Hope Sabbath School Lesson 1 Learning In Eden

[Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] welcome to hope sabbath school an in-depth interactive study of the word of god i'm excited today we're beginning a brand new series we could call it education going to the bible and learning lessons for life that's what i've called the series lessons for life today learning from eden but i want to tell you we're not just wanting to glean the wisdom of the world but wisdom from the bible about how to live especially in these troubled times you'll notice if you take a look at our panel that we're working with a reduced team because we're filming in the middle of a health pandemic but we believe that god is going to work in a powerful way in spite of the challenges amen and we're really glad that you're with us uh during this season as we talk about lessons for life and i just want to thank you for writing to us ss hope hope hopetv.org we've got 180 000 currently following on facebook we'd love to hear from you how god is blessing you through an in-depth interactive study of the word of god here's just a few emails from ruth in saudi arabia ruth writes and says dear hope sabbath school team thank you very much for the inspiring study each week my husband and i are blessed and we are enriched as we worship god every sabbath day amen well ruth right there in saudi arabia you are a light you are a light you are a witness and we're glad you're part of our hope sabbah school family here's a note from a donor in florida we don't mention names but we do want to thank you we're a donor-supported ministry especially at this time of year you can make a difference in the global impact of hope sabbath school and this is a note from a couple in florida and they say just to let you know we enjoy being a part of the weekly study hope sabbath school the discussions are lively and informative enclosed as a small gift to ensure that the ministry continues and a gift of six hundred dollars to help hope sabbath school's ministry thank you so much a couple from florida but wherever you are around the world thank you for partnering with us you can always go to hopetv.org donate and say i want to partner with you in this ministry that's impacting lives here's a note from manuel in zimbabwe lots of hope sabbath school members there it's a challenging time in zimbabwe but the word of god can give us courage right amen amen i'd like to give praises to god regarding hope sabbath school i used to watch long ago on tv and then i stopped it wasn't until the health pandemic when i started watching hope saturday school again could god work something good even in a health pandemic amen yes i bumped into hope sabbath school and i've fallen in love with the word of god again with it and a hundred days of prayer my soul has been revived amen amen i would like to move with you on every study manuel from zimbabwe well emmanuel we're just glad that god worked a miracle in the midst of a health pandemic drawing you closer to him i believe if ever 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know you're blessed we'd love to hear from you by the way if you're blessed by the closed captioning if it helps you ss hope hopetv.org one last note from tulisa in north carolina in the united states of america this one touched my heart too i'm so grateful that hope sabbath school came to my life i've been missing jesus in my life i asked my husband to see if he could find a bible study i could watch and he came across the hope channel and found hope sabbath school amen i've been watching ever since to lisa says i grew up in the seventh-day adventist church but when i got older i stopped going every sabbath i developed multiple sclerosis in 2003 and i had to stop working in 2015. many days i don't even feel like getting out of bed but because of watching hope sabbath school i'm remembering bible stories from my youths and understanding their meaning i'm beginning to feel confident that i can start sharing what i believe and i have the word of god to back up my convictions thank you for becoming a huge part of my life keep on teaching and singing the truth your sister in christ to lisa well that brings great joy doesn't it not just to us but to hope sabbath school members around the world and we do have a theme song for this series we're not allowed to sing during this health pandemic but you can sing at home we'll put the music up and the words on the screen it's taken from the proverbs it's on this theme of lessons for life it says in proverbs 19 and verse 20 listen to counsel receive instruction that you may be wise in your latter days let's sing it together listen to counsel receive instructions that you may be wise you may be wise in your latter days listen to counsel receive instruction that you may be wise you may be wise in your latter days trust in the lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding trust in the lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding listen to cancer receive instruction that you may be wise you may be wise in your latter days listen to counsel receive instruction that you may be wise you may be wise in your latter days a merry heart does good like medicine but a broken spirit dries their bones a merry heart does good like medicine but a broken spirit dries the bones listen to council receive instruction that you may be wise you may be wise in your latter days listen to counsel receive instruction that you may be wise you may be wise in your latter days [Music] pleasant words are like a honeycomb sweetness to the soul and hell to the bones pleasant words are like a honeycomb sweetness to the soul and health to the bones listen to counsel receive instruction that you may be wise you may be wise in your latter days listen to counsel receive instruction that you may be wise you may be wise in your latter days you may be wise in your latter days let's pray together father in heaven we thank you that there is counsel in your word lessons for life today as we begin our series with learning from eden i pray that you would bless us we want to learn lessons that will help us in these troubled times in which we live and i pray for our hope sabbath school family around the world and for our team as we're gathered here for this in-depth interactive study of the word of god guide us by your spirit energize our minds and we open our hearts to you just now in the name of jesus amen amen amen we're going to the book of genesis we're studying about learning in eden now for those who may not be familiar with the name eden that was the name of the garden that god gave as a gift to our first parents the garden of eden now someone might be saying derek you don't really believe that that's literal to you i mean there was a first appearance adam and eve is the name according to scripture and they lived in a garden called eden and my response would be they said well how do you know you weren't there and i would agree i wasn't there but you know jesus matthew 19 speaks about god creating male and female jesus trusted that the bible record was true right and i'm a follower of jesus so i'm trusting jesus talks about abel he talks about noah he talks about moses and david he believed that the scriptures were given by inspiration of god yes every word he said that proceeds from the mouth of god we can trust in that right so we're going back to an inspired record not just a myth and we're going to learn from the garden of eden billy i'd like you to start our study if you would in genesis chapter 2 verses seven and eight okay genesis means beginnings right it's the book of beginnings and how does your bible read there in genesis 2 7 and 8. sure and i'll be reading from the king james version genesis 2 verses 7 and 8 and the lord god formed men of the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life and man became a living soul and the lord god planted a garden eastward in eden and there he put the man whom he had formed so if we didn't have any other information harold there's some important things in this text right if it's just a fragment that we found we said oh we found a fragment from the book of genesis what important information could we gain just from that text well god is our creator that's big right we're not here by accident god created us and what else could we learn from the text jason we can learn that he formed us physically okay and sabine also we were planted in a garden we were planted in a garden now we don't know like what were we supposed to do in the garden our first parents certainly will discover that god created our first parents free so they could love him in fact this whole series is about a god who loves us with an immeasurable and unfailing love that's why he wants to teach us lessons for life right yes so we're in this garden we're going to learn a little more about the garden after your comments sabina and also the other thing that can we can learn from this text is that god made us from the dust of the ground so i think that's also an important information that we can realize that we were made out of the dust of the ground and god breathed his breath into us an interesting scripture later we'll say when we die our body returns to the dust and our breath returns to god who gave it right so that's kind of the reversal of that creation britain i think another important note to realize in this verse is that god is a very intimate god and that he wants relationship with us i mean the very first being that adam saw when he you know became alive was his creator breathing in his nostrils and bringing it into life and so it shows us how intimate god is he's not some distant god far away that just spoke and left us to be as we are but he wants to have that daily walk with us and it's just beautiful to see that you know and while you're saying that i'll come to your point harold i'm just thinking of that famous text of jesus god so loved the world and you're saying we see it even in the garden yes he could have said let there be man but instead he shapes and forms and breathes life into inherently actually i was just going to echo that because if you see the creation before man everything he spoke and it was done but here he had to actually stoop down and touch the clay who knows like full form and spend time and creating that and you see he had to do that but in a sense he didn't he could have just spoken right why does he have to do it because he loves us he wants to communicate relationships intimacy right this relationship with us well let's get back to the garden uh we're having a great discussion this is good i'm happy to know that there's a god who not only created us but loves us right that's great that's really good news sabine could you read verse 15 of genesis chapter two sure i'll be reading from the new international version verse 15. the lord god took the man and put him in the garden of eden to work it and take care of it now this is before sin this is before the curse with thistles and thorns has anyone here ever done any gardening how many gardening people brittany uh how would you describe the task of garden gardening in today's world well it can be really hard work my brother and i had a landscaping business and we used to pull weeds and you know put down fertilizer and the wood chips and plant flowers and all of that and it took a lot of time a lot of sweat a lot of effort and as soon as you have it looking beautiful you've got to go weed it again i remember my wife and i planted tomato plants this year and and i was looking just a couple of days ago when i found the dreaded hornworm you know it's like this big green worm with little horns and they can just eat all of the leaves in a matter of a couple of days you know and i was like no not the hornworm you know but back then it was perfect right didn't god say it was very good very good okay so what would there be to do sabine to tend and work the garden if there's no thorns no weeds no thistles no invasive species yeah i think that probably like just cultivating and observing them growing and becoming beautiful and different as time passes you know i think that walking in the garden and looking at them was already in itself a joy and the cultivation i would say probably something like picking the fruits or things that you're going to eat to prepare something there is also a process right so those are some things i can think of that they were doing there what lessons might might uh our first parents have learned even in that cultivation of that perfect environment really i think oh and the fact that work is a blessing okay and that's something we should value so we should we should never look down upon you know somebody whatever the work may be well not all work but you know sometimes i think we value a different type of work um somebody who's uh maybe a janitor you know we don't give that much respect as somebody who might be like a president of a country or something so god value work and work i think brings something inside of us that god wants to teach us it might be the fact that you know we should be always active in in producing and taking care of other things isn't there something in the commandment which says six days labor yeah the seventh day is the sabbath right that's a special day of rest that also goes back to creation but in the same commandment it says don't rest all seven right six days work right so there were lessons that that uh adam was learning uh during this time i need to move on to verses 19 and 20 and i'm going to ask jason if you'd read that for us 19 and 20. um actually for the first half of verse 20 19 through 28 what else was happening learning in the garden sure i'll be reading here from the new king james version genesis chapter 2 verse 19 and the first part of verse 20. out of the ground the lord god formed every beast of the field and every bird of the air and brought them to adam to see what he would call them and whatever adam called each living creature that was its name so adam gave names to all the cattle to the birds of the air and to every beast of the field how do you decide what to name something it's a hard choice yeah has anyone had a pet of any kind yes pat what kind of pet have you had harold um i don't know it came with the house that we bought in the republic the pet came with the house and they already had names did anybody have to name a pet jason what pet did you have so i've had cats before okay and uh it sounds plural right yes one at a time or like whole herds of cats uh like two at a time two at a time okay how did you decide to name them so one cat i named mittens because it had a little dark spots on its paws and so i was like oh these are kind of like mittens so i thought about what i knew in my life and how the cat related to things that i was already familiar with and i gave names that way okay so that's kind of a personal thing uh brittany i had a puppy and i had wanted a puppy since i was two and a half and i didn't get one until i was 17. but i prayed for that puppy and i got to choose it and once i got her i found out that um she was born on christmas eve and i named her noel and so that had a special meaning because of when she was born so sometimes it can be when something is born or something that they remind you of it's interesting i'm sure folks watching on the program maybe you can't see everyone's face but when jason was talking about mittens and when britain he was talking about noel they were smiling it was a relational thing right so adam is given this opportunity to name all of these animals billy and also i think not just well in our world i i even you know have friends who name their cars who name their laptops their computers and i'm wondering why but basically they feel that sort of relationship and they because they value that thing they give it a name so it's not just another blue car it's you know jonathan i mean i'm just making stuff up but you know they want to make it personal and that's the relationship that's that they found in in that thing so so adam's got work to do in the garden he's learning he's learning about the relationship that god wants with him yeah he's learning about his environment yeah the beautiful environment it's beautiful his stuff's growing he's never seen things grow before right he's like whoa he's learning uh about the diversity of life i also think about the responsibility because earlier on in genesis chapter 2 it said that god or in genesis chapter 1 that god gave um adam and eve the garden to take care of it and to subdue it and to you know they were responsible for it so they're learning responsibility and i remember as a child when i was learning responsibility with my pets and with different jobs my parents gave me it gave me a sense of purpose it gave me joy to know that i had something under my care that i needed to take good care of and so i think maybe they were learning about god and how he cares for us as they were caring for something that he gave to them a gift now you use the word they but at least at this point it's just he because we're getting to chapter 2 of genesis verse 20 b the second half jason you read through the first half could you read just the second half of genesis 20 2 and verse 20. sure i'm reading here new king james version genesis 2 verse 20 and the second half says this but for adam there was not found a helper comparable or comparable to him what did he notice harold as he looked at all the animals yeah they had a couple i mean there were a couple there was a male female for the animals but he didn't have a companion he's like comparable to him of course what's wrong with this picture right yeah what's he thinking we don't know for sure take a guess i mean sabine what's he thinking i think he's wondering if he would ever have someone like him that he could share probably he was observing the animals and how they would play together and how would they they have fun and even have their own way of communicating and probably he felt a little lonely that's one of the things maybe also he wondered if there could be someone to help him cultivate the garden and give names to the animals he saw that it was work and it's more joyful when you have someone else doing work with you at least for me so probably he felt that difference also being lonely compared to the energy sure maybe he was looking you know i mean he found a lot of animals right yeah wondering if he would find a helper comparable to him jason i'm guessing he probably noticed his uniqueness there are there are uh benefits and also you know downsides when one is by themselves so in this case he can see well you know i'm unique i'm different there's something god is doing different here he probably didn't understand all what was going on but i i definitely agree with sabine that he he he realized that he lacked something it may have been nice to be the only one but after a while uh being single can get old and then you want someone to be there to help you with all this process of taking care of the garden so let's keep reading the story billy verses 21 to 23 of genesis 2. and i really am thankful for the scriptures because we wouldn't know the story but as i said jesus our savior we're followers of jesus he believed that this was historical record right inspired by god so that we could know what happened back there let's see how the story unfolds sure and i'll be reading from the king james version in the lord god caused a deep sleep to fall upon adam and he slept and he took one of his ribs and closed it closed up the flesh and instead thereof and the rib which the lord god had taken from man made he a woman and brought her unto the men and adam said this is now bone of my bones in flesh of my flesh and she shall shall be called woman because she was taken out of men so that's kind of strange you told me harold that in the beginning with much he just said let there be and it happened with adam he gets down and out of the dust of the ground and breathes into him what's this about taking a spare part out of adam i mean he didn't need to do that did he right correct someone might even say that's stranger than fiction yeah well yeah i guess if you're making it up you probably wouldn't wouldn't put that in right that's ridiculous yeah but the the prophet moses who writes genesis is is telling us what happened brittany what what's going on here i think there's several things one if we think about what god chose he chose a side part of a side of adam so he could have chosen you know part of his ear to make eve or he could have chosen one of his toes or something like that and made her and then she could have been above adam if she was made from something higher up or something lower down but he took something from her side to show that she's comparable to him she's equal to him she has equal value and she's a part of you when something's a part of you like when people have children they want to nurture and take care of that and they have this special like relationship this this child has part of my genes right and maybe there's something there with this closeness this wife he says she's bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh she's part of me i'm going to take care of her we're going to partner together in this relationship you know we don't want to allegorize the story you know excessively but but that's pretty close to your heart i mean i know where you take the rib from but it's not necessary but there's a lesson there isn't there we're talking about lessons for life right it's not just he added another acquisition um this is bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh anybody else want to respond to that i was thinking also that the very fact that god made eve out of his ribs and from the side and as you were saying close to the heart it may refer to the fact that he wanted them to have a relationship just as god had created adam to have a relationship of love with god and with the animals and with creation that also this person there was not just someone else that would be there you know um with no relationship with adam but also someone that would be so close more close even than the other animals so that's one thing that i can think of and the fact that it was created out of adam to make sure that there was no difference between them that god loved and had them both as precious to him and that very special creation that was the only one who was created out of the dust and with the breath of god was equal so same person same thing uh that's something else that's beautiful that's beautiful and i think back to genesis one that brittany referred to it speaks there of adam as male and female you know it's like you know the human family right in the image of god yes it takes both of them yeah a reflection of the image of god yeah there would be no question whether she was also in the likeness of god right so right we want to move on to an important topic in this garden first adam and now adam and his companion which he's very happy about right he's like a health meat right best friend um is there good in the garden mm-hmm yes it's very good right very good yes is there evil in the garden yes there's evil in a tree in the garden ah let's take a look apparently there's something bigger happening on a cosmic level right let's take a look at that brittany if you could read for us in genesis chapter 2 verses 15 through 17. genesis chapter 2 verses 15-17 yes i'll be reading from the new king james version then the lord god took the man and put him in the garden of eden to tend and keep it and the lord god commanded the man saying of every tree of the garden you may freely eat but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die why did god put this uh this tree in the midst of the garden uh it was called the tree of the knowledge of good and evil was the fruit toxic um what what's going on here what what don't we know from the narrative at this point that's going on cosmically jason so before this time apparently and we get this from other places in scripture there has been a battle a war if you will in heaven between you could say the forces of evil which were led by satan and god and apparently there was a rebellion the force of evil lost they got kicked out of heaven and so now god because he allows freedom because he allows free will he allowed the force of evil led by the devil to be present on this earth at this creation so that the man and his wife adam and eve could actually choose for themselves whether they would choose god or whether they would choose satan the forces of evil this is basically an opportunity for free will that's taking place here i don't think some people might say that's a bad idea just ban the angel once called lucifer now called the devil and satan you were referencing revelation chapter 12 right verses 7 through 12. so by the way just in case you were thinking made that up this great great series on bible prophecy which includes revelation hope biblestudy.org you ought to be studying the bible prophecies right now because they're being fulfilled and you were quoting from the prophecy there in revelation but some people might say i think that's a bad idea sabina just ban this fallen angel and all of the angels doesn't it say a third of the angels joined in the rebellion it's hard for us to fathom that but satan uses lies and deception which we'll now see in the garden why doesn't god just ban him and so you can't go near this planet and and uh and tempt my creation yeah i think that we need to be very cautious when we approach this issue of the mystery of iniquity right god knows everything and he loves us so much in a very special way and i think that the bible points to the fact that he did his very best to the point of even going to the cross so that evil could be finally exterminated but at this point in human humanity in the history of humanity we know that god have chosen love and love dependent on freedom and simply removing it and exterminating satan and the angels that were falling would be approved maybe or would maybe people have questions and raise the questions whether this was not a tyrannic god who was just trying to shut the mouth of those who were opposing him or who were wondering if he was truly god good and holy so i believe that part of it has to do with the fact that he still had to show us to have a display of his love through the allowance of us to have choices even to choose evil unfortunately that's a very costly plan isn't it it is god so loved the world that he gave yes it's a costly plan but it's a plan from a good loving god he wants us to be free well there's this plan don't don't go to the tree don't eat the fruit of it there's a warning given we want to pick up in genesis chapter 3 harold if you could read you maybe read that many times but someone watching hope sabba school today has never heard these words they say if it was good how do we get into the mess that we're in today this is another lesson for life isn't it if we listen to the lies of the enemy pain and death will come let's see what it says in genesis 3 verses 1 through 8. and i'll be reading from the new king james version now the serpent was more cunning than any beast of the field which the lord god had made and he said to the woman has god indeed said you shall not eat of every tree of the garden and the woman said to the serpent we may eat the fruit of the trees of the garden but of the tree of but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden god has said you shall not eat it nor shall you touch it lest you die then the serpent said to the woman you shall you will not surely die for god knows that in the day you eat it your eyes will be opened and you will be like god knowing good and evil so when the woman saw that the tree was good for food that it was pleasant to the eyes and a tree desirable to make one wise she took of its fruit and ate she also gave to her husband with her and he ate then the eyes of both of them were opened and they knew that they were naked and they sued fig leaves together and made themselves coverings and they heard the sound of the lord god walking in the garden in the cool of the day and adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the lord god among the trees of the garden what's the immediate evidence that what satan said was a lie fear fear that's right instead of saying you'll be like god which by the way if you read the prophecy in isaiah is what satan wanted i will be like the most high right isn't that in chapter 14 i will be like the most high he wanted to usurp the place of god now he's telling our first parents you know you can be like god but you're right brittany the immediate response having listened to the lie is fear i wonder if that was the immediate response of the angels that joined the rebellion after they were cast out what do you think yeah well that's the opposite of love ah perfect love casts out fear yes yeah so if you separate from a god of love fear yeah right now you've read the story and i would encourage those of you studying to go and read genesis chapter three but let's let's just help me what were some of the immediate responses after fear that came uh as a result of listening to satan's lies and and disobeying god harold they it says that they realized they were naked all right it was like wow what is this new experience that they are like there's a loss of some kind yeah yeah okay brittany yeah along with that shame they're they're trying to cover themselves so they're feeling ashamed loss shame fear jason they're trying to hide from god they want physical separation from the one who loves them with a measurable and unfailing love something wrong right yes yeah what else the environment the environment became like it became cool so they started sensing some sort of you know difference in the environment because of that so not just them but also the environment was was damaged i guess by their um sin i mean and we can't forget that they knew the warning that god already said so they thought like well this is it for us i mean god did say and we disobeyed so i don't know what will happen to us so maybe that they will die yeah yeah look in genesis chapter 2 verses 23 and 24 and let's see what the outcome is brittany lots of things happening including the environment is now cursed also right weeds and thistles and so on genesis chapter 2 or genesis chapter 3 genesis uh 3 chapter 3. thank you verses 23 and 24. therefore the lord god sent him out of the garden of eden to till the ground from which he was taken so he drove out the man and he placed cherubim at the east of the garden of eden and a flaming sword which turned every way to guard the way to the tree of life why didn't god just say that was a very bad thing that you did but you can stay in this beautiful garden well yes harold sorry but if you think about it that was the tree of life and if they had access to the tree of life that would extend their life i mean that's what it seems so the fact that there was a tree of life then that means sin would have been perpetuated on this earth and we would have been living for eternity but in sin if that was the case jason god has put natural laws and natural consequences in place and so he by his own authority that he has done he has to follow through with what he has planned so if he says something then it's required that it happens so god god himself uh has has restricted uh this process there and so he had to kick them out of the garden even again because yes otherwise they could have lived forever because of what god has set up here so is there any hope they're being banished from this garden i i can only imagine that they're weeping uncontrollably yeah yeah yeah i mean maybe the angels wept uncontrollably after they were cast out they realized that the lies of the enemy did not bring good right now is there any hope stirring in their hearts brittany this is a lesson maybe someone's watching hope sabbath school and say i've never lived in eden but i've wept over things that where satan has tricked me and deceived me and i felt like there was no hope was there any hope there in the hearts of our first parents there were several things that god did before he caused them to leave the garden but one is in genesis 3 15 where he gave them a promise and he said that you know there's going to be a seed and that seed will crush the head of the serpent but it will be bruised in the process and so that gave them hope well maybe an a descendant of ours will be our savior maybe maybe there's hope maybe we aren't going to have this eternal separation from god and this one who deceived us he's going to be crushed was it true that a descendant of theirs would be their savior yes yes it took longer than they thought right i think they were hoping genesis 4 when their firstborn came that maybe he was the one but there had been given a promise what other little glimmer of promise was there besides genesis 3 15 about the seed a descendant would come and crush the serpent yes well not necessarily the promise but the fact that god did not kill them okay remember that god created them so he could have created another set of couples easily but he chose not to do that so that gave them some hope that you know what god is working something out even from that surface text and we're going to dig more to find out there's one other important insight in verse 21 jason would you read that for us in genesis 3 21 sure i'm reading here from the new king james version genesis chapter 3 verse 21 also for adam and his wife the lord god made tunics of skin and clothed them where did he get that skin well you could have he could have just said let there be skins right but but as we read through the scriptures all the way up to messiah who's called the lamb of god or even back in abraham god will provide ma'am a lamb yes what what happened in the garden sabina he probably had to kill an animal so that he could clothe adam and eve um even though it made some uh you know a gleam of hope at the same time it probably brought them sadness as well because if they were they're naming the animals they were precious to them as well probably and they felt in their own life the pain for losing an animal that they had named probably so this uh this symbol of of a lamb dying and being clothed instead of naked is a little hope maybe they could smell it every once in a while and say we we don't have to despair yes you know i don't know about you but i have i have wondered without hope that adam and eve might have just killed themselves if not then well let's look at the next part of the story in genesis chapter 4 because there were some lessons they learned after eden as well sabine if you could read the first two verses of genesis chapter four okay so genesis chapter four i'll be reading from the new international version adam lay with 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 later she gave birth to his brother abel now abel kept flocks and cain worked the soil so what do we learned so far what lessons could eve and her husband learn from this next part of the story yes well when you have children you learn to love them and take care of them i haven't had children myself but i've worked with a lot of children and as you work with children you learn wow look how creative they are and oh look they need my help they just fell and hurt themselves and you know different things where you realize wow if i have this kind of love for this child uh how much more does god love me and and look at the mercy i want to give my child patience and mercy and grace how much more does god want to give that to me so as they're caring for their children they're learning more and more about god's character and how he treats them and she did recognize this child as a gift from the lord exactly right so what else did could they learn by looking at these two children they had to name them too right cain abel yes sabine i probably believe that they have learned also about love and the love that god had towards them now that i have also someone coming out of their own likeness so i think that's something that they learn how how much god loved them and even in this difficult scenario after leaving the garden they still could recognize eve says right that i i have brought forth a man with the help of the lord so she could still realize god in her life herod yeah and also it says that the two sons that she had they had different skills so who knows what kind of personality what kind of thing they liked so they had to even learn how to work with that with their with their children i i wish it would say and they all lived happily ever after but there's another lesson that they're going to learn in the garden right jason could you read verses three through eight of genesis chapter four i'm reading here from the new king james version genesis chapter four verses three through eight and in the process of time it came to pass that cain brought an offering of the fruit of the ground to the lord abel also brought of the firstborn of his flock and of their fat and the lord respected abel and his offering but he did not respect cain in his offering and cain was very angry and his countenance fell so the lord said to cain why are you angry and why has your countenance fallen if you do well will you not be accepted and if you not do well sin lies at the door and its desire is for you but you should rule over it now cain talked with abel his brother and it came to pass when they were in the field that cain rose up against abel his brother and killed him first murder right two brothers one kills the other one um why was he so angry it says he was angry well what do you think why was he so angry i think i think jealousy you know he was jealous that um abel you know found favor in the side of god so the jealousy drove in some you know hatred towards him why did abel find favor this is a lesson for us brittany and and was it that he found favor or that his offering was acceptable and keynes was not brittany we don't have you know direct instruction from god before this but we do have the example of god killing an animal and clothing them and then later on we have the sacrificial system being set up so we learn later on in scripture that without the shedding of blood there's no remission of sin and the scripture says that specifically and so to bring vegetables nothing has to give its blood and this was to be pointing forward to their savior and so when cain is bringing vegetables it's not what god asked god is saying look it's not vegetables that are going to die for you it's it's my own son who's going to shed his blood and so that is why abel's sacrifice was acceptable god must have instructed them while we don't have it recorded here that this was what they needed to do for forgiveness of sin that there's a messiah coming who will give his own life and cain wasn't willing to accept that sacrifice that substitute for himself sabina and another thing that i can think of it says here in verse 3 that in the course of time came brought some of the fruits of the soil as an offering but abel brought fat portions from the firstborn of his flock so again we don't have the clear instructions of what happened before if god gave them particulars about it but we know that one that he was wrong because god said further down there if he had done the right he would you know be fine so we know that he didn't do the right thing and the second thing we know is that it was not the best of what he had that he brought as an offering it appears like he got some things that was not uh you know the very firstborn or the fed portion like able did so i also so i'll give you something but it may not be the best but even worse it's not what you asked for yeah let's talk about the character of god because this whole series on lessons for life is learning about the character of god someone said with the first parents he could have just destroyed them and made two more what can we learn about the character of god from the way he treated cain after cain not only disregarded his counsel but killed his young his younger brother what can we learn let's take a look in genesis chapter 4 verses 9 through 15. brittany if you could read that for us again i i would want us to not only realize this is a really sad story and and cain has listened to satan's lies but catch a glimpse of the character of god in the midst of the story and i'll be reading from the new king james version genesis chapter 4 verses 9 through 15. then the lord said to cain where is abel your brother he said i do not know am i my brother's keeper and he said what have you done the voice of your brother's blood cries out to me from the ground so now you are cursed from the earth which has opened up its mouth to receive your brother's blood from your hand when you till the ground it shall no longer yield its strength to you a fugitive in a vagabond you shall be on the earth and cain said to the lord my punishment is greater than i can bear surely you have driven me out this day from the face of the ground i shall be hidden from your face i shall be a fugitive in a vagabond on the earth and it will happen that anyone who finds me will kill me and the lord said to him therefore whoever kills cain vengeance shall be taken on him sevenfold and the lord set a mark on cain lest anyone finding him should kill him what do you think what can we learn about the character of god from the story billy god has a lot of mercy by the way i just grew up automatically automatically concluding that satan that kane never repented i don't know that right yeah do i know that from the text no no i don't know that all i know is that god is merciful very merciful yes and uh doesn't it say in the scripture if we confess our sins he's faithful and just to forgive us we may get a thousand emails saying he didn't repent well he had an opportunity so there's the mercy of god brittany yeah it reminds me of a verse in i believe it's ii peter that says that god is not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance so god is showing us that here look i don't want you to perish i want you to have an opportunity to repent and i'm going to give you a long life anyone who tries to come against you i'm going to bring vengeance seven times on that person i'm preserving you second peter 3 verse 9 that god is not willing the any including cain so mercy of god we don't know the rest of the story yeah but we know that god gave him time and opportunity and even protection yes right yeah sabine i also think that this shows a lot of grace that with mercy comes grace because he didn't deserve it right there wasn't he did nothing to deserve it actually if god was going to pay back with what he deserved he would be fuminated at the very moment he killed his brother but yet god allowed him because of mercy and grace and the other thing that i find about the text and that's looking back towards verse six when god asks him why are you angry the way that he approaches um i i feel like he was being so kind i think he was just so kind imagine if you just witnessed someone killing the audience what happened like why why did you do that wondering if there was something happening maybe in his heart in his mind and giving him the chance to express himself there's no evidence in the text at this point that cain asked for forgiveness right or repents or says i'm sorry or whatever well if we ended there we've just got a few minutes left i want to talk about the fact that there is promise in scripture and i'm just going to let you share from your study of the scripture that eden will one day be restored that means no more sin no more lies no more death right no more pain a restoration of the perfect environment where do you see promises of that in the scripture well brittany said there's that promise right at the beginning about the seed that will come that will crush the serpent what about the creation of a new heavens and a new earth in revelation uh i believe chapter 21 or 22 where actually will we have access to the tree of life once again something that we were barred from well maybe we should go there let's go to revelation uh to two passages revelation 21 1-5 if you could read that and then jason if you could read genesis uh revelation 22 1-5 so 21 1-5 and 22 1-5 and by the way back to studying the prophecies of the bible hope biblestudy.org there's a series on bible prophecy we are in the midst of the fulfillment of bible prophecy right and and we're going to see eden restored soon and i'm excited that's good news right so let's look at revelation 21 1-5 and then 22 1-5 all right so i'll be reading from the new king james version now i saw a new heaven and a new earth for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away also there was no more sea then i john saw the holy city new jerusalem coming down out of heaven from god prepared as a bride adorned for her husband and i heard a loud voice from heaven saying behold the tabernacle of god is with men and he will dwell with them and they shall be his people god himself will be with them and be their god and god will wipe away every tear from their eyes there shall be no more death nor sorrow nor crying there shall be no more pain for the former things have passed away then he who sat at the throne said behold i make all things new and he said to me right for these words are true and faithful and jason we've just got time for genesis for revelation 22 1-2 two verses uh what does the bible say in the last chapter new king james version genesis chapter revelation sorry 22 1-2 and he showed me a pure river of water of life clear as crystal proceeding from the throne of god and of the lamb in the middle of its street and on either side of the river was the tree of life which bore 12 fruits each tree yielding its fruit every month the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations we need that right amen promise of eden restored learning from eden a loving god merciful god redemptive god he's going to make all things new yes my friend i hope you'll join us on this series of lessons for life we're going to go through the scriptures and learn lessons but what would be the most important lesson today that god loves us with an immeasurable and unfailing love maybe you walked away with tears like our first parents maybe you walked away with tears like cain but there is forgiveness there's a new beginning and there's hope of eden restored through faith in our savior jesus that's our that's our assurance and that's a good news that we can share with those around us let's pray together our father in heaven thank you for the scriptures that contain powerful lessons for life and i pray in the name of jesus that we would catch a clearer glimpse of the immeasurable and unfailing love of god the mercy of god the patience of god that we would accept the grace extended and the assurance of eden restored and a blessed hope for the future in jesus name amen amen amen well thanks for joining us for hope sabbath school today i'm excited you say ambassador we're living in a troubled time yes but that's not the end of the story we've got edom restored to look forward to jesus is coming soon and we can be part of his eternal kingdom that's good news go out and share it with those around [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Applause] you

Channel: HopeSabbathSchool

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Keywords: Hope Sabbath School Lesson 1 Learning In Eden

Id: mpHurCqIW6Q

Length: 58min 31sec (3511 seconds)

Published: Sun Sep 27 2020