Genesis 33:8-11

2009.May.01 17:00

Take My Herds… Please…

Esau asked Jacob, "What did you mean by these herds I met along the road?" "Master," Jacob answered, "I sent them so that you would be friendly to me." "But, brother, I already have plenty," Esau replied. "Keep them for yourself." "No!" Jacob said. "Please accept these gifts as a sign of your friendship for me. When you welcomed me and I saw your face, it was like seeing the face of God. Please accept these gifts I brought to you. God has been good to me, and I have everything I need." Jacob kept insisting until Esau accepted the gifts.
(Genesis 33:8-11, CEV)

Perhaps, after I do my big character study on Lot, I’ll do a study on Esau as a type of Christ (Note the implied perhaps on the subordinate class as well). Try this on for size:

When I looked at you, Jesus, and saw the scars that evidenced your sacrifice for me, I looked into the face of Yahweh, and am reminded again of all the things he has done for me. I accept your mercy and the new life you’ve given me. Here, let me give you something in exchange. What? You mean it’s free? No, no, you must take this. And this! C’mon!

Or, one might take the illustration in a different direction and use it to discuss giving to those and need and to support the work of the Church. But, I want to discuss the first one, the need to feel we’re giving something to make us at least partially worthy of the grace we’ve received. In Ephesians, Paul writes:

He did this that He might clearly demonstrate through the ages to come the immeasurable (limitless, surpassing) riches of His free grace (His unmerited favor) in [His] kindness and goodness of heart toward us in Christ Jesus. For it is by free grace (God's unmerited favor) that you are saved (delivered from judgment and made partakers of Christ's salvation) through [your] faith. And this [salvation] is not of yourselves [of your own doing, it came not through your own striving], but it is the gift of God; Not because of works [not the fulfillment of the Law's demands], lest any man should boast. [It is not the result of what anyone can possibly do, so no one can pride himself in it or take glory to himself.]

(Ephesians 2:7-9, AMP)

While James points out that "Faith that doesn't lead us to do good deeds is all alone and dead!" (James 2:17, CEV) , it is just as essential to remember that works can never make us worthy of Yahweh’s grace. The question is not one of whether our works are enough, but whether we have faith enough and rejoice in our salvation enough that good works in return are inevitable, whether they come flowing forth.

Had Jacob decided not to bother with the offering the gift to Esau, it would have revealed insincerity in his gratefulness. If I do not perform righteous works, it would reveal to me that own faith is not real. Indeed, every failure on my own part to live up to Yahweh’s desires for me and standards are not marks of condemnation (now that I have received salvation through Christ), but rather reminders of my need for Yahweh’s grace, of the need for faith.

But there’s a point of going too far, of seeking salvation in my works rather than through grace/faith. It’s not clear what Jacob’s motivations are as he persists in offering his gift. Is he just so grateful? Is this just a normal diplomatic act? Or does he still not believe that Esau has really forgiven him?

If I am obsessing over my works, it begs the question of how strong is my faith.

Genesis 8:15-22

2006.Nov.09 09:16

Give it another try

Read Genesis 8:15-22 | Full Chapter

God said to Noah, “You, your wife, your sons, and your daughters-in-law may now leave the boat. Let out the birds, animals, and reptiles, so they can mate and live all over the earth.”
(Genesis 8:15-17, CEV)

The smell of the burning offering pleased God, and he said: Never again will I punish the earth for the sinful things its people do. All of them have evil thoughts from the time they are young, but I will never destroy everything that breathes, as I did this time. As long as the earth remains,there will be planting and harvest, cold and heat; winter and summer, day and night.
(Genesis 8:21-22, CEV)

The flood is over. It’s probably messed with the climate a bit and left an absurd number of dead things lying around, not to mention destroyed all remnants of ‘civilization’ for the time being, but it’s over. And God says, “Get off the boat…and let the animals mate!” It’s a tacit admission that God really does want humanity to give it another try.

After Noah builds an alter and sacrifices, Jehovah makes this desire explicit. He acknowledges first that humans will sin from our youth, flood or no flood. But he states that he will not again destroy “everything that breathes” (Maybe that’s why Revelations takes so many scrolls). It’s like God’s saying, “You people f—ed up, you’re going to keep f—ing up and it really p—es me off, but I am not going to give up on you. I’m going to get friends out of you even if I have to cause you great pain.”

And that’s what strikes me, that Jehovah (it seems to me) establishes a policy from this point forward with regards to humanity that we would rather cause us–as a species and as individuals–exquisite pain than destroy us. And maybe we have Noah to thank for that, although I’d guess it was always God’s intent. After all, it might make the opportunity a good deal more desirable when we’ve seen his williness to destroy.

Why do bad things happen to good people? It’s sort of irrelevant since the only good human has been Jesus. But, it makes sense to me to suggest that they happen because God prefers us to suffer a little while that we might lay down our claims to godhood and humble ourselves before him. Because if we don’t, patient as he may be, he would eventually have to exile us. And considering that God is the provider of all good things…

I’ll take the pain.

Genesis 6:8-13

2006.Sep.05 20:35

God’s thoughts on people

Read Genesis 6:8-13 | Full Chapter

But Noah found favor in the eyes of the LORD. These are the records of the generations of Noah. Noah was a righteous man, blameless in his time; Noah walked with God…Then God said to Noah, “The end of all flesh has come before Me; for the earth is filled with violence because of them; and behold, I am about to destroy them with the earth.”
(Genesis 6:8-9,13, NASB)

Some ten (if I can count) generations after creating humanity, Jehovah is disappointed. It’s turns out humans are, well, human. We want to do things our own way. Now, I’m not really sure why God let this first set of humanity go all the way to the deep end, but for some reason, he seems to have chosen a progressional display of his judgement/grace paradigm (no, I’m not sure what I meant by that). He first allows humanity to so forsake him that he decides the vast majority must be destroyed and a new start made. I’m inclined to believe he had a very specific purpose for this progression, but I’m far too tired to think about it.

However, God does not simply say, “two legs bad,” and wipe humanity forever. After all, he might have. Clearly Enoch at least had chosen to be humble, and received God’s grace, so God had at least one friend out of the mess. But Jehovah chooses to continue humanity’s time of Earth, as he spares Noah, “a righteous man, blameless in his time” who “walked with God” (9). It’s really awe-inspiring how much God wants both many, many individuals, and humanity as a whole to go through this process of turning to him, how he created a people who knew so much of our potential for godhood that we inevitably rebel and hurt him, because then we could also understand him enough to be true friends, and how dedicated he is to this crazy messed up people, this humanity.

Now, it was a foregone conclusion at my birth that I was gonna be one of these totally messed up self-centered folks for a while, and at least revert to it throughout my earthly life. And I’m okay with that because it means I can see myself for what I am and quit fighting God. But there’s the rub of being one of these people. It’s one way or the other. I accept his grace and live, but relinquish my claims to godhood, as Noah did, or I try to prove myself against him, to glory in my powers, and become the sort of person to God that you just cannot stand to put up with. I like the idea of being powerful, but I choose to be a Noah; I choose rather to walk with God.

Genesis 4:18-24

2006.Aug.03 21:28

Humanity, Part 1

Read Genesis 4:18-24 | Full Chapter

The first geneology in the Bible is that of Cain’s descendents. I am no expert on geneologies, and I am not going to look at the other geneologies to see how well this holds up, but this seems to be a somewhat irrelevant ancestry, being as they’re mostly (if not all), patrilineal. Noah is in the line of Seth (Genesis 5), so Cain’s patrilineal line ends at the flood. Granted, we are all probably descendents of Cain in some way, but it strikes me as odd that this is not only included, but again the first geneology. Perhaps it is just to explain who Lamech is so that story doesn’t seem quite so random. But I’m getting ahead of myself.

At the end of Cain’s story, he travels east of Eden, and ultimately marries and has a child. I’ve often wondered where this woman came from, but since I don’t know how long Cain wandered before marrying, it’s quite possible she is one of, or a descendent of one of, Adam and Eve’s other children (I have to assume they had children other than Abel, Cain, and Seth; The Book of Jubilees, for what it’s worth, apparently explores this issue). At any rate, life goes on for Cain. And as his life continues, we see for the first time humanity, not as a single nuclear family, but as at least a large tribe, perhaps even (and I don’t actually like this word) civilizations. We see tent-dwellers and those who care for livestock (20), metal-workers (22), musicians (21), and polygamy (19), which for some reason does seem to go along with what we westerners lovingly think of as “civilization”.

Then comes the bit about Lamech. Lamech, as he tells his wives, Adah and Zillah, killed a man and a boy (or possibly one person, I can’t tell) for hurting him in some fashion. He takes unto himself God’s promise to Cain, saying "If Cain is avenged sevenfold, / Then Lamech seventy-sevenfold" (Genesis 4:24, NASB) . We really aren’t given much of the back story, from which to judge Lamech’s actions, but certainly Cain was not deserving of the promise God gave him.

The use of seventy times seven by Lamech may be referenced by Jesus, responding to Peter:

Then Peter came and said to Him, “Lord, how often shall my brother sin against me and I forgive him? Up to seven times?” Jesus said to him, “I do not say to you, up to seven times, but up to seventy times seven.
(Matthew 18:21-22, NASB)

As in Cain’s case, I think this story of Lamech is in large part about grace, the kind of grace God has for us, and the kind of mercy that we should have for others. If someone were to kill Lamech for his actions, that would probably be justified. Indeed, the Law allows for it in many cases (Numbers 35), although it also allows a refuge in other cases. Lamech responds by doing something we modern-day Christians often fail. He claims a promise of God for himself and accepts God’s grace and protection (or such is my interpretation). If God is willing to avenge a (apparently guilty) man 490-fold, then how much more we, who are guilty of much, ought to forgive.

Genesis 4:3-17

2006.Jul.25 09:33

Anatomy of a sin

Read Genesis 4:3-17 | Full Chapter

This is your life. Day in day out, you’re working the land, tilling the ground, a farmer making a living off cursed soil. You’re good at it though, and your folks work with you some. Your brother’s a good guy, too. He takes care of the flock. It’s hard work for you both, but you’ve got good vegetables, good meat, clothing on your backs.

Your parents tell you about the God who used to walk with them. You believe them, seeing as how they and your brother are the only sentient beings around, but those times are passed. Your parents screwed up, you pay for it. Now you get to see them fight, you’ve been hurt by their harsh words, but you can tell they want back with God, they want life again. What you have, they tell you sometimes, isn’t life. When you hear God speak, that’s good, but it’s not, they say, what they had. They tell you and your brother to make sacrifices to this God. Maybe, someday…

Abel, he’s your younger brother, brings the first born of his flock, and God accepts that sacrifice. You bring the sweat of your back, the vegetables and fruits you’ve grown. Maybe the difference is you weren’t specific about bringing the first fruits, maybe God has a thing for blood. Whatever the reason, God didn’t accept your sacrifice. This was your work. What does Abel do anyway, just watch the sheep and cattle, make sure they don’t do anything stupid? You work hard, provide for your family, these people God created and then cast out of his magic fairy-land garden! And, what, your sacrifice is not good enough! So, yeah, you’re super pissed. And God has the nerve to ask why.

He tells you, "If you do well, will not your countenance be lifted up? And if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door; and its desire is for you, but you must master it" (Genesis 4:7, NASB) . You try a little. You tell what happened to Abel, but that just makes you angrier. Abel, what is he to you? And so, you let it, you let the sin in. You let it master you. And you kill your brother in your anger.

Your sin, suddenly, seems greater than your parents. You try to deceive God when he asks after your brother. He casts you out, to be a traveller. Your hard work will produce barely enough for you. And you cry out "My punishment is too great to bear" (Genesis 4:13) ! And God has mercy on you. Though the curse is not removed, he provides you grace, that you will not be slain. And you wander and settle many years later. You have a family. You have sinned greatly, but so much greater has been God’s mercy on you.

Cain sinned. He sinned in thinking his sacrifice should be worthy before God. He was too proud to replace his rejected sacrifice with a pleasing one, and instead chose to be angry with his brother, to the point of murdering Abel. He then went so far as to try to deceive God directly. That’s sin, that’s what’s in all of us. We talk a lot about God’s grace through Christ, but God’s grace has always existed. Cain deserved to die, but God granted him mercy. And Jehovah’s grace can always be included in the story of a sin.

And law came in, that the offence might abound, and where the sin did abound, the grace did overabound, that even as the sin did reign in the death, so also the grace may reign, through righteousness, to life age-during, through Jesus Christ our Lord
(Romans 5:20-21, Young)

That’s the lesson I take from Cain’s, the ease with which we are deceived into sin. And how much easier it is to accept God’s grace. Well, easier, when we recognize our sin and are humble before the Lord.

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