What Does the Bible Say About…?/Part 1

By: Dr. Thomas O. Figart; ©2009

My Mom told me that God isn’t a man. I don’t get that. How can God not be a man? You either have to be a man or a woman, don’t you? Why did people in the Bible live so long? Why did Job not curse God? Why does Job charge God with wrongdoing when he calls himself upright, and yet his friends were accused of wrongdoing even though they didn’t accuse God? Why did Noah take seven of each clean animal, but only two of each unclean animal? Why did the Jews think some food was bad and certain foods were good? Why were animals like pigs considered unclean?

Sixth Grade Students from Manheim Christian Day School (PA) ask Questions About the Bible

Answered by Dr. Thomas Figart

My Mom told me that God isn’t a man. I don’t get that.

Morgan, age 12, asks: My Mom told me that God isn’t a man. I don’t get that. How can God not be a man? You either have to be a man or a woman, don’t you?

Answer: Let us see how Scripture presents God:

1. Jesus always called God, “My Father who is in heaven” (Matthew 5:45; 6:1).
2. Jesus is called the “Son” of God (Romans 8:3).
3. Jesus said, “He that hath seen me hath seen the Father” (John 14:9).
4. When Jesus was born, He took on the form of a man and had a true human male body (1 Peter 2:24), soul (Matthew 26:38) and spirit (Luke 23:46).
5. Even in the Old Testament the LORD Jehovah, Who is a spirit, is described as having hands (Exodus 3:20), feet (Psalm 18:9), ears (Psalm 84:9), eyes (Psalm 32:8), voice (Genesis 31:29). Jehovah allowed Moses to see His back but not His face (Exodus 33:23). Even in heaven, God the Father sits on His throne with Christ sitting on His right (Revelation 22:2; Ephesians 1:20). When God the Father is spoken of in human terms, these terms are called anthropo- (man) morphisms (forms).

It is also interesting that every mention of angels (spirits) is always a male, such as Michael, the archangel (Jude 9; Revelation 12:7), Gabriel (Luke 1;19,26), and the “men” who came to Lot at Sodom (Genesis 19), who could get tired, eat and sleep, were angels. There is never any female angel in the Bible, in spite of how they are depicted by artists, yet people are constantly calling little girls “angels.”

Conclusion: God the Father is a spirit being, not a human, yet, in the Person of Christ, God became the God-Man, not the God-Woman. Now, Christ is a real man, in a real human body, and since He said, “He that hath seen me, hath seen the Father,” I expect to see God the First Person of the Trinity as a male figure. (By the way, the Holy Spirit is also called “He” and “Him” in John 14:16-17).

 

Why did people in the Bible live so long?

Janelle, age 13, asks: Why did people in the Bible live so long?

Answer: Life among the early generations of earth was longer for the following reasons:

1. Adam and Eve and several following generations still had the positive effects of being created in the image of God, even though sin began to take its negative results after the Fall of Adam and Eve.
2. The climate, weather and other conditions were much better before the worldwide Flood of Noah’s day than afterward.
3. God allowed longer life span with longer periods of ability to bear children, in order to populate the earth more quickly.
4. In godly families, morals, discipline and commitment to God tended to longer life.
5. While life was much simpler without present-day technology, it was also cleaner, with less pollution than we have today.
6. After the Flood, up until Abraham’s day the long ages gradually went down until Abraham and Sarah were considered old around 100 years of age.

 

Why did Job not curse God?

Janelle also asks: Why did Job not curse God?

Answer: This statement came from Job’s wife: “Curse God and die.” (Job 2:9) Her idea was that Job had suffered enough, so he would be better off dead. But she is really asking him to denounce God and die! Job’s answer to her is given in strong language. The King James Version translates it: ‘Thou speakest as one of the foolish women.” The word “foolish” comes from the Hebrew word nebel, which means “someone who speaks like a mad person, and acts like one who has wrong thoughts about God.” So Job replied: “You cannot receive good at the hand of the LORD and not receive evil.”

You must remember, a few verses before this a discussion occurred between God and Satan when Satan said: “Let me do more than take away Job’s blessings. Let me take away his health and he will curse you.” So God gave Satan permission to smite Job with boils all over his body. But Job was faithful and would not curse God. Though Job had many hardships, in the final analysis, he had twice as much as before. God does not always deliver us from trials, but He always remains true to His promise as given in 1 Corinthians 10:13: “There hath no temptation (or testing) taken you but such as is common to man; but God is faithful, who will not permit you to be tempted above that ye are able, but will, with the temptation, provide the way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it.”

 

Why does Job charge God with wrongdoing when he calls himself upright, and yet his friends were accused of wrongdoing even though they didn’t accuse God?

Samuel M asks: Why does Job charge God with wrongdoing when he calls himself upright, and yet his friends were accused of wrongdoing even though they didn’t accuse God?

Answer: Job did make some statements that were really questions, but simply show that he was asking “Why? Even Jesus on the Cross asked the same kind of question: “My God, my God, Why hast thou forsaken me?” (Matthew 27:46), yet He was not charging God with wrongdoing.

Notice Job 7:20-21: “I have sinned, what shall I do unto thee, O thou preserver of men? Why hast thou set me as a mark against thee, so that I am a burden to myself? And why dost thou not pardon my transgressions and take away my iniquities?”

Job 10:2: “I will say unto God, Do not condemn me; show me why thou contendest with me.”

True, Job’s friends did not accuse God either, but all four of them did accuse Job of unrighteousness.

Eliphaz said: “Who ever perished, being innocent? (Job 4:7); “Thine own mouth uttereth thine iniquities, and thou chooseth the tongue of the crafty” (Job 15:5).

Bildad said: “God will not cast away a perfect man” (Job 8:20); and in Job 18:5: “The light of the wicked will be put out.”

Zophar: “Know that God exacteth of thee less than thine iniquity deserveth” (Job 11:6).

Elihu said: “What man is like Job, who drinketh up scorning like water? Who goeth in company with the workers of iniquity, and walketh with wicked men?” (Job 34:7-8).

Conclusion: Even though all four “friends” may not have accused God, they were wrong in accusing Job of sin. Yes, Job needed to learn of the Almighty power of God and God’s care to deliver him from the worst testing. But note what God says: “My wrath is kindled against thee and against thy two friends; for ye have not spoken of me the thing that is right, as my servant Job hath. And my servant Job shall pray for you; for him I will accept, lest I deal with you after your folly, in that ye have not spoken of me the thing which is right, like my servant Job” (Job 42:7-8).

 

Why did Noah take seven of each clean animal, but only two of each unclean animal?

Michael, age 13, asks: Why did Noah take seven of each clean animal, but only two of each unclean animal?

Answer: Only two (one male and one female) of each unclean animal were taken, for the purpose of repopulation of that species after the Flood. Seven of each clean animal were taken to provide five for sacrifices to God during the one year while they were on the Ark. The other two of each clean species were for repopulation after the Flood.

 

Why did the Jews think some food was bad and certain foods were good? Why were animals like pigs considered unclean?

Vanessa and Samuel ask: Why did the Jews think some food was bad and certain foods were good? Why were animals like pigs considered unclean?

Answer: Before Adam and Eve sinned, God gave them and the other created beings a vegetarian diet (Genesis 1:29-30). After the Fall of man, sin entered all of creation and changed everything. Man could eat certain kinds of flesh, but others were considered unclean.

Two reasons for this can be given. First, some animals were carriers of disease, so they were called unclean. For example, pigs may become infected with small, slender worms called trichinae, which causes trichinosis, resulting in the swelling of muscles and other body parts of the persons who eat such infected meat. Second, some animals were considered unclean because they were offered to idols and the remaining parts were sold in the markets, or eaten at the heathen temples. This is discussed in 1 Corinthians 8. Leviticus 11 also describes which meats were clean and unclean under Mosaic Law. Also, in Old Testament times: “And they called the people unto the sacrifices of their gods; and the people did eat and bowed down to their gods” Numbers 25:2. In Psalm 106:28: “They joined themselves unto Baal-Peor and ate the sacrifices of the dead.” As a result of such actions, God sent a plague (verse 29).

Read Part 2