Sermon Tone Analysis

Noah is depicted as Adam redivivus (revived).

He is the sole survivor and successor to Adam; both “walk” with God; both are the recipients of the promissory blessing; both are caretakers of the lower creatures; both father three sons; both are workers of the soil; both sin through the fruit of a tree; and both father a wicked son who is under a curse.

Also there is a wordplay between Adam in the garden and the “rest” motif recurring in the Noah story (see 5:29; 8:21).

The Lord “put” (nûaḥ) Adam in Eden as the divine ideal for man (2:15), but because of sin the soil is man’s new opponent (3:17).

Lamech’s prayer is that “Noah” (nōaḥ) alleviate the toil and achieve “comfort” (nḥm; 5:29), but it comes about in an unexpected way when Noah preserves the human family by the “resting” ark (8:4) and the “resting-inducing odor” (8:21) of sacrifice, which appeases God and leads the way for a new promise.

We can only view Noah through the template of Adam, both the promise and the garden sin.

Matthew 24:37–38 (CSB)

As the days of Noah were, so the coming of the Son of Man will be.

For in those days before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day Noah boarded the ark.

Hebrews 11:7 (CSB)

By faith Noah, after he was warned about what was not yet seen and motivated by godly fear, built an ark to deliver his family.

By faith he condemned the world and became an heir of the righteousness that comes by faith.

By faith Noah, after he was warned about what was not yet seen and motivated by godly fear, built an ark to deliver his family.

By faith he condemned the world and became an heir of the righteousness that comes by faith.

By faith Noah, after he was warned about what was not yet seen and motivated by godly fear, built an ark to deliver his family.

By faith he condemned the world and became an heir of the righteousness that comes by faith.

What do you see?

Too often, we modern folk ask Genesis to answer modern questions, like how old is this water-covered ball that spins at 1000 mph in space while orbiting a nuclear-powered fireball?

But Genesis wasn’t written to us.

It was written for us, but not to us.

It was written to people asking ancient questions.

What are those ancient questions?

How long did the flood last?

A. 40 days and nights

B. 150 days

C. 190 days

D. All of the above

Who entered the Ark?

A. Animal Couples, 2 by 2, on Valentine’s Day

B. 7 pairs of clean animals, 7 pairs of birds, and 2 pairs of creeping things

C. Everything except unicorns

D. A and B

Why was there a flood?

A. Angels had sex with women

B. The line of Seth mixed with the line of Cain

C. Kings stole brides on their wedding night

D. Violent Animals

Where did it flood?

A. The whole world including South America

B. The whole world except Nepal

C.

Only Mesopotamia

D. Stop it Jake

What do you see?

The phrase “These are the generations of...” as an introduction is used 11 times in Genesis.

Before the Patriarchs: The need for a family of God

2:4 Heaven and earth

5:1 Adam’s line

6:9 Noah

10:1 Shem, Ham, and Japheth

11:10 Shem

The Patriarchs in the Promised Land: Establishing the family of God

11:27 Terah

25:12 Ishmael

25:19 Isaac

36:1 Esau

36:9 Esau

The Patriarchs in Egypt: Incubation for the Covenant People

37:2 Jacob

As we look, let’s ask ourselves . . . is this how we would tell this story?

Chapter 1: God arranges the furniture

Chapter 2: God puts the man in the garden and creates woman—man was incomplete without her

Chapter 3: Woman is “deceived”, both are disobedient.

They experience adolescence.

The serpent and the ground are cursed, but the man and the woman are not.

God is merciful.

God provides for his children as they leave the garden.

The man names his wife “Eve”.

Chapter 4: God disapproves of Cain’s offering.

Cain is emotional and has bad attitude.

Cain kills Abel.

Abel’s “blood cries out to me from the ground”.

Cain is cursed and cannot work the land.

Cain descendents develop culture, murder, and polygamy.

Chapter 5: The descendents of Seth (image of Adam) live a long time and died, except Enoch.

Lamech thinks Noah will save him from the curse on the ground.

Remember that we are still answering ancient questions.

“Why am I like this?”

Do you have any relatives who have lived a very long time?

Would you be the good twin or the evil twin?

Do you ever feel like a background character in someone else’s story?

Is it hard to get out of your parents’ shadow?

Does God make mistakes?

Do you have a flood story?

How do you deal with unusual requests?

What if I told you it really was aliens in Genesis 6?

Christian Standard Bible (Chapter 6)

When mankind began to multiply on the earth and daughters were born to them, 2 the sons of God saw that the daughters of mankind were beautiful, and they took any they chose as wives for themselves.

3 And the LORD said, “My Spirit will not remain with mankind forever, because they are corrupt.,

Their days will be 120 years.” 4 The Nephilim were on the earth both in those days and afterward, when the sons of God came to the daughters of mankind, who bore children to them.

They were the powerful men of old, the famous men.

Christian Standard Bible (Chapter 6)

5 When the LORD saw that human wickedness was widespread on the earth and that every inclination of the human mind was nothing but evil all the time, 6 the LORD regretted that he had made man on the earth, and he was deeply grieved.

7 Then the LORD said, “I will wipe mankind, whom I created, off the face of the earth, together with the animals, creatures that crawl, and birds of the sky—for I regret that I made them.”

8 Noah, however, found favor with the LORD.

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