Bible Study Genesis Part 30-Unraveling a Mystery

Welcome to the program Study in the Chapel.

God's Word is supreme at Chapel Ministries.

We consider it absolutely essential to a proper relationship with God.

We study it, we love it, we rely on it every minute of every day.

The following program is an edited recording of the regular Bible studies we hold.

And we decided to share these with you in the hope that you too will be able to find inspiration, encouragement, and ultimately salvation through discovering Christ in Scripture.

Our intention is to travel all the way through the Bible.

It will be a challenging journey, but one that will undoubtedly bring you to a decision.

Through this study, you will be faced with either believing or rejecting what God has said to us.

It is our intention to provide you with enough knowledge to make an informed decision about God and his word.

We strongly encourage you to listen intently and diligently, because though at the moment you may not realize it, these things are truly a matter of life and death.

In fact, these are matters of eternal life and eternal death.

Never treat what God has said lightly.

There's truly nothing more important to you.

Now join us as we seek God's will through his inspired word.

Well, it's Wednesday night.

It's 7:30 in our part of the world, anyways, and we are, as always, diving headfirst into God's word because we love it.

We won't apologize for that.

We believe that God's word is true, every single word of it.

We may not be able to figure out what all those words mean, but I know it's true, and I know God said it's true.

So if he said it, then I am satisfied.

At the moment, we are in chapter two of Genesis.

We are in the middle section of Genesis chapter two.

It's been rather slow going because there's, again, a lot going on here, a lot that's difficult for us to understand, a lot for us to kind of chew on, and we're taking our time as we always do because we want to make sure that whatever God is saying to us, we're absorbing, we're putting it into our lives, and we're sharing it with others because that's what He's called us to do.

It's called the Great Commission.

As I said, at the moment we are in chapter two of Genesis.

We are at the moment working on a mystery.

Now, it's not the kind of mystery that should cause any anxiety.

No one is in the conservatory or the parlor lying dead near a lead pipe or a candlestick with Colonel Muster's fingerprints on it.

It's just a regular old mystery.

God has shared something with us that's difficult for us to interpret.

It's mysterious.

It's not scary, mysterious.

It's just mysterious.

I'll read the section we're currently covering so we can regroup around the context.

Genesis 210.

And a river went out of Eden to water the water, and from it from thence it was parted and became into four heads.

The name of the first is Peshon, that is it which compasseth the whole land of Havila, where there is gold.

Verse 12.

And the gold of that land is good.

There is Delium and the Onyx stone, and the name of the second river is Gihon.

The same is it that compasseth the whole land of Ethiopia, and the name of the third river is Hedekal, that is, it which goeth toward the east of Assyria, and the fourth river is Euphrates.

We don't really know what Delium is.

We don't really know where the river Pishon is.

We don't really know where the river Gihon is.

And we're sort of guessing that the river Hedekel is actually the river Tigris.

All of this ambiguity makes pinpointing the original location of the Garden of Eden rather difficult.

God just mentions these things and then moves on.

He neither explains nor expands.

And the result is, well, some measure of unintended ignorance on our part.

Now you may be thinking, why are we talking about this again?

Didn't we cover this last time?

Well, yes, we did cover it last time, but I don't think we should leave it where we did.

In fact, I can't just leave it where we did.

I know that sometimes I've said that we have to accept and move on, but I have one remaining question here, one more thing that I'm curious about with regard to these verses.

Tell me if you're wondering this too.

Why would God put something in the Bible that seems so difficult to resolve?

I've thought about this many times, not just here, but other places in Scripture as well.

The same places there are places elsewhere in the Bible that have similar level of obscure facts.

I mean, these are things we may never know.

Listen to me, lots of really brilliant Bible scholars are baffled by this information.

If the likes of Adam Clark and Albert Barnes, E.

W.

Bullinger, and even the great John Kelvin himself can't agree on what's spoken of here, then do any of us have any hope of figuring it out?

I'll say no.

So then my mind drifts back to the previously mentioned question.

Why?

Why give us information that we can't resolve?

Now I know it seems we spent a lot of time here, which is in itself curious.

Why linger over issues that are clearly beyond our grasp?

Why put in so much effort on this unclear material?

Well, my answer to that is not only are we going through the Bible end to end to try to figure out what God is saying, but we're also training ourselves on how best to approach what we're studying.

Listen, this isn't like anything else you'll ever learn in your lifetime.

You study geometry in high school, you may never use it.

You study Spanish for four years, and you might never get a chance to do anything more than read a Mexican restaurant menu a little bit with a little bit more ease.

So arguably, understanding how to find complementary angles won't do you much good later in life.

Knowing how to conjugate the verb yamar may never come up after graduation, but the things we're going to study on Wednesday nights are eternally important.

These are things that matter.

You know, lots of people like to be dramatic when they're facing some great challenge and declare this is a matter of life and death.

Well, these are matters that are infinitely bigger than that.

These are matters of life and eternity.

We can't get this wrong.

Listen, it's not just knowledge that we're after.

We want to develop a relationship with the one who wrote these books.

So, in that spirit, I'm hammering away at this.

Now, I don't expect to increase our biblical knowledge on this point, but I'm hoping to develop within us a technique, an attitude toward God's book that we will use throughout our journey, all the way through, till we all come in the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ.

Remember that from Ephesians?

So we're going to stick around here for just a few more minutes for a very important reason.

First of all, I don't want you to get the wrong impression that just because we study the Bible intently, we'll automatically find all of the answers.

Going through all of this obscurity is an important experience because this will not be the last time we get stuck.

What would seem hopelessly stuck.

There will be other parts of the Bible that we will not be able to work out.

And you've heard me say before that I think that is by design.

I believe God purposely at times presents information to us that is complicated as a reminder that believing is far more important than knowing.

So that's my first and probably most important guess as to why God included this uncertain material here.

Remember, we're trying to figure that out.

God, why did you put that here?

Well, first of all, because he wants you to know that you're not going to know everything, that you're going to have to believe things without knowing them.

God is always training us, he's always preparing us for the work he's assigned us.

And listen to me: the most important resource we'll need in our duties is faith.

Being able to rattle off verse after verse of scripture, being able to quote all the great thinkers in theology is not going to help you here.

Faith is what's going to help you.

God wants us to know that believing is not always knowing.

He wants to make sure we remember that in the end our faith will see us through, not our wisdom.

But as important as that is, even though faith is our key to unlocking the treasures of our relationship with God, and He's always strengthening and refining our faith, I believe there are still other reasons that may be in play here.

Let me start by restating our current dilemma.

The problem we are faced with is that the information, not all of it, but some of the information God has provided us here with regard to Eden is difficult to reconcile.

And to be honest, that's really the only problem here.

Some of the geographic descriptions don't seem to match, not easily, anyhow, anything we know at the current time.

And perhaps that's the actual problem.

At the current time, we can't make heads or tails out of what is presented to us.

Is it possible?

Listen to me, is it possible that if we lived at another time, these place names and locations would be more readily traceable?

Well, many scholars in fact think that is precisely the issue.

They tell us that we are making the mistake of assuming that the topography of the earth is the same today as it was when Eden was occupied.

Some say the reason we can't find Eden as easily as it's described in chapter two, listen to me, is because between those days and our own, there was a worldwide catastrophic flood.

You and I know it as Noah's flood.

Maybe due to significant changes in the landscape as a result of that flood, some of this information has changed.

Maybe the river Pichon doesn't exist anymore.

Maybe it's just changed direction significantly, and because of that, it's known by some other name.

Listen, it's quite common, even under normal climactic conditions, for bodies of water to change course from time to time.

Catherine brought this up at the end of our last session.

We weren't on air at the time, but she brought it up, and she's exactly right.

That happens a lot.

For example, geologists tell us that the location of the banks of the southern portion of the Mississippi River have meandered along the Gulf Coast for thousands of years.

The last major change is said to have occurred as recently as 1876.

We're told that in the mid-1800s, if you were on high ground near Vicksburg, Virginia, you'd be able to see Old Blackwater.

Not so after 1876, when the river's course changed, leaving Vicksburg high and dry.

Again, that occurred under normal environmental conditions.

Something in the geology and the hydrology of the region shifted, leading to a course change of the almighty Mississippi.

There are experts that tell us that Genesis 2 was written before the flood, when the information contained therein would have been easier to track.

Let me just say, not everyone believes that.

Not everyone believes that everything that was written in Genesis chapter 2 was written before the flood.

Genesis 2 · chapter mention

In other words, it was written down or was shared from that information to Moses.

Some people believe that's not the case.

I'm just saying some experts say that's why we have this disparity, because all that information was written when things were different.

If that were the case, much of what the Bible said existed geographically before Noah's day either no longer exists or has changed so drastically as to make contemporary accounts misleading.

Why are we doing this?

Because I don't want you to walk away from the Bible thinking it's a load of malarkey.

Just because you don't take a couple of extra minutes to take a look at the possibilities.

If you believe the Bible, you won't walk away until you can resolve this in your mind.

Either this is the possibility, this is the possibility, or I'll never know, but I trust God anyhow.

That's why we're taking our time.

Make sure that you tell God this is important to me.

I want to know every bit of information you have.

You know why?

Because I love you.

We always want to know as much information about the people that we love as we can.

In 1992, I was living in Tampa, Florida.

I had been there for only a couple of years.

Before that, I spent a year in Korea.

And before that, I lived in South Florida.

At the time, I was in the U.S.

Air Force, and I was stationed at Homestead Air Force Base south of Miami for five years.

I became quite familiar with that area during my stay there.

I would say I knew the place pretty well until Hurricane Andrew hit.

When the all clear was sounded, I drove down from my then current station, McDill Air Force Base in Tampa, to see what had become of my old stomping grounds.

Well, you know what happened to me?

I got lost.

Nothing looked the same.

I couldn't even get my bearings.

The category five storm completely altered the surrounding countryside.

Can you imagine what a worldwide flood would have done?

A flood that destroyed every single living creature on earth?

What the changes must have been like if Moses simply put to paper what was reported at the beginning, meaning before the flood, then surely the world would have been a very different place, rendering the details therein relevant to a world that's no longer the same.

That would at least in part account for some of the difficulty we currently have trying to find the Garden of Eden.

So that's number one.

Perhaps we're confused because the physical facts are no longer relevant.

Theory number one as to what may be standing in our way of a full understanding of Genesis chapter two may be the fact that the flood, the one God sent to destroy wicked mankind, changed the landscape that surrounded Eden to the point that all the important landmarks are now forever altered.

So that's number one.

There's another one I want to discuss.

Now, I'll admit this next explanation is of a highly speculative nature.

Nonetheless, it's possible that this information, the remember we said maybe the problem is our current time.

Well, maybe the information that describes the location of Eden is not for us at this time.

Maybe we just haven't found the linking evidence yet.

But maybe someday it will be found.

Maybe someday when the truth of these statements is verified, it will somehow advance the cause of Christ.

This, of course, is not unprecedented, especially as technology continues to advance the field of archaeology, but they still use shovels, I can tell you that.

My back will tell you that.

For example, for centuries, it was believed that the story of the biblical King David, believe it or not, was a myth.

There was a long time when they thought it was a myth.

Scholars claimed that there was no physical evidence that pointed to the existence of King David.

And because of that, he was thought to be nothing more than a fable, that he was just a made-up superhero of the past, one whose story a bruised and battered nation could rally around when things got tough, much like a King Arthur figure.

Well, all of that changed in 1993 when what archaeologists call the Teldan Steel was found.

The Tel Dan Steel was a stone fragment found in northern Israel that dated to around 900 BC and made reference to a king of the quote house of David.

It was the first ever found mention of the giant slayer outside the Bible.

This discovery forced the scientific world to acknowledge the truth of previously unresolvable, well, unresolvable in their minds, unresolvable in their minds statements of the Bible.

That changed everything.

That information arrived on time.

How about another example?

In the Old Testament books of 2 Kings and 2 Chronicles, we are told that King Hezekiah built a tunnel through solid rock to fill the pool of Siloam, the same one that Jesus healed the blind man.

But King Hezekiah drilled a hole through rock in order to fill that pool in order to relieve the city against the siege being brought by Sennacherib's army.

No time for details.

Well, up until the 21st century, there was no proof that such a thing was even possible.

However, in 2004, the actual location of that pool was found.

And even more recently, like within the last year, evidence for that very tunnel has been uncovered.

Maybe sometime in the future, archaeologists or geologists or whomever will uncover the river Pishon and Gihan.

Maybe just verify they existed, and that discovery will lead to many conversions, or at the least, add greatly to the comfort of doubt plague saints still alive at the time.

Going through or what they're going to need, but God does.

And maybe this section of scripture, the one that's giving us such trouble presently, will become important to the faith of the far-off or even not so far off community of believers.

What's your point, John?

Same as it was last week.

If God said it, then it's true.

God's truth doesn't require me to understand what He's saying for it to be valid.

But God does have a way of easing our minds when it comes to these tougher sections of Scripture.

We just have to wait it out in faith.

Okay?

I think that's probably covered as well as it can be.

I'm sure you'll agree.

I just couldn't let that one go.

I didn't want anyone to misjudge what's happening here.

And I'm always ready to defend the word of God against doubters who seem so willing to jump on any perceived inconsistency it may contain.

Nearly without failure.

If we spend a little extra time looking closer at what confounds us, instead of walking away in a critical spirit, as I said, if we simply sit down and give it a chance, give it a second or third look, we'll find that we can settle our spirits, even if we don't find all the answers.

And listen to me.

God will reward our diligence, for his word says, Yea, if thou criest after knowledge and liftest up thy voice for understanding, if thou seekest her as silver and searchest for her as for hid treasures, then shalt thou understand the fear of the Lord and find the knowledge of God.

For the Lord giveth wisdom.

Out of his mouth cometh knowledge and understanding.

He layeth up sound wisdom for the righteous.

He is a buckler to them that walk uprightly.

One of my favorite passages of Scripture.

And yes, I do say that a lot.

Proverbs 2, though, is truly one of my favorites.

Next time, I promise you we'll get back on track, starting with verse 15.

See you then.

We hope this study has blessed you.

God's word is a great treasure, and it's our belief that a thorough, purposeful study of it will bring all of God's children to an understanding of his eternal plan of redemption.

It is our prayer that this will be so for all of our listeners.

Please join us again soon.

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