Title Page
Also By Gabriel Agbo
Gabriel Agbo | www.authorsden.com/pastorgabrielnagbo | Tel: +234-8037113283 | E-mail: [email protected]
Content | Chapters
Dedication
Introduction
Gabriel Agbo
Chapter One | Power of sacrifice | “There in front of the Tabernacle, Solomon went up to the bronze altar in the LORD’s presence and sacrificed a thousand burnt offerings on it. That night God appeared to Solomon in a dream and said, ‘What do you want? Ask, and I will give it to you!” | 2 Chronicles 1:6-7
“God said to Solomon, ‘Because your greatest desire is to help your people, and you did not ask for personal wealth and honor or the death of your enemies or even long life, but rather you asked for wisdom and knowledge to properly govern my people, I will certainly give you wisdom and knowledge you requested. And I will also give you riches, wealth and honor such as no other king has ever had before you or will ever have again!”
“Each year Solomon received about 25 tons of gold. This did not include the additional revenue he received from merchants and traders. All the kings of Arabia and the governors of the land also brought gold and silver to Solomon. King Solomon made two hundred large shields of hammered gold, each containing over 15 pounds of gold. He also made three hundred smaller shields of hammered gold, each containing about 71/2 pounds of gold. The king placed these shields in the palace of the forest of Lebanon. | The king made a huge ivory throne and overlaid it with pure gold. The throne had six steps, and there was a footstool of gold attached to it. On both sides of the seat were armrests, with the figures of a lion standing on each side of the throne. Solomon made twelve other lion figures, one standing on each end of each of the six steps. No other throne in all the world could be compared with it! | All of King Solomon’s drinking cups were solid gold, as were all the utensils in the palace of the Forest of Lebanon. They were not made of silver because silver was considered of little value in Solomon’s day! The king had fleet of trading ships manned by the sailors sent by Hiram. Once every three years, the ships returned, loaded down with gold, silver, ivory, apes, and peacocks. | So King Solomon became richer and wiser than any other king in all the earth. Kings from every nation came to visit him and to hear the wisdom God had given him. Year after year, everyone who came to visit brought him gifts of silver and gold, clothing, weapons, spices, horses, and mules.”
And what is sacrifice?
The first sacrifice
“And the LORD made clothing from animal skins for Adam and his wife.”
“At harvest time Cain brought to the LORD a gift of his farm produce, while Abel brought several choice lambs from the best of his flock. The LORD accepted Abel and his offering. This made Cain very angry and dejected. ‘Why are you so angry?’ The LORD asked him ‘why do you look so dejected? You will be accepted if you respond in the right way.”
“Then Noah built an altar to the LORD and sacrificed on it the animals and birds that had been approved for that purpose. And the LORD was pleased with the sacrifice and said to himself, “I will never again curse the earth, destroying all living things, even though people’s thought and actions are bent toward evil from childhood. As long as the earth remains, there will be spring time and harvest, cold and heat, winter and summer, day and night. | God blessed Noah and his sons and told them, multiply and fill the earth. All the wild animals, large and small, and all the birds and fish will be afraid of you. I have placed them in your power. I have given them to you for food, just as I have given you grain and vegetables. But now, you must have many children and repopulate the earth. Yes, multiply and fill the earth. | Then God told Noah and his sons, ‘I am making a covenant with you and your descendants and with the animals you brought with you all these birds and livestock and wild animals. I solemnly promise never to send another flood to kill all living creations and destroy the earth’. And God said ‘I am giving you a sign as evidence of my eternal covenant with you and all living creatures. I have placed my rainbow in the clouds: it is the sign of my permanent promise to you and to all the earth. When I send clouds over the earth, the rainbow will be seen in the clouds, and I will remember my covenant with you and with everything that lives. Never again will there be a flood that will destroy all life. When I see the rainbow in the clouds, I will remember the eternal covenant between God and every living creature on earth. Then God said to Noah, ‘yes this is the sign of my covenant with all the creatures of the earth.”
“When the human population began to grow rapidly on earth, the sons of God saw the beautiful women of the human race and took any they wanted as their wives. Then the LORD said, ‘My Spirit will not put up with humans for such a long time, for they are only mortal flesh. In future, they will live no more than 120 years.’ In those days, and even afterward, giants lived on the earth, for whenever the sons of God had intercourse with human women, they gave birth to children who became the heroes mentioned in legends of old.” Genesis 6:1-7
God’s reaction
Covenant
Abraham
“Then the LORD told him, ‘Bring me a three-year-old heifer, a three-year-old female goat, a three-year-old ram, a turtle dove, and a young pigeon’. Abram took all these and killed them. He cut each one down the middle and laid the halves side by side. He did not, however, divide the birds in half. Some vultures come down to eat the carcasses, but Abraham chased them away. That evening, as the sun was going down, Abram fell into a deep sleep. He saw a terrifying vision of darkness and horror. | ‘The LORD told Abram, you can be sure that your descendants will be strangers in a foreign land, and they will be oppressed as slaves for four hundred years. But I will punish the nation that enslaves them, and in the end they will come away with great wealth. (But you will die in peace, at a ripe old age). After four generation your descendents will retun here to this land, when the sin of the Amorites has run its course. As the sun went down and it become dark Abram saw a smoking firepot and a flaming torch pass between the halves of the carcasses. | So the lord made a covenant with Abram that day and said, ‘I have given this land to your descendents, all the way from the border of Egypt to the great Euphrates River – the land of the Kenites, Kenizzites, Kadmonites, Hittites, Perizzites, Henizzites, Kadmonites, Hittites, Perizzites, Rephaites, Amorites, Canaanites, Girgashites, and Jebusites”
Lot saved by sacrifices
“...One