AND HUMANKIND Part 1 2 August Relationship Part 2 9 August Two early giants: and Part 3 16 August Other stellar examples of God-Human relationship Part 4 23 August The Role of Temples Part 5 30 August The Original Temple

From Part 1: Two realms: natural and supernatural, connections between them. Examples of relationship (God with human, humans with each other) (e.g: by means of music) Origin of the , in culture of the ANE ( and ) Basic: Each person's relationship with God is unique to that person. From Part 2: God has been reveling Himself to humanity incrementally, to wit: Pre-Abram: glimpses requiring recognizing Him and His authority. Disobedience. Then three key events: 1) His calling Abram to move out on faith (Hebrews 11:8-10) -- as his "God" (Elohim) but without a name (even though all the pagan had names) 2) His telling Moses His name (I AM -- YHWH -- Ego), which empowered Moses to perform miracles (which Abram did not do). Shema: "Hear, O Israel: Yahweh is our Elohim. Yahweh is One." 3) His sending : a) Revealing the Person of God personally b) The cross: ultimate sacrifice of a son, Temple curtain torn in two -- access for all believers c) Resurrection (eternal life for all believers) (There is also a 4th key event: Pentecost: His invades the spirit of each believer. ) ...... TODAY: Some examples from OT other than Abram and Moses:

Adam and (Thou shall not want to be or try to be your own God -- i.e, love Him, obey Him) Cain and Abel (sacrifice to God that which is of greatest value to you) (have personal relationship with God) ("Enoch lived in close fellowship with God " Genesis 5:24) (righteousness) "Noah was a righteous man, the only blameless person living on earth at the time, and he walked in close fellowship with God." Genesis 6:9 People of Babylon ("Thou shalt not attempt to outdo God") Genesis 11:1-9 : knew deep down it was God inspiring him, acted out of that, and always gave the glory to God (Gen 41:16). "The Lord was with Joseph and gave him success in everything he did"(Gen 39:23). : (faith) "blameless and upright""Though He slay me, yet will I trust Him." Job 13:15 (KJV). Ruth: in 's lineage (see chart). “Don’t ask me to leave you and turn back. Wherever you go, I will go; wherever you live, I will live. Your people will be my people, and your God will be my God." (Ruth 1:16) David: (early on he knew/trusted YHWH (e.g: event) READ PSALM 86:1-13 (YHWH, Elohim, Adonai) Queen of (an Ethiopian colony, now ): "discovered" YHWH in King , took her new faith home. To this day, according to tradition, the Ethiopian (, "Falashas") trace their ancestry to , son of King Solomon and the : , ) : defeated the prophets of (1 Kings 18), present with Moses at Transfiguration (Matt 17:1-8S), and (probably) along with Moses, one of the two "witnesses" in Revelation 11:3-13. Taken alive up into heaven (2 Kings 2:11) Isaiah (God gave him extraordinary vision into the future, including the Exile and Babylon being conquered by the Persian Cyrus (150 years prior), and many details about Jesus ("the Servant"). Daniel: (extraordinarily close to & confident in YHWH. E.g: interpreting the king's dream (Dan 2); interpreting the handwriting on the wall (Dan 5); the lions' den; because he prayed to YHWH (Dan 6) Esther: (Jewish Queen of pagan King Xerxes, laid her life on the line to save her people from annihilation: 4:16b: "If I perish, I perish." -- result: the Feast of Purim, 479 BC) ......

And from the NT, other than Jesus Himself ("Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father!" John 14:9) Mary, Mother of Jesus: No other person in history had God living inside of her body for nine months. Now that is a God-humankind relationship! READ MARY'S "MAGNIFICAT" (Luke 1:46-55). Also, it was Mary who got Jesus to perform his first miracle--water into wine. "The next day there was a wedding celebration in the village of Cana in Galilee. Jesus’ mother was there, and Jesus and his disciples were also invited to the celebration. The wine supply ran out during the festivities, so Jesus’ mother told him, 'They have no more wine.' 'Dear woman, that’s not our problem,' Jesus replied. 'My time has not yet come.' But his mother told the servants, 'Do whatever he tells you.'" (John 2:1-5) Anna: In the Temple, during the rite of Purification of a First-born, a man named , in the Spirit, blessed the baby Jesus [the "Nunc dimittis"]..."And his father and his mother marveled at what was said about him. And Simeon blessed them .....and there was a prophetess, Anna, the daughter of Phanuel, of the tribe of Asher. She was advanced in years, having lived with her husband seven years from when she was a virgin, and then as a widow until she was eighty-four. She did not depart from the Temple, worshiping with fasting and prayer night and day. And coming up at that very hour she began to give thanks to God and to speak of him [the baby Jesus] to all who were waiting for the redemption of ." Luke 2:22-38 ("John is the man to whom the Scriptures refer when they say, ‘Look, I am sending my messenger ahead of you, and he will prepare your way before you"-- Luke 7:27) Peter, James, and John at Transfiguration (“This is my Son, my Chosen One. Listen to him.” Luke 9:35) John: ("the disciple whom Jesus loved" -- John 19:26, 20:2, 21:7, 21:20) Peter: first person to recognize Jesus as the Christ (Matthew 16:16). Mary and Martha: "...but the Lord answered her, 'Martha, Martha, you are anxious and troubled about many things, but one thing is necessary. Mary has chosen the good portion, which will not be taken away from her'”Luke 10:41-42). Later, Martha was the first woman to recognize Jesus as the Christ (John 11:27). Mary Magdalene: first person to see and recognize the resurrected Jesus. "Rabboni!"(John 20:16) Paul: on the Damascus Road the Holy Spirit personally invaded Paul's spirit and turned this Jesus-hating Pharisee into the principle evangelist of the early Christian era, a man of unshakable faith. (Acts 9:3-6 and 22:6-8 A Personal Relationship: "My Utmost for His Highest,"Oswald Chambers, for 3 June. READ (if time).

Next Time: The Role of Temples (or more correctly, the Importance of functioning Temples)