Tag Archives: Genesis

It’s Life or Death

Quiet time with Jesus this morning was fast and furious. Some days it’s slow, quiet, and contemplative. Not today. A few days ago I felt led to return to the book of Genesis. It’s a well read, well underlined, highlighted, circled book in my bible, but I was sure that God would say something fresh from it. I was not wrong. Let’s get to it.

 The Lord God made all kinds of trees grow out of the ground—trees that were pleasing to the eye and good for food. In the middle of the garden were the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. (Genesis 2:9)

A planting from God in the center of man’s world, from the very beginning. Adam, and all who would come after him would continually be confronted with a choice—life or death, and the loving command of God to choose life.

“This day I call the heavens and the earth as witnesses against you that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life, so that you and your children may live and that you may love the Lord your God, listen to His voice, and hold fast to Him.” (Deuteronomy 30:19-20)

“The Spirit gives life; the flesh counts for nothing. The words I have spoken to you—they are full of the Spirit and life.” (John 6:63)

From one end of the Bible to the other runs a continual theme. Choose God’s way and live, or choose our own way and find death.

“There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way of death” (Proverbs 14:12)

After four hundred years of silence between the prophet Malachi and the Gospels, God spoke the same refrain. Choose life or choose death.

“For God so loved the world that he gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life.” (John 3:16)

“Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.” (John 14:6)

But the choice before us isn’t only about heaven or hell. Every day we face small decisions that either breathe life into something or slowly choke it out.

Choosing spiritual apathy will bring death to zeal and passion. But if we will choose the pursuit of God, and zeal for His house, it will bring life to our souls and life to the Church.

Choosing offense and bitterness suffocates forgiveness and restoration—and eventually the relationship itself. But choosing God’s way of grace, mercy, and forgiveness brings life back into our own hearts and breathes new life into relationships that were being threatened with death.

Every time we choose our own way over God’s way, death comes to something. In the center of our existence the choice has been planted, and we must decide the way we will choose to walk. Life, or death.

Jesus or the world. Our own flesh and emotions or obedience to God. Offense that leads to a bitter heart, or forgiveness that heals and restores. The pull of apathy or the call to a “one thing” heart posture, a continual pursuit of the heart and ways of God, and a zeal for Him and His house, the Church.

Choose you this day…

Questions to ask and things to ponder:

  • In the abundance of choices that I make every day, how many of them bring death instead of life?
  • In the big picture of how I live my life, am I choosing life?
  • How can I begin to speak and/or pray life over the people I love?

Genesis 50—Let It Pass

“When the days of mourning had passed… “

Jacob died and the mourning began, because loss almost always has mourning to keep it company. And we all have loss.

Loss of loved ones. Loss of love. Loss of what we thought our life would be. Loss of time and chances, both frittered away before we knew they were there.

Mourning comes to us all because loss comes to us all.

And then the days of mourning pass, and we must let them.

But before they pass, God will keep His promise – “Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.” (Matthew 5:4)

“And the Egyptians mourned for him seventy days.

So Joseph went up to bury his father. All Pharaoh’s officials accompanied him—the dignitaries of his court and all the dignitaries of Egypt… Chariots and horsemen also went up with him. It was a very large company.”

Joseph did not mourn the loss of Jacob alone. Nor are we ever intended to mourn alone. No matter what kind of loss we are experiencing, we are part of the family of God, and He teaches us to be with one another, including in our places of loss and mourning. We can experience the comfort of God when we are alone with Him, but we experience it in a very tangible and extended way when we allow His people into our mourning.

If you are mourning a loss of some kind today, let people in. Let the comfort of God blanket you through the comfort of His children.

And when the time of mourning has passed, let it pass. God has life for you on the other side of loss.

This concludes our time in the book of Genesis. Oh, not that there isn’t so much more we could talk about from this amazing beginning! We will run out of time before we could exhaust the riches of this book. But for now, I’m going to move on to the book of Exodus and see what God might speak to me there. Whatever it is, I will surely share it with you, because I just can’t help myself.


Genesis 49—The Struggle

What struck me first in this chapter were the words in verse 2:

“Come together and listen, sons of Jacob; listen to your father Israel.”

He referred to himself with both names – the one he was born with, and the one God gave him.

The name Jacob means supplanter (one who purposely takes over, or takes the place of someone else). However, the literal translation of Jacob’s name at birth was “He grasped the heel”.

“After this, his brother came out grasping Esau’s heel with his hand. So he was named Jacob.”

In essence, Jacob did not let go of Esau until he had supplanted Esau’s position as first born, by gaining both Esau’s birthright, and his blessing.

The name Israel means he struggled with God. And it was after Jacob’s wrestling match with God (Genesis 32) that God changed his name from Jacob to Israel, saying “Your name will no longer be Jacob,” He said. “It will be Israel because you have struggled with God and with men and have prevailed.” He prevailed in his struggle with God by refusing to let go until he had received the blessing he was after.

And so all of this is swirling in my mind and I begin to wonder…

I know who I was before I encountered Jesus, and I know who I am since. It’s been a lot of years in the learning, but I do know who and how God has called me to be. But I still struggle from time to time between who I was and who I am. I bet you have that struggle too.

This chapter in Genesis is about waaay more than that, but this is what caught my eye, and what I think God wanted to speak to me about on this particular day. A gentle reminder that who I was is not who I am. An invitation to see the difference, and marvel at the work of God in my life, and to be thankful, even in the struggle. But there is something else I’m seeing as well –

Jacob took his blessing from man, living up to the meaning of his name. But he received a new name because he held on in the struggle for his blessing from God.

Hold on. Don’t let go of God, no matter what. Don’t settle for the blessings of men. It’s worth the limp you may have by holding on for God’s blessing in your life. And one final thought-

What I can take in this life pales in light of what I can receive from God when I choose to not let go of Him.

Genesis 48—When the Prayer Changes

“Jacob said to Joseph, “God Almighty appeared to me at Luz in the land of Canaan and blessed me. He said to me, ‘I will make you fruitful and numerous; I will make many nations come from you, and I will give this land as a permanent possession to your future descendants.'” (Genesis 48:3)

This is so similar to what God said to Abraham, and then to Isaac.

“And to you [Abraham] and your future offspring I will give the land where you are residing—all the land of Canaan—as a permanent possession, and I will be their God.” (Genesis 17:8)

“For I will give all these lands to you [Isaac] and your offspring, and I will confirm the oath that I swore to your father Abraham.” (Genesis 26:3)

It was right here, in the book of Genesis, that I learned that God is generational. That in the same way He has been faithful to me, He will be faithful to my children and to their children. I understood, on a much deeper level, that those coming after me could know God, know His goodness and His mercy and His love, just as I had come to know them.

“I will be with you, just as I was with Moses. I will not leave you or abandon you.” (Joshua 1:5)

The revelation of this part of God’s character changed how I prayed for my family. There is a boldness, borne out of confidence in the truth of His Word, that begins to rest on your prayer life when you know that He desires for your children and their children the same thing He desired to do in you.

I believe that if you stopped random people on the street and asked them what they wanted most for their children, the majority of them would say “I want them to be happy.” We all want good things for our children – happiness, good health, good education, financial security, good job, good friends – all the things that will benefit and help them in life.

But most of the things we want for them will not follow them into eternity.

The greatest desire that I have for my children and their children is that they would know God the way I have known Him, and even more. That they would know His faithfulness to them, His goodness toward them, His mercy, grace, love, and the incredible peace that comes from trusting in Him above any other, including themselves. That desire becomes my prayer life for them, because of the revelation that it is the same desire that dwells in His heart.

But, as we pray, we also must obey…

“Only take care, and keep your soul diligently, lest you forget the things that your eyes have seen, and lest they depart from your heart all the days of your life. Make them known to your children and your children’s children—” (Dueteronomy 4:9)

We cannot just let our Sundays at church, our kindness to others, or our prayers over our food be the extent of our children’s vision of God. Those are things they see us do, but unless we tell them, they will not know the things God has done. We must testify to our children so that they can know that He is faithful, even before they have seen it in their own lives.

Tell them that His covenant with you is also for them.

Genesis 47—Blessed, But Not Home

Then Joseph settled his father and brothers in the land of Egypt and gave them property in the best part of the land, the land of Rameses, as Pharaoh had commanded. And Joseph provided his father, his brothers, and all his father’s family with food for their dependents. Genesis 47:11-12

There was no reason that Jacob and his sons should have received so much favor and blessing from Pharaoh. He did not have to welcome them into Egypt, treat them with kindness, assign them the best part of the land, or feed them. Yet, there it was. Blessing after blessing coming to those who had done nothing to merit them. In fact, Joseph’s brothers are being blessed in spite of all they had done to deserve contempt.

{The older I get, the more I recognize the many unmerited blessings of God that have overflowed in my life.}

“Buy us and our land in exchange for food. Then we with our land will become Pharaoh’s slaves.” Genesis 47:19

The story moves away from Jacob and his family in verses 13 – 26 as we watch the people of Egypt give everything they have in exchange for the life sustaining food that Joseph would give them. In his God-given wisdom, he had prepared far in advance for the famine that would come, making him a resource of life to people who would have otherwise died of starvation. We can also see that Joseph was shrewd enough to use food as an opportunity to enrich Pharoah. Over the course of two, possibly three years, Joseph took all of the silver, livestock, and then the land. And finally, he made the people to be servants of Pharoah. It’s quite the story and it speaks to me of preparedness. Joseph prepared, because he knew what was coming. The people were unprepared, because they had no idea what was coming.

{I know a storm is coming. Whether it is the end times or not, something is coming. Am I prepared? Is my faith, my trust in God, strong enough to stand? Am I living in truth, or in compromise? Will I be able to be a resource of life for those who are unprepared?}

This chapter concludes with a request from Jacob of Joseph –

“Do not bury me in Egypt. When I rest with my ancestors, carry me away from Egypt and bury me in their burial place.” Genesis 47:29

And here is the final thought that lays on my heart from this chapter: Even though Jacob was now in a place of blessing, he knew it wasn’t home, and home is where he longed to go when his life was over.

{As I count the abundance of blessings in my life on this earth, I must guard against feeling at home here. I want my heart to be filled with a longing for my true home.}

“But they now desire a better place—a heavenly one. Therefore, God is not ashamed to be called their God, for He has prepared a city for them.” Hebrews 11:16

Genesis 46—In Difficulty, the Promise

It started with a promise to make one man into many. (Abraham – Genesis 12:2)

It continued with the same promise to Issac. (Genesis 26:4)

Finally, the promise of “many” would also come to Jacob (Genesis 28:14), and is reestablished here, in verse 4.

And now, over 200 years after the covenant was made with Abraham, the “many” belonging to Jacob, were heading into Egypt, numbering about 70.

Roughly 430 years later, they would be brought up from there as 600,000 men, plus their families (Exodus 12:37). They had been an enslaved and oppressed people, living as aliens in a foreign land, just as God said they would when He made the covenant with Abraham (Genesis 15:13).

God’s covenant promise came to pass during a long season of great difficulty.

And this is what I learn of God today – He is utterly faithful to keep His Word, but He is not faithful to keep my expectations of what it will look like.

We are being saved, and we will be resurrected. The Church will be presented without blemish. Weeping will cease. Evil will be vanquished. Christ will return. There will be a new heaven and a new earth.

Perhaps, we too are in a long season of great difficulty that is leading to the promise of God.

May we persevere. Continue in the faith. Keep doing what we’ve been called to do, even while we cry out “Come, Lord Jesus.” Let us not turn from the work of the Kingdom, or from our King, taken by surprise with the great difficulties that have come. They are part of the promise, so let us stand firm.

“Blessed is the man who remains steadfast under trial, for when he has stood the test he will receive the crown of life, which God has promised to those who love Him.” (James 1:12)

Marriage Matters—Look for the Sin

After seeing my parents’ marriage fail, and then my first marriage fail, I just wasn’t a fan. But I gave it a second go anyway, only to prove to myself that I was right – marriage is not a good thing. At least for me. God changed my opinion, but it took a long minute.

Allow me, if you will, to share some of what God showed me that helped me see marriage with much kinder eyes.

A number of things happened as a result of that infamous bite of forbidden fruit in the Garden of Eden. Sin affected first, man’s relationship with God – “But the Lord God called to the man, “Where are you?” He answered, “I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid.” (Genesis 3:9-10), and then, the marriage relationship – “Your desire will be for your husband, and he will rule over you.” (vs 16). From there, the effect of sin in our relationships would spread to their children, as seen in Cain and Abel.

Sin will always affect the relationships of the one who entertains it. We never sin in isolation.

When I look into the scriptures, I come away with this conclusion –

Marriage is not the problem. Husbands are not the problem. Wives are not the problem.

Sin is the problem in our relationships. God made a good thing when He created husbands, wives, and marriage. We are the ones who make them hard and painful, and sin is what we use to do that.

Jesus has made restoration possible, between us and God, and between us and one another. But walking in healthy, thriving relationships, both divine and human, means that we become ruthless with our own sin. It means we become experts at repentence. Instead of focuing our attention on what our spouse is doing wrong, we’ve got to become really good at examining our own hearts, our own thoughts, and our own actions, in the light of scripture. Where is the sin in me?

“Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my concerns. See if there is any offensive way in me; lead me in the way everlasting.…” (Psalm 139:23-24)

That’s what it takes. A “search ME” way of living in relationship with others.

Marriage is good. Sin makes it hard. Be quick to look for it, quick to repent of it, and quick to forgive it in others. It will change the game, if you’re willing to do it.