Genesis 16-17

Genesis 16

16:2 This was pretty normal practice of the day.  It makes me wonder what socially acceptable and even normal things we do now that are against what God wants.  I'm sure there's lots of them.

16:4 Now the "problem" was clearly with Sarai, not Abram.  Even though the Bible had clearly told us that, it was probably Hagar getting pregnant that made the household in general confirm this.

16:5 Sarai is clearly offended.  And blames Abram for her hurt.

16:6 Sarai continues to respond poorly.  Now, this was kinda her fault in the first place, for suggesting it (granted, Abram shouldn't have gone along with the plan).  Now she's eating her own fruit and not liking it, so she's going deeper.  Kinda like Cain - when he had opportunities to repent, he pouted and sulked and offended more deeply.  God isn't here in person talking to Sarai about her choices, but it's still obvious that she's making herself and everyone else miserable with her choosing to keep on this path of abuse.

16:9 Interesting that God ordered her to go home to an abusive home.  That wouldn't be culturally acceptable today.  

16:10 God promised her reward.

16:13 This is one of my favorite verses, and one that I think of often.  Hagar gets pregnant, becomes haughty toward Sarai, gets abused and runs away.  God finds her, tells her to return to the bad situation, and promises both hardship and great reward.  Hagar then gives God a name.  Does anyone else in the Bible actually give God a name?  She calls him "The God Who Sees".  She knew that God saw what she was enduring, and that she was understood and rewarded for her hardship.  I'm always reminding myself of this.  God sees.  God knows.  It's nice to be seen and cared for.

16:14 She didn't just name God, she named the Spring too.  I don't think I ever noticed that before. 

16:15 God told Hagar what to name the baby, but Abram actually named the child.  

16:16 Abram was already 86 when Ishmael was born.  Not exactly young.  How long were people living in those days?  (looking back.... Abram's dad lived to 205... so people probably weren't super old at 86 yet.)

Genesis 17

17:1 The Bible is emphasizing Abram's age - he's clearly considered too old for having kiddos.  God opens his command with "I am God Almighty.  Live in My presence and be blameless."  This seems like a really daunting charge to me.  But one that I want to do also.

17:2 God renews his promise to multiply Abram greatly.

17:4 God is initiating an agreement with Abram.  God promises.

- Abram will be father of many nations - x2

- extremely fruitful and many nations and kings come from you

- offspring will have all of canaan as land

In addition to three times promising lots of offspring (many nations), God refers to Abrams offspring another three times.  So the repetition is practically six times in these few sentences.  That's a lot.

God also renamed Abram to Abraham.

17:9 Abraham's part in the deal: he and his offspring are to keep the covenant of circumcision.  ("circumcision" the word is repeated four times).  

Incidentally, both Muslims (Arabs) and Jews still keep this, as both still circumcise boys.  And they still dwell in the land God promised.

17:15 Sarai gets a new name too.  I wonder if she's the only woman in the Bible to be renamed?  I'm pretty sure she's the only woman in the Bible to have her age recorded at her death.....

17:16 Sarai gets a similar blessing to Abraham.  She is promised a son, and that she will produce nations, kings and peoples.

17:17 Abraham clearly thinks that both he and Sarah are too old to be having kids.

17:20 Interesting that God making Ishmael into nations seems a bit like an afterthought, after Abraham asked God to just make Ishmael the promised one and not make them have to deal with another child.

17:25 I can't imagine that circumcision was pleasant for either a 99 year old man or a 13 year old boy.  I think there's a reason they do it when kids are babies now...

17:27 Abraham had a pretty large household - over 300 fighting men, right?  My guess is that this community was in a world of hurt for a few days there.  I'm impressed that Abraham took God this seriously and did it.

Genesis 14-15

Genesis 14

14:10 some of the fleeing kings fell into asphalt pits.  Yikes.

14:11 The pursuing kings took all the goods and all the food from Sodom and Gomorrah.

14:12 What they took included Lot and family.

14:14 Abram had 318 trained men in his household - I wonder how many people overall he had?

14:16 Abram and his 318 men defeated the army.  I'm guessing the army was significantly larger than that, since it was against four kings (who had fought five kings, two of which were of Sodom and Gomorrah, and won).

14:17 The king of Sodom comes out to meet Abram, and Melchizedek also meets him.  Was it at the same time and in the same place?  Was the meeting of three people?  It sure seems like it.  

14:18 Melchizedek is king of Salem, which is introduced like it's a city, but we don't know where it was, right?  And he was a priest of the Most High God.  

14:20 Abram pays him a tithe.  Hebrews, I think, talks about this, and how through this act, even the priests paid a tithe to Melchizedek, the mysterious priest.

14:22 We hear about a promise that Abram made to God.

14:23 The motivation - Abram doesn't want any person to be able to say he made Abram rich.  Abram was already rich, and it seems to me that the king of Egypt had a lot to do with Abram becoming rich, because of Sarai, right?  I wonder why he doesn't want others to add to his riches?  Maybe it's a change in perspective?

Genesis 15

15:2 Abram is understandably concerned about kids, because God had already promised him that his descendants would have all the land he could see.  But he has no descendants.

15:6 A super-key verse.  Abram believed.  God accounted this belief for righteousness.  I like that this theme - believing is what makes God count you as righteous - is so pervasive in the Bible.  

15:9 Abram had to gather up all these animals - I'm guessing this wasn't a 5 minute job to gather them, kill them halve them, etc.  It had to be pretty bloody.

15:11 - they already smelled bad enough to attract birds of prey, right?

15:13 So, Abram asks how he can know that his offspring will possess this land, God has him prep a sacrifice (only the second mentioned in the Bible, the first being Noah's), and puts him to sleep.  In the sleep he tells that his offspring will be enslaved for 400 years, come out with riches and in the fourth generation return to this area.

15:17 There's lots of research on this passage.  I think the significant part is that God and Abram didn't both walk between the halves of the dead animals, just God did (a smoking fire pot and a flaming torch represent God, right?)  That means that it was only up to God, not Abram, to keep the covenant they were making.

15:18 The covenant was for the land.  So in essence, God was swearing that Abram's offspring would get that land, no matter what.  Interesting to me because even now, even though not much of that land belongs to Israel, the rest of it belongs to Arabs, who are also Abram's descendants....

Genesis 12-13

Genesis 12

12:2-3 This promise has "bless" in it five times.   Once God blesses Abram, twice others are blessed through Abram, and once those who bless Abram are blessed.  I'd say it's a definite emphasis that others are blessed through Abram.

This is a non-conditional promise too.  All three promises that I recall so far in the Bible have been.

12:10 I was once told to notice famines in the Bible - God uses them.  Maybe to move people?  It's the reason for this move to Egypt.

12:13 Abram isn't protecting his wife, he's asking her to protect him, and using her to get rich :(

12:18 Pharaoh has it figured out.

12:19 Pharaoh wants Abram and Sarai out of there - probably because of the plagues they brought.

13:2 Abram was very rich

13:4 Abram called on God there.  I wonder if Abram and God were disconnected while he was in Egypt?

13:10 "the Lord's garden" - I wonder if this is a reference to the garden in Eden?  If so, people talked about what it looked like for a long time.  Also, Egypt was well watered...

13:12 It's significant that Lot chose to live in the cities.

13:14 God promised Abram even the land that Lot chose for himself.

13:16 another promise - numerous offspring.  Considering that all the Jews and Arabs are descended from Abram, I'd say this one has been fulfilled!

Genesis 9-11

Genesis 9

9:1 God gives Noah the same charge he gave Adam and Eve - be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth.

9:2 He adds that all animals are afraid of them.  And reminds Noah that he is in authority over animals.

9:3 God adds living creatures for food.

9:4 I was taught that this was a command to not eat raw meat.

9:6 This doesn't seem like a new command, though I don't think it was spelled out before.  The point is that human life is valuable.

9:7 the command is repeated

9:13-17 God declares that the war on mankind was over.  His symbol of this was that he hung up his bow, the way a warrior would, on a wall, after the battle.  God hung his up in the sky - and it has the shape of a bow and arrow.  I had always thought of a rainbow as the type of bow that ties up a pretty package, not the type that is a weapon of war, hung up because it's use is over.  But I'm pretty sure the weapon is the intent here.

9:19 They fulfill the command.

9:25 The wrong done by Ham affected all of time after that.  The Canaanites would always be enemies of God's people.

10:5 Each group had their own language.  I wonder if this was before the tower of Babel?  I'm guessing that it's a summary over time, and after the tower...  But I don't know.

10:8 Nimrod was a powerful hunter - it's interesting what gets called out...

10:18 The Ham descendents scattered.

10:20 The Ham descendents also had their own languages.  It has to be after Babel.

10:22 Shem's sons are more familiar in name to me - probably because it's repeated through the Bible in lots of geneologies. 

11:1 So yes, all this spreading out and different languages happened after this story.

11:4 This is the second mention of a city - Cain also built one.  It couldn't be the same one Cain built - that would have been destroyed in the flood.

Their purpose is to build a name for themselves and to not scatter.  There's problems with both purposes.  God is supposed to have the famous name, and He told them to fill the earth, not stick together in one place.

It's a funny twist in this story that we're never told WHO they were.  We have no idea. We can speculate, but they wanted so badly to make a name for themselves, and ended up nameless.

The commentors who wrote our curriculum for middle school consider this group a subset of all mankind, not everyone all together.  The Bible isn't clear on it.

11:8 God increased his involvement for just a bit, and enforced His command by confusing their speech and scattering them.

Is the tower of Babel in what became Babylon?

This is actually one of my favorite stories in the Bible - because I like languages, and because so much of life is spent trying to communicate (I do integrations at work - make my software communicate with other software)....  When I was in college, I worked on maps, and mapping software - and it was the same thing.  Everyone says something a little differently, and it's very difficult on a computer-level to make it all match up. Thanks to this group of people trying to make a name for themselves and build a tower.

11:10 After the flood, men became fathers in general before 50, and lived only half the time their ancestors had.  

11:18 By Peleg that life expectancy was halved again, so they were living 200 ish years.

11:30 I wonder if the point of Sarai's infertility was so that the miracle of a child would be recognized later?

Genesis 6-8

6:1-2 Ahh - a very weird chunk of scripture.  (The sons of God taking wives among the sons of Men.  Who were these sons of God that they could breed with humans even though they weren't human?  The Bible doesn't say.)

6:3 God shortens the life expectancy of people.  No more Adam living until Noah's dad's time.

6:4 I'm not sure if these giants were the result of the sons of God marrying the human women, because it doesn't actually say so.  But it does sort of seem implied.  Giants, and mighty men of old are the only "special" types of people mentioned.

6:5 This verse is the key of the whole passage.  The adjectives emphasize: the wickedness of man was GREAT, EVERY intent of the thoughts of his heart was ONLY EVIL, CONTINUOUSLY.  We think things here and now are getting bad, but really, people still have good intentions, we still have a lot of Christian values, etc.  To have this where every intent was only evil, and continuously.  It must have been really bad.

6:6 God plans to undo his creation.

6:8 But Noah...

6:9 The geneology of Noah is humorously short.

6:10 Returning now to our theme.  Things are pretty bad, really evil. Filled with violence, corrupt...

6:14-16 So the ark has to have certain dimensions, three stories, a window and a door.

6:20 birds, animals and creeping things came.  if we look back at the classification of animals in creation, I would venture to guess that "animals" covers both livestock and wild animals, that creeping things is the third classification of animals.  Birds came, but there's no mention of sea creatures.  My guess is that they didn't come.  (And didn't need to, to survive).

6:22 Noah obeyed everything.

7:5 repeated - Noah obeyed all that God commanded him.

(hurrying now, it's about time to load the van)

End of chapter 7 there's a big emphasis on the death that abounded.  There was everyone from Seth's generation onward still alive - and that was the end of them all.

8:7 Ravens eat dead flesh.  The raven Noah sent out went to and fro, probably eating carnage.

8:8 Doves eat plants.  It couldn't stay out until there were plants available.

8:20 There's a huge number of animals at this sacrifice.  This is the first burnt offering and the first sacrifice in the Bible.

Noah has become the new Adam.

Genesis 3-5

3:1 The serpent was a creature (creeping animal).  That means he was under man's authority.

He suggested to the woman to doubt God's goodness.

3:2 In youth group we're going to talk about what Eve's response SHOULD have been - perhaps she should have said "Hey God, the serpent is trying to say you're not good, is that true?" Instead she answers in her own (already deceived) strength.

3:3 And she adds to what God said to them.

3:4 Serpent directly calls God a liar.

3:6 Woman takes the bait.  Adam was with her.  This is a big point.  That means that he had failed to do his job (of protecting) by standing by and watching this interchange between the serpent and the woman without doing anything.He also obeyed the serpent, so he failed to do his job (protect) and he abdicated his authority and dominion to someone who he was over, by obeying them.  He had been the one in charge.  His obeying the serpent made the serpent the de facto ruler.

3:7 The first consequences of their sin.  They felt ashamed at their nakedness.

3:9-11 God's interchange is first with Adam.  he's the one who should be in charge.

3:12 Man blames woman, whom he should have been protecting.

3:13 Woman blames serpent, who was under her authority, not the other way around.

3:14 The serpent gets the first consequences from God.

1 - he's cursed

2 - he has to crawl on the ground (I wonder how he moved before?)

3 - women will hate snakes

4 - serpents head will be crushed by woman's seed (who's heel is injured in the process)

3:16 Woman's consequences from God.

1 - increased pain in childbirth - her call to multiply and fill the earth is now much more difficult.

2 - she desired to rule over her husband - something she had done when giving the fruit to Adam.

3:17 Adam's consequences from God.

1 - his call to tend the garden is much more difficult - the ground is cursed.

2 - he will die.

In our youth group we'll notice that God didn't take away the tasks He had given them.

3:20 Adam names the woman Eve.  This is beautiful - God just handed them consequences, difficult ones, ending with death.  Adam shows that he gets God's plan of saving them from death through the seed of the woman, by naming his wife "the mother of all the living" instead of "the mother of the dying".

3:21 God rejects the fig leaf clothing they made for themselves.  He clothes them with animal skin.  Note that the first animal death (sacrifice) came just after the first sin.

3:24 Before people have access to the tree of life, they now have to first go through death.

4:1  They have a child, it's the hope that he will be the one to conquer the serpent.

4:5 Cain knew what was wrong with his offering (the Bible doesn't tell us), but he sulks because he's called out for it.

4:7 God gives Cain the opportunity to repent and get right.  Cain doesn't take it.

4:9 Cain still doesn't repent.

4:11 Cain was a worker of the ground, so the ground was cursed for him.

4:17 Instead of working the ground, Cain built a city, and named it after his son (Enoch - not the same Enoch that was in the line of Seth later)

4:24 Lamech takes Cains curse and makes it a boast.

4:25 Another son for Adam and Eve - their hope can be renewed.

5:21 Enoch, descended from Seth, is the one who walks with God.  (Enoch descended from Cain has a city named after him.)

5:26 Seth also had a Lamech in his line.  This one was the grandfather of Noah.  Here's some math, because I find this interesting:

Adam had Seth at 130.

Seth had Enosh at 105, so Adam was 235

Enosh had Kenan at 90, so Adam was 325

Kenan had Mahalel at 70, so Adam was 395

Mahalalel was 65 when Jared was born, so Adam was 460

Jared had Enoch at 162, so Adam was 622.

Enoch had Methuselah at 65 so Adam was 687

Methuselah had Lamech at 187, so Adam was 874

Lamech had Noah at 182, so 1056 after Adam was created.  Adam lived to be 930.  So Adam lived at the same time as Noah's father, but not at the same time as Noah.

Genesis 1-2

Happy New Year!

Genesis 1

1:2 The earth was formless and empty.  Spoiler alert, God will form it, then fill it.  

1:3-5 God does each day in the same order:  He commands "let there be light", He separates (light from dark), he names "he called the light day and the darkness night").  Some days have a fourth step.  In verse 3, there's an extra - evaluation, "God saw that the light was good".

1:6-8 God commanded an expanse between the waters.  His command made it so.  He separated water above from water below.  He called it sky.

1:9-10  God commanded the water to gather.  He separated water and land.  He named the dry land "earth", and the water spots "seas".  And here he adds a fourth step to each of the rest of the days - he evaluates" And God saw that it was good.

So our steps are: command - separate - name - evaluate.  This is repeated throughout creation, and I'm sure beyond.

1:11-12 God starts filling what he formed here on the 3rd day, he fills the land with vegetation.  Here he commanded but didn't specifically separate or name.  He did call it good. 

1:14-18 God fills what he formed on day 1 in day 2.  He adds sun, moon and stars to the sky.  He gives them a purpose - they have dominion over day and night.  They also separate light from darkness.  Got calls them good.

1:20 God fills what he made in day 2: The water is full of living creatures, and the sky with birds.  And he calls it Good.  He gives the creatures a purpose - be fruitful and multiply.

1:24 God fills what he made in day 3: the earth.  

There's three kinds of creatures: livestock, creeping things and wild animals.  And God calls it good.

So these are the things that God calls good:

Light, vegetation, sun, moon, stars, plants, sea creatures and birds, animals.  these are all things that relate to the world being suitable for humans.  God is calling it Good for us.

1:26-27 God is referred to both as singular and plural.  God makes people both singular and plural too.

1:28 God gives people two purposes - fill the earth, and rule over the fish, birds and creatures.  (Notice that we don't rule over the sun moon and stars).  We have dominion.

1:29 God gives plants for food.  God doesn't give animals for food until after the flood.  We had a long discussion in youth group about how awesome it is that food grows on trees.  it's seriously better than money growing on trees.

1:31 The culmination:  It's very good.

2:2  People's first full day on earth:  The day of rest.  yes.

2:7 This is a closer look at day 6.  God forms man out of dust.  Man comes alive when God breathes life into Him.  (We learn later that death is the separating of the body from the breath)

2:8 Eden was a region.  On the east side of Ededn was a garden.

2:15 Man's purpose in the garden was to tend and keep. He was in charge of gardening and protecting.  He has this authority.

2:19 God gave man the right to name things.  This is one of the ways that man is in the image of God.

2:21-24 Got made man plural from singular.  Now man is both singular and plural - also in the image of God.