Monday, May 29, 2006

The Appointed One!!

Genesis 4:25 Adam lay with his wife again, and she gave birth to a son and named him Seth, [i] saying, "God has granted me another child in place of Abel, since Cain killed him".

Every year, when the month of August comes, its mourning time for my friend's mother. It was during this time, her second son caught jaundice and died.. She loved him dearly and even when she had another son, she was not consoled.. I would always be surprised by the love she had for her dead child who was with her for just a few months..

If a mother can't be consoled by the death of a child, how much more would be her grievance when she loses her healthy son in murder? and how much more would it pain her to know that it was one of her other sons who killed her son? Yet, we see Eve here, praising God even at her trying moments.."God has granted me another child in place of Abel, since Cain killed him". Seth- Means 'The Appointed One'. Yes, he was the appointed one of God to be chosen as a patriarch for the generations to come..

Prologue : In earlier chapters itself, we found that Jealousy was the main cause of so many sins. Here too it happened that Cain became Jealous of Abel. The reason? Abel being a shepherd, chose one of his choicest flocks and gave to God whereas Cain gave just some vegetables in his Garden. God saw how much love Abel had for him and accepted his gift. This made Cain jealous of Abel and he hurt his brother without knowing that it would kill him.

Jealousy is a big sin. One should get rid of it. Otherwise, one would be ruined for life.

Celia :: 11:02 AM :: 3 Comments:

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Sunday, May 21, 2006

The painful journey starts .....

Extracted from Genesis 4:

Adam lay with his wife Eve, and she became pregnant and gave birth to Cain. She said, "With the help of the LORD I have brought forth a man." Later she gave birth to his brother Abel.


Comments: A friend had asked for a more detailed prose and so I will try to explain more. This incident details on how the first family was started. Though God, had banished Adam and Eve from Eden, he didn't reject them forever. By submitting to sin.. to bad, and hence to satan, Adam and Eve had chosen a tough path. Immediately the world had come into Satan's power and everything was difficult for them. Worse, they had the curse too.

However, we should note here that they didn't lose the faith they had on God. When Eve gave birth to Cain, she obviously would have been in a hell of a pain, and yet, she would have prayed to God in her distress. And hence, when she delivered, she gave her testimony, "With the help of the LORD I have brought forth a man".. Yes, its true, that God punishes us for our sins, for God is a God of righteousness and of Justice. But at the same time, he is a God of mercy too. So, when anyone cries out to God in their pain, he reaches out to them immediately as a parent..

Celia :: 7:37 AM :: 2 Comments:

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Thursday, May 18, 2006

The fall

Comments: For an usual reader, this incident might just look like eating a forbidden fruit. But if you would notice it more closely, you would see how sin evolved, from self righteousness -> jealousy -> disobedience -> blaming. Also, it reveals one particular nature of women. They are MORE vulnerable and susceptible when it comes to sweet talk. This incident has been drafted here so that women read this and be cautious.

Extracted from Genesis 3:

1 Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the LORD God had made. He said to the woman, "Did God really say, 'You must not eat from any tree in the garden'?"

2 The woman said to the serpent, "We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, 3 but God did say, 'You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.' "

4 "You will not surely die," the serpent said to the woman. 5 "For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil."

6 When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it. 7 Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves.

8 Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the LORD God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the LORD God among the trees of the garden. 9 But the LORD God called to the man, "Where are you?"

10 He answered, "I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid."

11 And he said, "Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?"

12 The man said, "The woman you put here with me—she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate it."

13 Then the LORD God said to the woman, "What is this you have done?"
The woman said, "The serpent deceived me, and I ate."

14 So the LORD God said to the serpent, "Because you have done this,
"Cursed are you above all the livestock
and all the wild animals!
You will crawl on your belly
and you will eat dust
all the days of your life.

15 And I will put enmity
between you and the woman,
and between your offspring [a] and hers;
he will crush [b] your head,
and you will strike his heel."

16 To the woman he said,
"I will greatly increase your pains in childbearing;
with pain you will give birth to children.
Your desire will be for your husband,
and he will rule over you."

17 To Adam he said, "Because you listened to your wife and ate from the tree about which I commanded you, 'You must not eat of it,'
"Cursed is the ground because of you;
through painful toil you will eat of it
all the days of your life.

18 It will produce thorns and thistles for you,
and you will eat the plants of the field.

19 By the sweat of your brow
you will eat your food
until you return to the ground,
since from it you were taken;
for dust you are
and to dust you will return."

20 Adam [c] named his wife Eve, [d] because she would become the mother of all the living.

21 The LORD God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife and clothed them. 22 And the LORD God said, "The man has now become like one of us, knowing good and evil. He must not be allowed to reach out his hand and take also from the tree of life and eat, and live forever." 23 So the LORD God banished him from the Garden of Eden to work the ground from which he had been taken. 24 After he drove the man out, he placed on the east side [e] of the Garden of Eden cherubim and a flaming sword flashing back and forth to guard the way to the tree of life.

Celia :: 7:46 PM :: 2 Comments:

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Thursday, May 11, 2006

The beginning

Extracts from Genesis 2:

The Lord God said, "It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him".

But for Adam, no suitable helper was found. So the Lord God, caused the man to fall into a deep sleep and while he was sleeping, he took one of the man's ribs and closed up the place with flesh.

Then the Lord God made a woman from the rib he had taken out of the man and he brought her to the man.

The man said,
This is now bone of my bones
and flesh of my flesh;
She shall be called
WOMAN.
for she was taken out of man.

For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife and they will become one flesh. The man and his wife were both naked and they felt no shame.

Celia :: 6:26 AM :: 5 Comments:

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