Satisfied Customers

On the subject of personal testimony, Rick Warren writes:

You may not be a Bible scholar, but you are the authority on your life, and it's hard to argue with personal experience. Actually, your personal testimony is more effective than a sermon, because unbelievers see pastors as professional salesmen, but see you as a "satisfied customer," so they give you more credibility.

- Rick Warren, The Purpose Driven Life, p.290

Greater Gifts

27Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it. 28And in the church God has appointed first of all apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then workers of miracles, also those having gifts of healing, those able to help others, those with gifts of administration, and those speaking in different kinds of tongues. 29Are all apostles? Are all prophets? Are all teachers? Do all work miracles? 30Do all have gifts of healing? Do all speak in tongues ? Do all interpret? 31But eagerly desire the greater gifts.

- 1 Corinthians 12:27-31

This is a passage that has confused me for quite some time. The concept that some gifts are "greater" than others is hard enough to accept. The concept of desiring/seeking greater gifts is even more difficult for me - it always seems that I would be ungrateful towards God to be dissatisfied with the gifts He has already given me.

In bible study last night, however, it was suggested to me that it is not we as individuals who should be desiring these gifts, but rather we as a church. Paul has just finished telling us that "You are the body of Christ" (1 Cor 12:27). It is, therefore, the body - that is the church - who are instructed to seek the greater gifts.

Suspicions

Why is it that I am at my most suspicious when standing in a queue?

Everything we need

3His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness.

- 2 Peter 1:3

To quote a friend of mine - "You could give me everything I need to build a shed, and yet I guarantee that I still wouldn't be able to build it."

In other words, it's not enough to simply have everything we need to be a Christian. Instead we must "make every effort" (v. 5) to do the things that Paul lists - add faith, goodness, knowledge etc.

Why? "To make (our) calling and election sure" (v. 10). I don't think this means that we will fail to get into heaven if we don't. Rather I think it means that failure to do these things will lead to us finding ourselves in the position Paul describes in 1 Corinthians 3:15.

12If any man builds on this foundation using gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay or straw, 13his work will be shown for what it is, because the Day will bring it to light. It will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test the quality of each man's work. 14If what he has built survives, he will receive his reward. 15If it is burned up, he will suffer loss; he himself will be saved, but only as one escaping through the flames.

- 1 Corinthians 3:12-15

Spiritual Gifts

7Now to each one the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good. 8To one there is given through the Spirit the message of wisdom, to another the message of knowledge by means of the same Spirit, 9to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by that one Spirit, 10to another miraculous powers, to another prophecy, to another distinguishing between spirits, to another speaking in different kinds of tongues, and to still another the interpretation of tongues.

- 1 Corinthians 12:7-10

Paul lists a bunch gifts which he says are "manifestations of the Spirit". All of them are things that are not possible without the intervention of the Spirit, and thus are proof that the Spirit exists.

But what about faith? Isn't faith something we do by ourselves? One man recognised that this wasn't so:

21Jesus asked the boy's father, "How long has he been like this?" 22"From childhood," he answered. "It has often thrown him into fire or water to kill him. But if you can do anything, take pity on us and help us."

23" 'If you can'?" said Jesus. "Everything is possible for him who believes."

24Immediately the boy's father exclaimed, "I do believe; help me overcome my unbelief!"

- Mark 9:21-24

The boy's father had already come the conclusion that he didn't have all the faith he needed - he needed Jesus' help to overcome his unbelief.

Not surprising, really - the boy's age is not recorded, but the father had had to contend with his son's possession "since childhood". He had probably tried every available "cure", consulted every "expert" - all to no avail.

Never again

9 Because of all your detestable idols, I will do to you what I have never done before and will never do again. 10 Therefore in your midst fathers will eat their children, and children will eat their fathers. I will inflict punishment on you and will scatter all your survivors to the winds. 11 Therefore as surely as I live, declares the Sovereign LORD , because you have defiled my sanctuary with all your vile images and detestable practices, I myself will withdraw my favor; I will not look on you with pity or spare you.

- Ezekiel 5:9-11

God is talking about sending the Israelites into captivity in Babylon. In the middle, however, He makes an off hand sort of promise that He will never do it again.

Having watched the telemovie Anne Frank on TV the other night, images of the holocaust are still fairly fresh in my mind. So far as I'm concerned, if there was ever a time when the Jews were without God's favour, it was during the second world war.

Does that mean that God broke His promise, by withdrawing His favour a second time? Perhaps He simply changed His mind, like He did at the end of Ezekiel 4 (and in other places). Maybe the Jews are no longer heirs of such promises, since they are branches broken off so that we could be grafted in (cf. Romans 11).

Hand this man over

4When you are assembled in the name of our Lord Jesus and I am with you in spirit, and the power of our Lord Jesus is present, 5hand this man over to Satan, so that the sinful nature may be destroyed and his spirit saved on the day of the Lord.

- 1 Corinthians 5:4-5

Paul instructs the Corinthians to "hand over to Satan" the man who is guilty of immorality so that "his spirit [may be] saved on the day of the Lord". The handing over bit I can sort of understand, but how does it lead to the man's spirit being saved? Perhaps because he will then recognise his sin for what it is?

The Blade

The following is Teddy Roosevelt's Speech before the Hamilton Club, Chicago, April 10, 1899. In it he speaks of how we are moulded into a work of art, a tool with a soul.

This is the tale of making a good sword, a really good one like the blademakers to the samurai made them. Damascus steel was folded a thousand times by hand and finished only with a stone - never shaped by other steel. The steel is purified by plunging it again and again into the fire - and not just any fire but the fire produced by bellows that others are pumping continually to get hot enough to melt the imperfect steel. The blade that is beginning to form is allowed to almost cool, and then it is hammered and re-plunged into the fire, over and over, and over again. Each time it comes out it is examined by the Master Craftsman to see if there is any flaw, any imperfection at all.

Each blade is thought to have a spirit of its own and some believe that the metal tells the Blademaster when it is finished, only he knows what this particular blade will be for. Once or twice in the master's entire career comes the chance to shape metal that has a truly great soul residing in it.

When that happens the Blademaster stops work and goes and purifies himself and then comes back to the work that he will not cease doing until the blade is finished - he will not eat or sleep and will drink water only. He takes up the steel again and listens to its heart and begins again, heat... cool some and hammer, fold and heat... again and again. When the blade has been folded a thousand times or more and it speaks to him that it is done - only then does he rest. For only the soul inside the steel can say when it has been shaped enough. But the blade is still not finished.

A handle needs to be fitted so that the weapon - which now has become a work of art - can be wielded. Before the handle is set onto the blade though, the Blademaster sets his own secret emblem on the handle where it will remain hidden for all time, the handle is then wrapped and the tsuba, the guard that keeps your hand from slipping onto the blade but is more than just that is fitted. The tsuba also balances the blade and communicates the tastes and beliefs of the owner.

But the blade is still not finished.

For this is a weapon with a soul, one that comes singing out of its scabbard and will not return to it without tasting battle.

The Blademaster now starts to hone the blade but he does not use steel-for to abrade so great a soul against another would diminish both. He does it all by hand, and he uses a stone... a rock.

Carefully he wets the stone and draws the blade across it-one way only, with the grain of the soul... again and again... sometimes for weeks while all other pursuits are abandoned he concentrates all he has on that one edge, making it sharper that any other edge.

During this process the soul of the sword tells the maker to whom it belongs, and the Blademaster gives the masterpiece he has created to that and only that person. Never anything so crass as for a fee to be paid - the gift of the blade is the most precious thing that can be given to a warrior... a person who is both a soldier and philosopher in one.

The house that the warrior belongs to will bless the Blademaster with all that it has for the gift of the honor of housing so great a blade... and when the warrior dies or grows old, the sword goes back to the Master who made it and no one else.

We see now as through a glass...darkly... but then we will see face to face.

I rest in the thought that you have the opportunity to become a great blade for the Master, only you can say when you have been shaped enough and have reached the point where you feel you are finished. God will use you there, make no mistake about that. You can still be polished and made pretty and useful but the shaping will be over.

Make your own analogies - I have made mine.

No one ever said this life thing was easy. You have the opportunity to be of great value to the Master if you let him shape you. And, as the house that receives the blade is greatly honored and blessed, so too will you bless the house you come to.

I end with my favorite quote, from one of my favorite people;

"Far better it is to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs, even though checkered by failure, than to take rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy much nor suffer much, because they live in the gray twilight that knows not victory nor defeat.

It is not the critic who counts, not the man who points out how the strong man stumbled, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena; whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs and comes short again and again; who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, and spends himself in a worthy cause; who, at the best, knows in the end the triumph of high achievement; and who, at worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat".

- Teddy Roosevelt, Speech before the Hamilton Club, Chicago, April 10, 1899

Escaping Through the Flames

12If any man builds on this foundation using gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay or straw, 13his work will be shown for what it is, because the Day will bring it to light. It will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test the quality of each man's work. 14If what he has built survives, he will receive his reward. 15If it is burned up, he will suffer loss; he himself will be saved, but only as one escaping through the flames.

- 1 Corinthians 3:12-15

Paul seems to be saying here that there will be different rewards for people when they get to heaven depending on what they have done on earth. For some there will be great reward, for others it will be like "escaping through the flames".

This last image is particularly poignant - I think about the news images of the fires in Canberra earlier this year, the scenes of absolute devastation. Particularly I remember seeing distraught families returning to find the remains of their homes, searching through the ash and rubble to find the occasional keepsake - a charred doll, a necklace, a half burnt photo.

How could heaven possibly be like that? It seems contradictory to me. And yet that is what Paul is saying - work hard for the kingdom, make sure that what you "build" is sturdy, and will stand the quality testing. Otherwise, whilst a place will still be prepared for you, it may not be the luxury apartment that you are expecting.

An Interesting Crew

1 David left Gath and escaped to the cave of Adullam. When his brothers and his father's household heard about it, they went down to him there. 2 All those who were in distress or in debt or discontented gathered around him, and he became their leader. About four hundred men were with him.

- 1 Samuel 22:1-2

In the movies, when men are selected for a mission they are usually chosen on the basis of their skills, abilities, loyalty, intelligence etc. How does God choose His mission teams?

I find it interesting that the first people recruited to David's cause, after his family, were those "who were in distress or in debt or discontented" - not a promising team one might think. Yet David ends up succeeding from these humble beginnings, and with the aid of these unlikely followers.

Jesus found Himself in a similar position. Surrounded by fishermen, prostitutes, tax collectors and other unlikely candidates, he accomplished the greatest mission of all time - the salvation of mankind!

The lesson for me is that God doesn't select people for His missions based on what the have done before, or what they can do. Instead, He often chooses the weak, the needy, the outcast. Paul gives us a suggestion why He does this:

7To keep me from becoming conceited because of these surpassingly great revelations, there was given me a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me. 8Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. 9But he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me. 10That is why, for Christ's sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.

- 2 Corinthians 12:7-10

That is to say, God's power is most clearly portrayed when people who are weak are empowered. It's like somebody coming to town with a miracle drug that makes people stronger. Which would be the more impressive demonstration: a strong man becoming stronger, or a little old lady suddenly able to lift huge weights?

Whilst God isn't out to make a profit, and isn't in the business of showmanship, He is committed to revealing Himself to mankind, and one of the ways that He does this is to pour His power out into those who would otherwise be considered weak or foolish.

27But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong.

- 1 Corinthians 1:27

And again:

7But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us.

- 2 Corinthians 4:7

Patience

8But do not forget this one thing, dear friends: With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day. 9The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.

- 2 Peter 3:8-9

I'm not a very good cook - I don't have the patience for it. I'm usually in such a hurry to eat what I am cooking that I cannot wait for it to finish cooking.

Fortunately God isn't like that - He doesn't do anything out of impatience, the passing of time doesn't mean anything to Him. Instead He can wait for the best result - whether it takes a day, a week or a century!

Fishing for an answer

I like Mark Buchanan's description of prayer:

Fishing is as good a metaphor as anything for the life of prayer. The unpredictability of the element, its tempestuousness at times, its windless calm at others. And its depth, its vastness - the feeling that we're just skimming surfaces, that the mystery and marvel folds down into unfathomable and often unreachable darkness. The thrill when something, anything, takes the line and the disappointment and often the mess when it's not what you hoped for.

And always the waiting.

- Mark Buchanan, Your God is too Safe, p. 219

A couple of things stand out from this.

• There is much we cannot control We are at the mercy of the weather works, the water, the depth, the snags, the presence (or absence) of fish, and whether or not they are hungry enough to chase something that does not really resemble their natural food, the total guesswork of what kind of fish may be on the end of the line etc.
  
• Often we don't get what we expected We may dredge up the proverbial boot, buried treasure - anything but fish!
  
• Waiting Once the line is cast, what more is there to do? What more can you do but wait?
  

Heart Transplant

We went to church at St. Alban's, Belmore this morning to participate in an outreach service. The speaker was Richard Gibson, a lecturer from Moore College. He preached on "The Great Heart Transplant", using Ezekiel 36:24-28 and Hebrews 8:7-12 as his texts. What really struck me most was his description of what God means when he says:

I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh.

- Ezekiel 36:26

He said it truly is the spiritual equivalent of a heart transplant - something the Israelite wouldn't have ever seen, but with which we are more familiar today.

The physical heart transplant and the spiritual one have these things in common:

• We must be opened up In order for God to deal effectively with our condition - our hardness of heart - He must often first peel away the layers of stuff concealing the state of our hearts. This can be painful, but is necessary for our healing. Perhaps think of it as ripping away the band-aids with which we have tried to fix the problem, but with which we really just conceal it from ourselves. Our solutions are not enough - serious surgery is required.
  
• The donated heart must be healthy There's no point replacing a faulty heart with another faulty heart is there? We must, therefore, find ourselves a donor who has a perfectly healthy heart. Fortunately we have such a donor - Jesus. Jesus came to earth and through His healthy living he kept His heart from harm - so that He might donate it to us.
  
• It often involves tragedy When you think about the hardships facing people in need of a physical transplant - their life slowly ebbing away, surrounded by loved ones already starting to feel the grief of loss - it is easy to forget that finding a donor usually means a tragedy. How else do we expect to find a healthy heart unless the donor has first died? Again, Jesus died so that He could be our spiritual heart donor.
  

Debt of Love

8Let no debt remain outstanding, except the continuing debt to love one another, for he who loves his fellowman has fulfilled the law.

- Romans 13:8

I never really thought of love as a debt before. For me there are two cases - loving those who are easy to love such as friends, family etc. and loving those who I have no natural inclination towards loving, those whom the bible characterises as being 'enemies'. In the first case the love could be considered a debt, e.g. they have treated me well and earned my love. But what about the second group? How is my loving them a 'continuing debt'? Perhaps because God has commanded it in the same way that a judge might order someone to pay someone else money and that then becomes a debt.

On a side issue - does this verse prohibit mortgages?

No Answer

37 So Saul asked God, "Shall I go down after the Philistines? Will you give them into Israel's hand?" But God did not answer him that day.

- 1 Samuel 14:37

To the best of my knowledge, this is the only time the Israelites "inquire of the LORD" and get no answer.

Broken Branches

I just don't get Paul. Is he trying to encourage those who are converts, or discourage them. For example, what is the purpose of the following warning?

17If some of the branches have been broken off, and you, though a wild olive shoot, have been grafted in among the others and now share in the nourishing sap from the olive root, 18do not boast over those branches. If you do, consider this: You do not support the root, but the root supports you. 19You will say then, "Branches were broken off so that I could be grafted in." 20Granted. But they were broken off because of unbelief, and you stand by faith. Do not be arrogant, but be afraid. 21For if God did not spare the natural branches, he will not spare you either.

- Romans 11:17-21

Is he saying, "God has chosen you but he may unchoose you?" Earlier in the same chapter:

5So too, at the present time there is a remnant chosen by grace. 6And if by grace, then it is no longer by works; if it were, grace would no longer be grace.

- Romans 11:5-6

So do I, as a gentile, need to worry about God breaking (pruning?) my branch away? Paul becomes even more explicit:

22Consider therefore the kindness and sternness of God: sternness to those who fell, but kindness to you, provided that you continue in his kindness. Otherwise, you also will be cut off. 23And if they do not persist in unbelief, they will be grafted in, for God is able to graft them in again. 24After all, if you were cut out of an olive tree that is wild by nature, and contrary to nature were grafted into a cultivated olive tree, how much more readily will these, the natural branches, be grafted into their own olive tree!

- Romans 11:22-24

And so it seems that we almost face a game of musical chairs - whoever is found in unbelief when the music stops and judgement comes will be 'out'. The Jehovah's Witnesses make a lot out of verse 4, which is actually a quote from 1 Kings 19:18:

18 Yet I reserve seven thousand in Israel-all whose knees have not bowed down to Baal and all whose mouths have not kissed him."

- 1 Kings 19:18

They believe that all they have to do is go and find the 7000 (although I think their number is somewhat larger - I can't remember off the top of my head) who God has chosen - the Elect. Once all of the Elect have been found, God will be able to bring on the judgement day. At least that's the way I understand what they say.

Still wrestling with pre-destination - don't know enough just yet I don't think.

No Weapons

So on the day of the battle not a soldier with Saul and Jonathan had a sword or spear in his hand; only Saul and his son Jonathan had them.

- 1 Samuel 13:22

If they had neither swords nor spears, with what did they make war? Was God teaching them something about dependence? I think He was, particularly in the light of Israel having just demanded a king so that they could be like other nations - and God is replying that even with a human king to lead them, they still could not play the game of nations and war the way the nations around them did.

David worked it out, some 40 plus years later:

Some trust in chariots and some in horses,
but we trust in the name of the LORD our God.

- Psalm 20:7

Servanthood

My church (St. John's, Sutherland) have doing a series on Mark Buchanan's book Your God Is Too Safe. This week's sermon (and book chapter) was on servanthood.

Buchanan makes the point that there is a difference between acts of service and servanthood.

Lorne Sanny, the founder of Navigators, was once asked how you could tell if you really were a servant. "By how you act," he said, "when you're treated like one."

- Mark Buchanan, Your God Is Too Safe, p. 212

Similarly:

Leonard Bernstein, the conductor, was once asked, "What is the hardest instrument to play?" Without a twinge of hesitation, he replied, "Second fiddle. I can always get plenty of first violinists. But to find one who plays second violin with as much enthusiasm, or second French horn, or second flute, no that's a problem. And yet if no one plays second, we have no harmony."

- Mark Buchanan, Your God Is Too Safe, p. 212

So we see that attitude is as important as act. God calls us to have an attitude of servanthood - and then to serve in that attitude.

Naughty Law

For when we were controlled by the sinful nature, the sinful passions aroused by the law were at work in our bodies, so that we bore fruit for death.

- Romans 7:5

What does Paul mean when he talks about the law arousing our sinful passions? He goes on...

7 What shall we say, then? Is the law sin? Certainly not! Indeed I would not have known what sin was except through the law. For I would not have known what coveting really was if the law had not said, "Do not covet." 8But sin, seizing the opportunity afforded by the commandment, produced in me every kind of covetous desire. For apart from law, sin is dead. 9Once I was alive apart from law; but when the commandment came, sin sprang to life and I died. 10 I found that the very commandment that was intended to bring life actually brought death.

- Romans 7:7-10

Is the lesson that we, like little children, will only sin once we know that something is sinful?

Almost makes me wish God might have applied a little selective reverse psychology - "You must eat the fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and none of the other fruit"... except that a) it is not in God's nature to lie and b) such a command would have redefined what sin was anyway. Oh well...

Half-hearted Repentance

3 And Samuel said to the whole house of Israel, "If you are returning to the LORD with all your hearts, then rid yourselves of the foreign gods and the Ashtoreths and commit yourselves to the LORD and serve him only, and he will deliver you out of the hand of the Philistines." 4 So the Israelites put away their Baals and Ashtoreths, and served the LORD only.

- 1 Samuel 7:3-4

Did you note the difference between what Samuel asks and what the people do? Samuel says "Get rid of your idols," but the people simply "put them away." And so the people are hedging their bets - if this God thing doesn't work out, they can always go back to the way things were.

And what is the consequence? Not long after this Israel makes the faux pas of asking Samuel for a king - spitting in the face of God, their real king. Clearly they have once again departed from God's way.

Maybe the two things are related, maybe not. In either case, the "putting away" of the idols indicates to me that Israel were not whole hearted in their repentance. They were sorry about their circumstances, yes, but perhaps were just trying something different - much in the way that we might shift to another church if the one we're in 'isn't feeding us', or to a different exercise program/diet if the one we're on doesn't show instant results. We can always go back if the new one doesn't work, can't we?

God's (Unknowing?) Servant

Then say to them, 'This is what the LORD Almighty, the God of Israel, says: I will send for my servant Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, and I will set his throne over these stones I have buried here; he will spread his royal canopy above them.

- Jeremiah 43:10

How is it that God calls Nebuchadnezzar His servant? I cannot seem to find any reference to Nebuchadnezzar so much as acknowledging God's presence, let alone acknowledging Him. Does this mean that people can be serving God without even knowing it? Where will those people stand on the day of judgement? Will Christ say "I never knew you," or will He instead say "Whilst you never knew me, still I knew you."

A God of War?

Psalm 18 is an interesting psalm - it really brought home to me the martial nature of David's life.

The NIV subtitle suggests that David is giving thanks for deliverance from Saul - with whom he had consistently avoided battle owing to Saul's status as God's anointed king. In spite of this, the bulk of the psalm is centered around images of war.

And so the question raises itself - is our God a God of war? What is His position on when war is justified - indeed can it be justified?

April Foolery

This link tickled my fancy - 100 of the greatest hoaxes ever perpetrated. I particularly like #8, where the Alabama state government introduced legislation to change the value of pi from 3.14159 to the 'biblical' value of 3.0.

Not perfect, but precious

Doing a bit of background reading relating to Psalm 26, one of the commentators suggested that David's crys of "Vindicate me... test...try...examine me" are really his way of asking the great Refiner to refine him. He is not trying to show himself blameless, hence the need for refining, but rather precious.

Did you know?

Jerusalem was once called Salem, and was the capital city of the king and priest Melchizedek who came out from his city to greet Abraham - then called Abram(Genesis 14:18-20).

I learned this whilst researching for a bible study on Psalm 24. The reason it is significant is that God's King, David was entering through those same "ancient doors" (v. 7,9) that were so significant in the journey of Abraham. For Abraham Jerusalem was simply a stop along the way, where he was greeted warmly in the name of the LORD.

For David, his triumphal entrance to the city, dancing with abandon ahead of the Ark of the Covenant signified an end to the wanderings of the Israelites - they were now able to ascend God's "holy hill", Zion, and meet with God if they were willing. The ascension of God's hill then was in many ways the end of an era and the beginning of a new one. In the same way, I look forward to the day when I might ascend God's hill myself, and be with God in heaven - and yet the Bible says I am already there!

OT as history?

Having been watching the ABC Compass documentary "It ain't necessarily so" on Sunday nights for the last three weeks, I have found that I have developed a sudden interest in the Old Testament and how it relates to contemporary (secular) history. I guess I have always considered the old testament to be an authoritative source for history in the region, but watching the documentary doing its level best to turn up discrepancies between biblical evidence and archaeological evidence showed me how much we don't know or can't correlate with other sources.

Whilst it's relatively easy to accept that for things like the creation story or some of the more "poetic" of the OT works, I was astonished that so little evidence seems to exist even to show the exodus from Egypt.

I have resolved that I want to know more.

Insects

Is it significant that the Genesis creation account does not seem to mention insects at all? Does that mean that we are not responsible for looking after them the way we are for all the "beasts of the field and all the birds of the air" (Gen 2:19)?

I'd hate to think I was neglecting my responsibilities every time i killed a cockroach.