As I again read through Bible, I am struck by the things I’m picking up this time I didn’t the other times…sad to say it’s only my third time, I think. Reading through the Bible from start to finish brings a continuity/connectivity to God’s words, stories, commands, encouragements, and love shown in the Bible. I will be sharing some of what I picked up on as I’m reading through in 2024. For example, the story of Noah. I grew up in church and learned this story at a young age. I learned the people were bad, so God had Noah build a big boat and load food and animals on the boat. It rained for forty days and forty nights to flood the WHOLE earth. God took care of them and kept them safe on the boat. After they came out God gave a covenant/promise to never flood the earth again and gave the rainbow as a sign of that covenant. But, if you read the story in Genesis 6-9, there is SO much more to the story.
Genesis alone has soooo many stories and information about God and how we started off on this planet earth. For whatever reason, the first thing striking me was EVERYTHING created started out as plant eaters. Gen. 1:29-31 “29 And God said, “Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the face of all the earth, and every tree with seed in its fruit. You shall have them for food. 30 And to every beast of the earth and to every bird of the heavens and to everything that creeps on the earth, everything that has the breath of life, I have given every green plant for food.” And it was so. 31 And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day.” (my emphasis)
Meat eating started after Noah came off the ark when God told him, “3 Every moving thing that lives shall be food for you. And as I gave you the green plants, I give you everything.” The other interesting part came next. “4 But you shall not eat flesh with its life, that is, its blood.”
So, no running blood in your meat!! This does not mean you can’t have a rare steak, but the meat needs a process to drain the life blood BEFORE you cook it let alone eat it.
We also see in Genesis 9 after everyone and everything leave the ark, animals are now afraid of man and the covenant with the rainbow was for ALL those living on the earth, both man and animal!
Abraham was considered and called a righteous man by God but lied TWICE about his wife being his sister! Abraham considered it to not be a lie as in the family line Sarah WAS his sister as we see in Gen. 20:12. “Besides, she is indeed my sister, the daughter of my father though not the daughter of my mother, and she became my wife.”
Some might say Abraham was splitting hairs to save his hide! It looks like it. You can find more information about these in Genesis chapters 12 and 20.
Next time I’ll share more nuggets and tidbits about Abraham, Sarah, and how life happened in Genesis between those chapters. Until then, keep reading His word and hope to see you soon at CultivatingFaith.org. Blessings. #CultivatingFaithOrg