faith

Abraham Pleads for the Righteous – Genesis 18

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In Genesis chapter 18, God comes to earth to visit with His chosen prophet, Abraham. He appears in the form of a man, accompanied by two angels. Such a rare event is known as a Theophany, and some scholars view this moment as the appearance of the Son of God, Jesus. In the Genesis account, Abraham addressed Him as Lord – Adonai – and he addressed the angels using the same word. Yet the author, Moses, wrote of the person as Yahweh – the Lord – even though He appeared as a man.

The Theophany must have been prompted by a major impending event to warrant such an unusual encounter. Two things come to mind. The first is the revelation of God’s salvational plan for mankind through the offspring of Abraham. Now Abraham was 99 years old, and his wife, Sarah, was 90, well past childbearing age. The child of the promise would be their only son born to both of them, not the elder child born to a slave. Naturally, both Abraham (in Genesis 17:17) and Sarah (in Genesis 18:12) could not stifle a laugh at the announcement that she would bear a son to Abraham. But God had the last laugh, naming their future son Isaac, meaning He laughs. Through Isaac’s descendants came the Messiah, the Lord Jesus Christ (Matthew 1:1).

The second major impending event was judgment on Sodom, Gomorrah, and the pervasively wicked cities of the plain of Siddim to the east. The Lord rose from His meal with Abraham, and His angels departed in the direction of Sodom and Gomorrah. Abraham stood alone before the Lord, and the Lord said that the outcry was very great against the sins of the cities of the plain. They looked eastward, down the mountain in the direction of Sodom, Gomorrah, and the other cities of the plain. In the distance lay Sodom on the verdant, lush land of great wealth that had lured Lot, Abraham’s nephew, to stake his fortune and his life amidst so much depravity. The Lord then said to Abraham, “Shall I hide from Abraham what I am about to do?” (Genesis 18:17) God was speaking of impending destruction. In essence, the Lord gave Abraham permission and the opportunity to discuss and question the Lord on this severely important matter that touched the lives of Lot and his family.

Abraham pleaded for the lives of the righteous. “Surely the Lord will not sweep away the righteous with the wicked.” Humbly he begged, would you spare the city if there were 50 righteous? Yes, the Lord, said, He would spare the city if there were fifty righteous. Now Abraham repeatedly asked the same question as he whittled the number down to forty-five, then forty, then thirty, then twenty, then ten righteous souls. When the Lord gave affirmation to spare Sodom at ten souls, He departed from Abraham. The promise did not stop the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah and the cities of the plain, for only Lot and his immediate family were righteous. Lot would indeed be rescued by the two angels (chapter 19), but then total destruction would come.

Abraham’s pleading, however, set a precedent for later prophets to plead with the Lord for the clemency of God on their people, who were far from perfect. In the Bible, Moses, Jeremiah, and Habakkuk also pleaded for sinful Israel and Judah. Habakkuk asked why the Lord would crush the people who were seemingly less sinful than their tormentors (Habakkuk 1:13). Judgment from God comes after warnings and a hearing, as in a court of law, and the Lord wants His righteous ones to plead for people. In the end, judgment will be meted out after due process and the fulness of time, by which the mercies of God have been exhausted, so that no one has an excuse. Looking at nature as the general revelation of the sovereign power of God the Creator, mankind has no excuse. As the Apostle Paul wrote,

For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse. -Romans 1:20

The Lord’s angels rained down fire and sulfur on the cities of the plain in a unique and unprecedented fashion. To this day the destruction is visible in the wasteland that remains, as explorers may yet see and touch the white sulfur rock, the purest brimstone in the world that may be torched into a bright blue flame by simply striking a match. The one small town that God spared, Zoar, where Lot fled for refuge, has no such sulfur residue, a testament to the targeted destruction narrated in Holy Scripture. The destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah reminds the world of the inevitable judgment of God against abject, unrepentant wickedness in the face of all the evidence that pleads His case against them. In His mercy, He is telling us, repent! Do not be like Sodom and Gomorrah. Do not defy the Living God and sin as though there were no coming judgment. In the fulness of time, all will give an accounting before the throne of God. Each of us is a heartbeat away from eternity, and your personal “fulness of time” may be here already.

God spoke of entering His rest, in which the Promised Land for the Israelites of old serves as a mataphor for heaven itself:

Now we who have believed enter that rest, just as God has said,

“So I declared on oath in my anger, ‘They shall never enter my rest.’” –Hebrews 4:3 (quoting Psalm 95:11)

And further from the same passage,

God again set a certain day, calling it “Today.” This he did when a long time later he spoke through David, as in the passage already quoted:

“Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts.” –Hebrews 4:7 (quoting Psalm 95:7-8)

Christians are privileged to enter God’s eternal rest, where there is no sorrow or pain, but not so for the wicked. Even in this painful world before we are carried into the joys of eternity, Christians may experience the riches of Jesus through our friendship with the Savior, but not so for the wicked. God is patient, but only to a point. Do not be deceived by the lure of this world. Here is God’s attitude:

9 The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. Instead he is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.

10 But the day of the Lord will come like a thief. –2 Peter 3:9-10a

Approach this topic with a sense of urgency, especially if you waver in your faith walk or compromise you faith before the watching eyes of the Lord of Creation. Have you defied or mocked God or refused to believe? He looks down on the thoughts and deeds of humanity to see who obeys Him, and who willfully sins. He sees all we do. God will bring every deed into judgment, including every secret thing, whether it be good or evil (Jeremiah 20:23-24; Ecclesiastes 12:14). Therefore, repent to the Holy God and receive His salvation freely offered.

The good news for the waiting and repentant heart may be found in these gospel verses:

  • Genesis 3:15 (From the beginning, Christ was prepared to come and destroy the works of Satan.)
  • Isaiah chapter 53, along with Acts 8:26-34 (Christ would lay down His life for the transgressors.)
  • Daniel 7:13-14 and Matthew 17:9 (Christ the Son of Man is king of His eternal kingdom.)
  • John 3:16; 6:29; 11:25 (Christ is God’s gift to us, and the resurrection and the life for believers.)
  • Ephesians 2:8-10 (We are saved by God’s grace through our faith, not of works; but we are created in Christ to do His good works.)
  • 1 John 1:9 (Christians may sometimes err in their faith walk, but have the assurance of restoration through confession to the God of mercy.)
  • Romans 3:23; 5:8; 6:23; 10:9-10; 8:1; 12:1-2 (The “Roman Way” gives the simple steps to eternal salvation and our new life in Christ.)

These verses, and many more, lay out the gospel from ancient times through the life of Christ, and into the current age. May the Lord richly bless you.

The Testing of Abraham — Genesis 22

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The Lord God spoke to Abraham and said, “Take your son, your only son, Isaac, whom you love, and go sacrifice him as a burnt offering in the land of Moriah.” The Lord emphasized how dear Isaac was to Abraham, and this is the first use of the word love in the Bible. Abraham’s heart must have sunk. He had waited until he was 100 years old before he could have a son with his 90-year-old wife, Sarah. Isaac was the child of the promise God had given him to make a great nation through his offspring. In fact, God had told him, “It is through Isaac that your offspring will be reckoned” (Genesis 21:22). What could possibly come of killing his own child, now a boy or young man?

But Abraham did not hesitate. He cut up the wood for the sacrifice and left Beersheba, his current home in the south of Canaan, early in the morning. He had loaded his supplies, mustered servants and taken Isaac with him. They traveled for three days to Moriah, the mountain of the Lord close to Jeruslaem. Mount Moriah would later become the temple mount in the days of King Solomon, and eventually, it is believed, the site of Islam’s Dome of the Rock. On the third day, as the mountain came into sight, he went ahead alone with Isaac, saying to his servants, “Wait here while I go with the boy to the mountain to worship, and we will return to you.” He used the impersonal term, the boy, as he spoke of his beloved Isaac, perhaps to distance himself from the gruesome task ahead of him. How could God, whose promises he believed, now renege on the promise, and make him sacrifice his only son of the promise? This was a precedent never ventured before: a commanded human sacrifice from God Almighty. It was unthinkable. Yet the order rang in his ears to sacrifice his son like an animal for atonement and devotion to the Creator. He did not have the written law code of Moses, dictated by God Himself, saying do not murder and do not offer human sacrifice to a god. No, the law code would not come until over four hundred years later. It is possible he knew of the law code of King Ur-Nammu, who might have been contemporary to Abraham. Otherwise, he was not schooled in law, at least not in the way of the still nonexistant Hebrew tradition. But Abraham knew something about God from conversations with Him, and he thought he knew God’s nature: holy, faithful, dependable, righteous, everlasting.

God had said to Abraham, “Leave your land and your people and go to a land that I will show you, and I will make you into a great nation.” Later God told him, “Go out and look up at the stars and count them, if indeed they can be counted. So will your offspring be.” And then the book of Genesis says, “Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness” (Genesis 15:6). Then at age 99, Abraham saw the Lord in human form – the Theophany – and heard him say, “This time next year you and Sarah will have a son.” In spite of Abraham and Sarah’s laughter, it happened, and the Lord told him to name the boy Isaac, meaning He Laughs. Now he must kill the boy and burn the boy’s body like a carcass in worship of the Living God. Had God changed His mind? No, God must be up to something he did not understand. Would he raise Isaac from the dead? God is faithful and does not do evil. God must provide him a way, and he must not try to take a shortcut or circumvent the plan of the Lord, even in this. Somewhere on that journey a resolve came over Abraham that kept him in pursuit of the Lord’s orders. It had to be faith that only God knows and that God would work out to satisfaction.

After the three days of travel, and his thinking about God’s command, the thought would be like burying his son for those three days, or counting Isaac as good as dead. Isaac was oblivious to the plan now, as they drew close to Moriah. Abraham had placed the wood load on Isaac’s back as they traveled on foot this last distance alone, unaccompanied by servants or beasts. Abraham carried the knife and the fire, probably a lit torch.

“My father?”

“Here I am, my son,” said Abraham. He had kept things impersonal in referring to his son as “the boy,” but now the words could not be withheld. He was saying what we might say: At your service, my son.

“We have the wood, the knife, and the fire, but where is the lamb for the sacrifice?” The whole burnt offering became codified in the book of Leviticus, far into the future, but the practice was known in Abraham’s time and before. The whole animal was consumed by the fire as a symbol of the worshipper’s total devotion, and as atonement for sin. The lamb could also be another creature such as a ram, the mature male sheep. Abraham knew this. With the thought of what he had been instructed to do, but knowing no other recourse, Abraham relied on his only hope – that God would show him what to do. “God Himself will provide the lamb,” he said to his son.

They built the altar now and arranged the wood for the fire. Then the unthinkable happened. Somehow Abraham succeeded in getting Isaac on the wood and binding him there. At some time during this last procedure, Isaac must have realized that he was the sacrifice. Did they discuss this? It is possible that Isaac as a youth was stronger than his father, but did they have a wrestling match? If Isaac consented willingly or was talked into stretching out on the altar, then he was foreshadowing the Christ, who willingly would go to His execution on the cross some two thousand years in the future. In fact, to Christians the whole incident presents a type, also known as a foreshadowing or prefiguring, for the passion of the Christ. These uncanny similarities to the Crucifixion of Jesus presented themselves:

  • Abraham, the father, prepared to sacrifice his only legally recognized son as atonement and devotion, just as God the Father allowed His only begotten Son to be sacrificed for the sins of the world. Jesus is called the Lamb of God (Isaiah 53:7; John 1:29,36; Acts 8:32; 1 Peter 1:19; Revelation 5:6,8,12,13). The details for the lamb motif begin in the book of Leviticus, which outlines sacrifice for sin and devotion to the Lord. The burnt offering and the guilt offering would include, depending on circumstances, a young bull, a female sheep, a ram, or a goat. The poor could sacrifice doves or fine flour. However, the lamb became an enduring symbol of such sacrifice throughout the Israelites’ sacrificial period, from the Exodus through the First Century A.D.
  • As mentioned, Abraham spent three days traveling to Moriah, where the sacrifice would occur, and in the process his resolve to obey God placed him in the position of thinking his son was as good as dead. Christ lay dead in the tomb for three days before His resurrection.
  • Isaac carried the wood for his own sacrifice; Jesus was compelled to carry His own cross.
  • As mentioned, if Isaac willingly cooperated with his father, he foreshadowed the very purpose for the Christ’s coming to earth (Mark 10:45).
  • In a sense there occurred a resurrection for both Isaac and Jesus. Hebrews 11:17-18 says that Abraham believed God could raise his son from the dead; he had faith that God could do anything necessary to fulfill His promise of blessing Abraham’s descendants through Isaac, even if it meant raising him from the dead.

Let us inspect some Bible passages that support the above prefiguring list.

He was oppressed and afflicted,

    yet he did not open his mouth;

he was led like a lamb to the slaughter,

    and as a sheep before its shearers is silent,

    so he did not open his mouth.

-Isaiah 53:7

The above verse is from Isaiah 53, known as the chapter of the Suffering Servant. Orthodox Jews do not recognize the Suffering Servant as the Messiah, but rather picture the Messiah as a conquering Lord of righteousness. Christians reconcile the two concepts – the humble Lamb of God and the Lion of the Tribe of Judah (also seen as the Son of Man) – as one and the same Person. Our point in the context of the sacrificial Lamb of God arises from God’s love, even to the point of sacrificing His only Son for the sins of the world. Isaiah 53:12 further clarifies the idea of the Messiah who is given all glory and power and honor because of His sacrifice.

Therefore I will give him a portion among the great,

    and he will divide the spoils with the strong,

because he poured out his life unto death,

    and was numbered with the transgressors.

For he bore the sin of many,

    and made intercession for the transgressors. -Isaiah 53:12

Consider the book of John, which refers to John the Baptizer as he recognized Jesus.

The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him and said, “Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!” -John 1:29

This provides a direct reference to Jesus the Lamb of God, the sacrifice once for all humanity, as cited in Hebrews 7:27, as well as several other references in the book of Hebrews:

He sacrificed for their sins once for all when he offered himself. -Hebrews 7:27b

We may refer to the words of Jesus Himself in the Gospel of Mark, where he referred to Himself as the Son of Man, a title equated with God Himself from Daniel 7:13-14:

“For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.” -Mark 10:45

In the above sentence, regarded as the focal statement of the Gospel of Mark, we have the reconcilation of suffering with the power of God that rests on Jesus the Messiah, the Son of Man. Hence we understand the passage giving all power and glory and honor to the Son of Man in the prophetic passage from Daniel. He earned it!

13 “In my vision at night I looked, and there before me was one like a son of man, coming with the clouds of heaven. He approached the Ancient of Days and was led into his presence. 14 He was given authority, glory and sovereign power; all nations and peoples of every language worshiped him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion that will not pass away, and his kingdom is one that will never be destroyed.” -Daniel 7:13-14

A good summary of the earned glory of Jesus, Messiah and Son of Man, which reconciles His glory and His suffering, comes from the author of Hebrews:

…let us run with patience the race that is set before us,

Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.

–-Hebrews 12:1c,2

As Abraham reached for the knife, the voice of the angel came from heaven with urgency: “Abraham, Abraham!”

“Here I am,” he said, now realizing with hope of all hopes that God was intervening.

“Do not lay a hand on the boy…. Now I know that you fear God, because you have not withheld from Me your son, your only son.” Only then did Abraham see the ram that had caught its horns in a thicket, the sacrifice provided by God. Isaac was spared!

Debaters may say, does God not know everything? Psalm 147:5 says His understanding is infinite. Jeremiah 23:24 says no one can hide from Him. How then would God not know that Abraham would do anything for Him? He did not know with the knowledge of experience! The Rev. Tony Evans wrote that God wanted to feel Abraham’s devotion. Just as God enjoys our worship and feels our devotion, so it was with Abraham. However, another reason penetrates the mystery of the sacrifice; this enactment was a testing of Abraham, God’s prophet.

Now God does not tempt people, as asserted by James 1:13. However, from 1 Peter 1:7 we understand that we are given trials which should strengthen us in our faith. By such a principle Abraham was tested, at times failing, and at times more frequently, to his credit, passing the “test.” He passed one test in a great way by first believing God, and this was credited to him as righteousness. He failed a trial of patience, short-cutting God’s promise of an heir by taking the slave, Hagar, as a second wife in order to have a son. However, even our failures can teach us. In Abraham’s case, he learned that God is faithful to His promises, even when he, in his finite human understanding, did not see how God could carry out the promise!

Therefore, we have the Lord’s assurance of our growing strength as we face our trials in faith, “looking unto Christ, the author and finisher of our faith” (Hebrews 12:2). May praise and glory be given to the God of infinite understanding, whose love for His created humanity endures forever. We ask our Eternal Father in the name of Jesus, Messiah, Son of Man, to strengthen us in His righteousness so that we endure to the end.

If You Are Thinking About Aborting Your Child — Read This

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Recently I wrote an article entitled “The Sanctity of Human Life.” I won’t repeat the Biblical arguments for avoiding abortion here, but two true accounts should give anyone pause who contemplates ending the life of the baby in the womb. We will call the unborn child in this recent story “Michael.” His mother was my wife’s friend. Each day the father would spend some time speaking to the baby in her womb, bending down to her tummy, and calling him by name, saying “Michael, I love you” and “I am looking forward to seeing you soon,” as well as other conversational words of endearment.

When baby Michael was born, the father was right there. Naturally Michael cried when he drew his first breath, but the crying continued. Finally, the father got close and said, “Michael, it’s OK, I am here with you. I love you.” Instantly little Michael’s crying stopped, and he listened! Overjoyed, the mother and father continued to soothe their newborn, who was still listening.

My point for you, if you are thinking about aborting your child, is this: He or she hears you in the womb. Your child, even now, is a living human being – not a tissue mass, and not something to be discarded. God bless you for pausing to hear this true account of young Michael.

Consider a Biblical account of another child in his mother’s womb, the prophet John the Baptizer. In Luke’s gospel, after the angel Gabriel announced that Mary would conceive the Christ Child by the Holy Spirit, she visited her relative, Elizabeth, who was in her sixth month of pregnancy with baby John. Filled with the Holy Spirit, Elizabeth said to Mary,

“As soon as the sound of your greeting reached my ears, the baby in my womb leaped for joy.”

-Luke 1:44

The child in the womb is not some blob and not some “choice.” The child is a person, even in the womb. Let us praise God the Creator for the wonders of His creation.

The Book of Genesis – The Masterful Beginning

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Genesis begins with this seminal, authoritative statement: “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” It is arguably the most famous, all-encompassing opening sentence in all of literature. It establishes God as the Creator, eternal and almighty, yet caring. He established the earth first, before the vast universe, which came later in the six days of creation. God built the universe around the earth, which is the focus of His creative power, the place where His ultimate creation, man, would reside. Much later, King David of Israel asked, “What is man that You [God] are mindful of Him?” (Psalm 8:4) The answer rests on God’s loving care for that part of His living creation that He deliberately made in His image, after His likeness: human beings.

The history presented in Genesis accounts for Adam, the first man, all the way to Jacob’s sons settling in Egypt, around 1,866 B.C., a span of about 2,100 years. Some of this history, including customs such as contracts, the Great Flood, and the names of the patriarchs, are corroborated by ancient clay tablets of Mesopotamia and Syria. The Great Flood in particular is the theme of the legend of Gilgamesh, a Mesopotamian account as told in a pantheistic culture. But Genesis is more than a dry history. It is divided into ten memorable accounts, each beginning with the word “account.” The accounts tell of people and events that are best described as fascinating stories of human nature as people struggle with obstacles and opposition, even as God plays a sovereign role of guiding them, answering prayers, giving visions, and making promises to a the patriarchs. Ultimately God makes covenant promises to Noah, then Abraham, and then reaffirms the covenant to Abraham’s son, grandson, and great grandson.

Genesis runs a long narrative of God’s creation of the world and all life, assesses the nature of mankind, and relates the history of a family which God calls into a special relationship for the purpose of founding a holy nation. His plan alludes to the possibility of a Messiah, a specially anointed One to bring us back from the abyss of sin and conflict against God. The subtle assumptions within single words of Genesis point to the promise of the concept of the Trinity, God as One, yet comprised of three perfectly united persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. This is suggested by Elohim, plural yet meaning God. God created, ba-ra Elohim, uses the plural noun with ba-ra, a singular verb. Furthermore, God’s Spirit hovered over the waters of earth, in Genesis 1:2. In Genesis 1:26, God said, “Let us make man….” By “us” God did not mean God and angels, but God Himself with Himself.

This statement, “Let us make man in our image,” establishes mankind as the image bearers of God on God’s nascent earth. The full meaning of image bearers becomes inextricably intertwined in the Genesis narrative history as characters attempt to honor God, while others do not. The imperfections of human beings – their sins – call into question good versus evil, why God allows evil, and whether this state of affairs is a permanent problem. Is the world to be forever tainted? Genesis raises such questions and more, and has therefore been labeled a narrative text on philosophy.

Humans are unique in creation, possessing superior intelligence, a sense of what eternity means, self awareness, and the capacity to reason, create tools and subdue the earth to their purposes. Even further, humans have a moral conscience, a will to choose either good or evil, and the capacity to worship God and choose the attributes of their holy God. Such attributes include the fruit of God’s Spirit listed in Galatians 5:22-23, which include love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. In Genesis we read of such marvelous attributes and their opposite, the capacity for evil, and we discover God’s dealings with both good and evil. We learn that there exists a representive of evil, Satan, who tempted the first man and woman to sin and fall.

As mentioned, Genesis has been called a book of philosophy in literary form as the book weaves stories of families and generations. The reader asks, will Noah and family survive the Great Flood? Will Lot, Abraham’s nephew, survive the wickedness of Sodom and the judgment that would rain down on that city with fire and sulphur? How can Abraham save his precious son, Isaac, the child of God’s promise, and still obey God’s demand to sacrifice the boy? Will Jacob overcome his brother Esau’s determination to kill him for tricking him out of his birthright and stealing his blessing, and how can Jacob ever repay Esau his debt to his brother? In the next generation, how may Joseph survive slavery and prison, and ultimately, how will he find a way to forgive his brothers, especially his worst betrayer, Judah? From the answers to these questions we find dysfunctional families whom God blesses and teaches and accompanies (e.g., God was “with” Joseph and blessed everything he did). The philosophical questions are answered by the presence of God and the faith of the people whom He blesses. The people of truth and faithfulness receive honor, at times in spite of their imperfect demonstration of honor: e.g., righteous Noah got drunk and naked; faithful Abraham lied about his wife, Sarah; and persevering Jacob began as a deceiver who learned the better way, even wrestling with an angel to receive a blessing.

The longest account in Genesis (Gen. 37:2-50:26) focuses on Joseph, the eleventh son of Jacob and favored above the others by his father. Joseph the Dreamer had God-inspired visions of grandeur about himself, which he naively shared with his jealous brothers, resulting in Judah and the others selling him into slavery in Egypt. God was with Joseph as he rose from slave and prisoner to ruler of all Egypt, second only to the Pharaoh. Now Joseph had a chance to seek vengeance on his brothers, but he chose to forgive them! The word forgive is not even found in Genesis and seems to be a new principle. However, in order to forgive, Joseph felt compelled to exact a price: Judah’s offer to sacrifice himself – to voluntarily become a slave at Joseph’s mercy (Genesis 44:33). This is the turning point of the saga of Joseph and his brothers, the exact moment when Joseph revealed his identity and offered forgiveness.

Today we have two opposing perspectives of culture: the culture of shame and the culture of guilt. With shame there is no remedy, no remediation, no atonement; it perpetuates a permanent fallen condition that cannot be resolved. Hence a violator against correctness is “canceled” – relegated to the fixed status of outcast for his sin. The other cultural perspective is guilt for which a remedy may be obtained by repentance and the forgiving act of the offended party. Joseph, having God with him, chose this second alternative, the better way. For this reason, as well as the compelling story in itself, Joseph’s forgiving act makes his life the most prominent of the Genesis accounts. Therefore, Genesis establishes the precedent for grace: the unmerited restoration of the offender by reason of his repentance and faith. The climax of Joseph’s story provides a kind of reverse type for our restoration under the grace of Jesus. Joseph’s brother, Judah, guilty of selling Joseph into slavery, offered himself as a slave to save his innocent brother, Benjamin. In contrast, Jesus, innocent of all charges, Judah’s descendant, gave His life as a ransom for guilty souls.

Almost unwritten in the Genesis history, a moral code seems woven into the fabric of the riveting narrative long before the code is written in the Ten Commandments and the religious and ethical mandates of Exodus and Leviticus. Before Moses and the priests and the written law, Abraham tithed his booty from a righteous battle, giving it to the kingly priest, Melchizedek. Joseph answered the sexual temptress, Potiphar’s wife, “How then could I do such a wicked thing and sin against God?” Human beings even then had what the forbidden tree foreshadowed before the fall of Adam and Eve – the knowledge of good and evil. Yet characters in Genesis did not have a written Law from God. The Mosaic Law would eventually come, when sin and righteousness would be spelled out vividly to Jacob’s untrained and pagan-influenced descendants: righteousness including “Love the Lord your God” and “Love your neighbor,” and sanctions against wickedness in X-rated explicitness.

More than philosophy, and more than a moral code, Genesis is the forerunner of the Messiah as Savior of mankind. Early in the Genesis narrative, after the fall of Adam and Eve, God predicted that Eve’s descendant would crush Satan’s head, and the devil would bruise his heel. The outcome alluded to in Genesis 3:15 gives the answer to the age-old problem of humanity’s finding redemption and restoration. The works of the devil, the heel bruising, put Jesus on the cross; the work of Jesus, the bruising of Satan’s head, was finished on the cross and by His resurrection! Redemption, the answer, came by God’s grace announced at the outbreak of the First Sin, in Genesis 3:15. Genesis became, therefore, the beginning history of God’s redemption of mankind. First, God’s plan provided for a people from Abraham, then a culture by Abraham’s descendants, then the God-ordained moral code, then a land for the people (the Promised Land), and then a kingly lineage leading to the Messiah as predicted in the prophets. Genesis laid the groundwork. The reshith, the beginning, already prepared the way for the King of Kings. Malachi, the last book of the Tanakh, the Jewish Bible and our Old Testament, concludes with a prediction of what Genesis began. Malachi ends the Old Testament saying Elijah would come before the “great and dreadful day of the Lord.” Jesus interpreted Malachi’s closing sentences, saying that the Elijah who was to come was John the Baptizer, who came to prepare the way for Jesus. As John said, this One (Jesus) would baptize the people “with the Holy Spirit and with fire.” As early as Genesis, God’s Spirit and fire, representing grace and judgment, counterbalance each other as God showed two sides of humanity’s ultimate fate: grace for the faithful, and judgment for the unfaithful.

Genesis 9:4 – The Life Blood

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The Rainbow covenant that God made with Noah and his family, the survivors of the Great Flood, included a stipulation of great interest to the Abrahamic people groups and their respective faiths: Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. God commanded the abstention from the lifeblood of animals when He allowed the eating of meat in the human diet after the Flood. To Noah and his wife, their three sons, and their wives, God said: “But you must not eat meat that has its lifeblood still in it” (Genesis 9:4).

God further required an accounting from any human or animal that took another human life: capital punishment.

5 “And for your lifeblood I will surely demand an accounting. I will demand an accounting from every animal. And from each human being, too, I will demand an accounting for the life of another human being.

6 “Whoever sheds human blood,

by humans shall their blood be shed;

for in the image of God

has God made mankind.”

– Genesis 9:5-6

Two points come to mind from this passage, Genesis 9:4-6:

  • Respect for the lifeblood of an animal whose meat is eaten by humans.
  • Accountability for the shedding of human blood by another, whether by an animal or a human.

The lifeblood sustains the life of both man and beast, sending oxygen, nutrients, and antibodies throughout the organism. The blood of both humans and animals truly sustains the life of the organism. The Hebrew Torah gives further rationale for respecting the blood of animals, whether by animal sacrifices on the altar to God, or whether by consumption of meat for food.

11 “For the life of a creature is in the blood, and I have given it to you to make atonement for yourselves on the altar; it is the blood that makes atonement for one’s life. 12 Therefore I say to Israelites, “None of you may eat blood, nor may any foreigner residing among you eat blood.”

– Leviticus 17:11-12

Deuteronomy 12:24 further prescribes how to treat the shed blood of the animal consumed for food; its blood was to be poured onto the ground, leaving the meat free of its blood. The reason for this care becomes clear from the principle of sacrificial atonement. The innocent animal sheds its blood for the life of the person offering his gift at the altar. Indeed, vicarious atonement, a life for a life, provided the forgiveness in the Israelites’ covenant with God. The covenant emphasized that sin promoted death, and without the shedding of blood, there was no forgiveness. The priest sprinkled the holy articles and the altar with blood from the sacrifice. In Egypt during the plagues against Pharaoh and the Egyptians, the Israelites sprinkled the doorpost and lintel of their homes with the blood of the Passover lamb, which prevented the angel from killing the firstborn of their household.

In fact, the law requires that nearly everything be cleansed with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness. – Hebrews 9:22

Non-Christians do not understand the nature of Jesus’ sacrifice of Himself on the cross. He is called the Lamb of God, because He is the atoning sacrifice for all the sins of humanity. Our only contribution is faith in His sacrifice as Son of Man and Son of God, the sinless One who took our sins upon Himself.

Unlike the other high priests, he does not need to offer sacrifices day after day, first for his own sins, and then for the sins of the people. He sacrificed for their sins once for all when he offered himself. -Hebrews 7:27

Thus the sinless Son of God offered Himself for us, conquered death through His resurrection, and gave us eternal life through His atoning sacrifice of grace and our faith in Him.