WEEKLY BIBLE STUDY

[devnull]

Happy Easter

[B-Man]

 

                          

 

 

 

 

[Cinga]

 

 

 

MATT 28: 1 – 10

After the Sabbath, at dawn on the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to look at the tomb.
2 There was a violent earthquake, for an angel of the Lord came down from heaven and, going to the tomb, rolled back the stone and sat on it.3 His appearance was like lightning, and his clothes were white as snow.

4 The guards were so afraid of him that they shook and became like dead men.

5 The angel said to the women, “Do not be afraid, for I know that you are looking for Jesus, who was crucified. 6 He is not here; he has risen, just as he said. Come and see the place where he lay. 7 Then go quickly and tell his disciples: ‘He has risen from the dead and is going ahead of you into Galilee. There you will see him.’ Now I have told you.”

8 So the women hurried away from the tomb, afraid yet filled with joy, and ran to tell his disciples. 9 Suddenly Jesus met them. “Greetings,” he said. They came to him, clasped his feet and worshiped him. 10 Then Jesus said to them, “Do not be afraid. Go and tell my brothers to go to Galilee; there they will see me.”

 

No comments today as I would hope it is unnecessary. May you and yours have a Blessed Easter Week!

[Cinga]

April 24

I pray all of you had a Blessed Resurrection Week. As the next few lessons of Genesis all tie in together, we are going to stay in Genesis for the next 2 or 3 weeks. Everyone is familiar with the Flood of Noah, but we are going to do our regular deep dive to help us understand the significance of it better.

Before continuing into the account of Noah, I’m going to suggest a refresher on days 2 and 3 of Creation and see again how the waters were separated. This is going to be important in our understanding of what is to come in the next chapters of Genesis.

My comments are in italics

 

When human beings began to increase in number on the earth and daughters were born to them, ² the sons of God saw that the daughters of humans were beautiful, and they married any of them they chose. ³ Then the Lord said, “My Spirit will not contend with humans forever, for they are mortal; their days will be a hundred and twenty years.” –We will see a couple things come together here to explain the reduction of years including the introduction of the sun’s radiation and the slow deterioration of the perfection of the original man. This declaration of the Lord to reduce our longevity also doesn’t come about suddenly, but gradually over the coming generations. Who the sons of God could be is a hotly debated question I will jump into and clarify.

 

⁴ The Nephilim were on the earth in those days—and also afterward—when the sons of God went to the daughters of humans and had children by them. They were the heroes of old, men of renown. – There are volumes of writings speculating who or what the Nephilim are and I’m going to try instead to cut directly to the word itself. Nephilim is derived from the word nephal, which means to fall or the fallen. So, we see above how the sons of God took the daughters of man, and now we see that these Nephilim were the result of that marriage.

 

⁵ The Lord saw how great the wickedness of the human race had become on the earth, and that every inclination of the thoughts of the human heart was only evil all the time. 

 

⁶ The Lord regretted that he had made human beings on the earth, and his heart was deeply troubled. ⁷ So the Lord said, “I will wipe from the face of the earth the human race I have created—and with them the animals, the birds and the creatures that move along the ground—for I regret that I have made them.” ⁸ But Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord.

Now it is important to take all these verses in context with what we know so far in Scripture. First, remember that we have established that ALL things were Created in the first 6 days, and so that includes the Angels. When the fall happened, it was the fall of both men AND a third of the angels with Satan. In later Scripture we know that in Heaven, humans are like angels, not married or given in marriage so it is assumed by some that this means the sons of God could not be angels.

However now understand the context of sons of God and the Nephilim which as we know, are the fallen so you can see the mistake of associating this to angels instead of those cast down who I think we can argue, are no longer angelic beings as they were Created. Alternatively, the main thought against is that the sons of God were in fact descendants of Cain however look to verse 4 again and see that there will also be Nephilim AFTER the Flood that will kill all of Cain’s offspring with everything else not on the Ark. So Cain could not be the father so to speak of any Nephilim after so we can assume they are not his descendants before the Flood either. However, fallen angels or beings were not destroyed in the Flood so would certainly be around then, just as they are now trying to inflict and spread evil on the human race If we take in the evil described as taking over the human heart and spreading over the face of the earth, I think this argument of cast out, or fallen angels being the sons of God to be the only one that makes sense, therefore the correct one.

May you and yours have a Blessed week!

Edited April 24, 2022 by Cinga

[Cinga]

May 1

 

Last week and for the next 3 weeks we are doing a deep dive into Noah and the flood. While everyone is familiar with the story, how well do you really know it? Bet you think Noah took 2 of every kind on the Ark and was on it for 40 days huh?

Let’s read it together and finds out for sure…. My comments are in italics

 

⁹ This is the account of Noah and his family.

Noah was a righteous man, blameless among the people of his time, and he walked faithfully with God. – As we have discussed before, it seems that the lord still walks the earth with some of us at this point, and Noah being righteous finds favor with Him. The original of blameless is tamim which can also mean innocent or free of blemish which will become a common theme as we learn about redemption.

 

¹⁰ Noah had three sons: Shem, Ham and Japheth. – If you go back to our March 27 of Genesis 5 study you know that Noah was 500 when he had these 3 sons and it is about this same time God instructs Noah to build the Ark.

 

¹¹ Now the earth was corrupt in God’s sight and was full of violence. ¹² God saw how corrupt the earth had become, for all the people on earth had corrupted their ways. – Remember how I have mentioned that when something Is repeated, you can be sure it has a spotlight on it making it something to pay attention to and here we have something repeated immediately to us. Later in study we are going to hear Jesus tell us that the end time tribulation comes at a time “just as in the days of Noah” so we know there will be another time of much corruption on earth. But also the original for all the people of the earth is kal, and also means living creatures to include animals.

 

¹³ So God said to Noah, “I am going to put an end to all people, for the earth is filled with violence because of them. – Of this phrase and 11, the original for violence is hamas (yeah, ironic huh?) which is also cruelty, wrong, or injustice.

 

I am surely going to destroy both them and the earth. – Note the both part and if you hadn’t gathered already, it wasn’t just the people who were corrupt, somehow the very earth and even vegetation had become corrupted. If you go back to the Beginning again, everything was perfect and I commented no thorns or brambles, no poisonous plants. But that has changed now

 

¹⁴ So make yourself an ark of cypress wood; make rooms in it and coat it with pitch inside and out. – Cypress by its nature is a good wood for outdoor applications and even today is a favorite wood for boat building. How could they have known this unless God told them? Redwoods and Sequoia are from the cypress family of trees

 

¹⁵ This is how you are to build it: The ark is to be three hundred cubits long, fifty cubits wide and thirty cubits high. – A cubit is the distance from your elbow to your fingertip which is about 18 inches or a foot and a half on the average adult. So, knowing this the Ark is about 450 feet long, 75 feet wide, and 45 feet tall. 

 

¹⁶ Make a roof for it, leaving below the roof an opening one cubit high all around. – The Ark is going to be sealed so this 18 inch opening all around is for proper ventilation.

 

Put a door in the side of the ark and make lower, middle and upper decks. – There are going to be 3 floors giving 15 feet clearance for each if they are even but I’m going to assume they may not be as we will see.

 

¹⁷ I am going to bring floodwaters on the earth to destroy all life under the heavens, every creature that has the breath of life in it. Everything on earth will perish. – All creature that breath, but then He adds everything on earth.

 

¹⁸ But I will establish my covenant with you, and you will enter the ark—you and your sons and your wife and your sons’ wives with you. – This is the first covenant God establishes since the fall in the Garden and as we study, there will be 5 total culminating in the one through Jesus

 

¹⁹ You are to bring into the ark two of all living creatures, male and female, to keep them alive with you. ²⁰ Two of every kind of bird, of every kind of animal and of every kind of creature that moves along the ground will come to you to be kept alive. – We’re not finished with this yet as the 2 of every kind will be expanded on in the next chapter. But also note the male and female part as even in the corruption there were still apparently only 2 genders.

 

²¹ You are to take every kind of food that is to be eaten and store it away as food for you and for them.” – See it’s not only every living creature, but they must feed them during the flood and remember as of now, all living creatures are still vegan.

 

²² Noah did everything just as God commanded him.

I’m going to leave it here for the week, but I pray you realize the sheer size of the Ark God told Noah to build. If visual is more your cup of tea, there is a life size replica of the Ark just south of Cincinnati called the Ark Encounter that I plan to visit one day soon. I also want to remind you that at this time it did not rain, but waters like a mist would come up from the ground to water vegetation. Some assume that boat building was not a thing yet either, but after 1500 or so years since Creation I don't necessarily buy into that thought even if just for fun I think someone would have come up with the idea. 

 

May you and yours have a Blessed week!

[B-Man]

 

 

[B-Man]

 

 

Mother's Day :

 

A Quick, Compelling Bible Study: Honor Your Mother

 

https://townhall.com/columnists/myrakahnadams/2022/05/08/a-quick-compelling-bible-study-vol-112-honor-your-mother-n2606171

 

 

[Cinga]

May 8

 

Now is when we really get into the part that will challenge the general narrative most know of the story of Noah and the Ark. I hope and pray this along with all our studies to now, also instills in you a desire to read Scripture yourself paying even more attention to the Words, and their very meaning.

My comments are in italics

 

The Lord then said to Noah, “Go into the ark, you and your whole family, because I have found you righteous in this generation. – I wondered at this initially because at 500 years old, how could Shem, Ham, and Japeth and their wives be the whole family. But the original is wekal which is a totality, meaning everything and all so knowing God’s Truth, that would have been Noah’s entire immediate family.

 

² Take with you seven pairs of every kind of clean animal, a male and its mate, and one pair of every kind of unclean animal, a male and its mate, - See what I meant about possibly upsetting what you thought of Noah? Clean animals would be the ones God deems suitable for sacrifice, and later (remember we are all still vegan) to be eaten while unclean would be the scavenger type of creatures. We will later in Leviticus find these animals described further. The original for clean is hatehovrah which can also mean pure, or unblemished so an argument could be made here that they are the young, even babies of animals which would take up less room on the ark, especially for the dinosaurs. Yeah, I see that look you just gave. More on that in a minute.

 

³ and also seven pairs of every kind of bird, male and female, to keep their various kinds alive throughout the earth. – Notice too the terms male and female, or male and its mate. There never were, and still are not, any other genders.

 

⁴ Seven days from now I will send rain on the earth for forty days and forty nights, and I will wipe from the face of the earth every living creature I have made.” - I’m going to emphasis that all living creatures were wiped from the face o the earth

 

⁵ And Noah did all that the Lord commanded him.

⁶ Noah was six hundred years old when the floodwaters came on the earth.- We know that shortly after Noah had his sons at 500 is when the Lord told him to build the Ark. Now we see that nearly 100 years had passed since then, 100 years that Noah Faithfully worked on the Ark as God commanded.

 

⁷ And Noah and his sons and his wife and his sons’ wives entered the ark to escape the waters of the flood. ⁸ Pairs of clean and unclean animals, of birds and of all creatures that move along the ground, ⁹ male and female, came to Noah and entered the ark, as God had commanded Noah. ¹⁰ And after the seven days the floodwaters came on the earth. – Here, just as God was like a tender Father to Noah and his family, notice the creatures all cam to Noah, as if he is their father figure, perhaps knowing that from God through Noah, was their own salvation.

 

I’m going to leave it here for the week, and give any of you following this, a little homework assignment since I mentioned that yes, dinosaurs would have been included on the ark. But before I do, I also want to point out that it was all creatures, after their kind. So, Noah did not need to bring every species of dog for instance on the ark, only a pair, male and female that all future dog breeds would descend from. This would obviously hold true for every other kind, including Darwin’s finches which are merely an adaptation among a species, NOT evolution.

So for the assignment, and if you prefer me to jump to it instead for a couple weeks, let me know in the comments. But look to Job chapters 40 and 41 and see where God is asking Job of these creatures, and by the descriptions God gives of Behemoth and Leviathan, how could they be anything other than types of dinosaurs? Yet this is after the flood, and Job seems to understand the creature God is talking about. Yeah, I know, 65 million years of strata and all that, and we will address that to an extent soon.

May you and yours have a Blessed week!

Edited May 8, 2022 by Cinga

[Cinga]

This is too important to help understand to context of Noah, so before we continue with him, I want to share Job 38 - 41 so it is here as part of this study. I would encourage you to read the entirety of Job, a man who suffers every pain Satan can throw at him except death, yet remains faithful to God. During the trials, Job begins to ask the same questions we often hear, why does God allow bad things to happen to good people?

I hope as you read through this you begin to wonder how could someone in ancient times have known all of this God speaks of if it were only made up by an old scribe? But if you read nothing else of it though, please at least scroll to 40:15 and read to the end

 

38 Then the Lord spoke to Job out of the storm. He said:

² “Who is this that obscures my plans
    with words without knowledge?
³ Brace yourself like a man;
    I will question you,
    and you shall answer me.

⁴ “Where were you when I laid the earth’s foundation?
    Tell me, if you understand.
⁵ Who marked off its dimensions? Surely you know!
    Who stretched a measuring line across it?
⁶ On what were its footings set,
    or who laid its cornerstone—
⁷ while the morning stars sang together
    and all the angels^[a] shouted for joy?

⁸ “Who shut up the sea behind doors
    when it burst forth from the womb,
⁹ when I made the clouds its garment
    and wrapped it in thick darkness,
¹⁰ when I fixed limits for it
    and set its doors and bars in place,
¹¹ when I said, ‘This far you may come and no farther;
    here is where your proud waves halt’?

¹² “Have you ever given orders to the morning,
    or shown the dawn its place,
¹³ that it might take the earth by the edges
    and shake the wicked out of it?
¹⁴ The earth takes shape like clay under a seal;
    its features stand out like those of a garment.
¹⁵ The wicked are denied their light,
    and their upraised arm is broken.

¹⁶ “Have you journeyed to the springs of the sea
    or walked in the recesses of the deep?
¹⁷ Have the gates of death been shown to you?
    Have you seen the gates of the deepest darkness?
¹⁸ Have you comprehended the vast expanses of the earth?
    Tell me, if you know all this.

¹⁹ “What is the way to the abode of light?
    And where does darkness reside?
²⁰ Can you take them to their places?
    Do you know the paths to their dwellings?
²¹ Surely you know, for you were already born!
    You have lived so many years!

²² “Have you entered the storehouses of the snow
    or seen the storehouses of the hail,
²³ which I reserve for times of trouble,
    for days of war and battle?
²⁴ What is the way to the place where the lightning is dispersed,
    or the place where the east winds are scattered over the earth?
²⁵ Who cuts a channel for the torrents of rain,
    and a path for the thunderstorm,
²⁶ to water a land where no one lives,
    an uninhabited desert,
²⁷ to satisfy a desolate wasteland
    and make it sprout with grass?
²⁸ Does the rain have a father?
    Who fathers the drops of dew?
²⁹ From whose womb comes the ice?
    Who gives birth to the frost from the heavens
³⁰ when the waters become hard as stone,
    when the surface of the deep is frozen?

³¹ “Can you bind the chains^[b] of the Pleiades?
    Can you loosen Orion’s belt?
³² Can you bring forth the constellations in their seasons^[c]
    or lead out the Bear^[d] with its cubs?
³³ Do you know the laws of the heavens?
    Can you set up God’s^[e] dominion over the earth?

³⁴ “Can you raise your voice to the clouds
    and cover yourself with a flood of water?
³⁵ Do you send the lightning bolts on their way?
    Do they report to you, ‘Here we are’?
³⁶ Who gives the ibis wisdom^[f]
    or gives the rooster understanding?^[g]
37 Who has the wisdom to count the clouds?
    Who can tip over the water jars of the heavens
³⁸ when the dust becomes hard
    and the clods of earth stick together?

³⁹ “Do you hunt the prey for the lioness
    and satisfy the hunger of the lions
⁴⁰ when they crouch in their dens
    or lie in wait in a thicket?
⁴¹ Who provides food for the raven
    when its young cry out to God
    and wander about for lack of food?

 

Edited May 15, 2022 by Cinga

[Cinga]

39 “Do you know when the mountain goats give birth?
    Do you watch when the doe bears her fawn?
² Do you count the months till they bear?
    Do you know the time they give birth?
³ They crouch down and bring forth their young;
    their labor pains are ended.
⁴ Their young thrive and grow strong in the wilds;
    they leave and do not return.

⁵ “Who let the wild donkey go free?
    Who untied its ropes?
⁶ I gave it the wasteland as its home,
    the salt flats as its habitat.
⁷ It laughs at the commotion in the town;
    it does not hear a driver’s shout.
⁸ It ranges the hills for its pasture
    and searches for any green thing.

⁹ “Will the wild ox consent to serve you?
    Will it stay by your manger at night?
¹⁰ Can you hold it to the furrow with a harness?
    Will it till the valleys behind you?
¹¹ Will you rely on it for its great strength?
    Will you leave your heavy work to it?
¹² Can you trust it to haul in your grain
    and bring it to your threshing floor?

¹³ “The wings of the ostrich flap joyfully,
    though they cannot compare
    with the wings and feathers of the stork.
¹⁴ She lays her eggs on the ground
    and lets them warm in the sand,
¹⁵ unmindful that a foot may crush them,
    that some wild animal may trample them.
¹⁶ She treats her young harshly, as if they were not hers;
    she cares not that her labor was in vain,
¹⁷ for God did not endow her with wisdom
    or give her a share of good sense.
¹⁸ Yet when she spreads her feathers to run,
    she laughs at horse and rider.

¹⁹ “Do you give the horse its strength
    or clothe its neck with a flowing mane?
²⁰ Do you make it leap like a locust,
    striking terror with its proud snorting?
²¹ It paws fiercely, rejoicing in its strength,
    and charges into the fray.
²² It laughs at fear, afraid of nothing;
    it does not shy away from the sword.
²³ The quiver rattles against its side,
    along with the flashing spear and lance.
²⁴ In frenzied excitement it eats up the ground;
    it cannot stand still when the trumpet sounds.
²⁵ At the blast of the trumpet it snorts, ‘Aha!’
    It catches the scent of battle from afar,
    the shout of commanders and the battle cry.

²⁶ “Does the hawk take flight by your wisdom
    and spread its wings toward the south?
²⁷ Does the eagle soar at your command
    and build its nest on high?
²⁸ It dwells on a cliff and stays there at night;
    a rocky crag is its stronghold.
²⁹ From there it looks for food;
    its eyes detect it from afar.
³⁰ Its young ones feast on blood,
    and where the slain are, there it is.”

[Cinga]

40 The Lord said to Job:

² “Will the one who contends with the Almighty correct him?
    Let him who accuses God answer him!”

³ Then Job answered the Lord:

⁴ “I am unworthy—how can I reply to you?
    I put my hand over my mouth.
⁵ I spoke once, but I have no answer—
    twice, but I will say no more.”

⁶ Then the Lord spoke to Job out of the storm:

⁷ “Brace yourself like a man;
    I will question you,
    and you shall answer me.

⁸ “Would you discredit my justice?
    Would you condemn me to justify yourself?
⁹ Do you have an arm like God’s,
    and can your voice thunder like his?
¹⁰ Then adorn yourself with glory and splendor,
    and clothe yourself in honor and majesty.
¹¹ Unleash the fury of your wrath,
    look at all who are proud and bring them low,
¹² look at all who are proud and humble them,
    crush the wicked where they stand.
¹³ Bury them all in the dust together;
    shroud their faces in the grave.
¹⁴ Then I myself will admit to you
    that your own right hand can save you.

¹⁵ “Look at Behemoth,
    which I made along with you
    and which feeds on grass like an ox.
¹⁶ What strength it has in its loins,
    what power in the muscles of its belly!
¹⁷ Its tail sways like a cedar;
    the sinews of its thighs are close-knit.
¹⁸ Its bones are tubes of bronze,
    its limbs like rods of iron.
¹⁹ It ranks first among the works of God,
    yet its Maker can approach it with his sword.
²⁰ The hills bring it their produce,
    and all the wild animals play nearby.
²¹ Under the lotus plants it lies,
    hidden among the reeds in the marsh.
²² The lotuses conceal it in their shadow;
    the poplars by the stream surround it.
²³ A raging river does not alarm it;
    it is secure, though the Jordan should surge against its mouth.
²⁴ Can anyone capture it by the eyes,
    or trap it and pierce its nose?

Edited May 15, 2022 by Cinga

[Cinga]

41  “Can you pull in Leviathan with a fishhook
    or tie down its tongue with a rope?
² Can you put a cord through its nose
    or pierce its jaw with a hook?
³ Will it keep begging you for mercy?
    Will it speak to you with gentle words?
⁴ Will it make an agreement with you
    for you to take it as your slave for life?
⁵ Can you make a pet of it like a bird
    or put it on a leash for the young women in your house?
⁶ Will traders barter for it?
    Will they divide it up among the merchants?
⁷ Can you fill its hide with harpoons
    or its head with fishing spears?
⁸ If you lay a hand on it,
    you will remember the struggle and never do it again!
⁹ Any hope of subduing it is false;
    the mere sight of it is overpowering.
¹⁰ No one is fierce enough to rouse it.
    Who then is able to stand against me?
¹¹ Who has a claim against me that I must pay?
    Everything under heaven belongs to me.

¹² “I will not fail to speak of Leviathan’s limbs,
    its strength and its graceful form.
¹³ Who can strip off its outer coat?
    Who can penetrate its double coat of armor^[b]?
¹⁴ Who dares open the doors of its mouth,
    ringed about with fearsome teeth?
¹⁵ Its back has^[c] rows of shields
    tightly sealed together;
¹⁶ each is so close to the next
    that no air can pass between.
¹⁷ They are joined fast to one another;
    they cling together and cannot be parted.
¹⁸ Its snorting throws out flashes of light;
    its eyes are like the rays of dawn.
¹⁹ Flames stream from its mouth;
    sparks of fire shoot out.
²⁰ Smoke pours from its nostrils
    as from a boiling pot over burning reeds.
²¹ Its breath sets coals ablaze,
    and flames dart from its mouth.
²² Strength resides in its neck;
    dismay goes before it.
²³ The folds of its flesh are tightly joined;
    they are firm and immovable.
²⁴ Its chest is hard as rock,
    hard as a lower millstone.
²⁵ When it rises up, the mighty are terrified;
    they retreat before its thrashing.
²⁶ The sword that reaches it has no effect,
    nor does the spear or the dart or the javelin.
²⁷ Iron it treats like straw
    and bronze like rotten wood.
²⁸ Arrows do not make it flee;
    slingstones are like chaff to it.
²⁹ A club seems to it but a piece of straw;
    it laughs at the rattling of the lance.
³⁰ Its undersides are jagged potsherds,
    leaving a trail in the mud like a threshing sledge.
³¹ It makes the depths churn like a boiling caldron
    and stirs up the sea like a pot of ointment.
³² It leaves a glistening wake behind it;
    one would think the deep had white hair.
³³ Nothing on earth is its equal—
    a creature without fear.
³⁴ It looks down on all that are haughty;
    it is king over all that are proud.”

[Cinga]

42 Then Job replied to the Lord:

² “I know that you can do all things;
    no purpose of yours can be thwarted.
³ You asked, ‘Who is this that obscures my plans without knowledge?’
    Surely I spoke of things I did not understand,
    things too wonderful for me to know.

⁴ “You said, ‘Listen now, and I will speak;
    I will question you,
    and you shall answer me.’
⁵ My ears had heard of you
    but now my eyes have seen you.
⁶ Therefore I despise myself
    and repent in dust and ashes.”

Epilogue

⁷ After the Lord had said these things to Job, he said to Eliphaz the Temanite, “I am angry with you and your two friends, because you have not spoken the truth about me, as my servant Job has. ⁸ So now take seven bulls and seven rams and go to my servant Job and sacrifice a burnt offering for yourselves. My servant Job will pray for you, and I will accept his prayer and not deal with you according to your folly. You have not spoken the truth about me, as my servant Job has.” ⁹ So Eliphaz the Temanite, Bildad the Shuhite and Zophar the Naamathite did what the Lord told them; and the Lord accepted Job’s prayer.

¹⁰ After Job had prayed for his friends, the Lord restored his fortunes and gave him twice as much as he had before. ¹¹ All his brothers and sisters and everyone who had known him before came and ate with him in his house. They comforted and consoled him over all the trouble the Lord had brought on him, and each one gave him a piece of silver^[a] and a gold ring.

¹² The Lord blessed the latter part of Job’s life more than the former part. He had fourteen thousand sheep, six thousand camels, a thousand yoke of oxen and a thousand donkeys. ¹³ And he also had seven sons and three daughters. ¹⁴ The first daughter he named Jemimah, the second Keziah and the third Keren-Happuch. ¹⁵ Nowhere in all the land were there found women as beautiful as Job’s daughters, and their father granted them an inheritance along with their brothers.

¹⁶ After this, Job lived a hundred and forty years; he saw his children and their children to the fourth generation. ¹⁷ And so Job died, an old man and full of years.

[Boyst]

As an atheist this thread makes me happy. I am proud of having a country, community, and group of people in this world that can openly respect their own values.

[B-Man]

 

 

A Prayer in a Time of Distress

 

Almighty and everlasting God, You are strength to those who suffer and comfort to those who grieve. Let the prayers of your children who are in trouble rise to you.

 

Hear our prayer.

 

We claim your promises of wholeness as we pray for those who are ill or are suffering loss and long for your healing touch.

 

Hear our prayer.

 

Make the weak strong, the sick healthy, the broken whole, and confirm those who serve them as agents of your love.

 

Hear our prayer.

 

To everyone in distress, grant mercy, grant relief, grant refreshment.

 

Hear our prayer.

 

As we begin to rebuild, we commend our neighborhoods to your care. Give us strength of purpose and concern for others, that we may create a community where your will may be done.

 

Hear our prayer.

 

God of compassion, you watch our ways, and weave out of terrible happenings wonders of goodness and grace.

 

Hear our prayer.

 

Surround those who have been shaken by tragedy with a sense of your present love, and hold them in faith. Though they are lost in grief, may they find you and be comforted;

 

Through Jesus Christ who was dead, but lives and rules this world with you. Amen.

[Cinga]

Apologies, but I haven't been able to focus this week as the writing we do requires. Perhaps one of my brethren can post something this week?

[B-Man]

 

 

As a father has compassion on his children, so the Lord has compassion on those who fear him.

Psalms 103:13

 

THOUGHTS ABOUT TODAY'S VERSE ...

Compassion. Not pity, not anger, not shame, not impatience, not intolerance, not rejection, but compassion is what God, my Father, gives to me. He cares for my pain enough to enter into my world and share it in Jesus.

MY PRAYER ...

Father of Mercies and God of all Compassion, thank you for not only knowing and caring about my struggles and problems but sending me help in Jesus and the Holy Spirit. By one I know your love and mercy and by the other I know your might and power. May your Spirit of compassion be found in my relationships. Through the grace of Jesus I pray. Amen.

 

https://www.crosswalk.com/devotionals/weekly-verses/

 

 

 

[Cinga]

MAY 29

I hope I have emphasized how important it is to take God’s Word in context as we have proceeded so far and with that in mind, I’m going to suggest going back to re-read the lesson of Sept 12 and how the waters of creation were separated into the waters above the firmament or the sky and that below, or underground. And the water above wasn’t clouds like today because it didn’t rain, it was a literal water canopy that acted as a blanket for the earth. The water under was in great seas, or caverns underground. Not that there were not lakes and rivers like now, there were, but were fed by these great waters of the deep. So, the water was held in these 2 areas, and most biblical scholars also think the earth was relatively compared to what we have now.

My comments are in italics

 

¹¹ In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, on the seventeenth day of the second month— As we saw in Adam family line, God is pretty specific as He laid out the timeline to the author of Genesis, who most agree was Moses. Interestingly, according to ancient historian Josephus this would have been the month of Marcheshvan which is equivalent to our current November which is the beginning of the rainy season in Palestine. Also, of note in that timeline we know God instructed Noah to build the ark about the same time as he became the father of Shem, Ham, and Japheth. So, it took Noah almost 100 years to build the ark, getting help as his sons grew up.  Know too that as he built it, I’m sure he faced ridicule and perhaps worse from the people of the time who as we know, had become wicked. I mean, why build a huge boat on land when it had never rained before this time? Please remember the date, the 17^th day of the second month!

 

on that day all the springs of the great deep burst forth, - In the next part we know about the rain from every story you have probably heard about Noak’s Ark, but what is this? Remember the waters separated beneath the ground, and if you would imagine perhaps an apple pie Mom forgot to poke holes in the top crust before baking. Once enough steam builds up, that crust ruptures violently as a way for the steam to escape. Now imagine that with water in a cavern as big as an ocean along with the underground rivers that fed the streams and lakes of Creation. But in this case as we will see, it last quite a while.

 

and the floodgates of the heavens were opened. ¹² And rain fell on the earth forty days and forty nights. – Here is where the part of the story of 40 days and nights comes from as these are the waters that were above the sky, the lower atmosphere that blanketed the whole earth.

 

¹³ On that very day Noah and his sons, Shem, Ham and Japheth, together with his wife and the wives of his three sons, entered the ark. – So, these 8 people alone will be spared from the flood.

 

¹⁴ They had with them every wild animal according to its kind, all livestock according to their kinds, every creature that moves along the ground according to its kind and every bird according to its kind, everything with wings. – Once again, I want you to note, “after it’s kind”. Even in a corrupt world something could only breed within its own kind. But it also means they did not have to take every breed of dog for instance, only the Ark as some who argue against the Flood claim. Every species of dog to follow will come from the ones on the ark during the flood. Same with Darwin’s finches, all the different breeds descended from the ones on the ark. Likewise with humans, ALL of us are descended from these 8 that were on the ark.

 

¹⁵ Pairs of all creatures that have the breath of life in them came to Noah and entered the ark. ¹⁶ The animals going in were male and female of every living thing, as God had commanded Noah. Then the Lord shut him in. – 2 things to highlight here, first, male and female. It does not matter how hard people try to change that, there are only 2 genders period. Then notice the Lord shut them in! By His own hand, He sealed the door to the Ark to keep this remnant of His Creation safe!

As we go into this next section, imagine how catastrophic this event would have been. All at once across the entire earth water fell from the sky, and the fountains of the deep burst open surely causing volcanic activity to go with it. People argue against a young earth by pointing to the strata record, but this would have been such a cataclysmic event, with waves beyond our comprehension crashing against each other the world over. It was all of this, and the long-lasting ripple effect from it that created these strata. Proof of this, and how quickly it can form is found easily in a search of the recent Mt St Helens eruption. Keep in mind too how this would have created new continents, new mountains, and new oceans, lakes, and rivers.

 

¹⁷ For forty days the flood kept coming on the earth, and as the waters increased, they lifted the ark high above the earth. ¹⁸ The waters rose and increased greatly on the earth, and the ark floated on the surface of the water. ¹⁹ They rose greatly on the earth, and all the high mountains under the entire heavens were covered. ²⁰ The waters rose and covered the mountains to a depth of more than fifteen cubits.– 15 cubits would have been about 21 or 22 feet deep, too deep for any creature to have survived.

 

 ²¹ Every living thing that moved on land perished—birds, livestock, wild animals, all the creatures that swarm over the earth, and all mankind. ²² Everything on dry land that had the breath of life in its nostrils died. ²³ Every living thing on the face of the earth was wiped out; people and animals and the creatures that move along the ground and the birds were wiped from the earth. Only Noah was left, and those with him in the ark. – More of this below!!!

²⁴ The waters flooded the earth for a hundred and fifty days. – Up to this point, the water just kept coming causing even more upheaval across the face of the earth and these upheavals would have caused constant ebb and flow to help create the strata we see today. But we are certainly not done yet and if you want to cheat and jump ahead, we’re not even halfway to the end of the flood yet, but well beyond the 40 days of the stories

 

I’m going to leave you with a parting thought, not of Scripture, but of common sense. I’ve already explained how as a Creationist I believe the different strata were formed and considering weight etc of the different layers it is not hard to see that as Truth. But I know the next question would be the fossil record. As the waters came, and creature all realized it was not going to stop, they would of course try to reach higher ground, right? The slower creatures would have fallen first, small ones like worms and bacteria of all kinds. Next slowest would have been smaller reptiles and animals, ones without legs that crawled on the ground first, then the ones with shorter legs. Next up your larger reptiles like your dinosaurs and stuff. I know, movies show them running fast, but that’s movies, and while modern ones can be quick for short bursts, none a very fast over the long haul. Mixed in with these would have been some birds, those that can’t fly, or can’t fly for long period of time. Next up would have been mammals, smaller ones first, probably even the birds that couldn’t stay in the air any longer, then your larger ones including humans, all succumbing to the flood waters. All of these, laying down in a stratum on top of the one before.

I hope this has explained some of the challenges and attacks on Genesis to you. I know I had said this would not be an attack on, or debate about evolution but I Pray I have explained a bit more of the Creationist perspective to help you understand it a little more the Truth of God's Word

May you and yours have a Blessed week!

[Cinga]

June 5

When we left off last week, we had been 150 days into the flood already. The rain stopped after 40 days like in the stories, but the fountains of the deep are still open spewing forth the waters under the ground. As we go into this next part, a couple reminders are in order. First, remember this devastation began on the 17^th day of the second month. Then how I also used the analogy of a pie crust that had not been poked to allow steam to escape. As the pressure increases it will eventually blow and allow what is in it to escape. This would have been similar to the fountains of the deep opening, and water gushing out. But now as that water escapes, just like the pie crust, it would sink leaving a deep valley with ridges pushes up around the sides. It’s going to around these pockets that the water will eventually collect to form our oceans and lakes of today. Also, the waters above the sky, as I had said before, created a real greenhouse canopy around the earth that would have kept the entire planet tropic, including the poles.

My comments are in italics

 

Genesis Chapter 8

But God remembered Noah and all the wild animals and the livestock that were with him in the ark, and he sent a wind over the earth, and the waters receded. ² Now the springs of the deep and the floodgates of the heavens had been closed, and the rain had stopped falling from the sky. ³ The water receded steadily from the earth. – Now the waters had stopped coming from underground, and it had already stopped falling from above. The wind as you know, would aid in evaporation and to gather some of the water as earth forms clouds for the first time. But also remember there is no longer a water canopy to create a greenhouse affect so the poles would get colder and begin to freeze over for the first time.

 

At the end of the hundred and fifty days the water had gone down, ⁴ and on the seventeenth day of the seventh month the ark came to rest on the mountains of Ararat. – So at the 150 days, or 5 months, the Ark came to rest. This is a bit of contention here. Obviously, we know where Ararat is so it would stand to reason if we search it and prove the Ark landing there, we could prove the historical accuracy of the flood. I think if you consider the nation it’s in, it will explain the reluctance to search.

 

⁵ The waters continued to recede until the tenth month, and on the first day of the tenth month the tops of the mountains became visible. – It has been 10 months since the Flood began and this is a good time to realize the sheer volume of water that would have to find somewhere to go. While evaporation is a part of it, waters running to lower ground, to areas of pockets that may once have been raised by water under, now provides a place for the water to recede to. This mass movement of water easily explains forming of things like the Grand Canyon as receding water carve away at the newly formed layers of sediment.

 

⁶ After forty days Noah opened a window he had made in the ark ⁷ and sent out a raven, and it kept flying back and forth until the water had dried up from the earth. – 40 more days since the Ark came to rest, and other mountain tops started to become visible. The raven is a scavenger so would have been content to land on and eat the bodies floating in the waters so this may explain why it didn’t return.

 

⁸ Then he sent out a dove to see if the water had receded from the surface of the ground. – There are a few things I want to ask Noah when I meet him in Heaven. While I’m sure my wife has beat me to the ones of the mice and roaches, another one is why the raven first? The dove now prefers seed to eat lake many other birds, so of course would return to eat if it could find any seed.

 

⁹ But the dove could find nowhere to perch because there was water over all the surface of the earth; so it returned to Noah in the ark. He reached out his hand and took the dove and brought it back to himself in the ark. ¹⁰ He waited seven more days and again sent out the dove from the ark. ¹¹ When the dove returned to him in the evening, there in its beak was a freshly plucked olive leaf! – There would of course been seen floating in the floodwaters with a lot of debris and bodies of those perished and those seeds would naturally plant themselves as they settle to the ground. Olives take about 2 months to germinate while other plant seeds sprout much faster. This tells us that vegetation as a whole had begun to replenish the new soil we now have following the cataclysmic flood.

 

Then Noah knew that the water had receded from the earth. ¹² He waited seven more days and sent the dove out again, but this time it did not return to him.

I’m going to leave it here for the week as we are finally approaching the end to the flood and we will finish next week before going back to our rotation with John

May you and yours have a Blessed week!

[Cinga]

June 12

We’re reaching the end of the flood now as the waters find low points and caverns (that would become aquifers) to settle in to. But there is more still going on, new to Creation. When the waters above the firmament came down as rain, there is no longer a blanket across the entire atmosphere to the earth is no longer temperate, and we will see the beginnings of seasons and ice caps forming. But even more, when the earth literally ruptured violently, releasing the waters of the deep, much debris would have been sent into the atmosphere, similar to what we could expect from a huge meteor strike like that theorized in the Gulf of Mexico, or a caldera going off like could happen to Yellowstone. All of these things, while theorized now, would have added to the flood, but also caused the sun to temporarily be blocked, and created the great Ice Age we know happened, but now I pray you understand was a result of a short period of time around the Great Flood of Noah.

My comments in italics

 

¹³ By the first day of the first month of Noah’s six hundred and first year, the water had dried up from the earth. Noah then removed the covering from the ark and saw that the surface of the ground was dry. ¹⁴ By the twenty-seventh day of the second month the earth was completely dry. – Here we not only know that Noah is now 601 years old, we get the date that the earth was dry. If you go back a couple weeks and I have asked you to remember the first day of the Flood, as the 17^th day of the second month, so they were on the Ark for one year and 10 days! Not the 40 days of the stories.

 

¹⁵ Then God said to Noah, ¹⁶ “Come out of the ark, you and your wife and your sons and their wives. – God had closed the door and sealed them into the Ark Himself, so it also stands to reason that He would have to unseal it for them from the outside.

 

¹⁷ Bring out every kind of living creature that is with you—the birds, the animals, and all the creatures that move along the ground—so they can multiply on the earth and be fruitful and increase in number on it.” – I had mentioned the very good possibility that many of the creatures placed on the Ark were probably babies, or at least the young of their kinds. A year later though they would be bigger and probably of breeding age to follow the directive to multiply their numbers, after their own kind.

 

¹⁸ So Noah came out, together with his sons and his wife and his sons’ wives. ¹⁹ All the animals and all the creatures that move along the ground and all the birds—everything that moves on land—came out of the ark, one kind after another.

²⁰ Then Noah built an altar to the Lord and, taking some of all the clean animals and clean birds, he sacrificed burnt offerings on it. – Of course, we learned earlier that 7 pair of clean animals were taken on the Ark, so there is an abundance of them to make this offering. We’ve only briefly discussed sacrifices but will learn more as we go deeper in our studies but this is more a “Thank You” offering than a sacrifice of atonement.

 

²¹ The Lord smelled the pleasing aroma and said in his heart: “Never again will I curse the ground because of humans, even though every inclination of the human heart is evil from childhood. And never again will I destroy all living creatures, as I have done. – This is rather profound when you pause and think about it. The Lord had just destroyed almost every living land creature from His disappointment in Creation, but now proclaims instead that He will be a Merciful God going forward.

 

²² “As long as the earth endures,
seedtime and harvest,
cold and heat,
summer and winter,
day and night
will never cease.”

 

The main part of this I would like to highlight is the first line above, “As long as the earth endures”. This isn’t saying the earth will endure forever, on the contrary, we know from this there is a limit to the earth age as he also marks seasons to us for the first time in the Word.

I would also encourage you to take the time to read some of the other Deluge/Flood stories from around the world, and I know you will find most if not all, relate to this one.

While there is still a bit more of Noah in our studies, we will go back to our rotation next week between John and Genesis.

May you and yours have a Blessed week!