{"id":4463,"date":"2024-01-04T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2024-01-04T06:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/handstotheplow.org\/reading-plan\/january-4\/"},"modified":"2025-08-16T07:58:43","modified_gmt":"2025-08-16T12:58:43","slug":"january-4","status":"publish","type":"reading-plan","link":"https:\/\/handstotheplow.org\/om\/reading-plan\/january-4\/","title":{"rendered":"January 4"},"content":{"rendered":"

Insight from Genesis 4:<\/strong><\/p>\n

In Genesis 2 and 3, Adam and Eve were living inside of the garden in Eden. Genesis 4 is the first description of life for humans outside of the garden. This is not where God created people to live! They were created to live with him and to worship him. The garden in Eden was a temple that Adam and Eve were to cause to grow. Now, because of sin, they have been driven from the temple and from God\u2019s presence. The very fact that Adam and Eve are allowed to live outside of the garden is evidence of God\u2019s grace. He is graciously continuing his relations with people even though they have rebelled against him.\u00a0Based on God\u2019s words to Adam and Eve in Genesis 3, the reader should expect that life outside of the garden will be difficult. However, this chapter describes conditions that are far worse than the reader could have imagined!<\/p>\n

We see two kinds of worship in this chapter\u2014true worship (Abel) and false worship (Cain). We see the terrible effects of sin upon a person and upon a family: Cain murders Abel. Because of this, he is forced to live as a wanderer on earth. We see many people born in this chapter and even read about some of their accomplishments. Some are musicians. Some are metal workers. But God is noticeably absent in the description of their accomplishments. It is as if people are living without God! Later in the chapter, there is a poem celebrating the murder of a boy! The author is a man with two wives! This is very different from God\u2019s original intent for a man and his wife seen in Genesis 2! This stunning poem celebrating death is the first poem spoken by humans outside of the garden! The hope of a snake-crushing offspring seen in Genesis 3:15 is, like a flame that is about to die out, almost gone! Only at the very end of the chapter does the reader find any hope. The description of Seth\u2019s birth reminds the reader of the offspring promised in Genesis 3:15. God has not forgotten his promise\u2014he has appointed another offspring instead of Abel! In spite of the wickedness of people, God\u2019s plan is still in place. Based on Moses\u2019s description, the reader is led to place his or her hope on Seth and upon his children. One of them, the reader is led to believe, will be the offspring who crushes the serpent\u2019s head. Unfortunately, it will be a long wait before the offspring comes. There will be many terrible birth pains experienced by God\u2019s people before the offspring described in Genesis 3:15 finally comes (see Revelation 12:1\u20136 for a description of the long \u201cbirth pains\u201d experienced by the people of God before the offspring\u2014Jesus!\u2014was finally born).<\/p>\n

Tom Kelby, The Book of Genesis with Study Notes (Genesis 1\u20134): A Preacher\u2019s Guide to the Book of Genesis (Webster, WI: Hands to the Plow, 2017), 58.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Insight from Psalms 1\u20132:<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cThe first words in the Psalter draw attention to a specific man upon whom divine blessing rests \u2026. These initial words about the man stand out to such a degree, explains Terje Stordalen, that \u2018[Ps 1] and its title \u2026 was conceived as superscript to the Psalter for centuries in both Jewish and Christian Bible tradition.\u2019 Terje Sordalen, Echoes of Eden: Genesis 2\u20133 and Symbolism of the Eden Garden in Biblical Hebrew Literature, Contributions to Biblical Exegesis and Theology 25 (Leuven, Belgium: Peeters, 2005), 448n215. This unofficial \u2018superscript to the Psalter,\u2019 \u2026 perfectly summarizes the main theme of Book One (and the central argument of this study): God\u2019s eschatological blessing rests on one particular man [\u2014Jesus!]. However, the two-chapter introduction (i.e., Pss 1\u20132) does not focus on the blessing resting on this one man alone. Psalm 2:12 provides the reader with the stunning news that those finding shelter under his leadership, by God\u2019s good grace, participate in the blessing associated with him:\u00a0 \u2026 (\u2018Blessed are all who take refuge in him\u2019).\u201d<\/p>\n

Tom Kelby, \u201cChrist\u2019s Prayers and the Saints\u2019 Songs: The Eschatological King and His People in Book One of the Psalter\u201d (PhD diss., Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, 2024), 74.<\/p>","protected":false},"featured_media":0,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"give_campaign_id":0,"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_crdt_document":""},"class_list":["post-4463","reading-plan","type-reading-plan","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/handstotheplow.org\/om\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/reading-plan\/4463","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/handstotheplow.org\/om\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/reading-plan"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/handstotheplow.org\/om\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/reading-plan"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/handstotheplow.org\/om\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4463"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}