Dreaming Beneath the Spires

Anita Mathias's Blog on Faith and Art

Blessing and Protection, Psalm 11, Genesis 30-31, Day 27, Jan 27

By

Relax, The Lord is in his Temple. Psalm 11, Day 26, Jan 26

The light of God surrounds me,
The love of God enfolds me,
The power of God protects me,
The presence of God watches over me.
Wherever I am God is
And all is well.

 

One of the unexpected side-effects of blogging through the Bible is that it calms me down. Especially when I attempt to blog a Psalm.


The message of this Psalm is Relax. God is in charge, and he has got it all under control.

Psalm 11

 1 In the LORD I take refuge. 

Just the very words are calming.

   How then can you say to me: 
   “Flee like a bird to your mountain. 
2 For look, the wicked bend their bows; 
   they set their arrows against the strings 
to shoot from the shadows 
   at the upright in heart. 

When he considers the might of the opposition, everything seems hopeless. However, we are always under God’s protection, and no arrows can reach us unless he decides to let them reach us.

Hannah Whitall Smith’s “The Christian’s Secret of a Happy Life.”


Chapter Twelve: “Is God in Everything?”
“All things work together for the good of them that love the Lord.”


 I learned this lesson practically and experimentally long years before I knew the scriptural truth concerning it. I was attending a prayer-meeting held in the interests of the life of faith, when a strange lady rose to speak, and I looked at her, wondering who

Jacob, the Deceiver is Blessed. Genesis 29-30, Day 27, Jan 27

By

Genesis 30

 1 When Rachel saw that she was not bearing Jacob any children, she became jealous of her sister. So she said to Jacob, “Give me children, or I’ll die!”
 2 Jacob became angry with her and said, “Am I in the place of God, who has kept you from having children?”
Jacob recognized there are limits to his powers to manipulate.
He was always trying to wrest blessing by his own efforts. Here he acknowledges that blessing can only come from God.
 3 Then she said, “Here is Bilhah, my servant. Sleep with her so that she can bear children for me and I too can build a family through her.”
Ancient familial ways of coping  become our default reaction. Rachel takes matters into her own hands as Sarah did.
4 So she gave him her servant Bilhah as a wife. Jacob slept with her, 5 and she became pregnant and bore him a son. 6 Then Rachel said, “God has vindicated me; he has listened to my plea and given me a son.” Because of this she named him Dan.
 7 Rachel’s servant Bilhah conceived again and bore Jacob a second son. 8 Then Rachel said, “I have had a great struggle with my sister, and I have won.” So she named him Naphtali.
 9 When Leah saw that she had stopped having children, she took her servant Zilpah and gave her to Jacob as a wife. 10 Leah’s servant Zilpah bore Jacob a son. 11 Then Leah said, “What good fortune!” So she named him Gad.
 12 Leah’s servant Zilpah bore Jacob a second son. 13 Then Leah said, “How happy I am! The women will call me happy.” So she named him Asher.
 14 During wheat harvest, Reuben went out into the fields and found some mandrake plants, which he brought to his mother Leah. Rachel said to Leah, “Please give me some of your son’s mandrakes.”
 15 But she said to her, “Wasn’t it enough that you took away my husband? Will you take my son’s mandrakes too?”
   “Very well,” Rachel said, “he can sleep with you tonight in return for your son’s mandrakes.”
 16 So when Jacob came in from the fields that evening, Leah went out to meet him. “You must sleep with me,” she said. “I have hired you with my son’s mandrakes.” So he slept with her that night.
 17 God listened to Leah, and she became pregnant and bore Jacob a fifth son. 18 Then Leah said, “God has rewarded me for giving my servant to my husband.” So she named him Issachar.
 19 Leah conceived again and bore Jacob a sixth son. 20 Then Leah said, “God has presented me with a precious gift. This time my husband will treat me with honor, because I have borne him six sons.” So she named him Zebulun.
 21 Some time later she gave birth to a daughter and named her Dinah.
 22 Then God remembered Rachel; he listened to her and enabled her to conceive. 23 She became pregnant and gave birth to a son and said, “God has taken away my disgrace.” 24 She named him Joseph, and said, “May the LORD add to me another son.”

Jacob’s Flocks Increase

 25 After Rachel gave birth to Joseph, Jacob said to Laban, “Send me on my way so I can go back to my own homeland. 26 Give me my wives and children, for whom I have served you, and I will be on my way. You know how much work I’ve done for you.”  27 But Laban said to him, “If I have found favor in your eyes, please stay. I have learned by divination that the LORD has blessed me because of you.” 28 He added, “Name your wages, and I will pay them.”
 29 Jacob said to him, “You know how I have worked for you and how your livestock has fared under my care. 30 The little you had before I came has increased greatly, and the LORD has blessed you wherever I have been. But now, when may I do something for my own household?”
God’s inalienable blessing because of his great mercy–unlinked to Jacob’s deserving.
 31 “What shall I give you?” he asked.
   “Don’t give me anything,” Jacob replied. “But if you will do this one thing for me, I will go on tending your flocks and watching over them: 32 Let me go through all your flocks today and remove from them every speckled or spotted sheep, every dark-colored lamb and every spotted or speckled goat. They will be my wages. 33 And my honesty will testify for me in the future, whenever you check on the wages you have paid me. Any goat in my possession that is not speckled or spotted, or any lamb that is not dark-colored, will be considered stolen.”
Most commonly the sheep were all white, and the goats all black. So on the face of it, this was a very modest request.
 34 “Agreed,” said Laban. “Let it be as you have said.” 35 That same day he removed all the male goats that were streaked or spotted, and all the speckled or spotted female goats (all that had white on them) and all the dark-colored lambs, and he placed them in the care of his sons. 36 Then he put a three-day journey between himself and Jacob, while Jacob continued to tend the rest of Laban’s flocks.
A shocking deception. Though Jacob is under God’s protection and blessing, he is still reaping what he has sown. 
 37 Jacob, however, took fresh-cut branches from poplar, almond and plane trees and made white stripes on them by peeling the bark and exposing the white inner wood of the branches. 38 Then he placed the peeled branches in all the watering troughs, so that they would be directly in front of the flocks when they came to drink. When the flocks were in heat and came to drink, 39 they mated in front of the branches. And they bore young that were streaked or speckled or spotted. 40 Jacob set apart the young of the flock by themselves, but made the rest face the streaked and dark-colored animals that belonged to Laban. Thus he made separate flocks for himself and did not put them with Laban’s animals. 41 Whenever the stronger females were in heat, Jacob would place the branches in the troughs in front of the animals so they would mate near the branches, 42 but if the animals were weak, he would not place them there. So the weak animals went to Laban and the strong ones to Jacob. 43 In this way the man grew exceedingly prosperous and came to own large flocks, and female and male servants, and camels and donkeys.
Like Laban, Jacob uses deception of his own. And the scheme worked, but only because of God’s intervention, not because of Jacob’s attempts at genetics!!


Genesis 31

 1 Jacob heard that Laban’s sons were saying, “Jacob has taken everything our father owned and has gained all this wealth from what belonged to our father.” 2 And Jacob noticed that Laban’s attitude toward him was not what it had been. 3 Then the LORD said to Jacob, “Go back to the land of your fathers and to your relatives, and I will be with you.”
Every signal–from God, Laban, Laban’s son, and his own wives warned Jacob that it was now time to return to Canaan.

 4 So Jacob sent word to Rachel and Leah to come out to the fields where his flocks were. 5 He said to them, “I see that your father’s attitude toward me is not what it was before, but the God of my father has been with me. 6 You know that I’ve worked for your father with all my strength, 7 yet your father has cheated me by changing my wages ten times. However, God has not allowed him to harm me. 8 If he said, ‘The speckled ones will be your wages,’ then all the flocks gave birth to speckled young; and if he said, ‘The streaked ones will be your wages,’ then all the flocks bore streaked young. 9 So God has taken away your father’s livestock and has given them to me.
God’s inalienable blessing.
 10 “In breeding season I once had a dream in which I looked up and saw that the male goats mating with the flock were streaked, speckled or spotted. 11 The angel of God said to me in the dream, ‘Jacob.’ I answered, ‘Here I am.’ 12 And he said, ‘Look up and see that all the male goats mating with the flock are streaked, speckled or spotted, for I have seen all that Laban has been doing to you. 13 I am the God of Bethel, where you anointed a pillar and where you made a vow to me. Now leave this land at once and go back to your native land.’”
While Laban has exploited Jacob for his own advantage, God has consistently worked against Laban’s schemes.
 14 Then Rachel and Leah replied, “Do we still have any share in the inheritance of our father’s estate? 15 Does he not regard us as foreigners? Not only has he sold us, but he has used up what was paid for us. 16 Surely all the wealth that God took away from our father belongs to us and our children. So do whatever God has told you.”
 17 Then Jacob put his children and his wives on camels, 18 and he drove all his livestock ahead of him, along with all the goods he had accumulated in Paddan Aram, to go to his father Isaac in the land of Canaan.
 19 When Laban had gone to shear his sheep, Rachel stole her father’s household gods. 20 Moreover, Jacob deceived Laban the Aramean by not telling him he was running away. 21 So he fled with all he had, crossed the Euphrates River, and headed for the hill country of Gilead.

NIV–As he had to flee from Esau earlier. Jacob’s devious dealings produced only hostility from which he had to flee.
Devious dealings can get your own way in the short run, and the unremitting hostility of those you have deceived in the long run. 

Laban Pursues Jacob

 22 On the third day Laban was told that Jacob had fled. 23 Taking his relatives with him, he pursued Jacob for seven days and caught up with him in the hill country of Gilead. 24 Then God came to Laban the Aramean in a dream at night and said to him, “Be careful not to say anything to Jacob, either good or bad.” 

God intervenes with warnings, speaking even to people who were not yet his covenant people.

25 Jacob had pitched his tent in the hill country of Gilead when Laban overtook him, and Laban and his relatives camped there too. 26 Then Laban said to Jacob, “What have you done? You’ve deceived me, and you’ve carried off my daughters like captives in war. 27 Why did you run off secretly and deceive me?
Jacob’s character, reflected in his name, the deceiver, is emphasized again and again.
 Why didn’t you tell me, so I could send you away with joy and singing to the music of timbrels and harps? 28 You didn’t even let me kiss my grandchildren and my daughters goodbye. You have done a foolish thing. 29 I have the power to harm you; but last night the God of your father said to me, ‘Be careful not to say anything to Jacob, either good or bad.’ 30 Now you have gone off because you longed to return to your father’s household. But why did you steal my gods?”
 31 Jacob answered Laban, “I was afraid, because I thought you would take your daughters away from me by force. 32 But if you find anyone who has your gods, that person shall not live. In the presence of our relatives, see for yourself whether there is anything of yours here with me; and if so, take it.” Now Jacob did not know that Rachel had stolen the gods.
Jacob, the deceiver was deceived even by his beloved wife.
A rash vow, which contributed to Rachel’s early death, perhaps.
 33 So Laban went into Jacob’s tent and into Leah’s tent and into the tent of the two female servants, but he found nothing. After he came out of Leah’s tent, he entered Rachel’s tent. 34 Now Rachel had taken the household gods and put them inside her camel’s saddle and was sitting on them. Laban searched through everything in the tent but found nothing.
 35 Rachel said to her father, “Don’t be angry, my lord, that I cannot stand up in your presence; I’m having my period.” So he searched but could not find the household gods.
 36 Jacob was angry and took Laban to task. “What is my crime?” he asked Laban. “How have I wronged you that you hunt me down? 37 Now that you have searched through all my goods, what have you found that belongs to your household? Put it here in front of your relatives and mine, and let them judge between the two of us.
 38 “I have been with you for twenty years now. Your sheep and goats have not miscarried, nor have I eaten rams from your flocks. 39 I did not bring you animals torn by wild beasts; I bore the loss myself. And you demanded payment from me for whatever was stolen by day or night. 40 This was my situation: The heat consumed me in the daytime and the cold at night, and sleep fled from my eyes. 41 It was like this for the twenty years I was in your household. I worked for you fourteen years for your two daughters and six years for your flocks, and you changed my wages ten times. 42 If the God of my father, the God of Abraham and the Fear of Isaac, had not been with me, you would surely have sent me away empty-handed. But God has seen my hardship and the toil of my hands, and last night he rebuked you.”
 43 Laban answered Jacob, “The women are my daughters, the children are my children, and the flocks are my flocks. All you see is mine. Yet what can I do today about these daughters of mine, or about the children they have borne? 44 Come now, let’s make a covenant, you and I, and let it serve as a witness between us.”
 45 So Jacob took a stone and set it up as a pillar. 46 He said to his relatives, “Gather some stones.” So they took stones and piled them in a heap, and they ate there by the heap. 47 Laban called it Jegar Sahadutha, and Jacob called it Galeed.c]’>[c] because he said, “May the LORD keep watch between you and me when we are away from each other. 50 If you mistreat my daughters or if you take any wives besides my daughters, even though no one is with us, remember that God is a witness between you and me.”
 51 Laban also said to Jacob, “Here is this heap, and here is this pillar I have set up between you and me. 52 This heap is a witness, and this pillar is a witness, that I will not go past this heap to your side to harm you and that you will not go past this heap and pillar to my side to harm me. 53 May the God of Abraham and the God of Nahor, the God of their father, judge between us.”
   So Jacob took an oath in the name of the Fear of his father Isaac. 54 He offered a sacrifice there in the hill country and invited his relatives to a meal. After they had eaten, they spent the night there.
 55 Early the next morning Laban kissed his grandchildren and his daughters and blessed them. Then he left and returned home.
God intervenes to secure Jacob from Laban’s designs to keep Jacob’s family under his control.

Angels in the Wilderness, The lingering promise. Genesis 16-18

By

Carel Fabritis, Hagar and the Angel


Genesis 16

 1 Now Sarai, Abram’s wife, had borne him no children. But she had an Egyptian slave named Hagar; 2 so she said to Abram, “The LORD has kept me from having children. Go, sleep with my slave; perhaps I can build a family through her.”

Attempts to take your destiny into your own hands without checking with God are very likely to be disastrous.

But what a hard counsel “Wait and be patient” is.

Oh, this sounds eerily and scarily familiar. Sarah getting impatient. Taking matters into her own hands.

When one has heard from God, the challenge is then to do what you hear him say. Even if all that you can do is wait. And pray.

“They also serve who only stand and wait.” John Milton.   


   Abram agreed to what Sarai said.

An impatient, dominant female, a pliant male. Patriarchs and matriarchs of the faith. Hope for us all!!


 3 So after Abram had been living in Canaan ten years, Sarai his wife took her Egyptian slave Hagar and gave her to her husband to be his wife. 4 He slept with Hagar, and she conceived.

   When she knew she was pregnant, she began to despise her mistress.

A woman’s worth equated with her sexuality, fertility (and age?) There is nothing new under the sun.

The human solution to Sarah’s barrenness creates new problems.


 5 Then Sarai said to Abram, “You are responsible for the wrong I am suffering. I put my slave in your arms, and now that she knows she is pregnant, she despises me. May the LORD judge between you and me.”

 6 “Your slave is in your hands,” Abram said. “Do with her whatever you think best.” Then Sarai mistreated Hagar; so she fled from her.

The weak male, the vengeful female. A mess! A not infrequent state of affairs.

Hagar, both sinner and sinned against. As Sarah was in this case. Be careful before you take sides.

 7 The angel of the LORD found Hagar near a spring in the desert; it was the spring that is beside the road to Shur. 8 And he said, “Hagar, slave of Sarai, where have you come from, and where are you going?”

   “I’m running away from my mistress Sarai,” she answered.

 9 Then the angel of the LORD told her, “Go back to your mistress and submit to her.” 10 The angel added, “I will increase your descendants so much that they will be too numerous to count.”

Take a deep breath, Hagar. You too are under God’s protection and blessing.

The goodness of God is part of his very nature.

A theophany. NIV: “Traditional Christian interpretation has held that this “angel” was a preincarnate manifestation of Christ as God’s messenger-servant.


 11 The angel of the LORD also said to her:

   “You are now pregnant
   and you will give birth to a son.
You shall name him Ishmael,
   for the LORD has heard of your misery. 

Ishmael means God hears. God has observed Sarah’s harsh treatment of Hagar.


12 He will be a wild donkey of a man; 

God’s promise. Ishmael will be strongly independent. He will not need to submit to masters.

   his hand will be against everyone
   and everyone’s hand against him,
and he will live in hostility
   toward all his brothers.”

 13 She gave this name to the LORD who spoke to her: “You are the God who sees me,” for she said, “I have now seen the One who sees me.” 14 That is why the well was called Beer Lahai Roi; it is still there, between Kadesh and Bered.

The Lord hears. The Lord sees.

There is a lot of comfort in this. The Lord sees, the Lord hears.

Do not be afraid of the desert. You are more likely than not to encounter angels there.


 15 So Hagar bore Abram a son, and Abram gave the name Ishmael to the son she had borne. 16 Abram was eighty-six years old when Hagar bore him Ishmael.

Genesis 17

 1 When Abram was ninety-nine years old, the LORD appeared to him and said, “I am God Almighty;

The Hebrew is El-Shaddai, God the Mountain One. The name emphasized God’s power which will enable Sarah to conceive Isaac.


walk before me faithfully and be blameless. 2 Then I will make my covenant between me and you and will greatly increase your numbers.”

The language echoes what was promised to Adam and Noah. God’s original design for humanity will be achieved through Abraham.

The delayed promise. This is such sad and heartbreaking reading, yet who of us has not experienced it.  God promises, and promises, and promises, and you know in your heart that his promises are true, but you do not see it with your eyes.

Lifting weights increases one’s strength. Exercising faith increases one’s faith. Faith was Abraham’s instinctive spiritual gift, but this long wait in faith strengthens it.


 3 Abram fell facedown,

in reverence


and God said to him, 4 “As for me, this is my covenant with you: You will be the father of many nations. 5 No longer will you be called Abram; your name will be Abraham, for I have made you a father of many nations. 6 I will make you very fruitful; I will make nations of you, and kings will come from you. 7 I will establish my covenant as an everlasting covenant between me and you and your descendants after you for the generations to come, to be your God and the God of your descendants after you. 8 The whole land of Canaan, where you now reside as a foreigner, I will give as an everlasting possession to you and your descendants after you; and I will be their God.”

Brilliant words. Though to a man of lesser faith, they could have seemed mockery. You, the father of no legitimate child, will be the father of many nations. You will be very fruitful.

Fruitfulness. That’s another of the blessings of Abraham, that we, children of Abraham because of our faith, can claim. And I do. Bless me with the fruitfulness which is part of your nature, Lord, and part of the nature of the world which you have created.

A new destiny, and a new name marking his new identity as a servant of God. Abraham means father of a multitude.


 9 Then God said to Abraham, “As for you, you must keep my covenant, you and your descendants after you for the generations to come. 10 This is my covenant with you and your descendants after you, the covenant you are to keep: Every male among you shall be circumcised. 11 You are to undergo circumcision, and it will be the sign of the covenant between me and you. 12 For the generations to come every male among you who is eight days old must be circumcised, including those born in your household or bought with money from a foreigner—those who are not your offspring. 13 Whether born in your household or bought with your money, they must be circumcised. My covenant in your flesh is to be an everlasting covenant. 14 Any uncircumcised male, who has not been circumcised in the flesh, will be cut off from his people; he has broken my covenant.”

God is preparing the ground for the fulfilment of his promise.

Almost a unilateral covenant with just one requirement—that of circumcision.


 15 God also said to Abraham, “As for Sarai your wife, you are no longer to call her Sarai; her name will be Sarah. 16 I will bless her and will surely give you a son by her. I will bless her so that she will be the mother of nations; kings of peoples will come from her.”

 17 Abraham fell facedown; he laughed and said to himself, “Will a son be born to a man a hundred years old? Will Sarah bear a child at the age of ninety?” 18 And Abraham said to God, “If only Ishmael might live under your blessing!”

Abraham loves God, but he is finding it increasingly hard to believe him. He is offering him an alternative, almost saving God’s face.


 19 Then God said, “Yes, but your wife Sarah will bear you a son, and you will call him Isaac. I will establish my covenant with him as an everlasting covenant for his descendants after him. 

Let no one accuse God of not having a sense of humour. God hears Abraham’s laughter, and promises him a son called Isaac, “He laughs!”

God’s blessing of fruitfulness.


20 And as for Ishmael, I have heard you: I will surely bless him; I will make him fruitful and will greatly increase his numbers. He will be the father of twelve rulers, and I will make him into a great nation. 

Why did God bless Ishmael? Partly because Abraham asked him to. Never estimate the enormous power of praying for our children.


21 But my covenant I will establish with Isaac, whom Sarah will bear to you by this time next year.” 22 When he had finished speaking with Abraham, God went up from him.

And what has Isaac, who is yet unborn, done to merit the covenant which will be established with him, rather than with his brother? Precisely nothing!!

Romans 9:15 “I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.”


 23 On that very day Abraham took his son Ishmael and all those born in his household or bought with his money, every male in his household, and circumcised them, as God told him. 24 Abraham was ninety-nine years old when he was circumcised, 25 and his son Ishmael was thirteen; 26 Abraham and his son Ishmael were both circumcised on that very day. 27 And every male in Abraham’s household, including those born in his household or bought from a foreigner, was circumcised with him.

Quick obedience characterizes the heroes of the faith. Indeed, the demands of faith are often costly, so if you do not obey promptly, you risk not obeying at all.


Genesis 18

 1 The LORD appeared to Abraham near the great trees of Mamre while he was sitting at the entrance to his tent in the heat of the day. 

One of the great theophanies of the New Testament.


2 Abraham looked up and saw three men standing nearby. When he saw them, he hurried from the entrance of his tent to meet them and bowed low to the ground.

 3 He said, “If I have found favour in your eyes, my lord,do not pass your servant by. 4 Let a little water be brought, and then you may all wash your feet and rest under this tree. 5 Let me get you something to eat, so you can be refreshed and then go on your way—now that you have come to your servant.”

   “Very well,” they answered, “do as you say.”

 6 So Abraham hurried into the tent to Sarah. “Quick,” he said, “get three seahs of the finest flour and knead it and bake some bread.”

 7 Then he ran to the herd and selected a choice, tender calf and gave it to a servant, who hurried to prepare it. 8 He then brought some curds and milk and the calf that had been prepared, and set these before them. While they ate, he stood near them under a tree.

Generous lavish hospitality—a trait of the one God blessed. It is instructive to see how those God blesses, who live under his favour, behave.


 9 “Where is your wife Sarah?” they asked him.

   “There, in the tent,” he said.

 10 Then one of them said, “I will surely return to you about this time next year, and Sarah your wife will have a son.”

   Now Sarah was listening at the entrance to the tent, which was behind him. 11 Abraham and Sarah were already very old, and Sarah was past the age of childbearing. 12 So Sarah laughed to herself as she thought, “After I am worn out and my lord is old, will I now have this pleasure?”

 13 Then the LORD said to Abraham, “Why did Sarah laugh and say, ‘Will I really have a child, now that I am old?’ 14 Is anything too hard for the LORD? I will return to you at the appointed time next year, and Sarah will have a son.”

 15 Sarah was afraid, so she lied and said, “I did not laugh.”

   But he said, “Yes, you did laugh.”

Sarah did not believe. However, in the Lord’s goodness, she was punished neither for her disbelief not for her lie.

Instead, she received a wonderful, further revelation of the nature of God.

God asks her. IS ANYTHING TOO HARD FOR THE LORD?

And this, thank God, is a rhetorical question.

NOTHING IS TOO HARD FOR THE LORD.

Stop now and contemplate your life, and its perceived impossibilities.

 Nothing is too hard for the Lord.

Covenant with Noah, Genesis 8,9,10.

By

Genesis 8
 1 But God remembered Noah and all the wild animals and the livestock that were with him in the ark, and he sent a wind over the earth, and the waters receded. 

That is one way God differs from man. Seasons of punishment, of discipline, end.


2Now the springs of the deep and the floodgates of the heavens had been closed, and the rain had stopped falling from the sky. 3 The water receded steadily from the earth. At the end of the hundred and fifty days the water had gone down, 4 and on the seventeenth day of the seventh month the ark came to rest on the mountains of Ararat. 5 The waters continued to recede until the tenth month, and on the first day of the tenth month the tops of the mountains became visible.

 6 After forty days Noah opened a window he had made in the ark 7 and sent out a raven, and it kept flying back and forth until the water had dried up from the earth.

Forty again. The psychologically necessary period for spiritual transition.


 8 Then he sent out a dove to see if the water had receded from the surface of the ground. 9 But the dove could find nowhere to perch because there was water over all the surface of the earth; so it returned to Noah in the ark. He reached out his hand and took the dove and brought it back to himself in the ark. 10 He waited seven more days and again sent out the dove from the ark. 11 When the dove returned to him in the evening, there in its beak was a freshly plucked olive leaf! Then Noah knew that the water had receded from the earth. 12 He waited seven more days and sent the dove out again, but this time it did not return to him.

 13 By the first day of the first month of Noah’s six hundred and first year, the water had dried up from the earth. Noah then removed the covering from the ark and saw that the surface of the ground was dry. 14 By the twenty-seventh day of the second month the earth was completely dry.

 15 Then God said to Noah, 16 “Come out of the ark, you and your wife and your sons and their wives. 17 Bring out every kind of living creature that is with you—the birds, the animals, and all the creatures that move along the ground—so they can multiply on the earth and be fruitful and increase in number on it.”

Fruitfulness. God’s intention for human beings. His original design. What is fruitfulness? Partly that our effort should bear fruit over and over again, out of all proportion to the original effort. Just as a single fruitful apple seed bears millions of apples over its lifetime.


  18 So Noah came out, together with his sons and his wife and his sons’ wives. 19 All the animals and all the creatures that move along the ground and all the birds—everything that moves on land—came out of the ark, one kind after another.

 20 Then Noah built an altar to the LORD and, taking some of all the clean animals and clean birds, he sacrificed burnt offerings on it. 21 The LORD smelled the pleasing aroma and said in his heart: “Never again will I curse the ground because of humans, even though every inclination of the human heart is evil from childhood. And never again will I destroy all living creatures, as I have done.

 22 “As long as the earth endures,
seedtime and harvest,
cold and heat,
summer and winter,
day and night
will never cease.”

God notes Noah’s act of gratitude and atonement. There is now, some commentators note, a partial lifting of the curse of Gen 3:17 i.e. “Cursed is the ground because of you;
   through painful toil you will eat food from it
   all the days of your life.
18 It will produce thorns and thistles for you.

At first the cursed earth resists man. He works; it produces thorns and thistles. Now, there is an inextricable and forever connection between seedtime and harvest, between work, and the fruits of work.


Genesis 9

 1 Then God blessed Noah and his sons, saying to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number and fill the earth. 2 The fear and dread of you will fall on all the beasts of the earth, and on all the birds in the sky, on every creature that moves along the ground, and on all the fish in the sea; they are given into your hands. 3Everything that lives and moves about will be food for you. Just as I gave you the green plants, I now give you everything.

Every creature feels an instinctive fear and distrust of man.

I have long agonized about whether vegetarianism is the most ethical choice, but apparently here, God says, “3Everything that lives and moves about will be food for you.”

(I personally try to eat meat that is as compassionately and ethically raised as possible. Organic, free-range whenever I can. And this is also the healthiest choice).


 4 “But you must not eat meat that has its lifeblood still in it. 5 And for your lifeblood I will surely demand an accounting. I will demand an accounting from every animal. And from each human being, too, I will demand an accounting for the life of another human being.

 6 “Whoever sheds human blood,
   by humans shall their blood be shed;
for in the image of God
   has God made mankind.

There is a kind of sacredness to every human being, even the worst, because we are made in the image of God. God demands an accounting for how we have messed with the lives of other people.

For how we have treated them.

AND, when people have seriously harmed our lives–relax, because there is a Just judge, and an accounting will be demanded.


 7 As for you, be fruitful and increase in number; multiply on the earth and increase upon it.”

 8 Then God said to Noah and to his sons with him: 9 “I now establish my covenant with you and with your descendants after you 10 and with every living creature that was with you—the birds, the livestock and all the wild animals, all those that came out of the ark with you—every living creature on earth. 11 I establish my covenant with you: Never again will all life be destroyed by the waters of a flood; never again will there be a flood to destroy the earth.”

 12 And God said, “This is the sign of the covenant I am making between me and you and every living creature with you, a covenant for all generations to come: 13 I have set my rainbow in the clouds, and it will be the sign of the covenant between me and the earth. 14 Whenever I bring clouds over the earth and the rainbow appears in the clouds, 15 I will remember my covenant between me and you and all living creatures of every kind. Never again will the waters become a flood to destroy all life. 16 Whenever the rainbow appears in the clouds, I will see it and remember the everlasting covenant between God and all living creatures of every kind on the earth.”

 17 So God said to Noah, “This is the sign of the covenant I have established between me and all life on the earth.”

An unconditional covenant between God and man. A unilateral promise. We see God’s yearning kindness towards human beings, a bit like a parent’s towards even an estranged child.

Mankind is given a second chance. The repopulating of the earth by Noah and his children and the animals from the ark mirrors the original Creation.


The Sons of Noah

 18 The sons of Noah who came out of the ark were Shem, Ham and Japheth. (Ham was the father of Canaan.) 19 These were the three sons of Noah, and from them came the people who were scattered over the whole earth.

 20 Noah, a man of the soil, proceeded to plant a vineyard. 21 When he drank some of its wine, he became drunk and lay uncovered inside his tent. 22 Ham, the father of Canaan, saw his father naked and told his two brothers outside. 23 But Shem and Japheth took a garment and laid it across their shoulders; then they walked in backward and covered their father’s naked body. Their faces were turned the other way so that they would not see their father naked.

 24 When Noah awoke from his wine and found out what his youngest son had done to him, 25 he said,

   “Cursed be Canaan!
   The lowest of slaves
   will he be to his brothers.”

 26 He also said,

   “Praise be to the LORD, the God of Shem!
   May Canaan be the slave of Shem.
27 May God extend Japheth’s[b] territory;
   may Japheth live in the tents of Shem,
   and may Canaan be the slave of Japheth.”

 28 After the flood Noah lived 350 years. 29 Noah lived a total of 950 years, and then he died.

Ouch! Ham’s action of dishonouring and humiliating his father was one of those actions with enormous consequences.  His father curses him. Actions are, in fact, revelatory of the heart. And so, though Noah’s reaction appears to be disproportionate, it is, in fact, not so.

Blessings, on the other hand, have an arbitrary element in the Old Testament (and in life).  I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion.” (Acts 17:11). Both Japeth and Shem appear to have been equally righteous, yet it is Shem, who is given power and a dominant position over his brother (May Japheth live in the tents of Shem).


Genesis 10

 1 This is the account of Shem, Ham and Japheth, Noah’s sons, who themselves had sons after the flood.

   The Japhethites

 2 The sons[a] of Japheth:
   Gomer, Magog, Madai, Javan, Tubal, Meshek and Tiras.

 3 The sons of Gomer:
   Ashkenaz, Riphath and Togarmah.

 4 The sons of Javan:
   Elishah, Tarshish, the Kittites and the Rodanites.[b] 5 (From these the maritime peoples spread out into their territories by their clans within their nations, each with its own language.)

   The Hamites

 6 The sons of Ham:
   Cush, Egypt, Put and Canaan.

 7 The sons of Cush:
   Seba, Havilah, Sabtah, Raamah and Sabteka.

   The sons of Raamah:
   Sheba and Dedan.

 8 Cush was the father[c] of Nimrod, who became a mighty warrior on the earth. 9 He was a mighty hunter before the LORD; that is why it is said, “Like Nimrod, a mighty hunter before the LORD.” 10 The first centers of his kingdom were Babylon, Uruk, Akkad and Kalneh, in[d] Shinar.[e] 11 From that land he went to Assyria, where he built Nineveh, Rehoboth Ir,[f] Calah 12 and Resen, which is between Nineveh and Calah—which is the great city.

 13 Egypt was the father of
   the Ludites, Anamites, Lehabites, Naphtuhites, 14 Pathrusites, Kasluhites (from whom the Philistines came) and Caphtorites.

 15 Canaan was the father of
   Sidon his firstborn,[g] and of the Hittites, 16 Jebusites, Amorites, Girgashites, 17 Hivites, Arkites, Sinites, 18 Arvadites, Zemarites and Hamathites.

   Later the Canaanite clans scattered 19 and the borders of Canaan reached from Sidon toward Gerar as far as Gaza, and then toward Sodom, Gomorrah, Admah and Zeboyim, as far as Lasha.

 20 These are the sons of Ham by their clans and languages, in their territories and nations.

   The Semites

 21 Sons were also born to Shem, whose older brother was[h] Japheth; Shem was the ancestor of all the sons of Eber.

 22 The sons of Shem:
   Elam, Ashur, Arphaxad, Lud and Aram.

 23 The sons of Aram:
   Uz, Hul, Gether and Meshek.[i]

 24 Arphaxad was the father of[j] Shelah,
   and Shelah the father of Eber.

 25 Two sons were born to Eber:
   One was named Peleg,[k] because in his time the earth was divided; his brother was named Joktan.

 26 Joktan was the father of
   Almodad, Sheleph, Hazarmaveth, Jerah, 27 Hadoram, Uzal, Diklah, 28 Obal, Abimael, Sheba, 29 Ophir, Havilah and Jobab. All these were sons of Joktan.

 30 The region where they lived stretched from Mesha toward Sephar, in the eastern hill country.

 31 These are the sons of Shem by their clans and languages, in their territories and nations.

 32 These are the clans of Noah’s sons, according to their lines of descent, within their nations. From these the nations spread out over the earth after the flood.

Genesis 3 and Genesis 4, The Fall, Original Sin, and the Murder of Abel. Day 3

By



Image by William Blake
Genesis 3


The Fall

 1 Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the LORD God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden’?”

And so be on your guard. Trickery and deceit comes subtly and cunningly. And in the guise of friendship and concern. It is wise to quietly interrogate proffered friendship and concern from those you hardly know. That is how “mentors” become tormentors.

* * *

And so temptation starts, “Did God really say?”

I have heard these words spoken to me, for instance when I am absolutely sure I have heard God’s voice advising a course of action. And God’s advice is often challenging, even senseless, to the rational mind. Because the jewel God requires of us is faith, he may often call us to do something which is senseless to the rational mind.

I have spoken these words myself, mainly when I want to be transgressive and not obey what seems to be the Godly course.

So be on your guard when you hear, “Did God really say?”


 2 The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, 3 but God did say, ‘You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.’”

 4 “You will not certainly die,” the serpent said to the woman. 5 “For God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”


“You will not certainly die” the serpent says. The life of faith, the life of a Christian, is never easy. It requires a rigorous application of the mind, as well as the heart. So often voices sound certain, knowing, authoritative, as the serpent’s does, with our good at heart. I might have been deceived too. The safest source might be to stick to the truth revealed to you, when bedazzled by competing arguments.

* * *

And it’s  human nature: prohibitions only serve to make forbidden fruit more desirable.

I am wondering if there is a parenting application here—the fewer the rules, the less trouble you have with your children. So rather than say no computer games, no sweets…point out the pleasures of reading, the pleasures of health. Parent by winning hearts and minds rather than by rules…which create the instant temptation to break them.


 6 When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it.

Tasty and attractive. The channels for the first temptation.

Pleasing to the eye, a masculine temptation; good for food, a feminine temptation??


She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it. 

Eve as the de facto leader of the family!! Eve sounds like a lot of women I know.


7 Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves.


With sin, comes shame. And the instinctive need to conceal shame.

 8 Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the LORD God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the LORD God among the trees of the garden.

And until one repents, that is the other effect of sin. One hides from the Lord. Skips one’s time of prayer. Prays about tangential things. Reads scripture instead of praying. Allows oneself to get distracted during times of prayer. If blogging is your spiritual discipline, then you blog about things far from where your heart really is.

These are all the instinctive reactions of one who continues in sin he will not repent of.


 9 But the LORD God called to the man, “Where are you?”

One of the great questions, God asks man. “Where, exactly, are you?”

It is a good question to address in one’s quiet times. Where exactly am I?


 10 He answered, “I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid.”

The heartbreaking effects of sin. One hides from one’s friend, because your friend would confront you with your sin, and require you to repent. One hides one’s true self from enemies, from the community. You lose some of the joy of friendship.


 11 And he said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?”

The inextricable connection again between guilt and shame.


 12 The man said, “The woman you put here with me—she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate it.”

The next consequence of sin—You blame someone else!!


 13 Then the LORD God said to the woman, “What is this you have done?”

The woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.”

The next consequence of sin—You blame someone else!!


 14 So the LORD God said to the serpent, “Because you have done this,

   “Cursed are you above all livestock
   and all wild animals!
You will crawl on your belly
   and you will eat dust
   all the days of your life.
15 And I will put enmity
   between you and the woman,
   and between your offspring[ and hers;
he will crushyour head,
   and you will strike his heel.”

Christ will win the victory but not without pain.


 16 To the woman he said,

   “I will make your pains in childbearing very severe;
   with painful labour you will give birth to children.
Your desire will be for your husband,
 And he will rule over you  

The conflict between the sexes in a nutshell. The woman will desire, want (to own, control, possess, have?) her husband.

And he will rule over you. Oh dear! The Bible wasn’t written in 2011, was it? Though we still see the Genesis opinion of the roles of the sexes embedded in social mores. It is considered forward and shameful for a woman to propose marriage, for instance, in almost every culture, or to be too forward in bringing this happy state of affairs to pass. And in the vast majority of families, the man is still the principal financial provider, and the vast majority of families are financially reliant on the man’s work and skill. 

“And he will rule over you.” Dear Lord, this is a most unpolitically correct statement. What were you thinking of? Please let me know. Love, Anita

Joking apart, C.S. Lewis in Mere Christianity tries to take on these rapidly-becoming-unfashionable

statements. He says that it is always best for men to set “the foreign policy” of families, because women tend to be emotional mother bears when it comes to protecting nest and nestlings, home and hearth. Hmm. There is something to that.


 17 To Adam he said, “Because you listened to your wife and ate fruit from the tree about which I commanded you, ‘You must not eat from it,’

   “Cursed is the ground because of you;
   through painful toil you will eat food from it
   all the days of your life. 

18 It will produce thorns and thistles for  you,
   and you will eat the plants of the field.
19 By the sweat of your brow
   you will eat your food
until you return to the ground,
   since from it you were taken;
for dust you are
   and to dust you will return.”

God sets a link between work and food in place. And this link is essential for man’s emotional, psychological and, even perhaps, physical health.

This curse was partly lifted after the flood, when God sets a connection between seedtime and harvest in place, and was lifted to an even greater extent at Calvary.

 20 Adamnamed his wife Eve,because she would become the mother of all the living.

 21 The LORD God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife and clothed them. 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.” 23 So the LORD God banished him from the Garden of Eden to work the ground from which he had been taken. 24 After he drove the man out, he placed on the east side[e] of the Garden of Eden cherubim and a flaming sword flashing back and forth to guard the way to the tree of life.


Exiled from Eden for a long season to a life of toil.


Genesis 4

Cain and Abel

 1 Adammade love to his wife Eve, and she became pregnant and gave birth to Cain.She said, “With the help of the LORD I have brought forth a man.” 2Later she gave birth to his brother Abel.

   Now Abel kept flocks, and Cain worked the soil. 

I have often felt vegetarian may have been closer to God’s will. But given that the good Abel kept flocks, it’s probably okay to be a carnivore—as long as you eat compassionately raised, free-range meat (IMO). It’s costs more, but one’s conscience is at peace—and that’s worth a lot.


3 In the course of time Cain brought some of the fruits of the soil as an offering to the LORD. 4 And Abel also brought an offering—fat portions from some of the firstborn of his flock. The LORD looked with favor on Abel and his offering, 5 but on Cain and his offering he did not look with favor.

Why, why, why, did God not look on Cain and his offering with favour? Cain brought some of the fruits of the soil as an offering. There is no suggestion that this was a carefully thought out offering. However, when Abel gave an offering to God, he really gave it!! The first-born, the most precious of the flock in Jewish thinking, and the best and tastiest portions–the fat portions, (hey, those ancient Jews knew something!!).


 So Cain was very angry, and his face was downcast.

The original sin of Cain. When we see God apparently look with more favour on someone else, our first reaction may be to be very angry, and have our faces downcast. However, the righteous reaction is to revise our lives, and to see if there is any sin in our lives, or anything, other than his sovereign will, which keeps his favour from us.

And to accept that we are actors in his play, and that he chooses our roles, and so it is rebellion to become very angry, and have our faces downcast.


 6 Then the LORD said to Cain, “Why are you angry? Why is your face downcast? 7 If you do what is right, will you not be accepted?

Ancient words with modern relevance. Who has not been a bit angry, and had his face downcast when they have seen someone else apparently more blessed by God?

And God suggests a way that we too can experience the mysterious thing called his favour. If we do right, we too shall be accepted.

Acceptance by God. The best kind of acceptance. The only one which really counts. And God can make things happen.


“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.”

When we are not doing the right thing, sin is ready to pounce on us, and control and master us. Instead, we must control our sinful impulses.

Does Cain accept God’s advice?

Do we?


 8 Now Cain said to his brother Abel, “Let’s go out to the field.” While they were in the field, Cain attacked his brother Abel and killed him.

Jealousy can be deadly. So much of man’s endeavour, consciously or unconsciously, is to become one who is envied—for his wealth, success, spouse, kids, looks, lifestyle, whatever.

But jealousy can cause deadly harm.

Cain killed Abel for no reason other than that he was more blessed and favoured by God.


 9 Then the LORD said to Cain, “Where is your brother Abel?”

   “I don’t know,” he replied. “Am I my brother’s keeper?”

The deadly circle of sin begets sin. Jealousy and sulking beget murder, murder begets insolence and untruthfulness.


 10 The LORD said, “What have you done? Listen! Your brother’s blood cries out to me from the ground. 11 Now you are under a curse and driven from the ground, which opened its mouth to receive your brother’s blood from your hand. 12 When you work the ground, it will no longer yield its crops for you

And when we are wronged—this is the best advice: Relax. There is a just judge. He hears innocent blood cry out. He puts those who wrong the innocent under the curse of his disfavour, the curse of restlessness among other things. And the curse of futility, of barren endeavour, working the ground which no longer yields crops for you.


“You will be a restless wanderer on the earth.”

The land in Jewish Old Testament thinking (God’s thinking?) was the good. Being driven from the land was one of the worst things which could happen to the ancient Israelites.

The punishment of Cain was “to be a restless wanderer on the earth.”  Hmm, I have at last settled down 6 years ago in Oxford, and 5 years ago in our house. We love being rooted, and enjoy the blessing of that. An immense saving in time is one of the blessings of being rooted, having everything set up, and being able to work without the immense waste of energy that moves and being uprooted involves. Thank you, Lord, for roots.


 13 Cain said to the LORD, “My punishment is more than I can bear. 14 Today you are driving me from the land, and I will be hidden from your presence; I will be a restless wanderer on the earth, and whoever finds me will kill me.”

 15 But the LORD said to him, “Not so; anyone who kills Cain will suffer vengeance seven times over.” Then the LORD put a mark on Cain so that no one who found him would kill him. 16 So Cain went out from the LORD’s presence and lived in the land of Nod, east of Eden.

Mercy and justice always meet in God. Cain is punished, yes, but because he appealed, he is still under God’s protection, oddly enough to a greater extent that even Abel was. See Mark Buchanan’s take on this http://theoxfordchristian.blogspot.com/2010/06/life-is-unfair-and-thats-okay.html.


 17 Cain made love to his wife, and she became pregnant and gave birth to Enoch. Cain was then building a city, and he named it after his son Enoch. 18 To Enoch was born Irad, and Irad was the father of Mehujael, and Mehujael was the father of Methushael, and Methushael was the father of Lamech.

 19 Lamech married two women, one named Adah and the other Zillah. 20 Adah gave birth to Jabal; he was the father of those who live in tents and raise livestock.21 His brother’s name was Jubal; he was the father of all who play stringed instruments and pipes. 22 Zillah also had a son, Tubal-Cain, who forged all kinds of tools out of[g] bronze and iron. Tubal-Cain’s sister was Naamah.

 23 Lamech said to his wives,

   “Adah and Zillah, listen to me;
   wives of Lamech, hear my words.
I have killed a man for wounding me,
   a young man for injuring me.
24 If Cain is avenged seven times,
   then Lamech seventy-seven times.”

The horrid spirit of Cain, taking a magnified vengeance, 77 times over. Lord, preserve us from this forceful spirit.


 25 Adam made love to his wife again, and she gave birth to a son and named him Seth,[h] saying, “God has granted me another child in place of Abel, since Cain killed him.” 26 Seth also had a son, and he named him Enosh.

   At that time people began to call on[i] the name of the LORD.

The story of redemption continues, despite all detours.


Genesis 1 and Genesis 2, Day 1. Jan Ist

By

Genesis 1

The Beginning

 1 In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. 2 Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.


It sounds like the creative process, doesn’t it? You have nothing, everything is formless and empty and covered by darkness. There is but one thing in your favour.

The Spirit of God hovering over you.

So a reminder as we start this year, perhaps feeling empty and dark and uncertain: God’s Spirit hovers longingly over you.

Come Sweet Spirit fill us.


 3 And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. 



It’s amazing–what can happen at the word of God. Light comes from darkness. 
Lord, when you speak, things happen. Just like that.You say it, and it is done. Things can change in a moment, when you say the word

You know where I need light, Lord. Speak the word. Speak creativity over me.


4 God saw that the light was good, and he separated the light from the darkness. 

And it is good, your light.

Help me Lord this year to make the most of the hours of daylight, your lovely light. Help me to rise with the sun, and to sleep early and well.

Sin, interestingly, is known by Paul as the deeds of darkness.


5 God called the light “day,” and the darkness he called “night.” And there was evening, and there was morning—the first day.

 6 And God said, “Let there be a vault between the waters to separate water from water.” 7 So God made the vault and separated the water under the vault from the water above it. And it was so. 8 God called the vault “sky.” And there was evening, and there was morning—the second day.

 9 And God said, “Let the water under the sky be gathered to one place, and let dry ground appear.” And it was so. 10 God called the dry ground “land,” and the gathered waters he called “seas.” And God saw that it was good.
    11 Then God said, “Let the land produce vegetation: seed-bearing plants and trees on the land that bear fruit with seed in it, according to their various kinds.” And it was so. 12 The land produced vegetation: plants bearing seed according to their kinds and trees bearing fruit with seed in it according to their kinds. And God saw that it was good. 13 And there was evening, and there was morning—the third day.

Look at the immense creativity and activity of God. And, we as Christians, and as human being, share God’s nature.
The logical order of creation. Food for animals and humans—even before they are created! The providence of God in action!



 14 And God said, “Let there be lights in the vault of the sky to separate the day from the night, and let them serve as signs to mark sacred times, and days and years, 15 and let them be lights in the vault of the sky to give light on the earth.” And it was so. 16 God made two great lights—the greater light to govern the day and the lesser light to govern the night. He also made the stars. 17 God set them in the vault of the sky to give light on the earth, 18 to govern the day and the night, and to separate light from darkness. And God saw that it was good. 19 And there was evening, and there was morning—the fourth day.

Order, rhythms, are built into creation. No wonder part of our very natures crave order, predictability, routines, sacred times and days and years, the days governed, the night governed. 

 20 And God said, “Let the water teem with living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the vault of the sky.” 21 So God created the great creatures of the sea and every living thing with which the water teems and that moves about in it, according to their kinds, and every winged bird according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. 22 God blessed them and said, “Be fruitful and increase in number and fill the water in the seas, and let the birds increase on the earth.” 23And there was evening, and there was morning—the fifth day.

Beauty, creativity, abundance, this is so part of God’s very nature. Come Holy Spirit, fill our hearts with God’s very nature—creativity, ideas teeming, flying, living, fruitful and increasing.


 24 And God said, “Let the land produce living creatures according to their kinds: the livestock, the creatures that move along the ground, and the wild animals, each according to its kind.” And it was so. 25 God made the wild animals according to their kinds, the livestock according to their kinds, and all the creatures that move along the ground according to their kinds. And God saw that it was good.
    26 Then God said, “Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals,[a] and over all the creatures that move along the ground.”

 27 So God created mankind in his own image,
   in the image of God he created them;
   male and female he created them.


And that is why we need despair of no man. Because we are made of mud and the breath of God. Made in the image of God!! That is why human goodness will always surprise us.


And so it is never absolutely futile to appeal to someone’s better nature. For we all have it.


And when all appeals to someone’s better nature fail, there is yet one supreme court, prayer, which might move God to file an appeal on your behalf.


Because we are made in the image of God, no one is so impervious to the movement of God that prayer cannot change him or her.


 28 God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky and over every living creature that moves on the ground.”
 29 Then God said, “I give you every seed-bearing plant on the face of the whole earth and every tree that has fruit with seed in it. They will be yours for food. 30And to all the beasts of the earth and all the birds in the sky and all the creatures that move along the ground—everything that has the breath of life in it—I give every green plant for food.” And it was so. 


Interesting—the animals were vegetarian, people were vegetarian. We lived without suffering being involved in our food.

I still think that the best diet might be one which stays as close to vegetarianism and fruitarianism as possible, though I find it hard to do without meat.  So I stick to free-range, organic meat. If I have to eat animals, I want at least to ensure that they have suffered as little as possible in the process.
    31 God saw all that he had made, and it was very good. And there was evening, and there was morning—the sixth day.

Genesis 2

 1 Thus the heavens and the earth were completed in all their vast array.

Completed: That’s God. What he begins, he finishes. How beautiful are the last words of Jesus on the Cross: It is finished. The blessed relief of those words.

He similarly tells his father, “I have completed the work you have given me to do.
Both Roy and I have pretty mercurial minds, our interests shift, new projects claim our attention. We are both trying to train ourselves to finish what we have started (provided it is worth finishing) before turning our attention to fresh fields and pastures new.

in all their vast array

That’s God for you. Plenitude, abundance. Variety and lots of it. The God of generosity. He’s a great God, and worth serving.


 2 By the seventh day God had finished the work he had been doing; so on the seventh day he rested from all his work. 3 Then God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it he rested from all the work of creating that he had done.


The seventh day, is built into creation, in lunar months, which are roughly 28 days, and in the moon itself which enters into a new phase every 7 days–waxing crescent, waxing gibbous, waning gibbous, waning crescent.
One of the best flippant tags I have come across on Sabbath observance is “To get the best results, obey the manufactor’s instructions.” I burn out before the end of the week if I have either work or stress on Sundays, and conversely, thoroughly resting, even catching up on sleep, keeps me fresh and green through the week. 


Adam and Eve

 4 This is the account of the heavens and the earth when they were created, when the LORD God made the earth and the heavens.

 5 Now no shrub had yet appeared on the earth[a] and no plant had yet sprung up, for the LORD God had not sent rain on the earth and there was no one to work the ground, 6 but streams[b] came up from the earth and watered the whole surface of the ground. 

That’s God for you—life, abundance, it cannot help but spring up.


 Then the LORD God formed a man[c] from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being.

And there in a sentence is a complete understanding of human beings—a mixture of dust and clay—fallibility, impermanence, fickleness,  dirt,  we are friable, mouldable, have an immense capacity for ugliness, we are nothing.

We are everything—for God has breathed into us–the breath of God, beauty, permanence, inspiration, loveliness, creative abilities

All men are capable of infinite goodness, kindness and decency—and infinite cruelty and sadism,

Mud and the breath of God. That is what we are.


 8 Now the LORD God had planted a garden in the east, in Eden;

I think it charming that one of God’s first activities was to plant a garden.

Thought and work, the sacred combination.

God thought things into being. But he also chose to work physically for the healthy, happy feeling of sweat and fatigue on brow. He could have thought that garden into being, as today, I could afford to hire a gardener and be an imagineer rather than a gardener. But that would be boring. We would rather work the ground ourselves. So with the ability to think infinite wealth into being, God still chose to labour–for the joy of work.


and there he put the man he had formed. 9 The LORD God made all kinds of trees grow out of the ground—trees that were pleasing to the eye and good for food.

The perfection of art, things both beautiful and useful. Pleasing to the senses, and good for the body.

Isn’t that still our desideratum for food—that it should be attractive and delicious.


In the middle of the garden were the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

 10 A river watering the garden flowed from Eden; from there it was separated into four headwaters. 11 The name of the first is the Pishon; it winds through the entire land of Havilah, where there is gold. 12 (The gold of that land is good; aromatic resin[d] and onyx are also there.) 13 The name of the second river is the Gihon; it winds through the entire land of Cush.[e] 14 The name of the third river is the Tigris; it runs along the east side of Ashur. And the fourth river is the Euphrates.

 15 The LORD God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it. 

Man’s first task—to make the earth even more fruitful. And to take care of the earth.


16 And the LORD God commanded the man, “You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; 17 but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat from it you will certainly die.”

There are boundaries and prohibitions around any decent life. Without them, nothing gets done. And so one boundary, just one was placed for man—you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.


 18 The LORD God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him.”

It is not good for the man to be alone. A stark, bare uncompromising statement.

So it is not good for us to accept aloneness. It is important for us to seek friendship, even community if it can be found.

I see friendship as a web of concentric circles around the secret heart of an individual. When you are first getting to know someone else they are somewhere on the outermost circles, and they and you gradually move closer to each other’s true hearts. So friendship is a process one needs to be patient with.


 19 Now the LORD God had formed out of the ground all the wild animals and all the birds in the sky. He brought them to the man to see what he would name them; and whatever the man called each living creature, that was its name. 20 So the man gave names to all the livestock, the birds in the sky and all the wild animals.

Naming seems to be an essential function of the human mind, the way we take in and absorb reality. In a sense we possess or become friends with something once we know its name.
 I have lived in three continents for at least 10 years each. On each, once I knew the names of the birds, plants, trees and butterflies and foods, I began to feel more at home.


   But for Adam no suitable helper was found.
Stark sad words.

 21 So the LORD God caused the man to fall into a deep sleep; and while he was sleeping, he took one of the man’s ribs and then closed up the place with flesh. 22 Then the LORD God made a woman from the rib he had taken out of the man, and he brought her to the man.

 23 The man said,

   “This is now bone of my bones
   and flesh of my flesh;
she shall be called ‘woman,’
   for she was taken out of man.”

 24 That is why a man leaves his father and mother and is united to his wife, and they become one flesh.

I have been married for 21 years; this is a beautiful description of the bonding in marriage.

Though bone of my bone, and flesh of my flesh should really be applied to one’s children, it is interestingly applied to one’s spouse—so deep is the knitting in marriage.

 25 Adam and his wife were both naked, and they felt no shame.

The happiness of marriage—a private kingdom of total acceptance and relaxation.

Seedtime and Harvest. A blessing on labour. Genesis 8

By

Breughel, Corn Harvest

A Blessing on Our Labour

“As long as the earth endures
Seedtime and harves,
Cold and heat,
Summer and winter,
Day and night
Will never cease.”
After the devastation of the flood, a blessing on our labour.

Harvest will follow seedtime.

Our life will have rhythms which we are to ride through as Noah rode through the flood. There will be night and winter and cold, and we will see them through, rest and gather strength, and then there will, for sure, be summer too, and day and warmth, and all these will contribute to mould our characters as we live in this world which God has blessed!

“Then the Lord Shut Him In” (Gen. 7)

By

The Gallarus Oratory in the Dingle Peninsula
Places of withdrawal and Prayer

This is the story we are reading aloud at present around the family dinner table.

God’s directions for the ark–450 ft by 75 by 45 feet. I used to find this part incredible. As I have lived longer, I don’t!

In my experience of running a small publishing company, I have experienced this sort of uncanny direction on several occasions: a clear insight into printers; books to publish; how and where to distribute; products to unroll.

God is a God of details, is interested in details, and we miss out on so much wisdom when we don’t seek him for insight on how to do the details….

Noah in the ark while the world is being flooded and destroyed outside. THEN THE LORD SHUT HIM IN.

What is this an image of? Of depression? Of abandonment? Aloneness? Sensory deprivation? Boredom?

Of God’s way of protection and safety.

It is a principle enshrined in God’s dealings with us. A period in the cocoon, in the ark, between great activity in the past, and great activity in the future. A winter like period to send one’s roots deep into certainties of who God is, and of his mighty power, a period to gather strength for the future.

What looks like abandonment is a period of rest and protection.