The Most Unbelievable Story in the Bible

Have you heard the most unbelievable story in the Bible?

It’s not Jonah surviving an encounter with a giant fish.
It’s not God parting the Red Sea.
It’s not Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead.

Even St. Jerome can't believe it. (dbking, CC)

No, the most unbelievable story in the Bible is a less well-known one.

Why the Fourth Commandment Holds the Key to Heaven: Part II

Israel was on the precipice, and they blew it.

They had come so far only to let fear rule them at the penultimate hour.

Had they only trusted in God, they would have—at long last—had rest. Instead they gave in to fear and turned their backs on the LORD.

Last time we looked at the Fourth Commandment as a metaphor: our six days’ work is to be obedient and remain faithful to God. The seventh day is rest that only God can provide—heaven.

Allow me to continue that metaphor for another week with a cautionary tale from the Old Testament.

Why The Fourth Commandment Holds the Key to Freedom

I felt like a slave.

I wasn’t doing any hard labor. I didn’t spend long hours in the sun.

But I felt just as exhausted at the end of the day.

I spent nearly an hour in traffic commuting to work, risking my life and destroying my car—the cost of suburban living and urban work.

I was stressed out before I even got to my job which was often stressful itself.

Then another hour in traffic.

I fought going to sleep because that meant the next day would come sooner.

I didn’t even notice how tired I really was until I changed jobs. I had become accustomed to it.

I had accepted it.

Rest Means Freedom

We don’t often realize we are held in bondage if the chains are metaphysical. The chains of alcoholism, workaholism and lust may not be material, but they are real.

A Quick Way to Gain a Deeper Understanding of the Christmas Story

It was if I had never read the Christmas story before.

There on the page of a child's book, the story was totally foreign to me.

That frigid night my son and I sat by the window sill—the cold air bleeding through the panes, doling out goosebumps. With son on my knee, we read through the entire Christmas story culled from all three of the synoptic gospel accounts.

Maybe it was the simplicity of the book or the setting in which we read, but something about those words struck me that night.

An angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream. “Get up,” he said, “take the child and his mother and escape to Egypt. Stay there until I tell you, for Herod is going to search for the child to kill him.”

Matthew 2:13

You’ve probably read this verse before. I know I had.

And while it might seem like a side note to the story of Christ, it actually holds the key to why Jesus came to earth.

Let me explain.