In the Word: Genesis 6-10
Join us as we read through the Bible. We hope these questions and thoughts will help you with your study of His Word.
Use these questions to help your weekday worship reading:
What does this passage say about God?
What does this passage say about humanity?
How does this passage fit into the bigger picture of the book so far?
What is strange, offensive, or challenging in this passage?
Based on this passage, what would God say is good or not good in my life?
It is a common thing to hear complaints about how bad the world is getting. Whether it is the latest tragic headline, personal experiences, or just a general sense of wickedness, it is easy to observe how the world is filled with evil. The Bible tells us this is the common history of humanity: human beings proliferate (multiply) wickedness. Has there ever been a time when things have been so grievous as to make God regret making mankind? Genesis 6 tells us that in the time of Noah, things were so bad that God had a sense of regret that he had made humanity. God judged the world to be wicked, and he was right in doing so. In the midst of the great flood washing away the filth of humanity (Genesis 7), there was one family of people preserved (Genesis 8). What was hinted at in the brief mention of Enoch is more fully revealed in the life of Noah. Noah believed God and lived in faith, trusting that what God had said (destroy humanity via the flood while saving Noah and his family), God would do. Noah wasn’t perfect and was the first drunk (Genesis 9). Noah wasn’t the promised savior who would crush the head of the serpent. Ultimately, that promised savior is Jesus Christ.
After the flood, there is an account of the family lineages that emerged from the sons of Noah (Genesis 10). We are starting to get used to genealogies (lists of family descendants and ancestors) in Genesis. Originally, the books of the Bible weren’t written with chapter divisions. So the flow of the stories had different signals to group stories and sections within each book. In Genesis, one of the ways different segments of Genesis are divided is through genealogies. Adam’s story covers roughly Genesis 1-5 and ends with a genealogy. Noah’s story starts at the end of Adam’s genealogy and wraps up with a genealogy of his son’s lineage. Knowing this about genealogies helps us make sense of New Testament genealogies about Jesus (Matthew 1 & Luke 3). Genealogies help show significant changes in the flow of scripture.
Our reading this week ends with a strange cliffhanger. Genesis 6 started with a cause for the complete destruction of humanity. Genesis 10 ends with the world being repopulated by the sons of Noah: Shem, Ham, and Japheth. These descendants of Noah were the people who would inhabit the plains of Shinar. Would they be faithful? Would these people with a shared language trust God, or follow after the ways of sin in disbelief and distrust of God? Despite all the warnings of God via the flood and the grace of God through the ark, humanity still was warring, rebelling, and living to sin against God. Something even more drastic than a flood would be needed to redeem humanity.