January 15


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Genesis 9-12

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We return to The World Stream and this means we are using a new translation today – the New Living Translation. This version was first published in 1996 and is more of a thought-for-thought translation. Last week we left off when Noah had gotten off the ark and had made an altar to the Lord. God has a few things to say and then the human race rebuilds from the slopes of Mt. Ararat.

Prayer

Lord, we thank you for these new starts.  Noah docks and lands in a renewed world.  The blessing is anew.  People are bursting forth on to new lands and continents.  God you are starting a new nation as you call Abram.  Lord God, make our calling and election all the more certain.  For we know you are calling others, more, us, still today to serve you wholeheartedly.  Strengthen us for the task you call us to.  We are grateful, Jesus, that you are so mindful of us.  Amen.

The flooding has ended.  Seasons have been defined.  The family of Noah have walked off the ark.  Stop and think … there are EIGHT people on earth! That’s it!  Animals are beginning to prance across the countryside and they just keep going.  Can you hear the music fading in, “A Whole New World” ?  Well it is a whole new world.  The judgment has been leveled and Noah survives. The earth has changed.  Things aren’t all better again.  Lifespans will be shorter.  The sun will shine direct on earth now and the water overhead has been greatly minimized.  An omnivorous diet comes into play whereas everything was vegetarian before.  There’s a big explanation that goes with that but it won’t be dealt with here.

Chapter 9

09 – God blessed Noah and family and told him that they could eat anything now.  But blood must not be ingested.  [Cults and the occultic do all kinds of sadistic rituals with blood.]  Murder is banned.  The rainbow is given for beauty and the reminder that God will not flood earth again.  The incident with Noah’s vineyard is one that caught Noah by surprise.  The atmosphere had changed since the flood. This affected all of biology, the chemistry of ingesting, fermentation, bacteria.  There is a huge difference between Noah finding himself inebriated and indisposed v.s. some pell mell determined to grab a case of beer to get plastered. The latter is deliberate and crazed.  The former (Noah) is accidental.  So Shem and Japheth cover for Noah though Ham doesn’t show such wisdom.  Parents cover for children thousands of time for decades.  And when the reverse is required, great reverence is in order.  Two sons acted accordingly and one doesn’t – thus the one is dealt with accordingly.  350 years later we bid Noah farewell.

Chapter 10

10 – The genealogies of Japheth, Ham, Shem are described in general though not exhaustively.  Any honest historian, regardless of his faith or lack of, will admit Genesis 10 is the greatest portal to looking into the ancient world of 2400 B.C. and following.  This tells the original framework of the culture and people setting out to cover the earth after the flood.  We know the Bible to be authoritative.  Yet it’s impressive when people, even those who have other entities as their authority in life, attest that the Bible is the only way to verify a fact, a truth, or any knowledge in general.  You may have missed it but there is a verse -10:25- that talks about the earth being divided.  Some have argued that this is when the ice age ended, the water levels rose back and the continental borders were drawn as we know them today.  Prior to this, one could walk from any region to any other region on earth.  The English Channel was a slightly lower valley during the walk from today’s France to U.K.  One could walk from Australia to Malaysia to the Asian mainland since shorelines were hundreds of feet lower than now.  Walking from Alaska to Russia was … a walk.  You can search “The Hovind Theory”. I think it is his creation series lecture #6 that adds more light to the subject. The comments about different cultures and the thousands of tribes is the stuff that fills libraries everywhere.  We’ll leave it to you to dig all you want.

Chapter 11

11 – The story behind the world’s many languages is spelled out clearly here.  Men spoke one language for thousands of years and they kept moving ‘east’.  This is the fourth time “going east” is mentioned in the Bible and it is not associated with ‘heading toward God’, His will, or a relationship with Him.   Aspirations are great on the earth and making a name for one’s/self as told in Gen. 11 is opposite our life of lifting up the Name of the Lord.  So God threw them into confusion via being unable to communicate.  Apparently people would scramble to find someone to talk to and once enough of them did, they would gather their things and migrate to a place they could call their own.  These were ominous days!  The Babel story ends the way ch. 10 ends; people are scattering all over the whole earth.   The genealogy Shem to Abraham is more golden material for understanding the ancient world.  Carefully pondering these numbers reveals that Shem and Abraham lived over a century of their lives at the same time.  Imagine 

Abraham hearing live eye-witness accounts from Shem about building the ark during the century that Shem lived before the Flood.  So Shem lived during Lamech’s time.  And Lamech knew Adam.

Chapter 12

12 – Pardon the fantastic time links but the Bible is trying the keep a thread in our minds from Adam to Noah to Abraham to Jacob to Moses to David to Elijah to Malachi to Jesus to Paul to us. And we wanted to mention that before we commence upon Abraham and the calling a nation unto God so they could be a light to the nations.  Abraham is called to leave his country and family and to follow God.  Gen. 12:2-3 has been called the Bible’s most pivotal and important book (bless those who bless you, and v.v.) for, in ways, world history hinges upon this pronouncement.  Abram (still his name), comes into the Promised Land that will be realized 600 years later, and builds an altar.  ‘Interesting that Joshua sacrifices right here after the Conquest begins!  Abraham is driven south by a famine into Egypt.  The interaction here and Abram’s scheming here is dicey stuff.  But Providentially, interaction is being put in play for the family of Abraham and Egypt.  Abraham’s descendants are going to be just north and east of Egypt for time immemorial.  Abraham’s character flaws are on fulll display here and this is of great concern to the Jewish nation that studies Abraham even today.  But we can take strange comfort that Abraham’s life was pleasing to God and his believing and obeying God credits him with righteousness (later).  His flaws mentioned right here in the opening chapter remind us that Abraham is not a savior.  Though he is a large looming character in biblical history, and he is to be revered, he is but one character in the thread on the six+ millennia road to Salvation.

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