Simmons TPT The Book of Genesis-Part 2

12-Lesson Study Guide
1. Auflage 2022
ISBN: 978-1-4245-6412-5
Verlag: BroadStreet Publishing Group, LLC
Format: EPUB
Kopierschutz: 6 - ePub Watermark

E-Book, Englisch, 176 Seiten

Reihe: The Passionate Life Bible Study Series

The book of Genesis shares the origin of all things, including the cosmic order of the universe and the covenant relationship between God and his people. It showcases God's redemptive heart toward the world-a theme that can be traced throughout the rest of the Hebrew Scriptures. This 12-lesson study guide on chapters 12 through 50 of Genesis provides a unique and welcoming opportunity to immerse yourself in God's precious Word as expressed in The Passion Translation®. Begin your journey with a thorough introduction that details the authorship of Genesis, date of composition, first recipients, setting, purpose, central message, and key themes. Each lesson then walks you through a portion from the book and includes features such as notable verses, historical and cultural background information, definitions of words and language, cross references to other books of the Bible, maps, and character portraits of figures from the Bible and church history.  Enrich your biblical understanding of the book of Genesis, experience God's love for you, and share his heart with others.  

DR. BRIAN SIMMONS is a passionate lover of God. After a dramatic conversion to Christ, Brian knew that God was calling him to go to the unreached people of the world and present the gospel of God's grace to all who would listen. With his wife, Candice, and their three children, he spent eight years in the tropical rain forest of the Darien Province of Panama as a church planter, translator, and consultant. Having been trained in linguistics and Bible translation principles, Brian assisted in the Paya-Kuna New Testament translation project. After his ministry overseas, Brian was instrumental in planting a thriving church in New England (U.S.) and currently travels full time as a speaker and Bible teacher. He is the lead translator of The Passion Translation®.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Simmons, Brian

Leseproben

LESSON 1

Abram, Sarai, and Blessings for All

(11:10–13:18)

The human race starts with a human pair. They have children, their adult children have children, and on the process goes until divine judgment must fall on the corruption that has overtaken the race. Through the global judgment of floodwaters, one man’s family is saved. Through them, the repopulation of the earth begins and flourishes until their descendants plan to steal dominion from God and advance their own plans and glory. This, too, brings judgment. Human language is confused and divided, and the peoples disperse across the earth, finally in (reluctant?) obedience to God.

All the while, God is at work, fulfilling a prophecy he directed to Satan in Eden: “I will place great hostility between you and the woman, and between her seed and yours. He will crush your head as you crush his heel” (Genesis 3:15). Eve’s progenies have so far survived, even if barely through the flood. After the flood, they have finally dispersed throughout Europe, northern and eastern Africa, Russia, Assyria, Persia, and Arabia. They are filling the earth, subduing it, and flourishing in it. But what about the seed to come? Through whom will this predicted seed be realized?

The latter part of Genesis 11 and the opening of chapter 12 provide the answer. God’s plan will not be stopped. He will ensure that the seed comes through another couple. Just as the human race began with one married pair, so the redeemed among the human race will also start with one human pair.

The Line of Shem

Just as we choose according to our will, God chooses according to his. And among Noah’s three sons, God chose Shem’s line through which to bring the one who would conquer Satan and establish salvation for all who would put their trust in him (Luke 3:23, 36; 10:17–20; Colossians 2:13–16).

Genesis 11:10–26 is Book 5, the start of which contains the fifth use of the formula in Genesis: “These are the descendants [] of Shem.” (The previous four books are 2:4–4:26, 5:1–6:8, 6:9–9:29, and 10:1–11:9, each a family history.2) In this list, some persons in Shem’s line are repeated from Genesis 10 while others appear for the first time. The repeated names are Arphaxad (11:10; 10:22), Shelah (11:12; 10:24), Eber (11:14; 10:21, 24–25), and Peleg (11:16; 10:25–26). But even with these names, new information is supplied. The new names on the list are Reu (11:18), Serug (11:20), Nahor (Abram’s grandfather, v. 22), Terah (v. 24), Abram (v. 26), Nahor (Abram’s brother, v. 26), and Haran (v. 26).

•For each of the following individuals, record what the text says about their age when they had one of their sons, then how much longer they lived afterward, and then add the figures together to learn how long each one lived.

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Although we know very little about Reu, Serug, and Nahor (Abram’s grandfather), the physician and early church historian Luke found them important enough to mention them in his genealogy of Jesus (Luke 3:34–35).

•You may at times feel unimportant, but from God’s vantage point, your life matters. Take some time now to let that truth sink in. We don’t know what our true significance will be in the outworking of God’s plan, but he knows, and he will never forget our service to him, and he will use it far beyond what we can ever imagine.

From Terah to Abram

In Book 4, Shem’s genealogy ends with Joktan and those he fathered (Genesis 10:26–29). Book 5, however, ends Shem’s line with Terah, the names of his three sons, and nothing about the length of his lifespan and death (11:26). Terah’s line of descendants is left open, and among his sons is Abram, the first patriarch of the faith, the one with whom God will establish an everlasting covenant of blessing for all of humanity.

Book 6 (11:27–25:11) opens with a link back to the end of Book 5, focusing on Terah and his descendants.

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Abram and God’s Promised Blessing

Abram (later renamed Abraham) becomes the first patriarch of Israel. With him begins what scholars refer to as “the patriarchal age.” Along with Abram, the other patriarchs are Isaac and Jacob, all of whom appear in Genesis. Bible scholar Merrill Unger states: “Abraham was born c. 2161 b.c. and entered Canaan 2086 b.c. The patriarchal period would extend in this case from 2086 to 1871 b.c.”3

Terah, Abram’s father, lived with his family in “the Chaldean city of Ur” (Genesis 11:31). Ancient Ur was in southern Babylonia about 150 miles from the head of the Persian Gulf. It “had one of the most advanced cultures in the world.” Archaeological evidence from the site includes “gold daggers and cups [that] witness the wealth of the [city’s] culture.”4 Other artifacts include “jewelry and art treasures of unbelievable beauty, particularly gorgeous head attire, personal jewels,…musical instruments and other beautifully crafted objects…Archaeology has revealed that in Abraham’s day Ur was a great and prosperous city, with perhaps 360,000 people living in the city and its suburbs.”5 According to Bible scholar Gleason Archer, “The average middle-class citizens lived in well-appointed houses containing from ten to twenty rooms. Schools were maintained for the education of the young, for schoolboy tablets have been discovered which attest their training in reading, writing, arithmetic, and religion.”6

The sacred center of Ur included a ziggurat and a number of other buildings that were erected for the worship of the moon god, Nannar, and his consort, Ningal.7 The ziggurat was “built as a series of stepped platforms with the house of the god on top. Its structure probably resembled the tower of Babel. The ziggurat is 200 feet long, 100 feet across, and 250–300 feet high.”8

When Terah was in Ur with his family, Ur’s king was Ur-Nammu, and he’s the one responsible for the ziggurat built there. On a “ten-by-five-foot stela” erected by this king are words that give a polytheistic interpretation of what Genesis 11 records about the tower of Babel: “The erection of this tower highly offended all the gods. In a night they threw down what man had built and impeded their progress. They were scattered abroad and their speech was strange.”9 Ur was a city committed to idolatry, and it modeled itself after the failed city of Babel.

It was while Abram was here, in Ur, that Yahweh came to him with a command and promises of blessing (Genesis 15:7; Nehemiah 9:7; Acts 7:2–3).

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