Tuesday, April 29 SOAP Devotion

April 29, 2008
Read Genesis 9
To read this text go to: http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=genesis%209;&version=51;



Scripture- Genesis 9:5-7- “And I will require the blood of anyone who takes another person’s life. If a wild animal kills a person, it must die. And anyone who murders a fellow human must die. If anyone takes a human life, that person’s life will also be taken by human hands. For God made human beings in his own image. Now be fruitful and multiply, and repopulate the earth.”



Observations- In the events leading up to the flood, life had become very cheap. Starting with Cain & Abel and mushrooming from there, murder had become commonplace. This chapter is a “do-over” with humanity. Noah and his family were just getting off of the boat as the flood waters were receding. Before they had much of a chance to get settled, God begins by making a new set of rules. God had already seen Noah’s obedience through offering the sacrifice and declared that He would never again destroy the Earth. Now God addresses our behavior. First, He tells them that it is ok to eat meat, as long as the “lifeblood” was no longer in it. They needed to understand that it cost something to take another life. God then addresses the taking of human life. We are to value human life because we are all made in the image of God. We are not to take another life if they steal from us, wrong us or our property, or insult us or our family. This was given to bring an appropriate sense of order to society by properly valuing the image of God in others—we are not to take that lightly.



Application- One of the central messages of the Bible is that we are loved by God because we are created in God’s image—all of us. Yes, we are born into a sinful world and are surrounded by sinful people, but that doesn’t change the fact that there is something of God’s image in all of us. God created us in His image and gave us free will. We abused that will and chose to go our own way. That broke, but did not remove, the image of God within us. The result of that is that we are born with a natural inclination and attraction to sin. In and of ourselves, we have no resources to resist sin. Sin is the magnet and we are the iron filings. When we commit our lives to following Christ and accept Him as our leader, forgiver and friend, the image of God begins the process of being restored within us. We now have God’s presence within us through the Holy Spirit and this gives us the resources to resist sin. God sees Himself clearly when looking into the mirror of our lives, but we and others see only a distorted image. Like when an old fashioned mirror is broken and repaired, at first the image it reflects is distorted. But, given time and the effort of repeated polishing, the image becomes clearer and clearer. That process of polishing (together with the Holy Spirit) the mirror of our lives so that it more clearly reflects Jesus to the world is what we call growing in grace, or Sanctifying Grace. Everyone we meet has this potential within them, even the biggest “jerk” we can think of. God calls us to show them grace as we are given the opportunity. The bigger the “jerk,” the more we need to rely on the power of the Holy Spirit working through us.



Prayer- God, help me to have a high value for others. Help me to see Your image in them and show them the love, grace and compassion that they need to see You and Your love. Help me to take advantage of the opportunities You bring my way to share Your love with others. Help me to see Your image in them—no matter how broken it might be. Thank You for loving me enough to send Jesus so that Your image could be restored in me through our friendship and Your teaching and help through the Holy Spirit. Amen.



Peace,

Pastor Matt