Genesis 8-11
EDEN TO ETERNITY Day 3: Genesis 8-11 Notes & Takeaways
Shem’s lineage to Abram on my Bible, @myrenewedfaith
We start off chapter 8 of Genesis with Noah and his family on the ark, along with all the animal pairings. According to Genesis 8:14 we know that they spent over a year in the ark. See Genesis 7:11 for the day it started. Can you imagine how scary and crazy it must’ve been to go from never seeing rain to seeing rain flood the entire world around you?
We must take note that they were all in the ark in peace, no animal was attacking each other or the humans to try to eat it; they were all still vegetarians (Genesis 1:29-30). It wasn’t until Genesis 9:2 that God gives over to mankind everything that lives and moves as food.
In Genesis 8:11 we see that the dove Noah had sent out from the ark came back with a freshly plucked olive eaf. Olives don’t grow at higher elevations, so that is how Noah knew the water had receded. The dove carrying an olive branch in its beak is the modern symbol of peace, which has its origin in this story. Cool, huh?
We see Noah’s offering in Genesis 8:20, and as we learned from Cain and Abel’s offerings, motivation and heart are utterly important. I don’t know about you but it seemed to me that Noah’s offering was that of a heart grateful to the Lord for keeping them safe, but also for God sparing them, since they too carried their inheritance of sin as descendants of Adam.
“Noah's act here corresponds with the most common form of offering to God, which Israel would later practice while following God's Law. In that offering, the whole animal is burned and fully consumed by fire on the altar. This offering would have been a truly faith-based sacrifice, even if it was commanded directly by God. So few of each kind of animal existed in the world that to purposely kill any of them, even the more plentiful clean animals, was very costly to Noah and his family. It was clearly an act of faith in God's ability to provide.” (Bibleref.com)
The Lord “smelled the pleasing aroma,” (Gen 8:21) this is a way of saying that the Lord delighted in the offering (Eph 5:2, Phil 4:18). He promised never to deal with sin of mankind in such a way again and made a covenant (or pact) with Noah in the form of a rainbow. So now, every time you see a rainbow, you can remember God’s promise to us all of his grace and mercy.
As we move into chapter 9, we also see that the Lord makes murder a sin (Genesis 9:6). Later we see that those guilty of premeditated murder were to be put to death for it (Exodus 21:12-14).
In Genesis 9:20 we see that Noah went into farming just like his father Lamech (Gen 5:29) and we see the first reference to drunkenness. Drinking too much wine can bring about immodesty, immoral acts, and debauchery. Which we will see more of in Genesis 19:30-35 when we read about Lot and his daughters (January 20 reading).
But, we must also note that Noah cursed Canaan, son of Ham, not Ham for seeing him naked. We don’t know exactly why he cursed Ham’s son and not him directly, but many different commentators think that Canaan could have been there, or Ham told Canaan and his brothers, but either way, when Noah did curse Canaan, we know it was a prophetic curse because we see later in the Bible that it came to pass. It must’ve been a message inspired by the Spirit because that is the only way it could’ve come true (Deuteronomy 18:22; Jeremiah 28:9). “Noah’s words did come to pass in the future, as we read that many of Canaan’s descendants were either killed or put under tribute by Israel (descendants of Shem) during the times of Joshua and the Judges, and later by King Solomon.” (Lacey, Troy. Curse of Canaan)
The story of the Tower of Babel begins in chapter 11 and we see that mankind was doing the opposite of what the Lord intended and told them to do, “be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth” (Gen 9:1). Instead they were prideful and tried to take destiny into their own hands by staying in one place and building a tower to heaven. The word Babel, means gateway to God. They were literally trying to make themselves a stairway to heaven!
So the Lord goes down and confuses their language. But, note that Genesis 11:7 uses the phrasing “let us” which is similar to the language used in Gen 1:26 and Gen 3:22. God may be speaking to Himself within the Trinity of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
We finish chapter 11 with the account of Shem’s family line. Shem’s line brings us to Abram, the father of many nations (Gen 17:4). Below is a wonderful lineage chart I found HERE that shows the lineage perfectly. For chapter 11 we really just need to focus on the middle part, but I thought it was great as it had a lot more info as well. I copied Shem’s lineage into the side of my Bible page as you see in the photo above.
Tomorrow we move on to chapters 1-3 in Job. We will finish Job and come back to where we left off in Genesis on January 18. I hope you’re learning a lot and enjoying it all at the same time! Make sure to follow RF on Instagram, and join our FB Group to stay up to date for our upcoming weekly zoom sessions!
