A View For Your Consideration

The view of the writer: The Old Testament is not a total record of all God did in the world prior to the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. It quickly but briefly declares that sin [evil] became the human reality that humans could not resolve. Then in steady pace, it shows how God worked through the centuries to send Jesus and solve to human delimma of sin [evil].

If you are tempted to disregard that view with the simple declaration, "Where did that come from?" consider some statements from the early chapters of Deuteronomy. Deuteronomy declares it is the words of Moses to Israel. It declares itself to be the written record of a speech [or several speeches??] Moses gave Israel prior to the nation crossing the Jordan into Canaan. The early part of the book is a series of historical reminders that were common knowledge among the Israelites.

In Deuteronomy 2:4, 5 Israel was instructed as they passed through the territory of Edom to be very careful. They were not to provoke the descendants of Esau. The Israelites would not be given any of their land, not even a step, because God had given Mount Seir to the descendants of Esau for a possesion. Verse 12 stated the descendants of Esau displaced the Horites just as Israel would displace the Canaanites.

Then in Deuteronomy 2:9 Moses reminded them that they [Israel] were informed they should not harass Moab or provoke them to war. Again, God said he would not give Israel any of their land as a possession. Why? Moses said because God gave Ar to the descendants of Lot as a possession.

Deuteronomy 2:19 states the same thing about the Ammonites. Israel was not to harass or provoke them. God would not give Israel any of their land as a possession because God had given it to the descendants of Lot for a possession.

Question: Where is the record of these things happening? Moses clearly said these things happened as acts of God. Moses said these acts happened through acts of displacement in a manner simlar to Israel displacing the Canaanites. Yet, God clearly indicated that these territories were not [at this time] to become Israel's land. So, where is the Biblical narrative of the descendants of Esau conquering their territory with God's help or the descendants of Lot [Moabites and Ammonites] conquering their territory with God's help.

The Old Testament record declared that God keeps His promises in spite of Israel's faults and failures. God promised a solution to Abraham in Genesis 12:3 ["in you all families of the earth shall be blessed"], and God kept His promise when Jesus died and was resurrected. God kept His promise in spite of Israel's making and worshipping the golden calf (Exodus 32), in spite of the atrocious conditions of Judges 18-21, in spite of the failures of King Saul, in spite of King David's failure in the matters of Bathsheba and Uriah, in spite of the idolatry of Solomon's wives, in spite of the divided kingdom of united Israel, in spite of the Assyrian captivity, in spite of the Babylonian captivity, and in spite of the New Testament rejection of Jesus.

Even in the New Testament, we do not have a record of all of God's work. We have no biblically documented record of where most of the apostles went or what work they did. Basically we know a little about God's work through the resurrected Jesus among the Jewish people (Acts 2-9) and God's work among the gentiles in Paul's work. Even those accounts are fairly brief.

Because of what God did in Jesus Christ, we can know (1) God keeps His word, (2) any human who comes to God through Christ can receive divine forgiveness, and (3) in Christ sin [evil] is a solved problem for forgiven humans.

The Bible is a partial record of God's acts. It declares God's promise and God's determination to do what He said He would do. It declares how determined God was prior to Jesus' crucifixion and resurrection, and it declares God's intent after Jesus' crucifixion and resurrection.

We certainly know enough about the sovereign God to yield to His will and purposes.