Category: Genesis

Genesis 6-9 – The Great Flood!

This Week’s Devotion Theme – God Created – and Destroyed!

Today’s Bible Reading – Genesis 15-16 and Matthew 8

This world is a wicked place.  We see evidence of that every day.  It is so wicked, that one day, God is going to destroy this world with fire.  But it will not be the first time that God has destroyed the Earth because of wickedness, or will it?

Sadly, many Christians think that the story of Noah’s flood is a myth, or at most was just a local flood, questioning the accuracy of scripture.

Let’s look at exactly what scripture says, and then take a look at real world evidence for a global flood.   

Genesis 6:6-7 – The Lord regretted that he had made human beings on the earth, and his heart was deeply troubled. 7 So the Lord said, “I will wipe from the face of the earth the human race I have created—and with them the animals, the birds and the creatures that move along the ground—for I regret that I have made them.”

Genesis 6:13 – So God said to Noah, “I am going to put an end to all people, for the earth is filled with violence because of them. I am surely going to destroy both them and the earth.

Genesis 6:18 – I am going to bring floodwaters on the earth to destroy all life under the heavens, every creature that has the breath of life in it. Everything on earth will perish.

Genesis 7:4 – Seven days from now I will send rain on the earth for forty days and forty nights, and I will wipe from the face of the earth every living creature I have made.”

Genesis 7:23 – Every living thing on the face of the earth was wiped out; people and animals and the creatures that move along the ground and the birds were wiped from the earth. Only Noah was left, and those with him in the ark.

These verses make it clear that it was more than just a local flood, declaring that humans and all animals on the face of the earth would be destroyed and the earth itself would be destroyed.

If that were not enough, in Genesis 9:11 God said, “I establish my covenant with you: Never again will all life be destroyed by the waters of a flood; never again will there be a flood to destroy the earth.”  If Noah’s flood was just a local flood, then God has broken His promise, because we have had thousands of local floods that have taken life since that time.  But God is not a promise breaker.

Finally, both Peter and Jesus make reference to Noah’s flood as a historical event, thus tossing out the theory of it being a myth.

But what about real-world evidence?  Can we point to real world evidence that there actually was a world-wide flood that destroyed all life on the Earth?

As a famous creationist likes to say, “If there truly was a global flood, what would we expect to find?  Billions of dead things buried in rock layers, laid down by water all over the earth.  And what do we find?  Billions of dead things buried in rock layers, laid down by water all over the earth.”

You are probably all familiar with seeing rock layers like the ones below.

Many geologists claim these layers prove an old earth because they argue it should take a long time, millions of years in some cases for so many layers to build up. They also claim these layers are not evidence of a global flood (which has led many Christians to doubt the flood.)

But actually, the opposite is true.  What you typically observe is a clear delineation between layers.  If the layers took a very long time to accumulate, you should see evidence of erosion between the layers.  But that is not the case. 

The varied colors of layers indicate different types of sediment.  But there is no known justification for uniformity of sediment supposedly for millions of years and then switching to another type.  The truth is that these multiple layers were very obviously laid down quickly as a result of a large flood. 

All over the world are examples of a phenomenon called folded strata, seen below. 

Hard rock does not fold over like a blanket, it breaks instead.  The only explanation for multiple layers being folded together like this is that the multiple layers were still soft.  In other words, multiple layers were all laid down quickly, together, in order for them to all still be soft and pliable. 

Lastly, there is another phenomena called polystrate fossils, meaning many strata.  See below.

These are fossilized that stand upright through many rock layers.  But the tree would rot and collapse waiting millions of years for the layers to build up around it.  The only possibility is that the tree and all of the layers were quickly deposited together in short order. 

As for the billions of dead things, mentioned earlier, which would have resulted from the global flood, that is precisely what we find in the rock layers, whether it be plant and animal fossils, or fossil fuels that were once various living things.   

The fact that we find so many fossils is itself evidence of a great flood, because fossils are only able to be formed when an organism is quickly buried, before it has time to decay or be scavenged.  And in fact, any of the fossil beds found around the globe contain mixtures of many types of creatures all in one place, even mixtures of land and sea creatures.

There are many other objections to Noah’s flood such as the ark not being big enough to house and maintain the animals (research shows that it was) or that the ark wasn’t seaworthy (research again shows that it was).  Some also argue there isn’t enough water to cover the face of the earth, but researchers believe they have recently discovered a vast ocean 400 miles beneath our feet that could fill our oceans three times over.

I hope you are beginning to see a pattern this week.  What you read in scripture is reliable and is backed up by what we observe in the world around us.  None of the alternate ideas of origins are able to stand up under scrutiny.  And the great Biblical event of Noah’s flood, which should have left a lasting mark on our planet, actually did!  The evidence is all around us.

2 Peter 3:3-6 – Above all, you must understand that in the last days scoffers will come, scoffing and following their own evil desires. They will say, “Where is this ‘coming’ he promised? Ever since our ancestors died, everything goes on as it has since the beginning of creation.” But they deliberately forget that long ago by God’s word the heavens came into being and the earth was formed out of water and by water. By these waters also the world of that time was deluged and destroyed.

Don’t be a scoffer!

-Greg Landry

If anyone has any questions or comments they would like me to address on any of the devotions dealing with creation this week, please reach out to me at gregrlandry@gmail.com

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Genesis 1 – Let there be life!

This Week’s Devotion Theme – God Created!

Today’s Daily Bible Reading – Genesis 13-14 and Matthew 7

This conversation can be a great jumping off place for reaching non-believers.  I hope you have an opportunity to use it for that purpose.

According to Genesis, God created the first life on Earth, in the form of plant life, on the third day of creation.  Then He created sea creatures and birds on the fifth day of creation, and finally, He created land animals and then man on the sixth day of creation.

Christians certainly believe that God created life.  But not everyone believes in a creator, so how do those folks, especially scientists, propose that life got started here on Earth?  The image below, from the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History gives a clue:

The first part, about living things being made up of organic compounds, is not disputed.  But how those organic compounds, known as the building blocks of life first appeared, is really not clear to scientists.  That is clear from the language used in this sign – “may have formed” and “may have been carried to Earth”.

But then, students are presented with a misleading experiment in their textbooks, known as the Miller-Urey experiment.  In 1953, Stanley Miller reported that he had conducted an experiment which replicated the primeval conditions on Earth and had produced the chemicals that were essential for life to begin.  The point being made to students to this day is that if the building blocks of life could start on their own, as this experiment demonstrates, then certainly life could eventually follow.

Even if the building blocks of life were there, to say that life could begin from non-life is actually a non-starter.  It has never been observed and is not even remotely possible.  There is something called the Law of Biogenesis which is the principle stating that life only arises from pre-existing life, not from nonliving material.

But the Miller experiment was actually a failure, and did not create the correct kinds of amino acids, which was the experiment’s goal.  Also, the fake environment created for the experiment lacked oxygen, because Miller knew it would prevent the molecular bonds from forming, though scientists believe the early Earth had higher oxygen levels than today’s atmosphere.

But let’s pretend for a moment that amino acids were actually able to come about completely by chance.  What then?  They would have to form into proteins, which are the building blocks of living cells.  This is no small feat however.  The law of probability states that an event with a chance higher than 10 to the 50th power (that’s 10 with 50 zeroes behind it or 10⁵⁰ in scientific notation shorthand) will never happen.  It has been estimated that the chance of a single protein arising by chance is 10 to the 191st power!  And cells are made up of millions of proteins.  The possibility of an entire cell arising by chance is estimated to be 10 to the 40,000th power!

The idea that a single cell is somehow simple in composition is a fallacy that has lived on well after the truth of its complexity has been discovered.  One scientist described a single cell as, “a high-tech factory, complete with artificial languages and their decoding systems, memory banks for information storage and retrieval, elegant control systems regulating the automated assembly of parts and components, error fail-safe and proof-reading devices utilized for quality control, assembly processes involving the principle of prefabrication and modular construction… and a capacity not equaled in any of our own most advanced machines, for it would be capable of replicating its entire structure within a matter of a few hours.”  That does not sound like something that could have arisen completely by chance.

Even biochemist and spiritual skeptic Francis Crick, who shared the Nobel Prize for discovering the molecular structure of DNA, said, “an honest man, armed with all the knowledge available to us now, could only state that in some sense, the origin of life appears at the moment to be almost a miracle, so many are the conditions which would have had to have been satisfied to get it going.”

He’s right of course.  Secular science is missing the most important parts of how life begins.  A Creator, and the breath of life.

Genesis 2:7 – Then the Lord God formed a man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being.

Secular science will never be able to explain or demonstrate how life began on its own, because it is an impossibility.  But the fact that you exist is proof that we have an amazing Creator God.  And the fact that you are able to read this is also pretty incredible.  Why?  Because of the design that enables you to see.  There are 100 million light sensitive cells in the human eye, which send signals to the brain through the 1 million nerve fibers of the optic nerve!  The visual process culminates in our brain which contains 100 billion nerve cells connected by 150,000 kilometers of nerve fibers.  It is estimated that there are 100 trillion connections between nerve cells in the human brain!  All of that, just so you can see.  And that is only one small but miraculous part of the equally miraculous rest of your body.

Indeed, we have a great God!  And indeed, you are fearfully and wonderfully made!

-Greg Landry

If anyone has any questions or comments they would like me to address on any of the devotions dealing with creation this week, please reach out to me at gregrlandry@gmail.com

Keep Seeking God – in his Scriptures and with the brain He has created for you. Your faith will Grow. Then Love someone else enough to share what God is teaching you.

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Genesis 1 – Made in God’s Image

This Week’s Devotion Theme: God Created!

Today’s Bible Reading: Genesis 11-12 and Matthew 6

The final piece in God’s creation, on day 6, is humankind.  Man stands out in all of creation, having been made in God’s own image.

Genesis 1:26-28 – Then God said, “Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.”

27 So God created mankind in his own image,
    in the image of God he created them;
    male and female he created them.

28 God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky and over every living creature that moves on the ground.”

Adam and Eve were the first humans, as recorded in Genesis and other places such as in Timothy 2:13 – For Adam was formed first, then Eve.  Adam is mentioned quite a few times throughout scripture, including in the genealogy of Jesus in Luke chapter 3.  But there are many Christians who question if Adam and Eve were even real people.  Why?  Primarily because of Darwinian Evolution.  If Darwinian Evolution is true, then there really were no exact pair of first humans per se, because humans would have evolved slowly from an ape-like ancestor.  For Christians who believe Darwinian Evolution to be true, it has led some to question how there could have been an actual Adam and Eve in that scenario.

But Darwinian Evolution is not possible, as I shared in yesterday’s devotion, and so there is no reason to try to explain away all of the references to Adam in scripture.  Doing so creates the need to start discounting the veracity of a lot of scripture.  Another reason to toss the idea that man evolved is that if you allowed one random step in evolution to occur every hour on the hour (much, much faster than evolutionists suggest it happens), it would take around 6.8 billion years for man to evolve from a single cell, which is too much time, even given the incorrect ancient age of the earth.

The supposed evolution of humans is full of a history of hoaxes, exaggerations, and errors.  For example, you may have heard it reported that humans and chimpanzees have anywhere from 95% to 99% genetic similarity, as this image from the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History claims.

  This is intended to support the idea that humans and chimps share a common ancestor.  But the truth is that that percentage is arrived upon because researchers only compared the most similar sections of the genomes.  But if you compare the entire genomes, it is more akin to a 70% similarity.  And still, there are over 900 million DNA differences that divide humans and chimps!  This is known to be true, but misleading information that states otherwise still appears in museums and in textbooks today.  No wonder so many Christians believe it. 

“There is no encompassing theory of human evolution,” concedes Berkeley evolutionary biologist F. Clark Howell.  “Alas, there never really has been.”

Is there any evidence that points to an actual Adam or Eve?  Yes!  Using comparisons of mitochondrial DNA, which is only passed on from the mother, creation scientists, and many secular scientists agree that evidence indicates all humans are descended from a single pair of humans that lived in the relatively recent past.  (This study was published in the journal Human Evolution in May 2018.)

Another recent study published in Science Magazine (337, p.64-69) suggests that humans haven’t been around very long.  Regarding human genetic diversity, the study concluded, “The maximum likelihood time for accelerated growth was 5,115 years ago.”  This time frame aligns rather closely with scripture, and specifically the time that Adam would have been created.

It is exciting for me to see that real world observation continually confirms the Bible.  As more and more Christians learn these truths, I hope it leads to an abandonment of attempts to throw out or twist sections of scripture that are not compatible with some scientific claims.  In regards to human evolution, you should feel confident that you did not evolve from an ape-like ancestor.  You were specially designed, created in the image of God, just as Adam was, in the beginning.  Jesus confirmed as much in Matthew 18:4 when he said, “at the beginning, the creator made them (Adam and Eve) male and female.”

-Greg Landry

If anyone has any questions or comments they would like me to address on any of the devotions dealing with creation this week, please reach out to me at gregrlandry@gmail.com

Editor: Do you know someone who could benefit from reading today’s devotion? Pass it on. I believe it could really save a life – an eternal life! Evolution has been used to distort God’s truth and lead youth and adults to question God’s existence, power, and love. It’s time to fight back. And how encouraging to know that Science Really IS on God’s side!

And, keep going on your daily Bible reading. Lots of good stuff in Genesis and Matthew!

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Genesis 1 – According to their Kinds

This Week’s Devotion Theme: God Created!

Today’s Bible reading: Genesis 9-10 and Matthew 5

One of the great questions in life is, “How did I get here?”  Job 33:4 says, “The Spirit of God has made me, and the breath of the Almighty gives me life.” As Christians, we believe we were created by God, with a purpose.  But so many in this world believe that they are a result of random processes, believing they are essentially an accident, and thus there is no greater purpose to their existence. 

According to the Bible, during the creation week, not only did God create the heavenly bodies and the planet we live on, He also populated this planet with life.

Genesis 1:9-13 – And God said, “Let the water under the sky be gathered to one place, and let dry ground appear.” And it was so. 10 God called the dry ground “land,” and the gathered waters he called “seas.” And God saw that it was good.

11 Then God said, “Let the land produce vegetation: seed-bearing plants and trees on the land that bear fruit with seed in it, according to their various kinds.” And it was so. 12 The land produced vegetation: plants bearing seed according to their kinds and trees bearing fruit with seed in it according to their kinds. And God saw that it was good. 13 And there was evening, and there was morning—the third day.

Then, in Genesis 1:20-25 – And God said, “Let the water teem with living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the vault of the sky.” 21 So God created the great creatures of the sea and every living thing with which the water teems and that moves about in it, according to their kinds, and every winged bird according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. 22 God blessed them and said, “Be fruitful and increase in number and fill the water in the seas, and let the birds increase on the earth.” 23 And there was evening, and there was morning—the fifth day.

24 And God said, “Let the land produce living creatures according to their kinds: the livestock, the creatures that move along the ground, and the wild animals, each according to its kind.” And it was so. 25 God made the wild animals according to their kinds, the livestock according to their kinds, and all the creatures that move along the ground according to their kinds. And God saw that it was good.

Note that the Bible says that God created plants, sea creatures, land creatures and flying creatures, at the beginning, according to their kinds. In other words, the various types of animals such as elephants, big cats and whales were there from the beginning.  Many scientists instead believe in Darwinian Evolution, an alternate explanation of how life came to exist on the Earth.

That is the worldview that results in people believing they are merely accidents and serve no purpose.  But which explanation is actually supported by what we observe in nature?  Can we trust how scripture says it happened?

The key idea in Darwinian Evolution is that all life that has ever existed descended from a relatively simple common ancestor, and became more complex over time, branching into different kinds of life as a result of random mutations.  Although this idea is widely accepted within scientific circles, thankfully, more and more scientists are questioning its validity.  There is a group called Dissent from Darwin, that lists over a thousand professors and scientists that do not believe the claims made by the Darwinian theory are valid. https://dissentfromdarwin.org

The problems with Darwinian Evolution are many.  Perhaps the biggest problem for evolution is that random mutations are not capable of adding new features to an organism ultimately leading up to a different type of organism altogether.  In lab settings, scientists have intentionally introduced mutations into thousands of generations of fruit flies, and have observed that the mutations only lead to inferior fruit flies.  Not better fruit flies or different kinds of flies altogether.  Mutations NEVER, under any circumstances, add information.  They only scramble up whatever information is already there, or instead, there is a loss of information.  Even if mutations were able to add new information, it is mathematically impossible for mutations to account for the vast variety of life on Earth, even if the Earth was much older than the ancient age some scientists believe it is.

Secondly, all that has ever been observed are small changes within an animal or plant kind, not changes that have ever led to a different animal or plant kind.  Yes, sometimes we can observe changes in a type of fish, for example, that some scientists then label as a new species.  But those changes have never been observed to lead that fish to turn into a non-fish.  

Finally, there is no record of evolution in the fossil record due to a complete lack of transitional fossils (fossils that clearly show a transition from one animal kind to another) that even evolutionists can agree on. 

On the other hand, real world observation shows that living organisms are far too complex to have evolved due to random chance.  Not only are the systems that make up your own body, such as the circulatory system, nervous system and so forth unimaginably complex, they are irreducibly complex.  That means, that these systems could not have evolved slowly over time because the entire system had to be in place from day one, or else it would not work.  Not only does the entire system need to be in place, but the various systems are interdependent, and so they had to all be there together from day one as well.  What good is a circulatory system if there is no respiratory system?  What good is a skeletal system if there is no muscular system?  What good is any system if there is not reproductive system?

As complex as any system is, the individual cells that make up the parts of the system are even more complex.  Cells function as tiny cities that work off of a set of blue prints to know what to do at any given time.  The blue prints are the DNA in the nucleus of the cell.  But if cells came about through evolution, did the nucleus of the cell evolve first, or did the DNA contained within the nucleus, which has the instructions of how to build not only the nucleus, but the entire cell, evolve first?  You see, again, everything had to be there together that first time, or it just doesn’t work.

What we actually observe around us fully supports the Biblical account of creation in that God created the different forms of life fully formed from the beginning, according to their kinds.  At the same time, what we observe leaves no possibility for Darwinian Evolution.

-Greg Landry

If anyone has any questions or comments they would like me to address on any of the devotions dealing with creation this week, please reach out to me at gregrlandry@gmail.com

Editor: Thank you for reading with us this week as Greg shares on his study of creation. We have an amazing God!

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Genesis 1 – The Heavenly Bodies

This Week’s Devotion Theme: God Created!

Today’s Bible reading: Genesis 7-8 and Matthew 4

Have you ever been in an outdoor area away from city lights and marveled at the starry night sky?  If not, what are you waiting for?  The beauty and sheer number of the stars and other heavenly bodies in the night sky are simply amazing.  About 3,000 stars are visible to the naked eye on a clear, moonless night, but it is estimated that there are about 100 billion stars in just our galaxy alone.  It is estimated that there are about 10 billion trillion stars in the universe.  That is 10,000,000,000,000,000,000,000.  That’s a lot of stars.  And if you ever want to feel truly insignificant, search for a video that compares the size of our closest star, the sun, to Earth and  to the other stars.  But then, while feeling truly insignificant, remember that the same God who created all of those stars also created you and loves you! 

How do we know God created the heavenly bodies?

Genesis 1:14-19 – And God said, “Let there be lights in the vault of the sky to separate the day from the night, and let them serve as signs to mark sacred times, and days and years, 15 and let them be lights in the vault of the sky to give light on the earth.” And it was so. 16 God made two great lights—the greater light to govern the day and the lesser light to govern the night. He also made the stars. 17 God set them in the vault of the sky to give light on the earth, 18 to govern the day and the night, and to separate light from darkness. And God saw that it was good. 19 And there was evening, and there was morning—the fourth day.

Isaiah 45:12 – I made the earth and created man on it; it was my hands that stretched out the heavens, and I commanded all their host.

Psalm 33:6 – By the word of the Lord the heavens were made, and by the breath of his mouth all their host.

Scripture seems pretty clear about this.  But you may have heard about something called The Big Bang Theory.  No, not the television show.  The Big Bang Theory claims that the universe came into being about 13.8 billion years ago with an explosion, all on its own, for no reason at all.  Though it is tempting to take the angle that the theory is essentially attempting to scientifically describe what God created, that is not the real intent of the theory.  It is an attempt to explain how the universe came into being, without the hand of a Creator God.

“Spontaneous creation is the reason there is something rather than nothing, why the Universe exists, why we exist.  It is not necessary to invoke God to…set the Universe going.” – Stephen Hawking.

It is understandable that some scientists would not invoke a Creator or the miraculous nature of the creation of the universe in their explanation of the origin of the universe.  And yet, there is no choice but to invoke miracles as part of an explanation of how something can come from nothing, as is the case with the Big Bang Theory.

  “[The big bang] represents instantaneous suspension of physical laws, the sudden abrupt flash of lawlessness that allowed something to come out of nothing.  It represents a true miracle…” – Paul Davies – physicist and evolutionist – The Edge of Infinity.

Keep quotes like these in mind when defending your faith.  Whether it is the universe starting from “spontaneous creation” or life starting from non-life, scientists will often rely on miracles to try to explain the world around us.  We as believers certainly accept miracles, but the difference is, we also believe in a Miracle-maker.  

Other than the Big Bang Theory not allowing for a Creator, the theory also does not fit with the creation account in Genesis because the creation account says that the earth was created before the stars, whereas the Big Bang theory claims the opposite.

The Big Bang Theory is truly not compatible with scripture, but moreover, it is now a crumbling theory, scientifically, as well.

There are numerous problems with the theory as it stands today.  Many things that we observe in the universe around us, both near and far, are simply impossible if the universe started with an explosion billions of years ago.

Without going into multiple explanations, a few of the problems include:

  1. We should find magnetic monopoles, but we don’t.
  2. There should be equal amounts matter and anti-matter, but it’s not even close.
  3. Only about 7,000 years worth of supernovas have been discovered.
  4. Distant galaxies appear far too young.
  5. Galaxies as we know them shouldn’t even exist.
  6. There are millions of years of missing collisions.
  7. The echo for the Big Bang is missing.
  8. Dark matter and dark energy are needed for the Big Bang model, but there is no evidence that either exists.
  9. Mercury shouldn’t be dense, but it is.  And it shouldn’t still have a magnetic field, but it does.
  10. The surface of Venus is too young, and it should not be rotating sideways or have a magnetic field.
  11. The Earth shouldn’t have any water, and its magnetic field is too young.
  12. Stars shouldn’t exist.
  13. Our moon’s origin and geologic activity are unexplainable.
  14. Saturn’s magnetic field shouldn’t be there.
  15. Neptune appears too young and shouldn’t even exist.
  16. Uranus should not still have a magnetic field and gives off too much energy.
  17. Jupiter also still gives off too much energy.
  18. Comets should no longer exist.

“Big Bang cosmology is probably as widely believed as has been any theory of the universe in the history of Western civilization.  It rests, however, on many untested, and in some cases untestable assumptions.  Indeed, big bang cosmology has become a bandwagon of thought that reflects faith as much as objective truth.” – G. Burbridge, Why only one big bang? Scientific American, 266 (2):96.

Either the universe started on its own, breaking multiple laws of physics in the process, and somehow resulted in many phenomena that indicate it didn’t begin as they say, billions of years ago, or our amazing God created all the stars and heavenly bodies that we see in the beautiful night sky just as scripture tells us.

-Greg Landry

If anyone has any questions or comments they would like me to address on any of the devotions dealing with creation this week, please reach out to me at gregrlandry@gmail.com

SeekGrowLove Editor: We thank Greg for tackling the job of discussing creation and the Bible during our devotions this week. Too often Godly kids have turned away from the truths of Scripture when faced with “smart” college professors teaching evolution. Greg has studied much and presents the truth of Scripture as well as the errors and inconsistencies of evolution. So, this week we offer a deeper look at creation than could be covered in one day of devotions. Dig in with us – and keep reading from the Bible reading plan as well. Print your copy below and mark off those passages as you go. God bless your journey with Him – from beginning to end!

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Genesis 1 – In the Beginning

This Week’s Devotion Theme: God Created!

Today’s Bible Reading: Genesis 5-6 and Matthew 3

Last month, I did a devotion on Romans chapters 1-3, where I discussed the fact that we do not have a blind faith, owing in part to the abundance of evidence all around us that there is indeed a creator.  The key verses were Romans 1:18-20 – The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of people, who suppress the truth by their wickedness, since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse.

To kick off the SeekGrowLove Devotion’s new topic-based option, what better place to start the new year than the book of Genesis?  For those that enjoyed the creation devotion from Romans last month, I hope you will be glad to learn that creation will be the daily devotion topic throughout this week.  Let’s start at the very beginning:

Genesis 1:1-5 – In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. 2 Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.

3 And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. 4 God saw that the light was good, and he separated the light from the darkness. 5 God called the light “day,” and the darkness he called “night.” And there was evening, and there was morning—the first day.

There is a lot of disagreement, among Christians in particular, whether the six days of creation were actual 24 hour periods, or longer periods.  Why is that?  I believe it’s because if you do a little study, taking the genealogies found in Genesis chapters 5 and 11, which indicate there was approximately 2,000 years between Adam and Abraham (and archaeological evidence indicates Abraham lived about 2,000 B.C.), you would discover that scripture points to the Earth being relatively young.  That is, if you agree that the Creation week which ended with the creation of Adam was a literal week, instead of a much longer period of time.

But of course that young earth idea flies in the face of what many scientists believe (and many, perhaps most, Christians have adopted as well), namely that the earth is billions of years old.  Thus, there are many theories on how one should understand Genesis chapters 1 and 2, given the widely accepted age of the Earth.  One theory is that the word day in Genesis doesn’t actually mean a 24 hour period.  It has been suggested that day in Genesis represents a much longer time period.  But we should dig a bit deeper into the original language of Genesis to get a better understanding of what was meant by the word day, when used in phrases like “the first day.”

The Hebrew word for day in Genesis is yom.  It can have several meanings (much like our own word for day) – a period of time, a specific period of time, a year, the time of day when it is light out, and a 24 hour period of time.  However, the Hebrew yom is used with a number (such as the first day) 359 times in the Old Testament outside of Genesis 1, and every single time, it is clear that it means a 24 hour period.  Genesis is the only place where the meaning of yom is questioned.

There are other Hebrew words that mean time or an indefinite period, but they were not used.  The only Hebrew word that can represent a 24 hour period is the one that was used in Genesis to describe the creation days.  I don’t believe that was an accident.

Another theory, known as the gap theory, is that the Earth appears old because God created the Earth, as described in Genesis 1:1, then paused a very long time, before continuing with the rest of creation, beginning as described in Genesis 1:2.  But there is a verse outside of Genesis that sheds heavy doubt on that theory. 

Exodus 20:8-11 – Remember the Sabbath by keeping it holy.  …For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth and all that is in them, but he rested on the seventh day.  Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.

If, as this passage says, God created the Earth (as it says in Genesis 1:1) AND everything in it in six days, then clearly there is no possibility of a gap as the gap theory posits.  Furthermore, when the plural form of yom, yamim, is used, as it is over 700 times in the Old Testament, including here in Exodus, it always means a literal 24 hour period.

Isaiah 45:18 – For thus says the Lord, who created the heavens (he is God!), who formed the earth and made it (he established it; he did not create it empty, he formed it to be inhabited!): “I am the Lord, and there is no other.   Again, scripture outside of Genesis indicates that the Earth was designed to be inhabited from the beginning, not to remain empty for any long period, before life was added.

Additionally, the word remember in Hebrew, when used as a command, as it is in Exodus 20:8, always refers back to a real historical event.  This is especially important because there are multiple theories out there that the creation account is simply a myth or a metaphor.

I believe that when you take the entirety of scripture into account, it clearly supports that the creation week was a historical event, and took 6 literal 24 hour days to complete.

But what about the evidence that the Earth appears very old?  After all, without this idea, I doubt that people would actually question the veracity of the creation account.  Well, in my studies of that evidence, I have found it to be inconclusive at best, and often fraudulent or intentionally misleading.  Perhaps the biggest issue is the fact that radiometric dating methods have been proven unreliable, inconsistent, and return vast age ranges from which scientists cherry pick the dates that suit their narrative.  For example, lava that had hardened into igneous rock after the Mt. St Helens eruption in Washington State in 1980 was radiometrically dated to be 300,000 – 400,000 years old.

The following quote illuminates the problem.

The troubles of the radiocarbon dating method are undeniably deep and serious.  Despite 35 years of technological refinement and better understanding, the underlying assumptions have been strongly challenged… It should be no surprise, then, that fully half of the dates are rejected.  The wonder is, surely, that the remaining half come to be accepted. 

Radiocarbon, Ages in Error,” Anthropological Journal of Canada, Vol 19, No 3, p.9 illuminates the problem.

There is much more to say about the evidence of errors within dating methods, but a daily Bible devotion is not the best place to expand further on those ideas.

If anyone has any questions or comments they would like me to address on any of the devotions dealing with creation this week, please reach out to me at gregrlandry@gmail.com

-Greg Landry

SeekGrowLove Editor: We thank Greg for tackling the job of discussing creation and the Bible during our devotions this week. Too often Godly kids have turned away from the truths of Scripture when faced with “smart” college professors teaching evolution. Greg has studied much and presents the truth of Scripture as well as the errors and inconsistencies of evolution. So, this week we offer a deeper look at creation than could be covered in one day of devotions. Dig in with us – and keep reading from the Bible reading plan as well. Print your copy below and mark off those passages as you go. God bless your journey with Him – from beginning to end!

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Naked

Genesis 3-4 and Matthew 2

One of the more lingering adolescent experiences was changing for gym in the middle school locker room. I can still smell the dense body orders and feel the salty mist hanging in the air. I tried to get to the gym early, that way I didn’t have to skimp down to my drawers in front of everyone.  As a kid that was called “dough boy” in the last two years of middle school, I definitely had some heightened body image issues that directly correlated with my self-esteem.   Taking your clothes off in front of people (or having people take them off in front of you) can be pretty embarrassing to say the least.  Thankfully, I powered through those moments, but can say without a doubt that I didn’t like and still am not a fan of dressing out.

“Adam and his wife were both naked, and they felt no shame.” Gen 2:25

“Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves.” – Genesis 3:7

The Garden of Eden was originally a nudist colony of two residents: Adam and Eve.  The thing is, they had no idea that they were even exposed.  I have thought about this a great deal (in a less picturing, more vicarious way), and came to peace with nakedness neither being the sweat-building, panic-inducing deal that it was in my middle school locker room, nor the lust-driven, eye-catching act that entangles many men and women (but especially men).  It isn’t a source of shame or sexuality.   If there is no sin, we are free to walk around naked.  Now this is not a call to rip off all your clothes and walk out into the world in your birthday suit.  Remember, you don’t live in Eden.  Sin still exists.

As we do everything we can to walk closer with God in his garden, We might expose ourselves in a different way.  First, we come before God honestly.  When we pray, let’s not hide or lie.  God already knows the truth.  It may be completely shameful what we have done.  We may field consequences from God, but isn’t open repentance much better than the persisting falsehood?  If we live a lie long enough, we will begin to believe it over what God is directly telling us.  Also, we can live more exposed in front of others. Again, clothes on.  Shame is the depressant that keeps us from forgiveness and moving forward.  Being vulnerable, sharing the most disastrous parts of your testimony, can be tougher than any middle school locker room.  You open yourself up to the loss of opportunities, ridicule, and even persecution.  It doesn’t matter.  God, who works all things together, will turn your shame into His glory, and in the process you will be restored.

I will rejoice greatly in the Lord, My soul will be joyful in my God; For He has clothed me with garments of salvation, He has wrapped me with a robe of righteousness, As a groom puts on a turban, And as a bride adorns herself with her jewels. – Isaiah 61:10

Now, there may be a few pistons firing, making the connection that the Kingdom of God will bring about something similar to a second Eden.  If so, will we be naked?  Thankfully, there does seem to be some subtle statements about being clothed, at least with a crown and a smile, but the reality is it will not matter.  We will be made new and complete in the most ultimate version there is.  No sin.  No shame.  So, naked or not, here I come.

Thank you all for the opportunity to share my faith with you this week.  I pray that 2021 holds many blessings from God, and we all have the provision, strength, and wisdom to pursue whatever path he has laid out for our lives.

-Aaron Winner

SeekGrowLove.com Editor: Welcome to the Second day of our 2021 Bible reading plan! Print your copy below so you can mark and keep track of your progress. Most days we will read 2 Old Testament chapters and 1 chapter from the New Testament or Proverbs or a few Psalms. Every week we have a new devotions writer who will either write about the daily readings – OR – they may write all week on one Biblical theme they would like to pursue further. Tomorrow, we begin the first theme week as Greg Landry takes a closer look at Creation. We look forward to together Seeking God, Growing our Faith and Loving more and more this year!

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See a Victory

Genesis 48-50

Genesis 50 20 NIV

Israel asks “Who are these?” in reference to Joseph’s sons. That’s a little odd considering the length of time that Israel had been in Egypt. Had he yet to meet his grandchild whom he has just claimed as his own children? Clearly he knows about them to declare that they will receive the same inheritance as Joseph and the other sons of Israel. I think it is more likely that he is, much like Joseph did with his brothers, playing a game with Joseph. He is trying to appear as if he is slightly senile so that he can get the last laugh. When Joseph brings his two children to Israel to receive their blessing, Israel reverses their order and blesses the younger first and the older second. We see in verse 17 that Joseph has bought into Israel’s ploy. Joseph talks to his father as if his father is confused and does not know what he is doing. Israel knows exactly what he is doing. This short interaction calls a few other stories to memory. Jacob himself received the blessing due to the firstborn, although he was younger than his brother Esau. The craftiness of Jacob was clearly passed on to Joseph. We also read in Genesis 38 that the twin children of Judah born to Tamar had their birth order reversed at the exact moment of birth, with the first one to feel fresh air being the second to be born. A clear theme emerges from all of these stories: “The last shall be first, and the first last” (Matthew 20:16). If this reversal of roles leaves you feeling satisfied, why? Perhaps you are exactly the opposite. This situation makes you indignant. Once again, why?

 

In Israel’s final words to his children, we get a little reminder of why Judah was given more responsibility than the firstborn Reuben. Judah’s older siblings are vicious. The plot to kill Joseph and the massacre of an entire Canaanite establishment are just two examples of their perverse ways. Levi was an awful man by all accounts, but the priesthood comes out of this tribe. We know that during the wandering, the Levites were responsible for carrying all of the elements of the Tabernacle. Perhaps that was a form of punishment for the sins of Levi. Conferring this holy duty to the levites could also be considered a way to correct their course. They were pushed to become the gatekeepers for all their brothers, providing the means necessary to receive the grace of God through sacrifice and all the religious acts.

 

The other thing that grabs my attention from these blessings is that Israel blesses Judah with rulership of his siblings. This is manifested in the Kingship later. It seems like a wise choice considering who the other options are. Yet Joseph would also be a fair choice, would he not? Joseph is the one who all of the siblings bowed down to in their lifetimes. Yet Israel confers his blessing upon Judah. One issue with the reign coming out of Joseph is the split of his tribe into two halves, leaving one to rule and the other to serve, even though both are equally entitled to the position. Instead, Israel puts both half-tribes under Judah.

 

Though Joseph was a man of great power and authority, he was also a man of great emotion and compassion. We see a reflection of God’s nature in him. After Israel’s death, his brothers beg for their lives at the feet of Joseph. By all rights, this is the state we should find ourselves in before God. Then Joseph delivers one of my favorite lines of the Bible: “You planned evil against me; God planned it for good.” Those who attended reFuel will remember the song “See A Victory.” This song contains that line and I find great comfort in it. We must first experience the evil in order to come out on the other side and experience the good that God intended. Take comfort in God’s kindness.

 

Nathaniel Johnson

 

Today’s Bible passage can be read or listened to at https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Genesis+48-50&version=NIV

 

Tomorrow’s reading will begin the exciting book of Exodus – chapters 1-3 – as we continue the 2020 Chronological Bible Reading Plan

Moving to Egypt

Genesis 46-47

Genesis 46 3 4a NIV

When Jacob receives a vision, we get almost no insight into his reaction. Verse 2 states that Jacob said, “Here I am.” but that does not indicate whether he has experienced this type of vision frequently or if this is the first time since he saw the vision at Bethel when he was young (Genesis 28). It also doesn’t tell us how he reacted to the vision. We know that he made a sacrifice to God on that same day, but after seeing the vision, there was no obvious change in Jacob’s plan. Before the vision, he was moving his family to Egypt and after the vision, he continued to move his family to Egypt. To us, the story would read exactly the same if verses 2-4 were left out. It would read, “Jacob came to Beer-sheba, and then he left.” Yet the author of this passage clearly wanted us to read verses 2-4 otherwise, he would not have included it. Why do you think these verses are included? My first inclination is that sometimes God will speak to us just to tell us that the path we are following is the right one and we should stay our course. Nothing changes before or after, and we may not even experience a change in confidence that our course was correct. In my experience, most of the times when it seems like God is telling me something, it is that I need to change. Perhaps I am missing, and should be paying attention to, the times when he is saying, “Keep on moving.”

 

The name Serah, daughter of Asher jumps out at me. She is the only granddaughter of Israel that is listed. What makes her so important as to be listed among her brothers? It turns out that she has a rich tradition in the Jewish Midrash, a rabbinical text that expanded and commented upon the books of the Old Testament. The texts hold that she had a part in the Exodus story, correctly identifying Moses as the prophet who would save the Israelites from enslavement to the Egyptians. Most Christians view the stories of the Midrash to be parables with some amount of truth to them, however they were kept as oral tradition and contain various historical contradictions, leading it to be kept out of our modern day Bible. If you are interested in learning more about Serah, you can read a great, yet lengthy article here: https://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/serah-daughter-of-asher-midrash-and-aggadah

 

Goshen is described as being the best farmland in the area around Egypt. Here again we see Joseph being extremely cunning. He secures the land of Goshen, which he knows to be good land, for his family by making his family appear dirty. He convinces Pharaoh that his family are detestable and should be kept away from the center of Egypt, and in doing so guarantees that his family will have room to grow both in wealth and in size. When Joseph tells his family to say that they are shepherds, it almost sounds like he is trying to get them to lie. For the most part, it is true that they are shepherds. The family does keep animals, but I am sure that not every member of his family is directly involved in the handling of animals. By having each and every one of them claim to be a shepherd, he ensures that the family is not split off into two groups, the clean and the detestable. As a bonus, the Israelites are even put in charge of Pharaoh’s own livestock, but based on what we have seen from Joseph so far, I am confident that he knew this outcome would be achieved.

 

Chapter 47 verse 25 is striking. The men of the region sell themselves into slavery to Pharaoh and all that is required of them is that they give 20% of their income to the government? Most working Americans pay more than that on their income alone, let alone sales taxes, property tax and the like. Still, I would rather be a “slave” to the American government paying taxes and having access to medical care that does not involve surrounding myself with feces or drinking potions made from dog blood as the ancient Egyptians would. If that statement has sparked your interest, read on here (see “Techniques” and “Healing”): http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/ancient/egyptians/magic_01.shtml
Nathaniel Johnson

 

Today’s Bible reading can be read or listened to at https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Genesis+46-47&version=NIV

 

Tomorrow’s reading will be the final chapters of Genesis  – 48-50 on our 2020 Chronological Bible Reading Plan

 

 

Joseph Reveals Himself

Genesis 43-45

Genesis 45 7 NIV

I think that after one day you understand how this set of devotions will work. They are casual, informal and straight to the point. With that, let’s pick up where we left off.

 

It is interesting in verse 8, that Judah is the one to bear responsibility for retrieving food. Reuben is the first-born of Israel and would be the de facto leader of the brothers, yet it is Judah who shoulders the burden of protecting his half-brother Benjamin on the journey back to Egypt. In times when it seems like someone is meant to be a leader, there is actually a gap to be filled. There are times when a gap is created when a leader fails to step up. Men fail. That is what we do. But there is always someone to fill that gap, even if that person never thought they were suited for that position. Where can I fill the gaps?

 

The steward who greets the sons of Israel is only a side character in this story, yet he is performing the duties that Jesus later commanded all of us to take on. In verse 24, it says that the steward provided water to wash their feet. Jesus took it a step further and washed feet himself. This side character was more powerful than a servant, yet he still performed some duties of the servant. Jesus has more authority even than this steward, and yet he lowered himself even further than the steward. This is true humility. We need to be willing to serve and be the side character.

 

Joseph is really quite crafty. First he develops this plot that will ensure that he is able to see his younger brother. He accuses the sons of Israel of spying on the land and learns of his younger brothers existence and then threatens the brothers so that they must bring Benjamin with them if they ever return. Yet Joseph knows that they must return. Joseph controls all of the grain in the region. The brothers must return. He even returns their money to guarantee two things. One is that they will have the money to purchase more grain in the future. The other is to entrap them in another of his schemes, that he might pay them back for their injustice to him or that he might force them to leave Benjamin with him. This idea comes up again at the end of chapter 44. When his brothers do return, he treats them to a feast to the brothers great confusion (see verse 33). They thought they were under suspicion of being spies, yet here they are being treated to a feast by the man who is second only to the Pharaoh of the most powerful civilization on the planet. That is quite a turn of events. But Joseph is not done playing with them yet. He plants his personal belongings in Benjamin’s bag. This is starting to look like the diabolical plot of an evil mastermind. In doing this, he will be able to reduce his brothers to groveling at his feet and will have also created a scenario where his only brother Benjamin must stay in Egypt.

 

Fortunately, Joseph is not an evil mastermind. He is just a cunning brother who longs to be with his family. Verse 1 of chapter 45 reveals this. In the end, all of his scheming only resulted in prolonging his isolation from his family. If he had revealed himself the first time that his brothers had come for food, he may have experienced the same outcome where his father’s entire household would move to Goshen and live with him. But then again, Joseph must have been afraid when he first saw his brothers. Remember, the last time he saw them, they were busy throwing him into pits (don’t worry, there wasn’t any water in it) and selling him into slavery. If you were in Joseph’s situation and were half as cunning as him, would you have acted the same?

 

Nathaniel Johnson

 

Today’s Bible reading can be read or listened to at https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Genesis+43-45&version=NIV

 

Tomorrow’s reading will be Genesis 46-47 as we continue on the 2020 Chronological Bible Reading Plan