Genesis 6:5-12
The
Account of the Flood:
6:5 – What God Saw
“earth” is mentioned eight times in the next 7 verses
(6:5-13)
“wickedness”
–
“every inclination of the
thoughts of his heart” –
or, “every scheme in man’s imagination”.
”yeser” is “scheme”, “inclination” and also means “desire”
God had formed man to be perfect and beautiful, but man can only form corrupt
and repulsive thoughts. These schemes or
desires led to actions.
“all the time” – this was not just something that would happen
every so often when man would slip into a bad thought and sin. This was the continuous state of man’s
being. Evil desires was the chronic
condition of man.
The
Sin of Noah’s Generation:
6:6 – What God Felt
“grieved” is “nikhem” or “nkhm” and it means “to take a
different course of action”. This is
seen in Hosea 11:8-9.
“The
Lord was grieved” – “Yahweh regretted” is “yinnahem”
This
is repeated in 6:7 at the end of the verse:
“I
am grieved that I have made them.” – or “I regret (‘emheh) that I made him.”
This form of “naham” is used 48 times in the OT and 34 of the 48 refer to God.
The
Greek LXX (Septuagint) translates the Hebrew “naham” with the Greek
“metamelomai” which means “to be sorry, repent, change one’s mind”
Usually
God turns from judgment to mercy like at Ninevah.
Twice
in the OT God repents and turns to judgment:
“that he had made man”
“his heart was filled with pain” –
3:16
– woman receives pain for her part of sin
3:17
– man receives pain for his part of sin
Here,
man’s sin causes God pain.
6:7 – What God Would Do
“wipe”
is from the root “mhh” which means “to erase by washing.”
“man, animals, creeping things, birds” – man’s sin effects his environment and those around
him.
6:8 – Noah found favor
This
verse focuses on God’s “favor” or “grace” toward Noah. An unmerited state.
The
next verse, 6:9, focus on Noah’s character.
The
order of the verses would seem to indicate “favor” came first, and then Noah’s
character followed.
If
the verses were reversed then we would think that Noah had good character and
thus God responded to that good
character and showed him favor.
Noah
then responded to God’s offer of salvation or grace. God provided it and Noah responded to
it. God gave it, Noah found it.
6:9
“This is the account of Noah”
“righteous” is “saddiq” and refers to one who is habitually
righteous.
“blameless” – means free from
defect. Animals are described with this
Hebrew word as being unblemished (Ex. 12:5; Lev. 1:3; 3:1; etc.) This does not mean Noah was a sinless man or
without a sin nature. This word could be
translated “wholesome” or “sound”.
The
sequence of Noah’s Character:
6:10
Shem
means “name, renown”
Ham
means “warm, hot”
Japheth
means “enlarged”
6:14
“
A
cubit is on average 18 inches. Other
cubit sizes are 17.6”, 19.8”, 20.4”, 20.6”.
450
feet long, 75 feet wide, 45 feet tall makes a ship almost impossible to
capsize.
The
ark would have 1,518,750 cubic feet.
The
ark would have as much space as 522 livestock train cars.
The
ark was the biggest ship made until 1884.
Gilgamesh Epic – “when their heart led the great gods to produce
the flood” (Tablet XI, line 14) and a god Ea speaks to the god Enlil who sent
the flood and said “How could you, unreasoning, bring on the deluge?”
Atrahasis Epic – 1200 years after creation the noise and commotion
from man on the earth has started keeping Enlil awake at nights. Enlil sends a famine, a drought and
eventually a flood to eliminate man and his bothersome noise but Atrahasis, one
of the kings on the Sumerian king list, builds a boat and survives the flood.