Early World II- Genesis 4-11

Notes

  • Tension Between Good and Evil

  • Saved through the flood
In the flood, God totally obliterates the line of Cain, drowns it out. The line of Seth continues through Noah, who "walked with God" and "found favor" with Him (see Genesis 5:27-29; 6:9-10).
The story of the flood (Chapters 7-9) is told as a new creation story, with lots of subtle and obvious references back to Genesis 1. In the context of the entire book of Genesis, the flood story shows us God giving the world a new start, starting His family anew in the line of Seth.
Noah is like a new Adam. Like Adam, Noah is given authority over the animals (compare1:26 and 9:2-3). He is also given the same command as God gave to Adam: "be fertile and multiply and fill the earth." (compare 1:28 and 9:1). Finally, as He did with Adam, God makes a covenant with Noah and through him with all living beings (compare 2:1-2 and 9:13).
With this covenant with Noah, God renews the covenant He made with creation in the beginning. The rainbow sign is like the Sabbath, a symbol of God’s communion with His creation. We have here, the second of the major covenants that form the "organizational principle" of the Bible.

  • After the flood



Summary


  • Tension Between Good and Evil
  • Saved through the flood
  • After the flood




Question

1. Why did God approve of Abel's offering?
2. In what ways are you your brother's keeper?
3. Why is it important to pay attention to the lineage names when they appear in the bible?
4. What does it mean to 'walk with God'?
5. Why did God send the flood?
6. Which people were on the ark with Noah?
7. In what ways can the appearance of the rainbow serve as a reminder to you?
8. Why did Noah's descendants build the Tower of Babel?
9. What were the consequences?
10. At this stage in salvation history, how do we make God feel?

Answers



  1. We are shown the "fruits" of Adam and Eve’s original sin: We see that human seed now is mixed between the good and evil. The tension between the two seeds - already prophesied by God in the garden. Their son Cain - is born of bad seed. Therefore Abel's offering is better than Cain's.
  2. By loving, caring, forgiving showing compassion and kindness to others.
  3. In the lineage names, there is a kind of comparison of the "bad seed" and "good seed" of Adam. We read of the sons of Cain and the sons of Seth. From the first, come the unrighteous sons and "daughters of man" and from the latter, the righteous "sons of heaven".
  4. Noah is seen as coming from the "good seed" and so is in a right relationship (not perfect) with God.
  5. In the flood, God totally obliterates the line of Cain, drowns it out. The line of Seth continues through Noah, who "walked with God" and "found favor" with Him.
  6. There were four(4) couples in the ark with Noah. Noah and his wife and his sons Shem, Ham and Japheth and their wives.
  7. The rainbow sign is like the Sabbath, a symbol of God’s communion with His creation. It is the second of the major covenants that form the "organizational principle" of the Bible.  With each covenant God reveals a little bit more of Himself to us. In the covenant with Noah He gives the family of God the shape of a nuclear family - Noah and his wife and their children. We’ve moved beyond the husband and wife model that He revealed in the covenant of creation. Each covenant points us toward the new and everlasting covenant of Jesus. 
  8. From this bad line of Noah came the nations who tried to build the Tower of Babel in order "to make a name [Hebrew = shem] for themselves". In other words, they were trying to build a kind of "counter-kingdom" to stand against the name of God. It’s interesting to note that in Genesis there seems to be a connection between the "name" (shem) and a person’s relationship with God. The big sinners in Genesis - beginning with Adam and Eve who fall for Satan’s promise of being "like gods" - all seem to be trying to make a name for themselves, to exalt themselves, to live as if they don’t need God. Think back to Cain. When he builds a city, what does he do? He "names" it after his son, Enoch (see Genesis 4:17). That’s all the builders of the Tower of Babel were doing. Trying to glorify their name, their works. The righteous ones in Genesis don’t try to exalt their name. Instead, they rejoice in the blessings of God - they "call on the name of the Lord." While Cain is glorifying his name, his righteous brother Seth is hallowing the Lord’s name, seeking His blessing (see Genesis 4:26).
  9. God confuses their language.
  10. There does not seem to be an end to evil, it is still evident in creation. That man continues to make choices that are not righteous.




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