8. Abram

The Blessing of the Jews

Now the Lord had said to Abram: Get out of your country, From your family And from your father’s house, To a land that I will show you. So Abram departed as the Lord had spoken to him. Gen. 12:1,4.   The Lord had talked to Adam, Enoch and to Noah in person (face to face).  The Lord had also told Abram to leave his comfort zone.  Strike out, become a blessing to the world. He said, "You do the walking, I will do the blessing!"

And in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed. Gen. 12:3.  In any society in which Jews are found one also finds their rules, laws, moral cleanliness and stability.  They are probably the most maligned people in the world and yet they are among the greatest assets to any economy.  

Of course, in any generalization such as this, there are exceptions.  The aforementioned blessings, however, are not all that was included in that promise.  Christ, the redeemer of mankind is from the Jewish race, and He is the greatest blessing to all the families of the earth.

When he was close to entering Egypt (12:11) Abram assumed that Pharaoh was an immoral, wicked man.  He expected that Pharaoh would have him killed so that his wife, Sarai, would be an unmarried woman.  

As we read the story, though, we find that Pharaoh's moral standards were higher than Abram expected.  This story repeats itself, almost to the last detail, in Genesis 20, when Abraham was journeying in Gerar.  He just could not believe that a king from another country, or religious background, could be moral enough not to kill him just so that the king could have his wife.

Lot in Ninivah

Lot dwelt in the cities of the plain and pitched his tent even as far as Sodom. Gen. 13:12. After Lot and his people had settled down and become very comfortable in Sodom, it came to pass in the days of Amraphel king of Shinar, ... (that he) made war with Bera king of Sodom. Gen. 14:1-2.  

We saw in the last post that Amraphel is believed, by some scholars, to be Nimrod, king of Shinar, great-grandson of Noah. Now, if all the people that inhabited the land were descendants of Noah, and if Amraphel was, indeed, Nimrod, he would be at war with his own third cousins. This, however, does not at all agree with the genealogical list given in Genesis 11.  It has Abram's generation as about the tenth from Adam; that is not a third cousin.

Lot, his people and his belongings were all captured by Amraphel.  Abram heard about this and, with 318 trained servants, he pursued the retreating army and rescued Lot and all that was important to him.  Was it Jehovah's plan that Sodom and its inhabitants should be destroyed, by war, at that time, because of their sinful lifestyle?  Abraham got involved and the planned destruction did not happen.  If this idea is true, then, Jehovah needed to resort to plan B; destroy Sodom with an atomic bomb.  We will get to this theory later.

Melchizedek

On his way back from rescuing the captives Abram met one of the most interesting people in the Bible.  What makes him so captivating is that we know almost nothing about him, but we do know enough to wish that we knew more.

It is recorded that he was a priest of God most high and that Abram gave one-tenth of the spoils of war to him.  In the Book of Hebrews, in the NT, he is mentioned again, and there he (Melchizedek) is compared to Christ.  Some Bible teachers even believe that Melchizedek of the OT, was Christ before Christ was born to the Virgin Mary.  It seems that if one wants to believe this, one must also believe in reincarnation, which most Christians do not believe. 

Slaves in Egypt

Know certainly that your descendants will be strangers in a land that is not theirs, and will serve them, and they will afflict them four hundred years. ... “But in the fourth generation they shall return here, for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet complete. Gen. 15:13+16. According to these two verses, in Abraham's time, one generation was considered to be 100 years long.

The statement, for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet complete, takes us directly to the thought in a previous sentence; Jehovah is tolerant, just and loving and it is only when humans prove themselves to be incorrigible that He finally takes action to reprimand, correct or even destroy those whom He had chosen for destruction.  

The Lord was keeping a close eye on the Amorites, and He is giving them 400 years more to repent, to smarten up their lifestyle, and if that doesn't happen He will have the Israelites come to their country and destroy them.  When Israel marched towards the promised land they took all these cities and Israel lived in all the cities of the Amorites, in Heshbon, and in all her villages. Num. 21:21-25.  

Later, in the days of Jonah, there was a similar situation.  The difference was that Jonah went and warned the Ninevites of impending doom, and the people of Nineveh repented, and their society was saved for about a hundred years more.

Those of us who believe that saucerians inhabit the pages of the Bible find corroboration for that all throughout the Bible, and it is not scholarly that those who reject the idea refuse to even look at the evidence with an open mind.  

Note, for example, Gen. 17:22, Then He finished talking with him, and God went up from Abraham.  If Jehovah is a spiritual Being only, why would the writer say, and God went up?  This would be a proper thing to say of a physical being.  

Notice, though, that perhaps He walked away or maybe He went up ( with a jet-pack) but He did not just disappear as a spiritual being might have.  In any case, let us not throw out the clues without looking at them!

7-The Tower of Babel

The Orient

Noah begot three sons: Shem, Ham, and Japheth. Genesis 6:10.  The sons of Ham were Cush ... Cush begot Nimrod; he began to be a mighty one on the earth. ... the beginning of his kingdom was Babel ... in the land of Shinar.10:6,8,10.

There are a few things to notice in these Bible verses: 

• Some of Ham's descendants moved eastward to the land of Shinar, where Babylon used to be.
• According to some genealogists, some of Noah's descendants moved even further east and were the ones who populated India and China.
• The reason this is interesting is that 11:2 states that before the building of the Tower of Babel they journeyed from the east, (and) they found a plain in the land of Shinar.  
• Were they now returning from India or China, back to their origins, close to where, according to the Bible, the ark had come to rest?

In Hebrew and Christian tradition, Nimrod is considered the leader of those who built the Tower of Babel in the land of Shinar, though the Bible never actually states this. ... Several of these early Judaic sources also assert that the king Amraphel, who wars with Abraham later in Genesis (chapter 14), is none other than Nimrod himself.

Judaic interpreters as early as Philo and Yochanan ben Zakai (1st century AD) interpreted "a mighty hunter before the Lord" (lit. "in the face of the Lord") as signifying "in opposition to the Lord". (Wikipedia)

In 10:20 the writer mentions that the different families, the sons of Ham, had different languages, each according to their own tribe, then, a few verses later, in 11:1, he writes, the whole earth had one language and one speech.  It could be argued, but not very convincingly, that 10:20 speaks of a time after the Tower of Babel, even though, in the Bible, it is placed sooner.

Another way of looking at this could be that when the writer said, the whole earth, he meant the whole world in and surrounding the Tigris and Euphrates Valley.  This is the same way in which many people interpret the meaning of "the whole world" when speaking of "Noah's Flood".  It covered the whole world from the Mediterranean Sea to the Persian Gulf.  Then, new tribes of people, maybe from India or China, with a new language, invade the fertile crescent, and of course, there will be a confusion of tongues.

As we study the Sumerian tablets we find that early humans were reported to be a constant headache to their Custodial masters (demigods).  The slave creatures (humans) not only disobeyed their rulers, they often banded together and rebelled. This made human unity undesirable to Earth’s Custodial rulers—it was better that humans be disunited. One of the ways in which the problem of human unity was solved is described in the Biblical story of the Tower of Babel—a tale which also has its roots in early Mesopotamian writings.

The Twelfth Planet, Mr Sitchin

Spaceships

According to the Bible, this is what happened after the Great Flood:

And the whole earth spoke one language, and used the same words.
And it came to pass, as they migrated from the east, that they found a plain in the land of Sh’nar [Babylonia: a region in Mesopotamia] and settled there.

And they said, Come on, let us build ourselves a city and a tower, whose top will reach the skies; and let us make a name for ourselves, otherwise we will be scattered all over the face of the earth.

And the Lord came down to see the city and the tower, which the men were building.

And the Lord said, Look, the people are united, and they have all one language; and this they begin to do; and now nothing will stop them from doing what they take in their minds to do.

Come on, let us go down, and there confuse their language so that they cannot understand one another’s speech. 

So the Lord scattered them abroad from there all over the face of the earth: and they stopped building the city. 

Therefore the name of it is called Babel: because the Lord did there confuse the language of the entire earth: and from there did the Lord scatter them abroad over the face of the whole Earth. Gen. 11:1-9. 

In The Twelfth Planet, Mr Sitchin offers an intriguing analysis of the Tower of Babel story. According to his research, the word name in the passage let us make a name for ourselves was a translation of the ancient word shem.  The Bible’s translation of shem may be in error, says Mr Sitchin, because shem comes from the root word shamah, which means that which is highward.  Ancient shems are the obelisk monuments that were so prevalent in many ancient societies. Those shems, or obelisks, were copied after the rocket-shaped vehicles in which the Custodial “Gods” were said to fly.  Mr Sitchin, therefore, believes that the word Shem in Mesopotamian texts should be translated to read sky vehicle, meaning rocketship.

When this translation is placed into the above Biblical passage, we find that the ancient Babylonians were not trying to make a name (i.e., reputation) for themselves; they were trying to make a “sky vehicle” or rocket! The implication is that they wanted to match the technological might of their hated Custodial masters (the demigods) and thereby put an end to their enslavement. The tower itself may have been intended as the launching pad for a human shem (rocket ship).

The idea that the descendants of Noah, who, at that time, were busy being slaves, had time, the knowledge and the supplies to design and build space rockets seems rather far-fetched.

The story of Nimrod, the great-grandson of Noah, and the story of the Tower of Babel is really just an interlude in the writer's continuing genealogy.  The writer is simply connecting the dots between Noah and Abraham, where Jewish history begins and where the writer of Genesis finally arrives in Genesis 11:26.

6- Mythology and The Flood

Offspring of The Gods

Now it came to pass, when men began to multiply on the face of the earth, and daughters were born to them, That the sons of God saw the daughters of men, that they were beautiful; and they took wives for themselves of all whom they chose. And the Lord said, “My Spirit shall not strive with man forever, for he is indeed flesh; yet his days shall be one hundred and twenty years.” There were giants on the earth in those days, and also afterward, when the sons of God came in to the daughters of men and they bore children to them. Those were the mighty men who were of old, men of renown. Genesis 6:1-4.

From the Sumerian text, we know the names of a few of those children of the gods; They are An, Enlil, his half-sister Ninki, and Enkil. One must, of course, suppose there were many more.

It is interesting to note that the sons of God were sexually compatible with the daughters of men.  Not only did they have children but those children were mighty men who were of old, men of renown. 

Then the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And the Lord was sorry that He had made man on the earth, and He was grieved in His heart. Genesis 6:5

Noah's Flood in Mythology

Almost every culture in the world has a story of "The Flood".  Of course, the facts from each background are different.  Those who hold the Bible to be true in every respect will, of course, insist that all the facts presented in the Bible are the facts to accept and all others must be rejected.  If we are to follow that line of thinking lets remind ourselves that the writer(s) of the Books of Moses borrowed heavily on oral stories based on the ancient Sumerian writings.

So the Lord said, “I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth, both man and beast, creeping thing and birds of the air, for I am sorry that I have made them.” But Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord. Genesis 6:7-8.

It is striking that the Bible says, the Lord was sorry that He had made man on the earth. Bible teachers insist the God is omniscient; He perfectly knows the future as well as the past.  If that is true, 

• Did He not know what would happen?  
• Did He not see that mankind would become vile and need to be destroyed?  
• If He did see the future could He not have avoided this heartbreak for himself?

Some scholars believe that memories of real disasters, such as the violent and unpredictable floods that occurred along Mesopotamia's Tigris and Euphrates Rivers, underlie mythological accounts of catastrophic rains and inundations.

Floods are among the most powerful and devastating of natural events. Long after the water has subsided, people remember and talk about the loss and destruction. Moreover, the scale of devastation is often so great as to convince people that the flooding is the work of supernatural beings.
Sitchin’s View — World Mysteries Blog

Archaeologically we find that there is no evidence that the histories of hundreds of civilizations ended in a deluge. Palaeontology also does not bear this story out as there were no mass extinctions to suggest a world wide flood. Even common sense tells us that if the world were to flood that the fresh waters and salt waters would mix and kill all of the fresh water fish. 

www.templeofsumer.org/biblicalpar.html‎

Freshwater fish cannot survive in salt water.  Yet, the death of fish and other creatures of the sea are not mentioned at all in the Bible's account of the flood.  So if the freshwater and the saltwater had intermingled, would not the Bible have mentioned the fact that the fish also died?

Here is a short version of a few of the ancient myths: 

The story from India has a fish, telling the first man, that a flood will be coming.

The first man built a boat and was rescued.

Here is a good one from Egypt.

Ra, the supreme god, was afraid his people would overthrow him so he asked Hathor, one of his goddesses to kill the people. Hathor killed so many people that the Nile and the ocean became red with blood. Hathor drank the bloody water.  Feeling that things had gone too far, Ra ordered slaves to make a lake of beer, dyed red to look like blood. Hathor drank the beer, became very drunk, and failed to finish the task of wiping out humanity. The survivors of her bloodbath started the human race anew.

The story from China seems a lot more localized and has to do with controlling the Yangtze and the Yellow rivers.

Read more: 

http://www.mythencyclopedia.com/Fi-Go/Floods.html#ixzz2t9f8tHyl

Of all the world's flood myths, which I have read, the Mesopotamian version (namely, Noah's flood) comes the closest to being believable.  Most of the others have mythological beasts (or gods) doing impossible, mythological things.

Legend says that they (the demigods) first helped to civilise man but they later destroyed the evil people, on this planet, with a huge flood. The Sumerians arrived in Southern Iraq fully civilised, 5,000 years ago, and their scribes say that they were survivors of the Flood.  According to them, it was not just eight people that survived, but rather, a complete civilization.

In the Sumerian version, Enlil, one of the gods who created the humans was fed up with them because they became so numerous and noisy.  So he wanted to drown them all, but Enkil, who was always at odds with Enlil, warned the king Atra-hasis, whom we call Noah, of the coming disaster, and because of the warning Atra-hasis built an ark and saved himself, his family and some animals.

The Sumerian story says that it rained for seven days and seven nights but in the Bible story it rained for forty days and forty nights.  Again, remembering that numerology was important to Jewish scribes, it is perhaps not surprising that the writer chose the number forty as the length of time it rained.  "Forty" in the Bible, represents God's punishment.  For more on this see: 

http://www.ecclesia.org/truth/40.html

It seems that unless we insist on taking the Bible literally, in every case, the story of Noah and the Ark also has some unbelievable facts in it.  Those pros and cons have been argued "to death" and do not need to be pursued here.   However, the important thing here is not whether every detail is exactly true.  The main thrust here is the lesson it teaches.

We noticed in 5:29, And he called his name Noah, saying, “This one will comfort us concerning our work and the toil of our hands, because of the ground which the Lord has cursed.  The point of this story is that God had cursed the earth.  To Adam God said Cursed is the ground for your sake. 3:17.  Noah was the one through whom the curse would be removed.  

It is easy to see that Noah typifies Christ.  The human race was cursed because of sin but Christ died to remove that curse.  The fact that God the Father raised Christ from the dead proves that Christ's death was not in vain.

To read other things I have said about "Noah's Flood" go to:                                                   http://spaceshiptheology.blogspot.com/2013/08/e-dthe-cast-noah-mariner.html

5.Adam's Descendants

Adam's Offspring

And Adam lived one hundred and thirty years, and begot a son in his own likeness, after his image. Genesis 5:3.  In view of the material found by students of Sumerian literature, this statement by Adam is rather significant.  The Sumerian story is a very long story and I am not about to repeat it here, but the short version goes something like this.

When the gods first made the humans they manipulated the DNA so that the humans would not be very smart, after all, they were just to be the beast of burden. The downside of that change was that the humans were not able to procreate. So the gods "tweaked" the DNA to a point where the humans were capable of having children. So Adam was legitimately impressed when he had a son that looked "just like dear old dad".

Cain, Adam's oldest son

He is thought of as a murderer, and rightly so, because, purposely and in envy, he cut his brother's jugular vein.  Let's note a few other facts about him.  After Jehovah had meted out the punishment to Cain, Cain listed four reasons why the punishment was too severe:

1. I have no way to earn a living

2. I will no longer be able to communicate with You.  Then Cain went out from the presence of the Lord.  This sounds so sad and so impossible if God, in fact, is omnipresent.

3. I will no more have a permanent home

4. People will hunt me down to kill me. Genesis 4:13-14.

Cain, by nature, was not a bad person but he did make a bad decision and Jehovah had warned him about that.  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. Genesis 4:7.  

Why do people still kill because of greed, envy, pride or whatever?  Don't they know that they will probably be caught and their whole future will be destroyed?  

A moment of vengeance traded for the rest of one's life; that is not even a good business move.  The Lord had told Cain, do well and everything will be all right, but if you keep on harbouring your envy sin lies at the door. And its desire is to destroy you, but you should rule over it.

Lamech - the Father of Noah

Lamech lived one hundred and eighty-two years, and had a son. And he called his name Noah, saying, “This one will comfort us concerning our work and the toil of our hands, because of the ground which the Lord has cursed.” So all the days of Lamech were seven hundred and seventy-seven years; and he died. Genesis 5:28-31.

Numbers sometimes represent attributes and not the number itself. ... these numbers were purposely inserted by their authors to emphasize a particular message. ... many ancient languages, religions, and philosophies contained numeric interpretation of events, words, and names;

Following is a list of the meaning of a few numbers, for some Bible scholars:

One implies "unity." 

Among other definitions, two can imply "witness."

The implication of three is "divine perfection" or "holiness."

Four signifies "the world," 

Both Hebrew and Christian sources believe six indicates "imperfection," "man", or "evil."

Both religions believe that seven implies "totality of perfection," "completeness."

Wikipedia - Jewish Numerology

"Special" numbers in the Bible are very common; far beyond what the law of averages would allow.  A reader cannot help but wonder if the writer manipulated the numbers to present a moral or spiritual truth.

Noah was the deliverer of humankind from the curse God placed on the earth, Cursed is the ground for your sake.  Noah needed to have a righteous father.  What better way to proclaim Lamech's righteousness than to say, he lived 777 years.  Seven implies perfection.  Now, that was easy.

There is another story, this one from the New Testament, that is of interest in this regard. The story of Christ, at the well, in Samaria.  He said to the woman, you have had five husbands, and the one whom you now have is not your husband. John 4:18.  Five plus one equals six; six is the number of sin.  

Christ pulls no punches - He says to the woman, your lifestyle is evil.  Of course, the situation, as recorded in the story, is not impossible, if it were, it could not have been used as an example.  However, the likelihood of it being this way is dubious.  In reality, wouldn't four husbands, and another man, have been enough to make His point.  Not in this story, because, four plus one does not spell sin, as five plus one does.

From, Jesus and his Times, by The Reader's Digest, 1987, p.14 comes this bit of vital Bible study information: The recording of history with literal exactness of detail is a fairly modern development. At the time, (the Bible was written), precise fact was far less important than the spiritual message of the stories shared."