Thursday, October 15, 2009

The fine print


This past week in Sunday School, we watched a video by Ken Ham on Genesis. He has a ministry that emphasizes the importance of the book and how the entire Christian faith is grounded in belief in a "literal Genesis". It was a very interesting video and he's going to cover all sorts of controversial topics, like the flood, whether or not the earth has been here millions of years as some scientists believe, and of course, the great mystery of the dinosaurs.

(I personally could care less about finding out where the dinosaurs went, I'm just grateful they are no longer here!!) =)

So our "homework" was to read Genesis chapters 1 - 11 this week and really evaluate and study. I have a Macarthur study Bible which I love, because it gives the best, most detailed footnotes of almost every verse and passage in the Bible. Very helpful for those times when you read and go "huh?"

Well, I want to pass on the challenge to read Genesis again if you haven't in awhile, because I'm finding things I never saw before. Crazy, since I've read the book probably a dozen times in my life. For example, in Gensis 6, verses 1-4, it's pretty wild. Check this out.

"Now it came to pass, when man began to multiply on the face of the earth, and daughers were born to them, that the sons of God saw the daughters of men, that they were beautiful, and they took wives for themselves of all whom they chose."

Not so interesting, until you read your footnote and discover it is widely believed that the "sons of God" were ANGELS.

Now its interesting!

At first I was like WHAT!!! No way. But Job 1:6 and 2:1 and 38:7 refers to angels in this form. This union was obviously unnatural and against God's law.

Some scholars argue that instead of angels, the "sons of God" were the sons of Seth who cohabited with the daughters of Cain. But my Macarther notes insists that this passage puts emphasis on the angelic vs. human contrast.

Wow! Definitely gets you thinking - especially as a writer.

Another interesting concept was how long everyone lived (Ch 5). Crazy! I don't think I'd want to have children in my 60's and live to be 800+. No thanks. =)

So if you thought Genesis was a boring book about the start of the world and the flood, go back and re-read it. You might be surprised at the "one-liners" through out.

3 comments:

Georgiana Daniels said...

Recently I reread Genesis and it's absolutely fascinating. You'll have to keep me posted on what he says during the study because all-things-creation totally fascinate me.

Rachel Leigh Smith said...

The "sons of God" the verse talks about are also known as the Nephilim. There's a lot of interesting reading related to that and the argument is made that Goliath was a descendant of one of those unions.

Edna said...

I love the book of genesis, I am reading the Bible through again, and am now in Job. I just don't see how some people don't believe there is a God, just look around us folks, do you think this world just appeared? God is the creator, He is Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end. Just believe on Him and ask Him to come into your heart and it is that easy to become a child of the King.


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