LET THERE BE ..... HOPE!

In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it. (John 1:4-5)

What a perfect banner to be flying over these opening chapters of Genesis, where in the very beginning God spoke four words, Let there be light! Promptly filling all creation with evidence of His presence. And still, darkness attempted from the beginning to ‘overtake’ light. And the world grew darker, and darker … but always there, casting out darkness’s challenge light blazed … for any heart looking.

Lest those reading the account of man begin to despair, Genesis 5 opens with a fresh reminder of clay’s beginning. God made man in His own image … and God blessed them. Awesome. Knowing what the morning held … fully aware they would taste bitter fruit while still in Eden … just as fully aware that self would turn on righteousness in a field tended by clay burgeoning with self gone awry … still God blessed them.

And He didn’t lift His blessing, even in light of their choosing another way. When God’s curse fell, it fell upon their way, their choice … not upon His beloved. It fell upon evil, upon unrighteousness seen in the guise of a serpent, a serpent which would know God’s curse, but not upon the clay housing the soul of those bearing His image, bearing His love … into eternity.

Something about that really moves me as two world orders find delineation at the end of Genesis and throughout Genesis 5.

Genesis 5 stands a genealogy of mercy, of hope, of grace:

Hebrew ..... English
Adam ..... Man
Seth ..... Appointed
Enosh ..... Mortal
Kenan ..... Sorrow;
Mahalalel ..... The Blessed God
Jared ..... Shall come down
Enoch ..... Teaching
Methuselah ..... His death shall bring
Lamech ..... The Despairing
Noah ..... Rest, or comfort.


That's rather remarkable:
Man (is) appointed mortal sorrow; (but) the Blessed God shall come down teaching (that) His death shall bring (the) despairing rest.

Reading God's message to us, His beloved, something becomes crystal clear. God wasn't winging it as He went along. He wasn't trying to play 'catch up' with man's actions, ever trying to pull the fat out of the fire. God's grace had already turned every page, and fully poured His grace upon each one.

Darkness might attempt, over and over, to snuff out the light ... but light, it ever scatters the darkness ... and darkness is unable to stand in His presence at all.

No wonder every knee shall bow before Him, and every tongue confess His Lordship.