GET READY
We all have had projects or tasks that weren’t going well, when we wish we could go back to square one and just start over. How do you deal with that kind of task? Do you scrap what you have done and begin again? Do you keep working through the difficulty? Or do you try to hand it to someone else?
THE WORD
69 These are the descendants of Noah. Noah was a righteous man, blameless in his generation; Noah walked with God. 10And Noah had three sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth.
11Now the earth was corrupt in God’s sight, and the earth was filled with violence. 12And God saw that the earth was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted its ways upon the earth. 13And God said to Noah, “I have determined to make an end of all flesh, for the earth is filled with violence because of them; now I am going to destroy them along with the earth. 14Make yourself an ark of cypress wood; make rooms in the ark, and cover it inside and out with pitch. 15This is how you are to make it: the length of the ark three hundred cubits, its width fifty cubits, and its height thirty cubits. 16Make a roof for the ark, and finish it to a cubit above; and put the door of the ark in its side; make it with lower, second, and third decks. 17For my part, I am going to bring a flood of waters on the earth, to destroy from under heaven all flesh in which is the breath of life; everything that is on the earth shall die. 18But I will establish my covenant with you; and you shall come into the ark, you, your sons, your wife, and your sons’ wives with you. 19And of every living thing, of all flesh, you shall bring two of every kind into the ark, to keep them alive with you; they shall be male and female. 20Of the birds according to their kinds, and of the animals according to their kinds, of every creeping thing of the ground according to its kind, two of every kind shall come in to you, to keep them alive. 21Also take with you every kind of food that is eaten, and store it up; and it shall serve as food for you and for them.” 22Noah did this; he did all that God commanded him.
7Then the Lord said to Noah, “Go into the ark, you and all your household, for I have seen that you alone are righteous before me in this generation. 2 Take with you seven pairs of all clean animals, the male and its mate; and a pair of the animals that are not clean, the male and its mate; 3 and seven pairs of the birds of the air also, male and female, to keep their kind alive on the face of all the earth. 4 For in seven days I will send rain on the earth for forty days and forty nights; and every living thing that I have made I will blot out from the face of the ground.” 5 And Noah did all that the Lord had commanded him.
6 Noah was six hundred years old when the flood of waters came on the earth. 7 And Noah with his sons and his wife and his sons’ wives went into the ark to escape the waters of the flood. 8 Of clean animals, and of animals that are not clean, and of birds, and of everything that creeps on the ground, 9 two and two, male and female, went into the ark with Noah, as God had commanded Noah. 10And after seven days the waters of the flood came on the earth.
9The Covenant with Noah
God blessed Noah and his sons, and said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth. 2 The fear and dread of you shall rest on every animal of the earth, and on every bird of the air, on everything that creeps on the ground, and on all the fish of the sea; into your hand they are delivered. 3Every moving thing that lives shall be food for you; and just as I gave you the green plants, I give you everything. 4 Only, you shall not eat flesh with its life, that is, its blood. 5 For your own lifeblood I will surely require a reckoning: from every animal I will require it and from human beings, each one for the blood of another, I will require a reckoning for human life.
11I establish my covenant with you, that never again shall all flesh be cut off by the waters of a flood, and never again shall there be a flood to destroy the earth.” 12God said, “This is the sign of the covenant that I make between me and you and every living creature that is with you, for all future generations: 13I have set my bow in the clouds, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between me and the earth. NRSV
GET INTO THE WORD
1. Who are the people in this incident? What distinguishes them from others?
2. What is the situation at the beginning. What does God plan to do about it? How do you suppose Noah felt about God’s plan?
3. What does God want Noah to do? How big was this project to be? What was Noah supposed to do when he finished? How do you think he felt about that? How do you think his sons felt when he told them?
4. How many of each species was Noah to take with him? How about the “clean” animals? Why is there a difference between the two types [see Notes]?
5. How many people were in the ark? How old was Noah when the Earth flooded? How long was the flood [see Notes]?
6. What did God do with Noah after the flood? What was the relationship with the animals he had saved? What was different about the food for humans? What restriction did God put on eating? Why do you think he did that?
7. What did God promise Noah? Who else was involved in this promise? What sign did God give about his promise?
GET PERSONAL
What is your overall image of God in this situation? What aspects of his character seem important here? How has he helped you see the need to “wash out” your old habits and attitudes and start over with your new life and new relationship with him?
NOTES
6:13. Filled with violence— the flood is a moral judgment on the earth and humanity.
6:14. Cypress— literally “gopher” wood, although cypress wood was common in ancient shipbuilding.
6:15. Ark . . . cubit— a cubit was the length of a person’s forearm, elbow to fingertip: about 18 inches. The ark would have been roughly 450 feet by 75 feet and 45 feet deep, (by comparison a US Navy aircraft carrier is 1000 feet by 250 feet and the deck is 70 feet above the water).
6:17. Flood— archeologists have found no solid evidence of such a massive flood and there is no evidence of any boat dating before the exodus in the Ararat mountains in eastern Turkey [v. 8:4].
7:2. Seven pairs of clean animals— while Noah takes a male and female of every living thing for reproduction, God tells him
to take seven pair of“clean” animals, which Noah uses for sacrifice after the flood [v. 8:20].
Clean animals— evidently the clean/unclean system pre-dates Moses’ introduction of sacrifice during the exodus. There is no evidence of similar distinctions in other ancient cultures.
7:11. Length of the flood— it looks like Noah and his family were in the ark for 12 months and 11 days (although we don’t know how long the months were).
9:1. Be fruitful— an echo of God’s command to Adam and Eve [1:28].
9:4. Blood— God will expand on this prohibition to Moses many years later [Deut 12:23-25].
9:11. Covenant— God commits to Noah and “every living creature” to never use a flood again to destroy the earth, and he gives the rainbow as a sign of this covenant.
Memory Verse
It’s the last verse in this passage: Genesis 9:13.
Lesson 7
Genesis 12 and 15: God’s Call and covenant with Abram.
I forget which animals are considered “clean”–I thought the “unclean” were the animals with cloven feet?
You asked a personal overall image of God in this situation—this will sound terrible but something like if you don’t to do it my way then there’s the highway. Little tolerance for mankind–instead of setting or finding ways to “cure–fix” the people that were there–he destroys them all, I find it hard to believe that there were no others that followed God like Noah did. But as we are always saying “we don’t understand the plan”. Faith?
Even though God calls for 7 pair of “clean” creatures and 1 pair of “unclean” creatures, the criteria don’t show up until Moses writes them in Leviticus 11. Basically, “clean” animals have cloven feet and chew cud, fish have both fins and scales, and birds that are not listed as unclean [Lev 11:13-19]. God requires 7 pair of clean creatures so Noah has some for sacrifices (also not explained until later in the Bible).
thank you–guess I turned that around–clean have the cloven foot–what do pigs have? not really important–I also thought that crustations were considered unclean–lobster, shrimp etc?
Pigs have cloven feet but do not chew cud. Lobster and shrimp: no fins, no scales, no eat.