Tuesday November 16, 2010

Read Genesis 1-12

(actually just glance over them to make sure you understand the history  up to chapter 12).

Read Genesis 12:1-3

The world didn’t really get off to a great start did it? After God created the perfect world and gave mankind every possible blessing, even the blessing of being with Him in the Garden, our first parents decided to disobey God. The world has been spiralling downwards ever since. Evolution tells us that the world is getting better and working its way upwards by chance and natural selection.  God tells us we are spiralling downwards in sin and depravity.

As Adam and Eve come out of the Garden they have many children. Read Genesis 5:1-5 to pick up what I mean. The history of the first two sons (Cain and Able) is recorded but the rest are not, except for that brief mention in Genesis 5.  (BTW - that’s where Cain got his wife from, if anyone asks you!!).  And it’s  not a particularly bright record. Cain is jealous and kills his brother! Shortly after this, Lamech takes excessive revenge upon a man who injured him. By chapter 6 God is grieved at the sinfulness of mankind. By the end of the flood as human numbers are rising again, you would think that humanity would stay close to God and seek to obey Him.  Yet what we see is the exact opposite. As chapter 11 starts we see that mankind have decided to congregate together rather than spread out and fill the earth - as commanded to Adam and Noah! They decide to build a monument to their own great name, effectively leaving God out of the picture. They decide to stand apart from God, united together under their own great name!  God is grieved and spreads mankind over the face of the earth. He confuses their languages and makes communication all but impossible. The half-completed tower is left unattended as each new ethnic group struggles to make it on its own.

It’s in this rebellious world that the narrative of Abraham starts. The genealogy of Shem links us to Terah and then to Abram. He’s called by God to leave his family and to go to an as yet-unknown land. God makes great promises to Abram.
Let’s stop there and think in big picture images for a moment. God has called Abram after years of rebellion and sin. He’s made great promises to Abram. Why? What’s going on? What has all this to do with

Christmas? What God is effectively doing is calling Abram as a means of turning around the rebellion of humanity. What God is planning is a blessing to all the families of the earth through Abram and his descendants. What God is doing is blessing mankind amid the rejection and betrayal.

The birth of our Saviour on the first Christmas is not the start of that blessing. It’s the continuation of what began way back in Genesis. It’s the signal that God’s undeserved and totally gracious blessing is about to be poured out upon the earth. The first Christmas is God’s signal, God’s siren, telling the world that He is about to deal with mankind’s rebellion and rejection and open the way back to Eden that was closed off in Genesis 3.

Take time out today with your family to talk about the real meaning of Christmas.

Prayer:-

> Pray that this Christmas will see many people at church to hear about the salvation of Christ Jesus.

> Pray that you will have opportunities to talk of Christ’s birth with friends and relatives and neighbours.

> Pray that our brothers and sisters in Myanmar will have open doors to evangelise, to share their faith and to make disciples of nations.