The Answerer

Some years after Samuel had anointed David, who was then just a young teenager, as the future king of God’s people, Israel, King Saul had grown to hate David and sought (tried) to kill him several times. David had to run!

After several serious attempts on his life David gathered around him several hundred young men who knew he was their future king and swore loyalty (no cheating) to David. They lived away from King Saul and even lived with a Philistine king for a while!

But while being around some shepherds who looked after their master’s flocks (3,000 sheep and 3,000 goats), David and his group were helpful in keeping away bandits and thieves so that they lost no sheep or goats.

Sometime later David heard that the rich owner Nabal, was shearing. Now at shearing time it is a time of hard work and ‘partying’, because the owner would soon come into much money from the sale of the wool. Food and wine was around in abundance.

David heard of this so he sent several men to Nabal to ask him for some food and wine (a handout-a gift) for watching over his shepherds especially because no sheep or goats had been lost for quite a while.

One translation I have –The Living Bible-says of Nabal and his wife: “His name was Nabal and his wife, a beautiful and intelligent woman, was named Abagail. But the man, who was descendant of Caleb, was uncouth, churlish, stubborn, and ill mannered. (Caleb would have been ashamed of him I am, sure).

Well, Nabal refused any thought of gifts or handouts and that was very bad for him- because he insulted David’s men –and David!!

They brought his words of refusal and insult to David who said
“Strap on your swords-we will go and teach this guy a lesson.”

A ‘lesson’ meant the death of him or some of his workers.

Note well; Insults are a very important part of the Middle East culture then, and still are today. Insults are not taken lightly and can lead to a death.

Well it happened that Abagail’s servants heard of Nabal’s insults to David and they told Abagail –and she knew what David would do. They said: ”You’d better think fast,for there is going to be trouble for our master and his whole family -he is such a stubborn lout that no one can talk to him.” (1 Sam.25:17 TLB)  And –it seems that Abagail knew that David was to be the future king too. That was very good.

She immediately loaded up several donkeys with ‘party goodies’ and headed for David and his men...on a peace mission and to avoid any fighting with Nabal. What a lovely woman!

She arrived –and bowed down with before David as befits a future king. She asked for forgiveness for her stupid husband and begged David not to kill anyone. She said: “I accept all blame in this matter, my Lord” she said. “Please listen to what I want to say. Nabal is a bad tempered boor, but please don’t pay any attention to what he said. He is a fool-just like his name means. But I didn’t see the messengers you sent.”   Abagail went onto praise David for his goodness and wished him well as the future king. (read her fine speech in ! 1 Sam 25:24-31. She truly was truly an intelligent woman.  

David praised her and thanked the Lord for her wisdom and good sense. Then she went home. She said nothing to Nabal because that night he was drunk. (drunk people do not hear wisdom or common sense).

Next morning when he was sober after a good night’s sleep she told him. Nabal had a stroke and was in bed for ten days –then he died. The scripture says:“…for the Lord had killed him.” (v38)

David heard of it- she was now a widow, so he sent for her and she agreed to become his wife...a beautiful and intelligent woman too. Good for David!

There could not have been any children from the marriage, otherwise Abagail would never have left them. And I wonder who got the money from all the wool of 3,000 sheep?

Message from this story: Take care with your words!

2 Samuel Chapter 25:1-44

That means: ”Did God make the world and all that is in it...or did it all ‘just happen’ by ‘Evolution’ over millions of years?

Or “You say I Came From a Monkey!?”

Or “My Ancestors Were Monkeys?”

Or “Were my Ancestors gorillas in Africa?”

This editorial/opinion is entirely and solely the work and responsibility of Peter JB Harris. ie, ‘theanswerer’.

This writer has thought about this for many years.  I now write some thoughts about a creator-an intelligent, loving and creative thinking God, or ‘Evolution’ where everything just came about by chance to make humans and the huge variety of animals, plants and birds and the air we breathe. 

LIFE FROM ‘NO LIFE’ IN A SWAMP TO A LIVING CELL.  Millions of years ago, we are told in scientific books and by many teachers, that a very primitive life form became ‘alive’ because about twenty (20) or more proteins, chemicals and so on somehow came together and life began. That life has, since then, developed by millions of stages and additions or mutational changes, into us humans.

As a start, with several thousand years of scientific knowledge behind us, why cannot scientists create in their laboratories life from nothing, like it began in the beginning? New life in a test tube-please! They can’t.

I mean they have learnt huge amounts of new information about cells, DNA, genes, stem cells and in humans producing babies for sterile (unable to have babies) ladies. And ‘Yes’, lesbian women having babies without having sex with a male…but ‘They’ cannot create life from chemicals.

Also, our nearest ‘relative’ in the wild and earlier life forms is the monkey or gorilla. We are related to them! “Our DNA is 95% the same a monkeys.”  That maybe so but life is more than DNA and our brain 30% bigger.

As a beginning, and some evidence, I would like to see a chimpanzee, maybe look at a rock and think! Think what? “Maybe if I dig out a bit of that rock, smash it into little pieces then build a large fire, and smelt (separate) the orange stuff (copper), from it in the fire. Then I could borrow a hammer, flatten it out into a flat sheet and make a whistle or a cornet (bugle) later on to make music.”

Animals cannot and do not think such things! Why? They are not capable of imagining (thinking of things they would like to have in the future). They do not get ‘ideas’ nor do they make plans for the future. They are not made to and never have. All they CAN do, or make, is offspring (babies) and nests/homes to grow them in and find food. And they do not think of drugs, alcohol, aeroplanes, cars, cities and ‘Going to the moon!!

Neither can they speak or make music and sing songs. They do not have the brain as humans have- call it what you will and no vocal chords to speak any words…only singing/calls to attract a partner for breeding babies. The Australian Lyre bird CAN imitate sounds it hears beautifully. How or why- I know not, but it does not originate sounds.

MY FAVOURITE EXAMPLE: The northern hemisphere woodpecker is a truly amazing bird.  Did God plan and make it- or did it just happen to be that way?

This bird can fly up to a tree and take hold of it. No branches needed thank you. With eight forward facing claws and two facing backwards the bird simply grips the rough bark. It also has very stiff tail feathers and if needed these feathers help to hold (stabilise) the bird while it begins to make a nest hole (a nest) five (5) to ten (10) times bigger than itself in the trunk of the dead tree. “How?”

The woodpecker uses its beak like a carpenter’s chisel to chew away the wood. It pecks at 400 to 600 pecks per minute-and sounds a lot like a machine gun.

Brain damage? No Sir! Every time it strikes the tree the skull (brain case) moves back a tiny bit –and the skull has a unique (like no other) shock absorber around the beak.  There is no brain damage!

The SOUND it makes is heard by lady woodpeckers in the forest who may come and check out (have a look at)how the male nest builder is going. There may even be a ’Marriage’- if she likes his style of work- and I guess how he looks, then a family. The nest builder’s lungs are protected from breathing in sawdust by a filter that comes over the nose to keep out sawdust. Cool don’t you think? Created like that-or just modified over millions of years to be like no other bird?

A Question for you: Lake Eyre in South Australia fills up say, five (5) to ten (10) times in a century. The water takes three (3) months to get there after rain in Queensland. “How do waterbirds (pelicans and seagulls) know that it is full of water and food- so the fly there?” The lake is thousands of miles from the ocean! Sydney is 1,500 km away and Adelaide is 500 km away. How do they know?

Photosynthesis.

This truly borders on a miracle because without it there would be little food or trees or plants for us 7,800,000,000 humans to have food and many resources.(things like wood, food crops, flowers and yummy fruits to eat).

In the amazing work of photosynthesis the leaves of green trees and plants take up water, carbon dioxide and sunlight to make wheat, wood, corn, potatoes and apricots and strawberries and many other plant foods. AND...the leaves give out oxygen in the photosynthesis process. Without this ‘Work’ there would not be enough oxygen in the air for us all to live. “Cool Eh?”

Also in the ‘Largest Living Thing” on the earth (General Sherman –a sequoia tree in California) the needed water goes up one hundred metres (100 m.) to the leaves at the top of the tree!!  No pumps needed thanks!! Did God plan and create it all- or is it all a ‘happening’ that occurred all by itself? (and this tree is around 2,500 to 2,700 years old.

And about trees. Trees had to be there in the beginning...fully grown for the birds to find nectar in the flowers(a honey  like liquid) to feed on. Then seeds to feed birds that live on seeds…and wood (timber) to build houses, nests, shelter and some seeds to grow into new trees if some trees are cut down or die.

Think about what you think!

AND: “Just suppose our earth was 1% closer to the sun –how hot might it get?” One percent (1%) would put this planet 93,000 miles closer to the sun. WOULD THAT BE COMFORTABLE-JUST 1% CLOSER? In my city, Perth, when it gets to 40 degrees Celsius I am so glad we are not 1% closer to our Sun!   I think God got it ‘Just right’. Do you agree?

This writer, (www.theanswerer.com.au) recently turned ninety years young (maybe old) and has been thinking a lot lately.

Part of his thinking is that millions of my readers do not normally speak English but like the simple words that I mostly use. So, he has decided to try to explain exactly what “The Good News” truly is.

• About three or four thousand (3-4000) years ago God chose Abram , later known as Abraham to be the’ Grandfather ’ or ‘The Grand Patriarch’ of his chosen people -the Jews ,Israelites, or Hebrews for evermore.(Gen.15:1-6)

Later, one of their own people. Joseph was sold into Egypt as a slave- but God helped Joseph to later become PM (Prime Minister) of Egypt (see Genesis ch. 37 to chapter 43).  The Pharaoh of Egypt chose Joseph because Joseph explained the meaning of the two dreams Pharoah had.

The dreams were that there would be seven years of abundant harvests followed by seven years of drought or famine so Joseph was now PM of all Egypt.  Joseph had God with him (unseen) and bought, and stored up ,all of Egypt’s excess grain in the seven years of plenty. They had so much that they stopped counting it!!  Then began the seven years of drought and famine and Joseph’s brothers came to Egypt to buy food (grain) - but they did not realise that the PM was their brother whom they sold into slavery years ago. Pharoah liked Joseph’s. family and urged them to stay in Egypt. He gave them the area called Goshen to live in. Here they stayed (70 of them) for four hundred (400) years and multiplied to about two million (2,000,000) people.

Sometime in that four hundred years, a new Pharoah thought that the Jews could be a threat and join with some enemy to rule Egypt. So- he forced the Jews to be slaves by building cities by making bricks by the million. God saw and took notice of the forced slavery. He chose Moses to lead them.

Moses did God’s bidding (his instructions) and the Nile turned to blood, hail that killed all cattle and ruined crops happened plus flies, frogs and locusts- but Pharoah still refused to free the slaves. Until “Passover”.  Passover occurred in the night when God’s angel of death passed over the Hebrew homes, but killed the firstborn in every Egyptian home. Such sorrow!!

Pharoah agreed to let them all, go. All of this story can be seen in the great movie: The Ten Commandments, a Cecil B De Mille blockbuster. Very soon after leaving Egypt many grumbled about conditions and refused to believe that God and Moses would bring them to ”The Promised Land”. So-God told Moses that “…..none of those 20 years and over would see the ‘ Promised Land’. They wandered around for forty (40) years till all the unbelievers had died. Then they entered the long promised land….Israel!  Moses received The Ten Commandments during this time. (Exodus Ch 20)

Still many disobeyed God and his instructions by worshiping idols of stone, wood, silver and gold, married heathens and generally turned their backs on God- but many remained true to God.

However God still sent them, after many warnings, into Babylon (now Iraq) as prisoners, and slaves. This was by King Nebuchadnezzar. (The song By the Rivers of Babylon was inspired by the sacking of Jerusalem by King Nebuchadnezzar.)

Still many years later God concluded that “we”, his chosen people ,could never be good enough to be in heaven with him…..so God began his “rescue package” that enabled us all to enter heaven after we died.

He would send Jesus, his only begotten (created Son) to teach us many things about love, about God himself and that Jesus would actually die for us (instead of us dying) and would rise to life again. This was the beginning of Christianity.

This was prophesied (told and written down by many of God’s prophets) over three hundred (300 times) in the Old Testament.

The ”Good News” is simply that anyone who believes in Jesus life and his God (our Heavenly Father) is given pardon for sin- and a gift ticket into heaven. IT IS A FREE GIFT AND CANNOT BE EARNED, PAID FOR OR BARGAINED FOR. It takes but a moment to accept this gift-but a long time to get to know God himself. That is the “Good News” for all people, everywhere.

Finally, the best bit: Paul wrote: “….eye hath not seen, no ear heard ,nor has entered the heart of man, the things God has prepared for those who love him.” (1 Cor.2:9)

And Jesus himself said to the criminal being crucified beside him when he asked Jesus to remember him when he came into his kingdom:” I assure you that today you will be in with me in paradise..” (Luke 23:38-43 TLB)

Yes! Indeed He does! Why? Because we are "made in His image." (like him) (Gen.1:26). Jesus' whole life was directed to us. He spoke of love 27 times in John's Gospel alone.

In John 3:16 Jesus said to a night visitor, Nicodemus: "For God loved the world so much that He gave his only Son so that anyone who believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life." "The world" means everyone and "whoever" means anyone who believes in Him and follows His way.

This love is not the same as ours. It is bigger and more forgiving than we know how, because it does not depend on us being "good."

MORE INFO: God's love is a bit like a mother's love for a wayward son.

You have probably seen on TV a weeping mother outside a court, facing the TV men. Her son has been convicted of a serious crime and is off to jail. Everyone hates him for what he did. Not so his mum. She says with tears: "I still love him whatever he has done, he is my son and I love him."

God's love is much more than that. He helps us to make a new start if we want to.

Finally, perhaps this is helpful: When Jesus agreed to come to earth to die in our place what if he said to God (His Father) "Ok, I'll go, but I will only die for those who love me - the rest can 'go jump'."

Wow! I have been asked this question many times and it is not that hard to answer.

When God created us He had a choice: Should humans be always kind, helpful and hurt nobody. Or should we have a choice to be selfish, greedy and always 'Look after number one' (me).

I guess that sort of divides us humans into roughly three groups.

(1) Those who learn about God early and know that He is real and can help us in life.

(2) Those who choose to ignore God and His ways.

(3) Those who have never even heard of a God who made them and loves them.

This writer has heard stories from missionaries, that some people are amazed to hear that. They cry out for more information because they have been brought up to believe in, and make sacrifices to unseen gods and 'the spirits' who rule their every thought. They gladly embrace the idea of the God who made everything and them!

Please note: Jesus said, and the apostles (disciples) mentioned a judgement day when we will answer for the good and bad things we did on earth.

Murderers and kidnappers come in all styles. The Roman Emperor Nero, Adolph Hitler, Stalin and Pol Pot murdered thousands, even millions, and all of them believed they were doing the best thing - even that 'God was on their side.' YES!!! They thought they were right but were wrong. Remember we all have to face judgement and answer for what we have said and done. Jesus said so. (Matthew 12:26-27) and (Hebrews 9:27) The Bible has hundreds of references about justice and judgement.

To think upon: Imagine a human with no choice to be good or selfish. I imagine it would be like one who is hypnotised - who does exactly as the magician (hypnotiser) tells him to do. A bit like someone who is on drugs who has no idea as to where they are, or what they are doing - good, bad or normal.