Hope Sabbath School

Think about the vast power of God, who upholds the cosmos, and yet can be so near to each of us. Why is this amazing truth so amazing?

In the first two chapters of the Bible, we learn that at each stage of Creation, six times God evaluates His work as “good” and at the end of the Creation week during His seventh assessment, God evaluates His work as “very good”. However, things drasticaly change in Chapter 3 and the structure of the chapter highlights two main themes: the theme of temptation and the theme of salvation. 

In Genesis, what follow immediately after the Fall, and then the expulsion of Adam and Eve from Eden, are mainly births and deaths, all in fulfillment of God’s prophecies in the preceding chapter.

As parallel chapters, Genesis 3 and 4 contain many common themes and words: descriptions of sin (Gen. 3:6–8; compare with Gen. 4:8), curses from the ’adamah, “ground” (Gen. 3:17; compare with Gen. 4:11), and expulsion (Gen. 3:24; compare with Gen. 4:12, 16)...Yet, even then, all hope is not lost.

We shall not study the biblical story of this cosmic event in order to understand it from a scientific point of view. We do not possess all the data to be able to comprehend this phenomenon. Apart from the scientific discussion, a number of questions will be debated. The fundamental question concerns God Himself: What does this story teach us about the God of the Bible and His purpose? Gnostic philosopher Marcion of Sinope (ad 85–ad 160), and many other Christians after him, used the Flood to demonstrate that the God of the Old Testament was a violent and cruel God, set in diametric opposition to Jesus, the God of love. 

The survivors of the Flood, the three sons of Noah, will generate three branches of the humanity, which will constitute the nations of the world. It seems that humanity is on the right track to filling the earth and bringing God’s image to the ends to the earth. Yet, the story of the Tower of Babel marks a dramatic break in that momentum. God’s commission of universality is replaced by the human ideal of unity and uniformity. Humans want to be one, and worse, they want to be God. 

In this central section of Genesis (12-22), Abraham leaves his past to follow G\od's call.  As a result, Abraham always is on the move, always a migrant, which is why he also is called a “stranger” (Gen. 17:8). In his journeying, Abraham is suspended in the void—without his past, which he has lost, and without his future, which he does not see.  In the New Testament, Abraham is one of the most mentioned figures from the Old Testament, and we will start to see why.

The Abrahamic covenant is the second covenant, after the covenant with Noah. Like Noah’s covenant, Abraham’s covenant involves other nations, as well, for ultimately, the covenant with Abraham is part of the everlasting covenant, which is offered to all humanity.