Welcome to Summer Bible Study
Our Study in the summer will focus on OT Bible characters
Tonight’s Bible Study
•We will look at the life of Noah.
Noah’s Genealogy
•Noah is the ninth descendant of Adam through the line of Seth (godly line).
•He is the son of Lamech.
•Noah is the first descendant born after the death of Adam.
•Thus, Noah becomes the second father of humankind, the bringer of a new age.
Noah’s first 500 years
•We know nothing of the first 500 years of Noah’s life.
•After age 500, Noah had three sons: Shem, Ham, Japheth.
•Noah lived a total of 950 years. Genesis 9.29
Noah’s Birth and Name
•Lamech named him Noah because “he will comfort us in the labor and painful toil of our hands caused by the ground the LORD has cursed.” Genesis 5.29
•The name Noah means: comfort, consolation, and rest.
Noah Lived in Times of Wickedness
•“The LORD saw how great man’s wickedness on the earth had become, and that every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil all the time.” Genesis 6.5
The Wickedness
•A study of the fossil record of the period of time prior provides insight into the nature of the wickedness.
Wickedness
•According to Arnold Mendez, Jr. “there is much evidence that Neanderthal Man practiced cannibalism.”
Stone
Next Slide
•The chart on the next slide will show that Neanderthals had a high number of injuries.
•The only modern day comparison is to Rodeo Riders.
•The chart is from National Geographic Jan. 1996.
Violence
•The conclusion from the evidence of archeology is that many Neanderthals were victims of violence.
•The Bible tells us that in the time of Noah: “Now the earth was corrupt in God’s sight and was full of violence.” Genesis 6.11
Dietary Laws Violated
•Dietary laws existed in the time of Noah.
•This is evidenced in the fact that God commanded to with him into the ark clean animals and unclean animals. Genesis 7.1
•Unclean animals were those that do not chew the cud.
•Clean animals were animals that chewed the cud.
Dietary Laws Violated
•“The fossil record of early man indicates that not only was cannibalism common but that men were eating unclean animals.”
•Some of the unclean animals eaten were bears, cats, hyenas, and wolves.
Current Time
•Question for discussion: What about our current situation? Is it anything at all like the days of Noah?
The Days of Noah
•Jesus said: “As it was in the days of Noah, so it will be at the coming of the Son of Man.” Matthew 24.37
The Days of Noah
•“eating, drinking, marrying and giving in marriage” Matt. 24.38
•People were going about their daily routines.
•Jesus does not mention the moral decline in this passage.
What is wrong with those activities?
•We all eat, drink, and marry.
•Why is this mentioned?
•Bible scholar William Henriksen says that there is nothing wrong with these particular activities.
Daily Routines Yet Neglecting God
•But, when the soul becomes entirely wrapped up in them (eating, drinking, marrying), so that matters such as these become ends in themselves, and spiritual tasks are neglected, they are no longer a blessing but have become a curse. They have become evidence of gross materialism, false security, and often cold selfishness.” William Hendriksen
The Days of Noah
•“They knew nothing about what would happen until the flood came and took them away.” Matt. 24.39
•The people were not expecting the flood.
Based on the Words of Jesus
•Based on the words of Jesus, we may add to the list of sins that made Noah’s time a time of wickedness and corruption the following:
–Materialism
–False security
–Cold selfishness
–Neglect of the spiritual
The Size of the
The Scale Model
•The scale model viewed is 1/75 scale.
•The ship in the picture is a scale model of the Pinta, one of
•The stock railroad car real size is 44 ft long.
•569 stock railroad cars would fit into the ark.
Size of the
•These calculations are based on a cubit equaling 18 inches.
–450 ft. long
–75 ft. wide
–45 ft. high
Animals and the
•How many?
•Estimates as low as 2,000
•Estimates as high as 35,000
•These estimates are assuming the word “kind” means only those that walk on the earth.
Animals and Labor Needed
•Mendez says: “When manpower studies are done of the amount of labor needed to care for all the animals, it is apparent that 8 people working 60 hours a week could easily have cared for all the animals.”
Animal Self Care
Animal Self Care
•Mesh cage
•Animal waste goes into gutter
•Self filling bowls for water
•Food into sides of chute for self feed
Noah was a Patient Man
•How long did it take to build the ark?
•Some say 120 years.
•The 120 is based on Gen. 6.3
•But Gen. 6.3 is the span of time God allowed man to live from his pronouncement to the flood.
About 80 Years
•According to Mendez, it took 80 years to build the ark.
•Mendez bases this on the fact Noah was age 500 when he had his sons, and Noah was age 600 when he completed the ark.
•Noah probably used his sons to help.
•Therefore, it might have been about 80 years.
Inconsequential Detail
•Mendez refers to the exact amount of time to build the ark as an “inconsequential detail.”
•If we combine both estimates, we can say that it took no longer than 120 years and no less than 80 years to build the ark.
Projects
•Would you commit yourself to a project that required 80 to 120 years or your life?
•Could a person who lacked patience take on such a lengthy project?
•Noah must have been a man of great patience.
Noah Found Grace
•Genesis 6.8 “But Noah found grace in the eyes of the LORD.” KJV
Grace and Righteousness
•Some think Noah found grace because he was a righteous man. In other words, Noah’s righteousness led him to God granting grace.
•But this position is backward. It is the other way around.
Grace and Righteousness
•Dr. Jame Boice said “This is a great biblical principle, namely, that the grace of God always comes before anything.” Genesis, James Boice p. 256
Grace Came First
•First God’s grace came. Then Noah was set righteous before God.
A Righteous Man
•Noah was a “righteous man.” Gen. 6.9
•Noah is the first person in the Bible to be given this designation.
•Another way of saying it is that Noah was a “just man.”
•This refers to his standing with God.
•Noah was living in a correct relationship with God.
A Preacher of Righteousness
•Not only was Noah a righteous man, but he also preached righteousness. II Peter 2.5
•The OT does not tell us about Noah preaching. But Peter refers to this activity.
A Blameless Man
•Blameless refers to his character and conduct.
•This is related to how people perceived Noah.
•Not only did Noah act right in his relationship to God, but he also acted right in his relationship to the world.
A Preacher of Righteousness
•Josephus the Jewish historian mentions the preaching of Noah. He says: “But Noah was very uneasy at what they did; and being displeased at their conduct, persuaded them to change their dispositions and their acts for the better; but seeing that they did not yield to him, but were slaves to their wicked pleasures, he was afraid they would kill him, together with his wife and children, and those they had married; so he departed out of that land.” Antiquities of the Jews 1.3.1
Noah Walked with God
•Gen. 6.9
•This same phrase was used on Enoch Gen. 5.22
•Walk is used in the Bible to denote conduct in life.
•To walk with God is to “maintain a course of action conformed to God’s will and acceptable in his sight.” Unger’s Dictionary of the Bible
Household Faith
•“Go into the ark, you and your whole family” Gen. 7.1
•It is God’s plan to save entire households.
•The Christian faith is “a household faith.”
•God saved Noah and his wife and his three sons and their wives.
•A total of 8 were saved. II Pet. 2.5
Discussion
•What do you think it was like for Noah when he was building the ark?
Discussion
•What do you think it was like for Noah and his family when the rains came and they were in the ark and others were not?
Discussion
•What do you think it was like for Noah and his family while floating on the ark for 350 days and nights?
Noah was a Spiritual Man
•The first thing Noah did when the waters abated and he got off the ark was to build an altar and make a sacrifice.
•Noah and his family were going to build a whole new world, and the first thing Noah did was to remember God.
Noah Remembers God
•The Bible says: “But God remembered Noah and all the wild animals and livestock that were with him in the ark, and he sent a wind over the earth and the waters receded.” Gen. 8.1
Noah Remembers God
•By building the altar and making a sacrifice, Noah was remembering God.
•Dr. James Boice says: “The greatest wonder of Genesis 8 is not that God remembered Noah, but that Noah remembered God.”
Discussion
•Is it within our human nature to remember God?
The Fall of Noah
•Noah was a farmer.
•He planted a vineyard.
•He made some good wine.
•He drank too much wine.
•He got naked.
•His son, Ham, saw his nakedness.
•Shem and Japheth covered Noah, but did not see their father’s nakedness.
•Genesis 9.
Seeing Noah’s Nakedness
•What is wrong with the son of Noah seeing his father’s nakedness?
•Some have tried to interpret the seeing the nakedness as some form of sexual abuse or sexual violation.
•But the Hebrew word for sexual abuse or violation is not used.
Shameful Exposure
•The Hebrew word used means “shameful exposure.”
•This word is often used of exposure of women.
Ham’s Reaction
•Dr. Boice says: “Most likely, the sin was in the way he reacted to his discovery. He could have covered his father as his two brothers did, but instead he went and told them, apparently making fun of his father’s drunken and uncovered state. It was an attack on his father’s honor.”
Ham’s Reaction
•It may have also included an attack on his father’s faith.
•He found out that his father could sin.
•He maybe told others.
•“The only thing that is worse than committing a specific sin is the devilish delight of finding out and reveling in that sin in others. This Ham did.”
Discussion
•Why did Noah get drunk?
•Why do so many today abuse alcohol and drugs?
Discussion
•What lessons can we learn from the story of Noah getting drunk?
Older Years or Sr. Years
•Noah basically lived a blameless life.
•Yet, in his Sr. years he fell to sin.
•Others in the Bible also fell in their later years
–Moses struck the rock late in life and not permitted to enter the Promised Land.
–David with Bathsheba
–Solomon departed from the will of God in Sr years
Records of People
•Noah had something on his record that was a fault.
•Everyone has something on their record.
•Agree or disagree?
The Whole Story
•The Bible because it is the inspired Word of God tells the full and complete and truthful story about the great people God used in the OT and NT.
Noah’s Fall Included
•Arthur Pink says: “It is human to err, but it is also human to conceal the blemishes of those we admire. Had the Bible been a human production, had it been written by uninspired historians, the defects of its leading characters would have been ignored.”
Noah’s Death
•Noah dies at age 950.
