VI.
(This seems the perfect time to encourage prayer for those along the Mississippi flood plain and especially for those in Louisiana. Please pray for everyone who has suffered through flooding this summer on the USA and for the resources to continue to help them. W.)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EfAhpX_wIBk
When the perfect song comes along...
The Deluge: Part 1
Last time, we discussed the moral corruption and how it led to physical corruption both of which led God to bring on the Flood. Moral decay inevitably leads to physical decay. Sin kills. Nothing spiritual happens in our lives that does not effect the other parts of our lives, our physical well being and our future. I can look back and see, for instance, how my smoking led to walking pneumonia in college, led me to leave for a time and then not go back. I can sometimes think of times Godly people offered me a hand and I rejected their help which led to much worse situations in my life. Almost to a person, every Christian I've ever met has a similar story, something lost because of sin, a marriage, a child, wealth, position. Stories of personal floods abound.
Noah's story has had a couple movies and a lot of Genesis time. We'll dwell in this pre-Flood moment just a bit.
Ge 6:8 But Noah found grace in the eyes of the LORD.
9 This is the genealogy of Noah. Noah was a just man, perfect in his generations. Noah walked with God.
10 And Noah begot three sons: Shem, Ham, and Japheth.
11 The earth also was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence.
12 So God looked upon the earth, and indeed it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted their way on the earth.
13 And God said to Noah, "The end of all flesh has come before Me, for the earth is filled with violence through them; and behold, I will destroy them with the earth.
(NKJV)
"Noah found grace..."
Would that we all could say that.
Found grace.
He apparently wasn't looking for it. He was seeking God. Enoch walked with God. Methuselah
was with him for a lot of his life. He knew his Dad was taken up. He must have told the story to his grandson. A story for the ages, after all.
"Your granddaddy loved God. Not that stuff they chase after in that city, but God, the REAL God."
There were other children and grandchildren and great grandchildren. There is an entire lineage here. Dozens. Hundreds, And he always left clues if they were paying attention.
You may have noticed but I've been quoting from worldly sources throughout. They all point to Biblical things. They actually, when you look at them, support the Bible. Trust me, most of this data was written by naturalists or atheists and they never notice how it supports events or facts stated by God, even go out of their way to add years to every discovery to make it seem more likely that the odds are in favor of, for instance, life generating by itself or there being enough time mathematically for evolution to occur. The notion of radioactive decay and thus dating being effected by outside sources, such as man blowing up an atom bomb or two or the occasional meteor hitting the planet never seems to come to mind. Yet, those who deal in detecting forgery in paintings used the fact that caesium -137 and strontium-90 don't occur in paint materials before the atom bomb going off to aid in dating paintings.
We can be seduced by our beliefs to "read" the data a particular way and be completely convinced that that data is right until someone with another point of view shows up and saying something like: "The Emperor has no clothes!" Atheist's like to believe things work that way for them, that they are revealing God being wrong, even when genetic testing, for instance, indicated something other than their beliefs. The "no clothes" axiom can work both ways. In discrediting wrong church ideas (not what the Bible actually says but what our limited views seems to say it says) AND wrong scientific ones (altered by the scientists' "theory as religion" personally warped notions).
In the case of Noah's time (and ours also), society actually told itself that the Emperor was wearing new clothes so it was in its own, assumed best interest, not to listen to that little voice. Enoch preaching, Noah preaching, It was certainly in Cain's Lamech's best interest since he had the whole line of sin blinding him and he was apparently the chief of that tribe. He took more than one wife and, if the scene is set the way it seems, tells the wives he has killed a young man, seeming to imply one of the wives may have taken it in her head to have more than one husband. It seems to portray the jealous husband dealing with a philanderer, though it can't be confirmed. If it is that way, then it adds to the notion of men thinking their protection of their wives amounted to an ownership. Murder followed almost naturally: "He was taking what was mine!" Sin reached the I tipping point.
Malcolm Gladwell wrote a book by that name. The Tipping Point. His thesis, developed from the study of diseases, was that there are specific point in the time of an infection when it reaches the "tipping point" and things swing from being an infection into an epidemic. He applied to the popular book, Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants, explaining how book club meetings spread the popularity of the novel until it became a mega-seller by word-of-mouth. Apparently, the "success" of the city and the easy availability of all forms of sin drew people in like a magnet. You may have noticed they still do. And the epidemic of sin and the pollution of the flesh I mentioned in the last discussion tipped the scale in the favor of destruction of that completely fallen flesh.
Matt Henry:
Genesis 6:8
We have here Noah distinguished from the rest of the world, and a peculiar mark of honour put upon him.
1. When God was displeased with the rest of the world, he favoured Noah: But Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord, Ge 6:8. This vindicates God's justice in his displeasure against the world, and shows that he had strictly examined the character of every person in it before he pronounced it universally corrupt; for, there being one good man, he found him out, and smiled upon him. It also magnifies his grace towards Noah that he was made a vessel of God's mercy when all mankind besides had become the generation of his wrath: distinguishing favours bring under peculiarly strong obligations. Probably Noah did not find favour in the eyes of men; they hated and persecuted him, because both by his life and preaching he condemned the world. But he found grace in the eyes of the Lord, and this was honour and comfort enough. God made more account of Noah than of all the world besides, and this made him greater and more truly honourable than all the giants that were in those days, who became mighty men and men of renown. Let this be the summit of our ambition, to find grace in the eyes of the Lord; herein let us labour, that, present or absent, we may be accepted of him, 2Co 5:9. Those are highly favoured whom God favours.
2Co 5:9 Wherefore we labour, that, whether present or absent, we may be accepted of him. {labour: or, endeavour}
10 For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ; that every one may receive the things done in his body, according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad.
(KJV)
2. When the rest of the world was corrupt and wicked, Noah kept his integrity: These are the generations of Noah (this is the account we have to give of him), Noah was a just man, Ge 6:9. This character of Noah comes in here either,
(1.) As the reason of God's favour to him; his singular piety qualified him for singular tokens of God's loving-kindness. Those that would find grace in the eyes of the Lord must be as Noah was and do as Noah did; God loves those that love him: or,
(2.) As the effect of God's favour to him. It was God's good-will to him that produced this good work in him. He was a very good man, but he was no better than the grace of God made him, 1Co 15:10.
1Co 15:10 But by the grace of God, I am what I am: and his grace which was given to me has not been for nothing; for I did more work than all of them; though not I, but the grace of God which was with me.
(BBE)
Now observe his character.
[1.] He was a just man, that is, justified before God by faith in the promised seed; for he was an heir of the righteousness which is by faith, Heb 11:7. he was sanctified, and had right principles and dispositions implanted in him; and he was righteous in his conversation, one that made conscience of rendering to all their due, to God his due and to men theirs. Note, None but a downright honest man can find favour with God. That conversation which will be pleasing to God must be governed by simplicity and godly sincerity, not by fleshly wisdom, 2Co 1:12. God has sometimes chosen the foolish things of the world, but he never chose the knavish things of it.
[2.] He was perfect, not with a sinless perfection, but a perfection of sincerity; and it is well for us that by virtue of the covenant of grace, upon the score of Christ's righteousness, sincerity is accepted as our Gospel perfection.
[3.] He walked with God, as Enoch had done before him. He was not only honest, but devout; he walked, that is, he acted with God, as one always under his eye. He lived a life of communion with God; it was his constant care to conform himself to the will of God, to please him, and to approve himself to him. Note, God looks down upon those with an eye of favour who sincerely look up to him with an eye of faith. But,
[4.] That which crowns his character is that thus he was, and thus he did, in his generation, in that corrupt degenerate age in which his lot was cast. It is easy to be religious when religion is in fashion; but it is an evidence of strong faith and resolution to swim against a stream to heaven, and to appear for God when no one else appears for him: so Noah did, and it is upon record, to his immortal honour.
Let me stress the physical implications again since that is the focus of this blog. The line was polluted with the "giant"gene. Both line were polluted. The "giant gene" was in the Godly line for certain. We mentioned Ham's line became infected. We said it might have been from Noah's wife, but we'll add that it could have come from Ham's wife as well. Recall that Noah was "perfect in his generations." This statement can be taken a lot of ways, but we see only Enoch in that line also walked with God. We See the falling of many of the other ancestors in that line. I take the "perfection" as not having the "giant gene" in that line. Again, The line was now corrupt and the time had come to end things.
13 And God said to Noah, "The end of all flesh has come before Me, for the earth is filled with violence through them; and behold, I will destroy them with the earth.
Murder arrived. Maybe a few people besides Lamech decided to kill others, bully them, show their power to their wives.
A quick look at the idea of violence in the Earth and it's relation to God's decision to end things:
it is not that God decided or determined to send destruction upon the earth, but that God saw that death and destruction was going to come upon the earth. The destruction of the earth had come before Him. The Hebrew literally reads that it had come “before His face,” or “into His presence.”
https://redeeminggod.com/translating-genesis-6-13/
The writer of this blog struggled with the notion of a merciful God who would destroy humanity. But he arives a a cinckusion he was not trying for:
Ge 6:13 And God said to Noah, The end of all flesh has come; the earth is full of their violent doings, and now I will put an end to them with the earth.
14 Make for yourself an ark of gopher wood with rooms in it, and make it safe from the water inside and out.
15 And this is the way you are to make it: it is to be three hundred cubits long, fifty cubits wide, and thirty cubits high.
16 You are to put a window in the ark, a cubit from the roof, and a door in the side of it, and you are to make it with a lower and second and third floors.
17 For truly, I will send a great flow of waters over the earth, for the destruction from under the heaven of all flesh in which is the breath of life; everything on the earth will come to an end.
18 But with you I will make an agreement; and you will come into the ark, you and your sons and your wife and your sons' wives with you.
19 And you will take with you into the ark two of every sort of living thing, and keep them safe with you; they will be male and female.
20 Two of every sort of bird and cattle and of every sort of living thing which goes on the earth will you take with you to keep them from destruction.
21 And make a store of every sort of food for yourself and them.
22 And all these things Noah did; as God said, so he did.
(BBE)
Matt:
Genesis 6:13-22
Ver. 13.
Here it appears indeed that Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord. God's favour to him was plainly intimated in what he said of him, Ge 6:8-10, where his name is mentioned five times in five lines, when once might have served to make the sense clear, as if the Holy Ghost took a pleasure in perpetuating his memory; but it appears much more in what he says to him in these verses--the information and instructions here given him.
I. God here makes Noah the man of his counsel, communicating to him his purpose to destroy this wicked world by water. As, afterwards, he told Abraham his resolution concerning Sodom (Ge 18:17, Shall I hide from Abraham?) so here
"Shall I hide from Noah the thing that I do, seeing that he shall become a great nation?"
Note, The secret of the Lord is with those that fear him (Ps 25:14); it was with his servants the prophets (Am 3:7), by a spirit of revelation, informing them particularly of his purposes; it is with all believers by a spirit of wisdom and faith, enabling them to understand and apply the general declarations of the written word, and the warnings there given. Now,
1. God told Noah, in general, that he would destroy the world (Ge 6:13): The end of all flesh has come before me; I will destroy them; that is, the ruin of this wicked world is decreed and determined; it has come, that is, it will come surely, and come quickly. Noah, it is likely, in preaching to his neighbours, had warned them, in general, of the wrath of God that they would bring upon themselves by their wickedness, and now God seconds his endeavours by a particular denunciation of wrath, that Noah might try whether this would work upon them.
2. He told him, particularly, that he would destroy the world by a flood of waters: And behold, I, even I, do bring a flood of waters upon the earth, Ge 6:17. God could have destroyed all mankind by the sword of an angel, a flaming sword turning every way, as he destroyed all the first-born of the Egyptians and the camp of the Assyrians; and then there needed no more than to set a mark upon Noah and his family for their preservation. But God chose to do it by a flood of waters, which should drown the world. The reasons, we may be sure, were wise and just, though to us unknown. God has many arrows in his quiver, and he may use which he please: as he chooses the rod with which he will correct his children, so he chooses the sword with which he will cut off his enemies.
(1.) It intimates the certainty of the judgment
(2.) It intimates the tendency of it to God's glory and the honour of his justice. Thus he will be magnified and exalted in the earth, and all the world shall be made to know that he is the God to whom vengeance belongs;
II. God here makes Noah the man of his covenant, another Hebrew periphrasis of a friend (Ge 6:18): But with thee will I establish my covenant.
1. The covenant of providence, that the course of nature shall be continued to the end of time, notwithstanding the interruption which the flood would give to it. This promise was immediately made to Noah and his sons, Ge 9:8, &c. They were as trustees for all this part of the creation, and a great honour was thereby put upon him and his.
2. The covenant of grace, that God would be to him a God and that out of his seed God would take to himself a people. Note,
(1.) When God makes a covenant, he establishes it, he makes it sure, he makes it good; his are everlasting covenants.
(2.) The covenant of grace has in it the recompence of singular services, and the fountain and foundation of all distinguishing favours; we need desire no more, either to make up our losses for God or to make up a happiness for us in God, than to have his covenant established with us.
III. God here makes Noah a monument of sparing mercy, by putting him in a way to secure himself in the approaching deluge, that he might not perish with the rest of the world: I will destroy them, says God, with the earth, Ge 6:13.
"But make thee an ark; I will take care to preserve thee alive."
1. God directs Noah to make an ark, Ge 6:14-15. This ark was like the hulk of a ship, fitted not to sail upon the waters (there was no occasion for that, when there should be no shore to sail to), but to float upon the waters, waiting for their fall. God could have secured Noah by the ministration of angels, without putting him to any care, or pains, or trouble, himself; but he chose to employ him in making that which was to be the means of his preservation, both for the trial of his faith and obedience and to teach us that none shall be saved by Christ but those only that work out their salvation. We cannot do it without God, and he will not without us. Both the providence of God, and the grace of God, own and crown the endeavours of the obedient and diligent. God gave him very particular instructions concerning this building, which could not but be admirably well fitted for the purpose when Infinite Wisdom itself was the architect.
(1.) It must be made of gopher-wood. Noah, doubtless, knew what sort of wood that was, though we now do not, whether cedar, or cypress, or what other.
(2.) He must make it three stories high within.
(3.) He must divide it into cabins, with partitions, places fitted for the several sorts of creatures, so as to lose no room.
(4.) Exact dimensions were given him, that he might make it proportionable, and might have room enough in it to answer the intention and no more. Note, Those that work for God must take their measures from him and carefully observe them. Note, further, It is fit that he who appoints us our habitation should fix the bounds and limits of it.
(Bill Cosby, who it is singularly not appropriate to quote these days, but this is too good, had a bit where he was Noah talking to God and God told him hw ti make the ark then got make it by "so many cubits by sime many cubits and then, as Noah he asked, "What's a cubit?" And god replied, "Cubit. let me see, I used ot know..." Which merely emphasizes whenever we say that the Ark was such and such a size we are really just guessing since we have no idea what a cubit was THEN. Or how high a storey was.)
(5.) He must pitch it within and without--without, to shed off the rain, and to prevent the water from soaking in--within, to take away the bad smell of the beasts when kept close. Observe, God does not bid him paint it, but pitch it. If God gives us habitations that are safe, and warm, and wholesome, we are bound to be thankful, though they are not magnificent or nice.
(6.) He must make a little window towards the top, to let in light, and (some think) that through that window he might behold the desolations to be made in the earth.
(7.) He must make a door in the side of it, by which to go in and out.
2. God promises Noah that he and his shall be preserved alive in the ark (Ge 6:18): Thou shalt come into the ark. Note, What we do in obedience to God, we ourselves are likely to have the comfort and benefit of. If thou be wise, thou shalt be wise for thyself. Nor was he himself only saved in the ark, but his wife, and his sons, and his sons' wives. Observe,
IV. God here makes Noah a great blessing to the world, and herein makes him an eminent type of the Messiah, though not the Messiah himself, as his parents expected, Ge 5:29. (We could have a discussion as to whether he was seen by his father as a Christ or merely as a man who might turn the world around from its evil way.)
1. God made him a preacher to the men of that generation. As a watchman, he received the word from God's mouth, that he might give them warning, Eze 3:17. (Okay, we have an assumption)Thus, while the long-suffering of God waited, by his Spirit in Noah, he preached to the old world, who, when Peter wrote, were spirits in prison (1Pe 3:18-20), and herein he was a type of Christ, who, in a land and age wherein all flesh had corrupted their way, went about preaching repentance and warning men of a deluge of wrath coming.
2. God made him a saviour to the inferior creatures, to keep the several kinds of them from perishing and being lost in the deluge, Ge 6:19-21. This was a great honour put upon him, that not only in him the race of mankind should be kept up.
(1.) He was to provide shelter for them, that they might not be drowned.
(2.) He was to provide sustenance for them, that they might not be starved, Ge 6:21. He must victual his ship according to the number of his crew, that great family which he had now the charge of, and according to the time appointed for his confinement. Herein also he was a type of Christ, to whom it is owing that the world stands, by whom all things consist, and who preserves mankind from being totally cut off and ruined by sin; in him the holy seed is saved alive, and the creation rescued from the vanity under which it groans. Noah saved those whom he was to rule, so does Christ, Heb 5:9.
Heb 5:8 And though he was a Son, through the pain which he underwent, the knowledge came to him of what it was to be under God's orders;
9 And when he had been made complete, he became the giver of eternal salvation to all those who are under his orders;
10 Being named by God a high priest of the order of Melchizedek.
(BBE)
We could argue about whether Noah rules anyone when see his reaction to wine later, but we also need to notice God granted Noah that return of the mastery of animals. Recall Adam was given this power before the Fall. The Ark seems to be an Eden,. People preserved against the Flood by God's will. A place for humanity to begin again.
Can we see Eden as an Ark of sorts? A special place set aside by God for a special people and for the 'good' animals. Set aside from whatever the world was outside. It was perfect for God's design, but sometimes we assume that design was what we would see as perfect. Was Eden a refuge from dinosaurs and their tendency to eat anything that moved or was rooted? Was the outside a place of that violence which served to prepare the world for another kind of perfection? Was that flaming sword a meteor dragged through the atmosphere to crash and change the nature of the world?
We can't know and we haven't the imagination to grasp the totality of what His plan is.
http://christianpersecutionindia.blogspot.com/
(No new post for the India link.)
(This seems the perfect time to encourage prayer for those along the Mississippi flood plain and especially for those in Louisiana. Please pray for everyone who has suffered through flooding this summer on the USA and for the resources to continue to help them. W.)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EfAhpX_wIBk
When the perfect song comes along...
The Deluge: Part 1
Last time, we discussed the moral corruption and how it led to physical corruption both of which led God to bring on the Flood. Moral decay inevitably leads to physical decay. Sin kills. Nothing spiritual happens in our lives that does not effect the other parts of our lives, our physical well being and our future. I can look back and see, for instance, how my smoking led to walking pneumonia in college, led me to leave for a time and then not go back. I can sometimes think of times Godly people offered me a hand and I rejected their help which led to much worse situations in my life. Almost to a person, every Christian I've ever met has a similar story, something lost because of sin, a marriage, a child, wealth, position. Stories of personal floods abound.
Noah's story has had a couple movies and a lot of Genesis time. We'll dwell in this pre-Flood moment just a bit.
Ge 6:8 But Noah found grace in the eyes of the LORD.
9 This is the genealogy of Noah. Noah was a just man, perfect in his generations. Noah walked with God.
10 And Noah begot three sons: Shem, Ham, and Japheth.
11 The earth also was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence.
12 So God looked upon the earth, and indeed it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted their way on the earth.
13 And God said to Noah, "The end of all flesh has come before Me, for the earth is filled with violence through them; and behold, I will destroy them with the earth.
(NKJV)
"Noah found grace..."
Would that we all could say that.
Found grace.
He apparently wasn't looking for it. He was seeking God. Enoch walked with God. Methuselah
was with him for a lot of his life. He knew his Dad was taken up. He must have told the story to his grandson. A story for the ages, after all.
"Your granddaddy loved God. Not that stuff they chase after in that city, but God, the REAL God."
There were other children and grandchildren and great grandchildren. There is an entire lineage here. Dozens. Hundreds, And he always left clues if they were paying attention.
You may have noticed but I've been quoting from worldly sources throughout. They all point to Biblical things. They actually, when you look at them, support the Bible. Trust me, most of this data was written by naturalists or atheists and they never notice how it supports events or facts stated by God, even go out of their way to add years to every discovery to make it seem more likely that the odds are in favor of, for instance, life generating by itself or there being enough time mathematically for evolution to occur. The notion of radioactive decay and thus dating being effected by outside sources, such as man blowing up an atom bomb or two or the occasional meteor hitting the planet never seems to come to mind. Yet, those who deal in detecting forgery in paintings used the fact that caesium -137 and strontium-90 don't occur in paint materials before the atom bomb going off to aid in dating paintings.
We can be seduced by our beliefs to "read" the data a particular way and be completely convinced that that data is right until someone with another point of view shows up and saying something like: "The Emperor has no clothes!" Atheist's like to believe things work that way for them, that they are revealing God being wrong, even when genetic testing, for instance, indicated something other than their beliefs. The "no clothes" axiom can work both ways. In discrediting wrong church ideas (not what the Bible actually says but what our limited views seems to say it says) AND wrong scientific ones (altered by the scientists' "theory as religion" personally warped notions).
In the case of Noah's time (and ours also), society actually told itself that the Emperor was wearing new clothes so it was in its own, assumed best interest, not to listen to that little voice. Enoch preaching, Noah preaching, It was certainly in Cain's Lamech's best interest since he had the whole line of sin blinding him and he was apparently the chief of that tribe. He took more than one wife and, if the scene is set the way it seems, tells the wives he has killed a young man, seeming to imply one of the wives may have taken it in her head to have more than one husband. It seems to portray the jealous husband dealing with a philanderer, though it can't be confirmed. If it is that way, then it adds to the notion of men thinking their protection of their wives amounted to an ownership. Murder followed almost naturally: "He was taking what was mine!" Sin reached the I tipping point.
Malcolm Gladwell wrote a book by that name. The Tipping Point. His thesis, developed from the study of diseases, was that there are specific point in the time of an infection when it reaches the "tipping point" and things swing from being an infection into an epidemic. He applied to the popular book, Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants, explaining how book club meetings spread the popularity of the novel until it became a mega-seller by word-of-mouth. Apparently, the "success" of the city and the easy availability of all forms of sin drew people in like a magnet. You may have noticed they still do. And the epidemic of sin and the pollution of the flesh I mentioned in the last discussion tipped the scale in the favor of destruction of that completely fallen flesh.
Matt Henry:
Genesis 6:8
We have here Noah distinguished from the rest of the world, and a peculiar mark of honour put upon him.
1. When God was displeased with the rest of the world, he favoured Noah: But Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord, Ge 6:8. This vindicates God's justice in his displeasure against the world, and shows that he had strictly examined the character of every person in it before he pronounced it universally corrupt; for, there being one good man, he found him out, and smiled upon him. It also magnifies his grace towards Noah that he was made a vessel of God's mercy when all mankind besides had become the generation of his wrath: distinguishing favours bring under peculiarly strong obligations. Probably Noah did not find favour in the eyes of men; they hated and persecuted him, because both by his life and preaching he condemned the world. But he found grace in the eyes of the Lord, and this was honour and comfort enough. God made more account of Noah than of all the world besides, and this made him greater and more truly honourable than all the giants that were in those days, who became mighty men and men of renown. Let this be the summit of our ambition, to find grace in the eyes of the Lord; herein let us labour, that, present or absent, we may be accepted of him, 2Co 5:9. Those are highly favoured whom God favours.
2Co 5:9 Wherefore we labour, that, whether present or absent, we may be accepted of him. {labour: or, endeavour}
10 For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ; that every one may receive the things done in his body, according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad.
(KJV)
2. When the rest of the world was corrupt and wicked, Noah kept his integrity: These are the generations of Noah (this is the account we have to give of him), Noah was a just man, Ge 6:9. This character of Noah comes in here either,
(1.) As the reason of God's favour to him; his singular piety qualified him for singular tokens of God's loving-kindness. Those that would find grace in the eyes of the Lord must be as Noah was and do as Noah did; God loves those that love him: or,
(2.) As the effect of God's favour to him. It was God's good-will to him that produced this good work in him. He was a very good man, but he was no better than the grace of God made him, 1Co 15:10.
1Co 15:10 But by the grace of God, I am what I am: and his grace which was given to me has not been for nothing; for I did more work than all of them; though not I, but the grace of God which was with me.
(BBE)
Now observe his character.
[1.] He was a just man, that is, justified before God by faith in the promised seed; for he was an heir of the righteousness which is by faith, Heb 11:7. he was sanctified, and had right principles and dispositions implanted in him; and he was righteous in his conversation, one that made conscience of rendering to all their due, to God his due and to men theirs. Note, None but a downright honest man can find favour with God. That conversation which will be pleasing to God must be governed by simplicity and godly sincerity, not by fleshly wisdom, 2Co 1:12. God has sometimes chosen the foolish things of the world, but he never chose the knavish things of it.
[2.] He was perfect, not with a sinless perfection, but a perfection of sincerity; and it is well for us that by virtue of the covenant of grace, upon the score of Christ's righteousness, sincerity is accepted as our Gospel perfection.
[3.] He walked with God, as Enoch had done before him. He was not only honest, but devout; he walked, that is, he acted with God, as one always under his eye. He lived a life of communion with God; it was his constant care to conform himself to the will of God, to please him, and to approve himself to him. Note, God looks down upon those with an eye of favour who sincerely look up to him with an eye of faith. But,
[4.] That which crowns his character is that thus he was, and thus he did, in his generation, in that corrupt degenerate age in which his lot was cast. It is easy to be religious when religion is in fashion; but it is an evidence of strong faith and resolution to swim against a stream to heaven, and to appear for God when no one else appears for him: so Noah did, and it is upon record, to his immortal honour.
Let me stress the physical implications again since that is the focus of this blog. The line was polluted with the "giant"gene. Both line were polluted. The "giant gene" was in the Godly line for certain. We mentioned Ham's line became infected. We said it might have been from Noah's wife, but we'll add that it could have come from Ham's wife as well. Recall that Noah was "perfect in his generations." This statement can be taken a lot of ways, but we see only Enoch in that line also walked with God. We See the falling of many of the other ancestors in that line. I take the "perfection" as not having the "giant gene" in that line. Again, The line was now corrupt and the time had come to end things.
13 And God said to Noah, "The end of all flesh has come before Me, for the earth is filled with violence through them; and behold, I will destroy them with the earth.
Murder arrived. Maybe a few people besides Lamech decided to kill others, bully them, show their power to their wives.
A quick look at the idea of violence in the Earth and it's relation to God's decision to end things:
it is not that God decided or determined to send destruction upon the earth, but that God saw that death and destruction was going to come upon the earth. The destruction of the earth had come before Him. The Hebrew literally reads that it had come “before His face,” or “into His presence.”
https://redeeminggod.com/translating-genesis-6-13/
The writer of this blog struggled with the notion of a merciful God who would destroy humanity. But he arives a a cinckusion he was not trying for:
There is a vast difference between deciding to send destruction and seeing that destruction will come. If I see a car spinning out of control down a street toward a crowd of pedestrians, and I shout out a warning to them, this is very different than somehow being the one who sends the car spinning out of control toward that crowd of pedestrians. So also with God and the flood. He saw that destruction was coming because of the violence on the earth. The text is quite clear that “the violence of ‘all flesh’ is the reason for the disaster.” (Fretheim,Creation Untamed, 52). This is the best and most literal way of understanding the first part of Genesis 6:13.
But although there are various ways of translating the first part of Genesis 6:13, we do not have this flexibility with the second half of the verse, where God says, “I will destroy them with the earth”? Almost all English translations agree on this part of the text and there is no way of translating it much differently. Furthermore, Genesis 6:7 and 6:17 reiterate this point even more clearly:
So the Lord said, “I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth, both man and beast, creeping thing and birds of the air, for I am sorry that I have made them” (Genesis 6:7).“And behold, I Myself am bringing floodwaters on the earth, to destroy from under heaven all flesh in which is the breath of life; everything that is on the earth shall die” (Genesis 6:17).
And when the flood actually does come upon the earth, the text pretty clearly states that God destroyed all living things that were on the earth (Genesis 7:23). Though I spent hours researching each word and the few textual variants within these verses, I could discover no realistic way of translating these passages to say much of anything different than what is found in the majority of our modern English translations.
So my initial attempt at finding an alternative explanation for the troubling texts in the flood led nowhere. Overall, the English translations of this account do a pretty good job representing what the original Hebrew says. The surface reading of these texts clearly indicate that it is God Himself who sent the flood waters to destroy all life on earth.
I would suggest it was the "violent" biological infestation of that "giant gene" which, along with wrong spiritual ideas, led God to clean up the Earth. It seems obvious God knew it would happen, but he gave humanity a chance to come to Him without the Law to reveal their sin, without a Savior born yet, just by the power of His Grace. Their failure serves to stress Peter's statement:
Acts 4:12 And in no other is there salvation: for there is no other name under heaven, given among men, through which we may have salvation.
And then a follow-up from Matt which entails the following verses as well:Ge 6:13 And God said to Noah, The end of all flesh has come; the earth is full of their violent doings, and now I will put an end to them with the earth.
14 Make for yourself an ark of gopher wood with rooms in it, and make it safe from the water inside and out.
15 And this is the way you are to make it: it is to be three hundred cubits long, fifty cubits wide, and thirty cubits high.
16 You are to put a window in the ark, a cubit from the roof, and a door in the side of it, and you are to make it with a lower and second and third floors.
17 For truly, I will send a great flow of waters over the earth, for the destruction from under the heaven of all flesh in which is the breath of life; everything on the earth will come to an end.
18 But with you I will make an agreement; and you will come into the ark, you and your sons and your wife and your sons' wives with you.
19 And you will take with you into the ark two of every sort of living thing, and keep them safe with you; they will be male and female.
20 Two of every sort of bird and cattle and of every sort of living thing which goes on the earth will you take with you to keep them from destruction.
21 And make a store of every sort of food for yourself and them.
22 And all these things Noah did; as God said, so he did.
(BBE)
Matt:
Genesis 6:13-22
Ver. 13.
Here it appears indeed that Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord. God's favour to him was plainly intimated in what he said of him, Ge 6:8-10, where his name is mentioned five times in five lines, when once might have served to make the sense clear, as if the Holy Ghost took a pleasure in perpetuating his memory; but it appears much more in what he says to him in these verses--the information and instructions here given him.
I. God here makes Noah the man of his counsel, communicating to him his purpose to destroy this wicked world by water. As, afterwards, he told Abraham his resolution concerning Sodom (Ge 18:17, Shall I hide from Abraham?) so here
"Shall I hide from Noah the thing that I do, seeing that he shall become a great nation?"
Note, The secret of the Lord is with those that fear him (Ps 25:14); it was with his servants the prophets (Am 3:7), by a spirit of revelation, informing them particularly of his purposes; it is with all believers by a spirit of wisdom and faith, enabling them to understand and apply the general declarations of the written word, and the warnings there given. Now,
1. God told Noah, in general, that he would destroy the world (Ge 6:13): The end of all flesh has come before me; I will destroy them; that is, the ruin of this wicked world is decreed and determined; it has come, that is, it will come surely, and come quickly. Noah, it is likely, in preaching to his neighbours, had warned them, in general, of the wrath of God that they would bring upon themselves by their wickedness, and now God seconds his endeavours by a particular denunciation of wrath, that Noah might try whether this would work upon them.
2. He told him, particularly, that he would destroy the world by a flood of waters: And behold, I, even I, do bring a flood of waters upon the earth, Ge 6:17. God could have destroyed all mankind by the sword of an angel, a flaming sword turning every way, as he destroyed all the first-born of the Egyptians and the camp of the Assyrians; and then there needed no more than to set a mark upon Noah and his family for their preservation. But God chose to do it by a flood of waters, which should drown the world. The reasons, we may be sure, were wise and just, though to us unknown. God has many arrows in his quiver, and he may use which he please: as he chooses the rod with which he will correct his children, so he chooses the sword with which he will cut off his enemies.
(1.) It intimates the certainty of the judgment
(2.) It intimates the tendency of it to God's glory and the honour of his justice. Thus he will be magnified and exalted in the earth, and all the world shall be made to know that he is the God to whom vengeance belongs;
II. God here makes Noah the man of his covenant, another Hebrew periphrasis of a friend (Ge 6:18): But with thee will I establish my covenant.
1. The covenant of providence, that the course of nature shall be continued to the end of time, notwithstanding the interruption which the flood would give to it. This promise was immediately made to Noah and his sons, Ge 9:8, &c. They were as trustees for all this part of the creation, and a great honour was thereby put upon him and his.
2. The covenant of grace, that God would be to him a God and that out of his seed God would take to himself a people. Note,
(1.) When God makes a covenant, he establishes it, he makes it sure, he makes it good; his are everlasting covenants.
(2.) The covenant of grace has in it the recompence of singular services, and the fountain and foundation of all distinguishing favours; we need desire no more, either to make up our losses for God or to make up a happiness for us in God, than to have his covenant established with us.
III. God here makes Noah a monument of sparing mercy, by putting him in a way to secure himself in the approaching deluge, that he might not perish with the rest of the world: I will destroy them, says God, with the earth, Ge 6:13.
"But make thee an ark; I will take care to preserve thee alive."
1. God directs Noah to make an ark, Ge 6:14-15. This ark was like the hulk of a ship, fitted not to sail upon the waters (there was no occasion for that, when there should be no shore to sail to), but to float upon the waters, waiting for their fall. God could have secured Noah by the ministration of angels, without putting him to any care, or pains, or trouble, himself; but he chose to employ him in making that which was to be the means of his preservation, both for the trial of his faith and obedience and to teach us that none shall be saved by Christ but those only that work out their salvation. We cannot do it without God, and he will not without us. Both the providence of God, and the grace of God, own and crown the endeavours of the obedient and diligent. God gave him very particular instructions concerning this building, which could not but be admirably well fitted for the purpose when Infinite Wisdom itself was the architect.
(1.) It must be made of gopher-wood. Noah, doubtless, knew what sort of wood that was, though we now do not, whether cedar, or cypress, or what other.
(2.) He must make it three stories high within.
(3.) He must divide it into cabins, with partitions, places fitted for the several sorts of creatures, so as to lose no room.
(4.) Exact dimensions were given him, that he might make it proportionable, and might have room enough in it to answer the intention and no more. Note, Those that work for God must take their measures from him and carefully observe them. Note, further, It is fit that he who appoints us our habitation should fix the bounds and limits of it.
(Bill Cosby, who it is singularly not appropriate to quote these days, but this is too good, had a bit where he was Noah talking to God and God told him hw ti make the ark then got make it by "so many cubits by sime many cubits and then, as Noah he asked, "What's a cubit?" And god replied, "Cubit. let me see, I used ot know..." Which merely emphasizes whenever we say that the Ark was such and such a size we are really just guessing since we have no idea what a cubit was THEN. Or how high a storey was.)
(5.) He must pitch it within and without--without, to shed off the rain, and to prevent the water from soaking in--within, to take away the bad smell of the beasts when kept close. Observe, God does not bid him paint it, but pitch it. If God gives us habitations that are safe, and warm, and wholesome, we are bound to be thankful, though they are not magnificent or nice.
(6.) He must make a little window towards the top, to let in light, and (some think) that through that window he might behold the desolations to be made in the earth.
(7.) He must make a door in the side of it, by which to go in and out.
2. God promises Noah that he and his shall be preserved alive in the ark (Ge 6:18): Thou shalt come into the ark. Note, What we do in obedience to God, we ourselves are likely to have the comfort and benefit of. If thou be wise, thou shalt be wise for thyself. Nor was he himself only saved in the ark, but his wife, and his sons, and his sons' wives. Observe,
IV. God here makes Noah a great blessing to the world, and herein makes him an eminent type of the Messiah, though not the Messiah himself, as his parents expected, Ge 5:29. (We could have a discussion as to whether he was seen by his father as a Christ or merely as a man who might turn the world around from its evil way.)
1. God made him a preacher to the men of that generation. As a watchman, he received the word from God's mouth, that he might give them warning, Eze 3:17. (Okay, we have an assumption)Thus, while the long-suffering of God waited, by his Spirit in Noah, he preached to the old world, who, when Peter wrote, were spirits in prison (1Pe 3:18-20), and herein he was a type of Christ, who, in a land and age wherein all flesh had corrupted their way, went about preaching repentance and warning men of a deluge of wrath coming.
2. God made him a saviour to the inferior creatures, to keep the several kinds of them from perishing and being lost in the deluge, Ge 6:19-21. This was a great honour put upon him, that not only in him the race of mankind should be kept up.
(1.) He was to provide shelter for them, that they might not be drowned.
(2.) He was to provide sustenance for them, that they might not be starved, Ge 6:21. He must victual his ship according to the number of his crew, that great family which he had now the charge of, and according to the time appointed for his confinement. Herein also he was a type of Christ, to whom it is owing that the world stands, by whom all things consist, and who preserves mankind from being totally cut off and ruined by sin; in him the holy seed is saved alive, and the creation rescued from the vanity under which it groans. Noah saved those whom he was to rule, so does Christ, Heb 5:9.
Heb 5:8 And though he was a Son, through the pain which he underwent, the knowledge came to him of what it was to be under God's orders;
9 And when he had been made complete, he became the giver of eternal salvation to all those who are under his orders;
10 Being named by God a high priest of the order of Melchizedek.
(BBE)
We could argue about whether Noah rules anyone when see his reaction to wine later, but we also need to notice God granted Noah that return of the mastery of animals. Recall Adam was given this power before the Fall. The Ark seems to be an Eden,. People preserved against the Flood by God's will. A place for humanity to begin again.
Can we see Eden as an Ark of sorts? A special place set aside by God for a special people and for the 'good' animals. Set aside from whatever the world was outside. It was perfect for God's design, but sometimes we assume that design was what we would see as perfect. Was Eden a refuge from dinosaurs and their tendency to eat anything that moved or was rooted? Was the outside a place of that violence which served to prepare the world for another kind of perfection? Was that flaming sword a meteor dragged through the atmosphere to crash and change the nature of the world?
We can't know and we haven't the imagination to grasp the totality of what His plan is.
http://christianpersecutionindia.blogspot.com/
(No new post for the India link.)
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