homeabout uspastor ray bentleyray's articlesromancing the soul: daily devotionalapril 28-april 29

April 28
Genesis 5:1-3
“This is the book of the genealogy of Adam. In the day that God created man, He made him in the likeness of God. He created them male and female, and blessed them and called them Mankind in the day they were created. And Adam lived one hundred and thirty years, and begot a son…”

The genealogies of the Bible have a reputation for being the boring part, the section where your eyes glaze over and you move on to the next passage. But actually, God doesn’t waste a word in His Word. If you take the time to think about these people as real people with family histories, fraught with romance, danger, problems and joys, ordinary events, and sweeping events that changed the course of history, I think you will find the genealogies quite fascinating.

Take the first several generations from Adam to Noah – before there was Abraham, before there was a nation of Israel, when civilizations were just beginning to be established, and the world was already polarizing for and against the Lord.  Look at the meanings of the names of the first fathers:

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.

Now put it together: Man (is) appointed mortal sorrow; (but) the Blessed God shall come down teaching (that) His death shall bring (the) despairing rest.1

And that is only the beginning. The message of God’s love and His plan for our redemption is breathed into the very life of the universe and all of creation. “The Bible is an integrated message system, the product of supernatural engineering. Every number, every place, name, every detail, every jot and tittle is there for our learning, our discovery, and our amazement,” writes Chuck Missler.

The implications of this discovery are that in the earliest chapters of Genesis, God had already laid out His plan of redemption for the predicament of mankind. The names tell a love story, finally written in blood on a wooden cross 2,000 years ago.


1,  Missler, Chuck, “The Gospel in Genesis,” Personal Update, Koinonia House, 1996.
Website: http://www.direct.ca/trinity/hidden.html



John 6: 52-53
“…the Jews began to argue sharply among themselves, "How can this man give us his flesh to eat?"  Jesus said to them, "I tell you the truth, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you.”

April 29
Isaiah 55:11-12
"So is my word that goes out from my mouth: It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it. You will go out in joy and be led forth in peace..."

A friend of mine remembers sitting in the basement of an old church in Los Angeles when he was seven years old and earnestly raising his hand to accept Jesus into his life. He wasn't a regular church goer; he had been invited by a friend's family. Nothing in his short life up to that moment gave him any understanding of what this decision was all about. For years, he had no idea what really happened. He eventually shook it off as one of those childhood things.

Years later, in a moment of great need, he cried out to God and everything he had heard in that basement rushed to the forefront of his memory—the love of God, Jesus' declaration that He would never leave him nor forsake him. My friend recalls feeling as if his whole life hinged on the spiritual transaction he made with God as a young boy. He remembered someone telling him that "all things work together for good to those who love God..." and he found great comfort and reassurance in those words (Romans 8:28).

God's Word never comes back void. My friend barely remembers the faithful Sunday School worker who spoke to him that day, but the message of love reached the heart of a young boy and came back many years later to comfort a hurting man, and bring a wandering soul home.

"He sent forth His Word and healed them; He rescued them from the grave." — Psalm 107:20