At one point, Abraham is trying to save his nephew Lot and asks God if he will spare Sodom from destruction, despite the depravity of everyone living there. God says if 50 virtuous men can be found there, he will spare the city. Abraham eventually talks him down to just 10 men. But none of that seems to matter as God's angels start destroying the city before anyone can even start the search for virtuous men.
In contemporary parenting parlance, we might say that God had boundary issues. The experts tell us that we are supposed to set firm (not rigid, but firm) limits with our children and enforce those limits consistently.
But not only does God keep changing his mind about the limits, he's also very selective in how he enforces them. Is it any wonder, then, that humankind has turned out to the the petulant, whining, wild child that it is?
As Genesis progresses, it does seem as if God gradually backs away from so much direct involvement in human affairs and is content with sending angels to do his business for him. So is this backing away sort of like the father who yells at the kids and then returns to watching the football game? Or is it more like the parent who has found out that some (if not most) lessons are best learned without a parental mediator?
Still, even in the midst of all this dysfunction in Genesis (and there's a lot of it), there are moments of grace, like the way Joseph deals with his brothers:
"Fear not: for am I in the place of God? But as for you, ye thought evil against me; but God meant it unto good, to bring to pass, as it is this day, to save much people alive. Now therefore fear ye not: I will nourish you, and your little ones. And he comforted them, and spake kindly unto them."
