Bible Study

Noah - Gensis 6 to 9

Present: Rachael, Renna and Ernest @ Renna house on 21 Oct 2007


What and why God grieve?
6:1 When man began to multiply on the face of the land and daughters were born to them, 2 the sons of God saw that the daughters of man were attractive. And they took as their wives any they chose. 3 Then the Lord said, “My Spirit shall not abide in [1] man forever, for he is flesh: his days shall be 120 years.”

Evil began to sip into man. What God saw displeased Him and that He has to shorten the life span of man in order to cut short the amount of evil that man can do. The fallen angles, the Nephilim or the giants had done comething that God did not permit. Note the pronoun, it was when man... and ... then the Lord said...

Side note, these were the giants that Joshua saw when he entered the promise land.

5 The Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. 6 And the Lord was sorry that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him to his heart.

Why was God grieve? Is it because he had made man as mentioned in verse 6. No, because, verse 6 does not just stand alone, it is because the Lord saw... and because of what he see and that grieved Him. God make no mistake, and in the same way, His intention was beautiful, but because man choose evil and wickedness and refuse to choose God, that grieved Him.

7 So the Lord said, “I will blot out man whom I have created from the face of the land, man and animals and creeping things and birds of the heavens, for I am sorry that I have made them.” 8 But Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord.

So, as a consequence and as a result.. of what, of the wickedness of man, that God decide to blot out man from the face of the land. BUT (contrast), Noah.. Because of 1 man, the decsion was not totalized, and that was a similar plea Abraham plea for Sodom and Gomorah - if there is 1 righteous man. That is our God. His request to us is simple and His grace comes His mercy for us - we can't do anything, but just do this - believe in My Son Jesus and you will be save - there is no other way.


Righteous - doing all that God commanded
9 These are the generations of Noah. Noah was a righteous man, blameless in his generation. Noah walked with God.

God commanded Noah to build an ark and 22 Noah did this; he did all that God commanded him. 7:1 Then the Lord said to Noah, “Go into the ark, you and all your household, for I have seen that you are righteous before me in this generation.

His obedience, translated into actions and every (all, total, whole) that God commanded. then God called Noah righteous. Remembere King Saul and the Prophet Samuael - to heed is better than sacrifice. Listen and obey that is to heed. When you listen and you obey, that obedience will translate to actions, the right actions and it is not half hearted, or Okay, I will do it. Noah did all, all the details of the ark. How about us? Our actions - how we live is the results of where (our state of relationship with God) we live. Grow deep in God and learnto wait, to listen and keep everything God commanded.


Noah knew the Law
2 Take with you seven pairs of all clean animals, [1] the male and his mate, and a pair of the animals that are not clean, the male and his mate, 3 and seven pairs [2] of the birds of the heavens also, male and female, to keep their offspring alive on the face of all the earth.

So it is not 2 pairs, the final instructions was 7 pairs for CLEAN animals. ?? Moses was the one who gave the law. The law was written in Levitius. Noah live before Moses, so how come Noah know wbout clean and unclean animals? Noah should know which animal is termed clean or unclean. I believed he was taught. God taught him, Noah was righteous in his generation, he has probably obeyed these command and law of God, which was later written in Levitus by Moses.

7 And Noah and his sons and his wife and his sons' wives with him went into the ark to escape the waters of the flood. So how many people entered the ark - 8. The chinese character ship is about a craft filled with 8 'mouth' or person. I use this to share to my Chinese non-believer friend that our fore fathers knew God, and they knew the story of Noah. Chinese has a lot of origin as seen bythe way the chinese character was developed. The other famous character is righteousness - a lamb upon yourself. For without this lamb, there will be no righteousness. so why lamb? Jesus is the answer.


Remember the encounters with God - build an Altar
8:20 Then Noah built an altar to the Lord and took some of every clean animal and some of every clean bird and offered burnt offerings on the altar. 21 And when the Lord smelled the pleasing aroma, the Lord said in his heart..

The flood was over, Noah was on dry land. He remembered God and built an altar. AND because of what Noah did, that sweet aroma went to God and the Lord said in His heart. An altar is a milestone. Something significant happened and the purpose is to remember that event. Often, the biblical altar represent some event that God should be remembered for His greatness, for His acts, for his mercy.. the old testament is full of them. These altars are not the altars, you and me know in other cultures - center of worship. Of course, slowly, when the Israelites entered the promise land, the local influence caused them to build altars that became the center of worship for other Gods. Our encounter with God - points to such an altar. What is yours? Our walk with God should be dotted with such close encounters with God - such encounters closes and set an intimate relationship with Jesus. It will be so sad to live life empty of such altars.

So what did God said in His heart. He has set to blot man out of the face of this earth, but becasue of what Noah, "Neither will I ever again strike down every living creature as I have done"


An Everlasting Convenant in Jesus
What is a covenant? A covenant is a promise between 2 parties.
9:8 Then God said to Noah and to his sons with him, 9 “Behold, I establish my covenant with you and your offspring after you, ... 12 And God said, “This is the sign of the covenant that I make between me and you and every living creature that is with you, for all future generations: 13 I have set my bow in the cloud, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between me and the earth. 14 When I bring clouds over the earth and the bow is seen in the clouds, 15 I will remember my covenant that is between me and you and every living creature of all flesh. And the waters shall never again become a flood to destroy all flesh. 16 When the bow is in the clouds, I will see it and remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is on the earth.” 17 God said to Noah, “This is the sign of the covenant that I have established between me and all flesh that is on the earth.”

God established a covenant. He backed it up with a sign, so that should the convenant be forgotten, least the sign be used for remembering it. It is an everlasting convenant. God convenant is everlasting. So can a convenant be broken. Yes, but not by God but by man. God will surely remember the rainbow and of course in this case, it is an convenant not to destroy earth. But ask why was the early intention for God to blot man out of the face of earth - wickedness. But because of Noah, God "reconsider". Again, the question is man - the temptation of the world is too great and to break a convenant is easy. To recall, a convenant is a promise between 2 parties, so that if one party break the promise, rightfully, the other party need not to honour the convenant anymore. God love us so much, He knew man has a problem with evil and sins. His everlasting convenant is through Jesus - that established the way back to the Father, with Jesus dying on the cross for us. As long as we believe Jssus and that christ is the son of God - has life.


Noah cursed Ham (a story of heeding)
9:20 Noah began to be a man of the soil, and he planted a vineyard. [3] 21 He drank of the wine and became drunk and lay uncovered in his tent. 22 And Ham, the father of Canaan, saw the nakedness of his father and told his two brothers outside. 23 Then Shem and Japheth took a garment, laid it on both their shoulders, and walked backward and covered the nakedness of their father. Their faces were turned backward, and they did not see their father's nakedness. 24 When Noah awoke from his wine and knew what his youngest son had done to him, 25 he said,
“Cursed be Canaan;a servant of servants shall he be to his brothers.”

To end the study of Noah, the above was a short happening between Noah and his sons. Renna asked about could a father be so harsh and curse his own son? I have no total answer to that, but remember Noah was a righteous man and he will do eveything God say so. SO, what did god say. Not in this concluding verses. Noah was taught about the law and commands, therefore he knew what animals are clean or unclean. Let look at a verse in Levitus.

Lev 18:7 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.

Noah probably knew this. His 3 sons should have been taught these. And that is why Naoh was so angry.

Ham saw and he did nothing. Shem heard and he did the right thing. Again, the lesson on obedience. It is not about knowing and do something, but it is about doing the right thing. The key however, is about heeding - listening and doing the right thing- that's obedience. God can speak to us, but how often, when ask to do the right things, we argued. What's the point, we hear and we did not act, and that is Ham!