IN the book of Genesis, there are some awkward side roads in the practices of worship. Some things are obviously wrong, forbidden and wicked. Other actions are perhaps just a tick or two off from what we might consider to be worship that is pleasing to God. But keep in mind that the Law of Moses had not been given yet, so the clear black-and-white standards or morality or practice in worship had not yet been written. Worship is always more discovered than prescribed by each generation, so we see a lot of shades of gray in the book of Genesis.
God seems to show up to talk to people at unpredictable times, saying unpredictable things.
I say all that to encourage us to show these folks some grace in our assessment of their actions. We all have blind spots, you know, and later generations, who might live in a different culture, might just say we were sinfully unaware of just how gray our worship was. Should I mention slavery in America? or antisemitism? Or segregation? Or lynching? Or abortion? Or eugenics, humanism, televangelists, pedophile priests, homophobia and misogamy laws? American Christians thought they knew what sin was, but there were some serious blind spots to what other generations might view as much more clear black-and-white matters.
How could we have even called ourselves Christians? Well, you see, everyone else seemed to say it was okay, and . . .
Of course, it all started with Adam and Eve eating the fruit of the knowledge of good and evil. Eating fruit seems pretty innocent, except that this one tree had been (the only) explicitly forbidden one in the whole garden. The death penalty was the sentence, even though God continued to converse with the man, and the Lord also clothed Adam and his wife with skin coverings.
The next generation is even more clearly evil. God did not accept the offering of Cain, and he became very angry and dejected. Moped around, punched holes in walls, blew up at the smallest provocation, no doubt. God asked him questions like a good counselor: Your body language is telling me that you are angry. You feel dejected. What is the cause? Cain does not answer the question. Probably just continued to pout. God told him that he would be accepted if he could just be teachable. Learn to respond the right way. But Cain refused, and God’s warning to him came true: Sin was crouching at his door, and it attacked and destroyed him, rather than him learning to master sin. Cain refused to be teachable, did not accept correction, and proved that sin eventually leads to death, if we do not watch out. Satan is still like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. He devoured Cain, and Cain murdered his brother.
Even here, let us put this act into the area of (very dark) gray, considering that Genesis chapter four comes before chapter nine, where God clarifies the sanctity of human life. Murder became clearly black, not just gray.
And for your lifeblood I will require a reckoning: from every beast I will require it and from man. From his fellow man I will require a reckoning for the life of man. "Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed, for God made man in his own image. Genesis 9:5-6
Here’s another gray area for me: Who are the Nephilim? Were they evil, or good? Were they human? or something more?
The Nephilim were on the earth in those days, and also afterward, when the sons of God came in to the daughters of man and they bore children to them. These were the mighty men who were of old, the men of renown. Genesis 6:4
How about this one? Noah’s curse on Canaan is rather puzzling to me. Why was he so hard on a grandson who is not even in the story? Why would Noah not repent himself and confess his shame to his sons? Instead, he curses his grandson, who wasn’t even one of the parties involved?
And Ham, the father of Canaan, saw the nakedness of his father and told his two brothers outside. Then Shem and Japheth took a garment, laid it on both their shoulders, and walked backward and covered the nakedness of their father. Their faces were turned backward, and they did not see their father's nakedness. When Noah awoke from his wine and knew what his youngest son had done to him, he said, "Cursed be Canaan; a servant of servants shall he be to his brothers." Genesis 9:22-25
And what’s this about Abraham’s many children by concubines, mentioned almost as an afterthought?
But to the sons of his concubines Abraham gave gifts, and while he was still living he sent them away from his son Isaac, eastward to the east country. Genesis 25:6
Rachel steals idols from her father Laban, and then she lies about it to him, in spite of Jacob’s oaths and indignation. The Bible doesn’t condemn her, and her husband never corrects her. So why is that in the Bible?
“[W]hy did you steal my gods?” Jacob answered and said to Laban, “. . . Anyone with whom you find your gods shall not live. In the presence of our kinsmen point out what I have that is yours, and take it.” Now Jacob did not know that Rachel had stolen them. . . . Now Rachel had taken the household gods and put them in the camel's saddle and sat on them. . . . And she said to her father, “Let not my lord be angry that I cannot rise before you, for the way of women is upon me.” So he searched but did not find the household gods. Then Jacob became angry and berated Laban. Genesis 31: 30-42
For that matter, Laban, the man who owned those idols, and the man who cheated Jacob all those times over the years, hears from God in the night, and makes a pact with Jacob in the name of the Lord. He invokes the name of—what?—one of his gods?
But the God of your father spoke to me last night, saying, ‘Be careful not to say anything to Jacob, either good or bad.’ . . . Laban said, “This heap is a witness between you and me today.” Therefore he named it Galeed, and Mizpah, for he said, “The Lord watch between you and me, when we are out of one another's sight. Genesis 31:29, 49
Judah and Tamar was a terrible, incestuous, adulterous situation. And yet, in Ruth, the leaders at the city gate bless Ruth with this blessing:
and may your house be like the house of Perez, whom Tamar bore to Judah, because of the offspring that the LORD will give you by this young woman." Ruth 4:12
Speaking of which, Ruth was a Moabite! How did she get into the lineage of Jesus?
“No Ammonite or Moabite may enter the assembly of the Lord. Even to the tenth generation, none of them may enter the assembly of the Lord forever, Deuteronomy 23:3
Good thing Nehemiah wasn’t there to decide for Boaz whether or not to take Ruth as his wife!
In those days also I saw the Jews who had married women of Ashdod, Ammon, and Moab. And half of their children spoke the language of Ashdod, and they could not speak the language of Judah, but only the language of each people. And I confronted them and cursed them and beat some of them and pulled out their hair. And I made them take an oath in the name of God, saying, "You shall not give your daughters to their sons, or take their daughters for your sons or for yourselves. Nehemiah 13:22-25
And Rahab was a prostitute! Talk about shades of gray! Yet she was commended for her faith, because she believed the rumors about the God of Joshua. But I’m getting beyond the book of Genesis now. Here is one more uncomfortable moment in the book that gives me pause:
Here’s another: Divination is a sin.
For rebellion is as the sin of divination, and presumption is as iniquity and idolatry. Because you have rejected the word of the Lord, he has also rejected you from being king.”
Yet, what to make of these?
But Laban said to him, “If I have found favor in your sight, I have learned by divination that the Lord has blessed me because of you. Is it not from this that my lord drinks, and by this that he practices divination? You have done evil in doing this.’” Genesis 44:5
Joseph said to them, “What deed is this that you have done? Do you not know that a man like me can indeed practice divination?” Genesis 44:15
Considering that he was a dream interpreter, and that he said only God could interpret dreams, it is hard for me to imagine that he meant it. The context was that he had hidden the cup in the bag of one of his brothers, in order to keep him in holding while the others went back and brought his little brother Benjamin. So, Joseph set up his brothers and lied about how they got it. Maybe he also lied about how he used the cup. Maybe he was playing the role of an Egyptian who would likely have had such a thing.
A second theory is that Joseph was telling lies that had some element of truth in them. It happens all the time, that the story we make up has elements that are close to truth. Joseph was giving them a clue that he was in the business of interpreting dreams, and maybe it would make them think of Joseph again, and maybe one would say, “Divining, huh? That reminds me of my brother Joseph who had dreams. I wonder what became of him?”
A third theory is that Joseph really did use a cup for divining. Remember, this is before the Law of Moses, before the Ten Commandments helped to define sin and righteousness. None of the saints were perfect, after all. But even more mind-bending to me is the idea that perhaps, just perhaps, God allowed Joseph to use methods that he copied from the pagans. God didn’t reject Joseph for having one area of compromise in this area of special interest and skill. After all, he was given the daughter of the priest of the city of On. Her father’s name means “He whom Ra has given.” So we can assume that Joseph married the daughter of an idolater, who likely was not a follower of Yahweh at the time. So when Joseph wanted to see into the future, or to interpret a dream, did he use divination?
I don’t have answers to that. But the questions provoke thought.
And time prevents me from detailing Saul’s witch, Samson’s relationships, Elisha’s bears, David’s showbread, Eli’s weight, Jonah’s death wish, Job’s wife, Solomon’s horses, Moses’ temper, Aaron’s golden calf, Nadab’s strange fire, and more.
All of these examples speak of God’s grace in the midst of people’s imperfections. And it is still so today. God is grieved over human sin. But He has promised not to destroy us by means of a flood. Yet, we live with His promise that He will indeed judge the living and the dead by a very clear standard.
Even so, Lord Jesus, quickly come.
YOUR ENCOUNTER
I have been a worship leader for a lot of years now. And I can tell you with some authority and confidence that there have not been very many weeks when I have been in front of a congregation unaware of my hypocrisy and inconsistent life. But that doesn’t mean that God refused to use me, or that He rejected my prayers. I have been in bondage to some besetting sins for decades, and only recently have addressed them head-on and repented, being blessed and filled with the Spirit. And still I have areas of my life that do not match my theology.
But I am not alone in my brokenness. None less than the Apostle Paul confessed it this way:
So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand. For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being, but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin. Romans 7:21-25.
I’m not making excuses here. But I am acknowledging imperfection in the present, even as I long for the future perfect. There is never a good reason to refuse to repent. But there are sins that we don’t even recognize for a time. And then we see it but don’t see its center yet. And then we fight it and are on again, off again. Maybe, just maybe, we have a full and complete deliverance from such besetting sins. But—and here’s the important part—God does not refuse our worship, even while He is waiting for us to finally “get it.”
Is there an area in your life that has had floating guilt and shame in it? First, be encouraged that God has still heard your prayers and received your worship up to now. But second, know that He is willing. He is able. He is ready to hear your repentant heart cry out to Him, and to deliver you right now. Would you confess your sin to Him? Renounce it and leave it behind, in the name of Jesus. Now ask for the Holy Spirit to fill those broken places in you, and receive your healing and forgiveness, in Jesus’ name. Now confess your sins with someone, and have that person pray for you, that you may be healed. Rejoice that He has never left you nor forsaken you, though you may have run from Him. Praise the Lord!
Now go walk in victory!