Have you ever noticed how children follow the Life Patterns of their parents? One of the things said about Abraham by Yahweh was that he would teach his children after him to know the laws of his God.
Adam was created in a garden of paradise, disobeyed God, and was evicted from his intended home. Eve and Adam disobeyed God and unknowingly gave their birthright away, or their legal right to rule the earth. It wasn’t very long before his son Cain slew his brother Abel, and God sent Cain to wander the world. Then God saw that men’s hearts are continually imagining evil deeds, so He sent a flood to clean the earth from its evil, sparing one man and his family. From this one man and one woman, God began to repopulate the world. It was not long before God saw a tower being built. All men had gathered together to imagine a way to reach to the heavens. God confounded their language into different tongues, so they wouldn’t be able to understand each other, and they had to stop building the tower. The men called the tower, Babel, or confusion. God used these scenarios to show man that it is impossible to be good by himself. God was ready for another step toward redeeming man back from the devil.
He spoke to one man, among all the nations, by the name of Abram, promising him that he would become a great nation of people. He also said that this nation would bless all the nations of the world, and that whoever blessed this nation would be blessed, and that whoever cursed this nation would be cursed.
God’s plan was to bring forth a nation from this man Abram, who would produce twelve tribes of people, with one of the tribes producing a man out of whom would come the man who would provide the lineage of Jesus Christ. In the fullness of time, Galatians 4:4-5 “God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the Law, that He might redeem them who were under the Law, that we might receive the adoption of sons.”
All around Abram were nations of people who were worshiping idols made from wood, stone, and metal. They were sacrificing their children to pagan gods. They had a sect of female and male temple prostitutes who slept with the worshipers in the belief that they were imparting supernatural knowledge and power. There were psychics, astrologers, necromancers, sorcerers, witches, and wizards, and they were all worshiping everything but Yahweh. Baal, Ashtoreth, and Molech, Dagon, Chemosh, Hadad, Marduk, Milcom, and Tammuz, were some of the false gods worshiped by the nations around Abram. Their worship rituals included making images of these false gods. These patterns of behavior were abominable to God.
Psalm 78:58 NIV, “They angered God by building shrines to other gods; they made him jealous with their idols.” God is alone in creation of the universe and the earth. He stretched out the heavens with His hand, and called things into being from nothing. There is no god beside God, and He alone has the power to create. So when mankind continually forgets about Him and turns to other gods who are not gods at all, He becomes angry as a jealous man whose wife has been unfaithful to him.
Here is the reason: Deuteronomy 32:17, “They sacrificed to demons, which are not God–gods they had not known, gods that recently appeared, gods your fathers did not fear.” These idols and false gods were demons.
Adam tried to show his sons what God required by way of obedience and worship. Abel learned the lesson, but Cain didn’t and killed Abel. God gave another son to Adam and Eve, who named him Seth, and from the lineage of Seth came Enoch. Enoch walked with God and was not, for God took him. Enoch was so close in fellowship with God that God told him to come on home with Him. Enoch was the great-grandfather of Noah. Out of the lineage from Adam to Noah, only Enoch and Noah are considered righteous. Righteousness in the Old Testament meant they obeyed God in the proper way of worship and in obedience to God’s Word. The worship required a blood sacrifice to atone for their sins, which they inherited from Adam. The Bible says all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. All have inherited sin’s life pattern from Adam.
Disobedience and rebellion are inherited from Adam and Eve. When Adam died that day in the garden, he didn’t immediately die physically, but his spirit died, and he was no longer able to see and hear God as He talked with them. Their souls became carnal, more like an animal than a created being who is a little lower than the angels. They began to age and to die physically. Adam had died spiritually and was dying physically. We inherited this spiritual death as well, for Jesus teaches us that we must be born again to be able to reenter the Presence of our Father in His Garden.
God had been watching Abram and noticed that he had refused to worship the false gods around him, while he continued to offer worship to Him. Galatians 3:6 says that his belief in God was counted to him as righteousness. Abram became an example of our righteousness in Christ, which comes not by our works, but through our faith in Christ and His Blood of Atonement.
God blessed Abram with a son named Isaac, and He blessed Isaac with a son named Jacob. Both Isaac and Jacob built altars to offer sacrifices to the God of their father Abram. Abram had his name changed by God to Abraham, meaning a father of many nations. Then Jacob sired 12 sons to bring forth the nation of Hebrews, or Israel. God then chose one tribe, Judah, to bring forth the Messiah. The Messiah would come to save the world from their sins, restoring them to fellowship with their Father, just as Adam enjoyed in the garden.
Christ taught His people, the Jews, but He also ministered to the other Gentile nations. Christ’s disciples took His message to all the world. They started by sharing the message with the Jews, then to the Samaritans and then to the Gentiles. This is why you and I, as believers in Christ, can have access to our Heavenly Father today.
God has been looking for individuals to worship Him in Spirit and Truth. He will take those who refuse to bow before the idols of this world to live and reign with Him in a new Paradise and eventually a New Earth. Paul says those who believe in Christ are a Holy Nation, and a Royal Priesthood.
America has idols today in the form of greed, pride, and serving self through pleasure and materialism. One big idol is the deceptive teachings of the New Age Movement, which was founded in the Occult. The Occult is all about serving Satan and his demons. Demons are behind many false teachings today, and pass them off as truth, in the form of angel-guides, or even Yoga and meditation. The need to exalt self as a god over the one true God is not a new thing. It started with Lucifer in heaven and has been practiced since Eve. God hates idolatry.
The Nation of Israel was surrounded by nations who worshiped false gods. Israel was commanded to worship Yahweh as the only true God. Sometimes Israel obeyed the teachings of their one true God, and sometimes they didn’t obey these teachings. Sometimes they blatantly worshiped other gods and possessed carvings of these gods in their homes. When Israel obeyed Yahweh, they were blessed. When they disobeyed, they were cursed. Deuteronomy chapter twenty-eight outlines these blessings and curses.
Israel disobeyed so often that Yahweh finally gave them up to captivity for 70 years under the nations of Persia and Babylon. When they returned from captivity they rebuilt the walls of the city of Jerusalem, and soon they rebuilt their temple, which had been destroyed. Even then, there was a certain group of the people who decided that they were comfortable in the country of their captivity.
When Jesus Christ arrived on the scene in the form of a man, as God in the flesh, He was able to overcome all the temptations of the flesh and the world, and thus to serve His Father only. He set a new example for mankind, showing all that only through the power of the Holy Spirit is man able to rise above idolatry and the false gods.
His message was, “The Kingdom of God is at hand! Repent!” and “You must be Born Again!”.
He went about immediately after His Baptism, being anointed by the Holy Spirit, doing good toward all men. He healed the sick, raised the dead, and cast out demons, all while He taught the Word of the Law in a new way.
Jesus taught that it is no longer by the letter of the Law that man can attain righteousness and be judged, but by the Spirit of the Law, and faith in His Blood Atonement.
He rebuked lawyers and Pharisees for their self-righteous ways, as they tried to be superior to others in their meticulous keeping of the minor details of the Law. He called them some harsh names, as ‘graveyards full of dead men’s bones’, ‘hypocrites’ and ‘cups which were clean on the outside, but filthy on the inside’.
So the Old Testament shows that man is constantly struggling, trying to be faithful to their God. Yet they can’t seem to maintain this faithfulness to Yahweh, even when they want to do so, because they are surrounded by many false gods and idols. Unless someone like a God appointed Prophet is standing over them constantly reminding them of the Law, they seem to forget what the Law says, and quickly make themselves idols. Even when David and Solomon are on their thrones in the height of Israel’s glory, there are many times when they sin and even allow false gods into Jerusalem.
But because God has made a Covenant with Abraham, and even though man continually breaks that Covenant, Yahweh honors the Covenant, for He cannot break His Word. He sends forth His only Begotten Son as the means to one day serve Yahweh in total obedience from the city of Jerusalem.
This is why the Nation of Israel is in existence today. Her hour for total obedience is nearing and can’t be too far away. Even though the devil incites her neighbors to try to destroy her, Yahweh will never allow her to be defeated again. He will even fight for her when the battle starts involving Russia and her allies. It is important for us to pray for Israel’s peace and protection. Those who bless Israel will be blessed. Those who curse her will be cursed. It is a Divine Law and we can see the demise of America as she begins to draw back from her support of Israel, while trying to force her to give up land that Yahweh says is rightfully hers.
Jesus came to raise up another group of people called the Church, a group of called-out ones. These people would come out of all nations and be filled with the Power of the Holy Spirit. Jesus told His disciples that they would receive Power after the Holy Spirit fell upon them, and to tarry in Jerusalem after His ascension until they received this Power. When the Disciples received this Power, they filled their world with the teachings of Jesus, performing miracles just like Jesus did. They were always quick to acknowledge that these miracles were done only by faith in the Name of Jesus Christ.
The church soon faced persecution, to the point of torture and death, for their faith in Jesus. Most all of the Apostles of Jesus died a horrible death, rather than deny their faith. The first Martyr was Stephen, who was stoned to death as he beheld Jesus standing at the right hand of God. Bartholomew was beaten with rods, skinned alive, and then hung upside down on a cross to die. (Jesus Freaks by Voice of the Martyrs)
In spite of thousands of Christians being destroyed, the Gospel message spread all over the world, and is still influencing billions of lives today to be separate from this world kingdom of darkness.
It seems, though, in looking back over the history of the Jewish people in the Old Testament, and over the history of the early church, that it always took some form of persecution before God’s people decided that they needed to be obedient to Him. When times were easy and comfortable, they always seemed to turn away to other gods, creating for themselves idols to worship other than the One True God. It also seems to be the same today. When times were tough in America, then we Americans were faithful to God, going to church and obeying His Word in our daily lives, with a heart of thankfulness over our daily meals and for our needs being supplied.
When times are easy, we soon turn away from God, quit going to church, quit obeying His Word, and become callous in our hearts about the source of our daily needs, often exalting ourselves as our own gods, while practicing all manner of sinful behaviors that insult our Maker.
Just as the world has their thieves, the church has their thieves. Just as the world has immorality, the church has immorality. Just as the world has those who abuse their power and authority, the church has these also. Just as the world has greed, and coveting, so does the church. Jesus said the church has become like lukewarm water. It has lost its refreshing power, and He will spit it out of His mouth.
We are no different than the people of Israel, nor our early American forefathers, nor even the pagan nations of this world. Even with the Power of the Holy Spirit, we seem to insist on having our own way and following the carnality of the mind and body, which are both contrary to the Spiritual God, Yahweh in Christ.
It seems that in order to be able to be obedient to God in keeping His commandments, we still need something more from Him. A Covenant with Abraham is not enough, without oppression. The Covenant of Blood of Christ is not enough without persecution. It seems we can only call on God in the midst of serious troubles, or upon our death beds. Is this why there is great persecution coming soon to America and the world, as foretold in the book of Revelation?
Why are we not able to stay faithful to our God? I want to look at some life patterns that have a deep influence on ourselves and on the generations to come after us.
Click here to go to Life Patterns-Part Two