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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.

  • Covenant and Truth

    Covenant and Truth

    Numbers 23:19-20

    English Standard Version (ESV)

    19 God is not man, that he should lie,
    or a son of man, that he should change his mind.
    Has he said, and will he not do it?
    Or has he spoken, and will he not fulfill it?
    20 Behold, I received a command to bless:
    he has blessed, and I cannot revoke it.

    What is a covenant?

    Is it not a most solemn promise? Is it also not witnessed so that the truth can be confirmed?

    I have given my word. And I cannot revoke it.

     

    Of what value is a covenant without truth?

    God is not a man that he would lie. (Numbers 23:19) Satan is a liar… and Satan influences man (and woman too, of course… see earlier mention of the temptation of Eve). We now know good and we also know evil and we must choose every day whether to tell ‘the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth so help us God.’ (Sound familiar?) Law and covenant require truth.

    When God makes a covenant we can count on it, because God IS truth.

    However when two men, or a man and a woman, (or even two women or many individuals) make ANY covenant or promise, even with witnesses… even signed in the sight of an earthly judge; the validity of the covenant REQUIRES not only truth, but also faithful continued truth to the word of ALL parties to the covenant (solemn agreement).

    And one more thing (before we return to scripture): A covenant is permanent. A solemn promise before GOD is based on the truth of the words of those who make it, until it is broken by any party. And let’s not forget that our God and Judge (who will open books and separate unrepentant liars from the sheep) is also witness to EVERY VOW.

    Genesis 6

    5 The Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. 6 And the Lord regretted that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him to his heart. 7 So the Lord said, “I will blot out man whom I have created from the face of the land, man and animals and creeping things and birds of the heavens, for I am sorry that I have made them.” 8 But Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord…

    18 But I will establish my covenant with you, and you shall come into the ark, you, your sons, your wife, and your sons’ wives with you.

    Noah worshiped the Lord (both before the flood and after God saved them).

    Remember, both Cain and Abel had worshiped the Lord; but God accepted the sacrifice of Abel, while cautioning Cain, “Why are you angry, and why has your face fallen?  If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door. Its desire is for you, but you must rule over it.” – Gensis 4:6-7

    Do you recall the oft’ repeated answer of Cain to God after he murdered his brother?

    He said, “I do not know; am I my brother’s keeper?”

    Cain did not answer God with the whole truth. Like his sinful parents before him (and also like you and me), Cain spoke as if he could hide his sin from God.

    This sin of failing in the truth continues throughout the generations. God hates lies, and murders, and unfaithfulness, and GOD HATES ALL SIN (though He loves the confession of the repentant sinner).

    Surely we can no more hide our breaking of our covenant from the witness of God than Adam and Eve could hide themselves in Eden.

    God knows ALL truth.

    Genesis 4:10-11 And the Lord said, “What have you done?

    The voice of your brother’s blood is crying to me from the ground. And now you are cursed from the ground, which has opened its mouth to receive your brother’s blood from your hand.

    Genesis 9:9 “Behold, I establish my covenant with you and your offspring after you…

    Who has broken the covenants?

    Will you hear truth? “God is not a man that he would lie.”

    To be continued…

     

     

  • The First Family

    The First Family

    I have gotten a man from the LORD.

    These are the words of Eve from Genesis 4:1 KJV.

    The relationship is with her husband: “And Adam knew Eve his wife…” the conception is by her husband and the birth is through the woman. She conceived and bare a son, Cain, who is a man created in her womb by God.

    Cain and Abel

    4 Now Adam knew Eve his wife, and she conceived and bore Cain, saying, “I have gotten a man with the help of the Lord.”

    Some time passes. Adam knew Eve, again (yada`).

    2 And again, she bore his brother Abel.

    More time passes as their boys grow up, as happens seemingly quickly in all families. Description of these young men now is of their vocations – work. It is a description of the purpose of their work and their attitude of relationship toward God in this land East of Eden.

    Now Abel was a keeper of sheep, and Cain a worker of the ground. 3 In the course of time Cain brought to the Lord an offering of the fruit of the ground, 4 and Abel also brought of the firstborn of his flock and of their fat portions.

    (No specifics here, just that both came to worship the Lord – a relationship and a thankfulness of an offering. Yet how thankful? God must judge.)

    And the Lord had regard for Abel and his offering, 5 but for Cain and his offering he had no regard.

    (Imagine that! God likes someone else better than ME!) Is envy not also evil?

    So Cain was very angry, and his face fell.

    6 The Lord said to Cain, “Why are you angry, and why has your face fallen?

    7 If you do well, will you not be accepted?

    And if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door. Its desire is for you, but you must rule over it.”

    Is the Lord God, your Creator who knew you in your mother’s womb not the loving Father who will accept what you do when you do well?

    Of course. Do not compare your offering to your brother. Do what is good in the eyes of the Lord.

    Again, a rule so simple. Yet Cain failed to rule over his sin.

    Skipping over (though not lightly) his murder of his brother and continuing in the story of Adam and Eve and the first generation of this first family, evicted from Eden. Cain is driven even further from Eden and further from his biological parents, Adam and Eve.

    How they must have grieved over the loss of the younger brother. And now God drives the older brother even further from the first parents of this first broken family.

    13 Cain said to the Lord, “My punishment is greater than I can bear. 14 Behold, you have driven me today away from the ground, and from your face I shall be hidden. I shall be a fugitive and a wanderer on the earth, and whoever finds me will kill me.”

    Genesis 4 continues the story of Cain, but let us remain on the ground absorbed with the blood of Abel and the grieving parents, Adam and Eve. (O, to be back in Eden; but it can never be.)

    Adam and Eve age, even as Cain, a grown man continues to age and have children and grandchildren of his own in another place. (The Bible does not relate the beginnings of most of the women married to these men.)

    25 And Adam knew his wife again, and she bore a son and called his name Seth, for she said, “God has appointed for me another offspring instead of Abel, for Cain killed him.”

    100 year old man and family26 To Seth also a son was born, and he called his name Enosh. At that time people began to call upon the name of the Lord.

    Grandchildren, blessed grandchildren; and they call on the name of the Lord.

    Adam and Eve have not forgotten the Lord. They obviously raised Seth in the knowledge of the Lord.

    Adam’s Descendants to Noah

    5 This is the book of the generations of Adam. When God created man, he made him in the likeness of God. 2 Male and female he created them, and he blessed them and named them Man when they were created.

    3 When Adam had lived 130 years, he fathered a son in his own likeness, after his image, and named him Seth.

    (Adam, 130 years old and his slightly younger wife, Eve, had another baby!)

    We can barely imagine a mortal man living nine centuries, instead of struggling to survive just one… generally even fewer years of our mortality.

    4 The days of Adam after he fathered Seth were 800 years; and he had other sons and daughters. 5 Thus all the days that Adam lived were 930 years, and he died.

    The generations of the cursed ground are then counted in this first Book of Moses through the sons of Noah.

    Then the Lord would have need to cleanse the earth and begin once more…

     

     

     

  • By the sweat of your face

    By the sweat of your face

    “By the sweat of your face
    you shall eat bread,
    till you return to the ground,
    for out of it you were taken;
    for you are dust,
    and to dust you shall return.” –     Genesis 3:19

    worker thirstHad a rough day at work? Or maybe you have had a tough time finding work. Do you find as many women and teens in the workplace sweating to win the bread of this world?

    It is the result of sin. Punishment. We are not just a caretaker in the pleasant garden anymore, but God has cursed the ground where we must make our living and sustain our wives and children.

    grill girlgrill cookYes, even the wife with the jobs of the household and mother of the children complains of her sweat of the job where two incomes will not even provide the bread that once only the husband would sacrifice his sweat for his loved ones.

    Even now some women will choose this curse over obedience to a husband and obedience to God.  Teens with cars and cell phones and money for entertainment compete with Godly and ungodly family men in the marketplace of jobs, while they boast that they are “in a relationship” with another teen (an evil sexual relationship outside of marriage and responsibility of a God-led family).

    We have wandered far from Paradise. Many have run far from obedience to God’s will.

    Where did the journey of sin begin after original sin?

    Genesis gives us an insight as we observe a conversation between God the Trinity. (We will not dwell on the Trinity, the plurality of the One God at this point; yet hear God’s motive to expel mankind from Paradise.)

    Genesis 3:22 Then the Lord God said, “Behold, the man has become like one of us in knowing good and evil.

    Adam and Eve have become like Jehovah Elohim: like God the Father; like Jesus when He would later walk the earth as the second adam; like the Holy Spirit, the Life of the soul. yada`yada`yada` – Knowing, knowing, knowing good and evil.

    Gen. 3:22b Now, lest he reach out his hand and take also of the tree of life and eat, and live forever—” 23 therefore the Lord God sent him out from the garden of Eden to work the ground from which he was taken. 24 He drove out the man, and at the east of the garden of Eden he placed the cherubim and a flaming sword that turned every way to guard the way to the tree of life.

    God IS.

    This is representation of eternal life with no beginning and no end.

    God created.

    This is representation of life with a beginning (man or animal, plant or mineral).

    Does the life of an animal have an end?

    Did God intend for man, created in His Image, to have a life that would end?

    The soul and life of Man is connected to God through God’s Fatherly act of creation.

    Hear God’s words to the Prophet Jeremiah [1:5]:

    “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you,
    and before you were born I consecrated you;
    I appointed you a prophet to the nations.”

    We are sons and daughters of God! We have a beginning in Him. God intended for us to remain as faithful children of His heavenly family. For His children He created Paradise on Earth. Adam, before sin, could have remained in Eden.

    What is the concern of God at this point?

    It is that evil could live on. Evil could have life eternal.

    In the beginning, God created… and it was good.

    Evil must NOT have eternal life!

    How often does the Bible warn of a mortal man: “… and he did evil in the sight of the Lord?”

    Evil souls and evil men must be banished from the good of God!

    “Behold, the man has become like one of  Us, to know good and evil. And now, lest he put out his hand and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live forever”—

    Did the Lord God not caution: “or you will surely die?”

    So he drove out the man; and he placed at the east of the garden of Eden Cherubims, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of life. – Genesis 3:24 KJV

    salinastodayTwentieth Century author, John Steinbeck, focuses on this in his (1952) novel about a family and their attitudes toward work in “East of Eden.” We have choices, knowing good and evil.

    Therefore God has guarded the gates of righteousness against the entry of evil men.

    The Cherubim, also creatures of God’s creation (but not for this earth), serve God. Angels (yet not all angels, for some rebelled to follow Satan) serve God.

    Mankind, but not all men and women, serves God (as best we can in this sinful mortal flesh).

    God had a relationship with man. Man had a relationship with God.

    God restored the relationship of righteousness, that we might once more have eternal life in relationship in the family of God our Father. He restored life to our souls by the Living Sacrifice of the Blood of Christ Jesus, Son of God, on the Cross.

    We have been banned in the nakedness of our many sins to a land east of Eden, dust beneath the feet of our descendants, and struggle of the sweat of our brow to remain in relationship with God and each other.

    The challenge of the grace of Christ is that it requires the harvest of our faith. Faith requires obedience.

    Jesus IS Lord.

    Do you believe this?