Genesis 8:1-10:32
Matthew 4:12-25
Psalm 4:1-8
Proverbs 1:20-23
Genesis 8:21 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.
Moses made a sacrifice to God and it pleased Him. But it was not sufficient to remove the stench of humanities sin. God promised that He would never wipe out every living creature again because of the innate sinfulness of humanity. God knew that "every inclination of the human heart is evil". Imagine if He were to "curse" the entire earth every time the sinfulness became greater than the righteousness in the world. You can't just keep resetting because the result would always be the same. Besides I don't think God did it as a reset. I think everything in the Old Testament points to Jesus. I think the flood was to show us what our sinful evil nature deserves. But in God's love for all that he created including us He will not continue to do what we deserve. He shows grace and He begins to prepare them to understand their sin. So we see another important step in evangelism. The recognition of what our sin deserves and the gift of God's grace. Because it doesn't take long for the cycle of sin to start again.
Genesis 9:21 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.
Moses gets drunk and passes out and his son Ham sees it and instead of doing the right thing he goes and tells his brothers. I imagine him coming to his brother snickering saying guess what, dad got so drunk he passed out naked. If it were in today's times he would have taken a picture or made a video to show them and maybe even post it on social media. Now they didn't have the ten commandments yet to have the words honor your father and mother but they had the knowledge of good and evil and his brother's recognized the evil and did what was good. I would guess that Moses also knew that it was not good to drink to the point of intoxication and so the cycle begins.
Psalm 4:2 How long will you people turn my glory into shame? How long will you love delusions and seek false gods?
Turning God's glory into shame, isn't that what our sin does? We were made in God's image and have the Spirit of God in us so when we sin any glory of God that might shine through us is covered by the shame of our sin. But as a believer we should recognize it and repent from it. That is like taking the shade of sin off the light of God's glory again and letting it shine freely. However as non-believers we should not be surprised that they do not turn from their sin and that God's glory is not present. After all, "every inclination of the human heart is evil". They do not know Jesus so their lives are filled with the worship false god's and they love the delusions and lies that they have come to believe in. So "How long...?" Until Jesus.
Proverbs 1:22 “How long will you who are simple love your simple ways? How long will mockers delight in mockery and fools hate knowledge?
Again, "How long..." same answer. The fools are those who walk in ignorance to the wisdom of God. The 3 fools listed here are the simple or naive fools who just doesn't know about wisdom and needs to be taught. They are open to wisdom but also to evil. The mockers are fools who despise what is holy. They are proud and arrogant. And the last fool is the dull/stupid person who is firmly confident in their own "wisdom". Fools believe the lies of the world that they are what is most important. So how long? When they understand that Jesus is what is most important.
Proverbs 1:23 Repent at my rebuke! Then I will pour out my thoughts to you, I will make known to you my teachings.
Repent at God's rebuke. If that is the response to sin and the heart open turned to Jesus even the simple can understand God's teaching.
Pray for those in your life who are lost. Those who are not open to the truth and wisdom of God. Because until Jesus their lives are in the darkness of their innate sinfulness. They will live in ignorance unable to hear God and understand His teaching.
Only Jesus - https://youtu.be/VXIBP2BdYR8?si=IquydXHTpgotngqC
And just as it stated in Genesis, God will cause our troubled waters to recede, lifting us higher and higher until we’re able to know that we are safe.
As the dove shows us, when we start to emerge from our trial, exhausted and facing the unknown, we may have to wait a little longer, but with faith and trust in God we can be assured of God’s covenant. Everything will be OK.
I love that we are reading this chapter right now, because I am a rainbow chaser. LOL. Anyone that knows me knows that. 🌈When I see one whatever tribulation I’m going through at that time… I know it’s going to be OK because God says so.
Genisis…