By Paul 
“Then Melchizedek king of Salem brought out bread and wine. He was priest of God Most High, and he blessed Abram, saying, ‘Blessed be Abram by God Most High, Creator of heaven and earth. And praise be to God Most High, who delivered your enemies into your hand.’ Then Abram gave him a tenth of everything.”
Genesis 14:18-20 NIV
It seems to me that Genesis is more focused than I had realised. Take for instance Melchizedek. He is mysterious in many ways; where does he come from and what is his end? These are some of the interesting conundrums the the book of Hebrews in the New Testament picks up on and uses to point to Christ. But what struck me this morning was the lack of detail on the people that Melchizedek led. A priest represents people to God… what people?
And then there are other verses in that hint at things that are not fully explained but indicate that God was doing more than Genesis reveals.
“The Nephilim were on the earth in those days – and also afterwards – when the sons of God went to the daughters of humans and had children by them. They were the heroes of old, men of renown.”
Gen. 6:4 NIV
Who are these giants (Nephilim) and what I s the connection with the sons of God? Who are the sons of God for that matter?
“The sons of Javan: Elishah, Tarshish, the Kittites and the Rodanites. (From these the maritime peoples spread out into their territories by their clans within their nations, each with its own language.)”
Gen. 10:4-5 NIV
Who are these people and how did they have languages before Babel? Was there a common language plus other local languages/dialects?
“Cush was the father of Nimrod, who became a mighty warrior on the earth. He was a mighty hunter before the LORD; that is why it is said, ‘Like Nimrod, a mighty hunter before the LORD.’ The first centres of his kingdom were Babylon, Uruk, Akkad and Kalneh, in Shinar. From that land he went to Assyria, where he built Nineveh, Rehoboth Ir, Calah and Resen, which is between Nineveh and Calah – which is the great city.”
Gen. 10:8-12 NIV
What an extraordinary man. Nimrod who seems to build a huge empire of which we know virtually nothing. There are many legends and much speculation but we don’t really know.
All of this reading over the last few days made me realise that Genesis is much more focused than I had thought. That’s not to say I doubt the history, but it does mean it is clearly selective and God was doing more than we are told. That might not be a surprise to some but it reminded me that what God has done with people is bigger.