Today’s passage: Genesis 15:1-21

Helpful thoughts:

• God had already compared the descendants of Abraham to the sand or the dust of the earth (Innumerable).  Now, the Lord compares the number to the stars in the heavens.
  • Abraham believed the promises of God by faith.  God counted him as righteous.
    • This doesn’t mean Abraham was without sin or that he did everything right.
    • Abraham believed God and God declared Abraham as righteous.
• Abraham was also told of the slavery the Israelites would endure in Egypt and its duration.
  • When Israel came back to the promised land, part of their return would involve pouring out God’s judgment for the sin of the people presently there (Verse 16).
• The ceremony performed in this chapter was not unique (But it was executed uniquely in this instance!).
  • God “cut a covenant” with Abraham and because Abraham did not walk through the cut pieces with God, it made the covenant unconditional.  God was going to fulfill his promise no matter what.

Questions to consider:

1. In what way is verse 1 God’s response to what we read in chapter 14?  How did God prove to be Abraham’s shield?  How did Abraham evidence his faith in God as his rewarder and greatest reward?
2. How does verse 6 help us to understand salvation by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone (Romans 4)?
3. Who counted Abraham as righteous (Who is responsible to make that judgment)?  Who guaranteed the fulfillment of the promises?  With all this being considered, upon whom should we trust for the assurance of our salvation?  Who is the author of the New Covenant?  Whose body and blood was given as a sacrifice?  Who has promised to complete the work started in you?  Why should this give us greater confidence and rest?  Why will this result in greater glory and worship?

Today’s passage: Genesis 14:1-24

Helpful thoughts:

• Abraham was able to pursue and achieve military victory.  But he did not try to take the Promised Land by force.
• Melchizedek’s name means, “King of Righteousness.”  He was the king of Salem (“Peace”).  He was also priest of the “Most High God.”
  • Thus, Melchizedek was a priest and king over what would be Jerusalem.  And he was King of Peace and King of Righteousness.
  • We do not know very much about Melchizedek, but the book of Hebrews calls Christ a priest forever in the line of Melchizedek (Hebrews 5:5-10, 6:20-7:17).
• Abraham’s responses to the king of Salem and the king of Sodom are very different.

Questions to consider:

1. Where was Lot now living?  What became of his choices to gravitate toward the city of Sodom to this point?
2. What does Abraham’s treatment or responses to Melchizedek and the king of Sodom indicate about Abraham’s trust?  Who was Abraham counting on for his protection, whatever prosperity he had, and the fulfilment of the promise?
3. How can Jesus be priest forever after the order of Melchizedek?  Why won’t his priesthood (or his reign) ever expire (Hebrews 7:16)?

Today’s passage: Genesis 13:1-18

Helpful thoughts:

• Abraham’s and Lot’s wealth and the herdsmen’s struggle made it so that there wasn’t enough room for the two of them.
  • They were also competing for land with the Canaanites and Perizzites (Verse 7).
• Abraham generously allowed Lot to make the first choice of land.  However, the Lord promised Abraham all the land would belong to his descendants.  Lot’s choice was a temporary arrangement, unbeknown to him.
• Abraham and Sarai are still without a child, yet God promised his descendants would be beyond number.

Questions to consider:

1. Contrast what happened when Abraham and Lot arrived at their destinations?  What did Abraham do which fostered his relationship with the Lord?  What did Lot come into contact with when he arrived at Sodom?
2. Who did the men at Sodom sin against (Verse 13)?  Do people have to believe in God to sin against Him?  To whom will all people answer, whether they believe or not (Psalm 86:8-10)?
3. With the answers to question 2 in mind, what should the church strive to tell the nations (Psalm 67, Matthew 18:19-20)?

Today’s passage: Genesis 12:10-20

Helpful thoughts:

• Abraham displayed a great deal of faith in verses 1-9.  Today’s passage will remind us, he is human.  He is a sinner too, like the rest of us.
• Abraham feared the Egyptians more than the Lord in these moments.  But, it was the Lord who graciously rescued him and Sarai in the end (Verse 17).

Questions to consider:

1. Why were Abraham’s fears unfounded?  What had God promised him in verses 1-9?  Since God made those promises, would it even have been possible for Abraham to be killed in Egypt?
2. Abraham was not a great husband here…  In what way are husbands to treat/love/protect their wives according to Ephesians 5:25?
3. In these verses, who acted more honorably, Abraham or the Pharaoh?  Did God choose Abraham because he was better than anybody else?  Why are we saved?  Why has God chosen us to be His children? (Ephesians 1:3-6)

Today’s passage: Genesis 12:1-9

Helpful thoughts:

• This is the beginning of the narrative of the life of Abraham.
  • It’s also the beginning of the narrative of Israel as a nation (“I will make you a great nation.”)
  • It’s also the beginning of the narrative of God’s salvation of his people (“In you, all the families of the earth will be blessed.”)
• To follow the Lord, Abraham had to leave behind his main identifiers; his family and his “home.”
  • Abraham’s new identity was in God, rooted in the promises of God.
• Abraham came from north of the Promised Land.  After he spent time near Shechem and built an altar to the Lord near Bethel and Ai, he traveled to the Negeb (The southern) region of the land.  Abraham spent time looking through the land the Lord promised to his descendants.

Questions to consider:

1. How did Abraham evidence his faith in God’s promise?  What does the beginning of verse 4 plainly state?
2. What did Abraham have to believe that God would do, even from the beginning, concerning Sarai’s barrenness?  How would a great nation come from Abraham in this new land?  What did Abraham have to trust?
3. In what way would the descendants of Abraham (ultimately, A descendant of Abraham) bring blessing to the whole world?

Today’s passage: Genesis 11:10-32

Helpful thoughts:

• These verses give a further detailed genealogy of the line of Shem.
• Within these generations listed, we see a sharp decline in the years for life expectancy.  This process is in keeping with God’s comment from Genesis 6:3.
  • Noah lived 950 years.
  • Terah lived 205 years.
• The genealogy also serves the purpose of setting up the next portion of the narrative, the life of “Father Abraham.”
  • Abram was from Ur of the Chaldeans (A center of worship for the moon god, Nanna).
  • His wife Sarai was barren (Until she wasn’t…spoiler alert)
  • He had a nephew named, Lot.

Questions to consider:

1. We read yesterday of God’s decision to spread man out (To keep us from being all one people working together).  Today we read the process of man’s life being shortened.  We know from reading Genesis that both of these actions limited the expression our sinfulness and were acts of God’s common grace.  How do these truths contradict what the world often thinks about the nature of mankind today?  Are we intrinsically good?  Can everyone follow their own heart and find peace with everyone else and every other nation around them?  What does the Bible say?
2. Why does verse 20 tell us that Sarai in two different ways that Sarai had been unable to bear children?  What is the point of this emphasis (See Genesis 21:1-2)?
3. In what ways is God’s sovereignty on display in this passage?  If He can accomplish all this, what else will He do?  Is there anything He has promised He will not accomplish?

Today’s passage: Genesis 11:1-9

Helpful thoughts:

• The people chose to build a tower (Or a ziggurat) that reached up to “the heavens.”  Yet, God had to “come down” to “see” what they were doing.
  • God is omnipresent and omniscient.  The language of “coming down” to “see” is literary and given to make a point.  Man’s attempts to replace God will always fall short.
• The goal of the people in building this tower was to find a way to get out of obeying God.
  • They wanted to “make a name” for themselves (Pagan idolatry, the invention of a new god)…
  • …So that they didn’t have to “fill the earth” (9:1).
• God knew the hearts of the people and knows what man is capable of when we all work together as one, and it is not good.
  • For this reason, he graciously confused our languages.

Questions to consider:

1. What do we learn about the root cause of idolatry in today’s passage?  Why did the people want a new god?  Who did they not want to obey? (See Romans 1:18-23)
2. Why was God being gracious to the people by confusing them and spreading them out?  Why was it better for man to not be able to organize together as one?
3. In a world that is constantly getting “smaller” with our newer technologies, what direction could the world be moving if it chooses not to follow the Lord?  How can Christians utilize the same technologies to take the gospel of Jesus Christ to the world?

Today’s passage: Genesis 10:1-32

Helpful thoughts:

• In today’s passage, we read the genealogies of the three sons of Noah: Shem, Ham and Japheth.
  • Included in the genealogies is some information about where in the world these people groups migrated (After the events of chapter 11).
• Much attention (Some further detail) is given to the descendants of Ham.  These are the people (The descendants of Canaan) who would be Israel’s primary enemies later in the narrative flow of the Old Testament.
• Eber (Verse 24) is the father of the “Hebrew” people.
• The earth being divided during the life of Peleg probably refers to the dispersal of mankind after the tower of Babel.

Questions to consider:

1. In what way does this chapter mimic earlier chapters after creation and the fall?  After Noah and his family got off the ark, there was an example of sin.  Then, after God’s command to be fruitful and multiply, what do we read in chapter 10?
2. What families or people groups stuck out to you as you read these genealogies?  Why?  How do these lists set up the next part of the grand story of the Bible?
3. Even though these people groups went in many different directions, what is true of all of them?  What do we all need?  What is God going to bring together from all of them? (Revelation 7:9-10)

Today’s passage: Genesis 9:18-29

Helpful thoughts:

• Everyone on the face of the earth today is descended from Shem, Ham or Japheth.
• God had shown favor (Grace) to Noah.  But, Noah was not without sin!  The flood waters of God’s judgment have abated, but sin is still in the world.
• Noah’s sin was compounded by Ham’s sinful response.  Ham took advantage of Noah’s sin and dishonored his father.  Shem and Japheth covered their father’s sin and in so doing, honored their father.
  • The curse of Canaan foreshadows the later conquest of the land of Canaan by the Israelite people.  This curse has nothing to do with African people as some have wrongly deduced and manipulated for despicable reasons in the past (The slave trade).

Questions to consider:

1. Having read Noah’s blessing and cursing in today’s passage, whose line should we expect to be reading about going forward in Genesis (11:10, 26)?  Is this true because Noah said it?   Do people’s statements of blessing or cursing always come true?  Why is this statement contained in God’s Word?
2. What can we learn from Shem and Japheth’s actions?  Why was what they did right, even though their father had sinned? (Exodus 20:12) What should have been Noah’s response when we came to his senses concerning his own sin?  What should his son’s kindness have caused him to never want to do again?
3. Knowing there is still sin in the world, what did Noah, his sons, all their wives, and what do the rest of us need?  Where can we find rescue from our sin (1 Peter 2:24)?