Genesis 9:8-17 I Will Not Destroy The World Again?

Then God spoke to Noah and to his sons with him, saying: "And as for Me, behold, I establish My covenant with you and with your descendants after you, and with every living creature that is with you: the birds, the cattle, and every beast of the earth with you, of all that go out of the ark, every beast of the earth. Thus I establish My covenant with you: Never again shall all flesh be cut off by the waters of the flood; never again shall there be a flood to destroy the earth."

As I said in the previous entry, G-d felt bad about destroying the world and all the life in it. However, it was just and had to be done. Here, G-d is promising not to destroy the world again. It amazes me that there are a lot of Christians and others who point to this passage and say, "See. God isn't going to destroy the world again, he's going to transform it."

Well, with many things, the details are in what you decide not to read. Many people read their Bible the same way. They read and absorb the general stuff while ignoring the specifics. Many Christians take in the Faith, Love and Hope message while ignoring the other things. These Christians tend to lose their faith because it is supported by "feel good" theology and not based in the reality of Gods Word. Unfortunately, I feel they are in for a rude awakening.

Anyway, lets' get back to the verse. Yes, G-d does say he is not going to destroy the world again.....BY WATER. See, the specifics are in the details. II Peter, chapter 3 tells us that the world will again be purged, not by water, but by fire.

"...the heavens and the earth, which are now, by the same word are kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men...the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up."


Fortunately, for us, this fire is part of G-ds wrath in the end times. In I Thessalonians 1:10, We are told that we are not subject to G-ds wrath.

"And to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, [even] Jesus, which delivered us from the wrath to come."

Praise G-d for his mercy upon his people.

"And God said: "This is the sign of the covenant which I make between Me and you, and every living creature that is with you, for perpetual generations: I set My rainbow in the cloud, and it shall be for the sign of the covenant between Me and the earth. It shall be, when I bring a cloud over the earth, that the rainbow shall be seen in the cloud; and I will remember My covenant which is between Me and you and every living creature of all flesh; the waters shall never again become a flood to destroy all flesh. The rainbow shall be in the cloud, and I will look on it to remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is on the earth." And God said to Noah, "This is the sign of the covenant which I have established between Me and all flesh that is on the earth."

One thing you can take to the bank is G-d fulfills all his promises. First, not to destroy the world again with a global flood. He put the rainbow in the sky after each rain to signify his promise not to destroy the world by water. Second, to destroy the world and all the unrighteousness in it with fire. Finally, to save us from that wrath.

Praise G-d and pray for those who need him.

Shalom my friends.

Genesis 9:1-7 Your Blood ... Will I Require

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.

Once again, God is telling man to be fruitful and fill the earth. Almost like saying, "OK Fellas, let's try this again." As we read this, I'd like to remind you that killing everyone off in the flood bothered G-d a lot. So much that he refuses to do it again, even if man gets himself into the same predicament. More on that in the next blog entry.

From now on, every animal will have a fear of man. Why? Well, for one thing, the next verse.

Every moving thing that liveth shall be meat for you; even as the green herb have I given you all things.

If you are now dinner for every man, wouldn't you have a fear of man? But seriously, G-d created this animousity between man and animal for the same reason that he made it harder for Adam to till the ground for food. It is going to be harder from now on. Also, and most importantly, it is to show man that a blood sacrifice will be needed as a sin offering unto G-d. Also, man sinned, not the animals. This is another sepraration as the result of our sin.

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.

There is no way getting around partaking of the blood when you eat meat. Therefore, you are automatically required to give your life for your sins.

A lot of people will tell you that these verses are telling us not to kill anyone or your life will be required, otherwise, capital punishment. They will include war, accidental and involutary man-slaughter. My answer to that is another question: "Why did G-d gives the laws concerning the Avenger of Blood and the Cities of Refufe? The answer...to point to the Messiah.

Yes it is unlawful to Murder, it is Mitsvah #6 in the Aseret ha-D'varim, or Ten Commandments. However, all we have to do is look at the word and see that it means a willfull, unjustifiable and delibrate act of taking someones life.

Let's look at this verse again. G-d includes not eating the blood of the life you just took. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to know G-d is talking about something else here. We will get deeper into this when we get further in the Torah, more specifically the D'varim or Deuteronomy.

Genesis 8:20-22 The First Altar

As mentioned before, there is a law of first mention. Here, we have, for the first time, an altar before G-d.

"And Noah built an altar unto the LORD; and took of every clean beast, and of every clean fowl, and offered burnt offerings on the altar."

Note to those who teach that Noah brought only two of every animal into the ark: In that is true, then Noah put an end to the species declared as clean. Obviously, Noah didn't take just two of every animal. Instead he took seven pairs of the clean animals. It was for this reason that he did.

Another good point is that Noah must have been super faithful to take of the only animals he and his family was allowed to eat and sacrifice some of them to the Lord. This took an incredible amount of faith that the Lord will provide. This is something a lot of us today lack.

Also, how did Noah know what was clean and what was not? Didn't the concept of clean and unclean come from the law given unto Moses? Obviously, the law was not new but forgotten when it was given to Moses. This is another example that shows that G-d doesn't change. He is the same yesterday, today and tomorrow.

"And the LORD smelled a sweet savor; and the LORD said in his heart..."

True to my nature, I must pause at this point to point out the fact that the Lord enjoys the smell of a good steak cooking on the barbie like a lot of us. :-) LOL.

"I will not again curse the ground any more for man's sake; for the imagination of man's heart is evil from his youth; neither will I again smite any more every thing living, as I have done. While the earth remaineth, seedtime and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease."

It is amazing to hear a lot of Christians still teach that G-d destroyed mankind during the flood because of sin. Right here, it shows that G-d wiped the slate clean for what? Sin? No...because sin continued and continues till today. He wiped the slate clean because the generations of man had become impure. What exactly does that mean? We don't honestly know. A lot of evidence points to the shenanigans that was going on between the fallen angels and mankinds resulting in mutations. However, it will have to be one of those questions we ask the Lord during that first big Bible Study.

See you there.

PS. Here we also have a promise not to destroy the world again. However, there is a disclaimer....but that is for next time.

Shalom

Genesis 8:13-19 A Brand New World.

"And in the second month, on the seven and twentieth day of the month, was the earth dried. And God spake unto Noah, saying, Go forth of the ark, thou, and thy wife, and thy sons, and thy sons' wives with thee."

One thing that is consistent throughout the Bible are the numbers and their associated meaning. This is no different. Please notice that there are eight people leaving the ark. Eight is consistently refered to as the number of a new beginning. Here we have a new beginning of man on the earth.

I think it’s also important to notice that God sealed them into the ark but it was man that left at Gods command. This shows that is by God that man is protected and sealed but it is by the sovereignty of man, his freewill, to do as God commands.

Also, it is interesting to note that a lot of dates in Judaism fall on the same date on a regular occurence. This date, the 27th of Ziv, is the celebration of the Liberation of Jerusalem. What do we do with that, I presently don't know. However, I know that there are no coincidences in Gods Word. Wait and see.

Bring forth with thee every living thing that is with thee, of all flesh, both of fowl, and of cattle, and of every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth; that they may breed abundantly in the earth, and be fruitful, and multiply upon the earth And Noah went forth, and his sons, and his wife, and his sons' wives with him: Every beast, every creeping thing, and every fowl, and whatsoever creepeth upon the earth, after their kinds, went forth out of the ark..

First of all, this must have been refreshing to God. God commands and man obeys.

Next, one thing that is not mentioned here is the fact that this is an alien world to Noah, his family and all the animals. Scientists believe that the firmament, that was above the earth, created a tropical like environment. As in the tropics today, things act and grew differently. At this point, with the firmament gone, the earths atmospheric pressure was most likely ½ or on it’s way to being ½ of what is was before. Also, the firmament was a protection from all kinds of cosmic rays, such as the suns ultra-violet rays which is responsible for many problems we have today.

Before, the lifespan of the individual man was between 500 and 900 years old. Now, we will see lifespans drop dramatically. This is a direct result our protective covering being gone. We will decay faster and live shorter lives. This lifespan decay continued until the average lifespan dropped to approximately 40 years of age. With the advent of medical science over the last centuries, our lifespan has risen to approximately 70 years. It should not be surprising to find out that the Bible prophesied just that. The Bible prophesied that knowledge would increase. This inevitably lead to advancements in all fields including medical science. However, this also indicates that we are in the end of days.

This is an exciting time. Are we the terminal generation? Are we going to witness the return of our savior? Are we going to see culmination of God salvation plan?

As we study the book of beginnings, we can’t help but look toward the future. A future that the Bible prophesies to be an existence with the God of the universe, our creator and savior. Are you sealed in the promise of God? Do you know for sure that your future is secure? These are questions we need to ask ourselves as we go through our brief existence on this earth.

God gave me a song and in it are the words, “Oh, won’t you come along with me? Let tell you about Jesus.” Let me tell you about Y’shua Ha Mashiach, Jesus Christ, Gods salvation for us all.

Till next time.

Shalom my friends.

I Got To Preach Sundays Sermon

This is one of those opportunities that I got to preach at our church. I hope you enjoy.

For the sermon, click here:
Sermon

If you want to view the presentation click here:
Presentation

Shabbat Shalom

Why Did G-d Bless The Third Day Twice?

After a couple of emails asking about the double blessing of the third day of creation, I went back and found that I totally left that out. At best, I alluded to it but did not explain. I apologize. First of all, here are the two entries concerning this time period. They are:

Beginnings Of Man

and

There Went Up A Mist From The Earth

I believe that both Adam and the Garden of Eden were created on the third day. This is according to the scriptures as laid out in the two entries noted above. Adam and the garden were G-d's greatest creation. Therefor, G-d blessed the Third Day twice. On the lighter side, it shows that even G-d doesn't like Mondays. LOL :-)

Genesis 8:5-13 The Big Drain

And the waters decreased continually until the tenth month: in the tenth [month], on the first [day] of the month, were the tops of the mountains seen.

Keep in mind that the ark has already rested upon the mountains of Ararat. What are we seeing here? Most likely, the rest of the mountain range. I can't help but be a little antagonistic here. The Hebrew word, "Rosh", is used in certain situations to indicate, new, beginning or start of, as in Rosh Hashanah. Could this be interpreted as, "new hills" or "new mountains"? We'll find out when G-d is the one leading the bible study.

And it came to pass at the end of forty days, that Noah opened the window of the ark which he had made: And he sent forth a raven, which went forth to and fro, until the waters were dried up from off the earth. Also he sent forth a dove from him, to see if the waters were abated from off the face of the ground; But the dove found no rest for the sole of her foot, and she returned unto him into the ark, for the waters [were] on the face of the whole earth: then he put forth his hand, and took her, and pulled her in unto him into the ark. And he stayed yet other seven days; and again he sent forth the dove out of the ark; And the dove came in to him in the evening; and, lo, in her mouth [was] an olive leaf pluckt off: so Noah knew that the waters were abated from off the earth.

Here we have Noah sending out a raven and a dove searching for plant life and they find an olive tree. We also have evidence against a ravaging and horrific flood as indicated by most teachers. How could have trees survive such conditions if it weren't a gentle rise of waters as the bible actually indicates. Noah knew trees survived and was expecting growth to occur immediately after the flood as proven here.

"And he stayed yet other seven days; and sent forth the dove; which returned not again unto him any more. And it came to pass in the six hundredth and first year, in the first [month], the first [day] of the month, the waters were dried up from off the earth: and Noah removed the covering of the ark, and looked, and, behold, the face of the ground was dry."

I hate to keep beating a dead horse into the ground. However, the dove didn't come back. There was obviously food for the dove to survive upon. Something you wouldn't have if the flood was as violent as most say. But....once again, something I sure G-d will fill us in on at a later date.

Shalom my friends