e36991:
Hidden in the above geneology is the prophecy of the flood, God's plan of redemption and gift of salvation
^^ Search the scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they which testify of me. <<John 5:39>>
A great truth that a lot of us ignore. Since I understood that the Scriptures from Genesis to Revelation are about Jesus; it has opened up new vistas of understanding for me. In our study of the scriptures; too often we leave off looking at and considering the Heavenly Man and instead focus on self: hence the rise of the "prosperity" gospel. Consider how it must have felt during Jesus' exposition of the scriptures concerning himself. And beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he expounded unto them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself. <<Luke 24:27>>
And their eyes were opened, and they knew him; and he vanished out of their sight. And they said one to another, Did not our heart burn within us, while he talked with us by the way, and while he opened to us the scriptures? [Luke 24:31-32]My prayer is that the Holy Spirit will open to us the scriptures in a powerful way. aletheia:
^^
Continuing from where I left off.
There is much richness and treasure in the Holy Scriptures: which careful meditation on them will yield.
God knows the beginning from the end.
Isaiah 46:9-10. Remember the former things of old: for I am God, and there is none else; I am God, and there is none like me, Declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times the things that are not yet done, saying, My counsel shall stand, and I will do all my pleasure:
Since God is All-knowing; He knew even before He created Adam that Man would sin. You may argue that God could have created Man in such a way that Adam would not sin; but that would render the man an automaton, devoid of free will. Yet you need to remember that "Man is created in the image of God". . .to render him incapable of free will is to render him incapable of love and God is Love.
So knowing that Man would sin; God still went ahead and created Man with the free will and the ability to choose out of Love, but at the same time He set in place a plan to redeem Man and bring him back to God. God's character is that of Perfect Love; so creating Man in any way less than capable of exercising free will and choice would fall short of the perfection of love; and God cannot act out of character. And God's Love is further revealed by His fashioning out a plan of redemption even before creating the world.
For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. For scarcely for a righteous man will one die: yet peradventure for a good man some would even dare to die. But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. (Romans 5: 6- .
A common misunderstanding by a lot of people, even some Christians is to suppose that Jesus' death was accidental. No, it wasn't---it was a deliberate plan of God. God already planned for Jesus to die even before creating the world!
Concerning Jesus; this is written in Matthew.
Mat 13:35 That it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet, saying, I will open my mouth in parables; I will utter things which have been kept secret from the foundation of the world.
Romans 16:25-26. Now to him that is of power to stablish you according to my gospel, and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery, which was kept secret since the world began, But now is made manifest, and by the scriptures of the prophets, according to the commandment of the everlasting God, made known to all nations for the obedience of faith:
2 Timothy 1:9-10. Who hath saved us, and called us with an holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began, But is now made manifest by the appearing of our Saviour Jesus Christ, who hath abolished death, and hath brought life and immortality to light through the gospel:
Titus 1:2-3 In hope of eternal life, which God, that cannot lie, promised before the world began; But hath in due times manifested his word through preaching, which is committed unto me according to the commandment of God our Saviour;
Revelation 13:8 And all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him, whose names are not written in the book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.
The full details of God's plan of salvation were kept largely hidden until the fullness of time when it was gloriously revealed in Jesus Christ of Nazareth. Yet even though partly hidden; the pages of scripture from Genesis 1:1 onwards are replete with parables, prophecies, types and similitudes that foreshadowed God's redemptive plan.
That this is so is plainly revealed in Hosea: "I have also spoken by the prophets, and I have multiplied visions, and used similitudes, by the ministry of the prophets" (12:10). And further elucidated by Jesus Himself: "Then he said unto them, O fools, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken: Ought not Christ to have suffered these things, and to enter into his glory? And beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he expounded unto them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself" (Luke 24: 25-27).
God's wisdom and foreknowledge is demonstrated for us to see in the scriptures right from the get-go, for even in Genesis Chapter 1, we begin to see foreshadowings of His plan. Consider for example:
And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness. And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day. (Genesis 1:4-5)
Of course you know that light and darkness are spiritual metaphors as well. Light then is a representative principle for God, while darkness itself represents sin and anything abhorrent to God. From the verse in Genesis, we see that quite early on God divides the light from the darkness, thus showing us that the light and darkness cannot abide together; showing us by way of metaphor and similitude that He is Holy and does not abide the presence of sin; showing us that sin separates us from the light of His presence.
This then is the message which we have heard of him, and declare unto you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all (1 John 1:5).
Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness?(2 Cor 6:14).
Infact one could go back to the very first verse to demonstrate this principle.
Gen 1:2-3 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. And God said, Let there be light: and there was light.
Remember Jesus said: Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.
Verse 1 does say God created the heaven and the earth and then goes on to describe the state of the earth as without form and void and covered in darkness. One could read this as a metaphor for the universally spiritually void condition of men without God. There is an allusion to this in 2 Cor 4:6: For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
Furthermore; we could consider the cycles of the day as recorded in Genesis. "And the evening and the morning were the first day." This shows darkness preceding light. This once again hinting at the darkness falling upon the earth as a result of Adam's sin before the glorious light of Christ dawning upon the sons of Adam. To put it succinctly, the fall of Adam brought evening and darkness, while the triumph of Jesus Christ (the Last Adam) brought the light of day. It is no surprise then that Christ rose from the grave on the first day of the week at dawn:
Mark 16:2 And very early in the morning the first day of the week, they came unto the sepulchre at the rising of the sun.
Now consider this: God could have created the earth without night or darkness; but he choose to do it this way. I believe He did it to show us his foreknowledge of what was going to happen and to provide hints to us of his redemptive purpose in history. For we see this in the Book of Revelation in the new heaven and earth:
Rev 22:5 And there shall be no night there; and they need no candle, neither light of the sun; for the Lord God giveth them light: and they shall reign for ever and ever.
Why is there no night in the new heaven and earth? Simple. There is no darkness of sin.
There are other foreshadowings and similitudes concerning Christ and God's purpose in Genesis; when we consider Adam, Abel, Noah, Abraham, Isaac & so on. . .but time and space constraints will not permit me to go into them now, but you can take out time to study them. The whole point of my discourse was to show that God did not make a mistake in creating Man. . .rather that He created Man because God is Love, knowing that Man would rebel against Him and because God is Love made a way even before creating Man for Man to be reconciled to Him.
Back to Genesis 6. If God had decided to destroy all of mankind then He wouldn't have saved Noah. Like I pointed out earlier the nuances of Hebrew words and most especially Hebrew names are lost in translation. As I said in my earlier post the same word for grieved is also the same word for comfort; and this dual meaning hints at the nature of God's redemptive plan while pointing at Noah, a similitude or type of Christ: While it grieved God that He had created Man, at the same time there was comfort because of Noah, that is to say the grief of Man's sin balanced against the comfort of Christ redemption. The first two bolded words are the same in Hebrew, while the third Noah is derived from them.
In fact another beautiful example that reveals God's plan is seen in Genesis 5: the genealogy of Noah.
There are ten names in that genealogy. Ten signifies the perfection of Divine order. When you consider the meanings of the ten names; something startling emerges.
[table]
[tr][td]Names[/td][td]Meaning[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Adam[/td][td]comes from adomah, and means "man."[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Seth[/td][td]appointed: (Gen 4:25) When he was born Eve said, "For God hath appointed me another seed instead of Abel, whom Cain slew."[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Enosh[/td][td]"mortal," "frail," or "miserable." It is from the root anash: to be incurable; used of a wound, grief, woe, sickness, or wickedness.[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Kenan[/td][td]"sorrow," dirge," or "elegy."[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Mahalalel[/td][td]from mahalal, which means "blessed" or "praise"; and El, the name for God. Thus, Mahalalel means "the Blessed God."[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Jared[/td][td]from the verb yaradh, meaning "shall come down."[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Enoch[/td][td]means "teaching," or "commencement."[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Methuselah[/td][td]comes from two roots: muth, a root that means "death" ; and from shalach, which means "to bring," or "to send forth." Thus, the name Methuselah signifies, "his death shall bring."[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Lamech[/td][td]"despairing."[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Noah[/td][td]derived from nacham , "to bring relief" or "comfort,"[/td][/tr]
[/table]
Now let's put it all together:
[table]
[tr][td]Hebrew[/td][td]English[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Adam[/td][td]Man[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Seth[/td][td]Appointed[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Enosh[/td][td]Mortal[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Kenan[/td][td]Sorrow[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Mahalalel[/td][td]The Blessed God[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Jared[/td][td]Shall come down[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Enoch[/td][td]Teaching[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Methuselah[/td][td]His death shall bring[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Lamech[/td][td]The despairing[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Noah[/td][td]Rest, or comfort[/td][/tr]
[/table]
^^
Do you see it?
Man (Adam) [is] Appointed (Seth) [to] Mortal (Enosh) Sorrow (Kenan). The Blessed God (Mahalalel). . .Shall come down (Jared). . .Teaching (Enoch). . .His death shall bring (Methuselah). . .The despairing (Lamech). . .Rest, or comfort (Noah).
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aletheia:
^^Search the scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they which testify of me. <<John 5:39>>
A great truth that a lot of us ignore. Since I understood that the Scriptures from Genesis to Revelation are about Jesus; it has opened up new vistas of understanding for me.
In our study of the scriptures; too often we leave off looking at and considering the Heavenly Man and instead focus on self: hence the rise of the "prosperity" gospel
Consider how it must have felt during Jesus' exposition of the scriptures concerning himself.
And beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he expounded unto them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself. <<Luke 24:27>>
And their eyes were opened, and they knew him; and he vanished out of their sight. And they said one to another,
Did not our heart burn within us, while he talked with us by the way, and while he opened to us the scriptures? [Luke 24:31-32]
My prayer is that the Holy Spirit will open to us the scriptures in a powerful way.
@^^^To you sire, my fellow lord, I doff my crown hat . . . You are a giant among men . . .  Proverbs 25:2 KJV:
[It is] the glory of God to conceal a thing: but the honour of kings [is] to search out a matter.
John 14:26 BBE:
But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will be your teacher in all things and will put you in mind of everything I have said to you.
John 16:13 BBE:
However, when he, the Spirit of true knowledge, has come, he will be your guides into all true knowledge:
for his words will not come from himself, but whatever has come to his hearing, that he will say: and he will makes clear to you the things to come.
1 Corinthians 2:10 BBE:
But God has given us the revelation of these things through his Spirit, for the Spirit makes searches into all things, even the deep things of God
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