I talked to a middle-aged man the other day who had this tone of, “You can’t be such a fool, can you?” when I told him I was a Bible-believer. One of his questions was, “Why aren’t there kangaroos everywhere, not just in Australia?” This was supposed to disprove the story of Noah and his ark!

At one point he asked me why God, in the Old Testament, would suddenly stop talking. He suggested this was a sign of an unloving Father who could coldly cut off His supposed children.

I didn’t have my Bible with me but what I tried to relay to him was God’s own explanation for His silent periods in Isaiah 30. God commands Isaiah, “Now go, write it before them in a table, and note it in a book, that it may be for the time to come for ever and ever:
[9] That this is a rebellious people, lying children, children that will not hear the law of the LORD:
[10] Which say to the seers, See not; and to the prophets, Prophesy not unto us right things, speak unto us smooth things, prophesy deceits:
[11] Get you out of the way, turn aside out of the path, cause the Holy One of Israel to cease from before us.”

Basically, the people made it clear they didn’t want God in their lives and weren’t going to hearken to Him, making it a waste of His time. But He never left them without His Word to guide them.

As Jordan explains, “God’s says, ‘Write this in a book and note it in a tablet for the generations to come when I’m not talking—when there’s this famine in the land and they can’t find the Word, they’ll have it written.’ ”

*****

In each of Israel’s Five Courses of Judgment, there’s more than one prophet but there’s a key prophet.

Jordan says, “Abraham is the first person in the Bible ever called a prophet. Moses is called a prophet. There were obviously prophets before Samuel, but in that five courses of judgment, Samuel’s that first one. And that’s what Peter’s talking about in Acts 3.

“Samuel points them to something in addition to what happens with Samson. Gideon talks about a Deliverer and he represents that Deliverer. Samson’s going to be an Avenger. He’s going to avenge Israel’s cause against the Gentiles; the Philistines.

“When Samuel comes along—you remember the biggest job Samuel had? Israel wanted a king like all the nations. Samuel took that to heart. The Lord had to say, ‘Samuel, they haven’t rejected you; they’ve rejected me.’

“What the people should have said is, ‘Make us a king like God promised He would; make us a king like you Samuel.’ But that isn’t what they said.

“God promised them they would (eventually) have a king and He told them, ‘When you have a king, I’ll give you one after my own heart,’ but they didn’t want one after God’s heart; they wanted one like the nations because that’s where there heart was. And who’d they choose? Saul.

“The Period of the Judges was designed to show Israel they need a Deliverer, a Redeemer, an Avenger. The judges demonstrate they can’t do it for themselves in their own strength and in their own ability.

“The men of Israel can’t do it so Deborah comes and does it for them. Now, how you reckon that made the men of Israel feel? They’re the warriors in Israel and they’ve got a lady doing it for them! She’s quite a lady but a lady nonetheless.”

*****

Before God created anything—before He created time, the world, the stars, the galaxies, planet earth, the angelic host, humans—He had a plan to live in Believers, but He didn’t reveal this information until Paul.

“Christ’s life living in you is something that was planned before the foundation of the world,” says Jordan, quoting Ephesians 1:4. “He planned to live right there in you. When I think about that I think, ‘Wow, that makes every aspect of my life a little more significant than it would have been if it had just been MY plans and ME living!’ Because it’s Christ living in me!

“You notice in Ephesians 3 that this ‘eternal purpose’—verse 9 says it was ‘hid in God but it’s now revealed.’ There’s no question in Paul’s mind, or in the Scripture, when this information that God planned back here before the foundation of the world was manifested.

“He didn’t reveal it in Genesis 1. He didn’t reveal it in Genesis 12. He didn’t reveal it in Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. Verse 9 says, ‘And to make all men see what is the fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning of the world hath been hid in God, who created all things by Jesus Christ.’

“When is that secret mystery message revealed? Paul writes, ‘Which in other ages was not made known unto the sons of men, as it is now revealed unto his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit.’

“It’s important to know where to go in the Bible to search out this info. Jesus says to the Pharisees in John 5:39, ‘Search the scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they which testify of me.’

“They could search Genesis to Malachi and find where what Christ was teaching them in Matthew, Mark, Luke and John was. Paul says he’s talking about some things you couldn’t go back there and search and find.”