late a city?" A. The question of where this orig inal civilization came from and how rapidly it grew is not answered in Genesis. But we see in verses 16-24 of Genesis 4 the way that fathers begat sons and daughters and the generations came into be ing. Keep in mind that the men and women lived to be much old er in those days. Parents had many more children than they do today. The population could increase very rapidly. They married sisters at first and then more distant relatives, and it was not long until children were growing up, such distant rel atives that to all intents and pur poses, they were no relatives at all to those whom they married. The size of the city at first was per haps very, very small but it rapidly grew as people gravitated toward one another. Remember also that the use of the word "city" does not neces sarily indicate in the Hebrew a large city as today, of a certain size. Cities as we have now would have been quite unusual in those days. Lot refers to the place "Zoar" as a city, but it actually was a little hamlet or settlement. Q. Delano, Calif. "/ read that in Old Testament times a priest with a broken nose was rejected. Can you tell me why?" A. The basis for this is found in Leviticus 21:17-24. Such a man could not stand in his official position because God wants an unblemished offering and an un blemished agent. We ought to offer Him the best. We ought to have the spirit of David who said, "I will not offer unto the Lord that which costeth me nothing." Page 21
Q. Holister, Calif. "Jephthah made a vow to the Lord in Judges 11:30, 31, promising to offer up as a sac rifice the first person ("whatsoev er") to meet him at his door if the Lord would deliver the enemy into his hands. The first person to meet him was his daughter. Did he then carry out his vow, or did he (as some teach) set her apart to re main a virgin the rest of her life?" A. This is a question that continues to have Bible-believing men on both sides of the issue. First let us say that there is nothing in the Scripture which could lead us to believe that Jephthah was impelled or motivated by the Lord to make such a vow. It simply shows the particular nature of this rough-and- ready individual. Read carefully verses 36-40 of the same chapter. Remember how much it meant to those who were waiting for the Messiah, every Jewish maiden thinking that possibly she might be the channel for the Messiah, particularly if she were in the tribe of Judah. You can see what a tre mendous loss it would be for a young lady to give up her oppor tunity to be married and to bring children into the world. We believe it is quite clear here that this was the type of offering — not that Jephthah could not particularly have made a vow involving death, but we doubt that the vow actually involved the offering up of a living person. In this case, his daughter was not to be married. Note par ticularly the phrase "she knew no man" in verse 39. We believe she was forced to remain a virgin the rest of her life. Q. Fallbrook, Calif. "Genesis 4:17 says that Cain built a city. How did he have enough children to popu
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