Notes on the Pentateuch

Dedication

This book is, with love, dedicated to my family: Margaret, Debbie, George, Bobby, Christy, Jennifer, Diane and Billy.

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Foreward

Table of Contents

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Chapter One

Verse | - “In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. “

The clause “In the beginning” takes us back into the dateless past. How far back only God knows. It is apparent that things were created in point of time before the present earth.

l. Angels Job 38:4-7 “Where wast thou when I laid the foundations of the earth? declare, if thou hast understanding. 5. Who hath laid the measures thereof, if thou knowest? or who hath stretched the line upon it? 6. Whereupon are the foundations thereof fastened? or who laid the corner stone thereof; 7. When the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy?”

It is stated that the sons of God “angels” rejoiced when the earth was created.

2. Seraphim

Isaiah 6:1-7 “In the year that king Uzziah died I saw also the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up, and his train filled the temple. 2. Above it stood the seraphims: each one had six wings; with twain he covered his face, and with twain he covered his feet, and with twain he did fly. 3. And one cried unto another, and said, Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord of hosts: the whole earth is full of his glory. 4. And the posts of the door moved at the voice of him that cried, and the house was filled with smoke. 5. Then said I, Woe is me! for I am undone; because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips: for mine eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts. 6. Then flew one of the seraphims unto me, having a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with the tongs from off the altar: 7. And he laid it upon my mouth, and said, Lo, this hath touched thy lips; and thine iniquity is taken away, and thy sin purged.”

3. Cherubim

Genesis 3:24 “So he drove out the man; and he placed at the east of the garden of Eden Cherubims, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of life.”

Satan obviously rebelled before the creation to which we pertain for he is seen as a fallen creature in opposition to God and man in the garden of Eden.

Genesis 3:1,15 “Now the serpent was more subtil than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden? 15. And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.”

Satan rebelled against God in the dateless past prior to the recreation of the earth in Genesis 1.

Isaiah 14:12-15 “How art thou fallen from heaven, 0 Lucifer, son of the morning! how art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations! 13. For thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God: I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north: 14. I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the most High. 15. Yet thou shalt be brought down to hell, to the sides of the pit.”

Ezekiel 28:15-19 “Thou wast perfect in thy ways from the day that thou was created, till iniquity was found in thee. 16. By the multitude of thy merchandise they have filled the midst of thee with violence, and thou hast sinned: therefore I will cast thee as profane out of the mountain of God: and I will destroy thee, 0 covering cherub, from the midst of the stones of fire. 17. Thine heart was lifted up because of thy beauty, thou hast corrupted thy wisdom by reason of thy brightness: I will cast thee-to the ground, I will lay thee before kings, that they may behold thee. 18. Thou has defiled thy sanctuaries by the multitude of thine iniquities, by the iniquity of thy traffick; therefore will I bring forth a fire from the midst of thee, it shall devour thee, and I will bring thee to ashes upon the earth in the sight of all them that behold thee. 19. And they that know thee among the people shall be astonished at thee: thou shalt be a terror, and never shalt thou be any more.”

Luke 10:18 “And he said unto them, I beheld Satan as lightning fall from heaven.”

There are several positions postulated to harmonize Science with the Word -8- of God. Science states that the earth is of great antiquity dating back tens to hundreds of millions of years. Christians on the other hand state the creation to which we pertain is only a mere 6,000 years old.

1. Humanistic Evolution The hypothesis advocated by Charles Darwin and his followers is that the earth is millions of years of age as proven by fossils and remains which may be carbon and potassium dated going back millions of years.

The earth was formed by two atoms colliding in outer space and exploding (Big Bang Theory). When all cooled down we had the heavens and the planets. From some primordial slime pit on planet earth emerged a primeval ameba, our ancient ancestor the pollywog. Through the adaptation of the species and the survival of the fittest over many millions of evolutionary years, evolved from sea creatures to apes to Cro-Magnon, to Neanderthal, Piltdown, Java, to a missing link and finally to modern man. This theory is supposedly proven by such things as fossil evidence, evidence in the strata of earth, comparative anatomy, embryology, etc.

It is in reality a Godless, unproven, really foolish hypothesis.

2. Theistic Evolution This is a theory which is shot at by both sides. It advocates that there is a God who created but he created only the essential matter and set in motion the evolutionary process. It adopts Darwinism from that point on. Science shoots at it because it acknowledges God and Christians shoot at it because it denies the Scripture.

3. The Day - Age Theory Holds that God created but the days in Genesis 1 were actually indeterminate periods of time which may indeed be tens of millions of years in duration. So instead of 7 days of 24 hours, we may have 7 million or 7 billion years of creation. Needless to say, this theory finds little acceptance.

4. The Gap Theory This theory advocates that the earth itself is indeed many millions of years of age but the phase of creation to which we pertain goes back about 6,000 years. It holds that in the dateless past God created the heaven and the earth with some form of inhabitant on it, probably before Lucifer’s rebellion. For some reason, possibly because of Lucifer’s rebellion, He destroyed that creation leaving the earth in the condition described in Genesis 1:2 “And the earth was without form and void and darkness was upon the face of the deep.”

God later recreated the earth and man as recorded in Genesis 1 and 2. Thus we have a gap between the first and second creation.

To the first creation pertain all fossils and remains over 6,000 years of age, whatever they might be, manlike or Cf seortn animals. Offered in proof of this theory is the following:

A. It.was the prominent theory of the church fathers. H. Orton Wiley, pg 475, Vol. I, states “Dr. Shedd holds this theory ty

(restoration theory) stating it was the common view of the fathers and the schoolmen. Such modern writers as John W. McGaway and G. Campbell Morgan take this position.” Shedd also in Dogmatic Theology quotes St. Augustine, “Tn the beginning that is prior to the 6 days God created, than in the six days God made.”

B. Scriptural Proof. In the K.J.V. the translation of Genesis 1:1 And the earth was without form and void should be rendered, “And the earth came to be without form and void.

Quoting modern science and the Genesis record by Rimmer, page 26, “The Chaldean, Septuagint, Vulgate, and Aramaic versions all render ‘was’ as the earth “became””.

Dake Annotated Reference Bible. The Hebrew word hayah as used in Genesis 1:2 is used as: Became 67 times, becamest and came to pass 505 times, become 66 times and come to pass 131 times.

Dr. R. D. Wilson states the term literally means “Desolation succeeding previous life.”

Dr. Coggins “calls attention to the Hebrew verb as implying such a catastrophe as is stated in the Gap theory.”

Dr. H. Orton Wiley, Vol. 1, pg. 450, “Now the earth had become.”

If the earth became without form and void it was not initially made that way.

Jeremiah 4:23 “I beheld the earth, and, lo, it was without form, and void; and the heavens, and they had no light.”

Isaiah 45:18 “For thus saith the Lord that created the heavens; God himself that formed the earth and made it; he hath established it, he created it not in vain, he formed it to be inhabited: I am the Lord; and there is none else.”

The use of the term replenish.

Genesis 1:28 “And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.”

Genesis 9:1 “And God blessed Noah and his sons, and said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth.”

Exactly the same command is given to Noah after the flood as was given to Adam after the initial destruction of the earth. Replenish means “to restock or to refill after being emptied.”

Ezekiel 27:25 “The ships of Tarshish did sing of thee in thy market: and thou wast replenished, and made very glorious in the midst of the seas.”

Isaiah 2:6 “Therefore thou hast forsaken thy people the house of Jacob, because they be replenished from the east, and are soothsayers like the Philistines, and they please themselves in the children of strangers.”

Isaiah 23:2 “Be still, ye inhabitants of the isle; thou whom the merchants of Zidon, that pass over the sea, have replenished.”

C. The existence of Pre-Historic Creatures

It is obvious that dinosaurs existed on planet earth and that they go back beyond 6,000 years. If they were not extinct in Noah’s day, he brought them by pairs into the ark. Consider for a moment their size.

Tyrannosaurus - 50 feet high - 20,000 pounds

Brontosaurus - 90 feet high - 70,000 pounds

Brahiosaurus - 80 feet high - 110,000 pounds

Allosaurus - 50 feet high - 16,000 pounds

Euhelopus - 60 feet high - 50,000 pounds

There are a great number of dinosaurs identified from bones which are about as large as those listed. Remember the ark was 450 feet long, 45 feet high, and 75 feet wide. We see that any number of these creatures could not be placed in the ark upright inasmuch as some of them are twice as tall as the ark is high.

D. There is evidence in nature of a sudden cataclysmic destruction.

Fossils found deep in earth’s strata, wooly mammals have been found encased intact in arctic ice with tropical food in their stomachs, etc.

All things considered the Gap Theory is the most reasonable theory postulated to harmonize science and the Word of God. However, it should be kept in mind that science fluctuates in its acceptance of fact. The Word of God is static. When the two are in conflict “Let God be true and every man a liar.”

“In the beginning God”. God has laid the stumbling block right at the threshold of His revelation. If you are going to falter, do it right here. “In the beginning God”. No explanation is offered for the existence of God. The Bible just declares that He is in the beginning.

Hebrews 11:6 “But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.”

If one can get past the first clause of the first chapter of the first book in the Bible, he should have absolutely no trouble in accepting the rest of the Word of God. If I can believe without qualification or explanation that God is, I will have no difficulty in accepting the miracles of this God as recorded in Scripture.

There are several arguments in theology for the existence of God.

Arguments for the Existence of God: A. Naturalistic Theology - General Revelation. 1. Intuitive - The knowledge of God is intuitive. The inbred knowledge of God in all men of normal minds. The Universal and necessary idea of 14 -

God. Psa. 14:1, “The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God.”

2. Tradition - The early impressions of a race on the present teaching given to children. Adam, our first father, knew God. This knowledge of God could be disseminated from generation to generation.

3. Reason - The highest capacity in man apart from revelation to attain the knowledge of God.

4. Revelation - God speaking to man through nature.

5. Cosmological Argument - Greek Word, KOSMOS, means “World.” Argument from cause and effect. Every change or effect must have a sufficient preexistent first cause. The logical mind must believe in adequate first cause. For instance, the child may ask “Who made God?” We believe the pre-existent, self-existent first cause of all things is God. To deny this is to say matter is eternal and produces itself; in all its distinct variety. Either, some being was uncaused or all beings and things were uncaused.

6. Teleological Argument - Commonly known as the argument from design and arrangement. Perfect order and design of creation suggest an intelligent organized creator. Cosmological argument gives us Idea of God as power caused creation. Teleological argument reveals Him as a divine person with freedom, intelligence and purpose. Illustrate with light and eye: they were made for each other.

7. The Ontological Argument - meaning “the science of existence.” Anselm, 1033-1109, more or less the father of this argument. “All men have the idea of God, and its idea is the idea of a perfect being, one whom we cannot imagine to have a superior. The idea of such a being necessarily implies such a being; otherwise we might imagine a greater being.” The weak point of this arguiment is obvious. Just because you may imagine a creature (a flying lion, a Santa Claus) does not furnish proof that one exists.

8. The Moral Argument - argument from the fact of conscience in man which marks the distinction between right and wrong. Conscience cannot be explained without recognition of a supreme moral law and a law giver.

9. Historical Argument - Holds that there are evidences of design in the moral as well as in the natural course of history. This argues the idea of a divine moral government in the world.

10. Religious Argument - An argument from experience, witness of the Holy Spirit, authenticity of Scripture, what Christian faith produces in the life of a believer.

11. Anthropological Argument - an argument involving man. The fore-mentioned positions: Cosmological, Ontological, moral, Historical, Religious, and Intuitive are involved in the Anthropological Argument. There are philosophical and moral features in man which may be traced back to find their origin in God. Man possesses attributes of thought, will, reason, sensibility, consciousness, morality, making him distinct and different from all other

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created entities. Man is created in the image of God.

B. Theistic Theology - Special Revelation All the previously listed arguments may augment to some degree the special, divine revelation of God in His Word, the Bible, and in His Son, Jesus Christ. The saved need only these two arguments to satisfy themselves as to the existence and attributes of God. The other arguments are studied only to assist others with little or no knowledge of, or faith in the Word of God, or Jesus Christ, the Lord and Saviour.

Anti-theistic Theories: Theism means belief in the one God. So then, the following theories are postulated by those who do not believe in the one true God.

1) Atheism - (no God)

An open, positive denial of the existence of God. This is the effect produced by an unsound mind, for “the fool hath said in his heart, There is no God.”

John Foster 1770-1843, gives a good argument concerning atheism. I paraphrase: “It is unbelievably the immense intelligence attained by a man enabling him to say there is no God. What ages, what light is a prerequisite for this statement. Unless a man is omnipresent and omniscient he cannot know but there may be in some place at some time manifestation of a Deity. If he does not know absolutely every agent in the universe, if he is not himself the chief agent of the universe, and does not know for certain what is, then what is may be God. If he does not for sure know the cause of all things, then the cause of all things may be God.”

2) Agnosticism - (Not knowing)

There are no substantial grounds for an answer either in the negative or affirmative as to the existence of God. This term began to be used in 1870. The objective of the Agnostic is to discredit certitude in the field of human knowledge concerning the existence of God.

3) Evolution

The theory that cosmos developed from a crude, unorganized form to a highly developed, diversified advance status by means of natural resident forces. Matter is eternal and self-developing.

4) Materialism

A first cousin to evolution, a doctrine that all can be explained by reference to reality, laws of physical and material substance. This approach is called material scientific inquiry. The business of the materialist is to explain everything by natural physical causation, excluding all inference of spiritual cause.

5) Polytheism

Belief and teaching that there are more than one God. Probably sprang out of nature worship. Embraces many specific, limited gods - sun, moon, etc.

6) Pantheism God is everything and everything is God. Confounding God with nature; matter with Spirit. The assertion that God is matter and matter is

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God is just a short step away from atheism.

7) Deism

God created all things and forthwith abandoned His creation. His will for creation is that it is to be self-sustaining and self-regulated. Deism rejects the Scripture that suggests God is providentially working in and with His creation. He has no communion or fellowship with anything in or of His creation. “Concept of an absentee God, idle since the 7th day Sabbath.”

8) Dualism

Doctrine of two eternal opposing principles, good and evil. Some say spirit and matter; body and soul.

Biblical Theism: Nature and existence of God as revealed in Bible.-

We have previously discussed the arguments of Naturalistic Theology to prove the existence of God. Arguments from Reason.

Now we proceed to arguments from Revelation. Reason and Revelation go together to help the theologian in acquisition of truth. However, it must be maintained that where reason and revelation disagree, it must be inferred that reason is wrong. “Reason is our guide but never our master in theological study.”

The Bible really has the only logical answer to creation for the believer alone has an adequate first cause. Something had to be in the beginning matter or God. We believe “in the beginning God.” And the Christian’s God is adequate to produce all that exists. He Himself is:

1. Eternal

Genesis 1:1 “In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.”

John 5:26 “For as the Father hath life in himself; so hath he given to the Son to have life in himself,”

Exodus 3:14 “And God said unto Moses, I AM THAT I AM: and he said, Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, I AM hath sent me unto you.”

Isaiah 57:15 “For thus saith the high and lofty One that inhabiteth eternity, whose name is Holy; I dwell in the high and holy place, with him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite ones.”

Psalm 90:2 “Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever thou hadst formed the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting, thou art God.”

Revelation 1:8 “I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, saith the Lord, which is, and which was, and which is to come, the Almighty.” Our God eternally existed. You either believe this or you believe in the eternal existence of matter. Something or someone was in the beginning.

2. Omnipresent ={4-

I Kings 8:27 “But will God indeed dwell on the earth? behold, the heaven and heaven of heavens cannot contain thee; how much less this house that I have builded?”

Isaiah 66:1 “Thus saith the Lord, The heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool: where is the house that ye build unto me? and where is the place of my rest?”

Jeremiah 23:24 “Can any hide himself in secret places that I shall not see him? saith the Lord. Do not I fill heaven and earth? saith the Lord.”

Again, since matter exists in all places man has been able to probe, either matter or God must be omnipresent.

3. Omnipotent

Genesis 18:14 “Is any thing too hard for the Lord? At the time appointed I will return unto thee, according to the time of life, and Sarah shall have a son.”

Job 42:2 “I know that thou canst do every thing, and that no thought can be withholden from thee.”

Matthew 19:26 “But Jesus beheld them, and said unto them, With men this is impossible; but with God all things are possible.”

Revelation 19:6 “And I heard as it were the voice of a great multitude, and as the voice of many waters, and as the voice of mighty thunderings, saying, Alleluia: for the Lord God omnipotent reigneth.”

When one considers all that is in the universe, the stars, planets, in immeasurable space and the world of the microbe with much to be yet discovered on both ends of the spectrum, one must conclude that it was created by an Omnipotent God or that matter itself is omnipotent.

4. Omniscience

Job 37:16 “Dost thou know the balancings of the clouds, the wondrous works of him which is perfect in knowledge?”

Job 42:2 “I know that thou canst do every thing, and that no thought can be withholden from thee.”

Psalm 147:4-5 “He telleth the number of the stars; he calleth them all by their names. 5. Great is our Lord, and of great power his understanding is infinite.”

Isaiah 40:28 “Hast thou not known? hast thou not heard, that the everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not, neither is weary? there is no searching of his understanding.”

I John 3:20 “For if our heart condemn us, God is greater than our heart, and knoweth all things.”

The order and design in nature, the great ecological balance shouts loud and clear for a supernatural intelligence behind all creation. Mindless matter could not reproduce itself with all the sophistication in nature.

It takes much greater faith to believe in evolution with its faith in the eternal existence of matter than it does to believe in the existence of the eternal

God.

Verse 1 continued - “In the beginning God created” This passage teaches creation “ex nihilo” that is creation out of nothing.

Hebrews 11:3 “Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear.”

Psalm 33:6-9 “By the word of the Lord were the heavens made; and all the host of them by the breath of his mouth. 7. He gathereth the waters of the sea together as an heap: he layeth up the depth in storehouses. 8. Let all the earth fear the Lord: let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of him. 9. For he spake, and it was done; he commanded, and it stood fast.”

Heaven is the upper regions, the invisible order of things as well as the cosmological heavens. Earth refers to the cosmos the habitable world.

Verse 2 - “And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.”

The condition of the pre-adamite earth was without form and void. It was not created that way but came to be that way because of judgment, perhaps as a result of Lucifer’s rebellion.

The Spirit of God is brooding over the chaos. The word for God in Genesis 1:1 is “Elohim” literally the God’s plural. And now separate and apart from God the Father, we see God the Holy Spirit brooding over the chaotic earth.

John 1:3 “All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made.”

We see Jesus was also active in the creation so all members of the divine Trinity were engaged in the creation.

The Creation Week

A) Days - Genesis Chapter 1, are taken in various ways: 1. An indeterminate period of time, such as the day of the Lord, day of wrath, etc. 2. Day is a thousand years.

II Peter 3:8 “But, beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.” 3. Days - geological age. This theory is not based on sound exegetical principles but is an effort to harmonize science with the Scriptures. 4. Day isa literal period of 24 hours. This seems to be the sound Biblical approach for the following reasons: a. It is the primary Hebrew word, “yom” denoting a literal day. Departed from only when used in different context. b. Addition of evening and morning give weight to literal day. c. If geological age, indeterminate periods, or a thousand years, what ZIG:

would happen to vegetation during a night of this length?

d. Exodus 20:9-11 “Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work: 10. But the seventh day is the sabbath of the Lord thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates: 11. For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the Lord blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it.”

God stated He made earth in six days, rested on the seventh. Thus Israel is commanded to labor six days, rest the 7th. Both are to be taken literally.

e. It is not to be supposed that God rested for a geologic age. f. Finally, after creation of sun, moon, stars, the last three days must be taken literally. Why not the first four?

B) First Day - Light

This confuses some inasmuch as the sun was not created until the 4th day. It is, however, an established scientific fact that light is not a substance emanating from the sun, but consists of ether waves, produced by energetic electron - (Cosmic light).

Genesis speaks of the sun as being a light bearer, even as the moon reflects the sun’s rays.

C) Second Day - Firmament and division of waters above and beneath firmament.

D) Third Day - Separation carried further by dividing dry land from water.

E) Fourth Day -Sun, moon, stars, the light bearers, were created. Purpose of these creations:

1. Divide day and night.

2. Tobe for signs (change of weather conditions)

3. For seasons, days, years. Elements by which time may be reckoned.

4. To serve as light and heat to make development of organic life on

earth possible.

F) Fifth Day - Fish and fowls created. Notice they too were created after their kind.

G) Sixth Day - climax to God’s creation. Animals and Man. The creation of man is distinguished by the solemn counsel: “Let us make man in our own image after our likeness.” Thus man is the crowning point of God’s creation because he was made in God’s own image.

H) Seventh Day - the seventh day contains the first negative element. God ceases from His creative work. This, however, may be considered a positive action as an artist views his finished masterpiece. God viewed His creation - “And God saw everything that He had made, and behold, it was very good.”

The second chapter of Genesis contains a further description of the creation

Jt76 of man, arranging its material to suit this end, repeating only what is contained in the previous chapter, concerning man’s creation without concern for chronological order.