The First Lie: How Satan Deceived Eve (Genesis 3 Bible Study)

Hello, and welcome to Through the Bible with Les Feldick. An Oklahoma rancher and farmer, Les Feldick has taught home-style Bible classes for 20 years in Iowa, Oklahoma, and Texas. Les Feldick's unique style of Bible teaching has made the books of the Bible come to life. When Les' teaching is so interesting, people say the time seems to fly by. And now, here's Les Feldick. Good evening. Good to have everybody back again tonight. And I think before we go back to Genesis, a question that keeps coming up in almost every class every week since August is, what's the deal in the Middle East? So I think we'll make just a few comments on that before we go back to Genesis, if I may. And the answer to that question when I made it last August is still the same today, and that is, always remember that everything prophetically, everything biblically, everything so far as world politics is concerned is centered on the little nation of Israel. And that's why in almost every news, in every newspaper, every weekly news magazine, it's seemingly that Israel is front-page news, and it, of course, says it should be, because all prophecy is centered on Israel, and especially the Middle East. And so the only way we can look at the whole Middle East dilemma is, where does Israel come in? And if you've been watching the news the last few weeks, Hussein is making it clear that he cannot negotiate unless he can settle the Palestinian and the Israeli problem. Now, what a lot of people do not understand, and a lot of Americans do not understand, that Israel is surrounded by enemies on every side. She's outnumbered about 40 to 1, and every last Arab nation has within their governmental archives a statement to the effect that they will not rest until Israel is obliterated. Now, when you stop to think of who all that entails, that starts all across North Africa. That means Morocco, Tunisia, Algeria, Libya, Egypt, then you come into the Middle East itself—Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Iraq, Iran. Every one of those nations have already established that they will not rest until Israel is totally destroyed or driven into the sea. Now, how do you suppose that makes Israel feel? Well, she's threatened, and consequently she sits there adamant. She has one of the best armies in the world, the best air force in the world, but certainly for a reason. And even the world in general, when you watch the United Nations, whenever they come to any kind of a debate, it's the whole world against Israel, except on the occasions when the United States votes with her. And so the consensus is very easily arrived at that, well, why stick up with a losing cause? They're outnumbered, they don't stand a chance. Well, we have to always go back to the Scripture, and let's just real quickly look at a few primary verses with regard to Israel's future. Is she there to stay, or is this just a temporary phenomena that a few people have made a big ado over nothing? Or is this really the fulfillment of Bible prophecy? Now, I've made comment to my classes over the years that probably 85 or 90 percent of Christendom—now, when I use the word Christendom, remember, I'm talking about any organization, denomination, or whatever you want to call it, that ascribes at least a part of their belief to the Bible. About 90 percent of Christendom—and I'm including all of Protestantism, the Catholic Church, and any others, as I said, that are in this ballpark of Christendom—are of the opinion that since Israel killed her Messiah, that God literally put Israel out of His mind and transferred all the promises of the Old Testament given to Israel to the, quote, church. But you see, the Bible flies in the face of that thinking. And so if you'll turn with me back to 2 Samuel, chapter 7—now, the only reason I'm taking the time to jump ahead is because it's going to be a long time before we get this far in our study coming out of Genesis, and since the Middle East is in such a turmoil, I thought it might be appropriate to at least spend a few moments. In 2 Samuel, chapter 7, I'm just taking a few of the clearest references to the fact that Israel is not there by accident. Israel is there under the directive of a sovereign God. And never forget, as I've mentioned already several times since we've begun this study on television, that God is sovereign. He can do whatever He wants to do. And it's not for the human mind to question, because the Scripture tells us His thoughts are higher than our thoughts, His ways are higher than our ways, and consequently we're in no position to question. All right, now in 2 Samuel, chapter 7, the Lord is talking to old King David—now, remember this is about a thousand B.C .—He's talking to King David through the prophet Nathan. And if you drop down to verse 14, just for sake of time—normally we start way back in about verse 9 or 10—but for sake of time this evening, let's just start at verse 14, where God says, "'I will be his father, he shall be my son, if he commit iniquity.'" Now, the word he, the pronoun, of course, is directly associated with Solomon, but it also includes the whole nation of Israel. "'If he commit iniquity,' and we know Israel has been guilty of that, "'I will chasten him with the rod of men.'" In other words, God will use other nations to punish the nation of Israel. All right? "'I will chasten him with the rod of men, and with the stripes of the children of men.'" And then verse 15, one of the important words in Scripture, that little three -lettered word, but—b-u-t—'even though God will have to chasten the nation of Israel betimes, and even though Israel is going to be rebellious and anything but what God would like them to be, but,' God says, "'my mercy shall not depart away from him, as I took it from Saul, whom I put away before thee.'" And then verse 16 shows that we're not just talking about King Solomon, per se, or King Saul, but we're talking about the nation of Israel. And then in verse 16 it says, "'And thy house and thy kingdom shall be established forever, before thee thy throne shall be established forever.'" Now, that's a promise that God has made, and regardless of what Israel does, God's promises stand. They will never be broken. All right, let's turn quickly to another verse that might help us understand, and I'd like to take you to Jeremiah. Because we're seeing this right before our very eyes, even as we speak. Someone has been kind enough to give me a gift subscription to the Jerusalem Post. And if you really want to know what's going on in the Middle East, that's the paper you have to read. And last week the Jerusalem Post reported that in the month of November, the past month of November, more Jewish immigrants came into the land of Israel out of Russia alone. Just in the month of November. Then came from all the rest of the world over the last several years. In our class last night, someone had just read that in one day, a week or two ago, 9,000 Jews from Russia came to Israel. 9,000 in one day. All right, what are we seeing? If you've got Jeremiah, turn with me to chapter 16. Now, here's another good example of what I mentioned a few weeks ago, that when you see two or three times in short order God repeating Himself, it's just like when we repeat something—emphasis. You better take note. All right, let's look at it quickly. In Jeremiah chapter 16, drop down to verse 14. Therefore, behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that it shall no more be said, The Lord liveth that brought up the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt. But the Lord liveth that brought up the children of Israel from the land of the north, and from all the lands whither He had driven them. And I will bring them again into their land that I gave unto their fathers. Now, in order to emphasize who is the land of the north, well, if you could take a horizontal-type map of the globe and find the longitudinal lines in which Jerusalem is located, and you can draw a perfectly straight line north to the North Pole, and you will practically bisect Red Square. From Jerusalem to Moscow is absolutely due north. And so when the Scripture speaks of bringing the Jew out of the north country, there is no doubt that that is talking about the land of Russia. All right, turn over a few pages to chapter 23. Now in Jeremiah chapter 23, you drop down to verse 7. And again, it's almost identical language. Therefore, behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that they shall no more say, The Lord liveth which brought up the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt. But the Lord liveth which brought up, and which led the seed of the house of Israel out of the north country, and from all the countries whither I had driven them. And they shall dwell in their own land. Now that's plain English. Just plain English. I mean, we just, we can't do anything with it. All right, turn over one more page, or a few more pages, to chapter 31. Let's go to chapter 31, verse 8, Jeremiah 31, verse 8. Behold, I will bring them from the north country, and gather them from the coasts of the earth, and with them the blind and the lame, the woman with child, and her that travaileth with child together. A great company shall return thither. Plain English, isn't it? And we're seeing it right in our own time. All right, let's go to another portion of Scripture. Turn with me on your way towards the New Testament. Stop in Ezekiel. In Ezekiel 37, and we won't take time again to take this verse by verse. We'll hopefully do that sometime down the road. But in chapter 37, you've got the vision given to Ezekiel of the dry bones. The dry bones, from which the old Negro spiritual derived, those dry bones. And Ezekiel is shown in a vision this whole valley filled with dry bones. And oh, he says, behold, they were very dry. And all that means is they've been there for a long time. They're bleached. Now remember, this is just a vision. And as he looks out over this valley of dry bones, the Lord says that he should prophesy upon them. And then you drop down to verse 7, yeah, verse 7. And Ezekiel says, So I prophesied as I was commanded. And as I prophesied, there was a noise, and behold, a shaking, and the bones came together, bone to his bone. And then I think you know the rest of the text, how he saw all these various body bones, the knee bone, and the hip bone, and the thigh bone, and the shoulder bone. They all came together, and they formed that skeleton. But there was no muscle on them. And so you come on down to verse 10. So he says, I prophesied as he commanded me, and the breath came into them, and they lived, and they stood upon their feet, an exceeding great army. Now just get the picture of Ezekiel's vision. He looks out over this valley just covered with bones, very dry. They've been there for centuries. And then all of a sudden in his vision, he sees these bones come together, and skeletons appear. Flesh comes upon them. The skin comes upon them. And then all of a sudden, they're living. All right, now I've heard many a sermon on these first few verses, and they can apply it and make all kinds of good sermon material out of it, but unfortunately, they don't go on. Because you see, the Bible always interprets these things for us. Now when you go down to verse 11, the Lord said unto me, Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel. See, there it is, just as plain as day. These bones that Ezekiel saw in his vision were just simply a picture of the house of Israel. These bones are the whole house of Israel. Behold, they say, our bones are dried, and our hope is lost. We are cut off for our hearts. Now, what's the indication? Israel has been out there in the Gentile nations, dispersed out of her homeland for thousands years, and it just seems as though there was no hope of them ever becoming a viable nation once again. But oh, listen, God hasn't forgotten about the children of Israel. And now read on. Verse 12, the Lord instructs Ezekiel, therefore prophesy and say unto them, thus saith the Lord God. Now whenever God speaks, we better listen. Thus saith the Lord God, behold, O my people, I will open your graves. Now what were the graves? They're dwelling places in Gentile nations, Russia, Europe, Poland, France, America. This is where the Jew is literally out of his homeland, and he's in a grave, so far as God is concerned, because Israel is not what God wants them to be unless they're in their promised land. All right? Then read on. I will open your graves and cause you to come up out of your graves and bring you to the land of Israel. Now see, that's something that you can't twist. You can't spiritualize that, and you can't say, well, this isn't what it means. It means, no, it means what it says. God says, I will bring you to the land of Israel, verse 13, and you shall know that I am the Lord, see? When I have opened your graves, O my people, and brought you up out of your graves, and shall put my Spirit in you, and you shall live, and I shall place you in your own land, and then shall you know that I, the Lord, have spoken it and performed it. All right? Let's go to another New Testament verse real quickly. Go to Matthew 24, because someone may be prone to say, well, that's Old Testament. That's all done. That doesn't have anything to do with us today. Well, just to show that indeed it does have something to do with us today, if you go to Matthew 24 and come down to verse 32, and if you have a red-letter edition, it's in red. Jesus is doing the speaking. And as I've emphasized so often in my teachings, if anyone has any doubt about some of the things in the Old Testament, and Jesus comes back and quotes it, then you better rest assured you're on pretty solid ground, that it's the Word of God. All right, in Matthew 24, verse 32, Jesus says, Now learn a parable of the fig tree. When his branch is yet tender, and putteth forth leaves, you know that summer is nigh. Now, I think you are all aware that the fig tree in Scripture is always symbolic of the nation of Israel. All right, but now look, verse 33. So likewise, when you shall see all these things, in other words, you see everything as we're seeing it happen in the Middle East, even as a good Jew was aware that when a fig leaf began to sprout its leaves, summer was nigh, so were to understand that when we see all these things coming to pass, God's summer is nigh. His return is at hand. All right, now let's go on, verse 33. When you see all these things, know that it, that is, his return, is near, it's even at the doors. Now, here's the verse I wanted to point out in particular, the next one. Now, verily, he says, I say unto you, this generation shall not pass, or be destroyed, or disappear, till all things be fulfilled. Now the word generation there comes from the Greek word genea, from which we get, yes, generation, but more apt, genealogy. And so what he's really saying is that this stock, this generation, or this breed, or this nation of people, Israel, shall never pass off the scene until everything is fulfilled. And what does that tell you? God can never fulfill his overall program until he can come back and deal once again with the nation of Israel. And so whenever you hear a statement, well, God's all through with Israel, don't you believe it? In fact, I read a comment again the other night by one of the mainline denominational leaders that the present-day Jew in Israel has nothing to do with the Jew of Scripture. Well, I don't see how they can say something like that, but that's their privilege of course. But we know that the Bible is constantly pointing to the time when God will come back and will deal with his people, Israel. And so everything that's happening in the Middle East, as I said before, is centered on the nation of Israel. I'm going to probably again, as I've said before, stick my neck out a little bit, but I have said since August that I do not expect an all-out shooting war in the Middle East. They may start tomorrow. But I'm not expecting it because if indeed a war breaks out, I'm sure it's going to be explosive over the whole Middle East. Israel will be drawn into it, and it'll be awful. But you see, that would just completely upset the end times as the Bible depicts it, because Israel is going to be intact for the great invasion that the Bible talks about, and that is when Russia, with her satellite nations, are still going to have to invade Israel in the Middle East. And they can invade a land that has been completely blown to sunder. So I just don't look for a great conflagration. I don't look for a great holocaust in the Middle East unless, unless, and we don't know, but if America is capable of moving in swiftly and just simply cleaning up the Iraqi mess by itself, that might be, but I don't look for that. I think the Middle East is just going to continue to be a simmering boiling pot until these end time events that the Bible tells about will be coming on the scene. So watch Israel. That's the key to not only the Middle East, but to the whole world situation, because all of God's Word rests on what happens to that little nation of Israel. Remember too that there are three million Jews still in Russia. They're going to have to come back to Israel. There are about six million Jews still in America. They too are going to be going back to Israel. And again, going back to an article in the Jerusalem Post last summer, a member of their parliament, what they call their Knesset, made the statement that every time an American Jew comes visiting that he has a chance to show them around, he said, I show them the West Bank, and he says, I tell them someday you're going to be living in there. And of course the Palestinians are quite of the opposite mind. But remember, the Jews are going to have to come back to Palestine. There's no doubt about it. That little country is only 40 miles wide and about 180 miles long. And for another eight, nine million Jews to come in, they're going to have to have every square mile they can get. So I don't see much hope for the Palestinians being able to hang on to what they have in the present land of Israel. And I feel for them. Don't think for a minute I don't. But on the other hand, God is sovereign, and he's going to accomplish his designed program. As I've mentioned in my classes before, you know, I can see a parallel, a beautiful parallel between the Palestinians tonight and the American Indians in the 1800s. You know, when the American Indians saw these thousands upon thousands of covered wagons coming out across the land, what did they know deep down inside? They're pushing us out. We're losing our lands. And we look at it, and it is, it's with mixed emotion. Had it not happened, we wouldn't have the great land that we've got. America would have not been an influential power in prophetic happenings. For example, if it hadn't been for America, who would have ever stopped Hitler? He would have just literally usurped the globe. But God had America ready. All right, now the same way over there. As the Jews come in, I'm sure the Palestinians are gradually going to have to be pushed out. And bad as that may seem, let's remember that all the other nations of the Middle East, they're their brothers. Do they want them? No, they don't want them. And they're going to have to take them, as I see it. But again, we can't be dogmatic on these things, but I do know what the Bible says, that God is going to have to bring Israel back. He's going to be dealing with them on his terms. And even though Israel is there tonight in unbelief, she is no different spiritually than any other secular government on earth. Just because they're God's covenant people, don't expect them to be righteous in all their dealings. They are there in unbelief. And even though there is a resurgence now in Old Testament religion, if I may use that word, and there is definitely a push to rebuild their temple, and again, as I've shared with some of you since last summer, the Jerusalem Post has reported that they've got everything ready for the new temple. They've got the priesthood trained. They've got the clothes already sewn and hanging on mannequins for the priests to use. They have got the red heifer bred up and raised, and they showed a picture of it out in the countryside, someplace in Israel. And the red heifer, of course, has to be used as a cleansing and a purifying when their new temple is built. So you see, everything is coming in so fast, and Israel is sitting there, I just kind of picture them like a bunch of red wasps on their comb. And as long as nobody bugs them, they're going to sit tight. But oh, if anybody tries to attack them, they're going to be furious. They have to be. Wouldn't you be if you were outnumbered 40 to 1? If you knew that every nation for miles around has it within their decree that they'll not rest until you're destroyed? And so we have to look at this from both sides, that everything Israel does is not always in line with what we think is morally right. But again, they're no different than any other government. They're no different than the Chinese or the Iraqis or anybody else. They're only there to attain their own ends. But above it all is the sovereign God, and His Word is going to be fulfilled to the last jot and tittle. And again, all I can say is, study the Word, be aware of the things that have to come to pass, and that Israel is in the center of all of it. There is no prophecy associated with the church. All prophecy is associated with that little nation of Israel. Now, I guess our time is gone, and we'll have to go from here back to Genesis in our next half-hour program. But study these promises on your own, and as I've said so often, this is the only reason I teach, is to get people to study their Bible. I'm not trying to build a following. I'm not building an empire. I have never asked for a dime in return for my teaching time. But all I want folk to do is learn how to study. Read the book. Not just to read a few verses for devotion, but learn to study it and compare Scripture with Scripture. And the Lord will give you wisdom. And as you study, of course, you have to be involved in prayer, because as we commune with God, He has promised to commune with us through His Word. Now I wish we could answer questions. In my weekly programs we do, but that's two hours. Here we've only got 30 seconds. So we'll see you next week. Thank you for watching Through the Bible with Les Feldick, a weekly Bible study. If you would like to be part of our studio audience, call 1-800-369-7856. That's 1-800-369-7856. Or if you would like a copy of today's Bible study on tape, send your gift of $5 or more to Les Feldick Ministries, Kinta, OK 74552.