Friday, January 4

Friday, January 4, 2013

Genesis 10, 11, 12  and Matthew 4

10 – Look, here are more names to inspect. 

10:2  First I see Gomer.  There is another Gomer later in the Bible and there is also, of course, Gomer Pyle.  I also see Javan in verse 2.  I know a Javan.  His parents named him that because his father is James and one grandfather was Van.  So the named their son Javan.

10:25  In his time the earth was divided, perhaps looking ahead to the Tower of Babel.

11:4  Two sins are listed here.  The first was pride, they should have been seeking honor for God and not for themselves.  The second is in direct violation of a command given to Adam and to Noah.  God specifically said people should fill the earth in 1:28 and 9:1.  The Babel builders wanted to NOT be scattered over the face of the whole earth.

11:9  Even though the people resisted being scattered over the whole earth God scattered them anyway.  God will not be thwarted.

11:10  The family line of Shem is given special detail because his line leads to Abraham, the friend of God.

11:10-26  Notice the decrease in longevity.

11:30  Trouble is introduced in the line of Shem and Terah, Sarai was barren.  In those days barrenness was a horrible shame.  The shame was put upon the woman even though the man is often the cause.

11:31  We usually say the Abraham left Ur of the Chaldeans to go to Canaan.  He sort of did.  But most of that trip he went with his extended family under the leadership of his father.  Their original destination was Canaan, but the rest of the family did not complete the trip.  From Ur to Haran was about ¾ of the way to Canaan.  Did God originally call Terah to go to Canaan?  Was there some reason he stayed in Haran?  In the next chapter Abraham finishes the trip to Canaan.

12:2-3  The call of Abraham is quite the statement.  Usually the emphasis of the Bible is on God and what he will do.  And in these verses God is the actor.  Abraham is the one acted upon, he is the receiver of God's action.  Speaking to Abraham God uses the second person pronouns (you and your) seven times.  God uses the first person pronoun (I) only five times.

(During the early parts of the story his original name, Abram, is used.  God had not yet changed his name to Abraham.  The first part of both names, Ab, refers to father.  I will use his later name, Abraham, even though at first he was still Abram.)

12:4  Unless we remember the ages of Abraham's ancestors from chapter 11, his advanced age is likely more of an issue for us than it was for him, at least at the beginning of the story.

12:7  More worship, and in verse 8 still more worship.  May we also be prone to worship.

12:10-20  Abraham failed to trust God for the protection of himself and his wife.

Matthew 4

4:1  Jesus was lead by the Spirit to be tempted.  That does not sound right.  In the Lord's Prayer we say, "lead us not into temptation."  It seems that God would by His nature not lead us into temptation.  But in this passage even Jesus is directed to his place of temptation.

4:1-11  It behooves us to also rely on Scripture to resist temptation.  But first we must know the Scripture.  Reading the Bible and posting comments is a good start to knowing the Scripture.  Thinking enough about what is read to make comments helps fix it in your mind.  Notice that Satan even used (or misused) the Scripture.  Our opponents may also quote the Bible incorrectly.  We must be very sharp in our use of the Bible.

4:17  The basic message of Jesus is exactly the same as that of John in 3:2.

4:18-22  It continually amazes me that the disciples so quickly left all and followed Jesus.  Did they not even go tell their wives where they were going?  Did they not make some arrangements for their business to continue?  What would Elva think if one day I did not come home and then someone told her that I had left to follow some traveling preacher?  And I hadn't even come home to tell her goodbye.

4:23-25  The call to repent (4:17) is followed by the blessing of healing.

You are encouraged to make comments about what you have read.  Forming your thoughts to write them helps fix them in your memory.

Thanks, Larry