Tony took a different path this week, and much like Genesis introduces God and creation and gives numerous histories, Tony introduced himself and then gave the class an opportunity to introduce themselves. I had no idea what a large percentage of the class had been here less than five years. This made me think of the days when James Johnston had one family each week introduce themselves and do a poster so that we had a closer relationship as a class.
Hearing the relationship between the different families (like the Gurley’s and the Day’s) was an appropriate reference to the tol’doth (Strong’s 08435), the Hebrew word for histories, genealogies, or accounts – translated generations in the KJV.
We understand people having genealogies, but did you think about earth having one?
See Genesis 2:4. Here are the first 8 of 39 uses of that word in the Old Testament.
Ge 2:4 - These are the generations of the heavens and of the earth when they were created, in the day that the LORD God made the earth and the heavens,
Ge 5:1 - This is the book of the generations of Adam. In the day that God created man, in the likeness of God made he him;
Ge 6:9 - These are the generations of Noah: Noah was a just man and perfect in his generations, and Noah walked with God.
Ge 10:1 - Now these are the generations of the sons of Noah, Shem, Ham, and Japheth: and unto them were sons born after the flood.
Ge 10:32 - These are the families of the sons of Noah, after their generations, in their nations: and by these were the nations divided in the earth after the flood.
Ge 11:10 - These are the generations of Shem: Shem was an hundred years old, and begat Arphaxad two years after the flood:
Ge 11:27 - Now these are the generations of Terah: Terah begat Abram, Nahor, and Haran; and Haran begat Lot.
It is a special word. God created the earth, created man in His likeness, Noah was perfect in his generations (open to interpretation – look up some of the online references to Nephilim, Noah might have been the only pureblood human left). We see an unbroken generational line from Adam to Abram.
Tony’s question had more to do with Noah’s faith and lifestyle than his lineage. He asked, what does it mean to be righteous and faithful?
What did it mean in Noah’s day and what does it mean personally to us, in the 21st century?
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Hmm. Well, since we missed it... Chad & I went to a Bible bowl meeting 7 years ago. Most people who were there were nice to us, and by stunning coincidence, most people who were there are members of Family Builders. And now, so are we. That'll teach you all to be so nice to people! :)
ReplyDeleteFrom the details we have of Noah's life, I'd say righteous & faithful = Do what the Lord tells you. Presumably, before he was asked to build the ark, Noah had a track record of keeping the Lord's commands. Thus, we get--
Lord: Noah, build a boat.
Noah: Sure thing.
Lord: Noah, go get some animals.
Noah: Sure thing.
Lord: Noah, get your family & get inside & wait around for a week for something to happen.
Noah: Sure thing.
And equally as presumably, everyone else must not have had the same track record. Pureblood human or not (and I really want to work in a HP reference here!), Noah's life consisted of doing what God said.
And of course, I didn't mean to imply that Noah was perfect. But you get what I'm saying.
ReplyDeleteAs for what it means to us-- there are as many ideas of what being righteous & faithful means in the 21st century as there are Christians in the 21st century. Which is kind of scary.
I'd say the defining trait of Christians should be, as it has ever been, that we are different from everyone else. I don't mean that we should go out of our way to be strange, but that we need to take a careful look at the world before deciding what activities to engage in. {This is going to be the sort of comment that may well get me kicked out of Family Builders, if enough people read it! :)}
With Christmas just past, we have a great example of what (IMO) not to do. I do not think it is a particularly Christ-like quality to get angry when someone substitutes "Holidays" for "Christmas". It's a man-made holiday regardless, and there was a time when Christians in the US were bothered by the rampant materialism to the point of not celebrating Christmas any longer. Now we just want to be sure that Jesus gets the credit for our blown budgets and expanded waistlines, it would seem.
As goofy as that example may seem, I do think that to be righteous and faithful in the 21st century, which from Noah's example means doing what the Lord says, we need to seriously examine our lives & activities in that light. I often wonder if my many hours spent running are in any way bringing glory to God. What about when I'm frustrated at work, or when I spend my evenings being cheeky on Facebook?
To be a follower of Christ, to be righteous and faithful, should certainly mean that I'm not acting exactly like the world that would seek to be none of those things. I should be different, in the way that the Lord has called us to be different.
As far as righteous... Susan already commented. :)
ReplyDeletePureblood human? In relation to perfect? Well, that theme also runs throughout Israel's history in terms of not marrying outside the nation, otherwise they ended up with idolatry and all kinds of problems.
From my study, the oral traditions were collected in Genesis and presented to a particular audience some time during Israel's history and this makes me think that they are important to the story of Israel's identity. By extension, they are important for our identity. But in terms of non-human... that seems a disconnect if in the way we mean pureblood human stems from a non-human ancestory. Otherwise, what would we have to learn from that?
I suppose it matters little to me, since I am a guy... they didn't take husbands for themselves. :P
Haha, I digress. Thanks again for the blog. :)