365 Reflections

Genesis 13:1–4 (ESV) S o Abram went up from Egypt, he and his wife and all that he had, and Lot with him, into the Negeb. 2 Now Abram was very rich in livestock, in silver, and in gold. 3 And he journeyed on from the Negeb as far as Bethel to the place where his tent had been at the beginning, between Bethel and Ai, 4 to the place where he had made an altar at the first. And there Abram called upon the name of the Lord . What do you do when you blow it and others know you've blown it and you're ashamed to even realize just how much you've blown it? You go back to Bethel. Bethel means house of God. And it's exactly where Abram went back to after one of his greatest failures. In Egypt, Abram relied on his cunning and ingenuity to make a way for himself through the tough famine in the land of promise. He figured God could only be trusted so for and sometimes matters must be taken into one's own hands.  The result was shame and expulsion... and it reads f

Genesis 12:10–13 (ESV)   Now there was a famine in the land. So Abram went down to Egypt to sojourn there, for the famine was severe in the land. 11 When he was about to enter Egypt, he said to Sarai his wife, “I know that you are a woman beautiful in appearance, 12 and when the Egyptians see you, they will say, ‘This is his wife.’ Then they will kill me, but they will let you live. 13 Say you are my sister, that it may go well with me because of you, and that my life may be spared for your sake.” On the surface of things, this moment in Abram's life is really bad. He totally gives in to the pressure of the circumstances by fleeing to Egypt. Then he connives his way to prosperity even using his wife as some kind of "slave-trade" leverage. He failed God. No doubt about it.  But let's be honest, Abram has been facing some severe pressures... and having nothing to eat was the last straw.  - He lost his father. - He left his homeland. - He couldn't settl

Genesis 12:6–8 (ESV)   Abram passed through the land to the place at Shechem, to the oak of Moreh. At that time the Canaanites were in the land. 7 Then the Lord appeared to Abram and said, “To your offspring I will give this land.” So he built there an altar to the Lord , who had appeared to him. 8 From there he moved to the hill country on the east of Bethel and pitched his tent, with Bethel on the west and Ai on the east. And there he built an altar to the Lord and called upon the name of the Lord . If you remember from Genesiss 11 Abram made a mistake to settle halfway to the land of Canaan. He also settled there with his father. Here now, with his father gone, Abram has entered into the land that would be his. God shows up in the land and promises it to him. Yet Abram is living among strangers and moving around constantly. He never stays in one place. James Boice puts this passage interestingly: "Of all the persons then living in Canaan, Abram was the most per

Genesis 12:1–2 (ESV)   Now the Lord said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. 2 And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. I never noticed before but the call of Abram goes from the outside in, from the most outward experiences to the deepest seat of his heart. Notice how God says it... Go...   ... from your country...        ... from your kindred (family)            ... from your father's house (heart)...         This is the work of God's grace in our lives. Often times we will experience God from the outside in of our lives. He will call us away from the the environments that are unfit for our new life in Him. He will call us from the relationships that will distract us from Him. Finally, He will even separate us from that thing our heart loves the most.  We've already seen that when Abram first left, he had dad c

Genesis 11:31–32 (ESV)   Terah took Abram his son and Lot the son of Haran, his grandson, and Sarai his daughter-in-law, his son Abram’s wife, and they went forth together from Ur of the Chaldeans to go into the land of Canaan, but when they came to Haran, they settled there. 32 The days of Terah were 205 years, and Terah died in Haran. I've always wondered two things about this passage. #1. Did God originally call Terah and he refuse to listen past the death of his son Haran? #2. Did God call Abram but he didn't listen by bringing his father along as extra baggage until he passed away? Acts 7 seems to clear it up for us a bit. Acts 7:2–4 (ESV)   And Stephen said: “Brothers and fathers, hear me. The God of glory appeared to our father Abraham when he was in Mesopotamia, before he lived in Haran, 3 and said to him, ‘Go out from your land and from your kindred and go into the land that I will show you.’ 4 Then he went out from the land of the Chaldeans and lived i

Genesis 11:1–4 (ESV)   Now the whole earth had one language and the same words. 2 And as people migrated from the east, they found a plain in the land of Shinar and settled there. 3 And they said to one another, “Come, let us make bricks, and burn them thoroughly.” And they had brick for stone, and bitumen for mortar. 4 Then they said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city and a tower with its top in the heavens, and let us make a name for ourselves, lest we be dispersed over the face of the whole earth.” If Genesis 1-11 proves one thing clearly it is the total depravity of man. Apart from God's Word and Spirit, human will consistently run in the exact opposite direction of His will. Notice from this plan of man how they decide to disobey ALL that God said to Noah. Genesis 9:1 (ESV)   And God blessed Noah and his sons and said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth. God had told Noah to multiply and fill the Earth, Adam's original cultural mandate w

Genesis 10:8–12 (ESV)   Cush fathered Nimrod; he was the first on earth to be a mighty man. 9 He was a mighty hunter before the Lord . Therefore it is said, “Like Nimrod a mighty hunter before the Lord .” 10 The beginning of his kingdom was Babel, Erech, Accad, and Calneh, in the land of Shinar. 11 From that land he went into Assyria and built Nineveh, Rehoboth-Ir, Calah, and 12 Resen between Nineveh and Calah; that is the great city. The first use of the word, "Kingdom" is found in these verses. It is interestingly not refefring to God's kingdom. It refers to that of Nimrod, the first mighty man on the Earth. Three times the passage refers to his "mighty" characteristics and he is the prototypical human warlord that will follow humanities history even up to the present day.  Barnhouse renders the Hebrew description of Nimrod as follows: He was an arrogant tyrant, defiant before the face of the Lord; wherefore it is said, Even as Nimrod, t

Genesis 9:24–27 (ESV)   When Noah awoke from his wine and knew what his youngest son had done to him, 25 he said, “Cursed be Canaan; a servant of servants shall he be to his brothers.” 26 He also said, “Blessed be the Lord , the God of Shem; and let Canaan be his servant. 27 May God enlarge Japheth, and let him dwell in the tents of Shem, and let Canaan be his servant.” After the flood, Noah sins. He plants a vineyard, has too much wine, gets drunk and naked, then passes out in his tent. IN HIS TENT. Ham, his youngest son comes in the tent and sees his father's nakedness and reports it to his older brothers who back into the tent with a covering for their father. Some have tried to say the words could mean Ham sexually molested his father, but their attempt fail on bad exegesis. The reason people try to make Ham's sin more than what it was is because they cannot understand why Ham's descendant Canaan should be curse for what they perceive to be a small infraction

I write this on Easter Sunday. It is the business of God to bless people with fresh starts. The horrible evil of Genesis 6 is gone, the day of judgment is past, the visible sign of God's promise of future grace is in the sky as a multi-colored rainbow and Noah is reaffirmed as a new "Adam" over creation. Genesis 9:1–3 (ESV) And God blessed Noah and his sons and said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth. 2 The fear of you and the dread of you shall be upon every beast of the earth and upon every bird of the heavens, upon everything that creeps on the ground and all the fish of the sea. Into your hand they are delivered. 3 Every moving thing that lives shall be food for you. And as I gave you the green plants, I give you everything. Everything about this passage draws us backwards to Genesis 2. God blesses and gives. Then God commands multiplication and moving outward. As well, God elevates the gift to Noah's generation to eat any moving thing.

Genesis 8:6–12 (ESV) At the end of forty days Noah opened the window of the ark that he had made 7 and sent forth a raven. It went to and fro until the waters were dried up from the earth. 8 Then he sent forth a dove from him, to see if the waters had subsided from the face of the ground. 9 But the dove found no place to set her foot, and she returned to him to the ark, for the waters were still on the face of the whole earth. So he put out his hand and took her and brought her into the ark with him. 10 He waited another seven days, and again he sent forth the dove out of the ark. 11 And the dove came back to him in the evening, and behold, in her mouth was a freshly plucked olive leaf. So Noah knew that the waters had subsided from the earth. 12 Then he waited another seven days and sent forth the dove, and she did not return to him anymore. What is really interesting about this passage is how beautifully it correlates with the Creation account in Genesis 1. The Earth is o