PLEASE NOTE: These are the notes I use to preach from, if you would like to hear them in context, please watch our YouTube video.

The Fall (Again)

Genesis 8:20-9:28

-Happy Reformation Day! 1517 Martin Luther posted his 95 Theses on the door of the Wittenburg church

-Written in response to Johann Tetzel’s selling of indulgences. What’s an indulgence you may ask? RCC doctrine of purgatory stated that your soul had to go through a purifying before you could get to heaven. Tetzel’s quip was “every time the copper rings a soul from purgatory springs.”

-Luther wanted to debate with Tetzel this whole idea, and in response penned his 95 theses the first of which says “When our Lord and Master Jesus Christ said, `Repent’ (Mt 4:17), he willed the entire life of believers to be one of repentance.”

-The reality is that all of us will sin, the question becomes what’s your response when you sin?

-EFCA SOF: “Human beings are sinners by nature and by choice, alienated from God, and under His wrath. Only through God’s saving work in Jesus Christ can we be rescued, reconciled and renewed.”

READ/PRAY

1. God’s Covenant with Noah (8:20-9:19)

-Last week we breezed through the flood’s coming, then God closing up the windows of heaven and floodwaters of the deep. Noah, his family, and the animals are preserved through the de-creation of the world, then last week we saw the ark come to “rest” in the mountains of Ararat. 

-One thing I haven’t talked about is other flood stories from the ancient near east.

-Point back to SOMETHING happening

-Other stories stop the flood because the gods are hungry and need an offering

-Verse back in Gen. 4 we didn’t really talk about. 26: “At that time people began to call upon the name of the Lord.” What were Adam and Eve doing before that? The Hebrew word “call” can also be translated “proclaim.” 

–Gen. 4 is contrasting the seed of the woman (Seth) with the seed of the serpent (Cain) and culminates in this verse.

-Seed of the serpent sounds SO much more impressive than the woman. shepherds, iron workers, musicians, and how is the woman’s line described? They proclaimed, shared, worshipped Yahweh. Which does God want? 

-Slight tangent (but only slight!) why do we as Christians so often look to the same measurement the world uses to make our judgments about people? 

-Think of some of the well known families in our world: Carnegies, the Royal family, Bushs, Kennedys. They all look incredibly impressive! Prestige, fame, accolades.

-Let me list some names none of you would know who have influenced me: Bubars, Kynes, Carlsons. None of them have worldly recognition, but their influence in the kingdom of God matters greatly.

1. Offering (8:20-22)

-Just as the people “began to call on the name of the Lord” in Gen. 4, we see Noah demonstrating himself to be the seed of the women, because what’s his first act as he steps off the ark: building an altar.

-This (again) sets the stage/direction for what will be coming with God’s covenant people throughout the rest of the Torah

-First instance of an “altar” created to sacrifice to God

-Then we see why Noah had to take 7 pairs of the clean animals: to sacrifice

-This is an instance where we see some ideas taking root that aren’t fully fleshed out until later in the Torah – all 5 books written by Moses to Israel, so when these sacrifices are listed as “burnt offerings.” It would bring to mind Lev. 1, the commands for burnt offerings

-These offerings were meant to signify complete surrender to God

-Then the flip side of that, the description of God smelling the pleasing aroma signifies God’s acceptance of the offering 

-correct vs incorrect worship (Cain and Abel)

-Then we see a glimpse of God speaking to himself (in his heart). Making a promise.

-Even though man is the one that was corrupt, the ground bore the penalty

-Shows us why Paul will say in Rom. 8 that the creation was subjected and eagerly waits for Christ’s return, because it bears the penalty of our sin

-“Intention of man’s heart is evil from his youth.”

-Getting to the doctrine of original sin. Some theologians/scholars have debated throughout history that humans are created as inherently good, and it’s society/family that corrupts them. This is getting to the question: are people inherently good or inherently bad? The way you answer that will radically alter the way you approach other people. Don’t have time to dig into that further right now, we’ll be doing a sermon series next Spring looking at the idea of treating other humans as humans, with an understanding of common grace, sin all those things!

-Second part of the promise is that other creatures will no longer bear the penalty for the sin of humans.

-Third is that the passing of times & seasons will continue on until Christ returns.

-Part of being human is acknowledging the passing of time. It’s a modern trend to work 24/7, to stay up well past the sunset, to refuse to age. A recent book I read on being human said “Attitudes of time, and the passage of time, are deeply characteristic of distinctively religious behaviour. People of faith do things with the calendar…how religious communities spend their time is a serious and central theme. Time is not undifferentiated; its passing is marked in ways that are thought to be significant.” (Williams, Being Human, 77)

-Advent is coming up, historically meant to serve as a reminder that we are a waiting people. The church calendar was assembled to remind us of our finitude, and our need of a Savior. It is characteristically un-Christian to refuse to acknowledge the changing of times/seasons. 

-We instinctively know this! We joke about the aches and pains as you get older. I’ve shared multiple times how I’m doing the best I can to add more years onto my life, happens 1 year at a time.

-I wiped out on my scooter over the summer, and I had a distinctive thought as I was falling “I can catch myself.” And suddenly the ground was there a whole lot quicker than it used to be. That was HARD for me to admit! That’s STILL hard for me to admit! I realize I’m not that old, but even for me it’s been difficult to stomach that I can’t do everything I used to do. 

-But that’s good! In our youth we feel invincible. Each passing season means we should represent Christ better.

• Blessing and Covenant (9:1-19)

-Notice the same language to what God said back in Gen. 1. After Adam is created, God blesses him.

-Just as the flood was a de-creation, so now is meant to be a re-creation.

-Look who’s included in this blessing: “And his sons.” Meant to be a whole family

-The command is different than it was in the first creation.

-Compare this to Gen. 1:28. No subdue, no have dominion over. Instead there’s a different kind of relationship introduced between humans and animals 

-There’s still a sense of authority “into your hands” but a different relationship

-Combined with that is that animals are now food. Not explicit that Adam & Eve were vegetarian, but not it is that animals AND plants are for food. With a caveat:

4

-Is this saying when I eat my medium rare steak (as God intended it to be) that I’m sinning? If you couldn’t tell by my previous encouragement to not eat steak burned to a crisp, that’s not the intent.

-What it communicates is if you don’t have blood in you, something is wrong. 

-Various cultures throughout history have used drinking blood as a means of worship, a way to appease their gods or “steal” the power of whatever/whomever they’re consuming. So instead of viewing blood through that lens, God commands His people to drain the blood, as if it’s an offering to Him, reminder that all we are and have are gifts from a good creator 

-Fulfilment of that in Acts 10 where the blanket is lowered from heaven for Peter

-Continuing with the theme of blood, comes one of the roles of government. 

-At the root, murder is wrong because it’s killing someone who is created in the very image of God. Not going to get into capital punishment discussion today because that’s a bigger discussion than I have time for, but it is interesting to note that one of the roles of God gives governments is to bring justice to bear. 

-That’s where the whole book of Leviticus laying out the “law of the land” is meant to ensure the penalty does not go beyond the crime. All I’ll say, for now! Ultimately, we are not meant to take others’ lives! That comes because of sin

7

-You is plural, back to Noah and his family. Repeating the earlier refrain, the cultural mandate: be fruitful and multiply.

-Haven’t shared this before, but it does not mean inability to have children is bad/wrong, instead it’s saying generally, marriage leads to procreation. Nor does it mean that if you are unmarried you are somehow lacking in your growth as a believer. Jesus wasn’t married, Jesus was not “fruitful.” But he lacked nothing!

8

-God establishes his covenant. Generally the term tied with covenantal language throughout the OT is “cut a covenant” Generally blood is spilled, animals are cut. But there’s 3 important things about this covenant.

-Universal (y’all, every living creature, every beast)

-Permanent (never again, never again)

-Generosity (not earned or deserved!)

-Brought up the “cut a covenant” because look at vs. 11: cut off. We’re back to 2 ways to live: either cut a covenant with God, or be cut off from life!

-Because of God’s generous mercy, never again will a flood destroy the earth. And what evidence does God give?

-Rainbow! Just as God remember Noah back at the beginning of Gen. 8, each time he (and us) see a rainbow it’s a reminder of God’s covenant with us. 

-Some debate about whether this is the first covenant, or if God had also made a covenant with Adam and just didn’t explicitly use that word. I lean toward God having a covenant with Adam – same list of expectations, sign (them being in God’s image), consequences for breaking. Now notice – what consequences will there be for Noah? Nothing. Isn’t that crazy? God will uphold both ends of the deal.

-Everything looks good, covenant is made, flood won’t ever come again, but it’s not Eden. Sin is still affecting the heart of every human.

-Sin isn’t something “out there” that we must separate ourselves from. In our Christian culture today we have a tendency to become separatistic. Even in our parenting there’s a tendency to try isolate and preserve our precious little kids. That desire is good! We are called to help them, but don’t forget that your precious little one still has a sinful nature that we have to shepherd them through

-This is part of the function of these early chapters in Genesis – to show the enticing nature of sin. If it was desirable we wouldn’t do it! So even if we were to be in a perfect garden, we’d still choose sin. This is the reality, even for Noah who was righteous and blameless.

-This section ends describing Noah’s family: Shem, Ham, Japheth.

-Also includes a description of Ham’s descendants as Canaan, Moses is writing this, setting the stage for the curse of the Canaanites here and in Deut. People would have understood who the Canaanites were!

-Dr. Tony Evans: “Noah’s 3 sons “nicknames” Japheth (light), Shem (dusk/brown), Ham (burnt, dark)”

• The Second Fall (9:20-29)
  • Noah’s Sin (20-24)

-After the flood, Noah becomes a man of the soil (just like his father Adam)

-Remember what happened in Gen. 3. Our first parents were tasked with cultivating a garden/orchard, and eating the fruit of their work caused their sin making them aware of their nakedness

-Then Noah, righteous and blameless Noah, following in his parent’s footsteps cultivates a vineyard, eats the fruit of his work that causes him to sin, leading to him exposing his nakedness in his drunken stupor 

-Matthews, NAC, “There were new relationships, new assurances, and a new order to things in the world; but there remained the same old human heart”

-One of the things for us from this text is the need for moderation in our lives. I’m increasingly becoming convinced that a life of moderation is one of the primary ways we can demonstrate our Christian lives to the world.

-Addiction, obsession, cut-throat is the way our world conditions us. What would it look like for a group of people to not be obsessed about anything but God?

-in our work obsessed culture, what would it do to have someone who works incredibly hard, is trustworthy and easy to work with, but isn’t consumed by his work or finding complete fulfillment in their work?

-What about in our food obsessed culture? We need to remember there are seasons of feasting and seasons of fasting, but in the normal course of life what would people think of someone who just refused to overeat? 

-What about the other side of that with our health obsessed culture? Exercise is a good thing, but obsessing over exercising is a bad thing!

-None of these are bad things!

-Noah obsesses over his wine, becomes drunk, and Ham sees his father exposed

-Connecting back to Gen 1 here, “naked and unashamed” isn’t ever going to happen again. Noah being naked is shame inducing, and Ham refusing to help is sinning against his father.

-Shem and Japheth refuse to sin against Noah, and cover him up. Then Noah speaks for the first time in the Bible:

• Implication of the Sin (25-28)

-First thing he does is curse Canaan. Not Ham. Isn’t that weird?

-One thing we need to be aware of is distorting the text. “The curse of Ham” was used as biblical proof during the 17^th and into the 20^th Century for reasons that blacks were inferior to whites. We can’t just pick up the text and plop it down today and assume every situation is a 1 for 1 correlation. That’s an embarrassing indictment of American biblical interpretation.

-Not to mention, if you look carefully at the text, who’s cursed? Canaan! Only 1 of Ham’s 4 sons, so just a careful reading of the text itself should have been enough to stop that whole interpretation in its tracks.

-The purpose of this text is to begin the explanation of the antagonism between Canaan (seed of the serpent) vs. Shem (seed of the woman) But realize that at their root/core is the same family lineage.

-Then Shem and Japheth are blessed by Noah. These 3 are the fathers of all the nations of the world. We’ll see next week the way the various nations spread out from these 3.

-What do we learn from this?

-Live a life fully surrendered to God – this involves, as Martin Luther, living a life of repentance.

-Religion: “I messed up. Dad’s gonna kill me.” Gospel: “I messed up. I need to call Dad.”

-Every time you see a rainbow, give thanks to God that the full flood of his wrath fell on His Son at the cross instead of us

-Moderation is a key virtue to those who are in Christ

PLEASE NOTE: These are the notes I use to preach from, if you would like to hear them in context, please watch our YouTube channel.

The Flood

Genesis 7:1-8:19

-Have you ever done a deep dive into church history? It’s a miracle the church has survived!

-Persecution from Rome, corruption in the Middle Ages, schisms, splits, and fights, Enlightenment, rationalism, even Twitter, Facebook and Tik Tok, yet Christians still continue spreading 

-Almost as if God has a plan/purpose to history

READ/PRAY

1. Continued Commands (7:1-10)

-God’s commands toward Noah continue in 7

-last week ended “Noah did all that God commanded.”

-A few corrections from our Sunday school versions, or maybe the Hallmark special, or maybe even the recent Noah film starring Russell Crowe! 

-Nowhere do we see how long it took Noah to build the ark (500 when he had his sons, 600 when the flood comes)

-Text doesn’t say Noah’s friends/neighbors mocked him because of this giant boat

-Unlike the most recent edition, was not because of a lack of earth care (text actually talks more about how humans are treating each other)

-Saw last week the idea of Noah being righteous

-Ties into Hebrews 11 – hall of faith. Begins by tracing the storyline we’ve been studying in Genesis. Creation – Abel – Enoch – Noah 

-Without faith it is impossible to please Him. Have you ever thought about that reality? No matter how “good” (however you define that) someone is, without faith in God it’s useless. 

-All the events we’re reading about throughout Genesis MUST be out of the overflow of the faith in your life, because if you don’t have that faith, you will not be pleasing God. Faith was the precursor to Abel’s sacrifice (thus that Cain did not have faith), faith was the precursor to Enoch’s walk with God, faith is even the precursor to Noah’s obedience that we saw last week.

-Notice it’s not BLIND faith, as in a leap into nothingness (seems like most modern action movies have that one scene where the main character is running away from the bad guys, sees a waterfall/cliff/edge of the building coming up and takes a blind “leap of faith” into the oblivion and always survives) instead it’s a faith that is rooted in reality and history evidence. If the tomb isn’t empty, you need to find a different religion, because everything we believe hinges on that fact

-That faith will lead us to trust God even when it’s difficult! Just think of the faith it took Noah to trust God to build an ark when there hadn’t been any kind of torrential downpour like this (or ever again as we’ll see next week!) So for you, where is God call you to have faith to be obedient to Him where you’re struggling to trust Him? It could be a pushy boss, an annoying neighbor, a wayward child, an unbelieving spouse, or maybe it’s none of those things and He’s calling you to be content and thankful right now. Whatever your circumstances, God calls us to continue trusting in Him, putting our faith hope and confidence in Him, like Noah.

2

-Not just 2×2 for the animals, 7 pairs of CLEAN animals

-Potentially to be used for sacrifices, but this is setting up the eventual Levitical law that comes about later in the OT, the way God’s people are to be set apart

4

-Then God tells Noah exactly the timing of the incoming destruction: 

-He’s got 7 days to get everything situated in the boat, the rain will come for 40 days/nights with 1 purpose: to blot out every living thing from the face of the ground.

-This may lead you to ask the question: why does God kill everyone and everything that He made? Doesn’t that make him evil? Great philosophical question/discussion, can’t fully explain it, even with an entire sermon devoted to it, but here’s some things to think through:

1- there are standards/norms that everyone believes/holds to, that when someone comes along that behaves outside those standards, there are consequences. If you speed, you risk a fine! There’s been conversations recently about (don’t watch it!) but Dave Chappelle doing a new Netflix special where he makes a joke about trans people, then I heard about a newer term TERF (trans-exclusionary radical feminist) which includes someone like JK Rowling and Martina Navratilova. If you don’t fit within these cultural norms/ideas, you’re cancelled. (If you struggle with anything of the LGBTQ please come talk to me! We ALL have sins we’re wrestling through, but we’re called to not carry that alone) 

They’re using doctrinal ideas, even though they don’t know it! Total depravity, but no hope of atonement or redemption

2- That leads to the question, even as we see this taking place in the culture around us, who gets to set those standards? Government, individuals, groups, cultures, businesses? God! Since we’ve seen God is the creator, He gets to set the standards/norms and call others to obey them. Therefore, people will flourish ONLY IF they obey Him

3- Since God is the creator, and He has set the norms, there are consequences for someone choosing to live outside of those boundaries, culminates in eternal separation from Him.

4- This all comes about because of the Fall. Not how God intended things to be.

-Once again, we see Noah living according to the creation mandates. Noah is completely obedient to God’s commands (seed of the woman!) 

6

-How old was Noah when this happened? 600. I can barely even begin to wrap my mind around that number. Just turned 33, I think of how much I’ve changed since 23, or 13, that’s only 10 or 20 years ago! Could you imagine living for 600 years? Imaging being born in 1421 and living through today. America was a nobody on the global stage, even 100 years ago! 

-Anyway, Noah’s obedient through his 600^th year of life, he and his family, and animals go into the ark, then comes the flood.

• The Waters (7:11-24)

-Part of the reason Noah’s age is listed is he’s serving in the kingly role in this text. 

-As you read through the rest of the OT you’ll find significant events measured by the life of the King. So “when he had been ruling for 25 years, the earthquake came.” In this case, the flood is the significant event (obviously), Noah is king

-Notice the timing of this event. Not only does it list the year, it lists the specific day that the floods came. Just like the resurrection in the NT, Moses is interested in preserving the historicity of this event.

-Think about how this day would have been for every other person on earth at the time. There was no warning, they would have gotten up just like every day before, prepared to go about their daily lives just like they’d done every day before.

-Think back to (if you were alive then) 9/11. You most likely, just like me, got up and did the same things you did every day. Eat breakfast, brush your teeth, get dressed, I went to school. Weirdest school day of my life! I had never even heard of the “World Trade Center” before that day. 

-That’s one of the biggest takeaways we need to be aware of today from Noah’s story. In Matt. 24, Jesus is speaking at the Mount of Olives about the signs of the end of the world. The world was clueless as to where the world was heading! 

-What’s unique about our time is unlike Noah, God has commissioned us to go tell everyone where the world is going! There is an end that’s coming, and we need to be ready for it. Keep that in the back of your mind, we’ll come back to that idea at the end.

-2 descriptors of where this flood is coming from: fountains of the great deep, windows of the heavens.

-An incredible deluge of water. If you’ve ever been to Niagara Falls and ridden the Maid of the Mist boat out it’s overwhelming how much water is pouring off! The sound, the spray. Imagine sitting under that for 40 days/nights.

-One of the things about weather is it changes. Every place I’ve lived has said “You know the weather here, if you don’t like it just wait 5 min.” Could you imagine the same weather for 40 days in a row: 100% chance of rain…again (like the Lego movie)

-Water pouring down from above, exploding up from below.

-Vs. 16 – notice that even the animals are obedient to God! Noah, his family, and a smattering of animals are the only people on the face of the earth who obey God. Who shuts the door? God does. Even in the midst of the destruction of the world, God continues preserving His people, a remnant of faithful worshippers who were obedient to Him. Because of that fact, why would we worry when other inferior people try to destroy us? God will continue working!

-The waters continue pouring down from above and up from below, and the ark floats and carries the 1 faithful family (and animals) through safety. This water was so great that it even covers the mountains.

-If you think back to Gen. 1, on day 2, God separated the 2 waters from each other creating “heaven” Here in Gen. 7 God is taking things back to their primordial state. The waters are no longer separated, He is re-creating the entire world with a second Adam

-If you did watch the 2014 ‘Noah’ this was the 1 scene that captured the biblical sentiment incredibly well. Vs. 21 says “All flesh died.” That concept is hard to translate to our minds with 1 sentence. But could you imagine sitting in the ark hearing the destruction of the world you’d known your entire life (in Noah’s case 600 years) 

-There’s a tendency to sanitize biblical stories, and then the sanitized versions become embedded in our minds. This wasn’t a traveling zoo where Noah got to live with his animal buddies. This was the de-creation, the destruction of everyone. Friends, neighbors, family members died. 

-These waters covered the world for 150 days. No rudder, nothing in sight, just Noah, his immediate family, and an ark full of animals. Do you think they saw the decomposing bodies? This must have been a feast for the carnivorous sea animals! I’m not trying to be crass, but I do want us to realize the humanity/reality of this story! 

-But that’s not the end of the story. God hasn’t forgotten or left Noah to struggle through this on his own. And that’s how chapter 8 starts:

• The Waters Subside (8:1-19)

-That word remembered is vitally important for you to remember, brother and sisters! The reality is for any of us who are in Christ, we are NEVER alone. It’s not as if God had forgotten about Noah, God’s not sitting up in heaven chillin out, maxin, relaxin all cool, when suddenly he looks down and spits out his drink because he sees the ark floating along. God has a plan for this. After the 150 days of this de-creation of the world, God begins interceding, could even say re-creating, the entire world. 

-Church, you never know what God’s going to do with you by you remaining faithful and obedient to Him. Even when storms and floods are thrown at you, even if you’re the only one left, God is doing something that you may have no clue until you persevere through it. 

-To clue us in to the fact that this is a re-creation of the world, the same language is used as in Gen. 1 “wind” same Hebrew word ruach as in Gen. 1:2 “The Spirit of God was hovering over the water.”

-Just as the first creation involved the Spirit of God, so the re-creation involves the same Spirit (and that exact same Spirit is involved in our re-creation when we’re saved and brought from death to life through the indwelling power of that same Spirit) 

-God also shuts off the “fountains of the deep and windows of the heavens” and the water starts disappearing. The finally, 5 months later, the ark comes to rest on/in the mountains of Ararat. 

-Again, another clue to the idea of re-creation. After this tumultuous season, Noah and the ark “rest”

-After waiting another 40 days, Noah sends out a raven, then a dove.

-No one’s really sure why the raven was sent, an unclean animal, could feed of any decaying carcasses as it waited for the water to recede, but not really sure why/purpose behind it. 

-First time the dove is released she comes back, second time she comes back with a “freshly plucked olive leaf.” And the last time she’s gone! But Noah’s still waiting for God’s commands. Even as he has survived the de-creation/destruction of the whole world, he’s still faithful and obedient. 

-Again, the specific days are recorded, 1 year, 10 days after the waters poured out, the earth is returned back to its’ intended state.

-Finally, it’s time for the introduction of Noah to the rest of the world. After all these previous events, God speaks to Noah again commanded him to “Go out!” 

-Very similar language to what we saw in 7:1. “Go into” vs “Go out”

-Not only are they supposed to go out, they’re commanded to bring out every animal that was on there with them. And then we see another creation mandate “be fruitful and multiply on the earth.” Another reminder, God is re-creating the whole world! This is meant to be a new Eden, a new opportunity, a fresh start with Noah and his family.

-God speaks, Noah obeys. “So Noah went out.”

-God speaks in creation, “And it was so.” God speaks to Noah, and it’s so

-Noah is reintroduced to the world, and then the rest of the creatures are reintroduced to the world. 

-Notice that the text says everything “went out by families” What a cool picture that would have been! Seeing each creature come down with their other half, 2 by 2 or 7 by 7 (for clean animals) 

-This story, while it really happened, is also meant to be understood more fully by us today to represent baptism. This connection is made by Peter in:

–1 Peter 3:18-22

-How are we brought to God? We saw the connection to faith earlier. Here we see the need for baptism, just like Noah was saved through water.

-Faith in Christ leads to obedience in baptism today. Entry point in the life of a believer. Baptism doesn’t save, but it signifies your obedience to Jesus’ commands. Have you been baptized? 

-Once you have been baptized, the rest of our life is spent in preparation. Church, Jesus is coming back! We don’t know when, but we know He will return. In the meantime we:

-Rooted in God’s Word (need to know God’s commands to obey them)

-Live a worship-filled life by demonstrating the fruit of the Spirit (faithfulness and gentleness) 

-Witnessing to the watching world (proclaim with our words, and make sure our life matches what we preach to the best of our ability)

-Practicing the lost art of hospitality – being a welcoming community 

PLEASE NOTE: These are the notes I use to preach from, if you would like to hear them in context, please watch our YouTube channel.

-Walking, some of my favorite stories from my life came from walking.

-Walking the dog with Candy Grandma, shadowy creature on the sidewalk

-Married into a walking family, each house we’ve lived one of the first things Cara has done is find us a walking path

-Shortly after Lucy was born, we went on a walk for the first time as a family of 5 (7 if you count the dogs) Calvin gets the jiggles, dog pulls the stroller with the newborn over

READ/PRAY

1. The Generations of Adam (5:1-32)

-Last week, Cain’s line (seed of the serpent vs seed of the woman)

-Here’s the crazy thing – reading through these 2 lists, Cain’s line looks WAY more impressive: shepherds, musicians, bronze and iron. 

-This is setting up a theme throughout the rest of the Bible: the ways of the world vs the ways of the Lord – so often our measuring sticks of worth (power, fame, accolades, prestige, wealth) aren’t even close to how God measure worth. 

-Think of Abraham – text doesn’t say anything special about him, just that he was obedient. Or David, who was the youngest and least impressive (according to the world’s standards). Or the nation of Israel, whom God says was the least impressive and the smallest of all the nations he could have picked. Or Jesus, who didn’t come in power or prestige. Or us, who were not wealthy, or wise, or prestigious, yet God still saved us. What a gift!

-Think of that song ‘Who You Say I Am’ it starts “Who am I that the highest king would welcome me?”

-Chapter 5 is one of those chapters that we have a tendency to either skip, read through quickly, or fall asleep getting through. Have you ever read Numbers? Please don’t skip through them! Every chapter, every word, every phrase and idea is in the Bible for a reason. 2 Tim. 3:16-17 reminds us “All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.” How much of the Bible is inspired? All. Not some, not just the parts Jesus says, not just the verse you like, ALL. Everything we need to grow like God, everything we need for human flourishing is here. That’s why we spend some much time in God’s Word when we gather together. 

-So why is something like a genealogy in here?

-We’ve seen 1 reason: to follow the seed of the woman. 

-Roots the Bible in history, reality.

-Gives the readers their place in the story of the world (this is something we often miss today in our hyper-individualistic culture, we didn’t just appear here!)

-So let’s walk through it!

-10 names, not completely sure why, but there is some reason behind it. We see the same number in Gen. 11 landing on Abram, then again in Ruth landing on David. Therefore, these genealogies are meant to show us how we read part of the OT – significant people are Noah, Abraham, David.

-Also has some same/similar names to the line of Cain, one is the true, the other is the iteration, evil cannot create, just destroy

-Do you notice the pattern? Same phrasing for all of them. Age when child was born, lived this much longer, died adding the previous 2 numbers.

-This pattern is broken in 2 places: Enoch and Noah. 

-Enoch: twice mentions that he “walked with God.”

-1 of 2 people in the Bible to not face death. Jewish writers after this said (based on the walking) that God so enjoyed spending time with Enoch that he brought him up to heaven to continue their relationship.

-Number 7 on the list, something significant about the 7^th

-Then Noah, whose dad has the same name as the bad Lamech in the line of Cain. But instead of sinning, this Lamech is carrying on the seed of the woman. We should be looking for/anticipating this serpent crusher to come! Surely he’ll come soon!

-Remember last week, Jeramy shared names carried meanings in the OT, Noah sounds like the Hebrew word for “rest” or “relief” 

-Here’s the irony – we know that relief will come, but it will come through the destruction of the world, so relief only comes from 8 people, and it comes from them devoting their lives to creating a boat to save them! This is pointing to another rest/relief that will come from this line in Abram, but Abram’s rest extends to the whole world.

-These genealogies are meant to serve as a fast forward feature. Everything up until this point has been focused on Adam, gives us virtually no info on this long line of descendants. These 1000 years, instead it’s meant to just bring us right to Noah. So think of the way you USED to watch TV, with commercials, then DVR came and let you fast forward through them to get back to the storyline, the genealogy is the commercial break between Adam and Noah.

• The Wickedness of God’s Creation (6:1-8)

-Noah introduced at the end of 5, then Moses goes back and gives some different background, and it’s weird.

1. Sons of God and Daughters of Men (1-4)

-2 hotly debated issues in this text: sons of God vs daughters of men, and the Nephilim.

-I’ll talk about this further in tomorrow’s sermon scraps, as this isn’t really the point of this text, just meant to provide background, but I’ll give a couple brief comments.

-First, sons & daughters. 

-3 options: godly line of Seth, angels, or heroes from the mythical past (think like a Hercules) It’s important to note that one of the themes in the beginning of Genesis is which domain of authority is given – remember days 1-2 are God’s domain. Continuing the theme of domain stealing is this section, so God limits their lives.

-Second – the Nephilim. 

-lit. giants/fallen ones (only here and Num. 13:33)

-Read the text: “in those days and also aftwerward.

-Nephilim, therefore, are not the “sons of God” just men, Moses is demythologizing the Nephilim, saying they’re ordinary dudes. 

-That’s all we’ll say about that! Next, things keep getting worse in the world

• Evil and Regret (5-7)

-Remember back to Gen. 1 – the Lord saw that everything He made was good. This time what does the Lord see? Exceeding wickedness and evil.

-Look at all the descriptions: wickedness was great, every intention of thoughts of his heart ONLY evil continually. Going on and on about the depravity! Could you imagine? Complete unrestrained evil – no one caring about God or each other.

-Play on words here with “intention” in the Hebrew is yeser, pointing back to Gen. 2:7 when God formedAdam yasar. As we walk through this account of Noah and the ark, we’re supposed to see it as God re-creating the whole world. So where God’s heart and intention in creation was to bring about good, since the fall, every intention, every thought that humans form is only evil.

-Vs. 5 tells what was going on, the domains being distorted, then vs. 6 tells of God’s pain, and 7 tells of His plan. 

-The pain was so great, God regrets making humanity, and it grieves him. Really briefly, if God is good and can do nothing wrong, why does He suffer regret? Getting to 2 theological issues known as immutability and impassability. Immutability is the reality that God never changes, He has no need to! Impassability is the belief that God is incapable of suffering harm in that he can’t be changed or harmed by anything outside himself. Where we often mistake that is to mean he doesn’t have emotions, which is not true! Again, longer discussion than I have time for today! Just note that God iso facing regret for His creation of humanity, so He has a plan:

-To destroy everything he created. Almost start to feel like God’s overreacting, right!? There’s no hope, God’s plan is set in stone, so long world! 

-I’ve shared this before, one of the most important words in the whole Bible: but. 

• But Noah (8)

-The whole world can be going to hell in a handbasket, but God still shows grace! 

-Think of a place like Ephesians 2 – you were dead, but God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead made us alive with Christ.

-See, this should encourage us! Because no one and no group is too far from God’s mercy and love. As long as we’re still on this earth, that “but” still exists. Even as the world passes away, “But God” So at this time, God had and used Noah. It says Noah “found favor” with the Lord. 

-Look at the rest of the way the text describes Noah:

• The Generations of Noah (6:9-21)
  • Noah and God (9-10)

-Similar to the start of 5 “these are the generations of…” So we’re starting to see that maybe this seed of the woman the is promised one! Maybe Noah can restore all the brokenness the fall brought, can finally bring the coming rest! 

-First thing, Noah is “a righteous man.” 

-How do we reconcile that with Rom. 3:10 “none is righteous, no not one.” It wasn’t because of something inherently good in Noah, instead, he was living in accord with how God had commanded/ordered the world. Unlike the rest of the world, he was obedient. One commentator said Noah “acted in conformity with creation norms.” I like that phrase, because when we sin, we’re acting OUT of conformity with creation norms.

-Blameless in his generation, certainly not perfect! But compared to everyone else, he was a standup guy! Both of these descriptions are dependent on the third:

-walked with God.

-We’ve seen a couple instances of this already in Genesis. Back in 3:8 after Adam & Eve sinned, it says God came to walk in the coolness of the garden, not a stretch to think this was a daily thing, with God coming to walk with his creatures. Those of you that have dogs, you know what this is like! In order to best take care of them, you’re supposed to make sure they’re getting exercise, so “in the cool of the night” you’ll take them out and walk with them.

-Then we saw in Gen. 5 that Enoch “walked with God, then was no more” 

-Lands here with Noah! 

-Is that description true of you? Are you a man or woman who “walks with God.” Now, what does that mean? Hold on to that question, because it will be answered for us in the last verse of this chapter! Before that, back to the earth.

• The World is Bad (11-12)

-God saw, same as in vs. 5, same as in Gen. 1 each day of creation. All flesh/humans had corrupted their ways. But because of the corruption of humanity, even the animals will bear the consequences with them. 

-Everyone and everything had become corrupted. God regretted His creation, He is grieved at how they’re acting, so God decides to let Noah in on His plan:

• God’s Plan and Command (13-21)

-God is going to destroy everything He created. Well, most everything! Noah, his family, and some animals will be saved through Noah’s work.

-This would be a HUGE boat! 450’ long, 75’ wide, and 45’ high. (cubit is 18”) There’s a roof 18” above the boat itself, letting light in. There’s a door on the side of it. 3 decks to it. Why are they supposed to build a giant boat?

-God tells Noah that his method of destruction will be a flood. God says EVERYTHING will die! And there’s that word again, BUT – God will establish a covenant with Noah. What’s a covenant? 

-Really simply – an agreement between 2 parties. This is the first time this word appears in the Bible, but it plays a huge role in the unfolding of human history, and in God’s story. The covenants are the means by which God will continue “walking with” his people. Again, don’t have time to dig further, do a word search on “covenant” in the Bible this week, it’s fascinating!

-Now it’s not just Noah’s family that will be saved. Noah is the means by which the rest of the created order will be saved from the incoming judgment through flood. They are to take 2 of kind: bird, animals, creeping things 1 male, and 1 female. 

-On top of that, Noah will have to bring in food for the animals and his family. Almost feels like a tag on! Think of Noah writing all this down – you said how big is this boat? And you said to make sure it floats??? Oh, and enough room for animals, that makes sense of the size, oh, AND food! And what’s my deadline? 

-Think of the faith that would have required!! Noah, 1 guy, with the help of his family, had to put build this giant boat, track all the animals and get food!

-Text doesn’t say how long this task took, but I can guarantee it took him longer than a week, or even a year! Yet in spite of that, Noah trusted God and got to work!

• The Obedience of Noah (22)

-Remember how I told you we’d see how we can “walk with God.” This verse tells us how. That whole long list that God gave to Noah, “Noah did this.” Hebrew, it says “Noah did…so he did.” Again, think back to Gen. 1“And it was so.” God says, and it’s so. 

-Where Adam tried usurping and taking over God’s domain, Noah is righteous, conforming himself to the way God commanded humanity to live.

-Where the rest of the world is wicked and evil, Noah is righteous and obedient to do “all that God commanded him.” 

-That is exactly how we today can “walk with God” that is by doing everything that God commands us.

-Can you think of anywhere else in the Bible where we’re commanded to obey God? I’ll give you a hint – I preached on it when I candidated here! The Great Commission in Matthew 28. 

-All authority belongs to God and God alone, how often do we try to do things in our own authority? 

-As you go. God sends us out, that’s the reason we do a benediction here every week, we’re sent back out into the world!

-Make disciples. The mission of every church in the world! 

-Teaching – we must be teaching each other, and others!

-ALL that I have commanded you. 

-One time got into a debate with a youth pastor over LGBTQ issues. He wanted to argue that the church has gotten SO many issues wrong in the past (Crusades, gender issues, environmental concerns) and I don’t think he had studied the issues very carefully. Someone yesterday sent me a screenshot of his latest post where he says he, and his church, hasn’t “turned our backs on thousands of years of church tradition.”

-How many of our modern-day issues are because we’re not obedient to how God has commanded us to live? We’re back to the garden, “Did God REALLY say?” 

-Brothers and sisters, this isn’t just a world issue, this is a church issue too. How often are we quicker to run to our partisan political talking points instead of the Bible? Why do we only spend time with people that look and think like us when God has commanded us to GO! Why do we act as if the world will stain/corrupt us when God has purified us? Why do we separate and isolate ourselves when there’s people from all nations that need us to be faithful in making disciples? Why would we rather talk about the weather than the Bible verse we’re meditating and memorizing? Why do we settle for cheap novels instead of drinking from the fountain of life in God’s Word?

-Here’s what just blows my mind. God Himself dwells in us. Anytime we walk, we’re walking with God. Anytime we talk, we’re talking with God. Anytime we breathe, we’re breathing with God. This is part of the New Covenant that we’re in today!