The Con Man Gets Conned
Read: Genesis 29:15-30 Behold, it was Leah! (v. 25) My friend the used car salesman once said to me, “You have to take advantage of your friends because your enemies will never get close enough.” Laban must have been his ancestor. In Jacob’s dealings with Isaac and Esau, Jacob revealed himself as a con man. […]
Stealing the Blessing
Read: Genesis 27:1-45 The voice is Jacob’s voice, but the hands are the hands of Esau. (v. 22) This story is as iconic as any in the Bible, yet I cannot say that there is any easy-to-apply moral or theological lesson in it. What’s going on when Jacob, with his mother’s help, tricks his father? […]
Will Faith Endure?
Read: Genesis 22:1-19 Abraham . . . took the knife to slaughter his son. (v. 10) This story is from a very different time. The idea of animal sacrifice is foreign enough; human sacrifice is unimaginable. Could God ask for the sacrifice of a child? Why? The story is a puzzle. The Scripture says God […]
The Impossible Possibility
Read: Genesis 18:1-15 Is anything too hard for the LORD? (v. 14) God dropped by Abraham and Sarah’s place for a visit. That’s stunning. Here was God, long before the incarnation of Jesus, in human form. God is not a distant ruler or cosmic idea. God is personal, real, and present. Abraham was sitting in […]
System Restore
Read: Genesis 6:5-22 The LORD regretted he had made man. (v. 6) Ancient Israel didn’t do systematic theology. We have theories about God like “immutability” (God cannot change), which tend to make God fixed and static and predictable. In contrast, ancient Israel’s concept of God was more fluid. God was alive, he changed his mind, […]
More than Murder
Read: Genesis 4:1-16 And the LORD put a mark on Cain. (v. 15) If this were solely a story about murder, we could read it and move on. After all, we already know murder is wrong. Instead, the story is more complex with deep layers of meaning. Cain and Abel are the first of many […]
Universal Truths
Read: Genesis 2:15-17; 3:1-24 Did God actually say, “You shall not eat of any tree in the garden”? (3:1) I remember almost dropping the Christian faith years ago because I thought its explanation for the existence of every sort of evil, disaster, and suffering was “Adam ate a piece of fruit he wasn’t supposed to.” […]
The Inexhaustible Well
Read: 2 Timothy 3:10-17 From childhood you have been acquainted with the sacred writings. (v. 15) When I was young, we had a brightly illustrated book of Bible stories sandwiched on a shelf between Mother Goose and Dr. Seuss. My mother had taken Paul’s words about children knowing the sacred writings to heart. She was […]
Unless I See
Read: John 20:19-29 Unless I see in his hands the mark of the nails . . . I will never believe. (v. 25) In our current social media culture, we have high expectations for seeing proof when we hear allegations or claims made. With the ubiquitous use of smart devices, almost everything is recorded these […]