Bible
Idea: to read the whole bible from Genesis to Revelation. Our steps will mark the whole marathon.
h1.
Gen.1
[1] In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.
[2] The earth was without form and void, and darkness was upon the face of the deep; and the Spirit of God was moving over the face of the waters.
[3] And God said, "Let there be light"; and there was light.
[4] And God saw that the light was good; and God separated the light from the darkness.
I like to start with the beginning of the earth.
God is not created and 'that fact' immediately puts us in a humble position
towards him.
n1.
[5] So he let it shine for awhile, and then there was darkness again. He called the light 'daytime,'
and the darkness 'nighttime.' Together they formed the first day.
[6] And God said, 'Let the vapors separate to form the sky above and the oceans below.'
[7] So God made the sky, dividing the vapor above from the water below.
[8} This all happened on the second day.
h2.
And God saw that it was good.
[11] And God said, "Let the earth put forth vegetation, plants yielding seed, and fruit trees bearing fruit in which is their seed,
each according to its kind, upon the earth." And it was so.
[12] The earth brought forth vegetation, plants yielding seed according to their own kinds, and trees
bearing fruit in which is their seed, each according to its kind. And God saw that it was good.
[13] And there was evening and there was morning, a third day.
'each according to its kind' is essential to me. Variety was in his mind. And in the variety a consistency.
n2.
[14], [15] Then God said,' Let there be bright light to the earth and to identify the day and the night; they shall bring about the seasons
on the earth, and mark the days and years.'
[16] For God made two huge lights, the sun and moon, to shine down upon the earth -- the larger one, the sun, to preside over
the day and the smaller one, the moon, to preside through the night; he also made the stars.
[17] And God set them in the sky to light the earth,
[18] and to preside over the day and night, and to divde the light from the darkness. And God was pleased.
[19] This all happened on the fourth day.
h3.
[21] So God created the great sea monsters and every living creature that moves, with which the waters swarm, according
to their kinds, and every winged bird according to its kind. And God saw that it was good.
[22] And God blessed them, saying, "Be fruitful and multiply and fill the waters in the seas, and let birds multiply on the earth."
[23] And there was evening and there was morning, a fifth day.
'God saw that it was good'. He enjoyed his creation. In creating there is fun and when it is good to your own standards there
is contentment. And when you are good yourself you wish others to have the same kind of pleasure you experience.
n3.
[26]Then God said, 'Let us make a man -- someone like ourselves, to be the master of all life upon
the earth and in the skies and in the seas.'
[27] So God made man like his Maker. Like God did God make man; Man and maid
did he make them.
[28] And God blessed them and told them, 'Multiply and fill the earth and subdue it; you are masters of the fish and birds and all the
animals.
[29] And look! I have given you the seed-bearing plants throughout the earth, and all the fruit trees for your food.
[30] And I've given all the grass and plants to the animals and birds for their food.'
[31] Then God looked over all that he had made, and it was excellent in every way. This ended the sixth day.
Genesis 2
h4.
[2] And on the seventh day God finished his work which he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all his work
which he had done.
Apparently it works as we still have 6 parts work and 1 part rest.
n4.
Here is a summary of the events in the creation of the heavens and earth which the Lord God made.
There were no plants or grain sprouting up across the earth at first, for the Lord God hadn't sent any rain; nor was there anyone to
farm the soil. (However, water welled up from the ground at certain places and flowed across the land.)
The time came when the Lord God formed a man's body from the dust of the ground and breathed into it the breath of life. And
man became a living person.
Then the Lord God planted a garden in Eden, to the east, and placed in the garden the man he had formed. The Lord God
planted all sorts of beautiful trees there in the garden, trees producing the choicest of fruit. At the center of the garden he placed
the Tree of Life, and also the Tree
of Conscience, giving knowledge of Good and Bad. A river from the land of Eden flowed through the garden to water it;
afterwards the
river divided into four branches.
One of these was named the Pishon; it winds across the entire length of the land of Havilah, where nuggets of pure gold are found,
also beuatiful bdellium and even lapis lazuli. The second branch is called the Bihon, crossing the entire length of the land of Cush.
The third branch is the Tigris, which flows to the east of the city of Asher. And the fourth is the Euphrates.
The Lord God placed the man in the Garden of Eden as its gardener, to tend and care for it. But the Lord God gave the man this
warning: 'You may eat any fruit in the garden
except fruit from the
Tree of Conscience -- for its fruit will open your eyes to make you aware of right and wrong, good and bad. If you eat its fruit, you will
be doomed to die.'
And the Lord God said, 'It isn't good for man to be alone; I will make a companion for him, a helper suited to his needs.'
So the Lord God formed from the soil every kind of animal and bird, and brought them to the man to see what he would call them;
and whatever he called them, that was their name.
But still there was no proper helper for the man. Then the Lord God caused the man to
fall into a deep sleep, and took one of his ribs and closed up the place from which he had removeed it, and made the rib into a
woman, and brought her to the man.
'This is it!' Adam exclaimed, "She is part of my own bone and flesh! Her name is 'woman' because she was taken out of a man."
This explains why a man leaves his father and mother and is
joined to his wife in such a way that the two become one person. Now although the man and his
wife were both naked, neither of them was embarrassed or ashamed.
h5.Genesis 3
[6] So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be
desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate; and she also gave some to her husband, and he ate.
[7] Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made
themselves aprons.
[8]
And they heard the sound of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid
themselves from the presence of the LORD God among the trees of the garden.
An action and suddenly a different insight and perception.
n5.
[9] The Lord God called to Adam, "Why are you hiding?"
[10] And Adam replied, "I heard you coming and didn't want you to see me naked. So I hid."
[11] "Who told you you were naked?" the Lord God asked. "Have you eaten fruit from the tree I warned you about?"
[12] "Yes," Adam admitted, "but it was the woman you gave me who brought me some, and I ate it."
[13] Then the Lord God asked the woman, "How could you do such a thing?"
"The serpent tricked me," she replied.
[14] So the Lord God said to the serpent, "This is your punishment: You are singled out from among all the
domestic and wild animals of the whole earth -- to be cursed. You shall grovel in the dust as long as you live,
crawling along on your belly.
[15] From now on you and the woman will be enemies, as well as all of your offspring and hers. And I will put the fear of you
into the woman, and between your offspring and hers. He shall strike you on your head, while you will strike at his heel."
[16] Then God said to the woman, "You shall bear children in intense pain and suffering; yet even so,
you shall welcome your husband's affections, and he shall be your master."
[17] And to Adam, God said, "Because you listened to your wife and ate the fruit when I told you not to, I have placed a
curse upon the soil. All your life you will struggle to extract a living from it.
[18] It will grow thorns and thistles for you, and you shall eat its grasses.
[19] All your life you will sweat to master it, until your dying day. Then you will return to the ground from which you came.
For you were made from the ground, and to the ground you will return."
h6.
[21] And the LORD God made for Adam and for his wife garments of skins, and clothed them.
[22]
Then the LORD God said, "Behold, the man has become like one of us, knowing good and evil; and now, lest he
put forth his hand and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever"
skins - it means: dead animals, was that planned before the fall of man..
like one of us - must be a fallen angel, so the devil.
and live for ever - the body will die, in the precaution I see comfort, better starting again than living forever in
a frustrated state..
n6.
[23] The Lord God banished him forever from the Garden of Eden, and sent him out
to farm the ground from which he had been taken.
[24] Thus God expelled him, and placed mighty angels at the east of the garden of Eden, with a flaming
sword to guard the entrance to the Tree of Life.
Genesis 4
