A Fall, a Promise, and the Story Begins: Genesis Through Deuteronomy
Our first love letter begins with a mighty fall. The very first two human beings God created decide to do things their own way. They quickly discover His plan for them would've been a much better choice.
Throughout the book of Genesis, the Lord uses ordinary and extremely flawed people to fulfill His plan in extraordinary ways.
"In Genesis, I begin telling the story of how everyone fails and I succeed. I want you to know how much of a mess you've made out of all the beauty I created. Nothing works as it should anymore. But I have a plan that your failures cannot destroy. There is a capacity for beauty in your soul that I will restore. That's a promise. I give you a glimpse into how I will carry out My plan in this first love letter."
A few questions to ponder.
Do you have a favorite scripture in the book of Genesis?
Which woman can you relate to the most?
- Sarah, who manipulates her husband and justifies her behavior?
- Rebekah, who favors one of her children, putting the devotion of her son above her own husband?
- Or, maybe you understand the pain of insecure Leah, who plays second fiddle to her more beautiful younger sister, Rachel?
For me, well, I can relate to all three of these women - Sarah most of all. I struggle with the word wait. It's all I can do to sit at a red light for two minutes. I can justify impatience and
I am so grateful God's mercies are new every day!
The faithful love of the Lord never ends! His mercies never cease. Great is His faithfulness; His mercies begin afresh each morning. Lamentations 3:22-23 NLT
I LOVE LOVE LOVE Genisis!!!! When I first decided to follow Jesus, I read my Bible like CRAZY...ALL the time. While reading Genisis I remember thinking that I couldn't believe that THIS was the bible!!! Romance, deception, murder, passion....this was better than any soap I had ever seen on TV. It was NOTHING like I had imagined the Bible to be. Real people...crazy people...just like me. I'm sure glad God can use crazy!
ReplyDeleteI LOVE Genesis too. While preparing to write this blog post, for the first time I read it all in one big chunk and it was amazing!
ReplyDeleteI'm loving Genesis too and can relate to Sarah and have a hard time waiting and come up with my own plan that turns into a mess. You think I would learn but no I continue to jump and not wait or think it through. God still uses the mess but I think it would have been so much better doing it His way.
ReplyDeleteMy only real thing I am having a hard time with is the author of the book writing as God's words...YIKES he has some nerve.
Ok... I love Genesis! I love the stories. I love all their flaws and all their choices. It makes me happy that when you get to know God first... He tells you about people. I like that He thinks about me as much as ALL the people in the begining and we mean something.
ReplyDeleteI love Genesis in Hebrew where the words become pictures and not just words. They paint a whole different picture of God, of what is happening and the people in the book.
My favorites: Three visitors ch 18, Abraham's testing ch 22 and Jacob's dream ch 28