Vineyard Church North Phoenix | January 2nd, 2008

Genesis 4

Genesis 4 is included to help us realize the consequences of the Fall and the implications of the spiritual death that grips humanity.Yet even this dark message is brightened by the promise contained in God’s continued love, and in history’s first sacrifice.

Genesis 5

Genesis 5 sets the scene. The genealogies do not tell us the years between Adam and the Flood. Remembering the characteristics of Hebrew genealogies (which typically compressed generations), we can be sure only that centuries passed, and Adam’s children did begin to “multiply and fill the earth and subdue it” (1:28). But the taint of sin and its deadly stamp on the human personality remained all too clear. “The Lord saw how great man’s wickedness on the earth had become, and that every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil all the time” (6:5). The lifestyle incipient in Cain, and seen in later generations in Lamech (4:19-24), now had permeated the race. Perhaps in the New Testament Book of Romans, in a passage that summarized a decline we can trace in every civilization, we have a picture of the days of Noah as well.

Although they knew God, they neither glorified Him as God nor gave thanks to Him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles.

Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another. They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator—who is forever praised. . . .

Furthermore, since they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, He gave them over to a depraved mind, to do what ought not to be done. They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed, and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, and malice. They are gossips, slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant, and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil; they disobey their parents; they are senseless, faithless, heartless, ruthless. Al though they know God’s righteous decree that those who do such things de serve death, they not only continue to do these very things, but also approve of those who practice them.Romans 1:21-25, 28-32

Genesis 6

Every inclination of the thoughts of their hearts, Genesis records, was only evil continually.

The Living Bible notes that “When the Lord God saw the extent of human wickedness . . . He was sorry He had made them. It broke His heart” (Gen. 6:5-6). God was not unmoved. God is always concerned with righteousness. But He is also concerned with humankind.The text goes on to tell how one man in this corrupt society, Noah, walked with God. God warned Noah of coming judgment and instructed him to build a great ark: a boat in which his family and animal life might be preserved. Noah and his sons labored 120 years to complete the task (Gen. 6:3), finally caulking the mighty hull with bitumen and storing fodder for the animals.

The sons of God (Gen. 6:2). Were these fallen angels (see Job 1:6) who somehow had impregnated human women and fathered the Nephilim? (giants, as it says in the KJV) Were these the sons of princes, as rabbinic tradition holds? Or was there an intermingling of the “godly” line of Seth with that of Cain?

The word “Nephilim” is used in only two places in the Bible, and it is not at all certain it means “giant.” A different word is used when giants like Goliath are referred to. If this problem arouses your curiosity, use an analytical concordance and several commentaries on Genesis to examine the different interpretations.

Change of heart (Gen. 6:7). Does God’s sorrow at man’s descent into deeper expression of sin show regret for Creation? Is this His confession of a mistake? Or are we to understand this phrase as nothing more than a deeply emotional way of expressing anguished hurt at the state of sinning mankind?

The ark’s size (Gen. 6:15). Using the smallest known size for the cubit (18 inches rather than 22 inches), the ark was built with three decks, about 450 feet long, 75 feet wide, and 45 feet in height. It would displace some 43,000 tons. Thus it had the proportion and size of some modern ocean-going vessels!

The animal “kinds” (Gen. 6:20). In the past, “kinds” sometimes has been translated “species,” a term now used in many different senses in biology. It is likely that the many breeds of dogs, for instance, were represented in a single pair. Also, note that seven pairs of “clean” animals (that is, sacrificial and food animals) were taken into the ark, and probably so used after the waters receded.

Genesis 7

Many are willing to accept the Genesis Flood story as a myth revealing essential religious truth. But they draw back from any claim of historicity. And many conservatives who believe that a flood really did happen argue for a limited flood—a flood of local rather than worldwide extent. They point out that God’s purpose was to judge the race of man, suggesting that probably humankind had not as yet spread beyond the Fertile Crescent Valley.

Behind this line of argument lies the almost universally accepted view of scientific uniformitarianism. This is the theory that all we find in our world, biologically and particularly geologically, can be explained by processes which presently operate in the physical universe. Geologic uniformitarianism, which suggests that millenniums of erosion and repeated ice ages sculptured earth’s topography, is accepted and taught in many Christian colleges. While these Christian scientists unhesitatingly accept the creationist view of life and the special creative act by which God made man, they do not take seriously the view that once our earth knew a universal flood.

Uniformitarianism, the view that “every thing goes on as it has since the beginning of Creation” (2 Peter 3:4), maintains its sway.

Universal? The term “universal” presents two distinct questions to the believer. Does the biblical account of the Flood necessarily teach that it was worldwide? And, if the Bible does indicate a universal flood, is the geologic record so sure that we must question the accuracy of Genesis?

Many have argued that Genesis must be understood to describe a universal flood. They point to the following evidence:

• Every living thing was to be destroyed in the floodwaters (7:4). This assumes that man and animal life had spread far beyond the Mesopotamian Plain in the centuries or the millennia since the Fall.
• After the Flood God specifically stated that “every living thing” was in fact destroyed (v. 23).
• The text states clearly that “all the high mountains under the entire heaven were covered” to a depth of at least 23 feet [15 cubits] (v. 19).

Focus on the witness that Noah’s faithfulness was to his generation. They did not respond. But in Noah Christ warned them, giving them a chance to be saved (see 1 Peter 3:19-20). How do we witness to others today? How important is the vision of coming judgment for Christians who need to share Jesus with those who might otherwise be lost?