Genesis 10-12 Don't let the genealogies in chapter 10 bog you down. One fun way to get through them is to notice all the familiar names, and how the Israelites envisioned all the nations coming from the three sons of Noah; and especially how so many of the traditional enemies of Israel appear to be descendants of Ham.
While you can get annoyed with a sort of tribalism here, the bottom line still is for the followers of the LORD God that all human creatures are related to one another; and all human creatures are part of the created order, not different from or above it.
Genesis 11: The story of the Tower of Babel. There is a sort of distrust of cities and buildings in a nomadic, herding world like Israel.
This is an Israelite telling of a story about hubris and the need to limit the human sense of power and entitlement. It's a nice idea that if we all speak the same language, there might be no end to what we could accomplish together. But we don't. This story seems to tell us that perhaps that is a good thing; because humans can cooperate to accomplish evil as well as good, and there must be some limits. The view of the writer/editor of Genesis seems to be that "the wickedness of humankind was great in the earth, and that every inclination of the thoughts of their hearts was only evil continually," as God said in 6:5 (before the flood); and after the flood, God didn't see much improvement (8:21b): the inclination of the human heart is evil from youth."
It's fun to remember that we are reading in translation. The Hebrew words "Babel"--the name of the city--and "Balal"--confusion sound quite a lot alike.
There is then a resumption of the Semitic (Shem's family) part of the genealogy. And it leads eventually to Terah, father of Abraham.
Genesis 12. And here scholars make a distinction between the time of pre-history and legend and a time that is closer to and has more "hooks" into events and places and names that can be independently verified outside of the biblical witness.
So we come to the story of the Patriarchs of God's people: Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph.
And it is a GREAT story by any literary standard.
The Jews have a lectionary not unlike the Revised Common Lectionary from which we read in the Episcopal Church. It gives them a path through the entire Torah each year, with readings supplemented from other parts of the Hebrew Bible. These Torah Parshas are known by the first word or two of the Hebrew text. Genesis 12 is known as "Lekh Lekah" (Genesis 12:1-17:27). Those Hebrew words mean "Go!", a strong sort of construction in Hebrew that means "Really get going!"
This is where God starts to interfere in Abraham's life and to transform him into the father of a great nation. (Note: he's called ABRAM here. His name changes later to ABRAHAM, and there's a delightful shift in his self-understanding as a result. We'll come to that place soon.)
12:4 says simply, "So Abram went."
This is the second time that we run into the idea of a remnant, a tiny, small remnant, through which God accomplishes great things, and preserves and develops a people. (The first was the Noah story.)
Abram was old; his wife was old; they had no children; they were called to leave their familiar home and family and go through the wilderness, and through enemy territory, to a place where God promised to bless them with many descendants, where God promised not only to bless them, but to make them a blessing. And so the association of Israel with God's promised land begins here in 12:7 when God says: "To your offspring I will give this land."
But the next verses don't show a hero. Instead they reveal Abram's weakness, as Abram learns what it means to be a head of a household by failing to watch out for the wellbeing of his wife when Pharaoh thinks she's attractive.
Psalm 4:
4:1 "You gave me room when I was in distress ..." So often our distress comes when we don't see any wiggle room in a situation in which we find ourselves. God gives room...
This psalm is complex because there are more than one voice speaking.
The psalmist begins, but God responds, and a sort of dialog develops.
The psalmist begs God: "Let the light of your face shine on us, O LORD!"
(Note the community aspect of this psalm "On US". We so often read the psalms devotionally, all by ourselves. But their normal setting is in community, as we sing and read and pray them in church on Sundays.)
And at the end, the psalmist's experience is that God does keep him safe.
Matthew 4:
Contrast in 4:1 between Matthew and the other synoptic gospels: Here Matthew says the Spirit LED Jesus into the wilderness, which sounds quite gentle, compared to Mark, which states (Mk. 1:12) that the Spirit DROVE him into the wilderness. How often we feel equally ambivalent about how God's Spirit is at work in our own hearts.
If you're interested in deeper study of this passage, look at Austin Farrer's amazing little book, The Triple Victory: Christ's Temptation according to St. Matthew.
Note how, in each case, Jesus quotes from the Torah in response to the devil's temptation.
Then things begin to really move fast, as Jesus begins his ministry in Galilee with the same words that John the Baptist used: "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near!" (4:17).
4:18ff--Jesus calls Peter and Andrew; and in a way that is more than accidentally analogous to the call of Abram, Peter and Andrew "immediately left their nets and followed him" (4:20). Similarly in the next verse for James and John. These 4 disciples continue to be central through most of the gospel.
4:23--kind of sets out for us what Jesus' "program" will be: "Jesus went throughout Galilee [where he did much of his ministry]
teaching in their synagogues [teaching]
and proclaiming the good news of the Kigndom [preaching the Kingdom of Heaven]
and curing every disease and every sickness among the people [healing--and following verses will make it clear that the healing is in body, mind, and spirit]
Daily Bible notes how chapters 3 and 4 imply what later will be called the Holy Trinity, and quotes Hildegaard of Bingen, and offers a prayer: "Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, inseparable in Divine Majesty, grant my mind rest in the mystery of your presence. Help me be more aware of your presence in my life today."
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