1: Mustard And The Gist

Concider AND ask God. (about May 21, 2011)
What? Does it sound tooo weered? THIS IS PERSONAL.
He came the first time to save us.
That is Me and You too; Our Souls.

The Topic : May 21, 2011 as Judgment Day
The Scriptures:
The Gist
The gist is really summed up by the supporting dates of our persception and the Bibles description; ..
..and I just found these three scripture that lend just to the gist of reasoning it : .(from the gist below) “Expounding the scriptures was the most usual way of preaching in the first and purest ages of the church. What have the Levites to do but to teach Jacob the law (Deu. 33:10); not only to read it, but to give the sense, and cause them to understand the reading?
Neh. 8:8.
How shall they do this except some man guide them?
Acts 8:31.”

And for my reasoning , the Old Testament note:
For every living soul belongs to me, the father as well as the son--both alikebelong to me. (Go ahead, cross reference that to this link of others)
Concider it, and it will be, just like starting over; renewing our relationship
with Jesus Christ, and or like a new start.
And I am sure if You concider it WRONG TO CONCIDER THIS
THEN it(your or our figuring) should be in Parallel with observing all the signs from scripture that speek of this or that time; of those signs, we must endeavor to persevere.

Well, few of us understand the dates written
and SET as "from this time" and "to", or "until", of "a time" ;
are we then concidering, or not concidering? I dont know of any date
that it is written where the Bible says when He will not return on.
Are we seeding some things of our own? So ask God what?
FAITH and BELIEFE ARE MADE UP of How Much Understanding?.
And Knowing?
Strongly Concider this with your little faith, as a Mustard Seed.
Concider (#1-3)"we may JUST be out of dates listed" and/or
that (2-3) our understanding in finding in the Bible more dates
of to and from may be wrenched on something's conditional
""upon us"", and not to exclude May 21, 2011.
So #3, number 1, ask God to be in our place with Him; for Him
to include us each with Him then, and guide us to be now, in His will,
on Earth as it is in Heaven.

ABSTRACT YOU CAN UNDERSTAND.
Take me... Christ gave himself… that was all about Him
And in DOING ALL WE CAN has difficuly to even keep up with now,
Much less of then: http://www.youtube.com/1epluribusunum#p/c/A550A24B5C9BDDB7/41/Vg84L84uop8

The bilboards add " Cry Out!!!"
several Family Radio billboards in residential areas with the May 21, 2011
Judgment Day message. "Cry out mightily to the Lord" was the admonition on the billboards.

So, with ALL, and that "date and hour thing, in mind, I wrote a blog post and leave it linked here.
ALSO what I THINK WE EACH SHOULD KNOW, HERE:
I add this note to any who want to "concider that if God is telling us,
of His return this date, OR WHEN HE DOES TELL US(accept His
instructions then) ; then for now, as believers, all we can find is a mustard seed of faith ; that is "we are expecting it a little", by that concideration.

And ""Know"" what?
KNOW What Mother Mary and Mary Magdaline did know.
They went to His tomb Sunday morning, out of their heart and probably by tradition or custom.
The Moon at the moment.
http://bible.cc/search.php?q=month+of+the+moon

http://www.google.com/#hl=en&source=hp&biw=1020&bih=537&q=KNOW+THE+MONTH+OF+THE+NEW+MOON+NAME++KJV&aq=f&aqi=&aql=&oq=&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.&fp=4da02f84a768b964

The one group is as important as the other is. We would not dream of allowing someone else to determine for us which day of the week we should keep as the Sabbath day. Just because the Jews happen to identify the weekly Sabbath day correctly, this does not mean that we did not check up on them, TO MAKE SURE that their claim that Saturday is the Sabbath is in fact correct. We have carefully examined historical records 2 to make quite sure that the Jewish claim for Saturday, as the weekly Sabbath is correct. We certainly did not just accept "on faith" that the Jews have gotten the weekly Sabbath right. We thoroughly verified this against all the facts that we have to which we have access. After having made such a thorough investigation, it is certainly nice to have been able to reach the conclusion that regarding the weekly Sabbath the Jews ARE indeed right. We know they are right BECAUSE we have checked up on the facts, not because we somehow trust the Jews "on faith."
In the same way we also need to check up and make sure that the Jews faithfully abide by ETERNAL's instructions in Exodus 12:2 that "THIS NEW MOON" IS ALWAYS THE FIRST NEW MOON OF THE YEAR TO US." That is not something our CREATOR would want us to accept "on faith" without making the effort to verify the facts, as crescent or dark moon advocates are wrong.

Those that say "from a certain time" -that tell us also "until a specific time." ; and also that the interpretations have to do with our day now, or any to come, "that we will """know""" of". Unlike those whom to He will come like a thief in the night.

So I guess I can say from the collective gathering of beliefs
among anyone i know, or have talked to, about the May 21, 2011
as the Judgment Day and or Jesus Christs return,
and of that along with the later destruction of the Earth October 21, 2011; no one believes, yet, that the Bible has this revealing message;
nore anymore so, is the belief of "that is what God is telling us",

May 17th
Morning Study
II Kings 18
II Kings 19
Evening Study
John 6:22-44
II Kings 18 Back to Top
1
Now it came to pass in the third year of Hoshea son of Elah king of Israel , that Hezekiah the son of Ahaz king of Judah began to reign.
2
Twenty and five years old was he when he began to reign; and he reigned twenty and nine years in Jerusalem . His mother's name also was Abi, the daughter of Zachariah.
3
And he did that which was right in the sight of the LORD, according to all that David his father did.
4
He removed the high places, and brake the images, and cut down the groves, and brake in pieces the brazen serpent that Moses had made: for unto those days the children of Israel did burn incense to it: and he called it Nehushtan.
5
He trusted in the LORD God of Israel ; so that after him was none like him among all the kings of Judah , nor any that were before him.
6
For he clave to the LORD, and departed not from following him, but kept his commandments, which the LORD commanded Moses.
7
And the LORD was with him; and he prospered whithersoever he went forth: and he rebelled against the king of Assyria , and served him not.
8
He smote the Philistines, even unto Gaza , and the borders thereof, from the tower of the watchmen to the fenced city.
9
And it came to pass in the fourth year of king Hezekiah, which was the seventh year of Hoshea son of Elah king of Israel , that Shalmaneser king of Assyria came up against Samaria , and besieged it.
10
And at the end of three years they took it: even in the sixth year of Hezekiah, that is in the ninth year of Hoshea king of Israel , Samaria was taken.
11
And the king of Assyria did carry away Israel unto Assyria, and put them in Halah and in Habor by the river of Gozan , and in the cities of the Medes:
12
Because they obeyed not the voice of the LORD their God, but transgressed his covenant, and all that Moses the servant of the LORD commanded, and would not hear them, nor do them.
13
Now in the fourteenth year of king Hezekiah did Sennacherib king of Assyria come up against all the fenced cities of Judah , and took them.
14
And Hezekiah king of Judah sent to the king of Assyria to Lachish , saying, I have offended; return from me: that which thou puttest on me will I bear. And the king of Assyria appointed unto Hezekiah king of Judah three hundred talents of silver and thirty talents of gold.
15
And Hezekiah gave him all the silver that was found in the house of the LORD, and in the treasures of the king's house.
16
At that time did Hezekiah cut off the gold from the doors of the temple of the LORD, and from the pillars which Hezekiah king of Judah had overlaid, and gave it to the king of Assyria .
17
And the king of Assyria sent Tartan and Rabsaris and Rabshakeh from Lachish to king Hezekiah with a great host against Jerusalem . And they went up and came to Jerusalem . And when they were come up, they came and stood by the conduit of the upper pool, which is in the highway of the fuller's field.
18
And when they had called to the king, there came out to them Eliakim the son of Hilkiah, which was over the household, and Shebna the scribe, and Joah the son of Asaph the recorder.
19
And Rabshakeh said unto them, Speak ye now to Hezekiah, Thus saith the great king, the king of Assyria , What confidence is this wherein thou trustest?
20
Thou sayest, (but they are but vain words,) I have counsel and strength for the war. Now on whom dost thou trust, that thou rebellest against me?
21
Now, behold, thou trustest upon the staff of this bruised reed, even upon Egypt, on which if a man lean, it will go into his hand, and pierce it: so is Pharaoh king of Egypt unto all that trust on him.
22
But if ye say unto me, We trust in the LORD our God: is not that he, whose high places and whose altars Hezekiah hath taken away, and hath said to Judah and Jerusalem , Ye shall worship before this altar in Jerusalem ?
23
Now therefore, I pray thee, give pledges to my lord the king of Assyria , and I will deliver thee two thousand horses, if thou be able on thy part to set riders upon them.
24
How then wilt thou turn away the face of one captain of the least of my master's servants, and put thy trust on Egypt for chariots and for horsemen?
25
Am I now come up without the LORD against this place to destroy it? The LORD said to me, Go up against this land, and destroy it.
26
Then said Eliakim the son of Hilkiah, and Shebna, and Joah, unto Rabshakeh, Speak, I pray thee, to thy servants in the Syrian language; for we understand it: and talk not with us in the Jews' language in the ears of the people that are on the wall.
27
But Rabshakeh said unto them, Hath my master sent me to thy master, and to thee, to speak these words? hath he not sent me to the men which sit on the wall, that they may eat their own dung, and drink their own piss with you?
28
Then Rabshakeh stood and cried with a loud voice in the Jews' language, and spake, saying, Hear the word of the great king, the king of Assyria :
29
Thus saith the king, Let not Hezekiah deceive you: for he shall not be able to deliver you out of his hand:
30
Neither let Hezekiah make you trust in the LORD, saying, The LORD will surely deliver us, and this city shall not be delivered into the hand of the king of Assyria .
31
Hearken not to Hezekiah: for thus saith the king of Assyria, Make an agreement with me by a present, and come out to me, and then eat ye every man of his own vine, and every one of his fig tree, and drink ye every one the waters of his cistern:
32
Until I come and take you away to a land like your own land, a land of corn and wine, a land of bread and vineyards, a land of oil olive and of honey, that ye may live, and not die: and hearken not unto Hezekiah, when he persuadeth you, saying, The LORD will deliver us.
33
Hath any of the gods of the nations delivered at all his land out of the hand of the king of Assyria ?
34
Where are the gods of Hamath, and of Arpad? where are the gods of Sepharvaim, Hena, and Ivah? have they delivered Samaria out of mine hand?
35
Who are they among all the gods of the countries, that have delivered their country out of mine hand, that the LORD should deliver Jerusalem out of mine hand?
36
But the people held their peace, and answered him not a word: for the king's commandment was, saying, Answer him not.
37
Then came Eliakim the son of Hilkiah, which was over the household, and Shebna the scribe, and Joah the son of Asaph the recorder, to Hezekiah with their clothes rent, and told him the words of Rabshakeh.

II Kings 19 Back to Top
1
And it came to pass, when king Hezekiah heard it, that he rent his clothes, and covered himself with sackcloth, and went into the house of the LORD.
2
And he sent Eliakim, which was over the household, and Shebna the scribe, and the elders of the priests, covered with sackcloth, to Isaiah the prophet the son of Amoz.
3
And they said unto him, Thus saith Hezekiah, This day is a day of trouble, and of rebuke, and blasphemy; for the children are come to the birth, and there is not strength to bring forth.
4
It may be the LORD thy God will hear all the words of Rabshakeh, whom the king of Assyria his master hath sent to reproach the living God; and will reprove the words which the LORD thy God hath heard: wherefore lift up thy prayer for the remnant that are left.
5
So the servants of king Hezekiah came to Isaiah.
6
And Isaiah said unto them, Thus shall ye say to your master, Thus saith the LORD, Be not afraid of the words which thou hast heard, with which the servants of the king of Assyria have blasphemed me.
7
Behold, I will send a blast upon him, and he shall hear a rumor, and shall return to his own land; and I will cause him to fall by the sword in his own land.
8
So Rabshakeh returned, and found the king of Assyria warring against Libnah: for he had heard that he was departed from Lachish .
9
And when he heard say of Tirhakah king of Ethiopia , Behold, he is come out to fight against thee: he sent messengers again unto Hezekiah, saying,
10
Thus shall ye speak to Hezekiah king of Judah , saying, Let not thy God in whom thou trustest deceive thee, saying, Jerusalem shall not be delivered into the hand of the king of Assyria .
11
Behold, thou hast heard what the kings of Assyria have done to all lands, by destroying them utterly: and shalt thou be delivered?
12
Have the gods of the nations delivered them which my fathers have destroyed; as Gozan, and Haran , and Rezeph, and the children of Eden which were in Thelasar?
13
Where is the king of Hamath, and the king of Arpad, and the king of the city of Sepharvaim , of Hena, and Ivah?
14
And Hezekiah received the letter of the hand of the messengers, and read it: and Hezekiah went up into the house of the LORD, and spread it before the LORD.
15
And Hezekiah prayed before the LORD, and said, O LORD God of Israel , which dwellest between the cherubim, thou art the God, even thou alone, of all the kingdoms of the earth; thou hast made heaven and earth.
16
LORD, bow down thine ear, and hear: open, LORD, thine eyes, and see: and hear the words of Sennacherib, which hath sent him to reproach the living God.
17
Of a truth, LORD, the kings of Assyria have destroyed the nations and their lands,
18
And have cast their gods into the fire: for they were no gods, but the work of men's hands, wood and stone: therefore they have destroyed them.
19
Now therefore, O LORD our God, I beseech thee, save thou us out of his hand, that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that thou art the LORD God, even thou only.
20
Then Isaiah the son of Amoz sent to Hezekiah, saying, Thus saith the LORD God of Israel , That which thou hast prayed to me against Sennacherib king of Assyria I have heard.
21
This is the word that the LORD hath spoken concerning him; The virgin the daughter of Zion hath despised thee, and laughed thee to scorn; the daughter of Jerusalem hath shaken her head at thee.
22
Whom hast thou reproached and blasphemed? and against whom hast thou exalted thy voice, and lifted up thine eyes on high? even against the Holy One of Israel.
23
By thy messengers thou hast reproached the LORD, and hast said, With the multitude of my chariots I am come up to the height of the mountains, to the sides of Lebanon, and will cut down the tall cedar trees thereof, and the choice fir trees thereof: and I will enter into the lodgings of his borders, and into the forest of his Carmel.
24
I have digged and drunk strange waters, and with the sole of my feet have I dried up all the rivers of besieged places.
25
Hast thou not heard long ago how I have done it, and of ancient times that I have formed it? now have I brought it to pass, that thou shouldest be to lay waste fenced cities into ruinous heaps.
26
Therefore their inhabitants were of small power, they were dismayed and confounded; they were as the grass of the field, and as the green herb, as the grass on the house tops, and as corn blasted before it be grown up.
27
But I know thy abode, and thy going out, and thy coming in, and thy rage against me.
28
Because thy rage against me and thy tumult is come up into mine ears, therefore I will put my hook in thy nose, and my bridle in thy lips, and I will turn thee back by the way by which thou camest.
29
And this shall be a sign unto thee, Ye shall eat this year such things as grow of themselves, and in the second year that which springeth of the same; and in the third year sow ye, and reap, and plant vineyards, and eat the fruits thereof.
30
And the remnant that is escaped of the house of Judah shall yet again take root downward, and bear fruit upward.
31
For out of Jerusalem shall go forth a remnant, and they that escape out of mount Zion : the zeal of the LORD of hosts shall do this.
32
Therefore thus saith the LORD concerning the king of Assyria, He shall not come into this city, nor shoot an arrow there, nor come before it with shield, nor cast a bank against it.
33
By the way that he came, by the same shall he return, and shall not come into this city, saith the LORD.
34
For I will defend this city, to save it, for mine own sake, and for my servant David's sake.
35
And it came to pass that night, that the angel of the LORD went out, and smote in the camp of the Assyrians an hundred fourscore and five thousand: and when they arose early in the morning, behold, they were all dead corpses.
36
So Sennacherib king of Assyria departed, and went and returned, and dwelt at Nineveh .
37
And it came to pass, as he was worshipping in the house of Nisroch his god, that Adrammelech and Sharezer his sons smote him with the sword: and they escaped into the land of Armenia . And Esarhaddon his son reigned in his stead.

John 6:22-44 Back to Top
22
The day following, when the people which stood on the other side of the sea saw that there was none other boat there, save that one whereinto his disciples were entered, and that Jesus went not with his disciples into the boat, but that his disciples were gone away alone;
23
(Howbeit there came other boats from Tiberias nigh unto the place where they did eat bread, after that the Lord had given thanks:)
24
When the people therefore saw that Jesus was not there, neither his disciples, they also took shipping, and came to Capernaum , seeking for Jesus.
25
And when they had found him on the other side of the sea, they said unto him, Rabbi, when camest thou hither?
26
Jesus answered them and said, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Ye seek me, not because ye saw the miracles, but because ye did eat of the loaves, and were filled.
27
Labour not for the meat which perisheth, but for that meat which endureth unto everlasting life, which the Son of man shall give unto you: for him hath God the Father sealed.
28
Then said they unto him, What shall we do, that we might work the works of God?
29
Jesus answered and said unto them, This is the work of God, that ye believe on him whom he hath sent.
30
They said therefore unto him, What sign shewest thou then, that we may see, and believe thee? what dost thou work?
31
Our fathers did eat manna in the desert; as it is written, He gave them bread from heaven to eat.
32
Then Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Moses gave you not that bread from heaven; but my Father giveth you the true bread from heaven.
33
For the bread of God is he which cometh down from heaven, and giveth life unto the world.
34
Then said they unto him, Lord, evermore give us this bread.
35
And Jesus said unto them, I am the bread of life: he that cometh to me shall never hunger; and he that believeth on me shall never thirst.
36
But I said unto you, That ye also have seen me, and believe not.
37
All that the Father giveth me shall come to me; and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out.
38
For I came down from heaven, not to do mine own will, but the will of him that sent me.
39
And this is the Father's will which hath sent me, that of all which he hath given me I should lose nothing, but should raise it up again at the last day.
40
And this is the will of him that sent me, that every one which seeth the Son, and believeth on him, may have everlasting life: and I will raise him up at the last day.
41
The Jews then murmured at him, because he said, I am the bread which came down from heaven.
42
And they said, Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? how is it then that he saith, I came down from heaven?
43
Jesus therefore answered and said unto them, Murmur not among yourselves.
44
No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him: and I will raise him up at the last day.

Monday, May 16, 2011
"ENDEAVOR TO PERSEVERE"
Fathoming the space, dedicating this post to the Space shuttle Endeavour
and its STS-134 crew and mission of the Shuttle's final flight. The messages in this mix,
to compliment, yet the contenance together is of the pleasent, and to looking up.NASA -""Great Launch, A Challenging Mission Ahead Mon, 16 May 2011 08:35:13 AM MST Space shuttle Endeavour is officially on its way to the International Space Station on its STS-134
mission and final flight. Endeavour lifted off from NASA's Kennedy Space Center on time
at 8:56 a.m. EDT, soaring through a few clouds, after a relatively smooth countdown...."""The old Lakota was wise. He knew that man's heart away from nature becomes hard;
he knew the lack of respect for growing, living things soon led to a lack of respect for
humans too.So he kept his youth close to its softening influence."-Luther Standing BearOGLALA SIOUX Related, I don't know; it is not for me to say, only to
the construct I see and observe from a view and concider
others now and before me, and to come; God first knowing
all our needs, what to fathom is a wonder, and or, may be
a wander.So for this link to label relativity, I pass; and add
a link: "The Final Word On Quitters? - A Time For Choosing
", and then again to describe enough
to make the right choices, yet of all there is
to think of in the Universe, I stop where I am up to date:
Wednesday, May 11, 2011 Grounded Scriptures: Be Ye Idealistic .Adding a moment of another good note between these spaces-""When we live in nature it's like constantly being in school.
We are in an environment that is always teaching. We are constantly being reminded
that there are laws. Natural Laws, which are running the universe.
Once we know these laws and we drift from them, we start to live our lives in a different way.
Soon we become discontent, selfish and disrespectful. Then, we get in trouble.
If our lives have become this way, it can be reversed by going back to nature
to be among our teachers."Great Spirit,teach me, again, the Natural laws. ""By: Don Coyhis...and the Dawn of the age: News Briefing on Earth-observing Aquarius Mission, Tuesday, May 17, 1 p.m. EDT on NASA TVFrom the"Welcome" page of SSE.JPL.NAS.GOV
"Welcome- The Gravity Recovery And Interior Laboratory (GRAIL) mission
will create the most accurate gravitational map of the Moon to date, improving
our knowledge of near-side gravity by 100 times and of far-side gravity by 1000 times. ......Scheduled to launch in late 2011, GRAIL is a mission in NASA's Discovery Program
of solar system investigations. GRAIL will begin its work at the Moon in 2012....
...Objectives - GRAIL's engineering objectives are to enable the science objectives
of mapping lunar gravity and using that information to increase understanding of
the Moon's interior and thermal history. Getting the two spacecraft where they
need to be, when they need to be there, requires an extremely challenging set of maneuvers
never before carried out in solar system exploration missions.......and SPACE with ""May 21, 2011"" ; in mind of Earth concerns of - the day; the times;
our place, in the HEAVENS and through humanity to date as we know or have heard it told;
and of following's...:

A random "May 21" brought quotes above by Don Coyhis
and Luther Standing Bear.http://groups.yahoo.com/group/CherokeeWomen/message/5675
The Solar System Clock of the WWWhttp://www.order.ph.utexas.edu/Java Applet that calculates and displays the current
positions planets of the Solar System, by Matthew A.
Trump of The University of Texas at Austin .
Comet Elenin Update
- http://www.sott.net/articles/show/225704-Comet-Elenin-Update-
(May 22, start through Earth's orbit runs on
to show October 20, 2011,
passing Earths Orbit Away
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lbLWL5tbJPg&feature=player_embedded#t=4s
http://sse.jpl.nasa.gov/eyes/intro.html
Grinds of the challenges on Earth- A Table Of Current Times-over a two month outlook
of abstracts and the contenance therof:

Elimination of old conditions and creation of new ones influences mostly to industry.
Aggressive promotions to personal, religious, educationsl, philosophic, political, cultural;
and excess of these that contradict and can lead to finatisism, conflict, and arguements...
Harmony in handling; .oppertunity and increased drive and socialk involvement.
The artistic, and the romantic, they are pairing well with scientific or business activitys.
Enjoyment of music and glimpses of foreign cultures and artistic forums; noting personal
philosophies are highlighting at least to some evidence within themes. Aquantances partners
-business and personal work along with the social stream and pair often with personal and career..
religion, philosophy, higher education, and travel activities; and these also pair with a greater
sence of moral and ethical responsability. Teaching , lecturing, traveling, and other guide systems of life
are settling and starting to promote; stress factors of all of these can draw narrow mindedness within financial
viewpoints and also draw towards sectarian views...

In the ending of the old conditions and beginning of the new, there is a need
for detachment of material especially. Individuals sometimes have undergone drastic changes
yet also individual industry or companies as described above are within the same ares of resolve.
Large scale investments, corporate or technical, electronics, science, engineering, all pair with
the individuals interests to subjects to be likened, compaired, or perhaps truely reminisant of the
detailing as parapsychology, or reincarnation, and other fields profound and intertwined with clairavoyant
or mystical experiences...

Given the gist of all and concerns of the day, I
felt it best to end this post with the mustard seed

Bible SearchResults 1 - 2 of about 2 for "mustard seed" faith. Search took 0.02 seconds.Luke 17:6 He replied, "If you have faith as small as a mustard ...... And the Lord said, "If you had faith like a mustard seed, you would say to thismulberry tree,
'Be uprooted and be planted in the sea'; and it would obey you. ... //bible.cc/luke/17-6.htm - 17k
Matthew 17:20 He replied, "Because you have so little faith. I ...... "Because your faith is so small," He replied; "for I solemnly declare to you thatif you have faith
like a mustard-seed, you shall say to this mountain ... //bible.cc/matthew/17-20.htm - 18kTopical SearchMustard-seed (5 Occurrences)Sycamine-tree (1 Occurrence)Sycamine (1 Occurrence)Mustard (5 Occurrences)Sycamine Tree

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Genesis 1
Introduction to Genesis
The Book of Genesis can be separated into eleven documents or pieces of
composition most of which contain additional subordinate divisions. The first
of these has no introductory phrase; the third begins with ספר זה תּולדת tôledâh
zeh sēpher, "this is the book of the generations"; and the others with תולדות אלה
tôledâh ̀ēleh, "these are the generations."
However, the subordinate pieces of which these primary documents consist are
as distinct from each other as they are complete in themselves.
Barnes' Notes on the Bible
- Section I-- The Creation
- The Absolute Creation
ראשׁית rḕshı̂̂yt, the "head-part, beginning" of a thing, in point of time Genesis 10:10,
or value Proverbs 1:7. Its opposite is אחרית 'achărı̂̂yth Isaiah 46:10. בראשׁית rê'shı̂̂yth,
"in the beginning," is always used in reference to time.
Here only is it taken absolutely.
ברא bārā', "create, give being to something new." It always has God for its subject.
Its object may be anything: matter Genesis 1:1; animal life Genesis 1:21; spiritual
life Genesis 1:27. Hence, creation is not confined to a single point of time.
Whenever anything absolutely new - that is, not involved in anything previously extant -
is called into existence, there is creation Numbers 16:30. Any thing or event may also
be said to be created by Him, who created the whole system of nature to which it belongs
Malachi 2:10. The verb in its simple form occurs forty-eight times (of which eleven are
in Genesis, fourteen in the whole Pentateuch, and twenty-one in Isaiah), and always in
one sense.
אלהים 'ĕlohı̂̂ym, "God." The noun אלוה 'elôah or אלה 'eloah is found in the Hebrew
scriptures fifty-seven times in the singular (of which two are in Deuteronomy, and
forty-one in the book of Job), and about three thousand times in the plural, of which
seventeen are in Job. The Chaldee form אלה 'elâh occurs about seventy-four times
in the singular, and ten in the plural. The Hebrew letter ה (h) is proved to be radical

Concider AND ask God. (about May 21, 2011)
What? Does it sound tooo weered? THIS IS PERSONAL.
He came the first time to save us.
That is Me and You too; Our Souls.

The Topic : May 21, 2011 as Judgment Day
The Scriptures:
The Gist
The gist is really summed up by the supporting dates of our persception and the Bibles description; ..
..and I just found these three scripture that lend just to the gist of reasoning it : .(from the gist below) “Expounding the scriptures was the most usual way of preaching in the first and purest ages of the church. What have the Levites to do but to teach Jacob the law (Deu. 33:10); not only to read it, but to give the sense, and cause them to understand the reading?
Neh. 8:8.
How shall they do this except some man guide them?
Acts 8:31.”

And for my reasoning , the Old Testament note:
For every living soul belongs to me, the father as well as the son--both alikebelong to me. (Go ahead, cross reference that to this link of others)
Concider it, and it will be, just like starting over; renewing our relationship
with Jesus Christ, and or like a new start.
And I am sure if You concider it WRONG TO CONCIDER THIS
THEN it(your or our figuring) should be in Parallel with observing all the signs from scripture that speek of this or that time; of those signs, we must endeavor to persevere.

Well, few of us understand the dates written
and SET as "from this time" and "to", or "until", of "a time" ;
are we then concidering, or not concidering? I dont know of any date
that it is written where the Bible says when He will not return on.
Are we seeding some things of our own? So ask God what?
FAITH and BELIEFE ARE MADE UP of How Much Understanding?.
And Knowing?
Strongly Concider this with your little faith, as a Mustard Seed.
Concider (#1-3)"we may JUST be out of dates listed" and/or
that (2-3) our understanding in finding in the Bible more dates
of to and from may be wrenched on something's conditional
""upon us"", and not to exclude May 21, 2011.
So #3, number 1, ask God to be in our place with Him; for Him
to include us each with Him then, and guide us to be now, in His will,
on Earth as it is in Heaven.

ABSTRACT YOU CAN UNDERSTAND.
Take me... Christ gave himself… that was all about Him
And in DOING ALL WE CAN has difficuly to even keep up with now,
Much less of then: http://www.youtube.com/1epluribusunum#p/c/A550A24B5C9BDDB7/41/Vg84L84uop8

The bilboards add " Cry Out!!!"
several Family Radio billboards in residential areas with the May 21, 2011
Judgment Day message. "Cry out mightily to the Lord" was the admonition on the billboards.

So, with ALL, and that "date and hour thing, in mind, I wrote a blog post and leave it linked here.
ALSO what I THINK WE EACH SHOULD KNOW, HERE:
I add this note to any who want to "concider that if God is telling us,
of His return this date, OR WHEN HE DOES TELL US(accept His
instructions then) ; then for now, as believers, all we can find is a mustard seed of faith ; that is "we are expecting it a little", by that concideration.

And ""Know"" what?
KNOW What Mother Mary and Mary Magdaline did know.
They went to His tomb Sunday morning, out of their heart and probably by tradition or custom.
The Moon at the moment.
http://bible.cc/search.php?q=month+of+the+moon

http://www.google.com/#hl=en&source=hp&biw=1020&bih=537&q=KNOW+THE+MONTH+OF+THE+NEW+MOON+NAME++KJV&aq=f&aqi=&aql=&oq=&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.&fp=4da02f84a768b964

The one group is as important as the other is. We would not dream of allowing someone else to determine for us which day of the week we should keep as the Sabbath day. Just because the Jews happen to identify the weekly Sabbath day correctly, this does not mean that we did not check up on them, TO MAKE SURE that their claim that Saturday is the Sabbath is in fact correct. We have carefully examined historical records 2 to make quite sure that the Jewish claim for Saturday, as the weekly Sabbath is correct. We certainly did not just accept "on faith" that the Jews have gotten the weekly Sabbath right. We thoroughly verified this against all the facts that we have to which we have access. After having made such a thorough investigation, it is certainly nice to have been able to reach the conclusion that regarding the weekly Sabbath the Jews ARE indeed right. We know they are right BECAUSE we have checked up on the facts, not because we somehow trust the Jews "on faith."
In the same way we also need to check up and make sure that the Jews faithfully abide by ETERNAL's instructions in Exodus 12:2 that "THIS NEW MOON" IS ALWAYS THE FIRST NEW MOON OF THE YEAR TO US." That is not something our CREATOR would want us to accept "on faith" without making the effort to verify the facts, as crescent or dark moon advocates are wrong.

Those that say "from a certain time" -that tell us also "until a specific time." ; and also that the interpretations have to do with our day now, or any to come, "that we will """know""" of". Unlike those whom to He will come like a thief in the night.

So I guess I can say from the collective gathering of beliefs
among anyone i know, or have talked to, about the May 21, 2011
as the Judgment Day and or Jesus Christs return,
and of that along with the later destruction of the Earth October 21, 2011; no one believes, yet, that the Bible has this revealing message;
nore anymore so, is the belief of "that is what God is telling us",

May 17th
Morning Study
II Kings 18
II Kings 19
Evening Study
John 6:22-44
II Kings 18 Back to Top
1
Now it came to pass in the third year of Hoshea son of Elah king of Israel , that Hezekiah the son of Ahaz king of Judah began to reign.
2
Twenty and five years old was he when he began to reign; and he reigned twenty and nine years in Jerusalem . His mother's name also was Abi, the daughter of Zachariah.
3
And he did that which was right in the sight of the LORD, according to all that David his father did.
4
He removed the high places, and brake the images, and cut down the groves, and brake in pieces the brazen serpent that Moses had made: for unto those days the children of Israel did burn incense to it: and he called it Nehushtan.
5
He trusted in the LORD God of Israel ; so that after him was none like him among all the kings of Judah , nor any that were before him.
6
For he clave to the LORD, and departed not from following him, but kept his commandments, which the LORD commanded Moses.
7
And the LORD was with him; and he prospered whithersoever he went forth: and he rebelled against the king of Assyria , and served him not.
8
He smote the Philistines, even unto Gaza , and the borders thereof, from the tower of the watchmen to the fenced city.
9
And it came to pass in the fourth year of king Hezekiah, which was the seventh year of Hoshea son of Elah king of Israel , that Shalmaneser king of Assyria came up against Samaria , and besieged it.
10
And at the end of three years they took it: even in the sixth year of Hezekiah, that is in the ninth year of Hoshea king of Israel , Samaria was taken.
11
And the king of Assyria did carry away Israel unto Assyria, and put them in Halah and in Habor by the river of Gozan , and in the cities of the Medes:
12
Because they obeyed not the voice of the LORD their God, but transgressed his covenant, and all that Moses the servant of the LORD commanded, and would not hear them, nor do them.
13
Now in the fourteenth year of king Hezekiah did Sennacherib king of Assyria come up against all the fenced cities of Judah , and took them.
14
And Hezekiah king of Judah sent to the king of Assyria to Lachish , saying, I have offended; return from me: that which thou puttest on me will I bear. And the king of Assyria appointed unto Hezekiah king of Judah three hundred talents of silver and thirty talents of gold.
15
And Hezekiah gave him all the silver that was found in the house of the LORD, and in the treasures of the king's house.
16
At that time did Hezekiah cut off the gold from the doors of the temple of the LORD, and from the pillars which Hezekiah king of Judah had overlaid, and gave it to the king of Assyria .
17
And the king of Assyria sent Tartan and Rabsaris and Rabshakeh from Lachish to king Hezekiah with a great host against Jerusalem . And they went up and came to Jerusalem . And when they were come up, they came and stood by the conduit of the upper pool, which is in the highway of the fuller's field.
18
And when they had called to the king, there came out to them Eliakim the son of Hilkiah, which was over the household, and Shebna the scribe, and Joah the son of Asaph the recorder.
19
And Rabshakeh said unto them, Speak ye now to Hezekiah, Thus saith the great king, the king of Assyria , What confidence is this wherein thou trustest?
20
Thou sayest, (but they are but vain words,) I have counsel and strength for the war. Now on whom dost thou trust, that thou rebellest against me?
21
Now, behold, thou trustest upon the staff of this bruised reed, even upon Egypt, on which if a man lean, it will go into his hand, and pierce it: so is Pharaoh king of Egypt unto all that trust on him.
22
But if ye say unto me, We trust in the LORD our God: is not that he, whose high places and whose altars Hezekiah hath taken away, and hath said to Judah and Jerusalem , Ye shall worship before this altar in Jerusalem ?
23
Now therefore, I pray thee, give pledges to my lord the king of Assyria , and I will deliver thee two thousand horses, if thou be able on thy part to set riders upon them.
24
How then wilt thou turn away the face of one captain of the least of my master's servants, and put thy trust on Egypt for chariots and for horsemen?
25
Am I now come up without the LORD against this place to destroy it? The LORD said to me, Go up against this land, and destroy it.
26
Then said Eliakim the son of Hilkiah, and Shebna, and Joah, unto Rabshakeh, Speak, I pray thee, to thy servants in the Syrian language; for we understand it: and talk not with us in the Jews' language in the ears of the people that are on the wall.
27
But Rabshakeh said unto them, Hath my master sent me to thy master, and to thee, to speak these words? hath he not sent me to the men which sit on the wall, that they may eat their own dung, and drink their own piss with you?
28
Then Rabshakeh stood and cried with a loud voice in the Jews' language, and spake, saying, Hear the word of the great king, the king of Assyria :
29
Thus saith the king, Let not Hezekiah deceive you: for he shall not be able to deliver you out of his hand:
30
Neither let Hezekiah make you trust in the LORD, saying, The LORD will surely deliver us, and this city shall not be delivered into the hand of the king of Assyria .
31
Hearken not to Hezekiah: for thus saith the king of Assyria, Make an agreement with me by a present, and come out to me, and then eat ye every man of his own vine, and every one of his fig tree, and drink ye every one the waters of his cistern:
32
Until I come and take you away to a land like your own land, a land of corn and wine, a land of bread and vineyards, a land of oil olive and of honey, that ye may live, and not die: and hearken not unto Hezekiah, when he persuadeth you, saying, The LORD will deliver us.
33
Hath any of the gods of the nations delivered at all his land out of the hand of the king of Assyria ?
34
Where are the gods of Hamath, and of Arpad? where are the gods of Sepharvaim, Hena, and Ivah? have they delivered Samaria out of mine hand?
35
Who are they among all the gods of the countries, that have delivered their country out of mine hand, that the LORD should deliver Jerusalem out of mine hand?
36
But the people held their peace, and answered him not a word: for the king's commandment was, saying, Answer him not.
37
Then came Eliakim the son of Hilkiah, which was over the household, and Shebna the scribe, and Joah the son of Asaph the recorder, to Hezekiah with their clothes rent, and told him the words of Rabshakeh.

II Kings 19 Back to Top
1
And it came to pass, when king Hezekiah heard it, that he rent his clothes, and covered himself with sackcloth, and went into the house of the LORD.
2
And he sent Eliakim, which was over the household, and Shebna the scribe, and the elders of the priests, covered with sackcloth, to Isaiah the prophet the son of Amoz.
3
And they said unto him, Thus saith Hezekiah, This day is a day of trouble, and of rebuke, and blasphemy; for the children are come to the birth, and there is not strength to bring forth.
4
It may be the LORD thy God will hear all the words of Rabshakeh, whom the king of Assyria his master hath sent to reproach the living God; and will reprove the words which the LORD thy God hath heard: wherefore lift up thy prayer for the remnant that are left.
5
So the servants of king Hezekiah came to Isaiah.
6
And Isaiah said unto them, Thus shall ye say to your master, Thus saith the LORD, Be not afraid of the words which thou hast heard, with which the servants of the king of Assyria have blasphemed me.
7
Behold, I will send a blast upon him, and he shall hear a rumor, and shall return to his own land; and I will cause him to fall by the sword in his own land.
8
So Rabshakeh returned, and found the king of Assyria warring against Libnah: for he had heard that he was departed from Lachish .
9
And when he heard say of Tirhakah king of Ethiopia , Behold, he is come out to fight against thee: he sent messengers again unto Hezekiah, saying,
10
Thus shall ye speak to Hezekiah king of Judah , saying, Let not thy God in whom thou trustest deceive thee, saying, Jerusalem shall not be delivered into the hand of the king of Assyria .
11
Behold, thou hast heard what the kings of Assyria have done to all lands, by destroying them utterly: and shalt thou be delivered?
12
Have the gods of the nations delivered them which my fathers have destroyed; as Gozan, and Haran , and Rezeph, and the children of Eden which were in Thelasar?
13
Where is the king of Hamath, and the king of Arpad, and the king of the city of Sepharvaim , of Hena, and Ivah?
14
And Hezekiah received the letter of the hand of the messengers, and read it: and Hezekiah went up into the house of the LORD, and spread it before the LORD.
15
And Hezekiah prayed before the LORD, and said, O LORD God of Israel , which dwellest between the cherubim, thou art the God, even thou alone, of all the kingdoms of the earth; thou hast made heaven and earth.
16
LORD, bow down thine ear, and hear: open, LORD, thine eyes, and see: and hear the words of Sennacherib, which hath sent him to reproach the living God.
17
Of a truth, LORD, the kings of Assyria have destroyed the nations and their lands,
18
And have cast their gods into the fire: for they were no gods, but the work of men's hands, wood and stone: therefore they have destroyed them.
19
Now therefore, O LORD our God, I beseech thee, save thou us out of his hand, that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that thou art the LORD God, even thou only.
20
Then Isaiah the son of Amoz sent to Hezekiah, saying, Thus saith the LORD God of Israel , That which thou hast prayed to me against Sennacherib king of Assyria I have heard.
21
This is the word that the LORD hath spoken concerning him; The virgin the daughter of Zion hath despised thee, and laughed thee to scorn; the daughter of Jerusalem hath shaken her head at thee.
22
Whom hast thou reproached and blasphemed? and against whom hast thou exalted thy voice, and lifted up thine eyes on high? even against the Holy One of Israel.
23
By thy messengers thou hast reproached the LORD, and hast said, With the multitude of my chariots I am come up to the height of the mountains, to the sides of Lebanon, and will cut down the tall cedar trees thereof, and the choice fir trees thereof: and I will enter into the lodgings of his borders, and into the forest of his Carmel.
24
I have digged and drunk strange waters, and with the sole of my feet have I dried up all the rivers of besieged places.
25
Hast thou not heard long ago how I have done it, and of ancient times that I have formed it? now have I brought it to pass, that thou shouldest be to lay waste fenced cities into ruinous heaps.
26
Therefore their inhabitants were of small power, they were dismayed and confounded; they were as the grass of the field, and as the green herb, as the grass on the house tops, and as corn blasted before it be grown up.
27
But I know thy abode, and thy going out, and thy coming in, and thy rage against me.
28
Because thy rage against me and thy tumult is come up into mine ears, therefore I will put my hook in thy nose, and my bridle in thy lips, and I will turn thee back by the way by which thou camest.
29
And this shall be a sign unto thee, Ye shall eat this year such things as grow of themselves, and in the second year that which springeth of the same; and in the third year sow ye, and reap, and plant vineyards, and eat the fruits thereof.
30
And the remnant that is escaped of the house of Judah shall yet again take root downward, and bear fruit upward.
31
For out of Jerusalem shall go forth a remnant, and they that escape out of mount Zion : the zeal of the LORD of hosts shall do this.
32
Therefore thus saith the LORD concerning the king of Assyria, He shall not come into this city, nor shoot an arrow there, nor come before it with shield, nor cast a bank against it.
33
By the way that he came, by the same shall he return, and shall not come into this city, saith the LORD.
34
For I will defend this city, to save it, for mine own sake, and for my servant David's sake.
35
And it came to pass that night, that the angel of the LORD went out, and smote in the camp of the Assyrians an hundred fourscore and five thousand: and when they arose early in the morning, behold, they were all dead corpses.
36
So Sennacherib king of Assyria departed, and went and returned, and dwelt at Nineveh .
37
And it came to pass, as he was worshipping in the house of Nisroch his god, that Adrammelech and Sharezer his sons smote him with the sword: and they escaped into the land of Armenia . And Esarhaddon his son reigned in his stead.

John 6:22-44 Back to Top
22
The day following, when the people which stood on the other side of the sea saw that there was none other boat there, save that one whereinto his disciples were entered, and that Jesus went not with his disciples into the boat, but that his disciples were gone away alone;
23
(Howbeit there came other boats from Tiberias nigh unto the place where they did eat bread, after that the Lord had given thanks:)
24
When the people therefore saw that Jesus was not there, neither his disciples, they also took shipping, and came to Capernaum , seeking for Jesus.
25
And when they had found him on the other side of the sea, they said unto him, Rabbi, when camest thou hither?
26
Jesus answered them and said, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Ye seek me, not because ye saw the miracles, but because ye did eat of the loaves, and were filled.
27
Labour not for the meat which perisheth, but for that meat which endureth unto everlasting life, which the Son of man shall give unto you: for him hath God the Father sealed.
28
Then said they unto him, What shall we do, that we might work the works of God?
29
Jesus answered and said unto them, This is the work of God, that ye believe on him whom he hath sent.
30
They said therefore unto him, What sign shewest thou then, that we may see, and believe thee? what dost thou work?
31
Our fathers did eat manna in the desert; as it is written, He gave them bread from heaven to eat.
32
Then Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Moses gave you not that bread from heaven; but my Father giveth you the true bread from heaven.
33
For the bread of God is he which cometh down from heaven, and giveth life unto the world.
34
Then said they unto him, Lord, evermore give us this bread.
35
And Jesus said unto them, I am the bread of life: he that cometh to me shall never hunger; and he that believeth on me shall never thirst.
36
But I said unto you, That ye also have seen me, and believe not.
37
All that the Father giveth me shall come to me; and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out.
38
For I came down from heaven, not to do mine own will, but the will of him that sent me.
39
And this is the Father's will which hath sent me, that of all which he hath given me I should lose nothing, but should raise it up again at the last day.
40
And this is the will of him that sent me, that every one which seeth the Son, and believeth on him, may have everlasting life: and I will raise him up at the last day.
41
The Jews then murmured at him, because he said, I am the bread which came down from heaven.
42
And they said, Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? how is it then that he saith, I came down from heaven?
43
Jesus therefore answered and said unto them, Murmur not among yourselves.
44
No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him: and I will raise him up at the last day.

Monday, May 16, 2011
"ENDEAVOR TO PERSEVERE"
Fathoming the space, dedicating this post to the Space shuttle Endeavour
and its STS-134 crew and mission of the Shuttle's final flight. The messages in this mix,
to compliment, yet the contenance together is of the pleasent, and to looking up.NASA -""Great Launch, A Challenging Mission Ahead Mon, 16 May 2011 08:35:13 AM MST Space shuttle Endeavour is officially on its way to the International Space Station on its STS-134
mission and final flight. Endeavour lifted off from NASA's Kennedy Space Center on time
at 8:56 a.m. EDT, soaring through a few clouds, after a relatively smooth countdown...."""The old Lakota was wise. He knew that man's heart away from nature becomes hard;
he knew the lack of respect for growing, living things soon led to a lack of respect for
humans too.So he kept his youth close to its softening influence."-Luther Standing BearOGLALA SIOUX Related, I don't know; it is not for me to say, only to
the construct I see and observe from a view and concider
others now and before me, and to come; God first knowing
all our needs, what to fathom is a wonder, and or, may be
a wander.So for this link to label relativity, I pass; and add
a link: "The Final Word On Quitters? - A Time For Choosing
", and then again to describe enough
to make the right choices, yet of all there is
to think of in the Universe, I stop where I am up to date:
Wednesday, May 11, 2011 Grounded Scriptures: Be Ye Idealistic .Adding a moment of another good note between these spaces-""When we live in nature it's like constantly being in school.
We are in an environment that is always teaching. We are constantly being reminded
that there are laws. Natural Laws, which are running the universe.
Once we know these laws and we drift from them, we start to live our lives in a different way.
Soon we become discontent, selfish and disrespectful. Then, we get in trouble.
If our lives have become this way, it can be reversed by going back to nature
to be among our teachers."Great Spirit,teach me, again, the Natural laws. ""By: Don Coyhis...and the Dawn of the age: News Briefing on Earth-observing Aquarius Mission, Tuesday, May 17, 1 p.m. EDT on NASA TVFrom the"Welcome" page of SSE.JPL.NAS.GOV
"Welcome- The Gravity Recovery And Interior Laboratory (GRAIL) mission
will create the most accurate gravitational map of the Moon to date, improving
our knowledge of near-side gravity by 100 times and of far-side gravity by 1000 times. ......Scheduled to launch in late 2011, GRAIL is a mission in NASA's Discovery Program
of solar system investigations. GRAIL will begin its work at the Moon in 2012....
...Objectives - GRAIL's engineering objectives are to enable the science objectives
of mapping lunar gravity and using that information to increase understanding of
the Moon's interior and thermal history. Getting the two spacecraft where they
need to be, when they need to be there, requires an extremely challenging set of maneuvers
never before carried out in solar system exploration missions.......and SPACE with ""May 21, 2011"" ; in mind of Earth concerns of - the day; the times;
our place, in the HEAVENS and through humanity to date as we know or have heard it told;
and of following's...:

A random "May 21" brought quotes above by Don Coyhis
and Luther Standing Bear.http://groups.yahoo.com/group/CherokeeWomen/message/5675
The Solar System Clock of the WWWhttp://www.order.ph.utexas.edu/Java Applet that calculates and displays the current
positions planets of the Solar System, by Matthew A.
Trump of The University of Texas at Austin .
Comet Elenin Update
- http://www.sott.net/articles/show/225704-Comet-Elenin-Update-
(May 22, start through Earth's orbit runs on
to show October 20, 2011,
passing Earths Orbit Away
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lbLWL5tbJPg&feature=player_embedded#t=4s
http://sse.jpl.nasa.gov/eyes/intro.html
Grinds of the challenges on Earth- A Table Of Current Times-over a two month outlook
of abstracts and the contenance therof:

Elimination of old conditions and creation of new ones influences mostly to industry.
Aggressive promotions to personal, religious, educationsl, philosophic, political, cultural;
and excess of these that contradict and can lead to finatisism, conflict, and arguements...
Harmony in handling; .oppertunity and increased drive and socialk involvement.
The artistic, and the romantic, they are pairing well with scientific or business activitys.
Enjoyment of music and glimpses of foreign cultures and artistic forums; noting personal
philosophies are highlighting at least to some evidence within themes. Aquantances partners
-business and personal work along with the social stream and pair often with personal and career..
religion, philosophy, higher education, and travel activities; and these also pair with a greater
sence of moral and ethical responsability. Teaching , lecturing, traveling, and other guide systems of life
are settling and starting to promote; stress factors of all of these can draw narrow mindedness within financial
viewpoints and also draw towards sectarian views...

In the ending of the old conditions and beginning of the new, there is a need
for detachment of material especially. Individuals sometimes have undergone drastic changes
yet also individual industry or companies as described above are within the same ares of resolve.
Large scale investments, corporate or technical, electronics, science, engineering, all pair with
the individuals interests to subjects to be likened, compaired, or perhaps truely reminisant of the
detailing as parapsychology, or reincarnation, and other fields profound and intertwined with clairavoyant
or mystical experiences...

Given the gist of all and concerns of the day, I
felt it best to end this post with the mustard seed

Bible SearchResults 1 - 2 of about 2 for "mustard seed" faith. Search took 0.02 seconds.Luke 17:6 He replied, "If you have faith as small as a mustard ...... And the Lord said, "If you had faith like a mustard seed, you would say to thismulberry tree,
'Be uprooted and be planted in the sea'; and it would obey you. ... //bible.cc/luke/17-6.htm - 17k
Matthew 17:20 He replied, "Because you have so little faith. I ...... "Because your faith is so small," He replied; "for I solemnly declare to you thatif you have faith
like a mustard-seed, you shall say to this mountain ... //bible.cc/matthew/17-20.htm - 18kTopical SearchMustard-seed (5 Occurrences)Sycamine-tree (1 Occurrence)Sycamine (1 Occurrence)Mustard (5 Occurrences)Sycamine Tree

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Genesis 1
Introduction to Genesis
The Book of Genesis can be separated into eleven documents or pieces of
composition most of which contain additional subordinate divisions. The first
of these has no introductory phrase; the third begins with ספר זה תּולדת tôledâh
zeh sēpher, "this is the book of the generations"; and the others with תולדות אלה
tôledâh ̀ēleh, "these are the generations."
However, the subordinate pieces of which these primary documents consist are
as distinct from each other as they are complete in themselves.
Barnes' Notes on the Bible
- Section I-- The Creation
- The Absolute Creation
ראשׁית rḕshı̂̂yt, the "head-part, beginning" of a thing, in point of time Genesis 10:10,
or value Proverbs 1:7. Its opposite is אחרית 'achărı̂̂yth Isaiah 46:10. בראשׁית rê'shı̂̂yth,
"in the beginning," is always used in reference to time.
Here only is it taken absolutely.
ברא bārā', "create, give being to something new." It always has God for its subject.
Its object may be anything: matter Genesis 1:1; animal life Genesis 1:21; spiritual
life Genesis 1:27. Hence, creation is not confined to a single point of time.
Whenever anything absolutely new - that is, not involved in anything previously extant -
is called into existence, there is creation Numbers 16:30. Any thing or event may also
be said to be created by Him, who created the whole system of nature to which it belongs
Malachi 2:10. The verb in its simple form occurs forty-eight times (of which eleven are
in Genesis, fourteen in the whole Pentateuch, and twenty-one in Isaiah), and always in
one sense.
אלהים 'ĕlohı̂̂ym, "God." The noun אלוה 'elôah or אלה 'eloah is found in the Hebrew
scriptures fifty-seven times in the singular (of which two are in Deuteronomy, and
forty-one in the book of Job), and about three thousand times in the plural, of which
seventeen are in Job. The Chaldee form אלה 'elâh occurs about seventy-four times
in the singular, and ten in the plural. The Hebrew letter ה (h) is proved to be radical
, not only by bearing mappiq, but also by keeping its ground before a formative ending. The Arabic verb, with the same radicals, seems rather to borrow from it than to lend the meaning coluit, "worshipped," which it sometimes has. The root probably means to be "lasting, binding, firm, strong." Hence, the noun means the Everlasting, and in the plural, the Eternal Powers. It is correctly rendered God, the name of the Eternal and Supreme Being in our language, which perhaps originally meant lord or ruler. And, like this, it is a common or appellative noun. This is evinced by its direct use and indirect applications.
Its direct use is either proper or improper, according to the object to which it is applied. Every instance of its proper use manifestly determines its meaning to be the Eternal, the Almighty, who is Himself without beginning, and has within Himself the power of causing other things, personal and impersonal, to be, and on this event is the sole object of reverence and primary obedience to His intelligent creation.
Its improper use arose from the lapse of man into false notions of the object of worship. Many real or imaginary beings came to be regarded as possessed of the attributes, and therefore entitled to the reverence belonging to Deity, and were in consequence called gods by their mistaken votaries, and by others who had occasion to speak of them. This usage at once proves it to be a common noun, and corroborates its proper meaning. When thus employed, however, it immediately loses most of its inherent grandeur, and sometimes dwindles down to the bare notion of the supernatural or the extramundane. In this manner it seems to be applied by the witch of Endor to the unexpected apparition that presented itself to her 1 Samuel 28:13.
Its indirect applications point with equal steadiness to this primary and fundamental meaning. Thus, it is employed in a relative and well-defined sense to denote one appointed of God to stand in a certain divine relation to another. This relation is that of authoritative revealer or administrator of the will of God. Thus, we are told John 10:34 that "he called them gods, to whom the word of God came." Thus, Moses became related to Aaron as God to His prophet Exodus 4:16, and to Pharaoh as God to His creature Exodus 7:1. Accordingly, in Psalm 82:6, we find this principle generalized: "I had said, gods are ye, and sons of the Highest all of you." Here the divine authority vested in Moses is expressly recognized in those who sit in Moses' seat as judges for God. They exercised a function of God among the people, and so were in God's stead to them. Man, indeed, was originally adapted for ruling, being made in the image of God, and commanded to have dominion over the inferior creatures. The parent also is instead of God in some respect to his children, and the sovereign holds the relation of patriarch to his subjects. Still, however, we are not fully warranted in translating אלהים 'ĕlohı̂ym, "judges" in Exodus 21:6; Exodus 22:7-8, Exodus 22:27 (Hebrew versification: 8, 9, 28), because a more easy, exact, and impressive sense is obtained from the proper rendering.
The word מלאך mel'āk, "angel," as a relative or official term, is sometimes applied to a person of the Godhead; but the process is not reversed. The Septuagint indeed translates אלהים 'ĕlohı̂ym in several instances by ἄγγελοι angeloi Psalm 8:6; Psalm 97:7; Psalm 138:1. The correctness of this is seemingly supported by the quotations in Hebrews 1:6. and Hebrews 2:7. These, however, do not imply that the renderings are absolutely correct, but only suffiently so for the purpose of the writer. And it is evident they are so, because the original is a highly imaginative figure, by which a class is conceived to exist, of which in reality only one of the kind is or can be. Now the Septuagint, either imagining, from the occasional application of the official term "angel" to God, that the angelic office somehow or sometimes involved the divine nature, or viewing some of the false gods of the pagan as really angels, and therefore seemingly wishing to give a literal turn to the figure, substituted the word ἄγγελοι angeloi as an interpretation for אלהים 'ĕlohı̂ym. This free translation was sufficient for the purpose of the inspired author of the Epistle to the Hebrews, inasmuch as the worship of all angels Hebrews 1:6 in the Septuagintal sense of the term was that of the highest rank of dignitaries under God; and the argument in the latter passage Hebrews 2:7 turns not on the words, "thou madest him a little lower than the angels," but upon the sentence, "thou hast put all things under his feet." Moreover, the Septuagint is by no means consistent in this rendering of the word in Similar passages (see Psalm 82:1; Psalm 97:1; 1 Samuel 28:13).
With regard to the use of the word, it is to be observed that the plural of the Chaldee form is uniformly plural in sense. The English version of בר־אלהין bar-'elâhı̂yn, "the Son of God" Daniel 3:25 is the only exception to this. But since it is the phrase of a pagan, the real meaning may be, "a son of the gods." On the contrary, the plural of the Hebrew form is generally employed to denote the one God. The singular form, when applied to the true God, is naturally suggested by the prominent thought of his being the only one. The plural, when so applied, is generally accompanied with singular conjuncts, and conveys the predominant conception of a plurality in the one God - a plurality which must be perfectly consistent with his being the only possible one of his kind. The explanations of this use of the plural - namely, that it is a relic of polytheism, that it indicates the association of the angels with the one God in a common or collective appellation, and that it expresses the multiplicity of attributes subsisting in him - are not satisfactory. All we can say is, that it indicates such a plurality in the only one God as makes his nature complete and creation possible. Such a plurality in unity must have dawned upon the mind of Adam. It is afterward, we conceive, definitely revealed in the doctrine of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
שׁמים shāmayı̂m, "skies, heavens," being the "high" (shamay, "be high," Arabic) or the "airy" region; the overarching dome of space, with all its revolving orbs.
ארץ 'erets, "land, earth, the low or the hard." The underlying surface of land.
The verb is in the perfect form, denoting a completed act. The adverbial note of time, "in the beginning," determines it to belong to the past. To suit our idiom it may, therefore, be strictly rendered "had created." The skies and the land are the universe divided into its two natural parts by an earthly spectator. The absolute beginning of time, and the creation of all things, mutually determine each other.
"In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth" Genesis 1:1. This great introductory sentence of the book of God is equal in weight to the whole of its subsequent communications concerning the kingdom of nature.
continued...

Clarke's Commentary on the Bible
God in the beginning created the heavens and the earth - בראשית ברא אלהים את השמים ואת הארץ Bereshith bara Elohim eth hashshamayim veeth haarets; God in the beginning created the heavens and the earth.
Many attempts have been made to define the term God: as to the word itself, it is pure Anglo-Saxon, and among our ancestors signified, not only the Divine Being, now commonly designated by the word, but also good; as in their apprehensions it appeared that God and good were correlative terms; and when they thought or spoke of him, they were doubtless led from the word itself to consider him as The Good Being, a fountain of infinite benevolence and beneficence towards his creatures.
A general definition of this great First Cause, as far as human words dare attempt one, may be thus given: The eternal, independent, and self-existent Being: the Being whose purposes and actions spring from himself, without foreign motive or influence: he who is absolute in dominion; the most pure, the most simple, and most spiritual of all essences; infinitely benevolent, beneficent, true, and holy: the cause of all being, the upholder of all things; infinitely happy, because infinitely perfect; and eternally self-sufficient, needing nothing that he has made: illimitable in his immensity, inconceivable in his mode of existence, and indescribable in his essence; known fully only to himself, because an infinite mind can be fully apprehended only by itself. In a word, a Being who, from his infinite wisdom, cannot err or be deceived; and who, from his infinite goodness, can do nothing but what is eternally just, right, and kind. Reader, such is the God of the Bible; but how widely different from the God of most human creeds and apprehensions!
The original word אלהים Elohim, God, is certainly the plural form of אל El, or אלה Eloah, and has long been supposed, by the most eminently learned and pious men, to imply a plurality of Persons in the Divine nature. As this plurality appears in so many parts of the sacred writings to be confined to three Persons, hence the doctrine of the Trinity, which has formed a part of the creed of all those who have been deemed sound in the faith, from the earliest ages of Christianity. Nor are the Christians singular in receiving this doctrine, and in deriving it from the first words of Divine revelation. An eminent Jewish rabbi, Simeon ben Joachi, in his comment on the sixth section of Leviticus, has these remarkable words: "Come and see the mystery of the word Elohim; there are three degrees, and each degree by itself alone, and yet notwithstanding they are all one, and joined together in one, and are not divided from each other." See Ainsworth. He must be strangely prejudiced indeed who cannot see that the doctrine of a Trinity, and of a Trinity in unity, is expressed in the above words. The verb ברא bara, he created, being joined in the singular number with this plural noun, has been considered as pointing out, and not obscurely, the unity of the Divine Persons in this work of creation. In the ever-blessed Trinity, from the infinite and indivisible unity of the persons, there can be but one will, one purpose, and one infinite and uncontrollable energy.
"Let those who have any doubt whether אלהים Elohim, when meaning the true God, Jehovah, be plural or not, consult the following passages, where they will find it joined with adjectives, verbs, and pronouns plural.
"Gen 1:26 Genesis 3:22 Genesis 11:7 Genesis 20:13 Genesis 31:7, Genesis 31:53 Genesis 35:7. "Deu 4:7 Deuteronomy 5:23; Joshua 24:19 1 Samuel 4:8; 2 Samuel 7:23; "Psa 58:6; Isaiah 6:8; Jeremiah 10:10, Jeremiah 23:36. "See also Proverbs 9:10, Proverbs 30:3; Psalm 149:2; Ecclesiastes 5:7, Ecclesiastes 12:1; Job 5:1; Isaiah 6:3, Isaiah 54:5, Isaiah 62:5; Hosea 11:12, or Hosea 12:1; Malachi 1:6; Daniel 5:18, Daniel 5:20, and Daniel 7:18, Daniel 7:22." - Parkhurst.
As the word Elohim is the term by which the Divine Being is most generally expressed in the Old Testament, it may be necessary to consider it here more at large. It is a maxim that admits of no controversy, that every noun in the Hebrew language is derived from a verb, which is usually termed the radix or root, from which, not only the noun, but all the different flections of the verb, spring. This radix is the third person singular of the preterite or past tense. The ideal meaning of this root expresses some essential property of the thing which it designates, or of which it is an appellative. The root in Hebrew, and in its sister language, the Arabic, generally consists of three letters, and every word must be traced to its root in order to ascertain its genuine meaning, for there alone is this meaning to be found. In Hebrew and Arabic this is essentially necessary, and no man can safely criticise on any word in either of these languages who does not carefully attend to this point.
I mention the Arabic with the Hebrew for two reasons.
1. Because the two languages evidently spring from the same source, and have very nearly the same mode of construction.
2. Because the deficient roots in the Hebrew Bible are to be sought for in the Arabic language. The reason of this must be obvious, when it is considered that the whole of the Hebrew language is lost except what is in the Bible, and even a part of this book is written in Chaldee.
Now, as the English Bible does not contain the whole of the English language, so the Hebrew Bible does not contain the whole of the Hebrew. If a man meet with an English word which he cannot find in an ample concordance or dictionary to the Bible, he must of course seek for that word in a general English dictionary. In like manner, if a particular form of a Hebrew word occur that cannot be traced to a root in the Hebrew Bible, because the word does not occur in the third person singular of the past tense in the Bible, it is expedient, it is perfectly lawful, and often indispensably necessary, to seek the deficient root in the Arabic. For as the Arabic is still a living language, and perhaps the most copious in the universe, it may well be expected to furnish those terms which are deficient in the Hebrew Bible. And the reasonableness of this is founded on another maxim, viz., that either the Arabic was derived from the Hebrew, or the Hebrew from the Arabic. I shall not enter into this controversy; there are great names on both sides, and the decision of the question in either way will have the same effect on my argument. For if the Arabic were derived from the Hebrew, it must have been when the Hebrew was a living and complete language, because such is the Arabic now; and therefore all its essential roots we may reasonably expect to find there: but if, as Sir William Jones supposed, the Hebrew were derived from the Arabic, the same expectation is justified, the deficient roots in Hebrew may be sought for in the mother tongue. If, for example, we meet with a term in our ancient English language the meaning of which we find difficult to ascertain, common sense teaches us that we should seek for it in the Anglo-Saxon, from which our language springs; and, if necessary, go up to the Teutonic, from which the Anglo-Saxon was derived. No person disputes the legitimacy of this measure, and we find it in constant practice. I make these observations at the very threshold of my work, because the necessity of acting on this principle (seeking deficient Hebrew roots in the Arabic) may often occur, and I wish to speak once for all on the subject.
The first sentence in the Scripture shows the propriety of having recourse to this principle. We have seen that the word אלהים Elohim is plural; we have traced our term God to its source, and have seen its signification; and also a general definition of the thing or being included under this term, has been tremblingly attempted. We should now trace the original to its root, but this root does not appear in the Hebrew Bible. Were the Hebrew a complete language, a pious reason might be given for this omission, viz., "As God is without beginning and without cause, as his being is infinite and underived, the Hebrew language consults strict propriety in giving no root whence his name can be deduced." Mr. Parkhurst, to whose pious and learned labors in Hebrew literature most Biblical students are indebted, thinks he has found the root in אלה alah, he swore, bound himself by oath; and hence he calls the ever-blessed Trinity אלהים Elohim, as being bound by a conditional oath to redeem man, etc., etc. Most pious minds will revolt from such a definition, and will be glad with me to find both the noun and the root preserved in Arabic. Allah is the common name for God in the Arabic tongue, and often the emphatic is used. Now both these words are derived from the root alaha, he worshipped, adored, was struck with astonishment, fear, or terror; and hence, he adored with sacred horror and veneration, cum sacro horrore ac veneratione coluit, adoravit - Wilmet. Hence ilahon, fear, veneration, and also the object of religious fear, the Deity, the supreme God, the tremendous Being. This is not a new idea; God was considered in the same light among the ancient Hebrews; and hence Jacob swears by the fear of his father Isaac, Genesis 31:53. To complete the definition, Golius renders alaha, juvit, liberavit, et tutatus fuit, "he succoured, liberated, kept in safety, or defended." Thus from the ideal meaning of this most expressive root, we acquire the most correct notion of the Divine nature; for we learn that God is the sole object of adoration; that the perfections of his nature are such as must astonish all those who piously contemplate them, and fill with horror all who would dare to give his glory to another, or break his commandments; that consequently he should be worshipped with reverence and religious fear; and that every sincere worshipper may expect from him help in all his weaknesses, trials, difficulties, temptations, etc.,; freedom from the power, guilt, nature, and consequences of sin; and to be supported, defended, and saved to the uttermost, and to the end.
Here then is one proof, among multitudes which shall be adduced in the course of this work, of the importance, utility, and necessity of tracing up these sacred words to their sources; and a proof also, that subjects which are supposed to be out of the reach of the common people may, with a little difficulty, be brought on a level with the most ordinary capacity.
In the beginning - Before the creative acts mentioned in this chapter all was Eternity. Time signifies duration measured by the revolutions of the heavenly bodies: but prior to the creation of these bodies there could be no measurement of duration, and consequently no time; therefore in the beginning must necessarily mean the commencement of time which followed, or rather was produced by, God's creative acts, as an effect follows or is produced by a cause.
continued...
Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible
In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. By the heaven some understand the supreme heaven, the heaven of heavens, the habitation of God, and of the holy angels; and this being made perfect at once, no mention is after made of it, as of the earth; and it is supposed that the angels were at this time created, since they were present at the laying of the foundation of the earth, Job 38:6 but rather the lower and visible heavens are meant, at least are not excluded, that is, the substance of them; as yet being imperfect and unadorned; the expanse not yet made, or the ether and air not yet stretched out; nor any light placed in them, or adorned with the sun, moon, and stars: so the earth is to be understood, not of that properly so called, as separated from the waters, that is, the dry land afterwards made to appear; but the whole mass of earth and water before their separation, and when in their unformed and unadorned state, described in the next verse: in short, these words represent the visible heavens and the terraqueous globe, in their chaotic state, as they were first brought into being by almighty power. The prefixed to both words is, as Aben Ezra observes, expressive of notification or demonstration, as pointing at "those" heavens, and "this earth"; and shows that things visible are here spoken of, whatever is above us, or below us to be seen: for in the Arabic language, as he also observes, the word for "heaven", comes from one which signifies high or above (a); as that for "earth" from one that signifies low and beneath, or under (b). Now it was the matter or substance of these that was first created; for the word set before them signifies substance, as both Aben Ezra and (c) Kimchi affirm. Maimonides (d) observes, that this particle, according to their wise men, is the same as "with"; and then the sense is, God created with the heavens whatsoever are in the heavens, and with the earth whatsoever are in the earth; that is, the substance of all things in them; or all things in them were seminally together: for so he illustrates it by an husbandman sowing seeds of divers kinds in the earth, at one and the same time; some of which come up after one day, and some after two days, and some after three days, though all sown together. These are said to be "created", that is, to be made out of nothing; for what pre-existent matter to this chaos could there be out of which they could be formed? And the apostle says, "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", Hebrews 11:3. And though this word is sometimes used, and even in this chapter, of the production of creatures out of pre-existent matter, as in Genesis 1:21 yet, as Nachmanides observes, there is not in the holy language any word but this here used, by which is signified the bringing anything into being out of nothing; and many of the Jewish interpreters, as Aben Ezra, understand by creation here, a production of something into being out of nothing; and Kimchi says (e) that creation is a making some new thing, and a bringing something out of nothing: and it deserves notice, that this word is only used of God; and creation must be the work of God, for none but an almighty power could produce something out of nothing. The word used is ElohimÃ¶, which some derive from another, which signifies power, creation being an act of almighty power: but it is rather to be derived from the root in the Arabic language, which signifies to worship (f), God being the object of all religious worship and adoration; and very properly does Moses make use of this appellation here, to teach us, that he who is the Creator of the heavens and the earth is the sole object of worship; as he was of the worship of the Jewish nation, at the head of which Moses was. It is in the plural number, and being joined to a verb of the singular, is thought by many to be designed to point unto us the mystery of a plurality, or trinity of persons in the unity of the divine essence: but whether or no this is sufficient to support that doctrine, which is to be established without it; yet there is no doubt to be made, that all the three Persons in the Godhead were concerned in the creation of all things, see Psalm 33:6. The Heathen poet Orpheus has a notion somewhat similar to this, who writes, that all things were made by one Godhead of three names, and that this God is all things (g): and now all these things, the heaven and the earth, were made by God "in the beginning", either in the beginning of time, or when time began, as it did with the creatures, it being nothing but the measure of a creature's duration, and therefore could not be until such existed; or as Jarchi interprets it, in the beginning of the creation, when God first began to create; and is best explained by our Lord, "the beginning of the creation which God created", Mark 13:19 and the sense is, either that as soon as God created, or the first he did create were the heavens and the earth; to which agrees the Arabic version; not anything was created before them: or in connection with the following words, thus, "when first", or "in the beginning", when "God created the heavens and the earth", then "the earth was without form", &c (h). The Jerusalem Targum renders it, "in wisdom God created"; see Proverbs 3:19 and some of the ancients have interpreted it of the wisdom of God, the Logos and Son of God. From hence we learn, that the world was not eternal, either as to the matter or form of it, as Aristotle, and some other philosophers, have asserted, but had a beginning; and that its being is not owing to the fortuitous motion and conjunction of atoms, but to the power and wisdom of God, the first cause and sole author of all things; and that there was not any thing created before the heaven and the earth were: hence those phrases, before the foundation of the world, and before the world began, &c. are expressive of eternity: this utterly destroys the notion of the pre-existence of the souls of men, or of the soul of the Messiah: false therefore is what the Jews say (i), that paradise, the righteous, Israel, Jerusalem, &c. were created before the world; unless they mean, that these were foreordained by God to be, which perhaps is their sense.
(a) " altus fuit, eminuit", Golius, col. 1219. (b) "quicquid humile, inferum et depressum" ib. Colossians 70. Hottinger. Smegma Orient. c. 5. p. 70. & Thesaur. Philolog. l. 1. c. 2. p. 234. (c) Sepher Shorash. rad. (d) Moreh Nevochim, par. 2. c. 30. p. 275, 276. (e) Ut supra. (Sepher Shorash.) rad. (f) "coluit, unde" "numen colendum", Schultens in Job. i. 1. Golius, Colossians 144. Hottinger. Smegma, p. 120. (g) See the Universal History, vol. 1. p. 33. (h) So Vatablus. (i) Targum Jon. & Jerus. in Genesis 3.24. T. Bab. Pesachim, fol. 54. 1. & Nedarim, fol. 39. 2.
Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament
"In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth." - Heaven and earth have not existed from all eternity, but had a beginning; nor did they arise by emanation from an absolute substance, but were created by God. This sentence, which stands at the head of the records of revelation, is not a mere heading, nor a summary of the history of the creation, but a declaration of the primeval act of God, by which the universe was called into being. That this verse is not a heading merely, is evident from the fact that the following account of the course of the creation commences with w (and), which connects the different acts of creation with the fact expressed in Genesis 1:1, as the primary foundation upon which they rest. בּרשׁיח (in the beginning) is used absolutely, like ἐν ἀρχῇ in John 1:1, and מראשׁיח in Isaiah 46:10. The following clause cannot be treated as subordinate, either by rendering it, "in the beginning when God created ..., the earth was," etc., or "in the beginning when God created...(but the earth was then a chaos, etc.), God said, Let there be light" (Ewald and Bunsen). The first is opposed to the grammar of the language, which would require Genesis 1:2 to commence with הארץ ותּהי; the second to the simplicity of style which pervades the whole chapter, and to which so involved a sentence would be intolerable, apart altogether from the fact that this construction is invented for the simple purpose of getting rid of the doctrine of a creatio ex nihilo, which is so repulsive to modern Pantheism. ראשׁיח in itself is a relative notion, indicating the commencement of a series of things or events; but here the context gives it the meaning of the very first beginning, the commencement of the world, when time itself began. The statement, that in the beginning God created the heaven and the earth, not only precludes the idea of the eternity of the world a parte ante, but shows that the creation of the heaven and the earth was the actual beginning of all things. The verb בּרא, indeed, to judge from its use in Joshua 17:15, Joshua 17:18, where it occurs in the Piel (to hew out), means literally "to cut, or new," but in Kal it always means to create, and is only applied to a divine creation, the production of that which had no existence before. It is never joined with an accusative of the material, although it does not exclude a pre-existent material unconditionally, but is used for the creation of man (Genesis 1:27; Genesis 5:1-2), and of everything new that God creates, whether in the kingdom of nature (Numbers 16:30) or of that of grace (Exodus 34:10; Psalm 51:10, etc.). In this verse, however, the existence of any primeval material is precluded by the object created: "the heaven and the earth." This expression is frequently employed to denote the world, or universe, for which there was no single word in the Hebrew language; the universe consisting of a twofold whole, and the distinction between heaven and earth being essentially connected with the notion of the world, the fundamental condition of its historical development (vid., Genesis 14:19, Genesis 14:22; Exodus 31:17). In the earthly creation this division is repeated in the distinction between spirit and nature; and in man, as the microcosm, in that between spirit and body. Through sin this distinction was changed into an actual opposition between heaven and earth, flesh and spirit; but with the complete removal of sin, this opposition will cease again, though the distinction between heaven and earth, spirit and body, will remain, in such a way, however, that the earthly and corporeal will be completely pervaded by the heavenly and spiritual, the new Jerusalem coming down from heaven to earth, and the earthly body being transfigured into a spiritual body (Revelation 21:1-2; 1 Corinthians 15:35.). Hence, if in the beginning God created the heaven and the earth, "there is nothing belonging to the composition of the universe, either in material or form, which had an existence out of God prior to this divine act in the beginning" (Delitzsch). This is also shown in the connection between our verse and the one which follows: "and the earth was without form and void," not before, but when, or after God created it. From this it is evident that the void and formless state of the earth was not uncreated, or without beginning. At the same time it is obvious from the creative acts which follow (vv. 3-18), that the heaven and earth, as God created them in the beginning, were not the well-ordered universe, but the world in its elementary form; just as Euripides applies the expression οὐρανὸς καὶ γαῖα to the undivided mass (οπφὴμία), which was afterwards formed into heaven and earth.
Geneva Study Bible
In the {a} beginning God created the heaven and the earth.
The Argument - Moses in effect declares three things, which are in this book chiefly to be considered: First, that the world and all things in it were created by God, and to praise his Name for the infinite graces, with which he had endued him, fell willingly from God through disobedience, who yet for his own mercies sake restored him to life, and confirmed him in the same by his promise of Christ to come, by whom he should overcome Satan, death and hell. Secondly, that the wicked, unmindful of God's most excellent benefits, remained still in their wickedness, and so falling most horribly from sin to sin, provoked God (who by his preachers called them continually to repentance) at length to destroy the whole world. Thirdly, he assures us by the examples of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and the rest of the patriarchs, that his mercies never fail those whom he chooses to be his Church, and to profess his Name in earth, but in all their afflictions and persecutions he assists them, sends comfort, and delivers them, so that the beginning, increase, preservation and success of it might be attributed to God only. Moses shows by the examples of Cain, Ishmael, Esau and others, who were noble in man's judgment, that this Church depends not on the estimation and nobility of the world: and also by the fewness of those, who have at all times worshipped him purely according to his word that it stands not in the multitude, but in the poor and despised, in the small flock and little number, that man in his wisdom might be confounded, and the name of God praised forever.
(a) First of all, and before any creature was, God made heaven and earth out of nothing.
Wesley's Notes
1:1 Observe here.1. The effect produced, The heaven and the earth - That is, the world, including the whole frame and furniture of the universe. But 'tis only the visible part of the creation that Moses designs to give an account of. Yet even in this there are secrets which cannot be fathomed, nor accounted for. But from what we see of heaven and earth, we may infer the eternal power and godhead of the great Creator. And let our make and place, as men, mind us of our duty, as Christians, which is always to keep heaven in our eye, and the earth under our feet. Observe2. The author and cause of this great work, God. The Hebrew word is Elohim; which(1.) seems to mean The Covenant God, being derived from a word that signifies to swear.(2.) The plurality of persons in the Godhead, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. The plural name of God in Hebrew, which speaks of him as many, tho' he be but one, was to the Gentiles perhaps a favour of death unto death, hardening them in their idolatry; but it is to us a favour of life unto life, confirming our faith in the doctrine of the Trinity, which, tho' but darkly intimated in the Old Testament, is clearly revealed in the New. Observe3. The manner how this work was effected; God created, that is, made it out of nothing. There was not any pre - existent matter out of which the world was produced. The fish and fowl were indeed produced out of the waters, and the beasts and man out of the earth; but that earth and those waters were made out of nothing. Observe4. When this work was produced; In the beginning - That is, in the beginning of time. Time began with the production of those beings that are measured by time. Before the beginning of time there was none but that Infinite Being that inhabits eternity. Should we ask why God made the world no sooner, we should but darken counsel by words without knowledge; for how could there be sooner or later in eternity?
Scofield Reference Notes
SCOFIELD REFERENCE NOTES
(Old Scofield 1917 Edition)
A Panoramic View of the Bible (See also THE PENTATEUCH, Book Introduction, and Notes associated with Genesis 1:1)
The Bible, incomparably the most widely circulated of books, at once provokes and baffles study. Even the non-believer in its authority rightly feels that it is unintelligent to remain in almost total ignorance of the most famous and ancient of books. And yet most, even of sincere believers, soon retire from any serious effort to master the content of the sacred writings. The reason is not far to seek. It is found in the fact that no particular portion of Scripture is to be intelligently comprehended apart from some conception of its place in the whole. For the Bible story and message is like a picture wrought out in mosaics: each book, chapter, verse, and even word forms a necessary part, and has its own appointed place. It is, therefore, indispensable to any interesting and fruitful study of the Bible that a general knowledge of it be gained.
First. The Bible is one book. Seven great marks attest this unity.
(1) From Genesis the Bible bears witness to one God. Wherever he speaks or acts he is consistent with himself, and with the total revelation concerning him.
(2) The Bible forms one continuous story - the story of humanity in relation to God.
(3) The Bible hazards the most unlikely predictions concerning the future, and, when the centuries have brought round the appointed time, records their fulfilment.
(4) The Bible is a progressive unfolding of truth. Nothing is told all at once, and once for all. The law is, "first the blade, then the ear, after that the full corn." Without the possibility of collusion, often with centuries between, one writer of Scripture takes up an earlier revelation, adds to it, lays down the pen, and in due time another man moved by the Holy Spirit, and another, and another, add new details till the whole is complete.
(5) From beginning to end the Bible testifies to one redemption.
(6) From beginning to end the Bible has one great theme -the person and work of the Christ.
(7) And, finally, these writers, some forty-four in number, writing through twenty centuries, have produced a perfect harmony of doctrine in progressive unfolding. This is, to every candid mind, the unanswerable proof of the divine inspiration of the Bible.
Second. The Bible is a book of books. Sixty-six books make up the one Book. Considered with reference to the unity of the one book the separate books may be regarded as chapters. But that is but one side of the truth, for each of the sixty-six books is complete in itself, and has its own theme and analysis. In the present edition of the Bible these are fully shown in the introductions and divisions. It is therefore of the utmost moment that the books be studied in the light of their distinctive themes. Genesis, for instance, is the book of beginnings--the seed-plot of the whole Bible. Matthew is the book of the King, & etc.
Third. The books of the Bible fall into groups. Speaking broadly there are five great divisions in the Scriptures, and these may be con- veniently fixed in the memory by five key-words, Christ being the one theme (Lk 24:25-27).
PREPARATION
The OT
MANIFESTATION
The Gospels
PROPAGATION
Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary
The Old Testament
THE FIRST BOOK OF MOSES, CALLED GENESIS. Commentary by Robert Jamieson
CHAPTER 1
Ge 1:1, 2. The Creation of Heaven and Earth.
1. In the beginning-a period of remote and unknown antiquity, hid in the depths of eternal ages; and so the phrase is used in Pr 8:22, 23.
God-the name of the Supreme Being, signifying in Hebrew, "Strong," "Mighty." It is expressive of omnipotent power; and by its use here in the plural form, is obscurely taught at the opening of the Bible, a doctrine clearly revealed in other parts of it, namely, that though God is one, there is a plurality of persons in the Godhead-Father, Son, and Spirit, who were engaged in the creative work (Pr 8:27; Joh 1:3, 10; Eph 3:9; Heb 1:2; Job 26:13).
created-not formed from any pre-existing materials, but made out of nothing.
the heaven and the earth-the universe. This first verse is a general introduction to the inspired volume, declaring the great and important truth that all things had a beginning; that nothing throughout the wide extent of nature existed from eternity, originated by chance, or from the skill of any inferior agent; but that the whole universe was produced by the creative power of God (Ac 17:24; Ro 11:36). After this preface, the narrative is confined to the earth.
Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary
1:1,2 The first verse of the Bible gives us a satisfying and useful account of the origin of the earth and the heavens. The faith of humble Christians understands this better than the fancy of the most learned men. From what we see of heaven and earth, we learn the power of the great Creator. And let our make and place as men, remind us of our duty as Christians, always to keep heaven in our eye, and the earth under our feet. The Son of God, one with the Father, was with him when he made the world; nay, we are often told that the world was made by him, and nothing was made without him. Oh, what high thoughts should there be in our minds, of that great God whom we worship, and of that great Mediator in whose name we pray! And here, at the beginning of the sacred volume, we read of that Divine Spirit, whose work upon the heart of man is so often mentioned in other parts of the Bible. Observe, that at first there was nothing desirable to be seen, for the world was without form, and void; it was confusion, and emptiness. In like manner the work of grace in the soul is a new creation: and in a graceless soul, one that is not born again, there is disorder, confusion, and every evil work: it is empty of all good, for it is without God; it is dark, it is darkness itself: this is our condition by nature, till Almighty grace works a change in us.
Matthew Henry's Whole Bible Commentary
PREFACE TO VOLUME ONE
Though it is most my concern, that I be able to give a good account to God and my own conscience, yet, perhaps, it will be expected that I give the world also some account of this bold undertaking; which I shall endeavour to do with all plainness, and as one who believes, that if men must be reckoned with in the great day, for every vain and idle word they speak, much more for every vain and idle line they write. And it may be of use, in the first place, to lay down those great and sacred principles which I go upon, and am governed by, in this endeavour to explain and improve these portions of holy writ; which endeavour I humbly offer to the service of those (and to those only I expect it will be acceptable) who agree with me in these six principles:-
I. That religion is the one thing useful; and to know, and love, and fear God our Maker, and in all the instances both of devout affection, and of good conversation, to keep his commandments, (Eccles. 12:13) is, without doubt, the whole of man; it is all in all to him. This the wisest of men, after a close and copious argument in his Ecclesiastes, lays down as the conclusion of his whole matter (the Quod erat demonstrandum of his whole discourse); and therefore I may be allowed to lay it down as a postulatum, and the foundation of this whole matter. It is necessary to mankind in general, that there should be religion in the world, absolutely necessary for the preservation of the honour of the human nature, and no less so for the preservation of the order of human societies. It is necessary to each of us in particular, that we be religious; we cannot otherwise answer the end of our creation, obtain the favour of our Creator, make ourselves easy now, or happy for ever. A man that is endued with the powers of reason, by which he is capable of knowing, serving, glorifying, and enjoying his Maker, and yet lives without God in the world, is certainly the most despicable and the most miserable animal under the sun.
II. That divine revelation is necessary to true religion, to the being and support of it. That faith without which it is impossible to please God, cannot come to any perfection by seeing the works of God, but it must come by hearing the word of God, Rom. 10:17. The rational soul, since it received that fatal shock by the fall, cannot have or maintain that just regard to the great author of its being, that observance of him, and expectation from him, which are both its duty and felicity, without some supernatural discovery made by himself of himself, and of his mind and will. Natural light, no doubt, is of excellent use, as far as it goes; but it is necessary that there be a divine revelation, to rectify its mistakes, and make up its deficiencies, to help us out where the light of nature leaves us quite at a loss, especially in the way and method of man's recovery from his lapsed state, and his restoration to his Maker's favour; which he cannot but be conscious to himself of the loss of, finding, by sad experience, his own present state to be sinful and miserable. Our own reason shows us the wound, but nothing short of a divine revelation can discover to us a remedy to be confided in. The case and character of those nations of the earth which had no other guide in their devotions than that of natural light, with some remains of the divine institution of sacrifices received by tradition from their fathers, plainly show how necessary divine revelation is to the subsistence of religion; for those that had not the word of God, soon lost God himself, became vain in their imaginations concerning him, and prodigiously vile and absurd in their worships and divinations. It is true, the Jews, who had the benefit of divine revelation, lapsed sometimes into idolatry, and admitted very gross corruptions; yet, with the help of the law and the prophets, they recovered and reformed: whereas the best and most admired philosophy of the heathen could never do any thing toward the cure of the vulgar idolatry, or so much as offered to remove any of those barbarous and ridiculous rites of their religion, which were the scandal and reproach of the human nature. Let men therefore pretend what they will, deists are, or will be, atheists; and those that, under colour of admiring the oracles of reason, set aside as useless the oracles of God, undermine the foundations of all religion, and do what they can to cut off all communication between man and his Maker, and to set that noble creature on a level with the beasts that perish.
III. That divine revelation is not now to be found nor expected any where but in the scriptures of the Old and New Testament; and there it is. It is true, there were religion and divine revelation before there was any written word; but to argue from thence, that the scriptures are not now necessary, it as absurd as it would be to argue that the world might do well enough without the sun, because in the creation the world had light three days before the sun was made. Divine revelations, when first given, were confirmed by visions, miracles, and prophecy; but they were to be transmitted to distant regions and future ages, with their proofs and evidences, by writing, the surest way of conveyance, and by which the knowledge of other memorable things is preserved and propagated. We have reason to think that even the ten commandments, though spoken with such solemnity at Mount Sinai, would have been, long before this, lost and forgotten, if they had been handed down by tradition only, and never had been put in writing: it is that which is written, that remains. The scripture indeed is not compiled as a methodical system or body of divinity, secundum artem-according to the rules of art, but several ways of writing, (histories, laws, prophecies, songs, epistles, and even proverbs,) at several times, and by several hands, as Infinite Wisdom saw fit. The end is effectually obtained; such things are plainly supposed and taken for granted, and such things are expressly revealed and made known, as, being all put together, sufficiently inform us of all the truths and laws of the holy religion we are to believe, and be governed by. That all scripture is given by inspiration of God, (2 Tim. 3:16) and that holy men spake and wrote as they were moved by the Holy Ghost, (2 Pt. 1:21) we are sure; but who dare pretend to describe that inspiration? None knows the way of the Spirit, nor how the thoughts were formed in the heart of him that was inspired, any more than we know the way of the soul into the body, or how the bones are formed in the womb or her that is with child, Eccles. 11:5. But we may be sure that the blessed Spirit did not only habitually prepare and qualify the penmen of scripture for that service, and put it into their hearts to write, but did likewise assist their understandings and memories in recording those things which they themselves had the knowledge of, and effectually secure them from error and mistake; and what they could not know but by revelation, (as for instance, Gen. 1 and Jn. 1) the same blessed Spirit gave them clear and satisfactory information of. And no doubt, as far as was necessary to the end designed, they were directed by he Spirit, even in the language and expression; for there were words which the Holy Ghost taught; (1 Co. 2:13) and God saith to the prophet, Thou shalt speak with my words, Eze. 3:4. However, it is not material to us, who drew up the statute, nor what liberty he took in using his own words: when it is ratified, it is become the legislator's act, and binds the subject to observe the true intent and meaning of it. The scripture proves its divine authority and original both to the wise and to the unwise. Even to the unwise and least thinking part of mankind, it is abundantly proved by the many incontestable miracles wrought by Moses and the prophets, Christ and his apostles, for the confirmation of its truths and laws: it would be an intolerable reproach to eternal Truth, to suppose this divine seal affixed to a lie. Beside this, to the more wise and thinking, to the more considerate and contemplative it recommends itself by those innate excellences which are self-evident characteristics of its divine original. If we look carefully, we shall soon be aware of God's image and superscription upon it. A mind rightly disposed by a humble, sincere subjection to its Maker, will easily discover the image of God's wisdom in the awful depth of its mysteries; the image of his sovereignty in the commanding majesty of its style; the image of his unity in the wonderful harmony and symmetry of all its parts; the image of his holiness in the unspotted purity of its precepts; and the image of his goodness in the manifest tendency of the whole to the welfare and happiness of mankind in both worlds; in short, it is a work that fathers itself. And as atheists, so deists, notwithstanding their vain-glorious pretensions to reason, as if wisdom must die with them, run themselves upon the grossest and most dishonourable absurdities imaginable; for, if the scriptures be not the word of God, then there is no divine revelation now in the world, no discovery at all of God's mind concerning our duty and happiness: so that, let a man be ever so desirous and solicitous to do his Maker's will, he must, without remedy, perish in the ignorance of it, since there is no book but this that will undertake to tell him what it is, a consequence which can by no means be reconciled to the idea we have of the divine goodness. And (which is no less an absurdity), if the scriptures be not really a divine revelation, they are certainly as great a cheat as ever was put upon the world: but we have no reason to think them so; for bad men would never write so good a book, nor would Satan have so little subtlety as to help to cast out Satan; and good men would never do so wicked a thing as to counterfeit the broad seal of heaven and affix it to a patent of their own framing, though in itself ever so just. No, there are not the words of him that hath a devil.
IV. That the scriptures of the Old and New Testament were purposely designed for our learning. They might have been a divine revelation to those into whose hands they were first put, and yet we, at this distance, have been no way concerned in them; but it is certain that they were intended to be of universal and perpetual use and obligation to all persons, in all places and all ages, that have the knowledge of them, even unto us upon whom the ends of the world have come. See Rom. 15:4. Though we are not under the law as a covenant of innocency (for then, being guilty, we should unavoidable perish under its curse), yet it is not therefore an antiquated statute, but a standing declaration of the will of God concerning good and evil, sin and duty, and its claim to obedience is in as full force and virtue as ever: and unto us is the gospel of the ceremonial law preached, as well as unto those to whom it was first delivered, and much more plainly, Heb. 4:2. The histories of the Old Testament were written for our admonition and direction (1 Co. 10:11), and not barely for the information and entertainment of the curious. The prophets, though long since dead, prophesy again by their writings, before peoples and nations (Rev. 10:11), and Solomon's exhortation speaketh unto us as unto sons. The subject of the holy scripture is universal and perpetual, and therefore of common concern. It is intended, 1. To revive the universal and perpetual law of nature, the very remains of which (or ruins rather) in natural conscience, give us hints that we must look somewhere else for a fairer copy. 2. To reveal the universal and perpetual law of grace, which God's common beneficence to the children of men, such as puts them into a better state than that of devils, gives us some ground to expect. The divine authority likewise, which in this book commands our belief and obedience, is universal and perpetual, and knows no limits, either of time or place; it follows, therefore, that every nation and every age to which these sacred writings are transmitted are bound to receive them with the same veneration and pious regard that they commanded at their first entrance. Though God hath, in these last days, spoken to us by his Son, yet we are not therefore to think that what he spoke at sundry times and in divers manners to the fathers (Heb. 1:1) is of no use to us, or that the Old Testament is an almanac out of date; no, we are built upon the foundation of the prophets, as well as of the apostles, Christ himself being the corner-stone (Eph. 2:20), in whom both these sides of this blessed building meet and are united: they were those ancient records of the Jewish church which Christ and his apostles so oft referred to, so oft appealed to, and commanded us to search and to take heed to. The preachers of the gospel, like Jehoshaphat's judges, wherever they went, had this book of the law with them, and found it a great advantage to them to speak to those that knew the law, Rom. 7:1. That celebrated translation of the Old Testament in the Greek tongue by the Seventy, between 200 and 300 years before the birth of Christ, was to the nations a happy preparative for the entertainment of the gospel, by spreading the knowledge of the law; for as the New Testament expounds and completes the Old, and thereby makes it more serviceable to us now than it was to the Jewish church, so the Old Testament confirms and illustrates the New, and shows us Jesus Christ the same yesterday that he is to-day and will be for ever.
V. That the holy scriptures were not only designed for our learning, but are the settled standing rule of our faith and practice, by which we must be governed now and judged shortly: it is not only a book of general use (so the writings of good and wise men may be), but it is of sovereign and commanding authority, the statute-book of God's kingdom, which our oath of allegiance to him, as our supreme Lord, binds us to the observance of. Whether we will hear or whether we will forbear, we must be told that this is the oracle we are to consult and to be determined by, the touchstone we are to appeal to and try doctrines by, the rule we are to have an eye to, by which we must in every thing order our affections and conversations, and from which we must always take our measures. This is the testimony, this is the law which is bound up and sealed among the disciples, that word according to which if we do not speak, it is because there is no light in us, Isa. 8:16, 20. The making of the light within our rule, which by nature is darkness, and by grace is but a copy of, and conformable to, the written work, is setting the judge above the law; and the making of the traditions of the church rivals with the scriptures is no better: it is making the clock, which every one concerned puts backward or forward at pleasure, to correct the sun, that faithful measurer of time and days. These are absurdities which, being once granted, thousands follow, as we see by sad experience.
VI. That therefore it is the duty of all Christians diligently to search the scriptures, and it is the office of ministers to guide and assist them therein. How useful soever this book of books is in itself, it will be of no use to us if we do not acquaint ourselves with it, by reading it daily, and meditating upon it, that we may understand the mind of God in it, and may apply what we understand to ourselves for our direction, rebuke, and comfort, as there is occasion. It is the character of the holy and happy man that his delight is in the law of the Lord; and, as an evidence thereof, he converses with it as his constant companion, and advises with it as his most wise and trusty counsellor, for in that law doth he meditate day and night, Ps. 1:2. It concerns us to be ready in the scriptures, and to make ourselves so by constant reading and careful observation, and especially by earnest prayer to God for the promised gift of the Holy Ghost, whose office it is to bring things to our remembrance which Christ hath said to us (Jn. 14:26), that thus we may have some good word or other at hand for our use in our addresses to God and in our converse with men, in our resistance of Satan and in communing with our own hearts, and may be able, with the good householder, to bring out of this treasury things new and old, for the entertainment and edification both of ourselves and others. If any thing will make a man of God perfect in this world, will complete both a Christian and a minister, and thoroughly furnish him for every good work, it must be this. 2 Tim. 3:17. It concerns us also to be mighty in the scriptures, as Apollos was (Acts 18:24), that is, to be thoroughly acquainted with the true intent and meaning of them, that we may understand what we read, and may not misinterpret or misapply it, but by the conduct of the blessed Spirit may be led into all truth (Jn. 16:13), and may hold it fast in faith and love, and put every part of scripture to that use for which it was intended. The letter, either of law or gospel, profits little without the Spirit. The ministers of Christ are herein ministers to the Spirit for the good of the church; their business is to open and apply the scriptures; thence they must fetch their knowledge, thence their doctrines, devotions, directions, and admonitions, and thence their very language and expression. Expounding the scriptures was the most usual way of preaching in the first and purest ages of the church. What have the Levites to do but to teach Jacob the law (Deu. 33:10); not only to read it, but to give the sense, and cause them to understand the reading? Neh. 8:8. How shall they do this except some man guide them? Acts 8:31. As ministers would hardly be believed without Bibles to back them, so Bibles would hardly be understood without ministers to explain them; but if, having both, we perish in ignorance and unbelief, our blood will be upon our own head.
Being fully persuaded therefore of these things, I conclude that whatever help is offered to good Christians in searching the scriptures is real service done to the glory of God, and to the interests of his kingdom among men; and it is this that hath drawn me into this undertaking, which I have gone about in weakness, and in fear, and in much trembling (1 Co. 2:3), lest I should be found exercising myself in things to high for me, and so laudable an undertaking should suffer damage by an unskilful management. If any desire to know how so mean and obscure a person as I am, who in learning, judgment, felicity of expression, and all advantages for such a service, am less than the least of all my Master's servants, came to venture upon so great a work, I can give no other account of it than this: It has long been my practice, what little time I had to spare in my study from the constant preparations for the pulpit, to spend it in drawing up expositions upon some parts of the New Testament, not so much for my own use as purely for my entertainment, because I knew not now to employ my thoughts and time more to my satisfaction. Trahit sua quemque voluptas-Every man that studies hath some beloved study, which is his delight above any other; and this is mine. It is that learning which it was my happiness from a child to be trained up in, by my ever honoured father, whose memory must always be very dear and precious to me: he often reminded me that a good textuary is a good divine; and that I should read other books with this in my eye, that I might be the better able to understand and apply the scripture. While I was thus employing myself came out Mr. Burkitt's Exposition, of the Gospels first, and afterwards of the Act and the Epistles, which met with very good acceptance among serious people, and no doubt, by the blessing of God, will continue to do great service to the church. Soon after he had finished that work, it pleased God to call him to his rest, upon which I was urged, by some of my friends, and was myself inclined, to attempt the like upon the Old Testament, in the strength of the grace of Christ. This upon the Pentateuch is humbly offered as a specimen; if it find favour, and be found any way useful, it is my present purpose, in dependence upon divine aids, to go on, so long as God shall continue my life and health, and as my other work will permit. Many helps, I know, we have of this kind in our own language, which we have a great deal of reason to value, and to be very thankful to God for: but the scripture is a subject that can never be exhausted. Semper habet aliquid relegentibus-However frequently we read it, we shall always meet with something new. When David had amassed a vast treasure for the building of the temple, yet saith he to Solomon, Thou mayest add thereto, 1 Chr. 22:14. Such a treasure is scripture-knowledge; it is still capable of increase, till we all come to the perfect man. The scripture is a field or vineyard which finds work for variety of hands, and about which may be employed a great diversity of gifts and operations, but all from the same Spirit (1 Co. 12:4, 6) and for the glory of the same Lord. The learned in the languages and in ancient usages have been very serviceable to the church (the blessed occupant of this field), by their curious and elaborate searches into its various products, their anatomies of its plants, and the entertaining lectures they have read upon them. The philology of the critics has been of much more advantage to religion, and lent more light to sacred truth, than the philosophy of the school-divines. The learned also in the arts of war have done great service in defending this garden of the Lord against the violent attacks of the powers of darkness, successfully pleading the cause of the sacred writings against the spiteful cavils of atheists, deists, and the profane scoffers of these latter days. Such as these stand in the posts of honour, and their praise is in all the churches: yet the labours of the vine-dressers and the husbandmen (2 Ki. 25:12), though they are the poor of the land who till this ground, and gather in the fruits of it, are no less necessary in their place, and beneficial to the household of God, that out of these precious fruits every one may have his portion of meat in due season. These are the labours to which, according to my ability, I have here set my hand. And as the plain and practical expositors would not, for a world, say of the learned critics, There is no need of them; so, it is hoped, those eyes and heads will not say to the hands and feet, There is no need of you, 1 Co. 12:21.
The learned have of late received very great advantage in their searches into this part of holy writ, and the books that follow (and still hope for more), by the excellent and most valuable labours of that great and good man bishop Patrick, whom, for vast reading, solid judgment, and a most happy application to these best of studies, even in his advanced years and honours, succeeding ages no doubt will rank among the first three of commentators, and bless God for him. Mr. Pool's English Annotations (which, having had so many impressions, we may suppose, have got into most hands) are of admirable use, especially for the explaining of scripture-phrases, opening the sense, referring to parallel scriptures, and the clearing of difficulties that occur. I have therefore all along been brief upon that which is there most largely discussed, and have industriously declined, as much as I could, what is to be found there; for I would not actum agere-do what is done; nor (if I may be allowed to borrow the apostle's words) boast of things made ready to our hand, 2 Co. 10:16. These and other annotations which are referred to the particular words and clauses they are designed to explain are most easy to be consulted upon occasion; but the exposition which (like this) is put into a continued discourse, digested under proper heads, is much more easy and ready to be read through for one's own or others' instruction. And, I think, the observing of the connection of each chapter (if there be occasion) with that which goes before, and the general scope of it, with the thread of the history or discourse, and the collecting of the several parts of it, to be seen at one view, will contribute very much to the understanding of it, and will give the mind abundant satisfaction in the general intention, though there may be here and there a difficult word or expression which the best critics cannot easily account for. This, therefore, I have here attempted. But we are concerned not only to understand what we read, but to improve it to some good purpose, and, in order thereunto, to be affected with it, and to receive the impressions of it. The word of God is designed to be not only a light to our eyes, the entertaining subject of our contemplation, but a light to our feet and a lamp to our paths (Ps. 119:105), to direct us in the way of our duty, and to prevent our turning aside into any by-way: we must therefore, in searching the scriptures, enquire, not only What is this? but, What is this to us? What use may we make of it? How may we accommodate it to some of the purposes of that divine and heavenly life which, by the grace of God, we are resolved to live? Enquiries of this kind I have here aimed to answer. When the stone is rolled from the well's mouth by a critical explication of the text, still there are those who would both drink themselves and water their flocks? but they complain that the well is deep, and they have nothing to draw with; how then shall they come by this living water? Some such may, perhaps, find a bucket here, or water drawn to their hands; and pleased enough shall I be with this office of the Gibeonites, to draw water for the congregation of the Lord out of these wells of salvation.
That which I aim at in the exposition is to give what I thought the genuine sense, and to make it as plain as I could to ordinary capacities, not troubling my readers with the different sentiments of expositors, which would have been to transcribe Mr. Pool's Latin Synopsis, where this is done abundantly to our satisfaction and advantage. As to the practical observations, I have not obliged myself to raise doctrines out of every verse or paragraph, but only have endeavoured to mix with the exposition such hints or remarks as I thought profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, aiming in all to promote practical godliness, and carefully avoiding matters of doubtful disputation and strifes of words. It is only the prevalency of the power of religion in the hearts and lives of Christians that will redress our grievances, and turn our wilderness into a fruitful field. And since our Lord Jesus Christ is the true treasure hidden in the field of the Old Testament, and was the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world, I have been careful to observe what Moses wrote of him, to which he himself oft appealed. In the writings of the prophets we meet with more of the plain and express promises of the Messiah, and the grace of the gospel; but here, in the books of Moses, we find more of the types, both real and personal figures of him that was to come-shadows, of which the substance is Christ, Rom. 5:14. Those to whom to live is Christ will find in these that which is very instructive and affecting, and which will give great assistance to their faith, and love, and holy joy. This, in a particular manner, we search the scriptures for-to find what they testify of Christ and eternal life, Jn. 5:39. Nor is it any objection against the application of the ceremonial institutions to Christ and his grace that those to whom they were given could not discern this sense or use of them; but it is rather a reason why we should be very thankful that the veil which was upon their minds in the reading of the Old Testament is done away in Christ, 2 Co. 3:13, 14, 18. Though they then could not stedfastly look to the end of that which is abolished, it does not therefore follow but that we who are happily furnished with a key to these mysteries may in them, as in a glass, behold the glory of the Lord Jesus. And yet, perhaps, the pious Jews saw more of the gospel in their ritual than we think they did; they had at least a general expectation of good things to come, by faith in the promises made to the fathers, as we have of the happiness of heaven, though they could not of that world to come, any more than we can of this, form any distinct or certain idea. Our conceptions of the future state, perhaps, are as dark and confused, as short of the truth and as wide from it, as theirs then were of the kingdom of the Messiah: but God requires faith only according to the revelation he gives. They then were accountable for no more light than they had; and we now are accountable for that greater light which we have in the gospel, by the help of which we may find much more of Christ in the Old Testament than they could. If any think our observations sometimes take rise from that which to them seems too minute, let them remember that maxim of the Rabbin, Non est in lege vel una litera à quâ non pendent magni montes-The law contains not a letter but what bears the weight of mountains. We are sure there is not an idle word in the Bible. I would desire the reader not only to read the text entire, before he reads the exposition, but, as the several verses are referred to in the exposition, to cast his eye upon them again, and then he will the better understand what he reads. And, if he have leisure, he will find it of use to him to turn to the scriptures which are sometimes only referred to for brevity's sake, comparing spiritual things with spiritual.
It is the declared purpose of the Eternal Mind, in all the operations both of providence and grace, to magnify the law and to make it honourable (Isa. 42:21), nay to magnify his word above all his name (Ps. 138:2), so that when we pray, Father, glorify thy name, we mean this, among other things, Father, magnify the holy Scriptures; and to that prayer, made in faith, we may be sure of that answer which was given to our blessed Saviour when he prayed it, with particular respect to the fulfilling of the scriptures in his own sufferings, I have both glorified it, and I will glorify it yet again, Jn. 12:28. To this great design I humbly desire to be some way serviceable, in the strength of that grace by which I am what I am, hoping that what may help to make the reading of the scripture more easy, pleasant, and profitable, will be graciously accepted by him that smiled on the widow's two mites cast into the treasury, as an intention to magnify it and make it honourable; and if I can but gain that point, in any measure, with some, I shall think my endeavours abundantly recompensed, however, by others, I and my performances may be vilified and made contemptible.
I have now nothing more to add than to recommend myself to the prayers of my friends, and them to the grace of the Lord Jesus; and so rest an unworthy dependent upon that grace, and, through that, an expectant of the glory to be revealed.
Chester, October 2, 1706
M.H.
An Exposition, With Practical Observations, of
The First Book of Moses, Called Genesis
We have now before us the holy Bible, or book, for so bible signifies. We call it the book, by way of eminency; for it is incomparably the best book that ever was written, the book of books, shining like the sun in the firmament of learning, other valuable and useful books, like the moon and stars, borrowing their light from it. We call it the holy book, because it was written by holy men, and indited by the Holy Ghost; it is perfectly pure from all falsehood and corrupt intention; and the manifest tendency of it is to promote holiness among men. The great things of God's law and gospel are here written to us, that they might be reduced to a greater certainty, might spread further, remain longer, and be transmitted to distant places and ages more pure and entire than possibly they could be by report and tradition: and we shall have a great deal to answer for if these things which belong to our peace, being thus committed to us in black and white, be neglected by us as a strange and foreign thing, Hos. 8:12. The scriptures, or writings of the several inspired penmen, from Moses down to St. John, in which divine light, like that of the morning, shone gradually (the sacred canon being now completed), are all put together in this blessed Bible, which, thanks be to God, we have in our hands, and they make as perfect a day as we are to expect on this side of heaven. Every part was good, but all together very good. This is the light that shines in a dark place (2 Pt. 1:19), and a dark place indeed the world would be without the Bible.
We have before us that part of the Bible which we call the Old Testament, containing the acts and monuments of the church from the creation almost to the coming of Christ in the flesh, which was about four thousand years-the truths then revealed, the laws then enacted, the devotions then paid, the prophecies then given, and the events which concerned that distinguished body, so far as God saw fit to preserve to us the knowledge of them. This is called a testament, or covenant (Diatheµkeµ), because it was a settled declaration of the will of God concerning man in a federal way, and had its force from the designed death of the great testator, the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world, Rev. 8:8. It is called the Old Testament, with relation to the New, which does not cancel and supersede it, but crown and perfect it, by the bringing in of that better hope which was typified and foretold in it; the Old Testament still remains glorious, though the New far exceeds in glory, 2 Co. 3:9.
We have before us that part of the Old Testament which we call the Pentateuch, or five books of Moses, that servant of the Lord who excelled all the other prophets, and typified the great prophet. In our Saviour's distribution of the books of the Old Testament into the law, the prophets, and the psalms, or Hagiographa, these are the law; for they contain not only the laws given to Israel , in the last four, but the laws given to Adam, to Noah, and to Abraham, in the first. These five books were, for aught we know, the first that ever were written; for we have not the least mention of any writing in all the book of Genesis, nor till God bade Moses write (Ex. 17:14); and some think Moses himself never learned to write till God set him his copy in the writing of the ten Commandments upon the tables of stone. However, we are sure these books are the most ancient writings now extant, and therefore best able to give us a satisfactory account of the most ancient things.
We have before us the first and longest of those five books, which we call Genesis, written, some think, when Moses was in Midian, for the instruction and comfort of his suffering brethren in Egypt: I rather think he wrote it in the wilderness, after he had been in the mount with God, where, probably, he received full and particular instructions for the writing of it. And, as he framed the tabernacle, so he did the more excellent and durable fabric of this book, exactly according to the pattern shown him in the mount, into which it is better to resolve the certainty of the things herein contained than into any tradition which possibly might be handed down from Adam to Methuselah, from him to Shem, from him to Abraham, and so to the family of Jacob. Genesis is a name borrowed from the Greek. It signifies the original, or generation: fitly is this book so called, for it is a history of originals-the creation of the world, the entrance of sin and death into it, the invention of arts, the rise of nations, and especially the planting of the church, and the state of it in its early days. It is also a history of generations-the generations of Adam, Noah, Abraham, etc., not endless, but useful genealogies. The beginning of the New Testament is called Genesis too (Mt. 1:1), Biblos geneseoµs, the book of the genesis, or generation, of Jesus Christ. Blessed be God for that Book which shows us our remedy, as this opens our wound. Lord, open our eyes, that we may see the wondrous things both of thy law and gospel!
Chapter 1
The foundation of all religion being laid in our relation to God as our Creator, it was fit that the book of divine revelations which was intended to be the guide, support, and rule, of religion in the world, should begin, as it does, with a plain and full account of the creation of the world-in answer to that first enquiry of a good conscience, "Where is God my Maker?" (Job 35:10). Concerning this the pagan philosophers wretchedly blundered, and became vain in their imaginations, some asserting the world's eternity and self-existence, others ascribing it to a fortuitous concourse of atoms: thus "the world by wisdom knew not God," but took a great deal of pains to lose him. The holy scripture therefore, designing by revealed religion to maintain and improve natural religion, to repair the decays of it and supply the defects of it, since the fall, for the reviving of the precepts of the law of nature, lays down, at first, this principle of the unclouded light of nature, That this world was, in the beginning of time, created by a Being of infinite wisdom and power, who was himself before all time and all worlds. The entrance into God's word gives this light, Ps. 119:130. The first verse of the Bible gives us a surer and better, a more satisfying and useful, knowledge of the origin of the universe, than all the volumes of the philosophers. The lively faith of humble Christians understands this matter better than the elevated fancy of the greatest wits, Heb. 11:3.
We have three things in this chapter:-I. A general idea given us of the work of creation (v. 1, 2). II. A particular account of the several days' work, registered, as in a journal, distinctly and in order. The creation of the light the first day (v. 3-5); of the firmament the second day (v. 6-8); of the sea, the earth, and its fruits, the third day (v. 9-13); of the lights of heaven the fourth day (v. 14-19); of the fish and fowl the fifth day (v. 20-23); of the beasts (v. 24, 25); of man (v. 26-28); and of food for both the sixth day (v. 29, 30). III. The review and approbation of the whole work (v. 31).
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