Before I begin todays blog I want to apologize to folk for confusing y’all. A few individuals said, I didn’t know if I was supposed to start on Sunday or today (Jan 1) because the plans first day is a Sunday (Romans 1 & 2) and you mentioned that we’d be in the Gospels on Sabbath (Saturday) so I thought you were following the daily plan. Well it turns out that if I didn’t start on January 1 with Romans 1 & 2 but waited ‘till Sunday, then come the end of the year I’d run out of days but I’d still have some Bible left to read. So I’m following the plan in the order of the scriptures but not the days of the week.

Now to today’s study: Genesis 1-3

Something I discovered in my study that I have taught and I realize I’ve taught it wrong is Genesis 1:31a, “God saw all that He had made, and behold, it was very good.”

I’ve taught that God speaking of man and woman said, “it is very good.” The text doesn’t teach that though, it teaches God saw “ALL” that He had made and it was very good. Maybe I taught it because I like Plato want everything to revolve around us humans.

But ALL that God made was very good—nothing was just good—it was all very good.

The very good things that God gave us prior to sin that catch my attention are:

1. Marriage (2:23, 24)
2. Sex (1:28)
3. Work (1:28, 2:19, 20)
4. Free choice (2:16, 17)
5. Sabbath (2:1-3)
6. The earth and all the “very good” (1 & 2)

These all catch my attention because they all have been distorted by sin.

1. Marriage: Divorce, extramarital co-habitation, Same sex marriage
2. Sex: Porn, fornication, adultery, sexual dysfunction, sexual deviance
3. Work: laziness, unemployment, burden of labor
4. Free choice: license, slavery
5. Sabbath: Sunday, Sabbath legalism, Sabbath disregard by “Sabbatarians”
6. The Earth: pollution, global warming, meat eating for pleasure not necessity

But in the midst of all that bad we see that has come out of that first sin. There is the first positive promise of the Bible…

…because there has been a negative promise is Gen. 2:17

But the first positive promise from the Bible  is Gen. 3:15). I thank God for that enmity through Jesus!

Can I just say that it is sad within the church and within Christian homes one of the curses is embraced as good. All the other curses we say, “yep a result of sin” and look forward to their change back to good when God makes all things right as they were in the beginning.

But the one we treat as a positive that we must hold onto…I just don’t get…

“And he (your husband) will rule over you.” (Gen. 3:16b)

Men stop thinking being the ruler of the home is a good thing…that is one of the curses!

The saddest scriptures in all the Bible to me are also in these three chapters:

“They heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden…Adam said, ‘I heard the sound of You in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid myself.” Genesis 3: 8, 9

And we’ve been hiding/running from a false understanding of God ever since, thinking He is the one out to get us when really it is satan and our sin that are demanding our lives be struck down and all Jesus wants to do is find us and cover us (Gen. 3: 21) with His blood to save us. Breaks my heart! But I’m sure breaks the heart of the trinity even more!

Tomorrow: Joshua 1-5