Day 3…. Genesis continues

The reading for today starts with Genesis 8:1 and goes through Genesis 11:32. I am really enjoying this journey so far. I know that it is only Day 3 but I literally look forward to reading, analyzing, diving in, questioning, etc….. it satisfies my analytical brain.

Genesis 8 — I like how the story starts with “Then God remembered Noah….”. I picture him sitting there worrying about the world and then him jumping up like OMG I forgot about Noah :). I can also picture God kind of hanging in the sky and blowing (almost cartoon like) the wind to get rid of the water. Can you imagine how stir crazy Noah and his family must have been waiting 150 days for the water to recede? Then to wait another 40 days to open the window to get fresh air… oh my…I am sure when Noah sent out the dove he was hoping for a positive sign to get off of the ark… but the first time the dove came back. The second time at least there was hope with the branch from the olive leaf. So again after another 14 days when the dove no longer came back he felt like they could get off of the ark.

I honestly do not understand the burnt offerings. For some crazy reason I don’t picture God eating. I know that seems odd but I just don’t see him sitting around pigging out on a piece of meat. It must have been good food because it says that the Lord smelled the food and then said he would never curse the ground again.

Genesis 9 — Then he states almost the same thing that he did to Adam. He blesses Noah and tells him that his family are in control. That all beasts and birds and fish will fear him. God also says that Noah and his family should multiply and that all moving things can be food for him. The only constraint was that Noah and his family are told not to eat other humans. God then made the covenant with Noah that he would never destroy the earth by flooding it again. The rainbow is cool because I have never thought about the flood when it rains (I mean unless we are talking about streets and such) but now when I see a rainbow when it rains I certainly will remember this chapter. Scientifically a rainbow occurs when sunlight hits a rain droplet.. that makes sense because maybe when it is raining and the rainbow comes out that means there is a force between the rain and the sun to support the covenant that God made with Noah.

This part of the story is a reminder that the population as we know it today was not created by Adam and Eve. It was created by Noah and his sons Shem, Ham and Japheth. Ham was the father of Canaan. It appears that there was also wine already way back in the days.. not going to complain about whoever figured that out. So in this story Ham saw his father naked in the tent after having drank too much wine. I guess the issue was that he did not just cover him up, but instead he went out and told his brothers Shem and Japheth. So Shem and Japheth worked together to cover up their father without looking at him. When Noah woke up he was super mad at Ham for what happened. And because of that he cursed Canaan which was Ham’s son. I am not sure why he did not curse Ham himself, maybe it is more of a punishment to curse his son.

Genesis 10 — This chapter goes into the genealogy of the sons of Noah. I find it interesting that the only names that are called out are the “sons” of these people. I can only imagine that they had some girls somewhere in the mix, but they are not called out by name.

Japheth has Gomer, Magog, Madai, Javan, Tubal, Meshech and Tiras (that is a lot of kids)

Gomer had Ashkenaz, Ripath and Togarmah

Javan had Elishah, Tarshish, Kittim and Dodanim. All of these people make up the Gentiles. I researched “gentiles” and had a hard time understanding what might have been meant here. It says “From these the coastland peoples of the Gentiles were separated into their lands, everyone according to his language, according to their families, into their nations”. I am not sure if it meant that Javan’s family were sent out to different areas because they were not Jewish and were good religious people who could spread the word.. if anyone has any insight here I would love to hear it…..

Ham had Cush, Mizraim, Put and Canaan

Cush had Seba, Havilah, Sabtah, Raamah and Sabtechah — and for some reason later on in the chapter Nimrod is mentioned as being from Cush. It also says that Nimrod was a mighty hunter. It also says that Nimrod established the kingdoms in Shinar of Babel, Erech, Accad, and Calneh. He then went to Assyria and built Ninevah, Rehoboth Ir, Calah and Resen. It appears that Nimrod had a thing for power and so he built kingdoms so that he could be a dictator over them.

Raamah had Sheba and Dedan

Mizraim had Ludim, Anamim, Lehabim, Naphtuhim, Pathrusim, and Casluhim — the story states that is where the Philistines and Caphtorim come from. The Philistines lived on the south coast of Canaan (modern-day Isreal, Gaza, Lebanon and Syria)from 12th century BC until 604 BC. Caphtor is associated with Crete. Crete is located in Greece.

Canaan had Sidon and Heth. It goes on to mention Jebusite, Amorite, Girgashite, Hivite, Arkite, Sinite, Arvadite, Zemarite, and Hamathite. It says that the families of the Canaanites was dispersed and they covered from Sidon to Gerar to Gaza and Sodom, Gomorrah, Admah, and Zeboiim and Lasha. It appears that all if these people are from different tribes within Canaan. Jebusite was a tribe. Amorite were mountaineers. Girgashite was another tribe. Hivites lived in the hilly regions. It appears that Arkite actually had its own town name Arka in Canaan. And the remaining all seem to be the same- some small town, tribe or area of Canaan.

Shem had all of the children of Eber and included the sons Elam. Asshur, Arphaxad, Lud, and Aram.

Aram had Uz, Hul, Gether and Mash

Arphaxad had Salah

Salah had Eber

Eber had Peleg and Joktan

Joktan had Almodad, Sheleph, Hazarmaveth, Jerah, Hadoram, Uzal, Diklah, Obal, Abimael, Sheba, Ophir, Havilah and Jobab — he was definitely busy. They lived from Mesha to Sephar. It was difficult to determine how much land that was… again if anyone knows, please let me know.

Genesis 11 — In this chapter we see the first of where people start to settle. They created bricks and made houses. They made a city and created a tower. At this time God realizes that people are starting to settle and for some reason he is not happy about it. Even thought he is supposed to be very caring he does not seem to like that people have become smarter and learned to settle — he seems almost fearful that people would continue to evolve together. Maybe some PTSD from when Adam and Eve got together and broke the rules. So he solution was to scramble up the language. He scattered people around the earth (not sure if this was everyone or just the people that we in the city that was being built). And when he scattered them he made the language for each area different. The name of the city was Babel because after God made different languages, no one could understand each other.

We then get into another section of genealogy. This time for Shem. I find it interesting that in this part they really only call out one child but mention that they had other children and this time they actually mention daughters.

Shem had Arphaxad and other sons and daughters

Arphaxad had Salah and other sons and daughters

Salah had Eber and other sons and daughters

Eber had Peleg and other sons and daughters

Peleg had Reu and other sons and daughters

Reu had Serug and other sons and daughters

Serug had Nahor and other sons and daughters

Nahor had Terah and other sons and daughters

Terah had Abram, Nahor and Haran

Haran had Lot and then died in the land of Ur — this is modern day Tall al-Muqayyar in Iraq which is an important city of ancient southern Mesopotamia, 140 miles southeast of the site of Babyon and about 10 miles west of the present bed of the Euphrates River.

Abram had a wife names Sarai and Nahor had a wife named Milcah. Milcah was the daughter of Haran who also had Iscah. Sarai could not have children.

The family of Terah, Abraham, Lot, and Sarai moved from Ur of the Chaldeans (see above for the location) to the land and Haran and lived there. Terah died in Haran. Haran is located in current day Harran Turkey. I looked up the distance from Ur to Haran and it is approximately 600 miles. That is an extremely long journey considering they had to walk. Is they walked 10 miles a day that would take 60 days. Wow!