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Bible Quiz #3: How did God come into existence?  (Pg.1)
(Mark all the answers you see as correct. – Good News Bible version used here.)

When this question arises, it comes from our inability to comprehend anything beyond the temporary world we live in.

We struggle to comprehend any idea of the eternal. The main reason being that all we experience in our ‘touch and taste’ world becomes a temporary experience. Here today and gone tomorrow.

Are we able to exit those bonds of life experience and enter an understanding that there is a Creator God who always was and is able to speak things into existence.
— Here are some keys to stepping out of that locked in temporal mindset:

1. First you need to open your understanding to the idea that not all things have to be temporary.

2. Along with that, open your thinking to the possibility that not everything has to have a beginning or an end.

3. To assist us in this task read below how the writer of Psalm 90 and the Prophet Isaiah had stepped past those limitations long ago.

Psalm 90:1-6… O Lord, you have always been our home.  (2)  Before you created the hills or brought the world into being, you were eternally God, and will be God forever.  (3)  You tell us to return to what we were; you change us back to dust.  (4)  A thousand years to you are like one day; they are like yesterday, already gone, like a short hour in the night.  (5)  You carry us away like a flood; we last no longer than a dream. We are like weeds that sprout in the morning,  (6)  that grow and burst into bloom, then dry up and die in the evening.

Q1. – In Vs.1-2 what point is the author making? (Think of the main theme here.)

O – Complex existing things can come from nothing.     O – Before things existed, God was.

Q2. – In Vs.3 it makes the point that God _________  ____  ____________? (Fill in the blanks.)

O – controls the weather.     O – controls our existence.     O – cleans the earth.

Q3. – The author of this psalm was Moses, and in Vs.4 why does he change his statement that to God a thousand years is “like a day” and later “like a short hour”?

To make the point that… O – God’s clock is different than ours.     O – To God, time doesn’t exist.

Q4. – In Vs.5-6, what is the main point being made?

O – We are temporary beings.     O – We grow like weeds.     O – We bloom for only a day.

Q5. – In writing this psalm, what main point is Moses trying to put forward?

O – God is unfair to us.     O – God controls our fates.     O – God is an eternal being, we are not.

(I would be interested in knowing of the discussion arising from these verses… KK)

*First we’ve heard from Moses on this, now we will hear from Isaiah…*

We’ll be reading from Isaiah 40:21-31…
– I will let the Prophet Isaiah ask the first questions in Vs.21… Do you not know? Were you not told long ago? Have you not heard how the world began?  

(He will present the answers on Pg.2)

 

Bible Quiz #3: How did God come into being?  (Pg.2)

Continuing in Isaiah 40:22-31…  

Vs.22-24… It (the world) was made by the one who sits on his throne above the earth and beyond the sky; the people below look as tiny as ants. He stretched out the sky like a curtain, like a tent in which to live.  (23)  He brings down powerful rulers and reduces them to nothing.  (24)  They are like young plants, just set out and barely rooted. When the LORD sends a wind, they dry up and blow away like straw.  

Q6. – Do Isaiah and Moses agree on a viewpoint of God versus man?

O – No, one thinks we’re weeds and the other that we’re ants.     O – Yes, both see our humble state.

Vs.25-26… To whom can the holy God be compared? Is there anyone else like him?  (26)  Look up at the sky! Who created the stars you see? The one who leads them out like an army, he knows how many there are and calls each one by name! His power is so great—not one of them is ever missing!  

Q7. – The Prophet Isaiah asks us, “To whom can the holy God be compared?”

O – To the powerful rulers on the earth.     O – To movie stars.     O – To no man, woman, or angel.

Vs.27-28…  Israel, why then do you complain that the LORD doesn’t know your troubles or care if you suffer injustice?  (28)  Don’t you know? Haven’t you heard? The LORD is the everlasting God; he created all the world. He never grows tired or weary. No one understands his thoughts.  

Q8. – The Prophet Isaiah tells us that God…

O – lives a very long time.     O – is eternal, and has always been.     O – doesn’t age and never dies.

Q9. – Here we read that Isaiah also comprehends that…

O – we sometimes complain that God doesn’t care about us.     O – We need Superman.
O – God is patient and never grows weary.     O – We don’t have the ability to understand God.

Vs.29-31…  He strengthens those who are weak and tired.  (30)  Even those who are young grow weak; young people can fall exhausted.  (31)  But those who trust in the LORD for help will find their strength renewed. They will rise on wings like eagles; they will run and not get weary; they will walk and not grow weak.

Q9. – Mark the points Isaiah is making in Vs.29-30?

O – God can give us strength in our weariness.     O – We do grow weak and weary.
O – It takes youthful vigor to win.     O – Even the young can be weak and tired.

Q10. – What great and encouraging promise do we find to close with here?

O – God’s army is bigger than Russia’s or China’s.     O – If we meditate enough, we can fly.
O – If we trust in God as our Lord, He will gives us strength and energy to rise above our troubles.

 

Perhaps you are familiar with the lyrics of a song taken from Isaiah 40:31 (KJV)… “They that wait upon the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint.” – The song adds the words, “Teach me Lord, teach me Lord to wait.”
– That is a good prayer for us as we tend to be wanting God to do things in our timing.

• May God guide us, strengthen us, and teach us to wait upon His perfect will and timing. (KK)