The version that I have switched to is a NASB United Edition Bible.  I was very reluctant to get a bible that did not come from King James, or closely related to it, but NASB is a great translation, and I do not feel in my heart, that the words translated are wrong, or fall short of what God’s word is.  It is simply God’s word to the point…if that makes  sense.

So, the last time I have left off, was in Genesis and during the time since I last left off, many sermons were heard about Noah, and the fall of man.

Genesis 6:1-9
After reading these verses, my heart grew very heavy because I was saddened.  In an effort to get to know the God I serve and love, I  found out just how sad He was that He had created us, and how vulnerable to evil we are.  In the study bible, John Macarthur points out that mankind was given one hundred and twenty years until the Flood to which man “was given opportunity to respond to the warning that God’s Spirit would not always be patient.”
Now, I could assume, after reading this, that many people could argue, that this shows that God is not who He says He is..See? Even HE gets impatient!
But we really have to look at God’s motive for His patience running thin. BECAUSE HE is God, BECAUSE HE is so HOLY, good cannot contend with evil forever, which shows why God could not stand the evil mankind had embraced, rather than embracing goodness, and Holiness. In this, I believe the world will be destroyed and evil will be gone forever, along with Satan in the pit of fire because God believes in living in eternal joy, and goodness, rather than everlasting pain, suffering, and evil. God’s patience with evil cannot last because ultimately, in this passage, God says, GOOD WINS.
And so, I feel that this part is also a precursor for what is about to come in the future for us.
But more on that later.
I want to continue with the other verses.

The Father “grieved” in His heart…
Have you ever “grieved” in your heart?
The definition for “grieved” is as follows from the Merriam-Webster Dictionary Online:
1 : to cause to suffer : distress
2 : to feel or show grief over
3 : to submit a formal grievance concerning

Don’t forget that we have been created in God’s image, and we should know what grieving feels like: losing a loved one, separating from a loved one, grieving over a mistake we have made, grieving over suffering. In all of these, it is difficult to hide when you are grieving…I am sure that God was expressing and showing His grief to those around Him…But can you imagine, as painful as grieving is to us, what it must feel like, for a God, Holy, without blemish to “grieve” for mankind? To “grieve” because he made mankind?
Our God did not just forget about His responsibility to us by just tossing us aside, or forgetting about us, He made it His personal business, to be with us, even if it meant, grieving for us, suffering because of us..

And so God, in His mighty plan for us, decides to “blot out man” (Gen. 6:7)
I feel that this may be God’s plan to begin anew, to destroy that which was not good, and bring about a new righteous line, which begins with Noah, who “walked with God” (Gen. 6:9)

I started this devotional because I was inspired by Pastor Chuck Smith, pastor of Calvary Chapel Costa Mesa, California.  This devotional is to encourage myself to continue reading God’s word and grow as much as I can.  After coming this far, although I have not been doing this everyday, I have had a new experience in my faith with my Lord.  There is a new intimacy, and God continues to encourage me when I am not reading the bible.  He encourages me through radio stations, such as when I listen to sermons, such as KWAVE, (107.9) I happen to be listening to a sermon about Genesis, giving me more information, and thoughts into God’s word.

It is especially encouraging because at times, I can understand what the Pastor’s are speaking about, and what God wants to tell me.  I encourage everyone to begin a blog when doing devotionals not so that others can read what you are thinking and saying, but because it will help you to really think about what you have just read.  This thought process, asking the questions, and pondering on God’s word has broadened my view on God, and I gradually build my reverence for the Lord and His Awesomeness…

It has made me want to go to heaven and find out more about God each day…Each day I am more and more excited of the Lord’s coming because I know Him personally, intimately.  Although my time is so limited, my heart’s desire is to do this everyday.  With that, I am going to end it for tonight…I am truly exhausted, but not put out.

I hope that I will have time in the future to put up some art work…someday…if God wills I will..

This is the line of Adam God says in the bible.  In this line, God states how many years each family line lived and daughters and sons.  On Day Twelve, in Genesis 4: 23 we learned of Lamech and how he lived in the way of the world.  However, from pain and suffering, God was gracious and gave Lamech Noah in Genesis 5.  Adam lived to be 930 years (can you imagine living for this long?) As the line goes down, there is Enoch, who walked with God.  Enoch is special because in the world where there was killing, sin, and living worldly ways, Enoch chose to walk with God and at 365 years, God took Enoch.  It is a mystery, but somehow, I can understand this…I’m not sure how to explain it.  What I know for sure though, is that it was a good thing.  So then, after Lamech comes Noah and at 500 years old, he becomes the father of three sons, Shem, Ham and Japheth.

But before I end this, I have also ventured into other studies concerning this verse to gather more information about Genesis 5.  The family line ends with Cain, but begins with Seth.

It is quite a read, but if you are interested, this brings other opinions about this verse as well:

This is the book of the generations of Adam. In the day when God created man, He made him in the likeness of God. He created them male and female, and He blessed them and named them Man in the day when they were created. When Adam had lived an hundred and thirty years, he became the father of a son in his own likeness, according to his image, and named him Seth (Genesis 5:1-3).

I have puzzled over the seeming repetition of these introductory verses. Why would Moses tell us what we already know? Notice that these verses are not attached to the genealogy of chapter 4, but of that in chapter 5. Cain’s genealogy comes to a dead end. It begins with ungodly Cain, ends with wicked Lamech, and is ‘washed out’ by the flood.

Moses begins chapter 5 with the terminology of chapters 1 and 2 (e.g., ‘created,’ ‘in the likeness of God,’ ‘male and female,’ ‘blessed them’) in order to indicate to the reader that God’s purposes and program for man begun in the first chapters are to be carried out through Adam’s seed, but not through the line of Cain; rather through Seth. The whole of chapter 5 is a description of the ever-narrowing line through which Messiah will come.

The contrast spiritually between the two lines is obvious. It can easily be illustrated by the two ‘Lamechs’ of chapters 4 and 5. Lamech (the son of Methushael, 4:18) of Cain’s lineage was the initiator of polygamy (4:19). Worse than this he was a murderer who boasted of his crime (4:23) and made light of God’s words to Cain (4:24).

The Lamech of chapter 5 (the son of Methuselah and the father of Noah) was a godly man. The naming of his son revealed his understanding of the fall of man and the curse of God upon the ground (cf. 5:29). It also indicated his faith that God would deliver man from the curse through the seed of Eve. I believe Lamech understood that this deliverance would specifically come through the son God had given him.

In the account of Cain’s descendants no numbers were employed, while the line of Seth has a definite numerical pattern. Figures in chapter 5 typically supplied: (1) the age of the individual at the birth of the son named; (2) the years lived after the birth of the son;⁸⁰ and (3) the age of the man at his death. Essentially the life of the person falls into two parts, B.C., and A.D.: Before the child and after the delivery of the child. This division is not without significance.

The length of the lives of the men in chapter 5 is unusually long, but every effort to explain this fact in some way other than taking the numbers literally has proven futile. Conditions were undoubtedly different prior to the flood.

Moses surely intended the length of the lives of these men to impress us. This is undoubtedly one of the reasons why they were so prominently included. The long length of life would facilitate the population of the earth. My wife and I have had six children in our 17 years of marriage. Imagine what could be done in 900 years?

Furthermore Moses would reveal by this that man was originally intended to live many years, even after the fall. Surely the promise of a millennial kingdom in which men would live to a ripe old age (cf. Isaiah 65:20) is buttressed by this chapter. Length of life was nothing new, but simply something regained.

The main contrast between the lines of Cain and Seth is that of the emphasis of each. Cain’s line is credited with what might be called ‘worldly progress’ and achievements. Cain built the first city (4:17). From his descendants came the technological and cultural contributions. Metal workers, ranchers, and musicians were of this line.

Now what is it that is emphasized about the line of Seth? No mention is made of any great contributions or achievements. Two things marked out the men of chapter 5. First of all, they were men of faith (cf. Enoch, 5:18, 21-24; Lamech, 5:28-31). These men looked back and grasped the fact that sin was the root of their troubles and travail. They looked forward to a redemption that God was to provide through their offspring.

That brings us to the second contribution of these men of chapter 5—they produced godly seed through whom the purposes and program of God would continue. Now we are not told that every child of theirs was godly. But we do know that these were godly men and that through them and their children a line was continued which culminated in Noah. While the rest of mankind would be destroyed in the flood, through Noah, the human race (and more than this, the seed of Eve) would be preserved. The hope of men rested in the preservation of a godly seed.

bible.org

I am more open to the struggles because I am also going through the same thing…It is very early in the morning, and I could not sleep…so God led me to who God really is and what He thinks of me…I was immediately led to Greg Laurie’s notes…After a tumultuous experience two nights ago, my life has been shaken and in so many ways, so has my faith…I want to believe that I have grown in my faith and matured, however, God always reminds me that I still have a long way to go…With these notes (which I had to sign up for, email alerts) God tells me His truth for me and what He is thinking right now in my circumstance, however difficult and hard they may be…

So without further ado, here are Greg Laurie’s notes about how much God really cares about us..I hope you will be blessed by God’s message as I have been..

The God Who Cares

The last Chapter, or verse I left off on was Genesis 4:13-18.  Many times throughout the week, I was sort of obsessed with this story because I kept thinking, that I should not be like Cain and do what is wrong, but try to be like Abel and do what is right…but I also forget that it caused Cain to be jealous and angry, which killed Ablel.  But the look still loved Cain and protected him.

The next reading begins in Genesis 4:19-26. It’s a short reading, but I consider it still something read.  In these verses, this shows me that the Lord has assigned each family to have special and different skills.  Not one person was born with the same set of skills.  It’s really great to read this verse because it just verifies what Jesus and God teaches in the bible; no one is the same and everyone is given a different gift and skills and we must use them for the glory of God.  However, Lamech married two women.  It does not really talk much about this, but Lamech does end up murdering a man for “wounding him.” Could it have been an affair with one of his wives?

Another interesting thing is Zillah, one of the women that Lamech married, had a son and she named him Tubal-Cain taking on Cain’s name.  Why would someone take Cain’s name and use it in their child’s name? I noticed that murdering and killing was one of the first deeds of sin mentioned in the bible after the fall of Adam and Eve…

Moving on, God gives and Adam and Eve another son, and Eve names him Seth which may mean, “granted.” Seth also has a son and he names him Enosh. At this point, verse 26, I feel is crucial.  It says, “At that time men began to call on the name of the Lord.”

After all those murders and killing, I’m pretty sure they were wondering what went wrong and why so many people had to die, it’s clear they needed the Lord because they were living in the way of the world.

*I found this bible verse while looking up the verse from a small church. It sounds very bible beltish, but the Pastor brings up good points about this verse.

parkview church

Although this process of reading the bible is to get closer to Him, at the same time, on day eleven,

I feel a disconnect.  And I’m not sure why…

But what I do know is that..even when I am not thankful to God, He still provides for me.

When I don’t pay attention to Him, or speak of Him, or proclaim Him to others,

He still looks out for me, loves, and cares for me.

So…as sad as it is, that I do not often return that affection, and attention to God,

He never stops loving me…

Today’s verses are:

Genesis 4: 13-18

I feel like writing these verses out this time, rather than creating a link to it.

13. Cain said to the Lord, “My punishment is more than I can bear.

14. Today you are driving me from the land, and I will be hidden from the earth, and whoever finds me will kill me.”

15. But the Lord said to him, “Not so; if anyone kills Cain, he will suffer vengeance seven times over.” Then the Lord put a mark on Cain so that no one who found him would kill him.

16. So Cain went out from the Lord’s presence and lived in the land of Nod, east of Eden.

17. Cain lay with his wife, and she became pregnant and gave birth to Enoch.  Cain was then building a city, and he named it after his son Enoch.

18. To Enoch was born Irad, and Irad was the father of Mehujael, and Mehujael was the father of Methushael, and Methushael was the father of Lamech.

Whole family line here…these people had to have some importance because they are in the bible…

So Cain, by the Lord was granted protection…The Lord did not want anyone to kill Cain..

and so anyone who killed Cain would be avenged seven times over. So then Cain went out from the Lord’s presence, (I wonder how that would have felt…or would feel..to leave God’s presence? Is it how darkness feels when you feel disconnected from God? Is it how you feel when you pray and you don’t feel anything, or feel God?)

So then Cain moved to Nod where he built a city, and named it after his son, Enoch. And the family tree grew…

From Enoch to Lamech.

Solitude.

Genesis 4:8-12

This is where procreation begins. A child is brought into the world through the Father, not through our strength, but the Lords. I feel like Eve has matured a lot since the beginning when we first see her eating of the fruit. She immediately gives credit to the Lord for “bringing forth” Cain, their firstborn son.
So as an offering to the Lord, Cain and Abel must have been taught by Adam and Eve how to sacrifice to the Lord.
During some time it says in the bible, Cain would bring SOME of the fruits as an offering to the Lord.
STOP. Some of the fruits? How do you give fruits as an offering to the Lord? (the bible doesn’t go into detail about Cain’s offering at all) it’s only a couple of them. This automatically tells me that Cain hardly tried to please the Lord and in his heart, he did not put God first.
On the flip side, Abel, his offering is described with much detail, and when I read this verse, I can tell, in Abel’s heart, he was truly seeking the Lord’s favor by having reverence for our Lord. Abel brings forth fat portions not from old animals of the flock, but he brings the firstborn of his flock. Fat portions? When I cut chicken or meat and I see fat on it, cutting fat off of the meat is difficult to do. Also, the fat is right under the skin, and I think back then, fat was highly considered a thing to burn oil with, to keep the fire burning…
So the Lord liked Abel, while Cain’s face was “downcast.” This story reminds me of school. There are many students who try to please the teacher to get good grades, but some only bring some “fruits” to the class, while others, in their hearts, bring the best to the teachers and their classmates through hard work and love, and the teacher of course, favors them. Same way I believe.
So the Lord, who sees everything, see’s that Cain’s face is downcast, and the Lord asks Cain, “why are your angry?” I feel like here, the Lord wants Cain to realize that he is downcast and it is here that God gives him a chance to repent, turn around, reflect, and do the right thing. It’s an opportunity to redeem himself. Then the Father, so lovingly, tells Cain, gives him advice, gives him what he needs to know, rather than punishing Cain, so that Cain too, can be loved by the Father, says, “If you do what is right, will you not be accepted? But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must MASTER IT.”
Obi Won Konobi. This is where I see it! You must MASTER IT. Cain is Darth Vader. Anyway, sorry. This is another one of my quirks. But really, is it not similar?
Here is where I question Cain’s motive and heart. Adam and Eve had to have told their children about why they do not live in the Garden Eden, and what it used to be like when they did. Eve had to have told her children, how she ate of the forbidden fruit and because of her sin, because she could not “master” it, the result was consequence, pain, and suffering.
The Lord gave Cain a chance to repent, to turn around! How wonderful of the Lord to give advice, to be there, knocking on Cain’s heart before he sins. (Of course the Lord knew where Cain was going to go with this, and tried to stop it! But ultimately, it is free will that determines our fate)
And so Cain’s heart could have changed here, he had an opportunity to do the right thing, but as we will see in the next verses, he hardened his heart instead…

In the following we see that God has found out about Adam and the woman’s sin and punishes them (us) accordingly.

In verse 8, we see that God was walking. He was walking in the garden.  I always envisioned God to be something that could not be grasped

visually, a light so bright that you could not see God, with no face because He was all light, but here, Adam and the woman have seen God walking.

In verse 7, both of their eyes were opened and it was here they realized they were naked, so they sewed fig leaves together and covered themselves.  It could have not been a good job they both did because God ended up making them new clothes that would be more stable and long lasting.  Perhaps their craftsmanship was lacking, and it was God who taught mankind how to make clothes.

Continuing, the Lord God CALLS the man in verse 9.  He calls Adam, not Eve, but Adam first, the first man our Father created, he asks, “where are you?”

Did our Father create man because He was lonely?

Then Adam finally answers and God, who knows all things, asks Adam who he knew that he was naked and who was to blame?

The next verse is quite funny. But only because it is the truth.  This chapter reveals to me, how a man and woman were created, and that even in Adam’s time, a man and woman have not changed who they are.  The first thing Adam says is this,”The woman you put here with me-she gave me some fruit from the tree and I ate it.” The blame game always goes to the wife doesn’t it? My husband, is like Adam in this situation.  I am pretty sure there are a lot of married couples who experience this.  But here is where I learned that I as a woman, must be careful, what I put in my husband’s mouth.

Not just food, but the food of the spirit, the food of gentleness, the food of love, these are the morsels I should be putting my husband’s mouth, not bitterness, not anger, and definitely NOT SOMETHING THAT COULD HARM my husband.  Yes, Adam was quick to blame his wife, so does this answer my question that Adam did not eat the fruit because he loved her? But because he was curious, and couldn’t resist the temptation? Is God showing us, that since the day He created us, we were born for sin? So that He could share with us, who HE IS, His Character, through His love story for us, sending us His Son?

So the Lord God hears Adam saying this, maybe thinking, “ok Adam, way to go. Way to protect your wife.” Ok. That was my rendition. Sorry. But the woman says, and she does not say something back to win the blame game, by saying, “oh, because Adam didn’t do this, or Adam didn’t do that, or it was Adam’s fault,” in this case, she simply states the truth, BUT STILL BLAMES something, even if it wasn’t Adam, and does not admit that she did something wrong.  Here, we have two chances for at least one of us to be redeemed possibly.  Why did both of them refuse to say sorry? That they were truly wrong in what they did.  Did it not break their heart that they have disobeyed God? Where is this disconnect in their relationship with God coming from?

Pain in childbirth is greatly increased, and a wife’s desire will be for her husband, and her husband will rule over her.

To Adam, the ground is cursed, because he listened to his wife and ate from the tree, in which the Lord says to Adam, ‘You must not eat of it’ and the man must work through painful toil to have food on his plate.  Husbands should not listen to their wives.  Husbands should listen to God and follow after His heart with all their heart.  God must come first in the marriage for the Husband, because the relationship between himself and God will first protect the marriage, and there will be blessing all the days of his and her life.  For the sake of the wife and the husband, no matter how persuasive the wife is, the husband must not be swayed and hear God’s heart in the matter.  How important it is for a man to cling to the Lord in all matters of his life.

And so Eve becomes the name of the woman who would become the “mother of all living.”

The Lord God makes them garments of skin (skin? animal skin perhaps. There was a sacrifice?) and clothed them.  What love the Lord God has for us!

She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it.

Here, we do not see that Adam saw what she did and was angry, instead, he partook of the fruit as well.  The woman GAVE some to her husband, WHO WAS WITH HER, and he ate it?

So in the beginning, they were married.  This right here, I don’t mean to over analyze, but really. If the husband was with her, why did he not stop her? When was he with her? During the time the serpent was speaking to the woman? I believe Adam was not there when the serpent was there.

Verse six begins with “WHEN the woman saw” This could mean that after the serpent had spoken to her, and “when ” she saw the tree, that was when she was hooked.  So I’m not sure why the husband partook of sin with the woman.  I have heard one person say, it was because Adam loved Eve and to see her fall, and lose her to that, he would not be able to live.  In that case, it would be a love story.  But not with our Father.  With each other maybe, but not a love story with our Father…

But because of the first sin, the first disobeying of a command the Father gave, His love story for all mankind begins here.  This is where God’s character and His love for us will truly be seen and discovered is because of Adam and the woman.  Without their sin, the bible would not be here, in full context about the people who overcame, and conquered, fell and was brought up high by my Father, sinned and was forgiven by my Father, crucified shamefully, so that we may spend eternity with God, all of these stories, all of these events would have never happened.  Or would it have?

I must end it here. It looks like I am still on six. I will get to verse seven tomorrow or possibly tonight if I have time.