BIBLE FOR YOU!--No.11!--Genesis Chapter 2, Verses 1-7! DFO 2704 10/90
--Bible Classtime with Grandpa!
Prayer!
1. (David: Thank You Jesus! Thank You Lord! Jesus, we pray for this time, that You'll help us to learn more new things out of Your Word. Please help us to tune in, Lord, & listen. And please bless & anoint Grandpa, Lord, & help him to teach us what we need to know about the Bible & about Genesis. Please give us a really good inspirational & feeding & learning time, Lord, in Jesus' name! Thank You Lord!) Amen! Thank You, Lord, for leaving me here long enough to share my knowledge & Thy knowledge with them. I can at least teach them what I know, Lord, & I know quite a bit!
He Saw that It Was Good!
2. Amen, TYL! Genesis 1:31: "And God saw every thing that He had made, & behold, it was very good." David & I had that feeling this afternoon when we got our work done & we could stand off & behold it & see that it was very good. And everybody else that passed by said it was very good. There's a lot of satisfaction in making something & being able to see what your hands have created! Right? (David: Yes!)--I mean to really see something substantial that you have actually made! I've always enjoyed making things all my life.--Everything from my little radios to houses. (Maria: And like Techi's cooking & baking!) Yes! The things that our hands have made. You know that your own hands made them, created them. So you can imagine the Lord was really satisfied when He looked at His Creation.
The Seventh Day!
3. All right, Genesis Chapter 2: "Thus the heavens & the earth were finished, & all the host of them. And on the seventh day God ended His work which He made; & He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had made. And God blessed the seventh day & sanctified it: because that in it He had rested from all His work which God created & made." That's something that we all still do. We have no specified labours on Sunday, right?--Although Sunday is now usually listed on calendars as the first day of the week, it's not the seventh day. But if you'd start counting on Monday you'd wind up with Sunday.
4. How are the calendars in the Catholic countries? What day do they start with? (David: Monday.) Right, so that the week winds up with Sunday as the seventh day. That's how the Catholics got around the seventh day (which is actually Saturday) being the day of rest; they just put it on the calendar that way so that Sunday became the seventh day of the week!
5. What about the Seventh-day Adventists?--What day do they worship on? (David: Saturday.) Right. And actually, according to the Jewish religion, Saturday is the Sabbath. Making Sunday the seventh day was just a little manipulation that the Catholics did to make the calendar different; but still, Saturday is really the Sabbath. (Techi: But we're not bound by the Law any more.)
The Ten Commandments!
6. I'm sure you guys know better, but I'm going to ask you a question that a Seventh-day Adventist boy asked me right in front of all of my "Young People's" group on Miami Beach when we were having a beach party! We had prayer, & being a good little Seventh-day Adventist, he did his bit of witnessing. He was a new boy & he said, "Do you all believe in keeping the Ten Commandments?" I said, "Of course!" I mean, the church had always told you to keep the Ten Commandments. He said, "Then why don't you people keep the Fourth Commandment?"--Because like most Christians nowadays, my youth group worked on Saturdays, which technically is the Sabbath.
7. Do you know what the Fourth Commandment is? Do you know where to find the Ten Commandments? (David: Exodus 20?) Right! See who can find it first. There it is! Have you got it? Exodus 20. Let's see, what are the Ten Commandments? The first one is in Verse 3: "Thou shalt have no other gods before Me." You're not to worship any other god but the Lord.
8. Number two, in Verse 4: "Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: For I the Lord thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third & fourth generation of them that hate Me." Now, that doesn't include us that love the Lord, right? He's not going to visit our iniquities on the third & fourth generation. But for those who actually hate the Lord, He is really going to sock it to them! Then He says, "And showing mercy unto thousands of them that love Me & keep My commandments."
9. What's the Third Commandment? Volunteers? (David: Verse 7, "Thou shalt not take the Name of the Lord thy God in vain.") Right! And the rest of the verse? (David: "For the Lord will not hold him guiltless that taketh His Name in vain.") In other words, just to foolishly say His Name. All those Jews that keep cursing & saying, "Jesus Christ!" & all that kind of thing, the Lord is going to reward them accordingly for taking His Name in vain because they're cursing, they're making it an epithet* & a curse! (*Epithet: A word or phrase, sometimes insulting or contemptuous, used in place of a person's name.)
10. OK, Techi, what's the Fourth Commandment? (Techi: Verse 8, "Remember the Sabbath Day, to keep it holy.") Read the whole passage about it. (Techi: "Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work: But the seventh day is the sabbath of the Lord thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates." So you couldn't even milk the cows?) Well, it means any work that's not necessary.
11. Jesus Himself said later, "What man of you whose ox falleth in the ditch will not get it out on the Sabbath Day?"--Luke 14:5. (Techi: So that was okay to do that?) Yes. Necessary work, anything you need to do. We take Sundays off, don't we? So what do you do on Sundays? You may do little odd jobs but they're something that's more or less a pleasure, right?--Not a serious full day of work like the hard work done in the fields, which was one of the major jobs in those days.
12. Did you read the 11th verse? (Techi: "For in six days the Lord made heaven & earth, the sea, & all that in them is, & rested the seventh day: Wherefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day, & hallowed it.") Amen! So there's the Fourth Commandment, to observe the Sabbath Day. It's a commandment!
13. The next one, the Fifth Commandment, David? (David: Verse 12: "Honour thy father & thy mother, that thy days may be long upon the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee.") If you want to live a long time, honour your father & mother!
14. Sixth Commandment? (David: "Thou shalt not kill.") Seventh Commandment? (Techi: "Thou shalt not commit adultery.") Eighth Commandment? (David: "Thou shalt not steal.") Ninth Commandment? (Techi: "Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour.") And Tenth Commandment? (David: "Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's house, thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor anything that is thy neighbour's.")
15. Well, that pretty well covers it! (Kids: Yes!) That covers the most important Commandments. These Ten Commandments are known as the "Moral Law," but believe it or not, that was not the end of all of the Commandments! The Commandments go on for Chapter after Chapter! There are all kinds of Commandments! The 21st Chapter tells you how to treat your servants, & you'll notice it was not against the Law to have slaves. Exodus 21, verse 2 says: "If thou buy an Hebrew servant, six years he shall serve: & in the seventh he shall go out free for nothing."
16. So these go on & on through most of these Chapters following, & you find that there are lots & lots of Commandments. These Ten Commandments are the basis of the "Moral Law" as they call it, the "Moral Code" principally. But it goes on & tells you how to treat your servants, how to punish people, etc.
Capital Punishment!
17. They had no jails in those days. Isn't that something? But they had 26 crimes which were to be punished by capital punishment. Do you know what that means? (David: Death!) Right! So that got rid of the worst guys right quick, & it certainly discouraged that kind of crime. Of course, a lot of the crimes were things like killing people or striking people, etc., but a youth could be put to death for merely striking his mother or father, or spitting in their face!--Insulting them, in other words. (David: Or cursing them too.) Yes, cursing them. So it was pretty severe on young people.
The Mosaic Law--A Fair System!
18. But the Mosaic Law was very fair on many things. Of course, you've heard the famous old Jewish saying, "An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth." (Exo.21:24.) Well, that's a pretty severe law, but in a way it was fair. If you knocked out one of his teeth, he was permitted to knock out one of yours! Of course, the Law of Jesus changed it all! He said, "It is said so-&-so, but I say unto you..." (See Mat.5:27-44.) His was the Law of Love, & you didn't go around knocking people's teeth out under that law. If somebody accidentally, or even maybe purposely knocked out your tooth, you were supposed to forgive'm.--If they were sorry, of course. If they repented & were sorry, you forgave them. You didn't have to forgive'm if they didn't repent. Of course, now that we're under Grace, we're supposed to "forgive one another, even as God for Christ's sake has forgiven us."--Eph.4:32. (See also Mat.6:14-15.)
19. There was a very fair system of repayment. At least you didn't have to spend years in prison for some of this stuff & waste your life away. You either got killed real quick & they got rid of you, or if you somehow or another killed your neighbour's cow or something, then you had to go to work for him until you worked long enough to pay back the value of the cow.
20. So it was a very fair system. It required no jails, no prisons, and really no courts. They did have judges, but they didn't have formal courts like you see nowadays. They were more or less rather informal courts. Remember how Moses appointed judges? The people appealed to him because the court cases were getting so stacked up with only Moses as the judge. They were really getting stacked up like courts are today! So Jethro, his father-in-law, suggested that Moses appoint more judges, that he was to appoint as many judges as they needed to keep the court cases moving. (See Exo.18:13-26.)
21. It was a very strict & very severe legal system, but it was very fair, & it was much better than having guys just wasting their lives away in prison like they do today. That is the worst, most ridiculous kind of system! The Lord never approved of it. They did not have it in the Mosaic Law at all. Now, remember, I'm probably going to ask you test questions on a lot of these things that I'm talking about. How many crimes resulting in capital punishment did they have? (Kids: 26!) Twenty-six of them, so that was pretty severe.
22. Now that's getting somewhat into the Law & we're kind of getting ahead of ourselves here a little bit, but I brought that up because that has to do with the Seventh Day. Now let's go back to Genesis, shall we? I forgot to tell you last night to be sure & read Chapter 2 for your homework. I don't know whether you did or not, did you? (Techi: Well, a little bit!)
Christian Fellowship Day!
23. "Thus the heavens & the earth were finished, & all the host of them. And on the seventh day God ended His work which He had made; & He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had made. And God blessed the seventh day, & sanctified it: because that in it He had rested from all His work which God created & made."
24. How did the Christian church get from worshipping on the seventh day, like the Jews that they came from, to worshipping on the first day of the week? Do you know why?--Probably because everybody went to synagogue on the Sabbath Day. But of course a lot of those Jews weren't even saved & didn't believe in Jesus & were even fighting against Him. So after synagogue day, the Christians wanted to get together & have their own day of fellowship & share all the latest news, what happened at the synagogue & what did they say, & so they had their own meetings on the first day of the week. And time & again in the New Testament you'll notice it says, "Upon the first day of the week." (See Mat.28:1; Luk.24:1; Jn.20:1; Acts 20:7; 1Cor.16.2.)
25. Also, on what day of the week was Jesus resurrected? (Techi: The third day?) No, the first day of the week was when Jesus was resurrected. (Mark 16:1-2,9.) That had already become the fellowship day for most of Jesus' followers. So when Jesus was resurrected & the women & the disciples found Jesus' body was gone, naturally that was big news! And they went right back to their fellowship & shared this news, & all of a sudden He showed up in the room where they were having their fellowship meeting, even though the door was locked! Kind of scary, huh? Almost like a ghost! (John 20:19.) Well, we'll go into the Life of Jesus later, so let's cover this now, shall we?
Next Paragraph!
26. Who wants to read the next paragraph? Do you know what a paragraph is in the Bible? (David: The verses between the paragraph marks: ) Right! OK, who wants to read the next paragraph starting with verse 4? (Techi: So in other words, a verse?) No, each of these numbers is a verse, see, they're numbered. But several of these verses together make a paragraph, from the 4th verse through the 7th verse. (Techi: Oh!) You're learning something, huh? (Techi: Yes!) OK, somebody read the next paragraph.
27. (David: "These are the generations of the heavens & of the earth when they were created, in the day that the Lord God made the earth & the heavens. And every plant of the field before it was in the earth, & every herb of the field before it grew: for the Lord God had not caused it to rain upon the earth, & there was not a man to till the ground. But there went up a mist from the earth, & watered the whole face of the ground. And the Lord God formed Man of the dust of the ground, & breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; & Man became a living soul."--Genesis 2:4-7.)
28. All right, this is very simple, isn't it? We already read about the creation of life, etc., & there is no question in our minds about which came first, the chicken or the egg. What do you think? (Kids: The chicken!) Yes, of course, & then afterwards the chicken laid the egg!
Mist from the Earth!
29. That 6th verse was quite interesting. The 5th & 6th verses tell us that there was no rain. Just think, they didn't have to have rain, there was just a nice mist in the morning to water everything, & probably by noon the mist was all gone & the bright sun shone. (Techi: Is mist the same as dew?) No, dew forms on the plants themselves. A mist is something like a fog that you see. (Techi: And that doesn't happen now?) Oh yes, fogs happen now! And mists happen now. (Techi: But not daily like the mist that it was talking about here every morning?) No.
30. But apparently every morning there was a mist that went up from the Earth & watered the whole face of the ground. (Techi: Like from inside the Earth that came up through the ground?) Well, it says "there went up a mist from the Earth & watered the whole face of the ground." Apparently from water, the water which was in the ground, the Lord caused a mist to rise up. There's nearly always water in the ground unless it's a desert. So it would rise up & water the face of the Earth so they didn't have to have any rain then. Isn't that nice? (Techi: Is it hard for the mist to get through the grass though?) Oh, no, there's lots of room for mist to get through the grass. That sure helped things, didn't it? Because you didn't have to go out in the rain. They didn't even need houses!
What Is a Soul?
31. Now, how did the Lord form Man? (Kids: Of the dust of the ground.) Right, "Of the dust of the ground." That was his body, right? Then "God breathed into his nostrils the breath of life." That's spirit. He formed his body, & then God breathed into him spirit, & Man became a living soul.
32. There's a lot of controversy about body, soul, spirit & all this sort of thing. But here it's very simple. God tells you what a soul is. We definitely misuse the word "soul" a lot, like when we say "number of souls saved." Although that's true. When a person is saved, both his body & spirit are saved, right? So what is a soul? (Techi: Body & spirit.) A combination of body & spirit. (Techi: A living person.) Right! And throughout the Bible it says, "so many souls perished" or "so many souls this," etc. It means they were living people. They had bodies with spirits. So if I ask you, "What is a soul?", what would you say? (Techi: Body & spirit.) The body & spirit of a person!
The Importance of Water!
33. (Techi: So He actually just formed Man out of dirt?) Well, it means out of the elements of the Earth. He could have just formed him out of dust. But your body is made up of I think they've now discovered over 80 elements, maybe 90 by this time, of various metals & elements, all the various trace elements that come from the Earth. (Techi: The same with animals, right?) Yes. And guess how much of your body is water? (Techi: Is it 70%?) About 65% water. You're a big bag of water!
34. So it's very important that you drink lots of water so your body will be properly resupplied with water & operate well, because you do lose a lot of water through perspiration, urination, etc. In a sense, water is the oil of the body. That's probably one reason why I have fairly good health, because I drink a lot of liquids. First thing before I even get really wide awake in the morning I drink two or three glasses of juices. And then following that, when I'm in the bathroom, I usually drink a glass of water. And then all day long I'm drinking juices. You see me sitting out there & I drink about half a liter of chocolate milk with two eggs in it.
35. Then later in the day if I'm thirsty, I don't just drink water, I drink juices. For one reason, that's my nourishment and I need as much as I can get because I can't eat much. And I eat my supper of just these tiny little bowls of soup, you've seen'm, only half full of food. But that way I get my meat and my potatoes, my vegetable and my fruit. And then with that I drink a whole glass of tomato juice. Think of that! More vegetable. Then later I drink a whole glass of fruit juice before I go to sleep. And then after that I drink another two or three glasses of fruit juice.
36. Let's see how many glasses of liquid I drink. (Counting on fingers:) Two or three in the morning, the fourth is water, & then the equivalent of about two of them in my chocolate milk. And then later in the day I drink another glass of juice to keep me from getting hungry before supper. Then I drink a glass of tomato juice with my supper. Then I drink a glass of fruit juice after that & then I drink two or three glasses of...Oh me, I've lost track of where I started! Did I start with my forefinger or my thumb? I think it was my forefinger. In other words, I drink 10 or 12 of these glasses of liquid all day long! That's almost 4 liters!--Or a whole gallon!
37. So anyhow, it's very important to drink a lot of liquid. (See also WND 309, page 1: "Are You Drinking Enough Water?")---And how did we get on that, anyway? We were talking about the mist. (David: Yes, & that your body is composed of roughly 65% water.) Yes, & proteins & carbohydrates & all kinds of different chemicals & minerals, etc., that come from the Earth. Now how was the Lord going to explain all that to people that didn't yet know about all those things? Hmm? When actually you're made up of particles that come from the Earth, what was the simplest way for Him to explain that? (Techi: "The dust of the Earth.") That's right!
38. And when your body is dead & it decays, what happens? (David: It decomposes.) And it becomes just like dust. It goes back to the dust of the Earth from which it came. And some day the Lord is going to revive it! (David: Yes, that's right!) (Techi: Even people who got cremated.) Oh, some of them even had their ashes scattered out over the ocean. Maybe some people who do that sort of thing are afraid of something. They think that by burning their body in a crematory & then having their ashes all scattered out over the ocean, that they can't be resurrected & judged & sent to Hell. They're trying to defeat Hell! But goodness, the Lord is going to resurrect us all, including the wicked! (Techi: He could snap His fingers & they'd all be together again!) Your body will come all back together again, no matter where it is!
Sci-Fact--Not Sci-Fi!
39. We know that when Jesus was resurrected, He had a body. He had the same body but it was completely changed.--Although He had the same scars, remember that? He said, "Touch Me, feel Me & see. A spirit hath not flesh & bones as you see Me have."--Luk. 24:39. What did He not mention there? (David: Blood.) Right! We are going to have something, some kind of spirit flowing through our veins that is going to keep us immortal forever.
40. You want a Sci-Fi? You want something that sounds sort of like Sci-Fi? But we're talking about Bible Science. It's not Sci-Fi, science fiction, it's Sci-Fact! Right? We don't believe in science fiction, but we do believe in Science Fact, & miraculous things about the body! Our bodies will be able to appear & disappear, walk through closed doors, fly! You'll have tremendous powers, like you see in some of the Sci-Fi's! You point a finger at somebody & BOOM!--Lightning will strike them! Or as the Prophets did sometimes, whole companies of soldiers came against Elijah & all he had to do was point his finger at them & they were consumed with fire! (2Kg.1:9-15.) Think of that!
Closing & Prayer!
41. Oh my, our time is up already! I guess that's a good place to quit, on the 7th verse there, second Chapter. We're sure getting a lot out of this, aren't we? (Techi: Yes!) It's very interesting. To me, Genesis is one of the most interesting Books in the Bible, that's why I always like to teach it!--Especially in our schools we've had with people who knew nothing about the Bible at all, new converts. So it was very important that they learn so much from the Book of Genesis. Praise the Lord? (David: Amen!) Hallelujah! Whose turn is it to pray?
42. (Techi: Amen, Lord Jesus! Thank You for the good Bible class, Lord, & for the interesting things that we got to learn. Thank You Jesus for Grandpa teaching us & how exciting & interesting it is! We pray that You'll please bless & help us to be able to study these things, Lord, & to learn from them, in Jesus' name. Amen! Thank You Lord!)
Homework!
43. All right, now remember, your homework assignment is to read the rest of the second Chapter.--Not just read it, but study it! See if you can get some of these juicy things out of it that I get out of it! Of course, I've been studying it for almost 70 years, & naturally I've gotten a lot out already. I've gotten a lot out of it also that other teachers taught me, my Father & Mother & Bible teachers & books I've read. So I can't expect you to know as much about it as I do. But anyway, get all you can out of it.
44. And the next test will be when we have finished both the first & second Chapters of Genesis. And I may even ask you a few repeat questions on Genesis 1.--Plus questions on Genesis 2. OK? (Kids: Yes!) All right! Don't forget to study it tomorrow.--Not just read it, but study it. But at least read it! GBY!
Copyright (c) 1998 by The Family