Genesis 5-8

Chapter 5
So in this chapter there's nothing too interesting too me, except that everyone seemed to live around 800-900 years old. I can't even imagine what it must have been like to live in a world like that for 800-900 years!! Of course, hell is even worse, and an eternity is obviously much longer. I thank the Lord for grace. We don't have it as bad here anymore, and we only live for about 80 years, and if we accept Jesus in our hearts as our Lord and Savior, and give up our fleshly life for new life in Him, we get to spend our eternity in a Paradise with Him. How great is that? We don't deserve any of it of course, because we're all wretched creatures by nature. Reading the Old Testament paints an interesting picture of what we are without Christ. It is only by His grace and power that we are able to do good in this world. Praise be to God.
We also learn that Noah is 500 when he begot Shem, Ham, and Japheth
Chapter 6
Verse 4 has me a bit confused. Are Nephilim giants? Are they good, bad, what are they? It seems they are a result of some sort of Godly beings joining with women and having children together. But then it says they were heroes. It certainly has me intrigued. I am lost on this one. If someone has some insight I am all ears, or possibly eyes, as the case may be.
Anyhow, God decides He's had it with the evil in the world and decides to wipe the slate clean. He gives Noah a huge job of making an ark big enough for his family and all the types of animals on the earth. Now I have heard many people say it is ridiculous to think that Noah could have gone out and gotten all of the animals to just come with him and get on this big ark. They're right, but that's not what happened at all. Verse 20 says that 2 of every animal would come to him. God sent them. Something I take from all of this, is when God gives us a job that seems difficult or just plain impossible, He is there helping us all the way. When it is truly His will, a job of Him, it will be finished. He will see too it. I think when we are struggling with jobs to the point of failure, we ought to question whether the job is really in God's interest or our own. Not that the going won't get tough when it's of Him, but we just need to be realistic in our evaluation of what we are doing and who it's really for.
Chapter 7
Everything happened the way God commanded and the floods remained on the earth for about 5 months! That is a long time to hang out on an ark with every species of animal to take care of. And I am sorry to bring this up, but that's a lot of poop patrol to deal with. Yuk!!
Chapter 8
So apparently the floods only started to go down after 5 months. They still had to wait on the ark. The ark landed on Mount Ararat, and there they waited. It's seems to me that they were on the ark for about a year and 2 months? It's hard to follow. But I think that's the gist of it anyhow. Finally God tells them they can come out.
Noah makes an altar and offers a sacrafice to the Lord, which pleases Him. Then the Lord says in verse 21 "Never again will I curse the ground because of man, even though ^[a] every inclination of his heart is evil from childhood. And never again will I destroy all living creatures, as I have done..." The Lord Himself says that "every inclination of man's heart is evil". How then can anyone think it is us who chooses Him. Why would evil choose God? It wouldn't. Of course something else interesting, is how then can God find it in Himself to bless evil hearted people. Not one of us deserves it, and no Christian should ever think themselves any better than a non-Christian. God has amazing Grace, that we could never understand fully while on this earth in our fleshly bodies. He is Amazing! We are scum. Plain and simple.

Genesis 4

In this chapter, of the book of beginnings, we have the first joining, if you will, of man and woman in intimacy, leading to the first person recorded to be born in the painful labor promised. I notice that Eve gives glory to God for the creation of this child, Cain. The next recorded birth is Abel.
As they grow up, Abel keeps flocks, while Cain does farming of land. They both bring offerings to the Lord, but Abel's is pleasing to God and Cain's is not. Cain then get's angry but God says something, that I found interesting, to Cain. He says basically, 'Hello? Why are you angry. If you do good do you not get rewarded? What do you expect when you give in to sinful desire. You should learn from this not to let sin get the best of you.' There's some words ponder. Anyhow, Cain doesn't take this well and as you know, murders his brother in anger. So now we have the first fight, and murder. Things are starting to get ugly.
To be honest, as I read this story, I think to myself, "What a horrible person to just think that it's OK to give the junk he has left over to God", but then I am reminded of the verse in Matthew 25:40 'I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.' and I think to myself, "how many times, first of all, have I given God my left over time, but also how many times do I think it's somehow noble of me to give all the stuff I am not using to people who can't afford it. What have I ever truly sacrificed for God and the people he lays in my path." My mind is blank with examples. I have nothing. I rarely, if ever, truly sacrifice me, my time, and my things, and my wants for Him. So rarely that I can't even think of an example. Now granted, I don't think I could ever murder out of anger, but times were different then, and God doesn't measure sin, so I am no better than Cain.
So then Eve gives birth to another child, Seth who is said to take the place of Abel, although I wonder if Eve really felt that way. I certainly wouldn't. But again, things are different these days. Maybe our mindset is different. Anyhow, the very last words of the chapter state that at this time, many began to proclaim the name of the Lord. I wonder if this is when people started to see how much they need Him. It seems to me like that's what they're saying here.

Genesis Chapter 3

This is beginning of sin, death, and sorrow.
The serpent which is apparently deceitfully attractive convinces Eve that God lied to her about the forbidden fruit of the tree of Knowledge, my son now calls it the know/no tree, and that it will actually make her to know everything and she will not die. Eve, being human is very tempted as would we all be. I sometimes have cursed the ground she walked on especially when I was in labor, but truthfully I am no better than she and would have done the same. This is such an eye opener to the truth that no one is good. We don't deserve heaven but yet God chooses to give it, to us in no doing of our own.
Anyhow, as I read on I think of how I as a mother would have reacted with my children in a similar way. He gives Satan a message that he will be destroyed and spared not. At the same time, he promises a savior that will undo the mess that Adam and Eve started. Vs. 15 In the mean time he assigns a punishment to each of His children. He wants them to learn and He want's us to realize that without Him, we are nothing. We can learn so much from this story. That we shouldn't play with temptation, that God loves us in spite of our sinful nature, that we don't deserve anything we have and therefore should never complain, and that God keeps His promises.
One punishment of Adam and Eve that is so prominent in marriages is the desire for women to rule over men, and men to have rule over women, obviously causing a clash between the two. Thankfully God helps His children with this if they come to Him and ask for it. In the New Testament there is a wonderful amount of help to understanding our roles in marriage, so becoming knowledgeable of these and adding prayer for strength we can have peace in our marriages now. Thanks be to our Savior!
Wow, vs. 22 is interesting. I didn't realize this was in here. I never really thought about the tree of life and what it would do. I also find it interesting that God actually confirms what Satan said, almost word for word. Satan wasn't so much lying as he was making something bad, look good. That's scary. It's something to think about when guarding yourself against false religion and teachings.

Genesis Chapter 2

In the beginning of this chapter Moses explains that after God created everything, he liked what he saw and now rested on the 7th day. According to the original Hebrew text the word used for day literally translates to a 24 hour period in the text that speaks of the creation. That's pretty amazing stuff.
Then Moses goes on to describe the beautiful garden God created for Adam. Then He brings the animals to be named by Adam. I wonder what Adam's vocabulary was. Did he know every word there was to know at that time? Or did it matter? Did he just make up the words as he went, since God knows all? Ok, I know I think too much. That's probably why I never make it through the whole Bible!
Now God decides that man should not be alone and so He creates for him animals. This confused me a bit since in Chapter one, the animals were said to be made first, then Adam. Although, all on the same day, so I am not sure what the deal is. Maybe the events aren't necessarily listed in order for each day. But these animals weren't enough for Adam. He needed someone more like himself and so God makes woman from his rib. He takes her as his wife and we have the first man and woman. The first marriage. Genesis is the book of beginnings. Unfortunately the next beginning is not so sweet.

Genesis Chapter 1: My thoughts and observations.

If anyone is reading, feel free to add comments, correct my errors, and share your thoughts. I am just writing my observations as I read through the Bible at my own pace, and keeping a record of that I have read. I have learned to stop making promises about what I will write. I will write when I can, and accept the fact that I have many other responsibilities write now. So don't hold your breath if you're tracking this. I promise nothing but God's good and perfect will, as I do not have control.
In this Chapter, God creates the Earth the Heavens, and the living creatures. He creates man. He gives them many beautiful things to enjoy. He gives them command over the animals. They are vegetarians at this time, and there is no death. The animals are simply for their enjoyment. Kind of like cats and dogs, and other various pets in our homes now. Can you imagine having a pet lion or bear? How cool would that have been?
I am fascinated by this firmament that Moses speaks of. Waters above it, and below it. I am having troubles picturing this. Are the waters above, further than the furthest star? When he says the firmament is the Heavens, is that where God's dwelling is? I would love to see a picture of what it means exactly as I am visual. Call me ignorant, what can I say. According to my study bible, the above waters were just there to create a green house affect in that period and no longer exist. Interesting.