Genesis Chapter 12 - Man Steps Out, God Steps In

Abram was a man who believed and followed God. When God called him to leave his home country and go to a new land, there was no hesitation on Abram’s part. God had selected Abram to be the father of a great nation, a nation that would be known as the people of God, the children of Israel...a nation that would be a blessing to others.

Following God cost Abraham his obedience. God said to "leave behind..." and follow Him, but He did not say where. He asked of Abram the same thing He asks of us today: "Trust me, and I will lead you one step, one day at a time." What has He called us to leave behind? Can we let go of it completely and walk through God’s open door? When we do, God blesses us for our obedience, even as He blessed Abram.

When Abram left Haran to follow God, he took his wife Sarai and his nephew Lot with him, along with all of their possessions and the people they had acquired while living in Haran. When they arrived in the land of Canaan, God again spoke to Abram. The land of Canaan was to become Abram’s land, and in this land God’s people would dwell. It was in actuality a small parcel of land, compared to other countries of the world, but a very strategic piece of property. All of history would be marked by the events that would take place in this land.

Upon arrival in Canaan, Abram built an altar to the Lord. We will find that he was often building altars, for they signified a point of promise and praise. God would promise, and Abram would praise…he would give his worship to this God who was leading him. Do we remember to thank God in our daily walk as we sense Him at work in our lives? He is so worthy of our praise!

Abram, with all the faith he had in God, was still human, he was not perfect. His choices were not always the best ones. When famine came, Abram forgot to trust God, and he headed down to Egypt. One step away from God led to another, and soon Abram was devising his own plans to take care of himself instead of trusting God to take care of him. Of course, Abram’s plan was foolish, and many were hurt by it. His plan was that Sarai would say she was his sister, rather than his wife. Abram feared that he would be killed so that Pharaoh could acquire his beautiful wife. As her brother, however, they would both benefit and be given many gifts. God intervened in the middle of Abram’s stupidity, and warned Pharaoh that Sarai was Abram’s wife. Pharaoh rebuked Abram and sent him, with Sarai and all of his belongings, out of Egypt.

I am glad that Abram was not perfect in his faith, for I see that God is always there. He did not leave Abram alone and helpless when Abram faltered. There have been times when I have taken the reins out of God’s hands, thinking my way of doing things was the best way. Did God get angry with me? Did He turn His back on me? No, just like He stepped into the middle of Abram’s fiasco, He has been there in the middle of my muddled messes. What I have broken, He has mended. That is His business…to mend brokenness. And in my brokenness, He has mended me. Thank you, Father, for always being there for me. Thank you for picking me up, wiping my tears, loving me, equipping me, and putting me back on your path.

"I love You, Lord, and I lift my voice to worship You. O my soul rejoice!
Take joy, my King, in what You hear; May it be a sweet, sweet sound in Your ear."

(Laurie Klein, Copyright 1978, 1980 House of Mercy Music,admin. by Maranatha! Music)

Genesis Chapter 11 - New Age Thinking

Once upon a time, long, long ago, in a far away place, "when E. F. Hutton spoke, everyone listened." That’s because everyone could understand what he was saying. Everyone in the whole world spoke the same language. These people were a proud group of people. They had "found themselves." They were "nobody’s fool." They "had the power!" So they said to themselves, "Hey, man, let’s build us a city. We’ll put up a tower like ain’t nobody seen! It’ll reach right up into the heavens, man, and then everyone that looks at that tower, they’ll know we’re cool. We are somebody! Yeah, that’s what we’ll do…build us a stairway to heaven!"

With all their self-satisfaction, self-motivation, self-exaltation, they forgot one thing. They forgot to check with the Master Builder…the One who owned the land, the sky, the heavens. They just went right ahead with their plans without getting a building permit. Why, they did not have to bow down to any one. They could do their own thing. They were independent…they didn’t need anyone, certainly not God. Do you see a problem here? Well, God did.


God knew that if He let them continue with that line of thinking, they would begin to think they were individual gods, and they could do anything they set their minds to. These were mere creatures that God had created. They were going to try to do the very thing one of His former celestial angels did…try to elevate themselves to be the same as God. There can only be one God, the One who is the Originator of all things. When satan tried to overthrow the throne in heaven, God had to cast him out (see Isaiah 14:12-15). Now here he was again, a piece of him in each of the hearts of these people. Was he trying to fool God? Did he think he could hide inside someone’s flesh and God would not see him? He must have forgotten who God was…the all-knowing, all-seeing, all-powerful God of the universe. There is absolutely nothing that can be hidden from God. How does that phrase go, "You can fool some of the people some of the time....", but you can never fool God.

To bring an end to this "I am God" thinking, this new age that had entered upon the earth through the great deceiver (and we thought it was a new religion in our time!), God scattered the people all over the surface of the earth, and He confused their language. No longer would they be able to understand each other without extreme difficulty.

The Tower of Babel…the place of mass confusion. Do you have mass confusion in your life? If so, I would like to suggest it could be you are listening to too many voices, or the wrong voices. You are hearing babbling voices that are irrational, foolish, incoherent, and meaningless. You need to hear God’s voice. He alone speaks peace in our storm-tossed minds. "Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid." (John 14:27). "Be still and know that I am God;" (Psalm 46:10). Take time to listen to His voice today.



As we continue on with this chapter, we find the genealogy of Shem. He’s "the good guy in the white hat," remember? In the list of his descendants we find a man named Terah, who had three sons: Abram, Nahor, and Haran. Haran had a son named Lot, who was Abram’s nephew. Abram had a wife, named Sarai. These are key people in the chapters ahead, so it will help us to get their relationship straight. Terah took his son, Abram, and Abram’s wife, Sarai, and Abram’s nephew, Lot, on a one way trip out of Ur of the Chaldeans, headed toward Canaan. However, they settled in Haran instead, and that is where Terah died. For the next few chapters we will be focusing on Abram. He has much to teach us. Ready?

Genesis Chapter 10 - Descendants Designed By Us

Okay, I admit it. Some chapters of the Bible just do not seem to be too interesting to read, nor do they seem to hold any importance to us today. Sometimes we get bogged down with too many details, and we know more than we want to know. If this chapter in Genesis leaves you feeling like "Who cares?", perhaps we can fill in some blanks and find a purpose for this being included in God’s inspired Word.

The three sons of Noah did as God had told them to do when they left the ark...be fruitful and increase in number; multiply on the earth and increase upon it. (Genesis 9:7) The earth was once again replenished by the descendants of these three men. All the nations we read about in the Bible can be traced back to Shem, Ham, and Japheth. Let’s take a brief look at which nations came from which son.

Ham is the son who discovered his drunken father’s nakedness and ridiculed Noah to his brothers. Because of his lack of respect, he was cursed by his father to be the slave of his brothers. From Ham we have the Canaanites, Egyptians, Philistines, Hitites, and Amorites. Currently those nations may not mean much to us by name, but as we continue on through the Bible, even through Genesis, we will find that these are the nations that were always causing trouble for God’s chosen people.

We will find that the Israelite people, those separated for God’s purpose, will continually be tempted by and intermarry with the Canaanite women.

The Egyptians will become such hard task masters that Moses will confront their leader, and then all of the Israelites will be chased by Egyptians into the desert.

The Philistines will be the "giants" in the land that a little boy named David fights single-handedly.

The other nations will be mentioned in battles that lay ahead for the people of God. Did Ham have a clue that he would be responsible for centuries of disobedience by his descendants? Surely the curse Noah placed on him proved to be everlasting.

Japheth was blessed by Noah, who asked that God extend his territorial boundaries. Probably Japheth’s descendants traveled the farthest, and they settled in Europe and Asia Minor. In years to come we will find the first missionary, Apostle Paul, traveling to these far away regions to take the gospel of Jesus Christ, and many churches will be started along his journey among the nations fathered by Japheth.

Shem, the third son of Noah, was the most blessed of the three surviving sons of the flood. His descendants will include the Hebrews, Chaldeans, Assyrians, Persians, and Syrians. Some of the big names that will come out of his line are Abraham, David, and Jesus. It is from Shem that God will call a people to come out and be separate from all the other nations. They are to be His chosen nation, the nation of Israel. But now we are getting ahead of the story.

If you were to be chosen as a father or a mother of a nation, what would your descendants be like? If they were carbon copies of you, would you produce a belligerent slave driver or a fearless leader? A great big bully or a child with conquering faith? A miser or a missionary? Each of us do leave a part of us behind. We influence lives every day by the way in which we live, whether it is our children, our co-workers, the grocery store clerk, or the driver in the other car. What kind of impression are we making? Would God be pleased?

"May those who come behind us, find us faithful!"

Genesis Chapter 9 - Mutual Respect

Perhaps too many of us have been guilty of looking for, longing for, the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. What we really need to look at is the rainbow itself. God put a rainbow in the sky as a sign of His covenant with Noah. Never again would God destroy the earth with a flood. Every time it rains, all the inhabitants of earth are reminded of that promise as we observe the rainbow.

Finding the rainbow may sometimes take close observation. Sometimes we need to look more closely at what God has done for us already instead of waiting for our next request to be filled, our next prayer to be answered, our next mountain top experience to occur. God has been very, very good to us. His mercy and His grace have been extended to us far more times than we even realize. We are here, and we are in His care….no matter what the current circumstances…if we are obedient to Him. We need to accept this day as one that the Lord has made, and rejoice and be glad in it. Focus on the promise, not the problem. Look for the possibility, not the perplexity. God is good, all the time.

As Noah emerged from the ark, God gave him some instructions. He told him and his sons to be fruitful and multiply the number of humans on the earth. They were also to be in charge of all the creatures of the earth, just as Adam had been in charge. God further instructed them to care for one another, for an accounting of how they treated one another would be demanded by God. He did not want anger to lead to revengeful killing. Each individual is precious in God’s sight, for they are made in His image.

We have no right today to treat others with any less respect than we want for ourselves. None of us have been created in a higher order than other humans. God created us equal. Although He gave certain strengths to each gender that the other does not possess, He never intended that one sex would lord it over the other with an attitude of superiority. We see this attitude in the church world all the time. It does not please God. We are His children, men and women, boys and girls…not lords and lambs, masters and mice. Let us be reminded of what Apostle Paul wrote:

You are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus, for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise. (Galatians 3:26-39)

Heirs to the promise---not only the promise God made to Abraham that God would have a people for His own, but also the promise God made to Noah: life would never again be destroyed by floodwaters, nor should life be destroyed by one another. Murder is the extreme of what begins as a lack of respect. Both are wrong in God’s sight, and we must not be found guilty of either action.

Even though God had wiped out the stench of evil from the earth by the flood, evil still existed in the hearts of men. Though Noah had been found faithful, and God protected him from death, Noah still had the capacity within himself to bring displeasure to God. He did this when he became drunk. His lack of respect for God, his Father, was reenacted as a lack of respect for Noah by his son Ham, who ridiculed his father’s drunkenness and nakedness. Because the other two sons of Noah, Shem and Japheth, tried to cover Noah’s shame, they were blessed by their father, whereas Ham was cursed. Ham became the father of the wicked nation of Canaan, the people who were constantly causing trouble among God’s people.

As God searches our hearts, may He find only that which pleases Him.

Genesis Chapter 8 – Crazy or Committed?

Do you believe in long term commitments? What is the longest you have stayed on one job? How many years have you lived in the same house? If you have accepted Jesus Christ as your Savior, how long have you been walking in the pathway of faith? Long term commitments are not easy. In this day, making a commitment, period, seems to be difficult. "Oh, well, if I don’t like this situation, I can always change...."

Perhaps God would have our generation stop and reevaluate what it means to be committed. To do so, He gave us a man named Noah. When God saw the flood of evil on the earth, He knew He had to put a stop to it. He looked more closely and He found one man, Noah, who had kept the faith. For the sake of this one faithful steward, He chose not to bring an end to the existence of everything He had created. Instead, He chose to bring about a flood of waters to wash away the wickedness of the earth. He gave Noah the blueprint of His plan.


"Rain? Uh, Lord, I don’t think that word is in my vocabulary…is it a dirty word? I mean, it is a four letter word, you know... Oh, I see…it’s a clean word…you’re going to send "rain" to clean up your world. Well, Lord, that sounds like a good idea to me. It sure could use a bath! But, Lord, you see, I don’t know how to swim…just never took time for those leisure activities.

Build a house that floats? Oh my goodness, Lord, how in the world would I do that? Oh, this scroll contains the blueprints, huh? Well, let’s see.......
Whoooooeeeeeee…that’s some kind of structure! You going for the Guinness World Record here, Lord? Let me take a look at my schedule and see when I can work that project in. Oh.....you want me to start now? Well, I guess it’s either that or take swimming lessons!"

For 120 years Noah worked on the ark. One hundred and twenty years, in case you did not catch the figure in the previous sentence. That is longer than most people live. I don’t know if God knew it would take Noah that long to build the ship, but I do know He was quite gracious to the rest of mankind. He gave them 120 years to change their minds about serving God, and in all that time not one person said, "Yes, Lord, put me to work…I’ll be glad to help Noah." So after that grace period while Noah faithfully pounded away on God’s vessel, God finally told Noah to get on board with his family and with all the creatures in God’s second Parade of the Birds and Beasts.

For forty days "the rains came down and the floods came up", and the houseboat floated. After it stopped raining, the floodwaters stood still for 150 days before God sent a wind to start drying the earth. Noah was 600 years old when he went aboard the ark to become the chief zoo keeper. He had that position for one year and ten days (see Genesis 7:11 and 8:13).

Now, a year long cruise might sound exciting to you, but remember the circumstances in Noah’s trip:

• Eight adults, and thousands of creatures, all with different sounds and smells.
• No ports to stop in and purchase souvenirs.
• No scenery to watch from the upper deck.
• No shuffleboard to while away the hours…probably not even a best seller to read.

Eight adults, thousands of creatures, one floating ark, and water, water everywhere. For one complete year. It took him 120 years to build this vacation boat, and then he served as captain for one solid year. That’s called obedience to God’s call upon his life. That’s called commitment.

Commitment. Following God’s call. Sticking to it. Hanging in there. Riding out the storm. God’s way, or no way.

Lord, may I, like Noah, be found faithful in my commitments. Thank you for your never ceasing promise of "seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night." You are good, all the time!

Genesis Chapter 7 - Is God On Board?

Have you ever wanted to live in a zoo? Or maybe sometimes you feel like you do. Certainly Noah can go down in history as having the first floating zoo. Whatever kind of creature God had created, Noah took at least one male and one female on board the ark. It has been estimated by biblical scholars that almost 45,000 animals could have fit in the boat with Noah and his family.

This is one of those stories in the Bible that is best accepted by faith. When you try to figure out where all the food supplies came from, or where it was stored, or where they kept the "compost" pile, it just becomes overwhelming to imagine. How could a family of eight care for that many animals? Maybe God used the waves of the flood waters to rock the boat and put every creature to sleep for the next six months or so. I don’t know, and it’s too much for me to fathom. I just know God cared about all of His creation, not just His highest order. That gives me comfort, for it tells me there is nothing too small for God to give His attention to.




When the ark was fully loaded with all the living creatures that God had commanded Noah to take aboard, God shut the door. He was about to bring about a very destructive phenomenon called flooding. The Bible says "the springs of the great deep burst forth, and the floodgates of the heavens were opened (vs. 11). For forty days it rained without ceasing. With all of that water, even the highest mountain top was under water more than twenty feet. Every living creature on the earth, except those in the ark, perished in the flood waters, which lasted a total of 150 days.


When God shut the door, He slammed down the gavel of judgment. Sin and evil had become such a stench to God that He wiped everything out except those on the ark. If Noah had not found favor in God’s eyes, would that have been the end of man, the end of all creation? God had once again shown judgment and mercy in dealing with the wickedness of earth.

Since the beginning of time, "God has always had a people." I find comfort in this thought also, for it tells me of a God who is so holy that He cannot bear to look on sin, and yet in His holiness, He is so full of love, that He delivers His own from total destruction. We may go through a "flood", but if we have God in our boat, we can be assured that He will see us safely to the other side. No storm will ever completely overtake us, for He speaks peace in the middle of our storms.

"There is peace in the midst of my storm-tossed life;
Oh, there’s an Anchor, there’s a Rock to cast my faith upon.
Jesus rides in my vessel so I’ll fear no alarm;
He gives me peace in the midst of my storm!"

(Stephen Adams Music, Copyright 1978, 1982, 1983, Franklin House Publishing, Inc.)

Genesis Chapter 6 - Bath Water

If you think the Bible is boring, having no intrigue or mystery, try reading Genesis 6:1-4. What is meant by the "sons of God and the daughters of men"? We know that they married and produced children, but who were they…aliens or earthlings? The best explanation that biblical scholars come up with is that the sons of God were descendants from Seth, the third son of Adam and Eve. The daughters of men were descendants from Cain. Remember, he was the first born son of Adam and Eve who was sent away to become a restless wanderer for having murdered his brother Abel.

Sons of God would refer to those that were still living under God’s rule because Seth had honored the Lord. However, Cain had turned his back on God, and his descendants were evil (daughters of men). When the two groups got together, the good influence of the men of faith fell into moral depravity, following the evil ways of the daughters of men People turned very wicked and brought sorrow to God.

The world He had created had become very smudged and dirty. It desperately needed a bath to wash away all of the filth. The tub would have to be filled to overflowing…there would have to be a flood to cover the complete earth.

God would have wiped out all of His creation had it not been for a man called Noah. Noah was found righteous in the eyes of God, for he was a man who walked in the ways of his Creator. God looked on Noah with kindness. Here was one of His creatures that did not deserve to die. He had Noah build a vessel with very specific instructions. Noah, his wife, his three sons, their wives, and a male and female of each animal species would be saved from the flood by boarding this ark. If you can imagine a structure that is as long as one and a half football fields, and reaches the height of a four story building, you get the picture of this "boat".

When God does things, He does not cut corners or scrimp. He goes all out. When I think about the celebration that He is planning for eternity, I mean, you talk about a party! I would not want to miss it! Disney World has nothing over God! How do you even compare a few acres in Florida with the whole universe. Our God is very creative, and He knows how to use space well. (No pun intended.)

Not only do we know that God is all-powerful, we also are aware that God knows everything. Let’s stop and think about it. Since He knew He would be grieved at the evilness of man, why then did He create man in the first place? Why would He cause Himself so much anguish? Could it be because God is love?…because He loved man...and love brings pain. He sacrificed Himself already knowing it would bring rejection. What an awesome God!

Noah was righteous, blameless, and walked with God. If God were to decide to destroy the earth today, would He find those character traits in me? Would He find at least some of His creation worthy of redeeming?

Oh, Lord, make me holy, let me walk with you, blameless and righteous. I desire intimacy with you, God, that I might be worthy of being called your son, your daughter. Amen.

"Our God is an awesome God, He reigns from heaven above
With wisdom, pow’r and love---Our God is an awesome God!"

(Rich Mullins, Copyright 1988 Edward Grant, Inc.)

Genesis Chapter 5 - Long Life

As we read the genealogy from Adam to Noah we discover that men lived much longer lives back in the beginning. We find that Adam had a son when he was 130 years old, and then lived another 800 years. Methuselah, the man with the reputation of living the longest, lived a total of 969 years, almost a millennium! Can you imagine! We moved into the new millennium in year 2,000. How would you like to live through a good portion of the next 1,000 years? I think most of us are very content with a much shorter life span. How would we ever keep up with the new technology that 1,000 years would bring when our computers that we bought in the last couple of years are already outdated? I am not sure when our life cycles became shorter, but we will find in the next chapter that man’s days will be 120 years.

The very fact that this genealogy exists right here in the beginning of the Bible is proof enough that God’s Word had to be inspired to be written. Who could have kept those kind of records? Whose diary could Moses read to know exactly who was the father of whom and how long each one lived? Moses, of course, is attributed to writing the first five books of the Bible, known as the Pentateuch, or The Law. Moses only lived to be 120 years old, so it must have amazed even him as he listened to God’s Spirit tell him of his ancestors and the longevity of their lives.

Did they live so long because of their lack of exposure to all the pollutants in the air that now exist? Since the earth was less populated back then, perhaps there were not as many diseases as we have now. Maybe people needed to live longer so they would have time to populate the earth, as God had commanded them. And thank goodness, no one had yet discovered euthanasia. They lived in a time when there was great respect for the elderly in society. The almost total lack of respect we see today is a good example of how far we have degenerated from God’s ideal.

In this list of our early forefathers, one man stands out to me. His name is Enoch. Enoch walked with God, and then God took him away. Why? He must have been very special to God, pleasing to Him, a good companion. This is one of those mysteries I look forward to understanding when I get to heaven. Am I living a life that pleases God? Does God find good companionship in me? After all, He did create us for fellowship. How often do I spend time with Him? How much time do I allow Him to talk to me, or do I monopolize the whole conversation?

Lord, make me a good companion today. Not only for your sake, but may I be a friend to those about me who are so lonely for someone to talk to. May my focus be on others, and not on myself. Amen.