In The Word - Genesis 11-15
Join us as we read through the Bible. We hope these questions and thoughts will help you with your study of His Word.
Use these questions to help your weekday worship reading:
What does this passage say about God?
What does this passage say about humanity?
How does this passage fit into the bigger picture of the book so far?
What is strange, offensive, or challenging in this passage?
Based on this passage, what would God say is good or not good in my life?
Have you ever walked into a room to get something, and then completely forgotten why you went into the room? Our readings this week from Genesis can be a bit confusing at first, almost like walking into a room and forgetting why we went there in the first place. The first 11 chapters of Genesis focus on some key events that take place over the course of several generations. Huge questions about the universe and our place in it have been answered already through the first 11 chapters. But now, after Babel, a genealogy signals another shift in the flow of Genesis. While we have seen the great epochs of Adam (Genesis 1-5), Noah (Genesis 6-10), and the people of the plains (Genesis 11), we now focus on a more day-to-day life of one particular family - the family of Abram (Genesis 12).
Throughout our readings this week we will learn about:
The scattering of humanity after Babel (Genesis 11)
Abram’s faith (Genesis 12:1-9),
His fright (Genesis 12:10-20),
His family and land (Genesis 13)
The surrounding kingdoms around Abram (Genesis 14)
God’s covenant with Abram (Genesis 15)
Some Christians throughout history have commented that Genesis could be broken into two big sections. The first big section would be the first 11 chapters of Genesis. These chapters we’ve read set the broad scene for God’s grace in creation. The second big section are the last 38 chapters of Genesis (chapters 12-50). This section sets a context through the specific people God used to reveal his grace.
The final chapter we read this week, Genesis 15, gives an important scene that helps us understand God’s work and character throughout the entire rest of the Bible. God makes a covenant with Abram. A covenant has been described by one theologian as a “three-legged race”. Where two people tie their legs together, moving together, winning together, or losing together. When God made his covenant with Abram, Abram fell asleep. And God himself passes through the pieces of animals to “sign on the dotted line” for both parties, that God would accomplish the promises made in the covenant. What Abram could not do in his own ability, strength, or spirituality, God promised to fulfill.
God had promised way back in Genesis 3 to send an offspring born of the woman who would crush the serpent. God reveals in Genesis 15 that his crushing of the serpent would include a place to call home (land), and a legacy of children more numerous than the stars. By faith we are included in this promise. We are the children through faith in Jesus Christ. When we read Genesis 11-15, we aren’t just reading about any family, for those who believe in Jesus, we are reading about the family of God that we, by God’s grace, have been adopted into.
More next week about God’s work in the midst of the troubles and trials of this family.