The Devotional Journey: Bible Reading 15
Will Abraham trust Yahweh?
Read Genesis 22:1–24.
Yahweh asked Abraham to do something very shocking and unusual. He told Abraham to sacrifice his son, Isaac. This meant to place Isaac on an altar and kill him as an offering to God. This was a startling instruction to receive from Yahweh.
Additionally, it was also shocking because after the global Flood, Yahweh had put in place capital punishment for murder. He told Noah how much He valued the lives of all people as every human was made in His image. And so, He did not want anyone to be murdered.
What was also surprising was that Yahweh had promised Abraham a son and through this miraculously born son, He would fulfil the promises He had made to Abraham. But now God told Abraham to kill Isaac, his teenage son. What was going on?
The Bible said Yahweh did this to test Abraham. How much did Abraham trust God? Abraham already trusted God for salvation. But how much did he trust God in daily life? For this to be a real test, it had to be something difficult for Abraham to do. Yet, we see that Abraham obeyed immediately and without protest. Abraham passed the test! He showed He had great faith in God even when God asked for something so shocking. Abraham had years of walking with God and He knew God’s character, that He was always good, just and in control.
In Hebrews 11:17–19, we are told more of Abraham’s thinking during this incident.
Hebrews 11:17–19
[17] It was by faith that Abraham offered Isaac as a sacrifice when God was testing him. Abraham, who had received God’s promises, was ready to sacrifice his only son, Isaac, [18] even though God had told him, “Isaac is the son through whom your descendants will be counted.” [19] Abraham reasoned that if Isaac died, God was able to bring him back to life again. And in a sense, Abraham did receive his son back from the dead.
Abraham knew Yahweh and His power. He knew God had miraculously provided Isaac and He intended to provide many descendants through Isaac. So if Isaac were to die as a sacrifice, Abraham knew God was more than capable of bringing Isaac back to life so that His promises would be fulfilled. What understanding and trust Abraham had in Yahweh! When we have a right understanding of God, we can also have peace even when God is asking us to do something difficult. We trust in God’s character and can therefore obey.
Isaac also had great faith. He was a teenager at this time. He was strong enough to carry all the wood for the sacrifice. If he wanted to, he could have broken free from his aged father. But he didn't. Instead, he allowed himself to be tied up and placed on the altar. He too, trusted Yahweh.
But Abraham did not have to sacrifice Isaac in the end because once he showed He had faith in Yahweh, God called out to him not to harm Isaac. Instead, God provided a ram as a substitute for Abraham to sacrifice. Isaac lived because the ram died in his place.
Some people might wonder how God could have been so cruel to put Abraham through such a heart-wrenching test. Yet, let’s compare Abraham as a father and Yahweh as a Father.
Yahweh saved the life of Abraham’s precious son. But Yahweh Himself gave up the life of His precious son, Jesus, for all mankind.
Abraham’s son, Isaac, did not die that day because God provided a ram for the sacrifice. But Yahweh’s Son, Jesus, died. There was no ram substitute for Him because He was the necessary substitute Lamb for all mankind.
Let’s thank God for loving all of us so much that He put Himself through the heartache of seeing His only Son die on the cross to pay for our sins. He willingly did this so that we and all our believing loved ones won’t need to suffer eternal death and separation from God.
Let us never take God’s great love and Jesus’ great sacrifice for granted. Instead, let our hearts and our lips overflow with thanksgiving to Yahweh.
The Devotional Journey: Bible Reading 14
Yahweh provides the promised son
Read Genesis 21:1–34.
We finally read about the birth of Isaac. Yahweh’s promise of a son for Abraham and Sarah was finally fulfilled! God supernaturally provided a son even though Sarah was long past her childbearing years. There was no mistaking God’s hand in this.
As instructed, they named the son Isaac, which means “he laughs”. Originally, God had told Abraham to give the promised son this name because Abraham had laughed in disbelief when God had announced Isaac’s birth. So his name would be a constant reminder of that faithless moment in their lives.
But now Sarah brought fresh meaning to her son’s name. She said that everyone who sees Isaac will laugh in joy with her for gaining a son in her old age. Even when her faith was weak, it did not impact God’s ability to deliver on His promises!
But not every one was happy. Ishmael, now 16 or 17 years old, mocked Isaac. As a result, Sarah wanted to get rid of Ishmael and Hagar. This caused distress to the whole family. This was another reminder of the consequences of sin and not waiting for God to fulfil His plans according to His way and at His timing. (Recall that having a child through Hagar had been Sarah’s idea.)
But God allowed Sarah to send Hagar and Ishmael away. This was because Ishmael was not part of God’s overall plan to work through the promised son of Abraham. But Abraham was concerned for Ishmael and so God promised Abraham that He would take care of Ishmael. After all, Ishmael was Abraham’s son.
Yahweh told Abraham that from Ishmael would also come a nation of people. We again see how gentle and kind God is to care for Hagar and Ishmael even though they were sent away. In fact, Hagar’s life turned out this way due to the poor choices made by Sarah and Abraham years before. But Yahweh is sovereign, He is all-powerful. He never loses control of the world. He is able to rescue a situation despite the poor choices of people.
The people living in the land could see that Yahweh was with Abraham and was blessing him. Two of them, Abimelech and his army commander Phicol, both Philistines (another people group) came to see Abraham to talk about making a contract between them. They wanted to make sure that there would be peace between Abraham and them. This contract allowed Abraham to settle in the land in peace. Abraham named the area Beersheba. (This is an example of a person-to-person contract in the Bible.)
In today’s reading, we see that Yahweh looked after Abraham, Hagar, Ishmael as well as Abimelech, who was happy to make peace with Abraham.
When God made Abraham promises, He not just fulfilled them, He continued caring for and looking after Abraham and those around him.
God wants us to know what kind of a divine Person He is. Is this a God whom you can trust? What do you think? Tell God how you feel about Him today based on what you have read about His character.
Archaeological Note
Tel Be’er Sheva excavations. Photo by gugganij, CC BY-SA 3.0, Wikimedia Commons.
Beersheba is 48 miles (77 km) southwest of Jerusalem. Abraham and Isaac both settled there for part of their lives (Genesis 21:31–34, 26:23–33). Beginning in 1969, the ruins of the small city were excavated by Yohanan Aharoni for the Institute of Archaeology of Tel Aviv University and the remains of many wells have been found. Today, the modern city is just one mile west of the archaeological site.
The Devotional Journey: Bible Reading 13
Yahweh judges two wicked cities
Read Genesis 18:16–19:38.
Today’s reading is full of action. We read about a negotiation between Yahweh and Abraham, supernatural happenings, homosexuality, fierce judgment and incest.
After having lunch with Abraham, Yahweh first sent ahead the two angels who were with Him while He stayed on with Abraham. He told Abraham that the complaints about the evil people in two cities, Sodom and Gomorrah, were so great that He was going to deal with the people of the cities.
Actually, Yahweh did not need to tell Abraham any of this. After all, He is the Creator-Owner-Ruler of the universe and He can do anything He wants without reporting it to anyone. But like an intimate friend, God revealed His heart to Abraham. And He invited and allowed Abraham to speak to Him about the situation.
This is the kind of close, personal relationship God wants to have with each of us as well, not just with Abraham. God wants to reveal things to us. He wants to teach us more about Himself. And He wants to hear our thoughts about what He tells us! This kind of personal interaction results in us growing in our relationship and understanding of Him. It shows how God wants us to talk to Him (that is, pray) about our lives and the lives of others.
Meanwhile, the two angels had gone on ahead to Sodom, where Lot, Abraham’s nephew now lived. Yahweh knew that Abraham when negotiating with Him, he was thinking of Lot and his family in the city. So the angels went to look for Lot.
But the city was full of wickedness and homosexual activity. The men in the city demanded to have sex with the two angels, whom they thought were human visitors. Some people today think that homosexual acts are something recent. But we see that the Bible records people engaging in such acts right from the early days of the world.
Lot’s attempt to protect the angelic visitors reflected the hosting culture of the time, where as the host, he had to protect his guests. How he risked his safety showed his righteous character. But how he went as far as to offer his daughters to the men of the city in a foolish attempt to protect his guests showed the influence of Sodom’s wicked culture on him.
The angels supernaturally struck the men with blindness and told Lot and his family to get out of the city. Notice how the angels insisted that Lot get out of the city before God judged it. Lot believed in Yahweh, and God would not destroy the righteous along with the wicked. We see that Lot was probably the only one who was righteous in all of Sodom. His soon-to-be sons-in-laws and even his wife, were reluctant to leave the wicked city.
But we see that having lived in such a wicked city, Lot’s two daughters had become influenced by the culture of Sodom. Even though God saved their lives, they didn’t have God’s morals and values. Now, living alone with Lot, they decided that the only way to have descendants was to make their father drunk and have sex with him in order to become pregnant. God was showing how the thinking of Lot’s daughters had become so corrupted and evil. The pagan culture they lived in had shaped the way they thought. This warns us that we have to be careful about the influences in our lives.
Today, we live in a world that is very challenging. But we can be encouraged with two truths.
First, God wants to reveal things to us and relate to us as personally as He did with Abraham. In fact, He planned it such that we have His written Word, the Bible, with us all the time! We allow Him to reveal things to us when we read the Bible. And He hears what we are thinking when we pray to Him. It’s such a privilege that Yahweh wants to have such a close relationship with us! Let us be diligent in reading God’s Word and praying to Him about what we’ve read, about our lives and for the lives of others.
Second, God will always save the righteous. It seems that Lot was the only righteous person living in those cities. And God ensured that He was safe before sending the judgment meant for the evil people of the cities. We can be certain that because we have put our faith in Him, that He has saved us and will ensure we will be with Him for all eternity. Let us thank God for that today.
The Devotional Journey: Bible Reading 12
Abram and Sarai take matters into their own hands
Read Genesis 16:1–16.
Many years earlier, Yahweh had promised that Abram and Sarai would have a son. And now, 13 years after Ishmael was born through Hagar, God appeared to Abram again to tell him that in the next year, Sarai and he would have their own biological son.
Abram laughed to himself in disbelief when he heard this, for he was thinking in terms of human limitations. At this point, he was already 99 years old and Sarai was 90; she was way past menopause. Humanly speaking, there was no way that Sarai could conceive a child!
He tried to convince Yahweh to work His plan through Ishmael but God did not accept Abram’s idea. He was showing Abram and Sarai once more just who He is. He was going to do something supernatural and miraculous for them. Nothing is impossible with God. Abram should have realised who was speaking to him.
So Yahweh told Abram that when their son was born, they were to name him Isaac. This Hebrew name means “He laughs”. It was like a gentle rebuke to Abram’s lack of faith in God. Every time he called his son, Abram would be reminded of this moment when he didn’t trust God.
In addition, Yahweh also changed Abram’s and Sarai’s names. He said that Abram would now be called “Abraham”, which meant “father of many nations”. And Sarai’s name would now be “Sarah”, which meant “mother of many”. He wanted their very names to reflect His promise to Abram that he would have many descendants. Abraham and Sarah would have to use their new names by faith.
Yahweh also instructed Abraham to circumcise every male in his household. Circumcision was the procedure of cutting away the foreskin of the male organ. Why did God ask for this? He wanted all of Abraham’s male descendants to have a visible, outward sign that they were part of the contract that God had made with Abraham. God wanted them to take seriously their responsibility to raise godly children so that as a nation, they could bring the message of salvation to the whole world.
Some people wonder why God instructed that circumcision of newborn boys be performed on the eighth day. Modern medical science has discovered that on the eighth day, a baby’s level of prothrombin, a protein that helps in blood clotting, is at its highest level in the baby. This is important to prevent the baby from bleeding to death from the procedure of circumcision.
Even though God did not explain this to Abraham, He had designed and created all mankind and so He knows best how to take care of mankind! Isn’t that amazing? God really cares about even the smallest details of mankind’s needs.
Think about how kind God is as we ponder this incident. God was going to keep His promise that Abram and Sarai would have their own biological son even though the couple couldn’t believe it. Yahweh was showing them that He really is God. He can do anything. And He keeps all His promises, fulfilling them at the right time. This is the God whom we worship.
Do you feel that a problem in your life is humanly impossible to overcome? Perhaps you are right… humanly speaking, it is impossible. But know that your God is not limited. Nothing is impossible with Him.
Open your heart to share your anxieties and concerns with Him. Hand over your situation to Him. He is Creator-Owner-Ruler God of the universe. He has all the resources available to help you.
Speak to Him in prayer and allow Him to share His thoughts with you about your situation. Just as He cares about the smallest details of life (like performing circumcision on the baby’s eighth day), He cares for every small detail in your life. With every problem, you have an opportunity to experience God working in your life.
The Devotional Journey: Bible Reading 11
Abram and Sarai take matters into their own hands
Read Genesis 16:1–16.
In today’s reading, we see where the Arabs came from. Yahweh had told Abram that he would have a son. But after waiting 10 years, Sarai, Abram’s wife, grew impatient. Bearing children in their culture was very important as it ensured the continuity of the family. In Abram’s situation, it was even more important as having many descendants was one of Yahweh’s covenant promises to him. But he still had no children after all this time.
And so, Sarai thought of a solution. Following the acceptable custom of the times (though not God’s idea at all), Sarai gave her maid, Hagar, to her husband as a wife. If Abram were able to have a child with Hagar, the child would be considered Sarai’s because Hagar was her servant.
Once Hagar became pregnant, there was conflict between the two women. And Hagar ran away from Sarai who had become abusive towards her.
Yahweh heard and also saw Hagar in her pain and suffering, and He was incredibly gentle to her. He approached Hagar and comforted her. God told Hagar to name her child “Ishmael”, which means “God hears”. He had heard Hagar’s misery. And Hagar called God “the One who sees me”.
But notice God called Hagar “Sarai’s servant”. He did not recognise her as Abram’s wife even though Sarai had given Hagar to Abram. In God’s eyes, Sarai was Abram’s wife.
Actually, Yahweh also heard the cry of Abram’s and Sarai’s hearts for a child. If only they had cried out to Him instead of been impatient.
Ishmael became the ancestor of a great tribe of wild, hostile people living in the Arabian desert. And down through history, they have been hostile towards the Jews, who were also descendants of Abraham through his yet-to-be-born son, Isaac.
Abram and Sarai were impatient and took matters into their own hands. They failed to trust that God would give them a child who would be their biological child. Their human attempt at getting a child led to trouble. Till today, the Jews and Arabs (Ishmael’s descendants) are hostile towards each other.
What could Abram and Sarai have done differently?
They could have been patient, trusting that God was waiting for the right time to fulfil His promise.
They could have cried to God, as Hagar did. God showed that He heard Hagar’s cry. He would have also heard Abram and Sarai if they had cried to Him in their sorrow while waiting for their promised child.
When Yahweh makes a promise, He will fulfil it, but at His timing. His track record as written in the Bible shows that He is not flippant or casual about His words and promises. He is always serious about His words and He means what He says.
Often, when we try to help God out, we tend to make a mess of things. It’s hard to be patient when God’s timing doesn’t suit our liking. But we need to recognise that God is never slow or late. And He is never in a hurry. His timing is always perfect.
Part of the wait is the opportunity to learn patience. And we certainly need to practise patience while we wait for God to fulfil what He said He will do.
Are you going through any sorrow or challenge? God hears and sees you. Talk to Him about what is heavy on your heart. And wait expectantly for how He will respond. He is a God who hears you, sees you and loves you.
The Devotional Journey: Bible Reading 10
Yahweh makes a covenant with Abraham
Read Genesis 15:1–21.
In Genesis 14, Abram had rescued Lot who had been captured when he was caught up in the midst of a tribal battle between two warring factions, with four kings fighting against five. Perhaps Abraham was concerned there would be a counterattack for here in Genesis 15, Yahweh reassured Abram that He would continue to protect Abram and provide abundantly for him. But Abram pointed out that He remained childless. Whatever wealth God blessed Abram with would not benefit his family since he still had no children! Instead, the wealth would be passed to Eliezer, his chief servant, when he died.
But Yahweh reassured Abram that He would provide a son as He had promised. And to prove He was very serious about this, God instructed Abram to bring a set of animals and cut them in half. Yahweh was going to sign a contract, or covenant, with Abram, by following the common custom of the time. God asked Abram to cut the animals in half (but not the birds as they were too small) and then to arrange them over a trench so that the animals’ blood flowed into the trench. Then the parties of the contract would sign it by walking in the blood, between the animal halves.
The oath they were making was this: “May I also be cut in half like these animals if I fail to keep my promises in this contract.”
In this case, the promises were the ones Yahweh had made to Abram of land, descendants and that his family would be a worldwide blessing to all the nations. Only God “walked” between the animal halves by sending a smoking firepot and flaming torch to represent His glory down the trench. Abram didn’t move as Yahweh had put him into a deep sleep. But in a vision, Abram saw God “sign” this contract.
Yahweh was officially promising to fulfil His promises to Abram through a formal contract. God was putting Himself under a curse if He failed to deliver. God wanted Abram to be very confident that He would fulfil all the promises, particularly the one about having descendants.
What kind of God is this who would inconvenience Himself by placing Himself under contract? He is the God who wants people to know Him and His character, and by knowing Him well, to be able to trust all His words and promises. That’s why He was willing to let His actions be monitored through a contract.
This contract that Yahweh signed has become known as the Abrahamic Covenant. It is called an unconditional contract because only Yahweh signed it, meaning He is the only One with promises to fulfil. Yahweh placed no conditions on Abram and his descendants to do anything or meet any criteria before He would fulfil the covenant promises. This was very reassuring for it meant that the promises of the covenant would not depend on Abram or his descendants’ behaviour.
This covenant was very important, not just for Abram, but for the whole world too. Why? Because, God had promised to deliver a worldwide blessing through Abram and his family. We will see when God reveals more, that this worldwide blessing includes the Saviour of the world, Jesus, who would come as a descendant of Abram. So it is critical that Yahweh’s covenant promises can be relied upon because all of mankind is dependent on God fulfilling His plan for the world.
How well do we know God? Do we know what His character is like? Do we know if He can be trusted? For example, Jesus says in John 6:47, “I tell you the truth, anyone who believes has eternal life.” Are we able to be believe His words?
God wants us to have confident answers to these questions, so He recorded His historical actions and words so we can get to know Him well. When we read His Word carefully and learn about Him, we will be able to trust Him and the promises He makes to us. So let’s strive to get to know God better through His Word.
The Devotional Journey: Bible Reading 9
Abram’s faith in Yahweh allows him to be generous to Lot
Read Genesis 13:1–18.
At one point, there was a severe famine in the land where Abram lived, so he moved to Egypt (see Genesis 12:10–20). But now in today's passage, he has moved back to the land of Canaan, which Yahweh had given him. His nephew, Lot, moved back with him as well. At this time, there were still other people groups living in the land.
Abram and Lot were wealthy before the famine and now, leaving Egypt, they came back with even greater wealth. One portion of their wealth was livestock.
Because both Abram and Lot had so many animals and they stayed together, their herdsmen quarrelled over the pastureland and water for the animals. This gives us an idea of how many animals they both had!
Now, Yahweh had promised the land to Abram. And Abram was the uncle of Lot. He could have taken charge and told Lot what to do, but he did not. Rather, Abram wanted to be a peacemaker.
Abram generously asked Lot to chose the land he wanted and he would go wherever Lot did not choose. How could Abram be so magnanimous? Because he had learnt to trust God. He knew Yahweh was a promise keeper. He knew Yahweh would be able to provide for him, his flocks and herds, and his herdsmen. And that’s why instead of exercising his rights as the senior family member, Abram let Lot choose.
Lot, on the other hand, only trusted what his eyes could see. He could have deferred to his uncle, asking his uncle to decide. Instead, he looked out over the fertile plains of the Jordan Valley and thought that was the best land for the growth of his livestock and wealth. And that’s what he chose. When he had the opportunity, he took.
After Lot left, Yahweh spoke to Abram. First, He told Abram to look.
“I am giving you all this land, as far as you can see.”
Abram wasn’t taking; rather it was Yahweh who was giving.
Second, Yahweh told Abram to walk.
“Go and walk through the land in every direction, for I am giving it to you.”
How remarkable! Lot acted in self-interest. But Abram acted in faith. And Yahweh responded to Abram’s faith by reaffirming His promises to Abram.
Abram, who had faith in Yahweh and His promises, did not feel it was necessary for him to fight with Lot or be greedy, anxious or selfish. He trusted that because God had promised him the land, he didn’t need to guard it jealously or selfishly. He unselfishly trusted that God would keep His promise in His way and at His time. He knew that it would not be by his own human scheming that he and his descendants would get the land.
This is what faith in God looks like. When God makes promises, believers in Him do not need to use manipulation, human scheming or sly plots. God is a promise maker and promise keeper. Abram could be generous because he was secure in God’s promises towards him. We can see that his faith in Yahweh guided how he lived and how he made important decisions.
Today, many families fight over money, property, land and possessions. In our relationships with others, let’s not live like Lot, whose heart was focused on wealth. Rather, let’s have Abram’s attitude of being a peacemaker, of being generous, of focusing on pleasing God.
Let’s ask God today to help us have a heart attitude that would be pleasing to Him.
The Devotional Journey: Bible Reading 8
Yahweh chooses Abram
Read Genesis 11:27–12:9.
In today’s reading, we’ll look at three other books of the Bible to get a fuller picture of what Yahweh is doing with Abram (whom God later renamed Abraham). Though we are following the history of Genesis, additional information about Abram is found in later books of the Bible. So we will read three additional sets of verses.
In Genesis 11:27–32, we are introduced to a man named Terah and his family. The family worshipped other gods. We learn this from the book of Joshua.
Joshua 24:2
Joshua said to the people, “This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: Long ago your ancestors, including Terah, the father of Abraham and Nahor, lived beyond the Euphrates River, and they worshiped other gods.
We are also told that Terah’s family lived in Ur and then later moved to a place called Haran.
Why did they move from Ur to Haran? Genesis 12:1–9 tells us what happened. While they were in Ur, God spoke to Terah’s son, Abram. Abram was 75 years old, prosperous and very established.
We know that the initial information about God’s rescue plan, His gospel, had been told to Adam and Eve—that the promised offspring of the woman (the “seed” of the woman) would crush Satan and deal with the problem of sin (Genesis 3:15). This information had been passed down by Adam and Eve to later generations.
And we know God also revealed more information as time past because the New Testament tells us that Abram knew more about Yahweh’s plan.
The New Testament book of Hebrews tells us the following.
Hebrews 11:8–10
[8] It was by faith that Abraham obeyed when God called him to leave home and go to another land that God would give him as his inheritance. He went without knowing where he was going. [9] And even when he reached the land God promised him, he lived there by faith—for he was like a foreigner, living in tents. And so did Isaac and Jacob, who inherited the same promise. [10] Abraham was confidently looking forward to a city with eternal foundations, a city designed and built by God.
Hebrews tells us Abram knew from God about a great city that Yahweh Himself would build for believers.
But here in Genesis 12, all we are told is that Yahweh asked Abram to move out of Ur. And He also made Abram three very great promises: (i) his family would be given physical land; (ii) he would have many descendants; and (iii) God would provide a worldwide blessing through his family.
Abram chose to believe all the information he had about Yahweh—the gospel information available at the time and the personal instructions that Yahweh gave to him. Abram obediently left Ur. The family first moved to Haran and after his father Terah died there, Abram went on to the land of Canaan. There, at a place called Shechem, Yahweh appeared to Abram and told him that this was the land He was giving to Abram’s descendants (Genesis 12:7).
How did Abram respond? He built an altar right there in Shechem to worship Yahweh. And when he pitched his tent at another location east of Bethel, he also built an altar there to worship Yahweh.
Abram believed Yahweh and obeyed His instructions.
In the Bible, Abram is used as the picture of what faith, or trust, or belief in God looks like. We know this because the New Testament uses him as the example of faith in God.
Romans 4:22–24
[22] And because of Abraham’s faith, God counted him as righteous. [23] And when God counted him as righteous, it wasn’t just for Abraham’s benefit. It was recorded [24] for our benefit, too, assuring us that God will also count us as righteous if we believe in him, the one who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead.
Because Abram believed what Yahweh promised, Abram acted. And besides responding in faith, Abram also responded by worshipping Yahweh.
Remember that when we first trusted what God said about salvation through Christ, God had counted us as righteous too.
But let’s not just trust Yahweh, but also worship Him as well, for who He is and what He has done for mankind. Because through Abram, Yahweh initiated a chain of events that led to the start of the nation of Israel and later on, it led to Him sending Jesus, a descendant of Abram, to rescue the world from eternal death. This was all part of God’s long-term plan and we can thank Him daily for it.
Archaeological Note
The Ziggurat of Ur located in the province of UR-Nasiriyah, Dhi Qar, Iraq. Photo by Hasan on Unsplash.
The city of Ur (in southern Iraq) where Abram lived was discovered by archaeologists led by Sir Leonard Woolley in the 1920s. He found the large metropolis and the ancient temple where the moon god Nannar (also called Sin) was worshipped. He uncovered treasures like the golden vessels of Queen Puabi and Prince Mes-Kalam-Dug, as well as many ordinary items like fluted dishes, chariot parts, silver ornaments and ornate harps. He also found a large school with countless clay tablets discarded by the students. Many of these artefacts from Ur can be viewed in places like the British Museum. The spectacular discovery of Ur corroborates what the Bible describes of history.
The Devotional Journey: Bible Tour Stop 1—Abraham’s Family
We’ve come to our first stop. So far, we’ve seen Yahweh working with the first man and woman, then communicating globally with all their descendants. In just the first eleven chapters of Genesis, Yahweh records about 2000 years of history starting at Creation. And we’ve seen how mankind collectively keeps rebelling against their Creator-God.
Since mankind as a whole is not listening to Him, Yahweh shifts His plan for humanity by focusing on one man, Abram. Through Abram and his descendants, God works out His plan for all of mankind. To show He is serious, Yahweh makes an unconditional covenant with Abram to provide him with physical land in the Middle East, many descendants, and that through him, Yahweh will provide a worldwide blessing. Yahweh also renames Abram to Abraham.
And so, the rest of Genesis (up to Reading 23) now focuses on Abraham’s family. We will see how Yahweh works with Abraham, then his son Isaac, then his son Jacob and down through the generations. Though Abraham’s family will fail God in many ways, yet we will see how Yahweh patiently and graciously keeps on working with them to ensure His global plan moves forward.
The Devotional Journey: Bible Reading 7
Yahweh judges mankind at the tower of Babel
Read Genesis 11:1–9.
This is the account of the Tower of Babel and it tells us where all the languages of the world came from. It also tells us why humans are found scattered all over the world.
After the Flood, Yahweh told Noah and his family to fill the earth once more. But sadly, the generations after them chose not to trust God. Just as it was before the Flood, mankind collectively chose to ignore Yahweh. Mankind wanted to be their own ultimate authority. They wanted to exclude Yahweh from their lives. This is an important reminder that we must be diligent in passing on God’s truth to the next generation. Otherwise, they will turn their backs on Him.
In this great building project that the people were undertaking together, they wanted to build a tower and a city so they could stay in one place. Besides rejecting Yahweh’s command to fill the earth, the people wanted to make something that would proclaim their own greatness. They wanted to be famous.
When Yahweh created mankind, He made mankind in His image, to be His representatives. As people lived all over the earth, God’s presence would be there through His representatives. Now the post-Flood generations were rejecting God’s plan and purpose for them.
But Yahweh demonstrated how intimately involved He is with His creation. He came down to closely examine what mankind was doing. As the all-knowing God, He already knew what they were thinking and doing. But by coming down, He was demonstrating that He was deeply interested in mankind and that He was a careful judge. Yahweh saw that mankind was building a life that excluded their Creator. This was actually disastrous for mankind.
In His love, Yahweh created in an instant, many intelligent languages. Imagine, suddenly, people started speaking in multiple newly created languages, all with proper grammar and vocabulary! Who could created so many languages in an instant? Only Yahweh could do that.
He did that to stop their collective rebellion against Him. Now, not understanding each other, they abandoned the building project. They scattered all over the world by splitting into their language groups and leaving together. This was how God divided up the people into nations. You can read where the different families went to in Genesis 10.
This is known as the fourth divine institution of tribal diversity. Yahweh separated the people to create nations independent of each other. This would prevent the people of the world from collectively rebelling against Him.
We see that Yahweh is powerful, but also loving. He stopped mankind from collectively plotting against Him because He wants all people in the world to have the opportunity to know Him. We see that God continues to be at work in the world He made. He is accomplishing His purposes in spite of the plans and projects of sinful people.
The people of Babel were not very different from the people of today. Fallen mankind doesn’t like the idea that there is a sovereign, righteous Creator-Owner-God of the universe. People don’t like to hear they are accountable to a God who is in authority. People don’t want to be answerable to a God who has standards. People would rather pretend there is no god, much less the God of the Bible.
Let’s examine our own hearts today. Are we interested to know the God of the Bible more deeply and do we want to know His good plans for us? Or would we prefer He didn’t interfere in our everyday lives?
Let’s remember that He loves us and is constantly calling us into deeper fellowship with Him each day. He wants us to live in ways that honour Him and bring us joy.
Let’s be thankful that He is really interested in mankind and interested particularly in each of us.
Also, let’s thank Him for the gift of language, that we can understand and also communicate our thoughts and feelings to our loved ones and they can do likewise with us.
The Devotional Journey: Bible Reading 6
Yahweh makes a covenant with mankind
Read Genesis 9:1–29.
After the Flood, Yahweh gave new information and instructions to Noah and his descendants.
1. Before the Flood, animals were not afraid of mankind. But now, land animals, birds and sea creatures would be afraid of mankind.
2. Before the Flood, God gave mankind plants as food. But now, mankind was also given the meat of animals as food.
3. Before the Flood, God had no instructions on what to do when a person was murdered. (Recall that when Cain murdered his brother Abel, God simply sent him away from society.) But now, Yahweh said that whether a human or an animal kills a person, the killer must lose their life. Why? All humans are made in the image of Yahweh. If someone kills an image of God, God demands that the killer’s life be forfeited as well. This was the beginning of capital punishment. God was saying that murder was such a serious crime that the only appropriate punishment was for the killer to forfeit their life.
4. Because capital punishment was serious, the guilt of the murderer had to be properly established. This meant that capital punishment was to be responsibly exercised by a civil authority, that is, by civil governments. Governments are God’s idea and the role of governments is to restrain or limit evil in a fallen world. Governments are to punish all who murder by taking away the murderer’s life. Civil governments are known as the fourth divine institution.
Then Yahweh did something really fascinating. He made a contract with all mankind. The God of the Bible is the only God who makes contracts with man. No other religion has a god who makes contracts with mankind. In the contract, Yahweh promised no more global floods. And He also promised in Genesis 8:22 that He would maintain the stability of the planet so that it would have regular seasons and food production would continue to be possible.
And then He signed the contract with His signature: the rainbow. Every time someone looks up and sees the rainbow, they would be reminded that Yahweh had a made a promise never to destroy the world with another global flood.
Why would the Creator-God of the universe bother to lower Himself to man’s level and tie Himself to mankind with a contract? Because He wants people to know that He is a God whose words have meaning. He is a trustworthy God whose promises can be relied on. And He is a God who is deeply concerned with the creatures He has created—mankind.
But God also recorded a sinful incident that happened to Noah’s family after the Flood. Noah got drunk and ended up sleeping naked in his tent. And then Ham saw what happened and mocked his father. This incident showed that even though Noah and his family believed in God and were saved from the Flood, they were still sinful, fallen people.
This early history of the world is not just a series of past events that have no relation to us. Rather, there are consequences from these events that affect us. Today, animals are afraid of mankind; people eat meat; nations have governments; and the death penalty or capital punishment exists in some countries to deter serious crimes. We also see rainbows in the sky.
And all humans on earth today are descendants of Noah and his family. This means that even though there are many people groups on earth today, all of us can trace our family lines back to one family—Noah’s family. We are all members of the same extended family even if we speak different languages, have different cultures and look different from one another. We are all image bearers of God.
God wants us to know how the world today came to be. In recording the Bible for us, God wants us to know real history and truth. And till today, we can see that there has never been another global flood that destroyed all the peoples of the world. Yahweh is actively keeping His covenant. Though He signed that contract more than 4,000 years ago, He still keeps His word. He is showing He and His words are trustworthy. This gives us confidence that we can trust the Bible.
Let us thank Him for being a God who communicates with us and who wants us to understand the world we live in.
The Devotional Journey: Bible Reading 5
Yahweh judges the world with a global flood
Read Genesis 7:1–8:22.
We continue the account of the Flood. Yahweh brought a global judgment on all the evil, rebellious people of the world. Every part of the planet was covered with water and all the people who did not believe God’s warning about the coming judgment died in the floodwaters. And all the air-breathing animals not in the ark also died.
The flood judgment lasted a year. When the waters finally subsided, Noah and his family emerged onto dry ground. The world was completely different from what they had known before. The landscape had been reshaped with newly formed continents with new mountain ranges, valleys and other features. And there were now new oceans, seas and bodies of water. Noah and his family would restart mankind on a changed planet. Yahweh’s original plan for mankind, as His image bearers, would continue. Noah and his family would repopulate the earth and look after it well to glorify God.
Here are some interesting facts about the Flood to ponder:
1. The global flood happened about 4,300 years ago (from 2349 to 2348 BC).
2. Seventy percent (70%) of the earth’s crust today is sediment leftover from the flood.
3. All around the world the rock layers are in straight lines (e.g., the Grand Canyon). This uniform appearance around the globe tells us these sediment layers were formed globally and quickly as silt, sand and mud settled, layer after layer, in the Flood and then hardened into rock layers. What’s more, there is no evidence of bioturbation (soil disturbances caused by plants and animals) in the layers, showing that the layers were laid down one after the other rapidly without any interference from plants and animals. (This would not be the case if the layers were laid down thousands or millions of years apart.)
Photo: Mather Point at Grand Canyon by Bigmacthealmanac, CC BY 4.0, Wikimedia Commons.
4. There was plenty of room on the ark for all the animals that Yahweh brought to Noah. Christian scientists estimate there were about 1,400 main “kinds” of animals on the ark, so there was a total of around 6,700 individual animals. (As a reference, a biblical “kind” is approximately like the term “family” or “order” in scientific classification.) From these animal kinds came all the animals we have in the world today. For example, when Noah went on the ark, he took one pair of the canid (dog) kind. From that pair of canids came all the other canine species like wolves, jackals, coyotes and later, breeds of domestic dogs. Isn’t it incredible that God put the genetic diversity in that first pair of canids so that so many species and breeds could emerge?
5. The floodwaters from the global flood are still here on the earth today. The Bible says that God caused the mountains to rise higher and the valleys to sink lower than before the flood began, so He created deep, large oceans to store all the floodwaters (See Psalm 104:6–9).
6. The Bible says Noah’s ark landed somewhere in the mountain ranges of Ararat. This is in the Middle East, in or near Türkiye today.
It is sobering to consider the global extent of God’s judgment of evil and rebellion on the earth. As the Creator-Owner, and as the righteous Judge, Yahweh had every right to exercise judgment on His rebellious creation.
At the same time, it is wonderful to behold God’s mercy. He saved eight people, Noah and his family, because they believed in Yahweh. Everyone else on the planet was judged in the floodwaters because they did reject God.
Today, let us thank God for saving us from eternal separation from Him. He provided one way to be saved: faith in Christ. Thank God that He has led us to come to know Him and be saved by Him.
And let us be sober-minded about the way Yahweh judges evil. The Bible says that in the future, God will judge the world globally once again, to bring another complete end to evil and sin in the world. He is not a powerless God, but an all-righteous God who is patient. At His timing, He will put a stop to evil globally.
As image bearers of God, let us learn to live in ways that will bring Him glory and get others interested to know Him as well.
The Devotional Journey: Bible Reading 4
Yahweh prepares to judge the world
Read Genesis 6:1–22.
Adam and Eve had many descendants but instead of learning from their original parents’ bad choices, most of the descendants chose to live wicked lives independent of Yahweh. In other words, they didn’t want God in their lives and so they rebelled against Him. As a result, there was more and more evil in the world. There was corruption and violence everywhere. This was not how Yahweh wanted mankind to live.
God has righteous standards and He doesn’t let evil get completely out of control. When the people on earth sinned beyond what God was willing to tolerate, He decided to judge their wickedness by sending a global flood to destroy all of evil mankind. But in His mercy, He warned the people about the coming judgment and gave them time to repent, that is, to change their minds about how they were living and to turn to Him.
Yahweh spoke to one of the few righteous people on earth: Noah. God gave him very clear and specific instructions on how to build an enormous boat that would save his family from the coming flood judgment. The boat was also to contain all types of land animals so that the world could be repopulated with animals after the Flood.
Noah and his family believed Yahweh’s words and they followed His instructions carefully and built the boat. And thus God prepared to destroy every last evil person in the world but He would save those who believed Him—Noah and his family, eight people in total.
Today, we see a smilier situation. Wickedness, violence, evil and sin are rampant across the world. And sometimes, we wonder if God is powerless to act against so much evil. But we learn something about God from the event of the global flood during Noah’s day. Yahweh is patient with mankind’s wickedness. Just because He is not punishing all sin right away, it doesn’t mean that He is powerless, and it doesn’t mean He will not judge the world for its evil. As the righteous Creator-God, He will bring about final judgment. He will bring an end to evil in His creation. As it was in the days leading up to the global flood, God is extending mercy to people everywhere, giving them time and opportunity to change their minds and turn to Him.
Let’s pray and thank God for His mercy and patience during this current age. And we should also ask Him to help us take Him seriously and live in a way that honours Him every day. And let’s pray for our unbelieving loved ones, that God will guide them to know Him and be saved so they will not be a rebellious person when God’s judgment comes.
Also, as we read the plans of how Noah was to build the ark, let’s thank God that He is a God of details. He cared enough to give specific building plans for the boat. God cares for each of us and all the details of our lives as well. He is intimately interested in us. Let’s thank Him for that.
The Devotional Journey: Bible Reading 3
Yahweh’s mercy towards the first family
Read Genesis 4:1–26.
This chapter is the account of what happened to Adam and Eve’s family—the first family. Though they had rebelled against Yahweh and were suffering the consequences, yet Yahweh did not abandon His plan for humanity. God’s image bearers would continue with His plan. They would have children and take care of creation. But the task was now marred by sin.
Adam and Eve’s first two children were Cain and Abel. The two sons each brought what was theirs to give as an act of worship. Abel brought the best firstborn lambs while Cain brought what he cultivated—crops.
While Abel brought his best, (the fat portions means the best lambs), Cain didn’t seem to care about what he brought before God as the Bible didn’t say that Cain brought his best crops. Cain’s offering was not rejected because it was a non-animal offering, but because his heart, or attitude towards God, was not right. His worship of God was hollow. He was not really interested in God and it was just mere action.
So God did not favour Cain’s offering. But notice verse 6. God spoke to Cain and encouraged him to do what was right. God was being patient and encouraging. He told Cain why his offering wasn’t accepted and what he should do. He warned Cain that sin was like a predator—it was crouching at the door of his heart. Cain had to overcome the temptation to sin.
Yahweh presented Cain with a choice. He could choose to do what was right or rebel by doing what was wrong. God didn’t force him one way or another.
But Cain didn’t respond well to God’s encouragement. Notice that Cain didn’t actually have an argument with Abel. He was angry with God. But instead of examining his heart attitude, he chose to harbour jealousy and bitterness against his brother Abel. In the end, his bitterness took over and he chose to kill his very own brother!
At this point in history, Yahweh had not put in place capital punishment for murder, and so He banished Cain from society and cursed him so that the ground would no longer cooperate with Cain’s farming.
Yet, notice once more how merciful God was in verses 13–15. When Cain expressed fear that other people would kill him for what he had done, Yahweh said He would protect Cain from others. Though he had done something terrible (murdered his brother) and faced consequences for it (God cursed him), yet God still extended mercy by preventing others from harming Cain. Though his brother Abel had died because of him, God allowed Cain to continue his life, get married and have children.
But Cain never reconsidered what he had done and went on to have negative influence on his family members. The Bible records that in just a few generations, the pride and arrogance of Cain’s descendants got a whole lot worse! Cain’s descendant Lamech killed a man for simply hurting him. What an overreaction!
We can observe the negative influence that family members can have on each other so we ought to be careful in what we say and do.
We need to recognise how jealousy and bitterness have serious consequences if they aren’t dealt with. Let’s pray that God will help us to never harbour jealousy and bitterness in our hearts.
But can you also see what Yahweh’s character is like from this chapter? What do you think of Him?
God continually encourages us to do what is right. Pray that God will help us respond in the right way each day and in each situation.
The Devotional Journey: Bible Reading 2
The man and the woman rebel against God
Read Genesis 3:1–24.
In this chapter, we see how God gave mankind genuine choice. God created mankind to have a real relationship with Him and that means the man and the woman could choose to trust Him and obey His one instruction or they could decide to rebel against Him, believing they knew better.
One interesting point to note is that in Genesis 3:1, God is called LORD God. Notice the SMALL CAPITALS in the Bible text for the word Lord. This indicates that God’s personal name, Yahweh, is being used. Just as each of us have a personal name, the Creator-God’s personal name is Yahweh. But out of respect, the original readers of the Bible when reading aloud would say Lord, instead of saying God’s personal name. And so that is why LORD appears in the text. Every time we see LORD in small capitals, know that God’s personal name, Yahweh, is actually in the text.
When a stranger in the form of the serpent came to converse with the man and woman, they chose to listen to this creature rather than to the voice of their Creator. They treated this serpent’s words as equal to Yahweh’s words. They considered what both said and then they chose to rebel against Yahweh’s command for them and eat the fruit.
In this incident, the man and the woman actually had several choices.
They could have ignored the serpent and trusted Yahweh’s instructions completely.
They could have waited for God to come that day and then ask again about the fruit.
Or they could consider themselves the ultimate authority and judge for themselves if Yahweh or the serpent was telling the truth.
Using their personal free will, mankind chose to rebel against Yahweh. Rebellion against God is the basic definition of sin. Because God is all-good and all-righteous all of the time, rebelling against Him results in evil. Here was when sin, evil, death and suffering started, as well as when nature became corrupted. Choices always come with consequences. Good choices lead to good consequences. Bad choices lead to bad consequences.
When people we love distrust us or sin against us, sometimes we feel so hurt and angry that we don’t want to be with them anymore. But notice in this event, though mankind had mistrusted Yahweh and severed their relationship with Him, God’s love is merciful and kind toward mankind because He immediately promised to rescue all mankind from sin so that people could all have a relationship with Him again.
Genesis 3:15 contains the first piece of information about Yahweh’s plan to rescue mankind and restore the relationship that mankind had destroyed—God announced that the offspring of the woman would strike the serpent’s head. This means that some time in the future, a man who would be born only of a woman (with no human father involved) would destroy the serpent and his evil influence, and restore the relationship between God and mankind. Over time, as God revealed more information about His rescue plan, people would come to understand that this special man would be the Saviour.
Can we imagine such an infinite love? Compare the way Yahweh loves mankind with how we love others. How we love often depends on how the object of our love behaves. But God is not like us. Even though mankind had rebelled, Yahweh continued to show love. God’s love is not dependent on the behaviour of the object of His love. Rather, His love depends on His all-loving character. Mankind had just rebelled against His command and yet we see Him extend mercy and love towards the man and the woman.
Let’s pray today to thank God for how much He loves each of us.
And let’s learn from God’s example of continuing to extend love even when the ones we love fail us or disappoint us.
The Devotional Journey: Bible Reading 1
God creates the universe
Read Genesis 1:1–2:25.
We begin our journey right at the beginning—in the first book of the Bible known as Genesis. First, read Genesis 1:1–2:25, then read this commentary on the passage. This commentary provides background information, explanation and thoughts for you to prayerfully consider.
Genesis is a Greek word meaning “origin or beginning”. Right from the very first verses of the Bible, we see how the Creator-God of the universe made everything. And as we observe Him creating, we start to learn about His character—what He is like, His power, wisdom, knowledge and the fact that He doesn’t need any help or pre-existing material to create the universe. He creates just by speaking.
We can also notice that this God creates only perfectly good things. At many stages of creation, God steps back and takes pleasure in what He has made and declares that it is very good. Notice how He is orderly. In the first three days He creates the domains of light and dark, then of sea and atmosphere, and finally the land. In the second set of three days He fills the domains with occupants: sun, moon, stars; fish and birds; land animals and finally mankind, both the man and the woman.
In the second chapter of Genesis, we are told the creation account again, but this time, focusing on more details about the creation of man and the woman. When God created the first male, Adam, we hear for the first time that something in creation was not good: it was not good that the first man was alone. God showed Adam that alone, he was not complete. Then God proceeded to make a special, strong ally—a helper—that would be man’s partner. Together, their differences would harmonise perfectly, and the man and the woman would be able to take on the role that God had given to mankind.
God said that mankind is the image of God. This meant that mankind was God’s representative. Seeing mankind in creation was seeing God in creation. As God’s representatives, the man and the woman together were supposed to take responsible care of the creation.
We call this “responsible dominion” and it was designed by God. Because He designed it, we say it is a divine institution, that is, a God-created law for man.
And God joined the man and the woman together in marriage. This was also part of God’s design and marriage is known as the second divine institution. It was God’s idea, not man’s.
God also designed marriage to produce children, or more images of God. The parents would teach the children about God and how to look after creation. Children were to be cared for and trained within a family. Then children would help with the task of looking after creation. In this way, mankind and creation could show off God’s creative glory. So family is also God’s design and is called the third divine institution.
Here are five thoughts to ponder as you reflect on Genesis 1 and 2.
Think about how the all-powerful God does not need the sun to give mankind light! The sun and stars were created on Day 4 but God Himself already created light on Day 1 to light up the planet.
Think also about the difference between how God and mankind create things. God created with no pre-existing materials and He created just by speaking. He used language to create something from nothing! This really demonstrates His all-powerful nature.
Recognise that marriage was God’s idea and serves important purposes. God defined marriage as the joining of one man and one woman together. Marriage is not defined by love or any other way. Rather, God brought the first woman to the first man and joined them as husband and wife. Marriage was for the purposes of reflecting God’s glory and taking care of creation.
The man and woman were put to work to care for creation. God set the example by working during the first six days. Then He handed over the task of working to care for creation to His images, His representatives.
Finally, ponder on how much God values mankind. He designed the world for mankind to enjoy. God treasures every person He made, including you. Respond to God in prayer regarding these thoughts.
The Devotional Journey: Bible Tour Introduction
In this first set of seven devotional readings, we will learn how the eternal Creator-God, Yahweh, creates the universe and all that is in it. He establishes His design and purpose for mankind, but the first two humans, Adam and Eve, rebel and break the loving relationship with God. The devastating effects of sin then spreads to all of creation. But in His mercy, God immediately sets in motion a rescue plan and He asks mankind to trust Him for the solution to restore their broken relationship.
As history moves forward, Yahweh allows mankind to make choices but the people have to live with the consequences of their choices. God demonstrates His mercy by being patient with evil mankind. He also demonstrates His righteous character when He judges the world with a global flood because mankind sins beyond the limits of His grace. Only eight people, Noah and his family, trust God and are saved by Him.
After the flood, Noah’s family repopulates the earth and the later generations rebel once more at the tower of Babel. Yahweh’s judgment on them is to scatter them through the creation of multiple languages.