Jan. 3 - Genesis 6-9

Wow! These 4 chapters are incredible! How does God put up with us?

Power Points:

1) In just 6 chapters, the old world has come to its climax! Man has gone out of his way to AVOID God. The end result - a sin-diseased world! Isn't it interesting that that's exactly what happens in the book of Revelation during the "tribulation period?" Man self-destructs! We see it in the first 6 chapters of the Bible as well as the last 6 chapters of the Bible!!! The sad reality about all of this is that man does NOT inherently desire God! Man is wicked in his heart! In spite of Cain and Abel's knowledge of the kind of sacrifice that was pleasing to God, Cain exercised his free will to blatantly go against the "accepted" sacrifice - which was the sacrifice of blood. Cain, in his arrogance, decided to worship God his own way and purposely provided a "food" offering - something he knew what NOT on the "accepted" list.  Cain's arrogance to be his own person, choose his will over God's will, and worship God in a way that was more convenient for him ultimately destroyed him! From that point, the entire family of of the descendants of Adam did the same thing. They wanted their own way - not God's. Only the families from the line of Seth took God seriously. Eventually, the world became totally corrupt with sin. Isn't it amazing that only 10 generations have passed between Adam and Noah and now God is done with man! WOW!

2) The world had become so chaotic that wicked angels (demons) have sex with women! Over the years, some writers have tried to temper the ugliness of this verse by creating other comments of what Genesis 6:1-2 says. They try to say that the "sons of God" is the godly line of Seth who had sexual relationships with the ungodly women in the lineage of Cain. But this is NOT what happened! The Hebrew word "bene-elohim" consistently throughout the old testament means "angels." Why make it something else in this verse? That's is exactly what Jude referred to when he wrote in Jude 6-7, "the angels who kept not their first estate, but left their own habitation, he has reserved in everlasting chains under darkness unto the judgement of the great day." It's also why Peter writes in 2 Peter 2:4, "For if God spared not the angels that sinned, but cast them down to hell, and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved unto judgement, and spared not the old world, but saved Noah..." It's also why Paul warns why women ought to have a spiritual authority that covers them "because of the angels." Sadly, chaos took over! Former angels of God left their spiritual state to have intercourse with women. They took any woman they wanted. The children of these women became the heroes and legends we've heard of to this day, such as Hercules.

3) Longevity of life leads to a disaster! In Genesis 6:2, God changes His mind about man's longevity of life. He shortens it to 120 years! You see this gradually beginning to happen just after the Flood.

4) Noah finds "favor" or grace with God for 5 simple reasons!
a) He did what was right in God's eyes! 6:9 - "He was a righteous man."
b) He did what was right in the public's eye! 6:9 - "He was blameless among the people."
c) He had a relationship with God! 6:9 - "He walked with God."
d) He did everything God said to do! 6:27 - "Noah did everything God commanded."
e) He urged others to be right with God! 2 Peter 2:5 - "preacher of righteousness."

5) The "RAINBOW" shows us God! Every time we see a rainbow we ought to think about how it reminds us of God and his covenant with Noah to never again destroy the earth with a flood. It ought to remind us of how wicked man really is and how we desparately need God!
Note the following:
a) 7 (God's number of perfection) colors depict the rainbow - ROYGBIV - Red, Organge, Yellow, Green, Blue, Indigo, Violet.
b) It has no beginning and no ending place!
c) It has no arrows in it - it's an empty bow!

6) In spite of a world flood, it's not long before sin creeps up its ugly head! Noah's son, Ham, apparently sins against his father and his God. From the text (9:24-27), Ham walks in on a drunken Noah. By his two brother's reaction and Noah's cursing Ham's son, obviously Ham has done something immoral! Some think it was an act of homosexuality. Others think it may have been that he "enjoyed" his father's nakedness. Whatever the case, it was disgusting to Ham's two brothers and to Noah!!!

Final Thought: Only with God's help and a consistent relationship with Him can we even begin to live a life that pleases Him!!! God bless!