Genesis 10:1-32 - Lots of people

10:1-32

This is going to be one of those sections where I skim through many verses at once. The passage mentions many, but not all, of the nations that get mentioned elsewhere in the Old Testament. Most of the “nations” are really just clans. Some are individuals that later became a whole nation. Indeed, this is true of Israel itself.

It is interesting that in v5 it says that each clan had its own language, in the next chapter we read that the whole world had one language and speech (11:1).

Nimrod stands out as “a mighty hunter before the Lord” (11:9), and he established many lands. You can find more details on Nimrod at GotQuestions. 

Part of the purpose of the chapter seems to be to emphasise that all these peoples emanate from Noah.

John 2:3 - They have no more wine

2:3

Weddings could go on for as long as a week in the culture of the time. The groom and his family were responsible for providing for the wedding. It was also an honour culture, and there would be great shame brought upon the family and the groom if things were not done properly. There is some evidence that it could even result in lawsuits! The wine was also alcoholic! There are some Christians who are very much against alcohol. There is nothing wrong with that in itself, but some get very silly and legalistic. The wine in the Bible contained alcohol. The Bible has many warnings against drunkenness which we do well to pay heed to, but it does not prohibit the drinking of alcohol. Now if an individual has had, or has, a problem with alcohol then it is very sensible, and honouring to Christ, for that person to abstain completely from alcohol. It may be that alcohol in a particular society is such a big problem that the church as a whole decides to have a no-alcohol practice. But we need to recognise that such decisions are pragmatic decisions, they are not moral decisions (in the sense of a direct command in Scripture). 

Anyway, Jesus’ mother informed Him that there was no more wine. She may have been hoping that He could or would do something about it, or it may just be that she was passing on information, with no particular agenda.

Genesis 9:18-28 - Noah planted a vineyard

9:18-21

Noah and his family come out of the ark and we get the first failure. One of the features of the Old Testament is that almost all of the “heroes” fail, and Noah is no exception. Noah planted a vineyard, some manuscripts say it was the first vineyard. He drank the wine and got drunk. We should note that we have a telescoped account here, as in many parts of the Bible. I.e. a much abbreviated one, focusing on the key elements. The reason for this is twofold. One is the desire to focus on what matters, the other is that writing was a much more difficult business in those days, so things had to be done with great economy. We have no record of how he learnt to make wine, and obviously it would be some time after planting the vineyard before the wine could be made. Anyway, Noah got drunk. It isn’t clear whether this was through ignorance, or sinfulness. However, he lay down naked. 

9:22-28

Ham, the father of Canaan, found his father and went to tell his brothers. The brothers then walked in backwards with a cloth to cover up their father’s nakedness. Noah eventually woke up and invoked a curse on Ham, and a blessing on the other two sons. Now this seems a little unfair on Ham. It wasn’t his fault that his father was drunk and naked, and if he hadn’t told his brothers they would not have known the situation and would not have been able to deal with it. Maybe Ham should have covered up his father and not told his brothers. Anyway, Canaan was to be an enemy of Israel for many years. By the way, this incident in no way offers any support for racism.

Noah lived for 350 years after the flood and died at the age of 950.

John 2:1,2 - The wedding at Cana

2:1

The prologue announced who Jesus was, and who John the Baptist wasn’t. John relates seven “signs” in his gospel. The miracles are carefully chosen in order to highlight aspects of Jesus’ ministry and who He is. John was fully aware that Jesus performed many more miracles (John 21:25), but he was writing with a particular purpose in mind, namely that we might believe in Him (John 20:31). 

“On the third day”. The phrase “on the third day” has a particular resonance because it reminds us of the resurrection. It may be that John intends us to attach significance to this phrase here, but it seems equally possible that that would be reading too much into it.

“Jesus’ mother was there”. John never refers to her as “Mary”, possibly to avoid confusion with the other Marys. But we have another little indicator that John was fully aware of the things that we read of in the synoptic gospels. John’s gospel is different, but it is not contradictory to the synoptics, nor is it divorced from them. 

2:2

Jesus and His disciples had also been invited. John does not relate the calling of all of the twelve, though the twelve are mentioned (John 6:67). So it could refer to all twelve, or, perhaps more likely, to the five who have been mentioned so far.

Genesis 9:8-17 -I have set my rainbow

9:8-11

God now makes a covenant with Noah and his sons, and with his descendants after him. This is the first covenant in the Bible. It is also made with all the living creatures. Throughout the early chapters of Genesis we see a close relationship between man, the earth and all the living creatures. The environmentalists have got it right when they say the earth is important and we should look after it, but many of them get it wrong when they talk about man’s position in the order of things, and “solutions” such as population control. God promises that there will never again be a flood that destroys the whole earth. In the New Testament the event of the flood is looked on as a kind of drama that has elements of salvation in it. It is referred to in Matt 24:37,38; Lk 17:26,27; Heb 11:17; 1 Pet 3:20 and 2 Pet 2:5. One lesson then is that after the final judgement the new earth will never be destroyed.

9:12-17

God gives a sign to confirm the covenant. When Jesus was around the people were forever asking for a sign, or demanding a sign. We sometimes look down on them for doing this (myself included), but we see here that God gave a sign to confirm the covenant, so perhaps there calls for a sign were not that unreasonable after all? The rainbow is a sign of the covenant. Rainbows occur when there is both rain and sunshine, it is a reminder that the sunshine will win through! God is highly committed to His creation.

John 1:50,51 - You will see heaven open

1:50,51

Nathanael thought he had seen something (or rather, someone), but Jesus effectively tells him “you ain’t seen nothing yet”. He would see much greater things, he would realise the fullness of who Jesus is and what His mission was. Nathanael needed to look beyond what he saw at present. This is still true of Israel. Unless we see Jesus as the Son of God, the Lord of Lords we do not know Him at all. If we merely see Him as a great teacher or a good man, a great example, then we have missed it. In v51 we get the first occurrence of “very truly I tell you” (NIV), or “truly, truly” (ESV). In the Greek it is “amen, amen” (a transliteration from the Hebrew). The Greek for “you” here is plural, so what Jesus is about to say has a wider application than just Nathanael. Jesus’ words here allude to Jacob’s vision in Gen 28:12. People would see Jesus and His heavenly nature, and His human nature. The two go together. Son of Man has a messianic connection in Daniel chapter 7, but can also mean just “a man”. The term deliberately mixes the human and the divine.

Genesis 9:4-7 - Be fruitful and increase

9:4-6

There is a special restriction put on, namely they were not to eat meat that still has its lifeblood in it. This prohibition would be further elaborated on in the Law. There is perhaps a looking forward to the sacrifice of Jesus, and John 6 where Jesus speaks, metaphorically, of eating of Him. Both animals and men will be called to give an account for taking the life of a man or woman. Note that animals have a responsibility here. Verse 6 emphasises the seriousness of taking another person’s life. It can also be seen as justifying the death penalty. 

9:7

There is yet another repeat of the instruction to increase and multiply. Man is meant to rule the earth, not in a domineering or exploitative way, but as one tending a garden for someone else. It is clear that this instruction is very important to God. The attitude of some environmentalists, especially the lunatic fringe, but not limited to them, is directly against the God given mandate and purpose. 

John 1:47-49 - You are the Son of God

1:47,48

Jesus gives Nathanael a very warm welcome, calling him a “true Israelite” (according to NIV), and one “in whom there is no deceit”. The NIV translation is probably not the best, and ESV is better with “Behold an Israelite”.  The emphasis is on the fact that there is no “guile” or “deceit” in Nathanael. 

Nathanael is surprised, wondering how Jesus could possibly know him. Jesus had piqued Nathanael’s interest by His assessment of his character. Nathanael was a straightforward man, rather than a man like Jacob who was quite the opposite. Jesus replied that he had seen Nathanael under the fig tree, though this hardly explains how He could assess his character.

1:49

Based on this knowledge Nathanael made an amazing declaration, “You are the Son of God, you are the King of Israel”. Now the term “son of ...” can be used in a variety of ways in Hebrew literature, partly because Hebrew has far fewer adjectives than other languages (no, I am not an expert in Hebrew, I got this information from Carson). So we find terms like “son of wickedness”, “son of perdition”.  The Bible has “Son of God”, now this is true, but at this point Nathanael probably just meant “son of God”. In popular parlance “king of Israel” had strong political overtones. He was truly a liberator, but not in the terms that people commonly thought of.

Genesis 9:1-3 - God blessed Noah and his sons

9:1

God blesses Noah and his sons in a similar way to which Adam and Eve were blessed. They are commanded to be “fruitful and increase in number and fill the earth”. At the time of writing there are many who are advocating large reductions in the number of children that people have. This is both against the Biblical mandate, and a rather foolish approach. There are seriously low birth rates in many nations, and this will lead to great problems. China had its infamous one-child policy, but has had to abandon this and I have even heard reports of them considering forcing people to have children.

9:2,3

“The fear and dread ...” Another mistake that the world makes is considering man to be just one creature among many. We are different because we were created differently. We alone of all creation were made in the image of God, and here we have an explicit declaration from the Lord that animals will be subject to us. They are given into our hands. We also have here the giving of animals for food for man. So it is perfectly fine to eat animals.

John 1:45,46 - Come and see

1:45

Philip then goes to Nathanael and tells him about Jesus. Andrew told Peter that he had found the Messiah. Philip says he has found the one that Moses wrote about, and that the Prophets foretold. As mentioned earlier, the key passage from Moses is Deut 18:15-18. It is also notable that there was clearly an understanding of sorts that the Old Testament was pointing forward to a coming one. This section is the only mention of Nathanael (apart from 21:2). It may be that Nathanel and Bartholomew are one and the same, with Nathanael being his personal name. 

Jesus is identified here as “Jesus of Nazareth, son of Joseph”. Although John does not give any direct attention to the birth of Jesus, it is clear that he was fully aware of the details.

1:46

Nathanael, like most of us, had various preconceived ideas, one of which was that nothing good can come from Nazareth. Now we know that Jesus was born in Bethlehem, and Bethlehem had royal and prophetic connections, but Jesus was commonly known as Jesus of Nazareth, the place He was brought up in (Lk 4:16). Philip urges Nathanael to put aside his prejudices for a while and “come and see”. 

Genesis 8:13-22 - Come out of the ark

8:13-17

The getting out of the ark took quite a time and Noah seems to have been very cautious, perhaps understandably so. Noah had built and entered the ark at God’s command, he came out of the ark at God’s command. So Noah does come out. He is given a command, which is to be fruitful, and all the animals are likewise to be fruitful. They were to multiply and fill the earth. God’s purpose has not changed since creation;

8:18-22

So Noah and his family, and all the animals came out of the ark. Noah built an altar and sacrificed some of the clean animals to the Lord. Making sacrifices seems to be deeply ingrained in humanity, for Cain and Abel made sacrifices. The aroma of the sacrifice was pleasing to the Lord, and He vowed never again to curse the ground because of man. Remember that a good working definition of “curse” is God’s judgement on man’s sin. God makes this promise despite the state of man’s heart. Nor was it made in ignorance of the state of man’s heart, He knows how sinful we are. Note that we are sinful from childhood. We sometimes talk about the innocence of children. There is some truth in this, but it is largely because they haven’t had the chance to become experts at siin yet! God will not destroy all life again.

John 1:40-44 - Follow me

1:40-42

We are now told that one of the two disciples was Andrew. He is introduced as Simon Peter’s brother, no doubt because Peter was far more well known than Andrew. After having spent time with Jesus Andrew tells his brother that “we have found the Messiah”, and then brings his brother to Jesus. This is often used as a prototype for evangelism. There are two key features here. The first is that Andrew had met Jesus, the second that he was excited about Jesus. Effective evangelism springs out of a relationship with Jesus.

Jesus tells Simon that he will be called Cephas (i.e Peter), which means “the rock”. We all know the famous incident where Peter declares that Jesus is the Christ (Matt 16:16). We should note that Peter had already heard his brother say that Jesus was the Christ. Jesus then tells Peter that “on this rock I will build my church” (Matt 16:18). In that incident Jesus starts by calling Peter “Simon son of Jonah” (Matt 16:17), perhaps reminding him of his first encounter with the Lord.

1:43,44

Jesus now acquires two more disciples, Philip and Nathaniel. Back in John 1:11,12 we read that His own did not receive Him, but to those who did He gave the right to be children of God. So we see on Andrew, Peter, Philip and Nathaniel examples of those who did receive Him. The NIV and ESV reads as if Jesus is the one who decided to go to Galilee, and that He found Philip. Carson argues that the “decided” could actually apply to Andrew, and that Andrew found Philip and brought him to Jesus. His argument relies on it being a possible translation of the Greek, and that everyone else who came to Jesus was brought by someone else. This would be consistent with the whole tenor of the book, but cannot be proved beyond reasonable doubt. Whatever the case, Jesus tells Philip to follow Him. 

John tells us more about Philip than any of the other gospel writers (6:6ff; 12:21,22; 14:8,9). It may be that John had continued contact with Philip later in life.

Genesis 8:1-12 - God remembered Noah

8:1-5

“But God remembered Noah...” This does not mean that God ever forgot Noah, it is just expressing things in human terms (anthropomorphic language, if you want a technical term). He also remembered all the animals. We can often think that God has forgotten us or is ignoring our plight, this is never the case. Nor has God forgotten creation. It is not a case of God starting things up and then just leaving the universe to its own devices. God is continually actively involved in His creation. So God sent a wind and the waters started to recede. Now this does not mean that the physics of climate do not apply. They do, though it is well worth remembering that our understanding of climate and climate change is very limited. So the rains stopped and the ark eventually came to rest on the mountains of Ararat. It is worth noting that it does not say it was on Mount Ararat itself (though it might have been). The waters continued to recede.

8:6-12

After 40 days Noah opened a window, and over a period of time let out various birds to see what they would do. It took several periods before Noah received evidence that the waters had actually receded.

It is perhaps worth mentioning at this stage that many civilisations have a flood story. They had them in the middle east, Asia, Europe and the Americas. Africa is the only continent that is fairly devoid of flood stories. This could be taken as evidence that the flood was global, but we also have to remember that floods are fairly common worldwide. There are also many who say the flood in Genesis (and the creation story for that matter) are borrowed from other flood “myths”. If one reads the Genesis account and the accounts from other civilisations one sees that the accounts bare very little resemblance. The Biblical account is much “cleaner”, much simpler and focuses on God’s part in the event.

John 1:38,39 - Come and you will see

1:38

Jesus saw them following. The use of the word “follow” in verses 37 and 38 is not used in the strong sense of “Follow Me!” (i.e. not in the strong sense of a lifelong commitment), but in the more general sense of just following. As was His want, Jesus asked them a question “What do you want?”. The two disciples addressed Jesus as “Rabbi”, this was a common term of honour used of teachers and at this time did not imply any official capacity. The disciples ask Jesus where He is staying. Obviously they had much deeper questions as they had been told He was the Lamb of God, but they were leading in gently. Any maybe they wanted to know this so that they would know where to go to listen to His teaching.

1:39

“Come and you will see.” The only way to really get to know Jesus is to follow Him, to be with Him. There is only so much one can learn by the intellectual route, only so much we can learn by knowing about Jesus. So they spent the rest of the day with Jesus from about four in the afternoon (NIV). ESV and KJV have “the tenth hour”. The Jews measured time from six o’clock in the morning, hence NIV’s “four in the afternoon”.

Genesis 7:17-24 - They were blotted out from the earth

7:17-24

The flood now takes place. There are arguments about whether we have a global flood or a regional one. The language used is certainly consistent with a global flood, but there are places in the Bible where phrases like “all” or “all the world” are used and it clearly does not mean “all” in the literal sense. I am fairly agnostic on this issue, probably tending towards the regional side, but if it turns out it was global it is not going to shake the foundations of my understanding. The key lessons are the judgement on sin, and the saving of some. There will one day be a global judgement upon mankind, a final judgement, on the saving of those who trust in Christ. There was no escaping this flood, just as there will be no escaping God’s judgement, except through faith in Christ. Only those who trust in Christ will be saved.

John 1:34-37 - Look, the Lamb of God!

1:34

We now read that John the Baptist declared that Jesus is “God’s Chosen One”, and that his disciples followed Jesus. John the apostle is making it as clear as he can that John the Baptist was pointing to Jesus, not himself. As I have said a couple of times already, part of the reason for this emphasis is to counter wrong ideas about John the Baptist, but this is not the only reason. John was important in his own right as a herald of the coming Messiah. He was sent to “prepare the way”. He can also be seen as the culmination of the Old Testament prophets. All of them were ultimately pointing ahead to Jesus. Jesus is the fulfilment of all prophecy.

1:35-37

We now see two of the twelve meeting Jesus. Sometimes this is presented as being at odds with the picture presented in the synoptic gospels of the call of the disciples, especially Peter. This is not a fair nor sensible way to look at things. First of all we need to realise that none of the gospels are presenting a complete picture with all the data. They weren’t trying to do that, nor was it possible. The writing on scrolls imposed severe practical constraints on the length of documents (We should be very grateful for that! See how much information is conveyed in a relatively short space. Many would do well to learn from that!). In the synoptics Jesus is calling the disciples to “Follow Me”. In this section it is more an encounter with Jesus, a meeting with Him. One thing we can learn is that when Jesus did command the disciples to “Follow Me” it was probably not their first encounter with Jesus. 

John was with two of his disciples, one of whom we learn was Andrew. The name of the other is not give, some think it was John, but that is conjecture and may or may not be the case. When they saw Jesus, John declared “Look, the Lamb of God!”. On hearing this the two disciples followed Jesus. This demonstrates that they had learnt well from their teacher! John had been telling them that one greater than he was coming, and so when he pointed out who that One was the two disciples followed the One.

Genesis 7:6-16 - The rain fell upon the earth for forty days

7:6-10

Noah was six hundred years old when the flood came. Apparently he was not subject to the 120 year rule of Gen 6:3. Noah and his family had just one wife, i.e. living in line with God’s creation order. It is not until Abraham that polygamy among men of God is mentioned, and it never worked out well. With Noah there is an emphasis on his obeying God’s commands. Because the gospel tells us we are saved by faith and not by works we have a rather inaccurate view of the link between faith and obedience. Obedience matters. In fact, the call to believe the gospel is a call to obedience. Believing the gospel is not a suggestion, it is a command. And if we love Jesus then we will obey Him.

7:11-16

There is another retelling of the entering of the ark, giving a few more details. The key point is that God is saving people, and saving creation. So they all went into the ark, and God shut them in. It is interesting that it says that God shut them in. God wanted to ensure that they were safe. 

John 1:30-33 - I myself did not know Him

1:30,31

This verse relates back to 1:15. Jesus is superior to John because of his pre-existence, though in terms of earthly ministry John the Baptist was first, in eternal terms Jesus was well before John! Jesus surpasses Joh because “He was before [John]”. “I myself did not know Him”. Prior to this point John did not know who the coming One was, he only knew that he had to proclaim His coming and prepare the way (by getting people to repent and be baptised). None of the prophets in the Old Testament fully knew what they were proclaiming (1 Pet 1:10-12). 

1:32,33

John’s gospel does not relate the baptism of Jesus, but he was clearly aware of it (Matt 3:16; Mark 1:10; Lk 3:22)! He saw the Spirit come down upon Jesus as a dove and remain on Him. John the Baptist reiterates that he did not know Jesus. What he is saying is that John did not decide for himself that Jesus is the Christ, but God the Father supplied the evidence.  John had been told that the one on whom he sees the Spirit descend is the One he is witnessing to.

Genesis 7:1-5 - Go into the ark

7:1

We now have the account of Noah entering the ark, along with his family, animals and birds. The Lord saves Noah because he is “righteous before me in this generation”. So how was Noah righteous? From the previous chapter it seems that Noah did act better than most people of the time, but in building the ark it showed that he trusted God. No one else would have thought building an ark was a sensible thing to do! Noah did it because he trusted God’s word. It is also noteworthy that we need to be righteous in order to be saved. God will not save the unrighteous. So Christ died on the cross in order to make us righteous.

7:2-5

Noah was to take seven pairs of all the clean animals and one pair of the unclean. God’s plan is to preserve life on earth. So we see both judgement on the sinfulness of man, and the preservation of life on earth. It is interesting that a distinction is drawn here between clean and unclean animals. This distinction is not brought in in detail until Moses and the Law, yet Noah seems to be expected to know the difference. It is possible that the clean animals were for food and/or sacrifice. Sacrifice came in with Cain and Abel. “Noah did all that the Lord had commanded him”. Obedience and faith go together. If we believe that God can be trusted then we will obey His commands.

John 1:29 - Behold, the Lamb of God!

1:29

We continue with John making it clear that John the Baptist was pointing people towards Jesus, and not to himself. Despite John never having drawn attention to himself, it seems that a belief among some (though probably a fairly small number) that John the Baptist was the one to follow. People can be easily misunderstood. Just because someone misunderstands you does not mean that you were not clear. Sometimes the error lies with the hearers, not with the speakers! 

Here John the Baptist sees Jesus coming towards him. John recognised him as Jesus, and declared to those around him “Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world”. In this early confession the emphasis is on the sin-bearing role of Jesus. Sin is our biggest problem, and dealing with this is the primary role of Christ. He is described as the “Lamb of God”, He is God’s sacrifice for sin. Any preaching which does not address the problem of sin is not gospel preaching.

We need to recognise that while we instinctively associate Jesus with the cross, this was not the case when Jesus was on earth. Witness the difficulty the disciples had with the concept of a suffering messiah. Because of this most modern commentators  deny that John the Baptist made this declaration. Most modern commentators are wrong! They leave no room for inspiration, no room for the Holy Spirit revealing the truth to someone. Now we can use “inspiration”, “God told me” as an excuse for all sorts of nonsense, but if there is no revelation then we are totally lost. The Bible is an inspired text, it is God revealing Himself and the truth to the world. If you do not treat the Bible as God-breather then you will never understand it properly. This does not mean we do not use our brains, do not look at historical evidence etc, but it is God’s revealed word, not a merely human construct.

Jesus takes away the sin of the world. He is not merely a Jewish Messiah, but a Messiah for the whole world (Is 49:6). Later on John the Baptist would have doubts (Matt 11:2-19), this does not detract from what he said here. He was a man like all other men, and even when God has revealed something to us, or we have become aware of the significance of a part of Scripture it is still possible for us to have doubts at a later time. We are all weak human beings.

Genesis 6:18-22 - Noah did everything just as God commanded him

6:18,19

“But I will establish ..” This is the first mention of the word covenant. It is notable that the covenant is established by God. Our salvation is dependent upon the covenant established by God. Noah and his family were to enter the ark. Note that Noah had one wife. Noah was also to bring two of all living creatures into the ark, to keep them alive. So we see that judgement is absolutely real, but God also plans salvation. There are also questions about the absolute “ literal truth”, i.e. does the text mean that two of absolutely all living creatures were brought into the ark? I suspect not. This would be rather difficult, probably impossible. I think what we have here is a playing out of judgement and salvation. That is not to make it any less real. Many people and creatures died in the flood, Noah and his family and many animals survived because of the ark.

6:20-22

The animals and birds would come to Noah in order to be kept alive. Mankind is different from all other creatures. Nature is dependent upon man for its proper functioning. Some secular ideologies put us under nature, the Bible put nature under us. We are to look after nature well, so there are many good aspects about environmentalism, but there are also wrong aspects when it gets the man-nature order wrong.

Noah was also to take food onboard, and he” did everything just as God commanded him”.

John 1:27,28 - The one who comes after me

1:27

John was extremely consistent in making the point that it was not about him, he was entirely focused on the one who was coming after him. John did have authority to baptise, but that was because he was under authority, and that he was pointing the way to Jesus. Again, this is a principle that we can all follow. We have authority if we live under God’s authority, and if we direct people to Christ. If the focus starts to go on ourselves, or on a system or organisation, then we are likely to go astray. John knew that compared to Jesus he was nothing. In those days a student was expected to do anything for his teacher that a slave would do, except untie the straps on his sandals and take them off. Feet got very dirty! A slave was expected to do that, but John says that he is not worthy even to do that. We need to have a right perspective.

1:28

There were at least two places called Bethany. The most commonly mentioned one in the gospels was a short distance east and south of Jerusalem, and was where Lazarus, Mary and Martha lived. Now John gives the account of the raising of Lazarus, so he knew full well where that Bethany was. The Bethany of this verse is on the other side of the Jordan. This is where John was baptising. “John testifies about Jesus”. This sums up the whole point of why John relates this section on John the Baptist.

Genesis 6:13-17 - I am going to bring floodwaters

6:13

One of the features of the Bible is that we find that God tells His people what He is going to do. Here he tells Noah, later on He tells Abraham about His plans for Sodom and Gomorrah (Gen 18:17), and In John 15:15 Jesus tells the disciples that He no longer calls them servants but friends, because He has made known to them everything He has learned from the Father. So God tells Noah that He is going to put an end to all people on earth. And He tells Noah the reason, their evil has filled the earth with violence.

6:14-16

So Noah is told to build an ark, and he is given instructions on how to do it. The instructions are fairly broad brush. The overall dimensions are 135m long, 23m wide and 14m high. It was also to have 3 levels, and was well water-proofed. 

6:17

God outlines the destructiveness of the flood. As an aside, there is a lesson here for us about interpreting words like “all” and “every”. In this verse God says “every creature” will be destroyed, “everything will perish”. Clearly this is not the case as the God preserved Noa and his family, as the next verse says, along with two of every kind of animal.

John 1:25,26 - I baptise with water

1:25

The Pharisees asked John why he was baptising people, if he wasn’t the Messiah or Elijah, nor the Prophet? Effectively, they wanted to know by what authority he was baptising people. Baptism was not unknown. Proselytes to Judaism were baptised, and members of the Qumran community had daily baptisms (based on Ezek 36:25), but in both these cases the people baptised themselves. John carried out the baptism himself. 

1:26

John now tells them what he actually wants them to know. The primary message is that they need to lift their eyes up, they need to have a much bigger vision. This can happen to all of us, and can happen to churches, we can get so engrossed in the world as we see it that we are unable to see what God is doing. John was just baptising with water. In other gospels we read that he said Jesus would baptise with fire and with the Spirit, and the same point will be made here in 1:33. Here the emphasis is on the person of Jesus Christ. There is one “among you [who] you do not know”. The Pharisees were focused on the fact that John was baptising, but there was something (or rather someone) far more important that they should have been focusing on.

Genesis 6:9-12 - Now the earth was corrupt

6:9,10

“Noah was a righteous man”. He was “blameless among the people of the time”, and “walked faithfully with God”. Now we know from a later incident, when he got drunk, that he was not perfect. This also shows that even in the midst of a time when almost everyone is living in outright rebellion to God it is possible to live faithfully. In all circumstances we should seek the Lord. We then get the names of his three sons.

6:11,12

“Now the earth was corrupt in God’s sight and was full of violence”. People sometimes look at the Bible and treat it as if God was just upset because they weren’t worshipping Him. This is not the case. When we rebel against God it leads to all sorts of evil consequences, violence being one of them. Likewise, people often think that Biblical teaching on sexual morality is just a bunch of arbitrary rules. This is not the case. Sexual sin leads to all sorts of ill effects.

It wasn’t just the people that had become corrupt. The whole earth had become corrupt. These days there is a lot of talk about climate change and other environmental matters. The biggest effect on the environment is the sinfulness of man. 

John 1:23,24 - I am the voice of one calling in the wilderness

1:23

People come with all sorts of preconceived ideas, and when they see something, in this case John the Baptist, they want to fit that thing into their existing framework. They needed to see things differently. So John the Baptist refused to be pigeon holed, and gave them the Biblical lens through which he should be viewed. John replied with the words if Isaiah 40:3, he was the voice in the wilderness, calling on the people to make straight the way for the Lord. Note that the synoptic gospels also state this as the summary of the ministry of John the Baptist: Matt 3:3; Mark 1:3; Lk 3:4). John’s gospel is different from the synoptics, but it is entirely consistent with them. There are two key things the religious leaders needed to learn. One was that the voice of God was crying out in the wilderness, the “established religion” was not proclaiming the word of God. That this was true was demonstrated on numerous occasions in the conflicts between Jesus, the Son of God, and the religious leaders. The other was that the Lord was coming, therefore the time to get things ready was now!

1:24

The exact translation of 1:14 is uncertain, NIV has: “Now the Pharisees who had been sent”, ESV has “Now they had been sent from the Pharisees”. ESV seems unlikely, for while the Pharisees were a very important and influential group within the Sanhedrin, they were not politically strong enough to have sent a delegation to inquire of John the Baptist. Carson thinks that the most likely meaning is “Some Pharisees who were in the delegation asked him”, this is more or less what the NIV says.

Genesis 6:6-8 - Noah found favour in the eyes of the Lord

6:6

“And the Lord was sorry that He had made man on the earth.” This is using anthropological language. God is absolutely sovereign, omnipotent and all the other omni’s. However, this does not mean that God does not care. What we do with our lives matters and it matters to God. Man’s sin against God matters to Him. Now this is not a mere personal affront, it is the effect that our sin has on ourselves, on those around us, indeed on the whole of creation. God was “grieved to His heart”.

6:7,8

So God resolves to take action. Verse 7 states things in the starkest terms, the whole of creation is going to be blotted out, this would encompass mankind and all the animals. But we must not take this verse in isolation, for the very next verse adds a vital element to the picture. We must look at each verse in the immediate context, the context of the book within which it is found, and the context of the whole Bible. Here in verse 8 we find that there is an exception. “Noah found favour in the eyes of the Lord”. We should note that in the midst of judgement God plans salvation. The judgement is absolutely real, and so is the salvation.

John 1:21,22 - What do you say about yourself?

1:21

Messianic stuff was also associated with Elijah and “the Prophet”. Malachi 4:5, along with the ministry of Elijah, are the reasons for the association with Elijah, particularly with the end times. John the Baptist had some outward characteristics that resembled Elijah (Mk 1:6; 2 Kings 1:8). John the Baptist flatly denies being Elijah. Now, Jesus did identify John the Baptist with Elijah (Mt 11:14, 17:11,12; Mk 9:13; Lk 1:17), but John himself never did this. He was focused on the task and the message, “The Prophet” comes from Deut 18:15-18, and it is Jesus who fulfils this, while John the Baptist gives a flat denial. John the Baptist pointed to the one they should listen to. They were to listen to John the Baptist only in the sense that he told people to look to Jesus.

1:22

The “investigators” seem to be getting somewhat frustrated at this point, saying “OK, if you are not any of these characters, then who are you?” They need to have an answer to take back to the Sanhedrin. John denied being in any of the common categories of oddball preachers. So why was the Sanhedrin so interested in John the Baptist? It was because he was having an impact. He attracted many people to himself, and many were getting baptised, as we read in the synoptics (Mk 1:5.

Genesis 6:4,5 - The Nephilim

6:4

We now get the next problem, the Nephilim! If you search on the internet you can find all sorts of stuff on the Nephilim, some of it weird and wonderful. Some versions translate “Nephilim” as “giants”. They, like “the sons of God”, went after the daughters of men. I don’t think it is wise to get too involved in the Nephilim, and I am afraid that my approach is to put the matter on the back burner and not worry about it. However, we should remember that they are mentioned in the Bible and there must be a reason for this.

6:5

We now start to move on to more solid ground. “The Lord saw how great the wickedness of the human race had become on the earth”. Man without God is a disaster waiting to happen. “Every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually”. This is not a pretty picture. We might think it is overly harsh. However, look at the West. Look at what is happening to us as we reject more and more of our Christian heritage.

John 1:19,20 - I am not the Messiah

1:19

John seems to be very keen to make it absolutely clear that John the Baptist was pointing the way to Jesus, and had no intention whatsoever of drawing people to himself. This is something we should all seek to emulate. The task is not to draw people to us, but to take them to Jesus. John doesn’t give much in the way of John the Baptist’s teaching, this was given in the synoptic gospels, so there was no need for John to repeat it. This verse contains the first occurrence of the term “the Jews”, and there is some debate over its use and meaning. One thing that we should deal with straightaway is any notion that its use is anti-semitic. Such notions are complete nonsense. Now some people have used phrases from the Bible to support hatred of the Jews, but this is not a reflection on the Bible, only on the evil that resides in the hearts of those who are anti-semitic. John himself was a Jew, as was Jesus! John uses the term in various ways, but perhaps the most common way is to refer to the Jewish leaders. The NIV actually uses the term “the Jewish leaders”, with “the Jews” appearing in a footnote. Priests and Levites from Jerusalem were sent to see who John the Baptist was claiming to be. The Levites were members of the tribe of Levi, but had not descended from Aaron, so were not qualified to be full priests.

1:20

John the Baptist was not slow to answer, and made it quite clear that he was “not the Messiah”. At the time messianic expectation was rife (see Luke 3:15). Some expected a Davidic Messiah, probably the most common view, at least going by the attention given to this in the gospels. Others, such as the Qumran community, expected a priestly Messiah. Others just wanted someone to lead them against the Romans and set them free. There had also been various “messianic” figures (all of whom, of course, came to nought). “I am not the Messiah” , or “I am not the Christ”. John introduces the word Christos here, the Greek equivalent of the Hebrew Messiah. NIV uses Messiah, ESV Christ, here.

Genesis 6:1-3 - My Spirit will not contend with man for ever

6:1,2

We now come to a short passage before we encounter the tale of Noah. The passage does raise a number of questions, but the general thrust of the passage is clear. This main thrust is the evil that is in the world and God’s reaction to it. First we see that mankind is increasing on the earth, and there is special mention of the daughters who were born. These daughters were very beautiful, and this was recognised by the “sons of God”. This presents us with our first problem. Who were the “sons of God”. There are two main options. The first is that it refers to the descendants of Seth, as opposed to the descendants of Cain. The problem with this one is that it doesn’t make much textual sense, it is a very odd way of referring to the descendants of Seth. Theologically it is rather dubious as well. The second option is that it means angels. Now this does fit with the use of the term elsewhere in the Bible, but then we have the problem of angelic beings marrying women! The short answer is nobody knows.

6:3

Man was now in rebellion against God, and God declares that He will not put up with this forever. In our own day we need to be aware that while God is “slow to anger”, this does not mean He never angers. There comes a point where He is no longer willing to put up with man’s sin. Man is “mortal” or “corrupt”. Actually, of course, he is both. The mention of one hundred and twenty years probably means that man’s lifespan will now be limited to one hundred and twenty years, i.e. rather less than the figures we saw in chapter 5. Alternatively it could refer to the time gap between these words and the judgement heaped upon the earth by the floor. The former alternative seems the more likely of the two.

John 1:18 - The Son has made God known

1:18

This verse is so deep. The Greek in John’s gospel is nowhere near as refined as that found in Luke, but the John’s gospel has a wonderful habit of encapsulating so much truth within a few words. “No one has seen God”. Moses was not allowed to see God. The only one who has seen God is the Son. John then reminds us that the Son is God, and that He is in “closest relationship with the Father”. In talking about the Trinity we have a problem of language. Our language is designed for a “one being, one person” universe. With God we have a “one being, three persons” world. So to understand the Bible and the Trinity we have to take the whole teaching of the Bible into account. And within any one verse we must not interpret a verse, or phrase, in isolation beyond its immediate context and purpose. John here states both the divinity of Jesus and the distinction between the Father and the Son. But this God who we cannot see, this otherwise unknowable God, has been revealed to us by Jesus Christ. The Greek could literally be translated as “who is the bosom of the Father”. Hence the NIV “who is in the closest relationship with the Father. The ESV footnote has the bosom translation as a footnote. The NIV main translation is actually better than the ESV here. 

So in the prologue we have moved from the deep concepts of the Word, to the revelation to be found in Jesus Christ. The deepest theological truths are found in knowing the person of Jesus Christ. We are not just reading about a man, we are reading about the eternal Son of God.

John 1:1-18 can be viewed as a chiasm. I haven’t looked at this aspect here because I wrote about in my previous walkthrough John 1, you can follow the link if you want to know more.

Genesis 5:21-32 - Noah became the father of Shem, Ham and Japeth

5:21-24

Enoch stands out from the rest. He became a father at the “young” age of 65, but the standout feature of Enoch is that he “walked faithfully with God 300 years”. He also had other sons and daughters.  Unlike everyone else, Enoch did not die. “He walked faithfully with God; then he was no more because God took him away”. Heb 11:5,6 cites him as one of the heroes of faith. God was pleased with Enoch. 

5:25-32

You will notice that some names repeat themselves, so here we have another Lamech.  This Lamech seems to be of a rather more noble character than the previous one! The most important point about this Lamech is that he was the father of Noah. He recognised that God had cursed the ground, and looked to Noah as a source of comfort. God’s blessing more often than not comes through other people. Godly and faithful people are a blessing. So much of the modern world sees people as a curse! Examples include some environmentalists who see the human race as a curse on the world, and those who are keen on population reduction. Abortion is another symptom of this. In God’s creation people are meant to be a blessing.

Noah was 500 years old when he became the father of Shem, Ham and Japeth. This is much later than the other men mentioned had their first child. It is possible, I suppose it is possible he had children before this, but these are the three that really matter.

John 1:16,17 - Out of His fullness we have all received grace

1:16,17

These two verses draw a contrast between Jesus and the gospel, and Moses and the Law. There are a number of ways in which the latter part of v16 can be translated. NIV has “grace in place of grace already given”; NKJV has “grace for grace”; ESV has “grace upon grace” (also NASB). The grace we receive in Christ is in addition, or on top of, the grace received in the Law. Grace and Law are not opposites, only when someone gets legalistic about things. I.e. man’s interpretation of the Law may have the Law as being antithetical to grace, but God’s interpretation does not! The Pharisees and Scribes had a legalistic approach to the Law, Jesus did not. The giving of the LAw was an act of grace to the Israelites. The Jews would see living under the Law as a receiving of God’s grace, but now a new grace has replaced the grace of the Law. This is a superior and eternal grace. One of the themes in the New Testament, especially in Hebrews, is that the Law was a shadow, and has been replaced by the gospel of Jesus Christ. But we need to appreciate that the Bible does not say the Law and the Gospel are opposed to each other, they are only “opposed” when the place of the Law (or the Gospel) is misunderstood. For example, if someone says “we have the Law, we don’t need the Gospel”, that is a false statement. A more accurate statement for a Jew would be “because we have the Law, we need the Gospel”. And for a Gentile, “because we have the Gospel, we can learn from the Law”. And while the Law came through Moses, “grace and truth” came through Jesus Christ”.

Genesis 5:3-20 - They lived and they died

5:3-20

We now get “Adam’s family line”. There are a number of points that stand out. Perhaps the one that strikes us most is that these people lived for an awful long time! 900 years being the average life expectancy! There is no denying that this is something of a puzzle to us. There are various offered “solutions”. One is that they simply got it wrong, or the figures are meaningless. I think we have to reject this one. A second is that the figures have a different meaning to what we assume them to have. I guess this is possible, but no one seems to have come up with a plausible “different meaning” yet. The third is that they are correct, and people lived longer because the ill effects of sin had not yet taken full effect, and we do read later that God reduced man’s lifespan. This seems the most plausible and consistent explanation. It should be noted that the three “explanations” I have given are brief summaries, there are all sorts of variations on these themes.

A second feature is that we get mention of the first son of each person, then just a general reference to later sons and daughters. Finally, they all died, with the exception of Enoch. Death is now an intrinsic part of human life.

John 1:15 - John testified about Him

1:15

John now tells us that John the Baptist testified about Jesus saying He was the one that John the Baptist talked about, and that Jesus was “before me”, i.e. attesting to the eternal existence of Jesus. This verse is in parentheses in many versions because it is a parenthetical remark, i.e. it interrupts the flow. It does two things. First it stresses that John the Baptist was not interested in people following him, but wanted to direct people to Jesus. Secondly, it stresses that John the Baptist and John were “on the same page”, preparing the way for the section on John the Baptist that would follow. Since John the Baptist was first in terms of age and public ministry, some may have assumed that John the Baptist was the greater. This is why John draws attention to John the Baptist saying that Jesus was before him. John spoke about Jesus, so John is also saying that Jesus is the “word made flesh”.