Series Theme:   Judgments of God

This Page: Part 3: Studies 3.1 - 3.10  -  Judgments in Genesis

PART 1: About God

1.1 God's Loving Forgiveness

1.2 God's Loving Goodness

1.3 A Perfect God

1.4 God's Love and Anger and Judgment

1.5 The Throne of God

1.6 God's Will & Purpose

1.7 God's Bench Mark

1.8 A Hard-nosed God?

1.9 The Testimony of the Bible

1.10 The Glory of God?

1.11 Balance

PART 2: About Judgments

2.1 The Concept of Indirect Judgment

2.2 Judgments – involving Satan

2.3 Judgment. Was it God?

2.4 The Corrective Elements of Judgments

2.5 Discipline = Correction & Change

2.6 Corrective Warnings & God's Reputation

2.7 General Warnings

PART 3: Judgments in Genesis

3.1 Adam and Eve

3.2 Cain and Abel

3.3 The Flood

3.4 Canaan Cursed

3.5 The Tower of Babel

3.6 Abram and Pharaoh

3.7 Sodom and Gomorrah

3.8 Er and Onan

3.9 Famines

3.10 Genesis Recap

 

PART 4: Judgments in Exodus & Leviticus

4.1 The Exodus

4.2 To Sinai

4.3 The Golden Calf

4.4 Casual Priests

4.5 Casual Blasphemy

Part 5: Judgments in Numbers

5.1 Casual Sabbath Disobedience

5.2 Grumblings about Hardships

5.3 Miriam's Leprosy

5.4 The Rejection of Canaan

5.5 Korah's Rebellion

5.6 More Foolish Grumbling

5.7 Grumblings get to Moses

5.8 Judgment of Snakes

5.9 Folly with Moab

Part 6: The Struggle for Canaan

6.1 Origins

6.2 Instructions

6.3 Reasons

6.4 Take Possession Gradually

6.5 Take Possession – Completely

6.6 Take Possession – Completely (2)

6.7 Take Possession – Completely (3)

6.8 Hardened Hearts

6.9 The Fear of the Lord

6.10 Miracles of the Lord

6.11 Incompleteness

Meditating on the Judgments of God: 3.1 Adam and Eve

Gen 3:17-19 To Adam he said, "Because you listened to your wife and ate from the tree about which I commanded you, `You must not eat of it,' "Cursed is the ground because of you; through painful toil you will eat of it all the days of your life. It will produce thorns and thistles for you, and you will eat the plants of the field. 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."

And so we move on to start considering the specific judgments of God. Judgments are first and foremost the decisions of God and our purpose in these studies is now to observe the judgments and try to find out why God decided in this particular way.

You might say in this instance it was fairly obvious. The Lord had told Adam and Eve, “You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will surely die,” (Gen 2:16,17) and when they listened to Satan (Gen 3) they disobeyed God and ate of the tree and so death will follow. Simple. Hold on! Why? Isn't death rather a strong punishment for eating a piece of fruit?

We need to go behind the ‘mechanics' of life as revealed in the Bible. For example we find, “God blessed them and said, "Be fruitful and increase in number and fill the water in the seas, and let the birds increase on the earth” (Gen 1:22). Life exists and flourishes because God blesses it, i.e. He speaks His life-giving word and life is imparted and life flourishes. In the NT we find Jesus described as, “the radiance of God's glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word.” (Heb 1:3) Father and Son uphold and sustain this world by their will. They purpose good for it, and that is clear from the earliest words of Genesis. Their intent is that with the creation of mankind, a new form of relationship is opened up, between God and man, a relationship whereby the love of God can be expressed to man.

But then we realise there is a problem. Adam and Eve (and the rest of mankind) have free will and they have already exercised it to disobey once and it is therefore probable that they will continue to do that (and history conforms this is how we are). So suppose God continues to bless the created world and give more and more to Adam and Eve and their progeny, what will they do with it? The answer has to be on the basis of what we have seen so far, use it wrongly. The proof of this is obvious to see: “The LORD saw how great man's wickedness on the earth had become, and that every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil all the time.” (Gen 6:5) Man, in a very short time, had exercised his free will to do what he liked and it was all against the design of God – and that was with the restrictions we're about to look at.

After God had interrogated Adam and Eve we find, “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." So the LORD God banished him from the Garden of Eden to work the ground from which he had been taken. 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.” (Gen 3:22-24) Why did God cut off mankind from this ‘garden' from this place where there had been the possibility of blessing and curse? He could have simply destroyed them and started off with some completely different creature, but instead He simply removes them from a place where they would have continually gone to seek blessing, to seek God's life-force, to seek eternal life, to stop aging and to prevent dying.

Taking from that one tree would, according to God's words, release life to them, life that would just keep on going. By eating of the other tree they revealed their free will and exercised it as sin. We so often define Sin as self-centred godlessness, and that is what they expressed when they took the forbidden fruit. Now God says, I'm going to remove you from this scene so that you will never have that choice again, of being able to snatch eternal life for yourself. This is what the death is that He spoke about in Gen 2:17, the removal of an unending source of life. That life will be available for those who seek the author of life (Acts 3:15) and before that becomes obvious, those who live to persist in doing good, seeking glory, honor and immortality (Rom 2:7) and when it comes, by obeying the Law of God (Rom 2:13).

So what have we seen as God declares his judgment on the case of Adam and Eve? In Gen 3:14-19 God declares the changes that will come about for Satan, Eve and Adam. For the two humans the changes will mean life is harder than before – but easy to cope with if they maintain a relationship with God. It then meant being taken away from the present place of blessing into the wider world that they were to populate and reign over. The evidence of history in the Old Testament reveals that God was still accessible to men and women and He was there still to bless those who would come to Him.

This judgment has prevented eternal life being an automatic provision but it has not destroyed mankind. allowing them to continue to enjoy the earth and reign over it as they populate it. It will be harder than before but that will not harm them, and God will still be there for them when they seek Him – but it will be a case of when they seek Him. Except it is not that simple for again and again what we find it is God who comes seeking man and seeks to develop a relationship whereby He can express His love towards mankind. That has not changed! This has been a firm judgment with strong reasoning and lots of mercy so the purpose of God can continue – to bless mankind.

Meditating on the Judgments of God: 3.2 Cain and Abel

Gen 4:10-12 Your brother's blood cries out to me from the ground. Now you are under a curse and driven from the ground, which opened its mouth to receive your brother's blood from your hand. When you work the ground, it will no longer yield its crops for you. You will be a restless wanderer on the earth."

The thing about the judgments of God is that they only come when there is a case to be decided, so to speak, when someone has gone contrary to the design of God for His world. The Biblical record tells us of Eve's first two children, Cain and then Abel and we read, “Now Abel kept flocks, and Cain worked the soil. In the course of time Cain brought some of the fruits of the soil as an offering to the LORD. But Abel brought fat portions from some of the firstborn of his flock. The LORD looked with favor on Abel and his offering, but on Cain and his offering he did not look with favor. So Cain was very angry, and his face was downcast.” (Gen 4:2-5) These are somewhat mystifying verses at first sight and we wonder why the Lord should have looked with favour on Abel's offering but not on Cain's. But then we notice to important words: ‘some' and ‘firstborn'.

First of all Cain brings ‘some of the fruits of the soil'. Now why they brought offerings to God in the first place is a slight mystery. The word for ‘offering' means a gift. Whether it is a special occasion or Eve has taught the boys to be thankful to God is unclear but when it says Cain brings ‘some' fruits it has a somewhat casual feeling about it. Yes, the word ‘some' is also used of Abel but here it is completely different because he is bringing what would have been considered the best portions of meat from more than one of his animals. ‘Some' of the firstborn indicates more than one, so Abel's gift is both high quality and abundant or generous. God looks at the heart and is blessed by what He finds in Abel but is distressed by what He finds in Cain. Indeed Cain's heart is revealed in his response which was anger. Cain becomes synonymous with those with wrong hearts against God (Jude 11) while Abel is named among the people of faith who come to God with good hearts (Heb 11:4).

So Cain's poor heart is revealed in the casual way he brought a gift and then in the way he responds to being (we suggest) rebuked for it. Now the Lord understands exactly what Cain is feeling and so confronts him with it: “Then the LORD said to Cain, "Why are you angry? Why is your face downcast? If you do what is right, will you not be accepted? But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must master it.” (Gen 4:6,7) He warns Cain to be careful, for his bad attitude can overtake him and cause more wrong, but he needs to overcome it and avoid that. Note that the Lord is seeking to help him avoid sin.

But Cain's heart is set in the wrong direction: “Now Cain said to his brother Abel, "Let's go out to the field." And while they were in the field, Cain attacked his brother Abel and killed him.” (Gen 4:8) We have a criminal case on our hands! There is no question about Cain's guilt. He can make no excuses; the Lord warned him to take hold of himself but instead he gave way to jealousy and killed Abel. An open and shut case! The only thing to be decided is the judgment. What should happen to Cain? Well on the basis of what follows later in the Bible – an eye for an eye etc. – we would have expected God to have taken his life. That would have been reasonable, but look again at the verses at the top of this study.

The judgment that God imposes on this murderer is twofold, one thing following the other. First of all, “When you work the ground, it will no longer yield its crops for you.” For whatever practical reason, farming will no longer be a means of providing for him. From now on he will have to go foraging or relying upon other people, he will be a “ a r estless wanderer on the earth.” What should be the effect of this punishment? It should bring him to his senses, it should bring about humility in him, it should bring about a better man. Do you see this? God's intent is to redeem this man through what happens to him. It's what happened to the prodigal in Jesus' parable (Lk 15) and it is what the Bible hints at a number of times, that a person can be changed by discipline, for that is exactly the purpose of discipline, to bring about a new, better person. No way is there any indication in this story of a harsh and judgmental God. Twice we have now seen Him speaking or acting for Cain's good.

But Cain is blinded by his hard heart: “Cain said to the LORD, "My punishment is more than I can bear. Today you are driving me from the land, and I will be hidden from your presence; I will be a restless wanderer on the earth, and whoever finds me will kill me.” (Gen 4:13,14) Like so many hard hearted people he turns it and blames God: this is unkind! Well, actually no Cain, you still have your life and the opportunity to redeem it!

But watch the Lord yet again: “But the LORD said to him, "Not so; if anyone kills Cain, he will suffer vengeance seven times over." Then the LORD put a mark on Cain so that no one who found him would kill him.” (Gen 4:15) The mark is not a stigma but a mark of safe-conduct. Cain will be protected throughout his life - by God!

But why didn't God kill him, he's a murderer and a hard hearted individual? The answer can only be found in the words mercy and grace. Everything about the story reveals a God who seeks to help the sinner avoid sin, and even when he does sin, give him opportunity to repent and change. Do you remember in the first study, we closed thinking about Ex 34:6,7 where the Lord described Himself and in that description it spoke of Him “forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin,” and then we went on to consider the three references in Ezekiel where the Lord said He took no pleasure in the death of man but would much prefer to see repentance and be able to bring forgiveness. The Lord WANTS to forgive and so He gives us opportunity after opportunity to repent so that forgiveness may flow, but it cannot until there is the change.

Perhaps there was the leniency in this case because it was the first one and therefore nothing had been laid down previously about it. Once the Law is established it is obvious and disregard for it is blatant rebellion. Cain is an amazing illustration of the mercy and grace of God. Bear this in mind as we progress through these studies.

Meditating on the Judgments of God: 3.3 The Flood

Gen 6:5-7 The LORD saw how great man's wickedness on the earth had become, and that every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil all the time. The LORD was grieved that he had made man on the earth, and his heart was filled with pain. So the LORD said, "I will wipe mankind, whom I have created, from the face of the earth--men and animals, and creatures that move along the ground, and birds of the air--for I am grieved that I have made them."

As we move on we come to that terrible event so often referred to as just ‘The Flood'. Whether this flood was in a limited area, in the whole of the Middle East, or covered the entire world only time and eternity will tell. The scope of it is really not the important issue for there are things within the story that we should take hold of. We said previously that when we look at the judgments of God we are always looking at the decisions of a Judge (and there are many references in Scripture to Him being and doing that), even as in modern courts, judges and juries weigh up the evidence that speaks of what happened, and then declare a verdict as to guilt or innocence. It is then for the Judge to pronounce the sentence.

The state of play on the earth is quite clear: “The LORD saw how great man's wickedness on the earth had become, and that every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil all the time.” (Gen 6:5) Now in their shallow criticism of God, so often the critics fail to think about what is going on. Look at what this verse says: “how great the wickedness on the earth had become”. Later on in Canaan we understand that child sacrifice, sodomy, bestiality, violence and all manner of breaking of what we would call laws of civilization, took place. It probably isn't a good exercise to think of a long list of bad things that human beings can do to one another but when the verses goes on to say that “ every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil all the time ,” we should perhaps be careful if we try to play down how bad it was! This is what happens when there is no restraint. It is why today we have a legislature, a police force and a judicial system. All of these are meant to restrain the sins of men and women.

It would not be going too far to suggest that if that state had been allowed to continue the abuse of the earth itself and of the people on it would have only got worse and worse in a frenzy of self-destruction.

The remedy for all this was the Flood, to wipe out all that existed and start over again. There is always with God – and it is almost impossible for us with our finite minds to grasp this – a duel experience. On the one hand the Lord sees all of history (as C.S.Lewis put it), from above, looking down from outside of time to a line which is time-space history below, and on the other hand He is in it experiencing it as it happens. Although God must have known that this would have happened, even before He made anything and looked to what would be, He nevertheless ‘lives through it' if we may put it like that so thus now we find, faced with this terrible decline in the affairs of the earth, we note what He FEELS about it: “The LORD was grieved that he had made man on the earth, and his heart was filled with pain.” (v.6) Note the word ‘pain'. It is not anger but anguish that He feels.

Imagine a Gardeners World TV celebrity who is commissioned to create a beautiful garden for the Chelsea Flower Show, early in the year. He spends months planning it and even more months growing and preparing all the plants and shrubs and bushes and trees and a small fortune is spent on it. With a large band of men and lots of heavy plant and equipment it is all taken into place and every effort is made to ensure the right plants are in the right place, the right colours offsetting each other, every leaf in place and not a dead leaf in sight. The night before the judging is to take place a final check is made and, as is humanly possible a last check is made and it is perfect. But overnight some vandals break in and totally trash the garden. It is devastated.

Now compare that to the wonderful world God created where “it was very good,” (Gen 1:31) and now see it now with sin unchecked and evil running amok. If this was me I would be flaming angry but God was simply grieved and filled with pain. The idea to wipe out everything and start again is not focused on any individual or even group of sinners for everyone (except one man, Noah) is in this together. This idea to wipe out everything and start again is merely common sense. These human beings have so degenerated that they are acting like wild animals. They can hardly be called human beings any longer. Did it have to work this way? Does a Lord of the Flies situation have to follow? Noah says no. One man did not go down that path revealing that it is possible to remain a civilized human being conforming to God's original design in some measure at least.

Now in the first part of this series when we set down a foundation of what God was like, we said He was perfect and said of that word it meant ‘cannot be improved upon' and that included anything any everything He did. So let's ask the question here: if this was you and you have supreme power and your wonderful world is being devastated and is in a self-destructive downward spiral, what would you do? Only criticize if you can come up with a better solution. The best you might do is destroy and start off again. God took one family and started again and yet even in that, He regretted the course of action that had to be taken and we find, “I establish my covenant with you: Never again will all life be cut off by the waters of a flood; never again will there be a flood to destroy the earth.” (Gen 9:11)

Whatever happened He would use other methods but the enormity of this judgment is only matched by the terribleness of what was happening on the earth. From now on the Lord will move to hedge off such downward spirals. Yet, perhaps, He had to allow this one to happen so that it could never again be said of the human race, “Surely we would never get this bad!” Yes, we did! . And a grieving, anguishing God nearly had His heart broken. From now on judgments will come in stages or with warnings and when we come to the last book of the Bible we will find that in all that time, mankind has learnt little. It will take Jesus' return to bring to an end of ongoing godless folly of mankind. If you have never seen it and still struggle to understand what it means when it speaks about “ how great man's wickedness on the earth had become, and that every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil all the time,” then pray and ask for the revelation and when you get it, the last thing on earth you will do is criticise God.

Meditating on the Judgments of God: 3.4 Canaan Cursed

Gen 9:25,26    When Noah awoke from his wine and found out what his youngest son had done to him, he said, "Cursed be Canaan! The lowest of slaves will he be to his brothers." He also said, "Blessed be the LORD, the God of Shem! May Canaan be the slave of Shem

The incident involving Noah and his sons might be questionable as an example of the judgment of God if it wasn't for the fact that it appears also in the story of Abraham and then of course following the Exodus, both of which reveal it as a judgment of God. To clarify the details:

Now the question arises in a situation like this, did God MAKE Ham submit to Shem or was this simply a prophetic foreseeing of what would come about because of the nature of Ham which would be conveyed down through his descendants. The answer has got to be somewhere between the two.

First of all God does foreknow the future, so He would have known how things were going to work out between these peoples and therefore we might consider that He inspired Noah to prophesy this future.

Second, there do tend to be certain propensities that run through families, so when in Ex 20:5 the Lord speaks of Himself as “ punishing the children for the sin of the fathers to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me,” it is more likely that He is referring to the ungodly rebellion being passed on from one generation to another, until there comes a generation who comes to its senses and turns to God. We see it a number of times in the kings of Israel and Judah . The crucial words in that verse above are “of those who hate me ”. God does not punish the godly but rebellion against God can be passed from one generation to another. So, yes, there is this element to be taken into account.

Third, there is the fact that God acts into His world and the Bible is the testimony to how He chose a man called Abram to reveal Him, a man descended from Seth, and a man who had a grandson named Jacob who was renamed Israel and grew into a nation who the Lord used to bring judgment on the peoples of Canaan because they, as the world we observed earlier in our considerations of the Flood, had degenerated so far the only hope was to bring them to an end – as we'll see in a later study.

When Abram first arrived in the land we find, “The LORD appeared to Abram and said, "To your offspring I will give this land.” (Gen 12:7) and a little later he reiterated that: “All the land that you see I will give to you and your offspring forever.” (Gen 13:15) It wasn't until we find Abram making his big act of faith – “Abram believed the LORD, and he credited it to him as righteousness ,” (Gen 15:6) that the Lord reiterates it a third time: “He also said to him, "I am the LORD, who brought you out of Ur of the Chaldeans to give you this land to take possession of it.” (Gen 15:7) It was only as they entered into a solemn covenant (see Gen 15:9-12) that He reveals to him that the land will be taken by his returning people and part of the plan is to deal with the sin of the people of the land when they return: “In the fourth generation your descendants will come back here, for the sin of the Amorites has not yet reached its full measure.” (Gen 15:16) Left to themselves, the sin of this family of Ham will grow and grow and grow until it is intolerable.

When it comes to that judgment on Canaan through Israel, as we'll see in a future study, the Lord said He would drive out the peoples of the land and failing that Israel would drive them out. The options for the Canaanites were:

1. They could leave the land peaceably – it is quite clear from the way Israel came up from the south and the way that they approached the kings of the south, that death was not high on their agenda. Who wants to risk death if there is a peaceful way through?

2. They could join Israel – this is clear from the story of the Gibeonites which would have given them a much more stable and secure life than they had previously experienced under superstitious paganism.

3. They could resist and fight and either win or lose. Some lost and some won and stayed in the land despite the Lord's instructions to Israel . In fact when they failed to clear them out, the Lord said He would allow them to stay to act as a constant provocation to Israel   (to encourage them to constantly rely on Him!).

So to return to our original verses, the curse on Canaan was a combination of a) prophecy, b) the family propensity to rebel against God, and c) the Lord's intent to choose and bless the family of Seth because He would choose Abram who would become known as the father of faith. Was that because He foresaw what He could achieve through Abram?

Meditating on the Judgments of God: 3.5 The Tower of Babel

Gen 11:6-9   The LORD said, "If as one people speaking the same language they have begun to do this, then nothing they plan to do will be impossible for them. Come, let us go down and confuse their language so they will not understand each other." So the LORD scattered them from there over all the earth, and they stopped building the city. That is why it was called Babel --because there the LORD confused the language of the whole world. From there the LORD scattered them over the face of the whole earth.

We have spoken of the word ‘judgment' to mean a decision of God to take action against wrong behaviour in the human race. As we move on through Genesis we come to this incident in chapter 9 which, at first sight, critics might says is an example of a killjoy God. God steps in and does something to stop mankind enjoying itself and making itself feel good. There is one word used twice in that previous sentence which speak volumes: ‘itself'. God has no problem with human beings enjoying themselves for He Himself gave them the capacity to do that in an amazing way. But what we have here is an inward looking mankind doing things in its own strength to bring blessing to itself.

But hold on, our critic might say, didn't God tell mankind to rule over the earth? Isn't this just an example of mankind doing that? The instruction to rule is an instruction to control and bring and maintain order; what we have here is something different. Let's consider all that happened here.

What do we find first? “Now the whole world had one language and a common speech.” (v.1) Now initially there is nothing wrong with that for it is what you would expect if mankind develops from a single source. That's fine. What's next? “As men moved eastward, they found a plain in Shinar and settled there.” (v.2) Stage 2 of these people was development by expansion and settlement. So far, so good, no problem. What follows? “They said to each other, "Come, let's make bricks and bake them thoroughly." They used brick instead of stone, and tar for mortar.” (v.3) Some criticize them for creating their own materials and not using natural rocks or timbers, but human beings have been designed to think, to rationalize and develop or invent. State 3 is going beyond mere settling, to invention as part of development, of taking what God has provided and applying it into the human need situation. So far, so good, no problem. What follows?

“Then they said, "Come, let us build ourselves a city, with a tower that reaches to the heavens, so that we may make a name for ourselves and not be scattered over the face of the whole earth.” (v.4) Now note there is a double development here. First of all it is to build a city. There a very differing views about cities. Some say they are a sign of mankind gathering together in groups to oppose others. Others say they are a place of development and blessing. There is no doubt that in masses of buildings, pavements, lanes, throughways, highways and so on, there is greater opportunity to hideaway and greater opportunity to hideaway also means greater opportunity for sin to thrive unseen.

But in itself, building a city, a growing collection of buildings together, isn't a sign of sin, but see what follows: "Come, let us build …. a tower that reaches to the heavens, so that we may make a name for ourselves and not be scattered over the face of the whole earth.” Some say ‘big is beautiful' but here ‘big is boastful'. This is mankind stretching like a teenager flexing his muscles trying to assess himself. But is assess himself in the absence of God. In 2014 in the UK were the first Invictus Games, similar to the Warrior Games of the USA, and built into the logo, boldly standing out are the words, “I AM” and we are told the games' name comes from a poem by William Ernest Henley which concludes with the words, “I am the master of my fate, I am the captain of my soul.” This is intended to boost the morale of wounded servicemen that they “ would be an inspiration for all of those that have been wounded, injured and sick while serving their countries.” Good in apparent intent but nevertheless exhibiting the same outlook as those who built the Tower of Babel – “I AM”. Is there a mockery from the powers of darkness who know that there is only One who can claim that name (Ex 3).

But our verses above focus on the Lord's assessment of what was happening: “The LORD said, "If as one people speaking the same language they have begun to do this, then nothing they plan to do will be impossible for them.” (v.6) Remember what we considered when we look at the Flood. Already the Lord has once had to move against rampant evil in humanity to prevent even worse things happening. It is probable that we do not know or cannot conceive the awfulness of rampant humanity opening itself up more and more to occult powers. The signs are there in the building of this tower: let's band together for there is strength in numbers; let us build this tall tower and start to realise our capabilities! The Lord sees that without some form of restraint, “ nothing they plan to do will be impossible for them.” In our lifetime and the lifetime of our parents and grandparents we have known of two World Wars in which all hell broke loose. We have invented nuclear weapons capable of devastating huge areas and killing huge numbers. We have invented germ warfare that can do the same. Throughout the globe wars continue with small groups threatening to drag in all the major nations of the world again. Is nothing impossible for us when it comes to destruction of others?

And so He made a judgment: “Come, let us go down and confuse their language so they will not understand each other.” (v.7) This would hinder and slow up development. This would give the world a (non)fighting chance! The consequence? “So the LORD scattered them from there over all the earth, and they stopped building the city.” (v.8) That city, Babel , is believed to be what became Babylon . When its name crops up in the Bible it is always symbolic of a godless self-centred people out to harm the rest of the world. It finds its ultimate fulfilment in the book of Revelation where its influence dominates the world and comes under the hand of God in the final judgment.

Instead of destroying it and its inhabitants outright here, the Lord in His mercy simply scatters the people and allows the wider world to be populated so that many cultures can be developed, providing a greater richness to the modern world. In these ‘last days' the influence of Babylon grows again and maybe its final downfall is not far off.

Meditating on the Judgments of God: 3.6 Abram and Pharaoh

Gen 12:17  But the LORD inflicted serious diseases on Pharaoh and his household because of Abram's wife Sarai.

The incident involving Abram and Pharaoh doesn't show up Abram very well – but he is only a new believer with an almost embryonic relationship with the Lord, so he hasn't yet come to realise that God will, in fact, protect him. We first of all read, “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.” (Gen 12:10) The cause of the famine is unknown and so Abram does what any ‘sensible' person does and leaves and goes where there is still food; in this case it is Egypt .

But then Abram ‘thinks' and in his thinking feels vulnerable. He is going into a foreign land where there is a powerful ruler who is known to have an eye for beautiful women and Abram's wife, Sarai, is a beautiful woman. Abram thinks about this and thinks that the Pharaoh might kill him to get him out of the way so he can take Abram's wife. Solution: pretends she is his sister (well she is his half sister actually). But that's still going to leave Sarai vulnerable, but they still end up n Egypt with Abram saying she is his sister.

The inevitable happens. Pharaoh hears there is a rich merchant arriving and he happens to have a beautiful sister, so he does what any despot of that age did, he had her brought into his palace (we aren't told what more followed). But we are told that the situation, as far as Pharaoh and his household are concerned, suddenly turns pear shaped! “the LORD inflicted serious diseases on Pharaoh and his household because of Abram's wife Sarai.” (v.11) Now what is interesting about this is what then follows: “Pharaoh summoned Abram. "What have you done to me?" he said. "Why didn't you tell me she was your wife? Why did you say, `She is my sister,' so that I took her to be my wife? Now then, here is your wife. Take her and go!" (Gen 12:18,19) When a whole lot of people in your household (including you!) starting getting ill, you start wondering why and questions are asked. What has changed? The only thing is you've brought a new woman into the court. Was there anything wrong with her? No, we check. Well check with the seers then.

We aren't told that that is how it happened but somehow they came to realise that this sickness is a judgment on bringing this woman into the palace. No doubt they question her and soon find she is Abram's wife!!!! They are quicker on the uptake than many Christians are and soon conclude this is punishment and this merchant and his wife need to leave – quickly and now! So Abram and his family and flocks and herds (which have grown since he's been there!) leave the country and return to the south of Canaan (the Negev ) and the story continues from there.

But now we need to come back to the Lord's part in all this. Without doubt He is the bringer of this judgment on Pharaoh and his household. Note in passing that no one seems to have died in it all, they just got sick. How does God bring sickness? We don't know but He clearly does as you can see elsewhere in the Bible. Why has He done it? Obviously to protect Abram, His young protégé who doesn't yet realise that God will look after him.

Now what is remarkable is that after a whole lot of things had happened between the Lord and Abram we find the same thing happening: “Now Abraham moved on from there into the region of the Negev and lived between Kadesh and Shur. For a while he stayed in Gerar, and there Abraham said of his wife Sarah, "She is my sister." Then Abimelech king of Gerar sent for Sarah and took her. But God came to Abimelech in a dream one night and said to him, "You are as good as dead because of the woman you have taken; she is a married woman." Now Abimelech had not gone near her, so he said, "Lord, will you destroy an innocent nation? Did he not say to me, `She is my sister,' and didn't she also say, `He is my brother'? I have done this with a clear conscience and clean hands." Then God said to him in the dream, "Yes, I know you did this with a clear conscience, and so I have kept you from sinning against me. That is why I did not let you touch her. Now return the man's wife, for he is a prophet, and he will pray for you and you will live. But if you do not return her, you may be sure that you and all yours will die." (Gen 20:1-7)

Now for those who think God is a nasty God, observe the gentle way He deals with Abimelech on this second time Abraham (as he now is) is not forthright about his wife. On this occasion the Lord speaks to the king in a dream and makes it very clear indeed what is going on.

What we see in these two incidents, brought on by Abram's lack of understanding (which will change), is the Lord bringing judgment and threatening to bring judgment to protect His man and his family and to challenge the power of local kings. Why He did not speak in a dream to Pharaoh we don't know but perhaps the occult powers for which Egypt was known, hindered that form of communication and so more direct tactics had to be used. In both cases the Lord is challenging human behaviour, that of powerful figures, as if to say, ‘this is not what people in my kingdom do! This is wrong and so you will pay for it unless you repent quickly.' Both kings got the message and changed quickly, and Abraham and Sarah were saved.

Meditating on the Judgments of God: 3.7 Sodom and Gomorrah

Gen 19:24,25 Then the LORD rained down burning sulfur on Sodom and Gomorrah --from the LORD out of the heavens. Thus he overthrew those cities and the entire plain, including all those living in the cities--and also the vegetation in the land.

The destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah raises a number of questions. First, why did the Lord destroy it? Second, how did He destroy it? Third, why did He save Lot ? Fourth, why did Lot 's wife die?

First must come the reason for the destruction of these two cities. Let's consider the record. “Then the LORD said, "The outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah is so great and their sin so grievous that I will go down and see if what they have done is as bad as the outcry that has reached me.” (Gen 18:20,21) “we are going to destroy this place. The outcry to the LORD against its people is so great that he has sent us to destroy it." (Gen 19:23) These two verses have an intriguing commonality – the word ‘outcry' which suggests that someone or something was crying out for something to be done in respect of those two cities. Now whether that s the cry of justice or the cry of righteous people who passed by and knew those cities, or whether it was from Satan acting as the Accuser (e.g. Rev 12:10) is not stated but the picture is conveyed that the state of these two cities has been brought to the Lord's attention. Now of course He sees all things and knows all things but what this is saying is that not only is He aware of what is happening, but others are as well and they have been bringing it to God. These cities are a blot on God's world.

But what was it that condemned these cities? In the New testament, Jude simply states, “Sodom and Gomorrah and the surrounding towns gave themselves up to sexual immorality and perversion.” (Jude v.7) That is the usual order. Sexual immorality is sinful mankind casting aside God's order for men and women - one man with one woman for life. So godless in our modern society in the West produces that which the Bible calls immorality and it is treated as normal life. But unrestrained sin doesn't stop at immorality, it moves on to what the Bible calls perversion. Although modern men would like to water down the Bible texts, the texts are quite clear.

The apostle Paul spoke of this when he said, speaking of God's indirect judgments where God lifts off His hand of restraint, “Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another,” (Rom 1:24) which was the first stage referred to above, but then, “Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural relations for unnatural ones. In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed indecent acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their perversion,” (Rom 1:26,27) which the further degradation spoken of by Jude. In Paul's language women took on ‘unnatural' relations with other women and men did the same with men which was called ‘perversion' which is defined as ‘deviating from what is considered normal'.

The account in Gen 19 reveals a city where this ‘perversion' has gone so far that men from all over the city are shown to have gone to such lengths that they demand sex with any visiting men. That this is tantamount to rape is undeniable, and this shows the depths to which this city has sunk.

Now we have said in previous studies that a) God does not want death but would much rather see repentance and b) if death is the outcome it is the only possible outcome in all the circumstances. We find ourselves being drawn to the conclusion that sometimes people get so set in their sin and hard heartedness that repentance is almost impossible and therefore for the sake of everyone else, their removal is the only option left. That appeared the case of Pharaoh in the Exodus and would be the logical conclusion here.

Now how the Lord destroyed these two cities is a mystery. The description is succinct but open to question: “Then the LORD rained down burning sulphur on Sodom and Gomorrah --from the LORD out of the heavens.” (Gen 19:24) Commentators suggest that ‘the natural ingredients of the destruction – petroleum, bitumen, salt and sulphur – were abundant in this region.' Again it has been suggested that a natural gas build up and release with ignition could create an explosion of tremendous force which first explodes upwards but then rains down, maybe even with the force of a hydrogen bomb, and the outgoing shock wave carrying the burning materials with it could have burnt up the delaying wife of Lot . What we have described is a natural disaster in any other context but as the Lord has expressly warned of it and the two angels spoke of it, the only conclusion left is that it was brought about by God to wipe out these two past-repentance cities that, if left to themselves, might have spread their influence over a wider and wider area. The action becomes, not only penal, but also an act of prevention to save the rest of the people of that part of the world. It should also act as a warning to future generations.

The only question we have left unanswered of our four starting questions is, why did the Lord save Lot . Everything about Lot – his past behaviour with Abraham, his future pleading not to go far away and his subsequent drunken behaviour, all say here is a man who lives on the edge of righteousness; he is only just there. But ‘only just' is enough. The apostle Peter declares him a righteous man (2 Pet 2:7-9) which would appear to have been the Rabbinic teaching of the day, but still his behaviour leaves him appearing an ‘only just' righteous man. Perhaps in fairness, we might suggest that his only knowledge of the Lord and the Lord's requirements, would have come through Abram and his knowledge and experience was strictly limited. Lot has come from a pagan background and has not become a fully believer. It is perhaps for this reason alone, together with his relationship with Abram, that saves him.

Meditating on the Judgments of God: 3.8 Er and Onan

Gen 38:7,10 But Er, Judah 's firstborn, was wicked in the LORD's sight; so the LORD put him to death….. What he (Onan) did was wicked in the LORD's sight; so he put him to death also.

I suspect if you ask most Christians about Er and Onan they will look completely mystified for this is not one of those passages of Scripture that features in Sunday School teaching. The end result of what goes on is that God kills two men. at least that is what our two verses above indicate, so we had better see the circumstances and see if we can make any sense out of this situation.

The whole situation is messy. Judah is one of Jacob's sons and of course we know that humanly speaking at least Jesus came from this part of the family tree: “ See, the Lion of the tribe of Judah , the Root of David, has triumphed.” (Rev 5:5) But Judah clears off from the rest of the family and married a Canaanite woman (Gen 38:1,2). In later year Moses would forbid such a thing in the Law given by God, but this is in the early years of Israel 's history. Judah has two sons Er and then Onan (v.3,4). Continuing the family name always has been an important feature of family life and so Judah gets a wife for his eldest son, Er, whose name is Tamar (v.6)

But then we come to this simple but devastating verse: “But Er, Judah 's firstborn, was wicked in the LORD's sight; so the LORD put him to death.” (v.7) Now we don't know what his wickedness was but the implication is that this is not a once off failure but a way of life. Er IS wicked and every aspect of his life is wicked. Beyond that we cannot say for the Scripture does not tell us. God's judgment is clearly that he is set in his ways and will never change and so he dies. We don't know how, but it is that simple; somehow the Lord brought his life to an end.

But then the story appears to get even more murky, but to understand it we have to understand the practice of the Middle East that when there was a widow, the next nearest relative should honour her and marry her so that she is not cast out of the family. The fact that she married into this family should be respected and so the next born should marry her and have children with her so that the family name is continued through her. It is an honouring practice. This was later built into the Mosaic Law (Deut 25:5,6) but for the moment it is simply accepted tradition.

So Onan is to take her as his wife and is to continue the family tree through her. But then we read, “ But Onan knew that the offspring would not be his” (v.9a). I think what this really means is that he felt he was pressed into this situation unwillingly and that she was really his brother's wife and so he was an unwilling participant in this practice. So Onan performed what is basically a basic form of birth control and we read, “ so whenever he lay with his brother's wife, he spilled his semen on the ground to keep from producing offspring for his brother.” (v.9b) So what he is doing is despising his father's name, despising the memory of his dead brother and insulting and abusing Tamar and so we read, “ What he did was wicked in the LORD's sight; so he put him to death also.” (v.10) This situation could have continued on and on but the Lord was not having that. There was in fact a younger brother (v.5) but we must assume he was much too young to be brought into this practice.

For the record, Judah is dilatory about doing anything about this (v.11,12) and nothing changes except Judah 's wife dies. (v.12) To cut a long story short Tamar tricks Judah into having sex with him (v.13-19) and conceives via him. When we see the family tree (Mt 1:3) we see she and her son is included in the Messianic tree. Continuing the name, in this primitive time, was considered essential. She was considered righteous for this reason.

Now looking at the wider picture in Genesis, this has a particular peculiarity. When Adam and Eve sinned God did not immediately kill them but put them out of the garden. When Cain sinned the Lord did not take his life but banished him from that community. When Pharaoh took Abram's wife and later Abimelech took her as well, the Lord did not kill either king but gave them opportunity to repent. But now we come to these events and the Lord kills both men. Now admittedly the record is very brief and so we don't know if there have been warnings given by the Lord. It seems to go against the divine pattern for both men to be killed without warning. The text seems to indicate that Onan's basic birth control method was an ongoing thing that happened again and again and it is likely therefore that the Lord would have spoken into his conscience more than once to stop this. (We don't know the Lord's input into Er's life.)

When we consider the Flood and Sodom and Gomorrah , in both instances there was a righteous man testifying to the wrongs of the rest and so their ongoing sins were a constant rebellion against God. With the passing of time (v.12) and Tamar not conceiving, it is probable that questions would be asked and maybe Onan's practice became known. Now Judah doesn't seem a particularly good example of a father but old man Jacob, as grandfather, is becoming more godly as the years pass and would no doubt ask questions. One way or another Onan would be resisting the pressures put upon him and it would appear, therefore, that he has hardened his heart about acting in the proper manner. We make these points as suggestions towards why it was that he died: this was a serious ongoing situation with ongoing sin.

In the absence of detailed information we would do well not to jump to conclusions, especially the one that puts the Lord in a bad light. What we have here are two men who behave in ongoing ways unrighteously; they are ongoing sinners and they have not repented and appear to give no signs of repenting (yes, we are jumping to that conclusion with Er). It is not surprising, therefore, that the Lord acts against them both. In it He is conveying the message, families are important, this chosen family is important, and wives are important and those who reject those three things will be answerable to the Lord. It remains a mysterious case for which answers are not clear, but there is more to it than meets the eye at first instance.

Meditating on the Judgments of God: 3.9 Famines

Gen 41:28-30      It is just as I said to Pharaoh: God has shown Pharaoh what he is about to do. Seven years of great abundance are coming throughout the land of Egypt , but seven years of famine will follow them.

Whether this constitutes a judgment of God or not remains to be seen but browsing through this area of Scripture I realised that the years of good harvests and then of famine were clearly identified here by Joseph before they happened, as acts of God. I have underlined the “what he is about to do.” The fact that Joseph spoke it clearly as a prophetic interpretation of a prophetic dream – and then it happened exactly as said – leaves us no alternative but to attribute these years to God's activity.

In Jesus' exposition of the last days ‘famines and earthquakes' are linked (Mt 24:7) In the ‘curses' of Deut 28 famine is clearly one of the curses of disobedience (Deut 28:18,22,38-40) and there the ‘natural' causes of such famines are shown as mildew or blight destroying the crops, lack of rain destroying the crops, or locusts or worms or other creatures destroying the crops, all with the same outcome – famine, shortage of food.

We are not told which of the ‘natural' causes the Lord used in the time of Joseph merely that a famine occurred, first in Egypt and then in the whole world (Gen 41:56,57). In any other context we would say that a famine was to chastise the people and bring them back to God. In this situation there is no indication that the world is especially ungodly and unrighteous and when we come to look closely at the story and see the effects of this famine, we can only conclude that this famine was more something the Lord used to bring about a number of other things that are part of His long-term plans.

So our starting place is that the Lord is going to do something and He gives Pharaoh a dream which needs interpreting. Discussion reveals there is a dream-interpreter in prison who has twice given accurate interpretations of dreams to fellow prisoner. So Joseph is brought before Pharaoh and interprets his two dreams as seven years of abundance followed by seven years of famine. At the end of his interpretation he is quite specific: “ The reason the dream was given to Pharaoh in two forms is that (a) the matter has been firmly decided by God, and (b) God will do it soon.” (Gen 41:32) Note the two elements we have highlighted. This is something specifically planned by God and He will go on to bring it about. This will be an act of the Almighty God, Creator of all things who acts into His Creation as He sees fit.

Now more than that Joseph has what we might call a word of wisdom and lays out before Pharaoh a strategy for dealing with the coming fourteen years (Gen 41:33-36) Pharaoh sees the wisdom in this and realises that Joseph would be the best person to bring it into being. The end result? Joseph is appointed in charge over all of Egypt , second only to Pharaoh (Gen 41:40-43). As the story unfolds we see the seven years of plenty followed then by the seven years of famine which spreads far and wide – even to Canaan where Joseph's family still live. If you know the story you know that the brothers are eventually sent by their father to Egypt to buy grain and although they do not recognize Joseph in his finery, he recognizes them and we follow a somewhat tortuous story of him playing with them until he eventually reveals himself and they and their father come and live under his protection in Egypt, where they prosper greatly.

But of course that is not the end of the story. They settle in Egypt – indeed they settle there for over four hundred years until they are made slaves and then eventually delivered by an aging shepherd by the name of Moses and we have the most startling event in the whole of the Old Testament, the Exodus.

So this famine of seven years was used to put Joseph in the role of second most powerful man in the region, enable him to be restored to his family and then the family to settle there in Egypt to eventually be delivered from slavery by the miraculous hand of God – which would have been seen or heard of by all the nations of the Middle East at least.

What we are left to conclude is that we have been observing a long-term strategy of God to bring about a series of events which would culminate first in the judgment of the biggest despot in the region, then the deliverance of what is now a nation called Israel and then the judgment brought on the pagans of Canaan – all because of a famine.

But the more you look the more you realise the enormity of this plan because it started right back when the Lord chose Abram and revealed to him: “Know for certain that (a) your descendants will be strangers in a country not their own, and (b) they will be enslaved and mistreated four hundred years. But (c) I will punish the nation they serve as slaves, and afterward (d) they will come out with great possessions. You, however, will go to your fathers in peace and be buried at a good old age. (e) In the fourth generation your descendants will come back here, for the sin of the Amorites has not yet reached its full measure." (Gen 15:13-16) How specific is that! When Joseph, the young spoilt brat, starts having dreams (Gen 37:5-9) it starts off a sequence of events which, followed through, results in a nation called Israel inhabiting a land called Canaan and becoming the people of God through whom God will reveal Himself more and more to the onlooking world.

And so the famine was merely a tool used by God to progress His plans of revealing Himself to His world. Amazing!

Meditating on the Judgments of God: 3.10 Genesis Recap

Gen 50:20 You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives

Before we move on into Exodus we need to pause up and reflect on the judgments we have considered so far. At the end of the book we find the above quote from Joseph to his brothers in respect of all that had happened to him. It summarised his life: his brothers had been against him and having been given the opportunity, sold him into slavery. The long-term outworking of that was that he ended up being the second most powerful man in the region and was thus able to save Egypt and also his own family as well as surrounding nations.

As a story it has some pertinent lessons for this subject. First God has to work with sinful human beings. Sometimes He acts against them and disciplines them and brings change in them, sometimes He ends their life where He sees there is never going to be change, and sometimes He allows the sinful working of men to bring about a greater purpose. Allowing Joseph's brother to move against him was one such example, allowing and even provoking the establishment to move against Jesus (see Acts 2:23) was another. Whatever action God takes is for the good of mankind, So let's take an overview of the judgments we have observed in Genesis:

Two of the above differ from the others in terms of cause. The Lord moved against Pharaoh, not so much because of sin but to protect Sarai and Abram. In the case of the Famine sin is not mention; it was simply a tool in God's long-term plans.

But it is when we come to the judgments that we come across the greatest surprises. Yes, there is utter destruction in respect of the Flood and Sodom and Gomorrah , and in both instances the cause appears rather like a surgeon cutting out diseased organs to stop the disease wiping out the whole body; they were necessary to protect the earth and it's long-term wellbeing. Er and Onan's death's appear to correct and bring to an end ongoing sin which was preventing the development of God's plans through that family. We have ‘starred' and ‘hashed' the ‘judgments' we have considered in the table above, and you can see that it is in only three of the eight cases that death is involved (the ‘starred' ones.) In another three banishment or scattering is the method God used for dealing with the situation (the ‘hashed' ones). Of the remaining two, one was God's method of bringing about circumstances to fit His overall plans and strategies (the Famine) and the remaining one, the disease in Pharaoh's court was simply to bring to his attention his wrong behaviour, and the disease went when the behaviour was corrected.

Put aside the three death cases for a moment, and what we are left with are a number judgments that can only be described as definitely restrained. God could have acted very harshly but never did. Adam and Eve were allowed to continue their lives and the human race but in a different location. Cain likewise was allowed to continue his life elsewhere. The people of Babel were likewise allowed to continue their lives elsewhere. Bearing in mind the nature of the sins in each case, these were remarkably limited actions. Pharaoh's life was temporarily disrupted but that was all. The famine simply brought a great change in circumstances which also involved the chosen family.

With the two major catastrophes they simply reflect the awfulness of the state of mankind involved. With the two men, it would appear that again it was a case of ongoing known sin and refusal to repent. None of these ‘judgments' appear hasty; in fact they appear to be well thought out and well applied in limited ways to deal with specific circumstances. There is no sense of them being ‘out of control'. They are each an example of a clearly restrained and controlled form of dealing with a problem in the most appropriate manner possible for the long-term wellbeing for the earth,