Multitude of Questions

No need to be sorry, those are good questions.

Esau despised his birthright.

Gen 25:34 Then Jacob gave Esau bread and soup of lentils. And he ate and drank, and rose up and went his way. And Esau despised his birthright.

God gives a good answer in verse 20-23:

Rom 9:20 No, but, O man, who are you who replies against God? Shall the thing formed say to Him who formed it, Why have you made me this way?
Rom 9:21 Does not the potter have power over the clay, from the same lump to make one vessel to honor and another to dishonor?
Rom 9:22 What if God, willing to show His wrath and to make His power known, endured with much long-suffering the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction;
Rom 9:23 and that He might make known the riches of His glory on the vessels of mercy which He had before prepared to glory;

He is God and the sovereign creator, and we are not able to fairly ask Him why He creates and does His own will. Each creation is judged according to what it is given, and that which is created does not understand nothing more than He gives. He says that He will judge perfectly and that He is love, yet His enemies will say differently of Him right up until the last day - if they can't see or receive Him as He is.

Sarah and Abraham wanted a son and figured out their own way - of the flesh - to get one. God promised that even though Sarah was barren and of old age that she would have a child. Isaac was the son of promise and Ishmael the son of flesh. Whether it was a sin or not, God decided to bless both sons - but Issac as the Son of promise.
Just about all characters in the Bible make mistakes and big time sins that result in death is natural to man since the fall. The whole nation of Israel was destroyed and scattered because of sin. Coming to know that sin is serious and learning how much it does destroy is part of the story of the journey they took and we are taking.

There are others here that can explain this better than I, but in the end it all shows how longsuffering and full of grace God has been towards us.

Ham may have been a bad man to have went and seen what he did and report it to his brothers - perhaps he rejoiced in thinking he had uncovered sin in his father. The record doesn't go into detail about the type of sin committed, but that Japeth and Shem did that which was right and covered their father in a manner of total respect. Honoring the father and mother, which was later to be in the law of God may have had something to do with this along with the fact that "love covers a multitude of sins", and Japeth and Shem may have done just that and covered their father's sin instead of pointing it out like Ham did.

1Pe 4:8 And above all things have fervent love to yourselves, for love will cover a multitude of sins.
Jam 5:20 know that he who turns back the sinner from the error of his way shall save a soul from death, and shall hide a multitude of sins.

oneiric said:

I'm saved and all, but I just always have questions.

Please, no I don't want any answers from Calvinists (since I'm not one and don't want to be one)

Questions in the book of Genesis:


1. Why did god hate esau? Does God hate? And why did He choose Jacob over Esau, when Jacob was the bigger "meanie". I mean really, he stole his blessing and then had kids with FOUR different people.

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I don't know. But he did kind of get punished for what he did. You know how God says "You will reap what you sow"? Well, after Jacob tricked Esau, He gets tricked into marrying Leah by uncle Laban. Seems like in the OT, having multiple wives wasn't a huge deal, as long as the guy took care of them all. I don't exactly have this figured out, seems to me like more than one wife would be huge problems. It also seems to me like the Bible would agree. I can't think of one case where a guy in the Bible had more than one wife and it was a good thing. There were always problems that went along with it. Anyway, Esau's sin looks to me like he didn't value the promise that Goed mad to Grandpa Abraham. God made a huge deal to Abraham about how his Seed would bless the whole world, so much so that Grampa Abraham was willing to Sacrafice daddy Isaac and still trust that God would work things out. Esau just didn't care about anything but the here and now. It would be like, "hey, there's ten bajillion dollars buried in the dirt outside, you wanna go dig it up?" And Esau was like "No, I want dinner now." I think that's the bigger sin. Just like a person today saying "No, I don't want to accept Jesus today, I have too much partying to do."

2. Going on number one, please explain to men Romans 9:9-24. Especially since it says God can freely make people listen and not listen to Him, but we shouldn't blame God even though HE made us listen or not. I don't get it. Doesn't sound fair at all.

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I don't know, I just use this verse to say "God is so much higher and so much bigger than methat I can't even begin to question this." Understand also, anyone reading that verse who is afraid for their soul is propably not prepared for destruction. Propably the people reading that verse and not even caring are the ones prepared for destruction.

3. why wasnt abram punished for sleeping with hagar, for that is adultery.

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He was, God told Abraham that the sons of Isaac and the sons of Ishmael would never ever be at peace. Guess what? The Jews are still fighting with the rest of the middle east to this day. Looks like God keeps His promises, Abraham's kids are still at it.

4. Lot's daughters got him drunk and had sex with him, what was their punishment? God didn't say anything about it in the Bible, I don't think.

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I don't know. I think God put the story in the Bible to show where the Moabites and Ammonites came from. I don't think we are supposed to draw any theology of divine retribution from it.

5. noahs son discovered him drunk and he told his other brothers, so noah, cursed them. I don't know, it's just that Noah was mad that someone caught him sinning so he just handed out a curse...

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This one has everybody baffled, maybe some day you can figure it out and write a book.
The two theories are:
1)seeing naked people was really, really taboo at this time on planet earth: population-8
2)'seeing his nakedness' is a euphamism for sexual sin

I think the point that God might be making is that even though He purged sin from the earth in the form of a flood, there is still sin, and there still remains the need for a savior from that sin.

hmm that's all for now. sorry :o

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did that help?

oneiric said:

1. Why did god hate esau? Does God hate? And why did He choose Jacob over Esau, when Jacob was the bigger "meanie". I mean really, he stole his blessing and then had kids with FOUR different people.

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Romans 9:13
As it is written, Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated.

The word "hate" in this passage is the same word Jesus used when He told His followers, "If you are going to be My disciples, you will have to hate your father and mother and your brother and sister and your wife and your children" Luke 14:26, meaning they they are to prefer Christ over their family, but not hate them to damnation. The same applies to Jacob and Esau. God prefered Jacob.

oneiric said:

2. Going on number one, please explain to men Romans 9:9-24. Especially since it says God can freely make people listen and not listen to Him, but we shouldn't blame God even though HE made us listen or not. I don't get it. Doesn't sound fair at all.

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God has a sovereign purpose which has nothing to do with an individual person. God set aside Israel, but when they rejected Him, the message was taken to the Gentiles. But, some day, God will again turn to Israel.

oneiric said:

3. why wasnt abram punished for sleeping with hagar, for that is adultery.

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It was not considered adultery under the law at that time... again, the Jewish "law" was not yet given until Sinai.... Abram and Sarah were following the Code of Hammurabi.

Code of Hammurabi
144. If a man take a wife and this woman give her husband a maid-servant, and she bear him children, but this man wishes to take another wife, this shall not be permitted to him; he shall not take a second wife.

145. If a man take a wife, and she bear him no children, and he intend to take another wife: if he take this second wife, and bring her into the house, this second wife shall not be allowed equality with his wife.

146. If a man take a wife and she give this man a maid-servant as wife and she bear him children, and then this maid assume equality with the wife: because she has borne him children her master shall not sell her for money, but he may keep her as a slave, reckoning her among the maid-servants.

oneiric said:

4. Lot's daughters got him drunk and had sex with him, what was their punishment? God didn't say anything about it in the Bible, I don't think.

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When Lot's daughters had sex with him, there was no prohibition from God that such an act was punishable. The law was not given until Sinai concerning marriage (sex) with close family members. God didn't punish Cain, Abel, Seth or the other children of Adam and Eve for marrying their sisters, brothers, nieces, or nephews.

oneiric said:

5. noahs son discovered him drunk and he told his other brothers, so noah, cursed them. I don't know, it's just that Noah was mad that someone caught him sinning so he just handed out a curse...

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Canaan was a grandson of Noah's, Ham's son. Noah may have foreseen the future of Canaan's line.... The Hamite race was originally the most enlightened and intelligent (Egypt, Babylon, Canaan), but also they had the greatest tendency to be degenerate to to Godly teachings, relying on man and not God.

I hope this helps in your understanding....


~malaka~