Lesson 8- Seth~ From which Jesus' roots came from

 Genesis 5

God send Cain out into the world to punish him for killing Abel. I am sure that losing 2 sons were hard for Adam & Eve. God knew this, so he gave them another son when Adam was 130 years old. This son's name was Seth. Eve named him this because he was indeed a replacement for Abel (Gen. 4:25). It was important that God did this so that Adam and Eve would have a family that God's son, Jesus would be born into many generations later (Luke 3:38).

Not much else is said of Seth in the Bible. So you see, one of his main roles in history was to have and raise children. But he must have done a good job, since that is also when people began to pray to God. I am sure that Seth had his hand in making that happen.

Lesson 7~ What became of Cain & his family?

Genesis 4:1-24

What became of Cain & his family?


In the last lesson, Cain had murdered his brother, Abel and God sent him away from the lands in which he had care for & God, to ever wander (Gen. 4:4-15). Cain went to live in the land of Nod which was east of the garden of Eden. He took a wife with him when he went. He and his wife had a son named Enoch. Enoch had a son named Irad, who had a son named Mehujaeh. Malehujaeh had a son named Lamech. Lamech married two wives named Adah & Zillah. Lamech and his first wife, Adah  had 2 sons named Jabal, & Jubal.. Now Jabal was the first person to live in tents and raise cattle, and Jubal was the first to play the harp & flute. Mehujaeh and his second wife, Zillah had a son named Tubal-Cain and a daughter named Naamah. Tubal-Cain was the first person to make tools out of bronze and iron. That means that since the 6th generation of humans on the earth, we have had people who lived in tents, cared for cattle, make & play harps, & flutes, and made & used tools made out of bronze & Iron. Interesting, huh!?

Lesson 6- Cain murders Abel

Genesis 4:1-16

After Adam and Eve was forced to leave the garden of Eden and had settled into their new home, they had their first baby.The baby was a boy.  Oh, how happy they were! Eve was so happy that she said, "With the Lord's help, I have given birth to a man" (Gen. 4:1). They named him, Cain which means possession. Later, Adam and Eve had another baby boy in whom they named Abel, which means vanity.

When these boys grew up they had jobs that they did. Cain was a farmer that planted and took care of plants. Abel became a sheep herder, which is someone who takes care of a herd of sheep.

Now do you remember in the last lesson where we learned that God covered Adam and
Eve's sin by sacrificing an animal & using it's blood to cover their sin? Ok. God taught Adam and Eve how to sacrifice animals to cover their sins, and they taught Cain and Abel to do it too. Well, one day when they were to bring a sacrifice to God, Cain brought a gift to God of food he had grown. Abel brought the best parts of a lamb to God as a gift. God was happy with Abel's gift but not Cain's. Why? Because it had to from the blood of an animal, as God had taught them to do. So Cain disobeyed God when he brought the plants and not an animal. That is a sin.

Cain was upset because did not accept his gift and it showed in his face. God saw Cain's unhappy face and asked him why he was angry & unhappy. Then God went on to explain that if he would obey him & give the right gift, he would have accepted it. Then God warned him to be careful not to let his anger turn into sin. But Cain did not listen to God's warning. Instead Cain thought on how he was mad about the fact that God had accepted Abel's gift and not his. This made Cain jealous, & angry at Abel. As he thought about it, his anger turned into bitterness, his bitterness turned into hate towards Abel. Finally, Cain's hate for his brother, Abel made him want to get rid of Abel. So he made a plan to murder Abel.

One day, Cain set a trap by inviting Abel into one of his fields to talk. While they were in the field, Cain attacked Abel and murdered him. Later, God went to Cain and asked him where Abel was. Cain told God that he didn't know. Then he went on to tell God that it was not his place to keep tract of his brother, Abel.
That is when God told Cain that Abel's blood cried out to him & he knew that Cain had murdered Abel.

For this sin, God punished Cain by sending him away from the nice fields that he had worked in & into lands where nothing would grow to wander & never have a permanent home. I believe that Cain was the first person to be a nomad. Cain was overcome with grief of what he had lost. Cain also was afraid that he would be murdered by someone else because they knew he had murdered Abel. God told him no that would not happen. To make sure of that, God put a mark on Cain that told people that they were not to touch him or get punished by God (Gen.4).

That is mankind's first murder in the history of the earth. You see, Murder was another consequent of sin. For the sin of anger was allowed to grow unchecked until it grew into hated & then murder. Now you know why it is important to forgive people before you go to bed each night (Eph. 4:26).

Lesson 5- The conquences of the man and woman's sin

Genesis 3

There is always a consequence to sin. That means that when one sins or disobeys one of God's rules there is a reaction to it. Well, when the first man & woman sinned there were consequences. Let us look at some of those consequences, shall we?

A consequence is something that happens because of our actions. Like if you were to hit your elbow real hard, it would hurt. Well, the first man & woman's sin caused a lot of bad consequences on the earth. Not only did they get kicked out of their beautiful garden home, but they also would be able to get sick and die now. And so would their children & all the plants and animals on the earth. You see, before they sinned, nothing on the earth was getting sick or dying. But because they disobeyed God's one rule, everything on earth including mankind would grow old and die. Another thing that happened because of their sin was that weeds would grow on the earth. So now, when we grow pretty flowers or plants to eat, we will have sticky thorns & weeds. That makes it harder to grow and care for a garden. And when we work hard, we will sweat (Gen. 3:17-19). But in doing so, God provided a way to get well, for thorns & weeds often are used to heal the body. So you see, God provided a blessing in the mist of a curse. 

One more than happened because the woman listened to the snake. Before the snake talked the woman into disobeying God, it had legs much like many reptiles. But after the snake talked the woman into disobeying God, God took it legs off of it and now snakes have to craw on it's belly (Gen. 3:13-16).

After they left the garden, the man gave the woman a name. He called her Eve, because she would be mother to all mankind (Gen. 3:20). God must have given the man a name also, because in the forth chapter of Genesis we see that his name is Adam. Eve means life, & Adam means red man. 

There were to be other consequences to sin, that they had not learned about yet. We will see what that is in our next lesson. 

Lesson 4 ~ How sin came on the earth

Welcome to Toni's Bible hour!

Last week, we learned what sin is. Today we will learn about how sin came to be on the earth & what God did about it. Let us get right into that story, shall we?

Genesis 3

God made the heaven's and the earth. He was happy with them. But he wanted someone to share them with. So, he made a man and woman. He gave them a beautiful garden to live in called Eden. This garden had everything that they needed, even food. Oh there were trees of all kinds of nuts & fruit as well as other plants that had food on them.

God put them in their garden home and gave them just on rule to obey. God told them, "You may eat of the fruit of any tree in the garden. But you must not eat the fruit from the tree which gives the knowledge of good and evil. If you ever eat from that tree, you will die (Gen. 2:16-17)! God gave them this rule to protect them, because he loved them.

Sounds easy enough, huh? Just one rule to obey. But it is not so easy when a friend tries to talk you into doing it anyway. That is just what happened! You see, the snake was the most clever creature of all the animals in the garden. One day, he went to the woman, and said, "Did God really say that you must not eat of any tree in the garden" (Gen. 3:1)? The woman told him that God had told them that they could eat of any of any of the trees in the garden except the tree that gives us the knowledge of good and evil. We can't even touch the fruit of that tree or we will die. Then the snake said, You will not die. God knows that if you eat of that tree, you will learn about good & evil. Then you will be like God" (Gen. 3"4-5).

The woman thought about what the snake said and looked at the fruit. It looked good! Maybe she thought, the snake was right?! Right then & there, she decided to disobey God's one rule. So she picked one and ate it. Yum, that tasted good! She took the fruit to the man and talked him into breaking God's rule and he ate the fruit too. They disobeyed God! Now do we remember what we learned a sin was last week? Yes, sin is when we disobey God's rules.

When God made the man and women, he made them with no clothes on. Just like a new born baby is born with no clothes on. But the man and woman did not know that they had no clothes on. Until they ate that fruit that God told them not to eat. The moment they ate that fruit, they realized that they were naked. Then they were embarrassed and tried to cover up their bodies by sewing leaves together to make clothes. But it didn't do a very good job. They did that because they knew that they had disobeyed God and now God would know(Gen. 2:25;3:7). That scared them. Have you you ever hid from your parents when you disobeyed them?

Well, when God saw them and those clothes that they had on, he knew that they had disobeyed him. God asked them why they had disobeyed him. They gave excuses and blamed someone else for their sin (Gen.3:8-19). Have you ever done that?

What happens when you disobey your parents & you break a rule? You get punished, huh? Well, that is what happened to the man and women. God punished them by making them to leave their home in the garden of Eden. But, before that, he made them better clothes to wear. Let us look at how god did that.

Because God is without sin. He doesn't like sin or being around those who sin. But because he loved the man and woman so much, he came up with a plan to cover their sin. Once their sin was covered, God could be with them again. So, to cover their sin and naked bodies, God killed an animal. With the blood of the animal, he covered their sin. With the skin of the animal, he covered their bodies. When one does that it is called a blood sacrifice. God did the first blood sacrifice.

So that is how sin came into the earth and how God found a way to cover sins.

note from author

Hi!

The Bible that I will be using from now on is NCV's International Children's Bible (ICB). I choose to use it as it is easier for a child to understand. I also pray that someday that these devotionals will be made into children's Bible Study books all over the world. This Bible is already translated into many languages which would make it easier for those who translate these lessons in the future. I pray that you don't mind.

I pray that these devotionals will help you all grow in the Lord.

 Sister Toni Whitacre-Kratochvil