Daily Inspirations

  Good morning. Cain told Abel his brother. Why did he tell him, and exactly what did he say? What was Abel’s response? Why did what followed happen? And it came about when they were in the field, that Cain rose up against Abel his brother and killed him. Why did it come to the point of killing him? Normally murder does not start out at that level but rises up to it. Had Cain been jealous of his baby brother all their lives? Then the Lord said to Cain, “Where is Abel your brother“? And he said, “I do not know (A lie from the father of lies). Am I my brothers keeper“? When one sins, many times he or she has to commit another sin to keep the first one hidden. Notice how easily the lie came, and one can sense the anger with which it was spoken. Who knows, perhaps Abel tattled on Cain all the time. Finally, at no time does Cane express remorse at killing his brother. Father help us to always walk in the light of Your word speaking truth continually.

  Good morning. … But for Cain and for his offering He had no regard (The Bible does not say how Cain knew that.). So Cain became very angry (sometimes people get angry when they get caught doing something wrong.) and his countenance fell. Today would we call that pouting? Why are you angry? And why has your countenance fallen? If you do well will not your countenance be lifted up? And if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door; and its desire is for you, but you must master it“. God is giving Cain guidance on how to avoid sin. In Christianity, it is not just the doing of something wrong; it is also desiring to do something wrong that can be a sin. If Cain had mastered it, what follows would not have happened. Father help us to be sensitive to when You are telling us that sin is crouching at our door.

  Good morning. Now the man had relations with his wife Eve, and she conceived and gave birth to Cain, and she said, “I have gotten a man-child with the help of the Lord“. It does not say how long this was after the sin. Again, she gave birth to his brother Abel. Again we do not know how long this was after the birth of Cain. So it came about in the course of time that Cain brought an offering to the Lord of the fruit of the ground. Abel, on his part also brought of the firstlings of his flock and of their fat portions. And the Lord had regard for Abel and for his offering. It did not say that Cain brought of the first fruits of his produce. Later under the law of Moses, it was the first fruits that were required for an offering. Supposedly they were the best; also, you give God the first part of any blessing. It does not say how they knew to bring an offering. Did Abel bring his out of love and respect for God, and Cain bring his because he felt he had to? We will continue this to...

  Good morning. Because Adam might eat of the tree of life and live forever… Therefore the Lord God sent him out from the garden of Eden, to cultivate the ground from which he was taken (remember that the ground had been cursed). So He drove the man out; and at the east of the garden of Eden, He stationed the cherubim and the flaming sword which turned every direction to guard the way to the tree of life. Whatever happened to the garden of Eden and the tree of life? As for the tree of life, we will see it again at the end of Revelation. Notice that from this point in time on to the end of the book of Genesis, it never once says that Adam asked forgiveness of God, even though he lived to be 930 years old. If he had asked forgiveness, perhaps what follows would not have happened. Father thank You that even though Adam was never allowed to eat from the tree of life, we are allowed to eat from it.

  Good morning. The man called his wife’s name Eve (remember that Adam named all the animals), because she was the mother of all the living. We are all descended from Adam and Eve. The Lord God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife, and clothed them. Think about it: prior to this they wore no clothes, and however long this was, the weather was such that they did not get cold even at night. Also, in order for God to make garments of skin for them, one or more animals had to die (though it could’ve been of natural causes). Then the Lord God said, “Behold, the man has become like one of Us (plural - is this the Godhead?), knowing good and evil; and now, he might stretch out his hand, and take also from the tree of life, and eat, and live forever“. If that had happened, there would have been no long-term consequences of sin. Even when we do wrong, God still sometimes provides for us. Father thank You that we will live forever, not because of something we have done, but because of...

  Good morning. Continuing: and I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed. He shall bruise (crush) you on the head, and you shall bruise him on the heel. The Bible does not talk about the seed of a woman. It talks about the seed of a man. It is believed by many that this is talking about Jesus. That was the judgment of the serpent. Now for the judgment of the woman: I will greatly multiply your pain in childbirth. In pain you will bring forth children; yet your desire will be for your husband. And he will rule over you. Finally for the man: because you have listened to the voice of your wife (remember that Abraham also listened to Sarai), and have eaten from the tree about which I commanded you, saying, you shall not eat from it; cursed is the ground because of you; in toil you will eat of it all the days of your life. By the sweat of your face you will eat bread, till you return to the ground, because from it you were taken; for you are dust, ...

  Good morning. Then the Lord God said to the woman, “what is this you have done?“ And the woman said, “the serpent deceived me, and I ate“. It wasn’t the serpent’s fault she sinned. What was the result of the first sin? The Lord God said to the serpent (He started with the source),“Because you have done this, cursed are you more than all cattle, and more than every beast of the field; on your belly you will go, and dust you will eat all the days of your life. This implies that it was not so before the deception. Some have even conjectured that snakes walked before this happened. [My Bible says that the serpent, the woman and the man were all judged, but only the serpent and the ground were cursed.] We will continue this tomorrow. Father help us to realize that there can be grave consequences to our actions.

  Good morning. I heard the sound of You in the garden (Adam was familiar with the sound; so it implies that it had happened before), and I was afraid (a common reaction when we know that we have disobeyed) because I was naked; so I hid myself. Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree which I commanded you not to eat? Busted! Instead of simply admitting it and asking forgiveness, Adam shifts the blame. The woman whom You gave to be with me (Your fault God), she gave me from the tree (her fault God), and I ate (not my fault - after all, she ate and did not die). Father help us to always admit when we have done wrong, and to ask Your forgiveness.

  Good morning. Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loin coverings. They heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden. Even though the Bible does not say that God walking along in the garden talking to Adam and Eve was a common occurrence, this and what follows imply that it was. Then the Lord God called to the man, and said to him, “where are you“? Do you really think that God did not know where Adam was? Tomorrow we will see what Adam replied. Father help us to always do Your will, so that we will not be afraid to be in Your presence.

  Good morning. When the woman saw that the tree was good for food and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was desirable to make one wise, she took from its fruit and ate; and she gave also to her husband with her, and he ate (He saw that she did not die the instant she ate it. Also, he did not want her to have something that he didn’t.). She acted like it was the first time she had ever seen it. Sometimes though, it just seems like it is the first time we see something. The three things that she saw about the tree are in first John: for all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh (good for food) and the lust of the eyes (a delight to the eyes) and the boastful pride of life (desirable to make one wise), is not from the Father, but is from the world. Father help us to not let the things of the world distract us from what is most important – following Your word.

  Good morning. The serpent said to the woman, “you surely will not die! For God knows that in the day you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil“. I guess you would call that a half-lie. You’ve heard of something being called a half-truth. Since it is the devil talking, you should probably call it a half-lie because there was some truth in what he said. She did not die when she touched it, and she did not die physically when she ate it; but she did know good and evil. The devil made it sound like God was keeping something special from her - that God wanted to be the only One who knew good and evil. Father thank You that You know what is best for us, and You are not keeping anything from us that would be good for us.

  Good morning. The woman said to the serpent, “From the fruit of the trees of the garden we may eat; but from the fruit of the tree which is in the middle of the garden, God has said, “You shall not eat from it or touch it, or you will die“. Notice several things: she did not call it the tree of the knowledge of good and evil; she just said the tree. In chapter 2 it says that God caused to grow the tree of life in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Eve only mentioned the one tree. From what follows, she probably never saw either one. Now the point where she got hooked – God never told Adam he would die if he touched the tree. Some people, including my Bible, blame Eve for distorting God’s directive. I blame Adam. I think he was afraid that Eve would eat and die, and that he would be alone again, so he “enhanced“ God’s word. To make sure she wouldn’t eat, he added don’t touch. He probably also would not even let her go into the midst of the gar...

 Good morning. And now a verse quoted several times in the New Testament: for this reason a man shall leave his father and his mother, and be joined to his wife; and they shall become one flesh. And the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed. And so that was the up close and personal description of the creation of man. We don’t know how long Adam was alive before Eve (Greek - zoe - life) was created. We also don’t know how long it was after that before the serpent entered the picture. Now the serpent was more crafty than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. Crafty is not how we would describe a snake. And he said to the woman (the moral of the story to come: don’t listen to talking snakes) “Indeed, has God said, you shall not eat from any (literally – every) tree of the garden”? Interesting – Eve was not surprised nor alarmed at a snake talking to her. Notice that the serpent did not change even one word of what God actually said. Father thank You that...

  Good morning. So the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and he slept; then He took one of his ribs and closed up the flesh at that place. God formed man from the dust of the ground (at that point in time, the ground had not been cursed); but He formed woman from man. The Lord God fashioned (literally, built) into a woman the rib which He had taken from the man, and brought her to the man. The man said, “this is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called woman (Hebrew - Ishshah), because she was taken out of man (Hebrew - Ish)“. Adam, you were such a romantic. Father You not only have the perfect plan for mankind; You also have the perfect plan for us.

  Good morning. Then the Lord God said, “it is not good for the man to be alone; I will make him a helper suitable for him“. [My Bible says that this is the only full account of the creation of woman in ancient Near Eastern literature.] In the previous account of the creation of man, there was no distinction in the timeline for the creation of woman. In all of the things that God has created so far, He saw that it was good; but man being alone was not good. Out of the ground the Lord God formed every beast of the field and every bird of the sky, and brought them to the man to see what he would call them; and whatever the man called a living creature, that was its name. Could you do that? The man gave names to all the animals, but for Adam there was not found a helper suitable for him. Father thank You that You know everything that we need, even before we know that we need it, and You supply it.

  Good morning. Now a river flowed out of Eden to water the garden; and from there it divided and became four rivers. It then names the four rivers, the Tigris and the Euphrates being two of them. Then the Lord God took the man and put him into the garden of Eden to cultivate it and keep it. The Lord God commanded the man, saying, “from any tree of the garden you may eat freely; but from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat from it you (God did not say or touch it, as Eve said to the serpent) will surely die. As far as we know, at that point in time, no creature had ever died. Adam only had one commandment to obey, and as we will see later, he could not even keep that one. Father help us to always obey Your Commandments to glorify You

 Good morning. The Lord God planted a garden toward the east, in Eden; and there He placed the man whom He had formed. What does it mean by “toward the east“? Depending on where one is, toward the east could be anywhere. Since Moses wrote the book of Genesis, then toward the east would probably be east of where he was. In a couple of verses, it mentions the Tigris and Euphrates rivers; so that is probably where east was. Out of the ground the Lord God caused to grow every tree that is pleasing to the sight and good for food; the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. It seems to say that the tree of the knowledge of good and evil was also in the midst of the garden. These two trees are significant in the book of Genesis. In chapter 3, it talks about man eating of the tree of life and living forever. A baby does not know good from evil; so a parent should not get upset with them for doing something wrong. However, once they do k...

  Good morning. And the Lord God formed man of dust from the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being. So this part goes straight from no veggies to creating man. Several things on this verse: [“formed” - My Bible says the Hebrew for this verb commonly referred to the work of a potter who fashions vessels from clay. The Hebrew for “man“ sounds like and may be related to the Hebrew for “ground“; it is also the name Adam.] “breathed into“: in the Septuagint, the Greek translation of the Hebrew Scriptures, it uses the same Greek word that is used in John chapter 20 verse 22, which says, He “breathed on” them and said to them, “receive the Holy Spirit”. Some people claim that the disciples did not receive the Holy Spirit at that moment, but that Jesus was preparing them to receive the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost. Since it’s the same Greek word, by that logic, God was simply preparing Adam to receive the breath of life. Of course n...

  Good morning. This is the account (generations, a word used 10 times in the book of Genesis) of the heavens and the earth when they were created, the day that the Lord (Yahweh – personal and covenant name of God) God (Elohim – a general name of God) made earth and heaven. Now no shrub of the field was yet in the earth, and no plant of the field had yet sprouted, for the Lord God had not sent rain upon the earth, and there was no man to cultivate the ground. But a mist used to rise from the earth and water the whole surface of the ground. The Earth sprouting vegetation was not mentioned until day three. Father continue to give guidance and protection to the reader and his/her family.

  Good morning. Thus the heavens and the earth were completed, and all their hosts. It did not need any tinkering. By the seventh day God completed His work which He had done, and He rested on the seventh today from all His work which He had done. It wasn’t that God was tired; He just did not need to do any more creating. And God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because in it He rested from all His work which God had created and made. It wasn’t until Moses was given the law that the seventh day became the Sabbath, and a mandatory day of rest. Centuries later Sunday became a day of rest. Father help us to rest in You every day of our lives.

  Good morning. Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the surface of all the earth, and every tree which has fruit yielding seed; it shall be food for you; and to every beast of the earth and to every bird of the sky and to everything that moves on the earth which has life, I have given every green plant for food; and it was so. At this point in time, neither man nor animal ate meat. In Isaiah chapter 65, it says that the wolf and the lamb will graze together, and the lion will eat straw like the ox. So in the end, the animals will come back to eating veggies. God saw all that He had made, and behold, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day. My Bible notes that the other five days it uses the indefinite article “a“; but on this day it uses the definite article “the“ (sixth day). It also says “very good“, instead of just plain “good”. Father thank You that when You created man, it was very good. Help us to show forth Your ...

  Good morning. In the following verses Genesis describes the creation of mankind generically. In the next chapter it drills down on the actual creation process. God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them (not just Adam). In a way this is like the way the first verse of the book of Genesis describes the creation. God blessed them; and God said to them, “be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it; and rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over every living thing that moves on the earth“. Earlier God told the birds and the sea creatures to be fruitful and multiply. God gave mankind rule over His creation on the earth. Later man sins, and the devil becomes the ruler of this world. We will continue this tomorrow. Father help us to follow in Your footsteps in our daily lives.

  Good morning. Then God said, “let the earth bring forth living creatures after their kind: cattle and creeping things and beasts of the earth after their kind; and it was so. God made the beasts of the earth after their kind, and the cattle after their kind, and everything that creeps on the ground after its kind; and God saw that it was good. And now we have the scene set for God’s greatest creation – man. Then God said, “let Us make man in Our Image, according to Our likeness ; and let them rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over the cattle and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth“. Notice that God said Us and Our. Some would say that it is like a royal “we“. I believe, and so do many others, that it is because it was the Godhead speaking. Notice also that it uses the words image and likeness. In the Greek, these are two different words. The old testament was written in Hebrew; but the Septuagint, which is the G...

  Good morning. Then God said, let the waters teem with swarms of living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth in the open expanse of the heavens". Finally, we have some animals. As we asked before, was everything compartmentalized? In other words, did they not exist at all until the fifth day? It could just be the style of writing. As we will note later, the Bible “knocks off” someone even though it follows that with things that happened while the person was still alive. God created the great sea monsters and every living creature that moves, with which the waters swarmed after their kind, and every winged bird after its kind, and God saw that it was good. God blessed them, saying, “be fruitful and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let birds multiply on the earth“. God did this from the beginning, even though there would be no need of so many animals for food for millennia. There was evening and there was morning, a fifth day. Father thank You that You prepare...

  Good morning. Then God said, “let there “be” lights (luminaries) in the expanse of the heavens to separate the day from the night, and let them be for signs and for seasons and for days and years; and let them be “for” lights in the expanse of the heavens to give light on the earth“; and it was so. God made the two great lights, the greater light to govern the day, and the lesser light to govern the night; He made the stars also. It does not call them the sun and the moon. [My Bible says that it is possible that it does not call them the sun and the moon because those were the names of the pagan deities associated with them]. This is on day four, and God said let there be light on day one. Are the sun and the moon what provided that light? God placed them in the expanse of the heavens to give light on the earth, and to govern the day and the night; and to separate the light from the darkness; and God saw that it was good. There was evening and there was morning, a fourth day. Sti...

  Good morning. Then God said, “let the waters below the heavens be gathered into one place, and let the dry land appear”; and it was so. The way the earth is today, we would not describe it that way. However it is possible that it was one big landmass that eventually got broken up into the way it is today. It looks like it could all fit together into one big landmass. God called the dry land earth, and the gathering of the waters he called seas; and God saw that it was good. Then God said, “let the earth sprout vegetation: plants yielding seed, and fruit trees on the earth bearing fruit after their kind with seed in them“; and it was so. The earth brought forth vegetation,…, after their kind; and God saw that it was good. There was evening and there was morning, a third day. The way Genesis sounds as we go through the different days, everything was compartmentalized with no overlap. In other words, we have all this vegetation but no animals. We will then get sea creatures and bird...

  Good morning. I did not mention this last time. Notice that throughout Genesis chapter 1 it says: and there was evening and there was morning, and then it mentions which day. We would normally list it in the reverse order, morning first and evening second. This is why the Sabbath day for the Jews begins at sundown instead of at sun up. Then God said, “let there be an expanse in the midst of the waters, and let it separate the waters from the waters“. Apparently. the waters of the heavens from the waters of the earth; remember land has not yet been mentioned as existing. God made the expanse, and separated the waters which were below the expanse from the waters which were above the expanse; and it was so. God called the expanse heaven (not necessarily the place where He resides). And there was evening and there was morning, a second day. All of this was a necessary prelude to the unveiling of the land, and the creation of all the animals and man. Imagine all of the angels of heave...

  Good morning. Then God said, “let there be light“; and there was light. All that God had to do was to speak, and it came into being. In second Corinthians chapter, 4 Paul talks about God who said, “light shall shine out of darkness…“. Now Genesis does not say what this light was. It doesn’t talk about the sun and the moon being created till verses 14 through 18. It’s not like God needed a lamp to see what He was doing. God saw that the light was good; and God separated the light from the darkness. God called the light day, and the darkness He called night. And there was evening and there was morning, one day. This verse seems to imply that it was the sun and the moon. There is dispute as to whether it was a literal day, 24 hours, or some indefinite period of time – even billions of years. Father we know that there is no disagreement between You and science; for true science only describes what You have done.

  Good morning. The earth was formless and void, and darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was moving over the surface of the waters. Now some people point to Isaiah chapter 45 verse 18 where it says “the Lord created the heavens and formed the earth and established it and did not create it a waste place but formed it to be inhabited” to say that some cataclysmic event happened between the first and second verses of Genesis chapter 1 to make the earth a waste place. They even say that the devil and his angels had a battle with God and His angels, and made it that way. However this makes it more like how science thinks the earth evolved. From this and all of chapter 1, it seems like it is saying that the land was formless and void, noting that it talks about the deep here. Land doesn’t appear until verse nine. Father continue to go with the reader and his/her family blessing them every day.

  Good morning. We have finished the New Testament, and now are going to the beginning of the Bible - to the book of Genesis. If someone asked you to give a one sentence description of the creation, there would be no better one than the first sentence in the Bible. In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. That’s all we need to know. God did it! In the beginning God did it. That means that God existed before “the beginning”. The human mind can project infinitely forward; everything just keeps on keeping on. But I don’t believe that it can project infinitely into the past. To the human mind, everything has to have a beginning point; but to go infinitely into the past would mean there was never ever a beginning point. However far back do you say it is, that’s not infinite. I once had my students to ask their friends and relatives to give them an example of an infinite set. One student said that her little brother’s idea of an infinite set was a gumball machine. To him t...

  Good morning. Let the one who hears say, “Come“. And let the one who is thirsty come; let the one who wishes take the water of life without cost. I testify to everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book; if anyone adds to them, God will add to him the plagues which are written in this book; and if anyone takes away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God will take away his part from the tree of life and from the holy city, which are written in this book. That’s pretty scary; but if one is not a Christian, he or she would not believe that was going to happen to them anyway. He who testifies to these things says, “Yes, I am coming quickly“. Amen. Come, Lord Jesus. The grace of the Lord Jesus be with all. Amen. That is the end of the book of Revelation, and the end of the New Testament. Father thank You for giving us the words of the New Testament. They are words of life that will minister to us and guide us forever and ever. Amen!