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O my God, I firmly believe that you are one God in three divine Persons, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. I believe that your divine Son became man and died for our sins and that he will come to judge the living and the dead. I believe these and all the truths which the Holy Catholic Church teaches because you have revealed them who are eternal truth and wisdom, who can neither deceive nor be deceived. In this faith I intend to live and die.

Amen. – Act of Faith

Opening Prayer

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Review (last class)

Cain and Abel both fulfilled their priestly role given to them through Adam by offering sacrifice to God.
Cain’s sacrifice was unacceptable as it did not represent a true spiritual sacrifice.
God gave Cain the opportunity to repent, but he did not. God’s punishment of Cain is a natural consequence of Cain’s actions.
God sent the Great Flood to cleanse the earth of wickedness and sin.
God entered into a new covenant with all of creation through Noah and his family.
God restored the roles of Adam — priest, prophet, king, son/ daughter, spouse — in Noah and his family.

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Session 14: God’s Chosen People

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Cain and Seth

There is an interesting way to look at the events of Genesis from the beginning of Creation in Genesis 1 up to the story of Abraham, which begins in Genesis 12. After the events of the story of Cain and Abel, the human race essentially split into two “families”: the descendants of Cain and the descendants of Adam and Eve’s third son, Seth.
To the descendants of Cain is attributed much of the wickedness and sin of humanity, while the descendants of Seth “began to invoke the name of the Lord” (Genesis 4:26). This means that the descendants of Seth remained faithful to God and honored His name.

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Cain and Seth

We can think of it this way: Cain and his descendants selfishly sought only to make a “name” for themselves and to honor themselves. Whereas the descendants of Seth cared little for their own honor, and instead faithfully honored God and His name.
The sinfulness of the line of Cain is very similar to the nature of the Original Sin of Adam and Eve, who, instead of honoring God and obeying Him, sought to honor themselves by taking the fruit from the tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil.

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Cain and Seth

It’s a good thing to be honored by other people for who we are and for our accomplishments. It’s not so good a thing when we honor ourselves. It’s one thing to enjoy our successes and to be happy, and another thing entirely to give in to the sin of pride, like Cain and His descendants.
In this early period of Scripture, we can follow the line of Cain, referred to as the sons and daughters of men, and the line of Seth, referred to as the sons and daughters of God.

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Family Tree

Noah’s family tree is given in Genesis 10.
Noah had three sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth. The name Shem literally means “name.” The descendants of Shem, like the descendants of Seth before, “called upon the name of God,” honored Him, and were faithful to Him. Collectively, they became known as the Shemites, or the Semites, who are the Hebrew, or Jewish, people.
The word Shemite means “people of the name.” The word Semitic is still used today to refer to people of Jewish descent.

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Family Tree

Ham sinned against his father, Noah, and against God. His descendants became the enemies of the descendants of Shem. They were the Canaanites, the Babylonians, the Assyrians, and others that we encounter throughout the rest of the Old Testament. The descendants of Japheth mostly settled in what is today Europe.
This family tree attempted to explain the different races and nationalities of the human race at the time of its authorship. It is interesting and important to note that, once again, the human race was divided into different lineages, who were not all faithful to God. We see that two of these lines descending from Noah were in conflict with each other, which brings us to the story of the Tower of Babel.

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Session 15: God Calls Abraham

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Genesis Readings

Read the following passages from Genesis

Genesis 12:1-3.
Genesis 15:18.
Genesis 17:6.
Genesis 22:17-18.

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God’s Covenant with Abraham

God chose Abraham to be the father of His Chosen People.

Meaning those whom God would reveal Himself to throughout Salvation History and eventually come to and dwell among, as Jesus Christ, in order to bring salvation to the whole world

Abraham was chosen for something very special

All God’s Chosen People would be descended from Abraham

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God’s Covenant with Abraham

The covenant with Adam promised salvation after the Fall.
Through the covenant with Noah, God gave humanity a fresh start.
The promises God makes to Abraham really begin to unfold God’s plan of salvation.
All the future covenants really are promises being fulfilled to Abraham.

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God Fulfills Promises

Covenants are part of divine revelation. All through the Old Testament, God speaks to His people and makes covenants with them
Just as the Lord had promised, Sarah and Abraham had a baby boy, and they named him Isaac. Their son was just one fulfilled promise in the whole covenant God made with Abraham.
Every covenant reveals something new about God. And in each covenant, God makes amazing promises to His people.
God is a Father who keeps every promise that He makes because He loves us.

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What is in a Name?

Although sometimes our names today have a lot of personal meaning, especially if we are named after a deceased family member, sometimes the names we have were given to us simply because our parents liked the sound of them. Sometimes they have no personal meaning to us at all.
In ancient times, names had a far deeper meaning than they often do today. A person’s name represented his or her essence — who the person was at the very core of his or her being. A person’s name said something very important about who that person was and what he or she would do.
Sometimes, in the Bible, God changes a person’s name so that the name will better reflect who that person is and what he or she has done or will do.

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God Keeps His Promises

There was great irony in Abraham’s original name, Abram. The name Abram means “father of many.” Abram and his wife were old and had never been able to have children. Therefore, Abram and his wife did not have an heir — someone to inherit their land and possession and titles after they died.
Abram and his wife knew they needed an heir, so Sarai came up with a plan. She gave to Abram her maidservant so that he could have a child with her instead and then adopt him as his heir. Abram agreed to this plan and had a son with Sarai’s maidservant, whom he named Ishmael.

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God Keeps His Promises

God was not pleased that Abram and Sarai had taken matters into their own hands instead of having faith in Him.
Even so, God promised Abram, even in his old age, that he would be the father of a great nation of people, that kings would descend from him, and that his many descendants would bless the entire world.

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God Keeps His Promises

Even though Abraham was 100 and Sarah was in her 90s, against all seeming odds, God kept His promise to provide Abraham with an heir in order to fulfill His oath, and sure enough Isaac was born to Abraham and Sarah.
God is a Father who keeps His promises to us. And to make sure we know this, He enters into a covenant with us, not because He needs to, but because He loves us and wants us to be His sons and daughters so that we may receive His love and may love and trust Him in return.

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Announcements

Next class Dec 20^th– Circles of Care & Christmas party so bring a Christmas treat to share with class!

Our Father in Heaven, please hear our prayers. We invite you into our lives and into our hearts. Thank you for loving us. You are always here with us. Help us to call on you using the words your Son taught us: Our Father who art in Heaven.

Amen

Closing Prayer

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