Read Genesis 6:9-8:14 at Bible Gateway.
the teaching tools of scripture
Hebrew paragraph divisions:
Gen 6:9-12 {s} Contrast righteous Noah/ corrupt earth
Gen 6:13-8:14 {s} The righteous preserved through the judgment of the wicked
the teaching tool of comparison and contrast in noach
No strong themes in this parashah
Gen 6:9-8:14 chiastic structure:
1a) Gen 6:9-10, Righteous Noah;
1b) Gen 6:11-12 {s} Corrupt earth;
central axis) Gen 6:13-7:16, The ark of salvation for the righteous;
1a) Gen 6:13-22, Instruction to build the ark + who and what will enter the ark;
1b) Gen 7:1-3, The command to enter the ark;
1c) Gen 7:4, After seven more days the flood will come;
1d) Gen 7:5, Noah did according to all that the LORD commanded him;
central axis) Gen 7:6-9a, Noah was 600 years old when the flood came/ He + his family entered the ark with the animals by twos;
2d) Gen 7:9b, As God had commanded Noah;
2c) Gen 7:10-12, After seven days the flood came;
2b) Gen 7:13-15, On that same day, they entered the ark;
2a) Gen 7:16, Who and what entered as the LORD commanded;
2b) Gen 7:17-24, Judgment of the wicked;
2a) Gen 8:1-14 {s}Preservation of the righteous.
I know hard times are coming on the earth – for the ungodly. We do not need to fear, because God is not sending the judgment on us. He will preserve us through the judgment. This is what Torah is trying to teach us, by having the central axis of the entire parashah be the single sentence that on the day the judgment came, Noah entered the ark (which is preservation). But please note how many times in this parashah a variation of “Noah did all that the Lord commanded him” appears!
Theme of the parashah:
The ark of salvation for the righteous in the midst of judgment
was noah saved by his righteous works?
noach: rest follows atonement
Finding Messiah in Torah:
Whenever we see in Scripture, a situation of certain death, in which a miraculous deliverance results in either the preservation of life or the restoration of life, we have just seen the Torah theme of life from death; i.e., resurrection! The picture of resurrection is the picture of Messiah, for He is the resurrection and the life (Joh 11:25)!
In fact, every nature and science museum in the world is declaring witness with a loud voice to all mankind that God judges sin, but in Messiah is the resurrection and the life. For they are filled with the fossils of all manner of animal and plant life, which were laid down with great amounts of sediment by water, and they have been found on every continent, including mountain tops. These fossils declare that what was once living came to their death violently and catastrophically by a worldwide flood which covered the tops of the mountains (Gen 7:20); but that humans exist to view them in science museums testifies that one family was preserved alive through judgment.
Jesus Christ is the ark, and He is the open door (Joh 10:9). If we enter through Him while there is time, we will be saved, but if we enter not, we will likewise perish. For judgment for sin will come, and even though God delay, as we saw with the long lifespan of Methuselah, He will not tarry forever.
Additional readings for noach:
Psa 5 (my notes) | Isa 54 | 1 Pet 3
Further study off-site:
Noah, the second Adam and a type of Messiah
Answers about the Flood
Buried Alive: The Startling Untold Story About Neanderthal Man – Jack Cuozzo
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