Okay so I did something different this time. Instead of brute-forcing my way through every Scripture and stopping at every point, I decided to breeze through all of it (the remainder of Day 1 through Day 3), just taking down random notes along the way – well less than notes, but Scripture reference I deem worthy of going back to when I do finally type.
To Seth also a son was born, and he called his name Enosh. At that time people began to call upon the name of the LORD.
Genesis 4:26
I’m intrigued at how at one point the writer of Genesis talks about descendants, then hits us with a seemingly random line – Was there supposed to be some sort of connection between the birth of Enosh and people beginning to call upon the name of the Lord? ESV references to that line only point to some other instances in the Scripture where ‘call upon the name of the Lord’ is mentioned. What’s written before this verse was the plight of Cain after murdering his brother, and what’s written in the next chapter after this verse is a roundup of all Adam’s descendants, down to Noah.
Is the observation mentioned merely to ‘confirm’ favor upon of the line of Seth, who is ‘the seed appointed to (Eve) instead of Abel whom Cain slew’ (Genesis 4:25)? As such, are we also so say that we in the body of Christ, who bear children, have a greater chance (if not an outright guarantee) that they (or whoever is referred to as ‘the people’) would call upon the name of the Lord, themselves?
As usual, I’m probably overthinking this one. I just find the thought progression of whoever wrote that verse to be pleasantly odd.
“Thus all the days of Enoch were 365 years. Enoch walked with God, and he was not, for God took him.”
Genesis 5:23-24
At first glance I wasn’t really sure what ‘and he was not’ meant there, but as I was going through it again, I think I understand.
In the decades-old Collectible Card Game named Magic: The Gathering (M:TG or MTG), there are two ‘removal’ spell effects a player can cast on creatures: Destroy, or Exile. When you Destroy a creature, it goes to the graveyard stack. However, when you Exile a creature, it doesn’t even go to the graveyard – it’s totally removed from the game. Now that’s one way I understand what the writer of Genesis was trying to say: ‘(Once,) Enoch walked with God, and then he was (did) not’ – Enoch did not die, but was Exiled, ‘for God took him.’
The ESV has a note which states that the Septuagint says ‘(he) was not found’; and I suppose that sort of gives me clarity on the matter. At first glance, while I was reading through the Word, it just intrigued me – ‘he was not’ what, I asked?
So the LORD said, “I will blot out man whom I have created from the face of the land, man and animals and creeping things and birds of the heavens, for I am sorry that I have made them.” But Noah found favor in the eyes of the LORD. These are the generations of Noah. Noah was a righteous man, blameless in his generation. Noah walked with God.
Genesis 6:7-9
Here we see yet another privilege given to those made righteous through the finished work of Christ: We, as Enoch and Noah, walk with God. Or, if that’s too much of a stretch for some of us to take in immediately, at least see just how much Christ has done for us – As He is righteous, so we have been declared righteous, much so that we ourselves walk with God. When the rest of the world falls from favor, the righteousness we have through Christ guarantees that God will always walk with us.
I think this is quite interesting for us to take in at this time, considering how in the face of recent events, those who would speak God’s judgment more than the overwhelming, saving grace of Christ are at it again, pointing out how the wars and rumors of wars, and the earthquakes ought to scare us to fearfully see our own walk (meaning, our own lives), to make sure that all of it is in line with God. I’m not saying there’s no cause for alarm, but the message of the cross remains the same, even in this escalation of events – It’s only through Christ, and in Christ alone that we are righteous, and this blood-bought righteousness is absolute, regardless of how imperfect we are in nature and in action. If anything, these recent events ought to have us celebrating even more, for see, we walk with God, even in a world so perverse and so decadent.
And, indeed, we ought to celebrate – for because Christ paid the price for us to walk freely with God, we are ALWAYS favored by Him – whether we die naturally, as Noah did, or whether we are Exiled, or taken away by God.
The LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And the LORD regretted that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him to his heart.
Now the earth was corrupt in God’s sight, and the earth was filled with violence. And God saw the earth, and behold, it was corrupt, for all flesh had corrupted their way on the earth.
Genesis 6:5-6, 11-12
Consider also our state before we were saved, as mentioned in these verses. Before Christ, “every intention of the thoughts of (our own hearts) was only evil continually”. I mean, that’s already heavy to think about, and I haven’t even gone to the rest of the passages in question! Our wickedness was great, and even the earth was ‘corrupt’ and ‘filled with violence’… and look at where it says ‘all flesh had corrupted their way on the earth.’
As I was going through ‘flesh’ as mentioned in eSword, I couldn’t help but notice the parallel commentary, apparently by someone who goes by F.B. Meyer: Human sin had reached an awful climax. Sooner or later its results must have swept the human race from the earth, as smallpox will slay every native on some infected island. God only hastened by the Flood the inevitable result of wrong-doing. Now I couldn’t help but share how this is one way for us to respond to anyone who questions God’s grace in the flood – the world was just THAT corrupt that it was guaranteed to wipe itself out, and any delay to this inevitability would just be so painful; The flood reset everything. I don’t know, I’m just saying that out of my own limited perspective… But I still think it’s all part of His grace, and I will continue to trust in His eternal and limitless wisdom.
And what a response it was! If we read on, we end up in Genesis 7:1-4: Then the LORD said to Noah, “Go into the ark, you and all your household, for I have seen that you are righteous before me in this generation. Take with you seven pairs of all clean animals, the male and his mate, and a pair of the animals that are not clean, the male and his mate, 3 and seven pairs of the birds of the heavens also, male and female, to keep their offspring alive on the face of all the earth. For in seven days I will send rain on the earth forty days and forty nights, and every living thing that I have made I will blot out from the face of the ground.”
Notice something here? It’s not just the beasts of the earth, but also the birds of the heavens that were given space on the ark. I only point this out to have us imagine, the rains may have been THAT strong that even the birds of the heavens would die. Although, I suppose, just like any drone must land eventually, so birds need rest – and they ALL rest in the ground, the same ground that the waters would fully engulf, and submerge.
Obviously I’m trying to knit all of the verses I wrote down into one cohesive point, and… well, so far, so good I guess.
The windows of heaven were opened, and the fountains of the deep were unleashed, so everything was covered in water, and every living thing that was not in the ark died. Corruption and wickedness – not only in the hearts of man, but on the earth as well – was eliminated… and we see that the waters and the wind obeyed God’s command:
“For in seven days I will send rain on the earth forty days and forty nights, and every living thing that I have made I will blot out from the face of the ground.”Genesis 7:4
“But God remembered Noah and all the beasts and all the livestock that were with him in the ark. And God made a wind blow over the earth, and the waters subsided.”Genesis 8:1
I could imagine, for such a great mass of water, it could have been such a great wind for it to subside. I’ll talk about this later, but for now, let’s keep going.
And when the LORD smelled the pleasing aroma, the LORD said in his heart, “I will never again curse the ground because of man, for the intention of man’s heart is evil from his youth. Neither will I ever again strike down every living creature as I have done.While the earth remains, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night, shall not cease.”
Genesis 8:21-22
I’m sure there are other points to this but what I gather is that even after the flood, God knew that our hearts were still so corrupted. Regardless of this, God charged Noah in Ararat with commands similar to what He gave Adam at Eden:
And God blessed Noah and his sons and said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth. The fear of you and the dread of you shall be upon every beast of the earth and upon every bird of the heavens, upon everything that creeps on the ground and all the fish of the sea. Into your hand they are delivered. Every moving thing that lives shall be food for you. And as I gave you the green plants, I give you everything. But you shall not eat flesh with its life, that is, its blood. And for your lifeblood I will require a reckoning: from every beast I will require it and from man. From his fellow man I will require a reckoning for the life of man. “Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed, for God made man in his own image. And you, be fruitful and multiply, increase greatly on the earth and multiply in it.”
Genesis 9:1-7
Interesting, how, compared to Adam who was told that he shall have ‘every plant yielding seed that is on the face of all the earth, and every tree with seed in its fruit’ as food (1:29), Noah was told that ‘every moving thing that lives shall be food’. Anyway, there was something in common between Adam and Noah: To the one who had yet to eat of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, and to the one who was descendants of those who did eat of the fruit, God told them both: be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth.
When I bring clouds over the earth and the bow is seen in the clouds, I will remember my covenant that is between me and you and every living creature of all flesh. And the waters shall never again become a flood to destroy all flesh. When the bow is in the clouds, I will see it and remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is on the earth.” God said to Noah, “This is the sign of the covenant that I have established between me and all flesh that is on the earth.”
Genesis 9:14-17
In all of this, I must point out one thing: Remember where after the flood, God made a wind blow for the waters to subside? It reminded me of Jesus and His disciples in the Sea of Galilee… and I thought, the same God who spoke the waters to cover the earth, and made the wind blow for the waters to subside – His Son spoke peace to the winds and waves.
What a humbling thought. I assume that after Noah, God KNEW down the line that we would go back to corruption and wickedness, but what was fortunate was that (1) God, by the rainbow, promised never to flood the earth again, and (2) with Noah who found favor with God, corruption and wickedness may not have been fully eliminated, but it did not fully engulf the earth and its inhabitants…
And many Generations later, as we read in the book of Matthew (which I’m also assigned to read parallel to Genesis), we’re let into the conversation of the Angel and Joseph, concerning the Child whom Mary was to bear:
“Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary as your wife, for that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.” All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet: “Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel”
Matthew 1:20-23
Christ saved us from our sins, by guaranteeing that God would be with us (Immanuel); Once, Adam and Eve hid from God as He walked in the garden the cool of the day, but through Christ we can enjoy God as Noah and Enoch did – Not by ours, but Christ’s righteousness, we walk with God.
And surely, we walk with Him! It is a guarantee, a proof of Christ saving us from our sin: Immanuel has guaranteed that even in the presence of corruption on the earth, and wickedness in the form of our flesh (sarx), God is always with us!
From Creation to the Flood… it all points us to Jesus. Amen.
There were a few other verses I wanted to talk about here, but I think at this point, I will rest. Let me give ChatGPT a whirl now.
Until the next post, God bless you.
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