The Bible In One Year - Day 3 (Genesis 5 - 6, Psalm 136)

 

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The Entry of the Animals into Noah's Ark (Jan Brueghel the Elder) 

Day 3:  Noah's Ark 

A Commentary
The Cainites and the Sethites The Great Adventure: Session 3 Early World Part 2 
Understanding the Scriptures - The Didache Series 

Now there are two groups - the Cainites and the Sethites.  Both had to live on the same earth.  But as long as there is evil, and injustice, there will be no harmony.  The descendants of Cain saw the whole world in terms of wars and personal glory. On the other hand, the descendants of Seth, although they worshiped God, still had the seeds of sin in them that we all inherit from Adam and Eve. 

"When men began to multiply on the face of the ground, and daughters were born to them, the sons of God saw that the daughters of men were fair and they took to wives such of them as they choose."  Who are the "sons of God?"  God created Adam in his own image and likeness, and Adam fathered a son named Seth in his own image and likeness.  The "sons of God," then much be the family of Seth, that family of God that built itself up calling upon the name of the Lord.  The "daughters of men" on the other hand, are the descendants of Cain.  In the seventh generation of the wicked Cainites, Lamech became a polygamist and the descendants of Seth were tempted to that same sin so they "took to wife such of them as they chose" implying that polygamy had entered into the line of Seth also.  

Sin had become institutionalized with the breaking of the marriage covenant which we find brings God's judgement down on his people.  

Chapter 6 goes on to say that the Nephilim (giants) were on the earth in those days.  They came in to the daughters of men and they bore children of them.  These were the mighty men that were of old, the men of renown.   

In Hebrew, "the men of renown" is literally "the men of shem," the man of the "name" which is what the word "shem" means.  They were wicked tyrants who were making a name for themselves.  As the lines of Seth and Cain intermarried, the whole world came to be dominated by the descendants of Lamech - unjust, violent men, building a culture of pure evil.  

With the lines of Cain and Seth mixed up almost the whole world had gone over to the side of evil.  But there was one righteous group left:  Noah, his wife, his three sons, and their families.  So God decided to make a new beginning and Noah is commanded to build an ark. 

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A Daily Defense Day 3 Changing God's Mind 


CHALLENGE:  “Why should we bother praying? If God is all-knowing, he knows what we need, and we can't change his mind because he's changeless.” 

DEFENSE:  Prayer is not about giving God information or changing his mind. It is an activity he wants us to do because it draws us out of ourselves and builds relationships—with him and our fellow human beings. That’s why he rewards it. 

Jesus made the point that prayer is not about giving God information: “Your Father knows what you need before you ask him” (Matt. 6:8). The reason God wants us to pray is that it keeps us from closing in on ourselves. He wants us to have a relationship with him—to think about him, to care about pleasing him, to love him. Humans build relationships by talking, and so God rewards us when we talk to him and relate to him in the ways we are able. He also wants us to care about one another and not to think exclusively about our own needs. Thus he rewards it when we pray for others. This way, the people of God are built up through love and mutual concern. When we pray, we are drawn out of ourselves to care both about God and about our neighbor. Because God already knows what we need, praying is not something that helps him. It helps us.

Jimmy Akin, A Daily Defense: 365 Days (Plus One) to Becoming a Better Apologist