In the opening scenes of Peter Jackson’s film adaptation of J. R. R. Tolkien’s Fellowship of the Ring, a narrator sets up the plot of the story by giving the viewer a condensed history lesson on the mythological world of Middle Earth. The movie touches on critical events over thousands of years of history, explaining […]

Engelsma, David S. Reformed Education: the Christian School as Demand of the Covenant. Revised Edition. Grandville, MI: Reformed Free Publishing Association, 2000. V. 101 pp $8.00, paperback. The title of this book may turn off some readers, thinking it is for teachers, or that it will take such an outdated view of education that it […]

Genesis has been and continues to be a book of beginnings. The first eleven chapters provide us with the beginning of creation, the beginning of mankind, the beginning of sin, and the beginning of grace. We even saw the beginning of nations as the children of Noah had their tongues confused at the Tower of […]

The beginning of Genesis 12 is so much different from that of Genesis 11. Genesis 11 begins with the construction of a secular building. It shows a people going about their business without God as they try to make a name for themselves without God. Genesis 12, on the other hand, is about what God […]

We like to think that, when we are where God wants us to be, things will go well for us. After all, we are trying to follow God’s will for our lives, so we expect life to be free from testings and trials. But now we see something different taking place in the life of […]

Paul wrote, “Whatever a man sows, that shall he also reap.” Nowhere is that better illustrated for us than in the life of Abram. God had told the patriarch to leave his father’s country, his father’s people, and his father’s household to go to the place that God would show him. That was the call […]

In the portion of Genesis that we consider in this lesson, a man who was called Melchizedek seems to appear out of nowhere. He is introduced as the King of Salem; he blessed Abram and received a tenth of the spoils Abram had won in the battle, and then he disappeared as quickly as he […]

Abram was a man who lived by faith. He had heard God’s calling in Ur, witnessed God’s faithfulness in Egypt, and seen God’s power in the battle against the kings of the East. Every time Abram went through a period of crisis, God was there to renew His promises. In the crisis of leaving home, […]

Lot had noticed the green pastures of the valley. Upon the invitation of his uncle he had chosen the most advantageous site for the thriving of his flocks and herds. Certainly fertile plains were better than the rocky hills. In the lush, albeit wicked, valley his family would surely prosper. Lot, however, was not the […]

Immediately following the statement “Abram believed” (Genesis 15:6) Abram asks, “O Sovereign Lord, how can I know that I will gain possession of it?” Notice, however, the shift in the conversation. The promise that Abram believed was that a son would be born to him from his own body. He was given the sign of […]