Genesis 6:5-
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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.
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Before we jump into our study at vs. 5.. I want to backtrack a tiny bit and touch on something I missed in the last study. In vs. 3 it said.
3 Then the Lord said, “My Spirit shall not abide in man forever, for he is flesh: his days shall be 120 years.”
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Now… as we look forward to the ages of patriarchs, as they are recorded through the line of Seth all the way down to Abraham.... everyone lived to be quite older than 120 years.
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As time passed… life spans lessened and in Ps. 90… a song attributed to Moses… is says in vs. 10… the years of our life are seventy, or even by reason of strength eighty…
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So, if Gen 6:3 is telling us, that God is limiting the life span of man to 120 years… then God is not telling the truth… and more than once, we learn in the Bible, that God is not a liar.
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So, this 120 years must mean something else…
The only answer that makes sense, is that from this point, in Gen 6:3… God was giving mankind 120 years before He brought judgment.
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In a way… as we look at verses 5-6, it’s almost as if God is giving us more context to what He said in vs. 3. His Spirit would not abide in man forever. Why?
-Because wickedness was great in the earth…
-Because every intention of the thoughts of man’s heart was only evil continually.
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So, it would seem… by the end of the 120 year time span announced by the Lord in vs. 3… God was going to act on his regret… and He was going to blot out man whom He created from the face of the land…
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However… the line of Eve… was going to continue. Remember, these people were very mindful of the promise that God made to Eve. Eve thought that Cain was going to be the fulfillment of that promise… and then, several generations later, Lamech was certain that Noah would be the fulfilment of the promise.
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God may be planning to destroy humanity… but not the lineage through which His promise was made.
So… from that lineage was Noah… and Noah found favor in the eyes of God.
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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.
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It’s interesting to note… that Noah was righteous and blameless… - But, we’re not so sure about his sons. Shem went on to be the one through whom the promised line would pass leading to the next significant figure… Abraham.
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But it would appear… that Noah, as father of this family… provided a covering to his children and to their wives. God found favor with Noah… and his family ended up being blessed and preserved because of that. .
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So much could be said of this… but in short, let me say… when you live obediently to the Lord, it should also, in some way… bless and preserve your family. Not that it always will. Those family members have free will and can choose their own path is they want… - But where submission is chosen over rebellion… the family members are blessed by faithfulness of their leaders.
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In one of the NT teachings on divorce, Paul talks about the unbelieving spouse who is willing to remain with believing spouse.
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It’s a difficult passage that is impossible to interpret without the help of other passages… but it says in 1 Cor 7:14… the unbelieving husband is made holy because of his wife, and the unbelieving wife if made holy because of her husband. Otherwise your children would be unclean, but as it is, they are holy.
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This is not saying that the unbelieving spouse or children are ‘saved’.... the rules for salvation are not changed. And by holy, it does not mean that they are pure in the eyes of God… -
The word ‘holy’ speaks of ceremonial cleanliness..
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Now, let me add a little more context from 2 Tim. 2
20 Now in a great house there are not only vessels of gold and silver but also of wood and clay, some for honorable use, some for dishonorable. 21 Therefore, if anyone cleanses himself from what is dishonorable, he will be a vessel for honorable use, set apart as holy, useful to the master of the house, ready for every good work.
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Paul is encouraging Timothy to pursue righteousness so that he can be a vessel of honor…
Paul is telling the believing spouse… that they, as vessels of honor… extend some blessing, some opportunity, some education, some protection… to their spouse and children, because of the faithful lives they live…
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And so with Noah… God found favor in Him… but nothing is said of Japeth, Shem or Ham… - We don’t know if God found favor in them…
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Instead… we see that they get to be recipients of his favor, even as the rest of humanity suffered destruction.
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What’s the take away on this?
Be good parents. Be a vessel of honor… do what Paul told Timothy to do… pursue righteousness, faith, love and peace… - by doing so, your spouse and your children will benefit greatly.
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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. 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.
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The earth was corrupt… - the most common English word used for this Hebrew word… is ‘Destroy’… The word speaks of something that is spoiled, decayed, injured and rotten.
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Think of that perfectly yellow banana at home on the counter.
It’s ready… it’s at optimum flavor and firmness…
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But… you forget about it… for the next 5 or 6 days...
And then you think… “Hey, I want that banana....” - and you go to it, and it’s black… oozing… partially liquified… a whole legion of fruit flies are swarming around it… and it’s literally dripping off the counter, and onto the floor.
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Guess what… there’s no going back to the yellow banana.
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You have one option.
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It is corrupt. It is spoiled. It is rotten. It is decayed. It is corrupt.
This is what God is saying, that man has done to the earth.
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According to the second half of vs. 12… apparently, there was a natural way, that flesh was supposed to have on the earth. - But all flesh, had corrupted that way.
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There was a plan… a design… a purpose for man on the earth. -
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.”
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This is the purpose of man upon the earth.
In fact, God repeats this to Noah… twice… in Gen 9:1 and Gen 9:7
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Isaac repeated this in Gen 26:22
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When God let Jacob know that he was going to be a big deal… and that his name would now be Israel… He reminded him of the purpose of man upon the earth…
11 And God said to him, “I am God Almighty: be fruitful and multiply. A nation and a company of nations shall come from you, and kings shall come from your own body.
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Jeremiah prophesied the gathering of a remnant… the purpose that remnant would have in Jer. 23.3… to be fruitful and multiply.
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to be fruitful and to multiply… and to subdue the earth… means so much more than just reproducing.
yes, they were to have children..
But their children were to carry on the call to be fruitful. To be productive. To live lives that amounted to something. To subdue the earth and have dominion over it… to utilize the resources of this word in a positive and productive way…
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But, we see what the people of Noah’s day were actually doing… and we have to easily conclude that their actions represent the opposite of what God called man to do… -
They were filled with violence.
Which is not fruitful…
The earth had become spoiled...
Which means, they did not subdue the earth and have dominion over it, in a way that was fruitful.
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Man was called to multiply in his fruitfulness… but what was multiplying in Noah’s day?
Back to vs. 5 - wickedness… - intentions and thoughts of evil…
Vs. 11… violence.
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It’s ruined. Rotten. There’s no going back.
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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.
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Here we are given the dimensions of the ark… It’s quite big… and Noah only had three employees in this venture. It was going to take some time to build it… -
Years… decades… so much time was going to pass… and everyone would become aware of what he was doing. There would be no hiding it.
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Though it is not written in our Bibles… Jewish traditions say that Noah spent a lot of time preaching…
2. Pet. 2:5 calls Noah a “herald of righteousness”
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Did he go out into the cities and villages and preach repentance?
To be honest… I doubt he had time.
I believe Noah’s faithfulness over the decades to build a giant boat… on land… far from any body of water… was a message in itself.
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People would have wanted to know why he was doing it..
And surely, he told them.
Surely, the news of this spread throughout the known world..
And through his faithfulness… Noah was a herald of righteousness.
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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.
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Now, I want to be clear. If you watched that Hollywood movie about Noah some years back… and rock monsters rose up from the ground to help build the ark… well… - that’s not real.
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They were called ‘watchers’ in that movie… which is a Babylonian or Chaldean term for the Nephalim… and the fact that they were creatures made of stone was taken from some other ancient mythology of its day.
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This boat… was build by Noah and his sons… over a very large span of time.
And the gathering of the animals… by their kind.. or by their ‘category’… was also done by Noah and his sons.
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1 Then the Lord said to Noah, “Go into the ark, you and all your household, for I have seen that you are righteous before me in this generation. 2 Take with you seven pairs of all clean animals, the male and his mate, and a pair of the animals that are not clean, the male and his mate, 3 and seven pairs of the birds of the heavens also, male and female, to keep their offspring alive on the face of all the earth. 4 For in seven days I will send rain on the earth forty days and forty nights, and every living thing that I have made I will blot out from the face of the ground.” 5 And Noah did all that the Lord had commanded him. 6 Noah was six hundred years old when the flood of waters came upon the earth. 7 And Noah and his sons and his wife and his sons’ wives with him went into the ark to escape the waters of the flood. 8 Of clean animals, and of animals that are not clean, and of birds, and of everything that creeps on the ground, 9 two and two, male and female, went into the ark with Noah, as God had commanded Noah. 10 And after seven days the waters of the flood came upon the earth. 11 In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, in the second month, on the seventeenth day of the month, on that day all the fountains of the great deep burst forth, and the windows of the heavens were opened. 12 And rain fell upon the earth forty days and forty nights. 13 On the very same day Noah and his sons, Shem and Ham and Japheth, and Noah’s wife and the three wives of his sons with them entered the ark, 14 they and every beast, according to its kind, and all the livestock according to their kinds, and every creeping thing that creeps on the earth, according to its kind, and every bird, according to its kind, every winged creature. 15 They went into the ark with Noah, two and two of all flesh in which there was the breath of life. 16 And those that entered, male and female of all flesh, went in as God had commanded him. And the Lord shut him in.
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Seven days before the rain, the order was given to load up.
When you think about how many possible animals there were… and how the clean animals and birds were not boarded in groups of two, but rather in groups of 14… - Well, this was going to be a timely endeavor.
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It’s doubtful it all happened in one day…
So God gave Noah a week to get it done… bring on the unclean animals in pairs… and the clean animals… - those that are good for labor, food and sacrifice… bring 7 pairs of those…
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And verse 5 is worth noting.
Noah did all that the LORD had commanded him.
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This is, after all… why Noah was chosen. - He didn’t obey in part. He didn’t do some of what God wanted… He did it all.
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In vs. 11, we see that the water came from two directions.... above, and below.
It’s worth noting… that in this passage… the creation account from chapter 1 is happening in reverse.
God created animals in pairs… to multiply… and now, God is preserving animals in pairs… because all that multiplication is getting subtracted...
In Genesis 1… the creation account starts with the earth covered in water. Then, through creation, God separates the water… taking some up into the atmosphere, and keeping some down here in the form of oceans… - But in the flood… all of that water is going to come crashing back down…
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Also, it’s not just rain that floods the earth. Water will also gush up from below.
Interestingly… about 8 years ago, scientists discovered a reservoir of water… 3 times the volume of all the oceans… about 700 km below the surface of the earth. The water is in a rock called Ringwoodite…
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There is… a lot of water down there… and that’s just something they have recently found… Who knows what they’ve yet to discover.
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But even with this, we can see how this amount of water could have been made available by God. Apparently, He has a way of storing massive amounts of… deep down into the earth.
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17 The flood continued forty days on the earth. The waters increased and bore up the ark, and it rose high above the earth. 18 The waters prevailed and increased greatly on the earth, and the ark floated on the face of the waters. 19 And the waters prevailed so mightily on the earth that all the high mountains under the whole heaven were covered. 20 The waters prevailed above the mountains, covering them fifteen cubits deep. 21 And all flesh died that moved on the earth, birds, livestock, beasts, all swarming creatures that swarm on the earth, and all mankind. 22 Everything on the dry land in whose nostrils was the breath of life died. 23 He blotted out every living thing that was on the face of the ground, man and animals and creeping things and birds of the heavens. They were blotted out from the earth. Only Noah was left, and those who were with him in the ark. 24 And the waters prevailed on the earth 150 days.
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In these remaining verses, we see the extent of the flood.
There is a lot of discussion on how extensive the flood actually was. We don’t know a lot about the geography of the earth before the flood… or how high a mountain was to these people. If you go to the middle east now, and look at things they call mountains, you might be surprised at how small they are.
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Many will argue for a regional flood… meaning, the entire known world… to Noah and his generation, was flooded. This argument comes because the Nephilim will reappear in later chapters. There will be giants again. There will be races of giants.
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If they were all destroyed in the flood… how is it that they could show up again? - So, to answer this question, many will say that the flood was regional.
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Interestingly… all over the earth… on mountains and in deserts… you can find fossil evidence of ancient crustaceans and fish.
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If the world was completely flooded… how then, are there going to be giants in the land again?
- There are a few explanations. But I think we will wait till they show up again to talk about those ideas.
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Gen 8… summary..
Moving into chapter 8… the waters eventually began to subside.. It took a while. And even after the ark settled on the top of Mnt. Ararat… they still remained in the ark for quite some time…
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Birds were sent out to see if there was other land… eventually it proved true… and after the earth had dried out… God gave Noah the go ahead..
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15 Then God said to Noah, 16 “Go out from the ark, you and your wife, and your sons and your sons’ wives with you. 17 Bring out with you every living thing that is with you of all flesh—birds and animals and every creeping thing that creeps on the earth—that they may swarm on the earth, and be fruitful and multiply on the earth.” 18 So Noah went out, and his sons and his wife and his sons’ wives with him. 19 Every beast, every creeping thing, and every bird, everything that moves on the earth, went out by families from the ark.
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They let everything go. And the animals went out to do what people were supposed to do… to fulfill their design… to be fruitful and to multiply…
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In the next verse… Noah turns his attention to the Lord.. .
20 Then Noah built an altar to the Lord and took some of every clean animal and some of every clean bird and offered burnt offerings on the altar. 21 And when the Lord smelled the pleasing aroma, the Lord said in his heart, “I will never again curse the ground because of man, for the intention of man’s heart is evil from his youth. Neither will I ever again strike down every living creature as I have done. 22 While the earth remains, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night, shall not cease.”
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The worship that Noah offered… please God.
In this one moment… we could easily say… that all the people of the earth, were obedient to God… and worshipping God in truth… - But, there were only 8 people.
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God responded with a few promises…
He will never curse the ground because of man… - This is really curious to me. Does this mean, that the ground that Adam worked… and all the generations between him and Noah… was worse than the ground that we work?
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Were the thorns worse? Was the labor required to bring forth a crop… more difficult?
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Was this, post flood ground… no longer bearing the curse that God put upon it in Genesis 3?
It’s something to ponder… reminding us… that what Adam, Cain and their descendants endured to make food… was possibly, much more difficult than we can imagine.
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God also recognizes… that man isn’t going to change. The intention of man’s heart is evil from his youth.
So… instead of a flood… God will give man the Law… for in the law, man will learn to recognize what his evil is… what is sins are… what about him, is displeasing to God… and eventually… through the Law… man will realize that his only hope is in the Gospel.
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God makes no promises about preserving the earth forever…
But.. He does promise a few things… while it remains… The seasons… day… and night… .
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