Scripture Reflections – January 2025
1/24/2025 (215) Good morning,
Genesis 3.8-13, 8 And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden. 9 But the Lord God called to the man and said to him, “Where are you?” 10 And he said, “I heard the sound of you in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked, and I hid myself.” 11 He said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten of the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?” 12 The man said, “The woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me fruit of the tree, and I ate.” 13 Then the Lord God said to the woman, “What is this that you have done?” The woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.”
What is the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden?!?! What might we do if we heard the Lord God walking in the garden? Adam and Eve hid. They had good reason since they had just discovered the act of disobedience. Their eyes were opened to good and evil. This was their first experience of shame, fear, and vulnerability. One of the wonders of Genesis is that it reveals our own nature of sin and disobedience. We too would likely run and hide if we heard the sound of God coming our way. We experience the pain of disobedience with our own sin.
We, like Adam, will also seek to blame others for our sins. Adam tries to remove his own guilt by pointing the finger at Eve. He refuses to accept responsibility. He refuses to be the man he was created to be. How deeply do we see this among many men today, refusing to take responsibility for their actions, refusing to accept the role God has created for men? Eve does the same, “not my fault, the devil made me do it”. Adam blames Eve, Eve blames the serpent. Human nature on full display. The responsible action is to take responsibility for our sin, repent and seek the forgiveness given in Christ.
Romans 5:8 – but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
2 Corinthians 7.1, 10, Since we have these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from every defilement of body and spirit, bringing holiness to completion in the fear of God… 10 For godly grief produces a repentance that leads to salvation without regret, whereas worldly grief produces death.
Pray, repent, and give thanks for the forgiveness we share in Christ Jesus, our Lord and Savior.
Pastor Ed
1/22/2025 (214) (also 9/27/2024) Good morning,
Genesis 3.1-7 Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God actually say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree in the garden’?” 2 And the woman said to the serpent, “We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden, 3 but God said, ‘You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.’” 4 But the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die. 5 For God knows that when 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, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate. 7 Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked. And they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loincloths.
The deception of evil is subtle sometimes, perhaps all the time. The serpent changes what God had forbidden in his question of Eve, “not eat of any tree” rather than what God actually said, “eat of every tree” except the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Secondly, it was not just what God “said”, but more authoritatively, what God “commanded” (2.16). The devil sought to work those same tactics with Jesus in the wilderness (Matthew 4.1-11). The devil is quick to reinterpret and twist God’s Word in ways that seek to lead people away from righteousness. We see this all the time in the world when words are used in ways that twist the meaning into something completely different. We have to guard against hearing our own vocabulary of faith being used in ways that seek to lead to a very different conclusion than obedience and faithfulness to God’s Truth. Take a look at the text again at the three movements of the serpent’s deception:
1) Did God actually say? 3.1
2) You will not surely die. 3.4
3) For God knows…you will be like God. 3.5
The entire narrative of evil is to cast doubt and draw us into confusion and chaos. It is only by God’s Word that we have clarity of heart and mind. It is only by God’s Word that we find peace and security in faith. It is only by God’s Wisdom that we are able to discern the subtle lies of the serpent. Adam and Eve both doubted the truth of God. They both lost trust in God’s command. They both bought into the lie that they could be like God, that is, to be gods themselves. As I read the text, Adam and Eve knew only the good at this point. They knew of God’s goodness in all creation and when they disobeyed God’s command, they then knew evil and thus ushered evil (sin) into the “DNA” of us all. To know good and evil as limited humans is to know that there is a choice between the two and because we are not God, we will not choose the good.
Isaiah 7.14-15 teaches us that we are to be like Jesus Christ, to choose the good…
14 Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel. 15 He shall eat curds and honey when he knows how to refuse the evil and choose the good.
It is Christ who helps us to choose the good and refuse the evil!
Hebrews 2:18 For because he himself has suffered when tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted.
Hebrews 4:15, For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin.
Thanks be to God!
Pastor Ed
1/16/2025 (also 9/27/2024) Good morning,
Genesis 3.1 Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God actually say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree in the garden’?”
The question has been asked over and over again ever since Genesis 3, “Did God actually say…?” Did God actually say male and female? Did God really say take up your cross? Did God truly say (insert any verse here)? This is a subversive tactic of evil. This is the temptation of doubt in the world. This is the question of wokism. This is the question from our fallen nature of sin. It is our task to trust what God has said throughout His Word and to stand against those who constantly ask, “Did God actually say?” It is not just a matter of knowing what God has said, but also a matter of believing what God has said. We are called to sit under the “ministry of the Word”. We are commanded to be doers of the Word and not just hearers. “But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves” (James 1.22). Note the end of that verse, “deceiving yourselves”. We might sometimes deceive ourselves by asking, “Did God actually say…?” We might try our best to rationalize sin, justify a wrong word or action.
But God’s Word is clear that our speech and actions are to be in Christ’s righteousness and holiness. “I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me” (Galatians 2.20a). It is no longer about what I want but what Christ wants, no longer about me, me, me, but to glorify Him. Therefore, we guard our hearts in His Word (Psalm 119.9). We hide His Word in our hearts so that we might not sin against Him (Psalm 119.11). We enter into the Word so that the Word might work in us by the power of the Holy Spirit. “Your words were found, and I ate them, and your words became to me a joy and the delight of my heart, for I am called by your name, O Lord, God of hosts” (Jeremiah 15.16). This is how we guard against the question, “Did God actually say…?” We will know when to say yes and when to say no. No, He did not say money is the root of all evil, He said the love of money is the root! (1 Timothy 6.10, misquoted often).
Integrating God’s Word into our being enables us to hear the voice of Christ and to ignore all the other voices that would ask if God really said this or that. “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me” (John 10.27). Know His Word, listen to His voice, and follow Him. Amen.
Pastor Ed
1/13/2025 Good morning,
Genesis 2.18, 21-23, 18 Then the Lord God said, “It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper fit for him.” …21 So the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and while he slept took one of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh. 22 And the rib that the Lord God had taken from the man he made into a woman and brought her to the man. 23 Then the man said, “This at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man.”
God made a helper fit for him. These words have caused lots of trepidation throughout the centuries, but probably more so in the last hundred years, at least in the last few decades with movements like women’s liberation or more recently talk of toxic masculinity and that women can do anything a man can do or some claiming we don’t need men at all. God created the woman to be a helper for man. God created the woman because it was not good for man to be alone. God created women from the man. We are both living creatures who have been commanded by the Creator to be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and have dominion over all things.
Helper is an important term to study. The Hebrew term is ezer and it means to come alongside. The woman is not inferior in any way, only that she serves in a particular role in the male/female relationship. Ezer is used also to describe God as our help. Perhaps most well known to us is Psalm 121.1-2, “I lift up my eyes to the hills. From where does my help come? My help comes from the Lord, who made heaven and earth.” God is our help. Woman is man’s help. She is not an inferior servant to man, but comes alongside to help man in service to God – together. For man to be alone was not good according to Genesis 2.18, but by the end of the synopsis of creation in Genesis 1.31, all that God had created was very good. Hmm…seems that making the woman moved all of creation from good to very good! But, I might be reading too much into it!
Pastor Ed
1/8/2025 Good morning,
Genesis 2.5-7, When no bush of the field was yet in the land and no small plant of the field had yet sprung up—for the Lord God had not caused it to rain on the land, and there was no man to work the ground, 6 and a mist was going up from the land and was watering the whole face of the ground— 7 then the Lord God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature.
Was my generation that last to play as kids in the dust of the ground? We played marbles in the dirt. We paved roads by hand in the dirt for hot wheels to navigate. We rode our “dirt” bikes (bicycles) on dusty trails long before specialized bicycles existed. I know I am old school, but could there be something about playing in the dust as a child that makes us more immune to disease and infections later in life? Kids don’t seem to get dirty anymore. Video games are “clean”. Xbox doesn’t throw mud in your eye. Okay, I’m finished being an old coot.
Man was made from the dust of the earth. Woman was made from the man. We are people of the dust, people connected to the earth. But we are much more than dirty creations, for God has breathed life into us. God’s breath makes us living creatures. The Hebrew word can mean breath, wind, or spirit. (Same in the Greek). The use of breath of life in the creation story is appropriate from a physical life standpoint, but from a spiritual rendering it also could be seen as God breathing the spirit of life. I like to think it includes all three meanings, breath, wind, spirit, because the life we have been given is a force of more than just breathing air, more than just a spirit (or soul), and more than “blowing in the wind”. God formed man to be above all other creatures that were created. Man became a living creature. Man, aware of his existence as man, given dominion, given life and freedom and command and covenant with the Creator. Man, the creature that would need redeeming because of rebellion. Man, the only creature capable of disobedience. The tiger is what it is. The gnat…well, I don’t know why we have to have gnats. The birds do bird things, but man, man has the capacity to disobey God’s created order and thus needs to be created anew. Thanks be to God that He sent His only Son to make us new creatures (2 Cor 5.17). Thanks be to God that we have the Word to bring us back to joyful obedience, “All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work” (2 Tim 3.16-17). This is the Word that is breathed out. God’s breath renewing life once again. Give God thanks for breathing life into His people.
Pastor Ed
1/7/2025 Good morning,
Genesis 2.1-3, “Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them. 2 And on the seventh day God finished his work that he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all his work that he had done. 3 So God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it God rested from all his work that he had done in creation.
In Genesis 2 creation is finished – heaven and earth and all the host of them. Everything done, complete and good. Then God rested. That might be as difficult a concept to us as something like the mystery of the Trinity. What does it mean that God rested? Some suggest that rest means God simply ceased or abstained from the work He had done. Everything was created that needed to be created and so the work stopped. This is also an aspect of our practice of Sabbath in that we cease to work. We abstain from the six days of work and do no work on the seventh day. Rest in that sense just means to stop.
But there is more to the story! Exodus 31 also emphasizes a work stoppage but then it adds something to the “rest” in verse 17, “It is a sign forever between me and the people of Israel that in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, and on the seventh day he rested and was refreshed.” This suggests something more than just ceasing from all that was created. Let me toss in one more jewel, Isaiah 40.28 tells us that God does not tire or grow weary, “Have you not known? Have you not heard? The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He does not faint or grow weary; his understanding is unsearchable.” Sabbath is time to stop working. Certainly, for us feeble humans, it is a time to rest in the sense of refreshing our wearied selves. Even if we are retired from the workforce, there is a need for rest and refreshment. I hear from so many retired folks that they cannot understand how they ever had time to work. Busyness is still a stress on our lives. Keep the Sabbath whether working or retired!
The word for “refreshed” in the Scripture is rooted in the Hebrew word nephesh. This word can mean rest, soul, inner being, breath, or living being. Nephesh represents the whole being and life of someone often understood as “soul”. In Jewish thought we do not have a soul but we are a soul, we do not have a nephesh, but we are one. By that I understand Jewish thinking in that we are not separated into body, soul, and spirit, but all tied into one being. We might say that refreshment on the Sabbath is getting your “self” back to wholeness. This is a difficult concept when introduced in Exodus 31 because it refers to God in this way of getting “self” back as if God expended Himself in creation. But, God does not grow weary! It is a mystery! We grow weary and we tire of work and even activity in retirement, so we need to practice a Sabbath for our own rest and refreshment. Of that, I have no doubt. I liken this refreshment to need, did Jesus need to be baptized? Yes, but not for the same reason we do. Did God need refreshment? Yes, but not for the same reason we do. Our thoughts are not his thoughts and our ways are not His ways (Isaiah 55.8). There are mysteries we will not understand until we are face to face. For now, we see in that mirror dimly (1 Cor 13.12). The lesson for us is to keep the Sabbath, to cease the busyness of our days and find rest and refreshment.
Pastor Ed
1/2/2025 Good morning,
It was good…
Genesis 1.4, 10, 12, 18, 21, 25, 31, God saw that it was good.
It is the refrain throughout the creation story, “God saw that it was good”. Good! Ordered! Pleasing to God! Even more – purposeful, pleasant to the eye, giving glory to God. “Good” is the Hebrew word pronounced tov which has very much the same meaning in English (good), but as with all biblical words, the depth of a word is greatly influenced in the context of sentences and narrative. What made creation good? And even more so later in 1.31, very good?
We might consider that creation has a particular purpose in God’s design. Every element of creation has a role within itself, light and darkness, for instance, mark days and nights, and yet also come to mean something more in a spiritual sense of good and evil. All the plants and creatures play a role in a brilliant eco system and, in another spiritual sense, all plants and creatures praise God simply by being what they have been created to be (Isaiah 55.12).
We can still (despite sin) see the good of God’s created order. We can still participate in the ordered creation when we are faithful to God’s design for the care and dominion we have been given over creation – “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth” (Gen 1.28). The good news is that in Christ all things are once again ordered, in Him, by Him, and through Him. The kingdom of heaven is at hand and will one day come to fruition with a new heaven and new earth. Creation was good, is being made good again, and will one day be recreated and reordered. This is our hope and joy in Christ who created all things good. John 1.1-5, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was in the beginning with God. 3 All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. 4 In him was life, and the life was the light of men. 5 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.” The darkness will not prevail. The light has come and it was good and is good.
Pastor Ed (209)
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