A Study in Genesis Chapter 12:1-9

GENESIS CHAPTER 12

His name had been Abram, meaning “exalted father.” Later it would be changed to Abraham, meaning “father of a multitude.”

Verse 1 – God instructs Abram to leave his homeland and go to a place unnamed. This is the way it is with God. He calls and we go. Not to go when God calls is like a slap in His face. His call to Christ is much the same: God calls, we respond. If we respond obediently, the reward is even greater than Abram’s.

Verse 2-3 – God makes a promise to Abram. He will bless him. Blessing is a much misused term today. We think of God’s blessings as material. The more He gives us the more we feel “blessed.”

If you look the word up in a Bible dictionary you will see it defined as “happy.” But the word “happy” did not mean the kind of giddy, or gratified feelings we get when things are going our way. Contextually, in the Bible, “happy” means deeply spiritually satisfied. The Beatitudes can properly be read: Deeply spiritually satisfied are the poor in spirit, etc.

That is why people going through unimaginable trials can still be blessed. That is why Christians in lands where they are persecuted, tortured and killed can be blessed. That is why people in “under developed” countries can be blessed.

God’s blessing to Abram is chapter two of the story of God’s redemptive work with mankind. Jesus is descended from Abram, as shown in Matthew 1. Those who follow Him are a direct result and fulfillment of Abram’s blessing.

Verses 4-5 – Abram did what God told Him to do. God has called us to radically follow Christ. We must do so, even when we cannot see where it will lead. By trusting God in Christ, we know that our destination is eternity with Him in Heaven.

Verses 6-7 – Abram’s obedience to God would lead him and ultimately Israel into some difficult earthly times. Abram went anyway.

God promised the land to Abram. God always keeps His promise, no matter what world events might or might not take place.

Abram built an altar to God. An altar is a place of sacrifice. It served to remind people of their gratitude to and dependence upon God.

Verses 8-9 – Abram “pitched his tent” on a mountain and built another altar. Then he continued on toward the Biblical region of Judah.

Christians have no need for an altar. The sacrifice of Christ at the cross of Calvary is all of the sacrifice God needs for the redemption of mankind. Those who follow God to the cross will find eternal life.

Additional Thoughts

God promises to show Abram a country. Abram did not see the country, but he headed out by faith. We know he went by faith because faith is the essence of things hoped for; the evidence of things UNSEEN. Following God by faith means doing what He tells you, even when you don’t know where He is leading.

Abram built an altar in Shechem. In the Old Testament, an altar is a place where something dies as a sacrifice. Under the New Covenant, an altar is a place where we die to self. We don’t need it for a sacrifice, Jesus has provided the sacrifice…Himself. To follow Him, we must die to self.

Israel was chosen by God and was expected to be 1) A witness of God’s ways; 2) a keeper of God’s word (Romans 3:2); 3) a channel for God’s wonder (Messiah). God chose Israel because He’s the “captain of the team,” and He gets to choose. He chose them to provide the path to Messiah, Jesus. Those who bless Israel (and her mission) will be blessed. Those who curse Israel (and thus reject Messiah) will be cursed. And that’s just the way it is today and always will be.

God says unequivocally that He gave Canaan (the West Bank) to the Jews. It’s their land, not the Palestinian’s land, or your land or my land. It’s Israel’s land, and we would do well to respect that, even if we don’t like it.

A Study in GENESIS CHAPTER 11

Genesis Chapter 11

This chapter of the Bible is not so much about building a tower or the capabilities of man. It is about the corruption of man’s nature.

When Adam chose to disobey God in the Garden of Eden, he immediately brought upon himself and the entire human race both spiritual and physical death (Genesis 2:17; Romans 3:23; 5:12; 6:23).

The resident sin-nature is passed on down through the blood line of the male to every human throughout history, except Christ Jesus who was born of a virgin without the involvement of a human male.

The sin nature is the center of man’s rebellion toward God and is variously designated in Scripture as “sin” (a singular noun—Rom. 7:13), “flesh” (Gal.5:16), and “old man” (Eph. 4:22).

Whereas the lost person has no resident power to do other than succumb to his sin nature, the saved person has the ability to choose (or yield to) the Holy Spirit within himself to overcome it.

Chapter 11:1-4

The Bible here utilizes two distinctly different Hebrew words to describe the process of communication of the entire human race at this time in history. One is dabar, which may mean “the content of what is being communicated” (the mind-set); and the other is sepheth, which is also translated “lip” or “language” and refers to the actual linguistic signs, symbols and words utilized in such communication. So not only did man at this stage of his development use the same language, but all humans were of one accord in their intent and purpose upon earth.

In Genesis 9:1, God commanded those who were saved from the Flood to disperse and populate the entire earth. In direct opposition to God’s explicit direction, they chose to stay together in their “comfort zone.”

The Tower of Babel Outlined:

1.  All nations unite to use technology (bricks) to build a big city.

2.  They build a tower, ostensibly to reach to the gods.

3.  God knows that this city will be a nightmare.

4.  In His mercy, God scatters the people.

The people decided to build a grand tower, which is commonly called the “Tower of Babel.” They apparently did this in order to establish their self-identity, to set themselves apart and to demonstrate their pride in themselves—to “make a name” for themselves.

The tower of Babel was a great human achievement, a wonder of the world. But it was a monument to the people themselves rather than to God. We may build monuments to ourselves (expensive clothes, big house, fancy car, important job) to call attention to our achievements

Genesis 11:5-9

God confused their language in order that they could no longer understand each other and scattered them over the entire earth.

The provision of languages (“tongues”) at Pentecost (Acts 2:5-11) was a reverse of the confusion of languages at Babel.

When God’s Word is proclaimed, He promotes union, understanding and order.

Today, mankind is once again attempting to come together as one race (via the United Nations, the European Union and other agencies)

16.  What is also significant in this passage is the shortening of the life span of the human race, a natural result of the curse placed not only on man but upon the earth, which now exposes man to environmental effects that prove detrimental to his health. This shortening of the life span is seen in the following life spans of those mentioned in this passage.

Name Life span in years

Shem 600

Arphaxad 438

Salah 433

Eber 464

Peleg 239

Reu 139

Serug 230

Nahor 148

Terah 205

Genesis 11:29

The name “Abram,” in the Hebrew means “exalted father.” When his name was changed to 

“Abraham,” in chapter 17, its meaning is “father of a multitude.”

Questions:  What have you learned about the character of God in these passages?

What have you learned about God’s love for His creation?

What have you learned about His plan for its redemption?

A Study in GENESIS 8 and 9

Fill a large jar half-way with sand, fine gravel, tiny pebbles and regular sized pebbles. Then fill it full with water. Shake it up very well and set it on a counter top to settle. Notice how it settles almost (but not quite) perfectly with heavier pebbles on the bottom and sand on the top. You can see four distinct layers with some mixing.

So it is that geologists have found sea creatures at the top of mountains and layers of rocks and minerals in canyons and other places where strata is observed. They have also found skeletons in places no one could imagine they could be. This is all evidence of a world-wide flood.

Chapter 8

Verse 1-5 – The waters of the flood receded, no doubt leaving strata as it did so.

Verses 6-14 – Noah used birds to determine when it was safe to exit the arc. The birds had found homes, and the earth was dry.

Verses 5-19 – The animals had entered the arc by kind; that is: Feline, Canine, Cloven Hooved, etc. They exited the same way. They repopulated the earth. Animals that had not gotten on the arc perished and no longer roam the earth.

Noah and his family were instructed to exit the arc

Verse 20 – The first thing Noah did was to build an altar on which to present the first recorded sacrifice to God. We no longer have or need altars. Altars are a place of sacrifice for the remission of sin and the sacrifice for our sins has already been made in the person of Jesus Christ.

Verse 21 – God recognized Noah’s offering of thanksgiving and promised never to “curse the ground” again. This in spite of the fact that He knew that man’s heart was sinful from birth. He had another plan to take care of that issue: His only Son, a final sacrifice.

Verse 22 - There is something very expressive in the original Hebrew: od col yemey haarets, until all the Days of the earth; for God does not reckon its duration by centuries, and the words themselves afford a strong presumption that the earth will someday cease to exist.

1 Peter 3:21, makes the ark a figure of baptism. Some try to make his comments mean that baptism saves, just like the eight souls were saved by the ark. That would be a contextually wrong interpretation. We are saved by, and only by, the remission of sin accomplished by the finished work of Christ at the cross of Calvary and His resurrection.

Chapter 9

Verse 1-10 – Noah is instructed to begin the process of repopulating the earth. He is given dietary rules to follow and is told that God would hold mankind accountable for how they treat one another.

Verses 11-16 – God establishes an Unconditional Covenant with Noah. No matter what, He will never again destroy the earth with water. The sign of this covenant was a rainbow.

A rainbow is an extraordinary thing. It is a refraction of the first command of God, “Let there be light.” To see a rainbow, the source of light (the sun) must be behind you. Every color of the spectrum is present in every rainbow. What a beautiful way to seal this Covenant.

Do not make the sophomoric mistake of thinking that because God promised to “remember” His Covenant that He sometimes forgets. God is God. He never forgets. The rainbow was not for His benefit. It was for ours.

The Light of the World (Jesus) is the ultimate fulfillment of God’s promise: A New Covenant.

The New Testament has a LOT to say about good doctrine.

How Christ Thought - Week 1

Session 1 

Writing to the Jews about Jesus being the fulfillment of all of the prophecies of Scripture (the Old Testament, for them), 

Matthew records the genealogy of Jesus, the circumstances surrounding His birth, His baptism and His temptation in the desert. Then he writes about His message.

In Matthew 4:17, Jesus begins His preaching ministry by saying, “…Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near.” Without going into a detailed definition of the kingdom of heaven, just know that Jesus was telling the people that His presence was the embodiment of that kingdom.

Next, Jesus called twelve men to drop what they were doing, forsake their occupations and families and to follow Him. 

Jesus demands no less from us today. If we are to be His, we must totally “sellout” to Him. He is not interested in some compartmentalized part of your life, He wants it all or nothing.

Without going into detail, Matthew states that Jesus went to many places, healed many people and drew very large crowds.

The next thing Matthew gives us is an account of Jesus longest recorded sermon. Interestingly, it can be read in its entirety in 10 or 15 minutes. In this sermon you will find great insights into how Jesus thought; that is: His mind set. 

Here is a brief outline of what we call The Sermon on the Mount.

A.               How we should think (the Beatitudes) – Matthew 5:3-12

    1.                There are ten of them (if you count verse 12 as one…which it is).

    2.                They speak of recognizing one’s spiritual condition.

B.                Who we are

    1.                Salt

    2.                Light

C.                How Jesus fulfilled the Law and Prophesy

    1.                The Law is perfect and those who break it (which includes all of us) are doomed

    2.                We must be better than the Pharisees and teachers of the Law to be saved.

D.               Examples from the Law

    1.                Murder

    2.                Adultery

    3.                Divorce

    4.                Oaths

    5.                Revenge

    6.                Loving the unlovable

E.                Having a giving heart

   1.                Humble, even secret giving

   2.                Seeking no recognition

F.                Prayer

    1.                Not for show or to impress others

    2.                The form of prayer

        a)                Worship

        b)                Submission

        c)                Petition  

        d)                Forgiveness

        e)                Deliverance (salvation)

        f)            Praise

G.               Fasting

    1.                Not for show or to impress others

    2.                Humbly

H.               Your relationship to physical things

    1.                Focus on heaven

    2.                Use them to serve Christ

I.                 Worry

    1.                Don’t be concerned with things

    2.                Have faith that God will provide what you really need

J.                 Judging others

    1.                Let God do the judging of another’s heart

    2.                Understand your own spiritual needs

K.               Trusting in God’s provision

    1.                Ask, seek and knock

    2.                Treat others like you want to be treated

L.                Few will really follow Christ

    1.                The road with the most people on it leads to destruction

    2.                The road to eternal life is very narrow: it is Jesus or nothing

M.               Warning about false prophets

    1.                Wolves in sheep’s clothing

    2.                Right doctrine is extremely important. Weed out those who teach untruth

N.               Wisdom

    1.                Build on sand – die

    2.                Build on the Rock who is Christ – live eternally