And 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.
So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.
And 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. Genesis :1:26-28 (ESV)
God created everything that be, except for himself, The Father,
Son and Holy Spirit. The last thing he created was mankind. Humans were different than everything else he made. For one, people were created in His Image. Nothing else can make that claim. And mankind was given dominion over all the other creatures of Earth.
And things shouldn’t have been hard after that. God gave humans two commandments. One rule was, “Don’t eat the fruit of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil.” What happened when Adam and Eve broke this command and ate the fruit?
They came into the knowledge of God’s Law and became sinners. If they had never known God’s Law, they would not have been considered sinners. We tend to think of The Law in connection with Moses and the Ten Commandments, but God’s Law was always God’s Law before and after the Exodus, as Paul wrote, “It was the law that showed me my sin”. It was gaining the knowledge of The Law that convicted Adams and Eve of their sin. It was The Law that made them recognize disobedience. One illustration of this is they had been wandering about in Eden for perhaps a hundred years wearing nothing, but gaining knowledge of the law showed them they were naked. It was the knowledge of breaking The Law that convicted them of disobedience.
Well then, am I suggesting that the law of God is sinful? Of course not! In fact, it was the law that showed me my sin. I would never have known that coveting is wrong if the law had not said, “You must not covet.”But sin used this command to arouse all kinds of covetous desires within me! If there were no law, sin would not have that power. At one time I lived without understanding the law. But when I learned the command not to covet, for instance, the power of sin came to life, and I died. So I discovered that the law’s commands, which were supposed to bring life, brought spiritual death instead. Sin took advantage of those commands and deceived me; it used the commands to kill me. But still, the law itself is holy, and its commands are holy and right and good. Romans 8:7-12.
There was another Command of God given to Adam and Eve. It was not obeyed by them, either, but this failure is overlooked because we become so focused on that Forbidden Tree and the Snake within it. It is right there in the beginning after God created both Adam and Eve, in Genesis 1:28. “And God said to them, ‘Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth…’”
Oops! They kind of blew that one, too. Sure, Adam lived 930 years and he and Eve had a bunch of sons and daughters, who had a gaggle of sons and daughters of their own. Now as far as calculated, there was 1,056 years from the creation of Adam until the birth of Noah. Would have been a lot of children born in that time span, especially given how long everyone lived them. They seemed to have a lot of babies as well; thy were very fertile. Josephus, in his Antiquities of the Jews, claimed Adam and Eve had 56 children, 33 sons and 23 daughters. He also reported that Lamech, the one in the line of Cain, had 77 children by his two wives. The women must have been exhausted.
Various people have made calculations of the population at the time of the flood. These range from 10 Billion up into the trillions. I take these calculations with a grain, or two, of salt, but there were no doubt a lot of dead bodies floating about that Ark.
And if any of those numbers are correct, then maybe Adam and Eve did multiply and fill the Earth. At that time the earth was one big land mass in the center of one big sea. There wasn’t any North and South America or Australia and such. After the flood the geography of Earth most likely was quite different, but what did it matter, everyone was dead, except for 8 people on a ship.
And when Noah and his family were back safely on dry land, God repeated that command he first gave Adam and Eve.
And God blessed Noah and his sons, and said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth.
And the fear of you and the dread of you shall be upon every beast of the earth, and upon every fowl of the air, upon all that moveth upon the earth, and upon all the fishes of the sea; into your hand are they delivered.
Every moving thing that liveth shall be meat for you; even as the green herb have I given you all things.
But flesh with the life thereof, which is the blood thereof, shall ye not eat.
And surely your blood of your lives will I require; at the hand of every beast will I require it, and at the hand of man; at the hand of every man's brother will I require the life of man.
Whoso sheddeth man's blood, by man shall his blood be shed: for in the image of God made he man.
And you, be ye fruitful, and multiply; bring forth abundantly in the earth, and multiply therein. (Genesis 9:1-7)
Man again stalled out on obeying God in this. Before they began to spread out into the world there came a man named Nimrod who tried to interfere with God’s plans. This man was of the line of Ham. He was the son of Cush and Cush was the brother of Ham’s sons Egypt, Put and Canaan (remember him). Nimrod had his own ambitions and they included consolidating mankind around where they were.
Cush fathered Nimrod; he was the first on earth to be a mighty man. He was a mighty hunter before the Lord. Therefore it is said, “Like Nimrod a mighty hunter before the Lord.” The beginning of his kingdom was Babel, Erech, Accad, and Calneh, in the land of Shinar. From that land he went into Assyria and built Nineveh, Rehoboth-Ir, Calah, and Resen between Nineveh and Calah; that is the great city. (Genesis 10: 8-12)
And the whole earth was of one language, and of one speech.
And it came to pass, as they journeyed from the east, that they found a plain in the land of Shinar; and they dwelt there.
And they said one to another, Go to, let us make brick, and burn them thoroughly. And they had brick for stone, and slime had they for morter.
And they said, Go to, let us build us a city and a tower, whose top may reach unto heaven; and let us make us a name, lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth. (Genesis 11:1-4)
Where was this Plain of Shinar?
Pretty much where man had been hanging around ever since after the Ark landed on Mount Ararat. They stayed in the area between the Euphrates and Tigris rivers, extending down from Turkey to the Persian Gulf. This is the area called the Fertile Crescent and would be later called Mesopotamia. Here would be Babylon and where Nimrod had the Tower of Babel constructed. Why did they do this? Not really to reach God or Heaven. It was so they would not be scattered abroad across the whole Earth as God had demanded from the beginning.
And the Lord came down to see the city and the tower, which the children of men builded.
And the Lord said, Behold, the people is one, and they have all one language; and this they begin to do: and now nothing will be restrained from them, which they have imagined to do.
Go to, let us go down, and there confound their language, that they may not understand one another's speech.
So the Lord scattered them abroad from thence upon the face of all the earth: and they left off to build the city.
Therefore is the name of it called Babel; because the Lord did there confound the language of all the earth: and from thence did the Lord scatter them abroad upon the face of all the earth.(Genesis 11:5-9)
A couple thoughts:
God came down and was displeased again with man. Humans were not obeying his initial commands to populate the earth. Instead, they had decided to stay put and probably begin worshipping other Gods. When God saw how much man could accomplish if left to their own devices, he confused their language so they could no longer cooperate easily with each other. The other result of this was he finally scattered them through the earth to create the various nations.
Then we have Jesus in Matthew 24 warning about how it will be in the end times.
“But concerning that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father only. For as were the days of Noah, so will be the coming of the Son of Man. For as in those days before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day when Noah entered the ark, and they were unaware until the flood came and swept them all away, so will be the coming of the Son of Man. (Matthew 24:36-39)
Think about how God disrupted the plans of men by confusing their language, but mankind has overcome that impediment. Languge difference are no longer a problem in our modern world and even scattered we can communicate around the world due to technology. You have to think at some point God will again step in and put an end to this.
We can see the signs of the end coming now just by reading our newspapers and comparing what is occurring to the Bible.
As he (Jesus) sat on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to him privately, saying, “Tell us, when will these things be, and what will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age?” And Jesus answered them, “See that no one leads you astray. For many will come in my name, saying, ‘I am the Christ,’ and they will lead many astray. And you will hear of wars and rumors of wars. See that you are not alarmed, for this must take place, but the end is not yet. For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom, and there will be famines and earthquakes in various places. All these are but the beginning of the birth pains.
“Then they will deliver you up to tribulation and put you to death, and you will be hated by all nations for my name's sake.
And then many will fall away[a] and betray one another and hate one another. And many false prophets will arise and lead many astray. And because lawlessness will be increased, the love of many will grow cold. But the one who endures to the end will be saved. And this gospel of the kingdom will be proclaimed throughout the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come. (Matthew 24:3-14)
We see many such things occurring with more frequency, famines and earthquakes, and other natural disasters. Many decades ago I read predictions about these things.
I looked when He opened the sixth seal, and behold, there was a great earthquake; and the sun became black as sackcloth of hair, and the moon became like blood. And the stars of heaven fell to the earth, as a fig tree drops its late figs when it is shaken by a mighty wind. Then the sky receded as a scroll when it is rolled up, and every mountain and island was moved out of its place. And the kings of the earth, the great men, the rich men, the commanders, the mighty men, every slave and every free man, hid themselves in the caves and in the rocks of the mountains, and said to the mountains and rocks, “Fall on us and hide us from the face of Him who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb! For the great day of His wrath has come, and who is able to stand?” (Revelation 6:12-17)
I was struck by how people ran and hid, but didn’t turn to God when such things happened. They ran the other way. But I got to thinking and I realized people would not accept judgements from God because they have accepted the idea of Global Warming and climate change. They will begin to feel the birth pangs, but will be unable to accept it as anything beyond man because that will not be politically correct. They will fear and may even begin to fear God, but it the wrong way.
There is a key and it is the statement about wars and rumors of wars. We have always had wars and rumors of wars, of course, what is different? It is in the statement: For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom.
What nations and kingdoms must we watch. Is it the United States and Russia? Such a war may come, but it is on the periphery of God’s nations.
Who are the nations to watch, then? We need to return to the birth of the nations in Genesis 10. These are the pertinent kingdoms in the Biblical geography. Jepheth, Ham and Shem and their decedents created these nations.
These are the generations of the sons of Noah, Shem, Ham, and Japheth. Sons were born to them after the flood.
The sons of Japheth: Gomer, Magog, Madai, Javan, Tubal, Meshech, and Tiras. The sons of Gomer: Ashkenaz, Riphath, and Togarmah. The sons of Javan: Elishah, Tarshish, Kittim, and Dodanim. From these the coastland peoples spread in their lands, each with his own language, by their clans, in their nations.
The sons of Ham: Cush, Egypt, Put, and Canaan. The sons of Cush: Seba, Havilah, Sabtah, Raamah, and Sabteca. The sons of Raamah: Sheba and Dedan. Cush fathered Nimrod; he was the first on earth to be a mighty man. He was a mighty hunter before the Lord. Therefore it is said, “Like Nimrod a mighty hunter before the Lord.” The beginning of his kingdom was Babel, Erech, Accad, and Calneh, in the land of Shinar. From that land he went into Assyria and built Nineveh, Rehoboth-Ir, Calah, and Resen between Nineveh and Calah; that is the great city. Egypt fathered Ludim, Anamim, Lehabim, Naphtuhim, Pathrusim, Casluhim (from whom the Philistines came), and Caphtorim.
Canaan fathered Sidon his firstborn and Heth, and the Jebusites, the Amorites, the Girgashites, the Hivites, the Arkites, the Sinites, the Arvadites, the Zemarites, and the Hamathites. Afterward the clans of the Canaanites dispersed. And the territory of the Canaanites extended from Sidon in the direction of Gerar as far as Gaza, and in the direction of Sodom, Gomorrah, Admah, and Zeboiim, as far as Lasha. These are the sons of Ham, by their clans, their languages, their lands, and their nations.
To Shem also, the father of all the children of Eber, the elder brother of Japheth, children were born. The sons of Shem: Elam, Asshur, Arpachshad, Lud, and Aram. The sons of Aram: Uz, Hul, Gether, and Mash. Arpachshad fathered Shelah; and Shelah fathered Eber. To Eber were born two sons: the name of the one was Peleg, for in his days the earth was divided, and his brother's name was Joktan. Joktan fathered Almodad, Sheleph, Hazarmaveth, Jerah, Hadoram, Uzal, Diklah, Obal, Abimael, Sheba, Ophir, Havilah, and Jobab; all these were the sons of Joktan. The territory in which they lived extended from Mesha in the direction of Sephar to the hill country of the east. These are the sons of Shem, by their clans, their languages, their lands, and their nations.
These are the clans of the sons of Noah, according to their genealogies, in their nations, and from these the nations spread abroad on the earth after the flood. (Genesis 10:1-32)
By the way, we get the Name Hebrew from Eber (or Heber). I had a great Uncle named Heber.
Something special will happen concerning one of the nations, but before we get to that we need touch upon a man named Job.
There was a man in the land of Uz whose name was Job, and that man was blameless and upright, one who feared God and turned away from evil. There were born to him seven sons and three daughters. He possessed 7,000 sheep, 3,000 camels, 500 yoke of oxen, and 500 female donkeys, and very many servants, so that this man was the greatest of all the people of the east. His sons used to go and hold a feast in the house of each one on his day [ probably their birthdays], and they would send and invite their three sisters to eat and drink with them. And when the days of the feast had run their course, Job would send and consecrate them, and he would rise early in the morning and offer burnt offerings according to the number of them all. For Job said, “It may be that my children have sinned, and cursed God in their hearts.” Thus Job did continually. (Job 1:1-5)
We are not going to go deep into Job, that would be a much longer investigation than we have room for here, but we can’t ignore Job entirely. Many believe Job was the oldest Scripture book written and there are many parallels between Joe and Jesus, besides sharing the initial J. Right off we see that Job was a blameless and upright man and if we looked at his life as told here he would suffer grievously and unjustly. He was also very concerned with his children and did all he could to gain forgiveness of their sins before God.
He was also very wealthy and considered one of the greatest men in the East. Uz, where it says he lived, is not pinpointed, but believed to be in the general area known as Edom, somewhere below the Dead Sea and east of Egypt. In my Chronological Bible the authors stick Job in right after the flood. He was definitely from the time of the Patriarchs, but I would place him later than right after the flood, in fact, I would place him after the fall of Babel and the creation of the Nations. In Job 1:15 the Sabeans fell upon his children and killed them. Sabeans descended from Ham through Sheba and were located in Southern Saudi Arabia, so nations had been established when Job comes into the story.
Now there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan also came among them. The Lord said to Satan, “From where have you come?” Satan answered the Lord and said, “From going to and fro on the earth, and from walking up and down on it.” And the Lord said to Satan, “Have you considered my servant Job, that there is none like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man, who fears God and turns away from evil?” Then Satan answered the Lord and said, “Does Job fear God for no reason? Have you not put a hedge around him and his house and all that he has, on every side? You have blessed the work of his hands, and his possessions have increased in the land. But stretch out your hand and touch all that he has, and he will curse you to your face.” And the Lord said to Satan, “Behold, all that he has is in your hand. Only against him do not stretch out your hand.” So Satan went out from the presence of the Lord. (Job 1:1-12)
It is very interesting that this council in Heaven attended by Satan occurred early on here. Satan is still a troublemaker trying to upset God’s plan. His accusation of Job foreshadows his accusations against Jesus. This passage also shows that Satan and the Fallen Angels still had access to Heaven. They had not yet been cast out. Satan’s casting out will come much nearer the end of things according to Revelation 12:10-12.
Then I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, “Now salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of His Christ have come, for the accuser of our brethren, who accused them before our God day and night, has been cast down. And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, and they did not love their lives to the death. Therefore rejoice, O heavens, and you who dwell in them! Woe to the inhabitants of the earth and the sea! For the devil has come down to you, having great wrath, because he knows that he has a short time.”
We should take this warning very seriously. But after the story of Job we find God putting his plan for Israel into effect. This to required the nations to be there for it very much concerns Canaan. It begins with a man named Nahor.
When Nahor had lived 29 years, he fathered Terah. And Nahor lived after he fathered Terah 119 years and had other sons and daughters.
When Terah had lived 70 years, he fathered Abram, Nahor, and Haran. (Genesis 11:24-26)
Abram, who was a Pagan living in Er becomes a focal point for the future.
Now the Lord said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father's house to the land that I will show you. And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”
So Abram went, as the Lord had told him, and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he departed from Haran. And Abram took Sarai his wife, and Lot his brother's son, and all their possessions that they had gathered, and the people that they had acquired in Haran, and they set out to go to the land of Canaan. When they came to the land of Canaan, Abram passed through the land to the place at Shechem, to the oak of Moreh. At that time the Canaanites were in the land. Then the Lord appeared to Abram and said, “To your offspring I will give this land.” So he built there an altar to the Lord, who had appeared to him. From there he moved to the hill country on the east of Bethel and pitched his tent, with Bethel on the west and Ai on the east. And there he built an altar to the Lord and called upon the name of the Lord. And Abram journeyed on, still going toward the Negeb. (Genesis 12:1-9)
And this is how it came to be that we all should be journeying to Jerusalem.
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