Genesis Chapters 10 -11
Chapters 10 and 11 of Genesis contain lists and genealogies—not exactly the most exciting material. But there are two things that fascinate me about them:
1) I enjoy tracing out Jesus’ ancestry and separating it from the rest. For example, I look sadly at Cain’s (4:17-24), but hopefully toward Seth’s (5:1-32); after the Flood, we take note of Ham and Japheth’s lines (10:1-20—notice all the famous nations!), but look expectantly toward Shem’s (10:21-31; 11:10-26). At the end of Genesis 11 we are rewarded with Abram, the father of God’s people!
2) I am saddened by the gradual shortening of life spans. At the start, it was not unusual for people to live 900 years or more; but by Abram, we have almost reached “normal” life spans. If I take all this stuff at face value, which I do, then there must be some explanation. From Genesis 3:22, we can see that God’s original plan for people was that they live forever. We sinned. God separated us from the Tree of Life. And the life-giving effects of the Garden faded! Sad as this is, we have Revelation 21-22 to assure believers of Paradise regained!
The only narrative of Genesis 10-11 is the Tower of Babel. How sad! Pathetically, the people begin to act as if they were God (like little ancient Nietzsches!). I noticed the repetition of “Come, let us…” Though they are attempting to play God, God has the last “Come, let us…” (11:7), and with it, confuses their language so that no two of them can say “Come, let us...” and know what the other is saying. They’ll have to wait for their kids to grow up!
Don’t you wonder why God refers to himself as “us?”
Tomorrow, we begin Abraham’s story.
God bless,
Pastor Gary
PS Please note that our Bible reading almost always allows two days for one reading on the week-end.
No comments:
Post a Comment