[Originally posted in a WhatsApp group (LRAU), a reading update (reflection) from one chapter of the Bible a day]
πΎπΌβπΌπππ
π:ππ-ππ‘
27 "God created man in His own image, in the image of
God He created him; male and female He created them."
28 "God
blessed them; and
God said to them, 'Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth, and
subdue it; and rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and
over every living thing that moves on the earth.'"
29 "Then God
said, 'Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the surface
of all the earth, and every tree which has fruit yielding seed; it shall be
food for you.'"
First God created in
His image. Then He blessed to procreate. Then He said He has given all for
food.
Creating. Blessing.
Giving!
πΎπΌβπΌπππ
π:ππ
"For this reason a
man shall leave
his father and his mother, and be ππ ππππ
to his wife; and they shall become
one flesh."
Notice the verbs: Leaving,
Joining, Becoming.
He becomes independent,
but not to live as he likes, but to be joined to his wife. A wife needs
security, not a divorce, or a separation.
Husband and wife are
one. They are responsible for one another, yes, even for the sins of one
another!
πΎπΌβπΌπππ
π:π
"The serpent said
to the woman, 'You surely will not die!'"
Is this not the
attitude, thinking, and strategy of man?
God says that it's
wrong to do this and that, yet we keep on doing, believing we won't be dying
that soon for such particular thing.
That's from the mouth
of the serpent, from the pit of hell, an idea we have been given by the
serpent, and some ideas never die easily!
πΎπΌβπΌπππ
π:ππ
"Cain said to the
LORD, 'My punishment is too great to bear!'"
Cain negotiates for a
lesser punishment. Well, God didn't relent. Rather, as an answer to Cain's
pleading, God allowed him to have the assurance of protection from anyone
wanting to kill him.
That mark of assurance
is a warning of punishment, a greater punishment on anyone who kills Cain.
Punishment multiplied!
πΎπΌβπΌπππ
π:ππ-ππ
"Enoch lived
sixty-five years, and became the father of Methuselah. Then Enoch walked with
God three hundred years after he became the father of Methuselah, and he had
other sons and daughters. So all the days of Enoch were three hundred and sixty-five years."
365 years for all the
365 days in a year, huh! Except that there were no 365 days in their calendar. π Enoch walked with God all the adult days of his life. What a
life to imitate!
πΎπΌβπΌπππ
π:ππ
"God looked on the
earth, and behold, it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted their way upon
the earth."
Oh, the plight of man!
God looked down on earth. None was righteous except for Noah, whom He had declared
righteous.
Mankind is still the
same. Corrupted ever as it was. There's no more catastrophic flood (and won’t be anymore) because He is
planning for far worse punishment— fire.
Like Noah, God sees
us righteous, yes, even in our failings, not because we are sinless, but
because God has clothed us with Christ's righteousness.
God is still angry with
the sinners, and judgment is coming soon! Inevitable destruction!
πΎπΌβπΌπππ
π:ππ
"The water
prevailed and increased greatly upon the earth, and the ark floated on the
surface of the water."
The same water that
drowned the millions to death kept the ark afloat!
As Spurgeon once
remarked, “The same sun that melts the wax hardens the clay”
πΎπΌβπΌπππ
π :ππ
"Then Noah built
an altar to the LORD, and took of every clean animal and of every clean bird
and offered burnt offerings on the altar."
When was the last time
you were thinking the first thing you will be doing when you reach your room
was to kneel down and thank the Lord? I can see that in Noah, God has preserved
him and his family!
πΎπΌβπΌπππ
π‘:π
"The fear of you
and the terror of you will be on every beast of the earth and on every bird of
the sky; with everything that creeps on the ground, and all the fish of the
sea, into your hand they are given."
No wonder why and how
animals fear man. No wonder that man dominates this world. No wonder that
animals have the instinct to run away from man when they see a man.
Indeed, animals should
respect man because man saved them all in Noah's ark!
I guess man is much
older than all animals on earth. Noah must have taken young animals into his
ark, whereas he was 600 years old already.
πΎπΌβπΌπππ
ππ:ππ
"These are the
families of the sons of Noah, according to their genealogies, by their nations;
and out of these the nations were separated on the earth after the flood."
And as God blessed
them, they multiplied! “The word of God shall not return void,” says the
Prophet Isaiah.