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.

We continue reading chapter eight.  The water finally recedes, and Noah and his family leave the ark with all the animals.   Life will never be normal again.  The world must be repopulated.  This will be a longer process than the first time.  Man’s life expectancy is now much shorter.  Why do you think this happened?

Once again God commands that these eight people be fruitful and multiply.  The rest of the Bible will tell of this struggle.   Life will never be destroyed from the planet; God has promised this.

In Genesis chapter nine God makes a covenant with Noah, his sons and all living creatures.  Never again will all life be destroyed by flood.  The rainbow in the sky is not a physical phenomenon, but a promise from God.

The fear animals have of men is explained and meat is blessed as food for people.  Our canine teeth are another proof that God knew this day would come.  We are given everything that lives for food.  In Exodus animals are once again designated as clean and unclean.  Murder is also condemned and the punishment for it is given.  This is not original to the law given to Moses.

We are also enlightened about Noah and his son’s through a story about this righteous man becoming drunk from drinking too much wine and passing out while he is naked.  This proves that even the best man was not perfect.  The error was not in making or drinking the wine.  The mistake was in becoming intoxicated.  All human beings will sin.  And that means us?

We have arrived at chapter ten of Genesis.  This is the genealogy of all the nations that populated the ancient world.  They were the descendants of Ham, Shem and Japheth, Noah’s sons.  Japheth was the father of those that settled along the seashores and became mariners. The Hamites include Egypt, Canaan, Babylon, and Assyria.  The Shemites include the ancestors of Abram as well as others.

We find more here to describe where and how these nations descended.  I don’t want to dwell on this since most of us are not that interested in ancient history.

“Nothing they plan to do will be impossible for them.”  This is the statement of God from Genesis chapter eleven that explains why He confused the language.  Does the verse four of chapter ten preview this scripture.  Today, differing speech does not necessarily preclude cooperation among peoples.   God scattered them throughout the planet.  It was not only the language that was spoken that was different.  Different cultures mean complications in understanding each other.  These problems often cause problems in marriage.

Abram is descended from Shem as we learned yesterday.  His father, Terah, was moving the family from Ur to Canaan, but they stopped and stayed in Harran.  After he died, God would direct Abram to complete the journey.