A New Look at an Old Book: Genesis 9-11
I am loving that I can still read this very familiar story and see something that I haven't seen before! That I can question what never occurred to me before! How timeless the Word of God is in our lives. What a blessing the Scriptures are to me.
Genesis 9
God gives us authority over all other life on the planet. I like the language of the Message here, again. The animals will fall under our spell and be afraid. Makes me think of the snake charmer in India! But it also makes me wonder why the animals would need to fear us? Of course, knowing how mankind has abused this privilege it is understandable that animals would have fear, but why at that point? The animals and the last remaining humans had been peacefully coexisting in the confines of a relatively small vessel for little more than six months!
Curiously, this is the first time that God says that we may consume animals for food. Apparently, humanity was strictly vegetarian? But back a couple of chapters, God accepted an offering of meat from Abel. How did Abel know to make that sacrifice and how did he know that God would be pleased with that? Where is the paradigm shift? Additionally, there is no exclusion other than eating meat that is still bloody. Why such a drastic change later?
Purpose: Here we have it. People have asked for it, and here it was the whole time! Our job, our primary responsibility was to fill the earth with our progeny and to live well! Wow! What a tough job. How did we manage to mess that up???
Alright, I know I'm on a question roll, but I can't help it. There are things that just beg to be asked. The same questions that non-believers and atheists pose I find myself pondering. Noah and his three sons with all their wives (presumably one wife per man) are it as far as human population goes. So in order to populate the planet, that means that cousin will have to marry cousin, but later in Leviticus this is strictly forbidden. How does this work?? I understand that it is an act of necessity, but why is it permitted here and later prohibited? Same as with the food - why the paradigm shift?
Genesis 10
Proof that they were fulfilling their purpose!! LOL
Genesis 11
At the risk of making some of you think I'm a complete heretic, I just have to say that reading this makes me question the integrity of the writing here. I don't mean that to sound as if I do not believe this to be the inspired word of God, but what I mean is that the way this is written it makes God sound, well, needy and insecure. And God is not either of those things. Wow! Genesis is full of difficulty for me! When I've read this before, I have always pushed away any questions or observations of contradiction, but I just can't anymore. Not because I believe that what I'm reading makes God any less, but because I feel protective of Him (as if He needs my protection - pfffft!). I'm definitely going to be pulling out the concordance and the commentaries on these passages. I'm curious to know what others are thinking about these same verses.
OK, now wait! Just a few chapters ago, God said He wasn't going to continue to breathe His life's breath into humanity and that the number of a man's days would be 120 years, but here we are again with people living well beyond that time limit! What gives? Here's my opinion - and take it for what it's worth (probably not much), but I'm thinking that there are some errors here in the writing. Don't start warming up the stake for me just yet! I know God's not wrong. He is the same yesterday, today and forever. So if God's not wrong, then someone else is, because this doesn't gel. But here's the good news - God is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him, and that's exactly what I'm doing. I may not understand, but He does and He delights in my pursuit of Him. I know that He will help me to reconcile what I perceive to be contradictions and and will make my faith stronger as a result! I love that about God!
And now, I'm looking forward to reading about Abram! This is a favorite part of the scriptures!
Created over 2 years ago
