Genesis 4-7 (Day 2)

Today I got to read Genesis 4-7 which continues from where we left off from Genesis 3. In the previous chapter we see that God has cursed man and the land because of Adam and Eve's sin. Not only that, he also gave a promise that the offspring of the woman will crush (bruise) the serpents head. We then see that Adam and Eve was banished from the Garden.

Chapter 4 begins with the story of Cain and Abel. Usually I would just treat this story as it is, I have done this earlier as well. I was wondering what does the story of Cain and Abel have to do with the whole big picture plot. What does it have to do with Adam and Eve and how things unraveled in the Garden. So the story goes as how we all remember it. Adam and Eve bore 2 sons who was Cain and Abel. Cain was a worker of the ground and Abel was a keeper of sheep. Both of them gave offerings to the Lord out of their own produce. Scripture said that the Lord had regard for Abel and his offering. This is probably because of the quality of the offering that Cain and Abel did. Abel gave the firstborn of his flock and of their fat portions. While scripture never said anything special about Cain's offering, the Bible just mentions Cain brought to the Lord an offering of the fruit of the ground. Cain was very angry because of this. We see that there's a dialogue between the Lord and Cain. We see in the dialogue that God told Cain that if he did well, in this case I see that they were talking about his offering, he would be accepted. Afterwards, we see Cain murdering Abel. God then cursed Abel because of his murder and was banished from where he was. We also see that God placed a special mark on Cain that if anyone kills him during his exile, vengeance shall be taken on him sevenfold. He then settles in a place called Nod. We see Cain's family tree and we see that his nature continues on from here as one of his sons Lamech was documented to be bragging about killing someone for striking/wounding him. We then leave Cain's scene and back to Adam and Eve who has another son who they named Seth.

Chapter 4 ends here. I then began to wonder the whole point of the chapter in conjecture with what we read yesterday. The only conclusion that I have here was the promise of the offspring that will break the serpents head would come from either Cain, Abel or Seth. We see that it wouldn't be Abel since he died before bearing any sons. It could still be Cain but unlikely since he was exiled and has a murderous bloodline as we see with his son Lamech. So the money would be with Seth. I'm not sure if what Eve mentioned about Seth being born bears weight to this but since it's there it's probably safe to speculate that it does. "God has appointed for me another offspring instead of Abel, for Cain killed him."

Chapter 5 would detail Adam's descendants to Noah. We see that there's no mention of Cain and everything was passed through from Seth.

Adam
Seth
Enosh
Kenan
Mahalalel
Jared
Enoch
Methuselah
Lamech
Noah
- Shem
- Ham
- Japheth

Chapter 6 then details that sin and corruption on the Earth increases to the point that God was lamenting over his creation.

The LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And the Lord regretted that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him to his heart.

So here we see the intro to the flood story. We find God grieving over the corruption that man is doing over creation and that there's no means to stop it. So it was in his heart to hit the reset button as we see in the following verse.

So the LORD said, "I will blot out man whom I have created from the face of the land, man and animals and creeping things and birds of the heavens, for I am sorry that I have made them."

Verse 8 gives us some sort of hope. "Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord." And we see in the next few verses that God will be sending the flood and is working with one man, Noah, who also happened to be a descendant of Eve. So we see that God selecting Noah to work with also goes hand in hand with preserving the seed of Eve/the woman's offspring.

So in Chapter 7 we see that Noah's family was preserved in the ark while the flood wipes out humanity at that time.

So today we see that the seed of the woman passed on from Seth and on to Noah who found favor from God and was preserved from the flood. I am amazed by the faithfulness of God at this point. We see from the story of Cain and Abel that the promise that he made in chapter 3 seems to have hit a roadblock. 2 of Eve's sons were already taken out of contention but God gave Eve Seth.

In the next few chapters we see that God was grieving over creation because of the increased corruption on the earth. We see that God has decided to send in the great flood but preserved Adam and Eve's line through Noah. We will see this over and over again as we go through the Bible but we'll leave it with Noah and this hymn for now.

Genesis 1-3 (Day 1)

This would be my first post where I read the Bible chronologically to support what I have learned last term with regards to the big picture of the Bible. I found it important to see scripture within the big picture that is present there to mold my thoughts around that instead of having it wander through different ideas. I want to stay solely within the big picture idea of the story of the Bible.

My journey begins with Genesis 1-3 as part of the first day of my daily devotions and end in Revelation 19-22 on the last day of the year.

Here's the stuff that I took note during my reading.

The story starts with God's creation. And there is no denying that God had created the heavens and the earth. I wouldn't delve into this deeper into looking for additional facts to support this claim but let's just lay out the vague fact that God did create everything that we see.

Time and time again God has saw that what he created was good. At the end of chapter 1 he saw that his creation was very good.

Within the first chapter we also see that God created man in his own image. God also gave them (male and female creations) the following commands.

1. Be fruitful and multiply
2. fill the earth and subdue it
3. have dominion over creation

So we see that God has created everything from days 1-5 and on the 6th day Adam and Eve were created and was given the command to fill the earth and subdue it.

Chapter 2 begins with God consecrating (making holy) the 7th day as the day where he rested from his work.

After this we probably have the behind the scenes look of Gods creation. Here we see that God planted the Garden and have filled it up with plants and livestock. This is where God has placed man to work on it and keep it. Here we also see that God has given man a helper fit for him after every creation was presented to him. The woman was the perfect helper that God presented to man to fulfill Gods command. We also see that within this chapter the institute of marriage was given.

Chapter 3 is probably where we read about the fall. This is where we find the first offense against God to be committed by men. We also read in this chapter that everything was cursed because of their sin. Apart from that, the most important scene in this chapter was when God has cursed the serpent. He mentions this:

Because you have done this, cursed are you above all livestock and above all beasts of the field; on your belly you shall go and dust shall eat all the days of your life.
I will put enmity between you and the woman and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head and you shall bruise his heel.

During the studies that I have done from last term on this I saw that the whole story of the Bible has this as the main thought. We can see that God has already promised the beating of the serpent by and through the woman's offspring. And we'll probably see more of this later on as we go through our texts.

For now we continue reading through the text that is given to us.

In chapter 3, we see that the serpent was created to be more crafty than the other creatures that God has created. We also see that the serpent has tempted the woman to eat the fruit of the tree of knowledge. We see that the woman acted on this and have sinned by eating of the fruit and also gave Adam this fruit to eat.

We also see a dialogue between God and the couple where God was looking for Adam and Eve. We see them hiding from God because they were naked and we see them blaming another person for their sin. From there God has cursed the serpent, the woman and man. We see here in this chapter that the land was also cursed because of their sin and they were left to tend to their own as God banished them from the Garden.

What we see here in a quick 3 chapter turnaround would be the perfect creation that God worked on and the quick corruption that sin has done for this creation. We also see that within this drama, God never closed the book but promised something against the antagonist that there will be an offspring that will bruise the serpents head. We will probably see more of this as we proceed and for now we are left with Adam and Eve banished from the Garden of Eden.

The next chapters that we'll be reading would be Genesis 4-7.

If you want to follow me here's the Chronological Bible Reading plan that I'm working on provided by the ESV team.

Men, Are You Someone to Imitate?

I do not write these things to make you ashamed, but to admonish you as my beloved children. For though you have countless guides in Christ, you do not have many fathers. For I became your father in Christ Jesus through the gospel. I urge you, then, be imitators of me. That is why I sent you Timothy, my beloved and faithful child in the Lord, to remind you of my ways in Christ, as I teach them everywhere in every church.

(1 Corinthians 4:14-17 ESV)

Be imitators of Paul. This is a recurring theme that you'll see in Paul's letters (1 Cor 11:1, Phil 3:17, 2 Thess 3:7-9). And since it occurs that much, it must be something important that we should take note of. I find two things that we can pick up from this verse, and I would like to tackle each of them below.

I urge you, then, be imitators of me.

Walking alone is hard when we're answering the call to follow Christ. We're going to be going against the current of the norm. Walking the narrow way would include things that are known to be boring or primitive in our current society. You'll be seen as someone who's backward and most probably be discouraged if you do it alone.  First, having someone to look up to is important in a persons personal growth in Christianity. I'm blessed to have people around me that I can imitate. The people who took me under their wing varied from the stoic readers that would always insist on reading and renewing your mind (Rom 12:2) to the kind hearted man who would spend time and counsel them till they feel at peace. It's important to have someone visible and tangible around us that we could follow and be accountable to. I also find it necessary to have these  people in our lives to be there when we're discouraged and would guide us when we don't know what to do or where we need to be on any given situation. For me, these are the guys that I would call in the middle of the night just to ask if what I'm doing is still in accordance to the walk that I committed my life to. These are the guys that would tell me straight when I'm caught doing no good. These are the guys that I entrust my life to, and these are the guys who helped me where I am now. We need our spiritual fathers and guides in Christ to help us walk the walk they have previously walked and help us steer our way out of trouble as Christ has steered them. 

That is why I sent you Timothy, my beloved and faithful child in the Lord, to remind you of my ways in Christ, as I teach them everywhere in every church.

Now to the other side of the story, can we consider ourselves as someone who can be sent as a reminder of how our fathers have walked?

I would appeal to the men of the faith. We may have walked with others before us, but now that we're here, can we consider ourselves as someone who can take the young people of our time and tell them to watch us? Do our actions and deeds remind us of ways our mentors in Christ have walked before? Can we tell the people who look up to us to imitate us while we imitate Christ? This is something that we should be mindful of because our goal as would be mentors is to point people to the God we're excited about. We need to show and tell them why we're walking this way when others aren't. The world will always be active in trying to capture their attention and would always provide a better option not to follow us and it wouldn't help at all if we're no different than this world.

The best way to lead young people to walk the way we would want them to walk in Christ is to show them how this is done. How we conduct our lives will always be the first thing that the people around us would notice.

For us who have walked before others, let's take a moment to look at our lives and see if we're someone who could tell those who are younger to be imitators of us. Not because we're perfect or we've had it all together, but because we've felt the love of Christ that compels us to love and pursue the call that he has placed before us.

The Reason for God

One of the things that we couldn't avoid during our journey in Christ would be doubt. This may come from friends, family, circumstances and even self. Doubt will always be present with us, and this is one of the things that we will always wrestle with as Christians. And this is why I would recommend anyone, either a believer or a skeptic, to read this book thoroughly. And hopefully, when you reach the end of the book, you'll eventually get to find some clarity to the questions that surround your belief.

What is your Shield?

Ned produced Robert's letter. "Lord Varys, be so kind as to show this to my lady of Lannister."
The eunuch carried the letter to Cersei. The queen glanced at the words. "Protector of the Realm," she read. "Is this meant to be your shield, my lord? A piece of paper?" She ripped the letter in half, ripped the halves in quarters, and let the pieces flutter to the floor.
-excerpt from A Game of Thrones, George R.R. Martin

Ned ended getting the bad side of the deal. He banked on the words that King Robert wrote before his death and thought that words on paper was enough to become the Lord Protector of the Realm. Unfortunately, Queen Cersei had a greater hold on the throne, she had Joffrey, the Kings son, and rightful heir to the throne.

Cersei's question to Ned before she ripped Robert's last requests was the very inspiration of this blog. Is this meant to be your shield, my lord?

Being a Christian, it has always been a question of mine if I really am one. There are countless times where I see myself down on the ground limping because of my sin compared to the times wherein I'm comfortable standing and banking on the righteous deeds that I have just done. Where could I base my Christianity? Where could I firmly hold my belief, even through the life I live, that I am indeed a Christian? Do I have that piece of paper that would say that yes, I am in good standing and, figuratively speaking, rightfully able to claim that place? Or do I have that same assurance, like Queen Cersei had, that no matter what happens, through blood and the hierarchy of their family that Joffrey, and not Ned would rule? What is my shield?

I want to share my thoughts from my journal regarding this matter. I want to share with you the thoughts that I've wrestled with and what I've thought to be my shield and my conclusion.

Don't Waste Your Life by John Piper

Don't Waste Your Life is something that I would suggest all Christians should read. It will certainly act as a compass that points to where we should look and what we should look at.

It addresses the most common sickness known to the common man as well as Christians, complacency. We tend to see the cross of Christ, learn about salvation and sit back, relax, and be satisfied that we won't suffer from guilt of sin and the fires of hell. This book should challenge you to look beyond that.

So if you want to challenge yourself to look beyond mediocrity and know what we should be gunning for, go pick this book up. Read it, understand it, and enjoy it! Hopefully you'll get to understand that it's not us that we should be making much of, but Him who is worthy of all praise. Let's all strive to understand and be satisfied by that fact. So that in the end, we'll look back and say "yes, we didn't waste our life".

God loves us by liberating us from the bondage of self so that we can enjoy knowing and admiring him forever. - John Piper

Whose Glory are we After?

Nevertheless, many even of the authorities believed in him, but for fear of the Pharisees they did not confess it, so that they would not be put out of the synagogue; for they loved the glory that comes from man more than the glory that comes from God.

(John 12:42-43 ESV)

The following chapter in John marked the final part of Christ's public ministry. All that was needed to be said was said and all that was needed to be done was done. Miracles, sermons, parables, you name it, all of these things were already done to provide the people of Israel a teaser for the glory that is to come. His final act was inching in and yet, we'd still find people who didn't believe.

You might want to ask what did they miss? They had front row seats to see the life of Christ and yet, they still couldn't put the things they've witnessed into a declaration. What hindered them from doing so?