Genesis 1:1-2:25 2009, 2010
(1) "According to their kinds" - My notes from previous years point to: Matthew 7:16 - "You will know them by their fruits"
Luke 6:43 - "For a good tree does not bear bad fruit..."
Proverbs 13:20; 22:24-25 - addresses the influence of company: "Make no friendship with an angry man...Lest you learn his ways"
This recurring phrase in Genesis 1 stood out primarily because of a lecture I heard in 2005 by RC Sproul which I plan to find. Ligonier's Tabletalk magazine also covered Genesis in 2006 (Sept 2006 begins with Gen 16) so I plan to find my old copies & hopefully return to update this post.
However, I vaguely recall the point: Genesis shows a pattern: kind begetting kind. So that later on in Genesis one can see how traits of deception & murder are passed from generation to generation.
(2) Ligonier's Tape of the Month from September 2005 is taken from Sproul's "From Dust to Glory" series: "When Christian faith is attacked by secular philosophy, the number one target of skeptical philosophy is the concept of Creation. Because if we get rid of Creation than we get rid of God."
During the enlightenment of the 18th C., the German "Aufklarung" made this claim: the God Hypothesis is no longer necessary to account for the universe or the origin of human life.
The French Encyclopediasts: the scientific discovery which has made the God Hypothesis unnecessary is the discovery of spontaneous generation.
Professor from Stanford University (and winner of the Nobel prize in Physics): Scientists need to abandon the model of spontaneous generation; but replace it and affirm the model of gradual generation.
(3) (2010) An interesting quote from Henry's Commentary :
The Creator could have made his work perfect at first, but by this gradual proceeding he would show what is, ordinarily, the method of his providence and grace.
(4)(2010) "Now the LORD God had formed out of the ground all the beasts of the field and all the birds of the air."(Gen 2:19) - All creatures were made from dust.
(5)(2016) The sequence impresses upon me more so on this reading: (a) The Trinity states that it's not good for the man to be alone; (b) all the creatures are presented to the Man; (c) the Man names all the creatures; (d) no suitable helper is found; (e) the Man is put into a deep sleep; (f) God makes the Woman; (g) God presents the Woman; (h) the Man names the Woman recognizing her as being of the same kind.
Matthew 1:1-2:12
1) "So far from hindering the promise to him" : Tamar, Rahab, Ruth & Uriah (2010) - Henry comments
There are four women, and but four, named in this genealogy; two of them were originally strangers to the commonwealth of Israel, Rahab a Canaanitess, and a harlot besides, and Ruth the Moabitess; for in Jesus Christ there is neither Greek, nor Jew; those that are strangers and foreigners are welcome, in Christ, to the citizenship of the saints. The other two were adulteresses, Tamar and Bathsheba; which was a further mark of humiliation put upon our Lord Jesus, that not only he descended from such, but that is decent from them is particularly remarked in his genealogy, and no veil drawn over it. He took upon him the likeness of sinful flesh (Rom. 8:3), and takes even great sinners, upon their repentance, into the nearest relation to himself. Note, We ought not to upbraid people with the scandals of their ancestors; it is what they cannot help, and has been the lot of the best, even of our Master himself. David's begetting Solomon of her that had been the wife of Urias is taken notice of (says Dr. Whitby) to show that the crime of David, being repented to, was so far from hindering the promise made to him, that it pleased God by this very woman to fulfill it.2.(2011) The Star. Henry comments:
The birth of Christ was notified to the Jewish shepherds by an angel, to the Gentile philosophers by a star: to both God spoke in their own language, and in the way they were best acquainted with. Some think that the light which the shepherds saw shining round about them, the night after Christ was born, was the very same which to the wise men, who lived at such a distance, appeared as a star; but this we cannot easily admit, because the same star which they had seen in the east they saw a great while after, leading them to the house where Christ lay; it was a candle set up on purpose to guide them to Christ. The idolaters worshipped the stars as the host of heaven, especially the eastern nations, whence the planets have the names of their idol-gods; we read of a particular star they had in veneration, Amos 5:26. Thus the stars that had been misused came to be put to the right use, to lead men to Christ; the gods of the heathen became his servants. Some think this star put them in mind of Balaam's prophecy, that a star should come out of Jacob, pointing at a sceptre, that shall rise out of Israel; see Num. 24:17. Balaam came from the mountains of the east, and was one of their wise men. Others impute their enquiry to the general expectation entertained at that time, in those eastern parts, of some great prince to appear. Tacitus, in his history (lib. 5), takes notice of it; Pluribus persuasio inerat, antiquis sacerdotum literis contineri, eo ipso tempore fore, ut valesceret oriens, profectique Judaea rerum potirentur—A persuasion existed in the minds of many that some ancient writings of the priests contained a prediction that about that time an eastern power would prevail, and that persons proceeding from Judea would obtain dominion. Suetonius also, in the life of Vespasian, speaks of it; so that this extraordinary phenomenon was construed as pointing to that king; and we may suppose a divine impression made upon their minds, enabling them to interpret this star as a signal given by Heaven of the birth of Christ.
3.(2011) Henry also relates the Star to the clash of domains:
Herod and Jerusalem were thus troubled, from a mistaken notion that the kingdom of the Messiah would clash and interfere with the secular powers; whereas the star that proclaimed him king plainly intimated that his kingdom was heavenly, and not of this lower world. Note, The reason why the kings of the earth, and the people, oppose the kingdom of Christ, is because they do not know it, but err concerning it.
Psalm 1:1-6
Proverbs 1:1-6
This opening to Proverbs annually grabs my attention: "for attaining wisdom...discipline...understanding words of insight...doing what is right & fair...prudence to the simple...knowledge & discretion to the young...guidance" which ends with "for understanding proverbs & parables, the sayings & riddles of the wise"
In the NKJV it reads enigma instead of parables.
Riddles - the idea here used (according to the Reform. Study Bible notes, p. 925) is applied to how Solomon was tested by Queen Sheba when she visits him (1 Ki 10:1); to Samson's riddle (Judges 14). Still I think of the more complex sayings of Proverbs:
(Proverbs 26:4 & 26:5): "Do not answer a fool according to his folly, Or you will also be like him." followed immediately by "Answer a fool as his folly deserves, That he not be wise in his own eyes".
Years Read
2009, 2010, 2011, 2015, 2017, 2022, 2024, 2025
