Sermon Tone Analysis

The Flood - Judging Wickedness

The flood stands as a model event when it comes to thinking about God ultimately putting right the wickedness found in the world.

It is a signifcant event in the history of the world and in the story of the Bible.

Yeshua refers to the flood in Matthew 24.37 suggesting that his coming will be similar to the time when Noah was saved and the flood came and swept the unrighteous people away.

The author of Hebrews says in chapter 11 vs, 7 that by faith Noah in believing fear prepared the ark and through his actions simultatnously condemned the world and became and heir of the rightesouness that comes by faith.

Second Peter chatper 2 vs. 5 states that God did no spare the ancient world, preserving only Noah the proclaimer of righteousness when he brought the flood upon the world of the ungodly.

The message is fairly consistent that God brought the flood because of the wickedness of man.

We read throughout the story of Noah that it was the wickedness of mankind on the earth that led to the flood.

slide

slide

This description is vivid.

The wicked deeds of humans were very numerous upon the earth.

Every inclination of the thoughts of man’s heart was only evil all the time.

The word ‘inclination’ in hebrew is the noun יֵצֶר Yetzer and it essentially means “a thing that is made into a shape”.

It’s the word you would use if you were a potter - ‘here is my Yetzer’ or my formed pot.

For example Psalm 103.14 says that God knows our form, remembering that we are dust.

In other words, every shaped thought in the heart of mankind was only evil all day.

And the irony is that man was the Yetzer of God.

Man was the shaped vessel that God had formed.

God formed man and beast from the ground.

But now God was sorry and in response to the shaped thoughts in mankind’s heart, God’s own heart was deeply pained.

And so God’s response is:

slide

God decides on a clean slate because his pottery was ruined.

slide

From God’s perspective the entire earth was corrputed, ruined, and wasted.

It was filled with physical violence and injustice.

So the picture we are meant to see is that as mankind filled and multiplied according to the command so did the wickedness and corruption filled and mulitply.

Since mankind had already ruined themselves God was going to ruin them entirely.

slide

How Did It Come To This?

As inquistive readers of the text we should ask ourselves, how did it come to this? It’s a sad picture when you stop to think about it.

What must have happened for God, who took so much pleasure in His creation, to now turn and decide to wipe all flesh from the earth?

The simple answer is disobedience.

But that disobedience builds and is ampified over man’s generations and is aided by the disobedience of spiritual beings as well.

The Genesis narrative is fascinating to study and it leaves breadcrumbs for us as readers to follow the themes and pictures.

I followed the theme of the ground (adamah) which seems to have revealed some clues as to how we got to this point of complete ruin.

slide

To follow along it will be important to understand two Hebrew words.

Adam אָדָם (Adam, Mankind)

Adamah אֲדָמָה (Ground, Soil, Land)

God formed Adam from the dust of the ground (Adamah), and then God planted a Garden in an area called Eden, and placed Adam there and provided all his needs where he enjoyed a close unindered relationship with God.

Out of the ground (Adamah) the Lord caused trees to grow including the Tree of Life.

Out of the ground (adamah) the Lord formed all the beasts and birds.

So up to this point the things shaped from the adamah are good.

But of course things take a turn:

The serpent, clealry a spiritual being of some kind and likely the devil assuming Revelation 12 is referring to this passage, tricked Eve, leading to Adam and Eve disobeying God’s command.

As a result, God judges the serpent, Eve, and Adam.

Adam’s punishment is that the ground (adamah) is cursed and he will return to the ground (adamah) outside of the garden that God had planted.

God recognized that Adam had ‘become like one of us, knowing good and evil’.

I take this to mean that in some way Adam had become like a spiritual being in heaven and now had some kind of additional knowledge.

As Adam now has no right to live forever by eating from the Tree of Life, he is banished from the orchard of delight and is sent ‘to work the ground (adamah) from which he has been taken’.

God places spiritual beings called cherubim to guard access to eternal life found in the Tree’s fruit, because Adam has no right to eat it.

Cain is a man who cultivates the ground (adamah) and brings his offering from the ground (adamah) but it is not pleasing to the Lord.

Cain becomes violent and murders Abel and his blood cries from the ground (adamah) resulting in Cain himself being cursed from even the ground (adamah) and when he cultivates the ground (adamah) it won’t even yeild, making him a nomad.

Cain is banished from the face of the ground (adamah) and hidden from God’s face.

Cain had more deecsendants and Adam had more desendants, including Seth the line where Noah comes from

Noah was born as one who ‘will give rest from our work and from the toil of our hands arising from the ground (adamah) which the Lord has cursed’.

Gen 5.29

And in Gen six Adam (Mankind) mulitplied on the face of the ground (adamah).

God declares he will wipe out Adam (mankind) from the face of the ground (adamah).

‌

What we can see through this quick survey of the wordplay between Adam and Adamah is that Genesis sets forth ʾādām as the pinacle of creation and that the creation was formed around ʾādām, but unfortunately wickedness, violence and corruption had continued to increase over the generations through disobedience of both spiritual beings and mankind, to the point where God decided to destroy His Yetzer - formed work - and start all over again with a clean slate.

It wasn’t enough to curse the adamah only as He did before, Adam had to be dealt with directly - so He brought the flood.

In the Hebrew Scriptures there is a deep connection between man and the ground we live upon.

But the Scriptures teach that there is hope and a way around the problem - if one is found blamless and righteous and walks with God.

This is of cousre how Noah is decribed in vs. 9 but Noah is a type for Yeshua HaMashiach, a prophetic picture of how redemption will utlimately come to mankind.

It was because of Noah’s sacrifice we read:

slide

How much more will the sacrifice of Yeshua be a soothing aroma to Adonai?

But alas it was not to be, for we are reminded not long after that Noah was a man of the adamah;

slide

We see another type, a prophetic picture of Messiah, in Abraham where the text says;

slide

In Abraham all the families formed from the ground will ultimately find their true Yetzer - will be truly shaped and useful for God.

And of course we know that the ultimate seed of Abraham was not from Adam and but was himself directly the Son of God like Adam was, but through his deeds instead of death many have received life.

Right here in the beginning of the Torah we see that the condition of Adam cannot be fixed by Adam’s efforts or his descendants, for only God can form a new Yetzer - even Noah who represents the righteous and blameless and one who walks with God will sin.

slide

Spiritual Wickedness

We’ve talked primarily about mankind’s wickedness that increased and resulted in destruction, but is mankind the only one culpable?

This is the question raised by the strange passage in Gen 6.1-4 and the enigma as to why it would be placed here just before the story of the flood.

slide

But what should we make of this passage?

Who are the Sons of God?

slide

“sons of God” (בְנֵי־הָאֱלֹהִים, béne-ha’elohim)

Angelic Beings (Job 1:6; 2.1; 38.7)

Seth’s Decendants

Powerful Tyrants

The Hebrew phrase translated “sons of God” (בְנֵי־הָאֱלֹהִים, béne-ha’elohim) occurs only here (Gen 6:2, 4) and in Job 1:6; 2:1; 38:7.

There are three major interpretations of the phrase here.

(1) In the Book of Job the phrase clearly refers to angelic beings.

In Gen 6 the “sons of God” are distinct from “humankind,” suggesting they were not human.

This is consistent with the use of the phrase in Job.

Since the passage speaks of these beings cohabiting with women, they must have taken physical form or possessed the bodies of men.

An early Jewish tradition preserved in 1 En.

6–7 elaborates on this angelic revolt and even names the ringleaders.

(2) Not all scholars accept the angelic interpretation of the “sons of God,” however.

Some argue that the “sons of God” were members of Seth’s line, traced back to God through Adam in Gen 5, while the “daughters of humankind” were descendants of Cain.

(3) Others identify the “sons of God” as powerful tyrants, perhaps demon-possessed, who viewed themselves as divine and, following the example of Lamech (see Gen 4:19), practiced polygamy.

At this point, I will say you should make up your own mind and take what I say as my opinion on a difficult passage.