Today’s passage: Genesis 4:17-26

Helpful thoughts:

• In today’s passage, we see the beginning of civilizations (Cities), culture, and industry through Cain’s line.
  • We also see the beginning of sinful polygamy.
• Lamech evidences a self-centered arrogance in proclaiming a seventy-seven times avenging for anyone who would seek to harm him in response to killing a man.
  • He justified his killing (The other guy started it)
  • He determined his own verdict (He didn’t deserve punishment)
  • He claimed his own protection (If Cain got a seven-fold promise, I get…)
    • Jesus reversed this arrogance in Matthew 18:21-22.
• Though Adam and Eve had parented other children (Otherwise, Cain wouldn’t have ever married…) Seth is seen as the answer to the loss of Abel.
  • Noah would eventually come from the line of Seth.
  • The “seed of the woman” (Christ) therefore, would come from the line of Seth.

Questions to consider:

1. What appears to be the contrast between the line of Cain and the line of Seth?  What is characteristic of Cain’s children (See Lamech)?  What is characteristic of Seth’s children (See the end of verse 26)?
2. In order for Lamech (5th generation from Cain) to understand marriage, murder and vengeance (Or justice) as he did, what had to be true of his understanding of what happened between Cain and Abel?  His view of God?
3. What good things were happening among the descendants of Cain?  How does the blessing of creativity and productivity, mixed with sin, give us a picture of what the world is still like today?  Why is man able to be creative and productive (Genesis 1:27)?  How has the curse of sin taken this gift from God and turned it into a reason for arrogance and rebellion against God?

Today’s passage: Genesis 4:1-16

Helpful thoughts:

• Cain and Abel brought different offerings to the Lord.  This passage never says there was a problem with the content of Cain’s offering.  There would later be specific offerings Israel was given from the fruit of the ground (Their harvest).
  • As far as we can tell, it looks like the problem with Cain’s offering was not the content, but the heart with which he gave it.  God knew his heart, something was wrong, and therefore the Lord did not regard the offering.
• Cain’s countenance fell in his anger.  His face fell…you could see the disgust on his face.
  • From Cain’s perspective, God was the problem.  If God had accepted his offering, he would have been just fine.
  • From God’s perspective, Cain was the one who needed to change.  And if Cain would repent, his countenance would be lifted,
    • The Hebrew from verse 7 could be translated, “If you do well, will not your face be lifted?”
• Cain chose not to repent.  He did not do well.  He did evil and his countenance was not lifted.
  • Even after murdering his own brother, Cain still thought of God as unjust.
    • Verse 13, “My punishment is greater than I can bear.”

Questions to consider:

1. What evidence do we see today that the curse of sin has been passed on to the descendants of Adam and Eve?  Why is it significant to our understanding of the world (Mankind) to see a murder in the very first passage after the fall and the curse from Genesis 3?  What is the condition of man?
2. Cain certainly felt sorrow after he murdered his brother.  But, what actually caused his sorrow?  Again, was this a worldly sorrow or a godly sorrow (2 Corinthians 7:8-13)?  What evidence do you see of worldly sorrow?  What do you think godly sorrow would have looked like for Cain?  What does godly sorrow look like in our own lives?
3. When Cain followed the lead of his feelings, he did terrible things.  What order of events did God tell him to pursue?  Was Cain to follow his feelings, or was he to follow the truth, which would result in better feelings?  How can this apply to us today?

Today’s passage: Genesis 3:14-24

Helpful thoughts:

• Now that sin had entered the world, everything had changed.
• The Serpent
  • Whatever the serpent had been before the fall, it was now always going to be brought low, crawling around and stuck in the dust of the earth.
• The Woman
  • Bearing children became burdensome.
    • This is true physically.  But it also has to be true in other ways.  Before the fall, in a world without sin, being a mother would only be something to rejoice in.  Now it is often seen as a burden.
  • Being a “helper fit for him” became a burden
    • The relationship between a husband and wife became a challenge.
    • Our understanding and desire for leadership, submission, love, care and respect was all obstructed and tainted.
• The Man
  • Work became difficult and burdensome.
  • Man (All mankind) will return to the dust (We will physically die).

Questions to consider:

1. What was the final promise to the serpent?  Who is the seed of the woman who crushed the head of the serpent? (1 John 3:8)  How did Jesus defeat Satan?
2. Because of Adam’s and Eve’s sin, they needed covering.  How did God initially provide a covering (Verse 21)?  What could the death of an innocent (The shedding of its blood) to provide a covering picture?  How could this have been a precursor to the OT sacrifices and eventually the once-and-for-all sacrifice of Jesus Christ?
3. In what way was the banishment of Adam and Eve a work of God’s mercy?  What would have been true if Adam and Eve never died?  What is far better for us than to continue to live forever in this world as we are now (Philippians 1:21-23)?

Today’s passage: Genesis 3:1-13

Helpful thoughts:

• The devil in some way became or possessed the serpent (Revelation 12:9, 20:2).
  • God had given Adam and Eve dominion over all the animals on the earth.  Satan used an animal to subvert God’s order.
• The devil sought to undermine Eve’s (And Adam’s, who was “with her”) trust in God.
  • “Did God really say?”
  • “You shall not die.”
  • “For God knows that when…”
• After man sinned, God initiated contact.  Man hid from God, but God searched man out.  This evidences God’s proactive gracious love toward His people.

Questions to consider:

1. Was Eve’s recounting of God’s command accurate?  What was added?  How could that addition (Legalism?) have made understanding God’s good will and intention more difficult?
2. Why do you think God asked Adam and Eve questions after they sinned against Him?  Did He not already know the answers?  What was He doing for them?  How can we help others better and what do we learn when we ask questions instead of firing off accusations?
3. When Adam and Eve desired to be “wise” in their own right, who had displaced God as the “lord of their life?”  How did this change in authority effect Adam’s view and treatment of God (Who did Adam blame for his actions – Verse 12)?  In what way is all sin a rejection of God as Lord?

Today’s passage: Genesis 2:18-25

Helpful thoughts:

• For the first time, God saw something that was not good.
• Adam giving names to the animals accomplishes a couple of things:
  • Adam exercises dominion over creation as God intended man to do.
  • Adam sees that of all the purposes these other creatures are given to do, none of them are fit for him (He sees the “not good” that God also saw).
  • As a result, he becomes all the more excited when God reveals his “helper.”  God maximized his joy.
• Man and woman were made from one flesh (Adam) and are intended to become one flesh (Physical union).
  • Marriage is much more than just physical union.  But it is not marriage without physical union.
• God’s design for families consists of a father and mother and marriage is defined in verse 24 as the union between a husband and wife, man and woman.

Questions to consider:

1. Why were Adam and Eve able to be together, naked and unashamed?  What hasn’t happened yet (Chapter 3…)?  What has sin done to trust, the feeling of safety, the sense of need to protect one’s self, etc.?  How does verse 25 contrast from the reality of the world today, post the fall?
2. What is God’s design for marriage and for family?  What does the reality of physical union being tied to marriage and the fact that marriage is between one man and one woman also say about the definition of gender?
3. How does the role of a father and mother change in the life of their child after they have been joined together with their spouse?  What does it mean to “leave” father and mother?  When has a new family unit been established?  What responsibilities come with marriage?

Today’s passage: Genesis 2:4-17

Helpful thoughts:

• Chapter 2 of Genesis gives us a closer look at the creation of mankind and what followed.
• Verse 4 introduces the name of God, “Yahweh” (or “Jehovah”).  It is written as “LORD.”
  • When the Bible starts to speak of people as individuals, it immediately introduces us to the name of our God, who knows us and whom we can know.
• The Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil was already teaching the knowledge of these things, without Adam (Or Eve) having to eat from it.  They were given this command (“You must not eat from it”), and the command alone implied there were such things as good (Or right) and obedience, and wrong or disobedience.
  • Adam’s and Eve’s innocence before God was not simply an absence of doing wrong.  But as long as they obeyed God’s command, they also had a record of doing right (Righteousness).
  • God does not merely expect an absence of wrong-doing.  God requires righteousness.
    • Matthew 5:48, Matthew 5:20, Romans 4:3-5, 2 Corinthians 5:21

Questions to consider:

1. Based on what we read in this passage, why did the bushes, plants, rains and streams (Rivers) come into being in God’s creation?  What was He providing?  For whom was He providing all of it?
2. When will the Tree of Life make it’s reappearance?  What is it for?  What does it do? (Revelation 2:7, 22:2, 14, 19)
3. Since we have all fallen short (Romans 3:23), what has God graciously done to provide us with righteousness?  Why are we allowed in His presence and accepted as His sons and daughters, counted as fully righteous? (See again, 2 Corinthians 5:21)

Today’s passage: Genesis 1:14-2:3

Helpful thoughts:

• Israel had seen the worship of the sun and moon.  But, the sun and moon are simply creations of God.  God is the maker of every object in the universe.  He is the maker of days, months, years and seasons.  He alone is to be worshiped!
• Mankind is the only life on earth made in the image of God.  We are set apart from the rest of creation.
  • Being made in His image results in our privilege and responsibility to be representations of God to the world and to have dominion over the earth.  To rule it under God’s authority.
  • We have fallen short.  We do not perfectly represent God.  But Jesus does.  By God’s grace, we are new creations in Christ and we are being conformed into His likeness (Colossians 1:18, 2 Corinthians 5:17, Romans 8:29).
• God created the universe in six days and on the seventh day, He rested.  From the beginning, God set up the concept of the week (seven days) including a day of rest.

Questions to consider:

1. How is it possible that we would be made in the image of God (God being singular) and yet, God said, “Let us make man in our image?”  Having already read about the Spirit of God in Genesis 1, what doctrine of God is being evidenced here? (Hint: “Three-in-one”)
2. If God created mankind as male and female and if that distinction was given along with the command to be fruitful and multiply, what does that tell us about the nature and definition of gender?
3. What are some foundational issues that change the way we see the world that have already been covered in Genesis 1?  If you choose to reject Genesis 1, how will your worldview, morality, sense of purpose, etc. change?

Today’s passage: Genesis 1:1-13

Helpful thoughts:

• This universe and everything in it exists because God created it.
  • He created everything from nothing (John 1:3, Isaiah 45:7-18, Romans 11:36, Colossians 1:16-17).
  • God spoke the word and creation perfectly “obeyed.”
  • God had and has the authority to “call” creation whatever He wills.  He is our maker and therefore our authority.
• Concerning the phrase, “without form and void,” Richard Hess writes, “This expression describes the world before the creation of life, before there was even a background or context in which life could flourish.  In days 1-3, God creates the structure of that background, while in days 4-6, he fills this world with living creatures.” (NIV Zondervan Study Bible)
• Everything God makes is “good” because God himself is “good.”

Questions to consider:

1. What do we learn about God from these verses?  What attributes are on display?  What has He done that none of us could ever do and why?
2. The children of Israel had seen other nations praying to various false gods in the hopes of seeing a greater harvest.  What did Israel learn about who brings the harvest when they first read (or heard) Genesis 1?  What day did God bring the “first” harvest?  What day was man created?  Whom should we trust for our provisions?
3. What parallels do we find in Genesis 1 and John 1:1-18?  What is the Word of God?  What does the Word accomplish?  Who gives light?  What does the Light of the world do?