Rev (Dr) Quek Suan Yew

More Questions from CPBPC’s Annual Family Church Camp 2018

1. Can you bargain with God? Jacob put three conditions to God. He said he would accept God after the fulfilment of those three conditions. I thought you have to accept God first unconditionally?

Answer – As mature believers we must never bargain with God to get what we want or to make deals with God before we obey Him. However we see in Genesis 28 an account of Jacob making conditions with God before he would accept Him as his God. God accepted Jacob’s word and watched over him and fulfilled all that Jacob requested over the next 20 years of his life in Haran (cf. Genesis 31). Such conditions made by sinners who do not know the truth and are dead in sin must be regarded as one of the ways in which the LORD in His wisdom permitted and used to save sinners. Through this incident, we see the salvation of Jacob in Genesis 32. By this method, Jacob came to accept the LORD as his Lord and Saviour unconditionally. It was an unconditional surrender at the point of salvation that ought to be for all born again believers in Christ.

2. Is Proverbs 13:20 a principle or a promise?

Answer – Proverbs 13:20 “He that walketh with wise men shall be wise: but a companion of fools shall be destroyed.” The context is the wisdom of God for the people who lived in the Land of Promise. The wise men referred to here are believers in Christ. If a sinner walks with believers and sees their life in Christ and listens to the Word of God through the lips of these wise men, he will also find salvation. He becomes a wise person himself when he accepts Christ as his Lord and Saviour. If he is already a believer and walks with mature believers or other believers who help and provoke one another unto love and good works, he becomes wiser and grows in the Lord. Conversely this is true of the fool. He is a companion of fools. The word “companions” refers to people who “graze” together. They “hang out” together. They not only identify themselves as friends but they do things together, think the same way and talk and behave the same way. They will be seen as friends or bosom buddies. The fool here is a stupid person (in the spiritual sense). He is surrounded by God's ways and words as he lives in the Land of Israel in OT times. Everything in Israel has been ordained by God, from their dressing, eating, holy days to how they ought to spend their week. These were all filled with spiritual significance that points them to Christ. They were surrounded by a culture and a heavenly environment where God is visibly present in the form of the Tabernacle with the Ark of the Covenant in most holy place a permanent reminder of the presence of God in the midst of Israel. But the fool deliberately blinds himself to these spiritual truths and closes his ears to the voice and teaching of God’s perfect Word. The sinner follows such a fool daily and makes him his friend. Just as the fool will be destroyed, i.e. die in sin and find himself in hell, so will the person who follows him. The present day parallel is about those who are in a sound church or were brought up in a sound church, having seen the holy witness of the people of God in the church and heard the Word of God preached to them and yet decide to turn their backs on Christ and attend unsound churches that believe the Bible has mistakes, or even Charismatic churches and neo-evangelical churches where worship is an entertainment and CCM songs are sung. God calls them fools. However, the ones who obey the truth and have friends who witness to them the truth by their lives and words are wise.

According to the dictionary, the definition of a “principle” is “a fundamental truth or proposition that serves as the foundation for a system of belief or behaviour.” “Promise” is defined as “a declaration or assurance that one will do something or that a particular thing will happen.”

Proverbs 13:20 is both a principle and a promise!

3. Is Proverbs 22:6 a principle or a promise? If Proverbs 22:6 is a promise, does it mean that salvation is guaranteed if a parent follows the Bible’s teaching on parenting?

Answer – Proverbs 22:6 “Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it.” The literal translation is, “Discipline the child upon the mouth of his way even when old, he will never eschew from it.” This means that the child has to be disciplined from the beginning of his life and not midpoint. This the child of the Christian parent who has been brought up in Israel where everything in the child’s life from birth is ordained by God and lived out by the child’s parents who are the people of God. They need to discipline the child which means that they have to spend time with the child to direct him in the path of Christ. They teach the child what is right and wrong from birth. There is no delay because the “mouth” of the child’s way refers to when he came out of his mother’s womb. The child does not know what is right or wrong and is predisposed from his existence to do all things wrong because of his sinful nature. The lusts of the flesh and eyes and the pride of life are within his soul since birth, i.e. the start of his way when he came out his mother’s womb. The discipline must begin then. The discipline of the Christian parents will show the child that there is a right and a wrong way. If they do not discipline, thinking that the child will not understand because he’s too young, then the child will do only the wrong and not the right! When discipline is done consistently and biblically, the end result is that the child will remember the way of the Bible and the Christian for life. It will never leave him. He will remain in this pathway of righteousness even when he is old. The only way he can do this is when he becomes a believer himself. His parents have shown him the life of a child of God in Christ with discipline from the Word and he has seen the wonderful Saviour in the lives of his Christian parents within their Christian home environment. This is God’s promise to all Christian parents. They must begin from their child’s birth. This verse is also a principle and a promise!

If a person believes in Jesus Christ as Lord and Saviour with all his heart, God says that he will surely be saved. Romans 10:9-11 “That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.10 For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.11 For the scripture saith, Whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed.” An Israelite baby is surrounded by all things Christian from birth. If his parents teach him about Christ and live a Christian life in Israel where their culture and all manner of life are ordained by God, the child will surely come to know God through Christ as his Lord and Saviour as he has seen and tasted what heaven is like on earth by the godly life of his godly parents. This is also true of godly parents today whose homes are mirror images of what heaven is like because it is a home where the Word of God is obeyed perfectly. Matthew 5:48 “Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.” Whenever godly parents sin they repent. They pray and praise the Lord together. The Word of God is read, studied and obeyed and loved. Like the child in OT times who is surrounded by a godly environment and their parents’ godly and holy testimonies, children today will be seeing Christ every day of their lives. They will accept Him as their Lord and Saviour too since they listened and obeyed everything their parents teach from the Bible since birth, and they will also believe and accept what their parents teach them about Christ.

4. In Zechariah 11:10, when God cut the staff called “Beauty” that he might “break my covenant” with Israel, what covenant did God sever?

Answer – The covenant that God had with His people Israel was made up of two parts. But it is always a covenant of grace. The first part depends only on God’s faithfulness which is the promise that the Messiah would come from Israel. This part would never be broken, for it depends on God’s faithfulness alone that will never fail. The second part of the covenant was for the people to be a holy witness for Christ by living as a holy people in the Land of Promise. This is the part that depended on Israel’s obedience and faithfulness in life and practice. Exodus 19:5-6 “Now therefore, if ye will obey my voice indeed, and keep my covenant, then ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto me above all people: for all the earth is mine: 6 And ye shall be unto me a kingdom of priests, and an holy nation. These are the words which thou shalt speak unto the children of Israel.” If Israel is not holy and be “beautiful” for Christ, God will reject Israel as His witness. This is the aspect of the covenant that God broke.

5. What does Micah 5:7 mean?

Answer – Micah 5:7 “And the remnant of Jacob shall be in the midst of many people as a dew from the LORD, as the showers upon the grass, that tarrieth not for man, nor waiteth for the sons of men.” This verse was to give hope to the people of Israel. It describes Israel’s restoration in the time of Christ whereby Israel will be saved. Many will be saved. I understand this to occur at the end of the Great Tribulation period when Christ will judge the world at His second coming. Israel will be saved and there will be at least 144,000 as Revelation 7 reveals. This will be according to God’s timing and not man’s. It will not tarry for man or wait for the sons of man. It will come to pass according to God’s sovereign will and determination.

6. When God spoke about His work to bring about Israel’s restoration in Micah 5:9-15 why will He destroy their cities and horses amongst other abominations like idols, witchcrafts and groves?

Answer – Cities and horses and chariots are symbols of monarchy where human kings depend on the arm of the flesh to fight their battles. When the LORD reigns in the Millennial Kingdom there will be no need for the arm of the flesh. These cities with their high walls built on high hills with their natural defences against mortal enemies will become a thing of the past when the Lord reigns on earth during the Millennium. That is why these things will be destroyed together with all the items for idolatrous worship.

7. What does Jeremiah 31:22 speak of? What is the “new thing” and what does it mean that “a woman shall compass a man”?

Answer – Jeremiah 31:22 “How long wilt thou go about, O thou backsliding daughter? for the LORD hath created a new thing in the earth, A woman shall compass a man.” The hope given by God to the people of Israel here was the prophesy of the coming of the Messiah at His birth. The “new thing” mentioned here is the first coming of Christ. “A woman shall compass a man” refers to the Lord Jesus Christ in the womb of the virgin Mary. The word of man here means “a valiant warrior” “or “strong and powerful man.” This provides hope of the return of Israel to the Promised Land where the Lord Jesus Christ would be born of the virgin Mary in the future. Israel at this time of Jeremiah’s ministry was at the brink of total destruction by the Babylonians.