Interplanner
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8, the nations. This section (Gen 1-11) is for the nations to know and understand that Yahweh – I AM – the LORD is the Creator. Yahweh is simply the first person singular of 'to exist.'
The neighboring nations would have had some remants of these accounts in their cosmology but surprised to find that the LORD was the Creator. The sharpest conflict would have been with Canaanite religion, a small area where Judea is now. They insisted that the creative force was in nature itself, and in sex. The religion was a fertility ritual that created and the sacrificed a child each year, in most of its villages. The burnt childs' ashes made a drink taken by the most productive farmer, who in turn had sex with the most attractive virgin of the land, to preserve the annual cycle of fertility. It was the belief that the force that made the earth was in these rituals and that the rituals called for the killing of so many children that the Lord destroyed them. The Creator was distinct from his creation, as were all the kinds and species. He sustained it.
The promise of the Gospel appears quickly after mankind's sin. So quickly that Eve's first child is thought to be 'the help—the LORD' that was promised. Not. The promise was repeated to Abraham who met Christ, who was the Seed who was coming to accomplish his work at a later time. Abraham saw his day.
So even after the narrative focuses on Israel, the nations listening to it would know that the promise of the Seed for them was still in place and was coming.
The last thing that happens before that shift of focus in the narrative is the confusion of languages. When the Gospel comes, there is a major event right after its conclusion and it picks up where this Babel event stopped. The message of the Gospel is heard in all languages from around the Roman empire by people who will return home and express it to others. The miracle of this event is that Peter spoke in Aramaic but those people heard in their own language; the confusion was undone, because the fantastic announcement was now complete.
The neighboring nations would have had some remants of these accounts in their cosmology but surprised to find that the LORD was the Creator. The sharpest conflict would have been with Canaanite religion, a small area where Judea is now. They insisted that the creative force was in nature itself, and in sex. The religion was a fertility ritual that created and the sacrificed a child each year, in most of its villages. The burnt childs' ashes made a drink taken by the most productive farmer, who in turn had sex with the most attractive virgin of the land, to preserve the annual cycle of fertility. It was the belief that the force that made the earth was in these rituals and that the rituals called for the killing of so many children that the Lord destroyed them. The Creator was distinct from his creation, as were all the kinds and species. He sustained it.
The promise of the Gospel appears quickly after mankind's sin. So quickly that Eve's first child is thought to be 'the help—the LORD' that was promised. Not. The promise was repeated to Abraham who met Christ, who was the Seed who was coming to accomplish his work at a later time. Abraham saw his day.
So even after the narrative focuses on Israel, the nations listening to it would know that the promise of the Seed for them was still in place and was coming.
The last thing that happens before that shift of focus in the narrative is the confusion of languages. When the Gospel comes, there is a major event right after its conclusion and it picks up where this Babel event stopped. The message of the Gospel is heard in all languages from around the Roman empire by people who will return home and express it to others. The miracle of this event is that Peter spoke in Aramaic but those people heard in their own language; the confusion was undone, because the fantastic announcement was now complete.