12 Feb Why Did God Flood the Earth but Save Noah? (Noah’s Ark: Genesis 5:1-7:1)
- Cultural storyline: We are good getting better. God is bad & we judge Him.
- Biblical storyline: We are bad getting worse. God is good & He judges us.
God is Good. We are Bad.
Genesis 5:1-2 This is the book of the generations of Adam. When God created man, he made him in the likeness of God. Male and female he created them, and he blessed them and named them Man when they were created.
- Mankind = Adam the head of mankind, men heads of household (patriarchal)
- Contrasts: 1 What God did vs 2. What we do.
Most People Aren’t Special
Genesis 5:3-31 When Adam had lived 130 years, he fathered a son in his own likeness, after his image, and named him Seth. The days of Adam after he fathered Seth were 800 years; and he had other sons and daughters. Thus all the days that Adam lived were 930 years, and he died. When Seth had lived 105 years, he fathered Enosh. Seth lived after he fathered Enosh 807 years and had other sons and daughters. Thus all the days of Seth were 912 years, and he died. When Enosh had lived 90 years, he fathered Kenan. Enosh lived after he fathered Kenan 815 years and had other sons and daughters. Thus all the days of Enosh were 905 years, and he died. When Kenan had lived 70 years, he fathered Mahalalel. Kenan lived after he fathered Mahalalel 840 years and had other sons and daughters. Thus all the days of Kenan were 910 years, and he died. When Mahalalel had lived 65 years, he fathered Jared. Mahalalel lived after he fathered Jared 830 years and had other sons and daughters. Thus all the days of Mahalalel were 895 years, and he died. When Jared had lived 162 years, he fathered Enoch. Jared lived after he fathered Enoch 800 years and had other sons and daughters. Thus all the days of Jared were 962 years, and he died. When Enoch had lived 65 years, he fathered Methuselah. Enoch walked with God after he fathered Methuselah 300 years and had other sons and daughters. Thus all the days of Enoch were 365 years. Enoch walked with God, and he was not, for God took him. When Methuselah had lived 187 years, he fathered Lamech. Methuselah lived after he fathered Lamech 782 years and had other sons and daughters. Thus all the days of Methuselah were 969 years, and he died. When Lamech had lived 182 years, he fathered a son and called his name Noah, saying, “Out of the ground that the Lord has cursed, this one shall bring us relief from our work and from the painful toil of our hands.” Lamech lived after he fathered Noah 595 years and had other sons and daughters. Thus all the days of Lamech were 777 years, and he died.
After Noah was 500 years old, Noah fathered Shem, Ham, and Japheth.
1600+ years (1656 Adam to Noah)
- People long to know who they came from
- Methuselah 969 yrs = oldest listed
- People lived longer, & got more evil, so God shortened life to lessen evil & salvage mankind
- God knows everyone
- Everyone – a sinner. Everyone – dies (8X “he died”)
=1. Conceived as sinner 2. Born 3. Live to sin 4. Die because of sin
- Decisions you make impact generations
- Life predictable/boring – a rare exception
= Elementary school. 1. You won’t change the world. 2. Can’t be anything you want.
- Your generation is not special
Enoch – kids @ 300, died @ 365 (short life but godly life)
- 1 person “walked with God” – Enoch & Elijah (2 Kings 2:1-12) did not die
=Adam/Eve walked w/God til Fall. Who do you walk with? = friendship Father w/kids
Jude 14-15 Enoch, the 7th from Adam, prophesied, saying, “Behold, the Lord comes with 10k of his holy ones, to execute judgment on all and to convict all the ungodly of all their deeds of ungodliness that they have committed in such an ungodly way, and of all the harsh things that ungodly sinners have spoken against him.”
= 1st prophet other than God preaching repentance to increasingly ungodly people
Heb 11:5 By faith Enoch was taken up so that he should not see death, and he was not found, because God had taken him…before he was taken he was commended as having pleased God.
- Enoch spared flood taken younger than most.
= Not evolutionary progress. Stationary bike.
Human Progress is External Not Internal
Genesis 6:1-4 When man began to multiply on the face of the land and daughters were born to them, the sons of God saw that the daughters of man were attractive. And they took as their wives any they chose. Then the Lord said, “My Spirit shall not abide in man forever, for he is flesh: his days shall be 120 years.” The Nephilim were on the earth in those days, and also afterward when the sons of God came in to the daughters of man and they bore children to them. These were the mighty men who were of old, the men of renown.
???QUESTION#1 – Sons of God Marrying Daughters of Men???
= Gone from forbidden fruit to forbidden females
- Option A – believing men intermarrying unbelieving women (attractive)
– 2 lines/seed (3:15) God/Satan; Seth/Cain Adam’s 2 sons)
– Jesus angels (demons?) don’t marry post-resurrection (?pre?) Mt 22:30, Mk 12:45, LK 20:35
- Option B – sons of God (divine beings) tried to marry human women
Job 38:4–7 “Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth?…when the morning stars sang together and all the sons of God shouted for joy?”
- Option C – Demons appear as people (e.g. angels w/Abraham Gen. 18-19)
- Option D – Demons possess human beings & evil transfers generationally
???QUESTION#2 -120 Years???
- Option A – Limit human life = restrict evil (Moses 1st to die at this age Dt. 34:7)
- Option B – God flooding in 120 years
2 Pet 2:5,9 if he did not spare the ancient world, but preserved Noah, a herald of righteousness, w/7 others, when he brought a flood upon the world of the ungodly…then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trials, & to keep the unrighteous under punishment until the day of judgment
1 Pet 3:20 God’s patience waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was being prepared, in which a few, that is, eight persons, were brought safely through water.
=120 yrs preaching, 0 converts except for 7 family
????QUESTION #3 -Nephilim???
- Hebrew = “fallen ones” (fallen angels, or fallen people?)
- Only 2X Bible
-Num 13:33 “we saw the Nephilim (the sons of Anak, who come from the Nephilim), and we seemed to ourselves like grasshoppers, and so we seemed to them.”
- If human – Nephilim not same Num 13:33 = all died in the Flood?
- If demonic could survive the flood
- If the product divine males & human females – counterfeit incarnation
= Gen. 3:15 no earthly father unlike Gen. 5 genealogy = Anti-Christ (against/replace)
Epic of Gilgamesh –Collection stories re Mesopotamian hero & 5th king of ancient Uruk, possibly oldest city in Iraq. Most scholars accept a historical persons. Stories of strength, wisdom, power = son of goddess Ninsun & man Lugalbanda; a demigod 2/3 god 1/3 human. Lived at the time of the great Mesopotamian flood.
The Noah You Never Knew
Genesis 6:5-9 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. And the Lord regretted that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him to his heart. So the Lord said, “I will blot out man whom I have created from the face of the land, man and animals and creeping things and birds of the heavens, for I am sorry that I have made them.” But Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord. These are the generations of Noah. Noah was a righteous man, blameless in his generation. Noah walked with God.
=Kids story Bibles edited
Sequence
- Everyone only/always evil inside & out
- God heartbroken (speed up deaths or mankind ends)
- God’s eyes looked upon Noah
- Noah = favor (angels say this @ Jesus birth) grace 1st time – saved by GRACE
- Righteous & Blameless = by grace (not perfect; drunk/naked later)
- Noah walked w/God (we don’t find God, God finds us & we follow Him)
= Noah & wife = new Adam & Eve
=Not good guys vs bad guys. Bad guys vs God. His story is my/our story.
One Faith-Filled Family
Genesis 6:10-22And Noah had three sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth. Now the earth was corrupt in God’s sight, and the earth was filled with violence. And God saw the earth, and behold, it was corrupt, for all flesh had corrupted their way on the earth. 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. Make yourself an ark of gopher wood. Make rooms in the ark, and cover it inside and out with pitch. This is how you are to make it: the length of the ark 300 cubits, its breadth 50 cubits, and its height 30 cubits. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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 into you to keep them alive. 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.” Noah did this; he did all that God commanded him. 7 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.
Ark
- 1,400,000 cubic feet, could house 522 modern railroad boxcars
- shaped like a modern battleship
= Video Footage from Ark Museum
CLOSE: a scene set for Flood
- Genesis not just what happened, but what always happens
- Today people live & die w/o much fanfare, & a few people walk with God like Enoch
- Noah loved every one, but lead his family
- God is sending a judgment of fire in the future like water in the past
- No one is really worried because God is patient, 120 years vs 2000 years
=Jesus Christ is our Noah – the head of God’s Covenant family sent to save us
=Church is our Ark – this is where the family gathers separate from the world
= Men – God is raising up patriarchs to save their families
A). God covenanted w/ Noah 1st time) B). told what to do C). did “all that God commanded”
