Day 3, January 3 Bible Reading

 

Day 3,  January 3

Gen. 7-9 The flood / God’s covenant with Noah / Noah’s sons

NOTE:

The above picture IS Noah's Ark today! Edward E. Stevens and his wife Beth Stevens were there in September, 2016.

She said "We climbed up on top and walked the full length stern to bow! You can see the rib timbers. The dimensions of this object match the dimensions given in Genesis. It has been determined by scientists that this is a man made object, not just a rock formation. We were there and saw it with our own eyes and truly 100% believe it is Noah's Ark. The Turkish government believes it to be the Ark and built the Visitors Center shown above."

Genesis 7

• There have been many flood stories originating from ancient Mesopotamia. In one such story Enil sent a flood because humans were disturbing his sleep.  In Genesis, it is not what humans were doing to God that prompted this response, but the violence to each other.

• Contrary what we were taught, God told Noah to take SEVEN pairs of clean animals, SEVEN pairs of birds, and ONE pair of unclean animals. How did Noah know which were clean and unclean, if the Law of Moses had not yet been given? 

• Paul said the lesson we should get from the story of Noah is that ”.. 9 the Lord knows how to rescue godly men from trials and to hold the unrighteous for the day of judgment, while continuing their punishment. 10 This is especially true of those who follow the corrupt desire of the sinful nature and despise authority.” 1 Peter 2:9-10

• Note who was taken? The wicked.  Who was left behind? The righteous. This alone should tell you what Jesus meant when he spoke about the Days of Noah in Matt 24:37 and Luke 17:26-27.  It had nothing to do with a rapture that says instead the wicked were left behind.

• The Flood Represents a Baptism to separate the Dead from the Living, through the ark of the resurrection of Christ [1 Peter 3:21]

• The Tough Question: What Happened to Those Who Drowned from an Eternal Perspective? What Does This Teach us About God and Life after Death? Are you one who is Drowning or Are you Buoyant? I would leave that for the book.

• Hint: Christ experienced both sides of the flood. He was put to death in the body, but raised in the Spirit. Through the agency of the Spirit, He found it fit to still preach the gospel to those spirits in prison, the very same ones that Noah preached to who disobeyed long ago when God waited patiently for a response then while the ark was being built. [1 Peter 4:3-6]

Genesis 8

• God said “Nor will I again destroy every living thing as I have done. While the earth remains, Seedtime and harvest, Cold and heat, Winter and summer, And day and night, Shall not cease.” 

• He meant it.  He will not destroy again.  It does not mean as some say, He will destroy with fire next time,  He said never. That includes fire. His anger will never be used to wipe out everyone.

• To prove that He meant it, God referred to this in [Isa 54:4-6], in reference to Israel. God told Israel that reconciling with her, forgetting the shame of her youth, her whoredom, and calling back his deserted wife to become her Husband no more estranged,  is as the days of Noah to Him, where He will not be angry with her any more. [Isa 54:9] “9 "To me this is like the days of Noah , when I swore that the waters of Noah would never again cover the earth. So now I have sworn not to be angry with you, never to rebuke you again. “ 

Genesis 9

• When the flood ended, God placed a rainbow [a peaceful bow] in the sky in order to remind himself of the covenant he has made with humankind to never respond to their violence with violence again. This was also in the Babylonian creation epic, Enuma Elish, where the god Marduk is said to place his bow in the sky, where it becomes a constellation, as a warning that if violence perpetuated, more violence would ensue.  Hence the God of the Bible differentiated Himself from the other gods in similar stories..

• The rainbow is not originally a sign of any identity group, but of the covenant that God reconciled all things.

• It is a covenant with every living creature represented by four categories: Man, Birds, Cattle, Beasts.

• The four categories specifically mentioned each have a head, or leading creature. Noah and sons represent MAN in general; the king of the birds is the EAGLE; the king of the cattle is the OX; and the king of the beasts is the LION.

• These creatures, then, appear as representatives of creation surrounding the throne of God in Rev. 4:7 "And the first creature was like a lion, and the second creature like a calf, and the third creature had a face like that of a man, and the fourth creature was like a flying eagle.". They are also the creatures in Ezekiel.

• Lots more to this that I will cover in a book including the curse of Canaan. And no, it has NOTHING to do with black people.

Reference:

• http://noahsarksearch.com/ronwyatt.htm