There are two ways to be fooled. One is to believe what isn’t true; the other is to refuse to believe what is true. —Soren Kierkegaard. "…truth is true even if nobody believes it, and falsehood is false even if everybody believes it. That is why truth does not yield to opinion, fashion, numbers, office, or sincerity–it is simply true and that is the end of it" – Os Guinness, Time for Truth, pg.39. “He that takes truth for his guide, and duty for his end, may safely trust to God’s providence to lead him aright.” – Blaise Pascal. "There is but one straight course, and that is to seek truth and pursue it steadily" – George Washington letter to Edmund Randolph — 1795. We live in a “post-truth” world. According to the dictionary, “post-truth” means, “relating to or denoting circumstances in which objective facts are less influential in shaping public opinion than appeals to emotion and personal belief.” Simply put, we now live in a culture that seems to value experience and emotion more than truth. Truth will never go away no matter how hard one might wish. Going beyond the MSM idealogical opinion/bias and their low information tabloid reality show news with a distractional superficial focus on entertainment, sensationalism, emotionalism and activist reporting – this blogs goal is to, in some small way, put a plug in the broken dam of truth and save as many as possible from the consequences—temporal and eternal. "The further a society drifts from truth, the more it will hate those who speak it." – George Orwell “There are two ways to be fooled. One is to believe what isn’t true; the other is to refuse to believe what is true.” ― Soren Kierkegaard
We can’t hold on to the past, but that doesn’t stop us sometimes feeling nostalgic about things which were actually not really good in themselves and not beneficial for us. We think affectionately about situations and behaviours which were in reality unpleasant and sinful, finding them more tantalising than the anticipation of reaching heaven after just a bit more perseverance. Yet Jesus warned us against this, reminding us of the tragic and terrible case of Lot’s wife. The Covenanter John Livingstone preached a sermon on Jesus’ warning. In the following updated extract, Livingstone asks, “What should we remember about Lot’s wife?” He wants us to be sufficiently alarmed by her dreadful mistake that we will not slack off in putting our old sinful ways behind us and pressing on to our safe haven in heaven.
This would seem a very gloomy example that we have to speak of at this time, and yet it is God’s Word, and not unprofitable. Here you have a very necessary memorandum to all generations, “Remember Lot’s wife.” If you remember the history, there came two angels to Sodom to bring Lot, his wife, and his daughters out of the city. Approaching hazard forbade them to look behind them, and yet this poor woman only went and looked back with a longing eye towards Sodom, and she became a pillar of salt.
Memory is a notable servant to Jesus Christ, but, alas! The lack of memory has sent many souls into hell. ‘It’s my nature to be forgetful,’ they say. But I say to them, ‘Woe to you, for you can remember to keep your appointment with the devil, and you can remember foolish tales.’ Our hearts are like a watch which someone takes to a skilled watchmaker asking, ‘Mend this little thing in it.’ But when the watchmaker looks into it, he finds that there is not a single right wheel in it — it’s all wrong. The mind, will, and affection are all gone wrong. The wisdom, understanding and spirit have all gone wrong by our first parents eating the forbidden fruit, though they were warned by God’s express prohibition.
The salvation or damnation of Lot’s wife we shall not, and cannot, determine, for there is such little light on it. But for sure, she is set forth here as a warning to us.
What should we remember about her?
She was married to a good man
Remember that she was the wife of Lot, a good man, and a professed believer in God, brought up and educated in good company. It may be that she was of good upbringing also. But alas! That did not do her any good. Therefore, although your good parentage and good upbringing is a mercy, yet do not boast of it. Though you may have lived for a long time in a good household, what of it?
She was heading to safety
Remember that she was half-way to Zoar, with Sodom burning behind her. Maybe at this point she thought she was past all danger and entirely safe. While the angel took hold of her hand, it’s as if she’s saying, ‘Thanks be to God, I’m now past the worst of it, and nearer to heaven than I was!’
Some may seem to be half-way to heaven, and yet not be on the way at all. The question arises, ‘How far may a reprobate go on in Christianity?’ and yet it is not fitting for a Christian to know this — nor yet how far a Christian may be misled in an evil way, and even go half-way to hell, and more.
But remember Lot’s wife, who was half-way to Zoar, and yet half-way is no way. Not all the blossoms of a tree come to fruit. I don’t say this to make you quit your confidence, but to make you more wary, and not to cast off your armour until you get the victory over your lusts and predominating evils. You don’t know what Satan will do to you before your life is over. Many who have gone a great length have fallen back, and will fall back, in their Christian way, and never come to the camp again. So it is good to stay close to God and His people, and not to go off in unique ways of your own. It’s good to be afraid of saying, ‘I’m now half-way to heaven, I don’t need to be afraid!’
She didn’t do anything very terrible
What did she do? She was neither whore nor thief (as the saying goes). All she did was look back. She just could not go straight on in the way with her husband.
But God does not count things the way we do. He counts something a great sin, which we count only a little one. Who could have thought there would be so much fuss about such a small fault? But see what became of Hezekiah for letting those men in to see the treasures of his house. How angry the Lord was!
But it was because He knew what would come of it. For He doesn’t judge as we do — according to the bulk, or the outside — but what is within the heart. It was such a small thing for Ishmael to smile at Isaac’s weaning. It was such a small thing for Aaron and Miriam to speak against Moses, granting that they were two gracious persons. But not in God’s sight. Many smalls make a large (as we say). If the Lord strictly marks iniquities, who could stand before Him?
She wasn’t motivated to obey
What motivated her to look back, contrary to the Lord’s express command?
Curiosity
It was a piece of her own curiosity. She thought that in this matter she could indulge her own will somewhat. It’s the same with many of us. We virtually say, ‘We are lords, we will come no more to thee.’ Some will even openly say, ‘I can’t think of laying my will flat under God’s will! I can’t endure to have it fully conformed to His!’ But remember Lot’s wife. What folly lurks in our corrupt hearts, opposite to the law of God!
Nostalgia
Old Sodom came into her mind again, just like the Israelites in the wilderness, when they lusted after the onions and garlic they had in Egypt. Wasn’t that strange? For as you know, garlic doesn’t have a very agreeable taste. But what can we say? Anything of Egypt, or Sodom, is good, when we aren’t there any more. Many think, ‘What was I thinking, while was in the acts of my wickedness, that I didn’t get my money’s worth out of it?!’ She was looking back to her old, but bad, companions. Beware of this. Except when needs must, Solomon forbids so much as going in the way with an angry man. The Christian should be like an old pilgrim, with his gown and staff, and if he didn’t get a bed, he would lie on the ground like old Jacob did, with a stone under his head. Instead, your accommodations for back and belly, bed and board, all that Sodom can afford, are the means of destroying you, and pampering you into committing grievous abominations.
Remember Lot’s wife
After all this, you may say, ‘What should we remember about her?’ No good, I warrant you, and therefore the subject is all the more sad to speak about. God made her a spectacle in those days, as He is making some others in our days. This is unlike the apostle Paul, who was like a ‘gazing stock,’ but in his case as a display of the Lord’s mercy, for the instruction and edification of many. You should not look on these spectacles of His wrath in a light manner. Here is an extraordinary work of God’s providence.
Therefore, pray that this would never be the case with you. I say to you who profess to be believers and yet are profane, remember Lot’s wife. The chief thing that draws many of you away is pride in your religion, your understanding, your gifts, your profession, etc. It is not altogether natural pride, but the pride of religion, which wants you to be unique. Get more humility and sobriety, and esteem others better than yourselves, and search and try your hearts. Remember Lot’s wife, and let this be your warning and reminder always.
Ver. 26. But his wife looked back from behind him, and she became a pillar of salt.—The cause and danger of backslidiny:— I. THE CAUSE OF BACKSLIDING. Unbelief, leading to (1) disobedience, (2) indecision. She was perplexed between God and the world. II. THE DANGER OF BACKSLIDING.
There is the danger of forfeiting our salvation.
The danger of punishment. (T. H. Leale.) Lot’s wife:— I. SHE PERISHED AFTER SOLEMN WARNING. II. SHE PERISHED BY A LOOK. III. SHE PERISHED AFTER SHE HAD STOOD LONG, AND HAD ENJOYED GREAT ADVANTAGES. IV. SHE ILLUSTRATES THE ENORMOUS INFLUENCE OF WORLDLY INTERESTS AND AFFECTIONS. (Ibid.) Lot’s wife:— I. A CHARACTER HIGHLY BLESSED.
Association with good people.
Remarkable interpositions of Providence on her behalf.
Divine aid afforded to escape the danger. II. A CHARACTER INEXCUSABLY WRONG.
Inasmuch as sin in its most detestable forms had been presented to her view.
Inasmuch as a special commandment was disregarded.
Inasmuch as there was no reasonable inducement to disobey. III. A CHARACTER SADLY PUNISHED.
Separated from the objects of her hope.
Held forth as a warning to others throughout the ages.
Lost almost within reach of safety. (Homilist.) The danger of looking back:— “Remember Lot’s wife”—
In the hour of conviction of sin. “Up! flee for your life!” is the voice of the Holy Spirit. Delay, hesitation, casting longing looks back on a life of sin, then, may be fatal.
In the hour of fiery temptation. The only safety is in precipitate flight.
When any question of duty is pressed upon you.
Amid the assaults of unbelief.
Note what Christ says in Luke 9:62: “No man, having put his hand to the plough,” &c. (1) He is not intent on the work in hand. (2) His earthly ties and interests are stronger than those which pertain to heavenly things. (3) He has really surrendered himself to temptation. (J. M. Sherwood, D.D). Lot’s wife:— I. She was made A NOTABLE AND CONSPICUOUS EXAMPLE OF JUDICIAL INFLICTION; so as to “justify the ways of God to men.” Why was she overtaken by so signal a doom? She was probably not different from others, her fellow-townswomen—the votaries of fashion and the slaves of custom. We possess some intimation of the habits which then existed, and the tastes which then prevailed. “The iniquity of Sodom” was “pride, fulness of bread; and abundance of idleness was in her and in her daughters” (Ezek. 16:49). No encomium is pronounced on her; but how differently is her partner regarded! (2 Peter 2:4, 7, and 8.) Probably she was frivolous, light, and careless in her conduct; her character made up of negations, rather than of positive vices; and her faults probably originated in the unfavourable influence of the society in which she mingled. “She that liveth in pleasure is dead while she liveth” (1 Tim. 5:6). We see a judicial infliction overtaking her conduct, which was marked by the following features.
Disobedience. It is the business of principle to obey the right and the rule. It does not matter what the law prescribes, for the majesty which invests the government of God descends on all the acts of His legislation; and it is not for us to question their greater or less magnitude, or their superior or subordinate authority. He shows us what He wills, and it is our part to obey. In the case before us there was to be no idolatry of home—no favourite objects to preserve and bring away. They were to come out quickly and unburdened. The general command was to disregard all; and even the particular precept could not be more distinct: “Escape for thy life! Look not behind thee, neither stay thou in all the plain! Escape thou to the mountain, lest thou be consumed” (Gen. 19:17)! Then commenced a struggle in her mind. Here was her disobedience. Only obey the voice of God, and it shall be well; but if thou disobey, ruin will be the result.
Ingratitude. It was not ordinary kindness, but particular and pre-eminent that was shown to her husband, herself, and her household. “Haste thee, escape thither; for I cannot do anything till thou be come thither” (Gen. 19:22). As if His fury were stayed till the complete deliverance of these, His favourite charge.
Reluctance. Hers was an averted countenance. Are we surprised at this? Think of the awe—the panic—the agitation! Think of the natural instinct which attached her to home. Was it that her heart grudged to leave behind some favourite whose misery excited her pity and commiseration? None of these feelings are manifested. But there is a wistful and hankering look. Her eye seems enamoured of what she must abandon; the objects of vanity—her companionships—whatever she coveted—her pursuits—her friends—her abode—her flocks—all that she was leaving; and though she saved what was of greater value, her heart went after her covetousness (Ezek. 33:31); and it was all concentrated in that look.
Distrust. Might it not be a false alarm? Might it not be well to pause and examine?
Indecision. This paralyzes all, and is unaccountable in such a case as hers. See how the waves threaten to surround her! Yet she wavers, instead of hastening her retreat. II. Why are we to “Remember Lot’s wife,” but that there was SOMETHING IN HER CONDUCT TO REBUKE AND INSTRUCT US?
How small a thing may prevent our salvation! Lot’s wife may have been gay and volatile—nothing more.
The increased misery of perishing within the reach of recovering mercy. Lot’s wife was in the track of safety. All was promise and hope.
The evil of a careless state of mind. Lot’s wife was not fully possessed of the fear proper to her situation. Led by the example of those among whom she dwelt, she had no just view of the evil of sin. Left by her companions, she thought to return; but the resolve was too late! Advance was as helpless as retreat!
The misery of apostasy. Many have a disposition to what is right; but there is nothing fixed—no true change. How many have been thus hindered in their course! They were almost persuaded to be Christians (Acts 26:28), but they “looked back”; and our Lord indicates that this disposition leads to condemnation (Luke 9:62).
The fearful state of mind when God leaves the sinner and abandons him to his own will. In the case of Lot’s wife, God could do no more, and the angels went on. The last desire for deliverance left her. She “looked back”—stopped—and stood still for ever! (R. W. Hamilton, D.D.) Lot’s wife:— I. THE TEXT SHOWS THAT ACTIONS MAY BECOME PUNISHABLE, WHICH TO US MAY SEEM MOST HARMLESS AND EXCUSABLE. No doubt there are some things which have happened in each of our lives which stand out more prominently than others, and we can remember these with ease, and with a constant recurring memory. They are the mountains and hills (so to speak) in our mind-scenery which come before us ever so plainly; but the little rivulet, or the humble stone, or the half-hidden bush is passed over and seldom thought of. And such is the case with human life, we overlook or forget the smaller things of every-day existence, while we lay a great emphasis upon what we consider more deserving of our attention. But it is the little transactions of the day which make up the character, which form it, and give to it its destiny. It is the oft-repeated habit which grows into strength, and stamps its image upon our hearts and minds, whether good or bad. It is the word of anger which, like a spark, kindles into flame our fiercest passions, while the word of kindness will soothe the feelings of ill temper and carry comfort into the most troubled bosom. A look, a simple pressure of the hand, and even sometimes a well-known footstep, will do much to change the history of a life. Yet, after all, God looks deeper into our doings than what meets the eye or falls upon the ear of sense. He is a Searcher of the heart, of its intents and motives; and according to its principles, which lie beneath the disturbed and restless surface of human actions, so does He acquit or condemn us, commend or disapprove. Thus with regard to Lot’s wife, it was not the mere turning back of her body, or the look of her eye, which He condemned, but the motives which prompted these actions, and made them the instruments of her own evil wishes, and of the wrongful feelings which stirred within her soul. Hence, if the eye should become the instrument of sin, pluck it out; or, if the arm should lead us to offend, cut it off. II. We observe here THAT THE SIN OF LOT’S WIFE FOUND HER OUT WHATEVER THAT SIN MIGHT HAVE BEEN. Did her heart long to remain with the people of the cities whom God had cursed? She became a fixture to the spot where such a wish was encouraged. Did she depreciate or condemn the judgment which wrapt the cities in flames? She is made to share their fate, only in another form. Would she rather return to the place from which she was commanded to flee, and so brave the curse which God had declared against it? Then let her steps be arrested in death, and her folly become a monument of warning to others who would follow her example. Did she, by looking back in direct opposition to the orders not to do so, care nothing about the interposition of angels, nought of the Divine goodness and mercy in providing for her and her household a refuge and a place of rest and security? Then let her insensibility and ingratitude become marked by turning her into a lifeless and insensible pillar of salt. And thus we often find that there is a correspondence between the act of disobedience and the judgment which follows it. III. THE FATE OF LOT’S WIFE WAS SUDDEN, QUITE UNEXPECTED. It came upon her in an instant. In the very act of turning she was struck by the hand of death. There came to her no note of warning of the calamity, and the momentary change allowed no time for thought, for reflection, or for shrinking fear. But it is not the suddenness of death we have most to dread, it is the being unprepared for such a change. It is this we have most to fear. The manner and form of the death of Lot’s wife may be regarded comparatively of little consequence, but the state of mind in which the destroyer found her is of the utmost importance. IV. WE LEARN FROM OUR SUBJECT THE EVIL OF TURNING BACK IN THE PATH OF DUTY. V. The body of Lot’s wife turned into a pillar of salt seems to point to the COMPARATIVE INSIGNIFICANCE OF THE HUMAN BODY, AND TO CAST A SORT OF CONTEMPT UPON IT. But suppose its rigid fixture to the ground may be considered a symbol of the fixity of the human character in death! (W. D. Horwood.) Lost near safety:— In an October day a treacherous calm on the northern coast is suddenly followed by one of the fiercest storms within the memory of man. Without warning signs a squall comes sweeping down the main, and the ocean leaps in its fury like a thing of life. The heavens seem to bow themselves, and form a veil of mirk and gloom; and above the voices of the storm is heard the cry of those on shore, “O God of mercy, send us those we love!” But, alas! there are those for whom that prayer cannot now avail; for floating spars and bodies washed ashore from which all life is sucked tell too plainly that some home is desolate, some spirit crushed. And now a mighty shout is heard, and all eyes again turn towards the sea, for through the darkness of the storm a boat is seen struggling towards the shore, now lost to sight, and again borne on the crest of the wave, nearer and yet nearer the harbour’s mouth. The climax now approaches in this wild race for life; and hearts are high with hope or chilled with fear, for the next wave must either bear them into safety or send them to their doom. See! there it comes, threatening in its vastness and twisting in its progress like some hideous thing of night. A cold sweat breaks out on those on shore, for the boat is lifted on its boiling crest and dashed with resistless fury against the stonework of the pier; and as a mighty cry of anguish rises, the men clinging to the wreck wave to their friends a last adieu, who, close at hand, stand agonized spectators of the scene! Yes, they have surmounted all the dangers which have proved fatal to their fellows, only to miss the friendly hands stretched out to save, and perish before the eyes, and be washed up lifeless at the very feet, of those they love. In all such cases the grief of onlookers, and of all who mourn their loss, is augmented by the thought that though so near to safety they yet were lost. Remember that to be near the harbour-mouth is not to be safe in its shelter—that though near to the kingdom of heaven you may never enter therein; and that, in so far as your final salvation is concerned, being near to Christ is no better than being far away, if it never lead to a complete surrender of your heart to Him. (W. Landels, D.D.) Lot’s wife: a warning:— All which bewray and show that they were never in heart soundly reformed, how glorious soever their outward show was for a time. Fear we, then, ever to look back with Lot’s wife! Fear we to return to those old vices and sinful corruptions wherewith we have been stayed! Fear we to frequent that company, to lust or long for those poisoned pleasures which heretofore have given us a fall, or at least endangered us, for as the Lord liveth that smote this woman (Lot’s wife) we shall be smitten first or last, and stand as spectacles of His wrath for evermore. Now, as you have heard what she did, so hear, I pray you, what she suffered. She looked back, and the Lord turned her into a pillar of salt. That which respecteth the punishment itself is that it was just and most due to her. For, first, she was delivered with her husband and daughters out of Sodom, and brought forth by the angels’ own hands. Then she was warned that she should not look back, nor abide in all the plain, lest she perished, which was a fair warning. Thirdly, even hard by, as it were, there was appointed a city to them whither they might easily go, and should be most safe. Fourthly, she had going with her husband and children, whom, both for wife’s affection and mother’s, she should joyfully have accompanied. But all this she neglecteth, and therefore justly perisheth. This biddeth us to-day to beware, and, hearing the word of the Lord, not to harden our hearts. Without doubt, if we perish, we perish justly, and it is not the Lord’s blame, but our own fault that it is so. “Remember Lot’s wife,” saith our Saviour Christ, in Luke, “and let him that is in the field not turn back to that he has left behind”; and remember Lot’s wife say I to you, to continue in safety without revolting, and the Lord grant that her salt may season our lives for ever. (Bishop Babington.) Lessons from the history of Lot’s wife:— I. First, RELIGIOUS PRIVILEGES DO NOT CONSTITUTE SALVATION. Never forget that. Some of us rest too much on our religious privileges. I read of Pharaoh being nine times brought under conviction, and yet he perished. I read of Judas being associated with the Christ of God for more than three years, listening to words that angels came down to listen to, and contemplating the model of human and Divine perfection, witnessing Him opening the eyes of the blind, unstopping the ears of the deaf, cleansing the lepers, raising the dead, and yet he perished. And here I read of Lot’s wife, for thirty years associated with the people of God, almost pressed by angels to the very gates of Zoar, and yet she perished; and God made her a pillar of salt, to be an everlasting monument of the fact that religious privileges and associations cannot save. II. Religious privileges, when they are not made a blessing to us, WHEN THEY DO NOT EFFECT THE END INTENDED BY THEM, INCREASE OUR CONDEMNATION AND AGGRAVATE OUR RUIN. That is a solemn passage in 2 Cor. 2:15, 16. I would far rather stand before the judgment-seat of God by-and-by a poor African from the barren waste of Africa, where the gospel message was never known, and the story of the blood of Christ never told, and throw myself upon His mercy, than I would take the stand of one of you professing Christians! who, in that day, will have nothing to answer when the King shall say, “Friend, how camest thou in hither, not having a wedding garment?” III. TO LOOK BACK FROM THIS POSITION OF KNOWLEDGE IS TO GO BACK, and so the Lord interprets it. To be outside Sodom is not enough, to be disentangled from the world is not enough, you must be in Christ, or you are not saved. Mechanical obedience, bodily exercise is not salvation; her body was near to Zoar, but her affections were in Sodom, and she perished—“Remember Lot’s wife.” (M. Rainsford, B.A.) Lessons:—
The time of vengeance on the wicked may be that of severe judgment upon the righteous who haste not from it.
Nearest relations may be sometimes the greatest crosses to God’s saints.
Rebellion against God’s express commands and threatenings is a provoking evil.
It is very evil to have withdrawing hearts from God’s salvation and inclining to the wicked’s destruction.
God sometimes meets with rebellion and apostasy in the very act, and judgeth it.
Eminent sins are answered sometimes with eminent judgments.
God can turn flesh into salt and stones, and He alone.
God maketh some of His severe acts of punishment to be perpetual examples against sin in all ages. (G. Hughes, B.D.) The sin and punishment of Lot’s wife; or, the sinner under conviction still in danger:— Here let me tell you that conviction for sin and conversion to God are two very different things. A sinner under conviction is a sinner waked up to his guilt and danger. A sinner converted is a sinner who has hasted away to Christ for pardon and mercy, who is made safe in the strong mountain of God’s love and grace. I. LOT’S WIFE SAW HER DANGER, AND SET OUT TO ESCAPE FROM IT. So the Holy Spirit of God makes many a man see his danger as a sinner, and strives with him, and urges him to flee away from his sins. Many a man, under the warnings of the spirit, sets off in a way to the mount of God, and yet, like Lot’s wife, perishes in the way. Pharaoh; Herod; Felix; Agrippa. I called to see a faithful servant once who was lying and trembling on the verge of death. He was greatly alarmed at the thought of dying unprepared to meet God. He said that the thought of his sins gave him the deepest distress, and that all he wanted was to be a Christian. Before I left him he solemnly promised that if ever he was raised up from that bed of sickness, he would be a Christian the rest of his days. Had he died then, his master and all of us who were there would have said that he died a Christian, and was saved in heaven. But he recovered; and, as he had always been a good and faithful servant, we expected to see the light of a good Christian shining in his life. And he did not altogether forget his promises. I went often to the house of his master, and would sometimes talk with him as he would light me to my room at night. As often as the books were brought out, and the bell rang for prayers, James would be there to join with us in family worship. This practice he kept up for several months. His master told me that during all that time he had been faithful to his promises. He seemed to be a Christian indeed, and all of us thought he would soon join the church. But at last he gradually gave up coming in to prayer. As I had not seen him for a good while, I asked one of the other servants what had become of James. He told me that, but a few days before, he was talking to him about his promises, and that James had said he did not see the use of so much religion—so much praying—and so much reading the Bible—and so much going to church—and so much hearing sermons read. In fact, James had given up all pretensions to religion. He was just the same wicked man he was before he was sick. Now, this man was like Lot’s wife. He set out in the way to heaven, but he “looked back.” He turned back. He did not, indeed, become a pillar of salt; but he became (what is just as bad) hardened in sin. Two years passed away, and James was taken dangerously ill again. As soon as I heard of it I went to see him. I read the Bible to him; I prayed for him; I talked to him. I did not distress him by reminding him of his old promises. I told him of Jesus, the Saviour of sinners. I begged him to remember that He was able and willing to forgive all sins. I read and explained the parable of the prodigal son. I entreated him to give up his heart to that Saviour, and put all his trust in Him. But his heart seemed to be turned to stone. “No, no,” said he, “I have most wickedly broken my promises to God; I have sinned away my day of grace; He will not now have mercy on me; I have no hope; I do not and cannot feel as I did before; my mind is so dark, and my heart is so hard!” I shall never forget that scene. His fellow-servants stood round the room in silent and solemn fear. They heard his short, heavy breathing, and watched his ghastly countenance until he gave up in the death struggle, saying, with his last breath, “There is no mercy for me.” He had once been keenly sensible of his guilt as a sinner; he had mourned and wept as a sinner; he had promised before God to give up his sins. Like Lot’s wife, he had set off in the way to heaven. He had put his hand to the plough, but looked back. He was hardened in sin, and perished in impenitence. Then let every sinner under conviction take warning, and not rest in his fears or sorrows. II. NOW LET ME WARN YOU AGAINST THIS FALLING AWAY—THIS BACK-SLIDING FROM CONVICTION. “Remember Lot’s wife.”
Do not linger in sin, as they did in Sodom. If you are anxious about religion, why should you remain any longer in sin? Why not rise up now, and with firm resolution escape from it? If you will not do this, you can never reach the mountain of salvation.
When once you have set out in religion, do not look back. Our Saviour Himself has said, “No man, having put his hand to the plough, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God.” (Bp. Meade.) Looking back:— Could God, in showing so much love, not expect faith and reliance? The trial of obedience was small and easy indeed; but it involved the proof whether the rescued family believed the angel, or required personal certainty, before they would follow his guidance; and it was a trial deemed sufficient by ancient nations under similar circumstances. When Orpheus had descended into the lower world in order to ask back his beloved wife Eurydice, Pluto, moved by the magic of his harmonies, gave him the promise that she would be restored to him under condition that he did not turn round to her till he had passed the Avernian valley; and when he disobeyed, she fell back into the regions of hell. Sacred actions, performed in reliance on the omnipotent assistance of the gods, were done with the face averted, as if symbolically to express that the believing mind requires no ocular evidence. We have, therefore, to explain the command here given to Lot from the same notions; it was a proof of faith. (M. M. Kalisch, Ph.D.) The fate of Lot’s wife:— There was a great difference between the feelings of the elder and the younger branches of Lot’s family on leaving their home. His sons and daughters left it in apparent obedience, but with the spirit of the inhabitants of the plain; it was not so with Lot’s wife. It is not the character of age to accommodate itself readily to fresh circumstances. The old man does not feel inclined to launch himself afresh on the great ocean of the universe to seek new fortunes. He does not easily make fresh acquaintances, or transplant himself quickly from old haunts and homes. To youth there is a future; to old age there remains nothing but the present and the past. Therefore, while youth went on with its usual elastic step of buoyancy and hope, Lot’s wife lingered; she regretted the home of her vanity and luxury, and the lava flood overwhelmed her, encrusted her with salt, and left her as a monument. The moral we are to draw from that is not left us to choose. Christ says, “Remember Lot’s wife.” It is worse to turn back, when once on the safe path, than never to have served God at all. They who have once tasted of the power of the world to come, let them beware lest they turn again. Sin is dangerous, but relapse is fatal. That is the reason why God so marvellously smooths the way for youth. Early joy enables the young man to make his first steps surely, with confidence in his Maker; love, gratitude, and all his best emotions are thus called forth. But if afterwards he falls, if he sinks back again into the world of evil, think you that his feelings will spur him on again in God’s cause? Nay, because at the first time there was hope, the next all the hope is washed out; the stimulus of feeling is weaker because experience has broken down hope; he knows now what those resolves were worth! There is great difficulty in quitting evil after long habit. It becomes a home, and holiness is dull, and cheerless, and dreary. Youth, then, is the time for action—earnest, steady advancement, without looking back. St. Paul says, in his Epistle to the Hebrews, “Let us therefore fear, lest a promise being left us of entering into His rest, any of you should seem to come short of it”; and again he shows us the evil of drawing back—“Now the just shall live by faith: but if any man draw back, My soul shall have no pleasure in him.” (F. W. Robertson, M.A.) Lot’s wife:— The phenomenon of her transformation remains to this day a mystery. It is believed that she was smothered and stiffened as she stood, looking back, and was overlaid with saline incrustations. Such a result is not at all incredible, apart from the sacred narrative. An atmosphere heavily charged with the fumes of sulphur and bitumen might easily produce suffocation, as was the case with the elder Pliny in the destruction of Pompeii. And as no dead body would ever decompose on the shores of this salt sea, if left in such an atmosphere it would become incrusted with salt crystals. Pillars of salt are found in the vicinity, which have formed from the spray, mist, and saline exhalations of the Dead Sea, and are constantly growing larger. Indeed, Josephus attempted to identify one of these with the wife of Lot. The spiritual phenomenon, however, presents no mystery. Lot’s wife looked back. The command was explicit; it forbade looking behind, and the word for “look” implies a deliberate contemplation, steady regard, the look of consideration, desire. She looked back wistfully, longingly. The fact was, her heart was yet in Sodom, where all her treasures were. She had become identified with her home there, and even the wrath of God, poured out in a storm of fire, could not avert her eyes or quicken her steps. Abraham also “looked” toward Sodom, but the word signifies a rapid, and even unintentional or casual, glance. He glanced with grief and awe; she gazed with longing and regret. She doubtless looked back, as the Israelites did toward Egypt, longing to return, more willing to stay there amid the sins of Sodomites than to abide apart with God. And so her heart’s wish became a fact; her real prayer was strangely answered; where she lingered, there she should stay. She would look back, and henceforth should never look ahead. So sins become habits, and habits encrust us with fixedness, and transform us into immovable pillars, monuments of wrath. God fixed and rooted her where she was; his curse transfixed her, as it blighted, blasted, withered, the barren fig tree; and so Lot’s wife, to this day, is herself the personification of Sodom, its sins and its punishment. The only safe obedience is a prompt, implicit, and exact conformity to God’s command. No part of His word can be unheeded without risk; we may run from one peril only to fall a prey to another. A divided heart is like the “double” eye, and singleness of aim is as important as singleness of vision. A double-minded man is unstable in all his ways. (A. T. Pierson, D.D.) Followers of Lot’s wife:— Lot’s wife has always had more followers than God’s angels have. Look at the worldly-minded disciples in the Church to-day. Roused by fear to flee from the wrath to come, stirred by the warning of some special providence, or by the pressing entreaty of grace, they profess to leave Sodom behind. But they linger about the edge of destruction. They look back with longing, and linger and loiter on the way. And you may see them all about you, mere pillars of salt, without life or action, motion or emotion. The world has encrusted them with the salt, not of the saving and savouring sort, but that which represents sterility. If they are saved from the fire, it is so as by fire, and their works are burned up. They have lost their testimony for God, and have become only a warning to backsliders. (Ibid.) Lot’s wife’s tomb:— Her backward look must have been more than momentary, for the destruction of the cities did not begin till Lot was safe in Zoar. She must have lingered far behind, and been overtaken by the eruption of liquid saline mud, which, as Sir J. W. Dawson has shown, would attend or follow the outburst of bituminous matter, so that her fate was the natural consequence of her heart being still in Sodom. As to the “pillar of salt,” which has excited cavils on the one hand and foolish legends on the other, probably we are to think rather of a heap than of a pillar. The word does not occur in either meaning elsewhere, but its derivation implies something raised above the level of the ground; and a heap, such as would be formed by a human body encrusted with salt mud, would suit the requirements of the expression. Like a man who falls in a snow-storm, or, still more accurately, just as some of the victims at Pompeii stumbled in their flight, and were buried under the ashes, which still keep the outline of their figures, so Lot’s wife was covered with the half-liquid slimy mud. Granted the delay in her flight, the rest is perfectly simple and natural. She was buried in a horrible tomb; and, in pity to her memory, no name has been written upon it. She remains to all generations, in a far truer sense than superstition dreamed of when it pointed to an upright salt rock as her prison and her monument, a warning of the danger of the backward look, which betrays the true home of the heart, and may leave us unsheltered in the open plain when the fiery storm bursts. “Remember Lot’s wife.” (A Maclaren, D.D.) Lot’s wife as a type:— She is the type of a large class—persons who are convinced of the danger of their position, but not converted to God: professors who occupy a position half-way between Sodom and Zoar, thinking it enough to have got away from the corruptions of the world without having got into Christ; thinking it enough to have been brought, as it were, outside the suburbs of Sodom, without having taken refuge in the blood. She looked back from her half-way position and “became a pillar of salt.” (M. Rainsford, B.A.)
Exell, J. S. (n.d.). The Biblical Illustrator: Genesis (Vol. 2, pp. 61–67). James Nisbet & Co.
16:13 You are a God of seeing. This divine name is not attested elsewhere. It expresses the deep significance to Hagar of God’s gracious revelation to her. Even while she was lost in the wilderness, God had seen her and revealed Himself to her.
Sproul, R. C., ed. (2005). The Reformation Study Bible: English Standard Version (p. 36). Ligonier Ministries.
16:13 You are El-Roi The Hebrew phrase used here, el ro’i, can be translated as “God of seeing,” referring to God’s ability to see everything; “God of my seeing,” a testimonial by Hagar that she has witnessed a divine being; or “God who sees me,” a more personal version of the first translation. Hagar’s remaining words suggest that the phrase deliberately expresses all of these.
Barry, J. D., Mangum, D., Brown, D. R., Heiser, M. S., Custis, M., Ritzema, E., Whitehead, M. M., Grigoni, M. R., & Bomar, D. (2012, 2016). Faithlife Study Bible (Ge 16:13). Lexham Press.
16:13 Hagar is impressed by the perceptiveness of God as revealed through his angel-messenger. This is seen in the name she gives to the Lord; she calls him God of seeing (Hb. ’El Ro’i). here I have seen him who looks after me. Although this could imply that Hagar actually saw God himself, her remarks may also be interpreted as denoting an inner perception; she perceives that God sees or “looks after” her.
16:13 Hagar perceives that the Lord has spoken to her, which implies that “the angel of the LORD” is divine. Some think that this is a preincarnate appearance of Christ. Christ is the final, divine messenger of the covenant (Mal. 3:1) who is anticipated in this scene.
Crossway Bibles. (2008). The ESV Study Bible (p. 79). Crossway Bibles.
16:13 You are a God who sees. Recognizing the Angel as God and ascribing this new name to Him arose from Hagar’s astonishment at having been the object of God’s gracious attention. The theophany and revelation led her to call Him also “The One Who Lives and Sees Me” (v. 14).
MacArthur, J. F., Jr. (2006). The MacArthur study Bible: New American Standard Bible. (Ge 16:13). Thomas Nelson Publishers.
Editor’s Note: The following article appears in the Fall 2025 issue of Eikon.
An increasing number of professing evangelical scholars and leaders doubt or deny some or all of the details about Adam in Genesis. They do so because they believe that science has proven overwhelmingly that we are related to the apes through millions of years of evolution. But is this so? And does it matter?
The Historicity of Adam
Genesis 1–11 is inerrant history, not poetry, historical fiction, or mythology.[1] The thirteen-fold use of Hebrew word toledoth (translated as “history,” “account,” or “generations”) in Genesis,[2] alongside the waw-consecutive, imperfect verb form, shows that these eleven chapters are historical narrative. The genealogies in Genesis 5, 11, Luke 3, and the many comments of Jesus, Paul, and Peter show that Genesis 1–11 should be interpreted as literally as we do the accounts of the virgin birth, crucifixion, and resurrection of Jesus.[3]So, what does Scripture teach about the origin of man?
The Literal Truth About Adam
According to Genesis 1:26–28, Adam and Eve were created on the sixth literal day of history and were uniquely made in the image of God. They were created to rule over the rest of creation. Adam was created to understand and use spoken language (Gen. 2:7–25). Adam had the reasoning ability to name animals and discern that he was alone — the only human being, until God made Eve.
Genesis 2:7 clearly states that God made Adam’s body from the dust of the ground, added the divine breath, and Adam became a “living creature” (Hebrew: nephesh chayyah). The same Hebrew words, nephesh chayyah, describe sea creatures, flying creatures, and land animals (Gen. 1:20–21, 24; 2:19; 9:9–15). They are all living creatures (though they are not made in the image of God). God did not make a living creature by natural processes over millions of years and transform that living creature into a human being. The first man, Adam, was supernaturally made from literal dust (cf. Gen. 3:19; 1 Cor. 15:45–47). Genesis 2:7 is impossible to harmonize with human evolution.
Genesis 2:22 says Eve, the first woman (Gen. 3:20), was made from a pre-existing living creature (Adam). But this was by supernatural surgery, not by any natural process.
The fall of Adam and Eve not only produced immediate spiritual death (Gen. 3:8) but also precipitated God’s judgment in initiating the process of physical death (Gen. 3:19). God also cursed the non-human creation (Gen. 3:14, 17–18; Rom. 8:18–25). In Genesis 3:15, God gave the first promise of the coming Messiah to save sinners. Then God made coats of skin implying the first blood sacrifice as a covering for sin (Gen. 3:21), pointing to the Lamb of God (Jesus) who provides forgiveness of sin (John 1:29) for those who repent and believe the gospel.
God says that He created the earth to be inhabited by man (Isa. 45:12, 18), and that He created the heavenly bodies so man can tell time (Gen 1:14). But if the big bang theory is true, then God waited billions of years after He made the stars, Sun, Moon, and Earth before He made man. What kind of God would say and do this? These statements only make sense if Adam was created five days after God created the earth and two days after He made the heavenly bodies.
Referring to Genesis 1–2 in Mark 10:1–9, Jesus affirmed that God created Adam and Eve at the “beginning of creation.”[4] Paul likewise taught that “since the creation of the world,” humans have seen the witness of creation to the existence and some attributes of God (Rom 1:20). Jesus and Paul were clearly young-earth creationists: Adam was not created billions of years after the beginning, as implied by the evolution story.
But what about the “overwhelming scientific evidence”?
The idea of millions of years of earth history was invented in the minds of anti-Christian geologists in the late eighteenth and early-nineteenth century by using naturalistic, uniformitarian assumptions to interpret the evidence.[5]
Fossil evidence?
Since the discovery of “Neanderthal Man” in 1856 in Germany, evolutionists have trotted out numerous examples of fossil evidence to “prove beyond question” that we evolved from some ape-like creature over millions of years. From 1864 until recently, evolutionists said Neanderthals were a different species, Homo neanderthalensis. Today, many evolutionists classify them as fully human, and for many good reasons. They made sophisticated spears and tools, jewelry, glue, boats, flutes from bear femurs, and homes from animal skins. They painted cave art, used fire to cook, cared for their sick, and ceremonially buried their dead. Genetic and anatomical evidence indicates they could speak, and they interbred with modern humans.[6]
“Piltdown Man” was announced in 1912 as an ape-man who lived 500,000 to a million years ago. In the following decades he was discussed in 500 scientific papers[7] and presented as evidence of human evolution in the famous “Scopes Evolution Trial” in 1925.[8] But in 1953 “Piltdown man” was exposed as a deliberate hoax concocted by some of the leading scientists in Britain.
In 1922, Henry Fairfield Osborn (director of the American Museum of Natural History in New York City, 1908–1935) declared to the public that “Nebraska Man” was an ape-like ancestor based on a single fossil tooth! But in 1927, after more fossil evidence was discovered in Nebraska, it was quietly revealed (in a technical journal) to be from an extinct species of pig.
In 1970, in commenting on the Piltdown hoax, the prominent evolutionist Lord Solly Zuckerman declared,
Students of fossil primates have not been distinguished for caution when working within the logical constraints of their subject. The record is so astonishing that it is legitimate to ask whether much science is yet to be found in this field at all. The story of the Piltdown Man hoax provides a pretty good answer.[9]
In 1974 “Lucy” was declared to be a “missing link” ape-woman. But compelling evidence, recognized by even some evolutionists, shows that she and other Australopithecines are 100% apes.[10]
In 1993, in a review of an evolutionist book on human origins, Chris Stringer, another world-famous evolutionary expert on the subject said,
The study of human origins seems to be a field in which each discovery raises the debate to a more sophisticated level of uncertainty . . . . True to the traditions of the field, the arguments swirl around the questions of the correct classification of the fossils and of the presumed relationships between the species of humans and pre-humans.[11]
From 1997 to the present, Dr. Carl Werner and his wife have visited 122 natural history museums and universities all over the world. They have photographed thousands of original fossils and interviewed over 100 leading evolutionists about the evidence for evolution, and especially the evolution of man. What they discovered was a trail of false claims, hidden evidence, manipulation of the evidence, fraud, and sharp disagreement among evolutionist experts. Anyone who thinks the scientific evidence for human evolution is strong needs to consider Werner’s revealing interviews and photos of the actual fossil evidence. The world has been deceived.[12]
Genetic evidence?
Like the fossil evidence, genetics also confirms Genesis and refutes evolution. For many years the media and science magazines have told the world that the DNA of chimpanzees and humans “are nearly 99 percent the same.”[13] But to arrive at that percentage, evolutionists did not compare the whole genomes of chimps and humans and used the human genome as a structural framework (which thereby assumed ape-to-human evolution is a fact).
But in 2016, Dr. Jeffrey Tomkins (geneticist at the Institute for Creation Research) carefully analyzed the published genomic data and concluded that the genomes of humans and chimps are only about 85% the same.[14] In May 2025, in the prominent journal, Nature, evolutionists confirmed that percentage as a result of mapping the whole genome of apes without using the human genome as a template.[15]
Dr. Tomkins and Dr. Nathaniel Jeason (genetics expert at Answers in Genesis) have also shown that genetics confirms that all humans are descended from just two humans and the mutation rate in the human genome confirms the biblical timescale for Adam, not the evolutionist timescale for the first Homo sapiens.[16]
Does It Matter What We Believe About Adam?
The biblical and scientific evidence overwhelmingly exposes the lie that humans evolved from some ape-like ancestors over millions of years. The account of Adam and Eve in Genesis is literally accurate history. They were created supernaturally only a little more than 6000 years ago.[17]
The Bible’s teaching about Adam and Eve is critical to right thinking about gender, marriage, abortion, racism, and the authority of Scripture.[18] The myth of millions of years of animal disease, death, and extinction and other natural evils before Adam undermines the clear biblical truth about the original very good creation, the cosmic impact of the Fall, and the future redemption of the creation at the return of Christ and thereby assaults the character of God.[19]
Many old-earth creationists affirm a literal, historical Adam but accept the billions of years. This reflects an inconsistent hermeneutic, as I have shown elsewhere.[20] Christians should reject all old-earth views, not just theistic evolution.[21]
Most importantly, Adam is foundational to the gospel message of salvation. He brought sin and physical and spiritual death into the human race. But Jesus, the last Adam, came to give spiritual life and ultimately resurrected physical life to all those who repent of their sins and trust in Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord (Rom 5:12–21; 1 Cor 15:20–28, 42–50). We have no gospel without the last Adam. But we can’t have the gospel with the first Adam either. Let God be true, but every man a liar (Rom 3:4)!
[1] Even most old-earth proponents in the church recognize that Genesis 1–11 is history. See, for example, Walter Kaiser, The Old Testament Documents: Are They Reliable and Relevant? (Downers Grove, IL: IVP, 2001), 53–83.
[3] For a scholarly defense of the young-earth view of Genesis 1–11 that is also understandable to thoughtful lay people, see the 14-author work, Terry Mortenson and Thane H. Ury, eds., Coming to Grips with Genesis (Green Forest, AR: Master Book, 2008).
[6] See Marvin Lubenow, “Neanderthals: Our Worthy Ancestors,” in Terry Mortenson, ed., Searching for Adam: Genesis and the Truth about Human Origins (Green Forest, AR: Master Books, 2016), 263–286.
[9] Solly Zuckerman, Beyond the Ivory Tower (New York, NY: Taplinger Publishing Co., 1970), 65.
[10] See David Menton’s illustrated lecture, “Lucy: She’s No Lady,” Answers in Genesis, August 11, 2015, https://answersingenesis.org/media/video/evolution/lucy-shes-no-lady/. The late Dr. Mention was a respected human anatomy medical professor (Washington University School of Medicine) and expert on the claimed fossil evidence for human evolution.
[11] Chris Stringer, Book review of Origins Reconsidered: In Search of What Makes Us Human, by Richard Leakey (Doubleday, 1992), Scientific American (May 1993), 88.
[16] Nathaniel Jeason and Jeffrey P. Tomkins, “Genetics confirms the recent, supernatural creation of Adam and Eve,” in Terry Mortenson, ed., Searching for Adam: Genesis and the Truth about Human Origins (Green Forest, AR: Master Books, 2016), 287–330.
[17] In Searching for Adam, sixteen experts defend the literal truth about Adam biblically, theologically, historically, paleontologically, genetically, anatomically, socially, and morally.
9:1 blessed. The third time God blessed humans (1:28; 5:2) and commanded them to be fruitful (1:28; 8:17). God’s blessing on Noah, to be fruitful and have dominion, constitutes the climactic act in God’s renewal of creation (8:1 note).
Sproul, R. C., ed. (2005). The Reformation Study Bible: English Standard Version (p. 23). Ligonier Ministries.
9:1 The blessing of God on the family of Noah provided a new beginning for humankind. The word blessed expresses the idea of God’s smile, the warmth of His pleasure (1:22, 28; 2:3; 12:2, 3). In a way, the promises that God had given to the first people were now restated for Noah, a “new Adam” (1:26–28). Among other things, the new populating of the earth by Noah’s family means that human society began again with a shared understanding of earliest human history, including the creation and Flood stories. Be fruitful and multiply was God’s command in the beginning (1:28).
Radmacher, E. D., Allen, R. B., & House, H. W. (1999). Nelson’s new illustrated Bible commentary (p. 21). T. Nelson Publishers.
9:1. And God blessed Noah and his sons, and he said to them, ‘Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth!’
This verse is almost a direct quote of the cultural mandate given by God to mankind in Genesis 1:28. This nearly identical expression serves to demonstrate that the episode involving Noah is modelled on the original creation account. Noah is a second Adam in the midst of a re-creation scenario. Yahweh’s command for humanity to be prolific is in direct contrast to some of the Mesopotamian accounts of a flood. For example, in the Atrahasis document, the gods bring a deluge on the people because ‘The people became numerous.’ Humanity were making such a din that they had disturbed the slumber of the gods, so the gods wished to destroy them. Not so Yahweh; rather, he wants mankind to produce and to be prolific.
Currid, J. D. (n.d.). A Study Commentary on Genesis: Genesis 1:1–25:18 (Vol. 1, p. 213). Evangelical Press.
FORGET NONE OF HIS BENEFITS volume 24, number 47, November 20, 2025
In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth, Genesis 1:1.
Astronomers tell us that our galaxy, the Milky Way, has over three billion stars, that it is one thousand light years deep, that it is one hundred thousand light years across. One light year is the speed of light which is one hundred and eighty-six thousand miles per second multiplied by every second in one year. They also say that there are one hundred billion galaxies in our universe. These figures are incomprehensible to us, but they proclaim a God of immeasurable glory and immensity, One who fills up every inch of His creation with His omnipresence, omnipotence, and omniscience.
The debate today is between naturalists and creationists of every stripe. Whether they believe in an old earth through a Steady State view of the universe (as did Carl Sagan who said “The cosmos is all there was, is, or ever will be”), or through the Framework hypothesis or Gap theory, or a young earth through a literal twenty-four hour, six day creation, this debate hinges on philosophy or theology. There is no conflict between true science and Biblical faith. Notice that I said “true science”, for it recognizes its limitations. True science works by observing certain phenomena and arriving at hypotheses based on that research. Since no human being was present on the first day of creation we are unable to observe the origin of the universe. True science is no better than theology at suggesting “how it all began.” Robert Jastrow of NASA famously said that for cosmologists, this is ending as a bad dream. For years they have been scaling the mountains of ignorance, thinking they finally have topped the summit, expecting to discover how it began, only to find the theologians sitting there for centuries. So the Christian has no reason to fear true science. We welcome scientific research, based on the scientific method. And we do not denigrate the suppositions scientists make on any range of observable and verifiable subjects. The conflict, however, arises when they become metaphysicians, philosophers, or theologians.
The grand declaration, that God created all things out of nothing (Genesis 1:1, John 1:1-3, Acts 17:24, Romans 1:20, Hebrews 11:3) is the most profound and far reaching statement in all of Scripture. It says volumes about God. It tells us that He is self-existent (Isaiah 45:5ff), incomprehensible (Romans 11:33), and sovereign (Psalm 115:3). He does not need us. He was not lonely before creation. This speaks of His aseity. He was perfectly content and fulfilled in His Triune fellowship. He does not enhance His being or attributes by condescending to our helplessness. We are unable ever to mine the depths of His wisdom, power, holiness, justice, goodness, or truth. He does as He pleases. He foreordains everything that comes to pass. There are no mistakes, no accidents. Nothing catches Him by surprise. Our problems stem from our truncated, paltry view of God. Our thinking about God tends to be far too small.
I aim, over the next several weeks, to take up the issue of God’s creation and some of the implications this has for us. Some of you are aware of the debate between Bible believing expositors and theologians concerning the early chapters of Genesis. Some believe in what is called the “Framework Hypothesis”, others believe in a literal twenty-four hour, six day creation. I would not call the Framework exegetes heretics though I believe they are very wrong in their view with massive negative implications. They say that they believe in creatio ex nihilo, creation out of nothing. However they believe that Moses never meant Genesis 1 to be taken literally. They say it is poetical, that the six days of creation are not chronological, that Moses meant the first three days to refer, as it were, to kingdoms and the last three days to refer to various kings in those kingdoms. In their view day one corresponds to day four, day two to day five, and day three to day six. This view allows for an old earth, perhaps billions of years old, and this fits very well with the vast majority of cosmologists who believe in a Big Bang theory of how it all began.
I reject the Framework hypothesis for several reasons. First, the Hebrew text has fifty-one “vav” consecutives in Genesis 1 alone, The “vav” consecutive is a Hebrew verb form that is used in historical narrative, not in poetry. Secondly, the language in Genesis 1 is not symbolic. There are no metaphors or tropes in it. Thirdly, it does not make use of parallelism which is so prevalent in Hebrew poetry. See the Psalms and much of Isaiah. Psalm 19:1 is an example of Hebrew poetry (notice the parallelism), “The heavens are telling of the glory of God, and their expanse is declaring the work of His hands.” And fourthly, the New Testament makes at least one hundred references to Genesis 1-11 and none of these give any indication that they view it poetically. They are all stated historically, that these things really happened in time in the ancient world.
I freely admit that this causes many to view the Bible to be in serious conflict with science. Most who believe in a literal twenty-four hour, six day creation believe the earth is less than ten thousand years old, and most cosmologists simply laugh at that. I will have more to say about this in the future, but as it stands right now, may I suggest that we have one of two ways to go in this debate. Either we begin with science and then try to fit Scripture into a reasonable model of cosmology; or we begin with Scripture and wait for science to make sense of the apparent discrepancy. As an evangelist and exegetical preacher I say we must begin with Scripture. After all, no one was there at the beginning. No one knows how it all began. For a scientist or cosmologist to speak as though he knows, is to move from science to metaphysics, philosophy, or theology. Would it not make sense, therefore, to begin with Scripture, to admit that we don’t know how it all began, but trust the Bible, that it clearly teaches a literal twenty-four hour, six day creation? Perhaps many scientists may one day, through research, find the Bible’s explanation acceptable.
This all means that we ought to deny atheism, agnosticism, pantheism, polytheism, and naturalism. If you take the Genesis 1 account seriously, then this leaves no room for any of these isms—including naturalism in the form of evolution or theistic evolution. These views all contradict the Scriptures. It means that we must affirm the worship of the God of Scripture. One of the Hebrew words for worship in the Old Testament means literally to bow down with one’s face to the ground in utter reverence before the Creator Redeemer. It means that everyone’s life has purpose and meaning, and that’s because we are the crown of His creation. No one is unimportant. And it means that creation is a paradigm for re-creation. God recreates us in Christ, giving us a new heart to love and serve Him; and He one day will re-create the heavens and earth, restoring them to their pre-fallen glory and majesty. I pray your vision for God will expand so that you may worship in awe.
4:9 “The cool impudence of Cain is an indication of the state of heart which led up to his murdering his brother; and it was also a part of his having committed that terrible crime. He would not have proceeded to the cruel deed of bloodshed if he had not first cast off the fear of God and been ready to defy his Maker.” Charles Spurgeon
Comfort, R. (2003). The Evidence Bible: Irrefutable Evidence for the Thinking Mind, Notes (K. Cameron, Ed.; p. 15). Bridge-Logos.
4:9 God’s use of questions with guilty sinners continues here (v. 6; cp. 3:9–13). By claiming he did not know where his brother was, Cain added lying to his sin of murder. God once made Adam a guardian (Hb shamar) of the garden (2:15). Cain now asked if he was to be his brother’s guardian (Hb shamar). The Bible’s answer to Cain’s question is yes (Lv 19:18; Mt 22:39; Gl 5:14).
Bergen, R. D. (2017). Genesis. In E. A. Blum & T. Wax (Eds.), CSB Study Bible: Notes (p. 12). Holman Bible Publishers.
4:9 I do not know When God confronted Adam and Eve with their sin, they readily confessed (3:11–13). Here, Cain lies to God outright, denying any knowledge of his brother’s whereabouts.
my brother’s keeper Cain not only denies knowing anything about Abel’s fate, but also defiantly objects to the implication that he should be responsible for his brother in any way.
Barry, J. D., Mangum, D., Brown, D. R., Heiser, M. S., Custis, M., Ritzema, E., Whitehead, M. M., Grigoni, M. R., & Bomar, D. (2012, 2016). Faithlife Study Bible (Ge 4:9). Lexham Press.
4:9 am I my brother’s keeper? When the Lord confronts Cain with his crime, his coldhearted nature causes him to deny any knowledge about his brother. Cain shows no sign of remorse.
Crossway Bibles. (2008). The ESV Study Bible (p. 58). Crossway Bibles.
4:9 Am I my brother’s keeper? Cain’s sarcasm was a play on words, based on the fact that Abel was the “keeper” of sheep. Lying was the third sin resulting from Cain’s attitude of indifference to God’s commands. Sin was ruling over him (v. 7).
MacArthur, J. F., Jr. (2006). The MacArthur study Bible: New American Standard Bible. (Ge 4:9). Thomas Nelson Publishers.
Ver. 9. Am I my brother’s keeper? Exaggerated individualism:— The feeling of our sonship to God in Christ is a topic which requires to be constantly dwelt upon, because our conventional acceptance of such a relationship is apt to be compatible with a life which has no real apprehension of it. I. Of the dangers which are partly rooted in our animal nature and partly fostered and intensified by the drift of our time, the one likely to press most heavily on us is that of exaggerated Individualism. Where this is not tempered by an infusion of the religious spirit, we find it working with a disintegrating power, and in various ways vitiating both our personal and social life. II. Almost every advance of civilization which distinguishes our century has tended to give this principle some new hold on the common life. There is no corner of society, commercial or social, political or artistic, which it does not invade. The volume of its force is intensified as wealth increases and easy circumstances become more common. Our time is pre-eminently a time of materialistic egoism. III. The evolutionist, telling us of the growth of all our sentiments, taking us back to germinal forms and then leading us upward through struggle and survival, makes the ruling motive in every early life essentially egoistic. The question arises, Where and how is this motive to change its character? Is this last utterance to be still but an echo of the primeval question, “Am I my brother’s keeper?” IV. But we cannot rest in this conclusion. There is no possibility of rest until we have settled it with ourselves that our higher consciousness gives us touch of the reality of the Divine and everlasting, when it declares that we are the children of God, and if children, then heirs, joint-heirs with Christ. This we believe to be the last word for us on the mystery of our being and destiny. (J. Percival.) Brotherhood:— The first time the relationship of brotherhood is brought before us in Scripture does not present it in the most harmonious or endearing aspect, and yet the very rivalry and resentment which were engendered by it give an incidental sign of the closeness of the tie which it involves. I. The brother tie is one whose visible and apparent closeness of necessity diminishes under the common conditions of life. II. Although it is a link whose visible association vanishes, it ought never to be an association which fades out of the heart. There is always something wrong when a relationship like this disappears behind maturer attachments. III. Whether from the hearth of home or from the wider range of brotherhood which the commonwealth supplies, the pattern and inspiration of true brotherhood is found in Christ, the Elder Brother of us all. (A. Mursell.) The gospel of selfishness:— “Am I my brother’s keeper?” This is the very gospel of selfishness, and a murderer is its first preacher. The gospel of selfishness is, that a man must take care of his own interests; and out of that universal self-seeking, provided it be wise and restrained, will come the well-being of all. I. This is an age of rights rather than of duties. It is very notable that there is almost nothing about rights in the teaching of Christ. The Lord seeks to train the spirit of His followers into doing and suffering aright. By preaching love and duty, the gospel has been the lawgiver of nations, the friend of man, the champion of his rights. Its teaching has been of God, of duty, and of love; and wherever these ideas have come, freedom and earthly happiness and cultivation have followed silently behind. II. Our age needs to be reminded that in one sense each of us has the keeping of his brethren confided to him, and that love is the law and the fulfilling of the law. The rights of men to our love and consideration, rest upon an act of Divine love. Their chartered right to our reverence is in these terms: That God loved them, and sent His Son to be the propitiation for their sins; and the Saviour set to it His seal, and signed it with His blood. (Archbishop Thomson.) Cain and Abel:— I. LET EVERY CHRISTIAN FULLY AND WILLINGLY RECOGNIZE THE FACT THAT HE IS HIS BROTHER’S KEEPER. There is an old French proverb to the effect that “nobility has its obligations,” the neglect to remember and act upon which resulted in the rapine and blood of the French Revolution. Position has its special responsibilities, which can not safely be disregarded, and when one is fully convinced of the fact that he is “his brother’s keeper,” he will be anxious to meet the liabilities of the situation. And a right-minded person will not merely accept the fact under compulsion. He will be glad that things are as they are. What wide ranges of usefulness are open before him. What an opportunity he has to impress himself for good upon multitudes around him, and even upon times remote. And that empire of gracious influence is the lordliest and most satisfying of all sovereignties. How the world loves to keep alive the names of single men who have made their personality felt in helpful directions. Scores of Union generals deserved well of their country, but Sheridan, riding “from Winchester twenty miles away,” and turning disaster into victory by the simple power of his presence, receives the applause of thousands who have forgotten the names of equally loyal leaders. It is a great thing to have an efficient part in determining the destiny of others, to have control of the rudder that may steer them away from dangerous coasts and out into wide seas of prosperity. II. EVERY CHRISTIAN OUGHT TO MAKE THE DISCHARGE OF HIS DUTY AS HIS BROTHER’S KEEPER A MATTER OF CONSTANT THOUGHT AND PRAYER. It is not enough merely to accept our responsibility as an article of creed, and then lay it away on the shelf as a matter proved and concluded. How will this thing, if I do it, or leave it undone, affect others? is a question that ought to be asked and answered all the time. And especially ought we to take counsel of God, not as to how little we can consistently do, but as to how much we can possibly do in this direction. III. IN MATTERS OF DOUBT, A CHRISTIAN SHOULD LEAN TO THE SAFE SIDE. It was a rule of President Edwards never to do anything about whose influence he had a question unless he was equally in doubt as to whether the not doing it might not have as bad, or a worse, effect. That is a hard rule to follow, but it is certainly a safe one. Men will never be turned away from God and religion because we deny ourselves what seem to us legitimate pleasures for fear of the evil influence we may exert. That very sacrifice will evidence a genuineness and depth of conviction which is the strongest of all arguments to the truth and worth of religion. (E. S. Atwood, D.D.) Earthly relationship the medium of spiritual influence:— I. THAT EARTHLY RELATIONSHIPS INVOLVE THE DUTY OF SPIRITUAL CARE. Relation, taken in its widest sense, if not the ground of all moral obligation, is certainly intimately connected therewith. No man can be a parent, a son, or a master, without being specially bound to care for his own. Men have to provide for their households in earthly things, and ought to in spiritual. In proportion to the closeness of the relationship is the force of the obligation. II. THAT EARTHLY RELATIONSHIPS AFFORD PECULIAR OPPORTUNITIES FOR THE DISCHARGE OF THIS DUTY. God has constituted the varied relationships of life for purpose of promoting the moral good of man. Opportunity and power should be voluntarily used. Families have little thought of the opportunity they have of bringing each other to Jesus. III. THAT ACCORDING AS THE SPIRIT OF CHRIST OR OF SELFISHNESS IS POSSESSED, WILL THIS DUTY BE FULFILLED OR NEGLECTED. Sin, whose essence is selfishness, is a severing principle. But Christ’s spirit is a spirit of love. We must come to Christ ourselves to get the incentive to this duty. IV. THAT CONCERNING THE PERFORMANCE OF THIS DUTY AN ACCOUNT WILL BE REQUIRED. And the Lord said unto Cain, &c. Vain will be excuse. God will speak. So will conscience. V. THAT EARTHLY RELATIONSHIPS, ACCORDING TO THE MANNER IN WHICH THEY ARE USED, BECOME AN ETERNAL BLESSING OR BANE. (Homilist.) The word of Cain:— All men, the poor, the ignorant, the fallen, the heathen, are our brethren. Such is the Christian notion of humanity. We are, therefore, the keepers of our brethren. Man is twofold; he has a body and a soul. Thence for us a twofold mission: we are called to alleviate the miseries of the body, and to save souls. Jesus Christ has been brought into contact with both these forms of suffering. Let us examine His conduct in reference to them. I. THE SUFFERINGS OF THE BODY. Christ has come into contact with them under their two most common forms—sickness and poverty. What He has done for their victims all the gospel tells. We see Him ever surrounded by the poor and the sick. He has a partiality for their society. With what tender solicitude He treats them! And mark the results of this sublime teaching. The faithful Church has always regarded the poor as the representatives of Christ. II. That is what Christianity has done towards alleviating the miseries of the body; but that is only a part of its mission. ABOVE THE BODY THERE IS THE SOUL. The soul is man eternal. If we must sympathize with the temporal interests of our fellow-men, what shall it be when their souls are in question? But if I have understood what is my soul, if I have felt that it constitutes my dignity, my greatness, and my true life, then will I endeavour to awaken that life in others. III. THIS MISSION, HOW DO WE FULFIL IT? What, in the first place, shall we say of those who do not fulfil it at all? There are people who believe they are saved and who have never loved. If selfishness has never prompted you to utter the words of the text, have you never uttered them from discouragement? There are times when the thought of all that ought to be done pursues and paralyses us. Let us therefore learn of Christ. But I hear your final objection: Yes, say you, we are ready to work, but on condition that our labour shall produce some results. And then follows the sad story of those vain efforts, of those humiliating failures, of those discouragements which every Christian knows and might in his turn recount. To all these objections let me again reply, “Look to Jesus!” Did He succeed on earth? (E. Bersier, D.D.) My brother’s keeper:— I. THAT GOD DOES HOLD MAN RESPONSIBLE FOR THE SAFETY AND WELFARE OF HIS FELLOW-MEN.
For their temporal welfare.
For their moral condition.
For their religious well-being. II. THAT THE WELL-DISPOSED ACKNOWLEDGE THEIR RESPONSIBILITY, AND ACT UPON IT.
By attending to their bodily condition. Hospitals, almshouses, refuges, &c.
By caring for their souls. (Homilist.) The claims of a perishing world upon Christian zeal and liberality founded in human fraternity:— I. THAT THE WHOLE HUMAN RACE ARE ONE FAMILY, AND STAND IN RELATION OF BRETHREN TO EACH OTHER. To prove this, it is necessary only to remark two things—
God has made us all of one blood.
We have all proceeded from the same pair. II. THAT IT IS OUR DUTY TO CARE FOR OUR BRETHREN.
The law of consanguinity requires it. This law dictates affection and sympathy.
The law of God requires it. “Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.”
Our common Christianity requires it. It enjoins love to God; but we cannot love God without loving our brother also (1 John 4:20). It enjoins an imitation of the example of Christ; but Christ so loved the world as to die for it. It enjoins obedience to Christ; but He commands His gospel to be preached in all the world. III. THAT THOSE EVILS WHICH BEFALL OUR BRETHREN THROUGH OUR INATTENTION ARE CHARGEABLE UPON US. To illustrate this let me suppose a few cases.
That any of your brethren were compelled to perform a long and dangerous voyage, and that they were total strangers to navigation, and without a single chart or compass; and suppose that you abounded in charts and compasses, and in skilful navigators; and that you refused to grant them either the one or the other; and suppose these should all perish, to whom would their loss be ascribed? To you. Or suppose—
That they were compelled to journey through a land of pits and precipices, abounding in beasts of prey; and that they were ignorant of the path to be pursued, and knew not where the pits and precipices were, and had nothing by which they could defend themselves from the beasts; and suppose you had it in your power to furnish them with a guide and a sufficient defence, but did not, and that they should in consequence perish; their blood would be upon your head. Or suppose—
That they were dying of disease, without the knowledge of any remedy; and suppose you were in possession of an infallible one, and that you withheld it; their death would be at your door. In each case the consequences would be as fatal as if you had by some positive act, as that of Cain, destroyed them. IV. THAT WE HAVE BEEN SINFULLY INATTENTIVE TO THE ETERNAL INTERESTS OF OUR BRETHREN GENERALLY, AND TO THOSE OF THE HEATHEN PART OF THEM IN PARTICULAR. (Sketches of Sermons.) God’s question and man’s answer:— I. GOD’S QUESTION—“Where is Abel thy brother?” Has God a right to expect this knowledge at our hands? He has; and that on many accounts.
For instance, there is the constitution of our nature. When man was created, the whole race were involved in one parent, they all sprang from one root; so that there was provision made for forming a family, and for brotherly feeling among them. God, therefore, reasonably expects that we should all feel a kindly interest and concern in one another’s welfare.
We might argue the same from the covenant in which we were all wrapped up, to stand or fall together; from the law, which requires us to love our neighbour; and, above all, from the gospel. Has the great God loved me, pitied me, been patient with me, and at a great, unspeakable cost saved me; and shall I not be ready to deny myself and make sacrifices, in order to save and bless my fellow-men? II. MAN’S ANSWER—“I know not; am I my brother’s keeper?” Here is a twofold plea—the first, ignorance; the second, an insinuation that God has no right to expect such knowledge at his hand.
Cain excused himself on the ground of ignorance. This is either true or false. (1) If true, then he is guilty, because he has had abundant opportunity of knowing, and ought to know. And so with yourselves. You know about your neighbour’s outward estate; should you not know about his spiritual condition? (2) But Cain’s plea, “I know not,” was really false. He did know where Abel was. And so you do know that many around you, perhaps closely connected with you, are tempted, ensnared, perishing.
Cain denies that God has a right to expect that he should take trouble about Abel. “Am I my brother’s keeper? Have I anything to do with him, any charge of him? Can he not take care of himself?” Is not this the feeling in many hearts? You say, Am I that poor wretch’s keeper? What have I to do with him? He has no claim upon me. I have other work to do, other interests to attend to. But look again, Is he thy brother; and has he no claim upon thee? (J. Milne.) The examination of Cain:— The world was yet young, and there were no judicatories to take cognizance of offences; therefore did God, who, though His creatures had rebelled against Him, still hold in His hands the government of the world, come forth from His solitude, and make “inquisition for blood.” But why—omniscient as God was, and, by His own after-statement, thoroughly cognizant of the guilt of Cain—why did He address the murderer with the question, “Where is Abel thy brother?” in place of taxing him at once with the atrocious commission? Assuredly there could have been no need to God of additional information: it was in no sense the same as at a human tribunal, where questions are put that facts may be elicited. And in following this course, God acted as He had done on the only former occasion when He had sat, as it were, in judgment on human offenders (see Gen. 3:9; Gen. 3:11; Gen. 3:13). But the method of question is again employed, so soon as there is again a human offender to be tried. “The Lord said unto Cain, Where is Abel thy brother?” It can hardly be doubted that, in all these instances, the gracious design of God was to afford the criminals opportunity of confessing their crimes. You must be aware how, throughout Scripture, there is attached the greatest importance to confession of sin, so that its being forgiven is spoken of as though it depended upon nothing but its being acknowledged. “If we confess our sins,” says the evangelist, “God is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” And did the crime, then, of Cain come within the range of forgiveness? Supposing it to have been confessed, might it also have been pardoned? The crime had been fearful; and we must believe that, in any case, the moral Governor of the universe would have so treated the criminal as to mark His sense of the atrociousness of that which he had done. But there is no room for doubt that there was forgiveness even for Cain; even then there was blood which spake better things than that of Abel, the blood of Him who, on the cross, besought pardon for His murderers, and who, in thus showing that His death made expiation even for its authors, showed also that there was no human sin which its virtue would not reach. But if Cain might have been pardoned, had he been but penitent, where was the contrite sinner who need despair of the forgiveness of his sins? Ay, it is thus that the questions under review might have served as a revelation, during the infancy of the world, of the readiness of the Almighty to blot out our iniquities as a cloud, and as a thick cloud our sins. But let us now observe the manner in which Cain acted, whilst God was thus graciously endeavouring to lead him to repentance. If we had not abundant evidence, in our own day—yea, in our own cases—of the hardening power of sin, we might wonder at the effrontery which the murderer displayed. Did he, could he, think that denial would avail anything with God, so that, if he did not confess, he might keep his crime undetected? It may be that it was not in mere insolence that Cain affirmed to God that he knew nothing of Abel; he may have been so blinded by his sin as to lose all discernment of the necessary attributes of God, so that he actually imagined that not to confess would be almost to conceal. Under this point of view, his instance ought to serve as a warning to us of the deadening power of wrong-doing, informing us that there is no such ready way of benumbing the understanding, or paralysing the reason, as the indulging passion, and withstanding conscience. But Cain did more than assert ignorance of what had happened to Abel: he taxed God with the unreasonableness of proposing the question, as though it were a strange thing to suppose that he might concern himself with his brother. “Am I my brother’s keeper?” There were then no brothers in the world but Cain and Abel; and he who could insolently ask, “Am I my brother’s keeper?” when that brother was missing, might have been convicted, by those very words, of a fierceness which was equal to murder, and an audacity which would deny it even to God. But we wish to dwell for a moment on this question of Cain as virtually containing the excuse which numbers in our own day would give, were God to come visibly down, and make inquisition for blood. But we have how to consider to what God appealed in the absence of confession from the murderer himself: He had striven to induce Cain to acknowledge his guilt; but, failing in this, He must seek elsewhere for evidence on which to convict him. And where did He find this evidence? He made the inanimate creation rise up, as it were, against the assassin, and dumb things became eloquent in demanding his condemnation. “The voice of thy brother’s blood crieth unto Me from the ground.” Who has not read, who has not heard, how murderers, though they have succeeded in hiding their guilt from their fellow-men, have seemed to themselves surrounded with witnesses and avengers, so that the sound of their own foot-tread has startled them as if it had been the piercing cry of an accuser, and the rustling of every tree, and the murmur of every brook, has sounded like the utterance of one clamorous for their punishment? It has been as nothing that they have screened themselves from those around them, and are yet moving in society with no suspicion attaching to them of their having done so foul a thing as murder. They have felt as though, in the absence of all accusation from beings of their own race, they had arrayed against themselves the whole visible creation, sun and moon and stars and forests and waters growing vocal that they might publish their crime. And I know not whether there may be anything more in this than the mere goading and imaging of conscience; whether the disquieted assassin, to whose troubled eye the form of his victim is given back from every mirror in the universe, and on whose ear there falls no sound which does not come like the dying man’s shriek, or the thundering call of the avenger of blood—whether he is simply to be considered as haunted and hunted by his own evil thoughts, or whether he be indeed subjected to some mysterious and terrible influences with which his crime has impregnated and endowed the whole material system. I cannot help feeling, when I consider the language of our text, as though there might be more than the mere phantasms of a diseased and distracted mind in those forms of fear, and these sounds of wrath, which agitate so tremendously the yet undiscovered murderer. It may be that, fashioned as man is out of the dust of the earth, there are such links between him and the material creation that, when the citadel of his life is rudely invaded, the murderous blow is felt throughout the vast realm of nature; so that, though there be no truth in the wild legend that, if the assassin enter the chamber where the victim is stretched, the gaping wounds will bleed afresh, yet may earth, sea, air, have sympathy with the dead, and form themselves into furies to hunt down his destroyer. But it is not exclusively, nor even chiefly, as indicating a possible, though inexplicable, sympathy between material things and the victim of the murderer, that we reckon the statement before us deserving of being carefully pondered. Setting aside this sympathy, there is much that is very memorable in the appeal of God to a voice from Abel’s blood, when there were other witnesses which might have been produced. Had not the soul of Abel entered the separate state? was not his spirit with God? and might not the immortal principle, violently detached as it had been from the body, have cried for vengeance on the murderer? We read in the Book of Revelation of “the souls of them that were slain for the Word of God, and for the testimony which they held.” And of those souls we are told that “they cried with a loud voice, saying, How long, O Lord, holy and true, dost Thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth?” It may, therefore, be that the souls of the dead cry for judgment upon those who have compassed their death: why, then, might not the soul of Abel, rather than his blood, have been adduced by God? Even had it been silent, surely its very presence in the invisible world gave a more impressive testimony than the stream which had crimsoned the ground. In answer to this, we are to consider, in the first place, that it did not please God to vouchsafe any clear revelation of the invisible state, during the earlier ages of the world. That Abel had fallen by the hand of his brother was the most terrible of all possible proofs that the original transgression had corrupted human nature to the core. But it would have done much—not indeed to counterbalance this proof, but to soften the anguish which it could not fail to produce—had there been any intimation that the death of the body was not the death of the man, and that Cain had but removed Abel from a scene of trouble to one of deep repose. This, however, was denied them: they must struggle on through darkness, sustained only by a dim conjecture of life and immortality. Indeed, indeed, I know not whether there be anything more affecting in the history of our first parents. Oh, bless God, ye who have had to sorrow over dead children, that ye live when life and immortality have been brought to light by the gospel. Yours has not been the deep and desolate bitterness of those on whom fell no shinings from futurity. Unto you have come sweet whisperings from the invisible world, whisperings as of the one whom you loved, telling you of a better land, where “the wicked cease from troubling, and the weary are at rest.” But alas for Adam and Eve! theirs was grief, stern, dark, unmingled. But, indeed, there are better things to be said on the fact that it was Abel’s blood, and not his soul, which found a voice to demand vengeance on the murderer. We know not how Abel, the first martyr, died. Oh, I cannot but think that in God’s reference to the blood of Abel as the only accuser there was a designed and beautiful lesson as to the forgiveness of injuries. You know that, in the gospel, our obtaining forgiveness from God is made conditional on our forgiving those by whom we may be wronged. “For if ye forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.” And was not the same truth taught, by example, if not by word, from the earliest days, seeing that, when God would bring an accusing voice against Cain, He could only find it in the dumb earth reeking with blood, though the soul of Abel was before Him, and might have been thought ready to give witness with an exceeding great and bitter cry? Abel forgave his murderer, otherwise could he not have been forgiven of God; and we learn that he forgave his murderer from the fact that it was only his blood which cried aloud for vengeance. Thus is there something very instructive in the absence of any voice but the voice from the ground. There is also matter for deep thought in the fact that it was blood which sent up so penetrating a cry. It was like telling the young world of the power which there would be in blood to gain audience of the Most High. What was there in blood that it could give, as it were, life to inanimate things, causing them to become vocal, so that the very Godhead Himself was moved by the sound? The utterance, we think, did but predict that when one, to whom Abel had had respect in presenting in sacrifice the firstlings of his flock, should fall, as Abel fell, beneath the malice of the wicked, there would go up from the shed blood a voice that would be hearkened to in the heavenly courts, and prevail to the obtaining whatsoever it should ask. Blessed be God that this blood does not plead for vengeance alone. It does plead for vengeance on the obdurate, who, like Cain, resist the invitation of God; but it pleads also for pardon of the murderers, so that it can expiate the crime which it proves and attests. (H. Melvill, B.D.) Am I my brother’s keeper?— The cool impudence of Cain is an indication of the state of heart which led up to his murdering his brother; and it was also a part of the result of his having committed that terrible crime. He would not have proceeded to the cruel deed of bloodshed if he had not first cast off the fear of God and been ready to defy his Maker. Having committed murder, the hardening influence of sin upon Cain’s mind must have been intense, and so at last he was able to speak out to God’s face what he felt within his heart, and to say, “Am I my brother’s keeper?” This goes a long way to explain what has puzzled some persons, namely, the wonderful calmness with which great criminals will appear in the dock. I remember to have heard it said of one who had undoubtedly committed a very foul murder, that he looked like an innocent man. He stood up before his accusers as calmly and quietly, they said, as an innocent man could do. I remember feeling at the time that an innocent man would probably not have been calm. The distress of mind occasioned to an innocent man by being under such a charge would have prevented his having the coolness which was displayed by the guilty individual. Instead of its being any evidence of innocence that a man wears a brazen front when charged with a great crime, it should by wise men be considered to be evidence against him. Save us, O God, from having our hearts hammered to the hardness of steel by sin; and daily keep us by Thy grace sensible and tender before Thee, trembling at Thy word. The very same thing, no doubt, lies at the bottom of objections to Bible truths. There are some who do not go to Scripture to take out of it what is there, but seeing what is clearly revealed, they then begin to question and judge and come to conclusions according to their notions of what ought to have been there. Nay, but, O man, who art thou that repliest against God? If He says it, it is so. Believe it. Now, let us look quietly at what Cain said. He said to the Lord, “Am I my brother’s keeper?” May the Holy Spirit guide us in considering this question. I. First it is to be noted that MAN IS NOT HIS BROTHER’S KEEPER IN SOME SENSES. There is some little weight in what Cain says.
For instance, first, every man must bear his own responsibility for his own acts before Almighty God. It is not possible for a man to shift from his own shoulders to those of another his obligations to the Most High.
And again, no one can positively secure the salvation of another, nay, he cannot even have a hope of the salvation of his friend, so long as that other remains unbelieving.
And here let me say, in the next place, that those do very wrongly who enter into any vows or promises for others in this matter, when they are quite powerless.
It is proper here to say that the most earnest minister of Christ must not so push the idea of his own personal responsibility to such an extreme as to make himself unfit for his work through a morbid view of his position. If he has faithfully preached the gospel, and his message is rejected, let him persevere in hope, and not condemn himself. II. So now, secondly, IN A HIGH DEGREE WE ARE, EACH ONE OF US, OUR BROTHER’S KEEPER. We ought to regard ourselves in that light, and it is a Cainish spirit which prompts us to think otherwise, and to wrap ourselves up in hardheartedness and say, “It is no concern of mine how others fare. Am I my brother’s keeper?” Far from that spirit let us be.
For, first, common feelings of humanity should lead every Christian man to feel an interest in the soul of every unsaved man.
A second argument is drawn from the fact that we have all of us, especially those of us who are Christians, the power to do good to others. We have not all the same ability, for we have not all the same gifts, or the same position, but as the little maid that waited on Naaman’s wife had opportunity to tell of the prophet who could heal her master, so there is not a young Christian here but what has some power to do good to others. Converted children can lisp the name of Jesus to their sires and bless them. We have all some capacity for doing good. Now, take it as an axiom that power to do good involves the duty of doing good.
Another argument is very plainly drawn from our Lord’s version of the moral law. What is the second and great commandment according to Him? “Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.”
Yet again, without looking to other men’s souls, we cannot keep the first of the two great commands in which our Lord has summarised the moral law.
Once more. To the Christian man, perhaps, the most forcible reason will be that the whole example of Jesus Christ, whom we call Master and Lord, lies in the direction of our being the keeper of our brother; for what was Jesus’ life but entire unselfishness? What was said of Him at His death but that “He saved others: Himself He could not save”?
Let the thought next rise in our minds that we are certainly ordained to the office of brother-keeper, because we shall be called to account about it. Cain was called to account. “Where is Abel thy brother?” (1) Take first those who are united to us by the ties of flesh, who come under the term “brethren,” because they are born of the same parents, or are near of kin. Where is John? Where is Thomas? Where is Henry thy brother? Unsaved? Without God? What have you ever done for him? How much have you prayed for him? How often have you spoken to him seriously about his state? What means have you used for his instruction, persuasion, conviction? See to this, that ye begin at once earnestly seeking the salvation of relatives. (2) But, beloved, we must never end there, because brotherhood extends to all ranks, races, and conditions; and according to each man’s ability he will be held responsible about the souls of others whom he never saw. Where is Abel thy brother? Down in a back street in London. He is half-drunk already. Have you done anything, friend, towards the reclaiming of the drunkard? Where is your sister?—your sister who frequents the midnight streets? You shrink back and say, “She is no sister of mine.” Ay, but God may require her blood at your hands, if you thus leave her to perish. Have you ever done anything towards reclaiming her? City merchant, where are the poor men that earned your wealth? (3) One thing more upon this calling to account. The more needy, the more destitute people are, the greater is their claim upon us; for according to the account-book—need I turn to the chapter? I think you recollect it—they are the persons for whom we shall have mainly to give an account: “I was an hungered, and ye gave Me no meat; I was thirsty, and ye gave Me no drink; I was sick and in prison, and ye visited Me not; naked, and ye clothed Me not.”
Now, I close this second head about our really being our brother’s keeper by saying this—that there are some of us who are our brother’s keeper voluntarily, but yet most solemnly, by the office that we hold. We are ministers. O brother ministers, we are our brother’s keepers. III. IT WILL BE HIGH PRESUMPTION ON OUR PART IF, FROM THIS NIGHT FORWARD, WE SHIRK THE DUTY OF BEING OUR BROTHER’S KEEPER.
I will set it very briefly in a strong light. It will be denying the right of God to make a law, and to call upon us to obey it, if we refuse to do as we are bidden.
Notice, next, that you will be denying all claim on your part to the Divine mercy; because if you will not render mercy to others, and if you deny altogether your responsibility to others, you put yourself into the position of saying, “I want nothing from another”—consequently, nothing from God. Such mercy as you show, such mercy shall you have.
Indeed, there is this about it too—that your act is something like throwing the blame of your own sin upon God if you leave men to perish. When Cain said, “Am I my brother’s keeper?” he meant, probably, “You are the preserver of men. Why did You not preserve Abel? I am not his keeper.” Some throw on the sovereignty of God the weight which lies on their own indolence.
And again, there is to my mind an utter ignoring of the whole plan of salvation in that man who says, “I am not going to have any responsibility about others,” because the whole plan of salvation is based on substitution, on the care of another for us, on the sacrifice of another for us; and the whole spirit of it is self-sacrifice and love to others. If you say, “I will not love”—well, the whole system goes together, and you renounce it all. If you will not love, you cannot have love’s benediction.
Last of all, it may turn out—it may turn out—that if we are not our brother’s keeper, we may be our brother’s murderer. Have any of us been so already? (C. H. Spurgeon.) Responsibility for welfare of others:— I. That an enlightened regard to the spiritual and eternal interests of others is recognized as a duty by nature and revelation, none of you, I trust, is disposed to question. You have only to look into the law, written by the finger of God, to know that six out of the ten requirements are based upon this very principle. Nor must this interest in the well-being of others be confined to the narrow circle of relatives and friends. How different is the world—contracted, selfish, and reckless of the misery of others, inasmuch as it does not regard the sufferings it may produce, provided its own imagined interests are secured! II. That all are furnished with means and opportunities less or more available for the discharge of this duty. This duty, as enjoined on human beings, presupposes many evils to be removed, many wants to be supplied, and much suffering to be mitigated and relieved. And where is the individual to whom God has not, in some degree, imparted the means of promoting this great end? (J. MacGilchrist.) Man his brother’s keeper:— I. One of the most terrible effects of sin on humanity is the obliteration of the sense of personal responsibility. II. The tendencies of infidel science in our day are strongly in the line of this perverse and morally stultifying effect of depravity. III. The family institution was ordained as the first and fundamental condition of society, in order to imbed the idea of responsibility in the very foundation and structure of society. IV. The strongest tendencies of the times are antagonistic to the sense of personal responsibility. V. Jesus came into the world to restore and enthrone again in the human mind and conscience the great doctrine of strict individual accountability to God on high. (J. M. Sherwood, D.D.) Man, the keeper of man:— The person who first asked this question was a man whose heart was, at the time, filled with evil passions, and his hands stained with a brother’s blood. It was Cain. Yes, thou guilty Cain, thou art thy brother’s keeper. He was given thee to love. He was given thee that thou mightest do him good.
“Am I my brother’s keeper?” each one should say to himself. It is answered, “Yes, you are.” But how? Take the following as some of the instances in which your brother has a claim upon your kindly offices. You are your brother’s keeper, inasmuch as you are bound by ties, both of humanity and religion, to care for him, and to do him all the good you can. The humblest and the poorest can, in some way or other, help forward every agency for good, in the prosperity of which they take a hearty interest. Money may be given—if ever such a trifle, it betokens the mind of the giver. Trouble may be given—wherever pains are bestowed with a good intent, God will return some fruit. And the most destitute can always give prayer—when this comes from a fervent heart, it does great things. In your private sphere you can do much for your brother’s good. You can show him little acts of kindness: you can relieve some of his smaller wants: you can help him in one or more of those numberless ways which readily suggest themselves to a benevolent disposition. You are your brother’s keeper in the exercise of your influence. Every man has influence. The good man has influence, and the bad man has influence. The rich man has influence, and the poor man has influence. The aged person has influence, and the veriest child has influence.
But we will pass on to notice, secondly, the good results which may reasonably be expected to follow a more general and more conscientious observance of this Christian duty. “A little leaven leaveneth the whole lump.” A little moral, godly principle constantly manifested before the eyes of those with whom you mix, could not fail of diffusing itself, even though it should be your manner of life rather than your words that indicated your possession of it. Your brother would be made to feel that you are his keeper, although he might not openly acknowledge you to be so. You would be the best of preachers, the best of patriots, the best of philanthropists; and many whom your silent influence had won would be sure, at the judgment-day, to rise up with you and confess their obligation. (F. W. Naylor, B.A.) Social duties:— Such was the answer of the first Deist, the first infidel, and the first murderer, to God’s inquiry, “Where is thy brother?” It was not only a lie (for the father of Cain was a liar from the beginning), but it was a daring jest upon his brother’s employment. “Am I his shepherd? Am I answerable for his life? Am I to take care of him as he does of his sheep?” Such is infidelity. It is sin that makes the infidel. He does not believe, not because he cannot, but because he will not. He may talk of morality, and sport himself in his own deceiving, when, like Cain, he says he can worship God as well with the flowers of the field and the fruits of the earth as through the blood of atonement; but when we cut into the core of his heart, we shall find the worm of all rottenness still there, the love of self—we shall find that the only principle of true morality is wanting, the love of God and our brother—we shall find the very element of murder there, the dislike of God and those who love and are like Him. And is not the truth he denied and the principle he rejected this: that man is answerable for his brother’s life and his brother’s soul, as far as his positive acts can injure, or his neglect destroy? I will not stay to prove this. Cain’s rejection of it is a proof. Parents, how nearly does this principle affect you in your important relation!—the very relation in which God Himself is pleased to place Himself with regard to His own obedient people, His redeemed ones from earth; for while the angels are called “the sons of God,” “the Father hath bestowed on us” this wonderful love, “that we should be called the sons of God” also; and His Spirit—the Spirit of His Son—teaches us to cry, “Abba, Father.” God has made you parents. Beings who can never die are entrusted to your care. Your children’s character is greatly in your hands. Their eternal destiny hangs on your discharge of duty. Watch for their souls as those who must give account. Masters and mistresses, the principle of which we have spoken bears powerfully on your relation. (W. W. Champney.) Five questions:—
The first question is this: Is there no one who stands related to you as a brother?— (1) By kindred. (2) By religion. (3) By civil community. (4) By the common claims of nature. “Have we not all,” says Malachi, “one father,” Adam? and have we not all one mother, Eve? Have we not all the same animal wants? Are we not all exposed to the same infirmities and diseases? Are we not all capable of the same improvements? Are we not all to turn to the same dust? Are we not all heirs of the same immortality? Are we not all redeemed by the same blood of the Lamb? Nothing, therefore, that is human should ever be deemed or felt alien with regard to you.
The second question: If you were asked, Where is thy brother? what would truth compel you now to answer? We know what truth would have constrained Cain to answer—“Oh! I hated him, I envied him; I drew him into a field, and I murdered him; and he lies there dead.” What would you say, if you spoke truth, in answer to this question, Where is thy brother? Perhaps you would be constrained to say, “Living a few doors off from the subject of want and indigence and hunger, and I having all this world’s goods, and more than heart could wish, I never send him any supplies.” Or perhaps you would say, “I have calumniated, I have run down his religion; I have called him a hypocrite, or an enthusiast, or a mercenary.” Or perhaps you would say, “Oh! I have poisoned his mind with error”; or, “I have seduced him by my wicked example.” Or perhaps you would say, “He hath sinned, and instead of reproving him, I have ‘suffered sin upon him’ ”; “He has been a stranger to the advantages of religion, while I was well acquainted with it; and I have never gone to him and said, ‘Oh! taste and see that the Lord is good; blessed is the man that trusteth in Him’ ”; “Oh! he is ignorant, and I have not been trying to enlighten him.” Where is he? Why, living in such and such a dark village, where they are perishing for lack of knowledge; or living in the sister island, enslaved by a vile superstition.
The third question: Will not your conduct towards your fellow-creatures be inquired into as well as Cain’s? Can you imagine that you are to live as you please even with regard to your fellow creatures? Is not God your Governor as well as your Maker? Are you not God’s subjects as well as God’s creatures?
The fourth question: If you are guilty, will not your guilt be followed by punishment? Why should God deal with Cain, and suffer you to escape?
The last question we have to ask is, If you are guilty and exposed to all this, what should be your concern now? Should it be to seek to deny or to palliate your transgressions? Should you not rather confess your sin, and exclaim with Joseph’s brethren, “We are verily guilty concerning our brother”? (W. Jay.) Cain’s answer:—
The falsehood of it—“I know not.” We feel astonished that a man can dare to lie in the presence of his Maker; yet how many lies are uttered before Him by formalists and hypocrites!
The insolence of it—“Am I my brother’s keeper?” This man had no fear of God before his eyes; and where this is wanting, regard to man will be wanting also. Even natural affection will be swallowed up in selfishness. (A. Fuller.) Human brotherhood:— Man is ever a questioner. Man even questions God. But there are different kinds of questioners, as there are of questions. There are docile questioners, there are defiant questioners. “Am I my brother’s keeper?”
Human sin says mournfully, “Yes.” See how this was confirmed by Cain’s vile action. If you have a right (assumed) to sin against a man, you have a right to love him. If he comes into your life and sphere, all reasonable law claims for him blessing rather than blows.
Human sorrow says pathetically, “Yes.” We have a common heritage of sorrow.
Human joy says hopefully, “Yes!” We cannot tell how much of the joy of life depends upon others.
Human success says triumphantly, “Yes!” No such thing as independence. We only succeed so far as our fellow-man will let us succeed.
Human philanthropy says benevolently, “Yes.” Look at the development of philanthropy!
Human conscience says righteously, “Yes!” Conscience is the voice of God within us. But no “quiet conscience” for him who denies that he is his “brother’s keeper.” (J. E. Smallow.) Personal relations:— Am I my brother’s keeper? The success or failure of this world turns on the question, Is the law of self or the law of love adopted? The same is true of individuals. Is it mutual help of all, or every man for himself against all? Is it Ishmael, hand against every man, or Jesus, bearing others’ burdens, that gives the law of being? Man is constitutionally made to work for and with others. He is full of sympathy, finds in union strength; hence families, railroads, civilization. A thousand minister to the comfort of every breakfast-table. Mutual help is the law of angelic nature—they are ministering spirits. Christ carries our sickness and our sins. God is love, and the whole outgoing of love is service. Heaven, the greatest product of the universe, is the outcome of the united effort of men, angels, and God. Cain tries the other way; he destroys what differs from him, that his littleness need not appear, instead of joining the great, and becoming a part of it. That act not only puts away the ideal, destroys the possibility of its help, but also dwarfs him still more. Cain slays himself more than Abel. Sin ravages him more than he can bear. An aristocrat requires a thousand serfs to support him, but slavery harms the master more than the slaves. The latter is simply arrested in his development, the former is developed awry. He cannot see that all art, architecture, agriculture, and literature perishes. So Cain sees not sin, thinks nothing of separation, asks not for pardon, but says, I am punished more than I can bear. He goes from God; all his own nobility is murdered, all his possibility of aspiration after God lies slain. Of the two, the one to be envied is Abel. It is better to have our bodies slain by others, than to slay our own souls. In every relation of life, to servants, workmen, neighbours, households, our nation, all nations, envy must be banished, lest we dwarf ourselves; murder in every degree must be spurned, lest we murder ourselves; love and mutual help must be exercised; for thereby we greaten ourselves. (H. W. Warren, D.D.) Care for the fallen:— A writer in one of the English reviews relates that during a conversation with George Eliot, not long before her death, a vase toppled over on the mantelpiece. The great writer quickly and unconsciously put out her hand to stop its fall. “I hope,” said she, replacing it, “that the time will come when we shall instinctively hold up the man or woman who begins to fall as naturally and unconsciously as we arrest a falling piece of furniture or an ornament.”
Exell, J. S. (n.d.). The Biblical Illustrator: Genesis (Vol. 1, pp. 346–356). James Nisbet & Co.
On the same date: Philipp Nicolai, Johann Heermann, and Paul Gerhardt, Hymnwriters
Old Testament Genesis 4:1–15
Psalm Psalm 5
Epistle 2 Timothy 4:6–8, 16–18
Gospel Luke 18:9–17
Index of Readings
OLD TESTAMENT Genesis 4:1–15
1 Now the man knew his wife Eve, and she conceived and gave birth to Cain, and she said, “I have gotten a man with the help of Yahweh.”
2 And again, she gave birth to his brother Abel. Abel was a keeper of flocks, but Cain was a cultivator of the ground.
3 So it happened in the course of time that Cain brought an offering to Yahweh of the fruit of the ground.
4 Abel, on his part, also brought of the firstborn of his flock and of their fat portions. And Yahweh had regard for Abel and for his offering;
5 but for Cain and for his offering He had no regard. So Cain became very angry, and his countenance fell.
6 Then Yahweh said to Cain, “Why are you angry? And why has your countenance fallen?
7 “If you do well, will not your countenance be lifted up? And if you do not do well, sin is lying at the door; and its desire is for you, but you must rule over it.”
8 Then Cain spoke to Abel his brother; and it happened when they were in the field, that Cain rose up against Abel his brother and killed him.
9 Then Yahweh said to Cain, “Where is Abel your brother?” And he said, “I do not know. Am I my brother’s keeper?”
10 And He said, “What have you done? The voice of your brother’s blood is crying out to Me from the ground.
11 “And now, cursed are you from the ground, which has opened its mouth to receive your brother’s blood from your hand.
12 “When you cultivate the ground, it will no longer yield its strength to you; you will be a vagrant and a wanderer on the earth.”
13 And Cain said to Yahweh, “My punishment is too great to bear!
14 “Behold, You have driven me this day from the face of the ground; and from Your face I will be hidden, and I will be a vagrant and a wanderer on the earth, and it will be that whoever finds me will kill me.”
15 So Yahweh said to him, “Therefore whoever kills Cain, vengeance will be taken on him sevenfold.” And Yahweh appointed a sign for Cain, so that no one who found him would strike him.
PSALM Psalm 5
PSALM 5
For the choir director. For the flutes. A Psalm of David.
1 Give ear to my words, O Yahweh,
Consider my meditation.
2 Give heed to the sound of my cry for help, my King and my God,
For to You I pray.
3 O Yahweh, in the morning, You will hear my voice;
In the morning I will order my prayer to You and eagerly watch.
4 For You are not a God who delights in wickedness;
Evil does not sojourn with You.
5 The boastful shall not stand before Your eyes;
You hate all workers of iniquity.
6 You destroy those who speak falsehood;
Yahweh abhors the man of bloodshed and deceit.
7 But as for me, in the abundance of Your lovingkindness I will enter Your house,
At Your holy temple I will worship in fear of You.
8 O Yahweh, lead me in Your righteousness because of my foes;
Make Your way straight before me.
9 There is nothing reliable in their mouth;
Their inward part is destruction itself.
Their throat is an open grave;
They flatter with their tongue.
10 Hold them guilty, O God;
By their own devices let them fall!
In the abundance of their transgressions thrust them out,
For they are rebellious against You.
11 But let all who take refuge in You be glad,
Let them ever sing for joy;
And may You shelter them,
That those who love Your name may exult in You.
12 For it is You who blesses the righteous one, O Yahweh,
You surround him with favor as with a large shield.
EPISTLE 2 Timothy 4:6–8, 16–18 6 For I am already being poured out as a drink offering, and the time of my departure has come. 7 I have fought the good fight, I have finished the course, I have kept the faith. 8 In the future there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day, and not only to me, but also to all who have loved His appearing.
16 At my first defense no one supported me, but all deserted me. May it not be counted against them.
17 But the Lord stood with me and strengthened me, so that through me the preaching might be fulfilled, and that all the Gentiles might hear. And I was rescued out of the lion’s mouth.
18 The Lord will rescue me from every evil deed, and will save me unto His heavenly kingdom; to Him be the glory forever and ever. Amen.
GOSPEL Luke 18:9–17 9 And He also told this parable to some people who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and viewed others with contempt: 10 “Two men went up into the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. 11 “The Pharisee stood and was praying these things to himself: ‘God, I thank You that I am not like other people: swindlers, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. 12 ‘I fast twice a week; I pay tithes of all that I get.’ 13 “But the tax collector, standing some distance away, was even unwilling to lift up his eyes to heaven, but was 1beating his chest, saying, ‘God, be 2merciful to me, the sinner!’ 14 “I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other, for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but he who humbles himself will be exalted.” 15 And they were bringing even their babies to Him so that He would touch them, but when the disciples saw it, they were rebuking them. 16 But Jesus called for them, saying, “Permit the children to come to Me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these. 17 “Truly I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child will never enter it.”
Lutheran Service Book Three Year Lectionary. (2009). Concordia Publishing House.
8:10–12. So he waited still another seven days. And he again sent out the dove from the ark. And the dove came to him at the time of evening, and, behold, a freshly plucked olive leaf in her mouth. Thus Noah knew that the waters had receded from on the earth. So he waited again another seven days, and he sent out the dove. But she did not again return to him.
Noah demonstrates great patience in the story. He waits another week. Then he sends the dove a second time to see if there is any indication that the water has abated enough to free the animals from the ark. The dove returns to him ‘at the time of evening’—this may indicate that the bird had been gone all day and, therefore, had found many resting-places. In addition, the dove returns carrying a ‘freshly plucked olive leaf’ in its mouth. The term ‘freshly plucked’ obviously means that it is a new growth from an olive tree. In the Old Testament the olive tree is a symbol of peace and happiness (Hosea 14:6) and it may symbolize those ideas in the present episode. The flood has ended and it is replaced with tranquillity and a new beginning.
Currid, J. D. (n.d.). A Study Commentary on Genesis: Genesis 1:1–25:18 (Vol. 1, p. 206). Evangelical Press.
8:11 in the evening. Delayed return indicated dry ground on which the dove could land. freshly plucked olive leaf. The dove brought a new leaf from a species that prefers lower altitudes. (Olive seeds would have had a few months to sprout after the waters began to recede.) This was God’s sign that the land could welcome and sustain Noah and the animals.
Engelbrecht, E. A. (2009). The Lutheran Study Bible (p. 27). Concordia Publishing House.
8:10–11 When the dove returned to Noah from its second foray with an olive leaf, this confirmed that the lower elevations (where olive trees grow) were now above water. Inspired by this passage, the image of a dove with an olive branch in its mouth has become a universal symbol of peace.
Bergen, R. D. (2017). Genesis. In E. A. Blum & T. Wax (Eds.), CSB Study Bible: Notes (p. 19). Holman Bible Publishers.
35:3 I will make an altar: Jacob declared his intention to obey God’s command (v. 1). who answered me … has been with me: Jacob recalled God’s constant protection (ch. 32) and His fulfillment of His promises (28:13–15) as a reason to obey and worship God.
Radmacher, E. D., Allen, R. B., & House, H. W. (1999). Nelson’s new illustrated Bible commentary (p. 61). T. Nelson Publishers.
35:2–3 Jacob’s instructions are intended to prepare his household for entering God’s presence; Bethel (v. 3) is the “house of God.” They must rid themselves of foreign gods (v. 2). As emphasized later in the first prohibition of the Ten Commandments, those who worship the Lord must not have other gods (see Ex. 20:3). Rachel’s theft of her father’s household gods suggests that polytheistic beliefs existed within Jacob’s household. These must be eradicated. The members of Jacob’s household must purify themselves (Gen. 35:2). While no details are given here, later Israelite tradition emphasized the importance of purification rituals, some of which involved the washing of clothes. This may explain Jacob’s final instruction to change garments (v. 2; see Ex. 19:10). who answers me in the day of my distress (Gen. 35:3). The present tense, “answers,” here indicates that God has consistently responded to Jacob in every time of trouble.
Crossway Bibles. (2008). The ESV Study Bible (pp. 110–111). Crossway Bibles.
35:2–3. Then Jacob said to his household and to all who were with him, ‘Remove the foreign gods that are in your midst, and purify yourselves, and change your clothes. Then let us arise and go up to Bethel. And I will make an altar there to God who answered me in the day of my distress and who has been with me wherever I have gone.’
In 28:20–21, Jacob had vowed that Yahweh would be his only God if Yahweh protected him and brought him back to Canaan safely. Jacob is now in Canaan, having arrived unharmed and with great wealth. So Jacob keeps his word and he makes all who are with him stop using, literally, ‘the gods of foreignness’. These deities may include ones brought by the people from Haran, as well as some brought by the captured Shechemites. They may also include the teraphim that Rachel had stolen from her father (31:19, 30, 34). Jacob not only commands his people to get rid of their idols, but, with an imperative (Hithpael pattern), he orders them to ‘Purify yourselves!’, and to change their garments. In other words, they are to prepare for a religious observance; they are going up to Bethel, where God will meet with Jacob. Such preparations are known from other passages in the Old Testament when people go forth to meet God (see Exodus 19:10 in which Moses directs the Israelites to consecrate themselves and to wash their clothes before the meeting with God at Sinai).
Currid, J. D. (2003). A Study Commentary on Genesis: Genesis 25:19–50:26 (Vol. 2, p. 161). Evangelical Press.
11 And the angel of Yahweh said to her further,
“Behold, you are with child,
And you will bear a son;
And you shall call his name Ishmael,
Because Yahweh has heard your affliction.
12 “And he will be a wild donkey of a man,
His hand will be against everyone,
And everyone’s hand will be against him;
And he will dwell bin the face of all his brothers.”
Legacy Standard Bible (Ge 16:11–12). (2022). Three Sixteen Publishing.
16:11–12. Then the Angel of Yahweh said to her:
‘Behold, you are with child,
And you will give birth to a son.
And you will call his name Ishmael,
Because Yahweh has heard of your affliction.
And he will be a wild ass of a man,
His hand will be against everyone,
And everyone’s hand against him.
And he will live in defiance of all his brothers.’
The Angel tells Hagar to name the child ‘Ishmael’, which literally means in Hebrew, ‘God hears.’ An explanation for the name immediately follows in the text: it is to commemorate the fact that ‘Yahweh has heard of your affliction’, and he has acted on it. The word for ‘affliction’ is the same one used in verses 6 and 9 regarding Sarai’s treatment of Hagar. Ishmael will be a ‘wild ass’ of a man. That term can also denote a ‘wild colt’.89 Either way, it is figurative for Ishmael (and his descendants) being wild and free (cf. Job 39:5–6). The prophecy also indicates that there will be great animosity between Ishmael and everyone else, in particular, his brothers. Translations render the final line in various ways, such as he will live ‘to the east’ of his brothers, or ‘in front of’ them. Such translations ignore the context of hostility. The phrase can have a hostile sense itself, such as in Nahum 2:1 (2:2 in Hebrew).
Currid, J. D. (n.d.). A Study Commentary on Genesis: Genesis 1:1–25:18 (Vol. 1, pp. 306–307). Evangelical Press.
The name Ishmael signifies, God will hear. Psm. 10:17–31:22.
The Hebrew reads, “a wild-ass man.” Unrenewed nature is always thus. Job 11:12. See this promise concerning Ishmael fulfilled. Gen. 25:18. The wild Arabs, which are descendants of Ishmael, preserve the same character to this day.
Hawker, R. (2013). Poor Man’s Old Testament Commentary: Genesis–Numbers (Vol. 1, pp. 65–66). Logos Bible Software.
16:11 The name Ishmael uses the divine name El and means “God hears.” 16:12 This is something of a mixed blessing as is Isaac’s to Esau (27:39, 40). Wild man suggests that Ishmael and his descendants would be unsettled, ever on the move. His hand … against suggests that his descendants would often be at war. Still this people would endure. They would dwell in the presence of all his brethren. This has indeed been the case, for Ishmael’s descendants are the Arab peoples who populate most of the Middle East today. Very few of the peoples of the OT world have survived to our own day. For example, all ten nations of 15:19–21 have ceased to exist. But two peoples survive: Israel, the Jewish people, descended from Isaac; and the Arabs, descended from Ishmael (17:19–22).
Radmacher, E. D., Allen, R. B., & House, H. W. (1999). Nelson’s new illustrated Bible commentary (p. 33). T. Nelson Publishers.
16:11 call his name Ishmael. With her son’s name meaning “God hears,” Hagar the servant could not ever forget how God had heard her cry of affliction. 16:12 a wild donkey of a man. The untameable desert onager (wild donkey) best described the fiercely aggressive and independent nature Ishmael would exhibit, along with his Arabic descendants.
MacArthur, J. F., Jr. (2006). The MacArthur study Bible: New American Standard Bible. (Ge 16:11–12). Thomas Nelson Publishers.
Jacob was on his way back to Canaan with his wives, children, and all his possessions. During the years he’d been away, Jacob had become prosperous. This was a considerable company of people and livestock.
Soon, he would have to face his brother Esau, and that was potentially a problem. Years before, Jacob had defrauded his brother. The last time he’d seen him, Esau said he hated him and intended to kill him (Gen. 27:41). Fearing his brother might still hold a grudge, Jacob was afraid for himself and his family.
He sent messengers ahead to warn Esau that he was coming. And he sent generous gifts with the messengers, hoping to placate his brother in case he was still angry.
Then the messengers returned. “Your brother is coming to meet you,” they said. “And he’s bringing four hundred men with him” (Gen. 32:6).
Fearing the worst, Jacob divided his family, servants, and animals into two groups and sent them in different directions. “If Esau attacks one group,” he thought, “perhaps the other will escape.” That night, he waited alone to meet Esau (Gen. 32:24).
Earlier, he had prayed, “Please deliver me from my brother, from the hand of Esau, for I fear him, that he may come and attack me, the mothers with the children. But you said, ‘I will surely do you good, and make your offspring as the sand of the sea, which cannot be numbered for multitude’” (Gen. 32:11-12).
Jacob was having a dark night of the soul, wrestling with the memory of his past sins, trying to understand God’s promises, and fearing what lay ahead. As he waited, a man appeared and wrestled with him.
One commentary said, “This mysterious Man was a theophany, a visible (and in this case, tangible) manifestation of the God who is intrinsically invisible, the Angel of the Lord. The Lord unexpectedly initiated the match.” During the match, he touched Jacob’s hip socket, causing his hip to be dislocated.
As the day began to break, the man said, “Let me go!”
“I will not let you go unless you bless me,” Jacob replied.
“What is your name?”
“Jacob,” he said. Jacob, which means “supplanter,” because he spent his life using cunning and deception to obtain his brother’s birthright and blessing, as well as his uncle’s wealth.
“No longer shall you be called Jacob,” the man said. “Now you’ll be called Israel (which means strive with God), because you have striven with God and prevailed” (Gen. 32: 26-28).
It was then that Jacob realized the mysterious man with whom he had wrestled was God, and he said, “I have seen God face to face” (Gen. 32:30).
Why the name change? According to the commentary, it showed that Jacob had matured in his faith.
Faith is a gift from God, given by grace. None of us can believe or mature in our belief without the gracious intervention and assistance of God.
But growing in our faith is also something for which we must strive.
Jesus said, “Make every effort to enter through the narrow door, because many, I tell you, will try to enter and will not be able to” (Luke 13:24).
Paul said, “Let us therefore make every effort to do what leads to peace and to mutual edification” (Romans 14:19) and “Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace” (Ephesians 4:3).
The author of Hebrews said, “Let us, therefore, make every effort to enter that rest, so that no one will perish by following their example of disobedience” (Hebrews 4:11) and “Make every effort to live in peace with everyone and to be holy; without holiness no one will see the Lord” (Hebrews 12:14).
Finally, Peter said, “For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; and to godliness, mutual affection; and to mutual affection, love. For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Peter 1:5-8).
If we are to mature in our faith, we must make every effort, or strive with all our might, to do so. Growing in faith requires wrestling —wrestling with ourselves, wrestling with the world, the flesh, and the devil, and, at times, wrestling with God as He does His refining work in us.
Jacob’s story teaches us something else about striving to mature our faith, about wrestling for God’s blessing: sometimes it will only come through pain.
Jacob’s hip was dislocated, and he limped the rest of his life. In Hebrews 11, we see Jacob at the end of his life, bowed over the head of his staff in worship. He still needed a staff to walk with. The blessing he had received from God came through the pain of a lifelong injury.
Think of Joni Erickson Tada. The accident that broke her neck and left her paralyzed was not a good thing. But Joni has often said that through that tragedy her faith was deepened, and God opened a door to a lifetime of fruitful ministry.
It is often through disappointments and pain that we meet the Lord and experience our richest blessings.
Finally, we should remember that the greater Jacob, Jesus, also went through a dark night of the soul where he wrestled with God.
In the Garden, he prayed with great drops of blood that he be spared the cup of God’s wrath. But it was the Father’s will that Jesus drink that cup and endure the wrath that should be poured out on our sin. On the cross, he was denied the blessing of God so that we could be blessed. He was abandoned and rejected by the Father so that we could be adopted and eternally welcomed and blessed. Let us look to Jesus with thanksgiving while we strive with all our might to mature in our faith, all the while giving glory to God and enjoying his blessings.
Some people claim that the Bible is full of errors. Such comments center on things as the origin of man, the age of the earth or the idea of a worldwide flood.
Then we have those folks who see the Bible as nothing more than a “good book.” They claim that it has good moral teachings but they certainly can’t take it seriously as a book of facts!
How can Christians respond to those who believe such lies? Are we ourselves as grounded as we should be so we can stand for biblical truth? What evidence should we be aware of that will allow us to make such a stand for truth?
Joining Dalton to help you answer these questions was Dr. Tim Chaffey. Dr. Chaffey is content manager of the attractions division at Answers in Genesis. He’s responsible for overseeing the development of content for the exhibits at the Ark Encounter and the Creation Museum. He writes articles for the Answers in Genesis website and Answers Magazine. He holds a BS in biblical studies and theology, an MA in biblical and theological studies, a MDiv with an emphasis in apologetics and theology and a ThM in church history. He’s also earned a doctor of ministry degree, specializing in advanced biblical and theological studies. He’s been an author or co-author on more than 2 dozen books.
From the mountain of archaeological evidence, the more than 200 flood legends from various civilizations, the biological evidence, the virgin birth…all that and more is discussed which shows the Bible to be God’s truth. Also included is an update on what’s happening at the Creation Museum and Ark Encounter!
On June 13, the Los Angeles Dodgers baseball team celebrateed “Pride Night” and wore baseball caps with their LA logo in rainbow colors. Pitcher Clayton Kershaw wasn’t going to just go along with it, and decided he’d point folks to what God has decided the rainbow really stands for. Kershaw used a white sharpie to write “Gen 9:12-17” right next to the logo on his hat which reads:
“God said, ‘This is the sign of the covenant which I am making between Me and you and every living creature that is with you, for all successive generations;I set My bow in the cloud, and it shall be for a sign of a covenant between Me and the earth.It shall come about, when I bring a cloud over the earth, that the bow will be seen in the cloud,and I will remember My covenant, which is between Me and you and every living creature of all flesh; and never again shall the water become a flood to destroy all flesh. When the bow is in the cloud, then I will look upon it, to remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is on the earth.’”
When the pope died, there were some protestants who thought we should not speak ill of the dead. But as others celebrated his life, isn’t it all the more important to highlight the terrible damage he did? As Tim Charlie’s writes:
“…Francis dedicated his entire life to laboring within the world’s largest heretical denomination—one that has more than a billion adherents. He was Supreme Pontiff of it for his final 12. He spent 67 of his years in the Society of Jesus (the Jesuits), an order created for the specific purpose of countering and eradicating the teachings of Protestantism.3 During his time as pope, he communicated heretical doctrines to more people than any other human being. No healer, no crusader, no preacher, and no teacher came close.”
My wife is always able to chat up our kids’ friends when they come over. She always seems to have a ready question to get the conversation going. These questions struck me as good inspiration if ever I have to make noodles and white sauce for a throng of kids on my ownsome.
Several years ago, my wife and I were driving back home from a trip out of town. At some point, we missed the exit sign on the highway leading to the town in which we lived. We drove for nearly thirty minutes before realizing that we were heading to the wrong city. We had completely missed the sign. Failing to see or to understand physical signs can result in unfavorable consequences; the same is true of failing to rightly understand God’s covenantal signs. This is evident today in the way many parade their sexual rebellion against God under the banner of a rainbow.
In redemptive history, the Lord established the covenant of grace with Adam, Noah, Abraham, Moses, David, and Christ. With each administration of the covenant of grace, God gave various divine signs. He set apart the rainbow in the sky to serve as the sign of the Noahic covenant. The Noahic covenant was God’s pledge that He would sustain the created order (Gen. 9:9–13). Because of His promise not to destroy the earth, mankind could be fruitful, multiply, and fill the earth (Gen. 9:1). In this sense, the Noahic covenant was a unique administration of the covenant of grace in that it contained a principle of common grace.
However, the Noahic covenant was ultimately serving the redemptive purposes of God. God was renewing the covenant promise He made to Adam when He inaugurated the covenant of grace (Gen. 3:15). In the Noahic covenant, God was setting the stage for the unfolding of redemptive history. Christ was in the lineage of Noah (Luke 3:23–38). Noah stood as a type of Christ, the head of a new creation (Gen. 8:13–19; 9:1–7). The ark itself served as a microcosm of redemptive history. The clean animals in the ark belonged to the Old Testament sacrificial system and typified the sacrifice of Jesus as the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world (Gen. 8:20; Ex. 12; John 1:29; 1 Peter 1:19). Clean and unclean animals together represented the Jews and gentiles, for whose salvation Christ came into the world (Acts 10:9–48; 11:18).
God set the bow in the sky to serve as the sign of the Noahic covenant—signifying His promise of redemption (Gen. 9:8–17). In his vision of the heavenly throne room, the Apostle John saw a rainbow around the throne of God and the Lamb (Rev. 4:3). Jonathan Edwards explained the significance of this rainbow around the throne in John’s vision when he wrote:
The rainbow we know was appointed of God as a token of his gracious covenant with mankind. God is encompassed with a rainbow, which signifies that as he sits and reigns, and manifests himself in his church, he appears as encompassed with mercy. As of old, the throne of God in the holy of holies, where God manifested himself in the church of Israel, was called the mercy-seat, so here there is a rainbow, the sign of God’s gracious covenant, round about the throne that he sits on.1
The rainbow is a sign of God’s redeeming grace and mercy. The Hebrew word translated “rainbow” is properly translated “war bow.” By placing His bow in the sky, the Lord was symbolically aiming a weapon of judgment at Himself. As Sinclair Ferguson explains:
The word used in the book of Genesis is not rainbow, it is war bow: the bow of war, the bow of battle. It is a picture of God, after hostility has ended and He has established a new creation, flinging His bow of judgment into the skies as a reassurance to Noah. “Now that there is reconciliation, you may enjoy the peace that you have with Me. You can be sure that there will never again be this kind of judgment on the earth—until, of course, the cosmic final judgment of all at the end of time.” . . . If you think about the rainbow as God’s military bow transformed into an ornament of great beauty that hostility has ceased, and that there is no arrow in the bow, the only place the arrow could have gone was into His own heart.2
In setting the bow apart to serve as the sign of His covenantal promise, the Lord said to Noah, “When the bow is in the clouds, I will see it and remember the everlasting covenant” (Gen. 9:16). Of course, God doesn’t need to be reminded of anything. Rather, in gracious condescension He determined to give us greater certainty of His promise. In this sense, the rainbow is the sign that the Lord will preserve the present creation until the consummation of the covenant of grace when He will fully redeem His people from every tongue, tribe, and nation and bring them into the full enjoyment of a new creation. The sign of the Noahic covenant is therefore a gospel sign of the redeeming mercy of God in Christ (Isa. 54:9–10).
This article is part of the Signs of the Covenant collection and was orignally published September 13, 2023.
Jonathan Edwards, “Notes on Scripture,” The Works of Jonathan Edwards, vol. 15, ed. Harry S. Stout and Stephen J. Stein (London; New Haven: Yale University Press, 1998), 224–225.↩
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In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters. — Genesis 1:1-2
If we are going to get anything out of Genesis, then we must prepare ourselves.
Basil of Caesarea (330-79) said at the beginning of his Hexaemeron, a series of sermons on Genesis 1,
How earnestly the soul should prepare itself to receive such high lessons! How pure it should be from carnal affections, how unclouded by worldly disquietudes, how active and ardent in its researches, how eager to find in its surroundings an idea of God which may be worthy of Him!
And John Calvin (1509-64) said in his commentary on Genesis, “The world is a mirror in which we ought to behold God.” “If my readers sincerely wish to profit with me in meditating on the works of God, they must bring with them a sober, docile mild, and humble spirit.”
So remember that the author of these words, Moses, saw an appearance of God at the burning bush, and God spoke with him “face to face, as a man speaks with his friend” (Exod. 33:11; cf. Num. 12:6-8). And don’t forget the power of these words, “which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus” (2 Tim. 3:15).
The Hebrew word for “beginning” is ראשׁית (rēshīt), which may also mean “starting point” or “first,” and is closely related to ראשׁ (rōsh), which means “head.” The word God translates אלהים, Elōhīm, which may be the plural for אל (el), the generic word for god. The plural does not in itself teach the doctrine of the Trinity, that there is one God and three persons in the godhead, but is more likely a “plural of majesty.” God is not just god, he is GOD. Elōhīm. GOD! The very sound of this word, naming as it does the Creator of the universe, should fill us with awe, dread, and love.
In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.
Before there was an earth and atoms, life and light, time and tide, there was God. He is eternal, which does not mean that he is very old, but that he had no beginning. He always was, is, and will be. Many have mockingly asked, “What was God doing before he created the world?” In his Commentaries on Genesis, Calvin relates a humorous answer he had read to this question:
When a certain impure dog was in this manner pouring ridicule upon God, a pious man retorted that God had been at that time by no means inactive, because he had been preparing hell for the captious.
We cannot speak reasonably of what God was doing “before creation,” because before creation there was no time as we know it—there was no “before.” Certainly there was nothing that brought God himself into existence.
The Hebrew verb for create is ברא (bārā);itis only ever used with God as the subject. What did God create? The “heavens and the earth.” Heaven, שׁמים (shamayīm), also means sky. Earth, ארץ (erets), also means land and ground. These words do not have a special meaning in Genesis 1:1; but when put together like this, “heaven and earth,” that is, “sky and ground,” “everything that’s up and everything that’s down,” they emphasize that God made everything. Only God himself is not made.
There are no time indications in these first two verses. The earth (erets) was formless and empty. There is some lovely alliteration here in the original, the earth was תהו ובהו, tōhu va bōhu. These words are neither “good” nor “bad” but are exceedingly and perhaps unpleasantly bland. Tōhu can refer to a barren wasteland, “a barren and howling waste” (Deut. 32:10; also Job 6:18). It can refer to futility (1 Sam. 12:21) and meaninglessness (Isa. 29:21). Bōhu appears only three times in the Old Testament. Isaiah 34:11 describes how “God will stretch out over Edom the measuring line of chaos and the plumb line of desolation,” and Jeremiah uses just the same phrase as Genesis 1:2: “I looked at the earth, and it was formless and empty (tōhu va bōhu); and at the heavens, and their light was gone” (Jer. 4:23). We will return to Jeremiah’s hugely significant phrase in a moment.
Darkness was over the surface over the deep.
Creation at this point was empty and black. The same word describes the penultimate plague over Egypt: “The LORD said to Moses, ‘Stretch out your hand toward the sky so that darkness will spread over Egypt—darkness that can be felt.’ So Moses stretched out his hand toward the sky, and total darkness covered all Egypt for three days. No one could see anyone else or leave his place for three days” (Exod. 10:21-23).
This blackness was over the surface of “the deep.” תהום, tehōm, refers only to “deep waters.” The Septuagint reads ἀβυσσος (abyssos, “abyss”). The Old Testament talks about God leading Israel through “the depths of the sea” (Isa. 63:13, Ps. 106:9) and Pharaoh’s army being drowned in the “depths” (Exod.15:5). In Deuteronomy 8:7, it refers to subterranean water.
So here is our first look at God’s creation: formless, empty, black, and watery. Light was yet to be created. The water was yet to be put into its place. Solid ground for living and walking on had yet to be exposed. The celestial mirrors of God’s light had yet to be fashioned. God’s life had yet to break out on the earth. Humanity was yet to be fashioned and enlivened in the delightfully different forms of male and female.
Calvin calls creation at this moment “the seed of the whole world,” and Basil “the foundation of a house, the keel of a vessel.” These are pleasing and correct analogies, for it is neither beautiful or ugly, pleasant or unpleasant. It is full of potential.
The Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.
The Hebrew word for Spirit in verse two, רוח (ruach), is a wonderfully rich Old Testament word that can refer to wind, breath, or a personal spirit. Exactly the same range of meaning applies to the NT πνευμα (pneuma, from which we get such words as pneumatic and pneumonia). Ruach (elohīm, Spirit of God) always refers in the Old Testament to a person, God the Holy Spirit. So the Spirit was near to his creation, but not just near. He was hovering—fluttering is probably a closer translation—like a mother bird flutters over her young. Basil describes the early Syrian Christians’ delightful interpretation of this: “The Spirit cherished the nature of the waters as one sees a bird cover the eggs with her body and imparts to them vital force from her own warmth.” And in his epic poem Paradise Lost (1667) John Milton sang:
Darkness profound
Covered the abyss; but on the watery calm
His brooding wings the Spirit of God outstretched,
And vital virtue infused, and vital warmth,
throughout the fluid mass.
“Hovered” is used by Moses again almost at the end of the Pentateuch (the first five books of the Bible) to describe God’s intense care of Israel his people:
In a desert land he found him, in a barren and howling waste. He shielded him and cared for him; he guarded him as the apple of his eye, like an eagle that stirs up its nest and hovers over its young, that spreads its wings to catch them and carries them on its pinions. (Deut. 32:10-11)
Whatever we might think about God’s formless, empty, lifeless, black, and watery creation, the Spirit of God loved it and sustained and upheld it (John 3:16); for as Psalm 104:29-30 says: “When you hide your face, they are terrified; when you take away their breath (ruach), they die and return to the dust. When you send your Spirit (ruach), they are created, and you renew the face of the earth.”
Why didn’t God complete creation instantaneously?
The burning question is this: “God is omnipotent and omniscient, so why would he not bring about a fully developed and complete creation instantaneously?” If the universe’s greatest good is that God glorify himself, then we can know that it was more glorifying for him to develop his creation over six days, to allow his great power and wisdom to unfold over this time. Moreover, by creating the world in this way, God taught the world that he can rescue us from darkness, lifelessness, and chaos, and that when he rescues us, he does it not instantaneously, but in a way that unfolds his omnipotence, omniscience, and omni-benevolence step-by-wonderful-step.
For although I have said that Moses’ description of initial creation in itself is neither beautiful nor ugly, similar words were used in different contexts to describe God’s people in distressing circumstances. As I mentioned above, Jeremiah uses this kind of language in the sixth century BC to describe Judah in a state of godless apostasy, who were about to face the fierce judgment of God by the hands of the brutal Babylonian army:
My people are fools; they do not know me. They are senseless children; they have no understanding. They are skilled in doing evil; they know not how to do good. I looked at the earth, and it was formless (tōhu) and empty (bōhu); and at the heavens, and their light was gone. I looked at the mountains, and they were quaking; all the hills were swaying. I looked, and there were no people; every bird in the sky had flown away. I looked, and the fruitful land was a desert; all its towns lay in ruins before the LORD, before his fierce anger. (Jer. 4:22-26; cf. Isa. 34:11)
Moreover, the very first readers of Genesis, the Israelites who had just emerged from centuries of brutal slavery and death in Egypt—slavery to Pharaoh’s building projects and slavery to the false gods of Egypt—would also have seen their situation mirrored in what was “formless and void,” black, and chaotically watery. Indeed, as we’ve already seen, God would rescue them from the “deep” (Ps. 106:9).
Perhaps these adjectives describe your own situation.
Confused. Empty. Lifeless. Dark. Chaotic. You are not yet a Christian, and you don’t know why you are on this planet and what is the meaning and purpose of your life. There is spiritual blackness and obscurity, and everything is immersed in chaos. Or you are a Christian, and the chaotic trials of life are pressing on you, and even the darkness of despair. You feel the “waves and breakers” crashing over you (Jon. 2:3).
Whoever you are, and whatever the depths and agony of your trials, God is hovering over you: he loves you, he is near to you, and he can rescue you. We see a living picture of his rescue unfold in the subsequent six days of creation.
God does not stand aloof from the world in all its chaotic agony. His caring, brooding presence is very near, and he is at work.
EAST OF EDEN — Public opinion was heavily divided this week after accused murderer Cain raised $1,000,000 in crowdfunding donations after killing his brother, Abel.
All three of the members of Earth’s population were surprised to learn that, despite murdering his own brother, Cain was able to raise funds in excess of one million dollars through the donations of people who visited his crowdfunding page.
“Please consider contributing to the ‘Help Cain’ fund by donating to Cain,” said Cain. “I’m going through a really tough time in my life right now. I’m afraid I’m going to be unfairly targeted based on what everyone has been saying about me. I’m having to uproot my life and move to an entirely different place for my own safety. Any help you could provide would be much appreciated.”
When reached for comment, Abel’s father was outraged that the killer was profiting from his son’s death. “Where is the justice in this?” Adam asked. “Are there actually people who are feeling bad for the man who killed my son? Who is donating to this fund anyway?”
Early reports indicated that Cain had already used some of the donation money to purchase a new $800,000 home in the land of Nod and planned to use more of it to invest in some new farming equipment. “I deserve a fresh start,” Cain said. “After all I’ve endured since the incident, I think it’s the least I could ask for.”
At publishing time, Cain had reportedly started a second crowdfunding drive to pay for his wedding after proposing to his sister.
Babylon Bee subscriber – montgump – contributed to this report. If you want to pitch your own headline ideas to our staff, click here to check out all of our membership options!
Meet Juan. He came to this country with a dream to commit crime. This is his story.
Joshua 6:24-27 This week’s lessons show the importance of repentance in view of the certainty of a coming judgment, which in God’s mercy is being delayed.
Theme
Escaping the Judgment
Yesterday we introduced the relevance of the genealogy in Genesis 5. Now with that in mind, let me show you how the genealogy teaches us about God’s character. Adam, the first of the patriarchs, born we would have to say in the year one, was created by God at the beginning. He lived 930 years. When he was 130 years old he had his first son, that is, the son through whom the genealogy is traced, whose name was Seth. Seth was born in the year 130 by that kind of reckoning, and he lived to the year 1042.
Putting figures together in precisely the same way, Seth’s son, Enosh, was born in the year 235; Enosh’s son, Kenan, was born in the year 325; Mahalalel, Kenan’s son, was born in the year 395; Jared was born in 460, Enoch in 622, and Methuselah in 687. Methuselah finally died in the year 1656, again, by that reckoning.
Now go on from that point. Methuselah’s son was Lamech, and he was born in the year 874 and lived to 1651. Noah was born in the year 1056, and lived until the year 2006. But when he was 600 years old the flood came. When you add 600 years to the year of his birth, you come to 1656, which is precisely the year in which Methuselah died, the man whose name means, “When he is gone, it shall come.”
Now let me explain it in this way. Methuselah’s father was Enoch, and Enoch was a prophet. God had revealed to Enoch that He was going to send a judgment on the earth, and that judgment was going to be by a flood. We’re told that Enoch began to walk with God when his son Methuselah was born, that is, when he was 65 years old. I don’t think that means that Enoch wasn’t a godly man before this, but it does mean that he began to walk with God in a special way in the year when his son was born.
I would reason that it was in that year that God gave him the revelation of the coming destruction, which would then mean that when he named his son Methuselah, he did so by the revelation of God, saying, in effect, that this son is a symbol of God’s mercy. This man is going to live for a long time, and while this man lives, the judgment that God has promised will be delayed. But when he dies, that judgment is going to come. Methuselah was already an old man when Noah began to build that ark, and he was getting on toward the year of his death as Noah was working to finish its construction. After Methuselah died, the rains began, and the flood came.
You see, that man Methuselah was a symbol of the inevitability of judgment. God is the judge, and judgment will come. At the same time, he’s also a symbol of God’s grace because that, of course, is why he lived so long. God postponed judgment decade after decade, year after year, as Noah prepared that ark and preached the Gospel to anyone who would heed it and come in.
You look at this world and especially you look at yourself and you might say, “Well, it’s not so bad and certainly I’m not so bad. Nothing bad is ever going to happen to me. Why, I don’t even think it’s quite right for God to judge other people, but certainly I don’t believe it’s right for God to judge me.” A story like this is meant to open our eyes to see that looking at things that way is all wrong. Our viewpoint is being distorted by the devil, who doesn’t want us to face the reality of a coming judgment.
God says the fact that the Canaanites were killed is meant to warn you that God is a judge, that He does take sin seriously, and that you, too, will be punished for your sin unless you come to Jesus Christ. At the same time, the fact that God delays His judgment is meant as an encouragement to you. It’s meant to clearly say that God is nevertheless a God of mercy. Peter says, “God is patient, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to eternal life.”
That life is found in Jesus Christ. He is the one who gives life out of death. He is the scarlet cord that meant the salvation of Rahab and her family, because she trusted in the God who sent Him. That Jesus, that one who died on the cross, is your Savior if you will have Him to be your Savior. The way that happens is to admit your sins. It’s no good to fight against God and say, “Well, I’m all right. I’m pretty good. I’m better than so-and-so.” Forget that. That’s folly in the face of the holy God.
Admit your sin, confess your faults, and acknowledge that God has every right to judge you and to judge you right now. Come to Him, not on the basis of your righteousness or on the basis of His justice, which can only condemn you; but come instead on the basis of His love, that love which sent Jesus Christ. Say to Him, “I acknowledge my sin, but I thank you that you sent Jesus Christ to die for me.” Then put your faith in Him, trust Him, cling to that raft in the middle of the flood, and you’ll find that like Noah and his family in the ark, Jesus will bear you up over the troubled waters and carry you at last to that peaceful shore which He has prepared in heaven.
Study Questions
From the lesson, how does the dating of the genealogy become fulfilled prophecy of the meaning of Methuselah’s name?
What factors lead people to conclude that they are in better spiritual shape than others around them? What does this reveal about their own understanding of themselves and their view of God?
Application
Prayer: Do you pray daily for people you know who are at this very moment facing the eternal judgment of God?
Key Point: Admit your sin, confess your faults, and acknowledge that God has every right to judge you and to judge you right now. Come to Him, not on the basis of your righteousness or on the basis of His justice, which can only condemn you; but come instead on the basis of His love, that love which sent Jesus Christ.
For Further Study: Download for free and listen to James Boice’s message, “Once More the Judgment.” (Discount will be applied at checkout.)
Joshua 6:24-27 This week’s lessons show the importance of repentance in view of the certainty of a coming judgment, which in God’s mercy is being delayed.
Theme
Mercy in the Midst of Judgment
Well it’s true, of course that the final judgment has not yet come; God has delayed his final reckoning. But if you look to past history, if you look to these great marks of judgments, these things stand there in history and in the pages of the Word of God as warnings. Certainly, this is true of the Jewish invasion of Canaan. It’s God’s way of saying that there is judgment even among the nations. Righteousness exalts a nation, but a nation that goes the way of sin and perversions is inevitably brought down. These things also stand as a warning of a judgment to come finally at the end of time. We mustn’t think that God will be any different with us than he was for those ancient cultures.
Yet, what I want to close on and take just a bit of time to talk about is the fact that although all are guilty and although God does judge sin, there is nevertheless a time of God’s grace in which judgment is delayed because of mercy. Certainly, we see that in the story of Joshua. The very passage that we’ve read, that passage that says they burned the whole city and everything in it, tells us about the salvation of Rahab. That’s there for a reminder that although this city and its people were devoted to destruction, there was nevertheless one who in the mercy of God had received an opportunity to learn about the God of Israel and to turn from sin and respond to Him and the Gospel so far as she knew it. Rahab demonstrated her faith by identifying with the spies and saving them, which eventually led to her being counted among the Jewish people.
Let me give another example of that. In those passages I read from Peter and Jude, particularly the passage from Peter, you find reference to the flood in the days of Noah, which was certainly one of the great cataclysmic judgments of history. That judgment makes these other judgments relatively minor affairs. As horrible as the conquest of Canaan may have been from the point of view of the Canaanites, it was still a relatively small country in one remote area of the world. The same thing is true of other historical judgments. However, this was not true of the flood, which killed all who were living on the face of the earth at that time, with the exception of Noah and his family.
The reason I turn to that at this point is not for the testimony that it gives to the reality of God’s judgment, but to the evidence we have in that story even of God’s grace. In that story, in the chapter immediately preceding the one that begins to tell about the flood, there is a list of the godly patriarchs that preceded Noah. In that long list of righteous patriarchs there is the man who is known to most of us as the man who lived longer than any man on earth. Methuselah lived 969 years. That man is a symbol of God’s mercy, and he’s a symbol of God’s mercy even in the midst of judgment for these reasons.
First of all, there is the meaning of his name, which can be interpreted in different ways. Some of the liberal scholars take it as meaning “the man of the javelin,” or “the man of the weapons.” It’s a possible translation, although it doesn’t have any meaning in the context of the story. It could also come from the words moot, which means “to die” and shalah, which means “to send.” Taking those two together, it would be possible to give a colloquial translation of Methuselah as being this, “When he dies, it will come.” I say that although that is only one of two possible meanings of the word, it’s the meaning that should be preferred because of the way Methuselah appears in the story in these great chapters leading up to the flood.
The second thing that bears upon the meaning of his name and his significance is the fact that the genealogy given in Genesis 5 can be accurately established by the years in which each of the patriarchs was born and the year in which he had his first child, through whom this particular genealogical line is traced. There is some difficulty in dealing with genealogies in Scripture, particularly when we’re trying to establish time periods by them. It’s because in some of the Old Testament genealogies, there are names which in other genealogies are left out. But this does not mean that those who have left them out made a mistake. It simply means that the biblical writers looked at genealogies a bit differently than we do. We think we have to have each piece in place. On the other hand, they were more or less concerned with tracing the general drift of the lineage. For example, Jesus Christ is said to be the son of David, even though Jesus came many, many generations after David. Still it’s proper to say this about Jesus Christ in order to show that genealogical connection.
In talking about the genealogy in Genesis 5, however, we notice that whenever that genealogy appears elsewhere, the list always accurately, name for name, reestablishes the list we have in Genesis. Moreover, in Genesis, unlike the other genealogies, the actual years are given. That encourages us to put them together and trace it out as giving us these great landmarks in the early centuries of the history of the human race.
Study Questions
What significant point does Dr. Boice make from the story of Noah’s flood?
Why is Methuselah an important figure?
Application
Reflection: Every portion of the Word of God, even genealogies, teaches us about who God is, and how we ought to respond to him. Keep these items in mind in your daily Bible reading.
For Further Study: Download for free and listen to James Boice’s message, “Once More the Judgment.” (Discount will be applied at checkout.)
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Human beings in the West are very confused.
On the one hand, we sense that we are important and significant. Life means something. We have purpose—a high purpose. We were destined for great things.
On the other hand, we tell ourselves, incessantly, that we are meaningless and insignificant:
“Earth is a tiny planet in a tiny solar system in a galaxy that is just one of countless billions. The apparent significance of our planet is an illusion.”
“And human beings are simply one life-form among millions. Our sense of being more important than other life is an illusion. The apparent difference between Melinda and malaria, Timothy and tapeworms, Bob and bacteria, is a trick: a trick born of our pathetic tendency to self-aggrandizement and the pernicious influence of religion.”
“Anyway, what we call ‘life’ is merely a composite of chemical reactions and discharged electricity. This may create the chimera of life and consciousness, but the chemical reactions in the brain are the same in kind as the chemical reactions in the fertilizer factory, and no different in objective value.”
We say that “the value of human life is illusory.” Yet, when some regime or dictator acts consistently with this, and butchers whole populations of people who stand in the way of their grand designs, it shakes and sickens us to the core. At the mere sound of the word, Hiroshima, our souls shudder.
We are confused.
Our young men crave to lead and protect, yet give up their eyes and hearts to fecal sewers of pornography. Our young women yearn for love and respect, yet give their bodies to men who have made no public and honorable commitment to them, nor even a pretense of commitment.
Western ethics are shambolic. The same political party that pushes for liberal abortion laws pushes for harsh penalties for women who smoke while pregnant. The same leaders who cry for legalized prostitution—to open the brothel doors to our sisters and daughters, and to smooth the way for sex traffickers—are the shrillest when sexual harassment strikes.
Our hearts tell us that we are important. Our heads tell us that this is an illusion. We are confused, and the confusion is shredding the Western soul.
What does God’s Word say? “Your heart’s instinct is right! Your head is wrong!” “You’re not thinking right!” “Listen to the truth about yourself; you’re more important than you could ever have conceived!”
Open up to Genesis 1:24-26, and you will see three reasons why you are important:
1. You are important because this world was made for you.
When the president of the United States visits another country, the preparation is stupendous. Teams of security experts meet with local law enforcement to prepare to keep the president’s body safe. An armored limousine is delivered: bullet, bomb, and rocket proof. The airport is closed. The host nation’s highest dignitaries stand waiting on the tarmac. A gleaming guard of honor stands to attention. A rich red carpet is unrolled, and a brass band plays. All of this preparation says: “This person is important.”
Compare this to God’s preparation for your arrival. Creation was at first lightless, lifeless, formless, and watery. You were on the way. Remember at this point the Hebrew concept of corporate identity: Adam was the father of all human beings. All human beings are derived from him, and so all human beings were represented by him, and were latent in him. By preparing the world for Adam, God was very much preparing the world for you.
God saw the darkness, he saw you coming, and he said, “Let there be light!” (Gen. 1:3). And he flooded creation with physical light and the light of truth and goodness.
God saw the airless watery chaos, he saw you coming, and he said, “Let there be a firmament, an expanse!” (Gen. 1:6). And he created breathing space for you, a place to respire.
God saw the seas, and he saw you coming, and he said, “Let the waters be gathered, and let dry land appear, and let the land be filled with seed-bearing plants, and let it look beautiful!” (Gen. 1:9-13) And so he stocked a mighty pantry for you, and adorned your world with heart-aching beauty.
God said, “Let there be a sun, moon, and stars, to regulate the seasons and tides that humanity needs, and to call humanity to the greatest and most glorious and beautiful and satisfying thing a human being can do: to worship and enjoy me!” (Gen. 1:14-19).
God saw the empty skies and seas, and he saw you coming, and he said “Let the sky be filled with living creatures, birds of many kinds. And let the seas be filled with fishes and whales and other sea-creatures” (Gen. 1:20-23). And so God adorned the skies and seas with creatures that give life, and enhance and beautify life.
And then God created the land animals:
And God said, “Let the earth bring forth living creatures according to their kinds—livestock and creeping things and beasts of the earth according to their kinds.” And it was so. And God made the beasts of the earth according to their kinds and the livestock according to their kinds, and everything that creeps on the ground according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. (Gen. 1:24-25)
Notice three kinds of animals for the land:
Behemah—animals in general, and cattle in particular (not to be confused with behemoth, very large animals like the hippopotamus and crocodile). In this context it probably refers to domestic animals like oxen, camels, cows, sheep, and goats. These were the “clean” animals that provided God’s people with milk, meat, leather, fertilizer, transport, and muscle power. (Later they would be used for sacrifices.)
Remes—all manner of “unclean” mammals, amphibians, and reptiles: snakes and sloths, hares and hounds, goannas and geckos, frogs and field-mice, boars and bandicoots.
Chaya Eretz—animals of the earth, that creep along the ground, including insects.
Together these encompass all creatures great and small, that are indirectly or directly necessary for human life. Indirectly because the swarming animals are an essential part of the world’s ecosystem: every animal, no matter how minuscule, ugly, noxious or obnoxious, forms part of the essential food chain and circle of life. And directly because many animals—domestic animals in particular—serve humanity’s needs for transport, muscle-power, tools, clothing, and food. I remember, for example, when I lived in an aboriginal community, an elderly man skinning a kangaroo and showing that every part had a good use: even a claw which he used, with a mirthful smile, to comb his grey hair.
These animals were made “according to their kind.” Just as God didn’t make one all-purpose plant to feed humanity, but instead made numberless delightful varieties of fruits, vegetables, and grains, God did not provide one generic animal that would serve all our needs of food, transport, and labor. Instead God made a bewildering and enchanting variety of animal life. God declared these animals “good”: well-made and well-suited to the needs of human beings.
You are important because God did all this for you! He prepared this world for you.
2. You are important because God made you differently.
If there are many today who like to say that “Humans are just animals,” Genesis says loud and clear, “You are distinctly different!” It does this in three ways:
Notice first the “Let us make.” This is the first time God precedes his created work with this solemn preamble. Humanity will be made very differently to the rest of creation because God intended for us to be fundamentally different. How much these three words teach us about God! He is One (Deut. 6:4), and he is a plurality of persons: “Let us make.” This is not the Nicene Creed, but it blazes a trail to it.
Notice next in Genesis 2:7, which details Genesis 1:26, that “then the Lord God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature.” What intimacy! We live because God breathed his breath of life from his “mouth” into our nostrils. And God didn’t just suscitate us. He animated, enlivened, infused and imbued us with His Spirit—with Himself!
Notice thirdly the jarring “bump in the text.” After making light, “It was good.” After the firmament, “It was good.” After the dry land and vegetation, “It was good.” After the heavenly lights, “It was good.” After the birds and fishes, “It was good.” After humanity: “God saw all that he had made, and it was very good!” Every Christian should love and respect the natural world: for God made it and it is good. And we should love and respect humanity all the more, for God has declared us very good.
Five words here about Genesis 1 and evolutionary theism: Genesis does not teach it. It positively does not teach that God made humanity from animal species, and vegetable life before that, and lifeless compounds before that, through an infinitely lengthy and infinitesimally gradual step-by-step process of adaption.
Evolutionary theism is not taught in the lines; it is not implied between the lines. And theologically, everything that the Bible teaches about humanity contradicts it: especially with the links that it draws between us and Adam as our historic father and representative (Rom. 5:12-21, 1 Cor. 15:21-49), links that are simply nonsense if Adam was not the real first man created by God in Genesis 1 and 2, and the one original ancestor of us all.
God made you different from creation, to show that though you are part of creation, you are also distinctly important.
3. You are important because you bear God’s image.
“Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness.” The word mankind, ādām, is closely related to the word adāmāh, meaning ground or soil. Humanity has continuity with the rest of creation: we are not God, but creatures of God. Yet note the untold dignity of these words.
Some scholars wonder whether these two words, “image and likeness,” refer to two different ways by which humanity resembles God. Most however think that they work together, “image-likeness,” to define the affinity between God and humanity. To see a human being is to see an image of God, a likeness of God, a picture of God, a representation and representative of God.
Image-bearing is described functionally in the very next verse: Humanity will “rule over” the rest of creation. A viceroy, literally vice-king, represents the king and rules in the king’s place when the king is not there in person. To honor and obey the viceroy is to honor and obey the king. God’s image-bearers are his viceroys.
Genesis 1:24-26 explains the profound sense of high destiny and purpose that is deeply imprinted on the heart and soul of every human being. It is not an illusion. It is the inevitable consequence of our special creation.
Yes, the imago dei has been severely marred. We are like the Titanic, resting around 12,500 feet down on the floor of the North Atlantic, broken, holed, and rusting: a faded wreck of the glorious original. But it is still the Titanic, and we are still image-bearers!
And God the Son has come, incarnate in the same human flesh as you and me. How great is human dignity if God the Son took on the full body and soul of human nature. How great that he died for image bearers (he did not die for horses), to restore the image in us.
Every Christian is inspired by this. This week I saw a relic of a man at a bus-stop: disheveled, reeking, stooped liked a whipped dog, fumbling to light a cigarette, cursing loudly, angrily, and uncontrollably. He bears God’s image. To see this man is to see something of God. He is God’s representative, God’s viceroy, a lord over creation!
We long to see the Titanic raised and repaired, and not only restored, but even improved from its showroom condition. And the same is true for us. Jesus served image bearers by dying for them. And we will do the same.
That is why we sacrifice ourselves to educate the ignorant, to emancipate the slaves, to visit those in prison, and to protect the weak. That is why we wage do-or-die war against self-indulgence, the might-is-right ethic, prostitution, abortion, and slavery in its pure and de facto forms. That is why we honor, protect, and help the disabled. That is why we abhor euthanasia: we are image-bearers to be cared for to the end with skill and respect, not animals to be put down.
You feel important because you are. You bear the image of God, and Christ is your brother. The Holy Spirit is conforming you to the image in Christ. Emulate Christ, and love other image-bearers with sacrificial love.
This article was originally published at Beautiful Christian Life on October 15, 2018.
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