Loved ones, in our last study, we watched the father of the faithful stumble. Driven by famine and fear, Abram went down to Egypt, deceived Pharaoh, and endangered the promised line. It was a low point. But God, in His severe mercy, plagued Pharaoh and brought Abram out—not empty-handed, but wealthy. Genesis 13 is the… Continue reading “Let There Be No Strife”: Land, Legacy, and Letting Go (Gen. 13:1–18)
Category: Old Testament
“This Is My Sister”: A Test of Faith in a Foreign Land (Gen. 12:10–20)
Loved ones, in our last study, we stood with Abram on the spiritual mountaintop. He had heard the call of God, left his idols in Ur, and built altars in the Promised Land. He was the knight of faith, staking a claim for Yahweh in the midst of the Canaanites. But the Bible is not… Continue reading “This Is My Sister”: A Test of Faith in a Foreign Land (Gen. 12:10–20)
“Go from Your Country”: The Call and the Covenant (Gen. 12:1–9)
Loved ones, we have crossed a massive theological threshold. For eleven chapters, the Bible has painted on a global canvas—creation, flood, nations, and the scattering at Babel. But now, the God of the universe narrows His gaze to a single, childless old man in Haran. Genesis 12 is the beginning of the answer to the… Continue reading “Go from Your Country”: The Call and the Covenant (Gen. 12:1–9)
The Unbroken Line: From Shem to the Threshold of Promise (Gen. 11:10-32)
Loved ones, we have just witnessed the collapse of the world’s first empire. At Babel, humanity shouted, “Let us make a name for ourselves,” and God answered with confusion and dispersion. The camera of Scripture panned out to show us a world scattered and divided by language. It was a scene of judgment and chaos.… Continue reading The Unbroken Line: From Shem to the Threshold of Promise (Gen. 11:10-32)
Let Us Make a Name for Ourselves: The Folly and Fall of Babel (Gen. 11:1–9)
Loved ones, we have reached the end of the beginning. Genesis 1 through 11, often called the “Primeval History,” charts the course of the world from the heights of creation to the depths of the Fall, through the judgment of the Flood, and now to the scattering of the nations. We stand at a critical… Continue reading Let Us Make a Name for Ourselves: The Folly and Fall of Babel (Gen. 11:1–9)
From One Man, Many Nations: A Theological Reading of the Table of Nations (Gen. 10:1–32)
Loved ones, if you are reading through the Bible sequentially, you have just hit your first major speed bump. After the dramatic narratives of the Flood and the shameful incident in Noah’s tent, Genesis 10 presents us with a long list of names—seventy of them, to be precise. It is a directory of ancient tribes,… Continue reading From One Man, Many Nations: A Theological Reading of the Table of Nations (Gen. 10:1–32)
The Shame of the Patriarch: Sin and Prophecy in Noah’s Tent (Gen. 9:18–29)
Loved ones, we have spent several weeks looking at Noah as a hero of the faith. We saw him stand alone as a righteous man in a violent generation. We saw him build the Ark in obedient silence. We saw him offer a pleasing sacrifice that established a covenant of peace for the entire world.… Continue reading The Shame of the Patriarch: Sin and Prophecy in Noah’s Tent (Gen. 9:18–29)
The Rainbow and the Redeemer: Debating the Nature of the Noahic Covenant
Loved ones, in our exposition of Genesis 9, we took a specific theological stance regarding the Noahic Covenant. We argued that God made this covenant fundamentally with Noah (as a believing federal head) and that it functions as an administration of the Covenant of Grace. In this view, the preservation of the physical world is not… Continue reading The Rainbow and the Redeemer: Debating the Nature of the Noahic Covenant
The Warrior’s Bow in the Clouds: God’s Covenant with a Washed World (Gen. 9:1–17)
Loved ones, the storm has passed. The waters have receded. Noah has stepped out onto a renewed earth and offered a sacrifice of propitiation, and God has promised to preserve the natural order despite the evil of the human heart. Now, in Genesis 9, God speaks. He addresses the survivors of the catastrophe and establishes… Continue reading The Warrior’s Bow in the Clouds: God’s Covenant with a Washed World (Gen. 9:1–17)
But God Remembered Noah: Divine Faithfulness in the Flood (Gen. 8:1–22)
Loved ones, we ended the last chapter in silence. The fountains of the deep had burst, the windows of heaven had opened, and the world was buried under a chaotic, watery grave. For 150 days, the only life on earth was huddled inside a wooden box, drifting on a shoreless ocean. It is a picture… Continue reading But God Remembered Noah: Divine Faithfulness in the Flood (Gen. 8:1–22)