“I used to believe
nothing of what I heard and only half of what I saw - then
television ruined that.” (Anonymous)
I’m going to borrow a phrase which the
Preacher Solomon used several times in his sermon Ecclesiastes. He would start
a verse by saying “I returned and saw” which simply meant that he was again
going to speak on a subject that he’d spoken on earlier. That’s what I’m going
to do today in “returning” to a great source of inspiration for our editorial
lesson - things seen on television. (Will Rogers did great with just the
newspaper, think how good he would have been with television.)
The first thing I’ll mention is
something that you may have also seen on your TV. It’s an advertisement
announcing the soon-to-be released movie “POMPEII” which is Hollywood’s idea of
what occurred in the destruction of a city on the coast of Southern Italy. This
destruction was as a result of the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius in AD79. What
caught my attention in this promotion was a statement made by the narrator of
this ad. He stated, “For all their strength, they lived in the shadow of a
greater power.”
The first thing that crossed my mind
was that sometimes, even if by accident, television gets something right. It’s
my opinion that, on most occasions, when TV actually airs something that
coincides with the Bible, it’s by accident. But, let’s consider that statement
about the occupants of that doomed city for a moment.
Can we look in the Bible and verify the
narrator’s statement about a “greater power?” I believe that we can and I’ll
start by recommending that you take a few moments and read chapters 38-40 in the
book of Job. Then I’ll direct your attention to something written by the
Prophet Jeremiah in Jer. 51:15-16 “It is He who made the earth by His power; who
established the world by His wisdom and by His understanding stretched out the
heavens. When He utters His voice there is a tumult of waters in the heavens
and He makes the mist rise from the ends of the earth. He makes lightning for
the rain and He brings forth the wind from His storehouses.” (ESV)
We know that “greater power” to be
Jehovah God. Yeah, the Romans might have been the mightiest power on earth at
that time, but they were still “on the earth” that God created and exercises
total control over. They had only the power that God allowed them to have then
and that same principle applies to the world today. (Rom. 13:1)
But, the most important thing for us to
remember about the power of God is this: His power goes beyond this earth. He
has the power to save our souls from sin and to take them to heaven where they
will live eternally with Him. It is He “Who hath delivered us from the power of
darkness and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son: in whom we
have redemption throught His blood, even the forgiveness of sins.” (Col.
1:13-14)
In the consideration of God’s power of
all the natural earth we come to my second TV induced topic. A couple of weeks
or so back, while distressing over there not being anything worth watching on
television and channel-surfing during this period of distress, I ran across a
program that looked interesting. This program was entitled “Bible Mysteries
Explained.”
I thought, “What mysteries could they
be talking about?” so I hit the “Select” button on the remote and found that
their “mysteries” were the “Plagues of Egypt.” Personally, I never considered
them to be a mystery. All of my studies regarding them caused me to believe
that they were put on Egypt by God for the purpose of freeing His people from
bondage there.
And, I was aware that they escalated in
severity until that freedom was accomplished. Plus, I was aware that they were
miraculous and wondrous and consisted of God using His power over the natural
things of earth. Yep, the reason I never considered them to be mysterious is
because I’m a believer in the supreme omnipotence of God therefore I know how
and why they occurred.
By the time I got to the program I had
missed the first part but, what I did see shocked me almost beyond words.
(Obviously it was only “almost”) Basically, their opinion was that all of the
“mystery” of the plagues was “explained” as their being nothing more than
“natural phenomenons.” Of course they were “natural things” but, Who controls
nature?
They couldn’t explain why these
“natural events” just happened to occur on command of Moses and immediately
after he told Pharaoh that a particular plague would happen. But, it was the
10th and final plague “explained” by the program that is so representative of
how people use “guesses, surmises” and “what-if’s” to say: this could be the
reason something happened. Of course, the underlying purpose of showing it to
be a purely natural event is like saying “nothing to see here, folks. Nothing
supernatural, no mystery.”
Well, here’s how they tried to
“explain” the 10th plague, the death of the “first-born” of the Egyptians. They
said the 10th plague was caused by the 9th plague, “darkness” which lasted for a
period of 3 days and also only affected the Egyptians. (Ex. 10:21-23) They
said that because of the 9th plague the soil of Egypt was contaminated and thus
the grain was poisoned (in some unexplained manner). I was totally confused by
their tying the last two plagues together in the manner they did.
They surmised that, because the grain
was poisoned, the alcoholic drink that was made from it was in turn poisoned.
There ya go, the poisoned liquor, which apparently every Egyptian drank, is what
killed them. OK, I know what you’re thinking here - Why only the “first-born?”
Here is the most “far-out” effort I’ve ever seen by someone doing their absolute
best to “unexplain God.”
They said that the poisoned drink
wasn’t “deadly enough” to kill someone who only drank a “normal” amount
(whatever that was). BUT, it was a custom at that time in Egypt to give the
“first-born,” the oldest, a “double portion.” ERGO, the “first-born” drank
twice as much of the poisoned potion as everyone else and that was sufficient to
have killed them. I guess that they must have given the liquor to all their
animals too, in the same proportions which would “explain” why the “first-born”
of the Egyptians’ “beasts” also died. (Ex. 11:5)
It’s beyond my ability to answer
something as foolish as The Discovery Channel’s explanation of “mystery” of the
plagues of Egypt. I say again, it’s only a “mystery” to the unbelievers. But,
I also know something else. No matter how much “they” try and “explain” away
God and His power, there will come a time when He won’t be a “mystery” to
anyone.
“For as it is written, As I live, saith the Lord, EVERY KNEE SHALL
BOW TO
ME AND EVERY TONGUE SHALL CONFESS TO GOD.” Rom. 14:11
Ron Covey
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