One of the supposed Bible contradictions that people use to denigrate the Bible’s authority is centered on the question, “Is God peaceable?” Detractors will cite verses like Romans 15:33 where God is called “the God of peace” and hold that against Exodus 15:3 where it is said, “The LORD is a man of war.” The question then becomes, “Which is God? A God of peace or a God of war?” The answer, however, is a relatively simple one: God is both.
Tag: Merciful
Merciful. It’s oftentimes helpful to find ‘brackets’ in passages of Scripture, meaning – phrases or word choices that begin and end a passage. We see an example of that in the previous chapter (Gen. 9:1,7); and this chapter we have another: both verse 1 and verse 32 bracket the listing of the ‘table of nations.’ But not only does this bracket introduce and conclude the genealogy of Noah’s sons, it has within it a reminder of God’s mercy – both verses end with the phrase, “after the flood” (Gen. 10:1b; 32b). It’s as though the reader should stop and say – ‘Wow, look at how God so thoroughly replenished the planet that He made desolate. What mercy…’ Sadly, future generations like Nimrod and those at the Tower of Babel would spurn such mercy – forgetting that the populated planet they enjoyed had, not too long before, “perished, being flooded with water” (2 Pet. 3:6b). Let’s be careful not to do the same. We, too, live “after the flood.”
Creator of Life. This truth has been repeated numerous times in the opening chapters of the Book of Genesis: God is the creator and giver of life. But it’s not just creation ex-nihilo that bears witness of that reality, so does procreation. Yes, there are complementary biological mechanisms that God instituted in men and women, but the creation of human beings transcends the material realm. Only God can see that a living being would have an eternal soul. Eve was right when she conceived, bore Cain, and said, “I have acquired a man from the LORD” (4:1b). Adam and Eve did not “bring about for themselves” a son; rather, with the help of the creator of life (per NASB translation), they received a son. Subsequent revelation would bear witness to Eve’s exclamation – God sovereignly superintends the conception and formation of life (Gen. 20:18; 25:21; 30:2; 48:4; Ps. 113:9; 127:3; 139:13; Jer. 1:5).
