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CHRONOLOGICAL BIBLE  
.::.   TEACHING STUDIES   .::.

Lesson #3 - Understanding the Fall

The Fall: Hidden Blessings

REVIEW

SELECTED VERSES

GENESIS 3:15,20-24

TOPIC OVERVIEW

When Adam and Eve sinned they immediately discovered their error.  We’re told that they covered themselves with garments made from leaves.  Their attempt to rectify their sin was unacceptable to a holy and righteous Creator.  As they receive the consequences for their sins an aspect of God’s character is displayed.  For even in the punishments there were hidden blessings showing God’s grace and mercy.

LESSON

GOD’S GRACE  Genesis 3:15

God promises a deliverer.

This context speaks of conflict between the serpent and the woman’s seed. We usually speak of the man as the one with the seed.  Clearly something different is implied in the use of language here.  The woman’s seed will be bruised in the “heel”, which denotes a non-fatal wound.  The serpent on the other hand receives a wound to the head which is fatal.  As a serpent may bite a man on his heel, and the man survive, but turn again and crush that serpent’s head, so is the promise of a future deliverer seen here.  One who will deliver men from the power of Satan.

God again is the initiator.

It is God who introduces the topic of a deliverer to Eve.  Right in the midst of this tragedy He allows hope to shine in so that the punishment for her sin does not completely crush her.  Punishment there would be, but not despair and hopelessness.

GOD PROVIDES A COVERING FOR MAN.  Genesis 3:21

Adam could not make himself acceptable to God.

1.   God refused the work of their hands.

2.   He has an acceptable way.  This is seen by His rejection of Adam’s way.

God reiterates that death is the penalty for sin.

1.   Adam and Eve died spiritually, God showed them the physical consequence of their sin.

2.   God is the one that killed the animal.  It’s blood was shed.  You can’t get a skin without blood.

3.   God clothed the couple.  They received their covering from God alone.  They had nothing to do with it.

4.   The skins were a reminder of at least three things:

·          Death is the penalty for sin.

·          Man can do nothing of himself to satisfy God.

·          Man needs God to provide for Him.

GOD EXPELS ADAM AND EVE FROM THE GARDEN.  GENESIS 3:22-24

Sin causes separation from God

Sin disallowed them from the Tree of Life.

1.   A punishment.

            Adam and Eve chose not to trust God and disobeyed Him by eating from the forbidden tree.  God gave them a choice, a warning and a consequence, but they chose to disobey.  One result was that they were now not allowed to eat from the Tree of Life.

2.   A blessing.

            God did not want them to physically live forever as sinners.  The ramifications are incredible.  Imagine all of the heinous criminals that ever lived still alive now.  So God actually displays His love and mercy by banishing the couple from the Garden and the Tree of Life.

Adam and Eve experienced what separation from God was really like.

1.   The Garden of Delights was now closed to them.

2.   The Garden had been a protected and prepared place, now they are put outside of that protection to experience the hardness of life.

3.   God placed a barrier to re-entering the Garden by placing angels to bar the way.  There is no way man can enter the Garden again on his own, he is shut out.  To be outside the Garden meant to be separated from the Tree of Life.

4.   God is the source of life.  Psalms 100:3  “Know ye that the LORD he is God;  it is he that has made us, and not we ourselves...”

 

TOPIC WRAP UP

1.   What was the hope God held out to Eve even in her tragedy?

2.   Had Adam and Eve begged God for help with their problems?

3.   Why didn’t God accept the leaf coverings they had made?

4.   What did God do for their clothing?

5.   What are three things that the skin coverings would remind Adam and Eve of?

6.   Why did God expel them from the Garden?

7.   How was expulsion from the Garden a punishment and a blessing?

8.   What would Adam and Eve have to do to get back into the Garden?

 

 Cain and Abel: A Better Sacrifice

REVIEW

SELECTED VERSES

GENESIS 4:1-24

TOPIC OVERVIEW

Adam and Eve are now outside the Garden and experiencing all of the results of their sin.  In this lesson the alienation that they experienced between themselves and with God is continued on in the relationship of brother with brother.  Sin has come into the world through one man and death through sin.  Now we see death passing on to others from that one sin.  Sin is never to be looked upon lightly.  We also see in this lesson that there is an acceptable way to approach God and an unacceptable way.

LESSON

CAIN AND ABEL  GENESIS 4:1-2

A.   Life outside the garden

1.   Adam and Eve were outside the garden due to their sin.

2.   Their sin had an affect on their children.  They were born outside the garden which  means they were not able to commune with God as Adam and Eve had.

3.   Adam and Eve’s sin and it’s results have affected everyone since.  We have all been born outside of the garden.  We are all with sin.  Sin should never be taken lightly.  It always has far reaching effects.

B.   God hates sin and cannot commune with sinful man.

1.   In the garden God rejected Adam and Eve’s attempt to cover their sin.  Yet He Himself provided an acceptable sin covering for them.

2.   God’s provision for them included two vital ingredients;  First there was blood shed, see Gen. 9:4 and Heb. 9:22. Sin’s punishment is always  death.  Secondly, there was an innocent substitution so the guilty could live.

OFFERING FOR A SIN COVERING.  GENESIS 4:3-8

A.   Acceptable and unacceptable offerings.

1.   Cain’s offering.

·          It was sincere.

·          It cost Cain to bring it.

·          It was a display that Cain wanted to offer a sacrifice to God.

·          It was without blood.

·          It was not in the prescribed way of an innocent for the guilty.

·          It was according to Cain’s own reasoning and not God’s will.

·          It was rejected as was Cain.

2.   Abel’s offering.

·          It was in line with God’s revealed will according to God’s provision for his parents.

·          It was a blood sacrifice.

·          It was an innocent substitute for himself as a guilty sinner.

·          It showed Abel’s faith in God’s promised deliverer who would come and deliver men from all their sin.

·          It was accepted by God as was Abel himself.

B.   The way of Cain  Genesis 4:5-8

1.   Cain’s response to God’s standard showed his true heart.

·          He became angry.

·          He rejected God’s advice.

·          He killed his brother.  A better translation of 4:8 is; “ Cain said to his brother,  Abel let’s go out to the field.” 

·          He tried to hide it from God.

·          He lied to God.

GOD INTERCEDES AND CAIN RESPONDS  GENESIS 4:9-24

God as interrogator.  4:9-10 

            Once again God enters into Cain’s life.  He questions him as to where Abel might be.  This is for the purpose of bringing repentance and confession.

God as judge.  4:11-12

Cain’s sin was met by punishment.  God is the judge of men, it is Him that every man must answer to. 

God as protector.  4:13-24

·          Cain’s response to God’s punishment was complaint.

·          Cain even tries to deceive God by sounding spiritual, “...from your face I’ll be hidden.”

·          Yet even here God’s grace and mercy are displayed and He makes provision for Cain’s protection.  God is the only One with power over live and death.

·          But Cain finally rejected God completely and turned his back on God.  He went from the presence of God.

·          Cain started a race of ungodly people who did not follow God.

God as preserver.  4:25-26

1.   The two lines are set out.  Abel loved and worshipped God.  But Cain killed him.  Where is the godly line the promised deliverer could come through?

2.   Eve claimed God had provided her with another seed in place of Abel.  Note that it is at this time that men began to call on the name of the Lord.  The ungodly line is epitomized in Cain and his decedents, but the godly line is seen in Seth and his decedents.

 

TOPIC WRAP UP

1.   What did it mean to be outside the garden for Adam and Eve?

2.   How did Adam and Eve’s sin affect their children?

3.   Does their sin affect us today?

4.   Why is there a need for a sin covering?

5.   What was God’s prescription for a sin covering?

(The acceptable sin covering is a blood sacrifice, whereby an innocent animal is sacrificed as a substitute for guilty man in order to cover his sin.  Man is then able to commune with his creator based on his faithful obedience to God’s will.)

6.   What are two vital ingredients God set out as necessary for the sin covering to be acceptable?

7.   Why did God reject Cain’s offering?

8.   What was God’s feeling toward Cain as concerning his offering?

9.   Why did God accept Abel’s offering?  Was that fair?

10.  What was Cain’s response to God accepting Abel and his offering?

11.  Did God immediately judge and punish Cain when he brought an unacceptable offering?

12.  What was Cain’s sin initially and how did it continue to increase?

13.  Even after Cain killed his brother did God immediately punish him?

14.  What was Cain’s Immediate response to God’s punishment?

15.  What was his ultimate response toward God?

16.  How was Eve’s hope rekindled?

17.  What two lines of people would Cain and Seth be the heads of?

 

The Flood: Noah, the Ark, and Judgement

REVIEW

SELECTED VERSES

GENESIS 6:3-23; 7:1-5,11-12,15-18,23-24

TOPIC OVERVIEW

Almost everyone in America has heard of Noah and the ark.  Yet few realize the underlying currents that surge through this biblical account of judgment and destruction.  God’s holiness, that is His sinlessness and purity, cannot permit sin to go unpunished.  Noah lived 1500-1600 years from the creation account.  There was a large population at the time and the vast majority of people were living in utter abandonment as pertaining to God.  Sin will be punished with death.  God always keeps His Word.  Yet God always provides a way out for those who will believe and obey His will.  He reveals His will through His word.

LESSON

WORLD CONDITIONS AT THE TIME OF NOAH  6:3-7,11

The generations of Adam.  Genesis 5

1.   The godly line from Adam to Noah is listed.

2.   There are ten generations from Adam to Noah.  Notice the little phrase that is repeated “He died.”  God’s Word is true.  He does what He says.

3.   Biblical chronology tells us it was approximately 1656 years from Creation to the flood.  (Genesis Record pg. 154.)

4.   There could have easily been over one million people on the earth by this time.

The sinfulness of man.  Genesis 6:3-7,11

1.   The earth was corrupt and filled with violence.

2.   The minds of people only thought of evil.

3.   God gave them 120 years to repent, and turn away from their sin.  (see 6:3)  But they were rebellious because even though God tried to communicate with them through prophets, preachers of righteousness, (Gen 5:21-24 cp. Jude 14; Gen. 6:8 cp. 2 Pet. 2:5) they ignored them.

4.   An adequate description of the people at this time could be;  proud, self centered, boastful, wanting what other people had, argumentative, cruel, murders, tricking, lying and lying to and deceiving one another, ruthless in business, gossips and backbiters, totally unrestrained in their sexual passions, enjoying and promoting homo-sexual relationships.

GOD SAW THE SIN AND JUDGED IT.  GENESIS 6:5-7,13,17

God is all seeing and all knowing.

1.   Even though man did not consider God, He was observing man.

2.   How do you think God felt about what He saw?  He was angry, but He also was saddened.  He was grieved.  He regretted having made man.  His patience extended for 120 years.

Judgment on man.

1.   God is without sin and cannot allow it to go on without punishing it.  He pronounced a terrible judgment on the earth and all who lived there.  Read 6:7.

2.   Genesis 6:13 and 17 give some details as to God’s judgment.  All flesh would be destroyed, and it would be by a flood of water.

3.   Does God make idle threats to man?  Can you think of some instances that God has given man a warning and man did not heed it?  Did God carry out His word?

NOAH, THE MAN  GENESIS 6:8-10

Why did God chose Noah?

1.   Was Noah not a sinner?  How do we know he was a sinner?  So why was he out of all the others spared?  Grace!

2.   Grace means favour or acceptance.

3.   Noah knew he was a sinner and approached God in an acceptable way.  (ie. the blood sacrifice)  He repented and did not follow the rest of the world.  He believed God’s revelation of what the acceptable way to come to Him and therefore found favor with God.  He did what was right, in all areas, and he followed after God’s ways.  He was in agreement with God’s ways.

4.   Grace is God’s kindness to undeserving sinners.  It is God’s way out to sinful man who does not deserve a way out.

GOD WOULD SEND JUDGMENT.  GENESIS 6:11-22

God told Noah what He would do.

1.   He would destroy the world with a flood of water.

2.   He would save Noah and his family, as well as the animal life on the earth.

3.   He would preserve them in an ark.

The ark.

1.   God gave very specific instructions to Noah.

2.   There is an acceptable way and an unacceptable way in God’s dealing with men.  Think of the coats of skins, and Abel’s offering.  The ark was the same.  God revealed His will.

3.   There was to be one door in the ark.  Noah and his family and all the animals that were to be saved had to enter through that single door.  There were not multiple entrances.

Noah believed and obeyed.  6:22

1.   His faith was evidenced by his obedience. 

2.   Up till this time there had never been rain on the earth.  It was watered by a mist.  Gen. 2:6.

3.   Noah took God at His Word and acted accordingly.

THE FLOOD  GENESIS 7:1-5,11-12,15-18,23-24

A.   Only two types of people; those inside and those outside.  Those who believed and those who didn’t.

B.   Noah and his family all entered the one door and were safe from God’s wrath on sin.

C.   God shut the door.  No more opportunity to those outside.  7:16

D.   The water came from “floodgates of the sky,” cp. Gen. 1:7. 

E.   God destroyed all those outside the ark.  7:23

1.   God did not leave the people before the flood without a chance, there were those who warned.

2.   God’s patience extended for 120 years.

3.   The people’s rejection of God’s grace resulted in their destruction.

4.   It did not matter what they believed, they were all destroyed with everything else outside of the ark.

F.   God saved all life inside the ark.

1.   Only eight people were saved from the wrath of God.

2.   They were not destroyed because:

·          They heard God will through his word.

·          They repented, turned away from their ways and followed God’s ways.

·          Because they believed God’s word it affected their lives.  They built the ark, and entered it when God told them to.  They were saved.

           

GOD REMEMBERED NOAH

The end of the flood  8:1-4

1.   God kept His word to Noah.  He saved them.

2.   But His word also was true conversely, all who did not believe perished.

3.   The ark rested in the mountains of Ararat, which is in modern day Turkey.  There have been many expeditions into these mountains to discover the ark.

Noah goes out from the Ark.  8:14-17

God makes a promise.  8:20-22

God gives a command.  9:1-4

1.   Reiteration of the command God gave to Adam and Eve.  “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth.”  Scatter and fill the earth.

2.   Dominion over the beasts is given to them.

God seals His promise with a sign.  9:8-17

1.   The rainbow is the sign of his promise.

2.   He has kept His word for thousands of years.

The whole earth was repopulated.  9:18-19; 10

1.   Everyone would be decedents of Shem, Ham or Japheth.

2.   Genesis 10 gives their genealogies.  This is a general breakdown of the nations.

3.   Geographically it can “be said that Europe was given to Japheth, Africa to Ham, and Asia to Shem.”  Scroogie pg.82

THE TOWER OF BABEL

Men planed to rebel against God.  11:1-4

1.   They all spoke the same language.  v.1

2.   They all had one determination.  v. 4

God’s will versus man’s will.

1.   God commanded them to scatter and fill the earth.  Gen. 9:1

2.   Men decided to dwell in one place.  Gen. 11:2

3.   “Lest we be scattered abroad over the face of the whole earth.”

Men refused to give God the glory due Him.  Isa. 42:8

1.   They had knowledge of God through creation and verbal testimony.

2.   God’s word teaches us that these people were ungrateful to God for life, health, sunshine, rain, and food.  They preferred to worship His creation rather than the Creator.  They deliberately turned their backs on the truth about God and their minds became more and more evil.

3.   Finally they conceived a scheme to overthrow God.

4.   These people worshipped idols and false gods.  Worship has to do with the giving of thoughts, hearts, resources-even our lives- to serve the object of worship.  Worship comes from the word worth.  Primitive people center all their time, energies and thoughts on appeasing their gods.  What is it that modern man spends his time doing?  TIME IS THE PROOF OF INTEREST.

God’s response to men’s plans.  Genesis 11:6-9

1.   God saw their intentions.

2.   God punished their disobedience and rebellion.

3.   God’s original intention that people were to populate the whole earth is carried out through divine judgement.

4.   The second beginning for man turned out in the same way as the first.  Man shows his sinfulness and rebels against God.  God shows his power and holiness and judges the sin.

The godly remnant.

1.   Each time God’s judgement falls, there is a remnant of His truth carried on by someone.  He will not leave Himself without a witness.

2.   It is a fact that the majority in every generation turn their back on God and chose to suppress the truth of God and refuse to bow the knee to their Creator.

Summary

Much of the biblical account of history reads like today’s newspaper.  Life patterns are alike.  So is God. He has not changed.  He cares for each individual, yet He will judge sin.  In the midst of trouble He still provides a way out.

 

TOPIC WRAP UP

1.   During Noah’s time what were people like?

2.   Why do you think that people thought about and pursued evil continually?

3.   What was God’s feelings toward men during Noah’s time?  Why?

4.   Did God warn men that destruction was coming?  How?

5.   How did God judge sin at the time of Noah?

6.   Was Noah a sinner?

7.   Why did God decide to save Noah and his family?

8.   How did God plan to save Noah and his family?

9.   What was Noah’s responsibility in this plan?

10.  How long was God patient with the people?

11.  How many doors were in the ark?

12.  How many people died in the flood?

13.  What promise did God make after the flood?  Sign of promise?  What command did God give to Noah and sons?

14.  Did the generations after the flood know about God?  How?

15.  How did they respond to God and His will to fill the earth?

16.  Why did they want to build the tower?  How were they able to undertake such a task?

17.  What was God’s response and how did it see His will carried out?

18.  List any patterns you have noted in the biblical accounts of God and His dealing with man.  Man and his response to God.  Satan and how he works in the affairs of men.