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DISCOVER GENESIS
An exploratory Bible course for disciples of Christ
PART 3 -- The Torah of NOAH (Genesis 6:1 to 11:9)
GENESIS 6
The Spirit of God means life. God is precise and always does exactly what he means. Even after damnation God felt for and with his creation. -- (DATE: From 1536 until 1657 after Adam)
OUTLINE of Genesis 6:
01. Sons of God married daughters of men and the results. (6:1-4)
02. The LORD saw the evil of humans on earth and decided to destroy them. (6:5-7)
03. The LORD chose the righteous Noah to save life on earth. (6:8)
04. God commanded Noah to build an ark and announced a global flood on earth. (6:9-17)
05. God announced his covenant with Noah to save him, his family and representatives of all living creatures on earth to survive the flood. (6:18-22)
DISCOVER Genesis 6: When the sons of God saw that the daughters born to men on earth were very attractive, they began to take as their wives, whomever they pleased. At this time God decided that his Spirit should no longer abide in man, for he was flesh. So he took it away and therefore men’s lives grew shorter to only 120 years of age, when they died. During those days the Nephilim walked the earth; they were mighty men of renown. -- However, as the sons of God had children with the daughters of men, God saw the wickedness in the hearts of man and how great it had become, for every one of their intentions and the thoughts of their hearts were always evil. So much so, that God grieved in his heart and he began to regret having ever made man and letting him live on earth. So he judged mankind to be blotted out from the earth together with every animal and creeping thing and bird he had so wonderfully created, for he had been sorry to have made them. -- But in the midst of his grief and judgment, Noah found favor in the LORD’s eyes, for he was a righteous man amidst all this evil populating the earth, the only one blameless in his generation. So God walked with Noah. -- When God had passed his judgment in the face of the corruption and violence filling the earth, he told Noah his intentions to end all flesh and destroy it from the land. However, he went on and instructed Noah to make himself an ark (a huge wooden container) made from gopher wood. He was to make it 300 cubits long and 30 cubits and 50 cubits along its height and breadth. It was to have a roof that was to be one cubit higher and this ark was to have three levels, in which he was to make rooms. And on the inside and outside of the ark Noah was to coat the walls with pitch, and it was to have a large door in its side. For God told Noah that he intended to bring a great flood of water onto the earth to destroy all flesh, so that everything having the breath of life under the heavens would die. -- In addition, God announced that he would establish a covenant with Noah and that he, his wife and his sons and their wives would enter the ark and be saved. And they were to collect pairs of all animals, male and female, as well as all the birds and creeping things according to their kinds into the ark they would make, so that all of them would survive is spite of God’s judgment. Noah and his close kin also were to take from every fruit and seed of the earth and store it in the ark for food, both for them and for the animals. And Noah did as God commanded him, and constructed this large ark.
PRAYER: Our holy God, we are shocked at the extent to which evil grew on earth, so that you saw no other solution than to obliterate all humans and animals on earth. However, we thank you that in the midst of your just judgment, you worked out a solution to preserve the life you created on earth. Thank you for choosing Noah and his family to make sure all animal kinds on earth could survive the flood through the wooden ark. Thank you that you prepared for us another spiritual ark, namely your Son Jesus Christ, through whom we can survive your future just judgment on the sin of all mankind. Amen.
QUESTION 6: What plan did God share with Noah to save him and all life on earth?
QUOTES: There are no direct quotes from Genesis 6 in the New Testament. -- However, there are 10 allusions in the New Testament to verses from this alarming chapter:
Genesis 6:1-4 (revealing that sons of God took human daughters as wives with grave consequences) is ALLUDED to in
2 Peter 2:4 (Taking these sons of God to be angels, Peter reveals to us the consequences of their sin: ‘God did not spare angels when they sinned, but cast them into hell and committed them to chains of gloomy darkness to be kept until the judgment’) and in
Jude 6 (Similarly Jude alludes to this event in Genesis 6 by revealing: ‘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.’) --
Genesis 6:2 is ALLUDED to in
Luke 20:36 (Jesus said to the Sadducees, who did not believe in the resurrection of the dead: ‘... those who are considered worthy to attain to that age and to the resurrection from the dead neither marry nor are given in marriage, for they cannot die anymore, because they are equal to angels and are sons of God, being sons of the resurrection.’ This is an indirect allusion to the sons of God in Genesis 6 marrying daughters of men.) and in
1 Corinthians 11:10 (Also indirectly alluding to these events prior to the Flood of Noah, Paul wrote: ‘That is why a wife ought to have a symbol of authority on her head, because of the angels.’ This symbol of authority is a head cover, to keep angels from desiring them.) --
Genesis 6:8 is ALLUDED to in
Luke 1:30 (The angel said to Mary, ‘Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God.’ This is an allusion to Noah having ‘found favor in the eyes of the LORD’.) --
Genesis 6:8 to 7:1 is ALLUDED to in
Hebrews 11:7 (‘By faith Noah, being warned by God concerning events as yet unseen, in reverent fear constructed an ark for the saving of his household. By this he condemned the world and became an heir of the righteousness that comes by faith.’ Through this allusion the book of Hebrews summarizes the whole story in Genesis 6 in one sentence.) --
Genesis 6:11-13 is ALLUDED to in
Matthew 24:37 (see details below) and in
Luke 17:27 (see details below) --
Genesis 6:12 is ALLUDED to in
Romans 3:20 (By highlighting that ‘no human being will be justified in God's sight’ Paul alluded to what Moses wrote about the human beings at the time of Noah: ‘God saw the earth, and behold it was corrupt, for all flesh had corrupted their way on earth.’) and in
Galatians 2:16 (Paul again alludes to this verse in Genesis 6 about the corruption of mankind in the times of Noah saying: ‘by works of the law no one will be justified,’ because all human beings are corrupt, like in Noah’s time.).
From these allusions we quote in detail the following: “11 Now the earth was corrupt in God’s sight, and the earth was filled with violence. 12 And God saw the earth, and behold, it was corrupt, for all flesh had corrupted their way on the earth. 13 And God said to Noah, ‘I have determined to make an end of all flesh, for the earth is filled with violence through them. Behold, I will destroy them with the earth’.” (Genesis 6:11-13) -- This passage is ALLUDED TO by Jesus, when he spoke of the future Day of Judgment in Matthew 24:37-39 -- “37 As were the days of Noah, so will be the coming of the Son of Man. 38 For as in those days before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day when Noah entered the ark, 39 and they were unaware until the flood came and swept them all away, so will be the coming of the Son of Man.” See also Luke 17:26-27 -- “26 Just as it was in the days of Noah, so will it be in the days of the Son of Man. 27 They were eating and drinking and marrying and being given in marriage, until the day when Noah entered the ark, and the flood came and destroyed them all.” -- Here Jesus indirectly admonishes us to take refuge in Him as our spiritual ark, for He will save us from the wrath and judgment of God, when Christ, as the Son of Man, will come in the clouds of heaven in great glory to judge all mankind, including us. If you believe in Jesus as your Lord and Savior, then you will survive this future judgment to live eternally with Him.