Welcome to 2012! I spent last year working my way through a
chronological Bible that took me through the entire Bible in a years’ time. I was diligent at reading every day and
posting most days as well, but there were some times that I missed posting. I would like to take some time finishing in
the holes from last year.
I did not
start my blog until about midway into January, so I missed commenting on the
beginning of Genesis. I will go there
first; and, then, I will skip to the late prophets and the gospel accounts up
to the time of Jesus’ death. I read the
Protestant Bible, so I neither read nor commented on the Apocrypha.
After that, I plan to take the reading a
little more slowly and work my way methodically through the Bible – not worrying
about getting everything read in a calendar year. I hope to gear this time to help those who
want to establish a daily reading of Scripture but struggle to do so…
So welcome back to my regular readers. And here’s hope that more will join us in our
reading quest and in our faith in Jesus the Christ. Without further ado…
May the mumbling commence!
In the first three chapters of Genesis, we
have recorded two different stories of the creation of the world. The story in chapter one deals more on a
cosmic scale and arranges the creation into the seven day week that we all live
today – a week that is supposed to have rhythms of work and rest, regardless of
what our culture tells us. And there is
an important truth contained in this creation story about who we are as
humanity. Read from the sixth and last
day of creation (the seventh was spent in resting, remember):
Then God said, “Let us make man in our own image, in our likeness,
and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the
livestock, over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move along the
ground.”
So God created man
in his own image,
in
the image of God he created him;
male
and female he created them.
(1:26-27)
We are created in the image of God. God was never to be created in our image or
in the image of anything else in the creation.
And the image of God consists of both male and female. Men and women may joke about the superiority
of one sex over the other, but both man and woman is made in the image of God.
In fact, we reflect our God of love when we
enter the covenant of marriage.
Marriage, at its best, is a perfect reflection of God. Love only occurs in relationship, and in
marriage we have relationship of husband and wife to the Lord. I am NOT saying that single people are
incomplete. Relationship is the
key. We can only know God when we are in
relationship with other people.
We are created in the image of God. Hey, God is good… all the time. All the time, God is good. At our best, we are good, too. There’s a boost for our self-esteem! “God
saw all that he had made, and it was very good.
(1:31a)”
God loves us and thinks we are very good – who are we to doubt our
Creator?
Satan gathered his first attack
on humanity by twisting this truth in the Creation story in Genesis two and
three. Read two passages from this
story:
The Lord God took the man and put
him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it. And the Lord God commanded the man, “You are
free to eat from any tree in the garden; but you must not eat from the tree of
the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat
of it you will surely die.” (2:15-17)
Now the serpent was more crafty
than any of the wild animals the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did
God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the
garden’?”
The woman said to the serpent, “We
may eat from the trees in the garden, but God did say, ‘You must not eat the
fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and
you must not touch it, or you will die.’”
“You will not
surely die,” the
serpent said to the woman. “For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be
opened, and you will become like God, knowing good and evil.”
When the woman saw that the fruit
of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable
for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. (3:1-6a)
Did you catch the deceptions? One, God is holding back. We cannot be all that we can be with God at
our side. We can know good and
evil. Isn’t it interesting that Eve
looked at the fruit and knew that it was good without tasting the fruit
first?
Two, we are not like God. That’s funny!
Weren’t we made in the image of God in the first place?!? And look at what Eve said about God’s
command. Did you notice she added to the
command not to even touch the fruit?
Maybe Eve began to question what God might be holding them back
from.
When do you and I add to the
command of God and add suspicion of God and other people around us. We are made in the image of God and that’s
quite good enough. In fact, it is very
good. Without God, we cannot be all that
we can be. To be fulfilled requires us
to have God at our side!
Enough mumbling
for now…
Peace Out
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