Read Genesis 9-11
& Matthew
4
To discover:
As you read consider what the point of the genealogies is?
To ponder:
The big idea here is covenant. Like marriage, it’s a formal
agreement between two parties, including promises and provisos. Here the
proviso is that human life is not taken. This ‘Noahic’ covenant is like a
railway embankment. On its guarantee of continual life on earth God will lay
the track upon which the gospel train will run.
It all
feels like a new start. Evil seems eradicated. A new world appears as the
waters recede just as in chapter 1. The commission to fill and subdue is
repeated. You might wonder whether things will now go well. But there is
difference: Creatures will fear man. Violence is anticipated. Even Noah and
sons fall into wrongdoing. So despite all the potential of politics and
education, sin needs an internal solution. Human nature needs changing if evil
is to be no more.
God so governs even the declarations
of the patriarchs that their blessings and curses reflect what he will do in
subsequent history. 9v24-27 look to the subjection of the land
of Canaan to Israel
and even the gathering to God’s people of the Gentile nations descended from
Japheth. Chapter 10 then records the populating of the known world in Israel’s
day (our Middle East and North Africa).
This sets the stage for Israel’s
coming scenes.
The
notorious Babylon first takes this
stage. It feels so contemporary: Men should seek God’s greatness and fill the
earth. Instead they gather together, and with their God-imaging creativity seek
a name for themselves. God confuses their languages in mercy - to restrain what
might be achieved. This should breed caution today as the limits of language
break down.
Throughout
we learn that salvation must come through judgement. Evil must be eradicated if
a good world is ever to be. Judgement day must precede the new creation (Rev
20-21). More than that, Christ must change the very nature of those he calls if
the new creation is not then to be corrupted (Heb 12v23). This all begins at
Pentecost: The disunity of Babel is
overcome. All nations are called to the tent of Shem’s greatest descendent, and
the Spirit starts his work with them (Acts 2).
Praying it home:
Praise God for how perfectly he will bring about the perfect
and incorruptible world to come. Pray he would keep you and your children aware
of the limits of politics and education and so of the world’s need of the
gospel.
Thinking further:
Under inspiration, Bible writers sometimes rearrange events
in order to make a theological point. So the gathering of all peoples in
chapter 11 must have actually occurred before their spreading out as recorded
in chapter 10. 9v3 is intriguing. In the fertile pre-fall world the diet was to
be predominantly vegetarian (1v29-30). Now however, with growing crops from the
land so toilsome and edible vegetation more scarce (3v17-19), God kindly affirms
the appropriateness of eating meat. The qualification of v4 would have been
understood to forbid eating meat if the blood had not been drained (Lev 19v26).
This might have been to highlight the later theological importance of blood, or
just maintain a respect for animal life.
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