Summation #9 (The Genesis Series, Part 54)

The bold-faced truth of the matter is that their “truth” is not the truth.  It is factual: The world’s accepted “truth” of yesterday has been debunked by its “truth” of today, and the world’s accepted “truth” of today will be debunked by its “truth” of tomorrow.  And get this: Not only do they acknowledge this reality…they actually revel in it!  Man’s “truth” is in a constant state of flux.  Now, contrast that with God’s Word, which is true and righteous altogether (Psalm 19:9).  Or, how about:

🕇 Hebrews 13:8: Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and to day, and for ever.  

🕇 Malachi 3:6: For I am the LORD, I change not; therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed.

🕇 John 14:6: Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.

Dear visitor, have you yet to be born a second time, this time of the Spirit of God as Jesus declares in John 3:3?

Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.

In just a moment, I will invite you to follow me in a simple prompt.  If you follow from your heart, today you will be BORN AGAIN, just like Jesus said. Today…all your sin and shame will be washed away by Christ’s cleansing blood.  Your record will be entirely expunged.  Today…all of Satan’s bondages in your life will be broken.  You will be free and clean.  Today…yes, today! you will know Truth for the very first time. Here is the prompt I promised.  Are you ready to participate in the greatest miracle man can know? Click onto Further with Jesus for childlike instructions and immediate entry into the Kingdom of God.  NOW FOR TODAY’S SUBJECT.

GOD SAID, Genesis 17:12:

And he that is eight days old shall be circumcised among you, every man child in your generations, he that is born in the house, or bought with money of any stranger, which is not of thy seed.

GOD SAID, Genesis 19:24:

Then the LORD rained upon Sodom and upon Gomorrah brimstone and fire from the LORD out of heaven;

GOD SAID, Genesis 32:28:

And he said, Thy name shall be called no more Jacob, but Israel: for as a prince hast thou power with God and with men, and hast prevailed.

MAN SAID: Wow! The world’s knowledge is at my fingertips on my phone, and how about this, now I have AI! AI tells me what everything means and what I should do, and thinks everything I say is profound.  Who needs God?!

Now THE RECORD: Welcome to GodSaidManSaid feature 1274 that will once again contend for the beautiful Book. All of these soul-saving features are archived here in text and streaming audio for your edification and to be used as bait for the fishers of men.  Every Thursday eve, God willing, they grow by one.

Thank you for visiting.  Holy Ghost power and strength be multiplied unto you and your house.

You have arrived at the GodSaidManSaid “Genesis Series;” this is Part 54.  Each of these features begins with the following information from the first feature:

According to a 2006 issue of Discover magazine concerning the deceased Carl Sagan: “Sagan approaches religion like any phenomenon.  He isn’t on a quest for life’s meaning, for a comforting philosophy, or even a guide to how we should treat the neighbors.  Sagan seeks truth of a demonstrable kind.  As a puckish example, he wonders why the book of Genesis didn’t include God-inspired truths…” [End of quote]

The BORN AGAIN scratch their heads in bewilderment.  Did these folks actually read the book of Genesis?

The challenge was: If God did, in fact, author the Bible, why didn’t He include God-inspired truths in Genesis, the Bible’s very first book? This is the ninth in a bullet-point, multi-part summation of the Genesis Series, which will be formatted in an instant-replay fashion. If you haven’t, take some time to visit the features reviewed.  You will not be wasting time.  This information is staggering. 

The Genesis Series took 45 weeks to catalogue; the summation of the series will take nine weeks. This is summation number nine, which will review features 41, 42, 43, 44, and 45.

💣 Feature #41: Circumcision: Things I Need to Know

Genesis 17:12:

And he that is eight days old shall be circumcised among you, every man child in your generations, he that is born in the house, or bought with money of any stranger, which is not of thy seed.

Consistently, science arrives at their eureka! moment, just to find that God’s Word has already recorded their “latest discovery” thousands of years earlier in its written text. 

To those who point out that male circumcision has been fulfilled in Christ, and is not required for New Testament salvation, we respond that that observation is absolutely true.  However, keep in mind that the vast majority of the citizens of this world (as in the 90%-plus range) do not possess Christian credentials.  Also note that all of God’s commandments have a spiritual and physical component.  The physical benefits of male circumcision are as real today as they were when Abraham received the commandment.  The basic biology of man has not changed from the Old Testament to the New, nor has it changed through today. 

The world’s academics have been brought to the table kicking and screaming. “No way,” they lament. “No way can God’s Word be confirmed, again and again and again!”  It’s against their religion of unbelief.  Their lack of schooling (as in Sunday schooling) is stamped on their foreheads. 

In 1971, the prestigious American Academy of Pediatrics said, “Circumcision may have some religious reason, but it delivers no medical benefit whatsoever.”  Up until that time, male circumcision was routine in America.  [Keep in mind what you just read the next time you hear “follow the science.”]

The token of God’s covenant with Abraham is male circumcision, which is performed on the newborn baby boy on the 8th day.  Not the first, third, or fifth day; the Bible is very clear that circumcision is to take place on the 8th day of a baby boy’s life.  Keep this in mind as we move along.

The resistance to male circumcision has been intense ever since God commanded Abraham to circumcise all newborn males, but it is beginning to wane. The skeptics are being forced to concede (again) that God’s 4,000-year-old directive concerning circumcision was simply the right thing to do all along.

The August 24, 2009 headline in the New York Times reads, “Officials Weigh Circumcision to Fight H.I.V. Risk.”  The following information is from that release:

Public health officials are considering promoting routine circumcision for all baby boys born in the United States to reduce the spread of H.I.V., the virus that causes AIDS.

The topic is a delicate one that has already generated controversy, even though a formal draft of the proposed recommendations, due out from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention by the end of the year, has yet to be released.

The following was the position of the American Academy of Pediatrics, according to the New York Times in 2009:

Circumcision rates have fallen in part because the American Academy of Pediatrics, which sets the guidelines for infant care, does not endorse routine circumcision.  Its policy says that circumcision is “not essential to the child’s current well-being,” and as a result, many state Medicaid programs do not cover the operation.

The academy is revising its guidelines, however, and is likely to do away with the neutral tone in favor of a more encouraging policy stating that circumcision has health benefits even beyond H.I.V. prevention, like reducing urinary tract infections for baby boys, said Dr. Michael Brady, a consultant to the American Academy of Pediatrics. [End of quotes]

American Cancer Society published an article in 2002 concerning cancer of the cervix. The article''s title is "New Study Shows Benefit of Male Circumcision." The following paragraphs are from that article:

Women are less likely to develop cancer of the cervix if their partners are circumcised men rather than men who are not circumcised, said a report in The New England Journal of Medicine (Vol. 346, No. 15: 1105-1112).

Experts believe a penis that has been circumcised is less likely to harbor human papilloma virus (HPV), a virus associated with almost all cases of cervical cancer.

In the April 27, 2006 issue of Medical News Today, under the heading, "Circumcision and Fidelity More Effective HIV Prevention Method Than Condoms, Abstinence, Researchers Say," the following excerpts were found:

But if an HIV-positive person in the highly infectious stage has many sexual partners at a time, "the virus spreads like wildfire" as those people in turn have sex with other people, Halperin said. In addition, circumcision has been shown to reduce male-to-female HIV transmission by 60% to 75% (Goering, Chicago Tribune, 4/23).

In the December 2006 issue, The International Jerusalem Post weighed in on the subject of male circumcision under the heading, "Israeli experts: Circumcision helps fight AIDS." The following statements are from that article:

Israeli experts are urging a visiting World Health Organization (WHO) team to promote circumcisions of both adults and newborns in the Third World to help reduce HIV transmission.

Current research shows that six in 10 circumcised men are immune to HIV infection.

The following information is from the May 30, 2022, National Library of Medicine compilation under the title, “Evidence-Based Circumcision Policy for Australia:”

The aim was (1) to perform an up-to-date systematic review of the male circumcision (MC) literature and (2) to determine the number of adverse medical conditions prevented by early MC in Australia.  Searches of PubMed using “circumcision” with 39 keywords and bibliography searches yielded 278 publications meeting our inclusion criteria. Early MC provides immediate and lifetime benefits, including protection against: urinary tract infections, phimosis, inflammatory skin conditions, inferior penile hygiene, candidiasis, various STIs, and penile and prostate cancer.  In female partners, MC reduces risk of STIs and cervical cancer. A risk-benefit analysis found benefits exceeded procedural risks, which are predominantly minor, by approximately 200 to 1.  It was estimated that more than 1 in 2 uncircumcised males will experience an adverse foreskin-related medical condition over their lifetime.  An increase in early MC in Australia to mid-1950s prevalence of 85% from the current level of 18.75% would avoid 77,000 cases of infections and other adverse medical conditions over the lifetime for each annual birth cohort.  Survey data, physiological measurements, and the anatomical location of penile sensory receptors responsible for sexual sensation indicate that MC has no detrimental effect of sexual function, sensitivity, or pleasure. 

Cancer of the penis has a lifetime risk in uncircumcised men of ~1 in 1,000, making it uncommon but not rare.  It is rare in circumcised men, prevalence being 0.00008-0.02 in 1,000.  A study in California found risk was 22-fold higher in uncircumcised men.

Meta analyses found prostate cancer risk is ~10% lower in circumcised men.  Risk reduction was 12% lower in the post-PSA testing era, 16% lower in population-based studies, 17% lower in studies that collected data by personal interview,  41% lower in studies of black race (36% in US and 60% in Canadian studies), and 16% lower for more aggressive prostate cancer. [End of quotes]

God’s commandments and precepts, penned thousands of years ago, are the supernatural, inerrant truth. One hundred percent of the time, those who mock and disregard God’s Word will suffer the curse of doing the wrong thing.  Embrace God’s Word, the beautiful Book, and live life, and live it more abundantly.

💣 Feature #42: There It Sits: Sodom & Gomorrah

Genesis 19:24-25:

24 Then the LORD rained upon Sodom and upon Gomorrah brimstone and fire from the LORD out of heaven;

25 And he overthrew those cities, and all the plain, and all the inhabitants of the cities, and that which grew upon the ground.

One of the most prominent miracles in the Word of God, and surely one of the most maligned, is found with Abraham and the destruction of Sodom, Gomorrah, and the cities of the plain.

Sodom and Gomorrah, along with their companion cities, were destroyed by fire and brimstone out of heaven (just like the Bible says), and their histories are hooked at the hip with one of the wonders of the world, a body of water called the Dead Sea.

Highly acclaimed chronologist and historian Bishop Ussher states in his book The Annals of the World, which was written in the 1600s, that the destruction took place in the spring of 1897 BC, or 2107 AM.  AM is the abbreviation for the Latin phrase “anne mundi,” which translates to “years since the world began.”

In 1848, the United States commissioned an expedition to research the mysteries of the Dead Sea. It was led by geologist W.F. Lynch. The following excerpt is from The Bible As History:

Huge deposits of coagulated salt made the beach and the rockface above it sparkle in the sun like diamonds. The air was filled with sharp acrid odours, a mixture of petroleum and sulphur. Oily patches of asphalt—the Bible calls it "slime" (Genesis 14:10)—float on the waves.

The world learned for the first time from the report of the expedition two astonishing facts. The Dead Sea is over 1,200 feet in depth. The bottom of the sea is therefore about 2,500 feet below the level of the Mediterranean. The water of the Dead Sea contains approximately 30% of solid ingredients, most sodium chloride, i.e. cooking salt. The normal ocean has only 3.3 to 4% salt. [End of quote]

Bishop Ussher writes in The Annals of the World concerning Sodom and Gomorrah:

Sodom, Gomorrah, Adamah and Zeboiim, for their horrible sins, perished by fire and brimstone that rained down upon them from heaven. The valley of Siddim, where these five cities stood in former times, was full of brimstone and salt pits. This has since grown into a vast lake which, because of the brimstone still floating in it, is called Laces Asphaltitis or Lake of Brimstone and because of the salt, Mare Salsum or the Salt Sea.  [End of quote]

The following paragraphs are from www.ArkDiscovery.com under the heading, "Sodom and Gomorrah, the Cities of the Plain, Ash and Brimstone Remain:"

The five cities of the plain have been located and the evidence is staggering. For the first time in modern history we have found round balls of brimstone, or nearly pure sulfur, embedded in an ashen area near the Dead Sea,...

These sulfur balls are mostly golf ball sized, and some have burn marks all around them! Webster’s Dictionary says that "brimstone" equals sulfur. Accordingly, we have found the absolute proof that we have finally located Sodom and Gomorrah, the cities of the plain!

Each of the cities of the plain contain evidence of brimstone which God rained down upon the cities to destroy them. The brimstone is composed of 96-98 percent sulfur, which with trace amounts of magnesium create an extremely high temperature burn. This is the only place on earth where you can find 96 percent pure monoclinic sulfur in a round ball.

The following passages are from Halley’s Bible Handbook:

In 1924, Drs. W. F. Albright and M. G. Kyle, directing a joint Expedition of the American Schools and Xenia Seminary, found, at the southeast corner of the Dead Sea, five Oases…  There were great quantities of potsherds, flints, and other remains of a period dating between 2500 B C and 2000 B C; and evidence that the population ended abruptly about 2000 BC.

"Brimstone," 19:24:  Kyle said that under Mt Usdom (The word Usdom in English is "Sodom.") there is a stratum of salt 150 ft thick; and that at the proper time God kindled the gases; a great explosion took place; the salt and the sulphur were thrown into the heavens red hot, so that it did literally rain down fire and brimstone from heaven. [End of quote]

In one last statement, G. A. Smith writes, "Sodom and Gomorrah have become synonymous for vice and godlessness. Sexual acts alluded to in connection with the residents of Sodom and Gomorrah are the basis for the contemporary term ‘sodomy.’”

The discoveries made by archaeologist Steven Collins warranted front-page representation on the March/April 2013 issue of Biblical Archaeology Review and inside, a ten-plus page feature. Collins presents his case for Tall el-Hammam as the actual city of Sodom.  An excerpt from his feature follows:

Across Tall el-Hammam, archaeologists found widespread evidence of an intense, fiery conflagration that left the Middle Bronze Age city in charred ruins.  Well below the later Iron Age levels of this evacuation trench are the scorched walls and floors of a Middle Bronze Age structure that was buried beneath nearly 3 feet of dark grey ash. 

The following paragraphs are from the December 22, 2018 and January 5, 2019 issue of Science News. The headline reads, “Meteor May Have Wiped Out Ancient Dead Sea Sites.” 

A super-heated blast from the skies obliterated cities and farming settlements north of the Dead Sea about 3,700 years ago, preliminary findings suggest. 

Radiocarbon dating and minerals that instantly crystalized at high temperatures indicate that an airburst caused by an exploding meteor instantaneously destroyed civilization on a 25-kilometer-wide (15.5 miles) plain called Middle Ghor, said archaeologist Philip Silvia.  The event may have pushed a brine of Dead Sea salts over farmland. 

Excavations at five sites in Jordan indicate that all were occupied for at least 2,500 years until a sudden collapse toward the end of the Bronze Age.  Up to about 65,000 people lived in the area when the cosmic calamity hit, Silvia said. 

The clearest evidence of destruction caused by a meteor explosion comes from the city of Tall el-Hammam.  Mud-brick walls of nearly all structures suddenly disappeared about 3,700 years ago, leaving only stone foundations. 

What’s more, the outer layers of many pottery pieces from the time show signs of having melted into glass.  Zircon crystals in those glassy coats formed within one second at very high temperatures, Silvia said.  High-force winds created spherical mineral grains that rained down on Tall el-Hammam and have been found on pottery there, he said. [End of quote]

Archaeologists date this event to approximately 3,700 years ago.  Biblical dating puts the events of Sodom and Gomorrah at just over 3,900 years ago. 

They are treading on the charred remains of cities of the plain where God rained down His terrible judgment, and they have no idea where they are.  They just can’t connect the dots.  Does reprobate come to mind?

💣 Feature #43: Armageddon: Noah, Abraham, & Isaac

Genesis 16:11-12:

11 And the angel of the LORD said unto her, Behold, thou art with child, and shalt bear a son, and shalt call his name Ishmael; because the LORD hath heard thy affliction.

12 And he will be a wild man; his hand will be against every man, and every man''s hand against him; and he shall dwell in the presence of all his brethren.

Note: Many in these particular groups we will discuss have turned to Christ, and many more will as the day approaches.  They, as all of God’s redeemed, are exempted from the curse of the fallen and not subject to God’s negative judgments.  Be of good cheer. 

Ecclesiastes 4:12: …and a threefold cord is not quickly broken.  There are three very specific groups of Biblically disenfranchised who have one thing in common that draws them together under one single banner—the banner under which they will lead the charge at the battle of Armageddon where the world as we know it dies. The three cords in this story will be three men, Canaan, Ishmael, and Esau, whom each have a serious axe to grind with the children of Israel.

1. Canaan: the first cord.  Genesis 9:24-25:

24 And Noah awoke from his wine, and knew what his younger son had done unto him.

25 And he said, Cursed be Canaan; a servant of servants shall he be unto his brethren.

Canaan is the father of the Canaanites who once possessed Canaan land.  They were disposed by the Hebrew people and this land became Israel.  The children of Canaan served false gods and walked in lewd wickedness before God, who evicted them from His land.  The Canaanites lost fields, houses, cities, flocks, herds, and infrastructure, and many lost their lives.  This was the judgment of God.  Because of the deeds of his father Ham, Canaan and his offspring suffered the curse.

The Canaanite has a big axe to grind with the children of Israel.

2. Ishmael, the second cord.  Abraham’s (Abram) wife Sarah (Sarai) could not conceive, so she gave her Egyptian handmaid, Hagar, to Abraham that she might have children of Hagar.  This situation began to sour from the start.  Genesis 16:4:

And he went in unto Hagar, and she conceived: and when she saw that she had conceived, her mistress was despised in her eyes.

The conflict had begun.  The son born of Hagar was named Ishmael, and the following prophecy was spoken of him in Genesis 16:12:

And he will be a wild man; his hand will be against every man, and every man''s hand against him; and he shall dwell in the presence of all his brethren.

The conflict thickens when Abraham and Sarah are promised a child in their old age—the child of promise who would be named Isaac.  By Isaac would come the twelve tribes of Israel, through his son Jacob.  From one of those twelve tribes, the tribe of Judah, the Messiah would come, as foretold in Genesis 17:17-21.

The conflict peaks, bubbles over, and results in the spiritual and physical separation described in Genesis 21:7-20.

According to Bishop Ussher, the disenfranchisement of Ishmael takes place when he is in his 18^th year.  In his book The Annals of the World, published in 1658 AD, Ussher reports on this event:

After Isaac was weaned, Abraham made a great feast, Sarah saw Ishmael, the son of Hagar the Egyptian, jesting with her son or rather mocking (as that word is translated later in Genesis) or even persecuting (as the apostle expounds it).  Ishmael, who was the older, claimed the right of inheritance to his father’s estate.  Sarah asked Abraham to cast out Ishmael, for the son of this handmaid shall not be heir with my son Isaac.  Though he took this very grievously at first, yet he did it, for God had said to him, in Isaac shall thy seed be called.  Hence, we observe that Isaac is called his only begotten son. [End of quote]

The Ishmaelites have a big axe to grind with the children of Israel. 

3. Esau, the third cord. Isaac and Rebekah had two sons, Esau and Jacob, who were fraternal (non-identical) twins.  Esau was the first of the twins to be born, and therefore had the birthright of the firstborn, which he sold for a bowl of beans (Genesis 25:29-34). Hebrews 12:16:

Lest there be any fornicator, or profane person, as Esau, who for one morsel of meat sold his birthright.

And thus the conflict between Esau and Jacob begins.

Esau has a big axe to grind with the children of Israel.

The rift does not improve when Esau marries two Canaanite (Hittite) women before going on to marry Mahalath, the daughter of Ishmael.  A very large percentage of the descendants of Canaan, Ishmael, and Esau—the epitome of the threefold cord—identify themselves as Muslims.  Muslims know themselves as Ishmaelites, and they will lead the charge to Armageddon. 

One last, but very large, point regarding Abraham, Isaac, and Armageddon is a place called Mount Moriah.  Genesis 22:2.

In the Encyclopedia of Bible Life, there is a picture of the rock atop Mount Moriah where Abraham built the altar and laid Isaac.  The picture caption reads:

The Rock Moriah, traditional site of Abraham’s offering of Isaac.  This sacred ceremonial rock was covered by Solomon’s and Herod’s Temples and today lies beneath the magnificent seventh-century Dome of the Rock, a Moslem masterpiece. [End of quote]

Jewish sages claim that Mount Moriah, the temple mount in Jerusalem, contains the foundation stone of the world and its universe, which is also the very stone upon which Abraham laid Isaac to sacrifice.  It is central to the Holy of Holies in the temple.  Jewish writings declare it as the place of the binding of Isaac by Abraham.  King David purchased this land for the building of the first Jewish temple. 

Abraham was preparing to sacrifice Isaac on Mount Moriah when God stepped in and stopped him.  God supplied a ram that was caught in the thicket for the sacrifice.  Mount Moriah is where the Jewish Temple Mount sits in Jerusalem.  Imagine this: It is also where the Muslims erected the Dome of the Rock over what is believed to be the very rock upon which Abraham placed his only begotten son, Isaac.  However, Muslims claim that it was not Isaac to be sacrificed, but rather his half-brother Ishmael whom Abraham took to Mount Moriah.  The Old and New Testaments are very clear that Abraham took Isaac to Mount Moriah.  The Old Testament account by Moses predates Mohammad and the Muslim faith by approximately 2,100 years, and the New Testament account just quoted in Hebrews by 600 years. 

This rock is a rock of offense, a rock of contention, even at this very moment. 

The Old Testament shadow of this Christ, who is called the rock of offense, is a rock that sits atop Mount Moriah, on the Jerusalem Temple Mount, under the shadow of the Muslim Dome of the Rock, a rock of contention, a rock of offense to this very day. The shadow will meet the fulfillment at the battle of Armageddon where Christ and His saints return to this earth to destroy the armies of Satan.  Here, Jesus Christ will settle the score.  After 4,000+ years, Abraham will speak.  The shadow is fulfilled and the center of contention will be a Rock!

Yes, this rock is the rock of offense, the rock of contention.  At this rock, the world meets Armageddon.  A threefold cord is not quickly broken.

💣 Feature #44: Jacob: Sheep, Water, and Today’s News

Genesis 49:29:

And he charged them, and said unto them, I am to be gathered unto my people: bury me with my fathers in the cave that is in the field of Ephron the Hittite,

Was there a Jacob, the father of the twelve tribes of Israel, as the Bible repeatedly asserts?  After all, Jacob is mentioned 371 times in the Scriptures, and his namesake Israel is found 2,415 times.  Genesis speaks of Jacob wrestling with the angel of God, recording this exchange where the angel speaks in Genesis 32:28:

And he said, Thy name shall be called no more Jacob, but Israel: for as a prince hast thou power with God and with men, and hast prevailed.

His name is in the news daily, and has, since May 14, 1948, once again been emblazoned upon the world’s globe, yet critics will still challenge.  Unfortunately for the critic’s camp, Jacob has left a very deep record.  This feature will review some of Jacob’s legacy.

JACOB’S SHEEP.

Genesis 30:33-34, 37-39:

33 So shall my righteousness answer for me in time to come, when it shall come for my hire before thy face: every one that is not speckled and spotted among the goats, and brown among the sheep, that shall be counted stolen with me.

34 And Laban said, Behold, I would it might be according to thy word.

37 And Jacob took him rods of green poplar, and of the hazel and chestnut tree; and pilled white streaks in them, and made the white appear which was in the rods.

38 And he set the rods which he had pilled before the flocks in the gutters in the watering troughs when the flocks came to drink, that they should conceive when they came to drink.

39 And the flocks conceived before the rods, and brought forth cattle ringstreaked, speckled, and spotted.

Franz Delitzsch, who wrote the two-volume New Commentary of Genesis in the late 1800s, stated that it is an established fact that white lambs can be guaranteed by placing a multitude of white objects about the drinking troughs. Jacob, being instructed by God, did the exact opposite. The prenatal influence of Jacob''s green poplar and of hazel and chestnut trees all of which he had peeled (pilled) to reveal white streaks (strakes) set in the gutters of the watering troughs, caused the sheeps'' offspring to be ringstraked, speckled and spotted.

The above Biblical episode has given us the concept of "the Jacob Sheep," as well as a charity in England known as The Jacob Sheep Society Limited. In 1969, Lady Araminthia Aldington, daughter of the last high commissioner of Mandatory Palestine, General Sir Alan Cunningham, founded the Jacob Sheep Society. A piece of their research discusses the origin of "Jacob''s Sheep." A pair of Jacob''s Sheep are now residents of the Jerusalem Biblical Zoo.

According to the Autumn 1984 issue of Vogue Patterns, there is a fabric called "Jacob Wool." Jacob Wool and cloths are separate from other wools not just because of their rarity but also as a result of their unusual quality. England is the home of the majority of the world''s Jacob Sheep, mostly as the fruit of Lady Aldington''s society.

HEBREW POPULATION IN EGYPT:

From Jacob’s 70 total Hebrew people, they had grown to several million strong.  Biblical critics have long challenged the existence of a large Jewish population ever residing in slavery in Egypt, but someone apparently forgot to tell this Egyptian professor suing for reparations. The following report is found in The International Jerusalem Post, November 28, 2003, p. 31:

The recent publicity garnered by the Egyptian professor who intends to file a lawsuit against the Jewish people and the State of Israel for the return of the gold, silver, and clothing taken by the Israelites when they left Egyptian bondage over three millennia ago caused me to think how ancient scores are never really settled—at least when they involve the Jews.  The academic who claims to be filing this class-action suit is perhaps unaware that this tactic was attempted before—in fact, it was employed over 23 centuries ago, when Alexander the Great ruled both Egypt and the Land of Israel. 

The Talmud in tractate Sanhedrin relates that Egyptian representatives appeared before Alexander and asked that he demand from the Jews the return of all of the wealth taken by them when they left Egyptian slavery a millennium earlier.  Alexander sent a notice to the Jewish elders in Jerusalem asking for a representative to present the Jewish side of the dispute. 

The rabbis sent a man by the name of Gavha, who was small in stature but very clever.  His defense was that if one were to start down the slippery road of adjudicating ancient claims, then the Egyptians still owed the Jews for centuries of slave labor.  Alexander, no fool himself, realized the morass that he had placed himself in by agreeing to judge the case, and decided to dismiss the matter altogether. 

JACOB’S TESTIMONY:

The archaeological supplement to the Thompson Chain Reference Bible provides the following additional information about Jacob’s Well:

Jacob’s Well is one-half mile south of Sychar, on the high road from Jerusalem where it curves to enter the valley between Mount Gerizim and Mount Ebal.  Situated near Joseph’s tomb, on the ground purchased by Jacob, it is one of the most authentic sites in all Bible lands.  Samaritans, Jews, Christians, and Mohammedans revere it as the very well which Jacob dug, and the one on whose curb Jesus sat when He talked to the woman of Samaria, who had come there to draw water. [End of quote]

TODAY:

Jacob is still with us today.  He is buried in the cave of Machpelah, which is found in the present-day Israeli city of Hebron.  Jacob gave Joseph very specific instructions for handling his death and body in Genesis 49:29-33.

Yes, God’s record of Jacob/Israel is true as recorded—every jot and every tittle:

⬥ We can read the archaeological report;
⬥ We can wear his sheep’s wool;
⬥ We can drink water from his well;
⬥ We can visit his grave;
⬥ We hear his name in the daily news; and
⬥ We will see his signature on the world-ending battle of Armageddon.

Skeptics looking for God-inspired truths?  Are they really looking? 

💣 Feature #45: Joseph—What a Story!

Genesis 47:20:

And Joseph bought all the land of Egypt for Pharaoh; for the Egyptians sold every man his field, because the famine prevailed over them: so the land became Pharaoh''s.

In the Book of Genesis, the first Book of the Bible, thirteen entire chapters tell the story of Joseph, the son of Jacob and Rachel.  And it is such a marvelous story, demonstrating the intricate, secret ordering of events by He who knows the end from the beginning.  Did God get it wrong?  Are the world’s academics correct?  Is 26% of the Book of Genesis—which declares the story of Joseph—simply an old fairytale?

In Genesis, the very first book of the Bible, there is a record of great antiquity, an account given of a young man whose name was Joseph, the son of Israel (Israel’s birth name was Jacob). This was the Joseph who was given the coat of many colors, and was sold into slavery by his jealous half-brothers (excluding Benjamin) who would later become the heads of the tribes of Israel.  Joseph was sold to an Ishmaelite caravan of merchants before finally ending up in an Egyptian prison.

During his confinement in prison,  Joseph (now about 28 years old) interpreted the dreams of two of Pharaoh’s former officers, whom Pharaoh also had imprisoned.  Both interpretations came true.  According to Joseph’s interpretation, one officer was put to death, and the other, Pharaoh’s butler, was restored to his position.  A short period of time passed and the Pharaoh of Egypt also had two troubling dreams.  No one in his kingdom could interpret their meaning.  But Pharaoh’s butler remembered a young man named Joseph who had the supernatural ability to interpret the deep secrets of dreams, for this butler had once had a dream while in prison and it was Joseph who declared its meaning. 

Joseph interpreted Pharaoh’s two dreams: Joseph said that Pharaoh''s dreams meant that Egypt would have seven years of great abundance, followed by seven years of great famine—a famine so great that the seven years of abundance would be consumed by its dearth and fully forgotten.  Because of Pharaoh’s dreams and Joseph’s interpretations of them, Joseph counseled Pharaoh to build grain centers in Egypt and store one-fifth of all crops during the years of plenty to preserve life during the great famine.  The Pharaoh followed Joseph’s counsel. 

The story continues with Jacob, Joseh’s father, sending his sons into Egypt to purchase food, for there was none in Canaan.  While in Egypt, the brothers reunited with their brother Joseph, whom they had sold into slavery about 22 years earlier, and their conversation is recorded in Genesis. Jacob, who had grieved all those years believing his son was dead, was overwhelmed to discover that Joseph was not only, in fact, alive, but also second only to Pharaoh in the ruling of all the land of Egypt. When Pharaoh heard of all of Joseph’s story, he instructed Joseph to bring Jacob and all his offspring into Egypt to dwell in the best of the land.  The children of Israel came and settled in a place called Goshen.

According to author David Rohl, who wrote the research book Pharaohs and Kings, during the time of Joseph:

Three regional departments were set up to oversee the agricultural labor, conscript labor and storage of grain supplies for redistribution to the Egyptian population during periods of famine.  Avaris [in Goshen] is the site of one of the three regional departments. 

According to the great Jewish historian Josephus in his account of The Antiquities of the Jews, Joseph was honored by Pharaoh with the title “’Psothom Phanech’ out of regard for his prodigious degree of wisdom, for that name denotes the revealer of secrets.”

The next excerpt is taken from Werner Keller’s widely-read and recognized book, The Bible as History:

The town of Medinet-el-Faiyum, lying 80 miles south of Cairo in the middle of the fertile Faiyum, is extolled as the “Venice of Egypt.”  In the lush gardens of this huge flourishing oasis grow oranges, mandarins, peaches, olives, pomegranates, and grapes.  Faiyum owes these delicious fruits to the artificial canal, over 200 miles long, which conveys the water of the Nile and turns this district, which would otherwise be desert, into a paradise.  The ancient waterway is not only to this day called “Bahr Yusuf”—“Joseph’s Canal”—by the local people, but is known by this name throughout Egypt.  People say that it was the Joseph of the Bible, Pharaoh’s “Grand Vizier,” as Arab legends would describe him, who planned it.  [End of quotes]

Under the heading “Ancient Egyptian Coins Bearing the Image of Joseph” in the book, The Signature of God, author Grant Jeffries writes:

Recent research conducted on previously overlooked Egyptian coins confirms the Biblical story of Joseph and his role in government service in ancient Egypt.  In 2009, archaeological authorities from the Egyptian National Museum announced that a cache of ancient coins had been “rediscovered.”  Cairo’s Al Ahram newspaper reported that the coins bear the name and image of the Biblical Joseph. 

The cache of more than five hundred coins had been set aside decades earlier in the belief that they were miscellaneous objects of worship and likely of no significance.  However, scientists re-examined the coins using recently-developed technology and discovered that a number of them dated to the time of ancient Egypt.  Most of the coins were engraved with the year they were minted and their monetary value and the effigies or images of the pharaohs ruling Egypt when the coins were minted.  Researchers concluded that the “Joseph coins” originated in the period when Joseph served as Pharaoh’s treasurer—during the seven years of plenty and seven years of famine (see Genesis 41:17-45).  Biblical history suggests a date for Joseph’s high position in the Egyptian government that coincides with the date of the minting of the coins in the cache (approximately 2000 BC).  Amazingly, some of the coins bear both Joseph’s name and image. [End of quotes]

The headline of ScienceNews.org on November 19, 2016 reads, “Oldest Alphabet Identified as Hebrew.”  A few paragraphs follow:

The world’s earliest alphabet, inscribed on stone slabs at several Egyptian sites, was an early form of Hebrew, a controversial new analysis concludes. 

Israelites living in Egypt transformed that civilization’s hieroglyphics into Hebrew 1.0 more than 3,800 years ago, at a time when the Old Testament describes Jews living in Egypt, says archaeologist and epigrapher Douglas Petrovich of Wilfrid Laurier University in Waterloo, Canada. 

Several Biblical figures turn up in the translated inscriptions, including Joseph, who was sold into slavery by his half-brothers and then became a powerful political figure in Egypt, Joseph’s wife Asenath and Joseph’s son Manasseh, a leading figure in a turquoise-mining business that involved yearly trips to Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula.  Moses, who led the Israelites out of Egypt, is also mentioned, Petrovich says. [End of quotes]

The marvelous story of Joseph and Pharaoh, and Joseph’s transformation from prisoner to kingmaker in mere minutes, has been regarded as nonsense by the “wisest” amongst us, but wait! Was there such a time of famine that affected “all the face of the earth,” even as the Bible reports? The headline from a January 26, 2022 feature on Nature.com reads, “Did a Mega Drought Topple Empires 4,200 Years Ago?” Two paragraphs follow:

Something drastic had happened thousands of years ago—something that choked the land with dust for decades, leaving a blanket of soil too inhospitable even for earthworms.

For archaeologist Harvey Weiss, it was the start of a research endeavor spanning decades.  He has become convinced that the drought of 2200 BC was not confined to Mesopotamia, but rather that it had effects around the globe.

The Nature feature proposes a date of 3,900 to 4,200 years ago.  Bishop Ussher, a highly acclaimed ancient chronologist, published his book The Annals of The World in the 1600s, and dated the beginning of the famine recorded in Genesis to 3,730 years ago.

This final piece of information comes from Dr. Titus Kennedy’s book, Unearthing The Bible:

The Gold of Valor or Gold of Honor was an ancient Egyptian award, usually in the form of a large gold necklace, given to those who performed exceptional service to the pharaoh and the nation.  The practice goes back to before 1600 BC during the Second Intermediate Period and around the lifetime of Joseph.

Genesis 41:42:

And Pharaoh took off his ring from his hand, and put it upon Joseph''s hand, and arrayed him in vestures of fine linen, and put a gold chain about his neck;

Genesis, one God-inspired truth after another…inspired truth stacked…heaps upon heaps.

GOD SAID, Genesis 17:12:

And he that is eight days old shall be circumcised among you, every man child in your generations, he that is born in the house, or bought with money of any stranger, which is not of thy seed.

GOD SAID, Genesis 19:24:

Then the LORD rained upon Sodom and upon Gomorrah brimstone and fire from the LORD out of heaven;

GOD SAID, Genesis 32:28:

And he said, Thy name shall be called no more Jacob, but Israel: for as a prince hast thou power with God and with men, and hast prevailed.

MAN SAID: Wow! The world’s knowledge is at my fingertips on my phone, and how about this, now I have AI! AI tells me what everything means and what I should do, and thinks everything I say is profound.  Who needs God?!

Now you have THE RECORD.

 

References:

Authorized King James Version

Blumner, R., Free Inquiry

GodSaidManSaid, “Armageddon: Noah, Abraham, and Isaac (The Genesis Series, Part 43)”

GodSaidManSaid, “Circumcision: Things I need to Know (The Genesis Series, Part 41)”

GodSaidManSaid, “Jacob: Sheep, Water, and Today’s News (The Genesis Series, Part 44)”

GodSaidManSaid, “Joseph -- What a Story! (The Genesis Series, Part 45)”

GodSaidManSaid, “There It Sits: Sodom & Gomorrah (The Genesis Series, Part 42)”

 

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