Pharaoh’s house, and was driven into the wilderness.
Then one day, on the side of the mountain, he saw a bush on
fire. The bush did not consume in the fire, because this was not a normal fire. This was the fire of the presence of Jehovah.
When
Moses came near, he heard the voice of God. That voice spoke softly in his mind, and exploded like thunder in his soul.
It was a kind, loving voice. It was full of authority. There was no mistaking
this voice for anyone else's voice.
Moses spent 40 days alone on the side of this mountain,
listening to this beautiful voice. When the voice of God speaks into the mind
of man, it is called the spirit of prophecy. The spirit of prophecy spoke continually
to Moses. It told him of the creation of the world, the moral nature of God,
the nature of sin, and the promised Redeemer.
The Lord gave
Moses a code of law that has never been matched for its justice and righteousness.
He gave Moses a code of health and cleanliness and dietary
laws that still stand true in their scientific accuracy.
Moses wrote the entire first five books of the Bible,
called the Pentateuch. Many scriptural historians name him as the author of the
Book of Job.
Exodus 19:18,
Mount Sinai
was altogether on a smoke, because the Lord descended on it in fire. The whole mount quaked greatly. Exodus 20;21.
The Lord said to Moses, thus you shall say to the children
of Israel.
You have seen that I have talked with you from heaven.
Jehovah literally entered into the history of the human
race, by founding a nation of people, whose government and religion, would be founded on the law of Almighty God Himself.
The words that God gave to Moses were not aimless ramblings,
obscure statements, confusing directions, on how to read the stars, make tables shake, summon spirit guides, or read omens
about the future in a bird's entrails.
These words were very specific.
The people were expected to learn the difference between right
and wrong, between good and evil. Between holy and profane.
Exodus 24:12. The Lord said to Moses, come up to me into
the mount, and be there, and I will give you tables of stone, and a law and commandments that I have written, That you may
teach them. Exodus 31:18. He
gave to Moses two tables of testimony, written with the finger of God. Here is
the beginning of God giving words to be written down and taught to the people. Deuteronomy
30:10.
The Lord said, you shall listen to the voice of the Lord
your God, to keep His commandments and His statutes, which are written in this book of the Law. Turn to the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul.
Verses 11 & 12, this commandment is not hidden from you. The Word
is very near you, in your mouth, and in your heart, that you may do it.
I have set before you this day, life and good and death
and evil. blessing and cursing. Choose life.
That you and your children may live. Love the Lord your God, and obey
His voice, for He is your life. Joshua 24:15.
Choose you this day whom you will serve. Deuteronomy 6:9.
These words which I command thee this day, shall be in
your heart, and you shall teach them diligently to your children. And shall talk
of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise up. The Lord says this applies to the government as well. Deuteronomy
17.
When the ruler sits upon the throne of his kingdom, he shall
write him a copy of this law, and he shall read therein all the days of his life, that he may learn to fear the Lord his God,
to keep all the words of this law, to do them.
A few years after the parting of the Red Sea, Joshua
was winning victory after victory, on the way to the promised land. He sent his
spies to check out jericho, and the spies were taken care
of by Rahab, a notorious prostitute who lived on the top of the wide wall that circled the city. Joshua 2:9.
Rahab told the two spies, I know that the Lord has given
you the land. Your terror has fallen upon us and all the inhabitants of
the land faint because of you. For we have heard how the Lord dried up the waters
of the Red Sea for you when you came out of Egypt. The word of this miracle was well known throughout the countries surrounding, despite
the absence of a CNN satelite crew.
The founding of this nation, under God's Law and Word,
was not done secretly. The rest of the world saw it happen.
The high perfect moral tone of the Law of God was beyond
the ability of the human mind to even think up on its own. We see that
even in this generation.
This generation has thrown off belief in, or recognition
of, the true God of heaven, and His moral law.
And civilization has plunged into a moral swamp, where it is demanded that every kind of rotten behavior be accepted
as a civil right. Any attempt to declare forth the moral law of God as the rule
to be obeyed, is greeted with ridicule and anger. The very presence of the Law
of God makes men angry. That in itself is proof that the imagination of man could
not possibly have invented it on its own.
The Law of God we get in the Bible is of supernatural
source.
From these beginnings, the Jewish nation became the guardians
of the written Word of God. When the Lord would annoint a prophet, and his declarations
of thus saith the Lord were recognized as true and genuine, the same voice that spoke forth the Ten Commandments, these words
were written down and kept sacred.
This collection came to be known as the Law and the Prophets. The Holy Scriptures. It was also referred
to as the canon. The word canon means ruler.
A measuring stick by which all things pertaining to the communication
of God to man were ever to be measured.
The time came for God to fulfill all the promises He
had told his prophets to write down. The Word became flesh, and dwelt among us,
and we beheld His glory. The glory of the only begotten Son of God. The Incarnate
Word. He announced Himself to be the fulfillment of everything that had been
written. He opened up the depths of the true meaning of the commandments, telling
us that it wasn't enough to just go thru the motions of keeping them, but it was required that the power of the commandment
should get inside of our souls. The human mind, that resented the existence of
the commandment in the first place, would never have thought that part up. That
only made things harder for us.
We saw then that the law of God was so high and perfect
that we could never hope to begin to keep it in our own strength. That's when
He taught us about forgiveness, and the new birth, and the promise that God would live in us by the Holy Spirit, if we would
allow Him to.
After He ascended into heaven, He inspired men to write
down the story of his life, death and resurrection. He spoke to the minds of
Matthew, Mark, Luke, Paul, James, John, and Jude, to give us detailed instructions on
how to live, and also, prophesies telling of the final judgment. These
New Testament writings were given by the same voice of the same God who first spoke to Moses on Mount
Sinai. The prophets of the New Testament wrote down what the spirit
told them to write down.
All the writings of the New Testament were completed
in the first fifty years after the resurrection, except for the Book of Revelation.
In 90 AD, Jesus appeared to John on Patmos, and gave
John the same commandment Moses had received in the beginning on Mount Sinai. God said, write down what I tell you. Then tell it to the people.
How do we know it’s the Bible? How do we know it’s the
true words from the true God? The difference between right and wrong, the standard
of moral behavior, given by Jehovah, is the highest and purest ever known to man, and man himself could not and would not
ever have thought it up. This word of God was given in connection with the founding
of the Jewish nation. Which involved supernatural interventions by God witnessed
by the people in the surrounding countries. There are thousands and thousands
of prophesies in the Bible. Concerning Christ.
Concerning events of history. They have all come true. The more we learn of archaeological discoveries, the more we learn about the ancient places and people
that the Bible says existed, but that mockers and unbelievers say did not exist.
All of the health and dietary laws in the Bible have
scientific validity.
The Bible speaks on every conceivable subject of interest
to the moral and spiritual and social behavior of men, and gives a high and holy standard to follow.
When the reader believes the words of the Bible, and
receives them into his soul, it brings about a profound change, from dark to light, from despair to rejoicing, from lostness
to forgiveness. Psalm 119:130. The
entrance of Thy Word brings light. Psalm 119:105.
Thy Word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my pathway. Hebrews 4:1.
The word of God is alive and powerful, sharper than any
two-edged sword, cutting apart the soul and spirit, understanding the thoughts and intents of the heart. Jeremiah 23:29.
God's Word is a hammer that breaks the rock in pieces.
The power of this written word, shines a light into the
human soul that reveals the identity of Almighty God and His righteousness. Just
the kind of moral and spiritual attributes you would want any God to have.
Yet down thru the centuries men who have hated God, have
known just what holy book to direct their hatred toward. No other book in history
has been so maligned, criticized, denounced, banned, burned, and hated. The words
of this book have a supernatural power to produce a raging hatred in the hearts of men who do not want to believe it and practice
it. No other book on the face of the earth, has the power to rip men's hearts
open, let them see clearly their own sins, and yet at the same instant, let them see the glorious redemption from those sins,
to those willing to receive. The power of the words of this book have always
touched the hearts of men in a supernatural way.
This is the main reason we know that it is the one authentic
book written to mankind by the mind and heart of the one, true, authentic God.
Its words are full of the supernatural power of the God who spoke them.
