Genesis 1; Matthew 1
Let's do this men! Each morning you will find a post here on the day's reading. Some will be longer and some shorter. I do not intend that you read these every day but that you might reference them if you have a hard time or if you want to dialogue with one another by commenting on the post.
Thank you Lord for this year and this pilgrimage that you have brought us into together. May you bless us and draw us in to delight in your Word this year and forevermore!
Genesis 1
Ready:
Day one. Genesis and Matthew are the start of the Old and New Testament and the beginning of this two-year plan.
Genesis was written by Moses and it reads as a narrative story. After reading the introduction I see that the theme is creation, sin, and re-creation. This is the beginning of the grand story of God revealing himself to a people that he has made for his glory. He creates with knowledge that it will take the death of his Son to reconcile this creation that will fall into sin. It was written around the time Moses brought Israel out of Egypt around 1440 B.C.
Reading Thoughts:
Here God creates all that is and he culminates the work of creation in man. He does this over 6 days and he acts freely and does most of the creating by his spoken Word. Lord I see that you have order and you created a kingdom with a people residing under your reign. You give authority and you give responsibility. You clearly give man all that you created and there is nothing on earth over which man is not to have dominion in this creation. You have made nothing that is bad or evil in any way. Your creation was good. Man has a clear role and there is a female counterpart mentioned here that is explained more later. You blessed them and gave them all the earth!
Rumination Thoughts:
v1. In the first verse is huge revelation of yourself O God. You come against humanism and any effort of man to assert his power and his self existence. You declare here in this first verse that we had a beginning and it came precisely when you determined that it be so. Here we see that you were before and that you would have no beginning and in time we learn also that you have no end. All that is exists due to your good pleasure in making it. You are creator and you are the source of all things.
v2-25. Here is a repeating pattern of God speaking and God declaring good. He makes in an orderly fashion and he creates everything in its kind. Here is not a picture of one kind begetting another kind as in the theory of evolution but a holy and intelligent and purposeful God willing the existence of each creature that he so desires.
v26. Here is a break in the patter of God speaking into existence as he now speaks not into the void but he speaks unto himself. This is a massive shift and here again much about God is revealed. God is not lonely or sad. He is a God of community and he enjoys within himself relationship and joy and love and we see in the first chapter of this grand storyline a God who cares and who is in communion. The trinity is exposed here and there is a conversation in heaven and a consulting between the Father and the Son, perhaps. Remembering that Revelation speaks of a book of the Lamb that was Slain being in existence before the creation of the world (Rev. 13:8) I would say that at this point the Son needed to concede to the Father his joyful willingness to continue with the creation of man knowing all-well that it would put him first humbled in the form of man and then on the cross at the hands of this mankind that is considered here. Here I see the picture of the Son counting the cost and the Father looking joyfully and proudly at his Son who takes the mission with joy in his heart (Heb. 12:2) and for the sake of the glory of his father. God creates freely and there cannot be here an external requirement that he create at all. God could have been happy to let the animals reign upon the earth but he chose rather to give up his Son in order to have a people who would know his glory.
v26-27. In the image of God and as man and woman God made them. God made us like himself in some way that differs from the animals and other living creatures. He also made man and woman different. There is a poetic nature to this description in verse 27, by the way the translator sets the type, and the first thing that jumps at me is that the parallelism that is there. Take the first line as the basic statement and follow it with two clarifiers or call this an action-manner relationship (manner describes the action in more detail). God created man in his image and this is how he did that. The second line says that he created him in a singular description and is clearly referring to Adam. Adam came first and has responsibility. Then he made woman and they are different and yet something about this relationship between the two relates plainly to the image of God. The creation of man and the distinctive creation of two beings that are meant to be in intimate relationship with one another tells us of the image of God. God sees Adam as the federal head of mankind (representative). God’s Son shares this headship role (the second Adam) and will assume it on Christmas day. God exists in community and enjoys loving relationship. He give us this as well. Much study can go into the image of God but community and headship are obvious here.
v28-31. Here God gives Adam and Eve responsibility. Together we were to rule and subdue the earth. We were to exercise authority over the creation as a good steward and care for what God gave us as a parent expects a child to care for a pet or a valuable toy. God announces that he has made provision for them. They did nothing and can do nothing to provide for themselves except that God saw it good to make them dependent upon the rest of creation and therefore upon himself for existence. He chose to give us bodies that require food and sleep and light. He gave us reminders that we depend upon him clear as day.
Response:
Lord I am thankful that you are a speaking God who not only created us but you revealed yourself to us even here as early as Adam and Eve. You created from a benevolent love that desired to share yourself O God and not from need of anything whatsoever. You did not hide yourself and create them in a void but you knew them and you spoke to them and you gave them charge and authority. You did not make us autonomous but reliant upon you as our provider and our all. You interact and you have expectations of us Lord. You blessed us and made us to be happy and fulfilled and useful and you gave us all we have. I know that this creation you made was done with a view ahead to the New Jerusalem and the glorified bodies that we would have and that you knew the fall was coming before you even made us. You had in mind the slaughtering of your Son in order to show us the riches of your glory in the power of your grace (Eph. 2:7, Rom 9:23). You made us with a capacity to chose against you Lord so that we would know all of you and that we would understand and that we would be image bearers with a freedom that would serve your glory (Rom 8:21).
Reaction:
Let me be certain never to put you into a "cosmic power" role within my head but clearly here you are a personal God who gives and who expects. Let me feel and value this truth that you create in your image and you share your identity with us and you do not leave us like beasts but you grant us understanding and responsibility. Let me not trivialize the fact that you chose to reveal the full spectrum of your glory in wrath and love and everything between O God. Let me always be awed by the fact that you slowed and pondered the implications of making mankind and it was your good pleasure to do so even with the cross of Christ in full view (John 10:17-18, Acts 2:23, 4:27-28).
Matthew 1
Ready:
Matthew was written by the former tax-collector who followed Jesus and became one of the 12 disciples. After reading an introduction I see the it was written between the 50s-60s A.D. The theme is- the story of Jesus, the long-anticipated Messiah who ushers in the Kingdom of God with promise of peace and deliverance for both Jew and Gentile. The gospels read as a narrative biography.
Reading thoughts:
Initially Lord I see a few things here in chapter 1. I see a genealogy that should have a message for me. I see an announcement of a virgin birth and Joseph accepting his role and keeping his betrothed. I see that their child is to be the Messiah and God himself. This seems to be the bedrock of the whole account of Jesus and it establishes his divine and human identity, his authority, and his purpose on earth.
Rumination thoughts:
Interesting Lord that in verse 5 you reveal that there are two gentile women called out as carrying the lineage of the Jewish King forward in Rahab and Ruth. These are the only women mentioned in the lineage. Mary is mentioned at the end but only by marriage so this is clearly the lineage of Joseph.
I think the genealogy serves to let me understand that Jesus fulfills the prophecy of the Messiah and he comes to rule on the throne as the God-man, the true King of the Jews. The genealogy can be confusing when I compare it to Luke’s version but I learn of this divine/human reign in comparing the lineage to Jesus from the perspective of Joseph (representative of his kingship as God since Joseph was only his father in a legal sense) with the genealogy in Luke, where you express his kingship as a human in the lineage of Mary.
Response:
Lord thank you that indeed you are the God-man who came to take upon yourself the role of prophet, priest, and King. Here in this chapter I see the prophet role in that he is referred to as “God with us” or Immanuel and this tells me that Jesus is going to reveal to us who God is. God is coming and making himself “with us”. I see the priestly role where the angel tells Joseph that this child will save his people from their sins. Joseph would have understood the high priest to accomplish this for him in the ceremonial atonement process each year. I see the Kingly role in the genealogy being tied clearly to King David. The reference to the patriarchs Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob also makes it clear that this Kingship precedes the authority of the first King of Israel as well as King David. The first verse ties Jesus to Abraham and David. Abraham was the recipient of a promise and David the recipient of a throne in partial fulfillment of the promise to Abraham. Jesus has come and established a promised Kingdom that was declared and announced by his cousin John the Baptist!
Reaction:
Help me Lord as I read Matthew in the coming days to see the beauty of my King in the pages of this Gospel!
Soli Deo Gloria!
