genesis revisited

I've been rereading the book of Genesis since the new year. I'm about halfway through, and it's much different than the Sunday school version I remember. Some observations so far:

1.) Scandalous stories: Lot's 2 daughters getting their dad drunk to have sex with him for posterity's sake; Abraham and Isaac pretending their wives were their sisters to protect themselves from harm and subsequently offering up their wives to foreigners (that's the sacrificial spirit!); Sodomite males wanting to have sex with angel visitors (presumably God the Son and God the Holy Spirit who had just come from a visit with Abraham).

2.) Concubines galore! Those Old Testament men and women took the whole "Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth" cultural mandate seriously, often at the expense of family harmony.

3.) God's personal relationship with his people: remembering Noah and his family and not destroying them in the flood; visiting Hagar in the desert when she felt like she and Ishmael were left for dead; listening to Abraham intercede for any righteous in Sodom before it is destroyed.

4.) God's sovereignty: God uses sinful people to accomplish his purpose in the metanarrative.

Favorite story so far: Abraham sacrifices Isaac. After waiting decades for a son and trying to help God along with his promise, Abraham is finally blessed with Isaac only to give him back to God--how frustrating! And then how joyous for God's provision of a ram and the perfect Sacrifice!