Giants, floods and killing your brother’s wife

Sometimes you read for distance, sometimes for content, sometimes for divine revelation. Then there are times where all three merge and you just sit there dumbstruck, awed by what the Spirit just did.

I’ve always been fascinated by the account of the nephilim in Genesis 6. I find it impossible to read the text and not think about its implications. Noah and the flood is another, especially since the nephilim and the flood are intrinsically bound. Mix in a bit of the Sermon on the Mount for flavor and you cook up an interesting dish.

Satan has tried from the beginning to disrupt God’s plan. God wants us to participate with him in defeating Satan. He doesn’t “need” us in the normal sense of the word, but he does want to honor us by allowing us to have a part in the affair. By our measurements, the Enemy is unstoppable; by God’s it is frighteningly simple.

“If God gives such attention to the appearance of wildflowers—most of which are never even seen—don’t you think he’ll attend to you, take pride in you, do his best for you? What I’m trying to do here is to get you to relax, to not be so preoccupied with getting, so you can respond to God’s giving. People who don’t know God and the way he works fuss over these things, but you know both God and how he works. Steep your life in God-reality, God-initiative, God-provisions. Don’t worry about missing out. You’ll find all your everyday human concerns will be met.

“Give your entire attention to what God is doing right now, and don’t get worked up about what may or may not happen tomorrow. God will help you deal with whatever hard things come up when the time comes.”
……………………………………………………………..–Matthew 6:30-34

Family feud

John knew him from the time he could walk.

They were cousins, for heaven’s sake!

His mom had told him that his cousin was special. He was “the one.” John knew his aunt Mary was a no nonsense person; all the controversy that had surrounded her and uncle Joe’s marriage was responsible for that, he assumed. His aunt had often told him that he, too, was special and would fondly call him her “little prophet,” which had always bothered him.

Now, here was his cousin asking the ridiculous.

John knew. He’d always known.

As they’d aged, both of their unique roles began to be obvious. They’d lost touch with each other over the last few years. He’d wondered how his cousin was doing, especially in light of what he’d heard from that wedding over in Cana.

And now, here he was…

Jesus then appeared, arriving at the Jordan River from Galilee. He wanted John to baptize him. John objected, “I’m the one who needs to be baptized, not you!”

But Jesus insisted. “Do it. God’s work, putting things right all these centuries, is coming together right now in this baptism.” So John did it.

(and they say that reading the Bible is boring…)