Category: Genesis

Why Can We Say That the Church Is Our Mother?

or, Who Is the Seed of the Woman?

The third century North African church father Cyprian, who served as bishop of Carthage (in modern day Tunisia), made major theological contributions to topics like church unity, the doctrine of apostolic succession, and the sin of schism. One of his most famous quotes is the line “He can no longer have God for his Father, who has not the Church for his mother.” While I believe that that this sentiment has been well preserved in some traditions, for example the Roman Catholic tradition, I think on the other hand that it sounds completely foreign if not heretical to American evangelical sensibilities. Perhaps this would be for no reason other than that most of us couldn’t think of a place in the Bible that explicitly says this. Can this proposition be sustained biblically? I argue, yes, it indeed can be.

Continue reading “Why Can We Say That the Church Is Our Mother?” →

Did God Really Say That the Serpent Was the Craftiest Creature?

Let me get straight to the point. In Genesis 3:1, most English translations refer to the serpent as the craftiest creature in the garden. Take for example the ESV:

Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the LORD God had made.

Genesis 3:1, ESV

My contention is that while this translation is technically correct it is interpretively misleading and inconsistent with the translation of the same word in other contexts.

Continue reading “Did God Really Say That the Serpent Was the Craftiest Creature?” →

A Patch of Promised Land

At this point my ongoing series of blog posts on Genesis has definitely developed a sub-series on Abraham in Genesis. We started by identifying the story of Abraham as really that of Terah’s family, with Abraham as protagonist, a story that would bring hope into a declining world. We continued by noting that both instances of Abraham’s lies about Sarah had to do with God demonstrating fulfillment of his covenant to Abraham. In particular, we are assured of God giving Abraham the promised seed (Isaac) and we see examples of God blessing those who bless Abraham and cursing those who curse him. Last week we saw that Abraham’s name was made great through a military conquest as God allowed him to deliver Lot from captivity. Indeed, Melchizedek comes out and begins to illustrate how all the nations of the world may be blessed through Abraham: later allusions to Melchizedek remind us that the coming savior from Abraham is a priest like Melchizedek. We’ll fast-forward over the birth of Isaac and his near sacrifice by his father. At this point we now land at the end of Genesis 22 after a restatement of the promise to Abraham. One promise of God has not been fulfilled in anyway: the land promise.

Continue Reading

Abraham and Lot: It’s Not What You Know, It’s Who You Know

Connections are powerful things in this world. Connections bring jobs, internships, and other opportunities. Connections introduce us to new groups of friends, new career paths, new ideas, and new experiences. The power of connections is why networking is such an emphasis in the professional world, why certain fraternities remain popular in college, and why alumni networks are maintained. Connections help improve our lives.

In the spiritual world, too, “connections” have certain value. When God answers prayers of intercession, it’s almost like a “connection” has resulted in God’s blessing. For example, before his conversion, St. Augustine’s debauched lifestyle pained his mother Monica. After decades of Monica’s prayers, God answered, and through Augustine’s “connection,” God miraculously saved Augustine and called him to his service. God delights in answering the prayers of his children. Sometimes those prayers are for other people; so God delights to bless people for the sake of other people.

Continue Reading

Why Did Abraham Lie about Sarah Twice?

When I was growing up, my family liked to watch some of the old B Westerns. These movies–usually from the thirties and forties, starring John Wayne or Gene Autry or Roy Rodgers or others, were simple in both production and plot. Special effects were minimal. Good always trumped evil. Tropes abounded. Sometimes these movies even borrowed their plots from other B Westerns.

Once, we watched a Gene Autry movie in which a couple women from the east moved near Gene’s ranch and started herding sheep, which Gene was afraid were going to destroy the range. So he and his friends put goop on the sheep to convince the women that the sheep had hoof and mouth disease. Later, we watched a Roy Rogers movie in which a couple women from the east moved near Roy’s ranch and started herding sheep, which Roy was afraid were going to destroy their range. So what do you think they did? Roy and his friends put goop on the sheep to convince the women that the sheep had hoof and mouth disease!

Continue Reading

When the Young Perish and the Old Linger

Were you to ask “average” Christians to describe the storyline of Genesis, what would they come up with? Perhaps it would emphasize the “beginnings” aspect of the book. I took a very scientific survey of the standard evangelical understanding of Genesis by asking an unnamed one of my sisters who took all the Bible classes at The Master’s University to tell me about Genesis. She depicted it as something like this:

Continue Reading

How the Tower of Babel Builds the Storyline of Genesis

Bible skeptics or critics often point to alleged inconsistencies in the biblical accounts of history to try to discredit the Bible’s truthfulness and authority. An example of such an alleged inconsistency is the story of the Tower of Babel in Genesis 11. Here is the problem: Genesis 11:1 says “Now the whole earth had one language and the same words.” However, the earlier passage Genesis 10:5 states, “From these the coastland peoples spread in their lands, each with his own language, by their clans in their nations.” (Emphasis added.) How did the whole earth have one language after the different peoples scattered out with their own languages? Continue reading “How the Tower of Babel Builds the Storyline of Genesis” →

Noah and God’s Rest in Hebrews 4

A neglected aspect of the story of Noah is his birth. When Noah was born, his father “called his name Noah (rest), saying ‘this one will console us over our work and the pain of our hands from the ground which Yahweh cursed.’ ” (Gen 5:29) This clear allusion back to the curse of Genesis 3 expresses and exasperated hope for fulfillment to the promise of Genesis 3:15–that God would send the seed of the woman to finally crush the serpent’s head and reverse the curse. Lamech expressed hope that Noah, whose name means rest, would finally bring about rest from the curse God put on the ground. Now while in the story of Noah and the ark we do not see Noah become this savior, and in fact at the end of chapter 9 of Genesis we see him disqualified form being this savior, the idea of God’s rest must somehow be connected with Noah. This is for a couple reasons: his name, and his salvation by God. But then, why does the author of Hebrews ignore the story of Noah in writing his exhortation to enter God’s rest in Hebrews 4?

Continue reading “Noah and God’s Rest in Hebrews 4” →

Wordplay, the Flood, and God’s Judgment of Sin

Noah’s Ark is told as a children’s flannel-graph story, with cartoon animals, a cheerful Noah, and a stylized rainbow decorating baby’s rooms and storybook Bibles. However, the story of the flood provides a devastating description of God’s hatred and wrath expressed against pervasive, rampant human sin. The Babylon Bee has capitalized on this irony multiple times. As you read Genesis 6:5–22, in which God describes the reasons for the flood and commissions Noah to build an ark for his own salvation, several instances of wordplay reveal the nature of sin and the nature of God’s judgment on sin. This occurs along the lines of two themes: God’s grief over sin and sin’s corruption of creation.

Continue reading “Wordplay, the Flood, and God’s Judgment of Sin” →

Cain and Abel: Humanity Can’t Save Itself from Sin

The Sunday School story of Cain and Abel has historically been put to many uses. As children, some of us probably heard it presented as a moral tale to discourage us from fighting with our siblings. In the biblical counseling world, the falling of Cain’s countenance (Gen 4:5–7) is used as a proof that emotions and conditions within the inner man can affect the outer man. Cain’s declaration that his punishment is too much for him has been used to encourage people to be wise and endure the consequences of their sin. But these and similar usages of Genesis 4 miss the main point being presented in the chapter: that redemption cannot come from man. People are unable to save themselves from sin and the curse. Continue reading “Cain and Abel: Humanity Can’t Save Itself from Sin” →