Bible

Today we are starting a Bible reading program.  We will attempt to post a portion of the Bible once each week, with the goal of eventually covering the entire Book.

I’m calling this writing a “Getting Started Bible”. It’s a summary of the basic information contained in each chapter, showing what the Bible is about. Hopefully, this format might help someone get started reading the Bible word for word. And it might be interesting as well for veteran Bible readers. The primary source for these summaries is the New King James Version of the Holy Bible.

Affirmation:

          The Bible says it is for all people of all generations. It is recommended that the reader affirm the following scriptures:

1) “. . . the Lord your God, he is God, the faithful God who keeps covenant and mercy for a thousand generations with those who love him and keep his commandments” (Deut. 7:9).

2) “All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness” (2 Tim. 3:16)

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Genesis–Part 1

Introduction to Genesis:

Writer: Unknown. Most evidence points to Moses and possibly a few other minor contributors.

Scope: Chapters 1 through 11 cover a span of time of approximately the same length as the balance of the entire Bible.    

Chapter 1. Creation

Exactly when the Earth was created is not discussed in this Bible narrative. Suffice it to say that the dates connected with God’s timetable for the establishment of planet Earth, and the Universe, are currently outside the reach of human understanding, but will be fully explained at some future time.

The Genesis account gives the following Creation chronology:

Day One:         The Earth is created in darkness, covered in water. Light is created; Day and night (light vs dark) are separated.

Day Two:         The atmosphere is established to sustain life.

Day Three:      Dry lands are separated from the waters.

                        Vegetation is established on land.

Day Four:        Sun, Moon, and stars are added.

Day Five:         Fish and birds are added to the water and air.

Day Six:           Animal life is formed from the dust of the ground. Human life: Man and Woman, created in God’s image; given control over all life on Earth. (More about this in the next chapter.)

Creation is complete. God declares that all of Creation is ‘good.’  Nothing is created to be anything other than ‘good’.

Chapter 2. Eden

Day Seven:       A period of ‘Rest’ (end of creating). This ‘day of rest’ is declared ‘holy’.

Later, God plants a garden in the East, calls it Eden:

Life in the Garden of Eden:

• God irrigates the Earth with rivers and a ‘mist’ rising from the ground; there has been no rain.
• There is a river with four branches: Pishon, Gihon, Tigris, Euphrates.
• God plants trees, two of which are:
• The Tree of Life: The fruit of this tree, if eaten, would sustain life on Earth forever.
• The Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil: Eating this fruit would indicate ‘disobedience’ to God’s requirement, leading ultimately to death.
• Adam (meaning ‘ground,’ as God forms him from the dust of the ground) is placed in the Garden.
• In the ‘image of God’ Adam is given certain “God-like” qualities:
• The Power of decision making,
• The Power of creative thinking.
• God gives Adam a few instructions, mainly:
• Name the animals.
• Tend the Garden.
• God says it is not good that Man should live alone:
• God forms the Woman from Adam’s rib as a companion.
• The Age of Innocence begins.
• The woman and the man share a very personal relationship with God in Eden.

Chapter 3. In the Garden

One animal God creates, the serpent, is most cunning of all:

• The great deception:  The serpent introduces temptation into the Garden:
• To eat or not to eat of the forbidden fruit: “You can be like God, knowing good and evil” and “You will never die”.
• Decision time:  To live forever, or certain death.

Death is chosen; they eat of the forbidden tree.

• Loss of innocence:  Adam and his wife perceive they are naked before God.
• Shame:  They try to cover themselves with plant leaves.
• God cares:  He sees their condition, empathizes.
• He kills an animal, uses the skin to make clothing for them.
• Loss:  They lose their intimate relationship with God.
• The Curse:  They become alienated from God. Death sentence is pronounced.
• Life on Earth will never be the same again.
• The Prophecy:  There will someday be a remedy and a reconciliation:  God, in the form of the Man, Jesus, will come to Earth to restore Man’s relationship to God.
• Adam names his wife Eve, the mother of all future humans.

Chapter 4. Children

Adam and Eve bear children, give them names:

Cain, the firstborn:  Symbol of ‘evil’.

• Works the ground,
• Rebels against God.  Disobedience: Knows ‘good’ and ‘evil’– chooses ‘evil’.

Able, the second son:  Symbol of ‘good’.

• Keeps animals, herdsman.
• Obedient:  Knows ‘good’ and ‘evil’– chooses ‘good’.

They make offerings to God:

• Cain’s offering is rejected due to his rebellious spirit.
• Able’s offering is accepted for his obedience.
• The first murder:  Cain hates Able, murders him. ‘Evil’ exerts itself over ‘good’ with force.
• Cain’s life is protected, but cursed; becomes the father of future ‘evil’ generations; joins a race of ‘giants’; takes up residence ‘east of Eden’; has an evil son, Lamech.

Seth, good son: Symbol of hope and redemption.

• The bloodline of the future Jesus.
• Worshipping God becomes established practice on Earth.

Chapter 5. Genealogies

Many other children are born to Adam and Eve.

Genealogies:

• Approximately 1656 years from Adam to the Great Flood.
• Enoch: A godly man, ‘walks with God’ 365 years, then God takes him from the Earth.
• Methuselah: Lives 969 years, longest ever.
• Lamech:  Demands his son, Noah, to take care of him; blames God for cursing the ground of his father, Cain.
• Noah:  A righteous man, ‘walks with God’.
  • Has three sons: Shem, Ham, Japheth.
  • Noah is now 500 years old.

Chapter 6. Noah and The Ark

Man’s decline: Population increases: Wickedness is rampant.

• God determines to shorten men’s lives after the Flood.
• Wickedness, violence, corruption rule the earth.
• God’s heart is broken; he has a plan: Total destruction.
• He will send a great flood to cover the earth.

Noah is a righteous man, has a unique relationship with God.

• God’s agreement with Noah: He and his family will be saved.
• He gives instructions to Noah to build a large, floating vessel.

The Ark: Detail design for the ark given by God to Noah:

• To be built with gopher wood (cypress).
• 450 ft. long, 75 ft. wide, 45 ft. high, three stories.

Occupants of the Ark to be spared from the flood:

• Noah, his wife, their three sons, and their wives.
• Selected animals and birds: (also Chap. 7)
  • Seven (7) each of every ‘clean’ animal;
  • Two (2) each of all ‘unclean’ animals.

Chapter 7. Flood

The Flood:

• Eight people and the selected animals enter into the Ark.
• The very first rain falls on Earth.
• There is non-stop rain for 40 days and 40 nights.
• All animals and humans on Earth perish.
• 20 feet of water cover the highest mountains.
• Only those in the Ark are saved.
• Flood water covers the Earth for 150 days.

Chapter 8. Dry Ground

The rain stops, waters recede, ground dry again.

• Ark rests on Mt. Ararat.
• People and animals exit the Ark.

Noah leaves the Ark, worships God.

• Builds an altar to the Lord.
• Offers burnt offerings (sacrifices) to God.
• The Lord makes a new, radical agreement with Noah.

Chapter 9. The Promise

God’s promise to (agreement with) Noah:

• His family will increase.
• He is given complete control over all animals, etc.
• All plants and animals are given to him for food.
• Murder is prohibited under penalty of death.
• The first rainbow appears in the sky with the promise that the Earth will never again be totally destroyed by water.

The three sons of Noah:

• Shem, Ham, Japheth.
• From these three will come the repopulation of Earth.
• Noah prays blessings on his sons.
• However, his grandson, Canaan, son of Ham, looks upon Noah while he is uncovered in his tent: Noah pronounces curse on Canaan: his descendants will forever be slaves to his brothers.
• Noah lives 350 years after the flood; dies at 950 years of age.

Chapter 10. Genealogies                          

The genealogies of Shem, Ham, and Japheth are listed here:  Semites, Hamites, Japhethites. This is the repopulation of the Earth after the Flood: many children born into these various clans and families.

• Japhethites comprise 14 nations; move into the areas to the north and west of the Palestine area.
• Hamites form into 30 nations; move into southwestern Asia and northeast Africa.
• Semites form into 26 nations; generally, they occupy areas to the east of Palestine.

Common language is spoken by all. Building the Tower of Babel leads to rebellion against God who confuses their language; clans and factions are broken up, the dispersion leads to new:

• Languages, Nationalities, Countries, Ethnicities.

People of note from these clans include:

• Cush, son of Ham, is the father of Nimrod, who is noted as a mighty warrior, hunter, leader.
• Mizraim, son of Ham, father of the Philistines.
• Canaan, son of Ham, father of the Canaanites, later conquered by the descendants of Shem.
• Sons of Shem are the ancestors of the Semites, the Hebrew nation, and Abram who became Abraham.

Chapter 11. Abram

(The first part of this chapter details the events of Chapter 10):

• Noah’s descendants settle into the plains of Mesopotamia.
• They build a city, make brick, build a very tall structure.
• Rebellion against God begins to grow.
• God’s response:  Break up their one language into separate dialects, confuse their communications.
• The city, with its tall structure, is known as Babel.
• The onset of the language barrier leads to the division of the society into family clans, and their dispersion.

(The second part of this chapter begins the story of Abram):

• Descendants of Shem are the Semitic race, the Hebrews.
• 400 years, nine generations after the Great Flood, Terah, a descendant of Shem, has three sons: Abram, Nahor, and Haran.  Haran is the father of Lot, Abram’s nephew.
• Abram takes a wife named Sarai.
• This family lives in a place called Ur of the Chaldeans.

(This is the general area around the confluence of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers in what is now Iraq.)

• Terah, Abram, Sarai, and Lot, whose father has died, decide to leave Ur and move west toward Canaan.
• Roughly six hundred miles northwest, along the Euphrates River, they stop at a place called Haran, in a region called Paddan Aram, later known as the homeland of Abraham’s clan.

END OF GENESIS – Part 1