Even though we usually think about Genesis 1 as being the beginning, we see beginnings throughout these chapters; rain, the first house boat (ark), animals not responding to man, covenant, specifically given travel guild, the first curse given by man, the first mention of servant, being mighty before the Lord, etc… As we think about beginnings it is important to remember, that every day is a new beginning and not to get trapped in a cycle of the daily grind, but rather look at what God is doing every day.
We talked about how God gave grace to Noah, by shutting the door. Noah would have wanted to bring them to safety, as he and the family listened to the cries of their loved ones, “Uncle Noah, please open the door”, “Noah this is your father and mother who loves you, please save us”, “Noah, remember the time we went and played in the trees together, please help me.” Any loving person would be weeping during this time. We may know God’s plan is perfect, but it may come with pain.
This is the first mention of God making a covenant with man. God told us that ” the inclination of their (man) minds is evil from childhood on…” Just like last week, we do not want to see what we do as evil. We try to cover it up with the word sin.
Noah was given the command to “be fruitful and multiply and replenish the earth”. God has given us a command to go preach the gospel.
Even though Canaan was to be a servant of his brothers, they could choose to do it with a servants heart or out of anger. We are called to be a servant of all. Mark 9:35. We are called to be a slave of all. Mark 10:44. David was a servant. Luke 1:69. We are to serve Jesus, John 12:26.
Babel means confusion (verse 9). We cannot do anything with without the help of God. The times where we have felt confusion is not caused by God, it is a result of our lack of understanding. We can look back on a confused time in our lives and see it was not God confusing us, but our understanding of the situation which caused the confusion.
The word blessed, has many meanings. It is given by God and carried out by God. Samson was blessed. This is not our first thought when he is mentioned. Judges 13:34. Job was blessed. It sure doesn’t read as though he was blessed when he was suffering. Job 42:12. Mary the mother of Jesus was blessed. I am thinking if I was a pregnant teenager who had no husband, the word blessed is not the word I would use. Luke 1:42 -45, 48. This is why it is important to remember that God is the one who calls us blessed. Ephesians 1:3. “…who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places.
These 6 chapters are full of beginnings and endings. Belief and unbelief. Greatness and pain. Blessed and cursed. Proud and disgrace. Ambitions and failures. This is humanness. This is the world in which we live. This is the world in which God calls us to be light. We can only do this as we look to God for who He is, not what we want Him to be.