An article in the August 19, 2006, edition of "World" magazine tells how the worship of serpents is "present in virtually every country of the ancient world." According to the Bible, there was a time when all people knew the true God, but they purposely turned away from Him and went after images and false gods (Romans 1:21-23). Certainly, Noah's family knew the story of the Fall of man in the Garden of Eden and passed along to their families. Here is just a sampling of the traditions of the snake in cultures around the world. Some of the stories consider the snake to be evil; others take him as the source of wisdom.
I was seeking last night for a word of encouragement from the Lord and He gave me this. Psalm 119:83 ? ?For I am become like a bottle in the smoke; yet do I not forget thy statutes.? Bottles in Bible times were most often made of animal skins. In the smoke, they would dry out and lose their softness. Troubles to the saint are like smoke to the bottle. We cannot see the way to go and we dry out and lose our ability to adjust. But we still have the compass of God?s precepts. We must not forget them. They will keep us on solid ground even when we are in the smoke.
Journals can tell us much about the day to day activities of people long ago. August 19, 1781, exactly 225 years ago, was a Sunday. On that day, Hezekiah Smith, the pastor of Haverhill Baptist Church in Massachusetts, recorded that he preached two sermons at his home church on Malachi 3:2. They were the completion of two sermons that he preached on the same text the Sunday before. We do not have these sermons in print, but it would have been interesting to hear four sermons preached on the text: "But who may abide the day of his coming? and who shall stand when he appeareth? for he is like a refiner's fire, and like fullers' soap." At this same time, the American Revolutionary is not yet over. However, the British General Cornwallis has already retreated to Yorktown and is building his defenses there. He will surrender to the American Forces under General George Washington on October 19, 1781.
Recently, my Bible reading brought me across a most interesting passage. In Jeremiah 27:6-7, the Lord declared that He has given the land of Judah and the surrounding countries to Nebechadnezzar. "And all nations shall serve him, and his son, and his son's son, until the very time of the land come" (v.7). This is known as the Babylonian Captivity but what do these details mean?
In early April of 2006, many of the major news media outlets (including MSNBC's website: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/12152740/) carried a story about a Florida State University professor who tried to help the Lord out by explaining a miracle, a supernatural event, in natural terms.
