And his miracles, and his acts, which he did in the midst of Egypt unto Pharaoh the king of Egypt, and unto all his land;

But your eyes have seen all the great acts of the LORD which he did.

They that are delivered from the noise of archers in the places of drawing water, there shall they rehearse the righteous acts of the LORD, even the righteous acts toward the inhabitants of his villages in Israel: then shall the people of the LORD go down to the gates.

Now therefore stand still, that I may reason with you before the LORD of all the righteous acts of the LORD, which he did to you and to your fathers.

And Benaiah the son of Jehoiada, the son of a valiant man, of Kabzeel, who had done many acts, he slew two lionlike men of Moab: he went down also and slew a lion in the midst of a pit in time of snow:

And she said to the king, It was a true report that I heard in mine own land of thy acts and of thy wisdom.

And the rest of the acts of Solomon, and all that he did, and his wisdom, are they not written in the book of the acts of Solomon?

And the rest of the acts of Jeroboam, how he warred, and how he reigned, behold, they are written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel.

Now the rest of the acts of Rehoboam, and all that he did, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah?

Now the rest of the acts of Abijam, and all that he did, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah? And there was war between Abijam and Jeroboam.

1:11 seed. The “seed” which God designed guaranteed reproduction of each plant “after his kind.” This phrase, repeated nine more times in Genesis 1 after this first occurrence, obviously precludes transmutation of one kind into another. The “seed” was programmed for stable reproduction of each kind, through a remarkable system known today as the “genetic code,” the complex information program in the DNA molecule. This system allows wide “horizontal” variation within the kind, but no “vertical” evolution from one kind into a more complex kind. It is significant that, despite widespread belief in evolution, no scientist has yet documented a single instance of true vertical evolution occurring today. The modern taxonomic equivalent of “kind” is probably broader than the “species” in many cases, since the latter term is an arbitrary man-made category. That is, the many varieties of dogs are all part of the created “dog kind,” just as all tribes and nations of men constitute one “mankind” (Acts 17:25,26).

5:29 hath cursed. The memory of God’s curse on the ground was still fresh in the memory of Adam’s godly descendants, showing that the million or more years of human history imagined by evolutionary anthropologists are an absurd dream. Lamech was undoubtedly one of those in Peter’s mind, when he preached about those holy prophets who “since the world began” had been promising the “times of restitution (i.e., ‘restoration’) of all things” (Acts 3:21).

9:6 blood be shed. This establishment of capital punishment, administered judicially by man, has never been changed or withdrawn. It is still God’s law today, and forms the basic authorization of the institution of human government. It implies also the enactment and enforcement of regulations for those human activities (e.g., stealing, adultery) which if unrestrained, would lead to murder. It does not stipulate the form, but only the fact of government. It extends the primeval mandate by giving man the responsibility to control not only the animals but his own society also. The original commission in effect had authorized the natural sciences and technologies; this new extension incorporated in God’s covenant with Noah in effect authorizes the social sciences and their technologies (e.g., psychology, law, sociology, anthropology, political science, government, police, criminology). Although capital punishment is the proper prerogative of human society (“every man’s brother”) in so far as strict justice is concerned, mitigating circumstances (especially sincere repentance and restitution) may warrant extension of mercy in individual cases. Nevertheless, the basic right of governments to exact capital punishment as penalty for murder cannot legitimately be abrogated as far as God is concerned. This is clear even in the Christian dispensation. The eating of meat (I Timothy 4:3,4), the abstinence from blood (Acts 15:19, 20) and the authority of the governmental sword (Romans 13:4; Acts 25:11) were reaffirmed to the early church, making it clear that the Noahic mandate still applied.

11:2 dwelt there. Their decision to “dwell” here in one location was in defiance of God’s command to “fill the earth” (Genesis 9:1,7). God’s design was to have a multiplicity of local governmental units (Genesis 9:5,6; Acts 17:26,27), but Nimrod purposed to establish a one-government dictatorship under himself. When Shem’s son Asshur settled in a separate location, Nimrod quickly took it over (Genesis 10:11).

11:31 the land of Canaan. Evidently Terah, as well as Abram, had received God’s call to go to Canaan, but Terah went north to Haran instead, perhaps intending to go on to Canaan later, after settling his deceased son’s affairs in Haran. Abram also had received God’s call while still in Mesopotamia (Acts 7:2,3), and so he and his wife set out with Terah. However, Terah never left Haran, eventually even joining in its idolatrous practices (Joshua 24:2,14,15).

11:32 died in Haran. According to Genesis 12:4, Abram left Haran for Canaan when he was 75 years old, which would have been 130 years before Terah’s death, if indeed Abram had been born when Terah was 70 years old, or soon after (Genesis 11:26). Yet Stephen, in Acts 7:4, says Abram did not leave Haran until his father was dead. Probably Stephen was suggesting that Terah, though still alive physically, had “died” as far as God’s will and calling to him were concerned, using the terminology he knew Christ had used in advising a young man in a similar situation (Matthew 8:21, 22). Otherwise, Abram would have to have been born when Terah was at least 130 years old–a very unlikely circumstance in view of the special miracle required for Abram himself to have a son when he was only 100. In any case, by the time of Abram’s departure, even if Terah were only 145 years of age at the time, there would have been at least 267 years since the Dispersion. This was more than adequate time for the great civilizations of the ancient world (Egypt, Babylonia, etc.) and for a large population to have developed (as much as 300 million would be a reasonably possible number by this time, though it was probably much less). Along with the tremendous growth of civilization and population, there was a corresponding rise in both materialism and idolatrous evolutionism, so God finally called Abram again, instructing him to delay no longer in leaving his kindred to establish a new, God-fearing nation through which God would accomplish His purposes (Genesis 12:1-4).

23:17 Machpelah. There is a seeming discrepancy between this passage and the statement of Stephen (Acts 7:16) that Abraham’s purchased sepulcher was in Shechem. A possible explanation is that he bought the latter for his later family born of Keturah (Genesis 23:1; 25:1). These children then eventually lost it to the Hivites, from whom Jacob repurchased it for an altar eighty-five years after Abraham’s death (Genesis 33:20). It was later given to Joseph, and he and probably his brothers were eventually buried in it (Joshua 24:32; Acts 7:15,16).

24:4 my country. Abraham had learned the hard way that the heir of the promises should not leave the promised land. Nevertheless, a suitable wife through whom the promised seed could be born and trained could not be found among the people then in the land. Consequently, the father must send a trusted servant to find a suitable bride for his son, far away and among a small remnant who still served the true God. A typological parallel with the heavenly Father sending the Holy Spirit to claim a bride for His Son seems well warranted in this case (note John 14:26; 16:13,14; II Corinthians 11:2; Acts 15:14; etc.).

24:67 he loved her. Although the New Testament does not specifically say that Isaac and Rebekah constitute a “type” of Christ and His Church, the numerous parallels are more than coincidental, and do follow naturally from the clear identification of Isaac himself as a type of Christ (note Galatians 3:16; Hebrews 11:17-19). In the symbolic parallel, the servant dispatched by Abraham to seek a bride for his son becomes the Holy Spirit, sent by the Heavenly Father to find and bring the heavenly Bride, the Church, to His Son (John 14:26; 16:13,14; Acts 15:14). After she accepts the invitation, the Spirit, like Abraham’s servant, guides the Bride through the wilderness to join the Bridegroom when he comes out to meet her at the end of the journey. There are numerous detailed parallels one can discern as the passage is studied in depth.

1:5 souls. Compare this use of “souls” to Genesis 46:26,27, and Acts 7:14.