In the Beginning...

Wow.... I never thought I could love Genesis so much. Okay, so I am sick and doing homework at the moment isn't my favorite thing, BUT... God's Word is alive and I am learning so much. Most people (myself included) usually have some misconceptions about the Old Testament... they see God as unfair or unjust, or just plain MEAN. But as I read the WHOLE book in one sitting, not just parts, I saw for the first time a theme of God's tenderness and love throughout the stories. Towards ALL people, not just His chosen people.

*Disclaimer, This is just what God has been revealing to me personally, which we call APPLICATION... I haven't mentioned in this blog INTERPRETATION, what these stories would mean to the Original Audience who had been slaves in Egypt and needed an entire reshaping of their worldview. I haven't gone into the background information or anything else I've been doing in my homework... this is just application stuff that I think is cool that I thought you might think is cool too.

Some examples of God's tenderness are:

When Adam and Eve disobey in the garden, even though they chose something else over him (a lie) and He sent them from the garden so they wouldn't live forever IN SIN, he still clothed them....

Or how about Hagar and Ishmael? (Yes, the ones through which the Arab nations came to be.) They were sent away into the wilderness... but GOD saw them and cared for them and promised that Ishmael would have numerous descendants (hmmm... sounds like another son of Abraham...)

And then there was Leah.... She was the unwanted, unloved wife of Jacob who had worked 7 years to marry her sister Rachel, but got "stuck" with her instead and had to work another 7 for Rachel. But God saw she was unloved and her womb was opened. God loved Leah!!!

And there's many more... I've heard someone say the bible was written by the heroes, therefore its a biased recollection, and yet in Genesis alone I see that God (through the inspired author) felt it was necessary to write to the original readers that He created ALL humankind in His image, and that He cares for all, whether they are the main characters or not.

So..... Pretty cool, huh?