God's Promise

‘It repented the Lord that he had made man…’ (Gen 6:6,5)
Does God repent or grieve over His creation or the work of His hands?
Let me cite two verses. ‘God is not a man, that he should lie; neither the son of man that he should repent.’(Num. 23:19) This verse was spoken by Balaam, a prophet. He was brought before the King of Moab to curse the people of Israel. Here repentance that he refers to is something else. God had earlier warned him in a dream not to curse the people whom He had blessed (Num 22:12). It had nothing to do with His work or creation. The next verse refers to the point where Samuel brings God’s word concerning the kingship of Saul. ‘…the Strength of Israel will not lie nor repent; for he is not a man that he should repent’(1 Sam 15:29). Here the venerable prophet and Judge of Israel refers to David: ‘Out of the stem of Jesse’ as we read in the book of Isaiah(11:1) God had decided Saul had not in him to be the Chosen One. The anointed one or the Messiah was, instead, to emerge from the root of Jesse. Here again the word repentance is used to refer Israel and His promise to bless them through His anointed one who shall be an ensign …to it shall the Gentiles seek…’(Is.1:10)
God shall never repent as to His Promise, which is revealed gradually in a dispensation that as I mentioned earlier is representational. That Promise in a nutshell embraces both Old Testament as well as New Testament. In any case Israel is a linchpin around which His blessings should cover the whole earth. In a manner of speaking His Promise to Abraham is valid at any point of time. (Gen 12:1-3).
His repentance that He had created man must refer to something else to which I shall come in the next post.
benny

Representational Dispensation

Dispensation is a theological term. In American Heritage dictionary dispensation is defined as divine ordering of worldly affairs. Considering the order of Divine Will in Old Testament pertains to Israel in terms of other nations it is implied that His Dispensation is representational in its working. It becomes all the more significant since dispersal of Israel happened as a result of His judgment for their unbelief and apostasy, the blessing of God was to cover all other nations as well.(Gen12:3)This being the case judgment on Abraham’s seed was to work as a blessing for the gentiles by the same token. Like the widow whose lump of leaven covered the whole dough Divine chastisement though bitter at first shall work for the blessing of the whole nations. Hence we need to see Divine Will in terms of Judgment as representational in essence.
In Old Testament the Law of Moses set apart strangers from the Children of Israel. But in the New Testament grace that came with the advent of Jesus(Jn1:17) would reach the ends of the earth. The nation of Israel also would be reinstated consequently. (Rom 8:24) Such promises ought to show dispensation of God in setting apart the line of Seth from that of Cain would set apart a nation of Israel. As a prelude to this we see God sending a great flood. Did that cover the whole earth? In my opinion it was more of a local occurrence, which judged the nations inhabiting around what is now Middle East.
Divine dispensations prior to Last Judgment must be thus seen as representational in its nature.
benny

Key To Bible Study

‘that no prophesy of the scripture is of any private interpretation.’( 2 Pe. 1:20)
While we study the Bible grace the single most essential quality we need to ask for. As Peter says it is God of all grace who can make us perfect, strengthen and settle us (1 Pe 5:10). If we rely on our own wisdom or imagination we are likely to go out of bounds and arrive at conclusions that may prove to be contentious and also detrimental to our own spiritual growth. Grace of God however does not make interpretation fit only one size but does according to each person’s needs. If it were the case Paul would have had no case for finding fault with Peter while he visited Antioch. (Gal 2:9-11) Grace was given to Paul as one coming to the Lord from a Gentile background to worship Him in a manner that Peter could not entertain. We see Peter was too steeped in Hebraic tradition to hearken unto the vision of God. While in Joppa he heard the voice say: ‘Arise Peter; slay and eat.(Ac 11-7’ Was not the vision in preparation for an important turning point in the history of the Early Church? We have no right to give private interpretation but exercise the spirit given to us from above. By which grace working in Peter allowed him to give Paul an upstart in comparison his freedom to go among the Gentiles as he himself would minister to the converts from Jewish sect.
All interpretations that build up the church in love and unity must be considered as from God. That of the worldly wisdom caters to divisions, pride; such division distracts us from God. What is not glory for the Lord might end up as grist for the mill of Satan.
What are we at best? We are rational in thinking and yet we are far from adequate in measuring His Wisdom and Power.
In the coming posts I shall try to explain the nature of Dispensation to explain the second part of Genesis.
benny

Just One Point

Our conception of God as a patriarchal figure in white with flowing robes has nothing to do with reality. Perhaps it may owe much to the art of Michaelangelo for an example. But is it a true image? It isn’t. No man has seen God and yet we create an image which is cunningly devised to give art its due.
Similarly we find many cunningly devised fables’ (2 Pe 1:16) associated with the birth of Christ. What is the worth of celebrating Christmas if the spirit of Christ is missing?
benny
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Two Geneologies

‘Adam…begat a son in his own likeness, after his image; and called his name Seth’. Gen 5:3
Curiously we see two sets of geneology as the creation account in the preceding sections, of Holy Spirit focusing God and Man on the other. The two geneologies are similarly of two groups: of godly and worldly family.
In Hebrew tradition name of a person is the essence of his being. It is not without reason Abram was renamed as Abraham.(Gen17:5) He was to be the father of many nations just as God had promised. Eve named her firstborn Cain meaning ‘I have gotten a man from the Lord (Gen 4:1).
Let me digress here a little. Cain’s destiny was too much bound up with the sin of disobedience of his parents that he was not adequately protected from it. Since we do not read what sort of home life young Cain had it is a matter of conjuncture to think his parents neglected him. Did they train him in godly ways? Perhaps tilling the ground and eking out a life from the ground took too much out of Adam. We do not read of Eve stepping in to prepare the boy to walk with God as Enoch later would do (Gen5:22). We read however that God in His mercy set a sign on Cain so he might survive in the world. What was that mark? Was it something that would make him succeed in life? Did he cultivate those social skills that we see in celebrities of the present day? As the expression is ‘if you cannot win them, join them’. Cain settled down outside the Garden where God had initially intended. Outside God’s will Cain certainly prospered because of the mark. He didn’t build any mega church or gathered people around him but he built a city and named it after the name of his son Enoch (Gen 4:17).
From internal evidence I suppose Cain’s descendants at some point married into one from Adam’s descendants. Thus we have two sets of genealogies.
It is the second geneology that I want to focus on.
Seth came into the world to take the place of Abel whom Cain slew. His name meaning ‘appointed’ by God was very apt. Through him was His Will to be perfected. Merely because man failed the intent of God didn’t mean that God had scaled down His Will or His Holiness. ‘The foundation of God standeth sure…’ (2 Ti-2:19)
God had let Adam begin anew: In him lay the foundation of His church. Sin of obedience must have removed His explicit seal that His image signified. Consequentially Adam begat a son in his own likeness. Even so his geneology would measure up to the Holiness and perfection He had intended for Adam. Cain and his progeny stand for those who prosper without God. In them dynamics of their prosperity and visible trappings of success owe to the spirit of the world. They march to a different drummer than God. Their beliefs or gods are not to be compared with the manner Holy Spirit has chosen to highlight the destiny of Seth and his descendants. In him we may trace our kinship to Adam. The geneology of Jesus where Adam was the son of God ties up Old Testament and our destinies together. (Lk 3:38)This account was given in the gospel in order to show our antecedents.
benny