PEGGY’S REFLECTIONS ON WEEK 1, JANUARY 09
Set Bible Reading: Gen 1 -19 and Matt 1-6


Genesis 1:27
God made man in His own Image, In the image of God He made mankind, male and female

I am reminded that of all of God’s creation, only human mankind was created “In His Image” (Imageo Deo). But when Adam and Eve first sinned, this image was marred by sin so that the heart of man had become “deceitful above all things and desperately wicked” (Jer 17: 9).

From this I remind myself and you of these two things:

1. We were created in God’s image and from the day of redemption of our souls (and this image) by our beloved Christ, we need to intentionally outwork this Imageo Deo for the glory of our God, our Image-Maker. This means a lot of ‘dying to self’ – self will, self justification and self centeredness - a willful “decreasing of self so that He may increase” in us. (Jn 3:30).

This can only be achieved if we choose to live according to His life-manual, the Bible, and are daily “led by the Spirit” (Roms 8:14) in all of our life’s thoughts, decisions and actions. The Word of God, this wonderful book of life, and the Holy Spirit, our personal Counselor and Guide given to us until our Lord returns … these are like the two wings of a plane that we need to fly straight and high, for His Glory.

2. Because our hearts are intrinsically deceitful and wicked from the time of ‘the Fall’ (described in Gen 3), we need to constantly ask the Lord to “search our hearts and examine our minds” (Jer 17:10). He also said in Jer 17:10 that He will reward a man according to his conduct, according to what his deeds deserve.

Therefore, if we remain in self denial or self justification, not uncommon in human behavior and a consequence of our highly deceitful hearts so that every man considers what he does is right in his own eyes (Judges 21:25), the Lord Himself will check our hearts and examine our minds. And if we reject His conviction Jer 17:10 says the fruit of our deeds or conduct will soon catch up with us; God will reward according to our conduct and to what our deeds deserve.

Which brings me to my reflections on the next passage in this week’s Genesis reading.

Genesis 4:7

“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 master it."

I have picked this verse to comment on because it is commonly overlooked. Many have often queried why God did not accept Cain’s offering . Gen 4: 5 says that the Lord has no respect to his offering , unlike that of his brother, Abel. Is God partial? Will not the Judge of all the earth do the right thing? (Gen 18:25). Abraham, the friend of God, knew Him well when he asked this question.

The passage does not clarify why God did not respect Cain’s offering – speculations include that it was not his first fruit or he did not offer a sacrifice of blood etc. The point is missed. God asked Cain, “If you did well, will you not be accepted?”

This brings me to life application. If we are feeling depressed or low because our work (be it secular job or ministry work) is not accepted or viewed with respect by others especially our bosses, does that give us a right to wrong conduct and attitude. If we had done well, would not our work be accepted, even commended? We can never demand recognition … this will invariably be given if we do well. I know of no boss who will not want to retain and commend a staff who excels.

So the next time your work is not being accepted let alone commended, consider God’s question to Cain and re-assess your attitude and response to non acceptance of your work, lest you end up like Cain. You may be sporting a blind spot … nursing a deceptive heart as all humans commonly do. Ask your boss or a colleague, someone who has the courage to confront the truth with you … he/she will tell you why you are not doing well so that you can take steps to address this rather than envy or blame others. God gives grace to the humble and resists the proud (James 4:6).

Finally, I have selected to comment on the following passage from this week’s Genesis reading, because of its difficulty in interpretation. It may not have evident life application but addresses biblical history and the doctrine of angels, therefore has theological significance and life relevance if the following hermeneutical assessment is valid.

Genesis 6:2,4
The sons of God saw the daughters of men that they were fair; and they took them wives of all which they chose….There were giants in the earth in those days and also after that, when the sons of God came in unto the daughters of men and they bore children to them, the same became mighty men which were of old, men of renown.

It is commonly thought that “the sons of God” were angels who came down to earth and married attractive women, “daughters of men” and the ‘giants’ referred to in 6:4 were their offspring.

From a commentary search, it would appear that the ‘sons of God’ were rather, children of the godly line of Seth (Adam’s son after Cain had killed Abel) who intermarried the ungodly, from the line of Cain.

In context, Genesis chapters 4 and 5 describes two contrasting family lines – one which is godly, the line of Seth “when men began to call upon the name of the Lord” (Gen 4:26) from whom came Enoch who “walked with God” and Noah, “a just and perfect man who walked with God” (Gen6:9) and the other line who is associated with murder and polygamy, the descendants of Cain like Lamech. Hence, when Genesis 6 describes this union of the ‘sons of God’ with the ‘daughters of men’, it is likely referring to the union of the offspring of these two family lines. Remember the Bible didn’t originally have chapter divisions; chapter divisions were established centuries later.


It is also unlikely that the “sons of God” refer to angelic beings. Jesus Himself taught that angels do not marry (Lk 20:35,36). As spirit beings not physical sexual beings, they would not and could not have sexual relationships. And indeed if they were able and did sexually victimize human beings, why would God punish humanity through The Flood rather than the angelic beings. In contrast, the phrase “sons of God" is used commonly in the Bible concerning men, especially those who know the true God (Deut. 14:1, Hos. 1:10, Lk. 3:38, Jn 1:12, 1 Jn. 3:1).

The life application of this passage is the inadvisability of marriage between those who love and honour the God of our Bible and those who do not.

God’s prohibition of intermarriage between the people of God with those who do not know YWYH is a thread running throughout the Bible and particularly so in the Old Testament. Ezra for example, was very angry with the Israelites when he found that they had intermarried wives who did not worship the Lord and had them put away these “strange wives” (Ezra 10:19).

I will stop at these three selected passages. There is so much more one can write about the first 19 chapters of Genesis but the blog will be too long. So if you have any question or comment about ANY part of this set reading, just post your question or comment and I will respond. I will comment on Matthew the next time I write.

Love,
A Peggy