Good Morning! We will continue on to the store of Noah today. Please see the post at the top of the page for instructions if you are jumping in https://healinganddiscipleship.com/exploring-the-books-of-the-bible-together/
- Comment
- Reblog
-
Subscribe
Subscribed
Already have a WordPress.com account? Log in now.
Healing and Discipleship 
Genesis 6 (we will focus on 7 to 11) but I sharing in context WEB. “6 When men began to multiply on the surface of the ground, and daughters were born to them, 2 God’s sons saw that men’s daughters were beautiful, and they took any that they wanted for themselves as wives. 3 Yahweh said, “My Spirit will not strive with man forever, because he also is flesh; so his days will be one hundred twenty years.” 4 The Nephilim were in the earth in those days, and also after that, when God’s sons came in to men’s daughters and had children with them. Those were the mighty men who were of old, men of renown. 5 Yahweh saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of man’s heart was continually only evil. 6 Yahweh was sorry that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him in his heart. 7 Yahweh said, “I will destroy man whom I have created from the surface of the ground—man, along with animals, creeping things, and birds of the sky—for I am sorry that I have made them.” 8 But Noah found favor in Yahweh’s eyes.
9 This is the history of the generations of Noah: Noah was a righteous man, blameless among the people of his time. Noah walked with God. 10 Noah became the father of three sons: Shem, Ham, and Japheth. 11 The earth was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence. 12 God saw the earth, and saw that it was corrupt, for all flesh had corrupted their way on the earth.”
Noah must have had some kind of serious revelation to be surrounded by people (every other person) who were only capable of thinking wicked thoughts…. to think that God’s faithfulness can shine that brightly in a sea of utter darkness in evil is astonishing to me.
I find verses like this immensely humbling. I can’t imagine that those who were thinking only wicked thoughts and could only imagine wicked things were actually aware of their fallen state. This takes me right back to the biblical definition of sin.. 1. anything that is not of faith is sin… 2. to know the right thing to do and not do it is sin…. This stirs up an earnest desire to abide in Christ and spend time with Him daily.
Yes ! Would that He find a remnant of people now that can find Gods favour in our present culture which seems so similar to what Noah was living in.
KC
What do you think? Is being fully submitted to God in all areas instead of self essential? Vs 11 brings James to mind. Where does this violence come from? It is like self-centredness, which inevitably leads us to conflict as others self desire and entitlement will conflict at some point. The more time I spend with God, the more I desire to utterly die to self. James 4 World English Bible (WEB) “4 Where do wars and fightings among you come from? Don’t they come from your pleasures that war in your members? 2 You lust, and don’t have. You murder and covet, and can’t obtain. You fight and make war. You don’t have, because you don’t ask. 3 You ask, and don’t receive, because you ask with wrong motives, so that you may spend it on your pleasures. 4 You adulterers and adulteresses, don’t you know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God? Whoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. 5 Or do you think that the Scripture says in vain, “The Spirit who lives in us yearns jealously”? 6 But he gives more grace. Therefore it says, “God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble.”Proverbs 3:34 7 Be subject therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. 8 Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners. Purify your hearts, you double-minded. 9 Lament, mourn, and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning, and your joy to gloom. 10 Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he will exalt you.”
5 Have this attitude [e]in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus, 6 who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be [f]grasped, 7 but [g]emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men. 8 Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death [h]on a cross. Amp
Rob
So crystal clear in these verses that clinging to life will actually lead us to lose our lives..Luke I17:33 33Whoever tries to keep their life will lose it, and whoever loses their life will preserve it.” NIV
Rob, this is so so significant. I don’t know that we can meditate on this verse enough. There are a lot of controversies over this verse. I have been chewing on 1 John 4 BSB “1Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God. For many false prophets have gone out into the world. 2By this you will know the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, 3and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you have heard is coming and which is already in the world at this time.…” SInce this is the test of antichrist vs the True Christ this is very significant. Which capacities did Jesus lay down?
As a mama of three sons, this details catches my eye. God even blessed Noah with other men to help in the extremely strenuous work of building the ark.
Good morning! I have kiddoes on my own today, so may pop away from the computer at times as needed. We are praying about big shifts and putting everything on the table these days so see if they fit with God’s picture for our family. I would appreciate your prayers especially for unity and for each one to hear from the Lord for themselves so we are all totally convinced.
Good morning!!
Yes, this gives me hope that even amongst all the wickedness and evil there was someone like Noah that was able to rise above what was going on around him. It would be so great to know how he came about to have such a revelation of God or at least of righteousness and be able to maintain that in such a corrupt atmosphere.
Wendy
5 Yahweh saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of man’s heart was continually only evil. 6 Yahweh was sorry that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him in his heart.
What a level of grief He experienced. And yet Noah was a hope to Him. Talk about a remnant.
Rob
Yes that also gives me hope when you say remnant, that it might only even be a handful for it to be a remnant. God saw Noah and said okay here is someone that I can work with and save, to start over with.
Wendy
Shocking… really hard to imagine. And what an insight.. that even in the midst of it, it matters to God if one remains faithful… Each one’s choice impacts God. That is really really something.
Good morning!
‘Yahweh was sorry that He made man on earth…and it grieved Him in His heart’.. I know it sounds a little ‘out there’ but I have often felt that God Himself needs Healing somehow … I dare to hope that can and will happen somehow . I know I’m attributing human disappointment and heartache here to the Most High God.but this saddens me knowing that His crowning creation being corrupted so mad Him regret even making us in the first place!
KC
4 The Nephilim were in the earth in those days, and also after that, when God’s sons came in to men’s daughters and had children with them. Those were the mighty men who were of old, men of renown.
This is a whole topic of its own. So many aspects of the Heavenly and earthly realms.
Rob
I have heard that is one of the reasons the flood game as these half fallen angel, and half men sons were an abomination to the Lord. It is hard to imagine this level of intimacy is possible between a human women and an angel.
“Noah walked with God”…. this intimacy with God always accompanies these men. It is really the hallmark of the heroes of the Bible. Enoch, Moses, Abraham, Jacob, Isaac, Joseph, Daniel etc.
Genesis WEB 6:13 “God said to Noah, “I will bring an end to all flesh, for the earth is filled with violence through them. Behold, I will destroy them and the earth. 14 Make a ship of gopher wood. You shall make rooms in the ship, and shall seal it inside and outside with pitch. 15 This is how you shall make it. The length of the ship shall be three hundred cubits, its width fifty cubits, and its height thirty cubits. 16 You shall make a roof in the ship, and you shall finish it to a cubit upward. You shall set the door of the ship in its side. You shall make it with lower, second, and third levels. 17 I, even I, will bring the flood of waters on this earth, to destroy all flesh having the breath of life from under the sky. Everything that is in the earth will die. 18 But I will establish my covenant with you. You shall come into the ship, you, your sons, your wife, and your sons’ wives with you. 19 Of every living thing of all flesh, you shall bring two of every sort into the ship, to keep them alive with you. They shall be male and female. 20 Of the birds after their kind, of the livestock after their kind, of every creeping thing of the ground after its kind, two of every sort will come to you, to keep them alive. 21 Take with you some of all food that is eaten, and gather it to yourself; and it will be for food for you, and for them.” 22 Thus Noah did. He did all that God commanded him.”
Covenant is a very big deal. Thoughts on the covenant with Noah?
The covenant with Noah here in this scripture seems to be simply that God would save a remnant alive.
KC
God tells those who walk with HIm what is to come fairly consistently. Motivates me to ask and to hear what the confirmed prophets are saying in every season.
Yes!
This story is very very personal for me. I feel like at some point, God will move us out of the city to the country to a more sustainable environment where interdependence with other and doing things like growing our own garden and livestock will play a role. I head kind of goes on tilt to think about it . Yet God gave Noah a timely word so that he had the time and resources to do what was asked. I cannot even imagine the immensity of the task without our modern conveniences of filling a boat with bedding and food and other things needed to support one family for a year. Multiply that by needing to feed that number of unspecified animals… Yes surely there must have been some divine help in those details too and potential miracles of multiplication to make things last for the time in the ark.
There must have been some miraculous enabling by God for I cant even imagine how the task was possible ….and done while being mocked by the onlookers ! KC
vs 22. Noah did all…. he did not neglect some of the details but attended to and did exactly as God told Him. This detail reallly strikes me.
So much of corruption seems tied in with sexual intimacy. Dan Mohlers teaching on day 20 was hard to take in with how raw it was! How we have totally missed the boat in understanding how God views covenant and sexual intimacy ! Corrupting this most sacred gift of God was the first thing acted on by the fallen angels. The nephritis spirit seems to continue to be alive and well today!
KC
Nephilim,, that is
OH my yes. PURITY especially sexual purity and religious purity (abstinence from every idol and involvement with little g gods) are HUGE.
next verse Genesis 7 World English Bible (WEB)
7 Yahweh said to Noah, “Come with all of your household into the ship, for I have seen your righteousness before me in this generation. 2 You shall take seven pairs of every clean animal with you, the male and his female. Of the animals that are not clean, take two, the male and his female. 3 Also of the birds of the sky, seven and seven, male and female, to keep seed alive on the surface of all the earth. 4 In seven days, I will cause it to rain on the earth for forty days and forty nights. I will destroy every living thing that I have made from the surface of the ground.”
5 Noah did everything that Yahweh commanded him.
6 Noah was six hundred years old when the flood of waters came on the earth. 7 Noah went into the ship with his sons, his wife, and his sons’ wives, because of the floodwaters. 8 Clean animals, unclean animals, birds, and everything that creeps on the ground 9 went by pairs to Noah into the ship, male and female, as God commanded Noah. 10 After the seven days, the floodwaters came on the earth. 11 In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, in the second month, on the seventeenth day of the month, on that day all the fountains of the great deep burst open, and the sky’s windows opened. 12 It rained on the earth forty days and forty nights.
It strikes me in all of these accounts, even though extremely stressful situtations were obsviously experienced by those involved… building an ark, collecting food and investing your entire existence for 100 years to doing something that looks insane to everything else… can we even imagine the ridicule and commentary his whole family would have faced. Being cooped up in a boat for close to a year with a bunch of load and/or smelly animals and being responsible for caring for that number…. unimaginable. Truly they lived the thought a thousand (millions likely died in the flood) dying at their right hand. They lived out Psalm 91 in every detail.
And yet, their emotional state is not even referenced for the most part. Our perspective has become so “psychological” that this is perhaps the most driving force in our culture today.
Its true …not one word really about how this was possible but again so humbling to know that it was possible even pre cross for some individuals to have walked in such focussed obedience to the myriad of details involved with Gods instructions!
KC
Again, God takes the time to give Noah a timeline and this time very specific. Matthe 24 BSB “Now learn this lesson from the fig tree: As soon as its branches become tender and sprout leaves, you know that summer is near. 33So also, when you see all these things, you know that He is near, right at the door. 34Truly I tell you, this generation will not pass away until all these things have happened” This is immensely comforting to know that God keeps HIs people informed and gives them the time necessary to prepare
I remember as a young Christian knowing within myself that sexual purity was a really important thing but man once Hormones and desire was awakened ,found myself asking God back then….why did you put these desires in us if it is so darn hard to resist.? Mohler speaks about guarding against even awakening those desires in the first place …. a perplexing subject for sure
KC
Going back to James 4 in vs 6 it says in the amplified version “But He gives us more and more grace(though the power of the Holy Spirit to defy sin and live an obedient life that reflects both our faith and our gratitude for our salvation).” Which gives me hope as I have a bit of a flinch when I feel like I am the one who has to “do” it. Meaning make myself humble and totally submitted to Him on my own. That to me is impossible and I know that the only way I can do that is through the help of the Holy Spirit, The Father and the Son. And even in my unwillingness, if that be the case, they will help me. Because it is in my heart to do so.
Wendy
Dan Mohler has been an immense blessing to me. Godly prayer and relationship with God I think and being immersed in the water, in the Word, in fellowship I think are the thing… I wonder more and more if the best our own effort/works can do is to get us no where fast and holds us there indefinitely.
Amen to that. It’s the relationship we have with him.
Phil 3:8
8 More than that, I count all things to be loss [c]in view of the surpassing value of [d]knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, [e]for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish so that I may gain Christ, 9 and may be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own derived from the Law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith, 10 that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and [f]the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death; 11 [g]in order that I may attain to the resurrection from the dead.
Rob
That picture of being a tree forever pops to my mind. My job is to just set my priorities rightly and learn to sit by Him and with Him and in His Word with a receptive heart and a sincere (responsive) desire to do whatever He says and then He does everything else.
Amen!!!! Wendy
Amen!!! Wendy
Yes just as we see that Noah must have had divine help to do what seemed humanly impossible ,I cry out for that divine help to be submitted in every area , to humble myself and to override any unwillingness in me. KC
The end of the story from Genesis 8 wEB “13 In the six hundred first year, in the first month, the first day of the month, the waters were dried up from the earth. Noah removed the covering of the ship, and looked. He saw that the surface of the ground was dry. 14 In the second month, on the twenty-seventh day of the month, the earth was dry.
15 God spoke to Noah, saying, 16 “Go out of the ship, you, your wife, your sons, and your sons’ wives with you. 17 Bring out with you every living thing that is with you of all flesh, including birds, livestock, and every creeping thing that creeps on the earth, that they may breed abundantly in the earth, and be fruitful, and multiply on the earth.”
18 Noah went out, with his sons, his wife, and his sons’ wives with him. 19 Every animal, every creeping thing, and every bird, whatever moves on the earth, after their families, went out of the ship.
20 Noah built an altar to Yahweh, and took of every clean animal, and of every clean bird, and offered burnt offerings on the altar. 21 Yahweh smelled the pleasant aroma. Yahweh said in his heart, “I will not again curse the ground any more for man’s sake because the imagination of man’s heart is evil from his youth. I will never again strike every living thing, as I have done. 22 While the earth remains, seed time and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night will not cease.”
I cannot imagine a more catastrophic event then what Noah went through and yet at the end of it all, his heart was still positioned to offer to God a pleasing sacrifice. No mention of thank God that trial is over . Now back to my life… Noah never seemed to have lost track of God goodness and provision even though it was surely a difficult and profoundly challenging series of events 100 plus years to live through. This incredible endurance, perserverance, long-suffering patience, ability to maintain an attitude of praise and submission in the face of the “end of the world” put things in my own life in perspective.
Thank-you Lisa? Blessings to you.
Rob
Yahweh speaks of His heart again here and chooses to limit Himself from ever again acting out of that regret and grief despite knowing that the imagination of mans heart is evil from his youth..I dont know what scripture refers to God getting the ‘reward for His sufferings ‘ but my spirit cry’s out for this to be fulfilled .
KC
It is cool doing this, because it takes it out of the realm of just being a great story to really thinking about what it must have been like for them to actually live this and do it. I remember our former leader would say that when he brought a word, put yourself in their shoes and in their time and place so it’s not just a story. It changes your perspective that maybe they were special somehow, but they were people living their lives, just like we are.
Wendy
I think that would be an immensely powerful thing to do with this story. Can you imagine just the smells in that boat? I mean, we are cooped up with running water, electricity, the internet, books etc… and the option to go out for a walk whenever and yet this is more than enough to challenge many of us on many levels.
Yes !…I think there is a prevailing mindset out there among many believers that somehow these people were special somehow and had an advantage over us in relating to God …they were super hero’s with super powers that we no longer have…the thinking that ‘Well That was for then.It’s not available to us now …all we can do is try our hardest to be ‘good’ until we make it to heaven” I grew up with this mindset as a new Christian, but was shaken to my core and still am with the transforming revelation that ‘His divine power has granted to us everything ….EVERYTHING pertaining to LIFE and Godliness , THROUGH the TRUE knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and excellence. Lord ,keep removing the layers of lies in my perception that wants to limit what You say is entirely possible!
KC
Blessings friends. Oh Lord, that we would all “walk with You” as Noah did so we can live as He lived through any and every event that comes. In Yeshua’s name.
Amen Lisa, thank You for providing this time to have the word impact us in a greater way as we take it in together!
KC
Have a Blessed day!
Blessings and love to all. See you tomorrow
Wendy