Genesis 9

Recap:

Alrighty so the last time that we were together, in the book of Genesis is was in May!

So it has been a hot second since we have been in this book together and as a result I think it would be a good idea for us to a big overview of what we have looked at aready in the first 8 chapters!

In chapters 1 and 2 we saw the 6 days of creation

on day 1, the Lord created light and separated it from darkness

on day 2 He made a firmament, or the sky.

day 3, can anyone tell me?

God made the plants and dry land

on day 4 he made the sun, moon and starts

day 5 was the creation of the birds and fish

6 was animals and mankind

and then what did God do on day 7?

He rested and made a sabbath day, for rest.

from there we moved onto chapter 3 where we saw…. any guesses?

the fall of mankind and mankind’s introduction to death

Now I want us all to know that these are real historical things that happened…

there are many people out there that even claim to be christian who are led astray and have become wolves in sheep clothing.

They are called liberal christians… and they claim that these accounts in genesis are just nice stories ment to teach us good life lessons, but they didn’t really happen…

“its impossible that Noah could have made that huge ark… life had to evolve, it couldn’t be made in 7 days… those miracles are too powerful, too hard for God to do”

But its not a problem if your God is all powerful and limitless!

But if you believe that these are just fake stories then you can’t trust a single word that Jesus, John, Peter and Paul say,

because… Paul in Romans 5 and 1 Cor 15:22 said that Adam and eve were real people and their sin caused real death to spread on the earth

John in 1 John 3:12 affirms that cain and able really existed and cain really murdered abel

Jesus in Matthew 24, Peter in 1 Peter 3 20 both affirm Noah.

Jesus says that Jonah was a real person who really was in a whale for 3 days and 3 nights in Matthew 12

Needless to say if Jesus believed it an taught it that is good enough to me.

Moving on in chapter 4 we see how cain murdered Abel

In chapter 5 we saw the Genealogy from Adam to Noah’s sons

in chapter 6 we saw how the wickedness of mankind reached a climax…

Fallen angels had babies with human women and created a race of giants called the Nephilum

and mankind came to a place where every intent of the thoughts of their hearts were only evil continually

it was just a constant stream of evil and filth

and you see chaos and death at every corner of humanity

and so God prophesies and give man 120 years before judgement

at the same time he comes to a man by the name of … who?

Noah!

and tells his to prepare an ark, and he does

and that when in chapter 7 the flood comes…

Rain from the sky, fountains from the deep, and the windows of heaven were opened and everything that lives on the dry ground dies.

chapter 8 comes around and we see the water start to recede…

As Noah is waiting for the waters to recede we mentioned 4 ways that Noah handled this waiting period:

the first one is faith,

he trusted that God was not done with Him or humanity yet.

Number 2 was Patience

that word in Greek means remaining where you are but with cheerfulness and hope.

Number 3 was seeking or being watchful

he sends out a raven and a dove, seeking to know the timing and will of God.

and Number 4 was action

when the Lord called Noah and his family out, he did not hesitate, he took action and prepared to leave v.15-16.

And then as soon as Noah gets onto the land again he builds an alter to the Lord in order to worship him

And now as we continue on 1 corinthians 10:11 tells us that these accounts here in the Old Testament are lessons to teach us what to do and what not to do…

And I am always encouraged because the people in the Bible are real people… their not candy coated or perfect but we can see both their successes and failures.

And Noah is no exception to that, we saw him extremely successful, obedient and faithful to God but in this chapter we see him and his family make some pretty big mistakes.

Alright so lets get into the text starting in V.1

V.1-7

alrighty so here in chapter 8 Noah and his family have just gotten off the ark…

This is a new start for humanity and the world as a whole and so this chapter mimics in some small ways Genesis chapter 1, the very beginning…

Now if we compare Genesis 1:28-31 and Gen 9 1-3 they are very similar

God calls them to be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth

God calls them to have leadership, stewardship or control over the living creatures on the earth

and God gives them food

but in this passage there are 3 key differences:

1. The first difference to this new world is the aspect of fear.

We see in V.2 that God put fear and dread of mankind into the animals where there was once peace and unity

imagine walking around will a bunch of wild animals and getting to pet them… but now there is fear and dread

2. The second change to this new world is the type of food.

Now we see in v.3 that all the animals on the earth are now food that mankind can eat.

in the garden, mankind and animals only ate plants but now in this new ecosystem where plants don’t grow as well and their a harsher seasons… it is going to be necessary that mankind eat animals to have the nutrients to survive.

3. And then the last change that we see to this new world is blood.

because death is in the world post the fall and post flood, now there is this new and weird thing that God addresses with Noah

Specifically a new way of treating the blood of animals and humans:

v.4-5

The word blood is used 424 times in the Bible… which means that it is an incredibly important subject… and why is that?

well, the answer is right here, the life of a living being is in it blood.

It it amazing that this was recorded so many thousands of years ago with no medical technology and yet it was recorded that life is in the blood…

without blood there is no life…

in the ER if you come in and you are really sick the first thing that I am going to try to do is probably tap into your lifeline, your blood, through an IV and give you fluids and medicines to help support your life.

God wanted mankind to respect the blood…

Kent Hughes said: Humans are not to devour animals the way animals devour one another, while the blood is pulsing in the flesh. The reason for this is respect for life and beyond that the respect for the giver of life. 

ever since cain murdered his brother abel people began to think of life as cheap… killing someone as no big deal…

But God wants us to respect the life of humanity and so he gave a command not to eat blood and not to shed blood.

and if anyone does their life will be taken as a result…

this is God saying like in a court of law… if you do this, this is your punishment…

if you kill someone, you will have the death penalty.

Warren wiersbe said, God had put the fear of humans into the animals, but now He had to put the fear of God into the humans lest they destroy one another!

We are made in the image of God, if we destroy a person who is made in the image of God we are destroying a precious representation of God.

Likewise Youth family, we should consider…

what we do to our brother and sister is what we do to the image of God?…

Let me give you 3 practical ways tonight from the Word that you can respect others as being made in the image of God:

Love them!

1 John 4:7 says, “Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God.” ,1 John 4:11 “Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.”

Love comes from the God of Love…

so ask the Lord to fill you with love for others

Love is the first fruit of the Spirit, and it is the greatest gift of the spirit… and so if you are abiding with the Lord it is impossible that you will not eventually love your brothers and sisters.

Be filled with the Holy Spirit

Ephesians 4:1–3 “I, therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you to walk worthy of the calling with which you were called, with all lowliness and gentleness, with longsuffering, bearing with one another in love, endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.”

the key phrase I want us to focus on is the unity of the Spirit

it is the Holy Spirit who unifies us as the church… and if you are regularly being filled with the Holy Spirit by faith and through asking then he will help you be unified in the bond of peace.

Seek their good

Philippians 2:3–4 “Let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit, but in lowliness of mind let each esteem others better than himself. Let each of you look out not only for his own interests, but also for the interests of others.”

You know how you are careful not to hurt yourself… how you feed yourself when your hungry, you rest when your tired…

we tend to take pretty good care of ourselves, but do you take care of your friends too?

do you get them some food when their hungry, or maybe protect them when they might hurt themself?

seek the good of your brother in sister!

Beautiful, alright so continuing on…

V.8-17

So God in this passage, we see, makes a beautiful promise made with all the earth…

A promise to never to destroy the earth again with a flood

V. 18-28

Pray.