Tag Archives: genesis

I read about 14 chapters of Genesis yesterday, and fell asleep when I went to blog about it. I didn’t really come across much that I felt like blogging about, so I’ll just mention some of the small things I noticed…

1. When Abraham told Ambimilech that Sarah was his sister (she was his half sister, but she was also his wife!) he took her as his wife, but God prevented him from making the marriage official, and when he finally found out the truth his response was “what happened to you, that you would do this to me?”. That reaction is very amusing to me
2. Poor Ambimilech… not only did Abraham put him in harms way by telling him Sarah was his sister … but years later Isaac did the same thing! Now, it could be a different Ambimilech I guess (perhaps they always named their king that), but it’s rather amusing either way — mainly because he learned his lesson with Abraham and figured out what Isaac had done before he tried to take Rebekah as his wife.
3. Sarcasm was alive and well at least as far back as Esau — he came in from hunting, hungry, and his brother was cooking soup… when he asked for some, his brother asked for his birthright in trade. Esau’s response, while foolish, was also very sarcastic (paraphrased): “what good will my birthright do me if I starve to death?”
4. When Jacob fled his father-in-law’s house and went off in the night to settle on his own, Rachel stole her father’s idols. I had always thought that Jacob found out about it eventually, but I didn’t see any record of that at all. Years later he does rid his household of idols, but there’s no indication that this had anything to do with the ones Rachel stole.

I’ll be having company for the next few days, and will probably not find much time to blog, but if I get a chance I will.

Ok I’m really tired, I’ve had less than 5 hours of sleep a night for 3 nights running, and about 3 hours sleep last night. I’m on my way to bed, but wanted to drop a quick entry before I go.

I read Genesis 14-19 today, and in my tired state, the one thing that stuck out was the passage in Genesis 18:23-33 where Abraham kept questioning God regarding the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah. God had said that if he found 50 righteous, he would not destroy the place, and Abraham felt the need to keep whittling away at the number. But what about 45? But what about 40? But what about 30? But what about 20? But what about 10?

It reminds me of a 5 year old with a case of the “but why”‘s. Abraham already knew that God would do the right thing, but he was scared for Lot and kept quizzing God about it anyway. It’s even more amusing given the fact that it’s written out so tediously.

I remember talking about this scripture with a friend a while back and coming to the conclusion that in this case, God deemed Sodom and Gomorrah too far gone to spare — He didn’t find even the ten — but he did find a few, and took special care to go in and pull them out before inflicting his judgment — and this is precisely what He is doing for us now.

I read about 12 chapters of Genesis today, and then called a friend who knows hebrew to drill him on a few points. After talking about Genesis for at least an hour and a half, I find myself with little I actually want to write about right now…

Genesis 9:20-27 did strike me — I guess this is the first time I noticed that Noah actually cursed a son for the sins of his father.