Old Testament
Genesis
Chapters 1 - 4 - The story of creation -- "And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters." -- reminds me of the current debate among cosmologists regarding "dark matter" in the universe. Scientists can not account for the effects of unseen mass that evidently forms a significant part of the universe. They call this "dark matter" and highlight its importance in literally holding the universe together. The Spirit of God moves and darkness is transformed. What is the Spirit of God? It's force that has an impact on a universal level in the formation of stars and planets; and it also is something that creates life at a microscopic level. The Spirit of God, to me, seems to be the unifying link between things on a grand scale and things that we could never see --- General Relativity and Quantum Theory. All of our great scientists can not articulate a unifying theory that links relativity and quantum mechanics. What works under one theory causes chaos under the other. A glimpse into quantum theory opens up the possibility of multiple universes and multiple realities. Very strange things. For all the people who need to have explanations based in physical observation and science, quantum mechanics throws a curve ball at our very concept of reality. So to have the Bible start with a comment on dark matter is interesting. To me, it should provoke reflection in those that think this description. We do not understand what is possible and impossible, and what is real and unreal. The description of the Garden of Eden places it relatively near modern day Iraq. Genesis 2: 10 - 14 explaining that from Eden flowed a river that branched into four rivers one of which was the Euphrates. Another river, Gihon, which flows by the ancient land of Cush (see http://www.biblenews.org/ and Wikipedia - Biblical Cush for more information on Cush). Cain rose up against Abel and killed him. Cain then fled to the land of Nod which was east of Eden -- condemned to wander the Earth. See Fernand-Anne Piestre Cormon's painting titled "Cain Flying Before Jehovah's Curse", c. 1880,Museum D' Orsey, Paris). The conflict continues that started with Cain and Abel. I was heartened to read that Adam and Eve had a third son, Seth, who became the seed of Adam and Eve in the place of Abel. Seth was the promise of a new future that had almost been destroyed by conflict and violence.
Genesis 5 - 8 - These chapters provide a genalogy of Adam through Seth down to Noah (son of Lamech who was the son of Methuselah) which were 8 generations. The longevity mentioned in these passages is excessive by today's standards with men living 700 to 900 years on average. It almost makes you think this was a measurement issue and that the average lifespan for these early humans was more along the those of today 70 to 90 years. There's an interesting graph in my Bible (New Geneva Study Bible, King James Version given to me by cousin, Nancy Lippincott Ashley, when she visited us in Lima, Peru, on September 9, 2001) that shows the drop off in longevity after Noah. His son Shem lived only 600 years but 10 generations later the life span of the patriachs was around 100 years. God decides that man is corrupt beyone hope and puts a plan in motion to destroy man and everything in it. One man, Noah, finds grace in the eyes of God (Genesis 6:8). "Grace" seems to indicate that God chose to have mercy on Noah as in Ephesians 2:8 "So by grace you have been saved through faith and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not works, lest anyone should boast." But later the scripture mentions how righteous was Noah. There may be some translation issues here but apparently God is combining two different things saying that righteousness is not enough (you need to be good and upright but you can't be "good" enough to earn salvation) God also has to have mercy on you. This says to me that I should do my best and depend on the unending love of God for grace and mercy. I enjoyed reading the description of the flood and how "... the fountains of the great deep were broken up and the windows of heaven were opened." Seems to be a view of the oceans as supplied by fountains of water in its deepest regions. The story of the flood ends with a cleansing of the Earth, the restoration of the human race, and a promise from God that he will not destroy the Earth again.
Genesis 9 - 12 - Noah and his sons survived the flood. God promised never to destroy the Earth again by flood and gave the rainbow at the symbol. This was the second covenant -- first was with Adam and Eve. Noah's three sons (Ham, Japheth and Shem) and their families form the basis of new nations upon the Earth. Ham had a son name Cush who had a son named Nimrod. Nimrod was the first "big man" or leader and one of his kingdoms was Babel. Later the Tower of Babel was built to challenge the Lord and God scattered the people giving them different languages. Shem's most famous offspring was Abram. God established a covenant (Genesis 12:1) with Abram that if he left his country and family to a land God would show him, God would make him into a great nation and bless him and bless those that bless Abram and his nation. Abram departs Ur (see Ur an ancient city whose ruins are south of Baghdad) and goes with his family to Egypt. The Pharaoh throws Abram out of Egypt. It's amazing how much of the original beginning of the Bible is in Iraq.
| Genesis 13 - 16 - Abram leaves Egypt and goes North into Canaan. Abram is a rich man with many cattle and sheep. He and his nephew, Lot, who also has a significant number of livestock, decide that the land can not support both their herds so Abram tells Lot to choose which way he wants to go and Abram will go the other way. Lot chooses the Jordan Plain goes into that land. Abram stays in Canaan. God promises Abram and his descendants will own this land forever. Abram built an altar to the Lord in Hebron (currently the home to 166,000 Palestinians and 7,000 Jewish settlers). Fighting erupts in all the land and Abram's brother and family are kidnapped by one group. Abram leads 318 men in battle and successfully frees his relatives and captures prisoners and their possessions. Abram takes none of the spoils of the battle but asks the Lord to give him an heir. The word of God came to Abram to go into the night and look at the stars, "Look now toward the heaven, and count the stars if you are able to number them. So shall your descendants be." Sarai, Abram's wife had not borne a child for Abram so Sarai gave her maid, Hagar, to Abram and a child was conceived. This child was named Ishmael.God commanded Abram and Sarai to change their names to Abraham and Sarah. They conceived a child late in life and God promised them many descendants. |
Map of current Israeli occupation of the Hebron area of the West Bank.
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Genesis 17 - 22 - God declared a covenant with Abraham that he would be the father of many nations and mandated circumsion as a sign of that covenant. Their child's name was Issac. God moves forward with Abraham in terms of teaching him of His justice. God focuses on Sodom and Gomorrah and the sinfulness there. Lot, Abraham's nephew, had gone to live in Sodom with his two daughters. God told Abraham that he was going to destroy these cities. Abraham pleaded for these cities and asked God, "If I can find fifty rigtheous men, will you spare the cities" God said, "Yes." Then Abraham bargained with God to get the number of righteous needed to save the cities down to ten (see Genesis 18: 25 - 32). But it didn't work -- there were not 10 righeous men in all of Sodom. In chapter 19, God sent two angels to Sodom where they met Lot at the city gate. He took them to his home. They had said they wanted to stay in the street but Lot insisted they spend the night in his home. A mob surrounded the house asking that the men be sent out to them "that we might know them." Lot refused. He offered his two virgin daughters instead (I believe he offered knowing the offer would be refused). The angels blinded the men trying to break into the house. They led Lot out of Sodom with the instructions that no one look back at Sodom. Lot's wife looked back and turned into a pillar of salt. Lot went into the mountains near Zoar and lived in a cave with his two daughters. They had relations. The daughters got their father drunk on wine and each conceived a child with him. One child was Moab who became father of the Moabites and the other was Ben-Ammi who became father of the Ammon. In chapter 20, Abraham went into Ka'chesh and Shar in the region of Gerar and the story of Sarah being Abraham's sister (like when they went to Egypt years before is repeated) and the King of Gerar took Sarah as his wife. God warned the King in a dream not to do this. In chapter 21, Issac is born to Sarah and Abraham and creates his convenant between Abraham and God. Circumsion is instituted as a sign of obedience to God. All men in Abraham's house or circumscribed. Sarah sees Ishmael (Abraham's son with Hagar) making fun or scoffing at Isaac at the festival given by Abraham to celebrate Isaac's circumsion when he was eight days old. Sarah is concerned that Ishmael will come into conflict with Isaac and she asked Abraham to send Hagar and Ishmael away. Abraham does this and they are sent into the desert. Ishmael and his mother cry unto the Lord and he promises to raise a great nation from Ishmael. (The Arab nation?) God tests Abraham in Chapter 22 by commanding him to take his son, Isaac, and offer him as a burnt offering. Abraham demonstrated his fear of and faith in the Lord by obeying this command. At the moment when Abraham was about to slay his son, an angel told him not to harm the boy. God blessed Abraham for his faithfulness.
Genesis 23 - 26
Sarah dies at 127 year of age and Abraham greives for his wife. He asks Ephron to sell him a piece of land with a cave at the end of a field belonging to Machpelah in which to bury Sarah. This was in Mamre (Hebron) in the land of Caanan. Ephron wants to give Abraham the land but Abraham insists on paying for he land and cave. Interesting exchange -- not sure the signifcance of the exchange. Abraham bought the land at its market value --- 400 shekels of silver. In Chapter 24, Abraham is described as old --- well stricken with age. Abraham was blessed in all things by God. He started thinkng of his legacy and he asked his servant, the elder of his house, to find a wife for Isaac in Abraham's own country and kindred. The servant took ten camels to Nahor in Mesopotamia (modern day Iraq).
At Nahor in modern day Iraq, the servant waited by a well outside the city. He had his 10 camels kneel down by the well. The servant asked Jehovah to bring him the girl that should become Isaac's wife by having her offer the servant a drink of water from the well and have her also offer water to his camels. Genesis 24:11 describes how the servant waited by the well " ... at evening time when women go out to draw water." A beautiful young girl approached the well and saw the older man. She was Rebekah, the daugher of Bethuel, son of Milcah who was wife of Nahor (Abraham's brother). She offered Abraham's servant a drink of water. She then offered to draw water for his ten camels -- verse 24:20 says she drew water for all his camels. The old man was dumbfounded, verse 24:21 describes the scene -- "... and the man, wondering at her, remained silent." You have to understand what Rebekah was doing and why it was probably a very unlikely scene. Evidently drawiing water was strickly a woman's job (not sure but men may have been dissuaded from drawing and surely a strange man would not have approached another city's water well and begin to draw water). So the servant had to depend on, in the words of Tennessee Williams' Blanche DuBois, "... the kindness of strangers." He asked God to use this as a test. Why the big deal about a drink of water? You have to understand that offering an old man a drink of water is one thing but offering 10 camels a drink of water (and the Bible says in 24:22 that Rebekah drew enough water for the camels to finish drinking) is a big deal. Camels drink alot of water. An average camel can consume 20 gallons at a time. So Rebekah probably drew more than 200 gallons of water from the well. This was a big, big job, and something very out of the ordinary. Rebekah had a kind heart and a good, "can do" attitude. God knows how to pick his champions. Note: So Rebekah, who became the mother of all Jews and Gentiles was an Iraqi woman -- very interesting and who said God didn't have a sense of humor. Rebekah responded correctly and Abraham's servant gave her gold and silver jewlery and asked if he could stay at her house. He told her family that Jehovah had spoken when he prayed and Rebekah had responded correctly. Rebekah left with the servant and returned to Isaac. The travelling group came upon Issac meditating in a desert area in the southern part of modern Israel (the area was though to be Negev -- photograph below is of resort town of Eliat in the Negev region).
.Eliat in Negev region of Israel -- larger image at (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Eilat.jpg)
In Chapter 25, Abraham marries Keturah after Sarah dies. They have six children but everything that Abraham has goes to Issac. Issac gives the sons of Abraham and his concubine gifts and sends them east. Abraham dies and his two sons, Isaac and Ishmael bury him. There is a genealogy given of the descendants of Ishmael. It seems strange that he comes back to the family after he was cast out by order of Sarah. Abraham and Sarah both dead evidently gave Ishmael a chance to get back into the family and Isaac obviously accepted him. Rebekah has twins, Esau and Jacob. Esau is a hunter and Jacob is a farmer. They come into the world quarreling but God says that the older, Esau, will serve the younger, Jacob. Rebekah favors Jacob. Esau sells his birthright to Jacob for a lentil stew. When he did that he was very pessimistic about his chances of living much longer. Issac and Rebekah left their land due to a famine and went into an area controlled by Abimelech in Girar who was king of the Philistines. They lived there and prospered. Esau married a Hittite woman and that really bothered his parents.
Genesis 27 - 30
Issac calls for Esau and tells him he wants to bless him. He asks that Esau go and hunt game and prepare him one of his favorite meals. Rebbekah was listening and heard what Issac said. She favored Jacob and told him how to trick his father into giving him the blessing rather Esau. Big lesson here that among men one can not even trust his mother -- poor Esau. God proved his faithfulness through his covenants with Abraham, Noah and Issac and didn't break them. Esau plots to kill Jacob. Rebekkah hears of this and sends Jacob away to Laban (her brother) who lived in Haran. Jacob leaves and on the way he stops in Bethel to sleep and he has a dream in which God reconfirmed his promise to Abraham to make his descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky. Jacob named the place Bethel (it had previously been called Luz) and he annointed the stone that he had used as a pillar with oil and proclaimed that he would be faithful to God and give him a tithe of 10 percent of all that God gave him. Jacob arrives in Haran and runs into local people who know Laban. They tell Jacob that Laban's daugther, Rachel, is approaching with a herd of sheep and he falls in love with her. Jacob is presented to Laban and he is accepted as family. He asked for Rachel and Laban asked Jacob to work seven years. Jacob complies but Laban switches Leah his oldest daughter for Rachel on the wedding night. Jacob asks what is going on and Laban said it was the custom to marry off the oldest daughter first and that if Jacob wants Rachel he will have to work another seven years. Jacob does that and both Leah and Rachel as well as their maidservants start bearing his children. God is faithful to Rachel and gives her children after a period of barrenness. Jacob finally decides to return to his homeland. Laban asks him not to go. Jacob undertakes a selective breeding programming (see Genesis 30: 37 - 43) and increases the size and strength of his herds.
Genesis 31 - 34
Jacob leaves Laban with Rachel and Leah, his children and livestock but Laban follows him. Laban catches up with Jacob in the hill country of Gilead. A discussion ensued in which Jacob asked by what right was Laban pursuing him. Laban agreed that Jacob could go and they made a convenant that Jacob would protect his daughters and their children. Laban kissed children and grandchildren goodbye and left. Jacob preceded on his journey back to Canaan. Esau comes upon Jacob with 300 men and Jacob asks for mercy. Esau tells Jacob that he is his brother and that he loves him. Dinah the daughter of Leah goes out in the land of the Shechemites and is taken and violated (apparently raped) by Shechem, the son of the Hamor who is the local ruler. Shechem evidently fell in love with Dinah and asked what would be the price to have her as his bride. Jacob's sons told Shechem that he and all his subjects would have to become circumcised. They agreed and on the third day after their circumcision "... when all of them where still in pain" -- Jacob's sons attacked and killed them. Jacob was upset. He moved everyone out of Canaan to Behel. This is an interesting passage and I am still trying to understand what happened and its significance. Customs were broken and honor was violated. It's unclear if Dinah loved the young prince or not. She was in his home (also unclear if that was out of her own volition or if she was being held --- the story doesn't sound as if she were a captive). Simeon and Levi, sons of Jacob, attacked the Shechemites, killed the men, took the women and children, plundered their homes, and took their livestock. It almost seems that the issue of Dinah was an excuse for the attack and that the real reason motivating it was greed. Jacob was upset but not because of the injustice of the attack or not. He had a tactical issue that concerned him -- Genesis 34:30 - speaking to his sons, Jacos says "... you have troubled me by making me obnoxious among the inhabitants of the land, among the Canaanites and the Perizzites, and since I am few in number ... they will attack me..." The sons went back to the basic point of honor in vs 31 -- "... should he (Hamor) treat our sister like a harlot?" Defending the honor of their sister brought the rewards of women, livestock and plunder to the sons of Jacob. This is an example, I belief of calling something one thing in order to justify the real motivation. Our invasion of Iraq comes to mind. We invaded primarily in response to a terrorist attack on the US and sought to fight global terrorism but the real motivation was probably more related to oil reserves.
Genesis 35 - 38
God told Jacob to go to Bethel. God put fear into the people of Canaan and they did not harm Jacob and his people. Jacob obeyed God and established an altar in Bethel which he annointed with oil. ** There are different accounts of where Bethel may have been located. Some believe Bethel is at Arad west of Masada and south of Hebron (see map).
Jacob told his people to put away their foreign gods and take the earrings from their ears and he buried them near Shechem. It struck me that he did not destroy the gods only buried them. I believe we do the same thing today -- only bury our gods not destroy them. God renewed his covenant with Jacob that this land would be his and his descendants. God changed Jacob's name to "Israel" and his 12 sons became the 12 tribes of Israel. Rachel died giving birth to Benjamin her last child. Issac died and was buried by Esau and Jacob.
Chapter 36 provides an explanation of the family of Esau who became kings of Edom. |
Arad is thought to be site of Bethel. Arad is located east of Masada. |
Chapter 37 tells begins the story of Joseph. He was Jacob's favorite son. He could interpret dreams and he also watched over and reported what his half-brothers did. This caused problems. His half brothers hated Joseph, plotted against him, and eventually sold him into slavery. They told their father, Jacob, that Joseph had been killed by a wild beast. Joseph ends up being sold in Egypt to Potiphar, an officer of Pharaoh and captain of the guard.
Chapter 38 - The story of Judah, Joseph's brother, comes after the start of the story of Joseph and seems unrelated. Strange. Judah has three sons. His eldest, Er, marries a Caanite named Tamar. Er is killed by God so Judah orders his second son, Onan, to marry Tamar. Onan was reluctant and he sought not to conceive an heir with Tamar. This displeased the Lord and he killed Onan. Judah then ordered Tamar to wait until the youngest son, Shelah, came of age. When Shelah became an adult he didn't marry Tamar. She plotted revenge and dressed herself as a harlot and had relations with Judah. They conceived a child unbeknowest to Judah. Tamar sets a trap for Judah and he acknowledges he is father of the child. |
Genesis 39 - 42
Chapter 39 - Joseph prospered in slavery. His master, Potiphar, saw that God was with Joseph. Potiphar made Joseph over all in his household. Potiphar's wife tried to seduce Joseph but he resisted. She accused him of trying to rape her. Potiphar believed his wife and had Joseph put in prison. Joseph prospered in prision and became the most trusted inmate to the prison keeper. Chapter 40 - The Pharaoh's chief butler and chief baker were thrown into prison. They had a dream which Joseph interpreted -- the butler dreamed of 3 branches coming forth with grapes which he pressed into a goblet and then gave to Pharaoh while the baker dreamed of a basket of breads on his head which were eaten by the birds. Joseph said the butler would, in three days, be restored to his former position and hand a goblet to the Pharaoh as he had done before. The baker, he said, would, in three days, be executed by the Pharaoh and his body would be eaten by the birds. Joseph asked the butler to remember him when he returned Pharaoh's court. These things came to pass but the butler forgot to remember Joseph. Chapter 41 - Two years later Pharaoh had a dream in which seven well fed cattle came out of a river followed by seven thin cattle who proceeded to eat the fattened cattle. This dream bothered Pharaoh and he sought someone to interpret the dream. No one could but then the butler remembered Joseph. He told Pharaoh about Joseph who then brought him to the palace. Joseph intrepreted the dream as a forecast of seven bountiful years followed by seven years of famine. Pharaoh was very grateful and made Joseph the person in charge of preparing Egypt for the coming famine. Joseph was in control of everything. He married Asenath, daughter of a priest of On, and they have two children --- Manasseh and Ephraim (Gensis 41:52 - which means that God has caused me to be fruitful in the land of my affliction). When the famine came, all countries came to Egypt for food. ** Consistent theme is that the spirit of God in on or within Joseph. As the famine worsened, Jacob saw that there was corn in Egypt and he send his sons there to buy it for their family so they wouldn't starve. Ten of Joseph's brothers were sent. Only the youngest, Benjamin, stayed at home with Jacob. When Joseph saw his brothers he recognized them but they did not recognize him. He accused them of spying on Egypt. He held Simeon in custody and told the others brothers to go back to Canaan and bring back their youngest brother. It was during this process that Joseph secretly broke down and cried. He was trying to figure out how to get his whole family togehter but did not trust them. When the brothers arrived home and told Jacob, he said that he would not allow Benjamin to be taken to Egypt.
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Genesis 43 - 50
When the corn ran out, Jacob asked his sons to return to Egypt. They said they would only return if they could take Benjamin. The brothers returned with Joseph and he greeted them and eventually revealed his identity to them. He asked that they go back to Canaan and return with the whole family of Jacob (Israel). All the people came to Egypt with all their possessions. Jacob came with all his people to Egypt. He lived the rest of his days there. |
