90 Days of the Bible

Well, as I mentioned previously, my blogging is very sporadic at best. At any rate, yesterday I began a program to read the entire Bible in 90 days (www.biblein90days.org) -- it takes about an hour a day and runs straight from Genesis to Exodus. At any rate here are some of my notes from yesterday's reading (Genesis 1:1 to 16:16)

Gen 1:24-26 -- Interesting that God doesn't make man ruler over the "wild animals". At least they're not named in this verse as they are in previous verses...

1:29-30 All creation (including beasts) are vegan. This changes in 9:3 when we're permitted to be omnivores.

2:17 There are two special trees in the Garden of Eden -- in case you didn't notice this: the Tree of Life (ToL) and the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil (TKGE). Eating from TKGE was forbidden. Eating from ToL was not. By 3:22 and after "the fall" they can't eat from ToL lest they live forever. I believe this tree comes back up in the Book of Revelation.

Anti-Arian Verse 3:8 (in my quest to defend against Watchtower heresies): God is walking -- literally -- in the Garden. This is a pretty strong reference to Jesus as God.

Worth memorizing: 4:7 "...sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must master it."

Anti-Arian Verse 6:3 "My Spirit"

There is a discrepancy between verses 6:19 and 7:2. At first there are two of every animal going in the ark. By 7:2 there are different numbers for different classifications of animals. Very confusing.

I calculated out the ages from Adam through Noah. The flood hit the world 1656 years after Adam was created. Methuselah (Noah's grandfather), by calculation, died the same year as the flood -- presumably he died in the flood. Noah was born (1056) 126 years after Adam died, and only 14 years after Adam's son Seth died. No one whose age is given lived beyond the year of the flood excepting Noah and his sons.

There's another discrepancy between 6:3 and 11:11. God declares man's days will be limited to 120 years, yet a few generations after this declaration, man is still living into his 400's. To scripture's credit, it does dissipate below the 120 mark within 4-5 generations.

12:10-20 This scripture is fascinating -- one of the best Scandals of Scripture. Don't miss the part where Abram (later Abraham) fakes his relationship to his wife, and now the Pharaoh is sleeping with Abram's wife -- all because Abram wanted to spare his own life. Also notice that this is how Abram acquires a great deal of his wealth.

15:6, another to memorize: "Abram believed the Lord and he credited it to him as righteousness". This will come back up in the NT in the book of Romans (I think it's Romans).