"From Noah to Abraham ..."

Day #16:  Daily Bible Reading Plan - January 13th

Scripture Reading:  Genesis 8-11 ...

How do you squeeze millions of years of history into eleven chapters?  How do you go from Adam to Noah to Abraham so quickly?  And more importantly, WHY do you go from Adam to Noah to Abraham so quickly?  The answer is quite easy:  Because the time period covered is hundreds of years, not millions, and because the central figure in the first eleven chapters of Genesis is GOD, not man!

God's purpose from before the creation of the world was to choose some from the human race to spend eternity with Him.  That comes as a shock to many who read the Bible like a mystery novel and who feel free to add their own ending.  It is when you read the Bible as the Word of God - as God revealing Himself to those who are given understanding by His Spirit - that the message of the Bible becomes clear.

"Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ.  For He chose us in Him before the creation of the world ... in love He predestined us to be adopted as His sons through Jesus Christ ..."  (Ephesians 1:4-5).  The Bible is God's revelation of His plan to save those whom He has chosen to be His and who will live with Him forever throughout all eternity in a new heaven and a new earth.

When read from this perspective, the events of Genesis 8-11 take on their intended meaning.  God sent the flood because He "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" (Genesis 6:5).  Even after the flood, as Noah and his family built an altar and offered a sacrifice to the Lord, God said, "Never again will I curse the ground because of man, even though every inclination of his heart is evil from childhood" (Genesis 8:21).  But God would carry out His plan ...

God made His covenant with Noah and began to carry out His plan to call a people to belong to Him ... a people through whom the Savior of the world would be born ... and then a people who would be gathered from the nations to be followers of God's Son, the Messiah, the Christ ... They would be called the "ekklesia," the "called-out ones," the Church.

So Genesis 8-11 takes us quickly from Noah to the one man with whom God would make His covenant of grace and to whom He would begin to reveal the ONE way to come to God:  by faith in the promised Savior.  All of this so that today some of you who are reading God's Word would know the truth and be saved from the judgment of God that is soon to come upon the earth and all of mankind.  All of this so that we who believe could spend eternity with the One whom you know as "Abba, Father."

From before God created the earth and the universe around us God knew the number of days, weeks, months and years this earth would exist.  And He placed YOU here at this specific time for His purposes and for His glory.  As you read His Word consider your place in God's plan and praise Him for revealing Himself to YOU!!

"Almighty and everlasting God, the Creator of the earth and everything in it, I thank You for Your Word, for without its truth no one could know You or come to You through Your Son, Jesus Christ.  Help me to read and believe all You have revealed as You continue to carry out Your plan in the world today.  In Jesus' name, Amen"