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Listen to Week 1. Genesis Intro (1) (online-audio-converter.com) by Gina McClanahan MP3 song. Week 1. Genesis Intro (1) (online-audio-converter.com) song from Gina McClanahan is available on Audio.com. The duration of song is 01:00:34. This high-quality MP3 track has 128 kbps bitrate and was uploaded on 17 Jan 2025. Stream and download Week 1. Genesis Intro (1) (online-audio-converter.com) by Gina McClanahan for free on Audio.com – your ultimate destination for MP3 music.
The speaker is discussing the importance of studying the book of Genesis in the Bible. They mention that the Old Testament is often overlooked or misunderstood by Christians, but it is essential for understanding the foundation of their faith. They explain that the Torah, which includes the first five books of the Bible, is not just a set of laws, but also contains teachings and instructions. The speaker emphasizes that Genesis is the most studied book in literature and the first chapter is the most studied chapter in the Bible. They argue that Genesis is important because it explains the origin of various concepts such as marriage, sin, and death. The speaker also mentions that Genesis shows God's plan for redemption from the very beginning. They encourage listeners to approach the Old Testament with a Jewish perspective that focuses on God's redemption rather than viewing it as dark or unnecessary. or next week, as like I said, we could spend an entire lifetime researching Genesis, just the first verse, let alone the first chapter. So, there's a lot of material. I sent you all individually a document, a PDF, because I'm going to be doing something this time with Hebrew, and I thought that it would be helpful, because I don't have a whiteboard or anything like that, for you to have something in front of you. Know that my notes are not, they're pretty identical to what you have, but I didn't send you everything that's kind of my cue notes. So, hopefully it's clear, but again, you're my test group. So, if it's not clear, if it starts to get too complicated, if you get too lost, interrupt me, and like, Tara, wait. What were you saying? Because right off the bat, we read Hebrew from right to left. So, you're just going to, in your Western non-Hebrew headlines, you're going to start on the left, and you're going to be like, why is she saying that there? It's not just look to the opposite side of the lesson. So, okay, we're going to start large and then come in small. So, we're going to start with basically the Jewish Bible, the Hebrew Bible. Christians refer to it as the Old Testament. Jews refer to it as, at best, the First Testament. So, I'm going to use all of those terms interchangeably. But what I'm praying that this does is that it dispels these kind of notions that the Old Testament is old, that it's antiquated, that it's unnecessary, that it's dark, that it's difficult and thorny to read, that it's not uplifting or it's not encouraging, or God is just not the God that Christians feel that they know. And so, I'm hoping to dispel with that, because when Paul says in 2 Timothy, when he states that all Scripture is profitable for teaching, what's the only Scripture that existed when Paul wrote that? The Old Testament. There was no New Testament. So, when Paul was referring to that, he was a Hebrew man, referring to the fact that all Scripture is profitable for teaching. And that's important to understand, because God is the beginning and the end. He knew where our culture was going to lead us. He knew that the Old Testament was going to be kind of put in the backseat for a lot of Christians. And I don't want Christians to have the diminished perspective that I had as a Jew. As a Jew, I grew up, and for you all in the Christian Bible, it ends with Malachi. So, if I say Chronicles, that's because that's where the Hebrew Bible ends, but Malachi. I had knowledge up to Malachi, and then there was an abyss. And I feel like a lot of Christians now, because the Old Testament is viewed as dark and not uplifting, you know, who really wants to talk about judges and church on Sunday? Or Leviticus. Even though Leviticus is the most that God ever speaks in the Bible. I mean, it is literally just a recording of him speaking, but it's the least read book. But I don't want all of you to have that abyss where you can't easily look back and easily defend your faith and defend God's Word, because you know its foundation. Also, you should know that the entire Bible was written by Hebrew men. It is based on the Holy Scripture of the Old Testament. Fifty percent of the New Testament is either a reference or a direct quote of the Old Testament. So, Jesus himself quotes Genesis six times directly. So, the bulk of the New Testament is actually a restating of an Old Testament. So, with the Old Testament, we get God is fully revealed, right? And I'm going to say something, but I need you to listen all the way to the end of the sentence before everybody gets, you know, upset. God is only revealed in the Old Testament. God is only revealed in the Old Testament. Carol, that is the most insane comment I have ever heard. God revealed himself fully and completely in the Old Testament so that when Jesus came, everybody would recognize who he was. So that the chosen people would know who Jesus was. So, if Jesus did anything new, revealed something different that was already known, then the Jews would have a legitimate excuse to say, that's not God. God became flesh, but Jesus' nature and character, there is nothing that you encounter with Jesus Christ that has not already been revealed in the Old Testament. And that is so that nobody could ever deny that that is not the same God. So, he is fully revealed in the Old Testament. So, the Torah, the first five books of the Bible, the Pentateuch. So, the Torah. It has been poorly translated as the law. But Torah is not law. Torah contains law. It contains the commandment, the Ketubah, the ten words of God about how we should live in the world to be image bearers of him. It contains the Levitical law, which is in Leviticus, which tells Jews who are unconsecrated, unholy, how to make themselves clean to be in the presence of God, in front of a holy God. But Torah is not law. Torah is teachings and instruction. So, that's what the Torah is. And like I said, it's the first five books. So, Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. Those books were either gathered, materials were gathered, oral stories gathered and compiled by Moses, which is, of course, Genesis, because Moses wasn't there writing it. But then about 98% of the rest of Torah was written by Moses. He did not write his own obituary. Joshua took care of that, but for the most part, the rest of it is written by Moses. And I do know that there's some computer program that has stated that this couldn't have been written by one author, that there had to be more than one, and I'll get into that a little bit. Also note, when I say that it was written by, I understand that this is the Holy and Fire Word of God, and these are human instruments. It just gets really tongue-tie-y for me to state that, so can we all just, from this point forward, if I say the author is Moses, that we all just know who the author is, and we're just human instruments of that. And like I said, God reveals his character, and the thing about Torah is it is the first mention of everything in the Bible. So, whenever we want to understand the Bible, the context of the Word, or what it might mean, or the theology that is the epistle, we have to go back to the first time that Word was used, and where is that Word always used, pretty much for the first time? Torah. And so, it helps us get a deeper understanding of the rest of God's Word. So, we need to be very familiar. We need to be very familiar with it. And I know what everybody's thinking, we are doing Genesis, not Leviticus. But if I live long enough, I could totally do a Bible study on Leviticus. Why? Because I just want to spend a whole day talking about defiling moles. Actually, my favorite is that you can't wear wool in polyester. And I just think that, thank goodness, none of us are Hasidic Jews, because women, we just literally die. Thanks would not exist. So, okay, so if we went from the entire Holy Scripture, First Testament, Old Testament, Hebrew Bible, and then we go into the first five books of the Torah, Genesis. Why would I choose Genesis to start? And don't say the OCD thing, because it's in the beginning. We'll just count that as the main why. So, Genesis is, so you guys know, the most studied book in all of, I'm going to say the word literature, don't get offended, but it is the most studied book. And Chapter 1 of Genesis is the most studied chapter within the Bible. There is more written about the book of Genesis and about Chapter 1 of Genesis than any other book. And there's a reason why it's a book of firsts. It is where we learn what marriage is, what death is, what male and female is, what sin is, what murder is, what a covenant is. Every single first, it is the origin of all things. So why is Genesis so important? So, Psalm 113. Anybody in here know it? If not, write it down. I don't think I memorized Scripture. I can't remember where 14 is. So, Psalm 113. If the foundations are destroyed, what can the righteous do? Genesis is the foundation of everything we believe. So what is the enemy going to attack? The foundation. And I would argue that he's done a really, really good job. Not just in the world, but with Christians themselves. He has created division and deception with everything that God ordained in Genesis. Because what Genesis is, is who God is, what He intended for us and for us to be. That's chapters 1 and 2. And then chapters 3 through 11 is when we get involved. The fall and then an ever more rapidly descending ascent into sin. Right? From a single man to a family, from a family to a people group, from a people group to the nations. Right? That's what sin does. Right? It's never satisfied. So, chapters 3 through 11 is our descent from the beauty that God created into the abyss that we created. So, this can be a really uplifting Bible study. But, when we look at Genesis closely, we're going to see that God's redemption plan, His choice to restore everything that we destroy and lose, has been there from the very beginning. And that's how I want us to see the Old Testament. I know that we're going to be covering Genesis, but I'm hoping that this inspires you to be looking at the Old Testament through the eyes of what a Jewish person looks at the Old Testament. We don't think of this side of Malachi as God is wrathful or dark. We look at Him as a God of redemption. Okay, that's what we see. So, where Christians teach judges is a cycle of sin, Jews are taught it is a cycle of God's redemption. That's a very different perspective. It's what you focus your attention on. So, Genesis is God giving us free reign, realizing that we shouldn't have it, and then stepping in. And we'll see that when we learn about Him. I also need you to know I hold a very high view of Scripture. That doesn't mean we need to get into debates here. But, I believe that Genesis is a confident affirmation of God's what, His how, and His why. So, what? There is one God. His how. He created all things by supernatural power. And His why. Because He loves us. He calls us image bearers. He calls us stewards. He believes that we are worthy enough to have our own free will. And then, He loves us so much that when we make poor decisions, He steps in and restores us. So, I hold a very high view of Genesis. I believe that it is literal history. Okay? It is literal history. It is actually included in Jewish teachings. The Torah is history books. And there are plenty of parallel documents written around the same time that actually back up the whole story. And, we also know that archaeological studies, find, have always done what? Once again, they prove something that the world has discounted. So, I take it as literal history. And I said earlier that the enemy seeks to destroy Genesis. He wants to diminish it into myths, into allegories, into children's stories. And that's not true at all. And I believe that it not only causes divisions within the church, but it makes your faith prone to pitfalls, prone to potholes. It punches holes into what you believe until you become quiet about what you believe because the world has told you you're crazy with what you believe. And, again, I mentioned it has a task of the enemy, marriage. Christians no longer know what marriage is. Christians no longer know what a man and a woman is. You know, evolution. If there was anything that destroyed our self-esteem and our self-worth, it is the belief that we are evolved from an ape. I don't want to get into conversations that we eat at lunch and stuff, but I need you to know where I come from. It took me 40 years to open the door to Jesus Christ. And between battling a need for signs and wonders, because that's my nature, but it also was I had to believe every single word in the Bible. I couldn't pick and choose what was necessary. Because if I wanted to believe Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life, and that everybody I love and hold dear is not going to heaven, then I also had to believe that it was evening and the morning and it was the next day. Genesis can't be a nice story to make us feel better about ourselves. For me, it is literal history. And how is that proven? I said I look at the Bible. So, if we look at the New Testament, if we look at Jesus, he gives testimony to the fact that Torah is literal. Because when he speaks in parables, what we know literally is allegory. Does he ever use specific names? It's a man who owns a vineyard. But when he speaks about historical fact, he uses names. He names Jonah. Right? He says the actual name. So, this is not some allegorical or mythical figure. It wasn't a fisherman or a Jew that was slaughtered. It's Jonah. Adam is in Jesus' genealogy. He's named and listed as part of Jesus' bloodline. So, Jesus understood this to be not only his genealogy, but literal history. So, we either have to decide that the Messiah was mistaken and that he can't be the Messiah. Right? Or we have to take it for what Jesus then said it is. But this is literal history. So, the other thing is, how can I say that to people? And I hold, and not many, but maybe one of you, hold to evolution. Genesis has never gone against any scientific fact. That is the rule that has been pulled over our eyes. Genesis has never run contrary to any single scientific law that is, in fact, a law. Where it gets sticky is Genesis runs contrary to scientific theory. Because people pretend that theory is law. In not quite my lifetime, but Steady's lifetime, there was the overwhelming belief that the universe was a steady state. That it always was. And I think sometime in maybe the 1940s or the 1950s, the theory of steady state, which is what the entire world was taught, this was scientific theory, but it was taught as scientific law. Suddenly, what did they find out? No, the universe started from a single point of origin. Now there's a theory, the big bang theory, right? And I guarantee you, whether we live long enough or not, they will discover that there is divine intelligence. It's why you don't hear about whatever that thing is in Sweden, I forget the name of that gyroscope or whatever, because they keep trying to disprove God and they keep proving God. So how do you know when they hit a brick wall in their theory? We stop hearing about it. There is also not one single piece of evidence, I don't know how many people know this because of what's taught in our schools, there is not one single piece of evidence of macroevolution. There has not been one single fossil found of a species becoming something else. There's nothing. Now, micro is not evolution. Micro is adaptation. Okay, so micro is just the human body adapting to the current circumstances over years. It's small, so like wisdom teeth, you know? I mean, it's small. But we're still human. We were human when we had wisdom teeth that were functioning. We are human now that we don't, each according to its kind. There is no scientific evidence that any species, anything, has become something other than what it always was. And I'm giving this information because I believe that our disconnect from Torah, our disconnect from creation has not only silenced us, but it has also made us not believe it. Like at first we got silent about it because we don't want to be the crazy people. And now we've been silent for so long that now we're starting to think maybe we are crazy and we are wrong. So I just wanted you to know that I'm happy to have discussions with you, everybody in here that knows me. You can bring up anything you want because I don't care what my opinion is. I don't. I don't care if I don't like what I read in the Bible. My opinion doesn't matter. It matters what God says, and my only job is to submit and surrender to it and then align to it. That's it. So that doesn't mean that God didn't leave us gray areas. He did, but I do not believe there is a single clobber passage in the Bible. I think it's taking the teeth out of Christians so that we get silent. And if we can't defend how we were created and who God is, Genesis, then how can we defend who Jesus Christ is? Amen. So Genesis. Just so you know, this is going to be quick. The author has said with Moses, Jesus confirms this in John 5, verse 46, If you believed Moses, you would believe me, for he wrote about me. So I know there's a lot of argument, but Jesus testified that Moses wrote Genesis, so, therefore, Moses wrote Genesis. When? I think it's in 1 Kings, and if anybody knows it, jump in. I think it's in 1 Kings, and they talk about a generation of Solomon. So we actually know if we date it back. This was actually somewhere between 1445 and 1440 B.C. A lot of scholars say it's precisely 1446, based on biblical time frame that's given in 1 Kings, but it's around then. And where? Moses delivered this scroll, read this scroll to the Jews at the base of Mount Sinai after their deliverance from Egypt. Why? God's people had been enslaved in the kingdom of man for over 400 years. He needed to remind them who he was, who they are, and what his plan is. So it was, Egypt no more. You are citizens of heaven. You are chosen. You are the kingdom of God, and you are to be my demons pharaohs, and I am a God of covenant and promise. That's why Genesis was read to the Jews. This is who created the world. This is who I am. This is who I intended you to be. This is where you all messed up. This is me stepping into history and making a covenant with Abraham. I am the God of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph. So that's why it was read to them, just to put it into context. The structure of it, the first Hebrew word, tens, toledot. So a toledot, if you guys want me to spell it, I will. T-O-L-E-D-O-T, sometimes it has an H, sometimes it doesn't, X. Toledot. It translates to generations. Genesis is broken up into a structure of ten generations. If you want to look that up, next up. Okay? Ten commandments, and God said ten times. The number ten for Jews is the number of authority. The authority of God's Word. Chapters 1 and 2, I told you already who God is, what he intended for us. Chapters 3 through 11, our descent into sin. We're not going to cover anything after 11 this semester, but know in chapter 12, verses 1 through 4 are the hinge of Genesis. They are the four hinge verses of God stepping in, seeing Abraham, and saying, It's time. They sunk low enough. It's time. Okay? And then chapters 12, chapter 1, verse 5, through chapters 50 are the patriarchs. It's God moving through a chosen people. What verses do you think that was? So the hinge verses are chapter 12, verses 1 through 4. And that is where, and I want to be clear with this, God's redemption plan was there from the beginning, but seeing it in action is in chapter 12, verses 1 through 4, when he's like, okay, let's get this kind of part of that one. Okay? Would anyone want me to resell any of that Torah doc? And I'm happy for you all to look it up. You guys know it. I mean, right? You know, Adam, Noah, and his sons. Like, you guys know the generations that are in there, but you all can look it up if you don't. And then this should be the driving focus of any time you spend with me in any Bible study, and my friends will tell you, and hopefully everybody will be my friends at the end of this. I like to talk about the Bible. That's what I like to talk about. That is my favorite conversation of all time. But the way that I want you to understand how I feel about that is I don't read the Bible or look at the Bible to learn about me. And that is what's happened in women's ministry. It has become self-application. And the one thing I know is that whenever self is involved, we are on the world map. And I understand that that is what is popular and that is what is impactful, you know, influential, not impactful. But that is what is influential in the world for women to sit around, kind of like, ooh, you know, Philippians 4.13. They read it, and then it's all about how that applies to me. That's dangerous. I look at the Bible to learn one thing. Who is God? Because here's the simple thing. If I'm an image bearer of God, then I need to know as much as I can possibly know about God so that I can become what? I mean, I can. That's what I need to know. So how is God revealed in Genesis? I just told you he's revealed in the Old Testament. And then we see him in the flesh in the Gospels, but nothing new is revealed about his character or nature, because that would be confusing, right? Then there really would be a Jewish argument of, wait, that's a different God. And the Jews are Shema, right? There is one God. And that's their huge stumbling block. There is one God, not understanding the triune nature of God himself. So how is God revealed? Well, he's revealed as sovereign. You guys know that, right? The supreme authority over all things. He's not just the creator. He's the author of creation. That's different, right? It's not just the person that creates something. It's the author of creation itself. So before he created anything, right, everything came from him. So he's sovereign. He's transcendent. So that means he is completely and utterly separate and unknowable. So transcendent means that anything we do has no physical impact on him. It does not change who he is. So he is transcendent. And I said unknowable. Well, that sounds like a really hard, trippy thing, right? Like, okay, I get that he's sovereign. I get that he's transcendent, but unknowable? Well, no, Carol. You just told us that we need to know about God, okay? He's unknowable by our efforts. We can't be smart enough or do enough research to know God. He is self-existent and incomprehensible by the human mind. We know him because not only, because God likes to do this, right? He likes us to walk in this tension. Not only is he sovereign and transcendent, but he chooses to be imminent, which is just relational. He chooses to be known by us. He chooses to have an intimate, personal relationship with us. And that is what makes Christian faith different than every other faith that there is in the world. Whether it's a pale version of Christianity, you know, like Allah is just a plagiarism of God. Or if it's something totally other, their gods are transcendent. The Greek gods, they get impacted. If we do something, it kicks them off, and then they do something back. Do you know what I mean? Our God is the only God who is both intimately personal and unchanging. Okay? So, know that he chooses to be known by us. How does he reveal himself? Through creation, through his word, through Jesus Christ, and through his Holy Spirit. So, he chooses to reveal himself in those four ways. Can you repeat that? Creation, his word, Jesus, the Holy Spirit. And because he's imminent, because he chooses to be in an intimate, personal relationship with you, he doesn't want the relationship to be one-sided. So, although we can't impact him physically or change him, we do affect him emotionally. He responds in an emotional way to us, because it wouldn't be an intimate relationship if it was us, and he was just transcendent. You know what I mean? Like, that wouldn't be much of a relationship. It wouldn't be a relationship that works. So, he chooses to allow his emotions to be affected by us. But what we need to understand, especially with the Old Testament, because as many times as I've read 90 Days with people, the thing that I get from a lot of my always Christian friends, right, is they hit about, well, forget Leviticus, but they hit about 1 Kings, and they're just like, oh my gosh, like, this is making me cry. Like, I don't like this image of God. Right? They don't like it. But what Jews understand is that he is impassable. Impassable means that he has the full range of emotions, but he is the head and not the tail. In other words, any emotion that he has, even when it says wrath, even when the earth opens up and people fall into a pit, you know, even when there are vipers coming around, we can trust that he is perfectly righteous, perfectly just, and perfectly loving. Whatever emotion that he has, we can trust that no wrong person fell into that pit. It may be hard to read, but he is all good. All good. There is nothing evil that comes from God. And if we peel back it enough, the evil comes from where? Our brokenness. The evil comes from, so if there's a triune head, if there's God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit, there is also the counterpart to that, because God is the author of balance, so things never exist in a lopsided state. So there is also the enemy, the world, and our flesh. So whenever there is evil happening, even if it feels like it's God's wrath, no, God is doing exactly what is needed in that moment. And make no mistake about it. Revelation is post-gospel. Anything you read in Revelation is as dark. That is why we were supposed to bear his image, because he doesn't want a single solitary person to be unsaved. He wants everybody to come home. He wants everybody to be in heaven with him. He wants everybody to be in the new birth and the new heaven. And so he's, you're my kingdom of priests. Go out and bring many people to me. So he is eminent relational. He also is pursuing. He steps in all the time. So we'll see him step in with Adam and Eve, we'll see him step in with Cain, with Noah, with Lot, and why is that? So the Greek word is agape. Unconditional love, I think, is kind of its general understanding. The Hebrew equivalent to that is hesed, H-E-S-E-D. If you look up the non-biblical definition of that word, what you're going to see is unconditional love or kindness. But the deeper meaning of that word in context in the Bible, because that word is riddled throughout the book of Ruth, all throughout the book of Ruth. But we see it a lot in the Torah. It is charitable, self-sacrificial love. In other words, God actively demonstrates loving kindness to us, even though we don't deserve it and he will never get anything in return for it. It's that kind of love. So I want you to think about loving somebody who not only treats you badly, but then will never, ever reciprocate. That is hesed. That is how God loves you. And if you want to see that biblically, read the book of Hosea. We're the prostitutes. We're the prostitutes. I know we all want to equate with this person, but we're actually the prostitutes. So that whole story is about you are going to marry a prostitute. You are going to bind yourself to a person that will never love you unless they can get reward from it. And they will cheat on you all the time. That's God's relationship with us. So he pursues us. That leads into the fact that he's covenantal. He chooses to put conditions upon himself to bind himself to us. So he just handcuffs himself to a prostitute. That's what he did. I mean, I'm using his language and the language of the Old Testament. So he chooses. So in a covenant, in a sucering covenant, in the covenant in the brain of time, there is the person in position of power. And all of the conditions are on the vassal or the serf or the slave. Does that make sense? All the repercussions, everything's on the weaker person in the party. Not in God's covenant. In God's covenant, it's him. He suffers the consequences of a failed covenant. That's special. That's distinct. So the God of covenant, he is covenantal. He chooses to bind himself to someone that will drag him down. Not that we can affect him, but you know this image that I'm trying to create. Because we can trust that he will fulfill every promise, and he knows we won't fulfill any of them. That's something to know about him. So how is this captured in the Hebrew language? It is captured in the word Yahweh. So we don't get introduced to the word Yahweh until Exodus chapter 3, verse 15. It's around there. It's around there. I know it's chapter 3. So Yahweh, the reason why, so Moses says to him, what is your name? So you need to understand something about Hebrew culture. Name is disposition. It is character. It tells us something about you. So Adam's name means what? Dirt and earth. Abraham's name means what? Father. Right? So Hebrew names mean something. So Moses is like, if you want me to tell them that you're the God, what do I tell them your name is? That is when we hear the name Yahweh. But Yahweh is used over 6,800 times in the Old Testament. It is in every single book except for Esther, Ecclesiastes, and Psalms. And the way that we see it in our translations is, and this would be something interesting for you to do, to go through. Circle away. Anytime it says LORD in all capital letters, even if it says LORD in all caps and then God, that's Yahweh. Anytime it says LORD with a capital L and lowercase O-R-D, that is the Jewish substitute. It says we don't utter God's name. Adonai. His name's master, teacher, or Rabbi. So when you see LORD in lowercase, Adonai. When you see LORD in uppercase, Yahweh. Okay? And then you'll also see God Almighty. That's what we're covering up El Shaddai. So we'll get into all of that when we get there. So Yahweh means what? We all know it. I Am. Right? So He is self-existent, which we already covered. Revelations 4, 8, holy, holy, holy. Right? It's the LORD, all caps, God Almighty, so all His names. Yahweh, El Shaddai. So El Shaddai means the God who knows when it is enough. So who was and is and what and is to come. Right? So what He's saying is I'm self-existent. I'm not in need of anything. I was. I am. I will be. So we know was. We're going to learn the was. Right? Like He is the God from the beginning. He is. He is your ever-present helper. He is always with you. And we know that relational and pursuing part of His character. So right? So the was is transcendent and sovereign. The is is relational and pursuing. And we all know that through what? The Holy Spirit. He is always with us. He is always helping us. And then the is to come is the God of the covenant. So all of His nature is covered in the word Yahweh. So it's important. And actually, if you read through the Old Testament, when someone doesn't use the word Yahweh, it's an indication that they don't know who God is. Okay? So why Genesis? Because Genesis is where we meet a God who will honor every promise. In the Old Testament, we learned that God is so steadfast, so faithful, because we see the depravity of man on full display, yet God pursues, yet God steps in, yet God redeems. He never answers with bye. He answers with a judge. He answers with a king. He answers with a battle won. He answers with ten plagues. He always answers, yes, come back to me. So it's not just that He is a steadfast, faithful God. It's not just that He embraces us with hope when we understand that He is the God of the covenant, that every promise will be fulfilled. He encases us in hope. He seals us against the things of this world, against our everyday trials, because He is Yahweh. And anything we face, anything we do, anything that happened before, we know the end of our story. And we know that God will fulfill it, because when we understand the Old Testament, when we understand Genesis, there is never a promise and it's not fulfilled, so why would He change? He doesn't change. So that's why Genesis. So we're going to switch over to this, the deep weeding, deep recourse. So do you all have, did anyone, I sent it to you, so I mean, some people wanted it on their, some people wanted it on their device, because I'm saying, like, I drive through church, I'm like, everybody thinks you're looking at your phone. And he's always like, no one thinks I'm looking at my phone, everyone knows I have my Bible. I'm like, no one knows my Bible. So if you have it on your device, pull it up, I pull it up online, if you have it printed out, go ahead and get that out. So the first thing, and I'm going to do my best not to get too confusing here, but if I do get confusing, please stop me. Please stop me. So I don't even know how I'm going to cover Genesis 1 in one session, but I couldn't do it if I had to cover verse 1 of Genesis, so I tacked that on to the end here. So we are going to go through verse 1. So I told you all, I love different, Stephanie will back me up on this, I love different translations of the Bible. There's only one translation that I don't like, which will remain nameless because I'm not judging anybody. But I generally love all translations because I think it gives us deeper insight into God's words when we're looking at it. So I don't care what translation you have. I am going to, for this, and I am not a Messianic Jew, I am a Christian. But this is one of the most comprehensive, the complete Jewish Bible, for me to have it in the Hebrew order and to have the Hebrew names, which everybody ends up against me with that often, because you guys say things different than I was taught to say them, and so sometimes we're sitting here, who are you talking about? And then I have to spell it, and then it's like, oh, you mean Esau. Oh, okay. How do you pronounce it? I don't even know if I remember anymore. Esau. Esau. Yeah. Esau. Esau. And so I was saying, and no one knew what I was talking about. Okay, so in English, I'm reading from the Hebrew Bible, in the beginning Elohim created the heavens and the earth, pretty simple, right? Okay? In Hebrew, and I will say this very slowly, okay? Okay? Okay? Just so you hear it, and it's original. Why is it important to know the Hebrew of verse one? Because in Hebrew, it is seven words. Because Barashit is one word, and it translates to in the beginning. So again, you're starting at the beginning, because that makes sense on the document. In the beginning, and it says, created Elohim the heavens and the earth. But of course, you know, anybody familiar with the German language, the verb comes at the end. So Hebrew is like that, right? So even though we read it in the beginning, Elohim created the heavens and the earth, it actually, as letters, goes across in the beginning, created Elohim the heavens and the earth. So it is seven words. And why is that important? And I think this is such a bridge to the Jewish people. In the first verse, we meet the triune head of God in multiple ways. So what's the obvious one? Elohim. Elohim. Right? We'll get into the weeds with Elohim in a minute. But we meet God. Where's Jesus? I gave you the notes ahead of time so you could answer the question. But he is that center word, see in red? It looks like an X and like a hump, but that is the Eda and the Tad. So that is the first and last letter of the Hebrew language. We'll get into that in a minute. But that is Jesus. In the center of the verse. Okay? Where is the Holy Spirit? Seven words. Anybody know Revelation 1-4? There are seven spirits. Seven words. All three aspects of God are in this one sentence. He's made himself visible, the very first sentence of the Bible. So he cannot be denied. Okay, so, and seven, I think that's a pretty common knowledge, but just in case it isn't. Seven, if it's ten, is authority, and three is perfection. Seven is wholeness and completion. Just so you know. So the wholeness of God is already communicated in the first sentence of the Bible. So let's go to that red word in the center. Et is the transliterated, and that just means that, you know, I don't speak Hebrew, other than what a botanist would get me through. So looking at the pictograms, whatever. The transliterated is just that translated into English letters so that we can say it. That's what transliterated is. So let's look at that center word, et. So that is the amos and the tes, the first and last letters of the Hebrew alphabet. And I'm telling you that that quotes Jesus at the center of the first verse. And I also told you that I would use the Bible. So in Revelation, the first chapter, and in the last chapter of Revelation, how does Jesus refer to himself? I am the Alpha and the Omega. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end. Right? So Jesus testifies to who he is. Revelation was translated into Greek. The human author was a Hebrew. Jesus was Hebrew and would have spoken in his language. He could have spoken in Mandarin. He would be communicating with John in what language? Hebrew. He wouldn't have said, I am the Alpha and the Omega. He would have said, I am the etos and the tes. I am the beginning and the end. I am the first and the last. Because Alpha and Omega are the first and last letter of the Greek alphabet. Etos and tes are the first and last letter of the Hebrew language. So there he is, an untranslatable direct object of the sentence grammatically. He is the direct object of the sentence grammatically in Hebrew. And it is untranslatable. You cannot say the word doesn't have a meaning because it's all meaning. So then you see those two letters again, right? If you look towards the left of this sentence, you see the heavens and then in red it says and. But then those two letters, alaph and tes, have like a little black kind of hook on it. That's a modifier. And what that allows him to do is to take alaph and tes and make it into a word. And the word that it creates is a connection, and. So there's Jesus, the connection between the heavens and the earth. He even tells you his redemption plans. Jesus will be the bridge. He will be the connection between the heavens and the earth. Now the interesting thing about the Hebrew language is that those same three letters, when they're put in a different order, because Hebrew language is a family tree. It's a root word, and then all of these words are related. So Hebrew language is so rich and so deep in meaning that there's, Hebrew language requires about 8,000 words. It's a fraction of what English requires. It is a fraction of what Greek requires. So Hebrew language is both a picture and it is a family tree that connects to a whole bunch of other words. So its meaning keeps doing what? Oh, it means that. Oh, it means that. Oh, it means that. And then if you put it in different contexts, well, then it can mean something else. So the Hebrew language is very fluent. So those same three letters, when they are transposed, those same three letters create the word at. And the word at means a sign from God. A sign from God will come between the heavens and the earth. So again, pointing to Jesus. Is everybody up with me? And again, the bridging connection between heaven and earth, that's from Strong's 226, if you want to verify. What time did you say? So the at and a sign from God is Strong's 226. I hope I wrote that down right. Then if I didn't, I'll look it back up. But just so you know, this is scholarly. I'm not going into Jewish mysticism. I mean, I'm not dealing with the Kabbalah. I'm not going there. I'm just, how this is translated through the Mizrash and through commentary, through the way that it goes, that all of this is understood and pretty expected to be in there. It's just not taught. So, okay, so now we're on the third word. Again, never any mistakes. Such a divine author. What's the third word? Such a divine author. What's the third word in this sentence? Three is the number of perfection. The third word is Elohim. So Elohim, as it's written there in Hebrew, is plural in form. So we know that because we see Elohim all the time in the Old Testament, used meaning plural gods, little gods, gods of the liturgy. But in this sentence, God intentionally uses the plural form of Elohim, but it is modified by the verb sara, or created, and that verb makes it singular in meaning. Does that make sense? So it's no longer little gods or lots of gods. It's Elohim, the creator, created. But it also alludes to the triune head. There's a reason why he would choose to use the plural form and make sure that it's singular in meaning. Because he is singular in meaning in what? Three parts. And I am telling you that it's the biggest obstacle you will ever have with a Jewish person. There is one God, and Christians are pagan. Because you don't believe it. There is that stumbling block of the Holy Spirit, Jesus, and then God, Yahweh. And then if you get into Catholicism, well, then there's Mary, and there's Saint Peter. For Jews, it just makes our heads spin. And so culturally, if end times are a requirement for Jews for the scales to be removed for our eyes, for us to be removed from the deception of the enemy, then it is right there in the first sentence in Hebrew that God is plural in form, but one. Literally, he reveals himself. He's not as mysterious as he is because he deserves reverence and praise. But he's also pretty much like God. Like, here's a bread crumb. Here's a bread crumb. Here's a bread crumb. Do you know what I mean? Like, he's not trying to be difficult. Do you know what I mean? He's not trying, like, and that's what I love about the Bible, right? The Bible could be researched for the whole of our lives by the greatest minds that have ever lived and would never understand the depth of it. But it's also something that a child can easily understand. I mean, only God could do that, right? Because think about some of the books that you've read that man has written that are deep. I mean, when I was in graduate school reading Heidegger, I had to read it out loud in my room. I literally had no idea what I was reading. It was in English, so I still had no idea. Okay, so now on to the third word, elohim. So, plural in form, singular in meaning, because it is modified by Jehovah. So, he is of one nature, but a triangle, okay? And now we get to the really difficult part. The first two words on the right side. Do you see them, green and purple? I hope those colors are clear. Then a sheep. Ta-da. Do you all see them? So, in the beginning, created are the two words. Okay? And that's what they mean. But now is when we start to get really fun with Hebrew, because Jews love pictures and words within words. Because that's what our language does. It's intended to do that. So, the first three letters of both words are exactly the same. Vesh aleh. Right? So, you can't see that in the transliterated, but in the Hebrew. Do you see that the first three pictures? Does that make sense? So, they are both the same. So, those three letters are ta-da, which means created. But five times in the Hebrew Bible, it also means cut down. Okay? The last two letters, so if you take off and get a sheep, the first three letters cut down. Then the last two letters become the Hebrew word set in place. So, Jews are taught the first verse of the Bible as a subtext. It has a secondary, it actually has three, but this is second of the three. In the beginning, God created. Clearly, that's its primary, that's the picture image that's given. Okay? But also, when we start to see the word as multiple words, it means that God created the heavens and the earth. He set them in place, and He is determined to cut them down. God isn't going to fix up this fallen world. He's going to do what? He's going to destroy it and replace it. And again, this is not, this is not like woo-hoo. This is in Revelation. Okay? There will be a new heaven and a new earth. So, the Bible confirms that God has created, He has set in place, and He will cut down. And then if you start to think, Carol, that can't possibly mean that. It's still in the word beveshit, the very first word. How is God going to cut down and destroy our existing earth and heaven? Fire. Two words, so you see within, the two letters within, I think I put something like an orange-yellow, beveshit. Those are the two words that spell esh. And what does the word esh mean? Fire. And then there's three letters that are left when you take the word fire out, when you put them together. Do you know what that Hebrew word is? Covenant. He will destroy the earth and the heavens by a covenant of fire. 2 Peter 3, 7. But by His word, and the present heavens and earth are being reserved for fire, kept for the day of judgment and destruction of ungodly men. So, that's great. And that's in the word. If you drop out the word fire, you're left with the word covenant. And then 2 Peter, a Hebrew man who's writing a letter knows that there is a covenant of fire coming. I will never destroy the earth by water again. I will set my rainbow in the sky. That you know. But there is a covenant of fire that is coming. So, we're still on the word bereshit. So, if you drop off, I think I put it in pink or purple on the paper, that is a prefix and it means in. Right? So, if you just were to separate that into the prefix of in and then reshit, right? So, the second part of that, so if you drop off, I'm going to do it in the transliterated. The B becomes in. Do you know what reshit means? First fruit. 1 Corinthians 15. Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruit. 1 Corinthians 15. Christ, the first fruit. In the first fruit, God created the heaven and the earth. And the word was with God. And all things were created through Jesus. So, the very first word says that everything will be created through what? The first fruit. And who's the first fruit? Jesus. So, I'm going to, I gave you guys some more notes, so I'm just going to do one last thing so we could leave. We've got some minutes left, but I wanted to close it out because you have it. I also want to let you know that there's, I don't know in Christian commentaries, and you guys tell me, but Jews have spent an inordinate amount of centuries arguing over why Elohim is not the first word in the Bible. Because remember, the number three is perfection, but the triune head thing is the stumbling block. Right? So, it being in the third position in the sentence is kind of like a hot potato. Like, no rabbi, like, I don't want that. So, the question is, why did God not start the Bible with Elohim? And grammatically in Hebrew, it would still make sense. He could have put Elohim, bereshit, tada, right? Like, it could be written like that, and grammatically it would make perfect sense. So, why didn't he do it? So, then the question that Jews would ask is, well, what is the first letter? So, you guys all know now, not Jewish. So, not Jewish. Jews are not going down the road in the first group. They're just not going there. But for Jews, then why, what is the first letter, and why would that be there? So, the first two letters, and this is so funny to me when I learn this, that, like, Jews are like helps. So, they're not blind to the plan. Jews understand that a Messiah is coming. They just don't believe that Jesus is the Messiah, because prophetic and apocalyptic literature told us that it was going to be a warrior. So, the image is the second coming. So, what you all picture as the second coming is what Jews picture as the first coming. And so, some little baby from Nazareth says, well, no. Thanks. Then no. So, the first two letters, right, make up the word son, S-O-N. And there are two words for son in the Hebrew language, and you can see that in Psalm. Oh, I should have written that down. I think it's Psalm 7, but I will look it up, and I will pass it to you guys so that you know that I'm checking with the Bible to understand that. Son is used in two, and it's two different forms in that one song. One, it's used with B, what we call B and R, Bethan Rish, Bar. Bar means son. The other way that it means son is B and N, Bar and Nun. Those both mean son, S-O-N, okay? The first letter, so at the beginning of the Bible, we see son as Bar. And in the Greek, at the end of the Bible, the very last two letters of the last verse of Revelation in Greek is Beth Nun. Son as Ben. So, Bar and Ben. The Jews and the Gentiles. The beginning and the end. And who's at the beginning and the end? The son. So, that's where I was. So, that's verse one. We're not going to do that one.
