Through the Bible 2009, #2, Gen 7-12:

Just so you know:

My plan is to identify the blog entries that have to do with my Bible reading as "Through the Bible. . . . The other entries will have my usual witty and insightful titles. I could set up a separate blog for the Bible reading, but getting this old gray-haired guy to do one blog is enough, so, at least for now, I'll use this mechanism.

It's January 2. I just finished reading Genesis 12.

The beginning of Gen 12 clearly marks a new phase in the unfolding of God's revelation. The Bible begins to focus on the family of Abraham. His grandson, Jacob, will be renamed Israel, and the rest is history.

The final of the big events that tells us why the world is the way that it is found in chap. 11. As I type this I am at my son's house. He is the Global Outrach Pastor at Hill Country Bible Church Northwest. He, and many of the rest of us labor to reach across the barriers that find their roots in this Biblical event. It is a reality of life.

Just for review the big events are:

1. Creation


2. Fall (entrance of sin)


3. Flood


4. Tower of Babel

These events provide the asnswer to the question, "Why is this world the way it is?"

In the section that I read today it is interesting that there is both the true answer to a major problem of our day, and a horrible distortion.
Genesis 11 provides the answer to the origin of the various races (so called) among people. As various families became isolated from other families, particular genetic variations began to dominate in one group as compared to another. An iteresting and informative article on this subject: http://www.answersingenesis.org/articles/nab/are-there-different-races
Unfortunately, throughout history, and a quick search of the web confirms that still today, many people have seized on a distortion of Noah's curse made against Canaan, Gen. 9:25, as a justification for prejudice.

The clear teaching of the Bible is that all of us are decended from Adam and Eve, through Noah.

We are sisters and brothers.