Here in the beginning of January I would like to share some random observations from my reading in the book of Genesis. Like many of you, I have begun reading through the Bible again, beginning in Genesis.
Genesis 2:9, I read, “The Lord God made all kinds of trees grow out of the ground—trees that were pleasing to the eye and good for food.” God was concerned with both emotional health (pleasing to the eye—beauty!) and physical health (good for food). Since the tornado on Easter Sunday I have grieved over the loss of trees in the area hit. My daughter and her husband lost 23 trees just from their lot. Next door to them a wood chipper roared for days, grinding the remnants of trees lost on that property. The toothpick-like stumps throughout the neighborhood remind me that the area will take years to recover.
Genesis 2:15 reads, “The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it.” Work is not the consequence of sin, but what we were designed for. My son-in-law was in training for his dream job when Covid hit with its shutdowns. Because the job is a federal one, his training immediately shut down. Now these many months later, training has not resumed. My son-in-law has been very frustrated in this period of idleness forced by the pandemic. He has had plenty to do with repairing storm damage, but he has not had a regular work schedule. How many senior citizens have retired, only to find out they want to work. They start a new career or they go back to the old. My officemate before I retired did not have a life outside of work. He died within months of retiring. We need work.
Genesis 2:18, “It is not good for man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him.” I am so glad I did not have to choose my children’s partners, but so blessed to see how each couple fits together, is suitable, are helpmates.
Genesis 3:1, “He (the serpent) said to the woman, ‘Did God actually say, You shall not eat of any tree in the garden?’” He was trying to sow doubt and he succeeded. Genesis 3:2-3, “And the woman said to the serpent, “We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden, but God said, You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.” Eve was honest enough to admit that God had not said they couldn’t eat of any of the trees, but she added to His command, “Neither shall you touch it.” How easy it is to first challenge the authority and then distort the commands by adding to them. Isn’t that what we do sometimes today? We add and distort what Scripture actually says, elevating our opinions to the level of God’s authority. In our world of constant cultural change, the temptation is to say, “That’s not what God really meant. That’s just for that time, not for today.”
Genesis 3:12-13, Adam said, “The woman gave me.” Eve said, “The serpent gave me.” How typical! It’s not my fault! One of the most important principles I tried to teach my children was that of personal responsibility for their actions. We cannot blame others for our poor choices.
Genesis 3:17-19, “Because you have eaten of the tree which I commanded you, ‘You shall not eat of it,’ cursed is the ground because of you; in pain you shall eat of it all the days of your life; thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you. . . . .By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread.” Suddenly work became difficult, painful, thorns and thistles. Oh, I believe there is still pleasure in work, but along with the pleasure come sweat, sore muscles, sunburn, even arthritis pain. I love working in my flowerbeds, but I know I will pay a price, one price of the original sin.
In Genesis 5 is a long genealogy with long-lived men. Adam lived 930 years. Adam was still alive in the days of Lamech, father of Noah. One comment I read said that gave Adam many generations to influence through his personal testimony of creation and his own fall and ouster from Eden. But in spite of Adam’s testimony, one generation later, God saw only evil continually.
Genesis 6:5-8, “The Lord saw how great man’s wickedness had become and was grieved.” If not that Noah found favor in the eyes off the Lord, God would have destroyed mankind, wiped him out, but “Noah was a righteous man, blameless among the people of his time and he walked faithfully with God.” So God provided a way of escape from judgment. As Noah and his family walked off the ark after the flood had subsided, God gave a rainbow as a sign of His covenant. When I was in high school I was in a trio that sang,
“Every time I see a rainbow shining in the sky above,
I remember God’s great mercy and His faithfulness and love.”
I still sing that song when I see a rainbow.
I have given you a taste of my random thought on the first few chapters of Genesis. Because I have read through Genesis so many times in the sixty-eight years I have been a Christ-follower, I sometimes read these chapters automatically, even skimming through them. I want this year to be a year of contemplation, thinking about what I read, not merely skimming. May this be a year of consistent focused feasting on the Word of God.
“Your words were found, and I ate them, and Your word was to me the joy and rejoicing of my heart; For I am called by Your name, O Lord God of hosts.” (Jeremiah 15:16)
~~Faith Himes Lamb
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