'Appreciating God's Love'
A) Death for Adam and Eve
Gen 2:16-17 And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, "Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat; but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die."
When God gave the free will to Adam and Eve, there was a covenant along with it - forbidden to eat from the tree of knowledge and the failure was death.
Our Father is a righteous and a just God and He is always faithful to His word, so it really grieved Him to have to drive them out of the garden and for them to meet their death,
Descendants of Adam
Gen 4:6-7 So the Lord said to Cain, "Why are you angry? And why has your countenance fallen? If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin lies at the door. And its desire is for you, but you should rule over it."
The spirit of men was inbuilt with the good conscience of His divine love (1 Cor 13:4-7).
1. Love God - no idolatry
2. Love one another
Man was then judged according to his intent of the thoughts of his heart - love or wickedness.
Man failed miserably for they had no faith in God. They were wicked (selfish) and pursued only after earthly things. It really hurt God having to destroy them with the deluge.
Gen 6:5 Then the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.
B) Abrahamic Covenant
Gen 12:1-3 Now the Lord had said to Abram: "Get out of your country, from your family and from your father's house, to a land that I will show you. I will make you a great nation; I will bless you and make your name great; and you shall be a blessing."
It didn't take long for the descendants of righteous Noah to become wicked. God had to call Abraham to leave his father's house for by then they were all idolaters.
God promised him a great nation with blessings. Then, he was 75 years old and still without a child. Abraham met all types of problems in his walk of faith with God.
Gen 12:10 Now there was a famine in the land, and Abram went down to Egypt to dwell there, for the famine was severe in the land.
1. Famines caused Abraham to go to Egypt for food. He lied concerning his wife Sarah
2. Split up with Lot for the land was not big enough to support the animals (Gen 13)
3. Abraham had to rescue Lot from being taken captive (Gen 14)
4. Abraham counted righteous and animal sacrifices to seal the covenant. (Gen 15)
5. Circumcision as sign of covenant (Gen 17)
6. Lied again concerning Sarah
7. Abraham sacrificed Isaac
Abraham was 75 years old when he left his father's family and he was about 110 years old when he met his final test by sacrificing Isaac - a walk of faith for 35 years
Brethren, after our salvation, we will start our walk of faith in Jesus by keeping His words. We will meet many difficulties and problems on the way, but He is always ready to help us at our humility.
C) Gen 15:18 On the same day the Lord made a covenant with Abram, saying: "To your descendants I have given this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the River Euphrates—
Though God gave Canaan land to Abraham, He knew that it wouldn't be long before they would become like the Canaanites, who were idolaters, sexual perverts, sinful and wicked, the very reason why God would annihilate then.
Lev 18:24 'Do not defile yourselves with any of these things; for by all these the nations are defiled, which I am casting out before you.
Israelites Preserved in Egypt
Gen 46:34 that you shall say, 'Your servants' occupation has been with livestock from our youth even till now, both we and also our fathers,' that you may dwell in the land of Goshen; for every shepherd is an abomination to the Egyptians."
God blessed the monotheist Hebrews. For God to move them away from Canaan land, He caused a very serious famine. The great hunger and hardship resulted in Jacob (Israel) moving everyone to Egypt to be fed and blessed with Joseph.
God preserved the Israelites for the Egyptians hated shepherds and so the Israelites could not be idolators, for they were not allowed to enter Egyptian temples.
After about 400 years, the Israelites population had grown to almost two million. With this large population, God can then sent them back to repossess Canaan land.
