Genesis 3-Genesis 5
I have said before that Genesis is a bit of an interesting book to blog about since I know a lot of the stories in it, yet I am enjoying reading it from the beginning, in order. I have read all the way up to the The Flood, and it has been interesting. no major life altering discoveries yet, but it's not about that.
The Fall of Man is a story that I am familiar with, so nothing too surprising came to my mind. I did however, have some thoughts/questions, and I thought I would discuss them here.one thing that I noticed concerns what the snake said to Eve: "for God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened and you will be like God, knowing good and evil"(Genesis 3:5). I might be wrong about this, and probably am, but it seems like...the snake did not really lie. when Adam and Eve ate of the fruit, their eyes were opened, and they knew that what they had done was wrong. so they knew about good and evil. so it doesn't seem like the snake lied but rather...told her the truth, just not the whole truth. I know this probably does not make a lot of sense, but I am not writing a commentary here, just my own thoughts and opinions and that is something that I thought.
another that I had was about Genesis 3:8-9: "then the man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the Lord God among the trees of the garden. But the Lord God called to the man, "where are you?" my thought came from the word "but." the word "but" is used in sentence to state that what was said in the previous part of the sentence is not...correct for lack of a better word. so with this in mind, when it says that they hid from God among the trees but that God called out to the man, it makes me think...did God know where Adam was hiding? just an interesting thought. the word "but" implies that the first part of the sentence is not true or correct, therefore the "but" so does it mean that God knew where Adam was hiding?did God know exactly what had happened? or was God being sarcastic when He asked Adam where he was?weird thoughts I know but what can I say? I'm kinda...strange.
I am a romantic. one of the things I want the most, is to find a guy and marry him, and have a family, and teach them about God and learn about God and life from them, etc. so with that, it is no surprise that this verse "your desire will be for your husband, and he will rule over you"(genesis 3:16) caught my eye. this is part of the curse/consequences that God gives to Eve, and it made me wonder if prior to the Fall, woman's desire was not for romance, not for a guy to love her, or to get married or any of that but for God. not that these desires were not there but maybe God was truly the number 1 desire for woman. that is so hard for me to even imagine, but I wish it was still reality you know? as much as I try...I just cannot do it. another thought that I had from this verse was that maybe when God said "rule over you" He didn't mean it in a controlling, power kind of a way. maybe He meant it in an...emotional, in thoughts, kinda way. I had this thought because it is no secret that I have been in love with this one guy for about 3 years, and he does rule over me in a way. I do think about him a lot, I do care more about him than about myself, and so many of my emotions and thoughts are devoted to him(I know, I know, I'm working on it). So when I read "rule over you" that is what I thought about.
And the LORD God said, “The man has now become like one of us, knowing good and evil. He must not be allowed to reach out his hand and take also from the tree of life and eat, and live forever.” 23 So the LORD God banished him from the Garden of Eden to work the ground from which he had been taken. 24 After he drove the man out, he placed on the east side[e] of the Garden of Eden cherubim and a flaming sword flashing back and forth to guard the way to the tree of life." I have written about this thought in a previous post, but when I read this, it did not sound to me like being cast out of the garden or dying were part of the curse. it sounded like God drove them out of the garden so they couldn't eat from the tree of life so they would die. and God wanted man to die because man now knew about good and evil, and it doesn't sound like God wanted man to live forever now that he knew about good and evil(this also kinda supports my earlier theory that what the snake said would happen, did happen). again, really weird theory but I tend to have a lot of those.
"The LORD looked with favor on Abel and his offering, 5 but on Cain and his offering he did not look with favor. So Cain was very angry, and his face was downcast"(Genesis 4:4-5). the thought that I had about this passage is that it doesn't sound...fair. it sounds like God is being unfair.it makes God seem like He's playing favorites. I must admit that one of the hardest things about being friends with Brent Bailey is that he is so good at everything, that I know I will never ever be able to measure up. sometimes I feel...inadequate. sometimes I really believe that he is such a better christian than I am. he's compassionate, he loves people, he never gets mad or angry but no matter what you say or do to him, he never gets mad or gets revenge or anything. he reads his bible a lot, he reads christian living books all the time, he goes to life group,etc. and me? i buy christian books but never get around to reading them, I didn't go to life group this past year, and I get mad at people. so basically, he's Abel and I'm Cain. and what this verse says is that God will prefer Brent and not Millie. maybe there is more to the story, but this is one of those stories that doesn't make God look good.
Now Cain said to his brother Abel, “Let’s go out to the field.”[d] While they were in the field, Cain attacked his brother Abel and killed him.9 Then the LORD said to Cain, “Where is your brother Abel?” “I don’t know,” he replied. “Am I my brother’s keeper?” 10 The LORD said, “What have you done? Listen! Your brother’s blood cries out to me from the ground"(Genesis 4:8-10). this verse made me wonder if Cain meant to kill or not. since no human had been killed(assumingly) by another human before, it makes me wonder if Cain meant to kill Abel or not. I guess we'll never know for sure. I also noticed/thought that God always knew what had happened...He knew what Adam and Eve did, He knew what Cain had done...yet he always asked them. it's almost as if He was giving them a chance to confess to Him what they had done.interesting thought huh? I also had some verses that I did not really get.Verse 21:21 "His brother’s name was Jubal; he was the father of all who play stringed instruments and pipes." I found weird. just...did not make sense to me. verse 17 says that Cain lay with his wife, but we aren't told beforehand that he had a wife so I wonder where he got one from.
"At that time people began to call on[i] the name of the LORD"(Genesis 4:26). I think that this is when people began praying for the first time. I am probably wrong, but that what it sounded like to me.
chapter 5 was not very interesting, although this verse did stick out to me:21" When Enoch had lived 65 years, he became the father of Methuselah. 22 After he became the father of Methuselah, Enoch walked faithfully with God 300 years and had other sons and daughters. 23 Altogether, Enoch lived a total of 365 years. 24 Enoch walked faithfully with God; then he was no more, because God took him away"(Genesis 5:21-24). This stuck out to me because the description of Enoch is different than the others. none of the others in the line are described as having walked faithfully with the Lord. we are just given the genealogical information.is there a significance to this? Was Enoch different?
I know that my thoughts are weird and crazy and probably do not make much sense. I'm sure Brent would have had a bunch of deep and meaningful thoughts and revelations that would have made for an excellent blog post. but I'm not Brent, and I like my crazy thoughts at least they stand out from the crowd right? I am very excited to be doing this and while I haven't had deep and life changing revelations yet, that's not what it's about for me. I'm excited to be learning God's story better.
Tuesday, June 14, 2011
Tuesday, June 7, 2011
Genesis 2
Genesis 2 is considered to be the second creation story. however, while I was reading it, I did not really get a "second creation story vibe." to me, it seemed to be more of a continuation. God has created the universe, the world in the first chapter and in this second chapter it was more like God was putting the finishing touches if you will. for example, it says that "Now no shrub had yet appeared on the earth[a] and no plant had yet sprung up, for the LORD God had not sent rain on the earth and there was no one to work the ground (Gen 2:5)." Maybe this doesn't mean that He hadn't created it yet but that He had but He hadn't made it grow yet. and the verses that mention God creating trees from the ground, etc...maybe it doesn't mean He was creating the world but maybe this is God creating the Garden of Eden. maybe this second chapter is the story of the creation of the Garden and God putting Adam into it. it does say in the first chapter of Genesis that God created them Male and Female. Maybe the first chapter is "overall" and this second chapter is more of a focus in on God creating Woman and creating the garden. I am not saying I am right, but that this is what it appeared to me. fair warning, my crazy mind will probably come up with a lot of crazy and wacky things on this journey, so just be prepared for that.
At the beginning of this chapter, it says "By the seventh day God had finished the work he had been doing; so on the seventh day he rested from all his work. 3 Then God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it he rested from all the work of creating that he had done (Gen 2:2-3)." When I read this, I had this thought that maybe God created resting. Maybe rest is part of Creation. God worked and then when He was done He rested, even though He does not have to rest. He still rested. Was He creating resting?since He doesn't have to rest, then by resting He was, in a way, creating the concept. Maybe we should look at Resting as what God created on the 7th day of Creation and look at resting as part of Creation.
“You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; 17 but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat from it you will certainly die.”(Gen 2:16-17)." I had this thought while reading this chapter. I haven't gotten to The Fall story yet, so I am getting a bit ahead of myself. it's more of a question really. There was a tree of the knowledge of good and evil, and there was also the tree of life. Maybe death was not a punishment for sinning, and neither was being cast out of the garden. I heard a professor once talking about this in class, so this was not an idea from my own mind but reading this reminded me of this. maybe being cast out of the garden was because God did not want them to eat of the tree of life anymore, because He did not want them to live forever in this new Fallen state of life.and so God cast them away from the garden, from the tree of life, so they would die and not always have to life in that Fallen state they had created when they disobeyed God. again, not an idea that came from me but from a professor but it makes sense to me and it is something that reading this reminded me of and made me think about. of course this is assuming that the tree of life is what kept them from dying, which brings me to this thought/question I just had: what did the tree of life do? did it keep them from dying? did it help them live the life God created them for?or did it do nothing?what was it?what was its purposes? Moses mentioned it for a reason right?
"The LORD God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him(Gen 2: 18)." I have this book that deals with things you can do to prepare yourself for marriage, and one of the things that the author says in it is that when God saw that man was alone, that it was not good for him to be alone, He created a helper, a partner, for him. He did not create friends for man, He did not create a life group, a support group, a bible, a church, etc. for Man. He gave him a partner. the author also said that Adam had the perfect relationship with God, literally, and God still saw that it was not good for Adam to be alone. maybe just because you have a good relationship with God doesn't mean that it is still good for you to be alone. and that's what I feel like my friends are always telling me, and I just don't buy it. at least, at this very moment in time, I don't buy it.
Those are the thoughts that this chapter brought out. most of them aren't ideas that came from me, but that's okay I think. Genesis is an interesting chapter just because I do know the stories, so its hard to just go with the thoughts I had when reading it and not what I've learned in class or from people. still, I'm enjoying it. :) :)
At the beginning of this chapter, it says "By the seventh day God had finished the work he had been doing; so on the seventh day he rested from all his work. 3 Then God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it he rested from all the work of creating that he had done (Gen 2:2-3)." When I read this, I had this thought that maybe God created resting. Maybe rest is part of Creation. God worked and then when He was done He rested, even though He does not have to rest. He still rested. Was He creating resting?since He doesn't have to rest, then by resting He was, in a way, creating the concept. Maybe we should look at Resting as what God created on the 7th day of Creation and look at resting as part of Creation.
“You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; 17 but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat from it you will certainly die.”(Gen 2:16-17)." I had this thought while reading this chapter. I haven't gotten to The Fall story yet, so I am getting a bit ahead of myself. it's more of a question really. There was a tree of the knowledge of good and evil, and there was also the tree of life. Maybe death was not a punishment for sinning, and neither was being cast out of the garden. I heard a professor once talking about this in class, so this was not an idea from my own mind but reading this reminded me of this. maybe being cast out of the garden was because God did not want them to eat of the tree of life anymore, because He did not want them to live forever in this new Fallen state of life.and so God cast them away from the garden, from the tree of life, so they would die and not always have to life in that Fallen state they had created when they disobeyed God. again, not an idea that came from me but from a professor but it makes sense to me and it is something that reading this reminded me of and made me think about. of course this is assuming that the tree of life is what kept them from dying, which brings me to this thought/question I just had: what did the tree of life do? did it keep them from dying? did it help them live the life God created them for?or did it do nothing?what was it?what was its purposes? Moses mentioned it for a reason right?
"The LORD God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him(Gen 2: 18)." I have this book that deals with things you can do to prepare yourself for marriage, and one of the things that the author says in it is that when God saw that man was alone, that it was not good for him to be alone, He created a helper, a partner, for him. He did not create friends for man, He did not create a life group, a support group, a bible, a church, etc. for Man. He gave him a partner. the author also said that Adam had the perfect relationship with God, literally, and God still saw that it was not good for Adam to be alone. maybe just because you have a good relationship with God doesn't mean that it is still good for you to be alone. and that's what I feel like my friends are always telling me, and I just don't buy it. at least, at this very moment in time, I don't buy it.
Those are the thoughts that this chapter brought out. most of them aren't ideas that came from me, but that's okay I think. Genesis is an interesting chapter just because I do know the stories, so its hard to just go with the thoughts I had when reading it and not what I've learned in class or from people. still, I'm enjoying it. :) :)
Tuesday, May 24, 2011
Genesis 1
I want to begin by saying that I am becoming that person that has a ton of bibles, but the last two that I bought are really good resources. one is King James's Version and it is color coded...not just by chapter but by verse. each verse is highlighted according to the subject matter that it talks about. it also includes a year long plan to read the entire bible and maps, etc. I also bought bible tabs color coded by book type, so the Pentateuch is red, history books are orange,etc.it is a good bible to take with me to China because I will really have to learn to do my own bible studies and my own bible devos since I won't have really have the same type of church in China that I have here, with the campus ministry and events and devos, etc. And since I won't have Brent Bailey around to give my verses or stories in the bible to go to, and since I don't have a lot of in-depth bible knowledge since I'm relatively new to bible studying, I am glad I found a bible where I the verses are color coded and I love the tabs because it completes the color coding. now I will learn which books are what type; I will know the history books, the wisdom and poetry books, the letters, the prophets. going along with that, seeing the color coded tabs shows you how the bible is laid out: the Pentateuch comes first, then history, then wisdom and poetry(which there are not a whole lot of) then the prophets and the the Gospels, and then finally the Letters. it is very...logically laid out. I am really glad I found this resource, it is unique and a good training tool for me to learn the Bible. the other bible that I bought is also unique. there's this movie and book called "letters to God" which is based on a true story of this little boy with cancer who starts reading his dad's bible and is inspired to start writing letters to God. I haven't seen the movie or read the book, not yet anyway, but I've seen the trailer for the movie. anyways, they are selling the dad's bible, with the dad's notes and comments that he wrote in his bible as a collector's item and/or bible edition. it even has the same cover that his dad's bible had. there are comments written on pretty much every page! it does look like a used bible and in a way it is. I thought it was awesome and I think that its good to have a bible with the comments of someone else so that it helps me think about something in a new way or something that I've never thought of before. it is really cool and I love it! anyways, these are the two bibles I am mainly going to use on this bible reading journey and I think that I picked two good bible editions. I know the King James's version is supposed to not be the best, but for some reason I love that old-fashioned way of speaking.
Genesis 1 is the story of Creation. It is a chapter that I am familiar with, so no big huge surprises were there for me. however, I did have some thoughts while I was reading it and that's what I am going to share in this post. the first thought I had came in the second verse: "now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters."(Gen 1:2). I was truck by this verse. dark. shapeless. empty. Earth doesn't exactly sound like a beautiful paradise. it certainly isn't somewhere that any one of us would enjoy visiting or living in.yet God was still there. I really found that cool and awesome. if God was there when Earth was dark, empty, shapeless, then He will for sure be there when we hit those points in the road that are the same way: dark, empty, without any shape or form. I think it's very fitting that from even before the beginning, God was there. We don't have to be beautiful or lead awesome beautiful lives for God to be there. His presence is constant, regardless of circumstances.
The other thought I had was reading the story of God creating Creation, it really stuck out to me how God did not create everything at once. He could have. He could have snapped his fingers and everything would have been created, including us, in less than a nano second. yet He did not. He created everything one day(whether or not "day" is 24 hours of not is not important. it's not a crucial thing to be debating: God created Creation in 7 days, or maybe even 7 years or thousands of years. doesn't matter to me. at least not at this point) at a time. He created one thing, and then the next day would build on what He created. one thing led to another. Step-by-Step. it seemed so different that the way we do things today. today, people have TVs that allow them to watch more than more channel at a time, phones that allow us to talk and text and internet surf all at once, students in university major in multiple majors, and I even know a friend that is going to ACU's Graduate of Theology school, and he is doing two of their degrees at the same time. we do all these things at the same time to save time, because it'll save us time. not that there isn't anything wrong with saving time,yet...God did not "save time" when He created Creation. He devoted a day to everything He created. Maybe we should follow God's example and slow down, and focus on thing at a time. after all, I would rather live my life than to live it saving time.
Whenever He finished creating something, God would see that what he had done was good, and at the end "God saw all that he had made, and it was very good."(Gen 1:31). I found this confidence...good. sometimes I feel that we are all trying so hard to be humble and modest that we sacrifice our confidence. I believe that it is okay to see something you have done, know that you are good at it, and did an awesome job on it. I also believe that its okay to know that you are better at something than most people are. the problem I believe, is when people get arrogant about it and start thinking this makes them superior to other people and/or put people down or brag about it. God saw all that He created and KNEW it was good. so maybe it is okay for us to know that what we have done or do is good. humble and modest does not mean you stifle your confidence.
Those are my thoughts that I had for Genesis 1. Even though I am familiar with it, I still learned from it and I am very much looking forward to continuing!
Genesis 1 is the story of Creation. It is a chapter that I am familiar with, so no big huge surprises were there for me. however, I did have some thoughts while I was reading it and that's what I am going to share in this post. the first thought I had came in the second verse: "now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters."(Gen 1:2). I was truck by this verse. dark. shapeless. empty. Earth doesn't exactly sound like a beautiful paradise. it certainly isn't somewhere that any one of us would enjoy visiting or living in.yet God was still there. I really found that cool and awesome. if God was there when Earth was dark, empty, shapeless, then He will for sure be there when we hit those points in the road that are the same way: dark, empty, without any shape or form. I think it's very fitting that from even before the beginning, God was there. We don't have to be beautiful or lead awesome beautiful lives for God to be there. His presence is constant, regardless of circumstances.
The other thought I had was reading the story of God creating Creation, it really stuck out to me how God did not create everything at once. He could have. He could have snapped his fingers and everything would have been created, including us, in less than a nano second. yet He did not. He created everything one day(whether or not "day" is 24 hours of not is not important. it's not a crucial thing to be debating: God created Creation in 7 days, or maybe even 7 years or thousands of years. doesn't matter to me. at least not at this point) at a time. He created one thing, and then the next day would build on what He created. one thing led to another. Step-by-Step. it seemed so different that the way we do things today. today, people have TVs that allow them to watch more than more channel at a time, phones that allow us to talk and text and internet surf all at once, students in university major in multiple majors, and I even know a friend that is going to ACU's Graduate of Theology school, and he is doing two of their degrees at the same time. we do all these things at the same time to save time, because it'll save us time. not that there isn't anything wrong with saving time,yet...God did not "save time" when He created Creation. He devoted a day to everything He created. Maybe we should follow God's example and slow down, and focus on thing at a time. after all, I would rather live my life than to live it saving time.
Whenever He finished creating something, God would see that what he had done was good, and at the end "God saw all that he had made, and it was very good."(Gen 1:31). I found this confidence...good. sometimes I feel that we are all trying so hard to be humble and modest that we sacrifice our confidence. I believe that it is okay to see something you have done, know that you are good at it, and did an awesome job on it. I also believe that its okay to know that you are better at something than most people are. the problem I believe, is when people get arrogant about it and start thinking this makes them superior to other people and/or put people down or brag about it. God saw all that He created and KNEW it was good. so maybe it is okay for us to know that what we have done or do is good. humble and modest does not mean you stifle your confidence.
Those are my thoughts that I had for Genesis 1. Even though I am familiar with it, I still learned from it and I am very much looking forward to continuing!
Friday, May 20, 2011
Introduction
I decided towards the beginning of 2011 that I wanted to read the bible cover to cover. I have not gotten around to it, mostly because of school, laziness, and other things going on(and that I wanted to read). but now I have graduated and have a whole summer with nothing to do, and a whole year in China with no TV in English and limited movies(limited to DVDs on my laptop) and so I will have time some time, after my teaching job, and relationships work, to do plenty of reading. I know the bible probably was not meant to be read from cover to cover as a cohesive story, but I still think it will help me, especially since there are lots of books and letters that are not very focused on in church or in bible studies. plus, I just really want to! :) :)
My goal is to get through the Old Testament by the end of the summer, and finish the entire bible by January, and then in January I can start the reading plan that my color-coded bible came with, to read the whole bible in a year starting January 1. I'm excited. I read Genesis 1 yesterday and I had some good thoughts. I don't have a specific plan in terms of the posts. sometimes I'll write about a chapter, other times about a whole book, other times about a specific verse, other times I'll write about where I'm at, what the story is looking like to me up to the point I'm at, etc.
the title for this blog comes from me, and inspired a little by Richard Foster because in his "Life with God" book he said that the bible is God's story of being with us from the beginning. I believe that and I'm looking forward to reading God's story. it is His story, we are merely players and actors and characters in it. He wrote it, He's the author. I'll do a blog post about Genesis 1(and maybe 2) soon!stay tuned! I do want people to stay tuned to this blog and comment on my thoughts, give their opinions, etc.
My goal is to get through the Old Testament by the end of the summer, and finish the entire bible by January, and then in January I can start the reading plan that my color-coded bible came with, to read the whole bible in a year starting January 1. I'm excited. I read Genesis 1 yesterday and I had some good thoughts. I don't have a specific plan in terms of the posts. sometimes I'll write about a chapter, other times about a whole book, other times about a specific verse, other times I'll write about where I'm at, what the story is looking like to me up to the point I'm at, etc.
the title for this blog comes from me, and inspired a little by Richard Foster because in his "Life with God" book he said that the bible is God's story of being with us from the beginning. I believe that and I'm looking forward to reading God's story. it is His story, we are merely players and actors and characters in it. He wrote it, He's the author. I'll do a blog post about Genesis 1(and maybe 2) soon!stay tuned! I do want people to stay tuned to this blog and comment on my thoughts, give their opinions, etc.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)