Japheth:

He was rather prolific and had kids with names like Gomer, Magog, and Javan.  Javan’s offspring are credited with being ⁵…maritime peoples who spread out into their territories by their clan within their nations, each with its own language.  (This doesn’t happen until chapter 11, but we’ll get to that next time.)  According to my concordance the Japhethites  established areas such as Greece, Southern Spain, Italy and areas from eastern Asia Minor north to the Black Sea.  (See?  Don’t you think that’s interesting?)

Ham:

Ham had four sons.  Cush, Mizraim (aka Egypt), Put and Canaan. 

Cush was the father of Nimrod.  (I wonder if he had another son named Bonehead.  I can almost hear the old men at the gate, “Look, Bubba.  It’s them Cush kids, Nimrod and Bonehead.  I hear tell they ain’t very smart.”)  Nimrod’s spawn grow up to build great cities, including Nineveh of Jonah fame.  (Again, we’ll get to that much later.)

Mizraim (Egypt) was the father of a bunch of “ites”, including the Casluhites whom the Philistines came from.

No mention of Put’s kids.  Hm.

And then we get to the infamous Canaan, Ham’s cursed son.  He also fathered several “ites”: Hittites; Jebusites; Amorites and other, lesser known “ites”.  These clans all scatter towards all kinds of places that have been renamed, though I think we all will recognize the towns of Sodom and Gomorrah.  Yeah – those Canaan kids were that bad.

Shem

Shem (the father of Semites) sired Elam, Asshur, Arphaxad, Lud and Aram.  Arphaxad fathered the line of Jesus down through Eber, which is where the word “Hebrew” comes from.  (Now come on.  Don’t tell me that’s not just a little interesting.)

And from all these Japhethites, Hamites and Semites ³²…the nations spread out over the earth after the flood.  Makes me wonder which line I came from.

God says, ³Everything that lives and moves will be food for you.  Bye-bye vegetarian diet, hello steak!  But not too rare because God also says ⁴…you must not eat meat that has its lifeblood still in it.  That just seems so ewww! to me, but it will be important when we meet up with some pagans later on.

A Biblical argument for capital punishment:  ⁶Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed; for in the image of God has God made man.  So there you go.

God then establishes his covenant with Noah and his sons and all his descendants (us) and even the animals that came out of the ark.  He promises never again will life be cut off by the waters of a flood; never again will there be a flood to destroy the earth.  Enter the beautiful rainbow.

Here’s one of those things that I never really noticed before in a story I’ve known since forever.  I’ve always thought the rainbow was for our benefit so that every time WE see it we will remember the covenant God made with Noah.  And I’m sure that’s probably correct.  But verse 16 says, Whenever the rainbow appears in the clouds, I will see it and remember the everlasting covenant between God and all living creatures of every kind on the earth.  Apparently the rainbow is for God’s benefit as well.  Hm.

We’ve been hearing about Noah and his sons for a few chapters now, but this is where we’re formally introduced.  Shem, Ham (the father of Canaan and important to know) and Japheth.  In answer to my question above, verse 19 tells us that from them came the people who were scattered over the earth.  Those were some busy boys!

After an epic flood and some sacrifices and a few rules and the rainbow, Noah sets up housekeeping.  This includes a vineyard with which to make some fine wine.  One night he imbibes a little too much of his reserve, gets sloshed and passes out, sans clothing, inside his tent.  Ham sees his dad in his birthday suit and rushes out to tell his brothers.  Why?

Anyway, Shem and Japheth walk into the tent backwards with their eyes averted and cover their dad.  When Noah finds out what Ham did he is none too happy.  He curses Canaan and not Ham, but he blesses Shem and Japheth.  It might seem unfair that God cursed Ham’s son, who is a seemingly innocent here, but I think there is more to the story than we see right here.  I guess we’ll just have to keep reading.

Here’s another thing I just noticed.  Ham was the youngest son, but he’s listed second.  I’m pretty sure there’s a significance here because the Jewish people have an order and reasons for everything.  Maybe we’ll find that out later, too.

Noah lived 350 years after the flood for a total age of 950.  ²⁹… and then he died.

A couple thoughts here:

                1.            Is it just me or does this read as though God was busy with other stuff and then all of a sudden, 150 days later, He remembers Noah?  But if everybody and everything had been wiped off the earth what could be keeping Him so busy as to forget about Noah for five months?  So it’s not really like He had forgotten about the only living creatures on the planet (except for those that swam in the ocean, right?) He just decided it was time to do something about all those air breathers.

                2.            What about Noah’s family?  Noah is remembered.  The wild animals are remembered.  The livestock is remembered.  No mention is made of his sons or his wife or his sons’ wives.  I guess the author didn’t think of them as so important.

Just for fun let’s do a little math.  (As a math un-lover, I seriously never thought I would ever say that!)

40 – Days and nights it rained.

150 – Days after it stopped raining until the ark came to rest on Mount Ararat.

40 – Days after the ark settled on Mount Ararat until Noah opened a window and let out a raven that flew around and never came back.  Then he let out a dove who couldn’t find a place to rest so it came back.

7 – Days he waited to send out the dove again.  This time the dove comes back with a “freshly plucked” olive leaf.

[“Ah moment” break.  Mount Ararat is, well, mountainous.  Olive trees don’t grow at high elevations which means the waters had to have receded quite a bit for the dove to find a fresh olive leaf.]

7 – Days he waited to send the dove out a third time.  This time the dove never returns.

So by my addition that’s 244 days so far.  But Noah doesn’t leave the ark yet.  And this is where it turns tricky because we aren’t given the number of days anymore.  What we do know, however, is that the ark was sealed for more than a year.  Chapter 7, verse 13 lists the 17^th day of the 2^nd month as the day it started raining.  Chapter 8, verse 14 says By the 27^th day of the 2^nd month the earth was completely dry.

Okay.  I’m confused now.  Let’s just forget about the math, mkay?  We just know it was more than a year.  Moving on…

God tells Noah to come out of the ark with his family and all the animals.  So all the Misters and Misuses Noahs come out followed by all the animals, one kind after another.  That must have taken some time, don’t you think?  And this is where the “seven of each clean animal” comes in.  Noah builds an alter to the Lord and sacrifices burnt offerings on it. 

And this is how I know we are created in God’s image.  ²¹The LORD smelled the pleasing aroma and said in his heart: “Never again will I curse the ground because of man, even though every inclination of his heart is evil from childhood.  And never again will I destroy all living creatures, as I have done. ²² As long as the earth endures, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night will never cease.

You know how sometimes you come in the house and you’re assailed with the “pleasing aroma” of a baking apple pie or a delicious simmering stew and it not only makes your mouth water, but it makes you sort of all warm and fuzzy inside?  We get that from God.

You have got to come back for Chapter 9 because you won’t believe the craziness of Noah’s kids.  I mean, really.  What were they thinking?

If you ever went to Sunday School you probably remember the song about the Lord telling Noah to build him an  ark, right?  Then you’ll remember the second (or maybe third) verse:

The animals, they came on, they came on by twosies, twosies.

Animals, they came on, they came on by twosies, twosies.

Elephants and (clap) kangaroosies, roosies.

Children of the Lord.

It may be a riveting song, but it’s not entirely correct.  We all grew up hearing how God tells Noah to bring on two of every kind of animal, male and female, and in fact, the end of Genesis 6 says that very thing.  HOWEVER, when you get to chapter 7, which is a lot like the end of chapter 6 only more detailed, God tells Noah to take with him SEVEN of every kind of clean animal, a male and its mate.  Oh yes He does!  Look for yourself while I refill my coffee cup. —  Did you see that?  He also commanded seven of every kind of bird.  And then two of every other kind of animal.  You know, the unclean animals that weren’t worthy for eating or sacrifice.  How would you like to be one of the “privileged” seven only to find out you’re going to be on the buffet line?

Noah was 600 years old when the ark was finished and the skies opened up.  Lucky for him he didn’t have to actually go out and round up the animals because I’m only forty-something and sometimes I can’t get one dog to come in the house.  The animals just show up at the gangplank and walk onboard, as do Noah and his family.  God then seals the door so there’s no getting off the cruise ship now!

We all know the next part.  It rained for 40 days and 40 nights.  There was so much water that even the tallest mountain peak was covered by more than twenty feet.  I remember being a kid and thinking that if every living thing outside of the ark was supposed to be destroyed, what about all the sea life.  But this is cleared up in verse 22. 

Everything on dry land that had the breath of life in its nostrils died.

One little sentence I was never taught – or at least don’t remember being taught.  It could have saved me years of pondering.  Which is why I think Bible stories are great, but it’s so much better to go straight to the source ’cause who knows what’s being left out.

It may have rained for 40 days and 40 nights, but the earth was flooded for 150 days.  That’s a long time to be cooped up on a big boat with a bunch of smelly animals.  Come to think of it, the people were probably pretty smelly, too.  Maybe the odors cancelled each other out.

That’s the end of Chapter 7, but get a load of this.  Chapter 5 is the geneology from Adam to Noah complete with the age each man fathered whoever is next in line and the age they died.  Methuselah fathered Lamech when he was 187.  Lamech fathered Noah when he was 182.  Noah was 600 when the floodwaters came.

Bear with me because I’m about to send you straight trippin’.  Let’s do some simple addition.

187 + 182 = 369 (the age of Methuselah when Noah was born).

Noah was 600 when the floodwaters came.

369 + 600 = 969

Guess how old Methuselah was when he died.  Go on.  Guess.  969!!  Which tells me Noah’s grandpappy was lost in the flood.  Crazy, right?

Man, I love this stuff!

***

It begins with sons of God finding the daughters of men beautiful so they married them.  What the heck?  There are a couple of thoughts as to who the sons of God were:

                Angels

                   or

                Godly men (descendents of Seth)

The second is the most widely held theory and the one that makes the most sense to me.  So if the sons of God were Sethites, then it stands to reason the daughters of men were Cainites and, therefore, wicked hoochies.

                What about daughters of God and sons of men?

Apparently it was worth mentioning that these two distinct bloodlines (Righteous Seth/Evil Cain) were intermarrying and those bad girls were rubbing off on those good boys.

***

I have a friend who tells her husband “You make me tired”, when she’s frustrated with him (she has a charming Southern accent and it sounds so sweet and genteel when she says it).  That’s the sense I get when I read verse 3.  People were making God tired so he heaves a deep, wearied sigh and decides to cap their lifespan at 120.

***

Verse 4 is very confusing to me.

The Nephilim were on the earth in those days – and also afterward – when the sons of God went to the daughters of men and had children by them.  They were the heroes of old, men of renown. 

Huh? 

The study notes at the bottom of my Bible say the Nephilim were people of great size and strength and the Hebrew word means “fallen ones”.  Is it just me, or does that sound like a description of Goliath?  It also reads to me like the Nephilim are a result of the intermarriages between the Sethites and the Cainites.  And why exactly were they considered heroes?

While people saw the Nephilim as heroes, God saw the thoughts of their hearts – and everybody else’s – as only evil all the time.  This filled His heart with pain and He grieved His abominable creation to the point of wiping out humankind.

What?

I believe God to be omniscient which means He knew when He created man this would happen.  So if that’s true, why did He go to the trouble of creating something He knew would end up so far from Him?  I think I might like to ask Him about this someday.

***

Anyhoo, all of civilization is rotten to the core with the exception of one guy and his family.  Noah.  “Finally something I remember from Sunday school,” I hear you say.  Yes, but just hold on.   The story doesn’t quite coincide with my recollection, but we’ll get to that in the next chapter.

God tells Noah to build an ark approximately 450 feet long, 75 feet wide and 45 feet high.  And Noah says, “Riiiiight.”  (Anybody remember that Bill Cosby skit?)  That would be four-and-a-half football fields long, three stories high and…  um…  I can’t think of anything that’s 75 feet wide.  But you get the picture.  Now days there are cruise ships much larger than that, but think about how humongous it had to have been to people who didn’t have football fields or three story buildings to compare it to.  And how in the world did he build something that massive with no power tools?

When the boat’s finished God tells Noah to take his three sons and his wife and his sons’ wives and get on board.  Let’s just imagine for a moment that Noah’s daughters-in-law had been teased in high school by the popular girls about their choice of boyfriends – those prudish, boring Noah boys.  And maybe even when it begins to rain and all of Noah’s family goes up into the ark those snobby kids had to be busting a gut.  But when the mean girls finally start floating on the roof of their houses don’t you know Noah’s girls were thinking, “who’s laughing now?”

God also commanded Noah to take two of every living creature, male and female, and a stocked pantry for both the animals and the people.  Did God really mean for that to include things like stink bugs and mosquitoes and snakes?  Especially snakes.  I mean, for cryin’ out loud, the snake ruined Paradise for us!  Why would we want them to survive the flood?

Whatever the case, Noah did everything just as God had commanded him.  Good Noah.

Chapter 7 is more of the same, only different…

Adam fathers Seth; Adam has other sons and daughters; Lives to 930.  And then he dies.

Seth fathers Enosh; Seth has other sons and daughters; Lives to 912.  And then he dies.

Enosh fathers Kenan; Enosh has other sons and daughters; Lives to 905.  And then he dies.

Kenan fathers Mahalalel; Kenan has other sons and daughters; Lives to 910.  And then he dies.

Mahalalel fathers Jared; Mahalalel has other sons and daughters; Lives to 895.  And then he dies.

Jared fathers Enoch; Jared has other sons and daughters; Lives to 962.  And then he dies.

Redundant, isn’t it?  But wait!  Don’t go yet.  This is where it starts to get interesting:

Enoch fathers Methuselah.   ²²And after he became the father of Methuselah, Enoch walked with God 300 years and had other sons and daughters.  ²³Altogether, Enoch lived 365 years.  ²⁴Enoch walked with God; then he was no more, because God took him away. 

One day Enoch was a young 365 and the next day POOF!  He went to be with God.  I’m thinking that might have been a little freaky for the people that saw him disappear.  And remember evil Lamech in chapter 4?  Cain’s great, great, great grandson?  Well Enoch is Seth’s great, great, great grandson.  Where Lamech was self absorbed, Enoch walked with God and was loved so much God just took him away.

Methuselah fathers Lamech (NOT Cain’s Lamech); Methuselah has other sons and daughters; Lives to 969.  And then he dies.  And yes, this is the “old as Methuselah” Methuselah.

Lamech fathers Noah.  ²⁹He will comfort us in the labor and painful toil of our hands caused by the ground the Lord has cursed.  Lamech has other sons and daughters; Lives to 777.  And then he dies.

And finally Noah fathers Larry, Curly and Moe Shem, Ham and Japheth.

Discussion Questions:

1.            700+ years; 800+ years; 900+ years – are those actual ages or might they be symbolic?

2.            In chapter 4 we confabulated (neat word, huh?) about where Cain’s wife/other people came from.  This chapter makes it easy to see how the earth may have been populated solely from Adam and Eve.  Thoughts?  Comments?

Don’t be shy!!

Abel grows up to be a shepherd and Cain becomes a farmer.  The Bible says ³Cain brought some of the fruits of the soil as an offering to the Lord. ⁴But Abel brought fat portions from some of the firstborn of his flock, and goes on to say God was pleased with Abel’s gift, but not Cain’s.  Now at first blush it seems like God just prefers a good steak over veggies until I realized that He’s not in the business of being petty.  It wasn’t what Cain brought, but the condition of his heart that God was displeased with and that bad attitude was only the beginning.

One would think humankind would sort of ease into the whole sinning thing.  But mortal number three jumps right in with both feet.  Anger, jealousy, lying, and the big one – murder.   And not, “oops, I only meant to scare or hurt you,” murder, either.  Here’s a great argument for nature over nurture, don’t you think?  Cain lures Abel out to the field and then kills him because he was angry that God liked Abel’s offering better.

God asks Cain where his brother is, a rhetorical question because, you know.  He’s God.  He knows everything.  But Cain doesn’t catch on to this so he lies and gives God a snotty answer.  Do you think he believed for a second he could possibly get away with offing his brother?  Why else would he lie to God?   Well anyway, he doesn’t get away with it and is cursed with wandering the earth and a black thumb. 

He then has the audacity to whine to God about his punishment!  I can’t bear this punishment.  You’re driving me from the land.  I’ll be hidden from your presence.  I will be a restless wanderer.  Whoever finds me will kill me.  Wah, wah, wah.  Dude!  You killed your brother!  Let’s add selfishness to his list of character flaws.  But God is merciful and marks Cain so that no one will kill him lest they suffer vengeance seven times over.  I guess God wasn’t into smiting yet.

Wait a minute.  Back up a tad.  Right there.  Do you see that?  “…whoever finds me…”  That would indicate there are more than just three people on the earth.  In fact, as you read on you find out that Cain goes to the land of Nod, east of Eden, and has a wife.  Where did these people come from?  I’ve heard different theories, but I’d like to hear yours.

A six generation genealogy of Cain’s family is given and the writer thinks it’s worth mentioning that his great, great, great grandson, Lamech, kills a young man just for wounding him.  Verse 24 says, If Cain is avenged seven times, then Lamech seventy-seven times.  Forget God’s justice.  He just took care of the situation himself.  The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree, does it?

 At the end of the chapter Eve gives birth to a third son, Seth, to carry on the family line.  Seth fathered Enosh and at that time men began to call on the name of the Lord.  At least Seth’s family seemed to get it.

Discussion Questions:

                1.            Did Cain think God didn’t know he’d killed Abel?

                2.            Where did the other people come from?

The events in Genesis took place several hundred plus years before Moses, the author, was born which means the stories were handed down from generation to generation until Moses recorded it for posterity.  You know that game Telephone?  The one where Person A whispers something to Person B and the message goes down the line until Person Z tries to say what Person A said?  Most of the time the message at the end is nothing like the message at the beginning.  Now I’m not saying that happened here, but I do wonder about this next part.

Verse 18 says, “The Lord God said, ‘it is not good for man to be alone.  I will make a helper suitable for him.’  But then in verse 19 God brings all the living creatures to Adam for him to name (makes you curious about what he’d been eating when he named the hippopotamus, kangaroo and platypus, doesn’t it?) and verse 20 says, “But for Adam no suitable helper was found.”  Really??

Since “no suitable helper was found” amongst the animals, God created a woman.  And “the man and his wife were both naked, and they felt no shame.”  Of course, the as-of-yet-unnamed woman wasn’t assaulted by images of movie stars or television celebrities or supermodels, either.

At this point paradise is still perfection.  That’s all about to come to a swift change, however.

CHAPTER 3

Right as you start to read chapter 3 you’re hit with the most obvious of questions.  Was it normal for the animals to speak?  Forget that the snake was saying something contrary to what God had told the woman.  Wasn’t the fact the serpent was TALKING TO HER a clue that something wasn’t quite right?

Verse 6 says, “She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it.”  Why had he kept silent?  Maybe he was so dumbstruck by the talking snake that he was left speechless.  Until he was confronted by God, that is.  Then he was really quick to blame everyone but himself – which was a really short list.  Do you notice he says, “The WOMAN YOU put here with me…”?  Way to take responsibility, Adam.

God starts handing out curses to all those involved and he tells the serpent “you will crawl on your belly… all the days of your life.”  I wonder what the snake’s mode of transportation was before he was condemned to slither.  To the woman he greatly increased her childbearing pains – thanks, lady – although a good epidural these days and that problem’s solved.  This may be a leap, but I’m guessing PMS is her fault, too.  And finally, God replaces Adam’s life of leisure with a life of toil.  Interestingly, Eve doesn’t get her name until after the Great Forbidden Fruit Debacle.  Any thoughts on the possible significance?

It’s easy for us to blame Adam and Eve for all the less than wonderful aspects of life, but really, it was just a matter of time.  If it hadn’t been them to mess up it would have been someone else down the line.

Now that Adam and Eve realize they’re nekkid God makes them garments of skin – lucky for them it was before PETA.  After he clothes them he gives them the boot out of the Garden and places a cherubim and flashing sword – the ultimate bouncer – to guard the way to the tree of life so there would be no living forever.

One seemingly small act of disobedience and humankind goes from utopia to anything but in the blink of an eye.  Next up – jealousy, anger, murder, curses …

Right off the bat there are several points that catch my attention.  For example, I always thought the three parts of God were a New Testament thing.  But in only the second verse of the Old Testament, clear as day, it mentions the Spirit of God.  I don’t know about you, but I find it fascinating that the Holy Trinity was involved in the great creation.  I’m not sure why I always just assumed it was God the Father who did the whole creating thing while I was growing up.  I suppose I didn’t really give it much of a thought one way or another.

Talk about a powerful God.  All he had to do was say the word and BAM!  There it was.  “God said let there be light and there was light.”  “God said,” fill in the blank, “and it was so.”  I’ve tried this approach at home with little to no luck.  “Jen said,” empty the dishwasher/dust the living room/ let the dog in/ get your feet off the coffee table/pick up your mess, etcetera, etcetera and so forth, but just saying it never seems to make it so.  I usually have to throw in a dirty look to get anything accomplished and even then there’s usually whining.

Verses 20 through 25 mention all the creatures God created: water creatures, winged birds, livestock, creatures that move along the ground, and wild animals.  I see nothing in here about flying insects.  Where do mosquitoes and other buzzing pests fit in?

Going back to the subject of the Trinity, have you ever noticed in verse 26 it says, “Let us make man in our image, in our likeness…”?

This next part I really like, undoubtedly because I’m a woman and I think this scripture has been twisted over the centuries to elevate men above women.  God says, “Let us make man in our image,” etc., but he’s not talking about a male.  He’s talking about mankind.  How do I know this?  Because the verse goes on to say, “and let them rule over (all the animals and such)”.  And verse 27 says, “So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.”  That’s right, ladies.  We were created in God’s image, too!

In the beginning of chapter 2 God’s wonderful handiwork was finally completed and he rested on the seventh day.  I picture him kicked back in his Lazy Boy (‘cause you know he could have spoken one into existence) watching over his exquisite creation.  As much loveliness as I’ve been witness to in this life it’s difficult, maybe even impossible, to fathom perfection.  But think about it.  There was no crime, no war, no litter, no smog, no rude people, no political campaigns, no infomercials – only peace and joy and pristine beauty.  Of course he rested.  But it wasn’t like when I finally finish painting a room and I rest from exhaustion.  God is tireless.  There was simply nothing left to create so he rested and enjoyed his work.

Chapter one and the first couple verses of chapter two serve as a summary with a timeline of creation.  But as we get into chapter two we’re given a bit more detail and things really start getting good.  You’re not going to want to miss it!