January 2 - Evening

"Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden’?”
The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, but God did say, ‘You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.’”
“You will not certainly die,” the serpent said to the woman. "

Genesis 1:26

Toni and Galyn Wiemers walk through the 1700 foot tunnel cut by Hezekiah's men in 700 BC. The tunnel runs through the bedrock under the old City of David called Jerusalem.

The Serpent Attacks the Word of God...Then and Always

It would appear that the “serpent” (nahas) that spoke with Eve was definitely:

An animal, “than any of the wild animals”
Created by God, “…the Lord God had made”
Has unusual “crafty” (‘arum is “prudent,” “shrewd,” “clever” and is a desirable skill in Proverbs 14:15; 14:18; 22:3; 27:12), but in Job 5:12; 15:5it is used as “crafty” in a negative sense) “the serpent was more crafty”
Is an adversary of God, “Did God really say”
Has an evil motive, “He said to the woman”
Twists God’s Word intentionally, “must not eat from ANY tree in the garden”
Attacks the integrity of God’s Word, “You will not certainly die.”
Attacks the character of God, “For God knows that when you eat.”

In Job 26:12-14 Rahab is identified as the serpent (nahas) defeated by God at creation. (Psalm 74; Isaiah 51:9). In Revelation Satan is called “the great dragon …that ancient serpent called the devil, or Satan, who leads the whole world astray.” It would appear that the “serpent,” nahas, was motivated by a force that God had created. That force was a personality that had rebelled against God and which had been dealt with before by God. God will allow the serpent to continue until the serpent was ultimately defeated in a great conflict in the future.
The attack that the serpent makes in the Garden is against the Words that God had spoken. This is always the case throughout history. The Word of God is the source of truth and truth will create hope, faith and love. Truth will set people free from the twisting lies and deception of the unreality the serpent has perversely woven into and through the kosmos. In the parable of the sower Jesus said,
"Some people are like seed along the path, where the word is sown. As soon as they hear it, Satan comes and takes away the word that was sown in them." - Mark 4:15
This attack against the Word of God continues today.

Dunamis (Gr) - Power (Eng) - dunamis is a Greek word for "power." The Greek word dunamis is where we get our English word dynamite. The New Testament uses dunamis over 100x in reference to the divine power to do miracles and to overcome situations and opposition.

Do I believe the truth of the Word of God is attacked today?
Can I identify myself siding with an attack against the truth of the Word of God?
I will be alert to my own soul rejecting the Word of God and will not accept deceptions and alterations of the Truth.

Bible Reading Descriptions Here

Narrative

(morning only)

Complete Text

Genesis 6-7

General Text

Genesis 4

Personal

Concern for those
that need help

Church

Stand firm in face of opposition and persecution

Nation

daily update

Medicare

World

daily update

Future of Jerusalem, a volatile flashpoint

Zechariah's Tomb is a cube cut out of the rock in the Kidron Valley druing the life of Jesu with Ionic pilasters and a pyramid top. "A" in the photo above marks a corridor with steps that provides access to the tomb of the Hezir family to the left. "B" marks a small chamber cut under the base to serve as a tomb. To the right (south) is a tomb that was never finished. This monument (called "Zechariah's Tomb") may have been built to honor those who would be buried in the unfinished tomb to the south.

Church History's Pendulum

Experience -TRUTH- Intellect

Montanism (150 AD)
(150-300) Gnosticism
Monasticism (269-900)
(1040-1300) Scholasticism
Mysticism (1300-1400)
(1517-1600) Reformation
Holiness (1600-1700)
(1850-1990) Liberalism
Pentecostal/Charismatic (1900's)
Next??

The pendulum swing of the mainline church between emotional mysticism and academic bondage through 2,000 years of church history.

Someone to Quote

"It is difficult to see how Christianity can have a positive effect on society if it cannot transform its own homes." - John MacArthur

Something to Ponder

The first English translation of the Bible was done by John Wycliffe in 1380. The printing press was not invented for another 70 years (1450 by Johannes Gutenberg) so every Bible was copied by hand. Even though the Church considered it illegal for people to read an English Bible, the hand written manuscripts circulated for 150 years. Wycliffe died of a stroke in 1384 so the church never had a chance to prosecute him while he was alive. But, forty years later the church dug up his bones, burned them and threw his ashes in a river for having made the Bible available to the common people in the English language. Today an original copy of a Wycliffe Bible would sell for about two million dollars.
(See Bible here and here, page here, more info here)

Here’s a Fact

In 2 Chronicles 32:1-5, 30 and 2 Kings 20:20 the Bible records Judah's King Hezekiah cutting a tunnel to transfer water from the Gihon Springs on the east side of the city to a pool on the west side of Jerusalem around the year 701 BC. This tunnel has been found along with an inscription on the wall written in the ancient Hebrew from that same time period that says:
"[…when] (the tunnel) was driven through. And this was the way in which it was cut through: While [ . . .] (were) still [ . . . ] axes, each man toward his fellow, and while there were still three cubits to be cut through, [there was heard] the voice of a man calling to his fellows, for there was an overlap in the rock on the right [and on the left]. And when the tunnel was driven through, the quarrymen hewed (the rock), each man toward his fellow, axe against axe; and the water flowed from the spring toward the reservoir for 1200 cubits, and the height of the rock above the heads of the quarrymen was 100 cubits."
(See details & photos HERE)

Proverb

"My son, if you...call out for insight and cry aloud for understanding, and if you look for it as for silver and search for it as for hidden treasure, then you will understand the fear of the Lord and find the knowledge of God." - Proverbs 2:1, 3-5

Coach’s Corner

You can never be happy if you know you are living in disobedience to God.

2 Kings 20:20
New International Version (NIV)
20 As for the other events of Hezekiah’s reign, all his achievements and how he made the pool and the tunnel by which he brought water into the city, are they not written in the book of the annals of the kings of Judah?

Cain and Abel
4 Adam made love to his wife Eve, and she became pregnant and gave birth to Cain. She said, “With the help of the Lord I have brought forth a man.” 2 Later she gave birth to his brother Abel.
Now Abel kept flocks, and Cain worked the soil. 3 In the course of time Cain brought some of the fruits of the soil as an offering to the Lord. 4 And Abel also brought an offering—fat portions from some of the firstborn of his flock. The Lord looked with favor on Abel and his offering, 5 but on Cain and his offering he did not look with favor. So Cain was very angry, and his face was downcast.
6 Then the Lord said to Cain, “Why are you angry? Why is your face downcast? 7 If you do what is right, will you not be accepted? But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must rule over it.”
8 Now Cain said to his brother Abel, “Let’s go out to the field.” While they were in the field, Cain attacked his brother Abel and killed him.
9 Then the Lord said to Cain, “Where is your brother Abel?”
“I don’t know,” he replied. “Am I my brother’s keeper?”
10 The Lord said, “What have you done? Listen! Your brother’s blood cries out to me from the ground. 11 Now you are under a curse and driven from the ground, which opened its mouth to receive your brother’s blood from your hand. 12 When you work the ground, it will no longer yield its crops for you. You will be a restless wanderer on the earth.”
13 Cain said to the Lord, “My punishment is more than I can bear. 14 Today you are driving me from the land, and I will be hidden from your presence; I will be a restless wanderer on the earth, and whoever finds me will kill me.”
15 But the Lord said to him, “Not so; anyone who kills Cain will suffer vengeance seven times over.” Then the Lord put a mark on Cain so that no one who found him would kill him. 16 So Cain went out from the Lord’s presence and lived in the land of Nod, east of Eden.
17 Cain made love to his wife, and she became pregnant and gave birth to Enoch. Cain was then building a city, and he named it after his son Enoch. 18 To Enoch was born Irad, and Irad was the father of Mehujael, and Mehujael was the father of Methushael, and Methushael was the father of Lamech.
19 Lamech married two women, one named Adah and the other Zillah. 20 Adah gave birth to Jabal; he was the father of those who live in tents and raise livestock. 21 His brother’s name was Jubal; he was the father of all who play stringed instruments and pipes. 22 Zillah also had a son, Tubal-Cain, who forged all kinds of tools out of bronze and iron. Tubal-Cain’s sister was Naamah.
23 Lamech said to his wives,
“Adah and Zillah, listen to me; wives of Lamech, hear my words. I have killed a man for wounding me, a young man for injuring me.
24
If Cain is avenged seven times, then Lamech seventy-seven times.”
25 Adam made love to his wife again, and she gave birth to a son and named him Seth, saying, “God has granted me another child in place of Abel, since Cain killed him.” 26 Seth also had a son, and he named him Enosh.
At that time people began to call on the name of the Lord.

Genesis 6-7
New International Version (NIV)
Wickedness in the World
6 When human beings began to increase in number on the earth and daughters were born to them, 2 the sons of God saw that the daughters of humans were beautiful, and they married any of them they chose. 3 Then the Lord said, “My Spirit will not contend with humans forever, for they are mortal; their days will be a hundred and twenty years.”
4 The Nephilim were on the earth in those days—and also afterward—when the sons of God went to the daughters of humans and had children by them. They were the heroes of old, men of renown.
5 The Lord saw how great the wickedness of the human race had become on the earth, and that every inclination of the thoughts of the human heart was only evil all the time. 6 The Lord regretted that he had made human beings on the earth, and his heart was deeply troubled. 7 So the Lord said, “I will wipe from the face of the earth the human race I have created—and with them the animals, the birds and the creatures that move along the ground—for I regret that I have made them.” 8 But Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord.
Noah and the Flood
9 This is the account of Noah and his family.
Noah was a righteous man, blameless among the people of his time, and he walked faithfully with God. 10 Noah had three sons: Shem, Ham and Japheth.
11 Now the earth was corrupt in God’s sight and was full of violence. 12 God saw how corrupt the earth had become, for all the people on earth had corrupted their ways. 13 So God said to Noah, “I am going to put an end to all people, for the earth is filled with violence because of them. I am surely going to destroy both them and the earth. 14 So make yourself an ark of cypress wood; make rooms in it and coat it with pitch inside and out. 15 This is how you are to build it: The ark is to be three hundred cubits long, fifty cubits wide and thirty cubits high. 16 Make a roof for it, leaving below the roof an opening one cubit high all around. Put a door in the side of the ark and make lower, middle and upper decks. 17 I am going to bring floodwaters on the earth to destroy all life under the heavens, every creature that has the breath of life in it. Everything on earth will perish. 18 But I will establish my covenant with you, and you will enter the ark—you and your sons and your wife and your sons’ wives with you. 19 You are to bring into the ark two of all living creatures, male and female, to keep them alive with you. 20 Two of every kind of bird, of every kind of animal and of every kind of creature that moves along the ground will come to you to be kept alive. 21 You are to take every kind of food that is to be eaten and store it away as food for you and for them.”
22 Noah did everything just as God commanded him.
7 The Lord then said to Noah, “Go into the ark, you and your whole family, because I have found you righteous in this generation. 2 Take with you seven pairs of every kind of clean animal, a male and its mate, and one pair of every kind of unclean animal, a male and its mate, 3 and also seven pairs of every kind of bird, male and female, to keep their various kinds alive throughout the earth. 4 Seven days from now I will send rain on the earth for forty days and forty nights, and I will wipe from the face of the earth every living creature I have made.”
5 And Noah did all that the Lord commanded him.
6 Noah was six hundred years old when the floodwaters came on the earth. 7 And Noah and his sons and his wife and his sons’ wives entered the ark to escape the waters of the flood. 8 Pairs of clean and unclean animals, of birds and of all creatures that move along the ground, 9 male and female, came to Noah and entered the ark, as God had commanded Noah. 10 And after the seven days the floodwaters came on the earth.
11 In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, on the seventeenth day of the second month—on that day all the springs of the great deep burst forth, and the floodgates of the heavens were opened. 12 And rain fell on the earth forty days and forty nights.
13 On that very day Noah and his sons, Shem, Ham and Japheth, together with his wife and the wives of his three sons, entered the ark. 14 They had with them every wild animal according to its kind, all livestock according to their kinds, every creature that moves along the ground according to its kind and every bird according to its kind, everything with wings. 15 Pairs of all creatures that have the breath of life in them came to Noah and entered the ark. 16 The animals going in were male and female of every living thing, as God had commanded Noah. Then the Lord shut him in.
17 For forty days the flood kept coming on the earth, and as the waters increased they lifted the ark high above the earth. 18 The waters rose and increased greatly on the earth, and the ark floated on the surface of the water. 19 They rose greatly on the earth, and all the high mountains under the entire heavens were covered. 20 The waters rose and covered the mountains to a depth of more than fifteen cubits. 21 Every living thing that moved on land perished—birds, livestock, wild animals, all the creatures that swarm over the earth, and all mankind. 22 Everything on dry land that had the breath of life in its nostrils died. 23 Every living thing on the face of the earth was wiped out; people and animals and the creatures that move along the ground and the birds were wiped from the earth. Only Noah was left, and those with him in the ark.
24 The waters flooded the earth for a hundred and fifty days.

2 Chronicles 32:1-5
New International Version (NIV)
Sennacherib Threatens Jerusalem
32 After all that Hezekiah had so faithfully done, Sennacherib king of Assyria came and invaded Judah. He laid siege to the fortified cities, thinking to conquer them for himself. 2 When Hezekiah saw that Sennacherib had come and that he intended to wage war against Jerusalem, 3 he consulted with his officials and military staff about blocking off the water from the springs outside the city, and they helped him. 4 They gathered a large group of people who blocked all the springs and the stream that flowed through the land. “Why should the kings of Assyria come and find plenty of water?” they said. 5 Then he worked hard repairing all the broken sections of the wall and building towers on it. He built another wall outside that one and reinforced the terraces of the City of David. He also made large numbers of weapons and shields.

2 Chronicles 32:30
New International Version (NIV)
30 It was Hezekiah who blocked the upper outlet of the Gihon spring and channeled the water down to the west side of the City of David. He succeeded in everything he undertook.