Genesis 26:34-35, 27:1-46, 28:1-9, 18-22
27:11-12 – He’s more concerned about getting caught than the deciept.
27:16 – Goat skins! He was hairy!
27:26-29 – This favoritism is so foreign to me and me US people pleasing politacal correctness.
27:34-36 – He had little respect for his honored, yet undeserved, position. Yet he whines about loosing the blessing. He wants the fruit with out the respect.
28:6-9 – Esau seems to not have any real conviction about this, jsut people pleasing. Jacob seems to be genuinely concerned with his parents wishes.
28:13-15 – Jacon lied and tricked his way into the “blessed” position, yet God honored it. Was it God’s respect for Isaac and Abraham? Perhaps I am just looking at this through my 20th century cultural bias. So much of Jacob’s behavior goes against what I know to be God’s will (deceipt, selfishness, lies) yet God blesses the result. It goes against the “concequences of sin” argument. Hard to grasp what’s going on here.
28:18-22 – Perhaps it’s God seeing through his sinful nature to his heart, knowing that he is interested in more than the surface, he wants to go deeper, to know God. The fact might be that we make more (sometimes) than God does of our own sin.

Genesis 25:1-10, 12-18, 11, 19-34, 26:1-33
26:6-11 – Didn’t he learn from Dad? (And it’s Abimelech again! No wonder the Philistines had it out for the Isrealites so much in later years!) Maybe dad was too prideful to share his mistakes with his son.

Genesis 29-30
Nothing to say here!

Genesis 24
24:12-14 – He put it all in God’s hands.
24:22 – A nose ring! Many Chistians today are offended by such things.
24:22-32 – Mightly trusting to bring a stranger, from a foreign land as well, into your home for the night.

Genesis 22 – 23
22:1 – How did God communicate with Abraham. Voices in his head? An appearance?
22:2 – I wonder why God did this. A test of his faith and love for God? I don’t know of much like it in the Bible. I guess in some ways our daily discipleship is that kind of test, on a smaller level anyway. No, not really. Sacrificing your son goes against what God is about – love, compassion. It involves real trust to go against what you know God to be about. I guess that’s real trust and love, isn’t it? Knowing someone well enough to look past the obvious, surface things that contradict what you know to be true about them and just go along to see where they’re headed. Think about Peter and the sheet from heaven. Goes against what he knows about God, but he trusts and follows along to see where God is going.
22:3 – No argument, discussion or debate.
22:3-5 – Three days! What must have gone through his mind over those days.
22:6-8 – Do you think that was the end of Isaac’s questions? I know better from my own kids. But look at Abraham’s absolute trust in God.
22:9-10 – What must Isaac have been thinking?
22:12 – God wanted to know that he wasn’t second to anything.
22:16 – God says, “I swear to God …” 🙂
23:6 – He was well respected there. Pick anyplace and it’s yours. What if he’d of picked my house, how would I have responded?

Genesis 20:1-18, 21:1-7,21:22-34,21:8-21
20:1-2 – He does it again! And the result is the same. “As a dog returns to his vomit…”
20:3-7 – God intercedes again when man drops the ball.
20:6 – There is no law yet, but it is accepted taht to take another man’s wife is sin. Our conscience can be a guide of righteousness.
– I wonder, too, of Abimelech’s relationship with God. There seems to be a familiarity here, but not like Abraham.
20:11 – Abraham assumes that these strangers don’t fear God nad it get’s him in trouble. Lesson there for us, don’t you think?
20:13 – Twisted logic, Abraham!
20:17-18 – Why did God wait for Abrahams’ word? Did he want to make sure Abraham felt good about it first? Surely, Abimelech’s repentance seems clear.
21:27-30 – It’s interestign that Abraham brings gifts, even though it was he who was wronged.
21:34 – Abimelech is the leader of the Philistinmes?!?
21:11-13 – God even blesses the ‘iligitimate’ son on accoutn of his love for Abraham. He says, don’t worry, send them away, I’ll take acare of them.

Genesis 18-19
18:1-8 – What was it about them that told Abraham they were special visitors? How long did it take to slaughter and prepare a calf while they waited?
18:16-21 – Interesting, God talking to himself! Not unlike us, isn’t he? Interesting string of comments: “He will be great and blessed because I have chosen him so that he will keep my ways and do right so I will do what I promised.” God’s promise is an incentive to Abraham to do the right thing.
18:20-21 – Who was crying out against Sodom and Gomorrah? Abraham seems ignorant and the people of the two cities don’t seem to care, so who?
18:22-33 – Abraham searching out God’s heart, even challenging him – “Far be it for you …”. How much does he care about the righteous? But his questioning is born of both curiosity and respect – “I am just dust and ashes” Why didn’t he push it down to one? What if there were only one?
19:1-3 – Lot recognizes them immediately too. Was there no one else there or did they not recognize men from God?
19:4-11 – As a Dad of three girls I am appalled at Lot’s offering up his girls to save his guests! I cannot understand it. Why would he do such a thing. Perhaps nearly as appalling is the men’s refusal to take them in favor of trying to get to the guests! Surely this was a wicked town Begs the question as to why Lot would live there.
19:12-14 – I guess this answers the question about less than 10 righteous. Lot and his family were less then 10 (4) and God refused to spare the city. He did warn Lot, however, who even with his faults (living so close to sin, offering up his daughters as secks toys and permitting them to marry into this society) has the good sense to listen to the men.
19:15-17 – Well, not quite as much good sense as I thought! Look here though, God has mercy on him and drags him from a destruction that he did his best not to avoid. I can think of times when God has done something similar for me.
19:18-23 – After all that God sis to spare him, Lot asks to make it a little easier. Sounds like me too. “I know, God, that you sacrificed you son and all, but, being a disciple is hard …”
19:24-29 – It was for Abraham’s sake, not Lot’s, that God went to such lengths to save him. What an impact a righteous man can have on the heart of God that God will extend unwarranted favor to members of his family.
19:31-38 – Didn’t Lot wonder where the babies came from? No men around and they’re pregnant? Looking at his character, sadly, he may not have cared.

Genesis 15-17
15:4-6 – From doubt to being famous for his faith in 6 verses. Isn’t this how we should be? We should be able to look at the seemingly impossible and then see God’s promises and just believe.
15:8 – From doubt to faith to doubt again. THIS is more like how we are!
15:12-16 – Does God’s knowledge of the future circumvent man’s free will? (No one’s asked that before) What about His sharing of it with Abram? Did it influence Abrams path in life?
15:17-21 – I want more insight into God’s relationship with Abram. The scriptures start the story when they are already close. God makes amazing promises to Abram. What was it about him that led God to do that? One thing’s clear it’s a relationship of mutual respect. God even respects Abram’s fears in “How will I know …”
16:1-6 – Sarai’s lack of faith and Abram’s lack of backbone. I sometimes wonder if I have the strength to lead my wife in the times when her faith, character or convictions are weak. She’s a strong woman, when she is determined to go down a path I see as wrong, do I have the strength and courage (and love, really) to stand my ground and force the issue? I must, for her sake and ours.
16:7-16 – God comes to the rescue of Hagar. She was only a servant, had little material things and few rights – on the run to boot. But God heard her, and when Sarai and Abram let her down, God does not. He comes to her aid, but not perhaps as we would. Instead he tells her that her blessings are dependant on her obedience to a strange command – go back to your oppressor.
17:15-16 – God did not change his mind, even in their unfaithfulness.

Genesis 12-14
Well, not even a week into it and I’ve missed a day. I’ve been reading in the evenings, and last night, well, I failed to plan well I guess. Oh well, Saturday morning brings a new day, here’s my notes.
12:2-3 – Such a blessing comes from an ongoing relationship. I’d love to hear more about how that relationship had developed to this point.
12:10 – Fleeing to Egypt is a common theme. Abram, Isaac and Jesus as a baby.
12:11-16 – I don’t understand this selfish mindset. How could he watch his wife be taken by another man?
12:17-20 – In the end it has the opposite effect than desired. Now the Egyptians are angry at him.
13:3-4 – A symbolic lesson. He built an altar at Bethel and called on God. He left to go his own way, got caught in sin and then returned to God at Bethel. He didn’t set out to return to God, but that’s where he ended up. He returned mush richer materially, but poorer in his family I bet.
13:8-9 – Did Abram learn something from his time in Egypt? Now he puts Lot first, giving him dibs on where to settle.
13:10-13 – Lot chooses to flirt with sin. I sometimes think that my surroundings don’t matter much, but look at what trouble it got Lot into. He wasn’t looking for sin, per se, but he wasn’t concerned about staying away from it either.
14:1-3 – World War Zero, 4 kings against 5.
14:13 – “Hebrew” – he lived in Hebron.
14:13-16 – Is this the same meek, selfish man who entered Egypt in fear and deceit?
14:18-20 – The first recorded priest. Without the law, I wonder what that meant. One thing’s clear, there were other’s who loved and worshiped God who are never mentioned in Genesis. Melchizedek came with gifts for Abram, but Abram gave to him.
God’s Heart
Maybe I make to much of it, but God told Abram to go to the land He would show him. Abram went on from there to Egypt. God didn’t rush to stop him, but let him go to learn about life. God had made him a promise, a big promise. He didn’t reverse that promise, but in fact reaffirms it when Abram returns. God simply lets him go, putting the promise on hold until he returns. Does he know if he will or not?

Genesis 10-11
Tower of Babel and genealogy stuff. I often wonder what God wants us to get out of these ‘family line’ passages. Is there anything to learn here for us today? I always want to skip over these passages (and usually do, or skim them) but have the nagging thought that I’m missing something.
A couple of other points:
11:5 – God ‘came down to see’ the tower. He obviously knew about it or he wouldn’t have known to come down. It’s just interesting to me that the Bible states that he ‘came down’ to see it.
I’ve heard the tower of Babel passage used to show how powerful it would be if the church was unified. But God found this unity here a bad thing. So much so that he acted to destroy it. Was it just their motives that God found offensive? We’ve surely built bigger towers today than they were capable of them. Why did God destroy their efforts and does not do the same for ours?