Giver of Truth Biblical Commentary-Vol. 1: Old Testament

By God's Servant

God’s servant offers you convenient commentary books, which are practical, concise, and relevant. The Giver of Truth Biblical Commentary books are intellectually stimulating and include all that expensive multivolume commentaries have to offer. The Giver of Truth Biblical Commentary books present each book of the Bible, chapter by chapter, with consideration of the King James Bible as the standard and credit given to references within the text, which allows you to examine your Bible within its historical background and customs. The Giver of Truth Biblical Commentary illuminates the Bible within its time and place, which affords doctrinal penetrating insight into the practical application of truth for everyday living.

God’s servant, former entrepreneur and educator, has devoted years of study to religious theology after completing degrees from community college, business college, state college, state university, Christian college, Seminary Studies, and Christian Growth Plans. God’s servant has written monographs for various churches, planned seminary classes, taught Bible classes, and serviced in the Church for years, and now writes in an easy to read manner for those who want complement their religious conscience with a solid foundation of Christianity, which offers a real relationship with God

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Oct 30, 2015
• ISBN: 9781499053333

God's Servant

God’s servant, former entrepreneur and educator, has devoted years of study to religious theology and to study of the Bible after completing certificates and degrees from secular and religious colleges and university that include graduate, post graduate, and seminary studies. God’s servant is a Biblical teacher who has written monographs for various churches, and has authored numerous articles and two other books: The ABC’s of Christianity and Journey to Jesus before penning Giver of Truth Commentary on the Bible that brings clarification to the meaning to its text.

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Rev. date: 01/10/2023

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Giver of Truth Bible Commentary

By

God’s servant

Dedicated to those who would come to believe in the death, burial,

and resurrection of Jesus Christ and accept Him as LORD

of their lives so they have eternal life with Jesus.

CONTENTS

PREFACE

GENESIS

EXODUS

LEVITICUS

NUMBERS

DEUTERONOMY

JOSHUA

JUDGES

RUTH

FIRST SAMUEL

SECOND SAMUEL

FIRST KINGS

SECOND KINGS

FIRST CHRONICLES

SECOND CHRONICLES

EZRA

NEHEMIAH

ESTHER

PREFACE

In the making for years, God’s servant presents a biblical study with a commentary on context and customs to bring clarification of meaning to the text. With consideration of the King James Bible as the standard and credit given to the original writers of the Bible and any references used within the text so as to make them readily accessible, God’s servant makes a contribution of conservative biblical scholarship useful for pastors and lay persons. Written for the purpose of those who will be saved and for bringing all readers closer to God, each book of the Bible is presented in biblical order chapter by chapter with examination of the historical background and custom, which affords doctrinal penetrating insight into the practical application of the truth with clarity.

Research was derived from ancient church and historical records, which included the writings of the Mishnah, the Talmud, and Josephus AD 37- c.100. Encyclopedias, dictionaries, and various maps, were used to bring about understanding of biblical times. Derived from Ugaritic literature, Amarna Letters, and clay tablets from Mesopotamia made available in English source, the study of ancient civilizations, ancient Near East religions, life in biblical times, which included family life and relationship roles, customs, food and drink, clothing and cosmetics, burial and mourning, is made evident in the presentation of this biblical study with its commentary on context and customs. Research derived from the study of ancient records, such as the Amarna Letters, the Ugaritic literature, Mari and Nuzu clay tablets from Mesopotamia, made available in modern times made possible the Scripture tidbits, which offer additional information.

GENESIS

INTRODUCTION

Moses’ superb training in the courts of Egypt along with his exceptional spiritual gifts and his divine call uniquely qualified him to compose the essential content and shape of the Pentateuch of which Genesis is a part. Moses, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit gave the Book of Genesis its essential substance; therefore, he may correctly be called its author. Certainly, ancestors contributed the primeval accounts and genealogies but Moses compiled the work in its essential form. Later inspired editors modernized and supplemented the book in a number of places to form the book as we have it today.

Moses deemed it exceedingly necessary he conduct his own life well and give laws to others since he had considered God’s nature and contemplated God’s operations; Moses viewed God as LORD of all things who sees and knows all things and thence bestows a happy life upon those who follow Him but plunges those who do not walk in the paths of virtue into inevitable miseries. Moses sought to raise the mind upwards to regard God and persuade men they are the most excellent of God’s creatures upon the earth. Moses taught God is possessed of perfect virtue and man ought to strive after the participation of God’s nature.

As founder of Israel’s theocracy, it was necessary for Moses to give Israel its prior history, meaning and destiny, as well as its laws. Every significant political and/or religious community in the ancient world has retained accounts of its defining origins. The Book of Genesis furnishes the theological and ethical underpinnings to give Israel its unique covenantal relationship with God. Since creation myths were basic to pagan religions, Moses provided the Genesis creation account, which countered them with the truth of the One and only living God. The Hebrew faith was a radical departure from the characteristic mythical thought of the pagans because it made a cemetery for lifeless gods and myths. The Book of Genesis should not be considered mere human history comparable to ancient pagan mythologies because it is part of the revealed word of God in which the explanations and events are true and recognized as integral parts of the God-planned and God-directed course of history of which Genesis is the starting point.

Taking into account the book’s essential form and content, the writing of Genesis can be dated about 1400 BC; but a more exact dating cannot be determined. The Book of Genesis, the first book of the Torah, the five books of the law, recounts the origins of Israel reaching back to the beginnings of human history and to the conflict between the kingdom of God and the kingdom of serpent, Genesis recounts the election of the nation of Israel to a unique covenant relationship with the only true God. According to the covenant, the descendants of the patriarchs would become a great nation in the land of promise through whom the Gentiles would be blessed. Moses wrote the Book of Genesis to provide encouragement to the Israelites as they faced the various challenges of separating from their background of slavery in Egypt and moving forward toward the conquest of the Promised Land.

The focus of the Book of Genesis is ultimately Christ. What was begun in Genesis is fulfilled in Christ. Christ is the quintessential offspring promised to Abraham. Believers are blessed in Christ because He alone by His active obedience satisfied the law’s demands by His willingness to relinquish the rights of equality with God and died in the place of sinners. All who are baptized into Christ are Abraham’s descendants. The bold prophecies and subtle types in Genesis show God was writing a history, which was to be completed in Jesus.

CHAPTER ONE

Moses begins the book in verse 0ne by expressing the universe is God’s creative work stating God created the heaven and the earth; that is, the invisible and visible. By sovereign originative power God brought into being out of nothing all that exists in the universe. God brought into existence all His needed raw materials such as electrons, neutrons, and protons of which these building blocks of atoms combine to make up molecules to produce all matter in existence. With His materials, God produced creation from out of nothing; He put forth His plan so that in six days, He completed creation.

On the very first day, from the uninhabitable earth, God’s Spirit, moved upon the face of the waters to bring His created matter into an order ready for life by bringing the unorganized state of things into distinct formations. The matter comprised the basics of God’s workings and God organized His created beginning elements and brought forth light divided from the darkness on that same day.

God’s continual creation process proceeded in a distinct organized manner. On the second day, God divided the waters, which were under heaven, from the waters, which were above heaven. On the third day, God separated the waters from the land and brought forth all manner of vegetation after its kind. On the fourth day, God put lights in the sky, which included the sun, moon, and stars. On the fifth day, God brought forth winged fowl that fly in the sky and all the creatures that live in the waters of the earth. On the sixth day, God brought forth the animals of the earth and on the sixth day God also made man in His own image. From the beginning, the world, as man knows it, was God’s work.

God, who filled the domains of sky, water, and land, blessed the living creatures with reproduction, each to his own kind and made man His vice-regent, to rule over all other creatures, which made mankind responsible for his mandate of care. Like no other creatures, God had made man in His own image with a soul to live eternally. Mankind, male and female, the children of the living God were set in this world to display the glory of the great Creator of the universe by establishing His will. God completed the heavens and the earth in all, a vast array in six days, and deemed all He had made as good because it satisfied His benevolent purpose as Ruler over the cosmos.

CHAPTER TWO

Having finished His work in six days, God rested on the seventh day, giving mankind a deliberate pattern; God’s mode of working is a model for human activity. People are made in the image of God; therefore, they are expected to imitate God. Since God worked for six days and rested on the seventh day, human beings are required to work for six days and rest on the seventh. God made the seventh day holy because it commemorated the completion of His creative work; therefore, the Sabbath or day of rest is as old as creation.

After God prepared the universe for mankind, He took dust from the ground and formed a man, then He inserted in him a spirit or a soul; God breathed the breath of life into the nostrils of the man so he became a living being. God fashioned man in a natural body for earthly existence. This man was called Adam, which in the Hebrew tongue signifies one who is red because he was formed out of red earth.

God made a very special garden, in the east, which represented life, called Eden, a name meaning, pleasure, delight in which He placed Adam. The garden contained all kinds of trees pleasing to the eye and good for food. In the middle of the garden was the tree of life, which represented life in its highest potency-eternal life-and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, which was a figure for unlimited knowledge, a privilege of God alone. A river flowed from Eden and watered the garden then branched out to the four corners of the earth. If the geography of the area was the same after the Flood as before then the rivers can be identified. Pishon flowed through Havilah in Arabia, where there was gold, aromatic resin, and onyx and flowed through India to make its exit into the sea known by the Greeks as the Ganges; Gihon flowed into the mountains east of Mesopotamia and ran through Egypt, known by the Greeks as the Nile; Tigris and Euphrates flowed through Iraq into the Persian Gulf. The names of the rivers had meanings: Pishon or Pison or Phison means a multitude; Gihon or Geon what arises from the east, although the Nile itself came from the south; Tigris what is swift; Euphrates dispersion. While the general location can be surmised, it is not meant for man to ever reenter the Garden of Eden (Genesis 3:24).

The LORD God placed Adam in the Garden to work it and to take care of it. God gave His very first command to Adam not to eat of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, which had the consequence of death for disobedience. Adam was to eat freely from all other trees.

Despite Adam’s idyllic environment God told Adam it was not good for him to be alone; therefore, God said He would make a helper for Adam. As Adam utilized his dominion and functioned as God’s representative in naming all the living creatures God had formed out of the ground, the realization, he was alone was presented. The LORD God caused Adam to fall into a deep sleep and while he was sleeping, He took one of Adam’s ribs and closed up the place with flesh. We could say this operation was a first. The LORD God then made a woman from the rib He had taken from Adam and brought her to Adam who named her woman to imply her equality with him. Adam and his wife were of one flesh; therefore Adam’s first duty would always be to his wife. Both the man and his wife were naked without shame, which indicated their openness, respect, and trust.

CHAPTER THREE

The fact Satan took the form of a snake is significant because pagans worshipped the snake, and in the word of God, demonic forces were likened to snakes. Satan entered a serpent, one of the most beautiful creatures in the Garden, and spoke through him. It has been suggested in the Garden, all animals had a voice, but since the Fall they were less than the perfect way God had created them. Certainly Adam and Eve were not surprised to be talking to a snake. Satan, the enemy and challenger of God, spoke words, which resulted in chaos and death, as opposed to God who spoke words, which brought forth order and life. Satan, having been a heavenly creature, understood divine matters. Satan with his malicious craftiness cunningly distorted God’s words by speaking like a charming theologian. First, Satan cast doubt on the sincerity of God’s command; then Satan emphasized on God’s prohibition rather than His provision. By defaming God’s motives and by denying the veracity of God’s threat, the woman yielded to Satan’s denials and half-truths, which belittled her privileges and minimized the threat. Satan held out the promise of divinity by offering the knowledge God had the privilege of knowing. The woman was desirous of divine wisdom and based on spiritual gratification took some fruit from the tree, which was good to be eaten as food and pleasing to the eye; she ate the fruit and gave some to her husband who was with her so he could eat also.

The promise of divine enlightenment did not come true but resulted in alienation of them from one another, symbolized by covering their nakedness from one another and by hiding from God among the trees. With their consciences condemning them, the pair no longer desired intimacy with God. When God brought them in to question, the man blamed their disobedience on the woman and the woman on the serpent that had deceived her. Both the man and the woman asserted their autonomy with their breach of trust in God’s word.

Without questioning, God immediately consigned judgment against Satan, who had taken the form of a serpent by cursing the serpent above all animals to crawl on its belly to eat dust all the days of its life, symbolic of abject humiliation. Interestingly, scientists have found remainders of limbs in the skeletons of snakes. The snake with poison under its tongue became an enemy of man; man’s heel intuitively strikes against the serpent’s head. The serpent has become a perpetual reminder of mankind’s temptation and its resulting Fall in the Garden of Eden.

God then pronounced a perpetual struggle between satanic forces and mankind. Satan would cripple mankind but he would ultimately be crushed with a fatal blow, a prediction fulfilled by Christ who defeated Satan by way of the cross because He redeemed His people and restored creation to its rightful order.

God assigned pain to the woman in the form of child bearing yet caused her to be mastered by her husband, whom she would desire. The pain of childbirth is a constant reminder of the first mother’s sin. Instead of marriage being a relationship of mutual care, the husband’s leadership prevails.

Adam was decreed to suffer frustration in his work. After the Fall, thorns and thistles caused man to work the ground with difficulty until the day he died. Before the Fall humanity’s relationship with the ground had been to rule over it. but now the ground would resist. At death, man would return to the ground, the result of transgressing the divinely ordered boundaries.

Adam exercised his authority and named his wife a personal name, which defined her destiny. The name Eve signifies "the mother of all living" because she was to become the mother of all humanity.

God sacrificed an animal to make garments of skin to clothe Adam and his wife. Later all animal sacrifices would be part of God’s provision to remedy the curse in that the sacrifice for sin became a necessary part in salvation. The covering of Adam and his wife prefigured the atoning sacrifice of the Messiah to reconcile sinful man back to God. The sacrifice of Christ clothes believers in righteousness.

Expulsion from the Garden proved the hollowness of the serpent’s promise, as separation from the presence of God, drudgery of daily life, and ultimate physical death would prove the reality of Satan’s empty assurance. Since man came to know good and evil, God could not allow man to live forever by eating from the tree of life; therefore, He closed the Garden of Eden to man forever. God placed cherubim on the east side of the Garden of Eden and a flaming sword flashing back and forth to guard the way to the tree of life. God delegated to angelic beings the role of preventing sinners from grasping immortality.

Jesus, the last Adam who reconciled sinners to God by His toil, sweat, thorns, conflict, death on a tree, and descent into dust, regained the Garden, tearing the veil of the temple on which images of the cherubim were sewn.

CHAPTER FOUR

Adam lay with his wife, Eve and she became pregnant and gave birth to Cain. She said with the help of the LORD she had brought forth a man. Cain had a promising beginning. Later, Eve gave birth to Cain’s brother, Abel. The names of Cain and Abel were a prediction of what was to come. The name, Cain means to acquire, get, or possess and the name, Abel means, "perishable, a fleeting breath or vapor."

Abel was a shepherd and Cain was a farmer. In the course of time, both Cain and Abel brought an offering to the LORD. The LORD was pleased with Abel’s offering from out of his flock but did not favor Cain’s offering from his fields. Each brother brought a gift appropriate to his vocation. God is entitled to the first share produced by animals and plants. Abel brought an acceptable tribute because he brought the first and the best. Cain brought some fruits of the soil but not the first fruits of his crop as required. Both men had come as priests on the Sabbath with a sacrifice, which had been established from the beginning for worshipping God; they came with a desire for His acceptance, but only Abel who gave out of faith received acceptance, which made Cain very angry. God gave Cain the opportunity to correct his error of not bringing his very best but Cain did not listen because he did not have a real heart for God. God was entitled to the very best of all aspects of worship, but Cain gave to God out of duty with an uncaring attitude.

Cain lacked the kind of faith pleasing to God; he allowed sin to have its way in his heart instead of taking control and having mastery over sin. Cain’s heart was filled with strife and envy, so Cain met his brother in the field and killed him. When the LORD questioned Cain about his brother’s whereabouts, Cain lied saying he did not know and repudiated responsibility for him.

Knowing what Cain had done, the LORD removed Cain from the ground, which had soaked up his brother’s blood; the LORD told Cain when he worked the ground, it would no longer yield crops for him. The LORD also removed Cain from society and destined him to be a restless wanderer on the earth; Cain was cursed to become a fugitive without security of a permanent place.

Instead of repenting for his sin against God and his brother, Cain responded with self-pity; he feared physical and social exposure but not the invisible God who had created him. Cain did not seem to care he would be driven from God’s presence. but he did fear lack of protection from God. Since it was true none would be Cain’s keeper and he would likely be killed by an avenger, the LORD, in His mercy to the rebellious Cain, put a mark on him, which would protect him from being killed by others and would allow Cain to live out his normal lifespan. There is no evidence to support the mark was a sign to the world; rather, the sign was God’s grace of protection for Cain, a sign of the great mercy of God, even to a murderer. Cain went out from the LORD’S presence and lived in the land of Nod, the symbolic name for "wandering." Nod, which was east of Eden, was the land of fugitives from God.

Cain lay with his wife, a daughter of Adam and Eve, and she became pregnant and gave birth to Enoch. There was no law at this time forbidding marriage to a sister. Cain built a city and named it after his son. The city provided protection and an alternative to wandering. According to ancient priestly records, "Cain aimed to procure everything for his own bodily pleasure, though it obliged him to be injurious to his neighbors. Cain augmented his household substance with much wealth by rapine and violence; he excited his acquaintances to procure pleasures and spoils by robbery, and became a great leader of men into wicked courses. Cain also introduced a change in that way of simplicity wherein men lived before and was the author of measures and weights." Whereas the people lived innocently and generously, they knew nothing of arts such as measures and weights, but Cain changed the world into cunning craftiness. Cain, first of all, set boundaries about the lands; he built a city and fortified it with a wall and compelled his family to come together in it; and he called the city Enoch after the name of his eldest son, Enoch.

To Enoch was born Irad, and Irad was the father of Mehujael, and Mehujael was the father of Methushael, and Methushael was the father of Lamech. All these names are similar to those of Adam’s other son, Seth, and serve to contrast the two lines from Adam.

Lamech, the seventh from Adam through Cain, altered the plan of God by marrying two women, Adah and Zillah. Polygamy represented a progressive hardening in sin. Adah gave birth to Jabal who began the Bedouin lifestyle. Adah’s son, Jubal, invented the harp and the flute, making him the father of music. Zillah’s son, Tubal-Cain, forged all kinds of tools of bronze and iron. Zillah’s daughter was named Naamah, meaning pleasant.

Lamech bragged to his two wives: Adah whose name meant Jewel and Zillah whose name meant Melody, about the killing of a man who had wounded him, which showed his complete disregard for justice since he demanded vengeance seventy-seven times. Lamech’s gross unjust vendetta was another example of a progressive hardening of sin. The fact Lamech was prepared to smash all who got in his way showed the disintegration of humanity.

The first city by Cain with its advances in civilization, including music and metallurgy, and increase in violence, is symbolic of human culture without God. Cain’s lineage challenged God’s supremacy by looking to the self-assertion of the arts and sciences without any credit given to God for the gifts of talent. According to ancient priestly record, "Even when Adam was alive, it came to pass the posterity of Cain became exceedingly wicked, every one successively dying one after another more wicked than the former."

Despite the change in the lineage of Adam from bad to worse, God kept His promise to provide a seed to destroy Satan. Adam lay again with his wife, and she conceived a son and named him Seth, meaning, granted or appointed or set, which expressed Eve’s faith God would continue the covenant family. God granted Eve another child, Seth, in place of Abel. Cain forfeited the right to carry forward God’s sublime hope. Seth would take the burden and the privilege upon his shoulders. Through Seth’s line, God would perfect His promises. The covenant family called on the LORD and voiced their praise to glorify Him in contrast to the lineage of Cain who glorified man. Enos/Enosh, who was prominent in the line of Seth, was the originator of public prayer and spiritual worship in which the in affable name of the eternal God was used. There was hope for a better day through Seth’s descendants.

CHAPTER FIVE

In contrast to the account of Adam’s lineage through Cain that spurned God, which reported a murderer that begot another murderer, the account of Adam’s lineage through Seth reported a relationship with God and linked the founder of humanity, Adam, with its refounder, Noah. Cain’s lineage was laden with curse, whereas Seth’s godly line was linked with God’s intention for creation. In Adam’s line through Seth were Enos, Cainan, Mahalaleel, Jared, Enoch, Methuselah, Lamech, and Noah who was the father of Shem, Ham, and Japheth. From Adam through Lamech there were 7,625 years, which helps us to picture the passing of time but does not intend to give an exactness of time. Moses never recorded firstborn sons but only those in succession from Adam through Seth to Abraham. When Noah was 500 years old, he became the father of Shem, Ham, and Japheth. The long life spans: Adam 930 years; Seth 912 years; Enos 905 years; Cainan 910 years; Mahalaleel 895 years; Jared 962 years; Enoch 365-the exception because God translated him, so godly was his life God took him directly to be with Him and he did not experience death; Methuselah 969, the longest living of all persons; Lamech 777yeats; indicate God’s blessing on His creative beings who were fortunate enough to live in an exceptionally good environment. Whereas the Cainite Lamech sought to redress wrong through unjust revenge, the Sethite Lamech looked to the LORD to provide the seed through whom would come deliverance from the curse. Lamech named his son Noah hoping he would bring comfort from the curse of painful toil.

Adam, indeed, did have many other sons and daughters of which tradition states were thirty-three sons and twenty-three daughters or fifty-six children in all, but the Bible follows the covenant line under Seth, who according to ancient priestly reports were noted for a peculiar sort of wisdom, which is concerned with the heavenly bodies and their order. The Sethites were good and virtuous and at the same time very happy persons, without any considerable misfortunes for seven generations.

CHAPTER SIX

As the earth increased in population, there is no question the line of Cain was still far from God; but with time, the line of Seth, for the most part, also forsook the practices of their forefathers and did not pay honor to God. The degree of zeal formerly shown for godly virtue now showed in double degree for wickedness. Previous godly men married ungodly women, which displayed lack of concern for godly ways. Men married women of their choosing without any consideration for God. The offspring of these marriages, though known as men of renown or heroes, were vicious warriors who filled the earth with violence. Human depravity was at its greatest because every human heart with a small exception was inclined toward evil all the time, which grieved the LORD He had created mankind. Seeing man allowed his long time on earth to decline in morality, the LORD made a decision to reduce the previous long lifespan of man to 120 years, the judgment of which was delayed for a time.

So pained of heart or enraged was the LORD, He vowed in His sorrow to wipe all living creatures from the face of the earth with the exception of Noah who found favor with Him because of his righteousness; Noah had proved to be faithful in all his ways. Noah had committed himself and his family to God to obey all God’s commands. Noah tried his very best to abstain from sin.

Seeing how corrupt and violent people of the earth had become, God told Noah He was going to put an end to society. Through its corruption and violence, society ruined the good earth God had created; therefore, God decided to spoil the earth along with all flesh with the exception of Noah to whom he gave instruction to build an ark.

God’s instructions were very specific for the ark, meaning "chest or coffer." The ark was to be made of gopher wood, a type of cypress wood that was resinous. The ark was to be 450 feet long, 75 feet wide, and 45 feet high, covered with pitch both inside and out. There was to be an 18-inch skylight between the body of the ark and its roof. The ark had firm walls, and a roof and was braced with crossbeams. The length and dimensions were like those of modern ships. The ark was to contain three decks with a door in its side to allow entrance for two of a kind of every living creature of the animal kingdom to enter.

Noah was to take enough food for the animals of every kind and for his own family into the ark. Noah did as he was commanded, and God made a covenant with him and his family, consisting of his own wife, who according to tradition was also his aunt by the name, Emzara, and his sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth along with their wives to enter the ark.

CHAPTER SEVEN

Noah and his entire family went into the ark as God instructed and took with them two of every kind of animal on earth to preserve their lives as well as seven pairs of each kind of clean animal for sacrifice, which gives proof Noah, because he walked with God, understood the difference between clean and unclean animals and those acceptable for sacrifice, the understanding of which goes back to the beginning. After Noah entered into the ark with his family and the appointed animals came to Noah of their own accord within a period of seven days, God promised rain for forty days and forty nights.

It took Noah 120 years to build the ark and seven days to fill it. When Noah was in the six hundredth year of his life on the seventeenth day of the second month the LORD shut the door of the ark. After all the appointed had entered the ark, springs of the great deep burst forth and the heavens opened to release the rain. The upsurge of the subterranean waters and the release of the bound waters from above began leading to forty days and forty nights of rain and flood. God’s purpose was to bring an end to all the living things of His creation with the exception of Noah and his family who were safely enclosed within the ark. During the 120 years it took Noah to complete the ark, he preached to the people in an urgent effort to cause them to repent.

Once the deluge started, it continued for forty days and forty nights until even the highest mountains were covered to a depth of more than twenty feet. The waters flooded the earth for 150 days. The subterranean waters, confined by creative powers on the second day of creation, were unleashed to pour forth in volume and in violence in the form of a giant tidal wave, which broke suddenly upon a startled populace. Every living creature perished in this tumultuous destruction with the exception of Noah and those with him in the ark. The flood was the divine agent for punishing the old world and for purifying humanity for the new one.

CHAPTER EIGHT

When God sent His Spirit in the form of wind, the waters receded, which was God’s first act of renewing the earth out of the chaotic waters. God closed the springs from the deep within and stopped the release of rain and the waters receded steadily from the earth on the seventeenth day of the seventh month until the end of 150 days when the waters had gone down and the ark rested on the mountain range of Ararat in the area of ancient Urartu, which is now part of Armenia, Azerbaijan, Eastern Turkey and northwestern Iran. The precise location of the ark’s rest remains unknown but it is interesting to note the part of the mountain referred to as the Ararat towers has its height recorded as 16,916 feet.

The waters continued to recede until the tenth month, when on the first day of the tenth month, the tops of the mountains became visible. After the passing of another forty days, Noah opened the skylight window he had made in the ark and released a raven. The raven, capable of braving less than perfect weather and able to feed on carrion, kept flying back and forth until the earth was mostly dry. Later Noah sent out a dove to see if it could find dry ground but the dove returned to the ark since the water still covered the earth. Noah took the dove back in and sent it out seven days later, but this time the dove returned with a fresh olive leaf in its beak showing the water was almost gone. When Noah sent the dove out a week later for the third time, it did not return.

By the first day of the first month of Noah’s 601st year, Noah saw the water had dried from the earth and he removed the covering from the ark, but he waited until the twenty-seventh day of the second month when the earth was completely dry to disembark from the ark. When God told Noah to go out from the ark with his family and all the surviving animals, he did so, and immediately built an altar to the LORD on which he sacrificed clean animals and birds to honor the LORD. Noah recognized the end of the tragic judgment and the dawning of a new day of hope and promise. Building the altar was Noah’s move to pour out to the LORD praise and thanksgiving. The word used in Hebrew for burnt sacrifice meant, "to go up." The sacrifice was consumed with the fumes bearing gratitude and worship going upward to the LORD. The LORD was pleased and promised never again to destroy the earth again with a worldwide flood.

Because Noah was righteous, the LORD renewed the earth and humanity through him and because of Noah’s sacrifice upon leaving the ark, the LORD resolved never to destroy the earth by flood in spite of humanity’s sin. Noah was the prototype of Israel’s priests who would make animal sacrifice to the LORD. Noah had consecrated to the LORD, the new kingdom He wanted to multiply. The LORD, pleased with Noah’s action, promised to preserve the earth and its ecology until the final judgment. As long as the earth endures, the LORD promises day and night as well as seasons.

CHAPTER NINE

God blessed Noah and his sons and told them to be fruitful and increase the population of the earth. God then told: the creatures of the earth would fear man, which indicates it was not so beforehand when man’s rule was founded in love and kindness; thereafter, man’s dominion over the earth’s creatures henceforth continued in terror. Every living thing that moved then became food for man, plants and creatures; the human diet was expanded with the exception of cadaver or dead bodies of any kind, yet man was not allowed to eat the flesh of living creatures. Noah and His descendants were allowed to eat meat provided the blood was first drained from the animal. God demanded an accounting of lifeblood from every animal and from every man. God demanded the death penalty for any beast or man who murdered man. Every human being was made in God’s image and represented God on earth so to protect the unique status of human life, the ultimate penalty had to be exacted. An animal’s blood could be shed for food, but homicidal blood was to be avenged. God commanded society to make retribution for homicide.

God made the rainbow a sign between Himself and every living creature for all generations to come to indicate He would never again destroy the entire earth with floodwaters; the rainbow is a reminder of the pledge of God’s good will. God chose to focus on the hope of humanity rather than on humanity’s evil.

The sons of Noah who came out of the ark were Shem, Ham, and Japheth. After the flood, Noah resumed his employment as a man of the soil and planted a vineyard. When Noah drank some wine, he became drunk and lay uncovered in his tent. Ham told Shem and Japheth and both took a garment and laid it across their shoulders, walked backward with their heads carefully turned so they would not see their father naked, and respectfully, covered their father.

When Noah awakened and found out what had happened, he cursed Ham’s son, Canaan his descendants would be slaves for the descendants of Shem and Japheth, and then Noah blessed Shem’s descendants to be honored in the service of God and blessed Japheth’s descendants to be increased and to dwell in the tents of Shem. The descendants of Canaan were the Hamites who included the Egyptians, the Babylonians, and the Canaanites. The curse for Canaan’s descendants has been fulfilled in the degradation of Egypt, the Persians’ overcoming of Babylon, and the destruction of the Canaanites by the Israelites. Shem’s descendants included Christ. The descendants of Japheth have increased in posterity and possessions, being the most active and enterprising.

Ham’s sin was considered great because his voyeurism violated his father’s dignity. Seeing one’s father naked was a breach of family ethic. The sanctity of the family was destroyed and the strength of the father was made a mockery. Had Ham covered his father and not degraded his father to his brothers, a curse would not have been put on his son. The nation of Canaanites, which came from Ham through Canaan, lived degraded lives of wickedness in the same mold as Ham.

After the flood Noah lived 350 more years and he lived 950 years in all showing the decline in lifespan was not put into effect immediately.

CHAPTER TEN

Chapter Ten is called the Table of Nations because it records the lines of descent from Noah’s sons spread out over the earth after the flood. Seventy descendants of Noah’s sons are listed, which include fourteen from Japheth, thirty from Ham, and twenty-six from Shem. The list of seventy is not an exhaustive list of all the groups and not a lesson in historical geography. The purpose of the table is for theological reason to relate the chosen line of Shem to the other non-elect lines. The table aligns predominant tribes in and around the land promised to Israel and shows which of the people of the ancient world would share in blessing and which in cursing.

The descendants of Japheth: Gomer, Magog, Madai, Javan, Tubal, Meshech, and Tiras, were northern people, remote from Israel and did not figure predominately in Israel’s history although their names occur in prophetic writings (Ezekiel 38:6). The Japhethites from the northeastern Mediterranean seaboard, furthest from Israel geographically, spread out to settle the countries of Europe and eventually spread even further north and west. Japheth, middle son of Noah, became the father of a large branch of the Gentile world. Japheth fulfilled Noah’s prophecy as his descendants scattered far and wide to become prosperous and powerful.

The descendants of Ham: Cush, Mizraim, Phut, Canaan, formed the eastern and southern peoples of Mesopotamia and were some of Israel’s closest neighbors and enemies. Cush is the region south of Egypt, Mizraim is identified with Egypt, Phut is identified with Libya, and Canaan is reached from Sidon in the north to Gaza in the south and Sodom by the Dead Sea in the east. Ham was the father of the other large branch of Gentiles including Egyptians, Ethiopians, Abyssinians, and kindred groups. Canaan became the father of the groups called Canaanites, the inhabitants of the land of Canaan later dispossessed by the Hebrews. Noah’s curse pronounced on his grandson, Canaan, the offspring of his youngest son, Ham, was fulfilled, as the Canaanites were known significantly for their wickedness.

The Mesopotamian culture traced back to Ham via Cush, typified by the hunter and warrior called here as Nimrod, a name meaning, we shall rebel anticipates the interests of the Mesopotamian kings who founded the first kingdom of the world with cities such as Babylon and Nineveh, the town opposite to Mosul on the Tigris and more cities.

The Philistines from the Casluhites, of whom Mizraim, the second son of Ham, was the father, is mentioned to have given their name to the land of Palestine. The Philistines, originally having migrated from Crete to settle in the present land during the patriarchal period, have continued for centuries to be a thorn in the flesh of the Israelites.

The descendants of Shem, Noah’s eldest son were Elam, Asshur, Arphaxad, Lud, and Aram. The Elamites, descendants of Shem’s first son, Elam, lived in the highlands east of Babylonia. Assur descendants were the people of Assyria. Descendants of Arphaxad resided northeast of Nineveh. Lud’s descendants became the people of western Turkey. Aram was the ancestor of the Aramean tribes who lived in Mesopotamia.

Eber, who is traced back to Arphaxad, Shem’s third son, and who is distinguished for his prophetic character and piety, has been associated with the word "Hebrew" the name by which the Israelites were known by other peoples as the ones who possessed the knowledge of the true God. The word Hebrew is ethnic while the word "Israelite" is national. In latter days, these words became synonymous.

Peleg, one of the sons of Eber and whose name means, division lived at the time of the dispersal of the nations at Babel or the time the earth was divided into people of different languages, which indicated the Babel event occurred five generations after the Great Flood. The dispersal at the tower of Babel signified the separation of the elect nations from the non-elect nations in reference to Israel. Peleg’s descendants were considered among the elect nations while Peleg’s brother, Joktan, whose name means watchful was considered amongst the non-elect nations. Joktan’s descendants who lived in southern Arabia would come to have ties with Israel.

All families came from Noah but some were of special interest for the nation of Israel. The Table of Nations describes the relationship between different peoples however they may have originated historically.

CHAPTER ELEVEN

In Chapter Ten the nations were already divided. Chapter Eleven explains the reason for the division. The whole world began with just one language but with it, in time, came great pride. After the flood the people settled in the plain of Shinar, the area of Babylon, and after a while looked to attain significance and immortality. With baked bricks and tar for mortar, Noah’s descendants had the desire to build a city with a tower to acquire a reputation. Such behavior indicated an independence from God. In an open rebellion against God the people came together to strengthen themselves so they would not be scattered, which was in opposition to God’s command to spread out and fill the earth. Their desire to enhance their unity and strength had potential for the greatest evil. The LORD’S evaluation was continuation in this manner would not keep them from doing anything they wished to do. The people were outside of God’s blessing.

It was Nimrod, descendant of Ham, who excited the people with affront and contempt of God. A bold man of great strength of hand, he persuaded the people not to ascribe it to God as if it was through His means they were happy, but to believe in their own courage, which procured that happiness. Nimrod gradually changed the government into tyranny, seeing no other way of turning men from the fear of God except to bring them into a constant dependence upon his power. Nimrod also said he would revenge God if He should have a mind to drown the world again for he would build a tower too high for the waters to be able to reach. The multitude, ready to follow the determination of Nimrod, built a city and a tower of great thickness cemented with bitumen, a type of tar, which would not admit water.

Written Babylonian accounts of the building of the city of Babylon refer to its construction as a celestial city made by the same process of which brick making described in verse three with each brick inscribed with the name of the Babylonian god, Marduk. The tower or massive, lofty, solid brick staircase-like structure known as a ziggurat, in effect, an artificial mountain with a miniature temple at its top, became the center of worship in the city. The great pride of the people was displayed in their boasting of its heavenly city with a gate to God. This city as the predominant force in the world was considered the epitome of ungodly powers, an anti-kingdom.

Genesis told God came down, which gave reference to the ziggurat built with descending stairways to enable the gods to come down. God investigated the situation before giving a judicial sentence. What the people considered their greatest strength, their unity, the LORD swiftly destroyed by confusing their language; then their greatest fear, scattering, over all the earth came naturally upon them as they grouped themselves together according to their language and spread out over the face of the earth.

The word, Babel is translated as Babylon. The best Hebrew lexicographers claim it could not have come from the Hebrew word, "balal," meaning "to confuse or mix, but that it meant gate of God. The Aramaic word balbel means, confusion" and with a play on words, babel came to mean confusion.

Genesis lists the descendants of Shem, which show the decline of lifespan after the flood: Shem 600 years, Arphaxad 438 years, Salah 433 years, Eber 464 years, Peleg 239 years, Reu 239 years, Serug 230 years, and Nahor 148 years.

Terah became the father of Abram, Nahor, and Haran who died in Ur of the Chaldeans, the land of his birth, while his father Terah was still living. Abram married his half-sister Sarai, the daughter of Terah by a different mother, and when Haran died, Abram adopted his nephew, Lot. Abram’s wife, Sarai, was barren; she had no children. Nahor married his niece Milcah, the daughter of his brother, Haran. The relationship within the family was very close and there were no laws, which forbade intermarriage at that time. Ur in southern Mesopotamia, which is modern day Iraq, is about 125 miles from the mouth of the Euphrates River. Ur was a thriving commercial city with high cultural standards associated with moon worship. Terah was steeped in idolatry. The names Sarai, meaning princess and Milcah, meaning queen are related to the moon god.

The migration to Canaan began as a family decision. The family left behind the grief of Haran’s death and the tumult against Abram for his belief celestial bodies did not move as a result of their own power but were subservient to the one who commands them; but when the family came to the city of Haran, an important city in ancient Mesopotamia about 500 miles northeast of Ur, the capital of Sumer, and 280 miles from Damascus, where principal routes meet, Terah decided to stay there. Highways to Nineveh, Babylon, and Damascus got their start from the city of Haran. Haran was one of the chief centers for the worship of the moon god named, Sin. Considering Terah, a moon worshipper, died in Haran at the age of 205 and Abram was seventy-five when he left Haran, Terah, at that time had to be 145 years old since he had lived to be seventy years old before he fathered Abram, Nahor, and Haran (Genesis 11:26); therefore, Abram must have left his father, Terah, in Haran sixty years before Terah died. Leaving homeland and family was a much greater decision in traditional society than it can be in today’s mobile, individualistic culture. Abram risked his known way of life to answer God’s call.

CHAPTER TWELVE

Abram was thoroughly pagan and prosperous when the LORD called him out of Ur, his birthplace. Genesis 15:7 told of Abram’s call out of Ur of the Chaldeans and Acts 7:4 supports the fact Abram was called before he left for the city of Haran. The LORD told Abram to leave by himself for a land He would show him with the promise to make it into a great nation, to make his name great, and to make him a blessing. Furthermore, the LORD promised to bless those who blessed Abram and curse those who cursed him. Whoever acknowledged Abram as God’s agent of blessing would be blessed; but if any distained or dishonored Abram, that person would have misfortune in his life. To bless or to curse Abram was to bless or curse Abram’s God.

Abram left Haran with his wife, Sarai, his nephew, Lot, all the possessions they had accumulated and the people they had acquired in Haran and they set out for the land of Canaan and arrived there. Abram traveled through the land until he came to a great tree, a terebinth tree remarkable for its widespread branches and dark green foliage, in Moreh at Shechem, in the heart of the land of Canaan. The height of the tree made it a preferred place of worship. Moreh was most probably the pagan site for oracles as the Canaanites had shrines in groves of trees there. This tree became a place of shade for Abram’s convoy to rest. Abram worshipped according to the religious customs of his time, but the content of his worship differed significantly. Abram had been known among the Chaldeans as man who was righteous, great, and skillful in the celestial science. From his study of celestial bodies, Abram came to the conclusion there was but one true God who controlled the universe. The LORD appeared to Abram, to confirm His promise and to reward Abram’s faith. Abram, now the promised father of a new nation, built an altar to the LORD, who had appeared to him, and, by this act consecrated the Promised Land to God. The LORD promised the land to Abram’s offspring. Abram saw the land was promised to his descendants but the land would not be given to him. Because all the good fertile land was already occupied, Abram journeyed onward.

From Shechem Abram traveled toward the hills east of Bethel, otherwise called Luz, and pitched his tent with Bethel on the west and Ai on the east. By pitching his tent, Abram publicly declared to all observers he was taking permanent possession of the land. Then Abram built an altar to the LORD and called on the name of the LORD. By erecting this altar, Abram proclaimed his allegiance to the LORD.

Abram then pulled up the stakes and continued toward Negev, literally the dry land located in the far south of the Promised Land and traveled the entire length of the land, symbolizing it belonged to him and his descendants.

When famine invaded the land of Canaan, Abram went down to the more flourishing Egypt to live, where the Nile supplied its water for cattle and crops. As he approached Egypt, fear gripped Abram he would be killed and his wife taken for her beauty; therefore, Abram devised a plan to pass his wife off as his sister and thereby gain favor. Indeed, when the Pharaoh’s officials saw Sarai’s beauty, they praised her to the Pharaoh who took her into his palace and treated Abram well for her sake. Abram received sheep, cattle, male and female donkeys, menservants, maidservants, and camels, which were considered rare and signaled wealth and status.

According to ancient records, Abram conversed with Egyptian priests while in their country concerning theological matters. The Egyptians considered Abram a man great of wisdom with much reasonableness when he discussed any subject. Abram was not only understood, but he also persuaded other men to agree with him. Abram communicated arithmetic to them and delivered the science of astronomy to them.

When the Pharaoh and his household became afflicted and the Pharaoh discovered Sarai was a wife and not a sister, he sent Abram and Sarai and their followers on their way along with a great increase in possessions. All indications were Abram, at this time, was not walking by faith, and had the LORD not played on the suspicious nature of the Egyptians by bringing plague to the Pharaoh and his household, which resulted in Abram’s inglorious rescue by forced exit, the LORD’S promise to Abram would have been forfeited. Because of his deception with his self-directed scheme, Abram made deliverance necessary. The LORD, in His faithfulness and mercy, disallowed Abram’s foolishness in jeopardizing His grand plan for humanity.

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

Abram returned from Egypt with a great increase in his wealth. Chastened by his experiences in Egypt, Abram returned to Negev and from Negev went from place to place until he returned to Bethel, the place where he had built an altar to the LORD. At Bethel Abram called on the LORD, which showed Abram had renewed his worship to the LORD. Obviously, his exploration concerning Egypt’s many gods did not sway Abram to defect from his thought there was but one true God.

Both Lot and Abram, having greatly prospered, found the land could not sustain them both because the Canaanites held the best parts of the land, which resulted in scraping for food and water among the servants of the two; therefore, Abram proposed a solution to the strife. The two would part company. Abram thought it more important to keep the relationship with Lot intact rather than quarrel over the situation; therefore, Abram offered Lot any choice of the whole land, which rightfully belonged to him. Abram, trusting in the LORD’S promise he would come to possess the Promised Land for his descendants, gave Lot the land of first choice. Lot chose by sight the land, which was the whole plain of the Jordan Valley, a lush, fruitful, and well-watered place. Though the land Lot chose was likened to the Garden of Eden and was like the land of Egypt, nevertheless, Lot pitched his tents close to those places inhabited by the wicked, where men were sinning greatly before God, After Lot made his choice, Abram lived in the land of Canaan while Lot lived among the cities of the plain with his tents pitched near Sodom. Abram took the land left, which consisted of the lower grounds at the foot of the mountains. Abram pitched his tents near the great trees of Mamre at Hebron, about twenty miles south of Jerusalem known for its rich soil and water, where he built an altar to the LORD as his thankful response for the Lord’s renewed promises. Apparently, Abram remained at Mamre until the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah. According to archaeological research, the site was occupied continuously since about 3300 BC.

After Abram and Lot parted company, the LORD told Abram to look north, south, east and west and promised to give all the land Abram could see to his offspring forever. The LORD also told Abram his descendants would be as numerous as the dust of the earth. Then the LORD invited Abram to walk the length and breadth of the land He was giving to him. Descriptions in early eastern documents describe the land of Canaan as the territory between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River reaching from the brook of Egypt to the area around Ugarit in Syria to the Euphrates. Canaan was a land bridge between Mesopotamia and Egypt and between the Mediterranean Sea and the Red Sea.

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

Lot’s comfortable circumstance of living came to an abrupt halt when Amraphel, king of Shinar (Babylonia); Arioch, king of Ellasar (eastern Turkey); Chedorlaomer, king of Elam (a well-known mountain region in modern Iran); and Tidal, king of Goiim, or people or nations (Turkey) invaded and conquered the Jordan valley. These four kings went to war against five kings: Bera, king of Sodom; Birsha, king of Gomorrah; Shinab, king of Admah; Shemeber, king of Zeboiim; and king of Bela (Zoar). The kings of regions located on the peninsula, which juts into the Dead Sea on its southeastern side had joined forces in the Valley of Siddim, which is today about twenty feet below the surface of the south end of the Dead Sea. For twelve years, these five kings: Bera, Birsha, Shinab, Shemeber, and the king of Zoar were subjected to giving what was demanded of them but in the thirteenth year, they rebelled.

Amraphel, Arioch, Chedorlaomer, and Tidal had conquered the Rephaims in Ashteroth-Karnaim, the Zuzims in Ham, the Emims in the plain of Kiriathaim, and the Horites in Mount Seir, as far as El-paran at the edge of the wilderness. The four kings then swung around to En-mishpat (now Kadesh) and destroyed the Amalekites and also the Amorites living in Hazezon-tamar. Then these four kings came to put down the rebellion of the five kings of Jordan valley-the kings of Sodom, Gomorrah, Admah, Zeboiim, and Zoar. When the four kings engaged in war with the five kings, the battle was so obstinate many in the battle were killed. When the kings of Sodom and Gomorrah fled, some of their men fell into tar pits and the rest fled into the hills. The four kings seized all the goods of Sodom and Gomorrah and all their food and carried off captives, which included Abram’s nephew Lot along with his possessions, since he was living in Sodom.

One who had escaped the battle reported to Abram, who was camping at the oak grove belonging to Mamre, the Amorite. Mamre and his relatives, Eshcol and Aner, were Abram’s allies or associates. The three Amorites accompanied Abram along with 318 trained men of Abram’s household and went in pursuit of the four kings who were known generally as Assyrians. On the fifth night Abram’s company came upon the Assyrians near Dan, the name of the other spring of Jordan, which would become the future northern border of the Promised Land, some 140 miles from Abram’s home in Hebron. Before the enemy could arm, Abram’s company slew some as they were still in their beds and pursued others to Hobah in Damascus, another 100 miles north of Dan. Abram brought back Lot and his family and all their possessions as well as the rest of the captive Sodomites, making Abram a force to be reckoned with among the nations. Abram was looked upon as a general with victory attributed to him.

Upon Abram’s return from battle, the king of Sodom met him in the Valley of Shaveh, known as the King’s Valley or the King’s Dale, where Melchizedek, king of the city of Salem, afterwards called Jerusalem, received him. Melchizedek, whose name means, righteous king on account of him being made the priest of God, treated Abram’s army in a hospitable manner and gave them plenty of provisions. It was customary the political