January 9, 2023

Standing out for the right reasons

Genesis 6:9–7:24

Paul Figel
Monday's Devo

January 9, 2023

Monday's Devo

January 9, 2023

Big Idea

We can trust God when we don't know how things will turn out.

Key Verse | Genesis 6:9

These are the generations of Noah. Noah was a righteous man, blameless in his generation. Noah walked with God.

Genesis 6:9–7:24

Noah and the Flood

These are the generations of Noah. Noah was a righteous man, blameless in his generation. Noah walked with God. 10 And Noah had three sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth.

11 Now the earth was corrupt in God's sight, and the earth was filled with violence. 12 And God saw the earth, and behold, it was corrupt, for all flesh had corrupted their way on the earth. 13 And God said to Noah, “I have determined to make an end of all flesh, 1 6:13 Hebrew The end of all flesh has come before me for the earth is filled with violence through them. Behold, I will destroy them with the earth. 14 Make yourself an ark of gopher wood. 2 6:14 An unknown kind of tree; transliterated from Hebrew Make rooms in the ark, and cover it inside and out with pitch. 15 This is how you are to make it: the length of the ark 300 cubits, 3 6:15 A cubit was about 18 inches or 45 centimeters its breadth 50 cubits, and its height 30 cubits. 16 Make a roof 4 6:16 Or skylight for the ark, and finish it to a cubit above, and set the door of the ark in its side. Make it with lower, second, and third decks. 17 For behold, I will bring a flood of waters upon the earth to destroy all flesh in which is the breath of life under heaven. Everything that is on the earth shall die. 18 But I will establish my covenant with you, and you shall come into the ark, you, your sons, your wife, and your sons' wives with you. 19 And of every living thing of all flesh, you shall bring two of every sort into the ark to keep them alive with you. They shall be male and female. 20 Of the birds according to their kinds, and of the animals according to their kinds, of every creeping thing of the ground, according to its kind, two of every sort shall come in to you to keep them alive. 21 Also take with you every sort of food that is eaten, and store it up. It shall serve as food for you and for them.” 22 Noah did this; he did all that God commanded him.

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. Take with you seven pairs of all clean animals, 5 7:2 Or seven of each kind of clean animal the male and his mate, and a pair of the animals that are not clean, the male and his mate, and seven pairs 6 7:3 Or seven of each kind of the birds of the heavens also, male and female, to keep their offspring alive on the face of all the earth. For in seven days I will send rain on the earth forty days and forty nights, and every living thing 7 7:4 Hebrew all existence; also verse 23 that I have made I will blot out from the face of the ground.” And Noah did all that the LORD had commanded him.

Noah was six hundred years old when the flood of waters came upon the earth. 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. Of clean animals, and of animals that are not clean, and of birds, and of everything that creeps on the ground, two and two, male and female, went into the ark with Noah, as God had commanded Noah. 10 And after seven days the waters of the flood came upon the earth.

11 In the six hundredth year of Noah's life, in the second month, on the seventeenth day of the month, on that day all the fountains of the great deep burst forth, and the windows of the heavens were opened. 12 And rain fell upon the earth forty days and forty nights. 13 On the very same day Noah and his sons, Shem and Ham and Japheth, and Noah's wife and the three wives of his sons with them entered the ark, 14 they and every beast, according to its kind, and all the livestock according to their kinds, and every creeping thing that creeps on the earth, according to its kind, and every bird, according to its kind, every winged creature. 15 They went into the ark with Noah, two and two of all flesh in which there was the breath of life. 16 And those that entered, male and female of all flesh, went in as God had commanded him. And the LORD shut him in.

17 The flood continued forty days on the earth. The waters increased and bore up the ark, and it rose high above the earth. 18 The waters prevailed and increased greatly on the earth, and the ark floated on the face of the waters. 19 And the waters prevailed so mightily on the earth that all the high mountains under the whole heaven were covered. 20 The waters prevailed above the mountains, covering them fifteen cubits 8 7:20 A cubit was about 18 inches or 45 centimeters deep. 21 And all flesh died that moved on the earth, birds, livestock, beasts, all swarming creatures that swarm on the earth, and all mankind. 22 Everything on the dry land in whose nostrils was the breath of life died. 23 He blotted out every living thing that was on the face of the ground, man and animals and creeping things and birds of the heavens. They were blotted out from the earth. Only Noah was left, and those who were with him in the ark. 24 And the waters prevailed on the earth 150 days.

Footnotes

[1] 6:13 Hebrew The end of all flesh has come before me
[2] 6:14 An unknown kind of tree; transliterated from Hebrew
[3] 6:15 A cubit was about 18 inches or 45 centimeters
[4] 6:16 Or skylight
[5] 7:2 Or seven of each kind of clean animal
[6] 7:3 Or seven of each kind
[7] 7:4 Hebrew all existence; also verse 23
[8] 7:20 A cubit was about 18 inches or 45 centimeters

S2:006 Genesis 6:9 - 7:24

Listen Now

Dive Deeper | Genesis 6:9–7:24

The water's warm. Let's jump in! Here's the stage the story sets: Humanity forfeits their place with God in the garden for their autonomy. Autonomy has now brought them to a place where they are effectively destroying the earth and each other, all the good that God created. The story calls back to the creation story in several ways. In both, we find similar opening lines (Genesis 2:4, 6:9), stark contrasts between the results of God's creation and the results of man's efforts (Genesis 1:31, 6:12), and the same chaotic waters that God tamed in the beginning are allowed to prevail once again (Genesis 7:24). 

Up to this point, God's patient love for humanity has been thick. But now God sees the earth and humankind as corrupt (Hebrew: sahat, also the word for destruction). Man is on a poor trajectory toward his own self-sahat, and what God is going to do is to speed up the process to bring about what inevitably is going to come by their own hands (Genesis 6:13). But He has not given up on humanity, preparing to make His first covenant with humanity through a man named Noah.

Noah is described as righteous, blameless, and one who walked with God. If we've been reading closely, he is the third person in the story thus far to be described in this way. Adam walked with God in the garden, Enoch walked with God before being taken up, and now we come to Noah. His obedience is noted three times in this story (Genesis 6:22, 7:5, 7:9) and three times in the Old and New Testaments. Noah, Daniel, and Job are the three righteous men Ezekiel uses as examples of righteousness in his warning to the Israelites in Ezekiel 14:14. In the New Testament, Noah is listed in Hebrews 11:7 among the great cloud of witnesses. These witnesses saw themselves as strangers and exiles on earth, seeking a better homeland—a heavenly one. We are all called to be God's witnesses who desire this better homeland He has prepared, and He is not ashamed to be called our God (Hebrews 11:16).

This month's memory verse

We have found him of whom Moses in the Law and also the prophets wrote, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.

– John 1:45b

Discussion Questions

1. Noah is described as one who walked with God. Often, we positively describe other Christians as "running hard after Jesus." Why do you think we tend to say the latter? What's unhelpful about this phrase?

2. What does it mean to walk with God? What does it mean to seek a better homeland today? What Scriptures come to mind?

3. God did not include instructions for a rudder when asking Noah to build the ark. Noah was protected by God (Genesis 7:16) and at His mercy, without control of the ship. Is there a situation in your life that involves a lack of control?

4. God uses the word covenant for the first time in Genesis 6:18. What does the word covenant mean? What does it mean for God to have a covenant with you?

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Hugh Stephenson

GM Paul. Love having back-to-back Figels on The Journey! LOVE this, “These witnesses saw themselves as strangers and exiles on earth seeking a better homeland—a heavenly one. Thank you for noting the intro to the concept of “covenants”. https://bibleproject.com/explore/video/covenants/ https://www.gotquestions.org/Edenic-covenant.html https://www.gotquestions.org/Adamic-covenant.html ———————————— Types and antitypes. I’m taught that Genesis 3:15 is the “first gospel”. Therefore, I should look for “types” or foretastes of Jesus. Some of these will be supernatural and some will be simple examples of a person who is “righteous and blameless”. It’s much easier to find the “anti-type”. What I note in the repeated words “corrupted” and “violence” is that sin leads to them. Almost immediately after the Fall comes the corruption of humans which leads to violence of Cain, Lamech etc. The standout verse on this for me is Genesis 6:5. This rapid and immediate decline is startling.
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Hugh Stephenson

It does not take long for the hard heart of a sinner to go to deep depths of depravity. Again, it takes one to know one. Noah is the type of Christ here. I note that it’s through him that the line of Adam continues as Abel is dead and 100% of Cain’s descendants are wiped out in the flood. No matter what I/we do, God’s plan will go forward. He invites me in as “co-regent”. It’s up to me at accept and step into that role. From the notes- “Herein also he was a type of Christ, to whom it is owing that the world stands, by whom all things consist, and who preserves mankind from being totally cut off and ruined by sin. Noah saved those whom he was to rule, so does Christ, (Hebrews 9). https://www.gotquestions.org/life-Noah.html https://www.gotquestions.org/Noah-flood.html In all this, Genesis 7:16 is my standout verse.
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Hugh Stephenson

It’s at the top of my list of the saddest and most tragic verses of the Bible. I imagine thousands of people pounding on the ark and pleading to be let in. No doubt that Noah was faithful to his people and preached to them to follow Yahweh. No doubt they ridiculed and mocked him as he built the ark. The detailed and meticulous instructions that he followed showed his faith-trust-obedience. Yet, I find myself deeply saddened to ponder how many people died in the flood. 100 million? 2 billion? 10 billion? https://thebibleanswer.org/how-many-people-died-noahs-flood/ The key messages for me are these- -God will provide people for me to know and follow who are “righteous and blameless”. -Jesus will come again -This interim judgement will be followed by the final judgement as detailed in Revelation.
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Chris Landry

Good questions this morning! We often won’t realize what we’re saying until someone asks why we say it that way. So thank you! “Walking with God“ implies a relationship. Walking with God is more of an intentional presence with God and enjoyment of God. “Running hard after Jesus“, now that I say it, sounds like Jesus is out of reach and I have to effort myself tiredly to try and catch up with him. Which I likely never will if that’s my mindset. 🏃🏻‍♂️😩 If anything, Jesus is pursuing me without a question in His mind. I’m sure He’d like to stop me and say, “Hey Chris, let’s walk and talk. Stop running. Stop trying. Let’s just be together.” Also, I never thought about the “rudder“ question before. 🤯 My personality consistently strives to control outcomes. I wonder what it’ll be like if I trust God in whatever high seas he may have me in today.
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Michael Scaman

This flood uses a special word for a disastrous great flood (the Mabool). The waters were above ALL the high hills under ALL the heavens. If it was merely a local flood the people and animals could have migrated. And where or where might the ice age fit in all this? The warm waters from the movements of continents like India ramming into Asia causing the Himalayas might leave a warm but cooling ocean acting as a snow machine with the Arctic. After the flood a warm but cooling ocean would allow animals in Alaska and outside the Arctic Ocean like Mammoths even in the ice age as we see. Most of the Northern hemisphere hit hardest in the ice age. New York would be under 2 km of ice even as Alaska had animals and a land bridge for animals to go to the Americas.. As the waters cool and the Arctic freezes over the ice age would end. The ice age centuries and not thousands of years. As Job said "you freeze the broad waters'.
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Michael Scaman

Sin is a global issue and resulted in a global flood. The world before would be such that people and animals could live longer. The oldest reptile is the biggest. Today huge animals would not thrive like before and although there might be cultural evidence of dinosaur like animals in history from artifacts and maybe a few left here and there like in the Congo or the Komodo dragons, they can't thrive in the world today as before Could be the magnetic field was much stronger pre flood and held a higher pressure oxygen and the continents breaking apart and the catastrophism of the flood A lower magnetic field allows a lower pressure atmosphere and less conducive to huge animals and long life possibly. ( The aborigines of Australia have a flood story where the waters turned to ice after the flood )
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Michael Scaman

Noah needed more of the clean animals because some would be sacrificed.
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Michael Scaman

Not a lot of time spent on the 'how God did it' and in some ways it doesn't matter as God could have caused the flood any way he choose. Some note that the moon is extremely heavily cratered on the side facing us and far far less on the other side as if the earth on that side at some point in history hit by a bar-age of meteors on some large craters in the western hemisphere. Some speculate God started the process of continental subduction by hitting the earth on one side with the right sized meteors while Noah was getting on the ark on the other side of the earth.
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Michael Scaman

As far as the question of a rudder on the ark. There was no movable rudder for steering. Many believe there was a fixed rudder that kept the ark facing in to the high waves. The dimensions used are fairly stable for waves and German information scientist Werner Git did some calculations simulations where the ark may have been the optimal compromise between most stable and easiest to build. Pretty good for the Jewish people who had no navy to speak of.
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Sue Bohlin

OUTSTANDING devo, Paul--and your phenomenal discussions questions provide another devo of their own! Loved your contrast between "walking with God" and "running hard after Jesus." Psalm 23:6 provides the delightful picture of the Good Shepherd's goodness and faithfulness chasing down the psalmist in pursuit. That would indicate Jesus is the one running hard after US!! As I'm journaling what the text says about God, I realized that if Noah walked with God, then God walked with Noah. That's the way it works! That encourages me, a week out from my tongue cancer surgery, because I desperately need God to walk me through this hard time. I'd be OK with Him carrying me too . . . The other thing I saw in journaling was how much pain it must have caused God's to de-create His creation. He took so much joy in creating it in Genesis 1 and 2--it must have been *devastating* to His heart to pull it apart.
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Alan Beam

Paul! Fantastic devo, and love ending last week with Mandy and starting this week with you! My notes: 7:1, 5 - God found Noah righteous. Hebrews 11:7 says that this righteousness was by faith, not by works. It wasn't Noah's obedience that saved him, it was the faith that led to the obedience. This seems like a semantic difference but it changes how I view my own actions. Am I obeying God as a means to sanctify myself? Or am I obeying Him because of my faith in God and in His power to sanctify me? My works don't save me. My faith doesn't even save me. But I put my faith in the One who saves me. 7:4, 12 - Forty days and forty nights. Significant numbers in the bible. Wandering, temptation, ascension. 7:22-23 - Every living thing was wiped out. This is tragic, and is the natural consequence of sin. I cannot let myself underestimate the consequences of my own sin. When God deals fully and finally with sin, it will be reminiscent of the devastation of the flood. But praise God that my sin was justly dealt with at the cross!
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Amy Lowther

1. Most people run hard after Jesus because he doesn’t give answers. Jesus gives examples which help us consider our gifts from God and how to use them. Unfortunately the phrase “running after Jesus” may be negative to some people. 2. Walking with God means consulting him on decisions and praying to him to provide additional information for situations in life he may not have heard. It also includes giving God “high fives” in thanks for his efforts. To seek a better homeland, I am willing to work to make it a better place while sharing and practicing the values of God and Jesus with everyone. Scripture to consider for walking with God is Romans 12:2. Scripture to consider in seeking a new homeland is Proverbs 3:5-6. 3. Relationships can seem to have control issues, but relationships are much easier when you leave them in God’s hands. 4. A covenant is an agreement from God which means we are loved.
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Michael Sisson

Re: Gen 7:1 In the phrase, "for you alone I have seen to be righteous before Me," the "you" is singular ( ‫כִּי-אֹתְךָ "Ki otcha" ). In other words, G-d is only speaking of Noah and not Noah AND his family.
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Skipper Pickle

Isn't it odd that we treat Noah's Ark as a children's story? It's both gloomy and disturbing.