Genesis 6

 

There are times we think it's hard to live a good life, but Noah lived in a time which makes ours by comparison look like a Sunday School Picnic. At least that is how I read it. Things were bad and getting worse. Personally, I wonder if the world was on a collision with a disaster worse than what people saying might happen today. To go back to what I was saying, It would have been hard to live righteous, and yet, Noah was considered blameless among the people of his time. 

If Noah could walk in such a way that people called him blameless, then why can't we do it today? Yes, there will be those like those who accused Jesus and the apostles with all kinds of lies, but people knew better. There will be false accusations when we try and live as God would have us, but at the end of the day, people will know we were blameless. 

So let's live like that blameless. 

Isaiah 3

 Jesus tells us in the Sermon on the Mount that we should "do unto others as we would have them do unto us" (Matthew 7:12). I also remember a saying that says, "Make sure your words and soft and sweet cause you know not which you may have to eat." This goes with Isaiah 3 because God is saying the people will get what they have given to others (3:11). The evil they have done to others comes back on them and it does. The one hope people can have when they have done wrong is to seek God's forgiveness and then to try and make it right. We can't always but even if we do face a problem of our own making if we have sought out God then he can turn it into good eventually (Romans 8:28).

In the meantime, let's not say or do anything which will hurt others. Frist it displeases God and second, we don't want it back. 

Genesis 5

 Well, he almost lived to 70 but not quite but then it was a long time. Oh, he didn't die at 69 it was 969. It must have been, well...

Horrible!

How can a long life be bad? Normally I would say that long life is a great blessing but Methuselah lived in the days before the Flood. He lived in a world that God saw as so bad that the destruction of everything but Noah and his family was the best choice. I might think that for Methuselah, son of Enoch (one of only two people who never saw death because of their righteousness) it was watching everyone around him sink deeper and deeper into depravity. 

Also, there is some indication, from his name, that he may have known when he died that judgment would fall. Did this make him wish for death or fight for life? We don't know. What I do know is that it would NOT have been easy to live a righteous life. 

Luke 2

As I was reading this chapter I remembered a message I preached last year. Below is a portion of it. 

 The Songs of the Season- Hark the Herold Angels Sing

Bethlehem wasn’t an important place. It wasn’t a big city. In fact, it was until modern times very hard to get to. Only those needing to go there to meet family (or for taxes) went there. There were those who might go through trying to avoid Jerusalem and the authorities, which might give you an idea of what they might be like.

It was an agrarian town having farmers (wheat and grain) on the plateau and in the valleys a great place for sheep. The only issue was that shepherds weren’t considered the most reliable people. In fact, they were considered just above a common criminal. The problem there is when people treat you like scum most people start acting like it. 

One scholar studied the history of Bethlehem and figured that the area might have had one of the highest infant mortality rates around (60%). 

When Mary and Joseph first arrived, they couldn’t even find lodging in an inn (3 words for shelter and this was the lowest)

Yet, God came to meet us there. He came, first, to those the world looked down on. 

History of the Hymn

Written by Phillips Brooks: Harvard Professor, Bishop, Evangelist, staunch abolitionist. 

Was known to keep toys in the office and would play with kids. 

Description by Phillip Brooks: 1865 right after the Civil War in Bethlehem. 

“Before dark we rode out of town to the field where they say the shepherds saw the star. It is a fenced piece of ground with a cave in it, in which, strangely enough, they put the shepherds. . . . Somewhere in those fields we rode through, the shepherds must have been. As we passed, the shepherds were still ‘keeping watch over their flocks,’ or leading them home to fold.” writes hymnologist Albert Bailey, Christmas Eve service “conducted in . . . Constantine’s ancient basilica (326 A.D.) built over the traditional site of the Nativity, a cave. The service lasted from 10 P.M. to 3 A.M.!”

The hymn was printed on an informal leaflet in December 1868 and then appeared in The Sunday School Hymnal in 1871.

Its original tune, by Louis H. Redner (1931-1908), a wealthy real estate broker who served as a church organist. He was asked to compose music but still did not have it the night before Christmas Eve (given it long before). On the night before the Christmas Eve service he felt defeated, so he went to bed. During his fretful sleep, it seemed that he heard music.

In England, it is sung to the tune of  a folk tune, “Forest Green”

Its popularity wasn’t that great until it was sung by Elvis.

LIGHT OF THE LYRICS

O little town of Bethlehem, how still we see thee lie; above thy deep and dreamless sleep the silent stars go by. Yet in thy dark streets shineth the everlasting light; the hopes and fears of all the years are met in thee tonight.

For Christ is born of Mary And gathered all above While mortals sleep, the angels keep Their watch of wondering love O morning stars together Proclaim the holy birth And praises sing to God the King And Peace to men on earth

How silently, how silently The wondrous gift is given! So God imparts to human hearts The blessings of His heaven. No ear may hear His coming, But in this world of sin, Where meek souls will receive him still, The dear Christ enters in.

O holy Child of Bethlehem Descend to us, we pray Cast out our sin and enter in Be born to us today We hear the Christmas angels The great glad tidings tell O come to us, abide with us Our Lord Emmanuel

Omitted Stanza:

Where children pure and happy Pray to the blessed Child, Where misery cries out to thee, Son of the undefiled; Where charity stands watching And faith holds wide the door, The dark night wakes, the glory breaks, And Christmas comes once more.

APPLICATION OF OUR HEART

As we look at what happened in Bethlehem, though God sent angels and the shepherds told the news, for most of the rest of the world this act of God happened silently.  The world ignored this little town that no one went to unless they needed to. In fact, it wasn’t until modern Israel developed the road system it wasn’t easy to get to. Like the song pointed out the world just kept going on as if this wonderous thing never happened.

It is the same though for most of us. God moves in us and sometimes we don’t see it and when we do, for most of the people around us it is unnoticed at the time. 

2nd Corinthians 5:17, “If anyone is in Christ he is a new creation. The old has gone. The new has come.”

Others may not see but it will show and we will know it.

A woman testified to the transformation in her life that had resulted from her experience in conversion. She declared, "I’m so glad I got religion. I have an uncle I used to hate so much I vowed I’d never go to his funeral. But now, why, I’d be happy to go to it any time."

God wants to bring Christmas not just years ago but today. In each of us. Others may not notice but God is there to be born in us. 

And we need it, we need the good news of the gospel, we need Jesus.

Psalm 2

We need to be free! (?)

Years ago I watched a video that I soon after wished I didn't. It showed a group of young people sneaking through a fence onto a beautiful beach. They were playing and having fun, music playing in the background just set a great scene, then the music stopped and the bombs started dropping. The director didn't make it as explicit as it could have been but it was horrible. Once the last young person had been killed the camera pulled back from the beach. You saw the fence with the hole the now-dead people had crawled through. The camera pulled back a little further and there right beside the hole were the warning signs, "Danger, STAY OUT! US NAVY Live Fire Exercised." There was the skull and cross-bones sign. You then realize the people who entered saw the sign and ignored it thinking they would be okay, it was a beautiful beach after all? or not.

The desire of the nations to be free of God caused me to remember this horrible little video. Often people say that we need to be free, but freedom to do what? When the freedom we desire is freedom from God it will eventually not end well. Destruction comes and the end will not be good. The disobedient and rebellious may enjoy freedom for a time but only for a time. This post is too short to go into why God's commands are always good but disobedience to them always leads to a bad end. 

God actually gives us freedom but it is a freedom to serve him and enjoy all that he has and will have for us. Choosing to be free from God is actually slavery to sin (the thing that will destroy us and those around us, Romans 6).

Genesis 4

 When we get to the last few verses of this chapter something caught my eye. After the death of Abel, there is a new line of children through Seth. Seth has a son after which the scriptures say that people began to call upon God. So what happened to bring this about? 

Seth's son was named Enosh. Enosh according to one of the commentaries I was looking at was taken from a word that meant "weak, faint, or frail." The commentary made the point that this family line realized the frailty of man and therefore knew they needed to call upon God. 

As I think about people today and throughout the Bible and history, it is only when we realize that we can't do it ourselves is when we look to get help. It would be great if people realized this early but like Genesis 4 it is usually after tragedy that people realize they need the help of God. For the Christian, we at one time realized that we couldn't save ourselves and so we asked Jesus to become our Savior and Lord. However, let's not think that we can now do it all on our own. Life is too big for any of us to handle it without help, so let's continue to call upon God and receive help. The amazing thing is God often uses people to help us so receiving help means that we have to let someone else be the hero.

Keil and Delitzsch OT Commentary https://biblehub.com/commentaries/kad/genesis/4.htm

Genesis 3

 Currently, there seems to me to be a big push toward the antihero. This is the guy who isn't a good guy, often selfish, but at the end of the day does the right thing, mostly. I think this comes from the realization that people aren't often a paragon of virtue and therefore are more relateable to us. So what does this have to do with Genesis 3? 

Some have tried to put Satan in this category. Satan isn't the best but he's really not that bad. He did give mankind the freedom to choose for themselves and if you're smart and talented enough you might be able to outsmart him. This is of course completely wrong. It revises the story of the serpent's deception so much it's like saying Hitler was a hero because he brought about an economic and technological increase in the world. Yes, WW2 did those things but sorry Hitler wasn't a hero, and neither is Satan/Devil. Good came because God stepped in and did good but that doesn't make the fall a good thing. I could give other examples but I think I made my point. Satan was a bad guy through and through a murderer and a liar from the beginning (John 8:44). Let's not make him anything else.