The Story: Week 10

Recap:

Our God, YHWH, created the Heavens and the Earth, and all the life that inhabits both.

Early on, God walked amongst His creation, in a place known as Eden.

Eden was a perfect union between the physical and the spiritual, a convergence point between the Heavens and the Earth.

It was in Eden that God would train up His prized creation, Humanity, to walk in relationship with Him.

To spread Eden across the Earth and to rule over it in submission to YHWH.

But humanity failed.

Another created being, described as a serpent, chose to set himself above his creator, and deceived humanity in the garden.

Where humans were once sinless, able to walk in Gods presence without any threat, now we were marred.

God, being perfectly Just could not allow injustice to live, but being perfectly merciful and loving, would not annihilate all of creation on this offence.

And so the war began.

God removed his direct and immediate presence from Humanity, so that He would not destroy them entirely, but set in motion a new plan to train humanity up in His ways, and combat the civil war that had begun.

But we humans are stubborn and imperfect beings.

Constantly we would choose rebellion, and serve our own selfish interests.

All the while siding with the rebellious forces in the heavens, who would seek their own ways and exalt themselves as the Most High.

Some of these beings, who are called the gods of the nations, or the false gods, would come to earth and breed with humans creating these demi-god beings.

Corruption and rebellion grew at an alarming rate.

But YHWH, the True God would not give up this war.

He started by flooding the earth, killing a large portion of the rebellious humans and the demi-god offspring.

But spared one man, and his family along with a variety of animals.

This was a quick reboot, but not a total reset.

With the rebellion being wounded, God could now nurture those that were loyal to Him.

Humans, slow to learn, would again rebel and attempt to build a tower to force their way into the heavens.

God would disrupt this plan by confusing the languages at Babylon and divorcing the majority of Humanity.

God assigned different peoples to different elohim, members of the heavenly host.

These elohim were to rule the nations justly and in submission to YHWH, While God worked specifically with His chosen people.

But pride would be the downfall of not just humans, but heavenly beings as well.

One by one these elohim would crave human worship, and exalt themselves above the Most High.

They themselves becoming subjects of the original rebel from the garden.

But God would not be played for a fool. He was and forever is greater than the beings He creates.

Slowly but surely He would nurture His people, the Israelites, and bring them to know Him.

However, even Gods chosen people were infected with the disease called sin.

Repeatedly the Israelites would break covenant with their God choosing to worship other gods and serving their own selfish desires.

While Israel was a cheating spouse, YHWH would remain faithful to them and the promise He made.

From the garden through the centuries God had spoken of a promised champion.

A descendent from the woman Eve who would crush the serpent from the garden.

A hero descended from the forefathers Abraham, Issac, and Jacob who would restore right relations between YHWH and all of humanity.

A successor of the great king David who would establish Gods kingdom here on earth with permanent rule.

Someone who would know God face-to-face like Moses.

Someone who would lead a military campaign like Joshua.

Someone who would rule justly like David.

Someone who was wise like Solomon.

A prophet, a priest, a warrior.

A suffering Servant.

A victorious King.

Prophets would speak of His eventual coming.

And those loyal to YHWH would wait anxiously for His arrival.

So our story continues, after 400 years of silence, with the nation of Israel under the tyrannical rule of the Roman empire...

The Gospel Accounts

There are 4 books in the Bible that record the life of Jesus.

They are the first 4 books of the New Testament.

Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.

We call them the “Gospels”.

They are named after the people who wrote them, and are quite interesting.

All 4 record the same general period of time.

Some are very detailed, others are more general.

Some record events that others don't record.

I'm going to give you the best timeline I can and walk through all of them at the same time.