Gen 3:21 The LORD God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife and clothed them.
I am only four chapters into Genesis, and I marvel at the things I am learning—about our amazing God and about the tenets I seem to hold about my faith. I have always equated Cain with evil. After all, he killed his brother in what appears to be cold-blooded murder. Yet Eve saw him as the potential Savior God promises them after their disobedience and exile from the Garden, and God showed him mercy, even in his disobedience.
Gen 4:7 “If you do what is right, will you not be accepted? But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must rule over it.”
And I have always thought of the Old Testament, pre-Jesus God as hard and unyielding. “Walk this line. Do not depart from it or I will smite you.” Yet in just the first four chapters of Genesis, God has shown repeated mercy and love in the face of blatant disobedience—Adam, Eve, and the apple, Cain and his offering, Cain’s murder of his brother.
Gen 4:15 But the LORD said to him, “Not so; anyone who kills Cain will suffer vengeance seven times over.” Then the LORD put a mark on Cain so that no one who found him would kill him.
Lord, Thank You for this day, for this scripture, for this new understanding that Your mercies, which are new every morning, have existed for Your people since the world began. Thank You for the time I am spending in Genesis, for the ability to examine my beliefs and my faith through new eyes, and for this new understanding of Your character, Your mercy, and Your love. Draw me closer to You as I shine Your light. Amen.
Lam 3:21-23 But this I call to mind, and therefore I have hope: The steadfast love of the LORD never ceases, His mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is Your faithfulness.
Have a blessed day.
My faith, my life, my teaching–it's all a work in progress.