The Bible Recap - Day 003 (Genesis 8-11) - Year 3

Starting point is 00:00:00 Hey Bible readers, I'm Tara Lee Cobble and I'm your host for the Bible recap. Today in Genesis 8 through 11, we read about the aftermath of the Great Flood, and everything on earth has been destroyed except for eight people on the ark. Noah, his wife, their three sons, and their three wives, plus the animals. Post-Flood, we see God establishing this covenant with Noah that he had promised to establish pre-Flood, and we see God engaging with this family of people

Starting point is 00:00:36 and promising to be faithful to them, despite how every other aspect of their world has shifted dramatically. Everyone that know his dead, the world is muddy and gross, and they're living in a new location, everything has changed. Even their lifespan will change. We read about this yesterday in Genesis 6.3, God gave them a little heads up not to expect those crazy long lifespans anymore. The environment had changed dramatically, and they're a couple millennia removed from the genetic perfection of Adam and Eve,

Starting point is 00:01:05 so it makes sense that they would drop to 120 years at this point. Despite all these changes, God makes some promises to them of something that will not change. He enters into this covenant with them promising that he will never again destroy the earth with a flood. Later in Scripture, in 2 Peter 3, we find out that he will someday destroy the earth with a fire, but not with a flood. Later in Scripture in 2 Peter 3, we find out that he will someday destroy the earth with a fire, but not with a flood. And in the same way that the earth existed after it was destroyed by water, because we're standing on it right now, it will still exist after it's destroyed with fire. In fact, in the eternal kingdom, all of those who have been adopted into God's family will reign with Christ on the recreated Earth.

Starting point is 00:01:47 We see this in Revelation 5, so if this is confusing to you, hang in there. I know it's still a long way off in our reading plan, but we'll get there in another 11 and a half months or so. I think all of this is really interesting, especially regarding the ultimate limits of global climate change. Whether you believe Earth's current status is the result of humans neglecting our call to be good stewards of the Earth, or if it's just a natural process the Earth is going through, or even some combination of the two, Scripture offers us the comfort of knowing that God, who is sovereign over it all, promises there will be at least some kind of limit to the damage.

Starting point is 00:02:21 Because 8.22 tells us there will always be seasons and harvests as long as the Earth remains. But that's not an excuse for me to just live however I want, that's not the messaging here. He has still called us to be good stewards. God has some plans he calls Noah to join in on, given that there are now only 8 people on earth, and especially given God's ultimate plan to send the Messiah through a poor woman who wouldn't even be born for another 2,000 years. God reminded them in Genesis 9.1 that they had a role to play in accomplishing his purposes by telling these eight people to be fruitful and multiply. Given the billions of people on Earth today, it looks like they obeyed, but guess what?

Starting point is 00:03:00 They also kind of hedged. They didn't start out filling the earth, they only started out multiplying. In 114, we see how they really prefer to stay put instead of spread out. They pridefully reject his command, but God, being the sovereign God that he is, continues to work out his plan despite their resistance. In 119, he disperses them over the face of the earth. Rest assured, he accomplishes his plans. We cannot thwart his will despite our best sinful efforts. And this should feel more like a great comfort to us than a threat.

Starting point is 00:03:35 Aren't you glad you get me as a pissed plan? I know I am. We hit another weird patch in Genesis 9, 18 to 27, and there are a lot of theories about what's going on here. There's much debate about what this part, about Noah's son, seems to mean, but the general conclusion is that his son, Ham, committed some kind of action that was contrary to God's orders, so much so that it was obvious. And again, like we talked about when Cain murdered Abel, we're still pretty far ahead of the Ten Commandments here.

Starting point is 00:04:04 But there's still an understanding of what's right and wrong, even though it hasn't been written out with 10 laws on tablets or 613 laws on scrolls, which are coming in our next few books, by the way. As a result of what Ham did, Noah curses Ham and his descendants in 925-27, and then in 10-6-20, we see these cursed descendants listed out. One curse line that I really want to highlight is one that will continue to see throughout Scripture. They are the Canaanites. For the most part, they are seen as the enemies of God's people, but he does some really beautiful things by redeeming people outside of his clan like Rehab the prostitute, who was a canonite, but who is also part of the lineage of Jesus.

Starting point is 00:04:50 This actually serves as a picture for us of how God acts toward any and all of us that he redeems, because we're all enemies of God by birth. All God's children are children by adoption. So in this picture, we see God fulfilling His promises both to bless and to curse. So where did you see God's character, Portray, today? What's your God's shot for today? Here's mine. He's a God who blesses and who curses. Now, if you remember, he did a whole lot of blessing in the first few chapters of Genesis, and we saw more of that today. We hear people say a lot that God is love, and that's true, but it's incomplete. He doesn't just dull out blessing. He's much more complex than that. And even still, what we see is that he's a God who blesses his enemies.

Starting point is 00:05:38 Like I said, that's how we all started out. And for those of us who've been adopted into his family, we were blessed when he pursued us as his enemies and clothed us in the righteousness of Christ. This is reminiscent of what we read about the Garden of Eden when Adam and Eve sinned. When they sinned and hid from him, he pursued them. He chased them down not to punish them, but to cloth them. He did that with us, too. It's evident every day on the pages that we're reading that he's where the joy is. Tomorrow, we're going to move into the book of Job, and we'll be there for a little less than two weeks. The reason we go to Job now instead of

Starting point is 00:06:18 continuing in Genesis is because we're reading chronologically. Most biblical historians put Job's timeline after Noah, but slightly before the timeline of Abraham. So we'll go read Job's story in the Book of Job. Then we'll pop back over here to Genesis where we'll dive right into Abraham's story afterward. Tomorrow we'll be starting the Book of Job. It's 42 chapters long. We're linking to a short video overview in the show notes,

Starting point is 00:06:42 so check that out if you've got 11 minutes to spare. And just a reminder, if you're using our plan in the Bible app, this video will also be linked for you at the start of tomorrow's reading. For those of you who aren't familiar with Patreon, I'll fill you in on what it is. We live in a world where most quote-unquote free content is paid for by ads. Patreon works to find a way around that. It's a website and an app where content creators like us who want to offer ad-free content

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The Bible Recap - Day 003 (Genesis 8-11) - Year 3

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