The Bible notes that Noah is six hundred years old when the Flood waters came in Genesis Chapter 6. I don't care if the years and months or sense of time translation got mixed up in this case. Noah was old. He was an old man building a boat and gather pairs of animals so he could float around for forty days and nights while a downpour flooded the world. He wasn't some powerful figure in charge. He was just a random old guy who also loved the Lord.
God sends animals to the ark, and Noah with his wife and sons and their wives all go into the ark. So in total less than ten people, and a whole bunch of animals. How in the world would they get the ark closed after all those animals went into the boat? Simple. As the Bible puts it, "The Lord shut him in." Noah didn't close the door, nor the sons, nor any manmade creation. God helped seal up Noah in the ark. Why does this matter? Because to me it's a metaphor for how much God was involved in Noah's life.
When it comes to doing things, God will ask us to act. He puts it on us to follow through with his words and do his good works. Charity work, church work, leadership, all these things require our action. However, human action without God's influence is meaningless. We have to build the boat and prep the area. God has to go send the animals and do the heavy lifting to close the door.
In our lives, God does the heavy lifting quite often. We may feel alone and displaced at times, especially when we are trying to do the right things. The right things aren't often the easy things. However, God makes them work by his guiding hand. Even if we are struggling through forty days and nights of stormy weather, the Lord is our shepherd. He didn't simple send Noah into a boat and hope for the best. He protected that ark against the elements.
The rest of the world wasn't so lucky. When God passes judgement, it has a terrible finality. God determined that the world he created wasn't fit to live, so he wiped it out in one swoop. We can't forget that God is all-powerful, he is all-knowing, and he is the arbiter of justice and truth. As human beings, we can pretend that we have the ability to question God's justice. As free-willed beings, we do have that right, but we will always end up losing. In the end, God always has the final say. That makes many people uncomfortable, because it also makes them realize how insignificant our human power and intelligence really is.
But the good news is that God has the power to save us. He has the power to shepherd us and care for his children that follow him in their hour of need. Whether or not he chooses to do that is up to his will though, not ours. That can be scary, but it can also be comforting. God is not a simple being. He is the complex creator of our world, meant to be worshiped, loved, and even feared.
Study Thoughts:
1 - Can you think of a time when God was acting in your life as you were acting for God?
2 - What would be the worst part of getting stuck on a boat for over a month with a bunch of animals?
3 - Have you ever thought about how a just God and a benevolent God can be the same God?
Monday, October 6, 2014
Sunday, October 5, 2014
Genesis Chapter 6: Noah builds the Ark
The opening to Chapter 6 talks yet again about humans and sons of God mingling with each other. In the last blog post I talked about my belief that there were other evolved humans on the earth along with God's created humans, whom I believe were given the soul and spark of divine intelligence. This chapter further illuminates that belief with talk of the Nephilim, and God's sons intermarrying with the human daughters.
The Nephilim were the offspring of these two groups, God's sons and human daughters. Supposedly, there were giants, and men of legend before the Flood. The term only occurs twice in the Bible, once here and once in Numbers Chapter 13. One of the reasons people speculate about the Nephilim is because we know little about them. They even get into topics about how the Nephilim could be sons of angels, or divine children, or various other intepretations.
This all comes from literally two references in the Bible. TWO. My main takeaway from the topic of the Nephilim is that people will absolutely overanalyze everything in the Bible to the smallest detail, while missing the larger points. Do I care who the Nephilim really were? Not really. The important point of this chapter to me is Noah, and how he found favor with the Lord.
Genesis Chapter 6 gives us the line, "The Lord regretted that he had made human beings on the earth, and his heart was deeply troubled." Can you imagine? God looks upon his whole creation with complete distaste. Man is utterly evil at this point in time. The people followed every evil desire of their hearts, much like their ancestor Cain. However, one man rose above the fray, and that was Noah.
We don't know what made Noah righteous, we only know that he was righteous in the eyes of God. The Lord actually tells Noah his intentions of destroying the world. He's planning on hitting the reset button in the form of a flood on the planet, and he wants Noah to build a giant boat. The story is one of the most famous tales of all time. Almost everyone from believers to unbelievers knows the references made to Noah's Ark. It's spawned countless other stories, interpretations, and even a full length feature film starring Russell Crowe. I never saw it.
But what's the message here? I see two major points. The first is that God looked upon original humanity and decided that almost all of it wasn't worth saving. That's pretty harsh. Several unbelievers will look at this story and ask how we can believe in a God that would wipe out everyone on the planet except one man's family? Which is really just another variation on how can you believe that God is good when he kills people?
The answer isn't only that God is good. God is good AND just. There's a big part of that. If humanity at this time is completely obsessed with evil, and God is both good and just, he abhors what those men have become. Only God stands to judge us as humans both heart and soul. What unbelievers don't like is that if God gives you life, God has the right to take it away. He is our master. He also doesn't tolerate sin. That's why Jesus had to die for our sins, so that God could allow us back into his graces. But remember, this first version of humanity has no such salvation. They are simply wicked and lost.
Except Noah, which brings us to the second point. Noah is the rebel of the story. The entire world is engaging in sinful acts in every gathering. I can imagine given their rather limited resources that most of these sins revolved around violence and sex. These people didn't have many other forms of entertainment, so assume the most depraved kind of blood-rites and orgies you can think of with no regard for decency, and you're probably not even half-close. This is the society God decided to wipe out. Go figure.
Noah's different. Noah doesn't go with the flow, or follow the crowd. He lives a simple life with his family and devoutly walks with God. How often do we as Christians do the wrong thing simply due to peer pressure? Now imagine every single person in the world except you is doing something, and making endless fun of you. That's likely Noah's life. He's the pariah because he believes in God.
Not only does Noah believe, he acts. Noah is tasked by God with building a giant boat when he's likely never built anything of that size. He's supposed to go find every animal to put in the boat, when he's likely never even kept more than simple livestock. In essence, he's completely unqualified and unprepared. Yet when asked, we get this simple line at the end of the chapter: "Noah did everything just as God commanded him."
He didn't complain, he didn't question, he didn't try to talk God out of it. That's a key point, because so many of his descendants do such things later on in the Bible. If there's one thing humans love to do it's argue and complain. Not Noah. He follows things to the letter. There's a lesson there for us I think. When God speaks, don't talk. Listen and follow it out. Because in the end, only by following God's commands are we truly saved.
Study Thoughts:
1 - Have you done something that you later ended up regretting enough to wish you'd never done it?
2 - Can you think of a time when God was telling you to act? Did you act? Or delay and complain?
3 - How does peer pressure effect us today? Can peer pressure be positive spiritually?
The Nephilim were the offspring of these two groups, God's sons and human daughters. Supposedly, there were giants, and men of legend before the Flood. The term only occurs twice in the Bible, once here and once in Numbers Chapter 13. One of the reasons people speculate about the Nephilim is because we know little about them. They even get into topics about how the Nephilim could be sons of angels, or divine children, or various other intepretations.
This all comes from literally two references in the Bible. TWO. My main takeaway from the topic of the Nephilim is that people will absolutely overanalyze everything in the Bible to the smallest detail, while missing the larger points. Do I care who the Nephilim really were? Not really. The important point of this chapter to me is Noah, and how he found favor with the Lord.
Genesis Chapter 6 gives us the line, "The Lord regretted that he had made human beings on the earth, and his heart was deeply troubled." Can you imagine? God looks upon his whole creation with complete distaste. Man is utterly evil at this point in time. The people followed every evil desire of their hearts, much like their ancestor Cain. However, one man rose above the fray, and that was Noah.
We don't know what made Noah righteous, we only know that he was righteous in the eyes of God. The Lord actually tells Noah his intentions of destroying the world. He's planning on hitting the reset button in the form of a flood on the planet, and he wants Noah to build a giant boat. The story is one of the most famous tales of all time. Almost everyone from believers to unbelievers knows the references made to Noah's Ark. It's spawned countless other stories, interpretations, and even a full length feature film starring Russell Crowe. I never saw it.
But what's the message here? I see two major points. The first is that God looked upon original humanity and decided that almost all of it wasn't worth saving. That's pretty harsh. Several unbelievers will look at this story and ask how we can believe in a God that would wipe out everyone on the planet except one man's family? Which is really just another variation on how can you believe that God is good when he kills people?
The answer isn't only that God is good. God is good AND just. There's a big part of that. If humanity at this time is completely obsessed with evil, and God is both good and just, he abhors what those men have become. Only God stands to judge us as humans both heart and soul. What unbelievers don't like is that if God gives you life, God has the right to take it away. He is our master. He also doesn't tolerate sin. That's why Jesus had to die for our sins, so that God could allow us back into his graces. But remember, this first version of humanity has no such salvation. They are simply wicked and lost.
Except Noah, which brings us to the second point. Noah is the rebel of the story. The entire world is engaging in sinful acts in every gathering. I can imagine given their rather limited resources that most of these sins revolved around violence and sex. These people didn't have many other forms of entertainment, so assume the most depraved kind of blood-rites and orgies you can think of with no regard for decency, and you're probably not even half-close. This is the society God decided to wipe out. Go figure.
Noah's different. Noah doesn't go with the flow, or follow the crowd. He lives a simple life with his family and devoutly walks with God. How often do we as Christians do the wrong thing simply due to peer pressure? Now imagine every single person in the world except you is doing something, and making endless fun of you. That's likely Noah's life. He's the pariah because he believes in God.
Not only does Noah believe, he acts. Noah is tasked by God with building a giant boat when he's likely never built anything of that size. He's supposed to go find every animal to put in the boat, when he's likely never even kept more than simple livestock. In essence, he's completely unqualified and unprepared. Yet when asked, we get this simple line at the end of the chapter: "Noah did everything just as God commanded him."
He didn't complain, he didn't question, he didn't try to talk God out of it. That's a key point, because so many of his descendants do such things later on in the Bible. If there's one thing humans love to do it's argue and complain. Not Noah. He follows things to the letter. There's a lesson there for us I think. When God speaks, don't talk. Listen and follow it out. Because in the end, only by following God's commands are we truly saved.
Study Thoughts:
1 - Have you done something that you later ended up regretting enough to wish you'd never done it?
2 - Can you think of a time when God was telling you to act? Did you act? Or delay and complain?
3 - How does peer pressure effect us today? Can peer pressure be positive spiritually?
Wednesday, October 1, 2014
Genesis Chapter 5: Adam's Sons before the Flood
Here's one of the Chapters I'm always afraid of when it comes to the Bible. It's a lineage chapter. It goes into great detail about who gave birth to who, and how long they lived, and who they birthed, and on and on.
So let me detail what happens here in a nutshell. I'll list fathers to sons down the line. Adam to Seth to Enosh to Kenan to Mahalalel to Jared to Enoch to Methuselah to Lamech to Noah. That's how things progress in this chapter.
The important details to me in this chapter are the ages of the people, and how two people get described in particular. The ages stand out because these people are noted as living hundreds of years, and giving birth to sons and daughters almost a hundred years into their lives. How is that possible? Was age different before the flood, or did we get the timing wrong?
Methuselah is the main character of this age difference. He's the one who lives for 969 years before he dies. As such, his name has become a common joke for an "old man" whereas a name like Mahalalel has passed into obscurity. If only old Mahalalel had hung on for another 80 years, he'd have the title instead of Methuselah. I'm okay with that because Mahalalel is way harder to spell.
One thought is that humans were meant to live forever, but that each generation since Adam and Eve had less of the power of God in them, and as such lived shorter lives the further they get away from the original creation. While this has a mystical sounding theory to it, I think it's likely the least true. If anything, I believe that lives of humans only really change due to lifestyle changes, food and water changes, and various resources and external factors. I don't think that ancient peoples lived hundreds of years longer than us.
A more likely version to me is that years and months was an ancient mistranslation of the story to make it sound more mystical. Sort of like the ancient equivilant of a Fish Story. That fish may have been about four pounds, but by the time it gets told the 50th time, it's a 200 pound Marlin you fought off with your bare hands. Dramatic license and all that, it keeps the reader engaged. It might be the same with the ages of Noah and his brethren.
If Methuselah lived for 969 months instead of years, that would put Methuselah around 80 years old. The problem with that particular theory is that it also has people in the same chapter giving birth to kids at the supposed age of 5 years old. That doesn't really work either. Still, I think a translation or misunderstanding of true time issue is more likely than God giving people lives that were ten times longer than our own.
The second thing I noted in this chapter was the flow of each verse. Typically, it goes like this: Guy lives for this many years, fathers the next guy, after which he lives hundreds of years fathering more sons and daughters, before he eventually died. Rinse and repeat. Always repeat.
Two differences surround two men. Enoch and Noah. Enoch is different because the Bible refers to him "walking faithfully with God" and instead of dying that "he was no more, because God took him away." Why is Enoch different? What made him more special than his ancestors that the Bible felt the need to refer to him as walking with God and not truly dying?
I think the reason Enoch is noted as having walked with God is that the other men of the world at the time were very ungodly. Remember, this is a time period after man has been kicked out of paradise, and the sons of Cain are wandering the earth. It's not a fantastic time to be living for hundreds of years, toiling in obscurity. Yet, Enoch is noted for his faith, which makes him an important figure later in Hebrews and First Kings when they talk of faith in the Lord. After all, he's one of only a couple of figures in the Bible that were supposedly spared from death.
Noah is also different in that his father Lamech said, "He will comfort us in the labor and painful toil of our hands caused by the ground the Lord has cursed." That's a really creepy prophesy from his father. Yes, Noah will bring comfort to the people, but only after the entire world is wiped out in a flood. Not exactly what I believe his father meant. However, Noah is central in God removing the curse from the land, and removing the curse from the remaining people as a whole. We discuss that more in the next chapter.
Study Thoughts:
1 - Do you believe people could have lived for hundreds of years? What would you do with that amount of time on the earth?
2 - What does it mean to walk with God to you? How are you living that mantra in your life today?
3 - Have you ever considered how your own ancestry has made you the way you are today?
So let me detail what happens here in a nutshell. I'll list fathers to sons down the line. Adam to Seth to Enosh to Kenan to Mahalalel to Jared to Enoch to Methuselah to Lamech to Noah. That's how things progress in this chapter.
The important details to me in this chapter are the ages of the people, and how two people get described in particular. The ages stand out because these people are noted as living hundreds of years, and giving birth to sons and daughters almost a hundred years into their lives. How is that possible? Was age different before the flood, or did we get the timing wrong?
Methuselah is the main character of this age difference. He's the one who lives for 969 years before he dies. As such, his name has become a common joke for an "old man" whereas a name like Mahalalel has passed into obscurity. If only old Mahalalel had hung on for another 80 years, he'd have the title instead of Methuselah. I'm okay with that because Mahalalel is way harder to spell.
One thought is that humans were meant to live forever, but that each generation since Adam and Eve had less of the power of God in them, and as such lived shorter lives the further they get away from the original creation. While this has a mystical sounding theory to it, I think it's likely the least true. If anything, I believe that lives of humans only really change due to lifestyle changes, food and water changes, and various resources and external factors. I don't think that ancient peoples lived hundreds of years longer than us.
A more likely version to me is that years and months was an ancient mistranslation of the story to make it sound more mystical. Sort of like the ancient equivilant of a Fish Story. That fish may have been about four pounds, but by the time it gets told the 50th time, it's a 200 pound Marlin you fought off with your bare hands. Dramatic license and all that, it keeps the reader engaged. It might be the same with the ages of Noah and his brethren.
If Methuselah lived for 969 months instead of years, that would put Methuselah around 80 years old. The problem with that particular theory is that it also has people in the same chapter giving birth to kids at the supposed age of 5 years old. That doesn't really work either. Still, I think a translation or misunderstanding of true time issue is more likely than God giving people lives that were ten times longer than our own.
The second thing I noted in this chapter was the flow of each verse. Typically, it goes like this: Guy lives for this many years, fathers the next guy, after which he lives hundreds of years fathering more sons and daughters, before he eventually died. Rinse and repeat. Always repeat.
Two differences surround two men. Enoch and Noah. Enoch is different because the Bible refers to him "walking faithfully with God" and instead of dying that "he was no more, because God took him away." Why is Enoch different? What made him more special than his ancestors that the Bible felt the need to refer to him as walking with God and not truly dying?
I think the reason Enoch is noted as having walked with God is that the other men of the world at the time were very ungodly. Remember, this is a time period after man has been kicked out of paradise, and the sons of Cain are wandering the earth. It's not a fantastic time to be living for hundreds of years, toiling in obscurity. Yet, Enoch is noted for his faith, which makes him an important figure later in Hebrews and First Kings when they talk of faith in the Lord. After all, he's one of only a couple of figures in the Bible that were supposedly spared from death.
Noah is also different in that his father Lamech said, "He will comfort us in the labor and painful toil of our hands caused by the ground the Lord has cursed." That's a really creepy prophesy from his father. Yes, Noah will bring comfort to the people, but only after the entire world is wiped out in a flood. Not exactly what I believe his father meant. However, Noah is central in God removing the curse from the land, and removing the curse from the remaining people as a whole. We discuss that more in the next chapter.
Study Thoughts:
1 - Do you believe people could have lived for hundreds of years? What would you do with that amount of time on the earth?
2 - What does it mean to walk with God to you? How are you living that mantra in your life today?
3 - Have you ever considered how your own ancestry has made you the way you are today?
Genesis Chapter 4: Cain and Abel
So now man and woman have screwed up and been thrown out of paradise. What do they do? How will they survive? Chapter 4 tells us how mankind will survive, as Eve gives birth to both Cain and Abel. Two of the most famous brothers in human history.
Abel is described very simply as a man who kept the flocks, while Cain is man of the soil. In a metaphorical sense, I think there is an allusion being made here to the personalities of both Cain and Abel. Cain is a man of the world or earth, while Abel is a shepherd. How often later in the Bible do we hear references by Jesus to being good shepherds? In John 10:11 Jesus actually refers to himself as the good shepherd. A shepherd watches out for the sheep in his care. He is nurturing and caring.
Yet Cain is a man of the world. He toils and digs for everything he has. He is dirty and soiled by working in the earth all day. When both Cain and Abel brought offerings to the Lord, God looked down on Abel's gift with favor, while he did not look on Cain's gift as favorably. The Bible doesn't tell us why one gift was more favorable than the other. I can assume that Abel's was made with great care as he gave the best of his flock, while Cain only gave some of his produce or what was seemingly required.
Naturally, Cain was angry that he had not found favor with the Lord. Who wouldn't be? If you've ever had a sibling you know what it's like when your parent seemingly favors one child over the other. It can tick you off and make you wonder if you're worth something. God actually tells Cain that if he does right, he will be accepted, but that sin is crouching at his door. So how does Cain respond to God's warning? He takes his brother Abel into a field and kills him. Yeah, not exactly reasonable.
After committing the terrible murder, God asks Cain what happened to Abel. This spawns one of the more famous lines in the Bible where Cain responds, "Am I my brother's keeper?" God knows what has happened already, and he's trying to get Cain to admit what he has done, but Cain responds with flippant disregard for God even when caught in the murder. The Lord then banishes Cain from the land, and he becomes a restless wanderer living in the land of Nod, east of Eden.
You'll see many literary allusions to these places "East of Eden" or the "Land of Nod." They originate from this story, and the banishment of Cain from another land of God. His parents were banished from Eden, and Cain was banished again later. Not really a great start for humanity. Even worse, the Lord takes away the one thing Cain was able to do, grow crops. Instead he had to live with the Mark of Cain, so that no one who found him would kill him. He would have to live in misery.
Here's a key point to remember. This is the first time we see the Bible refer to other people out in the world beyond just Adam and Eve. Somehow, Cain finds a wife and starts another family. There are other humans roaming around. Where did they come from? This was such an important issue that the question actually came up in the Scopes Trial, the famous trial that allowed evolution to be taught in schools.
This is where I think evolution and creationism sort of meet. I believe that evolution was happening, and I believe the missing link or the spark of intelligence that makes man a man was provided by God. That doesn't mean that there weren't other lesser developed evolutionary predecessors of humans rolling around during the time. We're not even sure how long the gap between creation and fall even is, or if it's just God's way of telling a story to people who really would have no concept of evolution at the time.
In either case, I don't believe that there was literally one man and one woman roaming the earth in the traditional sense. I believe that they were the first truly created God-inspired souls given to human form at that time. I believe that when Cain married, he married one of the less developed races and they intermingled to join with humans we know today, much as evolution would suggest. What evolution can't tell you is where the soul of the human comes from. The intelligence, the creativity, the inspiration beyond simple survival and animal instinct. That comes from God's hand.
Cain has children and a line of people that the Bible simply doesn't follow. They've fallen out of favor. Instead, the Bible focuses on Eve's next son Seth, and his line that leads to the eventual Tribe of Israel. So what ever happened to Cain? Did his descendents die out? We don't really know, but we can speculate. If you remember, we have a very big event coming with one of Seth's sons, Noah. And the weather clouds are looking a little stormy.
Study Thoughts:
1 - Where do you believe Cain's wife came from? Have you ever considered this question?
2 - Is man always doomed to fail and sin? How important then is redemption through Christ?
3 - How often do we give God the best of our "flock"? Or are we like Cain giving only what is required?
Abel is described very simply as a man who kept the flocks, while Cain is man of the soil. In a metaphorical sense, I think there is an allusion being made here to the personalities of both Cain and Abel. Cain is a man of the world or earth, while Abel is a shepherd. How often later in the Bible do we hear references by Jesus to being good shepherds? In John 10:11 Jesus actually refers to himself as the good shepherd. A shepherd watches out for the sheep in his care. He is nurturing and caring.
Yet Cain is a man of the world. He toils and digs for everything he has. He is dirty and soiled by working in the earth all day. When both Cain and Abel brought offerings to the Lord, God looked down on Abel's gift with favor, while he did not look on Cain's gift as favorably. The Bible doesn't tell us why one gift was more favorable than the other. I can assume that Abel's was made with great care as he gave the best of his flock, while Cain only gave some of his produce or what was seemingly required.
Naturally, Cain was angry that he had not found favor with the Lord. Who wouldn't be? If you've ever had a sibling you know what it's like when your parent seemingly favors one child over the other. It can tick you off and make you wonder if you're worth something. God actually tells Cain that if he does right, he will be accepted, but that sin is crouching at his door. So how does Cain respond to God's warning? He takes his brother Abel into a field and kills him. Yeah, not exactly reasonable.
After committing the terrible murder, God asks Cain what happened to Abel. This spawns one of the more famous lines in the Bible where Cain responds, "Am I my brother's keeper?" God knows what has happened already, and he's trying to get Cain to admit what he has done, but Cain responds with flippant disregard for God even when caught in the murder. The Lord then banishes Cain from the land, and he becomes a restless wanderer living in the land of Nod, east of Eden.
You'll see many literary allusions to these places "East of Eden" or the "Land of Nod." They originate from this story, and the banishment of Cain from another land of God. His parents were banished from Eden, and Cain was banished again later. Not really a great start for humanity. Even worse, the Lord takes away the one thing Cain was able to do, grow crops. Instead he had to live with the Mark of Cain, so that no one who found him would kill him. He would have to live in misery.
Here's a key point to remember. This is the first time we see the Bible refer to other people out in the world beyond just Adam and Eve. Somehow, Cain finds a wife and starts another family. There are other humans roaming around. Where did they come from? This was such an important issue that the question actually came up in the Scopes Trial, the famous trial that allowed evolution to be taught in schools.
This is where I think evolution and creationism sort of meet. I believe that evolution was happening, and I believe the missing link or the spark of intelligence that makes man a man was provided by God. That doesn't mean that there weren't other lesser developed evolutionary predecessors of humans rolling around during the time. We're not even sure how long the gap between creation and fall even is, or if it's just God's way of telling a story to people who really would have no concept of evolution at the time.
In either case, I don't believe that there was literally one man and one woman roaming the earth in the traditional sense. I believe that they were the first truly created God-inspired souls given to human form at that time. I believe that when Cain married, he married one of the less developed races and they intermingled to join with humans we know today, much as evolution would suggest. What evolution can't tell you is where the soul of the human comes from. The intelligence, the creativity, the inspiration beyond simple survival and animal instinct. That comes from God's hand.
Cain has children and a line of people that the Bible simply doesn't follow. They've fallen out of favor. Instead, the Bible focuses on Eve's next son Seth, and his line that leads to the eventual Tribe of Israel. So what ever happened to Cain? Did his descendents die out? We don't really know, but we can speculate. If you remember, we have a very big event coming with one of Seth's sons, Noah. And the weather clouds are looking a little stormy.
Study Thoughts:
1 - Where do you believe Cain's wife came from? Have you ever considered this question?
2 - Is man always doomed to fail and sin? How important then is redemption through Christ?
3 - How often do we give God the best of our "flock"? Or are we like Cain giving only what is required?
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