GENESIS 1:1-2:25 | MATTHEW 1:1-2:12 | PSALM 1:1-1:6 | PROVERBS 1:1-1:6
Click on the link below to listen to an audio recording of this post:
The creation story comes neatly packaged in one chapter. And it took all of seven days to make it happen!Â
But to the believing Christian, there’s no conflict about accepting it at face-value or even viewing it as an allegory for the evidence that exists in the greater mysteries of science that point to an evolutionary trend in our universe.Â
None at all. Either way, the bottom line is this: 2 By the seventh day God had finished the work he had been doing; so on the seventh day he rested from all his work. 3 Then God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it he rested from all the work of creating that he had done.
It is from this reference, that the seventh day of the week, or the sabbath is considered a holy one, set aside to rest and to worship God.
The story of the creation of Adam and Eve follows. Again, quite straightforward if you believe that there is a greater design and structure in the mystery of the universe — mysteries, many of which have been uncovered by the human species in our quest to seek out our origins.Â
And yet, we are amazed at so grand and elaborate a design of everything from a fruit-fly’s reproductive system, to our own human genetic code that compels us to pause and wonder at how such an intricate pattern to the design of life might have simply happened by chance!
Next, we begin a new book in the New Testament titled The Gospel according to Matthew, also known simply as Matthew.Â
Matthew, one of Jesus’ disciples, starts out by listing Jesus’ genealogy tracing it back all the way to the man called Abraham — 42 generations straight. Abraham is the man that God chooses to make a covenant with, and promises to call Abraham’s descendants his “chosen people.”
What a long time it has been even to the point of the arrival of the birth of this child, Jesus Christ, and what a journey it has been for the Jews in awaiting the arrival of the promised Messiah. Alas, it is not to be that the Jewish people will recognize this child as the Son of God or the Messiah, which however, turns out to be a godsend for the rest of the world, but I’m moving too fast with the story…
To begin with, Matthew narrates the miraculous birth of this baby in the lowliest of stations; the plotting of the child’s death by Herod, the Roman ruler of Judea at the time; the escape from that ordeal; and finally, the arrival of the Magi or the party of wise men from the East– who must have started their journey several months in advance to arrive in Bethlehem on time.Â
The study of the stars had revealed to them that there was a king being born, and I wonder what they must have thought when the star they were following led them to a stable!Â
A king born in a manger? Seriously?!
Next, the Psalm for the day is the very first one in the book of Psalms, and one that I have had committed to memory since the age of five, thanks to my mother. I reproduce it here in its entirety in the King James version (KJV) that I memorized it in:
1Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful.
 2But his delight is in the law of the LORD; and in his law doth he meditate day and night.
 3And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season; his leaf also shall not wither; and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper.
 4The ungodly are not so: but are like the chaff which the wind driveth away.
 5Therefore the ungodly shall not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous.
 6For the LORD knoweth the way of the righteous: but the way of the ungodly shall perish.
Finally, the reading from Proverbs also starts out at the very beginning of the book that establishes the author to be King Solomon, David’s son, and one of the great kings of Israel. He says:
5A wise man will hear, and will increase learning; and a man of understanding shall attain unto wise counsel.
May God bless the reading and reflection of His Word. Amen.
Like this:
Like Loading...
