#13 - Moses is born in Egypt: Exodus 1, 2; Reflection by Neil Howard

painting by Marc Chagall

Exodus 1 & 2 Reflection

It seems to me that the whole cause of this calamity is that the latest king of Egypt didn’t know Joseph. Although Joseph was a Hebrew, he worked well with the previous kings of Egypt and there was a peaceful and symbiotic relationship between the Israelites and the Egyptians. I wonder why the latest king suddenly became fearful of the relationship with the Israelites? They had worked together pretty well with the Egyptians for at least a generation. Could it be that the sheer increase numbers of Israelites started to make him fearful that his Egyptian way of life would be overrun by the Hebrew immigrants? I can see why someone would start to become uncomfortable with this type of change. The same thing happens today. Pharaoh’s response seems pretty harsh, however, enslaving the Hebrews and killing off all the male children. At this point you know that the Hebrews will have to get out of Egypt to avoid annihilation. They aren’t strong enough to defeat the Egyptians in their own land, so they are going to have to leave to survive. But the Hebrews had lived in Egypt for several hundred years and it isn’t easy to pick up and leave, even if you are being oppressed. They need a leader with a plan, in this case a leader with God’s Plan.

The amazing irony of Moses’ birth and survival has to be God’s Plan. No human mind or Hollywood script could possibly come up with the sequence of events that takes Moses from imminent death, to survival, to being nursed by his own mother while simultaneously being elevated to Pharaoh’s step grandson. Moses’ mother even got paid to nurse him! How good a deal was that! The story says that Moses was a Levite, from the priestly clan. So you know that he is going to be special at least in that way. The fact that Moses’ name means “drawn out of the water” reminds me of our baptism. We are all drawn out of the water to be children of God. Something important and good is going to happen to Moses. No way that you can put the book down at this point. You have to keep reading to see how the story unfolds and see what is going to happen to Moses!

Exodus 1

These are the names of the sons of Israel who came to Egypt with Jacob, each with his household: ²Reuben, Simeon, Levi, and Judah, ³Issachar, Zebulun, and Benjamin, ⁴Dan and Naphtali, Gad and Asher. ⁵The total number of people born to Jacob was seventy. Joseph was already in Egypt. ⁶Then Joseph died, and all his brothers, and that whole generation. ⁷But the Israelites were fruitful and prolific; they multiplied and grew exceedingly strong, so that the land was filled with them.
⁸Now a new king arose over Egypt, who did not know Joseph. ⁹He said to his people, "Look, the Israelite people are more numerous and more powerful than we. ¹⁰Come, let us deal shrewdly with them, or they will increase and, in the event of war, join our enemies and fight against us and escape from the land." ¹¹Therefore they set taskmasters over them to oppress them with forced labor. They built supply cities, Pithom and Rameses, for Pharaoh. ¹²But the more they were oppressed, the more they multiplied and spread, so that the Egyptians came to dread the Israelites. ¹³The Egyptians became ruthless in imposing tasks on the Israelites, ¹⁴and made their lives bitter with hard service in mortar and brick and in every kind of field labor. They were ruthless in all the tasks that they imposed on them.
¹⁵The king of Egypt said to the Hebrew midwives, one of whom was named Shiphrah and the other Puah, ¹⁶When you act as midwives to the Hebrew women, and see them on the birthstool, if it is a boy, kill him; but if it is a girl, she shall live. ¹⁷But the midwives feared God; they did not do as the king of Egypt commanded them, but they let the boys live. ¹⁸So the king of Egypt summoned the midwives and said to them, "Why have you done this, and allowed the boys to live?" ¹⁹The midwives said to Pharaoh, "Because the Hebrew women are not like the Egyptian women; for they are vigorous and give birth before the midwife comes to them." ²⁰So God dealt well with the midwives; and the people multiplied and became very strong. ²¹And because the midwives feared God, he gave them families. ²²Then Pharaoh commanded all his people, "Every boy that is born to the Hebrews you shall throw into the Nile, but you shall let every girl live."

Exodus 2

Now a man from the house of Levi went and married a Levite woman. ²The woman conceived and bore a son; and when she saw that he was a fine baby, she hid him three months. ³When she could hide him no longer she got a papyrus basket for him, and plastered it with bitumen and pitch; she put the child in it and placed it among the reeds on the bank of the river. ⁴His sister stood at a distance, to see what would happen to him.
⁵The daughter of Pharaoh came down to bathe at the river, while her attendants walked beside the river. She saw the basket among the reeds and sent her maid to bring it. ⁶When she opened it, she saw the child. He was crying, and she took pity on him. "This must be one of the Hebrews' children," she said. ⁷Then his sister said to Pharaoh's daughter, "Shall I go and get you a nurse from the Hebrew women to nurse the child for you?" ⁸Pharaoh's daughter said to her, "Yes." So the girl went and called the child's mother. ⁹Pharaoh's daughter said to her, "Take this child and nurse it for me, and I will give you your wages." So the woman took the child and nursed it. ¹⁰When the child grew up, she brought him to Pharaoh's daughter, and she took him as her son. She named him Moses, "because," she said, "I drew him out of the water."

#12 - Joseph the Dreamer: Genesis 37; Reflection by Katie Hafner

When I was small, my mom told me about Joseph and the Technicolor Dream Coat. While the story hasn’t changed, my opinion certainly has. Joseph has ten older brothers, is his father’s favorite son, and he interprets dreams – a skill that makes annoys his brothers and makes him a valuable servant to his Egyptian masters. Recently, I was reintroduced to the story of Joseph when I read The Red Tent, which illustrates the story of Jacob’s only daughter: Dinah. After reading The Red Tent, by Anita Diamant, I was struck by how selfish and cold Joseph acts towards his sister, whom everyone thinks is dead.

So right now I’m not so fond of Joseph, but what do I think of his story? I’m not sure. Is it about a father’s love; the brothers’ rivalry; a boy’s God-given talent; or perhaps all three? When preparing for this reflection I was really struck by the theme of forgiveness. Looking back through the book of Genesis I found that Cain and Abel are not the only brothers who turn against one another: Abraham and Lot (albeit, an adopted son), Jacob and Esau, and finally, Joseph and his ten older brothers.

Joseph taunts his brothers by telling them about his dreams. Vividly describing scenes where his older brothers bow down to him, Joseph’s brothers are peeved that Joseph is not only their father’s favorite son but also apparently “the best” brother too. Keeping in mind that Joselph’s oldest brother, Reuben, is about twenty years older than Joseph, it’s fair that Reuben and his brothers have little time or respect for their youngest brother.

I compared the brothers’ interactions to those of my brother and mine. I imagine that our relationship would be a lot more malicious if my parents favored one of us over the other, or let one of us sleep in the house and told the other to sleep outside (hypothetically speaking, of course!). Needless to say, Joseph was kind of asking for retribution.

…Which is what his brothers essentially do when they sell him to Midianite traders.

However, their hatred only fosters more hurt. It isn’t until his brothers travel to Egypt during the seven-year famine – begging the King’s right hand man, aka Joseph, for food – that Jacob’s sons begin to forgive each other. Setting aside their childish jealousy and hate, Jacob and his brothers rely on love and mercy to form a mutually beneficial partnership.

Mercy and love help reconcile past differences, thus enabling Joseph and his brothers to reunite their broken family and become the twelve nations of Israel.

A story that has a lot of hurt feelings, I’m glad that it has a positive ending and a clear moral.

Genesis37

Joseph, being seventeen years old, was shepherding the flock with his brothers; he was a helper to the sons of Bilhah and Zilpah, his father's wives; and Joseph brought a bad report of them to their father. ³Now Israel loved Joseph more than any other of his children, because he was the son of his old age; and he had made him a long robe with sleeves. ⁴But when his brothers saw that their father loved him more than all his brothers, they hated him, and could not speak peaceably to him.
⁵Once Joseph had a dream, and when he told it to his brothers, they hated him even more. ⁶He said to them, "Listen to this dream that I dreamed. ⁷There we were, binding sheaves in the field. Suddenly my sheaf rose and stood upright; then your sheaves gathered around it, and bowed down to my sheaf." ⁸His brothers said to him, "Are you indeed to reign over us? Are you indeed to have dominion over us?" So they hated him even more because of his dreams and his words.
⁹He had another dream, and told it to his brothers, saying, "Look, I have had another dream: the sun, the moon, and eleven stars were bowing down to me." ¹⁰But when he told it to his father and to his brothers, his father rebuked him, and said to him, "What kind of dream is this that you have had? Shall we indeed come, I and your mother and your brothers, and bow to the ground before you?" ¹¹So his brothers were jealous of him, but his father kept the matter in mind.
¹²Now his brothers went to pasture their father's flock near Shechem. ¹³And Israel said to Joseph, "Are not your brothers pasturing the flock at Shechem? Come, I will send you to them." He answered, "Here I am." ¹⁴So he said to him, "Go now, see if it is well with your brothers and with the flock; and bring word back to me." So he sent him from the valley of Hebron.
He came to Shechem, ¹⁵and a man found him wandering in the fields; the man asked him, "What are you seeking?" ¹⁶"I am seeking my brothers," he said; "tell me, please, where they are pasturing the flock." ¹⁷The man said, "They have gone away, for I heard them say, 'Let us go to Dothan.'" So Joseph went after his brothers, and found them at Dothan. ¹⁸They saw him from a distance, and before he came near to them, they conspired to kill him. ¹⁹They said to one another, "Here comes this dreamer. ²⁰Come now, let us kill him and throw him into one of the pits; then we shall say that a wild animal has devoured him, and we shall see what will become of his dreams." ²¹But when Reuben heard it, he delivered him out of their hands, saying, "Let us not take his life." ²²Reuben said to them, "Shed no blood; throw him into this pit here in the wilderness, but lay no hand on him" — that he might rescue him out of their hand and restore him to his father. ²³So when Joseph came to his brothers, they stripped him of his robe, the long robe with sleeves that he wore; ²⁴and they took him and threw him into a pit. The pit was empty; there was no water in it.
²⁵Then they sat down to eat; and looking up they saw a caravan of Ishmaelites coming from Gilead, with their camels carrying gum, balm, and resin, on their way to carry it down to Egypt. ²⁶Then Judah said to his brothers, "What profit is it if we kill our brother and conceal his blood? ²⁷Come, let us sell him to the Ishmaelites, and not lay our hands on him, for he is our brother, our own flesh." And his brothers agreed. ²⁸When some Midianite traders passed by, they drew Joseph up, lifting him out of the pit, and sold him to the Ishmaelites for twenty pieces of silver. And they took Joseph to Egypt.
²⁹When Reuben returned to the pit and saw that Joseph was not in the pit, he tore his clothes. ³⁰He returned to his brothers, and said, "The boy is gone; and I, where can I turn?" ³¹Then they took Joseph's robe, slaughtered a goat, and dipped the robe in the blood. ³²They had the long robe with sleeves taken to their father, and they said, "This we have found; see now whether it is your son's robe or not." ³³He recognized it, and said, "It is my son's robe! A wild animal has devoured him; Joseph is without doubt torn to pieces." ³⁴Then Jacob tore his garments, and put sackcloth on his loins, and mourned for his son many days. ³⁵All his sons and all his daughters sought to comfort him; but he refused to be comforted, and said, "No, I shall go down to Sheol to my son, mourning." Thus his father bewailed him. ³⁶Meanwhile the Midianites had sold him in Egypt to Potiphar, one of Pharaoh's officials, the captain of the guard.

To read the rest of the Joseph story, read Genesis 39-50.

#11 - Jacob and Esau: Genesis 25:19-34, 27, 28; Reflection by Pastor Sarah Scherschligt

The birth of Jacob and Esau - Ratner museum

<sup>The story of Jacob is full of human, flawed characters.

Take Rebekah. Once barren, she blessed by God with children. It makes you think she's been picked as a hero. But you quickly find out that she will be a partner in crime for the sibling rivalry between Jacob and Esau. She shows Jacob favoritism and to Esau, she is cruel.

Take Jacob. He's the 2nd born, but at birth he grabs his brother by the heel. He isn't content with his rightful place in the family. Led by his mother he eclipses Esau's rightful place as the firstborn by lying to their father Isaac. He comes off as spineless.

Take Isaac. For all his importance, he is an impotent father. He's not even able to bless the child he would prefer.

Esau is treated like collateral damage.</sup> The family is broken apart. This whole story is deeply troubling to me. ^{And based on what God tells Rebekah at the beginning, none of this is surprising to God.} Out of this messy soap opera of a family, the nation of Israel emerges. ^{What are we to take away from this?}

I take away comfort in knowing that God isn't done working on us. When we meet Jacob and Esau at the beginning, they are not fully formed. Esau loses his place within the family, but he marries well and pleases his father in the end. God kept on with Jacob and Jacob was transformed. Humbled, Jacob at the end of this is ready to serve God.

^{Genesis 25
19}These are the descendants of Isaac, Abraham's son: Abraham was the father of Isaac, ²⁰and Isaac was forty years old when he married Rebekah, daughter of Bethuel the Aramean of Paddan-aram, sister of Laban the Aramean. ²¹Isaac prayed to the LORD for his wife, because she was barren; and the LORD granted his prayer, and his wife Rebekah conceived. ²²The children struggled together within her; and she said, "If it is to be this way, why do I live?" So she went to inquire of the LORD. ²³And the LORD said to her,
"Two nations are in your womb,
and two peoples born of you shall be divided;
the one shall be stronger than the other,
the elder shall serve the younger."
²⁴When her time to give birth was at hand, there were twins in her womb. ²⁵The first came out red, all his body like a hairy mantle; so they named him Esau. ²⁶Afterward his brother came out, with his hand gripping Esau's heel; so he was named Jacob. Isaac was sixty years old when she bore them.
²⁷When the boys grew up, Esau was a skillful hunter, a man of the field, while Jacob was a quiet man, living in tents. ²⁸Isaac loved Esau, because he was fond of game; but Rebekah loved Jacob.
²⁹Once when Jacob was cooking a stew, Esau came in from the field, and he was famished. ³⁰Esau said to Jacob, "Let me eat some of that red stuff, for I am famished!" (Therefore he was called Edom.) ³¹Jacob said, "First sell me your birthright." ³²Esau said, "I am about to die; of what use is a birthright to me?" ³³Jacob said, "Swear to me first." So he swore to him, and sold his birthright to Jacob. ³⁴Then Jacob gave Esau bread and lentil stew, and he ate and drank, and rose and went his way. Thus Esau despised his birthright.

Genesis 27

When Isaac was old and his eyes were dim so that he could not see, he called his elder son Esau and said to him, "My son"; and he answered, "Here I am." ²He said, "See, I am old; I do not know the day of my death. ³Now then, take your weapons, your quiver and your bow, and go out to the field, and hunt game for me. ⁴Then prepare for me savory food, such as I like, and bring it to me to eat, so that I may bless you before I die."
⁵Now Rebekah was listening when Isaac spoke to his son Esau. So when Esau went to the field to hunt for game and bring it, ⁶Rebekah said to her son Jacob, "I heard your father say to your brother Esau, ⁷'Bring me game, and prepare for me savory food to eat, that I may bless you before the LORD before I die.' ⁸Now therefore, my son, obey my word as I command you. ⁹Go to the flock, and get me two choice kids, so that I may prepare from them savory food for your father, such as he likes; ¹⁰and you shall take it to your father to eat, so that he may bless you before he dies." ¹¹But Jacob said to his mother Rebekah, "Look, my brother Esau is a hairy man, and I am a man of smooth skin. ¹²Perhaps my father will feel me, and I shall seem to be mocking him, and bring a curse on myself and not a blessing." ¹³His mother said to him, "Let your curse be on me, my son; only obey my word, and go, get them for me." ¹⁴So he went and got them and brought them to his mother; and his mother prepared savory food, such as his father loved. ¹⁵Then Rebekah took the best garments of her elder son Esau, which were with her in the house, and put them on her younger son Jacob; ¹⁶and she put the skins of the kids on his hands and on the smooth part of his neck. ¹⁷Then she handed the savory food, and the bread that she had prepared, to her son Jacob.
¹⁸So he went in to his father, and said, "My father"; and he said, "Here I am; who are you, my son?" ¹⁹Jacob said to his father, "I am Esau your firstborn. I have done as you told me; now sit up and eat of my game, so that you may bless me." ²⁰But Isaac said to his son, "How is it that you have found it so quickly, my son?" He answered, "Because the LORD your God granted me success." ²¹Then Isaac said to Jacob, "Come near, that I may feel you, my son, to know whether you are really my son Esau or not." ²²So Jacob went up to his father Isaac, who felt him and said, "The voice is Jacob's voice, but the hands are the hands of Esau." ²³He did not recognize him, because his hands were hairy like his brother Esau's hands; so he blessed him. ²⁴He said, "Are you really my son Esau?" He answered, "I am." ²⁵Then he said, "Bring it to me, that I may eat of my son's game and bless you." So he brought it to him, and he ate; and he brought him wine, and he drank. ²⁶Then his father Isaac said to him, "Come near and kiss me, my son." ²⁷So he came near and kissed him; and he smelled the smell of his garments, and blessed him, and said,
"Ah, the smell of my son
is like the smell of a field that the LORD has blessed.
²⁸May God give you of the dew of heaven,
and of the fatness of the earth,
and plenty of grain and wine.
²⁹Let peoples serve you,
and nations bow down to you.
Be lord over your brothers,
and may your mother's sons bow down to you.
Cursed be everyone who curses you,
and blessed be everyone who blesses you!"
³⁰As soon as Isaac had finished blessing Jacob, when Jacob had scarcely gone out from the presence of his father Isaac, his brother Esau came in from his hunting. ³¹He also prepared savory food, and brought it to his father. And he said to his father, "Let my father sit up and eat of his son's game, so that you may bless me." ³²His father Isaac said to him, "Who are you?" He answered, "I am your firstborn son, Esau." ³³Then Isaac trembled violently, and said, "Who was it then that hunted game and brought it to me, and I ate it all before you came, and I have blessed him? — yes, and blessed he shall be!" ³⁴When Esau heard his father's words, he cried out with an exceedingly great and bitter cry, and said to his father, "Bless me, me also, father!" ³⁵But he said, "Your brother came deceitfully, and he has taken away your blessing." ³⁶Esau said, "Is he not rightly named Jacob? For he has supplanted me these two times. He took away my birthright; and look, now he has taken away my blessing." Then he said, "Have you not reserved a blessing for me?" ³⁷Isaac answered Esau, "I have already made him your lord, and I have given him all his brothers as servants, and with grain and wine I have sustained him. What then can I do for you, my son?" ³⁸Esau said to his father, "Have you only one blessing, father? Bless me, me also, father!" And Esau lifted up his voice and wept.
³⁹Then his father Isaac answered him:
"See, away from the fatness of the earth shall your home be,
and away from the dew of heaven on high.
⁴⁰By your sword you shall live,
and you shall serve your brother;
but when you break loose,
you shall break his yoke from your neck."
⁴¹Now Esau hated Jacob because of the blessing with which his father had blessed him, and Esau said to himself, "The days of mourning for my father are approaching; then I will kill my brother Jacob." ⁴²But the words of her elder son Esau were told to Rebekah; so she sent and called her younger son Jacob and said to him, "Your brother Esau is consoling himself by planning to kill you. ⁴³Now therefore, my son, obey my voice; flee at once to my brother Laban in Haran, ⁴⁴and stay with him a while, until your brother's fury turns away — ⁴⁵until your brother's anger against you turns away, and he forgets what you have done to him; then I will send, and bring you back from there. Why should I lose both of you in one day?"
⁴⁶Then Rebekah said to Isaac, "I am weary of my life because of the Hittite women. If Jacob marries one of the Hittite women such as these, one of the women of the land, what good will my life be to me?"

Genesis 28

Then Isaac called Jacob and blessed him, and charged him, "You shall not marry one of the Canaanite women. ²Go at once to Paddan-aram to the house of Bethuel, your mother's father; and take as wife from there one of the daughters of Laban, your mother's brother. ³May God Almighty bless you and make you fruitful and numerous, that you may become a company of peoples. ⁴May he give to you the blessing of Abraham, to you and to your offspring with you, so that you may take possession of the land where you now live as an alien — land that God gave to Abraham." ⁵Thus Isaac sent Jacob away; and he went to Paddan- aram, to Laban son of Bethuel the Aramean, the brother of Rebekah, Jacob's and Esau's mother.
⁶Now Esau saw that Isaac had blessed Jacob and sent him away to Paddan-aram to take a wife from there, and that as he blessed him he charged him, "You shall not marry one of the Canaanite women," ⁷and that Jacob had obeyed his father and his mother and gone to Paddan- aram. ⁸So when Esau saw that the Canaanite women did not please his father Isaac, ⁹Esau went to Ishmael and took Mahalath daughter of Abraham's son Ishmael, and sister of Nebaioth, to be his wife in addition to the wives he had.
¹⁰Jacob left Beer-sheba and went toward Haran. ¹¹He came to a certain place and stayed there for the night, because the sun had set. Taking one of the stones of the place, he put it under his head and lay down in that place. ¹²And he dreamed that there was a ladder set up on the earth, the top of it reaching to heaven; and the angels of God were ascending and descending on it. ¹³And the LORD stood beside him and said, "I am the LORD, the God of Abraham your father and the God of Isaac; the land on which you lie I will give to you and to your offspring; ¹⁴and your offspring shall be like the dust of the earth, and you shall spread abroad to the west and to the east and to the north and to the south; and all the families of the earth shall be blessed in you and in your offspring. ¹⁵Know that I am with you and will keep you wherever you go, and will bring you back to this land; for I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you." ¹⁶Then Jacob woke from his sleep and said, "Surely the LORD is in this place — and I did not know it!" ¹⁷And he was afraid, and said, "How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven."
¹⁸So Jacob rose early in the morning, and he took the stone that he had put under his head and set it up for a pillar and poured oil on the top of it. ¹⁹He called that place Bethel; but the name of the city was Luz at the first. ²⁰Then Jacob made a vow, saying, "If God will be with me, and will keep me in this way that I go, and will give me bread to eat and clothing to wear, ²¹so that I come again to my father's house in peace, then the LORD shall be my God, ²²and this stone, which I have set up for a pillar, shall be God's house; and of all that you give me I will surely give one-tenth to you."

#10 - Abraham almost sacrifices Isaac: Genesis 22:1-19; Reflection by Pastor Steve Buechler

painting by Heqi

June 25 – Abraham and the Sacrifice of Isaac: Genesis 22:1-19

The story of God’s command to Abraham to sacrifice his son Isaac is one of the most confusing and frightening stories in the Bible for modern readers. But, it was also confusing and frightening to ancient readers as well. Child sacrifice was well known in the ancient world, and it probably was not clear to Abraham that God would call it off at the last minute. Even for later Jewish readers, this must not have seemed at all like something God would command, since later in the Old Testament God clearly condemns child sacrifice (cf. Jeremiah 7:31).

As we reflect on this story, it’s important to remember the first verse: “God tested Abraham.” God’s purpose was not to receive a sacrifice, but rather to find out if Abraham would really trust God. After all, God had already promised Abraham a multitude of descendants through Isaac. If Abraham sacrificed Isaac, how could even God make that promise come true? Would God really provide even when all hope seemed lost?

It’s important to remember that Abraham didn’t think this “was only a test”. He probably believed that this was what God wanted, even though he hated it and didn’t want to do it. And probably to his amazement, God did provide in a way that neither he nor Isaac expected.

It’s hard to get beyond the horror of child sacrifice in this story, but the real message here is that God actually did provide and keep his promise even at the absolute lowest point in Abraham’s life – when he thought that the promise of his life was literally over. In the end, the point of the story is that God could be trusted, not just to provide at that moment, but at every moment, even when life was at an end.

Indeed, God did provide the lamb, not just that day on Mount Moriah, but finally on Calvary, where God provided his own Son as the lamb for us. And because of the faithfulness of God we’ve already experienced, we too, can trust God even and including those times when life is at an end.

Genesis 22

After these things God tested Abraham. He said to him, "Abraham!" And he said, "Here I am." ²He said, "Take your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains that I shall show you." ³So Abraham rose early in the morning, saddled his donkey, and took two of his young men with him, and his son Isaac; he cut the wood for the burnt offering, and set out and went to the place in the distance that God had shown him. ⁴On the third day Abraham looked up and saw the place far away. ⁵Then Abraham said to his young men, "Stay here with the donkey; the boy and I will go over there; we will worship, and then we will come back to you." ⁶Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering and laid it on his son Isaac, and he himself carried the fire and the knife. So the two of them walked on together. ⁷Isaac said to his father Abraham, "Father!" And he said, "Here I am, my son." He said, "The fire and the wood are here, but where is the lamb for a burnt offering?" ⁸Abraham said, "God himself will provide the lamb for a burnt offering, my son." So the two of them walked on together.
⁹When they came to the place that God had shown him, Abraham built an altar there and laid the wood in order. He bound his son Isaac, and laid him on the altar, on top of the wood. ¹⁰Then Abraham reached out his hand and took the knife to kill his son. ¹¹But the angel of the LORD called to him from heaven, and said, "Abraham, Abraham!" And he said, "Here I am." ¹²He said, "Do not lay your hand on the boy or do anything to him; for now I know that you fear God, since you have not withheld your son, your only son, from me." ¹³And Abraham looked up and saw a ram, caught in a thicket by its horns. Abraham went and took the ram and offered it up as a burnt offering instead of his son. ¹⁴So Abraham called that place "The LORD will provide"; as it is said to this day, "On the mount of the LORD it shall be provided."
¹⁵The angel of the LORD called to Abraham a second time from heaven, ¹⁶and said, "By myself I have sworn, says the LORD: Because you have done this, and have not withheld your son, your only son, ¹⁷I will indeed bless you, and I will make your offspring as numerous as the stars of heaven and as the sand that is on the seashore. And your offspring shall possess the gate of their enemies, ¹⁸and by your offspring shall all the nations of the earth gain blessing for themselves, because you have obeyed my voice." ¹⁹So Abraham returned to his young men, and they arose and went together to Beer-sheba; and Abraham lived at Beer-sheba.

#9 - God's covenant with Abraham: Genesis 12, 15. Reflection by Rebecca Claycamp

As a young person hearing the story, I always pictured Abraham looking at the stars and focused on God’s promise to the childless Abram, “I will make you into a great nation….All nations on earth will be blessed because of you." Wasn’t that God’s promise…that the Messiah would come from Abraham? But God didn’t merely make a promise…it was a covenant…an agreement between two parties.

I now see the meat of this story in the strange ceremony described in verses 9-10. In this ancient covenant ceremony, animals were cut in half, and the halves were placed opposite each other. The contracting parties in the covenant then passed between the pieces…walking through the path of blood…vowing to keep their word to each other or bring upon themselves the curse of being killed like these animals if they violated the covenant. In Genesis, Abraham did not pass between the animal halves; instead, a "smoking firepot with a flaming torch" –pass between the pieces. God passes as himself and in Abraham’s stead.

God made a unilateral, unconditional covenant: Abraham plays no role in keeping the covenant and its promises. God takes upon Himself the task of fulfilling the duties and obligations of both sides. God alone is the one who guarantees that the covenant promises will be kept. Abraham can do nothing, except have faith. Sound familiar? So often it’s when we understand Old Testament history and culture, that clarity comes to the New Testament (see Galatians 3).

Genesis 12

Now the LORD said to Abram, "Go from your country and your kindred and your father's house to the land that I will show you. ²I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you, and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. ³I will bless those who bless you, and the one who curses you I will curse; and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed."
⁴So Abram went, as the LORD had told him; and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he departed from Haran. ⁵Abram took his wife Sarai and his brother's son Lot, and all the possessions that they had gathered, and the persons whom they had acquired in Haran; and they set forth to go to the land of Canaan. When they had come to the land of Canaan, ⁶Abram passed through the land to the place at Shechem, to the oak of Moreh. At that time the Canaanites were in the land. ⁷Then the LORD appeared to Abram, and said, "To your offspring I will give this land." So he built there an altar to the LORD, who had appeared to him. ⁸From there he moved on to the hill country on the east of Bethel, and pitched his tent, with Bethel on the west and Ai on the east; and there he built an altar to the LORD and invoked the name of the LORD. ⁹And Abram journeyed on by stages toward the Negeb.

Genesis 15

After these things the word of the LORD came to Abram in a vision, "Do not be afraid, Abram, I am your shield; your reward shall be very great." ²But Abram said, "O Lord GOD, what will you give me, for I continue childless, and the heir of my house is Eliezer of Damascus?" ³And Abram said, "You have given me no offspring, and so a slave born in my house is to be my heir." ⁴But the word of the LORD came to him, "This man shall not be your heir; no one but your very own issue shall be your heir." ⁵He brought him outside and said, "Look toward heaven and count the stars, if you are able to count them." Then he said to him, "So shall your descendants be." ⁶And he believed the LORD; and the LORD reckoned it to him as righteousness.
⁷Then he said to him, "I am the LORD who brought you from Ur of the Chaldeans, to give you this land to possess." ⁸But he said, "O Lord GOD, how am I to know that I shall possess it?" ⁹He said to him, "Bring me a heifer three years old, a female goat three years old, a ram three years old, a turtledove, and a young pigeon." ¹⁰He brought him all these and cut them in two, laying each half over against the other; but he did not cut the birds in two. ¹¹And when birds of prey came down on the carcasses, Abram drove them away.
¹²As the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell upon Abram, and a deep and terrifying darkness descended upon him. ¹³Then the LORD said to Abram, "Know this for certain, that your offspring shall be aliens in a land that is not theirs, and shall be slaves there, and they shall be oppressed for four hundred years; ¹⁴but I will bring judgment on the nation that they serve, and afterward they shall come out with great possessions. ¹⁵As for yourself, you shall go to your ancestors in peace; you shall be buried in a good old age. ¹⁶And they shall come back here in the fourth generation; for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet complete."
¹⁷When the sun had gone down and it was dark, a smoking fire pot and a flaming torch passed between these pieces. ¹⁸On that day the LORD made a covenant with Abram, saying, "To your descendants I give this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the river Euphrates, ¹⁹the land of the Kenites, the Kenizzites, the Kadmonites, ²⁰the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Rephaim, ²¹the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Girgashites, and the Jebusites."

#8 - No one is righteous. Romans 3:9-26, reflection by Mark Ludder

As I consider and write about this passage I am deeply aware of our congregation’s efforts to serve in preparation for our Annual Community Yard Sale. Even in this tremendous undertaking, the contributions and sacrifices of many are juxtaposed against our human imperfections. People, some who may never have stepped into our Sanctuary, come by with donations of every description. Someone from Prince of Peace may be around to welcome and direct them to the area of like items, or they may simply leave their gift without notice.

I encourage you to consider how they chose to part with their possession. This is an expression of faith, putting something in our hands to do God’s will. As new arrivals are accepted and sorted by our volunteers - are we guilty of looking at other peoples “stuff” with less than Christian Love? Is it true as our passage states "There is no one who is righteous, not even one; there is no one who has understanding”.

How humbling it is to have your “stuff” picked over, sorted, labeled, priced, haggled over and sold in public! Just a short time ago, that very item may have been a wedding gift, a precious memory of good times, a favorite shirt, a child’s toy, a family heirloom…. Do we see it a Junk? Do we joke about it as a burden which we now need to dispose of? Do we understand why they had to get rid of it?

We need to accept the actions of others with the acknowledgement that we do not understand what was going on in their lives up to that moment. And trust that God is aware of their journey and holds them with the same love and care we cherish. Keep the “venom of vipers” from escaping our lips. Give a smile and a welcome each interaction as a gift from God himself.

Romans 3:9–26

⁹What then? Are we any better off? No, not at all; for we have already charged that all, both Jews and Greeks, are under the power of sin, ¹⁰as it is written:
"There is no one who is righteous, not even one;
¹¹there is no one who has understanding, there is no one who seeks God.
¹²All have turned aside, together they have become worthless;
there is no one who shows kindness,there is not even one."
¹³"Their throats are opened graves;
they use their tongues to deceive."
"The venom of vipers is under their lips."
¹⁴"Their mouths are full of cursing and bitterness."
¹⁵"Their feet are swift to shed blood;
¹⁶ruin and misery are in their paths,
¹⁷and the way of peace they have not known."
¹⁸"There is no fear of God before their eyes."
¹⁹Now we know that whatever the law says, it speaks to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be silenced, and the whole world may be held accountable to God. ²⁰For "no human being will be justified in his sight" by deeds prescribed by the law, for through the law comes the knowledge of sin.
²¹But now, apart from law, the righteousness of God has been disclosed, and is attested by the law and the prophets, ²²the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction, ²³since all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God; ²⁴they are now justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, ²⁵whom God put forward as a sacrifice of atonement by his blood, effective through faith. He did this to show his righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over the sins previously committed; ²⁶it was to prove at the present time that he himself is righteous and that he justifies the one who has faith in Jesus.

#7 - Create in me, David's Prayer of Repentance: Psalm 51 - Reflection by Joel Bernstein

The first four lines in Psalm 51 are extremely important to me. This past school year the chamber choir at my school sung a song about the holocaust for a chamber choir competition. It was called ‘Elegy for Dachau.’ The song is a prayer for the worst concentration camp in the world, Dachau. Listening to the song, and singing it are completely different for me. Every time I play music, I try to give as much emotion as I can. When we sung this song at the competition, I cried. I just couldn’t hold it in anymore picturing the camp in my head. The competition was held in a cathedral, so it really put things in perspective for me. While we were singing it, I prayed for all of the survivors of the holocaust.

The song is split up into two parts. The first has text from Psalm 51, “Have mercy on me, O God, according to your steadfast love; according to your abundant mercy blot out my transgressions.” Also, in the song there is this, “For I know my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me.” Behind the text, for the most part the choir sings, “What have you done?” And the second, a prayer that’s in Hebrew for the camp. “What have you done?” Who knew that the simplest phrase could have so much meaning and emotion?

Music is the only thing that’s there when everything else isn’t. So when all hope was lost, this song was written. Below is a link to the song if anybody wants to listen. The actual elegy doesn’t start until minute 2:14. The first 2:14 is what Pastor Sarah says at the beginning of each of her sermons.

Link to the Augustana College Choir singing Elegy for Dachau

Psalm 51

Have mercy on me, O God,
according to your steadfast love;
according to your abundant mercy
blot out my transgressions.
2Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity,
and cleanse me from my sin.
3For I know my transgressions,
and my sin is ever before me.
4Against you, you alone, have I sinned,
and done what is evil in your sight,
so that you are justified in your sentence
and blameless when you pass judgment.
5Indeed, I was born guilty,
a sinner when my mother conceived me.
6You desire truth in the inward being;
therefore teach me wisdom in my secret heart.
7Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean;
wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.
8Let me hear joy and gladness;
let the bones that you have crushed rejoice.
9Hide your face from my sins,
and blot out all my iniquities.
10Create in me a clean heart, O God,
and put a new and right spirit within me.
11Do not cast me away from your presence,
and do not take your holy spirit from me.
12Restore to me the joy of your salvation,
and sustain in me a willing spirit.
13Then I will teach transgressors your ways,
and sinners will return to you.
14Deliver me from bloodshed, O God,
O God of my salvation,
and my tongue will sing aloud of your deliverance.
15O LORD, open my lips,
and my mouth will declare your praise.
16For you have no delight in sacrifice;
if I were to give a burnt offering, you would not be pleased.
17The sacrifice acceptable to God is a broken spirit;
a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.
18Do good to Zion in your good pleasure;
rebuild the walls of Jerusalem,
19then you will delight in right sacrifices,
in burnt offerings and whole burnt offerings;
then bulls will be offered on your altar.

#6 - Noah, and the flood. Genesis 6-9; Reflection by Pastor Sarah Scherschligt

Noah and the Ark: Genesis 6-9.

A homeless shelter in downtown DC was in the midst of a blighted neighborhood with boarded up buildings, unsafe streets, drugs and prostitution on every block. It was a terrifying place. Inside the shelter, however, people found a bit of the rest and the love they needed. The lovely was found in the midst of the terrible. One woman called that shelter her Ark. It helped her float above all the terror of life and land in new place.

I think of that woman and the way she found a refuge from her storm when I read the story of Noah and the ark. She was able to appreciate the refuge because she knew the storm. She was grateful for the lovely because she has been afraid of the terrible.

Noah's Ark as a story has some elements that lovely - even great great for kids. The animals, the counting (two by two), the family all enjoying their time in a safe little place. There's even a song: God told...Noah... there's going to be a flood-y flood-y...

But the facts of the story aren't cuddly, G-rated material. This is a massive flood that destroys creatures and people. God is mad enough at human disobedience to wipe out nearly everybody. It's great that Noah and his family are are saved, but what about all the rest? Terrifying story.

The terrible and the lovely are often related more deeply than we know and, were it not for one important detail, we should all be afraid that the terrible will win out, that our arks won't hold, and that we too will be destroyed.

Enter the rainbow: God destroyed the world down to its bare bones to rebuild again. But we have the promise that no matter how terrible life gets, God won't destroy it again. Gotta love the rainbow! Especially when you consider just how badly we can test God's patience.

Genesis 6

When people began to multiply on the face of the ground, and daughters were born to them, ²the sons of God saw that they were fair; and they took wives for themselves of all that they chose. ³Then the LORD said, "My spirit shall not abide in mortals forever, for they are flesh; their days shall be one hundred twenty years." ⁴The Nephilim were on the earth in those days — and also afterward — when the sons of God went in to the daughters of humans, who bore children to them. These were the heroes that were of old, warriors of renown.
⁵The LORD saw that the wickedness of humankind was great in the earth, and that every inclination of the thoughts of their hearts was only evil continually. ⁶And the LORD was sorry that he had made humankind on the earth, and it grieved him to his heart. ⁷So the LORD said, "I will blot out from the earth the human beings I have created — people together with animals and creeping things and birds of the air, for I am sorry that I have made them." ⁸But Noah found favor in the sight of the LORD.
⁹These are the descendants of Noah. Noah was a righteous man, blameless in his generation; Noah walked with God. ¹⁰And Noah had three sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth.
¹¹Now the earth was corrupt in God's sight, and the earth was filled with violence. ¹²And God saw that the earth was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted its ways upon the earth. ¹³And God said to Noah, "I have determined to make an end of all flesh, for the earth is filled with violence because of them; now I am going to destroy them along with the earth. ¹⁴Make yourself an ark of cypress wood; make rooms in the ark, and cover it inside and out with pitch. ¹⁵This is how you are to make it: the length of the ark three hundred cubits, its width fifty cubits, and its height thirty cubits. ¹⁶Make a roof for the ark, and finish it to a cubit above; and put the door of the ark in its side; make it with lower, second, and third decks. ¹⁷For my part, I am going to bring a flood of waters on the earth, to destroy from under heaven all flesh in which is the breath of life; everything that is on the earth shall die. ¹⁸But I will establish my covenant with you; and you shall come into the ark, you, your sons, your wife, and your sons' wives with you. ¹⁹And of every living thing, of all flesh, you shall bring two of every kind into the ark, to keep them alive with you; they shall be male and female. ²⁰Of the birds according to their kinds, and of the animals according to their kinds, of every creeping thing of the ground according to its kind, two of every kind shall come in to you, to keep them alive. ²¹Also take with you every kind of food that is eaten, and store it up; and it shall serve as food for you and for them." ²²Noah did this; he did all that God commanded him.

Genesis 7

Then the LORD said to Noah, "Go into the ark, you and all your household, for I have seen that you alone are righteous before me in this generation. ²Take with you seven pairs of all clean animals, the male and its mate; and a pair of the animals that are not clean, the male and its mate; ³and seven pairs of the birds of the air also, male and female, to keep their kind alive on the face of all the earth. ⁴For in seven days I will send rain on the earth for forty days and forty nights; and every living thing that I have made I will blot out from the face of the ground." ⁵And Noah did all that the LORD had commanded him.
⁶Noah was six hundred years old when the flood of waters came on the earth. ⁷And Noah with his sons and his wife and his sons' wives went into the ark to escape the waters of the flood. ⁸Of clean animals, and of animals that are not clean, and of birds, and of everything that creeps on the ground, ⁹two and two, male and female, went into the ark with Noah, as God had commanded Noah. ¹⁰And after seven days the waters of the flood came on the earth.
¹¹In the six hundredth year of Noah's life, in the second month, on the seventeenth day of the month, on that day all the fountains of the great deep burst forth, and the windows of the heavens were opened. ¹²The rain fell on the earth forty days and forty nights. ¹³On the very same day Noah with his sons, Shem and Ham and Japheth, and Noah's wife and the three wives of his sons entered the ark, ¹⁴they and every wild animal of every kind, and all domestic animals of every kind, and every creeping thing that creeps on the earth, and every bird of every kind — every bird, every winged creature. ¹⁵They went into the ark with Noah, two and two of all flesh in which there was the breath of life. ¹⁶And those that entered, male and female of all flesh, went in as God had commanded him; and the LORD shut him in.
¹⁷The flood continued forty days on the earth; and the waters increased, and bore up the ark, and it rose high above the earth. ¹⁸The waters swelled and increased greatly on the earth; and the ark floated on the face of the waters. ¹⁹The waters swelled so mightily on the earth that all the high mountains under the whole heaven were covered; ²⁰the waters swelled above the mountains, covering them fifteen cubits deep. ²¹And all flesh died that moved on the earth, birds, domestic animals, wild animals, all swarming creatures that swarm on the earth, and all human beings; ²²everything on dry land in whose nostrils was the breath of life died. ²³He blotted out every living thing that was on the face of the ground, human beings and animals and creeping things and birds of the air; they were blotted out from the earth. Only Noah was left, and those that were with him in the ark. ²⁴And the waters swelled on the earth for one hundred fifty days.

Genesis 8

But God remembered Noah and all the wild animals and all the domestic animals that were with him in the ark. And God made a wind blow over the earth, and the waters subsided; ²the fountains of the deep and the windows of the heavens were closed, the rain from the heavens was restrained, ³and the waters gradually receded from the earth. At the end of one hundred fifty days the waters had abated; ⁴and in the seventh month, on the seventeenth day of the month, the ark came to rest on the mountains of Ararat. ⁵The waters continued to abate until the tenth month; in the tenth month, on the first day of the month, the tops of the mountains appeared.
⁶At the end of forty days Noah opened the window of the ark that he had made ⁷and sent out the raven; and it went to and fro until the waters were dried up from the earth. ⁸Then he sent out the dove from him, to see if the waters had subsided from the face of the ground; ⁹but the dove found no place to set its foot, and it returned to him to the ark, for the waters were still on the face of the whole earth. So he put out his hand and took it and brought it into the ark with him. ¹⁰He waited another seven days, and again he sent out the dove from the ark; ¹¹and the dove came back to him in the evening, and there in its beak was a freshly plucked olive leaf; so Noah knew that the waters had subsided from the earth. ¹²Then he waited another seven days, and sent out the dove; and it did not return to him any more.
¹³In the six hundred first year, in the first month, on first day of the month, the waters were dried up from the earth; and Noah removed the covering of the ark, and looked, and saw that the face of the ground was drying. ¹⁴In the second month, on the twenty-seventh day of the month, the earth was dry. ¹⁵Then God said to Noah, ¹⁶"Go out of the ark, you and your wife, and your sons and your sons' wives with you. ¹⁷Bring out with you every living thing that is with you of all flesh — birds and animals and every creeping thing that creeps on the earth — so that they may abound on the earth, and be fruitful and multiply on the earth." ¹⁸So Noah went out with his sons and his wife and his sons' wives. ¹⁹And every animal, every creeping thing, and every bird, everything that moves on the earth, went out of the ark by families.
²⁰Then Noah built an altar to the LORD, and took of every clean animal and of every clean bird, and offered burnt offerings on the altar. ²¹And when the LORD smelled the pleasing odor, the LORD said in his heart, "I will never again curse the ground because of humankind, for the inclination of the human heart is evil from youth; nor will I ever again destroy every living creature as I have done.
²²As long as the earth endures,
seedtime and harvest, cold and heat,
summer and winter, day and night,
shall not cease."

Genesis 9

God blessed Noah and his sons, and said to them, "Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth. ²The fear and dread of you shall rest on every animal of the earth, and on every bird of the air, on everything that creeps on the ground, and on all the fish of the sea; into your hand they are delivered. ³Every moving thing that lives shall be food for you; and just as I gave you the green plants, I give you everything. ⁴Only, you shall not eat flesh with its life, that is, its blood. ⁵For your own lifeblood I will surely require a reckoning: from every animal I will require it and from human beings, each one for the blood of another, I will require a reckoning for human life.
⁶Whoever sheds the blood of a human,
by a human shall that person's blood be shed;
for in his own image
God made humankind.
⁷And you, be fruitful and multiply, abound on the earth and multiply in it."
⁸Then God said to Noah and to his sons with him, ⁹"As for me, I am establishing my covenant with you and your descendants after you, ¹⁰and with every living creature that is with you, the birds, the domestic animals, and every animal of the earth with you, as many as came out of the ark. ¹¹I establish my covenant with you, that never again shall all flesh be cut off by the waters of a flood, and never again shall there be a flood to destroy the earth." ¹²God said, "This is the sign of the covenant that I make between me and you and every living creature that is with you, for all future generations: ¹³I have set my bow in the clouds, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between me and the earth. ¹⁴When I bring clouds over the earth and the bow is seen in the clouds, ¹⁵I will remember my covenant that is between me and you and every living creature of all flesh; and the waters shall never again become a flood to destroy all flesh. ¹⁶When the bow is in the clouds, I will see it and remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is on the earth." ¹⁷God said to Noah, "This is the sign of the covenant that I have established between me and all flesh that is on the earth."

# 5 - Cain and Abel: Genesis 4:1-16 - Reflection by Pastor Steve Buechler

Cain and Abel: Genesis 4:1-16

In one sense, the story of Cain and Abel is a primal story of sibling rivalry. One brother’s offering to God is accepted and the other's is not. Thus, the brother whose offering is not accepted feels “angry” and “dejected”. Is he angry at God or angry at his brother? Perhaps both? Moreover, it’s not really clear why God accepts Abel’s offering, but has no regard for Cain’s. In later Old Testament tradition, both animals and grain offerings are commanded by God, and both keeping the fields and keeping the animals are part of God’s command to care for and tend the creation.

For some reason, though, Cain’s offering wasn’t what God wanted. Why was that? The story really doesn’t tell us, but perhaps it was Cain’s motive. Was Cain’s motive to give thanks to God for the success of his labors, or to look better than his brother? Was Cain’s motive to be part of God’s plan, or to eliminate the competition? Was Cain’s motive to “do good” or simply to “look good”?

God warns Cain that “sin is lurking at the door” (the very first use of the word “sin” in the Bible), and the “sin” that God is speaking of isn’t simply a bad act, but the desire to mess up the relationships that God has created. By Cain’s act of killing his brother, Cain messed up his relationship with God, with his family, and with the very earth which he was charged with keeping.

So, this story isn’t just about sibling rivalry. I think it’s also a warning to us to examine our motives, which we so often think are pure and holy. And especially at those times when we feel our efforts or faithfulness are not being rewarded as much as we think they ought to be, it’s important to remember that our call from God is to give thanks, not to be rewarded. Our call from God is to be part of God’s plan, not to be “better” than other people. And our call from God is to do good, and not be consumed by the desire to look good.

Genesis 4:1–16

Now the man knew his wife Eve, and she conceived and bore Cain, saying, "I have produced a man with the help of the LORD." ²Next she bore his brother Abel. Now Abel was a keeper of sheep, and Cain a tiller of the ground. ³In the course of time Cain brought to the LORD an offering of the fruit of the ground, ⁴and Abel for his part brought of the firstlings of his flock, their fat portions. And the LORD had regard for Abel and his offering, ⁵but for Cain and his offering he had no regard. So Cain was very angry, and his countenance fell. ⁶The LORD said to Cain, "Why are you angry, and why has your countenance fallen? ⁷If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin is lurking at the door; its desire is for you, but you must master it."
⁸Cain said to his brother Abel, "Let us go out to the field." And when they were in the field, Cain rose up against his brother Abel, and killed him. ⁹Then the LORD said to Cain, "Where is your brother Abel?" He said, "I do not know; am I my brother's keeper?" ¹⁰And the LORD said, "What have you done? Listen; your brother's blood is crying out to me from the ground! ¹¹And now you are cursed from the ground, which has opened its mouth to receive your brother's blood from your hand. ¹²When you till the ground, it will no longer yield to you its strength; you will be a fugitive and a wanderer on the earth." ¹³Cain said to the LORD, "My punishment is greater than I can bear! ¹⁴Today you have driven me away from the soil, and I shall be hidden from your face; I shall be a fugitive and a wanderer on the earth, and anyone who meets me may kill me." ¹⁵Then the LORD said to him, "Not so! Whoever kills Cain will suffer a sevenfold vengeance." And the LORD put a mark on Cain, so that no one who came upon him would kill him. ¹⁶Then Cain went away from the presence of the LORD, and settled in the land of Nod, east of Eden.

Sculpture: Lorenzo Ghiberti