Well I have been having the best fun this week as we work our way through the bible. I have a little routine, I wake up at about 6.45am and my Bloke brings me coffee before he goes to work, and so that gives me an hour and 15 minutes before I need to be up to start my day, (On School days, its been school holidays so a bit more relaxed.)
So I am not actually sure what I am doing and if I am doing it right.. I have been doing the “Psalms” as we started off doing, and then I just added “Genesis” when everyone else did that, now I am wondering if maybe I was meant to stop with psalms and only do Genesis.. HA HA trust me to stuff it up if indeed I have. My Heart of Esther group has gone a bit quiet so I’m floundering.. but anyways I’ll share with you all what I did this week and I’ll figured out next week as I go…
The Heart of Esther was doing Psalms
Monday – Psalm 4:1 & 2
Scripture- “Answer me when I call you, my righteous God, give me relief from my distress, have mercy on me and hear my prayer, How long will you people turn my glory into shame? How long will you love delusions and seek false Gods?’
Application-(The Psalms have brought up more questions than anything for me so I used application to ask questions)
Who was David? Where was he from? what was he famous for? Who was he singing to and about?
Do not seek false Gods or idols.
Well this brought about some research and I discovered David was A king at one stage and is featured in 73 of 150 psalms, He was a poet as well.
Brief outline of David’s life.. (c1040- 970)
- the youngest son of Jesse of Judah.
- Started off as a shepherd in Bethlehem
- Started with king Saul as a Musician
- David made a sling shot invoked Gods name and killed a giant,
- Promoted by king Saul as “Commander of troops”
- David was successful in battle against the Philistines and made Saul jealous , so he tried to kill David by throwing a spear at him.
- David remained loyal to king Saul who gave his daughter Merav as his wife
- Saul rescinded his daughter and gave David his second born daughter Michel, in exchange for 100 Philistine foreskins. David paid up!
- Jonathon, king Saul’s son was good friends with David. King Saul asked Jonathon to kill David and Jonathon hid David and convinced Saul not to kill David.
- The promise did not last long when Saul attempted to kill David. Michel helped David to escape to the prophet Samuel in Ramah.
- David returned briefly to make a pact with Jonathon and confirmed that Saul still wanted him dead.
- David found refuge with the king of Moab, whose priest gave David a weapon. Saul sent Doeg to kill 85 priests for giving David the weapon.
- David fled and gained support of 600 men
- David crept on Saul to kill him but instead he cut a piece of Saul’s robe, Saul confessed that David would become king.
- Saul never gave up trying to kill David who joined the service of Achish the Palestine king.
- While David was off battling, Saul and Jonathon were killed on mt Gilboa. David mourned and then began a new stage of life as King of Judah.
- The Kingdom of Judah and Israel fought and finally king Abner made a pact to allow David to unite the two kingdoms.
- David was 30 years old, ruled over Judah for 7 years and 6 months.
- David died after 40 years as a King, 33 of those years in Jerusalem.
- Buried in the City of David.
Tuesday – Psalm 5:11 & 12
Scripture- “’But let all who take refuge in you be glad; let them ever sing for joy. Spread your protection over them;that those who love your name may rejoice in your. Surely Lord, you bless the righteousness you surround them with your favour as with a shield.”
Application- Seek the Lord and be glad of his word so that the Lord will spread his protection over you.
Those who seek the Lord (righteousness) will be blessed by the Lord and you will be surrounded in his blessing as though wrapped in armor.
Wednesday- Psalm 6:6-9
Scripture- “I am worn out from groaning, all night long I flood my bed with weeping and drench my couch with tears. My eyes grow weak with sorrow; they fail because of all my foes. Away from me, all you who do evil, for the Lord has heard my weeping. The Lord has heard my cry for mercy; The Lord accepts my prayer.”
Application- Instead of wearing yourself out from groaning and shedding tears, turn to the Lord.
The Lord hears your prayers for mercy.
The Lord accepts your heartfelt prayers.
Thursday- Psalm 7: 10 & 11
Scripture- ” My Shield is God most high, who saves the upright in heart. God is a righteous judge, a God who displays his wrath every day”
Application- Believe that God is righteous and he will shield those who are true of heart.
David says God will Shield him.
Friday- Psalm 8:3-5
Scripture- When I consider your heavens, the works of your fingers, the moon and the stars which you have set in place. What is mankind that you are mindful of them? Human beings that you care for them? You have made them a little lowers than the angels and crowned them in your glory and honor.”
Application- Be appreciative of all that God has created.
All things from heaven to beyond he has created
Humans are a little less than Angels? ( research Angels)
Saturday- Psalm 9:16,17 & 18
Scripture- “The Lord is known by his acts of justice the wicked one ensnared by the works of their hands. The wicked go down to the realms of the dead, all nations that forget God. But God will never forget the needy, the hope of the afflicted will never perish.”
Application- Do good and rest assured you will find favour with the Lord at the time of Judgement.
People who need God and walk with God will not be forgotten or put aside.
Sunday- Psalm 10: 14, 17 &18.
Scripture– “But you God, see the trouble of the afflicted, you consider their grief and take it in hand. The victims commit themselves to you; you are the helper of the fatherless.
You Lord bear the desire of the afflicted; you encourage them and you listen to their cry, defending the fatherless and the oppressed, so that mere earthly mortals will never again strike terror.”
Application- Trust in god for security, trust, love, healing and strength
Those who turn to God will be protected always.
Monday- Genesis 2:21-23
Scripture: “So the Lord God caused man to fall into a deep sleep and while he was sleeping, he took one of the man’s ribs and then closed up the place with flesh. Then the Lord God made a woman from the rib he had taken from man and he brought her to man. The Man said “this is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh, she shall be called Woman for she is taken out of man.”
Application- Women are created from men. Men are supposed to cherish women. Adam created from dust, Eve created from Adam ” Bone of my bone, flesh of my flesh”
Tuesday- Genesis 3:6, 12 & 16.
Scripture- “When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her and he ate it. The Man said ” The woman you put here with me she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate it” To the Woman he said ” I will make your pains in childbearing very severe, with painful labour you will give birth to children. Your desire will be for your husband, he will rule over you.”
Application- Just because something looks pretty and might be good for you, doesn’t mean it is.
Coercion is not wise, if you must sin do it alone! Adam, you KNEW it was wrong, why did you listen to her?!
Every action has a RE-Action!
Wednesday- Genesis 4:16 & 17.
Scripture- “So Cain went out from the Lord’s presence and lived in the land of Nod, east of Eden. Cain made love to his wife, and she became pregnant and gave birth to Enoch. Cain then built a City and he named it “Enoch” after his son.”
Application- This scripture brought up more questions than anything (WARNING this bit is going to be LONG!!)
Why was Cain’s offering to the Lord rejected??
Cain left the Lord’s presence towards sin??
Cain found a Wife? who was she? where was she hiding?
Why did he name his City after his son? So off I went to research this took me such a long time, to decipher what I was reading and piece it all together, so I will give you the simplified version…
Why was Cain’s offering to the Lord rejected??
Cain’s offering was rejected because it was a “blood sacrifice” Cain was cocky and expected that his offering would be acceptable it was offered in presumption not in Faith. So then I asked “What does that mean?”
“Faith, is the result of hearing God’s word, submitting the mind and body to its dominion and acting as instructed, not simply feeling confident expectation.”
“If Adam and Eve were the first people, where did Cain’s wife appear from?” (This one had me stumped and I was so pleased with myself when I was able to piece together a response that I could understand, many hand written pages of notes later!)
Adam and Eve were told to “go forth and Multiply” and apparently they did. It doesn’t actually say When Cain got married it is believed that he would have married a relative or a sister. The word “Wife” in Genesis 4:17 is “Ishshah” and it means woman/wife/female it means “from man” If we read it in Hebrew it would make more sense but some of it was lost in the translation. Also keeping in mind that breeding with a brother and or sister did not produce abnormalities back then as it does today because God created everything and it was perfect, meaning that Adam and Eve were perfect people, once sin crept in, things began to change, which is also why our live spans became less. “God cursed the world so that perfect creations began to degenerate, suffer death and decay” (Romans 8:22)
“Why did Cain name his City after his son?”
Enoch= Initiation it is believed that he was named that to celebrate a new (God Free) way of life since he was sent away from God’s presence after murdering Able. He believed that here, the God estranged wander could settle in take root and consider himself “at home” The name was a celebration of his freedom from God. Cain had gone East to the land of Nod which translates into “wanderings” even though he would never really have peace after being sentenced by God “to go no where and find perpetual insecurity” to escape from his curse he built the world’s first city “Enoch”, this city was destroyed later in Noah’s floods.
Thursday Genesis 5
Scripture- I wrote a family tree time lines.
Adam- 130 years old (when he had Seth) – lived to 930 years.
Seth- 105 years old(When he had Enosh) lived 912 years.
Enosh- 90 years old(When he had Kenan) lived 905 years.
Kenan- 70 years(when he had Mahalalel) lived 910 years.
Mahalalel- 65 years( when he had Jared) lived 895 years.
Jared- 162 years(When he had Enoch) lived 962 years.
Enoch- 65 years(When he has Methuselah) – lived 365 years and God took him, he walked faithfully with God.
Methuselah 87 years (When he had Lamech) lived 969 years.
Lamech- 182 years(Noah) 777 years.
Noah “He will comfort us in the labour and painful toil of our hands caused by the ground the Lord has cursed”
Noah had three sons Shem, Ham and Japeth.
Application– Again more questions…
Enoch- He walked faithfully with God (his whole life apparently) and God took him. WHERE??
He was taken by faith so that he did not experience death as we know it. He was taken to Heaven and appointed guardian of all the celestial treasures, Chief of the archangels, The Jewish also believe that he was taken by God before he could become corrupted. (Hebrews 11:5) Because he walked in faith with God, no matter what happened he believed in God. God loved Enoch so much he spared him death.
The next question I had was “Why was Noah the only one who’s three sons were all named in the passage?“
There are actually 6 hand written pages full of notes and I am tired and I can’t be bothered typing them all out, but what I will say is “Noah’s 16 Grandsons are identifiable on the pages of history, not only is the bible a collection of myths and legends it is also the key to the history of the earliest ages of the world. I learned for example that Japeth had Seven sons– they went on to form places like modern-day Turkey, France, Wales, Armenia, Romania and Ukraine, Iran, Greece, Etc etc. Ham had four sons– famous for Egypt, Asia, Africa, Palestine and Jerusalem. Shem had Five sons their claim to fame included places like parts of Persia (now Iran) Assyria, Lydia (which is now Turkey) I spent a few hours chasing all this down on google searches, so please don’t take me as an expert, I am sure there might be other more accurate stuff out there. I simply wanted to understand some of the things I was reading.
Friday- Genesis 6: 19 & 20
Scripture- ” You are to bring into the ark, two of all living creatures male and female, to keep them alive with you. Two of every kind of bird, of every kind of animal and of every kind of creature that moves along the ground will come to you to be kept alive”
Application- I think everyone in the world knows the basic story of Noah’s ark, even me who was not raised in any kind of religion, but this few scriptures I still found I had questions. You know I could have taken the easy way and asked my friend James who is studying to be a Pastor, but I wanted to try to find the answers myself.. so again with the Google!!
I wanted to know “What constituted “Unclean”? What does that mean??”
it was there that I discovered that there was a misinterpretation..Genesis 7:2 says ” Seven pairs of every clean animal, a male and its mate and one pair of every “unclean” a male and it’s mate” Actually it is supposed to say “bring 7 of each animal” the clean ones mind you.. which meant that 3 pairs of breeding animals and a spare to offer up as a burnt offering to the Lord. So what is an “Unclean” animal? I bet you are wandering too right?!
Unclean Animals– Land animals that do NOT chew cud, or do not have a split hoof. So that means things like pigs, dogs, cats, horses, donkeys and rats,
Seafood- Lacking either fin or scales. Such as shell-fish, lobster (my husband was horrified!) oyster and catfish. Some birds like owls, hawks and vultures, and other animals such as reptiles and amphibians.
So why were those listed above “Unclean“? not that I WANT to eat a donkey or a vulture.. but why?
“These were considered “unclean” because it was believed that by eating those things you could become sick (yeah I think Vulture would make me sick!!) and these types f animals were not suitable for offering as a sacrifice.
Friday was a very busy day with research and it prompted me to think about different things all day. So on Saturday I went and hired the movie “Noah” with Australian Russel Crow. I really enjoyed it and I think I was better able to follow along having had just read those scripture verses.
Saturday- Genesis 7:22,23,24
Scripture- “Everything on dry land that has the breath of life in its nostrils died. Every living thing on the face of the earth was wiped out; people, animals and the creatures that moved along the ground and the birds were wiped from the earth. Only Noah was left, and those with him on the ark. The waters flooded the earth for 150 days.”
Application- “Every living thing was wiped out” this is repeated many times in verse 7
Only Noah and his family was chosen to be saved because like his father and Grandfather he had faithfully walked with the Lord his whole life.
Sunday- Genesis 8: 20-22
Scripture– Then Noah built an altar to the Lord, and taking some of all the clean animals and clean birds, he sacrificed burnt offerings on it. The Lord smelled the pleasing aroma and said in his heart “Never again will I curse the ground because of the humans, even though every inclination of the human heart is evil from childhood. And never again will I destroy all living creatures as I have done. As long as the earth endures seed-time and harvest, heat and cold, summer and winter, day and night they will never cease”
Application- Even in Biblical times Blokes had BBQ and were burning them back then!!
God had regrets about regrets about murdering all the evil people.
God compromised “I will never again destroy even though human hearts are evil”
So that my friends has been my busy week of blogging through the bible. I am awaiting an answer as to whether I am supposed to be “blogging Psalms and Genesis” so possibly next week things will be shorter.. if you read this far! Bravo!! and thanks for reading me and keeping up. I am having so much fun with this bible study!!
Next week looks something like this….
![APRIL-CALENDAR [2015]](https://kimlhine.files.wordpress.com/2015/03/april-calendar-2015.jpg)
Kim L Hine 