 
The Bible Summarised; with insights from Ellen G. White

By Kerry Hughes

Smashwords Edition

Copyright 2016 Kerry Hughes

Smashwords Edition, License Notes

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Table of Contents:

Chapter 1 The Fall of Satan

Chapter 2 Creation

Chapter 3 Temptation and Fall

Chapter 4 The Plan of Salvation

Chapter 5 Cain and Abel

Chapter 6 Seth and Enoch

Chapter 7 The Flood

Chapter 8 The Tower of Babel

Chapter 9 Abraham and the Promised Seed

Chapter 10 The Marriage of Isaac

Chapter 11 Jacob and Esau

Chapter 12 Jacob and the Angel

Chapter 13 The Children of Israel

Chapter 14 God's Power Revealed

Chapter 15 Israel's Escape From Bondage

Chapter 16 The Law of God

Chapter 17 The Sanctuary

Chapter 18 The Spies and Their Report

Chapter 19 The Sin of Moses

Chapter 20 Balaam

Chapter 21 Entering the Promised Land

Chapter 22 The Death of Moses

Chapter 23 The Ark of God and the Fortunes of Israel

Chapter 24 Presumption Punished

Chapter 25 Jesus' First Advent

Chapter 26 The Temptation

Chapter 27 Jesus' Ministry

Chapter 28 The Betrayal

Chapter 29 The Trial

Chapter 30 Jesus Before Pilate

Chapter 31 The Crucifixion

Chapter 32 The Resurrection

Chapter 33 The Ascension

Chapter 34 Verse by verse interpretation of Revelation 1-3

# CHAPTER ONE

# The Fall of Satan

In heaven there was God; (The Father and Jesus). God created angels to live with Him in heaven, and of these angels, Satan was the most important.

Satan liked the power he had and became arrogant and wanted even more. He became jealous of Jesus and started to take some of Jesus' leadership roles. All the angels knew that Jesus was above Satan, but still allowed him to take Jesus' roles because they loved Satan. The Father then reminded everyone that Jesus was equal to Himself and in charge of every angel, including Satan.

Satan was unhappy with this and he told the other angels that this announcement meant that they had to be servants to Jesus. He made them believe that the law God had set up made them slaves and that they would be happier without this law. Satan said he wouldn't follow Jesus and that the announcement was putting Satan lower than he should be.

The angels debated. Some were unhappy because they couldn't see why the Father gave Jesus unlimited power and felt Jesus should not have this authority. Satan made some of them question whether it was right that God had a law they had to obey and Satan said that if he was in charge he would make sure there wasn't a law.

The angels on God's side were shocked to see Satan and the other angels actually think that they may be right. They tried to convince Satan that he was still just as important as before God made the announcement. Satan refused to listen and repeated that the angels that were on Gods side were slaves.

The angels on Gods remained surprised that other angels were actually rebelling against God. Satan told them he would be a better leader than God and everyone would be free. Satan thought that if he got all the angels on his side he would be equal to God.

Gods angels warned the others to stop listening to Satan, and go back to God. Lots of the angels did this and went back.

Satan then said that he knew God's law well, and if that according to the law if they went back to God they would all lose the positions they had and be lower down than all the angels who didn't rebel.

God could have thrown Satan out of heaven straight away but he wanted everyone to see that he was being fair and to give everyone had a chance to show how they felt.

God got everyone together. Satan explained he was unhappy that Jesus was more important than him and that Jesus got to have secret conversations with The Father. The Father told everyone that Jesus was above every angel and all angels must follow him. He told Satan he could no longer live in heaven.

Then Satan pointed to the angels that were on his side, which were nearly half the angels in heaven and said that there were too many angels for God to throw them all out. He said that he would fight to stay in heaven.

God answered that all of Satan's angels must leave because happiness in heaven can only exist if they obey the law. Satan disagreed and claimed that angels were good and holy people and no unhappiness would occur without a law so everyone should do whatever they want.

Then there was war. God and His angels won and Satan and his angels were thrown out from heaven.

Heaven was then peaceful and harmonious again but there was sadness at the loss of the angels that had been thrown out.

The Father and Jesus immediately started planning the creation of earth and humans. Because of what happened in heaven they decided to test whether humans would choose to follow God.

# CHAPTER TWO

# Creation

The Father and Jesus then created the world. They made the world and two humans Adam and Eve. Everything was beautiful, much more beautiful than today.

Adam and Eve didn't wear any clothes. They were clothed with a light from God. Adam and Eve were given everything to make them happy.

God told them to eat fruits and seeds. The garden they lived in was covered in fruits. One of the trees was the tree of life, eating this stopped any aging or illness and gave them eternal life.

Consequences of Rebellion

The tree of the knowledge of good and evil was near the tree of life. This tree was the test that God set up to see whether humans would follow him. God told Adam and Eve not to eat or even touch it, and if they did they would die.

Adam and Eve had everything needed to be happy and they were happy. However God allowed Satan to tempt them to eat from the forbidden tree. If they passed the test, then Adam and Eve would have eternal life with God.

Satan was now on earth. He and all the angels were shocked and unhappy with being thrown out of heaven. They had thought that not having God's law would make them happy but already they were all sad and none of them had experienced feeling sad under Gods law.

Satan went to a place to think alone about his sad situation and what he should do. He went back to Jesus and said that he wanted to change and serve God again. Jesus felt sorry for Satan and cried as he told him that he could never come back into heaven. Satan repented because of his suffering not because he felt bad about doing wrong. If he went back into heaven his suffering would end and he would go against God again.

Not getting back into heaven increased his anger and hatred to God.

All of Satan's angels asked him what they should do. He said that if they caused Adam and Eve to sin then God would find a way for their sins to be forgiven and whatever way he finds to forgive their sins, all the fallen angels could also use to have their sins forgiven. That way they could get back into heaven.

If however God doesn't give Adam and Eve a way to have their sins forgiven they could then join the humans and live with them in the Garden of Eden.

Satan said that tempting Adam and Eve was such an important job that he should do it himself. He thought about whether he really wanted to do it because he felt sorry for Adam and Eve that they would be so unhappy after they sin.

He thought about trying to turn them against Jesus or intimidating him with his power but felt that deceiving them was the most likely to succeed.

Adam and Eve were told about Satan and that they couldn't eat from the tree of knowledge. And that this was a test for them. God would not force them not to eat the tree, he wanted them to have free will to accept or reject him.

Satan could tempt but not harm them. If necessary, every angel from heaven would come to their help rather than let Satan harm them. But if they disobeyed God, Satan would have power to forever annoy them.

The angels told Eve not to separate from Adam because alone would be in more dangerous than if together. They must also stay away from the tree of Knowledge because this is the only place Satan can meet them.

# CHAPTER THREE

# Temptation and Fall

Snakes used to have wings and were able to fly. Satan went inside a snake and took control. He then went into Eden and started eating the fruit from the tree of knowledge.

Eve was alone and went and looked at the fruit on the forbidden tree. She saw it looked very tasty and wondered why God had told them not to eat it. Just as she was thinking this, the snake spoke. Eve was surprised hearing a snake able to talk and the snake told her that the fruit had given him this power and that God had lied about dying if you eat the fruit. The snake told her that if she ate the fruit she would gain secret knowledge.

God didn't want Adam and Eve to know or experience evil. There would have been no need for this. They could have been perfectly happy without this knowledge. Knowing evil has not increased our happiness but caused a lot of misery in the world.

Eve didn't realise the snake was Satan so she believed him and ate the fruit.

She then looked for Adam, who immediately understood what had happened and that the snake was Satan. He felt sorry for Eve and chose to eat the fruit and die with her than be without her.

God had given Adam and Eve the free will to follow and trust him or go their own way. Straight after eating the fruit they felt powerful, superior to how they were. Then they felt guilt and fear and unhappiness. God's light that covered their bodies went away and they felt naked.

Everyone in heaven heard what had happened and was sad.  
God visited Adam and Eve and told them they would have punishment on earth. The world would be a difficult place for them now. Humans would have to work and experience unhappiness, illness, aging and death. God gave them clothes of animal skins. This shows how the sin already meant that it had to cause the death of an animal, a sacrifice to cover it. This represents the sacrifice that Jesus later performed to permanently remove all of mans sin.

# CHAPTER FOUR

# The Plan of Salvation

Heaven was worried about humans and after Jesus and The Father discussed what to do He told the angels that they had worked out a way to save them. He told them that He would become a human and sacrifice himself so that humans could live in happiness without evil again.

The angels were concerned for the suffering Jesus would endure but celebrated that humans would be saved.

Satan also celebrated because he thought that when Jesus becomes a human he wouldn't have the strength of being God, so Satan could stop him achieving what he needs to save humans.

God's angels told Adam and Eve that Jesus had felt so sorry for them that he would take their punishment and save them by dying for them. Jesus created a door of hope from Satan's control. Humans must choose to accept the gift that Jesus offers.

Adam and Eve felt bad about Jesus doing this and saw how important the law of God must be for him to do this.

Adam was told about how the world would continue to break God's law and the pain and suffering would increase through the generations. Adam was made perfect, healthy without any diseases or imperfections. This will not be the case after thousands of years of breaking God's law.

Jesus' sacrifice could save the whole world; but only a few would accept the gift, they would prefer to feel free from his law than repentance and obedience. This sacrifice is so infinitely valuable that anyone who accepts it would become more precious than gold.

When Adam, made offerings for sin, it was very difficult. He had never seen death before. The sacrifice is supposed to help Adam understand sin; to make him see how awful sin is that death is required. Whenever he sacrificed an animal he was to think about the sacrifice that Jesus will do for him, the sacrifice that will save him.

# CHAPTER FIVE

# Cain and Abel

Cain and Abel were Adam and Eves sons. Abel respected God. Cain was annoyed with God because of the curse from eating the forbidden fruit. God had told them to sacrifice animals to show their acceptance of Jesus' sacrifice and their desire to follow his law.

Cain brought his offering to God annoyed at the situation he was in. He didn't strictly follow the plan of sacrificing a lamb because God had said that sins can only be forgiven if there is a sacrifice of an animal and Cain only brought fruit. Abel advised Cain to sacrifice an animal. Cain was the older brother and wouldn't listen to Abel and gave God the fruit but God didn't accept it.

Cain saw that Abel's offering was accepted and became so angry and jealous that he murdered Abel.

Cain and Abel represent the two types of people, Cain represents non-Christians or Christians that don't wasn't to follow him in the way God wants. They will be jealous of people that follow God and will bully, tease and kill them.

Adam lived for hundreds of years and saw generations become more and more corrupt and the beauty of the world slowly fade.

# CHAPTER SIX

# Seth and Enoch

Adam and Eve had a son called Seth, who, like Abel wanted to follow God. Seth had a great-great-great grandson called Enoch.

A person's character depends on who they choose to be but it is also affected by upbringing. Cain's children chose not to follow God not because they had genes inherited from Cain but because of how Cain had brought them up.

Seth brought up his children to follow God and his law. Enoch came from Seth's family who had been taught to follow God and chose not to spend time with unbelievers because he felt that spending time with them he might join in with their evil. He spent much of his time alone thinking and praying.

Enoch was worried about death. It seemed that all people would just stop existing. God showed him that Jesus would die to save the dead that wanted to follow him. He also saw the evil that would be when the world comes to an end.

Enoch warned people about what he had been told. Some believed his words, worshipped God and stopped breaking His law.

God didn't want Enoch to experience death so he lifted him up and took him directly to heaven. God showed the world that people who follow him would be rewarded and treated with respect. He wanted people to have hope but also to understand that those who don't follow him will have to die.

Satan has successfully brought a lot of evil into the world. Enoch, separating himself from Satan's people and spending lots of time in prayer represents what God's people will do in the last days of the world because it has become so evil. At the end of the world Gods people will not die but will be lifted up to heaven just before the world is destroyed. Enoch was lifted to heaven just before a ginormous flood destroyed the world.

# CHAPTER SEVEN

# The Flood

Seth's children were called the sons of God because they were brought up to follow God. Cain's children were called the sons of men because they did whatever they wanted to do. The two groups mixed and married each other and this caused Seth's family to stop following God and his law. Noah and his family were among the few that still followed God.

God wanted people to be saved and have happiness by following him. But because the world was so evil almost everyone was brought up and taught not to want to follow Him. To save people God saw that he could destroy the whole world apart from the small number that still followed him. These people could then raise children in a way that they would choose to follow the law, choose to have eternal life and happiness. For the sake of saving the most people he decided to destroy all the evil in the world with a flood.

God told Noah about the flood and to tell the whole world what was going to happen. God wanted people to listen to Noah and save themselves from the flood. Enoch's son Methuselah helped his grandson Noah build the ark but died just before the flood started. The rest of the world didn't believe Noah and made fun of him for being a fanatic and building a boat.

Some people did listen to Noah but there was over a hundred years until the flood came and during that time they gave up and started living their lives of sin, without God again.

Angels brought the animals onto the ark, seven pairs of each animal that can be eaten (called clean animals) and one pair of each animal that can't (called unclean animals).

Other people ignored all this and continued getting drunk and chatting and watching entertainment that had no mention of God.

An angel closed the door of the boat with Noah and seven members of his family inside. Seven days later it started raining.

The rain was immense and rocks in the earth split open releasing ginormous volumes of underground water. This destroyed everything on earth, including the false religions and idols that people had built to false gods. The destruction was so strong that even Satan thought he might die.

Lots of people saw what was happening and begged for Noah to let him into his boat. It was too late. When the end of the world comes it will be too late to change. Your chance to follow God is now.

The storm lasted 40 days and then the world was completely covered with water. Gradually the water went down and they left the boat.

Noah immediately built an alter and sacrificed one of each of the clean animals. This showed he accepted Jesus' future sacrifice and thanked God for keeping his family safe on the boat.

God was very pleased with the thanks Noah gave and blessed him.

God created rainbows as a sign of what had happened, that the whole world was destroyed by water but that God still loved the people in the world and he would never destroy it with water again. At the end of the world it will be destroyed by fire.

# CHAPTER EIGHT

# The Tower of Babel

Whilst some of Noah's descendants followed God, Some didn't and were angry with God for causing the flood. Others either didn't believe in the flood or said it was from natural causes.

Those who didn't follow God felt guilty when they saw the Holy lives of those who loved and obeyed Him. They didn't like feeling this so they all moved to a new city. They built a tower incredibly tall to look powerful and so people would look up to and obey them. From here Satan ruled the whole world.

Before it was finished people lived in the tower in posh, beautiful rooms decorated with idols. The tower was to impress people, thoughts that they instead should have had for God.

God was concerned that this city and tower made it difficult for people to focus on Jesus' sacrifice they needed to get into heaven. The world was all in one city and ruled by a system set up by Satan.

God ended this by making all the people understand and speak different languages. Not understanding each other meant they couldn't finish building the tower and they all moved to different parts of the world. God also caused lightning to destroy the top of the tower to show people that nothing is higher than Him.

# CHAPTER NINE

# Abraham and the Promised Seed

People spread out across the world but false religion continued. God wanted to pick someone to make an example of devoting their life to God so that people who follow God could see how to live. God picked Abraham. Abraham was Noah's great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great grandson. God told him to leave his country and separate from his people, people who have chosen not to follow God. God tells us that Christians are now the ones who follow Abraham's example.

Galatians 3:29 If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise.

People respected Abraham in his country because they saw his strict obedience to God. This made people respect the God that Abraham followed. They saw the strength of the God he followed and the importance, power and love he had for Abraham to choose to follow him so well.

God told Abraham that the people who will continue to follow his God would be as numerous as the stars.

God gave Abraham an area of land to live on. Abraham had a nephew called Lot who also received land and he lived in an evil city called Sodom. God told Lot to leave Sodom and separate from evil. His wife left as well but missed the fun in the city. She indulged this emotion by looking back at what she was missing. God killed her for doing this. God shows us how essential it is for us to separate ourselves from evil. Don't think about the "fun" you are missing out on, concentrate on doing things for God. Longing and missing evil things will probably destroy your Christian life.

God said that Abraham's land will be given to Gods followers when heaven is brought to earth at the end of the world. God told Abraham that he will have many descendants that will follow God. Abraham was confused because he didn't have any children and his wife seemed too old to get pregnant. Abraham and his wife Sarah didn't trust God enough. God wanted to test how much they trusted Him by promising something that looked impossible. Instead of believing God and letting Him do the work they tried to do it themselves. Sarah advised Abraham to marry their servant Hagar and get her pregnant.

God never wanted men to have more than one wife. Lamech was the first person to have two wives, which created jealousy and unhappiness in his family. People started copying Lamech and this continued after the flood. Even some of Gods followers did this.

God picked Noah because he was different to other people in the world. Noah only had one wife. Hagar became very proud thinking she was the mother of Gods people. She boasted about it to Sarah and Sarah became very jealous and unhappy.

Hagar and Abraham had a son called Ishmael. God told Abraham that Gods followers would be through a son he would have with Sarah. Sarah had said that she would count Ishmael as her son and Abraham assumed that Gods people would be through Ishmael.

Angels came again and told Abraham clearly that Sarah would have a son called Isaac.

Isaac was born and Abraham and Sarah celebrated. This caused Hagar and Ishmael to be very jealous because Ishmael thought he would be the father of Gods people. Ishmael didn't like Isaac and wasn't nice to him. Sarah saw this and wanted Abraham to tell Ishmael and Hagar to leave. Abraham felt bad but God told him that this was the only way for his family to be happy and that he would look after Ishmael and he would be successful and have lots of descendants.

God told Abraham to send away Hagar and Ismael to teach us that marriage is extremely important and big sacrifices sometimes have to be made for happiness in the marriage. Sarah was the first and only true wife of Abraham. She was entitled to rights, as a wife and mother, which no other could have.

Abraham failed the test of trusting God by marrying Hagar. Because he failed God set up an even more difficult test. God told Abraham to sacrifice Isaac on a hill.

Abraham took Isaac to the hill the next morning. It took three days to get there so Abraham had enough time to think about it, doubt God and change his mind. But he trusted God that Isaac would be the father of Gods people. He had seen that God was right saying that Sarah would have a baby even though she was so old and assumed God would make Isaac come back to life after Abraham had killed him.

Abraham made sure he was alone on the hill to make sure no one would stop him killing his son.

Abraham hadn't told Isaac what he was going to do and as they went up the hill with wood for the sacrifice Isaac asked Abraham where the lamb was that they would kill. Abraham said that God will provide a lamb. Abraham told Isaac about the promise of him producing many descendants and that he would sacrifice Isaac and then God would bring him back to life.

Isaac believed in God and loved and respected him. He knew his dad followed this God and had been taught to obey his dad. He could have stopped his dad if he wanted. But hugged his Abraham and agreed to follow the plan. As Abraham lifted his hand to kill his son an angel told him to stop, that he had passed the test to show that he trusted God by being willing to sacrifice his son, his only son. God blessed him for this and gave Abraham a ram to sacrifice to represent Gods son, His only son.

# CHAPTER TEN

# The Marriage of Isaac

God told His people not to marry the Canaanites because they worshipped idols and if married there would be a risk of Gods people copying them.

Abraham was worried about his son Isaac being corrupted by marring a Canaanite, who would damage his relationship with God. Isaac wasn't married yet and Abraham was old and knew he didn't have much longer to live, so he made his servant promise to find Isaac a suitable wife. The servant promised to find a wife who followed the same God as Abraham, the only real God.

The servant went to the city Abraham originally came from to look for a wife for Isaac. He prayed for God to help him find someone suitable by showing him evidence when he sees her. The servant went to the well in the city, where there were a lot of people.

Here he noticed a girl with good manners called Rebekah. The servant saw the evidence he had asked God to show that Rebekah was the one that God was pleased to marry Isaac. Rebekah invited the servant to her dad's house.

The servant then told Rebekah's father and brother that God had shown him signs that Rebekah should marry his master's son Isaac.

Abraham's servant then asked the family whether they were happy for Rebekah to marry Isaac. They answered that they were happy with this because God is happy with it. The servant bowed and worshipped God for this.

They asked Rebekah whether she was willing to go with the servant the long journey to marry Isaac. She was happy to do this because she believed God had chosen her to marry Isaac.

In those days marriage was decided by the parents but the children still had to agree to it. But generally the children had confidence in their parents' judgment and followed their decision.

Isaac had been brought up to obey God. And when he was forty he agreed to marry the wife the servant found because he believed God had chosen her and he trusted God.

God tells us about Isaac's life so that we can use it as an example of how we should obey God. It also teaches us to bring up children to respect parents decisions, to marry more suitable people than their inexperience might pick.

# CHAPTER ELEVEN

# Jacob and Esau

God knows the future. He knew, before Isaac's children (Jacob and Esau) were born what characters they would each develop. He knew that Esau wouldn't obey Him. God told Rebekah that she would have two children, and the older one would serve the younger. He told her that each son would create a nation, and the younger sons country would be greater than the older ones.

Isaac loved Esau more than Jacob, because Esau would hunt and bring him wild meat to eat. Rebekah preferred Jacob because he was calmer and made sure his mum was happy. Rebekah told Jacob that Esau would serve him. Jacob thought that because he was the younger brother the promise of being the father of Gods people would go to Esau.

One day Esau was very hungry and Jacob offered him some food if Esau would give the promise of being the father of Gods people to him. Esau didn't take the promise from God very seriously so agreed that Jacob could have it.

Esau married two women who worshipped false Gods. This caused Isaac and Rebekah a lot of stress. Even so, Isaac still loved Esau more than Jacob and when Isaac thought that he was about to die he asked Esau to bring him meat, so he could bless Esau with the promise God had given him. Esau did not tell his father that he had sold his birth right to Jacob. Rebekah remembered what God had told her and knew that Esau had given the promise to Jacob. She persuaded Jacob to trick his dad by pretending to be Esau so that he would get the blessing from his dad instead. Rebekah didn't think there was another way to do this and knew that Isaac preferred Esau so thought that he would definitely give the blessing to him.

Rebekah and Jacob showed a lack of trust in God, just as Abraham had with the promised birth of Isaac. Jacob trying to buy the promise and trick his dad was wrong and unnecessary. God had told him he would be the Father of His people so he should have trusted God and allowed God to make sure it would happen.

If Esau had got the blessing from Abraham it would only have actually benefitted him if he had a good relationship with God. If he loved and respected God, God would bless him. If he had no respect for God or His commandments God would have rejected him. If Jacob hadn't got the blessing from Abraham but he loved God, God would have still blessed him as if Isaac had given him the blessing.

Jacob's Years of Exile

Rebekah was bitterly sorry for what she had got Jacob to do. Because Jacob had done this he had to run away because he thought Esau would kill him. Rebekah never saw Jacob again.

Jacob went to where his mum Rebekah had originally come from. He met his mum's brother (Laban) and wanted to marry his daughter called Rachel. He made an agreement with Laban that in return for working for Laban for 7 years he would get to marry Rachel. At the end of the 7 years Laban wanted Jacob to work for him even longer so he tricked Jacob into marrying his other daughter called Leah so that he would have to work another 7 years to marry Rachel.

Jacob wanted to separate from Leah but Laban told him this would be very embarrassing for the family and not nice for Leah so he agreed to marry both Leah and Rachel and work another 7 years for Laban. Although he married both women, he always loved Rachel much more than Leah.

Laban was selfish, getting as much as he could out of Jacob for 20 years. Jacob wouldn't have stayed with Laban so long if he weren't afraid of encountering Esau. However, he heard Laban's sons, complaining that he had taken a lot of Laban's wealth and that Laban attributed his success to Jacob, not them. Laban became unhappy with Jacob and tried to pay him less and less by tricking him. Jacob realised it was best for him to leave.

Jacob was distressed because he didn't know where he could go. He prayed and God told him to go back to the area he grew up.

Jacob told Leah and Rachel how Laban had been unfair to him. They were angry that Laban had used them for money and it didn't seem as though their dad would help them financially. They agreed with Jacob that it was best to leave.

The Return to Canaan

Laban was angry when he found out that Jacob and his daughters had left. He went after them to bring them back. But God gave Laban a dream where he told Laban to let Jacob go.

Laban still caught up with Jacob and Jacob complained how he had mistreated them. Laban made an agreement that they wouldn't hurt each other. Laban said he cared for his daughters and grandchildren and didn't want Jacob to marry any more women. Jacob agreed to this.

Jacob then went on his way back to his childhood home. He had a dream where he saw angels. He asked the angels to give a humble message to Esau to try and reconcile and make up. The angels went away and came back and said that Esau was coming to meet him with 400 men. This made Jacob terrified and he split the group he was with into two so that if Esau tries to kill him he will only see and kill half the group.

Jacob prayed and remembered God had told him to return home, that God would look after him if he went back and make him the father of many people. He trusted God with what he had told him and asked God to protect him from Esau.

# CHAPTER TWELVE

# Jacob and the Angel

Jacob was worried because he knew he had sinned by stealing Esau's birthright so he thought God might find it just to let Esau kill him. He prayed to God all night about this. An angel stood in front of Jacob, and showed him exactly how he was wrong in what he did. As the angel turned to leave him, Jacob grabbed the angel, and refused to let go. He cried and begged that he was deeply sorry for what he had done to Esau, the sin that had caused him not to see his family for 20 years.

All night Jacob wrestled with the angel, begging for the angel to bless him. The angel seemed to be resisting his prayer, by continually reminding him of his sins and trying to get away. Jacob wasn't holding the angel by physical strength, but by the power of faith. The angel was more than strong enough to break free but chose not to.

The angel warned Jacob that he had supernatural power he could use against him but Jacob still wouldn't let go, so he dislocated Jacobs hip. But even with all the hip pain Jacob still wouldn't let go and he tried even harder to get a blessing. The sun was coming up and finally the angel asked what Jacobs name was and said he was changing his name to Israel because he struggled with God repenting and pleading for forgiveness and a blessing and succeeded. The name Israel means prince of God.

Jacob showed that he had faith that persevered through even the difficulty of a dislocated hip. Jacob named the place he struggled with the angel Peniel, which means "face of God" because he had seen God face-to-face and survived. This is because the angel he fought with was Jesus, God himself. In Hosea 12:4 and 5 we have confirmation again that this angel was God.

He struggled with the angel and overcame him; he wept and begged for his favour. He found him at Bethel and talked with him there the Lord God Almighty, the Lord is his name! Hosea 12:4, 5.

Before this wrestling Jacob had spent his life in remorse for what he had done. The blessing from the angel gave him peace from this that he had been forgiven and God was with him.

Esau's army had come to kill Jacob but God listened to Jacobs's pleadings and gave Esau a dream. Esau was shown how sorry Jacob was and that God was with Jacob. When Esau woke up he had no desire to hurt Jacob so told his army that God was with Jacob and they would meet him but no one was allowed to hurt him.

When Esau arrived Jacob bowed down to him 7 times. Esau ran up to Jacob and hugged him. Jacob gave Esau a peace offering.

An Object Lesson

Like Cain and Abel, Jacob and Esau represent two types of people: Jacob, the followers of God and Esau, the wicked. Jacob's fear when he found out that Esau and four hundred men were coming to kill him represents the fear the Christians will have in the last days of the world, just before Jesus returns, when a law is made to put them all to death. As the people who don't follow God gather around us we will be filled with fear, because, like Jacob, we wont see a way to escape, a way to survive. The angel placed himself before Jacob, and he grabbed the angel and held him and wrestled with him all night. So will the Christians, in our time of trouble at the end, we will wrestle with God in prayer. Jacob in his distress prayed all night for protection from Esau. The Christians in their mental torment will cry to God day and night for protection from the wicked who surround them.

Jacob felt unworthy, just as Gods people at the end will plead and feel unworthy. Like Jacob, they will plead the promises God gives to dependent, helpless, repenting sinners.

The angel reminded Jacob of his sins and tried to escape from him. This was to test Jacob. At the end when Gods people are in their time of trouble they will Also be tested so that they show strength in their faith, their perseverance and confidence in the power of God to protect and save them.

As they look at the many sins they have done in their lives, they will feel like giving up. But then they remember that it's a matter of life or death and they will desperately cry to God with repentance and beg Him for forgiveness. Then they will refer to His promise,

"Let him take hold of My strength, that he may make peace with Me; and he shall make peace with Me." Isa. 27:5.

And will pray day and night. God would not have listened to Jacob and saved his life if he hadn't repented of stealing Esau's blessing.

Today we have little fear of death and for our souls. Because of this we don't tell God about some of our sins and continue doing them. At the last days when the Christians are in mental anguish, in terror for their lives knowing God will only save those who repent of every sin, they will not hide anything. If they did they would be completely overwhelmed, knowing God will judge them guilty for any sins they keep in secret.

The period of probation is the time now that we have to repent of our hidden sins. When the door of Noah's ark closed and the storm started, people wanted to enter...but it was too late. Probation, (the time when it was still possible to get into the ark) had ended and no one outside could be saved. When probation ends for us and we see Jesus returning it will be too late to confess secret sins.

All who want Gods blessing and trust Gods promises and are as persevering as Jacob was, will succeed. Not many Christians right now see and behave in a way that shows they understand the importance of the way they must follow God. Few agonize before God, pray long prayers earnestly for the blessing, so most don't receive it. That faith which will get people through the time of trouble must be practiced every day right now or we will be completely unprepared to succeed in the time of trouble.

# CHAPTER THIRTEEN

# The Children of Israel

Jacob had eleven sons. One of his sons was called Joseph.

Joseph listened to his dad and followed God. He was more obedient to God than his brothers. Joseph valued the teachings highly and loved following God. He was upset when he saw his brothers doing things against God and carefully and gently tried to get them to change. The brothers were jealous of Joseph because Jacob loved Joseph more than them because he loved God so strongly. Joseph hated sin so much and wanted his brothers to change so he told Jacob what his brothers were doing. This however made their jealousy of Joseph turn into hate.

An angel gave Joseph two dreams where his family bowed down to him. He told his brothers about the dreams and they were angry with Joseph for thinking he will be superior to them.

Joseph's brothers thought Joseph's dreams might come true so to stop this from happening they discussed killing him, but then decided to sell him as a slave. However, God overruled their plan and despite the brothers doing this, God made the dream come true.

Joseph was sold and taken to Egypt. God went with Joseph to Egypt and angels prepared it so that Joseph would be comfortable there. A man who worked for Pharaoh, called Potiphar bought Joseph. God ensured Joseph was successful in everything he did so Potiphar was very pleased and trusted him.

When Joseph was tempted by Potiphar's wife to break The Commandment and do something against Potiphar, he refused. Joseph told her the blessings God gives from following Him. He would not break Potiphar's trust or sin against God even because of her threats.

When she falsely accused him of doing something wrong he didn't worry. He knew that hadn't done anything wrong and he trusted God would always help him. He was thrown in prison. But God turned these bad things into a blessing. He made Joseph popular with the prison guard and he was put in charge of all the other prisoners.

This is an example to everyone. Although we are tempted to do bad things, we should remember that God is always available and willing to help us do the right thing. If you fear God he will be a shield. God allowed Joseph to suffer by being put in prison to prepare him for an important job.

Joseph didn't forget God even though he was a ruler over the whole of Egypt. He was a foreigner and was often sad, thinking about his home and his family. But he believed God had guided him to be become successful in Egypt and he worked hard at his job and for God.

Joseph walked with God. Even when he was persuaded or threatened to sin he wouldn't. He is an example of how we should live. When Joseph's brothers admitted their sin to him, Joseph forgave them and was nice to them, showing that he didn't have any resentment at all.

Days of Prosperity

At this point the Israelites weren't slaves to the Egyptians. A lot of Egyptians had sold their belongings and themselves to Pharaoh for food, making themselves slaves. The Israelites hadn't done this and they were allowed to live in a particular area of Egypt because of what Joseph had done for Egypt, especially by getting them through the famine. Joseph put his family in the best land, the land of Ramses. Pharaoh allowed Joseph to give his family lots of food and Pharaoh didn't make them pay any taxes and he told the Egyptians that they should do this because whilst all of the nations around Egypt were suffering from famine, Joseph had ensured that Egypt had lots of food. Pharaoh said the Egyptians were indebted to Josephs God.

Over the years after Joseph died, the Israelites were very successful and their population grew so that there were more Israelites than Egyptians in Egypt. A new pharaoh saw this and was concerned that the Israelites were a powerful group and could join with Egypt's enemies and destroy the Egyptians.

The Oppression

He wanted to get the Israelites out of Egypt but found out that they were very useful workers for Egypt and it would be better to keep them so instead he turned them into slaves and forced them to build the cities of Pithom and Ramses.

But the more work Pharaoh forced them to do the more the population grew. They responded by giving them even more difficult, hard work.

They forced the women to work on farms, but still their population grew. Pharaoh was angry that forcing them to do more and more and more work was not succeeding in reducing their numbers so he ordered that male children should be killed as soon as they are born.

Satan had organised this. He knew that a boy would be born to deliver the Israelites from Egypt back to Israel and so he wanted to kill this boy to stop this from happening. The women feared God more than Pharaoh so didn't kill the boys. God blessed them for this. Pharaoh found out that they weren't killing their sons and he got angry and ordered all of his people to watch and make sure that all Israelite males are thrown in the river.

Moses

When this cruel law was in place, Moses was born. His mother hid him as long as she could with any safety, and then made a little boat from reeds and placed it at the edge of the water, while his sister subtly stayed close to the boat to see what would happen. Angels were also watching, making sure that Moses wasn't hurt because his mum had committed him to God's care with earnest prayers and tears.

And these angels led Pharaoh's daughter to the river. She saw the strange little boat and sent one of her maids to fetch it. And when saw Moses crying inside she felt sorry for him. She knew that Hebrew mum had done this to try to save the baby and Pharaoh's daughter immediately decided she would make him her son. Moses' sister came up to Pharaoh's daughter and asked whether she wants her to find an Israelite nurse to nurse the baby for her and Pharaoh's daughter agreed.

Moses' sister rushed to her mum and brought her to Pharaoh's daughter and Moses was handed back to her mum with money to help her to nurse him. She was happy and confident that God had protected Moses and she worked hard to educate him well because she was certain God had saved him for important work. She taught him to fear God and love truth and justice.

She prayed that God would protect him from things that would corrupt his character. She taught him to bow and pray to God, for He alone could hear him and help him in any emergency. She taught him how sinful idolatry was. She knew that when he became twelve she would have to hand him over to Pharaoh's daughter so she had to teach him well, especially knowing that in Pharaoh's family everything around him is designed to make him forget about the true God. The teaching stopped him becoming proud and sinful.

Here Satan was defeated. By encouraging Pharaoh to kill the male children, he thought he would stop God's purposes by killing the one whom God had planned to deliver His people. But the very law to kill Israelite boys was the means God overruled Satan to place Moses in the royal family, where he had advantages to become educated and qualified to lead his people from Egypt.

Pharaoh expected to have Moses become his replacement. He educated him to lead Egypt's armies. Moses was a great favourite with Pharaoh and was respected because he led battles with superior skill and wisdom. The Egyptians thought Moses was remarkable.

Special Preparation for Leadership

Angels told Moses that God had chosen him to deliver the Israelites. The Israelite rulers were also taught by angels that the time for deliverance was close, and that Moses was the man God would use to do this. Moses thought that they would be delivered by war, and that he would stand at the head of the Israelite army. Thinking this, Moses guarded his affections for his adopted mother and Pharaoh, in case it would be difficult for him to do what God wanted against them.

God protected Moses from being corrupted by the influences around him. He never forgot the principles his mum had taught him and he loved God and the Israelites so much that he didn't hide his ethnicity to become a royal heir.

When Moses was forty he was looking at the burdens his people had and he saw an Egyptian hitting an Israelite. Moses checked that no one was around and then he killed the Egyptian and hid his body in the sand. The next day he saw two Israelites fighting and he asked them why they were doing this. They angrily asked Moses what made him think he was their judge and whether he was going to kill them like the guy he killed yesterday. Moses was shocked and scared, he realised people knew that he had killed the Egyptian. When Pharaoh heard about it he tried to have Moses killed. Moses escaped from Pharaoh by going to Midian. God led Moses there, to live with a man called Jethro, a man who worshiped God. He was a shepherd and a priest and he let Moses work for him, looking after his animals. Later he married Jethro's daughter and he ended up living in Midian for forty years.

Moses was wrong to kill The Egyptian. He thought that the Israelites knew that God had brought him up to free them from the Egyptians and that he would free them by fighting. But God hadn't decided to free them by war but by his own power so that people would ascribe the deliverance to God alone. Moses wouldn't have been ready to go straight from Pharaohs court and all the indulgences he had, to then lead the Israelites back to Israel. God organised it so that he would have time learning from living in poverty and difficulties. God sent His angels to tell him about the future. Here he learned the great lesson of self-control and humility. While he worked as a humble shepherd, God was preparing him to become the spiritual shepherd of His sheep, the Israelites.

As Moses led Jethros animals to the desert he came to mount Sinai, God appeared to Moses from a bush that was on fire. God told him that he had seen the Israelites' difficulties and he has come to deliver them from this, to bring them back to Israel. God told Moses to go to Pharaoh to free the people.

The time had fully come when God would have Moses exchange the shepherd's staff for the rod of God, which He would make powerful in performing signs and wonders, in freeing His people from oppression, and in protecting them from their enemies.

Moses agreed to the mission. God reassured Moses that the men that wanted to kill him are all dead.

# CHAPTER FOURTEEN

# God's Power Revealed

Jacobs's descendants spent many years working as the Egyptians servants. Only a few families went down into Egypt originally, but they had multiplied into a large population. They were surrounded with the Egyptian idols and false religions and this had caused many of them to forget about the real God and His law. And they copied the Egyptians in worshiping the sun, moon, stars and animals and man made images.

Everything around them was designed by Satan to make them forget about God. However, there were still people who made sure they didn't forget God and were sad to see the others joining the Egyptian religion. They cried to God to deliver them from slavery and to bring them out of Egypt so that they weren't surrounded by all the idolatry and corrupting influences.

But many of Jacobs descendants were happy to stay as servants in Egypt rather than go on a difficult journey to Israel.

Because of this God didn't deliver them after the first plague. He showed how cruel Pharaoh was by allowing Pharaoh to not listen to and oppress them until ten plagues had occurred. This would also show them how much stronger God is than Pharaoh so that they would be anxious to leave Egypt and choose to follow God.

God's followers had told the Egyptians about the only true God and showed them the evidence for Him. The Egyptians tried to destroy their religion by threats, cruel treatment and promises of rewards but were unsuccessful. This made the Egyptians angry.

The last two Pharaohs treated them cruelly. People encouraged each other by referring to the promise made to Abraham and that Joseph had told them that God would bring them back to Israel. Some would listen and believe but others looked at their own sad condition, and felt no hope.

Israel Influenced by their Environment

The Egyptians had heard that the Israelites expected to go back to Israel and they made fun of them, saying that their God was weak. They pointed out that they were a nation of slaves, and teasingly said to them, "If your God is so just and caring, and has more power than Egyptian gods, then why doesn't he show how powerful he is and free you from being slaves? You say our Gods are false but they have made us rich and they gave us all of you to be our servants. They have given us authority and power over you. We have the power to oppress you and destroy you so that there are none of you left." They derided the idea that the Hebrews would ever be delivered from slavery.

Pharaoh boasted that he would like to see their God deliver them from his hands. This destroyed the hope that many Israelites had. They knew that despite believing and worshiping the true God, their lives were a burden as slaves for Egypt. On the other hand the Egyptians worshipped fake Gods with no power, such as wooden or stone idols and the sun, moon and stars. Despite this they had much better lives. Some Israelites thought that if God really was more powerful than all other gods then they wouldn't be in this sorry state.

The faithful Israelites who served God understood that it was because of the Israelites unfaithfulness to God, and them intermarrying with the Egyptians, which led them into idolatry, that God allowed them to suffer in Egypt. They told everyone though that soon God will free them.

God would bring them from Egypt with such powerful displays that the Egyptians would have to acknowledge that the Israelite God, whom they had hated, was actually above all gods. There was no other way for the Egyptians to accept this. He would punish them for their idolatry and for their proud boasting that their gods had blessed them so much. Other nations would hear of His mercy too the Israelites and his power and justice and so fear Him, and the Israelites, by seeing all this, should fully get rid of any idolatry they picked up from the Egyptians and to only worship God.

Moses told Pharaoh, that God, whom he pretended not to know, would compel him to admit and acknowledge God's authority as supreme Ruler.

The Plagues

In front of Pharaoh God turned Moses' rod into a snake and the rivers became blood this was to show God's power so that Pharaoh would free the Israelites. However, this just increased Pharaoh's hatred of them. Pharaoh's magicians told him that it was all magic but Pharaoh had more than enough evidence that this wasn't the case when the curse of frogs was removed. The frogs didn't disappear but they died and their bodies rotted in the streets to remind them that this was all real.

The magicians couldn't produce the lice. The Lord wouldn't allow them to make it even appear that it was possible for magicians to do this so even Pharaoh's magicians said that God was doing this.

Next came the plague of the swarms of flies. They were large and venomous. Their sting was very painful. God separated His people from the Egyptians and ensured none of the Israelites were affected by the flies.

God then sent disease and death on their cattle, but protected the Israelites' cattle so that none of them died. Next came the plague of skin infections that even the magicians caught. God then sent hail mixed with fire and thunder and lightning.

Moses told them when each plague would occur so that no one could say it was all by chance. God showed the Egyptians that the whole earth was under the command of the God of the Israelites, that thunder, hail, and storm obey His voice. Pharaoh, the man who asked, "Who is the Lord, that I should obey His voice?" then humbled himself and said, "I have sinned . . . the Lord is righteous, and I and my people are wicked." He begged of Moses to be his intercessor with God that the terrifying thunder and lightning might cease.

He still didn't free the Israelites so God sent a plague of locusts. Despite seeing his whole kingdom judged guilty by God and under dreadful plagues Pharaoh chose to receive the plagues rather than submit to God. God then sent darkness on Egypt. It wasn't just dark, but the air was very oppressive, so that breathing was difficult; but the Israelites had pure air and light.

Moses and his brother Aaron told Pharaoh what the plagues would be and when they would come. It was very hard for Pharaoh and the proud, idol worshipping Egyptians to listen to God. Pharaoh gave in to what God was requiring very slowly. First he would only allow them to sacrifice to God in Egypt; then, after Egypt had suffered some of the plagues, he allowed men to be free. After Egypt had been nearly destroyed by the plague of the locusts, he allowed all of them to go but not their animals. When he was suffering badly from the plagues he would give in a little but when the suffering ended he would take back everything he had agreed to. This is just as when Satan had asked for forgiveness and to go back into heaven when he was suffering on earth. If he had gone back to heaven his suffering would have ended and he would not feel bad about sinning again. True repentance should exist even without suffering. This is why with Pharaoh many plagues were needed for him to let the Israelites go.

It was Pharaoh and the idolatrous priests who refused to let the Israelites go before the last plague. The rest of the Egyptians wanted to let the Israelites go. Moses then told Pharaoh that the angel of God would kill their first-born children. The last plague was the most severe.

But Pharaoh was extremely angry, and wouldn't humble himself. The Egyptians ridiculed the Israelites for putting lambs blood on their doors. This blood protected the Israelites from death, just as Jesus' blood can protect us from the death that our sin requires.

# CHAPTER FIFTEEN

# Israel's Escape From Bondage

At midnight God killed all of Egypt's firstborn children, including Pharaohs son that sat on his throne and all the firstborn cattle. A great cry was heard as Pharaoh, his servants, and all the Egyptians got up in the night and saw the death. There was at least one person dead in every Egyptian house. Because of this Pharaoh finally gave up fighting and told Moses and Aaron to leave with the Israelites and their cattle and go and serve their God. The Egyptians told them to leave quickly because they were worried that otherwise God might kill all of them. The Egyptians gave the Israelites' jewels and gold and the Israelites quickly left.

God led them in a pillar of a cloud during the day and a pillar of fire at night so that they had light all of the time. He made sure not to lead the Israelites through Philistia. God knew that the Philistines wouldn't allow them passing through their land. The Philistines would make war with the Israelites, saying that they had run away from their Egyptian masters. Therefore God, by bringing them by way of the sea, revealed Himself to be a compassionate God as well as a God of judgment. God informed Moses that Pharaoh would chase them, and He directed Moses just where by the sea he should camp. He told Moses that God would be honoured before Pharaoh and all his army.

After the Israelites had been gone several days, the Egyptians told Pharaoh that they had fled and would never return to work for them again. This made the Egyptians regret letting the Israelites leave. Despite all the plagues they had suffered they were so hardened by their continual rebellion that they decided to chase the Israelites and force them to come back to Egypt. Pharaoh took a large army with six hundred chariots and went after them, and overtook them where they were camped by the sea.

When Pharaoh had nearly caught up with them, the Israelites saw the Egyptians camp near them and were terrified. They cried to God and asked Moses why he had brought them to the desert just to die, saying that they wished they had stayed in Egypt, serving them as slaves than die in the middle of nowhere. Moses told them not to be scared because God will save all of them, he will fight the Egyptians and make sure that the Israelites never see them again.

How quickly the Israelites distrusted God! They had seen the miracle of the 10 plagues God had sent to free them, but when their confidence in God was tested, they complained. Instead of trusting that God would save them, they complained to Moses, accusing him of being the cause of all their likely deaths. Moses encouraged them to trust God and to wait to see what the Lord would do for them. Moses earnestly cried to God to save His people.

Deliverance at the Red Sea

God asked Moses why he was so worried, He told Moses to lift up the shepherds rod he was holding and stretch his hand over the sea and then God will separate the water and create a dry passage in the middle. God told Moses that when the Israelites need something God will provide it.

It was night time and The Angel of God and the pillar of cloud that was leading the Israelites went and stood behind them so that the angel was in-between them and the Egyptians. To the Egyptians it was a cloud of darkness and to the Israelites it was a cloud of light. Because of this the Egyptians couldn't see the Israelites and didn't approach them. This was another sign of love for the Israelites to learn to trust God.

Moses stretched out his hand over the sea; and God caused a strong wind to separate the sea and create a dry path in the middle. The Israelites walked along this throughout the night, with the Egyptians unable to see them because of the cloud of darkness.

The Egyptian army were celebrating through that night that the Israelites had no way to escape because of the Red Sea. In the morning, as they came up to the sea, they found the dry path with walls of water on each side and Israelites halfway through. The Egyptians waited awhile to decide what they should do. They were disappointed and angry that they thought they had caught the Israelites but they had used this unexpected path. They decided to follow them.

The whole army followed them and was in the middle of the sea. God looked at the Egyptians through the pillar of fire and the cloud and Gods angels removed their chariot wheels so that they progressed very slowly. The army remembered the plagues God had sent and they decided that God was fighting for the Israelites and unless they went back to Egypt God would kill them all. They army was terrified and were turning round when God told Moses to Stretch his hand over the sea so that the waters crash down on the Egyptians.

Moses did this and the whole Egyptian army was killed. The Israelites were protected and made it to the other side. The Israelites saw the Egyptians dead bodies on the shore and feared and believed God and His servant Moses. They all sang, praising God for what He had done for them.
God's people are called Zion:

Isaiah 51:16: "Zion, thou art My people."

God also describes his church as a woman

Jeremiah 6:2: "I have likened the daughter of Zion to a comely and delicate woman

And the Bible tells us that Before The end of the world God's people will have a period of time in the wilderness.

Revelation 12:6 Then the woman fled into the wilderness, where she has a place prepared by God, that they should feed her there one thousand two hundred and sixty days.

As Christians we will have a wilderness experience just as the Israelites had and it is useful to see what happened then to see how it will be for the church today.

Israel's Journeyings

The Israelites travelled in the desert for three days and the only water they found was undrinkable. They complained to Moses about their thirst. Moses prayed and God showed him a tree to put into the water. When Moses did this the water was made sweet: there God made an agreement with them that if they listen to Him, do what is right in Gods eyes, follow the Commandments and statutes, then they would not get any of the diseases the Egyptians suffered from.

In Revelation we also read about something that was initially bitter and then became sweet:

Revelation 10:10 Then I took the little book out of the angel's hand and ate it, and it was as sweet as honey in my mouth. But when I had eaten it, my stomach became bitter.

The Israelites were going out of Egypt to Canaan but Revelation is the story of going out of metaphorical Babylon to heavenly Canaan. The journey to heavenly Canaan started in 1844, where there was a great disappointment, the situation was bitter but soon after God gave understanding and the situation seemed good and sweet.

The Israelites were wrong to choose not to trust that God would provide them water. They were unwilling to endure difficult times in the desert. When there was a difficulty they would see them as impossibilities. They would lose confidence in God, and they would think that they would die. The Israelites complained to Moses and his brother Aaron about hunger, saying that because they have followed God into the desert they would die so they would have been better off staying in Egypt than dying of hunger in the desert.

They had not really suffered hunger. They had food for the present, but they feared for the future. They couldn't see how the Israelites could survive on the simple food they had. God was happy for them to only have enough food to last for the immediate future and that there would be difficulties in the desert so that they would turn to God and ask him for help. If they asked Him for help He would show them His love and care.

However, they seemed to be unwilling to trust God more than what was already given to them. If they had true faith and confidence in Him, they would have been happy with any difficulties and suffering.

God had promised that if they followed him he would protect them from disease so it was wrong for them to think that they might starve and die.

A Lesson for Our Day

The unbelief and complaining of the Israelites illustrate how Christians are today. We sometimes look at the Israelites in the desert and are surprised at their lack of belief and continual complaining, after God had done so much for them, showing so much evidence, like parting the sea. We think that they shouldn't have been so ungrateful. But we sometimes complain of things much less important. God frequently proves us, and tries our faith in small things; and we don't endure the trial any better than the Israelites did.

Many have their present needs supplied; but they won't trust God for the future. Their unbelief causes them to have no hope and feel depressed. When difficulties arise and their faith and love to God are tested, they don't endure the trial and complain at the process by which God has chosen to purify them. Their love does not prove pure and perfect, to bear all things.

Christians' faith should be strong, active, and enduring - the result of having faith in things hoped for. If this is the case then people would instead say things like, "Bless the Lord, O my soul: and all that is within me, bless His holy name," for He has been generous with me.

Some people think that self-denial is suffering. They do and eat whatever they want to. If Christians agreed to deny themselves from the things that they shouldn't be doing, many of them would give up their faith, as if living correctly would somehow cause them die and simple appetites would cause them to starve.

Like the Israelites, they would prefer slavery, diseased bodies, and even death, rather than to be deprived of Wordly amusement and food. The purpose of life isn't to make ourselves as happy as possible. Follow God and he cares more than enough for you to look after you. God only promises bread and water when Christians go through the time of trouble at the end of the world.

The Manna

In the morning the Israelites found small round things on the ground. Moses told them it was bread from God and everyone should collect and eat it. However much people collected and found out it was exactly the amount they and their families needed. Moses told them not to keep any for the next day; people should collect what they need for the day on the day. A lot of people didn't listen to Moses and stored the food but the next morning they found it rotten and covered in worms. This taught the Israelites to trust in God's provision, also bread represents Jesus and we are to receive food from God every day. We can't rely on yesterday's relationship with God to be sufficient for today.

On Fridays, they collected twice as much food, and baked what they wanted to eat the next day because Saturday is the Sabbath. The fact that the food wasn't rotten on the Sabbath morning showed the Israelites how special and Holy the Sabbath is.

The Israelites were ashamed of their unbelief and complaining, and promised to trust The Lord, but they soon forgot their promise and failed at the first trial of their faith.

Water From the Rock

They came to an area where there wasn't any water, called Meribah. The Israelites told Moses off and ordered him to give them water. They were annoyed with Moses again that without water they will die. Moses cried to God about the Israelites' unbelief.

God told Moses to go to a rock and hit it with his stick, the same one he used to part the Red Sea. When Moses hit the rock God made water come out. The rock represents Jesus and the hitting of the rock is the death that Jesus did to save us.

God chose to put the Israelites in an area without water to test whether they would ask for help or again complain.

God had deliberately showed them His power so that they would understand He gave them everything they have and could take it all away. At times the Israelites accepted this and were humble, thanking and asking God for help. When they were hungry or thirsty they complained to Moses, as if they had come to the desert for him and it was his fault they were thirsty.

Because of their unbelief, God allowed their enemies to make war with them, so that He could show them that God is the one who provides them their strength.

Delivered From Amalek

Esau had a grandson called Amalek who was the leader of a tribe. He discovered and fought with the Israelites in the desert. Moses told one of his assistants, Joshua, to take a group of men to fight with Amalek. Moses, Hur and Moses' brother Aaron went up a hill to watch the battle. Moses held up the rod of God and when he did, Joshua and the other Israelites started winning the fight but when Moses let his hands come down, the Amalekites started winning.

Aaron and Hur helped Moses keep his arms up the whole day, signifying that if Israel trusted in God he would fight for them and remove their enemies but when they didn't ask for His strength their enemies, who didn't know God would be stronger than them.

Being a Christian and having your trust in God makes you more powerful than your enemies, but being a Christian and not asking for Gods power, makes you weaker than if you didn't know God in the first place. As a Christian, Satan wants to attack you and you will lose your faith, without asking God for help.

# CHAPTER SIXTEEN

# The Law of God

The Israelites reached the foot of Mount Sinai and stayed the night there. Moses went up the mountain to talk with God. The whole mountain started shaking and fire and smoke appeared. Angels surrounded God as he descended onto the mountain.

This amazing scene was shown to the Israelites so that they would accept Gods' authority and that He is the only real God.

God told them His ten commandments, which had existed before then. The angels were governed by the commandments and God told Adam and Eve, who told their descendants about it. And God said Abraham kept them:

He "obeyed My voice, and kept My charge, My commandments, My statutes, and My laws." Genesis 26:5.

Sinai was the place where God wrote them down:

God's Law Proclaimed

1) Make sure I am your only God.

2) Don't make any images of anything in heaven or earth. Images cannot be used to represent God. Don't bow down to these images, or serve them.

3) Don't use the name of God in vain.

4) Remember the Sabbath, to keep it holy. Do all the work on the six other days and leave the Sabbath to concentrate on your relationship with God. Don't make anyone else do work on the Sabbath as a sign that you serve the God that created the world on 6 days and rested on the seventh and blessed it and made it holy.

5) Honour your parents.

6) Don't murder.

7) Don't commit adultery.

8) Don't steal.

9) Don't lie.

10) Don't covet anyone else's things.

The first four commandments show how to love God and the last five show how to love humans.

The fourth commandment connection between God and humans. The Sabbath, especially, was made to benefit humans and for God to be honoured. This is why Jesus says:

Mark 2:27: "...'The Sabbath was made for man, and not the man for the Sabbath.'"

Jesus isn't saying we own the Sabbath so we can do whatever we want with it, He's saying that we need to understand that the Sabbath was made for us because it's beneficial for us to keep it, so we shouldn't look at it as a burden or a pain to have to keep it, as if it is somehow bad for us or damaging for us to follow it. We need to see it this way but we also need remember that it's a commandment so it must be kept.

The Sabbath is a test of our faith and also a sign that we worship the only real God who made the world in six days and rested on the seventh; no other God and it is a sign that will last forever.

The Peril of Idolatry

The first and second commandments are against idolatry; and after giving the 10 Commandments, God specifically warned them against Idolatry. He told them not to make any gods out of silver, or gold, even making golden images to represent the true God is against the second commandment. We can't have our churches with images of God or angels or wear golden crosses because we have a tendency to see the value in the beauty or expense of these things, and this distracts is from the true reasons we follow God.

God told Moses that they will meet enemies that worship other gods, but God will protect them and keep them healthy if they overthrow them, destroy their images and refuse to worship their gods. This is difficult because other gods are often made out of expensive materials like gold so they look beautiful and worthy of worship. God showed His people that the idolatry in these countries had led them to the sins that He was using the Israelites to punish. God wanted the Israelites to remove the people that were already in Israel because otherwise the Israelites would be tempted to worship the other people's false gods.

God's Eternal Law

God told Abraham that all of Gods followers must be circumcised, which is a cut to the skin, this is to show that God had cut them out and separated them from non Christians, to be different and special. This sign was a promise that they wouldn't marry people that didn't follow God because if they did they would stop thinking about and respecting God and His law; and so become like non-Christians. This sign was created because they had failed to separate so many times in the past. In the last days Satan will do everything possible to mix Christians with non-Christians, to get them watching the same entertainment, doing the same things and being close friends so that there will be little difference between the two.

Abraham's descendants became friends and married people that didn't follow God. If Abrahams descendants had kept separate from other nations, they wouldn't have been seduced into idolatry and copy their sinful entertainments. They lost a lot of their special, holy character. God punishes His people to help them; and to punish the Israelites. He had caused the famine, which was what forced them to originally move to Egypt. Then God allowed the Egyptians to cause them lots of suffering so that they would turn to God and ask Him for help and obey His laws and separate from people that didn't follow Him.

There were a small number of families that first went to Egypt but they grew quickly. Some were careful to teach their children Gods law, but many of the Israelites had witnessed so much idolatry that they had confused ideas about how to understand them.

Written in Tables of Stone

God came down to earth on the Sinai Mountain personally, and told the Israelites the Commandments so that all of the Israelites could hear Him. God didn't trust angels or humans to announce the laws and didn't even trust their memories, so He wrote them down on stone Himself with His finger. He made sure there was no possibility humans would alter the laws because of traditions or from false teachers. He then got Moses to write down precise directions on how to keep the Ten Commandments in a simplified way so that there would be no confusion.

Today it is incredibly important we follow the Commandments as stated by God and not how humans have decided to interpret them.

Jesus gave us a better understanding of the law but didn't change it. Jesus told the Jews and Jewish leaders in His time that they had changed the law. The same is true today and many Christians and leaders teach that The law has been changed. They especially say that the Sabbath has changed from Saturday to Sunday and that this is because Of Jesus' death and resurrection, however Jesus forbids us to think and teach this. He tells us that anyone who teaches others that a law is changed and to see a commandment different to how God had originally written it is wrong:

For truly I tell you, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished. Therefore anyone who sets aside one of the least of these commands and teaches others accordingly will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever practices and teaches these commands will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. (Matthew 5:18, 19)

The Bible tells us that Satan will try to change Gods commandments:

He will speak against the Most High and oppress his holy people and try to change the set times and the laws... (Daniel 7:25)

Satan succeeded and Jesus told the Israelites they had changed the law:

...their teachings are merely human rules.' You have let go of the commands of God and are holding on to human traditions." (Mark 7:7,8)

And Satan will attack those who keep Gods Commandments:

And the dragon was wroth with the woman, and went to make war with the remnant of her seed, which keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ. Revelation 12:17.

This means that God's holy people must endure persecution patiently, obeying his commands and maintaining their faith in Jesus. Revelation 14:12

In the last chapter of the Bible God tells us that

Blessed are they that do His Commandments that they may have right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into the city. (Revelation 22:14)

This doesn't mean we get to heaven by keeping His commandments. We have to accept His commandments and try to follow them and when we break them ask for forgiveness and try again. For us to be saved we need forgiveness for breaking the commandments and we can only ask for forgiveness if we are sorry for breaking them and we can only be sorry for breaking them if we want to keep them and if we want to keep them we will try to keep them. If we don't try to keep His commandments then we clearly don't want to keep them and therefore not sorry for breaking them. For this reason we would not be saved. The reason for keeping the commandments is because we know it is the right thing to do and we love God and we love to do what is right.

We are not saved by keeping the commandments, but you can only be saved with the right attitude towards them; for your desire to want to keep them and your sorrow for failing. This attitude means that we will not be happy following Commandments that have been changed, only the Commandments that God originally stated will do.

When we break commandments the Holy Spirit convicts us of our guilt. We can free ourselves of this guilt by not accepting the Holy Spirit, by refusing to acknowledge that we've broken a commandment or that we need Gods help with the sin we then carry.

If we are Christians and accept the Holy Spirit and the guilt he convicts we then see we must change. If we try to change to do the right thing and get rid of the guilt, this is wrong. This is doing things out of our own power and we are weak and need God to help us. We need to do it in the way that Jesus did, using love.

Jesus didn't say "I will do a nice thing for humans by dying on the cross because it is the right thing to do". This sounds loving but it is not perfect love. Jesus didn't think of Himself doing something great for you when He sacrificed Himself. Instead He said "humans are so valuable, saving them by dying on the cross is worth it". Jesus chose to see the things He liked about us, our positive traits. By doing this He enforced in His mind how much He loved us and we seemed so valuable to Him so He was happy to die for us. Jesus was so happy that even if there was only one of us and He never got to live again after dying He would still have done it. We value God less than He values us, even though He is so much more valuable than us. When we feel the guilt from breaking His law we don't use the guilt as the motivation to change. We ask Jesus to forgive us and accept that the guilt is gone. We think about how kind Jesus is to do this and look at all His positive traits and the massive sacrifice and life and love God has shown he has for us. Here we see more clearly how special God is and by doing this e Holy Spirit increases our love for Him. With this love we have our motivation to follow His laws more strongly. When we do things for this, true love, not infatuation or purely from guilt or duty, we find it much easier because Gods Holy Spirit works and strengthens us to follow God better than we could do without help.

There are people that see that they need God to help them and forgive them and feel guilt for hurting God but use this guilt to, in only their own power, try to change and follow God better. These people will have a very difficult time. They need to give their guilt to God; Jesus calls people who are burdened and heavy ladened because He will take all those things, including the guilt. We can't have a legalistic religion but we also can't go to the other extreme and feel that we can give our guilt to God and carry on sinning. We need to give guilt to God. It is only what He has done and nothing we have done that He takes our sins away. However, He will put these sins back onto us if we don't prove that we were being honest and we were really sorry for committing them. We show that we are actually sorry by using Gods strength and our own to become better and better at following His law. We can only receive Gods strength by regularly thinking about Him and what he did for us and so develop our love for Him.

The Judgments and Statutes

People break the Ten Commandments and so can't have eternal life. However accepting Jesus' death on the cross forgives us and we can have eternal life again. For the people that existed before Jesus died on the cross, God created extra rules, called 'the handwriting of requirements'. People could follow these to show that they accepted Jesus' future death on the cross and so be forgiven and have eternal life. It wasn't the keeping of these rules that saved them but the fact that it showed they accepted Jesus' death. The existence of the 'handwriting of requirements' were described as being against them because they only existed because they failed to keep the commandments, therefore its' existence reminded them of their failure. However, once Jesus died on the cross we don't have to keep these rules any more because we can accept His sacrifice:

Having wiped out the handwriting of requirements that was against us, which was contrary to us. And He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross. Colossians 2;14

However Jesus ended these rules by His death because they represented His death, but He didn't end or change any of the Ten Commandments and we still need to keep them the same way they were kept in the Old Testament:

For truly I tell you, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished. (Matthew 5:18)

The snake had made Eve believe that sin wouldn't cause death. The 'handwriting of requirements' included animal sacrifices to remind them that the penalty of sin is death. The breaking of God's law made it necessary for Jesus to die to make it possible for man to escape the penalty, and yet still fulfil the requirement of God's law that needed death. The sacrifices showed humans that they were breaking God's law and so it was to teach us humility, and lead us to ask for forgiveness by Jesus' death.

God created the system of animal sacrifices with Adam after he ate the apple, which he taught to his descendants. This system was corrupted before the Flood, and by those who separated themselves from true followers of God and built the tower of Babel. They sacrificed to man made gods instead of the God of heaven. They didn't sacrifice because they had faith in Jesus' future sacrifice but because they thought it pleased their gods by offering lots of animals. Their superstition led them to bigger and bigger sacrifices, thinking this would please their gods even more. Because of this they started sacrificing humans. The people in these countries didn't feel the forgiving grace of God and so made cruel laws that ignored terrible crimes but harshly punished small ones.

Moses knew this and said to the people that they should be very careful to follow the laws, especially as other nations would see how they have such wise laws and are so blessed to have God helping them so much. Other people would then join the Israelites and follow God.

Moses read the contract to the people, that if they would obey they would get Gods protection, help and eternal life. The Israelites agreed and they promised to obey everything God said. Moses then sacrificed an animal and sprinkled the blood on the people to show that they now accepted the death of Jesus and were willing to obey God as their leader.

# CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

# The Sanctuary

God told the Israelites to build a temple, which they called a tabernacle. He told them precisely how each bit must be built, so that it would be as accurate as possible to the real temple in heaven. Today Jesus is in the Temple in heaven but to understand what He's doing there we first have to understand the Temple that was on earth.

The Israelites donated their gold and jewellery to build the temple. They were so keen to donate that they gave more than was needed and Moses had to tell them to stop. God didn't force them to give things to build the temple because for people to follow God they have to want to follow Him, so it's worthless to force people.

The fact that, despite difficult circumstances, the Israelites were so generous, shows that they valued Gods presence and blessing higher than worldly goods; and this shows us how we should be despite the difficult circumstances we often have.

The times when the Israelites repeatedly complained and made mistakes is a warning of how we shouldn't be; especially as we're so close to the end of the world and difficulties for us Christians will greatly increase.

According to the Pattern

Moses had to put the two stones that had the Ten Commandments inside an ark.

The ark was covered with gold and on the top was the mercy seat. Each end was a statue of an angel. Their heads looked down at the mercy seat' which represents the fact that the angels look with interest and respect at the law of God inside the ark, in the temple that's in heaven.

Two Apartments

The tabernacle had two apartments, separated by a curtain. The curtain was a variety of colours, with threads of gold and silver. This represents the angels, who are connected with the work of the temple in heaven by helping and teaching Christians on earth.

On the other side of the curtain was the ark of the testimony.

Directly in-front of the ark, but separated by the curtain, was the golden altar of incense. The incense filled the temple with its fragrance day and night. The fragrance extended for miles around. This represents the prayers we make, because to God our prayers are like sweet incense.

When the priest offered the incense to God he looked to the mercy seat where Gods presence was. The curtain meant that although the priest looked towards the mercy seat, he couldn't see God but had faith that the mercy seat was on the other side of the curtain. This represents people praying to Jesus, who is by the mercy seat in heaven. We cannot see Jesus but we have faith that he is there, listening and answering our prayers.

The temple had no windows but light came from the candlestick, which kept burning 24 hours a day.

The high priest could only go into the most holy place on the other side of the curtain once a year. This was after careful preparation because it was the special place where you could see God's glory. The high priest was always nervous when he went in. The Israelites would wait outside, desperate to hear the priest say that God blessed the people. If the priest took a long time they would be worried that their sins were so bad that God had killed the Priest.

After the temple was built Gods glory filled it and a cloud covered it in the daytime and a fire covered it at night-time. It was built so that it could be taken apart and taken with them on their travels.

The Guiding Cloud

God led the Israelites with the cloud. When He wanted them to stop and stay somewhere He made the cloud drop and rest directly over the temple. God would lift the cloud up high to signal that He wanted them to start moving again. The tribes had to travel in order, and had to put their tents just how God wanted them to arrange them, around the temple.

When they travelled: the ark was always at the front. The Israelites asked God to protect them from their enemies, so God would go out and do this during the day and return and be with the Israelites when they were camped.

The Sin of Nadab and Abihu

Aaron and his two eldest sons Nadab and Abihu were priests. Their job included offering sacrifices to God on the altar in the tabernacle. God showed that He accepted the sacrifices by making the offerings to catch fire.

Priests were supposed to burn incense using the fire that God put on the altar. However, Aaron's sons made their own fire to burn the incense. Because of this God sent down fire and killed Nadab and Abihu.

After Moses and Aaron, Nadab and Abihu were the most important Israelites. We should all remember that no one can get away with sinning without punishment because of who they are, how close to God they have been or how much good they have done. God brings you closer to Him so that you can work harder for Him, not so that you can feel safe to sin.

Aaron hadn't been strict enough with Nadab and Abihu when they were kids. He should have made sure they knew not to do things that seemed fun if it went against God. We often think that giving kids freedom is the right thing to do but we see that with Nadab and Abihu, even working in such important jobs as adults, wasn't enough to correct their lack of self discipline from childhood, to follow exactly and not roughly as God requires us to follow Him; and this led to their deaths.

God requires us to respect Him and understand the seriousness of needing to following Him in the way He tells us to follow Him. God doesn't accept it when we partially obey Him. Nadab and Abihu did everything close to how God asked for. God tells us that we have to follow all of the Ten Commandments in the way he tells us to. If we fail He will forgive us, but Nahab and Abihu didn't try to follow God in the right way. They knew God had told them to use the fire from the altar, but they thought that God wouldn't mind if they made their own fire. When we look at the Ten Commandments - are we following them in the way God tells us to follow them? Or are we changing them to be the commandments we want to follow? If we are choosing to change them, and assume God doesn't mind, then we could be heading for the fire... at the end of the world.

Aaron wasn't allowed to show sadness for his son's deaths because otherwise people would sympathise with Nadab and Abihu, and then they would forget how serious their sin was. Then they wouldn't see sins as being that important, and they would be more likely to copy them.

We must warn people how serious their sins are so they know that they need to change. Today we have forgotten how serious sin is like Nadab and Abihu, and we think that the Ten Commandments don't need to be kept in the exact way they state. We think that because God forgives us when we try - but fail to keep the Commandments, He's not strict and doesn't mind if we keep a relaxed or changed version of the Commandments. If we choose to follow a relaxed or changed version of the Ten Commandments, and still expect God to forgive us - then He can't. We are forgiven when we choose - but fail to follow God's law: not when we choose to follow a different law.

If we knowingly choose to follow a relaxed or different law, then we are breaking Gods commandments but are not sorry for it. If we are not sorry for breaking them - then God can't forgive us. If we were really sorry for not following Him, then we would make the decision to follow His Laws - and not put ourselves above them. Because God refuses to force us to follow Him, and we are refusing to listen to the Holy Spirit to change, there is nothing more that God can do for us; we won't get forgiveness, so we will have to get the punishment for the sin, which is eternal death.

A lot of people will not go to heaven because they assume God is relaxed about how His laws are kept and whether we can keep a slightly different version. Whether this is the Sabbath or any of the Commandments, this may make us end up in fire like Nadab and Abihu, but this will be the eternal fire of hell.

# CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

# The Spies and Their Report

God told Moses to send men to Canaan, the land they would live in and call Israel. A ruler from each of the twelve tribes went. After forty days they returned and showed the Israelites the fruits they had collected from the land. One bunch of grapes was so big that two men had to carry it between them on a stick. They also brought figs and pomegranates, and the Israelites were impressed with how fertile the land seemed.

Ten of the twelve men that had gone to Canaan said that it would be very difficult for the Israelites to take it over because the people already living there were very strong and there were large defensive walls around the cities.

When the Israelites heard the report they were very disappointed and didn't trust that God would give them the strength to take the land from the other people.

Caleb and Joshua were the two spies that told the Israelites that they should still go and take the land because God would make sure they succeed. The other spies responded by announcing that this would be impossible because the people in Canaan were so tall they looked like giants compared to Israelites.

Although the non-Christian world look like big and powerful giants compared to us; with famous rich and intelligent celebrities and scientists saying we're wrong; God tells us that He will give us the strength to defeat them. Today we're striving to enter New Jerusalem and we must do this by continuing to bring others and ourselves closer to God.

In 1888 we had the opportunity for Jesus' return to earth and go to New Jerusalem. In that year two Adventist leaders called Jones and Waggoner told other Adventist leaders that the church had forgotten that although we should keep the commandments, it is Jesus, not our success at keeping the law that gets us into heaven. The leaders didn't accept what the two men said and made fun of them. Jones and Waggoner represented Joshua and Caleb and the leaders were the other spies that stopped the church completing their journey from Egypt to Canaan.

Israel Murmurs Again

The Israelites blamed Moses and Aaron again, saying that they would die if they fight the people in Canaan so it would have been better for them to have stayed in Egypt. They ignored all the miracles God had done for them and said that God had lied to them, promising that they would get this land. They agreed to replace Moses and Aaron and elect a new leader to bring them back to Egypt.

Moses and Aaron knew that God would give them the land and they knew that the Israelites were acting very badly. In front of everyone Moses and Aaron knelt to beg that God would stay with them and help them despite the rebellion and lack of trust the Israelites were showing. However they were both so sad that they couldn't speak and they knelt in silence. Caleb and Joshua reminded the people how good and fertile the land seemed and that if they follow God then He would ensure they get to live in that land. They told the Israelites to stop rebelling and to trust God because they shouldn't be scared because God is on their side, not the side of the people in Canaan.

The Israelites were angry with Caleb and Joshua for telling them to do something which looked as if it would kill them and the Israelites were about to stone them but God stopped them.

Moses' Prevailing Plea

Moses went into the tabernacle to speak with God. God told Moses that because the Israelites kept refusing to follow Him He will pick new people to follow Him. God offered to make Moses the father of a new nation that would be Gods people instead of the Israelites. Moses showed love for the Israelites and for God to be respected by other countries by asking God to stay with the Israelites, saying that if God left the Israelites other countries would think that they didn't enter Canaan because God wasn't powerful enough. God agreed to again give the Israelites another chance. However, God said that the Israelites who rebelled again and again despite seeing all of God's miracles will not get to go into Canaan. They will be in the desert for forty years in total, until everyone that's currently 20 and older have died. The Israelites were told of their punishment. Because Caleb and Joshua were different and chose to follow God, they will still be alive and will get to enter Canaan.

Back to the Wilderness

They were very close to Canaan and could have entered and finished their journey but because of their rebellion God told them to go back into the desert to the Red Sea. The Amalekites and Canaanites heard about the spies and were getting ready to make war with the Israelites so God told Moses to go back to the Red Sea to protect them.

The Rebellion of Korah

Moses' cousin Korah was a well-respected man who worked in the Tabernacle. However, he was jealous that Aaron's family got to be priests. He thought that Moses had made this rule and he wanted to overthrow him and Aaron.

Dathan and Abiram were two of the leaders of the tribe of Reuben. Because Reuben was Jacobs's eldest son they thought that they should have more authority than the leaders from other tribes and they agreed with Korah that if they overthrew Moses and Aaron they would share the leadership.

The Israelites kept forgetting that God was their leader and that Moses was following God. They were very unhappy with the punishment that everyone older than 20 had to die in the desert and they thought it was Moses that decided this, not God. Because of this a lot of people wanted Korah to be their new leader and take them out of the desert immediately.

Satan had tempted the leaders of the tribes to be jealous and to think that Moses had selfishly given himself a position to make him important and powerful. They wanted some of the glory from doing that job. Eventually these thoughts grew and they secretly spoke to others about it, saying that they only say these things for the good of the Israelites. When they found that others agreed with them they thought that they were working for God and they carried out their plan to overthrow Moses.

The rebels needed people to tell them off but instead people were sympathetic and supported them. They made people believe that the Israelites hadn't done anything wrong and that God didn't want them to die in the desert but Moses was forcing this punishment on them. They looked back at all the times God had punished them and they agreed that each time was because of Moses' mismanagement. Korah said that if he were their leader he wouldn't tell them off when they sinned but instead would concentrate on telling them how good they were and this would make their journey much nicer and successful. Korah told the people that God wanted him to be the leader. However, some people didn't believe Korah, saying that Moses had worked so hard for everyone and gets nothing in reward. Korah had to invent a selfish motive for Moses and said that Moses had brought them to die in the desert so that he can steal all their belongings.

The rebellion was initially done secretly but when it grew strong enough, Korah publicly accused Moses of not sharing his authority. Korah said that the Israelites were all holy followers of God and yet Moses steals all the power for himself.

Moses was shocked to hear this and kneeled and prayed to God. When he got up he told them that God says that He will show who are His holy followers tomorrow. It was delayed to the next day so that everyone could have time to think about what they were doing and to ask God whether it was the right thing.

Moses asked to speak to Dathan and Abiram in the hope of changing their mind but they refused. They said that Moses pretended to be guided by God but this clearly wasn't true because they were still in the desert, not the land God had promised to give them.

The next morning Korah led two hundred and fifty leaders to the outside of the tabernacle to see how God would judge them. They assumed that Moses and Aaron would be found guilty and themselves innocent.

God made the earth open up and a deep pit was created that Korah, Dathan and Abiram fell into. God gave the two hundred and fifty leaders time to see that they were following the wrong people and have an opportunity to repent. However they didn't change sides so God caused fire to destroy them all.

God showed this to all the Israelites so that there would be no question who they should follow. They people stopped their rebellion because of fear of what they had seen, not because they were sorry for doing the wrong thing. They were given a day to think and repent.

The people didn't want to accept they were wrong because that would mean accepting that they wouldn't get to go into Canaan and would have to die in the desert, as Moses had said. Also, they wanted leaders that would say they were good people rather than telling them off for their sins. Korah had said nice things and seemed to really care for them. He seemed like a good guy so it made sense that Moses, not God, had somehow caused him to die. The Israelites weren't sorry for wanting Moses and Aaron to be replaced and Satan spent that night with them making them think that Moses had used the power of Satan to kill the rebels. This sealed their doom. If you choose to think that the Holy Spirit is actually Satan then how can God help you; you will ignore God when He tells you of your sins and how you are wrong.

The next morning the Israelites complained that Moses and Aaron had killed the people not God. They didn't repent so God told Moses He would kill them and He sent a plague. Moses begged God to end the plague. God accepted this and told Moses that He had already sent the plague but if Moses made a sacrifice then the plague would stop. Moses did this and the plague stopped but fourteen thousand people had already died from it. God then showed them a miraculous sign to prove that He wanted Aarons family to be the priests.

People admitted that they had sinned and they accepted that God had picked Moses and Aaron to be their leaders and they accepted that they would have to die in the wilderness.

The rebellion of Korah shows us the same mistakes involved with Satan's rebellion in heaven. Satan tries to make us proud and jealous of others, not satisfied with what we've got, wanting more importance and respect. He entices us teaching we are holy people, safer and more free from the law than we should be. We follow Satan, thinking we are working for God and anyone who says otherwise are considered the ones who are working for Satan. These leaders misrepresent the people that are truly working for God and by constantly teaching lies they start believing them. It is always difficult for Gods true workers because people always prefer not to be told off when breaking Gods law and will more likely listen to a teacher who doesn't reprove and allows them more freedom. Many churches today don't teach obedience to the true Commandments. In church and the world we tend not to tell people off, we encourage people when we should reprove. When Noah was building the boat and knew the world was soon to be destroyed he reproved not encouraged the people. We know today that sudden destruction is coming soon. However, reproving should always be done nicely and we are forbidden to judge whether someone is a good Christian or if we are better than them based on the things we see them do wrong. This is because only God knows each person's circumstances, difficulties and motives so whilst we can reprove people for doing something wrong, only God can fairly judge.

We need to make sure we don't dwell on thoughts and do things that Satan encourages. When we do this our thoughts and actions worsen and it gets harder and harder to stop. Over time the sin doesn't seem wrong anymore and people become angry with anyone who reproves them by telling them it's wrong. They often then defend themselves by condemning the reproover and looking for others that support them. This happened against the reformers who reproved and it is happening today.

# CHAPTER NINETEEN

# The Sin of Moses

God brought the Israelites back to Meribah, which was where God had tested whether they trusted Him to provide them with water. Nearly forty years ago God had made water come from the stone, but now that they were back they found the water had stopped. God stopped the water to test them again.

The Israelites were angry with Moses for bringing them somewhere without water, saying that if there is no water then they might as well have died with Korah, Dathan and Abiram.

Moses and Aaron prayed and God told Moses to tell the rock to give water.

Moses and Aaron gathered everyone to the rock and told them that he would make water come from the rock and hit it twice with the rod. Moses was wrong because he didn't say that it was God that would bring the water and he hit the rock twice. He wasn't supposed to hit the rock at all this time because he had already hit the rock nearly forty years ago. The rock represents Jesus and the hitting represents His sacrifice on the cross.

In total Moses hit the rock three times, but Jesus died only once for our sins, not three times. Moses had told the Israelites that it was by his own power that he did the miracle and there was a risk that they would think that it was: Moses that brought them out of Egypt. To stop the Israelites thinking this God punished Moses by having him die before getting to Canaan.

The Heavy Penalty

God had given Moses a lot. God had spoken to Moses face to face like a friend and got Moses to do lots of honourable things. Moses was very sorry for his sin and told the Israelites how much he regretted it. He told them the punishment God had given him for it, to show the Israelites that he was just a man.

We are all judged based on how much knowledge and help God has given us. The punishment was strong because Moses had been given so much by God and had become such a good follower that God was pleased with. It hurts God a lot more when good follower's sin. Satan celebrates and makes fun of the angels when he succeeds at this.

Aaron died at Mount Hor, because he had sinned with Moses and God said he couldn't enter Canaan as well. Moses and Aaron's sons buried him in the mountainside so that the people wouldn't be tempted to make too great ceremony over his body, and be guilty of the sin of idolatry.

Journey around Edom

The fastest route to Canaan was to walk through a country called Edom. The Edomites were descendants of Esau, the older brother of Jacob, who was the ancestor of the Israelites. In later years this country would join with the Babylonians to conquer Israel. Israel today is the Seventh Day Adventist church and Edom today, the older brother of this church, are the other protestant churches. They sold their birth right and will unite with the Catholic Church and just as Edom and Cain and Abel, the older brothers are the people who follow God the wrong way will try to kill the people who follow God the right way. The protestant churches will join with the Catholic Church will one day attack the Adventists. Just as Jacobs's night of wrestling saved him from Esau, Adventists will have a time of trouble and wrestling that will protect us from The Catholics and other Protestants and then Jesus' return will destroy both of these churches.

God told the Israelites not to harm the Edomites because although they didn't follow Him, God wanted them time for an opportunity to learn and accept Him. Moses asked the King of Edom to let them pass through the country but the King refused. For this reason the Israelites went around Edom instead. Had Edom allowed the Israelites through their country they would have had an opportunity to learn more about God and accept Him. So it would've been better for Edom to have allowed them. Edom would have allowed them if they had asked nearly forty years ago, when they first came but the spies told them not to. It's the same for the Adventist church. We didn't go through the Protestant churches in 1888 and when we came back in 1920 Satan had worked to create such negative thoughts and organisations against us that the Protestant churches see us as their enemy. The other Protestants are likely to resist us. Protestants are unlikely to want to listen to us but God has still given them the opportunity to join us and we should use this.

The brazen serpent

God had protected the Israelites from a lot of things that would have hurt them. They had continually thought they would die because they didn't see all the things God had already protected them from. To increase their trust of God, He allowed them to be bitten by snakes in the desert. Moses created a brass serpent and put it on a pole. When they got bitten they were to look at the snake and then they would be healed. The serpent represented Jesus. He is represented as a snake because sin is represented as a snake and Jesus never sins but puts all the sins we have done onto Himself, thereby removing and healing us of our sins. By looking at the snake this taught the Israelites to trust that Jesus protects and heals them.

# CHAPTER TWENTY

# Balaam

The Israelites came to the Jordan River and set up their tents. On the other side of the river was the country of Moab. They stayed by the border whilst Moses planned how to take over Canaan. The people that lived in that area worshipped Baal and were immoral.

The Moabites were very scared that the Israelites would conquer them. They knew that they wouldn't be able to protect themselves because the Israelites had God fighting for them. The Moabites had heard that there was a man called Balaam in Mesopotamia who had supernatural powers and they thought that they could ask him to use these powers to stop the Israelites. They offered Balaam a large reward to do this.

Balaam wanted the reward but he was once a good man who followed God and he knew that God was on the Israelites side and that he couldn't do anything against them. Satan used the fact that Balaam desperately wanted the reward to turn him against the Israelites. We often think we can break Gods law in a small way for some sort of worldly benefit or fun and then go back to God afterwards. This is often not the case because one wrong thing can cause us to be under Satan's control, which is very difficult to escape.

Balaam desperately wanted the reward so he delayed making his decision and kept thinking about and asking God if he should go. God told him not to but because Balaam wouldn't give up God eventually told him to go. God allowed him to do what he wanted, even though it was wrong for him to do it. Balaam knew it was wrong but kept asking God because he wouldn't give up the reward. If we already know something's wrong then we shouldn't keep praying to God to tell us if it's OK. Balaam should have asked God for strength to say no to the Moabites.

Balaam got on his donkey and went to Moab. An angel kept standing in the way of the donkey to stop Balaam. The donkey kept stopping and Balaam got increasingly angry and kept hitting the donkey. The angel spoke through the donkey and told him to stop. The donkey saw the angel but Balaam was blinded by his greed for the Moabite reward. Reward blinds us sometimes from hearing God tell us to not do something wrong. Balaam should have also seen by the fact he was cruel to his donkey by hitting it again and again that Satan was influencing his actions, not God. God cares for humans and animals.

God then allowed Balaam to continue to Moab if he told them what God wanted him to. Balaam wasn't allowed to say anything to them that wasn't from God. Balaam was to show to the Moabites that God was protecting the Israelites.

Balaam told the Moabites the words God told him to say and instead of a curse he gave Israel blessings. Balaam said that Israel's King would be more powerful than the strongest king they know. Israel's King was Jesus. The king of Moab was angry with Balaam for everything he said.

Balaam went back home. He was very disappointed and desperate to somehow get the reward. Now he would do whatever it takes to get the reward. He knew that the Israelites were protected because they kept God's commandments. If he got them to sin then they wouldn't have God protecting them anymore. Balaam went back to the King of Moab with his new plan to get the Israelites to sin. The King agreed with this plan.

Balaam saw his plan work but he died in the war with the Midianites. Balaam's story is similar to Judas'. Both of them wanted and failed to earn lots of money for working for God. Despite following God and having lots of Christian knowledge, a single cherished sin poisoned all of their morals and destroyed them. If there is one unchristian desire that we cherish and don't remove then we lose defence from Satan and over time he damages our whole character. Every day we must pray for God to strengthen us from breaking His law.

The king of Moab organised a festival and Balaam encouraged the Israelites to attend. The Israelites thought Balaam was one of Gods prophets, so they agreed to go. At the festival there was music, dancing, food and wine. This reduced the Israelites self-control and the local women were successful in seducing and getting them to join in bowing down to false gods.

Sexual promiscuity and drunken feasts and dancing were seen as a way of worshiping idols. People today go to nightclubs and bars, thinking it is not related to spirituality or religion. However, this is unchristian behaviour that praises Satan, so any club we go to is the same as a sinful celebration of false gods. If we go to music concerts or events with celebrities or movies, we feel things towards famous people that we should only feel towards God; so we celebrate the celebrities as idols, or in other words false gods. Like the Israelites then, we often don't see how terrible this sin is. We often go to these places with non-Christians and it's rare we think about God when we're there. We risk mixing and falling in love with people that aren't Christians. This has destroyed endless peoples faith.

The Israelites didn't notice how terrible what they were doing was and this behaviour spread through the camp. Their story shows us why Satan gets us to sin. We don't necessarily lose our salvation by sin but it separates us from God and allows Satan to take more control. The more control Satan has and the more we then sin, the further from God we get until we eventually lose our faith.

God showed them how bad their actions were by allowing a plague to spread through the camp. God told them to kill all the leaders that sinned and hang their bodies in the camp so that people would realise how horrendous this sin was.

The Israelites saw that the punishment was right and apologised to God and stopped sinning. God then stopped the plague.

We may think we're safe from Satan but we may be wrong. He tricks us, telling us that we're safe and don't need to change. He's had thousands of years to learn our weaknesses and in the past he successfully tempted and tricked even the strongest Christian leaders. Now that we're on the borders of Israel again, as in heavenly Israel, he'll try extra hard to stop us getting in. He's made the world teach us to be friends with non-Christians, overeat, drink alcohol, overvalue looks and do things and go to tempting places for the sake of having fun and laughter. All of these things distract us from God and remove His protection. Thy cause us serious temptations to have casual sex. It's imperative therefore that we spend time looking at these stories and seeing what our weaknesses are.

Satan got them to first see sexual scenes before they bowed down to false gods. Sexual indulgence makes it much harder to discern whether other things are sinful or OK. It becomes impossible to appreciate the value of God, ourselves, the commandments and Jesus' sacrifice.

Satan got the Israelites to socialise with people that didn't follow God. Like the Israelites, if we have non-Christian friends we will likely join in and not see the sinfulness of their amusements. We must stay away from temptation if we expect to ask God to protect us from it. We meet with non-Christians only when it's to bring them to God.

Come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean." 2 Corinthians 6:17

Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him." 1 John 2:15.

The friendship of the world is enmity with God; whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God." James 4:4.

Satan works to make us more likely to sin. He makes us feel confident and secure in God, which is only actually the case if we spend time with God and praying for protection. We relax and indulge ourselves in things like food and we have a self-indulgent, selfish mind-set. Then when we see people do sinful things we start imagining and thinking about them until we feel like it is something we want to do, rather than something that would go against God.

Satan has made us desensitized to sin by making us see it everywhere. With books, magazines and films he surrounds sin, sexual immorality and crime with exciting stories. Over time we don't see anything wrong with these things and become interested, fascinated in them. This makes us think about impure things so we have to be careful about what we read and see and stop ourselves thinking and daydreaming about everything we feel like.

"...gird up the loins of your mind...not fashioning yourselves according to your former lusts...'Be holy, for I am holy" 1 Peter 1:13-16 KJV

Most of the entertainment today causes the same damage to Christians as the pagan, idol-worshipping entertainment in the past. Satan uses these things, like the cinema to encourage us to glorify immorality, following our emotions and wants, rather than what is right. When we go to places just because it's enjoyable our pride and selfish wants are indulged and we don't talk or think about God. Satan gains control.

We have to make an effort to resist these temptations. We must avoid reading, seeing, or hearing things that suggest impure thoughts. Our minds shouldn't be left to wander at random on every thought that Satan suggests.

"Girding up the loins of your mind," says the apostle Peter, "Be sober, your ignorance: but like as He which called you is holy, be ye yourselves also holy in all manner of living." 1 Peter 1:13-15, R.V. Says Paul, "Whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things." Philippians 4:8.

To protect ourselves from falling away to these temptations we need to be constantly praying, studying the Bible and carefully watching out to avoid things that tempt us. We need to allow the Holy Spirit to guide our thoughts and form the habit of thinking about holy things.

"Wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his way? By taking heed thereto according to Thy word." "Thy word," says the psalmist, "have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against Thee." Psalm 119:9, 11.

Israel's sin caused God to punish them. Although the same sins don't seem to be punished now, in time they will be. The sins defile our bodies and our bodies are the temple of God.

"If y man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy." 1 Corinthians 3:17.

These sins are the major sins that have caused the disease and suffering in the world today. These sins will cause the eternal punishment:

"They which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God," but with Satan and evil angels shall have their part in that "lake of fire" which "is the second death." Galatians 5:21; Revelation 20:14.

"The lips of a strange woman drop as an honeycomb, and her mouth is smoother than oil: but her end is bitter as wormwood, sharp as a two-edged sword." Proverbs 5:3, 4.

"Remove thy way far from her, and come not nigh the door of her house: lest thou give thine honour unto others, and thy years unto the cruel: lest strangers be filled with thy wealth; and thy labours be in the house of a stranger; and thou mourn at the last, when thy flesh and thy body are consumed." Verses 8-11.

"Her house inclineth unto death." "None that go unto her return again." Proverbs 2:18, 19.

"Her guests are in the depths of hell." Proverbs 9:18.

The story of the Israelites mixing with the Moabites and Midianites represent Gods church today mixing with other churches and non-Christians. This was the last apostasy before entering Canaan and this is the last apostasy for Adventists. Our church is mixing our beliefs with other denominations and we are friends with worldly people. The leaders have led us into this apostasy but when we learn to separate Gods Devine rebuke against us will end and the latter rain will fall to prepare us for the end, for entering New Jerusalem.

# CHAPTER TWENTY ONE

# Entering the Promised Land

After Moses died Joshua became the leader. He had been a leader under Moses and had been one of the two spies that encouraged people to go into Canaan. God encouraged Joshua, saying that He would be with him as He was with Moses and if they followed His commandments He would make it easy to take over Canaan.

Crossing Jordan

God told Joshua that He would separate the water of the Jordan River so that they can cross. The priests had to travel over the river first, with the ark, which represented the presence of God. God made the land dry across the river like He did at the Red Sea. They all crossed and then built a monument so that they would see it and remember and be comforted that God is with them.

In the desert God was testing and reproving the Israelites to become better followers and remove the idolatry and unhealthy practices they had got from the Egyptians. Now that they were out of the desert the process of correction was over and they were allowed to be circumcised and do Passover again. We are in the wilderness now, coming out of Babylon. We are under the correcting time where we have to remove all idolatry and unhealthy practices we get from the world. If we are successful we will get to New Jerusalem in heavenly Canaan.

The other countries had made fun of Israel for staying so long in the desert. These countries said that their God didn't have the power to bring them into Canaan. Now that God had separated the Jordan River and the Israelites had crossed it into Israel the enemies were silent.

The Captain of the Lord's Host

Joshua was praying and saw a man with a sword. He didn't look like an Israelite so Joshua wondered if He was an enemy. The man revealed that He was Jesus. Joshua bowed down and Jesus told him to take His shoes respect by taking his shoes off.

Jesus then told Joshua how to take over the city of Jericho. The army had to walk around the city once a day for six days. Then on the seventh day they had to go around Jericho seven times.

Joshua did this and ensured they went around the city with the ark and Priests, which blew trumpets.

The watchmen in Jericho were amazed at what was happening. They couldn't understand what it all meant. Some of them made fun of the Israelites but others remembered hearing about God separating the Red Sea and Jordan for them and were scared. Strong warriors were posted at the gates ready to fight and it looked to them that it would be impossible for the Israelites to succeed.

After going around the city the seventh time on the seventh day the priests blew the trumpets and the walls fell down. This made the people of Jericho terrified and too paralyzed with fear to stop the Israelites from taking the city.

The miracle was to make sure the Israelites understand that when they conquer Canaan it will be by Gods power, not theirs. It also increased their faith in God to protect and fight for them and showed how wrong they were to listen to the ten spies who told them they would fail if they tried to take over Canaan.

We as Christians are to fight the world. Satan has set up theories and entertainments that works against God and it seems impossible for us to teach the world to follow God when we are fighting against such big, rich things. We have to remember that God fights with us and He tells us He will win.

Joshua a Wise, Consecrated Leader

Joshua was a wise leader that was devoted to God. Just before he died he reminded them of all the events in the wilderness, including how the king of Moab followed Balaam but Baal was a false and powerless god against the true God. Joshua told them they shouldn't delay to decide whether they are going to serve God or any of the false gods. The Israelites told him that they couldn't serve any other god after seeing the true God who rescued them from Egypt and did such amazing things protecting them in the desert. They promised to serve and obey God.

# CHAPTER TWENTY TWO

# The Death of Moses

Moses knew that he didn't have much longer to live and he gathered the knew generation of Israelites to make sure they knew everything that had happened to them since they left Egypt. He told them about all the mistakes along the way and the reason their parents weren't allowed to enter Canaan. Moses made sure they understood that they needed to keep the Ten Commandments. He told them the promises God gave to them if they followed the Commandments and the curses if they didn't. He especially warned them against idolatry.

Moses also wrote all of the rules for sacrificial offerings and lifestyle in a book that he told them to put in the side of the ark for reference. These are the rules that were nailed to the cross when Jesus died.

The Death and Resurrection of Moses

They were in Moab, a country next to Canaan and Moses went up mount Nebo and God showed him Canaan in the distance. Moses lay down and died at the age of one hundred and twenty. Angels took his body and buried it so that the Israelites wouldn't find it and commit idolatry over it.

Satan celebrated that he had caused Moses to sin and therefore die before reaching Canaan. If Moses hadn't sinned then he wouldn't have died; he would've been taken directly to heaven. Soon after his death Jesus came to resurrect him and take him to heaven to be one of the twenty-four humans that work in the temple in heaven, who are still working there today.

As Jesus approached the body of Moses to bring him back to life Satan was there and tried to stop Him. Satan was too weak for Jesus and told Jesus that he wanted Moses because of his sin. Jesus told Satan that Moses had repented so God has removed all his sins and he resurrected Moses and took him to heaven.

# CHAPTER TWENTY THREE

# The Ark of God and the Fortunes of Israel

The ark, with the Ten Commandments inside represented God. The ark was seen as Israel's' glory and strength.

Jesus and three angels always went with the ark, to guard it from danger and to fulfil any mission God had told the Israelites to complete. Jesus, and the three angels, went in front of the ark as it came to the Jordan River; they stood by the ark until all the Israelites had crossed over. Jesus and the Angels also went with the ark as it was carried around Jericho and they were the ones who made the massive walls fall down.

Result of Eli's Neglect

Eli was the high priest so he went into the most holy place in the tabernacle once a year. He had two sons who were priests, but were not allowed to enter that area of the temple.

His sons worked at the door of the tabernacle, where they were overseeing the sacrifices of the animals.

They continually abused their positions. They were selfish, jealous, greedy, and extravagant and their sins caused the Israelites to sin. They gave themselves the best cuts of meat and committed adultery. Eli told his sons off but didn't stop them. God then reproved Eli for not properly disciplining his sons.

God picked a new prophet called Samuel, who told Eli that God would punish his family by not allowing any of them to live to old age. No sacrifice could forgive his sons because they knew they were sinning against God and showed no respect for the sacrifice, which represented Jesus' death on the cross, the sacrifice that was supposed to forgive them.

Soon afterwards the Israelites made and lost a war with the Philistines.

The Israelites were scared. They knew that if other nations heard about their defeat they might start a war against them. The elders decided that they had lost because they hadn't taken the ark with them. They thought about the fact that it had been so easy to take over Jericho when they took the ark and assumed that just having the ark with them would make them win their wars.

They didn't realize that the strength they had had previously was because they obeyed the Ten Commandments that were inside the ark. The commandments, not the container were what represented God. Elis sons were breaking these commandments and they were the men that agreed to move the ark from the tabernacle in a place called Shiloh to the Israelite battlecamp. People then felt confident that they would win their wars.

The Ark Taken

The Philistines heard that the ark was in the battle camp and were scared because they thought that God was now in the camp with the Israelites and they thought that the ark had defeated the Egyptians. However, Philistines still fought, they killed Elis sons and Israel ended up losing the war terribly.

The Philistines thought that the ark was the Israelites' god so they took it back to their country. They didn't know about the real, living God, who created everything, and gave the Ten Commandments, sending prosperity and adversity according to whether people obey or break His law in the ark.

When Eli heard that his sons had been killed and they had taken the ark he fell backwards off his seat and died.

In the Land of the Philistines

God allowed the Philistines to take His ark to show the Israelites how useless it was to trust in the ark, the symbol of His presence, while they were breaking the commandments that were inside.

The Philistines thought that by having the ark their enemies would fear them. They put the ark in a temple next to their most popular god, the fish god Dagon. In the morning the priests of these gods entered the temple, and were terrified to find the Dagon statue had fallen to the ground in front of the ark. They thought it had fallen accidentally so they picked him back up. However, the next morning again they found him in front of the ark with his face to the ground, but also his head and hands cut off.

The angels, who always followed the ark, did this to show that the living God was above all gods, and compared to Him every false god is worthless. The Philistines had a lot of respect for Dagon and when they saw what happened they thought it was a sign that they and their gods would be destroyed by the Israelites, and that their God is more powerful than all other gods. They moved the ark so that it was by itself.

The Philistines suffered large outbreaks of tumours. They attributed it to the ark and moved it from city to city but wherever it went it caused the people to have disease. The Philistines didn't know what to do with it. They were too scared to damage or open it because of what it had done to their god Dagon. They decided they would have to send it back to the Israelites and apologise to their God for taking the ark by sending the Israelites very expensive gifts.

Returned to Israel

Some people thought it was too humiliating to do this and said that anyone who took the ark back would be risking their own life from the diseases the ark causes. Others told them not to be like the Egyptians, where it took ten plagues until they finally did what the Israelites God wanted. They agreed to make a cart attached to two cows. They put the ark on this with lots of gold and jewels and see if God makes the cows walk to Israel.

The cows took the cart straight to Israel. Some Philistines followed behind the cart making sure no damage occurred in case that would cause God to punish the Philistines even more. They didn't realise Gods angels were with the ark, guiding it to where it belonged.

# CHAPTER TWENTY FOUR

# Presumption Punished

Some Israelites saw the cows bringing the ark and they celebrated. They offered the cart, cows and the payment from the Philistines to God. The Philistines plague then ended. The Israelites that found the ark wondered what was inside it that was so powerful. They didn't see that God had done this and like the Philistines thought that the ark had the power.

Looking inside the ark was like looking at God, only the high priest could do it without dying. They opened the ark and looked inside. The angels that followed the ark killed more than fifty thousand people for this.

The Israelites in that area saw this and respected and feared God. A man called Eleazar looked after the ark in his dad's house for twenty years. During this time the Israelites kept losing battles against the Philistines and this humbled them and they asked God to forgive them for breaking His law. Because they had changed and again tried to keep His commandments, God made the Israelites strong so that their enemies couldn't beat them.

Solomon was their prophet and he was getting old. His children's didn't follow God and broke the commandments. The Israelites saw this and wanted to have a King, like other countries. Their first king was Saul who became corrupt so God replaced him with David.

Eleazar looked after the ark until David was made king. David and thirty thousand Israelites took the ark in a cart to Jerusalem. Uzzah and Ahu were driving the cart. At one point the bulls pulling the cart stumbled and the ark shook. Uzzah held onto the ark to protect it and God immediately killed him for doing this. God did this because God had told the Israelites that no one could touch the ark, they must respect its holiness and Uzzah broke this law because he didn't trust that God could protect the ark.

This made David scared. He knew he broke the commandments sometimes and was worried that if he had to look after the ark he might end up doing something like Uzzah and die. He therefore asked a good man called Obed-edom to look after it for a few months. God blessed Obed-edom

God showed that His ark would kill those who broke the commandments that were contained within it but it was a blessing to those that obeyed them. David built a tabernacle in Jerusalem and tried to follow the commandments and make himself as holy as possible before he took the ark off Obed-edom.

In Solomon's Temple

Solomon was David's son and he replaced David as king. Solomon built an impressive temple for the ark. It was according to the same designs God had given Moses so that it was a close copy of the true temple in heaven, where the blood used is Jesus' blood, not the blood of the animals, which represent Jesus.

The ark was put into the most holy place of the temple, under the statue of the two cherubim. Solomon added two more statues of angels to represent the angels that always protect the law.

God was pleased with the temple and He resided in it, accepting the sacrifices they offered.

God promised to Solomon that the temple would exist forever if the Israelites followed God and His commandments.

The Captivity of Israel

Israel didn't keep the commandments and about a hundred years after the temple was built the Babylonians conquered them and took them to Babylon as slaves. God told a few people that the Babylonians would destroy the temple. Therefore, just before this happened, they took the ark and hid it in a cave. It was never found after that and is still in the cave today.

Just as God had told the Israelites how long they would be in Egypt, He also told them how long they would be in Babylon. God told an Israelite that was in Babylon called Daniel, that forty-nine years after the Kings command to rebuild Jerusalem in 457BC the streets and walls of Jerusalem will be rebuilt.

He also told Daniel that Jesus would Start His work on earth 434 years after the command and that three and a half years after that Jesus would die, which would end the sacrificial system in the temple on earth.

This is because they would be forgiven by Jesus' Sacrifice, who would then use His own blood to forgive the people in the temple in heaven.

Daniel was also told that three and a half years after Jesus died the Israelite leaders would reject Him and the Israelites wouldn't be Gods church anymore, Gods people would be those who accept Jesus and follows His commandments.

Daniel was also told that 2300 years after the command, which was in 1844, Jesus will have finished His work in the holy place in the temple in heaven, where He uses His blood to put the sins onto the sanctuary, and will move into the most holy place. This is where the true ark is, with the stones with the Ten Commandments on, to judge who will be saved.

# CHAPTER TWENTY FIVE

# Jesus' First Advent

In 3AD the time came when Jesus, God Himself, took a human body and suffered Satan's' temptations.

His birth didn't have any worldly grandeur; being born in a stable and sleeping in a manger. However, Angels celebrated that the Son of God had come to earth to teach and sacrifice Himself to remove our sins and bring us peace, happiness, and everlasting life.

The Baptism of Jesus

Jesus' second cousin John the Baptist was telling people that God was coming to earth, so that they would be prepared to recognise and follow Jesus.

When Jesus was 30 He started His work teaching people about God and how to live a life for Him. The first thing He did was ask John to baptise Him.

Angels hovered over His baptism and people were amazed seeing the Holy Spirit descend on Jesus and hearing God the Father announcing His love for His son.

God had promised John a sign so that he would know who the Son of God was. John only knew for certain that Jesus was God when he saw the Holy Spirit anoint Jesus. Then John pointed to Jesus, and loudly announced,

"Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world!" John 1:29.

Ministry of John

John told people to follow Jesus. John's life was self-denying. He announced Jesus' arrival but God didn't allow him to see the miracles and power Jesus would show. John knew that he would die when Jesus started teaching people.

John mainly preached in the countryside rather than in towns. His life was lonely. He didn't spend time socialising with his own family but left them in order to do his teaching. Lots of people left the busy cities and villages, and flocked to the countryside to hear him speak. John bravely told people what sins they had. This made them see their need for Jesus to take their sins away. Therefore, they were more likely to listen to Jesus and follow Him. This is why we say that John prepared the way for Jesus.

Herod listened to John and asked to become John's disciple. John new that Herod was about to marry a woman who was already married and he told Herod that this was wrong. Herod wasn't willing to make any sacrifices. He got married to this woman and she encouraged Herod to put John in prison. While John was in jail he heard about the amazing things Jesus was doing and this comforted him. Not long after that Herod's wife got John beheaded.

John got people ready for Jesus. He taught them they that they must look and accept Jesus when they see Him. He taught with the same spirit and power Elijah taught with. Today we are to warn the world with that spirit and power that Jesus is coming back very soon.

# CHAPTER TWENTY SIX

# The Temptation

After Jesus was baptised, the Holy Spirit led Him into the wilderness, to be tempted by the devil. The Holy Spirit had prepared Him for the fierce temptations. The temptations lasted forty days, and He didn't eat anything during that time. He was in an unpleasant, desolate, lonely place. He was pale and thin from fasting and suffering but He knew that to save the world He would have to continue.

Satan took advantage of Jesus' sufferings by tempting Him. Jesus was God; He had made the whole earth but was humble by becoming a human. Satan told Jesus that He wasn't God and if He thought He was then He should prove it by turning a stone into food. Jesus calmly answered Satan,

"It is written, That man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of God." Luke 4:3, 4.

Satan continued to tell Jesus that He wasn't God and pointed to His weak, suffering condition and boasted that he was stronger than Jesus. However the Father told Jesus that He was the Fathers Son and with Him He was very pleased. This was enough to keep Jesus going through the suffering. Satan knew that Jesus was God and the authority He deserved. Satan was thrown out of heaven for not accepting Jesus' authority.

Satan showed off his power to Jesus by carrying Him to Jerusalem and putting Him on the top of the temple. There he tempted Jesus to prove He was the Son of God, by jumping off the roof. Satan reminded Jesus that it would be safe and prove He was the Son of God because the Bible says that angels would protect the Son of God from being hurt.

Jesus answered

"It is said, Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God." Luke 4:10-12.

Satan wanted Jesus to expect His Father to save Him and risk His life. Satan desperately wanted Jesus to fail.

Jesus is the example for all Christians. When we are tempted, or our rights are disputed, we should be patient. We shouldn't feel that we have a right to ask God to show His power so that our enemies stop hurting us. This is unless it would directly honour and glorify God. It was tempting for Jesus to jump off the temple because it would have shown His superior authority to His biggest enemy. However if Jesus had done it, it wouldn't have glorified His Father, because only Satan and demons would have seen the Father save Him.

"And the devil, taking Him up into a high mountain, shewed unto Him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time. And the devil said unto Him, All this power will I give Thee, and the glory of them: for that is delivered unto me; and to whomsoever I will I give it. If Thou therefore wilt worship me, all shall be Thine. And Jesus answered and said unto him, Get thee behind Me, Satan: for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord Thy God, and Him only shalt thou serve." Luke 4:5-8.

Satan then took Jesus to a high mountain and presented all the countries in the world as attractively as he could. Satan said that if Jesus worshipped him, then he would give Jesus all his claims to the possessions of earth.

Satan did all this because he knew that if Jesus succeeded and died to save humans then Satan would become less powerful and at the end of the world all of his power would be taken away and then he would be killed and be dead forever. Because of this, he worked as hard as he could to stop Jesus completing and succeeding in His work.

If Satan managed to prevent Jesus' from completing His work then Satan would rule the world forever.

The Tempter Rebuked

Satan celebrated when Jesus left the power and glory He had in heaven. Satan thought that now Jesus didn't have His own power, he was more powerful and could now control Him. Satan had found it easy to tempt Adam and Eve so he thought that he would be able to use his cleverness and power to tempt Jesus and thereby save his own life and get to rule earth. However, Jesus refused to bow down to Satan, saying that He only bows down to His Father.

Satan claimed that he owned earth and humans and suggested to Jesus that He wouldn't have to suffer and sacrifice Himself to get the whole world. If Jesus would worship him then Satan would give Jesus everything in the world and the glory of ruling it.

However Jesus knew that at the end of the world He would save humans from Satan and then everyone would accept Jesus' authority. Jesus chose a life of suffering and death as organised by His Father so that humans would be His. Satan will also be given to Jesus to be destroyed.

# CHAPTER TWENTY SEVEN

# Jesus' Ministry

When Satan finished tempting Jesus He left Him for a while. The Father blessed Jesus and angels gave Him food in the desert and strengthened Him.

Satan had failed, despite using the strongest temptations he could. However he looked forward to when Jesus would start teaching people, where he could use his cunning against Him. Satan still hoped to beat Jesus by getting the people who don't want to follow to Him to hate Him and try to kill Him.

Satan had a special meeting with the demons. They were disappointed and angry that they had completely failed in the desert to get Him to sin. They decided that they must be more cunning and work as hard as possible to get the Jews not to believe that He was here to save them, the Saviour that they had been waiting for. By doing this Satan hoped that Jesus would become very discouraged. Satan hoped that so few would believe and follow Jesus that He wouldn't think it was worth dying for them. However even if only two people would want Jesus to save them He would have still done it.

The sacrifices and ceremonies were to make them recognise Jesus but Satan didn't need them to stop doing these to stop them recognising Jesus. Satan stopped people from understanding the prophecies in the Bible. He made them believe that God would come as a strong King that would lead wars against other countries. This meant that a lot of people hated Jesus and didn't accept Him as the Saviour.

Satan and his angels were very busy for the three and a half years when Jesus was teaching. They were trying to stop people believing Him and trying to make them hate Him. When Jesus told people about their sins they would often get angry and Satan encouraged them pushed them to kill Jesus.

Several times they picked up stones to throw at Him, but angels protected Him and took Him away to a safe place. Once a crowd tried to throw Jesus off a steep hill and the angels had to hide Him from the crowd so He could escape.

Relieving Peoples Suffering

Jesus began His work by taking away Satan's power over suffering. He made sick people healthy, gave blind people their sight and took away disabilities, allowing them to jump for joy and praise God. He made people healthy who had been ill by Satan's cruel power for many years. He used kind words to comfort weak people who didn't have any hope. Satan had thought that he had power over these people but Jesus gave them healthy bodies and happiness. He also brought dead people back to life, who then glorified God. He did great things for everyone who chose to trust Him.

Jesus spent His life speaking kindly to people and doing things that showed sympathy, and love. He always listened to and relieved people's worries that they shared with Him. Lots of people accepted that He had Gods power and believed what He taught them. However, once Jesus had finished His work and died, many of these people were ashamed of the humble but powerful Teacher. Because the rulers didn't believe Him, lots of people weren't willing to accept Him. He had a life with difficulties and suffering. They couldn't accept following His thoughtful, self-denying life. They didn't want to be different, marginalised by others. However many followed Jesus and listened to His teachings, feasting on His words. His words were full of lots of meaning, yet so clear that everyone could understand.

Ineffective Opposition

Satan and his angels blinded people from understanding Jesus' teachings and encouraged the leaders to kill Him. They sent people to bring Jesus to them but when these people saw Jesus they were amazed. They saw that He was very sympathetic and compassionate when He saw other people's difficulties. They heard His love for others encouraging weak and suffering people. They also heard His authority over Satan, ordering Satan to leave the people he was hurting. They listened to Jesus' wise words, and they were so captivated that they couldn't take Him to the leaders that wanted to stop Him.

When the leaders asked, "Why have ye not brought Him?" they told them about the miracles they had seen Him do, and His holy words of wisdom, love, and knowledge, and ended saying, "Never man spake like this Man." The priests in charge accused these people of being tricked by Jesus, and some of the officers were ashamed they hadn't taken Him. The priests asked in a superior way whether any of the rulers believed Him. Many of the leaders did believe Jesus, but Satan kept them from saying it, by making them worry about people criticising them, they worried about people more than they worried about God's opinion.

At this point Satan hadn't managed to stop the plan of salvation and it wasn't long until Jesus would complete what He came here to do. Satan and his angels discussed this and decided to urge people to hate Jesus and want to kill Him. They hoped that Jesus would lose his humility and resent and get angry at people for this this.

While Satan was doing this, Jesus was clearly telling the disciples about the sufferings He was about to have--that He would be crucified and come back to life two days later. But they didn't understand what He was saying.

The Transfiguration

The disciples' faith was much stronger after seeing Jesus' transfiguration. This is where they saw Jesus' glory and heard The Father declaring that Jesus is God. God did this so that the disciples had strong evidence that Jesus was the Messiah the Old Testament promised, the one everyone had been waiting for. This evidence helped Jesus' followers when they were sad and disappointed after Jesus was killed, so that they wouldn't give up. At the transfiguration God sent Moses and Elijah to talk with Jesus about the suffering and death He would go through. God chose Moses and Elijah instead of angels so that Jesus could speak to people who had experienced trials on earth.

Elijah had walked with God. His difficult work had been painful; God used Elijah to reprove Israel's sins. Although he was one of Gods prophet, sometimes he had to run away and hide because people tried to hunt and kill him like an animal. In the end, God translated Elijah in glory and victory to heaven.

Moses was greater than anyone before him. God honoured him by talking to him face to face, like a friend. He was allowed to see the bright light and glory that surrounded the Father. God, through Moses, saved the Israelites from being servants of the Egyptians. Moses was a mediator for his people, often standing between them and God's anger. When God was angry with the Israelites for their lack of trust, complaining, and sinning, Moses' love for them was tested. God suggested to Moses that He would destroy them and make a new country with Moses' children. Moses' response showed his love for Israel by begging that he would be willing to never go to heaven if it meant God would forgive the Israelites.

Moses died, but Jesus came and brought him back to life and took him to heaven. Satan wanted to keep the body and criticized God, complaining this was unfair; but Jesus didn't rebuke Satan or argue with him, even though it was through Satan's temptation that Moses had sinned. Jesus humbly referred him to His Father, saying, "The Lord rebuke thee." Jude 9. If we argue with people about issues, even when we are right, we often do more harm than good. We should present and discuss truth but if someone is fixed, arguing with them will probably make them more fixed in their wrong opinion and make us have negative emotions against them.

Jesus had told His disciples that there were some with Him who would see the kingdom of God before they die. This happened at the transfiguration. Jesus' face changed and shone like the sun. His clothes were white and glistening. Moses represented those who will be raised from the dead when Jesus comes at the end of the world. And Elijah, who was translated to heaven without dying, represented the people who will still be alive when Jesus comes again and will go to heaven without dying. The disciples were amazed at seeing Jesus' greatness, the cloud over Him and the Father saying "This is My beloved Son: hear Him."

# CHAPTER TWENTY EIGHT

# The Betrayal

Jesus ate the Passover meal with His disciples. Satan had tricked Judas to think that he was one of Jesus' true disciples; but he was never really converted and was always with Jesus for himself, the worldly benefits he would. He had seen the powerful things Jesus did, he had been with Him through His ministry, and had accepted the overwhelming evidence that He was the Messiah; but Judas loved money. He angrily complained when he thought Mary had wasted expensive oil on cleaning Jesus' feet.

Mary loved Jesus. He had forgiven her sins, which were a lot, and had brought her brother back from the dead. Because of this she felt that nothing was too expensive to use for Jesus. The more precious the ointment, the better she could express her thanks to the God that saved her.

Judas wanted the money and as an excuse he complained that the oil should have been sold and given to the poor. It wasn't really because he cared for the poor; he was selfish, and often spent money on himself that he was supposed to be looking after. Judas hadn't thought much about making Jesus comfortable or things that Jesus would like, and often used the poor to excuse his greed. Mary's generosity was a strong rebuke of Judas' greed. Judas was ready to accept Satan's temptation.

The priests and leaders hated Jesus, but other people crowded around Him, desperate to learn from the wise things He said and see the miracles. A lot of the rulers believed Him, but were scared to admit it in case they lost their jobs. The priests decided that something must be done to stop people listening and believing Him. They thought that to keep their jobs they would have to kill Jesus. After they killed Him they felt they would have to kill people who had experienced His miracles

Lazarus had died but Jesus brought him back to life. Therefore they worried that even if they killed Jesus, Lazarus would tell people about His amazing power. People were flocking to see Lazarus so the leaders planned to kill Him as well. Then they would get people to follow the man made traditions and rules, to take laws to the extreme and force people to be burdened with man made laws and not allow people to choose to follow Gods laws out of love. They make it seem as if Gods laws are very difficult.

They agreed to take Jesus when He was alone, otherwise the crowds would have stopped them.

Judas knew how desperate they were to get Jesus and offered to give Him to them for a few pieces of silver. Satan was working through Judas, and at the last supper Judas was working out how to betray Jesus. Jesus was sad as He told His disciples that all of them would desert Him that evening. But Peter ardently said that although all the others would desert Him, he wouldn't.

Jesus said to Peter, "Satan hath desired to have you, that he may sift you as wheat: but I have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not: and when thou art converted, strengthen thy brethren." Luke 22:31, 32.

Jesus was warning Peter that Peter's strength wasn't enough to fight Satan; we need to also ask God to help us. Peter resented this and thought he was powerful enough himself to fight Satan. Peter tempted Satan to tempt him and Satan did this. Peter fell that night; when asked if he was one of Jesus' disciples, he was too scared to say yes. When Peter fell he realised he wasn't strong enough to fight Satan without God and asked for His help. When we ask for Gods help Satan is powerless. However, if we place ourselves in a tempting situation we reject Gods help, we must follow God if we want Him to protect us.

In the Garden

Jesus and his disciples went to the garden of Gethsemane. He was extremely sad as He asked them to watch and pray, that they were protected from Satan. He knew that Satan would attack them and that they were going to be greatly disappointed when Jesus got arrested, beaten and killed. Jesus cried and begged the Father that if He was willing to please take the need to go through the difficulties and death away but only if that was what the Father wanted. Jesus spoke to the Father in such agony that large drops of blood formed on His face and fell to the ground. Angels were hovering over the place, watching. But the Father had only appointed one of them, Gabriel help Jesus' agony. Everyone in heaven was sad. The angels dropped their crowns and harps from them and silently watched Jesus. They wanted to surround Jesus, but the leading angels told them not to because Jesus had to go through the suffering to save the people in the world.

If we want to know what the value of a life is we need to imagine Jesus in the Garden where He saw all our lives and suffering from immense pain, God Himself was given a choice whether each person was worth for Him to continue suffering, die and possibly never exist again. The God that created us was willing to die and never exist again, a decision He was willing to make if it was only for one of us. Here we see the immense value of every person who has, will and does exist. He saw all of our lives, all of the sins and He agreed to take them all away and put them on Himself. The Father then saw all the sins we did as if it was actually His son, Jesus, doing them all. The being that created us put all of the bad things we ever did on the most important being to Him, the being that had been with Him for all eternity. All of the Fathers anger and disappointment towards these sins were placed on Jesus and Jesus, who had spent His life with no worldly wealth, with constant attack from Satan, who lived purely from the strength from His communication with the Father was cut off, and the communication ended. Satan then had free reign to attack Jesus. No Christian in history has ever not had some protection from Satan's attack apart from Jesus, the Son of God.

After Jesus had prayed He came to His disciples, but they were sleeping. In that terrible hour He didn't even have the sympathy and prayers of His disciples.

Judas Betrays Jesus

Then Judas appeared with armed men. They surrounded Jesus but He showed His Godly power as He said "Whom seek ye?" "I am He." They fell backward to the ground. Jesus did this so that they knew that He could stop them arresting Him if He chose to but He was allowing it to happen.

The disciples began hoped Jesus would use His power when they saw the armed men fall so quickly. As they got up and surrounded Jesus again, Peter took out his sword and cut off one of their ears. Jesus told him to put his sword away and told Peter that He could ask His Father for angels to fight for Him. As Jesus said this the angels hoped this would happen so that they could help their leader but then they felt sad as Jesus continued by saying that this won't do this because He wanted to complete the role He was here to do. The disciples sank with despair and disappointment as Jesus allowed Himself to be taken by His enemies.

The disciples worried that they would be killed so left Jesus and ran away. Jesus was left alone in the hands of the murderous mob. Satan had triumphed and the angels were terribly sad. The angels recorded every horrible thing that was done to Jesus so that the people that did it could be shown it again at the end of the world.

# CHAPTER TWENTY NINE

# The Trial

As the angels left heaven to visit earth, they took off their crowns in sadness. They couldn't wear them while their leader was suffering and would have to wear a crown made of thorns.

Satan and his angels were busy in the judgment hall working to remove peoples' sympathy for Jesus. The atmosphere was heavy and polluted by their influence. The chief priests and elders were inspired by them to insult and abuse Jesus in a way that is the most difficult for humans. Satan hoped that mockery and violence would make Jesus complain; or that He would use His power to save Himself, which would cause Humans to be lost forever.

Peter's Denial

Peter wanted to follow Jesus but when someone accused him of being one of Jesus' disciples, he was scared and said he didn't know Him. The disciples were known for not swearing and Peter tried to convince people he wasn't a disciple, by denying he knew Jesus with swear words. Jesus turned and looked at Peter with a look of sadness. That look saved Peter from Satan; he felt terrible and cried about what he had done. Then he went to strengthen the other followers.

In the Judgment Hall

The crowd were desperate for Jesus' blood. They cruelly whipped Him, and made fun of Him being a king by putting an old purple robe and a crown made of thorns on Him. They gave Him a reed, and bowed and mockingly saluted Him, "Hail, king of the Jews!" John 19:3. They then took the reed from Him and hit His head with it. This made the thorns penetrate His skin, causing blood to trickle down His face and beard.

It was difficult for the angels to see what was happening. They would have saved Jesus, but the commanding angels forbade them, saying that it was a big cost Jesus would pay to save humans but it was to be completed. Jesus knew that angels were watching His humiliation. The weakest angel could have caused the people bullying Him to fall down powerless and rescued Jesus. He knew that if He asked His Father, angels would instantly rescue Him. But it was necessary for Him to suffer the violence of evil men, in order to carry out the plan of salvation.

Jesus stood meek and humble before the angry, impatient crowd, while they bullied Him so horribly. He didn't show any signs of anger as they spat in His face--that face that one day they will want to hide themselves from, the face which will give light to God's city and shine brighter than the sun. They covered His head with an old garment, blindfolding Him, and then hit Him in the face and shouted,

"Prophesy, who was it that smote Thee?" Luke 22:64.

The angels were very disturbed and would have immediately rescued Him, but their commanding angels held them back.

Some of the disciples were brave enough to watch the trial. They thought that Jesus would use His power to save Himself and punish the crowd for their cruelty. Sometimes they doubted, and worried that they had been tricked and Jesus wasn't actually God. But the voice of God the Father they heard at the mount of transfiguration, and the glory they saw, made their faith strong that Jesus was the Son of God. They thought back to the things they had seen Jesus do, the miracles Jesus performed in healing the sick, making the blind see and the deaf hear, rebuking and casting out daemons, raising the dead and calming the wind and waves.

They couldn't believe that He would die. They hoped that He would order them to leave, just like when he drove out the people in the temple who were using the place to make money. They had run away as if there was an army chasing them.

Judas' Confession

Judas deeply regretted and felt very guilty for betraying Jesus. When he saw the bullying of Jesus, he was overcome. He had loved Jesus, but had loved money more. He hadn't thought that Jesus would allow the mob that Judas brought to take him. He had expected Him to work a miracle and deliver Himself from them. But when he saw the infuriated multitude in the judgment hall, thirsting for blood, felt his guilt very deeply; and while many were vehemently accusing Jesus, Judas rushed through the crowd, admitting that he had sinned in betraying innocent Jesus. He offered the priests the money which they had paid him, and begged them to release Jesus, saying that He was completely innocent.

Initially this made the Priests worried and frustrated because they didn't want the crowd to know that they had hired one of Jesus' professed disciples to betray Him into their hands. They didn't want anyone to know they had hunted Jesus like a thief. But Judas' confession and his stressed, guilty appearance exposed the priests, showing that their motive for taking Jesus was because they hated Him. As Judas loudly declared Jesus to be innocent, the priests replied,

"What is that to us? See thou to that." Matt. 27:4.

They had Jesus and were determined to complete their goal. Judas was overwhelmed with anxiety and threw the money that he now hated at the priests feet and went and hanged himself.

There were still a lot of people there that supported Jesus and were amazed that He didn't answer the questions He was asked. Despite all the physical and verbal bullying, He didn't frown, or show any sign He was finding it difficult. People were amazed how He remained dignified and composed. They compared the way He looked with the men that were sitting judging Him, and said to each other that He looked more like a king than any of the rulers. He didn't look like a criminal at all. He looked mild and noble. His patience and tolerance were so much better than normal humans that even Herod and Pilate were worried.

# CHAPTER THIRTY

# Jesus Before Pilate

When Pilate first met Jesus He was convinced that He wasn't a normal man. He thought He Had an excellent character and was completely innocent of the charges. The angels who were there noted Pilates convictions, and to save him an angel was sent to his wife, who gave her information in a dream that Pilate was dealing with the Son of God and that He was innocent. She immediately sent a message to Pilate not to be guilty of anything against Jesus. As Pilate read the message he started shaking and turned pale, and decided to have nothing to do with putting Jesus to death.

Sent to Herod

When Pilate heard that Herod was in Jerusalem, he was very relieved, because he thought that he could put all the responsibility and guilt onto Herod. Therefore he quickly sent Jesus to him for him to decide what would happen. Herod's sin had made him selfish and stubborn. Murdering John the Baptist had left him feeling guilty and when he heard about Jesus and the amazing things He was doing, he worried that He was John the Baptist risen from the dead. When Pilate handed Jesus over to him, Herod thought that Pilate did it to acknowledge Herod's authority. Herod and Pilate had been enemies but this event made them friends. Herod was pleased to see Jesus, expecting Him entertain him with a miracle. However, Jesus didn't perform miracles to satisfy curiosity or for His own safety. His divine power was used to help others and save their souls.

Jesus didn't answer anything to all of Herod's many questions; neither did He reply to the accusations others made. Herod was furious because Jesus didn't appear to fear his power, and with his men he made fun of and abused Jesus. He was astonished that despite this Jesus looked noble and Godlike. Pilate was scared to condemn Jesus so he sent Him back to Pilate.

Satan and his angels were tempting Pilate, trying to get him to destroy his soul. They gave him the thought that if he didn't condemn Jesus to death then others would because the crowd wanted Him killed. They also suggested that he would lose his power and would be denounced as a Christian. Because of fear of losing his power and authority, Pilate consented to Jesus' death. He said that the crowd carried the guilt but he was also guilty by delivering an innocent man to die.

Jesus' appearance and words during His trial made a deep impression on a lot of people who were there. The result of this influence was apparent after His resurrection. Among the new Christians there were a lot who were converted from His trial.

Satan was furious that all the cruelty, which he had led the Jews to inflict on Jesus, hadn't caused Him to complain once. Although Jesus was in a human's body, He was sustained by a Godlike fortitude, and did exactly what God His Father wanted Him to do.

# CHAPTER THIRTY ONE

# The Crucifixion

Pilate handed Jesus over to his soldiers to be crucified. The disciples and local Christians joined the crowd that followed Jesus to the hill where He would die. Mary, Jesus' mother was there, with John. She was incredibly sad and she and the disciples hoped that He would save Himself by using His power to show everyone that He is the Son of God. Then she would remember that Jesus had told her that these terrible things must happen.

Jesus was carrying the cross, which had been meant for Barabbas before it was decided that Barabbas would get to go free. They put it on His bruised and bleeding shoulders. Jesus got just passed the gate of Pilate's house when He fainted from blood loss, tiredness and pain.

When Jesus regained consciousness they put the cross back on His shoulders and He was forced forward. He staggered on for a few steps, then collapsed lifeless to the ground. At first people said He was dead, but again He regained consciousness. The priests and rulers didn't feel any compassion for Jesus but they saw that it was impossible for Him to carry the cross any more. While they were working out what to do, Simon, a Cyrenian, felt sorry for Jesus as he saw the crowd taunting Him. The priests ordered that Simon carry the cross up the hill. By doing this Simon felt strongly the sacrifice Jesus was making and became a Christian.

A lot of people followed Jesus to the top of the hill. Most were making fun of Him, but some were crying and praising Him. Those He's healed and raised from the dead, told people about the amazing things He had done and demanded to know what Jesus was guilty of to had done to be treated like a criminal. Only a few days ago, they had praised Him by waving palm branches and shouting hosanna, as He rode triumphantly to Jerusalem. But a lot of those who had praised Him then, only did it because it was popular at the time, now they were shouting "Crucify Him! Crucify Him!"

Nailed to the Cross

Jesus got to the top of the hill and was nailed to the cross. While the two thieves with Him wrestled against being nailed to their crosses, Jesus didn't resist at all. Jesus' mother still hoped He would miraculously save Himself. She looked at His hands, the hands that had blessed and healed so many; she saw these hands stretched along the cross and saw cruel nails driven through his skin. Seeing everything hurt her so much so the disciples took her away.

Jesus didn't make any complaints; His face remained pale and peaceful, but lots of sweat was on His forehead. No one took pity and wiped away His sweat, no one comforted Him with sympathetic words. He had to complete this work and suffering alone. In this agony He prayed for the soldiers that had put Him on the cross and everyone that will be Jesus' enemy, everyone who will sin in the future, until the end of the world by saying:

"Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do." Luke 23:34.

After Jesus was nailed to the cross, it was lifted by several men and violently thrust into the hole prepared. This caused excruciating agony. Then priests, rulers, and scribes forgot to act professionally and joined the crowd in making fun and bullying Jesus, saying, "If Thou be the King of the Jews, save Thyself." Luke 23:37. "He saved others; Himself He cannot save." Mark 15:31.

The thieves who were crucified with Jesus suffered the same physical pain: and one of them didn't see that he deserved the suffering because of his own sins. Instead the pain made him hardened and defiant. He copied the priest in bullying Jesus, saying, "If Thou be Christ, save Thyself and us." Luke 23:39.

The other criminal wasn't hardened. When he heard the other thief, he "rebuked him, saying, dost thou not fear God, seeing thou art in the same condemnation? And we indeed justly; for we receive the due reward of our deeds; but this Man hath done nothing amiss." Luke 23:40, 41.

Then, as he felt sorry for Jesus, the Holy Spirit flooded him with knowledge about Jesus like a flood. He saw that Jesus being hit, made fun of and crucified, was God in a human body, here to save him and that Jesus was his only hope in being saved. He humbly begged Jesus saying: "Lord, remember me when Thou comest into Thy kingdom. And Jesus said unto him, Verily I say unto thee Today, shalt thou be with Me in Paradise." Luke 23:43.

The angels were amazed at Jesus' response. They saw His infinite love. Jesus was suffering the most excruciating agony of mind and body and only thought of us, and encouraged the thief to believe. He showed that He loves us more than His own death. A lot of people who saw what happened became Christians.

Jesus' enemies however were eager for Him to die. They thought that this would stop people talking about His divinity and miracles; that all His influence would disappear.

A Lesson in Filial Love

Jesus looked at the crowd watching, and saw that just below Him, at the bottom of the cross, John was supporting His mum, Mary. She felt she couldn't leave her Son. The last lesson Jesus gave was about the love we are to give to our parents. He looked at His mum's grief-stricken face and then to John and addressing His mum, said:

"Woman, behold thy son!"

Then, He said to John:

"Behold thy mother!" John 19:27.

John knew that Jesus was telling him to care for Mary as if she was his own mother. He immediately took her away from the scene and looked after her from then on. Jesus showed us this as an example to us; that despite the torture He was experiencing, he had such love for His parents that He ensured His mother's future was secure.

The mission Jesus came to earth for was nearly complete. His mouth was dry and He said:

"I thirst."

They put a sponge in bitter vinegar and offered it to Him to drink. When He tasted it, he refused it. Now the Lord of life and glory was dying, a payment for the human race. It was the sense of sin that was placed on Him, which brought the Father's anger towards Him, anger that should have been towards us, that made the cup He drank so bitter, and broke Jesus' heart.

The Father considered Jesus as someone who broke the Ten Commandments so that we would be saved from the result of sin. He felt the guilt of every human since the beginning; and God's unhappiness towards the sin, filled Jesus with horror. God went away from Jesus in this hour of extreme difficulty and this hurt Him with sadness that we humans can't fully understand. Every convulsion of pain, the blood that flowed from His head, hands and feet and the anguish that filled Him because His Father left Him, shows us His love for us. He destroyed the path to death that we were on and opened the gates of Paradise and eternal life. He made waves calm by telling them to and walked on the water, He made demons shake with fear and made disease disappear, He raised dead people back to life and made blind men see; this being offers Himself on the cross as the last and final sacrifice for humans.

Angels watched with amazement the agony, so much greater than His physical pain that the physical pain was hardly felt. The Angels couldn't look directly at Jesus.

Nature sympathised. The sun refused to look, it was shining brightly at midday, when suddenly it seemed to be blotted out and there was complete darkness. The darkness lasted three hours. At nine o'clock the darkness was only on Jesus. Angry lightning seemed to be hurled at Him as He hung on the cross. Then

"Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying, Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani? Which is, being interpreted, My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?" Mark 15:34.

It Is Finished

In silence the people watch to see the end of this scene. Again the sun shines, but the cross remains dark. Suddenly the sun shines on the cross and Jesus cries, "It is finished." "Father, into Thy hands I commend My spirit." Luke 23:46. A light circling the cross, and the face of Jesus shone like the sun. He then rested His head on His chest and died.

At the moment in which Christ died, there were priests working in the temple in front of the veil, which separated the holy from the most holy place. Suddenly they felt an earthquake, and the veil of the temple was torn from top to bottom by the same hand that wrote the words of doom on the walls of Belshazzar's palace.

Jesus did not give up His life until He had finished the work which He came to do; and He exclaimed with His last breath, "It is finished!" Angels celebrated as He said this, because the plan to redeem Humans was successfully completed. There was joy in heaven that humans could now, through following God, get to live with God after they die. Satan lost, and knew that he was no longer the ruler of the world.

The Burial

John didn't know what to do with Jesus' body. He worried how the soldiers would treat it and knew he couldn't get help from the Jewish rulers or Pilate. However, Joseph and Nicodemus came to help. These guys were members of the Sanhedrin. Both had wealth and influence. They were determined that Jesus' body should have an honourable burial.

Joseph went to Pilate, and begged from him the body. Pilate agreed. While the disciple John was worrying about it, Joseph of Arimathea returned with Pilates agreement; and Nicodemus, anticipating that Pilate would say yes, came with 45kgs of expensive perfume, plant oils and spices. No leader in Jerusalem would expect to be given such respect in death.

Gently they took Jesus down from the cross. They cried as they saw the wounds and damage to His body. They carefully washed off the blood. Joseph owned a new tomb near Golgotha, which he had bought for his own body. The body, and the spices brought by Nicodemus, was carefully wrapped in a sheet, and the three disciples took it to the tomb. There they straightened the mangled limbs, and folded the bruised hands upon the chest. The Galilean women went close, to check that all had been done that could be done. Then they saw the heavy stone rolled against the entrance, and Jesus was left at rest. The women were the last ones at the cross, and last ones at the tomb.

Although the Jewish rulers had managed to kill Jesus, their worries and jealousy were still there. Their joy of killing Jesus was mixed with the worry that He would come back to life.

Therefore "the chief priests and Pharisees came together unto Pilate, saying, Sir, we remember that that deceiver said, while He was yet alive, After three days I will rise again. Command therefore that the sepulchre be made sure until the third day, lest His disciples come by night, and steal Him away, and say unto the people, He is risen from the dead: so the last error shall be worse than the first." Matt. 27:63, 64.

Pilate and the Jews weren't willing to let Jesus rise from the dead and punish the people that killed Him. Pilate therefore allowed the priests have a group of Roman soldiers to look after the tomb and make sure nothing happened.

The Jews put a seal on the stone so that if the stone moved they would know about it. They did everything they could to make sure the disciples couldn't deceive them by doing something to Jesus' body. However, all their plans and precautions only increased the triumph and truth of His resurrection.

# CHAPTER THIRTY TWO

# The Resurrection

The disciples were sad about Jesus' death as they rested on the Sabbath. As Saturday night drew on, soldiers were guarding the tomb, while invisible angels hovered above. The night was slow, but the angels knew it was nearly time for Jesus to wake up from unconscious death. Daemons were celebrating near the tomb that Jesus was dead but then an angel flew very quickly from heaven. His face was like lightning, and his clothes very white. His light made the daemons run away scared. One of the angels hovering over the tomb joined the new angel and together they went down. As they got closer to the tomb there was a big earthquake.

This made the guards very scared. The light was extremely bright and they fell to the ground. One of the angels rolled the big stone away from the tomb and sat on it. The other went in the tomb and took off the napkin from Jesus' head.

"Thy Father Calls Thee"

Then the angel from heaven, said something that caused another earthquake

"Thou Son of God, Thy Father calls Thee! Come forth."

Jesus came back to life having successfully ensured that anyone who follows Him won't have to suffer eternal death. The Angels were amazed by what was happening as Jesus came out of the tomb and kneeled to worship Him with victory songs.

The daemons that fled from the Angels' light went to Satan to complain that this angel had taken their prey from them and the being they hated so much had come back to life. They had celebrated that they had got humans to kill Him but now their celebrations were over. As Jesus walked out of the tomb Satan realised that this meant at the end of the world he, himself would die and all his power in the world would be passed to God. He was sad and angry that instead of managing to kill Jesus, a way of saving humans had been created.

Satan and his daemons had a meeting to discuss how to continue working against God. They knew the guards at the tomb would tell the Jewish leaders about what happened and they realised they needed to stop other people hearing this and realising that Jesus is God. They had managed to trick the leaders before into thinking that Jesus wasn't God so they thought they could trick them again. This time they would make the leaders feel they had to stop the message spreading or people would kill them for crucifying an innocent man.

The Report of the Roman Guard

As the group of angels left the temple and the light went away, the guards looked up to see what had happened. They were amazed that the stone that blocked the tombs' entrance had been rolled away and Jesus' body was gone. They quickly went to the city to tell the leaders what had happened. As the leaders heard this they all went pale and were horrified realising what they had done. If the guards were telling the truth then they realised they were on Satan's' side. They stayed in silence for a while, looking at each other, not knowing what to do or say. If they accepted the guards report then they would be condemning themselves. They discussed what they should do and concluded that if people heard the guards report then they would be killed for murdering Jesus.

They decided to pay the soldiers off to lie and say that the Christians had stolen the body whilst the guards were sleeping. However, the Jewish leaders promised to persuade the governor not to punish them for saying that they were sleeping when they were supposed to be guarding the tomb.

The First Fruits of Redemption

When Jesus was on the cross, He cried out,

"It is finished,"

There was an earthquake and the rocks broke apart and some dead bodies came back to life. These bodies were some of the dead Christians, showing people that Jesus had come back to life. They were in new, glorified bodies. They were picked from all different times of the earth's history, from creation to Jesus' days. While the Jewish leaders were trying to hide the fact that Jesus came back to life, God resurrected these Christians to let people know that Jesus had been resurrected.

They were bigger and healthier looking than other humans. There was variation in how they looked, some looking more noble than others. Over the centuries humans have been losing their strength and beauty. Satan has been increasing diseases and death and over time the effects of mutations and diseases, which were caused by sin, on our health have been more and more noticeable. The people who lived in during Noah and Abraham's time looked like angels and were strong like them. In every succeeding generation our lives have grown shorter as Satan has been learning how to make us weaker and more diseased.

Those who came back to life went to lots of people, telling them that the sacrifice to save everyone was complete; that Jesus had come back from the dead and as proof they had also came back. The fake account that Satan got the guards and Jewish leaders to spread couldn't stop the truth. Jesus also went to His followers to show that God hadn't failed.

The Women at the Sepulchre

Before daylight on the first day of the week (Sunday morning), women came to the temple with sweet spices for Jesus' body. They found that the heavy stone had been rolled away from the tombs door, and Jesus' body had gone. Their hearts sank, and they worried that enemies had taken the body. Suddenly they saw two angels with bright, shining faces. The angels told them that Jesus had come back to life and had already left. They told them to tell His disciples that they could meet Him in Galilee. With fear and joy the women rushed back to the grieving disciples to tell them the good news.

The disciples couldn't believe that Jesus had come back to life, but they decided to check and ran back to the tomb with the women. Jesus wasn't there; they saw His clothes, but still couldn't believe that He'd come back from the dead. They went back home.

But Mary stayed at the cave, sad that she might have been tricked. She felt that she had new difficulties and trials and started crying. Then she looked back into the cave and saw two angels sitting inside. The angels gently asked why she was crying and she answered, "They have taken away my Lord, and I know not where they have laid Him." John 20:13.

"Touch Me Not"

Mary turned around and saw Jesus standing nearby, but didn't recognise Him. He spoke to her tenderly, asking why she was sad and who she was looking for. Mary thought He was the gardener so begged Him to tell her whether He had seen anyone take Jesus' body anywhere. Jesus answered with his own heavenly voice, saying, "Mary!" She recognised the voice, and quickly answered, "Master!" and in her joy was about to hug Him; but Jesus said,

"Touch Me not; for I am not yet ascended to My Father: but go to My brethren, and say unto them, I ascend unto My Father, and your Father; and to My God, and your God." John 20:17.

Joyfully, she rushed to the disciples with the good news. Jesus quickly ascended to His Father in heaven. Angels wanted to greet Jesus, but He had one thing on His mind. He was desperate to know whether His sacrifice had been accepted, because if it hadn't, then no humans would ever be able to have eternal life. The Father gave Him the good news and Jesus received all power in heaven and earth. Every planet has a representative. Adam was the original, but gave this position to Satan. Now Jesus had taken this position.

Angels surrounded Jesus like a cloud and opened heaven's entrance gates. Jesus didn't forget His disciples on earth, but got power from His Father, so that He could go back to earth and give power to them. The same day He went back to earth and met with His disciples.

Doubting Thomas

Thomas wasn't there at the time. When the disciples told him what happened he didn't believe them. He said that he wouldn't believe it unless he could touch the scars on Jesus' body. Today, if everyone needed the same evidence as Thomas then no one would ever become a Christian. God however wanted the disciples' report to be heard by those who couldn't see and hear Jesus in person.

God wasn't pleased with Thomas' scepticism. The next time Jesus met with His disciples, Thomas was with them; and although he believed when he saw Jesus, he said that he wouldn't be satisfied without feeling the scars. Jesus let Thomas do this and Thomas exclaimed, "My Lord and my God!" Jesus told him off for his scepticism, saying, "Thomas, because thou hast seen Me, thou hast believed: blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed." John 20:28, 29.

The Discomfiture of Christ's Slayer

As the news spread through the towns and cities that Jesus had come back to life, the Jews became scared that they would be killed. They didn't let others know that they hated Jesus' followers and spread the lie that His followers had stolen Jesus' body. The people that wanted to believe the lie did. Pilate was scared when he heard that Jesus was alive again. He worried for the rest of his life as he realised that he had put Jesus to death to protect himself from losing his job. He was now certain that he wasn't just guilty of putting an innocent man to death, but the Son of God. The rest of Pilates' life was miserable. Despair and worry crushed every hopeful, joyful feeling. He refused to be comforted and died a miserable death.

Forty Days With the Disciples

Jesus stayed on earth with His disciples for forty days. They were happy as He helped them understand God's' kingdom better. He told them that their job was to let others know the what they had seen related to Jesus' suffering, death, and resurrection, that He had been a sacrifice to get rid of people's sin, and that everyone that comes to Him would find true and everlasting life. Jesus told them that they would be persecuted and find times difficult, but they would find relief in remembering their experience with Jesus and what He had said to them. He told them that He had gone through the trials and sufferings from not giving in to any of Satan's temptations. Satan didn't have any more power over Jesus, so he would direct the temptations more on them and anyone who becomes a Christian.

But they could survive and continue despite this, just as Jesus had. Jesus gave His disciples the ability to do miracles, and told them that although wicked humans would attack them, He would from time to time send His angels to help them; God wouldn't let them die until they had finished the jobs he had for them; then they may be required to die for the messages they spread.

His anxious followers gladly listened to His teachings, feasting on every word. Now they knew definitely that He was the Saviour of the world. His words went deep into their hearts, and they were sad that they would have to say goodbye to Him soon. But they felt extremely happy with love towards Jesus as He told them that He would go and mansions ready for them and come back so that they might be with Him forever. He promised also to send the Comforter, the Holy Spirit, to guide them away from incorrect beliefs and towards correct ones. "And He lifted up His hands, and blessed them." Luke 24:50.

# CHAPTER THIRTY THREE

# The Ascension

God and His angels in heaven were waiting for Jesus to come back. Angels came to earth to escort Him triumphantly to heaven. After Jesus had blessed His disciples, He went up. As He was ascending, the Christians who had come back to life when He was resurrected followed. A large crowd of angels were there watching, while in heaven a massive number of angels awaited His arrival.

As they ascended to heaven, the angels escorting Jesus cried, "Lift up your heads, O ye gates; and be ye lift up, ye everlasting doors; and the King of glory shall come in." The angels in heaven cried out with joy, "Who is this King of glory?" The escorting angels answered, "The Lord strong and mighty, the Lord mighty in battle! Lift up your heads, O ye gates; even lift them up, ye everlasting doors; and the King of glory shall come in." Again the waiting angels asked, "Who is this King of glory?" and the escorting angels answered, "The Lord of hosts, He is the King of glory." Ps. 24:7-10. And they passed into heaven.

Then everyone surrounded Jesus, their leader, and with the deepest love and respect they bowed before Him and threw their crowns at His feet. And then they touched their golden harps, and filled all of heaven with rich music and songs to the Jesus.

The Promise of Return

As the disciples looked towards heaven in sadness, to catch the last sight of their Lord, two angels clothed in white clothes stood by them and said, "Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven? This same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen Him go into heaven." Acts 1:11. The disciples and Jesus' mother spent that night in talking about the amazing things Jesus had done on earth in such a short time.

The Wrath of Satan

Satan again had a meeting with his angels, and with bitter hatred against God, told them that while they still all had power on earth, they must work ten times stronger against Christians. They hadn't achieved anything against Jesus but must win against His followers in all the future generations, if possible. He related to his daemons that Jesus had given His disciples' power to rebuke them and cast them out, and to heal people the demons had made unwell. Then they went like roaring lions, looking to destroy the Christians.

# CHAPTER THIRTY FOUR

# Verse by verse interpretation of Revelation 1-3

(The original King James verses are in black and the interpretations are in blue.)

Revelation 1

1 The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave unto him, to shew unto his servants things which must shortly come to pass; and he sent and signified it by his angel unto his servant John:

Jesus revealed a message about the things that would happen from His death 2000 years ago until the end of the world. This message is called the book of Revelation

2 Who bare record of the word of God, and of the testimony of Jesus Christ, and of all things that he saw.

3 Blessed is he that reads, and they that hear the words of this prophecy, and keep those things which are written therein: for the time is at hand.

The people who read and understand the message will have the advantage of knowing future events and how to ask Jesus to save themselves from the scary things that will happen.

4 John to the seven churches which are in Asia: Grace be unto you, and peace, from him which is, and which was, and which is to come; and from the seven Spirits which are before his throne;

The last 2000 years are divided into 7 time periods. Christians in each time period are described as a church. God has a message to the churches in each of the 7 time periods. The Holy Spirit has been with all 7 of them.

5 And from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness, and the first begotten of the dead, and the prince of the kings of the earth. Unto him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood,

Jesus died so that we could be forgiven for the things we do wrong. He came back to life to reassure Christians that they will also be brought back to life after they die.

6 And hath made us kings and priests unto God and his Father; to him be glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen.

Jesus has enabled us to speak to God and work for Him.

7 Behold, he cometh with clouds; and every eye shall see him, and they also which pierced him: and all kindreds of the earth shall wail because of him. Even so, Amen.

Jesus will return to earth with all the angels from heaven. The people that killed him 2000 years ago will be resurrected, and together with everyone else alive at that time, they will see Him return. The people that have chosen not to be Christians will be scared when they see Him coming back because He will punish them.

8 I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, saith the Lord, which is, and which was, and which is to come, the Almighty.

9 I John, who also am your brother, and companion in tribulation, and in the kingdom and patience of Jesus Christ, was in the isle that is called Patmos, for the word of God, and for the testimony of Jesus Christ.

The writer of Revelation was called John. It's not easy being a Christian. John also had difficulties and was forced to live on Patmos Island because he told people about Jesus. Thankfully Jesus makes these difficulties less stressful.

10 I was in the Spirit on the Lord's day, and heard behind me a great voice, as of a trumpet,

John wrote the book of Revelation on a Saturday, God's Sabbath, His day to rest. God spoke to him, and His voice was powerful, like a trumpet.

11 Saying, I am Alpha and Omega, the first and the last: and, What thou seest, write in a book, and send it unto the seven churches which are in Asia; unto Ephesus, and unto Smyrna, and unto Pergamos, and unto Thyatira, and unto Sardis, and unto Philadelphia, and unto Laodicea.

Jesus told John to send the book of Revelation to the Christians in the 7 time periods over the last 2000 years.

12 And I turned to see the voice that spake with me. And being turned, I saw seven golden candlesticks;

13 And in the midst of the seven candlesticks one like unto the Son of man, clothed with a garment down to the foot, and girt about the paps with a golden girdle.

John saw Jesus but wasn't sure if it was Him. He saw that this man was with the Christians in each of these 7 time periods.

14 His head and his hairs were white like wool, as white as snow; and his eyes were as a flame of fire;

Jesus looked holy and wise. He can see our thoughts and whether we are good people.

15 And his feet like unto fine brass, as if they burned in a furnace; and his voice as the sound of many waters.

16 And he had in his right hand seven stars: and out of his mouth went a sharp two edged sword: and his countenance was as the sun shineth in his strength.

Jesus was the powerful leader of the angels that helped the Christians during the 7 time periods, and gave them the message that enables them to live forever.

17 And when I saw him, I fell at his feet as dead. And he laid his right hand upon me, saying unto me, Fear not; I am the first and the last:

When John saw Jesus he felt weak and collapsed. Jesus put his hand on John and told him not to worry.

18 I am he that liveth, and was dead; and, behold, I am alive for evermore, Amen; and have the keys of hell and of death.

Jesus told John who he was, and that He was the one we need to live forever.

19 Write the things which thou hast seen, and the things which are, and the things which shall be hereafter;

Jesus told John to write the book of Revelation, which include things that have already happened, were happening and would happen in the future.

20 The mystery of the seven stars which thou sawest in my right hand, and the seven golden candlesticks. The seven stars are the angels of the seven churches: and the seven candlesticks which thou sawest are the seven churches.

Revelation 2

1 Unto the angel of the church of Ephesus write; These things saith he that holdeth the seven stars in his right hand, who walketh in the midst of the seven golden candlesticks;

Jesus, the leader of the Angels, who was with the churches over the 7 time periods over the last 2000 years, has a message for the church in the first time period. They were the desirable church that existed from Jesus' death until 100 AD.

2 I know thy works, and thy labour, and thy patience, and how thou canst not bear them which are evil: and thou hast tried them which say they are apostles, and are not, and hast found them liars: 3 And hast borne, and hast patience, and for my name's sake hast laboured, and hast not fainted.

They had done a lot of good things for Jesus, even when times had been difficult and they could have given up; Some people said they were Christians, but were only pretending; but the church made sure not to accept the people who taught wrong beliefs and rules.

4 Nevertheless I have somewhat against thee, because thou hast left thy first love.5 Remember therefore from whence thou art fallen, and repent, and do the first works; or else I will come unto thee quickly, and will remove thy candlestick out of his place, except thou repent.

However, they weren't willing to stick to the beliefs and keep the Ten Commandments for Jesus as strongly towards the end. Jesus warned them that unless they got back to how they used to be, He would make other people His church.

6 But this thou hast, that thou hatest the deeds of the Nicolaitanes, which I also hate.

Both the church and Jesus hated when some people would say that Christians can do whatever bad things they want and say that God wouldn't think they were guilty for those things.

7 He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches; To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the midst of the paradise of God.

Listen to what the Holy Spirit is telling the church in each time period. Those that choose to let Jesus help them become good people will go to heaven and eat the fruit from the tree of life. This is the fruit that allows you to live forever.

8 And unto the angel of the church in Smyrna write; These things saith the first and the last, which was dead, and is alive; 9 I know thy works, and tribulation, and poverty, (but thou art rich) and I know the blasphemy of them which say they are Jews, and are not, but are the synagogue of Satan.

Christians in the second time period between 100 and 300 AD were hurt and killed. They didn't have much money but they were rich in what's important; (being close to God). but Some people thought and called themselves Christians they weren't because they refused to keep the Ten Commandments. Satan says we don't need to keep the Commandments so they were actually following him, not God.

10 Fear none of those things which thou shalt suffer: behold, the devil shall cast some of you into prison, that ye may be tried; and ye shall have tribulation ten days: be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life.

The pretend Christians that were doing what Satan wanted put the the real Christians in prison. The suffering was terrible for ten years, from 303 to 313 AD. God will reward those who kept doing good, even as they were killed, with eternal life in heaven.

11 He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches; He that overcometh shall not be hurt of the second death.

Those that don't choose to follow God will have eternal death.

12 And to the angel of the church in Pergamos write; These things saith he which hath the sharp sword with two edges;

Jesus' message to the Christians in the third time period from 300 AD to 500 AD.

13 I know thy works, and where thou dwellest, even where Satan's seat is: and thou holdest fast my name, and hast not denied my faith, even in those days wherein Antipas was my faithful martyr, who was slain among you, where Satan dwelleth.

Jesus saw that the Christians worked hard to do the right things even though there were lots of people with other religions around them.

14 But I have a few things against thee, because thou hast there them that hold the doctrine of Balaam, who taught Balac to cast a stumblingblock before the children of Israel, to eat things sacrificed unto idols, and to commit fornication.

However some people have mixed the Christian and non Christian religion together to make a new religion that they pretend is Christianity.

15 So hast thou also them that hold the doctrine of the Nicolaitanes, which thing I hate.

Jesus hates the fact that they had accepted the pretend Christians that say you shouldn't try and keep the 10 commandments.

16 Repent; or else I will come unto thee quickly, and will fight against them with the sword of my mouth.

Jesus told them to change or he would send people to make it clear why they were wrong.

17 He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches; To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the hidden manna, and will give him a white stone, and in the stone a new name written, which no man knoweth saving he that receiveth it.

Those who listen to this message and change will be innocent when Jesus comes back to earth.

18 And unto the angel of the church in Thyatira write; These things saith the Son of God, who hath his eyes like unto a flame of fire, and his feet are like fine brass; 19 I know thy works, and charity, and service, and faith, and thy patience, and thy works; and the last to be more than the first.

Jesus, who sees everything, gave a message to the Christians during the Middle (dark) ages. He saw that they did a lot of good things.

20 Notwithstanding I have a few things against thee, because thou sufferest that woman Jezebel, which calleth herself a prophetess, to teach and to seduce my servants to commit fornication, and to eat things sacrificed unto idols.

However Jesus was angry that His church had let the pretend Christian church called "the Catholic church" change their religion .

21 And I gave her space to repent of her fornication; and she repented not.

Jesus gave the Catholic church an opportunity to correct itself, but it refused.

22 Behold, I will cast her into a bed, and them that commit adultery with her into great tribulation, except they repent of their deeds. 23 And I will kill her children with death; and all the churches shall know that I am he which searcheth the reins and hearts: and I will give unto every one of you according to your works.

Jesus warns everyone that if we follow any corrupted Christian church then he will kill us when he comes back to earth.

24 But unto you I say, and unto the rest in Thyatira, as many as have not this doctrine, and which have not known the depths of Satan, as they speak; I will put upon you none other burden.

Jesus accepted and took into account that some Christians in the fourth time period didn't know that the Catholic church had changed Christianity.

25 But that which ye have already hold fast till I come.

So Jesus told them to do the best they could with what they knew.

26 And he that overcometh, and keepeth my works unto the end, to him will I give power over the nations:

At the end of time God will destroy earth and make it new. Christians will live with God on the new earth.

27 And he shall rule them with a rod of iron; as the vessels of a potter shall they be broken to shivers: even as I received of my Father.

non Christians will be destroyed with the old earth.

28 And I will give him the morning star.

29 He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches.

Revelation 3

1 And unto the angel of the church in Sardis write; These things saith he that hath the seven Spirits of God, and the seven stars; I know thy works, that thou hast a name that thou livest, and art dead.

The fifth time period was when the Reformation happened, where mistakes were removed from Christianity. People thought the Christians at this time were brilliant...however they didn't remove all of the mistakes and became worried about safety, so they asked Kings and Governments to lead and protect the Church. They should have asked Jesus to do this. They also created their own mistakes and became just like the Catholic Church.

2 Be watchful, and strengthen the things which remain, that are ready to die: for I have not found thy works perfect before God.

Jesus told the Christians who were still alive and willing, that they were supposed to make sure this didn't happen.

3 Remember therefore how thou hast received and heard, and hold fast, and repent. If therefore thou shalt not watch, I will come on thee as a thief, and thou shalt not know what hour I will come upon thee.

Jesus told them to keep the real religion immediately, because if we leave it to tomorrow we may find it's too late and find we don't get the reward real Christians get.

4 Thou hast a few names even in Sardis which have not defiled their garments; and they shall walk with me in white: for they are worthy. 5 He that overcometh, the same shall be clothed in white raiment; and I will not blot out his name out of the book of life, but I will confess his name before my Father, and before his angels.

The few Christians in this time period who have made sure they keep the correct religion will end up in heaven.

6 He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches.

7 And to the angel of the church in Philadelphia write; These things saith he that is holy, he that is true, he that hath the key of David, he that openeth, and no man shutteth; and shutteth, and no man openeth; 8 I know thy works: behold, I have set before thee an open door, and no man can shut it: for thou hast a little strength, and hast kept my word, and hast not denied my name.

Jesus' message to the Christians in the 6th time period that was from the 1790s to 1844.

Jesus started His judgment at the end of this time. To start this judgement, He went to the where the Ten Commandments are in Heaven. To judge people by the Commandments meant that the Christians had to be told what the true Commandments are because they had been changed. Jesus revealed the truth about the Sabbath Commandment. This new truth, along with acceptance of the rest of the Commandments and the fact that Jesus saves us then became a requirement to enter God's' church and if we don't accept it, then the entrance door is closed.

9 Behold, I will make them of the synagogue of Satan, which say they are Jews, and are not, but do lie; behold, I will make them to come and worship before thy feet, and to know that I have loved thee.

There are fake Christians in God's true church who don't love God more than everything else. When the end comes and the Adventists suffer strong difficulties, the fake Adventists will see that they don't love Jesus above everything and everyone else. They will see that they won't go to heaven and will feel terribly unhappy and anxious as they bow down to the people they realise are true Christians.... (the true Adventists).

10 Because thou hast kept the word of my patience, I also will keep thee from the hour of temptation, which shall come upon all the world, to try them that dwell upon the earth.

Because the Church in that time period worked hard to follow Jesus, they wouldn't suffer the difficulties true Christians will have Just before Jesus comes back to earth.

11 Behold, I come quickly: hold that fast which thou hast, that no man take thy crown.

Jesus will come soon after this time period, so He told them to not let anyone or any disappointment stop them from continuing and getting into heaven.

12 Him that overcometh will I make a pillar in the temple of my God, and he shall go no more out: and I will write upon him the name of my God, and the name of the city of my God, which is new Jerusalem, which cometh down out of heaven from my God: and I will write upon him my new name.

God wants us to be His family, alive with Him forever, we must let God help us on the path to never sin again.

13 He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches.

14 And unto the angel of the church of the Laodiceans write; These things saith the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of the creation of God;

Jesus' message to the Christians in our time period. This church existed from 1844 during the time Jesus is judging in heaven. They became the Seventh Day Adventists, who will be God's' last church, when Jesus returns at the end of the world.

15 I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot: I would thou wert cold or hot.

Jesus knows that you aren't putting a lot of effort into working for God and following His commandments. You have things that you want more than God.

16 So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth.

If you don't put more effort in then you will not get to live forever.

17 Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked:

The church thinks it's good because it knows more about Christianity than previous churches. However, the church has very little because it doesn't use that knowledge to get close to God and become more like Him.

18 I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich; and white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear; and anoint thine eyes with eyesalve, that thou mayest see.

We must ask God to show us what help we really need. Ask Him to give you the ability to hand over your worries and trust Him and for the power to be a good person, even when times are hard. The harder life gets, the stronger these gifts of trusting God and doing good to others will become.

19 As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten: be zealous therefore, and repent.

Jesus only tells us off because He wants to make us good people because only then will we all have true happiness.

20 Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me.

Jesus wants to be very close to each of his true Christians but He tells us that we have to let him be close to us.

21 To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with my Father in his throne.

If we work with Him to never sin again then Jesus will let us be leaders with Him forever when He remakes the earth.

22 He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches.

Remember! Listen to the messages God has sent to all these churches. They are messages to you, especially the last one. Spread this message to anyone who will listen.

