This is two posts in one:
Post #1
I know this is a lot verses, but I wanted to outline the flow of the early chapters of Genesis in terms of it being a story about God’s promise. Note how each of the stories is marked by an act that leads to something contrary to what God calls very good, followed by a promise by God to act in response according to its reversal.
And notice how the reversal is continually rooted in a reversal of the curse placed on the land, which is paralleled with the command to be fruitful and fill the earth
And notice how Noah is raised up as a righteous figure whom will bring comfort relating to the curse on the ground by declaring its promised reversal. That reversal is attached to generations which, in this thread, ends with the promise to Abraham to make him fruitful and to fill the earth (father of many nations), and how that will come about for the sake of the scattered in the previous verses through the decendents that will be given the land of Canaan where he dwells (Israel). Precisely by being their God and them Gods people. From this comes the name Yahweh. Through this the promise of the reversal of the curse creation finds itself under will be reversed.
And don’t miss how this is tied to the seed of the serpent and the woman in conflict, with the Serpents head being crushed. If the movement Eastward to occupy and live off the cursed land is so that they might not live forever in that compromised state, the movement back, which must go through the fire, happens through God’s faithfulness to liberate the land (creation) from its curse:
Genesis 1:28-31
28 God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky and over every living creature that moves on the ground.”
29 Then God said, “I give you every seed-bearing plant on the face of the whole earth and every tree that has fruit with seed in it. They will be yours for food. 30 And to all the beasts of the earth and all the birds in the sky and all the creatures that move along the ground—everything that has the breath of life in it—I give every green plant for food.” And it was so.
31 God saw all that he had made, and it was very good.
Genesis 2:16-17
16 And the Lord God commanded the man, “You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; 17 but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat from it you will certainly die.”
Genesis 3:15
I will put enmity
between you and the woman,
and between your offspring and hers;
he will crushb your head,
and you will strike his heel.”
Genesis 3:17-19
Cursed is the ground because of you;
through painful toil you will eat food from it
all the days of your life.
18 It will produce thorns and thistles for you,
and you will eat the plants of the field.
19 By the sweat of your brow
you will eat your food
until you return to the ground,
since from it you were taken;
for dust you are
and to dust you will return.”
Genesis 3:22-24
22 And the Lord God said, “The man has now become like one of us, knowing good and evil. He must not be allowed to reach out his hand and take also from the tree of life and eat, and live forever.” 23 So the Lord God banished him from the Garden of Eden to work the ground from which he had been taken. 24 After he drove the man out, he placed on the east side of the Garden of Eden cherubim and a flaming sword flashing back and forth to guard the way to the tree of life.
Genesis 4:10-12
10 The Lord said, “What have you done? Listen! Your brother’s blood cries out to me from the ground. 11 Now you are under a curse and driven from the ground, which opened its mouth to receive your brother’s blood from your hand. 12 When you work the ground, it will no longer yield its crops for you. You will be a restless wanderer on the earth.”
Genesis 4:15
15 But the Lord said to him, “Not so, anyone who kills Cain will suffer vengeance seven times over.” Then the Lord put a mark on Cain so that no one who found him would kill him.
Genesis 4:24
24 If Cain is avenged seven times,
then Lamech seventy-seven times.”
Genesis 6:1; 5
When human beings began to increase in number on the earth and daughters were born to them… The Lord saw how great the wickedness of the human race had become on the earth, and that every inclination of the thoughts of the human heart was only evil all the time
Genesis 5:29
29 He named him Noah and said, “He will comfort us in the labor and painful toil of our hands caused by the ground the Lord has cursed.”
Genesis 6:18
“But I will establish my covenant with you, and you will enter the ark—you and your sons and your wife and your sons’ wives with you,”
Genesis 8:21-22
“Never again will I curse the ground because of humans, even though every inclination of the human heart is evil from childhood. And never again will I destroy all living creatures, as I have done.
“As long as the earth endures,
seedtime and harvest,
cold and heat,
summer and winter,
day and night
will never cease.”
Genesis 9:4-7
4 “But you must not eat meat that has its lifeblood still in it. 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.
7 As for you, be fruitful and increase in number; multiply on the earth and increase upon it.”
Genesis 9:1
9 Then God blessed Noah and his sons, saying to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number and fill the earth.
Genesis 9:8-11
8 Then God said to Noah and to his sons with him: 9 “I now establish my covenant with you and with your descendants after you 10 and with every living creature that was with you—the birds, the livestock and all the wild animals, all those that came out of the ark with you—every living creature on earth. 11 I establish my covenant with you: Never again will all life be destroyed by the waters of a flood; never again will there be a flood to destroy the earth.”
Genesis 10:32
32 These are the clans of Noah’s sons, according to their lines of descent, within their nations. From these the nations spread out over the earth after the flood.
Genesis 11:1;6
11 Now the whole world had one language and a common speech. 2 As people moved eastward they found a plain in Shinar and settled there… the Lord scattered them from there over all the earth
Genesis 12:3
I will bless those who bless you,
and whoever curses you I will curse;
and all peoples on earth
will be blessed through you.”
Genesis 17:3-8
3 Abram fell facedown, and God said to him, 4 “As for me, this is my covenant with you: You will be the father of many nations. 5 No longer will you be called Abram your name will be Abraham, for I have made you a father of many nations. 6 I will make you very fruitful; I will make nations of you, and kings will come from you. 7 I will establish my covenant as an everlasting covenant between me and you and your descendants after you for the generations to come, to be your God and the God of your descendants after you. 8 The whole land of Canaan, where you now reside as a foreigner, I will give as an everlasting possession to you and your descendants after you; and I will be their God.”
Post #2
Some observations from the book Flood and Fury by Matthew Lynch
Joshua 24:12
12 I sent the hornet ahead of you, which drove them out before you—also the two Amorite kings. You did not do it with your own sword and bow. 13 So I gave you a land on which you did not toil and cities you did not build; and you live in them and eat from vineyards and olive groves that you did not plant.’
See my previous post which strings tougher all the verses in Geneis 1-12 relating to covenant and its association with the land. Now note here at the end of Joshua, the conquest book, the hyperlinks back to those stories and that promise; did not toil, cities you did not build (Cain and Abel and the Tower of Babel), the image of the land giving blessing instead of being cursed.
And even notice the reference to a bow. Lynch notes that in ancient stories it was common for a messenger of the god to show up and hand a leader a sword. This was a kind of anointing and a proclamation that “you fight for me”. This word for bow is the same language employed in the story of bow, which is Gods bow. Lynch links the note at the end of the story that God claims to be the one who does the action and carrys the bow with Joshua’s version of the messenger showing up with a sword in chapter 5. The messenger wields the sword, it doesn’t give the sword as would be expected in such a story.
Lynch then narrows in on 5:13 and the question “are you for us (Israel), or for our enemies”. The answer that comes: neither. This messenger is a commander of “the Lord”. Again, see my previous post that walks through the references to promise or covenant in Genesis 1-12 and note the emphasis on Gods work and Gods faithfulness to do what He promised to do in light of those sequential stories. As Joshua 5 continues it hyperlinks back to Moses at the burning bush with the call to “take off your sandals for the place where you stand is holy”.
Now here is where things get really cool. Let’s backtrack to the story of Abraham.
Genesis 12:1 , “Go from your country, your people and your father’s household to the land.”
Connect the land to the cursed land of Genesis 1-11
Then note the progression of the specific call that comes to Abraham in light of this promise . “I am God Almighty walk before me faithfully and be blameless”, followed by “You are to undergo circumcision, and it will be the sign of the covenant between me and you.”
Now fast forward to Joshua 1-5 and note the progession in chapter 1 “to go” in relationship to the land followed by an unexpected turn of events. Rather than preparing them for battle the swords given are given for circumcision.
Backtrack again to Exodus 3 and 4 and the messenger to Moses and parallel that story with Joshua 1-5. Note the progression in that story that culminates in an act of circumcision that reshapes Moses understanding of who God is and how God is working in the world.
Lynch notes how these stories all parallel and connect with one another in this basic truth: that where the problem of Genesis 1-11 is this connection between the problem of violence and division, the idea that we fix this problem with the sword is always met with the divine revelation of Gods name and character wielding the sword in a different fashion.
Are you for us or for our enemies? Neither. Here God calls for submission to a different way of being in the world according to the kingdom He is building FOR the world, not against it.
The Stories of my Life 