We live in a world of investments. We’re familiar with the traditional investments of money to get more money. It’s one of the great paradoxes in life, and we’ve all heard the expression, “You’ve got to have money, to make money.” Even in Christendom, there’s this idea that when we tithe, God is going to return our investment back to us with more money than we can count.

Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. Test me in this,” says the Lord Almighty, “and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that there will not be room enough to store it.

Malachi 3:10 (NIV)

Although we might like to think that’s what Malachi 3:10 is telling us, I believe we are so very shortsighted if we limit our blessings to money.

I’ve been journaling when I read my devotions each day for many years. For the most part, these journal entries have a scripture or two with some observations on what the Lord has shown me. However, in 2021 the Lord put it on my heart to do something different. I started sharing my observations with you on this blog. Before I started doing this, I would, on occasion, share what the Lord’s showing me in my life in the form of poetry and an article or two. Taking this step of sharing my devotions has been a very big step of faith.

I like sharing my faith and what the Lord tells me. However, I’ve always looked at my journal entries as private. Something to share when the Lord brought it to my mind. You see, I hear from God. I know I do. The Holy Spirit speaks to me, and I do my best to listen and understand. However, I’m not one to go out and tell people, God said this or God said that. The notion of telling other people this is what God says terrifies me. Therefore when I share what I believe the Lord has said to me, I do so with caution. I endeavor to do this with the integrity and faith God has given to me. Even what I’m writing right now is something I wasn’t expecting to write. I merely wanted to share with you ways we can be blessed when we are faithful to God, but this is where I’ve been led so far today.

As the days have come and gone, I wonder if I’m going to hear from the Lord that day. Which is silly because I hear from Him every day. This path I’m on right now, of sharing what I’ve heard, is challenging. I have been finding myself lately with too much to say. This is ironic given that I’ve wondered if there would come a day when I didn’t have anything to say. A day when I didn’t hear anything from the Lord. I see this abundance of hearing from the Lord when I do my devotions as a blessing that overflows the “storehouses” of my expectation. One way of fulfilling the promise in Malachi.

As I’ve said, this is way more than I was expecting to say on this issue. What I want to look into today are some verses from Genesis that stood out to me.

Rainbows and Rainbows

Before I was saved, I only went to church for weddings and funerals. I’m pretty sure that I never paid much attention to anything any pastor said when they preached. Therefore, when I first read these verses in Genesis, I was astonished.

“I have set my rainbow in the clouds, and it will be the sign of the covenant between me and the earth. Whenever the rainbow appears in the clouds, I will see it and remember the everlasting covenant between God and all living creatures of every kind on the earth.”

Genesis 9:13,16 (NIV)

We become accustomed to things like the sun rising each day and the coming of night. However, rainbows have a special place in our hearts. We take pictures of them, and I, personally, have gone out driving just to see them. When I think about why God created them, it fills me with love for Him. He puts the rainbow there, not for us so much, as for Himself to remind Himself of His love for us. As if He could ever forget it. I want to encourage you, the next time you feel discouraged and think God hasn’t been thinking about you, to look at the rainbow and remember.

Coverings

Scripture tells us we are to confess our sins to each other (cf. James 5:16). This is a practice that requires discernment and leading by the Holy Spirit. We can’t just tell everyone and anyone our business. Sometimes, we don’t tell someone our sins but they find out about them. Other times, it might not be a sin in our lives but things we’d rather not share with everyone. This is what came to mind today when I read these verses from Genesis.

Noah, a man of the soil, proceeded to plant a vineyard. When he drank some of its wine, he became drunk and lay uncovered inside his tent. Ham, the father of Canaan, saw his father naked and told his two brothers outside.

Genesis 9:20-22 (NIV)

Here we have Noah celebrating his new vineyard. He drinks too much and gets drunk. It takes at least four years after a vineyard has been planted to get any wine from it, so Noah had been working it for a little while. After having too much to drink, he’s lying naked in his tent. Now, everyone present would have known about the vineyard and participated in working in it, one way or another. When Ham sees Noah naked in his tent, he had some choices. Ham could cover up his father and let him be, tell someone, or do nothing. Ham chose to tell his brothers about it.

Before I was saved, I always wondered why people would tell me things. Things I thought of as private. If you’ve seen the film Forrest Gump then you might remember most of the story is told by Forrest, sitting on a bench, to strangers. My life before I was saved was like this, except I was the stranger. After I was saved instead of strangers, I would hear from other Christians. So, the idea of being quiet. Of, “putting it into the vault,” as I tell people, isn’t new to me. However, when people tell us things, our first response should be to listen and be silent. We keep it between the person who told us and God.

The tongue also is a fire, a world of evil among the parts of the body. It corrupts the whole body, sets the whole course of one’s life on fire, and is itself set on fire by hell.

James 3:6 (NIV)

Many years ago in Santa Barbara, I was out in the summer sun, enjoying a margarita, chips, salsa, and other sundry Mexican dishes at Café del Sol. Sitting next to me were some celebrities, and we were chatting. One of them bemoaned a life where people were always coming up to them wherever they went. My response was that was the price for being famous. I would gladly exchange my privacy for wealth and fame, I said. Over the years, however, I’ve seen the destruction of many a celebrity by other people who talked about private things. Some of these things should have been told, and some of them not. Since I was never privy to everything, I cannot say one way or another.

We can easily see the destruction in a famous person’s life because of the tongue. However, our lives are not so transparent. The destruction is no less destructive though, for those people in our lives, when their nakedness is uncovered for all to see.

Babel

There’s a popular idea that the Tower of Babel was constructed as a means to reach God in Heaven. God, seeing that humans were trying to reach Him, confused the people who all spoke one language to stop them. I just want to briefly comment on some of the verses in Genesis that talk about these things. If you’re not familiar with the story, then you can read about it here since I’m not going to cover all of the verses.

But the Lord came down to see the city and the tower the people were building.

Genesis 11:5 (NIV)

The notion that the Lord had to come down from heaven to see the city and the tower is a means of mocking the futility of what these humans were doing. Here they were building this great city with a tower reaching into heaven, but God had to come down to see this “great tower.” God, of course, could see it. Understanding this verse in this way helps to understand some of God’s responses to this incident.

The Lord said, “If as one people speaking the same language they have begun to do this, then nothing they plan to do will be impossible for them.

Genesis 11:6 (NIV)

For years I thought this verse meant that human beings could do anything they set their mind to if they were united. However, I believe the intention of this verse speaks more to the excessive arrogance, and pride of humanity, and our great capacity for evil, than it does our capacity to do noble and great things.

“Come, let us go down and confuse their language so they will not understand each other.”

Genesis 11:7 (NIV)

God wasn’t worried that the people would be able to do whatever they put their minds to. They were sinning and building the city and this tower. God told Noah in Genesis 9:1 to be fruitful, multiply and fill the Earth. This is what we see happening in Genesis 10. However, we see that the people here decided to not do what God commanded them to do and build the city. They also wanted to build the city with this tower reaching to heaven out of pride. So they could make a name for themselves. They weren’t trying to reach God.

This is why God confused the language. The people weren’t doing what He told them to do. It has nothing to do with people trying to build a tower to get into Heaven, as some might think.

Conclusion

The Lord has, indeed, blessed me with so much. So much that I have to cut short what I’m sharing each day. I appreciate what He’s been blessing me with, and I hope you’ve found something that’s blessed you too.

Do you know God? God knows you, and He loves you. He sees you as significant because you are. No one is insignificant to Him. He’s with you today, right now, and He wants you to know Him. Jesus died for your sins and mine so we could be free of guilt, be freed from death, and live eternally with Him. Eternal salvation is just a prayer away.

Pray this prayer with me to accept the gift of salvation today:

Lord Jesus, forgive me for all my sins. I repent from my ways. Wash me in your blood and cleanse me from all unrighteousness. I believe that you died on the cross, were buried, and on the third day, God the Father raised you from the dead. Right now, Lord Jesus, I open the door to my heart, and I receive you into my heart as my Lord and personal Savior. Amen.

If you prayed that prayer, then congratulations! You are on the first step of a brand new life. Allow me to be the first to welcome you to my family, the family of God. There are abundant resources available online for new Christians. You can visit here for more information on what to do next. You can also leave me a comment, and I’ll do my best to help you on the next step of this incredible journey.

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