Genesis 13 – I Give It to You…

After Pharaoh ordered Abram to leave Egypt, he returned to where he had been before the drought, in a place between Bethel and Ai where he had built an altar. In this place, the Bible tells us that he called on the name of the Lord. To set up this chapter, remember that there is probably still little food to go around. Lands do not recover from droughts overnight. We have already learned that Abram is a rich man, having a large herd of animals that help to feed many families that are likely employed under him. His nephew, Lot, is also quite wealthy and has many livestock. Their separation in this chapter does not seem to be due to a falling out, but out of necessity. To support all of these animals in a land that is going through a drought, the two of them, who have been inseparable so far, will be forced to separate.

Though conflict did not seem to be between uncle and nephew, those employed by them begin to strive for the dwindled grazing lands. Abram seems to be a sensible man and makes the hard decision to separate. What Abram says to Lot is interesting because it reveals that his character is growing, though we will see he still has a long way to go. Instead of asserting his seniority, Abram forgoes the right to choose the land he will dwell in and leaves the choice with Lot. In Egypt, Abram sought to help God’s blessing come true and the results were not so good. In Canaan, Abram realizes that God will bless him in whichever land he chooses to give him and that God doesn’t need his help choosing the best land. He is being selfless in this situation.

Lot makes what seems to be the right choice. By almost all standards, the land in the plain of Jordan to the east seemed perfect. In those days, river valleys were the cradle of civilizations, and this appeared to be much the same. Perhaps it was because of this that large cities sprung up in the plain of Jordan, cities like Sodom and Gomorrah. I do not think that the choice Lot made was an immoral one simply because the land included these cities. It does seem, however, that Lot is choosing the best land for himself for selfish motives. Abram accepts the decision without question and dwells in the west in the land of Canaan, while Lot travels east to the plain. Abram’s trust that God would do what He promised will be rewarded. The country he finds himself is not the choicest place in worldly terms, but he will still be able to care for his livestock in this hill country. We are given a description of the kinds of places Lot has chosen for his dwelling place, most specifically, Sodom, which is exceedingly wicked and sinful.

It is after this separation that God speaks with Abram again. This is when God reveals the land that will be given to Abram, and a further promise that everything God promised to Abram will be applied to his descendants as well, who will be numerous as the dust of the earth. I think at this point it is important to discuss adoption. This is basically what God has done. God has adopted Abram. There are some important things that this reveals to us. First, Abram is given preferential treatment. Abram, through no merit of his own, is given special blessings by his Father. Remember when Abram was in Egypt and made poor decisions concerning his relationship with his wife, calling her his sister, which resulted in a plague on Pharaoh’s house. Why was Abram not punished? Part of the answer is because even though Abram made a mistake, God was protecting ‘one of His own’. Pharaoh did not turn out to be the bad guy that Abram thought he would, but God was going to keep his promise to Abram, preserving his wife so he could bless the nations through his heir. Think of Lot here as well. Lot has been with Abram on this whole journey, but he is not being given the blessings. He is receiving them through his close proximity to Abram. God does not hate Lot or Pharaoh. In fact, he loves them both. But in a special and familial way, he loves Abram even more. Another part of this adoption is being given an inheritance. God wants to give his son things. All parents love to shower gifts on their children. This is not to spoil them, but just because we love them. Abram is promised heirs as numerous as the dust of the earth. He is also promised a land and a nation. Being adopted is a wonderful thing. Being adopted by God is the most wonderful thing.

After being given this blessing, Abram moves to “the terebinth trees of Mamre, which are in Hebron”, and builds yet another altar to the Lord there. This is the third altar Abram has built by my count. Abram seems truly devout and is proving it through acts of faith in the Lord.

Genesis 12 – I Will Bless You…

In Chapter 11, we are introduced to Abram and his wife Sarai. We learned of their lineage and how they came to live in Haran. Now we will get to see Abram’s character. But first, we get to learn more about the character of God. Through no merit of his own, God chooses to speak directly to Abram. I’m going to paste the whole conversation below and we’ll discuss each of the things God tells Abram:

Get out of your country,
From your family
And from your father’s house,
To a land that I will show you.
I will make you a great nation;
I will bless you
And make your name great;
And you shall be a blessing.
I will bless those who bless you,
And I will curse him who curses you;
And in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”

Imagine you are living your life and all of a sudden you are given a promise of this magnitude. This is an introduction to what we call the Abrahamic Covenant. It will be officially made in chapter 15, and reaffirmed several times throughout Scripture, and referred to for the rest of the Old Testament, as well as in the New Testament, where the promise seems to envelop something even larger. We’ll discuss that well in the future. For now, let us focus on what the covenant actually says.

First, Abram is told to leave Haran for a new land. That is really the extent of what God is asking for the covenant. The rest of the covenant is what God will do. God promises to make him into a great nation. This is referring to the nation of Israel. God promises to bless Abram, making Abram’s name great. He will be so blessed that those who know him will be blessed, but those who disregard him or curse him will be cursed. All of the families of the earth shall be blessed through Abram. I want to focus on this point here. In what way will the families of the earth, or later in Genesis 18, the nations of the earth, be blessed through Abraham? Let’s look at what Paul has to say in Galatians 3:5-9.

Therefore He who supplies the Spirit to you and works miracles among you, does He do it by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith?–just as Abraham ‘believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness.’ Therefore know that only those who are of faith are sons of Abraham. And the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel to Abraham beforehand, saying, ‘In you all the nations shall be blessed.’ So then those who are of faith are blessed with believing Abraham.”

What I think Paul is saying here is significant for a couple of reasons. First, it shows that the Gospel is not something restricted to the New Testament. Notice that the Gospel was preached to Abraham, when God said that through him all the nations shall be blessed. The second thing I see as significant about this quote is that we who are believers have been blessed by the hearing of faith just like Abraham. This is how God is blessing all the families of the earth through Abraham. We are still taking part in the Abrahamic Covenant today We are being blessed with believing Abraham.

Well, we’ve made it to verse 4. Notice that the distance between when the Covenant is spoken and when Abram leaves Haran is not told, but it seems to be immediate. This is one of the most striking features of Abram’s character. He will be flawed, making many mistakes along the way, but when God tells him to do something, Abram seems to obey without hesitation. Imagine the faith it would require to pack up everything and leave a land you are familiar with to go to a completely new place, as yet unknown to Abram, which could be hostile toward him. This is one of the reasons he will later be referred to as a hero of the faith, having done things by faith. Abram is 75 at this time, and apparently Lot goes with him. Lot will become more important in chapter 13.

Abram and his wife and Lot’s family arrive in Canaan. Now the Lord appears to Abram and tells him that this is the land that He will give him. In this place, Abram builds an altar to the Lord. Abram keeps journeying, eventually ending up in Egypt,  presumably because of the famine which was fairly severe at the time. Now we are going to see a bit of a conflict here in Abram’s character. Let’s start with the positive. When Abram needs to make a decision about the famine, he could have most easily returned hom to Ur, but he holds to God’s promise and does not return there. This is encouraging news. However, before he enters Egypt, Abram fears for his life. He thinks because Sarai is beautiful and because he is her husband that the Egyptians will be jealous and kill him and take her. So he asks Sarai to say she is his sister, thinking that he can help God achieve His promise.

Sarai’s beauty does draw attention and the plan seems to work, until Sarai is taken into Pharaoh’s harem. Because Abram is her “brother”, he is treated well for her sake, being made rich with livestock. But God is still in control. He plagues Pharaoh’s house with great plagues because of Sarai. Abram seemed to have selfish motives (“that I may live”), but God does this for Sarai’s sake. Pharaoh seems to figure out what is going on and realizes he’s been lied to by Abram. He asks why Abram didn’t tell him he was Sarai’s husband and then commands him to leave. Ultimately, I think this ends better than it could have. Pharaoh, it turns out, wasn’t that bad of a guy and Abram’s fear of being killed was unfounded. He should have realized that God’s promise did not depend on his cleverness. Abram’s selfish actions resulted in a plague, and made him look foolish in front of Pharaoh. Abram is forced to leave Egypt.

Genesis 8 – God Remembered Noah…

Chapter 8 is the conclusion to the story we all learned in Sunday School. Noah has been warned by God of the impending flood, and has put all the animals, two of each kind, onto the ark. God has sent the waters to flood the Earth which are said to be high enough to cover the mountains. This chapter begins with the words, “Then God remembered Noah and every living thing, and all the animals that were with him in the ark.” This verse does not mean that God had in his wrath momentarily forgotten Noah and the animals, but that God had intentionally turned His attention back to Noah and the animals as He had promised. Something we can take away from the story of the flood is that God keeps His promises.

God makes a wind to pass over the Earth, subsiding the waters. This wind can also be interpreted as spirit, in which case, this story seems eerily familiar. The Spirit might be the one hovering over the waters, signifying a new act of creation. While wind is the word most translations choose, it would be foolish to assume that this is a naturalistic wind. There is clearly something supernatural going on with this wind.  He also closes the fountains of the deep and the windows of heaven. At this point the waters begin to recede continually until eventually the ark comes to rest on the mountains of Ararat. Interestingly, the mountains of Ararat is quite a broad geographical region. This has often been interpreted as Mount Ararat, which is in Turkey, but the text does not seem to suggest this at all. After ten months, the tops of the mountains can finally be seen.

Noah opens the window of the ark and sends out a raven and then a dove. Why a raven and a dove? I’ll confess that though I researched for this question for longer than time in a seminary student’s schedule should allow, I have come to the conclusion that once again, I can only offer guesses and can say almost nothing definitive. With that said, let us explore. First, Noah sends out a raven. Traditionally, ravens are seen as evil, being much like the serpent in the garden. They are deceptive and feed on the carcasses of dead creatures. They are also considered unclean, most specifically for their dietary choices. This raven kept going to and fro until the waters had dried up from the earth. Noah also sends out a dove. Doves have traditionally been identified with the Holy Spirit, especially in the New Testament in connection with Jesus’ baptism. This is a clean animal which was more docile. The bird has often represented peace across diverse cultures throughout history. The question is for what purpose did Noah send out these birds? Was it for the same purpose? While some will disagree with me, I will assert that they were indeed sent out for the same purpose. That purpose is to find dry land so Noah would know when it is safe to emerge from the ark. His choice of the raven frustrated his purposes, however, because the raven is an excellent flier which could feed on the floating carcasses of the life God had destroyed in the flood. Noah’s choice of the dove was much wiser because the dove would not land on a carcass and feed on it. It would return to Noah if it could not find dry land, which is exactly what happened. I don’t want to draw out the symbolism too much further, because I think one can begin to draw conclusions that were not intended by the story. But the second time, after waiting a week, the dove came back with a freshly plucked olive leaf. This olive leaf also symbolizes peace, which is an appropriate image for a world which had just been destroyed and is now being reshaped for a new beginning for life. Finally, after another week, Noah sends out the dove, and this time it does not return at all, presumably because it has found dry land.

Noah removes the covering from the ark, now that he is convinced the waters had been dried up from the earth. Finally, God speaks to Noah, telling him to remove himself and the animals from the ark. Notice that once again, God emphasizes that the reason for this removal is so the animals can be fruitful and multiply. This seems to be quite important to God. For someone who just destroyed all life, He sure seems quite intent that life thrive on the Earth. So why the flood? The life that was on the Earth before the flood was not doing what it was intended to do. Sin had corrupted it to the point of no longer bringing glory to its Creator. Therefore, one can safely assume that life thrives when it brings glory to its Creator, and consequently stagnates when it ceases to do so. God desires life to thrive, and when we cease to do so, He must step in because of His great love for us. Noah is faithful and obeys God.

Now we see the reason God asked Noah to take seven of each of the clean animals. Noah builds an altar to the Lord and offers the clean animals to God. Good thing he brought seven of them. This is the creature bringing glory to the Creator. The Lord smells a sweet aroma. Notice that right after this offering, God says in His heart, “I will never again curse the ground for man’s sake, although the imagination of man’s heart is evil from his youth; not will I again destroy every living thing as I have done.” God seems to be full of promises, and with every one we grow in our understanding of who He is. One should see that God will not destroy every living thing in the same way, but that does not mean that He will never destroy them again. God will not use a worldwide flood to drown His creation, but Revelation seems to show that God has many ways to deal with evil.

This chapter concludes with a poem which promises the permanence of the seasons and cycles of the year.