Day 37 Devotion – Sarah and Rebekah

And after this, Abraham buried Sarah his wife in the cave of the field of Machpelah, before Mamre (that is, Hebron) in the land of Canaan. Genesis 23:19

Picture: Tomb of the Patriarchs in Hebron

A lot of important history is transpiring in these chapters. Abraham is very significant because he is the Father of the Jewish people. God promised him he would be the father of many descendants even though his wife Sarah was barren. Sarah eventually does conceive and give birth to Isaac. When Sarah dies Abraham buys a cave near the city of Hebron to bury her. Remember this because we will see a lot of important figures from this family buried at this site.


And it happened, before he had finished speaking, that behold, Rebekah, who was born to Bethuel, son of Milcah, the wife of Nahor, Abraham’s brother, came out with her pitcher on her shoulder. Genesis 24:15


Abraham sends his servant to find a wife from his own people. The servant prays that God will lead him to the right girl and he meets Rebekah on her way to draw water from the well. This verse gives us enough information to see that Isaac and Rebekah were second cousins. This sounds so odd to us today but in ancient times in Mesopotamia and Egypt it was common practice. These people believed that marrying foreigners contaminated the family’s bloodline. God will eventually condemn this when he gives the law to Moses. It is not harmful for a few times but eventually inbreeding weakens the bloodline and genetic disorders set in.

In the upcoming chapters we will see more of this trend. Jacob returns to this family to get his wife. The famous Laban is Rebekah’s brother. Rebekah and Rachel both experience barrenness before conceiving. God appears to be demonstrating his power over nature and seeing if his people will trust him and have faith. I always think of these chapters when I wonder what God is up to and waiting for an answer to prayer. May you find comfort in these chapters as well.

Day 36 Devotion – Abraham’s Test

So Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering and laid it on Isaac his son; and he took the fire in his hand, and a knife, and the two of them went together. Genesis 22:6


There are so many verses that are good and a lot of events that take place in Genesis chapters 18-21 that I am only going to summarize for the sake of space. Read these chapters on your own and you will see that Abram’s name is changed to Abraham to signify the new covenant God made with him. Sarai’s name is also changed to Sarah. Isaac is born to them when Abraham is 100 years old and Sarah is 90. Ishmael was 13 when he was circumcised the year before Isaac’s birth so this means Ishmael is about 14 years older than Isaac.

We also see the first instance of Abraham lying about Sarah being his wife and saying she is his sister. He justifies it we see because she actually is his half sister. And, now we come to one of the most famous stories in the Bible. Tradition tells us that Mount Moriah is where the temple would one day stand in Jerusalem and where the Dome of the Rock currently stands, which is a Muslim mosque. This is also where Abraham earlier paid a tithe to Melchizedek. I think it is interesting here because since Abraham is from Ur of the Chaldees, his background was from a Babylonian culture that did practice human sacrifice. I think one part of the test is to see if Abraham recognizes the God of Israel as being different. I believe he passed the test of obedience but failed this part of the test for not recognizing that the Judaeo-Christian God is different and does not require human sacrifice. I know there is one other story of human sacrifice in the Bible but it is a very unusual circumstance. God is really the only one that had to sacrifice his actual son for the remission of sins. The parallels between Isaac and Christ are also striking. Isaac was old enough to carry the wood so he was old enough to stop his elderly father or get away from him. He carried the wood voluntarily and allowed himself to be bound to the wood. The knife was to be used to pierce Isaac’s flesh but God spared Abraham this part of the ordeal. This is a picture of what Christ did for us on the cross.

Day 35 Devotion – Lot’s Daughters

Thus both the daughters of Lot were with child by their father. The firstborn bore a son and called his name Moab; he is the father of the Moabites to this day. And the younger, she also bore a son and called his name Ben-Ammi; he is the father of the people of Ammon to this day. Genesis 19:36-38


The story of Lot’s daughters is pretty unbelievable. Apparently they believed that the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah was a world-wide destruction. They thought that they would have to have children with their father to repopulate the earth. I don’t understand how they could be so naive because they went past the city of Zoar in their travels before this event. It could be that they were left completely out of the loop by Lot or that they thought all people of theirs or similar race had been wiped out and that men of Zoar would contaminate their bloodline. What ever the explanation, something very important happens here and that is the birth of Moab and Ben-Ammi. These men give rise to people groups called the Moabites and Ammonites. Remember these names because when the Israelites head toward the Promised Land during the Exodus, guess who gets in their way and they have to war with before entering the Promised Land? That’s right, the Moabites and Ammonites.

The big lesson to learn from this is that sin, indiscretion, and bad decisions will really come back to haunt you later. Sometimes the scars of these sins can resurface and cause problems for years and even decades. If we would follow God’s directions and instructions without trying to supplement them with our own decisions we could avoid a lot of this type of heart ache. In previous chapters we saw the birth of Ishmael. Abraham’s indiscretion gave rise to the modern day Muslim people groups that have battled with the descendants of Isaac for about 4000 years now. Just think about how much of our evening news has been filled up with the trouble in the Middle East over the past couple of decades and then remember that one man’s sin made that all possible.

Day 34 Devotion – Sodom and Gomorrah

Now before they lay down, the men of the city, the men of Sodom, both old and young, all the people from every quarter, surrounded the house. And they called to Lot and said to him, “Where are the men who came to you tonight? Bring them out to us that we may know them carnally.” Genesis 19:4-5


This is a touchy subject these days and I’m about to show my horrible intolerance. It always surprises me to hear people say that the Bible doesn’t condemn homosexuality. I have heard great scholars say that the sin of Sodom and Gomorrah is not mentioned. I wander if they have actually ever read the Bible? I’m sure some details of all of Sodom and Gomorrah’s wickedness are left out but I find it interesting that the one sin demonstrated here is homosexuality and bisexuality. We are told that the men of the town wanted to have sex with the male visitors. Another part of this is that they were going to rape them if they didn’t come willingly. The visitors then tell Lot to leave with his family. Ten righteous were not found. Only Lot, his wife and two daughters escape before the city is destroyed.


Then the LORD rained brimstone and fire on Sodom and Gomorrah, from the LORD out of the heavens. Genesis 19:24


Many scholars try to write this story off as a volcanic eruption. The problem is that there is not a volcano within 500 miles of this area. Geologists have confirmed that there was a fire with sulfur (brimstone) in this area but say without a volcano it should not be there. The fact that there was so much petroleum in the ground means that this was probably a very destructive fire that spread with even the ground exploding. Two archaeological sites called Numeira and Bab edh Dhra match the destruction with fire that is described in the Bible. Science has confirmed that five cities existed here with two of them being destroyed when skeptics at one time said this was all a fairy tale because this region was so desolate that humans couldn’t live here.

Picture: Archaelogical site of Bab edh dhra illustrating the city was destroyed by fire.

Day 33 Devotion – The Three Visitors

Then the LORD appeared to him by the terebinth trees of Mamre, as he was sitting in the tent door in the heat of the day. So he lifted his eyes and looked, and behold, three men were standing by him; and when he saw them, he ran from the tent door to meet them, and bowed himself to the ground, and said, “My Lord, if I have now found favor in Your sight, do not pass on by Your servant. Genesis 18:1-3

Genesis chapter 18 is an unusual story. It says the Lord appeared to Abraham but there are three men. Sometimes it refers to them in the singular and sometimes in the plural. Jews would just say that the Lord was accompanied by two angels. I do not think that covers everything because the three speak as one and are referred to as one. I believe this is a picture of the Trinity. It shows that God has some singular attributes and some plural characteristics.

As you read the entire chapter you see that two of the three go on down to Sodom and Gomorrah and become the famous spies that we will talk about in the next chapter. The third one stays behind to converse with Abraham. The Lord reveals his plan to destroy these two cities for their wickedness. Abraham shows a lot of nerve by trying to change God’s mind. Of course, Abraham’s nephew Lot lives down there so he has an emotional interest in the situation. He starts out by asking if God would destroy the innocent along with the wicked and they agree that if 50 innocent people could be found God would spare the city. But Abraham doesn’t stop; he whittles the number all the way down to ten. I’m sure Abraham had confidence that ten righteous people could be found. We will find out later that that is not the case.

I see two big lessons from these passages. One is that God listens to our prayers and pleading. Prayer is powerful enough to even change the mind of God. I believe God actually enjoys it when we converse with him and question why. Secondly I see God’s compassion. So many people focus on the wrath of God here but the fact that he would have spared them for ten good people shows compassion.

Day 32 Devotion – Does the Law still have Value to us?

And God said to Abraham: “As for you, you shall keep My covenant, you and your descendants after you throughout their generations. This is My covenant which you shall keep, between Me and you and your descendants after you: Every male child among you shall be circumcised; and you shall be circumcised in the flesh of your foreskins, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between Me and you. He who is eight days old among you shall be circumcised, every male child in your generations, he who is born in your house or bought with money from any foreigner who is not your descendant. Genesis 17:9-12


Many times as a Christian I hear people say that we are no longer under the law but now under Grace. I think many take this to mean that we can completely ignore the old law. I don’t think it is wise to totally fore go all of the wise council that the law contains. Sometimes science can show that there are things there that we should still hold onto. Circumcision is one of those things. Although circumcision may no longer be required for salvation, as the Apostle Paul illustrates so well, it is a beneficial practice. Health books will illustrate that circumcision is a practice of cleanliness. It is much more difficult to practice good personal hygiene on an uncircumcised penis. Statistics show the circumcised males have much lower incidences of urinary tract infections and penile cancer than uncircumcised males.


We see from the passage that circumcision was performed on the eighth day. This is when the baby’s body produces enough vitamin K, which is a blood clotting factor, to make the procedure safe. Nowadays, a baby is given a vitamin K shot in the nursery right after birth so the procedure can be performed before he is cleared to go home. This is most likely to occur in the first 72 hours. We see that Jesus’ parents observed this as he was taken to the temple on the eighth day for his circumcision and this is when Simon and Anna got to see him. Jesus himself said that he did not come to abolish the law but to fulfill it. I think we need to use common sense and experience to determine what parts of the law to observe.

Where does time go?

Wow, I can't believe it's been over a month since I last blogged. The end of the semester was very busy for me. I've been working two jobs and of course had deadlines and finals to give. Well, I'm off on break now so maybe I can catch up a little. I'm not teaching every week now and I finished the Case for Christ study. I'm going to return to my devotions of walking through the Old Testament and approaching the interpretation from a scientist's perspective. Science vs Faith is a big issue and I believe a lot of the conflict stems from misperceptions on both sides of the issues. I want to show you how science actually strengthens my faith rather than weakening it. If you haven't checked out my previous devotions, go back to April 15 for Genesis chapter 1 and my last one was on July 2 for Genesis chapter 16.


I pray you all have a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year. Sometime after the first of the year I should be teaching a lesson on versions of the Bible I will share with you. God Bless!