Week 1 in Review

Brokenness
God made Adam in His image, or likeness, but after the Fall all of Adam's decendents have Adam's likeness (Gen 5:3); that is, humans share the same glimmer of God's image that Adam had as well as a fundamental brokenness that separates us from God, from each other, and from the rest of Creation.

Noah
Ten generations, or roughly 1600 years, pass from Adam to Noah, and the corruption of the earth begun at the Fall continued to the point that God made a drastic decision; He will wipe it all out and start over. God chooses Noah to build a ship that will preserve human and animal life. This part of the story is probably familiar to us: Noah and the Ark. But as we read further in the Bible we see the more "earthy", and sometimes infamous, side of the characters we sang about in Sunday school or colored with crayons. Noah gets drunk and naked. Two of his sons treat Noah with dignity, the other, Ham, thinks it's a riot. Noah loses his temper the next morning and curses Ham, the father of the Canaanites. And lasting bad relations between the family members begin.

Babel
Wouldn't it be great if there were no language barriers? Think of what could be accomplished! But human nature being what it is uses this ability for self-promotion; the residents of Babel start to build a tower in order to make a name for themselves, rather than to honor God who has saved them from total destruction. So, God "confuses" their speech. Interestingly, attempts at a universal language, for instance Esperanto, will eventually fail as well. We need to rely on more than language to relate with others; we need to rely on God and His image that we all share. Talk with someone who has been on a mission trip about how language differences are dealt with.

Sermon on the Mount
This week we began reading perhaps the most important teaching of Jesus in the Gospels; the Sermon, or Teaching, on the Mount. Beginning with the 8 beatitudes, a word meaning supreme happiness, Jesus moves us away from outward observances of the Law, toward inward change. It is from our heart that murder and adultery, big infractions of the 10 Commandments, begin. More than what we can see, or our circumstances, true happiness is to be found in through ordering our inward life by faith in God. We will continue this teaching during the coming week.

Wisdom
Proverbs are part of the Bible's wisdom literature, which includes the Book of James. This week, we are reminded that wisdom is freely available if we will simply choose to use it. When self-caused calamity strikes, then it's too late. Woman Wisdom mocking us, reflects our own feelings of foolishness for not doing the wise thing.

Blessings to you and yours during the coming week,
John