The Original Documents in Hebrew

 

The world's oldest copies of the biblical scrolls are found in the Shrine of Book in Israel. The Old Testament was written in Hebrew and therefore it would be useful for us to consider examining this actual original language, the Bible was written in. Unfortunately English is not rich enough to capture all of the essence of the original text. Some interpretations are word for word and others capture the "thought process" and transliterated by the interpreters as per its context.

This material, is taken mostly from the Precept upon Precept Leader's guide, shows the depth of the Hebrew language:

Let's look at some to get a feel of it:
1. In the beginning God.... God here is a plural noun and the transliteration from Hebrew to English letters is ELOHIM, the "IM" ending is plural.
God - more than one - created as One.

John 1:1-3,14 describes the Word was with God, that says that there are two distinct persons of the Godhead. But the Word also was God, and this shows that these two are indeed one in essence. The Word, the Son of God, created all things in the beginning.

Other Scriptural references are: Heb 1:2; Col 1:16; 1 Cor 8:6; Rev 4:11

2. created.... bara "emphasizes the initiation of the object... creation ex nihilo (out of nothing)." Before God created everything else, there was only God. There was nothing except Him, so creation is out of nothing.

3. ...the Spirit of God was moving, hovering or vibrating (rachaph), over the surface of the waters.

4. He "said" (amar) - to speak or say. This is mentioned 8 times. In Hebrew 11:3 ...the worlds were prepared by the Word of God".

5. He saw; raah means to look at or inspect.

6. He separated; badal means to divide or distinguish.

7. He called; qara means to call our, cry out - the light "day" the darkness "night"

Time reference is "evening and morning" - one day

The first day of creation God created the heaven and the earth; said that there should be light; saw that the light was good; separated the light from the darkness; called the light, day and the darkness, night.

8. He blessed; barak or barakh means praise, salute, kneel. It can also mean to curse.

God blessed them by telling them to be fruitful and multiply.

9. ...were "completed"; kalah can mean to accomplish, bring a process to completion, at an end, finished.

10. Rested, shabat or shabath or shavath can mean cease, desist or rest, leave off, to bring to an end.

11. He blessed it; He sanctified it; qadash or qadhash can mean holy, consecrate, to be set apart, to be clean or make clean.

The Bible is very interesting if you learnt it in its original language and context!

Astrology and marriage

 

Over the recent weekend I conducted 2 weddings and the topic of astrology was discussed over the meals I had at the wedding reception with the guest in attendance. Again Genesis became my point of contention for our Creator!

In my message to the couples I shared 7 tips to help them in their married life. The first one I have appended below:

Tip One:

As we enter marriage as two individuals we need to know that the God who created the heavens and earth is the one who binds us together. To understand the vastness of the heavens we need to consider the blessing God covenanted with Abraham. When Abraham was blessed by God to be a blessing to the nations, his descendants were numbered as the sand on the seashore (earthly blessing) as it is with the stars in the heavens (heavenly blessing). This comparison denotes to us how vast heaven is! In fact scientists are still discovering new stars, millions of light years away. The time span it takes for the information, on the position of each star or planet, to return back to us on earth from these locations maybe delayed by hours to even years later. Therefore those who believe in astrology, the creation instead of the Creator, is believing on events which is past because of the time delay!

Our individual vows are covenants made with God Almighty whom we have faith in and trust. Therefore as one person we need to have a personal relationship with this Awesome Almighty Lord and Savior - Jesus Christ, loving Him with everything that is within us. From this personal relationship we now are covenanted into a one flesh relationship with each other! This one flesh relationship can only be blessed within the context of marriage. Any sexual intercourse outside of the covenant of marriage causes one to have a soul tie. This soul tie has to be cut off before we enter into marriage otherwise we bring into our new relationship, part of the old sole tie!

Astrology and marriage is then our choice between the creation and its Creator!

Is my sacrifice acceptable?

 

Many times we are upset and angry with God for not accepting our sacrifice! Our thoughts are always self centered - self justification of the task we have "sacrificed" for God's sake. The tireless effort, the sleepless nights, the fleshly endeavor for perfection and the list go on and on....

It is interesting how God dealt with one such person. His name was Cain, if fact we all can easily relate to him and most of us will have pity for him too. Probably we would championed his cause against God's action. He worked hard on the land and toiled on that which God had cursed. As Abel did, he too desired to offer to God a sacrifice.

Most of the initial historical encounters with God would have been passed on by word of mouth by Adam and Eve. Both Cain and Abel would have been told the story of how God had clothed their parents with the sacrifice of His own creation. This offering denotes God's preference which Abel discerned. Abel's sacrifice included death of the firstlings of the flock and of their fat portion!

In the New Testament we see in Hebrew 11 that Abel acted in faith in obedient response to what he had discerned of God's Word or His nature. Cain on the other hand didn't discern and became angry with God for not accepting his offering. The warning by God that, "sin is crouching at the door and its desire is for you, but you must master it", was not heeded to by Cain.

This led to hate and eventually murder, the first man to be killed by another in God's creation. Our Lord Jesus Christ too was killed but He chose to lay down His life for mankind. We are called to discern and be like Christ, to love others and to lay down our lives for them.

The test of Godly sacrifice is when I can say to my brother I will lay my life down for you. This does not mean words only but action like what Jesus did!

Jesus is the reason for every season!

 

"A worldview is a way of viewing or interpreting all reality. It is an interpretative framework through which or by which one makes sense of the data of life and the world," (Norman Geisler and William Watkins). True science is not contradictory to what God has said in Scripture and therefore knowing the Truth will set those who believe it and live by it, free!

If we failed to believe Genesis Chapter 1 and 2, we would have to throw the whole Bible away as the rest of the Bible without it, will not make sense! If we believe that Holiness and Sin does not mix we can start to believe the deeper Truths of God's Word. In fact, even Jesus Christ cried out,"Why have You forsaken Me?", when Father God had to turn away from Him! This was done because all the sins of the world was placed on Jesus to redeem mankind and a holy Father God will not tolerate sin! This reminds me of the picture of the serpent on the cross which Moses lifted up in the wilderness!

We must believe nothing is too difficult for the Lord (Jer 32 - Lord God made heaven and earth by great power and outstretched arm) and we should see to it that no one takes us captive with worldviews (Col 2 - philosophy, empty deception, tradition of men and principles of the world).

Jesus is the reason for all of our existence so let us glorify His name!

The voice of your brother's blood is crying to Me.....

 

God's command for mankind is founded on these 2 questions, "Where are you? and Where is Abel your brother?" The answers, whether a "blame shifting" response or an "blatant outright lie", are very common today! But God's Truth continue to echo back to us throughout the ages and that Truth is in His Greatest Commandment.

In Mark 12:28-31 we note, "One of the religion scholars came up. Hearing the lively exchanges of question and answer and seeing how sharp Jesus was in his answers, he put in his question: "Which is most important of all the commandments?" Jesus said, "The first in importance is, 'Listen, Israel: The Lord your God is one; so love the Lord God with all your passion and prayer and intelligence and energy.' And here is the second: 'Love others as well as you love yourself.' There is no other commandment that ranks with these."

Abel discerned God's desire for an acceptable sacrifice but Cain didn't and that led to anger, jealousy and eventually murder. Today our total being is to be presented to God as a reasonable act of service on our part! It doesn't stop there but it extends to our love for "others". This all inclusive "others" range from our spouse to our enemies!

Our failure to be our brother's keeper has caused many to stray and some to even fall away! Is there a voice crying out to God's for our failure to speak up???

Who told you that you were naked?

 

...the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. There is a pathway to choose in life and God provides the way of escape when we are tempted more than we can bear!

The importance of our dependence on God for our marriage is clearly alluded in verse 24 and 25 of Chapter 2, "For this cause a man shall leave his father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife, and they shall become one flesh. And the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed."

In Chapter 3 we see the bait that was thrown at mankind by the serpent - satan himself. The Message Bible quoted Luke 6:43-45 thus, ""You don't get wormy apples off a healthy tree, nor good apples off a diseased tree. The health of the apple tells the health of the tree. You must begin with your own life-giving lives. It's who you are, not what you say and do, that counts. Your true being brims over into true words and deeds."

All of our lust is within us and we should resist it and flee from temptation. In this account we see Eve beguiled and Adam willfully disobedient to the command God gave him. God commanded the man, saying, "From any tree of the garden you may eat freely; but from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat from it you shall surely die."

Isn't it the same with us, having known God's specific command we still go ahead and willfully commit the wrong! Sin "removed" God's covering and brought about shame and spiritual death. The next thing that mankind chose to do was to repair the damage and fix it in his own strength. How? Using fig leaves without any atoning virtue to cover their shame and guilt. Then the most devastating unimaginable act took place - man hid from a loving God!

As always, the Grace of God calls out to us, "Where are you?" Those who go back to Him have a chance of repenting of our sin and then God atoning it. God had to kill for the first time, one of His creation and cloth Adam and Eve. This is another act pointing to our Lord Jesus Christ who will be sacrificed on the tree for us!

Thank you Lord Jesus Christ for covering my sins, shame and nakedness with Your atoning blood which washes away all my sins and brings me back into a right standing with You, again and again!

The history of.....

The history of.....
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The verse, in Gen 2:4 is the "history of .... or generation of .... or account of heaven and the earth", when cross referenced with Gen 5:1, Gen 6:9 and Gen 10:1 helps clarify this sentence, as it appears here in the Bible. God is in a sense reviewing the account as was stated in Chapter 1. When we superimpose this understanding from the cross reference, to this verse, it becomes clearer.

If these are the generations which were recorded, we could come to a conclusion then that all of us can trace our ancestry back to the beginning or close to the beginning! Some of the oldest well documented historical account of civilization, had their symbols representing the written "character or alphabet", found in their language, showing the account of Genesis from the very beginning. In fact the Chinese civilization is one that I am aware of that clearly shows this evidence. I shared this in a Chinese New Year message two years ago!

God having made, formed and created mankind in His Own Image and Likeness and then provided his a helper suitable for him. All of our marriages are designed that way by God, our helpmate is one that is complimentary to ourselves, usually making us whole and complete.

Man was formed from the dust of the ground and it is not surprising that we will return to dust when we die. God Spirit was breathed into man's nostrils so he became a living being or soul. The woman was created from part of man's side or his rib and built up by God to be woman. And it is no wonder that Adam when awoke was awed and thrilled that he called her "wo!..man"!

"The history of ...." sentence cannot have happened, if they then didn't become one flesh in their need to reproduce and multiply, as commanded by God. This is a command which God gave to be executed within the context of marriage and not outside this Covenant divine relationship of God. In fact, God wants marriage to last till death do man and woman apart!

Did Adam and Eve have the attitude of the Bereans?

Did Adam and Eve have the attitude of the Bereans?
Originally uploaded by chandrangopalan

The Bereans according to Acts 17:11 received the message with great eagerness and examined Scriptures everyday to see if what Paul said was true!

A Great God is not afraid to provide us the option of freewill choice. Instead of making us like robots, He made and created mankind to reason and come to a conclusion as to the Way to go. God provided Adam and Eve the ability to discern, which requires more than the 5 natural senses in which we operate in usually. The Truth of God's Word is to be examined to know His Complete Loving nature.

The devil's ploys has not changed from that day in the Garden when he started by throwing doubts into the minds of mankind, such that it draws out our lust and questions the character of our Loving God. The lust of the flesh, the lust of the eye and the pride of life categorizes mankind's weakness. When we don't discern this thought we will fall!

After making all kinds of trees grow out of the ground - trees that were pleasing to the eye and good for food, in the middle of the garden were the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. The Lord God than commanded man, "You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will surely die."

The tree of life leading to life and the tree of knowledge of good and evil leading to death was there for Adam and Eve to choose from. God brought all the beasts of the field and the birds of the air to Adam for him to name them. Whatever man called each living creature, that was its name! Adam had such an important role in God's scheme of things in His Kingdom.

Having this vital role and a helpmate, all Adam had to do was to enjoy God's full blessings of being fruitful and to increase in number, to fill the earth and to subdue it. Rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and over every living creature that moves on the ground. Both animals and man were herbivorous in God's creation as He had provided for them. He is our Provider!

But our lust will lead us to doubt God and have a desire to be like "god" knowing good and evil instead of depending on His complete guidance, which we can discern in the Spirit. This dependence on intellect alone, to be a "god", is what causes destruction to follow!

The Bereans discerned otherwise and they examined Scripture daily to stay from being derailed of their faith in the True Living God!

Creation ordered from chaos

Creation ordered from chaos
Originally uploaded by chandrangopalan

In verse 2 of Genesis the Spirit was hovering and brooding like a mother hen over her chicks. From that point on all disorder was ordered into order, in its rightful place and sequence!

There was the process of separation of the various elements - earthly and heavenly. So vast is God's creation that He equated the stars in the sky to the sand on the seashore to the patriarch Abraham. Can we image that? That is why He is God and we are not!

God spoke His Word and everything fell into place, in its proper order. God in whom there is no shadow of turning, in His glory spoke forth light into being. Therein we see, evening and morning and day one.

In the different translations of the Bible we see all of the English language trying to capture the full meaning of the Hebrew text as it was originally written in. We observe how the expanse or firmament, the sky which is heaven separating both waters. Which was day 2 and then the separation of the land which is earth from the waters which is seas. These seas didnt have the names like we have today and there is still no borders in the water other than those made by men.

As God continues this order of creation He saw that it was good. Therefore if we read the first letter from Paul to Timothy in Chapter 4 verse 4 and it state thus, "For everything God created is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving, because it is consecrated by the Word of God and prayer.

Praise God for His Creation in whatever state it is in now. He will make it good in the end!

The reason for the season

The reason for the season
Originally uploaded by chandrangopalan

The study of Genesis in our Precept upon precept classes will be in 5 parts. It will be facilitated for 40 weeks in 3 semesters and will take the whole of 2009 to complete, with the appropriate semester breaks. Being the key foundation of the Bible it is imperative that we take the time to really dig into it.

This foundation is built upon the trinity - starting in verse 1 with God, in verse 2 His Spirit and verse 3 His Word (Son). They are all equal and everything started with God so we cannot not mention the trinitrian personality of God in whose image we are made - body, soul and spirit! It is now clear why in verse 26 "Us" is used.

In the Gospel of John Chapter 1 and verse 1 we then see the confirmation of God's Word which starts with "In the beginning was the Word (Son)...." The Word of God always confirms what is stated, at many other portions of the Bible.

Adam is the first man formed and made by God. Jesus is the last Adam conceived by Mary when the Holy Spirit came upon her and the power of the Most High overshadowed her. There was no Adamic nature (DNA)in Jesus because Mary borne the Incorruptible Seed in her womb and was of the righteous line which started with Seth (Genesis 5). This was prophesied by God when He shared His redemptive plan with Adam and Eve and the serpent in Genesis Chapter 3!

In John Chapter 1 we see, in verse 14 of the NASB edition, "And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth.", Jesus coming to earth - His creation and living as one of us. He knows and has suffered all of our trails, temptation and testings and He overcame it all. He purchased back mankind with His ultimate sacrifice by dying for us as the ransom payment, so that none of us should perish!

Emmanuel - God with us! He is the reason for the season. Hallelujah

After their kind

After their kind
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We all have our parent's DNA and that kind of explains this "after their kind" citation in Genesis Chapter 1. An analogy by Dr. Kurt Wise states it thus, "The same God who created human language is the same God who created organisms of all types on the earth. It might be expected that God, who spoke things into existence, would use similar languages in both the creation of man and in the creation of organisms.

My own understanding of discerning the things of God is based on the measure of faith I have in what I read whether it be books or the "infallible" Word of God. When as an "infant" in the rudimentary things of God my understanding is at a low level but when I "mature" then it increases to another higher level.

In our lifetime the only option available for us Christians is to continue studying His Seed Word so that the many times over we read the Bible we may eventually become "somewhat mature"! The Seed Word planted on the "fallowed soil" of our hearts will reap a 30, 60 and 100 folds, the progressive revelation which brings us to a deeper understand of God's character.

Again in another summary by Dr Kurt Wise, he references a new field of science. It is the study of baramins - created kind. He concludes by stating, "At Creation, the baramins were preprogrammed with sufficient genetic information to produce a variety of species within each baramin.

We should have observed the following in Genesis Chapter 1:
Day 3 organisms - land plants
Day 5 organisms - sea creature and birds
Day 6 organisms - land animals and man

Further divisions: (KJV translation)
1. a. tree bearing fruit; b. herbs bearing fruit; c. grass
2. a. great whales; b. every living creature in the sea; c. fowl
3. a. cattle; b. creeping things on the land; c. beast of the earth; d. man

The order of creation is logical and organized and we observe that God only created them after creating what is required for them.

My own observation is this, the seed concept is tied into "after their kind" and our ultimate Seed - our Lord Jesus Christ is prophesied by God Himself in Genesis 3!

The Generations of Adam - 5Ws and an H

Yesterday, I wanted to focus on the general idea of the content in the 5 Chapters of Genesis. Much of my learning came as taught by the Holy Spirit the Tutor as I prayed for wisdom and understanding before each lesson. "Thy Word is Truth" John 17:17. I also gained some insight from other reputed sources and scholars of the Logos!

In the first 5 Chapters of Genesis I observed:
1. Who are the personage: God and man - refer to chart above
2. What are the main events: God's schedule; Adam's bride; Adam's fall; Abel's testimony; Enoch's walk with God
3. Where did these events occur: Eden before the fall and outside Eden after the fall
4. When did these events happen: before the flood

An important point I noted when coming up with chapter themes was to know that verse and chapter divisions were added to the Bible well after it was written and therefore may not been well chosen in respect to where a complete thought or subject came to a transition.

The most common words and/or phrases I noted was:
1. God

Dr Kurt P Wise a well known researcher, teacher, and model builder who focus was geology and biology wrote an article of which I am including excerpts of, for us to ponder on.

HOW DO WE RELATE OUR "THREE-IN-ONE UNIVERSE" TO OUR "THREE-IN-ONE GOD"?
According to Roman 1:20 the "invisible things" of God are evidenced by those things that are seen......this universe is made up of three things; space, time and matter/energy. The three things are equal and yet different, distinct and yet coexistent. In like manner God, who created the universe, is also made up of three beings: Father, Son and Holy Spirit. They are equal and yet different, distinct and yet coexistent......

Not only do the created things "evidence" God, but they can also help us understand Him.

As a further note, it is curious that of the three parts of the universe, only one of them (matter) is wholly physical. The other two (space and time) are real, but only measurable - not directly sensed. Analogously, of the three persons of the Godhead, only one (Jesus) was incarnate (being both directly sensed and real) while the other two are not directly sensed (i.e. Spirit), but nevertheless real.

A brilliant Ph.D from Harvard University wrote this article. It is amazing what God can do when He wants His Truth expounded by a geologist who has researched both the wisdom of the world and the wisdom from the Word of God. Dr Wise's paper warrants a through review.

Genesis is getting to be a very interesting study of God's Truth!

Adam a living being formed from dust in whom is the Breath of Life

Adam a living being from dust in whom is the Breath of Life
Originally uploaded by chandrangopalan

In Chapters 1 to 5 of Genesis we have Adam mentioned a number of times. It is a quick read and you can observe the following thoughts:
1. God desired for Adam to have a suitable helper. In this picture we see Jesus as a Bridegroom being put to death (sleep) and His blood redemption purchased forth His Bride - His church! The intimate relationship between Jesus and His church.
2. No one or nothing should take the first place and priority God should have in our lives.
3. The garments of skin was the blood sacrifice needed to atone for man's sin. Our own futile effort by covering our shame with fig leaves will not return us to right standing with God.
4. God will not let the enemy stop a righteous generation from emerging - Seth
5. God created Adam in His likeness and Seth was made in Adam's own likeness and image.
6. Adam lived for 930 years and saw 8 generations: Seth, Enosh, Kenan, Mahalalel, Jared, Enoch, Methuselah and Lamech. He died before Noah was born. They were following the command of God who blessed them, "Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it; and rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over every living thing that moves of the earth". Could this over the 930 years of Adam's existence produce a population numbering billions?

Reading Genesis again is very exciting! We need God's revelation to illuminate our understanding. Let God be Creator and man his creation and all of His Word our truth!

In the Beginning, God.....

In the Beginning, God.....
Originally uploaded by chandrangopalan

In 2009 we will be conducting the Precept upon Precept - inductive bible studies on the Book of Genesis.

The manual starts with this paragraph, "With all the speculation as to how the world was created and how man came into being, does it really matter what the Bible has to say on the subject? After all, science is science and who can argue with it! Right?

The first verse in the Bible is the one which determines our faith, trust and revelation of the Lord Jesus Christ. The very first few Words of the Bible are what build our foundation and wisdom.

Psa 53:1 The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God. Corrupt are they, and have done abominable iniquity: there is none that doeth good.

When we decide that God can be recreated in our imagination we have become His creator! God is too big for our puny imagination and He is all powerful, all knowing and always present. Can I then say God cannot do something which is reasoned in my mind? Job knew this fact when God started speaking and he kept silent in response!

We live in a reasoning age which is not wrong in itself but revelation is what cause us to know God and that through His Holy Spirit. The Spirit of Truth will lead us into all truth. When we cannot understand we need to keep at it and one day it will suddenly become clear as we know His nature.

1Co 2:14 stated, "But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned". Being born again, is but the first step of a long journey from infancy to adulthood.

Rev Kevin Conner is a teacher who clearly highlighted this truth to me when I had attended his seminars. He had written more than 50 books (many reference books amongst them) and is about 80 years old. He still says he is learning more and more about God daily having received Him in his teens!

So my conclusion is the Lord Jesus Christ is the God of the impossible and I need Him to be my Savior and Lord! Every Word in the Bible to me is Yes and Amen!