Monthly Archives: December 2008

Genesis 3:1-3

1Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the LORD God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God actually say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree in the garden’?” 2And the woman said to the serpent, “We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden, 3but God said, ‘You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.’”

God did not tell Adam and Eve, at least not that was recorded for us, that they could not touch the tree. The only prohibition was eating the fruit. Theologians and scholars have differed regarding the significance of this. Was Eve complaining that God was being too restrictive? Was she already starting to buy the serpent’s lie that God was hiding something valuable from their experience as human beings? Perhaps. It is a revealing thought for Christians thousands of years later.

When God says “no” to us, how like Eve we can be. We see all the negatives and none of the love. We multiply and exaggerate the ramifications and hardships that God’s cruel standards have caused us to endure. We start seeing nothing of the great number of good things that God daily lavishes on us, but instead see only the hardships caused by the one restriction. This is evidence of our undying self centeredness, rebellion and depraved desire to be the masters of our own fates.

We see this constantly in the responses of lost people to the exclusive claims of Christ. “How dare He say that He is the only way to God!”

How in need of grace we are at all times. We turn loving restrictions into accusations that God is being cruel or too restrictive. We are like a child who does not know the consequences of an action that his parents have put on him. So, he goes ahead and disobeys and then suffers the awful consequences while shouting that he didn’t know they would happen.

God is not required to tell us why some things are forbidden while others are required. We, however, are required to trust Him as the One who knows better than we do and know that it is always better to obey than go our own way.

If you really believe God loves you, you will not rebel against His loving commands. Today, when tempted to do wrong, remember that God’s way is always best – for you, for His glory, for the witness of the Truth.

Genesis 3:1-6

1Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the LORD God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God actually say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree in the garden’?” 2And the woman said to the serpent, “We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden, 3but God said, ‘You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.’” 4 But the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die. 5For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” 6So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate.

That the serpent is Satan is without dispute, but it is intriguing that the whole text never identifies him as Satan. Verse 1 just says the serpent was more crafty than the other beasts that God had made. Revelation 12:9 calls Satan “the great dragon…that ancient serpent who is called the devil and Satan…” This is no doubt a reference to the serpent in the garden. But why does the original account not identify the serpent as Satan? We are not told. Perhaps because it is so abundantly obvious. The account as written simply describes what was obvious to the senses. A snake spoke to Eve and a conversation ensued. It is Satan in the snake.

Human beings have not progressed in spiritual character since our first parents fell. In fact, since the fall, we are exactly like them. Satan convinces Adam and Eve that God is too restrictive, that God lied to them, that the prohibition restricts their freedom and is not for their good. The prohibition was for their good as is every commandment of God ever since.

God has nothing but our good at His heart and we balk at His ways to our damage and possibly to our everlasting ruin. God knows best and He gives us no command of restriction or license that is not ultimately for His glory and our good. Obedience is always good for us, no matter what the temporal consequences may be. But we think we know better.

People still believe the lie that God has lied to us and that since something looks good, tastes good and attracts us then God is being unfair, or is afraid of us or doesn’t understand our situation. Once we start reasoning like this it is inevitable that we are going to sin.

Today, be alert to the fact that the attractiveness of sin is always a lie. To believe it is to be a dupe of a liar, a loser, and the supreme hater of your soul. He is the supreme scam artist. Don’t be a fool by buying into the lie.

More on this incredibly instructive and important chapter in the days ahead.

Genesis 2:18-24
18Then the LORD God said, “It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper fit for him.” 19 Now out of the ground the LORD God had formed every beast of the field and every bird of the heavens and brought them to the man to see what he would call them. And whatever the man called every living creature, that was its name. 20The man gave names to all livestock and to the birds of the heavens and to every beast of the field. But for Adam there was not found a helper fit for him. 21So the LORD God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and while he slept took one of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh. 22And the rib that the LORD God had taken from the man he made into a woman and brought her to the man. 23Then the man said,

“This at last is bone of my bones
and flesh of my flesh;
she shall be called Woman,
because she was taken out of Man.”
24 Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.

What a fascinating text! God notes that it is not good for the man to be alone and He states His intention to make a helper suitable to Adam. The next thing we would expect to happen would be the creation of Eve. But it is not. First God brings the animals to see what Adam will name them.

The last phrase of verse 20 is striking “…there was not found a helper suitable for him.” Not found? Who was looking? Adam was. The purpose behind having Adam naming the animals was to produce loneliness in Adam, to cause him to want a partner answering to his needs like the other animals had. Adam would have noticed the pairing up of the animals and he felt the need for a companion like him. Note what Adam said in verse 23 as soon as he saw her. “This at last…” Those words tell us that he was missing having a companion.

The first word of verse 21 is “so”. There was not a suitable helper fit for Adam SO God made Eve for Him. God knew Adam needed a companion (He made him with the need built in) and had already intended to make Eve, but He did not make her until Adam saw the need as well. Marriage is God’s creation and it is a good thing. It answers a need.

There is hardly any other thing in all the earth so distorted by mankind than God’s original intention for marriage. Today, if you are married, think about the fact that marriage is a good thing made by God. Commit yourself to making yours a reflection of the original intention God had for it. There is little else that is as powerful a testimony of the grace of God at work than a marriage that has produced two people who are happier with each other than they would have been alone. Let us remember too, that the solution to a troubled marriage is found in the One who made it and knows best how they all ought to be run.

Genesis 2:1 “And the heavens and the earth were finished and all the host of them.”

Genesis 2:1 cannot mean that there are no more celestial bodies today than there were then, because we know the universe is expanding and new stars are being formed all the time. It also cannot mean that God got everything set in motion and now the created order just carries on by itself making new celestial bodies and doing all that God programmed the universe to do, because that is deism.

God made everything and He finished creating and what He created was set in motion so that the universe continued to expand and make new celestial bodies according to the laws that God had made. But when a new star or planet or comet or anything comes into being it is because God is actively doing something. The universe continues to expand because God is expanding it. New stars are forming because God is forming them. Laws of physics exist because God made them and they are predictable, not because they have always acted in a certain way. They continue to be predictable because God sees to it on a constant basis that they behave in the way He created them to behave.

Hebrews 1:3 (ESV) He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power. After making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high, Col. 1:16-17 (ESV) For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities-all things were created through him and for him. [17] And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together.God finished it and God maintains it, despite all that sin has done, even to the creation itself (Romans 8:18-25).

Today, you will witness many laws of nature at work. Remind yourself that they behave as they do because Jesus Christ upholds all things by the Word of His power. Before they are the laws of nature they are the laws of God for the natural order. Then lose yourself in the wonder that you are in the care of the One who holds the planets and stars in their places. Worship will cease to be something you have to force yourself into.

Genesis 1,
1In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth … 31 And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day.

II Corinthians 4:6
6For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

For all the questions it engenders in our minds, and there are many questions it engenders in our minds, Genesis 1 says this very clearly – whatever exists, exists because God made it.

And He made man to “have dominion” over it. “Have dominion” cannot mean to rape it and make whole species extinct … . It means that we are in charge of the planet as stewards of God. And the entrance of sin into the world has caused us to mar the original call upon us, in horrible ways. Sin does much more than just hurt the planet. It mocks God, destroys the souls of men, and prevents us from being able to commune with God as worshippers in the way we were created to do.

One can hardly read Genesis 1 without a sense of how far from the original intention the planet currently is. And that is the conclusion we should reach so that we can read the rest of the Bible with the view to finding out how God is going to make things right.

That takes us to the Gospel. Right from the opening phrases of Scripture we are brought to see the need for God to do something to get us out of the mess we have created through our disobedience. And the Bible takes us nowhere but to Jesus Christ. And it takes us to Him because there is nowhere else to go to fix up this horrible mess we are in and have created because of our sinfulness. Read the creation account and rejoice in the grace that rescues us. Read Genesis 1 and then read II Corinthians 4:1-6. What a glory the Gospel is. And what a power it is.

Today, rejoice that the horror that mankind has created in his sin, has not caused God to lose the original purpose for which He made the world in the first place. Go through the day with hope and joy because of the glory and the power of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Psalm 51
7Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean;
wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.
8Let me hear joy and gladness;
let the bones that you have broken rejoice.
9 Hide your face from my sins,
and blot out all my iniquities.
10 Create in me a clean heart, O God,
and renew a right spirit within me.
11 Cast me not away from your presence,
and take not your Holy Spirit from me.
12Restore to me the joy of your salvation,
and uphold me with a willing spirit.

David’s Psalm of repentance when he had committed adultery with Bathsheba, murdered her husband Uriah, and a host of other related sins.

This Psalm points us to Christ big time. Consider verse 7. “Purge me with hyssop”. Hyssop was used on the night of the tenth plague in Egypt to spread the blood on the door posts of the Israelites. It was used by the priests to sprinkle blood on the altar. The reference to hyssop in this Psalm is a reference to the future work of Christ in doing the work of a priest in applying His blood upon the heavenly altar for our forgiveness. We can only be clean through the death of Christ. We need the blood applied. What a grand picture! And what a glorious work.

David was forgiven of his multiple sins connected with the adultery he committed, because of the future work of Jesus Christ on the cross. We are forgiven because of the past work of Jesus Christ on the cross. It is all about Him.

We do not understand the immense accomplishments of the work of Christ to save us from our sin. Today, consider what Christ has done to win you to Himself and demonstrate your gratitude in obedience and faithfulness. If it does not make you grateful you need to come in faith to Christ.

Psalm 118
17 I shall not die, but I shall live,
and recount the deeds of the LORD.
18The LORD has disciplined me severely,
but he has not given me over to death.

The first four verses of Psalm 118 are a call by the Psalmist for the people of God to say (from their hearts) “the steadfast love of the Lord endures forever”. Four times he calls us to proclaim this. And then the opening words of verse five begin with “Out of my distress…”

Distress in the life of a believer is never evidence of a failure of the steadfast love of God. Never. In this Psalm, the Psalmist is distressed, fearful, hated, surrounded by his enemies, pushed so that he was falling. And in all that the steadfast love of the Lord never fails. If the evidence of God’s love is absence of calamity then God loves no one. But absence of calamity is not the evidence of God’s love.

We see evidence of His love in verses 5 – 7. He answers when we call, sets us free, stays by our side, takes away our fear, helps us and gives us victory. This is steadfast love and it is a love that would not be known if there were not trouble in our lives. God brings such things into our loves for this very purpose – to feel the power of His steadfast love. I would not give any of my troubles up if giving them up meant not experiencing the steadfast love of the Lord for me. And neither should you.

In verse 17 the Psalmist says that he knows he will live through his present trouble and not die. Why will he not die? Verse 18 tells us. So that he can recount the deeds of the Lord. All that God gets you through is meant to be for you to tell others what a God He is for you. The reason you have not died yet is to recount the deeds of the Lord to whomever He gives you the opportunity.

Today, in whatever things God has in store for you, proclaim, in word and action, “the steadfast love of the Lord endures forever.” Go fulfill your purpose.

Psalm 23

1The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want.
2He makes me lie down in green pastures.
He leads me beside still waters.
3He restores my soul.
He leads me in paths of righteousness
for his name’s sake.
4Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,
I will fear no evil,
for you are with me;
your rod and your staff,
they comfort me.
5You prepare a table before me
in the presence of my enemies;
you anoint my head with oil;
my cup overflows.
6Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me
all the days of my life,
and I shall dwell in the house of the LORD
forever.

Note how all the action in this Psalm is by the Shepherd. He is the One who makes us lie down. He is the One who leads us to the waters. He restores our souls, leads in the paths of righteousness, accompanies us through the valley of the shadow of death, stays with us, uses His rod and staff to comfort us. Prepares a table before us in the presence of our enemies and follows us with goodness and mercy.

The only thing we do in this Psalm is dwell in the house of the Lord forever. God does the work. All that we do as servants of Christ is a response to the great things He has already done. Grace, grace, grace. It is all of grace.

And when that grace is received it will always, always, always produce faithfulness in those who receive it. This does not mean that we will never sin. But it does mean that His grace will always bring us back. No true believer will ever dessert His Lord – because He who began a good work in us will perform it in us until the day of Jesus Christ.

We shall, without doubt, dwell in the house of the Lord forever. What a Shepherd!!

Psalm 139
23Search me, O God, and know my heart!
Try me and know my thoughts!
24And see if there be any grievous way in me,
and lead me in the way everlasting!

Psalm 139 – God knows everything (verses 1-6). He is everywhere (verses 7-12). He works in us according to His perfect will, even to the point of ordering the events of every day of our lives (verse 16).

This causes all kinds of problems in our minds about all kinds of things. What it did for the Psalmist was make him bow (verse 6, 17, 18). When considering the incomprehensible greatness of God, David was not brought first to ask how these things could be. No. He saw in these truths the fact that to be on the side of such a God is a powerful good for him.

So David calls on this all knowing, ever present, all wise God to deal with his enemies, then give him a right attitude to wrong things and then ask Him to search him and make him holy.(Verses 19-24) If God were not omnipresent, omniscient and the Author of our lives, then we could never call upon Him. We serve a sovereign, who is not first of all a respondent to us, but the Supreme Actor in us. Therefore we call and therefore He can answer.

We could never call upon a God who was not in charge of every minuscule part of our existence. The one part that He was not in control of would be the part that was the most in need of help and the one that there was absolutely no solution for.

Today, meditate upon Psalm 139 and rejoice that it is true. Then pour out your soul to the very same God that David served to find help in time of need. Above all, ask Him to search your heart and know you and lead you in the way everlasting. And then revel in the fact that you have the Sovereign Creator of the whole created order to go to in time of need who knows what is best and always works out everything for the good of those who love Him and are the called according to His purpose. What a God!