Thur.’s Devo - The Perfect Sacrifice

Read: Genesis 3:1-4:26; Matthew 2:13-3:6; Psalm 2:1-12; Proverbs 1:7-9 One day, the serpent came to the woman and asked her what the Lord had told her about the fruit from the trees in the garden. She told him that the only tree she couldn’t eat from was the one in the middle of the garden. Ever wonder why God didn’t put that tree hidden away and not in the center of the garden? *** The woman told the serpent that you weren’t suppose to even touch it or you would die. She exaggerated a little there, so Satan found his entrance and took it. He told her that God knew that in the day she ate it, her eyes would be opened and she would be like God, knowing both good and evil. *** This lie caused the woman to see the tree in a different light. Now, the tree looked pleasant to her and like the fruit might taste good, where before, she had avoided the tree. Eve took a fruit from it and ate it then turned and gave some to Adam and he ate it also. *** Their eyes were opened and now they felt shame for the first time. They gathered fig trees to cover their nakedness. When sin is revealed to us, we have a choice to try to hide it or to bring it to God and repent. They chose to hide it. *** When they heard God coming to fellowship with them, they hid. When God called for them, they confessed they hid because they realized they were naked. When God asked them how they knew this, and if they had eaten from the forbidden tree, Adam spoke first and blamed the woman. When God asked the woman, she blamed the serpent. *** God began with the serpent and cursed him to crawl on his belly and eat dust. There would always be hostility and hatred between the serpent and the woman - between satan’s offspring and the woman’s offspring. Her offspring would strike the head of the snake and the snake would strike his heel. *** To the woman, God said she would have labor pains and she would desire to control her husband, but he would rule over her instead. Because the man listened to the wife, the ground would be hard and he would work all his life to bring food from it. *** Adam then named his wife, Eve because she would be the mother of all living. God sacrificed an animal to give them clothes to wear. Since they had become able to know both good and evil, God had to banish them from he garden before they ate from the tree of life and lived forever in that state. An angel with a flaming sword was put to guard the way to the tree of life. *** Adam and Eve became pregnant and had two boys. The first one who came out was Cain. Then Abel was born. One was good and one was evil. We have to remember that all the trees in the garden had seed in them that was to produce fruit. The fruit from the tree was both good and evil, and it produced Cain and Abel. One was good and one was evil. *** Abel grew up to be a shepherd of sheep and Cain, a gardener. At the time of harvest they presented gifts to the Lord. Cain gave some of his crops to the Lord while Abel brought the best of his firstborn lambs. *** God did not respect Cain’s offering which made Cain very angry, but did respect Abel’s offering. Abel had offered a lamb which was a blood sacrifice. But it was more about Abel’s heart which was right in God’s eyes. God was trying to teach them what pleased him for future generations to glean from, but Cain was unteachable because of his pride. *** God had a talk with Cain and told him that he had not done well, which was why his gift was not accepted. It had to do with his heart. If he didn’t get control over his pride and anger, it would control him. *** Cain didn’t get control of his anger and when he and Abel were alone, Cain killed Abel. The Lord came to Cain and asked him where Abel was and he refused to take responsibility. God told Cain that Abel’s blood cried from the ground for vengeance. Cain was cursed and he would not produce fruit but be a vagabond and a wanderer throughout the earth. To protect him from being killed, God put a mark on him that told people not to kill him or they would receive sevenfold punishment. Cain went and settled in the land of Nod to the east of Eden. *** Cain and his wife had Enoch, who had Irad, who had Mehujael, who had Methushael, who had Lamech. Lamech had two wives: Adah and Zillah. Adah had Jamal who was a shepherd who lived in tents and Jubal who was a musician. Zillah had Tubal-cain who was a blacksmith and a sister named Naamah. One day Lamech came home announcing that he had killed a man in self-defense and was afraid for his life. *** In the meantime, Adam and Eve had another son and named him Seth which means “substituted”. He was a substitute of Abel. Seth had a son named Enoch which means “mortal man”. People began to worship the Lord by name at this time. *** In Matthew, the wise men had brought their gifts and left. An angel appeared to Joseph and told him to flee to Egypt because Herod was going to try to kill Jesus. They left that night and stayed in Egypt until the death of Herod. *** Herod was furious when he realized he had been tricked by the wise men. He sent soldiers to kill all the baby boys who were two and under. This fulfilled the prophecy in Jeremiah about the women weeping for their children. *** When Herod died, an angel told Joseph it was safe to come back to Israel. He was warned to stay in Nazareth so they raised Jesus there fulfilling the prophecy in Isaiah 40:3. *** In the meantime, Jesus’ cousin, John, began prophesying about the Lord coming. He told the people to prepare their hearts for the Messiah to come. John baptized his followers in the Jordan River. *** Lord, it is amazing how you protected your lamb so he would be presented as the perfect sacrifice to take away our sins. Nothing is impossible with you. May our sacrifices of praise be a sweet smell to you.