The Flood (Genesis 6-9)

(1) Bible Study Questions

Note: Because of the increasing sinfulness of Cain’s line, and the death of righteous Abel, God’s promise to provide the serpent crusher (Gen 3:15) seems at risk. However, Adam and Eve had another child in his image, and at that time ‘men began to call on the name of Yahweh’ (Genesis 4:26). Salvation will be found through Seth’s descendants. Genesis chapter 5:1-6:9 gives us the account of Adam’s line through Seth, and again, there are glimpses of grace. Enoch the 7^th from Adam walked with God (5:22) (unlike the murdering bigamist Lamech, the 7^th from Cain). Noah’s father also indicates at least an awareness of YHWH. We have no reason to doubt the long life spans as they have been recorded.

1. What is your reaction to the account of the Nephilim? Why do you think it is there?

Note: Some suggestions of who the Nephilim were the offspring of (1) angel’s unions with women, (2) kings in the line of Lamech who took more than one wife (3) ‘godly’ Sethites who married ungodly Cainites or (4) demon possessed tyrants. In my opinion (Matt), the evidence is strongest for (1), that the sons of God were angels (compare 1 Peter 3:18-19; 2 Peter 2:4-5; Jude 6-7), though often evangelicals opt for (3), following John Calvin. If the first option is correct, it is a reminder that there are supernatural forces who, though unseen, are hostile to God and influence sinful humanity to their ruin (compare Ephesians 2:1-3).

2. How were the human race going centuries after the fall? Give them a mark out of 10, and explain why. (verses 5-7, 11-12)

3. What effect does human sin have on God? (verses 6-7)

4. Is the human race today different than it was back then? (Romans 3:9-12)

5. How would you describe God’s judgment on sin? (verses 7, 13, 17)?

6. Does God still think the same way about sin today as he did then? (look up 2 Peter 3:5-7)

7. Are there any indications of God’s grace and patience to the world? (verse 3; compare 1 Peter 3:20; 2 Peter 2:4-5, verse 8)

Note: It seems from 1 Peter 3:20 that it is better to think of the 120 years as not referring to any individual human life span, but to the time it took for Noah to build the ark.

8. Is God’s promise that the seed of the woman would crush the serpent at risk? How will God bring salvation?

9. How is Noah described in the passage? How is he different from his contemporaries? (verse 8-9; also Genesis 7:1; look up Hebrews 11:7)

10. God established a covenant (berith) with Noah (Gen 6:18). A covenant is an agreement or promise with two parties, each party having obligations. What were Noah’s covenant obligations (Genesis 6:14-16, 22)

11. What did God promise Noah and the creation that God saved with him? (see Gen 9:11)

Postscript To the Flood: Creation, Uncreation, & New Creation: Adam to Noah

We saw the Genesis 1 ‘creation’ account presents God making ‘the heavens and the earth’ in two stages. First God made everything, a process the text doesn’t really talk about. The word ‘create’ may well carry the idea within it ‘create out of nothing’. However, we are simply told, ‘In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth’ (Gen 1:1). The result is a dark wet world with no light, no land, just watery emptiness and dark chaos (tohu webohu) which cannot be inhabited.

The second process is God imposes order on this watery dark waste. This is the subject of the rest of Genesis 1. God’s Spirit hovering over the water and God’s Word are the agents by which God brings order and habitation to the chaotic universe.

On Days 2 and 3 the water is put in its place, so that from the waters emerges sky and land. Thus, God created out of water (2 Peter 3:5). Man also emerges from the earth, as Adam is taken from Adamah (Genesis 2:7). Adam is in the image of God, so reflects God’s glory to the rest of creation and also back to God. God created Man as a sort of ‘earthly Son’, who represents God and responds to God. That’s why Luke calls Adam, ‘the Son of God’ (Luke 3:38).

But with sin comes ‘uncreation’. The man is doomed to die, and so the breath (or Spirit) YHWH breathed into his nostrils will depart. Adam, will return to the ground, Adamah, from which he was taken (Gen 3:19). And in fact, sin gets so bad, that by Genesis 6, not only is humanity swallowed up by death, but also the animals, the plants, the trees, the birds, even the ground itself is swallowed up again by the waters (Genesis 6:7, 7:17-24). The order, pattern, and distinctions, that God built into creation where overthrown in the flood, as day merged into night, when the watery Chaos covered the land and the sky once again. The flood is God undoing his creation – a kind of ‘uncreation’.

However, God’s grace and commitment to his creation is seen in that, from the watery chaos emerges a new humanity, with a new head, Noah. This is a new created order, a ‘recreation’ or ‘new creation’, consisting of a remnant of all those who were in the Ark. They were thus were saved out of the doomed sinful world. They were part of the old creation, but saved out of it for God’s new creation. God made a new covenant with them, that never again would he destroy all life by a flood, by uncreating the world (Genesis 9:11, 15-17). Here is a new creation, starting with those saved through water in the Ark.

However, the problem with humanity is still sin. Sin has not been finally dealt with by the flood. God’s declaration about the human heart after the flood is the same as it was before the flood. ‘Every inclination of his heart is evil from childhood’ (Genesis 8:21). Noah, righteous person that he really is, unfortunately is found drunk with his pants down (Genesis 9:20-28). Sin’s progress is checked by the flood, but not eradicated.

The Old Testament story is Noah’s story repeated throughout the Old Testament. God graciously saves out of sinful humanity a remnant by grace, but they fall into ever increasing sin. God responds with judgment, but also shows his grace to a remnant. God thus makes a fresh start with a smaller group within that group. The curse on Canaan and blessing on Shem (Genesis 9:24-27) suggest that it is through Shem and his descendants, the semites, that God’s promise to destroy the serpent’s work will be fulfilled. It is ultimately fulfilled in Christ, who will not destroy the world baptizing it in flood waters, but who will purge it with fire, and who promises to baptize his followers ‘with the Holy Spirit and with fire’.

(2) Sermon Script

Reading Genesis 6:1-22.

Introduction: Genocide

Most of us have heard of the Holocaust, where 6 million jewish people were killed. This was part of Nazi Germany’s wider extermination program, in which 11 million people were killed, including the mentally ill, Poles, Soviets, Roma peoples, and those classed as sexual deviants and religious minorities. This is known as Genocide, the mass killing of people of a particular race, nationality, ideology, or opinion. There are, of course, other genocides that we have heard about. In Rwanda in 1994 over 3 months, between half a million and 1 million Tutsi’s and moderate Hutus were killed.

And currently in Darfur in Northern Sudan, the Sudanese government and government-backed militia use rape, displacement, starvation and mass murder. More than 400,000 have been killed. 2.5 million have been displaced. And violence, disease and displacement continue to kill thousands of Darfurians every month[1].

It makes the 3000 that perished in the evil and tragedy of the world trade centre attacks seem insignificant. We must say that these Genocides are evil as far as God is concerned. Humans are made in the image of God. And therefore, the murder of humans is an offence against God. It reflects a deep animosity toward God. And of course, a failure to love neighbor. But of all of these terrible genocides and human tragedies, and horrendous death tolls, none can compare with the total and complete destruction described in the verses read out. We teach our kids, ‘God said to Noah, there’s gonna be a floody, floody.’ But we forget that we are dealing with a human and environmental catastrophe. It is the catastrophe of God’s judgment. God directly, deliberately, decidedly, wipes out the whole human race and every animal, except those in the ark. Nor is this alone in describing the horror of God’s judgment. Joshua’s conquest of the promised land involved genocide. The Best Book to Read is the Bible. But then you have to explain, God commanding the mass killing of men, women, children, and animals. There are explanations that show that YHWH is just and fair. But we still must sit with the horror of what we are reading.

In fact, the worst judgment is still ahead of us. It is hell. It gives me no joy to talk about this stuff, but it is in the bible, so I say it. God will judge every human being. And every human who has not given God the honour and glory he deserves. Every human who have not sought the mercy of God which is found in Christ. Every human being who does evil. They will meet a fate far worse than death. That is hell, an eternity of continual failed rebellion against God, and everlasting punishment and shut out from the glory of God.

Adam’s story: a disaster waiting to happen (Chapter 5:1 to 6:8)

In Genesis 5, we follow Adam’s line down through Seth to Noah. The wicked murderer Cain is bypassed. Cain’s descendants only demonstrate ever increasing wickedness. As we read Genesis, we look for the serpent crusher, the one who will crush the head of the serpent, but who will be struck while he does it.

And hope is to be found only through Seth and his descendants. For we read in 4:26 of Seth’s line:

‘At that time men began to call on the name of the LORD.’ (Genesis 4:26 NIV)

And from line of Seth, humanity has gone forth and multiplied. We read of their great ages. However, all except Enoch died. They might live long, but they still die. By faith, only Enoch was taken away (compare Hebrews 11:5-6). And as one taken away, Enoch is no solution to our problem. Enoch leaves us still in our sins. The only thing he does for us is beget a son, who will beget a son and so on. For the world after Adam sins is a world of death.

‘Sons of God’ love children: the heroes[2]

But unfortunately, where men had increased, sin had increased all the more. And as Adam had sinned, so did his descendants, and even, on my reading of the story, the angels.

The high point of sin before the flood seems to be this strange story of the Nephilim. It is great to see these accounts in the bible. Because it reminds us that God’s world is bigger than what we can see. There is a world of angels, demons, and spiritual forces.

Now, the Nephilim! What are they? Literally, they are the ‘fallen ones’. They are the offspring of the marriage of the Sons of God with woman.

Debate rages about who these Sons of God are. Some think of them as Sethites who married into the ungodly line of Cain. Others think of them as Kings who took Harems. Others of demon possessed tyrants. Of the different views, I think they were spirit beings. In other words, the Sons of God were angels. They were created by God, but they left their places. And they contracted illicit marriages with women. For all its weirdness, in my view it makes most sense of the bible[3].

These sinning angel’s actions mirror those of Eve’s. They see women. The see that they are good. And they take. And in doing so, they cross the boundaries God had set for them (compare 2 Peter 2:4, Jude 6-7). Now if I’m right, perhaps, in seeking to cross breed with angels, humans attempted to procure eternal life denied them by God. Perhaps, they think this is the back door to the ‘Tree of Life’.[4] Trying to escape God’s judgment of death. Like those rich people who want their body frozen. Cryogenesis. In the hope that the God of science with give them eternal life.

Here we see that the rebellion against God has touched the unseen spiritual world (compare Ephesians 2:1-3). Some angels also have rebelled against God. We need to remember that our battle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realm. (Ephesians 6:12)

Also, it is a warning not to test the boundaries of sexuality. God has made sexuality for the man and his wife for their binding together, companionship and children. Not for anything else[5].

In verse 3, God judges humanity for these behaviours. He imposes limits on human life. Humans who are constantly striving against the judgment of death God has imposed[6].

In verse 3, God decides to limit human life to 120 years. It can mean two things. Either God will from now on limit each human life to 120 years[7]. Or he will destroy all life on earth in 120 years by the flood[8].

God’s response: genocide and grace to Noah (verses 5-8)[9]

Where men abounded, sin abounded all the more (verse 5)

Mankind has abounded on the earth. But that is not the only thing that has flourished. Verse 5 is perhaps one of the saddest verses in the bible…

The LORD saw how great man’s wickedness on the earth had become, and that every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil all the time. (NIV)

Every inclination of the thoughts of his heart only evil all the time. ‘Every human thought from it’s inception is intrinsically evil’[10]. It is not just our acts, but our thoughts. It would be difficult to think of a way to say more effectively that humanity is sinful to the very core of our being.

And the sin is on the inside. You can wash the outside. But this sin is on the inside. And when this stuff gets in, you cannot get it out. It is the fundamental rationale of the 10th commandment. You shall not covet is something only done on the inside (Ex 20:17; Rom 7:7-9). It is Jesus’ rationale in saying that lustful looking is eye adultery, and anger and cursing is mouth murder. The lust, the desire, the thought, is sin itself. It is not misleading to call this ‘total depravity’. Every thought and intention tinged with sin. As Paul says, ‘I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature’ (Romans 7:18)[11]

Dear friends, know the radical nature of your sinfulness. Most heresies spring from an insufficient grasp of the depth of our sinfulness. It is not just an act here or there. As Article 9 says, of our 39 Articles. … concupiscence and lust have of itself the nature of sin. And that is why God must go before with his prevenient grace, if any are to be saved.

God’s bitter indignation (verse 6)

We have already seen God responding to the rebellion of man and angel by limiting the span of human life. But now, God is going to uncover his heart, to wear his heart on his sleeve, so to speak. He will uncover his anguish and outrage. His bitter grief and indignation. For these are the effects of human sin on him.

We image bearers experience outrage when we see evil. When we hear of terrible crimes of violence, for example. The Anita Coby murder. The Port Arthur masacre. The Bali Bombing. The arbitrary killings and beheadings in Iraq.

How much more appropriate is it for God to express the effect of sin on him in this way. That such sin cuts him deep. Verse 6:

The Lord was grieved that he had made man on the earth, and his heart was filled with pain (NIV: compare verse 8)[12].

Note the effect that human sin has on God. He is not indifferent to evil and sin and violence[13]. Because he is holy and just, he responds with deep, bitter indignation.

The response: a wicked world wiped away (verses 7-8)

God’s response is not knee jerk. It has been a while in coming. But it is decisive, deliberate, and satisfying to him. Verses 7-8:

So the LORD said, “I will wipe mankind, whom I have created, from the face of the earth – men and animals and the creatures that move along the ground and birds of the air – for I am grieved that I have made them.”

God’s indignation leads to decisive action. Wipe them out … all of them. Even the animals will be obliterated.

Here is the creator undoing his act of creation. The maker unmaking. In creation, God separated water from water to create land. Now he will undo the separation, and bring the waters over man, beast and bird. A human and environmental catastrophe. Here is an Act of God amounting to wholesale genocide.

Here is a scary and awesome God. One of the first doctrines to go, when we don’t listen to the bible, is God’s judgment. God’s judgment is awesome, catastrophic, and it is coming. The same indignation that led to God destroying the world with water in the past, will lead to him destroying the world with fire in the future. Peter in his day reminded the Christians to whom he wrote of the flood. And he said that it is a token that God will judge the world again with fire. Let me remind you of what Peter said in the New Testament

3First of all, you must understand that in the last days scoffers will come, scoffing and following their own evil desires. 4They will say, “Where is this ‘coming’ he promised? Ever since our fathers died, everything goes on as it has since the beginning of creation.” 5But they deliberately forget that long ago by God’s word the heavens existed and the earth was formed out of water and by water. 6By these waters also the world of that time was deluged and destroyed. 7By the same word the present heavens and earth are reserved for fire, being kept for the day of judgment and destruction of ungodly men… 10But the day of the Lord will come like a thief. The heavens will disappear with a roar; the elements will be destroyed by fire, and the earth and everything in it will be laid bare. (2 Peter 3:3-7,10 NIV)

A ruined earth ruined (6:11-13, 17)

The judgment of the flood is the definition of a catastrophe. To us, God’s just wrath seems harsh. When humans want to rethink and remould their thoughts about God, the first thing that is jettisoned is God’s wrath, anger and retribution.

Surely God is not like that! God does not send both evil, and good, does he! How can a God of love destroy his creation? How can a God of love send people to hell?

And sometimes people begin to blame the devil. We then have the good God, God, and the bad god, the devil. In competition. Good things come from God. Bad things come from the satan.

However, God’s judgment is proportionate to the sin. The flood is proportionate to the sin. Sin has spread like a cancer over the whole world. So the flood will spread over the whole world.

In verses 11-13[14], we read in the NIV that the earth was ‘corrupt’ and the people were ‘corrupt’, so God decided to ‘destroy’ the earth. In the original, the words ‘corrupt’ and ‘destroy’ are the same. If we translated the word ‘ruined’, we would read.

11Now the earth was ruined in God’s sight and was full of violence. 12God saw how ruined the earth had become, for all the people on earth had ruined their ways. 13So God said to Noah, “I am going to put an end to all people, for the earth is filled with violence because of them. I am surely [literally, Watch me! I am] going to ruin both them and the earth[15].

People ruined the earth with violence. People ruined themselves with violence. So God is going to ruin both the people and the earth. God is simply going to finish the job of ruining the earth that humanity had begun[16]. Here, the earth’s ruin in the flood is the just punishment for humanity ruining the earth.

And God is owning the judgment. He emphasises that it is his judgment. Verse 13 literally says:

Behold me, I will ruin the earth.

Again, verse 17[17]. The NIV’s way of putting it could be stronger. Not just I am going to bring floodwaters. But

And I, behold, I [am] bringing the flood of waters upon the earth, to ruin all flesh[18].

The humans think they can really ruin a place. That’s nothing! Watch what I can do.

I remember receiving a letter from a prominent Australian Christian who couldn’t believe that God sent the Tsunami on Boxing Day 2004. He said that he couldn’t believe that his God sent the Tsunami. Because God is good. And I wrote him a letter pointing out what I think is the clear teaching of the bible.

God sent the Tsunami. Just as God sent the flood, God sent the Tsunami. He did not lose control of the weather when the Tsunami came. And God is still good and just. The Christian holds both God’s goodness and God’s sovereign judgment together.

God isn’t over-reacting when he sent the flood, or the Tsunami in 2004, or the AIDS epidemic, or your death or mine. His response is a measured and proportionate retribution on what humanity has done, on what we have done. And so it is with the flood.

But there is a glimmer of hope: Noah. Noah, whose name sounds like rest or sorrow or console and comfort and relief. In the midst of God’s sorrow and bitter anguish, God will relieve his outrage by destroying the world. The earth will be reduced to watery chaos once again. Yet there will be consolation. Noah finds grace [hên]. Look at that in Chapter 6 verse 8:

But Noah found favour (literally, grace) in the eyes of the LORD. (NIV)

That’s the first thing we find out about Noah. He finds grace with God. God is merciful and generous and kind with Noah. And in Noah, a new start for humanity and the animals will be made.

Noah’s story: the righteous man by faith lives (6:9-9:29)

So it is the story of Noah that gives humanity hope. We come to the Noah story.

Righteous Noah (6:9-10, 22)

The second thing we notice about Noah is that, not only does Noah find grace, but he is ‘righteous’. Verse 9:

This is the account [literally, these are the generations] of Noah. Noah was a righteous man, blameless among the people of his time, and he walked with God[19]. (NIV)

Noah is righteous, blameless. That is, Noah does good and avoids the evil, when compared to others in his world. It doesn’t mean he is sinless. For God’s verdict on mankind is the same after the flood as it was before.

Every inclination of his heart is evil from childhood (Genesis 8:21 NIV).

And we will see Noah’s particular sinfulness later. But this declaration, 'Noah is righteous' and 'Noah found grace' does mean that Noah habitually does what is good and right. He is blameless, innocent of great transgression (Psalm 19:13). We see this in verse 22. Noah did everything just as God commanded him[20].

In other words, Noah trusted God. And his faith led to obedience. The author to the Hebrews makes this link for us.

By faith Noah, when warned about things not yet seen, in holy fear built an ark to save his family. By his faith he condemned the world and became heir of the righteousness that comes by faith. (Hebrews 11:7 NIV)

And the question is, 'What does this righteous man produce?'. 'Who are his offspring?' And 'what will be the outcome of his righteousness and God's grace to him?'

The lifeboat[21]… a floating zoo[22] (verses 14-16, 19-21)

And Noah is to be saved in a large boat, really a great box, traditionally called an ‘ark’. Noah builds it. God graciously invites Noah as his fellow-worker in the salvation of humanity. In the same way that we are invited as God’s fellow workers in the preaching of the gospel, which is the power of God for salvation.

Noah builds a waterproof rectangular box. Three stories, the length of nearly three olympic swimming pools[23]. It will the home of Noah’s family for over a year. And they will host mating specimens of every beast and bird. And 7 pairs of animals that can be sacrificed. {You never see the 7 pairs in the kid’s books, do you?} With a years worth of food for them all. It’s a floating zoo. And the ark is the means of God’s grace and mercy to man, beast and bird. And they are saved.

Peter in his first letter invites Christians to see symbolised in the flood our salvation.

20In it only a few people, eight in all, were saved through water (better, brought safely through water: ESV), 21and this water symbolises baptism that now saves you also – not the removal of dirt from the body but the pledge of a good conscience toward God [better, but as an appeal to God for a good conscience: ESV]. It saves you by the resurrection of Jesus Christ, 22who has gone into heaven and is at God’s right hand – with angels, authorities and powers in submission to him. (1 Peter 3:20-22 NIV)

Salvation through water symbolizes Christian baptism. And Christian baptism saves not by the physical act. Not the removal of dirt from the body. The outward act of washing the body does not save.

But the appeal to God for a clear conscience saves us. For anyone who calls on the name of the Lord Jesus will be saved. The real thing about baptism that saves is this request: 'God, please forgive my sins and make me new. Baptism is thus an acted out prayer which says ‘Father, as I enter this water baptism which will remove dirt from my body, cleanse my conscience by forgiving my sins’[24].

Baptism saves by pointing to Jesus’ resurrection from the dead, which is the real event that saves us. For Jesus is alive, at God’s right hand. And he thus can save us. Jesus saves us by his resurrection. And baptism preaches Jesus’ resurrection and the gospel. And thus it affords an opportunity for us to respond by faith, trusting in Christ.

A fresh start for the world (verse 22; 9:1-7, 12-17)

So God has brought Noah and his family safely through water. But it is noteworthy that the first thing Noah does when he leaves the Ark is sacrifices some of the clean animals he took on the ark. Some of the animals of which he took 7 pairs. Chapter 8 verse 20 to 21:

20Then Noah built an altar to the LORD and, taking some of all the clean animals and the clean birds, he sacrificed burnt offerings on it. 21The LORD smelled the pleasing aroma [Literally, the aroma giving Noah, or rest] and said in his heart: “Never again will I curse the ground because of man, even though every inclination of his heart is evil from childhood. And never again will I destroy all living creatures, as I have done.’ (NIV)

Noah’s sacrifice explains God’s change of attitude[25]. This is why God commanded Noah take 7 pairs of each clean animal. God smells the burnt offerings. It is a pleasing[26] aroma. The word, ‘pleasing’ is a pun on Noah’s name, which means ‘giving rest’. Noah, the man of rest, presents a sacrifice whose aroma gives God ‘rest’. The sacrifice appeases God’s anger at human sin[27]. And God is propitiated[28] and satisfied. He will not wipe out humanity by water again. He will not undo creation with water again, wiping out day and night, summer and winter

Sacrifice is required because of the failure of the flood. The flood judged sin. But it didn’t change man’s heart.

The failure of the flood (8:21, 9:20-26)

No change of heart (8:21)

The flood didn’t change the character of the human heart. Chapter 8 verse 21 again:

The Lord smelled the pleasing aroma and said in his heart, ‘Never again will I curse the ground because of man, even though every inclination of his heart is evil from childhood.’ (NIV)[29]

Here is righteous Noah. Yet God sees that his heart problem is not changed. The same evil that grieved God before the flood, remains still in the saved remnant, Noah and his family. And thus for the saved remnant, God requires the shedding of blood and the burnt offering.

And so it is with us. To be saved from the judgment of God, we need sacrifice. A sacrifice whose pleasing, rest giving, aroma turns aside God’s anger from our sinfulness. And as it was for Noah, so it is for us. God provides the sacrifice that satisfies, propitiates and turns away his anger against us, and that expiates and removes our sin. And that for us is found in the death of our Lord Jesus Christ.

God presented Jesus as a sacrifice of atonement through faith in his blood. He did this to demonstrate his justice, because he had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished. He did it to demonstrate his justice at the present time, so as to be just and the one who justifies those who have faith in Jesus Christ. (Romans 3:25-26 NIV)

Sin and curse return: Noah drunk and nude; Ham rude and lewd (9:20-26)

We see Noah’s sinfulness working itself out in the postscript to Noah’s story. For our last view of Noah is him drunk and nude. And Ham is rude and lewd, disrespecting his father’s nakedness.

So YHWH mitigated the curse on the ground because of the man of rest, Noah, and the rest-giving sacrifice he offers Yahweh. But because of Noah’s sin, and the sin of his son, Noah brings more curses upon his grandson, Canaan[30]. And in the end, Noah dies (Genesis 9:29). The wages of his sin is death.

Here is the failure of the flood. It did not deal with the heart of the problem. For the heart of the problem is the problem of the heart.

• Every inclination of the thoughts of his heart only evil all the time (Genesis 6:5 NIV).

• Every inclination of his heart is evil from childhood (Genesis 8:21 NIV).

And this is only dealt with by the new creation and new heart, given those of us who trust in Christ.

Friends, we must be born again. We must be remade by God. A new heart must be given us. And this miracle can only happen by God’s Spirit.

Friends, the old nature remains, clinging to us till we die. But by the Spirit, we can put to death the deeds of the sinful nature. So our battle with ourselves is not hopeless. Wretched we are now, yes. But only as those allied soldiers still on their trenches after D Day. Their army has landed and already won their vital victory. But they still await VE day, Victory in Europe Day, when the unconditional surrender of all enemies is given.

Our Lord Jesus has already made the sacrifice which propitiates his father. The sacrifice with it’s pleasing aroma has already ascended from Mount Moriah, Mount Zion, Golgotha, the hill of Jerusalem. But victorious we will be, when our God finishes the new creation when he gives us our new bodies in the new heavens and earth.

So friends, Noah typifies the new creation. He goes forth and multiplies (9:1,7). And from his three sons, the whole earth is re-populated (9:19). He is likewise again given dominion over the animals (9:2). He is provided with food, as Adam was, this time including meat (9:3-4). But the fallenness of humanity is reflected in the consequences for murder (9:5-6). And humanity is still sinful. At once righteous, and yet sinful at the same time. Fighting the world, the flesh and the devil, until we enter our heavenly rest. To which we look with great longing.

Amen.

Footnotes

[1] http://www.genocideintervention.net/educate/darfurinfo/

[2] 1And it came to pass

when [ki]

the man (haadam) began to multiply upon the face of the ground (haadama)

and daughters were born to them.

2And the sons of the God [or gods] saw

the daughters of the man, that [they were] good? [hênnah],

and they took for them[selves] women from all who they chose.

3And YHWH said:

My Spirit will not remain/abide with the man forever,

because he [is] flesh,

and his days will be 120 years.

4The Nephilim (the fallen ones) were in the earth in those days,

and also after thus

[compare Numbers 13:33 – perhaps there were continued visits by angels to mortal wives: Wenham, 143] ,

when [ki] the sons of God came into the daughters of the men

and they bore to them children,

the warriors which [were] from olden [times], men of the name.

[3] The four views of the identity of the Sons of God are: (1) angels who married women (compare Job 1:6,2:1; Psalm 29:1) (per Wenham); (2) kings or judges who took polygamous harems (Psalm 82; 2 Sam 7:14) (per Kline, John Murray), (3) godly men from the line of Seth who married Cain’s descendants (Calvin), or (4) a combination of (1) and (2) (per Waltke). ‘But those who believe that the creator could unite himself to human nature in the Virgin’s womb will not find this story intrinsically beyond belief’: Wenham, 150.

It is often pointed out that Jesus says there is no marriage in heaven. The resurrected are like the angels who neither marry nor are they given in marriage (Matthew 22:30; Mark 12:25). These two passages are used to show the difficulty of the view that the nephalim are the offspring of Sons of God (angels) and the daughters of men. However, Jesus doesn’t say it is impossible for those created as angels to marry; only that resurrected humans won’t be given in marriage just as the conceivably unfallen angels won't be. Can’t is different to won’t. The text here only says ‘won’t’. Neither does the text necessarily say what is true about ‘fallen’ angels. One might argue that their contracting of human marriages is part of the fall, which those angels who did not fall would never do. All this doesn’t mean the Nephalim-as-angelic-offspring-interpretation is right. But it just might be right.

[4] See Wenham, 141

[5] Perhaps it also provides a warning about God’s anger regarding cross-breeding across the kinds that God has created. Does this speak to Genetic engineering and our propensity to experiment with the reproductive process? Does it speak to our desire to maximise productivity by crossing the kinds of things God has made distinct?

[6] ‘the present episode could well belong to the series as an attempt this time on angelic initiative, to bring supernatural powers, or even immortality, illicitly to earth.’ (Kidner, 85).

[7] The view of Wenham, 142.

[8] Suggested as possible by Kidner, 85. Cf 1 Peter 3:20.

[9] 5And YHWH saw

that [ki] great [was] the evil of the man in the earth,

and that every idea of the reckonings of his heart [were] nothing but/altogether evil all the day.

6And YHWH was sorry

that [ki] he made the man in the earth,

and he was pained/grieved to his heart.

7And YHWH said:

I will wipe out the man

who I have created from upon the face of the ground [haadamah],

from adam unto beast unto creepers and unto flyers of the heavens,

because [ki] I am sorry that [ki] I made them.

8And Noah found grace [hên] in the eyes of YHWH.

[10] Wenham, 144

[11] Kidner, 85

[12] Wenham, 144 and Kidner, 86 note that the three key roots ‘grieved’ ‘made’ and ‘pain’ were used in 5:29, when Lamek looked to Noah as the one who would bring relief (nahum) from their work and pain. Here is irony. Noah was to bring consolation, but God experienced sorrow.

[13] The theological issue raised here is impassibility, for which see Packer in God who is Rich in Mercy, pp16-17. The core point is that impassibility does not mean that God is inactive or uninterested, detached and insulated from his creation, just as we must not say that God’s responses are involuntary and that he is forced to act from outside. Rather, God’s will is determined from within instead of being swayed from without. God’s responses are not compelled from the outside, but his responses spring from his own decision, and are foreknown, willed and chosen.

[14] 11And the earth was ruined before God,

and the earth full [of] violence.

12And God saw the earth,

and behold, it was ruined,

because (ki) all flesh ruined his way upon the earth.

13And God said to Noah:

‘[The] end of all flesh has come before me,

because (ki) the earth is filled [with] violence from before them,

and behold me, I will ruin them with the earth.

[15] See Wenham, 171.

[16] Wenham, 171.

[17] And I, behold, I [am] bringing the flood of waters upon the earth,

to ruin all flesh which in it [is] the spirit/breath of life from underneath the heavens,

all which [is] in the earth will perish.

[18] ‘I myself’. The repetition of the personal pronoun makes it perfectly clear that God is author of the flood. It is not a force that gets out of divine control as in Babylonian tradition: Wenham, 174. Note that the fish and sea animals are not touched by the flood.

[19] 9These are the toledots of Noah.

10Noah [was] a man righteous, blameless he was in his generation,

with God walked Noah.

And Noah begat three sons, Shem, Ham, and Japeth.

Wenham, 170, points out that Noah’s righteousness did not save his children: See Ezekiel 14:14-20.

[20] 22And Noah did according to all which God commanded him, thus he did.

[21] 14Make for yourself an ark of [the] wood of gopher.

With rooms/reeds you shall make the ark,

and you shall cover it from inside and from outside in cover.

15And this is that which you shall make it;

three hundred cubits the length of the ark;

50 cubits its breadth

and thirty cubits its height.

16A roof / light you shall make for the ark,

and into a cubit you shall complete it [upwards/from above?]

And an opening of the ark in the side you shall set

Lower, second, and third you shall make

[22] 19And from all living [things], from all flesh, two of all will enter into the ark

to live with you.

male and female they shall be.

20from the flyers according to its types,

and from the beasts according to its types,

from all the creepers of the ground according to its types,

two from all will come to you to live.

21And you, take to yourself from all food which may be eaten,

and you shall gather to yourself and it will be for you and for them for food.

[23] 135 metres long: Wenham, 173

[24] See Grudem, 163

[25] Wenham, 188

[26] The word is Niychuoach

[27] Wenham, 189

[28] Hamilton, 309

[29] Literally,

And YHWH smelt the soothing smell,

And YHWH said unto his heart,

‘I will not continue/add/ to curse still/again the ground (adamah) in [its] produce, ‘the man’.

[Note Wenham, 1:190: ‘God is not lifting the curse on the ground pronounced in 3:17 for man’s disobedience, but promising not to add to it. The flood was a punishment over and above that decreed in 3:17 …. 8:21 cannot be stating they are lifted after the flood’]

for the purpose of the heart of the man [is] evil from his youth,

[There can be no doubt that man’s nature has not changed since before the flood: Wenham, 1:191]

and I will not add/do/continue again to smite all living just as I did.

[30] In the promise that Canaan will be a slave of Shem we see the hint of the wickedness to be found in Canaan’s line. The dispossession of the Canaanites was God’s judgment on the full blown sin of the Canaanites (see Genesis 15:16-19).