Enstoried

After having gone several years without Sarah getting pregnant, Abraham is needing some assurances that God will indeed make good on his promise to give them a child. God could just ask Abraham to continue to take him at his word, or he could choose to commit himself to Abraham by making the strongest type of agreement that people made with one another in the Ancient Near East - cutting a covenant.

Referenced resources:

Introducing Covenant Theology, Michael Horton

https://amzn.to/3Jk1Nw5

Abraham rebounds from his lapse of trusting God down in Egypt by defeating an enemy against all odds in order to rescue his nephew Lot. Afterwards, he is greeted and blessed by a mysterious king named Melchizedek, a worshipper of God living in the land of Canaan. 

God begins the long road of drawing all peoples back to himself, and he chooses to work through an unlikely pair - a 75 year-old man and his wife who will have to learn to trust God more than themselves. 

Genesis 10 foreshadows trouble as humans start to increase again after the flood, culminating in the Tower of Babel story in Genesis 11. Why do the people build it, and what does God think when he see it?

God's covenant with Noah introduces two big changes for life in a post-flood world and paves the way for greater things to come. 

Humanity survives the flood through the one man and his family who pass safely through the waters. But can Noah be the faithful covenant partner God is looking for to restore what was lost in the garden?

Referenced resources:

Genesis 1-15 (World Biblical Commentary), Gordon Wenham

https://amzn.to/43qkCGX

Old Testament Theology, R.W.L Moberly

https://amzn.to/43qkCGX

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Problems in heaven start to mirror problems on earth as things go from bad to worse. All humanity has chosen to go their own way, except for one who chooses to walk with God.

Referenced resources:

The Bootstrap Fallacy, by Robert K. Hudnut

https://amzn.to/3IuOng7

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Familial patterns of the past are often powerful enough to shape the future. But do they have to? Which of the two family trees of Genesis 4 and 5 will change the course of a world on the brink of ruin?

Referenced resources:

The Pentateuch, Interpreting Biblical Texts, by Terence Fretheim

https://amzn.to/49R1V1o

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Cain and his brother Abel live in cursed world as a result of their parents' decision. But when Cain is presented with the same choice - to trust God or his own wisdom - how will he choose, and how will his world change as a result?

What makes for a curse? We look at baseball and the Bible to find two very different stories about curses. The curse from Genesis chapter 3 is the explanation for why our world is the way it is, but also hints at a reason to hope for something far better.