The First 3,346 Years

At Genesis 25:10, we come to the end of the world’s first 3,346 years since God created it. Man and woman enter the picture and are given benefits beyond belief as well as a pleasant responsibility to take care of the earth. However, through the deception of the serpent Satan, they are encouraged to disobey and contravene what God had asked of them for their own good. This disobedience introduced sin into the world and with it, the fall of mankind. Adam and Eve are evicted from the Garden of Eden and life became very difficult for them.

One of their sons murders his brother and the corruption of mankind continued to slide so much that God wanted to start all over again. To do so, He had to destroy every living thing through a flood. Only Noah and his family were spared, along with the animals God had instructed Noah to take into an ark that he had build to God’s specifications.

God then promised that He would never again destroy the world in that way. Abram comes into the scene and God selects him to be the Father of God’s chosen people, the Israelites through which God was going to bless all of mankind. From Genesis chapter 16 to the early parts of chapter 25, we followed the story of Abram, how his named was changed to Abraham, and finally having a son, Isaac, through his wife Sarah, formally called Sarai. Prior to Isaac’s born, Sarai, being anxious to give Abram a male heir, gives him her Egyptian maid, Hagar, who bears him Ishmael. Sarai then requests that Hagar and Ishmael be sent away. God pursues His own plan and the promise He made to Abraham in spite of the assistance that Sarah and he were trying to give Him. Eventually Sarah dies, Isaac marries Rebekah, Abraham takes another wife named Keturah who bears him six sons, and eventually the Patriarch Abraham dies at age 175.

But the foundation has been set for a great people to rise up through which God would bless all mankind. The story may have begun with Adam, Eve, Noah, Abraham, and Isaac, but it continues to this very day with you and me, and those that may well come after us. We are just as much a part of this story as the characters we read about and studied. The exact role we are to play is a function of our faith in, and relationship with, the God who created Adam and was a Friend of Abraham’s.

Living in the 21st however, we, however, have the benefit of being involved with more of the triune God than Adam or Abraham were. We have been ransomed by the blood of Jesus Christ, God’s only begotten Son, and being guided every day of our lives by the Holy Spirit of the Almighty.

As we close this volume, I hope you will join me, as God may permit both of us, on the next journey of this incredible story starting some 3,346 years after creation.

It would be great if you would share your thoughts or questions on this blog in the comments section below or on social media.