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…
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…
posted by APN | 2:50 PM
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