Bible 1/17

I haven't updated this journal in a long time and I was thinking about scrapping it, but I might just use it to keep notes to myself from my (almost) daily Bible reading. Just jot down little notes and bits of text that stand out to me or seem interesting. I've never succeeded in reading the Bible through in a year, and I'm not holding myself to that standard this year either, though I do think it's good to have some kind of system. I'm going through chronologically and I've already finished the first 20 chapters of Genesis and the Book of Job.

Genesis 12-14. Abraham wasn't the most obedient, faithful guy. God told him to leave his family, but he took his nephew Lot with him, which caused problems among their herdsmen and ended Lot up in Sodom. Sodom was raided and Abraham fought to save his nephew. Further, Abraham lied about Sarah being his wife and stirred up a lot of trouble.

Genesis 15-18. God makes a promise that He will protect Abraham and give him a "great reward." Abraham says, "What? What will You give me? Because You haven't given me what I really want (and what You already promised)." God says, "But I will, and your seed will be as uncountable as the stars."

Then he believed in the LORD; and He reckoned it to him as righteousness. (15:6)

Belief=leaving it up to Him, letting Him work out the details, trusting that He knows what He's doing. That sort of simple trust God considers righteousness.

Hagar had a personal promise from God before Sarah did. Hagar was not a "mistake:" she was a part of God's plan.

Why the wang? Why did the sign of the covenant have to be circumcision?

And Abraham said to God, "Oh that Ishmael might live before Thee!" But God said, "No..."

A God who makes this kind of determination isn't the God most Christians believe in. Their God is safer, easier to understand. But the God of Abraham says, "No. Ishmael will be blessed and will live for My purposes in the earth, but My covenant is not with him. It's with someone else, the fruit of you and Sarah." God is so politically incorrect and discriminatory.

And the LORD said, "The outcry of Sodom and Gomorrah is indeed great, and their sin is exceedingly grave...[but] I will not destroy [Sodom] on account of the ten."

The outcry. Sodom must have been terribly harmful to people, absolutely reprobate. Men, women, children, and animals falling victim and held captive by the grossest, violent, miserable sins. It was the mercy of God that determined to destroy the cities, mercy to end the suffering for those past the point of turning. And it was the mercy of God to not destroy the cities if even ten righteous souls could be found in them.