It
Came to Pass
12/18/13
Have
you ever wondered about some of the phrases that are used in the Bible and what
significance those phrases have? The Old Testament is filled with
such phrases and they can become easily ones that are skipped over and
sometimes even ignored. But even these phrases have a definitive
meaning and should signal to the reader that a certain process is taking place
and should not be overlooked. We must never forget that each letter
of the Bible comes from the mouth and heart of God and has a specific meaning
and purpose for each one of us. This means that even certain unusual
phrases that are present are special to someone and will reassure them in some
way.
There
are many of these phrases that we deem as non specific terms, words and
sentences present in the Bible. In those days, it came to pass and
even the word begat are all clumped into this category and many will read these
words and phrases but hardly take the time to find out exactly what is
transpiring in these verses. I must confess that I have read these
types of passages all of my reading life and have not taken any time to
understand exactly what God is trying to convey to me. If the Word
of God is alive then that means every single letter within its contents is
alive and has a purpose in its existence, for God is eternally alive and
therefore cannot write or produce something that is dead or lacks meaning.
The
phrase that I am going to be using for this article is the phrase “it came to
pass.” We see this phrase in many settings within the bible and at
different times of people as well, not to mention that it appears at some very
unusual points in scripture. I am not going to pin down any specific
reference because a person needs to read this passage and understand for
themselves its meaning. The phrase “it came to pass” refers to a
period of time of the individual, couple, group or nation that the passage is
describing. This is a general phrase that points to a specific
period of time that is not effectively annotated in detail. There is
nothing wrong with this type of writing nor did God be vague in these passages
because they are not important.
My point
is this; let us take the life of Adam. How many years does the Bible
say that Adam lived? He lived a bunch more years that you or I will
ever see or want to be around for that matter. My question to you is
this: If a person lives to be just 300 yrs old and is being written about how
much information would you think there would be on that person? According
to the Bible Adam lived to be 930 years of age. His life volume of
information would be almost impossible for our human mind to comprehend. So,
now throw into the mix David, Rachel, Eve, Sarah or Jonah and how much
information would you have to read about then?
By
God using this phrase He is not saying that the details left out of these
people’s lives are unimportant but He is saying that we have the capability to
think and to reason with Godly wisdom in order to give a general account of how
these people made their choices and decisions. Humans cannot simply
get to one point to another in a matter of seconds, it takes time and since
each human is different and unique those patterns, while similar in nature take
on their own characteristics. This is why it is so important that we
read and understand human history. We can learn a lot about life
through the life experiences of others who have come and gone before us. While
everything about their lives may not directly apply to us we will receive
answers to certain questions about life and our lives if we look in the right
places.
There
is a new movie coming out entitled something like “Noah.” It is the
story about the days of Noah and how he was called to build the ark and the
reasons why he was accomplishing this task. In the previews it also
shows how the people of those days were reacting to what Noah was doing. It
showed large crowds approaching him with clubs, sticks and other instruments of
violence in total anger towards his dealings with what God had commanded him to
do. Do you know how long it would take to write about just a few
days of that sort of activity? Instead God leaves this portion of
human events to our understanding through the study of our human past. See,
even in the days of Noah humans had a “human past” that they could refer back
to when and if they wished.
It
came to pass is a logical reference phrase for this usage and it actually
brings out the genius in God. The Bible was written about human and
their activities during their lives but as we know not every detail is brought
into light either. This is where God intended for us to have an
open, reasonable and Godly perspective about humans as we think about life
during those times. If a person reads a passage and places his own
ideas within that context it becomes a biased opinion and interpretation, but if
one places the ideologies of the human heart within that content then one can
view that Biblical life or event within the confines of how God intended for us
to read His word.
The
Bible is totally about you and your life yet at the same time the Bible and
God’s Word is not about you. Your life is of the utmost
to God for He created you in a way that never can be duplicated, even if you
are an identical twin. But when God was writing His Word for you, He
intentionally left out your selfish attitude while He was writing about your
life. It is we who put the selfish attitudes into God’s Word and
justify our beliefs accordingly. If a person reads the Bible with
the concept that God loves and created everyone for a specific purpose then
your foundational reasoning is sound but when you read His passages with a
selfish demeanor you decimate His meaning for your life and the mission that He
has set before you.
The
phrase “it came to pass” follows suit in that God places those words in that
position so that your mind can settle upon the ideas, customs, ways or laws of
that day. It also allows our mind to flow through the person’s day
and how they would react to those laws and the appropriate responses to each
situation. In Mary and Joseph’s case they went to their homeland and
then began a fleeing process due to the laws of the land. Take a
while to think about how it would have been in those days with such laws being
handed down. How would you respond?
God
understands human history far better than you or I could ever imagine. But
even so He allows us to think about what others have accomplished and completed
before we make the same choices. It is a true blessing that god has
allowed us the opportunity to reference our human past in order to make things
better for us during this period of time. Also, what can be better
than for God allowing us to read His Word for our lives and to be able to sit
and contemplate certain events within His Word and put those conditions into
our mindset so that we may have a reference point of how those people acted
back then and to serve as a tool for our actions if and when those types of
circumstances arise in our lifetime. What an example of a living
Word!!
For
those of you who wish to have a secular example, here you go. J “History
reveals” would be the secular comparison to the Biblical passage of “it came to
pass.” Studying church history, agricultural history, European
history, etc serves as the reference point that any student or person reading
about that specific topic. I have watched many documentaries over my
life about numerous subjects and each one of them has a single topic or
reference point that they center their investigations around. This
research process takes time and long hours of thinking, imagining, planning and
conducting the activities to put on a finished product for others to see takes
time, it is not an overnight process. Even a 30 second television
commercial takes at least two days of filming for it to be completed. All
of this and much, much more serves as another example of why God’s Word is
relevant in our world today and it also proves to all mankind that God wants us
to know everything possible about our lives.
If
God would have detailed every aspect of the lives within the Bible then mankind
would say that He is a dictator and spies upon us for His eye is on our every
move. People would have justification to warrant this type of belief
in God had already written down this information. It would be a
standard that would not allow Him to be called Father and a loving Father at
that. The old reasoning of God sitting on His throne with a pencil
with a gigantic eraser on it just waiting for us to mess things up and then
erase our names from His book of life would surely then be accepted as
truth. Instead, God has placed this capability within our hearts to
carry out making it our choice to read, listen, obey, disobey, clown around,
etc with everything choice that has an opportunity to influence us.
One
further example that places emphasis on the ability that God gave us to think
and to reason things through an objective opinion. One of these
days, hopefully in the very distant future my life on this earth will be
over. And someone in the world will find some of these writings that
tell about what God has said to His people. The person searching my
information will eventually find out that I am no longer alive and have gone
from this world. But as they read the material that God has shown
me, it will take them time to complete my transcriptions and then they will
choose to accept or to deny its contents. But when they come across
this article they will have the opportunity to understand what God means by “it
will come to pass” and the very meaning that the phrase was written. It
came to pass means there is an unwritten story there that the reader is free to
think about and if they are honest will think about my life as a messenger to
others and not some biased religious freak that tried to spread propaganda to
others.
God
does not want to control a bunch of robots He desires to have a personal
relationship with each and every one of us. In order for Him to have
this relationship He has given us the ability to think and to make
choices. God has already stated His desires for our lives and has
provided countless examples and reference points to corroborate this
fact. It came to pass is not a meaningless phrase that we should
skip over and continue our reading. It is a phrase in which God
wishes for us to stop and to take time to think about all details that the
people in those passages were dealing with and going through. For one
day we might be faced with a similar situation or you might hear of a friend
who is facing the same situation. This is when we are to learn about
our lives before we actually have to experience things and this is another
reason why the Bible is relevant in our world and in our personal lives today.
DLB
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