This is meant to be a fun reading (with some commentary) for all ages through Scripture. Please do not take this as a substitute for reading through the Bible on your own.
Previously, our story covered God’s creation of the world and mankind’s Fall into Sin. The trend of sin continued when Adam's and Eve's own son Cain killed his younger brother Abel. The result is Cain will now be a fugitive. Though Adam and Eve were the first humans, there are mysteriously others in the world who Cain worries will kill him. God, again out of mercy, gives Cain a mark, Cain's Mark, so that all who meet him will know not to kill him. Then Cain goes and finds a place to live in Nod, East of Eden. From there, Cain makes his own family and builds a city.
Adam and Eve continue their own family and have another son name Seth, so named because Eve found him "appointed" by the Lord after Cain killed Abel. Remember that many of the names of old, and in particular in this book of Genesis, are given for the meaning they bestow not in our own tongue, but in the ancient language of the Hebrews.
Now Seth is important to note for his descendants. There are many, all well-lived. The first of great interest is his great-great-great grandson Enoch, for he was a man who walked with God. While his ancestors and descendants died, Enoch did not. Because he walked with God he simply was “no more”, for God took him. That is all we are told of his fate, and it is unique one at that.
Further down Seth's line we hear of another of great interest: Noah.
Now, the world Noah lived in was very different from ours. It was a time of beings only known to us as "the sons of God." These beings apparently interacted with our ancestors and even married the daughters of these early humans. There were also those called the Nephilim, who apparently were those we know as the heroes of old.
While this was, to our ears perhaps, a magical time, it was also a dark one. Humanity, we are told, continues to get worse and worse. It comes to the point that God is even sorry for creating humanity in the first place. God decides to blot out all that the Lord had made. Yet even here God decided to show mercy, for one person finds favor in God's sight: Noah.
Because of God’s favor, the Lord tells Noah about the coming destruction of the world. God also tells Noah to make an ark for himself and his family, and to gather 2 of every living thing, as well as food for everything in the ark. This ark will be such as to survive the Great Flood God is sending.
Noah does all God asks in the span of a week, reflecting God’s initial act of Creation. Having finished and gathered in the Ark, the rains of the Great Flood start. With no one else to do so, God closes the door of the Ark for them.
For 40 days, the floods continue to fall, until only the Ark and all inside are left. God remembered Noah though, and eventually the winds blow and the waters receded from the earth. Noah, being very clever, seeks a sign that the Flood has truly ended. First, he sends forth a raven to see if there is a safe place to land, though the bird is never heard from again. Next Noah sends a dove, which simply returns. The third time being the charm, Noah waits a week and then send the dove out again. This time, the bird returns carrying an olive branch. This is a sign to Noah that the Flood has lifted. He sends the dove out one more time, another week later, though the dove does not return again, likely having found its own place to nest.
Eventually the Earth dries, and Noah, his family, and all the animals are able to leave the Ark, and Noah gives thanks to the Lord. God, being pleased, promises to never flood the earth again. God uses an ancient symbol of warriors by placing his multicolored bow (think a bow and arrow) to hang in the sky, never to be picked up again. We call this bow a Rainbow, for it appears in the sky after the rain.
With God's Covenant, a new creation, in a sense, begins. God repeats the first command to "be fruitful and multiply" to Noah and his family. Now all animals, not just the fruits of the earth, will be up for grabs for food.
Sin, unfortunately, is not far behind, as Noah struggles after partaking of the first vineyard he has planted. For our younger listeners, it is like if Noah ate a whole lot of chocolate and went into a food coma. When he woke up, others found him, and he was ashamed at being caught eating too much chocolate, so he said some hurtful things he wouldn’t have said otherwise. Now I do not say this to make Noah less than he was, for he was a righteous man. Yet Sin was still present in the hearts of men, and that Sin would unfortunately continue to grow again, though hopeful not as bad as it had been before.
From Noah's sons come the great nations of the world, and at this point all speak the same tongue. That is, they all speak the same language until one day a group comes together to form a city and build a tower to pierce the heavens and there "make a name" for themselves. God has another plan. The Lord confuses their language so that the people can no longer understand each other. The result is that the people can no longer continue their work and they scatter throughout the world. The unfinished city they abandon becomes known as Babel, which means "to confuse" since God confused the tongue of the people at that place.
Now at this time, the line of Shem, one of Noah's sons, continues and generations later a boy named Abram is born. While through Noah’s line the great nations of old grew, God has great plans for this particular one. God intends that a great nation will be formed from Abram and all be blessed in the world through him.
God lets Abram know of his intentions. The Lord tells Abram to go forth from the land of Ur, where he lived, leave his father's house, and go live in an unknown place that God would reveal to him. Abram does so, yet he doesn't fully listen to the Lord. He brings with him, and his wife Sarai, his brother's son Lot, his nephew and a member of Abram's father's household.
Eventually Abram and his crew travel through the land of Canaan, and he reaches a point where God reaches out to him. The Lord tells Abram that this land will be given as a gift to Abram's descendants. Abram builds an altar in thanksgiving to the Lord. We should note that Abram was 75 at this point and he and Sarai had no children of their own.
A famine comes over the land, and Abram and Sarai do the sensible thing and travel somewhere where there is food. This land happens to be Egypt, which will play an important role in the story that is to come. Now Abram was a stranger in this land, and his wife, Sarai, was apparently quite beautiful. Abram feared for his life, that the Egyptians might harm him to get to Sarai. Thus he proposes to her that they claim she is his sister so they might live in the land unharmed. Abram forgets, however, that God is with them always. God warns the Pharaoh, leader of Egypt, in a dream that neither Sarai nor Abram are to be harmed. The Pharaoh is angry and scared, so he gives Abram and Sarai what they need and more before asking that they please go away now.
Lot, shortly afterwards, decides to make it on his own, so they separate for a time. Yet Lot soon finds himself in trouble, so Abram rushes in like a knight and saves him. Lot soon makes his way once again before finding a different place to settle.
Abram at this time runs into a curious figure, the King of Salem, Melchizedek. Not only is Melchizedek a king, he is a priest of “God Most High” too. He gives Abram a blessing, and Abram recognizes his authority by offering a tenth of all his possessions. Melchizedek goes as mysteriously as he came, yet he will get mentioned later in Scripture, especially in the Psalms.
Just as God made a formal pact, or Covenant, with Noah, God now decides to do the same with Abram. Because out of Abram a great nation will be formed, God treats Abram like a nation and makes the same kind of covenant different countries would have used to make peace with each other. Part of this covenant means that there are consequences if one nation or the other does something wrong. As we’ve seen throughout this story, people have difficulty following arrangements with God. Thankfully, God again is merciful.
Now in Abram’s day, one didn’t just sign a peace treaty. First, you would make an offering and take 2 halves, placing one on opposite sides, so that there would be a path to walk in the middle. Both groups would stand at opposite sides of the path and walk all the way through, each to the other side. Now when God and Abram perform this task, the Lord puts Abram to sleep, so that instead of Abram going through the ceremony, God does so alone. This is a sign that if either side breaks the deal only God will take the punishment. God is, in fact, prepared to take the fall for Abram should he do wrong.