January 1-4 (collective observations of Kingdom Kids staff)

Our reading thus far has brought out some significant thoughts. First, have you noticed the repetition? Whether it's "God saw that it was good" or the genealogies mentioned, many things are repeated over and over. For us, this helps clarify important items. Some important themes we noticed:

• God is the judge of good and evil, not man. He is the One who decides what is "good" or "not good" in Genesis. The problem comes when Adam and Eve want to know and decide for themselves, without trusting God. Eating of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil takes on new meaning, because we see that only God has been calling the shots of "good" and "not good" up until then.
• "Separation" comes up all of the time. God separates light from dark, waters from earth, plants and animals after their kind, man from beast, woman from man, etc. God must have an interest in keeping things separate. Maybe this will come up later with His people Israel being separate from the world, and their God being separate from other gods. God is separate, "Holy."

Some of us are reading out loud with our spouses. It seems to flow differently than just reading silently. Maybe it actually helps to read out loud occasionally, especially in light of the fact that the Israelites depended on oral history, and storytelling. Genealogies may feel a bit long, but each name most likely brought up feelings of nobility or frailty in the mind of listeners. It's amazing that 1,000's of years did not yield inaccuracy in the storyline because God preserved it and communicated it to Moses.

A few other observations:

• In Genesis, light was created before bodies of light. There was no sun in beginning, but also Revelation says that there will be no sun necessary in the end, because God (the Lamb) will be its light.
• After the flood, the first mention of sacrifice was with Noah - before the law of Moses. Were sacrifices also a cultural phenomenon? 
• Bible is not exhaustive in nature (it doesn't tell us everything there is to know about everything), but sufficient (it tells us what we need to know for salvation and trusting God). Similar to Adam and Eve, we have enough knowledge to know that we must trust God. He will reveal more in time.
• People lived for almost a millennium near the beginning of time. How would living until the age of 900 change your life pattern? Would you be less worried about getting everything done in time? Would you be more driven and excited about living and have your priorities?

By the way, we won't be posting the reading selections every day, but just for those of you who may be interested in reading along, the selections will be very complicated to keep up without the Chronological Bible that we are using. If you are thinking about joining, it would be a good idea to purchase the Bible pictured to the right of this blog. The selections have been as follows:

January 1-3

                Genesis 1:1-9:29

                1 Chronicles 1:1-4

January 4

                Gen. 10:1-5

                1 Chronicles 1:5-7

                Genesis 10:6-20

                1 Chronicles 1:8-16

                Genesis 10:21-11:26

                1 Chronicles 1:17-27