Genesis 12:1-9 The Call

My commentary started, “Man originally knew the true God, but he would not glorify Him or give thanks to Him for His gracious provision… before long, the Gentile world was so corrupt that God had to give it up.  Then He called Abraham, the first Jew, and made a new beginning.”

God called Abraham to get away from the corruption around him.  Abraham obeyed, but not fully at first.  God said, “Leave your relatives and your father’s family.”  But Terah went with him, as did his nephew Lot.  God said, “Go to a land I will show you.”  But Abraham settled for Haran until his father died.  My commentary said, “First steps of faith are not always giant steps … Whatever you bring with you from the old life into the new is likely to create problems … The life of faith demands total separation from what is evil and total devotion to what is holy … Faith and a double mind never go together, and you cannot serve two masters.  Faith demands commitment.”

It continues:  “God brings us out that He might bring us in … Faith also brings us on … God kept Abraham moving so that he would meet new challenges and be forced to trust God for new grace to help in time of need … Faith is not believing in spite of evidence; it is obeying in spite of consequence … Even in the place of obedience you will face tests and trials, for that is how faith grows.”

Father, help me always to trust You and to obey in spite of consequence.  Thank You for actively guiding my life!

Your Brother In Christ,

Gary Ford

Genesis 11:10-32 What Happened?

The genealogy in Genesis 5 kept mentioning, “… and he died.”  The one here had more hope, saying repeatedly, “… his son was born.”

Somewhere between Noah’s son Shem and Abram things went wrong, because we see Shem watching and worshiping as Noah sacrifices doves upon leaving the ark, but Abram, Shem’s great-times-seven grandson is living in Ur worshiping idols.  Abram will receive his call from the God of glory as chapter 12 opens, but it may have happened just before the end of chapter 11, my commentary says.  Abram was to take his wife only and go where God would show him, but his dad also wanted to go, and seemed to have directed the travel out of Ur to Haran.  But there he settled though they’d planned to go to Canaan.  Abram’s brother Nahor was the man who stayed, whether because he believed God’s message and knew he wasn’t included, or because he thought Abram was crazy!

Abram’s dad was the man who stopped.  Again, perhaps he finally got God’s message, or else God took him out of the family through death.  That left only Abram’s nephew Lot, who became eventually the man who strayed by moving to Sodom.  Finally, later in the story, Abram and Sarai, the old childless couple whom we’d probably vote “least likely to start a family, much less a nation” would be where God would have them.

My commentary also contrasted the start of the chapter with its end.  At Babel, “the world depended on large numbers of powerful people in order to accomplish things, but God chose two weak people and started a new nation.  The people of Babel wanted to make a name for themselves, but God promised to make Abram’s name great.  The workers at Babel followed the wisdom of this world, but Abraham and Sarah trusted the Word of God.  Babel was built by the energy of the flesh and the motivation of pride, but the nation of Israel was built by the grace and power of God and in spite of human weakness.”

Father, You know how I love seeing “but God” in Your Word.  I immediately pay attention.  I want my life to reflect a trust in You like Abraham’s, despite what the world’s wisdom says.  Keep me on the path You’ve chosen for me, wherever it leads.

Your Brother In Christ,

Gary Ford

Genesis 11:1-9 Rebellion #4

God had given Noah and his sons and their wives a command:  “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth.”  They were growing in number, but a rebellion was taking place about the “filling the earth” part.  They didn’t want to scatter.  Nimrod had built the city of Babylon, and pride was causing the people to want to create a nation-state that would rule a vast territory.  My commentary called this “one of the most arrogant revolts against God recorded anywhere in Scripture.”  Satan would try to make us believe that mankind was achieving greatness and God was wanting to push them back down.

Mankind appears to still have not learned an important lesson:  “Man proposes, but God disposes.”  Other versions include:  “Man does what he can, God does what He will,” and “There are many plans in a man’s heart, nevertheless the Lord’s counsel – that will stand.”  My commentary continues, “God has demonstrated repeatedly that it doesn’t pay to rebel against His will,” and “God in heaven is never perplexed or paralyzed by what people do on earth.”  This confusing of the languages was not a power trip by God to keep humans from becoming all that they could be.  “By confusing their language and scattering them over all the world, God graciously spared their lives and gave them opportunity to return to Him.  He could have destroyed the builders, their city, and their tower, but He chose to let them live.”

God is now at work, through His Holy Spirit, “using the church as an agent of reconciliation to bring things together in Jesus Christ.  The day will come when people from every tribe and nation will worship Jesus Christ and the judgment of Babel will be done away.”

Father, help me not to let pride lead me to places You don’t want me to go.  Keep my heart open to hear Your will for my life.  Correct me gently, and keep me on the path You have set out for me.

Your Brother In Christ,

Gary Ford

Genesis 10 -- God's Sovereignty Making Nations

My commentary suggests that this chapter is a genealogy plus an atlas plus a history book.  “We’re watching the movements of people and nations in the ancient world.”  Many times we can’t determine where some of these old nations were located.  “Over the centuries, nations can change their names, move to different locations, modify their languages, and even alter their racial composition through intermarriage.”

It also finds several things of significance:

n  Jehovah God is the Lord of the nations.  God gave the nations their inheritance and determined the times before appointed, and the bounds of their habitation… Jehovah is the God of geography and of history; He is in control.

n  All nations belong to the same human family.  God made us all “of one blood” and no race or people can claim to be superior to any other race or people.

n  God has a purpose for the nations to fulfill.  Just as He used Israel, He also used Egypt, Babylon, Assyria, Media-Persia, and Rome to accomplish His purposes.

n  God is concerned for all the nations.  The Bible expresses a universal vision that all nations of the earth come to know God and serve Him.

Father, Your Wisdom and sovereignty shine forth here as You direct these families to the places You’ve appointed for them as they became nations.  I thank You for Your wisdom and sovereignty as You shaped and pruned my own family tree, grafting in my two sons and their families, helping us to become one family in You.

Your Brother In Christ,

Gary Ford

Genesis 9:18-29 A Fall And A Prophecy

“All of the people on earth came from these three sons.”  That’s probably hard for many people to accept, unless they use it, as I was once told, to explain the races of men.  But my commentary had specific things to say about this section of the Bible that for years was used as a justification for slavery.

First, the event that caused the stir:  Noah’s father, Lamech, had been a farmer, and Noah started a vineyard after the flood, which produced grapes, raisins, and yes – wine.  As my commentary put it, this man of faith – a preacher of righteousness who had saved his household from death -- sinned by becoming drunk, and his position made the sin even more repulsive.

“As Spurgeon said, ‘God never allows His children to sin successfully.’  There’s always a price to pay,” my commentary said.  Noah suffered disgrace, but his sin also impacted his family.

Perhaps Ham was concerned about his father’s welfare when he chose to enter his tent.  Noah might have overslept due to his drunkenness.  Would this story have turned out differently if he’d quietly covered his father’s nakedness and never said anything to his brothers?  We’ll never know.  “How people respond to the sin and embarrassment of others is an indication of their character.”  In telling his brothers about his father’s nakedness, he effectively gossiped. 

Shem and Japheth backed their way into their father’s tent with a garment between them and their eyes averted, and they covered Noah’s naked body.  My commentary compared it to “Love covers all sins … It doesn’t cleanse sin … nor does it condone sin … but it doesn’t go around exposing sin and encouraging others to spread the bad news.  When people sin and we know about it, our task is to help restore them in a spirit of meekness.” 

Finally, my commentary doesn’t list Noah’s speech (his only on in Scripture) as a curse, but says it was a prophecy.  “The word curse is used only once, but it’s directed at Ham’s youngest son Canaan and not at Ham himself.  This suggests that Noah was describing the future of his sons and one grandson on the basis of what he saw in their character, not unlike what Jacob did before he died … If Noah had wanted to pronounce a curse, it would have been directed at Ham, the son who sinned against his father, but instead he named Canaan three times.”  History bears out the results of Canaan’s character and how his descendants rose against the people of Israel.

I’ve been helping my son to understand the book Uncle Tom’s Cabin which he’s reading for a class.  It has taught me much of how the Bible was wrongly used to justify slavery.  Perhaps those who did so were actually descendants of Canaan and didn’t know it.

Father, thank You for the reminder that You never allow Your children to sin successfully.  The next time I’m tempted to sin willfully against You, remind me of Noah’s fall and help me to turn from the sin before I commit it.

Your Brother In Christ,

Gary Ford

Genesis 9:1-17 New Beginnings

“When Noah came out of the ark, he was like a second Adam about to usher in a new beginning on earth for the human race.  Faith in the Lord had saved Noah and his household from destruction, and his three sons would repopulate the whole earth.”  Wow, that one heck of a mandate!

God was describing children as a blessing, not a curse.  My commentary quoted the statistic that through all of American history, the total number of American soldiers killed in all wars now exceeds 1.2 million people.  However, in just one year over 1.6 million babies are legally aborted!  We’ve declared war on ourselves.

There were bound to be changes after the flood, for there had been vast upheavals and vegetation had to recover.  God expanded the human diet to include meat.  Of course they’d need to wait until some young were born and not destroy any of the pairs present on the ark!  Adam and Eve had been given dominion over the animals and Adam had even watched as God paraded them in front of him to be named by him.  But now, with the change in diet, my commentary says God put the fear of humans into animals, allowing them to do everything possible to escape humans.  So the peace of Eden was gone.

God also told Noah that humans could not eat a still-living animal.  The blood was to be drained first, for it represented the animal’s life, which had been given by God.  And as far as human life, God said that since humans were made in His image, He would demand life for a life.  Any animal which killed a human was to be killed, and any human who killed a human would be killed by another human.

Finally, God covenanted never to destroy the earth by flood again, and He used the rainbow as a reminder of that covenant for all time.  I have twice been fortunate enough to see rainbows from the air – from God’s point of view – and while to us they appear as half-circles, from His point of view they appear as rings – much like a wedding ring – sealing that covenant forever.

Father, we will not know in this life what it was like in Eden with animals having no fear of us.  Most of us can’t imagine a diet without meat.  We simply trust the changes that You made to be for our good, and we thank You for the promise of Your faithfulness each time we witness a rainbow.

Your Brother In Christ,

Gary Ford

Genesis 8 -- God's Promises

This chapter starts with, “But God remembered Noah.”  It’s important to understand what it’s not saying.  This doesn’t mean that God forgot Noah and suddenly remembered what He’d forgotten.  Noah didn’t slip God’s mind for awhile while He was busy with other things.  My commentary says, “Rather, it means ‘to pay attention to, to fulfill a promise and act on behalf of somebody,’ and it ‘implies a previous commitment made by God and announces the fulfillment of that commitment.’”

Once the ark came to rest on a mountain, Noah did not open the door.  He waited on God and trusted His timing.  They’d been in the ark exactly a year when Noah removed the covering and surveyed the world around him.  It was twenty-six days later before God gave the order to disembark.

It’s important to remember that Noah didn’t just put one pair of the clean animals used for sacrifices on board.  He put seven pair.  And he sacrificed some of those clean animals in thanks and worship to God for His watchcare.  Those animals were saved from the flood to be sacrificed to God.

God had cursed the ground after Adam’s sin and again after Cain’s sin.  But here God says that He will not add to those curses anymore.  He guaranteed that the natural cycles would continue, including the proper orbits around the sun and the earth’s rotation on its axis, “as long as the earth continues,” which should mean until the new earth is given.

Father, thank You for being sovereign over every part of our existence.  Thank You for keeping it all together.  What would we do without Your unfailing promises?

Your Brother In Christ,

Gary Ford