Welcome to your first day of reading, friends! I am so glad each of you has found your way to this blog and this Bible study. I really believe that you are here for a reason and a purpose..I pray God speaks to us through His Word and through each other. I am still working on uploading the profile page (Engage the Journeymen) where I will post everyone’s information… so when people comment you can find them if you want.
I cannot encourage each of you enough to comment with your questions, thoughts, and insights. You never know when or how God may use you to bless or encourage someone else. I also want to encourage you to read for CONNECTION with God…I think there is sometimes a tendency to become studious to the point that we lose sight of the larger story and the intimacy of the Bible. Because we are reading good chunks everyday don’t expect to do an inductive study each day! Just let yourself off the hook, ok? I encourage you to pray before you read that God will open up the eyes of your heart and then read and soak it up. Maybe read through some of the questions, but don’t feel like you have to ‘answer’ them…instead, let them help stir you up and see what sticks out to you. Follow the leading of the Spirit as God puts His finger on certain words or thoughts and seek to find what He is speaking to you. I think the great thing about reading chronologically is that over the course of the next year, stories and prophesies will be put into context and that bigger picture will become more clear. And along the way, God will whisper lots of little things to you…think of this journey as existing on both the micro and macro level.
Okay, well let’s get started! Here are the links to the readings… NASB version.
Genesis 1, Genesis 2, Genesis 3
I love that we are reading the creation stories on the first day of the new year… as you are reading about God “bara” (in Hebrew) created, here are a few things to mull over…
-Note the themes of the creation poem…. separation and filling, evening and morning… what sticks out to you? what seems to be the central theme and what other meanings are uncovered as you read it with fresh eyes?
-”Let us make man in Our image”- what do we learn about the image of God today?
-What is our relationship to other created things? What do you think the words “rule” and “subdue” mean?
-Consider the role of rest in the creation story…compare to your own life.
-Compare the Genesis 1 and Genesis 2 account of creation… what is your take on their differences?
-God creates and then encourages the creativeness of man…. what does that tell you about humanity? about God?
-Note the roles man and woman are given and their relation to one another.
-3:3 “… you will be like God, knowing good and evil..” what do you think of this comment by the serpent… does knowing good and evil make humans like God? if not, why not? what would it have meant to not know? what does it say about what we were created for ? the tension we now live in?
-consider the curses put on man and woman specifically, how do you see them playing out in life now?
-God covered man’s nakedness…consider what was lost in the exchange.
Happy Reading, friends!
Kate
January 1, 2008 at 3:22 pm
I look forward to this journey!
January 1, 2008 at 4:25 pm
Good morning fellow Journeymen! Happy New Year! Here are my thoughts on today’s reading:
Always such a treat to re-read the account of creation!! There is SOOOO much in these little chapters that I could never comment on it all. But a few things that stood out to me were:
-God (in His three Persons) has always existed!! He was there before anything else, and the Spirit of God was present always. We see this when He says “Let us make human beings in our image, to be like us” in 1:26. He is always speaking to and through His selves in all forms, which is truly beyond our comprehension. Even when we are in the midst of people we know well, people whose sentences we could finish and whose minds we feel like we can read, we are always bound by our own individual minds and thoughts. We can never step outside of that and sharing our entire mind with another. But God the Father, God the Spirit, and Jesus or God the Son, are entirely ONE all the time. Oh man…this could launch a huge discussion on the Trinity which could last a lifetime!! So, moving right along….
-I have always noticed the accounts of creation in Ch1 and Ch2 as being different. I think when I read Genesis a long time ago I assumed it was all one big story and thought that all the wording was confusing. But now I can see them as two separate things. My take on them is that Ch1 reads like a news story. Chronological, full of the important facts, and getting the story out there, point blank. But Ch2 is more of a narrative. I picture a grandfather sitting around telling his grandchildren about what he read in the “news story” of Genesis Ch1, but putting more description and life into it the way he sees it. Telling the story with more feeling and perspective and vividness (i.e. in verse 9: …trees that were beautiful and that produced delicious fruit.) I know that historically the first books of the bible are attributed to Moses being the author. However when I went back over my introductory notes in my study bible, it says that Moses is generally credited with “writing or compiling” the first five books. When I think about it like this, it makes more sense to me that these could have been written by two different authors but possibly compiled by Moses. Hmmm.
-God blessed His created humans and told them in 1:28 to “Fill the earth and govern it. Reign over [everything]” When I read the words govern and reign (in my New Living Translation) my mind naturally goes to the image of a King. I picture a King, who is born to rule over a kingdom, governing it, but also protecting it. Setting an example for the subjects of his kingdom and establishing a mutual relationship of trust and care for it and for them. That is how I see God instructing us to care for the things of this earth. Knowing that we need the earth and its resources to survive, there should be a reciprocal relationship of care between humans and the things of this earth. I do not see God giving us this enormous earth so that we can consume everything on it because we are at the top of the food chain, so to speak! I think God expected Adam and Eve (and still expects us now) to care for the things of this earth, to create things that help us live here, but with regard to our own need for it as well.
That’s all for today. Happy New Year and I look forward to this year’s journey with you!
January 1, 2008 at 4:47 pm
I am so excited about the Journey that lays ahead of us here! A few things stood out to me this morning – I could get lost with Krysten in a discussion about the Trinity – it jumped out at me in both chapters 1 & 3 and the other thing that got my attention was in Gen 3:12 – the “typical” teaching is of course that Adam points the finger of blame to Eve and Eve to the serpent – but really Adam is blaming God for the fall when he says “The woman you put here with me” NIV – don’t know that I have ever seen that as blatantly as I did this morning. Thank you Kate for this opportunity to come together here to edify and exhort – I certainly look forward to the relationship that will grow with the Father out of the time here as well as those I am sure will form with fellow Journeymen. Happy New Year- May His blessings be many and your time with Him be rich in 2008 !!
Leisha
January 1, 2008 at 6:12 pm
Good morning everyone! I am excited to begin this journey – I have been looking forward to it for the past week! A couple of things stuck out to me this morning as I read through these chapters again.
-I agree with the others that Ch.1 seems more like a news story to me; a series of factual events that happened during a specific time. Ch.2 reads more like a story. It describes the beauty of the garden and how the earth was watered (which I think was pretty cool – vs. 6…instead springs came up from the ground and watered the land). Also, I have caught what vs. 10 tells us that ..”a river flowed from the land of Eden…and divided into four branches” I don’t think I’ve ever read that and understood that before. That just struck me as amazing! Those rivers have been flowing since the beginning of the earth!
-I think we’ve all heard sermons preached about Adam and Eve blaming each other, Satan, or God for causing them to eat the fruit. But it really does impact us today. Isn’t that what happens all the time today? Nobody takes responsibility for their own actions anymore. It’s always someone else’s fault. It just struck me that even though Adam and Eve had a personal, interactive relationship with the Lord, they still fell into Satan’s trap. How many times a day we sin and not realize it?
-I think that the Lord making clothing for Adam & Eve is significant. I’ve never thought about it before but this question stirred something in me this morning. To me, it shows all they were giving up: purity, innocence, freedom. And in 2008, that is still lost; we’ve never been able to gain it back unless we continuously renew our mind on things above.
Happy New Year!!
January 1, 2008 at 7:06 pm
I had more questions pop into my mind while reading this than I ever have before.
Chapter 1 sounds like a poem (never noticed that before). In my inexperience with poetry it seems like nothing is as it seems (or reads). So is this description even what it reads? Some of it makes no sense to me – 1:6,7 (NIV) – “Let there be an expanse between the waters to separate water from water. So God made the expanse and separated the water under the expanse from the water above it.”…What? I know where the water below is, but what’s the water above the expanse, the sky? clouds? Is there enough water there to be called water?
Whew, confusing. And…
Regarding the curses: How was Adam suppose to live if he didn’t have to toil the land? And was childbirth suppose to be pain-free prior to eating from the tree?
And the skin God made for them…what? Skin? Like human skin? animal skin?
oy vey, I probably need to go look at other versions to help clear this up.;-)
Enlighten me, if you wish.
Despite the questions it’s great to be back in the word for more than sporadic reading.
January 1, 2008 at 7:43 pm
The way I have been taught, the water above was a canopy of water. Before the flood, the earth was covered with this canopy, and it part of why people lived longer then, why dinosaurs (all reptiles grow their entire lives even now) got to be so big in those days. There was never a rain until the flood the way I understand it (another reason Noah seemed like such an idiot), and then on that day the canopy of water was released as were springs of water from the deep.
I understand that it was animal skin that God used to cover them.
You can find more answers at Answers in Genisis online. It is a wonderful site with a world of information on this chapter.
January 1, 2008 at 8:02 pm
You can find my more detailed thoughts on my blog (click my name to get to it.)
Rest stuck out to me. I’m a very detail oriented person with several OCD tendencies… being busy and doing everything that I want or feel a need to do is something that’s natural for me. So to see and be reminded (yet again =]) that God rested tells me that it’s OK to do the same. We take on so much and try to do, do, do… we stop simply being. We need stillness. I need stillness.
Wendy… the water in chapter one I’ve heard explained before. Some people believe that the world was a ‘water globe’ of sorts… What He did, then, was push the water up and down, creating a covering of water above the earth (keeping the climate a nice, warm temperature) and below to create the sea. Then when the Flood happened the water in the air was sent back to the earth to cover it again. I don’t have any verses to support that or anything, but it’s something I’ve heard before and thought you might like to hear. =)
As for childbirth… the words used were “greatly increase your pain in childbearing,” right? I think that maybe it still would’ve been uncomfortable/slightly painful for women, but not to the point that it is now. That’s just a thought. I’d love to hear some other views on that as well.
The skin… I tried to find out via other translations, but couldn’t find it. I think it might have been sheep/goat skin… like God sacrificed a lamb to cover their sin in the garden and then used the skin to clothe Adam & Eve.
January 1, 2008 at 8:42 pm
Looking forward to reading along with you guys.
January 1, 2008 at 10:02 pm
What a wonderful way to start the new year. I love everyones comments so far!
The things that struck me when I read it:
-The first sacrifice. Because of the sin of our first parents, an animal was sacrificed for a blood atonement and to clothe their sin. The shed of blood has always been a necessity for sin since Genesis 3.
-”Greatly increase the pains of childbearing” I am currently 8 mos pregnant with my 2nd son and am so facinated with what pregnancy and childbearing was suppose to look like before sin entered the picture. It was suppose to be labor, but because of sin our labor is increased.
-What did the serpent look like before sin? Part of his curse was that he would crawl around on his belly, that implies the serpent we know was not the one God originally created. I can imagine him to be a beautiful creature “the most cunning”.
I am very excited about reading with all of you.
January 1, 2008 at 10:12 pm
I always wonder about the Adam blaming Eve also. When I was reading through the comments I remembered someone once told me that it wasn’t necesarily blaming each other, but Adam and Eve learning to be accountable to God for their actions. I imagine that their delivery of accountablity became more mature as their lives progressed. As mine has, I suppose (most times).
Also, as I read I was struck by how God introduced to them opposites. What an elementary, but necessary truth. You can know one thing, but you really know the meaning of it when you discover its opposite. Here are some opposites I picked up: “know good and evil,” naked and clothed, peace and fear (“I was afraid”), in regard to commandments, obedience and disobedience. And then, it seems, God lead them out of the garden to learn to live with their choices regarding opposites.
Lastly, despite the apparent ‘blame’ or discovery of accountability, Adam and Eve are sent out together. If it was blame, then perhaps they figured out how to forgive each other and move on, and work out a new life together. Since it’s not good for either of them to be alone, being together, experience opposition, must be better. I’m glad I’ve got someone to do that with.
I ran across this link from another blog and have not been able to think of much else. If you’ll have me, I’d love to participate!
January 1, 2008 at 10:18 pm
Also, are the readings for the next day listed somewhere, or do we just check in here everyday?
January 1, 2008 at 10:23 pm
Hello fellow journeyers! I am so glad so many of you stopped by and COMMENTED. I just got my baby to sleep and actually had the chance to sit and absorb your words. Thank you so much for sharing.
I always love reading the creation stories. I always feel like I leave with more questions than answers. It used to really bug me, but now I kind of enjoy the mystery.
I guess I can’t hardly think of Genesis 1 as being anything but a poem. I used to agonize over the “differences” between Genesis 1 & 2…now I love the two accounts..I agree that Moses probably compiled them. Genesis 1 has stanzas and a rhythm…it uses the same phrases over and over again and the poem builds as each stanza ends with “and there was evening and morning on (blank) day”. For me, its hard to see how this could be literal since the sun, moon and stars (the way we define days and evening and morning) are created a couple of days AFTER we are told evening and morning and days have taken place…you know? Anyone have thoughts on this? Anyway, my understanding of creation is probably a lot different than some others and that’s okay, because its the THEME of it that I see as being the point…God CREATES. And out of His joy HE cannot help but create and He creates beings who create…trees and animals and humans reproduce and humans even have the job of naming…I love it! I think this picture of God hovering over the waters (wait! would those of being created already if chapter 1 was literal? didn’t think of that) and the energy of His person was just birthing out life…I LOVE IT.
I get caught up in it…!
A few other things that stuck out to me today..
-God SEPARATED things…which means they were already together, right? It means that in God’s existence (beyond our 3 dimensional, time -based world) light and dark aren’t different..I love the thought that He had to separate them. THe Oneness of God is a character “trait” that makes my head spin!
-The second half of the curse on women stuck out to me today too… “Your desire will be for your husband and he will rule over you” WOW. I think as a woman – and a married woman, esp- I sometimes realize how divided my heart can be…I want to please God but sometimes I want to please Shawn more and in that way he can ‘lord over me’ you know? I wonder what it would have been like to be Eve BEFORE that and to love her husband and God both fully and without any divided affections…
Hmmm….something maybe not so obvious we lost in the Fall.
I am so thrilled to be journeying with all of you!
Hey! Any of you who would like to be added to an email list, let me know ok? I thought maybe when a particular topic seems HOT (maybe like creation) we could continue to email…? let m eknow.
So glad to have all of you along for the ride!
January 1, 2008 at 10:26 pm
Lisa,
I am listing the readings each day but I think I will make a new page and list the whole month. Good idea!
January 1, 2008 at 11:38 pm
Everytime I read the story of creation, all I can think of is the wonder and beauty that the whole process must have been. He takes creation from nothing to awe inspiring beauty and from the huge, down to the tiny details. Our God is a God of details. We get a glimpse from the scripture, but it is only a glimpse. We could not even fathom what God’s thoughts and plans were like. That is why it is so hard to even picture the first part of chapter 1.
My favorite part, and maybe this is because I am coming upon my 18 year wedding anniversary this week, is the part where God takes the rib out of Adam and creates Eve. The ribs are so important to humans, they protect the internal organs- the lungs and the heart, you can’t live without them. To know that, makes me really think, that as a woman, a wife, and a helper that it is part of my purpose to help protect the heart of my husband. Those of us that are married understand how sensitive that man really is.
Then God says that the two shall become one. This is so important in marriage, to help each other, not be each other. God can do so much with a team. He can do alot with one even if it is to live a life that the second heart can watch, and hopefully come to know God. This is my situation and I pray for a heart of stone to become one of flesh. But with two hearts that know God, this is his purpose and if allowed, He will use the two to serve Him in great ways. I think He knew that Adam and Eve would need to work as a one to survive outside of the garden of Eden.
Obviously, Satan gives us plenty to blame the other about. Blame and lies always come from fear of consequence. I am just thankful, that God came to walk through the garden and called out to Adam and Eve wanting their fellowship even though they had done wrong. He called them out of hiding (like so many of us do when we have done wrong), and clothed them and then disciplined them, but He still loved them. Everything had changed at that point, and the prophecy of Jesus Christ was set in motion. How about that, all on our first day! This is so exciting!
January 2, 2008 at 1:24 am
Verse 1:1 – I didn’t make it past the first verse in the Bible before I began to softly weep, thinking that as I read this first verse, I was in His MIND—Kate was on his mind, Lisa was on his mind, Shelley was on his mind in Genesis 1:1—we were in the heart of God as He created this world.
Verse 17 & 18 – stirred in me that the heavens govern the day & night. I went for an evening run after I read my Bible and the tears flowed witnessing the majesty of the expanse of stars over my head, the MYSTERY in what He created. And in one phrase.
Verse 2:3 – God RESTED as some of you have alredy well said. And I repented as I read it of my “trying” to get so much done.
Verse 2:18, it’s not good to be ALONE—even man felt aloneness before sin entered the world and the work of naming animals still found man “alone.” Wow, I wonder if there is a part of “aloneness” in all of us that we try to fill.
Verse 3:5 You eat from this tree and you’ll be LIKE GOD—isn’t that my sin?—that I want to control my world and be better than others, be like God.
Verse 3:7 Eyes opened to see SHAME…I have wrestled so much in my life with shame—so what’s the opposite, as Lisa brought out, of shame in 2008 for me?
Verse 3:8 They HID from the presence of the Lord–oh my…I hid under my house as a child from those adults who would hurt me; I hid in my heart as an adult afraid of, wanting the approval of others, but no more hiding…
Verse 3:15 So that’s why I live with ENMITY between me and others.
We enter a battle in 2008 that has already been won by the God Who, starting with Genesis 1, BREATHED Life. Just makes me want to worship.
So grateful to you, Kate, for this opportunity to read the Word and listen to my beautiful God, and listen to others. So enjoyed the above comments! I promise I won’t write this long of a comment every time. I’ll post a comment now and then. I was so stirred in my heart by this reading—stirred in me such gratitude and repentance. So excited about this journey with you all.
January 2, 2008 at 1:49 am
For whatever reason, I can’t get away from this theme of separation. In so many other places of the Bible, separation isn’t a good thing. Adam and Eve are separated from God, story after story tells of children being separated from their parents, from siblings, from friends. Mary had to have been separated from her community when her pregnancy became a scandal. Jesus separated from His parents at the temple as a boy. I can’t stop thinking of this separation theme through the entire Bible suddenly. And to be honest, I never noticed it completely in these first chapters of Genesis.
So, in the beginning you have all this separation God created that He saw as good – light from the dark, waters from the sky, ribs from man, etc. The only other times I can think of this idea of separation as good is the parting of Red Sea for Moses and the Exodus and the temple veil being torn in two when Jesus died, bringing us back to a place with God that Adam and Eve were separated from. Is there more?
And why the strong theme in everything? To foreshadow what God knew would happen? Separation and joining together…as a theme of who God is. Why the initial separation to begin with? I always wondered why God would create all this beauty, only to know how it would all go from there. Why not create people to live with him already in Heaven? I’m sure there are people out there that know better than me…
I’m just fascinated by this new thought or perspective to the creation story.
And I am in awe of nature – of what God created – when I visit zoos with strange creatures or aquariums with vast amounts of various ocean life, or watch eagles soar as I did today, I am in awe. I love how it shows the depth of His creativity and passion – the life that exists in various forms on land and in the ocean is simply amazing.
January 2, 2008 at 2:40 am
Thank you so much for doing this online Bible study. My boyfriend and I had already decided to read through the chronilogical one year Bible this year and what a blessing to stumble across this Bible study this morning. Thank you also for posting what we should read today. We ordered a paperback copy of the chonilogical one year Bible but it won’t get here until the third. Now we don’t have to start out behind! Kelly
January 2, 2008 at 4:38 am
The thing that really speaks to my heart is “So God created people in His own image; God patterned them after Himself.” (1:27) Those words are so awesome and powerful to me. I am patterned after God. I must confess, I sometimes feel my pattern is a little “off.”
I read in my devotion today, “How would your life change if you lived with the constant awareness that He created you to bear His image?” I cannot even image how different my life would be if I lived it like that.
January 2, 2008 at 6:30 am
First of all, thank you for doing this. I stumbled across it on Sunday when I was blog-hopping. So glad I found the link. I am excited to start this with all of you. I’ve never read all the way through the Bible, and I don’t want to rush through in in 90 days. This is perfect.
I think the thing that stood out to me was just the image of the earth taking shape. I’m just imagining the water covering everything on the earth, and then it starts stirring when the Spirit moves, and then God speaks! He separated the earth and the water. Imagine creation itself just groaning to obey His voice, and the earth heaving up out of the deep water to form the land. WOW!
I love reading all of your comments, and I think that the separation and coming together could be kind of a foreshadowing of things to come.
January 2, 2008 at 9:49 am
I already feel blessed by reading through all of the comments!!! Thanks soo much for putting this together, Kate!!!
I noticed first off that everything was just DARK- God hadn’t created LIGHT yet. I see this also applying to our lives before Christ and after. Before we were saved, we were living in DARKNESS (sin), but when we invited the Lord into our hearts, we inherited the “LIGHT of life”! (John 8:12)
I also noticed REST, especially in Ch. 2. As a college student, I don’t get to “rest” very often- classes, work, study, etc. As I’m on my Christmas break, I have gotten into a bad habit of “resting” a lot! But I do realize that I need to REST in the Lord and ABIDE in Him for EVERYTHING. I hope that tomorrow (well, today), I will find time to take a walk and focus on Him.
Thanks again for having this, and I pray that we will continue to learn from each other in this journey!!!
January 5, 2008 at 3:34 pm
So I’m a little late to post and maybe nobody will get to this but I have to share it. I am amazed at all the different things that everybody has found in these 3 chapters.
1:31 – “God saw all that he made, and it was very good.” What came to mind was how later we read that only God is good (Lk 18:19)but in creation everything God made was good – before sin entered.
2:2,3 – God rested or ceased – according to the study notes. God stoped working because his work was complete. That I think is important because we have such a hard time resting but it may be because our work is never done. Over the summer I had some conviction about this, I realized that if I slack on my work during the week it doesn’t make the rest as rejuvinating as it could be.
2:9 – tree of life – God’s intention was life for us. tree of the knowledge of good and evil – my notes said that we already had discernment but I wonder if it was more instinctual, when we disobeyed we were aware of good and evil – so we actually chose to know evil – try to explain that to all the people that can’t understand how a loving God would allow all this evil in the world.
2:19, 23 – In ancient times (according to the study notes) to name something or someone implied having dominion or ownership. Man named all the livestock, the birds and beasts, and even woman (though later in 5:2 we see God named both) but God named the day and night and sea and land.
3:1 – Satan tries to get us to doubt Gods word – “did God really say . . .”
3:3 – from the beginning we have added to Gods commands – God said “don’t eat” and Eve added “don’t touch.” We burden ourselves more than he intends.
3:12-19 – finally, with regards to our curse – God gave us grace because both the toil of childbirth and working the land sustain life.
Wow! I can’t believe there was so much waiting in these chapters.
January 7, 2008 at 4:24 pm
I have to admit, I’ve never actually read the bible myself, so I’m really excited for this journey!
A lot comes into my mind when reading the passages, but mostly I was surprised at how much they read like poetry. Simple and elegant, yet so full of meaning!
The light, darkness, the beginning of everything- it gives me hope for what life can offer!