Ge. 12: A great nation...thanks to a hot wife.

So after dad dies, Abram was told by God to leave his country, his people, and his father's household, and go to this land somewhere. Probably the last thing on your mind right after your old man kicks off is leaving the grieving.

"Where, God?" asks Jon-if-he-were-Abram.
"Relax, I'll show you," answers the LORD.
"Ugh, it better be sweet."
"Don't worry, Jon-if-he-were-Abram. It will be."

So God tells Abram the following:

"I will make you a great nation and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you."

That does sound like a pretty sweet deal. Sweet enough for me to move after my dad's death. Probably not the reason Abram moved. Something tells me Abram would have done it, blessing or no blessing. But this is quite a promise. I can't wait to see how God fulfills this one.

So the 75-year-old Abe takes off, brings his hot wife, and his brother Haran's son, Lot. Since Haran died, I'm guessing Abram took Lot on as a son, loaded up the mules, and the "people they had acquired in Haran." Slaves probably. Or servants. Hired Hands...I'unno. Slavery bad. So they go to Canaan. And what do you know, they get there.

So Abram goes as far into Canaan as the "great tree of Moreh at Shechem." Verse 6 was apparently written by JRR Tolkien. The significance of this tree is not known to me at this point in my reading, but probably it had some meaning to the Canaanites or...Shechemites?

Then God appears out of nowhere, (mind freak!) and says, "To your offspring, I will give this land." Out of his thanksgiving, Abram builds an altar right there to God. Later, he moved on into some hills between Bethel and Ai, and worships God. Then he moves on to Negev. This guy is making serious tracks. I wonder if he was collecting those etched glass cube things with 3D bubbles inside that look like things.

Then a famine causes him to move down to Egypt. Pharaoh's reputation must have been pretty awful when it came to old dudes with hot wives, so it goes down like this. He tells Sarai (and probably everyone with him) to act like Sarai is his sister. You'd hate to miss the memo on that one and blow it at an inopportune time.

"Hey Abram, why's your wife hanging out with Pharaoh so much?"
"My wife? Why...you know she's my sister."
"Your sister? You married your sister?"
And then Pharaoh would butt in all authoritatively, demanding to know what the meaning of this is.

Sure enough, the Egyptians run and tell Pharaoh that there's this hot chick that's new to the area, and she's with her...overly affectionate brother and a bunch of people and some kids and stuff. Whether or not Abram expected the royal treatment from Pharaoh with receiving sheep and cattle, donkeys and servants...I don't know. I don't want to be cynical about the guy, but he already is lying. (Yes, God blesses those who lie anyway). I'm not going to let my sins get me too down, because Abram was hardcore blessed in spite of his weaknesses, and lack of faith that God would pull him through this.

If God was going to make a great nation out of me, I guess I'd trust him with the life of my wife.

Because of this deception, God inflicted the Pharaoh and his household with "serious diseases." Presumably either poison ivy or AIDS. Pharaoh, though he was punk'd by some nomad wanderer, was no dummy. He knew it was probably Sarai at the root of his problems. In his anguish, he begged Abram, "Why didn't you tell me she was your wife? Go away." So Pharaoh tells Abram and his men to hit the road.

I think this little vignette at the end reminds of all the times I've needlessly worried about something that, at the time, I thought was going to be all earth-shattering, but turns out to be quite harmless, and that it is OK to trust God through those situations. When I get there, and am going through it...sure it can be tough, but it's never as bad as my sense of dread creates it to be.

Ge. 11: Babel and Shem, Shem and Babel, Abram!!!

So, where in chapter 10, dudes were beginning to move all over the world, chapter 11 starts with some dudes breaking the rule. They stuck to one place: Shinar. All we can really know about Shinar at this point was that it was somewhere in Mesopotamia.

"You know what's a good idea?" One guy said.
"No. What?" Said oblivious other guy.
"Making millions of bricks." One guy replied.
"Uhh..." Said oblivious other guy.
"No, we'll make millions of bricks and then stack 'em all together. We'll make a city with a tower that reaches to the heavens," said One guy.
"Like my Legos?" said third guy.
"Are you still playing with those?" asked One guy, incredulous. "No, this tower and city will stop us from spreading over the face of the earth. We'll get to be together! Forever!"

God is no dummy. He saw what was going on. If the people couldn't understand each other, they couldn't work with each other. Then they'd move away to the ends of the earth. Which makes me wonder: I know God commanded people to spread out over the earth, but why? Would God feel his creation was for naught if it wasn't being enjoyed and experienced by man?

This whole deal with Babel shows me that God will frustrate man when man thinks he can do it on his own.

Shem is revealed to be 100 2 years after the flood. By the timeline in what I have read, with the flood at about 1646, Shem would have been born in 1548...

And these dates are estimates based on the numbers the Bible has given me. They may be useless to you, but its neat for me to see how time passes, and who was still alive when so and so was born.

Noah: 1046 - 1996

Shem: 1548 - 2148

Flood and the shortened lifespan - 1646

Arphaxad: 1648 - 2086

Shelah: 1683 - 2116

Eber: 1713 - 2143

Peleg: 1747 - 1956

Reu: 1777 - 2016

Serug: 1809 - 2039

Nahor: 1839 - 1987

Terah: 1868 - 2073

Abram, Nahor, Haran: 1938 -

So Terah has three boys. Abram, Nahor and Haran. Haran died in Ur of the Chaldeans. Abram and Nahor got hitched to Sarai and Milcah respectively. Sarai was barren. Terah had a mind to up and move the family (Abram and Sarai, and Haran, Milcah and their son Lot to Canaan. On the way there, they settled in ... Haran. Maybe they said, "Lets honor the dead one by settling in an area named after him. I wonder why they didn't make it? Guess I have to keep reading.

Terah died there.

Questions for God:
1. Why didn't Terah make it to Canaan? Why did they want to move to Canaan anyway?

Ge. 10: Nimrod!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Well, basically we catch our breath here with chapter 10. It tells what becomes of Noah's sons, their offspring, and where they live. Well...let's get on with it!

Japheth had these sons:
-Gomer
--Ashkenaz
--Riphath
--Togarmah
-Magog
-Madai
-Javan
--Elishah
--Tarshish
--the Kittim and the Rodanim (apparently sailors with their own language)
-Tubal
-Meshech
-Tiras

Ham (the Cursed):
-Cush
--Seba
--Havilah
--Sabtah
--Raamah
---Sheba
---Dedan
--Sabteca
-Mizraim
--the Ludites
--Anamites
--Lehabites
--Naphtuhites
--Pathrusites
--Casluhites (ancestors of the Philistines)
--Caphtorites
-Put
-Canaan
--Sidon
--the Hittites
--Jebusites
--Amorites
--Girgashites
--Hivites
--Arkites
--Sinites
--Arvadites
--Zemarites
--Hamathites

Cush was also the father of Nimrod, who was described in the word as a mighty warrior on the earth. He was a mighty hunter before the LORD, which is why people said "Like Nimrod, a mighty hunter before the LORD." Duh!! And apparently in his expansive kingdom, he had centers in Babylon, Erech, Akkad and Calneh which were apparently in Shinar. The names of these towns mean nothing to me at this point. Babylon I've heard of. Nimrod added to his nation-building with Ninevah, Rehoboth Ir, Calah, and Resen (also called the great city).

The sons of Canaan scattered from Sidon to Gerar as far as Gaza, and then to Sodom, Gomorrah, Admah, and Zeboiim as far as Lasha.

Again I'm not sure of what these cities are, or where they are, but...the point is that they had expansive kingdoms. Not bad for someone cursed to slavery by their Great-Grandfather Noah.

Shem
-Elam
-Asshur
-Arphaxad
--Shelah
---Eber
----Peleg (Because of a division. I'm guessing that's between Shem, Ham and Japheth, but I could be wrong. Maybe a division between good and evil?)
----Joktan (his descendants lived in the east hill country.)
-----Almodad
-----Sheleph
----- Hazarmaveth
----- Jerah
----- Hadoram
----- Uzal
-----Diklah
-----Obal
-----Abimael
-----Sheba (possibly named after his great-uncle, the son of Raamah?)
-----Ophir
-----Havilah (possibly named after his great-great-great-uncle, the son of Cush?)
-----Jobab
-Lud
-Aram
--Uz
--Hul
--Gether
--Meshech (possibly named after his uncle, the son of Japheth?)

Apparently, Noah's sons took God's commands to heart from chapter nine. They were fruitful and multiplied. This genealogy must be important for some reason. They also spread out into the world and claimed the land.

Questions for God:
1. Nimrod?
2. Were all the continents really crammed together?

Ge. 9: "Hey fellas, Dad's naked again!"

There are a couple of seemingly distinct stories in chapter 9. The first is the blessing and charge bestowed upon Noah and his sons as they left the ark. The second, a rather tawdry tale of what happens when you don't know when to say "When."

What I find most interesting about verse 1 is that it says God "blessed" Noah and his sons when he told them to be fruitful and multiply. He didn't "command" them. He didn't suggest it. What a blessing indeed it must be to know that you will be the root of the entire world's family tree. Also, it is a blessing to be able to do what God tells you to do. Amazing to get a command directly from God's mouth. And just in case Noah and his boys miss the point, God repeats it again in verse seven.

God puts the fear of man into all living creatures. Ah. This must be why birds frantically take flight when I approach to within 200 yards of them, and though I wish them no particular ill will. Maybe this "fear and dread" is similar to how we see God. I think animals in some way recognize just how special we humans are. Encountering humans is an awe-inspiring thing for them...in that they are in awe of God. And maybe this fear and dread comes from that fact that in verse 3, God tells Noah that animals are now food, where they weren't before.

It is with this point, we are shown God's reverence for life, as the command is given not to eat meat still containing the lifeblood. Does it mean that we can't have a steak cooked rare? Does it mean we can't start consuming the flesh of something while it is still alive? I lean toward both. Blood is precious, and is used for life, not for food. If God didn't want us eating something while it was still alive, I'm guessing he would have said something about the breath of life, not merely the blood of life. I still find the idea of biting into a living, breathing, bleeding thing monstrous, but that's not the explicit command here.

God says He (not she) demands an accounting for our lifeblood. Every single life is precious, and is not to be wasted. Not only human life, animal life. Each living creature from man down to...I don't know, fleas...counts for something.

The end of verse 6 could be read as "Whoever sheds the blood of (the image of God), by (the image of God) shall his blood be shed, for in the image of God has God made man. Whenever I see "man" in the Bible, I am being trained to see "the image of God." Even Canadians? Especially Canadians.

Now we get to a covenant...a promise...a vow. Not only is it between God and Noah (man) and his descendants, it includes every living creature on earth. God promised us and them that He would never cut off all life with a flood. A flood would never destroy the earth again. God's in it to win it with the team He has on the field now. How would we be reminded of this covenant? A rainbow. Whenever there is a raincloud, and a rainbow appears, God will remember His covenant. Now we can see reminders in waterfalls and sprinklers too. Scientists for the most part have figured out what physically causes a rainbow. But it doesn't explain away the miracle of or diminish the purpose of its creation.

Verse 18 begins the antics of the house of Noah.

Noah planted a vineyard, and had too much to drink one day. He got drunk and got naked. Some would say he was the first Irishman. Ham came in and saw his dad laying there all wasted. (Whether or not he completely passed out is debatable. At any rate, he would have been primed for a serious chiefing.) He came out and told his brothers. Well, they, appearing to take the high road, walked in backwards and covered Noah with a garment.

When Noah "awoke from his wine" or sobered up (in my estimation), he found out what his youngest son had "done" to him. Whatever Ham did was enough to to bring the curse of inferiority and slavery of his descendants (Canaan) to those of his older brothers. If all Ham did was "see" his father naked, and not do anything about it, it would seem Noah went nuclear over nothing. Cursing one's descendants, who are in actuality your descendants, is big-time. We don't know if Ham wrote all over him with a Sharpie or did something much more...sinister. Moving on...

"Cursed be Canaan! The lowest of slaves will he be to his brothers."

"Blessed be the LORD, the God of Shem! May Canaan be the slave of Shem!"

"May God extend the territory of Japheth; may Japheth live in the tents of Shem, and may Canaan be his slave."

My dad has had to scold me before. But never has he wished that my brother Jim's descendants enslave mine.

And Noah lived to the ripe old age of 950. Which means he died circa 1996.

And then he died.

Questions for God:
1. Why do we get to eat animals now?
2. What...never mind, I'm not sure I want to know what happened in verse 22.
3. To what extent are animals sentient in regards to their understanding of who you are? And how advanced are we in comparison to them, if at all...?

Ge. 8: Quoth the raven, "I don't know where I am."

When we last left Noah, he was saved from the flood, but shut up in the ark. Chapter eight begins with another amazing act of God. So the earth is completely drenched, and the Bible says God sent a wind over the earth and the waters receded. What kind of wind dries 5.5 miles of water? Maybe all the water didn't recede? Maybe now there are oceans as a result of this great wind? It would have been very amazing to witness that.

So...

Deluge - 40 days
Flood - 150 days

7 months, 17 days - ark rests in mountains of Ararat.

10 months - tops of the mountains are visible

11 months, 10 days - the raven is sent out, the dove is sent out and returns

11 months, 17 days - the dove is sent out again, and returns with an olive leaf

11 months, 24 days - the dove is sent out a third time and does not return

1 year, 10 days - Our weary travelers leave the ark...335 days after it stops raining.

I always hear "Mount Ararat." The word says "mountains of Ararat." I keep hearing about how the ark has been found, but its in a disputed zone or something, so we can't go check it out. Whether the ark remains there in those mountains in Turkey probably has no bearing to me on whether or not this story is true. If it's found...fascinating. If not, oh well, it was a billion years ago.

Verse 7 is a little weird. It says Noah sent out the raven, and it went back and forth "until the water dried up from the earth." It doesn't say the raven returned. My guess is it left and didn't come back, and just flew about until it found a place to land? Apparently the mountaintops were visible, but who knows how far they were away. I wonder why it didn't come back, if it didn't?

When Noah sent out the dove for the second time, and it returned with an olive leaf, it strikes me how creation just obeys God, and is used by God for us. To teach us and to instruct us. I will look for that in further readings. God designed for this dove to bring Noah a sign, and the dove did exactly what it was supposed to do.

God has Noah finally walk out of the ark, and all the animals file out, and get moving. I wonder how walruses traveled from the Mediterranean to the arctic circle. Did they trek all those thousands of miles like a pudgy thousand-pound inchworm? Maybe they swam. Swimming makes more sense. I would guess travel was not job one...being fruitful and multiplying and increasing in number was.

So Noah builds an altar, and sacrifices some of the clean animals and birds (as mentioned in chapter seven). The burning flesh was a pleasing aroma to the LORD, and he thought, "I'm never going to curse the ground again or destroy all life." All I know of the smell of burning flesh is the physical. The flesh burns away, leaving....? Quite frankly, it's nasty. Probably not like a barbecue. But the point is probably not the smell of the burning flesh. I'm guessing its a little more obtuse, like how Texans say that the electric chair facilitates the smell of justice. Its the aroma of thankfulness, or of sin being washed away.

God says something that endures today:

"As long as the earth endures, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night will never cease."

These are all things God has created, and something He will never destroy.

Why then should I fear supposed global climate change? God has made His promise.

Ge. 7: Everybody in the Pool

I can only imagine the grief Noah got from his continually-evil-all-the-time neighbors and acquaintances for essentially building a seaworthy DeVos Place on his property. I am assuming he didn't get a whole lot of positive feedback. I would assume his walk with God was rather well known, so that probably got some airplay on Gossip Radio.

So, after the ark is built, God's like, "Go on in there." God explained to Noah that, because he was found righteous in this generation, God would shed His grace on him and his family. This flood was not without its consequences, such as wiping out all life, so God had Noah bring aboard the ark seven of every clean animal, (a male and its mate, either for dinner or rituals or both, and the Bible at this point doesn't speak to God's requirement for ceremonies) and two of every unclean animal (a male and its mate). So, if it was seven pairs of every clean animal, I wonder if it was actually two pairs of every unclean animal? The words are the same in regards to clean and unclean animals. Verse 15 and 16 just says "pairs" and "were male and female." Maybe not. I don't know Hebrew. But thats not the point here, the point is, the species of each was preserved.

Clean animals: 7 pairs
Unclean animals: 2 (pairs?)
Birds: 7 pairs

Noah had a week to get all these aminals into the ark, because that's when God said he would commence a 40-day deluge of rain. A weather phenomenon apparently heretofore unseen by the planet earth (see Genesis 2:6). I wonder if this speaks to the nature of a soul with animals. God wiped out the vast majority of them. God saw fit to save more animals than people at that time. Does this say something about how important animals are to God...how innocent they are...or just how completely subhuman man had become?

Noah was no spring chicken...being 600 years old on F-Day.

The Bible describes the flood in a terrifying way. It wasn't just a steady drizzle, it was more than a heavy downpour. It says all the springs from the deep burst forth. The floodgates of the heavens were open. It doesn't just rain for forty days and forty nights. The ground erupted with great seas pouring forth from underneath. I imagine the sky shattering and literally pouring its contents forth onto the earth. I don't imagine people had time to climb high mountains and get on top of buildings. I imagine the extinction was just about instantaneous. From the Bible's description, I can't imagine people climbing into their boats or canoes or whatever, and almost making it.

God made absolutely sure He was starting clean.

For forty days the deluge continued. Presumably unrelenting. The storm probably never lightened up. There was probably no break in the clouds. Just a constant rush of water. The ark was lifted high above the earth. Hopefully Noah didn't lean over and drop his keys or his sunglasses over the side.

It was so catastrophic that the highest mountains under the entire heavens were covered. to more than twenty feet. To cover Mount Everest by twenty feet means the water would have been about 5.5 miles above sea level. The distance from my house to Yesterdog. It increased the volume of the earth by 1.2 billion cubic miles.

Verse 22 says everything with the breath of life in its nostrils perished. Doesn't mention fish. Or plesiasaurs. Pleisiosaurs...you know, swimming monsters. Just...everything died, ok?

Only Noah and those on the ark were left. Noah was legend.

It took 150 days for the waters to recede to the point where Noah could set down on dry land. So we hear about the 40 days and 40 nights bit, and then we assume Noah could bail. We don't often hear about the extra 150 days, putting Noah on a floating toilet barge for a little over 6 months.

Questions for God:
1. Did you really have to completely wipe out mankind?
2. What is the meaning of a flood? Is it that a flood reaches completely into every available space, filling it totally? Is it ... cleansing? A flood is total, it is complete...?

Ge. 6: The Nephilim, and Only Evil, All the Time.

So by the time we get to Noah, after only ten generations, we have some beautiful daughters. So beautiful in fact that the sons of God saw that the daughters of men were beautiful. They married whichever ones they wanted.

Although we are called the sons of God, there is a distinction drawn here, revealing that there is something different about these sons of God. This behavior is evidently displeasing to God, as he says, "My Spirit will not contend with man forever, for he is mortal, his days will be a hundred and twenty years."

From this I gather that these "sons of God" are immortal. What good would it be for immortals to commit to and procreate with mere mortals? God knew this wasn't good for the bride to be drawn into a relationship that was only going to be permanent to them, and require only a temporary commitment for ... what I'm guessing at this point are angels. It is simply unequal. Probably to grease the wheels a little to put an end to this practice, God shortens life expectancy dramatically to 120 years. 12 sets of 10.

My second thought is that when God says man is mortal, it seems to be a reminder than man is also fallen. These "sons of God," being immortal, are apparently not fallen...not given to a sin nature. So perhaps God wanted to also protect the "sons of God."

The children of these sons of God and daughters of man were called the Nephilim. The Bible says they were "the heroes of old, men of renown." An immortal nature, although diluted by mortal daughters of man, endowed (maybe the wrong word here, deal with it) the Nephilim to a point in which they displayed super strength and shapeshifting and flying and time travel and accomplishments, which would appear to regular joe's to be godlike. I don't know what these accomplishments specifically were, but I can wonder.

Apparently, an incorruptible nature wasn't hereditary for the Nephilim, as the word goes on to say about man that "every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually." I have already read dozens of amazing things in only a few short chapters, but I don't see exaggeration. The above statement is pretty damning. There was nobody helping old ladies cross the ... cave? Nobody teaching their kids about right and wrong? No love?

What God created with such beauty and intimacy has completely turned against him. The Bible said God was grieved, was sorry, that His heart was pained. Emotional passage here. Because of this, God decides to wipe out everyone and every living creature that moves along the ground and in the air (not the sea, apparently...would God drown fish?). God is grieved that He created them. He created them, and He can certainly end them.

At first glance, it seems pretty capricious of God to do this. Just wipe the slate clean everytime someone gets out of line? So the nature of God in this instance comes down to a couple of options. Either He failed at His creation, and is given to a sort of dictatorial whimsy of annihilating mankind, or He simply does not tolerate sin. He is separate from sin, and would that mankind be separate from sin as well. I sure hope it is the latter. And does God's wiping mankind from the face of the earth at this point equate to Him putting man out of his misery as he suffers from a terminal sin nature?

There was apparently one man who didn't fit in with the rest of humanity ("humanity" used loosely). And that is Noah.

The NIV says Noah was righteous, blameless among the people of his time. He "walked with God," as did Enoch back in chapter five. It seems that those who "walk with God" are preserved and protected from horrible fates, such as death, and the extermination of man. I want to walk with God....anyway. Noah isn't one of the aforementioned "sons of God." His genealogy is pretty specifically spelled out. It doesn't say Noah is perfect, but he was righteous enough.

God informs Noah that he is pwning the rest of mankind, and that He has chosen Noah to continue humanity. What an amazing responsibility. Granted, although we are a mere 10 generations into humanity, its still about 1600 years. How the earth must have populated by that time. If God, with whom you already have a close relationship, tells you he is saving you and yours only, thats pretty humbling.

How will he preserve Noah? Giant boat.

Bible says it will be 450 feet long (one and a half football fields), 75 feet wide (About 3/4 the length of a basketball court) and 45 feet high (almost a five-story building). So God gives all these instructions to Noah, and then reveals that he will send a flood.

What I find most interesting is that God reveals the way to escape, before he reveals exactly what the coming tribulation is going to be. And after that, God reveals why Noah has to build this gigantic vessel for him, his wife, his sons, and his sons wives. Because Noah, his wife, his sons, and his sons wives aren't going to be the only ones on the ark. No. They are going to have roommates. Two of all living creatures, male and female. I don't know if Noah was any kind of a herder, or if he had a particular skill with animals. We'll find out.

Noah did everything just as God commanded him. I would too.

Questions for God:
1. What were the Nephilim like?
2. Who were you protecting more with the shortened lifespan?
3. Were the men you created on other planets as rebellious as us?

Ge. 5: Adam to Noah; and Enoch Disappears

We start out with the emphasis of how God created man in His image, blessed them, and called them man. Right after that, it talks about Adam having a son...you guessed it, "in his own image." This means more to me than, "Oh look, he's got his father's nose and sense of humor." If the same phrase (in his own image) is used to describe Seth, Son of Adam as Man, Son of God, then we all must be pretty important. We are like sons of God. We have the same value to God as a son should be beloved by his father. Image includes more than physical attributes. It's a love attribute.

Adam - DOB: 0 - 930
v
Seth - DOB: 130 - 1042
v
Enosh - DOB: 235 - 1140
v
Kenan - DOB: 325 - 1235
v
Mahalel - DOB:395 - 1290
v
Jared - DOB: 460 - 1422
v
Enoch - DOB: 622 - 987
v
Methuselah - DOB: 677 - 1646
v
Lamech - DOB: 864 - 1641
v
Noah - DOB: 1046 -

Not much is said here about these fellows, other than, "dude lived X years, had dude Jr., and then lived Y more years. Altogether, dude lived X + Y years."

There are a couple exceptions. Verrrrry interesting exceptions. The most interesting by far is Enoch. Enoch gave birth to the apotheosis of age, the epitome of elderly, the original old man, Methuselah. So that's pretty cool in it's own right.

However, the word of God says "After he became the father of Methuselah, , Enoch walked with God 300 years, and had other sons and daughters. Altogether, Enoch lived 365 years. Enoch walked with God; then he was no more, because God took him away." I guess that's the passage that blows my mind the most here.

At first glance, it doesn't really mean that much. When we say people die today, we say, "God took him," or "He is no more." But the passage, unlike those of the other bunch of men, does not say, "and then he died." No. Apparently, God just swung low, and gave Enoch a ride on the sweet chariot, taking him home. Enoch must have had some kind of crazy amount of faith, or found favor with God, that God wouldn't wait another minute to bring him into Heaven...or...wherever God dwelt.

I don't know what this means, only if I were a young Methusaleh (age 300) and saw my old man lift off like that, I would be dumbstruck. This occurence certainly isn't mentioned previously, so it would have been completely new.

To me, this reveals a part of God's nature in that He works outside the realm of death. He is not bound by life or death.

And Methuselah...969 years old. If a 969-year-old died today, he would have been born in 1038. I don't know. There's no significance to that year. It's just a long time ago.

Oh, and Lamech...I believe that's the same Lamech from chapter 4, bragging about how he killed or injured two people, and would be avenged 77 times, as opposed to Cain's 7 times, dies at age 777. Weird, man. God gave him 3 7s. I wonder if Lamech's Great-great-great-great-great-great grandfather Adam got wind of him talking about his son Cain. Or did Adam die before that clownery.

So, then he has a son, Noah. In regard to Noah, Lamech says, "He will comfort us in the labor and painful toil of our hands caused by the ground the LORD has cursed." I'm not exactly sure what this is all about, but I'm guessing it has something to do with Noah's name. So Noah is seen by Lamech as a comforter. Does it mean that after 182 years of labor, Lamech can kick back finally, and let Noah do all the work? Or is this kind of a backhanded swipe at God? "Ohhh, God cursed the ground, I'll show him, I'll make Noah do all the work now. Take that, O Lord." The way Lamech acted about Cain, it would seem he's swiping.

Then Noah has Shem, Ham and Japheth.

Questions for God:
1. What's the deal with Enoch?
2. Did those first men in the Bible really live that long? Like our years long?

Ge. 4: Murder, the Don't-Kill-Me mark, and the land of Nod

So, outside the garden, outside of paradise. Adam is like, "Pitter-patter, let's get at 'er," and Eve gives birth to a son. Cain.

She recognizes that it is with the help of the LORD. What a miracle. Its the first childbirth, and Eve is in awe. That birth is common to everyone today does not diminish the miracle. Ever.

Abel kept the flocks, and Cain was the gardener.

Cain brings this offering to the LORD. Abel felt the need to sacrifice as well. Abel brought his fat portions, and Cain brought "some of the fruits." God favored Abel's sacrifice, because what he brought was the best, not just some fruit. Cain got all sulky. He didn't do what was right. The discovery here is that the type of sacrifice doesn't matter, the proper heart with which it is brought does. If Cain brought the brightest and best, there would have been favor. Instead, he kind of mailed it in. God also refers to this blunder as a sin (knowledge of good and evil). Cain knew what God expected. He thought he could slide by with junk like most of my college writing papers. God says that sin crouches at your doorstep if you do not do what is right. It desires you. You must master it.

Cain killed Abel, and then gives God lip when God questions him. We have another example of God's omniscience here. He saw the mur-diddly-urder. God drove him away from his livelyhood...live...livelihood...drove him away from what he did best: fruit farming and set him to wander. That's a hardcore punishment and an amazing example of mercy. Something you love results in your sin...God takes away that something. Was it to prevent future sins in a similar way? Why didn't God strike Cain down? He probably didn't want to become some cosmic referee.

Anyway, God protects this condemned man from death.

Cain's son was his inspiration for the city of Enoch. And there was further procreation. I don't have much to say about lists of weird names in the Bible, other than that I wonder how some names stick, like David and Joel and Jeremiah, and why some don't like Maher-Shalal-Hash-Baz or Methuselah.

Lamech, a great...grandson of Cain, has a son, Jabal. Jabal is the father of those who live in tents and raise livestock. Neat, its the birth of the Amish (apologies to any Amish who read this site...on their computers...).

His brother Jubal was a musician, and gave rise to harpists and flautists.

Their brother, Tubal Cain forged tools out of bronze and iron. After his bout with testicular cancer, he was renamed simply Bal Cain...no...not really.

Then Lamech addresses his wives and is quoted as saying,

"Adah and Zillah, listen to me; wives of Lamech, hear my words. I have killed a man for injuring me, a young man for injuring me. If Cain is avenged seven times, then Lamech seventy-seven times."

What a loony...the only thing I can gather from this bravado is that because Lamech offed two dudes, instead of being avenged seven times, he will be avenged seventy-seven times. If there's anyone who doesn't understand God's mercy, it is Lamech. If there's anyone lousy at math, it is Lamech.

And at the end, we are introduced to Seth. Cain killed Abel, so Adam and Eve had to replace him.

At that time, men began to call on the name of the Lord.

Ge. 3: It's the LORD. Oh no, run!

All right, now we meet the crafty serpent. You just knew it wasn't going to stay hunky-dory for long. Crafty is sly. Although with the naivete' of Adam and the woman who just fell off the turnip truck, how crafty did the serpent really have to be? I don't know. And maybe the serpent was a dragon. That's what I think of when I think serpent. Not snake exactly.

Anyway, the serpent says, "Did God really say, 'You must not eat from any tree in the garden'?"
I had to go back into chapter two...verse 17. God actually says "You must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will surely die." The serpent twisted the words around. The woman corrects it, saying what God said in 2:17. What I never really noticed before was that God issued this command to Adam before the woman was created. So Adam must have emphasized this to her in some way that she was able to internalize it, and recall it later. Maybe that was obvious, but I never noticed that. I wonder what else they talked about?

While the woman had it right to begin with, the serpent started off with a statement that allows doubt to creep in. Before the woman knew it, she was listening, and then..."You will not surely die," the serpent goes on, directly and obviously contradicting what God said, playground style. It is a complete and total opposite. Something is the reverse of God here. The anti-God. Bizzaro God. He then goes on to inject the idea that she and her husband will be like God, knowing good and evil, like that is some wonderful gift. The serpent attached a perceived value to this thing that the woman bought into. I've...never done that. As though its worth you're ever-lovin' soul. The serpent causes them to question God's motives, as cynics, thinking God has some sinister motive for them not already knowing good and evil. As if God is hoarding all the knowledge for Himself.

We know what happens next: Fruit looks good, woman takes a bite, Adam is like, "I'm with you, babe," and eats it as well.

Now they know they are naked. It must have been some kind of cataclysm at that point. No longer was there perfection. Anywhere. I imagine they noticed spots and wrinkles and sags where there were none previously. The entire earth must have groaned collectively as paradise was closed. The lamb got up from his spot next to the lion. Or was devoured in a gory, tendon-snapping, entrail flinging mess.

They had to cover what was created in innocence and beauty, as it now became a taboo. So they hide, and God asks where they are, but He knew. It seems like God wants to open a dialogue, rather than be accusatory. As if He wants Adam to recognize that he missed the mark on his own, rather than be put in the hot seat. Adam doesn't lie to God. And like any loving husband, he blames his wife. She blames the serpent. Interesting that the first punishment is handed out to the serpent. What a bleak, horrible future the serpent is given. The bride...er...woman will have enmity (conflict) with him, and his head is going to be crushed by a Son of Adam, although there will be some heel-strikage.

The woman gets it bad too...childbirth will be painful...moreso, as the punishment is the increase. The desire for the husband is apparently also a part of the punishment, not in some sort of wink-wink, unfunny stand-up comedian way, but perhaps that speaks to the tribulations of marriage...especially the divine marriage?

The ground is cursed because of Adam. Of course, he has to work the soil, and get pricked by the thorns suddenly sprouted by roses and the like. His food will have to be cultivated, it won't just be pluckable. ( I just wanted to say, "pluckable.") As Adam noticed imperfections in his naked body, so now the earth begins its decay. So, I guess, man is responsible for earth changes.

The woman is named Eve...the mother of all the living. My great-great...great...etc...grandmother. Your great-great-and-so-on grandmother.

Man now knows good and evil. It was good to know only good, I imagine. With knowing good and evil, you have to now know evil as well. Great prize, Bob. Hope that fruit was tasty. It's like matching all the numbers in the lotto, and winning 80 cents...and a trip to the guillotine. God says that now Adam cannot reach out and take fruit from the tree of life and live forever. That's all it would have taken? God's original design was eternal life. Probably better that Adam isn't alive today, he'd be seen as the guy that spoils everything, like when you set up a family photo and he streaks through the background, or he drops the pop-up with the game on the line...you just want to say, "You blew it!" Its easy to throw Adam under the bus for our human condition...but the serpent would have gotten to someone eventually.

So one man ushers in sin...

My Bible says the man was driven out. I'm assuming it wasn't like a limo drives someone out. I don't get the impression that God pointed to the gate, and Adam hung his head and trudged out. I think Adam did what he could to stay in that place, and would have done anything to get back in. I wonder if there was full scale tantrumming. I wonder if he thought the tree of life could still save him?

Kind of a downer chapter, outside of the serpent with a crushed head. Things will get better for this Adam guy though, right?


Questions I have for God:
1. What was the serpent?
2. What was the fruit? (Meaningless in the grand scheme of things, but...don't you want to know?)
3. What would childbirth have been like without pain? How could pain not exist?
4. At what point did you realize you didn't need the cherubim and the flashing sword by the tree of life?

Ge. 2: Naked without Shame

Further observations on previous reading:
Creation, although it could have been instantaneous, was a process. With that precedent, who am I to expect immediacy in certain aspects of life?

Chapter two begins with saying that the heavens and the earth were completed. What God did, He apparently did right the first time. No redos or mulligans.

Rest is blessed of God. Rest is separate from our work. Rest should take up a whole day. God didn't rest because He was exhausted. He rested because he should have.

The next part is too amazing to just break down into interpretation. From the King James Version, I give you Genesis 2:7:

"And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul."

Spectacular. Ponder that for a moment.

This God breathes life into what heretofore was a pile of dust. Lifeless...soulless. Nothing.
What an amazing display of power. What a way for the Almighty to connect to man. Can two beings be drawn any closer together? What intimacy. What a way to begin life. Can you imagine? Exhaling from your lungs on your first breath the very breath of God. He could have spoken and told the man to breathe. Instead, God comes into our space, our face, and gives life from himself.

No animals are recorded as receiving this kind of treatment. The very idea that we are mere "great apes" does a disservice to all mankind, and completely negates the above exchange between God and Adam.

I wonder at what age Adam was? I wonder how old he would have been, had he been born? Something tells me that this was a land before time, before the ravages of age. Maybe he had the glorified body we are promised at our own resurrection?

Eden seems like it would have been a very cool place. Pristine streams watering every kind of beautiful flowers and fruited trees that were, "pleasing to the eye." You have your choice in this endless river valley of the best kinds of food available to you.

Then we are introduced to the concept of good vs. evil for the first time. The tree of life, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

Adam was put in the garden to care for it. He was given a very clear instruction. "That tree...that is the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Do not eat from that tree, or you will die." Die? Was there any concept of death? Could we fairly expect Adam to grasp the gravity of this command? Or maybe the command itself wasn't the point. It was the expectation of obedience. It was God issuing His will, and the choice suddenly being available to abide in it, or to wander outside of it.

I wonder what God had him doing the whole time that would make Adam be thankful for a woman.

As I reread that, I realize the slam on women that is inherent. It wasn't my intent. The intent was to wonder about the various tasks Adam had to do throughout the day(s?) of labor that completely exhausted him. Tasks that made him long for a companion. Again, the creation of the woman could have been instantaneous. Instead God goes through a rather bizarre process of causing Adam to sleep (to this point, sleep may have been unnecessary and an undiscovered treasure), taking a rib (a rib of all things, and the significance is currently lost on me, but I'll look into it), and closing up the place. Again, we can expect process from God. How rare it must be then when our requests are granted with immediacy or with simplicity in the way we expect it.

God's conventions are unconventional.

The idea of the woman being taken "out of man" combines man and woman in just the perfectly designed way. Man and woman are designed and created to be one flesh.

And they were naked, and they felt no shame.


Questions I have for God:
1. Why the choice of trees to begin with?
2. How did all these animals show up to be named, and who recorded it? Everything comes from some Latin or Greek name (which...has to come from somewhere I suppose.)

Ge. 1: Why not start at the beginning?

Why not start at the beginning...

"In the beginning God..."

So begins the most fascinating book.

In reading through the first chapter of Genesis, there is one way to describe God as He creates something where there was not. This God is just about the most powerful being I could imagine being conceived.

He was there at "the beginning," which is the only way we as people can grasp the concept of an eternal God. So don't try to go past that. It's scary and pointless, like Chemistry class.

With a word, He said, "Light." And light appeared. Something I just used to skip over as a kid. Eh, God says something, and it is done. Immediately. But lately, I've been pondering over this idea. Light never existed before God thought of it. It wasn't like us walking into a dark room, and turning on the light switch. Its like walking into a dark room, and inventing light. How does one go about inventing something we so readily take for granted like light? There was nothing giving off light, no fire, no bulb...just...light. Man.

I'm not going to get into day-age creationism, but scripture says, "there was evening, and there was morning - the first day." Admittedly, this is before the Earth was in orbit around the sun, but I won't die on that hill.

"And God said," is repeated a buncha times in the chapter. He didn't consult a committee. This shows me He is certain of all things.

Evolution is another debate that ensnares well-meaning Bible-thumpers like me. Not so much plant evolution, but it should be noted that in verse 11, God creates vegetation bearing fruit with the seed already in it. According to what I'm reading here, seeds protected by fruit are not the result of millennia of Survival-of-the-Fittest. They are the result of God wanting them to be there. Now. The same can be said for animals. God says all were created according to their kind. Not the result of millennia of of Survival-of-the-Fittest. They are the result of God wanting them to be there. Now. Fish, birds, wild animals, livestock, creatures that move along the blah blah blah, and so on. Now. And this isn't a cobbled-together creation theory among Christian theologians and scientists using external Bible passages to assemble what we think happened, and pass it along in Sunday School. It's all pretty much right there in Chapter 1.

The image of God is something I don't readily grasp. But here we are. Are we an image of God in that we reflect His glory, or are we theomorphs?

Verse 16: God created two great lights - the greater light to govern the day, and the lesser light to govern the night. Foreshadowing....

Toward the end of chapter one, God says we were created to be vegans. Originally. And lets be careful, cruelty-free had nothing to do with it. But, at least we had every green plant for food.

Throughout the chapter, God is quoted as saying "This is good. That is good." What kind of amazing standard is that, to have created something, and said, "Good?" Perfect. Complete.

I wish I could have seen light for the first time in light's existence. How mind blowing would that be? Especially hanging around God, and not really having a good grasp of his omnipotence. I imagine the sky lifting from the ocean like some massive worldwide ocean liner suddenly rocketing out of the depths, when God created sky. The sheer sound and spectacle of such a catastrophic miracle would take my consciousness away, I think. I imagine continent-wide full grown trees suddenly carpeting the land, lakes forming, and the flight of the first birds, taking off with an instinct that flight is nothing new, and completely natural.

What a beautiful miracle, what a perfect entrance for this God.

Questions I have for God (Admittedly limited by my own humanity, and context of my own knowledge):
1. What were you and what were you doing before creation?
2. What made that light?