So for this year, I’m thinking I could go through the entire Bible and throw in my thoughts here and there.
I looked online for possible reading plans, but I ended up choosing to follow the suggested ‘Bible In 1 Year’ plan as set by the folks who give us Our Daily Bread.
Last night, we had an issue at home where we lost power for at least 3 hours, and in that span of time I tried to do some writing, and some Bible study, ending up with the following:
The earth was without form, and void; and darkness was on the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.
Genesis 1:2-3
Notice that the earth was already existing… or, rather, when God created the heavens and the earth (Genesis 1:1), “the earth” mentioned was without form, and void.
Notice also the existence of “the deep”, at least as far as darkness was on its “face”; the way ‘darkness’ is mentioned here brings me to understanding, or rather recalling that darkness is its own presence, not merely the absence of light, as we like to emphasize.
Regardless of these observations, what we should be more aware of is in the latter part of the verse; There it states that the Spirit of God was present, even in this void and in this darkness; The Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.
Then God said, ‘Let there be light’, and there was light.
Genesis 1:4
Light was spoken into being; I see the light as a herald, an indication of the earth’s actual creation; That is, from being ‘without form, and void’, to being without void by being formed. With that mentioned I’d like to also point out what was mentioned in Colossians 1:17, where it says He (Christ) is before all things, and in Him all things hold together; Christ, who is the Light of man, brought us from being without form and void, to being formed; that is, held together. See how we can see more aspects to the salvation we have in Christ, from the first verses of the Bible?
And God saw that the light was good. And God separated the light from the darkness. God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And there was evening and there was morning, the first day.
Genesis 1:4-5
Interesting, how I learned previously that the Jews actually started their days the evening before… Could something as simple as the order stated in verse 5 be enough to explain why they do that, and why there could be some wisdom in our treating a day the same way?
Here’s the thing. I wrote all of this in, oh, a span of half an hour, at least. There was a lot going on, and a lot I wanted to state, but I was thinking to myself, there’s no way I’m going to make the most out of my time if I stop and write down any further commentary. Typing, maybe, but I think I’ll keep my writing focused on my tasks for tomorrow, and so on; and I’ll do my Bible study and reflection here. On the computer.
The way I see it, I think I’ll just go through the Scripture I’m assigned for the day, copying and pasting Scripture and placing my thoughts whenever they come up… before providing a wrap-up at the end of the Scripture assigned to me for a day. Obviously I have my work cut out for me, because I have to continue yesterday’s Scripture, probably do a wrap-up or ‘final thoughts’ thing for that segment, before jumping into the Scripture assigned to me today.
Let’s freaking go.
And God said, “Let there be an expanse (or a canopy) in the midst of the waters, and let it separate the waters from the waters.” And God made (fashioned) the expanse and separated the waters that were under the expanse from the waters that were above the expanse. And it was so. And God called the expanse Heaven. And there was evening and there was morning, the second day.
Genesis 1:6-8
There are waters in the heavens, just as there are waters on the earth. I’m reminded of how things were when I had the privilege of living a few days or weeks in Middle Eastern countries; It feels like you need to ingest more water (from the earth) if there’s little to no water in the heavens, in these regions of the earth. You can certainly see proof of waters in the earth AND the heavens, here in the tropics. Clearly, life has lesser chance of surviving, much less thriving, when there is no water in both the heavens and the earth. And with that, all of a sudden I’m a meteorologist who’s stating the obvious: water is life.
On the third day God separated the waters here on the earth, so there was Earth and the Seas; it was also on the third day that He created the plants and the trees on the earth. And now I’m just thankful because I’m also just committing to memory the order of how things came to being during the days of Creation.
And God said, “Let there be lights in the expanse of the heavens to separate the day from the night. And let them be for signs and for seasons, and for days and years, and let them be lights in the expanse of the heavens to give light upon the earth.” And it was so. And God made the two great lights—the greater light to rule the day and the lesser light to rule the night—and the stars. And God set them in the expanse of the heavens to give light on the earth, to rule over the day and over the night, and to separate the light from the darkness. And God saw that it was good. And there was evening and there was morning, the fourth day.
Genesis 1:14-19
I always love to specify how, by creating light and darkness, God also created time, and as such, is beyond the confine of time, Himself. But the definition of day and night was already done before anything else, for us to define a day in the first place. Seeing these verses reminds me that Light comes from these sources (“lights in the expanse of the heavens”), just as much as Light also comes from His Word, earlier in the chapter.
On the fifth day God created the creatures of the sea, and then the creatures of the air… before creating the beasts of the earth, before creating man in their image on the sixth day. Notice the cycle of priorities here: Day 1 pertained to light, Day 2 to water, Day 3 to the earth (plants); Day 4, back to light, Day 5 was when the creatures of the water (plus the creatures of the heavens) were made, and Day 6 was when the creatures of the earth, and we were made. Not sure if I’m the only one who’s imagining this sequence, but ultimately, we who have been made in His image have been given charge:
So God created man in his own image,
in the image of God he created him;
male and female he created them.
Genesis 1:27
And God blessed them. And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.” And God said, “Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the face of all the earth, and every tree with seed in its fruit. You shall have them for food. And to every beast of the earth and to every bird of the heavens and to everything that creeps on the earth, everything that has the breath of life, I have given every green plant for food.” And it was so.
Genesis 1:28-30
Now I know I wrote about this elsewhere, but it was clear here that if we were to have charge and authority over anything, it was to subdue the earth – versus Christ, who in the later chapters of Matthew said, after His resurrection and before His ascension – that all authority in the HEAVENS AND THE EARTH has been given to Him. It’s also clear that we were to have dominion over CREATURES of the sea, air, and on the earth. We catch the pigeons for meat, we cast our nets for fish, but it is Christ alone speaks to the winds and waves, and they obey Him.
You can tell I’m quite opposed to this ‘word of faith’ movement. Speak it, and it comes to being? No, it was God who spoke forth light. Gosh, that’s a different article altogether.
Gosh, do you see how I’m already putting in so much, just from Chapter 1, when I’m supposed to be reading Genesis 1-3, AND a little from Matthew… on Day 1?
I need a different approach to this. Maybe I should just read everything, and then put all thoughts that stick down on a note. Not everything has to be recorded.
Going into Chapter 2 now, and I’m reading how God saw the first through the sixth day and saw that it was good, but it was the seventh day that God ‘blessed’ and ‘made (it) holy, because on it God rested from all His work that He had done in creation’. Look, I know I shouldn’t be jumping on the keyboard over every thought that pops up, but I just had to share this if only to emphasize the link between blessing, holiness, and rest. God blessed a day and made it holy – possibly something for us to glean here is that the blessings we do receive are not without a measure of holiness, or setting us apart. I think it adds more value to where we read that every blessing comes from God, and He adds no sorrow to it (Proverbs 10:22); on the flip side, every blessing does come from God… and in light of how He blessed the seventh day, are we also to say that He adds rest to His blessings?
A river flowed out of Eden to water the garden, and there it divided and became four rivers. The name of the first is the Pishon. It is the one that flowed around the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold. And the gold of that land is good; bdellium and onyx stone are there. The name of the second river is the Gihon. It is the one that flowed around the whole land of Cush. And the name of the third river is the Tigris, which flows east of Assyria. And the fourth river is the Euphrates.Genesis 2:10-14
I’m not sure if I talked about this before, but these four rivers intrigue me: The Pishon, the Gihon, the Tigris (also known as Hiddekel), and the Euphrates (also known as Perath). Wikipedia calls these four, the ‘Rivers of Paradise’, ‘where an unnamed stream flowing out of the Garden of Eden splits into four branches.’ They intrigue me in the sense that knowing them may give us some sort of insight to where the Garden actually was, and if we were even intended to find it in the first place. It also intrigues me that, yet again, water is mentioned; Water is flowing from the garden, into key spots all around Asia – Can this be parallel to when Christ says that those who believe in Him, ‘out of their bellies shall flow streams of living water’? Or am I adding more ado over the smallest of details?
I suppose that’s the overall thought that’s crept in through all this reading and responding – simply put, we’ve been blessed by no less than Jesus Christ, who has made us holy and is our Rest; as such, it’s not big deal for us to fret over every single detail, instead trusting God to the details that matter.
I know there’s more for me to be writing, and it doesn’t help that I have yet another set of chapters to read on top of my backlog… But this is a good start for now.
Until the next post, God bless you.
2091/365000
#BibleStudy #BibleInOneYear #Genesis #Reflections #TheImportanceOfWater #MinistryJourney #Journalling
JB's Personal Brain Defragmenter 
Leave a comment