Alright, still playing catch up. Let's knock out day 2.
Reading for January 2
Genesis 3:1-4:26
Chapter 3 is named "The Fall of Man" - This is when Adam and Eve famously eat the forbidden fruit and now have the knowledge of good and evil. The blog from my church talks about how this section showcases man's free will. God could have made us all robots who loved him without a choice in the matter, but chose to give us free will. So then, why does he punish them (pretty harshly I might add) for making the wrong choice?
The analogy of God being a parent figure is an easy one to draw. And God must have been disappointed here - only 3 chapters into his creation and they've already messed up. I believe the punishment was coming from a loving place however - after all, God made clothes for them because they were ashamed of being nude. Doesn't get more fatherly than that.
Matthew 2:13-3:6
Oh, OK. So King Herod was looking for Jesus, not to go and worship him, but to kill him! How did I miss this? Joseph, Mary and Baby Jesus moved to Egypt until Herod died to avoid Jesus being killed. Herod found out and was pissed and ordered every boy 2 years and younger to be killed. Damn, son.
Psalm 2:1-12
"Blessed are all those who take comfort in Him" - Nice.
Proverbs 1:7-9
"The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge."
So if we build up knowledge without first fearing the LORD, the knowledge is - what? Incorrect? Misguided? I'm gonna go with misguided.
Alright - slowly but surely catching up. This will be much easier once I do catch up. It's taking me about 30 minutes to read the passages and then write about them. I'm feeling good so far. Let's hit another one before I make some dinner.
"So if we build up knowledge without first fearing the LORD, the knowledge is - what? Incorrect? Misguided? I'm gonna go with misguided."
ReplyDeleteI think it's that the knowledge the Proverb is talking about is actually not knowledge at all without "the fear of God." Essentially, a relationship with God. You can know Barack Obama, in the sense you know who he is, his biography, blah blah. But you never sat and had an ice cream (yes ice cream) with Barack Obama and got to know his hopes, dreams, desires etc.
I think the proverb is talking about the same thing. Specifically, if you don't have the fear of God, you clearly don't know him, because he's freaking God, and he created the whole world and could wipe you out with a bolt. But even more than that, if you don't have the awe (I think that's a better word, doesn't Donald Miller talk about this?), then that means you cannot begin to understand who He is and how much he loves you and how much He has and wants to give to you.