Today is the beginning of the Bible Reading Challenge (BRC)! I am starting in the Book of Beginnings - Genesis. Chapters 1-3 tell of the Creation of the Earth and of Mankind. It also tells of how sin entered Paradise and why were separated from talking to God directly. When you read something over and over, you get something new from it, a different meaning perhaps, or maybe a different light of things. I have read the book of Genesis about three times all the way through, but I never really read it. I read it, but didn’t take it to heart. Know what I mean? I am going to share with you some of the things that ‘caught my eye’, persay, that I wrote down in my Bible Notebook. If you did yours, please leave a comment with the link for your post so I can go and read it!
Genesis 1 - The Creation Of The World
Day 1 of Creation 1In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. 2And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. (I am thinking this means the deep waters since that was what covered the whole Earth before God separated it.) And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. 3And God said, Let there be light: and there was light. 4And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness. 5And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day.” I was thinking about this verse. God had not yet made the Sun and the Moon yet, so where was the light coming from? From God, I think. I had never realized that until today. I always thought that He had made the Sun and the Moon first to give the light.
Day 2 of Creation “6And God said, Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters. 7And God made the firmament, and divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament: and it was so. 8And God called the firmament Heaven. And the evening and the morning were the second day.” Now God makes the Heavens… Then I thought, Well, where was God if He wasn’t in Heaven in the first place? He was the Heavens, He was the ‘everything’ there was. Doesn’t that boggle the imagination?
Day 3 of Creation “9And God said, Let the waters under the heaven be gathered together unto one place, and let the dry land appear: and it was so. 10And God called the dry land Earth; and the gathering together of the waters called he Seas: and God saw that it was good. 11And God said, Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed is in itself, upon the earth: and it was so. 12And the earth brought forth grass, and herb yielding seed after his kind, and the tree yielding fruit, whose seed was in itself, after his kind: and God saw that it was good. 13And the evening and the morning were the third day.” He gathered the waters so that the Earth would appear, and so it could bring forth the grass, and herbs and trees. Do you notice that God says “his kind”? It’s like He is talking about a person. No, He’s talking about the plants.
Day 4 of Creation “14And God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and years: 15And let them be for lights in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth: and it was so. 16And God made two great lights; the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night: he made the stars also. 17And God set them in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth, 18And to rule over the day and over the night, and to divide the light from the darkness: and God saw that it was good. 19And the evening and the morning were the fourth day.” This is where He made the Sun and the Moon and the Stars. The Heavens are the Space. The Sun and the Moon are to give light for keep track of the seasons and for days and years.
Day 5 of Creation “20And God said, Let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creature that hath life, and fowl that may fly above the earth in the open firmament of heaven. 21And God created great whales, and every living creature that moveth, which the waters brought forth abundantly, after their kind, and every winged fowl after his kind: and God saw that it was good. 22And God blessed them, saying, Be fruitful, and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let fowl multiply in the earth. 23And the evening and the morning were the fifth day.” He did not make all the animals on Day 5, He only made the sea animals and the birds and things that flew. I always got the impression that He made all the animals on the 5th Day and then Adam was made on the 6th, and then God rested on the 7th.
Day 6 of Creation “24And God said, Let the earth bring forth the living creature after his kind, cattle, and creeping thing, and beast of the earth after his kind: and it was so. 25And God made the beast of the earth after his kind, and cattle after their kind, and every thing that creepeth upon the earth after his kind: and God saw that it was good. 26And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. 27So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them. 28And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.” Now He makes the land animals and Adam. He wanted Adam to have the dominion over the sea animals and the land animals and all the birds. Do you notice that God said “Sea creatures and the fowl and land animals?” There are three different groups of animals. I thought that was neat. God gave Adam all these animals to have as his companions. He wanted him to be superior to the animals.
“29And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat. 30And to every beast of the earth, and to every fowl of the air, and to every thing that creepeth upon the earth, wherein there is life, I have given every green herb for meat: and it was so. 31And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good. And the evening and the morning were the sixth day.” God did not give Adam animals meat to eat for his meat, He gave him green herbs, fruit and nuts and seeds. Even all the animals were vegetarian. We were watching a video on YouTube, it was one of Kent Hoven’s seminars, and he was talking about Creation. He said that many scientists can ‘tell’ what an exstinc animal ate because the size of the teeth. They were all vegetarians. That is why you can survive on veggies and fruit. Did you know that the apricot seed has the most B17 vitamin of any other plant that you can consume? It does. That’s why the people who grew apricot trees lived to be 120 instead of just 80-90 years-old.
Genesis 2 - The Beginning of the World (continued)
Day 7 - He rests “1Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them. 2And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made; and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made. 3And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it: because that in it he had rested from all his work which God created and made. 4These are the generations of the heavens and of the earth when they were created, in the day that the LORD God made the earth and the heavens, 5And every plant of the field before it was in the earth, and every herb of the field before it grew: for the LORD God had not caused it to rain upon the earth, and there was not a man to till the ground. 6But there went up a mist from the earth, and watered the whole face of the ground.” So God has made everything - the lights, the animals, the land, the seas, Man, plants, trees, birds. He has worked and laboured all week long, and now He rests. I have never thought about why the Jews always rest on the Sabbath and can’t do any work, not even cook meals. The only work they can do is walk to the synagogue. That is because the Lord sanctified it and made it the Holy Day because He had rested from all His work. He commanded His people in the Ten Commandments to rest on the Sabbath. But we will talk more about this when we get there!
“7And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul. 8And the LORD God planted a garden eastward in Eden; and there he put the man whom he had formed. 9And out of the ground made the LORD God to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food; the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of knowledge of good and evil. 10And a river went out of Eden to water the garden; and from thence it was parted, and became into four heads. 11The name of the first is Pison: that is it which compasseth the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold; 12And the gold of that land is good: there is bdellium and the onyx stone. 13And the name of the second river is Gihon: the same is it that compasseth the whole land of Ethiopia. 14And the name of the third river is Hiddekel: that is it which goeth toward the east of Assyria. And the fourth river is Euphrates.” Here is the part where you have the details of how God made Adam. All He did was take some dirt, form it into the shape of a Man, and breath Life into him. He also tells where Adam lived in this verse and what it was like where he lived. The Tree of Life was in the middle of the Garden, and so was the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. The Four Rivers were the ones that watered all the lands. They must have been mighty big rivers!
“15And the LORD God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it. 16And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat: 17But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.” He put Adam in charge of everything He had made. He warns him that if he eats of the ‘bad tree’ he will be separated from God and he will die. It makes one think that if Adam and Eve had not sinned, no one had sinned, maybe Adam would be here today. Maybe he would’ve lived forever in the Garden and all his descendents there too.
“18And the LORD God said, It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him an help meet for him. 19And out of the ground the LORD God formed every beast of the field, and every fowl of the air; and brought them unto Adam to see what he would call them: and whatsoever Adam called every living creature, that was the name thereof. 20And Adam gave names to all cattle, and to the fowl of the air, and to every beast of the field; but for Adam there was not found an help meet for him.” This kind of confused me, but then I realized that God made Adam first and then made the animals to see if there was a helpmeet among them for him. All the animals came from the ground just like Adam did.
“21And the LORD God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam, and he slept: and he took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh instead thereof; 22And the rib, which the LORD God had taken from man, made he a woman, and brought her unto the man. 23And Adam said, This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh: she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man. 24Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh. 25And they were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed.” Since there wasn’t a helpmeet made for him, God made one of him. He took his rib, his lower rib and made a woman. (Did you know that if you take your lower rib out, it will grow back? It’s the only one that will! Ironic huh?) God took a rib, not a foot, not part of Adam brain or scull, his rib. The middle of him. Then Adam made a rule that when you are going to get married to your spouse, you leave your mother and father and go be by yourself, they shall be one flesh. They were also naked, and weren’t ashamed because they didn’t know the difference between right and wrong. What would our world be like if they hadn’t sinned?
Genesis 3 - The Fall Of Mankind
“1Now the serpent was more subtil than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden? 2And the woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden: 3But of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die. 4And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die: 5For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.” Here is the Fall of Man. Satan chose a beautiful creature, the Serpent, to inhabit and beguile Eve with. This is where Satan, the father of all lies, deceives Eve with a lie that will ruin it for the rest of us. He uses God’s own words to trap Eve, telling her God is hiding something from them. Yes, He was hiding something from them - sin and death. I think I would like Him to keep that hidden and not let me see it! Satan deceives Eve into thinking that she needs to be a god, and that the only way to achieve that is by disobeying.
“6And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat. 7And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together, and made themselves aprons. 8And they heard the voice of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day: and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God amongst the trees of the garden. 9And the LORD God called unto Adam, and said unto him, Where art thou? 10And he said, I heard thy voice in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked; and I hid myself.” She Eve ate the fruit and her eyes were opened to the knowledge of good and evil. She could not only let herself have this wonderful thing, she thought, she had to give some to Adam. So he ate it, because he trusted his wife. But then they knew something was wrong. You know how when a child does something wrong and then goes into the closet to hide? That was what Adam and Eve did. They knew that had done something wrong, and so they hid it. Adam was afraid of God knowing about it. And he probably should have been!
“11And he said, Who told thee that thou wast naked? Hast thou eaten of the tree, whereof I commanded thee that thou shouldest not eat? 12And the man said, The woman whom thou gavest to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I did eat. 13And the LORD God said unto the woman, What is this that thou hast done? And the woman said, The serpent beguiled me, and I did eat. 14And the LORD God said unto the serpent, Because thou hast done this, thou art cursed above all cattle, and above every beast of the field; upon thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life: 15And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.” Like a loving parent, God talks with Adam, finding out his sin. Adam I am sure knew something was going to happen to him, that he had ruined the Perfect Paradise that God had made for him. Then God cursed the Serpent. It wasn’t really the Serpent’s fault; it was Satan’s. But *he* didn’t care about that, because it was just a creature. He only cared about his victory over ruining God’s creation. God made the first prophesy of Christ here.
“16Unto the woman he said, I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception; in sorrow thou shalt bring forth children; and thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee. 17And unto Adam he said, Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree, of which I commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it: cursed is the ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life; 18Thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee; and thou shalt eat the herb of the field; 19In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return. 20And Adam called his wife’s name Eve; because she was the mother of all living. 21Unto Adam also and to his wife did the LORD God make coats of skins, and clothed them.” We girls are cursed with child labour because of Eve’s disobedience. We have to have pain when we bring forth children. I think He did that because His children, His joy, caused Him great pain. Children to us are so precious, and it pains us when they disobey. That is what happened to Adam and Eve. He also cursed Adam, the Man, who has to provide for his family. He cursed the ground so that it would only bring forth food if he worked and pained to do it. Gardening would be a whole lot easier if we didn’t have to pain to make things grow!
“22And the LORD God said, Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil: and now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever: 23Therefore the LORD God sent him forth from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from whence he was taken. 24So he drove out the man; and he placed at the east of the garden of Eden Cherubims, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of life.” The Lord said that we are like Him, because we know Good and Evil. The Tree of Life now is Christ. If you want to live forever, you need to take from that Tree. Because of sin, Adam and Eve lost their Perfect Paradise. But we will have it again someday! Christ will be coming back soon, and we will all see the new Garden of Eden and live in it forever!
Thank you for joining me today… sorry this is so long! I love writing about the Bible! Hoping to see many more people joining in on the Challenge soon…
Taking on the Challenge,
I hope you have enjoyed reading the thoughts and happenings of a fourteen-year-old girl from the country. “You can do all things through CHRIST who strengthens you!” Philippians 4:13
how much you mean to me. I am so thankful that God gave me such a caring, loving, wonderful mother to teach me and train me to follow in His steps.
