HBS & DwJ Podcast

Our Scripture Of The Week Is:

1 Corinthians 13:1 KJVS
Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not charity, I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal.

1 Corinthians, Chapter 12 revealed another problem in the Corinthian church.

They misunderstood the nature and purpose of spiritual gifts.

The fact that some spoke in tongues and exercised more obvious gifts, while others did not, seems to have been yet another source of division among them.

At the least, it led to the wrong idea that some were more spiritual than others.

Paul carefully corrected their thinking, showing that every gift is needed in the church, especially those gifts that were exercised out of the view of others.

Paul ended those thoughts by encouraging his readers to desire that the higher gifts of apostles, prophets, and teachers be given by God to their church, lowering the importance placed on the perhaps more impressive-seeming gift of tongues.

Then he promised to show them "a still more excellent way" (1 Corinthians 12:31).
Now Paul launches into one of the most loved and meaningful chapters in the Bible, 1 Corinthians 13.

It is brief, but it powerfully describes the very heart of what it means to live together as believers in Jesus.

He begins by showing just how pointless even the most impressive spiritual gifts are without love.

Even the God-given, supernatural ability to speak in a language one doesn't know, even the language of angels, becomes as the sound of a noisy gong and clanging cymbal if it is not exercised with love.

The specific word used here is agape, meaning a self-sacrificing and godly love.

The "tongues of men" are understood to be proper human languages.

This is a gift given so that those who do not know the speaker's language can understand the message given by God.

The language of angels may very well refer to the actual language spoken among heavenly beings, who apparently participated in some way in the worship gatherings of the early church (1 Corinthians 11:10).

Or, this might simply be a figure of speech Paul uses to make his larger point about the primacy of love.

No matter how impressive such a display would be, it becomes nothing but repulsive noise when practiced without love for other believers.


We will now get into today’s discussion:

We have seen the construction of the universe in verse 1 of Genesis, the convulsion of the earth in verse 2, and now we come to the construction of the earth in six days (vv. 3–31).

What have you learned so far about the construction of the earth according to the Holy Bible?

There are several things here that I would like to call to your attention. In Exodus 20:11, it reads “For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is. . . .”

There is nothing in that verse about creating.

What can we learn here, since we now realize creatiing the earth is not spoken in the Word before us?

It says “made”; God is taking that which is already formed and in these six days He is not “creating” but He is recreating. He is working with matter which already exists, out of the matter which He had called into existence probably billions of years before.

So when was the earth actually created?

God created life and put it on the earth, and for the earth He created man. That is the creature we are interested in because you and I happen to be one of those creatures.

What does "for the earth GOD created man" mean to you?

This makes the Genesis record intensely important for us today.

We have seen the construction of the universe in verse 1, the convulsion of the earth in verse 2, and now we come to the construction of the earth in six days (vv. 3–31).

I believe what we have here is this development.

There are several things here that I would like to call to your attention.

In Exodus 20:11, it reads “For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is. . . .” There is nothing in that verse about creating.

It says “made”; God is taking that which is already formed and in these six days He is not “creating” but He is recreating.

He is working with matter which already exists, out of the matter which He had called into existence probably billions of years before.

God created life and put it on the earth, and for the earth He created mankind.

That is the creature we are interested in because you and I happen to be one of those creatures.

This makes the Genesis record intensely important for us today.



DAY ONE—LIGHT



God said, Let there be light; He willed it, and at once there was light.

Oh, the power of the word of God!

And in the new creation, the first thing that is wrought in the soul is light: the blessed Spirit works upon the will and affections by enlightening the understanding.

Those who by sin were darkness, by grace become light in the Lord.

Darkness would have been always upon fallen man, if the Son of God had not come and given us understanding.

The light which God willed, He approved of.

God divided the light from the darkness; for what fellowship has light with darkness?

In heaven there is perfect light, and no darkness at all; in hell, utter darkness, and no gleam of light.

The day and the night are the Lord's; let us use both to His honor, by working for Him every day, and resting in Him every night, meditating in His law both day and night.



Our Scripture will be coming from

Genesis 1:3-8 KJV

[3] And God said, Let there be light: and there was light.

[4] And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness.

[5] And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day.

[6] And God said, Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters.

[7] And God made the firmament, and divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament: and it was so.

[8] And God called the firmament Heaven. And the evening and the morning were the second day.



Genesis 1:3
And God said, Let there be light: and there was light.

Neither here nor in vv. 14-18 is an original creative act implied.

A different word is used.

The sense is made to appear, made visible.

The sun and moon were created "in the beginning.” The light came from the sun, of course, but the vapor diffused the light.

Later the sun appeared in an unclouded sky.

Creation begins!

The phrase And God said occurs at the beginning of each day of creation, and here it serves to separate Genesis 1:3 and following from 1:1, 2.

Let there be is a command or desire for something to take place.

Presumably those hearing this command are the inhabitants of Heaven, the abode of God.

The first thing created is light.

Since the sun, moon, and stars are not created until the fourth day, some think that the light referred to here may be what scientists call energy.

Perhaps this light-as-energy, if that is what it is, is a new creation out of nothing.

Or perhaps matter that God previously created is now turned into energy, a concept absent from the ancient mind.

Addressing such an issue is not the aim of the book of Genesis.

The stress, rather, is that light stands in positive contrast to darkness (next verse).

Genesis 1:4
And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness.

God acts in and on His creation, and His light pushes back the darkness.

The word good describes the value of the light.

It may also include the excellence of figurative ideas associated with light.

The Scripture may be using the acts of creation to teach a spiritual lesson in addition to the material events of creation.

If that’s the case, then the lesson is that there is a difference between good and evil just as clearly as there is a difference between physical light and darkness.

Foolish, sinful humans will later blur those distinctions.

“Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil” (Isaiah 5:20).

Genesis 1:5
And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day.

From the perspective of the ancient world, naming brings things into existence; unnamed things do not exist.

Modern, scientific ideas about the nature of light are not in view.

Just as darkness is merely the absence of light, and light is the creation of God, so also Day and Night are portrayed as impersonal creations rather than as rival gods or the forces used by other gods.

In naming light and darkness, God exercises His authority and power as Creator.

The meaning of day has been interpreted in various ways to calculate the age of the earth.

The word day in some contexts refers to the part of a 24-hour period that has light (Exodus 13:21).

In other contexts it refers to entire 24-hour periods of time (Genesis 7:10).

In still other contexts, day refers to a longer period of time (Genesis 2:4).

The proposal that the phrase the evening and the morning naturally suggests a 24-hour day is met with the observation that the sun—the rising and setting of which establish evening and morning—is not created until the fourth day.

One commentator has identified 20 creation accounts in the Bible.

In so doing, he notes that the main emphasis across these is “the who” of creation—namely God.

Secondarily, the Bible writers address “the how” of creation.

Of least importance to them is “the when.”

The goal of the authors is not to
describe the age of the earth, but rather to describe the orderliness of creation and the lordship of the Creator over all that exists.

The word "day” is used in Scripture in four ways:

(1) that part of the solar day of twenty-four hours which is light;

(2) a period of twenty-four hours;

(3) a time set apart for some distinctive purpose, as ”day of atonement”; and

(4) a longer period of time, during which certain revealed purposes of God are to be accomplished.

The use of "evening" and ”morning” may be held to limit "day" to the solar day; but the frequent parabolic use of natural phenomena may warrant the conclusion that it simply means that each creative day was a period of time marked off by a beginning and ending.

In any event the sun did not become a measure of time before the fourth day.



THE CONCEPT OF TIME

The Natural Day was from sunrise to sunset.
The Natural Night was from sunset to sunrise.
The Civil Day was, at least in later times in Israel, from sunset one evening to sunset the next: for ”the evening and the morning were the first day."

Night (ancient)
First watch (Lam. 2:19) until about midnight.
Middle watch (Jud. 7:19) including midnight (Ex. 11:4) until 3 A.M.
Morning watch (Ex. 14:24) 3 A.M until 6 A.M.

Night (New Testament)
First watch, evening = 6 to 9 P.M.
Second watch, midnight = 9 to 12 P.M.
Third watch, cock-crow = 12 to 3 A.M.
Fourth watch, morning = 3 to 6 A.M.

Day (ancient)
Morning: until about 10 A.M.
Heat of the day: until about 2 P.M.
Day's decline: until about 6 P.M.
Evening or cool of the day: after 6 P.M.

Day (New Testament)
Third hour = 6 to 9 A.M.
Sixth hour = 9 to 12 midday
Ninth hour = 12 to 3 P.M.
Twelfth hour = 3 to 6 P.

DAY TWO—AIR SPACES

The earth was emptiness, but by a word spoken, it became full of God's riches, and His they are still.

Though the use of them is allowed to man, they are from God, and to His service and honor they must be used.

The earth, at His command, brings forth grass, herbs, and fruits.

God must have the glory of all the benefit we receive from the produce of the earth.

If we have, through grace, an interest in Him who is the Fountain, we may rejoice in Him when the streams of temporal mercies are dried up.

What does that mean?

Well, God first divided the waters perpendicularly.

Genesis 1:6
And God said, Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters.

“God said, Let there be a firmament”—the Hebrew word for firmament is raqia, meaning air spaces. “Let it divide the waters from the waters.”

There is water above us and water beneath us.

The word firmament refers to the bowl-like dome, an expanse - a beating out as a plate of metal: a

The first verse of the Bible gives us a satisfying and useful account of the origin of the earth and the heavens.

The faith of humble Christians understands this better than most intelligent men.

From what we see of heaven and earth, we learn the power of the great Creator.

And let our make and place as men, remind us of our duty as Christians, always to keep heaven in our eyes, and the earth under our feet.

The Son of God, one with the Father, was with Him when he made the world; Although, we are often told that the world was made by Him, and nothing was made without Him.

Oh, what high thoughts should there be in our minds, of that great God whom we worship, and of that great Mediator in whose name we pray!

And here, at the beginning of the sacred volume, we read of that Divine Spirit, whose work upon the heart of man is so often mentioned in other parts of the Bible.

Observe, that at first there was nothing desirable to be seen, for the world was without form, and void; it was confusion, and emptiness.

In like manner the work of grace in the soul is a new creation.

And in a graceless soul, one that is not born again, there is disorder, confusion, and every evil work: it is empty of all good, for it is without God; it is dark, it is darkness itself.

This is our condition by nature, till Almighty grace works a change in us.

What have we done in our lives to decide which soul we want to work with?

The first verse of the Bible gives us a satisfying and useful account of the origin of the earth and the heavens.

The faith of humble Christians understands this better than the fancy of the most learned men.

From what we see of heaven and earth, we learn the power of the great Creator.

And let our make and place as men, remind us of our duty as Christians, always to keep heaven in our eyes, and the earth under our feet.

The Son of God, one with the Father, was with Him when he made the world; Although, we are often told that the world was made by Him, and nothing was made without Him.

Oh, what high thoughts should there be in our minds, of that great God whom we worship, and of that great Mediator in whose name we pray!

And here, at the beginning of the sacred volume, we read of that Divine Spirit, whose work upon the heart of man is so often mentioned in other parts of the Bible.

Observe, that at first there was nothing desirable to be seen, for the world was without form, and void; it was confusion, and emptiness.

In like manner the work of grace in the soul is a new creation: and in a graceless soul, one that is not born again, there is disorder, confusion, and every evil work: it is empty of all good, for it is without God; it is dark, it is darkness itself: this is our condition by nature, till Almighty grace works a change in us.

This is one of the most profound statements that has ever been made, and yet we find that it is a statement that is certainly challenged in this hour in which we are living.

I think that this verse is all we have of the actual creation—with the exception, as we shall see, of the creation of man and animals later on in the Book of Genesis.

But this is the creation story, and I’ll admit that it is a very brief story, indeed.



Our Scripture will be coming from

Genesis 1:1-2 KJV

[1] In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.

[2] And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.



Genesis 1:1
In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.

The Bible begins with God, not with philosophic arguments for His existence.

Neither the peoples of the ancient world in general nor the Scriptures in particular assert innumerable beginnings.

Only one beginning is in view, and it is that which commences in the first verse of the Bible.

The concept of the beginning is not limited to a singular point of time, but rather includes the span of events that are described through Genesis 2:4.

Scripture gives no data for determining how long ago the universe was created.

The Hebrew word translated God is actually plural in form.

Some well-meaning believers, knowing that Scripture clearly teaches there is only one true God (Isaiah 46:9; etc.), assert that this plural form demonstrates that God is a trinity.

Unbelievers claim that this plural form indicates that the Old Testament teaches the existence of many gods.

Neither view is necessarily supported by this plural form, for two reasons.

First, though a plural noun in Hebrew may indicate “more than one,” a noun may be plural to signify honor; this is similar to the royal “we” spoken by a king or queen.

Second, the Hebrew behind the verb created is singular, indicating only one subject.

The best explanation is that God is viewed as a single essence who is honored above all other beings.

This expression is roughly equivalent to our term universe.

In Hebrew, two words with opposite senses are often paired to indicate a totality.

For example, “great and small” in 2 Chronicles 34:30 means all kinds of people.

Therefore Genesis 1:1 is expressing quite clearly that all we call “matter” today is not coeternal with God.

Rather, God brought it into existence.

Genesis 1:2
And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.

Two main interpretations have been advanced to explain the expression "without form, and void" (Hebrew tohu and bohu).

The first, which may be called the Original Chaos interpretation, regards these words as a description of an original formless matter in the first stage of the creation of the universe.

The second, which may be called the Divine judgment interpretation, sees in these words a description of the earth only, and that In a condition subsequent to its creation, not as it was originally.

To begin with, look out upon this vast creation—something has happened to it!

Man’s trip to the moon reveals nothing in the world but a wasteland up there.

How did it get that way?

Maybe there was a catastrophe in God’s universe.

That is specifically mentioned in regard to the earth because this is to be the place where man lives, and so the earth is described as being “without form and void.”

“Darkness was upon the face of the deep” indicates the absence of God, of course.

We move to the description of the situation after the creation of matter in verse 1.

The exact phrase (in the original Hebrew) of earth’s description without form, and void also occurs in Jeremiah 4:23.

There it describes the moral chaos of a chosen people who do not know the Lord, who do not know how to do good, and who are wise only in knowing how to do evil.

The phrase seems to describe a situation that is without moral boundaries.

In parallel, Genesis 1:2 implies that physical boundaries are not yet fully defined.

Here, the word darkness communicates the absence of light in a physical sense.

Later writers and Jesus Himself will use this word to communicate the absence of light in a moral sense.

It also comes to be used in contexts that call for the punitive acts of God.

Regarding Genesis 1, the literal, physical sense is clear.

But as we read the Old Testament in light of the New Testament, our understanding of figurative uses of the word darkness is enhanced.

The word translated Spirit is elsewhere translated “breath” (Genesis 6:17), “wind” (8:1), “spirit” (45:27), “courage” (Joshua 2:11), and others.

Regarding a choice between translations of Spirit or spirit, the translators were faced with a difficulty in that the Hebrew language does not distinguish between uppercase and lowercase letters.

So translators must interpret the meaning, and they capitalize when the reference is to God personally as divine being.

As a result, the phrases Spirit of God and spirit of God occur 10 and 4 times respectively in the King James Version of the Old Testament.

Many Christians think the phrase Spirit of God always refers to the Holy Spirit.

But passages where the identical Hebrew is properly not translated that way are 1 Samuel 16:15, 16, 23; 18:10.

The phrase Spirit of God in the passage before us refers to the same one known as “the Spirit of the Lord.”

This Spirit can be present (Judges 11:29), take action (13:25), speak messages (2 Samuel 23:2), and depart (1 Samuel 16:14).

These are the qualities of a personal being, not an impersonal force.



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To GOD Goes The Glory
The Glory
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Our Scripture Of The Week Is:

1 Corinthians 2:9 KJVS
But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him.

We will now open up with Our Life Reflection:

How does God turn evil into good?

How is it possible for something bad and hurtful to actually produces something good and helpful?

There are many ways God turns what was meant for evil into good. I am going to share 4 ways God turns evil into good according to the Bible.

God Turns Evil Into Good When Our Suffering Ends Up Benefiting Others

One way God turns evil into good is when our pain ends up producing something useful for many other people. When our suffering teaches us something that we can teach others, and thus helping many avoid pain because we endured pain, God is using what was meant for evil for good.

Genesis 50:20, “As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive, as they are today.”

Colossians 1:24, “Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I am filling up what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions for the sake of his body, that is, the church . . . .”

God Turns Evil Into Good When Our Suffering Causes Us to Seek God More

Another way God can transform an evil circumstance into something good for us is by using our suffering to cause us to seek Him more. God is the best. Sometimes when we live moderately comfortable lives we are stuck in the dangers of luke warm waters.

God wants us to become passionate for Him. Sometimes He allows evil and trials to make our lives worse so that we are motivated to seek Him more.

When we experience more of God’s goodness because evil made us run to Him, God has turned what was meant for evil into good.

2 Corinthians 12:7-10,
7 “So to keep me from becoming conceited because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations, a thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to harass me, to keep me from becoming conceited.
8 Three times I pleaded with the Lord about this, that it should leave me.
9 But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me.
10 For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong.”

God Turns Evil Into Good When He Empowers Us to Reflect Him in Trials

Another way God can turn evil into good is being using our trials as stages for us to reflect His glory. God made us to glorify Him. God is glorified when we bear His image.

Sometimes the best way to bear the image of a Holy God is against the backdrop of an unholy world. When we are surrounded by evil and darkness we can shine that much more brightly for Christ.

1 Peter 1:6-7,
6 “In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials,
7 so that the tested genuineness of your faith—more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.”

Matthew 5:11-12,
11 “Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account.
12 Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.”

Philippians 1:29-30,
29 “For it has been granted to you that for the sake of Christ you should not only believe in him but also suffer for his sake,
30 engaged in the same conflict that you saw I had and now hear that I still have.”

Philippians 2:14-16,
14 "Do all things without grumbling or disputing,
15 that you may be blameless and innocent, children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world,
16 holding fast to the word of life, so that in the day of Christ I may be proud that I did not run in vain or labor in vain.”

God Turns Evil Into Good By Glorifying Himself Through His Gospel and Grace

The ultimate way God turns what was meant for evil into good is through the gospel of Jesus Christ. Sin does not glorify God.

But God uses sin for His glory by saving us from sin. When God sent His son to save us, He displayed His glory in the most profound way possible. Through the gospel God redeems us of sin and evil and thus brings Himself immense glory.

Therefore when we allow God’s grace to redeem us from our sins, God is turning what was meant for evil into good.

Ephesians 1: 4-6, 11-14,
4 “In love
5 he predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will,
6 to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved. . . .
11 In him we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will,
12 so that we who were the first to hope in Christ might be to the praise of his glory.
13 In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit,
14 who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of his glory.”

Ephesians 2:4-7,
4 “But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us,
5 even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved—
6 and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus,
7 so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.”

When reading through the book of Genesis, which is made up of these two main parts.

The first part begins in the garden where we watch humanity spiral downward into self-destruction.

And it ends in the Tower of Babel where a rebellious humanity is scattered by God.

The second part of Genesis zooms in and focuses on just one family.

Right in the middle is this story that links the two parts of Genesis together and helps us understand what the whole book is all about.

So how do we get from the Tower of Babel to the story here in the middle?

Well after the scattering of Babel there's this genealogy and it follows one of the tribes all the way down to this one guy named Abram.

You probably know him as Abraham

GOD starts making all these promises to Abraham like he's going to bless him and give him a ton of kids.

GOD also says that through Abraham and his family all the nations of the earth are now going to find God's Blessing.

So basically God is trying to restore humanity back to the goodness of the garden and to His original intentions for the world.

So it's like His rescue plan for humanity.

That's why the whole second half of Genesis is about this one family.

And so you have Abraham, and then he has a son Isaac, who has Jacob, and then Jacob has twelve sons.

And each generation God renews His promise to bless them and all nations through them.

So because of this promise to use this family to rescue the world, it's pretty easy to read the stories as examples of how to be a good person.

But actually the most part this family is totally dysfunctional.

So for example, let's go back to Abraham.

This whole story is about God giving him, his wife Sarah a family.

But two different times he basically gives Sarah away to other men by denying that she's even his wife

And then Sarah gets impatient about having a son and so she makes Abraham sleep with her servant girl which then causes all of these other problems in the family.

So they get really old and you begin to think that there's no way they're going to have a kid of their own.

But then miraculously they do, it's Isaac.

And Isaac, he has two sons, Esau and Jacob and it seems like things are going pretty good.

But Jacob the younger brother wants the families inheritance which belongs to Esau the older brother.

So he devices a plan where he's going to steal it from his father Isaac who at this point the story is now old and blind.

But who does that?

That's horrible stealing from your blind father.

Yeah, and then he just takes off.

So Jacob goes on from there to have 12 sons big family.

But Jacob loves his 11th son Joseph way more than all the others.

And so he gives him the special technical color dream coat.

And his brothers, because of this, come to hate him.

So much so, that they plan on killing him.

But they instead, just sell him into slavery down in Egypt.

Now while in Egypt through this crazy series of events.

Joseph goes from being in a prison cell to becoming the second in command there.

And so later on the whole Middle East falls into this food shortage.

And Joseph's brothers, they come down to Egypt looking for food.

And then when they get there, who should they find as the ruler of the whole land?

It's Joseph, that guy they sold into slavery.

But he actually saves them from starving to death.

And so here you have it, these are the great grandchildren of Abraham who have done this heinous act to their brother.

But God has transformed their evil into something good.

That's exactly what Joseph says here in the last paragraph of the entire book.

He says, you guys planned all of this for evil, but God planned it for good, to save people's lives.

Now these words they conclude the book because they actually summarized the message of the whole story so far.

Humans keep choosing evil and we think that's messing up God's plan, but He keeps turning their evil back into good.

And somehow, He is going to use this family to restore humanity back to the garden.

So that's the book of Genesis.

But we still don't know how exactly, He's going to use this family to bring us back to the garden.

But this is just the first book, so that's what the rest of the Bible sets out to answer.



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To GOD Goes The Glory
The Glory
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During this Jerry Joyce Podcast Session, my co-host, Howard and myself are discussing change, and how it affects us at home, in our communities, our nation, and ultimately, our world.

We are all part of society, if we all would learn how to receive structure in our personal lives, our family lives, through out our communities, as well as our nation, and ultimately the world, the population as a human race would live better lives.


All right get those phone lines buzzing by the mighty dozens and let us know what you think of today's episode.

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To GOD Goes The Glory
The Glory
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The Book of Genesis is the first book of the Bible and its story-line divides into two main parts.

There's chapters 1 through 11 which tell the story of God and the whole world.

And then there's chapters 12 through 50 which zoom in and tell the story of God, and just one man, Abraham, and then his family.

And these two parts are connected by a hinge story at the beginning of chapter 12.

And this design gives us a clue on how to understand the message of the book as a whole, and how it introduces the story of the whole Bible.

So the book begins with God taking the disorder and the Darkness described in the second sentence of the Bible.

And God brings out of it order, beauty and goodness, He makes a world where life can flourish.

And God makes these creatures called humans or Adam in Hebrew.

He makes them in His image, which has to do with their role and purpose in God's world.

So the humans are made to be reflections of God's character out into the world, and they're appointed as God's representatives to rule His world on His behalf.

Which in context means to harness all of its potential, to care for it and and make it a place where even more life can flourish.

God blesses with humans.

It's a key word in this book and He gives them a Garden, a place from which they begin to build this new world.

Now the key is that the humans have a choice about how they're going to go about building this world.

And that's represented by the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

Until now God has provided and defined what is good and what is not good.

But now God is giving the humans the dignity and the freedom of choice.

Are they going to trust God's definition of good and evil?

Or are they going to seize autonomy and Define good and evil for themselves?

And the stakes are really high.

To rebel against God is to embrace death, because you are turning away from The Giver of Life Himself.

This is represented by the tree of life.

And so in chapter 3, a mysterious figure, a snake enters into the story.

The snake, given no introduction other than it's a creature that God made.

And it becomes clear that it's a creature in Rebellion against God.

And it wants to lead the humans into rebellion and their death.

The snake tells a different story about the tree and the choice.

It says that seizing the knowledge of Good and Evil are not going to bring death, that it's actually the way to life and becoming like God Himself.

Now the irony of this is tragic, because we know that humans are already like God.

We were made to reflect God's image.

But instead of trusting God, humans chose to seize autonomy.

They take the knowledge of Good and Evil for themselves and in an instant the whole story spirals out of control.

The first casualty is Human Relationships.

The man and the woman, they suddenly realize how vulnerable they are.

Now they can't even trust each other and so they make clothes, and they hide their bodies from one another.

The second casualty is that intimacy between God and the humans is lost.

So they go run and hide from God and then when God finds them, they start this game of blame Shifting about who rebelled first.

Now right here the story stops.

And there's a series of short poems where God declares to the snake, and then to the humans the tragic consequences of their actions.

God first tells the snake that despite its apparent Victory it is destined for defeat to eat dust.

God promises that one day a seed or a descendant will come from woman who's going to deliver a lethal strike to the snake's head.

Which sounds like great news but this Victory is going to come with a cost, because the snake too will deliver a lethal strike to The Descendant's heel as it's being crushed.

It's a very mysterious promise of this wounded Victor.

But in the flow of the story so far you see this is an act of God's grace.

The humans they just rebelled, and what does God do?

He promises to rescue them.

But this doesn't erase the consequences of the human's decision.

So God informs them that now every aspect of their life together at home, and out in the field it's going to be fraught with grief and pain because of the Rebellion.

All leading to their death.

From here the story then spirals downward.

Chapters 3 through 11, they trace the widening ripple effect of the rebellion and of Human Relationships fracturing at every level.

So there's a story about two brothers, Cain and Abel.

Cain, so jealous of his brother that he wants to murder him.

And God warns him not to give into the temptation, but he does anyway, he murders him in the field.

So Cain then goes on to build a city where violence and oppression rain, and this is all epitomized in the story of Lamech.

He's the first man in the Bible to have more than one wife, he's accumulating them like property.

And then he goes on to sing a short song about how he's more violent and vengeful than Cain ever was.

After this we get an odd story about the sons of God.

Which could refer to evil Angelic beings.

Or it could refer to ancient Kings who claimed that they descended from the gods.

And like Lamech, they acquired as many wives as they wanted.

And they produce the Nephilim, these great warriors of all.

Whichever view is right, the point is that humans are building kingdoms that fill God's world with violence and even more corruption.

In response, we're told that God is broken with grief.

Humanity is ruining His good world and they're ruining each other.

And so out of the passion to protect the goodness of this world, He washes it clean of Humanity's evil with the Great Flood.

But he protects one blameless human, Noah in his family.

And He commissioned him as a new Adam.

He repeat the divine blessing and commissions him to go out into the world.

And so our hopes are really high, but then Noah fails too.

And also in a garden, he goes and he plants a vineyard.

And he gets drunk out of his mind

And then one of his sons, Ham, does something shameful to his father, in the tent.

And so here we have our new Adam naked and shamed, just like the first.

And the downward spiral begins again.

It all leads to the foundation of the city of Babylon.

The people of ancient Mesopotamia, they come together around this new technology they have, the brick.

And they can make cities and towers bigger and faster than anybody has ever done before.

And they want to build a new kind of tower that will reach up to the Gods and they will make a great name for themselves.

It's an image of human rebellion and arrogance.

It's the garden Rebellion now brick large.

And so God humbles their pride, and scatters them.

Now this is a diverse group of stories, but you can see they're all exploring the same basic point.

God keeps giving humans the chance to do the right thing with His world, and humans ruining it.

And these stories are making a claim that we live in a good world that we have turned bad.

That we've all chosen to Define good and evil for ourselves.

And so we all contribute to this world of broken relationships leading to conflict, violence, and ultimately death.

But there's hope.

God promise that one day descendant would come the wounded Victor who will defeat evil at it's source.

And so despite Humanity's evil, God is determined to bless and rescue His world.

So the big question of course is.

What is God going to do?

And the next Story, the hinge offers the answer.



All right get those phone lines buzzing by the mighty dozens and let us know what you think of today's episode.

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Our Scripture Of The Week Is:

Galatians 6:1 KJVS
Brethren, if a man be overtaken in a fault, ye which are spiritual, restore such an one in the spirit of meekness; considering thyself, lest thou also be tempted.


We will now open up with Our Life Reflection:

The Holy Bible is a collection of sacred books written by ancient prophets and historians.
These authors recorded the relationship between God and His people for over 4,000 years.
Their inspired words are what we know today as the Holy Bible.
The Holy Bible is a book like no other.

In our lives today, we might find them in hotel rooms, court rooms, Walmarts, Barnes & Nobles, Amazon, Ebay, as well as many Bible Stores.

The Bible is the Holy scripture of the Christian religion, purporting to tell the history of the Earth from its earliest creation to the spread of Christianity in the first century A.D.

Both the Old Testament and the New Testament have undergone changes over the centuries, including the publication of the King James Bible in 1611 and the addition of several books that were discovered later.

Christianity is the most widely practiced religion in the world, with more than 2 billion followers.
The Christian faith centers on beliefs regarding the birth, life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

While it started with a small group of adherents, many historians regard the spread and adoption of Christianity throughout the world as one of the most successful spiritual missions in human history.

The Holy Bible is the only book that I know that applied to all aspects of human life over 4,000 years ago, and is still applicable to all aspects of human life today.

It is so important that it is used to give sworn testimony in court rooms throughout the United States.


We will now get into today’s discussion:

So what's the story of the Holy Bible in your opinion?

We find in the Holy Bible that even with God's personal guidance Israel fails.
The Believers’ Response to Trials (Genesis 12:10–20)
Perspectives on Unfaithful Israel (Hosea 4:1-19)
Israel’s Downfall (Joshua 23 - Judges 3)
The Suffering Of Israel Resisting A Rest (Hebrews 3:7-19)
The Consolation of Israel’s Rejection (Romans 11:1-36)
Israel's Failure at Kadesh Barnea (Numbers 10:11-14:45)
Israel’s Covenant Renewal (Deuteronomy)
There Is a Future for Israel (Romans 11)
Israel’s Dark Ages (Judges)
Israel’s Failure Is the Scripture’s Fulfillment (Romans 9:24-33)
The Kindness and Severity of God (Romans 11:13-24)
Can God’s Promises Fail? (Romans 11:1-6)

Just to name a few.

The Holy Bible is an important book, but it is really long.

It's a collection of many books written over a long period of time but altogether they tell one unified story.

So what's the story of the Bible?

Great question!

Well it begins by introducing us to a beautiful mind the author of all reality of a Being called God.

And He has a power to take the dark chaos of the uncreated world and bring about order and beauty and a garden full of life.

It's a crown on this accomplishment, GOD appoints these creatures called humanity or in Hebrew Adam.

And their made as God's image.

Which means that they're commissioned to rule this beautiful world on God's behalf.

By harnessing all of its potential and creating even more beauty and order.

This is a story about humans using their power to do meaningful life giving work.

But the question is:

How?

And yeah humanity now faces of choice that's represented by a fruit tree.

So humans could partner with God and find freedom by trusting in His knowledge of good and evil, or they could seize power and define good and evil on their own.

Which God warrants will kill them.

And they hear the voice of a dark, mysterious creature that tells them the choice is simple, take the fruit, it will give you power and freedom to rule the world on your own terms.

And so they seize this knowledge and as a result they become suspicious, self protected, it leads to fractured relationships, violent power grabs and ultimately a whole civilization, Babylon, that has redefined people as good.

So GOD scattered this corrupted human project.

But here the story of the Bible takes an important turn.

We zoom into the story of a man and a woman who comes out of Babylon, Abraham and Sarah.

Yeah GOD promises that from them will come a new people, a nation that has another chance to make the right choice.

And if they succeed, it will open up this new way forward for the rest of humanity.

And this is why the rest of the Bible story is about this family.

And it does not go well, despite God's personal guidance.

Abraham's family gives in to that same temptation to redefine good and evil on their own terms apart from GOD.

Even when the best people were in charge, rulers who loved God's guidance and had divided wisdom even they gave in.

And so Israel was warned by their own prophets that these choices would lead them back to Babylon, this time as conquered captives living in Exile, and that's exactly what happened.

So even with God's personal guidance Israel fails.

Who can succeed?

Well the prophets said that the story wasn't over.

God's going to send a new leader to Israel to cover for their failures and to transform the people's hearts and minds so that they can make the right choice.

And so the part of the Bible called the Old Testament ends, and these promises are left hanging.

And then the biblical story continues into the New Testament.

We're gonna be introduced to the man who comes from the line of Israel's kings, Jesus of Nazareth.

And He said that He was bringing all these promises to their completion.

He confronted that dark, mysterious evil that all humanity has given into and resisted its power.

And then He announced that God had arrived to rule the world through Himself.

Jesus taught about God's definition of good and evil, and He said the real power is serving others.

According to Jesus, it's people who love the poor and even love their enemies, these are the kinds of people who actually rule the world.

That's confusing but also really beautiful.

And so is the claim that the story goes on to make about Jesus, that He is God become human, to be for Israel and for all humanity what we could never be for ourselves.

He came to take the consequences of our evil into Himself, and His sacrificial love proved more powerful than evil, than even death itself.

So now humanity is presented with a new choice, represented by a new tree.

Stick with the old way of being human or venture into this new way.

And in the story those who choose the way of Jesus find themselves energized by God's Own Power.

People who know that they are loved and forgiven by God can become people who love and forgive others in return.

The Jesus movement quickly spread throughout the world, forming these new communities of people who follow the way of Jesus.

But they faced problems.

There is persecution from the outside by people in power, and inside there was confusion, even compromise.

Because following Jesus is really hard.

And so the movement's leaders, called apostles, they wrote letters to comfort and to challenge these communities to stay faithful to the difficult way of Jesus.

And they're called a hope for the day when Jesus will come and change everything.

And so the Holy Bible ends by pointing to the future day when all wrongs are made right, when evil is eradicated, heaven and earth united, and humanity can rule the world together in the love and power of GOD.

Okay So that's the story of the Holy Bible, It brings all of these books together.

But what's interesting is that each book contains a different kind of literature that contributes to the story in the unique way and that's what the next Holy Bible Study & Discussion with Jerry Podcast episode will begin to explore.



All right get those phone lines buzzing by the mighty dozens and let us know what you think of today's episode.

📱(704) 471-8526

To GOD Goes The Glory
The Glory
Glory👃🏾