After the flood dried up, Noah left the boat and made a sacrifice to God. Noah had 3 sons named Shem, Ham , and Japheth. Ham’s son was named Canaan. One day, in Genesis chapter 9, Noah became drunk from drinking the wine he made from his vineyards. He fell asleep, naked in his tent. Ham found him and gossiped about Noah to his brothers. Shem and Japheth decided to respect their father by taking a blanket, walk backwards so they could not see their father naked, and covered him with the blanket. This lead to Noah cursing the son of Ham, Canaan for what Ham did to him. As we will later see in the Old Testament, Canaan will be conquered by Israel, God’s people.
In the Basic Bible Study, we learn that everyone lived together and spoke one language. They became proud and wanted to touch the Heavens by building a tower (Genesis 11:4). This tower is often called the Tower of Babel. In Genesis 11:7, the Lord says “Come, let us go down and confuse the people with different languages. Then they will not be able to understand each other.” This was so that they would not be able to finish the tower. God humbled the people and scattered them across the Earth.
Eventually, Shem’s great grandson Terah gives birth to Abraham. Abraham’s brother has a son named Lot, who will later travel with Abraham. In Genesis 12:1-3, God calls Abraham to leave his home in the city of Ur and travel to Canaan. Abraham has no idea why God called him to travel there or what to expect when he arrived. Even so, Abraham obeyed God. God also promised that He would make Abraham into a great nation (Genesis 12:2)!In his travels, when he stopped, he made an altar and made a sacrifice to God. Remember, these sacrifices are important! God instructed his people to sacrifice to Him because of their sin! Lot traveled with Abraham but eventually; the land was too small for Lot’s flock and Abraham’s flock to continue to travel together. Abraham let Lot choose where to go live. Lot chose to live by the wicked cities of Sodom and Gomorrah. In Genesis 18, we see that God destroyed these cities because of their wickedness.
Many years later, Abraham and his wife were very old but did not have any children. Even so, God promised to give them a child. God promises Abraham that he will have many children, an impossible number to count just as it is impossible to count the number of stars in the sky (Genesis 15: 5). When Abraham is 100 and Sarah is 90, they have their first son together, named Isaac. When Isaac is still a small boy, God calls Abraham to sacrifice his one and only son. This is a test of Abraham’s faith. In Genesis 22, we see that just before Abraham sacrifices his son, God stops him and replaces his son with an adult lamb (ram) as a sacrifice instead. This sacrifice is the same as what Jesus does for us in the New Testament. Jesus takes our place on the cross for our sins. God then promises to Abraham in Genesis 22:18 “And in your seed all the nations of the Earth shall be blessed, because you have obeyed My voice.” Who is this seed? Paul talks about this seed in Galatians 3:16 in the New Testament: “Now the promises were spoken to Abraham and to his seed. He does not say, And to seeds as referring to many, but rather to one, ‘And to your seed’ that is Christ”. You see God promised to Abraham that Jesus would be his descendant. Through Jesus all the world would be blessed!