We’re going to keep on talking today as we did on a previous Little Lesson about modern-day Israel. By listening to some modern-day Christians, you’d think that God loves the people in Israel more than He loves those who have repented of their sins and believed in Jesus!
Today, we’re going to talk about modern-day Israel. Of course, every Christian knows that we’ve got a Bible that’s full of references to Israel, and if you know anything at all about the history of Judaism, you know that God called Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and his twelve sons, and they comprise the twelve tribes of Israel.
Jesus was a descendant of Judah, and the Jewish heritage of Christianity is rich and long and deep. And so consequently, Christians feel an affinity with Jews because Christianity is really the fulfillment of Judaism. Jesus was Jewish, Jesus was the Messiah of the Jews and the early church was comprised of all Jewish believers in Jesus as their Messiah.
We’ve got a really interesting question that one of our viewers has sent in, a question revolving around cremation.
Of course, you know that when the body dies and the Spirit evacuates it, you’ve got to do something with that body. Historically, the most common thing to do, of course, is to bury it in the ground, where it undergoes decay. But, in more recent decades, another popular form of disposing of a dead body is through cremation.
We’re going to continue with a previous Little Lesson’s topic, where we discussed a question that’s been sent to us numerous times about whether or not it’s okay for women to wear makeup. You might want to see that Little Lesson first.
I want to go a little further today and talk about proper dress. And in our previous Little Lesson I did point out the widely known and acknowledged fact that God made men to be attracted to women. Men are very visually oriented, and they can recognize beauty in form and in face, and women that are unmarried who are hoping to attract a husband naturally, naturally think about, “How I can be attractive? And not just in my character, because a guy is not just going to marry my character. They’re going to marry me, the total me.”
We do get all kinds of questions, and today’s question is one we’ve received more than once. Some of our honest viewers, sincere viewers, want an answer. Is it wrong for women to wear makeup?
The reason that it is sometimes felt by some within the body of Christ that this is wrong is because it’s based on vanity. You’re trying to make yourself more attractive in a vain way, so therefore it shouldn’t be done.
Is there something that you could give to someone that is better than money? I’m going to continue from some of our thoughts from our previous two little lessons where we were talking about wealth, riches and righteousness.
I want to share something with you today that might be a little bit surprising to you. If not surprising, at least it might provoke your thinking a little bit to look at giving in a little different way than perhaps you’ve ever looked at it before.
Today’s Little Lesson is a continuation of our previous Little Lesson, talking about the potential of being righteous and at the same time being rich. We’re trying to do our best to answer that question, not from one verse taken out of its context in the Bible, but by looking at a little bit more context.
We’re going to continue talking about money on this episode. We know that the Bible warns that the love of money is the root of all sorts of evil (see 1 Timothy 6:10).
So there is a great danger there with money, and wealth, and riches. Most teachers and preachers who will mention the fact that Scripture warns against the love of money will quickly point out, and rightfully so, that it’s not money itself that is the root of all sorts of evil, but it is the love of money that is the root of all sorts of evil.
Sometimes when you look at really wealthy people, you’re tempted to think, “They’re bad people. They’re evil people.” That very well could be true, because sometimes wealth can be an indication of evil on a couple levels.
One, if a person gains their wealth through unscrupulous, immoral means, well, their wealth represents evil, doesn’t it? Obviously, the rich guys in the mafia, they’re rich because of their evil, their corruption, and so forth.
We’re going to talk about the question of polygamy, which is an all-encompassing term that just means having more than one spouse. It can apply to a man having more than one wife or a woman having more than one husband.
There are specific terms that describe each one of those phenomenon, but, regardless, what’s common in the Old Testament to a degree is some men having more than one wife. There are some pretty well-known Bible characters who had more than one wife. Abraham did and Caleb did and David, of course, did. I think he had like eight wives and 10 concubines.