Gen. 1-2

  • light before life. Similar in spiritual: light precedes life. We have revelation of gospel [light] Ephesians 1:13 before we exhibit fruit of the spirit (Gal 5) [life]
  • Infrastructure before life to fill it: sea THEN fish, sky THEN birds, land THEN animals. I’m challenged to think more on infrastructure before proceeding to the activity/life. For instance, church structure might be more important than I realize.
  • God made according to His image. “He” and “our” are used to describe the image of God. Shows plurality within singularity: I believe it reveals early glimpse of Trinity

Gen. 3

  • I’m struck with how devastating and multi-faceted are the effects of sin: labor pains, thorns, animal death, etc. all come from Adam and Eve disobeying God’s command not to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
  • I’m also struck with the power of the gospel: Adam and Eve on no merit of their own are covered in the life of another (presumably slain) which is far more lasting than all their works could do to atone (which means cover) themselves with fig leaves: maybe they last a while but will eventually whither and show themselves a poor covering

Gen. 4-5

  • I never caught before this time how much Abel and Cain’s sacrifice mirror the coverings Adam and Eve had: the accepted covering and sacrifice demanded life (and death) of another; the unacceptable covering/sacrifice came from the (cursed) earth. It’s a bit of a picture perhaps of the futility of man’s labor in pleasing God (Adam himself was made of the dust of the earth) versus Jesus’ sacrifice being the only ultimate way to please God.
  • “At that time people began to call on the name of the Lord.” Gen 4:26. Another new thought for me was that although it’s a good thing to call on God, this verse may also highlight a sad reality that God was not in immediate connection with them anymore. He had to be called on and sought because sin had separated man from God the way both were connected in the garden and even in Gen 4 with God closely relating with Cain before this.
  • Lastly, I’m struck by God’s amazing grace. Here Cain did a heinous thing in disobeying. Yet God spared him without any merit of Cain’s.

Gen. 6-8

  • 8:21 – again we see a contrast between earth’s curse (which God condemns) and sacrifice of another’s life which pleases Him

Gen. 9

  • I’m completely awestruck by the very lasting consequences of simple things we do in front of small audiences. In particular, you have the incident of Ham not covering his father’s nakedness when he was drunk. In one sense, it’d seem like a pretty small matter. But it relates to Israel conquering the land of Canaan, which has huge implications for generations to come. In this case, Noah’s son Ham did something shameful, which made it so Ham’s son (Canaan) would bow to the Israelites (Shem’s sons). Really turns on its head the thought of, “What’s the big deal if I do something that only my family knows about?” Good or bad, faithfulness with “smaller” things (here, our family) can have huge implications for others.

Gen. 10

  • Similar to the observation in Gen. 9, here you see families that would become nations. For instance, “The sons of Ham: Cush, Egypt, Put and Canaan,” (Gen. 10:6). Here we see nations such as Egypt and Canaan represented, but now they are just individuals in a family line. Their life will impact nations, quite literally. How much might this still be true today with all of us, we just don’t see the ripple effects so clearly?