Genesis - The First 2000 Years

The Bible, God's Word, could be described as God's instruction manual for us on how to live.

It basically gives us instructions of how to live and how God is basically rolling out His plan for us to be His children in His family. And so, in the process of doing that, there are some historical content in the Bible. There's some historical content. There's also some future events because, in that way, you could be calling it prophecy, but future events to happen to achieve that end goal. But also, within that prophecy, there are certain things that, in prophecy, it says, if you obey Me, you'll be blessed. If you don't obey Me, you will not be blessed. You will be cursed. So, there are certain warnings of things that will happen if people don't obey. And thirdly, there is a great section of the Bible that are or is based on actual practical instructions of how to live, of how we need to change ourselves to actually be like God, to become, to imitate, as we heard in the sermon, so that we can get to know more God and to be like God. Now, in the specific section of history, basically mankind's history goes back for about 6,000 years. Mankind's history is that. I mean, there is history beyond that, earlier than that, but not much is described of that at all in the Bible. There are some little details, but very little. But even of these last 6,000 years, if we look at the first 2,000 years until basically the time of Abraham, though that period is covered by merely 11 chapters in the Bible. So you've got the history of mankind for 2,000 years covered by only 11 chapters. So it's basically a very basic and historical record of the most relevant facts that are included in there, which are pertinent to our salvation, but it's not a description of every single detail of what happened at that time. And therefore, when people read that, they have a lot of questions. Well, how did this happen? How did that happen? And how did that happen? Well, we don't know, because God doesn't tell us because it's not needed and it's not important for salvation. Otherwise, those 2,000 years of description in the Bible will be a lot longer. And God kept that short, decided to keep that short. So today, brethren, we want to delve into those basic 11 chapters.

But focusing more on the first few chapters, but show some important points or stepping stones or events or personalities in those first 11 chapters, in those 2,000 years, because sometimes people have many questions related to those early 2,000 years. And therefore, we're going to see a period of history covered in the beginning, and we're going to stop just before the story of Abraham, because the story of Abraham then takes particularly focus. And from there onwards, it's where, let's say it, the Bible really goes deep into a number of historical facts, because it's the story of a family, of a family that showed loyalty in Abraham and Isaac and Jacob. And through that family, that's where the promises come to us. My intent is probably at the next sermon, to actually go into the promises of Abraham and do that a little bit further. But today, I want to focus on those first 11 chapters and address some questions that people have. And so, to do that, we're going to start at the beginning, and that is in Genesis 1, Chapter 1. Genesis 1, Chapter 1.

You may want to put a marker, because occasionally we go back and forwards, but we're going to be coming back to Genesis. So, and it says, in the beginning, God.

And Yah is the first point. It says the word God, Yah, it's important for us to understand it's Elohim. In the beginning, Elohim, God. And throughout, in the section, Yah, the word God is Elohim. It's important for us to understand it's what people call a unique plural word. It's like a word like a family, a family, which is one word, implies one family, but it's got more than one being.

It's like the word kingdom. Kingdom, it's one kingdom, but implies there's more than one being in the kingdom, or in a kingdom. It's a word like a country, or a people, but there is more than than one person in that. It's like a word like the church, but there's more than one person in the church. And so, yeah, we already get the inkling, even though it's not described, we know that from other sections of the Bible, but inkling that God is creating a family of beings. That is the plan of God. And in fact, the gospel of Jesus Christ, the gospel that it taught, is none other than the gospel of the kingdom of God, which is none other than a family of beings in the God form, or the type of God beings, but not in power and authority as the father, but brothers and sisters as sons of God in that family. So it's a ruling family.

But then we continue, it says, in the beginning God created. It's interesting that the word created is the word parah in Hebrew, and that word is not used again until it gets to verse 21, where it says, so God created great sea creatures. So the word created is used in verse 1 parah, and is not used again until we get to the fifth day, where it says He created living beings, particularly in sea creatures like sea animals, like fishes and things like that. So as we get to the point He created, what does it say He created? He created the heavens and the earth. So what we have is a statement right here at the beginning that God created the heavens and the earth. It's interesting, it doesn't say the earth and the heavens, so it basically is really right here. It implies that the earth is the heavens and the earth is part of this heavenly universe, set of galaxies, and the earth is one component in this galaxy and being part of this creation. We will look a little bit more as far as creation in a moment, but let's look at an event that is even earlier than this beginning. You see, because in the beginning, God created. So in the beginning, God created. But what happened before He created?

And so we look at another scripture that talks about in the beginning, but an earlier beginning than this beginning, and that's in John chapter 1. So let's go there to John chapter 1. In John chapter 1, and here in John it says, in the beginning, so it's for the Jewish mind, it's drawing that, reminding them of that statement in Genesis in the beginning, but now it's saying, in the beginning was. So was means existed. That's before creation. So in the beginning was, John 1 verse 1, was the Word. And we know who the Word is, because in verse 14 says, the Word became flesh and wealth amongst us as the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. We know that's Christ. So the Word in the beginning was the Word, and the Word, obviously, as we know, was Christ. So in the beginning was. What does was mean? Was means that it existed.

In the words existed. In the beginning, the Word already was. So basically, it says, it's eternal. And it says, the Word and the Word was, continue to reading, with God. And we know that God is referring to God the Father in the New Testament when he uses the word God. He's basically referring to God the Father. And it says, the Word, which became Christ, was with God the Father. And now we see a relationship that both existed in the beginning. They're both eternal. There was the Word, Jesus, and Jesus Christ, and God the Father. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was of God. Not inside God, not, but there was with, which shows a relationship, a relationship. And the Word was God. Now this is where people get confused, right? But what it's saying is, the Word was the form of that God being. As you read, for instance, in Philippians chapter 2 verse 6, it says, he was equal to God, and he was of the form of God. In other words, he was of that kind of being. It's like you and I are of the humankind. They were of the God kind. So they were, like you and I, are humans. The Word, Christ, and the Father were of the God kind.

And then it continues, and it says, he was, that's the Word, he was in the beginning with God. So it basically re-emphasizes what he just said, that he is eternal, and the two were together in the beginning, in the beginning. And so it shows two beings, not three. And then it says, in verse 3, all things were made through him, and without him nothing was made that was made. So in other words, the Word, which became Christ, was the one that through him everything was made, obviously, according to the plan and the desire and the instruction of the Father. And therefore, we get to the point of creation. So they existed, they were eternal, but the Word created everything. So everything that has been created has been made, was made by Jesus Christ through him. Obviously, with God's power, but the Father delegated to Jesus Christ to do that. And that explains why he's the beginning, the Alpha and the Omega beginning and the end. Everything was done by Christ, and he is the initiator, and he's going to complete this task. And this task that the Father gave him is the task of creating under the guidance and instruction and love and care of the Father of creating children into that family.

So, he created everything. As we read, and we're not going to go there, we read, for instance, in Ephesians and in Colossians, it says that he created even angels. And so, what was first? Was it created angels? Was it first? Or created the earth?

Well, when we look at Job 38 in verse 4. So let's look at Job 38 verse 4. In Job 38 verse 4, it says, Job 38 verse 4, it says, Where were you, Job, when I lay the foundations of the earth? Job, where were you? Now, the story of Job is a very, very, very interesting story. As a man, there was righteous. Indeed, he was righteous.

And then Satan came around and says, Ah, you see that man, you know. And he is only righteous because he knows you're going to reward him. So, which is true. God will bless us, you know, as we obey him. But there's no guarantee that life will not have challenges. We all will have challenges because that makes us better people, one way or another. But God said, Okay, fine. And then you know the story. He got to a point where he lost everything and he became ill, etc. And then his friends came about and told him, Job, you're going through this because you've done something wrong. And he said, I've done nothing wrong. And then another friend comes up and says, George, you and, I'm George, Job, you are this because you've done something wrong. And he said, No, I haven't done anything wrong. And then it goes on. So, so then they say, Look, you're just self-righteous. You're just, you're self-righteous. He says, No, I'm not. And then he says, I wish I could talk to God. You know, put God here. Let us, like in a court case, that I can talk to God and, and argue my point, my defense. I've done nothing wrong.

And then that really retakes his friends, says, Come on, you're self-righteous. And then there's a fourth friend says, Job, you're not quite writing in kind of putting that in front of God to talk that way. But then God actually talks to him. And God says, Job, where were you when I lay the foundations of the earth? Job, how do you know these animals that exist? Could you have created them? Can you decide how this happens and that happens and where the water stops and where the sea stops and where the beach starts and all that and you control that? Can you do that? No. So, Job understands that your understanding is at this level.

And God's understanding is at that level. And you just don't know everything. And therefore, Job then realized he didn't have all the answers and he's in God's hands and he repented in dust and ashes. So, you know the story. Very interesting to follow that. But he has a specific instance where he says, where were you, Job, when I lay the foundations of the earth? Now, what are the foundations of the earth? Now, you and I know by studying it a little bit deeper, you know that the earth, the foundations, is basically kept because of certain laws of nature that God created that affects gravitational pull, that affects inertia, and the earth is around its place and stays in place. In other words, it's founded and stays in that place due to these orbital strengths and energies and laws of natures and physics. Where were you when you, I worked this out.

Where were you when I did this? And then he says, and when I did that, Job, in verse 7, when I did that, Job, that's when the angels, you know, with the morning stars, sang together. And the sons of God, not by birth, but because they were created by him, so in that sense, the sons of God, you know, was the angel, the angelic role, shouted for joy.

And now we know that the creation of the heavens and of the earth, because of the heavens, that's the foundation of the earth, that's how the earth keeps in its place. It's all these heavenly bodies, so it keeps in its place. And we know the angels were created before this physical creation, because when God did this physical creation, the angels sang together and shouted for joy.

Therefore, going back to Genesis 1, verse 1, 1. In the beginning, God, Elohim, created the heavens and the earth, the heavenly bodies and the earth. And we know, by going to other scriptures, as John and Job, that the angels were already there when God created the heavens and the earth.

It appears from what we study, and by reading other scriptures like Revelation 12 and others, that God placed a third of the heavens to be on earth to improve the earth, to beautify, to complete. And we don't know how long ago that was.

The problem that happened is that over the course of time, the leader of those angels that were on earth, Romeld. And we read that in Ezekiel 28. So if let's go to Ezekiel 28. Ezekiel 28.

We read starting from verse 12, and it's talking me out to the king of Tyre, which by reading the previous verses, it was talking first to the prince of Tyre. And by reading the context, we see that the first part of Ezekiel 28 is talking about a physical leader. And the second part of Ezekiel 28, starting from verse 12, is actually talking about the spiritual leader, which we know by reading the context, it actually is Satan. So it's actually referring to Satan. It says, you were the seal of perfection, full of wisdom and perfect in beauty.

It was when God created this being. He was the seal of perfection.

He was very bright and intelligent and absolutely beautiful.

So, you were Eden, Eden, the Garden of God. So that means that the whole earth at that time when God created it must have been an Eden. You were there in that garden. Every precious stone was you covering the sardus, topaz, diamond, barrel, or next just, etc., etc. The workmanship of your timbrels and pipes. In other words, he was an outstanding musician. He had power to, I mean, knowledge capability to make wonderful music. He was prepared for you on the day you were created. He was angels like this angel.

Super beautiful, extremely perfect, full of wisdom, a great musician. That's how he was created by God.

You, verse 14, were the anointed carob. So he was a carob who covers. So he had a responsibility as you read about the occult, the covenant that had two carob's covering. So he was one of those that's around God's throne, symbolizing God's throne. He was one of those that covered. And I established you. You were on the holy mountain of God. You were right there in the kingdom of God, in God's government, right there at the top of the government. You walked back and forth in the midst of fiery stones. You were perfect in your ways from the day you were created. God created a perfect being. Beautiful, outstanding musician, very intelligent.

That's how God created. However, total iniquity was found in you. All that beauty, all that importance, every other angelic being coming to him and says, oh you're so beautiful, oh you're so smart, oh you're so clever, you so, you get such a great musician, you make great music, you are first that God to his head.

What we'd call today, he got a big head.

He lost humility. He became proud and arrogant. And that's why one of the first beatitudes that we need to have and never lose is humility. So important.

And then verse 16, by the abundance of your trading. And trading is this negotiating thing. Well, if you do this, I do that. It's actually selling. Salesman is talking. In other words, he was trading, he was selling, he was a great salesman. The best salesman out there. He had the best sales policies out there. So by the abundance of that, you became filled with violence within and you sinned. Therefore, I cast you as a profound thing out of the mountain of God, out of the kingdom of God.

And I destroyed you, O covering Caleb, from the midst of the firing stones. Verse 17, your heart was lifted up. In other words, he was proud. He became arrogant. Why? Because of your beauty.

And that wisdom became corrupt. That wisdom is very intelligent, very bright, but that intelligence led him the wrong way.

Some people can be very bright, but if it leads the wrong way, it's corrupt. That wonderful capabilities of being a great musician became a corrupt musician.

Yes, he can make wonderful music, but underneath it there is corruption.

I cast you to the ground.

I laid you before kings, they might gaze at you. So you were thrown out. So what we have is, he was thrown to the earth. Let's jump. I know there's others we could continue reading and read more about him, but for the context here of my sermon today, I want to now jump to Isaiah 14. Isaiah 14, which is the other scripture which talks about how Satan became corrupted. Talks a little bit more about this desire that he had, because he was so beautiful. And before he started getting to his head that I'm important. And look at in verse 12.

How are you fallen from heaven? He was thrown out, he cost out to the earth. Isaiah 14 12. How are you fallen from heaven? Or Hillel, as he says in Hebrews, translated in some Bibles as Lucifer, in others as Daystar. Or Hillel is more like related, like a bright star.

You, son of one, are mourning. How are you cut down to the ground? You weaken the nations.

Why? Verse 13. Because of 4. You have said in your heart, I will ascend into heaven. I will exalt my throne above the stars of God, above the other angels. I will also sit on the Mount of the congregation, you know, the Kingdom of God, on the farthest sides of the north. I will ascend above the heights of the clouds. I will be like the Most High.

And yet you shall be brought down to show to the lowest depths of the pit.

So basically what we have here is a being that became vine. It was created perfect, created beautiful, but it got to his end. And here is a danger to all of us. We've got to be careful. We must not allow things to get to our heads. Success. People get successful. Get successful in business. Get successful in the church. And they lose humility. And what is the end result?

Division and splits and things like that. It's just why? Because there's lack of humility.

That's why whenever there's a split, I say, you've got to look at the Genesis. We've got to look at the Genesis. How did Satan get this way? We've got to look at the beginning.

We read, for instance, in Jude chapter 6. Read with me in Jude chapter 6, just before Revelation.

And now we're just jumping today into the context, showing that there's going to be sinful people and the attitudes of these people, what they are. But it says, in a sense, they are like these angels, which is in verse 6, and the angels would not keep the proper domain. They do not keep themselves where they should be. And where should you be? We should be in the place that God puts us and just stay right there and do what God tells us what to do, and God will bless us. And when you want to go beyond that and he says, I shall exalt me, I will be this. Be careful, because then you're not staying in a proper domain. It wasn't just Satan, but it was a number of angels that he took with him.

He says, but the left, they own a boat, they own position where they should be, and for them, he has reserved everlasting chains and a darkness for the judgment day. So they are restrained today.

Thank God they are restrained. Imagine if they were not restrained until the judgment. They will have a day of judgment. It's not today, it's not 10 years time, it's not in 30 years time, is on the last day. They will have a judgment. And so what we do have here is these angelic beings rebelled. And when they rebelled, as we read, for instance, in Revelation 12, they were thrown to the earth, like a third of them were thrown back into the earth. And then we continue in Revelation chapter 1 verse 2. Because of that, the outcome is that now, after all this, the earth now was to you and bow you.

There were a number of events that happened. And in these chapters, it's just a very short synopsis. But the earth, as a result of that, was or became without form and void, toe you and bow you.

Also that happened for an undefined period of time. It doesn't say when it became like that for one year, or for two years, or for a million years. You don't know. I don't know. I don't know how many years the angels were ruling on earth. It doesn't say. We don't need to know that for salvation.

One day we will know. But for today, we don't need to know.

The interesting thing is this, then, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters. So the earth existed and the waters already existed.

The waters already existed. Why? Well, because the heavens and the earth had been created long before and there was a cataclysmic destruction, like a big nuclear explosion. And now it was like a nuclear cloud covering the earth. A mess. A mess. Told you and bow you. It was a mess.

And so God then said, let's now get this act cleaned up. Let's get this cleaned up and move forwards with my plan of creating children of God. And so the first thing he said, we read in verse 3, and God said, let there be light. And there was light. It didn't say created light. He just said, as looking at from a being living on earth, says you couldn't see any light. It was completely dark because there was this big, let's call it a nuclear cloud or something like a big cloud because of this cataclysmic disaster. And there was no light coming to planet earth. And as a being there says, okay, let there be light. So start cleaning up this mess of the heavens. And so the light started to shine through. It's like today. It's a day which is overcast. So even though you and I do not see the sun, you and I know there is a sun out there and there's a moon and there's stars, but you can't see it because but there is light and you can see day and night because during the day there's more light and during the night it's a lot darker, but it's still overcast. So that understands. And therefore it says and it says and it was day and night. God called them the light day and the darkness called night and it was evening and the morning and the first day.

And now we have a day, 24 hours. Why? Because the earth is rotating around its axis every 24 hours and therefore you have day and night. All that we have is that dark atmospheric garbage that's been cleaned up enough that it's still overcast, but now you have sufficient light coming through that you can see day and night. And that's what we have there, allowing light to filter in.

Then we get on to verse 6 and it says, let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters and let it divide the waters from the waters. So let now start to be a separation of the waters, the waters in the heavens with the waters on earth and start creating land and seas and that separation. And this is and God called that the firmament heaven and so the evening and the morning with the second day. So now we have the second day. Again, interesting, it's the evening and the morning is the day. It shows that the way God counts the days is from sunset, from the beginning of the evening and the rest of the day is the day portion, the evening and the day, the second day.

So then it says, let the waters under the heavens be gathered to get into one place and dry land. Sorry, this is where you get the dry land. So and God called the dry land earth and he called the the sea. So that's the third day. So the first, the second day was more separation of the waters in the heavens and the third day the separation of the land and seas.

And so that again was the third day verse 13 and also allowed vegetation. Now this is interesting because now he created vegetation according to its kind. Now this is an interesting point. Vegetation requires leaves, plants, trees require light from the sun, a thing called photosynthesis. You require light from the sun. Therefore you needed the sun to start shining for the plants to thrive.

So that's why we know it's a 24-hour day because the next day, the next day which starts on verse 14, it's actually when it cleans up further the heavenly bodies, the heaven, the clouds and the sun start shining through so that you can see the sun, the moon and the stars. That's what it says in verse 14. Let there be and it says let there be. It doesn't say create, it says let it be. You know it was let it shine, let it let it be. Lights in the ferment of the heavens to divide the day from the night and let them be for times and seasons and for days and years.

So the clouds are cleared, the sun shines through and they had been there, note, before because they were created in Genesis 1 verse 1. They had been created right there long before. It's just that now the light could be shining through.

And another interesting point is let them be for signs and the word signs is oath which means distinguishing marks. So the movement of the heavenly bodies are to give us certain distinguishing marks. Distinguishing marks like eclipses and equinoxes and solstice and all that very solid eclipse, lunar eclipse, etc. And these are distinguishing marks so that you can determine seasons. But the word seasons could be translated also as appointed times. So you could use from this determine the seasons or obviously because it's a universal clock you can now calculate the appointed times which leads to God's early days, God's festivals, and also it says and let them be also for days and years.

In other words, to work out a calendar. So based on this, this is one of the root scriptures used by God right at the beginning there that shows what are we to develop a calendar. It's not, by the way, talking only about the moon. It's talking about the heavenly bodies, the lights in the ferment of the heavens. So it's the sun, the moon, and the stars because you can read also there in verse 16.

So God made these two great lights and the greater light to rule the day. When he says made, does not mean he made at this moment. It could have been very well the word made. He says I made, doesn't mean I made it now, I could have made it long ago.

Right? And so God made them when he created them, he made them, right? And made these lights to rule the day and the greater light to rule the day and the lesser light to rule the night and he also made the stars. And he said, and that is the fourth day. So we get down to the fourth day. And now we get to verse 21, 20 and 21.

And then it says now with the waters, God created, and as I mentioned earlier on, it's when God created living animals in the sea. So God created these living creatures. So that's day five. Then we get to day six, which is in verse 24 and 25, that then made living creatures and the word for living creatures, like he made living creatures in the sea, which is in a fish, which is elsewhere some places translate as soul, but it means a living creature. And then it says in verse 26, it let us make man in our image.

So and it says and in our likeness. So they're again pointing to the purpose that God has in mind to create children of God. You can tie that in with scriptures like 1st John 3 verse 1 through 3 that says, now you are children of God, but you're not yet what you shall be. So that shows the purpose for mankind. So we in this book, it only touches things that happen very, very briefly in these first 11 chapters.

And we're only kind of we're only reading the first chapter so far as we go into the second chapter. Then we get when he says that God on the seventh day, God entered his work, arrested and blessed the seventh day and sanctified and rested and therein he appointed your Sabbath. The Sabbath, the weekly cycle has never been lost, never been lost. There's no disagreement that which day is that seventh day of the week. I know that mankind has been trying to count days wrong and things like that, but it's never been disagreement.

For instance, we know that Christ kept the Sabbath. We know that the Jews today still keep the Sabbath. And we know that people during places in the year 325 through the Council of Nisaya, they were forced to change to keep Sunday instead of seven. And so we know that there has been an attempt by Satan to change the Sabbath to Sunday. But we know that the Sabbath has always been a weekly cycle.

So when people come out and say, no, the Sabbath begins the Sabbath every month, there's no way that you one week, one month, you have Sabbath on a Saturday, then a month like you have a Sabbath on a Tuesday, a month like that you have Sabbath on a Wednesday or a Thursday. That is ridiculous. That is false. That is completely utterly nonsense.

And God created this weekly cycle. And that has never changed, has never been lost. Yes, the Catholic Church clearly admits. I remember in South Africa, I was a Catholic and I had a catechism. I don't know why I threw it away. I shouldn't have thrown it away because I could have pointed to it. But I had this catechism when I start becoming interesting to the Church. I read it and says, the churches that say that the Bible was changed, changed the Sabbath to Sunday, they're wrong because we changed Sabbath to Sunday.

And no way in the Bible says that changed. Therefore, those churches that keep Sunday are following our papal authority. And our booklet, the Sabbath from sunset to sunset, actually has got some Catholic quotes that specifically state that. So the Sabbath has never changed. And then we read it also in chapter 2 verse 7 that God formed a man out of the dust. And then it was like a doll or a little corpse. And then God breathed into man the breath of life, as we call it, the spirit of man in man.

And man then became a living being. The word there is the fish. Some hours translated man became a living soul. But he became. We are a living being while we live. We are living beings. We do not have a living being inside us.

In other words, we do not have a soul. We are a living being. And that's another point that it shows very clearly. Yeah. Then we get to chapter 3 and people say, oh chapter 3, oh that's the fall of man. It means, in fact, in some Bibles you may have a little title there at the beginning of chapter 3 says, the temptation and fall of man. Well, it wasn't man that fell. It was Satan that fell was thrown to the earth. We can read, for instance, in scriptures like in Luke 10 verse 18, where Christ says, I saw Satan falling to earth. Christ said that, I saw it. It was Satan's fall. To the earth. That made the earth, toe you and bow you without shape and completely empty.

And then, but later we get to Satan's lies and deception. And we can see in verse 6 and 7, you can see Satan said to the woman, oh you won't die. You won't die. And the woman said, oh the tree looked good for food and pleasant for the eyes and desirable to make one wise. Therefore, I'm going to take off the fruit. A couple of points here. First, because he's Satan, he is mixing truth with error. And that deception is always that, mixing a little bit of truth with a little bit of error. You see it everywhere. Everywhere. As far as religion, as far as science. There's a lot of false science, like evolution. It's mixing truth with error. As far as politics, truth with error. You take a little bit of truth, yeah, I take a little bit of error, yeah. And it sounds true because you're mentioning all the same truth, but you inject a little bit of error, yeah. And it's so subtle. And that's what Satan has been doing. He is, you read in Revelation 12 verse 9, he's a deceiver of the whole world. That he, that's what he's got a master degree in. To deceive. He deceived the angels. Well, before the creation of the earth. A paper before, before the, when it fell and when it became corrupted, and then caused the earth to be told you and bow you. So long before the six thousand years of creation of man. That's what I should have said. So, so, Satan is a master deceiver. He's got a degree in that. And, and another point, the fruit, yeah, is says it's the fruit of the, of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. By the way, it's not an apple. It's not an apple. Doesn't say it's an apple. Another is the fig. It's, it's, it's, it's a fruit of a tree of not you live. He has another important point. God gave Adam and Eve a choice of two trees, a tree of life and a tree of the knowledge of good and evil. The tree of life is that God tells us the knowledge of what is good and what is evil. And we believe God and we trust God. This other tree is that you don't trust God and you decide for yourself what is good and evil. And therefore, the end result of the fruits of it is death. Therefore, you can say the tree of life and the tree of death. The tree of God gives us you the, as the knowledge of good and evil or the tree that you decide for yourself what is good and evil. And today, brethren, if you look at society, you look at children, you look at things in schools, etc., well, there's no standards. You, you've got to decide what is right for you. You make your own decision. Well, you, you don't know whether you are a boy or a girl. You kind of have to kind of make, come to a decision, whatever it is.

Once we drop the knowledge of what God tells us, we are following the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, which is the way of death. And that's why God says in the Deuteronomy 30, I call heaven and earth before you. Look at in verse 19, Deuteronomy 30 verse 19, choose life. I give you life and I give you death. I give you blessing and I give you cursing. Choose life that it may be well with you, that you may prosper. What is God's will?

God's will is that you choose life. God's will is that you may prosper. God's will is that you may be in good health. That's God's will. Now, we do have to go from sufferings to learn lessons, because God thinks that the higher plane than what we're thinking. But God's ultimate will is that we will be healthy, even if not now, in the world tomorrow, in the kingdom, when we become spirit beings, we'll be absolutely healthy, absolutely well. And that's what his desire is for us. Then, he gives a punishment yah to the land and to the woman, and he says, and look at it in verse 15, which is an interesting scripture yah, he says, I'll put enmity between you and the woman. So basically, Satan and the woman, literally that woman Eve, but you've got to look at this at various layers, duality, because it's between Satan and the church, and between Satan and the church is the body of Christ. So it's between Satan and Christ as well, because he says, between your seed, which is Satan's seed, and her seed, the woman's seed, which is Christ.

So there's going to be enmity between Satan and Christ, and he says, he shall bruise your head. Ultimately, Christ will bruise the head of Satan.

Reading Revelation, I beg pardon, in Romans 16 verse 20. Romans 16 verse 20 says that Satan will be squashed, destroyed below our feet. That's what it is. And so he says, you'll bruise your head, and you, that Satan will bruise his heel. In other words, Christ's heel and the church's heel. Satan does, did put Christ to death, and yes, he did die, but that was according to God's plan, because through that he resurrected, and he's given us the redemption through his blood, for us to be sons of God.

And then we get to the sense of people like Cain, and we can see that Eve saw a children like Cain and Abel, but he saw terrible family issues coming from that. So when there are problems in the family, when you do things not quite correctly, problems will propagate to the children, difficultly. So we can see that. And in verse 7, we see the situation that God said to Cain, why are you angry? If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin lies at the door. So he eyes Cain, becoming a very sinful person, and God is saying to him, hey, if you do well, you'll be accepted. But if you do not do well, sin lies at the door, and its desire is for you. But you should rule over it. You and I are to rule. Yes, we have physical desires and things that are always pulling us, the last of the flesh, the last of the eyes, the last of things green. It's there. But we have to overcome it, because he says, you should rule over it. With God's Holy Spirit, we have to have self-control and control ourselves. We are to rule.

So God admonished Cain to control himself. Then we get down to the family trees, and then we get a bit further in Genesis chapter 6, where we see that mankind sinned. Mankind, all mankind, start going wrong and wrong and worse and worse and worse.

And then it says, and he says, and where men we came to reply on the face of the earth, and daughters were born to them, that the sons of God, that were those that we are really, because we all are sons of God, one way or another, through Adam, because Adam was the son of God. But when we are sons of God, that means we are obeying God. When we are sons of Satan, because even Christ said to the Pharisees, that is, you are the sons of the devil. You know, when we're following wrong things. So those that were more obedient to God, saw the daughters of man, and they kind of intermarried with people, let's call it, not in the faith, and they caused problems. And so God saw this just getting worse and worse, because when we have people, for instance, in the faith, and start intermarrying with people, not in the faith, what happens? If the ones not in the faith, pull them down. Just like happened to Solomon, the wives pulled him down. That's what it is. And so the Lord said, My spirit shall not thrive with man. So the whole thing he has about man, talking about man and mankind, for he is indeed flesh. Yet his day shall be 120 years. In other words, mankind has another 120 years till I bring the flood. So there's going to be another 120 years till the flood.

At that time, you know, the genetic pool was very strong. So there were people of different characteristics, people stronger, people weaker, people taller, people smaller, and because the genetic pool was... And he says, there were giants on the earth in those days. And also afterwards, when the sons of men, that was those more godly type people, came to daughters of man that were not godly, you know, and they brought children and those were the mighty men, were of old, men of renown. And they just... Weakness became worse and worse and worse. Mankind was sinning, and it became worse and worse and worse. And then we read, and then the Lord saw that the weakness of man was great. You can see the context. He's talking about man. Now some people think, oh well, this means that angels... No, it's not angels, because angels can't procreate. Angels do not have six organs. Otherwise, we would have angelic beings with children and more children and more children. But there's no angelic beings there. Angels were being created and they stayed there. That's it. They don't procreate. We read that in Luke 20, verse 34 to 36. And then you can see the weakness grew, and then we get to a point that one man was just and he walked with God. So this man, although his family was not, but he was a faithful man, and through him God brought the flood, and through him mankind continued after God destroyed that weakness. Then we can see that as time moved on, there was a man called Canaan that was cursed for what he did. Look at Genesis chapter 9, verse 24 and 25. Genesis chapter 9, verse 24 and verse 25 says, Now Noah awoke from his wine and knew that his youngest son had done to him. Now which youngest son? Because some people think, oh well, maybe it was his youngest son which was Ham. No, it wasn't Ham. It was Canaan. Because it was Ham's youngest son. Let's read that in the context by starting in verse 22. And Ham, the father of Canaan, so Yah is saying Ham was a father of Canaan. So Yah is bringing already Canaan into the picture. So the nakedness of his father Noah and told his two brothers outside. And then we see, so the two brothers came and they helped taking cover up his father. And then root in verse 24, So Noah awoke from his wine. So Noah that had been drunk had done this. He woke up, he recovered, and knew that his youngest son, whose his, Ham's, in the context of verse 22, was Ham. Ham that saw this, Ham that called the brothers. And so Noah, when he woke up, he saw Ham's youngest son had done to him. How do we know who's Ham's youngest son? Well, if you go a bit further to Genesis 10 verse 6, you see the sons of Ham were Kush, Mizraim, Put, and Canaan. So the youngest son of Ham was Canaan. So the son that sinned was Canaan. And that's why in verse 24, in the half part of verse 24, she's cursed by Canaan. Because Canaan is the one that did the sin.

So, brethren, what do we have here? And then we have the genealogy that goes, and then that follows from there. And then in chapter 12, we have the story of Abraham, and that he indeed was the first one, the first family that followed God, in which there was a father and a son relationship of believers. And when you think about the analogy of Abraham and Isaac, and the sacrifice, it really typifies the sacrifice that the father did for the son of Jesus the Christ. It's a wonderful analogy, which I intend to go into that in the next sermon next week, about the blessings to Abraham. But what we have here is that at that time, from there, we can see from Canaan. From Canaan, then, there was a son, and a son became Nimrod, and from Nimrod, there was a Tower of Babel, and the Tower of Babel was a division of languages. Why? Because Nimrod was a mighty hunting man, and he did things in sin, in outright disgust against God. And basically, he was saying, guys, don't follow the religion of Shem. Follow my dictates, my ideas. And from there, it became Babylon, and Babylonia, and all the Babylonian beliefs that treated from there. That is the beginning. And that's why in these 11 chapters, things are just very short, very short, very brief, because we don't need to know all these details, because they're not essential for salvation. But there's enough there to actually give us a beginning, an historic beginning of the beginnings of humanity. But from Abraham onwards, we have his faithfulness, and the nation of Israel, and through his seed, which was Christ, all that kind of develops, and from there, the Bible really gets into the meat of the subject. So, what we have here is a little bit of an introduction, addressing some questions that people have. I did address some of the questions that people have from these first few chapters of Genesis. I covered them. And from here onwards, God now works through an obedient family, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.