BIBLE STUDY MONTHLY

FOUNDED 1924

This journal is published for the promotion of Bible knowledge, maintaining the historical accuracy of the Scriptures and the validity of their miraculous and prophetic content viewed in the light of modern understanding. It stands for the pre-millennial Advent of our Lord and his reign of peace and justice on earth. It is supported entirely by the voluntary gifts of its readers and all such gifts are sincerely appreciated.

Communications and donations to Bible Fellowship Union, 4 Manor Gardens, Barnstone, Nottingham NG13 9JL, England

Editorial & Publishing A. O. HUDSON (Milborne Port)

Secretary & Circulation Mgr. DERRICK NADAL (Nottingham)

Treasurer: B. G. DUMONT (Gloucester)

2

Back in 1968 the "Monthly" featured a series of studies in the Book of Zechariah headed "Zechariah Prophet of the Restoration" which elicited a great deal of interest at the time and in fact was later on translated into Swedish by the Swedish Bible Students and circulated there. The vivid imagery of the Book, so reminiscent of the New Testament Book of Revelation, renders this Book of absorbing interest and it is felt that many later readers, as well as those who saw it then, will find it of equal interest now. The first installment appears in this issue.

Another perhaps rather unusual series. "In the World that Was", also appears in this issue, endeavoring to analyze what little is said about the antediluvian Era on the basis of regarding the first eleven chapters of Genesis as the work of a man or men who lived at the time of the earliest writing at present known, about 2500 B.C., which in Biblical terms is about the time of the patriarchs Eber and Peleg, some five hundred years before Abraham left Ur of the Chaldees. Contrary to 19th century ideas that Moses was the original writer of Genesis, the wealth of Sumerian and Akkadian words in the first eleven chapters makes it plain nowadays that they originated at a much earlier date and Moses was the editor of these when in due time he came to compile his famous "Five Books". Someone in days of those earlier patriarchs must have compiled these chapters from perhaps preexisting records unknown to the world nowadays, so that the stories of Eden and the Flood are set in terms of the geography of the land as known at that time. Although of necessity the conclusions drawn must be regarded as only approximately valid, they are based on logical deductions from what little is said in Genesis and might at least offer a general picture of that earlier but fascinating era of human history.

The Book of Zechariah 1. The Prophet and the Book

3

A strange and thrilling time was the Era of the Restoration, when fifty thousand eager pioneers left Babylon and set out across the desert for the ruined country of Judea, there to build a Temple and a homeland. Few of them had seen Judea before; seventy years had elapsed since their fathers had been taken captive to Babylon, fifty-one since the Temple and city of Jerusalem had been destroyed, and most of the returning pilgrims had been born and brought up in Babylon and knew of their ancestors’ homeland only by repute and description. But now Babylon was fallen, given into the power of Cyrus the Persian conqueror, and Cyrus had granted leave to all of the Jewish community in his new conquest to go back to the land of their fathers and there restore their Temple, their national worship, and some semblance of their old-time communal life, requiring only that they continue loyal to the suzerainty of Persia. So they came, bearing with them the sacred vessels of the Temple so ruthlessly despoiled by the soldiers of Nebuchadnezzar half a century ago, exhibited as trophies of conquest in the Babylonish Temple of Marduk, and now destined to stand in their rightful place and serve their rightful role in the ritual of the worship of the God of Heaven. No wonder they sang, as the Psalmist says they did sing, on that arduous journey "When the Lord turned again the captivity of Zion, we were like them that dream. Then was our mouth filled with laughter, and our tongue with singing.. (Ps 126:1-2) No wonder they came into the desolated land camped among the ruined buildings of what had once been Jerusalem, seeing around them, by the eye of faith, the glorious land that was soon to be, and they themselves, the people of the Lord, exalting Israel once again to a place among the nations, mighty in the strength of the God of Israel.

It was not long before the golden vision faded and the old enemies of greed, indifference and moral laxity asserted themselves. Commercialism replaced sacrifice; the acquisition of property and the building of houses attracted more attention than the erection of the Temple of God. The community suffered accordingly. "Is it time for you, O ye" thundered Haggai the prophet "to dwell in your ceiled houses, and this Temple lie waste? Ye have sown much, and bring in little; ye eat, but ye have not enough; ye drink, but ye are not filled; ye clothe you, but there is none warm. Why? saith the Lord of Hosts. Because of my Temple that is waste and ye attend every man unto his own house!". (Hag 1:4-9) Sixteen years it was since the pioneers came to Jerusalem with such high hopes, and this was all there was to show for it! No wonder Zerubbabel, the governor of the colony, and Joshua the High Priest, were ashamed as they led the people in a great outburst of enthusiasm which sought to rectify the wrongs which had been allowed to develop.

It is at this point that Zechariah comes into the picture. A much younger man than his fellow-prophet Haggai, he had nevertheless shared in the journey from Babylon and from the nature of his prophetic visions shows that he must have known much about life in that notorious city. Like Haggai, he was possessed of a burning zeal for the establishment in Judea of a true theocratic State, and a certainty that all the Divine promises relating to the coming glory of Israel must most certainly come to pass. In this the two prophets were markedly different from the Governor and the High Priest, both of whom seem to have failed to display those qualities of leadership and foresight necessary for so great a purpose.

Zerubbabel had been appointed Governor of the colony by Cyrus, responsible to him for maintaining its loyalty to Persia. The appointment was obviously a diplomatic move. Zerubbabel was the legal heir and successor to Jehoiachin the deposed King of Judah. He was probably in his early thirties and does not seem to have been particularly distinguished. Joshua the High Priest was a grandson of Seraiah, High Priest at the time of Jerusalem’s destruction, who was executed by Nebuchadnezzar; he was most likely a much older man. These two figure largely in Zechariah’s prophecy. Zechariah himself was of the priestly tribe. He says of himself that he was the son of Berachiah and grandson of Iddo. From Ne 12:15 it is evident that Zechariah was still alive in the days of Ezra and Nehemiah some seventy years after the Return, by which time he must have been of a considerable age. Tradition has it that—unusually for a Hebrew prophet he survived and died peacefully in extreme old age and was buried beside his old friend and colleague Haggai. His prophetic ministry must therefore have spanned at least fifty years.

The Book of Zechariah consists of three main divisions, and the style and subject matter of the third is of a vastly different nature from that of the other two. The first division, occupying chapters 1 to 6, dated in the second year of Darius (520 B.C.) the year in which the building of the Temple was resumed, comprises a series of visions the subject of which is the restoration of Jerusalem and of Judah as a nation, leading onward in time to the consummation of Israel’s history in the Millennial Kingdom and accepted Divine rule over all the earth. These visions are highly symbolic and the imagery is taken from the writings of the prophets who preceded Zechariah; to understand their meaning to any extent even today requires a reasonably detailed knowledge of the Old Testament. Thus in the first vision the prophet sees Israel in captivity to the great nations of then current history—Assyria, Babylon, Persia and the time come for God to redeem his promise of deliverance for Jerusalem. From that the scene changes to the preparation of the Promised Land for the returning multitudes and a hint that the complete fulfilment of this must extend into a then far future day. Next comes the preparation of the royal Priest-King who is to rule "in that day" accompanied by the Divine instrument of salvation forged from amongst men—the "servant" of Isaiah, to be a light to the nations to declare God’s salvation to the ends of the earth. Following that comes the promulgation of Divine Law which will root out all evil and establish everlasting righteousness, and finally the regathering of all from the many dispersions which have afflicted God’s people during the course of history, and the full establishment of the Millennial order of things. In these visions Zechariah takes his stand in the land of Judah of his own day and looks forward to the end of time, describing what he realizes are the principles of the Divine purpose yet to be worked out. In all of this he gives evidence of a clear-sighted understanding of the basic laws of God and the road which, not only Israel, but all men, must traverse to reach the objective God has set.

The second division, given two years later, whilst the rebuilding of the Temple was actively proceeding, covers chapters 7 and 8 and consists of two "oracles", or messages from Heaven to be declared to those of the people in Zechariah’s day directly concerned. Although at first sight these chapters appear to be of purely local application to events in the time of Zechariah, closer examination reveals that here is enshrined a statement of the essential principles upon which God ultimately bases his acceptance of Israel at the end of the Age and the manner in which He will use Israel in the work of his Kingdom. The entire picture is presented in the form of what, in mediaeval England, was called a masquerade, a kind of play in which the actors take their places, asking and answering questions in which the message to be given is contained. In this instance representatives from the religious fraternity of Israel come to Zechariah to enquire as to the propriety of certain ceremonial observances; the prophet tells them, in effect, that since their past observances have been characterized by ritualism rather than sincerity, God is not interested in their offerings anyway. This gives opportunity for a stirring exhortation to sincere repentance and reformation of life that they might be truly fitted for the Divine purpose; that purpose is then revealed to be nothing less than the exaltation of Israel and the Israel land as the center of Divine administration on earth when the due time should come, but all this is dependent upon faith and sincerity. So the terminal point of the oracles is the same as that of the visions of chapters 1-6, the glory and blessing of the Millennial Kingdom. In the visions the necessity as well as the certainty of Divine power and action to establish the "new heavens and earth" is shown; in the two oracles the necessity of repentance and willing subservience to the Divine will on the part of Israel before the new heavens and earth can become a reality is pictured. With both these factors established the groundwork is laid for the final division of the Book. This tells of events more closely associated with the actual passing of the kingdoms of this world into the Kingdom of God. This third division, chapters 9 to 14, is of a fundamentally different style and nature from the earlier parts. Where chapters 1 to 6 comprise a succession of symbolic pictures based on past Old Testament literature, and 7 to 8 are hortatory, enshrining principles of Divine Law applicable to any Age and generation, these last chapters 9 to 14 are frankly prophetic, foreseeing the shape of things to come in the logical outworking of events determined on a basis of cause and effect. It is easy, and it is true, to say that the revelation of happenings yet in the future is possible by the power of the Holy Spirit, but it has also to be remembered that the Spirit-filled mind of a man like Zechariah, attuned in a very real sense to the mind of God, was of itself empowered to foresee the outcome, in future history, of events and forces belonging to his own time. The prophet clearly comprehended the ultimate purpose of God; he understood the manner in which, and the extent to which, the unbelief and the belief, the opposition and the concurrence, of men in his own day and in future times would influence and modify the road by which that goal would eventually be reached, and by that means the Spirit was able to guide him to an appreciation of "things which shall be hereafter" in so definite a fashion that he was able to set down in these chapters so detailed a description of things which had not yet—and in great degree have not yet—transpired.

The striking difference between the two earlier divisions of the Book and this one has led a number of scholars of the "Critical" school to claim that chapters 9 to 14 are not by the Zechariah of the Restoration era but by an unknown writer of much later times. In point of fact, this difference in style is logically to be expected. The first two divisions, written in the second and fourth years of King Darius, are the product of Zechariah’s youthful years; he was a man of round about thirty. Chapters 9 to 14 are not dated, but the general background and a certain amount of internal evidence would point to a time nearly half a century later, at the time of Ezra and Nehemiah. It may reasonably be taken that the prophet had reached the maturity and insight of old age after a lifetime spent "In tune" with God and this in itself amply accounts for the difference in style and the rich coloring of his prophetic vision.

This section commences with an outline sketch of the forces that were to affect Israel after the then present Persian domination had passed away. A new ruling power was to come upon the stage, one that we now know to have been the Greek power, which overthrew Persia. In this crisis Jerusalem was to be preserved, for the good work of the Restoration was still bearing some fruit. Hope of the climax to lsrael’s expectation would come to the front; the promised King would be manifested and offer himself to the people. But despite Divine assurance that He would indeed ultimately reign, a darker hue is drawn over the scene. Israel apostatizes and rejects the King who is also their Shepherd, and for an Age that rejection endures whilst God as it were turns his back upon the unrepentant people. But He has not done so forever nor ever in reality; in the fulness of time and when some through the generations have shown themselves ready to serve him, God arouses to action. There is a regathering of his ancient people to their ancient land, a time of opening of eyes and of repentance, and a great cleansing, preparatory to the coming of Messiah and the Millennial Kingdom. Simultaneously there is a moving of powers of evil in the world in opposition, seeking to destroy what seems to be the incipient establishment of the new and righteous world order. The consequence is a further test of faith, a second apostasy and a second rejection of the Shepherd; but a remnant preserves faith and to this remnant the Lord comes in complete and permanent deliverance. So transpires the great event to which all human history has been tending, the revelation of the Lord from Heaven to all mankind, the overthrow of all evil dominating power and the establishment of Divine sovereignty on earth. The glorious vision closes in the spectacle of, not only Israel, but the whole of humankind, delivered from the darkness of sin and death, fully entered at last into the eternal light and life of the illimitable future.

The Book of Zechariah is a remarkable book; remarkable because of its unshakeable confidence in the ultimate execution of the Divine purpose despite the shortcomings and frailty of man. The prophet lived his life in an age that of itself provided a picture in miniature of the glories he foresaw in prophetic vision, but it was an age that, after Zechariah’s death, belied its early promise and the light faded into darkness again. He himself in full confidence of faith looked toward a day when the darkness would not return, and in so doing coined, at the close of his book, a phrase which has become immortal; "At evening time it shall be light".

To be continued

The Churches of Revelation

5

"To the church of the Laodiceans write, I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot; I would thou wert cold or hot". (Re 3:14-15)

Salter, traveling through Turkey a few years ago, visited Laodicea("IntroducingTurkey"1961). From before the First Advent, he says, Laodicea was the principal market in the Roman world for the exchange of western and oriental monies, retaining its importance in banking business and remaining "rich and increased with goods" until the time of the Crusades. Near the town there is a hundred foot high cliff down which a hot mineralized stream flows into a pool, built more than two thousand years ago, where the water, at a temperature of 99 deg. F, was a place of resort for the cure of various ailments. But often there is snow on the surrounding ground. Here possibly is the source of the allusion in Re 3.

The Children of Promise

6

"We, brethren, as Isaac was, are the children of promise. But as he that was born after the flesh persecuted him that was born after the Spirit, even so it is now.". (Ga 4:28-29)

The favorite exposition of this verse is to the effect that Ishmael "persecuted" Isaac at the weaning feast recorded in Ge 21:8-11. The incongruity of a fifteen-year-old lad "persecuting" a young child is not easily realized when a theological implication lies behind the situation and requires to be justified. In fact the word "mocking", in the Genesis account, which gave rise to the idea, has the meaning of light-hearted play or "larking about", as we would say, and this much better fits the case of a teen-age lad and his baby brother.

The word tsachaq occurs about a dozen times and means lighthearted play or familiarity, delighted laughter, sporting, jesting or levity with companions. Thus "Isaac was sporting with his wife Rebecca"; (Ge 26:8) Samson’s captors were making sport at his expense; (Jud 16:25) Sarah "laughed" at the promise of the birth of Isaac; (Ge 21:6) Israel "rose up to play before the golden calf; (Ex 32:6) Lot "seemed as one that mocked" when he told his sons-in-law of the coming doom of Sodom; Potiphar’s wife complained that Joseph "came in to me to mock me". (Ge 39:3-7) The idea of "persecution" is absent.

Abraham had already expressed his preference for the older lad. "Oh that Ishmael might live before thee" he had said when the Lord told him that Isaac was to be the heir. Sarah, jealous for her own son, said scornfully "the son of the bondwoman shall not be heir with my son, even with Isaac". (Ge 21:10) She claimed the advantage of the laws of Sumer, the land of their birth, which gave the priority to the son of the first wife, even though born later than the son of the second, and the Lord supported her.

In fact two much more momentous themes are contained within this remark by St. Paul. In the first place it should be noticed that in verse 24 he says the story of Hagar and Sarah, of Ishmael and Isaac, is, for his then immediate purpose, an allegory; what he goes on to talk about is obviously an allegorical application of the story. There are two spheres in which the relation of Ishmael to Isaac in the allegorical field enshrine this idea of "persecuting".

In the first place, although all the O.T. evidence, such as it is, goes to show that the literal Ishmael and Isaac lived their lives apart without interfering with each other and came together in friendly fashion at the burial of their father, the same was not true of their descendants. The tribes sprung from Ishmael were often found amongst Israel’s foes and at this very day their descendants as represented by various Arab peoples are Israel’s bitter enemies. This is one sense in which he that was born after the flesh (Ishmael) persecutes him that was born after the Spirit. This will not always be so; God told Abraham that He has a purpose for the sons of Ishmael also, and would make of them a great nation dwelling in the presence of their brethren of Isaac. We can expect a reconciliation and unity in time to come which may seem most unlikely today when one looks at the political situation.

The other sense within the context of St. Paul’s meaning concerns the relation between national Israel "after the flesh" and spiritual Israel, the Christian church, "after the Spirit". This was a matter of moment in St. Paul’s own day. Natural Israel, Jews under the Mosaic Covenant, bitterly opposed the incipient Christian church and did all in its power to arrest and thwart its growth. This aspect is the one St. Paul had particularly in mind. "Even so it is now" he says; "We, brethren, as Isaac was, are the children of promise". Although opposed, persecuted and liable to be ensnared by the "children of the bondwoman" he exhorts his Galatian readers to "stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage". (Ga 5:1) Even here, of course, the "persecution" and the enmity is not to endure forever. Again, in the coming Millennial Age, God has a place and purpose for the natural House of Israel which will bring them into harmony and amicable relations with the spiritual House. The Church of Christ in the heavens, and restored and purified Israel on earth, will then be twin instruments in the Lord’s hand for the conversion of the world and the establishment of everlasting righteousness.

The God of All Space

1.Beginning of History

7

Perhaps the most tantalizing part of the entire Bible is that enshrined in the first six chapters of the Book of Genesis, the history of that period which St. Peter calls "the world that then was", (2Pe 3:6) the world that subsisted before the Flood. So long a period, some two thousand years, yet so little said about all that men must have thought and done during that time. The coming into being of our first parents, their lapse into sin and expulsion from the garden, the first act of violence leading to the first death; two generations later, the bare statement that men "then began to call upon the name of the Lord". In the seventh generation, a holy man "walked with God, and was not, for God took him" without any explanation of where, why or the outcome. Then at much the same time the arts of metal-working and of music came into existence, and the emergence of a nomadic habit of life for some. Finally a mysterious irruption of heavenly beings who introduced a reign of terror and lawlessness in the world which led to a well-nigh universal corruption and a position when "the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually". (Ge 6: 5.) Not much on which to build a detailed history.

A detailed analysis can yield something of a picture, which, hypothetical as it must be on account of the paucity of material, might at least offer some perception of the nature of that world which now lies buried for ever under the sand and silt swept over it by the great waters. The very full geographical indications in the story of the Garden of Eden, when combined with the later narrative of Noah’s Flood, does at least give basis for setting out the stage upon which the events took place. That should enable a better mental picture of that world to be drawn. The very complete data recording men’s ages at death and at the birth of their eldest sons makes it possible to hazard an estimate of the growth of population from its beginning in Eden to its catastrophic end in the Flood which is at least better than the traditionary complete ignorance.

Most important of all, the story as here represented has to be taken on the literal reality of the Genesis statements. No other treatment is possible. Tentative as must be the conclusions and suggestions here made, they do at least show the reasonable and humanly possible nature of the account as it stands. The fact that all the characters lived a life span of some nine hundred years, and had their firstborn children in the region of two hundred years, ten times the present condition, must be accepted. The fact that angels from heaven did come to earth and accentuate the lawless conditions of human society towards the end must be accepted. Unusual and almost incredible as these things may appear to be to modern man, it has to be realized that the present is no guide to what may have been in the past. The continuing researches of modern geologists and climatologists and archaeologists in this Twentieth century are increasingly demonstrating that fact.

So we start where the Bible does, at the beginning, and look at the land which is described as the place God prepared for his intended human creation. At the center of that land lay the renowned Garden of Eden. This is not the place to discuss the details of Adam’s creation, the coming of Eve, the nature of the sin which involved the sentence of death, the fate of the Garden, the murder of Abel by Cain. All this has been presented elsewhere (BSM Jan/Feb 1981 to July/Aug 1982) so it must be the geographical element which is now to be predominant.

The second chapter of Genesis presents a full geographical statement, complete with names, defining the Garden of Eden. It lay on a river below the confluence of four tributaries, each of which is named. The names of the countries each tributary watered are also given. In addition, the name of the land to which Cain was exiled after his sin is given and its position relative to the Garden of Eden. One important principle must be observed; these names are not necessarily the names of those same places, if they can be identified, by which they are known today. Neither did they bear those names at the time of the events. The account in Ge 2. Vss. 1-10 and 15-25 is in the past tense; that is history. The description of the rivers and countries in Vss. 11-14 is in the present tense; these are the names existing when the present account was put into writing.

A Twentieth century writer, describing events of the Roman occupation of Britain in the First century and bringing the fighting around Leicester into his story would not use the then name of that city, "Ratae" if he wanted his readers to know what he was talking about. He would say "Leicester". So did the compiler of Ge 2: the next step is to identify that compiler, if possible.

Moses compiled the Book of Genesis from preexisting documents. The first eleven chapter contain a wealth of Sumerian words—words derived from the people of Sumer, the land from which Abraham came at the first, the earliest people of which known history yields any trace. This goes back to several centuries before Abraham, probably in the time of Eber four or five centuries earlier. Of the five territorial names recorded, four are known in Sumerian records; of the four rivers two are known. This is sufficient to pinpoint the area the 2500 B.C. writer had in mind when he compiled the account. It is an area some two hundred miles south of the present head of the Persian Gulf, now covered by the sea. "Eden" is the Sumerian Edinu, the Plain. the flat country of southern Iraq. "Nod" where Cain was exiled, is Nadu on the eastern side of the Gulf; where the River Mand (ships of Nadu) still perpetuates the name. "Cush" was the western side of the Gulf where lay the 2,000 B.C. land of Dilmun, celebrated in Sumerian legend as the site of the Garden of Eden. Assyria retained its name until the sixth century B.C. Havilah (properly Khavilah) lay in the present north-western area of Iran, where the name of the Caspian Sea was the "Sea of Khavilah" until the 10th century AD.

The four rivers are identified as the modern Euphrates and Tigris (Hiddekel) in Iraq, the Kherkhah (Pison) in Iran, and the Wady el Batin (Gihon) in northern Arabia. all of which converge together at the northern end of the Gulf (although the Wady el Batin has been dried up since the seventeenth century AD. due to the slow elevation of eastern Arabia).

This, at any rate, is where the earliest known editor of the Book of Genesis believed to be the place where man first appeared on earth—and he lived much nearer to the events than do we today.

The literal authenticity of the story of Adam and Eve, the Temptation, the Fall, the expulsion from the Garden, and so on, has been dealt with in detail in the past (BSM 1981—1982) but this analysis of what little is said about the pre-deluvian world has to take the story as literally true even though there may be more behind the setting of the narrative than appears. The sin involved in the partaking of the forbidden fruit, for example, may have been in the significance of the act and not the act itself, just as the partaking of bread and wine in the celebration of the Last Supper is of no merit in itself; it is the significance of the ceremony which matters.

What happened to the Garden? In the story there was placed at its border "Cherubim, with a flaming sword which turned every way, to keep (inviolate) the way of the Tree of Life". Cherubim, the mystic guardians of God’s Throne, with a mystic Flaming Sword, is evidently poetic. Whatever it was, the stricken pair could never go near the Garden again. lt is a geological fact that a wide stretch of oil and gas-bearing strata crosses the Persian Gulf just at the point where the ancient chronicler located the Garden and marine oil wells exist there today. Was that "Flaming Sword" a dim reminiscence of a catastrophe somewhat similar to that of Sodom and Gomorrah, when the underground oil deposits erupted in a cataclysm of flame and fire which destroyed the Cities of the Plain? A similar occurrence did happen in the Zagros Mountains in Iran not far from the site of Eden in early Sumerian times, giving rise to the legend of the seven Scorpion Gods whose fiery plumes desolated an area of four hundred square miles for several centuries before burning themselves out. Is that what happened to Eden?

How long the time of innocence in Eden? No one knows. The pre-christian Rabbis hazarded a guess at six hours. Nineteenth century chronologists made a case for two years. There is no data to go upon. It may or may not have been before the birth of Cain and Abel, but certainly before the act which brought about the first death, and it was that act which closed the first recorded story in human history.

It is a well-known story, how Cain and Abel both brought offerings of their respective labors to the Lord in recognition of his goodness, Cain of the fruits of the ground, for he was an agriculturist, and Abel of his flocks, for he was a stock-keeper, God rejected Cain’s offering and accepted Abel’s, and Cain, moved by resentment and jealousy, killed his brother. It is not stated why God rejected the offering of Cain and the AV. does not make it clear. The Hebrew words employed reveal the truth. Abel brought the firstborn of his female lambs, the best he had to give. Cain brought. not the first fruits, nor yet the best of his crop, but the later and inferior summer fruits (see BSM Sept./ Oct. 1987 for full analysis of the story). Abel gave of his best; Cain of his second best. So the Divine sentence was pronounced. Banishment from the family circle and the land in which he had been brought up, an outcast with his wife into an alien land in which he and his family were to live and labor apart from the rest of Adam’s family.

That land, said the ancient chronicler, was the land known in his own times, 25th century B.C. as the land of Nadu (Nod in the AV) on the present coast of Iran to the east of his site for the Garden of Eden, which is what Genesis says. The name remains to this day in the name of its chief river, the river Mand. A rugged. mountainous and inhospitable country, it rises to heights of six or eight thousand feet, with just a narrow plain through which the River Mand makes its way. A valley about thirty miles by twenty is the only place where Cain could settle and raise crops for the sustenance of his growing family. Here the sons of Cain must have eked out a meager living: in the eighth generation they were miners, extracting copper and iron from those same mountains. as men did in historic times thousands of years later.

So the geography of the Garden of Eden and the land of Nod can be traced today on modern maps, just as it is recorded in the Book of Genesis.

So the "world that was" had its commencement, there, in a land long since submerged by the waters of the Persian Gulf, where two solitary human beings. created and given life by the Most High God, awakened into conscious life and recognized themselves for what they were, and started the whole process of human history which, thousands of years later, has brought the world of man to its present condition. That world came to its end some two thousand years afterwards by the Flood of Noah’s day, when sin had submerged the world in such a morass of corruption and misery that God brought it to an end and made a fresh start. The first episode in the history of humankind opens with the creation of a perfect human pair, capable of living their lives in harmony and communion with God and so into eternity; it closes with their open rebellion against God and his righteousness and their banishment into an unfinished environment in which they had to experience for themselves the wages of sin. History opens in Genesis with the entry of sin; it goes on into prophecy and the Book of Revelation which closes the story with recovery from sin.

To be continued.

Prayer

10

"Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a solitary place, where he prayed. (Mr 1:35)

The details are quite graphic and paint for us a clear picture of Jesus during those happy days of his popular ministry in Galilee. Yet He was aware of the dangers of popularity and of spending too long in one place. As we read on, it is apparent that the sun was up and people were about again, searching for their hero. Jesus knew better, and if there had been any doubt in his mind when He arrived at that quiet spot. He now knew, after communion with his Father, what He must do. He said to the eager disciples. "Let us go somewhere else—so that I can preach there also. That is why I have come. (vs.38)

Luke gives the most complete record of our Lord’s prayer life. Luke was the Gentile writer of the New Testament who spent much time with Paul on his journeys. He is the evangelist who shows us the words of Paul in action "Pray continually... "pray in the spirit on all occasions, with all kinds of prayers and requests..." (1Th 5:17 Eph 6:18)

Luke clearly establishes the links between the teachings of Paul and the work of Jesus. While it is Luke who tells us where and when Jesus prayed, it is John, the writer of the Fourth gospel, who gives us a detailed prayer of our Lord in chapter 17.

Like many children brought up in the fear and nurture of God, Jesus must have learned how to pray at his parents’ side. By the time He had reached twelve years old He understood that God was his Father. (Lu 2:49) In Gethsemane He called God by the familiar form for Father

"Abba" (in our language, "Daddy" (Mr 14:36) which is the confident but tender address of a child to its father.

There are skills that need to be learnt, as in making requests and expressing appreciation for the goodness and gifts of a parent. Parents who explore these experiences with their children as they grow from birth, communicate with their offspring long before actual speech is learnt. These are the first lessons in prayer and perhaps have reference to Ro 8:15,16,26.

As a child. Jesus would learn extensive portions of the Hebrew Scriptures (our Old Testament). He must have become very familiar with the stories of the great heroes of Israel. He would have known about Abraham’s, great intercessory prayer on behalf of the cities of the plain. (Ge 18:16-33) He would probably be able to recite the great dedication prayer of Solomon. (2Ch 6) He would have known well the prayerful yearnings of Samuel and Jeremiah over a people and king who were backsliding from God. He would have read the expectant yet repentant prayers of Nehemiah and Daniel. as they looked forward to the restored Israel. Perhaps most of all he pondered the mighty Moses who had enjoyed "face to face" communion with his God. (Ex 33:11)

Jesus teaching about prayer, and the prayers recorded of him, demonstrate the spirit of childhood which Jesus said would characterize those who entered the kingdom of heaven. The characteristics are dependence and need. Development of those traits enables praying believers to focus upon God and not upon self.

The first reference to our Lord praying is in Lu 3:21, as He came up out of the waters of Jordan. He appears to be having a two way conversation with his Father. There we have the first of those remarkable utterances from Heaven "this is my son" said at the critical point in the life of Jesus from which He began his ministry. It was an event which showed the Jewish people that He was about to lay down his life in order to bring them salvation. It is an example to every believer that at such important experiences in our lives we should pray to our heavenly Father, that He may direct our paths by his Holy Spirit. Jesus urged his disciples to pray for the Holy Spirit. Immediately following his baptism in the River Jordan, Jesus was driven by the Spirit into the desert where He was tempted by Satan. At each succeeding critical point in his life it is recorded that Jesus specially devoted time to prayer.

When the Lord prepared to select the apostles, the men who were to be trained and sent out as the foundation members of the Christian Church, he spent all night in prayer. (Lu 6:12) Jesus needed to be sure that He was choosing the right men for this job. They were gifts received from his Father, and He, the sinless son of God, filled with the Holy Spirit, needed to pray about such decisions. He could be tempted to choose leaders of the Church for the wrong reasons by putting his own human feelings before the purpose of God. In another prayer just before his death He was praying again about these men and their special needs in the days that would follow his Departure."they were yours; you gave them to me and they have obeyed your Word."(john17: 6). Jesus had great concern for these men, and it was no easy task protecting and strengthening such raw recruits to be the leaders of the new kingdom. As the suffering drew near, Jesus had much to teach men like Peter the way of the Lord. "I have prayed for you, Simon, that your faith may not fail...", (Lu 22:32) Jesus could not wave his hand over the band of disciples to protect them by magic. This was the real world and they had to face real temptations. It was in such situations that Jesus had grown spiritually and it was in such situations that his disciples also grew to be like him.

Another very critical time in the work of Jesus came when He did the miracle of "the feeding of the five thousand". The year of popularity was really ended but He continued to be the center of attraction, and great crowds went to him. As the thousands dispersed from the meal of bread and fish Jesus told his disciples to get into a boat and go ahead of him to the other side of the lake. He needed to be alone with God. He had been bereaved of his cousin John the Baptizer. He had been or was about to be challenged by the crowd to become their king. So He withdrew to the mountainside and there spent time in prayer. (Mt 14:23) To reject the people’s support would be more than a disappointment for them. Jesus loved these people but now they would turn away from him. This was a turning point in his life and He needed the Father’s strength as He laid bare his life in deep humility and patience. Jesus wanted the kingdom to come as much as we all do. He suffered more than we, as He looked at stricken humanity in all its poverty and sickness. Yet He must wait and pass through the valley of shadows itself.

In such an atmosphere He came to Caesarea Philippi with the "twelve" and asked them the momentous question "Who do men say that I am?" Lu 9:18 records that this question was asked "when Jesus was praying in private". The crucifixion was approaching and He and the disciples must be prepared. Thus it was that while they were in an attitude of prayer the great revelation was made known. Jesus began to speak to them of his suffering and death. A little later the three most intimate disciples were to go with Jesus to a mountain, (Lu 9:28) for the specific purpose of praying, and while they were there, Jesus was changed, his face and clothing became bright white and they all saw a vision of Elijah and Moses. This is not the place to examine what happened to them all just then but this was further preparation for the coming ordeal and it occurred while Jesus was praying.

While the three disciples were on the mountain with Jesus the others were on the lower slopes and were attempting unsuccessfully to heal a very sick boy. When Jesus returned and healed the boy it was natural for the disciples to ask why they had been unable to perform the miracle. While Matthew’s account tells us that they were short of faith, Mr 9:29 says that Jesus explained to them the need for much prayer.

The implication in Luke’s record is that these great spiritual experiences which reveal the immediate purpose of God and the work of Jesus Christ were linked with prayer. There could be a parallel with our experience. Times of prayer can become the wonderful moments when God reveals something of his guidance and glory.

There were times when Jesus was in agony of mind over the conditions around him and there were great stirrings of his human emotions. There were other times when He praised God with much thankfulness for the wonderful things that were happening. One of these was on the return of the "seventy" (or was it seventy two disciples?). As the disciples had gone around preaching and healing, Jesus had seen the powers of darkness shaken and realized that the conquest of evil was in sight. Luke records that "at that time Jesus, full of joy through the Holy Spirit said, I praise you Father, Lord of heaven and earth..." and again "Father, I thank you that you, heard me". (Joh 11:41) It is apparent from the accounts that Jesus need not have made audible public praise, for communication with God was continuous from within. Yet so that the disciples and the people around should know what was going on, He spoke audibly in prayer and thus the praise of God overflowed among those who were with him in spirit.

The deep feelings are of another nature in the next chapter when Philip brought the Greek enquirers to him. The glory of the Father can only be fully revealed in the intense suffering and death of the days ahead. From this point onwards until Gethsemane, He utters groans and questions, with tears and sighs of intense agony. These are referred to in Heb 5: 7, "During the days of Jesus’s life on earth, he offered up prayers and petitions with loud cries and tears to the one who could save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverent submission...". This was learning obedience through what He suffered and attaining maturity through agony of soul. In all these experiences Jesus wanted only to know and to do the Father’s will, so that God could be glorified in the life and death of his Son. It is when we catch the spirit of those glories and groanings, joys and sorrows, for that one reason and purpose, the glory of the Father, that we truly follow Jesus.

On one occasion the disciples went to Jesus while He was praying and asked him to teach them to pray. (Lu 11:1) Do we need to learn to pray? Surprisingly Jesus had already given them some instruction in prayer during the Sermon on the Mount. What prompted the question now? They were aware that John the Baptist had taught his disciples to pray and that it was the custom of the Pharisee teachers to do the same for their followers. They were also becoming aware perhaps that Jesus’ approach to God was very different from anything they or anyone else had ever been taught.

An examination of the parable of the two sons (Lu 15:11-32) gives us an insight into the way in which we may first approach God. We, like the prodigal son, come to our senses at last and realize that we ought to seek our Father. It is one of the most enlightening stories in the world. It teaches us how the most derelict sinner may draw near to the great Creator of the Universe, the majestic and holy God. If coming to him so often with our every want breeds contempt by familiarity then we need to ponder his majesty and greatness. Our perception of him is almost certainly too small. Should we not adopt the attitude and spirit of the prodigal who was determined to go to his father and confess his faults and admit that he hardly deserved the lowest place in the household. At once the vision changes and we see the outstretched arms of the father wanting him to come home as a son. How much that picture of God reflects the words of Jesus to a sinful woman of Samaria—"the Father seeketh such", to worship him not on a sacred mountain or in a mighty temple, but anywhere, so long as the searching is made without hypocrisy but in sincerity and in reality.

The same attitude of heart and mind is shown in Jesus’ other teachings about prayer recorded in Mt 6 and Lu 18. It is so easy for committed disciples of the Lord Jesus, now, to think that the religious leaders and pagans of the First century were the only ones to have the wrong spirit concerning prayer. When Jesus told the parable of the two men praying in the Temple, He had in mind also those who would believe on him because of the message of the early disciples. Many a Christian has silently prayed wishfully "dear Lord, I give thanks I am not as that Pharisee". There is such a danger in the Twentieth century to believe that we can enter the presence of God with feelings of pride, of achievement and of self exaltation, to the extent that we suffer from the sin of conceit in our hearts and lives. If that is so, then we shall not be ready for what follows in the teachings of Jesus, nor the model prayers of Mt 6. and Lu 11. The primary principle of prayer is the hardest lesson to learn and is focusing attention upon God rather than upon self. In the parable it is not the words of the sons which are of paramount importance but the words of the father. In the joy of reconciliation, there is a gentleness in the rebuke of the father, not of wrath and upbraiding. His one desire was to have the erring son back in the homestead, to restore the relationship and renew the fellowship. The story should be read alongside every passage in the Old and New Testament which speaks of the wrath of God. The question for the believer today is "Have I truly come home?" —have I really entered into the spirit of that home and have I discovered the compassion and joy of that home? The Father eagerly awaits his child, but the child may yet have disappointed the Father.

TRAVELS OF ABRAHAM

1. Ur to Canaan

13

He was named, by his father, Abu-Ramu "the storm-god thy father", more familiarly known by the Hebrew equivalent Abram. His father Tarakhu (Terah) was an idolater, a devotee of the Moon-god. Terah’s name itself meant "Gazelle of the Moon-god" and the gazelle itself was a sacred animal in Moon-god worship. But in that pagan religion there was an element of a once older faith for Abram’s brother Har-Anu (Haran) meaning "Anu the great One" was an acknowledgment to Anu, the Most High God, the God of Heaven, supreme of all the gods of Sumer, revered as the only One God in the distant past of Abram’s ancestors, Noah and Eber, who served the Most High God when there were no other gods known to man. And something of those early patriarchs must have come down to Abram, for he too revered and served that same Most High God and rejected all the other gods of Sumer.

Abram was married to Sar-ai (Sarai) one of several names applied to the heavenly wife of the Moon-god. She was a daughter of his deceased brother Haran, ten years younger than himself. Together with Sarai’s younger brother Lu-Utu (Lot) "man of the Sun-god" and the other brother Nahor and his wife Mal-katu (Milcah), another name for the wife of the Moon-god, Sarais sister, they lived together in one large and well-equipped house in the busy industrial and merchant city of Uri-ki (Ur of the Chaldees) at the northern end of what is now called the Persian Gulf, (although the ruins of Ur are now a hundred miles from the sea). To that city came the merchant vessels from distant lands bringing valuable metals like copper and gold, and the products of tropical countries from afar, from lands like Dilmun (now Bahrein) and Magan (south Arabia) and Melukha (now Pakistan) and from places farther east where they met vessels from China and exchanged goods and traded, for that time was much like the present and commercialism held sway and trade was brisk. So life was pleasant and busy and profitable in Ur of the Chaldees and in all probability Abram himself was a prosperous trader for he would certainly have no part nor lot in his father’s equally profitable business in the manufacture of teraphim, little images of the gods which every respectable Sumerian kept in his house to protect from demons and all harm.

But times were changing. The great days of the Third Dynasty of Ur were now a century or more in the past, when its last king Ibi-Sin was slain by the invading Elamites from the eastern mountains, and Elamite power was in the ascendancy. Now the city-state of Babylon in the north under its famous king Hammurabi (Amraphel in Ge 14) was threatening Elam and before long would be dominant. So the future of Ur began to look bleak. and Terah may not have been the only one wondering what to do about it.

It was at this juncture that the word of the Lord came to Abram.

"Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father’s house, to a land that I will show thee. And I will make of thee a great nation, and in thee shall all the families of the earth be blessed".

And Abram did as the Lord commanded.

He did not go alone. His wife and brother-in-law Lot accompanied him, and his father Terah. It is very likely that Terah, reviewing the current political situation, felt that there were probably safer places in the world than Ur, and that trade might well be equally brisk in Ur’s twin-city Kharanu (Haran) in the far north some six hundred miles away, a merchant city like Ur, sacred to the Moon-god like Ur, and situated on the great trade route which came in from Siberia in the east and went on to the land of the Canaanites on the shores of the Mediterranean, from whence their merchant vessels carried goods to and from the far west. A mainly Sumerian city, inhabited by a mixture of Sumerians and Semites and Canaanites, there would be just as much demand for his teraphim as in Ur. So to Haran they decided to go. Nahor and his wife Milcah remained, although they did follow some sixty years later, by which time Terah was dead and Abram long settled in Canaan.

They went northward, almost certainly accompanying one of the caravans of traders which were always traversing the land, following the road which ran more or less alongside the great river, the River Euphrates, the life-blood of the land, through the wheatfields and date-palm groves and vegetable farms which in Abraham’s day constituted the granary of the ancient world, although today that same land only produces oil and cannot feed itself. Northward through Uruk (Erech, Ge 10) one of the earliest of cities, one of whose kings was Gilgamish who was reputed to have traveled to the ends of the earth to find his ancestor Noah who survived the great Flood, to get from him the secret of eternal life, and failed in his quest. Then to Shuruppak, the city where the Ark was built, so said the legend, and landed safely on the Mount of the East. A hundred and fifty miles from Ur he passed through the gates of Babylon, not yet the world’s greatest city but rapidly on the way to becoming so, sacred to the sun-god, the Son of the Most High God, Redeemer of mankind, champion of the gods. But in Abram’s time he was hardly known as a god; so recently as two centuries before Abram was born the name of the city meant "the Gate of God" but when he passed through it the name was "the Gate of the gods" and that change is significant for when Babylon was founded there was only one God known—the Most High God. Even in Abram’s time he was known as "Abram of the Most High God".

So on until Sumer was left behind and the little company traversed the land of Man, and entered its capital city with its magnificent palace and temples and monuments, the very existence of which was quite unknown until the early part of the present century. Semites, not Sumerians, descended from Shem like Abram himself, but idolators; these were the people of Man—but here was no Promised Land. Then, at last, six hundred miles from Ur, Terah’s immediate goal, Haran, city of the Moon-god, even though its very name testified to its being sacred to the Most High God of Heaven in the days of its founding, when there were no false gods. Here they stayed for probably some twenty years, with every likelihood of Terah resuming his trade.

Abram too must have prospered in Haran. He almost certainly took up farming, for it was at this time he increased his establishment and had servants and laborers, with children born to them. (Ge 12:5) — the description does not fit a merchant trader but it does fit a typical farming community. And so, twenty years later, he could have been a fairly well-to-do farmer, halfway through life at seventy-five, and still no sign of the land which God had promised to show him... for Haran was a Sumerian city and by no means the undefiled land he had been promised.

Then, at the age of two hundred and five, Terah died.

By Sumerian custom, the father was the head of the family until his death. Until Terah’s death Abram was not altogether a free agent. but now he was free. His only brother Nahor was still back in Ur of the Chaldees. Now, surely, the sign would come!

Perhaps he needed no sign. He was free to forsake this land of many gods and seek one where he could serve his Lord in spirit and in truth. He may or may not have heard tell of the land of Canaan, a land of wide pastures and no traders. Whether or not, it was to be southward now, toward the land of Canaan, that his thoughts turned. So he disposed of his land, gathered his servants and herdsmen, his flocks and herds, together, and set out to go to the land which God would show him. There must have been some form of Divine guidance which told him that there to the south lay the place to which he had been called to go.

Two hundred miles through the northern plains, where busy cities followed one after another, interspersed with smiling farmlands in between, caravans of merchants making their way to the east where the Canaanite Phoenicians waited to barter for their goods and carry them in their ships to the distant countries of the West; a thriving land indeed, where