Gane, Roy

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Andrews UniversityDigital Commons @ Andrews UniversityFaculty Publications Old TestamentApril 2010The Head and Not the TailRoy GaneAndrews University, gane@andrews.eduFollow this and additional works at: http://digitalcommons.andrews.edu/old-testament-pubsPart of the Biblical Studies Commons, and the Christianity CommonsThis Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Old Testament at Digital Commons @ Andrews University. It has been accepted forinclusion in Faculty Publications by an authorized administrator of Digital Commons @ Andrews University. For more information, please contactrepository@andrews.edu.Recommended CitationGane, Roy, "The Head and Not the Tail" (2010). Faculty Publications. Paper 36.http://digitalcommons.andrews.edu/old-testament-pubs/365756tact and can be “recognized” by anti-bodies. She is able also to sequencethese proteins by mass spectrometryand has identified eight collagenpolypeptide sequences in the Hadro -saur fossil. About the amazing preser-vation of the bone matrix, Schweitzerwrites, “The matrix was virtually in-distinguishable from recent deminer-alized ostrich bone imaged under thesame parameters.”v It is truly remark-able that an 80 million-year-old Had -rosaur’s bone matrix and the bonematrix of an ostrich look almostidentical under the microscope.The evidence may be suggestingthat either the soft tissue somehowcan survive 80 million years of back-ground radiation (biologists doubtthat soft issue can survive for 10,000years), or the dinosaur fossil is not 80million years old, but rather thou-sands of years old. While on the onehand the raw radiometric readingsexist, on the other hand, the amazingpreservation of soft tissue in the fos-silized bones cannot be denied.Scientists will no doubt go backto their laboratories to attempt tofind a theory explaining how soft tis-sue may be preserved for 80 millionyears, across geological time. Inlight, however, of Bada’s claim thatthe great amount of uranium andthorium that fossil bones naturallyabsorb will wipe out biomoleculesover a period of millions of years, itseems more probable that the an-swer to this puzzle maybe found inrevisiting the theory and assump-tions of radiometric dating. In thisinstance, it is particularly necessaryto distinguish between the radio-metric readings and the interpreta-tion of the readings. What is clear is that the theory ofmacro-evolution needs millions ofyears in order to function. The im-plications of Schweitzer’s researchare significant. Because the validityof her initial claim of discoveringsoft tissue containing biomoleculesin dinosaur bones has now beencon firmed, her latest researchstrongly suggests that there may notbe enough time for macro-evolutionto be real. This conclusion is deeplyencouraging to creationists who byfaith accept that life on earth is re-cent. Again, the truth of the unfail-ing reliability of the Word of God isbeing supported by the records ofnature, God’s second book. Correction: In the previous “Faithand Science Update” entitled “AMountain of Evidence” (PD, 12:4, p.50), the sentence beginning “Only theCambrian granite of Steamboat Rock. . .” should read “Only the basalt ma-terial of Steamboat Rock. . . .”REFERENCESi D. B. DeYoung, Thousands, Not Billions:Challenging an Icon of Evolution: Questioningthe Age of the Earth (Green Forest, Ark.: Mas-ter Books, 2005).iiPerspective Digest 11:3 (2006), pp. 58-60. iiiMary H. Schweitzer, et al., “BiomolecularCharacterization and Protein Sequences ofthe Campanian Hadrosaur B. Canadensis,”Science, No. 324 (2009), pp. 626-639. ivB. Yeoman, “Schweitzer’s DangerousDiscovery,” Discover (April 2006), pp. 37-41.v Mary H. Schweitzer, et al., ibid.euteronomy 28:1 prom -ises: “‘Now it shall be, ifyou diligently obey theLord your God, beingcareful to do all Hiscommandments which I com-mand you today, the Lord your Godwill set you high above all the nationsof the earth.’”It is a signal honor to be “‘highabove all the nations of the earth.’”Many feel this way about their homecountry. My family and I felt proud ofour country when we visited the Ken -nedy Space Center and gazed in aweon a colossal Saturn V rocket. Suchmind-bogglingly complex and pow-erful machines produced millions ofpounds of thrust to propel Apollo as-tronauts literally high above all thenations of the Earth—a quarter of amillion miles to the Moon. Team-work, vast resources, and awesomebrain power accomplished somethingthat no other country has done. We were also proud on the morn-ing of January 16, 2003, as we sat bythe water at Port Canaveral, Florida,looking intently at a bulbous object afew miles away. All at once, acloud of smoke arose, andspace shuttle Columbia majes-tically rode a fiery plume intospace one more time—one lasttime. Is this what Deuteronomy is talk-ing about—human achievement byhuman strength and expertise, suchas winning the space race or thearms race, or Switzerland shuttingout New Zealand 5-0 in an America’sCup yacht race? No. In Deuteron-omy 28:1, it is the Lord who achievesthe lofty placement of His people.The next verse says: “All theseblessings will come upon you andovertake you if you obey the Lordyour God.” This is a radical para-digm shift: Rather than human be-ings pursuing success and thenachieving their goal, it is success thatpursues them. David expresses thesame idea at the end of his Shep-herd’s Psalm: “Surely your goodnessand unfailing love will pursue me allthe days of my life, and I will live inthe house of the Lord forever” (Ps.23:6; NLT).DT H E  P R E S I D E N T ’ S  D E S KRoy E. GaneTHE HEADAND NOT THE TAIL59Other peoples, who lacked thecovenant connection, were notbound by the constraints that wentwith Israel’s privileged status. Whenthe Israelites focused on successrather than on God, they were con-fused because other nations wereachieving success. “So let’s do whatthey do so we too can be successful.Let’s have a king, build a great armyand fortresses, worship their gods,and live off our endowments. Thenwe can be happy as they appear tobe.” No matter how many times God’speople have tried this approach overthe millennia up to the present, theyhave always ultimately failed. It wasonly when they sought first the Lordand His righteousness that all otherthings were added unto them. It wasonly when they realized that the gov-ernment was upon His shoulder(Isa. 9:6) and allowed Him to takethe burden of giving them successthat they have found true peace,prosperity, and contentment.When God’s people turn to Himwith all their hearts and humbly relyupon Him, Judges 10:16 says that“He could bear the misery of Israelno longer.” He can’t stand it. Hemust save His covenant people. When challenges occur, theyoften happen together in a distress-ingly dizzying array of compound-ing and accelerating factors thatseem to spiral inexorably to certaindoom. “When it rains, it pours,” andwhen it pains, it roars. When Apollo 13 was 200,000miles away from Earth, most of theway to the Moon, an oxygen tank ex-ploded. As a result, not only did JimLovell and his crew struggle withlack of oxygen; they also lost crucialelectrical power and encounteredlethal danger from carbon dioxide.Only by closely cooperating with theexperts at Mission Control, forwhom failure was not an option, didthe astronauts make it home safely.Backup systems were exhausted.There was no leeway for error, free-lancing, or disobedience.Our Mission Control is describedin Revelation 4 and 5—the throneroom of God in His sanctuary inheaven, which pulsates with infinitepower and mercy to help in time ofneed. Our task is not to bear the bur-dens of government and administra-tion upon our feeble shoulders, butto allow Him to bring us home tosafety and success according to Hissuperior wisdom. At Kadesh-barnea, Moses, Caleb,and Joshua on one hand and the restof the people on the other ap-proached the same practical data inopposite ways. The former learnedabout challenges in order to cooper-ate with the Lord, believing that theobstacles were about to crumble be-fore divine power in order to revealGod’s glory. The bigger the obsta-cles, the more magnificent the glory!The remaining Israelites cringed,58How do you like that! Americansmay be proud of the United StatesDeclaration of Independence, whichrecognizes a person’s right to “thepursuit of Happiness,” but Godguarantees to His faithful peoplethat happiness will pursue them! Ifyou don’t want happiness, whateveryou do, don’t seek first the Lord andHis righteousness, or you’ll havehappiness and success breathingdown your neck!Why would God want to blessHis people so that they are higherthan everyone else? Deuteronomy28:10 explains: “‘So all the peoples ofthe earth will see that you are calledby the name of the Lord, and theywill be afraid of you.’” Other peoplewould make the connection betweenthe blessings of the Israelites andtheir omnipotent God and wouldleave them in peace.Isaiah provides an additional per-spective: “It shall come to pass in thelatter days that the mountain of theLord’s house shall be established onthe top of the mountains, and shallbe exalted above the hills; and all na-tions shall flow to it. Many peopleshall come and say, ‘Come, and let usgo up to the mountain of the Lord,To the house of the God of Jacob; Hewill teach us His ways, And we shallwalk in His paths.’ For out of Zionshall go forth the law, And the wordof the Lord from Jerusalem” (2:2, 3;NKJV).By blessing His people, Goddraws all nations to Himself, therebyfulfilling His goal of making thespiritual descendants of Abraham achannel to reveal Himself to theworld. All through the Bible, Godexpresses His desire to bless and ele-vate His people not merely for theircomfort and enjoyment of status,but in order to teach others the mag-nificence of His character. There is always a condition at-tached. For example, Deuteronomy28:13 promises: “‘The Lord willmake you the head and not the tail,and you only will be above, and youwill not be underneath, if you listento the commandments of the Lordyour God, which I charge you today,to observe them carefully.’”This isn’t salvation by works. Godhad already saved His people frombondage when He gave them Hiscommandments. The reason forobedience was to be in harmonywith Him in order to rightly repre-sent His character. If the Lordblessed the Israelites even when theymisrepresented Him, He would havedefeated His purpose. So if they didnot live and work according to Hisprinciples, He could not allow themto prosper, no matter how much ef-fort and ingenuity they expended.Careful thought and effort were im-portant, but they could be successfulonly if they were cooperating withHim. If they were not cooperating,they were beating their heads againsta wall.61W O R K S T A T I O N  T W OGary B. Swansoncluding a Seventh-dayAdventist hitchhiker.One day, he picked upthis representative of theAdventist faith a few miles north ofMoscow, Idaho, describing him instark terms: “The crosswind pulledhis gray beard at a right angle to hisface so that he looked like Curry’spainting of John Brown standing be-fore the Kansas tornado.”iiTrogdon’s chance encounter withthe itinerant Adventist makes uponly two chapters of his book. Dur-ing that short time, the hitchhikerdescribed with luminous passion hisintention to go to serve as a mission-ary in Central America. He was onhis way there, by as circuitous a routeas Trogdon’s, sharing God’s love withanyone who would listen along theway. By the time their paths divergeand the hitchhiker gets out of thevan near Kalispell, Montana, the au-thor has heard the man’s life storyand expresses admiration for his“simplicity, spareness, courage, di-rectness, trust, and ‘charity’ in Paul’ssense.”iiin 1982, William Trog-don authored a best-selling book entitledBlue Highways: Jour-ney Into America. Under the penname “William Least Heat Moon,”an interesting story in itself that re-flects his Native American heritage,Trogdon recounted his 13,000-mileexpedition of self-discovery in abeaten-up white van named GhostDancing.On his odyssey, he drove only theback roads and byways—the “bluehighways” in his travel atlas—andavoided as best he could the broadsuperhighways and large cities of theUnited States. “Life doesn’t happenalong the interstates,” he wrote. “It’sagainst the law.”iThe book depicts Trogdon’sserendipitous encounters with vari-ous interesting people—real peo-ple—in the cafes and diners, gas sta-tions, and country stores of ruralAmerica. The characters he metalong the way are colorful: a cowboy,a maple syrup farmer, a prostitute, aboat builder, and many more—in-MEREBENEFICENCE?I60choosing to have greater faith in ob-stacles than in God’s ability to over-come them (Numbers 13–14). Asthe German statesman Konrad Ade-nauer observed, “We all live underthe same sky, but we don’t all havethe same horizon.”iWhat makes the difference be-tween the two attitudes? Both agreethat obstacles are real. “For the per-son of faith, obstacles are temporarybecause God is real. For the disbe-liever, obstacles are permanent be-cause God is not real enough. Thus,the key to exegesis of exigencies is anexistential question: Is God real tome? Do I believe, act, and live as if heis alive?”iiAs God’s people—living, work-ing, and planning within the frame-work of His “new covenant”—ourchallenge is not primarily to obtainand deploy adequate financial andhuman resources. Rather, our firsttask is to allow the reality of God toenter and transform us individuallyand corporately. Then His peopleand institutions will be the head andnot the tail. “Failure is not an op-tion.”NOTES AND REFERENCESi Unless otherwise noted, Scripture textsin this article are quoted from The NewAmerican Standard Bible.ii Quoted in J. C. Maxwell and J. Dornan,Becoming a Person of Influence: How to Posi-tively Impact the Lives of Others (Nashville:Thomas Nelson, 1997), p. 72.iii Roy Gane, Leviticus, Numbers, NIV Ap-plication Commentary (Grand Rapids,Mich.: Zondervan, 2004), p. 603.

The Head and Not the Tail

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The Head and Not the Tail

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