A piece of advice: when you get to genealogies...feel free to skim. But do look for unexpected names or numbers.
Did you notice humanity repeated the same mistake that we see from the Creation story? Here we are, after the Flood with a Re-Created earth, and humanity AGAIN wants to "make a name for ourselves." They want to build a tower "in the heavens." Again, humanity attempts to move into God's arena....and again, God has to save us from ourselves by confusing our language. (HINT: now re-read the story of Pentecost in Acts 2---how the Holy Spirit affects language and reverses what happens in this chapter of Genesis)
And hey, we might want to rethink of how we use the name, "nimrod," huh?
Another note on Genesis: Abram doesn't treat Sarai well here. He lies and has her say she's his sister to save his skin, but in the meantime, Sarai becomes a "property" who is then taken by Pharaoh for a wife. It isn't necessarily presented as the way to treat women, but acknowledging that it is the way women were treated in this time and this place. This treatment of women is something we see Jesus attend to during his lifetime as well---Jesus certainly doesn't condone it.
Jesus' temptations: Survival, power, riches. Jesus says No to the easy path and displays his faith that God will, and does, provide. Jesus' temptations are our temptations.
More than a few good lessons for our times.
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