Benoni

by Frederick Hoehn, copyright 2016, all rights reserved.

Chapter 1

Benoni is a name right out of the Bible, from the book of Genesis, the book of beginnings.   

In Genesis, we read about Adam and Eve, about Noah and the Ark, about Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, whose name God changed to Israel.    

God arranged for there to be twelve tribes of Israel.  The name of each tribe is the name of one of the sons of Israel.

But those twelve sons were not all the sons of one mother.

Back in those days, a man might have more than one wife.  

There had been friction between the two brothers, Jacob and Esau, because of the birthright that Esau sold to Jacob, and because of the blessings in which their Father, Isaac, had blessed Jacob with a better blessing than Esau.  

So, Esau was of a mind to kill his brother Jacob.  

So Isaac and Rebekah sent Jacob off to Rebekah's brother, Laban, in Haran. (Gen chapt 27)  

Laban had two daughters, Leah and Rachel.

Jacob wanted Rachel for his wife.  

Jacob told Laban, "I'll work for you for seven years to get Rachel as my wife," and Laban agreed to the deal.  

But Laban tricked Jacob, and gave him Leah instead.

But Jacob could also have Rachel if Jacob would agree to another seven years of work.  

So Jacob had the two wives.

But also, each of the two daughters, Leah and Rachel, had a handmaid that also became Jacob's concubines.  The four mothers produced twelve sons and a daughter, Dinah.  

Rachel's first son was Joseph, who found favor with Pharaoh in Egypt, and became second in command in Egypt.

But Rachel had a difficult childbirth with her second son, and died giving birth.  As she was dying, she named the child, Benoni, which means, "The Son of my Sorrow."

But Israel didn't like that name, and changed his name to Benjamin, "The Son of my Right Hand."  

Yes, that's a much better name, isn't it?

In fact, it was the tribe of Benjamin that later gave us Paul the Apostle, who wrote more than half the number of books of the New Testament (the twenty seven books from Matthew through Revelation.)

But things get a little more complicated regarding the tribes of Israel.

Israel got sick and would soon die.

Joseph went to see his Father, Israel, taking along his two sons, Manasseh and Ephraim.

Israel would give blessings on his twelve sons before he died.

At that time, in Gen 48:5, Israel said that Joseph's two sons, Manasseh and Ephraim, were Israel's sons.

So we later hear about the tribe of Manasseh and the tribe of Ephraim, in addition to the tribe of Joseph.   

And also, at that time, Israel set Ephraim before Manasseh, even though Manasseh was the firstborn. 

We read in Prov 22:1 that, "A good name is rather to be chosen than great riches, and loving favor rather than silver and gold."

Some people have a good name because they were born with it.  

In England, you could be knighted by the Queen for exceptional performance or valor.  

Didn't Actor Richard Burton become Sir Richard Burton?

Didn't Winston Churchill become Sir Winston Churchill?

But there are many heroes in the Bible who earned good names for themselves for their outstanding performance.  

Joseph was hated by his brothers and was sold into slavery in Egypt.  But Joseph continued to trust in God, who promoted Joseph to the second in command of Egypt.  

David earned a name as the defeater of the giant, Goliath, and as a great General in the Army.  

Samson earned a name as a mighty man of valor who had great physical strength.  

Daniel became an important Prophet during the Babylonian captivity.  Do you remember Daniel in the lion's den, from the book of Daniel?

But though there were a lot of heroes in the Old Testament, when you get over into the New Testament, very early on, we see a hero that outshines all other heroes, ever, anywhere.   

He is King of Kings, and Lord of Lords, the virgin-born Son of God, the Lord Jesus Christ.  

He lived a sinless life, taught the people, healed the sick, raised the dead, cast out demons. (2 Cor 5:21, Matt, Mark, Luke, John)

He was wrongfully sentenced to death on the cross of crucifixion by the Roman Governor, Pontius Pilate.  

Jesus died for the sins of the world.  

Chapter 2

Jesus is the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. (Rev 13:8)

From the foundation of the world, God knew that there would have to be a Messiah, a Savior to save us from our sins.  That Messiah, and that Prophet is Jesus.    

In the Old Testament, under the laws of Moses, that Moses got from God, animals were sacrificed for the sins of the people.  

Without the shedding of blood, there is no remission of sins. (Heb 9:22)

Someone might say, "But that's New Testament."

O.K., but if you'll look in the margin of a good reference Bible at Heb 9:22, it will give you the Old Testament passage, from the Mosaic law, that says that sins aren't forgiven without the shedding of blood.  

Because of moving around some, from one city to another, although I have a Bible, it is not a reference Bible with the margins.  It's just a Bible that I got at Walmart, locally.   

Walmart doesn't specialize in Bibles for serious students of the Bible.  

I'm sure I could get a good reference Bible, but it's looking like I'll be moving again.  

Jesus said, "When they persecute you in this city, flee into another." (Matt 10:23)

But animal sacrifices have been done away with.  That was just temporary.  

Jesus is the ultimate, once-and-for-all sacrifice for our sins.  

Those animal sacrifices were just a foreshadowing of Jesus' sacrifice.  

We find the words that Jesus spoke during his life on earth mainly in the books of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, the four books following the book of Malachi in the Holy Bible.  

The Holy Bible is the sixty six books from Genesis to Revelation.  The thirty nine books of the Old Testament, plus the twenty seven books of the New Testament.  

If you get a "red letter edition" of the Bible, or of the New Testament, you'll have the words of Jesus in red ink, while the other words are in black ink.  

A red letter edition helps to call our attention to the words of the Greatest Man Who Ever Walked the Face of the Earth.  

Does that status make his words important?  Of course it does.

The words of Jesus tell us how to go to heaven after our lives on earth, and how to avoid a nasty place called hell, where their worms don't die, and where the fire is never quenched, and where there's crying and gnashing of teeth, says Jesus.  

Jesus warned us that we will all go either to heaven or to hell.  

Jesus said, "You MUST be born again." (John chapt 3)

To become a born again Christian, obey Romans 10:9,10--

"That if you confess the Lord Jesus with your mouth, and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you're saved.  For with the heart man believes for righteousness, and with the mouth, confession is made for salvation."

"But what if I don't get born again?"

Then you don't go to heaven.  Instead, you go to hell.

Those are the only two choices?

Yes.

But what about Purgatory?

Purgatory is a false teaching from the Catholic church and is not supported by scripture from the Holy Bible.  

Regarding the Catholic church, Jesus said, "Come out of her, my people." (Rev 18:4)

The Boxer, Muhammad Ali, recently passed on.  

They showed on TV how Muhammad Ali got involved in philanthropic activities, to insure himself a place in heaven.  

Sorry, that's WRONG.

No one can earn for themselves a place in heaven.

You get to heaven by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.  You get born again.  

Before Muhammad Ali had that name, he was Cassius Clay.  

He changed his name to Muhammad Ali, a Muslim name.  

The Muslims don't have Jesus as their Savior, and don't believe that Jesus is the Son of God.

The religion of the Muslims is Islam, and Islam doesn't get you to heaven.  

They said on TV today that it's the start of Ramadan, a holy month in the religion of Islam.  They do extra prayer and fasting.

Does that get them to heaven?

No, you MUST be born again, and accept the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, as Lord and Savior.

But the Muslims say that Jesus is not the Son of God.  

They are very much mistaken. 

What a pity.  

Islam is a religion invented by Satan, for the purpose of sending people to hell.  

___James chapter 1
 1 James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, to the twelve tribes that are dispersed around, greetings.
 2 My brothers, count it all joy when you fall into various temptations,
 3 Knowing this, that the testing of your faith works patience.
 4 But let patience have its perfect work, so you'll be perfect and complete, lacking nothing.
 5 If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God for it, who gives to all men liberally, and won't find fault, and it shall be given to him.
 6 But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering.  For he that wavers is like a wave of the sea driven by the wind and tossed.
 7 For let that man not think that he'll receive anything from the Lord.
 8 A double minded man is unstable in all his ways.
 9 Let the brother of low degree rejoice in that he is exalted,
 10 But the rich, in that he is made low, because as the flower of the grass he'll pass away.
 11 For the sun has no sooner risen with a burning heat, but it withers the grass, and the flower of it falls, and the grace of the fashion of it perishes, so also shall the rich man fade away in his ways.
 12 Blessed is the man that endures temptation, for after he's been tested, he'll receive the crown of life, that the Lord has promised to those who love him.
 13 Let no man say when he is tempted, "I am tempted by God," for God can't be tempted with evil, nor does he tempt any man,
 14 But every man is tempted, when he is drawn away by his own lust, and enticed.
 15 Then when lust has conceived, it produces sin, and sin when it's finished, produces death.
 16 Do not err, my beloved brothers.
 17 Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, nor shadow of turning.
 18 He chose to father us with the word of truth, so that we would be a kind of first fruits of his creatures.
 19 So, my beloved brothers, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger,
 20 For the anger of man doesn't accomplish the righteousness of God.
 21 So, lay apart all filthiness and the unnecessary naughtiness, and receive with meekness the engrafted word, which is able to save your souls.
 22 But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves.
 23 For if anyone is a hearer of the word, and not a doer, he is like a man seeing his natural face in a mirror,
 24 For he sees himself, and goes his way, and immediately forgets what kind of man he was.
 25 But whoever looks into the perfect law of liberty, and continues in it, he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed.
 26 If any man among you seems to be religious, and doesn't bridle his tongue, but deceives his own heart, this man's religion is for nothing.
 27 Pure religion and undefiled before God the Father is this, to visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world.

___James chapter 2
 1 My brothers, don't have the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory, with respect of persons.
 2 For if a man with a gold ring comes to your assembly in fancy clothes, and a poor man in dirty clothes comes in also,
 3 And you have respect to him that wears the fancy clothes, and say to him, "Sit here in a good place," and say to the poor, "Stand there, or sit here under my footstool,"
 4 Aren't you then partial in yourselves, and have become judges with evil thoughts?
 5 Listen, my beloved brothers, hasn't God chosen the poor of this world rich in faith, and heirs of the kingdom that he has promised to those who love him?
 6 But you have despised the poor.  Don't rich men oppress you, and bring you before the judgment seats?
 7 Don't they blaspheme that worthy name by which you're called?
 8 If you fulfill the royal law according to the scripture, "You shall love your neighbor like yourself," you do well,
 9 But if you have respect of persons, you commit sin, and are convicted by the law as sinners.
 10 For whoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all.
 11 For he that said, "Do not commit adultery," also said, "Do not kill."  Now if you don't commit adultery, yet if you kill, you've become a breaker of the law.
 12 Speak in such a way, and do, as those who'll be judged by the law of liberty.
 13 For he shall have judgment without mercy, that has shown no mercy, and mercy rejoices against judgment.
 14 What does it profit, my brothers, though a man says he has faith, and doesn't have works?  Can faith save him?
 15 If a brother or sister needs clothes, and lacks daily food,
 16 And one of you says to them, "Depart in peace, be warmed and filled," but you don't give them the things that are needed for the body, what good is that?
 17 Even so faith, if it doesn't have works, is dead, being alone.
 18 Yes, a man could say, "You have faith, and I have works, show me your faith without your works, and I'll show you my faith by my works."
 19 You believe that there is one God, you do well, the devils also believe, and tremble.
 20 But don't you know, O vain man, that faith without works is dead?
 21 Wasn't Abraham our father justified by works, when he had offered Isaac his son on the altar?
 22 Do you see how faith worked with his deeds, and by works faith was made perfect?
 23 And the scripture was fulfilled that says, "Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness, and he was called the friend of God."
 24 You see then how that by works a man is justified, and not by faith only.
 25 Likewise also wasn't Rahab the prostitute justified by works, when she had received the messengers, and had sent them out another way?
 26 For like the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also.

___James chapter 3
 1 My brothers, don't be many masters, knowing that we'll receive the greater condemnation.
 2 For in many things we offend all.  If any man doesn't offend in word, the same is a perfect man, and able also to bridle the whole body.
 3 See, we put bits in the horses' mouths, so they'll obey us, and we turn around their whole bodies.
 4 Look also at the ships, which though they're so large, and are driven by fierce winds, yet they're turned around by a very small helm, wherever the captain wants.
 5 Even so, the tongue is a little member, and boasts great things.  See how great a matter a little fire kindles!
 6 And the tongue is a fire, a world of sin, so is the tongue among our members that it makes dirty the whole body, and sets on fire the course of nature, and it is set on fire by hell.
 7 For every kind of animals, and of birds, and of snakes, and of things in the sea, gets tamed, and has been tamed by mankind,
 8 But no man can tame the tongue, it is an unruly evil, full of deadly poison.
 9 With it we bless God, the Father, and with it we curse men, who are made after the likeness of God.
 10 Out of the same mouth proceed blessing and cursing.  My brothers, these things ought not to be.
 11 Does a fountain send out at the same place sweet water and bitter?
 12 Can the fig tree, my brothers, produce olive berries?  Or a vine, figs?  So no fountain can yield both salt water and fresh.
 13 Who is a wise man, possessing knowledge among you?  Let him show out of a good lifestyle his works with meekness of wisdom.
 14 But if you have bitter envying and strife in your hearts, don't glory, and don't lie against the truth.
 15 This wisdom doesn't descend from above, but is earthly, sensual, devilish.
 16 For where envying and strife is, there is confusion and every evil work.
 17 But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, and easy to be reasoned with, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality, and without hypocrisy.
 18 And the fruit of righteousness is planted in peace by those who make peace.

___James chapter 4
 1 Where do wars and fightings among you come from?  Don't they come from your lusts that war in your members?
 2 You lust, and don't have, you kill, and desire to have, and can't obtain, you fight and war, yet you don't have, because you don't ask.
 3 You ask, and don't receive, because you ask wrongly, so you can consume it on your lusts.
 4 You adulterers and adulteresses, don't you know that friendship with the world makes you an enemy of God?  Whoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world is an enemy of God.
 5 Do you think that the scripture says for nothing, "The spirit that lives in us lusts to envy?"
 6 But he gives more grace.  So he says, "God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble."
 7 Submit yourselves therefore to God.  Resist the devil, and he'll run away from you.
 8 Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you.  Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double minded.
 9 Be afflicted, and mourn, and cry, let your laughter be turned to mourning, and your joy to heaviness.
 10 Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he'll lift you up.
 11 Don't speak evil about each other, brothers.  He that speaks evil about his brother, and judges his brother, speaks evil about the law, and judges the law, but if you judge the law, you're not a doer of the law, but a judge.
 12 There is one lawgiver, who is able to save and to destroy, who are you that judges someone else?
 13 Go on now, you who say, "Today or tomorrow we'll go into such a city, and continue there a year, and buy and sell, and make a profit,"
 14 Actually, you don't know what will happen tomorrow.  For what is your life?  It is a puff of steam, that appears for a little time, and then vanishes away.
 15 For you ought to say, "Lord willing, we'll live, and do this, or that."
 16 But now you rejoice in your boastings, all such rejoicing is evil.
 17 Therefore to him that knows to do good, and doesn't do it, to him it is sin.

___James chapter 5
 1 Go on now, you rich men, cry and howl for your miseries that shall come on you.
 2 Your riches are corrupted, and your clothes are moth eaten.
 3 Your gold and silver are rusted, and the rust of them shall be a witness against you, and shall eat your flesh like fire.  You've heaped treasure together for the last days.
 4 See, the wages of the laborers who have reaped down your fields, which you've kept back by fraud, shouts, and the shouts of those who've reaped have entered into the ears of the Lord of Sabbath.
 5 You've lived in pleasure on the earth, and been wanton, you've nourished your hearts, like in a day of slaughter.
 6 You've condemned and killed the just, and he doesn't resist you.
 7 Be patient therefore, brothers, until the coming of the Lord.  See, the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the earth, and has long patience for it, until he receives the early and latter rain.
 8 You also be patient.  Establish your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is getting near.
 9 Don't grudge against each other, brothers, so you won't be condemned, see, the judge stands at the door.
 10 Take, my brothers, the prophets, who've spoken in the name of the Lord, for an example of suffering affliction, and of patience.
 11 See, we count them happy that endure.  You've heard of the patience of Job, and have seen the end of the Lord, that the Lord is very pitiful, and of tender mercy.
 12 But above all things, my brothers, don't swear, not by heaven, nor by the earth, nor by any other oath, but let your yes be yes, and your no, no, so that you don't fall into condemnation.
 13 Is anyone among you afflicted?  Let him pray.  Is anyone merry?  Let him sing psalms.
 14 Is anyone sick among you?  Let him call for the elders of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord,
 15 And the prayer of faith shall save the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up, and if he has committed sins, he'll be forgiven.
 16 Confess your faults to each other, and pray for each other so you'll be healed.  The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man is does a lot of good.
 17 Elijah was a man subject to the same kind of passions that we are, and he prayed earnestly that it wouldn't rain, and it didn't rain on the earth for three years and six months.
 18 And he prayed again, and the heaven gave rain, and the earth produced its fruit.
 19 Brothers, if any of you strays from the truth, and someone converts him,
 20 Let him know, that he that converts the sinner from the error of his way shall save a soul from death, and shall hide a multitude of sins.