Here are your passages for week three of Daystreamers. One passage – one thought – to propel you through your day – with God on your mind. One woven Story – one amazing opportunity. Kind of a cool way to work through the epic passages, don’t you think?
Both Job and Abraham bring us a fully human understanding of encounter with God – and how special His choice of us is. It was their faith, not their status as Hebrews, that ignited their journeys. Sound familiar? These readings complete our human race roots and prepare us for God’s chosen race: the Jewish nation.
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Genesis 8:1-3 God Remembered
“But God remembered Noah and all the beasts and all the cattle that were with him in the ark; and God caused a wind to pass over the earth, and the water subsided. Also the fountains of the deep and the floodgates of the sky were closed, and the rain from the sky was restrained; and the water receded steadily from the earth, and at the end of one hundred and fifty days the water decreased.”
If it was not for God’s comprehensive and perfect memory for all living souls – where would we be? The same God Who remembered Noah and his family in the ark is the same one who will remember us on the last day, when He gathers all living souls from the grave – or from the earth! (1 Thessalonians 4:16)
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Genesis 8:20-22 The Offering
“Then Noah built an altar to the LORD, and took of every clean animal and of every clean bird and offered burnt offerings on the altar. The LORD smelled the soothing aroma; and the LORD said to Himself, “I will never again curse the ground on account of man, for the intent of man’s heart is evil from his youth; and I will never again destroy every living thing, as I have done. “While the earth remains, Seedtime and harvest, And cold and heat, And summer and winter, And day and night – Shall not cease.”
It is good to know that despite the volatility of our nature we can count on God’s perfect patience – until the end of the Age! (Matthew 28:20)
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Genesis 9:5-6 The Blood
“Surely I will require your lifeblood; from every beast I will require it. And from every man, from every man’s brother I will require the life of man. “Whoever sheds man’s blood, by man his blood shall be shed, for in the image of God He made man.”
Apparently our blood is where the imprint of life resides (hard to live without blood) and is a deep reminder of God’s authority over all He has created. This is why God killed animals after Adam and Even sinned, and covered them with the skins. This is why there is no escape for mankind apart from Jesus – the second Adam – whose blood washes us whiter than snow (Revelation 7:14).
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Genesis 9:16-17 Rainbow
“When the bow is in the cloud, then I will look upon it, to remember the everlasting covenant between Me and every living creature – of all flesh that is on the earth.” And God said to Noah, “This is the sign of the covenant which I have established between Me and all created beings that live on the earth.”
Rainbows are breathtaking in many impressive ways, but they reveal something huge about God’s faithfulness. What He says He will do. We can count on it. (Isaiah 55:11; Ezekiel 1:28; Revelation 4:3; 10:1)
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Genesis 9:18-19 The People
“Now the sons of Noah who came out of the ark were Shem and Ham and Japheth; and Ham was the father of Canaan. These three were the sons of Noah, and from these the whole earth was populated.”
This was an amazing reset. And yet, despite all of the human loss from the flood, Adam’s core had not been erased. It would take more than a flood to save mankind. It would require a second Adam (1 Corinthians 15:45).
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Genesis 10:5 Dispersion
“From these the coastlands of the nations were separated into their lands, every one according to his language, according to their families, into their nations.”
The post-flood world was altered dramatically from before. From God’s first words to humanity He asked us to “be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth.” His purposes for humans go way beyond our personal comfort and self-actualization. He has made us for glory – His glory. All other human gods reflect only human exaltation. In the Great God we “find ourselves by losing ourselves.” (Matthew 10:39)
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Genesis 11:4-6 Unification
“They said, “Come, let us build for ourselves a city, and a tower whose top will reach into heaven, and let us make for ourselves a name, otherwise we will be scattered abroad over the face of the whole earth.” The LORD came down to see the city and the tower which the sons of men had built. The LORD said, “Behold, they are one people, and they all have the same language. And this is what they began to do, and now nothing which they purpose to do will be impossible for them.”
It is troubling to see how obsessed these early humans were with tower building. While our intellectual capacity reflects the image of God, our propensity for self-aggrandizement runs deep. And when self rules the day, we are on the road to self-destruction. (Philippians 2:3-4)