Archive for category: Verse by Verse Genesis

Two important pieces of background to keep in mind here are that at this time the entire earth spoke one language. And God had given a command to man after the flood to go forth and multiply and fill the earth.

 

Now notice God’s reaction to the Tower of Babel in verses 5 to 6, “But the LORD came down to see the city and the tower which the sons of men had built. And the LORD said, “Indeed the people are one and they all have one language, and this is what they begin to do; now nothing that they propose to do will be withheld from them.”

A more complete picture can be seen in the King James Version of this verse. “And the LORD said, Behold, the people is one, and they have all one language; and this they begin to do: and now nothing will be restrained from them, which they have imagined to do.”

This is an amazing statement! Because all the people spoke one language, they didn’t have the great language barrier.

They could get together and pool their knowledge and resources. They could also share each other’s imaginations, even the most base imaginations. Hear it again, “and now nothing will be restrained from them, which they have imagined to do.”

 

We find here that man still has a fallen nature despite the Flood and that his thoughts and imaginations are only evil. Every sin centred imagination that man was capable of dreaming up could be realised and enacted on.

Of course, leading these imaginations is man’s passion and his pride and his refusal to accept the sovereignty of Almighty God.

Man has only one sovereign, himself. By himself, he’ll decide his road in life and by himself, he’ll set his own destiny.

Man says, “We have no God only the greatness of us ourselves and we can do anything we want.”

At the Tower of Babel, man forms a unity but it’s a unity based on rebellion against God. It’s a unity given over completely to the great human god of “self”.

We’re still living today in the same spiritual environment that brought about the judgment of the flood and the judgment at the Tower of Babel.

The world is drunk with delusion and deception where truth, especially spiritual truth is all but impossible to find.

The Apostle Paul wrote that the time before the “End of Days” would be “perilous” and full of human depravity and lawlessness (2 Timothy 3:1-5). Jesus warned that apostasy or would abound and that the hearts of many would run cold. (Matt. 24:12).  Apostasy is someone who has totally abandoned or rejected their belief in God and in the salvation provided by Christ.

 

Today we regard “self” as good. Self-improvement, self-made, self-love, self-righteousness. “I did it my way” is all regarded today as just the way it’s supposed to be. Today humans are almost totally self-absorbed. We’re mad with selfishness. Observe the conversations at any gathering. How many times is that conversation a contest to be heard and an almost desperation for individuals to tell their particular story?

Today we have staggering statistics of a society absorbed with self. Murder, all manner of crime and violence, family separations, hatred, astounding levels of debt, undisciplined children, a weak justice system and much more, all results of man’s obsession with self and doing it his way. Perhaps the saddest result of man’s selfishness today is demonstrated in the children. Many simply don’t understand right from wrong, good from bad, or the necessity of submitting to authority.

 

This is the story of man right throughout the Bible. God has revealed that He exists and that His purpose for man both as a race and as individuals is perfect and good and only in His purpose can we find our own peace and purpose. Man rejects this revelation that God exists and that He has a purpose for us. In so doing man sets up his own, manmade gods, and his own purpose and blinds himself to any reality outside his own ability to run his own life. Then God, through His Word, untiringly calls man back to Himself and makes a way by which that can happen.

Unfortunately, man loses insight into this picture of God’s purpose because he rejects the complete story God has given to teach man the truth, even as Christians. Oh sure we have our favourite scripture verses and we form opinions based on certain preachers that we take a liking to, but the fact remains that modern man has an appalling lack of understanding of the entire picture that God has clearly given us in the whole counsel of God.

 

In light of the spiritual war against the truth that’s raging all around us, we need to be sure not to lose our minds.

The mind is the “gateway” to your heart, and it’s vital to guard our thinking by immersing ourselves in the truth.

“Not losing your mind” means being grounded in what’s real, and understanding who we are and Who our God is.

Part of the task of “guarding your mind” is being able to discern between good and evil. “The fear of the LORD is to hate evil,” says Proverbs 8:13. We must love the truth and hate the lie. So says Psalm 119:163, Zechariah 8:19 and Proverbs 12:22.

It’s the truth that sets people free, but we must discern what is the truth and how easily we become enslaved by deception. Therefore we are instructed: “You are to distinguish between the holy and the common, and between the unclean and the clean.” That’s Leviticus 10:10.

Psalm 33:4 says,“ For the word of the LORD is right; and all his works are done in truth.”

These are the concepts that were lacking at the Tower of Babel.

God can’t ignore this rebellion at the Tower of Babel, because it’s a rebellion against Him and it’s a rebellion that has no hope, only death.

Even in his fallen state man is an extremely capable creature. Man can go into outer space and invent the most amazing stuff. After all, he’s made in the image of God.

 

Imagine the damage man could do to himself if we all came together with one goal forced onto us by an all-powerful dictator wanting to be above God.

We saw the results of that same goal when Satan rebelled against God and we’ll see it again soon enough with the rise of the antichrist who’ll achieve the same goal for a short time.

All that’s needed to make this a reality is for the dictator to rule over the minds of man, over the way we think, and to destroy anyone daring to think outside that box.

So, God’s going to put up a barrier.

 

Now notice what He does in verses 7 to 9. “Come, let Us go down and there confuse their language, that they may not understand one another’s speech.”

So the LORD scattered them abroad from there over the face of all the earth, and they ceased building the city.

Therefore its name is called Babel because there the LORD confused the language of all the earth; and from there the LORD scattered them abroad over the face of all the earth.”

 

This is again the triune Godhead in conversation as we’ve seen before.

Suddenly, abruptly the building project stalls. The carpenters can’t communicate with the plumbers and the electricians can’t communicate with the brickmakers and nobody can communicate with the architects nor can they read their drawings and instructions.

The whole thing’s a disaster with no hope of completion.

Hence the name was given to the project, Babel or Babel, which means confusion. What a sight it must have been.

Now man is scattered over the face of the earth. They were together in their rebellion, but now they can’t understand one another. The language barrier is a very high wall. It’s a wall that separates people, and it is stronger than any national border and any ocean.

Many folks think that languages developed gradually. But God said He confounded their language so that right then, while they were building, they suddenly couldn’t understand each other.

The building project came to a sudden halt, and folk moved away from Babel in every direction.

This is a tremendous thing that took place. It’s a great miracle, a miracle of speaking and a miracle of hearing. They spoke different languages. They could speak to each other but they couldn’t understand what each other was talking about.

So, was this a blessing in disguise, or was it a curse on mankind?

Well, for God’s purposes, it was a blessing. God’s commandment for man to spread throughout the earth and fill it would be fulfilled whether man chose to or not.

For man’s development away from God, it was definitely a judgment.

Down through the centuries, mankind has been kept separate, and it’s been a great hindrance to him.

What’s happening today though, through technological advancement, these walls are being broken down, and very rapidly. We can now see the time approaching when the multiple languages of the world will cease to be a barrier to the coming second Nimrod, the antichrist and his world government.

However, the time’s also upon us where those technologies also work to break down the barriers to the whole world understanding God’s Word and His way of salvation.

Today the Bible’s available in more languages than any other book. It’s still being translated into even more tongues and dialects and is being brought to literally hundreds of tribes throughout the world.

The Gospel is for all mankind and the availability of the Bible is spreading and being accepted even by races that will endure severe punishment for accepting its message. In almost every nation man can listen to God’s message and turn to Him.

The Gospel is for you, whoever you are and whatever tongue you speak. It’s for all the nations of the world.

We’re told in the last book of the Bible that there’ll be gathered into His presence “… a great multitude, which no man could number, of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues …” that’s the Book of Revelation chapter 7 verse9.

 

Now, we come to Genesis chapter 11 and verse 10.

As we arrive at this point we need to stand back a little and see an overview

Chapters we’ve already covered.

This is because we’ve arrived at the place where we are introduced to Noah’s son Shem.

Remember in our introductions we tried to get a birdseye view of what the Bible is all about. What’s the main theme? What’s the point?

We saw that the entire Word of God is about the Lord Jesus Christ. The Old Testament looks forward to His coming and the New Testament looks back to when He came.

Along with the revelation of Jesus Christ, the Bible teaches us why He needed to come and why His sacrifice is vital to man.

We also saw in our introduction to the Book of Genesis that the book has two distinct divisions. There’s a river running through the book if you like and there are 2 banks. On one bank we’re given a summary of the earth and its creation, how man got here, and how man arrived at the state he’s in today, separated from God.

On the other side of the river, everything is more detailed and more specific.

On the first bank, there’s an outline given. Just a rough overview of the earth’s history with most of the details left out. This shows us that the Bible is not about creation and is not intended as an exhaustive study of the origins of the universe. Although in perfect unity with science, it is not a scientific study.

We’re simply told the key points that God is the creator and that He had a wonderful purpose for man but man rebelled against that purpose.

The first 11 chapters of Genesis cover about 2000 years from the Garden of Eden until this point. The entire rest of the book of Genesis covers only 350 years.

So, the first “bank” of Genesis is a very general outline, but now as we step over the river onto the other bank, we’re on a totally different landscape.

The first bank was about scene setting, painting the big picture of the origins of the universe and us.

The bank we’ve now stepped onto begins a line, or a thread of ancestors that’ll run through the entire rest of the Bible.

That line leads us to the Lord Jesus Christ and we’re at the beginning of that line with the revealing of the first ancestor from which that line would come through, Noah’s son Shem and then through Shem’s descendants to Abraham.

From Abraham, who is perhaps the greatest of the patriarchs, comes the nation of Israel and through the nation of Israel comes the Messiah, The Christ, Jesus.

 

As we cross that river and climb the other bank, we climb into Genesis chapter 11 verse 10 and we read, “These are the generations of Shem: Shem was an hundred years old, and begat Arphaxad two years after the flood:”

 

Now we continue climbing this bank by learning of the line of Shem and as we’ve already said we’ll follow this line throughout the Old Testament.

Genesis 11 verse 11, “And Shem lived after he begat Arphaxad five hundred years, and begat sons and daughters.

Shem’s genealogy is given in the following verses, up until verses 24 to 25. We’ll not read each of the descendants but we’ll say theat God has been very specific by giving us the exact line.

So we jump to chapter 11 verses 25 to 25 and we read, “And Nahor lived nine and twenty years, and begat Terah:

And Nahor lived after he begat Terah an hundred and nineteen years, and begat sons and daughters.

You see that we are following the line of Terah now. Why Terah? Notice the next verse, verse 26, “And Terah lived seventy years, and begat Abram, Nahor, and Haran.”

Now we are going to follow the line of Abram, who later had his name changed by God and whom we know as Abraham.

 

So to say it again because of how important this is, we’re following the line of Shem, and we’re going right through the Bible following this line.

The Word of God will follow this line directly to the Cross of Christ. God has recorded everything up to this point as a preliminary or a stage setting if you like.

God has demonstrated to man that he’s in sin. In the incident of Cain and Abel, we find that Cain would not acknowledge that he was a sinner. He was proud of his sacrifice, a sacrifice made with his own hands, by his own works. In him, we see a demonstration of the pride of life.

At the Flood, we see the sin of the flesh because the people then were given over to the sins of the flesh. They were indulging in violence and their every thought and imagination was evil. They were blind to their need of God. They were deaf to His claim, dead to God, dead in trespasses and sins. God gave them an invitation through Noah. They rejected the invitation and remained in the sins of the flesh.

Then, at the Tower of Babel, we see the sin of the will, rebellion against God.

We all have our own little Tower of Babel which we’ve built. It’s that special place where we rebel against God? It’s natural for human nature to be in rebellion against God because it is our inherited nature of sin.

This is the place where we say, “No God, I can work this out myself. I know what’s best for me. I’ll get my answers and my help quicker, better and more completely by doing it myself. I know you’ve demonstrated Your mercy, Your Grace and Your Power to me many times but I still think I’m better off doing it on my own, thank you.”

Yes, friends, we all build our Tower of Babel in rebellion against God and some of us build it very high and very strong.

Now we follow the line which is going to lead to Christ, here are the generations or the families of Terah.

Starting at Genesis 11 verse 27, “Now these are the generations of Terah: Terah begat Abram, Nahor, and Haran; and Haran begat Lot.

And Haran died before his father Terah in the land of his nativity, in Ur of the Chaldees.

And Abram and Nahor took them wives: the name of Abram’s wife was Sarai; and the name of Nahor’s wife, Milcah, the daughter of Haran, the father of Milcah, and the father of Iscah.

But Sarai was barren; she had no child.

And Terah took Abram his son, and Lot the son of Haran his son’s son, and Sarai his daughter in law, his son Abram’s wife; and they went forth with them from Ur of the Chaldees, to go into the land of Canaan; and they came unto Haran, and dwelt there.” Sarai would, like Abraham, have her name changed by God to Sarah.

 

The name Haran means delay.

Chapter 11 verse 32,  “And the days of Terah were two hundred and five years: and Terah died in Haran.”

This bit of history is given to let us know that we’re going to follow Abraham, and his story will begin in the next chapter.

 

In the next chapter, Genesis chapter 12, we’re well and truly implanted on this second bank which we’ll stay on until Chapter 50.

In these first eleven chapters of Genesis, we’ve seen the Creation, the fall of man, the Flood, and the Tower of Babel. These are four great events that covered that long span of years.

Now we move to personalities and individuals. Many are great people, and many are not but all are vital pieces in a jigsaw puzzle that will have every single piece perfectly set in its rightful place. The result reveals a wonderful picture of man reunited with God for an eternity, just the way it was designed to be.

We begin reading from Genesis 9 verse 1, “So God blessed Noah and his sons, and said to them: “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth.” This is exactly the same command that God gave Adam, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth.”

Now, it’s worth mentioning again here, as we did when we were in Genesis chapter 1, that the King James version, along with several other versions, uses the word “replenish” in both these verses instead of the word “fill”.

The use of the word “replenish” gives weight to the popularly held belief that the earth was inhabited after the creation in Genesis chapter 1 verse 1 but before the earth was formless and void in verse 2. Many great bible teachers run with this view but many others don’t.

Speaking as a layman, just like most of you, I don’t know for sure because God simply hasn’t revealed the detail to us.

It does explain a lot about this universe that’s obviously suffered some sort of catastrophe in time past. It also explains a lot about Satan’s fall.

It’s a fascinating subject but like many other events of the bible that God hasn’t given us the fine detail of, it’s speculation and it’s not good to get dogmatic about it to the point where it consumes us and prevents our knowledge of what God does give us the details of.

There is one thing I’m sure of, If we needed to know this for our salvation and if it was a pivotal part of the story of redemption, God would’ve made it clear.

Notice that the first thing God tells Noah to do is to “be fruitful, and multiply, and fill or replenish the earth.”

There’s to be the reproduction of the race. Today we’re in a time of population explosion, however, Noah’s situation was unique. He and his family were the only folks around.

Can you imagine going into the ark and leaving a whole civilisation of people and then a year later coming out to nobody at all?

On now to Genesis 9:2, “And the fear of you and the dread of you shall be on every beast of the earth, on every bird of the air, on all that move on the earth, and on all the fish of the sea. They are given into your hand.”

Man is to protect and rule over the animal world.

It appears that before  the flood the relationship between man and beast was different. Apparently, man hadn’t been a meat eater.

All the animals were tame, and there was no fear of man. Man, who was himself a vegetarian, wasn’t hunting and eating them. There was a peaceful co-existence between man and beast.

Now though, the animals will fear and dread man.

This is certainly the way it is today.

Although it is possible to tame an animal with long and patient work, generally animals, birds and fish fear man. To try and get close to a wild animal, bird or fish is to see it turn and run in most cases.

Despite this, man is responsible for the animal world.

Man’s treatment of the animal world has been a brutal story. We’ve attempted to exterminate many of the animals.

We would have slaughtered all the whales, seals, elephants, rhinos, buffalos, in fact, every animal that we could turn into a profit if governments hadn’t intervened.

Today we need places where animals, birds and even fish are protected and it’s just as well that we do in light of Man’s brutality to animals.

Genesis 9:3 now, “Every moving thing that lives shall be food for you. I have given you all things, even as the green herbs.”

Before the Flood God gave man the green earth, the plant life, to eat.

There may have been fruits and natural foods that we know little of today.

Now He tells Noah that he’s able to eat animal life. Man becomes a meat eater.

It’s strange how so many religions incorporate diet fads like vegetarianism, but they ignore this verse.

Many of these folk use a vegetarian lifestyle to portray some sort of virtuous living as if they’re somehow better than us old meat eaters but they forget that it was a bunch of vegetarians who were destroyed in the Flood.

If diet had in any way improved them, they wouldn’t have been destroyed.”

So, we see here that God now permits man to eat flesh. Adam wasn’t given this permission as far as we know.

However, God prohibits the eating of blood.

Genesis 9:4, “But you shall not eat flesh with its life, that is, its blood.”

The blood should be drained out. The blood speaks of life and draining it indicates that the animal was killed in a merciful way rather than prolonging its suffering. It also shows that the amimal is really dead.

God says that when we’re going to eat animals, we’re to make sure that we don’t eat them with their blood.

The respect for blood isn’t based on mysticism or superstition, but simply because blood represents the life of the being, whether animal or human. When blood is poured out, life is poured out.

As a sidenote here, there’s no way can you interpret this to be God prohibiting blood transfusion. That’s just a complete twisting of scripture. But it’s a tragic twisting of scripture because it costs many lives.

On to chapter 9 verses 5 and 6, “Surely for your lifeblood I will demand a reckoning; from the hand of every beast I will require it, and from the hand of man. From the hand of every man’s brother I will require the life of man. Whoever sheds man’s blood, By man his blood shall be shed; For in the image of God He made man. ”

Here’s a verse that I think is more understandable to us in today’s world if we read it in the New Living Translation. And I read, “And I will require the blood of anyone who takes another person’s life. If a wild animal kills a person, it must die. And anyone who murders a fellow human must die. If anyone takes a human life, that person’s life will also be taken by human hands. For God made human beings in his own image.”

Certain animals pose a real danger to man and God commands that an animal that kills a man must die.

Included in this verse is a commands that’s completely at odds with the thinking of modern-day man.

Now please remember I didn’t say this, God did. If any of you disagree, take it up with God because I’m only reporting what He said.

Here God lays down the basic principle for government and protection of man. He gives the government the right to capital punishment.

We’ve seen that in this new covenant that God’s given, man is to propagate the race, he’s to protect and rule over animals, and he’s given a new provision for food but prohibited from eating blood.

Now we see that he’s given capital punishment the first principle of government.

We must remember that our generation and pretty much every government on earth has zero understanding of the bible and most openly deny that God even exists.

We don’t have a Bible–believing population anymore and that certainly is true of governments.

This world’s almost totally ignorant of the Word of God. As a result, we find the abolishion of capital punishment.

At the same time we have an increase in violent crime, yet we see here that capital punishment is scriptural and that it’s the basis of government.

God has decreed that government has the right to take a life when that individual has taken someone else’s life. Why? Obviously, God’s ruled it in order to protect human life.

All mankind has moved to Human government and the basis of that human government is capital punishment. God hasn’t changed it because it may go against our feelings.

Of course, capital punishment as given by God here is the punishment for pre-meditated murder, not manslaughter as we know it, or unintentionally causing someone’s death.

Part of the resistance to capital punishment is the mistrust most people place in the justice system today. We simply can’t trust the human justice system to get it right any more.

Now to Genesis 9 verse 7, “And as for you, be fruitful and multiply; Bring forth abundantly in the earth And multiply in it.”  This is a repetition of God’s instructions in verse Genesis 9:1.

Verses 8 and 9, “Then God spoke to Noah and to his sons with him, saying: “And as for Me, behold, I establish My covenant with you and with your descendants after you.”  When God says here, “with your descendants (or your seed) after you,” he means all the human race.

Verse 10, “and with every living creature that is with you: the birds, the cattle, and every beast of the earth with you, of all that go out of the ark, every beast of the earth.”

All God’s creatures are included in this covenant.

Isaiah predicts that someday the lion and the lamb will lie down together and that they’ll not hurt or destroy each other. In Paul’s Epistle to the Romans, he mentions that the whole creation is groaning and travailing in pain in this present age.

Friends, God’s made this covenant with Noah and with all of His creatures until the time His Kingdom comes on earth.

It’s for all of Noah’s descendants and “every living creature” that’s with you and me.

Genesis 9:11, “Thus I establish My covenant with you: Never again shall all flesh be cut off by the waters of the flood; never again shall there be a flood to destroy the earth.”

This is God’s promise. He will never again destroy the earth with a flood.

Notice He doesn’t promise not to destroy the earth again, only that He won’t destroy it with flood waters.

The next time His judgment of the earth’ll be by fire.

We find that stated in 2 Peter 3, particularly verse 7.

Now in Genesis 9 verses 12 to 16, “ And God said: “This is the sign of the covenant which I make between Me and you, and every living creature that is with you, for perpetual generations: I set My rainbow in the cloud, and it shall be for the sign of the covenant between Me and the earth.” It shall be, when I bring a cloud over the earth, that the rainbow shall be seen in the cloud; and I will remember My covenant which is between Me and you and every living creature of all flesh; the waters shall never again become a flood to destroy all flesh. The rainbow shall be in the cloud, and I will look on it to remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is on the earth.”

Notice that God says, “I will look on it” and “I will remember.” God didn’t say that we’d see it; He said that He’d see it.

He said He’d look upon it and it would be an “everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is upon the earth.”

We should be encouraged whenever we look at a rainbow.

There’s something else very important here as well.

Many people including many Bible teachers believe that the flood was something local, that it wasn’t worldwide.

That’s quite surprising because holding that view could be seen as believing that God lied. Let me explain.

If the rainbow is a token of His covenant where He’s promising never to do this thing again, which it clearly is, well there’s been lots of very substantial floods on the planet Earth over the centuries. If Noah’s flood was a local flood God didn’t keep his promises.

Do you follow me? If we hold the view that it was a local flood we’re attacking the character of God because He’s clearly promising that whatever that was that happened He’s never going to do again yet we’ve had numerous local floods. So God’s promise wasn’t kept.

If we can’t trust the Word of God in this major promise how can we stand on any of His promises? We simply couldn’t trust Him.

No friends, God means what He says and says and does what He means.

By the way, the bow is a token of a covenant elsewhere in the Bible and we’ll see that as we get there.

Genesis 9:17 now, “And God said to Noah, “This is the sign of the covenant which I have established between Me and all flesh that is on the earth.”

God seems to be emphasising quite hard that his is His covenant, not merely with Noah but with all flesh that’s upon the earth.

The rainbow could be called a sort of sacrament or a visible token or sign of promises made.

The Passover feast, the brazen serpent, Gideon’s fleece, and in our day, baptism and the Lord’s Supper are similar sacraments or signs. In today’s world, the token of a covenant or promise between two humans may be a written contract or a deed.

In these sacraments or signs, we see God’s grace through the eye of faith.

That’s what happens when man looks at the rainbow. Faith lays hold of the promise attached to the sign. You see, the merit is in what the sign speaks of. There’s no power in the sign. In fact there’s no power in the promise either. It’s faith in the promise that enables us to act according to the promise. It’s the Word of God and the sign together. God makes a promise and attaches a sign to it’s our faith that what is promised is absolutely sure and certain that gives us strength.

The rainbow is God’s answer to Noah’s altar. It’s as if God says, “I’ll remember, and I’ll look upon it.”

Now to Genesis chapter 9 verses 18 and 19, where we read, “Now the sons of Noah who went out of the ark were Shem, Ham, and Japheth. And Ham was the father of Canaan. These three were the sons of Noah, and from these the whole earth was populated.”

From these three sons of Noah came the nations, as we know them. The descendants of these three sons, from who every nation of the world comes, are listed in the table of nations provided in Genesis 10 which we’ll come to soon.

Now, why is Ham’s son Canaan mentioned here?

For two reasons. One reason we’ll see in a moment. Another reason is that when Moses wrote this record, the people of Israel were travelling to the land of Canaan. It was encouraging for them to know about God’s judgment upon the people of Canaan, who would one day become the enemy of Israel.

Now in verses 20 to 23, we have a strange incident involving Noah and we read, “And Noah began to be a farmer, and he planted a vineyard. Then he drank of the wine and was drunk, and became uncovered in his tent. And Ham, the father of Canaan, saw the nakedness of his father and told his two brothers outside. But Shem and Japheth took a garment, laid it on both their shoulders, and went backward and covered the nakedness of their father. Their faces were turned away, and they did not see their father’s nakedness.”

What do these verses mean and why are they included in the Bible when other seemingly more important details aren’t?

Well, first let’s look at the reality of what those survivors of the flood were like.

We need to remember that in the flood, sinful man’s been wiped out but not sin itself.

When the survivors came out of the ark were all the sinners on earth dead? Were those survivors without sin?

No, they weren’t.

Man still had the same sinful nature as those that perished in the flood. It was only their faith that saved them, not their goodness.

So, let’s see what happens.

Noah began to be a farmer, and he planted a vineyard. Then he drank of the wine and was drunk, and became uncovered in his tent.

Now firstly, there are some quite strange excuses around where people try and excuse Noah.

One excuse is that he was ignorant of the effect of wine since no one had been drunk before. You’ll notice that before the Flood, drunkenness is not mentioned as one of the sins. Then there’s those who say that grapes didn‘t ferment before the Flood and that this was something new to Noah.

Well, it’s a new world, but it’s old sin. Noah succumbed to drunkenness.

Now, there’s nothing wrong with wine.

Fermentation is a natural process for preservation given by God, and several scriptures indicate there’s nothing wrong with wine and it’s even beneficial.

However, although there’s nothing wrong with wine in and of itself there’s plenty wrong with drunkenness.

Drunkenness seems to be a hallmark of today’s world. Many people in Australia believe drunkenness to a proud part of our culture.

We have some neighbours in their 30s who have 4 children. Every afternoon mum and dad start opening cans. They even attend to their chores with a can in hand. They never seem to be “can free” either husband or wife.

As the afternoon and evening draw near they become louder and their language becomes increasingly foul and all the time the 4 little children are playing around them.

Foul speech coupled with nothing of value to say seems to be the results of the drunkenness that’s common today. It’s treated as some sort of badge of honour.

Drunkenness is condemned in many scriptures and it’s so obvious it doesn’t need further discussion.

The next part of these verses reads, “Then he drank of the wine and was drunk, and became uncovered in his tent.”

What does “became uncovered in his tent” mean?

Well, let’s see verses 22 to 24, “And Ham, the father of Canaan, saw the nakedness of his father, and told his two brothers outside.

But Shem and Japheth took a garment, laid it on both their shoulders, and went backward and covered the nakedness of their father. Their faces were turned away, and they did not see their father’s nakedness.

So Noah awoke from his wine, and knew what his younger son had done to him. ”

These verses represent a situation that we’ve pointed out before.

God has not provided us with any further detail.

Where this happens there’s always speculation and boy, there’s plenty of speculation around these verses.

What we do know for sure is that this event wasn’t just about Noah getting drunk. Something much bigger happened.

Through the ages just about every possible scenario has been put up as the situation behind this event.

We have everything from incest to homosexual relationships and from castration to a conspiracy to overthrow Noah’s position as a possible back story to this event.

I believe that if the Lord had gone any further the impotance we humans would have placed on this event would have distracted us from the real message. Noah got drunk and it was that drunkenness that enabled whatever happened to happen.

Now notice what God says, through Noah, in verse 25, “Then he said: “Cursed be Canaan; A servant of servants He shall be to his brethren.” .”

Notice that God said, “Cursed be Canaan.” He doesn’t put a curse on Ham who seemed like the one who was at least the one who ran to tell his brothers.

There’s no curse placed upon Ham; the curse was upon Canaan, Ham’s son. Again, we don’t know in what way Canaan was involved in this incident. We’re given only the bare record here, but we do recognise that Canaan is mentioned for a very definite purpose.

First of all, as we’ve already said, it was to encourage the children of Israel in entering the land of Canaan during the time of Moses. It let them know that God had pronounced a curse upon Canaanand the race that descended from him.

We see the the fulfillment of this judgment throughout the whole old testament and also in secular history. The Canaanites have all but disappeared.

God had a further reason for recording the incident of Noah’s sin. In Romans 15:4 we read these words: “For whatever things were written before were written for our learning, that we through the patience and comfort of the Scriptures might have hope.”

It was recorded to let you and me know something of the weakness of the flesh.

The Lord Jesus said that the spirit is willing but the flesh is weak. And in Galatians 2:16 it’s made very clear that no flesh would be justified by keeping the law: “… for by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified.” So God has given us here the story of a man who fell, a great man and yet one who still lived with the weakness of the flesh.

Now to Genesis 9:26-27, “And he said: “Blessed be the LORD, The God of Shem, And may Canaan be his servant.

May God enlarge Japheth, And may he dwell in the tents of Shem; And may Canaan be his servant.”

As I have mentioned before, when Moses was given this revelation from God, he was leading the people of Israel to the land of Canaan.

The Israelites were descendants of Shem.

There is an old belief that since the black African nations descended from Canaan this verse somehow explains slavery. This is absolutely not so and we’ll not go into the subject here as it’s very complex and requires a study of the descedants of all 3 sons of Noah. However there’s a huge amount of material available on the internet where this can be studied by those who wish to.

Genesis 9:28-29 reads, “And Noah lived after the flood three hundred and fifty years. So all the days of Noah were nine hundred and fifty years; and he died.”

Noah was a remarkable man who served God in his own generation. Yet his last years don’t seem to match the glory of his first years.

He was man of great triumph but also weakness. His godliness is remembered in the New Testament, marking him as a man of faith in Hebrews 11:7 and a preacher of righteousness in 2 Peter 2:5.

On our journey we’ll meet many other remarkable characters many of whom were key people in God’s eternal plan, but despite their greatness thay all had weakness, some vastly more than others. One thing all these people had in common was faith. They believed God and in what He said.

In the next episode we’ll move to Genesis chapter 10 and see the sons of Japheth, Ham and Shem.

It’s a chapter of genealogies, of families, which are the origin of all the nations of the world.

Then we saw Cain populating the earth and the birth of another son to Adam and Eve named Seth. It’s from this line that the saviour, will come into the earth and die to pay the price Himself for the sin of Adam and Eve and to redeem all those who place their faith in Him. Cain and Seth represent the two groups of mankind right through history up until today. Cain represents the group, who believe in their own self goodness, who scorn the very idea of God and refuse to accept or even seek Him. Seth represents those who, even though they’re far from perfect, accept their sin and their failings and believe what God has said through faith.

Then we moved on to Genesis chapter 5 which is a genealogy, a list of generations, showing us the descendants of Adam.

Finally, we saw the amazing story of Enoch and how he was taken by God alive before the calamity of the flood came as a judgement on the earth. We saw how this is a picture of another soon coming judgement on the earth that is imminent or could happen at any time.

Now let’s read Genesis 5 from verse 21 to 32 straight through to get the feel of this genealogy from Enoch to Noah, “Enoch lived sixty-five years, and begot Methuselah. After he begot Methuselah, Enoch walked with God three hundred years, and had sons and daughters. So all the days of Enoch were three hundred and sixty-five years. And Enoch walked with God; and he was not, for God took him.  Methuselah lived one hundred and eighty-seven years, and begot Lamech. After he begot Lamech, Methuselah lived seven hundred and eighty-two years, and had sons and daughters. So all the days of Methuselah were nine hundred and sixty-nine years; and he died. Lamech lived one hundred and eighty-two years, and had a son. And he called his name Noah, saying, “This one will comfort us concerning our work and the toil of our hands, because of the ground which the LORD has cursed.” After he begot Noah, Lamech lived five hundred and ninety-five years, and had sons and daughters. So all the days of Lamech were seven hundred and seventy-seven years; and he died. And Noah was five hundred years old, and Noah begot Shem, Ham, and Japheth.”

Methuselah lived longer than Adam.

These two men, Adam and Methuselah, pretty well cover the gap between creation and the Flood. According to our genealogy, Methuselah could have told Noah everything from the creation of the world.

Many Bible teachers believe we have a gap in the genealogy given here.

We know that in the opening of the New Testament the genealogy that’s given of the Lord Jesus purposely leaves out quite a few because there’s an attempt to give it in three equal segments.

Certain ones are left out, but of course, it completes accurately.

This genealogy is accurate, but we may have a gap here that would mean that man has been on this earth a great deal longer than we thought.

We’re not getting into the details here because it is quite involved and scripture isn’t clear. Why? Because this is not God’s focus. He’s trying to get over to us is history from the point of view of the redemption of mankind.

Now, the name Methuselah means “sending forth.”

Many believe that Methuselah means: “When he is dead, it shall be sent.” What will be sent? The Flood. As long as Methuselah lived, the Flood could not come. The interesting thing is that according to a chronology of the genealogy of the patriarchs, the year that Methuselah died is the year that the Flood came. “When he is dead, it shall be sent”.

Why did Methuselah live longer than any other person?

God kept him here to let mankind know His patience and mercy. God will also wait for you and me—all of our lives.

Peter speaks of the long–suffering, or the patience, of our God in 1 Peter 3:20, “who formerly were disobedient, when once the Divine longsuffering waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was being prepared, in which a few, that is, eight souls, were saved through water. ”

As we continue down through this chapter, each man after Enoch is mentioned and then he dies.

And then we get to Genesis 5 31 to 32, “So all the days of Lamech were seven hundred and seventy-seven years; and he died.

And Noah was five hundred years old, and Noah begot Shem, Ham, and Japheth. “

Now as a quick sideline here. It’s the popular theory that human nature is basically good and that it can be improved. Everything we see and hear today is about self-improvement.

If we will just try to improve the environment of man we can move toward perfection, Utopia.

Communism and socialism seek to improve man by making the state man’s protector.

Arminianism means that man can assist in his salvation.

Modernism says that man can save himself. In other words, salvation is sort of a do–it–yourself kit that God gives to you.

Some of the cults tell us that human nature is totally good and that there is no such thing as sin.

But what does God say concerning man? God says that man’s nature is totally wicked with absolutely no possibility of self-improvement.

That is the condition of all of us. “They have all turned aside, They have together become corrupt; There is none who does good, No, not one. ” This is from Romans 3:10 and is a quote from Psalm 14:3, Psalm 53: 1 and others.

That ‘s the estimate of the Word of God.

Now If you will accept God’s Word for it, it’ll give you a truer conception of life today than is given anywhere else.

There’re two ways of looking at our walk through life. We can look at either the romance or the reality. If we plan our lives and our future looking only at the romance without the reality, life will hand out harsh lessons. If we do the same with our eternity it’ll be catastrophic.

The romance is that man is basically good and we can, by our own efforts, achieve a type of perfection. The reality is that man is hopelessly lost and completely unable to make himself righteous by his own efforts and because of this his future is death. He’s in desperate need of a saviour and we have one available just by asking.

The next chapter delivers the reality of man’s state when it tells us that a Flood, a judgment from God, came upon the earth.

In chapter 6 we see not only the Flood, but also the reason for the judgment of the Flood.

In Genesis 6 :1 to 2 we read, “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.

Now, the “the sons of God” and “the daughters of men” has caused great discussion and a lot of speculation. Here’s another one of those places where God has not seen fit ti fill in all the details to try to satify our human understanding.

During these days of rapid population expansion (especially because of long lifespans in the pre-flood world), there was a problem with ungodly intermarriage between the sons of God and the daughters of men. Who were these groups?

Many good and faithful students of the bible believe that “the sons of God” were angels. Many others don’t.

Here’s my question regarding this.

If these were good angels, they wouldn’t commit this sin, and evil angels could never be designated as “sons of God.” Also, the offspring here were men, not monstrosities.

I’m not sure why it’s assumed by so many that the offspring were giants. We’ll look at this more closely when we come to Genesis 6:4.

In Genesis 6:3 we read, “And the LORD said, “My Spirit shall not strive with man forever, for he is indeed flesh; yet his days shall be one hundred and twenty years.”

Noah seams to have preached for 120 years, and during that time the Spirit of God was striving with men.

Peter makes it very clear in 1 Peter 3:18 to 19 that it was back in the days of Noah that the Spirit of God was striving with men in order that He might bring them to God—but they wouldn’t turn.

We read, “For Christ also suffered once for sins, the just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive by the Spirit, by whom also He went and preached to the spirits in prison..”

These spirits were in prison when Peter wrote, but they were preached to in the days of Noah. How do we know that?

1 Peter 3:20 tells us, “who formerly were disobedient, when once the Divine longsuffering waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was being prepared, in which a few, that is, eight souls, were saved through water. .”

When were they disobedient? During the long–suffering of God in the days of Noah—during those 120 years.

Now to Genesis 6:4, “There were giants on the earth in those days, and also afterward, when the sons of God came in to the daughters of men and they bore children to them. Those were the mighty men who were of old, men of renown.”

Let’s look closely. “There were giants in the earth in those days,” but it doesn’t say they are the offspring of the sons of God and the daughters of men.

It does say this about the offspring: “the same became mighty men which were of old, men of renown.” You see they weren’t monstrosities; they were men. The record here makes it very clear that the giants were in the earth before this took place, and it simply means that these offspring were outstanding individuals.

So, what then do we have here in  Genesis 6:4?

Well, Genesis is a book of genealogies—it is a book of the families. The sons of God may simply be the godly line who’ve come down from Adam and then through Seth, and the daughters of men belong to the line of Cain.

It’s an intermingling or intermarriage of these two lines, until finally the entire line is totally corrupted (well, not totally; there is one exception).

On the other hand, God is getting ready to judge the earth by destroying every living thing in a flood. This points to a deep and serious problem in the world at that time, and it would seem that it’s way beyond the problem of believers marrying those who do not believe.

Regardless of which view you take of this strange event, wether you believe it’s simply the Godly line mixing with the ungodly line or that angels were involved, It’s simply a matter of interpretation. It doesn’t have anything to do with whether or not you believe the Bible but concerns only the interpretation of Scripture.

The main danger would be to get hung up on this to the point of obsession where the real message becomes hidden. Unfortunately, there seems to be more fascination with this today than in the real reason for the flood.

What was the condition on the earth before the Flood? What caused God to bring the judgment of the Flood?

In Genesis 6:5 now we read, “Then the LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.”

We should take special note here. “the wickedness of man was great in the earth.” “and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil.” Only evil—that is all it was—and that “continually.” This reveals the true condition of the human family that was on the earth.

Verse 6 reads, “And the LORD was sorry that He had made man on the earth, and He was grieved in His heart.

God’s sorrow at man, and the grief in His heart are striking. This doesn’t mean that creation was out of control, and it doesn’t mean that God hoped for something better but was unable to achieve it. God knew all along that this is how things would turn out, but this text clearly tells us that as God sees His plan for the ages unfold, it affects Him. God is not unfeeling in the face of human sin and rebellion.

Although God was grieved because of man’s sin, thank God, He didn’t destroy him.

Verse 7, “So the LORD said, “I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth, both man and beast, creeping thing and birds of the air, for I am sorry that I have made them.”

But Noah found grace in the eyes of the LORD, we read in Genesis 6 verse 8.

And why did Noah find grace?

Verse 9 says, “This is the genealogy of Noah. Noah was a just man, perfect in his generations. Noah walked with God.”

Why did God save Noah?

Because he walked with God? Yes, but we are also told in Hebrews 11:7 that, “By faith Noah, being divinely warned of things not yet seen, moved with godly fear, prepared an ark for the saving of his household, by which he condemned the world and became heir of the righteousness which is according to faith. ”

It took faith to prepare an ark on dry land when it hadn’t even drizzled yet!

In this same chapter in Hebrews, we’re told that it was by faith that Enoch was translated. You see, when the church is taken out of this world, every believer is going because the rapture is for believers, and even the weakest saint is going. They’re going out because God extends mercy, and we’re told that the mercy of God will be demonstrated at that time.

Why the Flood? Why is God going to send the Flood?

The earth also was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence.

Genis 6:11 to 12 tells us, “The earth also was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence. So God looked upon the earth, and indeed it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted their way on the earth. ”

Man had corrupted God’s way and was going his own way. He had turned from the purpose for which God had created him. Man is performing exactly according to Proverbs 14:12, “There is a way that seems right to a man, But its end is the way of death.”

Genesis 6 verse 13, “And God said to Noah, “The end of all flesh has come before Me, for the earth is filled with violence through them; and behold, I will destroy them with the earth.“

God‘s going to send the Flood. Let’s look closer.

Man had a promise of a Redeemer, and he was told that there was coming a Saviour on the earth.

That’s what man should’ve been looking for; instead of that, he turned from God.

God had provided a sacrifice for Adam and Eve, and we find that a great, eternal principle was put down with Cain and Abel. These two boys, Cain and Abel, stand as the representatives of two great systems, two classes of people: the lost and the saved, the self–righteous and the broken–spirited, the do-gooder and the genuine believer. That’s what was present in the human race at this time.

The patriarchs were living so long that the lives of Adam and Methuselah bridged the entire gap from the creation to the Flood.

They certainly could have given a revelation to all mankind, which they did.

We’re told in Jude verses 14 and 15 that Enoch preached, he prophesied, during that period.

We’re also told that Noah preached during that period as he was building the ark.

When Enoch disappeared, that should have alerted the people to the intervention of God in human affairs. They also knew about this man Methuselah and the meaning of his name; and when he died, they should have known the Flood was coming.

Finally, there was the ministry of the Holy Spirit. God said that His Spirit would not always strive with man. The Spirit of God was striving with him, but, when man totally rejected God, the Flood came in judgment upon the earth.

The entire human family has turned from God “… There is none righteous, no, not one” says Romans 3:10.

There are just a few, though, who do believe Him—Noah and his family. Here is one man who walked with God; he believed God. Here is a man who still trusted God—“by faith Noah.”

Here is a man who was willing to risk building a boat on dry land. If the rains did not come, he certainly would be the laughingstock of the community.He probably was just that for 120 years, but Noah believed God.

There’s a striking comparison in the fact that the days of Noah are to be duplicated before the Lord comes again to the earth, not for the Rapture, but to establish His Kingdom. But there are some remarkable parallels that have already taken place. For instance, this chapter opened: “And it came to pass, when men began to multiply on the face of the earth, and daughters were born unto them….” There was this tremendous population increase, and by that time man had spread pretty much over the earth.

Today we have a tremendous population explosion, and men again have increased upon the face of the earth.

Also, there ‘s the fact that during the Great Tribulation period, the Holy Spirit will no longer restrain evil. He will be there to convert men, but we’re told very definitely that He will not be restraining evil on the earth.

God’s efforts to reach out to fallen man will be despised and rejected, and certainly they are today. God’s message to man, the bible, is rejected and ridiculed today as much as at any time of calamity in past history.

Finally, the world in that day will be faced with the great problem of the Rapture—there will have been a great number of people who have mysteriously left the earth, causing a multitude of speculation as to why but people will still reject God’s message to come, just as they did in Noah’s day.

Until next time friends when we see the building of the ark and the arrival of the flood, may God bless you and keep you.

This has caused many people, in fact, the vast majority of people, to ridicule the Bible’s story of creation and the first family and how they fell into the devastating state called sin. How could the entire population of the earth today, along with the amazing technology and knowledge available to us, be expected to believe the story of Adam and Eve and the garden of Eden?

This story of the first humans and the first children born on the planet is so much at odds with our modern world that it is largely rejected. Attempts are made to explain the human story in ways that are more acceptable to modern thinking.

Unfortunately, these attempts only serve to open up even more questions which in turn become more and more ridiculous than the Bible account ever is.

To illustrate this a little, let’s for a moment assume that the theory of evolution is true and that it is the process by which the population of the earth has arrived at where it is today.

Our first challenge is that we know the earth’s population has been growing rapidly and as such must have grown from smaller numbers. For example the earth’s population today is not far off 8 billion humans, yet Wikipedia suggests the world’s population in the year 1 AD was between 150 and 330 million people. We don’t know what the population was 1000 years before that we can safely assume it was much smaller.

Well back in the eons of time, those original numbers must have been just two and they must have been male and female. Either that or there was only one human who was both male and female and so after the billions of years it took to get to that stage, more billions of years caused that thing to somehow evolve into two separate beings, one male and one female.

Now, these beings at all stages of this evolution must have been able to produce offspring in the image of themselves, even before they became separate male and female beings. How in the world did THAT stunningly complex ability evolve??

Then we must explain the fact that we, as a population, understand that evil is bad. This is why we have laws that punish crime.

We know instinctively that to steal from someone or to murder or rape someone is what we call “wrong”. And, it appears from our recorded history, that we’ve always had that moral understanding.

How did those first humans that evolved from some other life form over countless millions of years take on this moral character? Why do we even think it’s wrong to harm someone else? Where did that come from?  What happened in time past that caused that conscience, that understanding of good and evil to come into those early beings? What overriding power dictated to these evolving beings what was good and what was evil?

Now, I don’t know about you, but from the so-called scientific explanations that I’ve ever seen, I’d need a vastly greater level of faith in those unseen, unproven explanations than I need to believe that God created all things for His own purposes, including man and woman, and, that the account He‘s left for us in the Bible is perfectly correct.

Now we start this episode in Genesis chapter 4 and we read verses 6 and 7. “So the LORD said to Cain, ‘Why are you angry? And why has your countenance fallen?

If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin lies at the door. And its desire is for you, but you should rule over it.’”

Why is Cain angry? He’s so angry that he’s going to murder his brother. Behind premeditated murder, there’s always anger.

Our Lord said that, if you are angry with your brother without a cause, you are guilty of murder. Behind anger is jealousy, and behind jealousy is pride.

There’s no sense of sin whatsoever in spiritual pride.

James put it like this in James 1:15, “Then, when desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, brings forth death.”

Cain’s anger led to murder, but behind it was his jealousy and his pride.

And God deals with him on this level.

He says to Cain, “If you do well, will you not be accepted?” Actually, the meaning is better translated as, “Will you not have excellency?”

God tells him there’s no reason for him not to have the same acceptance as his brother Abel.

All he needs to do is to bring the same as what God had accepted from Abel, a sacrifice and the acknowledgment that he was a sinner.

But not this bloke — he’s just angry.

Is he angry with God?

I don’t think he is. However, he does have this seething anger and jealousy toward his brother. Even if he did turn and offer the right sacrifice this uncontrollable anger and jealousy toward his brother would have still overpowered him because in his mind Abel is better than he is because he got it right the first time. How often has this situation played out in history?

One party doesn’t quite come up to the level of another but instead of using that as a standard to try to come up to, hatred, jealousy, anger and so often violence and murder take over.

“Sin lies at the door,” says this verse, “but you should rule over it..” Cain didn’t realise how vulnerable he was to sin. When God said to him that “Sin lies at the door,” He was saying that sin was crouching at the doorway of Cain’s soul like a wild beast waiting to pounce on him the moment he weakened. For that reason, Cain needed a sacrifice that would be acceptable to God for sin, a sacrifice that pointed to Christ, but instead, he reached into his deep anger and jealousy and in so doing he opened that door and sin leapt on him consuming him and consumed him.

Could he have chosen differently? Yes, definitely!

God said to Cain, “And its desire (sins desire) is for you, but you should rule over it.”

God is saying here that sin desires to have you, Cain, to own you, but you should rule over it. In other words, that temptation to sin is within your power to either accept or reject. Cain chose to accept it.

We see this in 1 John 3:12. “…not as Cain who was of the wicked one and murdered his brother. And why did he murder him? Because his works were evil and his brother’s righteous. ”

“if you do not do well, sin lies at the door.” To do well, all that needed to be done was to bring the same kind of offering that Abel had brought. But it was too late.

Cain could resist sin and find a blessing, or he could give in to sin and be devoured by it. Cain allowed sin in the form of anger and jealousy and it certainly consumed him.

Now we move to Genesis 4:8 and we read, “Now Cain talked with Abel his brother; and it came to pass, when they were in the field, that Cain rose up against Abel his brother and killed him.”

Here we have humanity’s first murder. Cain talked with Abel his brother. What did he talk about? Reading over this verse quickly could give the impression they had a friendly chit-chat between brothers. I doubt it!

Some translations have the topic of conversation as being about what God has said to Cain.

Other translations have Cain saying to Abel, “Let’s go out into the field.” Maybe it was a heated argument and it was said something like, “Come out to the field and we’ll sort it out.”

Whatever the discussion was, the outcome was that Cain murdered his brother.

In verse 9, “Then the LORD said to Cain, “Where is Abel your brother?” He said, “I do not know. Am I my brother’s keeper?”

This is a cocky, insolent answer which displays his lack of respect and regard for either his brother or his God.

He’s trying to cover his action, but as Matthew 10:26 says, “… there is nothing covered, that shall not be revealed; and hid, that shall not be known”. That’s something for all of us to think over. We’d better deal with them down here because they’re all going to come out in God’s presence someday anyway. He already knows about them. Get them out of the way by using the Christian’s bar of soap, 1 John 1:9, “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. “

God knew the answer to this question. He asked Cain because He wanted to give him the opportunity to confess his sin and start to do right after having done wrong.

How futile it was for this bloke Cain to lie to God! It was madness for him to think God didn’t know where Abel was, or that he could actually hide his sin from God. “Am I my brother’s keeper?” This totally impudent answer shows Cain’s complete blindness to the all-knowing power of God!

In verse 10 now, “And He (that’s God) said, “What have you done? The voice of your brother’s blood cries out to Me from the ground.”

The writer of the epistle to the Hebrews uses this in Hebrews 12:24 : “to Jesus the Mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling that speaks better things than that of Abel. ” You see, Abel’s blood spoke of murder committed. The blood of Christ speaks of redemption; of salvation.

Now God says in Genesis 4:11-12, “ So now you are cursed from the earth, which has opened its mouth to receive your brother’s blood from your hand. When you till the ground, it shall no longer yield its strength to you. A fugitive and a vagabond you shall be on the earth.”

This curse upon Cain was that Adam’s curse would be amplified where he was concerned. If bringing forth food from the earth would be hard for Adam as in Genesis 3:17-18, it would be impossible for Cain (who, by the way, was a farmer).

Cain would find no resting place on all the earth. “A fugitive and a vagabond you shall be on the earth”.

Now to verse 13. “And Cain said to the LORD, “My punishment is greater than I can bear!”

My punishment is greater than I can bear! Cain didn’t feel bad about his sin, only about his punishment. Still, right up to today, many people only feel bad about their punishment, not their sin. The sinner pities himself instead of turning to God in confession where there’s forgiveness.

If Cain’s punishment was greater than he could bear, why didn’t he just turn to God and confess his sin and cast himself upon God’s mercy? God was providing a Saviour for him if he would only turn to Him.

Now to verse 14, “ Surely You have driven me out this day from the face of the ground; I shall be hidden from Your face; I shall be a fugitive and a vagabond on the earth, and it will happen that anyone who finds me will kill me.”

Cain realises that he’s to be hidden from the face of God, and of course, that’s exactly what happened.

But notice now that God protects him. This is strange: God is actually harbouring a murderer, a criminal.

As harsh as God’s judgment is against Cain, God, for some reason didn’t want Cain killed by others.

And verse 15, “And the LORD said to him, “Therefore, whoever kills Cain, vengeance shall be taken on him sevenfold.” And the LORD set a mark on Cain, lest anyone finding him should kill him.”

What was that mark? Well, we don’t know, and any attempt to explain what the mark was is just speculation. But God does protect Cain.

Remember, there‘s been no law given at this time. Cain is a sinner, but he’s not a transgressor of the law because there’s been no law given about murder.

His great sin is that he did not bring the offering that was acceptable to God. His deeds were evil in what he brought to God, and he displayed that evil nature in murdering his brother.

Now, in Genesis 4:16-24, we see that Cain moves out from God, and establishes a civilization that is apart from God altogether. The children of Cain establish a godless civilization.

Genesis 4 verse 16 says, “Then Cain went out from the presence of the LORD and dwelt in the land of Nod on the east of Eden.”

We don’t know where the land of Nod is although there’s plenty of speculation of course which as we’ve seen is normal when God doesn’t give us all the details, but it’s just that, speculation.

However,  we are told that Cain went out and dwelt in that area.

Verse 17, “And Cain knew his wife, and she conceived and bore Enoch. And he built a city, and called the name of the city after the name of his son—Enoch.

Man’s been doing this ever since, naming streets and cities after themselves or their loved ones. We love to do that, to make our mark on this world.

Here‘s where urban life, city life, began: “And he built a city, and called the name of the city after the name of his son—Enoch.”

Now to Genesis 4 verses 18 to 19, “To Enoch was born Irad; and Irad begot Mehujael, and Mehujael begot Methushael, and Methushael begot Lamech.

Then Lamech took for himself two wives: the name of one was Adah, and the name of the second was Zillah. Adah means, “pleasure, ornament, or beauty.”

Zillah means, “shade” probably referring to a luxurious covering of hair.

Here’s the beginning of polygamy—having more than one wife.

Lamech now does what God does NOT intend. It’s completely against what God has for man.

Nowhere in Scripture does God approve of polygamy.

If we read the accounts accurately, we find that He condemns it. He gives the record of it because it happened. He’s giving a historical record, which is why it’s given to us here, but God makes it clear He does NOT approve of it.

Later on, we’ll see the trouble this marriage to two wives caused.

Here we see the beginning of civilization, the Cainitic civilization, that is from the line of Cain.

In verse 20 we read, “And Adah bore Jabal. He was the father of those who dwell in tents and have livestock.” These could have been the first cattle and sheep farmers who moved home as the livestock grazed. Or they may have been the first building contractors as well.

Verse 21, “His brother’s name was Jubal. He was the father of all those who play the harp and flute. Here is the beginning of the musicians.”

Verse 22. “And as for Zillah, she also bore Tubal-Cain, an instructor of every craftsman in bronze and iron. And the sister of Tubal-Cain was Naamah. ”

Here we see the ones who are craftsmen and possibly engineers.

Now in Genesis 4 Verses 23 to 24, we read, “Then Lamech said to his wives: “Adah and Zillah, hear my voice; Wives of Lamech, listen to my speech! For I have killed a man for wounding me, Even a young man for hurting me.

If Cain shall be avenged sevenfold, Then Lamech seventy-sevenfold.”

Lamech says, “If Cain got by with it, I can get by with it. After all, Cain did not slay in self–defence, but I have.”

We don’t know whether he did or not, but he says that he slew in self–defence. And I don’t know whether or not his two wives entered into this, or whether or not he was defending one of them.

We’re not told how it happened. Lamech feels that he will be avenged seventy and sevenfold, but our Lord told Simon Peter that he ought to forgive his enemy that many times.

Now we move to Genesis 4: and verses 25-26 where we see the birth of Seth, “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.

And as for Seth, to him also a son was born; and he named him Enosh. Then men began to call on the name of the LORD.”

Apparently this was the beginning of men calling upon the name of the Lord.

Now we come to Genesis 5:1-20 and the Final chapter of Adam’s biography. It’s the thrilling story of Enoch; the genealogy, the family line, of Enoch to Noah.

In the first section of the Book of Genesis (chapters 1–11), we have world events, the Creation, then the Fall, and now in chapters 5–9, the flood.

In chapter 5 we have the book of the generations of Adam through Seth.

Cain’s line has been given to us and is now dropped. It will be mentioned again only as it crosses the godly line.

This is a pattern that will be repeated over and over in the Book of Genesis.

The ungodly line is mentioned first, then dropped.

Now, in one sense, chapter 5 is discouraging and depressing because it’s like walking through a cemetery.

God said to Adam in Genesis 2 verse 17, “…for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die,” and all the sons of Adam died. Paul says in 1 Corinthians 15:22, “For as in Adam all die …”.

So in Genesis 5 verses 1 to 2 we read, “This is the book of the genealogy (generations) of Adam. In the day that God created man, He made him in the likeness of God.

He created them male and female, and blessed them and called them Mankind in the day they were created. The King James version is probably more accurate when it says God called them “Adam” which means mankind. Eve is the other half of Adam.

“The book of the generations of Adam.” This strange expression occurs again only in the beginning of the New Testament, and there it’s called “the book of the generation of Jesus Christ.”

In these two books, we see that there are two lines, two seeds, and they’re against each other. The struggle’s going to be a long one between the line of Satan and the line of Christ, the accepted line.

The line which we’re following now is the line through Seth, and it is through this line that Christ will ultimately come.

In Genesis 5 verse 3 we read, “And Adam lived one hundred and thirty years, and begot a son in his own likeness, after his image, and named him Seth.

When Adam was 130 years old, how old was he? In other words, when God created Adam, did He create him thirty years old or fourteen or forty–five?

I don’t know—anything would be speculation. And if He created him that old, was he actually that old? You see, God could create him any age.

When someone says that certain rocks are billions of years old, they just don’t know. Maybe when God created them, He created them two or three billion years old. Who can say? No one!

The important thing here is that when Adam had been here 130 years, he begat a son in his own likeness. Adam was made in the likeness of God, but his son was born in his likeness.

And the days of Adam after he had begotten Seth were eight hundred years: and he begat sons and daughters:

In verses 4 to 5 we read, “After he begot Seth, the days of Adam were eight hundred years; and he had sons and daughters. So all the days that Adam lived were nine hundred and thirty years; and he died.”

Now we start through the graveyard. Adam begat sons and daughters, “and all the days that Adam lived were nine hundred and thirty years”—and what happened? “And he died.”

In verse Genesis 5:8 we read what happened to Seth. He died. He had a son by the name of Enos, and what happened to him? In verse Genesis 5:11 we are told that he died. But he had a son, and Cainan was his son. And what happened to old Cainan? In verse 14 we find that he died too. He had a son, Mahalaleel, and in verse 17, he died. But he had a son in verse 20, and his name was Jared, and guess what happened to him? He died.

However, before he died, Jared had a son by the name of Enoch. And this man Enoch is a fascinating character for sure.

 

In verses 21 to 22 we read, “Enoch lived sixty-five years, and begot Methuselah.  After he begot Methuselah, Enoch walked with God three hundred years, and had sons and daughters.”

And then did Enoch die?

No! He did not die.

This might be a depressing chapter, but Enoch is the bright spot in it.

After he begot Methuselah, Enoch walked with God three hundred years, and had sons and daughters.

In verses 23 to 24,  “So all the days of Enoch were three hundred and sixty-five years. And Enoch walked with God; and he was not, for God took him.”

This is a most remarkable thing. In the midst of all this death, one man is removed from this earth.

It is said that Enoch “walked with God.”

This is quite amazing because only two men are said to have walked with God. In the next chapter, we find that Noah also walked with God.

These were two antediluvians or men that lived before the flood, and they walked with God.

There are actually only two men in the Old Testament who did not die.

One of them is Enoch, and the other is Elijah.

Enoch is one of the few people living before the Flood of whom we have any record at all.

We’re told that he didn’t die but that God took him—he was translated.

What do we mean by translation? Translation is the taking of a word from one language and putting it into another language without changing its meaning. Enoch was removed from this earth; he was translated. He had to get rid of the old body which he had. He had to be a different individual—yet he had to be the same individual, just as the translated word has to be the same. Enoch was taken to heaven.

We read that Enoch lived sixty–five years, and begat Methuselah, and after that, he walked with God.

We don’t know what the first sixty–five years of his life were like.

Probably he was like the rest of the crowd, but when his little son Methuselah was born, Enoch’s walk was changed.

That baby turned him to God. Sometimes God puts a baby in a family just for that purpose, and if you don’t see the miracle of God in that baby you’ll hardly see it anywhere else!

For three hundred years after that birth, he walked with God, and he begat other children, sons and daughters. “And all the days of Enoch were three hundred sixty and five years”—that is how long he was on this earth, but he did not die.

It does not say, like all the rest, “And then Enoch died,” but it says, “And Enoch walked with God: and he was not; for God took him.”

All the great truths in Genesis are seeds that start germinating in this the first book of the Bible, and come to maturity elsewhere in the Bible very often in the last book, the Book of Revelation. It’s a picture of what’s to come. Here we have the seed and the picture of the Rapture of the church. Before the judgment of the Flood, God removes Enoch.

You’ll find that there’s a massive gap that needs to be filled. Something devastating has happened.

For example, in Genesis 1 and 2, we find man in a perfect setting in perfect innocence. Everything is perfect. There’s perfect harmony in nature, a perfect balance to the earth’s environment and there’s perfect fellowship between God and man.

But then you begin chapter 4 of Genesis and read to chapter 11, and what do you find? Jealousy, anger, murder, lying, wickedness, corruption, rebellion, and judgment.

So, what happened? What changed?

Chapter 3 fills in the gap for us. It’s the key that unlocks the answers to “Why God?” Nothing about our lives makes sense, nothing fits without Genesis chapter 3. In this chapter, we find the answers to why our world is self-destructing, weighed down by unstoppable evil.

It’s in Genesis chapter 3 that we trace back the source of the great drama of human history, which after more than 6,000 years has not been fulfilled.

It’s here we find the reason for the fallen, ruined condition of the human race. We learn of our enemy, the devil here and his weapons that are used against us. We learn how utterly powerless mankind is to walk in the path of righteousness without God’s saving Grace extended to him.

In this chapter, we discover the spiritual effects of sin, man seeking to run and hide from God, and we see God’s justice toward the guilty sinner.

We learn how human nature tries to cover its own shame with religion and good works and the futility of it.

Here we’re taught of God’s provision to meet our great need and the river of prophecy that runs through the whole Bible. But by far the most important thing we learn is that man simply can’t approach God except through a mediator, a saviour.

In this first section, we have the setting for the temptation of man.

And so we read in Genesis 3:1,  “Now the serpent was more cunning than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made. And he said to the woman, “Has God indeed said, ‘You shall not eat of every tree of the garden’?”

So, we first need to ask why the temptation?

We need to go back to chapters 1 and 2, where we find that man was created innocent, but man was not created righteous. What’s the difference? What is righteousness? Well, righteousness is innocence that has been maintained in the presence of temptation.

You see, temptation will either develop you or destroy you.

Man is not a wind-up doll without the ability to decide his path. Man has a character and that character must be developed, and it can only be developed in the presence of temptation. It’s easy to do the right thing when there’s no other choice, not so easy when there are many choices to do the wrong thing and those particular choices appear better and more attractive.

Man was created a responsible being, and he was responsible to glorify, to obey, to serve, and to be subject to God’s government. Only in this regard could man in turn be fully satisfied.

Now, God tells man in Genesis 2:17, “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.”” That tree was not the only tree in the garden that could be eaten from. Man would not have starved to death if he had not been able to eat of the tree. There were plenty of trees in the garden which bore fruit; so that man didn’t need to eat of this tree at all. So, we find that man appears on the scene as a responsible creature.

Now, in this first verse we’re introduced to the serpent.

Where did he come from?

How did he get into the Garden of Eden?

Again, we’re not told how he came to be there; we’re just told he was there. The serpent was simply a creature that could be used of Satan, and Satan certainly used him.

It’s no different from the method Satan uses today. Paul wrote to the Corinthians in 2 Corinthians 11:14,  “And no wonder! For Satan himself transforms himself into an angel of light.”

The Book of Revelation says more about Satan than anywhere else in Scripture. “So the great dragon was cast out, that serpent of old, called the Devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world; he was cast to the earth, and his angels were cast out with him.” That’s Revelation 12:9.

This creature was not a slithering snake as we think of it today. That’s not the picture that the Word of God gives of him at all. “He laid hold of the dragon, that serpent of old, who is the Devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years..” That’s Revelation 20:2.

This is a creature with tremendous ability. There‘s no record of his origin here in Genesis at all. It appears that we learn the origin of this creature and also how he became the creature that he was in Isaiah 14 and Ezekiel 28.

Now we read in Genesis chapter 3 verses 2 to 3, “And the woman said to the serpent, “We may eat the fruit of the trees of the garden; but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God has said, ‘You shall not eat it, nor shall you touch it, lest you die.’ “.

Let’s look a bit closer.

Why did the serpent approach the woman? Why didn’t he approach the man? When God created Adam, He had told him that he could eat of every tree of the garden, but of this one, he was not to eat. Woman was created last, and she got her information secondhand, from the man.

It’s a hard thing to say but unfortunately, women seem more open to suggestions, especially in spiritual things. It’s the woman whose more likely to fall into astrology, fortune telling and seances. It’s the ladies who are usually running the crystal stalls and the palm reading tents at markets and it’s mostly the ladies who are the customers.

Why? I don’t know. Maybe the woman is more sensitive and more emotional than a man.

We do know that this powerful creature, Satan knew exactly what he was doing.

He came with a very subtle method. He asked her this question, which cast doubt on the Word of God, “Has God indeed said (or has God really said), ‘You shall not eat of every tree of the garden’?” ”

He raises doubt in her mind and excites her curiosity. She answers and we read again verses 2 & 3,  “And the woman said to the serpent, “We may eat the fruit of the trees of the garden but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God has said, ‘You shall not eat it, nor shall you touch it, lest you die.’ ”

By the way, you can’t find anywhere where God said, “You are not to touch it.”

Now, in verses 4 to 5 we read, “Then the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die. For God knows that in the day you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”

He’s saying in effect, “Come on, how could you possibly believe such nonsense!”

He questions the love of God, the goodness of God and the sovereignty of God. In effect he’s saying, “If God is good, why did He put this restriction on you?” The serpent implies that God is not righteous when he says, “You will not die.” Then he questions the holiness of God by saying, “For God knows that in the day you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”

He’s painting a picture saying, “What you have here in this garden is really good but imagine how much better it’ll be when you’re like God and you know good and evil. God just doesn’t want you to share in His wisdom and knowledge.”

The serpent cunningly denies God’s truth by substituting his lie for God’s word.

The Book of Romans teaches the obedience of faith. Faith leads to obedience, and unbelief leads to disobedience. Doubt leads to disobedience—always.

The Word of God says in John 6:29, “Jesus answered and said to them, “This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He sent.”

How important this is!

Now we read in Genesis 3 verse 6,  “So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree desirable to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate. She also gave to her husband with her, and he ate.

Notice how the serpent homes in on particular areas.

It was an appeal to the flesh—“the tree was good for food”. Also, “It was pleasant to the eyes”—it was an appeal to the psychological part of man, to his mind. Manipulate the way they THINK and you’ve got them!

“And a tree to be desired to make one wise”—this is an appeal to the religious side of man. Make him religious and he FEELS like he’s on the right track.

Satan has never changed his tactics. He uses the same tactics with you and me, and the reason that he still uses them is that they work. He hasn’t needed to change his tactics. We all seem to fall for the same lines.

The trick that Eve fell for was no different than the trick every living person is subjected to every day. “How can the Bible be true?” “It’s just too far-fetched to believe.” “You can make yourself acceptable to God by doing good works.”

“We’re all children of God, one big brotherhood of man.” “There’s no need to believe in the cross of Calvary.” “If I end up in hell, I’ll have a ripping time there with all my mates.” For believers, the subtlety may be, “Yes, it is by faith, but it’s faith plus something else, we must repent and do good works.” As a result we’re in a state of constant hopelessness because of our every day failures or we feel puffed up with pride because we think we’ve done a couple of things right.

John wrote in 1 John 2:16, and  we read “ For all that is in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—is not of the Father but is of the world.”

“The lust of the flesh”—that is, the tree was good to eat. “The lust of the eyes”—the tree was good to look at. “The pride of life”—the tree was to be desired to make one wise. These things are not of the Father, but of the world. Jesus said that these sins of the flesh come out of the heart of man, way down deep. This is where Satan directs his deceptions. This is the method that he is using to reach in and lead mankind astray. And he succeeded. They were told that they would know good and evil—and what happened? We now have the results of the fall of man.

The one weapon this being has is deception. Lies that are skilfully targeted to achieve the one purpose they have, to make each of us choose, by our own free will, to accept them as truth and act accordingly.

Now we see that Eve is deceived. Adam is not! In fact we see in verse 6 that Adam was with her when she ate. What did he do? Stood and watched her.

In 1 Timothy 2:14 Paul says “And Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived, fell into transgression”.

Adam walks into transgression with full knowledge of the awful consequences. Although Eve was deceived and Adam was not, the result was the same death for both of them.  Both were guilty in the end.

Both die spiritually that very day, and they began to die physically.

An enormous change took place at the moment Adam and Eve disobeyed God.

Those changes are outside our ability to imagine as we cannot imagine the magnificence of a world without sin.

Genesis 5:5 tells us that Adam lived to be 930 years old. He lived into the lifetime of Lamech, the father of Noah, which means he was able to see the long-term consequences of his disobedience. Adam and Eve grieved over the death of their son Abel at the hand of their son Cain, and watched their descendants grow increasingly more wicked and violent. It’s easy to imagine Adam and Eve’s horror as they saw the once-perfect creation dissolve into evil.

They had succeeded in obtaining the knowledge of good and evil.

How many times did they wish they had never gained that knowledge?

Now we see Genesis 3:7, “Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves coverings.”

“And the eyes of them both were opened”—this refers to their conscience. Before the fall, man didn’t have a conscience; he was innocent. Innocence is ignorance of evil. Man didn’t make conscience. It is an accuser that each one of us has living on the inside of us.

“And they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves coverings.” These fig leaves concealed but did not really cover. Adam and Eve did not confess; they just attempted to cover up their sin. They were not ready to admit their lost condition.

This is the same condition of man today. He goes through religious exercises and rituals, he joins churches, and he becomes very religious. Have you ever noticed that Christ cursed the fig tree?

That is quite interesting. And He denounced religion right after that, by the way; He denounced it with all His being because religion merely covers over sin.

In this temptation, Satan wanted to come between man’s soul and God. In other words, he wanted to draw man from God, to win man over to himself, and to become the god of man.

The temptations of the flesh wouldn’t have appealed to man in that day. He wasn’t tempted to steal or lie or covet by yearning to possess something they didn’t have. He was just tempted to doubt God.

First, Eve saw that the tree was good for food; second, it was pleasant to the eye; and third, it was to be desired to make one wise. Satan works from the outside to the inside while God, on the other hand, begins with man’s heart.

Religion is something that you rub on the outside, but God doesn’t begin with religion.

Christianity is not religion; Christianity is Christ. There are a lot of religions, but the Lord Jesus went right to the fountainhead when He said, “Ye must be born again.”

In Matthew 23:27 He said to the Pharisees who were very religious on the outside, “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs which indeed appear beautiful outwardly, but inside are full of dead men’s bones and all uncleanness. ”

What a picture! And Adam and Eve, instead of confessing their sin, sewed fig leaves together as a covering.

Men are still doing it today, believing that they are acceptable to God by going to church and going through religious exercises and good works instead of confessing the sin of their hearts.

In Genesis 3:8 we read, “And they heard the sound of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God among the trees of the garden.

And in verse 9, “Then the LORD God called to Adam and said to him, “Where are you?”

Religion will separate you from God—and Adam surely is lost. Although he’s lost, he’s not searching for God. It’s God sarching for him.

Now verse 10, So he said, “I heard Your voice in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; and I hid myself.”

Verse 11, And He (God) said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree of which I commanded you that you should not eat?”

Verse 12,  Then the man said, “The woman whom You gave to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I ate.”

Notice there’s no confession on Adam’s part. It’s not so much that he blamed the woman and even tries to blame God for giving him the woman in the first place, but that there’s no confession of sin on his part.

Verse 13, And the LORD God said to the woman, “What is this you have done?” The woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.”  More buck-passing!

How terribly like us all. We’re so quick to give a reason for our actions other than our own failure. There’s always someone else to direct a greater blame to. Yes, I may have done it BUT…

Congratulations, Adam and Eve. They‘ll now have to deal with evil in their new world. The woman will now face great pain in her bearing of children. Her relationship with her husband will change as well; she’ll want him, but he’ll rule over her. That wasn’t God’s original plan. His plan was one of equality: God had made the woman from the rib of Adam as his partner and helpmate. As a result of sin, she’ll now have to face his domination, but she won’t want to leave him.

The man is held to the greatest responsibility. God had given Adam the one commandment directly, and he chose to follow his wife’s offer over the word of their Creator. He was created to be in harmony with nature; he’ll now have to battle it to produce his crops. He’ll have to work hard to make food grow from the ground, fighting thorns and thistles until he dies and returns to the ground from which he was made.

Their new situation has been pronounced; pain, hard work, and death. Yet even here, God demonstrates His own purposes and plans as we’ll see in the next episode.