Chapter 1

Genesis chapter one opens in nothingness. Well, not exactly nothing – God existed and the first verse of Genesis lets us know that God is a creator because it says that God created the Heavens and the Earth. When God first created the Earth though, it was void, meaning it had nothing on it. It was essentially a shapeless void, but in its shapelessness the Spirit of God hovered over the Earth which makes me believe that there was peace on Earth. For there to be World peace, there had to be nothing in the World to mess it up. All of this existed before time began.

In fact, it is not until verse five that the idea of time even becomes a concept with the first day. It is also interesting that the first day begins with evening and then morning, which makes sense in our current time keeping practice of midnight being the start of the new day. Before time existed though, the Heavens, Earth, darkness, waters, and light were created. Those things are timeless, precious and seemingly have no end in our time since they had no beginning in our time.

The first day, God created Day and Night. On the second day, God created the seas and the sky. Day three showed us the creation of land on Earth, plants, fruit trees, and vegetation. All of this was a setup for life to inhabit the Earth, God was making a way for what was to come. And God saw that all of what was created was good.

On the fourth day, we see the creation of seasons and years (more time keeping), the sun and moon are put in place, noting that the sun is the greater light to rule the day and the moon is the lesser light to rule the night, and ending with the stars.

Day five shows us the creation of sea creatures and birds. God also created reproduction on this day as it is the first time we see the directive for a creature/created being to be fruitful and multiple. That also lets us know that the created can also create amongst themselves.

On day six, we see the creation of animals, but more relevant to us, we see the creation of humanity. God creates us in his own image, as noted in verse 27. So far we have seen that God is powerful, a creator, and has the ability to produce good things. If humans are created in the image of God, then they have similar attributes. Additionally, God gives humans a blessing both allowing them to reproduce (be fruitful and multiply) and giving them dominion over all the creatures on Earth (except other humans, I don’t see that written in the text). Verses 29 and 30 also seem to set the scene for all living creatures to be vegetarians, Seeing as how God gave them all of the plants to eat from. I imagine also that if God gave them food and they had their first meal, the Earth experienced the first farts, pees and poops on this sixth day. In all of that, God looked over all that was created and saw it all as good.

For six days at least, everything on Earth was good. God looked after everything to make sure of that. He let the midnight oil burn for six days to set everything up for humanity. Can you imagine if the first humans were created before food? Or before land existed? How different things might have turned out! But it seems that the Creator set things up in a very particular order, for things to happen in a very particular way, to allow for humans to not only survive, but thrive.

It’s important as people to know our origin story. Not just the primal where did humans come from story, but our own personal ones so that we can know that if even one thing happened out of order in our parents’ meeting, if our grandparents had decided to not have children, if somewhere down the line our great-great-great-grand-somebody hadn’t decided to move out of the city they were born in to look for better opportunities, if Neo in The Matrix had taken the blue pill instead of the red one, if a butterfly had flapped it’s wings at the wrong moment, if even one small detail had been different, we might not be here right now reading this blog. And that being said, if you weren’t here right now, someone else’s future might not exist either.

If there’s one thing to take away from chapter one of Genesis, it’s that God is a creator who created everything for a purpose with humanity in mind and that includes you.

Chapter 2

Genesis chapter two begins with God resting. Previously in chapter one, we saw God labor for six days. Now that the work has been finished verse two tells us, “And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made; and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made. And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it: because that in it he had rested from all his work which God created and made.” (KJV). It is interesting that this is the first principle that God teaches man. Just the day before, man was created and given food and dominion. The very next day, God shows man how to take a break after working hard, that there is more to life than work. And more importantly, God marked this time of rest as holy.

The rest of the chapter departs from this principle and jumps into a retelling of how God formed man. It begins by showing us the set up, that God watered the land to prepare the buffet of vegetation for man and animal to roam the land. Then, in verse seven it says that God formed man from the dust of the ground. Literally from dirt, from nothingness, God created something and breathed life into it. The dirt we walk on, that we pay no attention to except when we sweep it out of our house, that very same dirt that forms the land we walk on, God turned into human life.

After that, God makes a home for the man in the Garden of Eden. There was both food for the man to eat and trees that were there to look beautiful. God not only cares about man’s physical needs, but also his mental and emotional needs. The practical and the beautiful were combined to help create man’s dwelling place. And within that dwelling place also existed the tree of life and the tree of good and evil. To me that shows that God trusted man to be surrounded by life and by knowledge.

The chapter goes on to show all of the attributes and goods in the garden, it was by no means a small place to be able to hold the four rivers that flowed from it, the gold, the trees and all the other goods of the land. With the vastness of the garden, God put man to work the land. I imagine that man understood how to work well, after having witnessed the work of God. The one charge that God gave man was to not eat from the tree of knowledge of good and evil or he would die.

Now I don’t know about anyone else, but when someone tells me not to do something I automatically start to think about the thing that I can’t do instead of all of the things I can do. The only thing man was told not to do was to eat of one particular tree. That is it. Every other tree you can eat from, you can hang out in the land, check out the gold in Havilah, swim in any of the four rivers, and if that wasn’t enough God also decides to form a helper for man so he’s not alone. That’s A LOT of things you can do, and just the one small thing you can’t do. More on that one thing later.

In looking for a helper for man, God formed every creature imaginable. And he let man name them, so man got to be part of the creative process. If you don’t believe that man and God got to be creative together, take a look at the platypus.

After man spent some time in the biblical tinder game of swiping left on a bunch of creatures and not finding his match, God literally created the perfect woman for him. God made man go to sleep so He could do the work that was needed to be done without interference and took a rib from the man (who doesn’t love ribs?) in order to form his mate. Man’s perfect mate, his helper, had been a part of him the whole time. And that is the last thing God creates. Woman. The culmination of creation.

Man acknowledges that Woman came from his flesh and bones and says the phrase “at last”. After waiting and seeing so many creatures, he saw the one that was familiar, comfortable, and part of him. And the word tells us that man will leave his parents for his wife and that the two become one flesh.

The chapter ends by telling us that both man and woman were naked and not ashamed. To be naked is to be vulnerable, open, hiding nothing, no covering or protection. The fact that they could be naked together tells me that there was a level of trust and openness that existed between them. They felt comfortable in their own skin.

Oh to feel comfortable in your own skin! That is the dream, but many of us don’t live that dream. We let the world tell us who we are and how we should feel. Let me tell you something though. God created us to be us. We are not platypuses or cats or ostriches or any other creature. We are also not Spartacus, Cleopatra, King Nebuchadnezzar, Jackie Robinson, or Meryl Streep (unless in fact you are Meryl Streep reading this, in which case disregard my last and congrats on the Oscar I am sure you are nominated for just for reading this).

You were created to be YOU!!!

God breathed life into your lungs. He formed you out of nothingness and saw that you were a precious gift to the Earth. Don’t focus on the one tree you can’t eat from. Be naked and unashamed as you dance, prance, sing, shout, jump and run through the amazing garden you live in! Keep your focus on all that has been given to you and all that you have been created to do and don’t be ashamed.

Chapter 3

Genesis chapter three opens by introducing us to a new character, the Serpent. The text tells us that the Serpent was more crafty or subtle than any of the other creatures. Just like with any good story, this is a set up to introduce us to the antagonist. And the antagonist is almost always a snake!

The first thing this snake does is go up to a woman and make her doubt what she knew to be true. He asked, “Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden?” Basically, did God say you can’t eat anything in the garden? The answer is no, that’s not what God said. God gave a very specific qualification that humans could eat of any tree except the tree of knowledge of Good and Evil. If we look back in chapter two of Genesis, we will notice that God gave this directive to man before woman was created, so man had to have told woman at some point because she responds to the Serpent by saying that they can’t eat or touch the fruit or else they will die. Now that’s not exactly what God said, he said they couldn’t eat the fruit, but he didn’t say anything about not touching it, so there’s already a misunderstanding of the word of God.

So the Serpent continues with his mind games and tells the woman that she’ll be like God if she eats the fruit and of course she won’t die. So she looked at the tree (don’t our eyes always get us into trouble?) and liked what she saw, so she ate the fruit and then shared some with her husband. Sharing is caring!!

The sneaky sneaky snake cornered this poor woman to spew his lies. My question is, where was the man in all of this? His woman was talking to a snake and he doesn’t pop up on the scene until she offers him some food? Really. After that, the Serpent pretty much flees the scene and leaves the man and woman to figure out life themselves. He just sort of showed up to cause trouble and then dipped out.

Once the man and woman ate of the fruit, they realized that they were naked so they tried to cover up with some fig leaves. Back in chapter two, they were naked and unashamed, so now they’re clothed and ashamed. Something is wrong here.

The next thing that happens is that God shows up on the scene. He strolls through the garden in the cool of the day and the man and woman hide from him because they know they messed up. And God, already knowing what went down called to them to see how they would react. Immediately, everyone starts playing the blame game. The woman blames the Serpent, the man blames the woman and God (“The woman whom thou gavest to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I did eat”), I imagine the Serpent is looking around like “Who me?” Shame will do that to you, make you afraid, make you hide, make you play the blame game.

The thing that gets me is that NOBODY took responsibility for what went down. NOBODY said, hey yeah actually it was me, I messed up. NOBODY stood up for anyone else. NOBODY owned what they did. They all just pointed fingers. And that led to God punishing them all.

To the Serpent, He cursed him to crawl on the Earth and be trampled on by man. To the woman, He increased (multiplied) her pain in childbirth and made her desires about her husband. And to the man, He cursed the ground that man is to work on, telling him he will need to sweat (work hard) to eat and that he was born from nothing (dust) and will die and be nothing (dust).

After this, God shows compassion for the humans. He clothes them in animal skin. That must have been a lot more comfortable that fig leaves. After the humans had some comfort, God enforced the last consequence to their actions. He kicked them out of the garden and placed an angel with a flaming sword there to stand guard so they couldn’t return. Man and woman, now named Adam and Eve, had to make their home else where. And for anyone who has ever moved to a new city, it is hard to leave the place you loved for the unknown.

The thing about temptation is it will develop you or destroy you.

Your character is made through trials and how you learn to (or not to) handle them. Some choices that I have made in life have caused me to absolutely crumble, but the lessons I have learned from those moments have been tattooed on my heart. In life, we can either own up to the choices we have made and deal with the suffering head on, or we can play the blame game and see how far that takes us. Regardless, we are not perfect and will mess up along the way just like the first humans.

Be encouraged though! God shows us in this first temptation in Scripture that although there are consequences to our disobedience, we can still live, we can be happy and we can still talk with God. All is not lost. Life goes on.

Chapter 4

Genesis chapter 4 is the first chapter that begins outside of the Garden. In chapter 3, we saw man disobey God and be dealt the consequence of having to leave the Garden, but with a promise – that woman would birth a son who would crush the serpent under foot. In the first verse of chapter 4, we see that Eve bars a son named Cain and she thanks the Lord for him. She also gives birth to a son named Abel. For 2 adults who never had a childhood, having 2 boys must have been challenging.

Now the text let’s us know that these sons were different from one another. The first born, Cain, tilled the ground. Basically, he grew crops from the ground. And Abel was a shepherd, he had to care for animals. Aside from that, their jobs, they had the same upbringing, the same parents, the same environment, the same everything.

After some time, each boy brought an offering to God. Cain brought some of the fruit that he had grown and Abel brought the first of his flock as an offering. Now it doesn’t say why, but God had regard for Abel’s offering and not Cain’s. So Cain got angry.

It was probably jealousy and anger and a bunch of complicated emotions that Cain didn’t know how to deal with. Cain, it would seem, felt less than because God had no regard for his offering. I have been in those positions before where you see other people getting the praise or the rewards that you want and you feel less than. Sometimes that jealousy and anger drives you to great lengths to get that which you desire. Now desire in itself isn’t always bad, but the lengths to which you go to achieve it is usually where we get ourselves into trouble. For Cain, it drove him to kill his brother.

Before that happened, God spoke with Cain. He asked him why he was angry and tried to give him some advice. Did Cain listen? No. He was consumed by his anger at that point. So many times when we are angry, we can’t hear the voice of reason around us. We just want to be right, or to have things be what we deem as “fair”, or just generally want things to go our way. To have humility and say, I was wrong, let me try again could stop this angry train from going off the tracks, but too many times that’s not the path we seek.

So Cain calls his brother out into the field and kills him.

Cain becomes the first murderer and has to deal with his own guilt and the consequences. Initially when God asks Cain where Abel is, Cain tries to say “I don’t know, am I in charge of him”? But God calls him out and tells Cain that He knows what he did. So he tells Cain that he is going to be cursed and have to wander the Earth as a fugitive. Cain fears for his life, but the Lord marks him and tells him that if anyone kills him, they will be punished 7 times worse. And God puts a mark on Cain so everyone will know. Then Cain leaves the presence of God.

Now the interesting thing to me is that the text says that Cain left the presence of the Lord. I don’t recall in the previous verses God saying that Cain couldn’t be with God anymore or talk to him or anything, it just said that he was going to be a wanderer. Isn’t that usually what happens though? We do something wrong, we receive the consequences and then we run away from God. What would have happened if Cain had said that he messed up, that he sinned, that he was sorry and that he didn’t want to leave God’s side. What would have happened if he had asked God for help to become a better person?

Unfortunately, that’s not what happened. The rest of the chapter tells us of the family tree of Cain and of the new family tree of Adam and Eve. It shows us that life goes on. It doesn’t mean that Adam and Eve weren’t still grieving the loss of Abel or weren’t still mad at Cain. It just means that they didn’t let those feeling paralyze them in their tracks.

Sometimes we get so down on ourselves that it drives us to inaction. But here’s the thing, life goes on. Cain had to deal with the consequences of his sin, but he also birthed a city and was a father to those that have livestock, that play music, that are blacksmiths. Even when we feel at our worst, we can still produce good things.

Chapter 5

Chapter 5 of Genesis is all about family ties and genealogy. On the surface, it is a list of names and ages that seems boring and easy to skip over. Who cares if so-and-so’s great-grandfather lived to be 900 and had a wooden leg, where is the action? The drama? Where is the storyline?

In a society that craves more and more action and suspense, more “realistic” or gruesome depictions of violence and needs a new image on screen every 3-5 seconds or so, it can be difficult to find the importance in the seemingly mundane. Occasionally, you’ll find a rare long shot in a movie that goes on for a bit, but chances are you squirm in your seat if there’s not a lot of action going on in that scene. Similarly, unless you are reading a tweet that is 140 characters or less, longer written material has a hard time keeping people’s attention span these days. I’m here to say that sometimes when you skip over the “boring parts”, you can miss some important plot points.

In the first few lines of the text, we are reminded that humans were created in God’s image and that he created male and female with no distinction of inequality amongst the sexes. The following verses tell us that the descendants of Adam lived very long lives, but it does not give us a great description of their lives or achievements aside from their ages. There are a few exceptions we will get to, but it is something to think about that these people were important enough to mention in the Bible, but that none of their achievements or hobbies or anything really about them was mentioned.

I think for many of us, that is our fear. That we will die “having accomplished nothing”. That no one will remember us. There is one notable man in this text though that had more written about him that the others. Enoch.

Enoch is the only one in this chapter that is said to have walked with God. And as a result, Enoch did not die. It says that God took him. He got the red carpet treatment and walked with God straight into heaven. Now that is a notable achievement! And it doesn’t even seem that Enoch was trying to accomplish anything, or that his goal was to get into heaven. Enoch just did what he regularly did, walked with God.

After Enoch, we meet Methuselah who is the oldest man in the text at age 969. It seems that God was patient with mankind, allowing their lifespans to be long as they figured out how to function on Earth. Many times throughout history, we see people longing for and trying to accomplish immortality. My question is why? Even this man who lived for almost 1,000 years is only mentioned because he lived, had a child that continued the blood line and then died.

In comparison to Enoch, I think there is a lesson to learn here. It is not the number of years you have lived on this Earth that are important, but what you have done with the years you have been given. The quality of life, of what you have chosen to do with you life, is what is important.

The last part of the text leads us to a man named Noah. Now, we will get more into Noah’s story in a later chapter, but it is good to note Noah’s significance here. Noah is the only person in this chapter to have the meaning of his name explained. Verse 29 says, “And he called his name Noah, saying, This same shall comfort us concerning our work and toil of our hands, because of the ground which the LORD hath cursed.” Noah’s name sounds similar to the Hebrew word for rest, and so it seems that his father believed that Noah would come and give the people rest from the curse of Adam (back in chapter 3 of Genesis).

All of that being said, just remember that there is significance in everything, even the chapters in your life that seem boring or unimportant. Sometimes those boring chapters can be a set up for the adventure that is yet to come!

Chapter 6

In Genesis chapter 6, we see that the Earth is becoming a popular place and the human race is quickly multiplying. While this is happening and God watches as the world grows and changes, He decides to limit human life to 125 years. While that is still a long life span for us, compared to the people of the previous chapter who lived for hundreds of years, 125 seems quite young. We are also told that during this time, there were giants and there were mighty men, or heroes.

During this time, God saw that the heart of man overall was wicked, evil, and it hurt His heart. Have you ever looked at someone you cared for greatly only to see them making poor choices and acting out of sorts? That hurts in a place so deep, it makes you want to turn away from them rather than to look and see that pain day in and day out. The same pain, I imagine, plagued God and He decided to destroy the Earth rather than to watch the wicked prevail.

But God looked at Noah and only saw love. He was moved to act in mercy for the one who found grace in His eyes. And so, God spoke to Noah and told him what His plan was. He was going to destroy the Earth with a flood, but He was going to give Noah and his family a way out by allowing them to build an ark for shelter from the flood.

God gave them a specific plan on how to build the ark and who should go in it. Noah and his family was to be saved along with 2 of every living creature on the Earth, except the Unicorns… just kidding! But you’ll have to read it for yourself to know for sure.

Now wouldn’t it be great if God just gave us specific plans for our lives? But here’s the thing, we have to be obedient in that. Noah knew God, walked with God, found favor with God, listened to God and when he was told to build an ark, he did so.

There is a funny joke that goes something like this… A man finds himself on the roof of his house staring at the water that is rising all around him during a storm. Another man in a boat comes by and say “Hey, this is a really bad storm, come with me on my boat and I will take you to safety.” The man on the roof says, “No, no. I’m okay, God will save me.” So the boat goes away and the water begins to rise. A while later a man on a jet ski comes by and says, “Hey, this is a really bad storm, come with me on my jet ski and I will take you to safety.” The man on the roof says, “No, no. I’m okay, God will save me.” So the jet ski goes away and the storm rages on. A long while later, a helicopter comes by and over a mega phone says, “Sir, you need to come with us, you won’t survive on the roof.” The man on the roof says, “No, no. I’m okay, God will save me.” And then, he dies.

The man goes up to Heaven and standing before God he says, “God, I was patient and waited for you to save me, but you never came. Why did you let me die?” and God says, “I sent you a boat, a jet ski and a helicopter. Why didn’t you let me save you?”

The moral of that story is that sometimes God sends you a boat and sometimes He tells you to build it. Either way, don’t allow yourself to drown in your inability to move.

Chapter 7

In Genesis chapter 7, Noah and his family are shut into the ark with all of the animals. God told Noah to take 7 pairs of clean animals, or animals that can be used for sacrifice, and 2 of every unclean animal and then He shut them all in the ark, sealing their safety.

And it rains for 40 days and 40 nights. And after it rains, they have to stay in the ark for another 150 days because the Earth was still flooded. That’s 190 days in tight quarters with only your immediate family and a whole bunch of animals.

Before the rain came, there was a seven day waiting period. 7 days where anyone could have come and knocked on the door of the ark and asked to be let in. 7 days where the people of the Earth could have seen impending doom and asked for a second chance. That’s not what happened though. The rains came, flooded the Earth and took out all of humanity except for those on the ark. Noah and his family were the only ones marked safe during the storm.

Now I don’t know about any of you, but if I was lucky enough to be one of the survivors, I would have gone crazy. They would have renamed Cabin Fever after me and called it Ark Fever. Being stuck in a boat with a bunch of animals (and animal poop) with only a limited amount of people to be around and an even more limited number of activities would have driven me up the wall. God did not make me to live in an ark, but sometimes it feels like it.

Although God hasn’t flooded the Earth to wipe out all that is bad, He has definitely flooded my life to get the same results. There have surely been seasons where God has said “pack up your things, get on this boat, you’re the only one I’m saving.” Sometimes there’s people in the boat with me. And just when I’m about to go mad, just when it feels like I will never see dry land again, the rain stops and the flood waters retreat and I get to try again. So be encouraged! Even when we are in the storms of life, there is hope because it won’t rain forever and you are not alone in the storm.

Chapter 8

In Genesis chapter 8, we see an end to the flood. While the flood continued for 150 days, it took 261 days for the flood to calm. And when the waters calm, Noah is cautious and sends birds (first an unclean bird – a raven, then a clean bird – a dove) out of the ark to scout the region and see if there is dry land. The dove came back, after a second trip, with an olive branch in it’s beak signaling that the land had dried and the storm was over. In today’s society, we see a dove with an olive branch as a sing of peace and when fights happen, we say that we should “extend an olive branch” to signal peace. I’m sure that for Noah and his family, seeing the olive branch that the dove brought back was a sign of peace for them too.

But still, Noah and his family (and all of the animals, we can’t forget them) waited for 7 more days on the ark before sending the dove out again. When the dove didn’t return to the ark, Noah knew that the time of judgment was over.

I’m sure when Noah and his family came out of the ark, they kissed the land that they thought they may never see again. Noah made a burnt offering to God, being grateful to Him for his and his family’s safety. God was pleased and said that He would never again curse the ground like that again.

Have you every gone through a season of life where you thought the storm would never end, that the world around you would always be flooded and you would never see the safety of dry land again? I know I have, but when I start to feel like that, I remind myself that I am alive. If I am alive, that means I didn’t drown in the waters surrounding me. It means God gave me an ark, a shelter from the flood. The other thing I need to remind myself of is that it won’t rain forever. The storm will pass, the flood will subside and I will see dry land once more. Be encouraged, God loves you enough to provide you with a way to survive even the biggest of storms!

Chapter 9

In Genesis chapter 9, we see that Noah and his family have left the ark and God has blessed them and told them to go forth and multiply, just as He told Adam and Eve in the garden. The Earth had been wiped clean of all humanity and it was Noah’s sons who were to repopulate. In addition to this, God commands mankind to look after the Earth, all the animals, He allows them to eat the animals now as long as they drain the blood from the animals (no drinking blood and do not torture the animals, kill them humanely), and lastly God says that anyone who murders someone is to be killed. He ends His instructions by retelling Noah and his family to be fruitful and multiply.

After He gives instructions, God makes a promise that he will never take out the whole Earth again by a flood. To show a sign of his promise, He put a rainbow in the sky. What comfort that must have been to these lone survivors of the great flood. I wonder how many times they saw rain and though the flood might happen again, but then saw the rainbow and were relieved by God’s promise.

As with most things in life, after an amazing life changing moment or a great travesty, life went back to normal and people reverted back to known behaviors. Noah planted a vineyard and got drunk. It doesn’t say why this happened or how Noah was feeling or what led him to this, it just says that he got drunk and laid uncovered (naked) in his tent. This was not how a great man, the only man who found favor with God in wicked times, was supposed to act. He was supposed to be great all the time, and yet we see his humanness. We see him act differently than we expect. Despite the excuse or the reason, we only see the action.

Now does this mean that God took away His promise from Noah or that He was mad and punished Noah? No, in fact the text doesn’t make any mention to God’s feelings on this situation. Additionally, we still see rainbows in the sky to this day and are reminded of God’s promise. What we do see are consequences and an aftermath that happens as a result of Noah’s actions though.

We are told that Noah’s youngest son sees his nakedness and tells his brothers. The brothers cover their father with a garment and never see the nakedness of their father. After Noah wakes up, he learns what happened and curses (Noah curses, not God) his youngest son for what he did.

Now there is a lot of speculation on what actually happened and why it was so bad. Here’s what I know. Noah’s youngest son saw something and did nothing about it except to tell others. The older boys covered their father and didn’t look. It could be as simple as that. Nakedness implies a level of vulnerability and especially if Noah was in a drunken state, he was not himself and was probably even more vulnerable than normal. The youngest son did not protect this vulnerability, but the older ones did without asking for specifics or digging into the matter. They did not need to see what state their father was in, they just covered him.

That is what family is supposed to do. When you are at your lowest point, when you have misstepped, when you have found yourself in a vulnerable place, family is there to cover you no questions asked. Family might mean different things to everyone. It could be your family of origin, your close friends, or other believers, but family are those you are familiar with that surround you. They won’t be perfect all the time, but they will cover you and you need to cover them too.

Be encouraged, we have all survived the floods of life, we see the rainbow promise in the sky that God won’t wipe out His creation, and your family (even the family you have in believers just reading this post) will cover you and pray for you. You were made in God’s image and are fearfully and wonderfully made and there is nothing you can do to make God forget His promise or His people. Be blessed.

Chapter 10

Genesis chapter 10 is a look into how the Earth was repopulated after the Flood. Through the sons of Noah, we see 70 different nations emerge spreading all across the Earth. From the East to the West, from the Amorites to the Philistines and all the nations in between, the Earth once again has been populated. With that, we also see that God is the God of all people.

From Noah’s descendants, we see that even the nations that later went on to battle and become enemies of the Israelites came from the same blood line. And to go back even further, before Noah, all of humanity originated from Adam and Eve. This genealogy account further shows that.

We also see that life went on even after Noah’s missteps and Ham’s poor judgement. God did not wipe out their family line, in fact He even allowed for great people to come from their family line like Nimrod the great hunter and eventually Abraham the father of many nations.

What I particularly like about this chapter is that we are all related. We all came from the same family line, under the same God, and although we have branched out and have our own languages and values, our origin story is the same. We have great people in our family line and some not so great people. Everyone is human, we all make mistakes, some people are amazing and some are amazingly horrible, but we all bleed the same blood.

Be encouraged, for you come from a great family tree that was designed by the Creator Himself! This is just the beginning. This is your origin story!

Chapter 11

Genesis chapter 11 opens with the building of a great city, Babel. Everyone spoke one language and worked together to build a great city with a giant tower that would reach to the heavens and place them on the same level as God. They wanted to make a name for themselves, they wanted to be famous, but God was not having this. He came down to see the tower (meaning that it didn’t reach the heavens) and was displeased. Seeing what man was capable of (both good and evil), He made them all speak different languages so it would be harder for them to work together.

Have you ever been working on something for your own glory and come up against a brick wall? I know I have. Almost every time I lose sight of God’s plans for me and I start working on my own plans for wealth or success, something seems to get in the way and my plans go down in flames. In the moment I am very frustrated and disappointed, but when I take a step back, I see how the things I have achieved in life and the path that God has me on are far better than the plans I made for myself.

After the story of the great city destroyed by language barriers, chapter 11 continues the genealogy account showing us the family lines from Noah to Abram (later Abraham, the father of Israel). This is a set up to show how the Israelites came from the lineage of Noah, originating back to Adam in the Garden. It’s a precurser to the story that is to come.

It’s easy to skip over the names and generations listed in this chapter (or any other one) because it’s not action packed and doesn’t always hold our attention, but can you imagine how crazy our lives would be if it was non-stop action? You would be praying for a break and you might miss some important information along the way. All of this is leading to the story that God wants us to tell. The story of His people. The story of your people. The story of you.

Be encouraged, your story has just begun and yet there are generations before you who have lived life, shared their wisdom and prepared the way for you to live the life God designed especially for you.

Chapter 12

In Genesis chapter 12, we are introduced to Abram and Sarai (later named Abraham and Sarah) a married couple who are in their 70s. They had already lived 7 decades worth of life in Ur (a wealthy land) and were now about to embark on an adventure of a lifetime. God came and spoke to Abram and made him a promise. He said, “Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father’s house, unto a land that I will shew thee.And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing. And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed.”

Basically, God said I need you to go to a new place away from the land and the people you know to do something new. If you do that, I will give you lots of land, you’ll build up a great nation, and anyone who is good to you, I’ll be good to, but anyone who is bad to you is going to get what’s coming.

So at 75 Abram packed up his things, took his wife (Sarai) and his nephew (Lot) and went to the land where the Canaanites were (Ham’s offspring – the ones who were cursed because of what happened with Noah… there was some tension there). God told Abram that He was going to give this land to Abram’s offspring (note that promise of offspring for later), but Abram kept travelling. There was a famine (lack of food and resources) in the land, so he decided to go on down to Egypt.

When he got to Egypt, he noticed that his wife was getting a lot of attention because she was good looking and he was scared that if they knew he was married to her, they would kill him. Being scared, he asked his wife to lie and say that she was his sister. Now Pharaoh liked what he saw, so he wanted to put a ring on Sarai. Thinking that she was Abram’s sister, he took her to his palace to be his wife. God didn’t seem to be to pleased with this, because he sent all kinds of plagues to Pharaoh’s house. Pharaoh was not pleased.

Once Pharaoh learned what the truth was, he yelled at Abram for lying to him, gave him back his wife and told him to take his things and go. And that’s what he did. Abram wasn’t killed, it doesn’t say what God thought of the lying (it seems like He was mad about the potential adulatory part though because – the plagues), and Abram and his family got to keep all their possessions. And that’s how we end chapter 12.

I think the takeaways from this are that God can use you at any age. At 75 Abram left all that he knew to start over, he just had to be willing to go. The same is true for us. At any age, if we are called to a new journey, we just need to be willing to pack up our things and go. That being said, we need to remember God’s promises and not get scared away from what we’re supposed to do.

God promised Abram that he would have land, have a nation, and that people that were good to him would be blessed and those that were bad to him would be cursed. Pharaoh experienced that first hand with the plagues. So why did Abram fear that he would be killed when he went to Egypt? It’s simple – doubt.

Abram (like most of us – me in particular) doubted the promise of God. Maybe it was because people hadn’t followed through on their promises to him over his 75 years on the Earth, maybe it was because God gave his promise and Abram expected the promise to come out of a microwave like some golden holy Hot Pocket ready to consume, or maybe Abram doubted that God could use someone like him. We don’t know the reason, but he doubted for sure.

Just like Abram, we doubt what we heard too. We doubt our callings, especially in the waiting period. But can I give you a great revelation that I had the other day? A homemade meal that takes all day to cook and heats the house up to a million degrees and makes you sweat and causes your stomach to grumble during the preparation process and makes you think about food ALL DAY LONG tastes a billion times better than a hot pocket. I’m not saying that God can’t move quickly on the promises He has given you, but what I am saying is that if He doesn’t move quickly it’s just because He is preparing something that will taste delicious and just needs a little more time in the oven. Be encouraged, He keeps His promises!!

Chapter 13

Genesis chapter 13, we find Abram and his family leaving Egypt heading to Negeb (the dry land south of Judah). Abram had A LOT of stuff, including riches and livestock. Now the thing about livestock is that they need a lot of space to graze and live. As they were setting up camp, it became apparent that the land couldn’t support Abram (with all of his possessions and livestock) and Lot (his nephew who was traveling with his own possessions and livestock). It was like having two large families try to share a studio apartment, there just wasn’t enough space.

Strife (conflict/fights) started breaking out between Abram’s camp and Lot’s camp. Abram told Lot that family shouldn’t be fighting, so he told Lot that they needed to separate, but that he would give Lot whatever land he wanted. Lot decided to head to the lusciously green land of Sodom and Gomorrah (let’s take note of this appealing to the eye land for a later chapter) and they separated. So Abram settled in Canaan and Lot went East.

Now, the text tells us that the men of Sodom were wicked and big giant sinners against God. In other words, they were the bad guys in just about any movie you can think of. You know the guys who twist their mustache before doing something stupid and you just want to punch them in the face? These were those guys. More on them later.

Anyways, God went and talked to Abram after he separated from Lot. God told Abram that all the land that Abram sees is going to be his and his offspring’s (note – he still doesn’t have kids yet and he’s older that 75 years old at this point). God tells Abram that he will have so many offspring that he won’t be able to count them. After their talk, Abram moved his tent to Mamre (a land of oak trees) and built an alter to the Lord. And that’s where we leave this chapter.

Sometimes we have to separate ourselves from people we love for the sake of keeping the peace and expanding the kingdom. When you have such a large camp and someone you’re traveling with also has a big camp, there might not be enough resources for you both to stay in the same place. Assess your situation and make sure your not cramped into a space that’s causing you to fight. The thing I love about how Abram resolved this situation is that he loved his nephew so much that he let him have his pick of the land. He gave Lot the choice of the best place in all the area to go and dwell and Abram took what was left over. Abram was a peacemaker.

The great part of this story is that God blessed Abram after this. Abram gave up the better land and God told him that ALL of the land would belong to him and his family. Isn’t that just like God to bless us back double when we’re obedient to let go of the little things? Be encouraged, if God is asking you to give something up, it’s so He can make room to give you something so much greater.

Chapter 15

In Genesis chapter 15, we find Abram having a vision from God. In the vision, God reassures Abram that there is nothing to fear, God is his protection (his shield), and that Abram shall be rewarded (meaning he did something worthy of a reward). Abram says to God, “look I don’t want a reward, I just want a child (remember that God promised him offspring? Abram remembers that too, but hasn’t seen anything…) but I still don’t have one. The closest thing I have is one of the dudes who works in my house. Is this really how I’m going to die, leaving all my stuff to that guy Eliezer?” Basically Abram said, I know You promised me this God, but I haven’t seen it yet. So God once again said that he would bless Abram with so many offspring that he wouldn’t be able to count them. Then God went on to remind Abram of all the good things He has done for him.

After that, God tells Abram to bring him some animals to be cut in half. Now this seems weird to us, but in Abram’s days, this is how people made covenants (agreements/legal contracts) with one another. Now as Abram is preparing everything for God to show up and make this covenant with him, birds of prey started showing up trying to get at the animals that were set aside for sacrifice for the covenant. Doesn’t that always happen when we are waiting in anticipation of a promise, something comes in and attacks it and we either have to defend our promise or roll over and let someone (or something) take it from us. Abram could have let the birds pick at the sacrificial animals and then not had anything set aside to establish his covenant, but his covenant with God was important to him and was something he honored so he protected it and shooed away the birds.

Before God signed on the contract’s dotted line, he put Abram into a deep sleep (the same kind Adam went into in Genesis chapter 2 when God took his rib to form Eve). In that sleep, God tells Abram of the future of his offspring: they will be slaves for 400 years, but then they will be set free and God would place judgement on their captors.

Then the sun went down and Abram saw the fire pass between the two halves of the sacrificed animals (the symbol of the covenant). God said to Abram that He would give his offspring this land. The covenant – the promise that God gave to Abram did not require anything of Abram or anyone else, it was just God’s promise to Abram and is the second covenant in the Bible (the first is with Noah). God promises that Abram will have offspring and that his offspring will have land. And that is where we end chapter 15.

The thing I really appreciate about this chapter is that Abram was very human. He told God what was really on his heart, what had been on his heart for years, that he wanted a child. Abram expressed doubt, even though God had spoken directly to this man three times previous to this chapter and said he would have offspring, Abram couldn’t see it and questioned it. OH BUT GOD! God swooped in on the scene and reminded Abram of who he was, what he had done for this man and then reaffirmed His promise with Abram in a way that Abram would understand (a legal binding contract – a covenant).

Sometimes when we are holding onto a promise for some time, it is hard to keep running in a direction when you don’t see any results. We get tired, we question God, we question ourselves and it is so easy to think that when we see the birds of prey circling up above that our promise is dead and we will never see the end result. Can I tell you from personal experience that when you see those birds circling, chase them away! They can’t attack your promise from God. And that thing in your life that looks dead, the thing that attracts those birds of prey might just be the sacrifice that God needs to reaffirm His covenant with you.

Be encouraged! If God said it, He will do it. It might take some time, but He will be the one to uphold His promise. And if hope is fading in the process, ask God to remind you of all the things He has done for you. If He promised you something before and He came through, won’t He do it for this promise too?

Chapter 16

In Genesis chapter 16, we find Abram and Sarai’s hope fading once again about ever having a child. We are reminded once again that Sarai has bore Abram no children and in this time of waiting for a promise that never seems to come true, Sarai gets the idea that she and Abram can still have a child if Abram sleeps with her handmaid Hagar. Sarai tells this to Abram and he listens to her – he goes along with this plan. It doesn’t say that Abram protested, expressed any opinions, struggled, nothing. It just says that Abram listened to his wife.

So Abram goes and sleeps with this other girl and gets her pregnant. Once his wife Sarai notices that Hagar is pregnant (which must have taken some time, it couldn’t have been immediate) she also noticed a change in Hagar. Hagar started looking down on Sarai and treating her poorly. Hagar was disrespecting the chain of command and that made Sarai angry.

Sarai went to Abram and told him how she felt and Abram was like “look this is your servant, handle it” so Sarai was SO mean to Hagar that Hagar ran away.

Upset, pregnant, probably lacking resources and scared, Hagar went off into the wilderness. An angel came to the wilderness looking for Hagar and began to talk to her about her situation. The angel asked her a very important question, ” where are you coming from and where are you going?” Once the angel heard her out, Hagar was given a blessing saying that she would have a multitude of offspring, but that her son would be a wild and crazy guy. The angel told Hagar to name her son Ishmael which means God hears. Then the angel instructed Hagar to go back to Sarai and submit to her.

Hagar called that place in the wilderness Beer-lahai-roi, meaning the well of the God who sees me, because God saw her in her place of affliction. She went back to Abram and Sarai and gave birth to Ishmael when Abram was 86 years old.

For me, this story touches a place deep in my soul. That place that is waiting for a promise that doesn’t seem to come. The promise that keeps getting told to me, the one I have heard many times and am waiting in anticipation, but I see nothing in my life that points to this promise coming true. Like Abram and Sarai, I have my doubts and sometimes I come up with my own plans to “help” God with His promise, but that never seems to work out. The amazing thing is that the promise is still a promise. God’s word for my life doesn’t change just because I can’t be patient. Abram and Sarai didn’t lose out on their promise just because they tried to figure out their own way of doing things, they just had some added complications to their blessing.

I also greatly appreciate how God dealt with Hagar. She wasn’t trying to mess up anyone’s blessings, but when she got blessed when someone else didn’t, she got a little arrogant. She treated someone she served poorly because she thought she was better than her. That led to some consequences and Sarai treated her poorly as a result. I don’t know what kind of relationship they had before, but even if it was just cordial and professional, that relationship was now broken and both sides were hurt.

Being extremely hurt, Hagar ran away, but God met her in that broken and lonely place and sent someone to talk with and listen to her. I love the question that the angel asks, “where have you come from and where are you going?” It’s a great self reflection question about where we’re at and what led us to get to this place and how are we going to get out of it. A lot of times brokenness, anger, mistakes and sin have caused us to run away to the wilderness, but God sees us and meets us in these lonely places. He will even bless us in our mess, but then He instructs us to turn back to that broken place and return with a different attitude.

Now I imagine that it was extremely hard for Hagar to go back to a broken relationship and submit. I bet it was extremely hard to go back to someone who treated her so harshly and stay in that place and not have content in her heart. I bet it was equally hard for Sarai to accept Hagar back into her presence after she treated her poorly and then seeing Hagar run away, but that’s the beauty of God. He calls us back to the broken places so the His glory can shine.

Now the text doesn’t say that Sarai welcomed Hagar back with open arms, but it also doesn’t say she backhanded her upon arrival. I imagine there was some awkwardness as they both tried to navigate the broken relationship, but I love that God sent Hagar back for the chance to make things right.

Be encouraged, God is the God who sees us. He will keep His promises to us and even if we mess up along the way, he will give us another chance to make things right. He is the God of many chances, so even if you are currently in the wilderness, if you were hurt, if you did the hurting, if you have doubt, if you messed up something so bad that you don’t think it can ever be fixed, know that God hears you and he will give you another chance to go back and try again.

Chapter 17

In Genesis chapter 17, we find a 99 year old Abram still waiting on a promise from God. The Lord has appeared to him 4 times before telling Abram that he will have a son with Sarah and yet he hasn’t seen it. In this chapter, we see God come to Abram and say “I am the God Almighty [most powerful/sufficient]”… God reminds Abram of who He is and then goes on to say that He’s going to keep His word to Abram by making covenant with him. We’ll remember from Genesis chapter 15 that a covenant is a legal agreement, but in this chapter, God is requiring for Abram to give something in the covenant – to be a participant.

God promises to Abram that he will have a son with Sarai, even in their late age. Sarai’s womb that was a tomb will now bring life, the place that was dead will awaken and the promise that God had with Abram all along will be fulfilled. As a sign of this change on God’s end, He renames Abram calling him Abraham [father of many] and He renames Sarai calling her Sarah [princess]. In giving them a new name, God gives them a new identity.

On the flip side, God asks Abraham to walk blamelessly and as a sign that he is one of God’s people, he and any male in his family needs to be circumcised [cut off their foreskin]. That is a permanent, everlasting sign that shows their promise to follow God. Is it painful? Yes, but all great promises come at a cost. This is serious dedication and at 99 years old, Abraham is all in. There’s no going back form this.

After this, God goes on to tell Abraham about his and Sarah’s son and Abraham starts laughing. He laughs at what God says in a yeah right kind of way. Because of this, God tells Abraham to name his son Isaac [he laughs]. God finishes up talking to Abraham by reassuring him again that he will be a father to many nations.

At the end of the chapter, Abraham and all his male servants and his son Ishmael are all circumcised.

There are 2 things that speak to me when I read this chapter. The first is that God can give you a new name and a new identity. The people down the street might have known you as Joe the Joke or Gloria the Gossip, but God can call you Father of Many, or Mighty Warrior, or Sweet One, or Beautiful, or Honored, Honest, Rich, Loyal or Loved and as long as you walk in that new name, that new promise, it doesn’t matter what the people down the street say. They just haven’t seen God’s promise on you life yet, they don’t know your new identity and they haven’t gotten their new identity yet. It’s like watching a superhero movie. Peter Parker knows that something happened after the radio active spider bit him, but everyone else around him still sees plain old Peter. Just because that’s what they see doesn’t change the fact that he’s a superhero. Remind yourself that the world might see who you used to be, but God turned you into a superhero.

The second thing that sticks with me is that God is willing to turn a dead place into a place that brings forth life. A womb has one job, and yet Sarah’s womb couldn’t get it together to produce children. It didn’t work right. It didn’t do what it was supposed to do. It was as dead as her hope. She honestly thought she would never birth a kid and at 90 years old, it’s hard to not think that that ship had sailed. But the most amazing thing is that God can take the things that are dead, buried, mourned for and forgotten about and He can bring them to life. If He promised it, He will make it happen, you just have to hold on to the promise. It might take 90 years to happen, but the dead things can come alive again. The dead place can produce life. The forgotten hope can be revived.

Be encouraged! God keeps His promises and He’s willing to remind you as many times as you need to that He will keep His promise. Sometime we need to do something to show our dedication in the process, we need to walk with God in this, but His promise is His promise. Just keep holding on, it will happen. God is faithful!

Chapter 17

In Genesis chapter 18, Abraham is hanging out by his tent when God appears to him and then three men show up and Abraham runs to greet them and offers to wash their feet, feed them and let them rest a while in his camp. This is another example of Abraham’s hospitable nature, it’s ingrained in him, it’s part of his character. After Abraham sets an entire feast in front of his guests, they asked him where his wife Sarah was and Abraham says that she is in the tent [as in that say it wasn’t proper for wives to entertain company]. One of the men then tells Abraham that he will return to Abraham in about a year and that Sarah will have a son in that time.

Hearing the man speak, Sarah laughed to herself and was like, “Great, now that I’m all gray haired and old I’ll finally get pregnant and have a baby. How can that be?”

Then the man looked to Abraham and asked why Sarah laughed at his words and then said, “is there anything too hard for God?” Sarah tried to deny laughing because she was afraid, but he called her out on that. I would have done the same though, it seems almost like human nature to deny things when we are afraid because maybe if we don’t acknowledge that we messed up, maybe it will go away and not be an issue. Maybe no one will notice our shortcomings or missteps if we pretend they didn’t happen. If a tree falls in the forest and no one is around, did it make a sound? Well, I’m not sure if it made a noise, but I do know that it fell down and denying that by saying it didn’t make a sound doesn’t change the tree fell over. In the same vein, Sarah may not have made any sound, but she sure did laugh and God knew that.

After that exchange, Abraham walks with the men towards Sodom for a little ways. During this walk, God tells Abraham that they are headed to Sodom and Gomorrah to see what they have done because they were a city full of evil people doing evil things. The three men headed towards the city, but Abraham hung back with God for a minuet.

Abraham asked God if he was going to destroy the righteous people along with the evil people, take out the innocent because of the guilty. Abraham asks if there were 50 good people in the city, would God spare that place for the good people? Abraham says, “you wouldn’t do that, right God? Because you’re a good God.” He’s basically saying, I know your character God, you wouldn’t kill the innocent would you? And God responds by saying that he would spare the 50 righteous people. So then Abraham asks, well what if there were only 45 good people, would you spare them? And God says yes. Abraham asks a few more times until he gets down to 10 and asks what if there were only 10 good people, would you spare them? God again says yes. Then God went on his way and Abraham went back to his home and that’s where we end the chapter.

Now there is A LOT going on in this chapter and the action really breaks down into two parts. The first part is when Abraham invites the men to his camp and Sarah laughs at what God says. I find this particularly funny because God has been continually showing up for Abraham and Sarah and telling them that they’re promised to have a son, but because of their age and how long they’ve been waiting on this promise it seems impossible. I know that I’m the type of person where I’ll believe it when I see it. If there’s no evidence proving that you’re going to do what you said you were going to do, it’s not going to happen until it does IF it does. I would have laughed right along with Sarah, but here’s the thing: this wasn’t a friend or a parent or a random person telling Sarah what was promised for her future, this was the God of all creation. This was the God that got them out of some really tight situations. Once again, God reaffirms His promise and gives a timeline to it now, saying in about a year that promise will be fulfilled.

The second part of the chapter is where God and Abraham talk about the fate of Sodom. Now if you remember a few chapters back, Abraham’s nephew Lot lives in Sodom, so Abraham has a lot to lose if God destroys the city. I love how Abraham reminds God of God’s character before asking if He will spare the city. He was like “I know you, but also I want to make sure that I know you.” And I love that God is willing to have this conversation with Abraham. He’s willing to talk him through what’s going to happen, willing to answer questions, and willing to ease some of Abraham’s fears before He does anything.

Be encouraged! That God of this chapter is the same God of today. He keeps His promises, even if they seem impossible or take a long time to manifest and He is willing to have a conversation and answer questions about anything, including the things that scare us. I dare you to start that conversation with Him! His character hasn’t changed, so give it a shot.

Chapter 18

In Genesis chapter 18, Abraham is hanging out by his tent when God appears to him and then three men show up and Abraham runs to greet them and offers to wash their feet, feed them and let them rest a while in his camp. This is another example of Abraham’s hospitable nature, it’s ingrained in him, it’s part of his character. After Abraham sets an entire feast in front of his guests, they asked him where his wife Sarah was and Abraham says that she is in the tent [as in that say it wasn’t proper for wives to entertain company]. One of the men then tells Abraham that he will return to Abraham in about a year and that Sarah will have a son in that time.

Hearing the man speak, Sarah laughed to herself and was like, “Great, now that I’m all gray haired and old I’ll finally get pregnant and have a baby. How can that be?”

Then the man looked to Abraham and asked why Sarah laughed at his words and then said, “is there anything too hard for God?” Sarah tried to deny laughing because she was afraid, but he called her out on that. I would have done the same though, it seems almost like human nature to deny things when we are afraid because maybe if we don’t acknowledge that we messed up, maybe it will go away and not be an issue. Maybe no one will notice our shortcomings or missteps if we pretend they didn’t happen. If a tree falls in the forest and no one is around, did it make a sound? Well, I’m not sure if it made a noise, but I do know that it fell down and denying that by saying it didn’t make a sound doesn’t change the tree fell over. In the same vein, Sarah may not have made any sound, but she sure did laugh and God knew that.

After that exchange, Abraham walks with the men towards Sodom for a little ways. During this walk, God tells Abraham that they are headed to Sodom and Gomorrah to see what they have done because they were a city full of evil people doing evil things. The three men headed towards the city, but Abraham hung back with God for a minuet.

Abraham asked God if he was going to destroy the righteous people along with the evil people, take out the innocent because of the guilty. Abraham asks if there were 50 good people in the city, would God spare that place for the good people? Abraham says, “you wouldn’t do that, right God? Because you’re a good God.” He’s basically saying, I know your character God, you wouldn’t kill the innocent would you? And God responds by saying that he would spare the 50 righteous people. So then Abraham asks, well what if there were only 45 good people, would you spare them? And God says yes. Abraham asks a few more times until he gets down to 10 and asks what if there were only 10 good people, would you spare them? God again says yes. Then God went on his way and Abraham went back to his home and that’s where we end the chapter.

Now there is A LOT going on in this chapter and the action really breaks down into two parts. The first part is when Abraham invites the men to his camp and Sarah laughs at what God says. I find this particularly funny because God has been continually showing up for Abraham and Sarah and telling them that they’re promised to have a son, but because of their age and how long they’ve been waiting on this promise it seems impossible. I know that I’m the type of person where I’ll believe it when I see it. If there’s no evidence proving that you’re going to do what you said you were going to do, it’s not going to happen until it does IF it does. I would have laughed right along with Sarah, but here’s the thing: this wasn’t a friend or a parent or a random person telling Sarah what was promised for her future, this was the God of all creation. This was the God that got them out of some really tight situations. Once again, God reaffirms His promise and gives a timeline to it now, saying in about a year that promise will be fulfilled.

The second part of the chapter is where God and Abraham talk about the fate of Sodom. Now if you remember a few chapters back, Abraham’s nephew Lot lives in Sodom, so Abraham has a lot to lose if God destroys the city. I love how Abraham reminds God of God’s character before asking if He will spare the city. He was like “I know you, but also I want to make sure that I know you.” And I love that God is willing to have this conversation with Abraham. He’s willing to talk him through what’s going to happen, willing to answer questions, and willing to ease some of Abraham’s fears before He does anything.

Be encouraged! That God of this chapter is the same God of today. He keeps His promises, even if they seem impossible or take a long time to manifest and He is willing to have a conversation and answer questions about anything, including the things that scare us. I dare you to start that conversation with Him! His character hasn’t changed, so give it a shot.

Chapter 19

In Genesis chapter 19, we see the two men that were with Abraham (spoiler alert: they are angels) go down to Sodom. Lot (Abraham’s nephew) sees the men and offers for them men to stay at his house. After some persuading, they agree. This is where things get crazy!

All the men of the town surround Lot’s house at night and demand that the new men staying with Lot come out so they can “have their way with them”. Lot tried to talk with the men surrounding the house so that they wouldn’t try to mess with the angels, he even offered up his two virgin daughters to the men in place of the angels (somehow that’s less messed up?). Those dudes weren’t having it though, especially from a foreigner like Lot, so they tried to attack Lot and break down the door to get to the angels. Before they could do that, the angels opened the door, snatched Lot and locked him in the house, then blinded all the men that were trying to attack them.

After that, the angels tell Lot to take all of his family and get out of the city, because stuff’s about to get real! God sent the angels to destroy the city because the place is too evil to exist. Lot told his son-in-laws what was up and they thought he was joking, so they didn’t move. The angels said “forget them, Lot you and your wife and daughters need to go now.” Lot was still lollygagging (not rushing, clearly not motivated by the impending doom) so the angels grabbed him by the arm and took him and his wife and daughters outside of the city so they wouldn’t go down in the destruction. The angels told them to escape to the hills and don’t stop or look back.

Lot was freaked out and didn’t think he could make it to the hills, so he asked the angels if he could run to a small town in the middle of nowhere that was closer instead. The angels agreed, but told him to hurry because they couldn’t start destroying things until he was safe.

When the sun rose in the morning, Lot and his family arrived at Zoar ( the small town). When they arrived, God sent a rain of fire down on Sodom and Gomorrah and all the cities of the valley, destroying them. Lot’s wife decided to look back on the place they had escaped (despite the angels’ instructions) and was turned into a pillar of salt.

Abraham woke up and saw all the fire and smoke from his house and thought of Lot and God’s promise to rescue him.

Eventually Lot left Zoar with his two daughters and moved into a cave in the hills (the hills that he told the angels he didn’t want to live in). Lot was getting pretty old and his daughters were getting older too. The daughters felt their biological clocks ticking and since God had wiped out all of them men in the land, they came up with a plan to get their father drunk and sleep with him. Both daughters became pregnant, the older one with a son named Moab and the younger one with a son named Ben-Ammi. This is where the Moabites and the Ammonites came from.

There is A LOT that went on in this chapter. Firstly though, if some dudes show up at your house and blind a whole bunch of people, then tell you to leave your house before you get destroyed with everyone else, maybe listen to them. Secondly, if you do evil stuff you’re going to get destroyed – so maybe don’t do evil stuff? Third, rules are in place for a reason. If someone says, hey don’t do this or you will die, don’t be surprised if there are some massive consequences when you do the thing you weren’t supposed to do. And lastly, if you raise your kids around a whole bunch of crazy, don’t be surprised when they act crazy.

I think the main point of this chapter is to show two things. 1) that God keeps his word. He spared Lot’s life like He said He would and He destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah like He said He would. Everything He said He would do He did, so I think it’s safe to say that if He says He’s going to do something, He will. 2) actions have consequences. Being evil will consume you and get you destroyed. Being good could spare your life. And following directions will get you to safety.

God destroys the wicked places in our life for a reason. Sometimes we live somewhere (physically or metaphorically) that we are not meant to live in. Even though we may be a light in the dark place, if we weren’t assigned to be there, aren’t spreading our light (standing up to darkness) or if we are not connected to a source of light ourselves, we may be tempted to pick up some of the dark thought processes (ie offering the wicked men your daughters). When God destroys a place, he doesn’t want us to stop moving forward to our next place or to look back on the old place. He moved us out of there for a reason. He spared our life, so keep your eyes on the prize!

Be encouraged that He kept you from the destruction. You may not see the smoke or pillars of fire and He may have had to send angels to pull you out of there kicking and screaming, but the people who care for you (the Abrahams in your life who prayed that you would be spared) can see all of the smoke and know that you are safe.

Chapter 20

In Genesis chapter 20, we find Abraham and his wife Sarah traveling even further South to a new land and going back to old ways. Abraham tells the people of the new land that Sarah is his sister and the King of that land, Abimelech, decides to take her as his wife. This is now the second time something like this has happened. Sarah must have been really beautiful because at this point she was 90 years old and King Abimelech still wanted to be with her.

When King Abimelech goes to sleep, God talks to him about Sarah and reveals that she is already married to Abraham. Abimelech is shocked and says to God, “Hey I didn’t sleep with her, I didn’t touch her, I didn’t do anything and your boy Abraham said she was his sister and even she said she was his sister, so I believed them.” After saying he didn’t do anything wrong, Abimelech asks God to spare his life and God says he’ll keep him safe and that’s why He didn’t let Abimelech sleep with Sarah in the first place.

After his conversation with God, got up early and went to Abraham and asked him why he lied about his wife. Abraham said he lied because he was scared for his life because he thought he was going to a godless place, a place that didn’t know the difference between right and wrong. Clearly he was wrong, because Abimelech spoke to the Lord and was there to make things right. Abimelech gave Abraham some livestock, servants, silver, and returned his wife and told Abraham that he could live anywhere in the land and that Sarah’s innocence was vindicated (the silver was a symbol of that). After that, Abraham prayed to God and God made it so all the women in Abimelech’s kingdom could have children again, because the entire time Sarah was there, they had been barren.

I think there’s three major takeaways here. The first one is, if this part of the story feels familiar like you’re reliving it, take a look at the choices you’re making. If Abraham would have told the truth, this story would be vastly different than Chapter 12, but he chose to say that his wife was his sister again. If you keep reliving the same chapter of your life over and over again, take a look at the decisions you’re making to see what’s getting you to end up there.

The second takeaway is the importance of integrity. Integrity is the quality of being honest and having strong moral principles. Even when you could get away with doing something bad because of a technicality, you don’t do it. Even if someone did something that wrongs you, you continue to be upright in your actions. That’s exactly what Abimelech did. Even though Abraham lied to him, Abimelech still went to vindicate Sarah’s innocence. He didn’t lash out, he didn’t keep Sarah for himself, he didn’t punish anyone. He kept his moral uprightness and made things right, even apologizing in a place where he had been wronged.

And the last takeaway is that prayer is powerful. In the last two verses of this chapter, Abraham prays and women who were barren are able to conceive again. That right there is a miracle.

So I leave you with this, be encouraged because even if you make the same mistakes over and over again, there is always another chapter in the book of life and in that new chapter you can choose to take a different path. You can chose to be integral and you can pray about any situation and know that God will hear you and will answer your prayers. The answer might not be what you want to hear, but he will answer you so keep on praying.

More chapters coming soon…