Tower of Babel

Today's post will be short and sweet!  Today we will finish up what we covered on Monday night - the Tower of Babel.

This story is quite fascinating for a couple of reasons.  One, it is only nine verses long!  Two, it shows that even after the flood - men were still inherently sinful.  And Three, God's response to the people.

The first thing that we will look at is the fact that God told Noah, and by extension, everyone to spread out and fill the earth.  (Genesis 9:1)  It was God's plan to have people spread out across the world.

The response was the complete opposite!  In verses 1 and 2 of Chapter 11 we see that people started moving east.  As they did, they were all speaking the same language.  This is kind of a no brainer, since all men on the earth were now descendants of Noah and his family!  So as they were migrating eastward, they found a nice piece of real estate and decided to all camp out there.

In the next two verses, we see both their intelligence and their hardheartedness.

We don't know if they invented the brick or not, but the point is that they were very smart.  They began this task and we see that while they were very smart, they were also very hardhearted.  In verse four their response was directed towards God as they didn't want to be scattered all over the world!

An interesting thing happened in verses 5 and 6, we see that even God was impressed with what they were building!!!  Now this tells us that this wasn't some deer stand, or Lego set plaything that these people were building!  No! God saw fit to stop things before they got even worse.

I'm sure that God wasn't scared or fearful of man, but it is interesting to note that God made mention that if He didn't confuse their languages that NOTHING would be impossible for them!  An interesting thought.

Well, we see yet another example of the Trinity in verse 7 as God says, "Let US go down..." 

The rest of the story unfolds and God confuses their languages and they disperse and fill the earth the way God originally intended them to do!

The main point that I would like you to take out of this story and apply to your life is this - Don't think you can either run from God, or outsmart him!  That's what these people tried to do!  Was God going to bless them?  Of course not!  He confused their languages and forced them to split up.

So how does this apply to our lives?  As you are doing your Bible Studies, as you come to youth group on Monday nights, as you follow along on this blog, God is going to show you things that He wants you to do (or to quit doing!).  What is your response going to be?  Will you obey Him?  Or will you out of pride disobey and do whatever you want to do?

We look back on these Old Testament stories and think, "Why were the people such idiots???"  I mean, they were just saved from a catastrophic world wide flood, and now they were going to take on the Creator - AGAIN?  

We look at that as being extremely foolish - and it was!  But we do the same exact things in our lives don't we?  God either disciplines us, or frees us from some bondage and we are amazed at Him.  We think, "Man, I don't want to EVER do that again!".  Then, just a few days, or weeks later we find ourselves back in the same situations!  It goes back to the study we did on the fall.  Which nature are you listening to the most?  The new Godly nature, or the old sinful nature that are BOTH inside your mortal bodies?

I pray that you will be able to listen to the Holy Spirit as He guides and directs you this week!  Don't give in to the sin nature, because God has AMAZING things in store for us if we listen to His leading.  We know that He has a plan and purpose for our lives - let's start living ours like we TRULY believe that!

God bless,

Chris

The Flood

 

Today we will be looking at the story of the Flood.  It is found in Genesis 6-9.  Take a few minutes now and read those chapters.

This story is very important to not only our Christian beliefs, but also in world history and geography.  It is vital that you view this "story" as more than just that.  That you believe that it actually happened - and happened the way that it is written about here in Genesis.

First off, we see that the earth is so wicked and perverse that God has no choice but to start over.  The depravity of man and our sinfulness since the Garden of Eden has grown like an uncontrollable virus.  


There is an interesting theory about verses 1-4 of chapter 6.  When it talks about the sons of God and the daughters of men.  Conservative people believe that this means that the sons of God (Seth's descendants) intermarried with the daughters of men (Cain's descendants) and thus "infected" the bloodline.


More liberal interpretations have the sons of God being the "fallen angels" (demons), marrying the daughters of men.


Regardless of the interpretation, these dudes were massive!!!  We see this come up again later on in the Old Testament in the story of David and Goliath.  Goliath is what the Bible called a Nephilim (vs 4) giants over 9 feet tall.  


Anyway, things are SO bad that ONLY Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord. 


So God comes to Noah and tells him of His plan.  He gives Noah specific directions of how to build it, and what should be put in it.  You can read all about it in 6:13-7:5.


Here is a pic of how big this thing really was!

Now having the information and putting into practice is a whole other thing!  We looked at the time it must have taken Noah to build this ark.  While probably not 100% build time, we see that in Genesis 5:32 that Noah is 500 years old when he becomes a father.  Then in Genesis 7:6, he is 600 years old when the flood begins.


While he might not have been building for 100 years, it is more than obvious that Noah was not "slapping this together" over the weekend!!!


Let's just camp on this for a second.  When we feel God telling us to do something and we follow through in faith, would we continue in faith this long?  (Proportionately, of course!  We don't live to be 900 years old anymore)  But what is this telling us about Noah's faith?  It tells us that Noah believed God even when it looked like the thing would NEVER come true!  Even when he was building a MASSIVE boat in the middle of a field miles away from water!!!  Even when everyone around him thought that he was a moron for doing what he was doing!  He kept doing what God called him to do!


We need to follow Noah's example!  If we believe God has called us to do something, we need to stick it out.  Even if it looks impossible.  Even if everyone around us calls us crazy.  Even if our own family thinks we are more than a bit nuts!!!  How is your faith?  Is it even close to what Noah's was?  We obviously know what those yahoos who laughed at Noah felt like when the floods came!!!

Most people believe that the earth looked like this before the flood.  It would help explain a few things.


1. How all the animals got to the ark.
2. How a worldwide flood would be easier to achieve
3. How the "Fountains of the Deep" (7:11) helped break up the continents and supply the needed water to flood the entire earth.


Here is a cool video that shows what it might have looked like.

                     

I am not a scientist, so I'm not going to try and sound like one here!  But the flood explains a lot of things scientifically.  Things from fossils to the Grand Canyon can be traced back to the flood.  You can easily find these on the internet with a few clicks. 

Here are a couple of cool sites that I found, take a moment and look at the info on them.


http://www.squidoo.com/noahsarkfound

http://www.keyway.ca/htm2002/flood.htm

Finally, another application that we can take out of the Flood of Noah is this: it is a beautiful image of salvation!


If we take us as, well us.  Jesus as the Ark.  God being God.  The flood represents the punishment that we deserve.


God despises sin and He is as opposed to it today as He was back then.  He has called a certain few people to the safety of the ark.  The major problem is that people have to believe that a flood is coming!  That the boat in the middle of a field without any water near it is the ONLY way out!  


Just as in Noah's day, people think that they have a very long time to make things right with God - or they believe that there is no consequence for their sin.  They might even mock those of us who have trusted in Jesus already.


But the Bible clearly tells us that there will be a day of reckoning.  That each man and woman will have to account for their sin.  


When we realize that we all deserve to be crushed by the "flood", it makes the gift of salvation even greater!  God laid down His Son's life for us so that we may walk into that ark.  That we can be saved!


Take a minute and thank God for the gift of salvation that He has given you.  Or seriously ask yourself, "If the flood came today, would I be swimming - or in the ark?".  I pray that it is the first one!


God bless,


Chris

The Fall

                                               

                                                 

We all sin, we all mess up.  That sickening feeling creeps into our life when we know that we've done something wrong.  Or, we have that "busted" emotion surging through our bodies when we get caught in a sin.  Why do we sin?  Why can't we just "flip a switch" and "turn off" the bad part of ourselves?  All of this can be traced back to what we are going to talk about today.  Today's lesson is probably one of the most important for you to grasp and understand - because it will help you deal with your sin, and how to overcome it!

The second area that we looked at in the Creation Era was the Fall of Man.  This is all recorded in Genesis chapter 3.  

We see that satan comes to Eve in the Garden and asks the question, "Did God really say, 'You must not eat from any tree in the garden'?"

Two things about that:

1.  God spoke to Adam in chapter 2:16-17.  In that statement God tells him that he is free to eat from ANY tree in the garden - except from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.  So we see that there are hundreds, if not thousands of options for them!

2.  Satan chooses to speak to Eve.  It is not recorded in Genesis that God spoke to Eve about this.  So we have to assume that God spoke to Adam and that Adam then passed it on to Eve.  Satan knew that if he would target Adam, he would have a much harder time getting him to eat from the tree.  So he targeted Eve instead.

So what can we learn from this?  #1.  That God is a God that gives us so much!  Just like in the garden, He gives us way more that we can do then what we can't!  The beauty of this is that even in the things that God commands us not to do - it's for our best!  So even in the negative sense, God is looking out for us.  When we stop having that perspective, and think that we are getting "cheated" out of life, that is when we can fall into sin - just like Adam and Eve did.

#2.  Are you getting your information from God, or second hand from others?  We will see that Eve was a much easier target for Satan because she didn't hear directly from God, but rather from her husband.  Are your beliefs about God and what He wants you to do based upon traditions and "Americanized" Christianity?  Or are they based SOLELY upon the Word Of God?  If we listen to God, it will be much harder for Satan to lead us astray!

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Then in verses 2-6 we see another trick that Satan uses - the Bait and Switch.  You can go back and read the posts that I've done earlier this year on that topic here http://hcyyouth.blogspot.com/2011_09_01_archive.html.  But basically, Satan uses half truths to plant a seed of doubt in Eve's mind.

"Well it WOULD be good to be like God", or "What is God hiding from me" must have been some of the thoughts that Eve had when Satan said what he did.  

Don't believe the lies that Satan tells you guys!!!  He is the father of lies!  Don't EVER believe that God is holding back His best from you.  God loves you and wants the best for you!!!  Don't buy into Satan's lies, they will only lead you away from God.

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Verse 6 and 7 are the most disappointing verses in the Bible!  Because of what they did (disobeying God), it ushered in the sin nature that we all have today.  

Remember we were talking about the Garden of Eden being "Heaven on Earth"?  Adam and Eve had it made!!!  The Garden was perfect!  They didn't have to work, they were immortal, they knew no shame, and they had DIRECT communication with God!!!

Well, after they ate the fruit and disobeyed God, their eyes were opened just as Satan had promised.  But it wasn't a good opening.  They realized that they were naked.  They felt guilt for the first time.  We see ugliness enter the world.

In verses 8-11 that God was walking through the Garden and wanted to talk to them.  They hid - symbolizing their guilt and shame.  The funny thing is that God knew exactly where they were and exactly what they did - because He's GOD!!!  And yet they tried to hide from Him!

We do the same thing in our lives though, don't we?  We feel guilty, or maybe try and hide our sins from God.  He sees what we are doing and knows what's in our hearts.  Let's try and end that bad habit and run to God instead of hiding from him when we sin.

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After they are confronted by God in verse 12 we see the first effects of sin in man.  Adam "passes the buck" and blames Eve for his sin.  Eve then does the same thing and blames Satan.

God is not pleased when we don't take ownership of our sins.  Because that shows an unrepentant heart.  God wants to forgive, we just need to own up to it - don't pass the buck.

The reason I know this?  Look at verses 14-15!  This is what is called a "Messianic Prophesy".  God even in His anger is showing His unbelievable love!  Even though He is angry and disappointed with them, He is giving them (us) a way out.  These verses are talking about what He is going to do through Jesus thousands of years later.  As He is talking to Satan, He says that that the woman's offspring will crush his head.  That is a symbol of what Jesus will do to death and sin!  That Satan will bruise His heel (kill him), but that Jesus would conquer his dominion over us!

How awesome is this of God???!  Even though there was a huge price to pay (we'll get into that next), He provided a way out for them and us.  Remember that the next time that you fall short and sin.  That if we own up to it, repent, and ultimately accept the forgiveness that is found in Jesus - He will forgive and restore us!!!  Praise God!

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Now, to answer the original question that I brought up.  Why do we who are Christians still struggle with sin?  Why can't we just "turn it off" and be the people that God wants us to be?  

Because what happened when they sinned ushered in a thing called our sin nature.  Every human being ever born after them (except Jesus) was born into the sin nature.

Psalm 51:5 says, "Surely I was sinful at birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me".  

Paul tells us all about our sin nature in Romans 5:12-21.  Take the time and read that right now (click on the Youversion link at the top of the page if you don't have your Bible handy).

Paul continues in Romans 7:18-19 by saying that he fights between these two natures - the sin and the new "Godly" nature in Christ.

One of my favorite bands, RED, did a song that really talks about this fight.  Take a few minutes and listen and see if you can't relate to the lyrics.

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The last thing that we will look at is what happened to Adam and Eve and what can happen to us as well after we sin.


Close your eyes and imagine perfection.  No pain, no heartache, perfect temperatures, not having to work, DIRECT communication with God as He walks around in your presence, etc.  Seriously, take a second and imagine what that might look and feel like!


That's what Adam and Eve had.  We likened it to watching TV on an 80" 3D HDTV with surround sound.  Having that in your living room!  Then you commit a sin and get it taken away and in it's place is a 19" black and white unit with bunny ears!!!  Every time you watch TV, you will be reminded about the sin that took your awesome TV away.  You will probably not want to watch TV at all!!!


Although that example pales in comparison to what Adam and Eve went through, it is true!  They had to live the rest of their days in an inferior world, work the ground, have pain in childbearing, and eventually DIE!  All because of one sin.  How horrible it would be to live!  To constantly be reminded of your mistake.  At the same time however, it might make it easier NOT to sin!!!


If the sin is great enough, like adultery or murder - you can be forgiven by God.  But you will also live with that decision for the rest of your life!  It is better by far to NOT fall and commit those sins!  Otherwise you will be living with the guilt of your sin and reminded of it on a daily basis just like Adam and Eve were.


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Just like Paul wrote - sin and death came to all men by one man (Adam).  But even greater than that is that sin was defeated by one man (Jesus).  We can be washed clean by God's grace and forgiveness through Jesus Christ.


He then starts the Sanctification process - basically forming us into the man or woman that He wants us to be.


Then eventually our old sinful nature will be shed and we will have a new glorious body (Glorification) when Christ returns!  


I don't know about you, but I can't wait for that day!  The day when I won't have to worry about the effects of sin.  I won't have to ask for God's forgiveness - because in Heaven there won't be ANY sin!!!


Take a minute and thank God for His grace and forgiveness.  Thank Him for His love for us and that He wants a relationship with us - in spite of how we deny/reject/disown Him all the time.  I know I am grateful for this in my life!


Love you guys!  God bless,


Chris

Creation

An artist begins a painting, a conductor grabs his baton, or an architect readies his pencil.  All these are moments just before greatness happens.  All of these pale in comparison tremendously to what God did!

You kind of get that feeling in Genesis 1:2.  The Earth was formless and empty, covered in darkness.  The Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.  I can only imagine what that must have looked and felt like.  God who was around forever, was now about to do the most amazing thing EVER!  He picked up His "paintbrush", "baton", and "pencil", and went to work!!!


Then in verse 3, BAM!  "Let there be light"!  And the light shone brightly.  This happened again and again throughout the first six days of creation.


Once again, as I stated last night, there is no place in the Bible where it talks about the possibility of evolution.  No "Big Bang", or zillions of years passing.  The Bible assumes the FACT that God created the universe and everything in it. It is very important for you to understand and believe that as well!  


I won't get into it super in depth here today, but it is also important for you to understand that the Bible is talking about literal days here.  The one area where evolutionists try and mesh their beliefs with ours is in this one.  They say that God created things and then over the course of billions of years things changed before he created the next thing on the list.  This does not line up with the fact that the earth is relatively young.  If the earth was 8 gazillion years old, and erosion stayed at the same pace that it is going now, there wouldn't be anything left!  That's just one argument against that view.  But we won't spend the whole time on that!

We looked at the fact that God formed Adam out of the ground.  Now in the first five days, God spoke and things were created.  We read in Chapter 2:19 that God did form the animals out of the ground as well, but one thing separated them from Adam.  In verse 7, we see that God formed Adam out of the ground as well, but that he bent over and breathed the breath of life into his nose.  

I don't know about you, but that shows me that God took the most time and care when He created humans!  I'm honored that He took the time to do that. It makes me feel even more special and loved.

We were also able to put our geography lessons to good use!  In verses 10-14 we see two of the rivers that were around the Garden of Eden - the Tigris and Euphrates.  This helps us put in our minds a general idea of where the Garden of Eden might have been.  Obviously, no one knows where the EXACT location is, but this gets us pretty close.

And finally, we saw the first picture of what God intends marriage to be.  In verses 20-25 we see that God causes Adam to fall asleep and takes a rib from him and forms Eve.  Verse 24 is used a lot in marriage ceremonies, and is very true.  We see how at the very beginning, God places a very high importance on marriage.  The two LITERALLY become one.  That is why divorce is very ugly and it destroys families.  You can't pull one away without a part of the other one coming with you!!!

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Another thing that is interesting to me is this - God created all the universe, yet it is kind of contained in a few verses.  We are astounded when we look at space and see new galaxies and amazing things.  Yet it is only mentioned kind of in passing here in Genesis!  Yet Adam and Eve dominate almost an entire chapter.  I fully believe that God is trying to say something through that.  That He is saying just how valuable we are to Him.  That we are His prize creation!  

Doesn't that kind of change your perception of God in a good way?  Doesn't that make other verses like Jeremiah 29:11-13 even MORE powerful???

Young person, GOD LOVES YOU!  He wants a relationship with you.  

We saw in the Garden of Eden a literal "Heaven on Earth".  A place of beauty, a place where regular communication with God happened just the same as you talking to your parents!  We will see tomorrow what ruined that.  But the important thing is that God still wants to communicate with you - just in a different way.  He still loves you just as much as He loved Adam and Eve!  He wants to have a relationship with you.  Will you let Him?

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If you have questions about Creationism, an excellent website is www.icr.org  They have a ton of resources and facts for you to learn about.

Now I want to ask you!  What is your favorite part of the Creation story?  What stood out to you the most?  It could be something that we talked about today, or last night.  Share it in the comment box below!

God bless,

Chris

Bodies of water, part 2

So I hope that you were able to check out yesterday's post.  However, no one has answered my question as of yet - so I guess I'll just eat the candy bar!


I see that we are having a decent amount of traffic, so I am grateful for that!!!


Yesterday we looked at the Mediterranean Sea, The "Sea" of Galilee, and the Jordan river.  Today we will look at the Dead Sea and the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers  

The Dead Sea

The Dead Sea is another large lake!  As we mentioned yesterday, it is the lowest part of the Earth (on land) at 1,300 feet below Sea level.  Water flows into this body of water, but it doesn't go anywhere!  Well, it evaporates due to the high temperatures year round.  When the water evaporates, it leaves the minerals behind (like on this fallen tree above).  The salt content in the Dead Sea is even more concentrated than that of the Oceans!  Thus eliminating almost all plant and animal life (hence the name "Dead").

The main role of this Sea in the Old Testament, is that of a boundary.  Not a whole lot is made of it. 

By far, the most important thing about the Dead Sea is what happened on it's banks.  In 1947 a young Shepard boy discovered what is now known as the "Dead Sea Scrolls".  These are translations of Old Testament Scriptures that were saved from the Roman invasion by a group of Jews called the Essenes.  The scrolls were contained in jars of clay that were sealed and protected by the warm, dry climate around the Dead Sea.

The reason these scrolls are so important is that they verify the authenticity of the Old Testament!  They are word for word matches of the translations that we have!  The Dead Sea Scrolls were written in Greek, Hebrew, and Aramaic by different authors and centuries apart - YET ARE IDENTICAL!!!  Thus proving that the Old Testament that we have today is in fact the very Word of God!

Google did an awesome thing and put the Dead Sea Scrolls online!  You can check it out here:

http://dss.collections.imj.org.il/isaiah#1:3

Tigris and Euphrates Rivers

I am going to skip most of the natural side of these rivers and focus more on the Biblical side.  Both of these rivers begin in modern day Turkey and flow all the way down into the Persian Gulf.

The Biblical importance of these is much greater than most of the bodies of water that we have been looking at so far.  SO much of the Old Testament is wrapped up around these two rivers!

To start with, the Garden of Eden was somewhere along the banks of these two rivers.  They were two of the four rivers that flowed out of Eden.  You can read about that in Genesis 2:10-14.

Both Nineveh and Babylon were on the banks of these rivers.

We learn that the Tower of Babel is constructed in this region in Genesis 11:1-9.

Abraham lived most of his life in this area (Ur of the Chaldees in Genesis 11:28).

Nineveh was the capital of Assyria and located on the Tigris river.  If you remember, that was the nation that came down and defeated the Northern Kingdom.  They also carried off many of the Jews and scattered them "to the four winds".  You can read about that in 2 Kings 17.

Babylon was located on the Euphrates River.   In 2 Chronicles 36 we see the Southern kingdom overtaken by the Babylonians.

So as you can see, many things happened around these two rivers early on in Bible history!

Please take the time to look up the Dead Sea Scrolls by following that link.  It is pretty awesome!  The fact that we don't have to go to Israel to view them is pretty amazing!!!

We will finish up the bodies of water tomorrow!

God bless,

Chris

Bodies of water, part 1

To break down even further the lesson that we had on Monday night, I will now show you some things that you may or may not have know about both the historical and Biblical aspects of the bodies of water that we looked at (from an Old Testament perspective).

The first body of water that we studied was the Mediterranean Sea.  

As you can see in the picture, the first thing that you will notice about the Mediterranean Sea is that it is almost completely landlocked.  There are a bunch of really boring facts about it, those I won't go into!  But it has a total surface area of 970,000 square miles, and it's average depth is 4,900 feet.  So we aren't talking about a little pond here!

Now for the Biblical aspect of the Mediterranean Sea!  

In Exodus 23:31, God is speaking to Moses and telling him many things, but in this verse He is telling him where the boundaries are going to be.  The verse says,  “I will establish your borders from the Red Sea to the Sea of the Philistines, and from the desert to the River. I will hand over to you the people who live in the land and you will drive them out before you.

So we know that the Red Sea is to the south, the River is the Jordan River, and the Sea of the Philistines that God is speaking of is the Mediterranean Sea.  He says basically the same thing in Numbers 34:6.

It was called the "Great Sea", the "Sea of the Philistines", the "Western Sea", and plain old "The Sea".

Since the Hebrews weren't Vikings, or Pirates not much is made of this body of water in the Old Testament!  There are a few stories written in the O.T. about the Mediterranean Sea.

1.  Solomon had the Cedars of Lebanon transported down the Mediterranean Sea in 1 Kings 5

2.  Jonah left Joppa and headed towards Tarshish on a boat that traveled on the Mediterranean Sea, that was a pretty exciting ride for him!  You can read about that in Jonah chapter 1

When we get to the New Testament, we will see much more use of this body of water - especially in Paul's Missionary Journeys.

The next body of water that we looked at was the Sea of Galilee

Much like our very own Lake Superior, the "Sea" of Galilee is a large freshwater lake.  It is 7 miles wide and 14 miles long.  As opposed to Lake Superior, which is 160 miles wide and 350 miles long!  So you can see that calling it a "Sea" is a bit weird!  

It is located 36 miles inland from the Mediterranean Sea and is another boundary for the nation of Israel.

In Old Testament times it was called the "Sea of Chinnereth" or "Kinnereth" depending on what translation you use.

As in the Mediterranean Sea, it was used more for a boundary line than a key geographical spot in the Old Testament.  You can see that in Numbers 34:10-12.

This will change drastically when we start looking at the New Testament as well!  We will see many different stories taking place around, and on this "Sea"!

The final body of water that we will look at today is the Jordan River.

First, the historical side of things.  The Jordan River actually begins north of the Sea of Galilee and flows south all the way to the Dead Sea.  It starts in the heights of Mt. Hermon and drops 2,380 feet into the Dead Sea!  It is an extremely curvy river that actually measures close to 200 miles, although it only covers just over 65 miles of terrain.

Unlike the first two bodies of water that we looked at, the Jordan river is a very integral part of the Old Testament. 

It is once again found in the above references when God was telling Moses the boundaries of the nation.

In Genesis 13, Abraham and Lot parted ways and Lot chose the Jordan River Valley.

In Genesis 32, Jacob wrestles God near the Jordan River

In Joshua 1, we see the monumental crossing of the Jordan River.  I say monumental, because this is where the Israelites crossed into the promised land.  Take the time to read this section - it is awesome!  God again parts the waters and they walk through on dry land.

We will again see this body of water come into play in the New Testament - but that's all for now!!!