In the Beginning . . .

Hi. And Wow. Welcome to the Bible. I am a little nervous [luckily you can't tell because you can't see me - haha]. A lot of people checked out this blog today. I'm not really used to that.

It makes me really happy! But it also makes me kind of queasy. I'm a little afraid I'm going to totally botch the Good Book. Pray for me. And let me know if something I say if way out in left field.

Okay, folks, hold on to your nickers. Here we go!

Quick little warning: This blog has to introduce the story of the Bible, the Old Testament [or the Hebrew Bible] and, of course, delve into the first 16 chapters of Genesis, um, so, it may run a bit long.

The Bible as Story

I just finished The Blue Parakeet. Author Scot Mcknight explains how to read the Bible as a grand Story about the ultimate Protagonist, God. I lent the book to my bestest, so I'm at a slight a disadvantage in referencing from it. But I found the part I was looking for at this review by Pascialian Awakenings.

The Big Picture

1. God and creation
2. Adam and Eve as Eikons who crack the Eikon
3. God’s covenant community, where humans are restored to God, self, others, ad the world
4. Jesus Christ, who is the Story and in whose story we are to live
5. The church as Jesus’ covenant community
6. The consummation, when all the designs of our Creator God will finally be realized forever and ever.

Note: He really likes the word "Eikon" and I'm sure he has a really deep sense of purpose for doing so. I find it a little confusing, since I'm not familiar with the word and it fails to register in my brain. Basically, he means "image" so when you see "Eikon" think "Image".

The OT [or the Hebrew Bible - but doesn't OT sound much more gangster?]

It gets a bad rap. It's boring. And when it's not boring God is telling people to commit genocide. It's really long. And, well, honestly, what the heck does it have to do with our lives today?

I got really lucky. When I first began to follow Jesus, I stumbled upon this Bible study at this guy's house and it was full of amazing young Christians passionate about loving God and each other. We were working our way through the Bible, chapter by chapter each week, starting in Genesis. I remember every week being blown away by something new. It was ridiculous. And wonderful. James-Michael [the amazing guy who held and led the Bible study] is knowledgeable beyond reason. And he was passionate about the Old Testament. He taught me to love it, to wrestle with it and ultimately, to read it. Actually, you know what? If it weren't for that Bible study, I may not be writing this blog.

Here's the point I hope I'm making: The Bible is hard. God is ridiculous [in a good way]. There is some crazy stuff in the Old Testament. But there is rhythm and reason to the madness. And it's a little bit amazing.

Genesis 1:1-16:16

My husband, Jermaine, suggested I synopsi-size you with the skinny at the start of each blog. Seems like a pretty good idea. So, here:

Chapter 1 - God is the ultimate creative genius - and it was good. Chapter 2 - God finishes his masterpiece and rests, then the text seems to go back a bit and elaborate on this beautiful creation. The chapter finishes with a woman being made to be a companion for the man. Chapter 3 - Ergh. She screws up big time and because of that God doles out a fair amount of curses. Chapter 4 - Cain and Abel, the sons of Adam and Eve, show up. Abel's offering pleases God. Cain's offering doesn't. So, Cain does the logical thing. He kills his brother. Another curse from God, followed by Cain's family line. Chapter 5 - Geneology from Adam to Noah. Chapter 6 - God is not so happy with the state of man's heart, so God sends a flood to kill everyone except Noah, who is commanded to build an ark for himself, his family, and all the animals. Noah listens. Chapter 7 - They enter the ark and God sends rain for 150 days. Chapter 8 - This is all about them waiting until the water has gone down enough for them to leave the ark. Chapter 9 - God makes the first covenant - one for all people [never again will he kill off everyone]. Sign of the covenant - a rainbow. Then, Noah drinks too much and ends up naked. His son, Ham, sees him and so, when Noah wakes up he curses Canaan [Ham's son] and blesses Shem and Japheth [Noah's two other sons]. Chapter 10 - Noah's family line. Chapter 11 - People decide to build this huge tower to reach to heaven. God is not excited about this and so he decides to confuse their language. Next, we go back to the business of lineage and come to see how one goes from Shem to Abram. Chapter 12 - Abram is introduced with a covenant from God [talk about an entrance]. This is one of the most important chapters in the Bible. Also, there's a famine in the land, so Abram goes to Egypt for food. While he's there he lies and tells Pharaoh that Sarai, his wife, is his sister because he's afraid Pharaoh will kill him and try to take her if he doesn't. Chapter 13 - Abram and Lot [his nephew] go their separate ways to help nip a family feud in the bud. Lot picks the good land. Chapter 14 - There is some sort of huge war going on, Lot gets caught up in it and Abram comes to his rescue. Sometime shortly after, Melchizadek, priest of the God Most High, appears with bread and wine. And there is some foreshadowing in regards to tithe. Chapter 15 - Again, God promises to bless Abram and his offspring [the ones he doesn't have yet]. Abram asks how and God answers by putting him in a deep dark sleep and telling him about the horrors of slavery that his ancestors will inevitably have to face. Chapter 16 - Here we find out that Sarai is barren and antsy. She has her servant sleep with Abram to bear his seed. It all blows up in her face. Hagar, her servant, despises her, Sarai is jealous and abuses Hagar [and blames Abram]. Hagar runs away but God comforts her and tells her to go back. He gives her a name for her son and says he will be a "wild donkey of a man". We end here, with the birth of Ishmael. Abram is 86.

It's 2:27am. I don't have to be up super early tomorrow, but I'm going to have to work on starting earlier if I want to still blog on mornings where I do. I told Jermaine how this whole thing was progressing so far and he gave me friendly warning about length. I promise to try to keep things as short and sweet as possible [after this blog, of course].

Now for the fun part, tho.

Every time I crack open Genesis I encounter a deep longing to close my eyes and have the story read to me. Rob Bell takes this image further in his book Jesus Wants to Save Christians as he invites his readers to picture a campfire scene and a young girl asking for someone to tell the story of how the world began. Her uncle pipes up, "In the beginning . . . " I can see it all vividly. The Bible was originally intended to be heard and not seen. It began as a story passed down from generation to generation. I love my Bible [dearly!] - I love marking in it and pouring over it and pulling it out to reference some obscure passage that's on my mind. But, still, I think, as with many things so readily available in our modern society, we've lost something. A little bit of magic.

One of the coolest things from chapter 2 - we're made from dust and the breath of God.

I looked up "sons of God" and Nephilim in the Apologetics Study Bible. KJV popularized translating Nephilim as "giants" [as opposed to just tall people]. The sons of God could refer to a barbaric warrior class of people or Seth's chosen descendants intermarrying with the wicked Canaanite women [ pg. 15].


What's up with Noah getting drunk and then cursing his grandson [who had nothing to do with it]? I always thought he'd cursed his son. He's the one who saw him naked [btw - if you saw someone naked back in the OT, shame on you - not them]!

One of my secret ridiculous ambitions is to learn all of the languages in the world. But it seems a little too tower of Babelish, right?

I love how the priest Melchizadek is thrown into this random war scene in Chapter 14 and is all about sitting back and chillaxing with bread and wine. I think [I don't want to read into it but I think I've heard this before] that there is some definite communion foreshadowing going on here.

In the covenant with Abram, God says God is Abram's "very great reward". I just love that. Also, important to note he was blessed to be a blessing vessel. I think that's the big picture idea for us - we get blessed to bless. God is a freaking genius.

Whoa, "wild donkey of a man"?! Hagar seems way comforted, but I don't know about you, if God told me that about my son, I don't think I'd feel better.

I marked these pages all up and there is more I could ponder, but enough is enough, right? And this is enough.

Night!

Ooh - almost forgot [actually I did forget - this is an edit] - tomorrow's reading: Genesis 17:1 - 28:22. :)