Jacob and his family had eaten up all the corn and now asking his sons to get more. Then Judah said in vs.3 saying "The man did solemnly protest unto us, saying, ye shall not see my face except your brother be with you." So Israel gave in and said to prepare a gift in vs.11-12. When Joseph saw that Benjamin was with them, he put his plan into operation. Then Joseph invited them into his home and had a meal prepared for them. God was with Joseph giving him peace and wisdom on this situation. God also blessed him tremendously in Egypt. God is unpredictable and we will never know fully what His plan is. So what can we do? We can just trust in God with His plan. So I will apply this by trusting in God and have more wisdom in the word.
While the brothers were in prison they contemplated what they had done to Joseph and al of them were guilty. This was a test from Joseph which in hearing this made him weep. Then Joseph proposed a deal. He would leave Simeon behind in prison and the rest would go back with grain and corn to Canaan to get Benjamin. So the brother wen to Canaan and on the way one of them emptied his sack and found all his money still in his sack. And behold all of the brothers had their money his their sack and they were afraid. God will give us trials that we will have to go through as children of God. So let us, even though it's filled with hardship, trust God with all our heart, soul, and mind. So I will apply this by being strong and prepared for the end times. Even through hardships I will be strong in my walk with God.
I'm sure the Lord was very disappointed or angry during this time, but he also knew this was going to happen. God is omnipresent, it means he is literally everywhere and anywhere. He knew that sin would take over this world, but the Lord also knew that there would still be faith all around the world. The end is coming very soon, but are you prepared? We need to be prepared spiritually and mentally for whatever change that is going to happen on earth. Let us trust in God especially during these times. We do not know what's going to happen but we must have faith because we know God has a plan for everything. We cannot be attached to the worldly desires that are among us, instead we must focus on God and the word that he has provided for us.
Abram disobeyed God and took Lot with them on their journey out of Haran, but now it seems that Abram and Lot got into a little fight and now parted ways with each other. Basically Abram said in verse 9 that he would go the exact opposite of where Lot would go. Lot made the wrong choice and dwelled in the land of Sodom. We must learn from their mistakes and not do this. Abram was very faithful to God but still made a lot of mistakes. It just proves that not everyone is perfect. Let's just trust in God and obey him always no matter what he asks us to do.
Abram disobeyed God and took Lot with them on their journey out of Haran, but now it seems that Abram and Lot got into a little fight and now parted ways with each other. Basically Abram said in verse 9 that he would go the exact opposite of where Lot would go. Lot made the wrong choice and dwelled in the land of Sodom. We must learn from their mistakes and not do this. Abram was very faithful to God but still made a lot of mistakes. It just proves that not everyone is perfect. Let's just trust in God and obey him always no matter what he asks us to do.
Abram experienced great famine in the land and went to Egypt for a last resort, but they would notice that Sarah was a very fair woman and kill Abram so the Pharoah would marry her. So Abram said he was her brother and he was treated with the same hospitality as a king for her sake. Abram got sheep, oxen, donkeys, silver and gold. Abram turned out to be very rich. Then the Lord plagued Pharoah and his house because of Sarai. God really cares about us, and if one of us is in trouble he will acknowledge it and he will save us even if we don't acknowledge it. Let us know that God cares for us and that's all the more reason we can trust in Him.
God said to Abram in verse 1 to leave thy country to a land that God will show him. Not only did Abram go but also his wife Sarai and his brother's son Lot. They probably walked like 100,000 steps on this journey then arrived at Sichem, somewhere in Canaan. Abram pitched a tent somewhere east of a mountain. Abram will do great things very soon, it's still amazing that he had the faith to leave his whole family behind and just followed God's plan. Let us too have the faith like Abram and follow God's plan.
It's funny how Terah in the beginning of Genesis only lived 70 years while all the other people lived at least 700 years. More importantly this is the beginning of an important event. Abram, Nahor, and Haran. All of us pretty much know the whole story, but this is the beginning of important people, lining up from Abraham. Abram will play a big part in the near future, and God has a plan for him and all of us as well. We cannot be lead astray when we know God has a special plan just for us. So let us follow in God's footsteps and don't walk to the other side but stay by our Lord and Savior.
Many people think that this was discovered much later than this. They thought the first man wasn't smart, but that's not at all true. Genesis 2:19 says that the first man, Adam, name all the animals in the world and I'm sure he knew how to make fire as well. It's sad to see people, non-christians, portraying the first man and the first civilization as a dumb one. Adam and Eve had perfect bodies, and were pretty smart. So let us not portray these people as cavemen like, instead let us know that God designed humans as a intelligent race. After all God never makes mistakes.
Noah lived a whole 950 years. Which would make him the 3rd longest living person in the world, under Jared. Noah did incredible things and walked with God all this life. Let's recap what Noah did during his life. In chapter 6 he started making the ark while he was also trying to convince his family that there would be a flood that would destroy all living beings, but no one believed him. Noah experienced hardship while on the ark but never lost faith in God and walked with Him all the way through. After a year long flood, he arrived at land, and build an altar for all the sin in the world. Later God would say that he would have to repopulate the world and God also made a covenant between mankind, and animals to never have a flood to destroy all living beings. Finally Noah settled and planted a vineyard and began the sin of Ham. Noah's life was filled with hardships but he never lost faith in God, and walked with God following His footsteps his whole life. Let's have the faith like Noah and never give it up.
God made a promise to all mankind and every living creature to never let the waters become a flood to destroy every living creature, and he also said He will remember this covenant. I'm sure God has to remember a lot of things. If we humans ever tried to do what God does we'd get frustrated maybe just give up. That's why God is good, He never changes. He's the same God from the Bible and the same God that protects us today. All the more reason we can trust in God with all of our heart, with all of our mind, and with all of our soul. So let us truly trust in God and believe that God never changes, and that's a good thing.
God said that humans could eat all animals. God also made a covenant between Him and Noah, but it also includes the animals. God wiped out basically most of the animals on land. This comment shows that He deeply cares for His creations, and also if you read verse 11 He gives the animals a promise that there should not be another flood. God always, always keeps his promises, no matter what. That's just one reason we can trust in God. So let us know that God always keeps his promise and that we can always trust in Him.
What is sacrifice used for in the Bible? Well to sacrifice is to make an offering to God, to repent for sin. Noah offered offering to God for all the sin that was in the world before the flood. Now we don't have to make sacrifices because Jesus Christ did the ultimate sacrifice and died on the cross for our sins, but if we do sin we should still acknowledge if and repent to God, and He will forgive us. So let us know that we don't have to sacrifice anything because Christ died on the cross for our sins because he loves us. That's it, Jesus loves us.
It took around 321 days for Noah and his family to see land again. I don't think I could even survive that long at sea, I would probably just be in the toilet the whole time. Yet Noah a 600-700 year old could do it. Well it's because he had an enormous faith in God. I also thought it was smart to send birds out to see if there was dry ground, and what do you know it worked. So let us have this great faith that Noah has, even if we have to stay on a boat for 321 days.
Fifteen cubits of water on the earth. That's a lot of water. In modern measurements, that's almost 23 feet of water. The earth probably just looked a big ocean. It says in verses 21-23 that every living thing died except those that were in the ark, and every living substance was destroyed. Noah was probably very depressed for leaving his family behind to die. They probably tried to get in but the door was closed and couldn't get in. Noah had great faith, and we all know that. Noah also went through a lot of hardship but didn't give up and continued to follow God's footsteps. So let us, even through hardship, continue to your walk with God and follow in Noah's footsteps as well.
Let's recap. God told Noah 120 years before this day that there would be a flood that will wipe every thing off the face of the earth. Noah took that very seriously and started building the ark as soon as possible. All throughout the 120 years Noah had tried to convince his family that there would be a flood but no one listened and instead thought of him as crazy. Now to this day, Noah built the ark that is housing around 70,000 animals and Noah's own family. It's crazy what you can accomplish when you listen to God's commands like Noah. Noah continued to trust in the Lord and let Him lead Noah. We must be like Noah and obey God's commands seriously, especially if you know it's from God.
The ark was a huge ship, obviously, but it also houses approximately 70,000 animals, and Noah's whole family. The ark in modern measurements were 450 or 510 feet long, 75 feet wide, and 45 feet tall. It took around 120 years for Noah to build it but Noah never really lost faith. Sure times were tough for him, trying to convince his family to come to the ark with him but they never listened. They probably thought Noah was crazy for thinking that it would rain for 40 days. I'm sure it was hard for them to believe because they probably haven't seen rain in their lives, but Noah always came back saying the same thing. It took enough dedication just to build the ark. Noah's faith was very strong, but instead of God taking him up to heaven, God had another plan. We must have Noah's strong faith, and dedicate our lives to God and His plan.
This sounds very similar to what happened to Elijah. According to the internet, 8 people in the bible went to heaven or were taken to heaven out dying in their physical body. And it seems like all these people had great faith, and walked with God. It says that Enoch walked with God for 365 years. That's a long time, but more importantly Enoch never lost faith. What can we learn from this? Well we can grow our faith, all these people seemed to have walked with God. They probably prayed to God often and most importantly, never lost faith. So let us have this great faith like all these great people in the bible have.
This sounds very similar to what happened to Elijah. According to the internet, 8 people in the bible went to heaven or were taken to heaven out dying in their physical body. And it seems like all these people had great faith, and walked with God. It says that Enoch walked with God for 365 years. That's a long time, but more importantly Enoch never lost faith. What can we learn from this? Well we can grow our faith, all these people seemed to have walked with God. They probably prayed to God often and most importantly, never lost faith. So let us have this great faith like all these great people in the bible have.
Adam lived a whole 930 years. That's a very long time, but I also know that they had perfect bodies and perfect diets. The oldest living person today is only 117 years old, I say only because I read this. That just shows how much time has changed, kind of reminds me of Wall-E, I'm sure they depicted this movie of how it would look like in the future. I'm sure they were active people back on earth, but now they have these robots that just do whatever they say, and sit in a chair all day long. Which is basically what we're doing now. Just like our physical bodies we must be active in our faith. Live a pro-active life instead of a re-active life. Now you may be wondering what's the difference? Well I'm glad I asked that, because living a pro-active live basically means to do something before someone tells you to do it. I'll give you an example, If someone tells you to do the dishes but you already did it then that's a proactive life. A Re-active life means the exact opposite, you wait until someone tells you to do something and maybe you get distracted and watch a movie instead and then you finally do the dishes. So let us have a proactive faith and progress instead of falling behind and waiting until someone tells you to do something.
Cain killed his brother Abel with no emotion, like it never happened. Lamech killed someone to his wounding, of course we do not know the whole story, but it kind of sounds like he was bragging about this to his wives. Like he was saying, "This is what happens when people cross me." It is definitely evident that Satan is dwelling in Cain's bloodline. Is sin dwelling in your household? A lot of families get separated, mostly because of sin, maybe a divorce of the parents or something along that line. So if you know that sin is roaming around your family what can you do? I would start by just praying to God, praying to God is very important. A lot of Christian scholars had to pray for endless hours to help them with a problem or a sickness or just to thank God for all that he had done for them. We all know that our Lord is good, so let us too pray to God maybe just to thank Him for what he has given to you.
Why did Cain say that? "Am I my brother's keeper?" I believe all siblings should look after each other especially the younger ones. Instead Cain was jealous of his brother, and killed him in the field. No jealousy should ever go this far, a lot of stories in the Bible have jealousy and the outcome is always, always terrible. Cain probably ran through this scenario over and over again until when he did it he felt nothing. Sin took over Cain it's obvious. It made him more and more angry and jealous of his brother. Why is history so important? So we can learn from their mistakes but also to learn from it and gain their wisdom. So let us learn from this and obviously never ever let jealousy get to this point. Let the Holy Spirit take control instead of sin. This should also teach us to love our siblings and care for each other and look after each other, etc. Let us turn to God before we make a huge mistake like this, and we should always try not to give in to Satan's lies.
This verse pretty much explains itself. If you do what is right you'll most likely get accepted, but if you do not do what is right, sin will be waiting for you, watching you, and when you least expect it and when you're more vulnerable sin will strike. We must be strong in our faith, we cannot give in to Satan's lies. If you're struggling in your faith, because everyone has, you're not alone, you must pray and seek God. Dedicate a day of fasting and praying, and harden your faith so that when temptations comes you will not be affected by it. So what can you do if you know that sin has taken over your life but you want to change. Just wanting to change is a big thing. That means that you realize you have a problem and you want to fix it. Seek God for he is good, who knows if he'll give you an answer or not God is unpredictable but you must seek Him before doing what is wrong and you know it's wrong. Don't let sin take over your life, instead let God give you freedom and love because you are his creation.
So just like that, Adam and Eve were banished from the Garden of Eden and could not eat from the tree of life. All because they believed in Satan's lie, now we know why Sin is so dangerous. Then after he banished them God placed a cherub and flaming swords moving back and forth on the east side of the Garden of Eden, so they could never enter. We, like God, must despise sin. We must get as far away as possible from sin. Adam and Eve believed in the serpent's lie and was banished forever from the Garden of Eden and was cursed. So what can we learn from this? Well an obvious answer would be to try to avoid Satan's temptations. We know that in the end God will win, no matter what happens. God is the beginning and the end the Alpha and Omega. So I will apply this by trusting in God and know that He is my true savior and I know that He is the beginning and the end.
This all happened because of sin and Adam not wanting to be left out. Sin is very dangerous if you're not careful, and because of sin, Adam and Eve were cursed. Eve's curse was that she would have severe pain while in child bearing. Adam's curse was that he would have to work very hard in the field until he returns to the ground, since from it he was taken. We cannot be like Adam, he didn't want to be left out and jumped in without worrying about any consequences. We need to be cautious and also seek God with anything especially if you're dealing with sin. So I will apply this by trying to avoid Satan's Candy Store and seek God before rushing into something when we don't know the outcome.
How did Adam and Eve realize they were naked? Their loss of innocence leads to shame. An example would be, a baby, its innocent and doesn't care if they're naked. They think it's normal. For Adam and Eve they were like that until a certain sly snake told them that they would gain the wisdom of God and knowing good and evil. Instead they felt exposed. Every human being has in some way, carried a shame as a result of Adam and Eve's sin. We cannot fall into Satan's trap or his candy store for example. We need to be strong in our faith and never late Satan temper with it.
Why did God say it's not good for the man to be alone, when God was there? Was this is the first time God created something that was "not good"? What exactly was the problem? I think God designed human being to not be alone. Us human's strive on communication, even introverts can make a conversation. God designed human beings to be free and have friendships and relationships. The Lord created animals in pairs, and the Lord allowed Adam to feel that needed friendship and fellowship. People need other people. In the army maybe on a mission, no soldier is left alone, they are most likely with another person or in a group of other soldiers. We Christians have a special communication with God. It allows us to have alone times with just you and God, prayer. God also made the Church. The Church strives on fellowship and teaches us how to communicate with God and others. Let us remember these commandments, Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind, and Love your neighbor as yourself.
Where was the Garden of Eden? According to my study bible it says it's somewhere east of turkey by the black sea or east of Iraq near the Persian Gulf. The Garden of Eden was very beautiful I'm assuming, but what's even more beautiful is heaven. They cant be compared. My question is, are you ready for the future? Not just your future of this world but where or if you will be going to the new heaven and earth. Now that's decided by you and God. Are you ready to accept Jesus Christ as your one true savior and father? Well if you are you're ready for this future that is soon to come.
Have you ever rested after a long day of work? I'm pretty sure we have all done this. God created the whole entire universe, the world that we live in, and mankind in only 6 days. How awesome is that? Even knowing that the first ever man was made by dust and by the breath of life is so cool. God made this world wonderful, but are we treating it with the care and respect that it deserves? Right now this world is going through some major hardships but we Christians are the light of this world. We must shine bright with God especially during these times. Are you also prepared for the future? We should always ask this question. Are you going to heaven? Because if you're not prepared to answer that, there is going to be some major problems. We should always be prepared to answer that question and remind ourselves daily. So let us be strong in our faith and be prepared to answer some hard questions that will test our faith.
God created mankind in one day. He also created and molded us in his own image. Verse 28 says, "God blessed them and said to them, "Be fruitful, 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." God gave us literally everything, but are we thanking God as much as we should be? Sadly a lot of people don't believe that God did all this, they believe either that this world was formed over billions of years or some other god. These people make up these fake religions. In reality this world was formed in six days. So let us know that God did all of this, he created the beach, the grass, the rocks, the mountains, but more importantly he created mankind. God said that mankind was his greatest creation, are we living up to God's standards? If we aren't then let us live a life that is pro-active in our faith.
Have you ever been out on the mountains, maybe alone, and you are at peace. Would you say thank you God for this beautiful mountain or beautiful trees. Because we should, every morning we should say thank you God for this beautiful day!; or back to this verse maybe you say thank you God for these beautiful animals. God made the animals but he also made each and every biome according to the type of animal. In the savanna you will usually see hyenas, lion's, giraffes, zebra's and many others. So let us appreciate and thank God for what He has given us in the world and be prepared for the new heaven and earth that will be coming soon.
How could God create the earth and waters from nothing? Well the bible doesn't actually tell us how God created the earth. Instead, the point here is that God created everything that we see. All the animals, the beautiful landscapes like the Grand Canyon, He made the materials for our house. God created everything that exists including us humans. The end is coming very soon so we must believe that God is the true author and creator of our faith. So let us believe in Him.