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BIBLE BASICS: Man’s Rebellion and God’s Judgment

3/1/2017

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Key Players:  Adam, Eve, Cain, Abel, sinful mankind, Noah, and God

Read the Story Here:  Genesis Chapters 4-11

We have sinned, now what?  Can you see Adam and Eve now as they leave the Garden of Eden God created as their home (Genesis 3:23-24)?  How sad that the first humans failed to trust God and failed to obey Him.  Sadly, our sin always affects others.  In Genesis 3, Adam and Eve sinned and brought about the curse of sin on all of creation, but their actions were spread to their children and all future generations.  Even today, we sin because we inherited the nature to sin from Adam. (see the previous blog post for more on Adam and Eve's fall into sin).

Genesis Chapters 4-11 hold the account of how quickly mankind fell from “calling upon the name of the Lord” (Genesis 4:26) to running away from God.  Adam and Eve’s first born son, Cain becomes the world’s first murderer when out of jealousy he kills his younger brother Abel (Genesis 4:1-16).  And as if that’s not bad enough, in Genesis 6:5 God’s Word states that mankind had come to the point that their every thought and intention was to do evil continually.  What was a holy God to do when his prize creation, made in His own image has turned their backs on Him?  How could these people that He loved and created only desire to sin and cause a flood of grief and suffering?  Enter a man named Noah...

It’s hard to find a person in our culture who does not know something about this man Noah who is found in
Genesis chapters 6-7.  As all of mankind rebels against God, Noah is the one man who has chosen to walk with God (Genesis 6:9).  God looks at the earth He created, sees the corruption in which sinful man has chosen to live, and His righteousness demands action.  God basically tells Noah, “I will destroy this earth with a flood of water and I will save you, your wife, and your three sons with their wives (see Genesis 6:11-22).”

Noah is the only one who believes God, and under God’s instruction he builds an ark for his family and the animals God would send into the ark. As he built the ark (a picture of God's salvation and grace), onlookers mock him and refuse to listen to his warnings about coming destruction.  All human and animal life outside the ark is destroyed by the flood, yet Noah and his family are safe inside.  For 150 days, water covers the face of the earth (Genesis 7:24).  The flood is later referred to in the New Testament in comparison to the coming of Christ.  Matthew 24:37-39 says, "When the Son of Man [Jesus] returns, it will be like it was in Noah's day.  In those days before the flood, the people were enjoying banquets and parties and weddings right up to the time Noah entered his boat.  People didn't realize what was going to happen until the flood came and swept them all away.  That is the way it will be when the Son of Man [Jesus] comes (NLT)."  

What a sobering thought that these people who had been warned by Noah that a flood was coming, these people who saw Noah and his sons building this enormous boat day after day, would choose to ignore all the signs and continue to hold parties and banquets as if nothing was wrong.  I Peter 3:20 even says that God was patient during the time when the ark was being prepared, but only a few (8, to be exact) would listen and obey God.  Let this sink in today, and let's resolve not to be among the masses that will ignore the impending return of Christ, but among those who are ready to listen and obey.  If God is speaking to your heart about salvation or another spiritual issue, please feel free to contact us with any questions you may have.

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BIBLE BASICS:  In the Beginning

2/13/2017

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Key Players: 
  • The Trinity:  God the Father, Jesus as Creator (John 1:3; Colossians 1:6; Hebrews 1:2), and the Holy Spirit
  • Adam & Eve
Read the story here:  Genesis 1-2

GENESIS (means “beginning”)

Everything has to have a beginning, so we will really begin our study in the beginning of the Bible.  I just said that everything has a beginning, yet God is the exception to this rule and does not have a beginning—because He is God.  The Bible opens with an introduction to the eternal God who has always been and always will be.  He was not created by anyone, and He created everything from nothing.

The book of Genesis begins with God speaking everything into existence.  With little effort, God created everything over the span of six days, which I believe to be literal 24-hour days. He made the galaxies that make up all of outer space, the earth we live on, and all the plants and animals on this earth.  God then created mankind—His masterpiece—whom He formed into His own likeness with His own hands, and He breathed His breath of life into man (Gen. 2:7).

Mankind is set apart from the rest of creation by the fact that we are created in God’s image.  Like God, we have emotions, intellect, and creativity.  We’re made from dirt (Psalm 103:14) so our value is not found in our physical components that make up our bodies, but in the fact that we’re made in God’s image with an eternal soul. In Job 33:4, Job says, “The Spirit of God has made me, and the breath of the Almighty gives me life.”  You and I are special in God’s eyes because He made us in His image and desires to be in a personal relationship with each of us.

​These two chapters cover one week in time, but they are foundational in our understanding of who God is, where we come from, and who we are in God’s eyes.  For six days God simply spoke everything we see and so much more into existence. What God made in that week was perfect and in His words, “very good.”  The word “created” used in Gen.1:1 means “made without pre-existing material.”  God literally created everything out of nothing. This fact alone should leave us in awe of God’s amazing power and creativity!

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    Author

    Kevin Weaver is the Pastor of New Valley Fellowship and a graduate of Piedmont Baptist College in  Winston-Salem, NC.

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