Genesis 4; Matthew 4
Genesis 4
Ready:
I recall the story of the fall Lord and Adam’s failure and how it was such a dramatic shift in the story of creation and blessing. The serpent came and did his damage and now on to the next generation.
Reading Thoughts:
So here is the story of Cain and Abel and the 2nd chapter of man’s fall. I see Lord that Adam taught his boys to fear you and to make offerings to you in thankfulness and this aligns with his repentance in naming Eve in the last chapter. There seems to be something different about the two sons and only one receives your approval. Let me learn from this picture Lord. Cain kills his brother in envy and bitterness and he receives punishment at you hand Lord but not very severe in the sense that he lived and bore children. You had not yet given any explicit law regarding murder but clearly it was already wrong and sinful. Cain has a great great great grandson named Lamech and he seems arrogant and cruel and he is a murderer like Cain, not to mention a polygamist. I also see a third son coming and Moses writes about this son and how people began to call upon the Lord again in those days.
The theme is- That God wants our hearts and devotion and we must choose against the sinful reactions that will well up within us in opposition to God’s authority. We are to trust in God always and do what is right in his eyes.
Rumination Thoughts:
v3-5. Here is the account of the offering made to God by both brothers. For some reason Cain’s offering does not please the Lord and Abel’s does. This probably has to do with the heart of each man and the resulting offering. Verse 4 says that Abel brought the firstborn of the flock and their fat portions. I take this to mean he did not hold back and bring the runt or something he was flippant about handing over to God. Cain’s offering is not indicated by Moses to have been of the “first fruits” but simply an offering of the fruit of the ground. Later in Deuteronomy 26 the Lord gives instruction on giving offering from the first of the fruit of the ground and it includes much thanks and praise and worship of God. From the attitude in verse 5 where Cain becomes very angry it is clear that he was probably not worshiping God with this offering and giving thanks. I think the state of the heart as the critical thing here though the offering itself should also match the thankful heart. This is probably a picture of vain worship as Jesus speaks of in Matthew 15:8-9 where he says “This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me; in vain do they worship me.” Hebrews 11:4 says that Abel, though he died, still speaks through his faith.
v6-7. Here Cain and God have some dialogue regarding his reaction to God not delighting in his offering. God explains to Cain that sin is ready to pounce on him like a lion if he opens to door to let it in. God uses the same phrase here as he did when he told Adam and Eve that her “desire shall be for your husband”. Here sin’s “desire is for you” he says to Cain. This refers to being against or challenging him. In the same way as God says that Adam will “rule over” Eve here God tells Cain to “rule over” sin. In the case of Eve Adam is (due to the curse) wrongfully ruling harshly over Eve in response to her sin of challenging his leadership. In the case of Cain’s sinful desires we see that he is supposed to remain in control and not give in to the temptation to hand over his reaction to sin. Cain is to rule his own emotion and responses as Adam is to stand up and lead even when leading is not easy and it means putting down personal desires or instinctively sinful reactions. Man now has a corrupt heart but God makes it clear that he is yet responsible to control it. Psalm 4:2-5 seems to be a direct teaching of how Cain should have handled this scenario.
v8-16. Here Cain kills his brother seemingly out of envy and bitterness. Then God punishes him by sending him further away and making life even harder on him. God takes away the thing Cain seemed to love more than God- growing fruit trees. God actually declares that he will protect the life of Cain from others by threatening to take vengeance sevenfold for whomever would kill him. This is the first mention of God’s vengeance on behalf of another in the Bible. It closes with Cain going away from the presence of the Lord. This verse is interesting because it indicates that Adam and his family were still enjoying some type of presence with the Lord in spite of their expulsion from Eden. v17-24. Cain has children and after five generations Lamech takes two wives and then becomes an arrogant murderer. He even writes a song about his conquest of polygamy and murderous revenge! In his song he refers to the story that must have been passed down from Cain about God’s promise to take vengeance sevenfold on anyone who would kill Cain. Lamech, however, does not leave vengeance to the Lord and he even kicks it up to seventy-seven fold in his arrogance and anger. This picture of revenge and Godless abandon that led to the idea of multiplying the threat to the one who was owed vengeance comes up again from the opposite angle in the gospels. Jesus is questioned how many times one should forgive an offending brother and the suggestion to Jesus is seven times. Jesus, likely with Lamech in mind, responds with a need to forgive seventy-seven times. I think his point was that asking at what point to stop forgiving is like asking how much to multiply vengeance. Jesus was rebuking them for thinking that not forgiving is even an option…ever. Because vengeance belongs to the Lord…not to Lamech and not to me.
v25-26. Here is the beginning of the blood line of redemption. Seth is born to Adam and Eve and Seth’s line will eventually lead to Jesus! Seth is the route from the first Adam to the second Adam. Remember that Adam named his wife Eve for "mother of all the living”. Note that 1 Tim 2:14-15 says that though Eve was deceived and became a transgressor, she will be saved through child bearing- if they continue in faith and love and holiness, with self control. Interesting that Adam did not strike down Cain and that they did not give up on having children based on this tragic experience. No…they had faith and love and holiness…they had self control and she gave birth to Seth! Through whom would come the salvation not only of Adam and Eve but for all who would ever trust in his distant descendant Jesus! Keep in mind, however, that the human bloodline to Jesus only comes through Mary since Joseph was not the physical father of Jesus (the Holy Spirit begot Jesus in the womb of Mary). This is important because Jesus was born without being under the curse and without the corrupt nature that Adam passed to all his offspring. Corruption of original sin and the curse of God from the last chapter is therefore passed down to a child in the man’s seed and not by the mother.
Response:
Thank you Lord for this message of faith and devotion and thanksgiving and the lesson from Abel that we are to come to you with our best and that lesson from Adam and Eve to keep hope in God and to trust you in the worst of times. Thank you for the lesson from Cain and Lamech that I have a sinful nature that wants to come forth and that wants revenge and that has an inclination to self rather than for God and others.
Reaction:
Let me, like Adam and Eve, continue in faith and love and holiness, with self control even in the hard times. Please give me a thankful heart that does not hold back my best and that does not get bitter if I don’t get something I expect and let me not be envious of what others accomplish or the blessing that you pour on them. Let me be thankful aways and constantly aware of my sin nature that desires to rule over me.
Matthew 4
Ready:
Yesterday was the scene at the Jordan where Jesus was baptized and this indicated the beginning of his ministry and his expressed acceptance of the mission before him. We know that Jesus, Son of God, had accepted the mission as revealed by the incarnation but here we see that the begotten Son in the flesh, his human nature now united with his divine nature is also is submission to the will of the Father. Jesus, though having two natures (very foreign to our experience), is one person and he is united in his purpose and his devotion. Looking again to the outline in the introduction of the book in the study bible I am reminded that this chapter falls under a heading "Jesus the Messiah Begins to Advance the Messianic Kingdom”.
Reading Thoughts:
The scene here shifts dramatically from the water of the Jordan to the dry desert where Jesus immediately is led into suffering by the Holy Spirit. Sometimes you lead us here too O Lord. The first act of ministry for Jesus is to suffer willfully in fasting and in temptation by his enemy, the devil. Satan came along, by the will of God, as indicated by Matthew’s narrative, and Jesus faces three temptations of the devil. He resists and puts the devil in his place by quoting scripture and relying on the truth of God’s Word. Here Jesus is prepared for what lies before him in the coming three years. Then a big shift again and Jesus is now back in town and he is impacted in some way by the arrest of John the Baptist. He begins to preach the same message John had. Jesus then calls disciples and starts to minister in synagogues and to crowds of people proclaiming the good news of the Kingdom of God and healing the sick and lame.
The theme in the chapter is this- Jesus stands resolute as he begins his ministry with suffering and then moves into proclamation of the truth and evidencing his power and authority to change lives and to bring wholeness to a broken people.
Rumination Thoughts:
v1-11. In Genesis I saw that Adam and Eve handed the keys to earth over to the devil and it is now fitting that Jesus walks straight into the devil’s playground and says "give me your best!” There is a proclamation to the enemy here that the Kingdom of God has come down to earth and will not be ruled like mankind is ruled through the devil’s lies. Jesus makes plain to the enemy his devotion and his resolve. Like Israel's 40 years of wandering in the desert being purified and tested by God so Jesus enters the desert with 40 days of fasting and dependence upon God. There are amazing parallels here with Deuteronomy 8:2-3 and the remainder of the chapter really (check it out). Satan tries in three ways to thwart the plan of the cross in this scenario. This serpent, “the craftiest of the beasts of the field”, knows Jesus from long ago when Jesus created him but Jesus is now in human flesh and Satan knows a thing or two about human nature. Satan attacks this human nature in the same manner in which he tempts us. All of the temptations are about bringing Jesus to rely and trust in himself and therefore to disobey the Father and abandon the purpose of his coming.
He first challenges Jesus’ identity and power to perhaps entice Jesus by his obvious state of hunger to perform a miracle to convince himself of his identity. This would have been doubting what God had plainly announced at the Jordan and it would have been breaking the fast that apparently was not over yet. It is similar to what Satan said in the garden “Did God really say that? Is that really true?” Compare with "Did God really announce that you are his Son? Why has he left you hungry in this desert? You gave manna to the Jews while they were in the desert and you gave them water from a rock too. Why not do that now also? Just eat!” In this Satan tempts Jesus to rely on his deity to end his suffering but you see, Jesus came to suffer and die…and he knows it. Jesus responds with a quote from Deuteronomy 8:3 and declares that his hunger is meant to focus him to rely on God, not food. He also indicates that he trusts the Words of God for life and he need not doubt what God has plainly stated. Better to be sustained by God in obedience to his Word than to find supposed comfort and relief through disobedience.
The second temptation was that Jesus would display himself to the Jews dramatically as arriving at the temple to rule and deliver them as Messiah. This was not the plan that Jesus had come to subject himself to, and this would have been testing God to see if he would protect and support Jesus even in the breaking of his will. Jesus rejects this and essentially says “nope- it is wrong to test God and it is right to obey him.” Jesus quotes Deuteronomy 6:16 which was God telling his people not to test him again like they did in the desert when they demanded that Moses produce water in order to prove that God was still providing for them because they doubted this fact in light of their circumstances.
The final temptation was to hand over the rule of the nations that Satan was given by Adam and Eve. Of course Jesus bowing to Satan would not have accomplished this (the lie) but it would have extended Satan’s rule into the Kingdom of God (theoretically). Of greatest importance, this would have been a perceived shortcut to gain the inheritance that God has promised to the Son with no need to suffer on the cross for the sins of his people. Not distracted by the lie of an easy way out and not fooled by the deception of what the result would be, Jesus plainly rests on the simple fact that God has declared that we are not to worship any but him alone. In all cases here Jesus turns to the revealed will of God in his Word rather than to any secret knowledge or general principle observed in nature. Jesus does not rationalize based on the guy next to him or based on what will be most acceptable to others. He does not rely on man’s definition whatsoever and he turns each time to the Word of his heavenly Father. Jesus knows where truth comes from and he knows what is real and what is a shadow. He has come to reveal this very thing to us! “Be gone, Satan!” Jesus proclaims…and the enemy in all his fierceness obeys the command of the creator. I presume this was an omnipotent command that effected his immediate removal rather than a mere request by the Son of God. Jesus not only declares to the enemy and to us that he is resolute in his purpose and in his devotion to God but that he wields not a power of deception and coercion but an omnipotent rule of all things whereby his command is in the moment necessarily obeyed by whomever or whatever receives it. Wind, water, beasts, demons, dice, dead fish, live fish, and even human hearts. There is no distinction…all things hear his voice and obey when he gives such command. This is a power that the enemy fears and knows not.
v12-25. Briefly over the remainder of the chapter Jesus seems to honor John and to show the unity in their purpose by declaring the same message. “Repent, for the Kingdom of heaven is at hand.” Jesus calls his first disciples and they respond with what appears to be a surrender of their profession and a leaving of their family and they are given a mission to become fishers of men. There is more to this story that will be revealed by another gospel later. Matthew says in verse 23 that Jesus went about to the synagogues and among the people proclaiming the good news of the Kingdom and healing every disease and affliction. Thinking on the whole picture of redemptive history and placing these events along the timeline it seems that the healing of the people is a clear message. It has been said that the miracles were to establish his deity and the truth of his message. Jesus himself clearly alluded to the fact that he healed to prove his power and authority that extended to forgiving sins. This clue helps with the big problem he came to take care of. He came to save us from our sins just like the angel told Joseph in the dream that convinced him to stick with Mary. I take the healings as supporting that goal and end of saving us from our sins… and not primarily about taking away suffering or hardship or anything like that. I think he was showing mankind that he indeed has the power to heal us inside and out. He has the power to make us holy and whole. He has all authority in our lives and he can do anything he claims to be able to do.
Response:
Thank you God for the work your Son came to do and for letting us see into the history of this earthly life of our King. May you cause me to respond to temptation with the same resolve and dependence upon you and with the use of your Word and with a devotion to you that is unwavering O Lord. Let me not forget the authority that you hold over the enemy even in this age where he rules the world and controls culture and brings such deception and distraction. Let me trust you to have the ability to create holiness in me by my union with Christ.
Reaction:
Lord please strengthen my resolve to memorize scripture and bless my efforts in this. Give me focus of thought and let me be wise in avoiding the devil’s traps and let me not walk in the counsel of the wicked or stand in the way of sinners or sit in the seat of scoffers as you warn in Psalm 1. Give me sober thinking and let me be ever aware of the power of my King who lives in me by his Spirit.
Soli Deo Gloria!
