Houma Bible Study Notes: Salvation History #1
/The Flood
Genesis 6:9
These are the generations of Noah: Noah was a just man and perfect in his generations, and Noah walked with God.
Satan and the fallen angels intermarried/ intermingled with the human creation— what would be the purpose for that? 1). War against God and His plans for the human creation 2). They knew that through the seed of the woman (Jesus), God would destroy their authority. Genesis 3:15 … it (seed of the woman ‘Jesus) shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.
God instructed Noah after the flood to replenish the earth. It is His will that the earth be filled with His glory. There is a day coming in the future where Jesus will sit on the throne of David and literally rule the world as King. God’s presence will dwell on a new heaven and new earth. This time is called the Millennial reign of Christ. At that time, God’s glory will completely cover the earth. The presence of evil will be locked away for 1,000 years. Until that time comes, God’s plan is that the earth be filled with people, that His truth be preached, that they receive His truth in themselves, and that in this way, the earth is filled with His glory.
Genesis 9:7
And you, be ye fruitful, and multiply; bring forth abundantly in the earth, and multiply therein.
Revelation 5:8-9
8 And when he had taken the book, the four beasts and four and twenty elders fell down before the Lamb, having every one of them harps, and golden vials full of odours, which are the prayers of saints. 9 And they sung a new song, saying, Thou art worthy to take the book, and to open the seals thereof: for thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation;
The Tower of Babel
Genesis 10:8-10 8 And Cush begat Nimrod: he began to be a mighty one in the earth. 9 He was a mighty hunter before the LORD: wherefore it is said, Even as Nimrod the mighty hunter before the LORD. 10 And the beginning of his kingdom was Babel, and Erech, and Accad, and Calneh, in the land of Shinar.
Genesis 11:1 And the whole earth was of one language, and of one speech.
Genesis 11:1-9
1 And the whole earth was of one language, and of one speech. 2 And it came to pass, as they journeyed from the east, that they found a plain in the land of Shinar; and they dwelt there. 3 And they said one to another, Go to, let us make brick, and burn them throughly. And they had brick for stone, and slime had they for morter. 4 And they said, Go to, let us build us a city and a tower, whose top may reach unto heaven; and let us make us a name, lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth. 5 And the LORD came down to see the city and the tower, which the children of men builded. 6 And the LORD said, Behold, the people is one, and they have all one language; and this they begin to do: and now nothing will be restrained from them, which they have imagined to do. 7 Go to, let us go down, and there confound their language, that they may not understand one another's speech. 8 So the LORD scattered them abroad from thence upon the face of all the earth: and they left off to build the city. 9 Therefore is the name of it called Babel; because the LORD did there confound the language of all the earth: and from thence did the LORD scatter them abroad upon the face of all the earth.
The Tower of Babel is a tale of many Biblical truths: 1) direct rebellion against what God told Noah—multiply in the earth, 2) Man coming together to help man without the help of god, creating a society without God, 3) there are pyramid and ziggurat (tower) structures all over the world and near some of these structures, it’s been proven that there was human sacrifice involved, 3) so when they say, “Let us build a tower that reaches into the heavens, do they mean into the sky, or through occult worship to engage the power of fallen angels and demon spirits? 4) there is more to think about but one last thought: At Babel, man is trying to build his own city and a tower that reaches the heavens. But the Bible says that God is building a city in heaven and will bring it down to man (John 14:2,3; Revelation 21:10)
"About 101 years after the Flood we find a vast number of 'em [the offspring of the sons of Noah], if not the whole race of Noah, in the vale of Shinar, employed in building a city and large tower, in order to make themselves a name and to prevent their dispersion. And tho' they carried on the work to a monstrous height, and by their vanity provoked God to confound their devices, by confounding their speech, which occasioned their dispersion; yet their skill in Masonry is not the less to be celebrated, having spent above 53 years in that prodigious work, and upon their dispersion carried the mighty knowledge with them into distant parts, where they found the good use of it in the settlement of their kingdoms, commonwealths, and dynasties. And tho' afterwards it was lost in most parts of the earth it was especially preserved in Shinar and Assyria, where Nimrod, the founder of that monarchy, after the dispersion built many splendid cities, as Ereck, Accad and Calneh in Shinar, from whence afterwards he went forth into Assyria and built Nineveh, Rehoboth, Calch, and Rhesin— Masonic Encyclopedia
"At the makinge of the Tower of Babylon, there was Masonrye first made much of. And the Kinge of Babylon that height Nemrothe was a mason himselfe, and loved well the science as it is said with masters of histories. And when the City of Ninyve and other citties of the East should be made, Nemrothe the Kinge of Babylon sent thither three score masons at the rogation of the Kinge of Nyneve, his cosen. And when he sent them forth he gave them a charge in this manner. . . . And this was the first tyme that ever Masons had any charge of his science."— Masonic Encyclopedia
The last thought from Babel is that God confused their languages, which forced them to be spread across the globe into separate people groups. This resulted in establishment of multiple nations. We should be reminded that it was God’s will that the whole world would be filled with His glory and the way that He does that is by having the world inhabited with humans that willingly accept Him as Lord and are filled with His presence
Isaiah 6:3 And one cried unto another, and said, Holy, holy, holy, is the LORD of hosts: the whole earth is full of his glory.
And as we saw in Revelation chapter 5, the song praises God because Jesus redeemed humans back to God with His blood from every tongue, tribe and nation.
Abraham
The next major move by God is the calling of Abraham, which led to the creation of His own nation Israel.
Genesis 12:2-3 2 And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing: 3 And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed.
Abraham> Isaac> Jacob [Jacob’s name was changed to Israel (Genesis 35:10), Jacob had 12 sons. His sons/ grandsons— Joseph’s sons {Ephraim & Manassah} became the 12 tribes of Israel and the 12 tribes ofIsrael became the nation known as Israel. God brought them into the land of Canaan after the Exodus and the 40 years in the wilderness. When Moses died, God allowed Joshua to bring them into the Promised Land— formerly known as Canaan.
Let’s focus on Abraham. The New Testament calls him the Father of the faith ( ). God asked him to leave his father’s house ( ). Jesus said that we are to leave our old life and live in the new ( ).
The new life starts with death to the old one through faith. The old man dies in Christ and the new man resurrects in Him.
Genesis 22
The story of Abraham and his son Isaac in this chapter is undoubtably parallel to the story of God the Father and His Son Jesus. Scholars or commentators call these OT findings types and shadows. Abraham waits his whole life for the promise of God. He waits for the fulfillment that God will send him a son so that the promises that he will be a great nation. It is quite a long story, but there were many times along the way that Abraham became weary in his journey and seemed, momentarily, to question God, and even at one point took matters into his own hands when he and Sarai, his wife made a plan to have a child with Hagar their Egyptian servant ( ). The name of this child was Ishmael. The Muslim religion comes from the descendants of the Ishmaelites, Mohammed was an Ishmaelite. Christian’s are constantly being tested to either make decisions in the flesh (Ishmael), where they try to fix their situation their way, but it’s outside the will and word of God; instead of patiently waiting on the promises of God.
But God told Abraham that the promised seed would be Isaac a child born to Sarah, and that even though she was 90 and he was 99, the child would be born the way that God said— under supernatural circumstances. There are are multiple supernatural births in the pages of scripture, at least four I can think of off the top of my head: Isaac, Samson, Samuel, Jesus. Why? I believe it’s because God’s plan of new birth in Jesus is so supernatural! Have you been born again? Have you asked Jesus to forgive you? Have you experienced new birth? You will know you have when a love for the things of God and a desire towards obedience in His word have entered your heart.
After all this time Abraham finally had his promised son and, now, in Genesis 22, God requires of Abraham to take Isaac, the supernatural child and to offer him as a sacrifice on a mountain that God will show him. It is the details of the story that are so intriguing to me. The details intrigue me because 2,000 years before Jesus, God the Father was already writing the story of His only begotten Son. Look at these similarities:
Genesis 22:2 And he said, Take now thy son, thine only son Isaac, whom thou lovest, and get thee into the land of Moriah; and offer him there for a burnt offering upon one of the mountains which I will tell thee of.
John 3:16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
Genesis 22:6 And Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering, and laid it upon Isaac his son; and he took the fire in his hand, and a knife; and they went both of them together.
John 19:17 And he bearing his cross went forth into a place called the place of a skull, which is called in the Hebrew Golgotha:
In both stories, a son of supernatural birth, carries wood up a hill on his way to being offered as a sacrifice in obedience to his Father’s will.
Next time, we will talk more about Abraham and his connection to the New Covenant, but, just a couple points:
God has a plan for humanity. He is love and He created us with a free will so that we could choose to love Him, so that He could pour out His love on us. Creation shows me that all this that He did, He did for love!
God has an enemy. The enemy of God is full of hatred. His choice to rebel against God, resulted in a perversion of his purpose. He was intended to bring God glory. Now, he is driven to get his own glory and to take God’s glory for his own.
God looks for people to believe His truth and obey. Through these people, He performs His will upon the earth and His plan is manifest through the hands and mouths of His people as they preach the truth about His kingdom, Matthew 7:14 For the gate is small and the way is narrow that leads to life, and there are few who find it. NASB—the Lord said that the laborers are few to work in the fields of the kingdom (Matthew 9:37-38). There will also be few that follow the straight and narrow path that leads to life.
Satan and his kingdom of darkness use the free will and hands of man also to build his kingdom on earth, like Babel, they make bricks and build a name for themselves, instead of building the name of God. Matthew 7:13 “Enter through the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the way is broad that leads to destruction, and there are many who enter through it. NASB— the majority of people and the majority of the church world today is building this kingdom. There will be many of that day that will say, “but Lord Lord—didn’t we…” (Matthew 7:21-23)
God called Abraham to leave the life he knew before: Genesis 12:1 Now the LORD had said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father's house, unto a land that I will shew thee: KJV
When you believe God’s word, the Bible says we become born again: John 3:3 Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.
When we are born again, we are translated into the Kingdom of God: Colossians 1:13 For He rescued us from the domain of darkness, and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son, NASB