Sports and Competitions 10-6

NUMBER TEN - CAIN AND ABEL COMPETE TO PLEASE GOD (GENESIS4:1-15)

The brothers Cain and Abel both brought sacrifices before God, but Abel's sacrifice was better than Cain's and God let them both know it. Cain didn't like being beat, so he removed the competition by killing his brother.

NUMBER NINE - GOD AND SATAN COMPETE FOR BRAGGING RIGHTS (JOB 1-2)

In the Book of Job, Satan and God challenge each other to a contest - a bet. Satan thinks that Job is too good to be true and given enough suffering, his evil side will come out. God does not agree so the bet is on.

Job was given a crud load of suffering and loss without knowing why things were going so poorly.

As Job's friends gathered around, they shared their world's best counseling methods, utilizing the best wisdom and the greatest self-help available which pretty much came down to "God is fair, turn to Him and you will prosper again." But Job didn't like their advice and said it was cheap, which got his well meaning friends upset, so they accused Job of being a terrible person who deserved what he got.

Job became suicidal, told his friends they were jerks, that the suffering was not fair, and that human reason, self-help therapy, and tradition was fundamentally wrong and useless in his face of such suffering.

At the end of his competition, God restored everything to Job and let his friends know that they were jerks; but no more was said of Satan and God's competition.

NUMBER EIGHT - DAVID AND GOLIATH

As the king of Israel, King Saul was the best qualified, the most armed, and the tallest man in all of Israel, so when this monstrous man called Goliath challenged anyone in Israel to a cage match, he was hoping the king of Israel would take up the challenge. Instead the tallest man in Israel sent a young man who had very little training in the cage.

The battle began with trash talk and then should have moved on to hand to hand combat. Swords, clubs, shields, and daggers were the usual weapons of choice, however, David brought only a sling and a few stones.

Of course we all know the story - David hit the giant in the head with a stone, and knocked him off his feet. Before Goliath could regain his senses, David grabbed the giant's sword and with several whacks cut off his head, lifted it high for both sides to see that he won the contest.

NUMBER SEVEN - ELIJAH CHALLENGES 450 PROPHETS OF BAAL TO A TEST BY FIRE

As today's world is getting more and more diverse, people are getting used to having different religions around. In Elijah's day, in his world, there were pretty much just two religions focusing on two different Gods. Baal and Yahweh.

Elijah, who worshiped Yahweh challenged 450 priests of Baal to a competition. Both sides were to build altars, place offerings on those altars and call on their gods to consume those offerings. As in the match with David and Goliath, there was trash talk involved, and as in David's match, the loser or losers were going to die.

The priests of Baal cut themselves and danced in a frenzy, but nothing happened. However, when Elijah prayed, God answered by consuming his offering with a fire.

NUMBER SIX - SATAN CHALLENGES JESUS TO A DEMONSTRATION OF HIS POWER

After Jesus was baptized by John the Baptist, God led him into the desert to be tempted and tested by the devil. When he was being tempted, the devil gave him three tests.

-Jesus was challenged to use his powers to satisfy his own needs by turning a rock into bread.
-Jesus was challenged to claim God's Word, throw himself off a tall building, and prove that God would protect him as the Bible promised.
 -Finally, Jesus was tempted to avoid suffering and death by taking the road to fame, wealth, and power. 

In all three trials, Jesus denied his own feelings and desires and trusted God to meet his needs.