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Lesson 14: Sin's Full Course (Genesis 6:1-8)Related Media
A pastor friend and I used to eat lunch together once a month. After lunch we'd often continue our conversation as we took a walk. On one occasion he seemed fatigued and out of breath by an easy stroll, even though he was no older than I. He told me that he was fighting the flu. But several weeks later, when the symptoms did not subside, doctors discovered a massive lump in his chest. He had lymphoma, a form of cancer. They discovered it too late. After several rounds of chemotherapy, my friend died. To fight cancer, early detection and aggressive treatment are essential.
Sin is like cancer of the human soul. It often starts unnoticed, perhaps with a small compromise. There may be a few bothersome symptoms, but we dismiss them or excuse them as due to some other problem. But the cancer is there and growing, working corruption in the individual and also tainting his relationships. If unchecked, it will contaminate an entire society. The final result is God's judgment. But, thankfully, throughout the process prior to God's judgment, His grace gives us repeated offers to repent and be restored. This process is pictured in Genesis 6:1-8, which describes the world just prior to God's judgment in the flood. It shows us that ...
Sin begins with compromise, goes on to corruption, and ends in condemnation, unless we respond to God's grace.
We would do well to pay attention to these verses, since Jesus likened the days just prior to His return to the days just prior to the flood. He said, "For the coming of the Son of Man will be just like the days of Noah. For as in those days which were before the flood they were eating and drinking, they were marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark, and they did not understand until the flood came and took them all away; so shall the coming of the Son of Man be" (Matt. 24:37-39). Jesus is saying that the people of Noah's day ignored God's warnings. They went about the normal things of life, oblivious to the repeated warnings of judgment, until it was too late. The same thing will happen to many in the days just prior to Christ's return. So the message to us is, "Make sure you listen to God's warning about your sin. If you ignore the symptoms, it may be too late!" Our text reveals sin's full course:
1. Sin begins with compromise.
We read that as the population grew, "the sons of God saw that the daughters of men were beautiful; and they took wives for themselves, whomever they chose" (6:1-2). The first interpretive problem (of several) is, Who are the sons of God and the daughters of men?
It's easy to lose the application of this text in the debate over the right interpretation. The debate is centuries old, with godly men holding differing views. But whichever view is right, the application is the same--that the human race before the flood was corrupted by sin, and that corruption began with compromise.
Three main views have been proposed. The first view is that the sons of God were powerful rulers, probably controlled or indwelled by demons, striving for fame and fertility. In some Ancient Near Eastern cultures, kings were called the sons of one of the gods, and even in the Bible, the Hebrew word "Elohim" is used for men in positions of authority (Exod. 21:6 [NASB margin]; Ps. 82:1, 6). The daughters of men refers to all women. The sin of these rulers was their lust for power and women; they were trying to achieve immortality through immorality. (Allen P. Ross, The Bible Knowledge Commentary [Victor Books] 1:36, defends this view.) The weaknesses of this view are that it seems forced on the text, it stretches the biblical terms, and it would not have occurred to Moses's audience in reading the context of Genesis.
A second, more widely held, view is that the sons of God refers to fallen angels (demons) who came to earth in human bodies and cohabited with women, resulting in a superhuman race called the Nephilim (6:4). Many respected modern Bible scholars hold this view (A. W. Pink, Donald Barnhouse, Ray Stedman, James Boice, Charles Ryrie [Study Bible]). It goes back as early as the Septuagint in 200 B.C. Justin Martyr and Tertullian held this view in the early Church, but it was opposed vigorously by Augustine and Chrysostom and later by the Reformers. But there are some strong arguments in its favor or so many respected men would not hold it.
The strongest argument for it is that every other time the term "sons of God," is used in the Bible, it refers to angels (Job 1:6; 2:1; 38:7; Dan. 3:25; Pss. 29:1; 89:6). Also, several New Testament passages referring to the flood mention demons who disobeyed by abandoning their proper abode, thus incurring God's judgment (1 Pet. 3:19, 20; 2 Pet. 2:4, 5; Jude 6). It is argued that these demons left their proper abode of the spirit world and cohabited with women. But, how could angels do this? In Genesis 19, the angels visiting Lot in Sodom were desired by the men of that evil city for homosexual relations. If you object that Jesus said that angels cannot marry, it is answered that Jesus said that in heaven the angels do not marry (Matt. 22:30). But neither will men and women marry in heaven. Thus, there is no inherent problem with angels cohabiting with earthly women.
Proponents also argue that in the context of Genesis, Satan wanted to thwart God's promise to bring a deliverer by the seed of the woman by corrupting the human race with this superhuman race of giants. It was his insidious plan to bring immortality to the human race illicitly, bypassing God's curse of death.
In spite of these arguments, I reject this view. I think it creates mind-boggling theological problems which have no biblical warrant. We do not need such a far-fetched view to explain the text adequately in its context. So why adopt it? First, there is the theological problem of how angelic beings can have sex with women. It is one thing to say that demons indwell human men who marry human women. But it is incredible and makes the Bible sound like Greek mythology to say that demons take on bodies and produce offspring with human women!
What were the offspring--half-angel, half-men? There is no such category in the Bible. Do they have some sort of angel--human souls? While the term "sons of God" refers to angels in other Old Testament uses, it refers to righteous angels, not to demons. (In Job 1:6 and 2:1, Satan is distinguished from the sons of God, as if he were not part of their number. In the other references [Job 38:7; Dan. 3:25; Pss. 29:1; 89:7], righteous angels clearly are meant.) "Sons of God" seems like a strange term for fallen angels. And while the exact term is not used of men, God's people are called His sons in the Old Testament (Deut. 32:5; Ps. 73:15; Hos. 1:10 [in the Hebrew text, "children" = "sons"]). With regard to the New Testament references (1 Pet. 3:19-20; 2 Pet. 2:4-5; Jude 6), there are other adequate interpretations. So why introduce a mythological sounding concept full of incredible theological problems which has no other scriptural warrant when we don't need to?
The third view, and most normal in light of the context, is that the sons of God refers to the godly descendants of Seth, who called on the Lord (4:26 & 5:1-32); the daughters of men refers to ungodly women, mostly from the line of Cain, who rejected God (4:16-24). The problem described here, which led to the corruption of the human race and the judgment of the flood, was the intermarriage of the godly line of Seth with godless women. Undoubtedly Satan was involved behind the scenes, as he always is when a generation turns away from the Lord (Balaam, Numbers 25). To say that Satan was involved in seducing men from a godly heritage to marry ungodly women is not fantastic; to say that fallen angels actually married human women is.
The biggest problem with this view is why Moses uses this term. It is an unusual designation. If it were not, everybody would agree on the interpretation! The best answer is that Moses used the term to underscore the high standards which the Sethites should have observed (H. C. Leupold, Exposition of Genesis [Baker], p. 252; also, see Calvin). As "sons of God," they should have known better than to marry godless women. But instead, they married on the basis of sexual attraction only, not on the basis of godly character. They "saw that the daughters of men were beautiful; and they took wives for themselves, whomever they chose" (6:2). The result was the compromise of godly standards which led to the corruption and judgment of the human race. Luke 3:38 seems to support this view. Luke traces the line of Christ back through Seth to Adam, but doesn't stop there; he calls Adam "the son of God." Thus Adam's descendants through Seth are the sons of God who became corrupted through wrongful marriage alliances.
As I said earlier, it's easy to lose the application in the process of working through the interpretation. But let's not do that. No matter what interpretation you take, the application is the same: Sin begins with compromise. Satan often uses wrongful marriages as the area of compromise to seduce God's people. It is an effective tool, since the sex drive and the emotions of romantic love are so powerful. I have seen many young people neutralized in their Christian lives by marrying "nice" unbelievers or worldly-minded professing Christians.
It is proper to be physically attracted to the person you marry. But to marry primarily because of physical attraction is a serious mistake. The typical short-lived Hollywood marriage ought to tell us that. But Satan uses this weapon over and over. A couple is physically attracted to each other, they get physically involved, they get married on that basis, and later there is often infidelity and divorce. Their testimony for Christ is polluted.
While the area of wrongful marriage alliances was where the line of Seth compromised, and is a major area where we can compromise, it is not the full extent of the application. When these men from the line of Seth, called "sons of God," married these ungodly women on the basis of sexual attraction, they compromised their integrity. They had a name to live up to: "sons of God." But their lives didn't match their title. So they had to put up a front, to try to maintain the image of sons of God, while living on a natural, sensual plane. It is a short step from there to total spiritual corruption.
Guard your spiritual integrity! Integrity does not mean perfection, but it does mean walking in reality with God, and dealing biblically with your sin. Satan wants to undermine your integrity. He wants you to compromise your testimony on the job, and instead of confessing your sin, to cover it up or deny it. He wants you, as perhaps a church leader, to yell at your kids and verbally abuse them at home, but not to confess your sin and ask their forgiveness. Then you come to church and pretend to be spiritual. You've just compromised your integrity. Sin begins with compromise.
2. Sin goes on to corruption.
I will come back to verse 3; but note that in verse 4, Moses mentions the Nephilim. This is another major interpretive problem. Who were the Nephilim? Those who hold to the angel view say that they were a race of giants who resulted from the union of the angels with the daughters of men. But the text doesn't say that they are the product of that union, but only that they were on the earth at that time and also afterward.
The word occurs only one other time, in Numbers 13:33. There the spies who return to the Israelite camp report that they had seen the Nephilim, and that they felt like grasshoppers in comparison to them. The word comes from a root word meaning "to fall upon," and thus apparently points to men of violence, who had a reputation of falling upon their enemies. They may or may not all have been giants physically. But the point is, they were vicious men who would just as soon kill you as look at you. Moses' point is that the generation prior to the flood was notorious for its violence (see 6:13). Their unchecked sin had grown into the worst sort of corruption. They had let themselves go in hardened, open rebellion against God.
This is further affirmed by God's evaluation of that generation: "Then the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great on the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually" (6:5). God looked beyond the actual deeds of wickedness and saw the hearts. What He saw was total corruption. Alfred Edersheim says of verse 5: "This means more than the total corruption of our nature, as we should now describe it, and refers to the universal prevalence of open, daring sin, and rebellion against God, brought about when the separation between the Sethites and the Cainites ceased" (Old Testament Bible History [Eerdmans], 1:39). Verse 5 is God's description of the extreme corruption of that generation.
But it is also a description of the corruption of every human heart. Sin begins in the heart, or thoughts (Mark 7:20-23). It does not always reach the outward manifestation of Noah's day (although our society is at least as far gone), but the heart of every person is the same as what God saw when He looked on that generation. After the flood, when the righteous Noah offered a sacrifice, God said, "... the intent of man's heart is evil from his youth" (Gen. 8:21). This is God's revelation of His view of what goes on inside every person, even those, like Noah, whom He has redeemed.
If you want to verify God's viewpoint, look at the world around you--the violence, greed, sexual immorality, and self-centeredness. But you don't need to look out there. Look at your own heart. Even though outwardly you may be reasonably respectable, is there anyone who would want their innermost thoughts to be broadcast? Though I have been a Christian for years and experience consistent victory over sin, I often have to fight against degraded, corrupt thoughts! I agree with Martin Luther who wrote, "Without the Holy Spirit and without grace man can do nothing but sin and so goes on endlessly from sin to sin" (Luther's Works, Vol. 2, p. 40, cited in James Boice, Genesis [Zondervan], 1:250). Sin's course begins with compromise; it goes on to corruption.
3. Sin ends in condemnation.
God determined to bring judgment on the whole world because of man's corruption (6:6-7). When the Bible says that God "repented" (KJV), it does not mean that He changed His eternal plan. God is unchangeable in His person, perfections, and purposes. Nothing thwarts the counsel of His will (Eph. 1:11). But from our perspective, sometimes it seems that God has changed His plan. To put it in terms which we can understand, and to reveal God's heart response to human sin, the Bible says that God repents, or feels sorrow (1 Sam. 15:11, 29).
The point is, God doesn't get a sadistic kick out of judgment. It grieves Him to see our rebellion and sin, and He only brings judgment after He has repeatedly warned and appealed to us to turn from our sin. When He does judge, His judgments are always just. He has a right to judge man, because He created him (6:7). But, even then, as He said to Ezekiel, "I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but rather that the wicked turn from his way and live. Turn back, turn back from your evil ways! Why then will you die, O house of Israel?" (Ezek. 33:11).
Thus sin begins with compromise; goes on to corruption; and ends in condemnation. But the section ends on a brighter note. The cycle can be broken!
4. We can respond to God's grace.
"But Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord" (6:8). The word favor means acceptance or grace. When used of God's favor toward man it means His undeserved favor. Noah did not earn favor with God, he found it. He was just as much a sinner as his contemporaries (9:21). The difference was, Noah was willing to accept God's view of his own sin and to turn from that sin to God, seeking His grace. The result was a righteous life.
This is the first time the word grace appears in the Bible. It is not the first time grace appears, since God's grace is seen in His treatment of Adam and Eve in clothing them with animal skins rather than judging them for their sin. It is seen in His repeated dealings with Cain. It is seen in the long life of Methuselah, whose name means, "when he is dead, it [that is, judgment] will come." His long life was a testimony to God's gracious appeal over almost 1,000 years to this godless world to repent.
God's grace is seen in 6:3, when the Lord says that His Spirit will not strive with men forever. The word "strive" means to judge, in the sense of striving to restrain men from their evil ways. God is saying that the human race had cast off any desire to live in the realm of the spirit, and was living as mere flesh, as totally given over to sin. He was warning that He would not continue to strive to check man's unbridled sinfulness indefinitely. But, God adds, "his days shall be 120 years." Some understand this to mean that his lifespan would now be 120 years. But I think God means that there will be another 120 years before the judgment of the flood for man to repent. That's grace! If they had repented, I believe that God would have relented on His judgment, even as He did with sinful Ninevah in the days of Jonah.
But, when sin was at its peak, we read that Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord. That's a great encouragement. It means that in spite of the corruption, the horrible violence, immorality and degradation around us, God's grace for the individual still shines through. Where sin abounds, grace superabounds (Rom. 5:20). No matter how terrible your sin, you can find grace if you will turn to the Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus did not come to save the righteous, but to call sinners to repentance. If you will agree with God's view of your heart (6:5), and cry out to Him, "Be merciful to me, the sinner," He will pour out His grace and salvation on you.
But God's grace does have a limit. In Noah's day, it was 120 years. The flood came and everyone was lost except Noah and his family. In our day, we do not know when time will run out. We do know that our day, like Noah's, is a time of unparalleled corruption, with people going on about life without regard for God. And we do know that God "has fixed a day in which He will judge the world in righteousness through a Man whom He has appointed, having furnished proof to all men by raising Him from the dead" (Acts 17:31). We're all infected with the cancer of sin. Only God can cure it. He is ready and willing, if you will respond to His gracious offer. The only other option is to let sin run its full course, resulting in corruption and final condemnation. God calls out to you, "Now is the acceptable time, behold, now is the day of salvation" (2 Cor. 6:2).
Discussion Questions
- What are some ways we are tempted to compromise with sin in our society?
- What would you say to someone who argued that all people aren't as bad as verse 5 indicates?
- Where is the balance between sharing God's judgment and His love when we witness?
- Why is intermarriage with unbelievers such a serious sin?
Copyright 1996, Steven J. Cole, All Rights Reserved.
Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture Quotations are from the New American Standard Bible, © The Lockman Foundation
Related Topics: Grace, Hamartiology (Sin)
Lesson 15: Total Depravity (Genesis 6:5; 8:21)Related Media
A few years ago boxer Macho Comacho was being interviewed on TV. He was bragging about his wild past--a father at age 15, drugs, loose living. The sportscaster said to him, "But don't you believe that as a sports hero, you have an obligation to be a model for our youth?" Comacho shot back, "Look, I did my dirt, but I ain't no Hitler."
Comacho's response is the typical human response to the biblical doctrine of total depravity: "I may have my faults, but I'm not totally depraved!" It's not surprising that the world thinks that way, since Satan "has blinded the minds of the unbelieving" (2 Cor. 4:4). But it is disturbing that the evangelical church has greatly diluted and, in some cases, denied this fundamental doctrine, the total depravity of every person since Adam and Eve's fall into sin.
For example, one popular author and speaker attacks the idea that Christians are to view themselves as sinners or even as sinners saved by grace. He asks rhetorically, "Is that who you really are? No way! The Bible doesn't refer to believers as sinners, not even sinners saved by grace. Believers are called saints--holy ones--who occasionally sin" (Neil Anderson, The Bondage Breaker [Harvest House], p. 44).
Nathan Hatch, saw this trend 17 years ago ("Purging the Poisoned Well Within," Christianity Today [3/2/79], pp. 14-17):
The thriving evangelical book market offers a steady diet of positive inspiration, spiritual uplift, and successful Christian living. Evangelical visionaries, building multi-million dollar enterprises in television, church growth, and education, have latched onto an upbeat style that is more than vaguely reminiscent of Norman Vincent Peale and Dale Carnegie. One of these pastors recently defined faith as building self-confidence, resisting negative thoughts, and tapping the limitless possibilities within ourselves. In a similar vein, a prominent evangelist explained that what keeps people away from Christ is not hardness of heart but simply a misunderstanding of what he has to offer (p. 14).
Hatch goes on to point out that this view of human nature differs greatly from what Christians of the past believed. Men like Luther, Wesley, Whitefield, and Edwards "believed that human nature was fallen, and that the Bible's view of man forsook glib moralism and took seriously 'the chartless darkness of the human heart'" (p. 15).
I argue that one of the most important truths that needs to be re-emphasized in our day is the doctrine of the total depravity of the human heart. If we do not properly understand the Bible on this matter, we cannot fully understand the gospel for ourselves, let alone make it plain to others. Nor will we understand what the Bible teaches about sanctification (growth in holiness) if we are not clear on the evil that lurks within our hearts, even as regenerate people.
That doctrine could hardly be stated more emphatically than it is in Genesis 6:5: "Then the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great on the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually." We are not basically good, decent folks who will do what is right if we're only given the chance. The very core of our being--"every intent of the thoughts of our hearts" is "only evil continually." It's not just that people have a mean streak or that we occasionally sin. God's declaration is that "every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually." In case we missed it or are inclined to apply it only to the Hitler's of the world, God repeats the assessment after the flood with reference to the most godly man on earth, Noah, and his descendents, "the intent of man's heart is evil from his youth" (8:21).
Because the doctrine of total depravity is often misunderstood, I first will define it. Because it is often disbelieved, minimized, or attacked, I then will defend it biblically. Finally, because we live in a day that often despises doctrine as boring and impractical, I will apply it.
Total depravity defined:
1. What total depravity is not:
Total depravity does not mean that people are as wicked and sinful as they could be. Nor does it mean that people are incapable of doing good deeds. Even those who have never heard of Jesus Christ are able to love their children and even sacrifice their own lives for the sake of family, friends, or sometimes even for strangers. Many people who do not know Christ are honest, even when it costs them.
2. What total depravity means:
Total depravity refers to the nature of fallen persons, not to their deeds. The word "total" refers to the total person--that every aspect of the person--mind, will, emotions, body--is corrupted by sin; and to the total human race, that every person since Adam and Eve, except for Jesus Christ, has been born with a nature that is alienated from God and in rebellion against God. Also, depravity must be viewed in relation to God, not by comparing men with men. With reference to God, total depravity means that no one is able in and of himself to do anything to choose God, to seek God, to please God, to love God, to glorify God, or to merit His salvation. Left to himself, every person will seek the things of self and sin. We are as unable to seek God as a corpse can choose to get up and walk (Eph. 2:1-3). The Westminster Confession states it clearly. Speaking of Adam and Eve it says (VI:II, III, IV),
By this sin they fell from their original righteousness and communion with God, and so became dead in sin, and wholly defiled in all the parts and faculties of soul and body. They being the root of all mankind, the guilt of this sin was imputed; and the same death in sin, and corrupted nature, conveyed to all their posterity descending from them by ordinary generation. From this original corruption, whereby we are utterly indisposed, disabled, and made opposite to all good, and wholly inclined to all evil, do proceed all actual transgressions.
So total depravity refers to the extent of the damage, not necessarily to the degree. To illustrate, if you put a drop of deadly bacteria in a glass of water, it contaminates the entire glass. You may add a spoonful of bacteria, which makes it more potent, but the little drop is enough to pollute it all. Adam's transgression was imputed to his posterity, so that all are polluted by sin.
Adam was the representative of the human race, so that his sin was charged to all who followed. Some will protest, "That's not fair!" But several things must be said. First, there is nothing unfair about the concept of representation. Our entire government is built on it. The decisions our elected officials make affect us. But you may still protest, "I didn't vote for Adam to represent me." But, God did! God determined that Adam's choice would represent the human race. We have no reason to believe that we would have acted any differently had we been there ourselves. When our representative fell into sin, the human race was linked to him, so that all are born in sin. We are not sinners because we sin; we sin because by nature we are sinners. This is what total depravity means.
Total depravity defended:
We can only look at a few of the many verses in both the Old and New Testaments which defend this doctrine:
In Psalm 51:5, David laments, "I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin my mother conceived me." We are born in sin.
Jeremiah 17:9: "The heart is more deceitful than all else and is desperately sick; who can understand it?" The word "sick" is used of an incurable wound; here, the meaning is metaphorical of sin that is beyond human hope of fixing. We're terminal!
The doctrine is also inherent in Ezekiel 36:25-27, when the Lord promises, "I will cleanse you from all your filthiness and from al your idols. Moreover, I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; and I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will be careful to observe My ordinances." The sinner cannot follow God unless God performs a heart transplant and gives him His Spirit.
Jesus taught the depravity of our hearts in Mark 7:20-23: "That which proceeds out of the man, that is what defiles the man. For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed the evil thoughts, fornications, thefts, murders, adulteries, deeds of coveting and wickedness, as well as deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride and foolishness. All these evil things proceed from within and defile the man."
In John 8:34, Jesus taught that "everyone who commits sin is the slave of sin," and that only He could set us free.
Paul, quoting from the Old Testament, spells it out forcefully in Romans 3:10-18 (citing only 10-13 here): "There is none righteous, not even one; there is none who understands, there is none who seeks for God; all have turned aside, together they have become useless; there is none who does good, there is not even one."
In Romans 8:7-8, he emphasizes the inability of the sinner to follow God: "... the mind set on the flesh is hostile toward God; for it does not subject itself to the law of God, for it is not even able to do so; and those who are in the flesh cannot please God."
In 1 Corinthians 2:14 Paul states that the natural man not only does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, but cannot understand them, because they are spiritually appraised. In 2 Corinthians 4:4 he explains that Satan, "the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelieving, that they might not see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, ..."
In Ephesians 2:1-3, he says that we were all dead in our trespasses and sins and that by nature we are children of wrath. In Ephesians 4:18, he states that unbelievers are "darkened in their understanding, excluded from the life of God, because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the hardness of their hearts."
While believers are freed from sin's penalty and from sin's power, so that we can now live to please God, our sin nature (or, "the flesh") is not eradicated until we are with the Lord. Romans 7 clearly teaches this, as do many other verses, such as 1 John 1:8, "If we say that we have no sin, we are deceiving ourselves, and the truth is not in us."
If you compile all these and many other verses, we see that fallen man is incurably wounded; blind; ignorant and unable and unwilling to know; born in sin and with a nature oriented to sin; hard-hearted; enslaved to sin; polluted at the very core of his being; and, dead. The Westminster Confession (IX:III) sums it up: "Man, by his fall into a state of sin, hath wholly lost all ability of will to any spiritual good accompanying salvation: so as, a natural man, being altogether averse from that good, and dead in sin, is not able, by his own strength, to convert himself, or to prepare himself thereunto."
In spite of the overwhelming biblical evidence of man's total inability to do anything about his state of alienation from God, man's proud flesh keeps inventing ways around this doctrine. Many deny it outright and insist that people are basically good at heart. Others deny it by insisting that fallen men have the "free will" to choose God, and thus be saved. But this gives man a part in God's work of salvation and a ground for boasting, which contradicts many Scriptures:
John 1:13: "Who were born [spiritually] not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God."
Romans 9:16: "So then it does not depend on the man who wills or the man who runs, but on God who has mercy."
Philippians 2:13: "For it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure."
1 Corinthians 1:27-31, where three times Paul stresses that salvation rests on the fact that "God has chosen," so "that no man should boast before God. But by His doing you are in Christ Jesus..."
Those who argue in favor of so-called "free will" say that it is pointless, absurd, and a sham for God to command men to believe in Christ if they are not able by their own free will to believe. This objection was soundly refuted by Martin Luther in his diatribe against the Roman Catholic scholar, Erasmus, The Bondage of the Will [Revell], where he argues, rather, that by commanding us to do what no fallen sinner can do, God brings us to something we proud sinners deny, namely, the knowledge of our utter impotence, pride, and independence from God. In his words, "by thus breaking him down, and confounding him in his self-knowledge, he may make him ready for grace, and send him to Christ to be saved" (p. 162). Or, in the words of Augustine (1,000 years before Luther), "God bids us do what we cannot, that we may know what we ought to seek from him" (cited by Calvin, Institutes [II:V:7]).
Of course, before Augustine the Apostle Paul dealt with this same objection. In Romans 9, after arguing that man cannot choose God by his free will, but that salvation depends on God's choosing men according to His sovereign mercy, he states (9:19), "You will say to me then, 'Why does He still find fault? For who resists His will?'" Note carefully Paul's inspired answer, because it strikes at the very root of human depravity: "On the contrary, who are you, O man, who answers back to God?" (9:20). In other words, our very question shows the arrogance of our sinful hearts! If the righteous God chooses to damn the entire race of rebellious sinners, that is His just prerogative. If He chooses to save some who otherwise would helplessly perish in their sin, that is His right. But no one can boast by saying, "I chose God by my own free will." Scripture is clear that if God had not rescued us by His sovereign grace, we all would have perished in our willful, proud rebellion against Him.
In the same vein, the Lord Jesus Christ stated (Matt. 11:25-27) that God had hidden spiritual truth from the "wise and intelligent," and that no one knows God except "anyone to whom the Son wills to reveal Him." Then He proceeded to command men to do what He just stated they cannot do: "Come unto Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest."
Total depravity applied:
The doctrine of total depravity is at the very heart of the gospel, and thus the applications are many. But I must limit myself to four:
1. The doctrine of total depravity should cause me to despair completely of myself, my ability, my merit, and my will, and to cast myself completely upon Christ alone for salvation.
If my salvation depends upon my choosing Christ, it is most shaky, because I may decide to walk away from Christ and go my own way. But, if it depends upon Christ's choice of me, wretched in my sin, with absolutely no merit of my own, then it is as certain as the promise of God who cannot lie. Scripture is abundantly clear, you can do nothing to save yourself from God's rightful judgment. Only Christ can save, and He has promised to save all who trust in Him. If you say, "But I cannot even trust in Him," you are right! Call out to Him for mercy and faith, with the man who said to Jesus, "I do believe; help my unbelief!" (Mark 9:24). Or again, "God, be merciful to me, the sinner!" (Luke 18:13).
2. The doctrine of total depravity humbles my pride.
Ever since Eve thought that she could be like God, the human race has been infected with pride. Even many who profess Christ dislike this doctrine, because it removes every ground for boasting. Luther said it well (Bondage of the Will, p. 100, 101),
God has surely promised His grace to the humbled: that is, to those who mourn over and despair of themselves. But a man cannot be thoroughly humbled till he realizes that his salvation is utterly beyond his own powers, counsels, efforts, will and works, and depends absolutely on the will, counsel, pleasure and work of Another--God alone. As long as he is persuaded that he can make even the smallest contribution to his salvation, he remains self-confident and does not utterly despair of himself, and so is not humbled before God; but plans out for himself (or at least hopes and longs for) a position, an occasion, a work, which shall bring him final salvation. But he who is out of doubt that his destiny depends entirely on the will of God despairs entirely of himself, chooses nothing for himself, but waits for God to work in him; and such a man is very near to grace for his salvation.
So these truths are published for the sake of the elect, that they may be humbled and brought down to nothing, and so saved. The rest of men resist this humiliation; indeed, they condemn the teaching of self-despair; they want a little something left that they can do for themselves. Secretly they continue proud, and enemies of the grace of God.
3. The doctrine of total depravity causes me to fear trusting in myself.
As I grow to know my own heart, and the sin that still indwells me, I realize that if I am to know victory over sin, I must not trust in myself at all, but only in the Savior who said, "Apart from Me, you can do nothing" (John 15:5). The Apostle Paul warned, "Let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall" (1 Cor. 10:12). He affirmed from his own experience, "When I am weak, then I am strong" (2 Cor. 12:10), because when he was aware of his own weakness, he relied totally upon God's grace and power, not at all on himself.
4. The doctrine of total depravity moves me to greater love and devotion to God for His amazing grace.
One of the problems of the weak gospel being preached today, the gospel that does not wound and totally disable the proud sinner from thinking that he has anything he can bring to God, is that those who profess faith in Christ have no idea of the awful pit from which He rescued them, and of that fact that He did it in spite of their sin, not because they were "worthy." The truth is, even the best of us were worthy a million times over of spending eternity in the lake of fire! Forgiven little, such "Christians" love little!
The Baptist preacher, Charles Spurgeon, said, "Too many think lightly of sin, and therefore think lightly of the Saviour. He who has stood before his God, convicted and condemned, with the rope about his neck, is the man to weep for joy when he is pardoned, to hate the evil which has been forgiven him, and to live to the honour of the Redeemer by whose blood he has been cleansed." (C. H. Spurgeon Autobiography [Banner of Truth], 1:54). When we see the utter depravity of our sinful hearts, and then realize the abundant grace and mercy of our Lord and Savior, we will be caught up in wonder, love, and praise to Him for His glorious, sovereign grace! I pray that God will impress on each of us the biblical doctrine of total depravity.
Discussion Questions
- How would you answer someone who said, "It is not fair of God to condemn the human race because of Adam's sin"?
- Is it mockery to call upon lost sinners, who cannot believe by their own power, to believe in Christ? Why/why not?
- If men are totally depraved, why do many unbelievers do good deeds? Do these good deeds disprove the doctrine? Why not?
- What Scriptures would support that unbelievers have a "free will" to believe in Christ? Which Scriptures deny it? How do you harmonize the two?
Copyright 1996, Steven J. Cole, All Rights Reserved.
Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture Quotations are from the New American Standard Bible, © The Lockman Foundation
Related Topics: Hamartiology (Sin)
Lesson 16: Standing Alone (Genesis 6:9-22)Related Media
To be faithful as a Christian in an evil day, you must learn to stand alone. You will repeatedly face pressure to violate your Christian standards and go along with the crowd. As a Christian teenager, you're with some friends who are passing around a joint. What will you do when it comes to you? All the other kids are experimenting with sex and talking about their adventures. Will you go along with the crowd? Everyone has an illegal copy of an upcoming test. Will you join them in cheating?
Christian adults also face constant pressure to compromise their faith. At work, the boss expects you not to be totally honest in dealing with customers. On a business trip, your associates are all going to a porno movie and want you to join them. At family gatherings over the holidays, the rest of the family are gossiping about another family member. They're telling off-color jokes. What do you do?
No one likes to be ridiculed or rejected. We all want to be liked and included. We don't want others to think that Christians are a bunch of prudes who can't enjoy life. So we're easily tempted to go along with the crowd rather than to stand alone for Jesus Christ. But if we yield, we dishonor God and lose our distinctive witness for our Savior.
There is probably no greater example of a man who stood alone with God in an evil day than Noah. God, who sees the heart of every person, saw fit to save only Noah and his family. All others perished in the flood. Think of what it would be like to be the only godly family on earth! Noah's life teaches us that ...
To stand alone in an evil day we must walk with God.
"Noah walked with God" (6:9). That phrase is used only of Enoch (5:22, 24), Noah, and the godly priests (Mal. 2:6). It is the secret of standing alone in an evil day. The first thing we learn is that ...
1. Standing alone is necessary because we live in an evil day.
Through repetition, the text underscores several points. Twice (6:11, 12) it mentions that the corruption on earth was in the sight of God. In the sight of men, things weren't so bad. As we've seen, they were making great strides in many areas. They viewed themselves as progressive; but God viewed them as putrid. It is God's view, not man's, that matters. We only learn God's view in His Word. Three times the text repeats that the earth was corrupt (6:11, 12), meaning morally degraded. The Hebrew word "corrupt" means to destroy. Derek Kidner puts it, "... what God decided to 'destroy' (13) had been virtually self-destroyed already" (Genesis [IVP], p. 87). Twice it is said that the earth was filled with violence (6:11, 13). Moral degradation and violence go together. When people cast off God's standards for right and wrong, self becomes the standard. Self grabs whatever it can get, regardless of others. Violence is the gruesome result. Because of the degree of moral degradation and violence, God wiped out everything through the flood.
This text is especially applicable to us, because Jesus said that just as it was in the days of Noah, so it will be in the days prior to His return (Matt. 24:37-39). People were going on about life oblivious to God, "eating and drinking, ... marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark, and they did not understand until the flood came and took them all away." They were living without regard to God and His impending judgment. What a description of our time!
The frightening thing is that there were grandchildren of the godly Enoch who were swept away in the flood. They knew about God. Perhaps some of them even claimed to know God. But they had blended in so much with the evil around them that they didn't listen to God's repeated warnings of judgment.
When Jesus returns, there are going to be many who claim to know Him, even those who have prophesied and cast out demons and done miracles in His name, who will say to Him, "Lord, Lord," but He will say to them, "I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness" (Matt. 7:21-23). They thought they knew Jesus, but Jesus didn't know them because they blended in with the wickedness of the end times! It's not easy, but we must stand alone because we live in an evil day!
2. Standing alone is possible because Noah did it.
"Noah was a righteous man, blameless in his time" (6:9). The word righteous is used in two ways in the Bible. It is used of the righteousness of faith, that is, of imputed righteousness (Rom. 3:21-4:25). When a person trusts in Christ as his sin-bearer, God credits the righteousness of Jesus Christ to his account. We know that Noah had been justified by faith because Hebrews 11:7 says that his obedience in building the ark shows that he was "an heir of the righteousness which is according to faith."
But the word righteous is also used of the right conduct which stems from being justified (declared righteous) by faith. It means "conformity to a standard" and points to the observable behavior of those who live by God's revealed standards of right and wrong. When verse 9 says that Noah was righteous, it is referring to this type of righteousness. It would be wrong to say that Noah found favor with God (6:8) because he was a righteous man. Rather, because he was the object of God's undeserved favor, he lived a righteous life. His faith showed itself in good works and moral behavior. That's always God's order--grace first, then saving faith, then good deeds (Eph. 2:8-10).
Noah was not only righteous, but also blameless, which means "complete" or "whole," that Noah had integrity. The phrase "in his time [or, generations]" means that Noah's contemporaries viewed him that way. Many of them probably thought he was crazy, but they couldn't deny that he lived what he believed. That Noah was righteous and blameless does not mean that he was perfect. He sinned just as we do. But Noah confessed his sin to God and he obeyed God. Noah's righteousness and blamelessness are summed up in the words, "Noah walked with God."
The text probably repeats the names of Noah's three sons in verse 10 (see 5:32) to remind us of the effect that Noah's godly life had on them. They easily could have been influenced to leave their father in his crazy project of building this ocean liner on dry ground and to blend in with the world. The reason they stayed with Noah and got on board the ark was that they saw in their father a life that rang true.
If we want children who learn to stand alone in our evil day, we've got to be parents who live our convictions, as Noah did. Kids are smart; they read our lives much more than our lectures. They can smell phoniness a mile off, and they want no part of it. But if they see reality with God in us, there is a much better chance that they will stand alone against the tide of ungodliness in our times.
Standing alone is hard in any day. But Noah's example proves that it is possible. But how do we do it? A step at a time.
3. Standing alone is achieved by walking with God.
As we saw with Enoch, walking with God implies faith in God, obedience to God, and fellowship with God. With Noah's walk with God, three things shine through: faith, obedience, and perseverance. First, faith:
A. Walking with God begins and continues through faith in God's Word.
Like Enoch, Noah is listed in the faith "Hall of Fame" in Hebrews 11:7: "By faith Noah, being warned by God about things not yet seen, in reverence prepared an ark for the salvation of his household, by which he condemned the world, and became an heir of the righteousness which is according to faith." Note two aspects of Noah's faith:
(1) Faith in God's Word concerns the unseen. Noah was warned about "things not yet seen." God threatened to destroy the wicked and promised to save Noah and his family through the ark (Gen. 6:13-18). All this was in the future. Noah had no tangible signs to verify that this would happen. All he had was God's word. But he built his whole life around it. Alexander Maclaren writes, "The far-off flood was more real to him than the shows of life around him. Therefore he could stand all the gibes, and gave himself to a course of life which was sheer folly unless that future was real" (Expositions of Holy Scripture [Baker], p. 54).
Could you say that about your life--that it is sheer folly unless heaven and hell are real? We've gotten away from this. We emphasize the present benefits of being a Christian. Christianity is being marketed as a product that can do everything from help you lose weight to make you a successful salesman. But you won't stand alone in our evil day unless by faith you are staking everything on what God says about future judgment.
(2) Faith assumes that we hear and know God's Word. Hearing and knowing what God said, Noah acted upon it. We have God's written Word. But if you don't know the Word, it won't have any effect on your daily attitudes, behavior, and relationships. Let's say you watch one hour of TV each day (the national average is three hours per day!), plus a weekly movie. You spend another hour daily reading the newspaper and various magazines. Plus, you spend time listening to the radio while driving, etc. You read your Bible once or twice a week for 10-15 minutes. It doesn't take a Ph.D. to figure out what is going to influence your life the most! We are so bombarded with the world! You won't stand alone against the evil of our day unless your intake of the Word is sufficient to offset your intake of the world.
I urge you to saturate yourself with the Bible every way you can. Get it on tape and play it while you drive. Read it daily, asking God to give you His wisdom on how to live in this evil day. Memorize key verses so that God can bring them to mind when you're tempted to sin.
B. Walking with God requires complete obedience to God's Word.
Twice we are told that Noah did according to all that the Lord had commanded him (6:22; 7:5). When you think about it, what the Lord commanded him was incredible. Can you imagine Noah telling Mrs. Noah that he was going to build a ship 450 feet long, 75 feet wide, and 45 feet high? You hear about guys who build a fishing boat in their back yard, but this was ridiculous! This wasn't a weekend hobby; it was a full-time job for 120 years! Most of us would have argued with the Lord: "It's not feasible! It's not logical! It's too costly! It will take too long!" But no matter how difficult, illogical, or costly, Noah did "according to all that God had commanded him." Walking with God requires that kind of complete obedience.
The task God gave Noah was enormous. If you parked the ark on the street out front, it would go from the corner of Benton to the Beaver Street Brewery. The street is 30 feet wide, so it would be two and a half times the width of the street. And it would be three stories high! In fact, as far as we know, it was not until 1858 that a vessel of greater length was built: the "Great Eastern," which was 692 by 83 by 30 feet (James Boice, Genesis [Zondervan], p. 262]). While the ark was a floating box, not a pleasure craft, studies have shown that its proportions are ideal for a seaworthy vessel. How would Noah or anyone else at that time have known how to build such a large seaworthy vessel apart from revelation from God?
Critics have called Noah's ark a myth, saying that it would be impossible to fit all the known species of animals in such a vessel. If you're interested in a detailed treatment, I refer you to The Genesis Flood [Baker], by John Whitcomb and Henry Morris, two scientists who show that it is not incredible. We don't know exactly what the Bible means by the word "kind" in reference to the animals (6:20). It could refer to families of animals, from which the various species could later develop. The Bible is clear that God created the various kinds of animals distinct from one another, but there could have been change within the kinds. Authorities on taxonomy estimate that there are less than 18,000 species of mammals, birds, reptiles, and amphibians alive today. Even if that number is doubled to allow for extinct species, the ark would need to hold about 75,000 animals. Given the dimensions of the ark, it easily could hold as many as 125,000 animals the size of a sheep. Since the average size of land animals is less than that of a sheep, no more than 60 percent of the ark would be needed to hold the animals, with the rest being used for food and water storage (Morris, The Genesis Record [Baker], p. 185).
As for the problem of how Noah went about collecting all these species, verse 20 indicates that God caused the animals to come to him. That's a miracle, but certainly God could do it. As for how Noah could have collected food for all those animals and fed them all on board, it is possible that God caused the animals to go into a type of hibernation so that they didn't require as much food and water (Whitcomb & Morris, p. 71). Also, it is possible that, as will be the case in the millennium, the carnivorous animals ate grass before the flood. We don't know, but it is not impossible. (Man was vegetarian before the flood.) At any rate, the story is not incredible or mythological. There are reasonable explanations for the many problems.
We don't know the meaning of "gopher wood" (6:14; NIV = "cypress"). But the Hebrew word for "gopher" as well as the word "pitch" (tar that Noah covered the wood with) both come from the Hebrew root word for "atonement," which means "to cover." So you could say that those who were protected by the "atonement" wood and "atonement" pitch were delivered from God's judgment.
As such, the ark is a type of the Lord Jesus Christ. Just as everyone who was on the ark was saved and everyone not on the ark was lost, so everyone who, in the obedience of faith, has put himself under the covering of the blood of Jesus Christ will be saved from God's future judgment; everyone who is outside of Christ will be lost. It doesn't depend on one person being better or worse than another person. There were probably some nice people who didn't get on board the ark. There are some wonderful people who have never trusted in Christ for salvation. It all depends on whether you are "on board" or not, covered from God's judgment by the means He has ordained.
If Noah had said, "I believe what God says about the coming flood," but he hadn't followed through in obedience, he would not have been saved. If he had started, but got tired of the whole thing and quit part way through, he would not have been saved. He and his family were saved from the flood because he obeyed God completely. In our day there is a false security being offered to people under the label of eternal security. Somebody prays to receive Christ and we tell them that they are saved and eternally secure. They may be; but they may not be. If there is no subsequent change in terms of obedience to God, there's reason to doubt the reality of their salvation. We are saved by grace through faith apart from works, but faith that saves works. The proof of your faith is your obedience.
Walking with God begins and continues by faith in God's Word; it requires complete obedience to God's Word.
C. Walking with God requires perseverance.
The metaphor of walking suggests the long haul. You may run for short distances, but if you need to go far, walking is more effective. God warned Noah of the impending judgment and told him to start building the ark 120 years before the flood (Gen. 6:3). By faith Noah started working and kept going. When his sons were old enough, they helped him. Noah just kept on until it was done.
The New Testament says that he was a preacher of righteousness (2 Pet. 2:5). He preached righteousness for 120 years and didn't have a single convert. It is likely that he had many scoffers. It must have been a favorite pastime to go over and watch old Noah working on his ark. It probably had never rained yet on the earth (Gen. 2:6). Everyone must have thought Noah was bonkers to spend his life building an ocean liner on dry ground on an earth that didn't know rain! The pressure to quit would have been tremendous. Yet he kept plodding on.
It's easy to make a profession of being a Christian. It's not too difficult to remain a Christian for a few months or even a few years. But it's another matter to walk with God through the years in spite of trials, hardships, ridicule, and no visible results. We need what has been called "a long obedience in the same direction." We need perseverance!
Let me put it plainly: If you don't consistently spend time alone with God in His Word and in prayer, you don't have a walk with God! If you don't have a walk with God, you will not be able to stand alone as Noah did. You will be more conformed to this evil world than you are to Jesus Christ. Peter writes that just as the early world was destroyed by the flood, so "the present heavens and earth by [God's] word are being reserved for fire, kept for the day of judgment and destruction of ungodly men" (2 Pet. 3:7). His conclusion is, "Since all these things are to be destroyed in this way, what sort of people ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness" (3:11).
If you worked for a company that you knew was going to be dissolved by bankruptcy, your attitude toward that company would change. You wouldn't put your future hopes in it, because it has no future. If you heard that the government was going to shut down a bank because of insolvency, you wouldn't rush to invest your money in that bank. God has said that this evil world is doomed. He has promised "a new heavens and a new earth, in which righteousness dwells" (2 Pet. 3:13). Like Noah, we must redirect everything in our lives--our time, our money, our goals--in light of God's warning of judgment and His promise of deliverance in Christ. We must stand alone in this evil day by walking with God.
Discussion Questions
- We're called to be in the world but not of the world. But are there situations where we must isolate ourselves from the world? When and how?
- How can a Christian know if it is right to join in a particular activity? How can we gracefully abstain when necessary?
- How can we help our children to stand alone? Which activities should we forbid them to participate in? When should we let them make up their own minds?
- How can a person know that he is "on the ark"? In other words, how can we have assurance that Christ is truly our Savior?
Copyright 1996, Steven J. Cole, All Rights Reserved.
Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture Quotations are from the New American Standard Bible, © The Lockman Foundation
Related Topics: Bibliology (The Written Word), Discipleship, Prayer, Spiritual Life, Suffering, Trials, Persecution, Temptation
Lesson 17: God's Warnings (Genesis 7:1-24)Related Media
A woman who works for the IRS in Utah has the job of communicating with delinquent taxpayers. On one occasion she called Anchorage and was patched through to a ham operator in the Aleutian Islands. Two hours later the ham operator raised the taxpayer's home base and from there reached him at sea with his fishing fleet. After the woman identified herself as being with the IRS in Utah, there was a long pause. Then over the static from somewhere in the North Pacific came: "Ha! Ha! Come and get me!" (Reader's Digest [10/82].)
Like that tax-dodger, a lot of people think that judgment will never happen. Some may be able to dodge the IRS. But no one can dodge God's day of reckoning. But people look around and see the wicked literally getting away with murder. The unrighteous often seem to fare pretty well in this life. And so people mistakenly conclude that judgment will never happen. They mistake God's patience and grace in delaying the day of judgment to mean that it will never take place and that they can sin without consequence. But the familiar story of the flood is given to warn us:
Because God's judgment on the earth is a fact, we must take the means of escape He has provided.
Unfortunately, the story of Noah and the great flood is often regarded as a fairy tale, not as fact. But it is in the Bible to show that…
1. God's judgment on the earth is a fact.
A. The flood is the past example of the fact of God's judgment on the whole earth.
At no other point in history has God's judgment on the earth been as severe and widespread as it was at the flood. At various times God has judged individuals, groups, and even whole nations. Sodom and Gomorrah were destroyed when God rained fire and brimstone on them. God ordered Israel to destroy the Canaanites because of their sin. Israel itself was judged by the Babylonian captivity. Jerusalem was destroyed in A.D. 70 because of rejecting the Messiah. There are many more examples in the Bible. But no other judgment in history was as widespread and severe as that of the flood. As such, the flood stands as the past example, bar none, of the fact of God's judgment on the whole earth. Just as He judged the whole earth with the flood, so He will judge the whole earth in the end times, and none will escape.
I am going to take more of a biblical rather than a scientific approach. For our purposes, let's look at three points:
(1) The flood was historical. While there are some difficult problems to consider, I think we must take the biblical account at face value. The text clearly presents this as an eyewitness, historical account, not as a parable or fairy tale. For example, the precise date (7:11), as Derek Kidner states, "has the mark of a plain fact well remembered; and this is borne out by the further careful notes of time in the story" (Genesis [IVP], p. 90). While the miraculous is obviously present (especially in the way God gathered the animals to Noah), there is nothing mythical about it.
Also, the New Testament clearly interprets the flood as historical. Both the apostle Peter and the Lord Jesus refer to it as an example of the way people in the end times will scoff at God's judgment (2 Pet. 2:5; 3:3-10; Matt. 24:37-39; Luke 17:26-27). Either Jesus was mistaken; or He was deceptively using something He knew not to be true as if it were true; or He knew what He was talking about when He referred to Noah and the flood as historically true.
Outside of the Bible, there is the widespread evidence of flood stories in many cultures. While there are variations in the stories, as would be expected over thousands of years, the wide distribution of these stories from every continent of the world points to a common source (see Tim LaHaye and John Morris, The Ark on Ararat [Thomas Nelson], pp. 233-239).
Geologically, there is debate even among Christian scholars about the evidence for a worldwide flood. Some, such as the late Bernard Ramm, argue for a localized flood because they see a number of scientific problems with a universal flood. But there are many lines of geologic evidence which may point to a universal flood and which are not easy to explain in any other way. I cannot deal with the technical aspects of it here, but refer you to John Whitcomb and Henry Morris's The Genesis Flood (Baker, 518 pp.) if you want more detail.
Just over a century ago, the German scholar, C. F. Keil, put the scientific issue in focus when he wrote, "However impossible, therefore, scientific men may declare it to be for them to conceive of a universal flood of such a height and duration in accordance with the known laws of nature, this inability on their part does not justify any one in questioning the possibility of such an event being produced by the omnipotence of God" (Keil & Delitzsch, Commentary on the Old Testament [Eerdmans], 1:146-147).
But, biblically the evidence for the flood as historically true is incontrovertible. Culturally, there is a massive body of independent traditions which points to a common historical event as their source. Geologically, evidence does not definitely prove the flood, but neither does it disprove it. And there is much evidence that supports the flood.
(2) The flood was universal. Not only was the flood an actual historical event; it was also universal, or worldwide. While I am inclined toward Whitcomb and Morris's scientific arguments, I am not basing this point on geology, but on the Bible. I think the biblical evidence is clear that the flood was worldwide in scope.
For one thing, the language of the text could not be stronger in describing a flood of universal proportions. While the words "all" and "every" are sometimes used in a relative sense in the Bible, Genesis 7 uses deliberately strong, repetitive language to describe the extent of the flood. In verses 2 and 3 God says that Noah must take some of every kind of animal "to keep offspring alive on the face of all the earth." That would not be necessary if the flood were only local. In verse 4, God tells Noah that He is about to blot out every living thing that He has made. Why have Noah go to all the bother of building an ark of this size if the flood was merely local? The animals could just as easily have fled the area (along with Noah and his family) and returned afterward.
Verses 11 and 12 say that the source of the flood was not only 40 days and nights of rain, but also the breaking up of the great deep. This points to massive changes in the oceans and subterranean vaults of the earth, and describes much more water than that of a local flood. Verses 19 and 20 say that all the high mountains everywhere under the heavens were covered to a depth of 15 cubits (about 23 feet, perhaps the draft of the loaded ark). (The mountains on earth before the flood were not necessarily the same as afterwards; see Whitcomb and Morris, pp. 266-270).
Then there is the time which it took for the flood waters to abate. The water prevailed upon the earth for 150 days (7:24). This means that it took 110 days after the rain stopped for the water to recede enough for the ark to touch down on Mount Ararat (8:3, 4). It took another ten weeks for the water level to go down enough for the tops of other mountains to become visible (8:5). All told, it was just over a year before it was safe for Noah and those on the ark to disembark (8:14-15). No local flood would require that much time to subside.
Verses 21 and 22 say that all animals in whose nostrils were the breath of life died. Verse 23 sums it up by saying that God blotted out every living thing from the land "from man to animals to creeping things and to birds of the sky ... and only Noah was left, together with those that were with him in the ark." How much more plainly could you say it?
In addition, Genesis 8 implies that Noah and those with him in the ark were the only living creatures on earth after the flood (esp. 8:1, 15-17). God's promise not to destroy the earth in this manner again (8:21-22; 9:15-16) would not be true if the flood was merely local, because there have been many severe local floods in history. Genesis 9:19 and 10:32 state that the whole earth was repopulated from Noah's three sons. So the biblical evidence that the flood was universal is overwhelming. (See Henry Morris, The Genesis Record [Baker], pp. 199-203, 683-685, for much more biblical support.)
Thus the flood was both historical and universal. There's a third fact to observe:
(3) The flood came suddenly, but not without warning. God had been warning that evil world for almost 1,000 years. Enoch preached against the ungodliness of his day. He named his son Methuselah, which means, "when he is dead, it [judgment] will come." As a testimony of God's grace and patience, Methuselah lived 969 years, longer than any other human being. Finally he died in the year of the flood. But God's warnings were ignored.
Noah's ark was finally finished after 120 years. People watched as the animals migrated toward the ark, two by two. Can't you hear the people hooting, "Hey, everyone, Noah's finally getting ready to sail!" Remember, there wasn't a drop of rain yet. The ark sat there on dry ground. The day of the flood dawned just as every other day had. Then God closed the door of the ark, the rain began, and the earth quaked as the deeps were opened. Judgment came suddenly, but not without warning.
Why is this important? It's important because the flood is the one great historical example of God's future judgment for the whole earth.
B. God's future judgment will be historical, universal, and will come suddenly, but not without warning.
Just as none escaped the judgment of the flood, so none will escape God's coming judgment. In the flood, every person on the face of the earth had to come to terms with God, either by accepting His means of escape (the ark), or by perishing in the flood. In the coming judgment, all will appear before God's bar of justice. Those who are protected by God's means of escape, the Lord Jesus Christ, will be protected from that judgment. Those who have not trusted in Christ will be condemned.
It will be a historical event: God "has fixed a day in which He will judge the world in righteousness through a Man whom He has appointed, having furnished proof to all men by raising Him from the dead" (Acts 17:31).
It will be universal: He will judge "the world"--every person who has ever lived. Those who have taken refuge in Christ will be spared, but all who are outside of Christ will appear before the Great White Throne, where those whose names are not written in the book of life will be thrown into the lake of fire (Rev. 20:11-15).
It will be sudden, but not without warning. There is the warning of the Scriptures. Even many who do not read the Bible know the story of the flood, which serves as a warning to them. But over and over Jesus and others in the Bible warn of the certainty of the coming judgment.
There is the warning of those who live godly lives. Surely Noah's life served notice on that ungodly generation that their lives were not pleasing to the Lord. His obedience in the face of an almost impossible task which took 120 years stood as a testimony that they needed to repent. Even the march of the animals to the ark, obedient to their Creator's command, bore witness to that generation that God was about to do something significant.
There is the warning of our own advancing mortality. Those in Noah's day lived much longer than we do, but they all had one thing in common with us: they all died. As George Bernard Shaw observed, "The statistics on death are quite impressive: one out of one people die." We look in the mirror each day and see new wrinkles and increasing gray hair (or lack thereof). Our muscles and joints ache over things that used not to phase us. Our eyesight dims. We can't hear quite as well. And I forget the last thing--oh, yes, we start to forget things. These are all warning signs that death is ahead, when we must face eternity.
Then suddenly, after all these warnings, a day will dawn for each of us that will not start any differently than any other day. But before that day is over, we will be face to face with God. Either Jesus Christ will have returned to judge the earth, or we will die and stand before God. Are you ready for that day? The Book of Revelation clearly shows that the world will be prospering right up to the final hour when judgment falls. People will be living in luxury and sensuality. Then, in one day, in one hour, God's judgment will fall (Rev. 18:8, 10, 17, 19). To be ready, ...
2. We must take the means of escape God has provided.
The story of the flood shows us that before He brings judgment,
A. God graciously provides a means of escape from His judgment.
Noah didn't think up the idea of the ark himself. Clearly, the ark was God's initiative. He revealed it to Noah. He designed it and gave him the directions he needed. No human plan would have saved Noah or anyone else. They could have climbed the highest mountains; the flood went 20 feet over the tops of those mountains. There was no means of escape except the means God provided, and it was sufficient.
God's grace is seen in not closing the door until the last possible moment. The people watched Noah working for 120 years. They watched the animals streaming in from all parts of the globe. They watched Noah and his family board the ark. The door was still open for any to come aboard. Nobody did. They watched as the Lord shut the door (Gen. 7:16). The rain started. It was too late.
Even though the door was open until the last possible moment, there is a sense in which those outside the ark had sealed their own doom years before the flood. There are very few deathbed conversions. A person fixes his mind in unbelief so that he can continue in his sinful ways. He deliberately ignores warning after warning. Perhaps he thinks that when he has one foot in the grave and the other on a banana peel, he will repent. But by then it's too late. God has closed the door of salvation.
In reference to the last minute conversion of the thief on the cross, one of the Puritans wisely observed, "We have one account of a deathbed repentance in order that no man need despair; we have only one, in order that no man may presume." God's grace does have a limit. We cannot go on and on in our sin, ignoring God's gracious warnings, without consequence. Today is the day of salvation!
B. We must take God's means of escape.
There was only one means of escape provided by God. It was not especially fancy or inviting: A great big box daubed with pitch. A luxury liner like the Queen Mary might have attracted a few more. A good advertising campaign, along with a few shows on board may have drummed up a bit more interest.
And there was only one door. The proud lions and the lowly lizards all entered the same way. It was very narrow and restrictive. Some of Noah's neighbors may have said, "All that matters is that a person is sincere and tries to do the best he can. Noah's way is just too confining." They perished in the flood. Others urged tolerance. They said, "Noah's message is too judgmental. We need to preach love, not judgment." They perished in the flood.
It wasn't enough to know about the ark. Many in Noah's day knew about the ark, but they never got on board and they perished in the flood. It wasn't enough to admire the ark. Many marveled at the size of the ark, but they never got on board and they perished. It wasn't enough to intend to get on board the ark some day. There were some who had good intentions, but they were just too busy; they were lost in the flood. Others said, "I don't want to give up my business; it's just beginning to turn a healthy profit." They perished in the flood. Others said, "I'll get on board when my mate decides to come." But their mate never decided; they perished in the flood. The only ones who were saved were those who got on board the ark before the flood.
God has ordained one means of salvation from the judgment to come: The Lord Jesus Christ, crucified for sinners. Whether you're wealthy or poor, moral or immoral, educated or uneducated, there is only one way to heaven, the way of the cross of Jesus Christ. He is the only means of salvation God has provided.
The question is, Have you gotten on board? That will be the only issue when God's day of judgment comes suddenly. Are you trusting fully in Jesus Christ as your only hope of deliverance from God's wrath? Have you left your sin, left your busy pursuits, left your business, left anything that hinders you, and come to Christ who alone can save you from the wrath to come? That is the only question which matters in the day of judgment.
God invited Noah and his family aboard the ark with the words, "Enter the ark" (7:1). The KJV puts it, "Come into the ark ...." That's His invitation to you today. God has not yet closed the door of salvation. At the end of the Bible, after warning of the judgment to come, God's final appeal is, "The Spirit and the bride say, 'Come.' And let the one who hears say, 'Come.' And let the one who is thirsty come; let the one who wishes take the water of life without cost" (Rev. 22:17). But lest you put it off, the Bible goes on in the next to the last verse to warn, "He who testifies to these things says, 'Yes, I am coming quickly" (Rev. 22:20). The Lord Jesus is coming to judge the earth; He invites you to come aboard before He comes to close the door. Come to Christ now!
Discussion Questions
- Do we under-emphasize God's judgment? How can we properly emphasize it without sounding like "hellfire and damnation"? (Or should we sound like that?)
- How can we tactfully warn our friends and loved ones of judgment without being judgmental?
- How would you answer a critic who said that you were being an obscurantist to believe the biblical record of the flood when there is not overwhelming scientific proof?
- How would you answer a critic who complained that God was not fair to drown people thousands of miles from the ark who probably had no opportunity to get on board?
Copyright 1996, Steven J. Cole, All Rights Reserved.
Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture Quotations are from the New American Standard Bible, © The Lockman Foundation
Related Topics: Hamartiology (Sin), History, Science, Soteriology (Salvation)
Lesson 18: When You Feel Forgotten By God (Genesis 8:1-22)Related Media
Have you ever felt forgotten by God? Once in a while you hear a heart-wrenching story of a child who has been abandoned by his parents. Well, thankfully, God never abandons His children. But probably you've felt forgotten by God at times. You prayed, but God didn't answer. You read the Bible, but it didn't speak to you. The trials in your life made you think that God went on vacation and forgot about you and your problems.
Noah may have felt like that after being on the ark for a while. The whole world had been destroyed by the flood. The rain had beat down in torrents upon that lonely ark for 40 days and nights. Finally, the rain stopped and the only sound was that of the water sloshing against the sides of the ark. Noah probably expected to hear from the Lord about then. But if God spoke to Noah, the Bible doesn't report it. When God finally speaks to Noah again, telling him to come off the ark (8:15), the impression you get is that He hadn't spoken since the last time recorded in the text, over a year before, when He told Noah to get on board (7:1).
What do you suppose Noah was thinking during all that time on the water? At times he probably felt forgotten by God. Maybe you're there right now. You need assurance that God hasn't forgotten you. That's what Genesis 8 is all about. We read words of hope in verse 1: "But God remembered Noah and all the beasts and all the cattle that were with him in the ark." Not just Noah, but the animals! It reminds us of Jesus' words that the Heavenly Father's eyes are on each sparrow, so you know that He cares for you. And while the Lord remembered Noah, we see Noah waiting patiently and obediently in the ark until God tells him to go out. Then Noah offered a sacrifice to the Lord. So the two themes of Genesis 8 are that God remembers Noah and Noah remembers God. We can apply it by saying:
Since God in faithfulness remembers us, we by faith must remember God.
The dominant theme of the chapter is that:
1. God in faithfulness remembers us.
When the text says, "God remembered Noah," it does not imply that somehow He got busy with other things and Noah slipped from His mind for a while. Then something reminded Him and He snapped His fingers and said, "Noah! I forgot all about him down there!"
Rather, in the Bible the word is used often of God in the sense of God taking action on His promises. When God was about to destroy the wicked cities of Sodom and Gomorrah, He "remembered Abraham" and spared Lot on his behalf (Gen. 19:29). When Rachel wanted to bear children, but could not, we read that "God remembered Rachel" and she conceived (Gen. 30:22). When Israel was in bondage in Egypt, we read that "God remembered His covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob" (Exod. 2:24). When Mary conceived Jesus by the Holy Spirit, she praised God who remembered His mercy as He had spoken to Abraham and his offspring (Luke 1:54-55). The penitent thief on the cross asked, "Jesus, remember me when You come in Your kingdom" (Luke 23:42). In every case, the idea is the same: God remembers in the sense of taking action on His promises.
So here, God remembered Noah and those on the ark. It points to God's faithfulness. From our point of view, it may seem that God has forgotten. Perhaps He has been silent for a long while. But He will act on our behalf in His time. He remembers. He is faithful to those who are His. God's faithful remembrance is seen in three ways in Genesis 8: in His past salvation; in His promise of future preservation; and in His present provision.
A. God's faithful remembrance is seen in His past salvation.
God's past salvation is seen in the ark. Noah and everyone on board the ark had been spared God's judgment. It was not a luxury liner, but those on board were safe. As Noah and his family felt the ark come to rest on the mountain, even though God was yet silent, they knew one thing for certain--by God's grace they had been spared His awful judgment. If you have trusted in God's only means of salvation, the shed blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, even if God seems silent at the moment, you can rest assured that you are safe in Jesus Christ.
A man once came to D. L. Moody and said he was worried because he didn't feel saved. Moody asked, "Was Noah safe in the ark?" "Certainly he was," the man replied. "Well, what made him safe, his feeling or the ark?" The man got the point. It is not our feelings that save us. Christ saves us by His sovereign grace, and if we have trusted in Christ, we know that God in faithfulness to His promise has saved us from His judgment.
When it seems like God has forgotten you, stop and think about the salvation God has granted to you in Jesus Christ. It is not based on anything in you. Noah found grace (6:8), and so has every person who has trusted Christ as Savior. John Newton, preacher and author of "Amazing Grace," was a drunken sailor and slave trader when God saved him. He wrote a text in bold letters and put it over the mantle of his study, where he could not fail to see it: "Thou shalt remember that thou wast a bondman in the land of Egypt and the Lord thy God redeemed thee." Newton wanted to remember God's faithfulness as seen in His past salvation.
B. God's faithful remembrance is seen in His promise of future preservation.
As he came off the ark, Noah must have had some mixed emotions. On the one hand, he was grateful for God's deliverance. But on the other hand, he must have felt a bit apprehensive. God had wiped out every other person and all other animals on the face of the earth. Noah must have thought, "What if we disobey Him? Will He wipe us out?"
But those whom God saves, He keeps. Our final preservation doesn't depend on our grip on God, but on God's strong grip on us (Jude 24). It doesn't rest on our great faith, but on His great faithfulness. In 6:18, God said to Noah, "I will establish My covenant with you." While this is the dominant theme of chapter 9, God mentions His promise here in 8:21, when He vows never again to curse the ground on account of man or to destroy every living thing as He did in the flood.
Note that God's promise of sparing the earth from such severe judgment is not conditioned on Noah's or anyone's obedience. In fact, God promises to do it in spite of man's sinfulness. The Hebrew word translated "for" (8:21, NASB) can be translated "though" (see Josh. 17:18, "though"). So God is saying, "Even though I see that man's heart is still the same [the flood did not eradicate man's sinful nature], I will look ahead to the atoning sacrifice of Messiah and will spare the earth and its inhabitants for Messiah's sake."
Aren't you glad that your future deliverance from God's judgment depends on God's faithfulness, not yours? While those who truly know Christ will be growing in obedience, there isn't a saint who has a perfect track record. Satan likes to come and say, "You claim to be a Christian? Look at your sins! How can you possibly expect God to save you?" At such times of doubt, I have to say to Satan, "I'm not trusting in my track record to commend me to God. I'm trusting in the faithfulness of the God who has said, 'Their sins and lawless deeds I will remember no more' (Heb. 10:17). I'm trusting in His Word which declares that 'He who began a good work in [me] will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus' (Phil. 1:6). So, Satan, if you can disprove God's faithfulness, I'm in trouble. But if not, be gone! You have no basis to trouble me."
Thus God's faithful remembrance is seen in His past salvation and in His promise of future preservation of His people from judgment. But also,
C. God's faithful remembrance is seen in His present provision.
God had provided all that Noah and his family needed to survive, both on the ark and once they set foot on dry ground again. The earth again sprouted with vegetation, as seen in the olive leaf in the dove's beak. (The olive tree can sprout even under water.) The olive leaf showed Noah that the water had greatly subsided, since olive trees grow at lower elevations than where the ark came to rest.
God's provision is also seen in that He had instructed Noah to take seven clean animals on the ark, rather than just two. He used one of the seven for his sacrifice (8:20). But in 9:3, God ordains that man may now eat meat. Thus the clean animals provided food for the survivors of the flood until they could grow new crops and until the animals multiplied.
God's provision is also seen in His promise (8:22) that "while the earth remains, seedtime and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease." We often forget, as A. W. Pink put it, that "behind Nature's 'laws' is Nature's Lord" (Gleanings in Genesis [Moody Press], p. 113). God gives us many reminders of His faithfulness: Each new day, every changing season, and the food we eat should remind us that He is a faithful God who provides for all our needs.
Genesis 8 reminds us of the creation account in Genesis 1. In both accounts, the earth is covered with water. In Genesis 1 the Spirit moved; here God caused the wind (same Hebrew word as "Spirit") to blow. In both accounts the dry land is separated from the waters, vegetation sprouts and the earth is prepared for man. Both chapters show us God's gracious provision for His creatures.
Often when God is silent in our lives, it's because He wants to bring us into a situation where He makes all things new. But sometimes He has to destroy the old before He can remake the new. But we can count on His faithfulness during the silence, knowing that He has saved us in the past, He has promised to preserve us in the future, and He is providing for us in the present. Noah clung to those assurances when God was silent for that long year in the ark. You can cling to those assurances right now, if it seems as if God has forgotten you.
So first we see God's remembrance of Noah; we also see Noah's remembrance of God. Since God in faithfulness remembers us,
2. We by faith must remember God.
Noah's remembrance of God is seen in three ways in this story, ways we can imitate as we seek to remember the Lord.
A. We remember God by trusting in His salvation.
Noah obedient faith is seen in his building the ark and by getting on board when God told him to. If he hadn't trusted God's word by doing that, he wouldn't have been delivered from the flood.
God has provided Jesus Christ as the "ark" which will carry you safely through the judgment to come. Just as Noah had to believe God by building the ark and getting on board, so you must believe God by "getting on board" Christ as the only One who can deliver you from God's judgment. In the world's eyes, the ark was Noah's folly. But in God's plan, that which was foolishness to the world was His means of salvation. Even so, as Paul said, "The word of the cross is to those who are perishing foolishness, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God" (1 Cor. 1:18). If you have never by faith entrusted your eternal destiny completely to Jesus Christ, laying hold of His death in your place, you must start there.
B. We remember God by waiting patiently and obediently for God's timing.
Once God has saved us, like young children, we want everything instantly. We want all our problems solved now. We want answers to our questions now. But God shapes us by making us learn to wait on Him. After a year in a crowded, dark, smelly ark, Noah must have had a bad case of cabin fever. But we find him patiently and obediently waiting for the Lord to give the word. God didn't dry up the water instantly, but used the wind and other natural processes. It took time. That's usually how God works.
Finally Noah sent out a raven. Ravens will alight on anything, no matter how foul. Perhaps it landed on carcasses floating on the water, and fed off them, but it never returned to the ark. Next Noah released the dove. Doves want a clean, dry place to land. Not finding such a place, the dove returned. Noah kept waiting. Seven days later, he tried again. This time the dove returned with an olive leaf. Noah waited seven more days. This time the dove did not return. Still Noah waited. In the 601st year of his life, on the first day of the first month, the water was dried up (8:13). Still Noah waited. Finally, on the 27th day of the second month, God told Noah to disembark (8:14-16). Only then did Noah leave the ark.
God had shut Noah in; God must bring Noah out by His command. Noah kept waiting on God even when God was apparently silent. Obedience during the silent times is the best guarantee that you'll obey God in those critical moments which determine the course of your life. If God has shut you in to some difficulty, wait patiently and obediently upon Him to bring you out in His way and time.
Maybe God has shut you up to being single, but you want to be married. But God doesn't seem to be listening to your prayers. If you disobey God and take matters into your own hands by dating unbelievers, you will thwart what He is trying to teach you about waiting on Him and you may miss His provision for you later. In the silent times, we must remember the Lord by waiting patiently and obediently for His timing.
C. We remember the Lord by offering a sacrifice of gratitude.
Noah got off the ark and offered a sacrifice to the Lord. You may think his action was a matter of course. But it was hardly a matter of course. Noah would have been a busy man once he set foot on dry ground again. He had to build a shelter for his family. They had to tend to the domestic animals. They had to move everything off the ark to their new homes, and there was no Bekins! And yet Noah took time to remember the Lord by building an altar and offering sacrifices.
Noah's sacrifice showed that he still must approach God through shed blood. Noah wasn't presuming on some new privileged relationship with God since he had survived the flood. He still knew himself to be a sinner, and he offered sacrifices as the only way he could approach a holy God. Noah's sacrifice also was an expression of gratitude for God's salvation. Noah knew his own heart. There was no reason God should have spared him, but He did. And so Noah expressed his thankfulness with this sacrifice.
In the same way, God wants us to remember Him by coming to Him through the blood of Jesus Christ as our only basis of approach. He wants us to reflect often on our deliverance from judgment, and to "continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips that give thanks to His name" (Heb. 13:15).
One of the ways God ordained for us to do that is through the Lord's Supper (also called the "Eucharist," from the Greek word for thanksgiving). When we come to the Lord's Supper, we reflect on His salvation for us in the past; on His promised coming and the future salvation we will enjoy; and on the present provision He has given us for life and godliness. We remember Him and give thanks for His salvation.
Like Noah, most of us have a million other pressing things we could be doing with our time. It's so easy to get busy with life and forget the Lord and His blessings to us. Forgetting, we grow ungrateful. And ungratefulness leads us away from God. We must guard against thankless hearts by regularly setting aside time in our busy schedules to remember the Lord and the great salvation He has granted us. Since God in faithfulness has remembered us, we by faith must remember Him.
At times we've all felt abandoned by God. The nation Israel felt that way. Isaiah wrote, "But Zion said, 'The Lord has forsaken me, and the Lord has forgotten me.'" But God answers, "Can a woman forget her nursing child, and have no compassion on the son of her womb? Even these may forget, but I will not forget you" (Isa. 49:14-15). God remembers His children. Even when He seems to have forgotten us, we, His children, can rest on His faithful Word and obediently remember Him.
Frances Havergal, the hymn writer, could have felt forgotten by God. She died in her early forties. On the last day of her life, she asked a friend to read Isaiah 42 to her. When the friend read the sixth verse, "I the Lord have called thee in righteousness, and will hold thine hand, and will keep thee," Miss Havergal stopped her. She whispered, "Called; held; kept. I can go home on that!" And she did go home on that, resting in the faithful remembrance of her God. One of her best loved songs is, "Like a River Glorious." The third verse reads,
Every joy or trial falleth from above,
Trac'd upon our dial by the Sun of Love;
We may trust Him fully all for us to do;
They who trust Him wholly find Him wholly true.
It was true for her; it has been true of every one of God's elect, whom He has faithfully remembered. If you know Christ, it is true of you, even when God seems to forget you. You can trust Him and find Him wholly true.
Discussion Questions
- Tell of a time when you felt forgotten by God. What did you learn?
- Why does God make us wait on Him? How can we know whether God is telling us "no" or "wait"?
- What would you say to a person who felt that God was unfaithful because He did not answer prayers to heal a loved one?
- How can we build more gratitude into our lives?
Copyright 1996, Steven J. Cole, All Rights Reserved.
Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture Quotations are from the New American Standard Bible, © The Lockman Foundation
Related Topics: Character of God, Faith, Soteriology (Salvation)
Lesson 19: The Sanctity of Human Life (Genesis 9:1-7)Related Media
In 1994, a 16 year-old Philadelphia youth tried to extort money from an ice cream truck driver. When the driver refused, the boy shot him. As this father of three lay dying, the neighborhood teenagers gathered around and mocked his agony in a rap song they composed, "They killed Mr. Softee." A fellow ice cream truck driver and friend of the dying man came on the scene shortly after the shooting. He told reporters, "It wasn't human. People were laughing and asking me for ice cream. I was crying.... They were acting as though a cat had died, not a human being."
We live in a day when human life is no longer regarded as sacred. The devaluing of life is spreading not only through violence in the ghettos, but also through abortion on demand, which results in the deaths of 1.5 million babies in America each year. On the other end of life, the push for euthanasia is further eroding the sanctity of human life.
All of these problems stem from the erosion of the Bible as the standard for truth in our society. If you throw out the Bible and accept evolution, then man is just an animal and there is no basis for human morality, other than cultural norms. Without the Bible, there is no basis for affirming that humans are created in the image of God and that human life is thus sacred. For the survival of our nation and culture, we desperately need to understand and proclaim the biblical truth regarding the sanctity of human life.
When Noah and his family emerged from the ark, all human and animal life, except for that on the ark, had been destroyed. It was a new beginning for the human race which God had judged because of its corruption and violence (6:11-13). It is significant that one of the first things God affirmed to Noah was the sanctity of human life. God wanted to establish a foundation for the proper view of human life before the earth was repopulated. Our text shows that ...
Since God values human life, so must we.
God blessed Noah and his sons (9:1). God's blessing here provided for the propagation, priority, and protection of human life. Verses 1 and 7 show that human life is to be propagated to promote God's purposes on the earth. Verses 2-4 show that human life has priority over animal life. And verses 5 and 6 ordain that human life is to be protected through capital punishment for murder. These verses raise some controversial issues. I encourage you to wrestle with the totality of Scripture in arriving at your conclusions.
1. Since God values human life, He ordained it to be propagated to promote His purposes (9:1, 7).
In Genesis 1:28, God blessed Adam and Eve, saying, "Be fruitful and multiply." This blessing involved their raising godly offspring who would be stewards for God on earth. Here, starting over after the flood, God repeats the blessing for Noah and his sons. Godly families are at the heart of what God is doing on this earth, because it is in this context that children are loved, come to know God, and are trained in His ways. Thus God ordained the propagation of the human race through families to promote His purposes.
These verses raise the question: What about birth control? The text seems to say (and many sincere Christians take it to mean) that God's people should have as many children as possible. How you apply this can greatly affect your life!
First, we need to understand that Genesis 9:1 & 7, although they sound like commands, are really a form of God's blessing. God is saying, "May you be fruitful and fill the earth." Even though He had just wiped out everyone on earth because of their sin, God is reaffirming human life by giving this blessing to Noah and his sons. This blessing was given (both here and in Genesis 1) when the world was not populated. Now that the world is not in need of increased population and birth control is a medical option, it can be argued that we need prayerfully to plan how many such blessings we produce!
Some argue, "If children are blessings, then why not have all the blessings God will give us?" But we obviously limit other blessings God gives, such as food, sleep, material possessions, and leisure pursuits. Since the Bible requires us to provide for our children (1 Tim. 5:8 is primarily financial, but can include the emotional and spiritual), we must consider our ability to do so.
Some also argue that to use birth control is to usurp God's sovereignty and play God. But modern medicine gives us many theologically staggering options that didn't exist a few years ago. Although God has sovereignly ordained how long we live, most of us don't hesitate to use medicine to extend our lives if we have the option. The same applies to birth control. God has sovereignly ordained how many children we have, but perhaps birth control is the means He ordained of arriving at that number!
We need to distinguish between preventing conception and destroying life once conception has occurred. Before conception, no new life is involved. But once conception occurs, a new human life has been formed. It only requires time and nurture to become what all of us are. This means that certain types of birth control are immoral. Obviously abortion is unacceptable. But so are any methods which allow conception to take place but prevent implantation. They are really forms of abortion. Any form of birth control that destroys a developing human being is unacceptable for Christians.
Since no method of contraception (except abstinence) is totally effective (I know some who had children after supposedly being sterilized), any couple who chooses to have sex must accept the possible responsibility of conceiving children. This is one reason why sex must be reserved for marriage. If you choose to have sex and that choice results in the conception of a child, you've both (father and mother) just incurred a serious responsibility before God! To abort that child is to shed innocent human blood, which God condemns (9:6). So sex must be reserved for marriage, and a couple should not marry until they are able to accept the possible responsibility of children.
A main factor in determining whether or not to have children is to examine our motives. If we use birth control because children would interfere with our upwardly mobile life style, we're living for self and pleasure, not for God. We must adopt God's view of children, that they are a blessing (Gen. 9:1; Ps. 127:3-5) and reject the common worldly view, that children are a burden and a hindrance to personal pursuits. There is no question that children are a responsibility and that they interfere with my life style! But God uses my children to teach me how selfish I am and to show me the need to crucify my flesh and live under the lordship of Christ. Worldly, selfish motives are not a good basis for choosing not to have children.
Sometimes, I might add, people want to have children for selfish reasons. A couple may think that a child will shore up their shaky marriage. Perhaps the husband thinks that a baby will get his wife off his back, so he can selfishly do whatever he wants. Sometimes people want children to receive the love and attention they missed as a child. So they desperately try to meet their own emotional needs through their children, and are devastated when the children leave home. So we must examine our motives both for wanting to have children and for not wanting children.
There are some other factors to consider. The Bible's command to provide for our families (1 Tim. 5:8) includes finances, but also extends to emotional and spiritual provision. Concerning finances, we don't need to provide designer clothes and a Harvard education, but we do need to consider meeting basic needs. The physical health of both mother and father may be a consideration. Also, some women may thrive in mothering ten children (they love chaos and noise!), while others in terms of their personalities and abilities could provide well for two or three children, but a houseful would push them over the brink.
A final factor to consider is that the Bible teaches that marriage and sex in marriage have other legitimate purposes besides procreation. Marriage is for companionship and God designed the sexual union both for intimacy and pleasure. It's a deterrent to sexual temptation. Therefore, I believe that a Christian married couple may responsibly use a method of preventing conception (not abortion) if they've prayerfully and carefully weighed their motives so that their decision is not based upon selfishness, materialism, or worldly attitudes toward children.
Don't forget the point we began with, that human life is to be propagated to promote God's purposes. This means that most Christian couples should want to have as many children as they can care for, to see those children raised to love and serve Jesus Christ. While some children may not be planned, for Christians all children should be valued and loved since they are God's gift.
2. Since God values human life, He ordained it to take priority over animal life (9:2-4).
God put the fear of man on wild animals and put all animal life under man's control. He also gave permission for man to eat meat. Before the flood, man and animals may have been vegetarian (see 1:29-30). But now man is given meat for sustenance. Some may choose to be vegetarian for health reasons, but there is nothing more spiritual about not eating meat.
God ordains that man may not eat the flesh with its life, that is, its blood (9:4). This pointed ahead to the sacrificial system God would ordain under Moses: "For the life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it to you on the altar to make atonement for your souls; for it is the blood by reason of the life that makes atonement" (Lev. 17:11). God requires that the soul that sins shall die. But He has graciously made provision through the shed blood of an acceptable substitute, the Lord Jesus Christ, so that all who trust in Christ's death on their behalf do not have to face judgment.
Another lesson of these verses is that God made animals to serve people, not people to serve animals. Certainly we should protect animals from wanton destruction and be kind to animals (Prov. 12:10). But animals are given to serve us, not vice versa. In our day, the animal rights movement has often put saving animals above saving people. It's ironic that those who advocate saving baby seals also often advocate destroying human babies through abortion. And while I don't mean to disrespect a people, the Hindu religion with its sacred cows, is a pathetic example of people serving animals, when those very animals were given by God to feed hungry people.
Thus after the flood, God reestablished the value of human life by ordaining that it should be propagated to promote His purposes and that human life is to take priority over animal life.
3. Since God values human life, He ordained it to be protected through capital punishment (9:5-6).
God here ordains human government. In delegating authority to man over the highest good that man has, namely, life, God implicitly gave authority over lesser things as well. Government is given by God to check man's sin and to protect man from himself. God is saying that because man is created in God's image (though that image is marred by the fall) human life is valuable. Thus one who murders another person must pay the ultimate penalty by forfeiting his own life in exchange.
The value we place on something is reflected by what we will give in exchange for it. If I give $10,000 for a car, it shows that I think that car is valuable enough to exchange the necessary labor and time it takes me to earn that amount of money. If I take your life and our society says that I must spend seven years in prison at taxpayer expense, it reflects the value society puts on human life, which in our day doesn't seem to be very much.
In all fairness, I must say that not all evangelical Christians agree on capital punishment. Some argue that it has been replaced by Christ's ethic of love for our enemies. We are not to take vengeance. It is barbaric and brutal to kill a killer. To take a man's life is to deny him the opportunity to repent. Or if he has repented, to take his life is to kill a brother in Christ.
Also, for which crimes is capital punishment to be mandated? In the law of Moses, the death penalty was prescribed for many crimes other than premeditated murder, including fornication, adultery, rape (Deut. 22:13-27), and homosexuality (Lev. 20:13); hitting, cursing, or rebelling against one's parents (Exod. 21:15, 17; Lev. 20:9; Deut. 21:18-21); cursing God (Lev. 24:10-16); and, sabbath-breaking (Num. 15:32-36). Most of us would be dead!
Christians who oppose capital punishment also point out that God didn't always carry it out, even for murderers, such as Cain, Moses, and David. Jesus urged leniency for the woman caught in adultery, even though the law mandated death. Apart from the Bible, it is argued that the death penalty is not a deterrent, and that it is unfairly applied in our country. Also, what if a mistake is made and an innocent person is executed? For these reasons many Christians are opposed to capital punishment.
While we need to consider these points, I still think that capital punishment is to be used by governments as a means of protecting the value of human life. God says that even an animal that kills a person must pay with its life (9:5; see Exod. 21:28-32). Genesis 9:5-6 clearly shows that God highly values human life; so must we, by imposing the death penalty for murder.
The New Testament also upholds the authority of governments to impose the death penalty. In Romans 13:1-4, Paul, living under Nero's violent reign, argues that Christians must be subject to the governing authorities, because they are ordained by God to avenge wrongs and bring wrath, including the sword, upon the one who practices evil. Paul himself told Festus that if he had done anything worthy of death, he was willing to die for his crimes (Acts 25:11).
What about the arguments raised against capital punishment? Concerning love and compassion for our enemies, we need to distinguish between personal and governmental actions. If you followed that logic to its conclusion, you couldn't punish any criminal: "Let them all go, because we've got to show compassion." But what about compassion and love for the victims and their families? Concerning vengeance, personal vengeance is wrong, but the whole point of government is to replace vengeance with justice and due punishment. Just and proportionate punishment provides a foundation of ethical responsibility that gives moral significance to human actions. If you take away the death penalty, murdering someone becomes insignificant.
When opponents of capital punishment say that it is barbaric, I say, "The murderer was the barbaric one." He killed a person innocent of breaking the law, whereas the state is killing a guilty person to uphold the law. Not to make that distinction leads to the breakdown of the principle of law and justice.
Concerning the opportunity for the murderer to repent, you could argue that a man is more likely to repent if he faces execution. But I don't see this argument as valid either way. It is sad if a truly repentant man is executed, and such factors may need to be taken into account. But God doesn't always remove the consequences for sin, even though He forgives the sinner.
Which crimes should be capital offenses? At least first degree murder ought to be in order to uphold the value of human life. I would favor either executing or castrating repeat offenders of rape and child molesting, but I can't defend that biblically. Concerning the matter that capital punishment was unevenly applied in the Old Testament, you don't build a system of justice on the exceptions. Cain and David deserved to die but were shown exceptional mercy. Moses' murder of the Egyptian could be argued to be in defense of another person. God is concerned about justice, and the death penalty should be applied evenly (not along racial lines) after a fair trial and convincing guilt.
Whether the death penalty is a deterrent or not is beside the point. If it were carried out uniformly and swiftly, I think it would be a deterrent (Deut. 21:21; Eccl. 8:11). It at least would deter the murderer from doing it again! There is always the risk that an innocent man will be executed. For that reason, proper judicial procedures must always be followed, and if there is even slight doubt, the person must not die. But we need to think about this rationally, not emotionally. Many decisions made by government leaders affect lives. A budget decision for research on disease means that some people will live and some will die. A decision to build a skyscraper or dam means that some probably will die during construction. On rare occasions a few innocent people may be killed by capital punishment, but many more innocent people would be killed by murderers who were allowed to live without capital punishment.
You'll have to think it through biblically. My conclusion is that the arguments against capital punishment are not persuasive enough to overturn the clear teaching of Genesis 9:6 and Romans 13. It's necessary to uphold the sanctity of human life.
While it's important to think biblically about these matters, I don't want this message to be theoretical. What can you do to affirm the sanctity of human life?
Some of you should get involved in the pro-life movement. We need an evangelical pro-life pregnancy counseling center in Flagstaff. We all should vote for pro-life candidates and write letters to legislators and to newspapers defending the unborn. Vote against judges and legislators who are soft on crime. And pray! It's a spiritual battle. Pray for government authorities. Pray for justice to be carried out in our land. With prayer and obedience, we can see the sanctity of human life restored in our country.
I want to say a final word to anyone who may have had an abortion or who counseled someone else to do so. You may have done this in ignorance and now you realize how wrong your action was in the sight of God, who values human life. God takes all sin seriously, as His judgment in the flood shows. But He also is gracious and forgiving to all who will turn from their sin and seek Him. Even murderers have found grace at His throne. Through Christ's death, God can maintain His justice (because Christ paid the penalty), but also His love (by extending a free pardon to all who will accept it). No matter how great your guilt, God's grace is greater. Right now you can receive the gift of forgiveness He offers you in the Lord Jesus Christ.
Discussion Questions
- Have Christians bought into the world's view concerning family planning? Are there other biblical factors (than those mentioned in the message) which need to be considered?
- Discuss the pros and cons: Should Christians ever use sterilization as a means of birth control?
- Is hunting permitted or forbidden by Scripture? What about medical research on animals?
- Where do you stand on capital punishment? Why? Should mercy (a reprieve) ever be extended to a convicted murderer?
Copyright 1996, Steven J. Cole, All Rights Reserved.
Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture Quotations are from the New American Standard Bible, © The Lockman Foundation
Related Topics: Character of God, Cultural Issues, Discipleship, Law
Lesson 20: Assurance From God (Genesis 9:8-17)Related Media
If you have gone through a traumatic experience, afterward you probably struggled with anxiety about whether it would happen again. After Marla and I were mugged at gunpoint outside our apartment in Dallas, there was not a night when I came home that I did not think about the possibility of a gunman waiting to get me. Even now I am much more observant of suspicious looking characters when I am out after dark. I don't want the same thing to happen again.
Of course, we can't guarantee that traumatic events will not recur. I may get mugged again. If you've been in a bad accident, it could happen again. Life is uncertain in these matters. But there is a most important traumatic event in the future where we can be certain about the outcome. That event is God's judgment, when we all must stand before Him. We all must soberly face the questions: Will God judge me for my sins? Should I fear God's judgment?
It's crucial that we answer these questions carefully based on God's Word of truth. There are many who do not fear God's judgment who ought to be greatly troubled by it. But there are others who fear God's judgment who need assurance from God that their sins are forgiven and that they will not be condemned when they stand before Him. It is to these people that our text gives a word of assurance.
More than anyone who has ever lived, Noah needed God's assurance concerning future judgment. He had just come through the most devastating, widespread judgment God has ever inflicted on the human race. Everyone on earth, except Noah and his family, had been destroyed in the flood. All animal life, except that on the ark, died. We can barely imagine the feelings of horror and anxiety which swept over Noah and his family as they emerged from the ark as the sole survivors on the planet. Everyone they knew before was gone. Every time they started to say, "Let's go see so-and-so," they stopped mid-sentence. So-and--so wasn't there any more.
Imagine the terror they would have felt when they heard thunder and saw storm clouds forming. Every little rainstorm could make their stomachs churn. What if the rain doesn't stop? What if God destroys us this time? Should we even bother to build homes and plant crops, or will God wipe out everything again? These questions must have been plaguing their minds. Noah and his family needed to know, "Is God going to judge us?"
Anxious people need assurance, and they need to hear it over and over. God graciously repeats Himself ("covenant" occurs 7 times in 9:8-17), so that Noah and his family will not only hear the message, but also feel it. He promises never to destroy the earth again by a flood (9:11, 15). God's promise to Noah was not a spiritual promise, since it concerned the physical destruction of the earth. But it points ahead to the spiritual promise He makes to us in Christ:
Because God is faithful to His promises, believers can have assurance of deliverance from His judgment.
"There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus" (Rom. 8:1). We don't have to live in anxiety about past sins. We can know with certainty that our deliverance from judgment is based on God's faithfulness to the promises of His Word.
Lucy and Linus were looking out the window at a steady downpour. "Boy," said Lucy, "look at it rain. What if it floods the whole world?" "It will never do that," Linus replies confidently. "In the ninth chapter of Genesis, God promised Noah that it would never happen again, and the sign of the promise is the rainbow." "You've taken a great load off my mind," says Lucy with a relieved smile. "Sound theology," Linus affirms, "has a way of doing that!" Let's look at the theology stemming from God's promise to Noah.
1. God is faithful to His promises.
A. God's promise to Noah: Never to destroy the earth again by a flood.
God has kept that promise now for over 4,000 years! The word "covenant" used here is an important word in the Bible. There are different covenants which God made with people. But the idea is always the same. A covenant is "a pledged and defined relationship" (Herbert M. Carson, Basic Christian Doctrines [Baker, 1962], ed. by Carl Henry, p. 117). God pledges to do certain things in a defined relationship of responsibility toward certain people. Note the following aspects of God's covenant with Noah:
(1) It was unilateral. God took the sole initiative. Noah didn't think this up. He didn't negotiate with God. God originated this covenant and announced its terms to Noah. All of God's covenants are that way. He is sovereign. He determines what He will do in accordance with the counsel of His own will. We cannot come to God and try to bargain. In Hong Kong, you can sometimes bargain with the shop owners. But some of them have signs that say, "Fixed price." That means no bargaining. Don't waste your time! God's covenants with man are that way. He fixes the terms and announces what they will be.
(2) It was eternal (9:12, 16). God knows His plan from the beginning and carries it out exactly as He promises. While men may disobey and seemingly thwart God's purposes, His promises will be fulfilled. The Lord promises never again to destroy the world by a flood. This does not mean that God will never again judge the ungodly and destroy the earth. We would err seriously to think that! But it will remain in effect until the Lord returns (2 Pet. 3:4-7, 10).
(3) It was universal (9:9-11). It even included the animals! God's blessings of protection from the judgment of a universal flood extend to every living thing. While there have been local floods that have killed many people and animals, there has never been a flood of such proportions as the one in Noah's day. (This promise, by the way, is a strong biblical evidence that the flood was not just local.)
Every person who has ever lived has had opportunity to observe God's mercy through the creation, even in God's care for the animals. As Paul writes, "For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse" (Rom. 1:20).
(4) It was unconditional. God does not say that the promise will be revoked if men reach the same levels of sin as they did before. The Mosaic covenant was conditional. It depended on the obedience of the nation Israel. If they didn't obey, God would not keep His part of the deal, to bless them (Deut. 28). But the covenant with Noah was not dependent on Noah's or anyone else's obedience. It depended solely on God's word to Noah.
God's covenant with Noah reveals His abundant grace. Grace is God's unmerited favor toward those who deserve His judgment. If God acted on the basis of what we deserve, the human race would have perished centuries ago. Do you ever think about what God must see as He looks upon the earth? Sometimes when I read the crud in the newspaper, I feel overwhelmed with the corruption of this evil world. But God sees it all, and yet He withholds His judgment, graciously offering forgiveness to sinners. What amazing grace! Though the day of judgment is coming soon, today is still the day of salvation, when God offers a free pardon to every sinner who will take it.
(5) It was confirmed by a sign (9:12-17). Some think the rainbow first appears here; others think that God is giving new significance to something Noah already knew about. If there had been a cloud canopy over the earth before the flood, and it had not rained, but rather the earth had been watered by a mist coming up from the ground (Gen. 2:5-6), then it's reasonable to think that now, with the climatic changes after the flood, a rainbow appeared for the first time. One commentator suggests that up to verse 17, God was speaking to Noah, but Noah didn't know what God meant by a rainbow. But then God spread a beautiful rainbow across the sky, and while Noah was gasping in awe, God said, "This is the sign of the covenant ...."
God's sign of the rainbow was both gracious and appropriate. God put the sign in the clouds, where Noah and his family would have looked with fear when the storms came. The same water which destroyed the earth now causes the rainbow. Arising, as it does, from the conjunction of the sun and the storm, it points to God's mercy breaking through even in His judgment. Coming at the end of the storm, it shows that the storm of God's wrath is past.
Franz Delitzsch insightfully wrote, "As [the rainbow] shines forth against a dark background which but shortly before flashed with lightnings, it symbolizes the victory of bright, gentle love over the darkly luminous wrath; growing as it does out of the interaction of sun and dark clouds, it symbolizes the readiness of the heavenly to interpenetrate the earthly; extending from heaven to earth, it proclaims peace between God and man; reaching, as it does, beyond the range of vision, it declares that God's covenant of grace is all-embracing" (in H. C. Leupold, Exposition of Genesis [Baker], p. 340).
Just as there is nothing quite as beautiful and breathtaking as a rainbow, so there is nothing as glorious and beautiful as the many splendored grace of God (1 Pet. 4:10). Just as a rainbow allows us to see the various facets of pure, white light, so God's grace enables us to see Him who dwells in unapproachable light, whom no man has seen or can see (1 Tim. 6:16). Even if man forgets the meaning of the rainbow, God says that He will look at it and remember His covenant (Gen. 9:16).
I think that science sometimes robs us of appreciating God's revelation through His creation. It's like a chemist doing an analysis of the chemical elements in a piece of strawberry pie. I suppose there's a place for that, but the main thing with strawberry pie is, "Taste it!" You can explain a rainbow as a refraction of light, but the main thing is, enjoy its beauty and remember the meaning God assigns it, that He is faithful to His promises on our behalf!
There are many parallels, and a few differences, between God's promise to Noah and His promises to us in Christ:
B. God's promise in Christ: To deliver all who trust in Him.
Just as God destroyed the world through the flood, and the only ones saved were those in the ark, so He has said that He will yet destroy the world through fire and only those who are in Christ will be saved (2 Pet. 3:4-7, 10). Jesus instituted the New Covenant in His blood, through which He promised to deliver all who trust in Him.
(1) It is unilateral. It stems completely from God. He initiated it, He laid down the stipulations of it. It's not up for debate if you don't like it. It stems from God's grace toward those who deserve His wrath. God owes us nothing. The only merit is the merit of Christ. Many people miss God's offer of salvation because they insist on coming to God on their own merit. But we can't come to God until we realize that He has done it all. We can only receive as a gift what He has done. We can't bargain with God based on our good works.
(2) It is eternal. The author to the Hebrews argues that Christ's blood obtained "eternal redemption" (Heb. 5:9; 9:12). We don't have to fear that God will change the terms of the covenant at some point in the future. When Jesus from the cross said, "It is finished," He meant that His work of redemption completely paid the penalty for our sins. There is nothing to be added to what He did there. It is accomplished and established forever.
(3) It is universal. That is, it is available to all who will believe in Jesus Christ. It excludes no race; Christ purchased for God with His blood those from every tribe and tongue and people and nation (Rev. 5:9). Jesus said, "All that the Father gives Me shall come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will certainly not cast out" (John 6:37). None will be excluded from God's covenant because their sin was too great (1 Tim. 1:15-16).
(4) It is conditioned on faith in Jesus Christ. God's covenant with Noah applies to everyone, apart from their faith. It even applies to all the animals. But God's new covenant in Christ applies only to those who put their trust in Him as Savior. Jesus said, "For this is the will of My Father, that everyone who beholds the Son and believes in Him, may have eternal life; and I Myself will raise him up on the last day" (John 6:40). John writes, "... whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal life" (John 3:16). Faith in Jesus Christ is the only condition of the new covenant.
Perhaps you're wondering, "I don't have faith in Christ. How do I get it?" Faith is not something we work up. If it were, we could boast in our faith. Faith is something God imparts to the seeking heart as you hear the truth about God as revealed in His Word. Faith doesn't focus on itself, but on God who is totally dependable. "Faith comes from hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ" (Rom. 10:17). Since Jesus is both the author and perfecter of faith (Heb. 12:2), ask Him to give you the faith you need for salvation.
(5) Its sign is the Lord's Supper. When the Lord, on the night He was betrayed, offered the bread and the wine, He said that the cup was the new covenant in His blood (Luke 22:20). Just as Noah could look at the rainbow and know that God's judgment was past, so we can contemplate the emblems of the Lord's Supper and know that His judgment for us is past. The storm is over; Christ bore the flood of God's wrath for us, and gave us a sign to assure us. If you wrestle with recurring guilt over past sins, come often to the Lord's Table. It is the sign God has given to us in Christ that there will be no more judgment. Thus,
2. Believers can have assurance of deliverance from God's judgment.
God binds Himself by His covenant and lays down the terms of His relationship to man. It is for us simply to receive it and act upon it. Notice how repeatedly God emphasizes to Noah that it is He, God, who is making the covenant:
"I Myself do establish My covenant with you" (9:9); "And I establish My covenant with you" (9:11); "This is the sign of the covenant which I am making between Me and you" (9:12); "... My bow ... shall be for a sign of a covenant" (9:13); "I will remember My covenant, which is between Me and you" (9:15); "I will look upon it [the rainbow], to remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature" (9:16); "This is the sign of the covenant which I have established between Me and all flesh" (9:17).
Over and over God drives home the point so that Noah can be assured, not based on his feelings, but on God's sure word. And yet God wanted Noah to get beyond the intellectual level to the feeling level, so that, based on his faith, Noah would know in his heart that God's judgment was past. Noah's trust in God would have been strengthened from these words repeated by God.
God wants us to know that we have eternal life if we have believed in Christ. It is not based on our feelings, but on the sure word of the Lord, who has said, "My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me; and I give eternal life to them and they shall never perish; and no one shall snatch them out of My hand. My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father's hand. I and the Father are one" (John 10:27-30).
If we believe God's promise, we can have His assurance in our hearts. It is based on believing God's Word, but it ought to go beyond intellectual assent, down to the depths of our hearts. God wants us to feel assured of forgiveness in Christ, based on His sure word of promise.
Just as the Lord graciously repeated Himself over and over to Noah to assure his trembling heart, so He reaffirms His grace and mercy to us in Christ over and over. Just as God gave Noah (and us) the repeated sign of the rainbow to tell us that the storm of His wrath is over, so He tells us to observe the Lord's Supper often, where we see the sign of peace, the communion elements, which tell us that Christ bore the storm of His wrath. We need not fear God's judgment if we are safe in Christ. Perhaps some past sins keep plaguing you with doubts about your standing before God. He wants you to know that if you have trusted in Christ, He has removed your sins from you as far as the east is from the west. "As many as may be the promises of God, in [Christ] they are yes" (2 Cor. 1:20).
Donald Grey Barnhouse (Let Me Illustrate [Revell, 1967], pp. 253-254) tells of a French woman during World War I who was going through a time of great trial. Barnhouse had led this woman to Christ, and had introduced to her the idea of a promise box. It was a small box kept on the kitchen table in which were about 200 tiny rolls of paper, each with a Bible promise written on it.
During this time, the war was raging and this woman had no food for her children, except scraps of potato peelings from a nearby restaurant. Their clothes were in rags and their shoes were worn with holes. In a moment of desperation, she remembered the promise box and cried out, "Lord, O Lord, I have such a great need. Is there a promise here that is really for me? Show me, O Lord, what promise I can have in this time of famine, nakedness, peril, and the sword." She was crying by this time, and as she reached for the promise box, blinded by tears, she accidentally knocked it over and all the promises came showering down around her, on her lap and on the floor. Not one was left in the box. Suddenly she was flooded with joy in the Lord as she realized that the promises of God were all for her, and that they were all yes in Jesus Christ.
Whatever your situation, God's promises are yes for you in Christ. Do you need to know that your sins are forgiven? God says yes in Christ. Do you need assurance that you are God's child? God says yes in Christ. Do you need peace in your heart? God says yes in Christ. Because God is faithful to His promises, you can have assurance of deliverance from His judgment if you have put your trust in the Lord Jesus Christ.
Discussion Questions
- Why is it important not only to know (intellectually) that you're forgiven, but to feel it?
- How would you answer the person who said that if we emphasize God's grace, people will take advantage of it to go on in sin?
- Is it ever legitimate or healthy to doubt one's salvation? If so, when? What Scriptures apply?
- Is assurance of salvation something we should grow into, or a basic fact to be believed?
- Is there a difference between not fearing God's judgment and not taking it seriously? (Consider 2 Cor. 5:10-11.)
Copyright 1996, Steven J. Cole, All Rights Reserved.
Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture Quotations are from the New American Standard Bible, © The Lockman Foundation
Related Topics: Character of God, Faith
Lesson 21: A Good Man's Sin (Genesis 9:18-29)Related Media
It's always shocking and sad when a good man sins. When I hear of a Christian leader who has fallen, my initial response is usually, "I can't believe it! How could it happen?" Somehow I want to believe that if a man has walked with God for years, he builds up an immunity against sin. I want to hope that if I walk with God long enough, the day will come when temptation automatically glances off me.
But it just ain't so! After walking closely with God for years, George Muller used to pray, "Lord, don't let me become a wicked old man." When I first read that years ago, I thought, "There's not a chance!" But I've come to understand his prayer. There isn't one of us, I don't care how long you've been a Christian, who doesn't face the constant struggle against sin. You never become invulnerable.
Noah is "Exhibit A." He had walked with God for over 600 years! In a wicked world, Noah stood alone for God. He was the only man on earth whom God saw fit to save from the judgment of the flood. The opportunity to launch a new beginning for the human race stood before him. And what happened? He got drunk and uncovered himself within his tent. Shocking! Disgraceful! Unbelievable! Is this the same Noah?
Some have tried to exonerate Noah by arguing that he didn't know about fermentation, and got drunk accidentally. Other explanations have been suggested. But since drunkenness and nakedness are always presented in the Bible in a shameful light, we must conclude that Noah sinned. Noah's sin shows us that ...
1. Even the most godly are prone to sin.
If you condemn Noah, saying to yourself, "How could he do that?" you don't know your own heart. When it comes to godliness, Noah was top of the line. He was the most righteous man on the earth before the flood. Centuries later, through Ezekiel, God listed Noah, Daniel, and Job as three of the most righteous men in history (Ezek. 14:20)! And yet Noah got drunk and lay naked in his tent. "Let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall" (1 Cor. 10:12).
Past godliness doesn't guarantee future godliness. You don't build up an immunity toward sin. Neither age nor maturity provide protection against temptation. We must walk in dependence upon the Lord daily.
Noah's sin also teaches us that we are often the most vulnerable when the pressure is off. When he was surrounded by wickedness, Noah lived righteously. But when the storm was over and he and his family were the only ones on earth, Noah fell into sin. When the pressure is off, our guard comes down. Constant vigilance is the price of victory over sin. Those who live righteously before God know their own propensity toward sin and live in constant dependence upon the Lord.
Ham, Noah's son, saw the nakedness of his father and told his two brothers. They carefully covered up their father. When Noah awoke, he knew what Ham had done to him and utters a curse, not against Ham, but against Ham's son, Canaan. This raises many questions: What did Ham do? Was it all that serious? If so, why wasn't he punished? Why is Canaan cursed for his father's sin? Why wasn't Noah punished, since he's the one who started it all?
These questions have sent commentators scrambling for answers. Some say that Ham's seeing his father's nakedness is a euphemism for more serious sin, perhaps sexual abuse. Others say that he had sexual intercourse with Noah's wife and that Canaan was cursed because he was the fruit of that union. The problem with these views is, the text says that Noah uncovered himself, but when the Bible talks of sexual violation, it uses the phrase to uncover someone else's nakedness (see Leviticus 18 & 20).
So the most likely answer to the question, "What did Ham do?" is that he looked upon his father's nakedness, either with lust or with delight and amusement. He went and told his brothers, not in a spirit of grief and concern, but with the attitude, "Hey, do you guys want to see something funny?" His flippancy toward his father's nakedness revealed two things about Ham: He had no shame and grief toward moral failure; and, he disrespected his father, whose honor he was quick to trample on. The text gives great detail of how the other two brothers carefully walked backward so as not to gaze on their father's nakedness as they covered him (9:23). This accentuates their sensitivity and reverence in contrast to the brazenness of their brother.
In our morally loose culture, we're probably more likely to be puzzled by Shem and Japheth's actions than to be shocked by what Ham did. We shrug our shoulders and ask, "What's the big deal? So he saw his father's nakedness?" It is precisely this reaction that shows us what we need to learn from this text:
2. We all easily become calloused toward sin.
Really, don't you think, "What's the big deal?" Ham just looks on his father's nakedness and his own son and his descendants get cursed. That seems a bit extreme, not to mention unfair! But it seems to me that our attitude reveals our own callousness toward sin. We are so used to having moral filth dumped into our living rooms every night through the 21 inch sewer line (TV) that we don't even know it when we see it. Even worse, we find humor in it when we should be horrified.
I've never watched the current most popular TV shows such as "Seinfeld," "Friends," and "NYPD Blue." But I have read descriptions of such shows in the American Family Association Journal, and even the descriptions are too gross to share from the pulpit. These shows (and many more) are raw filth! I'm going to make a statement that may step on some toes, but I stand behind it: If you watch such filth, you will not become a godly person! I used to paint houses, and after a few hours, I couldn't smell the paint. Surrounded by the stench of sin, after a while we don't notice it. The only way to grow more sensitive to sin is to be in the Word daily and to avoid exposing yourself needlessly to the evil around us (Rom. 16:19).
Ham's sin shows us that sins which don't seem big at the time can have far-reaching consequences, not only for ourselves, but for our descendants. A trickle of sin in a parent can become a flood in his descendants. Noah's drunkenness and impropriety led to Ham's irreverence. Ham's sin led eventually to the corruption of the Canaanites, who practiced orgiastic, sensual worship, cult prostitution, and homosexuality.
But what of the problem of Canaan being cursed for Ham's sin? Several things can be said. First, like it or not, we must recognize that the sins of parents do affect their children and grandchildren, sometimes for many generations. Some think that this is unfair, so they reject God. But taking God out of the picture doesn't solve the problem. It is an observable fact of life, whether you believe in God or not. Even if you take God out of the picture, you still have the unfair fact that some children are loved, while others are abused. Some children are cared for, while others are neglected. Kids often suffer because of their parents' self-centered, sinful lives. It's only when you put God into the picture that there's any hope, because through the gospel those children have a chance to break out of the cycle of abuse and to raise their children properly.
Second, we need to see that Noah's words are more of a prophecy than a curse. Noah is giving a thumbnail sketch of the course of world history through his sons. He may have based his prophecy in part on character traits he had already observed in his grandson. But beyond that he is speaking an oracle under the inspiration of God, predicting the course of nations, not of an individual. He is not putting a "hex" on his grandson, so that Canaan could not help himself. Nor is he fixing the fate of every person descended from Canaan, as if individuals could not escape the curse. Rather, he is predicting that Canaan's descendants would serve the descendants of Shem and Japheth.
Contrary to what some have taught, the black race is not descended from Canaan. His descendants were those peoples dwelling in the land of Canaan when Israel conquered the land under Joshua. The prophecy was fulfilled under Joshua and Solomon, both of whom put Canaan's descendants in forced service to Israel (Josh. 9:23; 1 Kings 9:20-21), and later when the Romans (descendants of Japheth) defeated the Phoenicians (descendants of Canaan) at Carthage (146 B.C.).
Also, to understand this curse on Canaan, we need to remember that the Canaanites were not innocent people who unjustly suffered under a curse imposed on their ancestor. They were a morally corrupt people whose sin far exceeded that of their ancestor. While God sovereignly ordains all things, people are accountable for their own sin. When God ordered Moses to kill all the people dwelling in the land of Canaan (which Israel never fully carried out), it was God's judgment on their gross, unrepentant sin (Gen. 15:16). They were not innocent victims.
Finally, it helps us understand this difficult passage if we fit it into Moses' theological purpose in writing Genesis. Moses was writing to a stubborn, disobedient people who were inclined to return to bondage in Egypt rather than to conquer the land of Canaan. He was about to die and would not be leading them into the land. He wrote the Pentateuch to show Israel God's pattern of blessing on those who obey Him and cursing on those who disobey. He wanted to motivate Israel to endure whatever hardship was necessary to take the land and to keep themselves from the moral contamination of the Canaanites.
Note that our section starts off by mentioning the three sons of Noah from whom the whole earth was populated (9:18-19). It makes a special, double reference to the fact that Ham is the father of Canaan (9:18, 22). Since the next chapter states this (10:6), it isn't needed here unless it is making a special point to Moses' readers, namely, to trace God's pattern of blessing and cursing with reference to these three branches of the human race, with special reference to the Canaanites, the corrupt people Israel would soon be facing in warfare.
Israel undoubtedly had heard of the moral corruption of the Canaanites. When Moses' readers saw the words, "Ham was the father of Canaan," they would have said, "Yes! Ham's corrupt conduct reveals him as the true father of Canaan." In Leviticus 18, the evil deeds of the Canaanites (which Israel was to avoid) are described repeatedly with the words "uncover" and "nakedness." While these descendants of Ham and Canaan had gone far beyond what Ham did, no Israelite could fail to make the connection. The seed of Ham's sin had come to a full harvest in his descendants through Canaan. So Moses' purpose was to warn Israel of the evil practices of the Canaanites, to trace their sin to its source, and to justify their subjugation through holy warfare. They were a people under God's curse because of their sin. (I'm indebted to Allen Ross, Bibliotheca Sacra [July-September, 1980], pp. 223-240 for much of the analysis above.)
Let me move from explanation to application:
1. Be careful not to allow a family member's sin to trigger sin in you! Noah's sin triggered Ham's sin, which triggered Canaan's sin, which can be traced to a corrupt nation centuries later. Sin is a lot like a nuclear chain reaction. One person's sin leads to the next person's sin, etc., until there is a trail of devastation. Perhaps you had an alcoholic parent or abusive parents. It's easy for you to react to their sin by sinning yourself. Or if your mate is self-centered and treats you poorly, it's easy to counter by being self-centered, rather than to respond with the love of Christ. Whenever you're wronged, whether in the home, on the job, or in the church, it's easy to retaliate rather than to obey God. So be careful not to continue the chain reaction of sin.
2. If you're from a godly home, be careful not to trifle with spiritual things! Ham had probably helped his father build the ark while the neighbors laughed. Outwardly, he went along with the program. But in his heart, he hated his father's righteousness. His heart was really with the world, not with his father. Even though he saw the horrors of God's judgment through the flood, he was delighted when he finally saw his father sin. It gave him reason to justify his own sinful desires.
If you're from a Christian home, you need to make sure that your faith in God is yours, not just the faith of your parents. Your parents' faith won't do for you. You need to trust in and obey the Lord because you fear Him and want His blessing, not just because Dad and Mom are Christians. If one or both of your parents fall into sin, you must be careful not to react with more sin of your own. You will stand before God all by yourself some day. You won't be able to hide under your parents' faith or to blame them for your own disobedience.
3. It is important to honor your parents, even if they've failed. The fifth commandment, to honor our fathers and mothers, is repeated by Paul (Eph. 6:1-3), along with his reminder that it is the first command with a promise, "that it may be well with you, and that you may live long on the earth." This command does not just apply to children living at home. Ham was married with at least four sons when he despised his father and brought this curse on his descendants. Respect for parents, even for sinful parents (which includes all!), is at the core of well-being both for individuals and for society. Like Shem and Japheth, we may have to cover some of our parents' sins, but we bring God's curse on ourselves and our grandchildren if we disrespect our parents.
But, perhaps you're wondering, What about the consequences of Noah's sin for himself? He pronounces a curse on Canaan, but nothing seems to happen to Noah. But the epilogue is a rather sad conclusion to a great life. After the flood and Noah's sin, nothing else is recorded of his life. He lived 350 more years and died. During those remaining years, he had to live with the knowledge that one of his sons was not walking with God and that his grandson would inherit a curse stemming from his own drunken behavior. Noah himself is set forth as a warning to everyone about the dangers of drunkenness.
4. Beware of the dangers of alcohol! This is the first mention of wine in the Bible, and it's not a pretty picture. A godly man like Noah was trapped by its subtle but potent influence. Getting drunk didn't result in a good time, but in shame, a curse, and slavery (which is still often the case!). While the Bible does not prohibit a careful use of wine, it repeatedly warns of the dangers of drinking and it condemns drunkenness as a deed of the flesh, warning that the one who practices it will not inherit the kingdom of God (Gal. 5:21). Because drunkenness (= "alcoholism") is such a widespread problem in our country, I urge you not to drink at all. You can't become an alcoholic if you don't drink! If a Christian who is tempted by alcohol is led back into drinking by seeing you drink, you have caused him to stumble and have sinned against Christ (Romans 14).
Thus Noah's sin shows us that even the godly are prone to sin. Ham's sin and the curse on Canaan show us how easily calloused toward sin we all become. But we can also learn something from Shem and Japheth's action:
3. We need not yield to temptation and we and our posterity will be blessed for following the Lord.
Shem and Japheth's action of carefully covering Noah's nakedness shows their fear of God and their respect for their father. As a result, Noah pronounces a blessing on them. The blessing on Shem is actually directed to the Lord, but it reveals that the Lord (Yahweh = the personal, covenant name of God) would be the personal covenant God of Shem and his line. This was fulfilled in that Abraham and the Jewish nation, and later Jesus the Messiah, came from the line of Shem. Canaan (which comes from a word meaning "to be humbled") served Shem in that the Jews displaced the Canaanites in the land of Palestine.
Japheth is blessed with the words, "May God enlarge Japheth (Japheth means "enlarge"), and let him dwell in the tents of Shem; and let Canaan be his servant" (9:27). This was fulfilled in that Japheth's descendants spread into the north and west, throughout Europe and eventually to America. The words about Japheth dwelling in the tents of Shem are on one level an expression which implies "friendly sharing of his hospitality and so of his blessings" (Leupold). But beyond that this is the first glimmer in Scripture of the grafting in of the Gentiles to the spiritual blessings of Israel. We who are Japheth's descendants have truly been blessed by dwelling in the tents of Shem!
The application of Shem and Japheth's action for us is that we don't have to yield to temptation. When Ham came to his brothers and told them of their father's condition, they easily could have joined in the mockery. But instead they feared God and respected their father and thus did not sin. Ham couldn't blame his sin on his father, because his two brothers showed that there was another option. They and their posterity were blessed because they chose to obey God. If you want God's blessing on your life, on your children and your grandchildren, then don't yield to the sin which so easily enslaves us, but yield yourself to God, as slaves of righteousness (Rom. 6:16-22).
The bottom line for each of us is:
Though we are prone to sin, we can obey the Lord and experience His blessing.
Ask yourself, "Do I want God's blessing in my life and for my children and grandchildren?" I don't know how anybody in his right mind could answer any way but "Yes!" The way we experience God's blessing is through obedience to Him. "That's the problem!" you say. "I'm so weak I have trouble obeying."
But the first step toward obedience is to recognize that you are not strong, you're weak. You are prone to sin. Recognizing that drives you to depend on the Lord, who is able to free you from sin. We need to realize that if we know Christ, we can obey Him.
A pastor told of how a man came to him to discuss a chronic sin problem in his life. He revealed the whole sad story in detail--how long it had been going on, how he fell into it, and all the things he tried to do about it. He had been to many counselors who had explained many things to him, but nothing had worked.
He finally asked the pastor, "What do you think I ought to do?" The pastor replied, "I think you ought to stop doing it." This shocked him. "That's amazing," he said. "'Stop doing it, huh? How about that!" What impressed the man was that the pastor thought he could obey God on the matter. (Told by John Blattner, Pastoral Renewal [Nov., 1985], p. 54.)
Christ came to free us from sin; so if you know Him, you can stop sinning! My guess is that some here need to do that. You've been messing around with sin, and you need to deal with it. Senator Phil Gramm says, "Balancing the budget is like going to heaven. Everybody wants to do it. They just don't want to do what you have to do to make the trip." Obedience to the Lord is like that, too! We're all for it, but we don't want to pay the price. But if we want God's blessing for ourselves, our children, and our grandchildren, we've got to get serious about obedience and get tough on our sin.
Discussion Questions
- Why do we think that we will somehow build up an immunity against sin the more we grow in Christ? Is there any truth to this?
- How would you answer the charge that God was not fair in cursing Canaan? Is God unfair to cause children to suffer for their parents' sins?
- Can all Christians obey God? What would you say to someone who said, "I'm too weak to obey"?
- How can we as Christian parents help our children to walk personally with God?
Copyright 1996, Steven J. Cole, All Rights Reserved.
Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture Quotations are from the New American Standard Bible, © The Lockman Foundation
Related Topics: Discipleship, Hamartiology (Sin), Spiritual Life, Temptation
Lesson 22: The Roots of the Nations (Genesis 10:1-32)Related Media
In his commentary on Genesis, Dr. H. C. Leupold, includes a section with hints for preaching the passage under consideration. With great hope I turned to see what he would say about Genesis 10, only to read: "It may very well be questioned whether a man should ever preach on a chapter such as this" (Baker Books, p. 380). Yet Dr. James Boice calls it "a chapter that is surely one of the most interesting and important in the entire Word of God" (Genesis [Zondervan], p. 337)! After studying it for a few hours, I confess that I was more inclined to side with Dr. Leupold than with Dr. Boice! If I could choose one chapter from the Bible to take with me to a desert island, it would not be Genesis 10. It is history at its most bare; it lists names and people whom we no longer know or care about.
And yet it is a part of the Word of God, which is all profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness (2 Tim. 3:16). So although this may not be one of the most crucial passages for us today, it does provide us with some important insights into the history of the human race. It is the most ancient record we possess of the roots of the nations. It is a bridge between the period we could call "pre-history" (from Adam to Abraham) and the historical times of Abraham and his descendants. And in spite of the pot shots of numerous critics in the past, most Bible scholars have become convinced of the accuracy of Genesis 10. William F. Albright (not a conservative) said that this chapter "stands absolutely alone in ancient literature, without a remote parallel, even among the Greeks, where we find the closest approach to a distribution of peoples in genealogical framework.... The Table of Nations remains an astonishingly accurate document" (supplement to Robert Young, Analytical Concordance to the Bible [Eerdmans], p. 30).
The chapter is a genealogy, but not in the sense of Genesis 5 and 11, which trace lineage from father to son (or grandson). Rather, it contains individual names, place names, and many names of tribes or people groups, some of which may be derived from the patriarch of that group. Thus it is not just tracing individual histories, but the development of nations, especially as they related to Israel at the time of the conquest of Canaan. It isn't a complete catalog of all nations, but rather a list that would help Israel understand the origins of the people they would encounter during the conquest, especially in light of the blessings and cursings of Noah's oracle (9:25-27).
The chapter is divided between the descendants of Japheth (10:1-5), Ham (10:6-20), and Shem (10:21-32). There is debate among scholars as to the birth order of Noah's sons. Some translate verse 21 so that Shem is the older brother of Japheth (NASB), whereas others understand Japheth to be the eldest (NIV, NKJV). There is also debate as to whether Ham was the middle son (he is always listed second) or the youngest (see 9:24). We probably cannot know for certain, but I'm inclined toward the view of Keil & Delitzsch (Commentary on the Old Testament [Eerdmans], 1:156) that the birth order is Shem, Ham, and Japheth. In chapter 10, Japheth's descendants are probably listed first because they were the most remote and thus the least important to Israel (which is Moses' common pattern in Genesis, to dispose of the least important matters first). Since the line of Shem will occupy the rest of the book, it comes last.
I'm not going to attempt to work through every name in the chapter. There is a lot of speculation involved in trying to trace every name to a particular group of people, since names change in spelling over the years and from language to language. But we can be fairly certain about some of the broad trends and people movements.
We who are of European heritage are descended from Japheth. His descendants fanned out to the east and west from the probable landing site of the ark in eastern Turkey. It is generally agreed that Gomer's, Javan's and Tiras's descendants moved into what is now Europe; Magog, Tubal, and Meschech moved north into what is now Russia; and Madai was the ancestor of the Medes and Persians, who eventually migrated into India. Thus the Indo-European languages are related, stemming from a common ancestor. The relationship of the languages of India and of western Europe was largely unknown until the 19th century, when comparative and historical study established their descent from a common language ancestor somewhere in eastern Europe. Yet Genesis 10 establishes this linkage.
The sons of Ham spread out primarily toward Africa. Cush is mentioned often in Scripture, and refers to Ethiopia. One notorious son of Cush, Nimrod, is listed. He moved east into the area of Babylon and Ninevah. (I'll say more about him later.) Mizraim is Egypt, Put probably refers to Libya, and Canaan, of course, to the many peoples inhabiting the land of Palestine during the conquest.
One obvious question from this table of the nations is, Where are the Oriental races? They may be omitted, since the list is not necessarily comprehensive. But they may be related to the Sinites (10:17), which name is still preserved in the word "Sino-" in reference to China (such as Sino-American relations). Another possibility is that some of the Hittites (called Heth in 10:15), when their empire fell, fled eastward into China. The word Hittite has also been spelled "Khittae," from which may come the word "Cathay," another designation of China.
The boundaries of Canaan's territory are described (10:19) because that is the particular region Israel was to conquer. Many of these lesser-known tribes bordered the land of Palestine. Moses wrote this so that Israel would know who these peoples were in relation to God's promises of blessing and cursing on the descendants of Noah.
Of the sons of Shem, Eber is named at the head of the list (10:21) and again later (10:24) because the word "Hebrew" probably comes from his name. Elam was the ancestor of the Elamites, who lived in southeast Mesopotamia. Asshur was apparently the founder of the Assyrians, although nothing is known of him. Arpachshad was in the line leading to Abraham (11:10-26). Lud was probably the Ludbu of the Assyrians, situated on the Tigris River. Aram is the name of the Aramean tribes which lived on the steppes of Mesopotamia (from Allen P. Ross, "The Table of the Nations in Genesis 10--Its Content," Bibliotheca Sacra [Jan.-Mar., 1981], pp. 22-34).
A mysterious note is attached to the name of Peleg (10:25, whose name in Hebrew means "divided"), that "in his days the earth was divided." Most likely this refers to the dividing of the nations at Babel. Thus chronologically, Genesis 11 fits in here, which may be during Nimrod's time (three or four generations after the flood). If Nimrod built Babylon, then God could have scattered the nations in his time, after which he moved north to conquer Ninevah.
Some have suggested that this division of the earth is a reference to continental drift, the idea that the continents were once together in one great land mass, but have drifted apart. There is scientific evidence to support that theory, although most would date it far earlier than this. But even in the last century, before scientists advanced that idea, some suggested this interpretation. It's interesting that in Greek the word for sea is pelagos (we get "archipelago" from this). If there was a catastrophic upheaval in Peleg's day, in which the continents moved apart and the seas broke in on the land, both the Greek and Hebrew meaning of Peleg's name would make sense. But we can only be very speculative on the point.
With that as an overview of these verses, what can we learn from them spiritually? Three lessons:
1. People are quick to forget the one true God.
Verses 1 and 32 both contain the phrase, "after the flood." You would think that a judgment as catastrophic as the flood would cause people to fear God for many generations after. They should have realized that they could not defy God with impunity. And yet here we have a table of the nations, with no hint that any of them followed the one true God.
It's overwhelming to think of all these names and to realize that they represent whole groups of people, whole nations, who lived and died, for the most part, without God. Perhaps there was more knowledge of God than we are aware of, but what we know of these nations from later history would not indicate that any of them worshiped the one true God.
Nimrod is a case in point. Apparently his name was proverbial in Moses' day, so that people compared a powerful man to Nimrod (10:9), much as we may say, "a dictator like Stalin." At first glance, you might think that Nimrod was a good guy, since he is called a mighty hunter "before the Lord." But the point is rather that Nimrod asserted himself against the Lord.
There are several clues which point us in this direction. First, the term "mighty one," (used three times of Nimrod, 10:8, 9), recalls the powerful, but wicked Nephilim (Gen. 6:4). Nimrod was like them, mighty in their own exploits, but not mighty in godliness. Second, Nimrod was the founder of both Babylon and Ninevah, which later became enemies and conquerors of Israel. If you trace the word Babylon through the Bible, you find that it was first a city and later a symbolic word for a system that exalts man in opposition to God and oppresses man under tyranny.
In Genesis 11:4 the builders of the tower of Babel boasted that their tower would reach into heaven and that they would make a name for themselves. Centuries later, Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, boasted in his own great power. He set up a gold statue as a symbol of his glory and power and forced everyone to bow down to it. Later he boasted as he walked on the roof of his palace, "Is this not Babylon the great, which I myself have built as a royal residence by the might of my power and for the glory of my majesty?" (Dan. 4:30). He exalted himself against God who is the ruler over mankind, who bestows human sovereignty to whomever He wishes (Dan. 4:32). And he used his power to force people to bow before false gods.
Later, in Revelation 17 & 18, we encounter both religious and political Babylon, the great harlot, who exalts herself against God and slaughters the people of God. She is said to sit on many waters, which are peoples and multitudes and nations and tongues (Rev. 17:15). The wording reminds us of the families, languages, lands, and nations of Genesis 10:5, 20, and 31. Babylon oppresses the nations and turns them away from God.
For this reason, many commentators suggest that when the text says that Nimrod was a mighty hunter, it should be taken to mean not that he was a hunter of game, but a hunter of men. The Hebrew word is used elsewhere in reference to "a violent invasion of the persons and rights of men" (George Bush, Notes on Genesis [Klock & Klock] 1:171). Nimrod used his skill and force in warfare to build a kingdom for himself at others' expense. Josephus wrote, "[Nimrod] was a bold man, and of great strength of hand; and he gradually changed the government into tyranny, seeing no other way of turning men from the fear of God, but to bring them to a constant dependence on his own power" (cited by Bush, p. 172).
Thus when it says that Nimrod was a mighty hunter "before the Lord," the Hebrew is, "in the face of the Lord," or "against the Lord" (as the Septuagint translates it). Moses is reminding his readers that Nimrod's tyranny did not go unnoticed by God. His name itself comes from a word meaning "we will revolt." He established his kingdom in defiance of God.
Note also that Nimrod was a nephew of Canaan, who was cursed by Noah. James Boice imagines Nimrod, who would have been aware of this curse, saying, "I don't know about the others, but I regard this matter of the curse of God on Canaan as a major disgrace on my family, one that needs to be erased. Did God say that my uncle Canaan would be a slave? I'll fight that judgment. I'll never be a slave! What's more, I'll be the exact opposite. I'll be so strong that others will become slaves to me. Instead of 'slave,' I'll make them say, 'Here comes Nimrod, the mightiest man on earth'" (ibid., 1:332).
An Italian proverb states, "Once the game is over, the king and the pawn go back into the same box." What good is it to become the founder of a mighty kingdom if you do not know the living and true God? Fame and power are fleeting in light of eternity. I have read that Mao Zedong, the powerful Chinese dictator, viewed by many of his people as divine, shortly before his death, said on several occasions, "I am soon going to meet God." Afredo Stroessner ruled Paraguay as dictator for 34 years. He had named over 10,000 streets and public places after himself. But in February, 1989, he was deposed. The day after the coup, crews were already at work changing all of these names.
No matter how great we become in the eyes of men, the day comes quickly for us all when we must go to meet God. That fact should help us to remember Him all our days and to order our lives rightly before Him. We dare not forget, as Nimrod and all of these nations were so quick to do, that we must stand before Him. There's a second lesson for us in Genesis 10:
2. People are quick to forget the oneness of the human race.
There is one true and living God; there is also one human race which He has created in His image. We all are descended from the same family. We who are theologically conservative sometimes hesitate to talk about the brotherhood of man, because the liberals use it to imply that everyone is in the family of God, apart from personal salvation. But there is a true biblical doctrine of the brotherhood of all men. Paul referred to it in his sermon at Athens when he said that God "made from one, every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined their appointed times, and the boundaries of their habitation" (Acts 17:26). In that same sermon he calls us all "the offspring of God" (Acts 17:29).
If Christians would stop to ponder the implications of this rather dry tenth chapter of Genesis, racial prejudice would be dissolved. I have often been shocked to hear racist comments from Christians. Sad to say, many chapters of the Ku Klux Klan have Christian pastors serving as chaplains! But the Bible is clear that whatever your skin color, you can trace your ancestry back to one of the three sons of Noah. We're all brothers and sisters!
Why then are we so quick to divide from one another and to oppress one another? The history of the human race has been one of power struggles in every level of society and among the various nations. Why? Because the one human race has one basic need: "... there is no distinction; for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God" (Rom. 3:22b-23). As God said to Noah after the flood, "the intent of man's heart is evil from his youth" (Gen. 8:21). That's your need and mine: to repent of our sin, pride, and prejudice, and to know God's forgiveness, so that His gospel of reconciliation can flow through us to those who have not heard. That's the third lesson here:
3. God wants all people to hear of His one means of salvation.
Jesus said, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father, but through Me" (John 14:6). "And there is salvation in no one else; for there is no other name under heaven that has been given among men, by which we must be saved" (Acts 4:12). Jesus Christ and His sacrificial death on the cross is God's one means of salvation. He wants all to hear.
Perhaps you're wondering, "But what about all these nations before Abraham? They never heard about salvation through Christ." Paul gives an answer in his sermon at Lystra when he says, "And in the generations gone by [God] permitted all the nations to go their own ways; and yet He did not leave Himself without witness, in that He did good and gave you rains from heaven and fruitful seasons, satisfying your hearts with food and gladness" (Acts 14:16-17). God's witness was around them; if men will seek Him, He is not far from each one (Acts 17:27).
Although I admit that it's a difficult problem, we know that God will be fair and just with every person. But the real question we need to face is, what about us who have heard? What are we to do? First, we must come to Christ, repent of our own sins, and receive His pardon. Then we are responsible to tell others. His plan is to use His people to tell the message of salvation to every family, language, land, and nation.
We will see in Genesis 12 how God chose Abraham and promised to bless all nations through him and his descendants. From Abraham, through Isaac and Jacob, in the fulness of time, the promised Savior was born. His own people did not receive Him, and so the Gentiles were grafted into the promise; as Noah prophesied, Japheth would dwell in the tents of Shem (Gen. 9:27). Christ has purchased with His blood men "from every tribe and tongue and people and nation" (Rev. 5:9). Now we, who have received the blessings of God through Abraham, are commissioned to tell the good news of salvation and forgiveness of sins in Jesus Christ to those who haven't heard.
Though people are quick to forget God and the oneness of the human race, God wants all people to hear of His one means of salvation.
You can count the number of nations in Genesis 10 in different ways and come up with slightly different figures. Jewish scholars counted 70 (26 from Shem, 30 from Ham [not including the Philistines, mentioned in passing; 10:14], and 14 from Japheth). Perhaps when our Lord chose 70 to go out to preach the gospel (Luke 10:1), He was saying, "I want a worker for every nation." His Great Commission makes it clear that we are to go to every nation (people group). That is the thrust of the missions movement in our day, to see a church for every people by the year 2000.
Robert Woodruff was a man of vision. At the end of World War II, he said, "In my generation it is my desire that everyone in the world have a taste of Coca-Cola." As president of Coca-Cola from 1923 to 1955, Woodruff motivated his colleagues to reach their generation around the world for Coke. It is no accident that Coke is now sold from the deserts of Africa to the interior of China.
If they can do it with Coke, can't we do it with Christ? I want to leave you with two questions to ask yourself soberly before God:
Am I doing all I can to reach as many for Christ as I can? If not, what am I going to change in order to do something about it? God wants all the nations to hear the good news about the Savior.
Discussion Questions
- What are some practical ways most of us could be more involved in the Great Commission?
- Which is more difficult: To give money to missionaries or to tell your neighbor about Christ?
- How do we know how much we should give to world missions? What guidelines can help us to be faithful in this matter?
- How would you answer a critic's question, "What about those who have never heard the gospel?"
Copyright 1996, Steven J. Cole, All Rights Reserved.
Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture Quotations are from the New American Standard Bible, © The Lockman Foundation
Related Topics: History, Soteriology (Salvation)
Lesson 23: Man Versus God: God Wins (Genesis 11:1-9)Related Media
Several years ago, during the nuclear arms race, the National Conference of Catholic Bishops drafted a pastoral letter condemning the U.S policy. One sentence read: "Today the destructive potential of the nuclear powers threatens the sovereignty of God over the world he has brought into being" (Newsweek, 11/8/82).
Imagine! God's sovereignty over His creation threatened by the plans and programs of world leaders, as if God were sitting in heaven, wringing His hands, crying, "What can I do! I never knew they'd build the bomb!" The bottom line is that if God's sovereignty is threatened by what man does, then man, not God, is sovereign.
For centuries, men have deluded themselves by thinking they could determine their destinies apart from God. As William Ernest Henley boasted in his poem, "Invictus," "I am the master of my fate, I am the captain of my soul." Proud men think that they can call the shots. What they forget is that one little virus, one drunk driver, one "freak" accident, is all it takes to end their proud plans.
The Bible declares, "There is no wisdom and no understanding and no counsel against the Lord" (Prov. 21:30). Concerning world rulers, a later king of Babylon, Nebuchadnezzar, was humbled by God until he learned that "the Most High is ruler over the realm of mankind, and bestows it on whom He wishes" (Dan. 4:17, 25). As the psalmist expressed God's response to proud kings who challenge His rule, "He who sits in the heavens laughs, the Lord scoffs at them" (Ps. 2:4). Concerning the plans of proud man, the Bible declares, "Many are the plans in a man's heart, but the counsel of the Lord, it will stand" (Prov. 19:21).
These verses are a commentary on Genesis 11:1-9, where we find proud man planning to thwart the purpose of God. But God effortlessly confuses their language, and their ambitious plans are laid waste. It teaches us that ...
When proud men set themselves against the Sovereign God, God always wins.
It's like saying, When a deluded man sets himself against a speeding locomotive, the train always wins. Unless you want to spend your life in futility, you must submit to the Sovereign God.
The story is skillfully placed in the middle of two lists tracing the descendants of Shem (10:21-31; 11:10-32). In chapter 10:8-11, we learned that Nimrod, a rebellious, aggressive descendant of Ham, founded Babel. A dominant theme in the Babel story is that these settlers wanted to make a name for themselves; but in line with their rebellious leader, Nimrod, they are doing it in defiance of God. In Hebrew, Shem means "name." Moses is saying that if we proudly seek to make a name for ourselves by our achievements, God will scatter us. If we want His blessing, we must, like Shem, obey Him. From Shem's line will come Abraham and God's covenant of blessing.
The story serves as a sequel to the table of the nations, explaining why the nations were scattered and why they spoke different languages. It also shows that their root problem was their rebellious pride toward God. Thus it serves as a warning to Moses' readers to submit themselves under God's mighty hand and not be deluded into thinking that they will prosper if they rebel against Him.
The story is written with delightful literary skill. The Hebrew text is full of wordplays and poetic devices. The ultimate wordplay is in verse 9, where Babel is played off the Hebrew balel, meaning "confusion." Babylonian accounts tell how their city was built in heaven by the gods, proudly referring to it as "Babili" ("the gate of God"). But God says, "So you want to make a name for yourselves, do you? You call your city the gate of God? How about 'confusion' instead?"
The narrative uses antithetic parallelism to contrast and balance the ideas. Verse 1 is set off against verse 9, verse 2 against verse 8, and verse 3 against verse 7, with verse 5 being the hinge of the story. Verse 1 mentions "the whole earth" and emphasizes the unity of the language; verse 9 also mentions "the whole earth" (twice), but contrasts God's confusion of the languages with the unity of verse 1. Verse 2 shows the people settling in one location; verse 8 contrasts that with the Lord's scattering them abroad. Verses 3 & 4 show the people boasting in their plans to build a city and a tower, with the words, "Come, let us build ..."; verse 7 and part of verse 8 provide the contrast with the Lord stopping their plans, using the same form, "Come, let us confuse ...." In verse 4, the people plan to build a tower to reach up to heaven; but in verses 5 & 7, the Lord has to come down in order to view this supposedly great project that man is attempting to build. In verse 4 men fear that they will be scattered over the earth; in verses 8 & 9, what they fear comes upon them through the punishing--and yet protecting--hand of God. (I'm indebted to Allen P. Ross, "The Dispersion of the Nations in Genesis 11:1-9," Bibliotheca Sacra [Apr.-June, 1981], pp. 119-138, for most of these insights.)
Some have been bothered by verse 5, which seems to imply that God didn't know what was happening on earth, as if He were feeble or near-sighted. So He comes down for a closer look. While the verse is anthropomorphic (using human language to describe God), its point is satirical. Here proud men build a tower whose top (they think) will reach into heaven; but God, who is high and lifted up, must come down in order to view it. It's just a speck from His vantage point. The satire is heightened by referring to the builders as "the sons of men" (11:5). They are not gods; they were mere, puny men. It is a clever satire on the feebleness of men who vainly think they can penetrate God's realm. Man may plan and build in defiance of God, but God will accomplish His purpose in spite of man's rebellion.
1. Men proudly set themselves against the sovereign God (11:1-4).
Derek Kidner (Genesis [IVP], p. 109) observes,
The primeval history reaches its fruitless climax as man, conscious of new abilities, prepares to glorify and fortify himself by collective effort. The elements of the story are timelessly characteristic of the spirit of the world. The project is typically grandiose; men describe it excitedly to one another as if it were the ultimate achievement .... At the same time they betray their insecurity as they crowd together to preserve their identity and control their fortunes.
We can see the spirit of Babel in the worldly reaction to the AIDS epidemic. No one outside the church (and few in it) is saying, "This is the judgment of a holy God on our sexual immorality. We must repent." Rather, the attitude is, "Let's not condemn anybody. It's not their fault they've contracted this disease. We'll find a cure and fix this terrible problem. Meanwhile, make sure you have safe sex." It is man seeking to overcome his problems apart from submitting to the Sovereign God.
Babel was Nimrod's project. He wanted to build his empire in defiance of God. But you can tell from verse 4 that he promoted it under the guise of human betterment. "We'll make a better world, a world that is safe for us all. Why be scattered over the face of the earth? Settle in Babel!" It sounded attractive, but there was one major problem: God was not consulted or trusted. When man can do it by himself, he doesn't doesn't need a Savior. This was arrogance and open rebellion against the Lord. God had said to fill the earth (9:1), but these people said, "Let's build a city so that we won't be scattered." They wanted the good life, but on their own terms and in their own way, without submitting to God. Babel was the epitome of human effort and achievement to solve the problems of this world, but to solve them without admitting sin and without coming to God, who alone has the remedy for human sin.
Apparently there were no stones in the area to use in building their city and tower. So they developed kiln-dried bricks and used pitch for mortar. Making bricks when there was no stone bolstered their pride and confidence in themselves. "We can do anything, overcome any hardship. The only limit on what we can do is our own imagination. Let's go forward." As in Genesis 4, it was progress; but it was progress without God.
Yet in spite of this bravado, these pioneers had an underlying sense of anxiety. They feared that they would be scattered over the face of the earth and die unknown, without a name for themselves. Isn't that just like proud man? Like a little boy, he puts on a brave front, but deep down inside, he's afraid.
The tower figures in the story here. I believe it had religious significance. Archaeologists have uncovered in this region a number of ziggurats, or religious towers, made of kiln-dried bricks and pitch. These may be modeled after this original tower. We know that astrology originated in Babylon, so this tower may have been designed so that the top contained a representation of the heavens (the signs of the zodiac) on it. Astrology replaces submission to the Sovereign God with submission to fate as seen in the movements of the sun, moon, and stars. Thus it is a form of idolatry and is satanic in origin.
All false religion is a scheme of making God available to man for man's glory and plans. Sometimes it is very subtle, because it uses the name of the true God, and all the right words, but it's a cover for a man-centered system that dethrones God and robs Him of glory. Many people in Christian churches "received Christ" so that He could help them be happy or solve their problems or succeed in life. But self was never dethroned. Pride was never humbled. They never bowed before the Sovereign God and confessed their sinfulness and yielded to His rightful lordship. Just like the residents of Babel, they're using God and religion for their own benefit, rather than submitting to Him and judging their proud, sinful rebellion. But such people actually are opposed to God. What they need to understand is,
2. The Sovereign God always wins (11:5-9).
The hinge of the passage is, "the Lord came down" (11:5). He sovereignly acts to bring about His own purpose in spite of man's rebellion. The Lord acknowledges man's possibilities: "now nothing which they purpose to do will be impossible for them" (11:6). But note that God did not approve man's possibilities; He thwarted them, in order to establish His own sovereignty. God is not Aladdin's Genie to help us reach our goals. We must submit to His will.
God is exalted by the manner in which He so easily disposes of proud man's efforts: He confuses their languages. Don't tell me God doesn't have a sense of humor! It must have been hilarious to watch the workers the morning this happened. The boss is trying to tell a crew to do something, and they look at him like he's from outer space. Then they start talking and every one of them is speaking a different language. Each person must have thought the others had flipped out! Whenever you see the people at the United Nations with their headsets on, so that they can understand the translation, remember Babel, and know that God is exalted over proud man.
God's action in scattering the people was both a punishment and a preventative, to keep man's pride from going too far. Man's plans for unity and strength ultimately would have resulted in great evil, because it was done in human wisdom apart from the Lord. It would have resulted in what God will one day permit, the one world government and one world religion under the total domination of the antichrist. And so God met the unity on earth with disunity from heaven.
As I wrote in the recent church newsletter, there is a great push in our day for unity among the churches. Part of the rallying cry is for the churches to come together for prayer. That sounds good on the surface. How can anyone be opposed to prayer? But when it means God's people joining with those who pray the rosary or pray to the virgin Mary, it is not true Christian unity. God wants Christians unified, but not at the cost of fundamental truth. Derek Kidner writes, "... unity and peace are not ultimate goods: better division than collective apostasy" (p. 110). Satan is always trying to counterfeit the work of God. Here he was building a false unity which did not honor the Lord. God one day will unify His people, but it will be under His sovereignty, not under the banner of proud man. In Zephaniah 3:9-12, the Lord says,
For then I will give to the peoples purified lips, that all of them may call on the name of the Lord, to serve Him shoulder to shoulder.... In that day you will feel no shame because of all your deeds by which you have rebelled against Me; for then I will remove from your midst your proud, exulting ones, and you will never again be haughty on My holy mountain. But I will leave among you a humble and lowly people, and they will take refuge in the name of the Lord.
Those who truly belong to the Lord are lowly people who take refuge in the name of the Lord, who bow under His sovereignty.
Let me nail down this passage with three applications:
1. If you're not growing in humility, you're not growing as a Christian. Since pride is the root sin of all sins, humility is the chief virtue of the Christian life. Since the original temptation in the garden, Satan has been active in trying to get man to exalt himself against God. It has flooded into the church in our day under the banner of building your self-esteem. But the Bible is clear that we all esteem ourselves too highly. Even the person who goes around dumping on himself is self-focused. I used to teach the popular views on self-esteem. But in reading Calvin's Institutes I came to realize how far I had drifted from the clear teaching of Scripture, and I had to repent. He writes,
A saying of Chrysostom's has always pleased me very much, that the foundation of our philosophy is humility. But that of Augustine pleases me even more: "When a certain rhetorician was asked what was the chief rule in eloquence, he replied, 'Delivery'; what was the second rule, 'Delivery'; what was the third rule, 'Delivery'; so if you ask me concerning the precepts of the Christian religion, first, second, third, and always I would answer, 'Humility.'" (II:II:11).
Calvin not only taught humility, he modeled it. On one occasion, the Roman Catholic Cardinal Sadolet passed incognito through Geneva. He wanted to have a look at the famous reformer. He found the simple house on Canon Street and stood there amazed. Could the great Calvin live in this little place? He knocked. Calvin himself, in a plain black robe, answered the door. Sadolet was dumbfounded. Where were the servants who should have been scurrying about to do their master's bidding? Even the bishops of Rome lived in mansions, surrounded by wealth and servants. Archbishops and cardinals lived in palaces like kings. And here was the most famous man in the whole Protestant church, in a little house, answering his own door! (Thea B. Van Halsema, This Was John Calvin [Baker], pp. 164-175.)
If you ask, How do I grow in humility? the biblical answer is: Get a clearer picture of the greatness of God in His holiness; and, get a more accurate view of the depth of your own sinfulness. C. S. Lewis wrote (Mere Christianity [Macmillan], p. 111),
In God you come up against something which is in every respect immeasurably superior to yourself. Unless you know God as that--and, therefore, know yourself as nothing in comparison--you do not know God at all. As long as you are proud you cannot know God. A proud man is always looking down on things and people: and, of course, as long as you are looking down, you cannot see something that is above you.
In 1715 Louis XIV of France died. He had called himself "Louis the Great," and was famous for his brash statement, "I am the State!" His court was the most lavish in Europe and his funeral the most spectacular. His body lay in a golden coffin. To dramatize his greatness, orders had been given that the cathedral would be dimly lit, with a special candle set above the coffin. Thousands waited in hushed silence. Then Bishop Massilon began to speak. Slowly reaching down, he snuffed out the candle, saying, "Only God is great."
2. Take care how you build because God will inspect it. "The Lord came down to see the city and the tower which the sons of men had built" (11:5). He inspected their work. He will inspect our work as well. We had better build with that in view. I'm talking about the motive behind your service for the Lord. God looks on our hearts. He's concerned about why you do what you do. Is it to gain the praise of men? Is it to meet your own needs? Or is it to honor and glorify Him? The question is not, What does your work look like from the outside? I'm sure the city and tower were the most impressive thing on the face of the earth in that day. There are many works for God in our day that seem quite impressive. The question is, What does God see? Calvin writes, "We never truly glory in him [God] unless we have utterly put off our own glory. On the other hand, we must hold this as a universal principle: whoever glories in himself, glories against God" (III:XIII:2).
3. Make sure that your hope for heaven is based only on God's grace through the cross of Christ, not on anything in yourself. Man's religions always seek to reach God through human effort. Thus man can boast in his standing before God, because he had a part in it. But biblical Christianity says, "May it never be that I should boast, except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world" (Gal. 6:14). The cross strips us of our pride and puts all our hope in the merits of the Savior.
Dr. Harry Ironside told the story of a new convert who gave his testimony at a church service. With great joy he told how he had been delivered from a life of sin. He gave all the glory to God, saying nothing about his own merits or anything he had done to deserve his salvation. The man in charge of the service was a legalistic man who did not appreciate the reality of salvation by grace through faith apart from human works. So he responded to the young man's testimony by saying, "You seem to indicate that God did everything when He saved you. Didn't you do your part before God did His?"
The new Christian jumped to his feet and said, "Oh, yes, I did. For more than 30 years I ran away from God as fast as my sins could carry me. That was my part. But God took out after me and ran me down. That was His part." Ironside observed, "It was well put and tells a story that every redeemed sinner understands" (from "Our Daily Bread").
Scripture is clear: "God is opposed to the proud, but gives grace to the humble" (1 Pet. 5:5). If you don't want God as your enemy, humble yourself under His mighty hand, confessing your sin. Forsaking all trust in yourself or your efforts, trust in Jesus Christ alone for salvation. Remember, if you set yourself against the Sovereign God, God always wins!
Discussion Questions
- How can believers fight pride and grow in humility?
- How can Christians know when it's right to divide from professing Christians? How much impurity should we tolerate?
- Should Christians aim for success in their jobs? How does humility fit in with striving for success?
- Why is the cross central to Christianity?
Copyright 1996, Steven J. Cole, All Rights Reserved.
Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture Quotations are from the New American Standard Bible, © The Lockman Foundation
Related Topics: Character of God, Eschatology (Things to Come), Spiritual Life