Genesis 4

Genesis 4:7

If you do well, wil not your countenance be lifted up? And if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door; and its desire is for you, but you must master it"

The first of many warnings about the danger of sin, and the necessity of fighting it.

In the very next verse, Cain lost that fight... no, that's not right. Cain didn't lose it, he surrendered to it. That's what we always do, isn't it? We don't lose the battle, we can't. If this is a battle, then we have God and Christ right there next to us in the trenches, and can't lose. But we just get up and surrender. Maybe for the Jews it was a real battle, but that battle is now ours to lose.

Genesis 3

Genesis 3:22

Then the Lord God said, "Behold, the man has become like one of Us, knowing good and evil; and now, he might stretch out his hand, and take also from the tree of life, and eat, and live forever"

Two things strike me as interesting here. First, only now does God seem concerned with man eating from the tree of life. He did not forbid man from eating of the tree of life before, only from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil did He forbid them. Does this mean neither of them hadn't eaten from the tree of life before?

Second, let's say they had eaten from the tree of life before. What changed? Did the something about the tree of the knowledge of good and evil change the affect of the tree of life? Since eating from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil is how sin entered the world, did eating from the tree of life keep them immortal before sin? Or were they already immortal, and eating from the tree of life would have reversed the consequence of sin (death)?

Something to ask God when I get the chance...

Genesis 2

Genesis 2:19

Out of the ground the Lord God formed every beast of the field and every bird of the sky, and brought them to the man to see what he would call them; and whatever the man called a living creature, that was its name.

The first thing man did after his creation was to engage in a huge effort of creativity. Imagine having to name every living thing, from emus to elephants. Today we tend to be rather flippant with names, and forget that names had meaning that could reveal deep insights into a person. When you look at the people in the Bible and see what their names mean, you often know instantly whether this is a "good guy" or a "bad guy." His name in itself was sometimes enough to shape a person's life.

In my family, there a tradition for naming the first son after the grandfathers' middle names. Luckily for me, my parents broke with that tradition, or I've be Alvin Truman Miller. However, I've often considered whether I will eventually restart that tradition, if my future wife is agreeable; Curtis isn't a half bad name for a kid. However, what would I name a daughter? Or my second son? I hope that when that time comes, I would remember how important a name can be.

Genesis 1

Genesis 1:7

God made the expanse, and separated the waters which were below the expanse from the waters which were above the expanse; and it was so.

I'm not really sure what is meant by this. I know the Creationists theorize this may be referring to the water canopy that was broken to create the Flood and caused the long lifespan before the Flood, but in context with the surrounding verses (especially the verse before and v9), I'm just not sure.

To paraphrase an old prayer: Lord, give me the wisdom to understand your Word, the ability to accept when I cannot understand, and the wisdom to know the difference.