Genesis 1:1

“In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.”

• God is the Creator. This has tremendous moral implications!
• If there is no God, there is no objective basis for morality.
• ”The Despair of Atheism”
• “An Open Letter to the Scientific Community”

Isaiah 59:2

“But your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God, and your sins have hidden His face from you so that He does not hear.”

• Our sins separate us from God!

Matthew 1:21

“She will bear a Son; and you call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins.”

• Jesus would come and save us from our sins. He came to earth and showed us how to live perfectly, without sin.

Matthew 22:37

“And He said to him, ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’”

• The meaning of life is to serve and glorify God.

Mark 9:31

“For He was teaching His disciples and telling them, ‘The Son of Man is to be delivered into the hands of men, and they will kill Him; and when He has been killed, He will rise three days later.’”

• Jesus would be the sacrifice for our sins.

II Corinthians 5:10

“For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may be recompenses for his deeds in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad.”

• We will all have to give account to God for what we had done while on earth.

Introduction

• The book of Numbers gets its name from the two censuses that are taken and recorded in the book.
• Exodus 19:1-2 – Israel camped in front of Mt. Sinai for about eleven months.
• Numbers 10:11

Numbers 1

• Numbers 1:1 – Year 2, month 2, day 1
  • Numbers 10:1 – Year 2, month 2, day 20
  • Hebrews 9:11-12, 23-24
  • Nehemiah 9:20
• Numbers 1:46 – Total military-age men: 603,550.
• Numbers 1:47-54 – The Levites were set apart for the work of the tabernacle.

Numbers 2

• Exodus 25:1-9
• The tabernacle was the center of everything, both when camped and when moving.
• Exodus 40:33-38
• Numbers 5:3; 16:9 – God was dwelling in the camp with them.
  • I Corinthians 3:16 – Christians are the temple of God. God’s word dwells in us.

Numbers 3

• Numbers 3:5-10 – The priests would be from the lineage of Aaron and his sons.
• Numbers 3:11-14 – The firstborn belong to God!
• Numbers 3:39, 43 – The firstborn of Levi and the rest of Israel are counted. God declares that the firstborn belong to Him. God makes an exchange – the firstborn of Levi for the firstborn of the rest of Israel.

I Corinthians 16

• I Corinthians 16:1-4 – Collections for the needy saints
  • To whom was this money going?
    • Acts 2:44-45
    • Acts 4:32-35
    • Acts 6:1-6
    • Acts 11:27-29
    • Romans 15:25-32
    • II Corinthians 8:4
    • II Corinthians 9:1
    • I Timothy 5:5-16
    • To the needy saints!
  • What was to be the method of collecting this money?
    • Weekly collections on the first day of the week.
  • What was to be the method of delivering the money to Jerusalem?
    • The money was carried by hand by trusted men.
  • What was each individual’s responsibility?
    • I Corinthians 16:2 – Set aside and save as he has prospered.
  • What amount was to be given?
    • No set amount or percentage was specified.
• I Corinthians 16:5-9 – See Acts 19:1-23. Paul stayed in Ephesus for quite a while (about three years).
• I Corinthians 16:10-11 – Paul wanted them to encourage Timothy.
• I Corinthians 16:12 – Apollos evidently had done good work in Corinth.
• I Corinthians 16:13-14 – Be brave, courageous, and strong!
• I Corinthians 16:19-20
  • Aquila and Priscilla (Prisca) were in Ephesus at this time. They apparently had a church meeting in their house.
  • Greeting each other with a kiss was a common practice at that time. In I Corinthians 16:20, Paul seems to be regulating a cultural practice that was already in use. Greet one another in a holy way. We should cherish our time with our fellow Christians and be close.
• I Corinthians 16:22 – Maranatha means, “our Lord, come.”

Introduction

• Philemon 1:8-9
• Psalms 71:9, 15, 5

Older people are vital and useful.

• Psalms 92:12-15
• Luke 1:36; 2:36-38
• Leviticus 19:32
• Titus 2:2-3
• God has work for older people to do!
• I Timothy 3:6
• What would Benchley be like without older people?

Older people are still fighting the devil.

• I Timothy 5:1-2
• II Chronicles 26:3, 16
• Different temptations can arise in old age.
• Philippians 3:17

We should honor older people.

• Proverbs 20:29
• I Timothy 5:3, 9-10
• Ecclesiastes 12:1-5 – The effects of old age.
• II Corinthians 4:16

One objection to the Exodus

• Could not have happened
  • Describes Moses as having written Exodus accounts (Exodus 34:27; et al)
  • Describes the Law written by God’s own finger (Exodus 31:18)
  • Archaeologists and historians denied existence of written Hebrew language that early

Written communication

• Three main types of written communications:
  • Syllabary – language dependent, symbols expressing sounds
  • Pictograms – symbols independent of language, depict things, ideas
  • Alphabets – language dependent, make sounds of the language
• Dr. Miles R. Jones, former professor of education at Texas A&M University) – The Writing of God
  • Purports that written ancient Hebrew is the first alphabet in history

Syllabary

• Sound from combinations of consonant and vowel
  • Ca, Ce, Ci, Co, Cu
  • Da, De, Di, Do, Du, etc.
• Cuneiform was a type of syllabary
• Syllabary requires about 200 symbols
• Communication is language dependent
• Neither writing nor pictures, but symbols
  • Made with stylus
  • Makes wedged imprints on clay
  • Not carved in stone
  • Cumbersome in writing and preserving

Pictograms

• Symbols express things, ideas, or states of being
• Not language dependent
• Requires huge number of symbols
• Dynamic lexicon

Hieroglyphics

• Type of pictogram
• Symbols of things and ideas
• Borrowed by Hebrews
  • Hebrews borrowed symbols to depict sounds in Hebrew language
    • Took symbols for items beginning with a sound
    • Used that symbol to express that sound
  • When did they do this?
    • Some time in the 2nd millennium B.C.
  • When did Joseph’s family come to Egypt?
    • Early in the 2nd millennium B.C. – approximately 1850 B.C.

“A” is for cow

• In Hebrew, Aleph means Cattle or Oxen
  • Hieroglyph is a cow’s head
  • Symbol of cow’s head used for the “A” sound
  • Symbol evolved into a sideways “A”
• The Hebrews took 22 symbols from Egyptian hieroglyphs
  • One for each of the sounds in the Hebrew language
  • The symbols were for the sounds, not the things or ideas
  • Established a 22-letter alphabet
  • By the Exodus, the symbol for cow had morphed into a sideways “A”

Hebrew experience with writing

• Abraham – cuneiform
• Joseph – cuneiform, hieroglyphics
• Moses – cuneiform, hieroglyphics, alphabet

The term “alphabet”

• Taken from the first two letters
• Greek?
• Hebrew?
• You decide

Archaeological evidence

• El Arish inscription
  • Dates from 325 B.C.
  • Problem?
• Ipuwer papyrus
• Mernepta Stele
  • Presence of Israelites
  • When?
• Four-room houses
  • Typical of Hebrew houses
  • Found in both Egypt (pre-1440 B.C.)
  • And in Canaan (post-1500 B.C.)

Effect of archaeology

• Can’t probe the Exodus
• Much of it puzzle pieces
• Wide range of interpretations
• Will always be a matter of faith

Where was Mount Horeb?

• Also called Mount Sinai
• Traditional – Sinai Peninsula
• Bible – Midian – Exodus 3:1, 12