I had planned to talk about the Madness of Nations and Genesis 11, but I will defer that to next week. I want to talk about Genesis (Bible) difficulties.
There are some things the Bible states EXPLICITLY. After the fall, Genesis 5:4 says, “Adam lived 800 years after he fathered Seth, and he fathered other sons and daughters.” Another example is Genesis 9:10, “These three were Noah’s sons, and from them the whole earth was populated.” Genesis 10 is an accounting of how Noah’s three sons literally multiplied, filled the earth, and became nations. The Bible explicitly teaches that all human being trace their direct lineage not only to Adam, but to Noah and sons and daughters.
There are some things the Bible states IMPLICTLY. This week a bunch of people asked, “Where did Cain get his wife?” Genesis only tells us about Cain, Abel, and Seth. The Bible is giving us a very selective, focused history. As we’ve seen, the Genesis writer is only concerned with who Eve’s “satan-crushing seed or offspring” is going to be. The Bible doesn’t care who Cain’s wife is, it's focused on who the promised Messiah or Christ is going to be! Not Cain, Not Abel, Not Seth, not Enosh, not Enoch, Not Noah… Not any of Noah’s sons… but who?
There are extra-biblical writings (like Josephus) that state Adam and Eve initially had two sons and daughters. What’s implied in Genesis 3-4 is that the entire earth was populated through sibling incest. What’s implied in Genesis 9:10 is that after the flood, the entire earth was repopulated through familial or cousin to cousin incest. While we're on this uncomfortable scandalous subject, I’ll do you one better. In Genesis 38 the twice widowed Tamar, deceives and seduces her own father-in-law, and as a result has twins, Perez and Zerah!
There are many things the Bible simply DESCRIBES. The modern person thinks of Adam’s children, or Noah’s grandchildren did, and says, “That’s unholy! That’s utterly sinful and wrong! That’s an explicit violation of OT law… Leviticus, etc.” But worse is the story of Tamar—how could father-in-law Judah do such a thing? How could Tamar do that? There are many more examples of deviant acts in Genesis. As much as we’d love to distance ourselves from these narratives, we are all children of Adam and Noah. And in the case of Judah… Jesus himself was of the tribe of the deviant father-in-law Judah and his daughter Tamar! Yes, look at Matthew’s genealogy. The satan-crushing Savior Jesus, the offspring of Eve, the salvation history of God, flows through the incestuous likes of Judah and Tamar, and adulterous likes of David and Bathsheba!
So Modern Man says, “Aha, gotcha Christian. God hates sexual deviance in all its forms. The Bible is mythological, it isn’t true. No way a holy God uses such unholy means to twice propagate the earth, or from such mess bring us to Jesus!”
To deal with this, many Christians run from the Genesis narrative. They are so embarrassed, they reconstruct Genesis to modern liking. So they posit that Adam and Eve weren’t the only humans God created. They posit that the flood didn’t really wipe out “every” human being except Noah and his wife and their sons and wives (eight people). But once you begin to reconstruct Genesis, where do you stop? In the end, when you begin deconstructing Genesis you end up throwing the whole Bible out.
Others say Adam and Eve were genetically perfect, so there is no sin, if there is no threat of genetic defects occurring. But that doesn’t help us because Noah’s grandkids were post-fall, as was Judah and Tamar, etc. The issue resurfaces!
There is a very obvious and simple truth modern man misses. When Adam was alone without companion, God intervened, created Eve from his side, and provided. Had Adam and Eve never sinned, who knows how or who God might have provided eventual companions for Cain and Abel—but it would have been holy! But before Cain and Abel are even born sin enters the world. And whenever we humans sin, we spoil whatever perfect provision God might have otherwise made. And not only that, whenever we sin, were often left with inferior, worse, sinful alternatives.
Because of Adam and Eve’s sin they spoiled what good, holy, and perfect provision may have been possible. Their children Cain, Abel, and Seth had no alternative but to do the inexcusable, and inbreed or intermarry. We don’t have to run from the Bible narrative at all. This wasn’t God’s plan nor was it his will. We know how God feels about the dark, unfortunate, tragic, rebellious, murderous, incestuous, deviant arc of human history. Cain and Abel and every human after Adam, is corrupt in a trillion ways.
In Genesis 6:3, the Lord says, “My Spirit will not remain with mankind forever, because they are corrupt. Their days will be 120 years.” Genesis 6:5, “When the Lord saw that human wickedness was widespread on the earth and that every inclination of the human mind was nothing but evil all the time, the Lord regretted that he had made man on the earth, and he was deeply grieved.” The glory of God isn’t in what man brought about; we smashed whatever good God willed. The glory of God is in what God can bring about in spite of Satan’s schemes and man’s wickedness.
Headline #1: God Regrets, Grieves, and Releases.
We should think of God as a father. Nobody has greater dreams for their children than a good, good father. When a child becomes evil, we should not be surprised that a good Father would feel regret, or even anger. No parents wants to see their evil child dying a slow death, much less, inflicting cruelty on others. A good father might release their child to evil for a while… but inevitably sin leads to death, and when death comes knocking, a good Father is double grieved. NOT JUBILANT. Overwhelmingly grieved. Righteously angry at what a child’s life could have been, but never was!
But God has an even bigger problem. God is holy, perfect. God is righteous, he is the lawgiver and just judge. God cannot betray his own character and shrug his shoulders at sin. He warned Adam and Eve, if you violate morality, if you eat of the tree, "dying you will die". You will lose fellowship and communion with the holy! Sin will set death into motion and there will be no escape! There is a moral necessity to judgment… God’s IS just. He can’t NOT BE. The flood of Genesis was an inevitability. The flood, wrath, is the inevitable outcome of man’s rebellious will. None can escape.
Yet the Bible also says God is gracious, compassionate, and slow to anger. What is a loving God to do? God in his goodness has made a provision for sinful man. He would send forth an offspring of Eve to crush the head of Satan. When we find sin to be too much, when we realize how imminent the terror of Death truly is… we can turn to God and trust Him. When we turn to God, God recognizes (credits) our faith as righteousness! This is what Noah did, and as we’ll see, also Abraham! This is the gospel in Genesis. When we trust God (and only if), He can make a way to shield us from judgment and carry us through to salvation. Noah!
Headline #2: God Recognizes Faith as Righteousness
Genesis 6:1, “These are the family records of Noah. Noah was a righteous man, blameless among his contemporaries; Noah walked with God. And Noah fathered three sons: Shem, Ham, and Japheth.” Genesis 7:1, “Then the Lord said to Noah, “Enter the ark, you and all your household, for I have seen that you alone are righteous before me in this generation.” Genesis 6:22 (7:5,9,16), “And Noah did this. He did everything that God had commanded him.” Hebrews 11:7, “By faith Noah, after he was warned about what was not yet seen and motivated by godly fear, built an ark to deliver his family. By faith he condemned the world and became an heir of the righteousness that comes by faith.”
When we sin, not only is God’s provision spoiled, but the floodgates of hell are released. We die. But when we repent and truth to God, the floodgates of grace are released. Faith is the key that unlocks grace! To have faith doesn’t mean you are without sin. Faith means you are looking to God for salvation provision. The only provision God has made is the eventual offspring of Eve, Jesus of Nazareth.
Headline #3: God Remembers Noah’s Faith.
There is an interesting verse in Genesis 8:1 that says, “God remembered Noah, as well as all the wildlife and all the livestock that were with him in the ark. God caused a wind to pass over the earth, and the water began to subside.” No matter how dark, chaotic the world grows around us, even if all the earth is coming under the judgement of God… God remembers those who trust him and love him.
Headline #4: God Renews All Things.
Genesis 8:20-22, “Then Noah built an altar to the Lord. He took some of every kind of clean animal and every kind of clean bird and offered burnt offerings on the altar. 21 When the Lord smelled the pleasing aroma, he said to himself, “I will never again curse the ground because of human beings, even though the inclination of the human heart is evil from youth onward. And I will never again strike down every living thing as I have done. 22 As long as the earth endures, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, and day and night will not cease.”
Genesis 9:1, “God blessed Noah and his sons and said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth.” Genesis 9:1-12, “And God said, “This is the sign of the covenant I am making between me and you and every living creature with you, a covenant for all future generations: 13 I have placed my bow in the clouds, and it will be a sign of the covenant between me and the earth. 14 Whenever I form clouds over the earth and the [rain]bow appears in the clouds, 15 I will remember my covenant between me and you and all the living creatures: water will never again become a flood to destroy every creature. 16 The [rain]bow will be in the clouds, and I will look at it and remember the permanent covenant between God and all the living creatures on earth.” 17 God said to Noah, “This is the sign of the covenant that I have established between me and every creature on earth.”
•In Genesis 8-10 you have a Recreation or Reset of Heaven, Earth, Humanity.
• In Genesis 1:1-2, the Spirit of God hovers over dark, chaotic, water depths. Here the Spirit of God protects Noah and family by faith as the waters surge. In Genesis 1 God speaks, and by his command forms heaven and earth. In Genesis 8-10 God speaks, and commands the waters to subside.
• In Genesis 2 God sets morality and immortality before Adam and Eve, and commands them to trust and obey, to fill and subdue the earth. In Genesis 8-10 God commands Noah and family to do the same.
• In Genesis 3 Adam and Eve sin, realize they are naked, and need to be covered. In Genesis 8-10 Noah becomes drunk, he is found passed out naked in his tent, by his son Ham, who mockingly points out his father Noah’s shame to his brothers. Ham is cursed, along with his descendants… but his brothers cover their father Noah’s nakedness.
• In Genesis 3 the hope of the world was set on the offspring of Eve… Cain and Abel. In Genesis 8-10 the hope of the world is set upon Noah’s sons. Ham is canceled out. The satan-crushing savior ain’t gonna be no Ham! Maybe Japheth will be the satan-crushing offspring of Eve? Or maybe Shem?
Shem was the father of Abraham… Though Abraham’s seed God promised all nations on earth blessed! One day God will destroy the earth with fire. His just judgement is as certain now as it was in Genesis 8-10. But through faith, God promises to remember, to shield and protect those who love and trust him.
Noah’s ark is as much a picture of our present salvation as anything past. 1 Peter 3:18-22, “For Christ also suffered for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring you to God. He was put to death in the flesh but made alive by the Spirit, 19 in which he also went and made proclamation to the spirits in prison 20 who in the past were disobedient, when God patiently waited in the days of Noah while the ark was being prepared. In it a few—that is, eight people—were saved through water. 21 Baptism, which corresponds to this, now saves you (not as the removal of dirt from the body, but the pledge of a good conscience toward God) through the resurrection of Jesus Christ, 22 who has gone into heaven and is at the right hand of God with angels, authorities, and powers subject to him.”