I have started a new project, so to speak, this year. In addition to learning to lead instead of push, I am going to re read my Bible. Only this time, I'm going to stop whenever I come to something that doesn't make sense, pray about it, research it, possibly write about it, and try to understand what I do not understand. You know how we usually read the Bible, skipping over what isn't clear and focusing on what we've learned and read over and over again. This time, I am asking the Holy Spirit to teach me, guide me and direct my thinking and my actions. I want to know God more clearly, I want to understand His word, His way, and His love for me. I want to be changed into the person He wants me to be. I want to have a heart that is clean and pure and full of love. I want to be rid of the doubt and selfishness that so often creeps into my heart, well actually that lives in a pretty comfortable corner of my heart. I want to be healed of that part of my heart. I want to be led by Him and then lead others to Him. More than anything, I want all of my children and grandchildren to know the love of Jesus Christ and to be led by the Spirit of God in the decisions they make, the actions they take, and the thoughts they think.
Tonight, I read about the sons of Noah and about the multiplying thing and I don't get it. If all the sons of Noah lived a long time and had a bunch of kids, that would increase the population some, but when their kids got old enough to have their own wives and husbands and kids, did they marry their cousins? I guess they would have had to if all life except for Noah's family was killed in the flood. And then, when Abram set out for a different land, wouldn't that have been the land of his own cousins? I mean, that is a lot of generations, and I guess when the sons of Noah separated out and were scattered with different languages, I suppose God could have confused their recollections of each other too. And I guess Abram was so many generations removed from Noah that with the distance and language barrier people really did become strangers...... Maybe I'm no longer confused! Yeah, maybe it does makes sense afterall. For instance, my son's daughter has no knowledge of my husband's sister's kid's kids. And we speak the same language, only about 20 years have gone by, and we live under 200 miles apart. Yet, we have different lives, and they don't even know each other although they are like second or third cousins. Maybe it's not so hard to understand after all, given thousands of miles and hundreds of years.
As a side note, I also learned that before the flood, it appears that men only ate plants. After the flood, the animals were also given to us as food.
And one more thing, I'm going to do some research on the word covenant. God made a covenant with Noah, his family, and with all the living things. The covenant was that he would never again destroy the entire earth with a flood even though the inclination of the heart of man was and still is evil even from childhood. (** Important not to miss that evil inclination thing that we are all born with. Just watch a two year old throw a tantrum if you aren't convinced we're all born with the sin thing. ) The sign of this covenant is the rainbow, which, by the way, I saw in the sky this evening. It was a perfect rainbow, crossing from one side of the sky across to the other side without interruption. I love it when I can see a rainbow, uninterrupted by buildings or trees or other blocks to this display of God's love for us. But, the problem I am having with this "covenant", is this: If a covenant is an agreement, I see nothing that man or the animals for that matter, agreed to with God in regards to this "never another flood" thing. In this so-called covenant, God promises not to do something and gives mankind and the animals a rainbow as a sign to prove his word. I've always thought a covenant was an agrrement, but here, the word covenant seems more likely to mean a promise or oath that God will keep instead of an agreement. I wonder if the Greek or Hebrew word is different for the different times the word covenant is used throughout the Bible. Is the covenant that has to do with salvation, the one that was decided upon before the foundation of the earth, and then later revealed to man, is that covenant an agreement between God and man, is it an agreement between the godheads, Father, Son, and Spirit? Does it, by nature of being an agreement, require both parties or all parties to agree to something, some action, some statement, some something? Or is it a promise that God makes that simply cannot and will not be broken. Hmm..... I wonder what I will find.
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