Even the Faithful Stumble
 
          After allowing himself to get waylaid in Haran, Abram resumes his journey to the Promised Land.  While he is a man of great faith, the delay in Haran revealed that he was not perfect, and we will learn of more imperfections in the passages to come.  Once you have read Genesis 12:9 through 13:18 you are ready to consider the three questions:
 
1.  What does it reveal about God?

• God has great power.  God sent plagues to the household of Pharoah to prevent Pharoah from carrying through with the carnal plans he had for Sarah.
• God does not forget his promises.  When Abram leaves Egypt and returns to Canaan, God repeats his promise to Abram to give him the land and make him the father of a great nation.

 
2.  What does it reveal about us?

• Even the most faithful among us can stumble.  When the famine came, rather than seek help from the God whom he had trusted to journey to that land, Abram instead left the land and traveled down into Egypt.  He compounded this error by conspiring with Sarah to deceive Pharoah.  One might even go as far to say that he was willing to compromise his wife’s virtue to save his own life.  All this drama could have been avoided if he would have called upon God for help to provide for him in the land were God had told him to dwell.  Too often we trust in our own devices rather than seeking God’s help and doing so can lead us into even more trouble.

 
3.  What does it reveal about God’s relationship with us?

• God protects us, even when we do not deserve it.  God could have left Abram to deal with the mess he had created by going to Egypt, but instead he intervened and brought the plagues that caused Pharoah to realize the truth about Abram and Sarah.

 
Key Passage
          “And the Lord said to Abram, after Lot had separated from him: ‘Lift your eyes now and look from the place where you are – northward, southward, eastward, and westward; for all the land which you see I give to you and your descendants forever.  And I will make your descendants as the dust of the earth; so that if a man could number the dust of the earth, then your descendants also could be numbered.  Arise, walk in the land through its length and its width, for I give it to you.’” – Genesis 13:14-17
 
         In this passage God repeats his promise to Abram in greater detail.  He uses the imagery of the dust of earth to express the incredible scope of Abram’s progeny.  Abram had lived in two mighty civilizations – the Chaldean Empire where he grew up and the Egyptian Empire that he had just left.  Between the prolific number of descendants and the scope of territory for them to possess, God was making it clear to Abram that he would eclipse any human kingdom he had seen.
 
Other Notable Points

• The separation of Abram and Lot sets the stage for several dramatic events that will come.  It is no coincidence that God’s detailed promise of numerous descendants comes after Abram has parted ways with his designated heir.  God will provide Abram with a true heir.

 
Final Thoughts

• God’s plan continues to move forward.  Abram veered off course, but God brought him back to where he was supposed to be, both physically and spiritually.  We see a reaffirmation of the promised seed of Eve descending through the line of Abram.  However, the seed of the serpent is about to interject itself into the story once more.

 The Promise

    The previous chapter dealt with the seed of the serpent’s attempt to gain ascendancy through the line of Noah’s son Ham.  This chapter describes God’s response through the line of Noah’s son Shem.  It begins with another genealogy taking us to a man named Abram – a man chosen by God to be the father of a nation that would bring forth his promised savior.  Once you have read Genesis 11:10 through 12:8 you are ready to consider the three questions:
 
1.  What does it reveal about God?

• God is in control.  The aspirations of Nimrod and his fallen followers ended in confusion and defeat at the Tower of Babel.  God’s plan for restoration will not be stopped.  It moves forward through the line of Shem and settles on Abram.

 
 
2.  What does it reveal about us?

• We are capable of great faith.  Abram trusted in God and left behind the land where he was raised to go to an unknown land.  The post-Babel world was divided and dangerous, yet Abram found courage though his faith in God to brave the journey.  There is no fear that we cannot face if we seek our courage in God.

 
 
3.  What does it reveal about God’s relationship with us?

• God often takes us out of our comfort zone to refine our faith and bring out the best in us.  God gives us opportunities to show our faith and when we do so, he rewards us.  The rewards can vary from something as simple as learning more about ourselves to something grander, like a life-changing achievement.  God drew Abram out of his comfort zone and gave him the opportunity to be the head of a line through which the savior of the world, Jesus Christ, would be born.  When you find yourself confronted with a situation that pulls you out of your comfort zone, consider if it is an opportunity that God has placed before you to refine your faith and achieve something important.

 
Key Passage
                “Now the Lord had said to Abram: ‘Get out of your country, from your family and from your father’s house, to a land that I will show you.  I will make you a great nation; I will bless you and make your name great; and you shall be a blessing.  I will bless those who bless you, and I will curse him who curses you; and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.’” – Genesis 12:1-3
                This passage is God’s second revelation of his plan for the salvation and restoration of the fallen world.  His first revelation came in his words to the Serpent in Genesis 3:15. God revealed that through the line of Eve would come one who would conquer the evil that had taken over the world.  Now God reveals that this line will run through Abram.  Whereas in Genesis 3:15 God spoke cryptically of the bruising of the Serpent’s head, here he speaks of a blessing extending to all the families of the earth.  Jesus Christ, a distant descendant of Abram, will be the one through whom all people of the world will be given an opportunity for salvation.
 
Other Notable Points

• We read that Abram’s father Terah had moved the family with the intent of going to Canaan, but stopped in the land of Haran, which is in modern Turkey.  We learn from Stephen in chapter 7 of the book of Acts that God spoke to Abram when Abram was in Ur of the Chaldeans in Mesopotamia.  So it was not Terah’s idea to move, but rather Abram convinced his father that it was God’s will for them to go to Canaan.  However, Terah had the family stop short of Canaan and settle in Haran.  Perhaps he found the conditions in Haran to be comfortable and did not want to risk uncertainty in Canaan.  Perhaps he heard rumors of danger in Canaan.  Whatever the reason, it was not until his death that Abram resumes his journey.  A lesson we can learn from this is that others, perhaps even family members, can sometimes stand in the way of us fulfilling God’s plan for our lives.  We also learn the importance of precisely following God’s plan.  Abram was told not only to leave his land, but also to leave his father’s house.  But Abram instead traveled with his father and his father sidetracked him in Haran.  There are times when God asks us to do difficult things, but those difficulties serve a greater purpose.  Fortunately for Abram, though delayed, he did not forget God’s call and he went on to fulfill his destiny.

 
Final Thoughts
     God’s promise to Abram is especially significant, as it comes after the judgement of Babel.  Even though humans had rebelled against God yet again, God’s mercy endures, and he remains undaunted in his determination to restore his creation.  The cycle has moved once again from judgement to redemption.  It could perhaps be better said that the history we see unfolding is as a river flowing toward ultimate redemption and each period of rebellion and judgement is as the crashing against the rocks in a stretch of rapids.  The flow cannot be stopped, and the destination is certain, but there are more rocks ahead, as we will see. 

The Tower
 
                It did not take long for evil to re-emerge in the post-Flood world.  This chapter begins with Noah’s son Ham committing a heinous sin against his father.  The chapter ends with Nimrod, the grandson of Ham, aspiring to godhood and rallying the people of the world to build a great tower to challenge the power of God.  God responds by confusing the languages of the people and scattering them to prevent them from uniting against him again.  This event is known to us as the Tower of Babel.  Once you have read Genesis 9:18 through 11:9 you are ready to consider the three questions:
 
1.  What does it reveal about God?

• God is all powerful.  God is not only the creator of language, but he had the power to instantly rewire the brains of the entire human race to get them to speak different languages.  This achieved God’s desired result of dividing the people, since those who could understand each other grouped together and distanced themselves from those whom they could no longer understand.
• God is merciful.  God chose to confuse the languages of the people rather than destroy them.  By challenging God’s power, the people were deserving of destruction, but God spared them and divided them instead.

 
2.  What does it reveal about us?

• We have a fallen nature.  This chapter contains further examples of the depravity of humans.  Ham, who had just been spared from God’s judgement during the Flood, sins against his father.  Nimrod, the great-grandson of Noah, rallied the people of the world in a grand endeavor to challenge the authority of God.  Keep in mind that due to the extended lifespans at that time (Noah lived 350 more years AFTER the Flood), everyone would have had access to firsthand accounts of the Flood and the reason why God did it.  But the same human desire that was present in Eve “to be as God” persisted and became manifested in the construction of the Tower of Babel.  Sadly, we are no different today, as we see in our world a push to challenge not only the power of God, but the very idea of his existence.

 
3.  What does it reveal about God’s relationship with us?

• God rules over us.  He is a benign ruler, but make no mistake, God is in control.  Each time humans have sought to challenge God’s authority they have been put in their place.  Adam and Eve were expelled from Eden and lost eternal life.  The corrupt humans of Noah’s day were destroyed in the Flood.  The rebellious followers of Nimrod saw their efforts stopped in their tracks by God confusing their language.

 
Key Passage
 
                “And they said, ‘Come, let us build ourselves a city, and a tower whose top is in the heavens; let us make a name for ourselves, lest we be scattered abroad over the face of the whole earth.’” – Genesis 11:4
 
                This verse sums up both the audacity and futility of human ambition.  Rather than focusing their efforts on serving God, the humans of that day sought to magnify themselves and serve their own pride.  In the end, their ambition resulted in the very thing they were striving to avoid as God scattered them throughout the earth.
 
Other Notable Points

• There is some controversy over exactly what Ham did to Noah.  Some interpret the episode as Ham merely seeing his father naked.  Others claim that Ham sexually assaulted his father.  Still others say that Ham castrated Noah.  There is another interpretation, which I feel best explains the episode.  This interpretation asserts that Ham had intercourse with his mother while Noah was passed out drunk in the tent.  Elsewhere in the Bible the phrase “the nakedness of one’s father” is used to describe sexual intercourse with one’s mother.  “The man who lies with his father’s wife has uncovered his father’s nakedness” – Leviticus 20:11. This was a powerplay on the part of Ham to seize headship of the family and thereby make himself ruler of the world, since Noah’s family were the only survivors of the Flood.  This practice of displaying sexual dominance over a rival’s wife or concubine as a means to claim power was common in the ancient world.  We see it manifested in the rebellion of Absalom, who had sex with the concubines of his father King David in public view as a means of asserting his claim of having usurped his father’s power (2 Samuel 16:22).  This is why Ham bragged to his brothers when he came out of the tent.  He was asserting his claim of dominance.  This also explains why Noah cursed Canaan.  This interpretation holds that Canaan was the product of this heinous act – the son of Ham and Ham’s mother.  Furthermore, we see that Ham achieved some success in this powerplay as authority appears to follow his line, with the people rallying behind his grandson Nimrod to build the tower.

 
Final Thoughts

• We see the continuation of the cycle of corruption and judgement.  The corruption begins immediately after the Flood in the form of Ham’s sin and culminates in the people of the world gathering to build a tower to challenge God.  But God’s plan for redemption will continue, as we will see in the next chapter.

The Flood
 
                In this chapter we learn of God’s intention to carry forward his plan for salvation through Noah and his family.  The world had become so irredeemably corrupt that only Noah and his family retained the spiritual and genetic purity to carry forward the seed of Eve.  In order to destroy the great evil that had taken over the earth, God brought forth a global flood to cleanse the earth.  God provided protection for Noah, his family, and a selection of every kind of animal in a massive ark.  When the flood waters subside, those saved emerge from the ark to begin a new age on earth.  The chapter ends with God establishing a covenant with every living creature, whereby he vows to never again destroy the world with a flood.  When you have finished reading Genesis 6:8 through Genesis 9:17 you are ready to consider the three questions.
 
1.  What does it reveal about God?

• God will go to great lengths to carry out his plan.  God was willing to destroy nearly everything he had created on earth to secure his plan for redeeming it.  One can almost imagine the shock of Satan, who had come so close to completely corrupting all of creation only to see those efforts wiped away in one bold stroke.  The Flood essentially reset the war between the seed of the serpent and the seed of Eve.
• God has a serious desire to redeem us.  Just as God chose to salvage humanity through Adam and Eve rather than destroy them and start over, God again chose to salvage humanity through the family of Noah rather than completely starting over.  This desire is manifested in the form of Jesus Christ, whose sacrifice redeems all humans who believe in him.

 
2.  What does it reveal about us?

• We are capable of great faith.  It took Noah years to build the ark.  It is very likely that he was mocked by those who saw him carrying out his work.  Yet Noah followed God’s instructions completely and without question.  The same capacity for faith is in each and every one of us.  We only need to choose to act on it.  One such act of faith is believing in Jesus Christ.
• God thinks that we are worth saving.  Think of the lengths God has gone to in order to redeem you.  The Flood is not some cute Bible story about loading animals onto a big ship.  It is a story of God going to extreme lengths to secure your redemption.  He went to even greater lengths through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ to complete that redemption.  You should reflect on the value of your life and how you lead it, because God has placed a great price on it.

 
3.  What does it reveal about God’s relationship with us?

• God cares about us on a personal level.  God identified Noah and his family and saved them.  He made sure to keep them safe during the worst disaster this world has ever seen.
• God makes promises to us.  These are called covenants.  God promised Noah and his descendants that he would never again destroy the entire world with a flood.  This is known as the Rainbow Covenant because God told Noah that the sign of a rainbow in the sky would serve as a reminder of his promise.

 
Key Passage

                “Whoever sheds man’s blood, by man his blood shall be shed; For in the image of God He made man.  And as for you, be fruitful and multiply; bring forth abundantly in the earth and multiply in it.” – Genesis 9:6-8
 
                This verse reminds us of several key truths.  First, we are made in the image of God.  Second, God places great value on human life.  Third, God encourages human reproduction.  We see a disturbing trend in our modern world to erode these truths.
 
Other Notable Points

• Christian scientists have been building a compelling case that the Flood and its aftermath created the conditions that make a literal “young earth” interpretation of the Creation account possible.  This is explored in the movie “Is Genesis History?” (see Resources section of this website for a link to the movie).
• The use of rainbow symbology by the LGBT movement is concerning.  While I am sure many and perhaps most in the movement have adopted it as benign symbol of solidarity, it cannot be denied that it co-opts a symbol created by God and employs it for a purpose that is unquestionably against God’s will.  A less benign view of this situation is that Satan is mocking God, taking a symbol God pointed to immediately following the destruction of Satan’s attempted corruption of mankind and using it as the banner under which he is carrying out his renewed war of corruption.

Final Thoughts

• We see a cycle emerging: corruption, judgement, redemption.  Corruption entered Eden, God issued his judgement upon Adam and Eve, but then also announced his plan for their redemption.  Corruption entered the family of Adam in the form Cain, God issued his judgement on Cain, but then carried forward his plan of redemption through Seth.  Corruption consumed the world, God issued his judgement in the form of the Flood, but then saved the family of Noah to advance his plan of redemption.  We will see this cycle continue in the chapters to come.

The Fallen World

    The previous chapter revealed the darkest depths of human nature in the form of Abel’s death at the hands of his brother Cain.  This chapter deals with the war between the seed of the woman and the seed of the serpent.  God having proclaimed Satan’s demise at the hands of a future offspring of Eve, Satan began his conspiracy to destroy the genetic line of Eve.  Once you have read Genesis 5:1 through 6:7 you are ready to consider the three questions:
 
1.  What does it reveal about God?

• God has a plan.  Genesis 5 includes the first of what will be several genealogies listed in the Bible.  You might think these lists of names make for a boring read, but they serve a purpose.  They ultimately will trace the line of Eve to the savior promised by God.
• God is grieved by sin.  Genesis 1 and 2 reveal the glorious creation of God.  All that he created was good.  The actions of humans brought evil into the world and with it the corruption of sin.  In Genesis 6 the wickedness of humans has grown so great that God finds himself regretting his creation.
• God is all powerful.  God created this world and he has the power to destroy it.  Genesis 6:7 contains the chilling proclamation of God’s vow to destroy all living creatures, save for the select few we will discuss in the next chapter.
• God is just.  God’s proclamation is not arbitrary.  Wicked human behavior and the interference of angelic followers of Satan who sought to corrupt the line of Eve with the seed of the Serpent (as described in Genesis 6:2-4) compelled God to take action to salvage his creation and preserve the line of Eve.

 
2.  What does it reveal about us?

• As was stated in the previous chapter, we are capable of great evil.  The wickedness of humans had grown so great that God was left with no choice except to hit the reset button and start over.
• We do not have to conform to the world around us.  While we are capable of great evil, we can choose a different path.  Enoch serves as an example of one who remained true to God even as the world around him was falling into evil.

 
3.  What does it reveal about God’s relationship with us?

• God intended for us to have fellowship with him.  Despite the actions of Adam, Eve, and Cain, God did not give up on humans.  He had a relationship with Enoch, so much so that he took Enoch up to be with him in Heaven.
• There is a line that we can cross that makes reconciliation with God impossible.  There was something uniquely wicked about what humans were doing prior to the Flood that compelled God to destroy them.  It was beyond rebellion and murder, for we had already seen God deal mercifully with Adam, Eve, and Cain for those offenses.  The union of the “Sons of God” and the daughters of men hint at the line that was crossed and it ties in to the war between the seed of the woman and the seed of the Serpent.  The pre-flood society was engaging in actions that had corrupted the genetic code created by God.  They were no longer made in the image of God.  They had mingled with the seed of the Serpent and their offspring were created in his image, thus the thoughts of their hearts were to do evil continually.  Extra-Biblical Hebrew texts such as the books of Jasher and Jubiliees reveal that humans were engaged in all-manner of crossbreeding, thus corrupting all of creation.

    The second prominent mention of a line that is crossed beyond which reconciliation with God is impossible occurs in the final book of the Bible – Revelation.  In it, those who take the Mark of the Beast are described as condemned and beyond hope of salvation.  I believe this mark involves something that alters the human genetic code and corrupts it with the seed of the Serpent, much like what happened in the pre-Flood society.  Indeed Jesus told his disciples that the Last Days would be like the days of Noah.  This should give us pause as to how far science should go in manipulating genetics. 
 
Key Passage
 
                “Now it came to pass, when men began to multiply on the face of the earth, and daughters were born to them, that the sons of God saw the daughters of men, that they were beautiful; and they took wives for themselves of all whom they chose.”  Genesis 6:1-2
 
                As mentioned earlier, this passage reveals Satan’s attempt to corrupt the seed of Eve by carrying out a plot that saw angels loyal to him engaging in unions with mortal women to create unnatural offspring.  One cannot help but see imagery similar to pagan mythologies where “Gods” take human consorts who bear powerful demi-gods.  The result is a genetic corruption so prolific that only the lines of Noah and his wife and daughters-in-law remained purely human.  God could not allow the corrupted lines to endure and inevitably render the whole of the human race to be mingled with the seed of the Serpent.  This sets the stage for the calamitous Great Flood, to completely wipe out the seed of the Serpent and leave only the seed of Eve on earth.
 
Other Notable Points

• We see foreshadowing of the event called “The Rapture” in Genesis 5:24. The Rapture is the belief that many Christians hold that in the Last Days, living Christians will be taken up to Heaven (1 Thessalonians 4:16-17).  Enoch is not described as having died.  Instead we are told “he was not, for God took him”.

 
Final Thoughts

• Genesis 3:15 encapsulates the major theme of the Bible.  It is God’s proclamation of a savior from the “seed” of Eve and the ensuing war Satan will wage against humanity to break the line of Eve so as to prevent the savior who will defeat him from coming into existence.  In this chapter we have seen the march forward of Eve’s line in the genealogies as well as Satan’s attempt to corrupt the line through the incursion of fallen angels.  God responds by resolving to wipe out all living creatures, save for a single family who carries a pure genetic code.  As we will see in future chapters, this will not be Satan’s last attempt at stopping the line of the savior, nor will it be God’s last act to defend it.

Knowing Evil

     A desire to gain the knowledge of good and evil drove Eve to eat from the forbidden tree and Adam followed her lead.  They had known only good in Eden.  Now they had been thrust out into a cruel world where survival would only come through toil as all that was perfect begins its decay into corruption.  The first child born into this world becomes the personification of evil and much to their sorrow, Adam and Eve gain full knowledge of what evil means.  Once you have read Genesis 4:1 through 4:26 you are ready to consider the three questions:

1.  What does it reveal about God?

• God is forgiving.  Despite the expulsion from Eden, we see in this chapter God’s continued interaction with humans.  He did not abandon Adam and Eve.  He continued to visit them and their children.
• God cares for us.  God shows concern for Cain’s emotional disposition following the criticism of Cain’s offering.  He warns Cain of the perilous path upon which such emotions could carry him.
• God is just.  While we do not know exactly why God rejected Cain’s offering, we can perhaps draw some conclusions.  Abel brought the firstborn from his flock of sheep as his offering.  One imagines it must have been emotionally difficult for Abel to sacrifice the gentle creature he had raised since birth.  God could relate to the magnitude of this gift on two counts.  First, God sacrificed innocent creatures to provide skins to clothe Adam and Eve when they were ashamed and had only leaves to cover them.  It could be that Abel had heard the story of the sacrifice from his parents and was imitating God’s act of sacrifice by giving up something that was dear to him to honor God.  Second, one cannot fail to notice the imagery in Abel’s sacrifice as it relates to the plan God had already formed to one day sacrifice his son Jesus, the Lamb of God.

 
     Cain, on the other hand, offered “fruit of the ground”.  Keep in mind, that God had placed a curse on the ground due to Adam’s sin.  So Cain was offering God things that had sprung up from cursed ground.  Abel had offered something precious and unique – a firstborn living creature.  Cain had offered something cursed and common – an assortment of crops that he had harvested from cursed ground.  For God to have accepted Cain’s ill-conceived offering would not have been fair to Abel, who had made a true sacrifice for God.  It also would have failed to have set the proper pattern of foreshadowing of the plan that God had created for the redemption of mankind.
 
     Further evidence of the just nature of God is displayed in the punishment Cain faces for his act of murder.  God enforces consequences for the shedding of blood.  God drives Cain out from his presence.  This drives home the point that sin brings separation from God.

• God is merciful.  God did not strike Cain down for killing Abel.  God responded to the despair Cain expressed over his banishment by giving him a mark of protection.  While we do not know the quality of Cain’s life after his banishment, we see that he was able to raise a family and build a city.

 
2.  What does it reveal about us?

• We are capable of great evil.  The first human born outside of Eden killed his brother in a jealous rage.  It did not take generations of separation from the paradise of Eden to bring humanity to its lowest point.  It happened in the first post-Eden generation.  Anyone who believes in the inherent goodness of humanity should think long and hard on the story of Cain and Abel.
• Failure to control our emotions can lead to sin and possibly separation from God.  God himself warned Cain about the sin Cain was in danger of falling into and still Cain gave in to his jealousy and anger and committed the most heinous of acts.

 
3.  What does it reveal about God’s relationship with us?

• God desires a relationship with us.  Even after the rebellion in Eden, we see that God was still visiting and conversing with the family of Adam and Eve.
• God wants us to understand his will.  God was not being cruel to Cain by rejecting his offering.  God was teaching Cain to learn from the experience and do better next time.  It was an opportunity for Cain to better understand the will of God, but instead Cain could not see past his anger.  If you give someone a gift with the goal of pleasing them, is it not better to know what they really prefer as opposed to having them pretend that they like something that they really do not?

 
Key Passage
 
                “And Adam knew his wife again, and she bore a son and named him Seth, ‘For God has appointed another seed for me instead of Abel, whom Cain killed.’” – Genesis 4:25
 
              This is the key passage because it describes the unrelenting advancing of God’s plan for salvation.  The first two offspring of Adam and Eve were destroyed – one through a mortal death and the other through a spiritual death.  But God replaced Abel with Seth and through Seth the seed of Eve would begin its march through time to the Virgin birth of Jesus.
 
Other Notable Points

• One can see the descent of the Fallen world into violence right from the beginning.  First with Cain and then we learn that a few generations later Lamech killed a man for wounding him.
• You might be wondering where Cain’s wife came from.  As distasteful as it sounds, she was most likely a sister.  Since we are not told of the creation of any other humans beyond Adam and Eve, we are left to assume that the earliest generations were formed from the unions of brothers and sisters and then cousins.  The purity of human bloodlines that soon after Creation would have made such unions possible without the risk of genetic deformities.  There were also no established social prohibitions against such relationships.  It was not until the establishment of the Mosaic laws that God speaks out against such relationships.

 
Final Thoughts

• In this chapter we see the Fallen nature of humans on full display.  We are capable of great evil.  Failure to understand the will of God and control our emotions can lead to sin and separation.
• God’s mercy and forbearance knows no bounds.  We see God’s continued fellowship with humans even after the rebellion in Eden.  We see his continued mercy by banishing Cain instead of executing him.  God even gives Cain a protective mark to ease his mind.
• God’s plan for restoration will not be stopped.  Even after the death of Abel and the banishment of Cain, God blessed Adam and Eve with another son, Seth, to establish the bloodline through which the savior will be born.

​The Fall
 
        Everything changes in the second chapter of our story.  God’s perfect plan for his creation is fundamentally altered by the rebellious actions of his human creations.  Once you have read Genesis 3:1 through 3:24 you are ready to consider the three questions:

1.  What does it reveal about God?

• God is just.  Justice is a system of laws, enforcement of those laws, and administration of punishment when laws are broken.  God created the law that forbade eating from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil.  He enforced that law and administered the punishment for violating that law by banishing Adam and Eve from Eden.
• God is merciful.  God could have just hit the reset button, destroyed Adam and Eve and tried again with new humans.  Instead, he banished them and altered the rules of his creation to serve as the consequences for their action.  He transformed Eve from the instigator of creation’s ruin to the instrument of its redemption by declaring that from her seed would come one who would bruise the head of the serpent.  The words of God in Genesis 3:15 are the first prophecy of the coming of the savior Jesus Christ.  Note that God refers to Eve’s seed, not Adam’s.  This foreshadows the virgin birth, in which Mary serves as the human component of Jesus’s DNA and God provides the male genetic component.  In the very same chapter where humans rebel against God and turn his perfect world into a Fallen one, God reveals his plan for restoration.
• God is fully committed to free will.  Not only did God put the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil in the garden to serve as a test of free will, but he also allowed Satan to enter the garden in the form of the serpent to advocate a point of view that was against God’s will.  The presence of an advocate for an opposing view made the reality of free will complete.  No one can read this chapter and honestly claim that God is an unjust tyrant.
• God is a Trinity of beings.  This is alluded to in Genesis 3:22 where he uses the word “us”.  There are three members of the Trinity: God the Father, God the Son (Jesus), and God the Holy Spirit.  This concept will be explored further as the story progresses.

 
2.  What does it reveal about us?

• We have a desire to make our own rules.  At the heart of Adam and Eve’s disobedience was a desire to make their own rules, to satisfy their own judgment as to what is good and evil.  The serpent caused Eve to question God’s judgment.  First he lied and told Eve that she would not die if she ate the Forbidden Fruit.  Next, he mischaracterized God’s intentions by framing God as jealously protecting his unique knowledge as opposed to God’s true intention of protecting humans from the consequences of knowing and experiencing evil.  The impression one gets is that prior to that encounter, Eve had never dared get close enough to the tree to even look at the fruit.  One imagines she had in her mind an image of the fruit as being foul-looking and inedible.  But when she gets closer and sees the fruit, she confuses her own misconception as a deception on God’s part and this reinforces the serpent’s misleading argument and encourages her to take the next fatal step of eating the fruit.        

     This is an important lesson for us today as we grapple with modern cultural issues.  We must not forego God’s clearly stated laws and instead follow a path the “feels” right to us.  If your personal judgment of what is right conflicts with God’s, you are wrong - plain and simple.  There is no nuance to it.  It is simply you repeating the exact same pattern that started with Eve.  It is rebellion against God, and rebellion against God always ends in pain, suffering, and death.  This not because God is cruel, but instead because God knows what is ultimately true.  He has seen the end of every path we might choose to take.  That is why has given us laws that lead us down only good paths.  When we act in defiance of God’s laws, we are marching down a path that leads to a place that will ultimately end in pain and suffering.

• We choose to separate ourselves from God.  Adam and Eve immediately hid themselves from God after their act of disobedience.  The shame of our sins causes us to pull away from God.
• We are to blame for the Fallen World we live in.  While Adam and Eve started the tragic chain of events, the truth is anyone of us would have eventually eaten from the Forbidden Tree if we were in their place, because like them, we have a desire to make our own rules.  We also perpetuate the fallen nature of this world through our own sins that bring harm to us and to others.  Rather than shaking our fist at God for not solving all the world’s problems, we should instead reflect upon our own culpability.

   
3. What does it reveal about God’s relationship with us?

• God continues to love us despite our disobedience.  God did not destroy Adam and Eve.  He sought them out as they hid from him.  While he had harsh words for them and enforced the consequences for their actions, he did not utterly forsake them.  He made clothing for them to protect them from their own sense of shame and the harsh elements of the fallen world they would be entering.
• God’s ultimate plan is to bring reconciliation and restoration.  The foundation of this plan is found in his words in Genesis 3:15, which as mentioned earlier is a prophecy of salvation through Jesus.
• God instituted death as a form of mercy.  Without death, Adam, Eve, and all the generations of their offspring would be forced to live forever in a Fallen World filled with all manner of suffering, and more importantly, the separation from God that their continued sins would bring.

 
Key passage:
 
                “So the Lord God said to the serpent: ‘Because you have done this, you are cursed more than all cattle, and more than every beast of the field: On your belly you shall go, and you shall eat dust all the days of your life, and I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her Seed; He shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise His heel.” – Genesis 3:14-15
 
         As mentioned before, this is God revealing the method by which he will undo the evil Satan helped to unleash in Eden.  The bruising of the heel is a reference to the suffering Jesus will endure to fulfill the act of salvation.  The bruising of the head is a reference to the total victory Jesus will achieve over evil.  And so this chapter advances the main theme of the story: humans need a savior and God will provide a savior.

Other Notable Points

• Upon eating the Forbidden Fruit, a fundamental change occurred in the biology of Adam and Eve.  All the biological drives necessary for survival in the Fallen World were activated.  This is how pain entered the world, because pain is what enables us to know when we are injured and serves as a warning to prevent further injury.
• Eve’s actions fundamentally changed the relationship between men and women.  The original plan was for males and females to be equal partners who would join in relationship with each other to be one cohesive unit.  But because Eve rebelled first and then convinced Adam to do so, the role of the wife became to serve the husband.  This is another place where we must note that this was not part of God’s original plan, but a modification he made as a consequence of human rebellion.  It is also God’s way of placing ultimate accountability on Adam and all men who would follow him.  Adam blamed his wife Eve for causing him to rebel.  Never again would he or any man be able to make that excuse.
• In this chapter we see the start of Satan’s war against humans.  Satan despises the human race and seeks to completely destroy it.  One imagines he took God’s command literally and expected God to immediately destroy Adam and Eve once they ate the Forbidden Fruit.  He was no doubt disappointed when God merely expelled them from the Garden and bestowed upon them a future death due to their new mortality, but not before they would reproduce and ensure a continued human presence on earth.  God of course, has full knowledge of Satan’s scheme and predicts what will become Satan’s continued efforts to destroy the human race (Gen. 3:15).  This is why God has laws against murder and homosexuality.  Such actions play into Satan’s goal of eliminating humans, whether through acts of violence or sexual confusion that reduce human reproduction.  Our current society’s embracing of homosexuality and the gender confusion that leads some to destroy their reproductive organs has Satanic fingerprints all over it, as does the pro-abortion movement.

Final Thoughts

• God was so committed to the concept of free will that he allowed Satan to enter Eden to advocate for disobedience to God’s will.
• Humans have a desire to make their own rules and “be as God”.
• God is just and enforces consequences when his rules are broken.
• God is merciful.
• Despite our rebellious nature, God still loves us and put in place a plan for reconciliation and restoration (salvation through Jesus).

        Reading the Bible can be a daunting task for any believer.  It is long and filled with difficult to pronounce names.  It contains concepts and imagery that do not always resonate easily in our modern age.  But one need not be intimidated or confused by the Bible.  Indeed, God wants us to understand his message contained in the scriptures.  It is the reason why the book has been preserved over countless generations.

     Understanding the Bible starts with understanding what it is.  It is part history, part poetry, part prophecy, and part law.  But what it really is could best be described as The Story of God and Us.  Biblical scholars have referred to the Bible as “The Grand Narrative”.  It is the story of Creation, the Fall, the revelation of God’s plan and promise for restoration, the execution of that plan, and the final fulfillment of restoration.  The Bible is ultimately a story of love: God’s boundless and enduring love for us.

     Perhaps the best way to study the Bible is to view it as a series of chapters that comprise the greater story of “The Grand Narrative”.  With this in mind, I will break the Bible out into sections, each of which tells a key chapter in the greater story.  In studying each chapter, we will seek the answer to three questions:
​

1. What does it reveal about God?
2. What does it reveal about us?
3. What does it reveal about God’s relationship with us?

     By viewing the Bible through the prism of these three questions we will gain a better understanding of God, ourselves, and our place in God’s plans.

 
The Beginning
 
     We begin at the beginning – the start of the book of Genesis and the story of Creation.  Genesis 1:1 through Genesis 2:25 comprise the first “chapter” we will study.  Once you have read that section of the Bible you are ready to consider the three questions.
 
     1.  What does it reveal about God?

• God is the Creator of our universe and everything in it.
• God created everything in 6 days.  It did not take him billions of years to finish his creation.
• God is good.  He called his creation good.  This means that it was perfect, without sin and death.  He did not put the creatures he created in a world where they would suffer or experience pain and death.  He blessed his creation and desired for it to be fruitful and multiply.  This point is critical when engaging with those who question how God could allow so much suffering and so many bad things to happen.  Those conditions do not reflect the nature of God.  Suffering came about through the disobedience of humans, and all the things we point to as “bad” reveal the nature of existence apart from the presence of God.
• God values order.  He created in a specific order.  He created the sun, moon, and stars to establish a cycle of time as part of this order.  He created a hierarchy among the living creatures he created, with humans being at the top.
• God values work.  We see the care and satisfaction he took in his work.  He immediately gave humans work to do (naming the animals, tending the Garden of Eden).
• God values rest.  On the seventh day God rested.  He blessed the seventh day and made it holy to establish a day of rest from that day forward.
• God has rules that must be followed.  In the beginning, God had only one rule – do not eat from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil.

 
     2.  What does it reveal about us?

• We are made in the image of God.  We are not the end result of an evolutionary process.
• We have dominion (leadership and control) over the other creatures that God created.  We have a special place above the rest of God’s creation, but we also have a responsibility to be good stewards of his creation.
• We were meant to do work – work that is satisfying and fulfilling, not dreary toil.
• We are meant to take time to rest.
• We were made to be creative.  God tasked Adam with coming up with the names for all the animals.
• We were meant to live forever in a perfect world free from pain and suffering.
• We are not meant to be alone.  God recognized this and created Eve to be Adam’s helper and wife.

 
     3.  What does it reveal about God’s relationship with us?

• God desires a relationship with us.  He created us in his image to enable us to relate to him.
• God did not make us to be his slaves or robots programmed to obey him.  He gave us free will so that we could choose whether or not to have a relationship with him.
• While we have free will, God is ultimately in control of his creation.  He sets the rules, not us.  We can choose to break his rules, but we cannot escape the consequences if we break them.  This will become evident in the next chapter.
• God wants the best for us.  He put us in a perfect world and desired for us to thrive.  His plan was that we would live forever in fellowship with him.

 
Key Passage:
 
                “And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, ‘Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat; but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.’”  - Genesis 2:16-17
 
         This passage sets the stage for the Story of God and Us.  The tree of knowledge of good and evil represents a dual test.  It was a test of humans to determine if we would freely trust in God.  Some might think it is unfair that the entire human race should be punished because Adam and Eve failed this test.  But consider for a moment that God is capable of seeing all history from beginning to end.  He has seen the end result of every possible scenario; of every possible decision every human could make.  Nothing takes God by surprise.  And God certainly is not unjust.  My point is, God searched the heart of every human who ever would exist and found in all of us the same exact failing that Adam and Eve were guilty of.

       So while the tree was a test that God foresaw all humans would fail, it became a test for God.  How would he respond to this grave moral failing of his creation?  His response was Jesus Christ.  He would show humans what true love is.  He would remain faithful in the face of faithlessness.  He would pay the ultimate price to restore those who had betrayed him.

          This is why it is important to study and understand the entirety of the Bible.  The Gospel of salvation through Jesus Christ does not begin with the New Testament book of Matthew.  It begins in Genesis.  It is found at the tree of knowledge of good and evil.  It is here where humans reveal their flawed nature and the evil of an existence apart from God.  It is here where we reveal our need for a savior.  And it is here where God reveals his perfect nature and his enduring love.  It is here where God resolves to be the savior we need.
 
Other Notable Points

• In this chapter we see God establish genders and marriage.  While it has become popular to redefine both in our modern world, we can clearly see what God’s plan was.  He created males and females.  He did not leave it up to them to decide at a later date what gender they would be.  He also created the institution of marriage and defined it as a male marrying a female.  You might have your own opinions on these matters, but just understand those opinions are at odds with God’s plan.  God can bring healing to help you overcome any impulses or desires that are separating you from his plan.  There is a grave danger in elevating your opinion of what is right over God’s stated will.  We will see this unfold in the next chapter.
• The concept of shame is a human invention.  We will explore this further in the next chapter.  This chapter ends by telling us that Adam and Eve were both naked and were not ashamed.  That is how perfect and pure God’s creation was.  They did not need clothing to protect them from either natural elements or lustful inclinations.
• The absence of lustful inclinations does not mean an absence of sexual activity.  God commanded his human creations to be fruitful and multiply and to fill the earth.  So there existed in Eden a form of sexuality that is purer and more fulfilling than anything humans have known since the Fall.  I do not mention this to tantalize you.  I bring this up because procreation is an important part of God’s plan and is something that Satan has waged war on throughout the ages.  The reason for this will become apparent in the next chapter.

 
Final Thoughts

• God is the creator of everything, and his miraculous creation process took place over 6 literal days.
• We are created in the image of God.
• God desires a relationship with us that is built on free will and trust in him.
• God’s plan was for us to live forever in a perfect world free from pain and suffering.
• God foresaw the flawed nature of humans and from the beginning resolved to prove his love through Jesus Christ.

 
Companion Study

   To better understand the importance of believing in a literal 6-day creation, I highly recommend viewing the following YouTube video by Ken Hamm from Answers in Genesis:
 
Six Days, the Age of the Earth, and the Authority of Scripture with Ken Ham
https://youtu.be/9oBle1KH7QU
 
     And to gain a better understanding of the evidence for the Biblical account of creation, I recommend the following movie:
 
“Is Genesis History?”
https://youtu.be/UM82qxxskZE

The vaccinated are being trained to hate the unvaccinated because they are told they are a threat to their lives.  The unvaccinated are being trained to hate the vaccinated because they fear they want to take away their freedom.  Those who wear masks are being trained to hate those who do not wear masks because they fear they will make them sick.  Those who do not wear masks are being trained to hate those who wear masks because they view them as a threat to their liberty.
 
Black people are being trained to hate white people because they have been told that they have been and continue to be a threat to them.  White people are being trained to hate black people because they feel an increasing fear of reverse racism as critical race theory takes hold.
 
Climate change believers are being trained to hate climate “deniers” because they are being fed the fear that the world will reach a point of no return if deniers continue to prevent proper action from taking place.  Climate change skeptics are being trained to hate climate change activists because they fear radical climate policies will destroy their way of life.
 
Democrats are being trained to hate Republicans.  Republicans are being trained to hate Democrats.  Traditional Liberal Democrats are being trained to hate Social Justice Democrats and Social Justice Democrats are being trained to hate Liberals are not sufficiently “woke”.  Populist “Trump” Republicans are being trained to hate Establishment Republicans and Establishment Republicans are being trained to hate Trump supporters.
 
Hate is being sown in nearly every aspect of our culture.  Hate fosters division and division perpetuates and deepens hate.  Hate turns us from brother, friend, or neighbor to an “other”.   Hate turns “live and let live” to “silence and destroy”.  Hate leads to neighbors informing against neighbors.  Hate leads to detention camps and “Final Solutions”.
 
Fear is the tool of those who sow hate.  Fear is being used to manipulate us, to make us hate and to divide us.  Fear and hate are being used to control us.  And in the end, is there anything more frightening than giving control to those who would gain power through fear and hate?
 
The antidote to fear is faith and trust in God.  It is no coincidence that as our country turns further from God the more given over to fear we have become.  This mortal life is so fleeting and impermanent and yet some would imperil their souls to somehow protect it and to fashion it to their liking.
 
The two Great Commandments Jesus gave us were to love God and to love our neighbor.  We love God by trusting in him and not living in fear.  We love our neighbor by viewing him or her as a fellow child of God and not as an enemy.  We must reject fear and hate and live lives ruled by faith and love.
 

​Evil likes to cloak itself in righteousness.  It disguises its nefarious purposes in robes of a noble cause.  It covers its debase motivations in garments of higher ideals.
 
Every tyrant appeals to some glorious cause when engaging in an evil pursuit of absolute power.  Hitler appealed to the glory of a new Reich.  The failed artist painted a beautiful picture of a prosperous Arian society that resonated with a broken and demoralized post-World War I Germany.  The horrors we now associate with the Nazi regime were adorned with magnificent flourishes of national pride, economic prosperity, and advances in public health.
 
But evil is not content to only misrepresent itself.  It seeks to pervert truth and impugn the righteous.  The authoritarian accuses those who cling to the ideals of liberty as obstacles to the greater good, enemies of a society that is united in achieving a higher purpose.  Those who selfishly pursue absolute power project selfish motives upon those who stand for freedom, making them villains and objects of public scorn.  Those who attempt to speak truth are dismissed as peddlers of conspiracy theories, dangerous liars who must be silenced, lest their words mislead the public and create obstacles to achieving the “greater good”.
 
Evil began in Eden, where the serpent cloaked rebellion against the Creator of the Universe as a righteous pursuit of knowledge.  But the only knowledge to be gained was the knowledge of evil – the knowledge of a desolate existence in the absence of God.  A kind and loving God was falsely painted as a tyrant who held his creation bound in ignorance.  But the only knowledge kept from the first humans was the knowledge of pain, suffering, and death.  These were the fruits born from the false righteousness of the first true tyrant and they are the bitter harvest reaped by every tyranny the world has since known.
 
Jesus was well aware of the nature of evil.  He saw it at work in the hypocrisy and false righteousness of the Pharisees and Sadducees of his day.  He knew their tyranny would lead to his death.  But he was determined to make them reveal all the ugliness of their intentions, so that history would forever record the true nature of evil.
 
Many people interpret Christ’s teaching of turning the other cheek as an appeal to pacificism.  But it really is a statement of defiance against evil.  When evil strikes, you do not run and cower from it.  Nor do you strike back and become corrupted by evil yourself.  Instead, you stand there resolutely and defy evil to strike you again. 
 
Evil seeks to win on the first strike.  The first strike is intended to either bring submission or to invoke a reaction that justifies further oppression.  Strike back and you are “revealed” as the enemy that the tyrant has painted you to be.  But stand stoically and defy evil to do its worst, and you tear away evil’s disguise.
 
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. knew the power of turning the other cheek.  He instilled great discipline and courage in the members of his movement.  The evil of Jim Crow South sought to paint blacks as savages that needed to be carefully controlled for the good of society.  Had those in the Civil Rights movement responded violently to the violence they suffered, such a reaction, while justified, would have only advanced the cause of their evil oppressors.  The stoic and resolute response of King’s movement revealed all the ugliness of the evil of Jim Crow.  Turning the other cheek turned a nation against those who tried to cloak racism in righteousness.
 
And now we see new signs of tyranny rising in America.  A country founded on freedom and personal liberty is slipping into something from a dystopian novel.  The righteousness of “public health” is being used to cloak evil ambitions.  These range from the petty vanity of formerly obscure officials who have gained a taste of fame and power and cannot let it go, to the nefarious ambitions of an elite cabal who feel the world economic and social structures are in need of a “Great Reset”.
 
If you are feeling oppressed by mask and vaccine mandates and do not know what to do, you can react in one of three ways.  You can submit and help the tyrants solidify their power, which will only lead to greater tyranny.  You can act out and give the tyrants “proof” that you truly are an enemy of the common good, which will also lead to greater tyranny.  Or you can simply stand and force the tyrants to reveal themselves for what they are.  Do not quit your job in protest if you are confronted with a mandate you deem oppressive.  Force them to fire you.  Force the school to expel your child if you think that masking is harmful to your child.  Force a business to turn you away at the door if you refuse to produce a vaccine passport.  Do not self-sensor yourself on social media.  Force them to flag your posts and possibly ban you.  Force them all to accept the role of oppressor.  Do not let them dodge and obfuscate the ugliness of what they are doing.
 
Evil can only gain control when it fools enough people into believing it is righteous.  If enough of us have the courage to just stand, take the hit of evil and then turn the other cheek to defy evil to hit us again, our defiance will unmask the evil at work in our society and reveal its ugliness for all to see.