Day 4
Genesis 7:1-9:17
(7 | 8 | 9:1-17)
One of the most remarkable things about the story of Noah is the amount of time he has to collect all the creatures he has to put in the ark; 7 days. And it's not just 2 of each either. For some times of animal, it's 7. For birds, it's 7. For this reason, I imagine this is another one of those cases where professional theologians could argue for hours about whether or not this story actually happened. If it didn't, is it meant to simply be a tale of God's wrath in his wiping out of near enough all life he created, and of his mercy as he saves a small number of his creation and tasks them with starting over, and then of love as he promises to never wipe out all life again? I don't know the answer, and I don't know what I think the answer might be.
Either way, it's a great story to demonstrate God's mercy as he promises to love us despite our iniquities, and of his provision, as he hands over the creatures of the earth to man for food. I'm not sure what people were eating before then, though. Living in England, I also find it's a great way to remind myself of one of God's most basic promises. Genesis 9:14-15 says this: "Whenever I bring clouds over the earth and the rainbow appears in the clouds, 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." We get a lot of rain in England and so we get a lot of rainbows!
Matthew 4:1-22
(4:1-22)
Immediately after being baptised, Jesus was let into the desert by the Spirit, where he fasted for forty days and forty nights. At the end of this, the devil tries to tempt Jesus three times. The devil knew who Jesus was, so he tried to appeal to Jesus' ego by challenging his identity. The devil knew Jesus was hungry, so he tried to make Jesus give in to that hunger and disobey his Father. When Jesus came back at the devil with scripture, the devil retaliated with scripture of his own from Messianic prophecy in order to try to challenge Jesus' position in God and on earth. Finally, after Jesus again came back with scripture, the devil tried to set himself up as a being to be worshipped, and tried to appeal to Jesus' ambition. Jesus again replied with scripture, and was finally left alone.
We can take a lot from the first half of this passage. Firstly, there's the knowledge that Jesus knows what it's like to be tempted. It's a great comfort to know that Jesus went through temptation too. It was difficult, but Jesus resisted, and so can we. Jesus was able to resist, not because he was the Son of God, but because he humbled himself before his Father, and studied and had intimate knowledge of scripture. Knowing the Bible word for word, cover to cover is great, but it's useless unless you know it well enough to be able to apply it. Scripture is a great tool and weapon against the enemy. Of course, there will be times when we fail and we give in to temptation. On those occasions, we can't get hung up on our failure - instead, we must repent and move on.
The second half of this passage sees Jesus head to Capernaum where he begins to preach and where he calls his first disciples. I love the calling of the first four. Jesus calls out "Come, follow me," first to Simon Peter and Andrew, and then to Zebedee and John. They hear this, drop their nets and go follow Jesus. I find that really interesting. If someone came up to me while I was fishing and said "Come, follow me, and I will make you fishers of men", I probably wouldn't get up and follow them. I'd carry right on fishing. These guys were fishermen by trade. So for them to drop everything and follow Jesus was a big step of faith. I wonder what prompted them to do it. They were far too old for a rabbi to begin training them, and in any case they already had a trade. Maybe they felt God stirring in their hearts telling them to go. Maybe they were just curious. Who knows? It's very interesting. Well it is to me, anyway.
Proverbs 1:1-7
(1:1-7)
This passage is pretty much just an introduction to the book of Proverbs. It outlines what the book is for, and gives the challenge that "fools despise wisdom and discipline". It also claims that "fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge". However, knowledge doesn't equal wisdom. Wisdom is being able to apply any knowledge you have in the correct time, manner and place. So if by fearing the LORD, you're on the way to having knowledge, and the refusal to want to try to learn how to apply it is foolish, then a fool would not fear the LORD. Therefore if you fear the LORD, you would want wisdom. Does that make sense? I might have made a few leaps there, but it all made some sense in my head.
Genesis 7:1-9:17
(7 | 8 | 9:1-17)
One of the most remarkable things about the story of Noah is the amount of time he has to collect all the creatures he has to put in the ark; 7 days. And it's not just 2 of each either. For some times of animal, it's 7. For birds, it's 7. For this reason, I imagine this is another one of those cases where professional theologians could argue for hours about whether or not this story actually happened. If it didn't, is it meant to simply be a tale of God's wrath in his wiping out of near enough all life he created, and of his mercy as he saves a small number of his creation and tasks them with starting over, and then of love as he promises to never wipe out all life again? I don't know the answer, and I don't know what I think the answer might be.
Either way, it's a great story to demonstrate God's mercy as he promises to love us despite our iniquities, and of his provision, as he hands over the creatures of the earth to man for food. I'm not sure what people were eating before then, though. Living in England, I also find it's a great way to remind myself of one of God's most basic promises. Genesis 9:14-15 says this: "Whenever I bring clouds over the earth and the rainbow appears in the clouds, 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." We get a lot of rain in England and so we get a lot of rainbows!
Matthew 4:1-22
(4:1-22)
Immediately after being baptised, Jesus was let into the desert by the Spirit, where he fasted for forty days and forty nights. At the end of this, the devil tries to tempt Jesus three times. The devil knew who Jesus was, so he tried to appeal to Jesus' ego by challenging his identity. The devil knew Jesus was hungry, so he tried to make Jesus give in to that hunger and disobey his Father. When Jesus came back at the devil with scripture, the devil retaliated with scripture of his own from Messianic prophecy in order to try to challenge Jesus' position in God and on earth. Finally, after Jesus again came back with scripture, the devil tried to set himself up as a being to be worshipped, and tried to appeal to Jesus' ambition. Jesus again replied with scripture, and was finally left alone.
We can take a lot from the first half of this passage. Firstly, there's the knowledge that Jesus knows what it's like to be tempted. It's a great comfort to know that Jesus went through temptation too. It was difficult, but Jesus resisted, and so can we. Jesus was able to resist, not because he was the Son of God, but because he humbled himself before his Father, and studied and had intimate knowledge of scripture. Knowing the Bible word for word, cover to cover is great, but it's useless unless you know it well enough to be able to apply it. Scripture is a great tool and weapon against the enemy. Of course, there will be times when we fail and we give in to temptation. On those occasions, we can't get hung up on our failure - instead, we must repent and move on.
The second half of this passage sees Jesus head to Capernaum where he begins to preach and where he calls his first disciples. I love the calling of the first four. Jesus calls out "Come, follow me," first to Simon Peter and Andrew, and then to Zebedee and John. They hear this, drop their nets and go follow Jesus. I find that really interesting. If someone came up to me while I was fishing and said "Come, follow me, and I will make you fishers of men", I probably wouldn't get up and follow them. I'd carry right on fishing. These guys were fishermen by trade. So for them to drop everything and follow Jesus was a big step of faith. I wonder what prompted them to do it. They were far too old for a rabbi to begin training them, and in any case they already had a trade. Maybe they felt God stirring in their hearts telling them to go. Maybe they were just curious. Who knows? It's very interesting. Well it is to me, anyway.
Proverbs 1:1-7
(1:1-7)
This passage is pretty much just an introduction to the book of Proverbs. It outlines what the book is for, and gives the challenge that "fools despise wisdom and discipline". It also claims that "fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge". However, knowledge doesn't equal wisdom. Wisdom is being able to apply any knowledge you have in the correct time, manner and place. So if by fearing the LORD, you're on the way to having knowledge, and the refusal to want to try to learn how to apply it is foolish, then a fool would not fear the LORD. Therefore if you fear the LORD, you would want wisdom. Does that make sense? I might have made a few leaps there, but it all made some sense in my head.
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