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06 - Cmi Student Reading
06 - Cmi Student Reading
Read the material below and the handout that we will review in class.
Memorise Job 1:21
SLOWING DOWN
Remember that Genesis is a historical book that slows down twice:
1. The first section (chapters 1-11) is a Primeval History briefly
covering vignettes of people’s lives over long periods of time in the far
distant past.
2. The second section (chapters 12-38) is a Patriarchal Narrative in
which the plot slows down and focuses on episodes in the lives Abraham,
Isaac and Jacob.
3. The third section (chapters 37, 39-50) is a Personal Biography, in
which the plot slows down even more to discuss events in the life of Joseph.
In this session, we move into the Patriarchal Era and look at two men; one
from Uz and one from Ur.
We begin this session with perhaps the oldest book in the Bible, and the
first of the poetical books – the Book of Job. Job was a godly man but lost
his wealth, his family, and his health in an instant was told by his wife to
From Creation To Captivity, Session 6 – CMI Student Reading 2
curse God and die, dialogued with three friends as to why such a thing
would happen, and then at the end received an answer from God, together
with more than he had at the beginning. The name Job likely comes from
the Arabic Iyyob, meaning “the repentant one.” According to Ezekiel 14:14,
20 and James 5:11, Job was a real person; this was not a mere parable.
Overview and Structure of the Book: The book has wonderful A-B-A
symmetry where the beginning and ending are written in prose and involve
the crisis and resolution of the story based on someone challenging
someone else. The debates Job has with his three friends, Eliphaz, Bildad,
and Zophar, are in three cycles in the middle of the book, followed by
Elihu’s observations and suggestions. Then God himself speaks up from a
tornado and challenges Job with 76 questions about who created,
understands, and supervises all things! Job is left placing his hand over his
mouth and seeking forgiveness.
Job Among World Literature: There are other books from the ancient
civilizations of Mesopotamia and Egypt that have a similar plot to Job –
where a man loses everything, and wonders with his friends why he is
suffering – but every one of them is polytheistic. As you might expect,
liberal scholars charge that the Book of Job is merely theologically correct
fiction borrowed from other ancient fables, and was written by several
authors over hundreds of years with pieces added here and there to suit
their times. They do this with Genesis, the Torah, Isaiah, and almost every
other book of the Bible.
Job is likely the original, and because it was so profound and well-written, its
fame spread and other traditions did their rip-off versions of it (just like
Babylon’s Epic of Gilgamesh did with Genesis 6-9). It has been heralded as
a masterpiece unequaled in all of literature. The original language of Job is
in a class by itself and really seals its identity as a Patriarchal Era document.
Later Hebrew writers would not have preserved the strange terms, almost
three dozen of which are found nowhere else in the Bible and are more
similar to Akkadian, Sumerian, Arabic, and Ugaritic words.
“Indeed these are the mere edges of His ways, and how small a whisper we
hear of Him!” (Job 26:14). While Job is pondering his own suffering, God is
caring for the whole created order in ways that Job cannot begin to fathom.
5. Suffering makes our daily schedule and worry disappear, and forces a
godly person to think on the ultimate and important issues of life such as
our origin, our purpose in life, and our destiny when we are done. Job said
“Naked I came from my mother's womb, and naked I shall return there. The
LORD gave and the LORD has taken away. Blessed be the name of the
LORD." Through all this, Job did not sin nor charge God with wrong.
6. The same sun that melts the butter hardens the clay. It is not
trials that make you grow, but your response to those trials. You
can become bitter or better.
7. At first, Job did well and suffered in silent thought and prayer. But as
the suffering went on week after week, and his friends irritatingly searched
to find his sin that caused this “punishment,” Job got worn out and started
to trumpet his own righteousness. Suffering long is the hardest type of
suffering; we can appropriate grace (God’s help) for a crisis, but a long and
bad illness or relationship is the hardest test.
8. Earth is the unbeliever’s only heaven; the believer’s only hell. The
wicked may flourish now, but they are as straw before the wind. Believers
need to keep an eternal perspective; our years of faithfulness and godly
suffering here lay up enormous treasure for us when we’re finished. Selfish
believers work hard to create their heaven here, and not being rich toward
God, they forfeit eternal treasures.
9. Wives and friends need to be encouraging and pray diligently for
God’s sustaining grace on behalf of the sufferer – and not jump to
conclusions! Job’s wife said to him, "Do you still hold fast your integrity?
Curse God and die!" But he said to her, "You speak as one of the foolish
women speaks. Shall we indeed accept good from God and not accept
adversity?" In all this Job did not sin with his lips. (2:9-10).
We have already studied men of critical importance like Adam and Noah,
but now we come to arguably the most important man in the Old
Testament, and the entire Bible. Abram was an uncircumcised Gentile
whom God called out of an idolatrous culture to become the father of the
Jewish nation and the father of all those whom God declares righteous
because of their faith in Him. Abraham was a builder of altars, a great
worshipper of Jehovah.
calling on the Lord. Now we see God setting his hand upon one from whom
a whole nation would come; they would be considered “God’s Chosen
People.” We know from the New Testament that God eventually offered His
salvation to all peoples of the world.
The Dates of Abraham’s Life: Scholars believe Abram was born around
2166 B.C. He lived a total of 175 years (Genesis 25:7-8) and died in 1991
B.C. It is helpful to remember him living at 2000 B.C. After traveling
northwest from Ur to Haran, he went southwest and entered the land of
Canaan in about 2091 B.C. Isaac was born when Abraham was 100 years
old in 2066 BC.
Abram was born in Ur; he was one of three sons born to Terah. He married
Sarai, and they unsuccessfully tried to have children. Terah intended to
move his entire clan to Canaan for some unknown reason; the caravan
followed the Fertile Crescent routes up to Haran where Terah died at the
age of 205 (Genesis 11:31-32). It seems that Abram and other family
members thought of going back home to Ur, but God had other plans.
From Creation To Captivity, Session 6 – CMI Student Reading 8
God’s covenant with Abraham was unconditional and unilateral (I will … with
no “ifs”). In fact, when God made the covenant, Abram was still an
unbeliever! It is the first of the “theocratic covenants” having to do with the
rule of God over a nation and all peoples of the earth. It involved:
• Commands: Leave your country, your people, & your father’s
household; go to a land I will show you. Did Abram obey? Genesis 12:4,
Hebrews 11:8
• Blessings:
o National – I will make of you a great nation (12:2)
o Personal – I will bless you and you will be a blessing (personal
honor and reputation)
o Universal – I will bless them that bless you, curse them that curse
you, bless all of the families of the earth through you (in the Messiah)
When Abram asked about the land, God told him to cut several
animals down the middle and lay them out. God made several
prophecies about the Hebrews going to another country and then
coming back to punish the pagans of Canaan, and then in the
darkness moved as a flaming oven between the pieces of meat, the
idea being that whoever would break the covenant should be cut up
as those animals. God then gave Abraham the borders – the Promised
Land was from the River of Egypt (the wadi, not the Nile) to the River
Euphrates.
The Lord guided Abraham, his caravan and livestock south through the land
of the Canaanites (descendants of the cursed grandson of Noah), and when
he reached Shechem (see map), the Lord appeared to him and announced
that this was the land. Abram built an altar there (Genesis 12:7), and going
further south to a mountain just east of Bethel, he built another altar (12:8).
Abraham is known for his altars and Isaac for his wells.
so the killer can have his wife! Abram’s plan? Lie about it (or tell a half-
truth anyway)! Sure enough, Pharaoh sent for Sarai, and God then sent
plagues through his household. After Sarai confessed who she was, Pharaoh
gave Abram an earful, and his army escorted them out of Egypt back toward
Canaan (Genesis 12:10-20).
Meeting the Prince of Peace (Genesis 14): On the way back from
rescuing Lot and a couple of cities’ worth of people and goods, Abram gave
a tithe (a tenth) of his gain to Melchizedek, the priest-king of Salem (peace),
who had no known ancestry (see Hebrews 6:20 - 7:4). There is nothing in
the Bible about Adam or Seth or Noah tithing. Abram gives a tenth here in a
“one-off” because he had apparently never met anyone else who
acknowledged the one, true Creator-God. We have no explanation for why
he gave a tenth.
The king of Sodom gave Abram permission to keep the captured goods if he
would return the captives, but Abram had sworn to the Lord that he would
not keep the goods lest it could be said that the ungodly made him rich.
The Sodom and Gomorrah Saga (Genesis 18-19): The Angel of the
Lord (perhaps a “theophany,” an appearance of God the Father in human
form, or a “Christophany,” a pre-incarnate appearance of Christ) and two
other angels came to assure Abraham of his coming child (18:1) and test
Abraham concerning the terrible sin of Sodom (18:16-33). When God
revealed His intent to destroy the cities of the plain, dear Abraham
interceded on behalf of the righteous in the city – first, that God, as the
“righteous Judge of all the earth,” would spare the city if there were 50
righteous in it, then 45, then 40, then 30, then 20, then 10. God agreed to
spare it if there were only 10 (18:32). There weren’t 10.
From Creation To Captivity, Session 6 – CMI Student Reading 11
The other two angels came to Sodom, and found Lot who compelled them to
come to his house so they wouldn’t be attacked by the homosexuals at
night. Still, the men of the city came to Lot’s house demanding to have sex
with the two men. Lot offered his daughters instead!! Cultural custom of
the times was to sacrifice the lives of you and your family to protect guests.
When the men tried to break down the door, the angels blinded them all
(19:11). The angels then warned Lot to get his family out of the city by
morning, but Lot’s children thought he was playing a joke and wouldn’t
listen.
Lot barely escaped with his wife and two unmarried daughters. They
entered Zoar as the sun rose; then fire and brimstone rained down on the
cities. As with the ark, the righteous were removed before God’s judgment
came. Although Lot’s wife had left Sodom, Sodom had not left the heart of
Lot’s wife; she longingly looked back, and God turned her into a pillar of salt
(19:26). She became in death what she failed to be in life - salt (Matthew
5:13).
upheaval along the fault line in the area. Brimstone is bitumen and sulfur
rock, and there is an abundance of such rock lying around the sites with
glass crystal coatings and burn marks indicating that they were burning at
one point. The rocks are embedded in a meter of ash.
There are digs at Bab edh-Dhra, believed to be Sodom. The 7 meter wide
city wall enclosed 9-10 acres with gates located at the west and the
northeast. The northeast gate had two flanking towers with massive stone
and timber foundations. Estimated population at the time of the destruction
was between 600-1200, but this doesn’t seem big enough for Sodom, which
was known in other ancient literature as a center of learning, a city perhaps
exceeding 50,000 people. Paleo-botany investigations indicated that a rich
diversity of crops were grown in the area including barley, wheat, grapes,
figs, lintels, flax, chickpeas, peas, broad beans, dates, and olives.
So, like Noah’s Ark, the location of these cities has eluded certainty, and as
with so many places in the Middle East, much more archaeology is needed.
Lot’s Sin With His Daughters (Genesis 19:30-38): This is the third
mention of alcohol in the Bible – not a good track record so far. Lot ended
up leaving Zoar and going into the mountains with his two daughters. To
preserve the family line, the daughters made him drunk twice, had sex with
him, and gave birth to Moab and Ben-Ammi, fathers of the Moabites and
Ammonites who gave Israel repeated trouble over the years. God gave
some of Abraham’s land to them (Deuteronomy 2:9, 19).
“She Is My Sister!” – The Sequel (Genesis 20): Abraham took his herds
south past Beersheba into the wilderness near Gerar, the same place Moses
would later lead wandering Israel for 40 years. King Abimelech spotted
Sarah, and took “Abraham’s sister” into his house – wow, she must have
been QUITE a beauty since she was almost 90! God told Abimelech that he
was a dead man if he did anything to her. Abimelech scolded Abraham for
calling her his sister, but in fact, she was a half-sister (vv.11-13), and then
he gave them money, animals, and servants as an apology. Abraham
prayed for the king and his family and they were healed.
The Birth of Laughter (Genesis 21): From the time God promised to
bring a great nation from Abram to the time when Abraham had his first son
was 25 years! Abram believed that God could and would perform his
promises, even though it was against the odds and would take place many
years in the future. But the road of waiting had a few bumps in it:
1. Helping Out God (Genesis 16): Sarai was a wonderful woman who
believed God would keep His promise. But time went by, and she got older.
She apparently started thinking that God must not have meant that she
would have Abram’s child. So she came up with a plan! According to
Genesis 16:1-3, she gave Abraham her Egyptian handmaid, Hagar, to be his
second wife (something very common in those days). Hagar immediately
fell pregnant, and the predictable jealousy followed.
From Creation To Captivity, Session 6 – CMI Student Reading 13
Hagar ran away into the desert (on her way back to Egypt?). Though
she was not Abram’s proper wife, God obviously had compassion for
her. The Angel of the LORD came to her by an oasis – this is the
first use of this term in the Bible, and we will see Him repeatedly
throughout the Old Testament. What does Exodus 3:2 tell us about
the Angel of the Lord? Whereas normal angels will not receive
worship (Revelation 22:8-9), the Angel of the LORD will because He is
not really an angel at all.
As with Adam and Cain, God began with a question. The Lord told
Hagar to return to Abraham and Sarah. She should call her son
Ishmael (God hears), but he would be a wild man – he would be
against everyone and vice versa, but he wouldn’t leave. He would
stay right where he was and let the trouble fly. Ishmael became the
father of the Arab peoples. Any surprise? Genesis 25:13-18 contains
a list of Ishmael’s descendants.
In Genesis 21, mixing pediatrics and geriatrics, God is true to His promise,
and allows Sarah to conceive and give birth to a boy. They named him
Isaac, which means “laughter.” Abraham was 100 years old and Sarah was
90. Ishmael was 14 when Isaac was born.
Parties And Partings (Genesis 21): When Isaac was weaned (in ancient
culture, at age two or three), Abraham threw a big party in his honor.
Ishmael got jealous and taunted Isaac, and Sarah demanded that Hagar and
Ishmael be thrown out. God approved of this (but not of Sarah’s attitude)
because He had other plans for Ishmael. God brought Hagar and her 17
year old son to their extremity without water in the
desert, and then appeared to them, showing them an
oasis. Ishmael became an archer and lived in Paran on
the east side of the Sinai Peninsula.
city of Jebus (now Jerusalem). He and Isaac left the servants and proceeded
up the hill, where he tied up Isaac, laid him on the altar, and raised his knife.
Human sacrifice was done by the pagan Canaanites! What was God doing?
Why didn’t Abraham argue? Abraham knew that Isaac was The One from
whom a nation would come. So, trusting in God’s character and promises,
he must have concluded that when he killed Isaac, God would resurrect him.
See Genesis 22:5 and Hebrews 11:17-19. He knew God would somehow
bring Isaac back.
At the very last second, the Angel of the Lord called out and halted Abraham
as the knife was raised. “Now I know that you fear me,” God said, because
you gave up your most cherished possession.
So, as with all Bible characters, Abraham was far from perfect, but in
embracing monotheism, leaving his home to follow this nameless God,
trusting in God’s provision of a son, and then later giving up his promised
son, Abraham was a remarkable man of faith.