Gold for the heart - Genesis 6-8

Genesis 6

1 And it happened when men began to multiply on the face of the earth and daughters were born to them, 2 that the sons of God saw that the daughters of men were beautiful; and they took to themselves wives of all that they chose. 3 And the LORD said, My Spirit will not always strive with man, in their erring he is flesh: and his days will be 120 years. 4 The giants were on the earth in those days; and also afterwards, when the sons of God came in unto the daughters of men and they bare them children, they became heroes of ancient times, famous men.

The word for sons of God is ‘bene ha Elohim’ and in scripture is only used of angels (including the fallen angels, called demons, devils).

5 And GOD saw that the wickedness of man was great on the earth, and that every imagination/purpose/desire of the thoughts of his heart was only evil every day. 6 And the LORD repented that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart. 7 And the LORD said, I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth; both man and beast and the creeping thing and the fowls of the air; I regret that I have made them.

God was grieved in His innermost being by what people were doing.

Proverbs 15:3 The eyes of the LORD are in every place, beholding the evil and the good.

8 But Noah found grace in the eyes of the LORD. 9 These are the birth histories of Noah: Noah was a just man and perfect in his generations/genetics, and Noah walked with God.

Noah believed in God’s promised deliverer. Therefore he was justified by faith.
Noah’s genes were not contaminated by the demonic beings.

“Grace is unlimited love expressing itself measurelessly—uncompromised, unrestricted loving favor of God toward the sinner.” (Lewis Sperry Chafer)

God desires a close personal relationship with each person that He has made.

Revelation 3:20 Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hears my voice, and opens the door, I will come in to him, and will feast with him, and he with me.

10 And Noah fathered three sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth. 11 The earth also was ruined before God, and the earth was filled with violence. 12 And God looked on the earth, and saw it was ruined; for all flesh had corrupted his way on the earth. 13 And God said to Noah, The end of all flesh has come before me; for the earth is filled with violence through them; and, behold, I will destroy them with the earth.

Man had ruined the planet.
The air, water, and food were polluted.
The natural resources were depleted.
Over time the human genetics had been contaminated by the demoniac genes. The roots of these words in the Hebrew speak of ‘expelling the fetus.’Therefore, the promised Savior couldn't come.

14 Make an ark of gopher wood; you will make nests/rooms in the ark, and yo u will cover it inside and out with pitch. 15 And of this is the design you will make it: The length of the ark will be 450 feet long, the width 75 feet, and the height 45 feet high. 16 Build a window all the way around the boat, 18 inches below the roof. Then put three decks inside the boat—bottom, middle, and upper—and put a door in the side. 17 Behold, I, even I, bring a flood of waters on the earth, to destroy all flesh from under heaven in which is the breath of life; and every thing that is in the earth will die.

The ark resembled a three-story submarine 1 1/2 football fields long.
It was totally seaworthy.
God caused us to live by breathing His breath into us (Genesis 2:7). The people on earth who chose evil rather than their Maker would die by loss of that breath.

God establishes His covenant with us

18 But I will establish my covenant with you; and you will come into the ark, you, and your sons, and your wife, and your sons' wives with you. 19 And you will bring two of every kind of living thing of all flesh into the ark to keep them alive with you; they will be male and female. 20 Of birds after their kind/species, and of animals after their kind, of every creeping thing of the earth after its kind, two of every sort will come to you to keep them alive. 21 And take of all food that is eaten, and gather it to you; and it will be for your food and for them. 22Noah did all that God commanded him, this is what he did.

God promised hope and a new beginning.
A covenant is a legal contract.
God’s covenant is a sacred contract between God and man.
God’s has contract agreements with us also. They are signed by our faith.
In the future God will again make all things new.

John 3:16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whoever believe in him not perish, but have everlasting life.

Revelation 21:7 He that overcomes will inherit all things; and I will be his God, and he will be my son.

Revelation 21:5 And he that sat on the throne said, Behold, I make all things new.

Genesis 7

1 And the LORD said to Noah, You and all your house come into the ark; for I have seen you righteous before me in this generation. 2 Take seven of every clean animal, the male and female: and two of animals that are not clean, the male and female. 3 Also take seven each of birds of the air, male and female, to keep the species alive on the face of all the earth. 4 For in seven days I will cause it to rain on the earth for forty days and forty nights; and I will destroy/blot out every living thing that I have made from off the face of the earth. 5 And Noah did all that the LORD commanded him.

Righteousness means doing what is right.
God made us. He decides what is right.

6 And Noah was 600 years old when the flood of waters was on the earth. 7 And Noah went into the ark with his sons, his wife, and his sons' wives, because of the waters of the flood. 8 Clean animals and animals that are not clean, birds, and every thing that creeps on the earth, 9 went in two by two to Noah into the ark, the male and the female, as God had commanded Noah. 10 And it happened after seven days that the waters of the flood were upon the earth. 11 In the six hundredth year of Noah's life, in the second month, the seventeenth day of the month, that day, all the fountains of the great deep rose up, and the windows of heaven were opened.

God unleashed water on earth. Some came from within the earth, some came from above the heavens.

Proverbs 8:28When he established the clouds above: when he strengthened the fountains of the deep:

Psalm 148:4Praise him, you heavens of heavens, and you waters above the heavens.

12 And the rain was on the earth forty days and forty nights. 13 In the exact same day Noah, Shem, Ham, and Japheth, the sons of Noah, and Noah's wife, and the three wives of his sons entered into the ark with them; 14 They and every animal after its kind, and all the cattle after their kind, and every creeping thing that creeps on the earth after its kind, and every bird after its kind, every bird of every sort. 15 They went in to Noah into the ark, two by two of all flesh, in which is the breath of life.

They all went in to Noah. Imagine this parade!

God shut the door

16 And those that went in, went in male and female of all flesh, as God had commanded him: and the LORD shut him in. 17 And the flood was on the earth forty days; and the waters increased and lifted the ark up so it rose above the earth. 18 And the waters prevailed and increased greatly on the earth; and the ark floated on the face of the waters. 19 And the waters prevailed exceedingly on the earth and covered all the high hills under the whole heaven. 20 Twenty-two and a half feet upward the waters prevailed; and the mountains were covered. 21 And all flesh died that moved on the earth, both of birds, and cattle, and a nimals, and every creeping thing that crawls on the earth, and every man: 22 All that breathed the breath of life, of all that was in the dry land, died.

Remember every ‘imagination of their hearts was only evil (from the devil) continually’ and the earth ‘was filled with violence because of them.
2 Peter 2:4 For if God did not spare the angels that sinned, but cast them down to hell, and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved unto judgment;

Jude 1:6 And the angels that did not keep their first estate, but left their own habitation, he has reserved in everlasting chains under darkness unto the judgment of the great day.

23 And every living substance was destroyed that was on the face of the ground, man, livestock, the creeping things, and birds of the heaven; they were destroyed from the earth. Only Noah remained alive, and those that were with him in the ark. 24 And the waters prevailed on the earth 150 days.

God is always right, just, fair, and loving.
He saw all the horror that the world had become by their choices.
He saw the blood of the innocent shed.
He heard their cries.
He allowed 120 years for the people of the world to return to Him. He is life. They refused. They chose death.

Psalm 34:15 The eyes of the LORD are on the righteous; his ears are open to their cry.

Deuteronomy 32:4 He is the Rock, his work is perfect: for all his ways are judgment: a God of truth and without iniquity, just and right is he.

Genesis 8

God remembers us

1 And God remembered Noah, and every living thing, and all the animals that were with him in the ark: and God made a wind pass over the earth and the waters subsided. 2 The fountains of the deep and the windows of heaven were stopped, and the rain from heaven was held back; 3 And the waters receded steadily: and after the end of the 150 days the waters were decreased. 4 The ark rested on the mountains of Ararat in the seventh month, on the seventeenth day of the month, 5 And the waters decreased steadily until the tenth month: in the tenth month, on the first day of the month, the tops of the mountains were seen.

Noah and his family were delivered through a storm like no other storm.
The ark God had Noah to build is a picture of our safety in Jesus Christ.
The word Ararat means “the curse is reversed.”

6 And at the end of forty days Noah opened the window of the ark that he had made: 7 And he sent out a raven, which came and went until the waters were dried up from off the earth. 8 He also sent out a dove to see if the waters were lifted from the face of the ground; 9 But the dove found no rest for the sole of her foot, and she returned to him in the ark because the waters were on the face of the whole earth: then he put out his hand and took her and pulled her to him into the ark. 10 And he waited another seven days and he sent the dove out of the ark again; 11 And the dove came in to him in the evening; and behold, in her mouth was plucked olive leaf: so Noah knew that the waters were abated from off the earth.

The raven is a scavenger. It found plenty of carrion to eat.
The dove is a clean animal and would not light her feet on floating corpses.
The olive leaf is significant because the temple posts and the doors of the holy of holies were made of wood from the olive tree.
The oil for the lamps was olive oil.

Revelation 21:5 And he that sat on the throne said, Behold, I make all things new. And he said to me, Write: for these words are true and faithful.

12 And he waited another seven days; and sent out the dove, which did not return to him any more. 13 It happened in the six hundred and first year, in the first month, the first day of the month, the waters were dried up from off the earth: and Noah removed the covering of the ark and looked; and behold, the face of the ground was dry. 14 And in the second month, on the twenty-seventh day of the month was the earth dry. 15 And 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 that is with you, of all flesh, both birds, and animals, and of every creeping thing that creeps on the earth; that they may breed abundantly in the earth, and be fruitful, and multiply on the earth. 18 And Noah went out, and his sons, and his wife, and his sons' wives with him: 19 Every animal, every creeping thing, and every bird, and whatever creeps on the earth, after their families, went out of the ark. 20 And 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.

God sent them out to new life.
The altar was the place of approach to God.
God specified the blood sacrifice that pictured His Sons blood to be shed for us for remission of sins. This was an act of faith.

2 Corinthians 5:17-19 Therefore if any man is in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.

Hebrews 9:22 And almost all things are by the law purged with blood; and without shedding of blood is no remission.

James 4:8 Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you.

21 And the LORD smelled a sweet aroma/savior of rest; and the LORD said in his heart, I will never again curse the ground for man's sake; though the imagination of man's heart is evil from his youth; neither will I again strike down every thing living, as I have done. 22 While the earth remains, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, and day and night will not cease.

From Adam until this 600^th year of Noah’s life crops were very difficult to grow.
God lifted that curse at this time.
Our trust and obedience are sweet to God.

Psalm 1:1Blessed is the man that does not walk in the counsel of the ungodly, or stand in the way of sinners, or sit in the seat of the scornful. 2 But his delight is in the law of the LORD; and in his law he meditates day and night. 3 He will be like a tree planted by the rivers of water that brings forth his fruit in his season; his leaf will not wither; and whatever he does will prosper. 4 The ungodly are not so: but are like the chaff that the wind drives away. 5 Therefore the ungodly will not stand in the judgment, or sinners in the congregation of the righteous. 6 For the LORD knows the way of the righteous: but the way of the ungodly will perish.

*************************************************************************

SUMMARY: Genesis 6-8

The Lord strives with sinful man
He promised hope and a new beginning
He kept His own safe from worldwide disaster brought on by evil
He remembers us
He lifts the curse