UNCOMMON Book: Stranger Things

Uncommon Book: Stranger Things

2 Peter 3:15-17 15 And count the patience of our Lord as salvation, just as our beloved brother Paul also wrote to you according to the wisdom given him, 16 as he does in all his letters when he speaks in them of these matters. There are some things in them that are hard to understand, which the ignorant and unstable twist to their own destruction, as they do the other Scriptures. ESV

2 Tim 3:16-17 16 All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, 17 that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work. NKJV

Introduction:  Any honest person, believer or unbeliever would have to admit…there is some Strange Things in the Bible…as much as I 100% believe the two passages I just read to you…I have to admit…there is some strange stuff in the bible…

The Problem with Strange Things is twofold:  Christians skip it and won’t or can’t give an answer for it.  Non-believers, searchers, and skeptics use those strange verses in the Bible to dismiss the entire Bible.

Transition:  Before I dive into Stranger Things…let’s look at some things that cause me to Value the Word of God…

Ps 119:105-112 105 Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path. 106 I have sworn an oath and confirmed it, to keep your righteous rules. 107 I am severely afflicted; give me life, O Lord, according to your word! 108 Accept my freewill offerings of praise, O Lord, and teach me your rules. 109 I hold my life in my hand continually, but I do not forget your law. 110 The wicked have laid a snare for me, but I do not stray from your precepts. 111 Your testimonies are my heritage forever, for they are the joy of my heart. 112 I incline my heart to perform your statutes forever, to the end. ESV

  • Things These Scriptures Teach Me:
  1. Lamp and Light
    • The Bible is a road map for my life and my next step in life…
    • The Bible teaches me the best way to live life
    • How to walk out a life that is pleasing to God and beneficial to the human experience.
  2. The Bible is Life…
    • The Disciples said it best…” Where else can we go and who else has the words of eternal life.”
    • I said it last week…if this book was wrong and I didn’t gain heaven…the life it causes me to live is the best most abundant life a person can live…
    • If you want to live a fulfilled, full life…the bible tells us how.
  3. Pulls praise and thanksgiving out of my soul…
    • As I read the pages of the bible at times, I can’t help but be grateful to God…to Praise Him…
  4. Guidelines for Life
  5. The Bible is Profitable
    • To my soul
    • To my marriage
    • To my family
    • To my finances
  6. The Bible is My Armor
  7. The Bible is Forever

Stranger Things

Introduction:  I won’t be able to address every Stranger Thing in this Teaching…but I’ll address more of them in weeks ahead…K.

  1. Computer Evidence
    1. I shared this last week from Memory…but I wanted to go back and make sure I had it correct.
      1. Every 50 letters in Genesis and Exodus you’ll get the Word Torah…
      2. Numbers and Deuteronomy every 49 letters you’ll get Torah spelled backwards.
  • Leviticus every 7 letters you get the Word Yahweh.
  1. Astrophysicists and other Scientists have said all down through the years that Darkness is simply the absence of Light…
    1. Job 38:19-21 NKJV says darkness is a substance, not simply the absence of light…
    2. We know over the past few years that Darkness is substantive…
  • We know it today as Dark Matter!
  1. Unicorns

Num 23:22 22 God brought them out of Egypt; he hath as it were the strength of an unicorn. KJV

  1. So does the bible teach there are Unicorns…
  2. So we have to look deeper and ask what is this actually talking about…is the bible all about Fairy dust, unicorns, and rainbows?
  3. The Hebrew word used for “Unicorn” is the word Re’em meaning “One Horned.” But the translators of the KJV had no reference point for that…so they interjected the word Unicorn…
    1. But the scripture is more than likely speaking of a One Horned Ox that lived in the time of the writing of the scripture…but became extent…or it could have been the Rhinoceros…we know from other writings such as Egyptian and Mesopotamian scripts that all of them mention the One-horned Wild Ox…
  • Clusters of Stranger Things
    1. Most Used Stranger Things Scriptures…
      1. Lev.11:7-8 “Don’t touch the skin of a dead pig and don’t dare eat the thing.”
        1. But we’ll all go home and watch football today and people will pray before the game and after…many while holding a pig’s skin.
      2. Lev. 11:9-11 “Don’t eat shrimp, shellfish, lobster or even catfish.”
        1. MMM…I’ve broken this one many times…
  • Det. 22:9-11 “Don’t plant two seeds next to each other…don’t mix your seeds.”
  1. Lev. 19:28 You shall not make any cuts on your body for the dead or tattoo yourselves: I am the Lord. (ESV)
  1. God told the People of Israel – “Be ye Holy even as I am Holy.”
    1. The word Holy means to be set apart…not perfection…
  2. and Duet provides us context for that separation…God warns His Kids, the People of Israel not to Compromise and Become Like the People that are Living Around them…
    1. Ex 23:24-25 24 You shall not bow down to their gods nor serve them, nor do as they do, but you shall utterly overthrow them and break their pillars in pieces. ESV

Ex 23:33 33 They shall not dwell in your land, lest they make you sin against me; for if you serve their gods, it will surely be a snare to you.” ESV

Ex 34:15-16 15 lest you make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land, and when they whore after their gods and sacrifice to their gods and you are invited, you eat of his sacrifice, ESV

  1. Love of God
    1. If you and I are going to share faith with this generation, we better be able to give answer to these criticisms and questions as well as a few others….
    2. Jesus said – Matt 22:37-41“You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. 38 This is the great and first commandment. 39 And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. 40 On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.” (ESV)
    3. Jesus said this sums up the whole law…
    4. So, we study the New Testament to see How God Defines Love….Not our Definition of Love…but God’s.
      1. The entire New Testament more clearly defines the Love God requires of us and what our lives should look like if we want to love God. The whole of the New Testament describes what it means to follow Jesus and the commands we should obey for moral and ethical living, including what it looks like to love other people.
    5. Garden of Eden
      1. Adam and Eve are equal in Genesis 1:28…there is no superior Gender…
      2. God’s design was for Adam and Eve to co-reign and co-rule in community with each other advancing the Mission and purpose of God in the earth.
      3. 2:18 – “Man shouldn’t be alone…I’ll make him a helper.”
        1. Helper doesn’t mean a mere assistant…
        2. The Hebrew word is “Ezer” it appears 22 times in the Old Testament and nearly every other time it is used it is referring to God.
  • Ps 33:20 “Our soul waits for the Lord; he is our help and our shield.” ESV
  1. God is giving the Man and the Woman for that matter a Partner, one who is equally, but different…reflects the Image of God.
  2. They were not identical but they were equal.
  1. Sin enters the Garden, but worse sin enters Humanity…
    1. Equality is broken…
    2. So the calamity, destruction, dominance, idol worship all begins….
  • God didn’t do it, mankind did it…
  1. God has a remedy; a solution and He drops Clues all through scripture: Consider the names of 10 of the men mentioned in the Genealogy of Genesis 5…
    1. Adam – is man
    2. Seth – is appointed
  • Enos – mortal
  1. Cainan – sorrow
  2. Mahalalel – the blessed God
  3. Jared – shall come down
  • Enoch – Teaching
  • Methusaleh – his death brings
  1. Lamech – is despairing
  2. Noah – is rest
  3. These are the first 10 men of the bible…but remember I told you their names meant something…they just weren’t named to be named…So here is what their names mean from Adam to Noah: “Man is appointed, mortal, sorrow, the blessed God shall come down teaching, his death brings, despairing rest.”  It’s the gospel message…

Transition:  Now that is pretty Strange Wouldn’t You Say…

  1. Making Sense of All of It
    1. So let’s walk through some of these strange things I’ve listed….
    2. Pigs and Shell-fish
      1. One reason God gave this law was completely for health reasons…but not the primary reason…
        1. Do you know during the Bubonic plague…the people and government of the day blamed the Jews for the plague…because they weren’t getting sick…
        2. It was because the laws they kept…they wouldn’t eat or live in the conditions that spread the plague through the fleas on rats…
      2. Shrimp carry live bacteria and if not cooked properly can kill you…
  • Pork if not prepared properly is extremely dangerous…
  1. Pigs were also the main sacrificial animal of the Canaanites.
  2. God had told the people “Be ye holy as I am holy…” separate yourself from this as an identifying marker of who you are and whose you are…
  1. Mixing of Seeds
    1. Deut.22:9-11
    2. The Canaanites believed in the Fertility God “Astarot” part of the worship of Baal…
  • If these crops were produced under the blessing of Astarot….and you ate these crops…your reproductive system would be more fertile than others…
  1. God said I don’t even want you to get close to idol worship or giving credit of My Blessing on Your life to something or someone else…
  1. Tattoos
    1. Leviticus 19:28
    2. First of all, these tattoos in Leviticus were not like the artwork some do today…
  • Matter of fact as you read Isaiah 44 specifically verse 5…it says that some of the People of God will say “I am the Lord’s and another will write on his hand, “I am the Lord’s”
  1. But what is Leviticus 19:28 specifically say to us…”Don’t make any cuts on your body for the dead or tattoo yourselves…”
    1. From the Egyptians to the Canaanites, they would memorialize the dead and create memorial unto their false God’s not simply by getting a tattoo…
    2. They would take the dead and use the bones of that dead person and their ashes with inks from different sources and cut themselves and tattoo themselves…in a ritual to and for their Gods…

Transition:  Yet overall, the bible teaches we should not find our value and worth from our appearance or achievements…so if that is why you do things it would be against Jesus and His Teaching.

Closing:  Jesus Loved the Bible

  • I have heard People say, I really love Jesus but the Bible I just can’t get with…
  • Consider this As I Close
    • Jesus quoted the Bible (The Old Testament) when he was tempted (Matt.4:4010)
    • Jesus read from the Bible when he started his public Ministry (Luke 4:14-21)
    • Jesus used the Bible in arguments to defend who he was (Matt.22:43, Mark 12:36; 14:27, Luke 20:17; 22:37).
    • Jesus frequently quoted scripture during his teaching
    • Jesus used the Bible to talk about he future and the end times
    • Jesus quoted from the bible when he was dying on the cross
    • Jesus taught from the Bible after His resurrection.
  • John 5:39-40 39 You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about me, ESV

Luke 24:25-27 25 And he said to them, “O foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken! 26 Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things and enter into his glory?” 27 And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself. ESV

  • For 100’s of years people have made it their mission to disprove the Bible…and I had prepared a list of 100 people…but it doesn’t matter…
  • What will you do with the Bible?
    • Will we ignore it or Immerse Ourselves Into It?
  • But may I ask…More Importantly that the Bible…What will You Do With Jesus?

Email my notes