"From Noah to Abraham ..."

Day #3


Scripture Reading:  Genesis 8-11 ...


How do you squeeze millions of years of history into eleven chapters?  How do you go from creation to the flood, and then from Noah to Abraham so quickly?  And more importantly, WHY do you go from Adam to Noah to Abraham so quickly?  Once again, the answer is quite simple:  Because the time period covered is hundreds of years, not millions, and because the central figure in the first eleven chapters of Genesis is GOD, not man!  Looking at the history of the planet, the history of the world, at creation, from man’s point of view is flawed and limited from the beginning because “In the beginning GOD created!”

God had a purpose for creating the universe and this particular planet, and He had a purpose for creating PEOPLE in His image.  Billions of people have lived and died without a purpose because they failed to believe and understand the very elementary fact of God’s creation.  In spite of all the evidence to the contrary most people continue to stubbornly reject the truth that could set them free and give them hope as they live their lives in this world, knowing that death awaits them.  God’s purpose from before the creation of the world was to choose some from the human race to spend eternity with Him.  To these He would reveal Himself, giving them new life by His Spirit.  All the rest of mankind would perish in their sin because of their unbelief.  That comes as a shock to many who read the Bible like a mystery novel and who feel free to add their own ending.  It is when you read the Bible as the Word of God - as God revealing Himself to those who are given understanding by His Spirit - that the message of the Bible becomes clear.

The Apostle Paul wrote to the believers in the church in Ephesus, "Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ.  For He chose us in Him before the creation of the world ... in love He predestined us to be adopted as His sons through Jesus Christ ..."  (Ephesians 1:4-5).  The Bible is God's revelation of His plan to save those whom He has chosen to be His, and these will live with Him forever throughout all eternity in a new heaven and a new earth.

When read from this perspective, the events of Genesis 8-11 take on their true intended meaning.  God sent the flood because He "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" (Genesis 6:5).  Noah and his family were sinners, too, but “Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord” (Genesis 6:8).  That word, “favor,” means, “grace.”  It is undeserved and unearned.  Noah was from the line of Seth and believed in the God of creation.  The flood really happened and it was a worldwide event.  God shook the foundations of the planet and opened the waters of the ocean floors, moving the continents to their present locations.  Most of the geological evidence used by scientists to “prove” that the earth is very old actually points to the consequences of the flood.  

After the flood, as Noah and his family built an altar and offered a sacrifice to the Lord, God said, "Never again will I curse the ground because of man, even though every inclination of his heart is evil from childhood" (Genesis 8:21).  The flood revealed God’s anger against the sin of mankind, yet the flood did not change God’s plan.  Noah and his family, and all who would come after them, were still sinners in need of God’s grace, in need of forgiveness, in need of God’s promised Savior!!  And God would carry out His plan!

God made His covenant with Noah and began to carry out His plan to call a people to belong to Him ... a people through whom the Savior of the world would be born ... and then a people who would be gathered from the nations to be followers of God's Son, the Messiah, the Christ ... They would be called the "ekklesia," the "called-out ones," the Church.  But first God would allow time for people to populate the earth once again and once again to reveal the horrible consequences of sin in the human heart.

Genesis 8-11 covers approximately 300 years of human history and takes us quickly from Noah to the one man with whom God would make His covenant of grace and to whom He would begin to reveal the ONE way to come to God:  by faith in the promised Savior.  Chapter 11 sets the stage for all that would come after, as God’s plan unfolds.  It reveals that if people are left to themselves they will never seek God, but will instead go their own way, do their own thing and ultimately perish, forever, separated from God and without hope!!

God reveals that there was a time when the peoples of the earth, those who now came from Noah and his wife, and his three sons and their wives, were all living in what we now call the Middle East, and they all had one language.  As in the days following Adam and Eve’s sin in the Garden of Eden, there were some who believed in God, their Creator, and some who didn’t.  The majority gathered together to build a tower to heaven in order to make a name for themselves.  Their rejection of God as their sovereign ruler was obvious.  So the LORD confused their languages and scattered them out over the face of the earth, creating the nations of the world.

All of this so that today some of you who are reading God's Word would know the truth, realize your need for forgiveness and life, for the Savior God promised, and be saved from the judgment of God that is soon to come upon the earth and all of mankind.  All of this so the “Seed of the woman” (Genesis 3:15) could be born, according to God’s timetable, and that we who receive God’s Spirit and who believe in Jesus Christ could spend eternity with the One whom you know as "Abba, Father."  From before God created the earth and the universe around us God knew the number of days, weeks, months and years this earth would exist.  And He placed YOU here at this specific time for His purposes and for His glory.  As you read His Word consider your place in God's plan and praise Him for revealing Himself to YOU!!

"Almighty and everlasting God, the Creator of the earth and everything in it, I thank You for Your Word, for without its truth no one could know You or come to You through Your Son, Jesus Christ.  Help me to read and believe all You have revealed as You continue to carry out Your plan in the world today.  In Jesus' name, Amen"

"The first 1,000 years ..."

Day #2


Scripture Reading:  Genesis 4-7 ...


"And God saw all that He had made, and it was very good" (1:31).  Then sin entered into God’s world  ... then death - spiritual death and physical death.  Mankind began their downward spiral towards destruction.  As we read yesterday from Romans 5:12:  “Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all men, because all sinned ...”   All people were now conceived and born in sin, with a sinful nature turned away from God.  While most people want to believe that there is some good in everybody, the testimony of God’s Word is to the contrary.  The Apostle Paul describes himself and the believers around him in his letter to the Ephesians, chapter 2, verse 3:  “All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our sinful nature and following its desires and thoughts.  Like the rest, we were by nature objects of wrath.”

The failure to understand this truth ... that mankind’s problem is his very nature and that the only cure is a supernatural work of God by His Spirit and through His Word, leaves mankind in a hopeless search for a solution to the current struggle between nations, races and religions.  Mankind began to spread out over the earth, carrying their sin and its consequences with them, both in their relationships with others and their relationship with creation itself.

The genealogy in Genesis 5 is important because it gives us a timeline from creation forward.  The idea that man evolved from lower forms of life requires millions, even billions of years of time (as if time could bring this about!!).  But from the creation of Adam to the birth of Noah was just over 1,000 years.  After Cain killed his brother, Abel, and Seth was born to Adam and Eve we read, "Men began to call on the LORD" (4:25).  Whatever information Adam and Eve had passed on to their children and to future generations, it was through the godly line of Seth that God’s promise of a Savior moved men to worship the LORD, their Creator.  From this time on you will see a separation between those who, like Enoch, walked with God, and those who rejected God and set out to use the world He had created for His glory for their own purposes ... as is happening to this day.  

Which brings us to 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.  The LORD was grieved that He had made man on the earth and His heart was filled with pain" (6:5-6).  How different was the view from heaven from what it had been immediately following God's marvelous creation!  All the suffering, pain and anguish that resulted from mankind's rebellion grieved the heart of God ... and God knew that it would only get worse ...

Some who read about the early days of mankind on the earth speculate about who the “sons of God” were and who the “daughters of men” were.  The explanation is really very simple and goes back to what we read in chapter 4, verse 25 ... those who were “sons of God” were those who “called on the name of the LORD” and those who were the “daughters of men” were those who were unbelievers.  This theme of believers entering into marriage and relationships with unbelievers runs throughout the Bible.  It is addressed in Paul’s second letter to the Corinthians, chapter 6, verses 14-18, where God says, “Come out from them and be separate!”

People without God are people who are spiritually dead and who are virtually living life waiting to die.  They are, as Paul would describe them later, "without God and without hope in the world" (Ephesians 2:12).  God's judgment is just, yet His purpose is much grander ... a new beginning.  The flood was about to come, but God had not forgotten His promise - the promise made as God cursed Satan:  "And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; HE will crush your head, and you will strike His heel" (Genesis 3:15).

The rest is, as some say, "history” ... actually, approximately 4400-4500 years of history, from the flood until today.  The beginning of the “ancient” dynasties of Egypt and China and others all date back to after the flood.  There is no recorded history prior to that time!  And ALL of history centers around God's promise to send a Savior and to create a new heavens and a new earth.  The earth is not billions, or even millions of years old.  Mankind did not evolve and has not existed for millions of years.  "In the beginning, God created ..." (1:1) ... and God sent the promised Savior, to be the sacrifice for sin, "and He will appear a second time, not to bear sin, but to bring salvation to those who are waiting for Him" (Hebrews 9:28).

"Scoffers" have come, denying the truthfulness of God's Word from creation to the flood.  "They deliberately forget that long ago by God's word the heavens existed and the earth was formed out of water and by water.  By these waters also the world of that time was deluged and destroyed.  By the same word the present heavens and earth are reserved for fire, being kept for the day of judgment and destruction of ungodly men" (II Peter 3:3-7).  "But in keeping with His promise WE are looking forward to a new heaven and a new earth, the home of righteousness" (II Peter 3:13).

Genesis 1-7 ... the first 1,000 years!!  It is all true; and IF you believe these things, your life has value beyond anything you can imagine, for you are here because this God, the only true God, your Creator, placed you here at this time for His purposes.  To many, even most of mankind, He is still the unknown God that Paul spoke about to the people of Athens centuries later when he wrote, “The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth ... From one man He made every nation of men, that they should inhabit the whole earth; ... God did this so that men would seek Him and perhaps reach out for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us” (Acts 17:24-27).  Today I urge you to seek Him, believe in Him, center your life in Him and find your hope in Him.  He IS!  And because He is, you ARE!

"Heavenly Father, help us to discover in Your Word the solid ground we need to live in this world with wisdom and purpose, understanding that we are your special creation, existing for Your glory.  Every day is Yours.  May we use it to praise and glorify YOU, our Creator!  In Jesus' name we pray.  Amen"

"In the beginning ..."

Day #1

Scripture Reading:  Genesis 1-3 ...

"In the beginning God created ..."  From the first words of Genesis the God who created the world and everything in it begins to reveal Himself to His special creation, mankind, through written words.  Genesis 1 reveals information that no human being could know unless God Himself revealed it.  While some ask how Moses, the writer of Genesis, could possibly know the details of God’s creation “in the beginning,” a brief examination of the genealogies in Genesis 5 and Genesis 10 reveal that Adam was still alive during the life of Noah’s father, Lamech.  Certainly, the oral account of creation, revealed by God to Adam, was passed on through the generations in both oral and written form.  From ancient philosophers to modern scientists mankind has attempted to find an alternate truth to the first five words of the Bible, with no success.  “In the beginning God created!”

It is no surprise that Satan, who enters history in Chapter 3, after having rebelled against God in heaven, would attempt to discredit the truth of God's Word at its most foundational point: Creation.  God reveals that He spoke and things came into being.  The creative power of God is the living Word of God, as the Apostle John begins his Gospel:  "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.  He was with God in the beginning.  Through Him all things were made; without Him nothing was made that has been made" (John 1:1-3).

God’s sovereignty, His rule over His creation, including mankind, is at the heart of Genesis 1-3.  The Bible tells us that believers were chosen “in Christ before the creation of the world.”  Adam and Eve were created by God with a free will.  They could choose to obey God or to disobey God.  As the first man, Adam was the representative of the entire human race.  Therefore, when Adam chose to sin, to disobey God, to reject His rule over him and his wife, his very nature became sinful and that nature was passed on to all of mankind.  The Apostle Paul wrote in Romans 5:12:  “Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all men, because all sinned ...”

God created Adam and Eve knowing that they would reject Him, but already having planned to send His Son, the living Word, into the world to be the “second Adam,” who would redeem those who would be saved, who would believe by the power of the Holy Spirit giving them new life.  This is the message of the entire Bible, and it begins here, in Genesis.

Reject the fact of God’s creation and you have no answers for how we got here, the purpose of life or what happens when we die.  Reject the truth of God’s creation and man is a "free agent," able to determine his own fate, his own destiny.  If Genesis 1-3 is not true, then mankind is an accident of evolution and the future is subject to blind chance ... or worse yet, the sinful will of mankind.  Either mankind was created in God's image, rebelled against God and is now facing the consequences of that rebellion OR mankind is the result of a chaotic process that has left this world in its present circumstance, with the pinnacle of evolution now able to destroy the very planet that produced our species through a series of chance events.  

The darkness of the human mind should be readily obvious.  Choosing to reject God and to deny the truth in spite of the testimony of creation itself, mankind gives up the only ray of hope that shines in the darkness:  the promise of a Savior!  Mankind must now attempt to save the world, because they have no other hope.  All of the talk about climate change and what the nations of the world must do to save the planet reveals the desperation of those who have rejected the God of creation.

Why is the world in such a horrible state?  God answers that question in Romans 1:18-21 for all who have His Spirit and who have been given understanding:  “The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness, since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them.  For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities – His eternal power and divine nature – have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse.”  Rejecting the truth does not change the truth!!

We read in Psalm 19:1-4:  “The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of His hands.  Day after day they pour forth speech; night after night they display knowledge.  There is no speech or language where their voice is not heard.  Their voice goes out into all the earth, their words to the ends of the world.”  Indeed, all people are without excuse for rejecting the one true God, our Creator!

But God offers hope to those whose minds are opened by His Spirit and who believe that God is, indeed, our Creator.  Genesis 2 is a more detailed account of God's creation of Adam and Eve, the first man and woman, the only part of God's creation that was created in His image, with a spirit ... with the ability to commune with God.  Did God know what Satan would do?  Did God know the man would disobey God and fall into sin?  Did God know that His perfect creation would be affected for thousands of years?  Yes ... Yes ... and Yes ...  Then why??

Because God desired to reveal His holiness, His justice, His mercy, His grace and His love to those whom He chose before the world was even created (Ephesians 1:4).  And so the first promise of the Gospel is found in Genesis 3:15:  "And I will put enmity between you (Satan) and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; HE will crush your head, and you will strike His heel."  Here is hope!  The hope of redemption, reconciliation, restoration ... the hope of LIFE!! God’s fulfillment of this promise is what the rest of the Bible is about!

Hope is given birth in the words, "In the beginning, God created!"  The same God who created all things out of nothing can give new life to those who are spiritually and even physically dead.  He is the God who revealed Himself to Moses and whose Word you are now reading.  Give thanks to God for His Word and believe what it says and you will have life through the promised Savior, Jesus Christ.

"O Lord God, open the eyes of the blind and renew the hope of those who have believed your Word; that You, O Lord our God, may be worshiped and adored as our Creator, our Redeemer and our Savior, through Jesus Christ, Your eternal Son, the Word made flesh.  Amen"