Sunday, January 2 ~ tammi

Today's reading from the Chronological OT/NT Reading Plan is Genesis 4-6, Matthew 2.

It's so sad that in so few chapters we go from paradise to murder; God sorrowing He'd created man in the first place and promising to wipe them off the face of the earth.

And yet amidst it all, we are introduced to the whole idea of being covered by the blood of a sacrificial death in these early chapters. No attention is really drawn to it, but notice what God does immediately after Adam and Eve sin and discover their nakedness:  He clothes them with animal skins.  This means an animal had to die, to give its life to cover what sin had revealed.  This theme is, of course, carried through right up until the death of Jesus on the cross, and there is indication the practice will be reinstated in heaven as a means of remembrance and celebration.  We don't often think of our sins nowadays requiring a blood sacrifice for atonement, but the truth is, sin has always, does always, and will always require a blood sacrifice to satisfy God's holiness and justness.  Fortunately for us, we can now rely on the power of Christ's shed blood, shed once and for all, to do that for us.

We don't know exactly how God instructed Adam and Eve to make sacrifices, but it seems He must have, since it appears fairly normal that Cain and Abel would offer their sacrifices.  We don't know if this was the first time Adam's sons made sacrifices, though that seems quite possible.  And we don't know why, exactly, Cain's sacrifice of grains was rejected while Abel's offering of a lamb was not, but I think it's entirely possible that here again, man ~ in this case, Cain ~ decided there was no reason he couldn't do things his way and so Cain did not shed the blood of an innocent animal to worship God like he was supposed to.  Abel did.

Perhaps it was more the heart attitude that was the problem, perhaps it was direct disobedience to God's commands, or perhaps this is simply the first evidence we see of God choosing one individual and not the other, but Cain was instantly infuriated that God had showed preference to Abel, and very shortly, his brother's innocent blood was also shed.

I wonder if, at this point, Satan looked up into the heavens and said, "HA!  So much for 'her offspring will crush my head!!'  Cain belongs to me and that other one is dead.  It's over, God.  There's no one left!"  And yet, God provides a third child, Seth ~ whose name has a few meanings, including appointed and substitution ~ from whose line the Messiah would descend.  The ultimate Sacrificial Lamb.

I think that's beautiful.  We often wonder and argue about the existence of evil ~ whether God created it, merely allowed it, or planned for it from the beginning, but didn't cause it, and so on and so forth ~ but the reality is, without the stark contrast of the Light against a larger backdrop of the blackness of evil, the Light wouldn't be as spectacular.  The same principle is used when displaying diamonds.  They just don't dazzle against any other colour the way they do against a sheet of black velvet.

Without the evil, we'd never see the extent of God's holiness, His justice, His righteousness, or His mercy and love.  Knowing those characteristics would hardly even be necessary.  How would we know about His passion for holiness if evil didn't exist?  How could we respect His passion for righteousness?  How could we even care about God's mercy if there was no need for it?

How could Christ's birth be special, something to celebrate, if evil had never been allowed to enter the course of human history?

Speaking of Christ's birth.... let's jump briefly over to Matthew 2.  The visit of the magi often puzzles me.  Who were these men?  Where are they from?  They seem to be astrologers for the most part, but they've got some scrolls which predicted the appearance of a special star that would mark the birth of a very special King.  Not only do these pagan foreigners have writings that point to the birth of Christ, they actually recognize the star for what it was.  And this star is no ordinary star!  None of the millions I've seen have ever shone directly on anything, but this one actually seems to appear specifically to this group of men and they can literally follow its beams to the exact house where Jesus, Mary, and Joseph were living.

I find this part of the Christmas story fascinating for another reason:  it sort of foretells the spread of the Gospel.  It first came to the Jews (the shepherds), then some time later to the rest of the world (the Magi).  We don't know what these wise men did after they left Judea.  We don't know if they "pondered these things in their hearts" like Mary did, or if they told everyone they came into contact with like the shepherds had.

But one thing is certain:  the Christ child was, and continues to be, for EVERYONE.






Tomorrow's passages: Genesis 7-9, Matthew 3