Genesis 6:14-22 PART 2

Good morning, gang!

I wanted to revisit the verses that talk about how Noah was to build the ark, because there is some significance in them. Because most of us have known this story since childhood (probably first saw it on flannel board as toddlers...), we tend to see it in a cartoon version in our minds. We see a round Noah with a long white beard and some cute pairs of animals, including two giraffe heads sticking out of the top of the ark! This makes it harder for us to grasp the reality, I think. So I wanted to look at some of the technical things about the ark.

First, if we assume 18 inches to a cubit (which seems to be, according to Jon Courson, what most accept), then the ark was about 450 feet long, 75 feet wide, and 45 feet high, with three stories, or about 97,000 square feet. Noah was told to coat the ark with "pitch," inside and out. Courson says this word "pitch" is the Hebrew word, kapher, which is translated in seventy other passages in the Old Testament as "atonement." Noah and his family were being saved from destruction and "sealed" in with this pitch, even as we are "sealed" in Christ through His atonement for our sin. Noah was to put in a window, for light, and only one door on the side. As Courson says, there was no back entrance or emergency exit. There was only one way in, even as Jesus is the ONLY way to the Father.

Jon Courson says that the 97,000 square feet was the equivalent to 520 boxcars. He calculates more than 35,000 species of animals, including reptiles and birds, with an average size of a full-grown sheep, would take up only about 240 boxcars, leaving plenty of room for Noah and his family and the food and supplies.

Again, verse 22 tells us, Noah did everything just as God commanded him. Courson wonders, what if Noah had not obeyed? We would not be here! But his obedience points to an even greater obedience of an even greater Carpenter: Jesus' obedience unto death on the cross. Courson finds these parallels: Noah held a hammer in his hand, while Jesus absorbed the blows of a hammer upon his hands; Noah built with wood, while Jesus was pinned to wood; Noah constructed a door, while Jesus said, "I am the Door;" Noah covered the ark in pitch, while Jesus covers us with His blood. All who entered the ark were saved. Jesus is our Ark, and all who would be saved must enter into a relationship with Him.

What happens if you and I don't obey God? What are the effects to those around us? Noah's obedience saved his family and the animals. What might happen if you and I did not obey God in giving up whatever he's asking us to give up? What if we don't do what we know He's been nudging or outright telling us to do? And conversely, what would happen in our families if we decided to obey - if they saw in us a wholehearted giving over of ourselves to God (Rom 12:1-2)? Hmmm...

Tomorrow we'll read about the animals and Noah's family entering the ark.

Have a great day!

Genesis 6:8-22

Good morning, all!

I'm going to revisit verse 8 from yesterday: But Noah found favor in the eyes of the LORD. The KJV says, But Noah found grace in the eyes of the LORD. Courson talks about how Noah wasn't the only one who was being shown grace, God's unmerited favor. God extends His grace to all - Noah was the one who found it, because he was seeking it in faith. God delayed the judgment, extending grace to any who would receive it, for a hundred years, while Noah built the ark. Any one of Noah's neighbors could have believed Noah's message that God was about to bring judgment.

The Bible tells us, Noah was a righteous man, blameless among the people of his time, and he walked faithfully with God. (vs. 9) Hebrews 11:7 says, By faith Noah, when warned about things not yet seen, in holy fear built an ark to save his family. By his faith he condemned the world and became heir of the righteousness that is in keeping with faith.

When you think what the rest of the world was like then, it is remarkable that Noah stood alone and faithfully walked with God! But God did not just love Noah - He loved the whole world. And how painful for him to see, as verse 12 tells us, how corrupt the earth had become, for all the people on the earth had corrupted their ways.

We don't quite get how very holy God is. It is the only attribute of God that is repeated three times (which was significant for its emphasis). When the prophet Isaiah saw the vision of the LORD seated on his throne (Isaiah 6), he saw the seraphim flying above the throne, singing, "Holy, holy, holy is the LORD Almighty; the whole earth is filled with his glory." Notice that it is not "Love, love, love..." Even as we know that God is love, it was his holiness that was the most outstanding trait praised by the seraphim. Isaiah was immediately filled with an awareness of his own terrible sinfulness, and knew that he was "undone." God cannot abide sin - and the consequences of our sin is so great, the damage so widespread. We can never fool ourselves into thinking that what we do does not affect others! In the case of Noah's time, it had affected the entire earth (including nature), to the point that God said to Noah, I am going to put an end to all people, for the earth is filled with violence because of them. I am surely going to destroy both them and the earth. (verse 13)

Sin is serious business. Yet grace is greater than all our sin! This truly is the difference between all other faiths and Christianity. All other faiths require that men DO things, whether good deeds, meditations, gain more knowledge - whatever. Christianity is the only faith that says is is all "by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone." Period. You cannot do anything to deserve it - you just have to receive it through faith. And even our faith is a gift! (see Ephesians 2:8-10)

Noah found grace, and when God called him to build the ark (note the very specific directions God gave him), God said, But I will establish my covenant with you... God knew that he could count on Noah to obey Him, because Noah had a history of walking with God. And sure enough, verse 22 says, Noah did everything just as God commanded him. Wouldn't you love to have that said of you???

Lots to think about! Hope you all have a restful weekend. For those of you that are passionate about it, enjoy SuperBowl Sunday! I only just realized this morning, when watching the news, that it is in Dallas!!! :)

Genesis 6:1-8

Good morning, all!

The first 7 verses of this chapter deal with the appalling plunge into depravity in the world that causes God to send the Flood in judgment.

When human beings began to increase in number on the earth and daughters were born to them, the sons of God saw that the daughters of humans were beautiful, and they married any of them they chose. Then the LORD said, “My Spirit will not contend with humans forever, for they are mortal; their days will be a hundred and twenty year

The Nephilim were on the earth in those days—and also afterward—when the sons of God went to the daughters of humans and had children by them. They were the heroes of old, men of renown. (verses 1-4)

I'm grateful for commentaries that explain these verses, because I'm immediately wondering who the "sons of God" are. Jon Courson says the Hebrew phrase for "sons of God" is benai elohim, and that every time the phrase is used in the Old Testament, it refers to angels. There are two groups of angels: those who do God's work and fallen angels, or demons. Jon Courson believes that these were demons who actually had sexual relations with human women, which resulted in the birth of the nephiliim, which is the Hebrew word for "fallen ones." This word is translated as "giants" in the KJV. Courson believes that these fallen angels were on a mission from Lucifer "to pollute the seed of women to such a degree that the promise of Genesis 3:15 would be thwarted." And, certainly, Satan's goal throughout history has been to somehow stop God's plan!

How bad must it have been if women were engaging in sex with demons?? Yet, as I read this, I immediately thought of the current obsession with all things vampire!!! Young girls are completely fascinated with the idea of having relationships with vampires. So much of what is on TV and in movies focuses on such bizarre relations. Hard-core porn is everywhere and makes billions of dollars every year. Why doesn't the LORD just fold up this planet and toss it out???

The LORD saw how great the wickedness of the human race had become on the earth, and that every inclination of the thoughts of the human heart was only evil all the time. The LORD regretted that he had made human beings on the earth, and his heart was deeply troubled. So the LORD said, “I will wipe from the face of the earth the human race I have created—and with them the animals, the birds and the creatures that move along the ground—for I regret that I have made them.” (verses 5-7)

My Bible says that God's heart "was filled with pain." God knew when He created man as a being with free will that He was going to be rejected by many (most). He knew what the choices would be, and because He is a righteous and holy God, He could not put up with the corruption on earth. But He also knew that allowing men free will would be worth the cost because of those who would willingly choose Him: But Noah found favor in the eyes of the LORD. (verse 8) There was Noah - in the midst of it all. And Noah was worth it all in God's view. You and I were worth it in His view! Even with all the evil in our own hearts, God loves us, and it gives Him great pleasure that we chose to respond to Him in faith. Jesus bore that pain on the cross so that we might become His righteousness. He loves us that much! WOW!

Tomorrow we'll look at this amazing man, Noah. I can't wait!

Genesis 6:1

Happy Groundhogs Day!

Apparently Punxsutawney Phil did not see his shadow today, which means an early spring. That would be good news to our friends and family who are dealing with this incredible snowstorm that is blanketing the country! Did you see that poor Queensland, Australia, which already has been suffering through record flooding this year, now has cyclone Yasi barreling toward them at 180 miles an hour, with 360 miles of width??? They're saying it will be at least as bad as Hurricane Katrina, producing 20 foot swells! What's going on?? That leads me into this next chapter of Genesis and the account of the Flood.

As we enter this section of Scripture, let's look at a couple of New Testament references to Noah that Jon Courson points to. First, let's see what Jesus had to say, when He was asked about His Second Coming:

As it was in the days of Noah, so it will be at the coming of the Son of Man. For in the days before the flood, people were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, up to the day Noah entered the ark; and they knew nothing about what would happen until the flood came and took them all away. That is how it will be at the coming of the Son of Man. (Matt 24:37-39)

When Jesus was telling parables, he always made it clear that the story was just that, a parable that used the common things experienced by men to tell a spiritual truth. However, when He spoke of Old Testament figures, like Jonah and Noah, he affirmed the truth of the Biblical accounts. Noah was a real man, who lived in a time of very evil men. His story is true. In these verses, Jesus tells the disciples that His Second Coming will be just like the days of Noah, when people were oblivious to the signs and going about their days as if there were no God. They were taken by complete surprise by the suddenness of the Flood and its destructive power.

Here's what Peter wrote concerning the End Times in 2 Peter 3:3-6.

Above all, you must understand that in the last days scoffers will come, scoffing and following their own evil desires. They will say, “Where is this ‘coming’ he promised? Ever since our ancestors died, everything goes on as it has since the beginning of creation.” But they deliberately forget that long ago by God’s word the heavens came into being and the earth was formed out of water and by water. By these waters also the world of that time was deluged and destroyed.

Here, too, Peter affirms the truth of the account of Noah. Just as there were scoffers in his day, there are scoffers in ours. So, let's look at this account and find its relevance for our day. In verse 1 we're told that "men began to increase in number on the earth..." Courson takes a mathematical projection of the population growth from the times of Seth. Figuring an average of four children born to each man, and each of the four having four, he comes up with a number over 3 billion. He says that it took from the time Noah got off the ark until 1867 for the earth's population to reach 1 billion again. I just checked out the figures online, and the current world population is over 7 billion (nearly doubling since 1970). I believe that the projections are now that the population will continue to double every 15 years! Put people in crowded conditions, and the evil already in their hearts will also multiply! That's exactly what happened in Noah's day.

Truly there is much to say about the first verses, so I'll leave the explanation of the marriages of the "sons of God" and the "daughters of men" until tomorrow. I'm anxious to see the parallels between Noah's day and ours! In the meantime, I'm praying for those poor people in Queensland and for those I love in Chicago and the East Coast!