Charles (Chuck) Kensinger

Cain and Abel were the first two sons of Adam and Eve.  We meet them in chapter four. The first murder was committed because of God. The first murder was caused by jealousy. It continues to be a human problem. The first generation of humans sinned and so did the second.

Cain’s family tree is listed, and it continued to include violence. There is a thought among some that the mark that God put on Cain was black skin. They believe this gives a reason for discrimination. Once again sins ugliness raises its head. That mark would have been destroyed when the flood wiped out all of Cain’s descendants.

The final statement in verse 26 is one that is often missed. “At that time people began to call on the name of the Lord.” Humanity still must call on God for protection from each other and salvation.
Chapter five transitions us into the story of Noah and the flood that destroyed the entire world.  That is for tomorrow.  Here we have one of the chapters of genealogy that causes us to swoon with difficult names.  Don’t skip this one though.

Verse 1 says that God created mankind in His image.  Man and woman are both in the likeness of God.  How can that be?  Is God a man or a woman?  No, he has no sexual organs or designated sexual identity.  He created sex for us, and we usually mess it up.  But God is not male and/or female.  More about this later.

Verses 22 through 24 tell about Methuselah’s father Enoch.  He lived for 365 years and was faithfully walking with God.  We don’t know what that means.  God counted him faithful is all we know.  He was so loved by God that he was taken and did not die.  This is a mystery.  Who has a theory they want to share about Enoch?

Some of the questions about this chapter six are who the sons of God are and who the Nephilim were?  The main thing here is God’s condemnation of humans.  Only man was thought to be worthy of saving.  His wife, sons and daughters in law were saved because of his righteousness.

The earth was filled with violence because of men much like it is today.  Whether or not this is true will never be known.  It is true that evil remains in our time.

Another question is about the wood that was used.  Gopher wood is the term used in the King James Version, but the New International Version calls it cypress.  Some Bible scholars believe that Noah’s culture had much of the technology we have today.  If this is true it would answer many of the arguments that are made about this passage being factual.  What do you think?

In Genesis chapter seven we read that Noah did not take only one pair of each type of animal.  He took seven pairs of clean animals.  These would be for food for the people as well as carnivores.
After the animals are all loaded, God closes the door and the rain falls for forty days.  The King James Version tells us that the waters above the firmament that were put there by God at the creation also came to the earth.  Science tells us that at one time much of what is now ocean was dry ground.  Since the flood, more water has been on the face of the earth.

The flood waters were on the earth for one hundred and fifty days.  Nothing survived except those that were on the ark and truly aquatic creatures.