Transcript:

Welcome to the Beyond the Basics Bible Study Podcast. My name is Dan Snyder and I am your host. Thank you so much for joining me for this episode of Beyond the Basics where we are exploring the Bible from Genesis to Revelation one chapter at a time.

Well this week we are in Genesis chapter 9. A reminder, we had just finished up chapter 8. The flood had ended, the waters had subsided, Noah and his family and all the animals left the ark, and Noah built an altar to the Lord.

So now in chapter 9 we pick up the story. God blesses Noah. He tells him to be fruitful and multiply. He repeats this twice in verses 1 and 7. Then God tells Noah that the animals will fear you. He tells him you may eat animals, but you may not eat the blood of the animals. And then he gives the death penalty for murder. And that goes for whether the murderer is an animal or a human.

After God says these things to Noah, he then establishes a covenant with Noah. And he says that never again will all flesh die from a flood. He says that never again will a flood destroy the earth. He gives the rainbow as the sign of the covenant.

And after these things, then we see Noah, who earlier in the story was proclaimed to be the righteous seed of Eve. Now we see that righteous seed fall. We read about how Noah becomes drunk, ham, his son sees his nakedness, and then his other two sons, Shem and Japheth, cover his nakedness, and then Ham is cursed, whereas Shem and Japheth are blessed, and then Noah dies.

So let’s go deeper into this chapter.

In verse two, God says to Noah, the fear of you and the dread of you shall be upon every beast of the earth. Essentially saying that all animals are going to fear you. He actually repeats this twice. The word fear and dread is repeated to emphasize this new relationship between man and beast.

God says, “Fear of you and the dread of you,” He’s repeating it twice to emphasize that animals, birds, fish, all life is going to fear humans and that this relationship has now changed between man and animals. And this indicates that this is not the original order of creation. Animals and people did not always fear each other. They got along together. This could even indicate how Noah was able to get the animals into the ark so easily because the animals didn’t fear people.

But this will be restored one day. This relationship, this original relationship from the Garden of Eden and from before the flood will be restored one day. Hosea 2:18 says, “I will make for them a covenant on that day with the beasts of the field, the birds of the heavens, and the creeping things of the ground. And I will abolish the bow, the sword, and war from the land, and I will make you lie down in safety.”

And then Isaiah 11 verses 8 through 9 says that: The nursing child shall play over the hole of the cobra, and the weaned child shall put his hand on the adder’s den. They shall not hurt or destroy in all my holy mountain; for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea.

So there is a day when this relationship will be restored. When Jesus returns and sets all things right, the animals will no longer fear humans in that day.

Verse 3 says, “Every moving thing that lives shall be food for you.”

So God is saying that people are now allowed to eat meat for food. If you remember before, people only ate plants. That is what God provided for food for people, was plants. Now God’s allowing people to eat meat.

So, what is the reason for this? There’s a few different views.

I think the predominant view is that being immediately right after the flood, there wasn’t much vegetation on the earth. And so people couldn’t eat plants very well if there weren’t a whole lot of plants. I think the problem with that is that there was even less animal life, potentially, depending on how long it takes for certain plants to regrow.

And then obviously there was no fishing methods yet either because people weren’t eating fish. And so learning how to catch fish, even though there was an abundance of fish, learning how to catch fish, there would have been a learning curve there. It would have taken some time for people to develop ways to catch fish and be able to eat them.

Another view, and this is from Rabbi Abraham Isaac Hacohen Kook. I’m not sure if I’m pronouncing that correctly. And I tend to believe that this might be a little more accurate. That people were now allowed to eat meat as a concession to man’s wickedness. Basically, God is saying, because humans are so violent, and if you remember before the flood, violence and murder was the main sin that was on the earth before the flood. Violence had filled the earth. People were murdering each other left and right. And so God is saying, “Because you are a violent people, I will allow you to kill animals to satisfy your blood lust so that you no longer are tempted to kill humans.”

So it’s a concession to man’s wickedness. In my opinion, that is a much more accurate view because the scarcity on the earth as far as plant life goes and animal life, I don’t think that plant scarcity fully explains the provision to eat meat long term, maybe short term. But if God didn’t want humans to eat meat, I think the scarcity of the plants would have only caused God to allow this for a short time. But instead, he allows it permanently.

And so I think this view that God is conceding to man’s wickedness and providing a way for him to satisfy that bloodlust without actually killing human beings is a little bit more accurate. But there’s no way for me to know. There’s a lot of people that have a lot of good reasons for the various views on this. So that’s just my opinion.

Another important point about this permission to eat meat is that it comes after the curse of animals fearing man. And the question that we need to ask is, is why does God say that animals are going to fear humans? And then of course, when God says, every moving thing shall be food for you. Well, now we find out why, because animals are now going to be hunted. Animals were not hunted before the flood. Now they will be. And so now they’re going to fear their hunters. Makes sense, right? I think so.

And then of course we find out later in verse 9 and 10 that God made a covenant with the animals as well as with Noah. And this is because animals bring praise and glory to God as well. Humans are not the only ones that bring praise and glory to God. Animals do this also.

Psalm 148 verses 7 and 10 say: Praise the Lord from the earth, you great sea creatures and all deeps… Beasts and all livestock, creeping things and flying birds!

One other view for why God allowed meat to be eaten is that God intended to institute feasts centered around eating animals. And we’re going to find out more about these feasts later when we get into the Book of Exodus. But these feasts are going to provide an illustration of greater truth. All of those feasts are going to point to Jesus. Passover is one example. That is another view of potentially why God allowed people to eat meat at this time. And I do think that that’s part of it.

But in verse 6, God says that whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed. For God made man in his own image. In Numbers chapter 35 and verse 33, it says, “You shall not pollute the land in which you live, for blood pollutes the land, and no atonement can be made for the land for the blood that is shed in it, except by the blood of the one who shed it.”

So this tells us that murder is a capital offense and this is why. The book of Numbers clarifies why it’s a capital offense because blood pollutes the land. And the only way to atone is by the blood of the murderer. So this verse here is instituting the death penalty and God is giving humans authority to shed blood of the murderers. God is giving humans authority to institute governments that will carry out the penalty of death on those who commit murder.

So the question is, does this mean that we should have the death penalty? And I’m not so sure it’s as clear as what it says here in chapter nine. And here’s why. In Genesis two, verse 17, it says, “But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, you shall not eat, for in the day you eat of it, you shall surely die.”

So death was the penalty for eating the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. it was God who said that. But Adam and Eve did not die when they ate. They were exiled from Eden instead.

And then in chapter three, Cain murdered Abel. So we would think that if death is the only acceptable penalty for murder, that God would kill Cain. But God did not kill Cain. He sent him into exile.

So here we see a parallel between death and exile. They seem to be the same thing in the eyes of God. So this is why I don’t think it’s quite as simple as just taking this verse and saying in the United States government we must institute the death penalty for all murders automatically. I think that’s potentially taking this verse out of context.

Now I could be wrong about this, I don’t know. But I think that God seems to show more mercy than that, even in the short few chapters that we’ve read up to this point. If you can call being sent into exile away from his presence, mercy, because that’s also a form of death. And it’s pointing towards eternal death away from his presence in the lake of fire. So I think that’s a worth having.

I’m sorry I can’t give you a definitive answer on that in this podcast, but that’s not necessarily the point anyway. The point is to highlight these things and let you do further study and come to your conclusions on some of these less clear topics that admittedly many people will die on the hill of the death penalty. I’m not going to do that. I’m not sure that the Bible is so clear on that.

Another reason why we see that bloodshed is so important is that blood represents the life of each being. This is now the fourth source of life that we see introduced in the scriptures up to this point in the first nine chapters. The first we saw the spirit or the breath of life. Then we saw the tree of life in the Garden of Eden. Then we saw that the waters bring death and new life. And now we see that blood represents life. All these sources are interconnected. They all work together to bring life.

So moving down to verse nine, God establishes a covenant with Noah and with his offspring and with all the animals.

So a few words about covenants before we get into the details. A covenant is similar to a contract, but it’s a little bit different. It’s more binding. It is usually sealed by blood. So in this chapter here, Noah made an offering and God made his covenant with Noah at the same time as Noah made this offering. So blood is a big part of covenants, of establishing covenants. And there are terms on each side that both parties must abide by in order to receive the benefits of that covenant. And then all covenants have a sign. There’s going to be a sign that go with those covenants.

You can keep an eye out for these things as we go through scripture and as we see the various covenants established by God with men. The next time we’ll see a covenant is with Abraham. We’re going to see covenant established at Mount Sinai with Israel. Obviously we see Jesus establish a covenant with his disciples at the cross or just before the cross. These are binding terms. For example, at Mount Sinai, God gives the law. They’re sealed by blood with offering. Jesus sheds His blood at the cross, sealing the terms of the new covenant.

So what are the terms of this covenant here in chapter 9? Noah’s terms we’ve gone over already. Be fruitful and multiply, do not eat blood, and life is now required for taking a life. And in this term, there’s the understanding that only God has the right to give and take life, but He is transferring this authority to human governments in order to bring justice. If somebody tries to take that authority to take a life as their own, aka murder, that person should die.

And then God’s terms in this covenant, he says that never again will all flesh be cut off by a flood. And he says never again will there be a flood to destroy the earth. Now that doesn’t mean that the conditions on the earth will never be replicated. And in fact, in Matthew 24 verse 37, says, Jesus tells us, as were the days of Noah, so will be the coming of the Son of Man. Conditions will be similar to those days leading up to the flood, in the days leading up to the return of Jesus.

But God will not destroy the earth with a flood, but He will destroy the earth with a fire. Second Peter, chapter three, verses five through seven says: For they deliberately overlook this fact, that the heavens existed long ago, and the earth was formed out of water and through water by the word of God, and that by means of these the world that then existed was deluged with water and perished. But by the same word the heavens and earth that now exist are stored up for fire, being kept until the day of judgment and destruction of the ungodly.”

So Peter tells us that the earth will not be destroyed with water, but it will be destroyed with fire in the Day of Judgment and then it will be made new, just like it was after the flood.

And then what is the sign for this covenant? The sign here is the rainbow in verse 13. This is the first time a rainbow has ever been seen in the sky and it’s a reminder for God.

Why did God need a reminder? Do we really think that God would forget and accidentally send another flood if there was no rainbow to remind him that he had promised not to send another flood? I don’t think that’s what this is saying. In verse 15 it says, will remember my covenant that is between me and you. We mentioned in the previous chapter that when it says that God remembered Noah, it means he turned his attention to Noah. And so I believe that this phrase saying, “I will remember my covenant,” means that God will turn his attention to his covenant. His covenant will have his attention.

Now the interesting thing is that God is always reminded. In Revelation 4 verse 3 it says: And he who sat there had the appearance of jasper and carnelian, and around the throne was a rainbow that had the appearance of an emerald.

So there’s always a rainbow around his throne which means God’s constantly being reminded of his covenant. In other words, God’s attention is always on his covenant with people. He is always attentive to his covenant with Noah to restrain the hand of judgment and to allow time for people to repent and turn their attention to God.

So after this covenant is established by God with Noah, now we reach an unfortunate section of the chapter. If you remember, when Noah was introduced, he was presented as a messiah figure, as the woman seed, and up until now, he has given us no reason to doubt that. But then, in verses 20 and 21, he took the fruit of the tree and became drunk. It actually says vineyard in your English translation. And he drank wine, but it should remind us of Adam taking the fruit of the tree. It’s the same concept. There’s a vineyard or a tree and wine is the fruit of that tree. so Noah took it and drank it and became drunk. This is Adam’s fall all over again and it shows us that we still need a Messiah. We’re still waiting.

And then in verse 22 it says: Ham, the father of Canaan, saw the nakedness of his father and told his two brothers outside.

And it’s pretty unclear what is happening here, especially in the context of the curse that Noah gives after he wakes up from his wine. He says, “Cursed be Canaan, a servant of servants shall he be to his brothers.”

Why does Noah curse Ham’s son Canaan just because Ham walked into the tent and saw Noah naked and then told his brothers? Even if Ham had mocked his father, as is the implication, is that really necessary for Noah to pronounce such an intense curse on Ham’s son who had nothing to do with this?

Well, I think there’s a deeper meaning here. This phrase, the nakedness of his father, if we go to Leviticus chapter 18, verses 7 through 8, it says, “You shall not uncover the nakedness of your father, which is the nakedness of your mother. She is your mother, you shall not uncover her nakedness. You shall not uncover the nakedness of your father’s wife, it is your father’s nakedness.”

So this phrase, the nakedness of his father, in context with the law in Leviticus 18, may actually be more related to Noah’s wife’s nakedness, not his own. So the implication here is that Ham, rather than seeing Noah be naked, may have actually sexually abused or raped his mother. And I think that the strength of Noah’s curse reinforces this view, that Ham uncovered the nakedness of his father by uncovering the nakedness of his mother.

And then in verse 23, Shem and Japheth took a garment, laid it on their shoulders and walked backward and covered the nakedness of their father just like God covered Adam and Eve’s nakedness. Which is why Shem and Japheth receive a blessing because they acted on behalf of God covering the nakedness of their father.

And then in verse 25, as I mentioned already, Noah curses Canaan for Ham’s sin. And so the question is, why did Canaan get cursed for his father’s sin? I thought God doesn’t curse the son for the father’s sin. Ezekiel 18:20 says, “The soul whose sins shall die. The son shall not suffer for the iniquity of the father, nor the father suffer for the iniquity of the son. The righteousness of the righteous shall be upon himself and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon himself.”

So if God doesn’t punish the son for the sins of the father, why is Canaan getting cursed here? And I think in context, if it’s true that the sin here was that Ham actually abused or raped his mother, then Canaan may have actually played a part in that sexual abuse. Or, he is the child resulting from the rape of Ham’s mother. It’s not clear which, but one thing is clear, God does not punish the son unless the son commits the same sin as the father.

But I think it’s interesting in verse 22 that it says, the father of Canaan, saw the nakedness of his father. Why did the author mention that Ham is the father of Canaan right before he enters the tent and sees the nakedness of his father, unless Canaan was either implicit in some way or a result of that sexual abuse?

So Canaan is cursed. He becomes a slave to Shem’s son who is Israel, and this is fulfilled in 1 Kings 9:20-21. It says: All the people who are left of the Amorites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites, who are not of the people of Israel. Those were all Canaanite tribes. It says: Their descendants who were left after them in the land whom the people of Israel were unable to devote to destruction – these Solomon drafted to be slaves and so they are to this day.

But Shem is blessed. Japheth is blessed, but not quite as much as Shem, which tells us that Shem is the chosen line, the chosen seed line.

And in verse 29 it tells us that Noah died. Just like his fathers, death is still inevitable. Humans still need deliverance from sin and death. The violence that was present before the flood, the sexual deviancy that was present before the flood is still present after the flood. In righteous Noah’s own family, humanity is still hopelessly lost and needs deliverance from death. Those are last words of this chapter. That’s what it tells us.

So how does this all point to Jesus?

First, in God’s instructions to man to eat meat, He says, “You shall not eat flesh with its life, that is its blood.”

So that blood must be poured out from the meat before the meat is eaten. And that’s a picture of Jesus, because Jesus’ blood was completely poured out when he died. Because the blood is its life. Jesus poured out his life and he poured out his blood at his death.

And another way this points to Jesus is that murder requires blood. We’re all guilty of murder. Even those of us who have never actually killed a person, we still committed the sins that nailed Jesus to his cross. We all are guilty of murder. And murder requires blood. Murder requires somebody to die. And Jesus died on behalf of us who deserve to die.

And then again at the end of the chapter, it shows us the need for a Messiah. And it says, find out that Yahweh is the God of Shem, which is the line of the seed. As I mentioned already, Canaan, the son of Ham, is cursed. Japheth is blessed, but he’s going to dwell in Shem’s tents. Shem, though he’s not the firstborn, will receive the blessing of the seed line that Jesus will eventually come from.

So questions for reflection.

First, considering man fell right back into sin, what did the flood accomplish? Why did God send the flood if people were just gonna sin right away again anyway?

In what ways have we disrespected God’s authority to give life and to take away life? What response does this require and how is this requirement fulfilled?

What does God’s covenant with Noah tell us about his nature? What can we learn about his mercy and his long suffering?

Noah was a righteous man, yet still he fell into sin. What does this say about the trust we should put in other righteous men? And what does it say about the trust that we should put in our own righteousness?

How have we mocked or gloated over another who fell into sin? We see articles in Christian magazines or on the internet all the time about other Christian leaders who fall into sin. Have we mocked or gloated over them? Or have we recognized that we are no better? So instead of mocking, how can we cover the sin of others when they fall?

Well, thank you for listening to this episode. Again, I want to remind you, if you enjoy the podcast, there are several ways that you can support the podcast. One of the best ways you can do this is by going to your preferred podcast app and clicking follow or subscribe or like and then give the show a rating. Hopefully that would be a five star rating. But give the show a rating that’ll help us get boosted up so that more people can find it and listen and hopefully be blessed in their own study of the Bible and in their own relationship with Jesus. It’s a great way to help support the podcast and to help others find the podcast.

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When I release a new episode, I put it up on that page right away. And so as you listen, you can follow along with the notes. There’s even gonna be additional notes on those study guides that I may not go over in the episode or may cut out of the audio before publishing, but you still get to go through those extra notes.

There’s also going to be spaces for you to answer the questions. I know sometimes I go through pretty quickly at the end of the episode with those reflection questions and maybe you’re driving in your car and you want to answer them, but I’m already moved on to the next question. Listen to it, think about it, and then when you get home, you can download the study guide and you can write down your answer and take a little bit more time for reflection.

The other thing you get when you get these study guides is you’re to get some questions that I don’t cover in the episode that allow for further study. And these questions are going to highlight not just reflection, but also recognizing the themes and the patterns that are in the Bible, recognizing ways that the Bible interprets itself. So it’s going to go deeper in study.

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Next week, we’ll get into chapter 10, which is another long list of names. So if you can’t wait to hear another long list of names, I apologize, you’ll have to wait a week. Until next week, thanks for listening.

Transcript:

Welcome to Beyond the Basics Bible Study Podcast. My name is Dan Snyder and I am your host. Thank you so much for joining me for this episode of Beyond the Basics, where we are exploring the Bible from Genesis to Revelation, one chapter at a time.

This week we’re going to be exploring Genesis chapter 8. We will be continuing the story of the flood that was started in Genesis chapter 7. If you remember from last episode, God had Noah build an ark because God was going to send rain to flood the earth as a result of the wickedness and violence that was on the earth at the time. And so God told Noah to build an ark to bring all the animals and his family on board so that there would be a remnant left on the earth.

So picking up the story in Genesis 8, we find that God now sends a wind over the earth and the waters recede. The waters recede for a total of seven and a half months. That’s the total amount of time that it takes for the waters to evaporate off the face of the earth. Noah sends out birds at various times to test the conditions of the earth to see if the waters have subsided until he is finally able to leave the ark one year and ten days after the rains stop. So he gets out of the ark, he offers sacrifices to God, and then God promises to never flood the earth again. And so we’ll look at all those things in detail.

So this chapter gives us a timeline of the flood from the time the rain falls all the way to the time Noah is able to leave the ark. we already know from the previous chapter that the rain fell for 40 days and 40 nights. And then in verses 2 through 5, it describes the waters receding. And so after the rain stops, it takes 150 days for the waters to recede, which is five months-ish, around there, if the month is about 30 days or so. So the Ark came to rest, it tells us, in the seventh month on the seventeenth day, and then the mountaintops were able to be seen in the tenth month on the first day.

So then Noah sends out birds in verses six through 12. He sends out a raven 40 days after the mountaintops were seen. So again, in the tenth month on the first day, the mountaintops were seen 40 days later. So in the 11th month, in the 11th day-ish, somewhere around there, Noah sends out a raven. And that raven goes to and fro. And it tells us it went to and fro until the waters were dried up. Then later, he sends out a dove. And the dove returns. And then seven days after Noah sent out that dove, he sends out another dove. And this time, the dove returns with an olive leaf. And then seven days later, again, Noah sends out a dove a third time, and this time the dove does not return.

And so then the chapter tells us that three months after the mountain tops were seen, the water had fully receded. Now that didn’t mean that they were able to get out of the ark because the ground was still too soggy for them to be able to actually leave. If they had gotten out of the ark, they would have all sunk in the mud. That is my assumption at least. I think of, I don’t know about you, but when I was a kid, I was under the impression that quicksand was a much bigger problem than it actually is. I thought that quicksand was something that I would have to be dealing with on a regular basis throughout my life. This actually was a problem for them. They probably would have sunk right into the mud if they had gotten out of the ark.

So they had to wait even longer and then finally on the second month on the 27th day the land was dry enough for them to leave the ark.

So going back to verse one, it says that God remembered Noah. Now this is kind of a strange phrase when we consider that God knows everything and God was even the one who orchestrated this. So the question is, did God actually forget Noah?

I think that this word in Hebrew, zakar, it can also mean be mindful. So God was mindful of Noah. He thought about Noah. God was mindful of Noah and his situation. Essentially what it’s saying is that God turned his attention towards Noah. Noah was in the ark. He was in the ark for 40 days and 40 nights. God’s attention was on sending rain onto the earth. And now, God has turned his attention from sending rain to thinking about how to get Noah out of this boat.

We see this phrase several times throughout the Bible. God remembered Israel, God remembered Rachel, God remembered Hannah. We see it several times. It’s a strange phrase, but it’s not uncommon. It’s just a way that the Bible tells us that God has turned his attention toward this person.

Moving on in verse one, it says that God made a wind blow over the earth. And this is supposed to remind us of the creation story. This is supposed to remind us this word wind, it’s the breath or the spirit blowing across the earth.

In Genesis 1:1 it says: The spirit of God was hovering over the face of the earth. And remember that word spirit is the Hebrew word ruach, which means breath. So this is supposed to remind us of the creation story. God has decreated the earth through the flood and now he has begun the process of recreation here in verse one.

So we go through the timeline of the receding waters. We went through that already. We get to verse seven where Noah sends out the raven and then he sends out the dove. So these two birds are very, very different birds and a lot of people have a lot to say about these birds.

In researching this episode, I read a lot of what people had to say and I just chose to not include a whole lot because I’m still working through what the Bible has to say about these two birds. But what I do know is the raven is an unclean bird because it’s a scavenger. The dove is a clean bird. It’s a non scavenging bird. So that raven being an unclean bird, a scavenger bird, it would have fed on the carcasses that were floating on the top of the water. Whereas the dove would have needed a dry place to land in order to find food. So Noah sends out the raven. He sends out the three doves.

And then verse 16, God tells Noah to go out from the ark. I think this shows Noah’s faithfulness and trust in God, in that Noah waited for God to speak to leave the ark. He waited for God to say, it’s time for you to go out. I am sure he looked outside and saw that it was dry. I’m sure he and his family were cooped up. The animals were cooped up. Everybody was ready to leave. They’ve been inside this ark for over a year, but still Noah waited for God to give him permission to leave the ark.

And then in verse 17, God tells Noah to bring out all the animals, all the birds, all the creeping things, and he says that they may be fruitful and multiply on the earth. This indicates two things. It indicates the recreation of the earth, the process that had already been started with the wind or the breath blowing across the earth. Now God has secondly reiterated his original mandate to be fruitful and multiply on the earth. So he’s reiterating this mandate to be fruitful and multiplying so that the recreation of the earth can continue.

And then verse 20, Noah built an altar to the Lord. And this is Noah’s first act after leaving the ark. The first thing he does after leaving the ark is worship God. Not only is it Noah’s first act, but it’s also the first altar built in the Bible.

And I believe the reason for this is that before this, God lived in Eden. People could walk up to Eden. People could sacrifice at Eden. We talked about in chapter 4 that Cain and Abel likely brought their sacrifices up to the door in Eden. That’s where they sacrifice because that’s where God was. Eden essentially was like a temple. It’s like the Holy of Holies in Solomon’s temple or in the Tabernacle. In fact, those temples and the Tabernacle really were recreations of Eden. They were trying to recreate a setting where God lived and where man could approach and worship and sacrifice.

But now, after the flood Eden is destroyed. There is no more Eden. And so Noah has to build an altar.

The type of offering that he offered at the altar was a burnt offering. Some of every clean animal and some of every clean bird. Burnt offering means that the entire animal was sacrificed. Leviticus chapter 1 verse 13 tells us more about the burnt offering. It says: The priest shall offer all of it and burn it on the altar. It is a burnt offering, a food offering with a pleasing aroma to the Lord.

That burnt offering, the Leviticus tells us, the priest offered the entire animal. So this was the most costly offering a person could make. Many of the other offerings, the person making the offering would be able to keep some of the animal and eat it, or it was a grain offering. But this offering, none of the animal was left over, the entire thing was burnt.

And so, especially in context of the flood where there’s very little animals left, and for Noah to offer a burnt offering where the entire animal was offered to God, this was a very, very costly offering.

But in verse 21 it tells us that it was a pleasing aroma to God. He smelled the pleasing aroma. So this sacrifice is pleasing to God. We find that a costly sacrifice is a pleasing aroma. And it reminds us of Abel’s sacrifice. Abel’s sacrifice was costly. He had to sacrifice an entire animal. And that is what’s pleasing to God.

David understood this in 2 Samuel chapter 24 verse 24. It says: But the king (David) said to Araunah, “No, but I will buy it from you for a price,” talking about some land that he was trying to buy to offer some sacrifices to the Lord. And the owner of the land was going to give it to the king for free. But David said, “No, I will buy it from you for a price. I will not offer burnt offerings to the Lord my God that cost me nothing.” So David bought the threshing floor and the oxen for fifty shekels of silver.

David understood that burnt offerings were supposed to be costly and he would not offer those at no cost. It’s the cost that God finds pleasing. And the reason for this is because, not because God is just a selfish, demanding God that sits up there in the sky expecting us to bring everything that we own up to Him and He gets it all and we get nothing because He’s God and we’re just ants. It’s not because of that.

It’s because God sacrificed everything for us. It’s because God sent His Son, Jesus, who sacrificed everything, including His entire life, so that we could live. So in response, when we sacrifice everything, when we identify with His sacrifice, He finds that pleasing.

And even these sacrifices before Jesus walked the earth, they were still identifying with the sacrifice that Jesus would one day make. And so this pleasing sacrifice, this burnt sacrifice that is pleasing to God, actually foreshadows three sacrifices that we read about in the New Testament.

The first sacrifice is obviously, as I mentioned, Christ’s sacrifice on the cross. Ephesians 5:2 says: Walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.

Christ’s sacrifice was a fragrant offering. It was a pleasing aroma to God.

Secondly, it foreshadows our sacrifice of ourselves to God. 2 Corinthians 2:15 says: For we are the aroma of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing.

When we lay down our lives for God, when we lay aside the things that we want for the things that God wants, when we submit ourselves to the leadership of Christ, when we sacrifice our own desires for God’s desires, that’s a pleasing aroma. It’s a pleasing sacrifice to God.

And then thirdly, it foreshadows our sacrifices that we make for each other. Philippians 4 verse 18 says: I have received full payment, and more. I am well supplied, having received from Epaphroditus the gifts you sent, a fragrant offering, a sacrifice acceptable and pleasing to God.

Paul was saying that these gifts that the Philippian church sent to him, these are financial gifts. And he’s saying that these financial gifts was a fragrant offering to God. A fragrant aroma, pleasing aroma to God. When we sacrifice for others, when we give our time, when we give our money in the service of others out of love, that’s a pleasing aroma to God. That’s an acceptable sacrifice to God.

And then it says: God smelled the pleasing aroma. He said in his heart, “I will never again curse the ground because of man.”

So it was only after the sacrifice that God vowed to never again curse the ground. Sacrifice averts God’s heart from judgment. A sacrifice appeals to God’s heart. It’s a form of intercession on behalf of the unjust. It’s a way to cry out for mercy for the wicked. What Noah was doing here by making this sacrifice was not just worshiping God. He was making intercession. He was saying, “God, all I have is yours. I have nothing left. There is nothing left, literally nothing left on this planet. And what little is left is yours.”

He’s saying, “This planet belongs to you.”

He’s saying, “I trust my future with you.”

And he’s crying out for mercy. He’s dedicating this new creation to God and saying God have mercy. No one knows that even though God has removed this wickedness from the earth, that there is still wickedness in his heart. And no one knows that if God doesn’t intervene, mankind is going to reach this point again and God’s gonna have to go through the whole thing again. And so this sacrifice is saying, “God have mercy. Have mercy on the unjust. Have mercy on the wicked.”

And God hears and promises, “I will never again curse the ground.”

So he actually promises two things. First, as I mentioned, he will never again curse the ground because of man, which the ground had already been cursed in Genesis chapter three. God cursed the ground after the fall of Adam. God cursed the ground and said that work will become toil. It says in Genesis 3 verses 17 and 18: “Cursed is the ground because of you; in pain you shall eat of it all the days of your life; thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you; and you shall eat the plants of the field. By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread, till you return to the ground.”

So that was the curse on the ground. And God is saying, “I’m not going to curse the ground again. It’s already hard enough. I’m not going to make it even harder than it was.”

Essentially, he’s saying that man is already wicked. He’s already wicked enough, and it’s useless and possibly even detrimental to curse the ground even further. So he says, “We’ll leave conditions the way they are. The ground is already cursed. I’m not going to curse the ground again.”

And then the second thing that God says he will never do, he says he will never again strike down every living creature. He is promising there’s always going to be a remnant. He’s never going to destroy every living thing like he did in the flood.

So how does this chapter point to Jesus?

We talked about Jesus sacrificing himself and he is the sacrifice that intercedes and atones for all creation. Just like Noah sacrificed a burnt offering to intercede for God’s mercy on all of creation, God heard and responded with a promise.

Jesus did the same thing. He sacrificed himself, all of himself, just like a burnt offering, and got heard, and he responded, and provided mercy, a way for humanity to finally approach him and commune with him as Adam did in Eden. And that sacrifice was an atoning sacrifice. Cleanse the sin and paid for the sin of all creation.

Another way that we can see that this points to Jesus is that Noah makes a sacrifice on a mountain. Thousands of years later we see once again a sacrifice on a mountain that sacrifices Jesus. And he will be sacrificed on the hill of Golgotha. So that mountain sacrifice points to Jesus being sacrificed on a high place.

So some questions for reflection.

First one, will we wait for God to speak when we are in unpleasant and uncertain situations? Or will impatience cause us to leave when God wants us to stay? And does our theology allow us to trust that God sometimes wants us to stay in unpleasant situations?

This is a tough question because many times when we’re in unpleasant or difficult situations, we pray and ask God to remove us or to remove the situation or to get us out or to get us through and sometimes are we okay with God asking us to stay in that situation potentially for a long period of time and then when God does release us from those unpleasant situations, what is our response? Is it worship? What is our response when God releases us?

Is our sacrifice a pleasing aroma to God? What does a pleasing sacrifice look like? What does that look like in your life?

What would be a sacrifice that you have made or need to make that would be a pleasing aroma to God?

And a related question, what are we willing to sacrifice that is very costly? Just like that burnt offering, what would be a costly sacrifice for you?

And again, related, what can we sacrifice for others that would be a pleasing aroma to God? How can we give up our lives for others?

Well, thank you for listening to another episode of Beyond the Basics. Just a reminder, if you would like to support the show, always very, very helpful if you can click subscribe or follow on whatever podcast app you’re using. Leave a rating as well. Help the show get found as people are searching for the show. All those things can help the show get found by random people.

Another way you can support the show, as I mentioned earlier in the episode, go to the subscribe page on the website, http://www.beyondthebasics.blog. And you can subscribe for $6 a month. You get the study guides. And these study guides are a great personal tool for you to follow along with the study and the show. You can get all my notes from the show including certain things that I may not go over in the show or that I cut out from the show and from the audio. So those will be on the notes.

You can get all the questions for reflection that I ask with spaces to answer the questions. So I know I go kind of quickly with asking questions. This helps you slow down and contemplate these questions, ponder them, meditate on them, and you can write out your own answers. And then at the end of the study guide, there’s gonna be several questions that I don’t go over in the episode. These are questions for further study that will help you recognize patterns and themes in the Bible, different connections. So this is gonna help you in learning how to study the Bible in a deeper way.

Again, it’s $6 a month, you get access to all the study guides. And a new thing that I would like to do for subscribers, for monthly subscribers, is do a question and answer episode. And so this is going to be for the first eight chapters. I think we’ll start with the first eight chapters. We’ll see how we do. Any listener can ask a question. All you need to do is go to the website, go to the contact page, enter in the question on that submittal form, and submit the question. Any listener can do that. But if you want to hear the answer, you’ll have to subscribe. Because the question and answer episode is going to be for subscribers only.

So feel free to ask question if you want to hear the question and answer episode. You will need to subscribe if you want to hear your question answered. So go ahead and do that. We’ll see how this goes if I get some questions. If I get enough questions, we’ll go with the first episode being for chapters one through eight. If I don’t get enough questions, we’ll extend that a bit until I do get enough questions for a full episode. So go ahead and send in your questions, subscribe on the webpage.

As always, feel free to leave me a comment, let me know what you think. Always appreciate hearing your feedback. Thanks for listening.

Transcript:

Welcome to the Beyond the Basics Bible Study Podcast. My name is Dan Snyder and I am your host. Thank you so much for joining me for this episode of Beyond the Basics, where we are exploring the Bible from Genesis to Revelation, one chapter at a time.

Well in this episode, we will be going straight into the flood narrative. Noah was introduced in the last chapter. We find out that the earth is filled with wickedness and God was grieved at the wickedness that was on the earth and decides to send a flood. But he finds that Noah is righteous and so he chooses Noah to build an ark for the remnant of the human race that will remain and survive the flood.

So now we’ll get into chapter 7 where God commands Noah and his family to enter the ark in the first verse there. So Noah obeys God, he brings all the animals with him, he brings seven pairs of all the clean animals and one pair of animals that are unclean.

And the Bible tells us that in Noah’s 600th year the flood came. It says that the fountains of the deep burst forth. It says that the windows of the heavens were opened and rain fell for 40 days and 40 nights. And it tells us that every living thing remaining on the earth was destroyed. And then at the end of the chapter, we find out that the waters stayed on the earth for 150 days because there was so much water on the earth.

So back to verse one. It says that the Lord says to Noah, “Go into the ark, you and all your household, for I have seen that you are righteous before me in this generation.”

So the question is, or at least the question that I have is, were Noah’s sons righteous? Or his sons’ wives? Or is this just saying that Noah himself is righteous? And were Noah’s sons counted righteous because Noah was righteous?

In other words, God found Noah to be righteous, and as a result, God gave Noah’s entire family a chance to be the survivors of the flood. Because if he had just saved Noah, and Noah was the only one who was righteous, well, who would restart the human race? Even if it was just Noah and his wife, he was already 600 years old. I don’t know how long childbearing age was back in those days, but I have to think that would be a bit late to start a family based on the ages of the other patriarchs in Genesis 5.

So, interesting question. I don’t know if it matters. But then again it might, because it could have an effect if you are a father in a household and you live humbly and follow the Lord and are righteous in God’s sight. What effect does that have on your family? What kind of mercy does God show the rest of your family who may or may not follow the Lord if you do? How much mercy does God show your kids if you parents are following the Lord? I think that’s an important question. And I think this is an important question that we can ask of the text right here.

So another interesting observation here is that Noah obeyed every word that God said to him without question. In fact, there are no words that are recorded from Noah to God. It’s all God’s words to Noah. This tells us that Noah simply listened and obeyed. He didn’t question, he didn’t argue, he didn’t even converse. God said something and Noah did it without question and without fail.

And in fact, in Genesis 6, Noah hears the word from the Lord to build the ark. And for all we know, God did not speak to Noah for another 120 years. Noah obeyed faithfully. And it says in verse 1 of chapter 7 that he is still righteous before God. He obeyed God for 120 years without hearing God’s voice that entire time.

So God gives Noah the command to go into the ark. We find out later in verse 10 that this command was given seven days before the flood. Now if you remember in Genesis 1, creation was completed in seven days. Now we have de-creation starting in seven days. So this is important because it is portrayed as the opposite of creation. In seven days the earth is created, now in seven days the earth is de-created.

In verse 2, God says to Noah, take with you seven pairs of all clean animals. Now the question I have, and I have a lot of questions in this chapter, there’s a lot of things that I just, I don’t know if any of us will ever really truly understand some of these things. Maybe there’s somebody out there, if there is, please drop me a message, direct me to somebody who knows these answers, because I sure don’t know them.

How did no one know that these animals were clean? Because the law had not yet been given. God details what animals are clean and what animals are not clean later on when he gives the law to the Israelites in the wilderness and at Sinai. But Noah hadn’t been given the law yet. So how did he know these were clean animals? I think that’s an interesting question. I don’t have the answer to that. If any of you know the answer, let me know.

And another question here is how did Noah get them to come on the boat? Again, I have no idea other than God seems to be at work here in a very significant and very distinct way. Isaiah 1:3 says: The ox knows its owner, and the donkey its master’s crib, but Israel does not know, my people do not understand.

And so this verse is telling us it’s not animals that have the problem listening, it’s humans. Humans are the ones that have a difficult time obeying God. Animals have no problem. The ox knows its owner. The donkey knows its master. The sheep knows the shepherd. God doesn’t have a problem with animals.

And I think that’s part of the interesting contrast of Genesis 6 and 7 is that the animals seem so civilized. They peacefully go onto the ark at Noah’s command. And yet humanity has lowered itself to a beastly state. Humanity has lowered itself to the level of animals where they are murdering each other. There is wickedness. They look out for themselves and themselves only, each man for himself. I think that’s an interesting contrast that these two chapters are trying to make. That humanity has lowered itself to less than animals. After being made in the image of God, humanity is now lower than the animals.

Down to verse 12, the rain fell upon the earth forty days and forty nights. So that number forty symbolizes trial, symbolizes testing, it symbolizes judgment and purification. We’re going to see that number forty all through the Bible.

And it’s some of the most prominent and well-known stories in the Bible that many of you already know. It’s going to be shown in the 40 years in the wilderness that Israel spends wandering after leaving Egypt. There is 40 days in the wilderness that Jesus spends being tempted while he’s fasting. 40 is a very prominent number of testing, trial, and then the eventual purification coming out of the end of that, whether it’s 40 days and 40 nights or whether it’s 40 years or whatever it is, it results in purification.

So this flood, in verse 17 it says, the flood continued 40 days on the earth. So flood paired with this word 40, it’s now become a symbol of judgment. Obviously this is real judgment. This is not symbolic. This is literal judgment coming from a literal flood in this chapter.

But we’re going to see this throughout the Bible that the word flood is often used as a metaphor or a symbol for judgment. We can see this in Egypt, in the Red Sea, we’ll see it in the final judgment. Even many of the prophets, they’re going to use the word flood to describe armies that have come to judge Israel. So that word flood is going to be an important metaphor that we recognize as we go through the rest of the Bible.

Alright, so in verse 18, we see this phrase, the waters prevailed, and this is going to be repeated four times. In verse 18, it says, the waters prevailed and increased greatly. In verse 19, it says, the waters prevailed so mightily that all the mountains were covered. In verse 20, it says, the waters prevailed above the mountains, covering them 15 cubits deep. And then in verse 24, it says, waters prevailed on the earth 150 days.

So there’s a progression in those phrases and there’s an increase in those phrases. Let me go through them again so you can notice that progression. First, it says the waters prevailed and increased greatly. Then it says they prevailed so mightily that all the mountains were covered. Then it says they prevailed above the mountains covering them 15 cubits deep. Then it says they prevailed on the earth 150 days.

Notice the increase, that progression of more and more and more and more water. And it’s repeated four times. And that number four is important because it reveals that this is done by God’s authority. Remember the four rivers that came out of Eden that watered the entire earth. was God’s authority, God’s life. God’s living water spreading throughout the entire earth. So that’s what that number four symbolizes.

And so what this is telling us is that the prevailing waters, the increase of the prevailing waters is done by God’s authority. He has the authority to do this. There should be no question that God is right and just for sending this flood.

In verse 21, it says, all flesh died that moved on the earth, birds, livestock, beasts, all swarming creatures that swarm on the earth and all mankind.

And verse 23, it says again, he blotted out every living thing that was on the face of the ground, man and animals and creeping things and birds of the heavens. They were blotted out from the earth.

So this phrase saying that all flesh died and every living thing died, listing the birds, the beasts, the swarming creatures, the creeping things is repeated twice to emphasize that everything is destroyed. And then right in the middle of those two phrases it says, everything on the dry land and whose nostrils was the breath of life died.

So this is intended to emphasize that literally everything is destroyed. There should be no question that God destroyed everything on the earth. But it says only Noah was left and those who were with him in the ark.

Now it’s important to note that God did not remove Noah from this judgment. He provided Noah a way through the judgment. I have seen some use the flood story as precedent for a pre-tribulation rapture where God takes his church out of the world before a seven-year tribulation. There is no precedent of God doing that anywhere in the Bible. This is not an example of God removing somebody from judgment.

Let me tell you that being on an ark, turned out to be, we’ll find out in the next chapter, it turned out to be well over a year. That was a trial. That was tribulation in that ark. There is no easy life on that ark surrounded by stinky, smelly, pooping animals that are loud and probably trying to fight each other all the time and eat each other. Trying to keep the peace with your family cooped up on the same boat for a year. No showers. Hopefully enough to eat. I mean, who knows? It would be miserable. Imagine being on that for a year. You really think that’s not a trial? You really think that’s not tribulation? Of course it is.

So, so God didn’t remove Noah from this judgment. He was every bit involved in this judgment. Noah lost everything. Noah lost his friends. He lost his extended family. He lost everything except for his immediate family. He lost his home.

God didn’t remove Noah from the from the judgment. But he provided Noah a way through the judgment. Noah still experienced some of the negative effects of God’s judgment on the earth. There was still heartache. There was still sorrow. This is not a precedent for a pre-tribulation rapture.

Now what it is a case for is baptism. This is the first picture that we have in the Bible of baptism, least as far as I know. The reason is because we see that Noah passes in and out of the waters. It is Noah that enters in the ark. The ark takes him upon the waters and then he emerges from the ark after the flood. So this is a picture of baptism. Water is being used to wash away sin and what we have on the other side is a new creation.

So during the flood earth is covered in water just as it was at the beginning of creation. When we read Genesis 1 it says that the spirit was hovering over the waters. Now once again the earth is covered in water, just like it was a creation. And so, after the waters depart, now we have a new creation. And wickedness has been washed away.

That’s exactly what baptism is. When a person repents of their sins and gets baptized, that baptism washes away their sin, and a person emerges from the water as a new creation. That’s exactly what’s happening here.

This is the first picture of that happening. We see it several other times. I will point it out as we get there. Probably the next most prominent time that we’ll see it is the Exodus when Israel passes through the Red Sea. That’s another picture of baptism.

So what we see here now is that we have a new creation on the earth. Noah emerges from the waters as a new Adam, a chance to restart the human race and new creation and in the next chapter we’ll find out how that went.

So how does this chapter point to Jesus?

As we just mentioned, obviously baptism is a very important way. Jesus was baptized. When Jesus was baptized, the Holy Spirit came and hovered over him, just like he hovered over the waters of creation and pointed to the new creation found in Jesus through baptism. This very first picture we have of baptism does point to Jesus in that way.

And then of course, Jesus baptizes us with the Holy Spirit. Again, when we get baptized, when we repent, we’re baptized, we’re baptized in the Holy Spirit. It’s the same exact picture. The Holy Spirit is hovering over the waters, over the waters of the new creation. So, baptism with water, baptism with the Holy Spirit, it’s the same exact picture.

And then we see in this chapter that Noah subdued creation and he ordered creation. This points to the redemptive work that Jesus will do one day as he returns. He’s going to subdue all of creation and he will one day bring order back to creation. And eventually, again, one day the whole earth will be a new creation. There will be a new heavens and a new earth. And Jesus will subdue everything under His feet, even death. And He will order creation into a new world order, His world order.

So some questions for reflection.

First, why did God need to completely destroy the earth? Isn’t this excessive? Why was it so necessary for God to destroy everything? Couldn’t he have just destroyed some things and not destroyed everything? But what does this tell us about God?

Why did no one else join Noah and his family in the ark? And what does this say about the human condition?

Why did God choose Noah? Why did God consider Noah to be righteous?

In a wicked world, do we catch God’s eye like Noah caught God’s eye? In this wicked world, do we stand out like Noah did?

And how did Noah’s obedience prepare him for what God would do in the future? And how does our obedience help prepare us for an unknown future?

All right, well, thank you so much for listening to this episode. I want to remind you, if you would like to support the podcast, you can do it in several different ways. You can support by clicking subscribe, by clicking like, by sharing the podcast. Whatever you use to listen to the show, it’d be a huge support to help bump this podcast up in search results, to help more people notice it. The more people that can find it, the more people that there are that will hopefully be able to access this study and hopefully be drawn to Jesus.

That’s my goal with this podcast is to help people be attracted to the Bible and help people be attracted to Jesus. So you can do your part. Click subscribe and like share with your friends, share it on social media, help get the word out on this so that people can find it.

Another way you can support the podcast is financially. You can go to the website http://www.beyondthebasics.blog. You can go to the subscribe page and you can subscribe. For $6 a month you get all my study guides that I publish for these episodes. These study guides include all my notes. They include additional notes that are not talked about in the episode. They give you space to write down your answers to the questions for reflection. And they also have additional further study questions that help, especially if you’re interested in exploring these themes further, if you are interested in learning more about how the Bible interprets itself. Those questions are gonna be for you. They’re gonna take you deeper into the text and how it relates to other themes throughout the Bible.

So this is a great way to go deeper in your study to launch yourself into further study and to hopefully fall in love with Jesus more. That’s my goal. So if you would like those study guides, go ahead and subscribe on the website. Thanks for listening.

Transcript:

Welcome to the Beyond the Basics Bible Study Podcast. My name is Dan Snyder and I am your host. Thank you so much for joining me for this episode of Beyond the Basics where we are exploring the Bible from Genesis to Revelation, one chapter at a time.

So last episode we read through a super interesting nice long list of names of old dead guys and ended with Noah appearing on the scene along with his three sons. Now the scene shifts here at the beginning of Genesis chapter 6 and we find out that these sons of God start to take the daughters of men to be their wives. As a result of the wickedness that is on the earth, God pronounces judgment on mankind. And this is the first time we see God feel an emotion. It says that he feels regret because of the violence on the earth. So he says he’s going to blot out mankind from the earth, but Noah, this chapter tells us, has found favor with God. So God tells Noah his plans to destroy the earth with a flood and gives him instructions to build an ark to save his family and the animals.

So going back to the beginning of the chapter, we have two groups of people. We have the sons of God and we have the daughters of men. The sons of God or the sons of Elohim. In other words, they are the sons of the gods is another way to translate this. And then the daughters of men, that word is Adam or Adam. So these are daughters of Adam. So the sons of the gods and the daughters of Adam.

So first we’re gonna discuss the sons of God. There’s a couple different views here. Some say that these sons of God are the sons of Seth. And this is drawn from the divergence of the genealogies of Seth and Cain in Genesis chapters 4 through 5, where Cain’s line is described as being wicked and exiled from God, and Seth’s line is described as calling on the name of God. So many will say that they’re the sons of Seth.

Another reason that people say this is that God’s people are referred to as God’s sons. Deuteronomy chapter 14 verse 1 says: “You are the sons of the Lord your God. You shall not cut yourselves or make any baldness on your foreheads for the dead.”

Jeremiah 3:19 says, “I said, How would I sit you among my sons and give you a pleasant land, a heritage most beautiful of all nations? And I thought you would call me, My Father, and would not turn from following me.”

So those are a couple examples of passages where God’s people, Israel is called God’s sons. The problem with this view is that Israel or God’s people are never directly called the sons of God. That phrase is not used.

So the other view is that they are fallen angels. And those who believe this view, they believe this because this phrase, sons of God or sons of the gods, always refers to spiritual beings in the Bible. A few examples here in Job, Job chapter 1 verse 6: Now there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord and Satan also came among them.

And then in Job chapter 2 verse 1: Again there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord and Satan also came among them to present himself before the Lord.

And then in Job 38:4-7: “Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth? Tell me if you have understanding. Who determined its measurements? Surely you know. Or who stretched the line upon it? On what were its bases sunk? Or who laid its cornerstone when the morning stars sang together and all the sons of God shouted for joy?”

And then another reason many people believe that these are angels or fallen angels is because Jude directly calls them angels. In verse 6 and 7 of Jude it says: And the angels who did not stay within their own position of authority, but left their proper dwelling, he has kept in eternal chains under gloomy darkness until the judgment of the great day— just as Sodom and Gomorrah and the surrounding cities, which likewise indulged in sexual immorality and pursued unnatural desires serve as an example by undergoing a punishment of eternal fire.

So in my opinion, this is the correct view. I believe that these are fallen angels. I believe that the Bible should interpret the Bible and we should use the Bible to interpret itself. And when the Bible uses certain words and certain phrases, only in certain situations, that’s a good indication of what that phrase or word means. And then of course we have Jude that directly refers to this and calls them angels. So I do believe that this is the correct interpretation, but I wanted to put both views out there for you so you can take a look at those more in depth on your own.

And then of course, the daughters of men. Again, two views here. Some say they’re the daughters of Cain for the same reason that many believe that the sons of God are the sons of Seth. This is the same reason many believe that the daughters of men are the daughters of Cain because of the divergent genealogies in chapters four through five.

And then others say that they’re human daughters in general. And again, this is my view. This is my opinion that they are human daughters. The word there is daughters of Adam, or daughters of Adam, not daughters of Cain. So I think this is the correct view. They are human daughters.

Another reason that I don’t believe that this is referring to the sons of Seth and the daughters of Cain is because the issue of intermarriage between the two groups does not seem worth destroying an entire planet over.

And it is true that God commanded his people not to intermarry. That was given to Israel as a law. And so that law wasn’t in place yet. But the reason Israel was given that law is because God didn’t want them risking spiritual contamination from the surrounding Canaanite tribes. And that was a law that was unique to Israel. And there’s no indication in the Bible that that is applicable to any other situation other than Israel in the promised land. And even if this law is in effect already in Genesis 6, even though God has not given the law, but even if it is in effect, the question is: Is this bad enough to destroy the world? Is the issue of the sons of Seth marrying the daughters of Cain such a bad thing that God would destroy an entire planet over that? In my opinion, I don’t think so. I don’t think that is worth flooding the entire planet.

So, we’ll discuss a few reasons why I believe that this story, at least the first part of this chapter, details the fall of the angels. The story parallels the fall of man very closely, and I believe very deliberately. Many believe that Satan and his angels fell before Adam and Eve were created, or at least before they were tempted. And obviously the reason for this is because Satan or the serpent was in the garden and tempted Eve into eating of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. it stands to reason that angels would have followed him, but that isn’t necessarily the case and that isn’t what the Bible says.

So all we know is that Satan was in the garden and that Satan tempted Eve. We are not given any other timeline other than that.

So in my opinion, this is the story of the fall of the angels. And I’ll tell you why I believe that. The phrase, the sons of is a Hebrew way of saying belonging to a group. So you will see this in many areas of the Bible, the sons of Korah. Another one is the sons of the prophets. You’ll see that phrase. So all that means is these people that we’re speaking of belong to this certain group. They belong to the prophets. They belong to Korah. They are of Korah.

And in this case, it’s saying that these particular individuals belong to God or belong to a group of gods. And that will be indicated by that word Elohim, the sons of Elohim, the sons of the gods belonging to the group of gods. And this would be further evidence of divine counsel. I mentioned that way back in episode one. This is another instance of that. If it’s something that you would like to learn more about, it’s not something that I have a whole lot of knowledge about, but some will use this as evidence of that divine council of little “g” gods that rule the nations under the authority of Yahweh God.

So another reason why I believe that this is the story of the fall of the angels is it uses Eden language. It uses the same language that Genesis 3 used to describe the fall of man. So if you purchase the study guide on the website, you will see that I’ve highlighted these similarities in different colors. So if you would like to go on the website and purchase the study guide or better yet, subscribe monthly, you can get access to the study guide and you can see the similarities a lot clearer here than just listening to it. But I’ll highlight them for you here.

So Eve, first of all, she saw the tree was good. And in Genesis chapter 6 here, the sons of God saw, in verse 2, that the daughters were attractive. Eve saw that the tree was good, and the sons of God saw that the daughters were attractive. So that’s the second similarity. First, the sons of God saw, just like Eve saw. And then the sons of God saw the daughters were attractive, just like Eve saw that the tree was good.

And thirdly, the sons of God took them, they took the daughters as their wives. And Eve in Genesis chapter three took of the fruit. So Eve in Genesis 3 saw, she saw the tree was good, and she took of the fruit. The sons of God saw, they saw the daughters were attractive and they took them as their wives.

So that very clearly draws a connection to Genesis chapter three, to the fall of man. I believe this is very clearly showing that this is another fall story. This time, this is the fall of the angels.

So that of course begs the question, why did the angels fall? Why did these spiritual beings start to go after human women? It’s unnatural. It seems like it should be impossible. But we have to remember that in the storyline of Genesis so far, we know that a seed is coming. And in Genesis chapter three, after the fall of man, God said that a seed is coming to crush the head of the servant. And in Genesis chapter 5, now we have Noah that is born and Noah is presented as that seed.

And so there suddenly seems to be an urgency on the part of these spiritual beings who find that their rule is suddenly threatened. And so they start polluting the human gene pool because if there is a seed that’s coming, if there is an offspring of Adam that is coming to crush the head of the serpent, that offspring can’t come from polluted genes. That offspring can’t come from a human-angel hybrid. It needs to be a human that crushes the head of the snake. And if it turns out that the human gene pool is polluted with non-human genes, now that destroys any possibility of a human seed coming to crush the head of the serpent.

So that’s why this is such a big deal. That is why God said, I have to put a stop to this. This cannot continue. And so he found Noah.

And so in verse 3, the Lord said, “My spirit shall not abide in man forever, for he is flesh: his days shall be 120 years.”

And again, here we have two different views. One view is that this is the maximum lifespan of humans after the flood. And the reason many will use to support this is that Moses lived for 120 years.

The other view is that this is the amount of time until the flood would come. And in my opinion, I used to believe that this was the lifespan of people after the flood for many of the same reasons, because you see that Moses lived 120 years. But the more I’ve read this, I do believe now that this is referring to the amount of time until God would send the flood, that it would be 120 years before God would flood the earth.

I believe in context, this is what makes the most sense. In context, it doesn’t make a whole lot of sense for God’s judgment here to be a lifespan, a human lifespan of 120 years. There’s still plenty of time in there for humans to mate with angels, with fallen angels. So that’s not really an effective judgment. The true effective judgment is to limit the time that the entire human race is on the earth by 120 years and sending a flood.

So in verse four it mentions the Nephilim. This is also translated giants. The Nephilim are commonly believed to be the offspring of the gods and human women. It says that they’re the mighty men who were of old, the men of renown.

Now in my opinion, this is just pure speculation, but I believe that many of the myths that we read are rooted in these mighty men, in these Nephilim. In fact, the myths themselves refer to a lot of these human-god hybrids, these demigods that walked the earth. Guys like Hercules or Gilgamesh. I believe that it’s possible that the myths are actually based on real people. Was Hercules an actual real person? I have no idea. Not saying that. What I am saying is that these myths and these stories were made up. They were rooted in stories that were passed down from generation to generation over thousands and thousands of years from people that had seen these types of people walk the earth.

Now this word Nephilim is from the root word Nephal which means to fall and so the word Nephilim means the fallen ones. So again, another indication that this is the story of the fall of the angels.

So moving on to verse six, it says: The Lord regretted that he had made man on the earth and it grieved him to his heart.

As I mentioned already, this is the first time we see emotion attributed to God in the Bible. This is the first time this is recorded where God is revealing his emotions. And this reveals how God feels about releasing judgment on people. He is grieved that it has come to this and that now he has to send a flood to restart creation, to recreate. Grieves him deeply.

And then of course later on in verse seven it says that he is sorry, he has made everything. Does this mean that God wishes he hadn’t made humans? I don’t believe that that’s what this is saying. I believe that what this is saying is that God loves humanity and loves his creation so deeply that he doesn’t want to see them degenerate into a lawless, murderous, violent, immoral society. And that when they do, it grieves him. He feels sorry because they have rejected him and they’ve rejected his law.

I think it’s very important for us to meditate on this aspect of God, on how he feels about his creation when they go wrong.

So then we are reintroduced to Noah. And in verse 9, it tells us that Noah was three things. The first thing he was is Noah was righteous, or in other words, Noah was just. He loved justice. He did right by others.

It says that he was blameless. In other words, he was complete and undefiled. He did not allow sin or uncleanliness to file him. There wasn’t anything that anybody could say against Noah. He was beyond reproach.

And then third, it says that Noah walked with God. And if you were paying attention, this is the same phrase that described Enoch. Enoch walked with God, and so did Noah. So essentially what this is saying is that Noah was uncorrupted by Satan’s attempt to destroy the genetic line of the seed. He, nor his mother, nor his wife, nor his son’s wives had been corrupted by this defiled gene pool.

Now that’s in contrast to verse 11 where it tells us the state of the earth before the flood. It says that the earth is corrupt in God’s sight. In other words, they had forsaken God’s way. God had shown them the way and they had forsaken it. Their way is corrupt. And then also it says that the earth is filled with violence. And this tells us that murder along with sexual deviancy was the primary sin on the earth at the time.

And so God determined that he would make an end of all flesh, but he gave Noah instructions for an ark to save his family. And this is the first occurrence of a remnant. And we’re going to see this theme throughout the Bible, that there is a cycle of disobedience by Israel, judgment from God, but God always saves a remnant. There’s always a few people that God finds to be faithful to him. There’s always a remnant.

So the question that we should ask ourselves is, am I part of that remnant? Because there is judgment coming one day. There is going to be a day when God will judge the earth. And am I going to be part of that remnant that God saves from that judgment? Or will I be destroyed in the flood, so to speak? Am I going to remain faithful, even when everybody else is going one way, am I going to remain faithful to God’s Word and God’s way and go the other way? Or am I going to go along with what the rest of the world is doing and risk getting swept away in the flood of judgment?

In verse 19, it mentions that Noah was to bring two of every sort of animal into the ark. So the question is, how did the ark fit all those animals? This is, I’m sure a question that you’ve asked yourself. I’ve asked myself this question many times.

And I’m not going to pretend to know all the answers here, but a couple things here that would help us understand how this could work is, first of all, this word sort. In other translations, it would be translated as kind. It’s similar to what we would consider an animal family or genus. So for example, when we think of dogs, dogs, wolves, jackals, coyotes, et cetera, et cetera, they’re all descended from a common ancestor. God did not create all those different varieties all at once. He created each animal in its sort or a kind. And then changes in genetics over the years have resulted in, and also specific breeding, have resulted in all these different varieties of dogs and jackals and wolves, et cetera, et cetera.

So this does indicate the existence of microevolution, meaning small changes happen over time resulting in differences. They’re minor differences. They’re not wolves changing into rhinoceroses. They’re wolves changing into dobermans. They’re coyotes turning into German shepherds. You know, it’s minor changes, minor genetic changes that happen over the years.

Verse 22, it says that Noah did all that God commanded. There is no indication that Noah questioned. There is no indication that Noah even conversed with God when God gave him these instructions. He simply spent the next 120 years of following God’s command without any fruit. He built this ark. Maybe over the course of 20 years, maybe it took him a lot less time, I don’t know. But either way, he did it without question when no one followed him and no one believed him. Can we go 120 minutes of following God’s command without questioning God much less 120 years?

So, how does this point to Jesus?

Well, first of all, similarly to the last chapter, chapter five, Noah is a deliverer. He is a messiah figure. He points to Jesus with Jesus being the greater Noah. Noah is one who unquestioningly followed God and believed God’s voice and followed his command and did what God told him to do to deliver the human race to deliver a remnant from God’s judgment.

And Jesus did the same thing. He came, he followed God without question. He did everything that God commanded him to do. He said that, “I only do what I see my father doing.”

And he did so in order to save a remnant from God’s judgment.

And also the word Noah is from the Hebrew word for rest. Jesus is the Sabbath rest. He brings rest to the despairing, the weary, to the oppressed, all those who need rest can come to Jesus and He will give them rest. He is the true Sabbath rest. Noah points to someone who is coming who would give us rest.

So here’s some questions for reflection.

First question is, what are God’s commands to us that are countercultural? Many things that we read in the Bible that the Bible commands us are very different than what the culture, in whatever culture we live in, whether it’s in America or anywhere around the world, the Bible tells us very different things than what we see others doing. What are those commands? What has God commanded us to do that is counter-cultural? And then how do we follow those commands when no one else will follow? How does God feel about the corruption and violence in our society?

Next question, in what way was Noah blameless in his generation? And how are we called to be blameless in our generation?

And last, how do you feel about the idea of God judging humanity? Do you believe that God still judges humanity today?

Well, thank you for listening. I just want to remind you, if you enjoy the podcast, please subscribe on your favorite podcast app, click like, it’s a great way to support the podcast if you enjoy what you’re hearing.

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This is a great way to do not only your own study, but you can also do a group study with these. You’re going to have additional information and study notes that I don’t cover in the episode. There’s going to be spaces for you to answer the questions that I ask at the end of each episode. And there’s also further study questions that I do not cover in the episode that will help you in your understanding and your comprehension and recognizing patterns and themes throughout the Bible and what we’re reading. So if you would enjoy something like that, please subscribe and support the podcast in that way.

Also, feel free to leave me a comment on my website. We’d love to hear your feedback. Thanks again.

Sources:

Bible Hub. (n.d.). 2142. zakar. Strong’s Hebrew: 2142. כרַ זָ) Zakar) — remember. Retrieved April 17, 2023, from
https://biblehub.com/hebrew/2142.htm

Guzik, D. (2018). Study Guide For Genesis 8. Blue Letter Bible. Retrieved April 15, 2023, from
https://www.blueletterbible.org/comm/guzik_david/study-guide/genesis/genesis-8.cfm

Gedwiser, M. (2016, November 4). He Sent Out The Raven. The Lehrhaus. Retrieved April 17, 2023, from
https://thelehrhaus.com/scholarship/he-sent-out-the-raven/

Armstrong, S. A. (2011, June 20). Genesis 2011 – Lesson 8. Verse By Verse Ministry International. Retrieved April 17, 2023, from https://versebyverseministry.org/lessons/genesis_2011_lesson_8

Mackie, T. (n.d.). Noah To Abraham: Exploring Genesis 6-12. Bible Project. Retrieved April 24, 2023, from https://s3-us-west2.amazonaws.com/tbp-web/media/Noah%20to%20Abraham/Noah-Abraham_Session%20Notes.pdf

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