His children and grandchildren

“…From these the nations spread out over the earth after the flood.”

Genesis 10:32

Most of the contents of chapter 10 and 11 are a list of names; that is name after name, descendant after descendant. I’m sure that a lot us when we encounter such lists when we read our Bibles gloss over them and often times, give them of little importance. And yet, these people already tell us quite a lot about God and our world today. After the flood, the only people in the world then were Noah and his family. This account that the Bible gives us says that after the cleansing of the world, God favored Noah enough that the rest of the inhabitants of the world came from his sons. (And of course, this account would eventually lead to Abram who we all know played quite a role)

After the list of Noah’s descendants in chapter 10, came the Tower of Babel in chapter 11. Some would use this passage as the origins of the different languages in the world. In a way, I suppose that is true. But more than that, it would some explain the origins of the different people in the world, the migrations of people and how there are people in all parts of the world (Gen. 10:32). As for why this was so, I honestly think that God was not punishing them, instead, it showcases God’s grace. Building the tower soon after the flood, it would indicate that people did not learn from that point in history. If they did, they would not have been so conceited as to think they could reach the heavens if they built a tower high enough to get them there. Therefore, “confusing their language so they wouldn’t understand each other” was not a penalty for their arrogance. God could have easily wiped them out again, but chose not to; that scattering them around the world would be a better option.

[Something I wrote for the Bible in One Year online devotions, unedited version]

Did It Hurt

"And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head and you will strike his heel." Gen. 3:15

[Before anything else, proper greetings are in order. To those, or to the one who reads my blog, HAPPY NEW YEAR TO YOU :)]

I think I've always wondered if God was hurt when Adam and Eve ate the fruit from the tree of good and evil. Did it hurt Him when the two people He created out of the tremendous love that He has disobeyed Him? Is that how parents feel when they tell us not to do something yet we do anyway? I guess, I just can't help but think how heartbreaking it must have been for God to banish His own creations, when His children chose to be separated from Him the moment they ate the fruit. 

And I mean, God could have chosen to intervene, prevented the serpent from even having contact with Eve. Yet He chose not to. I don't think God was masochistic in his decision of letting things unfold naturally. After all, the fall of man was necessary so that Salvation could happen. So that God's great love for His people would be greatly manifested. 

Granted, things have changed - A LOT - since the banishment of man from the garden. For one thing, we need clothes now, we get tired, we get sick and we experience pain. When I read verse 16, I thought, this is the reason why there are women out there who are scared of getting pregnant: childbirth pains. But for some reason, I don't know what hit me, and immediately after thinking that, I thought that the pains of delivering a child into this world is nothing compared to the amount of love that they will give back. 

And speaking of children and parents, why is it that in chapter 4 of Genesis, there wasn't an account of whether Adam and Eve knew that Cain killed Abel and what they had felt. Actually, correct me if I'm wrong please, there wasn't much said about Adam and Eve's parenting. For sure we know that they were parents, but we don't really know what kind. And I suppose it just makes me wonder if being parents made them understand in some way what God must have felt when they disobeyed him (did they grieve for Abel, did they mourn for Cain's sin?) 

I suppose one big thing that I got out of these three chapters is that, parents may not always be the most popular people in a kid's life but they're the ones who will love their children the most.