Genesis 4 17-26

These verses seem to explain how men began to organise themselves outside Eden. Different people playing different playing their different parts in the fabric of society. Sadly in the midst of it all sin is winding its roots around the lives of these people...violence and revenge are becoming more and more common place. Lamech says 'I have killed a man for wounding me'. It is surely this attitude of limitless revenge that sets the context for the teaching Moses delivers in some of the forthcoming chapters.

Moses' call for "an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth" is a plea for the restoration of justice and is a stepping stone to the deep inner life of forgiveness, mercy and grace that Jesus would teach. Teaching that would flow out of his own life as he cried over his enemies, 'father forgive them' as they unjustly tortured and crucified him.

In the midst of the pervading evil men cannot deny their innate awareness of their creator God. They are acutely aware of their desperate situation and they begin calling on the name of the Lord. (I feel verse 26b has more to it than I am able to see - if anyone has any revelation regarding this please leave your comments)

Genesis 4:8-16

It is interesting to note how God approaches Cain in light of his murderous act. Just as with Adam and Eve, God asks a question that cuts right to heart of the issue. It seems as though each question he asks is an invitation to confession and repentance. The pattern, however, seems to be that man wriggles and squirms, hides and denies the wrong he has done.

This passage again reminds us of the consequence of sin. The judgment of Cain is devastating. The world was designed to supply all of man's needs and now Cain would spend the rest of his life in search of the next meal.

God again displays His grace as He puts His seal of protection over Cain's life. What mercy God shows in the light of such an atrocity. This act surely deserved death but God, in His great kindness, spares Cain's life.

As the extent of sin begins to unfold itself the consequences become broader. Death was followed by exile which was followed by hunger. Now Cain clings to the one thread of hope - His security. The murder of Abel forewarns that even this hope would be forfeited as man's deeds grew more evil.

"Cain went away from the presence of the Lord" - Tragic words that are all too familiar.

Genesis 4:1-7

These verves teach us about our relationship with God. Two men from the same family, made of the same stuff, but responding to God in very different ways. They have different professions but it isn't implied that this was the cause of God's preference for Abel's offering. The single distinguishing factor, that I can see, is Abel brought the firstlings of his flock. Cain just gave God an offering of the ground, maybe it was an after thought when we was drunk on blueberries or when he had made enough smoothies to ensure he could pay the mortgage! Abel's offering on the other hand was an offering of faith. Before Abel had fed his family or satisfied his own hunger pangs, he took the best and gave it to God. This act speaks loudly of Abel's complete trust in God. As we journey into the rest of the bible I think we will see this pattern firmly established. God delights in the faith of those who offer their first fruits to Him. God say's to Cain "if you do well, you will be accepted". In other words if you give your best you will be accepted. God wants our best for himself, not at the cost of those around us but for their enrichment as He truly is sufficient to meet all our needs.

v7 is a strong warning. "Sin is lurking at the door; its desire is for you, but you must master it". The personification of sin in this verse is powerful. Sin is described as having 'desire'. In other words, sin is not something passive that sits there as just another choice in our lives but rather something proactive that seeks to seduce us. Sin is a force that is constantly fighting for our souls. We will be pressed on every side to take God of the throne of our lives and place 'self' firmly in His place. Everyday we must take this fight of faith seriously and be vigilant as sin is lurking. Is God getting the first of our lives? The first of our money? The first of our time?

v20

Eve is the 'mother of all the living'; Eve who was not content with God's provision; Eve who failed to believe God's word; Eve who was pursuaded by a serpant; Eve who took of the forbidden fruit.

The human condition is one tainted with a desire for the forbidden. From an early age our rebellious nature reveals itself. To do good is not the natural tendency.

As a boy I was always on the edge of my Dad's temper. The crunch of an apple, the slurp of the cereal milk, the clatter of cutlery on my dinner plate were all guarenteed to inflame him to anger. At times I was infuriated by his petty intolerance. Today I am my father's son, beset with the same psychology. It isn't just our mum and dad that has set the way for us.

We bear the image of our mother (Eve) and are quick to fall to temptation. A believers life will be a daily battle as we fight the fight of faith. A fight to find God sufficient and to lay hold of Him. May we never forget our ancestory, allowing complacency to compromise our battle. Your flesh, the 'I', wants centre stage but that belongs to your God. This isn't a fight you can win alone.

Genesis 14 -20...HELLO!

14-19

The previous entry on these verses was weak in its appreciation of the significance of what had just happened. These few words spoken by God are perhaps the most devastating uttered throughout history. The consequences of Adam and Eve's rebellion would have far reaching consequences that would touch the lives of all that followed them. The spiritual and physical death that entered the world would break the hearts of many causing great distress, fear and hopelessness. The searing pain of a life been torn out of our world will always haunt those that journey through this life. Ultimately this curse reflects an even graver reality, the severed relationship of man with God.

Despite the severity of these consequences still today we minimise the guilt of sin, dismiss its implications and justify our own actions. As we are confronted with the groaning of suffering and death should we not be continually reminded of the ugliness of our selfish desires and faithlessness. It is not that I want to link personal suffering to personal sin, although on occasions there may be a direct relationship, but rather that we realise the collective consequence of our rebellion against God is the suffering state of the world today. Even those who attempt to live very good lives cannot be assured that they will not be touched by the consequences of this great evil. As we read in verse 21 'all the living are the children of Eve' and we all live with her tendency towards sin and the implications that follow. Please do not read this entry in isolation from the rest of the bible, otherwise you'll miss out on the outragious grace that God displays as the story unfolds.

Genesis 3:21

It is very easy to read into this verse and lay the Christian gospel message over the top of it. An animal was clearly sacrificed to provide garments of skin to cover Adam and Eve's nakedness. Nakedness has already been associated with shame earlier in the passage and therefore the covering provided is there as a partial remedy to the consequences of sin. It is not a perfect remedy because the curse of death and toil has been pronounced. As early as Genesis chapter 3 we can begin to see the imagery that would point to the sacrifice that Christ would make thousands of years later.

For those who are not prepared to consider the prophetic interpretation of this verse, there is still plenty of truth to extract. Firstly we are presented with a God who responds proactively to our falleness. Back in verse 7 Adam and Eve had tried to make their own covering. Man's attempt to cover their own shame was futile. However God was able to provide a covering and he graciously reached out and clothed man's shame. It is in God's nature to involve himself in our mess. This verse should cause us to celebrate the goodness and kindness of God. He did not abandon us, even though we had chosen to abandon him.

Genesis 3:14-19

I don’t want to speculate too much about this passage. What seems to be important is that we are being given a very early lesson in the consequences of sin. The fruit that before had heightened all our desire and convinced us that life would not be the same without it, has resulted in the complete disturbance of the peace and harmony of Eden. Yielding temptation of sin is usually sharply followed by a series of very painful consequences (although these consequences do not always present immediately). In this case the climax of the consequences that followed was death. Death had not been a part of God’s perfect creation, now unfortunately it has entered the scene.

I have purposely avoided the scientific debate over Genesis. The first chapters are clearly not given for the purpose of detailing the scientific method by which we arrived here. They are helping us understand the ‘why’ questions rather than the ‘how’ questions. However a point that I have often felt is important not to ignore is that an evolutionary world view ultimately requires us to believe death was an integral part of God’s creation. Did God look at world in which death was the fundamental mechanism for development and really say ‘it is good’? According to this passage death entered the stage as a severe consequence for our rebellion against God and not as a mechanism for our evolution. Darwinism is presented as a sound and unshakeable theory in our school classrooms but amongst the more serious scientific circles there seems to a strong recognition that the argument for this theory is increasingly becoming untenable. I am not a scientist and will avoid this debate but it seems to me that it is not just the science that is untenable but also the theology.

Genesis 3:8-14

I remember once trying to find the stereo on my car floor while driving round a bend. The crunch that followed, as I ploughed into a bollard at the side of the road, was very embarrassing and so I drove home and pretended nothing had happened. Years later I was still tense every time Dad walked passed the front of the car. Somehow I managed to hide my mistake. Adam however had no such luck. The first consequence of sin, is not God withdrawing himself from us but our own inability to look at him. God, in fact, proactively seeks out his fallen creatures. We should always be asking ourselves whether we are withdrawing from God because of sin that we just don’t want to let go of. If we are then we should simply turn from it and respond to our God who calls out for us. If this is not our response we may, like Adam and Eve both did, choose to blame others for our sin rather than take responsibility and face up to our own weakness. Of course it wasn’t Adam’s fault, Eve had given him the fruit and of couse is wasn’t Eve’s fault, the serpent has told her it was ok. How familiar do those sorts of excuses sound?

In the God centred world that existed before Adam and Eve had taken the fruit there was no awareness of their own nakedness. Their sin now seems to turn their eyes from God onto themselves and they become self-aware in a way they had previously not been. Self-consciousness seems to cripple people with fear and shame as sin forces self to the centre stage. It is self's desire to stay there that drives us to prop it up with materialism, scepticism, individualism and all the other 'isms' that massage our ego and make self comformtable. Relationship with God, on the other hand, frees us from this as we discover in Him that we have all that we need for life.

Genesis 3:6

Something had happened in the dialogue between Eve and Satan that had caused her to perceive the fruit in a new way. She had been persuaded by untruthful sayings that the fruit was desirable. What she believed about the fruit determined her actions. The media, marketing companies and sometimes even our own friends feed us untruthful sayings - things that cause us to perceive the world in a distorted way. When we act upon these and not upon the wisdom that God has shared with us then we soon discover the consequences of these actions. Sometimes we stubbornly or ignorantly fail to realise the false beliefs we have built our lives upon and we continue to reap the havoc that follows the lies of the enemy where ever they go.

What was Adam doing! It is implied that Adam was present with Eve through the whole dialogue with the enemy. Adam, who had heard from the very lips of God that this fruit was forbidden and who had experienced that God holds nothing good from those he loves (demonstrated explicitly in the creation of woman). Passivity gripped the man and he stood by and allowed the woman to misquote God and be deceived. Not only that, he then also took of the fruit. This is a warning for when we are tempted to avoid the confrontation of challenging people's perception of the truth and also when we neglect attention to God's word. Eventually we too may be sucked into their error. Passivity is a failure in our responsibilities.

Some more on 3:1-5

The cunning nature of the devil, revealed in this passage, should be a strong warning to us that many subtle attempts will be made to undermine our faith in God's word. It is interesting that in this passage the main attack is not on the existence of God but on his character. One of the enemy's most evident strategies is to distort people's beliefs about God. God has revealed much about himself throughout the centuries and by studying the bible we can come to know what he is like. By neglecting the Old Testament we can easily miss out on this wealth of revelation. Our tendency becomes to create God in our image and we become susceptible to believing, with Eve, that God is withholding good things from us. The tree in the middle of the garden is rich with modern day equivalents - it's an illusive mirage that appears to be offering something better and richer than life with God when really behind its sugary coating is death, disease and pain. The pretense of wealth, the short term thrill of adultery, the quick fix of cocaine or the shortcut in business are all equally as appealing until the mess and pain that follows becomes evident. If only we can rediscover who God is and trust completely in His promises then we will be guarding ourselves from the mistake Eve made and consequences that followed.

It is also important to note that Eve misquotes God's command. God has said that they could eat 'freely' from 'every' tree in the garden. Eve omits the words 'freely' and 'Every' and is drawn, by Satan, to focus on the what she cannot have. Even though God in all His goodness had given them everything in the garden to enjoy, sadly Eve had been enticed by the only restriction. So often we take for granted what we have and allow our eyes to be drawn towards what we do not have and our desires to be aroused for those things which are forbidden. Don't forget - forbidden only because they have undesirable consequences.

A final thought - Satan's use of a serpent seems to reflect his preference to use things that form part of everyday world/environment to be the voice of temptation. So watch out, it might be very subtle!