Readings for January 2-8

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Scripture relates that Eve gave birth to Cain and Abel.  This doesn't mean that they were the first two children.  There is no way to know how long Adam and Eve lived nor how many children were born before the fall. Her curse was that her pain in childbirth would increase.  It seems as if Cain was the firstborn after the fall.

Through the genealogical record, God uses only Abel, Cain, and Seth to contrast the differences between obedient people and disobedient people. There were many other sons and daughters born to Adam and Eve but He uses these three as illustrations.

 

In the genealogical record not all names of people that were born are listed, only those noteworthy in the genealogical line of Jesus through Seth and the genealogical line of opponents of Jesus from Cain. .

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Cain and Abel each brought an offering to the Lord.  Cain brought some of the fruits of the soil while Abel brought the fat portions of the best (firstborn) of his flock. God looked with favor on Abel and his offering, not so with Cain, which caused Cain to become angry and kill his brother.  At this time, there were no written laws on the books so to speak concerning offerings and sacrifices. This little story illustrates beautifully how people were supposed to live, so in tune with God that they knew exactly what He wanted them to do, whether or not it was “written in stone”.  Which takes us into an extremely powerful sentence in today's reading on page 10. "Enoch walked with God;"  

This little statement in Scripture ("Enoch walked with God;" ) is an understatement to say the least. The Book of Jasher (as referenced in Joshua and 2 Samuel) gives many details concerning the preaching and teaching of Enoch as he "walked with God."  

Notice the ages of the people listed in the genealogies in today's reading. Why did people live so long before the flood?  Living under the canopy shielded them from harmful solar and cosmic radiation. Earth at that time existed in a greenhouse type atmosphere.  Details can be found in the book, Diving Into Deep Things of God.  It explains all about the protective canopy that allowed people to have longer and healthier lives.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/1719913390

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There is much speculation concerning the biblical passage about the sons of God and the daughters of men. The “sons of God” were not angels having sex with women.  The "sons of God" were the godly descendants of Seth. After the birth of Seth's son Enosh, "men began calling on the name of the Lord".  The “daughters of men” were the ungodly descendants of Cain. (Matthew 5:9, Luke 20:36, Romans 8:14 and 19, Galatians 3:26) The spirits of evil angels are capable of inhabiting the bodies of willing humans (i.e. evil spirit and demonic possession). The Nephilim were giants intellectually and physically.  They were not necessarily large men. They were known as bullies and tyrants. 

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Genesis 6:5

The LORD saw how great man's wickedness on the earth had become, and that every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil all the time.

What a condemning verse...every inclination and evil all the time.

Genesis 6:6

The LORD was grieved that he had made man on the earth, and his heart was filled with pain.

He was displeased in the very center of His being.  He was displeased with their unbelief and their wickedness.  Even though He knew what they would do, He still was grieved that they did it.  And so God sent the flood.

 

Scripture says that Noah was blameless.  It doesn't mean that Noah was without sin. It means he sinned but God saw him as righteous because of his obedience.

 

We could go into great detail at this point but will not because of the time element. Read Diving Into Deep Things of God. Our common understanding is that Noah took only pairs of animals into the ark.  In fact, Noah took two of every unclean animal and seven pairs of every kind of clean animal and seven pairs of every kind of bird.  He did not take lions, tigers, cheetahs, etc.  He took pairs of kinds of animals, as in the feline kind, from which developed the lions, tigers, cheetahs, etc. Also in the book Diving Into Deep Things of God are many details concerning the kinds of animals and the description of the ark.  To give you an indication of just how big it was, the length of the ark would be from the driveway on, Penbrooke Place to the end of the street.  It would be about as wide as from our garage door to the sidewalk in front of our neighbor’s house across the street.  It was three levels tall, which may have been the equivalent of about 4 stories tall.

 

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Genesis 7:11 In the six hundredth year of Noah's life, on the seventeenth day of the second month-- on that day all the fountains of the great deep burst forth, and the floodgates of the heavens were opened.

The "deep" is also known as the abyss and a surging mass of water. The floodgates of heaven opened when the heavy water vapor above the earth (the canopy) because of meteorite activity fell in the form of intense rain. Water trapped inside the earth's crust gushed out when the crust of the earth was broken and split apart by earthquake activity.  This was an extremely violent time.

 

We have spoken many times concerning the contradictions between scientists and theologians.  If they would only get together in search of the truth, there would be no contradictions.  Here is an excellent example of how science verifies Scripture.

Phil recently read in one of his books on tape from the library about a substance called ringwoodite, a mineral that was discovered by a scientist named Ringwood. There are several books and many articles written about this recent discovery. One article quotes a geochemist who writes that the discovery of ringwoodite confirms there is a very, very large amount of water trapped and compressed in the deep earth.  What is exciting about this scientific finding is that it confirms Scripture. Ringwoodite only forms naturally under the extreme pressure found in Earth's mantle. Ringwoodite stays  compressed and intact, until released.  God released the pressure of this trapped compressed water when He gave the order for all the fountains of the great deep to burst forth.

When scripture says the fountains of the deep were opened up and the earth poured forth water it came out in tremendous volume and under extreme pressure. That water along with the water from the canopy which fell flooded the earth. 

Can we even begin to imagine this scene?  Prior to the flood the heavenly bodies were obscured by the canopy that covered the earth.  After the flood the air must have been crystal clear.  The sun, moon, and stars were vibrant.  Imagine how beautiful it must have been at night!

The first thing Noah did when he left the ark was to offer a sacrifice to God.  This was a burnt offering, meaning it was a sacrifice for sin.  See page 236.

 

Genesis 9:11 

I establish my covenant with you: Never again will all life be destroyed by the waters of a flood; never again will there be a flood to destroy the earth.”

 

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After the flood there was an incident in which Noah’s son Ham did a sexually disrespectful thing to Noah and Noah cursed Ham’s son Canaan, and thereafter his descendants who would be known as Canaanites.  This will be important later on when reading about the land of Canaan.

Genesis 9:22
Ham, the father of Canaan saw his father's nakedness and told his two brothers outside.

One definition of the Hebrew word "saw" (a combination of the Hebrew words "raah" and "eth") is "to enjoy" or "have experience with". Ham didn't just see Noah's nakedness. He did something about it, evidenced by God's curse on Ham's descendants as a result.  Also, could it be that Ham got Noah drunk on purpose so that he could "see" Noah's nakedness?  

Why did Noah curse Ham’s son? It was Ham who did a disrespectful thing to Noah, yet it was Ham's descendants who will suffer the consequences. This is a classic example of sin affecting more than just the sinner. Other people often get hurt in the process.  

LENGTH OF LIFE CHANGED

After the flood, the longevity of man began to decrease. The length of life was drastically shortened.  The protection of the canopy was gone, and the people were subjected to solar and cosmic radiation of which they were not accustomed. Before the flood the canopy prevented radiation from striking harshly against the earth. Before the flood and the fall of the canopy, the atmospheric gas was higher in oxygen than it is now and air pressure was approximately twice what it is now. After the flood when the canopy fell, radiation damaged the cell structure of the human body, oxygen ratio was lowered and pressure diminished. 

 

The main contributors of the shortening of lifespans were radiation into the gene pool and a drastic change of diet. After the flood, people were no longer vegetarians but were allowed to eat meat. Subsequent Scriptures will relate the shortened lifespans.  The canopy was essentially a protection by God against harmful radiation.  It was because of sin that God removed His protection.  An application for us today...when we sin, God often removes His hand of protection and allows us to suffer the consequences of our sins.

See the book Diving Into Deep Things of God for more details.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/1719913390

 

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TOWER OF BABEL

Genesis 11:4

Then they said, "Come, let us build ourselves a city, with a tower that reaches to the heavens, so that we may make a name for ourselves and not be scattered over the face of the whole earth."

 

The people wanted to “make a name for ourselves”. What “name”? And they didn't want to be scattered. Yet this is exactly what God wanted them to do. In fact, that is exactly what He DID do when He confounded their language, He scattered the people. 

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Tarah was the father of Abram, Nahor, and Haran.  Haran had a son, Lot and two daughters, Iscah and Milcah. Haran died and his brothers Abram and Nahor took his two daughters as their wives.  Iscah was Sarai’s name at birth.  It means “looking ahead”. Her name was changed at some point, possibly because of a change in character, to Sarai, which means “princess”.  God changed it later to Sarah, which means “noble woman” or a woman of utmost importance. (Proverbs 31 woman)  Genesis 11:30

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DISOBEDIENT ABRAHAM

There are many instances in Scripture when Abraham and God interacted. God told Abram to leave his country and go to another country - to go for himself - or to go for his own good.  He was told to leave his people, his father’s household and go to a land that He would show him. Yet, Abram took his nephew Lot. He didn’t obey God completely. Incomplete obedience is disobedience. 

 

When the land could not support the large herds of Abraham and his nephew Lot, Abraham told Lot to choose which land he wanted.  Lot selfishly chose the fertile land of the plain, which included the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah.  Keep in mind, this land was lush and fertile.  But it wouldn’t stay that way for long as we will find out a little later in the reading.

 

PROMISES TO ABRAHAM - there are seven promises made to Abram Genesis 12:2-3

God promises Abram the land, not the land of Israel as we know it today. These borders listed in Genesis 15:17-21 include the land from the headwaters of the Euphrates River in Turkey all the way to the Persian Gulf and from there to Cairo in Egypt and from Cairo back to Turkey, which by the way were somewhat the same boundaries as the Garden of Eden.  All Abram had to do was to walk the land and claim it.

God promised Abraham that he would have many, many descendants yet his wife Sarah had yet to conceive.  In the culture of the day, it was not uncommon for women to give their maid servants to their husbands to conceive for them.  Sarah gave her maidservant Hagar (daughter of Pharaoh by one of his concubines) to Abraham and she bore a son Ishmael. Later they would send Ishmael and Hagar away and Hagar would have an encounter with God the Son.  See page 31.

 

Sometime later the Lord appeared to Abraham yet again, along with two angels, promising him that he would have a son by his wife Sarah. Sarah overheard the conversation about her having a child at her advanced age and she laughed to herself at the prospect. God responded with "Is anything too hard for the Lord?"  Isn't this a verse we should claim on a daily basis? Indeed, IS anything too hard for the Lord?

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The word despise has several meanings. In the Chumash, the Hebrew Torah, Hagar’s mistress, Sarah was lowered in her esteem. She bragged that her pagan gods enabled her to become pregnant while Sarah’s God had withheld this blessing because Sarah was not favored by God.  Sarah wanted Hagar to be sent away so she could no longer insult Sarah or God.  

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SODOM AND GOMORRAH

Abraham bargains for the inhabitants of Sodom.  This is where his nephew Lot settled.

In the Chumash it is written that Abraham weaned people away from idolatry and taught them about God.  Lot had already formed his attitudes and character before he came under the influence of Abraham.

Evidence of the decadent lifestyle of the men of Sodom is evident in their demand for having sex with the two strangers (angels).  Equally repugnant is Lot's offer of his two virgin daughters instead. However, to his credit, 2 Peter 2:7-8 tells us that Lot was a righteous man. and if he rescued Lot, a righteous man, who was distressed by the filthy lives of lawless men (for that righteous man, living among them day after day, was tormented in his righteous soul by the lawless deeds he saw and heard)

 

The people of Sodom and the other four cities engaged in any evil perversion imaginable, homosexuality, pedophilia, adultery, fornication, rape, torture, and murder, to name a few.

 

Believers in Jesus should not become desensitized to any and all sexual perversion.  We should be tormented as well by what we see in our world today.  But more importantly, what will we do about it?

 

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Lot’s daughters perceived that repopulating the earth after the cities were destroyed was their responsibility, they got their father drunk, slept with him and conceived. Because they lived in a place where sexual immorality was rampant, they saw nothing wrong with this sexual perversion. Two sons were born to the daughters; Moab, father of the Moabites and Ammi, the father of the Ammonites.  These will be two very key players in the Bible.

Isaac is born.