A. Overall Lesson Objective

B. Learning Competencies

C. Lesson

Many books and professions deal with people and their behavior. Most have long ago abandoned a biblical creation view of man. The ramifications go far and wide as the place of man is lowered in status and animals are elevated. (The popular naturalistic world view considers us as advanced animals rather than uniquely created.) Plant life becomes part of the same non-biblical view; plants are supposed to have descended from the same original ancestor as all other life. The resulting value system, which is dependent on man’s naturalistic or evolutionary interpretation, is detrimental as opposed to that derived from the biblical framework. While many practices in technical disciplines are sound, the naturalistic view of the universe creeps in and distorts issues compared to a biblical view of creation. Things that should be important to man become unimportant; things that are unimportant get elevated. The things that he should do he does not. The things that he should not do he does.

Does the biblical view of creation in Genesis get carried into other parts of the Bible so we can observe people with a sound biblical framework? The answer is a resounding ‘Yes!’ There are too many references since much of the Bible addresses man’s behavior. For this lesson, however, we will only cover a few examples.

Let us briefly summarize the biblical creation view of man:

Let us go back to the subject of observing people around us. Do they lean toward or away from God? How can we tell? We have seen in previous lessons how God refers to other parts of His creation, but His primary focus is people. So, it is not a surprise that a large part of the Bible deals with our predicaments and how we act in situations. His purpose remains steadfast: He points us to Himself.

Proverbs 8:34-36. Please read and discuss these verses. Make notes on the two directions for living that are referenced.

Proverbs 8 is linked to Genesis because God describes creation and His attitude toward mankind in verses 22-31. The conclusion of this description is an admonition to listen and not neglect instruction. Verses 34-36 are given in first person. God is talking. He says that a person who listens to Him whenever He speaks will be blessed. This person finds favor or acceptance from God. He also describes a person who fails to find Him. That person injures himself and loves death. Two paths are shown with entirely different lives: one with the favor of God and one with self-inflicted injury to the soul. Here are two examples in Genesis: (1) Noah’s righteousness is in contrast with the population that had become so corrupt. (2) Cain, who let sin master his soul and killed his brother Abel, committed murder after a direct exhortation from God. Cain would not listen. In these examples, one can see that a direction toward God (hearing and responding to Him) yields favor from God; a direction away yields injury to oneself.

Matthew 19:16-30. Please read the story and summarize the statements of both the rich young ruler and Jesus.

This portion of scripture is about a rich young ruler who comes to visit Jesus. The link to Genesis centers on the word “good” that the young man uses. He has in his mind to determine what good thing he must do to inherit eternal life. He asks Jesus to identify that ‘good’ thing. Jesus replies with a penetrating statement, “There is none good…but God”. It is in an indicator that Jesus’ criteria for entering the Kingdom are not the same as those which are used to determine what is good in this world. What is the difference, and where did it come from?

The young ruler has a sense of what is good. It has gained him wealth but also a sense of what is important to him and what is not. Excellence to him is based on what he thinks is best. So, he is like most people, determining their own set of standards for what is good and what is not. But Jesus challenges the notion, because only God is good. The young man had assessed that Jesus is knowledgeable and that He had the key to what should be done to attain or succeed in getting eternal life. It is a common notion: we need somehow do something or be something to be like God. Again, where does that come from? It comes from the Garden in Genesis. Adam and Eve wanted the forbidden fruit to be wise like God. They reasoned that their actions would be better than consulting the One who made them. Then, they could be wise like God without Him—by doing something on their own.

The rich young ruler, not understanding what Jesus says, seeks to further justify himself. He still does not understand. So, Jesus gets to the heart of this man’s idea of attaining things and challenges him to do what he lacks at the heart: to give everything to God and follow Him. That means giving up riches, which are the result of the young man’s pursuit of excellence and the same way in which he thinks he can gain eternal life. His own sense of goodness shows his standards are no different than those of Adam and Eve, when they sought wisdom on their terms but not God’s. In the end, the young ruler goes away sad, because he is unwilling to change his criteria to God’s because it will cost him dearly. He chose not to follow God but to follow his own idea of good. He was not willing to lean toward God, so he injured himself.

Isaiah 53:6 and John 3:19-21 explain the tendency of people to come up with their own system of good and bad. Man wants to define what is right or wrong rather than choose to believe God’s counsel. Acts 17:24-31 speaks of God as Creator but also speaks of man’s choice: choose Him, which means turn away from a way that is not God’s.

Thus, when you observe people from a biblical creation point of view, look for which way they lean (toward God or away) or who they have chosen to follow (God or their own way). The Scripture has much more to say about it, but this summary is enough to guide your observation and help you determine what choices people have made. Their actions tell you.

🦕 CT? Identify five good and five bad things that were the most significant in the assignment for this class. Are the criteria for observing a person correct? How do you know? Were any of the criteria biblically based? Discuss them. Make any changes by a show of hands to vote for or against the change. Introduce any new suggestions by a 2/3 vote – a clear majority. Review the result.

So, what do you see when you observe people around you? What do they say and do? What relationships do they establish? What conduct do they have in them? Does it appear they lean toward God or away? Are they in charge of everything they do by their own rules for what is good and acceptable, or do they put God in charge of what they do? How do they spend their time and money? What are their dreams? What are they chasing after? All of these questions can be considered as you observe people with a biblical creation world view in mind. The two examples from Scripture that are outside of Genesis but relate to Genesis principles give you some hints of what to look for. People are social. They usually like relating to each other. This yields many opportunities to see what people are like, what captivates their interests, and what motivates them.

God says what happened at the beginning is very important. He gave man the capability at the beginning to communicate, make decisions and decide whether to walk with Him or not. Very few did. Is it different today? Every person has the same choices that were available to Adam and Eve, the young son (for whom Proverbs was first written), or the rich young ruler (the story in Matthew 19). How people respond to similar situations can show how they see the world around them—whether God is a part of their lives and thinking or not. These things are observable.

If people think that they are only advanced animals and that all behavior is a function of environmental and physiological forces beyond their entire control, then answers will be entirely different. This stems from a naturalistic view, where God has no part of life or the universe and we are the product of an accidental and undirected process. The conclusion for people with this belief: they are in charge of their own future by their own rules.

Observe carefully and learn. Then choose wisely how you live.

D. Assignment

What is the definition of dinosaur from regular secular sources? Is there any difference in the definition or assumptions when a believing scientist uses the word ‘dinosaur?’ Provide two written definitions from two sources (list the sources) for the term and provide one paragraph to answer the second question (list the source for this answer, as well).

E. Learning Activity

Divide into teams. Each team constructs a quick skit to display examples of at least two of the bad and two of the good things from the discussion of the assignment for this class. Remember: they are things you are looking for so you can make a decision whether you want your children to be with the person you are observing. You may not include substance abuse (drugs, alcohol) as an example, as it is obviously not something desirable in a person you want around your children.

F. Concluding Assessment

Walking with God, the Creator of mankind, enables us to observe others and make assessments for people around us. We can observe whether a person has a leaning or a tendency toward God or away from Him if we observe carefully.