Don't skip the genealogies! Part 2(Gen 7-10)
Wesley Skinner
Day 3 is really interesting. The flood happens. God establishes a couple of new things. We see division take place.
Random observation of the day: if you add up the ages of the people up to the time of the flood 1. Noah was really old compared to everyone else before having kids( unless Shem, ham, Japheth were not his first kids but only the ones who came out of the flood with him.) 2. The oldest man to ever live, methuselah, either died during the flood or just before it.
So the flood happens, but it isn't until after the flood when I think so much interesting stuff takes place.
1. Seasons
8:22“As long as the earth endures,
seedtime and harvest,
cold and heat,
summer and winter,
day and night
will never cease.”
God establishes seasons. I'm not sure if this is a good thing or a bad thing. Imagine life without seasons. It would be like San Diego. Or no seed time or harvest. Did that mean up to that time food just grew unhindered and was always ready? Guess there weren't many prayers for patience. Life where all you needed was available without waiting. Maybe this is an institution of markers in life. If it was day time all the time, especially in biblical times, when you know to stop working and rest at sun down. And seasons of planting and harvest give you closure, something you are working for that comes to completion before starting again. And maybe this gives comfort to people to know that "seasons" in life are God ordained. Maybe God wants us to go through different seasons to learn and grow. What do you think?
2. Meat!
We no longer have to be vegetarians!
3. Covenant
God establishes a covenant with all of creation to never again destroy with a flood.
4. Division
We get an odd little story about naked, drunk Noah being dishonored by Ham, but honored by Shem and Japheth. This is the first time we see one of the patriarchs bless and curse. Noah blesses Shem and sets him above his brothers, but curses Ham. And if you don't skip the genealogies, you see, Ham becomes the father of the enemies of Israel.
Bonus random observation: in Peleg's time the earth was divided, yes foreshadowing Babel, but what if the earth was actually "divided" during Peleg's time?(Pangea anyone?) Who knows?! Tell me what you think!