Bible Study: Genesis 6
Notes
Transcript
Introduction
Introduction
Good Morning
Let’s share any Prayer Requests and Praises Reports.
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Let’s pray
Text: Genesis 6:1-8
Text: Genesis 6:1-8
1 When man began to multiply on the face of the land and daughters were born to them,
2 the sons of God saw that the daughters of man were attractive. And they took as their wives any they chose.
3 Then the Lord said, “My Spirit shall not abide in man forever, for he is flesh: his days shall be 120 years.”
4 The Nephilim were on the earth in those days, and also afterward, when the sons of God came in to the daughters of man and they bore children to them. These were the mighty men who were of old, the men of renown.
5 The Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.
6 And the Lord regretted that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him to his heart.
7 So the Lord said, “I will blot out man whom I have created from the face of the land, man and animals and creeping things and birds of the heavens, for I am sorry that I have made them.”
8 But Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord.
Chapters 6-8 cover the story of Noah and the Flood...
This is one of the most important events recorded in Scripture...
This is a literal event and is backed up by modern day science and other text outside the Bible...
For example, the Epic of Gilgamesh and the Epic of Atrahasis, have been found in the Mesopotamian literature.
They have many similarities to the biblical account of the flood.
They include a man who built an ark, loaded it with animals, and survived a torrential rain.
The appearance of a flood stories in Mesopotamia gives support and confirmation to the historicity of the biblical event.
That is, the existence of such stories elsewhere indicates that the Bible indeed preserves the memory of this momentous event.
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It this first section that we will be covering, verses 1-8, we can see with the mention of Noah that there is a transition from the godly line of Seth to the flood story.
So, this section serves as both a prologue to the flood narrative and a conclusion to the genealogy of Seth.
As a prologue to the flood narrative, it illustrates the increasing wickedness on earth.
As a conclusion to the genealogy, it explains why the long lifespans of chapter 5 have come to an end.
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This section also explains why God sent a flood to punish the whole of humanity.
Verses 1-4 records the acts of degradation that reveals the end-point of God’s patience.
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However, this passage concludes by recognizing that...
In contrast to everyone else...
Noah finds favor in God’s eyes.
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We start with verse 1 and see that “man began to multiply.”
The motif of multiplying is first introduced by God in Genesis 1:28 which says:
28 And God blessed them. And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”
This is presented in a very positive light and viewed as necessary to fulfill God’s plans for the earth.
However, the present passage, reveals that this God-mandated task leads to increasing wickedness on the earth as the population expands.
In other words, more people equals more problems.
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So, this problem is exacerbated by the coming together of the sons of God and the daughters of man as mentioned in verse 2.
The identity of both groups has various interpretations and none has gained universal support.
Various scholars have proposed that the “sons of God” are:
(1) Fallen Angels based on Job 1:6 which says:
6 Now there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan also came among them.
Many consider this the earliest Jewish interpretation.
However, many other scholars push back and bring up Mark 12:25 as a counter argument...
That passage says:
25 For when they rise from the dead, they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like angels in heaven.
Along with what it says in Matthew 22:30:
30 For in the resurrection they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like angels in heaven.
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(2) Demon-Possessed Humans based on 2 Peter 2:4–5 which says:
4 For if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but cast them into hell and committed them to chains of gloomy darkness to be kept until the judgment;
5 if he did not spare the ancient world, but preserved Noah, a herald of righteousness, with seven others, when he brought a flood upon the world of the ungodly;
And Jude 5–6 which says:
5 Now I want to remind you, although you once fully knew it, that Jesus, who saved a people out of the land of Egypt, afterward destroyed those who did not believe.
6 And the angels who did not stay within their own position of authority, but left their proper dwelling, he has kept in eternal chains under gloomy darkness until the judgment of the great day—
And Matthew 8:28-29 which says:
28 And when he came to the other side, to the country of the Gadarenes, two demon-possessed men met him, coming out of the tombs, so fierce that no one could pass that way.
29 And behold, they cried out, “What have you to do with us, O Son of God? Have you come here to torment us before the time?”
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(3) Tyrannical Human Judges or Kings in the ungodly line of Lamech who gathered harems.
Many also also believe these judges or kings where possibly demon-possessed.
This interpretation is proposed by rabbis of the second century AD.
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(4) Followers of God Among the Male Descendants of Seth but who married the ungodly daughters of Cain.
Many consider this the traditional Christian interpretation from church history.
This interpretation also shows God’s favor of Adam’s son Seth contrasted with His rejection and punishment of Cain in the previous chapters of Genesis.
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Though it may be difficult to determine which of these views to be correct,
I personally believe the second view which can be combined with the third and fourth view even...
The first view just has too much conflict with the rest of Scripture.
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What is clear is that the kind of relationship described here involved some form of grievous sexual perversion, wherein the “sons of God” saw and with impunity took any women (“daughters of man”) that they wanted.
Something good in God’s creation, like multiplying the earth, is used in disobedience and sinful rebellion against God...
This ultimately leads to tragic consequences.
Only Noah stands apart from this sin.
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In verse 3 we see that God says “My Spirit” which is the Hebrew word “ruach.”
This is often used to refer to breath as seen in verses like Genesis 2:7 which says:
7 then the Lord God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature.
This means that this phrase likely refers to the human life span.
Human life span is a major theme of this passage.
For example, God announces that because of the immoral nature of people, their days shall be 120 years.
There are two possible interpretations of this number of years:
Either the lives of human beings will no longer exceed 120 years.
Or the coming of the flood is anticipated in 120 years.
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The interpretation that human beings will no longer exceed 120 years seems to be the best interpretation even though some of those who live after the flood (e.g., Abraham) enjoy lives in excess of 120 years.
This decree should then be understood only as a general rule.
Overall, humans live much shorter than they did in the past and this can even be explained scientifically based on the changes that happened to the earth after the Flood (e.g., the first time Scripture records rain is during the Flood account).
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The phrase “abide in” is the Hebrew word “yadon” and is understood it to mean “remain” or “contend.”
The sentence points to the withdrawal of God’s life-giving Spirit.
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The phrase “he is flesh” is understood as an additional thought, rather than the cause of God’s decision.
So, it seems that God is asserting that He has the authority to judge humanity since He is God and not flesh like us.
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The word “Nephilim” mentioned in verse 4 is from a root meaning “to fall,” indicating that they were strong men who “fell” on others in the sense of overpowering them.
The Hebrew root meaning “to fall” and may suggest their fate.
Although, the exact meaning of the term “Nephilim” and it’s origin is uncertain.
It occurs elsewhere in the Old Testament only in Numbers 13:33 which says:
33 And there we saw the Nephilim (the sons of Anak, who come from the Nephilim), and we seemed to ourselves like grasshoppers, and so we seemed to them.”
Here it denotes a group living in Canaan.
It seems that the Israelite spies are expressing their fears of the Canaanites by likening them to the ancient men of renown.
Although in Hebrew Nepilim means “fallen ones,” the earliest Greek translators rendered it gigantes, “giants.”
This idea may have been mistakenly deduced from Numbers 13:33.
One must be cautious about reading it back into the present passage.
The Nephilim were mighty men or warriors and, as such, may well have contributed to the violence that filled the earth.
It should also be noted that the fallen ones do not seem to be the offspring from the union in Genesis 6:1-2...
Additionally, they were already in the earth when the “mighty men” and “men of renown” were born.
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In verse 5 we see that God saw that the heart of man “was only evil continually.”
This is one of the strongest and clearest statements about man’s sinful nature...
And this is a vivid portrayal of the depth and comprehensiveness of human depravity
Sin begins in the thought-life as it says in James 1:13–15:
13 Let no one say when he is tempted, “I am being tempted by God,” for God cannot be tempted with evil, and he himself tempts no one.
14 But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire.
15 Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death.
So, the people of Noah’s day were exceedingly wicked, from the inside out.
This fits with what Scripture says of humans.
Again look at passages like Jeremiah 17:9-10:
9 The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?
10 “I the Lord search the heart and test the mind, to give every man according to his ways, according to the fruit of his deeds.”
And Matthew 15:18-19 which says:
18 But what comes out of the mouth proceeds from the heart, and this defiles a person.
19 For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false witness, slander.
So, the reason for the flood is the great evil of humanity and the only (possible) exception is Noah...
He is described as “righteous” and “blameless” later in verse 9.
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Next, in verse 6, the Word of God says that the Lord “regretted that He had made man.”
This phrase is a reference to a change of attitude and action.
Now please note, there is no contradiction between this verse and passages teaching the changelessness (immutability) of God and that God does not change His mind.
Remembering that this description is anthropomorphic which means that God is depicted in terms of the human experience of knowledge and emotion.
In other words, applying the attributions of human characteristics to God.
We must also recognize that the immutable and sovereign God deals appropriately with changes in human behavior.
When people sin or repent of sin, He “changes His mind” with regard to the blessing or punishment appropriate to the situation.
All of this is in accordance with His sovereign and eternal purposes.
He works out all things according to the counsel of His will as it says in Ephesians 1:11:
11 In him we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will,
Having ordained every change in human behavior as well as His response to it, God never changes like we do on the basis of new information or unforeseen consequences.
Because God is changeless in His being and eternally loyal to His covenant promises and unchanging decree, we can have firm confidence in Him who is “the same yesterday and today and forever” as Hebrews 13:8 says:
8 Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.
Next, we find in verse 6 that this “grieved him to his heart”.
The Hebrew here means “indignant rage.”
However, Christ’s sacrifice pacifies God’s bitter indignation against sin.
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So, God is grieved over his creation, which he at first saw as very good but which is now filled with sin.
The destruction of man and animals and creeping things and birds of the heavens suggests that this will be a reversal of God’s creative work.
The resulting flood reflects this, for the dry land is submerged under water
This was the exact opposite as found in Genesis 1:9 which said:
9 And God said, “Let the waters under the heavens be gathered together into one place, and let the dry land appear.” And it was so.
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In verse 7, God promised total destruction when His patience ran out.
The Hebrew verb used here, “machah” may be translated “to erase” or “to remove completely.”
Often this appears in contexts where something is washed away or erased with water.
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In this narrative, the first created order is destroyed by a flood and the second inaugurated...
This later serves as a prophetic model of the present order that will be destroyed by fire and replaced by the third and perfect one...
We see this described in 2 Peter 3:3–13 which says:
3 knowing this first of all, that scoffers will come in the last days with scoffing, following their own sinful desires.
4 They will say, “Where is the promise of his coming? For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all things are continuing as they were from the beginning of creation.”
5 For they deliberately overlook this fact, that the heavens existed long ago, and the earth was formed out of water and through water by the word of God,
6 and that by means of these the world that then existed was deluged with water and perished.
7 But by the same word the heavens and earth that now exist are stored up for fire, being kept until the day of judgment and destruction of the ungodly.
8 But do not overlook this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.
9 The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.
10 But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a roar, and the heavenly bodies will be burned up and dissolved, and the earth and the works that are done on it will be exposed.
11 Since all these things are thus to be dissolved, what sort of people ought you to be in lives of holiness and godliness,
12 waiting for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be set on fire and dissolved, and the heavenly bodies will melt as they burn!
13 But according to his promise we are waiting for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells.
Jesus also uses this model as a type of the day of the Lord in passages like Matthew 24:37–39 which says:
37 For as were the days of Noah, so will be the coming of the Son of Man.
38 For as in those days before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day when Noah entered the ark,
39 and they were unaware until the flood came and swept them all away, so will be the coming of the Son of Man.
Back to our passage, look with me at verse 7 and notice that animals are included in the flood...
God’s wrath extends well beyond the destruction of humanity for their evil.
Just as the ground has endured the consequences of its rulers’ sin, so also must the animals...
Sin is so destructive that it effects everything around it, too.
Their destruction emphasizes that violence and evil have totally corrupted God’s originally good creation...
In other words, creation was damaged beyond repair so it had to be destroyed.
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However, creation would be restarted again with Noah and his family.
As verse 8 says, “Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord.”
Lest one believe that Noah was spared because of his good works alone, God makes it clear that Noah was a man who believed in God as Creator, Sovereign, and the only Savior from sin.
Noah is the righteous remnant in his day, a remnant God always establishes and preserves by grace...
As 2 Peter 2:5 says:
5 if he did not spare the ancient world, but preserved Noah, a herald of righteousness, with seven others, when he brought a flood upon the world of the ungodly;
God saves Noah, as He saves us, as a free, unconditional gift that Christ finally purchases with His own blood.
Text: Genesis 6:9-12
Text: Genesis 6:9-12
9 These are the generations of Noah. Noah was a righteous man, blameless in his generation. Noah walked with God.
10 And Noah had three sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth.
11 Now the earth was corrupt in God’s sight, and the earth was filled with violence.
12 And God saw the earth, and behold, it was corrupt, for all flesh had corrupted their way on the earth.
Genesis 6:9–9:29 centered on Noah and his descendants.
Additionally, this section of Genesis is dominated by the account of the flood that brings about a renewal of the earth, which has similarities to Genesis 1:1–2:3.
By echoing chapter 1, the whole process is presented as the undoing of creation and then the “re-creation” of the earth as it emerges from the flood.
While the land is cleansed of the defilement caused by human wrongdoing and a new start is made possible by God, the people’s nature has not been transformed.
As we will see in the final short episode of that section.
Look with me at Genesis 9:20–28 which says:
20 Noah began to be a man of the soil, and he planted a vineyard.
21 He drank of the wine and became drunk and lay uncovered in his tent.
22 And Ham, the father of Canaan, saw the nakedness of his father and told his two brothers outside.
23 Then Shem and Japheth took a garment, laid it on both their shoulders, and walked backward and covered the nakedness of their father. Their faces were turned backward, and they did not see their father’s nakedness.
24 When Noah awoke from his wine and knew what his youngest son had done to him,
25 he said, “Cursed be Canaan; a servant of servants shall he be to his brothers.”
26 He also said, “Blessed be the Lord, the God of Shem; and let Canaan be his servant.
27 May God enlarge Japheth, and let him dwell in the tents of Shem, and let Canaan be his servant.”
28 After the flood Noah lived 350 years.
So, the inclination of the human heart is still toward evil even after the Flood event.
Human nature is not renewed.
But, we will explore this later in our study.
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First, let us focus on our next area that we will be studying.
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Noah’s personal righteousness explains why he is warned about the forthcoming deluge.
Looking at verse 9 we can see that the order of one’s of increasing spiritual quality before God is:
“Righteous” which is to live by God’s righteous standards...
So, Noah’s way of life distinguishes him from others.
“Blameless” which is not that Noah is sinless but that his devotion to God and God’s commandments is unchallenged.
The fundamental orientation of his life is to please the Lord.
This phrase is similar to the modern descriptions like wholesome, godly, or honorable.
And to “walked with God” which puts Noah in a class with Enoch.
This brings to mind Hebrews 11:7 which says:
7 By faith Noah, being warned by God concerning events as yet unseen, in reverent fear constructed an ark for the saving of his household. By this he condemned the world and became an heir of the righteousness that comes by faith.
Noah by his righteousness saved not only himself but his family, prefiguring the righteousness of Christ by which Christ saved his spiritual family.The positive attributes listed here are rarely ascribed to human beings in the Old Testament.
So, Noah’s moral integrity is evidence of his trust in God and relationship with God.
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In verse 10 we see Noah’s three sons listed.
“Shem,” Noah’s first son is presented as the ancestor of the Semitic people groups...
One line of his produces Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob...
Consider what it says in Genesis 9:26:
26 He also said, “Blessed be the Lord, the God of Shem; and let Canaan be his servant.
And for further reading look at Genesis 11:10–25.
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Ham is the next of Noah’s sons and his name is either derived from a Hebrew word meaning “hot” or “warm” or the Egyptian word “khemet”, meaning “black land.”
This is a name for the land of Egypt that describes the black soil produced by the flooding of the Nile.
In the Table of Nations in chapter 10, the descendants of Ham occupy the hot lands of the southern Mediterranean and African regions...
For further reading take a look at Genesis 10:6–20.
The name Ham is also used at times in parallel with Egypt in Scripture.
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Japheth is the last of Noah’s sons, and in the Table of Nations in Genesis 10 his descendants are located in Greece and the northern Mediterranean region.
For further reading take a look at Genesis 10:2–5.
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In verse 11 and 12 the earth is described as “corrupt” and “filled with violence.”
So, the seed of Satan, the fallen rejectors of God, deceitful and destructive, had dominated the world.
So, the earth was totally corrupt in God’s sight.
The description of corruption conveys totality...
A sweeping condition of humanity, not one confined to a small locality.
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Furthermore, the mention of “corruption” here may lie behind Paul’s “bondage to corruption” as found in Romans 8:21 which says:
21 that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God.
So, the creation suffers as mankind corrupts its way, and as God punishes that corruption.
Originally delegated to govern the earth on God’s behalf, humans have aggressively and viciously asserted their rule over others, including both people and other living creatures.
Text: Genesis 6:13-17
Text: Genesis 6:13-17
13 And God said to Noah, “I have determined to make an end of all flesh, for the earth is filled with violence through them. Behold, I will destroy them with the earth.
14 Make yourself an ark of gopher wood. Make rooms in the ark, and cover it inside and out with pitch.
15 This is how you are to make it: the length of the ark 300 cubits, its breadth 50 cubits, and its height 30 cubits.
16 Make a roof for the ark, and finish it to a cubit above, and set the door of the ark in its side. Make it with lower, second, and third decks.
17 For behold, I will bring a flood of waters upon the earth to destroy all flesh in which is the breath of life under heaven. Everything that is on the earth shall die.
In verses 13–17 God gives Noah directions for the construction of an ark that will be sufficiently large to house his family and a wide variety of other living creatures.
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God says that He is about to destroy everything on the earth...
This referred to the flood judgment of both of the earth and its inhabitants.
This may seem severe but the punishment matches the crime:
Just as sinful mankind has ruined the earth...
God will ruin the earth as punishment against them.
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The “ark” mentioned in verse 4 was a hollow chest...
The Hebrew word used here, “tevah,” can refer to a vessel of any size.
It was a box designed to float on water.
This is the same word used in Exodus 2:3 to describe the basket Moses’ mother placed him in.
That passage says:
3 When she could hide him no longer, she took for him a basket made of bulrushes and daubed it with bitumen and pitch. She put the child in it and placed it among the reeds by the river bank.
The “gopher wood” mentioned was probably from cedar or cypress trees...
They are in abundance in the mountains of Armenia.
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Next, the Lord uniquely specifies the design for the building of the ark just as He will specify the designs of the wilderness tabernacle and Solomon’s temple.
Notice how the ark preserves Noah’s family and the latter structures will sustain the later covenant people.
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A cubit was about 18 inches long, making the ark’s dimensions equivalent to 450 ft long × 75 ft wide × 45 ft high.
This yielded a displacement of about 43,000 tons.
The inside capacity would have been 1.4 million cubic feet (equal to the capacity of 522 standard railroad box cars), with an approximate total deck area of 95,700 square feet.
It had 3 stories, each 15 feet high; each deck was equipped with various rooms.
This indicated a stable and seaworthy vessel similar in size to a modern day battleship.
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The “pitch” in verse 14 was a resin substance to seal the seams and cracks in the wood.
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Next note that verse 17 says “all flesh” will be destroyed.
This is clear proof that a worldwide flood is in view.
Genesis 7:19 even says:
19 And the waters prevailed so mightily on the earth that all the high mountains under the whole heaven were covered.
If “the mountains of Ararat” in Genesis 8:4 refers to the range that includes present-day Mount Ararat in Turkey which has an elevation of 16,854 feet, then the amount of water necessary to cover it would be at least 16,854 feet above sea level.
That is a lot of water!
Text: Genesis 6:18-22
Text: Genesis 6:18-22
18 But I will establish my covenant with you, and you shall come into the ark, you, your sons, your wife, and your sons’ wives with you.
19 And of every living thing of all flesh, you shall bring two of every sort into the ark to keep them alive with you. They shall be male and female.
20 Of the birds according to their kinds, and of the animals according to their kinds, of every creeping thing of the ground, according to its kind, two of every sort shall come in to you to keep them alive.
21 Also take with you every sort of food that is eaten, and store it up. It shall serve as food for you and for them.”
22 Noah did this; he did all that God commanded him.
In verses 18–22 God indicates that he will establish a covenant with Noah.
In contrast with the rest of the created order which God was to destroy, Noah and his family were not only to be preserved, but they were to enjoy the provision and protection of a covenant relationship with God.
Noah’s salvation from the waters of the flood is an example of God’s grace and mercy.
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Additionally, this is the first mention of “covenant” in Scripture.
This pledged covenant is actually officially made and explained in Genesis 9:9–17 which says:
9 “Behold, I establish my covenant with you and your offspring after you,
10 and with every living creature that is with you, the birds, the livestock, and every beast of the earth with you, as many as came out of the ark; it is for every beast of the earth.
11 I establish my covenant with you, that never again shall all flesh be cut off by the waters of the flood, and never again shall there be a flood to destroy the earth.”
12 And God said, “This is the sign of the covenant that I make between me and you and every living creature that is with you, for all future generations:
13 I have set my bow in the cloud, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between me and the earth.
14 When I bring clouds over the earth and the bow is seen in the clouds,
15 I will remember my covenant that is between me and you and every living creature of all flesh. And the waters shall never again become a flood to destroy all flesh.
16 When the bow is in the clouds, I will see it and remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is on the earth.”
17 God said to Noah, “This is the sign of the covenant that I have established between me and all flesh that is on the earth.”
So, by taking into the ark two of every living thing, including birds, animals, and creeping things, Noah displays the caring oversight that people were expected to have for other living creatures.
There are less than 18,000 species living on earth today.
This number may have been doubled to allow for now extinct creatures.
With two of each, a total of 72,000 creatures is reasonable.
The cubic space could hold 125,000 sheep, and since the average size of land animals is less than a sheep, perhaps less than 60 percent of the space was used.
The very large animals were surely represented by young.
So, there was ample room also for the one million species of insects, as well as food for a year for everyone.
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One final note...
In verse 20 Scripture records that all these animals “shall come in to you.”
This is an incredible display of God’s power!
Closing Prayer
Closing Prayer
Please join me one more time in prayer.