Friday, October 5, 2018


WEEKLY SUNDAY SCHOOL LESSON
An international Sunday school lesson commentary
For Sunday October 7, 2018

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THE RIGHTEOUSNESS OF NOAH
(GOD uses obedient people for HIS purpose)
(Genesis 6)

   Whenever society becomes racked and marked by perpetual wickedness and violence, the likelihood of divine judgment will always loom greater, and ever closer to realization. In the days of Noah the corruption of human civilization had become so great that, if GOD did not choose to intervene at that time, man, HIS greatest creation, would have become extinct by their own hands.
    Here in Genesis chapter 6 we see just such a scenario being played out in grand and historical fashion. When the human population began to grow rapidly on the earth, the sons of GOD “(the fallen angels” under satan’s command, “bene ha elohim” in the Hebrew), saw the beautiful women of the human race, and began to forcefully take them as if they were their wives. They conceived children with them that grew to become “giants” on the earth (“nephilims”), and they vexed GOD’s SPIRIT greatly with their sins, and caused HIM to severely limit the days of man’s lifespan here on earth to no more than 120 years.
    The term “Nephilim”, used here, comes from the Hebrew verb “naphal” and it means “to fall” in general, but further, and perhaps more so, it is associated with “violence”, and here in verse 4 of this passage it is translated “to overthrow and fall upon with violence”. Also, however, in the book of Numbers it is translated as “men of great stature” in its noun form. And so, in the collective sense, it describes “men of violence who were imposingly great in statue (400+ feet tall), and had no regard or respect for anyone but themselves.
    However, as the LORD observed the growing extent of the people’s wickedness, and HE saw that all of their thoughts were consistently and totally evil because of this spiritual contamination by satan (v.5), HE was saddened that HE had ever made them and decided that HE would go ahead and destroy almost all of HIS earthly creation and start all over with one family, Noah’s, and one male and one female of every kind (prototype, or genes) of wildlife and domesticated animal on earth at that time (Vs.5-8).
    One might say, “Well, didn’t GOD know that this would happen in the first place, after all, HE is omniscient (All Knowing). However, GOD’s omniscience and foreknowledge does not rescind HIS gift to man of “free will”. GOD gives us “wills that are free”, and man will always retain the right to choose, or make his or her own decisions, no matter what. GOD always grants us “freedom of choice”.
    In verse 9 we see, for the first time in Scripture, that the word “righteous” (“just” and “perfect”) is applied to describe a human being, as it is used here to describe Noah. Here the bible tells us that Noah was, in fact, the only righteous man on earth at that time (the only man seeking to obey GOD), and that he consistently followed GOD’s Will, and as a result, enjoyed a close personal, experiential relationship with HIM.
    To explain the use of this description to describe Noah further, in the biblical Greek there are two words that are used for “good”. One is “kalos”, and it describes “a good that is also lovely”, a divine attribute that can only be spoken of, concerning GOD. It is the “good” that was exemplified by JESUS CHRIST our LORD and SAVIOR, while HE lived here on earth. The other is “agathos” which suggests a good that is less than divine, and would dull by comparison to the goodness of GOD. However, by human standards, one would stand out if he or she possessed and practiced this kind of goodness. 
    Because of Noah’s strict adherence to the ways of GOD in his behavior towards, and his training of, his wife and children, Noah’s family was literally the only family left on earth that had not been contaminated spiritually, or affected physically, by the dreadful luciferic intermarriages and behavior of the demonic angels, nor by the subsequent violence, sin and corruption of “their nephilim offspring’s”, who dominated society with a heavy, forceful, and influential hand. Noah stood alone, with his wife and his sons Shem, Ham, and Japheth, exercising their faith in GOD, continuously night and day (Vs. 9-10).
    And while Noah may not have been “good” in the divine sense of being perfect, with man, GOD, WHO is the source of all good and perfection, accredits it (righteousness) to him, based on his desire to obey and serve HIM. The ones who desire to obey GOD are the ones whom GOD surely knows, loves HIM. Men are not good in the same sense that GOD is, but rather, only in a “relative sense of speaking”, for example, as to comparing a man who aspires to obey the will of GOD, to a man who doesn’t.
    With that being said we can now move on to what GOD decides to do with the corrupt society that is depicted here in chapter 6. In verses 14-16 the LORD instructs Noah to make a boat from resinous wood, (wood that is treated with a sticky substance that comes from certain plants, substances such as rosin, lacquer, or varnish), and then, seal it with tar inside and out.
    Next Noah was instructed to construct three decks (bottom, middle, and upper) with stalls throughout the entire interior of the boat, and to incorporate a single door in the side of the boat. The dimensions of the imposing vessel would be 450 feet long (approx. 1 ½ times the length of a football field), 75 feet wide (approx. ½ the width of a football field), and 45 feet high. He was also to construct an opening all the way around the boat, about 18 inches below the roof.
    At this point (Vs.17-22), GOD lets Noah in on HIS plan to destroy the entire earth with a catastrophic flood that would kill everything on earth except he and his family, and the designated animals that would come to him (to be kept alive) to board the ark once it is finished. Noah was to take enough food to last he and his family, and, all the animals, through an ordeal that would comprise a sum total of 377 days.   
    This craft would serve as the vehicle that would carry Noah’s family and his animal cargo safely, through GOD’s “judgment upon the earth”, and “into salvation” in the restored environment of a “washed clean” world. The flood would make a powerful theological statement to mankind, for all time, as it resoundingly re-affirms GOD as the undisputed “moral ruler of the universe”, WHO, can and will, exercise HIS authority and obligation to judge our sin, at HIS OWN appointed time.

A Sunday school lesson by,
Larry D. Alexander
      
    



                                 
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