Genesis 5-6: Perks of being a Man of God

¹⁸ But I will establish my covenant with you, and you will enter the ark—you and your sons and your wife and your sons’ wives with you.

MESSAGE:

Imagine Noah’s generation compared to ours. Well of course we’re not the only ones whom God have seen favor, but think of it as a micro societal way. In some places, in some circumstances, you are a Noah. I am a Noah in my group of friends. I can be a Noah in my high school batch mates, etc. you see, there are times when you are the only one who can stand with your faith and be favored upon by the Lord. This chapter has revealed to me one of the perks of being God’s daughter.

PROMISE:

When you are favored, people connected to you will also be favored. The bible didn’t mention if Noah’s family also had great faith as he did. But they are Noah’s family. God’s grace always has extensions because He is limitless. He knew that if He’d only save Noah, it would bring much happiness to Noah that much. He needed to bring his love ones.

COMMAND:

Salvation can be brought to his family if he brings them to the ark. Salvation is free but it has to have a will. In the end, of course Noah’s family was saved, because Noah brought them to the ark. In life, we have to bring people to our ark as well. Remember, you are God’s extension of Grace.

Genesis 4: Mercy

⁷ If you do what is right, will you not be accepted? But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must rule over it.”

Message:

Being a perfectionist can be tiring at times. You just have to do what is right all the time. In the bible, Cain really didn’t do wrong at his offering. He was working on the grounds; of course the produce would be his offering not that of Abel. But God didn’t see favor on this instead He was teaching Cain a lesson. But he hindered it, and God saw right through it. He committed a sin over his imperfection. Then envy was brought out.

Command:

In Christian living, we tend to be Cain at itmes. There are instances when we don’t please our leader. Or we disappoint ourselves for failing a promise to God. But we don’t always intend to be wrong. An unintentional mistake is not wrong. We are to learn from that mistake and keep ourselves strong to sin. Often when these things happens to us, we turn our backs to God, or blame other people. It is so luike Cain, only this generation’s version. But like what God has said, it is our choice, we must rule over sin.

Promise:

¹⁵ But the Lord said to him, “Not so^[e]; anyone who kills Cainwill suffer vengeance seven times over.” Then the Lord put a mark on Cain so that no one who found him would kill him.

God is the God of forgiveness. He could have thrown Cain out of Hs land and let him be killed by all the danger brought about the outside. But no. Cain knew what was gonna happen. He didn’t even ask for God’s mercy, but God was too forgiving that he still protected Cain upon his exile. Same thing happens to us. Upon the consequence of our sin, God is still with us. Forever, He is.

Genesis 3: Lessons from temptation

²² 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.”

                Reading the chapter from the start, I thought, why did even God put a tree of life there? Why did he allow a snake to tempt Eve and eventually let Adam fall for it to? Come to think of it, God has total control of what can happen in the past right? So why the fall of man?

                When we were a child, I remember my Mom bringing me to her office. She had to leave me at the play ground I can play safe while she’s working. But before she leaves she’s tell me not to go anywhere far from the playground and then she leaves.  At first, I’d be so amazed by how fun all the stuff I can do in the playground. But as hours pass, I get bored of them and then come temptation to leave. Even as a child, it is my choice to stay or to leave right? And because of temptation, I left. When its becoming late already, I’d eventually figure out that I’m too far from the playground that I’m lost. Now the consequence of not obeying my mother has just happened. Perhaps that was lunch time; I can be so hungry then. Or it can be raining and I dint know where to go anymore. Eventually my mother would find me and then punish me for that disobedience. The next time she works, she knows she won’t be leaving me in the playground anymore. I’d probably left in a boring library or worst, she might not even bring me to her work anymore. But from that moment on, I know that when she brings me back to the playground, I won’t be leaving far from it anymore. Why? BECAUSE I LEARNED FROM THAT TEMPTATION.

                God knew that there will be a fall of man. The bible hasn’t stated there how long it was for Adam and Eve to stay obedient to God until the serpent come right? But after that incident, Adam and Eve has already learned from that mistake. The punishment brought by God to man was not the only one passed on to all generations. We must see more than that. There is a real reason, a lesson that was passed on from the story and it lives until now.