Tuesday December 20, 2011

Read Genesis 3

 

To really understand the Christmas story you need to understand the world in which we live from a Biblical perspective. Biblically speaking, God created the world in six days (Genesis 1) and put mankind in a special Garden to work it and keep it (Genesis 2). God declared that the world which He made was very good. He’d been calling it all ‘good’ throughout the ficedays  but when mankind was created, God sat back and declared that it was all ‘very good’ (Genesis 1:31).

 

In this “very good” world we notice that there is no death or dying. There is no killing or murder or helpless seals being attacked by hungry sharks. There is no disease nor anything bad or negative at all. It was, as God said, ‘very good’.

 

Yet when the angel in heaven, called Lucifer, rebelled in heaven against God he was hurled to earth and waged war against all mankind because mankind was the pinnacle of God’s creation. He came into the garden and tempted Eve and Adam to disobey God. He wanted them to die through their disobedience, because God had sworn to them that as soon as they ate from a particular tree, they would be subject to death.

 

As you know they ate the fruit of the forbidden tree and were kicked out of the Garden. The world they entered was our world - a world of mayhem, deceit, disease and sickness and death and dying. It was a world where a brother is killed because his offering is more acceptable. It’s a world where people are laughed at and mocked for worshipping the one true living God. It’s a world where payback is multiplied seven fold from the original offense. It short, the world we are so accustomed to is the result of disobedience to God.

 

But here’s where being special kicks in. God didn’t abandon the world. He didn’t abandon you. He could have spat the dummy and started all over again with another world. But He didn’t.

 

In Genesis 3:15 God made a promise:

And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel."

 

God promised to send a child (an offspring of a woman) who would crush the serpent’s head, even though He’d be bruised, so to speak.

 

Though the whole Bible is leading up to that one child and forms the backdrop to that child, the Christmas narrative is the start of that promise being fulfilled.

 

Since the creation of the world, God has not forgotten His promise and He hasn’t abandoned His creation. That should make us feel special.

How often do you praise and adore God for that?

 

Prayer:

Pray for Jews and Arabs in Israel

¨ Messianic Jews and Arab Christians in Israel live in a very tense environment. To live in the midst of constant conflict is very difficult, and whether Jewish or Arab, those who put their faith in Christ face hatred and rejection from their own people.

¨ In Gaza, pressure from the government continues to force Christians to leave, and on the West Bank, church leaders face threats for sharing the gospel with Muslims.

¨ Messianic Jews are shunned by their neighbourhoods, being subject to intimidation, protests and being labelled as traitors.