Genesis 10:13-20

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13 Mizraim begot Ludim, Anamim, Lehabim, Naphtuhim, 14 Pathrusim, and Casluhim (from whom came the Philistines and Caphtorim). 15 Canaan begot Sidon his firstborn, and Heth; 16 the Jebusite, the Amorite, and the Girgashite; 17 the Hivite, the Arkite, and the Sinite; 18 the Arvadite, the Zemarite, and the Hamathite. Afterward the families of the Canaanites were dispersed. 19 And the border of the Canaanites was from Sidon as you go toward Gerar, as far as Gaza; then as you go toward Sodom, Gomorrah, Admah, and Zeboiim, as far as Lasha. 20 These were the sons of Ham, according to their families, according to their languages, in their lands and in their nations. ~ Genesis 10:13-20

Today, we return to our study of Genesis 10 where we are given the genealogies of Jephthah, Ham, and Seth. Having considered the first part of Ham's genealogy, we continue that study. As we pointed out in our last study, more space is used in this chapter to describe the line of Ham than either of the other brothers.

In v.13-18 of today's passage we read, "13 Mizraim begot Ludim, Anamim, Lehabim, Naphtuhim, 14 Pathrusim, and Casluhim (from whom came the Philistines and Caphtorim). 15 Canaan begot Sidon his firstborn, and Heth; 16 the Jebusite, the Amorite, and the Girgashite; 17 the Hivite, the Arkite, and the Sinite; 18 the Arvadite, the Zemarite, and the Hamathite. Afterward the families of the Canaanites were dispersed."

Canaan means "servant." It was Canaan who received the curse of servitude from Noah and these are the accursed descendants of him. Eleven groups of people descended from Canaan. Despite this, we see later in the Bible that grace is found even towards those who are willing enough to believe in the goodness of God as seen in the Lord Jesus Christ. In fact, the curses in this life can yield the greatest outcome; only if we are served by it rather than being defined by it. If our curses serve us into seeking the Lord, the curse becomes a blessing.

There were three descendants of Canaan who found the Lord’s grace and they are recorded in the genealogy of the Lord Jesus Christ in Matthew 1. Of the five women mentioned in that genealogy, only Mary is an Israelite. Ruth was from Moab which was from the line of Shem, and the three others mentioned were from the line of Canaan. The first was Tamar who was the daughter-in-law of Judah. The second was Rahab the harlot of Jericho who hid the spies of Israel and was brought into the people of Israel when she married Salmon. And the third was Bathsheba who came through the line of Shem.

In v.19-20 of today's passage we read, "19 And the border of the Canaanites was from Sidon as you go toward Gerar, as far as Gaza; then as you go toward Sodom, Gomorrah, Admah, and Zeboiim, as far as Lasha. 20 These were the sons of Ham, according to their families, according to their languages, in their lands and in their nations."

These locations are given to indicate that the Canaanites settled in the land that would eventually be given to Abraham and then to his son Isaac and then to his son Israel. Before Abraham and his son arrived, the Canaanites inhabited the land of promise. Subsequently, many of these people groups were destroyed in conquests and battles with Israel. But many of them survived partially intact or after having interbred with other people groups. The accomplishments of these people have been immense and today Ham’s children fill the earth as a result.

One of those groups are the Chinese people. The Chinese have a tradition that their first king, Fohi, which is Chinese for Noah, appeared on the mountains of Chin which was surrounded by a rainbow after the world was covered with water. He sacrificed animals to God, just like the Genesis story. And he had a great grandson named Sin, which again perfectly matches the Bible. The Sinites, named after Canaan’s son Sin, lived at exactly the time that the Chinese culture developed. Even today the Chinese culture is called the Sino culture after Sin.

Another flood tradition within the Chinese culture comes from the Miao tribe of southwest China. It’s said that before they were ever visited by missionaries, they believed that God had once destroyed the entire world by flood because of man’s wickedness, but He saved a righteous man named Nuah, his wife, and their three sons. Nuah’s sons names were Lo Han (Ham), Lo Shen (Shem), and Yah-hu or Japheth. They and pairs of animals were all saved by building a giant ship.

The Chinese also have a Book of History known as the Shu Jing which was compiled by Confucius. This book speaks about an Emperor Shun who ruled about 2200BC when the first dynasty began. He worshipped and sacrificed a bull to Shang Di or the Heavenly Ruler. Shang Di corresponds to Shaddai who the Almighty of the Bible. Apparently, these sacrifices to Shang Di went on until 1911 when the last Chinese emperor was deposed.

The story of the Bible is that despite whom we are, or where we have come from, God looks at us all the same once we have believed on the Lord Jesus Christ as our Savior. It doesn’t matter what our color is, where we were born, how much money we have, or any other thing. All of us are or were enemies of God, but He reached out to us through His word which tells of His Son the Lord Jesus. It was He who lived the perfect life that no one has ever lived and it was He who willingly laid down His life so that we could be saved. We are all either sons of Shem, sons of Ham, or sons of Japheth. And they are all sons of Noah who came from Adam. We bear sin’s guilt and the Lord Jesus Christ came to this earth to take it away from us so that we can spend eternity in heaven apart from sin and death. 

Genesis 10:6-12

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6 The sons of Ham were Cush, Mizraim, Put, and Canaan. 7 The sons of Cush were Seba, Havilah, Sabtah, Raamah, and Sabtechah; and the sons of Raamah were Sheba and Dedan. 8 Cush begot Nimrod; he began to be a mighty one on the earth. 9 He was a mighty hunter before the Lord; therefore it is said, “Like Nimrod the mighty hunter before the Lord.” 10 And the beginning of his kingdom was Babel, Erech, Accad, and Calneh, in the land of Shinar. 11 From that land he went to Assyria and built Nineveh, Rehoboth Ir, Calah, 12 and Resen between Nineveh and Calah (that is the principal city). ~ Genesis 10:6-12

Today, we continue our study of Genesis 10 which is full of genealogy. In this chapter we have been given the genealogies of Japheth, Ham and Shem in that order. Having considered the genealogy of Japheth in our last study, today we consider the genealogy of Ham. 

In v.6 of today's passage we read, "The sons of Ham were Cush, Mizraim, Put, and Canaan."

After the Flood, Noah enjoyed wine a little too much and became inebriated as a result. While his father was both drunk and naked in his tent, Ham went into his father's tent and saw him in that condition. Then Ham told his brothers about his dad's drunkenness and nakedness. This elicited a curse from Noah but since God had already blessed Ham, Noah cursed Ham's youngest son, Canaan. This curse impacted the entire line of Ham, specifically the line of Canaan.

Interestingly, more space is used in this chapter to describe the line of Ham than either of the other brothers, Shem or Japheth. For this reason, it’s important to know who these people became and how they affect both God’s people in the Bible and future prophecy. The line of Ham has been the subject of a tremendous amount of abuse and some have tried to justify illegal slavery based on Noah’s curse of Canaan. It is from Canaan that the African people have descended. The curse placed upon the son of Ham was one of servanthood, not abusive slavery. 

Ham means "passionate;" it can also mean "burnt" or "dark." Both of these descriptions perfectly fit the people who descended from him. Most of the darker people of the world descend from Ham, however, other dark groups of people are found in both the lines of Shem and Japheth.

The first of Ham’s sons was Cush which means "black" and today Cush is known as Ethiopia. The second son of Ham was Mizraim which means "double straits" and they became the people of Egypt. The next son of Ham was Put which means "a bow." The Libyans come from Put along with Cyrene, Tunisia, Somalia, and the Sudan. 

In v.7 of today's passage we read, "The sons of Cush were Seba, Havilah, Sabtah, Raamah, and Sabtechah; and the sons of Raamah were Sheba and Dedan."

Here, we have five sons of Cush. In the next verse we’ll see another. They’re divided up and named based on their importance to the story of the Bible. Out of the five sons listed in this verse, only one has the names of his sons listed too, Raamah. His sons are Sheba and Dedan. Once again, these are listed because they are relevant to the biblical story and how they will interact with God’s people. There probably were others born to these sons of Ham, but only these are listed. These sons and grandsons spread all around the borders of Israel. They are from North Africa, Arabia, and as far as the area of Iran to this day.

In a beautiful example of God’s faithfulness to the line of Cush we read in the book of Jeremiah, about one of his descendants, an Ethiopian eunuch named Ebed-Melech, who saved Jeremiah’s life by getting him out of a pit full of mud. It was so bad that Jeremiah had actually sunk into the mud, so this eunuch went to the king to get permission to pull him out. In order to get him up, they had to put worn out clothes and rags under his armpit and it took thirty men to pull on the ropes. Because of what he did, in the next chapter, God remembered Ebed-Melech during the horrible siege and eventual overthrow of Jerusalem. The very first descendant of Ham to receive the Lord Jesus as his Savior in the book of Acts was also from the line of Cush. He was the Ethiopian Eunuch in Acts 8 who worked for the Candace, the Queen of the Ethopians.

In v.8-9 of today's passage we read, "8 Cush begot Nimrod; he began to be a mighty one on the earth. 9 He was a mighty hunter before the Lord; therefore it is said, 'Like Nimrod the mighty hunter before the Lord.'"

Along with his other sons, Cush begot Nimrod. This is an enigmatic figure mentioned only a couple times in the Bible and his name means "we shall rebel" and comes from the word marad which specifically means "to rebel." The word marad in this case was used to describe rebellion against God and His light.

Nimrod was the first active figure mentioned of all of the Noah’s grandsons. Up to this point, we’ve only had names and places mentioned, but now we get real details on an individual. As a "mighty hunter," Nimrod became a leader and gathered people under his command in order to make himself a ruler of the area he would settle. He was a mighty hunter before the Lord. This meant he rebelled against the Lord and against His authority. Just like Cain before the flood, Nimrod rebelled against God and His light or truth.

In v.10-12 of today's passage we read, "10 And the beginning of his kingdom was Babel, Erech, Accad, and Calneh, in the land of Shinar. 11 From that land he went to Assyria and built Nineveh, Rehoboth Ir, Calah, 12 and Resen between Nineveh and Calah (that is the principal city)."

Nimrod was a mighty hunter, but he was also a mighty builder, and a mighty leader. Like Cain who established the first recorded city and culture, it is Nimrod who follows this same path after the flood. The line of Cain, though wiped out in the flood, was symbolically alive and well in Nimrod.

Nimrod established the city of Babylon, which means "confusion." Babylon was in Shinar and was the city in spiritual opposition to God. Babylon is where evil and wickedness reigned. Babylon to this day is located east of Jerusalem. When man was sent out of Eden and away from God’s presence it was to the east. When the Israelites were in fellowship, or at peace with God, they possessed the land of Israel and the city of Jerusalem, but when they were disobedient, they were cast out of the land to the east, to Babylon in the land of Shinar.

In the book of the Revelation, the Babylon of the future, is described as the great Harlot and will be centered in Rome, right where the Vatican now stands. At some point in the future, probably after the Rapture of the Church, the city of Rome will become the leader of all spiritual opposition to God and direct the forces of evil against Jerusalem, the city of Peace. Underscored here is the utter uselessness of being so close to the truth but in the end hearing those words of the Lord Jesus, "Depart from me for I never knew you." Simply put, it is better to be known by God that it is to know God, although one flows for the other.

Religion has always been so very dangerous to man. Although Christianity is grouped with the religions of this world, it is not a religion because religion is man earning the favor of God which is utterly impossible. It is only by the grace of God that anyone is made right before God through the death of the Lord Jesus on the cross of Calvary. As we read in John 17:3, "Now this is eternal life: that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent."

Genesis 10:1-5

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1 Now this is the genealogy of the sons of Noah: Shem, Ham, and Japheth. And sons were born to them after the flood. 2 The sons of Japheth were Gomer, Magog, Madai, Javan, Tubal, Meshech, and Tiras. 3 The sons of Gomer were Ashkenaz, Riphath, and Togarmah. 4 The sons of Javan were Elishah, Tarshish, Kittim, and Dodanim. 5 From these the coastland peoples of the Gentiles were separated into their lands, everyone according to his language, according to their families, into their nations. ~ Genesis 10:1-5

Today, we transition into Genesis 10 which is often referred to as the table of nations. Sadly, this chapter is often passed over without any in-depth study or thought. But it’s been placed in the Bible by God and therefore it will always render blessing from Him. As we see in this chapter, 70 nations came from Noah's three sons. Out of Shem came 26 nations. Out of Ham came 30 nations. And out of Japheth came 14 nations. 

In v.1 of today's passage we read, "Now this is the genealogy of the sons of Noah: Shem, Ham, and Japheth. And sons were born to them after the flood."

This is the fourth genealogy in the Bible. So far we have seen the generations of the heavens and the earth in Genesis 2; the generations of Adam in Genesis 5; the generations of Noah in Genesis 6; and now we come to the genealogies of the sons of Noah. As you know, Noah means "rest" and he had three sons. From these three sons of Noah, the world divided into seventy nations. This passage, therefore then, is the table of the nations.

Previously Noah’s blessing to Shem was, "Blessed be the Lord, the God of Shem, and may Canaan be his servant." Rather than directly blessing Shem, Noah said, "blessed be the LORD, the God of Shem." This blessing was spiritual in nature. And the line of Shem since then has been the main spiritual line of man, including Christianity, Judaism, and Islam. Regardless of the validity of the religion, the spiritual nature of the people has continued for over 4000 years.

Amazingly, the three sons of Noah were represented at the cross of the Lord Jesus. The sons of Shem sold Him, they tried Him, they convicted Him, and they handed Him over to the Romans to be crucified. Ham was represented by Simon of Cyrene who acted as the servant, just as Noah prophesied, when he carried the crossbeam for the Lord Jesus to the Place of the Skull where He would be crucified. The sons of Japheth were given the executive responsibility for what occurred when Pilate tried Him and the Roman soldiers actually pierced His body with the nails and the spear.

In v.2-5 of today's passage we read, "2 The sons of Japheth were Gomer, Magog, Madai, Javan, Tubal, Meshech, and Tiras. 3 The sons of Gomer were Ashkenaz, Riphath, and Togarmah. 4 The sons of Javan were Elishah, Tarshish, Kittim, and Dodanim. 5 From these the coastland peoples of the Gentiles were separated into their lands, everyone according to his language, according to their families, into their nations."

The lineage of Japheth was given first here because he was the firstborn of Noah and possibly also because his lineage was the furthest removed geographically from the Israelites. In this account, fifteen names are mentioned including Japheth, the seven sons of Japheth, and seven grandsons. This son's part of the overall genealogy is the shortest of the three.

Interestingly, some of the descendants of Jephthah are mentioned in Ezekiel 38 and even in the book of Revelation as people who will come against Israel during the Tribulation in the future. These sons of Japheth became the coastland peoples of the Gentiles. Because of this, they more easily branched out around the world than Noah’s other sons. From the coastlines, they became the great sea-going adventurers of the world.

The descendants of Japheth are also known as the Aryans who split into two main groups. One group settled in Europe and the other in India. These groups, although varying widely in skin tone, are of the same origin. The descendants of Japheth have always been at the forefront of scientific understanding, rivaled only by the sons of Shem. History is replete with names like Newton, Pasteur, Galileo, Kepler, Copernicus, and Faraday. 

Japheth's first son was Gomer from who we get our English word Gaul, or Gallic. These are the people, interestingly enough, to whom the New Testament Epistle to the Galatians was written. They migrated to the north and settled in Spain, France and in Britain. From these come most of the early families of Western Europe and, consequently, of the Americas as well.

The oldest son of Gomer was Ashkenaz. He and his descendants first settled around the Black Sea and then moved north into Scandinavia. Another of the sons of Gomer was Riphath who located in Central Europe. Another son was Togarmah who was the ancestor of the present-day Turks and Armenians, who also migrated northward into Southern Germany. The word, Germany comes from Togarmah. Once we remove the first syllable we are left with the basic root word for Germany.

Two others of the sons of Japheth were Madai and Javan. While the Medes/Persians came Madai, Javan is the ancestor of the Greeks. His name, Javan, is still found in Greece in the form of Ionia. The Ionic Sea and Ionian Peninsula all derive their names from Javan. His sons were Elishah and Tarshish, whom most scholars associate with Spain. Then there was Kittim who settled in Cyprus; and Dodanim, who settled around the Black Sea.

In Psalm 120 we read of dwelling in the tents of Meshech. Meshech was a son of Japheth and it is from his name that we get the name Moscow. We also see in Psalm 120 the name Kedar who was a son of Ishmael and therefore a son of Shem. For 2000 years, the Jewish people were exiled around the world and dwelt in the tents of foreigners, but now God has restored them to their homeland. In His sovereign way, He has faithfully protected and returned His unfaithful people and He will continue to do so as the world comes against them during the great Tribulation.

All of this underscores the faithfulness and the sovereignty of the God of the Bible. He has never rendered a wrong decision, experienced the wrong attitude, taken the wrong path, said the wrong thing, or acted in the wrong way. He has always been and always will be right. He is righteous. And he has complete sovereignty over all things. Needless to say, we can trust Him with every fiber of our being. Even the unwanted moments of our lives have great significance and will render great blessing as we doggedly continue in our pursuit and in our trust of Him.

Genesis 9:24-29

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24 So Noah awoke from his wine, and knew what his younger son had done to him. 25 Then he said: "Cursed be Canaan; A servant of servants he shall be to his brethren.” 26 And he said: "Blessed be the Lord, the God of Shem, and may Canaan be his servant. 27 May God enlarge Japheth, and may he dwell in the tents of Shem; and may Canaan be his servant.” 28 And Noah lived after the flood three hundred and fifty years. 29 So all the days of Noah were nine hundred and fifty years; and he died. ~ Genesis 9:24-29

Today, we close out our study of Genesis 9 where we have considered the survival of Noah in v.1-17 and the sin of Noah in v.18-23. Today, we will consider v.24-29 which highlights the sons of Noah in v.24-29. 

Adam and Eve and Noah all sinned in the area of food and drink. Adam and Eve ate the forbidden fruit while Noah got drunk on wine. The very thing God gave to bless became a curse. It was used in a way outside the definition that God had given for it. This is when we sin, when we go outside the boundaries God has given to a certain subject. And, as a result of Ham seeing his dad's nakedness and then telling his brothers about it, Ham's son was subsequently cursed by Noah. Ham did more than just speak in an irreverent way about his father. This caused Noah to be severely displeased with Ham because of his actions.

In v.24-27 of today's passage we read, "24 So Noah awoke from his wine, and knew what his younger son had done to him. 25 Then he said: "Cursed be Canaan; A servant of servants he shall be to his brethren.” 26 And he said: "Blessed be the Lord, the God of Shem, and may Canaan be his servant. 27 May God enlarge Japheth, and may he dwell in the tents of Shem; and may Canaan be his servant."

Canaan was the father of the Canaanites. He settled in the very place that God told Abraham his descendants would posses forever. In Joshua 9 we learn that when Joshua entered the land of Canaan, there was a group of Canaanites called Gibeonites. They put on tattered clothes and they got old, moldy bread and stale wine and they went a couple miles over the hill to the encampment of Israel making the Israelites believe that they had been traveling for months. So Joshua makes a covenant with the Gibeonites, not knowing that the Gibeonites were Canaanites. God had told Israel to kill every Canaanite when they entered the land. Joshua subsequently made a covenant with the Gibeonites, and later found out that the Gibeonites lied to him. Then Joshua told the lying Gideonites that God had told him not to make a covenant with them but they had deceived him. It was at that point that Joshua pronounced a curse on the Gibeonites. They were now to be their slaves from generation to generation. Even into the New Testament the remnants of the Canaanite population became the servants of Israel.

The reason Canaan was cursed by Noah and Ham wasn’t goes back to Genesis 9:1 which reads, "So God blessed Noah and his sons." When God blessed Noah and his three sons, it included a blessing in their physical person and possibly even in a spiritual sense too. But that blessing didn’t transfer beyond them. God had blessed Ham and therefore Noah could not curse him. Since Ham had received God’s blessing, it would have been an act of defiance against God for Noah to turn and curse him. Instead he cursed Canaan. Ham was the youngest son of Noah and Canaan was the youngest son of Ham. And so in order to demonstrate justice in the matter and ensure he didn’t curse the one God had blessed, he turned his curse towards Canaan. This curse of Noah upon Canaan and the blessing of Shem and Japheth by Noah is the first explicit prophetic utterance by man in the Bible. 

After the cursing of Canaan, Noah directed his first blessing to the second son Shem. In like manner, Abel had been put ahead of Cain. When Abel was killed, Seth replaced him as the chosen and adopted son of God. Now, for the second time we see a second son placed above the first. This pattern continues throughout the Old Testament and points us directly to the work of the Lord Jesus Christ who replaced fallen Adam. The second replacing the first. When we get to the story of Abraham, we’ll see him receive the blessing even though he was the second son of his father.

In his blessing, Noah mentions Japheth, his firstborn. He says, “May God enlarge Japheth.” In saying this, Noah made a pun on Japheth's name whose name means to enlarge or to widely extend. Noah blessed his son with the very name he gave him.

In all, the prophecy mentions the servanthood of Canaan 3 times and he was placed directly as a servant to both Shem and Japheth.

In v.28-29 of today's passage we read, "28 And Noah lived after the flood three hundred and fifty years. 29 So all the days of Noah were nine hundred and fifty years; and he died."

Noah was 600 years old at the time of the flood and he lasted another 350 years after it. This means that Noah died in the year 2006 BC. In the Bible, there are blessings and curses that fall on various people and, yes, these transfer through to the descendants of those people. The problem many people have then is that if they are outside of the favored line, they may feel like they are still living under the curse of their fathers. However, through the Lord Jesus Christ, all are granted the same privileges and the same salvation. The account of Noah lists his sons in this order: Shem, Ham, and Japheth. In the book of Acts, this is the same order in which salvation through Christ came to the people of the world. The sons of Shem include Israel, and they received the Lord Jesus and the gift of the Holy Spirit in Acts 2.

The sons of Ham came next when the Ethiopian eunuch received Christ and was baptized in Acts 8. And finally, the sons of Japheth were represented in Acts 10 when Cornelius, an Italian, received Christ together with his family. In other words, God worked out His plan which would restore all of the people of the world, represented by these three men. In Christ, every curse is lifted and every heart is positioned to be made new. All who call on Him are elevated to the same level and none rises above another.

Abraham was of the favored line of Noah’s son Shem, but we are all included in the same spiritual blessing through the ultimate Seed of Abraham, the Lord Jesus Christ. No matter where we descend from and no matter what our past may have been like, in the Lord Jesus Christ there is a grand and glorious future for us as cherished and blessed children of God. Of course, this blessing is only accessed through our faith in the finished work of the Lord Jesus on the cross ensuring us eternal life.

Genesis 9:18-23

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18 Now the sons of Noah who went out of the ark were Shem, Ham, and Japheth. And Ham was the father of Canaan. 19 These three were the sons of Noah, and from these the whole earth was populated. 20 And Noah began to be a farmer, and he planted a vineyard. 21 Then he drank of the wine and was drunk, and became uncovered in his tent. 22 And Ham, the father of Canaan, saw the nakedness of his father, and told his two brothers outside. 23 But Shem and Japheth took a garment, laid it on both their shoulders, and went backward and covered the nakedness of their father. Their faces were turned away, and they did not see their father’s nakedness. ~ Genesis 9:18-23

Today, we continue our study of Genesis where we have seen the survival of Noah in v.1-17. Today, we transition into the section which highlights the sin of Noah. At this point in the narrative, all God-rejecting sinners had been drowned in the Flood. They had been swept up into eternal judgment, and now there was a new beginning for the eight people who made up the entire human race at that time. Fresh on their minds and certainly visible around them was the knowledge of the devastating impact of sin. 

In v.18-19 of today's passage we read, "18 Now the sons of Noah who went out of the ark were Shem, Ham, and Japheth. And Ham was the father of Canaan. 19 These three were the sons of Noah, and from these the whole earth was populated."

After the Flood, Noah and his sons were given by God the responsibility to repopulate the planet. All three of Noah's sons were born after Noah was 500. And, when Noah and his family exited the ark, they came into a whole new world. They must have had a certain amount of hope and eagerness that perhaps they could make a paradise with the absence of all of those God-rejecters. Maybe they thought they could recover Eden. Only if they could have lived without sinning. But, this was not the outcome because the one thing that didn’t drown in the Flood was the sinful condition of man. Sin was riding in the ark, in Noah, his wife, Shem, Ham, and Japheth and their three wives. And sin survived the Flood with them. It was a new earth, but it was the same old wicked humanity. And when they walked off the ark, sin walked off the ark with them.

In v.20-23 of today's passage we read, "20 And Noah began to be a farmer, and he planted a vineyard. 21 Then he drank of the wine and was drunk, and became uncovered in his tent. 22 And Ham, the father of Canaan, saw the nakedness of his father, and told his two brothers outside. 23 But Shem and Japheth took a garment, laid it on both their shoulders, and went backward and covered the nakedness of their father. Their faces were turned away, and they did not see their father’s nakedness."

Noah was a farmer, like Adam. They both understood curses and blessings. They both knew the disastrous effects of sin. They both knew that sin was far-reaching. Noah was identified by God as a righteous man. He was THE righteous man of the old world before the Flood. After the Flood was over, Noah was the father of sin in the new world. 

Today's narrative started when Noah planted a vineyard. This vineyard had the potential of blessing but it also had the capacity to deliver a curse. This is the case with anything in our lives. There was so much danger in drinking the fruit of the vine that it was forbidden for those who were in leadership in the nation of Israel. It was also forbidden for those who took the highest vow of devotion called the Nazarite vow. If one wanted to live at the highest level as a Jew and take the highest position of devotion to God, one was prohibited from drinking wine.

Noah, at age 600, sinned by drinking too much wine and then he exposed himself. This clearly means age is no guarantee against sin. We might think that when we are 60 years old we will be able to avoid sin; not possible. And so, we have an old righteous man, Noah, who chose to drink too much wine. So, even with all the non-believers gone from the face of the earth, sin remained to be the sovereign of human life. 

While Noah was in his inebriated condition, his son Ham "saw the nakedness of his father and told his two bothers." Ham made light of the matter and treated Noah with either contempt or levity. But his brothers treated their father with a reverential respect. Instead of joining Ham in his contempt or levity, they took a garment, laid it on both their shoulders, and went backward and covered their father's nakedness. And while they did this, they had their faces turned away.

All of this highlights the fact that no sin is minor, no matter how insignificant it may seem. The sin of Noah wasn’t minor, and the sin of Ham wasn’t minor because no sin is minor. God highlights one of, I am sure, many sins in the life of Noah, but the point of it all was that sin had survived the Flood. God picked what appears to us to be somewhat of a minor sin to demonstrate to us that it doesn’t have to be murder for it to be defined as serious. All sin is destructive and brings with it various forms of death.

So, Noah lost his sense of shame, his sense of dignity and his sense of decency. This is what drunkenness does to us. In that condition, immodesty took over. And I’m sure Noah was a modest man as a righteous man. But sin had floated over the waters of the Flood and landed in the new world, and it was still very alive. Noah got intoxicated and he disgraced himself by taking off his clothes. 

In Leviticus 18, there is a long list of sins of the sexual nature that are identified by the phrase "uncover their nakedness." It may have been that there was some act on the part of Noah in his drunken state, but we don’t know. What we do know is that Noah lost control of his normal inhibitions so that he passed out stark naked in his tent. He didn’t become naked after he passed out. It was when he was still conscious enough to take off his clothes that he took them off for no good purpose other than exposure. Drunkenness disgraced him. Drunkenness defined him poorly.

In Exodus 20, the Lord, after telling the Israelites to build an altar, told them not to make steps that enabled them to go up to the altar. He said this so that "their nakedness would not be exposed." In Exodus 28:42 God said, "And you shall make for them linen trousers to cover their nakedness; they shall reach from the waist to the thighs." Covering our nakedness is important because nakedness elicits thoughts from our imaginations which can result in impurity in our hearts. That’s why pornography exploits nakedness because that’s how sexual sin is stimulated.

All of this underscores the utter importance of being defined by God on a daily basis. And, we know that we are being defined by God when we are obedient to His word. This will never this side of heaven mean that we will be perfect or sinless. It does mean that we will be wise and effective with regard to God's calling on our lives to know Him and to make Him known.

Genesis 9:12-17

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"12 And God said: 'This is the sign of the covenant which I make between Me and you, and every living creature that is with you, for perpetual generations: 13 I set My rainbow in the cloud, and it shall be for the sign of the covenant between Me and the earth. 14 It shall be, when I bring a cloud over the earth, that the rainbow shall be seen in the cloud; 15 and I will remember My covenant which is between Me and you and every living creature of all flesh; the waters shall never again become a flood to destroy all flesh. 16 The rainbow shall be in the cloud, and I will look on it to remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is on the earth.' 17 And God said to Noah, 'This is the sign of the covenant which I have established between Me and all flesh that is on the earth.'" ~ Genesis 9:12-17

Today, we return to our study of Genesis 9 where we see the survival of Noah in v.1-17, the sin of Noah in v.18-23, and, the sons of Noah in v.24-29. In this study, we will close out our study of the survival of Noah who was a real man who really lived through the flood. All of the stories in the Bible are true and they are all about on great thing: God's great unfolding plan for lost humanity to possibly come to faith in His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ.

In v.12-13 of today's passage we read, "12 And God said: 'This is the sign of the covenant which I make between Me and you, and every living creature that is with you, for perpetual generations: 13 I set My rainbow in the cloud, and it shall be for the sign of the covenant between Me and the earth.'"

God determined to establish this promise on His own, without consulting any man. There are no conditions in man that makes us deserve God's covenants. There are no conditions in us that make us sustain any covenant with God that He has given us. At the same time, there are no conditions in us that causes God to turn away from His faithfulness to us. Most people are clueless about what a covenant looks like because we live in a world where most people have thrown away their vows and covenants. This explains our difficulty appreciating God's commitment to us.

Throughout this passage we read, "between me and you." Such is the nature of God's promises. The promises of God are trustworthy because they are founded upon His character and power, and He cannot present any greater collateral than Himself. The rainbow was given by God to remind us of His faithfulness. The durability of something is what determines whether we are willing to stand on it. The soundness of its structure ensures its durability and reliability. This enables us to rely and trust that the platform will not collapse when we stand on it. God gave the rainbow to be a reminder of His faithfulness and His trustworthiness. We can therefore trust Him with every detail of our lives.

It was Isaac Newton who demonstrated that using a prism the white light of the sun contains all the colors of the visible spectrum. It was Lord Rayleigh who showed us how the interaction of atmospheric particles scatters the light waves into short wavelengths which appear more blue and violet. God made our eyes and brains to interpret certain combinations of wavelengths as a single, discrete color. Our visual sense interprets the blue-violet light of the sky as a mixture of blue and white light. This is why we see the sky as light blue.

Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord. Man perpetuated on the earth due to the obedience of one man, Noah. It was through his faith in the goodness of God that Noah was able to access God's promises. God established His covenant with man and He used the rainbow as an object lesson that the earth will never again be flooded as it was in Noah's day. Before the flood there were no rainbows because there was no rain. God put the rainbow in the clouds as a statement of peace between Himself and sinful man. His goal was to show us that we can trust Him.

Covenants provide the needed solid foundation of any healthy relationship and society. When we establish covenants, we bind ourselves to that promise and to the one with whom it is established. Our character and integrity are all bound up in our loyalty to that covenant. Throughout the Old Testament, one of the attributes of God is He is faithful. And, when we give Him enough time, He will be faithful to show us His faithfulness and thus our trust in Him will grow. If we lack patience with God, we may never recognize His trustworthiness and His faithfulness.

In v.14-17 of today's passage we read, "'14 It shall be, when I bring a cloud over the earth, that the rainbow shall be seen in the cloud; 15 and I will remember My covenant which is between Me and you and every living creature of all flesh; the waters shall never again become a flood to destroy all flesh. 16 The rainbow shall be in the cloud, and I will look on it to remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is on the earth.' 17 And God said to Noah, 'This is the sign of the covenant which I have established between Me and all flesh that is on the earth.'"

The word translated "rainbow" here is the same word for a battle bow, a weapon of death and destruction. In ancient Near Eastern literature there are often deities depicted with a bow, wielding destruction. In Exodus 15:3 we read "The Lord is a warrior." In Habakkuk 3:9 we read, "His bow is made bare." In Zechariah 9:14 we read, "His arrows are lightning." Throughout the Old Testament, God is depicted as a warrior with a bow fighting on the behalf of His people. In the Flood, God the Warrior shot His lightning arrows, pierced the earth, the earth broke open, exploded and then the sky fell. He bent His bow in wrath. But from now on God has hung up His bow and He hung it in the sky where everybody can see this is not the time of judgment, this is the time of peace. 

Every time we see a rainbow, we must be reminded that it represents the victory of grace over judgment. Everyone deserves God's judgment, but His grace is possible because this is the age when God has hung up His bow. The whole flood story is a revelation of God’s holy wrath. But the rainbow is a sign that God is also a God of mercy and a God of grace and a God of patience and a God of peace. There will be a final wrath for those who are unwilling to believe in the goodness of God as shown in the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ. For 4500 plus years God has been faithful to the Noahic promise and the colors in the rainbow magnificently radiate the manifold glories of God's grace. As does every promise God made to Israel in the Old Testament. These promises point us to God's ultimate promise through His Son, the Lord Jesus. Through Him we are promised eternal life, only if we believe.

Genesis 9:6-11

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"6 Whoever sheds man’s blood, by man his blood shall be shed; for in the image of God He made man. 7 And as for you, be fruitful and multiply; bring forth abundantly in the earth and multiply in it." 8 Then God spoke to Noah and to his sons with him, saying: 9 "And as for Me, behold, I establish My covenant with you and with your descendants after you, 10 and with every living creature that is with you: the birds, the cattle, and every beast of the earth with you, of all that go out of the ark, every beast of the earth. 11 Thus I establish My covenant with you: Never again shall all flesh be cut off by the waters of the flood; never again shall there be a flood to destroy the earth." ~ Genesis 9:6-11

Today, we return to our study of Genesis 9 where the outline is: The survival of Noah in v.1-17, The sin of Noah in v.18-23, and, the sons of Noah in v.24-29. In today's passage we see that God is reestablishing the post flood earth. Although the flood wiped out everything on the earth, there was one thing that it didn't wipe out; the sinfulness of man. But, given the fact that God remade the world after the flood with all of its original elements and rhythms and blessings still in place, despite the persisting sinfulness of man, is a sign of God’s grace.

In v.6 of today's passage we read, "Whoever sheds man’s blood, by man his blood shall be shed; for in the image of God He made man."

As God put the fear of man in the animals, He had to put the fear of God into man. Here, we see the beginning of human government. God, in this passage, gave to man the mandate and the authority to oversee the culture and the society with power and with authority. Here, we are given by God the foundation for capital punishment. Since man was created in God’s image, the man who takes another man's life, his life will be required of him. Capital punishment was established by God after man's rebellion and it has always been in order to deter man from such violence.

In Numbers 35:33 we learn that atonement can’t be made for the land which is polluted by bloodshed except by the blood of him who shed it. This also is applicable to the unborn. Those who herald abortion actively work against God in order to terminate the life in the womb created in His image. If someone commits murder, the Bible doesn’t ask us to look at his childhood and determine what made him do it. It doesn’t ask us to look at his social standing or whether he was drunk or on pain medicines. God is clear that a murderer is to be put to death.

In v.7 of today's passage we read, "And as for you, be fruitful and multiply; bring forth abundantly in the earth and multiply in it."

Abortion would be the very thing that goes against being fruitful and multiplying and filling the earth. I find it most interesting that those who say "no" to capital punishment are the very same ones who say "yes" to abortion. God says children are a blessing from Him. Here, God repeats His mandate to Noah to "be fruitful and multiply."  How pleased He must be when His creation returns that love to Him in praise, worship, and adoration. Children are a blessing and a heritage from the Lord and we bring Him honor when we get married, have children, and bring them up in the nurture and the knowledge of the Lord.

In v.8-11 of today's passage we read, "8 Then God spoke to Noah and to his sons with him, saying: 9 'And as for Me, behold, I establish My covenant with you and with your descendants after you, 10 and with every living creature that is with you: the birds, the cattle, and every beast of the earth with you, of all that go out of the ark, every beast of the earth. 11 Thus I establish My covenant with you: Never again shall all flesh be cut off by the waters of the flood; never again shall there be a flood to destroy the earth.'"

God established a covenant which is the basis of any relationship. It is only on the basis of a covenant where God makes promises that the infinite and holy God can have a relationship with finite and yet wicked man. In the Bible, there are two kinds of covenants; a conditional covenant and an unconditional covenant. An unconditional is where God makes a promise or gives a declaration, saying, "I'm going to do this, period." A conditional covenant is when God has His part and man has his part. God says, "You keep these conditions and if you keep them, then I will do this or that." To Adam and Eve God gave the Edenic covenant. This was a conditional covenant. Man occupying the Garden of Eden, the Edenic covenant which was a conditional covenant. God told Adam and Eve to manage the Garden but they broke their side of the condition.

The Noahic covenant was an unconditional covenant whereby God promised that He would never again destroy the earth by a flood. By promising to never flood the earth again, God was pledging that humans will be preserved on the earth until the end of history. Earthquakes, hurricanes, climate change, pandemics, wars, fires, or freezes won’t destroy the earth. The earth will be preserved against all cataclysmic events until the end. This covenant doesn’t guarantee universal salvation, but it does guarantee universal preservation of the earth until the end.

God has kept this promise. There have been many local floods since that time but never a universal one, never again a universal destructive flood. The reason for this promise was to show man that God had changed his method of judgment. It is not that there will not come a judgment of humanity again, God is clear in 2 Peter 3 that the next time the destruction will come by fire. And, with that word through the Apostle Peter, God promised that His judgment will come. 

The judgement of God upon sin has already been mitigated on the behalf of all who are willing enough to believe in the goodness and the promises of God. In John 3:16-18, the Lord Jesus told Nicodemus, "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved. He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God."

Genesis 9:1-5

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1 So God blessed Noah and his sons, and said to them: "Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth. 2 And the fear of you and the dread of you shall be on every beast of the earth, on every bird of the air, on all that move on the earth, and on all the fish of the sea. They are given into your hand. 3 Every moving thing that lives shall be food for you. I have given you all things, even as the green herbs. 4 But you shall not eat flesh with its life, that is, its blood. 5 Surely for your lifeblood I will demand a reckoning; from the hand of every beast I will require it, and from the hand of man. From the hand of every man’s brother I will require the life of man. ~ Genesis 9:1-5 

Today, we transition into Genesis 9 where the Flood is now in the distant past. In the opening chapters of Genesis, we have seen God create the world and we have seen man ruin it with his sin. Since God is holy and man is totally corrupt, man's sinfulness had to be judged. In response, God decided to destroy unrepentant sinful man with the Flood. In the context of all of this, we must not lose sight of the fact that God offered corrupt man a way out of the destruction and all but one family rejected God's kind offer of grace.

In today's chapter Moses fills out more of what God was doing with Noah, his family and the earth during the post-flood period. Here, we see that the God who recreated the earth and promised to preserve it until He redeems it from sin and death.  The main takeaway for us from this text is that God’s grace is the only reason any of us are still alive and the world is still running. In this text, we will consider in the next few studies the survival of Noah in v.1-19, the sin of Noah in v.21-22, and then, the sons of Noah in v.23-29.

In v.1 of today's passage we read, "So God blessed Noah and his sons, and said to them: 'Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth.'"

Before God required anything of man, He blessed Him; With Noah God was no different. We are woefully unaware each day of all of God's blessings. In Matthew 5:45, the Lord Jesus said this about our Heavenly Father: "He makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust." Rain has always symbolized "God's blessing" throughout the Scriptures. The only time rain has been seen as a bad thing was during the Great Flood due to the evil state of humanity. A close analysis of the covenant God offered man before the Flood was an offer of His blessing, unrepentant man was not willing enough to see it. This was why God had to destroy sinful man in the Flood.

The good news is we serve a supernatural God. When He commands blessing upon us, there is nothing that the forces of darkness can do to stop it. With God's commanded blessings, we will go places we never thought possible. Doors will open that we could not have imagined would open to us. Of course, all of this is predicated upon God's will, not ours. We must be very careful that our faith is being placed in the promises of God rather than in our preferences of the way we think our lives should be. Our Heavenly Father always knows what is best for us.

The command "to be fruitful and multiply" in this verse is a repetition of the original command given by God to Adam back in Genesis 1. The Lord tells us that the fruit of the womb is His reward. Today there are 7.7 billion people on earth. It took from Noah's day to the year 1804 to produce 1 billion people on earth. The modern concept of cutting back on population growth isn’t just unbiblical, it’s anti-biblical. God has ordained that man and animals multiply, not abort. And we are instructed to fill the earth, not to worship the earth. 

In v.2 of today's passage we read, "And the fear of you and the dread of you shall be on every beast of the earth, on every bird of the air, on all that move on the earth, and on all the fish of the sea. They are given into your hand."

Back in Genesis 1 when everything on the earth was perfect, man was given dominion over the creatures of the earth. Man's dominion continued after the flood but with sin and death reigning on the earth. And, after the Flood, a new aspect of man's relationship with the animals came about; the animals had come to fear man. With this new paradigm, we now see that we are not as we once were. Where once we were the keepers of a creation that was in far more harmony with us, now we find the animals fearing us and hiding from us. 

In v.3 of today's passage we read, "Every moving thing that lives shall be food for you. I have given you all things, even as the green herbs."

At this point in history the animals became food of man. With this change, man now would be reminded that every meal should remind us that life is made possible only by the death of another. We are alive only because other creatures have died on our behalf. We do not live in and of ourselves, we live by virtue of feeding upon other life. This is a reminder that we are not independent creatures, going our own way, mastering of our own fate. We have no life force of our own; life as we know it is all borrowed. 

The Lord Jesus said, "Unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. But whosoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life." In that verse the Lord Jesus did not mean that we should feed on Him literally, but symbolically. We are to feed on Him, and draw from Him all that we need. He is our life, and without Him we will never be what we were created to be.

In v.4-5 of today's passage we read, "4 But you shall not eat flesh with its life, that is, its blood. 5 Surely for your lifeblood I will demand a reckoning; from the hand of every beast I will require it, and from the hand of man. From the hand of every man’s brother I will require the life of man."

When the early church was facing legalism and the Judaizers were arguing what believers in Christ could and could not eat, telling them that they had to be circumcised, or telling them that they had to observe certain feasts or festivals or the Sabbath, a council was called in Jerusalem. The conclusion of that council was simple and concise: abstain from things offered to idols, from blood, from things strangled, and from sexual immorality.

Clearly, since then, the epistles of the apostles have to be considered and applied to our lives, but nothing written by the apostles contradict this early decision, especially concerning what can and can’t be eaten. The Apostle Paul later clarified the part about things offered to idols and he and the other apostles speak in detail about sexual immorality. Beyond this, things that are strangled has its own context in which to be considered. And the drinking of blood is forbidden because it predates the Law of Moses and the blood contains the life.

Life is God's property. Man does not impart life; he does not originate it and it does not belong to him. Therefore, man has no right to take life. The life of man is peculiarly sacred to God; only God has the right to take it. If anyone else violates this, God says he will require a reckoning, and that would be a terrible price. The emphasis throughout the Bible is on life and the preservation of life, otherwise man would look upon life as cheap. It is a cheap view of life that leads man down the path of not appreciating the sacred. And, we will not value life unless we see it as all things as sacred.

Genesis 8:20-22

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20 Then Noah built an altar to the Lord, and took of every clean animal and of every clean bird, and offered burnt offerings on the altar. 21 And the Lord smelled a soothing aroma. Then the Lord said in His heart, "I will never again curse the ground for man’s sake, although the imagination of man’s heart is evil from his youth; nor will I again destroy every living thing as I have done. 22 While the earth remains, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, winter and summer, and day and night shall not cease." ~ Genesis 8:20-22

Today, we close out our study of Genesis 8 where we have been given details about Noah and his survival through the flood. Noah was a man of faith whose faith was galvanized in the faithfulness of the God of the Bible. Noah had a trust in God even though all of his friends and acquaintances had chosen to believe that God was not good. Noah's faith in God was seen in his obedience to God to build the ark, even though it had never rained before. Noah's faith was seen as he preached to the pre-flood world about God's righteousness and the judgment that was to come. 

In v.20 of today's passage we read, "Then Noah built an altar to the Lord, and took of every clean animal and of every clean bird, and offered burnt offerings on the altar."

After the flood, the first thing Noah did was to build an altar which appropriated his worship of God. To worship God is to be defined by God. When we obey God, we show that He is defining us. Noah's was the first altar built in the Bible. Cain and Abel gave a sacrifice, but there was no mention of an altar. 

The flood or the judgement of God upon man did not change the heart of man. This has been seen down through the centuries. It has always been the grace of God that changes man's heart. It was God's grace that caused Noah to build the ark. Grace is God’s unconditional love in action, embracing us in our imperfections and transforming us by His mercy. The human heart can only be changed by the grace of God, and yet, we can resist such an expression of love. John M. Sheehan once said, "Grace was against my will till God's grace changed me to accept His grace!"

The word "altar" means "high" or "elevated." Noah was atop the mountains of Ararat and the smoke of his offerings ascended even higher. When the altar was built, it was built to the God of grace. God's grace had changed the heart of Noah and as a result he saw God as the covenant keeping God who had proven Himself true as He fulfilled His promises to Noah. In response, Noah offered burnt offerings which was for the atonement for sin. In making these offerings, Noah was asking God for more of His grace and mercy. 

The fire in the offering symbolized Noah's acknowledgment that he knew he deserved judgement from God. Through the flood Noah saw God's staggering judgment. Thus, he offered the sacrifice because his life was granted to him in the midst of the death of the rest of those on the earth around him. Most notably, this and all the other sacrifices in the rest of the Bible point us to the eternal work of the Lord Jesus Christ on the cross.

Noah remembered the Lord. That's a miracle because it is our human nature to forget the Lord. It is our human nature to promise God great things in a catastrophe, and then when the catastrophe is over we forget the Lord. In the Gospel of Luke the Lord Jesus was on His way to Jerusalem and He passed through Galilee at the border of Samaria and there were ten lepers and they cried out, "Jesus! Master! Have mercy on us!" In response, the Lord Jesus healed them. Then the Lord Jesus told the healed men, "Go to the priest and offer the offering and go through the ritual purification and he'll pronounce you clean." One out of ten healed men returned and thanked the Lord for healing him. Noah remembered the Lord.

The very same day that Noah offered these sacrifices was the very same day that Ezra offered his sacrifice in the book of Ezra. This also was the very same day the Lord Jesus was born in Bethlehem. Right here in this verse is the first time the Bible mentions an altar. Instead of building a house for himself, Noah offered worship to God. He prepared a spot to meet with God and to give thanks to Him, and to glorify Him. The first thing Noah did after leaving the ark was to worship and to be defined by God.

In v.21-22 of today's passage we read, "And the Lord smelled a soothing aroma. Then the Lord said in His heart, 'I will never again curse the ground for man’s sake, although the imagination of man’s heart is evil from his youth; nor will I again destroy every living thing as I have done. 22 While the earth remains, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, winter and summer, and day and night shall not cease.'"

The Lord smelled a soothing aroma. In response to Noah's soothing sacrifice, God gave Noah a promise that the laws of nature would remain steady and dependable. God promised that there would be a consistent pattern of the motion of the heavenly bodies, consistent gravity, consistent rotation of the earth, consistent solar orbit, and consistent annual cycles. 

This means we will not all die from global warming. It means it will be cold in the winter and warm in the summer. It means there will be summer, and there will be winter, and there will be seedtime and harvest. It means, even though the Flood happened, we will enjoy a period of uniformity where everything continues the same, until the earth goes out of existence. This is the promise of God upon whose faithfulness all of His promises rest. 

The words, "The Lord said in His heart" means this wasn’t a covenant that YHWH made with Noah. This was a covenant that God made with Himself. He determined to overlook the coming times of ignorance. And now, we have been on this earth for some 4500 years and we have survived because of this promise. But, God's next judgment will be the destruction of the planet by fire not water.

In 2 Peter 3:10-13 we read, "10 But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night, in which the heavens will pass away with a great noise, and the elements will melt with fervent heat; both the earth and the works that are in it will be burned up. 11 Therefore, since all these things will be dissolved, what manner of persons ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness, 12 looking for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be dissolved, being on fire, and the elements will melt with fervent heat? 13 Nevertheless we, according to His promise, look for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells."

I trust that you have entered into the salvation of God through the Lord Jesus Christ. It is as simple as admitting to God that as a sinner you are in need of His forgiveness. Then, believing that the Lord Jesus died on the cross for the forgiveness of your sin. And then, asking Him to come into your life as the Lord of your life. If you enter into the protection of God by believing in His Son, I would love to hear about. You can let me know by sending me an email at byoungministry@gmail.com.

Genesis 8:13-19

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13 And it came to pass in the six hundred and first year, in the first month, the first day of the month, that the waters were dried up from the earth; and Noah removed the covering of the ark and looked, and indeed the surface of the ground was dry. 14 And in the second month, on the twenty-seventh day of the month, the earth was dried. 15 Then God spoke to Noah, saying, 16 "Go out of the ark, you and your wife, and your sons and your sons’ wives with you. 17 Bring out with you every living thing of all flesh that is with you: birds and cattle and every creeping thing that creeps on the earth, so that they may abound on the earth, and be fruitful and multiply on the earth." 18 So Noah went out, and his sons and his wife and his sons' wives with him. 19 Every animal, every creeping thing, every bird, and whatever creeps on the earth, according to their families, went out of the ark. ~ Genesis 8:13-19

Today we return to our study of Genesis 8 where we are invited to see and understand the unsinkable promises of God. The story of Noah is quite interesting and very exciting until we get to Genesis 7. At that point, the story seems to get bogged down in the details of the animals and the precise dates. It is easy to skim over such details but that would be a great mistake. We expect and want God to work in the big headlines of life, but He is best found in the subscript of the text.

In v.13 of today's passage we read, "And it came to pass in the six hundred and first year, in the first month, the first day of the month, that the waters were dried up from the earth; and Noah removed the covering of the ark and looked, and indeed the surface of the ground was dry."

It was the 601st year of Noah’s life and it took a lot of courage for Noah to leave the ark. This meant leaving behind a certain measure of safety and security that he and his family had come to know over the year they were in the ark. This new step meant trusting God for a totally unknown future. This is what makes our journey with God in this world so worth it though. When we give Him enough time to bring about His plans for our lives, we are left amazed. Think of it, this was the first day of the first month of that year for Noah. It was the exact same day 1657 years earlier that Adam was created and it was the same day about 2400 years later that the Savior of the world would be born in an insignificant town known as Bethlehem. Such design left for us to discover the Designer of it all.

In v.14 of today's passage we read, "And in the second month, on the twenty-seventh day of the month, the earth was dried."

When God gives dates in the Bible, it is significant and we must take note. Today's plot took place 57 days after Noah opened the covering of the ark and it was the 380th day after Noah and his family entered the ark. Noah and his family had spent over a year waiting and watching as the world was destroyed by water. All of that time, they were in that ark as the waters rose and as the waters receded. 

In v.15-17 of today's passage we read, "15 Then God spoke to Noah, saying, 16 'Go out of the ark, you and your wife, and your sons and your sons’ wives with you. 17 Bring out with you every living thing of all flesh that is with you: birds and cattle and every creeping thing that creeps on the earth, so that they may abound on the earth, and be fruitful and multiply on the earth.'"

Just imagine the excitement that the family must have felt as they got word it was time to leave the ark. We do not know how God spoke to Noah, whether in a dream or directly, or whether in some other way, but Noah was given divine guidance that he and his family could leave the ark, just as he received divine guidance to enter it. And just as they filled the ark with animals, they’re told now to empty it out. 

As the animals departed, God also gave them a divine command; that they should be fruitful and multiply on the earth. This is the exact same command that was given back in Genesis 1. God created all of the animals at the beginning and the same spark of life that was put into them then carried through to the time of Noah and it carries through even until today. There is a spark of life in all of us and that spark transmits from us to the next generation.

Were it not for the Ark of Noah, there would be no life on earth apart from the oceans. And any animal which wasn’t on the ark is extinct because its life spark died with the flood. And, if the world were billions of years old like evolutionists claim, then the problem would only be exacerbated. From the trillions of moments which have happened since the first life of spontaneous generation supposedly occurred, Evolutionists only explanation for development is evolution, not more generation. When we consider evolution, we are left shaking our heads. It takes far more faith to believe in evolution than it does to believe in the God of the Bible.

In v.18-19 of today's passage we read, "18 So Noah went out, and his sons and his wife and his sons’ wives with him. 19 Every animal, every creeping thing, every bird, and whatever creeps on the earth, according to their families, went out of the ark."

Probably in a state of awe and wonder, Noah and his family obeyed the divine command and they left the ark. The earth was certainly completely different than it was when they entered. The vapor canopy surrounding the earth was gone and the skies looked different. The landscape would have been totally reformed from what they had known. The climate would have been different. Everything was new and everything was a mixed bag of a new adventure.

Sometimes God calls us to do things that are hard and may even seem impossible. We are called to leave the known for the unknown, and when we have to leave the ark that has taken us this far and step out on our own, that's difficult. At times, it is scary and unnerving because once we leave the familiar confines we have always known, we can never go back there again. To leave the ark meant embarking on a new life with new dangers and new opportunities. That takes courage and resolve and a decision not to look back or to second-guess oneself.

This is why God makes so much of our faith in Him. Faith means taking the next step and then trusting God with the results. It is a paradox of life that even though the ark was smelly and cramped, we may be afraid to leave it because it represents the only security we have known for some time. Sometimes we pray for a change in our circumstances, but when the moment comes, we are so overwhelmed with fear that we are paralyzed and unable to move. It is then that faith is given its chance.

We are told in Hebrews 11, by faith Noah built, entered and left the Ark. Both entering the ark and leaving it were very difficult for Noah and his family, I am sure. But, this is what life is really about; getting over those moments when we are paralyzed by the unknown. Some of us are stuck because we know it’s time to move forward but we are afraid to take the first step. We must remember that we do not walk through this life alone. And, the more we respond to the revelation that God gives us, the better we will recognize Him in those most unwanteds of life. It is in the darkest of times that we see Him best. The rule of thumb in following God must be that His presence and His proximity will always be my protection whether I can see Him or not.

Genesis 8:6-12

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6 So it came to pass, at the end of forty days, that Noah opened the window of the ark which he had made. 7 Then he sent out a raven, which kept going to and fro until the waters had dried up from the earth. 8 He also sent out from himself a dove, to see if the waters had receded from the face of the ground. 9 But the dove found no resting place for the sole of her foot, and she returned into the ark to him, for the waters were on the face of the whole earth. So he put out his hand and took her, and drew her into the ark to himself. 10 And he waited yet another seven days, and again he sent the dove out from the ark. 11 Then the dove came to him in the evening, and behold, a freshly plucked olive leaf was in her mouth; and Noah knew that the waters had receded from the earth. 12 So he waited yet another seven days and sent out the dove, which did not return again to him anymore. ~ Genesis 8:6-12 

Today, we return to our study of Genesis 8 where Noah and his family and all of the animals that God brought to them had been on the ark a total of 380 days. That is more than a year. I can only imagine what it was like to be cooped up in that boat for that long with so many animals.

In v.6-9 of today's passage we read, "6 So it came to pass, at the end of forty days, that Noah opened the window of the ark which he had made. 7 Then he sent out a raven, which kept going to and fro until the waters had dried up from the earth. 8 He also sent out from himself a dove, to see if the waters had receded from the face of the ground. 9 But the dove found no resting place for the sole of her foot, and she returned into the ark to him, for the waters were on the face of the whole earth. So he put out his hand and took her, and drew her into the ark to himself."

Forty days after the ark came to rest on Mt. Ararat, Noah opened the window. With the opening of the window, Noah released a raven which did not return to the ark. A raven is a scavenger bird and would have been perfectly content to land on any surface, even on a dead body to feast. The raven is a bird that represents the flesh. As this passage makes clear, the raven was no help to Noah whatsoever. According to Leviticus, a raven is a symbol of the unclean, like a person who lives apart from the grace of God, content to live in this world of death.

After the release of the raven, Noah released a dove providing for the reader a contrast of the unclean and the clean. God had defined them as such and so each of them provided a picture of man's response to God. The dove returned to the safety of the ark picturing a lost sinner who humbles himself enough to return to God. The reason we return to the Lord is represented by the dove throughout the Bible. At His baptism, the Spirit of God rested on the Lord Jesus and He rested on Him as a dove would come down and rest upon its perch. The dove represents the Holy Spirit throughout the Bible, and, it is His presence in the believer that enables him to persevere in the faith.

In addition, the raven and the dove picture for us the fact that the believer in Christ has two natures. This explains the civil war within the believer that the Apostle Paul describes in Romans 7. The Apostle describes these two within us as "the flesh" and "the Spirit." The whole struggle of the spiritual life arises out of the conflict of the flesh with the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh. One is evil, unclean; the other is clean, and good. These are symbolized by these two birds. It is God's way of telling us that in the present age, like Noah, we must be wise to choose the way of the dove, always being defined by God.

In v.10-11 of today's passage we read, "10 And he waited yet another seven days, and again he sent the dove out from the ark. 11 Then the dove came to him in the evening, and behold, a freshly plucked olive leaf was in her mouth; and Noah knew that the waters had receded from the earth."

Seven days later, Noah sent out the dove once again. This time the dove returned with an olive leaf in its mouth. The raven represented death and the dove represented life. In the dove we have the symbol of the Holy Spirit descending upon us when we call on the name Jesus. The Holy Spirit is the Messenger of God telling us that all is well with our soul. Through the return of the dove, Noah knew the earth was drying out finally. But, the olive tree can yield leaves even under water. Throughout the Bible, the olive, and the oil it produces gives us symbolism of the work of Christ and the presence of the Holy Spirit in the life of the believer. And, is a picture of the resurrection of Christ. Just as the olive can grow out from under water, so Christ came out of the grave as a victor over death. 

In v.12 of today's passage we read, "So he waited yet another seven days and sent out the dove, which did not return again to him anymore."

This verse highlights the utter necessity that is ours as we learn daily to walk with the Lord. God continually calls His people to wait on Him. The Israelites waited for over four hundred years to be released from the bondage of Egypt; God’s people waited thousands of years for Him to send the Messiah; and now, two thousand years later, we still wait on the return of the Lord Jesus. Waiting is part of God’s plan for the life of the believer, and I don’t think He wants us to miss the opportunities and growth found in the waiting. Waiting on God gives us the chance to get to know Him better. And the more we know Him, the more we will be defined and completed by Him.

The number 7 is the number that represents completeness or maturity in the Bible. In fact, it was on the seventh day of creation that God rested. The idea of resting and the number seven are intimately connected in the Bible. While on the cross of Calvary, the Lord Jesus uttered seven sayings, the final one being: "It is finished." When the Lord Jesus said those words He was saying the work of redemption is complete. This is why salvation is by faith through the grace of God. Even the faith that we exercise in the God of the Bible is a gift because it is conditioned upon our understanding of God's faithfulness.

Genesis 8:1-5

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1 Then God remembered Noah, and every living thing, and all the animals that were with him in the ark. And God made a wind to pass over the earth, and the waters subsided. 2 The fountains of the deep and the windows of heaven were also stopped, and the rain from heaven was restrained. 3 And the waters receded continually from the earth. At the end of the hundred and fifty days the waters decreased. 4 Then the ark rested in the seventh month, the seventeenth day of the month, on the mountains of Ararat. 5 And the waters decreased continually until the tenth month. In the tenth month, on the first day of the month, the tops of the mountains were seen. ~ Genesis 8:1-5

Today, we continue our study of Genesis where we are being given an overall view of the story of man with God. In giving us this story, God is highlighted His faithfulness to us. Since Noah had faith in the God of the Bible, God did not disappoint him. We have seen through Noah that true faith in the God of the Bible is not in a hurry. True faith waits on the faithfulness of God. The number 8 in the Bible is the number of "new beginnings" thus the number of the people on the ark.  

In v.1 of today's passage we read, "Then God remembered Noah, and every living thing, and all the animals that were with him in the ark. And God made a wind to pass over the earth, and the waters subsided."

I can only imagine what a whirlwind Noah felt that he was in while he was on the ark for so long. I am sure that when he first heard God tell him to build the ark, He was like, "This can't be real." And, as the days marched on, I am sure that Noah wondered about the veracity of this call that God had given him. In addition, I am sure that Noah wondered after being on the ark for all of those days that if God was aware of him. 

We are told by Moses that "God remembered Noah and every living thing and all of the animals." This means God never relinquished the promise of salvation that He had made to Noah. The Hebrew word translated "remember" is used a total of 73 times in the Scriptures. For Noah, the impossible happened. And, hundreds of thousands of humans and animals died in the flood because they lacked the type of faith that Noah had. 

God remembered Noah by making a wind dry off the earth after the waters receded. It was highly probable that before the flood there was no wind due to the vapor canopy that surrounded the earth. Then, before the flood, a whole different hydrology existed, but when the canopy was removed, typical evaporation and the jet streams happened. 

The word for "wind" in the Hebrew is exactly the same word used in Genesis 1:2 for God's Spirit. There, we read, "The Spirit of God hovered over the waters." Spirit and wind in Hebrew are the same word. 

In v.2-3 of today's passage we read, "2 The fountains of the deep and the windows of heaven were also stopped, and the rain from heaven was restrained. 3 And the waters receded continually from the earth. At the end of the hundred and fifty days the waters decreased."

No doubt the surface of the earth was greatly changed after the flood. In fact, this was when the Grand Canyon was formed as it is now. It wasn't until the flood that the high mountains that we have today were formed. This was due to the break-up of the earth and the subsequent continental drift. It was at that time that the huge basins in the ocean were formed.

In v.4-5 of today's passage we read, "4 Then the ark rested in the seventh month, the seventeenth day of the month, on the mountains of Ararat. 5 And the waters decreased continually until the tenth month. In the tenth month, on the first day of the month, the tops of the mountains were seen."

On the 17th day the ark rested on Mt Ararat. Interestingly, it happened on the same day that the Lord Jesus Christ came out of the grave almost 2400 years later. The Bible uses two calendars, the creation calendar and the redemption calendar. Until the time of the Exodus, the calendar started in the fall, but at the Exodus, the first month was changed to the spring. The 17th day of the seventh month in the creation calendar is the 17th day of the first month of the redemption calendar. The Passover occurs on the 14th day of the first month and the resurrection happened, according to the Bible, on the Sunday after the Passover, the 17th day of the first month.

Most interestingly, "Ararat" means "the curse is reversed." On the same day that the ark struck the ground, the waters began to subside. The curse of the waters were then reversed at the exact same moment that Noah was brought to the safety of the land. Noah and his ark are a picture of the true reversal of the curse which began at the fall of man in Genesis 3. Only 5 chapters after the fall, Noah was given as a sign of what was to come in the future. The rain lasted 40 days. The waters stayed upon the earth 150 days. It took another 150 days for the waters to abate.  And then Noah waited another 40 days before he opened the window. It all took place in the time of 380 days. Often in life, troubles come on fast and recede slowly. Our calling is to be faithful, to persevere, to hold on to the faithful object of our faith. 

The waters didn’t cover the earth forever. The ark shows that salvation is by faith through God's grace. Grace means that God saves us apart from any effort of our own. God's grace began something new on that 17th day when Noah and his family were saved, What started off as an insignificant date has become a whisper of His grace. This 17th in reality was the first in a series of clues that God gave throughout the Old Testament which all points us to the greatest display of all, the resurrection of His only Son!