THE LAST STRAW
Opening Prayer
Lord, keep us from the depravity surrounding us.
Read GENESIS 6
Wickedness in the World
6 When human beings began to increase in number on the earth and daughters were born to them, 2 the sons of God saw that the daughters of humans were beautiful, and they married any of them they chose. 3 Then the Lord said, “My Spirit will not contend with[a] humans forever, for they are mortal[b]; their days will be a hundred and twenty years.”
4 The Nephilim were on the earth in those days—and also afterward—when the sons of God went to the daughters of humans and had children by them. They were the heroes of old, men of renown.
5 The Lord saw how great the wickedness of the human race had become on the earth, and that every inclination of the thoughts of the human heart was only evil all the time. 6 The Lord regretted that he had made human beings on the earth, and his heart was deeply troubled. 7 So the Lord said, “I will wipe from the face of the earth the human race I have created—and with them the animals, the birds and the creatures that move along the ground—for I regret that I have made them.” 8 But Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord.
Noah and the Flood
9 This is the account of Noah and his family.
Noah was a righteous man, blameless among the people of his time, and he walked faithfully with God. 10 Noah had three sons: Shem, Ham and Japheth.
11 Now the earth was corrupt in God’s sight and was full of violence. 12 God saw how corrupt the earth had become, for all the people on earth had corrupted their ways. 13 So God said to Noah, “I am going to put an end to all people, for the earth is filled with violence because of them. I am surely going to destroy both them and the earth. 14 So make yourself an ark of cypress[c] wood; make rooms in it and coat it with pitch inside and out. 15 This is how you are to build it: The ark is to be three hundred cubits long, fifty cubits wide and thirty cubits high.[d] 16 Make a roof for it, leaving below the roof an opening one cubit[e] high all around.[f] Put a door in the side of the ark and make lower, middle and upper decks. 17 I am going to bring floodwaters on the earth to destroy all life under the heavens, every creature that has the breath of life in it. Everything on earth will perish. 18 But I will establish my covenant with you, and you will enter the ark—you and your sons and your wife and your sons’ wives with you. 19 You are to bring into the ark two of all living creatures, male and female, to keep them alive with you. 20 Two of every kind of bird, of every kind of animal and of every kind of creature that moves along the ground will come to you to be kept alive. 21 You are to take every kind of food that is to be eaten and store it away as food for you and for them.”
22 Noah did everything just as God commanded him.
Footnotes:
a Genesis 6:3 Or My spirit will not remain in
b Genesis 6:3 Or corrupt
c Genesis 6:14 The meaning of the Hebrew for this word is uncertain.
d Genesis 6:15 That is, about 450 feet long, 75 feet wide and 45 feet high or about 135 meters long, 23 meters wide and 14 meters high
e Genesis 6:16 That is, about 18 inches or about 45 centimeters
f Genesis 6:16 The meaning of the Hebrew for this clause is uncertain.
New International Version (NIV)
Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV® Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
Meditate
“The heart is more deceitful than all else and is desperately sick; who can understand it? I, the LORD, search the heart, I test the mind” (Jer 17:9,10, NASB).
Think Further
By this time God begins to regret creating humans and, given their level of depravity, violence, and wickedness (5), He ponders the only situation: wipe them out. In fact, He intends to destroy all living creatures (7). BUT Noah finds favor in the eyes of the Lord (8). God cannot quite send destruction – not while there is one righteous man on earth. When chapter five retells the story of the creation of humans, it leaves out Cain (Abel is also excluded, but Seth is seen as replacing him). By chapter six, however, wickedness cannot be airbrushed out by omitting one man; instead, only one man is righteous – Noah – and a complete restart is needed.
After his second assertion that he will destroy everything that has breath, God informs Noah that He will establish a covenant with him (18). This is the first covenant in the Bible. Covenants are binding and often hard to keep (marriage is the covenant with which we are most familiar), but a covenant provides security for a relationship that may stretch the limits. Does God make a covenant with Noah to bind Himself? He will destroy the world but will put in place a promise designed to prevent Him from doing so again, however evil the world gets. At the moment, we do not hear what the covenant is, but Noah’s salvation seems to be the first step.
This is the stuff of horror stories. Someone keeps a sample of the poison/pollutant/alien and you know that, because not everything has been destroyed, the problem will at some point reemerge. We know that restarting from Noah is not going to work, and neither will restarting with Abraham. There is only one solution for sin – the cross.
Apply
“On a hill far away stood an old rugged cross, / The emblem of suffering and shame, / … where the dearest and best / For a world of lost sinners was slain” (George Bennard, 1873 – 1958).
Closing prayer
Father, we thank You that being in Christ indemnifies us from the wrath that will be visited upon those who defy You by refusing to serve You.
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