THE GENESIS FLOOD Genesis 6-11
The record of the two seeds continues in Genesis 6, and, unfortunately, there is intermarriage between the two seeds: ‘the sons of God’ and ‘the daughters of men’. The results were disastrous! The record shows that the earth was corrupt and filled with violence, Genesis 6:11. Despite human desire to see the good in everyone, we are quickly finding that God’s commentary about mankind is not as we might think. Rather than ‘good overcoming evil’, the opposite happened. It is evident that there can be no harmony between the Faithful and Godless people. The scriptures provide many examples and lessons to the believers of the defiling influence of mixed marriages, and the poor results when believers associate with non-believers’ time and again. Genesis 6:4,5 is testimony that their marriages resulted in a world of ‘wickedness’. Warnings about mixing with unbelievers are also given in Deuteronomy 7:3-4; 2 Corinthians 6:14 “Do not be bound together with unbelievers”; 1 Corinthians 7:39 marry “only in the Lord.” The principle we should follow is marriage with an unbeliever is prohibited!
These times of Noah were so evil that God determined to destroy this wickedness from the earth by calling upon one faithful man and his family, “But Noah found favor in the eyes of the LORD.” He was tasked with building an ‘ark’ which is an eclosed boat that would convey him, his family and the animals through a flood of waters that would be used to eradicate this violence from the earth, Genesis 6:17. Noah believed God, and over the next 120 years built the ark as commanded. Only Noah and his family were ‘saved’ from the destruction! “And spared not the old world, but saved Noah the eighth person, a preacher of righteousness, bringing in the flood upon the world of the ungodly”, 2 Peter 2:5.
The word ‘saved’ is most appropriate for it implies not the act of destruction, but the act of salvation. While the wicked of the earth were destroyed by water, Noah was saved by the same water through the means which God required. In the New Testament the apostle Peter likens this to baptism: “…when the patience of God kept waiting in the days of Noah, during the construction of the ark, in which a few, that is, eight persons, were brought safely through the water. corresponding to that, baptism now saves you…” 1 Peter 3: 19-22. The ‘seed of the serpent’ (carnal flesh) is destroyed in the water, while Noah rises to a “newness of life”, Romans 6:3-6
THE TOWER OF BABEL:
One would think that with the massive and complete destruction of the wicked, men would ‘repent’ and the goodness of men would continue. However, this cleansing of the earth did not last! The ‘nature’ of men was quickly revealed already in Noah’s family Genesis 9:19-25, continuing the enmity between the faithful and the godless. Then, in just a few generations as seen in Genesis 11, men determined to unite and ‘build a city and a tower’ to prevent them from being scattered throughout the earth! The passage infers it would be a society that did not include God the Creator for their goal was to “let us make for ourselves a name”! God saw their attempts and intervened. He ‘confused their language’ and “the LORD scattered them abroad from there over the face of the whole earth”. Genesis 11:8.
The attempt to build this city is in marked contrast to God’s ultimate plan of building a city to which all the faithful of the world will come Isaiah 2:2-4 see also Hebrews 11:16 where we read that God has “has prepared a city for them”.