GenesisI have never read the Bible before, in reading the chapters I find myself evenmore confused about God then I was before. I wrote what I thought was going onin each chapter and even asked a few questions. If this is not what you arelooking for please let me know so I can do it right for the next time. Chapter 1In this chapter God created heaven and the earth. We are to see God in thischapter as a spirit.
On the first day God divided the light (good) from the dark(bad). On the second day God divided the waters and called the firmament heaven. (I do not know what the word firmament means. Can you please explain?) On thethird day God made the earth with grass and trees that grew fruit on them.
Onthe fourth day he made the stars in the heaven to point out day from night. Healso created the sun and moon. On the fifth day God created the sea animals andthe birds. On the sixth day God created male and female to rule over all theother animals.
I don’t understand the wording in the next section; “HeMarucheau 3 refers to everything as “his kind” and lets make man in OURimage. ” To whom does our refer to? Later he mentions that it is in his ownimage. On the seventh day he rested, so he could sit back and enjoy all that hecreated. God is not a living person in chapter one; he is a spirit that movesacross the earth. God says something and it happens. We believe that it tookonly six days to create earth but who is to say it didn’t take longer.
Therewere no clocks at that time and there was no one around to see what actuallywent on. Chapter 2 This chapter also is about the creation. Only in this chapterGod is a man. God formed man out of dirt of the ground with his two hands andthen he gave him life.
God also brought forth all the animals for the man toname. Now in class we said this was the way man was to find a mate, I neverthought of it that way. I just thought this was the way God was showing man whyhe was going to rule the earth by giving the animals names. This was a way toshow authority over them. Then God saw how lonely man was and then decided tocreate woman to keep him company.
God puts man to sleep and takes out one of hisribs then forms woman with it. I was always taught to believe that God was aspirit so this version of creation I do not believe in. Marucheau 4 Chapter 3 Inthis chapter a serpent in present in the garden (which God created), that Ialways thought it was the Devil. The serpent tricks the woman into eating theforbidden fruit (which I always thought it was an apple). In class we discussedthat the fruit meant sex.
I still don’t understand how this is so. Man andwoman now know all that is good and evil, they figure out that they are naked. God knows that they ate the fruit that he told them not to so he punishes allthree of them. I think the punishment were not fair, the serpent now has tocrawl on his belly for the rest of his life, the woman has the pain of childbirth and the man walks away with a slap on the hands. I know God tells him thathe shall go back to the dirt in which he was made but we all do, not just man.
Chapter 6 This chapter explains that we began to multiply and man take woman forhis wife. When God mentions 120 years I though that was how long man was goingto be aloud to live upon earth. God was mad in everything that he created so hewas going to destroy it. So he could wash away all of his mistakes and startover. God chooses Noah and his family to build an ark so they would be saved.
God chooses Noah because he was obedient to the Lord. God told Noah that he wasgoing to destroy the earth with water. God told Noah how to build the ark andwhat to take with him on the ark. Noah did everything as God asked.
Marucheau 5Chapter 7 In this chapter God tells Noah to take clean beasts by sevens anddirty beasts by twos. What does he mean by clean and dirty? Were dirty beastssomething like pigs? God gave Noah seven days to get ready for the rain. Godcauses the rain to fall upon earth for forty days. After the flood the onlythings that would still be alive were the things on Noah’s Ark.
It took ahundred and fifty days for the water to dry up. God destroyed the earth becausethere was so much evil upon it. God must have been human because he mademistakes. Chapter 18 In this chapter God is trying to decide if Abraham shall bethe one who is saved when God is to destroy the town. God says to Abraham andSarah that they were going to have a son. Sarah laughs at this idea because theywere very old and she does not think this could happen.
Abraham starts tocompromise with God and try to save the city. Abraham says to God if he findsfifty righteous people in the city will he save it from being destroyed? Godchalenges him by saying find them and I will not destroy it. In hearing thisAbraham thinks to him self maybe he will go lower. So Abraham asks what aboutforty-five people, forty, thirty, twenty, ten? God does not seem to answer butAbraham is pleading for the lives of the people in the city. I didn’tunderstand this chapter very well. Verses one through eight were confusing.
Marucheau 6 Chapter 22 God tells Abraham to take his son Isaac to the burntoffering to offer his son up to God. Isaac asks Abraham where is the lamb forthe offering, he is very smart and worried. Abraham says that the Lord willprovide it. Abraham builds an altar and places his son upon it; he is about tokill his own son when an angel calls out to him. The Angel asks him if he isabout to kill his only son who was given to him by the Lord as an offering. ThenAbraham panics and offers a ram instead.
The Angel of the Lord came to him asecond time and offered him a blessing for what he did. The verses nineteenthrough twenty-four who were they talking about was it Abraham’s wife?
