tise with joy. God is brought to it because His people will not obedi ently follow Him. Is the Word of God inspired? Is it authenticated by the Holy Spirit. Yes because God gives us a picture of reality. This is something men would not have done; rather they would have glossed over the affairs of man, had the Lord Himself not inspired the writing of this wonder ful Book. C hapter N ine F rom the realm of archaeology we find proof for the inspiration of the Bible. This we have seen in pre vious messages. Another science, that of geography, should also be con sidered. In Exodus 23 we have the remarkable presentation of the Lord concerning the matter that all geog raphy points to the inspiration of the Bible. A popular high school text de scribes Palestine as lacking fertile soil, natural resources and harbors. But it goes on to say that the no madic Israelites called it a land flow ing with milk and honey because it was probably better than the Ara bian desert. There are three things wrong with this statement. First, there’s much evidence that the soil was more fertile and productive in ancient times than it is at the pres ent, especially since before 1948. Second, the land has been discovered to be rich in mineral resources. Even in king Solomon’s day, copper was melted and smelted in the land. Third, harbor towns, used by the ancients, have now been excavated. You see ancient conditions do not have to be as they are today. When we come to the inspiration of the Bible, even from the stand point of geography, we see the com plete reliability of Scripture. As far as the problem of typog raphy, we have some specifics in Exodus 23:31 as well as Numbers
in separate kitchens. Archeology tells us that it was an important act in the Canaanitish temple ritual to mix the two. God didn’t want Israel to follow such a practice. God called Israel to a specific pur pose and for a specific ministry. There was no doubt about the re sponsibility of the Hebrew people. They were’ not to engage in any Canaanite practice because of what God had said in Leviticus 18:30, “I am the Lord your God.” Their de liberate defiance of this, in the face of all that they had been taught, brought Israel great problems. They were carried away into captivity. God’s judgment fell upon them be cause He had wanted them to be a separated people. Deuteronomy 7:1-8 makes it very clear that Israel had backslidden from Him. Here we have the tragedy of Israel’s spiritual condition. We also find the explanation of God’s orders for Israel’s extermination of the wicked people found in the land they were to conquer. Judges 2:10- 13 describes the cycles that followed Israel’s lack of obedience. The Jews had mixed socially, permitting inter marriage and backsliding toward the evil religious beliefs of the Canaanite inhabitants. In Deuteronomy 7:10, 11, 19, we see the Lord’s anger kin dled in judgment. The people finally repented, calling upon the Lord again. God heard and sent His deliv erer (Deut. 7:16). We must recog nize God’s holiness. The Lord in spired the writers of the Bible to record what He wanted Israel to do. He doesn’t delight in judgment. He calls it His strange work (Isa. 28: 21). Our God is not willing that any should perish. He longs to bring all men to repentance. The Lord won’t allow any people, however great their material contributions to mankind, to spread corruption unchecked. Nei ther will He allow His Church to take on the ways of the world with out judgment. Still He doesn’t chas- 24
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