Genesis 4:1-15 - Am I My Brother’s Keeper?

Genesis 4:1-15

Cain Murders Abel (Luke 11:51; Hebrews 11:4; 12:24)

1 Now Adam knew Eve his wife, and she conceived and bore Cain, and said, “I have acquired a man from the LORD.” 2 Then she bore again, this time his brother Abel. Now Abel was a keeper of sheep, but Cain was a tiller of the ground. 3 And in the process of time it came to pass that Cain brought an offering of the fruit of the ground to the LORD. 4 Abel also brought of the firstborn of his flock and of their fat. And the LORD respected Abel and his offering, 5 but He did not respect Cain and his offering. And Cain was very angry, and his countenance fell.

6 So the LORD said to Cain, “Why are you angry? And why has your countenance fallen? 7 If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin lies at the door. And its desire is for you, but you should rule over it.”

8 Now Cain talked with Abel his brother; and it came to pass, when they were in the field, that Cain rose up against Abel his brother and killed him.

9 Then the LORD said to Cain, “Where is Abel your brother?”
He said, “I do not know. Am I my brother’s keeper?”

10 And He said, “What have you done? The voice of your brother’s blood cries out to Me from the ground. 11 So now you are cursed from the earth, which has opened its mouth to receive your brother’s blood from your hand. 12 When you till the ground, it shall no longer yield its strength to you. A fugitive and a vagabond you shall be on the earth.”

13 And Cain said to the LORD, “My punishment is greater than I can bear! 14 Surely You have driven me out this day from the face of the ground; I shall be hidden from Your face; I shall be a fugitive and a vagabond on the earth, and it will happen that anyone who finds me will kill me.”

15 And the LORD said to him, “Therefore, whoever kills Cain, vengeance shall be taken on him sevenfold.” And the LORD set a mark on Cain, lest anyone finding him should kill him.

Cain was the firstborn son of Adam and Eve, a man from the LORD as she called him after experiencing  the pain of childbirth as a consequence of the curse of sin.  Then she had another boy and called him Abel.  They grew up to be a shepherd and a farmer; Abel the youngest was a keeper of sheep and Cain the elder became a tiller of the ground.  Eventually, they both brought an offering of their work to the LORD, first Cain with something grown out of his hard toil (Genesis 3:17-18, 19), and then Abel presented the LORD with the plump firstborn of his sheep as a blood offering.  We see the picture of the second animal slaughtered for sacrifice, the first being one God had sacrificed to make coverings (Genesis 3:21) for the sin of Adam and Eve.  We later read that the sacrifices of animals was symbolic because the life is in the blood (Leviticus 17:11) and their blood was shed until the perfect sacrifice of God’s Son would be the last and only effective sacrifice to cover sin (John 6:53, Hebrews 9:12, 10:10, 13:11-12) permanently, one time for all who come to Him and are made clean by His lifeblood.  God therefore did not approve of Cain’s sacrifice because it was part of the curse to work in futility to scrape by, while that of Abel was patterned after the sacrifice that God made in the Garden to cover the sin of his parents with the sacrificed animal skins.  The sacrifice of Abel looked forward to the hope of God’s solution to sin while that of Cain only perpetuated it as a reminder of the Fall.  Cain was furious that his offering of his work was rejected and jealous that his younger brother’s following the example of the LORD was accepted.  Abel’s offering also was something of value, a lamb without blemish and provider of wool for covering and meat for food as well.  God knew Cain’s heart and therefore had warned him about his anger and perceived lost face in having offered less than his brother.  He reminded Cain that if he did what was right, he would be accepted along with his offer, but if not that sin’s desire for vengeance is ready to overtake him.  He did not take God’s word to heart and murdered his brother as we all recall the account of scripture.  When asked what happened to his brother, Cain roughly and disrespectfully answered, “am I my brother’s keeper?”  He was to watch over and protect his brother as his keeper but chose to refuse his responsibility and eliminate the one who God had accepted.  This almost cost him his life.  God heard the cry of Abel’s blood from the grave of the earth’s dust that Cain labored over and cursed Cain for his sin of murder.  His work in the dust was made unfruitful and he was a criminal and tramp doomed to roam the world as punishment.  Cain cried out for mercy because he knew that others would hunt him down for what he did to hold him accountable and put him to death as well.  God in His mercy marked Cain so nobody would kill him if they caught up with him or face God’s vengeance in return.  This is the pattern of the grace of the LORD for sinners such as you and I.  We are covered in dust of our own works until we accept the sacrifice of the lifeblood of Jesus Christ, the Passover Lamb who sacrificed Himself to give us life in His blood which our efforts of earthly work and offerings are completely unable to accomplish.  We are to show the grace showed by God to Cain the murderer and forgive sins against us while not becoming jealous and angry when God accepts what others do and not for the unacceptable works we do to earn His favor in our own strength to be accepted.  This is the answer to Cain, that we are our brother’s keeper to watch over and protect, not to take our own vengeance (Romans 12:19) and commit sin.

Genesis 3:9-24 - Consequences of The Curse

Genesis 3:9-24

9 Then the LORD God called to Adam and said to him, “Where are you?”
10 So he said, “I heard Your voice in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; and I hid myself.”

11 And He said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree of which I commanded you that you should not eat?”
12 Then the man said, “The woman whom You gave to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I ate.”

13 And the LORD God said to the woman, “What is this you have done?”
The woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.”

14 So the LORD God said to the serpent:
“Because you have done this,
You are cursed more than all cattle,
And more than every beast of the field;
On your belly you shall go,
And you shall eat dust
All the days of your life.

15 And I will put enmity
Between you and the woman,
And between your seed and her Seed;
He shall bruise your head,
And you shall bruise His heel.”

16 To the woman He said:
“I will greatly multiply your sorrow and your conception;
In pain you shall bring forth children;
Your desire shall be for your husband,
And he shall rule over you.”

17 Then to Adam He said, “Because you have heeded the voice of your wife, and have eaten from the tree of which I commanded you, saying, ‘You shall not eat of it’:

“Cursed is the ground for your sake;
In toil you shall eat of it
All the days of your life.

18 Both thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you,
And you shall eat the herb of the field.

19 In the sweat of your face you shall eat bread
Till you return to the ground,
For out of it you were taken;
For dust you are,
And to dust you shall return.”

20 And Adam called his wife’s name Eve, because she was the mother of all living.

21 Also for Adam and his wife the LORD God made tunics of skin, and clothed them.

22 Then the LORD God said, “Behold, the man has become like one of Us, to know good and evil. And now, lest he put out his hand and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live forever”— 23 therefore the LORD God sent him out of the garden of Eden to till the ground from which he was taken. 24 So He drove out the man; and He placed cherubim at the east of the garden of Eden, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to guard the way to the tree of life.

The consequences of sin’s curse are swiftly given to all involved as Eve was deceived by the serpent deceiver (2 Corinthians 11:3) into disbelief and Adam went along to disobey God’s clear command also instead of resisting the temptation to follow his wife’s error.  We all have suffered as the descendants of the first couple by inherited sin in our spiritual DNA and continued sin of disbelief and disobedience to His word to this day.  Like Adam, when God calls us now we do the same in hiding our shame from not doing what the scriptures clearly tell us, often choosing instead to focus on some other obscure command to justify disobeying the clear one or at other times just letting our pride blind us as we imagine we know good from evil without hearing His word.  We can pass the blame as Adam did to Eve when questioned by God, or we can blame it all on the deceitful devil who made us do it as Eve did, but we all answer to our Creator Lord nonetheless.  Notice that when Adam did blame his wife that God immediately went to her to ask why she disobeyed Him.  She blamed it all on the deceiver without confessing that she had a choice not to listen but instead desired the lie more than waiting to be taught good from evil by God, and so acted against the Lord’s word.  The serpent offered no excuse or explanation.  None.  He knew perfectly well in his own rebellious nature that he could not answer his maker and so heard his sentence without reacting as he plotted how to further corrupt God’s created man and woman in the image of God whom the evil one sought and still seeks to destroy (John 10:10, Revelation 12:9) through deception and lies (John 8:44, 1 John 3:8).  The consequences began with the serpent because he knew exactly what deception he had deceived himself with in full knowledge of the truth, having walked in heaven before the throne of God and heard His voice clearly for a long time.  His willing disobedience and desire to corrupt God’s image in man brought eternal consequences which cannot ever be reversed.  Unlike him, Adam and Eve received punishment but were also offered a way of redemption through the promise of a deliverer, the seed of the woman who was the Messiah to come!  This promise in Genesis 3:15 here is the beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ who came to redeem us from our curse (Galatians 3:13) by His perfect righteousness and lifeblood sacrificed in our place as the price required to pay for our lives once forfeited by sin in Eden.  Eve’s immediate consequences included a great pain and sorrow in childbirth and submission to her husband whom she would desire to please and serve not just alongside as originally designed, but with a more supporting role as a reminder her susceptibility to temptation was to limit her giving the final choices in matters now allotted to her husband who himself had not taken responsibility.  He was given the consequences of hard work to survive instead of the freely provided food of paradise lost.  Adam and his descendants would have to scrape a living out of the dust as a constant reminder we are but dust created by and given life from God (Genesis 2:7).  Dust of us returns to the dust of the earth by physical death as we sweat and toil along the way.  That is the wages of sin (Romans 3:23) we earned by inheritance, but we now have hope of the Son of God, the Seed, who has paid the price (Romans 6:23) and offered life from death and the dust.  Some people would corrupt this truth by trying to make us believe that we are random creatures composed of star dust instead of the dust of the earth we stand on by God’s hand, but we who know the beginning also know the end of such deception.  We see the end of this chapter with Adam naming his wife Eve meaning ‘life-giver,’ because all their descendants would be birthed through her (1 Corinthians 11:12) including every man to come, completing the circle of the first woman coming from the side of man to every man thereafter coming out of a woman.  This shows our understanding of our equality (Galatians 3:28) in Christ but also the respective roles (1 Timothy 2:12-14) of each taking into account the order of our creation and the way continuing descendants come into the world, first out of the earth and later from the woman.  The consequences to man and woman are still keeping us from the tree of eternal life until we find reconciliation in the Seed who is Christ with the hope of eternal life in Him by His sacrifice for us and the hope of a resurrection like His to enter the New Jerusalem, the Celestial City, where we will be allowed access to the tree of life (Revelation 2:7, 22:2, 14) at last by His work for us!  Jesus Christ has opened access through the flaming swords of Eden’s Paradise lost into a new beginning to walk before His face with Him as in the beginning of creation.  There will no longer be the presence of sin in that place where God lives among us or the deceiver to corrupt us again.  That is Paradise regained forever from the consequences of the curse!

Genesis 3:1-8 - The Temptation and Fall of Man

Genesis 3:1-8

1 Now the serpent was more cunning than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made. And he said to the woman, “Has God indeed said, ‘You shall not eat of every tree of the garden’?”

2 And the woman said to the serpent, “We may eat the fruit of the trees of the garden; 3 but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God has said, ‘You shall not eat it, nor shall you touch it, lest you die.’”

4 Then the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die. 5 For God knows that in the day you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”

6 So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree desirable to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate. She also gave to her husband with her, and he ate. 7 Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves coverings.

8 And they heard the sound of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God among the trees of the garden.

The cunning serpent of evil who embodies the spirit of antichrist and is also known as the dragon of old (Revelation 12:9-10, 20:2), this created being and fallen angel who was the first influencer of rebellion against God and His word, this father of lies (John 8:44) crept into the Garden and straight up to the woman Eve to deceive (2 Corinthians 11:3, 1 Timothy 2:14) her with the lie to disbelieve and distrust God’s word.  He began with the truth of God’s command as he repeated the words that told them, ‘You shall not eat of every tree of the garden,’ but twisted it into a question to bring it into question.  He asked Eve if God really said that instead of bearing true witness that God had indeed said precisely that.  Then Eve went along because she never encountered a liar just the God of all truth to that point.  She took what the deceiver said and remade here response of what she heard to say that they could eat everything but if they ate of the fruit of that one tree in the middle of the Garden, the tree of knowing good and evil, they would die.  But she added, “nor shall you touch it,” which was not part of God’s command and evoked a sense of disdain against God to even allow them to touch it and exaggerated the command in the process.  The serpent jumped on that inroad of distrust to quickly deny that claim and said they certainly would not die if they touched it, and by the way, they could then also eat it and stay alive as well.  He then blasphemed and maligned God by implying that God knew instead that they should eat it and have their eyes opened to know good and evil just and then be just like God!  What deception!  The woman fell for it and took and ate in direct disobedience to the command of God by listening to the temptation to be like Him just as Satan himself had done (Isaiah 14:13-14) before.  She shared the fruit of evil with Adam her husband when with him and he went along with her in spite of hearing the prohibition from God Himself.  This they sinned by desiring to be wise and their own god but realized too late that sin was there at their door waiting for them (Genesis 4:7).  Their knowledge of good and evil was not taught by God (Hebrews 5:14) and therefore they were untaught in how to deal with it and all they saw with evil possibilities as well as good.  They then saw their natural nakedness as unclean in a distorted sense of pleasure over the command to be fruitful and multiply to fill as the earth (Genesis 1:27-28) and instead saw only the consequence of disobedience as originally told them.  This is the account of the temptation and fall of man into sin and its eternal consequences of physical death and spiritual separation from God as a worse death due to not taking God at His word and being taught by that word what is good to know and do while avoiding what is evil (1 Peter 3:11-12).  What do we now do as their descendants?  May we choose not our way to define what is right and wrong as the fallen world around us does who rejects God’s living Word become flesh as the gospel (John 1:1-2, 14, 16-17), but instead listen to His word to lead our way of thinking and understanding and actions.  

Genesis 2:18-25 - God’s Complementarian Design of Mankind

Genesis 2:18-25

18 And the LORD God said, “It is not good that man should be alone; I will make him a helper comparable to him.” 19 Out of the ground the LORD God formed every beast of the field and every bird of the air, and brought them to Adam to see what he would call them. And whatever Adam called each living creature, that was its name. 20 So Adam gave names to all cattle, to the birds of the air, and to every beast of the field. But for Adam there was not found a helper comparable to him.

21 And the LORD God caused a deep sleep to fall on Adam, and he slept; and He took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh in its place. 22 Then the rib which the LORD God had taken from man He made into a woman, and He brought her to the man.

23 And Adam said:

“This is now 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 mother and be joined to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.

25 And they were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed.

God made the man Adam and all the animals for him, yet something was missing as the first man began to realize and what God His Creator already knew and planned for.  God was not blindsided by this desire of Adam; He had put that desire in the man for a true and equal complementary companion and mate.  The Lord simply expressed His will in this statement for our account to understand the account of the creation of a complete man and woman designed to be united in the commitment and mutual support of one another in marriage between a man a woman as husband and wife.  That is God’s sole design and it is declared good by Him.  All other supposed unions suggested by fallen mankind after the temptation and deception which left all their children in broken relationships and ones never designed nor sanctioned by God according to His word are disobedience and even abominable (Leviticus 18:22, 20:13, Romans 1:26-27) when the design is broken completely.  God had made the animals as companions, but none of them satisfied the spiritual and deeply emotional need of Adam.  The man named all the animals created to give him some company, but had a greater fulfillment of the need to not be alone for His capstone creation.  No other companion was suitable for or comparable to be alongside Adam.  God then completed His design by putting the man to sleep and taking part of him who was created from the dust of the ground made by God and whose breath had given him life in God’s image, He took from him and created a suitable companion, the woman to be his wife.  The very words to describe man and woman, אִישׁ (ish) and אִשָּׁה (ishah), show us how the woman was part of man of his bone, his essence, his very substance made out of his own fleshy body and not separately out of the dust of the earth like Adam.  This shows the order of creation and the roles of man and wife as well as their relationship of interdependence (1 Corinthians 11:8-9, 12) and equality in bearing God’s image.  The union of a man with a woman in marriage as Adam and Eve in the beginning is to be continued in we who are their descendants.  We are to be united as one flesh and one in value of equal worth with different roles as designed in the order of creation and later amplified by the Fall of mankind in disobedience and rejection of God’s word (Genesis 3:16, 1 2 Corinthians 11:3, Timothy 2:12-13) and will which some still fight against this order and design today to satisfy their own desires over God’s perfectly designed creation.  In the beginning before the desire for such pleasures were taken out of context by the imperfect knowledge of good and evil plucked from the forbidden tree in defiance to God’s command, man and woman were naked and unafraid of their natural appearance and would have filled the earth in being fruitful to multiply in innocence.  Sin marred that and until we are in God’s presence again as in Eden, we shall be tempted by our revealed nakedness of body and soul.  Man’s attempts to force the issue in our way only magnify the results.  Therefore we are not to uncover another’s nakedness except in marriage as designed with its accompanying commitment as a man and woman are joined as one in body and soul.  This is God’s complementarian on and only design of man and woman, husband and wife, in His good design. 

Genesis 2:1-17 - The Day of Divine Rest

Genesis 2:1-17

1 Thus the heavens and the earth, and all the host of them, were finished. 2 And on the seventh day God ended His work which He had done, and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had done. 3 Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because in it He rested from all His work which God had created and made.

4 This is the history of the heavens and the earth when they were created, in the day that the LORD God made the earth and the heavens, 5 before any plant of the field was in the earth and before any herb of the field had grown. For the LORD God had not caused it to rain on the earth, and there was no man to till the ground; 6 but a mist went up from the earth and watered the whole face of the ground.

7 And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being.

Life in God’s Garden

8 The LORD God planted a garden eastward in Eden, and there He put the man whom He had formed. 9 And out of the ground the LORD God made every tree grow that is pleasant to the sight and good for food. The tree of life was also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

10 Now a river went out of Eden to water the garden, and from there it parted and became four riverheads. 11 The name of the first is Pishon; it is the one which skirts the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold. 12 And the gold of that land is good. Bdellium and the onyx stone are there. 13 The name of the second river is Gihon; it is the one which goes around the whole land of Cush. 14 The name of the third river is Hiddekel; it is the one which goes toward the east of Assyria. The fourth river is the Euphrates.

15 Then the LORD God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to tend and keep it. 16 And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, “Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat; 17 but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.”

As we consider God resting on the sevenths day after creating the earth and heavens, do we rest in God’s Son, Jesus Christ, from our works that attempt to appease our Maker to earn salvation, or do we rest in His work on the cross (Hebrews 4:3-4, 9-10) as we do His work in creation?  When God Almighty had finished making the universe and our world and every living being, He rested.  It was not rest required because God was tired from the effort formHe had merely spoken according to His will and plan and everything was made at once without expending effort as we mortal creatures do to accomplish anything in our own ability.  He rested as a precursor and pattern for us to enter into as we trust His work and rest in Him instead of vainly striving to earn God’s favor in a perfect righteousness which only God possesses.  This is the grace of the gospel written from the beginning even before humanity’s fall into the rebellion of sin!  This is why our Lord blessed this day as holy sanctified in the beginning even before Jesus came to call us along with Him into this eternal rest.  He then had Moses record in God’s word what the Creator did next for us to stand in wonder and awe of His work beyond our abilities yet brought within our grasp.  He explains the creation of the earth in retrospect to review His work in Chapter 1 during the first six days of creation.  The ground was initially covered in a thick mist before rain ever fell vegetation was formed by His Word’s command (John 1:1, 14, Colossians 1:16) and before man was created and given life by the breath (Genesis 2:7) of His own Spirit.  God took the dust of the earth which He had already made and from its components formed the body of Adam and then breathed life from Himself into him to make us after His image and spiritual substance!  This adds a new dimension to consider of our being made in His image.  God then planted a garden by the work of His word of command and it was so.  This place would be our first home just in the East of the place called Eden.  He put Adam there where He made the plants grow in the mist and fed the man from those trees and herbs put there for us to live on.  This was not a random happenstance, but a well planned and orchestrated plan of creating a world for we who are the capstone of His creation.  This is where He introduced the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil in the midst of the garden before the allowance and prohibition of taking from each of these was explained.  The account goes on to describe the surrounding area of rivers to water the garden and provide food and shelter for Adam as he was put into this paradise garden.  Only then when all the stage was set was man’s formerly free will to be tested by the command to freely eat of any plant or tree but the prohibited one of the knowledge of good and evil, which only God Himself had knowledge of.  The penalty of assuming to know better what was right and wrong apart from God’s word telling the man (Hebrews 5:14) so to assume he knew as much or even more than the Creator was death.  We are now broken in our own wills and are required to learn right from wrong, good from evil, from the instruction of the word of God (2 Timothy 3:16-17, Philippians 1:9-10) due to our ancestors not heeding this simple command of God meant for our good.  We will see how our adversary later tries to twist this simple truth of truth into doubt through deceit into disobedience of disbelief.  The answer to these is God’s forgiveness in His work of Grace by the perfect righteousness of His Son’s sacrifice and our restored trust in His word to save us from our sin of disobedience and disbelief of His clear commands recorded in scripture.  May we rest in His Sabbath rest who is Jesus Christ instead of continuing to vainly attempt to earn God’s grace by our own works (Romans 3:23, 6:23) of shortcomings.  This is the gospel message of divine rest in the work of God from the beginning of creation and through the fall of man into sin until He sent His Son to redeem us from the curse of sin’s disobedience and disbelief.  The day of rest is before us as Hebrews 4:9-10 tell us.  We find this rest in Christ alone by faith alone in His work for us and not our efforts of our own fallible works. 

Genesis 1:26-31 - God’s Image in Man

Genesis 1:26-31

26 Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” 27 So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. 28 Then God blessed them, and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it; have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”

29 And God said, “See, I have given you every herb that yields seed which is on the face of all the earth, and every tree whose fruit yields seed; to you it shall be for food. 30 Also, to every beast of the earth, to every bird of the air, and to everything that creeps on the earth, in which there is life, I have given every green herb for food”; and it was so. 31 Then God saw everything that He had made, and indeed it was very good. So the evening and the morning were the sixth day.

This passage gives us insight into what it means to be created in the image of God.  He tells us that God is a triune being, saying “Let Us make man in Our image (plural),” not “l will make man in My image (singular).  The verb for Let Us make is עשׂה, Our image is צֶלֶם, and Our likeness is דְּמוּת, all plural verb and nouns.  God is meticulous in recording His scripture with good grammar and meaning, so this is no accident or mistranslation of these words.  God is One (Deuteronomy 6:4) and also is described as a unity of Father, Son, and Spirit as three persons in that One God (as seen in Matthew 28:19, where the word ‘name’ into which we are baptized into these three is singular), hence the accurate use of the plural in this verse and yet negating this One God is in three distinct persons, equally divine.  This is the mystery of the Godhead shown us in the creation of man in his image which some have tried to describe similarly as body, mind, and spirit or soul.  It is not the same as three persons, yet it does echo the creative mind of God to fashion us after that aspect of His image, as well as the ability to reason and to create with our imagination and our hands in skills we are born with and develop with His wisdom and guidance.  Having made us in this image, God then gave us a stewardship over all He had created before us to fill the earth and seas with life just as Jesus has dominion over us as our Head.  This pattern is fully seen in the fact that the Son of God is the Head of the church and has sovereign dominion and authority over us.  We have been given this rule over the animals created under and for us; we are not animals as they are, but are made in God’s very image far above any mere animal.  This is not a popular fact among those seeking to discredit God’s word and right to rule over us with commandments and judgments.  Because we are not exactly like God, however, He made man male and female to be a united one in marriage and to fill the earth after our kind in a reproductive mandate to do so.  This design and command cannot be carried out by two men or two women as they cannot reproduce and do not have the blended unity of God’s complementarian design.  Those who argue against this are in the same camp as those who believe we are but another animal randomly appearing through evolution and not designed by our Maker in His image.  What God has made on the sixth day was described and designated by Him as good.  Any other description or change to that design is not good, what He calls evil in opposition to His will and word.  Everything that God has made is good!  Who are we to argue against our Creator and to twist the perfect design into something abominable and blasphemous?  As it is written, “Let God be true and every man a liar (Numbers 23:19, Romans 3:4)” to describe anyone who denies Him and His design according to the Bible.  God’s image is made in man, though sin has corrupted it enough as to make this difficult to see apart from redeeming grace to transform us back to reflect His face (2 Corinthians 3:18) as we are being transformed into that original sinless form.  We know this to be true because God told us and He is not a liar! 

Genesis 1:14-25 - What God Makes is Good!

Genesis 1:14-25

14 Then God said, “Let there be lights in the firmament of the heavens to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs and seasons, and for days and years; 15 and let them be for lights in the firmament of the heavens to give light on the earth”; and it was so. 16 Then God made two great lights: the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night. He made the stars also. 17 God set them in the firmament of the heavens to give light on the earth, 18 and to rule over the day and over the night, and to divide the light from the darkness. And God saw that it was good. 19 So the evening and the morning were the fourth day.

20 Then God said, “Let the waters abound with an abundance of living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the face of the firmament of the heavens.” 21 So God created great sea creatures and every living thing that moves, with which the waters abounded, according to their kind, and every winged bird according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. 22 And God blessed them, saying, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let birds multiply on the earth.” 23 So the evening and the morning were the fifth day.

24 Then God said, “Let the earth bring forth the living creature according to its kind: cattle and creeping thing and beast of the earth, each according to its kind”; and it was so. 25 And God made the beast of the earth according to its kind, cattle according to its kind, and everything that creeps on the earth according to its kind. And God saw that it was good.

On the fourth day of the world we see how God made the stars in the heavens already created and the sun with its reflective moon to give some light in the darkness of nighttime.  He made the stars and named them (Psalm 147:4, Isaiah 40:26) and they were put in place to give meaning and seasons (Psalm 104:19) for us to consider and to give a pace to living.  He divide day and night by the lights of heaven for us as a reminder that He brings light into darkness and to be able to tell time throughout the year by the monthly waxing and waning of the moon, the sunrise and sunset, and the constellation patterns and northern star to guide us in our travels.  This was a good fourth day.  Then the fifth day brought birds in the sky and fish swimming by in the seas of the third day.  He made them in abundance and with great variety, each after its own kind and not evolved on their own but by His original design.  The birds flew between heaven and earth to fill that empty space made for them while the seas swarmed with fish and other larger creatures in great numbers as well.  The Creator filled His world with living and active animals with a mandate to fill the waters and land with their children as fruitful in multiplying their populations.  This command to be fruitful and multiply was set in place before men and women were created to do the same as a pattern of God’s plan for us.  The sixth day began with the creation of the animals before man was crafted after God’s own image.  These animals were also created to propagate like offspring from the original and not morphing by imagined evolution on their own plan to become something other than what God intended.  They simply bred after their own kind as they continue to do to the present time.  God saw that His creation was good!  Our inclination to substitute another explanation to that given by God is our sinful nature attempting to find another explanation than what our Creator has told us; this is a matter of taking God at His word or choosing to invent our own ideas over His to attempt to prove that we know better what good and evil are in our hearts and minds.  Theorizing evolution by randomness or self-betterment over the Creator’s word as truth is the ultimate rejection of God as our Maker and demonstrates rebellion of disbelief in our thinking.  What God made is good; what we make of it is not.  Taking of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil to be like God ourselves is not a shortcut, but a path leading over a cliff away from Him and His plan for us.  What God makes is good.  What ever make of it in opposition to what He says instead is not.  What matters is not our explanation or ideas, but what is found as it is written for us to believe and accept.

Genesis 1:1-11 - The History of Creation

Genesis 1:1-11

(Genesis 2:4–9; Job 38:4–11; John 1:1–5)

1 In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. 2 The earth was without form, and void; and darkness was on the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.

3 Then God said, “Let there be light”; and there was light. 4 And God saw the light, that it was good; and God divided the light from the darkness. 5 God called the light Day, and the darkness He called Night. So the evening and the morning were the first day.

6 Then God said, “Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters.” 7 Thus God made the firmament, and divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament; and it was so. 8 And God called the firmament Heaven. So the evening and the morning were the second day.

9 Then God said, “Let the waters under the heavens be gathered together into one place, and let the dry land appear”; and it was so. 10 And God called the dry land Earth, and the gathering together of the waters He called Seas. And God saw that it was good.

11 Then God said, “Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb that yields seed, and the fruit tree that yields fruit according to its kind, whose seed is in itself, on the earth”; and it was so. 12 And the earth brought forth grass, the herb that yields seed according to its kind, and the tree that yields fruit, whose seed is in itself according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. 13 So the evening and the morning were the third day.

This beginning is recorded by inspiration of God, likely by the hand of Moses, to open our eyes to understand that God made the universe and this world we inhabit by His hand of creation in his spoken word.  This word we find later in John 1:1 -2 is the Son of God Jesus Christ Himself and no mere vocal sound from God our Father.  Furthermore, we find out that all things in heaven and earth were created by Him (Colossians 1:16, Hebrews 1:2, 11:3) and are held together (Colossians 1:17) by His omnipotent will and sovereign authority.  God first made the earth as an empty slate of dust to build upon on the first day of creation.  His Spirit hovered and moved over the waters on the surface in the midst of darkness until He spoke the light into existence to illuminate His glorious creation.  How the light shone before the sun and moon (Genesis 1:16) were hung in place three days later is a mystery left unanswered, but we know that there was light of Day and darkness of Night as described for us.  We can speculate how or where this light emanated from, but we can compare the new creation where God Himself is the light (Revelation 22:5) where there is to be no sun or moon, and we can therefore rest assured this is true if left undefined for us presently.  All that God created was called ‘good’ by Him as each day brought new additions to the earth and sky.  The second day between the making of waters on the world on the first day and the third day of covering with vegetation on the soil of the newly minted planet saw sky separating the waters of the sea from the mist covering above the ground.  Then on the third day of creation we are told that the waters on earth gathered together into definable seas and dry land was brought out between them for the next step.  This identification of the good earth and seas makes clear that this was the state of the earth on this day.  He then made the grass, herbs, and trees to cover the exposed ground and caused them by intelligent design to be self-sustaining by seeds of the plant and in the fruits of the trees as we still see today.  He set all in motion according to His design from the very inception of each and did not merely create chemistry to randomly coagulate together to magically form into the vegetation we still have with us now.  These are all planned and designed and put on earth by the Maker of Heaven and earth Himself!  All God made is self-sustaining and unchanging in its kind, not transforming or evolving apart from His design.  We are no different in this regard, no matter what some would erroneously try to influence us to believe to discredit God and His word.  This history of creation is an account of God’s work as historically recorded for us by One who cannot lie or deceive us otherwise as the deceiver who later comes into paradise would have us believe by doubting (Genesis 3:1, 5, 2 Corinthians 11:3) instead of trusting the truth of His word to us.  Knowing these truths, why should we ever doubt the goodness and work of God and the verity and integrity of His word for us to live by?  The history of creation itself points us to faith that takes God at His word in making the world and us for His purposes and glory. 

Revelation 22:12-21 - He is Coming Quickly, Maranatha!

Revelation 22:12-21

Jesus Testifies to the Churches

12 “And behold, I am coming quickly, and My reward is with Me, to give to every one according to his work. 13 I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End, the First and the Last.”

14 Blessed are those who do His commandments, that they may have the right to the tree of life, and may enter through the gates into the city. 15 But outside are dogs and sorcerers and sexually immoral and murderers and idolaters, and whoever loves and practices a lie.

16 “I, Jesus, have sent My angel to testify to you these things in the churches. I am the Root and the Offspring of David, the Bright and Morning Star.”

17 And the Spirit and the bride say, “Come!” And let him who hears say, “Come!” And let him who thirsts come. Whoever desires, let him take the water of life freely.

A Warning

18 For I testify to everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book: If anyone adds to these things, God will add to him the plagues that are written in this book; 19 and if anyone takes away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part from the Book of Life, from the holy city, and from the things which are written in this book.

I Am Coming Quickly

20 He who testifies to these things says, “Surely I am coming quickly.”
Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus!

21 The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen.

The Lord is certainly coming back.  As 1 Corinthians 16:22 also exclaims, O Lord, come (μαράνα θά, marana tha)!  We see here at the end of scripture that He answers our plea for His return with, “Surely I am coming quickly” (ἔρχομαι ταχύ) in both verses twelve and twenty to assure us of this anticipated truth we so long for.  He will reward us with crowns of righteousness (2 Timothy 4:8) and life (James 1:12) and glory (1 Peter 5:4) with which to honor and glorify Him who works in and through us in this life, and He promises this to each of us in Christ who are faithful to increase the symbolic talents He entrusts to our stewardship.  We are reminded that His name is the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End, the First and the Last, that He is and was and always will be (Revelation 1:8) in existence and sovereign over all creation, from our inception in Genesis and our fall into sin to the final judgment and dwelling in His presence at last by the reconciling grace of covering our sin in the grace of eternal forgiveness!  We who have believed His word of the gospel of our deliverance from sin’s penalty and keep His word have this assurance to enter into the gates of the Celestial City with the right to eat of the tree of eternal life once denied (Genesis 2:16-17, 3:11, 22-23) us by sin but now freely given (Isaiah 55:1, 3) because of God’s Son, Jesus the Christ.  We keep His command (John 14:23, 1 John 2:24-25) of believing faith and receive His Son accordingly (John 1:12, 5:24) as the gospel tells us and so enter into His presence while those who disbelieve and disobey reject Christ and the gospel of grace and are kept out forever, those who chose occult practices, sexual immortality, who murder, worship idols, and whoever loves and practices a lie.  Jesus Christ, the promised Messiah through the channel of redemption given to us through Israel, sent His angel to John to record these things for us to read and take to heart before He returns in judgment on the earth that we might believe and receive Him and follow in willing obedience to please our Maker.  Our bright morning star calls us to come to Him to satisfy our thirst for righteousness and redemption, freely drinking deeply from the water of salvation by faith in His work for us (Isaiah 55:1, 3) that cleanses our souls and makes us acceptable in our calling.  We therefore are warned not to add to what Gods tells us here nor to take anything away from it, even if we are uncomfortable or fearful of the truth.  Salvation by any other means than that given by the whole counsel of scripture is ineffective and leaves us out of the Book of Life.  Only through Jesus Christ (John 14:6, Acts 4:12) can we be found in His book written by Him and enter into this glory.  We who have trusted and received Him as the Son of God, our Lord and divine Savior, have this unshakable hope and certain future to reside with Him in the New Jerusalem forever.  We therefore cry out without fear of judgment (1 John 4:18), “come Lord Jesus!”  We trust His promise of “Surely I am coming quickly” by faith and in hope as we love Him and one another (Mark 12:30-31, 1 John 4:7-10) in His grace.  Amen and amen!  He is coming quickly.  It will then be finished. 

Revelation 22:1-11 - The River and Trees of Life

Revelation 22:1-11

The River of Life

1 And he showed me a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding from the throne of God and of the Lamb. 2 In the middle of its street, and on either side of the river, was the tree of life, which bore twelve fruits, each tree yielding its fruit every month. The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations. 3 And there shall be no more curse, but the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it, and His servants shall serve Him. 4 They shall see His face, and His name shall be on their foreheads. 5 There shall be no night there: They need no lamp nor light of the sun, for the Lord God gives them light. And they shall reign forever and ever.

The Time Is Near

6 Then he said to me, “These words are faithful and true.” And the Lord God of the holy prophets sent His angel to show His servants the things which must shortly take place.

7 “Behold, I am coming quickly! Blessed is he who keeps the words of the prophecy of this book.”

8 Now I, John, saw and heard these things. And when I heard and saw, I fell down to worship before the feet of the angel who showed me these things.

9 Then he said to me, “See that you do not do that. For I am your fellow servant, and of your brethren the prophets, and of those who keep the words of this book. Worship God.” 10 And he said to me, “Do not seal the words of the prophecy of this book, for the time is at hand. 11 He who is unjust, let him be unjust still; he who is filthy, let him be filthy still; he who is righteous, let him be righteous still; he who is holy, let him be holy still.”

We see the vision heralding the River of Life coming from the throne of God and the Lamb that will water the Trees of Life that had previously been denied us in Eden’s Garden (Genesis 2:9, 3:22).  This shows us clearly that eternal life offered in the beginning will be fulfilled in the new Kingdom on earth for all who are in Christ in this life, unlike the perversion of the gospel taught by the Jehovah’s Witnesses that limit the number and offer no hope in their reasoning for God’s true children.  The water in this river flowing from where God sits are nearly as pure as His holiness in order to properly water the tree of life eternal.  These trees will bear twelve fruits each month, presumably different fruits that offer the promise of eternal life representing the twelve tribes of the founding people of God and the twelve founding apostles of our Lord, but this is not certain or clear yet.  When we are there all will be perfectly known (1 Corinthians 13:12) as will our deepest thoughts and intentions of our hearts.  Even the leaves of the trees giving unending life will bring healing to all from our of the nations who come to be there in Christ.  The healing spoken of is likely that of the spirits of men and women recovering from the sin that plagues this world since the fall and the corruption disfiguring us that also kept us from the tree of life in Eden because our ancestors took the wrong and forbidden fruit of self revelation of knowledge and who neglected to be fed the und of good and evil by God’s word (Hebrews 5:14) in His time.  What grace and love of the Father to save us by the grace of His Son that we might be restored to our uncorrupted image of Him as intended!  We will bathe in the waters of purity and be healed by the eating from the trees of the trees of life at last.  There will be no more curse of sin there in the presence of God the Father and His son the Passover Lamb who took away our sins forever.  Instead, we who are numbered as His own from the foundation of creation (Ephesians 1:4) will bask in the glory of worship before the throne of grace and reign with Him (Matthew 19:28-29, Romans 5:17, 2 Timothy 2:11-12, Revelation 20:4) in the light of that glory and grace forever!  That is something to look forward to that will never become boring as some say with the blurred vision of spiritual ignorance now.  This time of reckoning is swiftly approaching and all who read these faithful and true words are called to listen to the prophets and apostles of the gospel and keep His word in our journey of sanctification to align ourselves in His image of righteousness as preparation.  We worship Him and no other as the angel had to remind the apostle whom Jesus loved.  Worship God alone and keep His word!  That is our lesson to learn from the book of Revelation, not to figure out the times and seasons which only God knows and chooses to reveal over time as events unfold according to His plan.  Let us remain holy, just, and righteous in Christ because we have been saved out of sin to follow and be conformed to Him and look forward to the pure river from His throne and the trees of eternal life for our restoration.  This is for our sealing of sanctification and restoration of God’s original design for we who are His prize creation.  Amen!