Part 2: Three major events between Adam & Abraham

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We preach: Christ in us - the Hope of realizing the glory.

We proclaim Him (Jesus Christ, the Lord), guiding and admonishing everyone and teaching everyone in all wisdom (i.e. comprehensive insight into the ways and purposes of God), that every person may be presented mature (i.e. full-grown, complete, and perfect) in Christ. (Col 1:27-28)

Table of Contents

First event – Cain & Abel, sons of Adam & Eve

  • Their birth
  • Their sacrifices and God’s reaction to it
  • God respected Abel and his offering
  • First murder
  • God’s response to the murder

Second event – Noah

  • God announced judgement and His covenant with Noah
  • God’s covenant with Noah explained
  • God appointed Enoch to warn the people
  • Noah obeyed God
  • Rain started
  • Noah ordered out of the ark
  • Noah built an altar and sacrificed
  • God’s response to the burnt offering
  • Curse on the earth alleviated
  • God blessed Noah
  • God only gave three of the five commands of Adam to Noah

Third event – Tower of Babel

  • People spoke one language
  • They wanted to misuse this unity
  • God inspected
  • God’s solution – confuse their language
  • Why is this so significant?
  • The day of Pentecost – 15 different languages
  • Peter confirmed the outpouring of the Holy Spirit on all flesh
  • Jesus bought us from every tribe and nation
We are ONE again– one body and one Kingdom

Three major events between the fall of Adam and the calling of Abraham

FIRST MAJOR EVENT - Cain and Abel, sons of Adam and Eve:

Their birth

Gen 4:1 Now the man had relations with his wife Eve, and she conceived and gave birth to Cain, and she said, "I have gotten a manchild with the help of the LORD."

Gen 4:2 Again, she gave birth to his brother Abel. And Abel was a keeper of flocks, but Cain was a tiller of the ground.

Cain means: possession, or possessed

Abel means: vanity; breath; vapour; mourning

Their sacrifices to God and God’s reaction

Gen 4:3 So it came about in the course of time that Cain brought an offering to the LORD of the fruit of the ground.

Gen 4:4 Abel, on his part also brought of the firstlings of his flock and of their fat portions. And the LORD had regard (respect) for Abel and for his offering;

Gen 4:5 but for Cain and for his offering He had no regard. So Cain became very angry and his countenance fell.

The LORD had regard (respect) for Abel and for his offering;

In Genesis 3:7 it is recorded that the eyes of Adam and Eve were opened and they knew that they were naked. They sewed fig leaves together and made themselves coverings – their own man-made plans.

 

In Genesis 3:15 mention is made of the One who will be from the woman’s seed and who will bruise the head of the serpent who beguiled the woman. This with no doubt refers to Jesus Christ and since this prophecy, God’s dealing with mankind was always through the shedding of blood.

God’s plan for restoration and healing process came through the shedding of blood. In spite of the failure of Adam, God is still the loving God who wants His creation to prosper.

This love of God required that innocent animals be sacrificed to provide garments of skin as a covering for Adam and Eve – also to cover their sin and shame.

By doing this God forever laid down a principle – blood was to be shed so that shame could be covered.

This early foreshadowing of substitutionary atonement points toward the necessity of judgement upon the innocent to provide a covering for the guilty.

 

Adam and Eve made a vain attempt to cover themselves with their own efforts by sewing together fig leaves. God’s order provided covering by means of a sacrifice. Under the New Covenant, we are required to be clothed with Christ, rather than with good works.

 

God’s reaction to Abel’s offering tells us that Abel, by bringing a blood sacrifice fully understood this principle of God.

Heb 11:4 By faith Abel offered to God a better sacrifice than Cain, through which he obtained the testimony that he was righteous, God testifying about his gifts (his sacrifice), and through faith, though he is dead, he still speaks.

FAITH is the sense of my spirit enabling me to understand God and to walk in His ways – Abel understood the expectations of God in sacrifices.

 

The LORD had regard (respect):

The expression “had regard or respect” means:

To gaze at or about; looking around in amazement; looking at intently; looking at with high regard and appreciation; to look on something with approval, to accept it

In other words: God gazed at the offering and looked around with high regard and appreciation, utterly amazed at Abel’s understanding and insight in the act of the shedding of blood.

In connection with the first act of worship in the Bible which was well pleasing to God, blood was shed. This made such an impression on God that Abel is listed as the first hero of faith in Hebrew 11:4

Abel’s faith and God’s good pleasure in him are closely related with the sacrificial blood. What we deeply learn from this is that there can be no approach to God, no fellowship with Him by faith, no worship of Him, no access to His holy presence, no imputation of righteousness by His grace and no enjoyment of His favour apart from blood.

The first murder was committed

Gen 4:8 Cain told Abel his brother. And it came about when they were in the field, that Cain rose up against Abel his brother and killed him.

 

God’s response to the murder

Gen 4:9 Then the LORD said to Cain, "Where is Abel your brother?" And he said, "I do not know. Am I my brother's keeper?"

Gen 4:10 He said, "What have you done? The voice of your brother's blood is crying to Me from the ground.

Gen 4:11 "Now you are cursed from the ground, which has opened its mouth to receive your brother's blood from your hand.

Gen 4:12 "When you cultivate the ground, it will no longer yield its strength to you; you will be a vagrant and a wanderer on the earth."

Quote from “Unlocking the Bible” by David Pawson – Page 71

“A clear pattern emerges here: bad people hate good people, and the ungodly are envious of the godly. This is a division that goes all the way through human history.

So God’s perfect world is now a place where goodness is hated, and the evil people excuse their wickedness. Anyone who presents a challenge to the conscience is hated. We could say that Abel was the first martyr for righteousness’ sake. Jesus himself said that the “the blood of the righteous has been spilt from Abel, right through to Zecahriah”.”


SECOND MAJOR EVENT Noah

Background

In Genesis 5:1-32 the generations from Adam to Noah are recorded – the long lives that people lived are noted (with Methuselah the oldest – 969 years of age when he died).

Genesis 6:3 tell us

Gen 6:3 Then the LORD said, "My Spirit shall not strive with man forever, because he also is flesh; nevertheless his days shall be one hundred and twenty years."

In Genesis 6 it is recorded that the wickedness of man was great and the thoughts of his heart were evil continually and God decided to blot out man on the earth.

Gen 6:5 Then the LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great on the earth and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.

Gen 6:6 The LORD was sorry that He had made man on the earth, and He was grieved in His heart.

Gen 6:7 The LORD said, "I will blot out man whom I have created from the face of the land, from man to animals to creeping things and to birds of the sky; for I am sorry that I have made them."

Gen 6:8 But Noah found grace in the eyes of the LORD.

Gen 6:9 ...Noah was a righteous man, blameless in his time; Noah walked with God.

Peter calls Noah:

2Pe 2:5 and did not spare the ancient world, but preserved Noah, a preacher of righteousness,

Noah means: rest; repose; consolation

God gave Noah the command to build the ark in order for him and his family to escape the flood which was God’s judgement on sin. (All the details and dimensions concerning the ark are described in Genesis 6:14-22)

God announced His judgement upon the earth and also His covenant with Noah

Gen 6:17 "Behold, I, even I am bringing the flood of water upon the earth, to destroy all flesh in which is the breath of life, from under heaven; everything that is on the earth shall perish.

Gen 6:18 "But I will establish My covenant with you, and you shall enter the ark--you and your sons and your wife, and your sons' wives with you.

I will establish My covenant with you

NB! Very significant the use of the word “establish” with regard to the covenant with Noah (the first place in the Bible where the concept of “covenant” is mentioned). God“established” a covenant with Noah, but “made” or rather “cut” a covenant with Abraham

 

“Establish”:

The basic meaning of this word is the physical action of rising up or the resultant end of that action.

To raise up, bring on the scene, constitute, to perform

God is saying to Noah: I will rise up and raise up and bring to the scene (set up) a covenant (treaty, alliance, agreement) between you and Me.

Covenant (treaty, alliance, and agreement)

The covenants made between God and humans defined the basis of God's character in the Old Testament. They showed the strength of His divine promise from Adam all the way through to the exile and restoration.

This is the covenant that God made with Noah

Gen 9:8 Then God spoke to Noah and to his sons with him, saying,

Gen 9:9 "Now behold, I Myself do establish My covenant with youand with your descendants after you;

Gen 9:11 "I establish My covenant with you, and all flesh shall never again be cut off by the water of the flood, neither shall there again be a flood to destroy the earth."

Gen 9:12 God said, "This is the sign of the covenant which I am making between Me and you and every living creature that is with you, for all successive generations;

Gen 9:13 I set My bow in the cloud, and it shall be for a sign of a covenant between Me and the earth.

Gen 9:15 and I will remember My covenant, which is between Me and you and every living creature of all flesh; and never again shall the water become a flood to destroy all flesh.

Gen 9:16 "When the bow is in the cloud, then I will look upon it, to remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is on the earth."

God appointed Enoch

God, however, did not judge immediately. He appointed Enoch as a prophet to warn the people of the coming judgement of God on the human race.

At the age of 65, Enoch became the father of Methuselah – which means “when he dies it will happen”

So it was quite evident that at the death of Methuselah God will judge the world.

 

Gen 5:18 Jared lived one hundred and sixty-two years and became the father of Enoch.

Gen 5:21 Enoch lived sixty-five years and became the father of Methuselah.

Gen 5:22 Then Enoch walked with God three hundred years after he became the father of Methuselah, and he had other sons and daughters.

Gen 5:24 Enoch walked with God; and he was not, for God took him.

 

Further Scriptures to confirm Enoch’s calling

Jud 1:14 It was also about these men that Enochin the seventh generation from Adam, prophesied, saying, "Behold, the Lord came with many thousands of His holy ones,

Jud 1:15 to execute judgment upon all, and to convict all the ungodly of all their ungodly deeds which they have done in an ungodly way, and of all the harsh things which ungodly sinners have spoken against Him."

Heb 11:5 By faith Enoch was taken up so that he would not see death, AND HE WAS NOT FOUND BECAUSE GOD TOOK HIM UP; for he obtained the witness that before his being taken up he was pleasing to God

 

Noah obeyed God

Gen 6:22 Thus Noah did; according to all that God had commanded him, so he did.

Gen 7:1 Then the LORD said to Noah, "Enter the ark, you and all your household, for you alone I have seen to be righteous before Me in this time.

Gen 7:2 "You shall take with you of every clean animal by sevens, a male and his female; and of the animals that are not clean two, a male and his female;

Gen 7:4 "For after seven more days, I will send rain on the earth forty days and forty nights; and I will blot out from the face of the land every living thing that I have made."

Gen 7:5 Noah did according to all that the LORD had commanded him.

Gen 7:7 Then Noah and his sons and his wife and his sons' wives with him entered the ark because of the water of the flood.

Gen 7:8 Of clean animals and animals that are not clean and birds and everything that creeps on the ground,

Gen 7:9 there went into the ark to Noah by twos, male and female, as God had commanded Noah.

Rain started to fall

When Methuselah died at the age of 969 years it began to rain heavily

Gen 7:12 The rain fell upon the earth for forty days and forty nights.

Gen 7:17 Then the flood came upon the earth for forty days, and the water increased and lifted up the ark, so that it rose above the earth.

Gen 7:21 All flesh that moved on the earth perished, birds and cattle and beasts and every swarming thing that swarms upon the earth, and all mankind;

Gen 7:23 Thus He blotted out every living thing that was upon the face of the land,

God’s judgement was executed

 

Eventually, the water subsided and God ordered Noah out of the ark

Gen 8:14 In the second month, on the twenty-seventh day of the month, the earth was dry.

Gen 8:15 Then God spoke to Noah, saying,

Gen 8:16 "Go out of the ark, you and your wife and your sons and your sons' wives with you.

Gen 8:17 "Bring out with you every living thing of all flesh that is with you, birds and animals and every creeping thing that creeps on the earth, that they may breed abundantly on the earth, and be fruitful and multiply on the earth."

 

The very first thing that Noah did after they emerged from the ark, was to build an altar and offer burnt (blood) offerings to God

Gen 8:20 Then Noah built an altar to the LORD, and took of every clean animal and of every clean bird and offered burnt offerings on the altar.

God’s response to these burnt offerings is just amazing

Gen 8:21 The LORD smelled the soothing aroma; and the LORD said to Himself, "I will never again curse the ground on account of man, for the intent of man's heart is evil from his youth; and I will never again destroy every living thing, as I have done.

Gen 8:22 "While the earth remainsSeedtime and harvest, And cold and heat, And summer and winter, And day and night Shall not cease."

God alleviated the curse that He placed on the earth in Genesis 3:17 and He also undertook to never again destroy every living thing

The principles of “seasons” which must have been severely interrupted by the flood have also been re-instituted by God – seedtime & harvest; cold & heat; summer & winter; day & night

 

Now God is doing the very same thing that He did with Adam (Gen 1:28), but with a slight difference:

Gen 9:1 And God blessed Noah and his sons and said to them, " Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth.

Gen 9:7 "As for you, be fruitful and multiply; Populate the earth abundantly and multiply in it."

 

Blessed:

God bowed down (or knelt down) alongside Noah (coming down to their level) and got involved in their everyday walk of life.

God gave them permission and the capacity to live a rich and full life and to realize all their potential and to fulfil His purpose for them. (YOU HAVE MY PERMISSION).

God enabled and empowered them to prosper.

 

Said to them

Say (said): To designate – TO SPELL OUT THEIR DESTINY, to purpose, to put forth in the order, to challenge, to appoint, – TO CREATE EXPECTATIONS, to be called, intend, assign.

 

Only three of the five commands are given to Noah – “subdue” and “have dominion” are omitted. The reason for this is that our authority to reign and to rule and to have dominion is only restored in and through Christ Jesus.

Isa 9:6 For a child will be born to us, a son will be given to us, And the government will rest on His shoulders; And His name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace.

Isa 9:7 There will be no end to the increase of His government or of peace, On the throne of David and over his kingdom, To establish it and to uphold it with justice and righteousness From then on and forevermore. The zeal of the LORD of hosts will accomplish this.

Rev 5:9 And they *sang a new song, saying, "Worthy are You to take the book and to break its seals; for You were slain, and purchased for God with Your blood men from every tribe and tongue and people and nation.

Rev 5:10 "You have made them to be a kingdom and priests to our God; and they will reign upon the earth."

 

The diet of Noah and his descendants now also includes “every moving thing”

Gen 9:3 "Every moving thing that is alive shall be food for you; I give all to you, as I gave the green plant.

 

So a new beginning on earth started with Noah – inaugurated with blood (animal sacrifices)

 

THIRD MAJOR EVENT – Tower of Babel

The people of that time spoke one language and this created a formidable unity amongst them

Gen 11:1 Now the whole earth used the same language and the same words.

They wanted to use this unity in building a tower to make a name for them

Gen 11:4 They said, "Come, let us build for ourselves a city, and a tower whose top will reach into heaven, and let us make for ourselves a name, otherwise we will be scattered abroad over the face of the whole earth."

This Tower of Babel drew God’s attention and He inspected their activities

Gen 11:5 The LORD came down to see the city and the tower which the sons of men had built.

Gen 11:6 The LORD said, "Behold, they are one people, and they all have the same language. And this is what they began to do, and now nothing which they purpose to do will be impossible for them.

 

God’s solution to the situation – confuse their language

Gen 11:7 "Come, let Us go down and there confuse their language, so that they will not understand one another's speech."

Gen 11:8 So the LORD scattered them abroad from there over the face of the whole earth; and they stopped building the city.

Gen 11:9 Therefore its name was called Babel, because there the LORD confused the language of the whole earth; and from there the LORD scattered them abroad over the face of the whole earth.

What is so significant about the aforementioned?

God brought separation between nations on the ground of their language while He chose to deal with His people (Israel) in the Hebrew language.

The day of Pentecost

That is the reason why the occurrence recorded in Acts 2 is so important. When the people on the Day of Pentecost were filled with the Holy Spirit they spoke fifteen different known languages and dialects (unknown to themselves).

Act 2:1 When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place.

Act 2:2 And suddenly there came from heaven a noise like a violent rushing wind, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting.

Act 2:3 And there appeared to them tongues as of fire distributing themselves, and they rested on each one of them.

Act 2:4 And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit was giving them utterance.

 

Act 2:6 And when this sound occurred, the crowd came togetherand were bewildered because each one of them was hearing them speak in his own language.

Act 2:7 They were amazed and astonished, saying, "Why, are not all these who are speaking Galileans?

Act 2:8 "And how is it that we each hear them in our own language to which we were born?

Act 2:9 "Parthians and Medes and Elamites, and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia,

Act 2:10 Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the districts of Libya around Cyrene, and visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes,

Act 2:11 Cretans and Arabs--we hear them in our own tongues speaking of the mighty deeds of God."

 

Insertion taken from Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible – E-Sword

Galileans - Inhabitants of Galilee. It was remarkable that they should speak in this manner, because:

(1) They were ignorant, rude, and uncivilized. Hence, the term Galilean was used as an expression of the deepest reproach and contempt.

(2) Their dialect was proverbially barbarous and corrupt. They were regarded as an outlandish people, unacquainted with other nations and languages, and hence, the amazement that they could address them in the refined language of other people. Their native ignorance was the occasion of making the miracle more striking. (End of insertion)

 

This is one of the greatest manifestations of the love of God for this world  prior to this specific Day of Pentecost God only dealt with the Israelites and in their Hebrew language, while apparently ignoring the rest of the world. Now the God of grace is reaching out to the whole world to include all the nations and every individual in His plan of salvation and He is demonstrating this by addressing them in their own languages.

 

Peter confirmed this outpouring of God’s Spirit on all flesh (a privilege that only belonged to a select few in the Old Testament)

Act 2:12 And they all continued in amazement and great perplexity, saying to one another, "What does this mean?"

Act 2:14 But Peter, taking his stand with the eleven, raised his voice and declared to them:

Act 2:16 ... this is what was spoken of through the prophet Joel:

Act 2:17 'AND IT SHALL BE IN THE LAST DAYS,' God says, 'that I will pour forth of my spirit on all mankind.....

Act 2:18 even on my bondslaves, both men and women, I will in those days pour forth of my spirit

Act 2:21 'and it shall be that everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.'

 

Jesus bought us with His blood from every nation and tongue

Rev 5:9 And they *sang a new song, saying, "Worthy are You to take the book and to break its seals; for You were slain, and purchased for God with Your blood men from every tribe and tongue and people and nation.

Rev 5:10 "You have made them to be a kingdom and priests to our God; and they will reign upon the earth."

 

This is the reason why the New Testament is written in Greek – the Gospel is not only for the Jews anymore.

 

Across the world we are ONE again– one body and one Kingdom – serving one God, one Jesus Christ and filled with one Holy Spirit

 

Unity is once again restored and through this unity we are again able to achieve unthinkable and amazing things.

 

Due to its importance, I will cover the topic “UNITY” extensively under Third Dispensation Teachings.

Compiled by: Deon Gerber
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