The Knowledge of Men and God

 Merciful to the Liars A bram did not believe God would keep him alive in Egypt to bless him and give him a posterity like he promised. This caused him to fear and it made him lie. But in Egypt this lie caused Sarai to be taken and telling the truth was now much harder. If Abram told the truth to Pharaoh who had given so much riches to Abram because he thought he was her brother, then he might still get killed. If Abram did not tell Pharaoh the truth he could lose his wife.  His fearful lie had put him in a terrible dilemma. He certainly did not deserve an intervention from God. It would have been totally justified if his wife was taken. He had lied and showed unbelief in God in his fear. God could have left him right there. But instead God showed mercy to this fearful liar and He showed His power to Pharaoh in the process. [Gen 12:17-20 NKJV] 17 But the LORD plagued Pharaoh and his house with great plagues because of Sarai, Abram's wife. 18 And Pharaoh called Abram and said, ...

 Fearful Liars Abram had great courage and faith when he moved from his own country to another country he did not know off.  He came to Canaan and then went to Egypt because of a famine.  But fear came to Abram and soon this brought him to a lie: [Gen 12:10-13 NKJV] 10 Now there was a famine in the land, and Abram went down to Egypt to dwell there, for the famine [was] severe in the land. 11 And it came to pass, when he was close to entering Egypt, that he said to Sarai his wife, "Indeed I know that you [are] a woman of beautiful countenance. 12 "Therefore it will happen, when the Egyptians see you, that they will say, 'This [is] his wife'; and they will kill me, but they will let you live. 13 "Please say you [are] my sister, that it may be well with me for your sake, and that I may live because of you." Abram was not directly threatened by someone. He assumed that the Egyptians would do this and he went into Egypt with a lie. His fear was that Sarai would b...

 Abrams Memorials When Abram journeyed through Canaan and to Egypt afterwards he made some altars at very specific places. In Genesis the places where altars were made were often named a certain way to give a reminder of a certain event. No sacrifice is specifically mentioned, but when someone would journey through the land and find this altar it would remind them of a certain experience or event. Let us look at the example of Abram: [Gen 12:7-8 KJV] 7 And the LORD appeared unto Abram, and said, Unto thy seed will I give this land: and there builded he an altar unto the LORD, who appeared unto him. 8 And he removed from thence unto a mountain on the east of Bethel, and pitched his tent, [having] Bethel on the west, and Hai on the east: and there he builded an altar unto the LORD, and called upon the name of the LORD. [Gen 13:3-4 KJV] 3 And he went on his journeys from the south even to Bethel, unto the place where his tent had been at the beginning, between Bethel and Hai; 4 Unto t...

The Faith of Abram It was the original purpose of Terah, the father of Abram, to go from the land of Ur to Canaan. But along the way he stayed in Haran and died there. Now Abram received a command from God to leave Haran behind and to go to Canaan. [Gen 12:1-3 KJV] 1 Now the LORD had said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father's house, unto a land that I will shew thee: 2 And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing: 3 And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed. Though God Himself promised great blessings, it could not have been an easy decision to make. By now Abram knew Haran by heart. Here was his father’s house and kindred. It’s called his country.  Leaving all that behind while everything was going just fine was quite a risk, especially since he had no idea what the land of Canaan...

 Blessed to Bless From the line of Sem Abram was born from Terah. Terah went out of the land of Ur and wanted to go to Canaan. He never came to Canaan and died in the journey: [Gen 11:31-32 KJV] 31 And Terah took Abram his son, and Lot the son of Haran his son's son, and Sarai his daughter in law, his son Abram's wife; and they went forth with them from Ur of the Chaldees, to go into the land of Canaan; and they came unto Haran, and dwelt there. 32 And the days of Terah were two hundred and five years: and Terah died in Haran. Thus Abram dwelt in Haran with everyone he knew and came to know there. But God wanted it differently.  It says: [Gen 12:1-3 KJV] 1 Now the LORD had said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father's house, unto a land that I will shew thee: 2 And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing: 3 And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him...

 Investigator of Babel When humanity was trying to build the city of Babel with its tower in a prideful spirit, God put an end to it. But language is being used that gives the impression of a judgment. Earlier in Genesis Adam and Cain had both received an investigative judgment. An investigation was done by God, sometimes the accused was able to answer, a judgment was pronounced and then it was executed. Here we see a similar pattern. [Gen 11:5-9 NKJV] 5 But the LORD came down to see the city and the tower which the sons of men had built. 6 And the LORD said, "Indeed the people [are] one and they all have one language, and this is what they begin to do; now nothing that they propose to do will be withheld from them. 7 "Come, let Us go down and there confuse their language, that they may not understand one another's speech." 8 So the LORD scattered them abroad from there over the face of all the earth, and they ceased building the city. 9 Therefore its name is called ...

Babel's Communication Problems A quick note on language cannot be ignored when talking about humanity.  Language is one of the things that makes us so different from the animal kingdom. It helps us to communicate and achieve things. Good communication improves performance. The significance of good communication and a good use of language is seen in Genesis 11. In this case humanity was in rebellion to God and they were quite prideful about their prestige. But Scripture never denies that they would indeed achieve much: [Gen 11:1-6 NKJV] 1 Now the whole earth had one language and one speech. 2 And it came to pass, as they journeyed from the east, that they found a plain in the land of Shinar, and they dwelt there. 3 Then they said to one another, "Come, let us make bricks and bake [them] thoroughly." They had brick for stone, and they had asphalt for mortar. 4 And they said, "Come, let us build ourselves a city, and a tower whose top [is] in the heavens; let us make a ...

 Babel's Utopia After the flood the people were supposed to spread over the whole world. God had said: [Gen 9:1 NKJV] 1 So God blessed Noah and his sons, and said to them: "Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth. Humanity, however, wanted something different. Nimrod was a mighty famous man, one of the first worldly stars who had a rebellious heart. Part of his empire was Babel. In Genesis 11 we see how this plan was conceived and what they wanted to do. It followed the spirit of Nimrod, but in a collective way: [Gen 11:1-4 NKJV] 1 Now the whole earth had one language and one speech. 2 And it came to pass, as they journeyed from the east, that they found a plain in the land of Shinar, and they dwelt there. 3 Then they said to one another, "Come, let us make bricks and bake [them] thoroughly." They had brick for stone, and they had asphalt for mortar. 4 And they said, "Come, let us build ourselves a city, and a tower whose top [is] in the heavens; let us mak...

 Genealogy of Characters It is no secret that parenting and upbringing and the context in which we grow up has a lot to do with our character. The people to whom we look up to in our childhood are probably one of the most influential people in our lives. They, and especially the parents, shape the character to a big degree. Of course free will does not cease to exist because of this, but habits and thought patterns learned young are harder to unlearn old.  This may be partly seen in the genealogies of Genesis. Already in Genesis 4 we see polygamy and a murderous spirit coming from the line of Cain in Laban while we see a righteous Enoch from the line of Seth in Genesis 5. But in Genesis 10 we see more of this. Ham was a rather wicked man who shamed his own father. It is from his line that we see the first recorded empire-building Nimrod. Canaan, the son of Ham, was cursed by Noah for what Ham had done. He would be a servant of servants. This was not really about genes, but als...

 Mighty Nimrod's Mind Before the flood there was much wickedness. Genesis 6 tells us of some elements or causes of this wickedness. Marriage between those of God and those who were not of God were arranged. And you also had  the giants, mighty men who made names for themselves. They were powerful, but of course the way it is portrayed is rather a spirit of pride which too many people glorified and loved since. After the flood this same spirit shows up again with Nimrod, a descendant of Ham who humiliated his father Noah and whose name means ‘rebellion’.  What does a full rebellion against God look like? What spirit or mind can we expect? [Gen 10:8-12 NKJV] 8 Cush begot Nimrod; he began to be a mighty one on the earth. 9 He was a mighty hunter before the LORD; therefore it is said, "Like Nimrod the mighty hunter before the LORD." 10 And the beginning of his kingdom was Babel, Erech, Accad, and Calneh, in the land of Shinar. 11 From that land he went to Assyria and built Ni...

 The Wine of Noah When Ham saw and gossiped about the nakedness of his father Noah, Noah himself was not completely blameless.  Of course his son should not have exploited the moment of vulnerability of his father, but at the same time he was, in this instance, vulnerable because of his own actions. [Gen 9:20-21 NKJV] 20 And Noah began [to be] a farmer, and he planted a vineyard. 21 Then he drank of the wine and was drunk, and became uncovered in his tent. [Gen 9:24 NKJV] 24 So Noah awoke from his wine, and knew what his younger son had done to him. Alcohol is an intoxicating substance. Noah gained access to it through the vineyard he had. And as soon as he had access to it, the temptation was there. He gave in. He did not just drink, he drank until he was drunk and sleeping because of the wine. In this intoxicated moment people may do things that they would never do if they could use their brains. The reasoning part of the mind is weakened and thus Noah ended up naked in his ...

 Exposing Shame Noah was described as a righteous and faithful man of God. But he too made mistakes. In Genesis 9, after the flood had already destroyed so much, Noah became drunk with some rather undesired consequences: [Gen 9:20-21 NKJV] 20 And Noah began [to be] a farmer, and he planted a vineyard. 21 Then he drank of the wine and was drunk, and became uncovered in his tent. He drank the wine, became drunk and was now naked in his tent. The one of his sons came in: [Gen 9:22 NKJV] 22 And Ham, the father of Canaan, saw the nakedness of his father, and told his two brothers outside. Ham saw the nakedness of his father. He could have covered it, taking care for his father. He should have had pity and he should have made sure no one else would see. But instead he went to tell his brothers outside. Nothing was done, he just gossiped the nakedness of his own father around. His brothers, however, acted very differently: [Gen 9:23 NKJV] 23 But Shem and Japheth took a garment, laid [it] ...

 God's Disinclination to Destruction God destroyed earth with a flood. This was not the final judgment when this earth will ‘flee’ as Revelation says. But God spared a few. He had grace. After the flood God immediately works on restoring it.  A common theme we will see is that God is slow to anger and that destruction is a strange work to Him, but that restoration and creating is a much closer His heart. Humanity is still naturally evil from his youth to the very heart. Why do we not give Him a favor and repent from our evil ways? [Gen 8:15-19 NKJV] 15 Then God spoke to Noah, saying, 16 "Go out of the ark, you and your wife, and your sons and your sons' wives with you. 17 "Bring out with you every living thing of all flesh that [is] with you: birds and cattle and every creeping thing that creeps on the earth, so that they may abound on the earth, and be fruitful and multiply on the earth." 18 So Noah went out, and his sons and his wife and his sons' wives wit...