Could you do it? Could you leave your culture and relatives behind, and move to a foreign country you have not even visited, if a God you may not know well told you to do it? How about if at the time, He didn’t tell you exactly where you were going? All He said was “ Go to the land that I will show you.” I’d imagine it would feel a bit like Amazing Race. You’d receive your first instruction: “Go southwest. Follow that trail for a while until you reach your next clue. I’ll instruct you which road to take next when you get there.” You have no idea where that next road would be or how long it would take to get there.

Has your family done a generational family photo of a grandmother, mother, and daughter together, or grandfather, father, and son? It’s a precious image that captures a story of the impact of a legacy being written and passed down through each generation. You can see similarities in look and stature. The hands of the grandfather show evidence of decades of hard labour. The grandson’s vitality and freshness of young skin holding potential of learned skills ahead.As we carry on from the event at the tower of Babel, Moses continues to share the genealogy of Shem’s family down 10 generations and the promise of the blessing Noah gave his son Shem in Genesis 9 starts growing root by the end of the chapter.“These are the family records of Shem. Shem lived 100 years and fathered Arpachshad two years after the flood. After he fathered Arpachshad, Shem lived 500 years and fathered other sons…

Between Genesis 10:32 and 11:10, Moses pauses the genealogy to bring light to a defining moment in history; dare I say one of the most significant in the beginnings of time that would change the world from that moment until Christ returns! And yet, even in this event, we can see the Lord preparing our redemption. This post has been welling up within me for a year now and I’m SO excited to share it with you today! Come and commune in awe of our Great Redeemer’s work and the hope-filled detail He’s invested into His story!“The whole earth had the same language and vocabulary.” (Genesis 11:1)Wait, this doesn’t make sense. If you research the names of Noah’s genealogy in Genesis 10, it’s evident that there was more than one language. Some names are in Hebrew, others are Greek, Arabic, Assyrian, etc. This leads us to wonder, “What happened to…

In last week’s post, Genesis 10: The Most Influential Family Tree of All Time, we followed the genealogies of a fair amount of the world’s origin. By the end of that article, some of the names mentioned in Ham’s descendants caught our attention with one man in particular named Nimrod. Today’s post will continue to set the stage for most of the Bible’s plot based on the family members we’re about to explore. I don’t think you’re going to want to miss this! Let’s see where this trail of Noah’s genealogy continues to lead.Ham’s family continued:“Mizraim fathered the people of Lud, Anam, Lehab, Naphtuh, Pathrus, Casluh (the Philistines came from them), and Caphtor.” (Genesis 10:13-14, bold added)Mizraim’s (also known as Egypt) sons:It would seem by most of them remaining in Egypt that this was originally a fairly close-knit family. I think it would be safe to say that many of…

Do you have a record of your family tree? Is it something that’s been passed down from each generation or did you research it on Ancestory.com? Genealogies are something  you either find boring or fascinating. Regardless of how you typically feel about these, I encourage you to put your imagination to use and join me on an exploration of the most influential family of the world. I think you’ll walk away more interested in names than you were before today. Why? Because you came from one of these family members. Your genealogy starts here.“These are the family records of Noah’s sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth. They also had sons after the flood.” (Genesis 10:1)“Japheth’s sons: Gomer, Magog, Madai, Javan, Tubal, Meshech, and Tiras. Gomer’s sons: Ashkenaz, Riphath, and Togarmah. And Javan’s sons: Elishah, Tarshish, Kittim, and Dodanim. From these descendants, the peoples of the coasts and islands spread out into their lands according to their clans…

“The sons of Noah who went forth from the ark were Shem, Ham, and Japheth. (Ham was the father of Canaan.) These three were the sons of Noah, and from these the people of the whole earth were dispersed.Noah began to be a man of the soil, and he planted a vineyard*. He drank of the wine and became drunk and lay uncovered in his tent.” (Genesis 9:18-21 ESV, *Footnote reads: Noah, a man of the soil, was the first to plant a vineyard)Though wild vines existed before Noah, he was the first to plant a vineyard. Cultivated vines tend to produce more grapes on them, which in turn would yield a greater amount of wine. We don’t know if wine had been established before this moment or not. Did Noah know this drink would cause him to get drunk?  Whether he did or not, he became intoxicated and stripped naked within his tent.Last…

Can you recall the last time you were in great need of something and you cried out to God for help? What happened?When God’s people follow His pattern seen in the Law of confession, sacrifice by way of genuine repentance, and worship, He always blesses us. It brings Him great joy because it reflects our love for Him and our humble submission to His authority over heaven and earth.When Noah and the remnant of living creatures exited the ark, he built an altar to the Lord and worshipped Him by sacrificing “every kind of clean animal and every kind of clean bird and offered burnt offerings on the altar.” (Genesis 8:20) This pleased the Lord greatly, so much so, that He made an oath to Himself that He would “never again curse the ground because of man, even though man’s inclination is evil from his youth. And I will never…

In my teenage years, I went through a period where I was chronically ill. Doctors put me through a myriad of tests to try and solve the mystery of why my body was going through so many episodes of sickness and pain. To encourage me to endure the most difficult procedures, my mom promised me a trip to the hospital gift shop afterwards where I could pick something out for myself. It was something to look forward to on the other side of misery and unknowns. And though I didn’t always mention it beforehand, I hoped she would remember each time another test was scheduled. She did and I felt loved (thank you, Momma).Though this is an example of a small promise, you’ve probably had moments where someone promised you something much greater. Did that person fulfill his/her promise to you? How did that make you feel? Fulfilled promises build…

Sitting around the dinner table last night with friends, someone said his parents gave murmurings of a potential move to their son a few weeks before the request was needed. An idea was quickly presented and they left the room. Then, the night before they needed him to move (on good terms due to the house being renovated), they said he needed to be out the next day. Had he listened to the “murmurings” weeks before, he would have been better prepared.While reading Genesis 7 again today, last night’s story came fresh to mind. Sometime between Noah’s 500th and 600th birthday, God gave him instructions to build an ark because He was sending a flood to destroy the wickedness and corruption of creation. The Lord had given him a covenantal promise that He would preserve Noah, his wife, his sons, and his sons’ wives, along with two of every kind…

Grief is something no one wants to go through yet often is a familiar place to be. It can surprise us when it comes, sometimes catching us off guard years after we’ve moved on from the situation. But there’s something almost comforting in the tears… the quietness… the memories.Corruption of sin instituted grief. It’s the awareness that life shouldn’t be this way. We’re missing something. An ache of the void of constant joy. But grief is also healthy in a sense. It causes us to look for the source of comfort and joy that can fill us once again. This solution for these may strangely begin for you in today’s reading:“When the Lord saw that human wickedness was widespread on the earth and that every inclination of the human mind was nothing but evil all the time, the Lord regretted that he had made man on the earth, and he was deeply grieved. Then the Lord said, “I will…