Devotional for February 7, 2012
Posted by admin | Posted in devotional, inspiration | Posted on 07-02-2012
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So the LORD made a covenant with Abram that day and said, “I have given this land to your descendants, all the way from the border of Egypt to the great Euphrates River…land now occupied by the…Hittites…” Genesis 15:18-20)
Reliable record
God’s promise to give Abraham innumerable descendants was accompanied by a parallel promise. In addition to all of the people, the Lord would also give these descendants a place to live. Specifically, He would give them the section of land stretching from the eastern edge of Egypt to the Euphrates River, a section of land known then as Canaan.
In those days, Canaan was populated with various tribes and clans of people; and the Bible tells us that among these there was a group of people called the Hittites. The Hittites have a significant presence throughout the Old Testament and are mentioned over forty different times.
What’s so significant about that? Well, after the Hittites had been destroyed, the world’s memory of them began to fade altogether until the only surviving record of them was in the Bible. No other historical sources referred to the Hittites, and for many years skeptics mocked the Bible because it made reference to this people group. "Surely, the Bible must be wrong because nobody else knows anything about the Hittites," critics said.
Then, in 1870, a discovery was made. A group of tablets known as the Tel el-Amarna Tablets were uncovered in Egypt, and they clearly identified the existence of an ancient race of people called the Hittites. Not only that, but as archeologists dug deeper, they found more evidence of the Hittite’s existence. This obsolete people group was described as having the third most powerful empire in the ancient world at one time.
Again, just a few years previously, people were discrediting the Bible because it was the only known record that referred to the Hittites. In hindsight, however, the Bible’s validity has been powerfully confirmed, and is trustworthiness concerning historical people, places, and things should never come into question.
