Genesis 6.9-12-The Character of Noah in Contrast with the Antediluvian World
Sunday September 11, 2005
Genesis: Genesis 6:9-12-The Character of Noah in Contrast with the Antediluvian World
Lesson # 25
Please turn in your Bibles to Genesis 6:1.
This morning we will study Genesis 6:9-12, which records for us the contrast between the spiritual character of Noah and the character of his contemporaries who were unbelievers.
Just as Noah’s lifestyle was contrary to his unbelieving contemporaries so our lifestyle as church age believers should be contrary to that of our unbelieving contemporaries.
Ephesians 5:8, “for you were formerly darkness, but now you are Light in the Lord; walk as children of Light.”
On Thursday evening we studied Genesis 6:1-8, which records for us that fallen angels had sexual unions with unbelieving women in an attempt to prevent the incarnation of the Son of God by having sex with woman.
The term “incarnation” is a technical theological term, which means that the Son of God became a human being and the result of this is called the “hypostatic union,” which means that Jesus Christ is undiminished deity and true humanity in one Person forever, or in other words, He is 100% deity and 100% humanity.
By attempting to prevent God the Son from becoming a human being, Satan and the fallen angels who in effect be preventing God from fulfilling His promise in Genesis 3:15 to give Eve a “Seed” who would destroy the works of the devil.
Genesis 3:15, “And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed; He shall bruise you on the head, and you shall bruise him on the heel.”
Genesis 6:1, “Now it came about, when men began to multiply on the face of the land, and daughters were born to them.”
Genesis 6:2, “that the sons of God saw that the daughters of men were beautiful; and they took wives for themselves, whomever they chose.”
In the Old Testament, the phrase “the sons of God” (Hebrew: beneha’elohim) is a technical term that is always used for the angels, both elect and non-elect (Gen. 6:2, 4; Job 1:6; 2:1; 38:7).
The fallen angels of Genesis 6 are mentioned in the New Testament (1 Peter 3:18-20; 2 Peter 2:4-5).
Jude 6, “And angels who did not keep their own domain, but abandoned their proper abode, He has kept in eternal bonds under darkness for the judgment of the great day.”
Genesis 6:3, “Then the LORD said, ‘My Spirit shall not strive with man forever, because he also is flesh; nevertheless his days shall be one hundred and twenty years.’”
Genesis 6:4, “The Nephilim were on the earth in those days, and also afterward, when the sons of God came in to the daughters of men, and they bore children to them. Those were the mighty men who were of old, men of renown.”
The “Nephilim” were the offspring of the sexual union between “the sons of God” who were fallen angels and the “daughters of men” and were half-men and half-angel.
Genesis 6:5, “Then the LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great on the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.”
Genesis 6:6, “The LORD was sorry that He had made man on the earth, and He was grieved in His heart.”
Genesis 6:7, “The LORD said, ‘I will blot out man whom I have created from the face of the land, from man to animals to creeping things and to birds of the sky; for I am sorry that I have made them.’”
Genesis 6:8, “But Noah found favor in the eyes of the LORD.”
Noah’s name literally means “rest, quiet” and he was the son of the second Lamech, the grandson of Methuselah and is mentioned 10th in the descent from Adam.
Noah was a prophet according to 2 Peter 2:5 who was used by God to warn an unregenerate and degenerate world for 120 years of the impending judgment on the earth.
Genesis 6:9, “These are the records of the generations of Noah. Noah was a righteous man, blameless in his time; Noah walked with God.”
“These are the records of the generations of Noah” is a “broad” genealogy presenting only the first generation of Noah’s descendants and the major event of their lives, namely, the Great Flood.
Noah is a pivotal figure in Genesis 1-11 since he comes midway in the genealogies between Adam and Abraham.
The account of Noah and his family, which comes in the middle of the books between the creation of Adam and the call of Abraham, records a pivotal event in that history, namely, the Great Flood.
He is the last antediluvian patriarch mentioned in the list of the heroes of faith found in Hebrews 11.
Hebrews 11:7, “By means of faith, Noah, after having received a divine warning concerning the things which at the time were not yet seen, and having responding reverentially built an ark for the deliverance of his household through which (faith) he rendered the wickedness of the world more evident and censurable and as a result he became a possessor of divine righteousness because of his faith.”
“Noah was a righteous man,” means that Noah trusted in Jesus Christ as His Savior and as a result God imputed His righteousness to Noah and it also means that Noah lived in that righteousness by being obedient to God’s Word and thus fulfilling his obligations to both love God and his fellow human being.
The righteousness of God is received through faith in the gospel of Jesus Christ since.
Romans 1:16, “For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.”
Romans 1:17, “For in it (the Gospel) the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, ‘BUT THE RIGHTEOUS man SHALL LIVE BY FAITH.’”
The righteousness of God is credited as a gift to the spiritual bank account of the person who exercises faith alone in Christ alone.
Romans 4:3, “For what does the Scripture say? ‘ABRAHAM BELIEVED GOD, AND IT WAS CREDITED TO HIM AS RIGHTEOUSNESS.’”
After salvation, the believer is commanded to live in the righteousness of God.
Romans 6:17, “But thanks be to God that though you were slaves of sin, you became obedient from the heart to that form of teaching to which you were committed.”
Romans 6:18, “and having been freed from sin, you became slaves of righteousness.”
The Word of God trains the believer to live in the righteousness of Christ.
2 Timothy 3:16-17, “All Scripture is God-breathed and is profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness; so that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work.”
“Blameless” does “not” mean that Noah was sinless, only the Lord Jesus was, but rather it means that Noah was “virtuous” and had “integrity of character” as a result of fulfilling his obligations to love both God and men.
Romans 13:10, “Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfillment of the law.”
“Noah walked with God” means that Noah had intimate fellowship with God, which is accomplished by being obedient to the Word of God and loving both God and man.
Genesis 6:10, “Noah became the father of three sons: Shem, Ham, and Japheth.”
Genesis 6:11, “Now the earth (earth’s inhabitants) was corrupt in the sight of God, and the earth was filled with violence.”
Genesis 6:11 contains the figure of speech called “metonymy of the subject” where the earth is put for its inhabitants; therefore, we could translate “the earth” as “the earth’s inhabitants.”
“Corrupt” is the verb shachath (tj^vv*) (shaw-khath), which appears in the qal stem emphasizing that the earth’s inhabitants were in a state of being destroyed in the sense of being totally and completely degenerate in the judgment of God because of the sexual invasion of the fallen angels.
“Violence” is the noun chamas (smj) (khaw-mawce), which is a very broad term for wickedness in a general sense, which took the form of murder, occultism, sexual immorality and stealing.
Genesis 6:12, “God looked on the earth (earth’s inhabitants), and behold, it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted their way upon the earth.”
“It was corrupt” is the niphal form of the verb shachath indicating that the earth’s inhabitants were in a state of suffering the effects of this union between women and the fallen angels; thus, the purity of the human race was destroyed by this angelic invasion.
“Had corrupted” is the hiphil form of the verb shachath indicating that the entire human race was responsible for their actions by permitting this angelic invasion to take place among themselves.
On Tuesday evening we will study where Noah obeyed the Lord’s command to build an Ark in order to deliver him and his family from the coming flood that the Lord would use to destroy the wicked inhabitants of planet earth.