What did the world look like before the flood? God created a perfect paradise on earth and made Man and Woman in His image to rule over that paradise. As His crowing creation, humans had the ability to hear the voice of God and follow His moral commands. But after creation is cursed in response to human's moral rebellion to God, how deep can their depravity go before God says, "Enough"? This week we begin studying through Genesis 6 and get a glimpse of what the world looked like before the flood. We'll answer questions like "Who are the sons of God?" and "Who are the Nephilim?" And if God knew the choices mankind would make before He made them, how could He regret creating them?
The way of Cain or the way of the Lord? Within six generations after the fall of man, though people are prospering building cities and making technological advancements in agriculture and art and metallurgy, the culture has become one of violence and pride for those who follow the way of Cain. Are there any left who follow the way of the Lord? This week we study through Genesis 5 and the genealogy of Seth. We'll look at the contrast of those born in a land of wandering and those who call on the name of the Lord. And we'll learn what walking with God looked like then and what it looks like today.
Why do the wicked prosper? Cain refuses to obey God when he offers a sacrifice to God from his own works and not from faith. Cain again refuses to obey God when he fails to heed God's warning to rule over his sin and instead kills his brother. What happens when Cain continues to rebel in his banishment from the Lord's presence, even while bearing God's mark of protection? This week we finish reading Genesis 4 and study through the genealogy of Cain. We'll look at how Cain's rebellion had long-term repercussions on his children's children and beyond as well as answer age-old questions like "Where did Cain get his wife?" and "Why do the wicked seem to prosper?" And right at the very end of Genesis 4, we'll see if there is indeed any hope for a world in rebellion to God.
I've done so much for God, why won't He accept it? The good creation God made has been corrupted by sin, and lest Adam eat from the tree of life and live forever in in his sinful state, God chases the man and woman from their home in paradise. Though hope is soon heard in the cries of a baby boy born to Eve, the mother of all, that hope would be short lived as the sins of the father would soon become the sins of the son. This week we begin studying in Genesis 4 and the story of Cain and Abel. We'll answer the question of why God didn't accept Cain's offering and learn what it means that God wants obedience over sacrifice. We'll see again God's amazing grace for sinful man and ask ourselves what great evil each of us could be capable of without Jesus Christ in our lives.
Why is work so hard? When God made Adam and placed him in the paradise of the garden, He gave Adam charge over the garden to work it and watch over it. God then made the woman, taken from Adam's side, and charged them to be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth. That first couple would go on to rebel against God, and when God brought judgment on the woman, He made the process of being fruitful and filling the earth more painfully laborious. Now as God concludes His judgment on the rebellion of Adam and Eve, He'll bring judgment on the man and make his work and care for creation a painful labor. This week we finish studying Genesis 3 and the fall of man. We'll see God's judgment on Man, and by extension mankind, when He curses the ground and makes work laborious. And as we've seen already in this chapter, we'll see God's grace in the midst of the judgment. It's easy to see God's grace when He makes a sacrifice to cover their sins; but is there also grace when God exiled the first man and women from their home in paradise?