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Genesis (May 2012)
Below are selected ministry excerpts related to the Life-study of Genesis radio broadcast. The subject of Genesis is "God Created, Satan Corrupted, Man Fell, and Jehovah Promised to Save".
Click on the links below to continue reading the excerpts.
The Principle of the Tree of Life
The principle of the tree of life is dependence...Allow me to use the illustration of graduation. Nearly everyone reading this message has graduated from some kind of school, either elementary school, high school, college, or university. Although we may graduate from such schools, we can never graduate from a restaurant. We may graduate from studying, but we should never graduate from eating. Furthermore, we cannot graduate from drinking water or from breathing air. I encourage you to study well and to graduate from school as soon as possible. However, I would never encourage you to graduate from breathing, for if you do that you will die. What is the meaning of this? It means that knowledge creates independence and that life demands dependence.
Calling On the Name of Jehovah— the "I Am"
And to Seth also a son was born, and he called his name Enosh. At that time men began to call upon the name of Jehovah. (Genesis 4:26)
In Hebrew, the word for "the Lord" is Jehovah (4:26; cf. Exo. 3:14). The title "God" is primarily used for God's relation to His creation in Genesis 1. The name Jehovah is primarily used for God in relation to man starting from Genesis 2. Jehovah is the name for God coming into an intimate relationship with man. Hence, Genesis 4:26 does not say that men began to call on the name of God, but on the name of Jehovah. Men did not call on the One who created all things, but on the One who was so near to them, on the One who was closely related to them. The name Jehovah means "I am that I am," that is, He is the One existing from eternity to eternity. He is the One who was in the past, who is in the present, and who will be in the future forever. He is the everlasting One. When men realized that they were fragile and mortal, they began to call on Jehovah, the everlasting One. This is the calling on the name of the Lord. This calling began even with the third human generation.
Walking with God
And Enoch walked with God, and he was not, for God took him. (Genesis 5:24)
We should not only call upon the name of the Lord, but should also walk with God. The calling must be followed by the walking. To walk with God is not to override God, not to be presumptuous, not to do things according to our own concept and desire, nor to do anything without God. To walk with God is to take Him as our center and everything, to do things according to His revelation and leading, and to do everything with Him. It is not only to live for God and to do things for God, but to live and to do things according to God and with God. Enoch walked with God in such a way, living and doing things according to God and with God, not according to his own desire or concept, nor according to the current of the age in which he lived.
Life-study of Genesis is available for purchase from Amana Trust Books.
You can also read the entire contents of this book online at ministrybooks.org.