Genesis 9 opens with God blessing Noah and his family to be fruitful and multiply. He also now provides meat for them to eat (maybe the smell of that meat roasting encouraged him). Prior to this time they were only given plants to eat. While there was no prohibition to eating meat, they apparently never thought of it. Then God lays down his bow on its side and makes a covenant with all of creation not to destroy the earth by a flood.

Verse 6 appears to promote the idea of capital punishment saying that if a human is killed then the killers blood should be shed also. If this were the only verse in the Bible we could definitively support this form of punishment.

There is a strange little story beginning with verse 20. Noah plants a vineyard, makes wine, gets drunk, takes off all of his clothes and falls asleep in hi stent. His son Ham goes into the tent and sees his father. Hs brothers Shem and Japheth cover their father with a blanket without looking. Noah awakes already knowing what Ham did. He curses Ham and makes him a slave of his eldest son Shem. Since Ham’s son is named Caaaan, this story could be inserted to explain the enmity between Israelites and Canaanites.

Genesis 10 is a genealogy of the sons of Noah. It explains the different peoples that came from each son’s children and where they settled. Of note is the description of Ham’s descendants who become enemies of Israel.

Genesis 11 opens with the story of the tower of Babel. Because the people can communicate together they begin to rely on their own ingenuity to get ahead. They believe that if they make a name for themselves they can stay together and become great. The people have forgotten that everything they have comes from God. God confuses their speech so that they scatter into different people groups in an effort to help them depend upon Him.

The final verses are the genealogy of the descendants of Shem which lead us to Abram and Sarai. Thus the “prehistory” portion of the scriptures is finished. We now move into the stories of the patriarchs.

Matthew 4 begins immediately after Jesus’ baptism. He is led into the wilderness by the Spirit in order to be tempted by the devil. In the conversation with the devil Jesus uses scripture to thwart each attempt at turning Jesus away from God. Jesus knows the scriptures so well he can immediately bring them to mind. Even when the devil tries to confuse him by using scripture himself, Jesus has a ready answer. In verse 10 Jesus calls the devil “Satan” which means adversary, and orders him to leave. The devil leaves immediately and angels come to take care of Jesus.

Jesus immediately begins his ministry. He calls his first disciples: Peter, Andrew, James and John. What immense power he must have had that just a bidding, “Follow me” would convince them to follow.  Jesus moved throughout Galilee teaching preaching and healing. His reputation spreads from all over Israel and even into Gentile lands (beyond the Jordan).

We need to remember that the Holy Spirit often leads us into wilderness times. These times are not a punishment for something we have done. Rather they are times of preparation for what we will be facing in the future. Like Jesus, we need to take refuge in God’s word to give us the proper attitude, strength and courage to face whatever we encounter.