Genesis 15: 1 - 17

¹After these things the word of the LORD came unto Abram in a vision, saying, Fear not, Abram: I am thy shield, and thy exceeding great reward.
 ²And Abram said, LORD God, what wilt thou give me, seeing I go childless, and the steward of my house is this Eliezer of Damascus?
 ³And Abram said, Behold, to me thou hast given no seed: and, lo, one born in my house is mine heir.
 ⁴And, behold, the word of the LORD came unto him, saying, This shall not be thine heir; but he that shall come forth out of thine own bowels shall be thine heir.
 ⁵And he brought him forth abroad, and said, Look now toward heaven, and tell the stars, if thou be able to number them: and he said unto him, So shall thy seed be.
 ⁶And he believed in the LORD; and he counted it to him for righteousness.
 ⁷And he said unto him, I am the LORD that brought thee out of Ur of the Chaldees, to give thee this land to inherit it.
 ⁸And he said, LORD God, whereby shall I know that I shall inherit it?
 ⁹And he said unto him, Take me an heifer of three years old, and a she goat of three years old, and a ram of three years old, and a turtledove, and a young pigeon.
 ¹⁰And he took unto him all these, and divided them in the midst, and laid each piece one against another: but the birds divided he not.
 ¹¹And when the fowls came down upon the carcases, Abram drove them away.
 ¹²And when the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell upon Abram; and, lo, an horror of great darkness fell upon him.
 ¹³And he said unto Abram, Know of a surety that thy seed shall be a stranger in a land that is not theirs, and shall serve them; and they shall afflict them four hundred years;
 ¹⁴And also that nation, whom they shall serve, will I judge: and afterward shall they come out with great substance.
 ¹⁵And thou shalt go to thy fathers in peace; thou shalt be buried in a good old age.
 ¹⁶But in the fourth generation they shall come hither again: for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet full.
 ¹⁷And it came to pass, that, when the sun went down, and it was dark, behold a smoking furnace, and a burning lamp that passed between those pieces.

As we travel through the bible the stories get more and more complex and we find out more and more detail about the people who are discussed. When you tell a lie, the lie starts out the biggest and then nature causes it to be less and less sustainable as the truth becomes self-evident.

God comes to Abram in a vision and tells him that he (God) is his protection and reward. It does not say what he is Abram's reward for or why rewards are given. Abram had not done what he did in exchange for a reward up till this point. Let us consider rewards and punishments, those are very human ideas. We expect things to be rewarded or punished because we live in a world where we chase cookies, where we chase rewards and seek to avoid punishments. That is being urge driven rather than being driven by what is right. We need to eliminate such thinking from our minds and focus on love and service rather than viewing the world as a negotiation over what we can get, that is what leads to slavery.

When you read the bible you should ask yourself what it means and how you would have responded, finally you must ask yourself if your response would be what is best. People will talk about how God told the Israelites to kill people and ignore the fact that the Israelites never said no completely, they failed completely; but, they never refused to kill people because it was wrong. The morality of man is the choice of man.

Abram asks God what he will give him; but, this question can be taken in many ways. It is possible that Abram was asking God for something; but, that is not what it says. It says that Abram asks God what he can possibly have because he is not going to have any heirs, there will be nobody to receive from Abram. Abram asked how any of this was good for him when he would have no heirs and God said that he would have an heir of his body (children).

Societies did not stop just because the king had no children or relatives, it just went to someone who was not an heir. This usually happened through violence and competition. Abram was sad by this and God assured him that he would have an heir, children and decendents. God takes Abram outdoors and tells him of the future of his children and their decendents and Abram asks how he will know that these things will occur. God tells him to take some animals, cut them in half and that God shall give him evidence of his word.

It was traditional that contracts were finalized by a ritualistic act, mainly because most people could not read or write. The tradition in Abrams time was to split an animal in two and have both parties walk between the pieces. That was a contract. God does such a thing with Abram thereby making a contract, a promise that must be kept unless one is to have consequences for there are always consequences for breaking a contract where there are all the needed elements. A contract requires a promise, something exchanged which has value and consequences for failure to meet your agreement.

Abram knew all of the above and tried to keep vultures from eating at the carcasses of his sacrifice. God waited till he slept to talk to him. While he slept, he was disturbed and worried and God told him how things would go for his descendants. He said that they would be servants in a strange land, he told Abram that he would judge the nations that subjugated his descendants and that his descendants would leave that nation with more than they came with. This is a reference to Egypt once again. It is a reference to Moses.

These verses end with God moving between the split pieces of animals, of God talking to Abram in a way that he would understand, of God making a statement and an agreement, a contract. We will see this again; but, it happens less and less times.

Genesis 14: 1 - 24

¹And it came to pass in the days of Amraphel king of Shinar, Arioch king of Ellasar, Chedorlaomer king of Elam, and Tidal king of nations;  ²That these made war with Bera king of Sodom, and with Birsha king of Gomorrah, Shinab king of Admah, and Shemeber king of Zeboiim, and the king of Bela, which is Zoar.
 ³All these were joined together in the vale of Siddim, which is the salt sea.
 ⁴Twelve years they served Chedorlaomer, and in the thirteenth year they rebelled.
 ⁵And in the fourteenth year came Chedorlaomer, and the kings that were with him, and smote the Rephaims in Ashteroth Karnaim, and the Zuzims in Ham, and the Emins in Shaveh Kiriathaim,
 ⁶And the Horites in their mount Seir, unto Elparan, which is by the wilderness.
 ⁷And they returned, and came to Enmishpat, which is Kadesh, and smote all the country of the Amalekites, and also the Amorites, that dwelt in Hazezontamar.
 ⁸And there went out the king of Sodom, and the king of Gomorrah, and the king of Admah, and the king of Zeboiim, and the king of Bela (the same is Zoar;) and they joined battle with them in the vale of Siddim;
 ⁹With Chedorlaomer the king of Elam, and with Tidal king of nations, and Amraphel king of Shinar, and Arioch king of Ellasar; four kings with five.
 ¹⁰And the vale of Siddim was full of slimepits; and the kings of Sodom and Gomorrah fled, and fell there; and they that remained fled to the mountain.
 ¹¹And they took all the goods of Sodom and Gomorrah, and all their victuals, and went their way.
 ¹²And they took Lot, Abram's brother's son, who dwelt in Sodom, and his goods, and departed.
 ¹³And there came one that had escaped, and told Abram the Hebrew; for he dwelt in the plain of Mamre the Amorite, brother of Eshcol, and brother of Aner: and these were confederate with Abram.
 ¹⁴And when Abram heard that his brother was taken captive, he armed his trained servants, born in his own house, three hundred and eighteen, and pursued them unto Dan.
 ¹⁵And he divided himself against them, he and his servants, by night, and smote them, and pursued them unto Hobah, which is on the left hand of Damascus.
 ¹⁶And he brought back all the goods, and also brought again his brother Lot, and his goods, and the women also, and the people.
 ¹⁷And the king of Sodom went out to meet him after his return from the slaughter of Chedorlaomer, and of the kings that were with him, at the valley of Shaveh, which is the king's dale.
 ¹⁸And Melchizedek king of Salem brought forth bread and wine: and he was the priest of the most high God.
 ¹⁹And he blessed him, and said, Blessed be Abram of the most high God, possessor of heaven and earth:
 ²⁰And blessed be the most high God, which hath delivered thine enemies into thy hand. And he gave him tithes of all.
 ²¹And the king of Sodom said unto Abram, Give me the persons, and take the goods to thyself.
 ²²And Abram said to the king of Sodom, I have lift up mine hand unto the LORD, the most high God, the possessor of heaven and earth,
 ²³That I will not take from a thread even to a shoelatchet, and that I will not take any thing that is thine, lest thou shouldest say, I have made Abram rich:
 ²⁴Save only that which the young men have eaten, and the portion of the men which went with me, Aner, Eshcol, and Mamre; let them take their portion.

Well, Lot goes to Sodom and foreign kings decide to take everything owned by Sodom and Gomorrah.  In fact, they succeed and take all the people and treasure of the two cities. Abram finds out and goes to get his brother Lot. He wins and now has all of the possessions and people of the cities. The King of Sodom asks Abram to take all the possessions and leave the people. You see, the real treasure is people's work because from that you get what they produce.

Abram refuses to take anything; but, allows those who came with him to take what is right, their portion. Abram didn't mind letting others get from others; but, he would only take his blessing from God. I hope you see how his relationship with God was growing. He was trusting more and more that God would take care of him.

Genesis 13: 12 - 18

¹²Abram dwelled in the land of Canaan, and Lot dwelled in the cities of the plain, and pitched his tent toward Sodom.
 ¹³But the men of Sodom were wicked and sinners before the LORD exceedingly.
 ¹⁴And the LORD said unto Abram, after that Lot was separated from him, Lift up now thine eyes, and look from the place where thou art northward, and southward, and eastward, and westward:
 ¹⁵For all the land which thou seest, to thee will I give it, and to thy seed for ever.
 ¹⁶And I will make thy seed as the dust of the earth: so that if a man can number the dust of the earth, then shall thy seed also be numbered.
 ¹⁷Arise, walk through the land in the length of it and in the breadth of it; for I will give it unto thee.
 ¹⁸Then Abram removed his tent, and came and dwelt in the plain of Mamre, which is in Hebron, and built there an altar unto the LORD.

For those who care or wonder, yes, I do have a life, I just prefer to have a very quiet one. I enjoy reading the bible and writing for others to comment on. I do not get paid for writing this blog and I know there are plenty of other writings out there about what the bible means. I write this for those who think there may still be surprises.

So, we have Lot headed off to Sodom and Gomorrah and God tells Abram to pick any place he wishes. You see it didn't matter where Abram went, God was going to make it work. Abram went to plain of Mamre and built an alter to the Lord. He wanted to recognize that God was with him and did it in the manner he knew of Egypt, he built an alter.

Genesis 13: 1 - 11

 ¹And Abram went up out of Egypt, he, and his wife, and all that he had, and Lot with him, into the south.
 ²And Abram was very rich in cattle, in silver, and in gold.
 ³And 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;
 ⁴Unto the place of the altar, which he had make there at the first: and there Abram called on the name of the LORD.
 ⁵And Lot also, which went with Abram, had flocks, and herds, and tents.
 ⁶And the land was not able to bear them, that they might dwell together: for their substance was great, so that they could not dwell together.
 ⁷And there was a strife between the herdmen of Abram's cattle and the herdmen of Lot's cattle: and the Canaanite and the Perizzite dwelled then in the land.
 ⁸And Abram said unto Lot, Let there be no strife, I pray thee, between me and thee, and between my herdmen and thy herdmen; for we be brethren.
 ⁹Is not the whole land before thee? separate thyself, I pray thee, from me: if thou wilt take the left hand, then I will go to the right; or if thou depart to the right hand, then I will go to the left.
 ¹⁰And Lot lifted up his eyes, and beheld all the plain of Jordan, that it was well watered every where, before the LORD destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah, even as the garden of the LORD, like the land of Egypt, as thou comest unto Zoar.
 ¹¹Then Lot chose him all the plain of Jordan; and Lot journeyed east: and they separated themselves the one from the other. 

Abram leaves Egypt and Lot is with him. God told him to go alone, to separate himself from his family and he did not. There is a consequence for such things and everyone messes up. Lets not be too hard on Abram. Where did he go? He went back to where he started and had built an alter to the Lord, he returned to the Lord.

Sure Abram brought Lot with him, his was a lonely job and he wanted to be with a loved one. Isn't that understandable? Would you want to travel by yourself or would you want to be with someone who understood you, would you want support from family and friends? I would.

Whatever his intent, Abram was not allowed to bring Lot with him for God had other ideas. They went to a land where there was not enough for both of their flocks, yet, both had plenty. They had two choices, reduce their wealth (number of animals) or separate. They chose to separate. They chose wealth over love.

Lot chose to go to the better spot. He was told he could have any land and chose the better one or at least it appeared so at the time. Abram let Lot choose not caring and trusting in the Lord. Never negotiate with a man of God and if you do then always choose what is in his best interest. The next part of the story shows what happens when you do not.

Genesis 12: 10 - 20

¹⁰And there was a famine in the land: and Abram went down into Egypt to sojourn there; for the famine was grievous in the land.  ¹¹And it came to pass, when he was come near to enter into Egypt, that he said unto Sarai his wife, Behold now, I know that thou art a fair woman to look upon:
 ¹²Therefore it shall come to pass, when the Egyptians shall see thee, that they shall say, This is his wife: and they will kill me, but they will save thee alive.
 ¹³Say, I pray thee, thou art my sister: that it may be well with me for thy sake; and my soul shall live because of thee.
 ¹⁴And it came to pass, that, when Abram was come into Egypt, the Egyptians beheld the woman that she was very fair.
 ¹⁵The princes also of Pharaoh saw her, and commended her before Pharaoh: and the woman was taken into Pharaoh's house.
 ¹⁶And he entreated Abram well for her sake: and he had sheep, and oxen, and he asses, and menservants, and maidservants, and she asses, and camels.
 ¹⁷And the LORD plagued Pharaoh and his house with great plagues because of Sarai Abram's wife.
 ¹⁸And Pharaoh called Abram and said, What is this that thou hast done unto me? why didst thou not tell me that she was thy wife?
 ¹⁹Why saidst thou, She is my sister? so I might have taken her to me to wife: now therefore behold thy wife, take her, and go thy way.
 ²⁰And Pharaoh commanded his men concerning him: and they sent him away, and his wife, and all that he had.

We begin this part with there being a famine and Abram heading to Egypt where there was food. Egypt, famine and the nation of Israel come up a few more times in the bible. If God says something three times in the bible it means something important and we are to pay attention. Just before Abram enters Egypt he asks his wife to say that she is his sister rather than explain that she is his wife because he was afraid that the Egyptians might kill him and take her because of her beauty. This may sound a little cowardly on his part considering the fact that God told him he would live to an old age and have many decendents; but, Abram was getting to know God and his promises, we are not born with faith or understanding.

Part of the story of Abram is about our evolving faith, how it grows. Early in Abram did some unfaithful things. One of the things he did was tell his wife to lie in order to fool the Pharaoh. Abram knew what could happen because it was a common occurrence probably. In either case, he was right because the Pharaoh did take her into his house.

The Pharaoh took Sarai into his house and gave Abram all kinds of good things, basically a payment to a family for a wife. Yet the Lord decided to cause a plague to come upon the Pharaoh and his house. Egypt and plagues just seem to go together in the bible. Some people think the Pharaoh was mistreated by the Lord because he had been lied to; but, Sarai was not asked what she wanted, Pharaoh just took her. Is taking a woman, even if she is unmarried, against her will a good thing or an evil thing? What Pharaoh did was common in those days, women were looked at as possessions.

In understanding the story of Genesis and Exodus we can see how God works. One of the things he often does with Israel is to separate Israel from the wicked ways of the time, from the traditions of man. The story of Abram is about his being separated from his family and from bad society so that he could learn the right things, the way of God. In order to understand some things we need to see it from the outside.


God manages to get Pharaoh's attention and Pharaoh returns Sarai to Abram and sends him away unharmed and with all the things that Pharaoh had given him. Here is a question, if God had not plagued Pharaoh and Abram had told Pharaoh that Sarai was his wife, do you think Pharaoh would have killed him and taken his wife, I think the answer is yes. While the Pharaoh did bring Sarai into his house, he did not sleep with her. We know this because the Pharaoh was upset that he might have taken her as his wife and Pharaoh knew that if he had done that then God would have punished him even greater.

It is Wednesday night and I taught a home church for my Pastor friend who is out of town. I didn't gate home till late and then finally ate dinner around 10:00. As I have work tomorrow I will not be posting anymore tonight. I hope that whoever bothers reading these things that I write understands that it is a pleasure to go over the bible with you. I don't claim to have all the answers and expect to continually find more questions; but, it is nice to read the bible and consider what else is going on, it helps me to know God better.

I notice a lot of churches attempt to get to the point, to use the bible to explain things to people who haven't bothered to read it or attempt to understand it on their own. This is why I put the verses first and my thoughts second, I want you to read the bible and not just my thoughts on it, I do not add to or take away from what it says, I just try and give it some context that we don't automatically know. My purpose is to help people to consider it at a deeper level and not just read it as a story, we are to read it to get an understanding of how God works so that we can have a deeper relationship with him. How can you have a relationship with someone if you don't know them well, better yet, how deep a relationship can you have with someone you barely know?

It is possible that nobody will ever read my posts; but, somehow I doubt it. I write these words knowing in my heart that they will be here for someone to read, knowing that if I write the truth then they will be read. If people come to this site just to read the bible verses and skip my words, I will still be happy. There will come a time when books will be hard to find and they will cease to be published except on line. I would ask the reader to consider printing out each of these posts and putting them into a binder so that the word will always be with them even when the electricity and internet go down.

I have been asked many times which bible I use. My answer is that I will use whatever is available; however, all bible text on this blog is from the King James version. I am going to buy a new bible for myself because the one I use is starting to lose pages. I do not know which translation I will get, it is possible it will be the NIV. I have read the bible enough that it is in my heart and I can work with any translation, I hope you all become familiar with it enough to do the same. Peace.

Genesis 12: 1 - 9

¹Now 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:  ²And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing:
 ³And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed.
 ⁴So Abram departed, as the LORD had spoken unto him; and Lot went with him: and Abram was seventy and five years old when he departed out of Haran.
 ⁵And Abram took Sarai his wife, and Lot his brother's son, and all their substance that they had gathered, and the souls that they had gotten in Haran; and they went forth to go into the land of Canaan; and into the land of Canaan they came.
 ⁶And Abram passed through the land unto the place of Sichem, unto the plain of Moreh. And the Canaanite was then in the land.
 ⁷And 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.
 ⁸And 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.
 ⁹And Abram journeyed, going on still toward the south. 

This is it for tonight, just some of the easier posts. The story gets a lot more interesting in so many ways and there are so many questions to be answered. This then is the story of Abram later to be called Abraham. Basically it is believed Abram means father and Abraham means father of many or multitudes. The story starts with God telling Abram to leave his people and go to a new land. This again is a period of separation, God often uses that time to deal with people personally or give them time to unlearn things.

God promises Abram a few things if he leaves all his family, he promises him that he will become a nation, that he will be famous, he promises him that those who bless him will be blessed and that those who curse him will be cursed. That is a lot of blessing. Finally, he promises him that through him the whole world will be blessed. Which of those blessing do you think moved Abram the most, truth is, we don't know. I would like to think he did it because he wanted the world to be blessed because of what he did.

We now come to Abram's first mistake, he leaves as God told him; but, he took Lot with him and he had been told to separate himself from his family. Instead they all head off and go to Canaan where God tells Abram that someday all of that land will be his descendents. It will all belong to his family, his children and their childrens. Abram's response to this was to build a temple to God; but, God did not ask him to do so.

If God did not ask Abram to build him an alter then we must wonder where the idea came from in the first place. Is it possible that God removed him from this family because they built alters to false idols? It is possible; but, unlikely that Abram came up with the idea of alters on his own. People sacrifice things on alters to Gods when they believed there were many Gods. The most likely thing is that the rest of Abrams family used to sacrifice on alters and that upon meeting God he did what he knew. Later in the story we see very clearly that Abram knew what alters were for and God had to stop him from using it in a certain way.

The story of Abram is of someone meeting God and trying to understand what a God is, who he is and what he is like. It is a developing relationship with Abram learning slowly and overtime how things work with God.

Genesis 11: 10 - 32

¹⁰These are the generations of Shem: Shem was an hundred years old, and begat Arphaxad two years after the flood:
 ¹¹And Shem lived after he begat Arphaxad five hundred years, and begat sons and daughters.
 ¹²And Arphaxad lived five and thirty years, and begat Salah:
 ¹³And Arphaxad lived after he begat Salah four hundred and three years, and begat sons and daughters.
 ¹⁴And Salah lived thirty years, and begat Eber:
 ¹⁵And Salah lived after he begat Eber four hundred and three years, and begat sons and daughters.
 ¹⁶And Eber lived four and thirty years, and begat Peleg:
 ¹⁷And Eber lived after he begat Peleg four hundred and thirty years, and begat sons and daughters.
 ¹⁸And Peleg lived thirty years, and begat Reu:
 ¹⁹And Peleg lived after he begat Reu two hundred and nine years, and begat sons and daughters.
 ²⁰And Reu lived two and thirty years, and begat Serug:
 ²¹And Reu lived after he begat Serug two hundred and seven years, and begat sons and daughters.
 ²²And Serug lived thirty years, and begat Nahor:
 ²³And Serug lived after he begat Nahor two hundred years, and begat sons and daughters.
 ²⁴And Nahor lived nine and twenty years, and begat Terah:
 ²⁵And Nahor lived after he begat Terah an hundred and nineteen years, and begat sons and daughters.
 ²⁶And Terah lived seventy years, and begat Abram, Nahor, and Haran.
 ²⁷Now these are the generations of Terah: Terah begat Abram, Nahor, and Haran; and Haran begat Lot.
 ²⁸And Haran died before his father Terah in the land of his nativity, in Ur of the Chaldees.
 ²⁹And Abram and Nahor took them wives: the name of Abram's wife was Sarai; and the name of Nahor's wife, Milcah, the daughter of Haran, the father of Milcah, and the father of Iscah.
 ³⁰But Sarai was barren; she had no child.
 ³¹And 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.
 ³²And the days of Terah were two hundred and five years: and Terah died in Haran.

We now have another history of the sons of Noah. First we were told of Noah's sons and then we are told about the decendents of each of his sons in order of Japheth, Ham and finally Shem. We should notice that since the flood each generation of people lives for a shorter and shorter lives. We are now told of Abram and Lot. Abram we are told married Sarai who could not have children. We will hear more about this story.

Genesis 11: 1 - 9

¹And the whole earth was of one language, and of one speech.  ²And it came to pass, as they journeyed from the east, that they found a plain in the land of Shinar; and they dwelt there.
 ³And they said one to another, Go to, let us make brick, and burn them thoroughly. And they had brick for stone, and slime had they for morter.
 ⁴And they said, Go to, let us build us a city and a tower, whose top may reach unto heaven; and let us make us a name, lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth.
 ⁵And the LORD came down to see the city and the tower, which the children of men builded.
 ⁶And the LORD said, Behold, the people is one, and they have all one language; and this they begin to do: and now nothing will be restrained from them, which they have imagined to do.
 ⁷Go to, let us go down, and there confound their language, that they may not understand one another's speech.
 ⁸So the LORD scattered them abroad from thence upon the face of all the earth: and they left off to build the city.
 ⁹Therefore is the name of it called Babel; because the LORD did there confound the language of all the earth: and from thence did the LORD scatter them abroad upon the face of all the earth.

Now we come to the story of the tower of Babel. From chapter 10 we know that Nimrod had a kingdom in Babel, it is assumed by most that it was built by him; but, he is not referenced by name in chapter 11 (remembering that the original books did not have chapters).

These verses begin by telling us that the whole world had one language, this is not surprising given the fact that they all came from Noah. In fact, science tells us that one woman is the mother of all living humans and that would also imply that at one time there was only one language.

While it does not say who these people are, it would appear to be Noah's decendents as a group, all of then. It says that they decided to go eastward and settle in a new area. They decide to make a City and give themselves a name in order to not be scattered all over the earth. Now, when they said this they had no reason to believe that it would upset God or that it would result in them being scattered. So why did they fear being scattered?

Imagine you are the only people on the earth, you would believe in safety in numbers and want to be unified. They all spoke the same language, had the same history and knew they were related. They built the town to live in and the tower as a statement to their solidarity. In verse 6 God says that they are united and therefore capable of anything. This has fascinating consequences are questions that it raises. It is what God says next that is the most interesting, he says that with one language and one community that humans are capable of anything we set our minds to.

God says that we are capable of doing anything we put our minds too, why did he stop us then? I believe it is because we had not discovered ourselves, our uniqueness, our individualness. Like I said in an earlier post, God created things and then set them to naturally find out what their limits were. Man preferred to remain the same; but, at Gods prompting this could not remain. It says that God scattered man in order to confuse our one language. It is often assumed that God confused people's language in a second; but, again while that may have been what happened, it is not what it says. The bible says that they (God, son and holy ghost) decided to confuse the language and scattered the people which could have been how the language changed over time.


We have to be very careful about reading things into the bible that it does not say, it is okay to speculate; but, we should recognize when there are answers that are possible other than what we have been told. It is not critical to the story; but, understanding the possibilities can help us to better understand how God acts.


I want to point out something else, God did not punish the people for their achievement nor did he tell them that they had done wrong. It is part of our nature to seek to achieve, it is built in us; but, it must be directed properly. A problem with people is that we are always looking for shortcuts and to achieve things before understanding the possible consequences. It is about being mature enough to enjoy certain freedoms, it is about being ready for certain situations, it is about paitence.

Gensis 10: 1 - 32

¹Now these are the generations of the sons of Noah, Shem, Ham, and Japheth: and unto them were sons born after the flood.
 ²The sons of Japheth; Gomer, and Magog, and Madai, and Javan, and Tubal, and Meshech, and Tiras.
 ³And the sons of Gomer; Ashkenaz, and Riphath, and Togarmah.
 ⁴And the sons of Javan; Elishah, and Tarshish, Kittim, and Dodanim.
 ⁵By these were the isles of the Gentiles divided in their lands; every one after his tongue, after their families, in their nations.
 ⁶And the sons of Ham; Cush, and Mizraim, and Phut, and Canaan.
 ⁷And the sons of Cush; Seba, and Havilah, and Sabtah, and Raamah, and Sabtechah: and the sons of Raamah; Sheba, and Dedan.
 ⁸And Cush begat Nimrod: he began to be a mighty one in the earth.
 ⁹He was a mighty hunter before the LORD: wherefore it is said, Even as Nimrod the mighty hunter before the LORD.
 ¹⁰And the beginning of his kingdom was Babel, and Erech, and Accad, and Calneh, in the land of Shinar.
 ¹¹Out of that land went forth Asshur, and builded Nineveh, and the city Rehoboth, and Calah,
 ¹²And Resen between Nineveh and Calah: the same is a great city.
 ¹³And Mizraim begat Ludim, and Anamim, and Lehabim, and Naphtuhim,
 ¹⁴And Pathrusim, and Casluhim, (out of whom came Philistim,) and Caphtorim.
 ¹⁵And Canaan begat Sidon his first born, and Heth,
 ¹⁶And the Jebusite, and the Amorite, and the Girgasite,
 ¹⁷And the Hivite, and the Arkite, and the Sinite,
 ¹⁸And the Arvadite, and the Zemarite, and the Hamathite: and afterward were the families of the Canaanites spread abroad.
 ¹⁹And the border of the Canaanites was from Sidon, as thou comest to Gerar, unto Gaza; as thou goest, unto Sodom, and Gomorrah, and Admah, and Zeboim, even unto Lasha.
 ²⁰These are the sons of Ham, after their families, after their tongues, in their countries, and in their nations.
 ²¹Unto Shem also, the father of all the children of Eber, the brother of Japheth the elder, even to him were children born.
 ²²The children of Shem; Elam, and Asshur, and Arphaxad, and Lud, and Aram.
 ²³And the children of Aram; Uz, and Hul, and Gether, and Mash.
 ²⁴And Arphaxad begat Salah; and Salah begat Eber.
 ²⁵And unto Eber were born two sons: the name of one was Peleg; for in his days was the earth divided; and his brother's name was Joktan.
 ²⁶And Joktan begat Almodad, and Sheleph, and Hazarmaveth, and Jerah,
 ²⁷And Hadoram, and Uzal, and Diklah,
 ²⁸And Obal, and Abimael, and Sheba,
 ²⁹And Ophir, and Havilah, and Jobab: all these were the sons of Joktan.
 ³⁰And their dwelling was from Mesha, as thou goest unto Sephar a mount of the east.
 ³¹These are the sons of Shem, after their families, after their tongues, in their lands, after their nations.
 ³²These are the families of the sons of Noah, after their generations, in their nations: and by these were the nations divided in the earth after the flood.

Another easy chapter, lots of names and only a few who are discussed. Firstly it discusses which sons fathered the gentiles (non Jews). The second name pointed out is Nimrod who is said to be a "mighty one on the earth", a great hunter and associated with Babel (which had the tower of Babel). Next we are told of Asshur who was the builder of many cities. We are told other names; but, as we are told practically nothing about them, we are done with this chapter.

Tonight

A pastor that I work with was going to be out of town for a little and he asked to conduct a Wednesday night home church. Of course I was happy to; but, things never work out the way you expect when you do something new. Let's see, it took over an hour and a half for what is usually a thirty minute drive, we got lost when we got there, were almost hit by three cars and arrived a half hour late. The traffic was the worst I have seen on a Wednesday night for the area.

Once we got to the house we were going to watch a ten minute DVD and then discuss it. The DVD player which had been working all day decided to stop working and just kept opening and closing. Another DVD player was brought out and we couldn't get it to go to the section that we were to watch. Finally a third DVD player was found and brought from another place, once it arrived the first DVD player decided to work again. Persistence is sometimes required when we wish to have relationship with God and others.

We watched the video for the ten minutes and then discussed it for another fifty. People really seemed engaged and interested in the issues and a very good discussion was had. If you determine to do something for God you can't give up and three is the sign of determination. When God says something three times in the bible then you had better understand that it was important.

On the way home we had to drive in the wrong direction because while we were at the house, the road crews closed the entrance going towards where I live. 10 miles later I was able to turn us around and head home. As I exited the freeway to go home the roads had a detour and lanes blocked. I got home anyways. I was going to make a second post tonight on Genesis; but, both of the wireless mouses that I own broke today and the laptop's mouse doesn't work either. Why does this matter, because I was going to cut and paste the 10th chapter of Genesis and write about it and I cannot until I get a new mouse tomorrow. So, instead you get the story of how my night went.

This blog initially will be about reading the bible and the Book of Genesis. I don't know what else we might discuss, everything is on the table. God's word continues to prove itself. Think about this, 2,000 years ago the New Testament predicted that the word of God would go to the ends of the earth and they didn't even know that what the extent of the earth was and it has come true, the bible has been to every part of the earth. 2,000 years ago the bible said that after the word had been to the ends of the earth that there would be a great falling away from the church and we are seeing that.  The number of people claiming to be Christians is decreasing faster and faster. You will not find another religion that says it shall be spread about the whole world and then people will leave the church.

This blog is about the bible and how it teaches us about God and each other. It is intended to assist people in thinking about God in very real and personal terms because he is real and personal also. People ask others if they "know" God or if they "know" Jesus; but, what does that really mean? This is actually part of the sermon that I gave on Sunday. If you want to know someone you learn what they like and dislike, you learn about their past and you know them by their actions. To understand someone's actions, you have to understand why they do things. God does things from love; but, sometimes loving someone mean that we have to restrain them and it does mean that we have to let them be them while they learn. Life is about learning not obtaining some perfect joy, that is for heaven for how can we have perfect joy when we are apart from God?

If you want to have a relationship with God then you have to define that relationship because he does give us our space and free will. If you want to know him well then you will become a student of God, you will seek to know him through his words, his actions and through his creation, nature. How well do you want to know God because you have to make the effort to know another person, you have study them. You have to let them know you and you have to make the effort to know them. The question is not if you know the name of Jesus, the question is how well do you want to know the person Jesus. If you want to know him well then yo will make the same effort that you would to know another human. Be well.

Genesis 9: 1 - 29

 ¹And God blessed Noah and his sons, and said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth.
 ²And the fear of you and the dread of you shall be upon every beast of the earth, and upon every fowl of the air, upon all that moveth upon the earth, and upon all the fishes of the sea; into your hand are they delivered.
 ³Every moving thing that liveth shall be meat for you; even as the green herb have I given you all things.
 ⁴But flesh with the life thereof, which is the blood thereof, shall ye not eat.
 ⁵And surely your blood of your lives will I require; at the hand of every beast will I require it, and at the hand of man; at the hand of every man's brother will I require the life of man.
 ⁶Whoso sheddeth man's blood, by man shall his blood be shed: for in the image of God made he man.
 ⁷And you, be ye fruitful, and multiply; bring forth abundantly in the earth, and multiply therein.
 ⁸And God spake unto Noah, and to his sons with him, saying,
 ⁹And I, behold, I establish my covenant with you, and with your seed after you;
 ¹⁰And with every living creature that is with you, of the fowl, of the cattle, and of every beast of the earth with you; from all that go out of the ark, to every beast of the earth.
 ¹¹And I will establish my covenant with you, neither shall all flesh be cut off any more by the waters of a flood; neither shall there any more be a flood to destroy the earth.
 ¹²And God said, This is the token of the covenant which I make between me and you and every living creature that is with you, for perpetual generations:
 ¹³I do set my bow in the cloud, and it shall be for a token of a covenant between me and the earth.
 ¹⁴And it shall come to pass, when I bring a cloud over the earth, that the bow shall be seen in the cloud:
 ¹⁵And I will remember my covenant, which is between me and you and every living creature of all flesh; and the waters shall no more become a flood to destroy all flesh.
 ¹⁶And the bow shall be in the cloud; and I will look upon it, that I may remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is upon the earth.
 ¹⁷And God said unto Noah, This is the token of the covenant, which I have established between me and all flesh that is upon the earth.
 ¹⁸And the sons of Noah, that went forth of the ark, were Shem, and Ham, and Japheth: and Ham is the father of Canaan.
 ¹⁹These are the three sons of Noah: and of them was the whole earth overspread.
 ²⁰And Noah began to be an husbandman, and he planted a vineyard:
 ²¹And he drank of the wine, and was drunken; and he was uncovered within his tent.
 ²²And Ham, the father of Canaan, saw the nakedness of his father, and told his two brethren without.
 ²³And Shem and Japheth took a garment, and laid it upon both their shoulders, and went backward, and covered the nakedness of their father; and their faces were backward, and they saw not their father's nakedness.
 ²⁴And Noah awoke from his wine, and knew what his younger son had done unto him.
 ²⁵And he said, Cursed be Canaan; a servant of servants shall he be unto his brethren.
 ²⁶And he said, Blessed be the LORD God of Shem; and Canaan shall be his servant.
 ²⁷God shall enlarge Japheth, and he shall dwell in the tents of Shem; and Canaan shall be his servant.
 ²⁸And Noah lived after the flood three hundred and fifty years.
 ²⁹And all the days of Noah were nine hundred and fifty years: and he died.

Okay, we are going to do another whole chapter of the bible. It isn't that long and is good practice for you to start reading the bible on your own and then coming back here to see what I had said and then maybe even you writing a comment to my post. Lets have a conversation.

Chapter 9 begins with God blessing Noah and his family, this is the first time I can think of when anyone in the bible is specifically "blessed". Others were "cursed", in each case it is God predetermining an aspect of someone's life. Let us consider what the individual blessings were.
1. That man would be fruitful and multiply on the earth (mission accomplished, 7 billion people will be on the earth within the next week.
2. We are told that the animals will fear us. We are the only animal that is feared by every animal on the earth and lately they have stopped fearing us, I would say that this was accomplished also.
3. God says that if a man is killed, the life of a man will be taken and that it can happen in any manner and by any beast. God says that all that kill will lose their life. We are not to kill, not for any reason unless we are willing to lose our own lives. I want to talk about this, it comes up a lot.

It is wrong to kill, if we kill then our lives are given in exchange. It also says that he who gives his life for another gives the greatest gift of all. If I knowingly kill another in order to save lives and knowingly thereby give up my own life, can I still be saved? The answer is yes. Is it greater to refuse to ever kill or kill one who would otherwise kill others? This is one of the hardest questions we ever have to face in our lives. It challenges us because we know that Jesus would not kill another; but, it requires a very great faith in God and that takes time.

God makes a promise to humans, he promises to never destroy the earth with a flood again. He does not promise to never destroy it again, he promises to never totally flood it again and kill everyone. God promised these things to us humans and created the rainbow so that everytime we see one we will know that we shall never face another flood that would kill all the earth.

This chapter discusses how Noah began a vineyard and turned the grapes into wine. This is the first time wine is mentioned in the bible and it comes up many times more. Now, Noah had taken a pretty hard road, he had a tough job, lost almost everyone he knew and had done as God had asked him. The wine must have come out well because Noah passed out naked in his tent. There are those who try and say that Noah can be forgiven for getting drunk because he didn't understand what the wine would do; but, there is no evidence or justification for taking such an approach, it is unbiblical and not very kind. Noah had done what God asked and his work was done, he probably needed the wine.

There is something else, one of Noah's sons went in the tent and saw Noah naked and passed out in his drunkeness. Ham, the son in question, became the father of the nation of Canaan. After seeing his father naked, Ham did not cover him, instead he told his brothers. Basically, it is believed he did not respect his father's privacy and because of that Noah cursed him that his children would be servants to his other brothers.

The story of Noah is the story of humanities second chance; but, it is also the story of a man and when we read it we shouldn't expect too much of people. Noah was righteous according to God; but, he was still a human. Jesus' first miracle was to turn water into wine and it was the best wine you could have. I am not saying people should drink; but, they should not try and change the meaning either. We should also remember that Jesus had the apostles drink wine in rememberance of his losing his life and that it represented his blood.

Wine is significant in the bible. Red wine is good for the blood, can help people with bad stomachs (Paul tells Timothy to have some mixed with water to help with his stomach problems) and wine can ease the pain sometimes. Noah did not eat the grapes, he fermented them and made wine, he knew exactly what he was doing and God did not condemn him for it. When we read the bible it is important to see these people as people, to understand that they were people who had to deal with real difficulties and that they are not unlike people today with the same ambitions and the same pain.

Geneis 8: 1 - 22

¹And God remembered Noah, and every living thing, and all the cattle that was with him in the ark: and God made a wind to pass over the earth, and the waters assuaged;  ²The fountains also of the deep and the windows of heaven were stopped, and the rain from heaven was restrained;
 ³And the waters returned from off the earth continually: and after the end of the hundred and fifty days the waters were abated.
 ⁴And the ark rested in the seventh month, on the seventeenth day of the month, upon the mountains of Ararat.
 ⁵And the waters decreased continually until the tenth month: in the tenth month, on the first day of the month, were the tops of the mountains seen.
 ⁶And it came to pass at the end of forty days, that Noah opened the window of the ark which he had made:
 ⁷And he sent forth a raven, which went forth to and fro, until the waters were dried up from off the earth.
 ⁸Also he sent forth a dove from him, to see if the waters were abated from off the face of the ground;
 ⁹But the dove found no rest for the sole of her foot, and she returned unto him into the ark, for the waters were on the face of the whole earth: then he put forth his hand, and took her, and pulled her in unto him into the ark.
 ¹⁰And he stayed yet other seven days; and again he sent forth the dove out of the ark;
 ¹¹And the dove came in to him in the evening; and, lo, in her mouth was an olive leaf pluckt off: so Noah knew that the waters were abated from off the earth.
 ¹²And he stayed yet other seven days; and sent forth the dove; which returned not again unto him any more.
 ¹³And it came to pass in the six hundredth and first year, in the first month, the first day of the month, the waters were dried up from off the earth: and Noah removed the covering of the ark, and looked, and, behold, the face of the ground was dry.
 ¹⁴And in the second month, on the seven and twentieth day of the month, was the earth dried.
 ¹⁵And God spake unto Noah, saying,
 ¹⁶Go forth of the ark, thou, and thy wife, and thy sons, and thy sons' wives with thee.
 ¹⁷Bring forth with thee every living thing that is with thee, of all flesh, both of fowl, and of cattle, and of every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth; that they may breed abundantly in the earth, and be fruitful, and multiply upon the earth.
 ¹⁸And Noah went forth, and his sons, and his wife, and his sons' wives with him:
 ¹⁹Every beast, every creeping thing, and every fowl, and whatsoever creepeth upon the earth, after their kinds, went forth out of the ark.
 ²⁰And Noah builded an altar unto the LORD; and took of every clean beast, and of every clean fowl, and offered burnt offerings on the altar.
 ²¹And the LORD smelled a sweet savour; and the LORD said in his heart, I will not again curse the ground any more for man's sake; for the imagination of man's heart is evil from his youth; neither will I again smite any more every thing living, as I have done.
 ²²While the earth remaineth, seedtime and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease.

 I know, you have to read a total of 22 sentences. It wont be that bad. This chapter begins with God remembering Noah and his family and causing the waters to dry upon the earth. The ship lands and Noah wants to see if the earth is dry enough, to do this he sends out two birds, a raven and a dove and only the dove returns. Doves return as a rule, they are homing animals. Noah waits a week and sends the dove out again. This time the dove does not return, yet, Noah does not leave the boat until God tells him it is time to leave.

The Lord tells Noah to empty the ship and Noah does, Noah then sacrifices one of everything to the Lord. It does not say that he was asked to do such a thing by the Lord. It appears that Noah did this out of respect for the Lord, no doubt, with a heart similar to Abel's when Abel brought a gift to the Lord. Noah's act of respect to the Lord pleased the Lord and God saw the good that could be in us and he determined that he would never kill everyone and everything again. He recognized that man in his youth was evil of heart, that we are born selfish. Specifically God does not promise to never destroy the earth completely, he specifically says he will not kill everything of the earth because of man's sin.

Genesis 7" 13 - 24

¹³In the selfsame day entered Noah, and Shem, and Ham, and Japheth, the sons of Noah, and Noah's wife, and the three wives of his sons with them, into the ark;  ¹⁴They, and every beast after his kind, and all the cattle after their kind, and every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth after his kind, and every fowl after his kind, every bird of every sort.
 ¹⁵And they went in unto Noah into the ark, two and two of all flesh, wherein is the breath of life.
 ¹⁶And they that went in, went in male and female of all flesh, as God had commanded him: and the LORD shut him in.
 ¹⁷And the flood was forty days upon the earth; and the waters increased, and bare up the ark, and it was lift up above the earth.
 ¹⁸And the waters prevailed, and were increased greatly upon the earth; and the ark went upon the face of the waters.
 ¹⁹And the waters prevailed exceedingly upon the earth; and all the high hills, that were under the whole heaven, were covered.
 ²⁰Fifteen cubits upward did the waters prevail; and the mountains were covered.
 ²¹And all flesh died that moved upon the earth, both of fowl, and of cattle, and of beast, and of every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth, and every man:
 ²²All in whose nostrils was the breath of life, of all that was in the dry land, died.
 ²³And every living substance was destroyed which was upon the face of the ground, both man, and cattle, and the creeping things, and the fowl of the heaven; and they were destroyed from the earth: and Noah only remained alive, and they that were with him in the ark.
 ²⁴And the waters prevailed upon the earth an hundred and fifty days.

As you can see, the story is summarized again. It is believed that part of the reason for retelling the stories was because there was an oral tradition of the bible. We have to remember that most people could not read or write and that books were made individually, there was no printing press and the books had to be written out completely by hand. This makes it all the more amazing that when we find old bibles that they are almost 100" identical in what they say. The oral tradition was just as accurate.

In Hebrew all letters are also numbers and if one counts up the letters they get a sum, a total. In english it would work like this, if your name was Bob, then numerically it would be both 3+15+3 and 21 at the same time. Each word has a number and each sentence had a number and each book had a number. In the oral tradition people could count off the numbers to make sure that things "added up".

So after 40 days and nights of rain the waters remained on the earth for another 150 days. That means that Noah and his family spent 197 days on the ship (remember they entered 7 days before the rain began). They spent over half a year trapped on a boat feeding and cleaning up after every animal that there was and they did this knowing that when they landed everything they ever knew would be gone. Once again we see a need for a time of separation from our past before we can begin our future, a cleansing of old ways. If we are to truly attempt to be a Christian, a period of separation can also be needed before beginning our new life.

Genesis 7: 1 - 12

¹And the LORD said unto Noah, Come thou and all thy house into the ark; for thee have I seen righteous before me in this generation.  ²Of every clean beast thou shalt take to thee by sevens, the male and his female: and of beasts that are not clean by two, the male and his female.
 ³Of fowls also of the air by sevens, the male and the female; to keep seed alive upon the face of all the earth.
 ⁴For yet seven days, and I will cause it to rain upon the earth forty days and forty nights; and every living substance that I have made will I destroy from off the face of the earth.
 ⁵And Noah did according unto all that the LORD commanded him.
 ⁶And Noah was six hundred years old when the flood of waters was upon the earth.
 ⁷And Noah went in, and his sons, and his wife, and his sons' wives with him, into the ark, because of the waters of the flood.
 ⁸Of clean beasts, and of beasts that are not clean, and of fowls, and of every thing that creepeth upon the earth,
 ⁹There went in two and two unto Noah into the ark, the male and the female, as God had commanded Noah.
 ¹⁰And it came to pass after seven days, that the waters of the flood were upon the earth.
 ¹¹In the six hundredth year of Noah's life, in the second month, the seventeenth day of the month, the same day were all the fountains of the great deep broken up, and the windows of heaven were opened.
 ¹²And the rain was upon the earth forty days and forty nights.

The story of Noah and of the flood itself is interesting. The story of the great flood was common to all cultures including in the Americas. There are people who will claim that the bible got the story of the flood from the Sumerians because of the similarities; but, the American Indians and the South American Indians have similar stories and they did not get them from the Sumerians, nope, the story was known all over the world even in the ancient times before there was a written word.

A couple of minor points regarding these verses. Firstly,it restates what was said earlier and then it mentions that Noah and his family boarded the boat seven days before the flood began. I have wondered why they had to go in seven days before the rains began, I think I would have liked to stay outside as long as possible. Perhaps it was to keep them separated from the others, we just don't know; but, when God creates great transitions in people's lives, he often separates them from others for a period before beginning something new.

In either case, God opens the seas and releases the water from the sky. If we go back to earlier in Genesis we read about where God put a firmament (membrane, separation) in the sky to keep the waters separated. That is the restraint that is removed from the waters. And it rained 40 days and 40 nights, the numbers 7 and 40 both reoccur in the bible. Jesus spent 40 days and 40 nights in the desert prior to his ministry beginning, the nation of Israel spent 40 years in the desert before arriving in Israel. Many believe that 40 refers to purification and after reading about Noah this is better understood.

Genesis 6: 14 - 22

¹⁴Make thee an ark of gopher wood; rooms shalt thou make in the ark, and shalt pitch it within and without with pitch.  ¹⁵And this is the fashion which thou shalt make it of: The length of the ark shall be three hundred cubits, the breadth of it fifty cubits, and the height of it thirty cubits.
 ¹⁶A window shalt thou make to the ark, and in a cubit shalt thou finish it above; and the door of the ark shalt thou set in the side thereof; with lower, second, and third stories shalt thou make it.
 ¹⁷And, behold, I, even I, do bring a flood of waters upon the earth, to destroy all flesh, wherein is the breath of life, from under heaven; and every thing that is in the earth shall die.
 ¹⁸But with thee will I establish my covenant; and thou shalt come into the ark, thou, and thy sons, and thy wife, and thy sons' wives with thee.
 ¹⁹And of every living thing of all flesh, two of every sort shalt thou bring into the ark, to keep them alive with thee; they shall be male and female.
 ²⁰Of fowls after their kind, and of cattle after their kind, of every creeping thing of the earth after his kind, two of every sort shall come unto thee, to keep them alive.
 ²¹And take thou unto thee of all food that is eaten, and thou shalt gather it to thee; and it shall be for food for thee, and for them.
 ²²Thus did Noah; according to all that God commanded him, so did he.

Noah did not have it great when you really think about it. I don't know how Noah envisioned his life, what he thought it would be like; but, I am betting he never thought it would be about building a very large boat and then taking care of a bunch of animals while everyone else on earth was dead. It is interesting to note that Noah doesn't beg God to save everyone, maybe Noah could see all too well how bad man had become.

In Revelations it talks about the end times and says that it will be as in the days of Noah, that may very well mean what is sounds like it says, that the world and man's flesh will once again be corrupted. We have become a nation and a world of those who engage in indiscriminate sex, how many people truly treat their body as a temple and remain chase until married, worse yet, how many remain married to one partner for life (ignoring death and adultery resulting in a remarriage)?

In verses 14 - 22, God explains to Noah what he will have to do. He is instructed to build a very large boat and fill it with all the animals. What isn't often talked about is that Noah was also told to take the food of all kinds that was eaten, that would be potatoes and carrots and onions and all sorts of foods that were eaten by all of the animals on board and the people too.

Today nations around the world are doing the same thing. For the past ten years the world has been stalking a "seed bank" in Norway, it is being stalked with the seeds of every plant and presumably animals. I wonder where they got the idea from, yep, they got it from the bible.

Just in case you were unfamiliar with the word "pitch", it was a type of tar that would make things waterproof. The boat was made of gopher wood and covered in tar so that it would not leak. Nobody knows what "gopher wood" was because the term was only used once in the bible.

Genesis 6: 8 - 13

⁸But Noah found grace in the eyes of the LORD.  ⁹These are the generations of Noah: Noah was a just man and perfect in his generations, and Noah walked with God.
 ¹⁰And Noah begat three sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth.
 ¹¹The earth also was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence.
 ¹²And God looked upon the earth, and, behold, it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted his way upon the earth.
 ¹³And God said unto Noah, The end of all flesh is come before me; for the earth is filled with violence through them; and, behold, I will destroy them with the earth

The Lord determined that the people needed to be destroyed. But, Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord, that thing, grace, to not have anything held against you, to be forgiven even if you are not perfect. Noah must have had a very loving heart to have been the only person to find favor in his time.

Verses 9 through 13 are a restatement of verses 1 through 7; but, told from a slightly different perspective. We find this throughout the whole bible, a story will be told from one perspective and then again from another perspective, it is still the same story; but, the emphasis is changed to make a different point.

Verses 9 through 12 explain the lineage of Noah's family and then explain a little bit more about why God was destroying the people and the land. God says that the people had all become corrupt. To be corrupt is to be impure, to be corrupted (which is the literal translation of the word that was used) is to be changed from a condition that was purer. If we go back to earlier verses we see that humans had interbred with the "sons of God", that was the corruption.

God created us to be human and it is our only chance at true happiness and relationship with him. Personally I am against changing people's genetics, that is playing God and we cannot begin to understand the consequences that it will bring. God blessed us with short lives on earth, it say's that our lives are but a vapor that comes and goes; but, we then get to spend eternity with God in our spirit bodies that do not age.

Many places in the bible it talks about how we are not to attempt to communicate with spirits, that includes angels and demons. The bible does have instances where angels were sent to speak to people; but, they were sent by God and not sought out by people. Our role in this earthly life is not about knowing spirits, it is about free will, it is about choosing to care about and be of service to others or to be selfish and self centered, that is the decision that determines where we go. If we live our lives being of service JUST to be saved then we were still selfish and self centered, we need to live our lives where it is not just about us; but, truly is about each other.

It says that the "flesh" had been corrupted, the physical body was corrupted. There are other parts of the bible that talk about the importance of not defiling or corrupting the body and they usually, if not always, refer to sexual immorality. That is the act of sharing your body with another in a manner that is not acceptable in the eyes of the Lord. In the New Testament it talks about sleeping with a prostitute as defiling the body, it is the part where it talks about the body being a temple. We can all be forgiven for many sins and sexually immorality can also be forgiven; but, it is still what it is. Jesus clearly gave an adulteress a chance when he stopped the men of the town from stoning her to death; but, he also said that she was to change her ways. When we sin, rather than hide it from ourselves or lie to ourselves, we must admit it and then do what is right and that is between you and God, I have enough sin or my own.

Genesis 6: 1 - 7

 ¹And it came to pass, when men began to multiply on the face of the earth, and daughters were born unto them,
 ²That the sons of God saw the daughters of men that they were fair; and they took them wives of all which they chose.
 ³And the LORD said, My spirit shall not always strive with man, for that he also is flesh: yet his days shall be an hundred and twenty years.
 ⁴There were giants in the earth in those days; and also after that, when the sons of God came in unto the daughters of men, and they bare children to them, the same became mighty men which were of old, men of renown.
 ⁵And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.
 ⁶And it repented the LORD that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart.
 ⁷And the LORD said, I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth; both man, and beast, and the creeping thing, and the fowls of the air; for it repenteth me that I have made them.

 We are now told about how people were progressing on earth and the answer is, not too well. These verses are found challenging by many people. It starts by saying how humans multiplied and how the "sons of God" liked our women and had children with them. We don't know who the "sons of God" were; but, it is generally believed to be fallen angels. It appears that fallen angels (demons) interbred with humans creating a new being. We do know that God was not happy about people interbreading with these fallen angels and we also know that, that is the reason he caused the flood to kill everyone.

Something interesting is that once people interbred with these fallen angels, everything they did and thought was evil. We are not to share space with spirits, it tells us that later in the bible; but, the world's experience with them has never been good.

One interesting thing said by God at this time was that he would not "strive" with humans forever. God has to strive with us to show us how to be with one another. He is not talking about striving with us as between him and us, he created us and could have eliminated us all. Instead he gives man a lifespan of 120 years and it has been the maximum age of people ever since.

We are told how people are living longer today; but, we are not. The average age has risen; but, the drop dead length has not changed. There were people living to be 100 over a thousand years ago. But, the bible tells us that we don't ever die, that seems contradictory. We die to this world and this flesh, we remain eternally spiritual, our essence, our thoughts, our unique take on the world, that which makes us, us, our soul our uniqueness.

What we are being told is that our time on earth is limited, we should remain true to being human and that he will not strive with us forever. Some can choose to have a deep relationship with him and remain with him or we can choose to be separate from him; but, this is the life in which you get to make that decision.

Genesis 5: 1 - 32

¹This is the book of the generations of Adam. In the day that God created man, in the likeness of God made he him;  ²Male and female created he them; and blessed them, and called their name Adam, in the day when they were created.
 ³And Adam lived an hundred and thirty years, and begat a son in his own likeness, and after his image; and called his name Seth:
 ⁴And the days of Adam after he had begotten Seth were eight hundred years: and he begat sons and daughters:
 ⁵And all the days that Adam lived were nine hundred and thirty years: and he died.
 ⁶And Seth lived an hundred and five years, and begat Enos:
 ⁷And Seth lived after he begat Enos eight hundred and seven years, and begat sons and daughters:
 ⁸And all the days of Seth were nine hundred and twelve years: and he died.
 ⁹And Enos lived ninety years, and begat Cainan:
 ¹⁰And Enos lived after he begat Cainan eight hundred and fifteen years, and begat sons and daughters:
 ¹¹And all the days of Enos were nine hundred and five years: and he died.
 ¹²And Cainan lived seventy years and begat Mahalaleel:
 ¹³And Cainan lived after he begat Mahalaleel eight hundred and forty years, and begat sons and daughters:
 ¹⁴And all the days of Cainan were nine hundred and ten years: and he died.
 ¹⁵And Mahalaleel lived sixty and five years, and begat Jared:
 ¹⁶And Mahalaleel lived after he begat Jared eight hundred and thirty years, and begat sons and daughters:
 ¹⁷And all the days of Mahalaleel were eight hundred ninety and five years: and he died.
 ¹⁸And Jared lived an hundred sixty and two years, and he begat Enoch:
 ¹⁹And Jared lived after he begat Enoch eight hundred years, and begat sons and daughters:
 ²⁰And all the days of Jared were nine hundred sixty and two years: and he died.
 ²¹And Enoch lived sixty and five years, and begat Methuselah:
 ²²And Enoch walked with God after he begat Methuselah three hundred years, and begat sons and daughters:
 ²³And all the days of Enoch were three hundred sixty and five years:
 ²⁴And Enoch walked with God: and he was not; for God took him.
 ²⁵And Methuselah lived an hundred eighty and seven years, and begat Lamech.
 ²⁶And Methuselah lived after he begat Lamech seven hundred eighty and two years, and begat sons and daughters:
 ²⁷And all the days of Methuselah were nine hundred sixty and nine years: and he died.
 ²⁸And Lamech lived an hundred eighty and two years, and begat a son:
 ²⁹And he called his name Noah, saying, This same shall comfort us concerning our work and toil of our hands, because of the ground which the LORD hath cursed.
 ³⁰And Lamech lived after he begat Noah five hundred ninety and five years, and begat sons and daughters:
 ³¹And all the days of Lamech were seven hundred seventy and seven years: and he died.
 ³²And Noah was five hundred years old: and Noah begat Shem, Ham, and Japheth.

You had to read a whole chapter; but, I promise there is not much to say about it. What we have in this chapter is who had which kid. What we notice is that people lived much longer prior to the flood; but, that the length of those lives was not getting any longer. The second thing we get from this chapter is Noah. He becomes important real quick.

Genesis 4: 16 - 26

¹⁶And Cain went out from the presence of the LORD, and dwelt in the land of Nod, on the east of Eden.  ¹⁷And Cain knew his wife; and she conceived, and bare Enoch: and he builded a city, and called the name of the city, after the name of his son, Enoch.
 ¹⁸And unto Enoch was born Irad: and Irad begat Mehujael: and Mehujael begat Methusael: and Methusael begat Lamech.
 ¹⁹And Lamech took unto him two wives: the name of the one was Adah, and the name of the other Zillah.
 ²⁰And Adah bare Jabal: he was the father of such as dwell in tents, and of such as have cattle.
 ²¹And his brother's name was Jubal: he was the father of all such as handle the harp and organ.
 ²²And Zillah, she also bare Tubalcain, an instructer of every artificer in brass and iron: and the sister of Tubalcain was Naamah.
 ²³And Lamech said unto his wives, Adah and Zillah, Hear my voice; ye wives of Lamech, hearken unto my speech: for I have slain a man to my wounding, and a young man to my hurt.
 ²⁴If Cain shall be avenged sevenfold, truly Lamech seventy and sevenfold.
 ²⁵And Adam knew his wife again; and she bare a son, and called his name Seth: For God, said she, hath appointed me another seed instead of Abel, whom Cain slew.
 ²⁶And to Seth, to him also there was born a son; and he called his name Enos: then began men to call upon the name of the LORD.

So, Cain has killed his brother, he is told to leave and is given a mark so that none will harm him. Cain leaves, has a wife and has a child. We are only in the fourth chapter and once again we are confronted by the question of who else was on the earth. Either Adam and Eve had other children before or at the same time as Cain and Abel (and we have no evidence of that whatsoever), Cain slept with Eve (and we have no evidence of that) or there were in fact other people (and that is what we discussed when talking about Genesis 1 and 2.

We are told about some of Cain's children and how Cain built a city and named it after his son. Cain did not name the city after himself, that sort of implies he was proud to be a father. One of the descendents of Cain was Lamech and he seems to be a pretty vain person. He says that anyone who hurt Cain would have harm returned to him 7 times more and he says that anyone who hurts him will have harm returned to him 77 times more. We are not told that God said this, only that Lamech said it.

Adam and Eve have a couple of more children and that is when people begin to talk about the Lord. That is sort of interesting, it means that Cain was not talking about the Lord to the people he was around. Maybe he didn't want to discuss what had happened to him and how the Lord had separated Cain from himself.

Genesis 4: 8 - 15

⁸ Now Cain said to his brother Abel, “Let’s go out to the field.”^[d] While they were in the field, Cain attacked his brother Abel and killed him.  ⁹ Then the LORD said to Cain, “Where is your brother Abel?”
   “I don’t know,” he replied. “Am I my brother’s keeper?”
 ¹⁰ The LORD said, “What have you done? Listen! Your brother’s blood cries out to me from the ground. ¹¹ Now you are under a curse and driven from the ground, which opened its mouth to receive your brother’s blood from your hand. ¹² When you work the ground, it will no longer yield its crops for you. You will be a restless wanderer on the earth.”
 ¹³ Cain said to the LORD, “My punishment is more than I can bear. ¹⁴ Today you are driving me from the land, and I will be hidden from your presence; I will be a restless wanderer on the earth, and whoever finds me will kill me.”
 ¹⁵ But the LORD said to him, “Not so^[e]; anyone who kills Cain will suffer vengeance seven times over.” Then the LORD put a mark on Cain so that no one who found him would kill him. ¹⁶ So Cain went out from the LORD’s presence and lived in the land of Nod,^[f] east of Eden.

 Cain brings a gift to God, God prefers the gift that Abel brought him and Cain gets mad. So, what does Cain do, he invites his brother to go into the field and kills him. Cain was jealous of Abel. Cain was jealous of God loving Abel more; but, God did not love Abel more, he loves us all the same, he just appreciates it more when we do good for good's sake.

God asks Cain where his brother is and Cain does even more than lie, he says that he does not know where Abel is and then challenges God, he asks God if he is responsible for the well being of his brother. A rather arrogant statement to make to the Lord. Cain had a guilty conscience, he knew good from evil, we all do. He did like many do, when questioned and they know they are in the wrong, they question the questioner. They attempt to change the subject. We attempt to deceive.

Here is an alternative view and just as rarely stated. What if Cain thought Abel was trying to kiss up to God and slew him for that reason? Pretty far out there, I mean what if Cain thought he was being a "good guy", what if he believed his own lies. Nope, I don't think we can find that in the bible, certainly not if we read the rest of the story.

Adam and Eve played dumb when God asked them how they knew they were naked and them they tried to blame others. Cain flat out lies and then tries to turn the table on God. Once again we are shown that these people did not really understand who and what God was, they did not understand that he knew what had happened.

God's "punishment" for Cain was that the land would no longer be fruitful for him. Instead he was told that he would be sent out to wander the earth. Cain's response was that his punishment was more than he could stand; yet, people today would have punished Cain by putting him in jail for life or taking his life. Cain complains that once driven from the place he is at that God will no longer see him. He also worries that others who find him will kill him. To understand this one needs to go back and read what I wrote about Chapter 1 of Genesis.

God tells Cain that he will put a mark on Cain so that nobody who finds him will kill him. There has been a lot of speculation about this mark, there are those who claim that the mark was being made "black"; but, this is about as dumb as can be. Firstly, the mark was for his protection and I would pretty much say that African's were not protected by being dark skinned. Secondly, we have no reason to believe this mark was on anyone other than Cain or that it was on anyone who came with Noah and survived the floods. We read about marks in the bible in a couple of places so lets consider where it comes up.

In the bible we are told not to mark our bodies or to accept the mark of the beast in the end times. In regards to the mark of the beast we are told it was to be on the hand or forehead, when God seals people (which is a form of marking often) the seal is on the forehead. My best guess is that the mark of Cain was placed on his forehead so that people would see it and know he was not to be killed. Truth is, we have no idea of what the mark was that Cain was given and it doesn't matter because he has been dead a long time.

When we read the story of Cain and Abel we have to wonder why it was included. It is the first murder; but, there are plenty more to read about. What we witness is jealousy, we can begin to understand why God didn't stay with people more. If you have ever been around someone who is very powerful (money, fame, influence) you will find that people will try to please them so that they can become one of their friends and possibly get some of the benefits that surround them.

God's purpose for us was not for us to become slaves or beggers, it was for us to grow up, learn the lessons of life and learn that we all matter. We matter even if there was no God; but, fortunately there is and he understands us pretty well.

Genesis 4: 1 - 7

¹And Adam knew Eve his wife; and she conceived, and bare Cain, and said, I have gotten a man from the LORD.  ²And she again bare his brother Abel. And Abel was a keeper of sheep, but Cain was a tiller of the ground.
 ³And in process of time it came to pass, that Cain brought of the fruit of the ground an offering unto the LORD.
 ⁴And Abel, he also brought of the firstlings of his flock and of the fat thereof. And the LORD had respect unto Abel and to his offering:
 ⁵But unto Cain and to his offering he had not respect. And Cain was very wroth, and his countenance fell.
 ⁶And the LORD said unto Cain, Why art thou wroth? and why is thy countenance fallen?
 ⁷If thou doest well, shalt thou not be accepted? and if thou doest not well, sin lieth at the door. And unto thee shall be his desire, and thou shalt rule over him.

I am trying to go through Genesis and discuss it in a manner that will show others how to read the bible, not like a novel; but, with critical thinking. I am trying to show people how to read for greater understanding and it is my intent to go through all of the book of Genesis. I don't think I have the time to do this for the whole bible and it is not my intent to do so. After completing Genesis I intend to discuss different issues and the world around us and how it relates to the bible.

Adam and Eve became one and had their first child, Cain. Eve does not credit Adam with helping to have a baby, she says the Lord has given her a man. Adam takes credit for Eve's existence when he called her "woman" (which means to have come from man) and she takes credit for Cain as she saw him come from her. Did Eve know that the child came from the two of them? We don't know. We don't know if Eve knew how babies were made. She then has Abel.

Cain and Abel are the first two children that we know of. There are some that believe there may have been other children; but, we have no evidence that there was anyone children prior to Cain and Abel. In fact, in Genesis 5, we are told of all of the children born to Adam and Eve and it begins with Seth and it is clear at the end of Chapter 4 that Seth was born after Cain and Abel.


The name Cain is believed to mean "from the evil one". I don't know if that is an accurate translation; but, it is certainly an interesting possibility. If Eve believed that the Lord had given her Cain then she probably would not have named him such. In fact, the person who was given authority to name things was Adam. Is it possible that Adam would have named Cain because he was jealous of Eve's ability to do what he did, have others come from his essence?

We really don't have much information to go on regarding what Adam and Eve were like. I don't think we can really say that we know them well from just reading the book. In either case, they had their first two children and the elder became a farmer and the younger raised sheep. Cain decides to bring God a gift of what he has grown and Abel brings God the fat of the first sheep. Abel brought the best parts of his first animals to God. God appreciated the gift that Abel brought; but, not the gift that Abel brought and Abel brought the gift first. It does not appear that either was told to bring the gift nor are we told of Adam and Eve bringing God any gifts. so we must ask ourselves why Cain brought a gift to God.

I have heard it said that God liked Abel's gift because it was the best that he had to offer and that Cain had just brought God any of his produce, I am not convinced of this and it does not say that in the bible, so , we are left to wonder. Perhaps, it was Cain's reason from bringing God a gift in the first place, God certainly did not need it and it does not say that he asked for it. Perhaps Cain brought it to God to get in his good graces, a bribe if you will. Abel, being younger may have believed that it was what you were supposed to do because he had just seen his older brother bring a gift. If that was Abel's reason and he brought the best of what he had then he was denying himself the best of his work in honor of God. Let us assume for a moment that it was the intent that differed.

Well, God liked Abel's gift and and did not care about Cain's gift. Think of it like when your cat brings you a mouse, you appreciate the effort; but, not the gift. Cain did not take it well, his gift did not have the desired result, it had the opposite result. The result is that Cain pouts, he is put out and annoyed. God asks Cain why he is so unhappy and says that if Cain does good he will be accepted by God. Accepted, in what way? How about in the way of being worthy of having a personal relationship with God that involves God thinking well of him, of appreciating his attempts to please others. Of being of service to others.

God tells Cain that if he does not care to do nice, if he does not try to make things better and chooses to be ruled by his urges that he will not do well. He says that sin will be what he desires. If we do not care about others and attempt to cheat everyone, to bribe them to give us things then we will also be controlled by our desires and our sins will define us and determine what we become, it is a choice. The way to avoid sin is to seek to do good rather than seeking our pleasures, which rules your life?