Tag: Genesis

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?

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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.

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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” →

Eve’s Deception and Our Perception

As Christians, we daily struggle with sin and temptation. In order to fight this, we need a strong understanding of how sin tempts us to turn away from the God who saved us. We find this knowledge in the Bible, even at the very beginning. Genesis 2 and 3 show us that the reason that Eve was deceived by the serpent is the same reason that we fall into sin under temptation in our individual lives today. Parallels between Genesis 2 and 3 demonstrate the heinous evil of the sin of Adam and of all sins since.

Continue reading “Eve’s Deception and Our Perception” →