Today, I am reading and commenting on  Genesis 12-15.

I am not sure there is much to make of this, but it strikes me as interesting.  When Abram set out from the city of Haran to complete the journey to Canaan which his father had begun, Lot went with him.  Why did Lot go with his Uncle Abram rather than stay with his Uncle Nahor?  It suggests to me that Lot’s grandfather, Abram’s father, had a deeper reason to set out for Canaan than we are given by the Bible.  Of course, that also raises the question of why Nahor stayed in Haran.  I believe that the answers to these questions are closely related to why later Abraham was so vehement that Isaac was not to travel to Haran for his wife.  I find these questions interesting.  I also find it interesting that they do not appear to be answered.  There is just one more hint about the answers to this question.  When God spoke to Abram and told him to go to Canaan, Abram was no longer living in Ur, but when God made His covenant with Abram He said that He had brought him out of Ur.  There is no contradiction here, but it does tell us that God’s hand played a role in the decision of Terah, Abram’s father, choosing to leave Ur.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on  Genesis 8-11.

Today’s passage contains the reason I do not get caught up in any of the panics about mankind destroying the Earth which come up from time to time.  God promised that as long as the Earth endures, He will never again destroy every living creature.  That means that when people say, “If we do not take action, life on earth will be destroyed,” I dismiss what they are saying.  I know that God will not allow Man to destroy His Creation and He has promised to never again bring about such devastation until all things are fulfilled.  The end will come about exactly when God has planned for it to happen, not a moment sooner, nor a moment later.  Now, this does not mean that we are free to despoil the earth however we please.  We are called to be stewards of the Earth, of all of God’s Creation, but that part comes from other passages.  Whether it be “nuclear winter”, or “global warming”, I do not fear the destruction of all life on Earth, not even of most life on Earth, because God has promised that, as long as the Earth shall endure, that will not happen again.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on  Genesis 4-7.

My first thought when I started today’s blog was, “How long until I forget that it is no longer 2021?”  followed by, “How long until I do not have to think to type 2022 instead of 2021?”

I find it interesting that in today’s passage that the account gives so much information about the descendants of Cain.  If the story about Noah and the Flood is to be taken literally, no one alive today is a descendant of Cain.  This would seem to make the fact that the sons of Lamech were the first to do certain things of no particular significance.  If all of their descendants perished in the Flood, why is it significant that Jabal was the first to be a nomadic herdsman? Or that Jubal the first to make and use stringed and wind instruments? or that Tubal-Cain was the first to make metal tools?  Then, while discussing the events which led up to the Flood, the account speaks of the Nephilim.  They were apparently the offspring from when the “sons of God” had children by the daughters of humans.  This would not be significant, except that the passage seems to say that there were Nephilim on the Earth after the Flood.  All of this makes me wonder if we are intended to take it literally when later in the passage it tells us that every living thing which dwells on the land perished in the Flood.  I want to be clear that I am not saying that I believe that not all life that dwells upon the land and was not in the Ark perished in the Flood.  I am merely saying that these little comments make me wonder.  Much of this ambiguity stems from the fact that the Bible was written in Ancient Hebrew, and, based on what we know from more recent languages, it is probable that many words used in the Bible changed meaning to one degree or another from the oldest time they were used in the Bible to the most recent time they were used.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on  Genesis 1-3.

Happy New Year

And so we begin a new year, I hope that all of those reading this will spend the new year serving God.

Today I noticed two things which I never thought about before.  The first I have heard people touch upon in various ways, but not in the way it struck me today.  The second I have never heard anyone mention, not even in passing.  So, at the end of chapter one, God tells the people He had created that He had given them every seed bearing plant as a food source and that He had given every green plant as food for all of the other animals (all beings that have breath).  This leads to two important conclusions.  One of those I have heard talked about before: at Creation everything (particularly humans) were vegetarian.  Some people use that as an argument for being vegetarian now, but that is not what really struck me about this.  No, what struck me is that this links the chapter one account of Creation to the the Account of the Fall given in chapter three.  However, the Account of the Fall grows out of the chapter two Creation account.  What makes this significant is the fact that many scholars, and others, see chapter one and chapter two as two completely separate, unrelated Creation accounts.  However, if the chapter one account is linked to the Account of the Fall, that means that it is linked to the chapter two Creation account.   I just realized that I have not stated what links this to the Account of the Fall.  That something is that before the Fall, nothing died.  In other words, in order for something to be carnivorous, something must die, but death did not first occur until after Adam and Eve sinned.

Which brings me to the second thing I noticed.  When people read the account about the Garden of Eden and try to figure out where on Earth it was located, they assume that current geography bears some resemblance to that which existed right after Creation.  The assumption is made that since we “know” where the Tigris and the Euphrates Rivers are, that the other two rivers must have been nearby.  However, the account we have here declares that all four rivers, including the Tigris and the Euphrates, had their headwaters in the river which flowed through the Garden of Eden, in modern geography, the rivers we know as the Euphrates and the Tigris have separate headwaters and join together shortly before entering the Persian Gulf.  Now, it is worth noting that the headwaters of the Euphrates and Tigris Rivers are very close to each other, even though the rivers go in remarkably different directions for most of their length.  What struck me about the other two rivers is that the words used for the places they are described as flowing through describe places in Africa where those words are used elsewhere in the Bible.  Perhaps as importantly, the Hebrew word here which is translated as “Tigris” only appears twice in the Bible: once here and once in the Book of Daniel.   As I looked at this, it occurred to me (and I found several references online where others had the same thought) that perhaps these four rivers represented the four rivers where the earliest human civilization arose: the Yellow River in China, the Indus River in India, the Euphrates River in Mesopotamia, and the Nile River in Egypt.  The other thing which occurred to me is that the geography of the world would have been massively changed by an event like Noah’s Flood.  Going along with that thought was the recollection that modern geological science postulates that at one time in the distant past the positioning of Africa relative to Europe and Asia was massively different.  When I started writing this paragraph there was a meaning which connected my thoughts in these two paragraphs which I intended to conclude with.  Unfortunately, I have forgotten what that thought was.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on Genesis 48-50.

I am not sure I ever thought about the fact that when Jacob blessed Joseph’s sons he said that Ephraim, the younger of the two, would become the ancestor of a group of nations.  In some ways that is because I am used to God telling Abraham that he would be the father of many nations, so I have just glossed over this.  I am not sure of the significance of this prediction by Jacob. I just wanted to take note of it.

Once again we have Joseph giving us an example to follow.  After Jacob’s death, Joseph’s brothers feared that Joseph would take his revenge mow that their mutual father was no longer with them.  In response, Joseph states the basis for his forgiveness, “You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good…”  We should seek to have a similar attitude towards those who wrong us.  They may have intended it for harm, but God intends it for good.

I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on Genesis 45-47.

I usually try to look for something other than the “Sunday School” lesson in a passage to write about, but I have written on some of those other things in this passage in previous years.  And I feel like the feel-good, “Sunday School” lesson in this passage is one too many people today have dismissed.   When Joseph revealed to his brothers he did not blame them for the wrong which they had done him.  Instead, he pointed out that if they had not done that to him, if he had not experienced the suffering which he experienced, he would not have been in a position to save them and their father in this time of famine.  But not only does he absolve them of their sin against them by attributing it to God’s providence, he also give God credit for his rise to prominence.  Just as when he was first called before Pharaoh, Joseph takes no credit for what he has accomplished.  He was merely in the place which God had placed him, doing the things which God had given him the gifts to accomplish.  Joseph’s attitude reminds me of a book I read about the village of Le Chambon, France during World War II.  The book is titled “Lest Innocent Blood Be Shed.”  The people of the village did much to rescue many Jews (particularly children, but not just children) from the Nazis.  After the war, when questioned about what they had done, many of them answered, “I just did what anyone would have done.”  We all know that is not true, but Joseph shared that attitude: that nothing he had done was particularly exceptional.  Let us strive to have that attitude.  We will just do the tasks which God puts in front of us to the best of our abilities and give honor to God for however they turn out.

I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on Genesis 42-44.

I do not know if I have ever commented on one thing which always troubles me about this passage: Jacob and his sons left Simeon as a prisoner in Egypt for an extended period of time.  Ancillary to that, I always wonder about how Joseph treated Simeon during this time of imprisonment.  After giving it some thought, I believe that Simeon was treated as a diplomatic hostage, someone who was forced to live in a country hostile to their own in order to ensure that their people abided by a peace treaty.  We have no idea how long it was between the first trip and the second trip, but it was clearly an extended period of time.  During that time, they would have had no idea what kind of circumstance Simeon was in.  Even if Simeon was being treated as a diplomatic hostage, he could never be sure if something would change that for the worse. I will note that this provides some context for Judah’s offer to be imprisoned in place of Benjamin at the end of today’s passage.

I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on Genesis 39-41.

If anyone had the right to give up because “God”, or “the world”, or “fate”, was against them, that person was Joseph.  He was his father’s favorite son and worked to please his father.  Then his brothers plotted to kill him, but decided to sell him into slavery instead.  But he did not mope and complain about his circumstances.  Instead, he worked hard and rose to a position of responsibility and privilege.  Then he was falsely accused of attempted rape and jailed.  Again, he could have despaired, but he did not.  He applied himself and once more rose to a position of responsibility and privilege.  The thing is, each time the level to which he rose was lower than the one which he held before his trial.  Yet, he still remained faithful to God.  In this last position he gave hope to a fellow prisoner, asking to be remembered when the other was released.  The other prisoner was released and failed to remember Joseph for two years.  When Joseph’s opportunity came, he refused to claim any special ability.  He gave all of the credit to God.  Let us seek to follow Joseph’s example and recognize that whatever hardship we face is an opportunity to do God’s will.

I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on Genesis 33-35.

Jacob was afraid that Esau had brought his small army (Esau had more men with him than Abraham had used to rescue Lot) in order to exact revenge on him for stealing Isaac’s blessing.  However, it seems to me that Esau brought this force in order to protect his brother from Laban, although Esau may have also been bringing that many men in order to demonstrate the level of protection he could offer Jacob.  In any case, I always find the negotiation between the brothers in this passage interesting.  Esau invites Jacob to join his household and Jacob declines diplomatically.  If Jacob had joined Esau, he would have been subordinate to Esau, but Esau would have provided protection to Jacob and his family.  Jacob chose independence over safety.

The story of Dinah and Schechem give us evidence of what joining with Esau would have given Jacob and his family.  It also gives us an insight into how wealthy Jacob and his family were.  The men of Schechem were willing to be circumcised as a way to add Jacob and his family to their nation.  If Jacob had joined Esau, the son of Schechem’s ruler would never have dared rape Dinah, and when his sons extracted revenge, he would not have feared to surrounding peoples.  However, it is this incident which finally inspired Jacob to make God, the God of Abraham and the Fear of Isaac, his God.  It was only at this point that Jacob gave up the worship of any other gods and made his household do the same.

I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on Genesis 31-32.

There are several things in this passage I want to comment on, but I don’t see a connection between them.  So, I am going to start writing about them and see where this goes.  When Jacob decided to leave Laban he called Rachel and Leah to join him in the fields away from Laban’s household.  It was only after they joined him that he told them what he intended.  Yet, Rachel must have had some idea of what he intended.  Otherwise, why did she steal her father’s household gods?  As he explained his decision to leave, Jacob connected the guidance to that which gave him the insight to build his flock…and he credited both of those to God.  Jacob mentions the vow he had made to God at Bethel.  I read this as Jacob telling his wives (and perhaps his children) that this return would commit him, and them, to worshiping God and following His commands.

I find the references to God in the discussion between Laban and Jacob interesting.  Laban first refers to the One who warned him not to harm Jacob as “the God of your father.”  A little further in, Jacob refers to the One who aided him against Laban’s deceit as “the God of my father, the God of Abraham and the Fear of Isaac.” Then when they took the oath not to make war on each other, Laban called on “he God of Abraham and the God of Nahor, the God of their father” to witness their oath.  Meanwhile Jacob took the oath in the name of “the Fear of Isaac.”  Both recognized God as having the power to enforce their oath, but neither acknowledged God as their God.