Genesis 7

I looked out the window. He was cleaning up the work site.

“Looks like he is finished. He’s putting away all his tools,” I called to my wife. She came to the window to look.

“What will he do next?” she asked, then turned to go back to the fire to finish cooking our meal.

He had been building this “box” for my entire life. His son, Shem, and I were the same age, and we used to play together around the tools and the gopher wood planks. I liked to watch the old man build, and I would ask questions.

“What is this you are building?”

“An ark.”

“How do you know how to do this?”

“God tells me.”

“What’s it for?”

“There will be a flood. No one listens to God any more.”

I would watch from my house when he would put “sacrifices” on the altar he had built. I enjoyed watching the fire carry the smoke up to the sky. He would talk to the sky.

When we were older, Shem began to help his father in the construction. His father would hand me a hammer and teach me to drive nails. So I helped, too, for a while.

But, I had began to help my father in his camel raising business, and Shem and I just grew apart.

A few years later, Shem took my sister to be his wife. Shem’s other two brothers also took wives. The whole family worked on the box.

They became a joke to the community.

“He says it’s gonna come a flood. Hahahaha, been saying it for years. Crazy old man.”

I would laugh, too. He was a bit strange. I kept watching, though. The box got bigger and bigger and bigger.

The camel business was doing well. Men came from all over to buy camels. We had good camels, and we got a good price.

They would all comment on the neighboring building project. “Still at it, I see. Crazy old man!” I would laugh along with them.

After many years, I got used to the spectacle, as did everyone else, and I didn’t pay much attention anymore. Business was good, and we were making good money.

The day the old man finished the box, I saw him walking toward me.

“I need a couple of young camels, a male and a female. How much would that be?”

We had the best camels, so I told him my price.

“Oh,” he replied, “ I didn’t know they were that much.” He turned back toward the box, “ God will provide.”

“What are you going to do now that you are finished?” I called after him.

“In seven days the flood will begin.”

I laughed out loud, muttering, “Crazy old man. A hundred years, and nothing has happened. Crazy old man.”

The family went into the box.

The next morning, my wife said, “Two young camels got out of the pen. You need to go put them back.”

What I saw took my breath away. My camels walked straight into the box followed by myriads of other animals, some two at a time, some seven at a time, birds, oxen, even wild animals. I didn’t dare to get close. But I watched. I couldn’t look away.

Then the strangest thing happened. The door slammed shut, as if by an invisible hand. I ran to the door, and with all my strength, banged on it.

“Two of my camels are in there,” I yelled. “You never paid me!”

There was no answer. The door remained shut.

A few days later, the rain began to fall. A lot of rain. It wasn’t long before the water began to rise and come into the house. The roof was breaking apart, and we couldn’t escape the drenching.

I looked outside.

The box was gone.

(since I am reading through the Bible again, this popped up in my memories from three years ago)

I didn’t get his name.

Well, to be honest, I didn’t actually talk to him.

Actually, I read about him.

I had read this piece before, but I hadn’t paid much attention to it.

This time, I was kinda impressed by the guy.

The only reason he was mentioned at all, was because of who he worked for.

His boss had a really special connection to God.

And God talked to him, told him stuff.

His boss was Abraham. You know, the guy in the Bible that was the father of the entire Jewish race, the guy that God considered righteous because Abraham believed God.

So, one day, after Abraham’s wife , Sarah, had died, Abraham told his oldest servant, probably someone who had been with him since he left his homeland, “I don’t want my son Isaac to marry one of the women who live in this land. I want you to go back to my homeland and find a wife for him among my people.”

The servant had to get a little nervous. A lot nervous. This was a tremendous responsibility. How would he choose? Who would he talk to? How would he know he found the right wife for Isaac?

“What if she won’t come back with me? Do you want me to take Isaac?”

“No!

If she won’t come back with you, you are released from your oath.”

So, the servant went.

Now I don’t know if he had ever been there, in Abraham’s homeland. Abraham had left there with Sarah and Lot over 100 years earlier.

So, here’s the good part. Right as he came to the well of the community he was going to, he prayed to Abraham’s God. ” LORD, let the woman you choose give me some water, and then offer to water my camels.” (He had ten camels.)

Isn’t that fantastic? Praying such a specific prayer?

The next woman that came up did exactly what he asked for.

And she was from Abraham’s family.

That’s why I was so impressed with this guy.

Cuz he prayed the right prayer.

Wait a minute…?

He didn’t have anything to do with it.

Rachel was almost there when he got there.

The whole idea to pray was planted in his mind by Abraham’s God, just so this guy would know for sure that she was the one.

God was in control the whole time.

When I tell the story of the day of my salvation, I always tell how I prayed, “…and what does it mean to be born again?”

The answers that came within five minutes were already in place. Not because I prayed the right prayer, because God put the thought in my head so I would see His answer.

Oh, this story? You can read it for yourself if you are interested.

Genesis 24.

After Adam and Eve were evicted from the garden, they had two sons, Cain and Abel.

Cain became a farmer, Abel became a rancher.

Cain decided one day to try to gain God’s favor by giving him a gift of some of the produce from his field.

Abel sacrificed several choice lambs from the best of his flock.

God accepted Abel’s offering, but not Cain’s.

This made Cain very angry and dejected.

“Why are you so angry?” the LORD asked him. “Why do you look so dejected? You will be accepted if you respond in the right way. But if you don’t respond correctly, then watch out! Sin is waiting to attack and destroy you, and you must subdue it.”

Warning ignored. Cain killed his brother.

God didn’t kill Cain. Cain lived on, had sons and daughters, built a city.

But, the sin that was waiting to attack and destroy killed his ability to hear and obey the voice of God.

His descendants didn’t hear his voice either. Because they were created in the image of God, they invented tents, musical instruments, bronze and iron instruments, all while creating for themselves a life that did not include the will of the Creator.

But there were a few that continued to listen for the divine whisper. Seth, the third zone of Adam, who, during his lifetime, people began to worship the Creator.

Enoch, several generations from Adam, who lived in such close fellowship with God, when he was 365 years old, he disappeared from the earth, because God took him.

And Noah. The earth had become corrupt in God’s sight, and he world’s thoughts were consistently and totally evil. But Noah was a righteous man, the only blameless man living on the earth at the time. He consistently followed God’s will and enjoyed a close relationship with him.

So God told him to build a boat.

And Noah did everything exactly as God had commanded.

Nothing has changed much, has it?

Still fighting, still angry and dejected, the sons of Cain are still looking to destroy those on whom God’s favor rests, those that God accepts as his own.

The sons of Cain and the sons of God form two families that occupy the earth.

Maybe now would be a good time to figure out which family is yours.

There are some who say,”You don’t choose God, God chooses you.”

A dead man can’t choose life.

But,

Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your heart.

Choose you this day whom you will serve.

Genesis 4,5,6



Three years ago, I began a through the Bible in a year program with the English Standard Version.

A couple of years before that, I used the New Living Translation.

I found this bound version of the NLT a couple of weeks ago and decided to do it again.

Day 1

Creation Story

In the beginning, God began to create, heavens and earth, formless and dark.

Light, for day, darkness for night. First day.

Separate waters above from waters below. Expanse between called sky. Second day.

Land and sea, plants and trees. Third day

Sun, moon and stars to mark off seasons, days, and years. Fourth day.

Birds of the air, fish of the sea. Fifth day.

Man (“in our image”) and land animals. Man was made from the dirt, but, then, He breathed into him “the breath of Life.” Sixth day.

Rest from all creating. Seventh day.

It was all good.

Man was to be “like God”, master over all life on earth, fish, birds, livestock, wild animals, and small animals.

God placed man in a garden to work.

Two trees in the center, Tree of Life, tree of knowledge of good and evil. God instructed man, he could eat from all trees, except one.

The tree of knowledge of good and evil. Eating from that one would end the LIFE.

God made woman out of man to be his lifelong companion.

An enemy of God enters the scene.

“You won’t die. You will become just like God, knowing everything, both good and evil.”

They gave it a taste.

Everything changed.

The life that ended was the God breathed life.

God’s presence illuminated man’s shame, made man fear His presence, made man think he could figure things out on his own.

Physical life continued, struggling, learning, experiencing the fruit of a life being separated from the Breather of Life.

Several thousands of years later, we are still experiencing the consequences of man’s pride, of man’s choice to do things his own way.

But God still offers that breath of Life, to bring me back “to the garden of delights.”

Because, from the very beginning, He had a plan.