For the third year in a row I committed to reading through the Bible in a year. Last year I failed miserably at staying with the plan. But this I’m determined to stay with it this year. But with reading through I want to make sure I’m reading it as if for the first time. I want the Lord to reveal to me new things in his word. Things I’ve never seen before, or things I’ve seen but not realized the depth of. As I come across these things I want to share them with you all. So here is the first of many to come.
So as with a lot of read through the Bible in a year plans part of my readings started in Genesis. There are two things so far in Genesis that I want to share.
First is in Genesis 1, which is the creation account. What stuck out to me when reading this is when God comes to create humans he says “let us make man in our image, after our likeness.”
This is not news to me. I wrote my advanced writing paper in college about being made in the image of God and what that means. But what was news to me this time is that the text itself emphasizes this. Previous to this verse are verses about God creating all the animals. And it says he creates them after its kind. It says that about all of them. But then he comes to make humans and it’s not after their own kind. It’s after his kind. When something is repeating in scripture and then the pattern breaks usually you should pay attention to what it’s saying when the pattern breaks. The text is drawing emphasis to it. I’ve never noticed that before.
The second is in Chapter 3, the fall of man. We all know the story. The serpent comes to the woman tempting her to eat the forbidden fruit. But what he says is what stuck out to me. He says “You will surely not die. For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” (italics added by me).
Wait a minute… The woman was already like God. She was made in His likeness. She forgets all about this. She trades the truth of being in His likeness for whatever fake likeness she will get from the fruit. The crazy thing is, to this day we are trading the truth of God for the lies of sin.
Juliann The Texan 