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Category: Pentateuch Genesis-Deuteronomy

IN THE BEGINNING… Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy – Pentateuch [5 books] It’s the LAW of GOD!
Forgive us our trespasses. Jesus teaches many lessons from these books of the Bible and we have forgotten MANY of the issues and applications to our 21st century life. How can you SHARE from the beginning of the Bible with your SOCIAL ‘Friends’ and talk of Jesus as Lord? Please TITLE your post by the topic, not the verse. Include links to scriptures and helpful references. — Please post or tell us in a COMMENT how you talk of Jesus through this topic and these Old Testament scriptures.

  • Disaster From Disobedience, A Savior From Before Eden – 4

    He was in the world,
    and the world was created through Him,
    yet the world did not recognize Him.

    John 1:10

    What did God intend for man in paradise (Eden) in the beginning?

    Creation of Adam

    Genesis 2:

    7 Then the Lord God formed the man out of the dust from the ground and breathed the breath of life into his nostrils, and the man became a living being.

    This then, is really the beginning as far as man is concerned; but we must ask more. Man, we ask: what did Moses mean to say about the first man of flesh created by God?

    Genesis 1:26-27 KJV excerpt

    And God said,

    Let us make man in our image, after our likeness…

    1:27 וַיִּבְרָא אֱלֹהִים אֶת־הָֽאָדָם בְּצַלְמֹו בְּצֶלֶם אֱלֹהִים בָּרָא אֹתֹו זָכָר וּנְקֵבָה בָּרָא אֹתָֽם׃

    So God [‘elohiym] created man [adam] in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.

    • References to God are plural, not singular. Yet the One God is not consulting with other gods (a concept we shall not explore here).
    • We are like God, not like the animals of God’s creation.
    • Creation references to man, translated from ‘adam’ include male and female.

    God creates a perfect world, giving men and angels the freedom to obey and serve. But we don’t obey and therefore no longer live in a perfect paradise.

    What is paradise?

    Paradise would be a place where all men and women, all creatures of earth and all angelic beings live together in harmony with God. We take our cultural meaning of paradise from the Greek word παράδεισος, but in the definition of Eden differs. 

    Adam in Eden

    Continuing in Genesis 2:8

    The Lord God planted a garden in Eden, in the east, and there He placed the man He had formed. 9 The Lord God caused to grow out of the ground every tree pleasing in appearance and good for food…

    Do you know what it means, ‘Eden,’ that is?

    Pleasure. And man’s role was to care for the garden of our pleasure.

    Garden of Eden Jacopo Bassano, 1570-73 Oil on canvas; Galleria Doria-Pamphili, Rome

    15 The Lord God took the man and placed him in the garden of Eden to work it and watch over it.

    Yes such a pleasurable work, tending the perfect place where the Lord walked with man. Follow the Lord’s command and have eternal life (although in Adam’s bliss he knew of no alternative.)

    16 And the Lord God commanded the man,

    “You are free to eat from any tree of the garden, 17 but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for on the day you eat from it, you will certainly die.”

    A Helper

    Moses then continues with the separate account of the creation of woman from man; that is, Eve. Much is made of her, ‘the female of the species made in God’s image.’ For as Moses testifies:

    18 Then the Lord God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper as his complement.”

    v.22 KJV And the rib, which the LORD God had taken from man, made he a woman, and brought her unto the man.

    Think of it dear brother, the Lord filled our emptiness of existence without a ‘helper’ at our side with one like us and for us. Therefore she is created as our ‘better half,’ as we become one.

    23 And the man said:

    This one, at last, is bone of my bone
    and flesh of my flesh;
    this one will be called “woman,”
    for she was taken from man.

    24 This is why a man leaves his father and mother and bonds with his wife, and they become one flesh. 25 Both the man and his wife were naked, yet felt no shame.

    The Knowledge of Good and Evil

    Paradise, an illustration of Eden: man, woman, plants and animals, food and meaningful work. The created heavens above and bountiful beautiful earth in every direction. The Lord walked and talked with them! 

    Genesis 1:28 God blessed them, and God said to them, “Be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth, and subdue it.

    Paradise but for one generation due to just one bad decision.

    One command from God to man and everything else filled with the freedom of eternal joy in Eden on earth. Paradise.

    Again, recalling from Genesis 2:17 “..but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil…”

    Why not, you ask? Ah, but we are already sinners questioning God every day.

    For Adam did not have to ask what to do, just obey the Lord’s one command. Think about it, the definition that he did not need was that of good and evil.

    God’s simple command to Adam could easily be defined:

    “Good is to obey God, evil is to disobey God.”

    Why would anyone disobey the all-powerful, all-knowing, compassionate and gracious Lord, who created us to be a human image of Him?

    But of course, we all do… and it is sin, by definition, evil.

    The moment Adam and Eve made their decision to disobey God, the moment Adam and Eve knew that that had chosen evil over obedience; our lives and existence began to overflow with needless questions and numerous wrong answers. 

    Do not blame the serpent or others, demons or even your parents and our first parents, Adam and Eve.

    We were created for obedience to God who defines good. Yet we all choose to go against God of our own free will, just as Satan and various angels had disobeyed.

    God IS God! And we are not.

    Original and Continuing Sin

    In Disaster From Disobedience – 3 we examined the fall of the Tempter and will not dwell on his role in Eden. We now carry the burden of the knowledge of good and evil, we carry the burden of our own sin.

    Next we will examine the progression from Adam’s one command from God to the man’s disobedience through the generations. Evil and sin will lead us to the requirements of the Law and convictions of our disobedience.

    To be continued…

     

     

     

  • Disaster From Disobedience, A Savior From Before Eden – 2

    Disaster – Why start with Eden?

    Why should a series whose subject is apocalypse and disaster begin with the paradise of Eden?

    The obvious answer may escape the eyes of a perishable mortal facing a life-ending disaster. In an instant we may wonder what’s next, yet in accelerated times we may not have considered what was before.

    What was before me, even before man? How did I get here? Even more importantly, why am I here? Why, and what does my life have to do with my death?

    Certainly disaster will ensnare many: accidents, seemingly random events which bring an unexpected end to an already brief life. That death should overtake a man or woman should not ambush any.

    Yet have you considered your death, the death of man, the death of the earth upon which we walk?

    If so, you may also have considered the beginnings of the same. Our hesitant conclusions about our beginnings may logically lead toward answers to our existence and inevitable conclusions. So from before Eden and paradise we begin.

    IN THE BEGINNING, GOD

    Genesis 1:1

    1:1 בְּרֵאשִׁית בָּרָא אֱלֹהִים אֵת הַשָּׁמַיִם וְאֵת הָאָֽרֶץ׃

    re’shiyth elohiym bara’eth

    In the beginning, God created …

    Before we move forward with creation let’s just take a minute to consider what we believe. Do you believe in God?

    Can you define God?  In fact, you may ask, ‘Why God?’

    In these last days man has observed both creation and destruction of distant universe of which we have but minuscule evidence.

    DNA strand & computer-sequenced 5.5 petabits of data [Harvard research]
    We have mapped mysteries of our flesh, split the stuff of our existence with fearful explosion of devastation. Yet our awestruck wonder of creation fails to comprehend —the impassable great divide

    –between the glory of God —

    and vulnerability of man.

    What is man that you remember him,

    or the son of man that you care for him?

    You made him lower than the angels

    for a short time;

    you crowned him with glory and honor

    and subjected everything under his feet.

    excerpt from Hebrews 2

    In beginning our series:

    We shall consider man next and even the angels and spirits, but first consider the primordial soup of stuff from which great power formed the beginnings of all.

    If you must ask what inertia from nothingness moved hydrogen twice into oxygen, then consider the power to bring both into existence. No logic states, ‘in the beginning was water’ or rock or atoms.

    Who created atoms and universe? In the beginning was… something: yes, One more powerful and more intelligent; yes, even One more wise and more good than all of which we wonder in awestruck human observation.

    If you must deny that things cannot create themselves, then you deny the very purpose for which God, Who IS and Was and Will BE forever, created you for this brief flash of life in our human flesh.

    You are not here for nothing any more than you were created by nothing from nothing. In the beginning, God created …

    From the beginning of the five books of Moses:

    Genesis 1:

    In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.

    2 Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness covered the surface of the watery depths, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the surface of the waters. 3 Then God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light.

    4 God saw that the light was good, and God separated the light from the darkness.

    Let us confess that NO man or alien from planet yet uncreated from nothingness and NO mathematically improbable coincidental collision of primordial matter could possibly have done this!

    Do you see the the light is good and must be separated from the darkness to define the glory of the light? Will you consider separating darkness which brings disaster from that light with which your life is blessed?

    We with eyes to see know the glory of our creation and the defining darkness which beckons our countenance back toward the deep dark chaos opposing the light of of this life.

    The LORD speaks the beginning into existence 

    5 God called the light “day,” and He called the darkness “night.” Evening came and then morning: the first day.

    6 Then God said, “Let there be an expanse between the waters, separating water from water.” 7 So God made the expanse and separated the water under the expanse from the water above the expanse. And it was so. 8 God called the expanse “sky.” Evening came and then morning: the second day.

    9 Then God said, “Let the water under the sky be gathered into one place, and let the dry land appear.” And it was so. 10 God called the dry land “earth,” and He called the gathering of the water “seas.”

    And God saw that it was good.

    11 Then God said, “Let the earth produce vegetation: seed-bearing plants and fruit trees on the earth bearing fruit with seed in it according to their kinds.” And it was so. 12 The earth produced vegetation: seed-bearing plants according to their kinds and trees bearing fruit with seed in it according to their kinds.

    And God saw that it was good.

    13 Evening came and then morning: the third day.

    Light separated from darkness to celebrate God

    14 Then God said, “Let there be lights in the expanse of the sky to separate the day from the night. They will serve as signs for festivals and for days and years. 15 They will be lights in the expanse of the sky to provide light on the earth.” And it was so. 16 God made the two great lights—the greater light to have dominion over the day and the lesser light to have dominion over the night—as well as the stars. 17 God placed them in the expanse of the sky to provide light on the earth, 18 to dominate the day and the night, and to separate light from darkness. And God saw that it was good. 19 Evening came and then morning: the fourth day.

    The Beginning of Life on earth

    20 Then God said, “Let the water swarm with living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the expanse of the sky.” 21 So God created the large sea-creatures and every living creature that moves and swarms in the water, according to their kinds. He also created every winged bird according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. 22 So God blessed them, “Be fruitful, multiply, and fill the waters of the seas, and let the birds multiply on the earth.” 23 Evening came and then morning: the fifth day.

    24 Then God said, “Let the earth produce living creatures according to their kinds: livestock, creatures that crawl, and the wildlife of the earth according to their kinds.” And it was so. 25 So God made the wildlife of the earth according to their kinds, the livestock according to their kinds, and creatures that crawl on the ground according to their kinds.

    And God saw that it was good.

    To be continued…

     

  • Looking Back – Nations in the eyes of the LORD

    “So nation was destroyed by nation, and city by city, for God troubled them with every adversity. – 2 Chronicles 15:6 NKJV

    History from an eternal perspective

    We have begun this year of our Lord, 2018, in consideration of eternal time. Time beyond years and measurement shows a perspective of man peering beyond the beginning and ending of our mortal history.

    The Lord’s voice resounds through those God chooses in both spoken and written words. Therefore books of the Bible also relate stories of the Lord given to mortal men. 

    We occasionally hear God speaking through Prophets of events which the Lord will cause in the future. They speak of Israel and of nations familiar and forgotten. True prophets warn of the consequences of men and nations opposing the will of Almighty God.

    A few Prophets like Ezekiel, Daniel and John reveal events beyond the mortal timeline of all mankind, even to an apocalypse of the heavens and earth!

    Christ Jesus boldly proclaimed not only what was, but the unseen of time before man, now, and forever more.

    This Nation (U.S.) – Looking Back

    Without looking back Americans might not acknowledge some divergent views of actual history of our 17th century founding. (500 years, so long past; yet passes so quickly)

    Notice a Pennsylvania only east of the Alleghenies. You likely haven’t read how a George Washington surrender to the French may have led to the French and Indian War. 

    At the time of the U.S. Constitution, Colonial states claimed lands for future expansion.  America has always been a land of immigrants.

    We the people, while opposing fading European empires, conquered a new world from native nations. Then we the new world people defended it against immigrants from foreign lands of origins other than our own.

    Spain, England, France and other empires expanded then diminished, even to the point of America coming to their aid in the great wars of the twentieth century.

    Yet who remembers the fall (or even existence) of empires besides Rome?

    A Lesson for the Nations from Israel

    What does all of this have to do with the Bible, you may ask?

    Deuteronomy 9:

    “Hear, O Israel: you are to cross over the Jordan today, to go in to dispossess nations greater and mightier than you, cities great and fortified up to heaven..

    4 “Do not say in your heart, after the LORD your God has thrust them out before you, ‘It is because of my righteousness that the LORD has brought me in to possess this land,’ whereas it is because of the wickedness of these nations that the LORD is driving them out before you.

    Israel would not only ignore the voice of the LORD though its Prophets, God’s own chosen people would ignore the Law given for their own holiness. A people of tradition has rejected its own traditions of the Lord their God.

    And empires to follow, including Spain, Great Britain and now the United States of America, which sometimes make claims to new lands of milk and honey, reject the rule of the Righteous One.

    The Lord God brings nations to renewed hope and crushes wickedness in the wilderness of the unknown.

    History beyond claims of conquerors & contentions of analysts

    We the people of the Lord really must hear more than quick sound-bytes of this hour. Godly men and women should seek more than a 60 second headline to the crowds.

    Even now, a boisterous tyrant or reasonable king may proclaim in an instant his partism message of good or evil. Will the world look beyond the agendas of mortals to the written word of Almighty God? Rarely, only the faithful.

    The Lord will lead a remnant of all the nations to eternal life. God has revealed His plan and chronicled events of the past for our understanding.

    Moses did not write the Books of the Law as the events unfolded. The LORD revealed the Beginning, the generations of Noah & Joseph, a great leader of Egypt. God gave instructions to priests, elders and common men and women. In addition to prophesies of the failings of Israel and other nations, the Bible records events for the discovery of God’s will in later generations. Yet will you read God’s word and claim its cautions?

    Looking Back

    “Do not say in your heart, after the LORD your God has thrust them out before you, ‘It is because of my righteousness that the LORD has brought me in to possess this land,’… 

    This caution to a new conquering empire (Israel) might well serve as a lesson of history to many 21st century nations.

    This series will continue with scripture written or chronicled as historic evidence of events for others to read later.

    Stay tuned and read your Bible. It’s all there – history, that is; but we just give a headline glance to most of these pivotal events. For after all, it was a long time ago. What could that matter to a 21st century Christian?

    To be continued..,