Dei Time

Was the Tower Real?

Genesis 11

    Today's reading begins at the Tower of Babel. The question might be posed, "Why did God stop these people from reaching their goals?" Why stop the building project? The phrases, "let us build for ourselves" and "we may make a name for ourselves" helps answer the question. Not only did the builders fail to seek God's help in their project, He seems to have been out of their thoughts entirely. It appears that man's unity merely encouraged people to rely more upon themselves and less upon God. Perhaps God did not stop something good, but stopped these people from pursuing a path of rebellion against Him.

North of Babylon archaeologists have discovered a ziggurat (tower-like pyramid structure) that some believe to be the remains of the Tower of Babel. It is called Etemenanki ("House of the foundation of heaven on earth"). Nineteen of these ziggurats have been uncovered by archaeologists, and ancient writings indicate that there were more. Some, like Etemenanki, were huge—nearly 300 feet square and nearly as high. Though our modern towers are much higher, these were constructed thousands of years ago!

If Etemenanki is the biblical tower, it was built by people who determined that their strength lay not in God, but in the power that they could generate as a unified body of humans. They believed that they could rule without God's help and without acknowledgement of His place as the Head of all things. God, however, split the ranks of the arrogant by confusing their language. In our culture, people still think that mankind will eventually find its own perfection, without the need for the true God, or any other. Do you think that it will happen, or can happen?

The later verses of chapter 11 (a listing of Shem's descendants) introduce us to Abram (Abraham). Next time we will look at this man. Was he a simple ancient herder?

A Bow in the Clouds

Genesis 9 - 10

In chapter 9, the instructions concerning "blood" stem from the fact that in those days man understood the importance of blood in the system of life. Sin brought death into God's creation. Respect for life, now that sin ruled, became a primary command from God. God's command includes instructions that become visual reminders for His people of the importance of life. We will see God use many "visual aids" as teaching tools for mankind in the Old Testament.

The rainbow symbolized the new "covenant" between God and man. A covenant is an agreement in which each party usually provides a need for the other, such as protection from a king in return for support and loyalty. Unlike most covenants of ancient times, the establisher of this agreement, God, makes a simple promise to man, without demands. Our King loves us without demanding a response. Even in the midst of punishing sin, God's love did not end. When the people of Israel saw a rainbow, it reminded them of God's promise to never again destroy the world by flood.

Of course, as life got back to "normal", Noah and his family continued to sin. To understand the sin of Ham, remember that in those days it was an act of great disrespect to even see one's father naked. Ham not only did this, but spread the word! Disrespect of one's father lessened the father's nobility or position.

Next time: the Tower of Babel. Was it real?

World Wide?

Genesis 7 - 8

Was the flood world-wide, or just a Mesopotamian disaster? Folk tales from around the world indicate a disastrous flood in ancient times. Is it coincidence; just a popular story that naturally developed in all cultures? Or, do these stories all stem from a world-wide catastrophe? As the descendants of Noah spread through the world, did they take with them the story of an ancient family happening? Did you know that scientists today wonder how mammoths found in Siberia could have frozen solid while tropical plants were lying undigested in their stomachs? Why do archaeologists sometimes find the remains of large numbers of diverse animals on what were once hilltops or highlands? Interesting questions. While we don't look to the Bible to teach us science, its answers in these areas are certainly not absurd, as some claim.

Most people know that the heavens opened up, the rivers overflowed, and the supernaturally heavy rainfall lasted forty days. The end of the storm and the agony of judgment on the world, however, was not the end of the long cruise for Noah and his family. They were actually in the ark for 377 days—over a year!

Next time, in chapter 9, we will see that after the flood, God placed a rainbow in the sky as a promise that He would never again destroy all life from the earth. His love for His creation would endure through the ages, even though all men, even Noah and his family, continued in their sin nature. Our sin does not mean that there is no hope for us, because God still says, "I love you." He sent His Son to rescue us from our sin. In Noah's time, as well as in our own, millions of people said, "No, God, I don't need you or your love." What they fail to realize is that whether or not we accept God, He is still there. He has still declared that sin shall result in disaster and death. Without Jesus as our way to salvation and life, our end will always be catastrophe, sooner or later.

No More Chances

Genesis 6

Were the "sons of God" in chapter 5 angels? Probably not, since the passage literally says just "sons of God". "Sons of God" in the Bible usually refers to people in a right relationship with God. Also, Jesus tells us that angels are sexless and do not marry. The likely answer is that these were godly men who unwisely married the ungodly and God-denying "daughters of men".

What about the "Nephilim"? Experts in the Hebrew language point out that the title of the resulting offspring could refer to bandits who preyed on others, or to "fallen ones" who had rebelled against God. The idea that even sons of God-fearing parents turned to the ways of the world and intermarried into an evil society fits the rest of the chapter's premise that over the years the sin situation progressively worsened until there was almost no one that still called upon the Lord God. Verse 6 says of mankind, "every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually." (NASB)

What made Noah worthy of saving? Nothing that he had done. His faith in God to rule his life was itself a gift from God (see Ephesians 2 and Hebrews 11 in the N.T.). Noah's only "work" was that he trusted God to rule his life. He was the only man left who believed this truth. The rain hadn't started when God told Noah to build the ark. He obeyed simply because he believed that God would do as He promised.

Though the Old Testament people would not have recognized it, the ark was a pretty good picture of our salvation. God personally carried Noah and his family through the flood (judgment). The "tar" covering the boat was an early word for "atonement." Jesus' blood saves us and atones (pays for) for our sin. God closed and opened the boat's door for only He has the power of salvation. Our baptism tells the story again. Only God can bring us up out of the water as new creatures in Him.

Next we look at the flood that covered the world, or did it?

He Never Died

Genesis 5

This genealogy includes two interesting descendants of Adam. In general, people grew further and further from God in those years. Enoch was an exception. He walked so close to God in his life that he did not die. God took him directly to Heaven before death. He was one of only two people in the Bible that never experienced death. Methuselah was Enoch's son. He lived for 969 years, making him the oldest man in history.

Did men live to such outrageous ages? Since these events occurred before recorded history, and mankind had begun his existence in perfection, only to lose that perfection through sin and plunge down the slope to imperfection, who knows? Anyway, if we take the birth, life, and death claims in Genesis as literal, we see some interesting possibilities!

If the genealogy records are taken at face value, then Adam lived to meet his descendant Methuselah. Noah knew Methuselah. In fact, Methuselah died just one year before the worldwide flood that God sent to destroy sin. That is interesting because it counters the claim of some that God just wasn't fair when He wiped out the world, since no one had any warning! Actually, Methuselah's whole life was a warning to a world that was embracing sin more and more. His name meant "after him it shall come" or "when he dies, it will come". We shouldn't assume that God's people were silent in their witness against the sin going on around them, or that mankind had not received many warnings.

Next time we will look at Noah and his neighbors.

An Arrogant Man

Genesis 4

We find Eve again living by faith. God is restor­ing her, never to the earthly glory that had been, but to an eternal spirit­ual life with Him.

Eve's first son, Cain, demonstrates how quickly sin spread in the world. Abel, Cain's brother, brought the first fruits (the best) of his work to the Lord, which implies that Cain brought less than his best. When his gift of leftovers did not please God, Cain responded angrily. He was self-centered instead of God-centered. Abel, a God-centered man, gave the very best that he had to the Lord. Cain saved the very best of life for himself.

God reached out to Cain but he would not listen. Instead of turning to God to ask for forgiveness and a change of heart, he let his anger grow until he killed his brother. When God confronted him, Cain defiantly shouted, "Am I my bro­ther's keeper?" God sent him to Nod, which means wande­ring or exile.

Even after his confrontation with God, and God’s command of exile, Cain remained the same self-centered being, showing no repentance for murdering his brother. Instead, Cain moaned that his punishment had been too severe. Does it seem that we often see the same response from many people in our own culture today? Perhaps the “self” is still as self-ish as it was thousands of years ago.

Six generations passed before the birth of Lamech, who again shows us the growing power of sin over man. In the "Song of the Sword" (vs.23-24), Lamech even brags about his cruelty and arrogance.

Chapter four also lists other descendants of Cain. There is already a strong sense of two definite family lines developing in the history of God and His creation. One family, descended from Adam through Seth (Eve’s son given after Abel’s death) and another family line descended from Adam through Cain. The first follows God while the second will continue to rebel against Him. The Messiah would be a descendant of the line of Seth.

Tomorrow: There was a real Methuselah?

Disaster with A Promise

Genesis 3 (continued)

Adam and Eve soon recognized how horrible sin was. They hid from God. A literal transla­tion of verse 8 might read, “And they heard the voice of the Lord God moving in the garden to the wind of the day." Everywhere Adam turned, he met God's voice calling in the breeze.

When God questioned the man and woman, their responses reflected what our own might be. Adam blamed Eve and God. Eve blamed the serpent. And the serpent probably smiled.

Adam and Eve’s disobedience forced God to expel them from the garden. Their sin caused their lives to change. Eve would suffer pain in childbirth—but perhaps not the pain which first comes to mind. Think about this: Was God referring primarily to physical pain, or was it more than that? The Hebrew word for "pain" used here is usually used to refer to inner suffer­ing. Like Eve, we no longer have the close relationship with our children that God intended. This results in great emotional pain on both sides, as we struggle to communicate with our kids as well as and our own parents.

Also, why did God place a guard on the Tree of Life? Was it punishment, or love? Did God bar the tree so that mankind could not choose to live eternally, and miserably, in sin?

We cannot leave chapter 3 without stepping back to verse 15, the pivotal point in this story of God’s love. Verse 15 is almost universally cited as the first promise of the Messiah. Man had messed up paradise. He had separated himself from God and condemned himself to a life of sin, but God’s love did not stop! When the time was right, He would reach out to mankind with a Savior. The rest of the Old Testament is the story of God preparing His people to meet His Son.

Tomorrow—Who's who in chapter 4?

How to have a really bad day

Genesis 3

The serpent was “crafty”, or subtle, in his attack on Eve. Isn’t that the way temptation always works? It seems that the temptations that we most easily succumb to appear so “right”. It is so easy to rebel against God without even admitting to ourselves that it is happening.

God created us with “free will” to obey or not. If God had created puppets, sin would not have happened, but neither would man have been able to choose to truly love God. What kind of relationship would that have been?

The perfect relationships for us planned by God – with Him, with others, with nature, and within ourselves were shattered when Eve and Adam sinned. Today, we enjoy none of them perfectly. Jesus has saved us from eternal separation from God, but we still cannot walk and talk with God as did Adam and Eve.

Eve was the first to fall. Satan tricked her just as he tricks us today, by appealing to her wants and her ego. First he tried to tell Eve that God didn't really mean what He had said. Satan started, "Did God really say...?” God had warned Adam that if he disobeyed, "…you shall surely die."

"You won't die," the serpent said. Of course this was another lie. Eve’s spiritual separation from God (death) would indeed be immediate, but still Eve noticed how good the fruit looked. Surrounded by the greatest natural food garden in all history, Eve wanted more. Then Satan hit her with the ultimate, "You will be as God.”  Eve disobeyed God for the same reason as we-- “I saw; I wanted; I took” (with emphasis on the “I”). Her sin was not that she ate the fruit, but that she deliberately disobeyed God.

Why did Eve tempt Adam into her sin? No one knows - maybe misery does love company, or perhaps she still didn’t really understand the cost of her sin. Why didn't Adam say no? Because his desire to be a god was as strong as her own. (Some may argue that he just didn’t want Eve to suffer alone, but let’s face it—Adam didn’t even have to be persuaded!)

Tomorrow--What came into the world with their sin?

Relationships

Genesis 2

Chapter 2 retells the story of creation, adding much to the story of man and woman. This was a typical style of writing for the early Hebrews: first you write down the basic story and then add the details.

For six days, God had been creating the heavens and the earth and all their inhabitants. On the seventh day He rested. This is the earliest verse in the Bible from which we draw the tradition of taking one day a week for rest and worship.

Chapter 1 made it clear that God created man and woman together, both equal in His eye of love. Now we see some details. God made mankind different from the animals. God “breathed” life into the man and woman. How is “life” different for us than for the animals? Both have emotions; both have bodies; both have distinct personalities (just ask any dog, horse, or cat owner). But, God breathed life into man. He gave us a spirit that was capable of understanding Him and having a relationship with Him. Mankind would be able to know God.

God then created the perfect place for man. He commanded man to work the earth (“work” is not a consequence of sin). He added one more thing to His instructions—obedience. The tree in the middle of the garden was forbidden to man. Would he obey God?

Then God created woman for man, but not as a servant. She was to be the completer of man. The word that is translated “helper” is used elsewhere in the Old Testament to refer to God as man’s “helper”. So we can safely say that “helper” was not meant to place woman “below” man in God’s eyes or in the world’s eyes. What is the real relationship between men and women? Hebrew as a language has a very limited number of “root” or base words. “Rib” can also mean “inside", or "inner being”. Woman was not created out of Adam’s rib to denote a lesser creation, but a person who was intimately related to Adam; one who could understand him, relate to him, offer comfort to him and receive comfort from him. As verse 24 says, a relationship bond was created for which a man would leave everything else.

Tomorrow we will see how man and woman fared at obedience.

The Beginning

Genesis 1:1

“God said”, “God created”, “God called”, “God made”, and “God saw that it was good”, are all phrases repeated through the first chapter of Genesis. Similar phrases about God continue to flow through the second chapter. The Hebrew word for created is only used in connection with God. Humans can reorganize substances that already exist into something recognizable, but only God can begin with literally nothing. God was and is the mighty Creator.

The creation story is adamant that God created our world, and that His creation was good. The evil in our world is not due to the Creator doing a bad job. The evil that thrives in our world stems from the evil in people’s hearts. God created perfectly, without error. It was disobedience that gave evil an opportunity in our world and lives.

After the rest of creation was finished God created mankind, again perfectly. Man and woman were different from any other part of creation. They were created in the image of God, able to relate to Him in a way unknown to the animals. Today, some people say that people are just animals, no higher in God’s esteem than any other creature. God says that indeed we are created higher than the animals, and that we have a responsibility to care for the world and its creatures. As overseers, humans can do a better job than they are, but we are still called to both use and care for creation.

Next time, we’ll look at chapter 2, a retelling of the story, with some added details.