Genesis 6:8-13

2006.Sep.05 20:35

God’s thoughts on people

Read Genesis 6:8-13 | Full Chapter

But Noah found favor in the eyes of the LORD. These are the records of the generations of Noah. Noah was a righteous man, blameless in his time; Noah walked with God…Then God said to Noah, “The end of all flesh has come before Me; for the earth is filled with violence because of them; and behold, I am about to destroy them with the earth.”
(Genesis 6:8-9,13, NASB)

Some ten (if I can count) generations after creating humanity, Jehovah is disappointed. It’s turns out humans are, well, human. We want to do things our own way. Now, I’m not really sure why God let this first set of humanity go all the way to the deep end, but for some reason, he seems to have chosen a progressional display of his judgement/grace paradigm (no, I’m not sure what I meant by that). He first allows humanity to so forsake him that he decides the vast majority must be destroyed and a new start made. I’m inclined to believe he had a very specific purpose for this progression, but I’m far too tired to think about it.

However, God does not simply say, “two legs bad,” and wipe humanity forever. After all, he might have. Clearly Enoch at least had chosen to be humble, and received God’s grace, so God had at least one friend out of the mess. But Jehovah chooses to continue humanity’s time of Earth, as he spares Noah, “a righteous man, blameless in his time” who “walked with God” (9). It’s really awe-inspiring how much God wants both many, many individuals, and humanity as a whole to go through this process of turning to him, how he created a people who knew so much of our potential for godhood that we inevitably rebel and hurt him, because then we could also understand him enough to be true friends, and how dedicated he is to this crazy messed up people, this humanity.

Now, it was a foregone conclusion at my birth that I was gonna be one of these totally messed up self-centered folks for a while, and at least revert to it throughout my earthly life. And I’m okay with that because it means I can see myself for what I am and quit fighting God. But there’s the rub of being one of these people. It’s one way or the other. I accept his grace and live, but relinquish my claims to godhood, as Noah did, or I try to prove myself against him, to glory in my powers, and become the sort of person to God that you just cannot stand to put up with. I like the idea of being powerful, but I choose to be a Noah; I choose rather to walk with God.

Genesis 9:1-7

2006.Nov.09 09:41

Life is in the blood

Read Genesis 9:1-7 | Full Chapter

Apologies, but I really like the feel of this passage in the King’s English

And God blessed Noah and his sons, and said to them, Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth. And let the fear of you and the dread of you be upon every animal of the earth, and upon all fowl of the heavens: upon all that moveth [on] the ground; and upon all the fishes of the sea: into your hand are they delivered. Every moving thing that liveth shall be food for you: as the green herb I give you everything. Only, the flesh with its life, its blood, ye shall not eat. And indeed your blood, [the blood] of your lives, will I require: at the hand of every animal will I require it, and at the hand of Man, at the hand of each [the blood] of his brother, will I require the life of Man. Whoso sheddeth Man’s blood, by Man shall his blood be shed; for in the image of God he hath made Man. And ye, be fruitful and multiply: swarm on the earth, and multiply on it.
(Genesis 9:1-7, Darby)

This is something of an odd passage. I guess in that God’s discourse almost seems rambling. So let’s break it down:

1. Have kids.
2. Let animals fear humans.
3. You can eat animals in addition to veggies.
4. You shouldn’t eat the animals’ blood.
5. If an animal or human spills the blood of a human, blood will be required from it.
6. Why? Because God made humans in his image, duh!
7. Have kids.

Okay, let’s take points 1, 2, and (excuse me a moment whilst I change to an ordered list…okay) 7. God’s decision to let humanity continue is broadened by his insistence that the species increase, and, apparently, keep the animals in line. Yes, for those of you checking your cross-references, that’s nearly verbatim what God says to Eve and Adam in Genesis 1:28. I assume that God wants humanity to multiply in order for him to have more friends, sort of a divine, pre-historic, MySpace whoring…

…This blog has been interrupted as I pause for any freak flashes of lightning…

…but as for why he wants us to rule over the animals, I don’t really know, unless maybe it’s to prove to us what a bad job we’d make of it…

In Genesis 1:29-30, God followed in his instructions to Humanity 1.0 with "Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the surface of all the earth, and every tree which has fruit yielding seed; it shall be food for you; and to every beast of the earth and to every bird of the sky and to every thing that moves on the earth which has life, I have given every green plant for food" (Genesis 1:29-30, NASB) . For Humanity 2.0, the instructions differ. They are now instructed that they can eat meat. Why? Beats me.

However, God makes the proviso that they are not to eat the animals’ blood, which is it’s life. There follows a good deal about blood. In the CEV, the blood is translated (I think) as “life”:

I created humans to be like me, and I will punish any animal or person that takes a human life. If an animal kills someone, that animal must die. And if a person takes the life of another, that person must be put to death.
(Genesis 9:5-6, CEV)

I could at this point make references to sacrifices, blood avengers, cleanliness, Jesus, etc, but I think it’s more useful (and, frankly, I’m tired of writing this entry) to simply let it sink in. As best I can remember, this is the first time God has made a big deal about blood. Beyond his promise not to destroy the earth again (although my understanding of the great trib seems at least close), this point to me may be one of the most defining differences between the pre- and post-flood humanity and its relation to God: We are to respect blood and the life that it represents. And that does a lot in setting up, well, the rest of the Bible.

Genesis 9:8-17

2006.Nov.13 10:04

Reiterating the Promise.

Read Genesis 9:8-17 | Full Chapter

In Genesis 8:21, Jehovah says, "I will never again destroy every living thing, as I have done" (Genesis 8:21, NASB) . In the next chapter, he reinforces that promise, although this specific promise is qualified to floods:

I establish My covenant with you; and all flesh shall never again be cut off by the water of the flood, neither shall there again be a flood to destroy the earth.” God said, “This is the sign of the covenant which I am making between Me and you and every living creature that is with you, for all successive generations; I set My bow in the cloud, and it shall be for a sign of a covenant between Me and the earth.
(Genesis 9:11-13, NASB)

Last entry, I mentioned that the promise of not destroying humanity and the earth again is one of the things that seems to me to distinguish humanity before and after the flood, that we now have God’s word that he’s not going to wipe us out as a species. To me, that means a policy of discipline and pruning rather than xenocide. To have, as a species, that promise, is reassuring but also somewhat daunting. It means, again to my interpretation, greater pain whilst in this earthly life, but the ultimate benefits cannot be overstated…so, I won’t try to state them at all at this point.

Now God does one more new really neat thing, he makes a sign of a covenant between him and humanity. This time, it is the rainbow, which reminds us both that we as a species brought him nearly to the point of destroying us, but more importantly, that he has promised not to do so again (actually, the covenant is between Jehovah and all animals). "When the bow is in the cloud, then I will look upon it,” says God, “to remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is on the earth" (Genesis 9:16, NASB) .

So, how about I suggest something corny. Next time you see a rainbow, remember that it is a sign of God’s covenant with us that he’s not going to wipe us out by a flood, no matter how bad we get. And thank him.

Genesis 5

2006.Aug.18 08:44

Generations

Read Genesis 5:1-32 | Full Chapter

Genesis 5 is basically the quick and dirty flash forward to get us from Seth, son of Adam and Eve, to Noah. There are a few notes of specialized interest in the process:

• Eve and Adam had children other than Cain, Abel and Seth, including daughters (Genesis 5:4), assumedly with names that would be anglicized to four letters, had they been recorded.
• Enoch "walked with God; and he was not, for God took him" (Genesis 5:25, NASB) , whatever that’s supposed to mean. Hebrews 11:5 offers the clarification "Enoch was taken up so that he would not see death" (Hebrews 11:5, NASB) . Okay, despite my complaints about the wording here, Enoch apparently had something of an Eden experience. He walks with God, as did pre-lapsum Adam and Eve, and he does not die, despite the curses. His life is a testimony to us, that even though we all sin, we do not have to remain subject to the curses of sin. In any event, he gets a pretty lengthy write-up in Wikipedia.
• Lamech says of his son, Noah, "This one will give us rest from our work and from the toil of our hands arising from the ground which the LORD has cursed" (Genesis 5:29, NASB) , which is quite frankly not the first idea that comes to mind when I think of Noah. While this statement might just have been wishful thinking on Lamech’s part, it can be read as an ironic prophecy: everyone, except Noah’s family, does get rest from their toil. Killer floods will do that. Another thing to note is that Jesus (like all of us, I suppose) is in the line of Noah, and it is Christ who offers freedom from the curses of sin.

What I really want to focus on is the idea of generations, something I mentioned last entry. Reading the geneologies, I have a ambivalent impression of statis and of progression. The story is basically the same for each generation, and perhaps that’s why we move from father to son, father to son, each in a few short verses. Sin, repentance, failure, turn back to God…or not. Next. At least, from reading the other stories in the Bible, and from living in my generation, that’s my guess.

Nevertheless, there is a tug as of progression, a movement toward something. Many (most?) of these geneologies throughout the Bible eventually lead to Jesus. And with that progression is a connection. I have a connection to each of these generations before their flood. I still find myself frustrated with my work. I find myself wanting to walk with God, and often failing. But I have a hope they didn’t. I cling to Jesus, where they must find imperfect sacrifices. I can worship in spirit and in truth. Do those who lived righteously in those days long that they had known the freedom of Christ then? I’m so glad I do know that freedom. But there’s much to learn from the whole story, from all the generations.

Genesis 6:19-22

2006.Sep.14 08:55

Jehovah, the Sustainer

Read Genesis 6:19-22 | Full Chapter

And of every living thing of all flesh, you shall bring two of every kind into the ark, to keep them alive with you; they shall be male and female. Of the birds after their kind, and of the animals after their kind, of every creeping thing of the ground after its kind, two of every kind will come to you to keep them alive. As for you, take for yourself some of all food which is edible, and gather it to yourself; and it shall be for food for you and for them. Thus Noah did; according to all that God had commanded him, so he did.
(Genesis 6:19-22, NASB)

After God’s destruction rhetoric–"The end of all flesh has come before Me" (Genesis 6:13, NASB) –he takes a moment to make it very clear to Noah that he wants his creation more-or-less intact. Or, that is, a remnant of his creation. Jehovah is out to cleanse the earth of the sin brought into it and increased by humanity, but he desires a continuance of humanity on earth as well as all of the animals (Assumedly, enough plants would survive such a flood, although I still wonder about the mingling of fresh- and salt-water.)

I vaguely remember a discussion with a friend in high school who was wondering whether God may have created a succession of ‘humanities’, destroying each completely up until now, when they were overtaken with sin. I am inclined enough towards determinism and the belief in God’s intelligence being superb (I’m not sure what omni-intelligent would mean) that I don’t give that possibility much credence even without it seeming contrary to the Bible, but it is interesting because this history of the flood is just a few breaths from that sequence. Were God to have destroyed Noah’s family along with everyone else, then his options would have been either to create a ‘new humanity’ or to end the whole earth business then. Both of which might have seemed more inviting than watching his creations and desired friends do anything but follow him.

But, no, Jehovah is a sustainer and a healer. He desires humanity, whole, and he’s going to keep pushing towards it. He also desires the continuation of his other creations (and, yes, if for that reason alone, I think it is worth caring for endangered species). This flood story means a lot to me, then, because as God is healer and sustainer to humanity so is he to me personally. When I feel like a failure, he sees some branches that need to be pruned, some work that needs to done, some discipline needs to be added. Jehovah desires life for me. And if I will accept his authority at the expense of my pride, he gives me life, and that more abundant.