Story 2: Sin Enters The Garden Of E'den ll

   Soon after they had eaten of the fruit, when its rich and tempting color had faded, and its delightful taste turned into bitterness, A'dam and Eve became painfully aware of their plight. Then came unbearable moments of despair and sad recollections; with the smitten conscience of sin they discovered something shameful about their appearance which they not wish the Lord to see. Covering themselves with fig leaves, they sought to hide from the presence of God in the foliage of the Garden.
   Their efforts to cover the shame of wrong doing were without avail; instead of becoming wise and Divine, as promised by sa'tan, they now found themselves foolish and mortal. Their covering for sin was unworthy and futile, and it was impossible for them to escape the all-seeing eye of God. When caused to face God in their unhappy dilemma Eve confessed that she had yielded to the enchanting allurements of sa'tan, and that she and Ad'am had eaten of the fruit of the forbidden tree. They were driven from the Garden, the curse of irksomeness was placed upon the required labor of Ad'am, great pain in child-bearing was pronounced upon Eve, and the blight of mortality was placed upon both of them.
   Though the judgments placed upon them by God were grievous and mortal, they were mitigated by the gracious promise that the seed of the woman should bruise the serpent's head. This promise was fulfilled when the Sav'ior, born of woman, came into the world bringing redemption from sin and from the power of sa'tan.
   By doing what God had told them not to do, Ad'am and Eve lost their intimate fellowship with God, the happy surroundings of their days of innocence, and many of the good things which God had given them. What is more, they lost these blessings not for themselves alone, but for all their descendants as well. That is what is meant by Adamic, or Original Sin, or Natural Depravity, for the sin which entered human life in the transgression of Ad'am and Eve became the heritage of all people. However, the promise of redemption given in the pronouncement of the curse of God upon them for their sin also embraces the entire human race, and in the realization of the blessings of that promise an even greater Paradise is provided for all mankind.
   Thus we have the tragic story of the entrance of sin into the world, and of its blighting curse upon all the world and all humanity. Had Eve never eaten of the forbidden fruit, and Ad'am remained obedient to the Laws of God, the earth would never have been blighted by evil, nor would humanity have known suffering and death. Instead, the Garden of E'den would have been extended until the entire earth had become a Paradise, and God would have continued to dwell with His people in the most intimate and happy relationship.
   Over against this tragic story we must always seek a correct view of the new and living way into a Holier Paradise provided in Christ:
               "A Friend who will gather the outcasts,
                  And shelter the homeless poor;
               A Friend who will feed the hungry
                  With bread from the Heavenly store."
   
  
  

Story 2: Sin Enters The Garden Of E'den l

   After God created man and gave him dominion over all the earth He placed him in the beautiful Garden known as E'den. Here the Lord provided for all the temporal requirements of man amid the most splendid beauties of nature, In the scenic glory of E'den there flowed a beautiful river with four parting streams, encompassing a tract in which all manner of fruit-bearing trees flourished. Man was ordered to labor, caring for the Garden and developing its vast resources. Work was divinely appointed, given as a token of dignity, prescribed as a means of sustenance, health, and happiness, and established as the proper order of life upon the earth. Certain moral restrictions were placed around man, and there was one particular tree in the midst of the Garden whose fruit was forbidden to eat. This restriction was not unreasonable, and should not have been irksome; its object was to preserve man in his innocence and happiness, and to prevent a break in the delightful relations between him and his Creator.
   The location of the Garden of E'den is unknown, and it is utterly impossible to ascertain its site. Every vestige of it was probably swept away by the deluge about which we shall tell you in a later story.
   While it was true that all the animals which God had created were placed under the dominion of man, and found that he found delight and joy in many of them, none was found suitable to become a companion in the propagation of the race. God therefore caused a deep sleep to come upon man, whom He called Ad'am, and took from his side a rib from which He made the woman Eve. She was blood of his blood and bone of his bone, and nature fully prepared to become a help-mate, the mother of the race. Between them there was to be happy companionship, moral sympathy, community of earthly enjoyments, and perfect conjugal affection.
   It was there in the Garden of E'den, during the period of man's innocence and moral purity, that God established the Holy ordinance of marriage, and gave the command for the propagation of the race. To Ad'am, Eve was given by God as a wife, "The twain to become one flesh." She was to be protected, nourished, loved by Ad'am, and to be his companion in intellectual, moral, economic, and moral progress. She was placed under the same moral restrictions as Ad'am, enjoyed the same spiritual intimacy with God, and was equal in every aspect except physical prowess, and in her subordinate position in the marriage relationship. The same laws of conjugal faithfulness and moral conduct applied to both alike, and any violation of moral uprightness on the part of either was subject to the same punishment.
   For a time Ad'am and Eve lived very happily together amid the flowers and fruits and lovely scenery of nature in the Garden prepared for them, having all that was needful for their comfort and happiness in life. There were frequent hours of intimate communion with God, with no taint of impurity upon either the man or his wife.
   One day, however, as Eve was enjoying the delights of her surroundings and the fruits of the Garden, temptation came to her. The fallen angel sa'tan, an enemy of God and of all that is right and Holy, approached her in the form of a serpent and questioned her about the restrictions which God had placed upon concerning the fruit of the tree in the midst of the Garden. When Eve told sa'tan that the penalty of death had been placed against eating the fruit of this tree, he naively suggested that God had lied in this matter. He then declared that not only would she not die if she ate the fruit, but she would become as God.
   Through craftiness and cunning words sa"tan projected into Eve's heart a spirit of doubt and unbelief, and thus laid the foundation for her disobedience to God which soon followed.
   By this subtility and alluring false promises sa"tan engendered in the heart of Eve a feeling of curiosity, a state of dissatisfaction with the purity and happiness which she then enjoyed, and such resentment against the restrictions which God had placed upon her, that she was overcome with an inordinate desire to eat of the forbidden fruit. Led on by unbelief, curiosity, and rebellion against restraint, she ate of the fruit and gave some of it to her husband, who also disobeyed God in eating it.

Story 1: The Wonderful Story Of Creation ll

Thus began a gradual process for making the world a place where flowers and fruits could grow, where animal life could exist, and where man could live happily. With the coming of light, the first stage of  creation ended.
   During the second period of creation God caused the waters of the chaotic expanse of the universe to break asunder, thus forming the arch of sky which He called the heaven. Then as the world began to take form, its surface covered with vast waters, He caused the waters to come together in vast oceans, commanded the land to rise up in great continents and islands, and ordered the formation of great lakes and rivers throughout the land. He called the water Sea, and the dry land Earth, and the third creative period ended with the command that the earth produce vegetation, trees, and growths of every kind.
   During the fourth period of Creation the Lord ordered the sun and moon and stars to come into being and to assume their proper relation to the earth, and the dark clouds and mist which covered the whole face of the earth were rolled away. The sun began to shine by day, and the moon and stars by night. The countless worlds which revolve through space were thus brought into existence, and assigned to their functions in relation to the earth, by the voice of Omnipotence.
   God then commanded the waters of the sea to bring forth fishes, both small and great, and ordered that the air be filled with winged creatures; this was the work of the fifth period of creation. On the sixth day He commanded that the earth be filled with animals and creeping things, The whole land became inhabited with living creatures which roamed in the forests, grazed upon the plains, and moved about everywhere. Every form of animal life was germinated by the power of God.
   Now that a state of chaos had given place to order, and the earth had been provided with vegetation and animal life, the world was ready for the creation of man. Then God said: "Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth."
   "So God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them." This creation was separate and distinct from all previous creations. It took place as the climax and completion of the creative work of God. The physical elements in the creation of man came from the earth, but the life that flowed into Adam's body was the "breath of God." Thus man became the offspring of God in respect to intelligence, moral nature, and immortality. He was endowed with creative genius, and the power of dominion. Invested with God-like attributes he was placed in this beautiful world and given authority over all its creatures and latent powers.
   Man was commanded to "multiply and to replenish the earth." He was endued with the power to sing hymns, to offer prayers, and to commune with God. He was gifted with intelligence, the power of thought, and with a benevolent disposition; to these endowments were added the passion of love, the faculties of understanding and reasoning, and the power of choice which is called free-will. He was placed upon the earth as its tenant, and as a steward of the Creator. His chief end was to glorify God and to carry out the Divine will in His creation. He was in a state of innocence, and though occupying a position a little lower than the angels of Heaven, he was permitted to share with them the intimate and perpetual fellowship of God. Man was to declare the glory of God in language more eloquent than the voice of the Heavens, to utter his benevolence in ways more brilliant than the emanations of light, and to magnify His name in powers and deeds far superior to all previous manifestations of the creative energy. Having been endowed with creative genius by which he can induce combinations of material forces and produce new forms of material power, he is to use these for God's glory.
   In whatever circumstances man may be placed today, he should always remember that the world and all that it contains, as well as all the hidden potentialities of the universe, were created by God for the welfare and happiness of all mankind. It was for man that:
               "God spake, and on the new dressed earth
                  Soft smiled the glowing sun,
               Then full of joy He sprang aloft,
                  His heanenly course to run."
   All nature tells us that God is, that He is supremely great, and that  His chief concern is the security and happiness of His greatest creation.
  
  

Story 1: The Wonderful Story Of Creation l

   Away back, many thousands and thousands of years ago, in the beginning of all things, there were no cities, no towns, or villages, as we now see them; there were no homes, no farms, no trees, no green fields, no cattle, no sheep or lambs, and no birds. There were no seas, no lakes, no rivers, no streams of any kind. Why at one time, there was no ground, no sky, no sun, no moon, or stars. There was neither day nor night; there were no people, neither men or women, boys or girls. There was nothing-nothing of all that we see now.
   Today the existence of this world in all its beauty and grandeur, of the great planets and myriads of stars in the vast expanse of the universe, are actualities before our eyes, realities to the five senses of human beings throughout the world. Men and women, boys and girls, everywhere, hunger to know something of the mystery and origin of these things. For thousands of years there have been many speculations as to how the world came into being. We know by intuition that it had a commencement; and our instinct and reason revolt at the suggestion that it sprang into existence by chance, or was formed by spontaneous emanations from a source not yet discovered by science.
   People are always asking: Has the world always existed? If not, how did it begin? Did the sun make itself? If not, what brought it into existence? What is the source of the great planetary systems of the universe? Was this source created? If so, by whom?
   There is a GOOD BOOK which we call the Bible in which we find the only satisfactory answers to these, and scores of other similar, questions. The opening statement of that Divinely inspired Book is:
         "In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth."
   For there existed before the world was, one Great Being whom we call God: uncreated, self-existent, all-sufficient, and eternal; who always was and always will be. In His infinite purpose He planned the creation of man in His own image and likeness; and He wished to provide for man a suitable place to live-a place with rivers and lakes and great seas to sail over, with mountains and forests and green fields, with animals and birds and living creatures for his use, a world with great unlimited material resources for man's exploitation. And so before creating man, God first brought into existence the earth as his home; the sun, moon, other great planets, and millions of stars-all for man's benefit.
   Into the primal chaos, described as empty, dark and formless, God brought into being by His word all that exists in the natural world. In six stages which are defined as "days" there occurred first the creation of light, creation of the "firmament" dividing the upper waters, the formation of earth and seas, with the earth producing vegetation; the creation of the sun, the moon, and the stars; followed by the creation of the creatures that inhabit the waters and the air, and the creation of all the creatures that inhabit the land; including man as His top-most act of creative genius. These stages of creation called "days" were not periods of twenty-four hours each as we know them, for there was no sun to regulate time; and with the Lord:
         "A day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as a day."
         "Let there be light, and there was light."

Bible Trivia: Weights and Measures

   997. To measure length in the Old Testament one would have used several units. From smallest to largest, the scale was finger-palm-span-cubit. The cubit was considered the most basic form of measurement, something like what Americans consider the "foot" measurement. The cubit was the length of the forearm measured to the tip of the middle finger. Generally this length varied between seventeen and eighteen inches in length.


   998. The span was the distance from the tip of the thumb to the tip of the little finger with the hand extended and the fingers held apart. It was roughly one half of the standard cubit. The palm was approximately one sixth of the common cubit and was initially measured as the breadth of the hand at the base of the fingers. The finger measurement was considered to be about one quarter of a palm and was considered the smallest subdivision of the cubit.


   999. Weights in the Bible followed their own system of measure. The weights ascended from the smallest weight of a pim, beka, or gerah, to the larger shekel, mina, and talent (as Jesus mentioned in one of His parables). For the smaller weights, balances would have been used to measure properly.


   1000. A shekel was .403 ounces. The pim, beka, and gerah were all smaller fractions of the shekel. In order for these weights to be effective, balances were used. As the cubit was the standard measure, so the shekel was the standard unit of weight. Shekel is descended from the word meaning "to weigh."


   1001. The talent was by far the largest unit of weight used to measure. Each talent was worth three thousand shekels and weighed around seventy-five pounds. Minas were between fifty and sixty shekels, depending on whether the system was Israelite or Babylonian. Each mina weighed roughly 1.25 pounds.




an deireadh

Bible Trivia: Relationship Between the Shepherd and the Sheep ll

   991. More than a weapon. From the story of David, we are familiar with the sling, but in addition to using a sling against wild animals or robbers, the shepherd found it very handy for directing the sheep. A stone could be dropped close to a sheep that was lagging behind and startle the sheep into coming along with the rest of the flock.


   992. In selecting pasture for the flock, it is an absolute necessity that plenty of water is provided too. Flocks are often stationed near a stream of running water, but the sheep can be afraid of water that is running too quickly or that is roiled up with mud. The shepherd looks for pools of water or provides some quiet place where the sheep can quench their thirst.


   993. More than one flock may be kept in the same fold. Often flocks are even mixed while being watered at a well. No attempt is made to separate them. When it is time to separate the sheep, one shepherd after another will stand up and call out: "Tahhoo! Tahhoo!" or a similar call of his own choice. The sheep will lift their heads, and after a scramble each one will begin following his master.


   994. The Eastern shepherd has a personal relationship with his sheep that gives the figure of the Lord as the Shepherd of His people deep meaning. Not only does the shepherd often know his sheep by name, he never drives them, but leads them instead. This does not mean that he is always in front of them. He may walk by their side or sometimes follow behind.


   995. The shepherd is so acutely aware of each of his sheep that often he doesn't even need to count them. He is able to feel the absence of any one of his sheep. When a shepherd of Lebanon was asked how he could keep track of his sheep if he didn't count, he replied, "If you were to put a cloth over my eyes, and bring me any sheep and only let me put my hands on its face, I could tell in a moment if it was mine or not."


   996. The shepherd plays with the sheep to pass the hours. A shepherd does this by pretending to run away. The sheep will soon overtake him and completely surround him, jumping and twisting with delight. The sheep know their shepherd will not leave them or turn them away, just like the Lord will do to us.

Bible Trivia: Relationship Between the Shepherd and the Sheep l

   986. Palestine has always been known for large flocks of sheep, and Arabs of the Bible lands have been largely dependent on sheep for their living throughout the centuries. The large number of sheep in the land can be understood when we read that Job had fourteen thousand sheep (Job 42:12), and that King Solomon, at the Temple's dedication, sacrificed one hundred and twenty thousand sheep and goats (1 Kings 8:63).


   987. Fat-tailed sheep were the most common variety. The fat tail provides reserve strength for the sheep, much like the hump does on a camel. When the sheep is butchered, this fatty tail is quite valuable. People will buy the tail, or part of it, and use it for frying. The Pentateuch makes reference to the fat tail of the sheep in Exodus 29:22, "Take from this ram the fat, the fat tail..."


   988. The youngest boy in the family becomes the shepherd of the sheep. As the older son grows up he begins to help the father with sowing, plowing, and harvesting the crops, so he passes the shepherd tasks down to the younger brother and on down until the youngest of all becomes the family shepherd. Such was the custom when Jesse raised his family of eight sons. David was the youngest.


   989. The shepherd's scrip is a leather bag. When he leaves home to tend the sheep, his mother will fill it with bread, cheese, dried fruit, and perhaps some olives. It was into a bag like this that David placed the five smooth stones when he went to battle with the giant Goliath.


   990. The Law of Moses speaks of tithing (giving ten percent) from the flock. "The entire tithe of the herd and flock-every tenth animal that passes under the shepherd's rod-will be holy to the Lord" (Lev. 27:32). To do this Jewish writers tell us that the shepherd called the animals to him and as they would pass under his rod at a narrow entrance he would mark every tenth one with his rod, which had been dipped into a dye.