Step by Step through the Old Testament
Carlton L. Arnold, Teacher
Week 6
9/15/02 : Genesis 3-5 - The Root of Sin and the Result of Sin
Genesis, chapter three, is where we are. We're talking about sin and the Fall. In the way of a quick review: We talked about Creation. We're in the middle of (or in the midst of) the world events that cover about 2,000 years but only covers about 11 chapters in the Bible. So it's not something that you want to pick apart and tear apart because God says, "Here's what I need to show you and here's what I want you to understand and know. Here it is." However, God did give us a tremendous amount of information about Adam and Eve and the Fall. We started it last week with Eve being tempted by the serpent, which we said was Satan, and the husband ate also.
Genesis 3:7-8
Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves. Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the LORD God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the LORD God among the trees of the garden.
We had a situation where God, Adam, and Eve had a good relationship even to the point where God would walk with them. Now, it does not say that Jesus Christ walked with them, but I tend to think that part of the trinity, the Son of God, Jesus Christ, was walking with them. Later on we're going to see the pre-incarnate (meaning before Christ was to come; the Son of God in human form) Christ. He always was and always has existed. We're going to see Him work in the Old Testament. You may not agree with me. You don't have to, but I think God, the Father, God, the Son, and God, the Holy Spirit, each have roles. We've already seen the trinity once with the "our" in "Let us make man in our image." I tend to think that this is Jesus Christ, the pre-incarnate Christ, walking with Adam and Eve.
This is the relationship they had until Adam and Eve were disobedient and that relationship was broken. They had the "glory" of God (and this is what I mentioned as to what was covering them and why they weren't ashamed). They had the glory of God around their bodies. I'll use the term here, but I'll put it in quotes. It's almost like the "glorified body." This may be a little hint at what we'll have when we spend eternity with God. We'll have a glorified body. It will be emanating a light or glow or aura. They had this "glory" around them but then they sinned and this relationship was broken. Remember, that's what I told you was key in looking at the Bible: this relationship. All throughout the Bible, God desires a relationship with us. That relationship was broken. The glory left them. They were disobedient to God. We're going to talk about this disobedience and what it means. Disobedience means sin. In our world today, people do not like to talk or think about sin. "It makes me feel bad, so I won't talk about it and won't think about it." But it's something where God says, "No. You have to recognize sin in your life before you'll need Me--before you can understand that we have to have a relationship."
They sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves. That's why you see (in some books) Adam and Eve's picture with fig leaves on them. Fig leaves are something they did to cover up their sin. I'm not trying to read any more into this than what is already there. It says that they were ashamed and naked, so they (man/human beings trying to cover up the sin) went and got fig leaves and covered themselves up. So they were trying to become righteous, if you will, by themselves. They tried to work out their own righteousness. I mention "righteousness" because man was created innocent. Adam and Eve were innocent. Innocence is ignorance of evil. That makes sense because as long as they didn't eat of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, what were they? Obedient and ignorant of evil. But they ate of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. The other aspect is that man is not created righteous. Righteousness is innocence maintained in the presence of temptation.
Righteousness
Think about your own life. You can look at Adam and Eve first. As long as they didn't eat of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, what were they? Innocent and righteous. Were they not? Does everybody see that? As soon as they ate of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, what happened? They're no longer innocent and no longer righteous. Now they know good and evil and they cannot maintain their innocence in the presence of temptation. So, ask yourself about whatever temptation you have. With men, we usually go with lust or some sexual attraction. With women, you can have talking or gossip. Try to identify something in your life. Because of what my wife and I just went through this last week, there were a lot of opportunities to gossip. There were a lot of chances to talk. You can be talking to someone and have innocence and righteousness, but along comes a thought, "You know, maybe I should share this or that about cousin Tom." It comes to your mind. There is the temptation. It's what you do with it that precipitates the loss of righteousness. I would say, "Did you know that Tom said this or did this?" I just sinned. Does everybody understand righteousness? When we get into the Bible, what we're going to talk about is the theme of how we get righteousness.
If this is the case, how many of you are righteous? None. Would everybody look at each other and say, "You're not righteous." Now look at each other and say, "I'm not righteous." Do you understand that? If you understand that, then you ask, "How can I become righteous? How do I get back this relationship with God?" What did Adam and Eve do to get back their relationship with God? They went out and got fig leaves. They said, "We'll just cover up our nakedness and we'll still have our relationship with God." That's what they tried to do. They said, "We will, of our own efforts, try to have a relationship with God." Remember: God says, "You can't do it. I'm going to do it all." God says, "Recognize that you're not righteous, recognize that you're a sinner, and know that I have given you an opportunity to become righteous with Me." As a matter of fact, by the time we get to the New Testament, you will all be able to answer the question, "How many of you are as righteous as Jesus?" Raise your hands. Look around you. (Many hands are raised.) That's what you're going to learn in the New Testament. Is it not a fact? It is absolutely, positively a fact that you've got to get to. I asked you, "How many of you are righteous?" and none of you raised your hands. Then I asked you, "How many of you are as righteous as Jesus?" and most of you raised your hands. The righteousness that we get is not of ourselves--we cannot maintain our innocence in the presence of temptation. What do we do? We disobey. We give in. But Christ has given us His righteousness. That's what we'll study in the New Testament, but this is where it starts. This is where sin started. This is where Adam and Eve became the mother and father of sin, if you will.
From verse 8, "...they hid from the LORD God among the trees of the garden." Why did they hide? They were ashamed. They knew that they'd disobeyed God. They felt guilty. They really did have their eyes opened to evil and they said, "Wait a minute. I don't want God, the Father, to find out." I assume that every one of you has hidden your sin--tried to hide your sin from someone. Maybe as a child from your parents, from your spouse, or from your children. Does everyone remember the statement that the Pastor made this morning? He said, "There are some questions that I don't want for my children to ask me because I am a sinner. I am too embarrassed and too ashamed and I don't want to have to answer them." That's what's happening here. Deal with your sin. Don't let it go by and say, "Well, that's just the way sin is." That's why God gave us this passage and says, "Listen. I want for you to know about your sin so that you can right this relationship with Me--so that you'll come to Me." In other words, it's not the guilt of sin that should drive us from God--it's the guilt of sin that should drive us toward God. When you know that you've disobeyed God, you should look at this as a time to run to God. You don't run away from Him like they did. What does God want for you to do? He wants for you to come to Him and agree with Him. Confess your sins and acknowledge your sins to Him and then HE will clean you up.
What do we want to do? "Well, let me get my clothes on right and let me clean up all of this sin in my life and live life perfectly for a day or two, and then I'll go to God." What did we just do? We just got our fig leaves. We went out and got our own fig leaves to cover up what we have done and then try to go to God. God says, "That ain't gonna work." You can't do it yourself. Don't try to do it yourself. Don't say ten "Hail, Mary"'s, if that's what you feel you've got to do. Don't sign up for some job in the Church and say, "Well, if I do this, then God will forgive me for my sin." He has already forgiven you of your sin. All He wants for you to do is agree with Him. That's the relationship. The relationship is based on faith, trust, grace, mercy, and forgiveness--what God has done for us. What do you have to do to be right with God now? Just say, "God, I believe. I believe what you've done."
What's the best way to find out about sin in your own life? (From the class: Ask your wife. Ha Ha. You don't have to ask her a thing--she'll tell you.) Ask the Holy Spirit. If you are a Christian, the Holy Spirit is within you. When you get up in the morning, ask the Holy Spirit, "I'm not so sure where I've sinned, but I ask you, today, to show me." Guess what He's going to do? I guarantee that He's going to show you. You may not want to hear it, but He's going to show you. You'll have a little tinge of guilt (something that's not right or a nervousness) and that's the Holy Spirit saying, "Whoops. There it is. You're sinning right now. You're disobeying God." You may look around and say, "Well, I'm not doing anything wrong. I'm not looking at anything evil or saying anything evil." But where does sin start? It starts in the heart. It's already there. It's going to seed and produce fruit which is sinful. So, ask the Holy Spirit, and He'll show you.
Genesis 3:9
But the LORD God called to the man, "Where are you?"
See, this is so good. You've read the story and studied as a child, but now you read it as an adult and see the relationship that God has with man and the relationship He has with you. Who initiated the relationship? God. God asked, "Where are you?" Do you think that God had to ask? No. Just by asking, "Where are you?", what is He doing? "Will you come and talk to me about your sin? I know what you've done, but will you freely come? Where are you?" He did not come along and destroy all of the trees and there stood Adam and Eve by themselves. He asked, "Where are you?"
Genesis 3:10-12
He answered, "I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid." And he said, "Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?" The man said, "The woman you put here with me--she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate it."
This is Adam. Did he ask for forgiveness? No. What did he say? He said, "Hey! I heard you in the garden and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid." Did he say, "God, I ate of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. Please forgive me." What did Adam do? Covered up. The next question is, "Who told you that you were naked?" Who is initiating this relationship? God is. God is trying to say, "Man, I'm trying to have a relationship with you. Come on, just be honest with me." Well, the man said of the woman, "She gave me some of the fruit, and I ate it." So Adam didn't say, "I ate of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil." What did he say? "The woman that YOU put here made me do it." Did Adam know where the fruit had come from? Yeah, because he hid. The apple, itself, was not the problem. He made the decision. They both felt guilty and naked. I still don't think it's the fruit, itself. He knew it. Man knows what sin is. The Bible says, "She gave some to her husband who was with her."
Genesis 3:13
Then the LORD God said to the woman, "What is this you have done?" The woman said, "The serpent deceived me, and I ate."
So what could Eve say? "I ate of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil." No, what does Eve say? "The serpent deceived me, and I ate." Does this sound like you? Or, does it sound like your children when you go to them and say, "Did you do this?" "No. Tommy made me do it." "You mean, you didn't break this?" "Well, I broke it, but Tommy made me break it." We want to avoid that confrontation. But God says, again, "I want to have a relationship with you." Remember, that's what the Bible is about. "I want this relationship. Come to me and talk with me." That's why we need a daily devotion with God. Not just to read something and say, "OK, I've done my quota. I've read 15 verses in the Bible today and now I can go to work." No. Deal with it. Listen to God. Again, the sermon this morning was great: Ask God the big questions. When things are quiet in the room, stop, rest, and listen. Have a relationship with God.
Genesis 3:14-15
So the LORD God said to the serpent, "Because you have done this, "Cursed are you above all the livestock and all the wild animals! You will crawl on your belly and you will eat dust all the days of your life. And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel."
Now, that sounds very undefined or vague or hard to understand. But looking at it carefully, it says, "I will put enmity between you and the woman." That means a struggle. This is something that we're going to see throughout the rest of the Bible: a struggle between good and evil. Remember, I asked you, "Who had dominion over the earth?" God gave it to man and said, "You will have dominion over everything." Man has now given it up and Satan now has dominion. When Satan goes to Christ in the New Testament and tempts Him in the wilderness, what is one of the things that he says to Him? "I will give you all the kingdoms/dominions of the earth if you'll bow down and worship me." That's one of the temptations that Satan gave to Christ. You can go read it in the NT. So man has now given dominion of the earth-relinquished it to Satan. Satan is going to have it until we get to the book of Revelation when God's going to come back and make everything right. If you ever wonder why the world is as bad as it is, why it's getting worse, why this is this way and that is that way, why people behave the way they do, or why they do to each other what they do, this is it: Satan has dominion. If you can get that in your mind from a spiritual point of view, it explains "9/11/01". It explains all of the other things that you hear. It explains child pornography, wife abuse, children going hungry, etc. It explains it because this world is full of sin. It's under the dominion of Satan. We can't call it any other way. You can say that we are a Christian Nation (which some people would disagree with). The world is still the dominion of Satan right now. He is the Prince of the Air. He has dominion. We'll see that throughout the rest of the Bible.
The "offspring" here is a child, of course, and some people think that this is Cain and Abel (coming up in chapter 4). But I like to see it (and I think this is a fair and just way of looking at it) as this referring to Christ. When we get through the Old Testament and get the lineage out through to Joseph and Mary, we'll see that Christ is from that lineage and is the offspring that we're talking about here. It says, "He will crush your head and you will strike His heel." If you strike someone in the heel, is that a deathblow, mortal wound? No. If you strike someone in the head, what happens? They die. The idea here is that Satan will be striking at the heel, meaning the Crucifixion. Yeah, you think He's dead, crucified, but God's going to raise Christ up again. That wasn't a mortal, eternal wound. That was something where God was going to raise Christ again. Whereas with the head, Christ is going to come back and bind Satan up for eternity and never release him again. That's the head of Satan. I know you're saying, "Whoa, that's stretching it." Just hold on. We'll get to more in Genesis and after a while, you're going to see that there is a picture here of the future New Testament.
Genesis 3:16
To the woman he said, "I will greatly increase your pains in childbearing; with pain you will give birth to children. Your desire will be for your husband, and he will rule over you."
Do I hear any women saying, "Amen!" Aren't you glad they have epidurals or blocks to ease childbirth? So, there is pain in childbirth. Now, look at the curse of "desire". I asked you last week to think about those words. Does that sound like a curse? What does it sound like? Your desire will be for your husband. Anything wrong with that? Your object of desire? Does that sound like a curse? It doesn't sound like a curse, does it? Why is there a blessing in the middle of a cursing? The Hebrew word here for desire means "to control" or "to flood over." It means that you, the woman, will want to take over command from the husband. God said that every woman who's born is going to have this desire. You can't avoid it. When God created man and woman, remember, He said, "the man needs a helper." That helper is not a slave or submissive, like you hear in the world. The Bible doesn't even use those kinds of words. People hear the word "submit" and they automatically go off and define it in their worldly way. You have to define it the spiritual way. When Eve is called a "helper," it is also used with God. We saw that. It is also used for God. It wasn't meant to say that somebody was subordinate or enslaved. It meant someone who was going to help and be alongside the man when he needed it. But God also said that because the man was created first, he will have the lead-in terms of authority. God knows this. In a situation that involves human beings, one person has to make decisions. If you have two people making decisions, what happens? Chaos. Eventually all kinds of chaos. God says that one person has got to make the decisions. God says that it's going to be the man because he was created first. Does that mean that the woman is automatically the submissive slave? No. It just says that when there are decisions to be made, God is going to hold the man accountable. This makes sense when you go over to Ephesians 5 because it says "everyone submit to one another" in one verse and the next verse says, "women, submit to your husbands." The other word there is to respond to your husbands with what he's going through to make the decisions. Be a helper like God is a helper in our making decisions. My wife asked for prayer for help in the decisions that she and her siblings have to make about her family. Help me with this. Respond to this.
The curse says, "your desire will be for your husband." Go over to Genesis 4:7. I told you that for those of you who really want to be deep into the Bible, always look for the same words used in a different context and you'll get a better definition of the original Hebrew meaning. This word (desire) occurs three times. It occurs over in Proverbs referring to rain and flood and it's used in Genesis 4:7 where God is talking to Cain about his offering.
Genesis 4:7
If you do what is right, will you not be accepted? But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must master it."
There's the concept. The same Hebrew word is used for sin over Cain as for woman over man. I'm not trying to be feminist or chauvinistic-this is what God has created. If you ever want to know why a woman has to tell a man how to do something, how to straighten something out, or how to drive, this is why. It is a curse that God gave woman because of what she did. It means "control" or "flood over." It's a situation where you see a man and a woman and it doesn't take long before you see who really "wears the pants" in the family. You've seen it. What has happened? The man has said, "I give up my role as God intended it and I'll just take whatever comes along. I'm just going to agree with my wife on everything." And the woman makes all of the decisions. Do you all see why there's conflict in a marriage? God says that it is a curse that He's placed on women. The spiritual thing is woman as a helper. The unnatural thing is the curse. What are you to do? How do you resolve this?
God wants for you to have a oneness-bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh. He wants for you to struggle through just like the woman's offspring struggling, good versus evil, the enmity, etc. The world is now going through a struggle. The world is now struggling. It's almost like the world is in childbearing-that's what Jesus referred to it as-waiting on the end times. How can you develop a relationship with someone else? How do you develop this relationship with God? Is it easy? It's not. When you get up tomorrow morning, how long does it take before you think of God? Does someone else have to remind you? You're listening to the radio and someone says, "Well, I thank God for..." and you say, "Oh yeah, God, thank you for..." The relationship has to be something that is constant and continuous. This relationship between man and woman (as far as what God intended) has to be constant and continuous. You have to recognize this conflict and say, "God, I do not want that conflict in my marriage." When God shows it to the woman, what is the woman supposed to do? What is the natural tendency of the woman today with what I just said? <sounds of a cat hissing> Yes. You say, "Wait a minute. Back that woman truck up. I want to talk about this a minute." Why is that? Why do women have that resistance? Because of sin in our lives. Remember, we've all sinned. Every woman in here has sinned. Every man has sinned. God says, "I want you out of the sin. I want you righteous. You have to have a relationship with Me. Here's what I planned."
This is why you study the Bible. "I want to know God's original plan. I want to know what He originally intended so that I can live that life, not what the world has taught me." Women, the world teaches you to stand on your own two feet, don't let a man tell you what to do, and do what you want to do. That's what the world says. What does the Bible say? It says to look at your husband and respond to him. Not to every man, just to your husband. Men, what does He tell you? Love your wife. He doesn't say, "I want for you to get in at least six hours of football every weekend. I want for you to go dove hunting, deer hunting, and fishing." I mean, does He tell you that? What does He tell you to do? Love your wife. In my mind and with what God says, if those things will happen, He will give you an abundant life. He'll give you the life that's meaningful, complete, and secure. It's not you trying to get that 12-pointer hung up on the wall. "I'm not going to be satisfied until I get that 12-pointer." Does everybody understand? This is the ideal relationship that God had in mind. God said that the curse on the woman is that she'll have this tendency to want to control, flood over, and dominate the husband. That's a curse. That's what (as a woman) you need to take to God and say, "I don't want this. I want to understand what a helper is."
Genesis 3:17-19
To Adam he said, "Because you listened to your wife and ate from the tree about which I commanded you, `You must not eat of it,' "Cursed is the ground because of you; through painful toil you will eat of it all the days of your life. It will produce thorns and thistles for you, and you will eat the plants of the field. By the sweat of your brow you will eat your food until you return to the ground, since from it you were taken; for dust you are and to dust you will return."
Now, we get weeds. Until now, I don't think a weed existed on Earth. I don't think there were any thorns or anything else that was a problem. There was no Goldenrod. It was great. Then they sinned. And here is physical death. God said that if you ate of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, you will die-not just spiritually but also physically.
Genesis 3:20-21
Adam named his wife Eve, because she would become the mother of all the living. The LORD God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife and clothed them.
Where did the garments come from? Animals. So what happened? God had to sacrifice and kill part of His creation because of man. This is the first blood sacrifice in the Bible. Who did it? God. He used blood. He used life. He had to use life to cover up for our sin. God says that that's the only way we can have righteousness-through the blood. What does that point to? The blood of Christ. He could have just spoken the clothes into being, but what does it mean when God has to kill something? Doesn't it mean a lot more when God has to kill something as a sacrifice for your sins? The whole concept or idea of blood is interesting. We'll see over in Deuteronomy that is says that there is life in the blood and the blood is life. There is no forgiveness of sins without blood. I can only look at it from God's perspective, spiritually, and He says, "It's the only thing that man will really look at and count as serious." The only thing. If you can think of anything else that God can sacrifice that would be just as meaningful, you can talk to God about it. I've thought about it and studied it. Why blood? Why does it have to be blood? It comes down to life. When someone close to you dies, you realize that life is very precious. God says that that's how serious sin is. No animal was killed until sin entered the world. It had to die to cover sin up. You may be saying that I'm reading a lot in here. OK, maybe I am. But the important thing is that God covered up the sin of Adam and Eve, not Adam and Eve. They tried with fig leaves but God did it through the garment of skin.
Genesis 3:22
And the LORD God said, "The man has now become like one of us, knowing good and evil. He must not be allowed to reach out his hand and take also from the tree of life and eat, and live forever."
Does that make sense? Think of the seriousness. God is looking at the sin and says that if we (the trinity) allow them to live in the Garden of Eden and eat of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, what kind of life would Adam and Eve be living? What have they already done with God? They disobeyed. What was the reaction? They were afraid. They ran and hid from Him. What kind of relationship is that? What if your child ran and hid from you when you walked into the room? What kind of relationship is that? A broken relationship. God says, "I can't have them live forever this way." In a way, God is saying, "It is good for Me to remove them from this and give them another way of salvation which is Jesus Christ." That is where we're headed. The rest of the Bible is oriented toward the coming of Christ and the work that He's going to do on the cross.
Genesis 3:23-24
So the LORD God banished him from the Garden of Eden to work the ground from which he had been taken. After he drove the man out, he placed on the east side of the Garden of Eden cherubim and a flaming sword flashing back and forth to guard the way to the tree of life.
So Adam and Eve are now out of the Garden. They are on their own. They're going to have children, which we're going to talk about. Adam and Eve, in the world, start to multiply. I know that some of you are asking, "Well, who did Cain marry and who did others marry?" It had to be descendants from them. So you could say that they got kicked out of the Garden of Eden and moved to Alabama. Ha Ha. No. It's interesting that no one could explain this until recently with genetic engineering. Geneticists are now looking at Adam and Eve as being pure. Their genes were pure at this time. So it took time for errors and mistakes to mess up the gene pool before deformities occurred with incest. It's not in the Bible. God didn't tell us that. But geneticists are now saying that this makes sense. You have something pure to begin with but it will eventually break down. So if you wonder where they got their wives, they married their sisters. I don't have a problem with that because it makes sense.
Chapter 4 is Cain and Abel. Cain slew Abel because of his offering. Any questions?
<Protests from the class.>
Allright. Allright. Lets' look at Cain and Able quickly.
Genesis 4:3-7
In the course of time Cain brought some of the fruits of the soil as an offering to the LORD. But Abel brought fat portions from some of the firstborn of his flock. The LORD looked with favor on Abel and his offering, but on Cain and his offering he did not look with favor. So Cain was very angry, and his face was downcast. Then the LORD said to Cain, "Why are you angry? Why is your face downcast? If you do what is right, will you not be accepted? But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must master it."
Chapter 3 was the root of sin. Chapter 4 is the result of sin. What kind of condition is Cain in with his offering? Downcast, jealous, depressed, upset, etc. Notice that God is still talking to men here-one on one. God speaks about Cain's offering. What do you think was in Cain's heart when he made the offering? It's leftovers or he was in a hurry-"Here. Let me just get something and go present it." Or he felt obligated to do it. There was not a worshipful, free idea behind the offering. He brought "some" but not the best. It was not the offering. It was not vegetables versus meat. It was the condition of his heart under which he brought it. If you read it carefully, that's what you'll read in there. It says that he became downcast and that's what God came and asked him about. He didn't say, "You know, the vegetables were ruined." He asked, "Why are you downcast?"
Genesis 4:8
Now Cain said to his brother Abel, "Let's go out to the field." And while they were in the field, Cain attacked his brother Abel and killed him.
So now we go from life (in Chapter 2) to death (in Chapter 4). It's not over with-we're going to see more killing and murder. Did God bring about the killing? No. Here is man saying, "I'm jealous. I'm envious. I want this." All the way down through the history of mankind, sin in people's lives is the source of death. You cannot ask, "Well, why did God allow that?" No. God created man. Man said, "I want to do this." And God said, "I gave you free will. You can do it."
Genesis 4:9-10
Then the LORD said to Cain, "Where is your brother Abel?" "I don't know," he replied. "Am I my brother's keeper?" The LORD said, "What have you done? Listen! Your brother's blood cries out to me from the ground.
This is another reference to how important the blood is to God.
Genesis 5:1-5
This is the written account of Adam's line. When God created man, he made him in the likeness of God. He created them male and female and blessed them. And when they were created, he called them "man." When Adam had lived 130 years, he had a son in his own likeness, in his own image; and he named him Seth. After Seth was born, Adam lived 800 years and had other sons and daughters. Altogether, Adam lived 930 years, and then he died.
Adam was made in the likeness of God. What was Seth made in? The likeness of Adam. That's why the New Testament says that the sin has been passed on to us through Adam. We have that "sin nature" from Adam and Eve. We have that loss of innocence and righteousness because we cannot maintain our innocence in the presence of evil.
We're going to talk about age next week. I want for you to see the last four words of verse 5: and then he died. At the end of verses 8, 11, 14, and 17: and then he died. Do you see the picture there? I think God was telling us that sin came in and now people die.
Genesis 5:18-24
When Jared had lived 162 years, he became the father of Enoch. And after he became the father of Enoch, Jared lived 800 years and had other sons and daughters. Altogether, Jared lived 962 years, and then he died. When Enoch had lived 65 years, he became the father of Methuselah. And after he became the father of Methuselah, Enoch walked with God 300 years and had other sons and daughters. Altogether, Enoch lived 365 years. Enoch walked with God; then he was no more, because God took him away.
We're going to talk about Methuselah next week. Enoch is the first person to be raptured. Rapture is something in the New Testament, but Enoch was raptured. God was dealing with the universe. He wanted everyone on the Earth to worship Him freely. He was dealing with people. That changes in Chapter 12. In Chapter 12, we're going to see Him working through a Nation, a man.
Here is a handout covering the ages of everyone that we're going to be reading and studying about. Take a look at the ages of birth and death. I'm going to tell you some things about Methuselah and the Flood next week.
Prayer:
Father, God, thank you for this morning. I ask that you give us wisdom over the decision of someone who will lead us in music during the worship hour. I thank you again for this morning. Continue to be with those who are not here. Give them travel mercies. Continue to be with my wife and give her mercies and grace that she needs not just today but all next week. In Jesus' name I pray. Amen.
From Thru the Bible with Dr. J. Vernon McGee, Volume 1: Genesis - Deuteronomy
©1997- 2001 Thru the Bible Radio Network , P.O. Box 7100, Pasadena, CA 91109
Teacher's Email: carltonlcv@gmail.com
Web page / Transcriptioning email: agapeeric@aim.com
Scripture taken from the HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®. NIV®.
Copyright©1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society.
Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved.