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Michigan Conference of Seventh-day Adventists

Talking Points 2nd Quarter 2022 Genesis: The Creation

Kameron DeVasher

Mark Howard

01 The Creation

I'm Cameron DeBasier and I'm Mark Howard and this is Talking Points.

Pastor Howard, we are launching into a brand new quarter.

We have all kinds of stuff going on here today.

We just, we had had, you had seen the advertisements for our manual training session.

Next time we have 1 you ought to be there.

Well speaking of the next time it's gonna be August 21 to 27 we got to just kind of...

There'll be more information coming but if you want to get ahead of the curve mark your calendars now August 21 to 27.

Now in addition to that we are starting a new quarter And because we record these in advance, we don't know the title of the quarterly.

We have seen, I have seen at least beginnings or maybe the book of beginnings and just flat-out Genesis.

So you had pointed that in something you had, which I'm fairly sure isn't the title.

At the end of the current quarterly, it gives the first 2 lessons, but doesn't tell the title of the...

And it's not just like a certain thing out of Genesis as you read through it it's gonna be basically in chronological order not just picking and choosing a few random themes is basically walking through the book of Genesis and there's gonna be stories in Genesis.

Exactly there's gonna be some very rich discussion I'm sure in our Sabbath school classes hopefully everyone I trust everyone's familiar with Genesis and as we try to dig in deeper and look for relevant applications, I expect some good things out of this lesson.

So we can be thankful that, and maybe it's because there's more chapters.

Hebrews took us a while to get actually get into the book of Hebrews, even though there are 13 chapters.

We're in the book of Genesis chapters 1 and 2 this week.

So, Pastor Howard, you put together the talking points, but We don't want to begin anything without dedicating to the Lord in prayer.

So why don't I pray and then you can walk us through.

Heavenly Father, thank you so much for another day to be alive and to study your word.

Lord, we want to pray right now for those Sabbath school leaders who are making preparation, the Sabbath School members who are also making their preparations to contribute to this week's lesson study.

Please, Lord, bless our time together now as we walk through the scriptures and look for the ways that you have indicated your blessing in the past and apply those blessings in our lives now.

So bless everything we do, we pray it in Jesus' name.

Okay, well, as I mentioned, we're looking at Genesis chapters 1 and 2, the creation account for the most part.

And so that's what our lesson is going to be about.

We're just looking at the creation account, drawing some things from that.

It's interesting that the quarterly, as it introduces, makes the point on Sabbath afternoon, the most important lesson of the biblical stories of the beginnings is a lesson on grace.

We almost make it sound like, oh, good, so these are a lesson on grace, as if the rest of the Bible isn't.

The fact of the matter is, the Bible is a revelation to us of the gracious God that we serve and all of his wonderful and undeserved goodness and providences.

But we do find that in, I'm not going to take issue that we don't find it in Genesis 1 and 2.

The talking points that I've drawn out of this week's lesson and the 2 chapters, first 2 chapters of Genesis are these.

Number 2, the Sabbath points back to creation.

No, on number 1 that came, you drew that primarily from Mondays, right?

But the Sabbath points back to creation talking point number 2 is coming from Sunday, Tuesday, and Wednesday.

And then finally, number 3, God's order in creation was intentional.

So there was a plan to what he was doing and we'll see that as we unfold our talking points this week.

Okay, well that sounds pretty, like I said, straightforward.

And I've cited ahead in the next lesson too, and it's gonna be talking about chapter 3.

And the good thing about all of these is that it is, the whole book of Genesis is a story, and it lends itself to chronological, just walking through the narrative here, but we still want to draw those lessons out.

God made everything, not just made everything, but made everything good.

And our readers are familiar with the account of Genesis, our viewers rather, and our teachers and students, that repeatedly throughout the creation account, as God is creating, the Bible tells us that what he made is good.

Genesis 1, verse 4, and God saw the light that it was good.

And God divided the light from the darkness, etc.

And as you continue on, 7 times in the creation account, I see at the end of verse 10, at the end of verse 12, It was good, it was good, it was good.

Then God saw everything that he had made, and indeed it was very good.

So the evening and the morning were the sixth day.

So there's a couple points to draw from this.

First of all, and the lesson brings this out, the Hebrew word tav, and it was interesting, I looked this up, and in the Strong's it's tab, T-O-B, which from a little bit of research is not a word in the Hebrew, so there must have been a mix up there or something.

But the bottom line is, the word translated, the Hebrew word tav, the lesson says on Monday, paragraphs 1 and 2, and I'm summarizing that, refers to functionality, aesthetics, and morality.

So, for example, when we see that it was made good, what do you think of?

I would assume that is too bad, like it was somehow faulty or is missing something.

Well, you think of the creation story, like it's good that man was created after there was land.

You know, it's good that things happen in a certain order.

It was good that they worked and the air actually did what it was supposed to do and the light did what it was supposed to do.

I know you do things with your hands and I do things with my hands.

So we're not strangers to working on projects, but Have you not ever worked on a project and it'd be not good?

It was, because like, well, that didn't, that's not exactly what I intended and how I planned it.

So yes, I think that functionality aspect probably comes home to us.

And aesthetics is an interesting point too.

So not only did it work well, but it looked good.

Like you look back and like I'm thinking things that I made.

It's like, I guess it'll work, but man, I wouldn't want to show it to anybody.

But I think the emphasis That's what they make caulk for.

02 The Fall

I'm Cameron DeVasier and I'm Mark Howard and this is Talking Points.

We're now on the second lesson of our study of the book of Genesis, the official title being The Book of Beginning.

So, yeah, we didn't know the last time because we're still like in advance.

So we found that the title, as far as we understand, from the beginning.

Yes, the book, no, the book of the beginning.

Anyway, we know what we're talking about.

So in this lesson, we're going to be looking at the third chapter of Genesis, even though this is our second lesson.

Of course, lesson 1 covered chapters 1 and 2.

And so now we're looking at, and it's tersely titled The Fall.

So very clear and on the nose and no doubt an opportunity for rich Sabbath school discussion.

So we're gonna dive into this week's lesson and outline those talking points.

If you would please give us a word of prayer to start with.

Heavenly Father, Father we thank you for the testimony of your word.

We ask that as it is studied throughout Sabbath schools, Lord, across the world, that your Holy Spirit, the Spirit of truth, would lead the minds of each teacher and participant into your truth, that it may strengthen them in their resolve to live for you.

We ask and pray these things in Jesus' name, amen.

Okay, well, this is again, as I mentioned in our discussion last time, The whole book of Genesis is a storyline.

And it started with chapters 1 and 2 with the creation of man and God's image and all the wonderful things there.

But of course, we have to go to Genesis chapter 3 with the fall of man.

So drawing 3 distinct talking points out of a narrative flow can be a little bit challenging because my temptation is like, don't have talking points this week, just read through it and talk about the stuff that's written there in their order.

But there are some themes and there are some particulars we can draw out.

And so I would submit to you that our first talking point this week, talking point number 1, Satan is the serpent who deceives the whole world.

That's primarily from Sunday and Monday's lesson.

Then we'll get to talking point number 2, sin changed the world.

That's Tuesday and Wednesday being the basis of that.

We're talking about human nature, the whole creation, and we'll look at that in just a minute.

Finally, talking point number 3, God had a plan in place, should man sin?

So all along, we're basically looking at the chronological flow of the story, but we're going to draw out some themes to focus on in our conversation and study.

So let's go back to talking point number 1.

Satan is the serpent who deceives the whole world.

Why don't you read, just for refresher, the first 6 verses of Genesis chapter 3.

Now the serpent was more cunning than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made.

And he said to the woman, has God indeed said you shall not eat of every tree of the garden?

And the woman said to the serpent, We may eat the fruit of the trees of the garden but of the fruit of the tree Which is in the midst of the garden God has said you shall not eat it nor shall you touch it lest you die Then the serpent said to the woman you will not surely die for God knows that in the day you eat of it your eyes will be opened and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.

So when the woman saw that the treat was good for food, that it was pleasant to the eyes and a treat desirable to make 1 wise, she took of its fruit and ate.

She also gave to her husband with her and he ate.

Now later on in the story, she's actually going to use the word deceived, right?

But what we see here is the practice of deception itself.

We don't have a description of it, we have an example of it.

And if you go back to Revelation chapter 12, which we're very familiar with in the Seventh-Davenist Church, hopefully we see the war in heaven.

And what we're told about the war is that it was, the 1 side was by the dragon or that serpent of old called the devil and Satan, and his hallmark weapon is deception.

Michael and his angels fought with the dragon, and the dragon and his angels fought, but they did not prevail, nor was a place found for them in heaven any longer.

So the great dragon was cast out, that serpent of old called the devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world.

He was cast to the earth and his angels were cast out with him." So clearly when it says here that phrase, that serpent of old, that's a reference to that ancient serpent in the very beginning of scripture from the creation account itself, or at least the narrative of the fall in Genesis 3.

Well, it's interesting even that the names devil and Satan there in the Greek refer to an accuser or slander, somebody who...

So the whole idea of the deception is inherent in the names the Bible gives Lucifer here.

And we can tell that, I mean, Satan, we're, I mean, if we took a whole study of this, we could talk about how he was jealous and angry.

And the Bible even says he was filled with violence within.

But violence has never been his number 1 go-to thing.

Now, violence, I'm sure he's thrilled with when he has the opportunity, just like he had the opportunity with Jesus on the cross and he exercises violence.

But his most, you think about even the, the persecution of the martyrs in the early Christian church or during the Protestant Reformation.

What was the famous saying that the blood of martyrs is seed?

The idea being that really deception is really of his 2 main weapons, it's the only 1 that really works.

In fact, Jesus said he's a liar and the father of it.

So when we see the story in Genesis chapter 3, it's no wonder he doesn't come with like overt attacks or violent approach.

His MO, his whole modus operandi is to approach with guile, with cunning, and that's exactly what we see.

He was more cunning than any of the beasts of the field the Lord God had made, and from that cunning deception point, he instigates a conversation.

Well, you know what that makes you think of, and perhaps you've given thought to this, but it's interesting to me that the tree that God forbid them to eat from was a tree of knowledge of good and evil.

You ever, sometimes it's like, you know, Eve desired the fruit of the tree, saw it as a fruit that was desirable that that to make 1 wise.

Well yeah and you know that was pleasant to the eyes and whatever.

Well part of that was true and people will say you know your eyes will be open the devil says knowing good and evil.

Well her eyes were open knowing good and evil, but not in a way that she should have known, okay?

But anyway, the idea of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, it's not just a tree of the knowledge of evil, Adam and Eve would have never gone to it.

It's like, no, no, no, I'm not supposed to have that.

And I believe just in the verbiage of that, you look at the devil's deception, it's always the mingling of truth.

The Bible describes him coming as an angel of light to Jesus in the wilderness.

He starts with this really cunning guile, kind of intriguing way, right?

That's why we're reading 2 Corinthians 11 verse 3, where Paul writes, "'But I fear lest somehow, as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, so your minds may be corrupted by the simplicity that, from the simplicity that is in Christ.

Well the funny thing is in that passage he talks about in the context he talks about how he's concerned that they would believe in another Jesus.

So not another devil right this is somebody an imposter who's gonna you know pass himself off look in all ways like oh this is this is Jesus but it would be undermining.

And so we So it's completely in line with what we know of Satan, that of course he would approach with this kind of like subterfuge, this kind of like this covert ops, if you will.

Now notice, Patriarchs and Prophets, page 53, we read this, "...in order to accomplish his work unperceived, Satan chose to employ as his medium the serpent, a disguise well adapted for his purpose of deception.

The serpent was then 1 of the wisest and most beautiful creatures on the earth.

It had wings and while flying through the air presented an appearance of dazzling brightness, having the color and brilliancy of burnished gold." So it is not just...

As we get into the dialogue, he's gonna say, you can be like God, you can, your eyes will be open.

And in his bearing as this medium he chose, the serpent, whose countenance, look to back up the claims, right?

03 Cain and His Legacy

We're now on the third lesson of our second quarter of the year, 2022, studying the book of Genesis.

You know, because we record these way ahead of time, sometimes like it could have been altogether possible that we would have worn sweaters today.

Are you thinking it prophetically that like, by the time this airs, we're gonna be in short sleeves and we're expecting warm weather.

And I'm thinking that our viewers are, by the time they're watching this, it's like, hey, yes, Amen.

Well, we're talking about Cain and his legacy.

And again, we're just moving essentially sequentially through the book of Genesis story by story.

And here we come, of course, Genesis chapter 4.

And this is the first, The last episode, we said the title was the book of beginnings.

We are looking through, we are going through the book of Genesis, and we are on Genesis chapters 4 and 5 this week.

Yes, and this week, you put together the talking points, and so while we review them together, you're going to lead out in that discussion.

But before we do that, we need to start with a word of prayer, so let me just pray for us.

Heavenly Father, as we begin this week, we want to Thank you for this rich material we get to cover and for the lessons that it shows for our lives still today.

Please now bless every Sabbath school teacher, every leader, participant, who has anything to do with the Sabbath school class that it may be a rich blessing for everyone.

All right, well, this is an exciting lesson this week, and it's just full of stuff.

There are certain things that I am of necessity leaving out.

It's a battle and I know we have it as Sabbath school teachers I run into it when I'm putting together an outline like this.

I run into it when I'm teaching the class There are always almost always things you simply can't cover and you got to pick what to cover in Genesis 4 to me the heart of Genesis 4 and 5 is this story of Cain and Abel.

I mean not much of it, but a good part of it is the aftermath in this week's lesson.

But that experience of the worship, the altars, the 2 altars of Cain and Abel really lays a foundation in scripture, which we're going to see this week.

Well, and I'm not sure that, obviously, people will want to contrast the legacy of Cain with the legacy of the faithful, you know, through Seth and whatnot.

But really, this week's focus is not on the 2 legacies.

Pretty much it's hinged in the experience of Cain and the lessons we can draw from that.

So if they don't get exhaustively into 5, the lesson really didn't go there either, but you could, but anyway.

And I would also encourage the reading of the chapter, at least the chapter, Cain and Abel in Patriarchs and Prophets.

And then the next 1 is Seth and Enoch, which we're not going to get into as much of that, but just as much as we can't cover as much, you can cover it in your own personal study, and I would encourage you to do that.

The first talking point from Genesis 4 and 5 that we've picked up is that true worship is expressed by obedience.

Now, I think we've done this before, but these are the basic principles that are clearly outlined in Genesis.

Also, it just makes me laugh because we're usually like, at some point, you know, obedience has a part to play in righteousness and true obedience and worship.

And it's like, you could get the idea that, man, we keep coming back to this theme, but that seems to be the recurring theme of Scripture, but we'll get into that.

Well, I can see somebody saying, well, you guys keep bringing this up.

Yeah, because this is the lesson book, and if we're commenting on this, that's right, That's what he keeps bringing it up.

And you'll see it clearly in the lesson this week.

Now that's drawn from Sunday and Monday's lesson in the quarterly and of course from those chapters in scripture.

Second talking point, sin leads to destruction, which we could talk about it, but it's very clearly illustrated in this week and next week's lesson, I believe.

And then finally, our world is at the heart of the great controversy.

Yeah, knowing what's coming in this particular talking point makes me want to race through 1 and 2, good as they are, and just spend the whole time in here.

Well, because it's very, you know, the great controversy message is very unique to Seventh Avenue.

As much as it's a scriptural message, not too many people comment on it.

Number 1, true worship is expressed by obedience.

So let's, why don't you read for us Genesis chapter 4 and you know the desire, like, let's read through the whole thing but let's, time permitting, just go through verse 10.

Yeah, maybe you can do 1 through 5 and I'll do 6 through 10.

Now Adam knew Eve his wife and she conceived and bore Cain and said, I have acquired a man from the Lord.' Then she bore again, this time his brother Abel.

Now Abel was a keeper of sheep, but Cain was a tiller of the ground.

And in the process of time it came to pass that Cain brought an offering of the fruit of the ground to the Lord.

Abel also brought of the firstborn of his flock and of their fat.

And the Lord respected Abel in his offering, but he did not respect Cain in his offering.

And Cain was very angry, and his countenance fell.

So the Lord said to Cain, Why are you angry?

If you do well, will you not be accepted?

And if you do not do well, sin lies at the door, and its desire is for you, but you should rule over it.

Now Cain talked with Abel his brother, and it came to pass, when they were in the field, that Cain rose up against Abel his brother and killed him Then the Lord said to Cain where is Abel your brother?

He said I do not know Am I my brother's keeper?

And he said what have you done The voice of your brother's blood cries out to me from the ground.

We'll touch on in a minute, but you have this encounter with Cain and Abel.

The lesson goes in a little bit of the idea.

I have acquired a man from the Lord that even from the beginning and Ellen White affirms this, that Adam and Eve thought they heard the promise of the Messiah when the Lord clothed them with skins.

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