Written in Genesis.
God blessed Noah and his sons and said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth.”
— Genesis 9:1.
Now that the Earth has been created — and the first attempt at humanity washed away — God is starting to lay down the law. Again, it’s the promises in these early books I think the most about; the laws God is choosing to lay down.
Written in Genesis.
“I will never again curse the ground because of humans, for the inclination of the human heart is evil from youth; nor will I ever again destroy every living creature as I have done.”
— Genesis 8:21.
This might be tangential to today’s chapter, but I think a lot about promises in the Old Testament. Promises by God to us, from us to God, promises that stand forever and promises that are washed away. My first real struggle with the Bible was after reading Leviticus, which contains countless divine laws that would seem hopelessly barbaric by today’s standards (or even by the standards of Jesus in his time).
Written in Genesis.
Take with you seven pairs of all clean animals, the male and its mate; and a pair of the animals that are not clean, the male and its mate…
— Genesis 7:2.
Here begins the Bible’s obsession with “cleanliness” (we’ll be seeing much more of it in Leviticus). I’m of two minds on this: one, it does seem like a very simple way for an ancient society to frame social issues; marking certain people as “clean” and “unclean” must make governing them much easier.
Written in Genesis.
The Nephilim were on the earth in those days… These were the heroes that were of old, warriors of renown.
— Genesis 6:4.
There are sentences in the Bible that last for centuries; tiny fragments in God’s story that just barely hint at enormous, unseen things. The Nephilim were supposedly heroes and warriors, but who did they save? Who did they fight? Genesis is moving at an alarming speed and I’m begging it to slow down.
Written in Genesis.
This is the list of the descendants of Adam.
— Genesis 5:1.
The Bible has a lot of lists. Lists of people, lists of places, lists of instructions, all kinds of lists. These are sort of interesting, but there’s not a ton of spiritual discussion to be had with them (unless you really care about cubits). So I thought I’d do something different for these list chapters: whenever we get one, I’ll just take the day off and link to something I like.