The bible: Discussion on Genesis in the Old Testament

Genesis 12 begins coverage of Abram.  My cryptic notes in Genesis 14 were, "Descendants of Noah created "Kings" Why?"  "When did this King role begin?"  It also reads about tribes and clans being developed. Again I wonder how people became so unfocused after an event when the world was destroyed and people from Noah's family had to repopulate.  Did Noah's early descendants not pass on the lesson's learned from the flood and God's destruction of life based on his disappointment in how we had turned out?  Why did God allow the concept of "Kings" to develop?

Genesis 14 seems to address the concept of tithing.  Giving one tenth of everything.  There is also a reference to not depending on man to make you rich.  Genesis 15:13-16 mentions that those enslaved will come out with great possessions!  Although this was meant directly for people in those times, I look to it as a forecast of the future for those enslaved from Africa from 1619 to the 1800s.

Genesis 16 mentions an early method of parents having a child through another host.  The notion of a surrogate parent has been around for awhile!  Genesis 16 also discusses Ishmael being cursed.  He had no choice in his development.  That does not seem fair and adds to the notion that life is not fair.   We have been put into a system by our Creator where we sometimes have no choice in what happens in our lives.

Genesis 17 goes into a discussion of circumcision.  It states that those not circumcised will be cut off from his people.

Genesis 19 goes into another destructive act of God.  Our creator routinely seemed to turn to violence as a way to make corrections.  It is no shock in how we his people also turn to violence so often.  The traits of the creator passed on to us. Homosexuality is mentioned in Genesis 19.  This behavior and lifestyle choice has been around for thousands of years.  Sodom and Gomorrah were both destroyed along with all of their inhabitants.  True to His agreement the entire world was not destroyed again, and the destruction of the 2 cities was not by flood.  Genesis 19 also mentions incest and the misuse  of alcohol.

My general impression from reading Genesis up to chapter 19, is that human beings were a flawed creation.  A violent, misguided people were created by God.  We seemed to wander for many years with no direction to correct our behavior.  Unchecked behavior leads to non Godly actions.  Even destruction of the world through a reboot, did not correct the true nature of Mankind.  The lapse of time without Godly intervention makes it seem as though God lost interest in us and went away to focus on another species maybe.  Then He returns and through his methods attempts to lay some seeds to help people he has identified as leading the way in the future?

The future gift of God's Son awaits us and opens doors to new hope with guidance given us on how to reach our fullest potential.  On the surface, Genesis is a depressing, morbid tale of our early years as a species on Earth.  Some of the issues of today, homosexuality etc. existed early on in our existence.  The violent nature of the world today mirrors the violent actions and conflicts mentioned in Genesis.  One cannot blame the current generation from not turning to religion.  The documented actions in the Old Testament are not inspiring by any means.  An explanation of the Old Testament and how God moved us into the doctrine of the New Testament is essential for a better understanding of how to apply the Bible to our daily lives, and how to interpret and apply the bible period.

Genesis: The Flood and the Reboot of Earth

Genesis 6:11 states that the Earth was corrupt in God’s sight and was full of violence.  What had Adam and Eve and their descendants passed on to people in terms of knowledge about God?  Whatever was passed on was not enough to keep the entire world from becoming corrupted.  Imagine if everyone today were doomed to be destroyed due to widespread corruption and violence.  God had decided to destroy all people and whatever walked on the Earth.  Among all the people was the family of Noah who he decided were worthy of saving and leaving on the destroyed Earth to restart what God had begun with Adam and Eve.  But, God did decide to save the animals that existed on Earth by having Noah collect every kind of animal for storage on the Ark that God directed Noah to have built.  Since the Earth was to be flooded with water there was no need to save the creatures in the seas, oceans and other watered areas on Earth.  Their lives would continue.

The flood waters came and every living thing on Earth except those protected in the Ark perished.  After the flood and when the waters receded Noah, his family and all the animals in the Ark were released back onto the Earth.  It was an Earth which had been purged of all evil, supposedly. In Genesis 8:21 God acknowledged that every inclination of human heart is evil from childhood.  But he promised to never destroy all living creatures by a flood again.  God did not say he would use other forms of destruction at His means.

This was God’s first attempt to correct the deficiency in His creation, Mankind.  But as history has shown that deficiency appears to be permanent.  Nothing can be done to save Man from our ultimate fate.  The repetitions of human acts of violence and the atrocities we create are part of what we are.  Yes, we are capable of performing great acts of kindness.  But nowhere in Genesis prior to the flood is there any mention of the kinder gentler side of Man that impressed our Creator enough to not destroy 99.9% of the people on Earth.

The comparison of the actions of God and those of his son Jesus Christ does show that God evolved over the years.  It seems as though a way for Man to improve and correct his nature was developed.  The old covenants of Genesis and the old testament, were replaced via the birth, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.  Genesis does not present a sense of hope for mankind.  It creates the view that we as people are hopeless and raises the question why would God want to continue our existence?

A dialogue on Genesis: Genesis 5 and 6. The Reboot of Planet Earth

Genesis 5.  Let’s pause.  Genesis 1 brought on the promise of new life, new beginnings.  The Creator made “creations” on Earth.  Animals, vegetation and someone in His image, man.  Then man is given a helpmate to assist man in taking care of the Garden in which they are to be the caretakers.  What could go wrong?  Adam and Eve were given the perfect living conditions from the Creator.  But somehow Eve and Adam do exactly what they were told not to do.  The repercussions were disastrous.  God did not give them a second chance to stay in the Garden.  Adam and Eve were evicted and they and their descendants sentenced to a life of hardship.  A life opposite from what the Creator wanted for them to have.  Something inherent in man and woman doomed us to the future and present we live in now.  The first murder in human history happens among the first born of Adam and Eve.  We know that three of the first human beings created, Adam, Eve, and Cain are flawed.

Now we move into the descendants of Adam and Eve.  Adam lives 930 years before he dies.  Other male descendants also live more than 800 plus years.  Curiously there is no mention of the lifespan of the women.  How long did Eve live?  I wonder how each generation was taught about God and the fall of man from Grace?  Apparently whatever they taught wasn’t effective as each generation seemed to be testing God’s patience as referenced by God’s comment in Genesis 6.  The reference is to God giving a 120 year lifespan to humans.  Some interpret that to have meant God was giving people in the time of Noah, 120 years to change their sinful ways.  I never have imagined God as being impatient or giving up, so that statement is somewhat shocking if God was truly giving mankind 120 years before it would be time for our Creator to take another action.

Genesis 6:5 indicates that there was widespread wickedness being performed by humans and it was consistently and totally evil.  So evil that God was sorry he had ever made humans and put them on the Earth that he created.  Can you imagine the total disappointment of seeing something you create become a vehicle of evil and wickedness?  Some of us see that in the development of the children we create.  Imagine that feeling multiplied by the hundreds of thousands.  In Genesis 6, God decides to destroy on Earth all that he has created.  God will perform the first reboot.  When an electronic device such as a computer does not work as it should, the last option is to turn it off and then turn it back on.  Earth 1.1 would reappear in the form of Noah and his family in Earth 2.1.  The bible speaks of God destroying all the animals that inhabit the ground.   Does this mean that all the animals in the seas and in the watered areas on Earth were not impacted by the coming flood of the Earth that destroyed everything on land?  If so is there any special significance that should be given today to the seas and oceans and all the life forms that inhabit them?

From reading the first 6 and a half chapters of Genesis, there is a sense of negativity surrounding the creation and development of life for humans on Earth.  Now comes the reboot designed to clean the slate and give mankind another new start.