Upheld by the living Root everyday. A One Year Bible Blog.
Thursday, December 31, 2009
January 2 :: Genesis 4-6; Matthew 2
To go along with our reading of Genesis - Phil Wickham's "Eden" - It gives an amazing "sound" picture of what that day may have been like, that day before our world contained evil and all we knew was innocence.... ::
I was particularly aware of Matthew 2:7, where Herod asks the wise men when the star they followed had appeared. I guess because of the pictures of them at Jesus' birth I was curious to see how far out that inaccurate image actually is. And the answer (in vs 16) is something about (or a little less than) two years.
I also can't help but wonder how much Jesus knew of or appreciated the wise mens visit. Did he bask in their worship as God, or did he wonder what the fuss was all about?
Finally, it struck me just how full of prophecy this chapter is. There are four either quotes or citation of prophecy from at least three different prophets (Micah, Hosea and Jeremiah). These tell us that Jesus was foreknown as a King and a Nazarene, and that he was hunted in his childhood and fled to Egypt. Quite specific stuff really. Again I am keenly aware of God's sovereign hand in Jesus' life in these verses. I wonder, am I as sure of his sovereignty in my own life?
As for the passages from Genesis, I'm afraid that although I read them I got side-tracked by one word. 'Knew'. Gen 4:1. This has ripped the lid off some hidden shame from my past. It's funny how God does that aye? We try to hide, but he doesn't let us succeed forever.
In Genesis and in Matthew it simply blows me away of the obedience of both Noah and Joseph (in their separate stories of course.)
God calls us to do crazy stuff all the times that we don't find to make any sense - and often, it's hard to follow through with it. These two men are just a few of many examples of the followers of God and what they were willing to do on his behalf - and it's amazing!
Wow Genesis is incredibly action packed. I'm relearning my love for this book and all it's stories of timeless heroes such as Noah during the flood and of his sons who unlike the rest of their fellow man followed their father who was seen as crazy. I think they are really interesting heroes in their own right themselves who we don't pay enough attention to.
It's exciting too to read not just about the beginning and early life of the world and it's people, but also the beginning and early life of Christ. To see the changes from one covenant to another. To see the hard punishments people received in the OT as they didn't have the covenant of the Lamb because of Jesus's sacrifice in the NT that we have to gain eternal life.
Yeah the obedience of Noah and Joseph both is amazing. It's funny, its easy to think that if God asked us to do something big we'd be right there, but when he asks us to do small things we rebel all too often - makes me think both Noah and Joseph were very godly men indeed.
We are the flesh in which God breathed life - Genesis 6:17. How cool is that? Thinking about this makes me re-think how AMAZING human-beings are.
I had a non-believing friend recently bring up the argument against God recently that goes like this - "If God existed, why did he make us imperfect? The octopus can see 8X better than us. That proves God either doesn't exist, or doesn't love us." That's pretty crazy if you ask me! I have breath...I breath and think - feel and love - cry and ...laugh. I have absolutely no desire to have octopus vision. Just a thought, haha!
I was particularly aware of Matthew 2:7, where Herod asks the wise men when the star they followed had appeared. I guess because of the pictures of them at Jesus' birth I was curious to see how far out that inaccurate image actually is. And the answer (in vs 16) is something about (or a little less than) two years.
ReplyDeleteI also can't help but wonder how much Jesus knew of or appreciated the wise mens visit. Did he bask in their worship as God, or did he wonder what the fuss was all about?
Finally, it struck me just how full of prophecy this chapter is. There are four either quotes or citation of prophecy from at least three different prophets (Micah, Hosea and Jeremiah). These tell us that Jesus was foreknown as a King and a Nazarene, and that he was hunted in his childhood and fled to Egypt. Quite specific stuff really. Again I am keenly aware of God's sovereign hand in Jesus' life in these verses. I wonder, am I as sure of his sovereignty in my own life?
As for the passages from Genesis, I'm afraid that although I read them I got side-tracked by one word. 'Knew'. Gen 4:1. This has ripped the lid off some hidden shame from my past. It's funny how God does that aye? We try to hide, but he doesn't let us succeed forever.
In Genesis and in Matthew it simply blows me away of the obedience of both Noah and Joseph (in their separate stories of course.)
ReplyDeleteGod calls us to do crazy stuff all the times that we don't find to make any sense - and often, it's hard to follow through with it. These two men are just a few of many examples of the followers of God and what they were willing to do on his behalf - and it's amazing!
Wow Genesis is incredibly action packed. I'm relearning my love for this book and all it's stories of timeless heroes such as Noah during the flood and of his sons who unlike the rest of their fellow man followed their father who was seen as crazy. I think they are really interesting heroes in their own right themselves who we don't pay enough attention to.
ReplyDeleteIt's exciting too to read not just about the beginning and early life of the world and it's people, but also the beginning and early life of Christ. To see the changes from one covenant to another. To see the hard punishments people received in the OT as they didn't have the covenant of the Lamb because of Jesus's sacrifice in the NT that we have to gain eternal life.
Yeah the obedience of Noah and Joseph both is amazing. It's funny, its easy to think that if God asked us to do something big we'd be right there, but when he asks us to do small things we rebel all too often - makes me think both Noah and Joseph were very godly men indeed.
ReplyDeleteWe are the flesh in which God breathed life - Genesis 6:17. How cool is that? Thinking about this makes me re-think how AMAZING human-beings are.
ReplyDeleteI had a non-believing friend recently bring up the argument against God recently that goes like this - "If God existed, why did he make us imperfect? The octopus can see 8X better than us. That proves God either doesn't exist, or doesn't love us." That's pretty crazy if you ask me! I have breath...I breath and think - feel and love - cry and ...laugh. I have absolutely no desire to have octopus vision. Just a thought, haha!