Ben-Hadad king of Aram attacked Samaria, demanding all the silver, gold, wives, and children. At first, Ahab did not refuse. Then he did when more demands were made, so Ben-Hadad prepared to attack.
A prophet comes to Ahab to tell him that the Lord will deliver the enemy into his hands so that he will know the Lord did it. Ahab must start the battle and the young officers of the provincial commanders will defeat the army. The 7,000 remaining Israelites of faith went out while the enemy was in their tent getting drunk. The Israelites defeated the king of Aram, but the king escaped.
The prophet told Ahab that the king of Aram would attack next year. So, Ahab prepared for the attack. When it came, the prophet told Ahab that God would once again deliver the enemy into his hands so that he will know He is God. Ahab won the battle, but he ended up making a deal with the king of Aram and let him go free. A prophet tells Ahab that because he let a man go free whom he should have (the king of Aram), he would give his life for him.
BSF Study Questions People of the Promise: Kingdom Divided Lesson 5, Day 4: 1 Kings 20
10) God ensured that if an enemy attacked Israel that Israel would win. He used prophets to tell Ahab these things.
11a) Verse 13 & 28
b) Too many. Honestly, every day in some small way when He rescues me from sin.
12) He bargained with the king of Aram and let him go free.
13a) He was “sullen and angry” and retreated to his palace in Samaria. Note he was not repentant.
b) Every time He lets me know He’s in charge and not me.
Conclusions BSF Study Questions People of the Promise: Kingdom Divided Lesson 5, Day 4: 1 Kings 20
I love how God never gives up on us like we give up on Him.
End Notes BSF Study Questions People of the Promise: Kingdom Divided Lesson 5, Day 4: 1 Kings 20
At first, Ahab willingly surrenders. Then, he changes his mind with advice.
A prophet appears and tells Ahab the Lord will deliver them out of His infinite mercy and love. Ahab wonders how, which is something most of us wonder when God promises to do something in our lives. God delivers Israel, but the Syrians would try again in the spring.
Saying that God was a god of the hills and valleys meant God was only a god over certain areas instead of the Lord of the earth.
The Lord delivers Israel another miraculous victory over a vastly superior army. Yet, Ahab makes a treaty with the defeated pagan king instead of completely destroying him.
The Mysterious Prophets
These prophets mentioned here are nameless and are believed to not be Elijah or Elisha. They are presumed to be among the 7,000 faithful.
The reason for the harsh judgement of against the man who refused to strike the prophet was because that man was a fellow man of God or a son of the prophet. Thus, he should have known to follow the command of the prophet.
The prophet tells Ahab a story that is really a story of the mistake he just made — failing to guard the life of someone. Since King Ahab failed to guard what was entrusted to him, he would pay the ultimate price. God wanted the death of the king of Aram to be by the army that He had empowered.
God reached out in so many ways to Ahab. As He does to us.
Blessed are the peacemakers who will be called the sons of God. The persecuted will have the kingdom of heaven. You are blessed when you are insulted. Your reward in heaven will be great. The prophets were persecuted, too.
BSF Study Questions Matthew Lesson 5, Day 4: Matthew 5:9-12
12a) The one in your family who just wants everyone to get along. They are the facilitators of communication and advocates for relationships to be mended.
b) 2 Corinthians 5:18-20 tells us that since we have been reconciled to God through Christ that we can reconcile others to God and reconcile situations and people around us.
13a) People persecute us because we have God and Jesus and know where we are going. They are jealous by nature and therefore want us to be brought down. Those who do good are always targeted by man’s evil nature.
b) I wish I could say a forgiving heart, but it’s often negatively in the beginning. However, I end up praying for them and not letting me bother me because I do know where I’m going.
14) Unsure. Mostly it’s hardships of knowing what to do with my life at this moment and what path to take for him. Since I work from home, I have very little interaction with the outside world.
Conclusions BSF Study Questions Matthew Lesson 5, Day 4: Matthew 5:9-12
Spoken to first century Jews, these verses are hard for us to understand. Some may be facing persecution because of their faith, but most of us are not facing persecution by death. Our persecutions are small in comparison. However, when they do occur, know the kingdom of heaven awaits.
End Notes BSF Study Questions Matthew Lesson 5, Day 4: Matthew 5:9-12
You can be a literal peacemaker in your family, or you can bring peace to others through helping them reconcile to God and accept Jesus as Savior.
Some will be persecuted because of their faith and righteousness. Other translations say to be joyful in persecution. Many Christians who were martyred were joyful, being on the cusp of meeting God. In our lives, it’s good to be joyful knowing we will meet God soon.
The world does not value the character traits in the Beatitudes. No matter. You live your truth; the rest will be damned.
The sons of God married any daughters they chose. The Lord said His Spirit will not contend with (be with) man forever for he is mortal; his days will be a hundred and twenty years. The Nephilim were the heroes of old, men of renown and were on earth during this time when the sons of God were as well.
God saw how men’s hearts had become only evil and He was filled with pain. God said he would wipe mankind from the face of the earth for He is grieved (regretted) He created them. Except for Noah who was a righteous man and walked with God. Noah had 3 sons: Shem, Ham and Japheth.
The earth was corrupt and the people were violent.
God tells Noah He is going to destroy the world, and he needs to build an ark. God enters a covenant with Noah. He tells Noah he will need to bring in two of all living creatures, male and female, to keep them alive and every kind of food for him and for the animals.
Noah did everything God commanded.
Summary of Genesis 7:
God tells Noah to enter the ark with the animals for in seven days He will send rain for 40 days and nights. Noah obeys. Noah was 600 years old when the flood happened. All the animals came to him. Then the Lord shut them in and the waters came. Everything perished. After the rain stopped, the earth remained flooded for 150 days.
BSF Study Questions Genesis: Lesson 5, Day 4: Genesis 6-7
10) Noah did everything just as God commanded him. God told Noah exactly what to do, including the size and dimensions of the ark, so Noah knew what to do. God revealed information to Noah as needed, telling him to build the ark before telling him why.
11a) Noah did everything just as God commanded him.
b) Personal Question. My answer: We only exist by God’s grace, so when He decides to end life, there is nothing we can do about it and should be grateful for what life God has given us.
12) Personal Question. My answer: Unsure. We are about to move again. I’m homeschooling my son again. I’m working, living life the best I can. Praying as I go along.
Conclusions BSF Study Questions Genesis: Lesson 5, Day 4: Genesis 6-7
I love the story of Noah. Here’s a guy of faith who is told to build a big boat and save his entire family by God. How awesome and scary is that! Yet, he does it without fail, without question, showing us what a walk with God truly is.
Last go around, we had a lot of other Bible passage readings with Genesis 6 & 7: Hebrews 11:7, 1 Peter 3:20; 2 Peter 2:4-9; 3:1-10; Jude 5-7; Matthew 24:36-42; Luke 17:26-27. Matthew and Luke talk specifically how the people were eating, drinking, and marrying up until the day of the flood. This tells us that no one had a clue what God was doing, and if they were Godless, they didn’t care. They lived their lives day-by-day, which is how we are supposed to live, expect with an eye towards Jesus.
These are the extra readings I wish BSF would still include for those of us who crave more of God.
1 Peter 3:20 is a gem, describing how God waited patiently for His people to come to Him, like he does today. Instead of millions being saved, it was only 8.
One of the saddest parts of life is how all of Creation has to suffer the consequences of our sin, including animals, plants, and our beloved pets. If you’ve been alive long enough, you’ve experienced the death of a pet. Along with the death of loved ones, it’s one of lives’ hardest moments, especially once you know that it’s all your fault.
End Notes BSF Study Questions Genesis: Lesson 5, Day 4: Genesis 6-7
Genesis 6:
Who Were the Sons of God and the Daughters of Men?
Many have believed the sons of God were those from the line of Seth, and the daughters of men were from the line of Cain, and this describes an intermarriage between the godly and the ungodly, something God specifically prohibits (Deuteronomy 7:1-4, 2 Corinthians 6:14).
Some believe that sons of God are either demons (angels in rebellion against God) or uniquely demon-possessed men, and the daughters of men are human women.
The phrase sons of God clearly refers to angelic creatures when it is used the three other times in the Old Testament (Job 1:6, 2:1, and 38:7). The translators of the Septuagint translated sons of God as angels. Those ancient translators clearly thought sons of God referred to angelic beings, not to people descended from Seth.
Jude 6 tells us of the angels who did not keep their proper domain, but left their own habitation. Jude goes on (Jude 7) to tell us they sinned in a similar manner to these, having given themselves over to sexual immorality and gone after strange flesh. Here in Genesis 6, as in Sodom and Gomorrah, there was an unnatural sexual union. Jude 6 also makes it clear what God did with these wicked angels. They are reserved in everlasting chains under darkness for the judgment of the great day for not keeping their proper place. Their sinful pursuit of freedom has put them in bondage.
In Matthew 22:30, we see where Jesus said angels neither marry nor are given in marriage; but Jesus never said angels were sexless, and He was also speaking about faithful angelic beings (angels of God in heaven), not rebellious ones.
In sum, no one knows exactly who the sons of God and the daughters of men are referring to.
Satan could have sent his angels to intermarry in an effort to ensure the promised seed of Jesus was never born. And Satan almost succeeded. The race was so polluted that God found it necessary to start again with Noah and his sons, and to imprison the demons that did this so they could never do this again.
Take away from the flood: there is a point of sin where God will say “enough is enough.” Turn to God now because no other days are promised to us.
God said He would flood the earth 120 years before He did. Perhaps He is hoping some will turn to Him.
Giants on earth refers to the unnatural offspring of the union between the sons of God and the daughters of men, though there were people of unusual size on the earth both before and after the flood (and also afterward). These ones before the flood were unique because of the demonic element of their parentage. They were the mighty men of old, men of renown.
Jesus said, as the days of Noah were, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be (Matthew 24:37). In other words, the conditions of the world before the coming of Jesus will be like the conditions of the world before the flood:
Widespread corruption and violence (Genesis 6:11).
Even though God knew He would destroy mankind, He still felt grieved.
Noah
Noah found grace; he did not earn it. Noah had the righteousness that is of faith because as soon as the floodwaters had dried up and he left the ark, he offered sacrifices (Genesis 8:20). Noah’s three sons will figure into the account in a significant way. God will use them as a foundation for the rest of the human race.
Since the fall in Genesis 3, every human being has a death sentence. The timing and method of that death are completely in the hands of God.
Instead of wiping out the entire race, God preserved a remnant.
The Ark
The ark was as long as a 30-story building is high (about 450 feet or 150 meters)
75 feet (25 meters) wide
45 feet (15 meters) high.
The ark is meant to float, like a barge, not sail.
Was the shape of a shoebox, was plenty large enough (about the size of the Titanic)
Had a cubit-wide opening (18 inches, one-half meter) all the way around the top.
It was not until 1858 that a boat bigger than the ark was built. The ark was certainly big enough to do the job. If the ark carried two of every family of animals, there were around 700 pairs of animals; but if the ark carried two of every species of animals, there were around 35,000 pairs of animals.
The average size of a land animal is smaller than a sheep. The ark could carry 136,560 sheep in half of its capacity, leaving plenty of room for people, food, water, and whatever other provisions were needed.
Noah was not told why he was making this ark in the beginning; just to make it.
Throughout history, many people have reported seeing the ark and/or finding the ark. The pitch worked to waterproof the wood. God told Noah to cover it with pitch inside and outside, which makes it possible that the ark was preserved for a long time. It is possible God still has a purpose for the ark, to use it to remind the world of a past judgment shortly before a future judgment.
Fun Fact: Because of this mention of pitch (a petroleum product) in what most people think is the Middle East, it is said that John D. Rockefeller looked for (and found) oil in that region based on this verse.
Despite the dramatic judgment coming, God will make a covenant with Noah, and he and his family will be saved. God will also use Noah to save a remnant of each animal so the earth could be populated with people and animals after the flood.
The Bible presents Noah as a great hero of God. He was an outstanding example of righteousness (Ezekiel 14:14), a preacher of righteousness (2 Peter 2:5), and Noah condemned the world by offering salvation in the ark that the whole world rejected (Hebrews 11:7).
Noah was a preacher of righteousness (2 Peter 2:5), yet in his 120-year ministry, it seems that no one was saved.
Genesis 7:
God was in the ark and would be with Noah in the ark, so He called Noah to come into the ark with Him.
“Notice that the Lord did not say to Noah, ‘Go into the ark,’ but ‘Come,”
In Genesis 6:20 God said the animals would come to Noah by migration.
Noah, the animals, and his family had to wait in the ark seven days for the rain to come. They had never seen rain up to this time. This was a real test of faith – to wait a week after more than 100 years of preparation.
The heavens containing the great waters that were above the firmament (Genesis 1:7) opened up. These waters formed the huge so-called blanket of water in the upper part of the earth’s atmosphere since creation. Waters came up from under the earth, too.
The Number 40 in the Bible
Here we see the first use of the number 40 in the Bible. It has become associated with testing and purification, especially before entering into something new and significant.
Note that God shuts the door. God has the final say in judgement. God shuts people out.
God kept the door open until the last possible minute, but there came a time when the door had to shut. Jesus is He who opens and no one shuts, and shuts and no one opens (Revelation 3:7).
Of the more than 200 cultures that have their own account of the flood the following aspects of the story are common:
88% describe a favored family.
70% attribute survival to a boat.
95% say the sole cause of the catastrophe is a flood.
66% say that the disaster is due to man’s wickedness.
67% record that animals are also saved.
57% describe that the survivors end up on a mountain.
Many of the accounts also specifically mention birds being sent out, a rainbow, and eight persons being saved.
The water from the flood is collected in oceans today.
The Bible says that only the animals that had the breath of the spirit of life. The fish did not die in the flood; only animals with the breath of life in them died, the animals on dry land.
God may have put some or many of these animals into a period of hibernation for this period, meaning that less food, space, and supervision was be needed.
God provides many animals today with an amazing instinct for hibernation. It would be no difficulty for Him to miraculously impart a unique instinct for these particular animals.
Summary of passage: The Lord asked Cain where was his brother. Cain replied, “I don’t know. Am I my brother’s keeper?” (Hence, where our saying comes from). The Lord says his blood cries out to Him from the ground and He curses Cain, saying no crops will grow for him and he will be a restless wanderer on the earth.
Cain complains, saying his punishment is unbearable and someone will kill him. The Lord forbids anyone to kill Cain and marked him as a warning. Cain lived in Nod east of Eden out of the Lord’s presence.
Questions:
9a) Cain never once asked God for forgiveness for his crime. He never apologized or even admitted wrong-doing. He only cared about the punishment he received and then it was still all about him. I picture Cain groveling to God how horrible his life will be and how he’ll be killed. Don’t you deserve it? After committing the first murder EVER?
b) Personal Question. My answer: God took pity on Cain (out of His grace and love) and protected him even though he deserved a death sentence like Cain had given Abel. God’s love is greater than man’s evil.
10a) Cain selfishly complains. David admits he “sinned against the Lord” and even composes a song about repentance! David asks for God’s mercy and fully confesses his sins and asks for forgiveness. He asks to be made better, to create a “pure heart” and then tells God he will teach others His ways so sinners will turn to Him. He says he will praise God.
David has “a broken spirit, a broken and contrite heart.” He humbles himself before the Lord. Cain is still full of pride.
b) Personal Question. My answer: I get defensive cause I’m in denial. Yet as I grow in God, I get better and better at admitting my wrong-doings, truly repenting, and asking for forgiveness as I strive to do better. Sure, I fail. But I do see humility more than pride now.
11a) We all have sin and we all sin. If we believe otherwise, we are merely deceiving ourselves and the truth (Jesus) is not in us. If we confess our sins, God will forgive us and purify us. If we claim to have Jesus in us but we still walk in the dark (commit evil willingly), then we do not have Jesus. If we walk in the light, we will have fellowship with one another and the blood of Jesus will purify us from all sin.
b) Accept the blood of Jesus, have faith in Him, confess our sins, and we will be righteous with God.
Conclusions: Good lesson on sin and the importance of confessing sin and making it right with the Lord. Loved reading David’s Psalm. Great, great prayer for us sinners!
As human beings, we all sin. No way of getting around that. We were born sinners. Yet what matters to God is how you handle sin. When you fall, admit it humbly to Him and ask Him for forgiveness. He will grant it. All you must do is accept Jesus’ blood and have a willing heart.
Cain’s attitude saddens me but I can see myself in him too. Gives me something to work on!
