YEAR 1, WEEK 45, Day 2, Tuesday, 5 November 2024

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Observations from today’s readings and today’s S-WOD, Tuesday, 5 November 2024:

Genesis 5:1-3 — This is the book of the generations of Adam. When God created man, he made him in the likeness of God. Male and female he created them, and he blessed them and named them Man when they were created. When Adam had lived 130 years, he fathered a son in his own likeness, after his image, and named him Seth.

Immediately after discussing Cain’s lineage (chapter 4), Moses gives the account of Seth’s descendants, first reminding us that God created man (mankind) in the likeness of God, but Adam went on after the Fall to have children “in his own likeness.” (Genesis 5:3) After the Fall, mankind retained the likeness, or image, of God (Genesis 9:6; James 3:9), but a distorted and limited likeness due to the sinful nature inherited through Adam –

• Psalm 51:5 – Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me.
• Romans 3:23 – …for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God….
• Romans 7:24-25 — Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!
• Romans 5:12-18 – Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned— for sin indeed was in the world before the law was given, but sin is not counted where there is no law. Yet death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those whose sinning was not like the transgression of Adam, who was a type of the one who was to come. But the free gift is not like the trespass. For if many died through one man’s trespass, much more have the grace of God and the free gift by the grace of that one man Jesus Christ abounded for many. And the free gift is not like the result of that one man’s sin. For the judgment following one trespass brought condemnation, but the free gift following many trespasses brought justification. For if, because of one man’s trespass, death reigned through that one man, much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man Jesus Christ. Therefore, as one trespass led to condemnation for all men, so one act of righteousness leads to justification and life for all men. For as by the one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the one man’s obedience the many will be made righteous. Now the law came in to increase the trespass, but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more, so that, as sin reigned in death, grace also might reign through righteousness leading to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
• 1 Corinthians 15:49 — Just as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we shall also bear the image of the man of heaven.

The descendants of Cain and Seth demonstrate two separate paths in life, one path which ultimately seeks to serve and honor self, and one path which seeks to serve and honor the LORD, to return to the right relationship with God (righteousness) which Adam and Eve rejected for sake of their lustful desires. Both Cain’s lineage and Seth’s lineage were corrupted by sin, but Seth’s family, in contrast to Cain’s family, stands out for its faithfulness to God. Both Cain and Seth had descendants named Enoch, but Seth’s Enoch knew it was more important to humbly serve, obey, and glorify God than to establish a legacy of his own in this world with a city named after himself (Genesis 5:24; 4:17). The Bible records that Enoch, like Moses after him, “walked with God” (Genesis 5:22, 24; Genesis 6:9), and Enoch, like the prophet Elijah, was rewarded by the LORD by immediately being translated into heaven (Genesis 5:24; 2 Kings 2:1–12a; see also Hebrews 11:5). Enoch’s story is one of the few direct allusions to eternal life with God in the Old Testament. In Seth’s line we also see Lamech who faithfully hoped for relief from the curse (Genesis 5:28-31) and Noah who will soon learn “found favor in the eyes of the LORD… a righteous man, blameless in his generation.” (Genesis 6:8, 9) What Lamech couldn’t fully understand in his day which has been revealed to us is only Jesus Christ can bring relief from the curse, only Jesus Christ can save us from our sin and restore our relationship with God which was broken by sin.

Genesis 5:24 – Enoch walked with God….

From Oswald Chambers – “The test of my religious character isn’t what I do in exceptional moments; it’s what I do when nothing tremendous or exciting is happening. My worth to God is revealed in my attitude to ordinary things, when I’m out of the spotlight. Am I able to walk faithfully with him then?

It’s a painful thing to learn to walk faithfully with God. It requires getting our second wind spiritually, because before we’ve taken three steps we find that God has outpaced us. God has a different way of doing things, and we have to be trained and disciplined into his ways before we can keep up. When we do manage to get into God’s stride, the only characteristic that manifests itself in our life is his life. Our individual person is lost in union with him; his power alone is evident.

In the book of Isaiah, it was prophesied that Jesus would “not falter or be discouraged” (42:4). Jesus was able to keep pace with his Father because he never approached things from his own viewpoint, only from God’s. We have to learn to do the same, and the way we learn is by soaking in spiritual truth. Spiritual truth is learned by atmosphere, not by intellectual reasoning. God’s Spirit alters the atmosphere of our way of looking at things, and things that were never before possible begin to be possible. We begin to see from God’s viewpoint, to understand his ways, and to fall into his stride.

Getting into the stride of God means nothing less than union with him. It takes a long time to get there, but keep at it. Don’t give in, even if the pain is bad just now. Get on with it, and before long you will find you have a new vision and a new purpose.”

• Galatians 5:22-26 — But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live by the Spirit, let us also keep in step with the Spirit. Let us not become conceited, provoking one another, envying one another.
• Micah 6:8 — He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?
• Ephesians 2:10 — For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.
• Colossians 2:6 — Therefore, as you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him….
• 1 John 2:6 — Whoever says he abides in him ought to walk in the same way in which he walked.
• Romans 6:4 — We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.
• Psalm 56:13 — For you have delivered my soul from death, yes, my feet from falling, that I may walk before God in the light of life.

“Cross” Fit S-WOD (Spiritual Workout of the Day) – 5 November 2024: Today, focus on walking with the Lord through the everyday realities of life, striving to keep in step with the Spirit.