Genesis: Session 9 "God's Covenant with Noah"

In this session, Jen uses the first 4 minutes to give an introduction to the reason for the flood.  She says that sometimes we question why God had to do this.  I didn't take notes on this part.

Jen begins by saying Noah not only has to come to terms with the massive destruction that has taken place, but also the loss of extended family which is very personal.

She asks that we think of a news coverage of a major disaster.  Think of Noah now - who walks out and sees massive destruction.  There are only 7 now who can help him restart humanity.

Genesis 8:20-22
He walks out of the ark and in verse 20 is his first act - worship.  The 7th day of waiting to come out of the ark.  This correlates also with the day of Sabbath.  He takes up the true work of worship.

Interestingly, he offers a sin offering.  What's the significance of that?  He atones for his personal sin.  What does Noah know?  That all of the time the ark carried him and his family through this flood, there was still a desire for sin, Jen says.

We see in these verses also declarations of what God will never do again:

never curse the ground
never again strike down every living creature 

Genesis 9:1-2
It's clear language here pointing back to the creation narrative.

Genesis 9:3
Jen says here that something interesting happens.  Do you remember back in the creation account how everyone was a vegetarian?  Well, all of a sudden God is saying you are going to have animals and plants for your food now.

Genesis 9:4-7
God will now be specific about this.  As will be the case for the rest of scripture, she says we will see great care given to any discussion of blood.

What is going on here?  Why would God now say the animals are yours for food?  In the first creation, no blood was shed.  In the re-creation now they must shed blood for survival.

She says it seems God is heightening the understanding that in order for humans to live, blood must be shed.

In verse 4, Jen begins to discuss the Jewish dietary laws.  It's required that all of the blood must be drained out in order for the animal to be eaten. 

Why would God be concerned with this?

Look at Leviticus 17:14 "For the life of every creature is its blood; its blood is its life.

Remember that this original audience here is the Israelites who read this.  They understood exactly what this meant.  They're heading into Canaan.  Do you know what the Canaanites practice was?  They would drink the blood of a wild animal to acquire its life force to make them stronger, more fertile and for spiritual amplification.

A detestable practice to the God of Israel.

In verse 6 we see that it ties back to that we are image bearers and makes human life sacred.

What's being given here, Jen says, is a proto-typical government.  A law code that precedes the greater law code that's given much later.  It's a way for Noah to begin to govern in this new post-flood era.

Look what it's intended to do:  Whoever kills someone, will be put to death.  That's tough language.  What it's doing though is preventing the spread of sin.  It will also prevent over-punishment.

Do you remember Lamech?  What did he do?  A guy made him mad so he killed him and bragged about it.  This gives a way to govern which combines mercy and judgment and makes sure that the penalty fits the crime and does not exceed it, Jen says.

Genesis 9:8-17
The word covenant is repeated in this section seven times.

Why over and over does God mention the word covenant? Because if you are Noah, the first time you see a dark cloud on the horizon, you're going to lose it and think "does the covenant still stand?"

God's covenant with Noah is unilateral.  He establishes it, and establishes it on His terms.  This covenant with Noah is eternal.  It will endure according to His character for whatever period He determines.  God's covenant is also gracious.

Not only is the covenant gracious, but God is gracious to repeat over and over again to Noah that His covenant stands.

God doesn't just tell Noah that the covenant will stand though.  He says there will be a sign associated with the covenant - a rainbow.

Question About The Rainbow
The question Jen asked is why a rainbow and what two elements have to combine in order for a rainbow to form?  Light and a rainstorm are the combination for a rainbow.

How Jesus Refers to Himself
Think about how Jesus refers to Himself in the NT.  In John 8:12 He says "I am the light of the world."  Jen states "when we think about God or think about Christ, we think about Him in general terms.  It's when we endure a "rainstorm", a time of trial, that all that beauty that is tied up in that light begins to be refracted for us (just like the refractory light that makes a rainbow).

We then begin to see the blue of His holiness, the purple of His sovreignty, the gold of His royalty, and the green of His eternality.  We begin to understand the red of His mercy."  We see Him in a deeper, richer, broader way than we would otherwise.

I Have Set My Bow
We can miss the fact that when He says "I have set my bow in the cloud" it's intended to make us think of a weapon (instead of the familiar thought of a rainbow).  The idea here is that God is laying down arms, acting in peace towards Noah and his family.

A Reminder
This sign of the rainbow will be seen to remind Noah "never again, never again."  This story is just a shadow of a much bigger story that is yet to happen.  Because on a day, Jen says, several thousand years to come, there would be another flood of wrath, and it would be poured out not on all humanity but on Jesus Christ on the cross.

Because this flood of God's wrath was poured out on Him it is diverted from us.  So anytime you look at the cross, you can remember "never again, never again.  It is finished."

Genesis 9:18-19
We've already seen these names Shem, Ham and Japheth mentioned earlier.  Perk up your ears anytime you see the word Canaan (Ham was his father).  He mentions also the disperson here.  We will see more about this in session 10.

Genesis 9:20-27
There's a lot to untangle in these verses.  Noah is going to be caught in a state of undress and treated disrespectfully.  He then wakes up and starts prophesying.  This is not just ranting but a prophetic word that he speaks.  It's interesting to note in verse 21 that when he drank of the wine and became drunk, that this is actually the first mention of wine in scripture and immediately related to drunkeness.  This is not a favorable picture painted here.

Notice also that when scripture says he planted a vineyard, that this term vineyard is translated elsewhere as garden.  Pay attention to what's going on here.

Notice the fruit of the garden is going to lead him into sin and a fall.  This sin is going to expose his nakedness.  His nakedness is going to be covered by another.  Not only that, but the father's sin is going to lead to sin in his own son Ham, which will result in a curse on posterity.

There is a repetition happening.  We have a second fall narrative.

So here is Noah drunk, naked and lying in his tent.  Ham comes in.  What is implied in the text?  Ham mocks his father.  How does Shem and Japheth respond?  They very carefully and respectfully try to restore Noah's dignity.  

Don't miss this:  the reason that Ham sins is because Noah sinned.  This is how sin works.  It doesn't just affect you but affects others.  Remember the pattern we already discussed in previous sessions regarding sin?

• I see it
• I want it
• I take it
• I share it

Here's why Ham's behavior is so reprehensible:  he celebrates the sin of a righteous man.

We do this as well.  Jen asked us to think about a church leader who falls because of sin.  We sometimes will say "I knew it.  I saw that coming."  We tend to celebrate this righteous person falling.  Why?  Because we don't want to feel judged by their righteousness, so the second we see a chink in the armor, it validates all our own insecurities.

Noah speaks this curse in verse 25 to Canaan not to Ham.  Why?  A father shamed by his son pronounces a curse that will cause a father to be shamed by his son - a bit of irony here.

"Canaan" is in the prophecy three times (verses 25, 26 and 27).  What's happening here?  Canaan's descendants are whom Moses is preparing Israel to subdue as they go into the promised land.  What is being established here is a right to the land.  He is reassuring his original audience through the way he sets up the narrative.

In this curse we can see mercy.  He does not curse all of Ham's line only part of it.

Genesis 9:28-29

We reach the end of the first geneology.

Think About This

We have no record of the last 350 years of Noah's life.  What the text seems to imply here is that though there are many worthy things of comment in the first 600 years of his life, that in the last third, there wasn't much to say.

For Us

We are called to a long obedience in Christ - moving in the same direction, forward.

• we shouldn't coast
• we shouldn't lay off of obedience
• As we age, we should continue in obedience, continue in righteous living

The Question To Ask

Will I continue to do those things that constitute righteousness?  "The longer we grow in holiness, there is more continuity in what we say and what we do."

In hearing this story of the flood, Jen states her prayer is that we would have ever-shrinking hypocrisy and that we would not live in fear of the wrath of God as the unbeliever must.

There will be storm clouds, she says, that will gather on our horizon.  There will be rain that will fall in our lives, but we never need look on that and say "is God judging me?"  Because no judgment remains for the children of God.

Closing

Song of Solomon 8:7a "Many waters cannot quench love, neither can floods drown it."

Next: Session 10 "Disperson and Descent"

 

Steadfast Love: Session 5 "Storm"

Session 5 has a bit more note taking than Session 4.  She focuses on Psalm 107:23-32 in this session.

Some might be dreading this part of Psalm 107 about the storm. 

Maybe you haven't been through a storm yet and can't image what that would look like.  Maybe you're thinking:

 "Would I still love the Lord in it? What would it cost me?"

Maybe you're feeling anxious about the season of a storm in your life.

Others may be in the middle of a storm right now and thinking "I just need some encouragement.  I need to know I'm not alone in this."  

Maybe you're just wanting a fresh word from the Lord from scripture.

The thing about storms is that we don't have any control about when it hits or how it hits us.

The men on the ship in scripture were working men on the ship.  Their job was hazardous to say the least.  Out of nowhere a storm hits.  

The same with us.  We're going along in our life and out of nowhere, unexpectedly a storm comes.

We need to realize that life doesn't always go according to our plans.

We'll come to the place in our storms where we will want to find our hope in His steadfast love.

Lauren then tells several stories of her storms of miscarriages and her husband Matt's brain tumor and surgery.  She encourages us that the grace for our storms will be there.

God will be the stability in that moment.

Look at Isaiah 33:5-6:

God is supremely esteemed.  His center holds.  Zion brims over with all that is just and right.  God keeps your days stable and secure - salvation, wisdom, and knowledge in surplus, and best of all, Zion's treasure, Fear-of-God. (the Message)

For those who are in the storm: He will be your stability in it.

For those who are afraid, anxious about the storm that is coming: Take heart that He will be with you in it.

We live in a fallen world and storms will come.

For Lauren, the Lord sovreignly was in the storm of Matt's illness and brought healing through surgery, chemotherapy and radiation.

Lauren said it wasn't her counting on his healing that kept her through it, but counting on the Lord being present in the middle of it.

Her challenge for us this week is that no matter what storm it is or where we are in the storm, or anxious about one coming, that we would find all the ways that He is present.

Our storms, many times, will pluck up any other anchor we are holding onto for our stability.  He will put in us deeper anchors through our storms - the anchor of His steadfast love.

He is the Lord of our storms.  

Maybe the outcome isn't healing.  

Maybe the outcome isn't what we had expected, but we still have a hope to cling to.  

We have an anchor of stability in Jesus Christ.

We have hope in His steadfast love.

Steadfast Love: Session 4 "Folly"

This particular session is quite short with the note taking on Psalm 107:17-22. This session focuses in on "Folly".  

What is folly?  

Basically it's when we choose to do things the way we want.  It's as if we say "I know what's best for my life."

Look at Proverbs 3:5-12.  The Message version says:  

Trust God from the bottom of your heart; don't try to figure out everything on your own.  Listen for God's voice in everything you do, everywhere you go; He's th eone who will keep you on track.  Don't assume that you know it all.  Run to God!  Run from evil! Your body will glow with health, your very bones will vibrate with life!  Honor God with everything you own; give him the first and the best.  Your barns will burst, your wine vats will brim over.  But don't, dear friend, resent God's discipline; don't sulk under His loving correction.  It's the child He loves that God corrects; a Father's delight is behind all this."

As we dive in to where our folly lies, consider that He is a loving Father.

Lauren asks us to be willing to be humbled by seeing the places where we've been foolish.  She encourages us that we are not alone and that when our folly is exposed, it's the first step in getting healthy.

When our foolishness and folly is exposed, we will also receive the steadfast love of the Lord that is everlasting.

Next: Steadfast Love - Storm

Genesis Session 8: The Flood

Again, these are my notes from session 8 with Jen Wilkin for Genesis.  Please use with your small group or just individually for study.  

We are looking at the story of Noah in the context of what has come before.  Jen says, never read a story in the Bible independent of what has come before and what is going to come after.

If we believe something like this happened, we should expect that it's recorded not just by one culture but by several cultures. There are literally hundreds of recorded tales, Jen says, about a flood that happened.  These stories have been gathered by scholars and analyzed.  There's a lot of debate out there of whether the flood was global or local, she says.

The only way the flood stays in orthodox belief is to say it was regional; it wiped out all human kind except the 8 people preserved. Why? Because the whole point of the story is that God is cleansing the earth of all its wicked inhabitants.  Because of the doctrine of original sin that says we're all born with a bent towards sin, it makes sense, Jen says, that even if the flood was regional, all human kind not on the ark would have had to be swept away.

Original Sin
Because Adam messed up, we have to walk around from our earliest days wanting to commit sin.  The God of the universe orchestrated this original sin and made Adam our representative.  One of the most difficult pieces of coming to terms with the flood narrative, says Jen, is that it's only a temporary solution.

Genesis 6:1-10
Notice that the text is mentioning Shem, Ham and Japheth.  This should raise our awareness and look for those names to occur again.

What do we see here?

• Noah was a righteous man
• He's the great-great-grandson of Enoch who walked with God
• And Noah also walked with God following in the line of his ancestors

Noah is dwelling in a time when wickedness is pervasive.  The NT refers to him as a preacher of righteousness.  He will be given a task of building the ark which will be difficult because of the era he is living in of wickedness.

Genesis 6:11-13

Notice the word "corrupt" used three times.  Notice how blame has been established:

• The people have corrupted the earth
• Violence because of the people

He says in verse 13, He will destroy both them and the earth.  The root word for destroy  is corrupt.

Genesis 6:14-22

When you hear verse 22, does it sound familiar to you?  What Moses will do when he writes his narrative throughout Genesis, is he employs the same patterns of language, Jen says.  Why is this? Because he wants his listeners to be able to remember, so he's giving them listening and memory tools.

Look at verse 13:  "God said."  Look at verse 22: "Noah did."  Do you feel the rhythm of the creation account here?  But rather than God being the one who accomplishes the work, Noah is brought in as a partner to the process.  This is a good picture of our sanctification.  In the process of sanctification by the power of the Holy Spirit, we work through grace-driven effort to grow in holiness.  We see that here in a typology that it's God who gives the command to create and Noah carries it out.

God has specifics.  He has an exact plan.  He wants Noah to know what it is and be able to carry it out.  God tells Noah exactly what's going to happen.

In verse 18, a word is introduced in the Bible for the first time: covenant.  The first mention of God making a promise with humans.  It's not the first time we've seen the concept though.  We saw a covenant implied back in the garden after the first sin - when God slays the animals and clothes Adam and Eve and promises the seed will come from the woman.

They were to bring two of every kind, male and female.  This too is an echo of the creation narrative of Adam and Eve to symbolize the completeness of the pair.  

We need to know how Noah heard this command.  Where does Noah live?  In the desert.  This command is: 

• ludicrous (what if Noah fails?)
• laborious (100 years)
• protracted (lasting a long time)
• expensive (great financial sacrifice)

But "Noah did this."

Genesis 7:1-5

We see here again "God said" and "It was so" - Noah did. Notice 7 pairs of animals clean and a pair of unclean (we will see why in the next session).

Genesis 7:6-10

He spends 7 days waiting for rain (the first period of time).  The next interval is 40 days and nights of rain.

Genesis 7:11-12

In these verses, it's just as God had said in the previous verses.

Genesis 7:13-16

First we have this litany which feels like to us a needless repetition.  But what is it?  It's "God said" and "Noah did", and it happened just as God said.  We then have this statement "and the Lord shut him in."  Think about this: 7 days of waiting before the Lord shut the door.  He shuts the door.  Why?  Because their safety will rely wholly on Him.

We see three things regarding this:

1) we see the perfect security that is found being in the ark.  Look at Revelation 3:7b .... "what He opens no one can shut and what He shuts no one can open."  Noah's ark corresponds to the NT regarding baptism (I Peter 3:20-22).  Just as Noah and his family are sealed in the ark and pass through waters of death and raised to life on the other side of the flood, so also we are buried with Christ, pass through death and are raised to life as He is raised from the dead.  The door being shut and sealed corresponds to us being sealed by the Holy Spirit (Ephesians 4:30).

2) God's grace.  We see that God is slow and waits.  When all of the preparations have taken place, and nothing else left to be done, the last thing that happens is the door is closed.  Up to that point, the door of salvation remained open to anyone who would come.  Noah preached for about 120 years about the coming judgment.

3) There is an end to grace.  A word of warning here.  The most significant parellel here is John 10:9 "I am the door.  If anyone enters by me, he will be saved."  So we as believers in Christ, sealed with the Holy Spirit can know that we will, as well, persevere and be safe in Him.

Genesis 7:17-24

The third time interval in the flood account - 150 days the waters prevailed.

Genesis 8:1-5

"God remembered Noah."  What we take from this phrase and where we see it elsewhere in the scriptures is that God remembered His promise to Noah.  It was time to bring it to pass.  God sent a wind over the earth and the waters receded.  The word for wind is Ruach.  Do you remember that from Genesis 1?  The Spirit hovering over the waters.  What do we see here again?  We see Ruach hovering over the waters.  We see the earth in the flood has been returned to its primordial state.  This is a de-creation narrative.  The earth is now the way it was in Gensis chapter 1 when the Spirit hovered waiting for the sign from God to speak and have light come in play, to separate the waters from the waters, and the waters from the dry land.  We're going to see the same things happen now.  We begin to see dry land separate from water in verse 5.

Genesis 8:6-7

The seas are returning to their proper boundaries and the dry land is now emerging.  He sends out a raven.

Genesis 8:8-9

Forty days the waters are receding and a dove is sent out.  Now we will have 7 days waiting for the waters to recede and the dove returns.

Genesis 8:10-12

The symbol for peace is the dove with the olive branch because God's covenant is being made with Noah.  When the dove does not return, Noah knows there is enough dry ground that they now can leave the ark.  This last period of 7 days when the dove does not return, is a total of 6 different increments of time.  Why do you suppose that is?  Because in the creation account of Genesis chapter 1, we had 6 intervals of time to describe creation.  So now what would correspond to the 7th day, the day of Sabbath.  What happens?

Genesis 8:13-17

This correlates with Genesis 1:24 (read this).

Genesis 8:18-19

God said and it was so, like the creation account.  Now here we have Noah and his family and all the animals to go forth and fulfill the cultural mandate again.

Notice that Noah doesn't walk out of the ark for himself; God called him.  Does this remind you of any NT story?  Lazerus (John 11).  Jesus walks up to a sealed door and calls a dead man to life.  Why doesn't Noah exit on his own?  Because it is God who speaks us into life.  This scene is a re-enactment of John 11.  Passing from death to life.  The flood marks the psyche of Israel and also all who believe.

Closing

In closing, Jen reads Psalm 29.  Our God sits enthroned above the flood.  He brings us safely through and meets us on the other side with an olive branch and a call to life.

Next: Session 9 "God's Covenant with Noah"