Reading for week of Sunday 9/3/23

So incredibly excited about our new through-the-Bible in 1.5 years program. As a church, we will be communicating with God and learning so much from His Word! Today I want to say a little bit about “the Bible interpreting the Bible.” Among other things, this means when we do not understand something, we should re-read the passage in its context.

Take for example Genesis 4:3-5
“And in the process of time it came to pass that Cain brought an offering of the fruit of the ground to the Lord. 4 Abel also brought of the firstborn of his flock and of their fat. And the Lord respected Abel and his offering, 5 but He did not respect Cain and his offering. And Cain was very angry, and his countenance fell.”

When first reading this, it may seem like God is just being picky and kind of haphazardly and unfairly choosing to accept Able’s offering but discount Cain’s. However, if you go back and re-read the passage, you may notice it clearly says that Cain brought “an offering” to the Lord while Abel brought “of the firstborn.” Hmmmm, interesting. Could it be that the word “FIRSTborn” has anything to do this? As you keep reading the Bible through this program of two chapters a day, you will notice, that indeed, God likes, and wants, and demands to be FIRST. As a matter of fact, if you are discipling someone and/or you have been discipled yourself with the WORSHIP discipleship series that can be dowloaded from this website, you have or will go through the lesson in “O” (Offering) which briefly but precisely talks about the principle of putting God first with its consequences.

In this church, we have taught you to use blueletterbible.org to look up verses in their original languages. Genesis 4:3-5 quoted above are from the NKJV; however, regardless of what version you use, you can go to blueletterbible.org, put in verses 3&4 from Genesis 4, and you will see what is discussed above as far as the language saying that Cain simply brought an offering while Abel put God first by bringing of the first of his flock (the firstborn) will hold true.

Finally, let me encourage you as you go through His Word to look for and take special note of all the passages you see throughout the Bible that in any form point to the preeminence of God – God first, above all, greater than all. It will revolutionize your life!

Blessings, fellow pastor as together we continue to expand our knowledge and reap the benefits of communing with God through His Word.