Genesis 23

Maybe it's just the current political and religious atmosphere in this country, but as I read the story of Abraham I keep noticing the theme of blessings in Abraham's life. Whenever he gives up something he has a right to, he's blessed.

This chapter is mostly about him buying a cave in which to bury Sarah. Why was this seemingly minor event in Abraham's life not only given space, but given a whole chapter?

I think it's because of what it says about Abraham. He had the right to take whatever he wanted; he was the power in a region that worshipped power. Yet he chose to trust in Yahwehrather than in hisown swords. He could afford to be cheated because it was all God's anyway, and God had always taken care of him.

Genesis 22

Abraham's life  -- and in particular his life with God -- had its ups and downs.  He had his moments of failure, usually brought on by cowardice and unwillingness to trust God, and usually having to do with his wife Sarah.  He also had his mountaintop experiences, in which he grew as close to God as any mortal man ever did.

Genesis 22 details probably the darkest and most heartbreaking mountaintop experience in history, with the possible exception of Christ's crucifixion.

Genesis 21

Guess what?  God keeps his promises.

Genesis 20

I want to confess something:  I like Abimelech.  He's one of my favorite people in the Bible.  There's something very real and appealingly down-to-earth about him.  He's just a king who fell for a 90-year-old hottie -- as I think we all have at one time or another -- and got caught in events bigger than himself.

Genesis 19

Rather than write a lot of stuff, I want to link to this sermon by Leonard Ravenhill.  It is well worth the hour or so it takes to listen to it.  Please take the time to do so.

Genesis 18

Bargaining with God is very common; it's one of humanity's favorite pastimes.  It's not that often, though, that God haggles back.

Genesis 17

No matter how long you walk with God, no matter how well you think you know him, he can still surprise you.  Abram, for example, followed God for 24 years, only to have God give him a new name and tell him to cut a piece of skin off his ... area most of us wouldn't want to cut anything from.

Genesis 16

There were no roller coasters in Abram's day, which makes me wonder what kind of metaphor he might have used to describe his relationship with God.

Genesis 15

Why did God lead the Israelites to the Promised Land?  It was just because he promised Abram he would give it to his descendants, right?  Wrong.

Genesis 14

Genesis 14 has two odd occurrences that a good many people have embraced for various reasons.

Genesis 13

There's a lot of talk these days about rights.  America has always been a place where individual rights have been at the forefront of the national consciousness, but these days it seems that's all anyone cares about.  At the moment, it's gun rights, the right to marry, the right to abortion, the right to display your personal favorite religious symbols ... everyone is concerned with making sure they get their rights.

Genesis 12

Here we reach the point of the narrative so far.  It's important to remember that Genesis was originally written for a reason:  to tell the newly-freed Israelites from where they'd come, and why God had freed them in the first place.  Chapters 1-11 are a record of the entire universe; the rest of Scripture is essentially the story of God's dealings with one family.

Genesis 11

We start with a bunch of people determined to make a name for themselves apart from God, and who are utterly scattered and forgotten.  We end with a man whose only redeeming characteristic is a willingness to obey God, and who is known the world over as the father of nations.

Genesis 10

It's nice to see someone actually obey God every now and then.  Twice in Genesis 9 God told Noah to be fruitful and multiply, and in Genesis 10 we see that he -- and everyone else, apparently -- took that one to heart.

Genesis 09

You know what's neat about Genesis 9?  God promises to never flood the earth again, but he doesn't just promise Noah, or his family, or even all the descendants of Noah who would one day read this account.  He promises all of creation.

Genesis 08

The first bird Noah released from the ark was a raven.  It never came back.  Ravens, after all, are carrion birds, and the whole earth was probably liberally supplied with dead things.  A whole planet full of delicious rot, and he was the only raven around.  I bet it didn't take long before that was the fattest dang raven there's ever been.

Genesis 07

Why did Noah need to carry animals in the ark?  (Other than the fact that God told him to, of course.)  Or to look at it another way, why did all the animals have to die?  If God flooded the earth in order to punish sinful humanity, why kill the animals, who by their nature can do neither good nor evil?

Genesis 06

"And the Lord regretted that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him to his heart." -- Genesis 6.6, ESV

This verse is a bit of a headache for a lot of people, i.e., anyone who believes that God is all-knowing and all-powerful, i.e., me (among others).  This fact actually makes me more confident that the Bible is true.

Genesis 05

(Gah, still trying to get caught up.  Who knew you could get too sick to sit and type?)

Genesis 5 is the first of many, many genealogies in Scripture.  In Genesis, these are mainly used to as bridges between the "Bible Stories" we all learned in Sunday School.  (As opposed to their use in 1Chronicles, where they seem to serve primarily as motivation to stop reading 1Chronicles.  I'll probably pay for that remark later.)

Genesis 04

(I know this is a day late.  I've been sick.  Cut me some slack.)

Ah, Genesis 4.  The murder chapter.

Genesis 03

And here it all falls apart.

This is another of those packed chapters, but because I've only got about twenty minutes to write this morning, I'll focus on one just one thing:  the sin.  Or maybe The Sin.  It's pretty important in the grand scheme of things.

Genesis 02

You know, things didn't used to be this way.

Genesis 01

There's a lot that could be said about Genesis 1; there's probably been more written about this chapter of Scripture than any other.  That's understandable, since the theme of the chapter is the creation of the entire universe.