The Kingdom of God Devotional Guide - Tuesday, February 1

Scripture Reference: Genesis 4-5

Explanation: Much can be gained from a careful study of every detail of Genesis 4. By way of overview, we see in Genesis 4 several illustrations of the principles offered in yesterday's blog entry:

• The promises and blessings of God's Kingdom come to us only by faith and by cooperating with His plan.
• We cannot secure for ourselves the promises and blessings of God's Kingdom in any other way. 
• Frustration and death are in store for those who refuse to put their trust in the Lord and to embrace and cooperate with His plan.

Keep in mind, by the time Cain and Abel arrive on the scene, God had revealed a few key elements of His plan to restore the earth as a place where His rule is fully honored and obeyed:

• His provision of a Virgin-born, Deliverer-King
• Faith in Him and cooperation with His plan as the means of securing the blessings associated with His Kingdom
• Covering for sin through the bloody sacrifice of a substitute

Early on in the story of Cain and Abel, both brothers attempt to worship God through sacrifice. Cain "brought to the Lord an offering of the fruit of the ground", while Abel "brought of the firstborn of his flock and of their fat portions."

Abel's worship clearly was an embracing of God's plan as it had been revealed up to that point. Since Abel had not yet received all the promised blessings of God's Kingdom, his worship also is said to have arisen out of faith, a point that Hebrews 11:4 makes explicit. By contrast, Cain's worship was just as clearly not in agreement with what God had revealed. God had cursed the ground after the Fall, so Cain's persistence in offering its fruit shows both his lack of faith in God and failure to embrace His plan.

As the story of Genesis 4 continues to unfold, Cain rejects the "blessing" of God's provision for Him in cooperation with God's judgment that he become "a fugitive and wanderer on the earth." Cain attempted instead to secure certain "blessings" for himself by settling down, building a city, and surrounding himself with others who shared his values. In the long run, it didn't work. The Cainite civilization at the end of Genesis 4 is severely judged in the Flood of Genesis 6-8.

Now we can add yet another major element of God's plan revealed through this story:

• God reserves the right to define how He is to be worshiped and obeyed.

The birth of Seth, Adam and Eve's third son, is recorded at the end of the chapter. The line of Seth, it turns out, is the line through which God would ultimately fulfill His promises and accomplish His plan to restore the earth as a place where His rule is fully honored and obeyed. Around the time Seth's son, Enosh, was born, "people began to call upon the name of the Lord". Though it isn't stated explicitly, the implication is that these people, unlike their cousins through Cain, acted in faith while embracing the elements of God's plan revealed to this point. As confirmation, Genesis 5 records a genealogy of Seth's line, indicating his descendants lived for hundreds of years each before they eventually died. In this fashion, God illustrates the blessing of "life" that is associated with faith in Him and cooperation with His plan. This reality should be added to the previous list of things God has revealed about His plan up to this point:

• A central blessing associated with believing in God and cooperating with His plan is life.

The example of Enoch experiencing translation into God's presence because he "walked" with Him on earth (5:21-24) adds yet another major element of God's plan. More on this tomorrow.

Reflection Questions: From the perspective of what we know about God from the Bible overall, how would you describe worship that is consistent with the way He defines it? Jesus promised to give "life to the full" to those who follow Him. What does that promise mean to you and how is it being made real in your life?