The Grand Sweep - Large Print. J. Ellsworth Kalas
(as is often the case with sin); they wanted to “be like God.” But they pursued their goal in the wrong way.
The results were catastrophic. They found themselves distanced from God, from each other, from nature, and from their own selves.
The pain continued into the next generation, and it continues to our own time. All our deeds, for good or ill, have consequences. In Adam and Eve’s case, the tragedy grew monstrous when their older son murdered the younger.
But there’s a note of grace from the very beginning. When Adam and Eve sinned, they received a message that traditional scholars over the centuries have seen as a promise of the Messiah (3:15); and when godly Abel was killed, there was a birth of new hope in Seth.
PRAYER: Save me, O God, from the day of temptation; and if I fall, teach me to repent. Amen.
Analyze your personal experience of temptation by comparing it with Eve’s encounter with the serpent. What was Eve’s experience? What is yours?
| GENESIS 5–6; PSALM 7 | Week 1, Day 4 |
There’s much to be learned from reading an obituary column, chief of which is that we will all die. That, as Samuel Johnson would say, concentrates the attention. Genesis 5 is the first obituary column; its brief biographies are identical in their endings: and he died.
All but one. Enoch is a different sort of human being. In a setting of dying, he insisted on living, by means of his extraordinary communion with God.
Genesis 6 is an obituary column of another kind. It portrays a dead society. The smell of destruction is all about it, in proportions so ugly that “every inclination of the thoughts of their hearts was only evil continually,” until at last “the LORD was sorry that he had made humankind.”
But here, too, there was an element of wondrous life, in the man named Noah. He “found favor in the sight of the LORD,” for with evil all around him, he was “blameless in his generation.” Further, he managed to communicate his goodness to his family, so that his wife, his sons, and his daughters-in-law accepted his spiritual leadership.
No one else did, however. Though a New Testament writer calls Noah a “herald of righteousness” (2 Peter 2:5), his message was not heeded. Perhaps it was achievement enough to be good and godly in a thoroughly perverse time, even to the point of winning his own household.
PRAYER: Grant me, dear Savior, the grace to be a child of life, no matter how great the measure of death around me. Amen.
List several phrases from Genesis 6 that describe the degree of evil that characterized Noah’s time.
| GENESIS 7–8; PSALM 8 | Week 1, Day 5 |
If Hollywood were telling this story, a large share of the screen time would be invested in scenes of terrifying destruction. Genesis tells us the proportions of the rain (forty days and nights), the total involvement of nature (“the fountains of the great deep burst forth, and the windows of the heavens were opened” [7:11]), and the long wait for the waters to subside; but there is no description of human terror or of vast areas of desolation.
Instead, the emphasis is on restoration. We are told much about what was saved of both animal and human life, and of the patience and faith with which Noah waited for an end to his journey. Then, a moving interaction between Noah and God. Noah builds an altar and presents a sacrifice to God, and God, in turn, expresses divine pleasure at Noah’s act. Never again, God vows, will there be such destruction; seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night, shall not cease.
In this scene of judgment the overriding quality is mercy. Judgment has come so a worse fate can be avoided. God’s judgments are never for pointless destruction or revenge, but for redemption.
So, too, the flood is not an end, but a beginning. And what a beginning it is! A human being in trusting worship, and God responding with the assurance of continuing mercy.
PRAYER: When I face judgment, dear Lord, help me to see it as redemption at work; in Jesus’ name. Amen.
Describe a rainbow experience in your life—that is, an occasion when a time of suffering or trial concluded with a bright new hope.
| GENESIS 9–11; PSALM 9 | Week 1, Day 6 |
The Bible is a book of new beginnings. When sin seems to have destroyed an age or an individual, there is always a place of starting again.
It is as if the flood had washed the earth clean for this new start. The “first generation” was told to “be fruitful . . . and fill the earth” (1:28); now Noah and his family are given the same instructions (9:1). And as if recalling the sins of Cain and Lamech, a warning is reiterated against the shedding of blood (9:6).
But things soon began to go wrong. Even as the rainbow of the covenant fades from view, Noah falls into drunkenness and one of his sons mocks his shame. Then, as the descendants of Noah multiply, a new spirit of rebellion appears: “Come, let us build ourselves a city, and a tower with its top in the heavens” (11:4). So the original sin repeats itself: A people would, by their own devices, become like God and perhaps even displace him.
Their effort ends in disarray. When we set ourselves against God, whether as a civilization or as individuals, we put ourselves out of joint with the very nature of things and we are captured by confusion. Not only is communication with others broken, but within our own souls we speak a multitude of tongues.
But now, a new ray of hope: “Terah was the father of Abram . . . ; the name of Abram’s wife was Sarai” (11:27-29). God has a friend, and who can say what good lies ahead?
PRAYER: Deliver me, dear Savior, from the confusion that comes from my rebellions against your love. Amen.
What was so sinful about the tower of Babel?
| GENESIS 12–13; PSALM 10 | Week 1, Day 7 |
Abraham is known as the father of the faithful (Galatians 3:6-7). These two chapters show why he deserves the title. They also show that faith almost always follows an uneven course, because it resides in human vessels.
Abraham’s faith begins in a dramatic act: “Get up and go!” That could be said to be the essence of faith, because faith leads to action. So Abraham and Sarah, who were partners in the faith venture, left all that was familiar and dear to follow a promise.
But faith, as I said a moment ago, takes an uneven course. In Egypt, Abraham seems to retreat into doubt through his fear of the Egyptians. One would think that a person who was ready to go into the wilderness of the unknown would confront Pharaoh with confidence, but we human beings are rarely that consistent. That’s why we need God’s grace.
Abraham returns to his position of sublime strength, however, when there is conflict with Lot’s herdsmen. He makes a decision based on character and trust, letting Lot have the far better portion, and only after the choice is made is Abraham revisited by God with a message of grand assurance. God said, “Raise your eyes now, and look from the place where you are . . . ; all the land that you see I will give to you” (13:14-15). And with that, Abraham moved on, and “built an altar to the LORD” (13:18).