Ask Bob

To all readers of our magazine, greetings! It is always nice to receive questions about spiritual issues and or events. I am not a theologian, but as a student of God’s Holy Bible. I will always endeavour to answer your questions from a layman’s point of view; to the best of my ability and hopefully to your satisfaction. So, please keep your questions coming.

Questions of the Month

(1) If the Hebrews were in Egypt, why did they not mention the Pyramids and the Sphinx?

We have to realize that the Bible is the account of God’s relationship with His people and the history of His people, the Israelites. Any historical facts that did not impact these Israelite people is therefore mundane and of no valuable consequence to the relationship between God and His people. Another thought to consider is that for the larger part of the Hebrews stay in the land of Goshen, they were slaves to the Egyptians and therefore were not likely to be allowed to enter into the Valley of the Kings, where the Pyramids and the tombs of the Pharaohs were located. since that was sacred ground to the Egyptians, who had multiple gods that they revered.

(2) God is God! And can do whatsoever He wants, but why did God choose Israel to be His people?

The answer to this question is actually found in the second chapter of the second book of our Bible, namely Exodus and the last three verses of that chapter, which read as follows. “And it came to pass in process of time that the King of Egypt died; and the children of Israel sighed by reason of the bondage, and they cried, and their cry came up unto God by reason of the bondage. And God heard their groaning and God remembered His covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob. And God looked upon the children of Israel, and God knew their plight.” (Ex. 2:23-25). So, you see, God was honor bound to fulfill His promise to our Father Abraham. In Gen. 17 we read how God changed the name Abram, meaning exalted father, to Abraham, father of a multitude, and for the fourth time confirms the promise or covenant He made with Abram when He called him out of the land Chaldea to go to Canaan. But, someone may say, Abraham had eight sons total, Isaac, Ishmael and the six sons by Keturah, so why the Israelites? In Gen. 21:12, we read God’s words to Abraham when God proclaims, “For in Isaac shall thy seed be called”. Thus, from Isaac we go to Jacob, both whom had confirmation of the same covenant and subsequently we end up with the twelve sons, the twelve tribes of Israel!

(3) “Did God create evil?”

In order to answer this question, let us look at two passages of Scripture. First, let us look at Isa. 45:7 that reads, “I form light, and create darkness; I make peace, and create evil; I, the Lord do all these things.” Let us also look at Amos 3:6, where we read, “Shall a trumpet be blown in the city, and the people not be afraid? Shall there be evil in a city, and the Lord hath not done it?” These two verses confirm that God has created evil! But let us also look at a different scenario. When God created Adam God also made a Garden in Eden for Adam in which to dwell. In that Garden the Lord God made every tree to grow that was pleasant to behold and good for food; and also, the Tree of Life and the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. (Gen. 2:9) Just like light and darkness, good and evil are opposites, positive and negative. When Adam lived in the Garden all was good and it was not until Adam and Eve sinned by eating of the fruit of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, which God had forbidden them to do, lest they die, that evil was made manifest to the detriment of mankind ever since. Yes, God is the author of evil, but God is not the instigator of evil, for that is against His nature. No, that dubious distinction belongs to Lucifer, the fallen angel, aka, Satan, the Devil, who has caused havoc on the earth amongst mankind since the fall of Adam in Paradise!