Days 1-5: Genesis 1-30

Thanks to Kalynn for the idea of creating a blog as I journey through the Bible in nine months. I figured that blogging about it would be a good way of staying accountable and would be a good place to post my thoughts and questions as they come up.

So, because I had this idea brought to me a little into the process, let me bring you up to speed. My church has set a goal that we would try to get through the entire Protestant Bible from cover to cover in nine months. No extensive study. No delving into huge theological debates. No lofty interpretation. Just read. Why? Because I've never read this entire book before. Since I base my life on the word it contains, I figure now would be as good a time as any to read this thing. So, I pulled my Bible off the shelf, a few days ago, blew the dust off the cover, and opened up to page one (actually, in my Bible, Genesis 1 starts on page 6). Only 1944 pages to go. That's a little daunting.

The creation story is a little confusing. Genesis 1 is pretty straight forward: six days of creation, people created on the sixth day, male and female, in the image of God. Fun fact: it turns out God gave "man" (and of course woman) dominion over the plants, trees, beasts, birds, and bugs, but not the earth itself. Almost like as if God was saying, "Everything except the foundations of creation, I give to you. All things animate are yours." Make of that what you will.

Then in Chapter 2, God creates Adam from dust. Adam is alone for a while, gardening, naming animals, eating from fruit trees (because there are no shrubs or crop plants, according to verse 5). God sees how lonely Adam is looking at all of the other animals with their partners. So, God puts Adam to sleep. God forms a nameless woman from Adam's rib, and Adam calls her the flesh of his flesh and bone of his bone (Gen 2:23). There is no mention of marriage between Adam and Eve, although Genesis 2:23-24 are often cited at weddings.

People screw up in Chapter 3, because that's when the nameless woman takes the fruit from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil and eats it, thereby disobeying God's only command (Gen. 2:15-17). What does this Tree symbolize? I'm not sure. Ethics? Freethinking? Morality? Agricultural science? The ability to envision the possibility of doing other than instructed. Maybe it was a literal tree. Anyway, a serpent convinces Eve to eat the fruit, and Eve convinces Adam to eat the fruit. Bad news bears. Humanity is damned after that.

God tells Adam and Eve that they only can eat from the plants of the field. It seems the field/dust/ground symbolizes toil, suffering, and damnation.

Cain and Abel are the first son duality presented. One good. One bad. Cain takes Abel out to the field (the cursed place), and he kills him.

Chapter 5 is a family tree from Adam to Noah. Somewhere I remember someone saying that if you take the literal meaning of the names of each character (Adam [man], Seth [appointed], Enosh [sinned, afflicted], Kenan [acquired], Mahalalel [blessed God], Jared [shall come down], Enoch [dedicated/annointed one], Methuselah [shall be sent], Lamech [bringing those who suffer], Noah [comfort and peace]), you get the Salvation story in a nutshell. People were appointed, but then sinned and became afflicted, but then the blessed God came down in the form of an anointed one who was sent to bring the suffering peace and comfort. Jesus? I think so.

From Chapters 7-9, God kills everything except 7 of every clean animal and 2 of every unclean animal and a handful of people in Noah's family. Bummer. Mass extinction death by flood. After the flood, God blessed Noah with a similar blessing to Adam and Eve when he says to be fruitful and increase in number and fill the earth (Gen 9:1). In verse 3, humans are given everything else as food, "Everything that lives and moves will be food for you" (Gen. 3:3). So, for all you vegans and vegetarians out there. I'm sorry.

Chapter 9:20-29 confused me. Noah gets drunk. His son, Ham, sees his dad passed out, naked, and presumably gets a little uncomfortable (understandably) and walks away. Then his other two bros, Shem and Japheth, put a blanket on Noah. The next day, when probably dealing with a hangover, Noah curses Ham and his descendants to be slaves of his other brothers and their descendants. I'm not sure what the significance of that is, but it sure seems a little much.

Chapter 10 is a whole list of names, but what's interesting is that Ham's descendants end up being the Philistines, the long-standing enemies of Israel.

Chapter 11 is confusing too. Here all the people of the world speak one language. They decide to put their collective skill, knowledge, and teamwork together and build an engineering marvel. God sees this and wants to stop it. I assume this is because he wants us as people to rely solely on him for our lives, not on our own understanding and pride. He says that if they have begun to build the tower, then nothing will be impossible for them. So, he scatters the people and creates different languages so people are divided and confused, and they spread across the planet.

Chapter 11 is another lineage chapter.

Chapter 12, YHWH calls Abram to bless him, to make a great name for him. Name apparently means something more like reputation or wealth, and prestige and descendants, according to my study bible. Cool. Abram was going to be a rich, blessed, family man of God. Then in Egypt, he tells his wife Sarai to pretend to be his sister so they don't kill him and steal his wife. The Pharaoh thinks Sarai is beautiful, and he gives them lots of gifts. I think he was trying to take on Sarai as his wife. But then the LORD afflicts the Pharaoh with boils and disease until he gave Abram and Sarai safe passage through Egypt. It's almost like a mini version of Moses and God sending the Ten Plagues to free Israel from Egypt and Pharaoh in Exodus.

Chapter 13, Abram and Lot go their separate ways. Lot picks the plain of Jordan, where the Dead Sea is now apparently. According to this passage it used to be lush and well watered for agriculture, but after Sodom and Gomorrah were destroyed, it became barren and the Dead Sea.

Chapter 16, Abram's wife tells him to sleep with their servant Hagar because they want a son. So, he does, and they have Ishmael. I love that name. It means something like, "God hears," because God heard Hagar's desire for a son. I love verse 16. She calls God, the God who sees me, the One who sees me. Beautiful.

Chapter 17, God tells Abraham about circumcision. Yikes!

Chapter 18, "Three visitors" meet Abraham, one of which is apparently God in human form. He tells Abraham that he is going to destroy Sodom. Abraham is not too happy about that. I know that, historically, the major "sin" here was male homosexuality. I'm not so sure. But let's read on.

Chapter 19, Angels come to Sodom to visit Lot. They want to stay in the city square, but Lot wants them to come into his house. In verse 4, men "both young and old" surround the house and (verse 5) yell that they want the men to come outside so they can have sex with them. Is Sodom cursed because of homosexual acts or just extra- or pre-marital sexual acts? I don't know. Then, in verse 30 to 38, Lot's daughters have sex with him while he's drunk forming the two nations of Moab and the Ammonites. Whether this is true or just Jewish propaganda, I don't know.

In chapter 20, I think Abraham says that Sarah really is his sister, but I could be wrong. See verse 12.

In chapter 21, Isaac is born to Abraham and Sarah. This is just a really cool part of Scripture. Here Sarah thought she would never have a lineage, and God moves in and makes things possible. Beautiful. Abraham sends Hagar and Ishmael off, but not before God blesses Hagar and Ishmael with a smaller version of his blessing to Abraham. I find it really interesting that several times so far, God says, "Do not be afraid," when he talks to people. I think if God confronted me in all of his glory, I would be terrified. I would probably either fall and huddle in the fetal position or feel like I had to run away. But just when we feel like we're about to die, he says, "do not be afraid." When the most terrifying being says that he will not harm you, that he loves you, and wants to bless you, like he wanted to bless Noah, Abraham, and then Jacob, it's almost like you now have that terrifying power watching out for your best interest. Loving but terrifying.

Chapter 22 is theologically dense, and forests of manuscripts have been written on it. I like the interpretation of Sufjan Steven's song, "Abraham" the best. It seems to sum up the entire story best than I ever could. The song is the feeling I get when I read the passage.

In Chapter 23, Sarah dies and is buried in the royal tomb of Ephron the Hittite, which is where Abraham is buried too, I think. It's interesting that both Abraham and Christ were laid to rest in the tomb of king.

Chapter 24 to 27 aren't that eventful for me. Jacob steals Esau's birthright and blessing. I learned that Jacob literally means, "pulling the heel" because he was a trickster. It's sort of like when we say, "Oh, you're pulling my leg." The story of his birth alludes to his craftiness later on.

Chapter 28 mentions Stairway to Heaven in verse 12.

Chapter 29 has the beautiful love (and confusing) love story of Jacob and Rachel. Jacob met Rachel at a well while shepherding. He wanted to marry her, so he asked her father Laban. Laban says, "Name your price!" Jacob says, "How's about seven years' labour?" Deal! I love verse 20, "So Jacob served seven years to get Rachel, but they seemed like only a few days to him because of his love for her." Nuff said. After a wedding mix up with Leah, Jacob finally gets his Bella... I mean, Rachel.

Jacob then has 11 kids with 4 women over the next while. Leah gives him Reuben, Simeon, Levi, and Judah. He sleeps with Bilbah, Rachel's maidservant, and they have Dan and Naphtali. Then he sleeps with Leah's maidservant and has Gad and Asher. Then he sleeps with Leah and has Iscaar and Zebulan. Then finally he sleeps with Leah and has Joseph. 11 of the 12 sons are born at this point. 11 kids, four women. All normal... different times, I guess. Oppressive times, but different times, nonetheless. Jacob then does some Mendel-style breeding work with his sheep breeding the strong speckled sheep for himself and the weak non-speckled sheep for his master after having agreed to only take the speckled sheep. Clever fellow.

So, that brings us up to speed. Next blog will continue from here. God bless!