Today we come to the new birth chapter; you must be born from above, telling of the new birth necessary to enter into the Kingdom of God; and the new beginning signified by Noah, his wife, his three sons and their wives, eight in all.
January 4: John 3, Genesis 6, Genesis 7, Genesis 8, (click on the chapter to begin reading).
Ponder the new beginning in the New Testament, leading to eternal life; and the new beginning in the Old Testament, restoring life on earth.
After 2 days with Creation and the fall. we now see what happened after the fall.
January 3: John 2, Genesis 4, Genesis 5, Psalm 1. (click on the chapter to begin reading)
In John 2 Jesus turns water into wine, cleanses the Temple, and gives the Jews just one sign. Genesis 4 shows the results of original sin with the story of Cain and Abel, Genesis 5 shows the Genealogy from Adam to Noah, and Psalm 1 is a beautiful poem about righteous living.
The take home for today is the first of Jesus’ miracles, the first murder, the first man (Enoch) to be carried directly to God rather than die first, and Jesus giving the sign of Jonah about his (and our) resurrection. Psalm 1 extols righteous living according to the Old Testament and the law, with the New Testament counterpoint as given by the Apostle Paul.
Today’s reading of the Bible is short in chapters, but has enormous spiritual value if one is to understand it. It tells of a second, spiritual creation, the creation of Eve in Genesis 2, (click on the chapter to begin reading), and the fall from grace in Genesis 3.
Chapter 2 tells of how God created woman out of man, showing that creation was not complete without man and woman as a unit. God’s design is one man, one woman, one lifetime. This would still be the case if we let God chose our mate. If we had followed God’s intent, a lot of sickness would not exist, especially sexually transmitted diseases.
But, God created us with free will, and the fall is then described in chapter 3. The problem is in eating from the tree of good and evil, and in doing so we think we can do better than fellowship with Go.
The question to ponder is: Why did God create us with a free will? He knew the result from the beginning, and knew He would have to send His Son to redeem us back to Himself. In fact He knew it from before the beginning: “All inhabitants of the earth will worship the beast—all whose names have not been written in the Lamb’s book of life, the Lamb who was slain from the creation of the world.” (Revelation 13:8, NIV)
Answer: We are created in God’s image, male and female, not so much physical, but spiritual, and free will is part of the package. Without free will there is no fellowship with God, only puppetry.
And so it began. The two chapters chosen for today, John 1 and Genesis 1
(click on the chapter to begin reading) both start with the words “In the beginning”. The gospel of John deals with creation spiritually, and Genesis 1 deals with the physical creation.
We are existing in time and space. The question is: What was there before time and space existed, before the beginning?
Answer: God, existing in three persons, God the Father, God the Son (the Word) and God’s Spirit, (the Holy Ghost).
They alone are eternal, everything else, including time and space, is created.
Genesis 1, Genesis 2, Genesis 3, Genesis 4, Genesis 5,
Genesis 6, Genesis 7, Genesis 8 Genesis 9, Genesis 10
Genesis 11, Genesis 12, Genesis 13, Genesis 14, Genesis 15,
Genesis 16, Genesis 17, Genesis 18, Genesis 19, Genesis 20,
Genesis 21, Genesis 22, Genesis 23, Genesis 24, Genesis 25
Genesis 26, Genesis 27, Genesis 28, Genesis 29, Genesis 30,
Genesis 31, Genesis 32, Genesis 33, Genesis 34, Genesis 35,
Genesis 36, Genesis 37, Genesis 38, Genesis 39, Genesis 40,
The gospel of Luke adds to this account: Luke 22:49 When they which were about him saw what would follow, they said unto him, Lord, shall we smite with the sword? 50 And one of them smote the servant of the high priest, and cut off his right ear. 51 And Jesus answered and said, Suffer ye thus far. And he touched his ear, and healed him.
Jesus had already eaten the Passover with the apostles. Most Jews had switched to the next day to eat the Passover since the evening sacrifice had been switched from just after sunset on the 14th of Nisan to after the ninth hour on the 14th of Nisan, or 21 hours later. (Remember, a Jewish day starts at sunset.)
Luke 23: 6 When Pilate heard of Galilee, he asked whether the man were a Galilaean. 7 And as soon as he knew that he belonged unto Herod’s jurisdiction, he sent him to Herod, who himself also was at Jerusalem at that time. 8 And when Herod saw Jesus, he was exceeding glad: for he was desirous to see him of a long season, because he had heard many things of him; and he hoped to have seen some miracle done by him. 9 Then he questioned with him in many words; but he answered him nothing. 10 And the chief priests and scribes stood and vehemently accused him. 11 And Herod with his men of war set him at nought, and mocked him, and arrayed him in a gorgeous robe, and sent him again to Pilate. 12 And the same day Pilate and Herod were made friends together: for before they were at enmity between themselves.
“ye thought evil against me; but God meant it unto good”
Dan failed to conquer the Philistines and settled in the northernmost part of Israel instead. This continues even to this day.
Jacob is at this time 130 years old. “My years have been few” is an understatement” but Jacob compares it to the pilgrimage of his grandfather Abraham.
Joseph had been granted absolute power to rule over Egypt. Pharaoh continued to reign over Egypt, so Joseph started to do Pharaoh’s bidding.
But, as we see, power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.
Through taxes on grain produced during the good years, Joseph had amassed all the grain supply for the government. He is now selling it back at a far higher price than he bought the excess harvests over and above the taxed harvests during the good years.
These are the steps to gain total control over the people.
2. Collect all the money and other valuables in exchange for some of the food.
3. Take control over the livestock and other ways of sustenance.
4. Take over the land in exchange for some of the food.
5. Reduce people to servitude and slavery in exchange for some of the food.
6. Once the famine is over, keep the people as sharecroppers to keep the system stable.
Len Bilén's blog, a blog about faith, politics and the environment. 