Genesis 3:1-4:26 / Matthew 2:13-3:12 / Psalm 2:1-12 / Proverbs 1:7-9
Monday, January 2, 2012 Standout verse:
Genesis 3:3
“But of the fruit of the tree which is in the middle of the garden, God has said, you shall not eat it, nor shall you touch it, lest you die.”
God could not have been more clear. He had explicitly laid out a strong, uncomplicated word to Adam and Eve: 1. Do not eat of the tree in the middle of the garden 2. Don’t even touch it! Eve allowed Satan to take what she knew to be true and twist it ever so slightly so it would satisfy her fleshly desire to “know more”. She rationalized with herself that her desire to be wiser would be acceptable to God.
When God gives us a clear command or clear parameters, we must not cross them. Not only must we not cross them, we shouldn’t even come close to the line of crossing them. Rather, we should move as far away from the line as we can. Not only is this basic obedience, it is yielding to the fact that God simply knows more than we do – He has the full picture while we only have part of it. He has reasons for everything. Our job is not to question His reasons or rationalize things to make ourselves feel better, or twist truth to make it fit into our particular circumstances so our flesh will not be offended. We’re to trust God, knowing and believing that He is our all-powerful, all-knowing Father who wants good things for His children. Simple Obedience = Best Every Time!
- HJ
Reader Comments (2)
I think its interesting that at the end of Gen. 4:26, after Seth was born, it states that 'then men began to call on the name of the Lord.' There is a comment, nearby in this section: "We were not created to merely survive, but to thrive in God."(Sheila Walsh). So true...when we come to the end of ourselves, that 's where God can come in and make something beautiful out of our lives.
Proverbs 1:7 states that wisdom begins with God. I'm sure wisdom is something we would all LOVE as we begin this new year. But many people, as Psalm 2 says, never receive wisdom because they refuse to pursue God because of a love for sin! So where do we sit? We might think we are racing toward that finish line of wisdom, but many of us never even reached the start line of God.....