Month: April 2017

Re:Verse reading–Genesis 4:1-16; 25-26 (day one)

[Note from Don–On Sunday, I will preach from the Easter text, Luke 24:1-6, 13-35.  Even so, I encourage you to continue in the daily study of Genesis.  Much to gain!  God bless you.]

Cain learned the tendency from his parents.  (see Genesis 3)  Never take responsibility!  Blame someone else if at all possible!   Cain was angry with God, sad face, rebellious heart. v 5.  Rather than address his own sin, he focused his frustration on his little brother. v 8.

Maybe you see the same tendency in yourself.  I do.  Be angry at life and God! Retreat into unproductive sadness!  Blame others!  Never yourself.

The truth stands, however. God speaks it.  We are NOT victims.  We have NOT been treated unfairly.  All of us are invited by God to walk a righteous path and find His favor. (v 7).  To do so, however,  we must take responsibility and master the crouching enemy.

My real problem is in me.

Re:Verse reading–Genesis 3:8-24  (day seven)

It is a strange story.  A paradox.  God curses Adam and Eve for their sin.  Then cares for them providing a covering and a promise of a Redeemer to come.  Is it possible that God is always both with us too?

The New Testament teaches us to expect this “severe mercy”.  “Do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, nor faint when you are reproved by Him.  For whom the Lord loves, He disciplines.”–Hebrews 12:5-6.

Do you complain when life gets hard? I am tempted to make both Hebrews 12 mistakes.  I “regard lightly” His discipline.  (not seeing the necessity of it).  I “faint” (give up in self-pity and despair).

Genesis 3 teaches a different virtue.  If man cannot be innocent, then he (we) must be brave and humble and patient in suffering.  Accepting God’s judgement without complaint, we look to Him for help.  The curse and the care come from the same heart.

Re:Verse reading–Genesis 3:8-24  (day five) 

After Adam and Eve disobeyed God, His love, demeanor, and concern never waiver. God doesn’t come running to them, He walks. He doesn’t shout or scream at them, He calls to them. He comes walking in the garden not descending from heaven. He arrives in the cool of the day- the most pleasant time, not in the dark of night or heat of the day. It was not the voice or method of God’s coming that was terrifying to Adam and Eve, it was the fact that they had sinned.

Why did God come calling- asking questions? Was it to locate them? (He knew where they were) Was it to gather information about how they had sinned? (He knew what had happened and what they had done to cover it up) So, why these questions? It was to bring Adam and Eve to a place of humble confession and repentance. All along, that’s what He has desired from the human heart. Psalm 51: 17 “The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; A broken and a contrite heart, O God, You will not despise.”

Re:Verse reading–Genesis 3:8-24  (day four)

It was ‘in the beginning’…God walked among His people in the garden.  Disobedience changed all of that.  Not only did man and woman have to leave the garden, but they no longer would enjoy those walks with God in the cool of the day.

Fast forward several hundred years.  The children of Israel had been slaves in Egypt for four hundred years.  They had all but forgotten who their God was that they prayed to for deliverance.  God brought them out of Egypt and made a covenant with them.  Leviticus 26 tells us that once again, God placed rules on His people…with a promise and a warning.  “If you walk in my statutes…I will walk among you and be your God and you shall be my people.”  “But if you do not obey Me, and do not carry out all My commandments…I will set My face against you.”

A relationship with God always involves our obedience.  He lays out the rules and we are to obey.  Depending on our obedience, we have either blessing or curse.  Get to know His rules (found in the Bible!) and obey…you will be blessed by your ‘walks in the garden in the cool of the day.’

Re:Verse reading–Genesis 3:8-24  (day three)

“He must not be allowed to…take also from the tree of life and eat, and live forever.”  The man and woman had taken on knowledge that they could not manage, thereby condemning the human race to every kind of evil that results from power without wisdom.  And as punishment, God kicked them out of the garden.  But was it punishment?  Is this ejection from Eden rather God’s mercy in action, rescuing us from an almost unimaginable outcome?  Let’s do a thought experiment.  If in their state of acquaintance with evil, they had also taken on immortality, what kind of existence would that have been?  Living forever as beings subject to evil would have been living forever in hell.  This is not the end that God had determined for his creation.  God loves–while we were yet sinners.

Re:Verse reading–Genesis 3:8-24 (day two) The Lord God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife, and clothed them. vs. 21

After the curse we find God’s provision. In verses 14-20 we begin to see the ramifications of disobedience toward God. Pain, death, enmity, toil these are all the result of not trusting in the Lord’s plan and purpose for our lives. What I find interesting is that immediately following the curse is a moment of real tenderness. God, seeing that they have fashioned poor coverings for their bodies, gives them something better. He has already provided for their needs post-Eden. We often think in terms of all or nothing, but God had the “long game” in mind. They disobeyed, but that did not stop his love or his provision. He wanted his creation to be redeemed, he still does. When you fall, don’t run and hide hoping to escape judgement. Accept consequences and then look for his way forward.

Re:Verse reading–Genesis 3:8-24 (day one)

“So He drove the man out. . .east of the garden of Eden.–v 24

East of Eden is the title of a John’s Steinbeck novel written in 1952.  It tells the stories of two families in Salinas Valley, California in the years after WWI.  It is a tale of depravity, love, courage and self-destruction.  The title (and story) are references to Genesis 3 and 4.

In Scripture, east of Eden is God’s poetic (literal and symbolic) description of life after the Fall.  As Adam and Eve leave the garden they travel East (the direction of the rising sun) into a new day dawning with difficulty and danger.  (The world we now live in).

It is NO part of God’s mercy to guarantee a consequence-free existence. ” Even though he sought the blessing with tears, he could not change what he had done.”–Hebrews 12:17. Lord help us obey before consequences come. Help us trust your mercy when they do.

 

Re:Verse reading–Genesis 3:1-7  (day seven)

“No temptation has overtaken you but such as is common to man; and God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will provide the way of escape also, that you may be able to endure it.”–1 Corinthians 10:13.

Eve didn’t know.  We do.
1)Temptation is common.  (Everyone experiences some version of the same attack).
2)God is faithful.  (Carefully monitors temptation so that it does not overwhelm us).
3)Provides a way of escape.  (in His time, provides a “door out”–even though it is not always obvious or immediate)
4) Calls us to endure.  (Assures us that we can).

“And though the world,with devils filled, should threaten to undo us, we will not fear for God hath willed His truth to triumph through us.”–Martin Luther, “Ein feste Burg–A Mighty Fortress is our God”

Be brave, dear friends!  No temptation is stronger than God.