Two things stick out to me in Gen 11.

1. God confused the language of a technologically advancing humanity. Again just like his promise in the covenant with Noah he limits human capabilities to wield power that would let the world be destroyed. He intervened. And the confusion of the languages was reversed at Pentacost when time was ripped apart and all humanity understood the same language for one sermon! https://morganites.org/the-bible-is-tongues/

2. Abram’s father Terah.. Why was he going to exactly the same place as God subsequently called Abram. I fully believe God had called Terah but he fell away.

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Then Genesis 12 hits.

And God immediately fixes the problems of Genesis 10 and 11.

God’s promise to Abraham was that all Nations would be blessed through him.

Genesis 12:3
I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.”

These people’s which were split into language groups had been cursed.. But immediately the cure for the curse was given to the most faithful man on the planet.. Abram – The plan for the prophesied Messiah which included the inscripturation process to begin centuries later with Moses.

When I look at Genesis 11 and 12 together I have to ask.. When was Abraham saved? The only honest answer is ‘The bible is silent on this’.

The Bible simply says Abraham believed God and it was credited to him as righteousness. (Gen 15:6)

But we see Abram believing God in Gen 12. And there is every reason to believe the he and his father were believers in Haran and Ur.

Acts 7:2-4
To this he replied: “Brothers and fathers, listen to me! The God of glory appeared to our father Abraham while he was still in Mesopotamia, before he lived in Haran. ‘Leave your country and your people,’ God said, ‘and go to the land I will show you.’ “So he left the land of the Chaldeans and settled in Haran. After the death of his father, God sent him to this land where you are now living.”

Therefore the protestants and evangelicals and pentecostals that say that you are saved by ‘Faith alone’, are talking rubbish because there is no way to show that Abraham’s faith saved him without obedience because his faith was credited as righteousness when he had alread believed at various points.. but the point at which he came into a right relationship with God originally is not documented in scripture. When Paul is talking in Romans about Abraham’s faith, he is merely showing how faith is credited as righteousness and not talking about the point of salvation. Of course we know that the point of salvation is baptism in Jesus name.

Every covenant that God has ever made with men has involved Faith Grace and works. Let us not be deceived.

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Genesis 12-13. Abram’s cowardice around Pharaoh and the consequences for his wife Sarai are recorded in scripture. So we see the goal of the Scriptures is not the glorification of even the men of God. But their sin has been broadcasted to any human at any time who wants to pick up a bible.

1 Corinthians 10:11-13
These things happened to them as examples and were written down as warnings for us, on whom the fulfillment of the ages has come. So, if you think you are standing firm, be careful that you don’t fall! No temptation has seized you except what is common to man.

Some of our most powerful communion messages are the vulnerable sharing of our own sin. God wrote the Bible to show us how to stay faithful in spite of ourselves, to remind us how much we need His help and to insist that we give ourselves wholly to the pursuit of Godliness again in spite of ourselves.

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Genesis 13

Romans 15:4
For everything that was written in the past was written to teach us,

2 Timothy 3:16-17
All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.

Some people point to the failures of the patriarchs and the men of God in the Old Testament as evidence that the Bible is not true.. but the exact opposite is the case.. The details of their lives and their sin and their repentance is recorded in technicolor so that we are able to glean from it what we must do in our lives today. The reason we see how they messed up and the reason that God allowed all of this to be recorded is because we ourselves are messing up all the time. People who try to point to the abuses and practice of men of God in the Old Testament, as evidence that the Bible is wrong or that it’s wrong to follow the Bible are not accepting of their own falability.

Sometimes skeptics don’t even know a single person who follows the Bible to the extent that they are able to confess their own sins and so they have this image of people who follow the Bible claiming to be perfect.. and then when they see the sin of the patriarchs they point out the contradiction. This shows the importance of us always having a humble posture towards non-christians.

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Gen 14 15 first QT in LA.

Gen 14. I forget that Abram was also a warrior and had a small army. I note how he followed the advice of John the Baptist for the Roman soldiers. (Lk 3:14)
I struggle with my earnings and have to find the balance to live within my means but STILL pay the tithe! Gen 14:20. I am grateful that my tithing conviction (after I fell away) has meant I could visit the church for my restoration and re-pledge to continue in this.

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Gen 15:1 God is indeed my very great reward!

I compare Gen 15:6 with James 2:20-24.
But understand that James 2:24 is not talking about Gen 15 but about Gen 22 years later. So James is not making a point about salvation but as Paul did (Rom 4:18 – 5:2) simply about how faith works. James is in fact focusing on the importance of righteous acts and Paul arguing against the need for gentile circumcision. Two very different uses of the ‘credited as righteousness’. Paul uses Gen 15 in a way that can be applied to Gen 12 and James uses Gen 15 as applied to Gen 22. Neither apostle is therefore talking about ‘when’ Abraham was saved. Again he was in a right relationship in Ur of the Chaldeans (Acts 7:2). Gen 15:7 is how Stephen knew this.

Note to self. Never forget the importance of works!

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Gen 16:5. Sarai was indeed right that Abraham was responsible for her trouble because he ‘agreed’. If he had not, there would not have been that trouble. I am ultimately responsible from what I instigate and what I allow. Equally.

Abraham then allowed Hagar’s mistreatment adding to the first sin. Once in the situation he had a choice to act honorably and failed.

To be blameless is to do the right thing when you have done the wrong thing. This is the grace of God.

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Genesis 17:6
I will make you very fruitful; I will make nations of you, and kings will come from you.

I struggle to believe this but I act as if I do every day. God has already used me to bring about ICC Europe at the start. This time with RCW needs to be greater.

Genesis 17:6,14
I will make you very fruitful; I will make nations of you, and kings will come from you. Any uncircumcised male, who has not been circumcised in the flesh, will be cut off from his people; he has broken my covenant.”

Colossians 2:9-14
For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form, and you have been given fullness in Christ, who is the head over every power and authority. In him you were also circumcised, in the putting off of the sinful nature, not with a circumcision done by the hands of men but with the circumcision done by Christ, having been buried with him in baptism and raised with him through your faith in the power of God, who raised him from the dead. When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your sinful nature, God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins, having canceled the written code, with its regulations, that was against us and that stood opposed to us; he took it away, nailing it to the cross.

The unbaptised are not saved. Period. We need to baptise because God needs to make alive that which is dead. I must baptise. My BibleTalk will baptise.

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Gen 17
Abram and Sarai get name changes. Is this when they came into a new and right relationship with God. Unlikely.. based on their ongoing previous obedience.

Genesis 17:17
Abraham fell facedown; he laughed and said to himself, “Will a son be born to a man a hundred years old? Will Sarah bear a child at the age of ninety?”

Genesis 18:12-15
So Sarah laughed to herself as she thought, “After I am worn out and my master is old, will I now have this pleasure?” Then the Lord said to Abraham, “Why did Sarah laugh and say, ‘Will I really have a child, now that I am old?’ Is anything too hard for the Lord? I will return to you at the appointed time next year and Sarah will have a son.” Sarah was afraid, so she lied and said, “I did not laugh.” But he said, “Yes, you did laugh.”

I found this marriage dynamic interesting. Abraham had previously laughed at God and there is no mention of any challenges around this but when Sarah laughs he insists that she deals with it and isn’t really vulnerable about his own skepticism around the promise.

Always good for me to wait and think if I’m guilty of the same thing I see in my wife!

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Gen 19:10
Lot offers his daughter’s to the homosexual men who wanted to rape the angels.

Contrast with 19:31 where he has not bothered to find Abraham and find husbands for his daughter’s and their subsequent actions that led to the birthing of some of Israel’s worst enemies.

The responsibility of fatherhood even in finding appropriate partners for the children has largely been jettisoned. These women would have welcomed it but Lot was derelict in that area probably partly due to loosing his wife. So he should have found his new wife too!

Note to self. Take care of the dating needs of the singles.

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Genesis 20

Abraham has a strategy with Abimelech (which he used with Pharoah also Gen 12:10-20).

Genesis 20:11-13
Abraham replied, “I said to myself, ‘There is surely no fear of God in this place, and they will kill me because of my wife.’ Besides, she really is my sister, the daughter of my father though not of my mother; and she became my wife. And when God had me wander from my father’s household, I said to her, ‘This is how you can show your love to me: Everywhere we go, say of me, “He is my brother.”’”

Abraham’s strategy is explained to Sarai in Gen 12:13 and Gen 20 to Abimelech. His reasoning is based on fear and cunning.

Isaac subsequently follows Abraham’s example (Gen 26) and it becomes almost like a family tradition.

But essentially it was sin to put their wives at risk of harm in such a way.

God rescues Abraham twice and Jacob once from the same issue showing his grace and forbearance.

I should not put my wife at risk of harm.

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