We covered a lot of ground today.
The story of the Tower of Babel has always interested me. I heard someone speak on this passage once and they said that one of the biggest benefits of scattering humanity through the globe was to reduce our capacity for evil. If you think about it, the worst of crime seems to exist in cities packed with people. It's that group mentality where an idea starts and it just grows out of control. Changing the languages, and scattering people helped to curb this "natural" reaction. What do you think?
Chapter 12 I find to be an incredible chapter illustrating how far we can fall.
The chapter starts off with Abram showing an incredible faith in God. God commanded him to leave his country, his people, everything he had known all his life, and go. Just go. He didn't even know where he was supposed to go! And what did he do? He obeyed! Now that takes faith. I often try to put myself in other people's shoes as I'm reading and I can't even imagine how difficult that must've been.
But then the fall. Only verses later Abram is lying about his wife, giving his wife to Pharaoh. Why? Fear and selfishness. I think, as humans, we base a lot of our decisions on fear and selfishness - and look at the disastrous consequences!
When do we give in to fear? When we take our eyes off of God. Make no mistake - fear of man is not from God.
And yet, in spite of Abram's disobedience and wrong priorities - God intervenes on their behalf and strikes Pharaoh and his household with serious diseases until he gave Sarai back to Abram. God never gives up on us. God takes imperfect people, like Abram, like you and like me. And He works through us, despite our imperfections, to accomplish His holy purposes.
Later Abram lets Lot choose which land to settle in. Lot chooses the best land which also happens to be right near the evil city of Sodom. This lands Lot in a heap of trouble (consequences of selfishness once again!) and Abram has to come rescue Lot - with only 318 trained men he defeated 4 allied kings! On his return he was blessed by Melchizedek, king of Salem and priest of God Most High as pictured below.
Tomorrow's reading is Genesis 15-17. Click here to read it online.
6 comments:
The story of Melchizedek always interests me ~ a very mysterious priest/king who seems to have no origin or end. His and Jesus' priesthoods are the only ones the Bible records that are called royal priesthoods; the position isn't inherited ancestrally through the tribe of Levi like all the other priests were. Obviously, at this point in history, Levi didn't exist, but that Jesus' position as our ultimate high priest and king is compared to Melchizedek's reign always intrigues me. We know how and why Jesus' priesthood is unique, but why was Melchizedek's? Why is he the only priest mentioned before Levi's line and heritage started?
I always wonder, too, about how people worshipped God (or even KNEW to worship) before all the rules He gave the Israelites in their 40 years of wandering. It says at the end of Genesis 4 that "at this time people began to call on the name of the Lord," but what had they done before that? Like, in between the end of Adam and Eve's close communion with God and that point in chapter 4, what had they been doing?
I'm always curious as to what the population of the world was at this time. Like, where the heck to all the tribes come from that are constantly being mentioned?! But I guess when you bear children for almost a thousand years, it only takes a couple generations to make up a million people!! (Seriously, how many children must some of those women have birthed??!!)
I, too, was impressed with Abram's faith in leaving behind everything he knew according to God's instruction and heading off to someplace he didn't even know the location of or what he would find when he got there.
The other thing that stood out to me is how things that are not bad/wrong/sinful in and of themselves can lead to sin. The plains of Sodom & Gomorrah were beautiful and provided plentiful sustenance for Lot and his family and holdings, but choosing that direction led eventually to destruction. So often we start out doing or reading or watching something innocent but allow it to distract us and sometimes lead us away from God, our families, and other more important things. I don't believe we need to cut those things out of our lives entirely, but we need to make sure we're keeping our priorities on the things that are the most important. Another reason to keep checking our compass (God's Word) to make sure we're heading in the right direction!
Very good point and application Miriam! I think just about all sin that we commit starts with something small, sometimes not even sinful in itself and it develops from there. It deffinately shows how easily it happens, and how on guard we must be!
I can totally understand how hard it was for Abram to leave. We left everything we knew to move to Georgia when the Lord led us to. We had 4 kids who needed to be fed, have healthcare, a home. But God took care of us and it really grew my faith! If He asks it of us, He will provide for us!
I've also heard it said by many scholars that the Tower of Babel is where we got all of our different races from. Why some people are black, some white, indian, etc.
Tammi - I found a really interesting article on Melchizedek here.
Good point Miriam. Anything can become a sin if we turn it into an idol, or allow it to distract as like you said.
Kristi - thanks for the personal example. God WILL bless us as we respond to Him with obedience. It may not always be in the way we expect, but it will come.
I picked up on the points alot of you already made. Something else I like to look at is where each sort of tribe began from. So I thought it was interesting that from Ham and Canaan came the Canaanites who were in Sodom and Gomorrah and also from them were the Philistines. That line was just a sinful sort of line. They obviously didn't learn from the ones before them or try to be different, they just followed along with what was always done.
Interesting points.
Tammi, I have often wondered that too...where did all those people come from??
One of the things that stuck out for me (and Miriam it sounds like you were also on the same idea) was that Lot chose the "beautiful" land and Abram took the leftovers and yet it did not turn out well for Lot. Sometimes in our life too, we may be tempted to chose the path that appears most beautiful and yet it may not always be the best for us in the long run.
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