The penalty for sin is far reaching. Sin can rupture every relationship, becoming the source of untold harm both to ourselves and to others, between ourselves and God, with the power to wrench every good thing within us into ruin.
“What Have You Done…”
Our God-given capacity to feel, emotions that enhance our knowledge and experience of Him and each other, cover the whole spectrum of life, from ecstasy to horror, from rapture to envy, from sorrow to elation, grief to bliss, serenity to rage. Cain’s smoldering resentment, anger, hurt pride, jealousy, and envy, which he brooded over and nurtured, covered a dark spectrum that drained away his joy and delight.
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Desire
"For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I do. Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I that do it, but sin that dwells within me."So I find it to be a law that when I want to do … Continue reading Desire
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An Offering Acceptable…
What was really more wrong with Cain was not what he offered, but the condition of his heart when he offered it. God was not pleased with Cain because unrepentant sin was already in his life.
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“frail and meaningless”
Adam and Eve immediately noted the difference in their two boys: Cain was the chosen one; Abel was the also-ran. It would have been natural for them to favor Cain as the firstborn, maybe the one to fulfill God’s great promise. If there was parental favoritism, it would help explain much of what happens in this chapter.
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“I Have Got A Man!”
As chapter 4 opens, it seems Adam and Eve had picked up the shards of their broken lives and begun to build a new life, out of the hard scrabble of a cursed ground. The story begins from Eve’s perspective, “Now the man knew his wife Eve, and she conceived and bore Cain, saying, ‘I have produced a man with the help of the Lord.’"
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Pick Up Sticks, Pluck Off Grain
God intended the Sabbath to be something for creation, for created beings which have finite energy and resources, to be regularly replenished. Rather than a deliberately defiant and presumptuous disobedience of God and His intent, Jesus was providing that physical replenishment, in the spirit of King David, and in God’s Spirit, by gathering grain.
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Blessings and Curses
Moses was describing a basic principle of life, life goes well for us when living God's way, by God's law. Even for Job. In the middle of his story, life was awful. At the end of the book God not only restores Job's fortunes, they're even better than when the book starts out. Job successfully endured the ordeal God permitted in his life, and he was blessed.
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Who Does God Punish?
I think we call it the Fall of Humankind because the first humans were at the pinnacle of human experience, where everything was good, their relationships were healthy and filled with love, their work was satisfying and productive, their resources were ample, the world was their oyster, and their spiritual communion with God and each other was full.
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Why Should I Trust the Bible?
People ask, “Is the Bible trustworthy?” Does the Bible accurately represent what God has said and done, and how God thinks and feels? It's a foundational question, since the events in Genesis 3 leave us with a possibly disturbing impression of God.
