♰ Bible Study by Abouna Angelos 2018 Sep 19 What is a “day?” The Church does not have a stand on creation vs. evolution or a day being 24 hours, etc. The Bible is not a scientific book. The debates are entertaining but are a distraction. What is “good” and “evil?” “God saw that the light was good.” “good” = “tov” (whence comes “Tobit,” the good man) = appealing, likeable (not necessarily righteous), good to look at, functional. The “knowledge of good and evil” is not the knowledge of sin and righteousness. Story about an infant starting to crawl in upper Egypt. When kids start to crawl around, it can be a problem. In upper Egypt these lizards roam the houses. They sometimes get stuck in the hinge of the door and pressed and die and dry up. One day she found her boy chewing on something; he didn’t have his teeth yet. She was worried about what it was; he was enjoying it; eventually she pried his mouth open where there were two eyes looking at her; eventually she pulled that dry lizard out of his mouth. What is that? To that boy, that dry lizard was “tov.” To the mother, it was “rah.” So with “good” and “evil” here, we are talking about “suitable” and “unsuitable,” good in our eyes and bad in our eyes. Understanding this concept will open up the meaning of these two to three chapters. If God is saying “good,” it is because v. 20: wisdom, love, gentleness, caring Father, not forcing Adam to get married. Animals have no choice, but for Adam, God let Adam see what He had done and asked Adam if he would like it. Of course he would like what God is doing, but God did not make it a mandate; he made Adadm a full partner with Himself in the creation. If it is not good for Adam to be alone, did Adam know that before this process? No he didn’t. God is coaching Adam to learn what is good and evil. [Genesis 1:26] 26 Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” problem was that it was wrong time to eat from the tree likeness = the knowledge to know if that lizard should be eaten or not (to him that was delicious, a delicacy, he would not share it with his mother; to him it was tob, really tob; but what was it to the mother, rah, really rah) man has the freedom of choice but has to learn to discern what is likeable and good in general terms by the way, God already has a set of good and evil; what are they? all the things that lead to life and light all the things that lead to betterment of conditions, function, beautiful to look at evil: anything that destroys that, the truth, the light, the life; all the commandments are about that: do not kill, lie, honor father mother, other gods, it’s a lie to worship other gods and make an image, because there is truly one god, it is against life to murder, it is against truth to covet, etc. when we learn to discern, we are like god Hebrews 5:12-14 12 For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the first principles of the oracles of God; and you have come to need milk and not solid food. 13 For everyone who partakes only of milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, for he is a babe. 14 But solid food belongs to those who are of full age, that is, those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil. image = a baby born today (not a human yet) is in the image of a human, but he doesn’t know anything yet become like one of us = discern what is edible and what is not edible pilot presented Jesus: “Behold, the Man.” [i.e., as God intended him to be] because he had reached that full discernment, let it be your will not mine. Notice: Meditation: My Plan is for man to be according to my iamge and likeness, my Vision Genesis 1:26 Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; when he creates man, there is no likenss, it is not granted at the time of creation, it is a learning process like taho and baho but this time its his son so by choice not by programming from scratch, he is not going to add instinct that he doesn’t choose to add beautiful story of love between god and adam adam is a child of god god looks forward to teaching him, holding his hand and showing him things, the heavens, the animals, and you will learn why i gave scales to the fish, feathers to the birds, and fur to the animals, and why you are naked, a lot of questions and a lot of learning, a relatinoship that will have to grow based on a lot of love and respect, a lot. god: good, good, good, good, not good adam doesn’t know nakendess is not good gentle education Genesis 2:18-20 18 And the LORD God said, “It is not good that man should be alone; I will make him a helper comparable to him.” 19 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. 20 So Adam gave names to all cattle, to the birds of the air, and to every beast of the field. But for Adam there was not found a helper comparable to him. Teaches Adam that he needs a helper Chapter 3: The Temptation Genesis 3:5 “For God knows that in the day you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” Serpent: “God is not interested in your good. He is telling you not to eat from the one tree that is going to make you like God. That means he is not your friend. Try and see.” Who adds to the commandment of God takes away from it. When you do something extra, you diminish. Eve says to the serpent It is all about the image of God. How they see God. Remember the monk who told us the story about the image. When he was young, he saw that every monk prayed fervently. You know they love God. He coveted that prayer, but he couldn’t. He said, What can I do? He said, Why don’t you ask God. He said the last week of that fast, it came to him. His Mom around the feast put cookies in the jar. She said you know we are very poor, and these are for the guests. Don’t touch it. I might not be in the kitchen, but remember that God is watching you. Every time I enter the kitchen I try to see, Can I get a cookie without God seeing me? That’s why I can’t have intimacy with him, because I see him as a policeman. Did you ask God what his opinion is of all this? After weeks of fasting and prayer, the only thought is that God is whispering in my ear, My son would you like to have another one? Since then, his prayer life improved greatly. Because it was his Mother hiding behind God, not God his voice himself. Serpent is trying to put a false image on God. It is believed by Adam and Eve. They see that all the animals have scales, fur, hair, etc. But the hairiest of us is uncovered. You left us uncovered in front of all the animals. So that cunning of the serpent was not about giving them knowlege, but stripping them the intimacy and trust and the image of their loving father. He wants to do everything to build them up by the best way possible. To convert that to a competitor who wants to take away things from them in life. The end is alienation. I have to hide. If he exposed me and showed my nakedness to all the creatures on earth, then I don’t want him to see it either. Until something that can fix that image: “He is keeping that tree from you, beacuse he doesn’t want you to be like him.” Answer: For God so loved the world, ..., on the Cross God puts the image of God back on. That intimacy, that image of God. For this is how the God loved the world. By one tree the world was lost, by another,... suffering came into the world as a remedy for the knowledge of good and evil for us to love, we have to suffer for it he loved us now more, because he suffered for us suffering and love became synonym woman to love kids through suffering man to love family through suffering for them it becomes very precious for him what about the curse of the serpent none of our business -- really because: the serpent belongs to: his creator we have nothing to do with people outside that’s God’s business he takes care of his animals discernment: very early on, we have the ability to say what is good and what is evil: godly, saintly why was the serpent there if everything was good was the tree of good and evil intrinsically evil did god create evil? premarital sex car keys its timing why was the serpent there? the serpent and devil have access there is no limitation why good things happen to bad people and vice versa? st. augisting: who is stronger: a king who keeps an enemy out or who allows enemy to ... god maestro: do what you can, do your worst to disrupt my symphony, i’ll make a better symphony out of it he’s going to do me a favor, when he i will recreate that man and do better nature if devil did not do this we wouldn’t have death and resurrection and that other nature the nature of the resurrected christ but pain has to come, and pain ahs to be our company now, the cross, carry it every day