things we wouldn’t normally do. And he will not stop at anything, Satan has no limit, no moral boundary. He will literally do anything to draw you away from God. And we need to recognize that power if we are going to deal with it.

Pray for me that I reach understanding, and I’ll do the same for you. I’m certainly not in a position to tell you how to live your life, I’m simply sharing my thoughts here. Amen.