Humanity in Sin Part 13 - Obedience to God's Calling Part 2

This is my personal summary of the preaching of Rev.Dr.Stephen Tong on 27th May 2007 in GRIIS. It was preached in Indonesian and I personally translated to English. Most likely Newton Life combined the past 2 weeks' GRII message on this date, since last week it had a Reformed Evangelical Seminar series on Christianity and World Religion by Rev.Stephen Tong on 17th to 20th May 2007.

Passage: Genesis 11:27 – 12:3

As mentioned last week, the record of genealogy looks really boring. But that is the way God looks at history. People come and people go. The history of the world is a repetition of marriages and births. We often think that our life and our marriage are most important. So we print very nice invitation cards and ask for church blessings, but after our marriage we are not faithful in serving the Lord. We are simply making a show and make fun of the church. The Lord sees all these from generation to generation and gets really bored of it.

A person called by the Lord is happier than he who owns the world. Often times it seems that many people who do not know God live a rich, healthy and happy life while those who love God live a life full of sufferings. So we question where the Lord is when His people suffer. However, we observe that history is not shaped by the rich and those who live luxuriously, rather by many who suffer much. Jesus only lived for 33.5 years while John the Baptist lived for 30.5 years. They both did not marry and did not enjoy the material prosperity of the world. The Son of God came to the world, suffered and died young. John the Baptist was beheaded and Christ was crucified. And the apostles were martyred. Inward change happened in their heart when they realized that their lives were not their own but the Lord’s, so they wanted to live to fulfil His will.

But many churches only emphasize prosperity and worldly success. It is not wrong to be rich and successful, but the question is by what means we achieve that. Some people have a life that is generally smoother than others, not because they are great, but rather God has pity on them as they might be those who cannot stand the test. It is wrong to assume that a life of suffering is the result of God’s curse.

After 10 generations, Abram was born. He is a pearl among the pebbles. In Abram’s days, people had fallen into idolatry. He was born in a family that worshiped idols. We frequently think that we are bound by tradition and we have to follow our parents so we cannot change religion. Is this true? Is not Hinduism once also a prevailing religion in Indonesia? The proof is the Prambanan temple. Before Hinduism came it, the people were animists. They worshipped stones, sea, trees, etc. So do not think that the bondage of tradition, of history, of family, of culture, means we must follow it. Not necessarily. We need to think what is the truth. We need to keep learning. Nurcolish Majid once said that Reformed Calvinism has two characteristics: very high thinking and very humble living. We should not become lazy Christians.

If we do not follow tradition, or history, or our parents, who then should we follow? Abram knew that all the idols were false gods. If God create visible materials, He cannot be a visible material. He dared to go against his family’s tradition. So God called him out of his land, out of his family. He was from a rich family.

Everyone has his own dreams and desires. We have our talents and interests to do many things. But does it mean then that we have to do all these? Does it mean we should actualize our dreams? But it does not mean one has to follow that. Rather the most important thing is to actualize God’s purpose.

God will change those He calls. Isaiah said that Abram was alone when God called him. It means that he was the only man who feared the Lord at that time. All had gone astray. We see this expression in Psalms 14, Psalms 56 and later quoted in Romans 3:10-12.

What is God’s calling? It is the sharing of God’s will for us to obey. God’s calling does not guarantee the kind of life we will live. Some will be successful, some will die early and some will suffer a lot throughout life. The calling is the same in essence. But the outworking in individual life is different. And the worth of one’s life is not dependent on the results. Both Peter and Stephen were filled with the Holy Spirit. When Peter preached, 3000 men repented. But when Stephen preached, he was stoned to death. In both cases, the stones were removed. In Peter’s case, the stones were rolled away from the people’s hearts that their “Lazarus” was resurrected into a new life. In Stephen’s case, they threw the stones to him.

The book of Acts recorded that Stephen saw the Son of Man, Jesus Christ, standing at the right hand of God (Acts 7:56). All through the Bible, this is the only instance where Christ was said to be standing at the right hand of God. At other times, it is always recorded that Christ is sitting, not standing, at the right hand of God. Standing up is a sign of respect. It is unfathomable that God would stand up in respect of a mere man. But Scripture promises that God would honor those who serve Him.

After Abraham was called out of his homeland, he became a wanderer and lived in tent for the rest of his life. He was 75 when God called him and he lived until 175. That means for 100 years since he walked with God, he never stayed in a house anymore. So did Sarah his wife. Who would want to marry a man and lived in tent till one dies? Often times men who want to serve God might not have the support of their wives. But Sarah obeyed Abraham and never complained about the hard life. She was one heart with him. This is not easy at all.

There are people who love God and desire to serve God fulltime, but because of disagreement from their wives they do not answer their calling. Christ said that the one who loves his wife or family more than Him is not worthy to serve God. Who are our idols? The book of 1 John talked a lot about love but at the very last verse it ended abruptly to remind us to avoid ourselves from idols. In our love for God, we cannot have other idols in our heart. Looking at Abraham’s life, he was successful because there was nothing between him and God. His wife, children and servants all obeyed him and he obeyed God. So God’s will is accomplished in his life.

Humanity in Sin Part 12 - Obedience to God's Calling

This is my personal summary of the preaching of Rev.Dr.Stephen Tong on 20th May 2007 in GRIIS. It was preached in Indonesian and I personally translated to English. Newton Life did not have this message on this date as it was having a Reformed Evangelical Seminar series on Christianity and World Religion by Rev.Stephen Tong on 17th to 20th May 2007.

Passage: Genesis 11:27 – 12:3

Note that for this particular sermon, I was not present to listen to it personally. This transcript is my translation of selected part of the Indonesian transcript handed out to the congregation each week, which contains the transcript of previous week's sermon.

Men have all kinds of ambition and imagination to glorify themselves and achieve their plans, although all these are not important. What is important is how to know God’s will and to synchronize our thoughts that are already smeared by sin to be cleansed and take part in His purpose that will never go wrong. If we align ourselves with God, we will discover that whatever God has purposed is much better than what men have purposed. God has always been working out all things according to His eternal will, step by step through history until everything becomes a complete perfection of beauty.

Once when instability in the plane was announced, the passengers became panicky. One of the passengers was a pastor. He calmed down the passengers by reminding them that their lives are in God’s hands. In the midst of the panic, he asked whether anyone would like to try solving his jigsaw puzzles until it formed a complete picture. There were some who tried but failed to do so, because it was the picture of the world map so every piece looked similar. After some time, the pastor said that he could solve it very quickly. But he flipped the jigsaw puzzles and started from the picture at the back rather than the front, because at the back was the picture of a face, which is so much easier to solve. When he was done, they saw that it was the portrait of Christ. So if we know the face of Christ in the puzzle, the messy world map jigsaw puzzle is not messy anymore.

Similarly, if we know the Lord Jesus as the center point, we know the master plan, then all the chaos, puzzle and fragments will be united into one picture. When we are in difficulty, do not fear because God’s plan is in it. When we see the face of the Lord, however complicated the map, it will be completed. The Scripture teaches that God is not the God that does things impulsively or in haphazard manner. He has planned for everything before the world is created. Hence if we know God’s plan, let us pray, “I submit all my life in Your hand. I will align myself with Your plan.” In this way our life will be beautiful and become a blessing to the world. This is what we see from Genesis 12 onwards.

Genesis 1-11 are rejected by liberal theologians as myth because they are not in line with human thoughts, rationality, experiences and probability of history events. To them, history only began from Genesis 12. However, chapter 12 cannot be separated from the first 11 chapters because in these earlier chapters we see how men repeatedly failed and yet God did not give up, He continued to call His chosen people to fulfil His purpose. God’s work throughout history never stops. John Wesley, a preacher used mightily by God, had caused all England to be a nation with more order, morality, faith and good character. When he died many people mourned for him. On his tombstone it was written, “God buried His servant and continues His own work.” If we understand this sentence, we know that we are nothing. God does His work and gives His servants a portion so that they could be His co-workers. Paul himself said he was God’s co-worker, and that God is the Planner of all things, He calls us, He guides us and gives us a what we need so that we can have a part in His great work. We are but a piece on that big puzzle of God’s work which God places in His church at a certain age and place.

After chapter 11 we see a genealogy from Shem till Abraham. There were 10 generations from Shem to Abraham. The Bible records who they were, how long they lived, when they married and have kids, at what age they had kids and what are the name of the kids, and how long more they lived after having kids, and so on. Isn’t it very boring if I preach a sermon like this? If we feel bored just by listening like this, don’t we think that God feel even more bored by our lives? Thousands of years passed and this is all God saw. When reading these genealogies, I think how boring it must be for God to see men living from generation to generation without meaning. We are just one of those boring ones. But we always think we are the most important people and our marriage is the most important thing.

Generation after generation lived without meaning and without leaving a record of even one meaningful sentence. What did they pray? Nothing. What did they do? Nothing. Nothing worth recording, nothing worth remembering and noting in history. When we die, will there be people who remember that we once work faithfully for God? Someday in heaven, what is remembered is not how much money we have accumulated. What is remembered is our footpath in preaching the gospel, how much we share the word of God, how much we deny ourselves and sacrifice ourselves for others, how much we submit ourselves before God’s altar. This is what God will remember forever.

At the 10th generation, a son was born and his name is Abram. After Abram was born, history entered into a new phase. From chapter 12, the life of Abram was recorded. This is because his life is full of meaning. Do we yearn to have our lives remembered by God? How can we differentiate between a meaningful and a meaningless life? When our life is synchronized with the will of God, our life is meaningful. This is the secret. If our life pursuit has nothing to do with God, but is all about ourselves, how to get rich and fulfil our lusts, then we will live a meaninless life that will be forgotten. How much of our life is synchronized with the will of God? This is the important news of today. History only records events that have relevance with eternity. Eternity can be seen from two angles. The first one is that it is not wiped off in the process of time in history. And more than that, the second one is that it is not wiped off by the entire history that will soon be past because God remembers it forever. There are many figures in the world who have meaning and position in the world history, but they have no position in salvation history. All things have no meaning unless they are synchronized with the eternal will of God. Abraham is different because he is a person who is sensitive and truly wants to know God’s will.

When God calls someone to use the person to create a new era and to lead history into a new phase, He will call and demand strictly his complete obedience. Chapter 12 begins by saying, “Leave your country, your people and your father’s household and go to the land I will show you.” Where are you from? You know. Where are you going? You do not need to know. Calling is not fulfilling our own will. Calling is following God’s will. Many Christians say they want to be called by God if… they want to be used by God if … they want to become fulltime ministers if … well, if God listens to them. There are even Christian parents who do not allow their sons to go fulltime, especially the most intelligent one. Some will allow their son to become a fulltime minister, as long as their son becomes like Stephen Tong who preaches around the world and is accepted and respected everywhere. Let me say that instead my father never lives to see who I am today. He died when I was 3 years old. What if God calls your son to be a faithful servant but in remote places of the world, will you be willing? Men can have many excuses but they forget that God feels sorry for us.

The second verse says “I will make you into a great nation and I will bless you. I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing.” The third verse says, “I will bless those who bless you and who ever curses you I will curse, and all peoples on earh will be blessed through you.” What we do is not for our own glory. We should ask, how much can we contribute? How many people can I preach to? How much can I sacrifice myself? If we are clear about this, it is impossible that the work of God is neglected. There are many smart people who are willing to be used by God. But the question is, what is it that we are looking for in a calling? Do we emphasize how much we can get out of it or how much we can sacrifice our lives for it? There are servants of God who earn very little but dares to give a big offering for God. But there are also those who do not want to give to God. The Scriptures says that those who love God are known by God. We need to learn to receive our calling, to learn obedience, to learn to prepare our hearts to sacrifice, and not just thinking of receiving more and more for ourselves.

Grace and Thanksgiving

This is my personal summary of the preaching of Rev.Dr.Stephen Tong on 13th May 2007 in GRIIS. It was preached in Indonesian and I personally translated to English. I am not very sure if Newton Life preached the same message this week, because this message is in conjunction with faith offering for the church construction project in Indonesia.

Passage: Psalms 136:1-20

The psalm speaks of God’s unchanging attribute and of His works. Common grace is given before we ask and we enjoy it every day but we never realize it and always take it for granted. Common grace include things like talents, health, intelligence, sunlight, opportunities, etc. They are the graces God gives to both believers and unbelievers. But they are so common that they are no longer appreciated. When do people realize they have been given common grace? Normally it is when they lose it.

The concept of common grace comes from Jesus Christ. In Matthew 5, Jesus said that the Father in heaven causes the sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rains to the righteous and the unrighteous. Christian ethics surpass all other philosophies and religions.

Common grace permeates to all fields of human life. So great and universal it is that we cannot feel it. People who do not realize God’s grace need to be cut off from grace so that they learn not to despise it.

We need to change our mentality. We need to receive difficulty as it is. We need to see grace as something we do not deserve. Even when we face difficulties and are disciplined by the Lord, it is God’s grace. In our poverty, sickness and difficulties, God is still gracious. Pure gold needs to go through fire. Nobody will be successful and mature without training and examination. As Socrates said, an unexamined life is not worth living. And Mencius said that if you are given a mandate from heaven, you will be allowed to go through all kinds of sufferings and tribulations to prepare you for the task.

Our reaction towards God’s grace determine the direction of our future and the shaping of our character. We should not face difficulties haphazardly but to face them consciously and with a clear direction. The sentences we speak to ourselves when we face difficulties will determine our future. During such times, we have to learn to self-dialogue using the principles we have learnt from the Word.

Jesus Christ, the Son of God, also went through sufferings. Who are we to be exempted? Seeing what He has gone through for us, we should go through everything with a heart of thanksgiving.

Who are those that can feel God’s grace? They are those who feel themselves unworthy. Who are those that know their unworthiness? They are those who can see Christ’s sufferings. Who are those that can see Christ’s sufferings? They are those who are touched and enlightened by the Holy Spirit.

A heart that has been touched by God’s grace would respond in thanksgiving. David prayed in one of the psalms, How can I repay God’s grace? It is also a general principle that those who never remember others’ goodness can never be a good person. And whatever we have is from God.

Later on, David said that he would lift up the cup of salvation. Like David, we can preach the gospel among the unbelievers as an expression of our thanksgiving to God.

This cup of salvation was originally the cup of wrath and Jesus Christ drank it all for us. The cup is later filled with grace and the gifts of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of grace (Heb.10:29) who applies Christ’s salvation unto us. We drink of the Holy Spirit. We need to be filled with the Holy Spirit until our cup overflows (Ps.23:5). In this way, when we minister to others the flow is very natural.

Humanity in Sin Part 11 – The Tower of Babel

This is my personal summary of the preaching of Rev.Dr.Stephen Tong on 6th May 2007 in GRIIS. It was preached in Indonesian and I personally translated to English. Newton Life has it preached in Mandarin with English translation.

Passage: Genesis 11:1-9

What is the Tower of Babel? Why didn’t God allow men to work on the tower? It seems that God was jealous and did not want to bless human works. Is it because God wanted to keep His power to Himself hence He did not want men to succeed? This is the second time we see such an instance in the Bible. The first time was in the garden of Eden where God did not allow Adam and Eve to eat of the fruit of the knowledge of good and evil. This is a similar case where it seems that God did not want us to reach a certain enlightenment so He thwarted our plan. But what is the true reason behind this?

The film entitled “Madame Sousatzka” has a very high educational value. It tells of a very strict piano teacher who demanded her best student to practice extremely hard, but forbade him from playing in a concert and making himself known. His parents were very angry with his teacher for preventing their child from gaining a great reputation. They felt that the teacher had a very narrow heart and only wanted glory for herself. One day some people heard the child practicing and were amazed by his skills and felt he was a genius. They offered him to play in a concert without the teacher’s knowledge and they made great preparation for it. The parents thought this was a golden opportunity for their son and accepted the offer without asking for the teacher’s consent. The publicity was very successful as the young man was extremely handsome and talented. He loved to be praised, disliked criticisms and wanted to be popular as soon as possible.

Madame Sousatzka was finally informed about the concert so she went secretly to the concert. Before playing for a concern, one needs to memorize every single note and must not stop playing from start to end. It was initially very smooth and wonderful, but in the middle of the concert, the young man suddenly forgot one note and he stopped, was stuck suddenly and he began to shiver in fear while the concert was still ongoing. Gradually the whole orchestra became a mess and the initial audience applause into ridicule. It was impossible to continue playing. His debut led to his failure.

He was indeed talented and he had an excellent teacher who knew him better than he knew himself. The teacher knew that if the child failed once in his concert, his whole life’s career could be affected. When Madam Sousatzka saw her favorite student stuck during the concert and was not able to play anymore, she was very anxious and lost, because the same thing happened to her when she was young and as a result she could never play in a concert anymore. That was the reason why she insisted on more practice before she allowed her student to perform for the first time.

If young people only want to be praised and get angry easily when rebuked, their future would be faced with great trouble. If we have not succeeded and yet think that we have, we are in more dangerous situation than those who have failed from the start.

When we are forbiden from doing something, do we immediately judge that the person who forbids us is jealous of us and does not want us to succeed?

The Word of God is hard to listen to. We tend to think that God is narrow-minded and had a stingy heart. Many young people think they are great but they have wrong system of values against God and against their parents. The Scripture is too deep and profound for us who often think we are smart. A man who thinks himself smart might not be smart. A man who thinks himself stupid might not be stupid too. But a lot of people think that they are smart and God is wrong.

If God did not allow mankind to build high towers, why do we have so many tall buildings today? There are two things to observe in this passage. Firstly, men attempted to build a tower so high that it would break through the sky. Secondly, they wanted to rival God and bring glory to themselves.

When we do things with wrong motivation, God would interfere. God would be angry with the same thing which is done with the wrong motivation. For instance, God asked Moses to count the number of soldiers and he did, and God was pleased. But when David did so, God was angry and sent a plague to Israel. We need to continue to examine our motivation before God. This world stupefies us. If a pastor has no clear vision and just follow what other pastors are doing, it would not work. One does to glorify God and another does to glorify himself. Reformed believers can work on a lot of things which others could not because they have very strong foundation and the concept of cultural mandate which keep their direction and motivation right – to let the world know that He is the Lord. Christian ethics is the religion of motivation. Each time we do something to glorify ourselves, we are in trouble.

There was a booklet that talked about 3 kinds of people: those who look for fame, those who are famous and those who try to run away from fame. There are a lot of young people who belong to the first category. They are crazy for fame and power, as though they cannot live on with their lives if they do not become famous and powerful. They want to be known otherwise they feel useless. Those who are crazy for fame and power will have low moral values and become money lovers. Jesus Christ said that if we look for our own honor, we are not true. If we do not seek our own honor but we seek God’s honor, we are true. (See John 5:31, 41-44)

If we become famous, it is all right. If we do not become famous, that is all right too. Also, there is no need to run away from fame. It is also wrong to run away from it. If we are known with a good name through the right way, it is a good thing. But if we use our own means to gain fame, God is not pleased with it.

If God did not stop men from their endeavor, men would do a lot of useless things because of their excessive ambition and naïveness. It is impossible to build a tower that break into the sky.

When we want to glorify ourselves, God will destroy our plan. This happened when God scattered the people and confused their language when they were building the Tower of Babel. But when we want to glorify God’s name, God will unite our language once again. This happen in the book of Acts 2, where people scattered all over the world came to hear the preaching of Peter and could understand him. This is the principle of the Bible.

Humanity in Sin Part 10 – The Flood Aftermath, Sin of Drunkenness and A Parent’s Curse

This is my personal summary of the preaching of Rev.Dr.Stephen Tong on 22nd April 2007 in GRIIS. It was preached in Indonesian and I personally translated to English. Newton Life has it preached in Mandarin with English translation.

Passage: Genesis 8:20-22, 9:1-17,20-29

Note that for this particular sermon, I was not present to listen to it personally. This transcript is my translation of selected part of the Indonesian transcript handed out to the congregation each week, which contains the transcript of previous week's sermon.

After the water had dried from the earth, Noah and his family came out of the ark. Noah immediately offered sacrifice of thanksgiving to God. Because Noah’s offering pleased God, God decided never to destroy the world by flood anymore. And all through history until today, we no longer see such flood destroying the world because God kept His promise. Do not think that the thanksgiving and praises of believers are not important. In fact, they become channels of blessings to the world.

Here in Gen.8:21 there is a phrase, “God said in His heart.” Since God said this in His heart, how could Noah know then? This is a secret known only to very few people who know God’s heart. They are the people who hold the key to lead people to understand where the history is heading towards. Often times we do not pay attention to little things written in the Scripture, they seem small but actually contain general principle of the Scripture, in which is hidden the supreme wisdom of God. If God’s heart has been revealed to a minority, these people will function like priests between the holy God and sinful men. We thank God that Noah walked with God for many hundred years, although he was not without weakness.

In the Scripture, we see God did filtering many times and this is very scary. God cannot be mocked and ridiculed because He is the Most High God. God has His standard which cannot be compromised and His purpose which cannot be thwarted. Sometimes God still tolerates sinful men, but only until a certain limit, where He will come in His judgment to do another filtering. In reformed theology, it is God who elects based on His sovereignty, not men’s freewill. God’s elecion is based on His wisdom, sovereignty and infinite perfection that is from eternity to eternity. That is why the chosen people should fear when contemplating on unconditional election. We are chosen not because we earn it or qualify for it. We are chosen solely because of grace, solely because of His willingness.

Building the ark took such a long time, but it was only used for a short time. This shows that what is important is not the ark, but the people. This is the same as the church, what is important is the people. Church buildings can be bombed and demolished. When Jesus Christ comes again, He is taking His people away with Him, not the church buildings.

After the flood was over, God blessed Noah and his sons, to be fruitful and multiply. This principle is against population control. There are 3 ways a church can grow, i.e. by migration, by evangelism, and by reproduction. The descendents of Noah’s 3 sons, Shem, Ham and Japheth would later be scattered all over the world. According to anthropology, however we divide, human race eventually only consists of three basic races, i.e. the Mongoloid, Negroid and Caucasoid. Indonesians came from the Mongoloid. Indians belong to the dark-skinned group of the Caucasoid. Africans are from the Negroid group. So the 3 sons of Noah were our ancestors. Three of them also came from one family. No one family has kids with exactly the same skin color. A little bit of difference could result in huge differences in the next generations due to other elements.

Human blood type have four categories: A, B, AB and O. What could be the blood type of Adam and Eve then? In the study of heredity, if a person with blood type A marries with a person with blood type B, after the 4th generation, those 4 types of blood would result. Hence in medical study, it is not a difficulty to believe that human race originates from one pair of parents.

After God judged the wicked and preserved only Noah and his family, history of men’s wickedness kept repeating. After a few hundred years, the descendents of God’s worshippers began to forget God, and later on God would bring forth His judgment again to wipe out the wicked from the earth. In all these events of history, there is a red thread running through, heading towards the omega point. This is the holy history of salvation, this is the heart of God. To please God, the church cannot follow the world. The true church will see this red thread which runs through the whole history of mankind to discern God’s will. True history can only be understood from God’s intervention in the world, to reveal, to illuminate and to lead us to eternity according to His promises.

Noah loved God fervently but he had his own weakness. One day, he drank too much, lost his sobriety and exposed his nakedness. Do not presume that you can always control your own emotions and keep your secrets. Once you are drunk, you may expose yourself like Noah and lost people’s respect. Noah was a prophet who was used mightily by God and who walked with God for many hundred years, but he left a regrettable scar in his life.

When Noah was naked, Ham saw it and exposed it to his brothers Shem and Japheth. But Shem and Japheth decided not to even look at it, instead they took a cloth, walked backwards and covered their father’s body, which should always be respected, but had become a shame because of drunkenness. In Gen.9:25-29, Ham was cursed later on. It says, “Cursed be Canaan! The lowest of slaves will he be to his brothers.” And it was also said, “Blessed be the LORD, the God of Shem! May Canaan be the slave of Shem. May God extend the territory of Japheth; may Japheth live in the tents of Shem, and may Canaan be his slave.”

These verses were misinterpreted for a few hundred years. Ham was the ancestor of the Negroid. Shem was the ancestor of Mongoloid, while Japheth was the ancestor of the Caucasoid. When Christianity dominated Europe, people made use of these verses to justify colonialism. France invaded Africa. Britain invaded Saudi Arabia. Dutch invaded Indonesia. Germany, Portugal, Spain and Italy sought for places to colonize as well, where they could obtain slaves to serve them. They considered this the fulfilment of the prophecy that Japheth would enlarge his territory. Hence the whites should colonize and expand their territory. God allowed colonialism and colonialism had been prophesied by Noah and recorded in the Scripture long time ago. Shem would dwell in his tent and God would be with him. That means God is with the Jews, the descendants of Shem. The Jews represent the Mongoloid, the whole descendants of Shem, where religion would emerge. Hence Asia produced religion while Europe became the continent that developed colonialism. Ham and his son Canaan, were the people who would become slaves. Hence the slavery of the blacks in America seemed to be sanctioned by the Scripture. It looks right but this shows that the Bible has been misused. When men use the Bible to fit their personal agenda we do not have to agree. One important principle we need to understand here is that it is a fact that whoever dishonor his parents would be cursed.

If our parents have cursed us, it would be hard to run away from God’s judgement. Sometimes we receive support from people who have no relation with us and sometimes we face their enmity. Humans frequently make use of others for their personal gain. However, do not forget this. If a person who never raised you up, who never fund you, educate and grow you, if he curses you, accuses or slanders you, you do not need to be afraid. All my life I have had many people insulting, cursing and trying to trap me, and I am never afraid. However I will be afraid if my mother curses me. God uses our mothers to give us birth. Do not dishonor them just because they are less educated than us. If they have weaknesses, we need to pray for them. Do not grieve your parents who gave you birth and raise you up, for God uses them to be your parents. No matter what you need to respect them. The Scripture never begins with saying that parents should love children and then children should respect them. The order is always the reverse. The Scripture first says that we have to honor our parents, and then commands parents to love the children. The Scripture first command the wives to obey their husbands, before commnding the husbands to love the wives. This is the order of the Scripture which should not be reversed.

God made man the head of the household. God made parents to give birth to their children. All these are very clear in the Scriptures. If young people do not understand this, their entire life will not go well. God will raise your kids to be even more disrespectful than you are towards your own parents. When parents are angry and curse their children, it is hard to escape from the hands of God.

God allowed Noah to curse his son and allowed all these things to happen, not to support colonialism, but the account is recorded for our learning and instruction through all ages.