I wrote this informal article because a friend asked me

“How Did the Nation Israel Come To Be?”

By Sharon Henry

with thanks to my good friend Kevin Mills for his proof-reading and input

Introduction

      The only answer for why God started the Hebrew race was because everyone had turned their back on Him from the very start.  They followed Satan.  God wanted to use the Hebrews to reclaim His authority over the Earth which was lost when Adam turned over his dominion to Satan.  God intended for the Hebrews to teach others, but they were hard headed and made a mess of what He was trying to do with them. 

     When they turned their backs on the LORD and crucified Him, God started a whole new thing with the conversion of Saul of Tarsus (the Apostle Paul).   God had His new program in the back of His mind all along.   What God had wanted from the very beginning was for people just to believe Him; believe what He SAID.   Faith is what pleases God.  But in order for one to believe what He said, they have to know what He said, and the only place to get that is in the pages of the Bible, God’s word. 

     The problem is that most people prefer the traditions of men.  They had much rather be a part of the main stream denominationalism, or a member of a cult, or nothing at all, rather than to go against it to be and do what God wants.  It is easy to be accepted by God, but the difficult part is to go against religion and religious people in order to do it.

Some Explanation Concerning Scripture

      First, for purely informational purposes, it would probably be good to say that the first five books of the bible were written by Moses, and secondly that all scripture is inspired by God.  (Inspired means "God breathed.")  2 Timothy 3:16, "All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness:"            2 Peter 1:21, "For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man: but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost."  If it isn't inspired, it isn't scripture!  An example of uninspired books would be the Apocrypha, found in the Catholic bible, and the Quran which is the book of Islam.      

     Unlike English today, the KJV Bible distinguishes between the singular and plural "you."  When you see the words "thee," "thy" and "thou" they are "you" and "your" singular.  "Ye" is the equivalent of "you" plural.  For instance, Acts 2:22, in the sentence, "Ye men of Israel" the entire nation is being addressed.  In Matthew 1:21, "...thou shalt call his name JESUS:" the angel is addressing Joseph personally.

     Actually, the word, "Jew" is a reference to the Hebrew people's religion; although people often use it interchangeably, it is not grammatically correct to do so.  A Hebrew could be Christian, Jew, or nothing at all.  "Hebrew" is the proper name of the race of people.  The word "Israel" is the name of the nation made up of Hebrew people.  This is important to remember in order to not get confused when they are referred to in scripture.

     Also, remember that in scripture the word "religion" or "religious" is not generally used as something good.  The apostle Paul made the following statement concerning the word "religion" and it has a negative connotation.  Galatians 1: 13-14: "For ye have heard of my conversation in time past in the Jew's religion how that beyond measure I persecuted the church of God, and wasted it: And profited in the Jew's religion above many my equals in mine own nation, being more exceedingly zealous of the traditions of my fathers."  The "church of God" referred to here is not referring to the denomination which is called by that name today.   It is easy to see from the verse above, that "the Jew's religion" is not "the church of God" because Saul (Paul's name before he was saved) was persecuting the church of God and was profiting in the Jew's religion.  The word "conversation" in the verse means something similar to "manner of operation."  The "Jew's traditions" were not what they were told to do when God told them how He desired for them to worship Him.  Their traditions were a perversion of what God wanted from them.

     The word "tradition" or "traditions" is usually not a good thing, but with exceptions such as how it is used by the apostle Paul in 2 Thessalonians 2:15, "Therefore, brethren, stand fast, and hold the traditions which you have been taught, whether by word, or our epistle."  There were some traditions which Paul had taught the Thessalonians "by word" or "OUR epistle" which he wanted them to maintain.  

     I'll begin now with tracing down where and why the Hebrew race began.  It was a gradual thing, and by the time God gave the nation Israel their religion, the world was wholly given over to idolatry.  The only God given religion was the Levitical Law.  All other religion is man made.  What God honors today is not religion, it is faith.  Faith is believing and relying on what God said.

The Origin of the Nation Israel

-From the Beginning-

     Genesis 1:26-28, "And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.  So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.  And God blessed them, and God said unto them, be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it:  and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth....  Genesis 1:31, "And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold it was very good.  And the evening and the morning were the sixth day."

     At this point God had created Adam and Eve.  Adam means "man" (God named Adam) in the Hebrew language, and possibly also "earthy" since he was formed of the earth.  Some dictionaries say that it means "earthy; red", but "red" is "Edom", not "Adam."  They are two different things.    

     Adam gave Eve her name.  (Gen.3:20, "And Adam called his wife's name Eve because she was the mother of all living.")  Eve means "the mother of all living."  Gen. 2:1, "Thus the heavens and the earth were finished and all the host of them."  Gen. 2:2, "And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made; and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made."   He didn't rest because He was tired, but because He was finished.

      Gen. 2:3 states that God blessed and sanctified the seventh day.  God's day of rest was the seventh day, Saturday, not Sunday.  Sunday is the first day of the week.  The term "sanctified" means "set apart for a special purpose."  It is akin to the word "holy."

     Gen.2:8, "And the LORD God planted a garden eastward in Eden; and there he put the man whom he had formed."   (This was before God made Eve.)   Gen. 2:9, "And out of the ground made the LORD God to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food; the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil."  These are two special trees that were placed in the garden; one for life and one for knowledge of good and evil.  At the time Adam had no concept of evil or good.  He was innocent. The next few verses show the location of the Garden of Eden. 

Gen. 2:16-17, "And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat: But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die."  This is the only thing that grew in the garden that they were not supposed to eat.  God had created man to live forever.  He wanted the man whom He created to believe Him.  In reality that was all that He asked of them.  When God said that they would surely die, He meant that the physical death process would begin, not that they would drop dead as when one takes poison.  However, the death process in their spirit was immediate!  They were separated from God spiritually the moment they disobeyed His commandment not to eat from the tree of knowledge of good and evil.  Death in the bible basically means "separation," not annihilation or ceasing to exist, as most people define death.

     The next several verses tell about Adam naming all of the creatures in the garden, and God creating Eve, because "it was not good that Adam should be alone."  

     The serpent was also in the garden.  The serpent is Satan, also known as Lucifer, and Devil which means "enemy" in scripture, but they all refer to the same being.  He was not an actual serpent but he is referred to as such because of his subtlety and cunning craftiness, for example, the way a serpent sneaks up on its prey: 2 Corinthians 11:3, "But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtilty, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ." 

     Satan's names have meaning, they are descriptions of him.  Beside "serpent" he is also called "the dragon" or "the great dragon."  Satan is a created being.  He is a cherub and originally held a very important position.  He was the highest ranking being under the Trinity (God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit).  A search through the bible of how a cherub looks is very interesting.  They don't look like little naked babies as they are often portrayed.  They looked like a calf, but they have two faces, one of which is a calf, and they also have wings.  ("Cherubim" is plural of Cherub.)     The name "Lucifer" was what he was called before he rebelled against God.  It means "Light Bearer."  The name "Satan," which he was given after the rebellion against God, means "adversary; accuser; enemy."  His job before his rebellion was to "bear the light," that light which he bore was the Creator's.  Lucifer reflected it.  Satan has the ability to appear as an "angel of light."  2 Corinthians 11:14, "And no marvel; for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light."  This is how something that appears to be good can turn out to be disastrous.  Satan was the original sinner.

     When there was no sin (before the fall of Lucifer), there was no darkness in the universe, and this was prior to the sun being placed in the sky.  An interesting thing about the creation account is that God divided the light from the darkness before He created the sun and the moon!  The Creator was the light; Satan and the fallen angels were responsible for the dark.  One of the members of the Trinity (also called the "God head") came down from heaven to the earth.  This verse is referring to that member of the Trinity: John 1:4, "In him was life; and the life was the light of men."  When you search scripture you find that this member is God the Son.  He was pre-existent.  There is a lot to this and I won't take the time right now to get into all of it.

     Gen. 3:1, "Now the serpent was more subtil than any beast of the field which the LORD had made.  And he said unto the woman, 'Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden?'"  Satan was questioning what God had clearly said.  Gen. 3:4, "And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die: For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil."  Here Satan is calling God a liar!  This is how subtle changes in God's word changes the entire thing and it is a ploy of Satan.  First he gets you to question what God said, and then he changes what God said.   Then he leaves out something that God said.  A little change here and a little change there and the next thing you know it doesn't even resemble the truth.  It is very deceptive.

     It is interesting to notice that Adam is there in the Garden with Eve and doesn't do a thing to stop what happened, but his job was to protect his wife.  So when Eve took a bite and Adam realized that there would be a problem, rather than asking God what to do, he took a bite, too.  He was a wimp in verse 12 of this chapter when God asked what he had done.  Essentially what he says is "she gave it to me and I ate it."  He tried to put the blame on her.  They clothed themselves with fig leaves which are large, very prickly leaves.  I'm sure it was very uncomfortable.  It is an interesting fact that the fig tree is a symbol of the nation Israel.  At this point death was still an unknown factor to them, so they didn't kill an animal for clothing, it probably didn't occur to them.

    Verse 14 is where God curses the serpent.  Gen. 3:15 is the first hint of a Savior when God tells Satan, "And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise they head, and thou shalt bruise his heel."  The nation Israel is often referred to as "the woman" later on in scripture.  This is the same "woman" that Paul is referring to in Galatians 1:15-16, "But when it pleased God, who separated me from my mother's womb, and called me by his grace, To reveal his Son in me, that I might preach him among the heathen; immediately I conferred not with flesh and blood:” God separated Paul from the nation Israel and sent him to preach to the Heathen (Gentiles; you and I).  Satan bruised Christ's heel when He was crucified, but Christ will crush Satan's head eventually.

     If you notice Genesis 3:15 (above) indicates that Satan has a "seed," or offspring, because it is used exactly as the statement about the woman's seed.  Satan's seed is discussed in many places in the Bible, and this is not just a symbolic type of thing.  Satan actually did have offspring from human women!  The giants (which refers to their physical stature) of scripture, such as Goliath, Og the King of Bashan, and others, were actually offspring of Satan and his fallen angels.  All of that Greek and Roman mythology was based upon something real.

     In verse 21 God clothed Adam and Eve in coats of skins.  This is all that is actually stated about it, but in order for God to clothe them in skins, He had to kill animals.  This is the first hint in scripture of animal sacrifice being made on the behalf of people.  Verses 22 through 24 tell of God putting them out of the garden and putting Cherubims as guards to keep anyone from eating the fruit of the tree of life.  Can you imagine if they had been able to eat of that fruit and live forever in their fallen state, with the diseases and the ravages of age and sin?  It would not be pretty!

     Chapter 4 begins with the account of the birth of Cain and Able, sons of Adam and Eve.  There may have been many children prior to them, both male and female, scripture doesn't say, all it does say is that Adam and Eve had many children.  Cain was a farmer and Able was a shepherd.  Cain got really ticked off when God wouldn't accept his offer of the fruit of the ground.  Even though this passage doesn't say anything about it, the example was set when God killed the first animals to clothe their parents.  Knowing this helps us to better understand why Hebrews 9:22 says, "And almost all things are by the law purged with blood; and without shedding of blood is no remission."  God did accept Abel’s offering of a lamb.  All Cain would have had to do is barter a lamb for some fruits and veggies (which were produce of the cursed ground), and God would have accepted his sacrifice.  It angered him that God wouldn't accept his offer so he chose to kill his brother and become the first murderer on record.  God cursed Cain and he was banished from his home.  A lot of people have asked what the mark was that God put on Cain, but scripture doesn't say, so it doesn't do any good to speculate about it.

     So far there is still no division between the races.  They are all just people, all of one race, even though some of the symbols of the nation Israel have been brought out.  One does not know that these are symbols of Israel until they read further along in scripture, though.  Things like this are referred to as shadows of things to come.

     The Bible is a progressive revelation.  It builds upon itself, adding information and building as it goes along, and this is why it is so important to study the entire Bible, not just parts of it, but it is also important to do it in a logical manner.  The only place in scripture which tells one how to study the Bible is written by the Apostle Paul and is in 2 Timothy 2:15, "Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth."  This is NOT saying to divide falsehood from truth, it is saying that there is more than one truth in scripture and that they need to be located and divided.  We can get into that later.

     At this point scripture follows Cain and names his offspring who eventually build the cities, with all of their debauchery.  A few verses later is the account of another son of Adam and Eve being born named Seth, and Seth's son Enos, and that this is when men began to call on the name of the LORD.  When scripture puts the word "LORD" in all capital letters it means something different than it does when it is written "Lord", and also different than "lord."  Just another interesting little tid-bit that is actually quite important to understanding scripture.    When it is written in all capitals it is actually a name of God, it means "Jehovah God."   When it is written "Lord" it is a title of deity such as the "Lord Jesus Christ," and when it is written in all lower case it is the title of a man, such as us today calling someone "mister."  The Hebrew name "Lord GOD," means Adonai Jehovah, and is a reference to God the Father.  The name "LORD God" in Hebrew means Jehovah Elohim (creator God) and is a reference to God the Son.  When taking into account these definitions that the scriptures make clear, bible study will never be the same!  For example, in the following passages, all three members of the Godhead (Father, Son, and Holy Spirit) are referenced.  In fact, they are all mentioned throughout the Old and the New Testament portions of the bible!   Isaiah 48:16-17, “Come ye near unto me, hear ye this; I have not spoken in secret from the beginning; from the time that it was, there am I: and now the Lord God (God the Father), and his Spirit (Holy Spirit), hath sent me.  Thus saith the LORD (God the Son), thy Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel; I am the LORD thy God which teacheth thee to profit, which leadeth thee by the way that thou shouldest go."  

     Genesis 5:3 gives the age of Adam when Seth was born as 130 years old, and it states that he (Seth) begat sons and daughters.  Some people will ask, "Who did the children of Adam and Eve marry?"  It's pretty obvious that they married their own brothers and sisters.  There were not the aberrant genes back then as there are today which cause all of the birth defects when close relatives marry.  Even today second cousins can marry without too many problems, if any, in their children, and sometimes first cousins can have perfectly normal children, but not always.  It takes a knowledge of genetics to know the why's of this.  But, at any rate, there were no commandments against marrying close relatives until hundreds of years later when God gave the Levitical Law.

     Scripture states that Adam lived 800 more years after the birth of Seth and that he had more sons and daughters.  This would make Adam 930 years old when he died.  Chapter 5 verse 6 begins the linage of Seth.  All of these genealogies seem dry to people until one sees that there are familiar people there, such as Methuselah (the man who lived longer than anyone else in the bible) in Seth's linage; and so was Enoch who didn't die.  According to scripture Enoch "walked with God: and he was not; for God took him." (Elijah didn't die either, but was taken away in a chariot of fire, 2 Kings 2:11.)  Noah was also of the line of Seth.  Now we are getting into very familiar territory.

     Genesis 6:2 is the first time in scripture where the term "the sons of God" is used.  Some people say that these were just godly people, but what they did indicates that they were more than that.  I have come to realize that this term means "angels."  Remember earlier when we discussed Satan's seed?  This is where the term comes into play.  Genesis 6:2, "That the sons of God saw the daughter's of men that they were fair; and they took them wives of all which they chose."  Two verses later we see the first mention of giants in scripture.  I've heard people say that these men were just of the "godly" line of Seth.  First, no where in scripture is Seth's line referred to as "godly" and secondly simply being godly wouldn't cause one to produce giants.  Genesis 6:4, "There were giants in the earth in those days; and also after that, when the sons of God came in unto the daughters of men, and they bare children to them, the same became mighty men, men of renown."  This is reading that fallen angels (angels are described in other parts of the scripture as having the appearance of men), took the daughters of men and they had children with them, which became those half human creatures like Goliath, and others like him that are all over the Old Testament.  They were also the constant enemies of the nation of Israel until they were all killed.  (It is interesting that one does not see any reference to female giants, but only males.  All angels are male.)  These unions of angels and women created hybrids which mated with human women resulting in offspring also.  This was Satan's attempt to corrupt the seed line in Israel of the now promised Redeemer, Genesis 3:15.  These half angel creatures have spirits/souls which are eternal just as human souls and spirits are, and angels were created to live forever.  Fallen angels do not die, they are currently held in chains until they are released for a short time during the Tribulation period (otherwise known as the Seventieth Week of Daniel) in Revelation. 

     It was at this point that the thoughts of mankind were only evil continually (Genesis 6:5).  God was sorry that He had even made them, and decided to destroy all of them along with the animals, too (Genesis 6:6-7).   But, there was one man on earth who found grace in the eyes of God. (Gen. 6:8).

     The really thought provoking and interesting verse is 9.  It states, "These are the generations of Noah: Noah was a just man and perfect in his generations, and Noah walked with God."  A lot of bible scholars believe that this is saying that he was genetically perfect.  In other words, his genes were not polluted by the genes of fallen angels.  I think that this is what it is saying also, because of the use of the word "generations."  That word indicates a line of offspring, and was used prior to it in the same sentence as such.  Scripture does not say the same thing about Noah's wife, or sons, or their son's wives, though. Since these eight people were the only people left on the face of the earth after the flood, and the earth was repopulated by them, they had to have carried the genetics for producing the giants, because scripture is clear that there giants later on.   God has now had it with evil men, decides to kill every one of them except Noah and his family, and tells Noah to build the ark.  In verses 15 and 16 God gives the particulars of the size and how to construct it.

     A lot of people have a problem with thinking that a boat couldn't possibly be big enough to hold all of the animals that it did.  What they don't realize is the immense size of the ark.  It was a huge three story box, not a boat with a pointed bottom.  All this vessel had to do was stay afloat; it did not have to be steered.  When the entire earth was covered with water there was nowhere to steer it anyway.  Engineers say that a boat built like the bible states would be very efficient at doing just that.

     The ark was every bit as long and as wide as some of the battleships of today, and it was three stories tall.  A cubit is a measurement of length of approximately 18 inches (some accounts say 24 inches).  If you multiply the stats given in verses fifteen and sixteen by 18 inches, it is huge.  It states that it was 300 cubits long (300 X 18" = 5400" or 450 ft. long) by 50 cubits wide (50 X 18" = 900" or 75 ft. wide) by 30 cubits high (30 X 18" = 540" or 45 ft. high).  (Gen.6:17 tells how all living things will die which are not in the ark.)  This box was not designed to do anything other than to carry a bunch of animals and people, and stay afloat.

     God is speaking to Noah, Genesis 6:18-22, "But with thee will I establish my covenant; and thou shalt come into the ark, thou, and thy sons, and thy wife, and son's wives with thee.  And of every living thing of all flesh, two of every sort shalt thou bring into the ark, to keep them alive with thee; they shall be male and female.  Of fowls after their kind, and of cattle after their kind, of every creeping thing of the earth after his kind, two of every sort shall come unto thee, to keep them alive.  And take thou unto thee of all food that is eaten, and thou shalt gather it to thee; and it shall be for food for thee and for them.  Thus did Noah; according to all that God commanded him, so did he."  At this time people did not eat animal flesh (at least they weren't supposed to, but who knows what men did when every imagination of their heart was only evil continually), animals did not eat each other, and God had not put the fear of man into animals as of yet.

      Some people make the mistake of thinking that all of these animals wouldn't fit into the little boat that they imagine, but nowhere does it say that they have to be anything other than very young animals which would be small.  Also, I've heard scientists say that there would not be as much growth as would have been in the open with lots of sunlight, although I don't know how true that is.  But, the place may have been getting kind of crowded and smelly by the time they could leave the boat.

     Genesis 7:2-3 gives the account of more than two each of the "clean animals," in other words, those which would be used as food and for sacrificial purposes.  Up until this time there has been no mention of clean or unclean animals.  There are some lines beginning to be drawn that were never drawn before. 

     Genesis 7:4 says that after seven days (from the point that God is talking to Noah) it will rain for forty days and forty nights, and destroy every living thing on the face of the earth.  I know that there are people who make fun of this, but they have no concept of how it rained.  It wasn't anything like anyone living today has ever seen.  It was actually opening up the heavens and the water fell like dumping it out of a huge reservoir, and it came down on the entire circumference of the earth for forty days and nights.  When God created the heaven (the 2nd of 3 heavens), He set a firmament in it and divided the midst of the waters above the firmament (heaven) from the waters beneath the firmament (heaven), Genesis 1:5-8.  This seems to be where all of the water came from, especially with the compelling evidence of verses like Genesis 7:11, "In the six hundredth year of Noah's life, in the second month, the seventeenth day of the month, the same day were all the fountains of the great deep broken up, and the windows of heaven were opened."  The great deep is that unfathomably large container of water with which God flooded the universe. Gen. 1:2.   The flood was sudden and deadly when it happened.  It even killed a lot of the sea creatures and fish because of the violence with which it struck.  It buried them in the mud at the bottom of the seas and oceans, and the animals and people were buried under what later became dry land.    (Ever wonder why all of those dinosaurs died?  It wasn't from a meteor!)

     There is something else about this flood that those who don't study scripture aren't aware of.  This is the first time that water fell from heaven.  It had never rained before.  Up until this point the earth was watered with a mist sort of like a heavy dew every day, Genesis 2:5-6.

     Genesis 7:16 is a much more important verse than it appears at first glance.  "And they that went in, went in male and female of all flesh, as God had commanded him: and the LORD shut him in."  Noah didn't lead the animals in, nor did he shut the door to the ark.

     Verses 19 and 20 tell how deep the water was.  This was no ordinary flood.  "And the waters prevailed exceedingly upon the earth; and all the high hills, that were under the whole heaven, were covered.  Fifteen cubits upward did the waters prevail; and the mountains were covered."  This verse says that every mountain was under water!   The very highest of them had fifteen cubits of water covering them.  Using the conservative 18" cubit, that would be 22.5 feet of water over the tallest mountain on the face of the earth.  If any living creature was not in the ark, they didn't survive (it specifies air breathing creatures; sea creatures and fish survived, verse 22).  Genesis 7:23, "And every living substance was destroyed which was upon the face of the ground, both man, and cattle, and the creeping things, and the fowl of the heaven; and they were destroyed from the earth: and Noah only remained alive, and they that were with him in the ark."  When it says "substance," it leads me to believe that trees, grass, etc. were also all destroyed.  They have to have air to survive and the violence of the falling water broke it and beat it to the ground.  The water covered the earth for 150 days (verse 24), approximately five months.  The flood would have changed every single aspect of the Earth's topography.

     Genesis 7:11 tells that the rain began to fall on the seventh day of the second month and   Genesis 8:4-5 states that finally, on the seventeenth day of the seventh month that the ark came to rest on the mountains of Ararat, but the tops of the mountains were not visible until the first day of the tenth month, almost three months later.  If you want to read about these mountains go to http://www.noahsarksearch.com/ararat.htm   They are located in Eastern Turkey.  The singular mountain called Ararat today is 16, 945 feet high and is volcanic.  No one is certain upon which of the Ararat Mountains the ark landed. 

     I'm sure that the bible is referring to the months of the Hebrew calendar when it says "the seventh" and the "tenth" months.  The first month of the Hebrew calendar is "Abib," somewhere around April on our Gregorian calendar.  They are all listed in Leviticus.

     Verses 6 to 12 state how Noah knew that the waters had abated, and in verse 14 it gives the date that the ground was dry.  In verse 17 God tells Noah to release all of the animals so that they could "breed abundantly, and multiply."  Genesis 8:20 tells us that Noah built an alter to the LORD and made a burnt offering of every type of clean animal and bird.  (They didn't burn them as we would think of burning something, but they cooked them.)  This is the first record of a "burnt offering" being made.  Can you see the trend slowly building which resembles Israel's worship?

     Genesis 8:21 states that God was pleased with the offering and accepted it, and said to Himself that He would never curse the ground again because of men’s evil, and that He would never kill every living thing again.  In verse 22 He states, “While the earth remaineth, seedtime and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease.”  Don’t worry about the earth being destroyed by man.  God has reserved the destruction of earth to Himself when the right time comes, and He'll create a new heaven and earth wherein there will be justice and righteousness.  Rev. 21:1, "And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away; and there was no more sea."

     Some people have a hard time accepting the fact that all of those animals came to Noah and let themselves be herded into a boat, but one thing that they tend not to know, or do not recall is that at that time the animals had no fear of men.  Why should they?  God had not put the fear of people into them as yet.  Genesis 9:2-3 gives the account of God putting the fear of man into the animals.  “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.”  God is telling Noah that the animals can now be food, but people would have to catch them first.  God did put one stipulation on eating meat in verse 4, “But flesh with the life thereof, which is the blood thereof, shall ye not eat.”  In other words, don’t eat blood because it is the life of the flesh.  It could be to avoid blood carried diseases, but the Bible doesn’t say that.  God is beginning to build the dietary laws that were eventually given to the nation of Israel, but the nation is still not in sight, as of yet.

      Everything on earth had now changed.  The topography was totally different, the climate, the atmosphere, the amount of oxygen in the air, and now the animals would be prey for human consumption, and for other animals.  The changes in the atmosphere of the Earth shortened the life span of humans.  It was catastrophic compared to what the Earth was like prior to the flood. 

      Verses 5-6 are the beginning of the civil laws.  God instructs that if any man takes another mans life, his life should be taken.  In verse eight He instructs for them to be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth.  God establishes a covenant (a promise or contract) with Noah and his sons “and their seed after them” (we are all descendents of Noah) that He will never kill everything on earth again by water, and that the rainbow would be the sign of that covenant, but it is interesting that He made that covenant with the animals, also. Verse 16 points out that this is an everlasting covenant.  We still have rainbows after it rains and sometimes before.  There are sometimes floods which kill, but there has never been another one that killed every single life on the earth like “Noah’s” flood.                            

     Verse 18 mentions Noah’s grandson Canaan, who is the son of Ham.  Canaan is the father of the Canaanite people who were constantly battling with the nation Israel.  Verse 20 states that Noah became a husbandman and raised grapes and made wine.  Verse 21 is the first recorded drunkenness in the Bible, and it caused a lot of problems.  There is kind of a strange occurrence in verses 22-24 which causes Noah to put a curse on his grandson Canaan in verses 25-27.  There is a lot of speculation about what happened here, but not much agreement on it.      

     Noah curses Canaan, his grandson in Genesis 9:1.  He can’t curse Ham, the one who wronged him, because God had already blessed him. Verses 28 and 29 give Noah’s age at that time.

     Genesis chapter 10 begins by giving the genealogy of Noah’s sons.  I used to think that genealogies were boring and worthless, but they aren’t at all.  The more one learns the more meaning a genealogy has.

     Verse 5 is the first mention of the word “Gentiles” in scripture.  The word means “nations,” plural.   It is what everyone is if they are not Hebrew.  Scripturally, the Hebrew people are the “nation” singular.  This doesn’t at first glance seem to be very important, but later on it is used as a subtle division between the nation Israel and the rest of humanity.  It is important to remember that at this point there was still no Hebrew race of people, but only Gentiles (nations).

     Genesis 10:8 is the first mention of Nimrod.  Most people have heard this name, even if they don’t know who he was.  “And Cush [Noah’s grandson] begat Nimrod: he began to be a mighty one in the earth.”  Gen. 10:9, “He was a mighty hunter before the LORD: wherefore it is said, Even as Nimrod the mighty hunter before the LORD.”  This man was not a man whom God held in high esteem.  He hunted men as if they were animals.  Gen. 10:10-12 names the cities in Nimrod’s Kingdom.  “The beginning of his Kingdom was Babel” as in the tower of Babel, also the location of the city of Babylon (in present day Iraq).

     The remainder of the verses of this chapter lists the generations of the sons of Noah, but there is an interesting little tid-bit in verse 25.  It says, “And unto Eber were born two sons: the name of one was Peleg; for in his days was the earth divided; and his brother's name was Joktan.”  The families of the sons of Noah are how the earth was divided.  They split off from each other and began different nations of people.  Genetic differences in the families of the sons of Noah therefore would have become permanently set through having a limited number of people in an area, causing the differences in appearance of the various races of people.  At this time everyone still spoke the same language, Genesis 11:1.  There was still no commandment against marrying a close relative, including a parent or sibling.

     Genesis 11:2-9 is the account of the tower of Babel.  This is where the different languages began.  Verses 10-27 are the genealogy of Abram, whose name is later changed by God to Abraham.   Abram, the name given to him by his parents, means "high father."  Abraham, the name which will be given to him by God, means "father of many nations."  Verse 28 reveals where Abram was born, he was a Chaldean, born in Ur of the Chaldees.   

     Now we are verging on the beginning of the Hebrew race.  Genesis 11:29-32, “And Abram and Nahor took them wives: the name of Abram's wife was Sarai; and the name of Nahor's wife, Milcah, the daughter of Haran, the father of Milcah, and the father of Iscah.  But Sarai was barren; she had no child.  And Terah took Abram his son, and Lot the son of Haran his son's son, and Sarai his daughter in law, his son Abram's wife; and they went forth with them from Ur of the Chaldees, to go into the land of Canaan; and they came unto Haran, and dwelt there.   And the days of Terah were two hundred and five years: and Terah died in Haran.”  The land Haran in this verse is named after Terah’s son Haran.

      God will change Sarai’s name to Sarah, later.  Lot and Milcah are the son and daughter of Haran, who is Abram’s brother.  Terah is the father of Abram, Haran, and Nahor.  Nahor married the daughter of his brother Haran.  Sarai is a half sister to Abram (they had different mothers).

       Chapter 12 is the pivotal chapter in Genesis.  This is when God makes the promise of a great nation to Abram.  Notice the word is “nation” singular, as opposed to “nations”, or “families,” plural.  This is an important distinctive to notice when reading scripture.

      Genesis 12: 1-6, “Now the LORD had said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father's house, unto a land that I will shew thee: And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing: And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed.  So Abram departed, as the LORD had spoken unto him; and Lot went with him: and Abram was seventy and five years old when he departed out of Haran.  And Abram took Sarai his wife, and Lot his brother's son, and all their substance that they had gathered, and the souls that they had gotten in Haran; and they went forth to go into the land of Canaan; and into the land of Canaan they came.  And Abram passed through the land unto the place of Sichem, unto the plain of Moreh. And the Canaanite was then in the land.”  (The Canaanites turn out to be sworn enemies of Israel.)

     Gen. 12:7-9, “And the LORD appeared unto Abram, and said, Unto thy seed will I give this land: and there builded he an altar unto the LORD, who appeared unto him.  And he removed from thence unto a mountain on the east of Bethel, and pitched his tent, having Bethel on the west, and Hai on the east: and there he builded an altar unto the LORD, and called upon the name of the LORD.  And Abram journeyed, going on still toward the south.”  In verses 1-7, notice all of the "I will" statements made by God.  They leave no doubt as to who made these promises come about. 

     The next verses are the account of Abram and Sarai going to Egypt because of a terrible famine in the land.  Sarai was a beautiful woman, apparently, and Abram was afraid that the Pharaoh would want her and kill him to get her.  So they cooked up a plan to tell the Pharaoh that they are brother and sister, which wasn’t exactly a lie, they were half brother and sister.  As it turned out Pharaoh did want her and took her into his house.  Of course he had a whole harem of women, so to Pharaoh she was just another addition to it.  Pharaoh treated Abram well and gave him sheep, male and female servants, male and female asses, oxen, and camels.  But, God wasn’t pleased with Sarai being in Pharaoh’s house, so he sent plagues to Pharaoh’s household.  Pharaoh figured it out and asked Abram what he was trying to do to him, and asked why he didn’t just tell him that she was his wife.  He told Abram, “I might have taken her to wife, take her, and go thy way.”  So Abram and Sarai were sent away with everything that Abram had, with Lot and his family and everything that they had, too.  Genesis 13:2 states that Abram was very rich in cattle, silver and gold when they left Egypt.    

      They went back to Bethel (pronounced “Beth-El” with the accent on the second syllable) where he had been before he went to Egypt, between Bethel and Hai; to where Abram had built the altar, and called on the name of the LORD.   Lot also had flocks of sheep, herds of cattle and tents, and there were Canaanites and Perizzites living there, and the land was not large enough for both Abram and Lot to live there.  The herdsmen of Lot’s cattle and the herdsmen of Abram’s cattle began to argue among themselves and with the Canaanites and the Perizzites.   As a solution to the problem, Abram told Lot to choose which land that he wanted to have and that he, Abram, would take the other.   Verses 10-11, Lot chose the plain of Jordan to the east because it had a lot of water, “before the LORD destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah.”  Verse 12, Abram remained in the land of Canaan, but Lot “pitched his tent toward Sodom”.  Verse 13, “The men of Sodom were wicked and sinners before the LORD exceedingly.”  

     Gen. 13:14-18, “And the LORD said unto Abram, after that Lot was separated from him, Lift up now thine eyes, and look from the place where thou art northward, and southward, and eastward, and westward:  For all the land which thou seest, to thee will I give it, and to thy seed for ever.”  (Here, God begins to teach Abraham about resurrection and eternal life!  How can he and his seed live in the land forever if God doesn't resurrect them, and give them eternal life?)  “And I will make thy seed as the dust of the earth: so that if a man can number the dust of the earth, then shall thy seed also be numbered.  Arise, walk through the land in the length of it and in the breadth of it; for I will give it unto thee.   Then Abram removed his tent, and came and dwelt in the plain of Mamre, which is in Hebron, and built there an altar unto the LORD.”   This is a prophetic passage about the eventual size of the land of Israel which will not be fulfilled until the millennial Kingdom.   

     Genesis 15:1-4, God and Abram have a conversation about Abram being childless, but the tradition of the childless man’s chief servant being the one who would inherit Abram’s goods was NOT what God had in mind.  God told him that he would produce a child who would be the heir. 

      God is speaking to Abram:  Genesis 15:5-8, “And he [God] brought him [Abram] forth abroad, and said, Look now toward heaven, and tell the stars, if thou be able to number them: and he [God] said unto him, So shall thy seed be.  And he [Abram] believed in the LORD; and he [God] counted it  (the belief) to him [Abram] for righteousness.  And he [God] said unto him, I am the LORD that brought thee out of Ur of the Chaldees, to give thee this land to inherit it.”  The next several verses are the account of the rite of title transfer between God and Abram.   During this transfer Abram went into a trance and went to sleep.  Gen. 15:12-14, “And when the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell upon Abram; and, lo, an horror of great darkness fell upon him.  And he [God] said unto Abram, Know of a surety that thy seed shall be a stranger in a land that is not theirs, and shall serve them; and they [the people of the strange land] shall afflict them [Abram's seed] four hundred years; And also that nation [the strange land], whom they [Abram's seed] shall serve, will I judge: and afterward shall they [Abram's seed] come out with great substance.”  God is prophesying (foretelling) the captivity of the children of Israel in Egypt.      

        Verse 15-21, “And thou shalt go to thy fathers in peace; thou shalt be buried in a good old age.  But in the fourth generation they [Abram's seed] shall come hither again: for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet full.  And it came to pass, that, when the sun went down, and it was dark, behold a smoking furnace, and a burning lamp that passed between those pieces [of the animals and birds that were killed and split open for the title transfer rite].  In the same day the LORD made a covenant with Abram, saying, Unto thy seed have I given this land, from the river of Egypt unto the great river, the river Euphrates: The Kenites, and the Kenizzites, and the Kadmonites, And the Hittites, and the Perizzites, and the Rephaims, And the Amorites, and the Canaanites, and the Girgashites, and the Jebusites.”   (At the present time of this article being written this promise has not yet been fulfilled.  There is neither Biblical nor historical record of it.  Since God does not lie, it will be fulfilled in the future.)

      This area constitutes the majority of the Middle East, and not the little strip that has been the only part of it that they have ever had.   It covers most of Iraq to the north and all of Iran, Syria and a whole lot more.  But Israel will not have their land until they turn to God.   This won’t happen for a while, yet.  They will have to go through a lot more before they get to that point.  What lies ahead in their future will make the holocaust look like a picnic, according to scripture; God is purging the nation of unbelievers during the Seventieth Week of Daniel, the events of which are covered in Revelation.

        Chapter 16 is the account of Sarai convincing Abram that he should take her handmaiden, who was an Egyptian.   They had a son and named him Ishmael. This was NOT the promised son.  Ishmael is the father of the Arab nations.  Big trouble here!   In verse 12 God said concerning Ishmael, “And he will be a wild man; his hand will be against every man, and every man's hand against him; and he shall dwell in the presence of all his brethren.”  Verse 16 reveals Abram’s age at the time of Ishmael’s birth, “And Abram was fourscore and six years old, when Hagar bare Ishmael to Abram.”  A score is 20 years, so he was 86. 

      This was not what God had in mind.  He did not want Sarai and Abram to have a son as long as Sarai was able to produce a child naturally, and it wasn’t His idea for Abram to produce one with Hagar, either.  The Hebrews have had trouble with the descendants of Ishmael to this day, and they will continue to do so.

        This is the covenant which is to be the beginning of the nation Israel:  Genesis 17:1-11 , “And when Abram was ninety years old and nine, the LORD appeared to Abram, and said unto him, I am the Almighty God; walk before me, and be thou perfect.  And I will make my covenant between me and thee, and will multiply thee exceedingly.  And Abram fell on his face: and God talked with him, saying, As for me, behold, my covenant is with thee, and thou shalt be a father of many nations.  Neither shall thy name any more be called Abram, but thy name shall be Abraham; for a father of many nations have I made thee.  And I will make thee exceeding fruitful, and I will make nations of thee, and kings shall come out of thee.  And I will establish my covenant between me and thee and thy seed after thee in their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be a God unto thee, and to thy seed after thee.   And I will give unto thee, and to thy seed after thee, the land wherein thou art a stranger, all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession; and I will be their God.  And God said unto Abraham, Thou shalt keep my covenant therefore, thou, and thy seed after thee in their generations.  This is my covenant, which ye shall keep, between me and you and thy seed after thee; Every man child among you shall be circumcised.   And ye shall circumcise the flesh of your foreskin; and it shall be a token of the covenant betwixt me and you.” 

       The way that the circumcision is to be performed is specific.  Verse 12-14, “And he that is eight days old shall be circumcised among you, every man child in your generations, he that is born in the house, or bought with money of any stranger, which is not of thy seed.   He that is born in thy house, and he that is bought with thy money, must needs be circumcised: and my covenant shall be in your flesh for an everlasting covenant.  And the uncircumcised man child whose flesh of his foreskin is not circumcised, that soul shall be cut off from his people; he hath broken my covenant.”  The term “cut off” means killed.  Circumcision was the sign of the covenant between God and Abraham.

      Verse 15, Sarai’s name is changed to Sarah, which means “a mother of nations.”  Verse 16, “And I will bless her, and give thee a son also of her: yea, I will bless her, and she shall be a mother of nations; kings of people shall be of her.”   In verses 17 and 18 Abraham laughed that he would be able to have a son at 100 years old. (The name “Isaac” means “laughter.”)  Verse 19, “And God said, Sarah thy wife shall bear thee a son indeed; and thou shalt call his name Isaac: and I will establish my covenant with him for an everlasting covenant, and with his seed after him.  And as for Ishmael, I have heard thee: Behold, I have blessed him, and will make him fruitful, and will multiply him exceedingly; twelve princes shall he beget, and I will make him a great nation.”  The word "beget" means something similar to "give life."

      The Arabs are really quick to try to take the promises given to Israel because the Arabs had these 12 princes from Abraham, but Israel is the twelve tribes out of Jacob, which are of the seed of Isaac.  The promises concerning the twelve sons were not fulfilled until Jacob was on the scene.  Jacob is Abraham’s grandson through Isaac.  God changed Jacob’s name to Israel, so that from the 12 sons of Israel came the 12 tribes of Israel.       

      Verse 21, “But my covenant will I establish with Isaac, which Sarah shall bear unto thee at this set time in the next year.”  The twelve princes of the Arab nations were out of Ishmael who was the son of Hagar the handmaiden.  Both Ishmael and Isaac are both by Abraham, but Isaac is the son of promise, and Ishmael is the son of the flesh.  God didn’t want Abraham to be able to have the son of promise through the ordinary way of the flesh. God wanted there to be no mistaking the fact that Sarah was past child bearing, and that Isaac was made possible by a miracle of God.

      Verses 22 – 27 are the record of the covenant of circumcision being carried out immediately on every man and boy over the age of eight days in Abraham’s troop.

     Chapters 18 and 19 are the accounting of the LORD visiting Abraham when the time was right for the promised son to be conceived and born, and of Sodom and Gomorrah being destroyed by the LORD, and how it happened.  Lot and his family were living in Sodom and he was a high official with them.  When you see the term that a man “sits in the gates of the city” it means that they have a position of authority with that city.  It doesn’t mean that they have a chair and sit in it at the city gates.  Abraham bargains with God to try to keep the cities from being destroyed because of his nephew and nephew’s family living there.  I find the bargaining of chapter 18 to be humorous, but chapter 19 reveals what the people of the two cities really were like.  These Sodomites wanted to have sex with the “men” who were actually angels, and would have killed to do so-- which brings up a point.  Angels, as opposed to Cherubim, look like men.  It is also a mistaken impression that the men back then wore long hair.     

     These chapters also reveal how the Moabites and the Ammonites began.  These nations were enemies of Israel, also.  I’m skipping a lot now to get on to the birth of Isaac’s twin sons Jacob and Esau.  Read the chapters between and they will fill in a lot of history that will make things later on easier to understand.

      Chapter 21 is the account of when Isaac, the child of promise, was conceived and born.  Isaac's birth brings out Ishmael’s true nature and he and his mother are kicked out of Abraham’s camp, but God helped them to keep them from dying in the desert.  It also reveals that Ishmael grew up and married an Egyptian woman.  The Arab, Egyptian and Israeli people are all distantly related.

     Isaac married Rebekah, who was Abraham’s brother’s grand-daughter.  Chapters 23 and 24 tell of Sarah’s death and where she was buried and of all of the bargaining and dealings that went into Isaac being able to marry Rebekah.  Chapter 25 tells of Abraham marrying a woman named Katurah after Sarah’s death.  There were a couple of nations which came from this union.  It also reveals that Abraham had several concubines and had children with them.   Chapter 25 tells where Abraham was buried and a lot of other facts.  Rebekah gets pregnant with twin boys, which “struggled together within her.”  When she asked the LORD why, He said it was because there were two nations in her womb, and one people would be stronger than the other, and that the elder would serve the younger.

      Gen 25:24-26, “And when her days to be delivered were fulfilled, behold, there were twins in her womb.  And the first came out red, all over like an hairy garment; and they called his name Esau.  And after that came his brother out, and his hand took hold on Esau's heel; and his name was called Jacob: and Isaac was threescore years old when she bare them.”   Isaac was 60 years old at the time of their birth.

      Read chapter 26 and 27.  History repeats itself with Isaac and Rebekah, like what happened with Abraham and Sarah in Egypt.  These must have been really beautiful women.  It also records that Esau married women that Isaac and Rebekah really didn't like. 

      Chapter 27 tells how Jacob, the younger son, managed to get the birthright from Esau.  The birthright was a spiritual inheritance, to be the spiritual leader of the family.  The name Jacob means “supplanter.”  It means to take the place or position of somebody by force or intrigue.  God changes his name to Israel though.  Israel means “a prince with God.”  Israel was a man of faith, whereas Esau was devoid of faith.  Here you find how Jacob (Israel) managed to fool his father into thinking that he was Esau and gets the blessing, also.  The blessing is a physical inheritance, the money and goods, usually reserved for the oldest son.   He had already gotten the birthright, now he had all the blessing and Rebekah, his mother, had helped him.  Esau set out from this point to kill his brother Jacob.   

       Chapter 28 tells of Jacob going to get a wife, and having a dream in which he wrestles with an angel, which turns out to actually be God.   Jacob limps from then on, from God touching him in the hip joint.   Chapter 29 is where Jacob is duped into marrying a woman that he doesn’t want and having to work for 14 years for the father of the women to be able to marry the sister that he wanted in the first place.  It seems that the supplanter got back some of what he had dished out.    But this chapter is most important because it tells where the 12 tribes of Israel came from.  This is where the nation finally begins to come together.  The names of the sons of Israel, therefore the tribes of Israel are:  Reuben, Simeon, Levi, Judah (where the name “Jew” came from), Dan, Naphtali, Gad, Asher, Issachar, Zebulun, Joseph, and Benjamin.  Jacob’s name is changed to Israel in chapters 33 and 34.

      Chapter 37 is where one finds the story of Joseph and the coat of many colors and his brothers selling him into slavery because they were jealous of him.  He was then sold to an officer of Pharaoh in Egypt.  Succeeding chapters tell of how he became a high official in the land of Egypt, just under Pharaoh, and how the children of Israel came to be in Egypt, and how many years that they were there and how they came to be slaves in Egypt.  

      Exodus 2:10 begins the account of the birth of Moses.  Moses was the deliverer of the children of Israel from Egypt.  He was a Hebrew who was adopted by the Pharaoh’s daughter.  Reading Exodus and Leviticus will tell how the Levitical law came to be and how little faith that the children of Israel had.  There were only a few of them that were actually people of faith.  God always wanted, and still wants, people who will believe Him, who take Him at His word.  God did not want to give the Law to the nation Israel, but they wanted it.  The Law was not intended to be a religion when God gave it to them.  It was only given to them to show them that they could not be sinless.  He wanted them to see their need for Him and to rely on Him, but they were (and still are) hard headed.  So Leviticus is the beginning of the “Jews religion.” 

      The nation Israel did not exist officially until they came out of Egypt, lead by Moses.  God declared them a nation after they passed through the river of Egypt on dry ground. It was sort of a symbol of their birth.  This is why the Lord Jesus, in John 3:7, tells Nicodemus, a master of Israel, that the nation must be born again!