Genesis 16 - 18

Chapter 16 ushers in one of the most sordid tales in the Bible. Abram made a mistake of historic proportions when he agreed with Sarai, his wife, to have offspring with her Egyptian servant, Hagar. The ramifications of that sin are still wreaking havoc in the world today.
Immediately after Hagar conceived a child by Abram, she began taunting Sarai, who was still barren. This was a development Sarai didn't plan and didn't like one bit. She complained to her husband, who tried to act uninvolved and told her to take care of the situation as she saw fit. So Sarai mistreated Hagar until she fled.
But Jesus sees everything. He appeared to Hagar as she sat by a well in the desert. Jesus almost always begins a conversation by asking questions, although He already knows all the answers. He asked Hagar where she had come from and where she was going. He wanted her to think about those things. When she told Him she was running away from Sarai, He instructed her to go back and submit to whatever treatment she was subjected to. Then He told her the child in her womb was a male and told her that she was to name him Ishmael, also making the prediction that he would be a man of war, living in hostility against his fellow man.
Hagar her realizes this appearance is from God and she calls Him El-Shaddai, which is Hebrew for the One who sees me. When she returned and had a son in Abram's 86th year, Abram named him Ishmael.
Chapter 17 details the second covenant God makes with Abram,the covenant of circumcision. This ritual would serve to further set Abram's tribe apart from the general populace. Here, God changed Abram's name to Abraham, meaning father of many, and Sarai became Sarah.
God told Abraham to circumcise every male on their eighth day of life, as a sign they were God's people. Modern medicine has found babies to have more resistance to bleeding from circumcision, and are less likely to remember the pain, up to and including, their eighth day. Seems God knows what He is doing.
Again, God reassures Abraham that he and Sarah will, indeed, have a son of their own. Abraham humbly questioned this assertion by God, because of his and Sarah's advanced age. Tenderly, God insists there will be an Isaac born to the couple, from whom the King would come. Abraham pleaded also for his son, Ishmael, to be blessed by God, and God promised to also make him a great nation.
Apparently, God made a habit of visiting with his friend, Abraham. Chapter 18 tells of a visit they had near Mamre one hot day. God and two other visitors came to speak with him about their plans to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah. Again, God promised a son to Abraham and Sarah and gave them an idea of when Isaac, meaning laughter, would be forthcoming, which made Sarah laugh.
When Abraham heard God's plans to destroy Sodom, he became alarmed for his nephew, Lot, who had become an important person in the city of Sodom. Abraham began bargaining with God for the life of Lot and his family. God promised to relent if only ten good people could be found in the city. Apparently, there were not ten to be found.

Genesis 13 - 15

Abram returned to Canaan from Egypt a richer man. He was still carrying around his extra familial baggage, however, in the form of his Nephew, Lot, who had also acquired a family and great herds of livestock. Abram went back to the place where he had first built an altar to God and communed with Him there. I think God may have reiterated to Abram the need to separate from his extended family there, because he then went back to Lot and suggested they part ways. To which Lot agreed, saying he would go east, where he could see lush pastures for his herds.
After Lot departed, God again made a covenant with Abram concerning the land and his descendants. God told him to go scope out the land as far as he could see in any direction, because He was giving him the title deed to it. So Abram became a nomad, living in a tent and moving around from place to place. He believed God.
But Lot wasn't through causing trouble for Uncle Abraham. He foolishly moved into Sodom, where the people were wicked and weak. Still, the five kings of Sodom and Gomorrah challenged four kings of neighboring lands, and were forced to flee. So the four conquering kings carried off all the remaining inhabitants and possessions of Sodom and Gomorrah, including Abram's nephew, Lot. A captive managed to escape and reported to Abram his nephew had been taken in the raid.
Abram had 318 men who had been trained as fighters in his tribe by that time, so he mustered them all and went after the four kings who captured Lot. A brilliant warrior himself, Abram divided his men and attacked at night. He routed the four kings and recovered all the captives and their possessions.
In Chapter 14, there is a very obscure event that has puzzled Bible scholars down through the ages. First it says Abram was met by the King of Sodom in the King's Valley. The next verse says he met Melchizedek, king of Salem and priest of God Most High, who brought out bread and wine. He blessed Abram and Abram gave a tithe to Melchizedek, a tenth of all he had acquired. This is the first tithe recorded in the Bible, and the mystery of Melchizedek abounds. Who was this priest? I think it was an incarnation of Jesus. The bread and wine certainly signals this may be the case, along with the tithe offered by Abram as He communed with this King.
Then the king of Sodom informed Abram he didn't have to share the spoils of the war with him; he just wanted the people of his kingdom returned, but righteous Abram would have none of the loot. He didn't want that wicked king to be able to say he made Abram rich.
Chapter 15 concerns itself with the Abrahamic covenant. Abram was confused and concerned because God had promised him several times that he would have many descendants, but no son was forthcoming and he was getting old. God now seals that promise and also the promise that the land from Egypt all the way up to the Euphrates River would be his inheritance. Abram's part in the covenant was to sacrifice some young animals and birds. Abram was tired after this work and he fell into a deep sleep. God spoke to him in his sleep and fortold of the captivity of Abram's descendants in Egypt and how they would be freed from it.

Genesis 10 - 12

Chapter 10 gives an account of Noah's three sons, Shem, Ham and Japheth and their descendants. Japheth's family became a sea-faring people who probably migrated west and north to become first the Phoenicians, then the Europeans, Scandanavians and Russians.
Ham had a son named Cush, which was also the name of a country in Africa until later, when the name of that country became Sudan. Chapter 10 says that Ham's descendants migrated to the south of Ararat into Gaza and farther.
The Israelites are descendants of Shem, who the text says settled in the eastern hill country and became known as Shemites then Semites.
Chapter 11 tells us that after the flood, there was only one language. Of course, it would have been so, since only one family remained.
Cush had a son he named Nimrod. Genesis 10:8 tells us that Nimrod grew to be a mighty warrior. Nimrod tried to keep everyone centered around the city he built, Babylon, where he began to build a monument to himself, which came to be known as the Tower of Babel. God was not pleased with this display of idolatry, so He caused them all to speak different languages, resulting in mass confusion. Work on the tower and city ground to a halt. The people were all babbling and couldn't communicate with one another, so they scattered out and went separate ways.
Shem had a son in his 100th year and the rest of chapter 11 basically traces Shem's offspring down to the next major players on the Biblical Stage, Abram and Lot. Abram was born in Ur of the Chaldeans, which is located in present-day Iraq. Abram's father, Terah, had in mind to migrate to Canaan, but he only got as far as Haran, which is near the headwaters of the Euphrates River, where he died at the relatively young age of 205 years.
God chose a man, Abram, his family, and his tribe to be the ancestors of His earthly offspring, and called them out to begin consecreating them for this purpose. Chapter 12 tells us that He told Abram to "Leave your country, your people and your father's household and go to the land I will show you."--Genesis 12:1. It is here that God pronounces that whoever blesses Abram and his descendants, He will bless, and whoever curses them, He will curse, "and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you."--Genesis 12:3. This promise still stands today.
Abram went, but took some extra baggage with him. He only partially obeyed God. He took with them, his nephew, Lot, and others of his father's family, whereas God had told him to leave them. Lot will cause "lots" of problems for his Uncle Abram for many years.
When he arrived in Canaan, which is the region around present-day Jerusalem, God promised that land to Abram and his offspring. Then Abram traveled on toward Egypt because food was scarce in Canaan at the time.
Arriving in Egypt, Abram commits the first of several sins and blunders. That is what I respect about the Bible. If it was just a book about heroes, it wouldn't give us the sordid details of their mistakes and sins. The Bible doesn't sugar-coat anything. It gives us these details so that we will know these people were real. They were human, just like us, and we can learn from their mistakes. Abram feared for his life because his wife was very beautiful. He knew the customary thing would be for the King of Egypt to kill him and put his beautiful Sarai into a harem. So, they agreed she would say she was his sister, which was only a half-lie, because she was his half-sister, and also his wife. God had not forbidden these marital practices yet, but he will later, when he gives instructions to Moses.
So the Pharaoh (King) of Egypt did, indeed, take Sarai into his harem, not knowing she was another man's wife. In fact, he honored Abram with lavish gifts and treated him well, thinking he was the beautiful woman's brother. But God intervened in this situation and "inflicted serious diseases on Pharaoh and his people," as Chapter 12 tells us. Pharaoh finally discerned the cause of the trouble and hastily sent Sarai back to Abram with a strong admonishment. They were sent out of Egypt, but a little richer for the experience. However, Abram didn't learn the lesson here, as we will see him repeat the same sin in a later episode.

Genesis 7 - 9

So God gathered Noah, his family and all the animals He wanted to save from the catastrophic flood He was about to create, then He shut up the ark and sealed it. Noah was 600 years old when the flood hit. People lived longer then, when the atmosphere was unpolluted. Adam lived to be 930 years old and Noah's grandfather, Methuselah, lived 969 years, possibly the longest anyone has ever lived on earth. Noah was 500 years old before he had his three sons who went into the ark with him.
After 40 days and nights of rain, the whole earth was covered with water. In Chapter 7 of Genesis, we read it rose at least 20 feet above the highest mountain, so every mammal and bird outside the ark drowned.
There is some good research concerning this world-wide flood event at the website of the Institute of Creation Research, http://www.icr.org/noahs-flood/. Some make a case for the Grand Canyon on the North American Continent being carved out by this flood.
The ark floated over 150 days, then came to rest on the mountains of Ararat, but it was several months later when the water went down enough for Noah to emerge from the ark. It strikes me here that God began his human creation in the Middle East near the mountains of Ararat; He started over near the same location; and when Jesus returns to rule the earth, Revelation says He will place his feet down not too far from that location. The cradle of civilization. There is a pattern to everything God does.
Then God made a promise to Noah there would never be another world-wide flood and the first rainbow was seen in the sky, as a reminder of that promise.
God laid down some new guidelines for Noah and his sons for the repopulation of the earth, including some new dietary rules. Until that time, humans were vegetarian. Now God told them they could kill and eat animals as long as they did it in a humane and sanitary manner.
Noah, accustomed to being a farmer in his life before the flood, set about planting a vineyard. We get the idea here he liked to drink the fruit of the vine and one day he imbibed a little too much, which caused him to become drunk and fall down naked in his tent. Too much alcohol can cause one to do that, but Noah was discovered there in this drunken state by his son, Ham, who proceeded outside to snicker about the old man lying drunk and naked in his tent, where he told the sordid tale to his two brothers. The two brothers had compassion for their father, so they placed a robe between them on their shoulders and walked in backwards to cover their father without subjecting themselves to the sight. Love covers a multitude of sins!
When Noah found out what his son Ham had done, he put a curse on him and his descendants and proclaimed they would be slaves to the offspring of Shem and Japheth, the two true sons. We will learn later that Ham migrated south to the Egyptian region and his descendants on into Africa, where they did, indeed, become slaves taken from there.
Noah lived another 350 years after the flood and died at the ripe old age of 950 years at the end of chapter 9, one of the most long-lived people in the scriptures. Human life spans would only get less and less from here on out. Animals and reptiles probably had longer life spans then, too, which could explain why there are no dinosaurs remaining. A reptile continues to grow it's entire life. So little lizards could have become large dinosaurs back then with a longer life span--something to think about.

Genesis 4 - 6

Ok, so by chapter 3, Adam and Eve had gone past the stop sign and gone directly to jail. They were cast out of paradise and entered the world of toil and struggle, in which we still live. In chapter 4, we have the first-ever murder, even a fratricide, when Cain kills his brother, Abel. Seems a bit of jealousy was created when God accepted the offering of Abel's animal, but rejected Cain's offering of fruits and vegetables. We assume both boys were instructed in the proper offerings to God by their earthly father, Adam. God's sacrifice of an animal to cover Adam and Eve after they sinned set the pattern for the kind of offering God accepts. So, we have to conclude that Cain's offering was in disobedience to God. God lectures Cain about it, and warned him about having a bad attitude, but that attitude prevailed longer, as Cain lured his brother out into the field where he killed him.
Here we find that God sees everything. Although Cain thought he was being sly by taking Abel into the woods where the deed was hidden, God knew what he had done. So Cain compounded his sin by lying when God questioned him as to Abel's where-abouts. He gives what has become a universal statement of non-responsibility when he responds with, "Am I my brother's keeper?" God cursed Cain, but showed mercy in that He allowed him to live longer, however, as a marked man. Cain was driven away from his family to become a nomad.
Then, we get the question of Cain's wife. Where did Cain get his wife? Well it could have been a sister or niece. Cain was probably a grown man when he killed Abel. Adam and Eve, no doubt, had other children in the meantime. Or God could have made a wife for Cain as simply as He made Eve. That's not a stretch if one believes in an omnipotent God.
Adam and Eve then had Seth, from whose lineage Jesus will come many years in the future. Chapter 5 mainly traces that lineage from Seth down to Noah, who would be only one of four men to survive a worldwide flood. Also in chapter 5, we find a strange reference to a man named Enoch in the lineage of Seth, who was a worshiper of God and who did not experience death. He simply disappeared from the earth. "Enoch walked with God; then he was not, for God took him."--Genesis 5:24. Elijah, an Old Testament period prophet, is another who was taken in a like manner. In Revelation, we see the return of two prophets, who will testify to Israel in end times. I wonder if these two men will be Enoch and Elijah, who are being kept in their human forms awaiting their return to earth to fill these roles.
By chapter 6, God is fed up with man's sinfulness. He is ready to destroy us all and start over. There is a strange reference to Nephilim in Verse 4, that has led to much speculation. Some believe the Nephilim were fallen angels who were intermarrying with humans. Nephilim simply means giants, so I rather think it was a large race of people who resulted from all the close marriages within families that was taking place. Humanity was already very depraved and forgetful of God.
Except for Noah. Noah still worshiped God, so God decided to let him live. In His great mercy, he also gave Noah plenty of time to preach to his neighbors to try to save some while he was building the ark that God instructed him to build. Until that time, there had been no rain on the earth. There was just a cycle of dew at night to water the plants and sunshine during the day, so the people probably thought Noah was crazy. They didn't know what rain was, let alone a flood, so they disregarded him and his preaching and only Noah and his immediate family were saved from the flood.
Questions abound as to how Noah would have gathered up all those animals and gotten them into the ark, but again, if you believe God can do all things, why could He have not caused the animals to simply come to the ark and enter it? I believe He could have. The scripture seems to bear this out, as we read in Chapter 7, verses 8 and 9, "Pairs of clean and unclean animals, of birds and of all creatures that move along the ground, male and female, came to Noah and entered the ark..." and again verse 15 repeats the same thing as reinforcement, but I've gotten carried away and gone into tomorrow's chapter.

Genesis 1 - 3

"In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth." What an abrupt and controversial way to begin the most debated book of all time. If you don't believe that statement, you might as well close the book, because nothing else in it will make sense. It is a book about God and how He made the earth and the people in it and how He chose a nation to reveal Himself to in the flesh and how He dealt with that nation as He lived with them, died, and rose from the dead to ascend back into heaven and His plans to return again to rule His creation.
I always believed in God. I just knew there was one, even though I didn't take Him seriously until I was well into my third decade of living. Therefore, I couldn't read the Bible. It just bored me. It wasn't until I was going through the fire that I reached out my hand, and there He was, just waiting for me. Then He began to reveal Himself to me, also. It's been several years since I read through the Bible cover to cover, although I try to do daily Bible reading. It's been pretty sporadic lately, though, so I'd like to try a daily blog in order to discipline myself to go through it again, Genesis to Revelation. You are welcome to read along with me.
I am not a Bible scholar, but I am a scholar. I hold a Bachelor of Arts in English and Journalism from the University of Wyoming from some time ago. My conversion to Christianity came over 20 years ago, and I have immersed myself in Bible study and Christian radio programming since that time. So I hope you will not completely dismiss my thoughts on the Bible out of hand if you are reading this blog. If you see any glaring errors of theology or doctrine, I do hope you will leave a comment to let me know the basis of that so I can go back and study it again.
Jesus said, "You believe in God; believe also in me. In my Father's house are many mansions. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go to prepare a place for you, I will come again; that where I am, you may be also." That is my hope and my dream. As I age, I can think of nothing more important. Earth is fast fading away, and heaven is my home. The Spirit of God is hovering over me the same as He hovered over the waters as He formed the earth.
God spoke it all into existence. He did it in six days in order to set a pattern for our lives, but it need not have taken Him that long. If one believes in an all-powerful, mighty, omnipotent God, it's not a stretch to think He could have spoken it into existence all at once. Maybe it WAS a big bang. God spoke and bang, it happened. And who's to say He didn't create the earth eons ago with prehistoric people and animals, beings that had no spirit or will of their own, then decide to scrap it all and start again with intelligent beings who could choose to love Him and obey Him--or not. That would explain why some scientists insist the earth is millions of years old, although the science is not settled on that completely. There is even some lingering questions on the accuracy of carbon dating.
I just happen to believe that God can do anything. I also believe that He could inspire men to write things down to instruct us and that He could preserve those writings down through the years and all the translations in language. I think that has been proven by the Dead Sea Scrolls.
At the end of Chapter One of Genesis, we see God creating humans in "our image." So God was collaborating on his creation with someone. I wonder who. I think it was Jesus and the Holy Spirit. And it was all good. Man was his crowning achievement. He put us in charge of all the other plants and animals He had made. Then He rested on the seventh day. Was God tired? I don't think so. He was, again, setting an example or a pattern, for us to follow. Everyone needs one day in seven to rest, or the result is not good.
At the beginning of Chapter Two, God is instructing Adam in how to live and how to take care of the beautiful garden which He had made for him to live in before creating woman. Adam was told of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and that he was not to eat the fruit of that tree. If he did, the result would be death. Adam was allowed to view all the animals and even to name them, which must have been fun. Isn't that just like a father? When I was a kid, I always wanted to name all my pets and the livestock and usually my father would let me, but sometimes he had already picked out a name for them.
Adam noticed that all the animals had a counterpart; there was a male and a female, but there was only one of him. I think God did that to cause him to appreciate the woman God was going to make for him even more, which he did, judging by the little song he sang when God presented her to him at the end of chapter two.
By chapter three, they have already broke the only rule God gave them! Satan was already on the earth in the form of a serpent. This is another reason to think the earth was only recreated at that time, because later on in the Bible, we will hear that Jesus saw Satan fall like lightening to the earth as he was kicked out of heaven for challenging God's soverignty. So Satan became a spirit that roams the earth and can enter and possess animate objects and use them to do his bidding, which he did when he deceived Eve in the garden.
We know that Adam must have told Eve what God had said about the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, but either he got it twisted or she didn't quite understand. She added they were not to even touch the tree or they would die. Satan was able to put doubt in her mind, and she reached out and touched it. She didn't die. We assume Adam was nearby when Eve took the fruit off the tree and he didn't try to stop her from eating it, in fact, he ate some also. They didn't die immediately, but something inside them began the process, just like it does in us every time we do something we know is against God's instructions. They became aware that they were exposed and ran to cover themselves, just like we do when we sin.
God knew beforehand they were going to choose to disobey. He already had a plan to redeem them and it was set in motion the minute they ate the fruit. God cursed the serpent, but He didn't curse Adam and Eve. He told Satan about how His Son would one day crush him, then He turned around and made coverings for His children. He explained to them the consequences of their actions and made them leave the garden so they could not gain access to the fruit of the tree that would cause them to live forever in their sinful state. This tree will reappear in Revelation, but that is for another day.