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.