Genesis 19
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What do you see?
Too often, we modern folk ask Genesis to answer modern questions, like how old is this water-covered ball that spins at 1000 mph in space while orbiting a nuclear-powered fireball?
But Genesis wasn’t written to us. It was written for us, but not to us. It was written to people asking ancient questions. What are those ancient questions?
The phrase “These are the generations of...” as an introduction is used 11 times in Genesis.
Before the Patriarchs: The need for a family of God
2:4 Heaven and earth
5:1 Adam’s line
6:9 Noah
10:1 Shem, Ham, and Japheth
11:10 Shem
The Patriarchs in the Promised Land: Establishing the family of God
11:27 Terah
25:12 Ishmael
25:19 Isaac
36:1 Esau
36:9 Esau
The Patriarchs in Egypt: Incubation for the Covenant People
37:2 Jacob
As we look, let’s ask ourselves . . . is this how we would tell this story?
Chapter 1: God arranges the furniture
Chapter 2: God puts the man in the garden and creates woman—man was incomplete without her
Chapter 3: Woman is “deceived”, both are disobedient. They experience adolescence. The serpent and the ground are cursed, but the man and the woman are not. God is merciful. God provides for his children as they leave the garden. The man names his wife “Eve”.
Chapter 4: God disapproves of Cain’s offering. Cain is emotional and has bad attitude. Cain kills Abel. Abel’s “blood cries out to me from the ground”. Cain is cursed and cannot work the land. Cain descendents develop culture, murder, and polygamy.
Chapter 5: The descendents of Seth (image of Adam) live a long time and died, except Enoch. Lamech thinks Noah will save him from the curse on the ground.
Chapter 6: Mankind multiplies and becomes corrupt (violent). God decrees a wet judgement. God warns Noah (“Rest”) and instructions on how to build and Ark.
Chapter 7: Entering the Ark and the Flood comes.
Chapter 8: God Remembered Noah
Chapter 9: A New Covenant
Chapter 10: The Table of Nations (map).
Remember that we are still answering ancient questions. “Why am I like this?”
Why am I a “Hebrew” since I don’t live in Hebron? Why is it promised?
This story (Genesis) is particularly about Israel. Our non-Israel questions won’t always get answered.
The Big Shift in Genesis
Genesis chapters 1-11 are “pre-history”. We aren’t going to get a satisfactory answer on dates and places.
Genesis chapters 12-50 are “history”. While difficult, we can begin to get good answers on dates and places. We don’t where Eden or Havilah were, but we do know a lot about Egypt, Hebron, the Negev desert, and most of the places in chapters 12-50. We know about things tribes like the Kenites, Perizzites, Amorites, Canaanites, and Jebusites. Well, I don’t personally know much, but you can get a book and read about the archeology and languages of these tribes.
Abraham conquered Abimelech’s men and captured Beersheba in the Negev desert. We know exactly where Beersheba is and the wells have been in constant use since ancient times. There is a McDonald's near the main one that Abraham probably used. Jacob’s Well is a big tourist site in Nablus, West Bank. It’s Palestinian Authority, so there’s no McDonald’s, unfortunately.
Genesis chapters 1-11 tells a story about God’s blessing and mankind’s rebellion. Over and over, God gives a blessing (like “be fruitful and multiply”) and mankind rebels (murder is the opposite of multiplying).
Most creation stories are focused on the particular tribe telling the story. But God’s creation is to fill the world. Chapters 1-11 are the story of how the world began to be filled.
In chapter 12 we switch to the tribe, the Hebrews, and the first man to live in Hebron… Abraham. God created a lot of families in chapters 1-11.
But now he is going to save the whole world from their rebellion through one family, Abraham’s.
The blessings of chapters 1-11 become promises in chapters 12-50. God blessed the first family to be fruitful and multiply, and they failed. Now in chapter 12, God promises to bless “all the peoples on earth” through Abraham’s family. God commands the Hebrews to bless all peoples in Exodus 19, but they fail. So at Christmas, God came to do it himself.
Chapters 12-50 show God overcoming obstacles to his promise. Infertility, deception, murder, slavery, etc. look like they will derail the promise of God to Abraham. *Spoiler* They don’t. God provides the means to overcome and keeps his promises.
Now the Scripture saw in advance that God would justify the Gentiles by faith and proclaimed the gospel ahead of time to Abraham, saying, All the nations will be blessed through you.
Christian Standard Bible Chapter 12
The LORD said to Abram:
Go from your land,
your relatives,
and your father’s house
to the land that I will show you.
2 I will make you into a great nation,
I will bless you,
I will make your name great,
and you will be a blessing.
3 I will bless those who bless you,
I will curse anyone who treats you with contempt,
and all the peoples on earth
will be blessed through you.,
and if he rescued righteous Lot, distressed by the depraved behavior of the immoral (for as that righteous man lived among them day by day, his righteous soul was tormented by the lawless deeds he saw and heard)—then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trials and to keep the unrighteous under punishment for the day of judgment,
The word “Hebrew” might be derived from the name “Eber”, the son of Shem in Chapter 10.
Or, it could be derived from the place-name, “Hebron”.
Or, they both could be derived from “Eber”.
Or, it could be derived from “Hebri”, a Caananite word for refugee. But...
“Hebri” could be a corruption of “Hebrew”, because the “Hebrews” were “Hebri”.
Hebrewception
Faith vs Belief
The phrase, “the word of the LORD” is only used in this chapter in Genesis. Verses 1 and 4.
Do you have any relatives who have lived a very long time?
Would you be the good twin or the evil twin?
Do you ever feel like a background character in someone else’s story?
Is it hard to get out of your parents’ shadow?
Does God make mistakes?
Do you have a flood story?
How do you deal with unusual requests?
What if I told you it really was aliens in Genesis 6?
Have you ever had to live in a small space?
Would you ever go on Fear Factor?
When did you completely lose your patience?
When does God’s judgement feel real?
You haven’t heard the rest of the story. Is God going to save Noah?
Should God still be doing occasional floods?
Has God ever closed a door to keep you safe?
How did it feel when you were no longer lost?
Why were ancient peoples scared of eclipses?
Why do we have rules or laws? Do they do any good?
Are there natural laws that we take for granted?
How do you normally respond to good news?
Why is incest between adults such a taboo? How does it damage a family?
For what reasons would a parent disown or even curse their children or grandchildren?
Do some criminals deserve to get caught?
Is knowledge dangerous?
Would you live in a house that your kids built?
How do we talk about arrogance or conceit in our stories?
What do you do when the restaurant won’t split the check?
How does it feel to move far away?
Have you ever had a mission that was… um… impossible?
When you tell people about yourself, are there years that you skip over?
How does it feel to realize you’ve made a huge mistake?
Should you distance yourself from family feuds?
Are you nostalgic for your hometown?
What is life like for civilians in war?
What’s your dollar amount for helping your neighbor?
Have you ever found a believer in an unexpected place?
Have you ever been thankful to God at just the right time?
Why do you doubt yourself?
What did you need to see to believe?
Have you been a part of something bigger than yourself?
How did you get out of that impossible situation?
Christian Standard Bible Chapter 15
Abram believed the LORD, and he credited it to him as righteousness.
This is the new relationship with God. Paul basis his whole argument in Romans on this.
Christian Standard Bible (Chapter 4)
What then will we say that Abraham, our forefather according to the flesh, has found? 2 If Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about—but not before God. 3 For what does the Scripture say? Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him for righteousness., 4 Now to the one who works, pay is not credited as a gift, but as something owed. 5 But to the one who does not work, but believes on him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is credited for righteousness.
Is logic always right?
How does age change our decisions?
Would a modern woman be recognizable in the ancient world?
What would you name God?
Christian Standard Bible (Chapter 2)
Be careful that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deceit based on human tradition, based on the elements of the world, rather than Christ. 9 For the entire fullness of God’s nature dwells bodily in Christ, 10 and you have been filled by him, who is the head over every ruler and authority. 11 You were also circumcised in him with a circumcision not done with hands, by putting off the body of flesh, in the circumcision of Christ, 12 when you were buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through faith in the working of God, who raised him from the dead. 13 And when you were dead in trespasses and in the uncircumcision of your flesh, he made you alive with him and forgave us all our trespasses. 14 He erased the certificate of debt, with its obligations, that was against us and opposed to us, and has taken it away by nailing it to the cross.
What would have have gotten away with?
Is it possible to be perfect?
Why and when do you laugh at people?
Besides cake, what would you serve at a bris?
Christian Standard Bible Chapter 1
For nothing will be impossible with God.”
Jesus looked at them and said, “With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.”
Jesus said to him, “ ‘If you can’? Everything is possible for the one who believes.”
Has God shared any of his secrets with us?
Were the people of Fort Myers more wicked than the people of Moscow this week?
How do YOU show hospitality?
Do you struggle keeping your emotions hidden?
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How long does a campfire linger on your clothing?
Can you really use evil do to good?
Is there really a lesser of two evils?
Is Pooh ever satisfied?
Christian Standard Bible (Chapter 19)
The two angels entered Sodom in the evening as Lot was sitting in Sodom’s gateway. When Lot saw them, he got up to meet them. He bowed with his face to the ground 2 and said, “My lords, turn aside to your servant’s house, wash your feet, and spend the night. Then you can get up early and go on your way.”“No,” they said. “We would rather spend the night in the square.” 3 But he urged them so strongly that they followed him and went into his house. He prepared a feast and baked unleavened bread for them, and they ate.
Before they went to bed, the men of the city of Sodom, both young and old, the whole population, surrounded the house. They called out to Lot and said, “Where are the men who came to you tonight? Send them out to us so we can have sex with them!”
Lot went out to them at the entrance and shut the door behind him. He said, “Don’t do this evil, my brothers. Look, I’ve got two daughters who haven’t been intimate with a man. I’ll bring them out to you, and you can do whatever you want to them. However, don’t do anything to these men, because they have come under the protection of my roof.”
“Get out of the way!” they said, adding, “This one came here as an alien, but he’s acting like a judge! Now we’ll do more harm to you than to them.” They put pressure on Lot and came up to break down the door. But the angels reached out, brought Lot into the house with them, and shut the door. They struck the men who were at the entrance of the house, both young and old, with blindness so that they were unable to find the entrance.
Then the angels said to Lot, “Do you have anyone else here: a son-in-law, your sons and daughters, or anyone else in the city who belongs to you? Get them out of this place, for we are about to destroy this place because the outcry against its people is so great before the Lord, that the Lord has sent us to destroy it.”
So Lot went out and spoke to his sons-in-law, who were going to marry his daughters. “Get up,” he said. “Get out of this place, for the Lord is about to destroy the city!” But his sons-in-law thought he was joking.
At daybreak the angels urged Lot on: “Get up! Take your wife and your two daughters who are here, or you will be swept away in the punishment of the city.” But he hesitated. Because of the Lord’s compassion for him, the men grabbed his hand, his wife’s hand, and the hands of his two daughters. They brought him out and left him outside the city.
But Lot said to them, “No, my lords—please. Your servant has indeed found favor with you, and you have shown me great kindness by saving my life. But I can’t run to the mountains; the disaster will overtake me, and I will die. Look, this town is close enough for me to flee to. It is a small place. Please let me run to it—it’s only a small place, isn’t it?—so that I can survive.”
And he said to him, “All right, I’ll grant your request about this matter too and will not demolish the town you mentioned. Hurry up! Run to it, for I cannot do anything until you get there.” Therefore the name of the city is Zoar.
The sun had risen over the land when Lot reached Zoar. Then out of the sky the Lord rained on Sodom and Gomorrah burning sulfur from the Lord. He demolished these cities, the entire plain, all the inhabitants of the cities, and whatever grew on the ground. But Lot’s wife looked back and became a pillar of salt.
Early in the morning Abraham went to the place where he had stood before the Lord. He looked down toward Sodom and Gomorrah and all the land of the plain, and he saw that smoke was going up from the land like the smoke of a furnace. So it was, when God destroyed the cities of the plain, he remembered Abraham and brought Lot out of the middle of the upheaval when he demolished the cities where Lot had lived.
Lot departed from Zoar and lived in the mountains along with his two daughters, because he was afraid to live in Zoar. Instead, he and his two daughters lived in a cave. Then the firstborn said to the younger, “Our father is old, and there is no man in the land to sleep with us as is the custom of all the land. Come, let’s get our father to drink wine so that we can sleep with him and preserve our father’s line.” So they got their father to drink wine that night, and the firstborn came and slept with her father; he did not know when she lay down or when she got up.
The next day the firstborn said to the younger, “Look, I slept with my father last night. Let’s get him to drink wine again tonight so you can go sleep with him and we can preserve our father’s line.” That night they again got their father to drink wine, and the younger went and slept with him; he did not know when she lay down or when she got up.
So both of Lot’s daughters became pregnant by their father. The firstborn gave birth to a son and named him Moab. He is the father of the Moabites of today. The younger also gave birth to a son, and she named him Ben-ammi. He is the father of the Ammonites of today.
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