Scripture
Genesis 5:2-3
[2] He created them male and female, and He blessed them and named them Man in the day when they were created.
[3] When Adam had lived one hundred and thirty years, he became the father of a son in his own likeness, according to his image, and named him Seth.
This is the 93rd Lecture on Genesis.
In Genesis 5, there is a family line from Adam to Noah.
From the verse 1 to 3 is the record about Adam.
When God created Adam, the first man, He created him in His likeness.
God wanted to acquire the perfect children that would resemble not only His outer appearance, but also His ‘inner-side,’ and so He began ‘human cultivation.’
Now, Genesis 5:2 says, “He created them male and female, and He blessed them and named them Man in the day when they were created.”
Genesis 1:28 also says, “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.””
God created man and blessed him.
He gave man a good environment, as well as the authority and power to rule over everything.
Since God is love itself, He basically loves to give blessing.
However, He is also the God of justice, and so He works in justice even when He gives blessing.
Genesis 5:2 is the record before Adam and Eve committed sin; it was when they had the pure nature that God created.
Therefore, God could bless them.
However, after Adam and Eve committed sin, the authority and blessing were withdrawn from them.
By the way, what is the true blessing?
Is it the true blessing to live in wealth and honor in this fleshly world which will decay someday? No, it is not.
The true blessing is to get eternal life and to receive and enjoy the rewards that will never decay in Heaven.
In addition, who can have the greatest authority?
Can a president of a nation?
No matter how powerful the nation is, there are many things that the president of the nation cannot do.
Therefore, who can have the greatest authority no matter what position they attain?
However, if you become a child of God, you will be given ‘the spiritual authority.’
It is because our God the Father rules over everything.
God the Father wants His children to enjoy true blessing and spiritual authority.
He wants them to receive human cultivation well and to reach eternal Heaven so that they can receive all the good things that God has prepared.
He wants them to receive and enjoy blessing even on this earth as well.
That’s why God let His one and only Son, Jesus, live a poor life on earth.
Regarding this, 2 Corinthians 8:9 says, “For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, yet for your sake He became poor, so that you through His poverty might become rich.”
Therefore, God’s children who believe in the Lord will receive spiritual authority and blessing to the extent they recover the lost image of God.
It is possible because God the Father governs life and death, and fortune and misfortune.
God can pour blessing – pressed down, shaken together, and running over – onto those whose vessel is ready to receive blessing.
In addition, He lets one reap 30, 60, and 100 times more than what he has sown by faith.
Deuteronomy 30:9-10 says, “Then the LORD your God will prosper you abundantly in all the work of your hand, in the offspring of your body and in the offspring of your cattle and in the produce of your ground, for the LORD will again rejoice over you for good, just as He rejoiced over your fathers; if you obey the LORD your God to keep His commandments and His statutes which are written in this book of the law, if you turn to the LORD your God with all your heart and soul.”
If you prepare your vessel well according to justice, the blessing that you receive from God will never disappear.
There are some people who won the lottery or earned a great amount of money in an immoral or illegal way.
Chances are that many of them become miserable because of their money.
Their sudden financial gain doesn’t become fortune, but instead it becomes misfortune.
On the other hand, if you prepare your vessel well and receive blessing from God, you will not become miserable.
It is just as Proverbs 10:22 says, “It is the blessing of the LORD that makes rich, and He adds no sorrow to it.”
Therefore, I pray that you may prepare your vessel and that you may receive abundant blessing from God the Father who loves to bless you.
Dear brothers and sisters.
Let’s proceed to Genesis 5:3.
It says, “When Adam had lived one hundred and thirty years, he became the father of a son in his own likeness, according to his image, and named him Seth.”
For 130 years after Adam settled down on earth, he went through many things and received many refinements.
As result, he could understand the heart of God to some degree, and he could also feel God’s love in the depths of his heart.
He now had a completely different heart from when he used to live in the Garden of Eden.
Before, he was like a mere child who was pure without knowing untruth and evil, but now he finally became somewhat mature.
He didn’t merely know sin in his head, but he understood in his heart how filthy and dirty sin is.
When his first son Cain murdered Abel, when small and big disputes broke out among his descendants, Adam felt how bad and fearful evil is.
To that extent, he could also realize how much God the Father was hurt in His heart when he disobeyed God’s word and committed sin of eating from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
In addition, he could give thanks from the depth of his heart for the love of God the Father who didn’t ignore him but led to the way of eternal life even though he committed sin.
It was when he finally possessed this kind of heart that Adam gained the son whose name was Seth.
By the way, Seth resembled his father Adam so much that the scripture says, “a son in his own likeness, according to his image.”
Seth was the son who resembled not only Adam’s physical appearance outwardly, but also resembled his heart the most.
That’s why God let Seth be the heir of Adam’s family genealogy.
Dear brothers and sisters.
Refinements are blessings.
When Adam came down to this earth and received the refinements through human cultivation, he must have felt it to be tough and difficult.
Thanks to the refinements, however, he could understand the good will of God and feel God’s love.
Then, as 130 years passed, Adam became a completely different man.
He came to know what true happiness is.
Even though Adam lived a weary life, through the years, he could learn a truly precious lesson, and so his heart must have been filled with pride.
Regarding this, Hebrews 12:11 says, “All discipline for the moment seems not to be joyful, but sorrowful; yet to those who have been trained by it, afterwards it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness.”
When iron is refined, it is put into burning fire and into cold water.
It is also hammered.
Through such processes, it becomes strong iron.
A lump of useless iron turns into a useful instrument through the refinement.
God refines and tests the heart of man.
It is just as Proverbs 17:3 says, “The refining pot is for silver and the furnace for gold, But the LORD tests hearts.”
Through the refinement, untruth is removed from the heart, and the heart can turn into a clean vessel that the Lord can use.
Therefore, if you take any refinement with thanks, you can soon change.
Even if you are put into burning fire or into cold water, if you give thanks and pray, God the Father gives you enlightenment.
God lets you know what will be removed and what will be accomplished through the refinement.
Then, you will have hope.
Although the refinement is tough and hard, you can endure and overcome.
In the end, you can possess a beautiful heart that God desires.
What if you avoid refinement because it is tough?
You can hardly expect to be changed into an instrument that God can use.
You must first become clean, but if you avoid refinement, the untruth cannot be removed from your heart.
In addition, if you stick to your self-righteousness and frameworks, you cannot become an instrument that God can freely use.
When you face a refinement, if you don’t pass it or avoid it intentionally, you may face a similar one again.
Things may not go well, and you may constantly have conflicts with others.
Therefore, when you face a refinement, it is best for you to accept it with thanks.
1 Peter 1:7 says, “… the proof of your faith, being more precious than gold which is perishable, even though tested by fire, may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.”
I wish for you can take this verse with faith and pass any refinements with hope.
“How good and beautiful will my heart become after it passes by? How much will my faith grow up after this refinement? How much blessing will God give to me after this?
I wish for you to be able to imagine yourself being changed like this after the refinement, and overcome it with thanks.
In the end and at the revelation of Jesus Christ may you be found in praise, glory and honor, in the name of our Lord, Jesus Christ, I pray!
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