Milo

JANUARY 6 Reading 6
KNOW FOR A CERTAINTY
Genesis 15–17

“Do not be afraid, Abram. I am your shield, your very great reward” (Gen. 15:1).

Faith is far more than mere hope that something unlikely may happen. It is a deep, internal certainty, rooted in our trust of what God has said. We return to the life of Abram, where we gain vital insights that can enrich our personal faith in God.

Overview
Childless Abram believed God’s promise that he would have a son, but asked how he could know (15:1–8). God entered into a binding covenant with His servant so he might “know for certain” (vv. 9–13). Yet on Sarai’s urging, Abram fathered a son with her maid, Hagar, leading to family conflict (16:1–16). Fourteen years later God renewed the promise and changed Abram’s name. The 100-year-old Abraham trusted God to give him a child through Sarah, and on God’s command circumcised his household as a sign of faith in the covenant promises (17:1–27).

Understanding the Text
“I am your reward” Gen. 15:1. The bumper sticker on my van says “Fishing isn’t a matter of life and death—it’s more important than that.” Here Abram was reminded that really, a relationship with God is what life is all about. God Himself was Abram’s shield and reward. All Abram had or hoped for was centered in the person of his God.
God is all we have too, and all our hopes are centered in Him. Faith in God’s promises helps keep us focused on the Lord.

“Abram believed God” Gen. 15:2–6. Despite the fact that he was growing older and was still childless, Abram believed God’s promise of countless offspring. The Bible says God “credited it [his faith] to him as righteousness.” We cannot offer God a sinless life. We have all fallen short, and will fall short again. All we can do is trust God and have confidence in His promise. In grace God accepts our faith—and writes “righteous” beside our name.

“How can I know?” Gen. 15:7–21 Abram did believe, but he wanted to know. God was not upset. Rather, God had Abram prepare the most binding of all forms of ancient covenants, the “covenant of blood.” Hebrews 6:17–18 tells us that God took this action “because [He] wanted to make the unchanging nature of His purpose very clear to the heirs of what was promised.” So He “confirmed it [His promise] with an oath. God did this so that, by two unchangeable things in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have fled to take hold of the hope offered to us may be greatly encouraged.” We believe. Because God is totally committed to us, we also know.

“Know for certain” Gen. 15:13. God knows and is in full control of the future. On this basis we, like Abram, need have no doubts when the Lord reveals His intentions to us. Abram knew on the basis of God’s word alone. We know, not only because God is the One who speaks to us, but because we can look back, as Abram could not, on fulfilled prophecy. The 400 years in Egypt, the slavery imposed on Abram’s descendants, the punishment of Egypt, and the Exodus deliverance are history today. Everything happened just as God said it would.
We do believe. And we do know.

“Perhaps I can build a family” Gen. 16:1–16. In biblical times, bearing children was viewed by women as giving meaning to their lives. Abram had believed God’s promise, but as the years passed and no children came, Sarai became impatient. Finally she urged Abram to impregnate her maid, Hagar.
According to the customs of those times this was not an immoral act. It was a recognized way to provide a childless wife with children she would then call her own. But in this case, Sarai—and Abram—made a tragic mistake. The error is expressed in Sarai’s thought, “Perhaps I can build a family.”
How foolish, when God had said He would build Abram’s family! And how foolish of us when we try to do God’s work in our own strength, or insist on imposing our timing rather than wait for the Lord to act.

“She despises me” Gen. 16:5. Sarai’s venture in self-effort turned out badly. Hagar did become pregnant. But Hagar then had, and showed, contempt for her mistress! Since she was pregnant by Abram, it was clear that the couple’s childlessness was Sarai’s fault.
Sarai hadn’t expected this result when she ventured out on her own. That’s our problem too. When we try to do things in our own way or in our own strength, things don’t turn out as we intend. The conflict that then dominated Abram’s tents reminds us to wait on God rather than going ahead without His guidance or direction.
Sarai reacted to Hagar’s contempt with predictable hostility. Again, according to ancient custom, Sarai had full authority over her servant. She used it to mistreat Hagar. Hagar finally ran away, returning only when God promised that He would bless the child she carried.
And so, when Abram was 86, his son Ishmael was born, only to become the ancestor of those Arab nations which live, even today, in perpetual hostility toward the descendants of Sarah, the Jews.

“Your name will be Abraham” Gen. 17:1–22. Names were especially important in biblical times. They were intended to make a statement about the character or essential identity of the person or thing named. Abram’s name meant “father,” and he was childless! What a burden that name must have been.
Now God appeared to him, and told him he was to be called “Abraham,” which means “father of many” or “father of a multitude”! Imagine, if you will, the snickers as, the morning after his conversation with God, the 100-year-old man announced to all his servants that, from now on, they were to call him “Abraham”!
Abraham’s assumption of his apparently ridiculous name was another measure of his faith. Abraham was willing, as Noah had been, to be “a fool for God.”
If you or I ever feel foolish when trying to please God, let’s remember that name, Abraham. And let’s remember too that Abraham was vindicated. Today he is honored by all as the spiritual father of a multitude beyond our capacity to count.

“He laughed” Gen. 17:17. Abraham’s first reaction to the divine statement that his wife Sarah would bear a child was laughter. It seemed so incredible.
But God stated again, “Your wife Sarah will bear you a son, and you will call him Isaac.” And Abraham believed.
You and I are seldom asked to believe the incredible. Or to follow a course of action that involves great risk. But when we are, we can remember that God’s incredible promise to Abraham and Sarah was fulfilled. What God says He will do, He can do. And what God tells us to do, He is able to do through us.

“Every male among you shall be circumcised” Gen. 17:10–14. Circumcision is a sign of the covenant that God made with Abraham and his descendants through Isaac. It was intended to demonstrate faith. Those Jews who in the coming millenniums considered their relationship with God through Abraham important would have themselves and their sons circumcised.
Christians have no single practice that is analogous to circumcision. But there are ways in which we can show that relationship with God is important to us. Our faithfulness at church. Our consistency in reading God’s Word. Our commitment to prayer. Our willingness to share the Good News of Jesus with others. Our generosity in giving. Our attempts to put what we learn from God into practice. None of these is the reality. None in itself establishes or maintains our relationship with the Lord. But each, like circumcision, is a sign. Each is a way we can express the fact that our relationship with God truly is important to us.

DEVOTIONAL
Faith That Knows
(Gen. 15:1–19)
Abram did believe God. Genesis 15:6 assures us, “Abram believed the LORD.” Yet he yearned for an inner certainty. This yearning led Abram to ask, “O Sovereign LORD, how can I know?” (v. 8) When you and I, believers though we be, long for certainty, we can turn to this passage. God will speak to us, as He spoke to Abram.
God told Abram to bring animals and birds and cut the animals into halves in preparation for the most binding of all ancient covenants, the “covenant of blood.” In this covenant the participants pledged their very lives. They symbolized this commitment by walking between the halves of sacrificial animals.
When all was ready for the covenant ceremony to take place, God caused Abram to fall into a deep sleep. Then God passed between the divided halves-alone.
There could be no clearer proof. God pledged His very life that He would fulfill His covenant promises. The fact that only God walked the path between the divided carcasses meant that God would fulfill His commitment—whatever Abram or his offspring might do! Since Abram did not walk that path, nothing he might do could make God’s obligation null or void! Abram now “knew for certain.”
We have this same certainty. Centuries later Jesus took another lonely walk—to Calvary’s cross. There He made a New Covenant, and sealed it by His own blood. He died there for us. His death is God’s pledge—God’s pledge of His very life—that the forgiveness promised us in the Gospel truly is ours. We believe. And we also know for certain that we have been saved by Christ’s blood.
Despite this evidence we may at times still be troubled by doubts and fears. God told Abram that his descendants would be “enslaved and mistreated” in the future (v. 13). Possession of God’s promise was no guarantee God’s people could avoid hurt. Faith is no title deed to a life of ease. When such things happen, we need to remember what God told Abram. “I am your very great reward.”
God did not say, “A good life on earth is your reward.” He said, “I am.”
We need to remember this when troubles come. Our relationship with God through Jesus guarantees us only one thing. God loves us, and He is present with us at even the darkest of times. So let’s not waver when hard times come, as though something strange were happening. God’s people have often been enslaved and mistreated. But in it all, we believe and we know. God remains our shield. And He Himself is our reward.

Personal Application
Choose one verse from these three chapters to memorize as a barrier against doubt.

Quotable
“Without weakening in his faith, [Abraham] faced the fact that his body was as good as dead—since he was about a hundred years old—and that Sarah’s womb was also dead. Yet he did not waver through unbelief, regarding the promise of God, but was strengthened in his faith and gave glory to God, being fully persuaded that God had power to do what He had promised.”—Romans 4:19–21

JANUARY 5 Reading 5
LEAVING FOR CANAAN
Genesis 12–14

“So Abram left, as the LORD had told him” (Gen. 12:4).

The focus in Genesis now shifts from the race as a whole to a single man, Abram. The rest of the Old Testament is about Abram and his descendants. Abram is both a historical figure and an exemplar. We are to see in his faith response to God the key to a personal relationship with the Lord, which all are invited to experience in Jesus. Looking into Abram’s life provides insights for us that can transform our own walk with God.

Overview
Abram was given six promises, and then traveled to Canaan (12:1–9). His early adventures revealed both Abram’s personal weaknesses (vv. 10–20) and his great strengths of character and faith (13:1–14:24).

Understanding the Text
“I will” Gen. 12:1–3, 7. The theme of gracious promise continues, as God told Abram what He would do. There is no hint of conditions here. Abraham had demonstrated his faith by obeying God’s command to leave his homeland (12:1). Now God was free to shower unconditional gifts on His servant.
Some of the six promises to Abram have been kept. Others have implications that extend into the future. The six are:

I will make you a nation (12:2).
Abram fathered the great Hebrew and Arab peoples.
I will bless you (12:2).
Abram lived a full, rich life.
I will make your name great (12:2).
Jews, Christians, and Muslims honor Abraham as founder of their faiths.
You will be a blessing (12:2).
The Scripture and the Saviour came through Abraham.
I will bless those who bless you, curse those who curse you (12:3).
Nations have risen and fallen in accord with their treatment of the Jewish people.
To your offspring I will give this land (12:7).
This promise is viewed as the Jews’ title deed to Israel.

As God made great commitments to Abram, so He makes commitments to all who exhibit Abram’s trust in the Lord.

Ur of the Chaldeans Gen. 11:28. Excavations at Ur reveal that Abram chose to leave a wealthy city, then at the height of its power and influence. Gold sculptures and inlaid harps reflect Ur’s culture. Mighty city walls and public buildings reflect its strength. Records of business transactions reveal its prosperity. Let’s not suppose that Abram was some poor wanderer living in a tent when he heard God’s voice. He was a wealthy man, living in a city with almost modern sanitation and with houses constructed to cool hot summer air.
Yet the text says “so Abram left” (12:4). He did not know where he was going. But even at 75 years of age Abram was willing to go to a land God said “I will show you” (v. 1).
In a sense our relationship with God follows this same pattern. God calls us to abandon our concern with what the world holds dear, and set out on a personal journey of faith. Our guide on this journey is God’s own Word. What sustains us is the conviction that each day God will show us our next step. Like Abram, Christians who view life as a journey of faith can never settle down or call earth’s cities “home.” In the words of Hebrews 11:16, we are “longing for a better country—a heavenly one.” We know that God has “prepared a city” for us, and that the heavenly city is our true and only home.

“Abram went down to Egypt” Gen. 12:10. God had led Abram to Canaan. But when a famine struck that land, Abram went to Egypt to live. There is no hint here of divine guidance. What we sense is Abram’s fear and doubt as the drought in Canaan grew severe.
We need to remember that difficulties do not release us from obedience. Sometimes God wants us to remain where we are and trust Him through the dry times in our lives. We need a more direct word from God than circumstances can provide to show us His will.

“Say you are my sister” Gen. 12:11–20. Abram had faith. Yet like all of us, Abram too was flawed by sin. On the border of Egypt Abram asked Sarai to pass herself off as his sister. Fear motivated Abram to lie and, even more awful, to put his wife Sarai at risk. God delivered Abram in spite of these actions. And from Scripture’s totally honest portrayal of Abram’s weakness, we learn several important lessons.

• Even those with great faith can fail. Let’s not be shocked at our own or at others’ weaknesses.
• Personal failures affect others. What we do and are always has its impact on those around us.
• Only God can redeem our failures. Never let guilt or shame turn you away from God. He is the only One who can help.
• God does not abandon us when our weaknesses betray us. God can and will intervene for us when we turn to Him.

“Lot went with him” Gen. 13:1–18. Genesis 13 and 14 display Abram’s great character strengths, even as 12:10–20 display his weaknesses.
The first strength is shown in his relationship with his nephew, Lot. When the herds of each man increased so much they had to part company, the older Abram gave Lot his choice of the land. By rights first choice belonged to the elder. That Abram did not demand his rights showed a noncontentious spirit that has great value in God’s sight (2 Tim. 2:24).
Lot chose “the whole” of the well-watered plains, leaving his uncle only drier hill country. The choice was selfish. It may have appeared “good business.” But these plains were dominated by Sodom and Gomorrah, which had a population already noted for wickedness. Later, when God judged Sodom and Gomorrah, all of Lot’s wealth would be destroyed along with the two cities (Gen. 19:15). Abram’s selflessness assured his future. Lot’s selfishness assured his doom.
God rewarded Abram with a reminder. All he could see in every direction from his position atop the hills was given to him and to his offspring—forever. Lot’s momentary possession of the richest land paled to insignificance when compared to the covenant promise made by Abram’s God.

“They carried off Lot” Gen. 14:1–16. Archeologists have traced the route taken by military forces traveling from the north into Palestine. Many armies marched south to attack the cities of Syria-Palestine even in the centuries before the events described here.
A consortium of four kings attacked and defeated Sodom and Gomorrah, and carried off all their goods and food as booty. In early biblical times most warfare involved raiding for booty rather than an attempt to invade and control additional area. Lot and his goods were carried away with those of the other residents of Sodom. When Abram heard, he mustered his own small force and pursued. Attacking at night, Abram routed the larger enemy force and freed not only Lot but also the others.
Here Abram displayed the traits of loyalty and courage.

Melchizedek, king of Salem Gen. 14:18–20. Biblical names often have great significance. Melchizedek means “king of righteousness,” and Salem means “peace.” The text says this king was a “priest of the Most High God,” one of the descriptive names the Old Testament uses in speaking of the Lord.
Even though Abram must have been aware of his own significance as one called by God and given unique promises, Abram accepted the blessing offered by Melchizedek. This act speaks of Abram’s humility, for in Old Testament times the greater person blessed the lesser, and to offer a blessing involved an implicit claim of superiority. In this we see another of Abram’s strengths: he remained humble despite his special relationship with God.
The New Testament treats Melchizedek as a theophany, a visible representation of God as a human being. Only Jesus, with a human nature supplied by a human mother, has a claim to be God enfleshed.
The Book of Hebrews sees Melchizedek as the model for Jesus’ unique priesthood. The Old Testament is silent both about Melchizedek’s origin and demise. With typical rabbinical insight, the author of Hebrews argues that Christ, whose origin is in eternity and who will now never die, is a Priest “in the order of” this person rather than in the line of levitical priests established by Moses.

“I will accept nothing belonging to you” Gen. 14:21–24.When the king of Sodom offered Abram the booty he had won back from the invading kings, Abram refused. His reason is clearly stated. He would accept nothing, lest people later say that the men of Sodom had made Abram rich. In this Abram had in view the glory due to God. Abram wanted only that which came so unmistakably from God’s hand that others would be forced to say, “God has blessed His servant.”
This is yet another of Abram’s great strengths. He now was ready to depend fully on the Lord, and to give God the glory for any blessings he might receive.
We can appreciate these strengths in Abram’s character and turn to him as a model of unselfishness, loyalty, courage, humility, dependence on God, and readiness to publicly give God glory for what He does in our lives.

DEVOTIONAL
As the Lord Told Him
(Gen. 12:1–9)
More than one commentator has suggested that God’s promises to Abram were conditional promises. They say that the condition was obedience to God’s call to leave Ur. After all, if Abram had not left, none of the things God promised could have come true.
This view distorts both the biblical text and a vital truth about the spiritual life. God’s promises are not activated by our obedience. Our obedience is activated by the promises of God.
Sometimes you and I make the mistake of thinking that God is like the electrical wiring in our houses. There is tremendous power in those electrical wires. And you and I are the ones who cause the power to work! We activate the power by flipping a light switch, turning on a TV, or pushing in the control knob on our clothes washer. God too has tremendous power. And some Christians assume that they can turn that power on and off by what they do. If they flip the right switch, God acts. If they turn the dial to the right channel or push the control into the right setting, God will come through on call. But this is not what happens in our lives at all!
What happens is that faith establishes a relationship with God, the ultimate source of power. Faith maintains that relationship. It is an active trust in God and His promises that causes us to obey.
We see it so clearly in Abram’s life. Because Abram believed God’s promises, he abandoned Ur and its wealth to live a nomadic life in a new land. The promise of God activated Abram’s obedience. His obedience did not activate the promises.
Later, in the land, Abram took his eye off the promises and became afraid. He feared the famine, and he feared what might happen if the Egyptians saw and wanted his beautiful wife. Because Abram forgot the promises, he disobeyed. Yet even then God was faithful to His commitment! He got Abram out of the mess his departure from Canaan and his lies had created, and brought Abram safely back to the Promised Land.
There Abram again fixed his gaze on the promises. He was unselfish in his relationship with Lot because he believed God had granted him the whole land. He was loyal and courageous because he believed God’s promise to bless him. He was humble because he knew that with God on his side he had nothing to prove. He was unwilling to take the wealth offered by the king of Sodom because he wanted all to see clearly that God alone was the source of all the good that he received.
It was the promise, and faith in the promise, that freed Abram not only to obey God, but also to become the unselfish, loyal, courageous, humble, and straightforward kind of person we can all admire.
It must be this way with you and me too. We can keep on thinking that we must do this or do that to merit God’s favor—and wonder why, when we push the right buttons, the power doesn’t flow. Or we can simply keep our eyes fixed on God and on His promises to us, and let His overflowing grace enable us to obey.

Personal Application
“Lord, as I keep my heart fixed on You and Your promises to me, make me the kind of individual that Abram became.”

Quotable
“Often, actually very often, God allows His greatest servants, those who are far advanced in grace, to make the most humiliating mistakes. This humbles them in their own eyes and in the eyes of their fellowmen. It prevents them from seeing and taking pride in the graces God bestows on them or in the good deeds they do, so that, as the Holy Spirit declares: ’No flesh should glory in the sight of God.’ “—Louis-Marie Grignion De Montfort

JANUARY 4 Reading 4
NEVER AGAIN
Genesis 9–11

“I now establish My covenant with you and your descendants after you, and with every living creature” (Gen. 9:9–10).

Noah and his sons carried the seed of sin with them into the new world. But now God introduced another theme which, with that of Creation, sin, and judgment, echoes through the Old Testament. It is the theme of promise; of a divine commitment to human beings made despite what we are rather than because of what we are.

Overview
God permitted man to prey on the animal kingdom, but not on other human beings (9:1–7). He made the rainbow a sign of His promise never again to cut off all life by a flood (vv. 8–17). Yet the act of Noah’s son Ham shows that sin was still imbedded in human nature (vv. 18–29). The roots of ancient nations are traced (chap. 10), and the origin of differing languages explained (11:1–9). A genealogy draws attention to a man who will be pivotal in God’s grand plan of redemption—Abraham (vv. 10–32).

Understanding the Text
“I will surely demand an accounting” Gen. 9:1–6. In this brief but critical paragraph, God makes society responsible for individual behavior. Men are responsible to enforce God’s prohibition against murder. The words “whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed” supports proponents of capital punishment by commanding society to execute murderers. The rationale, “For in the image of God has God made man,” is stated. Human life is of such ultimate value that no lesser penalty for taking life can signify how important each individual truly is.
The same paragraph lays the foundation for human government. Lesser powers (such as making regulations that promote well-being) are implied in the “accounting” God requires of us for punishing murderers.

Covenant Gen. 9:9. This vitally important Old Testament word indicates a formal, legally binding commitment. God’s promise to never again destroy all life with a flood was not lightly made.

“Saw his father’s nakedness” Gen. 9:22. Here the NIV interprets. The Hebrew original reads “uncovered his father’s nakedness.” Just what this phrase suggests is uncertain, but the seriousness with which Genesis treats the event indicates that Ham did more than catch a glimpse of an uncovered body. The delicacy with which Shem and Japheth treated their father (vv. 23–24) is a reminder to us of the modesty with which Scripture treats sexual matters.

“Cursed be Canaan” Gen. 9:24–27. The “curse” uttered here did not cause Canaan’s future condition, but predicted it. Old Testament curses and blessings are often predictive, though pagan peoples considered curses magical utterances which could cause harm to enemies.
There is no suggestion here that Canaan participated in his ancestor Ham’s act. Yet the moral flaw seen in Ham developed through the centuries into the gross immorality practiced by the Canaanites, who practiced ritual prostitution by both sexes as a part of their religion.
Let’s open our lives totally to the cleansing power of God. He can remove even the small flaws that might otherwise be magnified in the lives of our children.

“This is the account” Gen. 10:1–32. Genesis uses both language and land areas to identify ancient peoples. While exact identification is difficult now, many of these names of peoples and nations have been found on ancient inscriptions.

“Settled there” Gen. 11:1–4. Most agree that the tower built at Babel was a ziggurat, a stepped structure which in ancient times was often topped by a temple. Perhaps the words “reaches to the heavens” implies the early institution of idolatrous worship. Yet the text suggests a different sin. The tower was to be a symbol of racial unity, so man should “not be scattered over the face of the whole earth” (v. 4). But God had specifically told Noah and his sons to “fill the earth” (9:1–7). It may have seemed like a little thing. Yet it was important to God’s plan for man to multiply. Here too is a lesson for us. All that God says to us is important. We need to be sensitive to every command.

“Confuse their language” Gen. 11:5–9. What an indication of God’s sense of humor. Can you imagine the next morning, one of the workers saying, “Hand me another brick, will you?” And his friend hearing, “Xpul Kodlyeme kakkadoke, seppulvista?” And can’t you see the people, milling about in search of others they can talk with and understand? Soon the speakers of different languages found each other, and each group drifted away to settle in its own territory. In this gentle way “the LORD scattered them over all the earth.”
God often responds this way to our disobedience. He sends no lightning bolt, causes no great suffering. Instead He gently and sometimes humorously changes the direction of our lives.
It’s hot in Dallas in the summer. One young couple, feeling a call to the ministry, enrolled in the seminary I attended. They arrived in August, and were greeted by a heat wave in which temperatures reached 112 degrees. After two days, the young man’s “call” melted away, and they left town. How God must have chuckled. Like the confusion of tongues, His heat wave had “scattered” a couple who were not where they were supposed to be.
Perhaps you can look back too and see gentle ways God has redirected your life. How gracious God is. How good God is not to break out in anger every time we wander from His intended path.

“Became the father” Gen. 11:10–32. Genealogy was vitally important to the Hebrews. In Hebrew genealogies “became the father” often means “was an ancestor of.” Also, Hebrew genealogies often skip generations, just naming significant ancestors. There is no way to tell from genealogies like this how many generations or how long a time passed from the first person named in a list to the last. Instead the genealogy points us to the truly important persons in Bible history, here preparing us to meet Abraham.

DEVOTIONAL
The Sign of the Covenant
(Gen. 9:8–17)
The covenant is a key to grasping what the Old Testament teaches about the character of our God. In Old Testament times a covenant (Heb. brit) was a formal contract, intended to make an agreement legally binding. In international affairs a covenant was a treaty. In a nation’s life it served as a constitution. In business a covenant was a contract. In personal relationships it was a commitment.
Most covenants in ancient times were two-party agreements. That is, each person or group involved specified what he or she would do to carry out the agreement. If one side failed to perform, the agreement was broken, and the other side was no longer obligated.
But look at God’s covenant with Noah. It is pure promise! God made no conditions. There are no “ifs.” Instead God simply said, “I now make a commitment to you and your descendants. Never again. Never again will there be a flood to destroy the earth.” Whatever humanity may do, God remains committed to this promise made to Noah.
The text tells us that the rainbow is to serve as a reminder to God of this specific covenant promise. But the rainbow means something else to us. Rather than a reminder of a specific promise, the rainbow is a reminder of the character of God and the nature of our relationship with Him. The rainbow reminds us that God comes to us with promises, not demands; that God in grace makes commitments to us that do not depend on our performance. We may fail God, but God will never fail us.
Only in Jesus do we fully understand. Only in Christ’s promise of eternal life to all who trust Him do we grasp the full wonder of God’s grace. Yet we sense something of it here in Genesis. And each time we see a rainbow, we are reminded. The God who promised to never again destroy all life with a flood is the God of promise, the God of grace. The commitments that He makes to us in Christ are promises that will never fail.

Personal Application
The next time you see a rainbow, let it remind you of God’s amazing grace.

Quotable
“God did not make the first human because He needed company, but because He wanted someone to whom He could show His generosity. God did not tell us to follow Him because He needed our help, but because He knew that loving Him would make us whole.”—Irenaeus

JANUARY 3 Reading 3
THE CLEANSING FLOOD
Genesis 6–8

“I will wipe mankind . . . from the face of the earth” (Gen. 6:7).

The bright promise of God’s original Creation had been blighted by human sin. Now Genesis introduced a theme which echoes throughout Scripture. God is moral judge of His universe. God will not shrink from His responsibility. God will surely punish those who sin.

Overview
Freed from restraint, men dedicated themselves to evil, and a saddened God determined to cleanse the earth (6:1–8). Noah, earth’s sole righteous man, obeyed God’s command to construct a gigantic ship (vv. 9–22). After Noah’s family and breeding stock entered this ark, God caused a Flood which wiped out all other people and animals (7:1–24). A year later Noah’s family emerged on a cleansed earth (8:1–20). After Noah worshiped, God promised not to destroy all life again—until the day of final judgment (vv. 20–22).

Understanding the Text
“Nephilim” Gen. 6:4. The meaning of the term is uncertain. Some take it to mean giants, produced by a union of fallen angels (“sons of God” being His direct creations) and human women. While verses 1–2 and 4 are obscure, the thrust of the passage is clear. Human wickedness reached new heights until “every inclination of the thoughts of [man’s] heart was only evil all the time” (v. 5).

“Grief and pain” Gen. 6:6. Note the text does not say “anger and outrage”! God takes no pleasure in punishing those who sin. Instead He is deeply pained—by the hurt His creations cause one another and by the necessity of punishing persons made in His own image.

“A righteous man” Gen. 6:9. When applied to human beings in the Old Testament, “righteous” and “blameless” never imply being without sin. Instead they are used to portray persons who respond to God wholeheartedly and who honestly seek to please Him. Only Noah merited this description.

“450 feet long” Gen. 6:15. The ark was a massive ship even by modern standards (see illustration). It was intended to carry breeding pairs of various animal kinds and provisions for them, as well as to bear Noah and his family. Many different models of the ark have been designed, but the text gives us insufficient information to accurately portray the giant boat. The illustration on this page gives some sense of the size of the ark in relation to ancient and modern vessels.

“Everything . . . that had the breath of life in its nostrils died” Gen. 7:22. Many debate whether the Genesis Flood was local or universal. Certainly the text suggests a cataclysm, with subterranean and atmospheric waters surging on an earth wracked with earthquakes. The statement that “all the high mountains under the entire heavens were covered” has been taken by one side as evidence that the Flood was local, for there is not enough water on earth to top such peaks as Everest, Ararat, and McKinley. The same statement is taken by the other side as evidence for a universal Flood. The pressure of the waters may have caused earth’s then unstable surface to thrust up modern peaks and to depress seabeds.
Yet this debate obscures the point the text emphasizes. Three times Genesis 7 repeats it. “Every living thing that moved on the earth perished” (v. 21). “Everything on dry land . . . died” (v. 22). “Every living thing on the face of the earth was wiped out” (v. 23).
The Flood is not fodder for geological debate, but history’s great affirmation that God is mankind’s judge—and that God will judge sin. The tossing seas on which Noah’s ark floated are a reminder to keep before the eyes of those who scoff and follow their own evil desires. Peter calls on such persons to look back—and then to look ahead. “They deliberately forget that. . . . the world of that time was deluged and destroyed. By the same word the present heavens and earth are reserved for fire, being kept for the day of judgment and destruction of ungodly men” (2 Peter 3:5–7).
The Genesis Flood is history’s grim reminder that sin merits divine judgment, and that sinners will be judged.

“Never again” Gen. 8:21. After a year in the ark (cf. 7:11; 8:13), Noah emerged to worship the Lord. At that time God made a solemn commitment never again to destroy all living creatures “as long as the earth endures” (v. 22). Complete and cleansing judgment is now reserved for history’s end.

DEVOTIONAL
Blameless among the People of His Time
(Gen. 6:9–22)
Noah is one of the most impressive men of the Bible. He lived in a totally corrupt society. Yet he himself was committed to godliness and succeeded in living a blameless life. Even more impressive is the fact that when told by God to build a giant ship in a time when rain was unknown (2:6), Noah immediately set out to do so!
Noah and his sons cut and shaped ton upon ton of beams to form a keel and skeleton. They sawed uncounted thousands of planks for siding. They planted, gathered, and stored crops to serve as food for themselves and the animals God would bring when His time was right. And all the time they must have suffered the ridicule of their neighbors, who came to listen to and scoff at mad Noah’s predictions of water about to fall from the sky and destroy them all.
How long did Noah and his sons labor? Genesis 6:3 tells us. When God made His decision to judge, mankind was given 120 years. It was during that time Noah and his sons accomplished their herculean tasks. And during all that time Noah bore the jokes made at his expense. He ignored the loud whispers he was intended to hear. And he kept on working, surrounded by the tittering laughter of his neighbors. Despite it all, Noah remained faithful. He had heard God speak. And Noah “did everything just as God commanded him.”
Chris, the teenage son of our pastor, Richard Schmidt, can understand the pressure on Noah. In the locker room he was ridiculed for his determination to remain sexually pure. “It’s what I believe,” he said, “and it’s what I’m going to do.”
Probably you can understand too. There are so many in our modern world who laugh at people who have heard God’s voice and try to do “everything just as God commanded.” Imagine! Noah knew just that pressure, from everyone, and for 120 years! Yet Noah remained faithful. And you and I can remain faithful too.
Peter gives us a special insight into what Noah’s faithfulness meant. Yes, Noah’s faithfulness to God’s word meant deliverance for himself and his family. But 1 Peter 3:19–20 suggests that by the agency of the Holy Spirit Christ Himself spoke through Noah in the long decades that “God waited patiently” for Noah to finish his assigned task.
How important our faithfulness is. As we like Noah bear up under the pressure brought on us, Christ by His Holy Spirit speaks through us to the very persons who laugh and doubt. And this time, they may respond!

Personal Application
Our faithfulness when others jeer speaks more powerfully than the words of the most gifted preacher the world has ever known.

Quotable
“Sin is first pleasing, then it grows easy, then delightful, then frequent, then habitual, then confirmed; then the man is impenitent, then he is obstinate, then he is resolved never to repent. And then he is ruined.”—Bishop Leighton

JANUARY 2 Reading 2
THE ENTRANCE OF SIN
Genesis 3–5

“I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid” (Gen. 3:10).

One of the great mysteries that puzzles philosophers is solved in Genesis 3. Sin is no unexplained remnant of humanity’s supposed rise from beastiality, but a heritage flowing from Adam’s fall. Yet the focus in these two chapters is not on the fact of sin, but on its consequences.

Overview
Eve succumbed to temptation and induced Adam to disobey God (3:1–6). Overcome by guilt and shame, the pair ran from the Creator God who loved them (vv. 7–10). God found them and explained the consequences of their act (vv. 11–20). God Himself offered history’s first sacrifice (v. 21) and led them from the Garden (vv. 22–24). Adam and Eve lived to see sin’s consequences in their own family as Cain killed his brother Abel (4:1–16). Lamech, Cain’s descendant, represents the sinful society that emerged (vv. 17–26).
Here lies the foundation of the Christian doctrine of “total depravity.” Man is not as bad as he can be. But mankind, separated from God, is as bad off as it can be.

Understanding the Text
“He said to the woman” Gen. 3:1–6. Satan’s approach to Eve is a classic model of the reasoning that leads us into sin. God’s command not to eat of one tree in the Garden (2:17) established a standard. Satan attacked this standard in three ways.
Satan questioned the existence of the standard: “Did God really say?” (3:1)
Satan cast doubt on God’s motives for establishing the standard: “God knows that when you eat . . . you will be like God” (v. 5).
Satan denied the consequences of violating the standard: “You will not surely die” (v. 4).
Yesterday I saw a debate over pornography on CNN’s “Crossfire,” and saw Satan’s arguments marshalled once again. An ACLU lawyer ridiculed the idea that even gross pornography is wrong. He claimed censorship of pornography would deny readers their rights and pleasures. And he claimed that no harm would come through filling the mind with pornographic images.
Our only protection against evil is the belief which Eve abandoned. We must affirm what God has said. We must be convinced that His standards are not intended to deny us pleasures but to protect us from harm. And we must realize that tragic consequences will follow violating God’s standards of right and wrong.

“Die” Gen. 3:4. In the Bible “death” is an all-encompassing term. It describes the end of biological life. But it also describes man’s psychological, social, and spiritual state. When God warned Adam not to eat the forbidden fruit, He explained, “When you eat of it you will surely die.”
Adam’s sin brought “death” in all four of its meanings. Biologically the process of aging began when Adam sinned; a process that led to the death of the first pair and to the physical death which stalks every human being now. Psychologically Adam and Eve were stricken with guilt and shame, expressed here in their sense of nakedness (3:7). Socially Adam and Eve were set at odds, blaming each other for their act. The harmony they had known was broken by strife (vv. 11–13). Spiritually Adam and Eve were alienated from God, and this created a sense of fear. The God of love had suddenly become an object of terror (vv. 8–10).
No human being is as bad as he or she might be. But all human beings, the victims of sin’s legacy of physical, pyschological, social, and spiritual death, are as bad off as they could be.
We’re familiar with all these aspects of what the Bible calls “death.” Each is a witness—a billboard—announcing loudly that sin is a reality with which we must deal.

“They sewed fig leaves together” Gen. 3:7. The phrase portrays man’s first, futile effort to deal with sin. Adam and Eve tried to cover themselves. Yet they knew their attempt to deal with sin was a failure. How do we know? When Adam and Eve heard God nearby, “they hid from the LORD God among the trees of the Garden” (v. 8). Try as we may to deal with sin by our own efforts, deep down we human beings retain a sense of guilt and shame that witnesses to our lost condition. There never has been, and never will be, a human being saved by his or her own works.

“God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife” Gen. 3:21.This simple statement is filled with symbolic significance. It is referred to as “history’s first sacrifice.” God Himself took the life of an animal to cover the nakedness of Adam and Eve.
Note that God made the garments. We cannot deal with sin. God Himself must act.
Note that blood was shed. Here, as in Mosaic Law’s system of sacrifices, several lessons are taught. Sin merits death. Yet God will accept the death of a substitute. There was no merit in the blood of bulls and goats slain on ancient altars. Animal sacrifice was God’s visual aid, preparing humanity to recognize in the death of Christ on Calvary a substitutionary sacrifice that does take away sins.

“God banished him from the Garden” Gen. 3:23. Driving out Adam and Eve was an act of grace, not of punishment. The first pair was banished lest they “take also from the tree of life and eat, and live forever.” It would have been horrible beyond imagination for Adam and Eve to have lived on through the millenniums, forced to witness the wars, the injustice, the suffering that flowed from their original act of sin. How appropriate Isaiah’s words might have been, engraved over the forbidden entrance to Eden: “The righteous are taken away to be spared from evil. Those who walk uprightly enter into peace; they find rest as they lie in death” (Isa. 57:1–2).

“Cain was very angry” Gen. 4:1–16. Adam and Eve could not avoid observing this evidence of the spiritual death they unleashed on their descendants. When God accepted the sacrifice of Abel and rejected Cain’s offering, Cain was filled with anger. Cain lured his brother “out to the field,” where he attacked and killed him!
What a heartrending experience for Adam and Eve! One dearly loved son killed by another. And they knew that ultimately the fault was theirs! Adam and Eve had themselves introduced into history the sin that expressed itself in Cain’s hostility and murderous act.
The story of Cain and Abel raises several questions. Why did God reject Cain’s offering? The rabbis concluded that Cain offered God rotting fruit. A better explanation is that Abel, in making a blood sacrifice, followed a prescription that God had given Adam and Eve when He first clothed them in skins. In offering produce Cain suggested that his best was good enough to offer God. God’s reminder, “If you do what is right” (v. 7), supports this interpretation. Cain knew the right way to approach God, but was unwilling to do so.
Why did Cain kill Abel? Anyone who sins and refuses to accept responsibility is likely to seek a scapegoat and be hostile toward that person. The truly good person is most likely to attract the hostility of the wicked, for his or her very goodness reminds the wicked of their sin.
Where did Cain get his wife? If Adam and Eve were the only humans, and Cain and Abel their only children, where could Cain obtain a wife? The answer, of course, is that Cain and Abel were not Adam and Eve’s only children. Genesis 5:4 says they “had other sons and daughters.” Cain and Abel are the only two mentioned in Genesis 4 simply because the story is about them! We can assume from 5:4 that a rather large community of Adam’s children, and perhaps even his children’s children, existed before Cain attacked his brother.
All these questions, however, divert us from the emphasis the writer of Genesis intends. The death that God announced would follow disobedience has struck not only Adam and Eve, but has been inherited by their children! Sin has corrupted the race of man, and we all live with the tragic consequences of Adam’s fall.

“I have killed a man for wounding me” Gen. 4:23. Genesis 4 continues to trace the consequences of sin. A descendant of Cain named Lamech violated the divine order for society by marrying two women. He then justified murder, explaining that the man he killed had wounded him. One woman was no longer viewed as a man’s partner, but women had become subservient, objects for a man to use. Injustice was rationalized, and murder was viewed by the proud as fair recompense for insult. In this passage we see society itself being torn from its moral foundations.
There is more than a touch of irony here. Genesis 4:19–22 describes achievements of Lamech’s sons. One gained control over the animal kingdom (v. 20). Another introduced those aesthetics we humans associate with “culture” (v. 21). Another learned to wrest metals from the earth and shape them to man’s use (v. 22). Is there any invention, are there any heights, that humanity cannot achieve?
Today we live in an amazing world. We send men to the moon, unmanned probes to distant planets. We focus radiation to destroy cancer cells, and flood the market with medicines that prolong life. We fill the airwaves with music, hurtle along highways in machines that are complex beyond our ability to understand. Yet despite all our achievements in the material universe, our society remains marred by suffering and sin. Cigarette companies responsible for the early deaths of 380,000 persons a year freely promote their product. The drunk and drug-impaired crash those complex machines into other human beings. Major free-world corporations help terrorist nations to construct chemical warfare plants. Child abuse and murder, wars and rumors of wars, fill the pages of our newspapers. Yes, man can achieve wonders in the material world. But humanity is spiritually dead, unable to overcome the pull of sin or to avoid its awful consequences. Again, we are not as bad as we might be. But, without God, we remain as bad off as we could be.
All this is taught and demonstrated in Genesis 3 and 4.

DEVOTIONAL
“Because You Ate”
(Gen. 3:8–19)
The dialogue between God and Adam lies at the heart of these tragic chapters. God found Adam and questioned him. Adam’s words revealed the fact that this was truly the story of a Fall, despite the claim of some that eating the forbidden fruit was a step upward.
Adam was now afraid of the God whose image he bore (v. 10). Adam was aware of his guilt and felt shame (v. 10). Adam refused to face reality and attempted to shift blame for his act to Eve (v. 12). Eve too would not accept responsibility (v. 13). God then announced consequences that must follow the choices made by each actor in the Genesis 3 drama.
It’s important to see the consequences not as some arbitrary punishment but as a necessity required by the moral nature of the universe God created. The serpent that loaned his body as a vehicle to Satan lost his beauty (v. 14). Stripped of illusion, sin is always ugly and degrading. Satan won the hostility rather than the allegiance of the human race (v. 15). Unlike the angels who fell, mankind will not willingly form ranks behind Satan in his mad warfare against God. Satan also is destined to be crushed by One to be born of the fallen race (v. 15). In a moral universe, it is impossible for evil to triumph.
The consequences to Eve were physical, psychological, and social (v. 16). Some understand “increase your pains in childbearing” to indicate a more frequent menstrual cycle. “Your desire will be for your husband” indicates a new psychological dependence that will replace Eve’s original sense of strong personal identity. And “he will rule over you” introduces for the first time the idea of hierarchy: that in a sinful universe human beings will struggle to gain dominance over one another, and that women will be forced by society into subservient and depersonalizing roles. Here the cause is not the morality of the universe, but the distortion caused by sin itself. When Adam and Eve abandoned submission to God’s will to assert their own independent wills, conflict became inevitable.
Adam too would suffer, this time from the distortion sin caused in nature (vv. 17–19). Work became toil, and life a struggle against nature.
In all these things we see further evidence of the ruin sin brings. Yet we also sense a note of hope. What Adam did, Christ has and will repair. When Jesus comes, nature itself will be liberated (Rom. 8:18–21). But you and I can experience liberation even now! No, not from the physical changes caused by the first sin. But we can be liberated in our relationships. We can be liberated from competition in our homes and churches, and through mutual submission to God’s will regain the harmony that reigned before the Fall. We can be liberated from the desire to establish our own superiority by dominating others. In Christ we can be liberated too from blaming, from hatred, and from doing injustice.
The dark picture drawn here as sin’s consequences are defined reminds us of what once was before the Fall. That image of what man has lost informs us of the kind of persons we are called to be in Christ, and of the bright future Christ promises to the people of God.

Personal Application
What indications of the Fall do you see in your own relationships with others? Be encouraged! Christ died to deliver you from just these consequences of sin.

Quotable
“We are establishing an all-time world record in the production of material things. What we lack is a righteous and dynamic faith. Without it, all else avails us little. The lack cannot be compensated for by politicians, however able; or by diplomats, however astute; or by scientists, however inventive; or by bombs, however powerful.”—John Foster Dulles