Month: January 2018

God makes a covenant with Abram in the midst of a complaint by Abram that he does not have a rightful heir to his household.  He complains that the only person who might be worthy to possess his inheritance is just one of his workers, a slave actually.  But the Lord says do not worry, I will send you an heir that is of your own issue, that comes from you biologically.  In order to confirm the covenant the Lord had Abram prepare a sacrifice which the Lord came and finalized.  

One of my favorite verses from this chapter is when God assures Abram that he is his shield.  You can find that in vs.1.  Interestingly it is after this assurance that Abram complains to God and says: You say you are my shield, but look at me.  I don’t have any of the things that you promised I would have.  So God makes a covenant with him and he does not hold back any of the bad news either.  He tells Abram about the time of captivity that the Israelites will suffer under after the time of Joseph in the hands of Pharaoh and Egypt.  But he promises that after that time they will leave with many possessions.  All of this seems to play itself out.  God is our shield.  He doesn’t prevent arrows from coming at us, but does protect us from them.

So this chapter falls under one of those stories in Scripture that make you say hmm.  Lot is taken captive as a result of his town, Sodom, being overrun in one of those very common territorial battles.  But those who were attacking Sodom made a mistake.  They allowed one of the men to escape.  As a result Abraham heard that Lot had been taken captive so he gathered up the hired hands around his house, 318 of them, and went out and conquered those who had conquered Sodom.  They were incredible warriors and Scripture doesn’t let you forget that.  It states that they routed their enemies and Abraham took back all that had been taken.  So think about that for a moment.  Abraham had 318 men who were working for him.  What does that tell you?

The king of Sodom said to Abram that he wanted to give him a large portion of the loot.  But Abram refused because he didn’t want the kind of Sodom to take any credit for the victory.  All the glory belonged to God.  I saw the College Football Playoff Championship Game last night.  It was great to see this young freshman who was the star of the show say: “People may not like it but I want to give all glory to God.”  I’m not a huge fan of public displays of faith in order to garner attention, but this was genuine.  

Don’t skip over King Melchizedek who is described as the priest of the Most High God.  Jesus is compared to this type of high priest in Hebrews 4 and following.  We also see the idea of the tithe starting to find its way into our way of thinking as Abraham offered 10% of what he had made.  But this also sets us up, again, for the recognition that when the men of Sodom come to Lot and want to do harm to his guests, there is a history there where we find that Lot’s Uncle has basically saved the city and the kingdom of Sodom and yet the people have absolutely no regard for it.  That is a big deal.  We get to that in a few more chapters.

Abram continues on and we have the scene set for the infamous Sodom and Gomorrah.  Abraham has become extremely wealthy and has shared his wealth with his nephew, Lot.   But a problem arises where they are not able to keep both flocks going in the land and there is quarreling and disputes among the people of Abram and the people of Lot.  So, this should tell you that if they each had people who were working for them, and it seems like there were quite a few, that they were extraordinarily wealthy.  It reminds me a bit of Peter, Jesus’ disciple, whom we read had slaves and his own fleet of fishing vessels.  We normally think of these folks as poor bumpkins, but that really isn’t the case, and certainly is not the case with Abraham.  He had means, quite a few means.

So as a result of the conflict, Abram give Lot the first choice of the land and he takes the land in which Sodom and Gomorrah are found. We find a bit of a precursor in that Scripture as it tells us that the people of Sodom were evil, very evil.  Some not so nice things are going to be happening soon.  But keep in mind the magnanimity of Abraham.  He shared with Lot his flocks and so Lot became wealthy.  He allowed Lot to choose first which land he would take and it would be his indefinitely at no charge.  Lot chose, but unfortunately for him we see that he chose poorly.  

When you read this chapter within the context of Harvey Weinstein it becomes very troubling.  But if you take it within the context of prehistoric events, it becomes one of the most important chapters in all of Scripture.  You find Abraham who is given a promise by God that his family will be blessed unconditionally.  He doesn’t say: Abram, if you do my will then I will bless you.  He doesn’t say: Abram, if you follow my commandments then I will bless you.  He doesn’t say: Abram, if you sell all that you have, quit your job, and live in the desert then I will bless you.  No, simply because Abram was soon to be Abraham is he blessed.  God gives him a glimpse of what he will be inheriting and what his children will be able to call their own as we finish vs.9.  

Then things start to go crooked.  It seems like every time that the Lord promises something to us we then go the wrong way or make a really bad decision.  Abram is nervous because he is about to go into Egypt because of a famine (notice a theme?).  The Egyptians were people who historically had helped others out, but remember, we are in prehistoric times and people can do whatever they want.  People could make up their own laws  and take advantage of their office to mistreat others, and can use their power to get whatever they wanted.  It seems like not much has changed over these thousands of years.

But in his fear he decides, and Sara plays along, to tell people that Sara is his sister because that way no one would kill him in order to get to his wife.  She was beautiful, after all.  She must have been really beautiful.  So Pharaoh takes Sarah as his wife.  In this account it doesn’t say that he stayed away from her.  In fact, it seems like quite the opposite is true.  He took her into his bed as his wife.  I would think that is a problem for Abram, but it doesn’t seem to be. The king gets angry when he breaks out into all kinds of sickness and is angry with him, but not the kind of anger I would think a king would have if this had happened.  He was probably more scared of Abram than anything, so sent him away with all the riches he had acquired.  Abram made out okay, but at what cost?  

Once again we find ourselves in two different stories within Scripture and each of them is crucial to the history of God’s salvation.  We will handle them one at a time.  The first is the Tower of Babel where we read that because people had gathered to build a tower so that they could be like God, God came and confused their languages.  We find an explanation as to why everyone on the earth just doesn’t speak the same language.  It would be so much easier.  You need to see that this sin, of trying to become like God, is not unique to chapter 11.  It is the same sin that Adam and Eve were guilty of, thinking that if they were to eat the fruit they would be like God.  Trying to be like God and knowing good and evil and trying to reach God by building a tower lays the foundation to what in essence is the definition of sin: doing that which places us in a position to want to be like God and acting on that desire.  This is sin.

The next account is the introduction of Abraham.  Notice that we have another genealogy, but this is the one that leads directly to our Savior Jesus Christ.  We find the introduction of Lot, and Abraham, and his wife Sarah.  I am using their common names, names that we recognize, and not the names that are in this chapter.  Abram will have his name changed to Abraham and Sarai will have her name changed to Sarah.  We will go over that when we get there.  But we find that Abraham has moved from the East, along with all the other people from the tower of Babel, and with his father they settled in the land of Haran.  This now sets us up for a true introduction of Abraham and the covenant that God will establish with him there.  Get ready to meet Father Abraham, who actually didn’t have many sons.  

So, what does your genealogy look like?  We will find ourselves faced with a few chapters that contain genealogies and they will be a bit hard to get by as we make our way through the Bible.  Between the Levitical laws and the begats we just might find ourselves bogged down as we make our way out of Genesis after this challenge, but we will soldier on.  We find described here three sons and their descendants.  All of them originating from Noah.  If you were to go to both Matthew and Luke, where we find Jesus’ genealogy, we see that Matthew starts only with Abraham so does not go all the way back.  Luke, on the other hand, does attempt to go all the way back.  Go ahead and read Luke 3 and you will find that Jesus comes from Adam and his son Shem.  

I don’t lose interest in thee genealogies because they provide the context for Jesus’ birth and his real ancestry which grounds Him as one of us.  

There is a beautiful, historic scene in these verses, and then there is a puzzling and troublesome story in this chapter as well.  Let’s take them both.  The first is the story of the rainbow where we find God making a covenant with Noah.  This is the first of many covenants that God makes with humanity.  We will see the covenant that God makes with Abraham fairly soon and we will be able to juxtapose that one with the covenant that God makes in His Son Jesus Christ.  In vs.13 we find the origin of the rainbow which is the sign of the covenant that God has made with us.  It is interesting that God needs a mnemonic device to remind him to not destroy humanity.  So at least we have that going for us.  

The troubling story deals with Noah and his youngest son.  Apparently Noah gets drunk and finds himself unconscious and completely naked.  His youngest son finds him in a tent that way and tells his brothers.  His brothers then cover him up with a blanket by walking backwards so that they would not see him.  When Noah wakes up he is furious that this youngest son saw him naked.  Or is that why he was really angry?  We read that Scripture says that Noah was angry because of what his “youngest son had done to him.”  That is a bit different from just seeing your father naked, which you would think wouldn’t elicit a curse of slavery upon you and your progeny in eternity.  What did Ham do to him?  We have no idea, but the punishment does not seem to fit the crime.  Eternal punishment to slavery does seem a bit harsh. 

But we find a story that deals with the Canaanites, of which Ham was the patriarch, in such a way that they are seemingly cursed throughout history because of what happened between Ham and the father.  Keep in mind that the Canaanites are the historic enemies of the Israelites so I am sure that this story has served well in describing the why as to the hatred between the Israelites and the Canaanites.  There needs to be a historic reason for the animosity between the people of God and the the people of Canaan and this story provides it.  

God remembers Noah and the waters subside and the ark comes to rest on Mt. Ararat.  There have been numerous sightings of the ark, all of them, in my estimation, a waste of time trying to prove one thing or another.  The story of Noah ought to be able to stand alone.  It is a story of God never losing His faithfulness toward us.  It is a story of God taking care of His people and making sure that all of his creation would be able to start over again.  The way in which Genesis describes it is captivating, but it is not something that we ought to lose sleep over in order to prove its historicity.  I believe it, but even if it is merely an object lesson the point of the story would not be lost.  

Please notice that the first thing that Noah does when he descends from the ark is offer a sacrifice.  The first thing that Noah does when he stands on dry land is to worship God in the only way that he knew how.  God was pleased and God promised to himself that he would not destroy humanity again.  Now, he doesn’t make his covenant with Noah just yet, that comes in the next chapter, but we do find in the end of this chapter a love that God has for us which is reflected in the senses of smelling the offering, an emotion of gratitude for the offering and a response to the act of Noah which is one of grace upon more grace.  That is how our God works.

We find described in Genesis 7 a time when New Year’s Day would have been insignificant.  The faithful Noah, again the one who did all that the Lord commanded, gathers his family and all the animals and they enter the ark which he had created as the rains begin to fall.  If you start and focus from vs.21 and following you almost hear a recap of how God created life: breathed into the nostrils of humans, and reverses that by taking the breath of life from the nostrils of all creatures.  All life was taken, not just humanity, but yes people too, but all the creatures and they are listed individually.  That’s pretty significant.  

We can learn that God never leaves anything to chance, because there is no such thing as chance, and so prepares for when the land will be dry once again and the animals and the humans will be able to take over the earth again.  Once the rains fall for 40 days the waters remain on the earth for 150 days.  That’s a lot of water and Noah and his family were not on a cruise.  I can’t help but think of this song as I read this Scripture.

Noah is a very faithful child of God.  The last sentence of this chapter tells us so, Noah did this, he did all of this.  So what has brought us to this place in Scripture?  Remember, the problem wasn’t just in Noah’s day.  From the moment we were able to choose how we were going to relate to others, we were selfish.  From the moment we were able to choose how we were going to relate to God, we chose ourselves over God.  When we were able to choose how we relate to each other, we chose ourselves over our brother, and in fact neutralized our brother.

God was sorry that he made us, God wished we would be more obedient, but we weren’t.  We aren’t.  So God decided to start over and see if with the very obedient Noah and his family we would move toward a more perfect relationship with God and with each other.  God tried to give us another chance to do it on our own.  It took eliminating all that he had created in order to see if this great human experiment would work.  We are left at the end of chapter 6 with the hope that maybe, just maybe, it could work.  We were God’s utopia, a dream, a vision for a better future that just might be.