User blog:JoshSelma5667/The Book of Genesis: Part 1- Chapters 1-3

Introduction
Well, if you're wondering what this blog is about, this blog is sort of a Bible Study/ Devotional series that I'm doing so that I could preach the gospel to users, passer-byers, and others. In this series, we talk about each detail in the Bible which could helpful in teaching us moral values, our knowledge of the Bible, the History of God's chosen people, and, most importantly, to strengthen our relationship with Christ. A little disclaimer though, since I'm still a highschool student who's still learning at this time, maybe I can get wrong with my facts, and also I don't have a specific schedule at this time so maybe I would have a jumbled schedule while creating this series. Thanks for reading! God bless!

Introduction to the Series
In this series, we are going to start in page one of the Bible, the Book of Genesis. The Book's name came from the Greek Word "Γενεσισ (Genesis)" which literally means "In the Beginning" or "Creation". This book was written by Moses, the man who led the Ancient Israelites during their voyage to Canaan (Or the Ancient land of Phoenicia). In the name itself, we could already guess that this has something to do with the Beginning of Time. And that's what's in the Book. In the Book of Genesis, we see how God creates a beautiful world and he also created beautiful creatures in His own image, but soon turn on Him. Although God constantly promises for blessings and redemption and chooses certain people to fulfill these promises, these people,known as patriarchs, eventually rebel against God, either directly or indirectly. All of that, in one whole book, this is the Book of Genesis

Reading of the Word

 * Read Genesis 1-3

Overview
In the Beginning, there was a Supreme Being, to whom we refer to as God, created the Universe without any introductory origin. He was the one who created the planets, but He chose one planet in particular. Now this planet, called "Earth" (or in Hebrew "Aretz"/ארץ), was once dark, and empty, and so His spirit hovered over the planet and then He said "Let there be Light!" and there was light. He separated the light and the darkness and called the light "Day" and the darkness "Night", He saw this and said it was very good, thus concludes the First Day. The next day, God noticed that the waters of the planet may be a bit too high, so He decided to create an expanse between the waters above and below, He called this expanse "Sky", He saw it, and said it was very good, thus concludes the Second Day. The next day, God noticed that there is land underwater, so He decided to make the land rise up from the water, then immediately plants sprouted from the land, He saw it, and said it was very good, thus concludes the Third Day. The next day, He decided to create Celestial bodies to aid the Light and the Darkness; the seasons of the Earth. So He created the Sun to aid the Day, and the Moon and Stars to aid the Night, He saw this and said it was very good, thus concludes the Fourth Day. The next day, He noticed that the Earth had no living creatures that dominated the sky and the sea, and so He created birds that subdue the air, and sea creatures that dominate the sea, He saw this and said it was very good. The next day, He noticed that there were no creatures in the land, and so He created a vast variation of animals that subdue the land. But none of them, animal or plant, could rule the Earth properly. So God decided to create a special creature, which He had made in His image and molded him with the dust of the ground (Or in Hebrew "Adamah"/אדמה). And so, He called the man Adam. He gave Adam the authority to rule the land. Then God created this magnificent garden, filled with abundance. It was truly Paradise. He told Adam that he could eat of any tree from the garden, except one tree, which is known as the "Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil". This tree bore such a special fruit which, from the name itself, could give an earthly creature unimaginable knowledge about good and evil once eaten. God warned him further that once eaten, he would die. Adam was appointed to govern over the Paradise that God had placed him in, and also he was placed there to enjoy this Paradise. As the man looked around God's creation, he saw that each animal has a pair. And in the inside, the man wanted something to complete him. God knew this, and He came up with a solution. God put the man in a deep sleep and He took one of his ribs (Or the entire half of his ribs) and from it God created a woman. When Adam woke up, he was greeted by a creature similar to him but is diverse physically. Despite this diversity, the man and the woman are in this unbreakable bond, which is supposed to stay that way. On the seventh day, God looked at His marvelous creation and said it was good. A few days later, there was this reptilian creature that was recorded and known for its slippery and crafty acts, and, apparently, it has the ability to talk. This is strange since it’s the only animal in the garden which had a humanlike behavior. This creature, commonly referred to as “the Serpent”, confronted the woman and asked her if God really said that they are not allowed to eat of any fruit in the Garden. The woman replied that they are to eat the fruit of any tree in the garden except the one in the middle (The Tree of Knowledge if Good and Evil), if they ate its fruit, they will die. But the serpent said that they wouldn’t die, but instead it would make them BE wise. Now, the kind of wisdom that the serpent was talking about was wisdom that was equal to God’s wisdom. So this Serpent claimed that the fruit would make them equal with God. And so the woman SAW the fruit and they WANTED to be wise and so she ate of its fruit, then she gave it her husband. Suddenly, their eyes were opened and they looked at each other and realized they were naked and ashamed of themselves. So they sew fig leaves together to become some sort of loincloth to cover their nakedness and shame. God knew what happened and so He confronted the man and the woman. Adam and the woman also knew that God was coming so they hid. God simply asked where the man and the woman went. The man came out and said that they were hiding from God because they were ashamed. God then asked Adam who told them that they were naked and if they ate of the fruit. Then Adam passes on the blame to his wife saying that she’s the one who gave it to her, then the woman passes the blame on to the serpent who let her give in to her humanly desire to become wise like God. Then He curses the serpent and he will slither on his belly for the rest of his life. But in the midst of God’s statement, He announces of an offspring or the descendant of the woman who fight not just with the descendants OF the Serpent, but will crush THE Serpent himself but will be bitten by the Serpent as an act of retaliation. Then God curses the woman by giving her pain while delivering children to the Earth, and made her inferior to her husband. After that, He curses the man and tells him that he should work for everything until he “returns to dust”. And so God exiled the two from Paradise, and had angels (Or in Hebrew,” Cherubim/ כרובים “) guard every entrance to the garden and yet another special tree, which is the Tree of Life and its fruit gives everlasting life once eaten. And that is where the chapter ends...

Reflection
Now, as we read through the first three chapters of the Book of Genesis, we see this Supreme Being was there even before the existence of time, space, and matter came to place. In fact, as we can see in the very first verse of the first chapter, God created time, space and matter. Notice how the author of the book renders this setting as “In the Beginning.” Because that’s where it all began; it was created by this Being who was there before time began. And so after time has begun, what happened next? We see how God CHOOSES one planet and despite the fact that it was formless and empty, He wanted to fill it up. And so, in just seven days, God created this perfect world, and each day He adds something into the world and LOOKS at it and SAYS IT’S GOOD. This shows the perspective of God is very different from how humans perceive of things. He SAW this “Ball of Nothingness” and fills it with Light and Life. And every day He LOOKS at His creations and SAYS IT’S GOOD and it really is good. But after God had filled the Earth with life, notice how God SAYS His creations are VERY GOOD. The Hebrew word for “Very” is “Meod”, which refers to adding a degree to a certain adjective, kinda like adverbs. So when God says it’s “Meod Good”, that means it is Perfect. Then, we are introduced to one of God’s most special creations; a man. Notice how God, again, uses something neglected, and useless, which is the dust of the ground, and made a creature with His own image. He even gave him authority over His creations. Then God placed the man in Paradise, where everything was intact and perfect and in order. The bond with God and Man was like a “Father-and-son”, where they were inseparable. But, the man still felt a bit of emptiness in his life as he noticed the animals around him who each had partners. Even though Adam had God, God sensed his feeling of emptiness, and created a suitable partner using the half of his rib. This was not just for the sake for the preservation of mankind but He also wanted to complete the man, as he is in Paradise. And so, they were married and created another bond which could and should NOT be broken, as breaking that bond would mean separating WITH a PART of HIM. Soon after, we are introduced to this peculiar creature. This creature had a very humanlike character, this is strange because, other than the fact that serpents don’t talk, but no other creature in the Garden had the ability to talk. This was obviously strange, but no one else in the garden sensed its peculiarity because they don’t have the knowledge yet. This is how IMPERFECTION enters the PERFECT garden. Then the serpent told the woman that the “Forbidden Fruit” wasn’t forbidden at all, that it could make them SEE what God sees; to have WISDOM and KNOWLEDGE like God’s. In other words, this serpent was trying to convince them that they could DEFINE GOOD AND EVIL for THEMSELVES; to make them the GODS of their OWN LIVES. But this is where we see the difference between God’s perception of the world and ours. The woman SEES the fruit that is good for food and she DESIRES to be wise. And this is where the irony kicks in, as she has chosen FOOLISH choice. After they had eaten the fruit, notice the first thing they knew, they were naked top to bottom. They immediately had the feeling of SHAME and FEAR. They were SHAMEFUL of not just their physical nakedness, but also their Spiritual Nakedness. With that single bite, their purity was taken away from them, their PERFECTION had disappeared. And then, they tried making their own way to cover their physical nakedness, but it only worked as mere loincloths. As they tried to hide from God, God knew and asked them why they did it, but the man and the woman didn’t want to be shamed so they passed the blame unto each other. God curses the snake, the woman and the man, but in the midst of this statement, we see that God made a way. He stated that a descendant of the woman would CRUSH the serpent, but would pay the Ultimate Price as the serpent will bite the descendant of the woman on the heel as his act of final retaliation. This shows God’s act of LOVE even when we break His heart the most. We just have to pay attention to genealogies from the woman onward, and we will see who this offspring or descendant of the woman really is. But this concludes our first chapter…