Bible Folks

By Ernest D. Quinn

Some of my favorite Bible stories have been about Noah, David and Goliath, Elijah, and many stories about Jesus. All of these are included in Bible Folks.

In these stories, youll feel the jealousy of Cain, hear the jibes and taunts of Noahs neighbors as he labors on the ark, hurry with Lot and his family through the streets of Sodom to escape the impending death promised by the angels of God. Youll listen in on the conversations and hear the private thoughts of the folks in the Bible.

In some of these stories I have given names to individuals who weren't mentioned by name in the Bible. I have also suggested possible answers that someone might ask about. Some of these include Where did Cain find a wife? How did God let Cain know his offering was rejected? and How did Noah find the animals and get them aboard the ark?

These stories are written from an adult perspective and deal with adult themes, such as homosexuality, incest (The Birth of Two Nations), and adultery (David and Bathsheba). In two stories of sinner women, they were cast in the role of prostitutes (whether they were or not is not fully explained in the Bible). I suggest that you read these stories yourself before reading them to your children.

God Bless you for your interest in Gods Word.

• Language: English
• Publisher: LifeRich Publishing
• Release date: Aug 7, 2014
• ISBN: 9781489702517

Ernest D. Quinn

Ernest David Quinn was born November 20, 1947 in Spartanburg, South Carolina where he still lives. His first book, “Poems of Faith, Family and Love” was published last year. Bible Folks is his way of retelling stories that he read or was told as a child.

Book preview

Forward

Although I have heard all the Bible stories that Ernest has based these stories on, I have seen them with new eyes as I have typed and edited them.

As with his first book, Poems of Faith, Family and Love, I have been blessed as I worked on each one, from beginning to end.

My prayer is that if you are not familiar with any or all of these stories, they will spark a desire to read the Scripture they were based on, and increase your desire for God’s Word.

If, like me, you have known these Bible Folks for years, I feel sure that you will see them as never before, and they will inspire you to dig deeper into the Scriptures.

Be Blessed!

Marlene Moore

CAIN AND ABEL

The work was never done. First, the land had to be cleared. This meant chopping down weeds, carrying off stones, sometimes burning the field if necessary to get rid of unwanted vegetation. Then the land had to be turned over for plowing and once plowed, it must be seeded. The seeds had to be guarded against the attacks of hungry birds, and watered and fertilized. Once the young plants began sprouting, they had to be weeded and watered and guarded constantly. The harvesting itself was a backbreaking laborious task.

As a boy, Cain had learned the business of farming from his father Adam and had accepted the labor as necessary. He had also learned of the fall from grace in the garden east of Eden. He knew he was the first child born into this world and as long as he was the only child, all was as well as he could expect.

He could remember watching in wonder as his mother’s belly began to swell one year, and his father told him that there would soon be another child born into the family.

God grant that it will be man-child, Cain prayed selfishly, who will help me with my work.

By the time the child was born, Adam had discovered the art of sheep herding and Cain watched in dismay as Adam taught the younger son to be a shepherd, instead of a farmer.

God gave us farming in order that we may eat, Adam told both of his sons, Now He has given us the task of sheep herding. The flesh of the sheep may be eaten. The wool will provide us clothing. But the first lamb born to any ewe must be sacrificed to God.

Cain continued to farm, laboriously bringing crops from the earth while his younger brother began herding sheep. As he sweated and toiled, Cain watched jealously the easy task his brother had gained for himself. All that Abel had to do was lead the sheep to a meadow until they had eaten their fill and then water them by filling a huge trough of wood from a nearby spring. He could then sit in the shade and watch them, his homemade sling ready with a stone for any would-be predator.

Spring came, with the lambing season, and Abel, with the help of his father, carefully gathered the lambs which were first to open the womb. These would be set aside for sacrifice.

We men must all offer sacrifices to God, Adam told his younger son. I will offer a lamb for myself and your mother. Cain will offer a lamb for himself, and you must offer the rest of the firstlings of the flock."

Father, what is Cain doing down there? Abel asked. He has built an altar and piled grain upon it. Does he not know he must offer a lamb?

I will tell him, Adam said. God will not respect the offering he is making.

He walked down the hill to his older son. As he walked, an amazing thing happened. A whirlwind came suddenly upon the altar, sending the stones flying in all directions. Cain cried out in fear and surprise as he leaped back, some of the stones striking him painfully.

By the time Adam reached his son, Cain had picked himself up, no longer fearful but angry as he shook his bruised fist at the sky and a God he had displeased.

Why are you so angry? Adam asked his son. If you do the right thing, your sacrifices will be accepted. If not, then sin will be the cause, go to your brother and ask for a lamb. Make the right sacrifice to God and He will forgive you.

Cain said nothing, but the angry look on his face made Adam afraid. How many times had Adam wished he had never disobeyed God in the Garden of Eden by eating of the fruit that God had forbidden him to eat.

As Cain advanced up the hill, he could see the fire of the altar Abel had built and smell the sacrifice Abel offered. No stones were flying about and striking Abel. It was clear that Abel’s sacrifice had been accepted by God, while Cain’s had been rejected.

As Cain neared his brother, he stooped and picked up a large stone. Grasping it firmly, he crept behind his brother’s kneeling form and swung the stone full force at Abel’s head. Abel slumped without a sound and Cain swung the stone again and again at the prostrate form until his brother’s shattered skull left no doubt that Abel was dead. Then Cain calmly turned his steps back down the hill. As he walked, he heard a voice. Cain, where is your brother, Abel (Gen. 4:9)

It was the voice of God, Cain had no doubt, but he answered with an anger born of desperate fear. I know not. Am I my brother’s keeper? (Gen. 4:9) What have you done? The voice of God said. "The blood of your brother cries out to me from the ground which had opened up its mouth to receive it.(Gen. 4:10) Henceforth the earth will not yield its strength. You will be a fugitive and a vagabond in the earth" (Gen. 4:12) My punishment is greater than I can bear. (Gen. 4:13) Cain cried out. You have made me a fugitive and a vagabond, and whoever finds me will kill me. (Gen. 4:14) Cain felt a burning, stinging pain in his forehead, as if someone had suddenly touched him with a coal of fire.

I have set my mark upon you, God said, And if someone should kill you, I will take vengeance on him seven-fold. Now, depart from this place. (Gen. 4:15)

Cain stayed only long enough to find his wife who was the third born child of Adam and Eve. Without so much as a look back, he departed. He had no way of knowing that God would give his parents another son to replace Abel, nor that his own seed would one day be wiped out in a flood that would destroy the whole world.

To read more of the story of Cain & Abel and their family, read Genesis Chapters 2-4

26314.png

NOAH, A JUST AND PERFECT MAN

His name was Noah and he was five hundred years old. Just how old his wife and sons were is not known. Noah was the world’s first non-conformist. While the rest of the world were pleasing themselves, Noah was pleasing God. While the women of the world were living wantonly and sinfully, the women of Noah’s household, his wife and his son’s wives were living virtuous lives.

In the time that Noah lived, God looked down on the race of mankind and saw that the wickedness of man was great, that the imaginations of the thoughts of his heart were only evil continually. God was sorry that He had made man on the earth and He was grieved by man’s sinfulness. He determined that He would destroy man from the face of the earth. But Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord. Noah was a just man and perfect in his generation.

The end of all flesh is come before me, God spoke to Noah. I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth. (Gen. 6:7) God went on to command Noah to build and ark of gopher wood. It was to be 300 cubits long (450 feet), 50 cubits wide (75 feet) and 30 cubits high (45 feet). It was to be three stories high with a window on top and a door below. It was to be sealed within and without with pitch to make it watertight.

Noah was already an oddball in his time. If the people of those days had used the same terminology as in modern times he would have been called a wimp, a dork, a geek, or a nerd. But when Noah started to build the ark, old oddball Noah suddenly became old crazy Noah. Everybody had to stop and watch and poke fun at the crazy old man who was building a boat on dry land.

When Noah tried to explain why he was doing this thing, he was met with even more laughter. It had never even rained in those days. God had sent a mist up from the earth to water it. The idea of water falling from the sky was ridiculous.

Finally, after 120 years, the ark was finished. Then God spoke to Noah again. Take two of every unclean animal, and seven of every clean animal and place them in the ark to preserve their species. (Gen. 6:19, 7:2-3) Again Noah started to obey.

If the people of Noah’s day had thought Noah crazy before, they must have really thought he’d flipped his lid now. Everyone gaped as Noah began to seek out the animals and bring them to the ark. How this was accomplished, no one knows, but it is probable that God spoke to them, just as He spoke to a great fish in Jonah’s day. Finally all the animals were in the ark.

Anyone standing around the ark about this time would have seen a very strange thing happen. The ark door closed by itself, (God shut the door.) Then the strangest thing of all began to happen. Water began falling from the sky. Men, women, and children began screaming and running for their homes. Most of the homes were made of stone, chinked with mud. Inside the homes the families listened fearfully as the water pounded against the stone walls and shivered as the water began dripping between the chinks as the mud gave way to the incessant pounding. Under the steady onslaught of water, the stone houses began to cave in and the water poured through. The people began to drown. The rivers and streams began to overflow their banks and flow into the streets, flooding them and sweeping away any living creature outside. People began climbing to the hills but the water continued to rise, both from the rain and from the fountains of the deep which had erupted from the earth. The last living people on earth climbed to the highest mountains, but after forty day and nights, even they were covered. Not one person was alive on earth but those in the ark.

After the forty days and nights had passed, the rain ceased. God began to dry up the earth with a strong wind that blew over the waters for months. When the ark had come to rest on the mountain of Ararat, Noah sent a raven forth to see if there was any dry land yet upon the earth. The raven never returned, but Noah told himself it may have been that the raven had drowned, so he also sent a dove. The dove returned within hours, for it had found no place to rest. After seven days, Noah sent the dove again and this time when it returned, it held an olive leaf in its mouth. Noah knew that the waters were beginning to dry up. After waiting another seven days, Noah sent the dove again and it did not return. Noah knew then that the water had dried from the earth, especially when God spoke to him again.

Go forth from the ark, you and your wife and your sons and their wives. Bring forth every living thing, cattle and fowl and every creeping thing that they may breed abundantly in the earth. Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth. (Gen. 8:15-19)

When Noah and his family emerged from the ark, Noah built an altar and made an offering to God of the clean animals in the ark.

As Noah looked up into the heavens in praise of God, he saw a wondrous thing, an immense bow of many colors that God had set in the clouds after the flood.

Behold, I set my bow in the clouds as a sign of the covenant between you and me, God said. When I send a cloud of rain and you look up in the sky and see my rainbow, you will know that I have not forgotten my promise that I will never again destroy the earth by water. (Gen. 9:13)

Thus did Noah and his family become the ancestors of all the people on earth.

The story of Noah and his family can be found in the book of Genesis, Chapters 6-9

26316.png

THE BIRTH OF TWO NATIONS

Hannah and Jochobed sat gingerly on the uneven floor of the cave close to its entrance so that they could catch the last flickers of the dying day. They were clutching each other like children. Somewhere, a little deeper in the cave, their father Lot had rolled himself up in a blanket and was now snoring peacefully, after downing a healthy swallow or two of wine. The jug of wine, a few blankets, and some odd scraps of food were all that they had been able to snatch up as they hastily left Sodom.

Hannah, the eldest, held her sister closely as her mind raced over the events of the day. Two men, whom their father had said were angels of God had come into their house, invited by Lot himself. Hannah, who like her sister, was still a virgin, could remember gazing with awe at their faces. The unearthly glow they seemed to radiate, their dazzling white garments, even the movements of their hands left no doubt that these were men of God.

Lot had ordered the girls to prepare food for them while he himself had fetched cool water to wash their feet. While the girls bustled about making their guests comfortable, the sound of many voices was heard outside. There was a tremendous crash as the doors burst open and Hannah saw with terror the evil, malignant countenances of the men who lived in the city.

Where are the men who came into your house? one asked, as Lot and his family desperately formed a shield about the seated angels. Bring them out that we may know them. (Gen. 19:5)

Hannah realized with horror that these men who acted with unnatural lust toward one another meant to force their carnal lust upon these visitors.

I pray you, do not so wickedly, Lot pleaded. I have two virgin daughters. Take them and do with them as you see fit, but unto these men do nothing. (Gen. 19:8) This fellow came to sojourn, and now he would be a judge over us. A second man said.

Now we will do worse to you than to them, a third man said.

Suddenly the two angels sprang upright and gazed into the faces of the men of Sodom. The eyes of the evil men began to grow milky white.

I cannot see, one man said.

As the group of men stumbled about blindly, some striking others in their confusion, the two angels turned to Lot.

Up with your wife and daughters and any needful thing you can carry. You must flee the city for God has sent us to destroy it.

Lot, his wife, and both girls began snatching up blankets, food, wine, and a few household implements, whatever could be carried. In the meantime, the blind men were beginning to find the door to Lot’s house and some were spilling out into the street.

The angels hastily took hold of Lot, his wife, and his two daughters by an arm or shoulder. They escorted them as far as the gates of the city, and pointed the way they should go, up the side of a nearby mountain.

Take refuge in a cave, they said. And do not look back, for if you do, God will strike you down. (Gen. 19:17)

Running for their lives, they fled up the mountain, once pausing near the top to catch their breaths. Their mother, who was