Day 2
Memory Verse – 2 Corinthians 5:17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!
Read Genesis 8 and 9
Life continued in this world that was now marred by sin. More and more creation took place, but along with more people came more corruption. Imagine the discouragement and frustration of the Lord to see His perfect creation ruined by the very people who were supposed to care for it! Fed up, God decided to destroy His creation and start over with Noah, or Noach in Hebrew. Interesting how it rhymes with Ruach, isn’t it? The name Noach means rest. God wanted to give His creation rest from the corruption of man, so He sent chaotic waters to disorder what had previously been ordered.
We picked up the story today as Noah and his family and two of every kind of animal have been saved from the rain that covered the earth and destroyed every living thing. And what happened next? A wind, that is Ruach, began to blow over the chaotic, destructive waters, and out of the waters life and land appeared – new creation out of death. The Spirit of God was present to once again bring order and salvation. Noah and his family emerged from their Eden-garden-on-a-boat to continue the covenant God made with Adam and Eve – be fruitful and multiply and take care of the creation. In fact, He established this covenant with a beautiful sign – a rainbow in the sky! And with it He promised He would never completely de-create the world again.
Over the next 350 years, Noah and his family would again repopulate the earth, enjoying the beautiful creation God provided for them. But Noah and his family once again failed to maintain order in the chaos. The very first thing Noah did when he left the ark was to plant a garden, and partake of the fruit of that garden. We’ve seen this before, haven’t we? It didn’t end any better for Noah than it did for Adam and Eve. This time he drank the fruit, and he and his son had a fall. For Adam and Eve, they chose to usurp the authority of God and try to overthrow His Lordship in their lives. I believe what happened here is that Ham, the youngest son of Noah, tried to usurp the authority of his father by sleeping with his mother while Noah was drunk and could not stop him. This is why the son of Ham, likely the son of Noah’s wife, is cursed by Noah when he gets sober.
God gives us beautiful new creation – ordered creation, but He also gives us a choice: maintain the order – subdue the earth – don’t let it rule over you, but you rule over it. Again, we see Noah and Ham fail to keep their side of the covenant. But God keeps His promise, and despite their failings, He does not destroy His creation again.