Begat

Genesis suffers more than most Biblical books from a bad case of the genealogies. You'll be cruising along fairly nicely with the narrative, only to bog down in a list of alien names strung together like popcorn on a Christmas tree.

There are occasional little unexplained snippets of stories...Jubal the musician...Tubal-cain the metalworker...Lamech the killer in self-defense...Enoch who walked with God...Nimrod the potentate and mighty hunter. But mostly just names, one after another, in father to son succession.

While I don't tend to linger too long in the genealogies and generally skim right over them, I'm glad they are there. They serve to remind us that these are not independent or isolated tales, but are instead all part of the BIG PICTURE. By tracing all of humanity to Noah and Mrs. Noah, or farther back to Adam and Eve, we're reminded that at the family reunion, we're all part of the same clan. Even the people we love to hate are tied into the same genealogical web.

All the great enemies of the Old Testament show up in these early chapters of Genesis. The Canaanites (9:22), the Philistines (10:14) and a whole mess of other folks with funny names and a violent place to hold in the story ahead.

The ancient people who told these stories understood something basic: no matter how reprehensible your enemy might be, in the long run, they are no more than distant cousins. Sometimes the family connection is even closer than that.

We go about our business of oppression and warfare by dehumanizing our enemies. What would it mean to adopt them back into the family tree...to look into their faces and trace the family resemblances...to look into their hearts and see parts of ourselves?