The God who created all of the universe and made it good had created a special Garden for humanity, those special creatures who were made in His own image.
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All was not well in the world. The members of the human race were living in malice, greed, and violence towards one another. The people that were meant to live in perfect peace in a glorious garden had disintegrated into a society of terrors.
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God did a remarkable thing. He promised He would never bring another worldwide flood. He said, “You can trust that I will never do this again.” He made a special covenant, or promise, with Noah and his sons.
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The chapter of Genesis that comes after the flood is fascinating. It is called the Table of Nations. It tells of the people on earth that came from Noah’s three sons.
Read MoreShem was the son of Noah’s greatest blessings. His children and their descendants were chosen by God in a special way. He had five sons whose families grew to become great nations.
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After the Great Flood, all the humans really stuck together. They spoke the language of Noah. They traveled the land together as nomads. They lived in tents that could easily be picked up and moved. They herded their animals along with them as they wandered from place to place seeking good water supplies and plenty of grassland for their animals.
Read MoreWhen we look at the time between Adam and Noah, there were ten generations of humans that multiplied on the earth. They became so hardened and wicked that God had to wash the earth clean of their polluting sin.
Read MoreAbram’s life was in shambles. He was seventy-five years old when his father had died. He was living in Haran, far from the land of Canaan, the place where his father Terah had hoped to go. His beloved wife remained barren, which brought deep shame to her from everyone in their society.
Read MoreAbram had moved out in faith because of the promises of God. The LORD told him to leave his country and his father's household and go to an entirely new land. God was going to raise up so many descendants for him that they would become an entire nation.
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In the early days of Isaac and Rebekah’s marriage, long before they had their twin boys, they went through many trials and struggles. At one point, a great famine came upon the land. It grew more and more difficult to find enough to eat.
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Isaac was getting older. His eyes were becoming so weak that he was almost blind. He was a hundred, and his aging heart and limbs could not move about as they used to. He feared that the time of his death was coming. Before he was gone, he was determined to speak a blessing to Esau, his firstborn son.
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What a sad and distorted picture of a family. Isaac, Esau, Rebekah, and Jacob each worked out of their own selfish ambition, competing over the powerful and potent blessing of the firstborn son. What great blessings and harmony they could have shared together if they had all submitted to the will of their faithful God.
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Esau was a bitter man. He had been foolish enough to let his brother trick him out of his birthright, and now Jacob had taken his father’s blessing, too. In his seething anger, he began to plot and scheme. As soon as Isaac died, he would get his revenge.
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Jacob continued on his journey. His trek led him away from the Land of Promise where his family faithfully waited on the LORD. He was heading back to the region that Abraham, his great and honorable grandfather, had left over a hundred years before when he was called by God into the wilderness.
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The LORD looked on Leah and saw that she was not loved by her husband. To make things even worse, she had to watch his tender ways with her sister. How his eyes lit up whenever Rachel came near! How he treated her with the deference of masculine passion!
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Shechem had grown up in the brutal town that shared his name. It was a world where manipulation and corruption were the name of the game. And when it came to how a man should treat a woman, it was even more brutal still.
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The children of Abraham had earned a new kind of reputation. Abraham was a man of peace, venturing into war only to protect and defend. His military might had restored his neighbors from slavery and abject poverty.
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In all those years of Jacob’s travels, Esau had grown to a man of vast fortunes. The customs of his family had also changed. Esau did not marry women from Abraham’s heritage. His marriages to Canaanite women deeply connected his life and children to the Canaanite nations around him.
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Joseph, the beloved son of Rachel and Jacob, grew up quite alone in the household of his father. The sons of Leah and the maidservants were very jealous of this boy who was so clearly the favorite of their father. He wore the lavish coat that their father had made just for him, and he told them of dreams where they would bow down at his feet.
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The family of Jacob became more distant and broken. Judah moved away from the clan and married a Canaanite woman. Their first two sons were so wicked that God shortened their lives so they could sin no more. Tamar was the wife of Judah’s oldest son, and now she was left alone and vulnerable.
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