Roots of All the Nations

I remember when…

Roots – we all have them, we usually enjoy hearing people talk about where they grew up, etc., and our own “story” means a lot to us.  I grew up in a relatively small town in Florida (1950-60), population about 30k at that time, and I still like the town.  It is home to the Publix grocery chain, the Detroit Tigers do their spring training there, and it’s the site of the popular “Sun n Fun” Fly-in every year. My dad went off to war as a B29 gunner, my mom was a nurse at the hospital for over 30 years.  Shall I go on??  Starts to bring back your own memories, right?

To be sure, we all have interesting roots, from all walks of life, many from other countries, many with legendary relatives – every one of us has special stories.  Yet, we rarely think about the truly amazing part of our background that we all have in common.  Do you remember your relative Noah?? Talk about an old relative – when he died in 2147BC he was 931 years old!  And just think, he’s everybody’s relative, and we don’t have to wonder what boat our relatives came over on, it was the Ark!  Genesis 6-8 gives us the amazing story of Noah being told by God to build that great boat and be ready for a global flood, in spite of not knowing what a flood was, or maybe even rain for that matter.  Noah believed God, built the boat and God saved his family.  Then Gen. 9-10 tell the story of God’s covenant with Noah and the next generations of Noah’s family, Shem, Ham & Japheth, spreading out from Mt. Ararat to the North, South, East and West to repopulate the earth.  And then finally, in Gen. 11, the terrible rebellion against God at the Tower of Babel.  Every one of us share in the heritage of these generations and events.

However, that is both good news and bad news…. The bad news is that we also share the heritage of rebellion recounted in Genesis 11, demonstrated at Babel which occurred relatively soon after the Flood.  The Good News thankfully is much bigger:  God does not compromise His holiness (sin will be judged), but He also does not forget His promises (Redemption will be provided).  He continues to maintain a promise-based covenant relationship with those who are faithful to Him.  And, He continues to provide a way of forgiveness and restored relationship with Him.

As we approach a major shift in our study in Genesis 12 and the story of Abraham and God’s chosen people, Genesis 6-8 recounts the Flood, and 9-11 takes us from the Flood to the beginnings of the family groups that will become the nation of Israel.  Moses really knows how to craft an introduction!

Study Note: We’re covering a lot of territory in this study session.  Please be patient, work through the material at your own speed, plan to have two times to work on this session if needed.  

Please pause here and open your Bible and read through Genesis 6-11 in one sitting before you continue on through this Bible Study.

Genesis 6, Faithful Noah

This chapter should make us nervous (the ‘us’ refers to the whole human race).  God saw the decadent society man had become and pronounced it hopeless.  It is sobering to hear God say (Gen. 6:3) that He wouldn’t struggle endlessly to get man to turn away from rebellion and immorality.  That’s very similar to Rom. 1:19-31 where God is said to “give up” on sinful man.  Note that the “word on the street”  in Gen. 11 among humanity was apparently that “life was good” – then what was all that noise coming from Noah’s yard?  He had started building a very large boat!

• Noah wasn’t just a nice guy — he was blessed with God’s grace (Gen. 6:8) , his life pleased God and God returned the favor.
• The descriptive terms “righteous” and “blameless” are first used in the Bible here (Gen.6:9) to describe Noah. There is also the first use of the term “covenant” in Gen. 6:18.
• Noah took God’s plan seriously, he remained faithful and followed every detail.  The plan was detailed and superhuman, but Noah trusted God to do what He promised.
• Noah was “walking with God” – the Christian today has the same calling, his true mark of godliness.
• Note that Gen. 5:1-6:8 provides the family histories to connect us all the way from Adam to Noah.

Bible Study Journal

• Take time to read Gal. 5:22-23; Eph. 4, and Col. 1 & 3.
  • • In these passages, look for biblical guidelines for this mindset of godliness.
    • What is meant by a biblical covenant?  God’s covenant with Noah was made right after the flood.  Take a look at each covenant in these passages:

The Ark was a Real Boat

• “Ark?” – it’s a boat!  It was 500′ long, 85′ wide and 51′ high, so it was a big boat.  Compare that with the Ark of the Covenant in the Tabernacle which was a 3′ cabinet.  The unique form of this Hebrew word is only used one other time in the Bible, where it refers to the Basket that Baby Moses was placed in before being found by the Pharoah’s daughter (Exo.2:3).
• Room in the ark? God designed it, Noah built it.  Take a look at this article on the  “Answers in Genesis”  website to learn much more about the amazing details of just how perfectly this great boat was designed.

Genesis 6, A Collapsing Society

The tragedy of seeing God’s marvelous creation descend into destruction, and seeing what God allowed for that to happen is covered in Gen. 6:11-8:22.

• In Noah’s day, and in our day as well, Mankind builds beautiful cities, buildings, cathedrals, gardens – but he can’t cover up the tragic results of pride, hatred and violence which are evidenced everywhere.  Man is consumed by his wickedness.
• Listen to what  “Our youth now loves luxuries. They have bad manners, contempt for authority. They show disrespect for elders and they love to chatter instead of exercise. Children are now tyrants, not the servants, of the households. They no longer rise when elders enter the room. They contradict their parents, chatter before company, gobble up their food, and tyrannize their teachers.”  Socrates said this in 425BC – 2400+ years ago – interesting!  Civilization has always been this way, and apart from God’s saving grace, we will persist.
• Gen. 6:5, wickedness was great on the earth – demonic powers seemingly freely preying on civilization.  Compare that with Paul’s description of sin’s ugliness in Rom. 1:18ff, and Gal. 5:17ff – angry, fallen, selfish people, full of corruption and violence, condemned by a holy God.
• Consider these ”signs of eminent collapse” which existed in Noah’s times:
  • Demonic invasion, Gen. 6:1-4
  • Sexual wickedness, Gen. 6:6
  • Corruption & violence, Gen. 6:11
• God declared in Gen. 6:3 that He wouldn’t “continue to strive with man”.  The Flood was a literal, global judgment. The only people who survived were Noah’s family inside the Ark. Judgment for sin is a serious matter!

Bible Study Journal

God inspired Moses to describe and summarize this major period of time by employing another marvelous “chiasm” (a special grammatical format) – remember, the Bible writers often used this grammatical device to demonstrate the beauty of God’s Word and its complex nature, as well as the personal character of God’s Word as He inspires the authors in their writing (2 Pet. 1:21)!

Spend some time reading through each section of this profound chiastic passage.  Look up some related margin references if you have them in your Bible, and make notes about the main points in each section.   Then look for how each pair of passages amplify and clarify each other.

A God resolves to destroy the corrupt race (Gen. 6:11-13)
     B Noah builds the ark according to God’s instructions (Gen. 6:14-22)
           C The Lord commands the remnant to enter the ark (Gen. 7:1-9)
                  D The flood begins (Gen. 7:10-16)
                         E  Flood goes 150 days, water covers mountains(7:17- 24)
                                  F God remembers Noah (Gen. 8:1 a)
                         E’ Flood recedes 150 days, mountains are visible (Gen. 8:1-5)
                 D’ The earth dries (Gen. 8:6-14)
           C’ God commands the remnant to leave the ark (Gen. 8:15-19)
     B’ Noah builds an altar (Gen. 8:20)
A’ The Lord resolves not to destroy humankind (Gen. 8:21-22)