Ruined lives

Genesis 4

The ruining, spreading rule of sin

Genesis 4 is the story of how the first rebellion against God (in Genesis 3) led to a sad and sorry and sick state of ruin and misery on the earth.

Verse 7 is a key to understand this gloomy chapter. God counsels Cain saying, saying, "If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door. Its desire is contrary to you, but you must rule over it" (ESV).

'Sin is being personified here as a demonic force, waiting to pounce on Cain' (Faithlife Study Bible).

If people do not resist sin, it will "rule over" them and ruin everything. We see this ruining rule of sin as it spreads through Genesis 4:

Sin ruins worship making it substandard

(v3-7)

The difference between the offerings of Cain and Abel was a matter of value, cost and sacrifice. 

The Faithlife Study Bible comments on verses 3-4 saying that 'the Hebrew word order here may hint that Cain brought whatever was close at hand while Abel brought the best of what he had'.

Cain's offering had little or no real value. It was just any old "the fruit of the ground" (v3). It cost him little, was not missed and was not a real sacrifice. It was substandard worship that showed he did not highly value God or seek to honour Him very much.

On the other hand, Abel's offering was the very best he had to give to the Lord of his life. It was "the firstborn of his flock and of their fat portions" (v4). It was a costly sacrifice that showed his love and reverence for his God. "And the Lord had regard for Abel and his offering" (v4).

Sin ruins relationships making them murderous (v8-10)

This is the first of a long line of sinful murders recorded in the Bible. Though people may refrain from physically killing, Jesus warned of the anger, insults and contempt that are just as sinfully murderous (Matthew 5:21-22).

Sin ruins everything increasingly making life difficult and dangerous and disobedient (v11-24)
For Cain and his family and his descendants, sin results in poverty and a struggle to get enough to eat (v11-12).
 Sin makes them vulnerable and likely to be attacked and killed in a hostile, sinful world (v12-14). 
Sin leads to inventive ways of doing marriage and the first mention of polygamy is found in verse 19. This was a departure from God's intention for monogamous marriage revealed in Genesis 2:24.
Sin increases down the renerations and the violence of Cain explodes into the vengeance and arrogance of Lamech (v23-24).
But sin is not the only thing in Genesis 4, because God's mercy never gives up.

We see God's mercy in His protection of Cain (v15) and in the growth of families (v17-18, 25-26), the development of farming (v20), music (v21) and metal work (v22).
We especially see the mercy of God in His allowing and enabling people to begin to pray. We are told that "at that time people began to call upon the name of the Lord" (v26).

The biggest disaster of history

Genesis 3

This chapter records the biggest disaster of history. It explains why the world is a risky, sometimes miserable place in which much that is not God's will happens. It also contains the first recorded glimpse of the Gospel of salvation and gives the reason why the story of salvation (which is the great story of the Bible) is needed.

In this chapter, the dreadful Fall from the original goodness of God’s creation, is presented in three dimensions:

Firstly, we are introduced to the Satanic Dimension

Before the fall of humanity, a fall must have already occurred in the spiritual realm. We can deduce this from the fact that when Satan first shows up in the story he is already in rebellion against God.

A brief glance through Genesis 3:1-5 shows that the serpent is the enemy of God. In the Book of Revelation this serpent is clearly identified as Satan, the fallen opponent of God (Rev. 12:9). Other Scriptures hint at this rebellion within the ranks of the angelic creatures. It seems possible that this rebellion occurred during the process of creation and had some negative influence on the earth as it was being formed in those earliest stages (See Isaiah 14:12-15; Ezekiel 28:12-19; Matthew 25:41; 2 Peter 2:4).  

Satan, the serpent, concentrated his attack on the content (Gen. 3:1-3) and truth (Gen. 3:4-5) of the Word of God and successfully tempted the first humans to disbelieve and disobey God’s Word.

This leads to the Sin Dimension

 

Sin is disobedience to God’s Word, motivated by selfishness (See Genesis 3:3, 6, 11). Sin may also be seen as siding with the enemy of God (Gen. 3:1-6).

The results of sin are separation from God (Gen. 3:7-10), misery (Gen. 3:16-19), death (Gen. 3:19) and the removal of the possibility of eternal life (Gen. 3:22-24).

Thankfully there is also the Salvation Dimension

Even in this bleak story of the Fall, there is already a hint of the promised Suffering Saviour. Genesis 3:15 is the first reference to Jesus in the Bible, hinting at His Human Birth as “the woman’s offspring”, His Resurrection Victory for “he shall bruise the serpent’s head” and His Saving Death, for the serpent “shall bruise his heel”.

And here in Genesis 3 we also see a picture of humanities failure to achieve their own salvation by their works (Genesis 3:7) and God's gracious provision of salvation (Genesis 3:21). The idea of salvation as a covering or garment is developed in the Scriptures (See Isaiah 61:10; 1 Cor. 1:30; 2 Cor. 5:21; Phil. 3:9).

God’s provision of "skins" from a dead animal as the covering for sin also hints at the blood sacrifice of the cross that will achieve our salvation (Heb. 9:12).

Priests in God's Cosmic Temple

For a long time people have pondered how the first two chapters of Genesis fit with a modern scientific understanding of the creation of the cosmos, but it seems that Genesis 1 and 2 are intended to help us see the cosmos as God's Temple with Adam and Eve as the first priests.

John H. Walton has written about this way of understanding the creation accounts of Genesis, saying that 'Temples are built in the ancient world for the gods to rest in, which does not refer to relaxing, but to enjoying and maintaining security and order. With the mention of God’s rest on day seven, we can see that Genesis 1 (and 2) is also thinking about the cosmos as a temple".

This is an interesting way of understanding what Genesis 2:2 is referring too when it speaks of how "God .... rested on the seventh day". The idea of rest as God coming to dwell in His Temple is also seen in Psalm 132: "( 8] Arise, O LORD, and go to your resting place, you and the ark of your might ..... [13] For the LORD has chosen Zion; he has desired it for his dwelling place: [14] "This is my resting place forever; here I will dwell, for I have desired it."  (Psalm 132:8, 13-14)

John H. Walton shows how the seven days of creation relate to the idea of the cosmos being God's Temple. "In the ancient world temple dedications were often seven days in duration. During those seven days,the functions of the temple would be proclaimed, the furniture and functionaries would be installed, the priests would take up their role and at the end, the deity would enter and take up his rest." (John H. Walton)

In the cosmic Temple, Adam and Eve were the priests of God. John Sailhamer has argued that it is not coincidental that the two verbs “to work it” and “to care for it” (or "keep it") used in Gen 2:15 are the same verbs as those used in reference to the service of the priests in the temple. The idea of believers being priests is expanded in Scripture (Exodus 19:4-6; Isaiah 61:6; 1 Peter 2:9; Rev. 1:5b-6).

As obedient priests, who obey God's commands (Genesis 2:16), we live out a fourth aspect of the image of God which also speaks of our RESPONSIBILITY to obey God. The human image bearer would be a reflection of God, a ruler under God, in a relationship with God, and responsible to obey God.

What the Image of God means (Genesis 1)

Happy New a Year!

As I start my new Bible reading journey, using the Carson adaption of the McCheyne reading plan, I read Genesis 1 this morning and here are a few thoughts on this great chapter

Genesis 1

'The point of creation accounts in the ancient world (of which Israel was a part) is to explain the meaning of life and how we are to live.' (J. Richard Middleton)

In a most wonderful way the human dignity is explained as being made in the image of God (Genesis 1:26-28) and these verses show that the image of God is firstly to REFLECT God (v26-27).
Image means 'to reflect another who comes first...this means we are not number one , but number two.' (M. Guinan, in Joshua, Judges, Ruth Commentary , understanding the bible commentary series, p126). Sadly people prefer 'to be god rather than reflect God' (Cheryl Brown, in above commentary p126)


The second aspect of being in the image of God is RULERSHIP like God over the earth under God (v28).

The third meaning of being made in God's image is RELATIONSHIP with God. There in Genesis 1, it is only to the humans that God speaks directly and personally. In verse 28 we read that "God said to them...." and in verse 29 we read that 'God said, “Behold, I have given you ..."' Then in verse 30 when God has a word about the other creatures, He speaks indirectly. From this we learn that it is the image bearers alone of all God's creature who share in the possibility and privilege of a personal relationship with God. This is what makes us fully human, to know our Creator in a personal, word based, relationship. 

Sadly this personal intimacy with God was lost in the fall (See Genesis 3:8f) and gloriously, it can be restored through faith in our Lord Jesus Christ (John 3:16; 17:3; 1 John 5:13).

It's always better to obey the Word of God

Jeremiah 37-38 teaches us the following lessons:

Beware of a 'false hope'

The temporary withdrawal of the Babylonian army from besieging Jerusalem, when the Egyptian army came out of Egypt, did not mean that Jerusalem was safe because the Word of the Lord was that the Babylonian army would return and the destruction of the city was a fixed certainty (Jer. 37:1-10)

Don't think that the servants of God will always have a 'first class' life experience

The prophet of God did not have an easy life. For his faithful declaration of the Word of God, Jeremiah got falsely accused and imprisoned and even cast into an empty, muddy cistern (Jer. 37:11-38:6)

It's always better to obey the Word of God

Even at the very end, while the Babylonians were besieging Jerusalem, God gave the people an opportunity to be spared and for the city to not get destroyed, if they would choose to obey the Word of God (Jer. 38:17-18, 20).

Application: It is ALWAYS better to obey the Word of God!

So, we don't want to cling to false hopes that all our problems will just go away, and we don't expect to be spared all the pains of this life, but we know that it is always best to follow the Word of God and generally if we choose to "obey now the voice of the Lord ....it shall be well with you" (Jer. 38:20).

Proverbs 25:28 ESV says:

"A man without self-control is like a city broken into and left without walls."

Lord God of hosts, please give us the "self-control" to obey your Word and not give way to fear. In Jesus' Name. Amen.

Don't try to burn the written Word of God

Jeremiah 35-36 are about how people respond to the written Word of God, and the message is, obey God's Word and be forgiven (Jer. 36:1-3), try to 'burn' (or destroy it) and be 'burnt' (or destroyed) (Jer. 36:30-31). 

Sadly we live in an age in which the written Word of God is being 'burnt' in many places as people attempt to silence what the written Word of God says about the idolatries of our days.

Here are some questions from Jeremiah 35-36:

• Do we obey the Word of God as consistently as the Rechabites obeyed the instruction of their father? (Jer. 35)

• Do we think we can somehow nullify the challenge of God's written Word ? (Like the Judean king Jehoiakim who burnt the scrolls of Jeremiah - Jer. 36:22-26)

• Do we realize that God will not allow His written Word to be forever destroyed or silenced? (See how despite all opposition Jeremiah ensures that God's Word is in written form and when burnt, it gets rewritten - Jer. 36:4, 18, 32)

• And are we willing to be a part of the persistent witness to the written Word of God despite opposition? (See how persistently Jeremiah gets Baruch to go and read the Word in the Temple even when Jeremiah had been banned from going to the Temple - Jer. 36:5-10)

With God the future is bright even if the present is bleak

My reading today, Jeremiah 33-34 can be summed up as 'With God the future is bright even if the present is bleak'.

In Jeremiah 33, a bright future is prophesied because of the righteous Branch, the Messiah. He is to be King of prosperity (Jer. 33:6), Priest of pardon (Jer. 33:8) and Prophet of purity (Jer. 34).

In Jeremiah 34, a bleak present is announced (at the time of the Babylonian destruction of Jerusalem) because of sin against God.

Application to us? Believers in the Jesus (the Lord or Righteousness, Jer. 33:16) are proclaimers of the bright hope and of the bleak consequences of sin against God.

Sin is mad and bad and dangerous to our health but God is merciful in our Lord Jesus Christ, our only hope!

Proverbs 25:25 ESV - "Like cold water to a thirsty soul, so is good news from a far country."

We are people of the thirst quenching, life refreshing and restoring GOOD NEWS of the Lord Jesus Christ who came from the far country of heaven as the Lord our Righteousness, King of prosperity, Priest of pardon and Prophet of purity.

Help me to proclaim Jesus in deed and word today!