Archive for category: GAMEtime Sharing

Hi GAMErs,

Today’s passage is Genesis 12:10-20.  Let’s go!

Genesis 12:10-20 (NIV)
10  Now there was a famine in the land, and Abram went down to Egypt to live there for a while because the famine was severe.
11  As he was about to enter Egypt, he said to his wife Sarai, “I know what a beautiful woman you are.
12  When the Egyptians see you, they will say, ‘This is his wife.’ Then they will kill me but will let you live.
13  Say you are my sister, so that I will be treated well for your sake and my life will be spared because of you.”
14  When Abram came to Egypt, the Egyptians saw that she was a very beautiful woman……

On verses 10-20:  One of the things I appreciate about Genesis is its honesty; that is, when it comes to characters like Abram or Noah, the Bible tells it like it is.  Rather than pretending that these great figures in the Bible did not have their share of flaws and weaknesses, Genesis openly talks about their flaws and weaknesses, not to smear their name but to show that all of us are sinners who need a Saviour.  Here, Abram, whose faith is in many ways an example for us, does something here that no man of faith would be proud of:  fearing what the Egyptians might do to him if they found out he was married to the beautiful Sarai, Abram lies to everyone he meets in Egypt about his marriage to Sarai, saying that they are siblings rather than husband and wife.  He also tells Sarai to do the same.  As a result, Pharaoh king of Egypt takes Sarai into his palace, presumably to be his concubine.  While Abram seems to profit initially from his lie (v16), eventually God sends diseases on Pharaoh and his household, evidently to protect His plans for Abram and Sarai.  Angry at how Abram lied to him, Pharaoh returns Sarai to Abram and sends them away from Egypt.

Hi GAMErs,

Today’s passage is Genesis 11:10-32.  Let’s go!

Genesis 11:10-26 (NIV)
10  This is the account of Shem. Two years after the flood, when Shem was 100 years old, he became the father of Arphaxad.
11  And after he became the father of Arphaxad, Shem lived 500 years and had other sons and daughters.
12  When Arphaxad had lived 35 years, he became the father of Shelah.
13  And after he became the father of Shelah, Arphaxad lived 403 years and had other sons and daughters.
14  When Shelah had lived 30 years, he became the father of Eber.
15  And after he became the father of Eber, Shelah lived 403 years and had other sons and daughters.
16  When Eber had lived 34 years, he became the father of Peleg……

On verses 10-26:  In what the author of Genesis calls the account (i.e. the story or genealogy) of Shem (v10), we find a family tree linking Noah’s oldest son Shem to Terah, the father of Abram (later to be known as Abraham).  Verses 10 to 26 help us to see the connection between two very important figures in the Old Testament: Noah and Abraham.

In this list of ancestors, a pattern recurs where it says “When this person had lived X years, he became the father of Y, and after he became the father of Y, he lived Z years and had other sons and daughters.”  Notice that the author of Genesis starts counting years of a person’s life based on when they became a father to their first born.  What can we learn from this?  For me it’s a subtle reminder that God made us to bear fruit.  I’m not just talking about reproducing children of your own; rather I’m talking about what kind of fruit you are reproducing with your life.

Hi GAMErs,

Today’s passage is Genesis 10:1-32.  Let’s go!

Genesis 10:1-5 (NIV)
1  This is the account of Shem, Ham and Japheth, Noah’s sons, who themselves had sons after the flood.
2  The sons of Japheth: Gomer, Magog, Madai, Javan, Tubal, Meshech and Tiras.
3  The sons of Gomer: Ashkenaz, Riphath and Togarmah.
4  The sons of Javan: Elishah, Tarshish, the Kittim and the Rodanim.
5  (From these the maritime peoples spread out into their territories by their clans within their nations, each with its own language.)

On verses 1-5:  Here the author of Genesis lists the descendants of Noah, starting with the descendants of Noah’s second son Japheth (v2-5).  There is a reason why the author of Genesis starts with the second son.  It’s because the descendants of Noah’s oldest son Shem would be highlighted last to lead into the story of Shem’s most famous descendants: Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses and of course Jesus Christ.  The fact that the various peoples that emerged from Japheth’s line each had their own language (v5) suggests that God loves a variety of languages and cultures.  God is a God who enjoys ethnic and cultural diversity.  We will see this all the more in chapter 11.  That is why in Revelation heaven is described as a kingdom of people from every nation.  This also sets us up for a tragedy we will read about in Genesis 11.

Hi GAMErs,

Today’s passage is Genesis 9:1-17.  Let’s go!

Genesis 9:1-4 (NIV)
1  Then God blessed Noah and his sons, saying to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number and fill the earth.
2  The fear and dread of you will fall upon all the beasts of the earth and all the birds of the air, upon every creature that moves along the ground, and upon all the fish of the sea; they are given into your hands.
3  Everything that lives and moves will be food for you. Just as I gave you the green plants, I now give you everything.
4  “But you must not eat meat that has its lifeblood still in it.

On verses 1-4:  In verse 1 God gives Noah and his sons a near identical commission to the one God gave Adam in Genesis 1:28: “Be fruitful, increase in number, fill the earth”.  God also gave humans authority over the entire animal kingdom (“they are given in your hands” – v2b).  Meat is now explicitly okay to eat in addition to vegetables (v3), although God demands that special respect be paid to the lifeblood of the animal.

Hi GAMErs,

Today’s passage is Genesis 8:1-12.  Let’s go!

Genesis 8:1-5 (NIV)
1  But God remembered Noah and all the wild animals and the livestock that were with him in the ark, and he sent a wind over the earth, and the waters receded.
2  Now the springs of the deep and the floodgates of the heavens had been closed, and the rain had stopped falling from the sky.
3  The water receded steadily from the earth. At the end of the hundred and fifty days the water had gone down,
4  and on the seventeenth day of the seventh month the ark came to rest on the mountains of Ararat.
5  The waters continued to recede until the tenth month, and on the first day of the tenth month the tops of the mountains became visible.

On verses 1-5:  If God’s wrath is sometimes compared to a flood (e.g. Psalm 88:16-17), the fact that the floodwaters receded after 150 days reminds me that after God’s wrath comes God’s mercy.  It reminds me of this beautiful verse in Scripture: “For his anger lasts only a moment, but his favor lasts a lifetime; weeping may remain for a night, but rejoicing comes in the morning.” (Psalm 30:5; see also Isaiah 54:8).  In this case, 150 days of flooding would be followed by God re-establishing his covenant with mankind, a covenant that would last much, much longer than the flood.  It goes to show that in the great plan of God, as terrible as God’s judgment is, in the end “mercy triumphs over judgment” (James 5:13b).