6th Century BC stone tablet revealing the Tower of Babel and King Nebuchadnezzar II

See, I have set before thee this day life and good, and death and evil; In that I command thee this day to love the Lord thy God, to walk in his ways, and to keep his commandments and his statutes and his judgments, that thou mayest live and multiply: and the Lord thy God shall bless thee in the land whither thou goest to possess it. But if thine heart turn away, so that thou wilt not hear, but shalt be drawn away, and worship other gods, and serve them; ~ Deuteronomy 30:15-17

As an introduction to today’s post, let me say this about the origins of biblical history.

Every single artifact or scribble dug out of the sand in the Middle East corroborates and vindicates Jewish and Christian scripture. Every. Single. One.

Even when rare artifacts are discovered which seem to run counter to those scriptures, eventually as  yet more further discoveries are made and our 21st century understanding is deepened, Judeo-Christian scriptures are proven accurate time and time again. Secular archaeologists and experts try to hide this fact or at least ignore it, but it is true.

Isaiah 55: 8-9

We have much more physical and true recorded evidence supporting Christian scripture and its accounts of Creation, the Flood, the Exodus, the Blood Line of the Messiah, and ultimately Christ’s life, death, burial and resurrection, than any so called scientists, archaeologists and historians will admit.

The Bible is as much a book of historical facts as it is a book on moral guides of conduct. Confusing the two is a frequent error from casual readers. With the exception of (sinless) Jesus and perhaps Daniel and John the Baptist, every other human depicted in the Book is shown with his sins, warts and all. Abraham sinned. This is one of the characteristics that make the Bible even more credible; it doesn’t fear handling the truth about humankind.

The whole Old Testament environment was indeed barbaric, since the Holy Spirit was not restraining evil at the time, but it is the same God as in the New. The barbarism only reinforces the mess that sin created and the need of redemption.

Ancient scribbles found which verify the biblical account of Moses? I’m not surprised in the least.

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Which leads us into the topic at hand, “Moses vindicated” as described by Randolph Parrish in American Thinker…

Thirty-five hundred years ago, slaves toiling in the harsh mines of the Sinai scribbled some graffiti on the desert rocks. One of them wrote: “Moses then provoked astonishment.” That, plus a lot of other inscriptions, deserves more than a passing glance.

Most of us know about the Exodus and Moses, courtesy of Cecil B. DeMille and Charlton Heston. But archaeological evidence of those events has been slow to come by. Now, in a new book, The World’s Oldest Alphabet, Douglas Petrovich has deciphered the Sinai inscriptions, and for the first time outside the Bible, we can read how the slaves looked at things:

“He sought occasion to cut away to barrenness our great number, our swelling without measure.” (Sinai 349)

“Our bond servitude had lingered. Moses then provoked astonishment. It is a year of astonishment.” (Sinai 361)

Face of Moses in the House of Representatives…

Anyone familiar with the Book of Exodus will immediately spot parallels with the account of Pharaoh’s attempt to reduce the number of newborn Israelites and the subsequent actions of Moses. (Many of the Sinai inscriptions can be viewed with a simple Google search.)

So much, then, for the dismissive arguments that the Israelites could never have numbered enough to be considered a threat to Egypt. Or that there never was an Exodus. Or that Moses never existed.

So much, then, also, for the JEPD theory of the Pentateuch (written, according to the theory, by a variety of late authors with varying concepts about the nature of God). So much for the idea that the Israelites never lived in Egypt at all, or were just a group of wandering tribes who made up most of their history centuries later. All washed away like Pharaoh’s chariots.

All this should be headlines, but it isn’t.

Petrovich also demonstrates how the first alphabet was likely created not by paleo-Canaanites or Phoenicians, but by the Hebrews, who developed it by adapting Egyptian picture images for their own use during their 400-year stay in Egypt. This, in fact, was probably the world’s first truly phonetic alphabet. History, which usually credits that to the merchants in the Levant, may have to be revised on this score also. 

The book is not an easy read.  It is a scholarly work, laden to overflowing with citations, notes, references, and cross-checking.  It is a philologist’s delight. It is not written for a popular audience. (The author intends to follow it up with another volume on the Israelites in Egypt.)

If we were less preoccupied with safe spaces, trigger warnings, the introduction of all-inclusive pronouns, gender-neutral everything, and the latest Hollywood scandals, we might have taken notice of more important discoveries. But a self-absorbed society and the mainstream media’s agendas have kept the focus elsewhere. This is to be regretted, because in the meantime, genuinely significant news has been passing us by.

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The case of Israel is especially important and unique, in the perspective that it was the means by which redemption would come. Things were tough before the cross and the devil ruled everything on Earth. The alternative would be some cheap mercy on those unrepentant sinners, a wrecked plan of redemption and everybody, both us and the Golden Calf worshipers, ending up in hell. What kind of God would be so incompetent?

Indeed, God’s justice is the hardest cookie to swallow for men. The Judeo-Christian Bible is the Eternal Book of Truth. It’s as simple as that.

I denounce unto you this day, that ye shall surely perish, and that ye shall not prolong your days upon the land, whither thou passest over Jordan to go to possess it. I call heaven and earth to record this day against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing: therefore choose life, that both thou and thy seed may live: That thou mayest love the Lord thy God, and that thou mayest obey his voice, and that thou mayest cleave unto him: for he is thy life, and the length of thy days: that thou mayest dwell in the land which the Lord sware unto thy fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give them. ~ Deuteronomy 30:18-20

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H/T Randolph Parrish and American Thinker

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Face of Jesus by Richard Hook

Soli Deo Gloria!