Genesis (Part 15)
Bible Study Time 9-21-08
(From James Roberts 11-10-96)
Bible Study Time 9-21-08
(From James Roberts 11-10-96)
In our previous studies on Bible Study Time, we have been taking a Journey Through the Scripture. We saw Noah and his family and animals of every kind as they entered into the ark where they were protected by God and brought safely through the flood judgment. During this flood judgment, God destroyed the heavens and the earth that were in existence at that time.
As He brought Noah out of the ark, God made a covenant with Noah in which He said that He would never again destroy the earth with a judgment such as the one that Noah had just experienced. In other words, God said that He would never again destroy the heavens and the earth with a flood judgment.
However, the book of 2 Peter tells us that there will come a time in which God will destroy the heavens and the earth with a judgment of fire. The heavens and the earth that now exist will melt with fervent heat, and out of that old heaven and old earth will come a new heaven and a new earth in which dwells righteousness.
Every person who has been saved, from Adam right down to the last person, will be with the Lord in eternity in a new heaven and a new earth in which dwells righteousness. The old things will pass away, and all things will become new.
Many people are very confused about this fiery judgment that is going to take place. They think that at any moment God could just end everything with a fiery judgment in which He destroys the heavens and the earth. I believe that the scriptures are very clear in telling us that there are many things that must take place before that fiery judgment takes place.
In our present age, God is calling out the Church which is the Body of Christ. This is the Church that God is building in the heavens today. In the book of Acts, God suspended His program with the nation of Israel which had to do with the calling out of the nation of Israel and those Gentiles that will be blessed with Israel in God’s earthly kingdom. In our present age, God has suspended that program because of Israel’s unbelief.
As a result of Israel’s unbelief, God set Israel’s program aside and started calling out the Church of our present age. In God’s program for us today, God is taking Jews and Gentiles who put their trust in Christ, and He is adding them to the Church. When a person puts his faith in Christ, he automatically becomes a member of the Church which is the Body of Christ. This is the means by which God is building the Church today.
Someday, the last member will be added to the Church, and God will at that point take the Church up to be with Himself in the heavens. This is our hope today. At that time, those who have died, who are members of the Body of Christ, will be raised up with a body that will never die. Those who are alive when the Lord completes the Church will never seen death, but they will be taken up into heaven where they will be given new bodies that will never die.
After the catching up of the Church, God is going to send a great time of judgment upon the earth. This will be the time when God resumes His dealings with the nation of Israel. In fact, the Bible calls this period of time the time of Jacob’s trouble.
During this period of great tribulation, God is going to purify unto Himself the nation of Israel. Out of the old unbelieving nation will come a new nation of Israel, purified by the trials and afflictions of the great tribulation period. The members of this new nation will put their faith in Jesus Christ as Israel’s promised Messiah, and they will as last have the Law of God written in their hearts by the Holy Spirit of God.
When the Lord returns to the earth at the end of this tribulation period, He is going to save the nation of Israel in a day. The nation of Israel will be born again, and they will be the ministers of God in a perfect kingdom here on this earth. In this kingdom, the Lord Jesus Christ will reign over the earth for a thousand years as he sits upon the throne of David in Jerusalem. At that time, Jesus Christ will rule and reign over the earth as the Prince of Peace, and Jerusalem will be the capital city of His kingdom.
The great judgment of fire which was predicted by the Apostle Peter will not come until after Christ’s thousand year kingdom. At the close of that kingdom. Christ will sit upon a great white throne from which He will judge all of the unsaved, wicked dead. All unsaved people from the time of Adam all the way through the ions of time, who have never trusted God and who have never believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, will be cast into the lake of fire. Only then will God destroy the heavens and earth with fire.
So the thing that man needs to be concerned about today is not the fiery judgment. Today, man needs to be concerned about whether or not he has trusted the Lord Jesus Christ as Savior. The book of Hebrews says that it is appointed unto man once to die and after that the judgment.
The judgment that is awaiting those who have never trusted Christ will take place after they die. We are not to be overly concerned about the fiery judgment. If you know the Lord Jesus Christ as Savior, Paul says, there is no judgment, or condemnation, for those who are in Christ Jesus.
If you know the Lord Jesus Christ, you are safe and secure in the ark of safety, even as Noah was safe in the ark. No judgment fell upon Noah and his family because they were in the ark. The judgment fell only upon those who were outside the ark.
Oh, I ask you today, do you know the Lord as your personal Savior? Do you know the one who died for you, who was buried and rose again? Do you know the one who became your substitute, the one who paid the penalty for your sins and then was raised again and went back into the heavens? Do you know him today? If you don’t, you’re under judgment. The only thing that’s keeping you from the judgment of God is the breath that is in your body. By simply placing your faith in Jesus Christ and calling upon His name, you can be saved today.
Now, after Noah and his family came out of the ark, there was an incident that took place which has been a point of controversy through the years. In Genesis, Chapter 9, we read that Noah became a farmer, and he planted a vineyard. Then one day, as Noah was drinking the wine, he got drunk and was lying in his tent naked. Then,
Genesis 9:22-25 NKJV
22 . . . Ham, the father of Canaan, saw the nakedness of his father, and told his two brothers outside.
23 But Shem and Japheth took a garment, laid it on both their shoulders, and went backward and covered the nakedness of their father. Their faces were turned away, and they did not see their father's nakedness.
24 So Noah awoke from his wine, and knew what his younger son had done to him.
25 Then he said: "Cursed be Canaan; . . .
Notice that Noah did not say, cursed by Ham, the one who had done this thing, but Noah said, cursed by Canaan. Now, verse 25:
Genesis 9:25-28 NKJV
25 . . . A servant of servants He shall be to his brethren."
26 And he said: "Blessed be the Lord, The God of Shem, And may Canaan be his servant.
27 May God enlarge Japheth, And may he dwell in the tents of Shem; And may Canaan be his servant."
28 And Noah lived after the flood three hundred and fifty years.
So here we see a curse, a judgment, that was placed, not upon Ham, but upon Ham’s son, Canaan. Why is it that the judgment did not fall upon Ham, who did the deed? Why did the judgment fall upon Canaan?
We need to keep in mind that the first five books of the Bible were written by Moses under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. God was using Moses at the close of Moses’ life to instruct Israel through these first five books of the Bible. God had brought the children of Israel up out of Egypt with the promise that they would inherit the land of Canaan, and God wanted them to understand that the land of Canaan was already under a curse. God wanted them to know that He would fight for them against the Canaanites.
But some may say that it’s unfair to pronounce a curse upon people before they even exist. Well, God knew all about the wickedness that would come from the descendants of Canaan. In Genesis, Chapter 15, we read that God told Abraham that his descendants would be slaves in a strange land for 400 years. God said that Abraham’s would remain in that land until the iniquity of the Amorites was full.
So God was patient and longsuffering with the children of Canaan. He endured their wickedness for 400 years while the children of Israel were being afflicted by the Egyptians. But after 400 years, God brought the children of Israel up out of Egypt, and He led them to the land of Canaan where Moses instructed them concerning the curse that had been pronounced by Noah hundreds of years earlier.
Obviously, the curse upon the Canaanites was not just because of Noah’s words, but it was because of the wickedness of the children of Canaan. The iniquity of the Amorites had finally reached its fullness, and so it was time for Noah’s curse to be fulfilled.
Do you remember what happened when the children of Israel first came up to the borders of the land of Canaan? They sent in spies to spy out the land, and when the spies came back, Joshua and Caleb were confident that they could take the land.
How did they know that they could take the land? Undoubtedly, their confidence was at least partially due to the prophesy of Noah, that God had placed a curse upon the children of Canaan. This prophesy was well known by the all those who were familiar with the writings of Moses.
Many things have been written about this curse that was placed upon Canaan. Tragically, some have interpreted this curse as being a curse upon the black race. According to this interpretation, the black man was destined to be a servant of servants all the days of his life.
That interpretation is a misreading of the scriptures. God never placed a curse upon the black race. The curse upon Canaan was a curse upon the children of Canaan, and this prophetic curse was fulfilled when the children of Israel entered and conquered the land of Canaan. This curse has nothing to do with the black race.
Now, before we close, there are a couple of other things that I would like to mention concerning the descendants of Noah. In Genesis, Chapter 10, we see two very important people. One of the descendants of the Ham was Nimrod, whose kingdom was initiated at Babel in the plain of Shinar. Then he went out from Babel to establish the city of Nineveh which became the capital city of the Assyrians. We are going to take a closer look at Babel and Nineveh next week. These two great kingdoms of Nimrod are very important.
But then it’s also important to see that God had a great promise that was to come to pass through Shem, for it was through the line of Shem that the Lord Jesus Christ, Himself, would come into the world. So, Nimrod, the picture of wickedness, came through Canaan, while Jesus Christ, the picture of righteousness, came through Shem.
Well, I see our time is gone. Be sure to be with us again next week as we continue our Journey Through the Scripture . Until that time, we bid you goodbye.
Church links:
As He brought Noah out of the ark, God made a covenant with Noah in which He said that He would never again destroy the earth with a judgment such as the one that Noah had just experienced. In other words, God said that He would never again destroy the heavens and the earth with a flood judgment.
However, the book of 2 Peter tells us that there will come a time in which God will destroy the heavens and the earth with a judgment of fire. The heavens and the earth that now exist will melt with fervent heat, and out of that old heaven and old earth will come a new heaven and a new earth in which dwells righteousness.
Every person who has been saved, from Adam right down to the last person, will be with the Lord in eternity in a new heaven and a new earth in which dwells righteousness. The old things will pass away, and all things will become new.
Many people are very confused about this fiery judgment that is going to take place. They think that at any moment God could just end everything with a fiery judgment in which He destroys the heavens and the earth. I believe that the scriptures are very clear in telling us that there are many things that must take place before that fiery judgment takes place.
In our present age, God is calling out the Church which is the Body of Christ. This is the Church that God is building in the heavens today. In the book of Acts, God suspended His program with the nation of Israel which had to do with the calling out of the nation of Israel and those Gentiles that will be blessed with Israel in God’s earthly kingdom. In our present age, God has suspended that program because of Israel’s unbelief.
As a result of Israel’s unbelief, God set Israel’s program aside and started calling out the Church of our present age. In God’s program for us today, God is taking Jews and Gentiles who put their trust in Christ, and He is adding them to the Church. When a person puts his faith in Christ, he automatically becomes a member of the Church which is the Body of Christ. This is the means by which God is building the Church today.
Someday, the last member will be added to the Church, and God will at that point take the Church up to be with Himself in the heavens. This is our hope today. At that time, those who have died, who are members of the Body of Christ, will be raised up with a body that will never die. Those who are alive when the Lord completes the Church will never seen death, but they will be taken up into heaven where they will be given new bodies that will never die.
After the catching up of the Church, God is going to send a great time of judgment upon the earth. This will be the time when God resumes His dealings with the nation of Israel. In fact, the Bible calls this period of time the time of Jacob’s trouble.
During this period of great tribulation, God is going to purify unto Himself the nation of Israel. Out of the old unbelieving nation will come a new nation of Israel, purified by the trials and afflictions of the great tribulation period. The members of this new nation will put their faith in Jesus Christ as Israel’s promised Messiah, and they will as last have the Law of God written in their hearts by the Holy Spirit of God.
When the Lord returns to the earth at the end of this tribulation period, He is going to save the nation of Israel in a day. The nation of Israel will be born again, and they will be the ministers of God in a perfect kingdom here on this earth. In this kingdom, the Lord Jesus Christ will reign over the earth for a thousand years as he sits upon the throne of David in Jerusalem. At that time, Jesus Christ will rule and reign over the earth as the Prince of Peace, and Jerusalem will be the capital city of His kingdom.
The great judgment of fire which was predicted by the Apostle Peter will not come until after Christ’s thousand year kingdom. At the close of that kingdom. Christ will sit upon a great white throne from which He will judge all of the unsaved, wicked dead. All unsaved people from the time of Adam all the way through the ions of time, who have never trusted God and who have never believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, will be cast into the lake of fire. Only then will God destroy the heavens and earth with fire.
So the thing that man needs to be concerned about today is not the fiery judgment. Today, man needs to be concerned about whether or not he has trusted the Lord Jesus Christ as Savior. The book of Hebrews says that it is appointed unto man once to die and after that the judgment.
The judgment that is awaiting those who have never trusted Christ will take place after they die. We are not to be overly concerned about the fiery judgment. If you know the Lord Jesus Christ as Savior, Paul says, there is no judgment, or condemnation, for those who are in Christ Jesus.
If you know the Lord Jesus Christ, you are safe and secure in the ark of safety, even as Noah was safe in the ark. No judgment fell upon Noah and his family because they were in the ark. The judgment fell only upon those who were outside the ark.
Oh, I ask you today, do you know the Lord as your personal Savior? Do you know the one who died for you, who was buried and rose again? Do you know the one who became your substitute, the one who paid the penalty for your sins and then was raised again and went back into the heavens? Do you know him today? If you don’t, you’re under judgment. The only thing that’s keeping you from the judgment of God is the breath that is in your body. By simply placing your faith in Jesus Christ and calling upon His name, you can be saved today.
Now, after Noah and his family came out of the ark, there was an incident that took place which has been a point of controversy through the years. In Genesis, Chapter 9, we read that Noah became a farmer, and he planted a vineyard. Then one day, as Noah was drinking the wine, he got drunk and was lying in his tent naked. Then,
Genesis 9:22-25 NKJV
22 . . . Ham, the father of Canaan, saw the nakedness of his father, and told his two brothers outside.
23 But Shem and Japheth took a garment, laid it on both their shoulders, and went backward and covered the nakedness of their father. Their faces were turned away, and they did not see their father's nakedness.
24 So Noah awoke from his wine, and knew what his younger son had done to him.
25 Then he said: "Cursed be Canaan; . . .
Notice that Noah did not say, cursed by Ham, the one who had done this thing, but Noah said, cursed by Canaan. Now, verse 25:
Genesis 9:25-28 NKJV
25 . . . A servant of servants He shall be to his brethren."
26 And he said: "Blessed be the Lord, The God of Shem, And may Canaan be his servant.
27 May God enlarge Japheth, And may he dwell in the tents of Shem; And may Canaan be his servant."
28 And Noah lived after the flood three hundred and fifty years.
So here we see a curse, a judgment, that was placed, not upon Ham, but upon Ham’s son, Canaan. Why is it that the judgment did not fall upon Ham, who did the deed? Why did the judgment fall upon Canaan?
We need to keep in mind that the first five books of the Bible were written by Moses under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. God was using Moses at the close of Moses’ life to instruct Israel through these first five books of the Bible. God had brought the children of Israel up out of Egypt with the promise that they would inherit the land of Canaan, and God wanted them to understand that the land of Canaan was already under a curse. God wanted them to know that He would fight for them against the Canaanites.
But some may say that it’s unfair to pronounce a curse upon people before they even exist. Well, God knew all about the wickedness that would come from the descendants of Canaan. In Genesis, Chapter 15, we read that God told Abraham that his descendants would be slaves in a strange land for 400 years. God said that Abraham’s would remain in that land until the iniquity of the Amorites was full.
So God was patient and longsuffering with the children of Canaan. He endured their wickedness for 400 years while the children of Israel were being afflicted by the Egyptians. But after 400 years, God brought the children of Israel up out of Egypt, and He led them to the land of Canaan where Moses instructed them concerning the curse that had been pronounced by Noah hundreds of years earlier.
Obviously, the curse upon the Canaanites was not just because of Noah’s words, but it was because of the wickedness of the children of Canaan. The iniquity of the Amorites had finally reached its fullness, and so it was time for Noah’s curse to be fulfilled.
Do you remember what happened when the children of Israel first came up to the borders of the land of Canaan? They sent in spies to spy out the land, and when the spies came back, Joshua and Caleb were confident that they could take the land.
How did they know that they could take the land? Undoubtedly, their confidence was at least partially due to the prophesy of Noah, that God had placed a curse upon the children of Canaan. This prophesy was well known by the all those who were familiar with the writings of Moses.
Many things have been written about this curse that was placed upon Canaan. Tragically, some have interpreted this curse as being a curse upon the black race. According to this interpretation, the black man was destined to be a servant of servants all the days of his life.
That interpretation is a misreading of the scriptures. God never placed a curse upon the black race. The curse upon Canaan was a curse upon the children of Canaan, and this prophetic curse was fulfilled when the children of Israel entered and conquered the land of Canaan. This curse has nothing to do with the black race.
Now, before we close, there are a couple of other things that I would like to mention concerning the descendants of Noah. In Genesis, Chapter 10, we see two very important people. One of the descendants of the Ham was Nimrod, whose kingdom was initiated at Babel in the plain of Shinar. Then he went out from Babel to establish the city of Nineveh which became the capital city of the Assyrians. We are going to take a closer look at Babel and Nineveh next week. These two great kingdoms of Nimrod are very important.
But then it’s also important to see that God had a great promise that was to come to pass through Shem, for it was through the line of Shem that the Lord Jesus Christ, Himself, would come into the world. So, Nimrod, the picture of wickedness, came through Canaan, while Jesus Christ, the picture of righteousness, came through Shem.
Well, I see our time is gone. Be sure to be with us again next week as we continue our Journey Through the Scripture . Until that time, we bid you goodbye.
Church links:
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