anitasanecdotes

As Genesis 18 we see three men (angels) standing by Abraham’s tent. Abraham acts with the kind of hospitality expected in that day. He arranges for water to wash the dust off their feet, then he offers to bring a little bread for them to eat. I think the next verses are funny as Abraham’s “little bread” become bread, curds, milk and a roasted calf. That is some hospitality.

 At this point we realize that Abraham and Sarah have not spoken about his encounter with the Lord and the covenant they made together. The men ask about Sarah and proclaim that she is going to have a son. Sarah, who is listening behind the flap of the tent laughs to herself, the same reaction Abraham had when given the same news. Can you blame them? They certainly have gone well beyond the age that children are expected. This is often true of the way God works in our lives. He waits until we realize we cannot help ourselves and works in our lives to do what seems impossible. If only we could realize our inability to help ourselves earlier, God wouldn’t have to wait so long.

The Lord sends the men on to Sodom. God has a fascinating conversation with Himself. He knows what He has planned for the people of Sodom. He wonders about protecting Abraham form this knowledge but decides that He has chosen Abraham for the purpose of encouraging his family to remain righteous and that Abraham needs to know what unrighteousness will bring.

So God lets Abraham know that He is going to punish Sodom and Gomorrah because of their sin. Abraham pleads for the city. He does so in a bargaining fashion asking God if He would destroy the entire city even if there were some righteous people in it. God says that He would not; He would forgive the entire city for the sake of the few righteous. Abraham works God down to admitting that He would not destroy the city if there were even just 10 righteous people still there.

Have you ever thought that your righteousness may be protecting someone else from judgment? Just as Christ’s righteous protects us maybe our acquired righteousness can extend to others. Perhaps your prayers for those you know are struggling with issues of faith keep them under God’s protecting arm. It is important for us to be faithful in remembering others to God for his mercy.

Since God has promised to save Sodom as long as there are righteous people present He proceeds to remove them, the righteous being Lot and his family. Two angels go to Sodom, to Lot’s house. Lot offers them hospitality but the angels decide to stay in the square. The people of Sodom were inhospitable toward the angels. That is an understatement. They wanted to attack the angels and chased them to Lot’s house. Lot tries to assuage the mob by offering his daughters but the mob goes after Lot and the angels save him. The angels tell Lot that he and his household must escape.

Lot and his household escape Sodom. It is interesting though, that while Lot was considered righteous because of his relationship with Abraham, it appears that this righteousness is somewhat precarious. His wife, of course, looks back toward Sodom even as they are escaping and is turned into a pillar of salt. But Lot, too, struggles with getting too far from the old life. The angels want Lot to flee to the hills but Lot didn’t want to go that far instead he went just far enough to a little town Zoar, which means “little.”

Isn’t that the way of it for most of us? We do just enough to get by: attend just enough worship services to be considered righteous, give just enough to be considered a giver, reach out just enough to be considered helpful. God wants us to go the whole way and yet we stop short and do just a little.

Eventually Lot does end up in a cave in the hills but that unrighteous streak follows him. His daughters get pregnant by him and his offspring become enemies of Israel and to some extent God.

Matthew 7 is still the Sermon on the Mount. Jesus is now addressing the issue of judging others. The Pharisees and Sadducees made a point of judging others. They often placed themselves above others by citing the wrong that others did and completely overlooking their own shortcomings.

Jesus discourages us from judging others since we also do bad things. There is no comparison of wrongs in God’s eyes. All sins are equally as bad. We are the ones who want to rank our sin, believing that one is better than another. Even the smallest sin separates us from God. It is only through Christ that we become spotless.  Jesus exhorts us to pursue righteousness in our own lives rather than looking for unrighteousness in others’ lives.

The only area in which we are exhorted to be discerning is in looking at our spiritual leaders. We are to look at the fruit they bear not just listen to their words. If they don’t match up, in other words, if the fruit doesn’t befit the message then we need to keep away. On the other side of the issue, we need to look at our own lives to see if our fruit befits our own words also.

This is a very cursory look at a very deep chapter. I encourage you to read it carefully.

In Genesis 16 Abram’s efforts to “help” God continue. His lack of faith in God’s ability to keep His promise lead him down another difficult path.

It has been 10 years since Abram and Sarai entered Canaan and Sarai still has had not children. She, in keeping with the customs of the day, offers her slave-girl to Abram to in essence be a surrogate mother. Verse 2 contains a very poignant line, “And Abram listened to the voice of Sarai.” Instead of listening to God’s voice and telling Sarai that he will wait for God to provide, Abram listens to his wife and “helps” God out.

Gone are the days when God spoke and Abram listened and obey without question. Abram is now listening to other voices.

So Abram and Hagar conceive a child together…and Sarai becomes jealous. Again, instead of dealing with his wife he allows her to do with Hagar as she wishes. She abuses Hagar and Hagar runs away. An angel of the Lord encounters Hagar in the wilderness. The angel exhorts  Hager to return to Sarai and submit to her (perhaps Sarai’s complaints were justified).

He tells her that God will multiply her offspring. God’s promise to Abram is not void in this son. She is to name him Ishmael (“El” is the Hebrew word for God. Ishmael means God hears) because God has heard her cries for help. Hagar names God El-roi, “God who sees” and she calls the place where she met God Beer-lahai-roi, “Well of the living one who sees me.” She knows that God is watching over her and her offspring.

Genesis 17 opens thirteen years later. God encounters Abram. Even though Abram has not always been faithful, God has not forgotten his promise. He introduces himself for Abram, “I am God Almighty” (El-Shaddai) and exhorts Abram to walk before him and be blameless. Now, Abram was far from blameless. He has done at least two things that were against God’s plan and showed a lack of trust, and yet, God makes him blameless in His presence.

God changes His promise to a covenant. A covenant is a legal contract between to unequal parties. Generally, the greater party promises protection or blessing as long as the lesser party holds their end of the contract. God’s part is the same as it always has been: Abram will be the ancestor of a multitude and his offspring will own the land of Canaan forever (an addition) and God will be their God (another addition). God renames Abram (exalted father), Abraham (Ab=father, h’am= the people, Father of the people [nations])

Abraham’s part of keeping the covenant is to be circumcised and to circumcise every male in his household: slave or free. God then makes a specific promise that Sarah, the new name for Sarai (from Sarai – “my princess” to Sarah – “Princess” indicating her exalted state for the nations) will have a son within the year. Abraham laughs at the prospect and so God names his son Isaac, “He laughs” or “laughter.”

Abraham pleads with God to have Ishmael share in the covenant. God keeps his original promise to Abraham and Hager after him to multiply Ishmael’s offspring, but the covenant will remain with Isaac. Abraham obeys his end of the covenant and circumcises all the males in his household, including Ishmael.

Matthew 6 is a continuation of the Sermon on the Mount. Jesus speaks to his followers about not practicing their faith just for show. It was common in that day for the rich and powerful to make a show of their faith: giving noisy offerings in the brass collection urns and praying loudly on the street corners and in the synagogues. They were pious for the sake of showing that they were pious. Jesus says that they have already received their reward, public attention and adulation.

Jesus encourages us to practice our faith in private, in the sense that we are not to make a show of how faithful we are. It should be a part of our everyday lives, often done in secret so that only God and we know that we have been faithful. We will not win any awards for this behavior, at least in public circles, but the blessing by God will be great.

Verses 7-13 speak of prayer. In Jesus’ day the Gentiles would use insert many names for God in their prayers. Remember, that most of the Gentiles believed in many gods so they needed to include everyone in their prayer. They also heaped on the flattery in order to get the gods’ favor. Jesus tells us to pray simply and gives us a template for prayer that we call the Lord’s Prayer.

In this template, Jesus says to: acknowledge God’s relationship with us and His holiness and that He is in control ; ask God to give us what we need for the day; ask for forgiveness and for the forgiveness of others; ask that God keep us from making bad decisions. Note that this prayer does not contain all the lines from The Lord’s Prayer that we pray.

Jesus tells us we must forgive others it we are to expect God to forgive us. I don’t think this is a condition that Jesus puts on God’s forgiveness as much as it is to say, “God forgives you; so who do you think you are that you don’t forgive.”

He continues with encouragements to do things of faith for the sake of faith and not show, building up treasures in heaven. We are to glorify God with our lives, not ourselves. It is more important to trust God and not ourselves to provide for those daily needs.

There is no need for worry.

Genesis 14 opens with a skirmish between the lands to the east of Canaan and those in southern Canaan. (You might want to see if your Bible has a map of the area to get a sense of where the skirmish is taking place.) It appears that these skirmishes go on quite frequently as kings ally and then break their alliance. In this case, two of the lands in the skirmish are Sodom and Gomorrah, where Lot had settled. As the kings of Sodom and Gomorrah lose the battle the other kings pillaged their lands and inhabitants. Lot was among those who were captured, no doubt to become a slave of the conquering kings.

Just a note: The suffix “im” is a plural ending like our “s” or “es”. Some of the root words have interesting meanings. Goiim’s root is goi, which means people, nations, most frequently it represents non-Hebrews. Even today you may sometimes hear Jewish people refer to non-Jews as goy. The root of Rephaim is repha, which means giant.

Abram finds out what has happened to Lot and went with his friends and their armies to retrieve Lot and his household. The kings of southern Canaan came to greet them. King Mechizedek from Salem also comes out. (Melchizedek means “king of justice.” Salem means “peace” and is possibly short for Jerusalem.) Melchizedek who, as many kings do, also serves as the priest of the area. He blesses Abram in the name of God Most High one of the Canaanite gods. Abram understands this god to be the same as the Lord.  Abram gave Mechizedek a tithe (10%) of everything he brought back. While Abram was offered a reward, he did not take anything for himself

In Genesis 15 we see the first indication that Abram is having doubts about God’s promise. We know that enough time has passed since Abram arrived in Mamre to form alliances. Abram still doesn’t have any children and is wondering where all of these descendants are. The only one he can figure will inherit his possessions is his servant Eliezer (which means “God is my help”). The Lord continues to promise descendants more numerous that the stars, but Abram asks for proof. This is a definite sign of distrust.

God asks Abram for an unburned sacrifice. That night God gives Abram a prophecy that predicts what will happen to the people of Israel during the time after Joseph and during the Exodus. Smoke and flame pass by the sacrificed animals. This is also the sign for God’s presence in Exodus, a pillar of cloud and a pillar of flame. God promises that Abram’s descendants will possess all the lands in a very large area (this actually only happens during the time of King David).

Psalm 3 was written when David’s son Absalom led a rebellion against him. Absalom does not believe in God.

Just a note: The word Selah means “pause”. You might want to try pausing every time you see this word and meditate on what you have read.

David is not afraid because he knows that God is with him. He sleeps in peace knowing that he will be delivered from his enemies.

Psalm 4 seems to be a continuation of Psalm 3 although this is not necessarily true. After acknowledging that God is with him, David begins to address his enemies. At least David is addressing those who are not following God. He tells them to follow his example and pray to God, bringing right sacrifices, and trusting the Lord. David reprises his claim of being able to sleep in peace because the Lord keeps him safe.

Genesis 12 and 13 begin the story of Abraham. It has always amazed me that God had only to make a promise to Abram and he did whatever God told him to do. In this case God tells Abram to leave his home and most of his extended family and go to a land that God will show him. God didn’t say, “Go to Canaan.” God simply says I’ll tell you when you get there. God does promise blessings for obedience, but that’s all. And Abram goes. He apparently asks his family if they want to go along because his nephew Lot accompanies him but otherwise it is just Abram and his wife Sarai and all of their servants and possessions. Picking up a household and moving seem daunting to us but we have to remember that people in those days were semi nomadic and could pick up and go quicker. Nonetheless, it was probably quite an ordeal.

When they get to Canaan God tells him that this is the land his offspring will own. Abram moves throughout that land and in each place he builds an altar to the Lord. There are many societies that use piles of rocks to identify special places. These altars were as much a landmark as they were a place to thank God for bringing them this far.  

There was a famine in the land where Abram was settling. While it doesn’t say specifically, it appears that Abram makes a decision on his own without consulting with God. This is the first of several unfortunate decisions Abram makes in his life. He decides to go to Egypt to live during the famine. Fearing for his own safety he has Sarai say that she is his sister and allows the pharaoh to make her one of his wives. God is not pleased and afflicts the pharaoh with plagues. He promptly lets Abram, Sarai and their entourage leave.

Many of us have an easy time trusting God when things are going well for us. We believe that we are open to His leading and will go wherever He says we should go. But when things start to get difficult we begin to take things into our own hands. We try to “help” God and often make things worse. Just like Adam and Eve, and now Abram, we struggle with believing that God can be completely in control and always do what is best for us. We seem to think that we have a better handle on the way our lives should go, because, after all, we have our best interests at heart, as though God does not. We fail to see that God understands the big picture and how each small event leads to the next or to the one that is far down the road. As we take things into our own hands and use our own rationality, or should I say rationalization, we make short-sighted choices that often complicate things. But God is still involved and will work things out together for our good. Even if in the short term it may cause us pain.

God doesn’t give up on Abram. Finally, Abram and Lot divvy up the land and they settle down. God repeats His promise to Abram that his descendants will be many.  

Matthew 5 is a mammoth chapter, jammed packed with much more than can be covered in this blog. This chapter begins The Sermon on the Mount since Jesus when up a mountainside to teach. In this set of teachings Jesus challenges the common understanding of the law (Torah) and exhorts his followers to go a step or more further. He highlights love over judgment and sacrifice over self-preservation.  

The first 12 verses are traditionally called “The Beatitudes” after the Latin word for blessed or happy.  The interesting thing about these verses is that most of the situations described would not be considered ones that would make one happy or feel blessed: feeling poor spiritually, mourning, being meek, needing to show mercy, being tempted to do wrong things, being in an argument or battle, hungering and thirsting for righteousness, being persecuted, and reviled. Jesus is telling us that pursuing these things when the temptation is to do otherwise will lead to eternal blessings from God. When we find ourselves in challenging situations and choose the right path God is on our side.

We are to live our lives of faith boldly and not to shy away from trouble. We are also to live our lives at a higher standard than the rest of the world. It is not enough to live the way everyone else lives. We must hold ourselves accountable; remain steady and patient; love when we want to hate; work things out when we want to give up; make things right even if we are the ones who have been wronged and especially when we have been wrong ourselves; bear with those who frustrate, hurt and even hate us; and stand up for what we believe.

Love is to be our guide and stay. It causes us to be able to do all of these things for those we love, yes, but more importantly for our enemies and those who would do us harm. This is not taking a position of weakness. It is standing for what is right in God’s eyes. It is difficult, but god will bless us.

I do not believe it means putting ourselves in danger, though. It is possible to do each of these things for the betterment of those we encounter without causing ourselves harm, unless for some reason God is calling you into harm’s way for justice and righteousness.

The final injunction in this chapter is to be perfect even as God is perfect. This does not mean be without fault or flaw, although that is how perfect God is. The term perfect signifies completeness or wholeness. In other words don’t let the situations described break you. Trust that your heavenly Father can hold you together. Rely and lean on Him, and look for the blessing.

Genesis 9 opens with God blessing Noah and his family to be fruitful and multiply. He also now provides meat for them to eat (maybe the smell of that meat roasting encouraged him). Prior to this time they were only given plants to eat. While there was no prohibition to eating meat, they apparently never thought of it. Then God lays down his bow on its side and makes a covenant with all of creation not to destroy the earth by a flood.

Verse 6 appears to promote the idea of capital punishment saying that if a human is killed then the killers blood should be shed also. If this were the only verse in the Bible we could definitively support this form of punishment.

There is a strange little story beginning with verse 20. Noah plants a vineyard, makes wine, gets drunk, takes off all of his clothes and falls asleep in hi stent. His son Ham goes into the tent and sees his father. Hs brothers Shem and Japheth cover their father with a blanket without looking. Noah awakes already knowing what Ham did. He curses Ham and makes him a slave of his eldest son Shem. Since Ham’s son is named Caaaan, this story could be inserted to explain the enmity between Israelites and Canaanites.

Genesis 10 is a genealogy of the sons of Noah. It explains the different peoples that came from each son’s children and where they settled. Of note is the description of Ham’s descendants who become enemies of Israel.

Genesis 11 opens with the story of the tower of Babel. Because the people can communicate together they begin to rely on their own ingenuity to get ahead. They believe that if they make a name for themselves they can stay together and become great. The people have forgotten that everything they have comes from God. God confuses their speech so that they scatter into different people groups in an effort to help them depend upon Him.

The final verses are the genealogy of the descendants of Shem which lead us to Abram and Sarai. Thus the “prehistory” portion of the scriptures is finished. We now move into the stories of the patriarchs.

Matthew 4 begins immediately after Jesus’ baptism. He is led into the wilderness by the Spirit in order to be tempted by the devil. In the conversation with the devil Jesus uses scripture to thwart each attempt at turning Jesus away from God. Jesus knows the scriptures so well he can immediately bring them to mind. Even when the devil tries to confuse him by using scripture himself, Jesus has a ready answer. In verse 10 Jesus calls the devil “Satan” which means adversary, and orders him to leave. The devil leaves immediately and angels come to take care of Jesus.

Jesus immediately begins his ministry. He calls his first disciples: Peter, Andrew, James and John. What immense power he must have had that just a bidding, “Follow me” would convince them to follow.  Jesus moved throughout Galilee teaching preaching and healing. His reputation spreads from all over Israel and even into Gentile lands (beyond the Jordan).

We need to remember that the Holy Spirit often leads us into wilderness times. These times are not a punishment for something we have done. Rather they are times of preparation for what we will be facing in the future. Like Jesus, we need to take refuge in God’s word to give us the proper attitude, strength and courage to face whatever we encounter.

You probably have been noticing that the name for God keeps changing in the Genesis readings. The change reflects the different authors of the accounts as I mentioned on January 1. The accounts have been merged and one can tell who is writing by looking God’s name. This merging makes for a somewhat repetitive account of the events. I like to think of it like a television show that has two main characters and we are seeing the scenes from each of their perspectives. There are slight variations in their accounts and so when we are reading the details sometimes don’t line up, but this is always true when more than one perspective is considered. We see this in the stories in Genesis 7 and 8. The amount of time that passed during the flood varies between the accounts. What we can gather from both accounts is that Noah, his family and the animals spent a long time in the ark on the water and it was not a pleasant voyage.

In our society we seem to have a fit after even a day of inconvenience. We are amazed when people are able to tolerate unpleasantness for any length of time. Our attention span is short and we are shocked when we see that some circumstances are still present after 6 months, a year or more. Needless to say, I am sure most of us would find being cooped up in a floating menagerie, being buffeted by wind and waves, with no port to bring relief, unpleasant at least and possibly unbearable. While the scriptures don’t say it, I am sure that from time to time Noah wondered what God had gotten him into. He was fine doing what God asked before he realized just what a commitment he was making. But after spending weeks and months in the ark he was probably wishing he had thought ahead and maybe had reconsidered.

God, on the other hand, was working through his anger at humankind. At least that is my take on the reading. The most significant passage that indicates this take to me is verse 8:1 “But God remembered Noah…” Even then God took His time making the earth suitable for Noah, his family, and the animals to come out of the ark.

Can you imagine how Noah felt after the dove stopped returning to the ark?  Did his wife and children start complaining, “How much longer?” We have to admire Noah’s patience and faithfulness to wait until the God said it was all right to leave.

God recreated the world and placed Noah, his family, and all of those animals on it to be fruitful and multiply. And Noah thanked God for taking care of him. He built an altar and sacrificed each of the clean animals in gratitude. As the smoke arose it finally reached God’s nose. Everyone loves the smell of meat roasting on the grill and God is no exception. Breathing in that wonderful aroma prompted God to promise never to destroy the earth and its living creatures again, even though humankind is prone to evil.

We are taking a brief break from Matthew to start reading the first two Psalms. The Psalms are songs that express joy, faith, despair, confusion: basically every emotion a person may experience. By reading the psalms we are allowed to move from where we are now (particularly if this is a negative place) to a place of acceptance and faith. We are able to remember that God is with us in the midst of the wilderness and will see us through to the end. We are encouraged to persevere.

Psalm 1 is a beautiful song of encouragement. It advises us to keep the faith even when we are tempted to do the wrong thing. We may be hearing bad advice or make wrong decisions or be ridiculed for not following the crowd, but the psalm insists that we will be happy if we follow the Lord. The way that we can follow the Lord is by meditating on His word day and night.

While we consider all the scriptures to be the word of God, Psalm 1 speaks solely of the law of the Lord. At the time the psalms were written the scriptures consisted of the first five books, the Torah, which contain the law God gave to Moses. These were the essential writings for the Jewish for the time of the Old Testament. By the New Testament times the prophets were also included but not for everyone. The law remained the constant guide for all sects of the Jewish faith.

Psalm 1 encourages us to read and meditate on the scriptures often. In our day, we often consider our schedules too hectic to take time to read and think about God’s word. But it is exactly because we live hectic lives that we NEED the scriptures to ground us. The scriptures are like an ever-flowing stream of life and nurture. Just as the stream nourishes the strong tree that stands beside it, the scriptures make us strong in the face of wickedness, temptation and ridicule. We are able to stand firm even in the midst of the winds of change.

Psalm 2 is one of the messianic psalms. While it certainly can be applied to David, it also can be applied to Jesus. God is sovereign. God is in charge. The rulers of the earth may think they are in control, but it is just an illusion. Jesus is the victor, the chosen one of God, His begotten son. “Blessed are those who take refuge in him.”

Genesis 5 contains a genealogy from Adam to Noah’s sons: Shem, Ham and Japheth. There are a few things to note in the genealogy.

Seth is listed as the son of Adam. Neither Cain nor Abel is included. In Chapter 4 it mentioned that it was Seth’s line that continued a relationship with God. That is the only line that this list acknowledges.

Verses 18-24 speak of Enoch, the father of Methuselah, who walked with God. He never died, but rather was taken by God, a precursor of Elijah. Methuselah, of course, was the oldest person, living 969 years.

Finally, we come to Noah. His father received a prophecy regarding him: “Out of the ground that the LORD has cursed this one shall bring us relief from our work and from the toil of our hands.”  This is a direct response to the curse given by God to Adam and Eve that they would have to toil to make the ground produce. In chapter 6 we find out that Noah found favor with God.

I find it interesting that in the hundreds of years represented in this genealogy only three people (Enosh- chapter 4, Enoch- chapter 5 and Noah- chapter 6) were found to have a good relationship with God. How pervasive the sin of Adam and Eve was to taint their family tree in such a profound way. We need not be surprised when we hear of families continuing to live in the same unhealthy manner generation after generation. It is not recent news.

Genesis 6 opens with a continuing deterioration of humankind. Things have gotten so bad that people are not able to think of anything but evil thoughts. The Lord, who just 5 chapters earlier had deemed His creation very good, now is sorry He put humankind on the earth. He is ready to blot out all living creatures on the earth and in the air. (I find it odd that God doesn’t seem to want to blot out sea creatures, just an observation.) The only exception to this regret is with Noah, a righteous man. He has found favor with God.

So God decides to save Noah and his family. In essence, God is making a new creation with Noah and his family taking the place of Adam and Eve and their children. While Adam and Eve were found lacking, noah is found to be righteous. He will make a more suitable first man. Just as Adam had some say about the animals and birds that were created in the first creation story, Noah has some say about the animals in this second creation story. He will be able to choose which animals will be saved to begin creation anew.

God has chosen to let the waters which covered the earth in the beginning to cover the earth again and wipe out every living thing: humanity, animals, birds, and plants. God gives very precise instructions of what Noah needed to do to save creation. Noah does everything God commands. He builds an ark, selects the creatures to be saved and brings all the plants needed for food (the first seed bank).

Matthew 3 tells another re-creation story of sorts. Jesus’ cousin, John the baptizer is doing his job to prepare people for Jesus ministry. He is telling them to change the way they think about  things (repent) to recognize that  the kingdom of heaven  has come. These are prophetic words which would remind the hearers of similar words spoken by Ezekiel, Zechariah and Isaiah. Even his dress is reminiscent of the great prophet Elijah. As people hear and see John, Messianic prophecies probably go through their minds.

The Jordan River was often used for purification rituals in Jewish culture. It is very fitting that John would choose this place to baptize those who repent. As John sees the religious leaders of the day coming to be baptized, he knows that they are doing this for appearance’s sake, not because they have truly had a change of heart and mind. He admonishes them that they are not entitled to receive this baptism just because they were born into the right family and come from the right ancestry. They need to show that their lives have been changed. Repentance is not merely an act, nor is it merely saying one is sorry, it is a complete changing of one’s thoughts and attitudes: what was once considered to be all right is now understood to be against God’s will and the desire is turned totally toward doing His will.

John is telling the leaders about one who will be able to read their hearts and clear away those who are not bearing good fruit when Jesus comes to be baptized. John recognizes him at once. He knows that Jesus is the one who should be doing the baptizing.

Jesus, though, is to be baptized. This is a symbolic re-creation where the waters cover all that is unrighteousness and subject it to death (just as in the days of Noah). What rises from the water is all righteousness. God proves this to be true by sending His Spirit to attest to Jesus as His Son. In our own baptisms we also experience a re-creation. The old life that is enslaved by unrighteous, evil thoughts is replaced by Jesus’ righteousness. We then have the ability to truly repent, to change beliefs and thinking toward right things, and bear good fruit befitting our repentance. 

In Genesis 2 we found the man and woman in the garden God prepared for them. They had everything they could ever want or need and were free to do anything they wanted, with one exception. As Genesis 3 opens, we explore an interesting truth about humanity: no matter how many things we have, no matter how much freedom we have, we want what we cannot have.

I saw this borne out in my one year old grandson. Even with a plethora of toys and plenty of room to navigate, when given the opportunity he immediately walked into banned rooms and toward banned objects (cords, sockets, etc.). He would even look over at us before doing the banned activity as if to say, “Ha, ha, you couldn’t stop me” or “I know I shouldn’t do this, but I am going to do it anyway.”

The woman finds herself in a conversation with the serpent. It doesn’t matter whether you believe the serpent to be the devil or Satan or if you believe it to be her conscious, or if you think it is just some nebulous form of evil desire, the woman is confronted with the opportunity to do something that God doesn’t want her to do. As the conversation continues on the truth gets progressively more hidden. The rationalization against the prohibition becomes stronger and stronger until finally when standing in front of the fruit itself (notice that it is not called an apple), she doesn’t even consider the prohibition; she only considers how good it looks and what it can do for her—make her wise.

Humans don’t like being in the dark about anything. God promises to take care of them and provide for them, but the man and woman don’t trust that He is telling them the truth. They want proof and believe that having the knowledge that God has will give them that proof. And they learn the truth, when they eat of the fruit, the truth about themselves that is, that they did not obey God.  They find themselves to be naked, their sin revealed, and they are ashamed. God wants them to come clean about what they did and they blame someone else, trying to cover up their sin. God has compassion on them and covers them and their shame.

The man and woman had everything they could want and they wanted more. The only condition they had to meet was to be obedient and they chose to disobey. God gives them what they want: the knowledge of what it takes to provide for their needs. Now they have to work for it. They are banished from the garden.

Chapter 4 of Genesis deals with another not so attractive trait of humanity: the assumption of entitlement. Adam and Eve had two sons. Now when their first son Cain was born Eve said he was special, but no word was said regarding the birth of the second son Abel. One can infer from this lack of comment that Cain was the favored son. So, when each young man presents an offering to God, Cain, most likely, assumes that God will favor his offering. But God doesn’t. This makes Cain very angry.

The Lord makes a very interesting comment to Cain in verse 7:”If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin is lurking at the door; its desire is for you, but you must master it.” The Lord, already knowing what is in Cain’s heart, gives him the opportunity to master the sinful thoughts that are lurking about. We are not under sin’s control. We have the ability to master it if we wish…that is a big IF for most of us and Cain is no exception. He couldn’t get past his anger or feelings of jealousy and so he kills his brother Abel.

Cain, like his parents, feels guilt over his actions and when God encounters him he gets defensive and lies about his knowledge of the crime. Cain, who had been a tiller of the land has spilled his brother’s blood on that very ground. Now he is destined to forage for food since the ground will not yield to his tilling. Ironically, Cain is afraid that someone might kill him if he is destined to wander the earth. God show him mercy and puts a mark of protection on him. Somehow, this mark is an obvious “Keep Away” sign warning of punishment to any who would think of killing Cain. Adam and Eve have another son, Seth, whose children call on the name of the Lord.

Matthew 2 is still a part of the birth narrative of Jesus. God chooses to include Gentiles who practice astrology in the story of the birth of His Son. We Christians take a dim view of astrology, and certainly we should not depend on it to guide our lives, but God is not limited when it comes to bringing people to Himself. He uses what they could understand to lead them to find what He wants them to learn and believe.

The wise men see a star that leads them to Jerusalem. King Herod hears that they are asking about a new king of the Jews and grows frightened.

Verse 3 states that all of Jerusalem is frightened with him. This is an interesting statement. Why would all of Jerusalem be frightened by a new king, a Messiah? After all Herod is the puppet king of the Roman Empire. On the other hand, Herod is a known quantity. This new king, is already turning things on their heads…revealing himself to Gentiles through the stars, this can only mean trouble for the established way of doing business. All of this is a portent of great change occurring and no one likes change.

Herod sets his scholars to finding out where this new king is to be. Bethlehem is the place. Herod tried to trick the wise men into informing him exactly where they find this new king and sets them on their way. The wise men are warned in a dream not to return to Herod after they see the baby. Joseph is warned by an angel to take the child to Egypt until after Herod dies.

Herod finds out he has been tricked and kills all the children age two and under, just to be certain that this new king is no threat. But he is unsuccessful. Often people try to protect the life they know and go to extremes to keep from doing God’s will. But God will not be thwarted. If it takes stars, strangers, dreams, angels, whatever, God will accomplish His purpose.

This being the first blog is quite lengthy. No doubt they will get shorter as time moves on.

It seems fitting that on the first day of the year and the first day of our journey through the Bible that we begin with the first chapters of both the Old and New Testaments. They both start at the beginning of their respective stories also.

Chapters 1 and 2 of Genesis provide two varied accounts of the creation story.

The account in Genesis 1 is believed to be written by Jewish priests during the time of the exile in Babylon. It is written specifically to be used in worship.  It sounds like liturgy one would repeat during worship with the repetition of key phrases: And God said, “Let there be ____”; …and there was ____ (or and it was so); And God saw that ____ was good; And there was evening and there was morning, the ____ day.

We notice in Genesis 1 that this presents the cosmic God (Elohim) who creates just by speaking things into existence. God has an order about His creation. First, He creates the arenas in which specific objects are set: Day 1 – light and darkness; Day 2 – sky and earth; Day 3 – the seas and dry land, complete with plants. Then God fills the arenas:  Day 4 – the lights in the sky; Day 5 – swimming creatures in the seas and birds in the sky; Day 5 – everything that creeps on the earth.

On Day 6, God also creates human beings. Humans are special because they are created in the image of God. Michael Weinrich, a theologian, makes an interesting point that when humanity was created in the image of God it was created in the plural: male and female. We were created to be in relationship just as God is in relationship in the Trinity: Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

Genesis 2 was written by those who concentrated on the personal Yahweh God. When you see the word Lord spelled in all capital letters it signifies the name for God which is most commonly shown in Hebrew consonants only: YHWH. Yahweh is the God who as my one professor Ron Tappy used to say was God with dirt under His fingernails. Yahweh walks among us. My personal opinion is that Yahweh is the second Person of the Trinity, the Son, who later becomes Jesus.

While Genesis 1 says that humans are special because they are created in God’s image, Genesis 2 says that humans are special from the other creatures because Yahweh breathed life into the man. This word “breath” in Hebrew is also translated as “spirit” so God puts His spirit into us with His breath.

God provides for all the needs of humanity. The man is given freedom to walk throughout the garden and eat of every tree in the garden…almost. Even in freedom there are limitations and God places one limit on the man: he may not eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

As God seeks to provide a companion for the man He determines that only a being like the man will be sufficient. Therefore, the woman is made from the same stuff as the man. She is to be his helper and partner. The word “helper” is not to be considered a subordinate term. God is called our helper in various passages in the Old Testament. The woman is merely to be considered a partner for the creature man who should not be alone (created for relationship, as in chapter 1).

Matthew 1 begins with the genealogy of Jesus. It clearly connects him to King David and to the Patriarchs, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. While there are many familiar and unfamiliar names in the list, it is most unusual that five women’s names are included: Tamar, Rahab, Ruth, the wife of Uriah (Bathsheba), and, of course, Mary. Tamar was a Gentile who conceived twins by her father-in-law Judah (Gen 38). Rahab was the Canaanite prostitute in Jericho who helped Joshua and the Israelites capture the city (Josh. 6). Ruth was the Moabite widow who returned to Israel with her mother-in-law Naomi and married Boaz, a kinsman, to save their lives. Bathsheba was the woman who committed adultery with King David. Mary was the young virgin who was chosen to be the mother of the Messiah. Even in Jesus’ family tree sinners, foreigners, and outcasts are brought together with the faithful and righteous.

The chapter concludes with Jesus’ birth narrative focusing on Joseph, Jesus adoptive father. The mercy that Joseph extends to Mary is the first act of love and acceptance offered in the name of Emmanuel, “God is with us.”

Already in these beginning chapters we meet a God who is full of surprises doing the unexpected. These passages reveal a God who is quite different from the gods of the gentiles. This is a God who is personally involved in the lives of His creatures. He is a God who includes those who would otherwise be considered unworthy. He is a God who goes out of his way to provide for His people.

This blog has been set up to provide insights on the readings we are doing this year using The Year of the Bible by James Davison.

Feel free to read the blog each day and make comments as we discover God’s word together.

Pastor Anita

Rev. Anita Stuart-Steva, pastor

Middle Creek Presbyterian Church

12473 Montague Rd.

Winnebago, IL