Understanding Scripture Part six

For understanding the Scripture of Genesis 6:1-7 see; bible studies/ Rightly dividing the word Genesis 6:1-7.

 

Genesis 6:8 But Noah found grace in the eyes of the LORD.

 

One man of all the countless multitudes then on the earth was fit to receive God's gift of grace. The word grace certainly means "favor" or "acceptance," at least, and probably has a much richer meaning. It was love and mercy in action. God's extending grace to Noah signified that there was new life and new hope for mankind in the days ahead.

 

9 This is the genealogy of Noah. Noah was a just man, perfect in his generations. Noah walked with God.

10 And Noah begot three sons: Shem, Ham, and Japheth.

11 The earth also was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence.

12 So God looked upon the earth, and indeed it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted their way on the earth.

  • Genesis 6:3 And the LORD said, "My Spirit shall not strive with man forever, for he is indeed flesh; yet his days shall be one hundred and twenty years."

 

13 And God said to Noah, "The end of all flesh has come before Me, for the earth is filled with violence through them; and behold, I will destroy them with the earth.

 

  • At this point in our quest to understand Scripture we understand why John recorded in John 3:16 "For God so loved the world .
  • The world is no longer the world that God created and loved.
  1. Genesis 1:31 Then God saw everything that He had made, and indeed it was very good. So the evening and the morning were the sixth day.

 

The world that God described as "very good' has been corrupted by the sin of disobedience. All three actors involved in this sin, along with the earth, were confronted, judged, and cursed by God. Genesis 3:1-24

  • cursed = 'arar, to execrate, feel or express great loathing for. "they were execrated as dangerous and corrupt"

 

  • God chose Noah, his wife, their three sons and their wives to assist in starting over.

 

14 "Make yourself an ark of gopher wood; make rooms in the ark, and cover it inside and outside with pitch.

15 "And this is how you shall make it: The length of the ark shall be three hundred cubits, its width fifty cubits, and its height thirty cubits.

16 "You shall make a window for the ark, and you shall finish it to a cubit from above; and set the door of the ark in its side. You shall make it with lower, second, and third decks.

17 "And behold, I Myself am bringing the flood of waters on the earth, to destroy from under heaven all flesh in which is the breath of life; and everything that is on the earth shall die.

  • Flood (mabbul). This word has no Hebrew etymology. It was used only of the deluge of Noah. It may have come from Assyrian nabalu, "to destroy." According to the writer of Genesis, God's purpose was certainly to bring to an end the living things of his creation. During the 120 years while Noah was completing his work, he was preaching to the people in an urgent effort to cause them to repent. They saw the ark take shape before their eyes while the preacher delivered his sermons. Noah's immediate family, including his wife, his three sons, and their wives, accompanied him into the haven of safety. In obedience to God's command, they took with them representative pairs of all the animals of the earth.

 

18 "But I will establish My covenant with you; and you shall go into the ark -- you, your sons, your wife, and your sons' wives with you.

19 "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.

20 "Of the birds after their kind, of animals after their kind, and of every creeping thing of the earth after its kind, two of every kind will come to you to keep them alive.

21 "And you shall take for yourself of all food that is eaten, and you shall gather it to yourself; and it shall be food for you and for them."

22 Thus Noah did; according to all that God commanded him, so he did.

 

Genesis chapter 7:1- 8:19 reveal the activities of Noah and God through the end to the flood.

 

 

~God's Covenant with Noah

Genesis 8:20 Then Noah built an altar to the LORD, and took of every clean animal and of every clean bird, and offered burnt offerings on the altar.

21 And the LORD smelled a soothing aroma. Then the LORD said in His heart, "I will never again curse the ground for man's sake, although the imagination of man's heart is evil from his youth; nor will I again destroy every living thing as I have done.

22 "While the earth remains, seedtime and harvest, and cold and heat, and winter and summer, and day and night shall not cease."

 

  • the imagination of man's heart is evil from his youth
  1. Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean? No one Job 14:4
  2. Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, And in sin my mother conceived me. Psalms 51:5
  3. "That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. John 3:6
  4. Therefore, just as through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men, because all sinned - Romans 5:12
  5. for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, Romans 3:23

 

EVIL AND SUFFERING,

Natural Origin:

The evil of human hearts (Genesis 6:5 Then the LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.) continued after the flood. In His grace God decided to bear with human evil rather than destroy all life. Human evil is thus an ongoing part of life in God's creation until Christ comes again. Such evil does not threaten the natural order. God maintains control of His creation and promises the regular coming and going of the seasons of the year. God did not promise we would never have natural disasters. He did assert His control of nature.

  • "These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world." John 16:33

 

Noah builded an altar (mizbeah) to Jehovah. As Noah moved out into the bright new day, the most natural thing for him to do was to find a high spot of ground and build a mizbeah. It was the first altar built on the cleansed earth. Noah recognized the end of the tragic judgment and the dawning of a new day of hope and promise. Building the altar was his move to pour out to Jehovah praise and thanksgiving. He offered up burnt offerings (` ola). The word for burnt offerings is derived from the verb ` alah, "to go up." The suggestion here is that, as the sacrifice was consumed, the fumes went upward to God, bearing, in a sense, the gratitude and worship of the offerer. It was a truly propitiatory sacrifice (cf. 2Sa 24:25), offered in sincere worship, out of deep thankfulness. And so the eternal God was pleased. Noah had found favor in his eyes.

 

~Laws About Altars

Then the LORD said to Moses, "Thus you shall say to the children of Israel: 'You have seen that I have talked with you from heaven. 'You shall not make anything to be with Me -- gods of silver or gods of gold you shall not make for yourselves. 'An altar of earth you shall make for Me, and you shall sacrifice on it your burnt offerings and your peace offerings, your sheep and your oxen. [blood sacrifices] In every place where I record My name I will come to you, and I will bless you. 'And if you make Me an altar of stone, you shall not build it of hewn stone; for if you use your tool on it, you have profaned it. 'Nor shall you go up by steps to My altar, that your nakedness may not be exposed on it.' Exodus 20:22-26

 

  • Quality of sacrifices:

Leviticus 1:3 'If his offering is a burnt sacrifice of the herd, let him offer a male without blemish; he shall offer it of his own free will at the door of the tabernacle of meeting before the LORD.

Leviticus 1:10 'And if his offering is of the flocks -- of the sheep or of the goats -- as a burnt sacrifice, he shall bring a male without blemish.

~Laws for Peace Offerings

Leviticus 3:1 'When his offering is a sacrifice of peace offering, if he offers it of the herd, whether male or female, he shall offer it without blemish before the LORD.

Leviticus 4:32 'If he brings a lamb as his sin offering, he shall bring a female without blemish.

and so on.

 

  • And so all sacrifices must qualify as perfect.
  1. And walk in love, as Christ also has loved us and given Himself for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling aroma. Ephesians 5:2
  2. He then would have had to suffer often since the foundation of the world; but now, once at the end of the ages, He has appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself. And as it is appointed for men to die once, but after this the judgment, so Christ was offered once to bear the sins of many. To those who eagerly wait for Him He will appear a second time, apart from sin, for salvation. Hebrews 9: 26-28

 

~Redemption Through the Blood of Christ

Hebrews 9:11 But Christ came as High Priest of the good things to come, with the greater and more perfect tabernacle not made with hands, that is, not of this creation.

12 Not with the blood of goats and calves, but with His own blood He entered the Most Holy Place once for all, having obtained eternal redemption.

13 For if the blood of bulls and goats and the ashes of a heifer, sprinkling the unclean, sanctifies for the purifying of the flesh,

14 how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?

15 And for this reason He is the Mediator of the new covenant, by means of death, for the redemption of the transgressions under the first covenant, that those who are called may receive the promise of the eternal inheritance.

16 For where there is a testament, there must also of necessity be the death of the testator.

17 For a testament is in force after men are dead, since it has no power at all while the testator lives.

18 Therefore not even the first covenant was dedicated without blood.

19 For when Moses had spoken every precept to all the people according to the law, he took the blood of calves and goats, with water, scarlet wool, and hyssop, and sprinkled both the book itself and all the people,

20 saying, "This is the blood of the covenant which God has commanded you."

21 Then likewise he sprinkled with blood both the tabernacle and all the vessels of the ministry.

22 And according to the law almost all things are purged with blood, and without shedding of blood there is no remission.

23 Therefore it was necessary that the copies of the things in the heavens should be purified with these, but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these.

24 For Christ has not entered the holy places made with hands, which are copies of the true, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us;

25 not that He should offer Himself often, as the high priest enters the Most Holy Place every year with blood of another --

26 He then would have had to suffer often since the foundation of the world; but now, once at the end of the ages, He has appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself.

27 And as it is appointed for men to die once, but after this the judgment,

28 so Christ was offered once to bear the sins of many. To those who eagerly wait for Him He will appear a second time, apart from sin, for salvation.

 

~For God So Loved the World~

John 3:16 "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.

 

  • God so loved the world that He created and was destroyed by sin because Adam and Eve did not believe God when He told them that they would sly die if they ate of the fruit of the tree of good and evil.
  • He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him [and His redeeming blood, shed on the cross for payment for mans sin] should not perish but have everlasting life. [the original life that mankind was created into]

 

John 3:17 "For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.

18 "He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.

19 "And this is the condemnation, that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.

20 "For everyone practicing evil hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed.

21 "But he who does the truth comes to the light, that his deeds may be clearly seen, that they have been done in God."

 

So now we understand:

John 3:16 "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.