This transcript was auto-generated.
I’m sure your weren’t surprised when I said in the last episode that I believed that we are living in a very wicked world. The thing I want us to think about in this episode is how as Christians we should exist when surrounded by evil. What should be our focus as Christians living in the modern world. As we continue our studies through the book of Genesis, we encounter a very wicked world indeed, but we also encounter a man who along with his family survived and some might even you might say he personally thrived within it. A man from which I believe we can learn something.
We are going to begin looking today at the story of Noah, which takes up most of chapters 6 through to 9 of Genesis. It probably going to take us more than a week to work through it.But we will begin this time where the story begins in Ch 6 verses 9 and 10.
This is the account of Noah and his family. Noah was a righteous man, blameless among the people of his time, and he walked faithfully with God. Noah had three sons: Shem, Ham and Japheth.
The text begins by telling us about Noah's character, by giving us a glimpse into what he was like. It looks at Noah in contrast to his contemporaries who we will hear about in the following verses. Verse 9 starts by telling us this is the account (the generation) of Noah. If you been with me as we've been going through Genesis, you will remember that I pointed out that this little phrase occurs 10 times in the book and is used as a divider between different sections in the book. Each time you hear this phrase, this is the account (the generation) of ???. it stands as a literary marker that we've turned a corner. The idea is that this is now the beginning of a new story. In this case the story of Noah.
This is going to tell us what happened to him and his family from this point forward. Chapter 6 through to 9 will all talk about Noah, the flood, and it’s after affects. These opening verses points out a number Noah’s characteristics. Noah is declared blameless among the people of his time and we are told he walked faithfully with God In other words, like Enoch before him Noah had a personal relationship with the Lord, and he lived his life walking faithfully with the Lord. The point being made is that Noah was a very special individual. It says Noah was a righteous man. The use of the word righteous in the Old Testament context means that he stood by the standards that God had given to him. Which is why it says he was blameless.
So, how can we become blameless before God? If I could tell you how to be blameless before the Lord would you be interested? The Hebrew word translated blameless is a term used in Leviticus to describe the state of a sacrificial animal when offered to the Lord. So, it means being ready, set apart, fit for purpose. In the Bible the word blameless means something is prepared or brought to where it's supposed to be, in other words prepared and mature, in this case, spiritually mature. Noah was a spiritually mature man, and so from a biblical POV what this is telling us is that we need to do to be blameless which means reaching spiritual maturity. It also says that he was blameless [in his generation] among the people of his time. So, it puts him within the context of the people of his time and shows how Noah stands in stark contrast to the people around him. And we too today need to stand in contrast to many of the people who surround us in everyday life.Noah stands in contrast to his generation and was different even as he stood in the middle of what we discover were wicked and violent times.
In contrast to Noah and his family stood the people who surrounded them In the next episode we will look at his contemporaries.