At the end of Chapter 10, which talks about the lineage of the sons of Noah, it says: "from these the nations spread out over the earth after the flood"(Gen 10:32). It reminded me of what God told Adam and Eve, to be fruitful and multiply. not exactly the same words, but the message is still the same. God told Adam and Even to multiply, and in this verse we are told that the nations spread out over the earth after the flood. not life altering, but something that struck me.
after this came the story of the Tower of Babel(see picture to the left). the first thing that I am going to say is that I noticed that this story is located in a...weird...location.it's doesn't flow with the rest of the book. first we learn about the lineage of the sons of Noah, and then we have the Tower of Babel, and then we go on to learn more about the lineage of the songs of Noah. it's almost like the author realized after reading the book that he wanted or needed to put this story in, so he just plucked it down somewhere. if this was a paper, this would be a paragraph that you would get points off because it just doesn't..flow...with the other things surrounding it.
when I started the cultural component of Mandarin Dialektos class, the professor opened it with this story. he said that as a language teacher, he didn't like to think of language as a punishment used by God. I can say that I do kinda agree with that. I love languages and culture, and while it was a punishment(sorta)used by God, it also gave us different cultures and different languages and I can't say I am not glad about that.
while reading this, it seemed to me that it wasn't so much as a punishment but as a...a way for God to stop them from becoming too powerful. in verses 6-7, God says: "If as one people speaking the same language they have begun to do this,then nothing they plan to do will be impossible for them. come, let us go down and confuse their language so they will not understand each other"(Gen 11:6-7). God never says anything about it being a punishment, a curse, but a way to stop them. it seems like God knew/realized that unified like the builders(I assume)were, it would mean that nothing would be impossible for them do, and for reasons of His own, God did not want that. maybe God doesn't want us to know everything, maybe He doesn't want everything we do to be possible for us. it just me...if nothing were impossible for them, then they would no longer need God.
one thing that I noticed in the lineage of Noah's son Shem,is that Abram's brother, Nahor, married Milcah, who was the wife of Abram's other brother Haran, who had died in Ur. so Nahor married his own niece! seemed wrong and yucky to me, but maybe in that culture it was...the norm?
chapter 12:1 "The Lord had said to Abram, "leave your country, your people and your father's household and go to the land I will show you.(Gen 12:1). this reminded me of my going to China. I am hesitant to say that God called me to go to China, because it seems that is assuming that I know how and what God is thinking and planning, and I don't. however, I am leaving my country, my people,etc. to go to a land that God has "shown me"(in a way, I do feel like God approves of my going). it just sounded familiar, and I can relate to it in a way. as thrilled as I am to be going to China, it is scary, leaving behind everything. sometimes I worry that I'll come back and I'll be so different or my friends will be so different or so used to my being gone that we wont be friends anymore. that I'll be just a girl that they used to know.
"when the Egyptians see you, they will say 'this is his wife.' then they will kill me but will let you live. say you are my sister, so that I will be treated well for your sake and my life will be spared because of you"(Gen 12:12-13). when I read this, my first though was that it made sense. he wanted to be kept from being killed by Egyptians so they could have his wife. it seemed kinda romantic actually to me, saving your husband like that. however, as I continued to read the story, it became clear that it seemed like Abram had prostituted his wife to save his own skin and also to profit from it. in verses 18- 19, the Pharaoh says to Abram:"why didn't you tell me she was your wife?why did you say,' she is my sister,' so that I took her to be my wife?(Gen 12:18-19).it seems to be like he kinda prostituted her and exploited her. yet at the same time, maybe they would have killed him if he had told them the truth at the beginning.
in chapter 13, we read about Abram and Lot separating because they had so many goods by this point that they were fighting, their herdsmen were fighting, so Abram said that it would be better if they parted, and so Lot went and settled near Sodom. this is getting ahead of myself, but I remembered that later when God is going to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah, Abram basically asks God to spare righteous people He finds there. In my Message of the Old Testament class, I remember learning that Abram was probably asking God to save Lot. I got to thinking, that maybe Abram felt...guilty. after all, Abram was the one who told Lot they should split up, so that is why Lot was living near Sodom, so maybe Abram felt guilty. just a thought I had.
two small thing I noticed. I noticed that Abram seemed to build a lot of altars to God. and in chapter 15, it was not God who came to Abram, but the word of the Lord.
"Do not be afraid Abram.I am your shield, your very great reward.(Gen 15:1). I really liked this verse. my bible is the letters to God bible, so the comment that the original owner of the bible(his bible was published with his comments on it)wrote was:"God is the prize!" I totally agree and I really liked this verse. it reminded me of what Jesus will say in the New Testament, about storing rewards in Heaven.
"then the Lord said to him,"know for certain that your descendants will will be strangers in a country not their own, and they will be enslaved and mistreated four hundred years.but I will punish the nation they serve as slaves,and afterward they will come out with great possessions"(Gen 15:13-14).when I read this, it seemed to be to foreshadow the Exodus from Egypt. maybe God knew even this early on that they would become slaves in Egypt but He already knew that He would free them.
"every male among you shall be circumcised. you are to undergo circumcision, and it will be the sign of the covenant between me and you"(Gen 17:10-11). I cannot believe I am writing this, and I will say that I debated, still am debating even as I write this, about not writing this because it is a little...embarrassing to write about this, however, it is a thought that I had and I don't wanna not write about it because it's a little embarrassing. so circumcision is removing the excess skin(I think), so maybe when god made this the sign of the covenant between Him and Abram(and Abram's decedents) it meant that from now on, they should not hold on to the excess things in life, but only hold on and keep the important things, like God. mainly God. does that make sense? I could go into deeper detail of this analogy, but if your a guy and your reading this, I assume you can handle the images yourself.
"and Abraham said to God," If only Ishmael might live under your blessing!"(Gen 17:18). this verse made me think that we often ask God to use our means, not His means. Ishmael was Sarah not trusting God to give them a child and deciding to have Abraham sleep with her maidservant to get a child. that was their means, not God's means. and Abraham is asking God, it seems to me, to use their means and not God's. God still Blesses Ishmael and makes him into a great nation, but it's still not God's means of fulfilling the covenant.
one funny thing I noticed. "Isaac" means "He laughs." and Abraham laughed when God told Him about how God was going to give him and Sarah a son despite their old age. so God's funny sense of humor is that He has Abraham name his son a name that means "He Laughs." every time Abraham sees his son, or thinks about his son, he will remember how He laughed at the idea of God giving him and Sarah the son standing in front of him. God, is not without a sense of humor.
I loved reading the bible cover to cover, though it is taking me forever as you can tell. I love that I can see the whole picture and that helps me to have thoughts and ideas that normally I might not catch,like the idea of Abram feeling guilty about Lot moving to Sodom. reading the stories separately, you don't really catch that, but reading it back to back like I am, you do.
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