A couple of Friday nights ago (11/10/2023), I turned on the television to watch the game-show network and the show “Split-Second” was on.It was in the middle of the game, and the first question that was asked was the following. It was asked to the three contestants. Who is the father of the following people?
Isaac
Shem, Ham, Japheth
Cain and Abel
The three contestants only answered one of the questions. One contestant answered that Abraham was the father of Isaac. That was the correct answer, but the game show then supplied the answers to the other two questions that were not answered. The answers they gave to the two remaining questions were that Noah was the father of Shem, Ham, Japheth, and Adam was the father of Cain and Abel.
I thought to myself, how would I have answered that question, “Who was the father of Cain and Abel?”
We began our 1st Lesson on Captivity Names with this question: where in our Bibles do we find the histories of our People Israel in Captivity? In that lesson we began with Daniel 1, and reviewed the history of the four Hebrew children, Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah. All four Hebrews were better known in the Chaldean language of Babylon as Belteshazzar, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. The King found the four Hebrew sons “ten times better than all the magicians and astrologers that were in his realm”. The Scriptures put us in remembrance that Daniel’s request of the King, concerning the dream he could not remember, prevented the slaughter of all the palace advisors who failed to help the King recall his awesome dream and interpret it!(Daniel 1:17). How did the four Hebrew sons become “ten times better than all the magicians and astrologers that were in his realm”?
This sermon will be a little different for me. I do not consider myself a story teller. But Jesus told stories: we call them Parables, and He used them to illustrate something or teach a lesson.
Someone has said that a parable is an earthly story with a heavenly meaning. At first glance of my subtitle, one might wonder if there is such a book as the Gospel According to Zacchaeus. Perhaps among the lost books of the Bible? No, there isn’t! But if there were, the narrative would probably go something like the following.
A parable may or may not be true. But in the case of Zacchaeus, I believe it is true. Now, what I’m about to tell you is pure speculation, but not without historical evidence from the Gospels.
Part 1: When parents name their children, what act are they performing? When mother and father name “the fruit of the womb”, are they performing the deeds of Dominion? (Micah 4:8). Is the 1st Covenant God made with us The Dominion Covenant he made with Adam? In Christ Jesus will we get that Dominion back which Adam lost in the Great Transgression?
Part 2: Do the Canaanites know that intermarriage is unlawful marriage and devours sheep? How many sheep understand this?! Stray sheep fall. If God in the Person of The Holy Spirit did not intervene and reveal the Truth of His Word to us, would Adam be extinct?
Part 1: Why do the Kenites, Canaanites and Jews, if their ancient father was Adam, have no chance of salvation, but are guaranteed a place in hell? Remember the law of “kind after kind”.
Part 2: If Adam fathered Cain, why would their descendants not have been destroyed in the flood of Noah? If the serpent didn't have a seed with Eve, then there is no physical enemy of God. Then who are the Jews?
Scripture Reading: Acts 17:11 (KJV) These were more noble than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness of mind, and searched the scriptures daily, whether those things were so.
How much time do you personally spend daily on your phone? How can you love your neighbor if you are filled with the world’s ideas? How much time do you spend daily listening to subjects related to God?
We learn to love our neighbor by listening to God and godly men.
If the Jews are not one of Jesus’ sheep, then what does today's scripture reading mean? Doesn’t that mean that they have another different father than the Sheep have? Didn’t Jesus tell them that: “I [Jesus] speak that which I [Jesus] have seen with My Father; and ye [Jews, verse 31] do that which ye [Jews] have seen with your father.” John 8:38
The Jews have a different father than Jesus had! What father is that?
Where in our Bibles do we find the histories of Israel in Captivity?
In a previous lesson “Captivity Captive” we were led to realize Israel is always in Captivity! Israel, the Only People inScripture that are called a Flock ofSheep, are always in Captivity!(Matthew 7:15). We are in Captivity,in duecourse, to The Good Shepherd of the Sheep, Jesus Christ the Righteous. And we are in Captivity,out of due course, to The Great I Am God of Israel’s Enemies, Wolves in sheep’s clothing!
The verses just before the Scripture reading reveal a little more of the context of this narrative:
And there ran a man of Benjamin out of the army, and came to Shiloh the same day with his clothes rent, and with earth upon his head. 13 And when he came, lo, Eli sat upon a seat by the wayside watching: for his heart trembled for the ark of God. And when the man came into the city, and told it, all the city cried out. 14 And when Eli heard the noise of the crying, he said, "What meaneth the noise of this tumult? And the man came in hastily, and told Eli." (I Sa. 4:12-14)
Eli was a judge of Israel at this time. He was now blind because of his age; but he could hear. When the messenger came, Eli asks, “What is there done, my son?” (I Sa. 4:16) Literally, “What happened, my son?” Eli must have gathered from the words of the messenger that Israel had been defeated; for he had said, he “fled from the army that day,” and “came in hastily and told Eli what had taken place. He revealed that the defeat was a severe one. The answer piles misery upon misery — four crushing catastrophes:1. Israel had fled before the Philistines; 2. there had been a great slaughter; 3. among the slain were Eli’s two sons; and (worst of all), 4. the ark of God was taken.
I was brought up as an Arminian; that is the belief that a man chooses God. Briefly said, in our church when the children reached the age of twelve or thirteen, they took a few classes and then went to the front of the church and said that they wanted Jesus to come into their hearts. After doing this, the future new church members were candidates for baptism and their first Lord’s Supper.
The American Baptist Church that I went to with my parents never explained what the word “election” meant in the Bible. The word was in the Bible, but the church basically ignored it. They did the same thing with similar words/phrases that are also in the Holy Scriptures: “predestination”,“God chose their seed”, “God elected” and “foreknowledge of God”. The Arminian church that I grew up in never talked about these terms. They just continued to invite people up to the front of the church every Sunday service to make their decision.
