Genesis 3-4
The word "Genesis" means beginnings. Today there are all sorts of important beginnings. They are almost all tragic, but they are vital in understanding how mankind (you and I included) got so messed up. There is no end of observations in these two chapters and there are many connections between things that are said here and things that are "reversed" later in the Bible. For example, the temptation that led to the fall and to Satan's dominance happened here in a garden. Jesus' temptation was in a wilderness. That's an interesting contrast. Also the "battle between the woman's offspring and Satan is mentioned here. If you read Revelation last year, that should sound like Revelation 12. Then, of course, there is the comparison/contrast of Adam and Jesus. There are many more connections, because all of the damage done here will someday be undone by God as He works to redeem mankind.
Genesis 3
V. 1 There is no explanation given for Satan. Here, he is assumed. Later, particularly in Job and Daniel we get more information. Then, in the Gospels and in Revelation, we get more information. To be noticed also, is that Satan passes out of the story immediately after the curse, with only an allusion to his forces in Gen. 6:2. This is all to say that as major as Satan's opposition is in this life, for the disciple, apparent from the emphasis of the Bible itself, our focus, goal and what we are to do, is to equip others to follow God. In following Christ in the harvest as disciples, Satan is defeated. Revelation 12:11 And they have conquered him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, for they loved not their lives even unto death.
Vs. 2-7 There are a lot of things to observe here, but don't worry about thinking deeply about everything. As you read this year after year, the Spirit will bring different things to mind.
So, how would you summarize or describe Satan's strategy? It's the same one he uses now.
V. 3 Assuming the information was correctly given to Eve, what do you think about her "adding" to what God said? There is a lot going on there. The religious people who killed Jesus added man-made rules to what God said and they lost sight of God.
V. 6 There is a lot here, such as the description of temptation once a person has doubted God. Jesus said that temptations "must" come. This event was necessary, but doubting God is what opened the door.
Some people suggest that Adam was standing next to Eve when this happened, in which case Adam was a dweeb and a moron. "With her," probably means that they were partners.
V. 7 Eve's eyes were already opened. Now both people were initiated. Note also that sin didn't become a permanent part of mankind until Adam ate. It says that Eve was deceived but not Adam. This means that Adam walked into this, ironically, with his eyes open. To make a long story short, whatever happened in Adam was spiritual and physical. He died spiritually; and that "magic" within him, that God had put there, to pass on life to another human became corrupted and rebellious to God. There is a soulish, spiritual kind of thing that is passed on in conception. From now on, that "thing" would be depraved and be rebellious toward God.
Knowing they were naked meant that for the first time, they were embarrassed in their self awareness. There was a sense of negative judgment toward themselves and possibly toward the other. Oddly enough, they didn't have movie stars with which to compare themselves. It just happened within them. Isn't sin great?
Sin is the most powerful, destructive force on the planet. Sin permeates everything. We don't grasp this and do not understand how truly lost we are without God. And it isn't just lost-ness, it is in the edge of our attitudes and in every disagreement and every gripe. A disciple needs to understand this illness and incessant power.
Forgiveness allows God to come into our lives to break the power of sin by the regeneration (giving of spiritual life) by the Holy Spirit. The power of sin is broken, not removed. To the Christians in Rome, Paul wrote that the power is still there (ch.7) but that the HS helps us as we walk by the Spirit (ch.8) and the redemption of our bodies is the hope we live for; that is, the death of this body of death and being resurrected without a sinful nature. Amazingly, even with Christ, the sinful nature is incurable in this body. You know this theologically, but even more practically, everyday. This world is under the power of sin, in each of us, incurable and pervasive and only God has the cure…the resurrection in Christ. Dead as we were, we could not earn forgiveness, the justice for our sin. Yet even with that in place through Christ, we still need to agree with Him that we are incurable (repentance) and welcome His cure (accept Christ) and then and only then, are we JUST before Him in Christ and He can enter in and break the power of sin by the life of the Spirit.
As disciples we need a healthy respect for the sin that is in us. Jesus' words to His disciples, pointing to their ability to make disciples of others (Luke 6:39-42), explain that if we do not recognize and deal with the sin in us, we will pass it on to them, or at least lead them into a hole.
Vs. 8-13 This began our hiding from God and blaming others.
Vs. 14-15 The curse on Satan apparently also affected the animal he possessed. This curse is literal and figurative. Some aspect of his service to mankind (dust) would be more hateful to him. Verse 15 is not only his defeat by Christ in the crucifixion and resurrection, but I think there is also a reference to Rev. 12.
Inherent in what God is saying here is that the "woman" would bear a savior. This begins the promise of redemption. Adam and Eve must have clung to the hope that Eve would bear a deliverer who might reverse what they had done.
And now we don't hear anything more about Satan's influence until chapter six.
V. 16 This is a short verse with long-reaching results. Apparently there would have been little pain in child birth. Imagine that.
The major impact is in relationship to her husband. At first glance, this looks cool. She will desire her husband. What husband wouldn't want that? Notice that the words to the woman in her curse (3:16) are the same words to Cain (4:7). Give this a lot of thought. The fall brought a sickness into the relationship between man and wife. Even in Romans 1:18ff, the sickness after perverting the knowledge of God led to the sickness between husband and wife. This battle ruined marriage and turned the need for "completeness" to sexual perversion. Some say that since we are redeemed in Christ, the effect of this curse is gone. Obviously this is promoted by those who want gender equality and do not notice that since we've trusted Christ, we still sin. Sin's power is still amazingly strong, and the curse is still working.
In those minutes and hours between Eve's sin and Adam's sin, she was superior, realizing (as all wives do) that he was an idiot. Because of what she had done, she would now seek to control and withhold respect. He would live in a defensive, ruling posture. Properly understood, the curse on the woman was that because of this bent she had developed toward Adam, he would suppress that bent by force, lacking understanding and gentleness. The gender wars were spawned and it all rolled downhill from that moment, until the Spirit via Paul commanded regenerate men to love their wives as Christ loved the church and commanded women to respect their husbands (Eph. 5:22-33).
Vs. 17-19 Since the curse on Adam was longer than either Satan's or Eve's curse, you can see that God held Adam responsible. If you look at Roman's 5, you can see that it was Adam's sin that brought the curse on all of mankind and on nature.
Sometimes you wonder what Adam could have done? Eve had sinned and had to be punished. The answer is really pretty easy. All he would have had to do is what the second Adam did. If Adam had taken Eve's punishment, being sinless himself, he would have been raised and this substitution would have brought forgiveness to Eve.
V. 19 By the way, we still live from the field, even in industrialized countries, where the only time we see farms is on the nature channel.
Adam's curse was not work. He was already creatively working in the garden (2:15). His curse was that now he would have to work to live. Up to this point food was totally provided for Adam and Eve. Now, if they didn't work and toil, they would starve. That was huge. Work would now be to make ends meet.
Vs. 20-21 Adam gave his wife a good name. Verse 21 records the first death in the Bible. It was probably a sheep, killed to make skins for Adam and Eve to wear. In that sense, it was the first sacrifice.
Vs. 22-24 Adam and Eve were sent from God's presence and provision in the garden. The tree of life was guarded both because they were not worthy to eat of it, but many think that had they eaten at that point, their nature would have been everlastingly bound to a resurrection (undying) body. In essence they would have been permanently sinful and would have had to have been put in hell.
Genesis 4
Vs. 1-2 Adam and Eve believed the promise. If the hope of Adam and Eve was that one of their first two sons would be the promised one, it was crushed in what followed, both seeing, in full realization, what this spiritual sickness was that they had brought into the soul of man. You have to believe that the object of saving faith for them, and the godly line that followed, was that one of their sons, or some son of the future, would reverse the curse. Cain's lineage proved the spreading power of sin as they watched, I'll bet, with deep regret. I wonder if they thought it might be Seth. Eventually, it was through Seth, but many generations removed, to Jesus.
Vs. 3-7 At this point, we have no idea of what these sacrifices meant. It might have been offerings of gratefulness to God. Apparently there were some guidelines. It is interesting that Abel knew how to prepare an animal for offering. Notice that the point with Cain is really his attitude. Notice too, how freely God spoke with them. It wasn't that God was far off or hidden.
V. 7 The word "desire" is the same as Eve's desire for Adam. It was a desire to control and dominate. Cain was told to fight. Had he fought and asked for help, Cain might have won and done something that led to deliverance.
Vs. 8-16 This is the beginning of murder and hate. I was just reading where Jesus said that all the blood of all the prophets would be required of that generation in Jerusalem that killed Him, beginning with the blood of Abel.
V. 9 I'm always amazed at the unsurprised, openly arrogant way Cain talked to God. Back then, the relationship with God was so close and natural you could "dis" Him. We have grown further and further from God with each passing year.
Not only did God curse the ground even more, but He made Cain wander. I think that might have been to separate his influence from those people surrounding Adam and Eve. This must have been a heartache for Adam and Eve.
Vs. 17-24 This shows the line of Cain, or the line of ungodly culture, growing in the world. There are a few things to note.
First, obviously there was "incest." All you can say here is that it was watched over by God until the population grew large enough. Nowhere does it say that fathers abused their daughters. We have no clue here how many years passed, how quickly the population grew and what "marriageable" age was. We just have to trust God. This would have been the case after the flood too. Interestingly enough, when God made rules for this in the law of Moses, God forbid all incest and also outlawed the relationship that Abraham had to Sarah, half-brother and sister through one common parent.
Second, in verse 21, this line made the first musical instruments. Therefore, some churches and groups do not use instruments in worship because they originated with the line of Cain.
Third, the line of murder continued with the added idea of self justification of sin and guilt.
Vs. 25-26 Again we have no idea of the time involved in all of this, but this goes back to the time of Cain killing Abel. Seth appears to be the new child of hope and we begin to see the growth of the line of the promise.
It's funny to read this about the child of promise, and then to go to Matthew and read about the real child of promise. We who know the Lord become children of the promise, children of God, by spiritual birth. Now it is our turn to work in the plan of redemption. That's why God left us here, to keep (internalize) Christ's Word, follow Him into the harvest reaching the lost and making disciples who make disciples, who make disciples.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VJ5vq6FrlLw
Matthew 2:13-3:6
Note how Matthew shows that Jesus fulfilled OT prophesy, even in the deeds of Herod.
Matthew 2:13-23
Vs. 13-15 Notice again that the Spirit is moving Matthew to only talk about how God spoke to Joseph, the son of David. And of course, notice how this flight to Egypt fulfilled Scripture (Hosea 11:1).
Vs. 16-18 If the people had had any hope because of the coming of the wise men, Herod put that to an end. I really believe that Herod was religiously evil; that is, he had an understanding of the spiritual and thought he could control it through his actions. In that sense, he had a satanic kind of irrationality.
Notice again, Scripture was fulfilled in the coming of the Savior. Actually, in Genesis, Rachel, Jacob's wife, died near Jerusalem giving birth. Here sorrow and grief in losing her child (actually Benjamin lived and she died but she lost him all the same) were used by Jeremiah to express the sorrow of the mothers and the nation in losing their children when Babylon came into that area to destroy Jerusalem.
Vs. 19-23 It is interesting that Joseph and Mary ended up back in Nazareth where they started from. God made it their desire to return there. And oddly enough, this fulfilled Scripture in a funny way. Jesus was a Nazarene, meaning and showing he was a prophet from Nazareth, but he was not a Nazarite, like John the Baptist, having taking an oath before God, neither cutting his hair, touching the dead nor abstaining from wine.
This is funny in a way because the Pharisees said that the Bible said no prophet was to arise from Nazareth. They knew better.
Matthew 3:1-5
If you read last year, you just read about John in the final chapters of Malachi. Here he is.
Vs. 1-3 Many years had passed. Luke actually nails the time down very specifically. It is thought that John and Jesus both began their ministries at about 30 years of age. John was six months older than Jesus, as you can see in Luke. Again, John fulfilled a lot of Scripture regarding the Messiah's birth.
Vs. 4-5 In John, you see people drawn toward spiritual reality. Jesus later asks the crowds what they were seeking when they went out into the wilderness. John didn't know much about marketing…camel hair and locusts. Yuck. But the people needed a prophet to confront them with spiritual reality. This is what the world needs today, not simply believers, but disciples of Jesus who speak and live for Him.
Psalm 2
If you read Revelation and Zechariah last year (last month), this will remind you of how God will judge the nations.
V. 6 Notice how God is fighting for Zion. This is a major theme in the OT.
Notice the references to the Messiah, the coming king.
How interesting that Psalm 1 points to where a disciple grows and finds life, where Psalm 2 shows where our boldness and confidence for following comes from. Our God reigns. Disciples see God's power and control behind the scenes, and are humble on the outside, knowing that God is truly in charge, even as the ungodly sit on thrones. Paul's words in I Timothy 2 show us what we are to do as disciples: pray for those who rule, to allow us to fly under the radar and make disciples of the lost, for "this is pleasing to God our Savior who desires all men to be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth."
Especially in an election year, we need to ask the Lord to keep our eyes on the harvest as we follow Him. We just read Revelation, so we know how things will end. Nations will be controlled, but more importantly, men and women and children will be sent to hell. We need to be in the harvest today. That's what Jesus wants.
Proverbs 1:7-9
V. 7 The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge. We just read in Proverbs 31:30 that a woman who fears the Lord is to be praised. Proverbs begins and ends with the fear of the Lord.
This fear is not just "respect," but as we all know, fearing the police or punishment will make you go the speed limit. Again, if we have a real understanding of sin and its power, it is not difficult as disciples to love God for issuing His stern warnings to us. He is a loving Father, wiser than we can imagine, and He gave us His Son.
If you’re reading along and don’t have a One Year Bible, click on this link http://www.esvbible.org/devotions/every-day-in-the-word/. If that doesn't work, go to http://www.esvbible.org/devotions/ and click on “Every Day in the Word.”
I'm writing these comments to and for those who are following a One Year Bible and interested in growing deeper as a disciple, following Jesus in the harvest. My hope is to see the growth of a discipleship culture in the church. Groups of 3-4 disciples, meeting weekly, encouraging each other to follow Christ and work to reach out and make disciples who make disciples. The Bible itself is the most universal manual we have and key to our growth and service in Christ. Nothing keeps us more focused on why we are here or what we are to be doing. My comments are only meant to provide some explanation of the events or to show the flow of God's plan of redemption. My comments are in no way exhaustive, but are designed to keep us focused on Christ and our role in His harvest. My hope is that the people in these groups will grow in Christ and be willing, after a year, to find 3 others to meet with and encourage in their growth as disciples, disciples making disciples in the harvest.
If you would like a more descriptive commentary that is still readable and concise, I'd recommend the Bible Knowledge Commentary. It's keyed to the NIV, so the result is, the commentators are constantly telling you what the Greek or Hebrew is. That never hurts.
I am not endorsing any particular One Year Bible; in fact, I read something you don't, die revidierte Lutherbibel 1984.
Anyone reading along with us is welcome to do so and is encouraged to take their own notes and make their own observations. If the comments made do not agree with your particular tradition or understanding, that's OK. Nothing I've written is meant to criticize any point of view, but only to express the truth of what God has written to us, as I understand it. Send comment or feedback to dgkachikis@gmail.com.
No comments:
Post a Comment