Tag Archives: Genesis 11

Daily Bible Study

January 3, 2024 Bible Study — Rainbows Are a Sign of God’s Promise to Not Destroy the Earth Until All Things Are Fulfilled

Today, I am reading and commenting on  Genesis 8-11.

After the flood, God promised twice that He would never again destroy all living creatures because of mankind.  Further, He emphatically states that as long as the earth endures, the seasons will continue.  In fact, God entered into a covenant with Noah, his descendants, and all living things about this.  God gave the rainbow as a sign of this covenant which He entered into with all living things.  This is one of two passages in Genesis which inform our understanding of how we should treat the earth.  The first such passage is Genesis 1:26, where God gives mankind dominion over all creatures on earth.  Elsewhere God tells us that the earth, and all that is upon it, belongs to Him.  So, those passages tell us that we have the right to change the earth in ways which make our lives better.  On the other hand, we must also care for the earth so that we do not damage it, just as we have a responsibility to not damage property belonging to others which they allow us to use.  So, we should care for this earth and not make a mess of it.  However,  we should never allow others to convince us that a catastrophe awaits if we fail to take some course of action.  I firmly believe that God’s promise in today’s passage means that He will not allow mankind to destroy the earth, or even to make it uninhabitable for mankind.  That is not a license to do as we please.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Daily Bible Study

January 3, 2023 Bible Study — God Tells Noah And His Sons That They May Eat Everything Which Lives And Moves

Today, I am reading and commenting on  Genesis 8-11.

I first noticed what God told Noah about eating living creatures in Genesis chapter nine verses three and four a few years ago, but never thought to comment on it before today.  While the Law of Moses restricted what the Children of Israel could eat, God had told Noah that everything which lives and moves could be eaten, along with every green plant (interestingly, this seems to leave out mushrooms and other fungi as food approved by God).  When He spoke to Noah, God gave him one dietary restriction: eat nothing with the lifeblood still in it.  This prohibition against eating something with blood in it serves as a reminder of God’s command against shedding the blood of our fellow humans.

 

 

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Daily Bible Study

January 3, 2022 Bible Study — The Rainbow’s Promise

Today, I am reading and commenting on  Genesis 8-11.

Today’s passage contains the reason I do not get caught up in any of the panics about mankind destroying the Earth which come up from time to time.  God promised that as long as the Earth endures, He will never again destroy every living creature.  That means that when people say, “If we do not take action, life on earth will be destroyed,” I dismiss what they are saying.  I know that God will not allow Man to destroy His Creation and He has promised to never again bring about such devastation until all things are fulfilled.  The end will come about exactly when God has planned for it to happen, not a moment sooner, nor a moment later.  Now, this does not mean that we are free to despoil the earth however we please.  We are called to be stewards of the Earth, of all of God’s Creation, but that part comes from other passages.  Whether it be “nuclear winter”, or “global warming”, I do not fear the destruction of all life on Earth, not even of most life on Earth, because God has promised that, as long as the Earth shall endure, that will not happen again.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Daily Bible Study

January 3, 2021 Bible Study God’s Reaction To Noah’s Offering

I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on Genesis 8-11. I have decided to switch from suing the New Living Translation to using the New International Version because, all in all, I prefer the NIV.

When I commented yesterday on the passage which says that Noah walked faithfully with God, I really thought I was going to spend more time on Noah’s drunken incident today.  I will merely make note of the fact that the Bible tells us both that Noah walked faithfully with God, and that, on at least one occasion, he got so drunk he was unaware of his surroundings.  However, today I want to look at God’s reaction when Noah made an offering to Him after leaving the Ark.  God’s reaction was that never again would He destroy all living creatures, that as long as the earth shall endure seed-time and harvest will never cease.  This passage is why I have never gotten terribly frightened by the various environmental scares which have come along.  This does not mean that I do not believe that we should be environmentally responsible, just that I do not believe we need to fear that the irresponsibility of others will destroy the earth.  God has not given mankind the ability to destroy the earth.  Seed-time and harvest will continue until God replaces this earth with a new earth (as we read He will do in the passages a few days ago).  There may be years like “The Year Without a Summer” but they will pass and seed-time and harvest will resume.

Daily Bible Study

January 3, 2020 Bible Study — There Is Always Time To Debate and Consider Our Options Before Major Course Corrections

I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on Genesis 8-11.

After the Flood, God made a promise to Noah that He would never again curse the ground because of mankind, that for as long as the earth continued to exist planting and harvesting would happen.  This means that I do not panic about environmental “crisis” when the press reports on the latest thing which will destroy our environment unless we take immediate action.  However, this does not mean that we can pollute at will and expect God to clean up after us.  It does mean that we have time to gather facts and do tests so as to find the best and most appropriate way to deal with environmental problems as they arise.  God’s promise means that there will be no global emergencies.  There are from time to time local emergencies.  As a practical matter, this means that if someone tells me that if the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere continues to increase, at some point there will be problems, I believe them and think we should study ways to keep the amount of CO2 from reaching the problem level.  However, if someone tells me that if people don’t immediately reduce the amount of CO2 emitted into the atmosphere we are all going to die, I dismiss them as crackpots who are trying to con people,  My faith means that while it is sometimes necessary to swerve to avoid the sudden appearance of an obstacle, major course corrections should be taken deliberately and only after careful thought.

Daily Bible Study

January 3, 2019 Bible Study — After The Flood

I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on Genesis 8-11.

Yesterday, I commented that parts of that passage suggested that perhaps the Flood did not cover the entire earth, while other parts seem to state that it did.  Today’s passage supports the latter and not the former.  As soon as Noah and his family left the Ark, Noah offered a sacrifice of animals to God.  I find it noteworthy that Noah already had a list of animals which were appropriate to offer as sacrifices and animals which were inappropriate to offer.  

After Noah made his sacrifice to God, God swore to Himself that He would never again wipe out all life from the face of the earth for as long as the earth should endure. We rarely take note of the promise which the writer records God making to Himself when we discuss His promise to Noah and his sons made a few verses later. Having promised to Himself to never wipe out all life on earth until the day the earth comes to its end, God enters into a covenant with Noah and his descendants (which includes us). There are three elements to this covenant. First, God reaffirms Mankind’s dominion over the earth, but adds that animals are there for people to eat (in the Creation accounts God had only specified fruit as food for mankind). Second God declares that He requires the life of any creature which takes a human life. I will note that God specifies that humans should take the life of those who take a human life, which seems to be an exception to the rule about taking human life. Finally God presents the rainbow as evidence that He will never again wipe out all life with a flood. I will note once again that while this promise is only regarding flooding, God had previously promised to Himself not to destroy all life until the end of the earth itself.

The final element of today’s passage which I want to comment on is the beginning of Abram’s story, which is the account of Terah’s family. The story contains elements which intrigue me. First, when Terah set forth from Ur of the Chaldeans he was headed for the land of Canaan. However, he never got there because when he got to Haran, he settled there. Second, when he left Ur, only Abram, Sarai, Abram’s wife, and Lot, Abram’s nephew accompanied him. Nahor and his family appear to have stayed in Ur. Yet later it appears that Nahor’s family also moved from Ur. While nowhere in the Bible does it say this, I believe that Terah moved from Ur because he and his family continued to follow the accounts passed down to them from Noah while the rest of the people of Ur had chosen to worship according to other stories.

Daily Bible Study

January 3, 2018 Bible Study — The Flood and the Epic of Gilgamesh

I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on Genesis 8-11.

    As I was reading today’s passage I was struck with what God told Noah after Noah offered a sacrifice for surviving the flood; “I will never again curse the ground because of the human race,…” I remember seeing this before and I remember thinking about its meaning. However, what struck me today was the thought, “How does this apply to pollution?” Or perhaps, “Does this apply to pollution?” I do not have an answer to that question, but I will note that it seems like every time when it has seemed like pollution has turned some place into a wasteland, it takes less time to undo it than anyone postulated. Even if that statement does apply to pollution that does NOT make it OK to pollute, because the end of that sentence is, “…even though everything they think or imagine is bent toward evil from childhood.” I would look at that and interpret it to mean that anything we do which results in something which can reasonably be interpreted as “cursing the ground” qualifies as evil.

    Generally, we think of the story of the People of Israel as starting with Abraham, but that is not correct. The story of the People of Israel starts with Terah, Abraham’s father. We are never told why Terah left the city of Ur. We know that he left Ur after the death of his son Haran and that he set out for the land of Canaan. But Terah never got to Canaan. He stopped in the city of Haran. I have long thought that if the Book of Genesis is to any degree factual, the stories about what happened before this point in the book needed to be passed down to Abraham from his father (and from Abraham to his sons). Is it possible that Terah left Ur because his son Haran was killed for telling the story of the Flood which conflicted with the official version as presented in the Epic of Gilgamesh? It has long been postulated that, because of the similarities between the story of The Flood and the Epic of Gilgamesh, the story of The Flood derives from the Epic of Gilgamesh. I have always wondered why we assume that the biblical account derives from the non-biblical rather than the other way around. I understand that the earliest records we have of the Epic of Gilgamesh are older than the earliest records we have of Genesis. However, those early records of Gilgamesh were on stone tablets, which survive the ravages of time better than any scroll. On the other hand, Abraham and his sons, grandsons, and great grandsons, were nomads. Which means that, if they had written their account down, they would likely have done so on something lighter, and more transportable, than stone. Even if they had written it on stone, they would have been unlikely to have left broken fragments of it where archeologists are likely to find it.