Scripture Snapshots:
A BIRD'S EYE VIEW-part 2
Series 1 Lesson 4
In our last lesson we started to look at an overview of the Bible … a “bird’s eye view” as we take a quick look over some major events. Here is a summary of the 3 C words we looked at:
CREATION - God created the world in 6 days and rested on the 7th. He created with order and intelligence. He made the first man and first woman. His Creation was “very good”.
CLEANSING - Creation did not stay “very good” for long. The first people, Adam and Eve, used the free will that God gave them to choose disobedience and sin. Everyone born after them were born sinners. The world became a very wicked place. God told Noah to build an Ark that would save people and animals from a worldwide flood. Only 8 people believed God and got on the Ark … all the other people died in the Flood.
CONFUSION - After the Flood, those 8 people had children and their children had children until there were lots of people. God had told them to move and settle other parts of the earth but they did not. Instead, they worked together to build a very tall tower. They thought that this would be the best way to get to heaven and make a name for themselves. So, when the people refused to obey God, He confused their one language by turning it into many languages. They then had the opportunity of a fresh start when they finally obeyed and moved out to settle the whole earth … now with their separate language groups which then grew into distinct cultures.
Now that we have reviewed the events of Genesis 1-11, let’s continue with our “bird’s eye view” and look at 3 more C words:
CALL (Genesis)
Before He created the world, God knew that people would use their free will to disobey and sin. Even then God had a plan to save mankind from their sin so that they could have a good relationship with God. God’s plan was to send His Son, Jesus, to die for our sins. Jesus would be born into an earthly family and that family would belong to the Jewish Nation. In Genesis 12 we learn about Abraham – the father of the Jewish Nation. God called Abraham and told him to take his family and leave the land they lived in to go to wherever God told them to go. God promised to bless Abraham in many ways. The biggest blessing was that the Savior (also called Messiah) would be born from someone in Abraham’s family line. God also promised that Abraham’s family would become a great number of people like the stars in the sky and that they would have a land of their very own.
As God promised, the Jewish people became a great number of people.
As God promised, the Savior was born as part of the Jewish nation.
As God promised, the Jewish people got their own land … Israel.
Down through the years, there have been very hard times for the Jewish people (like now), but God has never left them. In fact, God calls them “His People”. The Old Testament tells the story of God’s dealings with the Jewish people as He worked out His plan of sending His Son Jesus.
COMMANDMENTS (Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy)
The Jewish Nation experienced good times as well as many bad times. One of these good times was when God provided a way for the Jewish people to move to Egypt and escape the starvation in their land. God then prospered them, and their population grew very large. But then the Egyptians grew scared of the Jewish people (they called them Hebrews), and they made them slaves. The Jews were slaves in Egypt for over 400 years. BUT God provided a way of escape through Moses and the promise of a good land just for them. God also gave them the 10 commandments and a lot of other rules. These rules were given so that they would know how best to live and to please God. Since this time MANY people have tried to obey ALL of the commandments ALL of the time and NEVER once break even one thinking that this would earn their way to heaven. The problem is that NO ONE could ever keep all the rules all the time … no one alive today can either. The 10 Commandments are NOT the way to Heaven!
The 10 commandments are good rules for you and me too. God didn’t give us these rules to take away our fun and make our lives miserable or to take away our chance to go to Heaven. These rules are given for our benefit and our good. They bring peace and order to our lives and world. They also show that we need a Savior … and that is why God sent us Jesus just like He promised. Jesus was sent to be the Savior! For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life. John 3:16
CONQUEST (Joshua)
Even after God delivered the Jewish people from slavery in Egypt and gave them the rules they needed to live, they chose to disobey Him and to do things their own way. The consequence for their disobedience meant that it would take longer for them to get to the Promised Land that God was taking them too. So instead of a short journey of about 10 days, the Jews wandered around the desert for 40 years before God allowed them to enter the Promised Land (later called Israel). God parted the waters of the flooding Jordan River so that they could cross into the Promised Land on dry land. It wasn’t easy to settle the new land, but God was with them and helped them. God fought with them to overcome the enemy people who were living in the land. At the very first city, Jericho, God told the Jewish people not to fight. Instead, they were all supposed to march around the city once a day for six days. On the seventh day they were to march around Jericho seven times and then shout to the Lord. God then knocked all of the walls down and the Jews won an easy victory. They then went on to fight and defeat many other enemies … even those who were stationed behind thick, high walls. The Jews didn’t defeat all of the people, but eventually they took over the majority of the Promised Land and settled down.
Remember this lesson is just a quick bird’s eye view of some major events.
There is soooo much more to the story!
You can read more in the first few books of the Old Testament.
There are lots of exciting things to read about!