Luke 1:18-25

Second Week of Advent
December 4, 2005


This is the crux of our text here, on several levels. This passage marks the announcement of Elizabeth’s coming pregnancy with John the Baptist, the one prophesied by Isaiah, the one hoped for by the Psalmist in Psalm 85. Thus, not only do we rejoice with Elizabeth and Zechariah at their soon-coming newborn, we rejoice that, with his arrival, John will be proclaiming a soon-coming Messiah.

Zechariah listens to Gabriel announce the birth of his son, yet doesn’t believe him at first, causing Gabriel to strike Zechariah speechless until John’s birth. However, his mute condition serves to make Zechariah a believer and doesn’t prevent him from communicating this good news to his wife. As she entered into 5 months of seclusion, Elizabeth declared, “The Lord has done this for me. … In these days he has shown his favor and taken away my disgrace among the people.” (verse 25, TNIV)

This portion is a rather telling one: this couple who loved and served God obediently had never borne children, a sure sign in Jewish culture that God was judging and punishing you for your sins. It seems that God chose to save his blessing for this obedient and faithful couple until the exactly appropriate time. They had been chosen to raise the child who would be Jesus’ forerunner. As faithful & obedient Jews, Elizabeth & Zechariah knew of the prophecies of the Messiah and that Israel had spent the preceding 400 years without a prophet from God to lead His People. Thus, upon hearing the words of Gabriel, they realized that God had not forsaken them and that they had been chosen to receive a blessing beyond their wildest imaginations – their son would not only be the first prophet in 400 years, but would be the prophet that would prepare Israel for the coming of their Messiah.

And as the Messiah has already come to us, it is our task to wait faithfully for His return. Our position is hardly different from the one in which the Jews stood at the time of Jesus’ birth – we have heard the prophecies, listened to the promises, and been waiting faithfully. Each Advent season is a chance for us, as Christians, to re-enter and re-awaken within us a hope, expectancy, and anticipation that Jesus will return again. We should become excited once again, not dreading each day, not living faithlessly, and not worrying about determining the exact day of his re-arrival. With Advent, we are allowed the opportunity to restore our faith in Jesus and His promised Return.

II Peter 3:8-15a

Second Week of Advent
December 4, 2005


This is a rather beautiful passage here, closely tied to Jesus’ own words in Mark 13, written down here by a man who most likely was personally present at the event when Jesus spoke them forth. Peter’s words are filled with hope, as they seek to elicit faith in those who read this letter of his, reminding his readers of what they need to do as they anticipate the second coming of Christ (especially since the first-century church expected Jesus to come back fairly soon after his departure). Twice here Peter declares that Jesus keeps the promises He makes, though we might not ever understand his timetable. Peter slyly contrasts his readers’ patience with that of Jesus by mentioning that Jesus is more patient with humanity’s sins than humanity is with Jesus’ promises, even to the point that Jesus doesn’t want “anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.” (verse 9ff, TNIV)

Following this, though, Peter references Jesus’ words by telling his readers that Jesus will come back like a thief, unbeknownst to anyone at all. Not only this, but the world will be totally destroyed by fire, laying creation bare before Jesus upon His Return. Thus, Peter declares that people “ought to live holy and godly lives as you look forward to the day of God and speed its coming,” (verses 11ff-12a, TNIV) making the subtle declaration that it’s MUCH more important to live according to Jesus’ commands than worry about when He’s coming back. “Bear in mind that our Lord’s patience means salvation…” (verse 13a, TNIV) Each day is a gift – our dual tasks are to obey His teachings and live in faithful anticipation of His promised Return.

Mark 1:1-8

Second Week of Advent
December 4, 2005


This is a fairly straight-forward passage here as Mark chronicles the prophecies concerning John the Baptist (Malachi 3:1 & Isaiah 40:3), his arrival, and the basic substance of his message to Israel. John went into the Judean wilderness (of which there is much, even today), preaching that people should be baptized as testament of their repentance and God’s forgiveness of their sins. Mark says that everyone in the Judean countryside and all of Jerusalem came to hear him, many confessed their sins, and many were baptized as a result. John dressed poorly, ate meagerly, and was completely aware of what his task was upon the earth: proclaim the soon-coming arrival of the Messiah and the baptism of the Holy Spirit that He would be bringing. It would have been rather easy for John to claim all kinds of credit for compelling people to repent and be baptized, much as many of us become prideful in our spiritual work. However, the lesson here (besides the obvious fulfilling of Isaiah’s prophecy in the coming of John the Baptist) is that just as John was self-deprecating and self-effacing in his role, so should we be in proclaiming God’s message to the world. Yes, John spoke boldly, but he did not become puffed up in doing so; he realized that he spoke for another, that his words were not for his benefit, but to proclaim the Advent of the Messiah.

Psalm 85:1-2, 8-13

Second Week of Advent
December 4, 2005


This is a somewhat similar and somewhat lighter version of the passage in Isaiah 40. I don’t mean to diminish these verses at all, since they serve as a direct complement to Isaiah 40, both in tone and theme. Verses 1 & 2 say much the same things as the first 2 verses of Isaiah, but with much fewer words. I would think this so mostly because the Psalms are songs, songs to be sung congregationally, needing fewer words or more succinct phraseology, where as Isaiah was either writing down the visions/messages that God was giving to him (to speak forth later or preaching/speaking forth the message directly as he received it from God.

And even moving onto verses 8-13, the psalmist here echoes the same themes & ideas that Isaiah does: God promises peace to his people, His salvation is near so that glory might fall, and the Lord will give what is good. The psalm here is much more buoyant its expectancy than its counterpart in Isaiah, concluding even with a reference to the preparation coming: “Righteousness goes before him and prepares the way for his steps. (verse 13, TNIV) Might that we learn to wait upon God with such breathless anticipation, such exultant joy.

Isaiah 40:1-11

Second Week of Advent
December 4, 2005


Just a mere bit of preamble here before I begin – the content & themes of these passages here are outgrowths and progressions from those of last week, not only in tone, but also in style and substance. Read and meditate with me upon the material, ideas, and prophecies presented in these sections of Scripture, not only in their application to the Advent season, but in their relevance to how we approach God in our everyday lives.


From Isaiah 64, filled with doubt, hurt, pain, and a dark realization of the depth of Israel’s sin, we come to this passage filled with declarations of joyful repentance and intimations of oh-so-necessary submission & dependence. Verse 2 is probably the key verse in projecting the overall state of Israel’s soul – “[God] Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and proclaim to her that her hard service has been completed, that her sin has been paid for, that she has received from the Lord’s hand double for all her sins.” (TNIV) I myself become filled with expectancy as I anticipate what God will bless His people with after their confession. Isaiah realizes that God can’t turn a blind eye or deaf ear to His people when they have repented and turned back to Him (II Chronicles 7:14).

Thus, with this verse, Isaiah openly is petitioning God to send His people some relief, so, prophetically, God answers Israel’s prayer through the voice and lips of Isaiah in verses 3-5. “A voice of one calling: In the wilderness prepare the way for the Lord; make straight in the desert a highway for our God.” (verse 3, TNIV) This section of verses has traditionally been interpreted as a prophecy about the coming of John the Baptist, complete with John asking God exactly what to say to Israel.

But let us address the imagery in verses 4 & 5 before moving onto verses 6-11. Maybe I’m interpreting this through the political scientist/sociologist lens that I possess, but I feel that the concepts of high being brought down, low being brought up, and rugged/rough terrain being smoothed out are all symbols and pictures of the great spiritual democracy that Jesus will bring upon the earth. I’m not arguing for universalism in salvation, but that salvation would be available for all through Jesus. The Jews (especially those of the Pharisee, Sadducee, or generally xenophobic variety) would no longer have a monopoly upon God’s blessing, God’s provision, and God’s grace. John was to be the beacon, the harbinger, and the herald of Jesus and was supposed to begin the leveling of the religious/spiritual playing field. Everyone was to be able to see, experience, and receive the glory of God in their lives. John would just be the first to talk about it and Israel had to hear this message first.

Isaiah hears a voice commanding him to cry out and Isaiah asked the voice what it is he was supposed to be crying out. The voice (most likely speaking prophetically for John the Baptist, since he spoke to Israel much this way) compels Isaiah to remind Israel (and subsequently all people) of how absolutely transient and temporary they really are, not just their faith, but their faithfulness as well. At the same time, the voice wants to remind Israel of how permanent the word of God is and always will be. However, despite the seeming derogatory comments about how fleeting Israel’s faith and lives are, the voice wants to make sure that Israel understands how much God loves them, how much He cares for them, and that He is for them. The voice calls this “Good News” twice (verse 9) comparing God (and prophetically, Jesus in His coming) to a shepherd – how He will tend His flocks, how He will carry them close to His heart, and how He will gently lead them.

What we have here is a double-headed prophecy. Not only are we reading about the arrival of John as he prepares the way of the Lord with a rather specific message, but we learn that the message that John will be bringing proclaims Israel’s long-anticipated Messiah. As Advent approaches, let us turn our ears & hearts to the prophetic voices in our lives, the oracles that are in our lives that seek to not only prepare our lives for the coming of our Messiah, but also remind us that God is truly near at all times.

Scene 6

For those of you who might be interested in reading along, my friend Simon has finished Scene 6 of his screenplay Like Augustine. I just figured that some people would like to peruse this bit of creative writing. Give Simon some input. He'd like to hear from you...

Luke 1:5-17

First Week of Advent
November 27, 2005


We have here the initial section of the Christmas story, the coming of the angel of the Lord to visit Zechariah and tell him of the upcoming birth of John the Baptist. This story is crucial because, since John is both born before Jesus and ministers in expectation of Jesus’ ministry as the Messiah, it is important for the kids to sense the feelings of excitement and nervousness that Zechariah felt upon hearing this news. Israel has just experienced 400 years without a prophet of any kind, without any word from God at all. John the Baptist will change all that, as he prepares the people for and proclaims the arrival of the soon-coming Messiah. Thus, the inclusion of the story of Zechariah & Elizabeth into the Christmas story is crucial.

Mark 13:24-37

First Week of Advent
November 27, 2005


Let’s begin by putting this to rest – Jesus was absolutely specific that no one knows when the Messiah would be returning, not even Him. So, my commentary and thoughts on this passage won’t be taking a Preterist, Partial-Preterist, Dispensationalist, or any other sort of position on the End Times. And you thought you could draw me into THAT discussion. Fat chance you have with that… I have long resolved to not worry with such silly arguments to prevalent amongst eschatological conversations. Jesus told us to watch and pray, and pretty much told us not to bitch, moan, and argue about who’s right, who’s the elect, and when He’s coming back again. We only watch the events to back up our pre-determined positions and we certainly don’t pray. So, on with the show… **stepping off my soapbox**

In the 23 verses before our reading, Jesus discusses and lays out a variety of signs that will foretell His Return. Some concern families, some are about global politics, some are warnings about what will happen to those who believe in Jesus, and some detail the arrival of false messiahs. However, our passage begins with Jesus describing His arrival – “the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light; the stars will fall from the sky, and the heavenly bodies will be shaken.” (Mark 13:24b-25) Not a very pleasant image, but it’s the one that Jesus said would announce Him. Jesus would be sending his angels to collect the elect from the ends of the earth.

But what I see as the crux of this section are verses 32-37 where Jesus uses the metaphor of a man leaving his house to his servants, charging the servants to keep the house in order until his return, though the servants have no clue at all when he would be returning. The lesson here is that our duty, as Christians, is to be vigilant in both watching for His Return, while maintaining the house as He left it, each of us responsible for the job we’ve been given in His absence. Jesus doesn’t tell us to sit around the table talking about when He’s going to come back; He tells us to keep busy with our work in His world and watch for Him to return. Unfortunately, we prefer sitting around to doing work; we prefer trying to figure out when He’s going to come back so that we don’t have to do any work until right before He gets back. (And I don’t know about you, but that’s how I did things when I was a teenager – dirty up the house with my brothers until RIGHT before we knew Mom would be getting home. It was easier to waste time doing what WE wanted to do than do maintain a steady level of vigilance towards the state of the house’s cleanliness.)

So, as we begin the journey that is this beautiful season of Advent, let us keep in mind that Jesus has commissioned us to watch for Him, expect Him at any time, and be about our work in the world - loving the world around us, though it doesn’t really love us all that much. We wait in hope, not mournful lament, for His coming. We are filled with a sense of joyful expectation of the Coming of our Lord to the Earth.

I Corinthians 1:3-9

First Week of Advent
November 27, 2005


Paul speaks here on the other side of the First Advent of Jesus Christ, but with the same sense of anticipation that the prophets spoke hundreds of years before Christ’s birth. The Early Church believed that Jesus would be coming in their lifetimes (Mark 13:26-30), so Paul is petitioning the Church in Corinth to stay to their course, stay trusting in the grace of Jesus to save & protect them, and stay faithful as God is faithful to them. Because of Jesus, Paul declares, it fully possible to wait for His arrival, patiently & without blame. Jesus came once and promised to come again. We wait for His arrival, relying on Him completely in the interim.

Psalm 80:1-7, 17-19

First Week of Advent
November 27, 2005


The portions we are reading of this psalm are similar to those we read in Isaiah, except that the people singing here are much more direct in their exaltations to God. They plainly see their failings and openly, blatantly beseech God to restore them, to visit them anew. They know that God has left them and are praying that He will visit them again. They have left their cynicism and the sin that caused their grief. They fully realize that it is their sin that brought the tears, brought the enemy’s hatred, derision, and mocking. Israel knows that only God can save them from themselves, from the mess in which they have placed themselves. And on top of all of this repentance, they proclaim the arrival of the Messiah, knowing that His presence will make all of the difference. They have mourned & wept and now they seek their deliverance, since they were unable to fix themselves on their terms, only getting deeper into trouble. “Restore us, Lord God Almighty; make your face shine on us, that we might be saved. (Psalm 80:7, 19 TNIV) They wait expectantly on the arrival of the Lord.

Isaiah 64:1-9

First Week of Advent
November 27, 2005


On one hand, I am rather full of anticipation of having the privilege and honor of helping to lead Ecclesia’s children through the Advent Season as we approach the celebration and commemoration of the birth of our Saviour. On the other hand, I am rather full of nervousness and trepidation at the prospect of examining these verses on behalf of the children at Ecclesia, not that I don’t feel up to it, but that this is a rather large task for which I’ve been made responsible. But regardless, I am looking forward to digging into these verses, coupled with arranging them with the traditional Christmas story. Join with me as we read, pray, meditate, and yearn with expectation as the arrival of the Christ child approaches.

Isaiah 64:1-9: I read through this passages attempting to place myself in the context in which Isaiah would have been proclaiming this lament on behalf of the people of Israel (or even on behalf of himself). I wondered what would have brought about this combination of declaring God’s promises, lamenting my indiscretions, and turning back to Him. And then I found that I couldn’t do it, at least not in the physical sense in which it was originally written. I have never been carted away to a foreign country in captivity because I sinned against God, though I knew better and had been protected and delivered by Him over and over again.

However, I have been in spiritual & emotional captivity. I have sinned against my Creator, a Creator that has led me, guided me, protected me, and provided for me. Israel was led into captivity by Assyria; I led myself into a place of bondage. I have felt the yearning and the lack of hope in any potential deliverance, along with the expectation and the abundance of hope that God will come to my aid when I repent and turn from my sins. I have been where Isaiah was in these 9 verses.

Here is how I view this breakdown:
V 1-5a) These verses are the way in which Isaiah reminds himself of the promises of God, as they are the way that he prepares himself spiritually for the dark confession that comes in the next section. The oracle here announces God’s power, God’s blessings, God’s protection, and God’s deliverance, in hopes that he will find himself worthy of these things, as he knows how far he has strayed from what God has asked him to do.
V 5b-7) “You come to the help of those who gladly do right, who remember your ways. But we continued to sin against them, you were angry. How then can we be saved?” (Isaiah 64:5 TNIV) Here is the turn-around verse for this whole passage, the connector to the general Christmas story. With the coming of John the Baptist and Jesus Christ, Israel exits 400 years of having no direction, no contact with their God, as they suffered in their homeland. Though they had been released from bondage, Israel still had to bear the burden of disobeying God and not listening to his prophets throughout their many years of ministering to Israel. The verses in this section are a precursor to the 400 years of silence, as Israel finally realizes how much they messed up by not listening to the prophets’ words (as troubling and hard-to-swallow as they were). Isaiah is repenting for Israel, beckoning God to listen to their broken & contrite hearts, seeking deliverance from the silence and their wanderings.
V 8-9) Isaiah, after repenting, confesses to God that he knows that God is in control and places himself in His hands, no matter what the result. Isaiah declares to God that he is the creation and God is the Creator, allowing Him to work in him/Israel. Isaiah places Israel back under God’s protection, though they had failed & disobeyed, “Do not be angry beyond measure, Lord; do not remember our sins forever. Oh, look on us, we pray, for we are all your people.” (Isaiah 64:9 TNIV) Israel is the Lords, just as we are His now.

In terms of Advent, this passage in Isaiah creates & fosters within us a hope that we too can experience the restoration that Jesus brings when He enters our lives, when we allow Him, individually and communally, to mold us into the image that He feels/knows is best for us. Might we enter into a place of repentance, acknowledging that we have failed, we have sinned, we have transgressed, but Jesus is there to forgive, there to heal, there to bless. He is coming; He is on His way.

Genesis 9

Promises, Promises, Promises
OR
What Could Happen When Your Youngest Child Catches You Drinking


Verses 1-7: We begin with a brief restatement of the commands & promises that God gave to Noah at the end of Chapter 8. God commissions Noah, Ham, Shem, and Japheth (along with their wives) to “be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth.” (Genesis 9:1, ESV) However, the next verses further pollute the original ideas & constructs behind Creation: God tells Noah that all of the animals will fear humans. Yes, every animal will be scared of humans – beasts of the field, birds of the air, insects on the ground, fish in the sea. No animal will be immune from fearing humanity, to the point of God declaring that all plants and animals will be forced to serve as food for humanity. God told Noah that every animal on the earth would be delivered into humanity’s hands, to be used as food or resources.

The further we walk from the Garden of Eden, the further we walk from the original intentions that God seemed to have set out for His Creation in the beginning. Look at verses 5 & 6: “From his fellow man I will require a reckoning for the life of man. Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed, for God made man in his own image.” It’s easy to see where conservative Christians get their reasoning behind their support of the death penalty – God said that when someone kills another, they get to be killed for committing that murder.

It doesn’t make sense to me – God didn’t kill Cain for killing Abel. It seems that God is changing His mind on this issue, but when I look into it, God is really just saying what’s going to happen on the earth, post-Flood. This is God’s way of letting us know that, due to sin’s increasingly strong presence in the world, He was placing a very high value on life, with strong deterrents to taking the life of another. One commentary I read on these verses said that this injunction by God created a civil magistrate to dispense with this new-fangled concept of capital punishment (Jamieson, Fausset, and Brown), while another remarked that these verses began the tradition of Israeli blood vengeance (the family was responsible for redeeming the life of their lost family member) as well as capital punishment (IVP Bible Background Commentary).

Again, it doesn’t make sense to me and it won’t make sense to the kids, especially to those of us who do live under the law of grace, according to the precepts and commands of Jesus. But the best way to explain it is, as I stated earlier, that, the further humanity walked from the Garden, the further that humanity walked from what God intended in the Garden. God didn’t intend for humans to kill and eat animals, but he says here that it’s OK. God didn’t intend for humans to kill each other, but here he says that humans were supposed to avenge the life of the slain by slaying the slayer. These were perilous times, perilous days before the coming of the Ten Commandments and the law book that is Leviticus. In the Ten Commandments, we have God telling us not to kill; yet in Leviticus, there are all these injunctions telling us when/how/why it’s necessary to kill someone who sinned against the law. Already, I can’t wait for Jesus to come onto the scene…

Verses 8-17: After 7 verses that totally changed how humanity would be dealing with each other and with the animal life of Creation, God speaks forth a beautifully detailed promise to Noah and his progeny. God promises Noah that never again will He kill off all of creation; anything that was on the ark with Noah fell under the purview of this promise. Never again would God issue floodwaters to wipe away the face of the earth & all the creatures upon it. The rainbow was then sent by God as a sign for all future generations that He would never again destroy Creation. When the rainbow is seen in the clouds, this would be God’s way of continually reminding Himself and humanity that He does love us and wouldn’t send waters to destroy us ever again.

Verses 18-29: From here, we get to read a rarely commented upon section of the story of Noah’s life. Noah became a farmer after the Flood and planted a vineyard, a common practice in a time when there was no water treatment facilities or even a knowledge that purifying your water was a necessity. Noah begin drinking the wine from the grapes in his vineyard, got drunk on that wine, and then laid naked in his tent (sounding much like a participant in parties that I’ve been to). Ham (one of Noah’s sons) walked into his dad’s tent, saw Noah naked, and told his brothers. His two brothers, Shem & Japheth, went into the tent, walking backwards with a blanket so as to cover Noah’s nakedness, so that they might preserve their father’s dignity.

When Noah awoke to find himself covered, he knew that Ham had found him and told his brothers about it. Noah proceeded to curse Canaan (Ham’s son – why wasn't Ham himself cursed) and bless the two brothers. We’re not sure what the details truly are and what caused Noah to react as such. Two commentaries that I read felt that pronouncements by Noah were the result of an accumulation of transgressions against Noah or Ham and his descendents. The conjecture is that how else would Noah have known who it was that would have caused his nakedness.

Or, in other words, Noah, as the patriarch, was making predictions concerning the futures of those of his lineage who he felt were already headed in the wrong direction. It’s as if Noah is speaking into existence a series of self-fulfilling prophecies – one set speaks ill about a son and his children while the other set blesses two sons and their descendents. But this was common practice in Israeli households, a practice that Moses’ readers/listeners of the Pentateuch would be familiar with. Fathers blessed the children they wanted to bless, especially the first-borns, and dealt with younger children in a lesser manner, a practice to be ultimately understood and subsequently abused by Jacob.

Inspiring and funny people these patriarchs – they simply are NOT as superhuman and super-spiritual as we often proclaim them to be. And I like it that way – we need to be reminded that average people can live for God, since we’re all dirty and flawed on some level. We don’t come to God already perfect; we stumble towards God so that we might be perfected.

Noah’s righteousness & walk with God saved 8 people and pairs of all the animals & creatures on the earth. Our righteousness & walk with God come from our understanding that we can’t be righteous unless we walk with God no matter what’s going on around us. Noah walked alone on the earth, saving 7 other people. We should thank God that He hasn’t asked us to walk alone; we have our friends, families, and church bodies alongside us.

Genesis 8

"What Happens As It All Starts Over"
OR
"Who Let the Doves Fly Around and Poop on All of Us??"


Verses 1-12 – We have here the story of how Noah, his family, and all of the Ark’s inhabitants finally stepped back onto dry land. After the 150 days of the floodwaters covering the earth, they finally began to recede and, by the middle of the seventh month of the (Jewish??) year, the Ark came to rest on the peak of Mt. Ararat (located in modern-day Turkey). 2-1/2 months later, at the beginning of the tenth month of the (Jewish??) year, the waters had receded enough for the tops of the mountain to finally be seen (that is, if you were outside of the Ark, which no one was).

40 days after the mountaintops could be seen, Noah released a raven to see how the raven would respond to what it saw. The raven simply flew around until all of the water dried on the earth. Noah then sent off a dove to survey the situation – it flew around, finding nothing, and returned to Noah when he beckoned for it. Seven days later, Noah sent off this dove again; the dove returned that evening with a freshly-plucked olive leaf in its beak. At this, Noah was excited because it meant that the water had finally left the surface of the earth. Noah decided to wait yet another week before releasing the dove. This time, the dove failed to return, a sign to Noah that it was time to exit the Ark.

Verses 13-22 – By the beginning of a new year (2 months after seeing the mountaintops for the first time), Noah removed the covering of the ark (the roof maybe?) to see that the waters had finally left the earth, and, by the end of the month, the ground was completely dry. God spoke to Noah and told him to exit the ark with his family and every creature on the earth. It was now ALL of their jobs/responsibilities to repopulate the earth – “…multiply on the earth and be fruitful and increase in number on it.” (TNIV)

And beautifully and appropriately, the first thing that Noah does when he exits the ark is to build an altar unto God, thanking for His provision and protection from & through the Flood. In response, God saw Noah’s sacrifice burning on the altar and said to Himself that He would never again attack Creation that way again, no matter how poorly humans acted, since they are inclined to evil always. God also said that He would never destroy all living creatures again, as He had just done.


I could comment greatly upon what we have here, but I think that I'll wait until we work through Chapter 9. There's a culmination of God's promises as well as Noah's response to this new (renewed??) earth that he gets to refill. A crazy ending to a story filled with tragedy, redemption, hope, massacre (will I ever understand God in the OT), and rebirth.

Genesis 7

"OK Kids! Everyone Inside NOW!!"
or
"Lots of Water and a WHOLE Lot of Devastation"

Verses 1-16 – These 16 verses both summarize the end of chapter 6 and provide greater detail to the Flood that is about to take place. Once again, God reminds Noah that he is being preserved because he is the person that God feels is worth saving. (It’s a harsh reality to face actually; I would imagine that Elijah during the reign of Ahab and Jezebel would have much in common with Noah.) However, we find here that God asks Noah to take more than just one pair of certain kinds of animals, as if the animals are special creations that God wants preserved right alongside humanity.

Specifically, Noah is to save 7 pairs of all clean animals, 7 pairs of all unclean animals, and 7 pairs of every kind of bird so that, when the Flood is over, these animals will be fully able to propagate their species once again. (Genesis, at this juncture, doesn’t tell us what “clean v. unclean” animals really were; however, if Moses did write Genesis, as many claim he did, the Hebrews who were reading/listening to these stories would know exactly what kinds of animals Moses was referring to. Ah, the joys of Levitical law….)

God gave Noah 7 days to complete this task before He sent rain upon the earth for 40 days and nights, before He was to destroy every living thing left upon the earth. And, just like everything else he had done, Noah did exactly as God commanded him to do. Thankfully, God sent most of the animals Noah’s way, pair by pair, as Noah, his family, and all of the animals that had arrived entered the Ark to be saved from the Flood.

The Bible says, in verse 11, “all the springs of the great deep burst forth, and the floodgates of the heavens were opened.” (TNIV) Many scholars and commentaries that I’ve read feel that the reason that so much water fell from the skies was that, until the Flood, there had been no rain upon the earth. There was a canopy of water that protected the earth from the most harmful effects of the sun. There is a bit of logic behind this reasoning: before the Flood, people lived rather long lives, but Genesis 6:3 tells us that God began to limit human life expectancies to 120 years. Hence, post-Flood, there were no long lifetimes recorded in the Bible, after Noah’s 950 years. (Please don’t take me to be some kind of Creation-scientist or rigid proponent of intelligent design; I’m simply speculating a bit.)

Verses 17-24 – These verses are rather straight-forward: water flooded the earth for 40 days, the ark floated upon the water, the water covered even the highest mountain peaks (by a margin of 22 feet above the peaks), and every creature that lived on the earth perished. Yes, literally everything died, with the exception of those with Noah on the Ark. The flood waters covered the earth for 150 days; that’s right, water covered the earth for 110 days AFTER the flooding had stopped.

Genesis 6

“Who Built the Ark? Noah! Noah!”
Or
How the World Generally Sucked, Big-Time

There are two general sections to this chapter: 1) WHY God chose to brings a worldwide flood of massively destructive proportions and 2) HOW God chose to protect a tiny remnant from that worldwide flood of massively destructive proportions. Yes, it’s really that simple, but not really. I feel that our goal with these chapters (Genesis 6 – 9) will be to truly tell these stories to our children and not sell them short on their depth, breadth, and substance.

If you’ve sat in (or taught) as many Sunday School lessons on Noah and the Ark as I have in my 26 years of living, you’ll remember that most lessons on Noah take about one week to go over, with Genesis 6 comprising about 2 to 3 lines of that lesson. Those lines would probably read like this: “During Noah’s time on the earth, the people were very wicked and only did evil things in the sight of God. However, since Noah was the only righteous and blameless person amongst his people, God chose to save Noah and his family. God told Noah to build a big boat/ark, capture two kinds of every animal, and generally keep obeying.” Or something to that effect… Now, I’m not diminishing the truth of those 3 sentences, but there is so much that we should be focusing on with presenting those concepts.

Let’s break this down.

1) Verses 1-8: During Noah’s time on the earth, the people were very wicked and only did evil things in the sight of God. We must focus on the specific instances that the author of Genesis brings to our attention: 1) the sons of God married any of the daughters of man that they wanted to; 2) the Lord said that His Spirit wouldn’t want to deal with humans anymore, limiting their lifespan to 120 years; 3) the Nephilim (offspring of the sons of God and daughters of men) lived, were heroes, and were men of renown; 4) the wickedness on the earth was great, with every thought of every person was severely inclined only to evil all of the time; 5) God regretted ever making humans (think about THAT!) and His heart was troubled greatly; and 6) the Lord felt that he had to get rid of the whole of Creation and start over again because He regretted it so much. While you don’t have to address all 6 of those fairly remarkable points, it would be good to talk specifically about how God was so deeply bothered by the evil in the world that He regretted Creation. That will be a VERY hard concept to talk about, but a necessary one, I feel. Talk about how God made us with free will (to do whatever we choose to do), but that He is continually sad when we choose not to love & serve Him, the One who created us.

2) Verses 9-13: However, since Noah was the only righteous and blameless person amongst his people, God chose to save Noah and his family. This section is fairly straight-forward, so covering all of the information is key here. Noah was the only person considered righteous – his wife, sons, and their wives were NOT mentioned as being righteous. Hence, God realized that Noah would need people besides himself to be saved. God knows our needs, protects us, keeps us, and takes care of us, even if we don’t really understand all of what’s happening. He’s God & we’re not. In a world full of violence, hate, corruption, evil, and disobedience, God realized that things couldn’t continue as they had been going, that things had to change. Noah was to be the man to live through the change and to propagate that change upon the earth, with God’s blessing.

3) Verses 14-22: God told Noah to build a big boat/ark, capture two kinds of every animal, and generally keep obeying. These verses represent the dimensions of the boat, how (and how many of) the animals were to be saved/kept on the ark, and how Noah was going to be able to take care of and feed everyone on the ark. Translating cubits into the US Customary System, the ark was 450 feet long (1.5 Football Fields!), 75 feet wide, and 45 feet high, with a small roof that lifted only 18 inches off the top of the ark. The ark was more of a box than what we think of as a boat. There was a door on the side of the ark, with the ark having three layers (or floors). God made a covenant (an agreement or promise) with Noah with the provision that, while everything would be destroyed because of the sin on the earth, Noah would be saved. Noah was made responsible for preserving the animals on the earth. Noah obeyed God, just as he always had done, which is why Noah and his family were being saved while everyone else was being destroyed.

Sometimes, it seems, the older I get and more that I read, I get intimidated by this story. I start reading this story through my human eyes, with my western, liberal sensitivities, and I wonder how God could ever destroy His creation. I wonder how God could actually REGRET making humanity. I wonder why we tell children this story, with its somewhat violent, vindictive imagery.

But then I realize that I’m not God and these people DID disobey God – they were corrupt, thought evil thought, engaged in violent actions perpetually, and generally violated the principles that God had set down before them. I look back over the chronology of Genesis 5, do some basic math across a timeline, and realize that so many of these patriarchs knew each other intimately. Adam lived 930 years, allowing him to be around for several generations, speaking with many boys & girls, men & women, telling them the stories of the Garden, the Tree, the Fall, Cain & Abel, and everything else. Yet, by Genesis 6, people who should have KNOWN BETTER were still corrupted, sinful, engaging in evil, and generally prompting God to regret ever having made humanity. How striking is this realization…

Genesis 5

Chronology
Family Tree
“The Begats”
Family Ties

This will be a difficult chapter to work through, whether we’re talking about the different Sunday School classes or Chris talking through this chapter in main service. Chapters like these always make congregations fall asleep, probably because they’re not approached in the right context or for the right purposes. What should be focused on primarily are the three following sections: v1-5 (Adam), v18-24 (Enoch), and v28-32 (Noah). Chris will (should most likely) have his The Voice/screenplay paraphrase of Genesis 5 ready Sunday morning to hand out as a reference, but I would also like the teacher to read through these verses out of another version. At a minimum, The Message can be used, but I would prefer the NIV, ESV, or NLT (or something similar) to be used in conjunction with The Voice.

1) Verses 1-5: We see that, even with the death of Abel at the hands of Cain and Cain’s permanent exile, God blesses Adam and Eve with the birth of Seth as well as many other children and many years of life (930 to be exact). Remind the kids that, even with the most horrible and tragic of circumstances, God does bless His children again and again. Furthermore, talk to the kids about how, while the names of the Moms are NOT mentioned in this chapter, a family is made complete (and biologically possible) by the inclusion of the Mother. Family lines are not accurate unless Mother is talked about and regarded as absolutely essential and necessary. We love our mothers!

2) Verses 18-24: Enoch’s life gives us a glimpse into the life of one of the 2 people in the Bible who did not die, but were taken away by God so that they might escape death. The Bible says that Enoch (and his wife) had several children, but that, because of Enoch’s faithful walk with God, he was taken away to God at age 365, the earliest of ALL of the patriarchs. What should be noted primarily though is that out of this whole chapter, Enoch is the only one we read of specifically mentioned as walking faithfully with God. Look at the ages of these patriarchs – they’re all living to be 900 years or more. Many of these generations probably talked with Adam face to face, the first man who talked to GOD face to face. I would like to think that some of these descendents mentioned would have been impacted by Adam’s story & experiences. But not so… No one else’s spiritual lives are even referred to or mentioned at all, just Enoch’s. God does bless his faithful children and takes care of them in a world where many do not love God, as they should.

3) Verses 28-32: We see the birth of Noah and read about how his father prophesied over his life as to what Noah would be to the rest of the world. Noah would “comfort us in the labor and painful toil of our hands caused by the ground the Lord has cursed.” (Genesis 5: 29 TNIV) When we think about Noah, we don’t think of a comforter, but a survivor because of his faithfulness and belief in God, in the midst of an unbelieving world. Chapter 6-9 will cover the complete story of Noah and his ark with which the children would be more familiar.