L E S S O N L E V E L. Back to the Beginning

Transcription

1 7 1 1 V 7 ack to the eginning

2 ack to the eginning he ible is like an amazing mirror. t reflects not only the past, but also the future. t also reflects invisible things: the reasons why human beings do the things they do, the strengths and weaknesses in our character, and what our actions will lead to. ooking into this mirror can help you see amazing truths, truths you can live by, truths that will make your life healthy, fun and meaningful. o discover the truths that will change your life, go to your ible and open it up. tudy it every day. ay by day, its reflections will become more and more clear. he image might seem dark at first (1 orinthians 13:12), but if you continue to study and you pray to the uthor of the ible, e will help you clearly see the past, the future and what to do now so that e can make your life more awesome. his level of the mperial cademy ible essons will complete your study of the ld estament. ou will learn about angelic wars in outer space, about global disasters, about powerful kings, and about servants of God who saw God perform tremendous miracles. ou can see these same spectacular events. ou can see into the past, the future and into the workings of your own life. ll you need is a willingness to take action with your ible, a pencil and a prayerful attitude! G W urn in your ible to Genesis 1:2 and read it. ook back in time to a different world. t this point, there is nothing but cold darkness. here are no plants, no animals, no people not even dry land. ou can t see the sun, moon or stars. his planet is a darkened, icy wasteland! s this how arth began? o! saiah 45:18 records that God created this planet to be inhabited. e made the arth to be a paradise. When e originally created it, the weather was warm and beautiful; the land and sea were full of amazing creatures, including peaceful dinosaurs. ut something went wrong. o see how arth began and what went wrong, you have to go further back in time. Genesis is the first book of the ible, but to read about the beginning of the universe, you will have to search out a different book. ead ohn 1:1 to fill in the blanks: n the was the, and the was with God, and the was God. his is the true beginning. his was the earliest existence: before the arth, before the stars, before time itself! or the past eternity, all that existed were two magnificent, glorious, powerful uperbeings their eyes like flames of fire, their voices like thundering waterfalls. hey were together, and they shined like enormous, blindingly brilliant suns! hese uperbeings were intimately related to each other, like being in the same family much like you are part of the family (write your last name). he first uperbeing was called God; the second was called the Word. he Word was together with God, and the Word was God. hese two God eings conversed, did things, lived a way of life. or eternity, that way of life was to give, share, cooperate and love. hen, at some long ago point in time, God and the Word chose to share and love even more. hey decided to create more beings to love! hey would make these beings with the ability to think and choose, sharing this wonderful, God-like way of life with them. hey would do this by using the oly pirit, which is the power of God. With the oly pirit, God and the Word would generate fantastic creations out of literally nothing. 2

3 or all eternity, God and the Word used government, which defined their relationship with one another it was how they interacted with each other. hey were equal in power, but they had different roles. he God eing known as God was in charge. e was the chief designer of all creation. he God eing known as the Word was the speaker. God told the Word what to create, and the Word spoke those exact things into existence. ll things were made by him [the Word], says ohn 1:3, and without him [the Word] was not any thing made that was made. ou can use the ible to speed ahead thousands or even millions of years and find out more about God and the Word. urn to ohn 1:14 and then fill in the blanks: nd the was made, and among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only of the ather,) full of grace and truth. he Word came to arth as a human and became esus hrist. When e did so, e became the on of God, and God became God the ather! ut let s return to God and the Word at the time of the original creation. hese two God eings spent an extensive amount of time thinking over, conversing about, and planning out this creation. hey do everything decently and in order (1 orinthians 14:40). his is a powerful lesson we can learn from the God amily. he ible also reveals a description of a tremendous moment in God s plan. ead about it in ob 38:6-7: Whereupon are the foundations [of the earth] fastened? or who laid the thereof; When the morning sang together, and all the of shouted for joy? his verse reveals that God built the arth. t also reveals that before e set its foundations, there were already morning stars. hese morning stars witnessed this event and erupted into singing and celebrating when they saw God building arth. hese morning stars are better known as angels. ngels are spirit beings that God created before creating arth and the rest of the planets, stars and other matter in the physical universe. When God created the universe, they were present and they were in awe. God and the Word created angels. he created angels are obviously lesser beings than their reators. hey were created to serve God and to experience is awesome way of life. ven though they are much lower than God, angels are spirit beings. his means they have greater power and more-capable minds, in addition to being immortal (not subject to physical death). here is also a variety of angels. ach has its own personality, thinks its own thoughts, and makes its own decisions. ome are more musical; some are more powerful. he angels with the highest positions and the most power are called archangels; the three mentioned in the ible are ichael, Gabriel and ucifer. G ucifer was one of the angels who trained in the throne room of God. e was there when God created the arth and the universe. e saw this beautiful planet come into being as the Word spoke. nd he had a special connection to arth. God appointed him to rule arth to make it more beautiful. vast number of angels was assigned to help ucifer as he administered God s government. hen something went horribly wrong. ore and more, ucifer s thoughts began to turn to one subject: himself. e thought about his beauty; he thought about his talents; he thought about his intelligence. nd he made the choice to become prideful. s his pride grew, he began to resent God. e began to covet the power that God had. e began to lose the humility of one who didn t even exist until God made him. ucifer rejected living God s eternal, loving way of life. e began to think of a new way, a different way. f he were in charge, he would rule the universe differently. ucifer began to spread his ideas. e talked to the other angels; he told them God was unfair. e told them they shouldn t let God decide what was right and wrong they should decide it for themselves. e said his way, competition, was better than God s way, cooperation. any angels believed ucifer. fter probably a considerable amount of time, they launched a war against God. his was not a surprise attack. God knew ucifer s thoughts. e even recorded them in the ible. urn to saiah 14:13-14, and you can also see what was in ucifer s mind: or you have said in your heart, [ucifer] will [go up] into V 7 1 3

4 , will exalt my above the stars of : will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north: will ascend above the heights of the clouds; will be like the most. God and the Word are infinitely more powerful than the angels they had created. t was impossible for ucifer and his angels to win a war against God. ut God allowed ucifer to come against im so that e could see which angels would follow im and which angels would follow ucifer. he war that then exploded devastated the arth and most or all of the universe. ne out of every three angels followed ucifer and revolted against God. he rest of the angels stayed loyal to God and fought back, led by the archangel ichael. he scale and intensity of the war was shocking! tars exploded; moons smashed into pieces; planets hurtled out of orbit. ebris crashed through the atmosphere. idal waves sunk continents. ll physical life in the universe, including life on arth, died. arth, along with the rest of the universe, became a formless, hemorrhaging world of darkness and lifelessness. Genesis 1:2 reveals what arth was like after this catastrophic war: nd the earth became [ was is a bad translation] without, and ; and was upon the face of the deep. fter God confirmed which angels were loyal to is way of life, e personally cast ucifer and his angels back to arth, and they fell like lightning bolts (uke 10:18). God called the traitor angels demons, and he changed ucifer s name to atan, which means enemy! - fter the angelic rebellion, God knew only God beings could be fully trusted to live is way of love. e and the Word began implementing a new plan to create more God beings. his plan was already in their minds, but it involved tremendous risk. t involved the creation of man. he first step of the plan recorded in the ible was the renewing of the arth. o see how God did this, read Genesis 1:3 through Genesis 2:3. Write in your own words what God did on each day of the re-creation week: irst ay: econd ay: hird ay: ourth ay: ifth ay: ixth ay: eventh ay: ll this work led up to God s creations on day six and day seven. n day six, God made human beings. hese physical, mortal, creations were made to reason and make choices, like the angels. hey could choose God s way of life or reject it, like the angels. ut unlike angels, human beings who obey God could be transformed into God beings! umans were created to have the amazing potential to become real members of the God amily like the ather and the on! n day seven, God created the abbath, a special time for human beings to learn about God s incredible plan for them! W God created the first man, dam, out of clay. e then took one of dam s ribs and fashioned it into a wife for him. dam named this woman ve. he was created to be his companion and to help make it possible for many more human beings to be born. God planted a spectacular garden to be a home for dam and ve. ike ucifer before them, dam and ve were given the opportunity to beautify this place: the Garden of den. he Word personally taught dam and ve about the God amily plan. e also planted two special trees in the middle of the garden. he first tree was the tree of life. t represented God s way of give. he Word told dam and his wife that if they ate from this tree, God would give them a small portion of is oly pirit. his would help them obey God and lead them on the path to eternal life! he second tree was the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. t represented atan s way of selfishness, competition and making up your own definitions of right and wrong. he Word warned that if dam and ve ate from this tree, they would make the same mistake as ucifer. hey would reject God and live a life of selfishness, which leads to misery and ultimately to death. fter dam and ve learned about God s way of life, God allowed atan to test them. Genesis 3 records that atan took the form of a serpent and spoke to ve. e told her God had lied. e told her that selfishness 4

5 illustrations: brooke davis was a better way than obedience to God, that God was preventing them from having something better! ve believed the serpent and ate the fruit God told her not to eat. he gave some of the fruit to dam; he also disobeyed God and ate it. God could have prevented this, but e wanted dam and ve to make their own choice. hey had to choose is way of life, not be forced into it. God banished them from the garden so that they couldn t eat from the tree of life and live forever in selfish misery. Generations and generations of human beings came from dam and ve. lmost all of them have been cut off from receiving the oly pirit except for a very few whom God has chosen. n these special instances, God gave is oly pirit to some men and women in the ible and to members of is hurch throughout the ages. oday, baptized adults in God s hurch have the opportunity to submit to God and use is oly pirit to figuratively eat from the tree of life. o eat from this tree, a person has to stop eating from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. atan still tempts those with the oly pirit and those with whom the pirit is working. hey must continue to choose God s way and to resist following after atan s way of selfishness. ost people take the easy way that atan offers. ut some few resist atan and draw close to God. God can only work with and develop those who submit to im. e can cause them to grow spiritually; e can give them more and more of is oly pirit. nd finally, when esus hrist returns to arth, those individuals will be transformed into God beings in is amily! his is why humans were created! God placed dam and ve in the Garden of den. When you are young, you learn to eat from the tree of life by obeying God s commandments, by choosing to do what God says, even when you want to do something different, perhaps when a friend suggests doing something that will break God s law. ou eat this life-giving fruit when you obey and choose not to play sports or to watch entertainment on the abbath. ou grow into someone God can ultimately bring into is amily when you refuse to lie, when you honor your parents, and when you keep all of God s commandments! K he vast majority of human beings do not want to obey God s commandments. hat is true today, and it was true in the early generations that descended from dam. dam lived 930 years and had many sons and daughters. oon the world was full of people. t was also full of selfishness, lying, hatred, crime and murder all bad fruits of atan s way. he ible records that people ate wrong foods, abused alcohol, and broke God s laws of marriage (atthew 24:38). God created food, alcohol and marriage, but human beings abused all three. God created ve to give birth to children of different races, each with special characteristics. God wanted people to marry spouses within their own race so that these special attributes would endure. ut dam s descendants disobeyed and married whomever they chose. he people rejected all of God s commandments, so the world became full of evil! o see the state of the world at this time, fill in the blanks using Genesis 6:5: nd God saw that the of man was in the earth, and that every of the thoughts of his was only continually. God decided to end this mess. e chose to send a gigantic flood that would drown everyone. (e would then resurrect them thousands of years later once atan s way was eradicated and is way was being lived worldwide.) ut God found one man who was trying to obey is laws. is name was oah. God spoke to oah. urn to Genesis 6:12-14 to read this historic and earth-altering conversation. nd looked upon the, and, V 7 1 5

6 left alive on arth were in the ark: oah and his family. When the water began to recede, the ark came to rest on ount rarat. When oah and his family were able to disembark, oah offered an animal sacrifice to God. We should always remember to thank God for is blessings and protection! nd in the case of oah, if God hadn t protected him, we would not exist! behold, it was had ll of humanity mocked oah for building the ark, but in the end only he and his family were spared. of all ; for all his [God s] way upon the. nd God said unto, he is filled with them; and, behold, will is come before me; for the through them with the earth. ake you an of wood. here were no storms in the forecast. veryone around oah would have ridiculed him for building a huge boat for no reason. ut he believed God, so he began to build. With help from his sons, and (Genesis 5:32), he built the vessel God specified: an ark large enough for oah s family, thousands of animals and thousands of pounds of food. t took oah 120 years to build it. uring this period, oah warned people they would drown if they didn t repent. o one heeded oah s warning from God. ore than 120 years after God spoke to oah, the ark was complete. God miraculously caused seven pairs of every clean animal and one pair of every unclean animal to come to oah. is family loaded these animals into the stables and cages in the ark so that they would survive the lood. hen oah and his family boarded the ark, and God imself sealed the door shut! Genesis 7 records the incredible events that happened next. or a week, nothing happened. ut then rain began to fall. hen it became a downpour. Geysers gushed up from the ground. ivers overflowed their banks, washing away both people and houses. he water kept rising for 40 days until the whole world was flooded. erhaps millions of people died. he only ones W he wives of oah s sons had many children. nd once again, the vast majority of them decided to rebel against God. hey lived the same selfish way as dam, ve and the people before the lood. n a land called hinar, a powerful hunter set himself up as king. his king s name was (Genesis 10:9). he people of hinar were angry with God for sending the lood. hey came up with a plan to rebel against im and to escape further punishment. ill in the blanks using Genesis 11:4 to see their plan: nd they said, Go to, let us us a and a, whose top may reach unto ; and let us make us a, lest we be abroad upon the face of the whole. God had promised never to send another great flood again. s a sign of is promise, e created the rainbow. he people of hinar evidently disbelieved God s promise. hey also refused to spread out across the arth, which is what God commanded them to do. his tower project kept the people together in one spot, united against God. God saw their evil multiplying and knew it would increase exponentially if human beings continued working together against im. e performed a miracle and divided their one language into many languages (Genesis 11:7). magine talking with another worker on a construction project, then all of a sudden he s speaking Greek. either of you would be able to accomplish much together after that. fter God confused the languages at the tower, it became known as the ower of abel. eople stopped building it, and family groups traveled away from abel, spreading out across the arth as God intended. V oah lived 350 years after the lood and saw the people rebel against God at abel. e warned his children and grandchildren that atan s way brings misery. ut they 6

7 rejected his warning. y the time oah died, the world was again filled with evil and selfishness! ut one man still obeyed God. e did his best to always believe God, to submit to God s definition of right and wrong, and to choose what was right even when it was easier or more tempting to choose what was wrong. When he made a mistake, he repented and asked God to help him obey better in the future. his man s name was bram. God decided to use bram for a new phase in is plan. efore bram, God used righteous men like oah as preachers of righteousness. hese men tried to lead the world back to God. ut God chose to do something different with bram. irst, God commanded bram to give up everything he had known the past 75 years. Genesis 12:1 records what e told bram: ow the ord had said unto bram, Get you of your, and from your, and from your father s, unto a that will show you. magine giving up most of your friends, your wealth, your favorite places to go. magine having to pack up a huge amount of belongings and family members and servants all because God simply said to move. What would your attitude be in that situation? bram s response is recorded in verse 4: o bram. ecause of bram s obedience, God changed his name to braham, which means father of a multitude. God made special promises to braham, promises that directly affect your life today! Genesis 13:15-16 reveal one of these foundational promises: or all the land which you see, to will it, and to your. nd will make your seed as the of the : so that if a man can number the of the, then shall your seed also be numbered. rom the time of dam through to oah, God had tried to use a preacher of righteousness to lead mankind back to is way of life. y doing so, e had proved that mankind would not respond to this type of warning. ow with braham, e was implementing something different. braham and his family would live separate from society, and God would make him into multiple great nations. God would work with God commanded bram to leave aran, so bram obeyed without question. braham s descendants and give them an opportunity to be examples to other nations. he blessings God would give to braham s descendants would show the whole world the fruits of living a life of faith and obedience toward God. n modern times, the descendants of braham have lived in the most blessed nations in human history: nations where young people have plenty to eat, comfortable homes, warm clothing, opportunity for education, bright futures. hough many of these blessings have been removed, even still the lives of young people in these nations are much different from the lives of millions who live in crushing poverty. hese nations include Great ritain, the nited tates, srael, anada, ustralia, ew Zealand, outh frica and much of northwestern urope. hances are, one of these nations is where you live. beying God, braham and his household left their home in the city of aran and traveled toward the wilderness of anaan. God promised that if braham obeyed is voice, e would give the land of anaan to him and his descendants as an eternal inheritance. wenty-five years passed. t wasn t easy for braham and his wife, arah, to continue believing God s promise. braham had uprooted his life from aran decades ago. e was now 99 years old. arah was 89 years old. braham and arah had no children. nd now arah was too old to give birth. braham wondered how God could keep is promise to give him so many descendants. ut he continued to be faithful. V 7 1 7

8 o find out how God kept is promise, fill in the blanks using Genesis 17:19: nd God said, arah your wife shall you a indeed; and you shall call his name : and will establish my with him. ne year later, when braham was 100 and arah 90, God performed a miracle: ecades after she had passed childbearing age, arah became pregnant and delivered a healthy baby boy! braham named their son saac. e taught this promised, miraculous child to believe and obey God! he pinnacle test for braham came when saac was an adult. Witness this hard trial by turning to Genesis 22:2: nd he said, ake now your, your only, whom you, and get you into the land of oriah; and him there for a. braham had waited and waited for his son. e had battled back the strong temptation to lose faith. ow saac was here. braham loved him dearly and now God commanded him to kill him. ut braham trusted God. God promised that braham would be the father of many nations, and they would come through saac. braham knew that braham and saac left for ount oriah early in the morning. God would have to resurrect saac to keep is promise (ebrews 11:18-19). ven though this was the hardest decision braham ever made, he chose to obey God. braham and saac left for ount oriah. t oriah, braham and saac built an altar out of stones. saac willingly lay down on top of this altar. his was the hardest moment in braham s life. sk your father and mother about the day you were born. sk them what emotions they had when they saw you come into the world. nd ask them what they would feel if they lost you. hese are the types of feelings braham had, except even more difficult. ut braham continued to obey God. e bound saac s hands together with cords. ears in his eyes, his heart pounding, braham lifted his knife high into the air to kill his son as quickly and painlessly as possible.! n angel s voice shouted out, relaying a message from God s throne: top braham. God was experiencing this ordeal with braham in a unique way: e knew that thousands of years later, e would sacrifice the Word, is own on whom e loved. God saw braham s heart, and e saw that he would even sacrifice his own child if God commanded him to. t that point, God knew braham would keep nothing back from im, and e spared braham the anguish of watching his son die. t was not an anguish that God would spare imself from. or the sake of saving all human beings, God would allow is on esus hrist to be killed there would be no last-second reprieve. ut God mercifully stopped braham. braham halted immediately and dropped the knife, probably collapsing from the emotion. t was a heart-wrenching trial, but now God knew braham s heart. When you go through a hardship, remember, God wants to see your heart. e wants to know what your attitude is. When you realize the anguish that braham went through and that he did it willingly for God you will understand why braham is rightly called the father of the faithful. God now made a bold move. e made is incredible, far-reaching promises to braham unconditional. efore, e had promised that braham would become the father of many nations if he obeyed God. ow, God knew braham would always obey. e promised to bless braham and his descendants, no matter what! ou can see this unconditional promise in Genesis 8

9 22:16-17: nd said, y myself have, said the, for because you have, and have not your son, your only : hat in will you, and in will your as the of the, and as the which is upon the. fter the intense trial on ount oriah, it came time for saac to find a wife. n braham s time, it was a father s responsibility to find a spouse for his child. o obey God s laws about preserving the beauty and variety of the races, braham sent his chief servant back to aran to find a wife for saac from among braham s relatives. ou can find out about this servant s incredible journey in Genesis 24. braham was not the only person in his household who had faith; his servant saw that example and prayed for amazing miracles and he received them! he servant returned to braham s land with a God-fearing young woman who was eager to serve. er name was ebekah. saac loved ebekah. oon they were married. et ebekah was not able to have children. his disappointment went on for 20 years. or two decades God tested saac and ebekah s faith. ut they continued to believe God, and God healed ebekah. he became pregnant and gave birth to twin sons. he first son was sau, and the second was acob. he twins grew up to be quite different. sau loved hunting and exploring the woods. acob became a shepherd. saac and ebekah made a major mistake in raising sau and acob. saac let himself have a favorite: sau. ebekah also had a favorite: acob. his would lead to huge problems, both during and after their lifetimes. ead Genesis 25 to catch up with the story as sau returns from a hunting trip. e had been gone a long time and was very hungry. e saw acob making a pot of lentil soup. o find out what happened next, read verses 30-32: nd sau said to acob, me, you, with that same ; for am : therefore was his name called dom. nd acob said, me this day your. nd sau said, ehold, am at the to : and what profit shall this do to me? sau wasn t really about to die; he was just very hungry. e had the birthright, which means as saac s eldest son, the incredible blessings that God promised braham and saac would go to sau. ut sau didn t value that amazing birthright. e gave up God s promise to braham for soup. his may seem like an isolated example. ut how easy it is for a young person to give up God s way happiness, a bright future, health, safety, fun, family for a girlfriend or boyfriend, or a riday night game. he girl, boy or game seems so real. God s blessings seem so distant. ut remember, that s exactly how sau thought. God actually intended for acob to have the birthright. e told this to ebekah in a dream while she was still pregnant with the twins. acob should have waited for God to fulfill that promise. nstead, acob took things into his own hands and schemed to buy the birthright from sau. acob was not done with his scheming. long with his mother, he planned to follow through on his longdevised plot to forcefully take the birthright promises. saac was old and blind; he believed he would soon die. e asked sau to go hunting for venison and prepare his favorite soup; then he would give sau a blessing. ebekah overheard this conversation and, like acob, decided to deceitfully take matters into her own hands rather than rely upon God. acob and ebekah came up with a plan for acob to disguise himself as sau. o find out the plan, read Genesis 27 and fill in the blanks in this summary: ebekah told to kill two so she could cook the meat to taste like. he told to take the meat to and ask for a blessing. didn t like the idea at first. e knew would feel his smooth arms and know who he really was, because sau s arms were hairy. o ebekah came up with a plan to deceive. acob covered his arms with the of the he had killed. hen he put on clothes. saac felt the hairy goat skins on arms and then V 7 1 9

10 sau gave up his birthright for a bowl of soup. s anything in this life worth giving up God s promises for? sau returned home from saac to was already given to acob, thinking he was sau. When, he asked him. t was too late. he blessing. ow had both the birthright and the blessing! his is not how God wanted to give acob the blessing of the birthright. ut e allowed this situation to unfold to show that acob s deceitful attitude was wrong and that sau s ungrateful attitude was even more wrong! lways treasure the promises God gives you! sau did not react with a godly attitude. e threatened to kill acob, his own twin brother. o stay alive, acob had to leave his parents. e traveled to aran to live with ebekah s relatives. ecause he resorted to lying, he had to run for his life! nd the hardship did not end once he arrived in aran. WK acob bolted from sau so fast that he did not even bother to set up a tent at night. e piled some stones together to use for a pillow and slept in the open. he grandson of braham and the inheritor of God s gigantic promises was in a humbling situation indeed. ut God knew acob s attitude, and even though he had been deceitful, e would give him a chance to repent and would work with him. While acob slept, God showed him a hint of all this in a special dream. urn to Genesis 28:12-15 and describe acob s dream: God repeated to acob the same promises e had made to braham. e said: am with you, and will keep you in all places where you go. ut acob still had a hard road ahead. When he arrived in aran, he lived with his ncle aban (ebekah s brother). e didn t want to burden aban s family, so he offered to work for him as a shepherd. lthough he had been deceitful toward sau, acob did try to live righteously, and he worked hard. e was aban s best employee. aban asked if there was anything he could do to pay acob. acob loved aban s daughter achel, so he asked if he could marry achel. ow the man who had cheated his brother would be cheated by his uncle. aban saw a chance to get acob to work for him for a long time. e told acob he could marry achel if he worked for seven years. acob agreed to this deal. he seven years passed quickly for him, because he loved achel so much. When the time came for the marriage, aban deceitfully disguised his older daughter, eah, with achel s wedding dress. fter the wedding, acob got the shock of his life when he realized he had married the wrong woman! aban had tricked acob with a disguise not unlike the manner in which acob tricked saac with a disguise. acob was obviously furious. aban made up an excuse that the older daughter should always get married first. ither way, acob now obviously had to care for eah. aban told acob he could marry achel too, but only if he promised to work another seven years. t s wrong for a man to have two wives, but acob was afraid aban wouldn t let him marry achel if he didn t take the deal. o, acob agreed to marry both sisters and work the extra years. God allowed acob to go through this hardship, but e also rewarded acob for being a hard worker, and even aban was blessed by acob s presence (Genesis 30:29-30). acob made another deal with aban. f aban let acob keep all the cattle, sheep and goats that were born with spots or speckles, aban could keep all the pretty ones. aban thought the deal was great. e could pay acob with a few speckled animals and keep all the rest. ut acob knew a lot about being a shepherd. e took the strongest of aban s animals and bred them with 10

11 his own speckled animals. oon most of the baby animals born were both strong and speckled. acob s herds of speckled animals grew large, while aban s herds became small. his is one reason you should always treat people fairly. When you are unfair to others, in one way or another, you will be paid back accordingly. t s not that God strikes you down when you sin, it s simply the fact that you are breaking God s spiritual law just as if you were on a balcony and you broke God s physical law of gravity. When we sin, it hurts! nother lesson from acob s life is to always work hard. God will bless you if you follow is laws, work hard and treat people fairly. ometimes you have to be patient, but God always blesses us when we do the right thing! W W W When aban saw that acob was amassing more animals than he had, he became angry and told acob he needed to leave. acob took his family and his herds and started traveling back to anaan, where saac and ebekah lived. efore he got home, he had a very unique and very important encounter. atch up with the story in Genesis 32: ne night in the dark, acob was walking alone. uddenly, someone came out of nowhere and began to grapple with him. acob didn t know it, but this person was the Word, the ne who would later become esus hrist. acob wrestled with the Word all night. his means that hour after hour, acob wouldn t give up! t one point, the Word threw acob s hip out of joint. ut acob still wouldn t give up, even though he was experiencing excruciating pain as he tried to defeat someone who just would not be beaten. acob had learned to never quit. s morning approached, the Word told acob to let im go, but acob wasn t a quitter. nd he knew there was something special about this person opposing him. acob told im that he would never let im go until e blessed him! he Word blessed acob. ead this blessing in Genesis 32:28: our shall be called no more, but : for as a have you with and with men, and have. he Word gave acob a new name meaning prevailer. ake from this unique encounter an important lesson: ever give up. ou may make a mistake and sin. ou may go through a hardship that lasts for years. ou may get blindsided by a trial that came out of nowhere. ut no matter what, never give up. ever stop trying to live God s way of life. When you see the name srael, remember that God changed acob s name to srael to teach you this wonderful truth: ever give up! God later blessed acob with 12 sons. hese sons would become the fathers of the 12 tribes of srael. urn to Genesis 49 and list these 12 sons in order: he modern-day nations that descended from these sons still enjoy massive amounts of blessings. his is especially true for the descendants of oseph s two boys. ecall how acob, renamed srael, passed on the amazingly abundant national physical promises of the birthright blessing to phraim (the ritish ommonwealth nations) and anasseh (the nited tates). Why was this wealth and prosperity in these nations? t traces all the way back to the promises God made to braham, saac and acob. oday, many people realize that the wealth, safety and opportunity our nations have been enjoying is quickly dissipating. hat is because God fulfilled is promise and delivered these blessings, but braham s descendants today are sinning grossly, and these blessings are now disappearing. his is only a sliver of the incredible history that connects braham to the way you are living right now. ow is a great time to crack open an awesome story that you will never forget, one that affects you personally. f this history has piqued your interest, learn more about it in erbert W. rmstrong s amazing book he nited tates and ritain in rophecy. V

12 ooks of the ible ld estament Genesis xodus eviticus umbers euteronomy oshua udges uth 1 amuel 2 amuel 1 Kings 2 Kings 1 hronicles 2 hronicles zra ehemiah sther ob salm roverbs cclesiastes ong of ongs saiah eremiah amentations zekiel aniel osea oel mos badiah onah icah ahum abakkuk Zephaniah aggai Zechariah alachi ew estament atthew ark uke ohn cts omans 1 orinthians 2 orinthians Galatians phesians hilippians olossians 1 hessalonians 2 hessalonians 1 imothy 2 imothy itus hilemon ebrews ames 1 eter 2 eter 1 ohn 2 ohn 3 ohn ude evelation ublished by the hiladelphia hurch of God and produced in cooperation with mperial cademy. editor in chief Gerald lurry opyright 2016 ll rights reserved. ld estament laces and ames Z X W K V Q G W X K Q V X Q W Z V W G Z K G X V X K G Q Z V G W G V G G W W V K Z