One of the attacks made against the Bible is to suggest that its information can’t be true.
Sometimes this attack seems to spawn in human experience, such as by thinking, “I have never seen a miracle, so I can’t be sure they really happen”. Or maybe they might think, “I asked God for something and He didn’t give it to me, so maybe what the Bible says is not true.”
People ideologically opposed to God and the Bible will actively seek ways to discredit it, suggesting contradictions, false claims, inconsistencies and the like. Whatever their motivation they are playing into the hands of the enemy who loves to attack God’s Word.
I knew a man in my youth who opposed the idea of God healing today because he had prayed much for someone he loved who was never healed. His conclusion then became that God does not heal today.
In these and many other situations people can become blinded to the truth of God’s Word.
Let me remind you what the Bible says about God’s claims, that they are to be upheld as true, despite what any man claims.
“Let God be true, but every man a liar” Romans 3:4
The wisest thing you can do is to hold firm to God’s Word, the Bible, confident that in the end it will prove to be true, despite the many attacks made against it.
There are many examples of things popularly promoted as attacks on the Bible, which proved to be empty. Often the attack is made as a headline and the truth never admitted or allowed only as a footnote where few will find it.
Various Biblical facts, places and people were challenged as fabricated by the writers or later editors of the text. Archaeology, however, consistently revealed things previously unknown except in the Bible record, attesting to the accuracy and historicity of the Bible writings.
Mid last century a popular attack on the Bible was against the claim of the Red Sea opening and then drowning the Egyptian army. It was revealed by Bible translators that the word translated ‘Red Sea’ could and should be translated as ‘Reed Sea’, or Sea of Reeds. This suggests a shallow body of water, where maybe the people could wade through, instead of walking through on dry ground miraculously as the Bible records.
There were scoffers who picked this up and delighted to attack the Bible at suggesting the crossing could be difficult or that an army drowned in the water. It was suggested that the account was fiction, concocted to give the Israelites a sense of divine support, that wasn’t really there.
Several Bible translations have in their footnotes that the word Red Sea is actually Reed Sea, or Sea of Reeds. The tide of popular scholarship intimidated Bible translators and publishers to include this information in their text, maybe so readers can make up their own mind about how credible the account of the Red Sea miracle crossing could be.
However this is a very one-sided presentation of the facts. We know from other texts in the Bible that this Sea of Reeds was a deep and navigable body of water, able to sustain a fleet of ships.
“King Solomon also assembled a fleet of ships at Ezion-geber, which is near Eloth in Edom, on the shore of the Red Sea (Sea of Reeds). And Hiram sent his servants, men who knew the sea, to serve in the fleet with Solomon’s servants. They sailed to Ophir and imported gold from there—420 talents (approximately 15 tons) — and delivered it to Solomon.” 1Kings 9:26-28
Here the term ‘Red Sea’ or ‘Sea of Reeds’ clearly refers to a large body of deep water. This is no shallow marshy body of water or swamp as has been suggested, or a fleet of ships would never sail out to the world from there.
The term ‘Sea of Reeds’ does not mean a shallow body of water. That same term is repeatedly used to refer to an ocean like sea.
Note other references to Solomon’s fleet which we know sailed the Sea of Reeds.
“For the king had the ships of Tarshish at sea with Hiram’s fleet, and once every three years the ships of Tarshish would arrive bearing gold, silver, ivory, apes, and peacocks.” 1Kings 10:22
There were other ships sailing out of Eziongeber, on the Sea of Reeds.
“Jehoshaphat built ships of Tarshish to go to Ophir for gold, but they never set sail, because they were wrecked at Ezion-geber.” 1Kings 22:48
Bible scholars tell us that ‘ships of Tarshish’ were “large and heavy merchant ships”. So once again we see that the Sea of Reeds was not a shallow watercourse, but sufficient to sustain a fleet of heavy merchant ships that could sail to Africa and beyond.
I use this example to show that you will confront people who will mock your trust in the Bible, pointing out things that are true (the word Red Sea is accurately translated as Sea of Reeds) and making implications that are not true. A patient look at all the facts presented overturns the arrogant and derogatory assumptions of those who oppose the Bible.
The best source of confirmation is in the Bible itself, as in this case, by comparing facts with facts. At other times it will be outside information, such as from real scientific investigation or archaeology. In time the attacking voices will be proven wrong, as has happened time and again in the past. The important thing for you to do is to See the Truth, and the best way to do that is to take a firm stand for the Bible as the revealed Word of God and to See clearly what it says and how that applies to your life.
Leave a Reply