Session 4: Week 3 – Genesis 6:8-22
This week we’re going to begin our study with a verse that says something that each of us wants in our own lives. Genesis 6:8. Despite the days being wicked and people everywhere having evil hearts, Noah found grace in the eyes of יְהוָה.
Now the first thing I want to talk about is in who’s eyes Noah found grace. יְהוָה is God’s personal and intimate name. Sadly, in many of our English Bibles that name is replaced by the words ‘the Lord.’ We need to remember that we are studying God’s Word to get to know Him more intimately. When you get married to someone you know them by their first and personal name, not just their title. So, we too must get used to getting to know God by His holy name vs. just His title, Lord, which means master. He is so much more to us than just our master.
How do you think knowing God by His personal name vs. just His title, Lord, effects your relationship with Him?
יְהוָה, personally is the lover of our souls. Noah found grace in the eyes of יְהוָה because Noah was intimate with Him. We’ll see that in verse 9.
8 But Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord.
Next let’s look at this grace. The Hebrew word is חֵן chên khane; from H2603; graciousness, i.e. subjective (kindness, favor) or objective (beauty):—favour, grace(-ious), pleasant, precious, (well-) favoured.
There are actually two Hebrew words that are translated grace in our English Scriptures. The other is chesed. Chesed has a little different meaning.
Biblical scholars have often complained that the word חֶסֶד in the Hebrew Bible is difficult to translate into English, because it really has no equivalent in our language. English versions usually try to represent it with such words as “loving-kindness,” “mercy,” “steadfast love,” and sometimes “loyalty,” but the full meaning of the word cannot be conveyed without an explanation, such as the one given in the article below. This article, by Norman H. Snaith, is reproduced from A Theological Word Book of the Bible, edited by Alan Richardson (New York: MacMillan, 1951), pp. 136-7.
Loving-Kindness. This is a biblical word, invented by Miles Coverdale, and carried over into the English versions generally. It is one of the words he used in the Psalms (23 times, plus Hosea 2:19) to translate the Hebrew chesed when it refers to God’s love for his people Israel. Otherwise he used ‘mercy,’ ‘goodness,’ and ‘great kindness’ in the Psalms for God’s attitude to man; and, outside the Psalms, such words as ‘mercy,’ ‘goodness,’ ‘favour’ for God’s attitude to man, and ‘kindness’ for man’s attitude to man. (See other resources for the full article).
Noah found kindness, favor, preciousness, pleasantness, beauty in יְהוָה’s sight.
What can we do in our own lives to find grace (Chen) in God’s sight?
9 This is the genealogy of Noah. Noah was a just man, perfect in his generations. Noah walked with God. 10 And Noah begot three sons: Shem, Ham, and Japheth.
Noah had three sons born to him, Shem, Ham, and Japheth, before God sent a flood to destroy the world Genesis 5:32. Whenever the names of Noah’s three sons are recorded, Shem is always mentioned first e.g., Genesis 9:18; 10:2, 21, even though Shem was the second-born (the Bible often lists people according to prominence rather than age). Japheth was the oldest Genesis 10:21, and Ham was the youngest Genesis 9:24.
Japheth was born when Noah was 500 years old, and the flood came 100 years later Genesis 7:6–7. Since Shem was 100 two years after the flood Genesis 11:10, he must have been born when Noah was 502 years old. There is no record of when Ham was born other than the fact that he was born sometime after Shem Genesis 9:24.
“Shem was the ancestor of all the sons of Eber” Genesis 10:21, and this is important because the word Eber is the origin of the Hebrew word for “Hebrew.” The word Shem means “name,” which implies that Noah expected this son’s name to become great. He was right—the modern words Semitic and Semite are derived from Shem’s name. The Bible records that Shem had five sons: Elam, Ashur, Arphaxad, Lud, and Aram Genesis 10:22. Shem lived to be 600 years of age Genesis 11:10–11 and became the ancestor of the Semitic peoples Genesis 10:1, 21–31. Abraham, a descendant of Shem, is the first person in the Bible who is referred to as a “Hebrew” (Genesis 14:13.
Noah blessed Shem above his brothers Genesis 9:26–27, and it was through Shem that the promised seed destined to crush Satan came Genesis 3:15. That seed is traced back to Adam’s son Seth Genesis 5:1–32, through Shem, and on to Abraham, Judah, and David, leading all the way to Christ Luke 3:36.
So this is very interesting. The line that Messiah was going to come to is through the line of Shem, which means name. This seems to give even greater incentive to knowing God by His personal name. What do you think about that?
11 The earth also was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence. 12 So God looked upon the earth, and indeed it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted their 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. 14 Make yourself an ark of gopherwood; make rooms in the ark, and cover it inside and outside with pitch.
The Hebrew word gopher is used only once in the Bible, right here when God commands Noah to “make yourself an ark of gopher wood”. No one today knows what “gopher wood” is—Noah obviously knew—the King James Version, the New King James Version, New American Standard Bible, and English Standard Version simply transliterate the Hebrew and leave it as “gopher wood.” The Septuagint (the Greek Old Testament) renders the phrase as “squared beams,” and the Latin Vulgate says “planed wood.”
Many modern scholars consider “gopher wood” to be cypress because cypress wood is extremely durable. Modern English versions of the Bible, such as the New International Version, the New Living Translation, and the New English Translation, translate it as “cypress wood.” The Smith Bible Dictionary defines gopher as “any trees of the resinous kind, such as pine, fir, or cypress.” A weakness of the “cypress” translation is that the word for “cypress” or “fir” in biblical Hebrew is berosh, not gopher.
When we try to identify a specific tree as the “gopher wood” we run into several problems: First, any designation comes down to guesswork. Other theories besides cypress include cedar, pine, ebony, fir, wicker, juniper, acacia, bulrushes, and boxwood. Very likely, gopher wood doesn’t exist today. Countless plants have become extinct since the time of Noah. In fact, we know very little about the kinds of wood available to Noah; no one living has seen the antediluvian world.
15 And this is how you shall make it: The length of the ark shall be three hundred cubits, its width fifty cubits, and its height thirty cubits. 16 You shall make a window for the ark, and you shall finish it to a cubit from above; and set the door of the ark in its side. You shall make it with lower, second, and third decks. 17
At approximately 510 feet long, it would take nearly one and a half football fields to equal the Ark’s length. That’s big enough that NASA could lay three space shuttles—nose to tail—on the Ark’s roof! The roof of Noah’s Ark was more than 50 feet from the ground—higher than a modern four-story house. That’s plenty of space for three extra-tall inner decks as the Bible describes. The Ark had the same storage capacity as about 450 standard semi-trailers. A standard livestock trailer holds about 250 sheep, so the Ark had the capacity to hold at least 120,000 sheep.
FYI: Ark Encounter features a full-size Noah’s Ark, built according to the dimensions given in the Bible. Spanning 510 feet long, 85 feet wide, and 51 feet high, this modern engineering marvel amazes visitors young and old. Ark Encounter is situated in beautiful Grant County in Williamstown, Kentucky, halfway between Cincinnati and Lexington and right off I-75. If you’re driving through the area or live near there I encourage a visit.
And behold, I Myself am bringing floodwaters on the earth, to destroy from under heaven all flesh in which is the breath of life; everything that is on the earth shall die. 18 But I will establish My covenant with you; and you shall go into the ark—you, your sons, your wife, and your sons’ wives with you.
God is making a covenant here with Noah. In Scripture there are two kinds of covenants. Conditional and unconditional. In order to understand God’s ways it’s important to understand that He makes covenants with mankind, and what those covenants are. In this instance The Noahic Covenant was an unconditional covenant between God and Noah (specifically) and humanity (generally). After the Flood, God promised humanity that He would never again destroy all life on earth with a Flood (see Genesis chapter 9). God gave the rainbow as the sign of the covenant, a promise that the entire earth would never again flood and a reminder that God can and will judge sin 2 Peter 2:4-5.
Now I’m passionate about this and I’m going to bring it up here, even though it’s somewhat contreversial. We must reclaim the true meaning of the rainbow and not let the LGBT community reframe it and use it for their own advantages, or symbolism. Sometimes I hear Christians repelled by the rainbow because of it’s use by the LGBT community as their flag. I believe they are prophetically declaring that God can and will judge their sin. Let’s continue to remember that and love and pray for them to recognize that, while not being repelled by the rainbow ourselves.
Thoughts?
19 And of every living thing of all flesh you shall bring two of every sort into the ark, to keep them alive with you; they shall be male and female.
Interesting that this very next verse kind of speaks to the issue. God keeps species alive when they came into the ark, male and female.
20 Of the birds after their kind, of animals after their kind, and of every creeping thing of the earth after its kind, two of every kind will come to you to keep them alive. 21 And you shall take for yourself of all food that is eaten, and you shall gather it to yourself; and it shall be food for you and for them.”
22 Thus Noah did; according to all that God commanded him, so he did.
Here’s why Noah had chen/grace with God. In what ways are you doing or not doing all that God has commanded you?
Let’s pray.
