Category Archives: Genesis

Day 9: The Promise Continues

Genesis 23-24; Matthew 8

Key Verses

Genesis 24:7
The Lord, the God of heaven, who took me from my father’s house and from the land of my kindred, and who spoke to me and swore to me, ‘To your offspring I will give this land,’ he will send his angel before you, and you shall take a wife for my son from there.”

Matthew 8:16-17
That evening they brought to him many who were oppressed by demons, and he cast out the spirits with a word and healed all who were sick. This was to fulfill what was spoken by the prophet Isaiah: “He took our illnesses and bore our diseases.”

Yesterday, we saw the small beginnings of God fulfilling His two-fold promise of legacy and land to Abraham… Isaac was born and Abraham bought a well.

In today’s reading, we see Abraham purchase a full-fledged plot of land (in Canaan, of course) that contains a cave in which to bury his wife, Sarah. We also read of the miraculous way in which God provides a wife for Isaac. Rebekah is kind-hearted and full of faith. She is a good wife for Isaac. God’s promise to make Abraham’s descendants as numerous as the stars and to give them the land of Canaan continues to unfold…

It’s fun to fast-forward in history to Matthew 8 where we see Jesus in action. Jesus is the ultimate fulfillment of all of God’s promises. In this chapter, we read several stories of Jesus’ healings… First the leper, then the centurion’s servant, then Peter’s mother-in-law.

There is a scene painted in just one sentence that boggles my mind. Jesus is in the home of Peter and…

That evening they brought to him many who were oppressed by demons, and he cast out the spirits with a word and healed all who were sick (Matthew 8:16).

Can you imagine the flurry of people scampering to Jesus to be healed? I would have been one of them. I would have done anything, anything, to get my brain-injured daughter in front of Jesus. I would have bowed low and begged him to heal my daughter. I know, because I do this every day.

In the very next verse, Matthew refers back to Isaiah’s prophecy of the Servant:

Surely he has borne our griefs
and carried our sorrows;
yet we esteemed him stricken,
smitten by God, and afflicted (Isaiah 53:4).

Just as he showed compassion to the crowds and healed their diseases, He has borne my grief and carried my sorrow. Even though He has chosen not to heal my brain-injured daughter immediately, he is still healing her – very slowly. Waiting on God builds godly character, and ultimately the healing of our souls is infinitely more important than the healing of our bodies. But we’ll talk more about that tomorrow :-)

Day 8: The Promise Begins

Genesis 20-22; Matthew 7

Key Verses

Genesis 21:1
The Lord was good to Sarah and kept his promise (Genesis 21:1 CEV).

Matthew 7:9-11
…which one of you, if his son asks him for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a serpent? If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him!

In these chapters of Genesis, we see the small beginnings of God fulfilling his promises to Abraham!

  1. First, we see the birth of Isaac, the first fruits of the promise that God will make Abraham’s descendants as numerous as the stars.
  2. Second, we see Abraham purchase a well in the southwest region of Canaan (Genesis 21:31-37). This is significant because it is the first time we read of Abraham abandoning his nomadic lifestyle to become a land owner, and that small bit of land just happens to be in the land God promised to Abraham and his descendants.

God surely keeps his promises… which had to be Abraham’s only comfort as he made the agonizing trek up the mountain to sacrifice his son, Isaac, the promised son. And as Abraham showed his willingness to obey, God provided a ram in Isaac’s place …the blessed ram.

One morning, my husband, Eric, pulled our son aside and recounted the story of God asking Abraham to sacrifice Isaac. He pointed out that Abraham was only able to obey because he trusted in the goodness of God. Then Eric asked our son, “Do you trust me?” Wide-eyed, our son answered confidently, “Yes, daddy.” And then Eric explained to our son that he was getting too big for his bike and asked him to give his bike to his little sister.

Our son, holding back tears, agreed to give away his most prized possession. Why? Because he trusts his daddy, and he knows that his daddy is good.

What our son doesn’t know is that Eric has been meticulously saving and an even bigger and better bike will be delivered in just two days. But think about how much more grateful he’ll be when he receives it, and how his trust in his daddy’s care for him will be deepened and enlarged in his heart. And hopefully, this experience will equip him to obey God when it’s hard and doesn’t make any earthly sense.

Day 7: The meticulous, kindness of God

Genesis 18-19; Matthew 6

Key Verses

Genesis 18:19
“For I have chosen [Abraham], that he may command his children and his household after him to keep the way of the Lord by doing righteousness and justice, so that the Lord may bring to Abraham what he has promised him.”

Matthew 6:33-34
“But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.”

For the last few days, Matthew’s readings have been from the Sermon on the Mount. Jesus’ sermon makes me very uncomfortable.

Jesus takes the Old Testament law – which was barely attainable – and makes it completely out of reach.

  • Old Testament says: Don’t kill anyone. Okay, I can manage that.
  • Jesus says: Don’t get angry at anyone because you’re committing murder in your heart. Uhhhh. That’s impossible.

Ahhh… the heart. Jesus is shining a magnifying glass on the state of the heart. Ultimately, He wants good actions to flow from the righteousness of the heart as opposed to performing good works to mask the darkness of the heart. Jesus wants us to be convicted… so we will turn to Him to do what we cannot do – NOT change our hypocritical behavior, but change trust Jesus to change our hearts.

Genesis 18 is the story of the Lord visiting Abraham and again promising him a son through Sarah. This time, however, many years have passed (since Abraham first heard the promise), and Sarah is past the age of child-bearing. Sarah overhears the promise and laughs, and God answers…

“Is anything too hard for the Lord? At the appointed time I will return to you, about this time next year, and Sarah shall have a son.”

Changing Sarah’s anatomy to open her womb was an easy task compared to changing the darkness of a sinful heart. But I ask you… “Is anything too hard for the Lord?” Indeed, nothing is too hard for our God!

For me, this change has happened slowly… moment by moment, choice by choice, so that after years have passed, I can look back and see the slow work of grace in my life. The more God changes my heart from dark to light, my eyes are opened to even more darkness that resides in me. God is merciful and only shows me what will not send me into despair. For if I saw too much at once, I would become hopeless, and lose heart. God is meticulously kind. Thank God.

A great example of His meticulous kindness is seen in his conversation with Abraham about saving the city of Sodom (Genesis 18:22-33). On first glance, it seems like Abraham is negotiating with God, but a pastor explained the passage the opposite way…. God is meticulously expanding Abraham’s heart to be more compassionate.

Abraham: would you destroy the city if you found 50 righteous men?
God: No. I will save the city for 50 righteous men.
Abraham: How about 45?
40?
30?
20?
10?

God conforms Abraham’s heart to be closer to His own. He makes Abraham more compassionate. He does it slowly. He does it meticulously. He does it kindly.

Day 6: Relentless help

Genesis 15-17; Matthew 5:27-48

Key Verses

Genesis 15:5-6
And [the Lord] brought [Abraham] outside and said, “Look toward heaven, and number the stars, if you are able to number them.” Then he said to him, “So shall your offspring be.” And he believed the Lord, and he counted it to him as righteousness.

Matthew 5:44-45
“But I say to you, ‘Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven. For he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust.'”

God made a promise to Abraham, and Abraham lived in the tension between faith and doubt – between belief and unbelief. Just listen to the narrative…

  • Abraham questioned how God would give him descendants since he had no children. (Gen. 15:3)
  • God promised that Abraham would have a son and his descendants would be as numerous as the stars. (Gen 15:5)
  • Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness. (Gen 15:6)
  • Abraham waited for God to fulfill his promise of a son. He got impatient and slept with his wife’s servant, Hagar, and Hagar bore him a son. (Gen 16:2-4)
  • God reappeared to Abraham and reaffirmed his promise of a son from his wife, Sarah. He restated his covenant promise and instructed Abraham to be circumcised along with every male in his family as a sign of this covenant. (Gen 17:1-16)
  • Abraham “fell on his face and laughed to himself” at the thought of his wife, Sarah, bearing him a son. But he obeyed the difficult command of the Lord to circumcise his household. (Gen 17:17; 23-27)

Do you see the ebbs and flows of faith in Abraham’s life? I can totally relate. It reminds me of the father who cried to Jesus… “I believe; help my unbelief!” (Mark 9:24)

My life is filled with the responsibility of caring for a disabled child. This responsibility is relentless. It never goes away. It causes me to long for relief – to long for heaven. I need help from God to fulfill my responsibilities with joy and gratitude. Thankfully, God’s help to me… his grace toward me is also relentless. It never goes away. Even when my faith ebbs and flows, God continues to fulfill His promises to me. His promise to never leave or forsake me. His promise to work all things for my good. His promise to conform me more into the likeness of Jesus. His promise to give comfort and peace. His promise. His promises. They never fail. They are relentless.

Day 5: The Poor in Spirit

Genesis 12-14; Matthew 5:1-26

Key Verses

Genesis 12:2-3
“…I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”

Matthew 5:3
“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

God’s promise to Abraham in the beginning of Genesis 12 is God’s covenant promise to set apart a people that bear His name. God has kept his promise…all the families of the earth have been blessed – through Jesus, who is the fulfillment of God’s covenant with Abraham!

In Matthew, we see Jesus clarifying what it means to be “blessed.” He opens with “blessed are the poor in spirit,” which at first glance, doesn’t seem to be a “blessing.” But Jesus is defining what “blessed” looks like in God’s kingdom, not man’s. This is the first blessing in a list of “Beatitudes.” It’s important to note that the Beatitudes are not a list of qualifications to enter God’s kingdom, but rather a list of characteristics that are bestowed to Kingdom citizens – they come from the transforming work of the Spirit. In other words, it is impossible to possess the blessings of the beatitudes apart from faith in Christ.

Abraham was learning first hand what it meant to be “poor in spirit.” In today’s reading, we see Abraham at the height of faithfulness (when he moved his entire household down to the land God would show him) and in the depths of sin (when he lied to Pharaoh and endangered his wife).

In Genesis 14, after Abraham had secured a great victory in war (in heroic Braveheart style!), and was returning home with much spoil, he met a mysterious King. He was called priest of God most High (vs. 14:18). The writer of Hebrews identified this King as a forerunner of Christ (Heb 7). This King, named Melchizedek, challenges my “Braveheart” image as he reminds me that Abraham only found success in battle because of God. Melchizedek said to Abraham,

“Blessed be Abram by God Most High,
Possessor of heaven and earth;
and blessed be God Most High,
who has delivered your enemies into your hand!”

Melchizedek reminded Abraham that he was poor in spirit. He had nothing within himself to offer to God. His greatest triumphs both in battle and in faithfulness came from God, alone. Like Abraham, I am poor in spirit. I have nothing to offer Jesus, and he calls me blessed because of it. This is amazing grace!

Day 4: Family Ties

Genesis 9-11; Matthew 4

Key Verses:

Genesis 9:8-11
Then God said to Noah and to his sons with him, “Behold, I establish my covenant with you and your offspring after you, and with every living creature that is with you […] I establish my covenant with you, that never again shall all flesh be cut off by the waters of the flood, and never again shall there be a flood to destroy the earth.”

Matthew 4:23
And [Jesus] went throughout all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom and healing every disease and every affliction among the people.

Genesis 9 echoes the creation story of Genesis 1-3. As the earth emerges from the flood waters, it’s as if God has performed a re-creation. He gives the same mandate to Noah and his sons as he gave to Adam and Eve: “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth.” God establishes a covenant with Noah and all creatures of the earth – that He will never destroy the earth by flood. God’s promises are good. His promises are true!

Despite God’s goodness to Noah, Noah follows in the way of Adam and Eve as he makes a sinful choice in Genesis 9:21. Just as God cursed Adam and Eve after their sinful choice, curses flow after Noah’s sinful choice …but so do blessings.

Noah curses his son, Ham, but blesses Shem. As we read forward to Genesis 10, we see even more genealogy, and that Abram (whose name was later changed to Abraham) is a descendant of Shem (11:26). Noah is in the family line of Jesus! The royal seed goes through Noah to Shem to Abraham. God is preserving the family line of the promised one! He is fulfilling his covenant promises to his people!

Matthew 1 also traces Jesus’s family line all the way back to Abraham. In today’s reading, Matthew 4, we see the promised offspring of the woman, the one who will crush the serpent, face the same tempter. Jesus is the new Adam, but unlike the original Adam, He overcomes and does not sin. Instead of curses… there are blessings, and we, His people, are the benefactors!! This is good news. This is the gospel.

Day 3: What Good is the Flood?

Genesis 6-8; Matthew 3

Key Verses:

Genesis 3:5-6
The Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And the Lord regretted that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him to his heart.

Matthew 3:16
And when Jesus was baptized, immediately he went up from the water, and behold, the heavens were opened to him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and coming to rest on him; and behold, a voice from heaven said, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.”

Genesis 6-8 is the story of the flood. The idea of God destroying the earth causes me to wrestle… really wrestle with God’s goodness. I’ve struggled to see how God’s goodness is revealed in destroying every living thing on the earth (except those few on the ark). Seriously, what good is the flood?

I believe God has patiently endured my questioning and given me not just one, but several glimpses of his goodness in this passage of Scripture.

  • Firstly, I believe God gave the world the opportunity to repent and be saved. Think about it… It took Noah and his sons a VERY long time to build that ark. Scholars debate on the specifics, but it was somewhere between 75-100 years of building. Don’t you think news would have spread about this crazy guy building this humongous boat? Don’t you think Noah tried to warn people of the coming flood? They had a chance to repent, believe and be saved… But they didn’t. And they perished.
  • Secondly, (and this is a hard one for me) every living thing deserved to be destroyed. The bible says “every intention of the thoughts of [man’s] heart was only evil continually” (Genesis 6:5). God showed his grace by preserving a remnant.
  •  Thirdly, (and I love this) I see God’s tender, personal care for Noah and his family in verse 7:16, “And the Lord shut him in.” God, himself, shut the door to the arc and protected them from the deadly flood. He, personally, saved them.
  • And finally, Noah’s story is both a warning and a joyful proclamation to us. Just as those who were in the ark were saved from the flood… If we are found “in Christ” we will be saved from the judgment that is to come. God, in his mercy, warns repetitively throughout Scripture that there will be judgment for those who do not turn to Jesus for help. None of us are good enough to earn entrance into heaven. Jesus offers us a trade: we get his perfect record, and he gets our tarnished one. As a result, he received the punishment we deserve, and we get the reward that only he deserves. This is good news. This is the gospel.

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Day 2: The Offspring of the Woman

Genesis 3-5; Matthew 2

Key Verses:

Genesis 3:15
I will put enmity between you [the serpent] and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.”

Matthew 2:13-14
Now when they had departed, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, “Rise, take the child and his mother, and flee to Egypt, and remain there until I tell you, for Herod is about to search for the child, to destroy him.” And he rose and took the child and his mother by night and departed to Egypt.

To me, Genesis 3 is the saddest chapter in the entire bible. Adam and Eve’s disobedience destroyed their relationship with God. Their sinful choice had far-reaching consequences as every human is now separated from God because of sin. But God had a rescue plan…

Immediately after Adam and Eve made their selfish choice, God delivered a shocking promise – that a descendent of the woman would defeat the serpent. This promise acts as a backdrop for the rest of the Old Testament. Imagine the serpent’s response to such a promise! Satan’s goal from that point forward was to destroy the offspring of the woman who was destined to crush his head. In fact, the entire Old Testament can be read as a story of a battle between Satan and God – of Satan trying to destroy the royal family line and God working to preserve the family line from which Jesus would be born.

In Genesis 4, we see this royal line threatened as Cain killed Abel and Cain walked away from God. Who would carry the seed of the woman forward? But God’s plan was always that Jesus would not descend from Cain or Abel. God gave Adam and Eve a third son, Seth, and it was from him that the promised royal offspring would come!

In today’s New Testament reading, we see the promised offspring (Jesus!) in danger of being killed by the evil king, Herod. But God was not thwarted by the plans of an evil king. He warned Joseph in a dream to escape south to Egypt until the threat had passed.

God’s plan of redemption could not – and will not – be overcome by the serpent. Jesus was born! Jesus was crucified. And Jesus will come again!

Day 1: Amazing Grace

Genesis 1-2; Matthew 1

Key Verses:

Genesis 2:15-17
The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it. And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, “You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.”

Matthew 1:22-23
All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet: “Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel” (which means, God with us).

Genesis 1 is the well-known account of creation. The story of God’s redemptive love begins in Genesis 1 with the words, “God created the heavens and the earth.” Genesis 2 zooms in to give more detail, especially regarding the sixth day when God created humans. When I read Genesis 2, I imagine God as a loving, meticulous artisan… Listen to the verbs:

formed
breathed
planted
caused

God loved his creation – so much that He bequeathed His own image and divine purpose to his prized creatures, humans.  Today’s key verse highlights God’s loving instructions to Adam. This verse foreshadows the disastrous disobedient choice Adam and his wife, Eve would make – turning their hearts away from their Creator and poisoning God’s creation with sin.

But…thousands of years later, in a lowly city, an extraordinary baby would be born. Our Savior, with a King’s credence, arrived quietly to a poor carpenter and his soon-to-be wife. These two chapters mark the beginnings of God’s story – a story of a loving Creator sending His son to save His wayward children. It is a story of God’s amazing grace!

Amazing grace is what we’ll need to continue this journey! Day 1 – check. 364 to go…

Day 21: The Lion of Judah

Genesis 48-50

These chapters mark the end of Jacob’s life and the end of Genesis. We see Jacob blessing each of his 12 sons including Joseph’s children, Ephraim and Manasseh. Each blessing draws from the son’s life and projects their past choices on their future descendants. Judah and Joseph both have the longest and most positive of all the blessings. It’s almost as if the writer of Genesis is wanting the reader to ask… “Will the promised Savior come from Judah or Joseph’s family?”

It’s interesting… this tug of war between Judah and Joseph continues through Israel’s history… When Jacob blessed Joseph’s two sons in Chapter 48, he claimed them as his own sons. After the Israelites conquered the Canaanites to reclaim the land, each son or tribe was given an allotment of land (with the exception of Levi. The Levites were given the honor of the priesthood). Both Epraim and Manasseh received land, which ensured that Joseph’s descendants received a double portion of the inheritance. Since Jacob gave the blessing of the firstborn to the younger brother, Ephraim, it is from Ephraim’s family that we see many great leaders of Israel.

Could the promised King come from Joseph’s family? But Israel’s greatest king, David, was from the tribe of Judah. In the end, we know it was from Judah’s family that the promised Savior would come. Read Jacob’s blessing to Judah:

Judah, your brothers shall praise you;
your hand shall be on the neck of your enemies;
your father’s sons shall bow down before you.
Judah is a lion’s cub;
from the prey, my son, you have gone up.
He stooped down; he crouched as a lion
and as a lioness; who dares rouse him?
The scepter shall not depart from Judah,
nor the ruler’s staff from between his feet,
until tribute comes to him;
and to him shall be the obedience of the peoples.
Binding his foal to the vine
and his donkey’s colt to the choice vine,
he has washed his garments in wine
and his vesture in the blood of grapes.
His eyes are darker than wine,
and his teeth whiter than milk (Genesis 49:8-12).

In the end, Jacob died and was buried with his fathers in Canaan. Genesis was written by Moses for the people of Israel (who had been in Egypt for over 400 years)… so that they would know their history. If you are a believer in Jesus Christ, you have been grafted into the family of Abraham, so Genesis is your family history too! We have the privilege of having seen the promise of the Savior fulfilled – but the promise to Abraham- of a land and a people – will not be completely fulfilled until the end of the age in the new heaven and new earth…

John, the writer of Revelation, writes:

And one of the elders said to me, “Weep no more; behold, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has conquered, so that he can open the scroll and its seven seals.” …And they sang a new song, saying,

“Worthy are you to take the scroll
and to open its seals,
for you were slain, and by your blood you ransomed people for God
from every tribe and language and people and nation,
and you have made them a kingdom and priests to our God,
and they shall reign on the earth.” (Revelation 5:5; 9-10).

And the people said… “Amen!”