Posts that reference the book of Genesis

Build the Altar

Then Noah built an altar to the LORD, and took of every clean animal and of every clean bird, and offered burnt offerings on the altar. Genesis 8:20

It is easy to pass over these familiar words, but I invite you to stop and linger for a moment. The landscape that greeted Noah and his family upon their exit from the ark was very different from the one they left. Everything they knew from before was gone. There were no friends, no towns, no roads, no merchants, no goods … nothing. The earth around them had been scoured by floodwaters and here they were, alone and isolated.

Noah’s first response is worship. (Build the altar.)

This is the first time the word altar is used in Scripture. Now we know from Cain and Abel that worship, or at least sacrifices had been going on, but here the altar is highlighted. In chapter 6 Noah built the ark. In chapter 8, Noah built an altar. I suspect there is some effort behind that simple statement. Like gathering the stones, for instance. How far did he have to walk to find them? Yes, they were on a mountain, but had the flood washed away all the ones small enough to carry? Did he have to dig them out? And what about trees? Were there any trees left for the wood? Did he have to hack off a piece of the ark? How long did it take to get everything arranged?

Worship required effort. (Build the altar.)

Every clean animal and every clean bird. In chapter 7, God said to take seven of each of the clean animals aboard the ark. There were only seven in the world and here, Noah sacrificed one. He didn’t wait until a sufficient flock or herd had built up. He willingly offering to God what was, in real terms, very costly.

Worship is costly. (Build the altar.)

I had a tremendous opportunity to guide the study and discussion at a small retreat a few weeks ago. This was the first passage we considered. We posed a series of questions. How are you like Noah? Have you ever followed God, not quite knowing what you were in for, only to be dropped in an unfamiliar, maybe even hostile place? Was your first response worship or self-preservation? How effort goes into your worship? What does your worship cost?

You see, Moses wrote this account because there were things that Jehovah wanted His people to know about Him and how to approach Him. It is preserved to teach us as well. Considering Noah, I confess, worship is rarely my first response, and when I do worship, it is often cheap and lazy. So I’m sure it’s a far cry from the sweet-smelling savor in verse 21.

Right now, the most costly thing I could offer is time. I have none to spare. I am overbooked times three. But this morning, I got up early so I could have some quiet. Not reading. Not studying. Not planning or trying to organize what needed to be done. Just quiet. Waiting. Listening.

This season as we celebrate the God who not only preserves us through the flood but who became flesh and dwelled among us, I encourage you to make the effort, bear the cost of quiet moments with Jesus. I encourage you to build the altar.

Labeled

By Paula

In Douglas Adams’s Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, Arthur Dent is astonished to learn that his friend, Ford, is actually an alien gathering data about earth for an intergalactic travel guide. However Arthur is grievously disheartened to find out that the sum total of all the culture, history and diversity of earth is summed up in a single word in the guide–harmless. It doesn’t help when Ford explains that due to his research, earth would now be labeled … mostly harmless.

The comedic effect works because we are used to distilling everything down to a word or a catch phrase. We can argue the merits of that, but we run into trouble when we do it to each other. We are quick to label, pigeonhole and dismiss others. We’ve seen how difficult it is for someone to live down a past mistake, overcome a family reputation or escape a preconception. It’s even worse if the person labeled is us.

Words like failure, addict, or victim permeate our sense of self. They hinder us from letting go, from moving on, from taking a firm hold of God’s promises to us. There was a young woman in the book of Genesis who could be saddled with a number of labels: foreigner, outcast, victim of petty jealousy… Her name was Hagar.

However, in chapter 16, in the moment of her deepest despair, she saw God. More importantly, she realized God saw her. He saw beyond her past, her reputation and even the ideas she harbored about herself. He hadn’t labeled her. In the brief promise He spoke, He demonstrated He understood the deep concerns and fears of her heart and He was willing and able to address them. Read her words.

She gave this name to the LORD who spoke to her: “You are the God who sees me,” for she said, “I have now seen the One who sees me.” Genesis 16:13 NIV

It’s no different with us. God doesn’t condense us down to a single simple label. He sees us in the totality of who we are — our hopes, dreams, good intentions as well as our potential. He also sees our prejudices, our shortcomings, our deepest depravity. When Almighty God looks at the entirety of our heart, mind and soul, He responds in a way only God could, in a way only He would.

The Lord has appeared of old to me, saying: “Yes, I have loved you with an everlasting love; therefore with lovingkindness I have drawn you. Jeremiah 31:3 NKJV

If you can’t get away from labels, make sure this is the one you cling to – “loved”.

How Can I Be Sure?

By Paula

But Abram replied, “O Sovereign LORD, how can I be sure …?” Genesis 15:8 (NLT)

In Genesis chapter 15, God reiterates His covenant with Abram, and in this verse, Abram asks for some reassurance about his inheritance. In the context, he had just led an armed band on very successful mission to rescue Lot from a local warlord. Possessing the land seemed like a pipe dream when just keeping his family safe was such a task.

I love the tension in the question because it reflects where we spend most of our faith journey. Sovereign Lord shows Abram’s confidence that God was in control of all things. How can I be sure shows Abram’s reaction to the very real circumstances in which he lived. Isn’t that where we are? We know God is Lord and King but sometimes the evidence is obscured by the upheavals our daily lives.

God answers Abram’s question but not overtly. In the verses that follow, He instructs Abram to set up an ancient covenant-making ritual and through it, Abram gets his answer, and by extension, so do we. How can I be sure?

Because of the character of God – In the ritual, both parties to the covenant were supposed to walk between the animal part with the idea being that’s what should happen to them if they break the covenant. It was serious business. God alone passes through the pieces. Keeping the covenant rests solely on Him. He made the promise and He swears to keep it. No matter what Abram did, the covenant was unbreakable and would never be annulled. God’s promises to us are just as sure.

Because of the faithfulness of God – He spells out to Abram the coming events and assures him that no matter what happens, the covenant will stand. Like Abram, we get focused on our current situation and struggles. God has a long-range vision of our lives and events, and He will always accomplish His plan.

Because of the power of God – An inherent reassurance built into every promise God makes is the fact that He has the power to see His promises through. If I promise to pick up my kids at 5:00, it’s contingent on my car functioning, on traffic, on my health and a host of other things I don’t know about, much less have control over. God is not that way. Egyptian slavery will not stand in the way of His promise. Hostile tribes will not stand in the way. The disobedience of Israel will not. Not even my own wavering faith.

O Sovereign Lord, I can be sure.

When God Reveals His Name

By Paula

When Abram was ninety-nine years old, the LORD appeared to Abram and said to him, “I am Almighty God; walk before Me and be blameless. Genesis 17:1

Last weekend a play opened at the college in our town. It’s a comedic farce and early in the show as one of the characters, Mr. Waldgrave, is introduced, he tells everyone to call him Ticky. Silliness of the nickname aside, Mr. Waldgrave is inviting the other characters into a relationship with him by giving them this special name. It’s a name he reserves for family and close friends.

Later in the play when his frustration is at a high point, one character calls him Ticky. Waldgrave quickly responds, “That’s Mr. Waldgrave,” signalling the end of any friendly relations.

In Genesis 17 as God reaffirms His covenant with Abram, He begins with His name, Almighty God. In the Hebrew, it is El Shaddai. In that name came the reassurance that God was not only willing, but fully capable of accomplishing all that He was promising to Abram.

Better than the promises of land or even becoming a great nation was the fact that the limitless Almighty God was personally knowable, not some distant entity who must be appeased periodically, like the Canaanite gods of the surrounding nations. And unlike Mr. Waldgrave, God will never dissolve the relationship in a fit of aggravation.

By giving Abram the name, El Shaddai, God demonstrated He desired to be known, that He invited men, this man Abram in particular, to know Him. He was extending an offer of friendship, of relationship, and of intimacy. Because of His great power He can do that. Because of His great grace and love, He continues to do that. Today and every day, El Shaddai invites us into an intimate relationship and we can rest in the confidence in His mighty power.

To Canaan

By Paula

Now the LORD had said to Abram: “Get out of your country, From your family And from your father’s house, To a land that I will show you. Genesis 12:1

Abram did an amazing thing, leaving his culture, his support network, everything that he was familiar with all for the sake of the call of God. That’s the short version. Let’s take a few moments and look at Abram’s journey a little more closely.

Notice that Genesis 12:1 begins with “the LORD had said.” Had said. God had already told Abram and it wasn’t done yet. You see, chapter 11 ends with:
And Terah took his son Abram and his grandson Lot, the son of Haran, and his daughter-in-law Sarai, his son Abram’s wife, and they went out with them from Ur of the Chaldeans to go to the land of Canaan; and they came to Haran and dwelt there. Genesis 11:31

Haran, Not Canaan
If you look at a map, Haran is about halfway between Ur and Canaan. Haran was an important crossroads on the ancient trade routes, and so it was a nice, comfortable, logical place to stop. Except God didn’t say to stop in Haran. Furthermore, God had said for Abram to leave his family, not let his father lead the expedition.

How many times have we stopped at Haran rather than Canaan? Have we ever stopped short of where God wanted us, where God called us, because it was a little more comfortable, a little easier, and little less intimidating? Have we ever been content to let someone else do the work or the ministry when we knew deep down that it was ours?

Abram’s story doesn’t stop in Haran. God renews His call to Abram after his father’s death and Abram resumes his journey.

Canaan
“Abram passed through the land to the place of Shechem, … Then the LORD appeared to Abram and said, “To your descendants I will give this land.” And there he built an altar to the LORD…” Genesis 12:6-7

“Abram! Stop! This is exactly where I want you.” As soon as Abram gets to Shechem, God appears and assures him this is the place. Abram, undoubtedly moved by a deep sense of thanksgiving, of wonder, of devotion, worships God.

When have that confident reassurance from God that we are where He has called us, we worship. Then our worship drives us to deeper obedience which results in more worship. It’s a good cycle to be in.

Abram didn’t stay there, though.

Beyond Canaan
Now there was a famine in the land, and Abram went down to Egypt to dwell there, for the famine was severe in the land. Genesis 12:10

There is no mention in Scripture that God told Abram to go to Egypt, so we are left to assume it was his idea. If you continue to read chapter 12, you’ll see that Abram got into trouble during his stay in Egypt.

Even from the very center of God’s will for us, heady with blessings, we often decide we know what’s best. God’s timing seems especially slow. We began to rely on our own judgment, on our own assessments and our own plans. We get caught up in numbers, in metrics and optics and pour our energy into making things bigger, and taking things farther, sometimes over things God never asked us to do in the first place.

There is no mention of any worship going on while Abram was in Egypt. Likewise, we find it hard to worship God when we take it on ourselves to do all the work, and bear all the burdens or when we make ourselves responsible for the outcomes.

Egypt was draining, frustrating, unsatisfying and even dangerous. It’s not much better for us when we strike out on our own. The great thing about God in His great grace is that we can’t void His promises or His call, and He won’t void them. Abram returned to Canaan. And so can we.

Back to Canaan
And he went on his journey from the South as far as Bethel, to the place where his tent had been at the beginning, between Bethel and Ai, to the place of the altar which he had made there at first. And there Abram called on the name of the LORD. Genesis 13:1-2

We can always go back. We can always renew, rediscover, and rekindle what we once had, both in our passion for our calling and for the God who counted us worthy of it.

Consider where you are on your journey. Haran? Canaan? Egypt? Or back in Canaan?
Do you need to move? Which direction?
What’s holding you back or what spurs you on?

Why Am I Hiding?

By Paula

“The man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God among the trees of the garden. Then the LORD God called to the man, and said to him, “Where are you?” Genesis 3:8-9

In Genesis 3:9, after Adam and Eve realized their sin and hid, God calls, “Where are you?”

Hiding from God.

Knowing I can’t fix this myself, so in fear and shame I’m hiding from the only One who can.

I’m consumed by the lies that You can’t or You won’t love me any more after what I’ve done.

I’m cutting myself off from healing and peace.

That’s where I am.

You know all this … and You’re still seeking.

Build the Altar

Labeled

How Can I Be Sure?

When God Reveals His Name

To Canaan

Why Am I Hiding?

Encounters Series

Covenant of Trust Series

Foundations Series