He Said and He Did

The idea that God created the world but did not accomplish anything beyond creation is deism. “The term is used chiefly of an intellectual movement of the 17th and 18th centuries that accepted the existence of a creator on the basis of reason but rejected belief in a supernatural deity who interacts with humankind” (Oxford Languages). Perspectives gained from deism have resulted into opposing thoughts that negatively influenced how people consider God and one another. Although biblically, God’s interactions with human life are clearly seen and understood, but deism and its opposing reasoning have misrepresented God’s continued involvement. Therefore, numerous disturbing views have caused people in various eras of human history to turn away from God, but His intervention has kept human life from utter destruction.

As the Bible informs, God intervenes with His human creation from the beginning of Genesis to the end of Revelation. Many notable situations throughout the Bible indicate numerous ways God have interacted with human life individually and nationally to effect change and overthrow oppositions against His plans and purposes. God did not just create the world to leave it without His communication and instruction. Furthermore, all who believe and diligently study the Bible can clearly identify what God has accomplished while interacting with human life. Several extraordinary situations are noted in the following paragraphs:

First, in the Book of Genesis, God has displayed His intervention through His conversations with Adam and Eve when He provided instructions to sustain their lives. God’s instructions directed and tested their ability to think and perform actions. Adam was given the task of naming all the animals and maintaining the Garden of Eden. God’s instructions were not grievous but assisted their lives and test their reverence for Him. Adam and Eve followed God’s instructions until Satan deceived Eve, and then Adam had chosen to follow. Though Eve was deceived, Adam willfully disobeyed an important guideline. But God intervened on a national level to save them from total destruction by the enemy (Genesis 3:1-6, 21). Satan set them up for the Fall, but God ensured that they did not immediately die.

Second, after mankind increased in the earth, God looked down from heaven and viewed how wickedness had increased in their hearts or thoughts and prevailed throughout the earth. He was grieved and repented that He had created people. God made plans to destroy them and the evil He had seen. But God decided to save the human race by interacting with Noah and encouraging him to build an ark that saved the earth and human life (Genesis 6:5-8, 12-14).

Third, when men built a large tower in the land of Babel with thoughts of reaching into heaven, God confounded their speech and scattered them, so they could not easily understand one another. God thwarted their self-centered agenda because they were not seeking Him or desiring to follow His righteous guidelines (Genesis 11:3-9).

Fourth, God spoke to Abram and called him to be the father of many nations even though Abram and his wife Sarai did not have children and were elderly. But Abram believed and followed God’s instructions, and God accounted Abram’s actions as righteous. However, when Abram asked God how he would know the promised inheritance, God showed Abram in a dream that his descendants would go into a strange land and serve the inhabitants (Genesis 15:12-14). Then God changed Abram’s named to Abraham and his wife’s name to Sarah, and as God had promised, Abraham and Sarah had a son in their old age, and Abraham became the father of many nations (Genesis 12:1-5, 17:19).

Fifth, God gave Abraham’s grandson Jacob the name Israel meaning as a prince has thy power with God and men and has prevailed (Genesis 32:25-28). Therefore, the descendants of Israel’s sons became the 12 tribes of Israel. However, when several of Jacob’s sons decided to kill one of their brothers (Joseph), their actions eventually led to the fulfillment of God prophecy to Abraham. Instead of killing their brother Joseph, the sons of Jacob sold him into slavery to the Ishmaelites for twenty pieces of silver (Genesis 37:28). When famine plagued the land, the brothers, their families, and their father Jacob relocated into a strange land, Egypt where Joseph resided and maintained an honorable stature. As the Israelites population grew in the land, one particular Egyptian Pharaoh attempted to destroy them by using the people as slaves, and then killing their first-born male offspring. But God intervened and raised up Moses as a prophet to lead the Israelites out of bondage. God showed great power through Moses with many signs and wonders (Exodus 14:21-23, 16:4).

Sixth, after 430 years, which included the 30 years Joseph was in Egypt, God delivered Abraham’s descendants and gave them the land of Canaan. But, as they populated the land of Canaan, many Israelites disobeyed God’s instructions and began following the ways of the other nations that also lived in the land. People from the other nations had abominable, wicked ways that displeased God. Therefore, God raised up judges such as Joshua and Gideon, Deborah the prophetess, and priests such as Eli and Samuel to inform the Israelites concerning the direction God was leading them.

Eli, the Priest and His Sons

God appointed priests to inform, instruct, and bless the people while performing work in the Temple. But, when Eli was priest over the Israelites, his two sons, Hophni and Phinehas’ actions displeased God. Hophni and Phinehas did not follow God instructions for maintaining the Temple, and they refused to implement the appropriate ways God provided for priests to bless and instruct all the people. As a result, Hophni and Phinehas betrayed the priestly responsibilities and transgressed against God (1 Samuel 2:24). The outcome of their actions eventually led the Israelites to reject God as King over their lives.

Apparently, God had observed Hophni and Phinehas’ inappropriate ways and warned Eli about his sons. But Eli did not provide the proper corrections, and therefore, Hophni and Phinehas continued their transgressions. Then, God sent a messenger to visit Eli and warn him to restrain his sons. Eli spoke with Hophni and Phinehas, but their perverseness did not cease, and they continued to disrespect the work of the Temple, God, and the people. Hophni and Phinehas disobeyed God’s guidelines for accepting offerings from the people, and they would lay with women in the congregation (1 Samuel 2:15-17). Therefore, God made plans to replace Eli and his sons.

Samuel

It was the custom of the Israelites to attend the yearly pilgrimage to the Temple and receive God’s blessings from the priests. On one particular pilgrimage, God saw favor in Hannah, one of the wives of Elkanah who was barren and ridiculed for not having children. While Hannah was praying to God about her situation, Eli came into the Temple and observed her mouth moving but did not hear words and assumed Hannah was drunk. When Hannah realized Eli was observing her, she explained to him that she had not been drinking but was praying about her inability to have children. Though Eli accepted Hannah’s explanation and prayed for her, God had already heard Hannah’s concerns and opened her womb. After Hannah conceived, she had a son and named him Samuel. In her prayer to God, she had dedicated her son to the work of the Temple. When Hannah weaned Samuel, she sent him to live with Eli (1 Samuel 1:1-11, 22).

“The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance” (2 Peter 3:9).

Samuel was a priest called by God for such a time when people were led astray by leaders who turned them away from the ways of God. Hophni and Phinehas had chosen ways from other nations which were spiritually defiling and an abomination against God. Therefore, the LORD revealed to Samuel what would happen to Eli and his sons for their disobedience.

Another custom of the Israelites occurred when the priest Eli would grow old, his two sons would inherit the priesthood responsibilities. But the Israelites despised Hophni and Phinehas and did not want them as priestly leaders over the nation. Although, when Eli and his sons died and Samuel became an honored priest for the nation, the Israelites demanded a physical king to rule over them according to the similitude of the other nations. God’s chosen people rejected Him and His ways as King over their lives (1 Samuel 8:7).

Do Justly, Love Mercy

What did God require of them? “He has shown you, O man, what is good; and what does the LORD require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God” (Micah 6:8).

God’s requirements for people are not grievous. He is a Righteous God leading people into righteousness. Believing in Him, His Word, and His Ways are necessary for people to follow the path God has outlined for their lives. But those who oppose God’s instructions and ways such as Hophni and Phinehas turn people away from God. God desires to blessed people through His Wise guidance and discourage unwise thinking (Proverbs 4:7). He also offers His Holy Spirit as Comforter and His Word when experiencing troubling situations.

Accordingly, as the Bible informs, if God’s instructions and ways are followed appropriately, then blessings, long life, and peace are bestowed upon all who seek and implement them (Proverbs 3:2-8). God is gracious and longsuffering toward His human creation, because He knows destructions will occur to those who reject Him. Therefore, while there is still opportunity, God continues to intervene and inspire His message through those who believe in Him and will encourage others to hear or read and understand the importance of returning unto Him.

Accept or Forbear

Many in these current times want God to display Old Testament actions of His Power as He did through Moses and others biblical figures. God’s display of Old Testament power would give unbelievers reason to believe in Him, but those particular presentations of God’s Power were for specific purposes. Therefore, God has already given everything His human creation needs to understand that He is the One True God. He has given His Holy Spirit, Salvation through Jesus Christ, and His Righteous Word. If what God said and did in the Old Testament and New Testament are not enough, then as in the parable of Father Abraham that informed the rich man, “If they hear not Moses and the prophets neither will they be persuaded though one has rose from the dead” (Luke 16:31).

The Old Testament prophets were given divine messages from God to encourage and inform people about what God required and His future plans for their lives. God’s messages to prophets also foretold of the coming Messiah. In the first four New Testament Books of the Bible, the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, the prophesies of the Savior, the anointed one are fulfilled in the Good News of Jesus Christ’s birth, life, death, and resurrection. The Gospels acknowledge Jesus Christ as the anointed one, and He exhibited the righteous ways of God with miraculous power for all to see in the era in which He lived on the earth. But many in this current era question God’s interventions and the fulfillment of His Salvation Plan through Jesus Christ.

“Verly, verily, I say unto you, He that hears my word, and believes on him that sent me, has everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life” (John 5:24).

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