Genesis 7:1-9:17…
Before the rains came od declares to Noah that, among all people, he has found him ‘righteous in this generation.’ If you want to know my prayer for you all as young people, it’s just that… that you would be counted righteous among your generation; that you would go down in history, like Noah, as the one’s who stood up and stood out for God and changed the world. I can see God already working in your lives and it’s amazing. So be encouraged and aim for that: to be the righteous ones of this generation.
Then the flood. In a real sense, mankind has messed up everything that God had made so much that God decides to re-create everything. If you remember, in Genesis 1, before anything was created, the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters. Here, once more, the earth is covered with water.
And it’s like Noah and his wife – along with their sons and wives – are the new Adam and Eve. In Genesis 1:28 God instructs humans to ‘be fruitful and increase in number.’ That instruction is repeated in today’s reading twice.
So, it’s not that God made a mistake the first time round. He simply gave human’s the choice to love him or not to love him (and if love’s not a choice then it’s not really love, is it… it’s obligation or something similar). And humans didn’t love him. It was humans who made the mistakes. And so God decides to start again.
But the rainbow is given as a sign of a covenant (a binding agreement) that God will never again flood the earth to the same extent. Even though God knows that mankind will mess things up again (8:21). (Still, the flood and the rainbow should serve as a reminder to us that God should not be taken lightly.)
And the rainbow in particular, more than just light shining through the prism of the raindrop (the ‘how,’ science question) should speak to us of God’s commitment and love to us, weak and frail though we are (‘why’ we see rainbows).
After losing Iona, as Susie and I set off for Inverness from her graveside, we saw a rainbow. And, as we drove up the A9, we saw 6 more, including one as we pulled back into our driveway here. In the midst of all that pain and heartache, when we saw those rainbows we knew God was with us: ‘Whenever I bring clouds over the earth and the rainbow appears in the clouds, I will remember my covenant between me and you and all living creatures.’ We knew God was remembering us!
Matthew 4:1-22…
We find Jesus, the King, now tempted in the desert. And it’s hard. But Jesus is a King who wants to know what his people go through. And we’re tempted – everyday – and it’s hard. But Jesus knows what we’re going through. The big difference is that while we so often give into temptation, Jesus never did.
Never forget that being tempted isn’t a sin – only giving in to temptation is. But we can learn from our reading today how best to combat the devil’s tempting. Jesus was, first of all, full of the Holy Spirit, for he was ‘led by the Spirit into the desert’ (v.1). We need to full of the Spirit in order to combat temptation and live the way God wants us to (and you only have to ask him for that to happen). Second, he knew the Bible. Every time the devil tempts Jesus he replies with a line from the Old Testament. One of the great things about reading the Bible in a year is that we’ll know it so much better. Therefore we’ll be able to respond to difficult situations and temptation by using the Scriptures too.
After the desert experience we hear Jesus message which is the message of the kingdom of heaven. I’m not going to say anything about the kingdom here as everything Jesus says in the rest of Matthew will show us what the kingdom’s like. That’s worth looking forward to.
But it is worth noting how amazing it is when we really meet with Jesus. The first disciples (Simon-Peter and Andrew and James and John) had never met him before but seeing Jesus and hearing his invitation was enough. At once they left their nets – and their father! – and followed him. They must have known instinctively that following Jesus would help them become the righteous of their generation, just as Noah was in his. If we dare to leave everything we have for Jesus to become fishers of men (people who tell others about Jesus and bring them to him) we will be called righteous too, and we’ll be following those first disciple’s footsteps..
Proverbs 1:1-7…
Proverbs is an amazing book, full of cool little sayings and funny lines. But it is really for the attaining of wisdom and discipline and all the other things listed in verses 2-6. But that really begins with fear of the Lord (v.7). And that’s not being scared of God, but simply respecting him and understanding how powerful he is.
Fools that despise wisdom and discipline get caught up in the flood waters of life (a bit like Noah’s peers) and they just ignore Jesus when he says, ‘Come, follow me.’ Let us, however, be wise and fear the Lord. Then we will, as I’ve said is my prayer, be counted righteous in this generation.
Before the rains came od declares to Noah that, among all people, he has found him ‘righteous in this generation.’ If you want to know my prayer for you all as young people, it’s just that… that you would be counted righteous among your generation; that you would go down in history, like Noah, as the one’s who stood up and stood out for God and changed the world. I can see God already working in your lives and it’s amazing. So be encouraged and aim for that: to be the righteous ones of this generation.
Then the flood. In a real sense, mankind has messed up everything that God had made so much that God decides to re-create everything. If you remember, in Genesis 1, before anything was created, the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters. Here, once more, the earth is covered with water.
And it’s like Noah and his wife – along with their sons and wives – are the new Adam and Eve. In Genesis 1:28 God instructs humans to ‘be fruitful and increase in number.’ That instruction is repeated in today’s reading twice.
So, it’s not that God made a mistake the first time round. He simply gave human’s the choice to love him or not to love him (and if love’s not a choice then it’s not really love, is it… it’s obligation or something similar). And humans didn’t love him. It was humans who made the mistakes. And so God decides to start again.
But the rainbow is given as a sign of a covenant (a binding agreement) that God will never again flood the earth to the same extent. Even though God knows that mankind will mess things up again (8:21). (Still, the flood and the rainbow should serve as a reminder to us that God should not be taken lightly.)
And the rainbow in particular, more than just light shining through the prism of the raindrop (the ‘how,’ science question) should speak to us of God’s commitment and love to us, weak and frail though we are (‘why’ we see rainbows).
After losing Iona, as Susie and I set off for Inverness from her graveside, we saw a rainbow. And, as we drove up the A9, we saw 6 more, including one as we pulled back into our driveway here. In the midst of all that pain and heartache, when we saw those rainbows we knew God was with us: ‘Whenever I bring clouds over the earth and the rainbow appears in the clouds, I will remember my covenant between me and you and all living creatures.’ We knew God was remembering us!
Matthew 4:1-22…
We find Jesus, the King, now tempted in the desert. And it’s hard. But Jesus is a King who wants to know what his people go through. And we’re tempted – everyday – and it’s hard. But Jesus knows what we’re going through. The big difference is that while we so often give into temptation, Jesus never did.
Never forget that being tempted isn’t a sin – only giving in to temptation is. But we can learn from our reading today how best to combat the devil’s tempting. Jesus was, first of all, full of the Holy Spirit, for he was ‘led by the Spirit into the desert’ (v.1). We need to full of the Spirit in order to combat temptation and live the way God wants us to (and you only have to ask him for that to happen). Second, he knew the Bible. Every time the devil tempts Jesus he replies with a line from the Old Testament. One of the great things about reading the Bible in a year is that we’ll know it so much better. Therefore we’ll be able to respond to difficult situations and temptation by using the Scriptures too.
After the desert experience we hear Jesus message which is the message of the kingdom of heaven. I’m not going to say anything about the kingdom here as everything Jesus says in the rest of Matthew will show us what the kingdom’s like. That’s worth looking forward to.
But it is worth noting how amazing it is when we really meet with Jesus. The first disciples (Simon-Peter and Andrew and James and John) had never met him before but seeing Jesus and hearing his invitation was enough. At once they left their nets – and their father! – and followed him. They must have known instinctively that following Jesus would help them become the righteous of their generation, just as Noah was in his. If we dare to leave everything we have for Jesus to become fishers of men (people who tell others about Jesus and bring them to him) we will be called righteous too, and we’ll be following those first disciple’s footsteps..
Proverbs 1:1-7…
Proverbs is an amazing book, full of cool little sayings and funny lines. But it is really for the attaining of wisdom and discipline and all the other things listed in verses 2-6. But that really begins with fear of the Lord (v.7). And that’s not being scared of God, but simply respecting him and understanding how powerful he is.
Fools that despise wisdom and discipline get caught up in the flood waters of life (a bit like Noah’s peers) and they just ignore Jesus when he says, ‘Come, follow me.’ Let us, however, be wise and fear the Lord. Then we will, as I’ve said is my prayer, be counted righteous in this generation.
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