🌱Seed 🙂Agree 🟢Conviction 📰Handout
Temple: Where Heaven and Earth Meet
Read Genesis 1-2.
If you had to use one term for a location type, what do we call the place where God is present?
Diagram and description of temple 
What similarities do you see between the temple/tabernacle and the garden of Eden?
Read Genesis 2:10. What does that reveal to us about Eden?
We’ll talk more about what the ANE World believed about how the cosmos looked and functioned. Simply put, they believed that the divine dwells in a space above the sky while man dwells in the realm here on land. With that in mind, what purpose do you think they believed mountains served?
NOTES Temple
Heaven+Earth
Sabbath: Tabernacle of Time
בְּרֵאשִׁ֖ית - בָּרָ֣א אֱלֹהִ֑ים - אֵ֥ת - הַשָּׁמַ֖יִם וְאֵ֥ת הָאָֽרֶץ׃
the heavens and the earth - ET - God created - In the beginning
Why this opening line? What significance does it hold?
Read Genesis 1:1-2:3.
What do you notice about the beginning, middle and end?
What pattern do you notice in the days of creation? What is different about the 7th day?
Read Genesis 2:1-3.
shabbat
nuwach
What else is odd about the 7th day that breaks the pattern of days 1-6?
Read Genesis 2:4-25.
What differences do you notice in the two accounts of creation?
Read Genesis 2:5. What does Yahweh notice about his creation?
Read Genesis 2:15. What does this “work” look like? Based on that, what is the gift of the 7th day?
In what way is Genesis 1 really a summary of the entire storyline of the Bible?
What did this mean in the life of Israel? (Look back at days 1, 4 and 7.)
“One day out of 7, the Israelite is to renounce dominion over his own time and recognize God’s dominion over it…Keeping the Sabbath is an acceptance of the kingdom and sovereignty of God.”
Matisyahu Savat
NOTES
Image of God
Describe what the cosmos looks like and how it works. What is Earth’s place in the cosmos?
Draw the Ancient Near East Diagram of the Cosmos.
What were some of the highlights from various ANE creation accounts? What does that account show they believe about their god(s)? What do they believe about humanity/creation?
Read Genesis 1-2.
What do you think the author hopes God’s people understand from this account? What does it reveal about Yahweh? What does it reveal about humanity/creation? What are the major differences from the other ANE accounts?
In what way does Genesis 1-2 reflect the understanding of the cosmos in the ANE? In what way does it differ from what we know now?
Read Genesis 1:26-30. According to the text, what does it mean to be made in the image of God?
What does that Matter?
Read Exodus 6:1-13; 7:1-2. Why is Image of God audacious in the ANE?
What does it teach as the full implication of the theme of Image of God? What would it mean then if all of humanity is created in the image of God? What does Yahweh desire of us?
Read Genesis 2:15. What is humanity to do? Why is that significant to the theme of Image of God?
Tree of Life
Recap Image of God.
You are a ruler, which means you have to decide how you are going to rule.
Read Genesis 1-3.
What are all the things we’re told about trees?
Read Genesis 2:8-9. Where is the Tree of Life? According to our understanding of the temple theme, what does that mean about the Tree of Life?
Based on the story, sin is defining good and evil for yourself. In what way is that easier to see in your daily life?
Reread Genesis 3:1-13. What do we learn about the temptation of humanity from this account with the trees? Consider how this connects to humanity as the image of God.
People are Trees. Huh?
Read Proverbs 3:18, 11:30. If people are trees, then what opportunity is presented to us each day?
Consider the story of Abraham and Isaac in Genesis 22. What choice does Abraham have to make? What are the two trees?
NOTES
Exile: East of Eden
Review Covenant concepts.
Read Genesis 3-4.
Take note of the similarities between the Adam and Eve story and the Cain and Abel story.
What happens at the end of both stories?
Ultimately, both stories indicate an exile from Eden. In this case, what characterizes Eden? What should we associate with Eden?
Read Genesis 12:1-7. What location does the author of Genesis want you to link to Eden? In what way?
In the book of Genesis, two main locations become synonymous with exile. Read Genesis 11:2 and Genesis 37:35-36 to identify which ones.
Read Genesis 3:14-15, 19. How is exile like the human condition? What then is the hope of Eden?
NOTES
Water of Life
View of Water
What do we associate with water in our culture?
How did the ANE view water? What role did it play in their creation accounts? (Think back to the videos we watched.)
In what way is water connected to each theme?
Temple Exodus 30:17-21
Image of God Genesis 24:10-14
Trees Exodus 15:22-27
Sabbath 1 Kings 18:1-2, 41-46
Water at Creation
What is the view of water in the creation account in Genesis? What role does it play?
Read Genesis 2:10. What does that reveal to us about Eden?
Based on Genesis 1-3, draw the picture of Eden.
Why are the 4 rivers mentioned? What significance do those locations have in the Hebrew Bible? What is Yahweh revealing about this story of salvation?
NOTES
Day of Yahweh
What are all of the different names for Day of Yahweh?
Recall Genesis 3-9.
What pattern have each of these stories (Adam and Eve/Cain and Abel/Noah’s family and the flood) followed?
Read Genesis 11:1-9.
How does the story of the building of Babylon fit the same pattern?
Jump forward to Exodus and Egypt has taken over as a bigger and badder Babylon. How is Pharaoh’s enslavement of innocent Israelites similar to Genesis 3, 4, and 11?
How does Yahweh respond to Pharaoh? In what way does that connect to past Biblical themes (namely, Image of God, Water of Life, Exile)?
NOTES