Reading through the Bible 2020: Notes for the Bible Recap Day 2

Reading through the Bible in 2020
Bible Recap Day 2 Gen 4-7
Personal notes from reading Gen. 4-7
The desire for man to do what we want, rears its ugly head in Gen. 4.  Adam and Eve have Cain and Abel. Cain allowed jealousy to rule him and he killed his brother.  And although God showed Cain mercy, there were also consequences. Cain made a choice and had to deal with it.  And that story hasn’t changed. We make choices and when they are the wrong choices, we must live with the consequences.  Cain’s line was wicked. The city built by Cain’s line was one of violence and selfishness and oppression.  
The evil of man brought God immense grief and sorrow.  He gave His creation freedom and choice and they had chosen evil.  So in response, He shortened the lifespan of man and washed the earth of every wicked human other than the one good human left, Noah, and his family.  Noah was obedient and he built an ark to save his family and the animals of the earth from the flood sent to start creation from anew.  
The flood came out of a sadness that we can’t comprehend.  Mankind had become a toxic wretchedness that had to be washed clean.  So for forty days, water flooded the earth and the water remained for 150 days.
Notes from the Bible Recap Gen. 4-7
This part of scripture is certainly hard to read because there is so much focus on our wickedness.  There’s a lot that goes on in this part of Scripture that is uncomfortable to look at, even downright disgusting.   We can come up with theories or side with already existing theories about the questions that come to mind when reading these passages.  Like, where did Cain’s wife come from? And what in the world are nephilim and why on earth would they have children with human women???  First of all, the world is not the same now as it was at the beginning. God had a plan with an order to it. We weren’t there for the beginning of the plan and so much has changed that it becomes very difficult to understand why certain things happened then that would be very wrong today.  But the most important thing I heard in the podcast that I’d like to point out is this:
DO NOT SCREAM!!! WHERE SCRIPTURE whispers.   
We tend to do that.  When we don’t understand, we come up with our own theories and not all of them are right.  Building our own understanding based on a theory that is made up can be a dangerous, slippery slope.  Back in college, my pastor at the time said something that I will never forget: “Major on the majors and minor on the minors”.  There are definitely issues that Scripture SCREAMS. Major on them. But there are also details that are whispered. Minor on them.  Don’t turn them into issues that they are not. When you hit something that you don’t understand, lean on God for clarity, not your own made up conclusion based on a man-made theory.   
Our focus should not be to know everything (and oh my gracious that causes mankind some issues!).  Our focus should be to know God.
God is sovereign.  He rules over us and continues on with His plan.  He is at work in everything to restore us and keep us in relationship with Him.

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