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

Today, I am reading and commenting on Genesis 21-23.

Every year when I come to the story of Hagar and Ishmael being sent away by Abraham, I have to remind myself that by this point Ishmael was a young man.  I have an image of Ishmael as a toddler being carried into the wilderness by his mother.  However, we know he was older than that.  Ishmael was fourteen when Isaac was born and this is at least a year after that and probably more.  When Abraham sent Hagar and Ishmael away, Ishmael was old enough to try to take care of himself rather than just crying about the unfairness of life.

I do not want to make much of it, but I see a contrast with how Isaac acted when Abraham took him to offer him as a sacrifice.   While Ishmael had been a passive participant in his exile, Isaac noticed that they did not have a sacrifice and asked his father about it.  However, what I find more interesting is when the angel tells Abraham not to sacrifice the boy.  The angel refers to Isaac as Abraham’s only son in a way which foreshadows Jesus as God’s only son.  Abraham heading into the wilderness to sacrifice Isaac was recognition that something more was needed, but God stopped Abraham because Isaac was not that something more, that needed to wait for Jesus to be that sacrifice.  While I believe the focus of this story is to let us know that God does not want us to sacrifice our children to Him, it also foreshadows His sacrifice of His Son for our salvation.

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

Today, I am reading and commenting on Genesis 19-20. I have decided to switch from suing the New Living Translation to using the New International Version because, all in all, I prefer the NIV.

I struggled with what to write about this passage until I was skimming it for the umpteenth time and I read this in isolation, “This fellow came here as a foreigner, and now he wants to play the judge!”  I knew right where that was in the story, so I understood the context.  Lot was trying to convince the men of Sodom not to rape his visitors and their response was essentially, “Who are you to judge us?”  He was an outsider among them, even though it was because of Lot that they, or their parents, had not been enslaved when Sodom had been plundered some years back (Abram had gone after those who had plundered Sodom and taken many of its people as slaves because Lot was one of them).  In many ways, this was THE sin of Sodom.  Sodom was not destroyed because of what these men wanted to do to strangers.  It was destroyed because the men of Sodom were going to turn on their neighbor for standing up for those strangers.

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

Today, I am reading and commenting on Genesis 16-18. I have decided to switch from suing the New Living Translation to using the New International Version because, all in all, I prefer the NIV.

Abram was 99 years old when God changed his name to Abraham, and he became circumcised.  I am not entirely sure of the significance of that, but it really struck me this morning as I read this passage.  The passage also tells us that Ishmael was 13 years old at the time.  This means that Abraham was circumcised not less than 14 years after it was said about him that he believed God and God credited it to him as righteousness, a point which Paul makes in his letters. Abraham was not righteous because of his actions (being circumcised), he was circumcised because he was righteous.  And, no, that does not mean that we should be circumcised today.

I was struck by a thought about Abraham’s intercession with God for Sodom and Gomorrah.  I have always assumed that Abraham did so because his nephew Lot lived there.  Yet, I realized today that the passage does not mention that Abraham thought about his nephew.  No, God told Abraham that He was going to bring judgement upon those cities and Abraham immediately begged God not to do so if there were as few as fifty righteous people there.  Abraham continued to intercede with God on behalf of the people of Sodom and Gomorrah until God agreed that He would not destroy those cities if He found as few as 10 righteous people there.  I do not believe that Abraham interceded with God for Sodom and Gomorrah because Lot lived there.  I believe that he interceded (prayed) for Sodom and Gomorrah because he cared about the suffering they would experience when God brought His judgement against them.  I believe that this passage provides two lessons for us to follow. First, we should pray for those upon whom we see God’s judgement is about to fall.  Second, we should strive to live as one of “the ten” whose righteousness will cause God to withhold His judgement upon those among whom we live.

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

Today, I am reading and commenting on Genesis 12-15. I have decided to switch from suing the New Living Translation to using the New International Version because, all in all, I prefer the NIV.

As I was reading today’s passage I started to wonder why the detailed description of the kings allied on either side of the battle which led to the capture of Lot and of the geopolitics which led to that battle.  Those listening to the story around the time it was first written down would not have known who any of these kings were, and would have barely known anything about the cities involved.  Then it struck me, this detail is evidence that the account is about an actual historical event.  Yes, by the time this story was written down many of those who were mentioned had been lost in the mists of time, and it is possible that at some point one or two of those mentioned had been substituted for those who were actually there due to someone’s flawed memory, but those telling it were not just telling a story, they were recounting an event which had actually happened.  As I think about this further, the account about Melchizedek’s encounter with Abraham suggests to me that Abraham had an ongoing relationship with Melchizedek.  Nothing particularly noteworthy, merely that they had friendly encounters from time to time, which were never important enough to mention in the stories about Abraham.

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

Today, I am reading and commenting on Genesis 8-11. I have decided to switch from suing the New Living Translation to using the New International Version because, all in all, I prefer the NIV.

When I commented yesterday on the passage which says that Noah walked faithfully with God, I really thought I was going to spend more time on Noah’s drunken incident today.  I will merely make note of the fact that the Bible tells us both that Noah walked faithfully with God, and that, on at least one occasion, he got so drunk he was unaware of his surroundings.  However, today I want to look at God’s reaction when Noah made an offering to Him after leaving the Ark.  God’s reaction was that never again would He destroy all living creatures, that as long as the earth shall endure seed-time and harvest will never cease.  This passage is why I have never gotten terribly frightened by the various environmental scares which have come along.  This does not mean that I do not believe that we should be environmentally responsible, just that I do not believe we need to fear that the irresponsibility of others will destroy the earth.  God has not given mankind the ability to destroy the earth.  Seed-time and harvest will continue until God replaces this earth with a new earth (as we read He will do in the passages a few days ago).  There may be years like “The Year Without a Summer” but they will pass and seed-time and harvest will resume.

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

Today, I am reading and commenting on Genesis 4-7. I have decided to switch from suing the New Living Translation to using the New International Version because, all in all, I prefer the NIV.

Once again I am unsure where I am going with today’s blog.  However, today I see several things I want to touch on which I do not see any connection between.  The first was something which I first thought of yesterday.  In yesterday’s passage it mentioned that God had given every seed bearing plant as food for mankind.  Then in today’s passage, Abel is a shepherd who brought an offering of the fat portions of some of the firstborn of his flock.  God found this a more acceptable offering than Cain’s offering from among his crops.  I am unsure of what significance this has, but it feels rather significant.

A little later the passage tells us that the “sons of God” married the daughters of humans who they found attractive and had children by them.  This provides the context in which the writer tells us that human wickedness had become so great that God decided to unleash the Flood.  We have no other references which give us any insight into who these “sons of God” were, nor what connection there was between them taking human women as wives and the wickedness of humanity.  One thing I find interesting is that the passage tells us that the “Nephilim” were the offspring of these matings between the “sons of God” and human women, which happened before the Flood.  Later, the Israelites encountered descendants of the Nephilim when they entered Canaan to conquer it.  Did the Nephilim survive the Flood? Or, did more “sons of God” mate with human women after the Flood?
The final thing I want to touch upon is that the passage tells us that Noah walked faithfully with God, which appears to be unique among the people of his time.  Although, we should note that Noah’s great grandfather was Enoch, who walked faithfully with God, then was no more because God took him away.  Also, Noah’s father and grandfather died just before the Flood, so we should suspect that they were similarly faithful to God as Enoch and Noah.

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

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

The description of the death of Jacob shows that the Egyptians of Joseph’s day treated him as if he was royalty.  Perhaps some day a cave will be discovered in the land of Israel which contains the remains of several people, one of whom was embalmed in the Egyptian style.  I suspect that this will not happen, since it is likely that the site which has already been identified as this site is indeed the site where Jacob was buried.  We also see in this passage that Joseph’s forgiveness of his brothers was not just for the sake of his father.  This passage strikes home to me because I have siblings who will not speak with each other now that my mother has died.  There is blame to share around, but I wish my family could experience the forgiveness which Joseph and his brothers experienced.

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

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

My first thought reading this passage today was, “What about this situation made Joseph’s brothers think about what they did to him those many years prior?”  Yes, Joseph had been probing them closely about Benjamin just before they made that connection, but I wonder about it being that simple.  In fact, when we read about the brothers’ exchange with their father before coming back to Egypt the second time we get the impression that Joseph asked many probing questions about their family.  Reading between the lines about the way Joseph sat the brothers and then what his servant said when confronting them about the silver cup, we see that Joseph had led his brothers to believe that he had supernatural sources of knowledge.  In fact throughout this passage we see Joseph use the knowledge he had which others thought he had no way to know to impress and intimidate others (a behavior to keep in mind later when we read about how Pharaoh’s advisers responded to the Plagues).

I also wanted to continue to highlight the differences between Reuben and Judah.  When the brothers blamed their current troubles on what they had done to Joseph, Reuben claimed to have told them not to harm Joseph, which he had not actually done.  Then, when they asked Jacob to send Benjamin with them, Reuben offered the lives of his own sons as surety for Benjamin’s safe return.  On the other hand, Judah offered himself as surety for Benjamin’s safe return.  Then, when Joseph threatened to enslave Benjamin for stealing his cup (which he knew full well that Benjamin had not done), Judah forcefully put himself forward to be enslaved in Benjamin’s place.  I do not want to condemn Reuben for what he did.  Rather, I want to hold up Judah as taking more personal responsibility.  There was nothing wrong with Reuben’s words or actions in this passage, but Judah’s were better.

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

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

I think that the story of Joseph is a lesson about perseverance and not giving in to circumstances.  He was his father’s favorite son with all of the privileges which came with that.  Then his own brothers sold him into slavery.  But he did not let that get him down.  He still used his abilities as best he could.  Then, he was lied about and thrown into prison on the basis of a false accusation (and probably beaten up pretty good along the way).  There in prison he once again applied his skills to the best of his ability.  Then he helped out a fellow prisoner, who promptly forgot about him for two years.  In all that time, he never forgot God, nor did he attempt to take credit for the gifts which God had given him.  He could have easily given in to despair, but he did not.  He could have used what happened as an excuse to quit.  He did not.  He continued to do his best to do God’s will.