Study Desk

"But God didn't give him the land. Not even a small water lot to keep his horses. But God did say he would give all the land to Abe's descendants. This was ironic because Abe and his wife couldn't have kids.

God also told Abe his descendants would be in a foreign country as slaves for four hundred years.

God said, 'But I'll pay back that country for all the abuse they'll give your family. When all is said and done, they will leave that country and come back here to worship me.'

"God also taught Abe the pickle-clippin' promise. When Abe's son, Isaac, was born, he clipped his little boy's pickle on the eighth day just like God told him to. The ceremony continued with Isaac's boy, Jake, and on down the line to his boys. And it is Jake's boys who would become the twelve patriarchs of Israel.

"Now these patriarchs were jealous of one of their brothers. They ended up selling their brother Joseph to some slavers from Egypt. But God was takin' care of Joseph

and saved his hide from a bunch of troubles down there. God helped Joseph become the second most powerful man in Egypt behind Pharaoh.

Moses thought the Israelites would see how much he was willing to fight for them, but they could not see how God was using him.

Moses couldn't believe his eyes and went over to get a better look. When he got close, God said,

'I am the God of all your daddies. I am the God of Abe, Isaac, and Jake.' Moses was shakin' like a newborn calf in a snowstorm and didn't even dare look.

"Then God said to him, 'Take your boots off, cowboy. The land you are standin' on is holy.

"Now this is the same Moses who the Israelites had mocked by asking him, 'Who made you cow boss of this outfit?' He was sent back by God to be their cow boss and rescuer.

It's a long story, but God did many miraculous things through Moses as he led all his people out of Egypt by way of the Red Sea and the barren wilderness.

"This is the same Moses who told the Israelites, 'God is going to send another cow boss and rescuer like me from your own people.'

They told Aaron, 'Build us a god we can see and touch that will lead us back to Egypt. Moses has shucked out on us, and nobody has seen him in days.'

So they made the statue of a calf and worshiped it like it was a god. They made sacrifices to it and made idiots of themselves.

Because of this, God turned his back on all those folks. He let them worship the sun, the moon, and the stars. But these things couldn't do anything for them. This is why the Good Book said, 'Did y'all bring me offerings and sacrifices during the forty years in the wilderness?

"Our ancestors had a tent to worship the true God in while they were in the wilderness. It wasn't that the tent was where God was, it was the fact that God was with his people where they were. God had even told Moses how to set it up and where.

Many years later, when Josh battled against the people who were in the land God had given the Israelites, the tent was there with them. It stayed in the land until the time of David.

God loved David, especially when David asked to build God a permanent place to be worshiped.

God didn't let David build it, but he did let his son Solomon complete the church.