Genesis 10-11

In a book titled “Genesis” we should not be surprised to find phrases like, “These are the generations of…” In fact, we’ve seen that phrase (or something very close to it) six times thus far (including today):

• Genesis 2:4 – The generations of the heavens and the earth
• Genesis 5:1 – The generations of Adam
• Genesis 6:9 – The generations of Noah
• Genesis 10:1 – The generations of the sons of Noah
• Genesis 11:10 – The generations of Shem
• Genesis 11:27 – The generations of Terah

These genealogies tell us where we came from and populate the landscape. They record the origins of whole people groups and nations, framing the context of the entire Biblical narrative that comes after. Although the human family tree obviously branches out in these genealogies (though somewhat severely pruned at the Flood!), note that each “node” listed above serves to narrow the scope down to the branches of particular interest. As we move through the Scriptures we will see further genealogies, focusing us closer in on the people of Israel, then the lineage of David.

It can be tempting to breeze past the names in our rush to get through our readings, but I would encourage us all not to do that, at least not every time. Some of these characters (or the nations that arise from them) figure significantly into Israel’s history, and these genealogies help us gain an understanding of who is who, where they live, and how they relate to one another. These genealogies also root us to reality. These are real people living real lives in real places.

But that is not all. In the end these genealogies point us to the One Who came to save us, our Lord Jesus Christ.

Genesis 7-9

Then God said to Noah and to his sons with him, “Behold, I establish my covenant with you and your offspring after you, and with every living creature that is with you, … that never again shall all flesh be cut off by the waters of the flood, and never again shall there be a flood to destroy the earth.”

Genesis 9:8-11

Here God makes an unconditional promise never to repeat destroying the entire world by a flood. And sure enough He never has. God is faithful, and He keeps His promises.

The Lord makes this promise in the form of a covenant. We will come across multiple covenants in our journey through the Scriptures, so it is important to know what a covenant is, but I’m not going to attempt to cover the topic myself here. Instead, you’ll be better off checking out the following:

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Covenant_(biblical)
• https://www.gotquestions.org/Bible-covenants.html
• https://www.biblestudytools.com/dictionary/covenant/

The main thing to note here, though, is that God treats covenants very seriously. In this “Noahic Covenant,” God has made a solemn vow never again to destroy the earth by a flood. That does not mean that there won’t be any flooding at all. (That is patently absurd.) Nor does it mean that the earth will not ultimately pass away or that there will be no final judgment. (Later Scriptures clearly tell us otherwise.) But we can confidently rest in the knowledge that the end will not come by another global flood.

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One more thing…

Ironically, the very fact that God has kept the promise that He made to Noah is used by the skeptic to scoff at the story of the Flood and, by extension, at the entire Bible and thus at God Himself. The skeptic’s logic goes something like this:

• I have never seen a global flood
• No one in living history has seen a global flood
• The very notion of a global flood is thus preposterous
• Ergo, the Great Flood of Noah never occurred and the Bible is bunk, along with the God it describes

Such is the warped logic of the fallen and faithless human heart. The same kind of thinking presumes that since Jesus has not yet returned, that He never will. (See II Peter 3:1-10.) Fortunately for all of us, God remains faithful, despite such nonsense.

Genesis 4-6

When man began to multiply on the face of the land and daughters were born to them, the sons of God saw that the daughters of man were attractive. And they took as their wives any they chose.

Genesis 6:1-2

I highlight these verses not because I have a crystal clear explanation of them but because I do not. That is not to say that no explanations have been offered. Quite the contrary — theories abound. A tremendous amount of time and energy (and ink and web space) has been devoted to speculation as to what is meant by the “sons of God”. Here is a sampling:

• Fallen angels
• Extraterrestrial beings (i.e., space aliens)
• Homo Sapiens (descendants of Adam), in contrast to Neanderthal (or some such genetically compatible but otherwise unspiritual) “daughters of men”

I am not going to try to settle the matter here. Sorry about that. Instead I want to take the opportunity to recognize that there are some things in the Bible that are a bit obscure, that are hard to understand, or that are perhaps even well beyond explanation. What do we do with such things? Do we demand a full and clear explanation? In the absence of a “satisfactory” explanation (where “satisfactory” is defined by our own subjective sensibilities), do we reject the whole passage or even the whole Bible? What, truly, is our attitude toward the text? Are we trying to shape the text? Or are we allowing the text to shape us?

But, really, come on, man… What’s all this about the “sons of God” taking the “daughters of man” as wives? I don’t know. And I’m OK with that.

Genesis 1-3

Genesis, the book of beginnings, is utterly foundational to the rest of Scripture. In the opening verses we see that the eternal God is the Creator, the Source of everything, speaking the entire universe into existence. We see that God creates Man, male and female, in His image and gives them dominion over the earth. We see the Fall of Man and ongoing rebellion against God. We see God’s judgment, tempered by mercy and grace. We see the call of Abraham and the beginnings of God’s redemptive plan to bless the whole world through him, so we trace his descendants, particularly those who come to be known as the nation of Israel.

But I’m getting ahead of myself.

In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.

Genesis 1:1

Take a few minutes to really consider what that means. Think about the vastness of the universe. Try to count the stars, even just the ones you can see. Consider the intricacies of a flower. Look at your own fingerprints and wonder. This God of ours brought it all forth out of nothing. He just spoke the Word, and it all came to be.

If you accept the truth of Genesis 1:1, then nothing else in the Bible should be beyond belief. That is, the Creator gets to do what He wants with His creation, and nothing within creation is beyond Him. If He chooses to part the Red Sea, then who are we to say that such things can’t happen? If He can handle everything from quarks to galaxies and beyond, then He ought to be able to feed 5,000 folks with a few loaves and fishes. There is nothing “super” about the supernatural for God.

So meditate on that truth today and praise our awesome Creator Who upholds the universe by the word of His power. (Hebrews 1:3)

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One more thing…

I am sure you will have noticed that I have made no attempt to cover the full breadth of our reading today. I focused on a single verse and even then barely scratched the surface of it. Given our pace through the Scriptures this year, I expect that to be the norm, which goes to say that there will be plenty of room for you to comment on what sticks out to you. Notice what you notice, and tell the rest of us about it.

Tomorrow RTB will return to its roots, taking the first steps on a journey of reading through the entire Bible in a year. (After all, “RTB” stands for “Read Through the Bible”.) For some (like Fred and Carol), this year-long trek is familiar ground. For others, this may be the first time through. For all, the journey can be life changing — certainly life giving — as our path is through the living and active Word of God.

With Genesis 1:1 starting with “In the beginning…” and Revelation 22:21 ending with “Amen“, one might expect it to be reasonably easy to read the Bible straight through from beginning to end, page by page. But the Bible is, of course, no ordinary book. It consists of multiple shorter works written by multiple authors over a period of roughly 1500 years. We see historical drama, poetry, legal code, prophecy, and personal correspondence. We have action and advice, worship and wisdom, foretelling and forthtelling, songs and sermons. It starts in a garden and ends in a city, with a glorious epic in between, but it is not organized as a single long narrative, so for those who have not read it all before, reading from beginning to end can be confusing.

And so, we will avoid taking the “simple but confusing” straight path and instead chart our course chronologically through the Bible. For example, when we read the history of the Exodus led by Moses, we will read a psalm that Moses wrote. As we walk through the events of King David’s life, we will read the psalms corresponding to those events. As we journey through the history of the kingdoms of Israel and Judah, we will read the writings of the prophets who spoke to those kingdoms. And so on.

In taking this approach we will use The Chronological Study Bible published by Thomas Nelson as our guide. The Chronological Study Bible (CSB) is packed with helpful notes and maps and timelines that can help shed light on the biblical text. So if you have a copy, use it as your map through the Scriptures, reading all the extra sidebars. If you don’t have a copy and would like one, let me know. But don’t feel like you have to use The Chronological Study Bible to be able to participate in RTB. We will still publish our Reading Schedule each month, and you can follow along in your favorite translation. (The keen observer will note, though, that our own schedule may differ slightly from that published in the CSB, but we’ll never be very far off.) For my part, I will avoid referring to or quoting the CSB notes for two main reasons:

• I don’t want anyone without the CSB to feel “left out in the cold”, wondering what I am talking about
• I don’t want to inadvertently plagiarize the material and violate Thomas Nelson’s copyright

Our goal here isn’t to learn everything the CSB scholars have to say. Our goal is to encounter the living God by reading through His Word. If the CSB notes help us to hear from God, excellent! But if they don’t, don’t worry about it — just concentrate on the Word itself.

Here are a few tips for completing this journey together:

• Pray for the Holy Spirit to speak to you through His Word
• Develop your own daily routine for reading and stick to it
  • We will typically read three or four chapters a day, so allocate sufficient time in your schedule to read each day, with some extra time built in for contemplating what you read
  • Plan ahead for disruptions to your schedule (e.g., travel)
  • Don’t fall behind, but if you do, just skim (or even skip) over the backlog to catch up and stay on track
• Participate in the conversation, both online and in person

Finally, whether you’ve trodden this path before or are completely new to this, we are all embarking afresh on a tremendous journey. At times we may find the going to be easy and the weather fine. Other times may seem dark and gloomy. We may find adventure. Or we may find ourselves plodding along. We may find encouragement. Or we may find cause to grieve. Through it all, seek the Lord and listen to what He has to say to you. You will not regret it.

Psalm 150

The end of the Psalms.

Yes, it’s a Praise psalm, the last of the five closing Hallelujah psalms, but it’s also a guide for us as to how to praise God – the what (v. 1), the why (v. 2), the how (vv. 3-5), and the who (v. 6).

I don’t mean to be judgmental, but have you heard of people who have left one church or another because they didn’t like the music, especially those folks who leave because they don’t like contemporary music? They need to read Psalm 150!

It’s been a glorious year, far more than I could have ever imagined. Thank you all for sharing it with John and Carol and me – and all of you and your comments. Now on to 2023!!

Psalm 149

Yesterday’s Psalm 148 was all about praise. I didn’t see that I could add much to what the psalmist had already said. I expected today to be more of the same, since we were now at the penultimate psalm in the five closing “Hallelujah” psalms. And sure enough, the psalmist does not disappoint – it’s all of Israel praising the Lord, highlighted by verse 6a: Let the high praises of God be in their throats… Then, surprisingly to me, the psalmist calls forth revenge, retribution, punishment on Israel’s neighbors, beginning with the very next half-verse: …and two-edged swords in their hands, to execute vengeance on the nations and punishments on the peoples, to bind their kings with chains and their nobles with fetters of iron, to execute on them the judgment written! (vv. 6b-10a) What a shock to go from Israel’s praise to God to her vengeance on her enemies!! Put half-verses 6a and 6b together and capture the full flavor of the change in tone: Let the high praises of God be in their throats and two-edged swords in their hands, (v. 6) Quite a change, eh?!!

Might this describe you or me in any way, large or small? In the midst of some success in our lives, do we look back on those who had earlier stood in the way of a raise or a promotion or some other “victory”? Do we then gloat over our success and cast aspersions back to those “enemies”. I’ve had two major occasions for that, major “defeats” in my life where a small number of people stood in the way of “success” in my future. And yes, there were a few people to blame and I was certainly bitter for a time. Even today a tiny edge of that bitterness remains for a few of those people. Thankfully, however, as God has redeemed those “defeats” and I’ve been able to move forward, I’ve looked back and felt sorry for those people who (I feel) were unjustified in creating those hardships in my life. It’s their problem, not mine. My call is to praise God, not to seek evil on what happened years before. And that’s how the psalmist ends today’s reading: Praise the LORD! (v. 10b) We (I) would do well to echo that call.

Psalm 148

Praise. Nothing more to say…

Psalm 147:12-20

Psalm 147, Day 2. He declares His word to Jacob, His statutes and rules to Israel. He has not dealt thus with any other nation; they do not know His rules. (vv. 19-20) “He has not dealt thus with any other nation…”. When the psalmist wrote these words, he was looking only at his nearby nations. He did not foresee Jesus’ ministry, or the apostles and Paul reaching out to the rest of the Mediterranean world, or the growth of Christianity over the next hundreds of years. We, too, now have His word … His statutes and rules …, and the entire world is better as a result of that growth in the distribution of God’s Law!

An aside on that verse: word, statutes and rules in verse 19 above, plus ordinances in the NASB. My main takeaway from the Psalms this year has been the synonyms in Psalm 119. And those various synonyms appear throughout the Psalms and even in the historical and prophetic writings. While there are certainly nuances in the original languages, if I translate them all as “His ways”, I know that I’m not too far off! 😊!