Genesis 8:1-10:32
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Yesterday's Flood readings in Genesis were about judgment - today's readings are about redemption! Chapter 8 verse 1 stood out to me: "But God remembered Noah and all the animals in the boat." I like that phrase "But God remembered" - but I have a hunch that it is a bit understated in God's love and compassion for Noah and all of creation. Verse 11 is interesting in that if you were ever wondering where our modern day peace symbol of a dove with an olive branch comes from originally - now you know - God's peace symbol to Noah here in Genesis 8:11! "This time, toward evening, the bird returned to him with a fresh olive leaf in its beak."
Below are a couple of great NASA images of where Noah's ark landed, as we read in verse 4: "the boat came to rest on the mountains of Ararat." (Note that Bruce Feiler's incredible nonfiction archeology-type book "Walking The Bible: A Journey by land through the Five Books of Moses" opens up with him searching for Noah's Ark near Mt. Ararat in Turkey. This is a highly recommended book!) Images below courtesy of & copyrighted by ebibleteacher.com:
In Genesis chapter 9 verses 8 through 17 we are reading about the first major covenant of God's in the Old Testament called the Noahic Covenant. There are 6 more major covenants that we will get to later this year - The first Abrahamic covenant, The second Abrahamic covenant, The Sinaitic Covenant (Moses on Mt. Sinai), The Phinehas Covenant, the Davidic Covenant, and the New Covenant. So - Covenants are a big deal! God is a God of covenants! This one is laid out in all 10 verses but can basically be summed up in verse 11: "I solemnly promise never to send another flood to kill all living creatures and destroy the earth." And the rainbow is given as a sign of The Noahic Covenant.
Genesis chapter 9 verse 3 is intriguing. I forgot to mention this in previous day's posts - but, I read a commentary on the Garden of Eden and even thereafter that early descendants of Adam & Eve were strictly vegetarians - God had given Adam & Eve the fruits & plants in the Garden to eat - and then Adam's son's cultivated the ground for plants / food. But here in verse 3 God is now saying that it is okay to eat animals' meat for food: "I have given them to you for food, just as I have given you grain and vegetables." Very interesting. We'll get more details on clean and unclean animals per the Law in our OT readings early this year.
In the remainder of chapter 9 we read about Noah's son's Shem, Ham and Japheth. Initially I asked myself, why is Noah so upset with Ham? The answer lies in verse 22: "Ham, the father of Canaan, saw that his father was naked and went outside and told his brothers." The last 3 words of this sentence were the issue - Ham told his brothers his father was naked. Instead of discreetly just covering up his father on his own, he broadcast the issue to his brothers. Are there times in our life where we could discreetly take care of problems of others, or could confront the individual directly about the problem, but instead we broadcast what someone else's problems are? Is this the right thing to do? Is this the godly thing to do?
There is a lot of interesting stuff going on in the genealogy in chapter 10, which is typically called The Table of Nations, but I'll just quickly point out verses 21 & 22: "Sons were also born to Shem, the older brother of Japheth. Shem was the ancestor of all the descendants of Eber." Shem becomes translated in the future as Semites - i.e. Semitic peoples. And Eber is translated in the future as Hebrew. So, you can see that Shem's lineage is going to be the one from where Israel comes from. Below are two maps that help to visualize where Shem, Ham & Japheth's descendants listed in this genealogy end up:
Bible.org's commentary on today's readings in Genesis titled "The Noahic Covenant" is at this link and "The Nakedness of Noah" is at this link.
Worship Video: Reading about God remembering Noah in Genesis 8:1 reminded me of the song “I Still Believe” by Jeremy Camp: (which is a great movie too!)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fZPMZV9MVVY
Do you Believe? Click here for Belief!
Comments from You: What verses or insights stand out to you in today's readings? Please post up by clicking on the "Comments" link below!
God bless,
Mike
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