- God sees; He watches over us; He knows all and sees all. Nothing is hidden.
- God is grieved by sin; sin is offensive and hurtful.
- God judges sinners and punishes sin. Wickedness will not forever be tolerated. God delays punishment so we have opportunities to repent.
- God speaks--communicates with us. He spoke to Noah, told him exactly what to do, and Noah did it. (Genesis 6:22) Noah listened and obeyed.
- God is gracious and though he is a God of wrath, a just God who punishes sin and wickedness, he preserves the righteous.
What can I learn about myself by reading Genesis 6?
- Noah stood apart from his generation. He countered the culture in which he lived. He walked with God and not with wicked men. He obeyed God even when everyone else was doing their own thing and being true to themselves. (That is declaring their own truths). He not only feared God, but I get the feeling he loved and adored God. God was real to him. And he cared more about what God thought than what others thought.
- Am I like Noah? (Won't be answering that!) Sometimes there is a big difference between knowing truth and living truth. Noah lived the truth. The ark he built is proof of Noah's lived truth. Noah points the way to Jesus. Everything I said about Noah is even MORE true--amazingly, radically true--of Jesus.
What can I learn about God by reading Genesis 7?
- God warns people of pending judgment. (We see this is chapter 6 too).
- God is faithful to His Word. He keeps his promises. If he says he's going to do something--he does it. This could be encouragement and hope for believers or a warning to unbelievers.
- God prepared for and provided a way for worship to continue after the flood.
- God preserves the righteous.
- God takes sin seriously.
What else can I learn by reading Genesis 7?
- Noah was 500 when he fathered Shem, Ham, and Japheth. And he was 600 when the flood started.
- 8 people alone were saved. The only one we know was 'righteous' was Noah. And it wasn't that he was perfect and innocent so much as he followed hard after God and obeyed him even when it went against everyone and everything around him. He stood for truth at a time when everyone thought nothing but evil all the time.
- His message of the wrath to come would not have made him popular or beloved. He probably wasn't always taken seriously. He may have been infamous for being crazy--a weird God-follower who misses out on everything fun. But Noah believed God and lived accordingly.
© Becky Laney of Operation Actually Read Bible
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