The Answerer

I only know a bit about this – the Bible says He just spoke, and it happened.

That is unbelievable to our small, but earthly mind and imagination. I cannot understand how it happened. 

The disciple Peter wrote that: “A day in the Lord’s sight is like a thousand years – and a thousand years is but a day to Him.”  There is no doubt that things like dinosaurs and sea creatures were alive thousands of years ago. 

Maybe the earth was not spinning then to give us night and day, and orbiting the sun each year and tilting to give us summer, autumn, winter and spring. And 150 million kilometres from the sun is ‘just right’ – not too close and not too far, but just right for life. Also with the 18 km of atmosphere to breathe as well. Beautiful, but ‘How’ I know not.

I saw recently on TV that at one stage in the last 300,000 years, maybe more, the earth was totally covered with ice – top to bottom. Maybe (who can tell?) earth was much further away from the heat of the sun, and at God’s plan He brought it closer to the sun which at this moment is just perfect and the source of all our power. A thought: ”If we (our earth) was 1% closer to the sun – that’s 900,000 km closer – we would cook in summer, and maybe not even survive at the poles?

Wow! A great question and I do not really know how God did it. But when closely examined like through a microscope: “We are fearfully and wonderfully made.” Look up ‘spirit’ in a dictionary or the WWW. Our bodies are tripartite (three parts): body, soul and spirit. Not like animals.

I figure God must have spent some time working out the wonderful and beautiful bodies we have. The way our bodies repair damage like cuts, bruises, invasion by various ‘bugs’ – good and bad. And with help from the (as yet fully explained) brain that we have. Broken bones and awful accident and injury problems can be helped very much. How? Because, unlike animals, humans can imagine, plan, make tools and surgical instruments and learn how to restore badly damaged bodies. 

(When you are in your doctor’s surgery next time – if there is time – ask the doctor to explain to you the tiny and intricate workings of the human ear and eyes. Most doctors have beautifully coloured and illustrated posters of eyes and ears. They change light waves and sound waves into electrical signals that send them to your brain and you SEE and HEAR!). Not half bad!! And our brain can dream, create and plan things like music, buildings, bridges and beautiful gardens, and families!

And we are different to animals; we can imagine how to get iron, gold, silver, copper lead ,diamonds etc., etc. out of the ground, and then imagine a musical and surgical instruments instrument made from metal, to make music, and then sing songs helped along by music. The special tools that surgeons have are quite remarkable. No animal does anything like that. Nor does any other creature gather a hundred or more musical instruments into an orchestra to make beautiful music. I got carried away there…I love large orchestras and ‘Grand’ music. Makes me feel very good!

So how God created us I cannot tell you. But I do know He did a truly incredible job of it. And I am so pleased that God included a sense of humour. I’d go mad without a good laugh each day.

Here is a joke: “What did the necklace say to the hat?” You go on ahead, and I’ll hang around.

Thanks for the question. I have had to do a good bit of research to answer this one ( I didn’t know!). And anyone can spend many years studying all the kings, governors, rulers, etc. and the wars (one for 23 years) and the ‘Who’s Who’ of those 400 years. Really quite interesting. Amazing that 3,500 years ago any king, Pharaoh or the one in command, had to watch out for his back because there is always someone waiting to make him fall, or overpower him and take his place.

During those 400 years the Jews (Hebrews) were scattered around the world, because they had been very, very ‘naughty’, even evil, and God punished them by sending most of them into exile into foreign lands – mostly Babylon, now Iraq. God sent armies who ’sacked’ and burnt Jerusalem. They broke down the walls, desecrated it and carried off all of the important people (called the Diaspora). They also carried off the gold, silver and bronze. One person wrote that: “…there were Jews in every land and sea” in the world. Nebuchadnezzar also carried off all the golden lampstands, cups, snuffers, and goblets used in their religious ceremonies.

They were in ‘disgrace’ in God’s eyes and very little was written that was actually at God’s direction. Plenty of history is there but not Biblical history.

They had to first be accepted into Babylon and other lands, and later were allowed to build Synagogues. The only Scripture they had was ‘The  Torah’ the five books (Scrolls) of Moses (Genesis, Exodus Leviticus  Deuteronomy and Numbers), and leaders had to come forward to lead them too. Some were not too keen in a strange land. There is a quite popular song based on Psalm 137 which I hear on the radio named: By the Rivers of Babylon. The WWW has ten or fifteen versions of it and the Diaspora happened 2300 years ago!! The Bible tells of the good, the bad and the ugly!

It is a sorrowful dirge: “By the rivers of Babylon where we sat down,”  and ”how can we sing the Lord’s song in a strange land?”  

King Nebuchadnezzar was the king of Babylon and his officers told the Jews to sing the joyful songs of Israel for them. They were very sad. 

This was 3,200 years ago and they had:v“Hung up their harps on the trees of Babylon,” and their captors told them to sing! (Psalm 137:1-9) ‘We don’t feel like singing,’ I reckon was their reply.

The final chapter in Jeremiah tell of the Jews being taken captive to Babylon. (Jer: 52:1-34)

For more see on www: Babylon, Ptolemies, Selucids, Antiochus 1V Epiphanes,The Romans, Septuagint (LXX),  Apocrypha and The Dead sea Scrolls (it will keep you busy for days!!)

The Bible does not tell about such things. I would like to think that it was an eagle – it could fly over it all – and report back as to how they were all getting along.

Again the bible does not say. The first words recorded of God speaking to others is:“And God said, ‘Let us make man in our image, and in our likeness and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air.’” (Genesis Chapter 1 verse 26a)

A study book I have says ‘God was speaking to the heavenly court.’ I can only guess that was the Archangels Gabriel and Michael, many angels and  maybe even Satan too. We cannot be sure.