Tag: shem

Walk of faith

Dancing in the Kingdom- Table of Contents

Dancing In the Kingdom – Part 1 – Shadows of the Kingdom – Chapter 5– Patriarchs

Walk of faith

[Bible references: Genesis 12:1-20; 15:1-6; 16:1-5; 17:1-14; 20:1-13; 22:1-18; 24:7; 28:16; 50:24; Romans 4:9; Hebrews 11:17]

Sometime after the scattering of nations, from the line of Shem and Noah, Yahweh called a man named Abram to leave his country in the Euphrates River Valley and go to a land “I will show you.” As Abram left his home country, at the age of seventy-five, God promised not only to bless Abram and his descendants but to bless the entire world though Abram. Despite his occasional failures, Abram (later named Abraham) is noted for his faith because he believed God and showed this by being obedient in following God’s instructions even when they didn’t make sense.

When Yahweh called Abram to journey to another land, we don’t know what particular experience Abram and brother and father had with Yahweh, but Genesis 24 and 31 indicates that they all knew of knew of Yahweh, even if they thought of Yahweh as one of many gods.[1] Even so, Abram must have had great faith when he took that journey to the Promised Land?[2] Then after Abram arrived in the Promised Land, what further questions may Abram have had when he experienced a deep drought in that same land, such that he needed to take a brief trip to Egypt?

After Yahweh told Abram, that he would make a great nation from him, Abram initially expressed his faith by his obedience when he took that journey to the Promised land. Again, when Yahweh showed him the stars and told him that his descendants would be as numerous as those stars, Abram believed, and Yahweh credited that to him as righteousness. Then Yahweh reiterated the promise again when Abram was 99 years old and changed Abram’s name (which meant exalted father) to Abraham (father of many nations).

God told Abraham that a great nation would come out of him and Sarah. Yet, this did not look promising when the only son born to Abraham and Sarah was Isaac who was not even born until Abraham was one hundred years old and Sarah was ninety. No wonder that Isaac was given a name that means “laughter.”

[1] Garris, Zachary. “Did Abraham Worship Yahweh Before His Call in Genesis 12?” Knowing Scripture knowingscripture.com/articles/did-abraham-worship-yahweh-before-his-call-in-genesis-12

[2] Although the term “Promised Land” is not used directly as the place of where Abram and his descendants were called to settle down in, there are several references to the “land that is promised you.”

Observe

Read Genesis 12:1-20. This renowned Patriarch of faith, Abram, believed Yahweh, and left his homeland to some destination that Yahweh would show to him. When Abram arrived at the place Yahweh led him to, he built an altar and set up his tent. Good start at a life of faith. Sometime afterwards, Abraham winds up in Egypt where he is now afraid for his life and asks his beautiful wife Sarah to say that she’s his sister instead of his wife, so that they people won’t kill him to get her. This does lead to complications we won’t discuss here but just to point out that we, never mind Abram, are subject to a wavering faith. Do you have incidents in your life where your faith wavered?

Nations form from descendants of Noah’s sons

Dancing in the Kingdom- Table of Contents

Dancing In the Kingdom – Part 1 – Shadows of the Kingdom – Chapter 1 – Prelude

[Bible references: Genesis 6-11]                                       

Following the introduction of sin into the world, the rebellion of God increased to the point where God saw fit to destroy all of mankind apart from Noah and his family with a great flood.[1] After the flood, the rebellion continued in the form of the tower of Babel where people saw fit to make a name for themselves instead of lifting up God. God responded by confusing their languages which caused them to spread out, and ultimately form different nations.

In general, the descendants of Japheth include the Europeans; the descendants of Shem include the Middle Easterners (including the nation of Israel), and the descendants of Ham includes the Africans, the Amorites and the Canaanites.

[1] Ball, Steven. “A Christian Physicist Examines Noah’s Flood and Plate Tectonics” LeTourneau University http://www.letu.edu/academics/arts-and-sciences/files/plate-tectonics.pdf; McDonald, David.  “The Flood: Mesopotamian Archaeological Evidence” National Center for Science Education ncse.ngo/flood-mesopotamian-archaeological-evidence; Trefil, James. “Evidence for a Flood” Smithsonian Magazine http://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/evidence-for-a-flood-102813115; Isaak, Mark. “Flood stories from around the World” Talk Origins http://www.talkorigins.org/pdf/flood-myths.pdf “There is still some uncertainty about how to correlate the current understanding of the Biblical text with modern archaeology. There is some evidence of a local flood in the Mesopotamian area or in the Black Sea area. There is also abundant evidence of flood stories from around the world.”

Observe

Read Genesis 10 then find a map that show how the nations spread out. (e.g. www.columbiabible.com/2016/06/22/genesis). From which of Noah’s sons might you have descended from?