What happens when we decide that we know better than God’s Word? Genesis 3 is a testimony of the results . . . SIN . . . regret . . . SIN . . . Consequences.
How humanity deals with our sin problem . . .
How God deals with our sin problem . . .
Consequences can hurt–but I still prefer God’s way!
I wish Genesis chapter 1 ended after Genesis 2:3. But since chapter and verse breaks are not inspired (they were standardized in the 13th and 16th cent. respectively) I will not spend too much time worrying about it.
When I read Genesis chapter 1, I read about an overview of all creation.
When I read Genesis chapter 2, I read about the relationship of the creation to story to man and man’s relationship to that creation.
Genesis chapter 1 is a
Wait a second, maybe that is why Genesis 2 begins with:
Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them. 2 And on the seventh day God finished his work that he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all his work that he had done. 3 So God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it God rested from all his work that he had done in creation.
Genesis 2:1-3, English Standard Version
Genesis chapter 2 is about mans relationship to creation and thus to the creator…
“Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. 9 Six days you shall labor, and do all your work, 10 but the seventh day is the Sabbath to the LORD your God. On it you shall not do any work, you, or your son, or your daughter, your male servant,
Exodus 20:8-11, ESVor your female servant, or your livestock, or the sojourner who is within your gates. 11 For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day. Therefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.
The obvious topic to write on in today’s reading is the story of God’s call to Abraham to sacrifice Isaac and then His intervention when He observed Abraham’s trust and faithfulness.
But…
That is not what I am going to spend time looking at.
What I needed to hear and what spoke to me in my devotional today is the story of Abraham and the return of his deceit to not claim Sarah as his wife. I see in this story that Abraham is a repeat offender of the same sin, just like I can be…but that is not what caught my attention…
What truly caught my attention was God’s response to Abimelech,
“But God came to Abimelech in a dream by night and said to him, “Behold, you are a dead man because of the woman whom you have taken, for she is a man’s wife.” 4 Now Abimelech had not approached her. So he said, “Lord, will you kill an innocent people? 5 Did he not himself say to me, ‘She is my sister’? And she herself said, ‘He is my brother.’ In the integrity of my heart and the innocence of my hands I have done this.” 6 Then God said to him in the dream, “Yes, I know that you have done this in the integrity of your heart, and it was I who kept you from sinning against me. Therefore I did not let you touch her. 7 Now then, return the man’s wife, for he is a prophet, so that he will pray for you, and you shall live. But if you do not return her, know that you shall surely die, you and all who are yours.” -Genesis 20:3-7
God spared Abimelech from unknowingly sinning, but God still calls it sin. “I who kept you from sinning against me.” When I was a child I was taught to pray forgiveness for both the sins I was aware of and the sins I was unaware of. Society has shifted, even within the church, now sin is only sin if “I” think it is sin or know it is sin. Sin to me is no longer defined by God it is now defined by themselves. God clearly shows here that it didn’t matter that Abimelech didn’t know it was Abraham’s wife, if he had touched her it would have still been sin.
The sins we’ve committed both with knowledge and without knowledge Jesus took both on the cross. That is what is said, “I who kept you from sinning against ME.” All sin known and unknown is sin that killed Jesus, let us return to seeking forgiveness for both.
Tomorrow’s Reading: Judges 1-6
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:
These all catch my attention because they all have been distorted by sin.
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