January 3rd, 2008
Readings - Genesis 8-11Genesis 8
Promise (Gen. 8:21-22). The uniformitarian principle is introduced here, after the Flood, as a promise. God will not again interrupt the regular flow of seasons or break into the orderly actions of natural law in order to judge the race.
Genesis 9
Rainbow (Gen. 9:12-17). Why was the rainbow selected as the sign of the covenant promise between God and humankind? Could it have been because the rainbow appeared only after the Flood, due to drastically changed atmospheric conditions caused by dropping of the water canopy? It’s fascinating to suppose that when Noah left the ark he saw the beauty of a rainbow for the first time in his 600 years of life!
Canaan’s curse (Gen. 9:18-28). The meaning of “saw his father’s nakedness” (v. 22) is obscure. But the clear implications of the picture of the drunkenness of Noah and the moral fault of Ham make one thing clear. The world may have been significantly changed. But man’s heritage from Adam—his sin nature—remained!
Many have noted that the “curse” on Canaan is in fact a prophetic utterance by Noah. His words are not the cause of what would happen later, but do foretell it. It is important to note that only Canaan of the Hamitic family was selected out. The peoples involved are not Negroid, but rather the people who later inhabited the land of Canaan (Palestine) before the Israelites.
Genesis 10
The table of nations (Gen. 10). Of the 70 names selected for inclusion in this list, some are well known to Bible scholars and students of ancient history (as “Mizraim,” Egypt). Others are lost in antiquity. And still other peoples, like the Sumerians, are not included at all.
Genesis 11
Babel (Gen. 11). The “fresh start” given Noah’s clan soon settled into sin’s stagnation. Told to go out and replenish the earth (9:1), Noah’s descendants remained on a single plain, “Lest we be scattered abroad over the face of the whole earth” (11:4, NASB). They built a tower, which probably resembled the Babylonian ziggurat, possibly for astrological divination or perhaps even in the hope that its top in “the heavens” would provide a place of refuge should another flood come.
In any case, this disobedience led the Lord to act in a fresh judgment. He confused the languages. If you ever doubt God’s sense of humor, picture sometime the next morning when one of the workers asked another for a brick!
These peoples refused to go out and fulfill God’s plan. So now He acted to “scatter them over the face of the whole earth” (v. 8).
And so we come to the end of the first act of the cosmic drama. Up to this time God has dealt with the whole human race. And mankind has demonstrated in each situation sin’s distortion of the original image God planted in man.
Yet, in it all, there are glimmerings of hope. God speaks, and some do respond with faith. And those who respond are delivered from the impending doom.
Now the Scriptures are about to focus on the men who do believe. We meet some of them in the genealogy of chapter 11. In meeting them, we are prepared for our introduction to a towering figure in Old Testament history. We are ready to meet Abram, a pagan on whose discovery of faith the future of the race of man depends.
Reflection
Satan tempted Adam and Eve with the idea that they could be “like God”. People have, since then wanted to be gods of their own lives. In what ways are you not letting God be God in you life? What do you need to turn over to God in faith so that He can be God of all in your life?