Willsea About . . . Many Things‪!‬ John Willsea

Greetings! 
Today I've been reading through Genesis chapters 6 - 10.  I found something that's a little bit kind of funny and maybe ironic for the first time.  You know how that goes with stuff in the Bible you read. Maybe you've read it tons of times before and you come to it and you look at it with some fresh eyes. 
So as I read through the beginning of chapter 6 where it has a bunch of stuff that just seems like it's out of, you know, a Marvel movie or whatever, about some different characters, the Nephilim, whoever they were. They're described for us as Mighty Men of Old. 
Really fascinating! 
I mean, who were they? You know? I mean, I have questions about what's going on here. The 'sons of God' and the 'daughters of men.' It's just some weird formulations of phrasing. 
Anyway, here's what I read that I thought was really interesting. Verse 4:
"The Nephilim were on the earth in those days, and also afterward, when the sons of God came into the daughters of man and they bore children to them. These were the Mighty Men, who were of old, the men of renown." 
The men of renown. 
The men of renown. Mighty Men of old. 
Some of these words, when I read them, conjure up thoughts of, you know, the heroes. That's why I mentioned Marvel. You know, the godlike heroes of the past. Mighty Men of old. Incredible. You know, maybe like if you ever read these books at one time or another: Conan the Barbarian, or Paul Bunyan, or Odysseus, or someone like that, people like that.
But here's the funny thing. These "Mighty Men of old," these "men of renown" — where are their names? Where is the list of their names, and the list of their deeds and the list of the mighty things that they have done, and the amazing feats that they're known for? 
Where are they?
They're not listed. They're not written. They're nowhere to be found.
So when I read that and realized they weren't there, there were no names, there were no lists, I thought maybe I'm meant to read these words with a sense of irony. Maybe with a bit of chuckle.
 "These were the Mighty Men Who were of old, the men of renown."
Their deeds are forgotten. Their names are forgotten. Everything about them has come to nothing. 
They are not remembered.
But only a few verses later in chapter 6, there is this sentence. 
"But Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord."
Noah.
Named. Honored. Remembered.
We who live in such a selfie reflective age should look and see and think.
Love, to my West Coast Willseas!
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January 6, 2024

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January 5, 2024

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January 4, 2024

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Reading through the first few chapters in Genesis introduces us to, well, everything. But most of all we start getting to know God, especially in his role as Maker. 
The first Maker objects, Maker catalogue, Maker store, filled with Maker craft, Maker intention, Maker invention, Maker ideas. 
All of creation 
Spoken.
Formed.
Fashioned.
Made. 
For Glory.
4 These are the generations of the heavens and the earth when they were created, in the day that the Lord God made the earth and the heavens.
5 When no bush of the field was yet in the land and no small plant of the field had yet sprung up—for the Lord God had not caused it to rain on the land, and there was no man to work the ground, 6 and a mist was going up from the land and was watering the whole face of the ground— 7 then the Lord God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature. 8 And the Lord God planted a garden in Eden, in the east, and there he put the man whom he had formed. 9 And out of the ground the Lord God made to spring up every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food. The tree of life was in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
10 A river flowed out of Eden to water the garden, and there it divided and became four rivers. 11 The name of the first is the Pishon. It is the one that flowed around the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold. 12 And the gold of that land is good; bdellium and onyx stone are there. 13 The name of the second river is the Gihon. It is the one that flowed around the whole land of Cush. 14 And the name of the third river is the Tigris, which flows east of Assyria. And the fourth river is the Euphrates.
15 The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it. 16 And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, “You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, 17 but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.”
18 Then the Lord God said, “It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper fit for him.” 19 Now out of the ground the Lord God had formed every beast of the field and every bird of the heavens and brought them to the man to see what he would call them. And whatever the man called every living creature, that was its name. 20 The man gave names to all livestock and to the birds of the heavens and to every beast of the field. But for Adam there was not found a helper fit for him. 21 So the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and while he slept took one of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh. 22 And the rib that the Lord God had taken from the man he made into a woman and brought her to the man. 23 Then the man said,
“This at last is bone of my bones    and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called Woman,    because she was taken out of Man.”
24 Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh. 25 And the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed.
Man and things made from the dust, made from the ground, or grown from the dirt of the ground. 
Earth earthy earthiness.
Pat-a-cake, pat-a-cake, Baker's man. 
But then the first "not good" thing: the man had no coresponder. No match. No like. Single sock. One shoe. Pants with only one leg.
So God made:
Woman
Not from the ground.
Not from the dirt.
Not from the dust.
But from the Maker-stuff, the Maker-clay, the Image-imbued divine spark-enlivened foundations. Fashioned. Formed. Made.
Into the beauty, the intentioned, the purposed, the recognizable sharer-coresponder pinnacle of God's created worshipping glory reflectors.
The entirety of all creation wonders with the Psalmist: "What is man that you are mindful of him?"
And we all bow before you, Our LORD God, Our Creator Maker King.

Love, to my West Coast Willseas

January 3, 2024

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