Generative Power and Divine Gifts

What happens when humans misuse the gifts God gives them? From Eve’s attitude toward the births of Cain and Seth, to the Tower of Babel, to Abraham’s response to the promised land, the stories in Genesis reveal a tension between God’s abundant generosity and humanity’s selfish responses. This tension continues when the people of Israel reside in the promised land—a gift they repeatedly misuse. In this re-released episode from 2019, Tim and Jon trace the theme of generosity and scarcity from Genesis to Deuteronomy, uncovering what it means for us today.

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Timestamps 

• Chapter 1: First-Born and Second-Born (00:00-20:05)
• Chapter 2: God Chooses the Unlikely One + TheTower of Babel (20:05-32:21)
• Chapter 3: Abraham Gets the Ultimate Gift (32:21-44:00)
• Chapter 4: Rescued Slaves (44:00-1:02:51)

Referenced Resources

• A Commentary on the Book of Genesis: Part I - From Adam to Noah by Umberto Cassuto
• Created Equal: How the Bible Broke with Ancient Political Thought by Joshua A. Berman
• You can find our Generosity theme video here.
• Check out Tim’s library here.
• You can experience our entire library of resources in the BibleProject app, available for Android and iOS.

Show Music

• “Quietly” by blnkspc_
• “Mind Your Time” by Me.So
• “Cruising” by Evil Needle
• BibleProject theme song by TENTS

Show Credits

Production of today's episode is by Dan Gummel, producer; Lindsey Ponder, producer, and Cooper Peltz, managing producer. Tyler Bailey is our supervising engineer and remixed this episode for re-release. JB Witty does our show notes, and Hannah Woo provides the annotations for our app. Our host and creative director is Jon Collins, and our lead scholar is Tim Mackie.

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