GENESIS

ANOTHER BEGINNING

Genesis 8:1-11:9

INTRODUCTION

God has completely wiped out the world of mankind with a universal flood. Floating on the seas is a chest containing all that is left of the human and animal world: Noah, his family, 7 of every clean animal, and 2 of the rest of the animal world. The devastation for all practical purposes is complete. God has basically cleansed the world of all its pollution and is now going to start brand new.

NOAH EXITS THE ARK (8:1-22)

Although the rain fell for only 40 days and 40 nights (the first mention of a period of 40 in the Bible), the waters continue to rise upon the earth for another 150 days. It is at this time that the waters finally begin to recede from the face of the earth, returning to places originally appointed to them (Gen. 1:9-13).

To check the condition of the land, Noah first sends out a raven. This raven flies to and from the ark for a long period of time until finally dry ground appears. In addition to sending out the raven, Noah sends out a dove. The dove finds no resting place for itself and so returns to the ark. After 7 days Noah again sends the dove out from the ark. Once more the dove returns, this time carrying an olive branch. The third time Noah sends out the dove, the dove does not return. Noah now knows for certain that dry land has reappeared upon the earth and that it is now safe to exit the ark. Noah removes the covering from the ark and exits it along with his family and all the animals still on the ark. A year and 10 days have elapsed since the day that Noah entered the ark.

As a sign of gratitude to God for delivering him and his family from the flood, Noah takes one of each of the clean animals (remember that he took an odd #, 7, into the ark with him) and sacrificed each to the Lord. The Lord is so pleased with the sacrifice that He promises never again to destroy the earth as He had just done.

LIFE IS VALUABLE: INSTITUTION OF CAPITAL PUNISHMENT (9:1-7)

Man's violence has brought disaster to the world. God now seeks to put an end to this unbridled violence. Apparently, from what follows, mankind had been engaged in some sort of blood bath. God says that now is to stop. The most precious commodity on earth is not gold or silver or fortune or fame; it is the life of each individual human being. Nothing is more precious here on earth than the life of that individual because of everything that is on the earth only the soul of an individual is eternal. In order to show how precious that life is to God, God demands that henceforth whenever a person intentionally kills another person, that man is to be put to death. God's reason may be punitive; however, it is definitely right since it comes from a righteous God. But more than that, it places a premium now upon the life of each individual human being. The life of each individual is not to be treated lightly. It seems that God is saying that when we do not execute capital punishment, we devalue the life of the person who was murdered. This new command promotes not capital punishment per se, but the value of human life.

THE NEW COVENANT (9:8-17)

Definition of Covenant

After Noah exits the ark, God appears to Noah and establishes a new covenant with him. Although this is the first time the word "covenant" appears in the Bible, it is not the first covenant in the Bible. God's promise to Eve, that her seed would one day crush the head of the serpent, is actually the first covenant in the Bible (3:15).

A covenant is basically an agreement or a promise God makes to mankind. Sometimes God has some conditions attached to the covenant; at other times, such as this time, there are no conditions. God simply makes a promise and intends to fulfill it no matter what mankind does in response.

Why are we concentrating on the concept of covenant? Basically because our relationship with God is based upon covenant. When we come to the story of Abraham, we will encounter the great covenant of the entire Bible. That covenant will be a promise God makes to Abraham and to Abraham's seed. That covenant will be a covenant of salvation. God will promise to save only Abraham and his seed. It is imperative that I be a recipient of this covenant if I am going to be saved. Covenant, this particular covenant, is extremely important.

The wonderful part about covenant is that when God makes a covenant with you and me, He is making a promise or establishing contract with us. Since God is honorable, God never breaks His promise; since He is faithful, He never breaks a contract. If we have met the conditions of that covenant, then God is not going to violate that contract. We can then live in peace and security knowing that God is going to honor His promise to us.

The Noahic Covenant

In this particular covenant God makes with Noah, God promises that He will never again destroy the entire world by means of a flood. He does not promise not to destroy the world; He just promises not to destroy it by means of a flood. As a token of this covenant (promise), God places the rainbow in the sky, both as a remembrance to Him and to us that He will never again destroy the world by means of a flood.

"This is the sign of the covenant which I am making between Me and you and every living thing 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.
And it shall come about when I bring a cloud over the earth,
that the bow shall be seen in the cloud,
And I will remember My covenant,
which is between Me and you . . .,
and never again shall the water become a flood to destroy all flesh" (Gen. 9:12-15).

THE MAJOR TEACHING OF THIS NEW BEGINNING

Whereas the universal flood points beyond itself to the universal judgment of Christ on the last day, so this new beginning points beyond itself to an even greater new beginning at the end of time. Just as this new beginning occurs in Gen. 8 after the flood, so there will be a new beginning at the end of time after the universal judgment of mankind. According to the apostle Peter the flood is actually a time of salvation, at least for Noah and his family:

"during the days of Noah, during the construction of the ark,
in which a few, that is eight persons, were brought safely through the water.
And corresponding to that, baptism now saves you,
not the removal of dirt from the flesh,
but an appeal to God for a good conscience through the resurrection of Jesus Christ" (1 Pet. 3:20-21).

Peter continues this train of thought in his second letter:

"looking for and hastening the coming of the day of God
on account of which the heavens will be destroyed with burning
and the elements will be destroyed with intense heat.
But according to His promise we are looking for new heavens and a new earth
in which righteousness dwells" (2 Pet. 3:12-13).

In other words, just as God began anew after the judgment of the flood, so God is going to begin anew after the final day of judgment. The new day after the flood is going to pale in comparison to the new day God is going to usher in after the final judgment. After the judgment of the flood, man still fell into sin, and death continued to reign upon the earth. Not all that much really changed even after God had wiped out the world with the flood. On the other hand, when God ushers in this new day after the final judgment (Rev. 21-22), there will no longer be any death, mourning, crying, pain, OR sin. At last these first things will have totally passed away. The night of this present age will pass and the morning will finally dawn.

To highlight this even further, Bernie Thompson, our resident expert on Judaism, points out that Noah and the animals exited the ark on the 17th of Nisan, the same day thousands of years later that Christ rose from the dead. The event of the ark then becomes a type or symbol of an even greater salvation God brings us in Jesus. For this reason it is easy to understand that one of the early symbols of the church was the ark itself.

THE CURSE CONTINUES TO OPERATE (9:20-11:9)

The Problem is Internal, Not External

Noah steps out of the ark into a world that has been scrubbed freshly clean. You would have thought that after the devastation of the flood that man would have learned his lesson. Although man's environment had changed with the coming of the flood, man had not changed. If the flood teaches us anything else, it teaches us this: no flood, no tornado, no hurricane, no disaster can ultimately change man.

The Drunkenness of Noah (9:20-29)

According to Genesis Noah one day falls into a drunken stupor. His son Ham sees his father lying dead drunk, totally naked, in the tent and races to his 2 brothers to make fun of the old man. The other 2 brothers, Shem and Japheth, honor their elderly father by picking up a robe, walking backwards towards their father so that they cannot see his nakedness, and then cover him with the robe. When Noah sobers up and finds out what has transpired, he curses Ham's son, Canaan, for his father's actions. On the other hand, he blesses Shem. This becomes important later on because the chosen people, the Jews, descend from Shem, not Ham nor Japheth. The blessing then falls upon the family of Shem, and ultimately upon some of his descendants, the Israelites.

The Tower of Babel (11:1-9)

The second episode is that of the Tower of Babel. Although God commanded the people to scatter abroad and repopulate the earth, they decide that there is safety in unity and in numbers. They feel that their strength will be diluted if they branch off into sub groups. So they decide to dwell in the plain of Shinar (later to become the site of Babylon) and build a huge tower to ascend into the heavens.

God refuses to let this happen. Man is fatally flawed. He may be dangerous when he is by himself; however, whenever mankind becomes totally united, it is seldom for good purposes. Many times even the greatest moments get tainted by human selfishness. In this particular instance the people unite in order to build a tower in order to topple heaven. At this point God goes down to the people and confuses their language so that they can no longer collaborate with each other in order to unite against God.

CONCLUSION

Man is fatally flawed. Even though God had wiped out the world with a flood, man basically did not change.

A friend of mine and I were talking the other day, and we were talking about what we discovered in some daily journals we had written 20 years ago. To our horror we found out that the same issues which confronted us 20 years ago are the same issues we are dealing with today! We both felt like we were handling our issues better today than 20 years ago; however, it was revealing that these same issues were confronting us. We are just as flawed today as we were 20 years ago.

Well, these episodes show us that man is flawed. Unless God does something, man is going to slide into a downward spiral just like he did right after Adam sinned. God won't destroy the world with a flood again; however, He has other resources He can use to destroy the world. The wonderful thing is that God is not going to allow man to go down this downward spiral. He is going to step in. He is going to do something new. He will begin a new chapter in the history of mankind. He will start it with Abraham.

How does this affect you and me? Athough we are commanded to live the best lives for Jesus possible, the truth is that when it is all said and done we can't do it in our own strength and power. Not only do the first 11 chapters of Genesis affirm this, the lessons of the history of mankind and our own experience affirm this. We need to quit worrying and struggling and instead let God do His wonderful work in us.

I love the story of the little boy Eustace becoming a dragon in the book The Voyage of the Dawn Treader. In that book Eustace acts so beastly that one day he finds out that he has actually become a beast, a dragon in fact. He is horrified to see what has happened to him. He doesn't want to be a dragon. He wants to be a little boy again. So he takes his giant dragon claws and scratches off the dragon scales enveloping him. After he scratches off the scales, to his horror he discovers that he once more is covered with dragon scales. So what does he do? He scratches off this new layer of dragon scales. This goes on and on and on until he finally gives up, realizing he will never be able to get off those dragon scales.

Across the pond where he is sitting is a lion, Aslan, the Jesus figure in The Chronicles of Narnia. The lion asks Eustace if he can change him back from a dragon into a little boy. Only after Eustace has exhausted all his efforts is he willing to listen to the lion. He submits. The lion with his great claws rips off the dragon scales. Although it is painful, Eustace joyfully emerges from this a little boy again. He jumps into the pool. At first the water stings, but then it becomes so refreshing to Eustace. In the same way Jesus wants us to get rid of our dragon scales. Many of us are just scratching away and scratching away at those scales finding to our horror that they just keep reappearing. What we need to do is come to Jesus and allow Him to rip them off us. It can be done; it's just that He is the only one who can do it.