Now, one thing that's interesting about this is that in certain places in the Bible, it
can help you to understand when that book of the Bible was written or where that scripture
comes from.
And probably the two most obvious examples of this, go to Genesis chapter 1 if you would,
the two most obvious examples of this are in Genesis and Job, okay?
The book of Genesis and the book of Job is where this will really jump out at you.
Because what is it that God said here in Exodus 6.3?
He said, "I appeared unto Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob by the name of God Almighty.
But by my name of Jehovah was I not known unto them."
So he says, "I was known to them as God Almighty.
They didn't think of me as Jehovah, they thought of me as God Almighty."
So therefore, this can show us the dating of some of the books of the Bible or some
of the chapters of the Bible because of the fact that anything that uses the term Jehovah
as the main or primary way of referring to God is obviously coming after the burning
bush.
It's obviously coming after the time of Moses when that became the way that God started
to refer to Himself as His primary name during that period.
Obviously in the New Testament that's no longer the primary way God refers to Himself because
now He's primarily referred to as either the Lord or God the Father or Jesus Christ or
the Holy Ghost in terms like that.
So if you look at Genesis chapter 1, it's very clear the change that happens.
Because all throughout chapter 1, you just have over and over again God.
So you see almost every verse, you don't even have to read the verse, you can just glance
verse 3 and God said, verse 4 and God saw, verse 5 and God called, verse 6 and God said.
So virtually every verse here is just mentioning God, God, God, God, God, God.
But what you don't find anywhere in chapter 1 is the Lord, it's just the word God.
Over and over and over again, right?
And that takes us through the six days of creation.
Well then when you spill over into chapter 2, you get to the seventh day.
And again, it's just God.
You know, He blesses the seventh day and He rested and everything like that.
Then you have a gear change in verse 4 because in verse 4 it says, "These are the generations
of the earth when they were created in the day that the Lord God made the earth and the
heavens and every plant in the field," and He starts a whole new narrative, He starts
a whole new telling of the story and instead of saying, "God," notice now, every single
time from verse 4 on, look what it says, "The Lord God," in all capitals there.
Do you see that?
Verse 5, "Lord God," verse 7, "Lord God," verse 8, "Lord God," verse 9, "Lord God."
So what this obviously points to is the fact that the children of Israel, even back when
they were in Egypt, even before Moses and the burning bush, they already knew this story
of the creation of the world.
Which makes perfect sense that the children of Israel, for 400 years in bondage in Egypt,
or even before that, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, it's not like they were totally in the dark
about how the world was created.
Wouldn't it make sense that they would know how the world was created?
So remember, before the Bible was written down, holy men of God spake as they were moved
by the Holy Ghost.
God, who had sundry times and in divers manners, spake in time past to the fathers by the prophets.
So even before Moses came along, and they actually had a written book of Genesis, book
of Exodus, book of Leviticus, book of Numbers, did they have God's Word at all?
Of course, because man has always had God's Word.
Where does faith in God come from?
Faith come up by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God.
If you don't have the Word of God, you don't have faith.
If you don't have the Word of God, you don't have salvation, right?
Because salvation comes through God's Word quickening us.
Even in the Old Testament, David said, "Thy Word has quickened me."
So what I want to emphasize to you is that God's Word has always been around on this
earth.
Now, not all of it.
Obviously, it was revealed more and more over time.
So Moses did not have as much of God's Word as David did.
I mean, by the time we get to the time of David, there's more of it.
And by the time we get to Ezekiel's day, there's even more of God's Word.
When we get to the book of Daniel, there's even more for Daniel to refer to.
Daniel could read the book of Jeremiah.
Daniel could read the law of Moses.
He could read the books of Joshua and Judges and Ruth.
So he had a lot more scripture.
And by the time we get to the time of Christ, they have the entire Old Testament.
I mean, they have 39 books worth of God's Word.
But even before the flood, men of God preached God's Word verbally, and so God's Word was
out there.
And then even in the days of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the Word of the Lord was around.
Okay?
Even before it was written down.
So this creation account is not really that complicated in Genesis chapter 1, 1 versus
Genesis chapter 2 verse 3.
And this is something that people obviously had memorized.
The Holy Ghost had moved upon men of God to preach this creation account.
And this was something that they already knew, they already had, it was already there.
It wasn't being revealed new with Moses.
They already had it.
And I'm sure that they already had a whole bunch of other stuff too.
We don't know exactly what they had and what they didn't have, but I think it's pretty
obvious that this is one of the things that they would have, which makes perfect sense
that they would at least know about the creation of the world, because that's something that
you want to know about.
So everybody's always known this story, basically.
Even before the name of Jehovah was revealed, this creation story was already around.