Bible study

[looksgood]

Does anyone feel like having a bible study? How about we go through some of the old stories in the old testamate?

Who wants to start us off? Lets look at the story of adam and eve first. What can we learn about God here?

 

[Shazamataz]

I'm keen!!!

Adam and Eve sounds great!!

I think it really emphasises how God made Adam and Eve (and therefore us) in His image. Also God provided everything that was needed. And so He will always be our Provider.

He provided man with a choice from day one. Set boundaries with the tree of knowledge. Why do you think He set that rule?

I dont think God ever intended for man to be alone. He specifically searched for a suitable helper for Adam. Also, God intended that in the unity of man and woman shall be very special, since we are "bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh" (v 23)

I always wonder why... God knew that Eve would be tempted by satan in the garden that day. I always wonder why He didn't make things happen differently. Surely He didn't want Eve to make that mistake. He created a perfect world...

I'm not very good at this stuff... someone else take over!!! lol

 

[looksgood]

I'm keen!!!

Adam and Eve sounds great!!

I think it really emphasises how God made Adam and Eve (and therefore us) in His image. Also God provided everything that was needed. And so He will always be our Provider.

He provided man with a choice from day one. Set boundaries with the tree of knowledge. Why do you think He set that rule?

I dont think God ever intended for man to be alone. He specifically searched for a suitable helper for Adam. Also, God intended that in the unity of man and woman shall be very special, since we are "bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh" (v 23)

I always wonder why... God knew that Eve would be tempted by satan in the garden that day. I always wonder why He didn't make things happen differently. Surely He didn't want Eve to make that mistake. He created a perfect world...

I'm not very good at this stuff... someone else take over!!! lol

Hey these are real questions and I believe they have real answers. It's why I wanted to go through these things. I am at work right now but when I get a chance I will look into this.

 

[MrsSagorski1611]

I believe God didn't do things differently because he didn't want to be a tyrannical God. Most Atheist's view God as this monster in heaven who doesn't make everything fine and dandy, but in reality he is such a wonderful loving Father, and he wanted us to love and worship Him because we choose to, not because He forced us to. If he had made Eve to not choose sin, then Eve would love Him because in essence He forced her to, by not making her capable of anything else. But by allowing her to make a mistake, she then will have the capacity to choose to love Him.

Some things I find interesting and want to know more about are why didn't Adam stop Eve from taking of the fruit? In the New Testament it tells us that Adam was not deceived by the serpent. So he knew exactly what Eve was doing, and he was standing right next to her. It is a husband's job to make sure we women are not deceived and don't make the wrong choices. If I am deceived, it is my husband's job to "undeceive" me.


Also I wonder if the tree of Life is still around, or if it was destroyed in the flood. For some reason all my life I thought there was only one tree. But there is two trees. The tree of Knowledge of good and evil, and the tree of Life. God put an angel to guard the tree of Life so that man couldn't partake of the tree of Life and live eternally in our earthly bodies.

 

[JPPT1974]

Man wasn't born to be alone
So that is why God created a woman
To be his wife so that a man and a woman
Can leave their families to become a family
Of their own.

 

[rita727]

Man wasn't born to be alone
So that is why God created a woman
To be his wife so that a man and a woman
Can leave their families to become a family
Of their own.

Good wording.

 

[rita727]

I believe God didn't do things differently because he didn't want to be a tyrannical God. Most Atheist's view God as this monster in heaven who doesn't make everything fine and dandy, but in reality he is such a wonderful loving Father, and he wanted us to love and worship Him because we choose to, not because He forced us to. But by allowing her to make a mistake, she then will have the capacity to choose to love Him.

Not just athiests, but many people believe God is like a kid with a magnifying glass hovering over ants on a hot, summer day. But that's not true. God is the infinte example of love.

Along with the post above, I'll say this: The more you read Genesis (and other books), you'll realize that God feels just as you and I do. He can be happy, sad, angry,...

Yeah, it was something when they both got kicked out of the Garden, but can you see how He felt when when he discovered what happened?

 

[non-religious]

God is a loving parent.....

When we have children we know before we have them that they will fall into temptation, make mistakes (some bigger than others) and may even refuse to believe in His existence. However, that doesn't stop us having them. We still want and have children. Of course God knows what we were capable of doing prior to our being born, but He knew that many of us would respond to His call and love Him and depend on Him.

I'm glad God took that huge risk to allow us freedom to choose, because it makes my choice of choosing Him even more special

 

[Shazamataz]

I'm glad God took that huge risk to allow us freedom to choose, because it makes my choice of choosing Him even more special

mmm... risks. I'm glad God takes risks. He took the ultimate risk in creating us with free will to choose Him. I cant even imagine how it must hurt Him when His children reject Him... I guess the story about Adam and Eve really speaks to me about God and risk taking. It sometimes difficult to take risks, not knowing wwhat the outcome might be, but it is so much harder to take a risk KNOWING that there is pain involved in it. That speaks a lot to me about God's love for us, His children. How great is His love, that He was willing to take the risk of me rejecting Him???

Thats an interesting question about the trees... I wonder as well? I didn't even realise there was two special trees. MrsSagorski1611 I was wondering where you found that an angel was guarding the tree of life? It says 16 And the LORD God commanded the man, "You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; 17 but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will surely die."
I didn't find anything about not eating from the tree of life. Perhaps it is somewhere else?

I also wonder if Adam and Eve were more like God in appearance when there were first created. 21 The LORD God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife and clothed them. Does that mean they didn't have skin before??

I thank God for creating me and continuing to create me everyday of my life. He is an awesome God and everything we will ever need ( I think we all forget that too often)

 

[swee]

Thankyou for this thread.

 

[looksgood]

There is so much in the story now that I look at it again. I am overwelmed at it. Why would God place a tree in the garden knowing they would eat it after He said no?

I believe it was because God wanted to show His love believe it or not.

He placed two trees there. One was life and the other was death (only if the tree of life had not been eaten from). Why give the choice knowing the outcome? It is because God made us like Him...to have the ability to do good and evil, yet to choose good.

God wanted us to be like Him. He showed that in placing the two trees. He said when we ate that we were like Him knowing good an evil, the only thing left was for us to live forever. But the loving God that He is would not allow us to do evil forever. Instead He placed an angle to gaurd the tree and drove us out to suffer.

Christ also suffered and through it He learned to be obediant. God in His love placed the tree there to teach us how to be like Him. We had the choice of how we wanted to be taught (the easy way or hard way). God wanted us to chose the easy way.

It broke Gods heart when we chose the hard way. You have to understand He wanted us to be like Him. We had to know good from bad to be like Him and we had to chose the good.

God does not tempt men. But what Satan ment for harm god means for Good. The tree of knowledge was a GOOD TREE! It allowed God to show us a whole other side of Him called mercy and it allowed us to learn to show the same traites.

Suffering is a GOOD thing. It teaches us to be like God.

God allowed us to fall only to show us He loves us! Before we fell He paid the price (since time does not mean anything to Him). Before we fell, He made a way for us to live again. Before we fell...He saved us.

How could we know his saving love without the need to be saved? The angels wonder about it even. They do not understand the depths of Gods love to us! Did He want us to fall? No...but He was willing to show us His grace through our fall.

 

[looksgood]

Some things I find interesting and want to know more about are why didn't Adam stop Eve from taking of the fruit? In the New Testament it tells us that Adam was not deceived by the serpent. So he knew exactly what Eve was doing, and he was standing right next to her.

Why didn't God stop her? God was there too. God made man AND woman like Himself. What do we know about God? We know that He can be reasoned with...but ultimatly what He will choose is up to Him.

God respected Eve's choice. Just as Adam did.

Now the real meat of the question is this...why did Adam who was not under false ideas eat the fruit with her?

This is a great story of love! Adam was made like God. So what did he do? He loved Eve enough to share her fate! God also loved us enough to share our fate! We see in Adam a show of Gods love to us in that He sacrificed Himself for us!

I can see Adams tears as he bites the fruit. He is taking the same sins Eve had onto Himself because he loves her and wants to share in her fate. In the same way I can see Jesus with tears in His eyes taking our sins on the cross (though He did not sin Himself) to share our fate. The differance was Jesus did not bite the fruit (sin), instead He accepted punishment for OUR sin.

So He was able to live and take away our shame.

What a great story of love!

 

[WeBe1]

When God in beginning of creation was doing His work, everything He created was “good”. Then when man was created, God said, “It is not good…” because man was alone. God has never been alone, there was always community and fellowship in God, and the minimum number of a community is 3. God created man in His image, (from the Father & the Son comes the Holy Spirit and in like manner, from a man and a woman comes forth a child). This is the very nature of God, the family representing the stamp of God is all through the bible, and even in the law.

 

[MrsSagorski1611]

Thats an interesting question about the trees... I wonder as well? I didn't even realise there was two special trees. MrsSagorski1611 I was wondering where you found that an angel was guarding the tree of life? It says 16 And the LORD God commanded the man, "You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; 17 but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will surely die."
I didn't find anything about not eating from the tree of life. Perhaps it is somewhere else?

I also wonder if Adam and Eve were more like God in appearance when there were first created. 21 The LORD God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife and clothed them. Does that mean they didn't have skin before??

I thank God for creating me and continuing to create me everyday of my life. He is an awesome God and everything we will ever need ( I think we all forget that too often)

Genesis 3:24 So he drove out the man; and he placed at the east of the garden of Eden Cherubims, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of life.

Isn't that a wonderful verse? I just love that verse! Especially where is says to keep the way of the tree of Life. It reminds me of how he gave us the Bible that we may find, and keep the way of life. We may not have eternal life here on earth (but who really wants that when we have heaven to look forward to!) but we have eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. He is SO wonderful!


I think that God took animals and made them garments from their skin, like buckskins. You may be right though, it's something that never occurred to me. Something I never really thought about, I always assumed that it was animal skins. Although in vs 7 it states that they knew they were naked. I know the term for naked today could be different from in 1611, but I tend to think that they had skin as we do, and God made them clothing.

I think we all often forget who God is and how much we need him, but he is our wonderful loving father! *sings* Praise him praise him! Jesus our excellent redeemer praise him praise him, ever in joyful song!

 

[WeBe1]

I believe being clothed in the animal skins is in reference to us being clothed in Christ. When we are clothed in Christ, our shame is covered. There is also a living sacrifice and a shedding of blood in this process, which leads up to why God was more satisfied with, Abel's offering, verses Cain's.

I couldn’t imagine not having our own skin when we were created from the dust of the earth.

 

[Shazamataz]

Why didn't God stop her? God was there too. God made man AND woman like Himself. What do we know about God? We know that He can be reasoned with...but ultimatly what He will choose is up to Him.

God respected Eve's choice. Just as Adam did.

Now the real meat of the question is this...why did Adam who was not under false ideas eat the fruit with her?

This is a great story of love! Adam was made like God. So what did he do? He loved Eve enough to share her fate! God also loved us enough to share our fate! We see in Adam a show of Gods love to us in that He sacrificed Himself for us!

I can see Adams tears as he bites the fruit. He is taking the same sins Eve had onto Himself because he loves her and wants to share in her fate. In the same way I can see Jesus with tears in His eyes taking our sins on the cross (though He did not sin Himself) to share our fate. The differance was Jesus did not bite the fruit (sin), instead He accepted punishment for OUR sin.

So He was able to live and take away our shame.

What a great story of love!

I've never thought of it like that before. That really gives me a whole new perspective of God's character.

Genesis 3:24 So he drove out the man; and he placed at the east of the garden of Eden Cherubims, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of life.

Isn't that a wonderful verse? I just love that verse! Especially where is says to keep the way of the tree of Life. It reminds me of how he gave us the Bible that we may find, and keep the way of life. We may not have eternal life here on earth (but who really wants that when we have heaven to look forward to!) but we have eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. He is SO wonderful!


I think that God took animals and made them garments from their skin, like buckskins. You may be right though, it's something that never occurred to me. Something I never really thought about, I always assumed that it was animal skins. Although in vs 7 it states that they knew they were naked. I know the term for naked today could be different from in 1611, but I tend to think that they had skin as we do, and God made them clothing.

I think we all often forget who God is and how much we need him, but he is our wonderful loving father! *sings* Praise him praise him! Jesus our excellent redeemer praise him praise him, ever in joyful song!

Thanks. Cherumbims are angels aren't they..? Thats where I missed it.

I believe being clothed in the animal skins is in reference to us being clothed in Christ. When we are clothed in Christ, our shame is covered. There is also a living sacrifice and a shedding of blood in this process, which leads up to why God was more satisfied with, Abel's offering, verses Cain's.

I couldn’t imagine not having our own skin when we were created from the dust of the earth.

I also hadn't thought of this in this way. Clothed to cover our shame. Thanks everyone. This thread is really awesome. I've never delved into this story quite so in depth before!! There's so much to learn!!

 

[MrsSagorski1611]

Thanks. Cherumbims are angels aren't they..? Thats where I missed it.

They are a type of angel I think, I'm not sure though. I thought it said that he put an Angel of the Lord at the entrance and so I said Angel rather than Cherub, sorry.

 

[looksgood]

They are a type of angel I think, I'm not sure though. I thought it said that he put an Angel of the Lord at the entrance and so I said Angel rather than Cherub, sorry.

There are different types of angels. These are also found on the ark (the one mosses had). They are also found in heaven flying and praising God.

What they do is they stretch out their wings and cover the flame (which is God) on the ark. They really protect us from the glory of God (note I said glory not wrath).

It seems fitting that He would place there there to gaurd the tree. Since He alone is life everlasting it seems like He is saying I am right here but your sins have separated you from me and if you were to come to me you could not make it past my glory.

 

[Shazamataz]

do we want to move on to Cain and Abel now? What can we learn from Cain and Abel's story?

What do you think of God's punishment for Cain's murder?

What does this story say about God's character?

 

[looksgood]

do we want to move on to Cain and Abel now? What can we learn from Cain and Abel's story?

What do you think of God's punishment for Cain's murder?

What does this story say about God's character?

Sure, I think this story also speaks wonders of God's mercy. It also speaks of God looking on the heart.

God never set a law in place at this time for blood sacrifice. At least not that He spoke of. So we know the sacrifice of Cain was not accepted not because of it being something other than blood. Instead God looked at Cain and said "If you do well, will you not be accepted?".

I love Gods questions. He only asks them to get us to think! God was telling Cain "Look at yourself and realise that you are far from me. You are not like Able because your heart is full of jealousy."

Instead of Cain looking at himself that way he killed Able. It shows us how that God tries to tell us how to get close to Him. He didn't shrowed it in mystery as to why He didn't accept Cain. Cain just refused to listen.

We do the same thing today. All of us have had God ask a question "If you do well will you not be accepted?" But how often do we take that and examin ourselves, come to God and say,

"God, help me remove this sin."

Most of the time we pray and God does not answer...then we get angry. The whole time God said "If you do well you will be accepted." So we blame God instead of really examining ourselves.

That's just a little bit about that subject. Later I want to share how God responds to our sin.