encouragement

A Dream and a Promise

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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?

The Grass is Always Greener…

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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.

Adventure Time at 75!

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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!!

The Universal Language of Confusion

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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.

Origin of the Nations

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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!

Rainbow Promise and a Not So Different Land

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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.

An Olive Branch and Dry Land

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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!

40 Days, 40 Nights and Then Some

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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.

The Family Tree

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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!

M for Murder

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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.