LESSON 1: GOD’S PEOPLE

Adam and Eve

Adam and Eve had two sons called Cain and Abel. Cain and Abel both worked very hard for their parents. Abel tended flocks of sheep, while Cain worked as a farmer. One day God instructed Cain and Abel to make a special offering to Him. Abel sacrificed a lamb and offered it to God, and God was very pleased with the offering. Cain brought some of the fruits of the soil as an offering to God, but God was displeased. So Cain became angry and his face was downcast. Then the Lord asked Cain, “Why are you angry? Why is your face downcast?” Cain said to his brother Abel, “Let’s go out to the field.” And while they were in the field, Cain attacked his brother and killed him. God punished Cain by saying, “When you work in the soil, it will not yield any harvest. You will roam the earth with no purpose”. Adam and Eve had other children and their families grew greater and greater. But there was also much sin in the world, and God grew concerned for His people.

Noah and Family

Noah was a righteous man, blameless among the people of his time, and he walked with God. Noah had three sons: Shem, Ham, and Japheth. After Noah’s sons escaped the great flood, they went on to have many families, but they also started to disobey God’s will.

At the time the whole world had one language and a common way of talking. As the families moved eastward, they found a plain in Shinar (which is currently called Iraq) and settled there. They said to each other, “Come, let us build ourselves a city, with a tower that reaches to the heavens, so that we may make a name for ourselves and not be scattered over the face of the whole earth”.

But the Lord came down to see the city and the tower that the men were building. He saw their wickedness and selfishness, and was concerned. The Lord said, “If as one people speaking the same language they have begun to do this, then nothing they plan to do will be impossible for them.” So the Lord confused their words and each man was speaking a different language, and they could not understand each other. The tower of Babel was left unfinished. After that, people scattered all over the world, and this is how so many different languages formed. God’s families continued to sin. But God did not punish them. Instead, he created a new generation through the descendants of Abraham.