Joe Dude's Bible Thoughts: Genesis 5 And 6

Genesis 5

I was looking forward to this chapter, only because something hit me when I listened to it (at BibleGateway.com, very cool). There's something about hearing the Word as well as reading it. From what I understand, some of the text in the Bible was written with the intent of being read aloud to an audience.

Read it aloud. What do you keep hearing? "Blah blah blah, and he died." "And he died." "And he died." Over and over again, a bunch of people living for some number of years and then dying now that sin and death have been brought into the world.

But look! "Enoch walked with God" and no "he died". That's weird. And it's repeated. "Enoch walked with God, and he was not, for God took him." I've heard this taught as a foreshadowing of the rapture. Maybe, maybe not. What I see here is that if you "walk with God", you don't die.

Genesis 6

I really don't get the "sons of God" versus "daughters of man" part. I looked it up. There's a lot of speculation. I had my own theory based on sonship in the Bible dealing with inheritance. So men following God marrying women who did not, Samson style? Maybe that's a stretch. We'll just put it on the "ask God in heaven" list; of course as soon as we take our first breath in the presence of God, we'll not care about that silly list.

When I first read the Bible I thought the 120 years referred to what the post-flood lifespan of man, but after some re-reading (and math) it became clear that it referred to the amount of time until the flood. Imagine, Noah building a huge boat over 120 period when there wasn't any rain. Talk about trusting the LORD among a bunch of ridicule. Noah rocks!

Verse 4 goes on "the list" too.

When you believe God to be omniscient (which I do), verses that say things like "The LORD saw that" and "the LORD was sorry" seem strange, because you think "Huh, you're God! You knew what would happen!" But when we run into things like that, we have to remember that the Bible is God's truth communicated through human authors. Really, if you were given the task of writing down the story of an infinite God as a finite person with an inadequate language, what words would you use?

There's that "walked with God" phrase again with Noah. Yeah he dies later, but he escapes the flood, God's judgment on the world a that time, and a symbol of God's final judgment to come. Walking with God seems to still be a good thing. :-)

What does that "walking with God" phrase bring to your mind anyway? It reminds me of that "footprints" story where Jesus (or does it say the LORD?) carries the dude during the storms of his life. To me it implies a solid relationship and a deep connection with each other. Like the line goes, "no religion, just a relationship".

Bottom line about the ark: it was big, and the animals and their food could fit. I'm sure the "Answers in Genesis" people have some analysis on their website if you're not convinced.

There are no unicorns today because Noah didn't listen to God and ate them on the ark. No. He "did all that God commanded him". How much better is that than what we do? Don't we often do some of what God commands us, but not all of it? Egregious enough and we get whapped in the head with the rolled up newspaper of conviction.