We hear the first covenant made with God's people, the Noahic Covenant. God will never destroy the earth again with a flood. As a signature a reminder, God placed the rainbow in the sky. How does that make you feel, that God made a promise to all of humanity? Are there times when you think that your world is ending, but then reflect on these words from God and about God's love?
An interesting story about Noah's nakedness at the end of chapter 9. Drunk with wine, Noah is sleeping naked and, by accident, Ham walks in, sees Noah, and then becomes cursed? It wasn't Ham's fault, but he is paying the consequences of Noah's nakedness. This doesn't settle well with me, but bodies were sacred and nakedness in public was a shame to all people.
The world becomes repopulated with all of Noah's descendants. An interesting note: only sons were mentioned, but one must assume that there were daughters born also!
In Ephesians 5, we hear Paul tell the church that we must be imitators of God: honest, upstanding, righteous people that walk in the Light (Christ).How do you reflect/ imitate God? It isn't easy all the time to imitate God, in fact, it is quite difficult at times to be the good person that God wants us to be! We all know how we are supposed to be, how we are supposed to respond to others, how we are to treat others, but do we?
The next series of Scripture (vv 22-33), Paul reminds women how they are to be in a marriage relationship. Keeping in mind the time these words were written and the role of women in relationships and society, one can understand where Paul is coming from. Bringing these words up to date, marriage is a three way cord: God, partner 1, and partner 2. the two partners are equals with each other, loving and carrying each other, with full recognition that God is an intimate part of the marriage. Without respect for each other and respect of God, a wholesome marriage cannot exist. The two people in a marriage covenant must work together and respond to each other fully. Comments?
All these readings from today come together in the poetry of Psalm 8. The psalmist comments of the majesty of God, God's greatness, and the love that God has for God's people, Look around you, see all that God created and all that God has given us. It is amazing that we are in God's world and commissioned to care for this greatness. How do you feel when you look out into this world? How do you feel when you see the environmental destruction that is happening? How do you feel when you read about global climate change, ozone destruction, and other major disruptions of earth? How do you image God feels about these things? Lots to think about!
Comments welcome!
Next reading: Genesis 11- 13 and Ephesians 6
Today's world is scary. Seems to get worse as time moves on. Couple things run in my head about this. I know most people believe God maps out everything. I used to be one of those people. Then one Sunday in church our Pastor (great guy by the way) said man has free will. That every little thing isn't mapped out. That God does not cause all of the evil in the world. My mind was literally blown that day. I remember we talked anout it the whole ride home and atleast an hour once we got home" I think I spent the better part of my life being angry at God for all of the bad things that happened in my life. From this I was able to let go of my anger and build a stronger relationship with God. So I believe that man has destroyed the earth and will do so until the end. This fits with our last reading that man is born "bad" and has to be trained to be good. Perhaps that is the truth and I think God didn't plan for this it is just something he knew would happen. But then there are things like miracles and strange "coincidences" that make you wonder exactly how much does God get involved and how much is he like a parent who steps back and let's the child learn from his/her own mistakes. One could argue I was meant to hear that sermon so that I could grow closer to God. Makes you wonder exactly how much he steps in and says hey over here pay attention. But I still don't think he is has everything planned down to every detail. My mother passed away because she smoked and our family is genetically more prone to get lung cancer then others. I don't think God said you will get cancer and die one this day. But I do think he used the situation to pull me closer to him.
ReplyDeleteSome good comments. I do think that God watches over all people and lets them/us decide what we want to do. God is certainly there to help us out- but we need to ask for that help. God's offer of grace and salvation is always open to us- we need to step up. One of my favorite sayings, and I think God would agree... You make the decisions you want, however, there are consequences: some may be good, some may be bad-- you decide.
ReplyDelete