God Gets it Right

And I will give the men that have transgressed my covenant, which have not performed the words of the covenant which they had made before me, when they cut the calf in twain, and passed between the parts thereof, Jeremiah 34:18.

When did the men of Jeremiah's day pass between the two parts of the calf? It wasn't done in their lifetimes but God held them to account. When Abraham laid out the sacrifice of Genesis 15, he undoubtedly passed between the halves of the young heifer that he killed before the smoking lamp passed between the two halves. The men of Jeremiah's day were all physically of the seed of Abraham, and as a result, God saw them as in his loins.

Genesis 15:7 And he said unto him, I am the LORD that brought thee out of Ur of the Chaldees, to give thee this land to inherit it.

Genesis 15:8 And he said, Lord GOD, whereby shall I know that I shall inherit it?

Genesis 15:9 And he said unto him, Take me an heifer of three years old, and a she goat of three years old, and a ram of three years old, and a turtledove, and a young pigeon.

Genesis 15:10 And he took unto him all these, and divided them in the midst, and laid each piece one against another: but the birds divided he not.

Genesis 15:11 And when the fowls came down upon the carcases, Abram drove them away.

Genesis 15:12 And when the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell upon Abram; and, lo, an horror of great darkness fell upon him.

Genesis 15:13 And he said unto Abram, Know of a surety that thy seed shall be a stranger in a land that is not theirs, and shall serve them; and they shall afflict them four hundred years;

Genesis 15:14 And also that nation, whom they shall serve, will I judge: and afterward shall they come out with great substance.

Genesis 15:15 And thou shalt go to thy fathers in peace; thou shalt be buried in a good old age.

Genesis 15:16 But in the fourth generation they shall come hither again: for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet full.

Genesis 15:17 And it came to pass, that, when the sun went down, and it was dark, behold a smoking furnace, and a burning lamp that passed between those pieces.

Genesis 15:18 In the same day the LORD made a covenant with Abram, saying, Unto thy seed have I given this land, from the river of Egypt unto the great river, the river Euphrates:

It should not strike a student of the bible as strange that God should account the good works of a father to be part of a son's heritage. After all, when did Levi pay tithe?

Hebrews 7:9 And as I may so say, Levi also, who receiveth tithes, payed tithes in Abraham.

Hebrews 7:10 For he was yet in the loins of his father, when Melchisedec met him.

When God looks upon a man or woman, he not only sees that person, but he sees those who will emerge from their loins. When Abraham paid a tithe, God saw beyond Abraham and saw three generations further. He saw Levi and you can be sure he saw (and sees) each and every person to come from the loins of Abraham.

Therefore, when God looked upon The princes of Judah, and the princes of Jerusalem, the eunuchs, and the priests, and all the people of the land, which passed between the parts of the calf; Jeremiah 34:19, he was looking at people who had not been born when Abraham made his sacrifice and wouldn't be born for hundreds of years.

Does he view the descendants of women like he does the descendants of men? Yes, he does. As the Lord said to Eve, And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel, Genesis 3:15. You will note that when God looked upon Eve, he saw much more than Eve, he saw every generation that would come forth from her. We know that before a woman is ever born, she already has every egg that she will ever have. You can be sure that Eve did, and that God could see each and every child who would ever be born from her.

That brings us to an understanding for one of the greater quandaries in a King James Bible. How old was Ahaziah when he began to reign? 2nd Kings says that he was 22 years of age. Two and twenty years old was Ahaziah when he began to reign; and he reigned one year in Jerusalem. And his mother's name was Athaliah, the daughter of Omri king of Israel, 2nd Kings 8:26. 2nd Chronicles says that he was 42 years old. Forty and two years old was Ahaziah when he began to reign, and he reigned one year in Jerusalem. His mother's name also was Athaliah the daughter of Omri, 2nd Chronicles 22:2.

If Ahaziah was really 42 years of age when he began to reign then he was older than his father. Everything would be easier if we just followed the Septuagint which makes both passages give the same age of 22. We are told by the Apostle Paul not to do so when he said;

Romans 3:1 What advantage then hath the Jew? or what profit is there of circumcision?

Romans 3:2 Much every way: chiefly, because that unto them were committed the oracles of God.

If I have a choice between a version of scripture prepared for Gentile eyes such as the Septuagint, or the Hebrew Bible carried by the Jews with their great advantage of having that oracles of God committed unto them, I'm going to follow the lead of the King James translators who used the text carried by those well advantaged Jews for a few thousand years. What if the Septuagint which differs with the text behind the King James Bible makes more sense? Then I need to revamp my thinking.

For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts, Isaiah 55:9. One of the purposes of scripture is to snare the proud and scornful. But the word of the LORD was unto them precept upon precept, precept upon precept; line upon line, line upon line; here a little, and there a little; that they might go, and fall backward, and be broken, and snared, and taken, Isaiah 28:13. The very next verse tells us who is snared; Wherefore hear the word of the LORD, ye scornful men, that rule this people which is in Jerusalem, vs.14.

Could it be that the modern church has chosen the corrupt scholars of the bible colleges to be their rulers in matters of faith? Have we really degenerated to the point that we cannot really know what God says until we check with these men. If you read the NIV or ESV you are in that boat. Each of those corrupt versions follows the Septuagint in 2nd Chronicles 22:2.

NIV: Ahaziah was twenty-two[a] years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem one year. His mother’s name was Athaliah, a granddaughter of Omri.

ESV: Ahaziah was twenty-two[a] years old when he began to reign, and he reigned one year in Jerusalem. His mother's name was Athaliah, the granddaughter of Omri.

What makes Ahaziah different than other kings of Judah? He is different because of the wicked lineage of his mother, and that when he dies, his mother rules in his stead. God separated the lineage of David and the Kingdom of Judah from the Northern Kingdom of Israel. As godly a man as King Jehoshaphat was, he broke down a barrier erected by God and made affinity with Ahab. As we saw in one of the last posts (Here), affinity is a relationship based on marriage.

That affinity was to be the destruction of Jehoshaphat's house after his death. His son Jehoram killed his brethren who were the other sons of Jehoshaphat, and was so wickedly intertwined with the house of Ahab that he was able to kill princes of that house. Now when Jehoram was risen up to the kingdom of his father, he strengthened himself, and slew all his brethren with the sword, and divers also of the princes of Israel, 2nd Chronicles 21:4.

The age given in 2nd Chronicles for the how old Ahaziah was when he began to reign is the age that Athaliah was when her son who as a seed had been in her womb for 42 years began to reign. Scripture is meant to instruct, but it will ensnare the proud. Every single date, number, name, and location in a King James Bible is an infallible data point that will either instruct the wise or ensnare the proud.

To study the reign of Jehoshaphat is to give us an understanding of how and why some of the old venerable ministries of our very recent past have been so corrupted when the man of God who passed away left it to his particular version of Ahab's kindred. As godly as Jehoshaphat was, he left an inheritance that was quickly corrupted and defiled because of his associations in life. That will explain much of the degeneration of our fundamental churches in these last two decades.