Beginnings (Genesis 1-11) / Lesson 8: Noah and the Global Flood

So if you've been with us through the whole thing, you've kind of begin to get more of a full understanding of what's going on in Genesis 1 through 11 and beginning to see how, as I told you when we first started, how my goal is that when we get through this, your Bible's gonna wake up and you're gonna begin to see things in Scripture. They're gonna make sense that maybe before, just either we read over them and just really didn't know what it was talking about, so we just kind of went on or maybe we didn't even really know what to do with it or heard different ideas about it. And so that's where we've been going. And so what has been going on, if you remember, we started off and talked about how that God's got a plan and that in his plan, it's for having a people that have a divine relationship with him. And that was his goal from the beginning and that is still been his goal and that is what he is continuing to pursue. And in the process, we began to, we came to understand that what Genesis teaches us is that there has been three rebellions that have been going, that took place in Genesis 1 through 11. And literally, when we understand that in light of the rest of the Bible, it just comes alive and we begin to see things. And so last week, we went through the second part

of Genesis chapter six, verses one through four and began to look at those things. And so tonight where we are is really in lesson eight, which I've titled it just simply Noah and the global flood. And so it's a very familiar story, but I'm hoping that we're gonna begin looking at it different than we have before, because back in before most of us, whenever we look at the global flood, we basically look at it that people were doing bad and God got mad and then he wiped out everybody and said, I'm gonna start over again and that's about it. And so in one side, it's really why, and I've said this before, it's why we read the God of the Old Testament and think, man, he was really angry a lot. I mean, it was like, as I've said before, death penalty for parking violations almost, it's just this unbelievable intensity. And then we come to the New Testament and we get all scrambled up on this Jesus who loves everybody and just seems meek and mild. And so we get confused and don't realize that in reality, they're one in the same. And then we have to understand the Old Testament from the perspective of the way it's been written and what's been given to us. And when we do, it begins to make perfect sense. So as we step into the night, let me just go ahead and begin and just get us started.

We got a lot of ground to cover. So I've said somebody just earlier, I said, I don't know if we're gonna be able to make it through all of this, but we're gonna do our best and give it the best shot we can. So let's just go ahead. If you have an outline and wanna get started, we're gonna start with what I'm just calling it, the war God fights. God is fighting for you. He is fighting in behalf of a divine dynamic relationship with you. And he's been doing this since the beginning of time. This has been the heart of God. And so last week we looked at really this war and the second rebellion that took place that really culminated. We saw it in Genesis four and five begin to escalate, but it began then to culminate in Genesis chapter six, verses one through four. Let's just read those again and that'll kind of give us a perspective on where we're going. So it just says this. When man began to multiply on the face of the land and daughters were born to them, the sons of God saw that the daughters of man were attractive and they took as their wives any they chose. Then the Lord said,

my spirit shall not abide in man forever for he is flesh. His days shall be 120 years. The Nephilim were on the earth in those days and also afterward when the sons of God came in to the daughters of men, of man, and they bore children to them. These were the mighty men who were of old, the men of renown. As we looked at this and we looked at, briefly looked at the typical, ordinary, Western culture interpretation, which is, I called it the Sethite view. In that is the one that we're most familiar with, most of us are, and most comfortable with, and just saw that from a biblical, grammatical standpoint, you cannot get there. The only way we get there. is whenever we just say, I'm not going to believe the other. And for me, I see no difference in that than a scientist who embraces evolution knowing it is completely false, but knowing that the only other alternative is there is a creator in which he will give an account and he refuses to do that. He would rather embrace evolution, even though he knows it's wrong, than to have to put up and deal with the realities of a God he will stand and be accountable for. Does that make sense? Sadly, many in the Western culture do the very same thing with this text. We just don't want to face the fact that there were beings on this earth that don't make sense to our modern mind in the Western culture. And yet the Bible is very clear about these things. And so we looked at that and we looked at the whole idea of what the Bible is talking about when it talks about the sons of God and the fact that you really can't take it any other way than it was referring to angels. And I gave you a list of just a multitude of people throughout the modern history, commentators and scholars

who believe in what I called and referred to the angel view of Genesis chapter 6, 1 through 4. And so we came to this conclusion that basically is this reality, is that heavenly beings crossed a boundary and took human wives. That's where we came. Now we looked at that and briefly just kind of highlighted for just a minute that idea that we find there in Genesis chapter 6, verse 4 about the Nephilim. Who were they? They were on the earth in those days and also afterward. And that's going to be a very key one. We touched it last week and we'll look at it some more when we get going. When the sons of God came into the daughters of man and they bore children to them. These were the mighty men who were of old, the men of renown. And so in this, as we looked at that, we talked about what that meant and how the fact that there were beings that were created that were genetically not completely human. And it was Satan's rebellious attempt to really do away with the human genome so that there could not be a Genesis 3.15 redeemer to redeem humanity. That would put you to go back again and understand what you were created to become and be. And that is to have dominion and to rule alongside God. That was, that's our, that's what he created us to be, to be in his family. And Satan and those angels did not like the fact that there were beings that were going to be created that were going to have a closer relationship with God than they do and have authority and dominion that they wouldn't have. So that's what we began to see. And so this happened. As a result of all this, it began to permeate the world in such a dramatic and complete way that Genesis 6.5 says this, the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And the way this is spoken is that there was a vileness to humanity, a total depravity at a level that we all understand total depravity in one level, the fallenness of mankind. But you also know that there is a depth of that evil that people can plunge down into that goes to places that even, you know, just regular lost people say is too wicked. Does that make sense? The world had come to that place. And so in this time and as it came to this, let's go on to the second part because that's going to kind of where we're going to be starting and it's simply the man God chose. Now again, we've leaked in on this a little bit along the way because I feel like that if I don't, we're not going to be able to keep up with where we're going sometimes. And so this is what it says in Genesis chapter 6 verses 8 through 9. It said,

but Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord. These are the generations of Noah. Noah was a righteous man, blameless in his generation. Noah walked with God. Now there are several things that are said there that I think are incredibly important that we need to see. And one thing is this, that if you take in with the backdrop of a human race that has gone completely corrupt, God finds a man. And you know, one of the things about God that is interesting in his plan, the way he does it just because of him being God and we're not. And that is that God always has a remnant. He always has a remnant of people. You know what I found? He is not trying to get a majority vote. He's doing his thing and as he does it, he's going to always have a remnant that follow him. You remember whenever Elijah was complaining and saying, I'm the only one left. And God said, I have 7,000 that haven't bowed their knee. Now whenever we read that, we think, oh man, that's a lot. That is almost none. 7,000 in the midst of a few hundred thousand at least, people is just a very small drop in the bucket and yet God says, I have a remnant. Whenever Jesus had resurrected from the dead and the 40 days whenever they were there and he gathered those that were gonna be with him. How many were in that upper room? 120, a remnant. That's the way God works. So in this, we need to see that God is working his plan. He's doing his thing. And so as we look at it,

let's go to that verse eight for just a minute because I think it's important to see something that's said there. It says that, but Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord. And it's interesting there because that word favor is an important word that we need to see. And let me just give you what it means. It's actually the word chin or kin, if you wanna try to say it in a Hebrew way, I guess, is the word that's used for favor or grace. It's the first mention of grace in the Bible and it signifies an unmerited favor. So in other words, Noah was not some guy that had never sinned. He wasn't a guy that was living in sinless perfection or anything like that. He was a person that we're gonna, we looked at a little bit at it last week, but he was a person who had found favor. In other words, had stepped into God's grace, if that makes sense. So listen, verse nine says this, these are generations of Noah. Noah was a righteous man, blameless in his generation. And we looked at that last week as well. And I just wanted to remind you the word blameless there because it's actually a word that could be used for perfection. But we know that he's not talking about sinless perfection. We know, as a matter of fact, I've shown you that before.

So what does that word mean? Well, that Hebrew word that's used there means without physical defect. And it's a statement of genetic purity. He was fully human. There was not the taint of the genetic makeup of Noah and his family that was on the rest of the world. Does that make sense? That's what was happening and that's where they were. So as we see all of that, that kind of catches us up, hopefully, kind of where I hope we are and where we can be. And so as we're gonna move forward, we're gonna just look now, kind of stepping into the flood story a little bit more. So let's just go ahead and start with what I'm just calling it, the vessel God built. In verse 14 of Genesis chapter six, it says this. Make yourself an ark of gopher wood, make rooms in the ark, and cover it inside and out with pitch. Now there's a couple of key words here that I want us to see. You know, God's always telling a story. And God is always saying things that have a meaning in his entire gospel story, the good news of the kingdom and the work that he's doing. Words have meaning that carry forward in other ways. And so as we're looking at that, he uses a word here that is called ark. Now you've heard some of these things before, I'm sure,

but it's the word tebah, and it literally means ark or it could mean chest, meaning a treasure chest. And it's the only other time the word is used is for the basket built for Moses when he was a baby and placed in the Nile River, that literally whenever his mother made that basket, as it was written about him being placed in it, he was placed in the ark. It uses the same word. And so we see that in that story. So as we look at that and see all that, there's another word there, and it's the word pitch. And actually the word for pitch is used twice in there. In that it says, and cover it inside and out with pitch. The word cover and the word pitch are actually in Hebrew. They have the same root word and it's the word kafar. And it means to cover and also could be used for pitch. It's also the exact same word that's used for atonement. And so as we're looking at this, God is telling him to do particular things because God is telling a redemptive story about a Redeemer, about a covering, about a caring for, about Him having a plan. Now again, I want you to think about with me, because I know there's a lot of people are saying, well, you know, the ark, what size was it? And basically based upon the size that we have, that's written in there, the size of it was about 450 feet long, it was about 75 feet wide and about 45 feet tall. So that'd be the size of it. And you can just imagine when a family's building that, no wonder it took a hundred years. Now here's a, just kind of a scaled picture. If you were to set a school bus next to it, it'd be kind of the size of it. So I was listening to a person recently because people are saying, how could he get all of

the animals, you know, two of each, how could they do that? And he says two of every kind. And that's important for us because, you know, within kinds of animals, animals change and, you know, they, they evolve within kinds. I'm always nervous to use that word because people, it's gotten such a bad usage, but, but that's what happens. And so instead of having to bring every type of feline, you bring two. Every type of, of dog or whatever, I don't know, what are they, canine, you have two. Whenever you start thinking it and bringing that down, what you wind up with is, and I don't know the numbers exactly, I can't remember the numbers exactly, but there's only like seventeen or eighteen hundred different kinds of animals that they all then move off from that. Of course, that doesn't include fish. He didn't need to bring two fish on the, on the ark. I mean, I think they were pretty safe in that moment. But as we look at that, and even some people have done mathematical kind of computations and said, based on that, if you put it all together, you would get, you could get all of them on there and it would take up about seventy-five percent of the size of the ark. So in other words, it leaves plenty of room for not just family, but also food and all sorts of other things. So just an idea there to let you know. But there's some couple of things that I wanted as we're looking at this, that before we go into some more details about the flood itself, just about the ark, there's some things that I want to point out for all of us to think about, again, about the redemptive story, about the pitch, about the fact that it's an atonement that's there, all those things. And one is this, there is one door to enter. There's only one door. He didn't put a bunch of windows. If you see any pictures of the ark and there's a window there and there's, you know, an elephant's got his head stuck out, that's wrong, okay?

The ark, if you think about it, it was flat. It was not a boat. It was kind of like a barge. It didn't have a rudder, it didn't have any steering to it whatsoever. It was strictly made for the purpose of protecting those inside of it in the midst of the torrential storm that took place. That's all. As a matter of fact, there's been physicists and guys have taken and done studies in the fact that the way it's built and the size it's built and the dimensions are such that it could go literally up as almost 90 degrees to one side and still come back down normal without flipping over. So it was built with one purpose in mind and that was for the survival of those on the inside. But there's one door. And I think that's important for us as we think about the ark in light of redemption and in light of the atonement and these things because the Bible talks about the fact in John chapter 10 verse 9, Jesus said, I am the door. If anyone enters by me, he will be saved and you will go in and out and find pasture. He's saying I'm the door. So there's one thing we need to know is there's one door. Another thing is only those found righteous may enter. In Genesis chapter 7, listen to what the Bible says in verse 1, Then the Lord said to Noah, Go into the ark, you and all your household, for I have seen that you are righteous before me in this generation. Only the righteous could enter. He reminds you of some things Jesus said. For instance, Matthew chapter 7, verses 13 through 14, enter by the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction and those who enter by it are many. For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life and those who find it are

few. And before we think, oh man, you know, I'm glad it's just an open wide, it's not. That's why I still go back to even in the 50s when Billy Graham was preaching and they asked him how many people in churches on Sunday morning did he believe were actually saved and he said at best 50%. That was back then. But we've created these, you know, faux gospels that make people feel like, well because I say I believe in Jesus, then I must be saved and I'm like, no. You give him your life. That's what the Bible says and it's a narrow way and few find it and, you know, and that's why I tell people instead of how to pray a prayer and how to, you know, he said, ask the Holy Spirit. He said the Spirit himself testifies with our spirit whether we're children of God. Ask him. He'll show you. He'll tell you. And that brings me to the third thing I think I have in this one and that is that just before judgment God closes the door just before the flood. And that's important for all of us to be thinking about as we look at our world getting just seems crazier and crazier all the time. We see what's happening around us all the time. Just know that the Bible says the door is open still. The righteous may enter in still. In Genesis chapter 7 verse 16, listen to how it says it. And those that entered, male and female of all flesh, went in as God had commanded him and the Lord shut him in. That God then shut the door. Now that reminds me of Luke chapter 13 and just something sobering I think for all of us but I think it's in this time when we're getting ready for Easter Sunday, I hope you're praying for those that either you put on the cross or that you have as neighbors praying

for their lives because listen to what it said here. In Luke chapter 13 verses 23 through 25 it says, and someone said to him, Lord, he's talking about to Jesus, will those who are saved be few? I asked the question and that's what he said. And he said to them, strive to enter through the narrow door. For many, I tell you, will seek to enter and will not be able. When once the master of the house has risen and shut the door and you begin to stand outside and to knock at the door saying, Lord, open to us, then he will answer you, I do not know where you come from. Just know that is, we don't like to talk about that much but that is more of a reality than almost anything. And we need to take that to heart because just know those neighbors of Noah, there were probably more jokes told about him, laughter told about him. Things said about him being crazy and you know, one of those radical weirdos over here on the side and probably didn't have a lot of things that a lot of them had, the niceties of culture until that door shuts. So we need to see that. So that's the arc as we look at that. Let's go on to the next one and it's just what I'm just calling it, the judgment that God sent. You remember what I said about this, it was a judgment of mercy, a judgment of grace. You and I are here today because of the flood in Noah's day. I would call that God being merciful, wouldn't you? I mean that's the mercy of God. Now I'm about to geek out just a little bit so if you'll stay with me though, I'm going to give you a, I'll say it this way, a Hebrew lesson in the way your Bible many times is written. Now I have taught this before, but probably most of us don't remember, but have you ever heard of something called a chiastic structure? One person put their hand up, a couple of others, alright.

Well the rest of you, don't worry, I'm about to show you. It sounds weird, it's because it uses a different word than we're used to, but a chiastic structure is used in the Hebrew Bible many times to help us see what the main point is of the story, or what is the story. the main point that's being driven home. And so as we come to it, I'm just going to show you that in the story of the flood it is literally written in what is called a chiastic structure. And so before you're saying, what is it? Well, here it is, all right? And I'm going to walk through it. I don't know if you can see it, but if you can see it, the way a chiastic structure is given to us is it's like an arrow that points to a main point. The main point of the entire flood story is that outward part that says, God remembered Noah. So in the top I've got it A1, and in the bottom I've got it A2. And if you read the story, you have on the beginning of it, there were seven days of waiting for the flood. At the end of the story, there are seven days of waiting after the flood. Then we go in a bar, and as we go into the next bar, we move into this next B1 and B2, and at the top you have seven days of waiting for the flood again. And if you read the story, you'll go, well, here we are waiting again. But if you go down at the end of the story, the B2, there is a seven days of waiting after the flood. So it's narrowing in. God is telling a story, and this is why I say God is a beautiful poet. He's an artist. He loves to communicate artistically and loves to paint pictures. He just loves to do those things. And so then we move to the next one, and if you get to the next one, you've got a C1 and C2. When you get there, there were 40 days of the flood. We all talk about the 40 days, but guess what? At the end, there was 40 days of drying, and it uses those terms. And then we come in one more, and as we come into this one, you know, there was another 150 days of the water prevailing. So you have 150 days of the water. So if you go down the A through D1 side, you've got, if you read the story, there's seven days of waiting, seven more days of waiting, 40 days of the flood, and then they're out there in the water for 150 days. And then the Bible says, God remembered Noah. And then there's 150 days of the waters receding. And then there's 40 more days of drying. And then there's seven more days of waiting, and then there's seven more days. Do you see that? So you can go to work tomorrow and say, yeah, any of you here have been talking about chiastic structures? Just go on and say it. Just use

that with your guys you work with and impress them. But anyway, why is that important to us? Well, it's important because God wants to make a point that in the midst of a disaster, God remembers the righteous. In the moments when we feel like he's forgotten us, we're still on his heart. He hasn't forgotten us. Okay? So that's the whole thing. If you want to take a picture of that, they're all black. So if you'd like to have a picture of that, if that makes any sense, it'd be good to have them and then read the story and you'll go, wow, it really does do that. All right? So let's go on now because I wanted to take a few minutes and just really kind of talk about the evidence of the judgment. You know, there has been for some time, and there is of course outside of the church, but even in the church, a lot of people that struggle with a global universal flood. Now, most of us here hopefully don't, but there's just this, how could that happen? You know, how would Noah know that kind of stuff? Or Moses that wrote this? I mean, it was probably a flood that was in a regional type flood. And there's so many problems with that, by the way, that for just one of the first problems, if it covers, it goes over every mountain, even in a region, to go over every mountain in a region. You know how water does? It doesn't like pile up in one area and leave another area empty. It always rises to be the same everywhere it is. Does that make sense? So just a thought. Anyway, so let's just go. There's some things to give you real quick. Biblical evidence first. Let's just look at some biblical evidence. And I don't know, did I put in, I didn't, yeah, I did. I did all this in your outline too. Okay, let me give you some biblical evidence about the flood and about the flood being universal. So there's several places to talk, but I thought I'd give you a few highlights. Here's some from the apostles. This is from Peter in 1 Peter chapter 1, chapter 3 verse 20. says it this way, because they formally did not obey when God's patience waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was being prepared. So for 120 years, he was waiting patiently for the people, but they weren't going to turn, in which a few, that is, eight persons were brought safely through water. In 2 Peter chapter 2 verse 5 it says, if he did not spare the ancient world, but preserved Noah, a herald of righteousness, with seven others, when he brought a flood upon the world of the ungodly. So it's, the Bible says it was global, it was the world. 2 Peter chapter 3 verse 6, and that by means of these, the world that

then existed was deluged with water and perished. The writer of Hebrews, he says, the world that then existed was deluged with water and perished. He says it this way, in Hebrews 11 verse 7, by faith Noah being warned by God, concerning events as yet unseen, in reverent fear constructed an ark for the saving of his household. By this he condemned the world and became an heir of righteousness that comes by faith. So those are important, but I think in Luke chapter 17 verse 27 it says, they were eating and drinking, this is what he says about the people, they were eating and drinking and marrying and being given in marriage until the day when Noah entered the ark and the flood came and destroyed them all. So just know that the Bible is very clear about the flood. It wasn't a regional event, it was global according to the Bible. So here's just put this down if you have that in your outline, the biblical evidence points to a global flood. Whenever we come to traditions, I could literally have spent an entire lesson on just this. It is unbelievable around the world how many flood stories are in the ancient archives of histories of other nations and other cultures all around the world. I mean those that don't even touch each other. Here's just a quick list that just, I mean that you could go to any one of those. They all have flood stories that they tell and now they're all different, but they all carry the same message that there was a flood that covered the world, there was a family that was in some kind of vessel of some type, some kind of thing that survived and that's where all of us come from. Now that's kind of the way they have it. As a matter of fact there were tablets that were excavated in Iraq in the Mesopotamian area and they speak of a vanished culture in Sumer and of a king called Gilgamesh, which also talks about giants in that as well, but it speaks about the global flood. And gosh there's so many stories, I left so many things out. Here's one that in ancient China, this is what's said in one of the volumes that have been collected in China. I didn't put it up on the screens, but it says, the earth was shaken to its foundations. The sky sank lower towards the north. The sun, moon and stars changed their motions. The earth fell to pieces and the waters in its bosom rushed upward with violence and overflowed the earth. That was in China. Another one out of another area of China says, till the waters reached the sky and all living beings perished except two, a brother and sister, who were saved in a huge chest. They took with them into the chest a pair of every sort of animal. Now this is China. This is

long before anybody could have told a flood story. These are stories even that predate Jesus. Stories in different cultures. In Egypt, here's a story in Egypt. There was an ancient creation god, Tim, Tim is T-E-M by the way, not Tim like as in Timothy, who was, quote, was responsible for the primeval flood which covered the entire earth and destroyed all of mankind except those in Tim's boat. So if you're Tim, you got a boat, you're actually talked about in Egypt I guess. Then we've got in Peru, there was stories there. Water rose above the highest mountains in the world so that all people and all created things perished. No living thing escaped except a man and a woman who floated in a box on the face of the waters and so were saved. Scandinavia has one of the funniest, I think, for me funny, but I'm not going to tell all of it, but they talk about the mighty wolf Finnear, shook himself and made the whole world tremble. The aged ash tree, and it's got a name, as envisioned as the axis of the earth, was shaken from its roots and its topmost branches. Mountains crumbled and split from top to bottom. Men were driven from their hearths, and the human race was swept from the surface of the earth. The earth itself was beginning to lose its shape. Already the stars were coming adrift from the sky and falling into the gaping void. Flames spurted from the fissures of the rocks. Everywhere there was hissing and steam. All living things, all plant life, were blotted out. And now all the rivers, all the seas, rose and overflowed. From every side, waves lashed against waves. They swelled and boiled and slowly covered all things. The earth sank beneath the sea, over and over. That's Scandinavia. So, just what I gave you, if you just start looking, dotting it on the map, these stories are coming from different parts of the world, and you say, well, how did that happen? Well, hang around until we get through Genesis 11 about that, and then I'll tell you how

that happened. So, let me just give you this, what I'm saying, the traditional evidence, that's what I'm calling it. The traditional evidence from civilizations around the world points to a global flood. They all do. And then, when it comes to geological evidence, there is so much, I'm just scratching, okay? I'm not even touching it, but just scratching it. But there are several things, geological evidence, let me give you some of these. Some evidence, this is one of them, it's an evidence that really, all around the world, in rock layer after rock layer, we find billions of dead things that have been buried in water, carried, mud, and sand. And so, if you go and you see, and we talked about this, all the strata that you see, all of those are, they're all formed by the rushing of water that just rushed through and it just left a layer of sediment. And then another, you know, and of course, somebody says, well, how do we know that? Well, actually, Mount St. Helen helped us a whole bunch, be able to see how all of that can take place and how those kind of things can happen. Some other geological evidence is whenever animals die rapidly by drowning, they tend to do the same thing. It's called the death pose. And here is just a couple of fossils in rocks that they've uncovered and their head is, the way it's tilted is in what they call a death pose, that they died by drowning. Here's an interesting one. Never would think you'd see this. If you were to go to the Himalayas, there are fish fossils up high in the mountains in the Himalayas. And unless fish figured out a way to climb mountains, but here's another one. Can you imagine if you were one of the few that have climbed Mount Everest and you get to the top of it and there are clam fossils at the top of Mount Everest? Clam fossils.

It is so overwhelmingly proven, but again, I go back to our culture. To embrace that means you have to embrace the Bible, which means you have to embrace the God of the Bible, which means you are responsible and accountable to that God. And we live in a culture that rejects any accountability to a God. So this is from the geological evidence. The geological evidence points to a global flood. But there's a third, a final thing, a fourth thing that I wanted to point out just as we come to an end, and that is there's also prophetic realities here. And let me just say it this way, that in, this is what I have in your outline, Jesus gave a prophetic promise of the conditions prior to his return. If you want to know what the conditions are going to be like. prior to his return, he tells us. And this is what he says. Did everybody get that prophetic promise of the conditions? This is what he says in Matthew chapter 24 verses 37-39. For as were the days of Noah, so will it be in the coming of the Son of Man. For as in those days, before the flood, they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day when Noah entered the ark. And they were unaware until the flood came and swept them all away. So will it be. So will be the coming of the Son of Man. Now I say, some people say, well, you know, he's just talking about coming sudden like that. He could have picked any time in history, but he chose to say it's going to be those kind of conditions. And so we don't know fully what all that means, but we do know a lot about what that means. And so these are things as we're looking at this story, we begin to see this. So let me go to the last thing and we're going to be just about done, which is great. And that is what I'm calling the covenant God made. The covenant that God made. There's several things and I didn't, I honestly didn't know how much time I would have if I could get through all this or not, but it's working pretty good right now. But when you go to the first part of Genesis chapter nine, God does something that's quite interesting in that, in that first, those first several verses there, verses about eight or nine verses. He says that men can now eat animals. And I know we're all kind of like, Oh man, I'm glad about that. But you know, there's another side to that, another angle to that. It's an angle of division. You know, when in Genesis chapter three, there came a division between

us and God, but not between us and animals. Not until this. And animals, you know, once animals begin to realize, Hey, that guy I thought was my buddy. He just killed my friend and ate him. And over time they begin to learn to fear man. They also begin to learn to eat one another. And so we begin to see that there became another division, a widening of divisions on earth as we saw the divisions continuing to widen. And we're going to see that widen again in Genesis 11, whenever even humanity didn't want to get away from each other, but we are forced to part from each other. A widening is made even bigger. And so that's the first part, but there's a part in here about the covenant. And in Genesis chapter nine, verses 11 through 13, he says this, I established my covenant with you that never again shall all flesh be cut off by the waters of the flood and never again shall there be a flood to destroy the earth. And God said, this is a sign of the covenant that I make between you, between me and you and every living creature that is with you for all future generations. I have set my bow in the cloud and it shall be a sign of the covenant between me and you. And the earth. Now we know it's called the rainbow, but do you know what the word means? You know that the word bow in the Hebrew has one, one meaning. Let me just give it to you. It's actually a war bow. And here's what it means. The word it's called, the word it's kesheth translated as bow is exclusively a military term for a weapon of war. And which way does the bow turn? It faces upward toward God. That every time mankind gets to the place where he's like, I've had enough, I'm getting ready to take them out again. He looks down to see the bow pointing his way. And he said, I made a covenant. I will not strike them with water again. Isn't that cool? We've turned it into something that is horrible, which is just like Satan, wanting to get it off of what it primarily is. But what it reminds us every time you see the rainbow, every time you see the bow, know that it's a military sign of God's bow that He is not going to bring the flood again. He's not going to come in judgment and anger against evil. Isn't that good? Oh, man, praise God. Well, we made it. Well, next week is next week. Yeah, next week. I don't think we're going to be in here. I think I've been told we're going to have to move. There's a children's program, I think. Yeah. And if you say, well, where are we moving? Tell me. If you find out, let me know. I'll be there. But we'll be in Genesis chapter 10, and it's really a cool chapter about the table of nations.

But again, we're building to that next wave. Last week I tried to pull out a little bit more about what we see in the Scriptures and still didn't touch everything. It still fascinates me when I read in the Scripture and I read about Sodom and Gomorrah, for instance, and I read about why did God bring a total destruction on all those cities in that area? And He did it by fire, not by flood, but He did it by fire. Why did He do it? Well, He sends two angels, sons of God. And the men want to have sexual relations with them. It's Genesis 6. And all of a sudden we begin to understand, okay, they had moved to a level of depravity, which the Bible says was what Lot was struggling with, how evil and wicked they were. And it was a level of depravity in a spiritual immorality that God wiped them out. And so we just start seeing stuff like that through the Scriptures and you just go, man, it's everywhere. Amen? All right, let's pray together and we'll go. Father, thank You for Your Word. And Lord, I thank You that, Lord, in Your judgment it was for us to bless us. Lord, I thank You in knowing that, Lord, if there was any other way, You would have done it. But You desired to preserve a people to become Your children. And God, I thank You for the grace that You showed Noah and ultimately all mankind. Go with us, Lord, as we go and pray that You'll bless us, lead us as we're about this week, especially this week. And Father, I pray You'd speak to us through this time and give us opportunities to reflect upon the atoning covering, the blood that's been applied through the cross. And we ask this in Jesus' name. Amen.