June 14, 2004

Reading through the Bible in one Year: Proverbs 4

Good Afternoon Brothers and Sisters,

I considered continuing in the Minor Prophets heavily but felt that we needed a rest from the prophecy.  We have studied several minor prophets recently along with Revelation, and I feel that it is time for a lighter easier study for the rest of the summer.  I will continue Romans until it is finished, so the meat will be coming every other week.  At first I considered going to Joshua, it is a fun book, but still sounded a little heavy.  The more that I considered it, the more I felt drawn to Genesis. 

I am planning to take a chapter each day in Genesis for the week, if I get stuck in a chapter, I will alter the schedule to reflect the change, so I won't be posting the schedule in advance.  There is a lot of meat in Genesis that we could draw out, so if I miss something that you see as important be sure to write me and we will discuss it.  The early chapters may be split into several days due to the importance of the content in them.  Face it, many of the basic beliefs of Christianity are based upon the creation story and the fall of man.  By understanding Genesis, I think that we will understand the New Testament and a personal walk with God better.

Genesis 1:1 (NASB95)
¹ In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. ^[1]

Pause here for a moment, Look at the significance of the first verse of the Bible.  "God created", that phrase doesn't give us the same implication in the English that it did in the Hebrew, "God", which was "Elohim", which was a name for God and was in a plural form.  That means that God in this word was referring to a single God in a plural form. 

Genesis 2:3 (NASB95)
³ Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because in it He rested from all His work which God had created and made.

Isaiah 40:26 (NASB95)
²⁶ Lift up your eyes on high And see who has created these stars, The One who leads forth their host by number, He calls them all by name; Because of the greatness of His might and the strength of His power, Not one of them is missing.

Isaiah 42:5 (NASB95)
⁵ Thus says God the Lord, Who created the heavens and stretched them out, Who spread out the earth and its offspring, Who gives breath to the people on it And spirit to those who walk in it,

Isaiah 45:18 (NASB95)
¹⁸ For thus says the Lord, who created the heavens (He is the God who formed the earth and made it, He established it and did not create it a waste place, but formed it to be inhabited), “I am the Lord, and there is none else.

Amos 4:13 (NASB95)
¹³ For behold, He who forms mountains and creates the wind And declares to man what are His thoughts, He who makes dawn into darkness And treads on the high places of the earth, The Lord God of hosts is His name.^[2]

The problem with this is that the next word is "created" which is a singular action.  It is not the same word that would indicate that something was constructed out of other materials; it literally means that something was created out of nothing.  In the Bible this word is only associated with God, man never created anything.  So a plural God performed a singular act of creation, from the beginning the Trinity is established.

Consider further for a moment, if Jesus claimed to be God, when did He demonstrate that He had the ability to create something out of nothing?  The very first act of creation by Jesus was the turning of the water into wine.  That was a miracle in itself, but should have raised some questions in the minds of people.  The second act of creation that Jesus did in my immediate remembrance was the feeding of the thousands:

Luke 9:12-19 (NASB95)
¹² Now the day was ending, and the twelve came and said to Him, “Send the crowd away, that they may go into the surrounding villages and countryside and find lodging and get something to eat; for here we are in a desolate place.” ¹³ But He said to them, “You give them something to eat!” And they said, “We have no more than five loaves and two fish, unless perhaps we go and buy food for all these people.” ¹⁴ (For there were about five thousand men.) And He said to His disciples, “Have them sit down to eat in groups of about fifty each.” ¹⁵ They did so, and had them all sit down. ¹⁶ Then He took the five loaves and the two fish, and looking up to heaven, He blessed them, and broke them, and kept giving them to the disciples to set before the people. ¹⁷ And they all ate and were satisfied; and the broken pieces which they had left over were picked up, twelve baskets full. ¹⁸ And it happened that while He was praying alone, the disciples were with Him, and He questioned them, saying, “Who do the people say that I am?” ¹⁹ They answered and said, “John the Baptist, and others say Elijah; but others, that one of the prophets of old has risen again.”

Mark 8:1-9 (NASB95)
¹ In those days, when there was again a large crowd and they had nothing to eat, Jesus called His disciples and said to them, ² “I feel compassion for the people because they have remained with Me now three days and have nothing to eat. ³ “If I send them away hungry to their homes, they will faint on the way; and some of them have come from a great distance.” ⁴ And His disciples answered Him, “Where will anyone be able to find enough bread here in this desolate place to satisfy these people?” ⁵ And He was asking them, “How many loaves do you have?” And they said, “Seven.” ⁶ And He directed the people to sit down on the ground; and taking the seven loaves, He gave thanks and broke them, and started giving them to His disciples to serve to them, and they served them to the people. ⁷ They also had a few small fish; and after He had blessed them, He ordered these to be served as well. ⁸ And they ate and were satisfied; and they picked up seven large baskets full of what was left over of the broken pieces. ⁹ About four thousand were there; and He sent them away.

Mark 8:17-21 (NASB95)
¹⁷ And Jesus, aware of this, said to them, “Why do you discuss the fact that you have no bread? Do you not yet see or understand? Do you have a hardened heart? ¹⁸ “Having eyes, do you not see? And having ears, do you not hear? And do you not remember, ¹⁹ when I broke the five loaves for the five thousand, how many baskets full of broken pieces you picked up?” They said to Him, “Twelve.” ²⁰ “When I broke the seven for the four thousand, how many large baskets full of broken pieces did you pick up?” And they said to Him, “Seven.” ²¹ And He was saying to them, “Do you not yet understand?” ^[3]

Consider these passages for a moment, the disciples understood Hebrew.  They understood that the only word that was associated with creation was in association with God creating something out of nothing.  When Jesus told them to feed the five thousand, this is an example of how that man could not create anything.  There just wasn't any food to feed the people with.  Once the five loaves of bread and two fish were eaten, no other food existed.  Yet Jesus blessed the bread and the fish, and continued to pass it out to the people to the extent that thousands were fed off of nothing.  Jesus demonstrated that He is the Elohim of the Old Testament.  When He posed the question to the disciples in Luke 9:18, I wonder if He was looking to see if they would make the association.  Then Jesus went further later to feed another four thousand men, with twelve baskets of food picked up afterward.  In both situations He created something out of nothing, He demonstrated the ability to create, not to build or prepare, but to create fish and bread out of absolutely nothing.  Once that was over, Jesus scolded the disciples for their inability to understand who He was.  He demonstrated the ability to change water into wine, completely altering the chemical structure of the liquid in the jar to make it something else without any ingredients to add to the water.  I strayed a long way from Genesis 1:1, but I think that you can see the point here.  Jesus demonstrated that He was God by performing an act of God.

Many people dispute the creation story, claiming that it was a fable that was told in order to appease the questioning heart of man.  I disagree with that, I believe that the creation took place exactly like it did in the Bible, just like I believe that Jesus fed the five and four thousands, and that He changed the water into wine. 

John 1:3 (NASB95)
³ All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being.

John 1:10 (NASB95)
¹⁰ He was in the world, and the world was made through Him, and the world did not know Him.

Ephesians 3:9 (NASB95)
⁹ and to bring to light what is the administration of the mystery which for ages has been hidden in God who created all things;

Colossians 1:16-18 (NASB95)
¹⁶ For by Him all things were created, both in the heavens and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things have been created through Him and for Him. ¹⁷ He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together. ¹⁸ He is also head of the body, the church; and He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, so that He Himself will come to have first place in everything.

Hebrews 1:2 (NASB95)
² in these last days has spoken to us in His Son, whom He appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the world. ^[4]

If we truly claim to believe in Jesus, then we must believe in a literal creation of the world.  He created the entire universe out of nothing, speaking it into existence.  When the world looks for the "missing link", and the "binding force of the atom", somehow it fails to look at Jesus and consider that He was God who came to earth as man, and by Him all things do consist or hold together.  One of the tragedies of modern Christianity is that many believers have adopted evolutionism as truth, without realizing that the chords between creationism and Jesus are tightly bound. 

I went way off my goal today, and feel that this discussion can be continued further later.  I am going to close here because to understand Genesis, we must remember that "In the beginning God", in other words, let's focus today on the fact that God created the earth.  He is the one that the Bible is about. 

Father, as we consider Your word today, open our eyes and challenge the conventions that we have become trapped in.  Enlighten the eyes of all the believers in this study group so that we can testify that Jesus is the creator God.

In Him,

Joe Turner.

June 15, 2004

Reading through the Bible in one Year: Proverbs 4

Good Evening Brothers and Sisters,

Genesis 1:2-5 (NASB95)
² The earth was formless and void, and darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was moving over the surface of the waters. ³ Then God said, “Let there be light”; and there was light. ⁴ God saw that the light was good; and God separated the light from the darkness. ⁵ God called the light day, and the darkness He called night. And there was evening and there was morning, one day. ^[1]

The idea behind the Spirit of God moving over the face of the waters was like a mother hen watching her eggs, brooding over them.  It was like God was expectant as to what He was going to create out of the waters.

Another interesting thought, how can you separate the light from darkness?  God is all powerful and able to discern between light and darkness, able to draw back the light waves and cause them to work in an orderly fashion. 

Genesis 1:6-8 (NASB95)
⁶ Then God said, “Let there be an expanse in the midst of the waters, and let it separate the waters from the waters.” ⁷ God made the expanse, and separated the waters which were below the expanse from the waters which were above the expanse; and it was so. ⁸ God called the expanse heaven. And there was evening and there was morning, a second day.

Exodus 20:11 (NASB95)
¹¹ “For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day; therefore the Lord blessed the sabbath day and made it holy. ^[2]

Some have tried to say that one day was like a thousand years during the creation, referring to the New Testament verse on this.  There is a problem with this concept, the sun went down and came up, that constituted a day.  According to this verse creation took place in six literal days.  Another thought on this, if the days were as a thousand years, then how many thousands and thousands of years did Adam actually live?  I believe that God created the earth in a literal six days just as the Bible claims that it did.  Also consider that if God did not do the work in a literal six days, then there is a contradiction with the Exodus verse. 

Genesis 7:11-12 (NASB95)
¹¹ In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, in the second month, on the seventeenth day of the month, on the same day all the fountains of the great deep burst open, and the floodgates of the sky were opened. ¹² The rain fell upon the earth for forty days and forty nights. ^[3]

Another thought on this passage, the separation of the waters from the waters below and the waters above could be speaking of clouds, rain and literal water on the earth.  Or it could be speaking of the water that is on the earth, separated by a layer of air, then surrounding the layer of air was a second layer of water circling the earth.  Consider that for a moment because when the great flood took place, the water had to come from somewhere in order to cover the entire earth, this would also explain how that the dinosaurs survived in a tropical state.  The entire earth would have been in a green-house which would have been created by the outer layer of water.  Also once that water fell to the earth during the flood, it would have frozen at the poles and ushered in the great ice age. 

Genesis 1:9-13 (NASB95)
⁹ Then God said, “Let the waters below the heavens be gathered into one place, and let the dry land appear”; and it was so. ¹⁰ God called the dry land earth, and the gathering of the waters He called seas; and God saw that it was good. ¹¹ Then God said, “Let the earth sprout vegetation: plants yielding seed, and fruit trees on the earth bearing fruit after their kind with seed in them”; and it was so. ¹² The earth brought forth vegetation, plants yielding seed after their kind, and trees bearing fruit with seed in them, after their kind; and God saw that it was good. ¹³ There was evening and there was morning, a third day.

Psalm 104:6-9 (NASB95)
⁶ You covered it with the deep as with a garment; The waters were standing above the mountains. ⁷ At Your rebuke they fled, At the sound of Your thunder they hurried away. ⁸ The mountains rose; the valleys sank down To the place which You established for them. ⁹ You set a boundary that they may not pass over, So that they will not return to cover the earth.

Job 38:8-11 (NASB95)
⁸ “Or who enclosed the sea with doors When, bursting forth, it went out from the womb; ⁹ When I made a cloud its garment And thick darkness its swaddling band, ¹⁰ And I placed boundaries on it And set a bolt and doors, ¹¹ And I said, ‘Thus far you shall come, but no farther; And here shall your proud waves stop’?

Ecclesiastes 1:7 (NASB95)
⁷ All the rivers flow into the sea, Yet the sea is not full. To the place where the rivers flow, There they flow again. ^[4]

God created the topography of the earth and set the limits for the seas.  The verse from Ecclesiastes is interesting, the seas never get full.  Also look at the wisdom of God, He created the plants first before creating animals.  If He had created animals first, what would the animals have to eat except for each other?

Genesis 1:14-19 (NASB95)
¹⁴ Then God said, “Let there be lights in the expanse of the heavens to separate the day from the night, and let them be for signs and for seasons and for days and years; ¹⁵ and let them be for lights in the expanse of the heavens to give light on the earth”; and it was so. ¹⁶ God made the two great lights, the greater light to govern the day, and the lesser light to govern the night; He made the stars also. ¹⁷ God placed them in the expanse of the heavens to give light on the earth, ¹⁸ and to govern the day and the night, and to separate the light from the darkness; and God saw that it was good. ¹⁹ There was evening and there was morning, a fourth day. ^[5]

God created the stars, the sun and the moon.  Thus further designating the difference between night and day.

Genesis 1:20-31 (NASB95)
²⁰ Then God said, “Let the waters teem with swarms of living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth in the open expanse of the heavens.” ²¹ God created the great sea monsters and every living creature that moves, with which the waters swarmed after their kind, and every winged bird after its kind; and God saw that it was good. ²² God blessed them, saying, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let birds multiply on the earth.” ²³ There was evening and there was morning, a fifth day. ²⁴ Then God said, “Let the earth bring forth living creatures after their kind: cattle and creeping things and beasts of the earth after their kind”; and it was so. ²⁵ God made the beasts of the earth after their kind, and the cattle after their kind, and everything that creeps on the ground after its kind; and God saw that it was good. ²⁶ Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; and let them rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over the cattle and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” ²⁷ God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. ²⁸ God blessed them; and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it; and rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over every living thing that moves on the earth.” ²⁹ Then God said, “Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the surface of all the earth, and every tree which has fruit yielding seed; it shall be food for you; ³⁰ and to every beast of the earth and to every bird of the sky and to every thing that moves on the earth which has life, I have given every green plant for food”; and it was so. ³¹ God saw all that He had made, and behold, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day.^[6]

Notice that in the creation of the animals, birds, and sea monsters that each one was to multiply and fill the earth.  Also consider that in verse 30 every living creature on earth was originally created as vegetarians.  The food supply of the earth was the green plants that God had created previously, not other animals.  In God's original plan the animals did not eat each other, which occurred after the fall of man.  When God creates the New Heaven and New Earth the Bible indicates that animals will live in peace again. 

Also notice the domain of man; he was to have dominion over all the created creatures.  Man was not given dominion over the forces of nature, such as the wind and water currents.  Therefore man was not given full authority over the earth, but rather a limited authority over the created animals.  Jesus demonstrated that He had full authority over the earth by commanding the wind to stop blowing several times in the New Testament, as well as stilling the waters, and walking upon the water.  This set a difference between Jesus and man; He still retained authority over all the elements of the earth, while man only had authority over the animals and vegetation of the earth.

Consider verse 26 for a moment, man is created in the image and likeness of God.  There has been a lot of discussion on this point, just for clarification, man was created as a three part being, body, soul and spirit, compared with God who is a three part being, The Father, Son and Holy Spirit.  In this verse God clarifies that man was created or fashioned after God.  When man turned against God the spirit part died, therefore man was no longer able to relate to God.  Looking later at the cross, Jesus died and made it possible for that spirit to be made alive again, restoring man to the original perfect state where he can once again have fellowship with God.  Man was originally created as righteous and holy before God. 

Ecclesiastes 7:19 (NASB95)
¹⁹ Wisdom strengthens a wise man more than ten rulers who are in a city.

Colossians 3:10-11 (NASB95)
¹⁰ and have put on the new self who is being renewed to a true knowledge according to the image of the One who created him— ¹¹ a renewal in which there is no distinction between Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave and freeman, but Christ is all, and in all.

Ephesians 4:20-24 (NASB95)
²⁰ But you did not learn Christ in this way, ²¹ if indeed you have heard Him and have been taught in Him, just as truth is in Jesus, ²² that, in reference to your former manner of life, you lay aside the old self, which is being corrupted in accordance with the lusts of deceit, ²³ and that you be renewed in the spirit of your mind, ²⁴ and put on the new self, which in the likeness of God has been created in righteousness and holiness of the truth. ^[7]

I went a little off track with this set of verses, but I feel that it is important to emphasize the point.  The original righteous state of man has been restored by the work of Jesus on the cross. 

In summary, God created the earth out of nothing, He created it to be a very good place.  There was no violence at all, everything fed off of plants.  God created man as ruler over all creatures and plant life on the earth.  This perfect state will not return to earth until it is re-created when Jesus returns.

Father, as we consider the first six days of the earth, blow away the myths that man has muddled the waters with in today’s world.  Open our eyes so that we can see what is written in Your word and how it applies to our lives.

In Him,

Joe Turner.