Gen. 6:9-11:32
Haftorah/Prophets Yeshayahu (“LORD Savior/Deliverer (is) He “Isaiah” 54-55:5
Torah Chapter Highlights – Hebrew Insights – RCS Connections (at end)
Gen. 6 The spiritual and moral corruption and decline of Man – God will bring the Flood.
Gen. 6:9 Noach’s godly character traits.
Insight: Flood in Hebrew is from the verb “wither”. One of the great Torah teachers astutely points out that Man had withered spiritually; thus it brought the physical “withering”, the Flood. This demonstrates the Biblical principle first found in the Torah known in Hebrew as “measure for measure”. Cf. Mt. 7:1-2, 2 Cor. 9:6.
Insight: Gen. 6:17. The last word in the Hebrew verse, typically translated ‘expire’ or ‘die’, is from the Hebrew verb that means “die without suffering” and is related to the word “numb”. You should notice as the waters rise, there is a complete absence of panic.
One of the great Torah teachers points out in Hebrew that as Man had spiritually and morally become numb, he became physically what he already was spiritually & morally. God in short was very gracious; there was no suffering as man simply became physically numb, and expired. The same word is used in the Hebrew text with the deaths of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Aaron (and Esau).
Gen. 7 The final calling and the Flood floods the world.
Gen. 7-8 The waters recede – a raven is sent forth to see if there’s dry land – then the dove – (the Hebrew name of Jonah means dove).
- The Earth dries out
- God tells Noah to go forth from the Ark (note: this Ark and the Ark of the Covenant are two different words in Hebrew)
Gen. 9 The World begins to be rebuilt
- God makes a covenant with Noach
- Noach becomes intoxicated
- The tremendous lesson we learn from Noach’s son Shem (“Name”) and his response to seeing his father drunk
Gen. 10 The record of the offspring of Noach.
Gen. 11:1-9 Man once again does the opposite God instructs – and the consequences
- The Tower of Jumbling
Insight: the Hebrew tells us that basically there was one language and that everyone could understand one another. Did this lead to following what God instructed? No. Man did the complete opposite! He further compounded this by trying to make a name for himself rather than focusing on the Name, i.e., the LORD.
Men sought to ascend spiritually on their own terms. We see once again the principal of “measure for measure”. People spoke with one another to build this Tower. They did this so easily because they had one language. That language would now be taken away and there would be many languages; thus now making it difficult for men to try to replicate what he did. However, it would also make it difficult for them to cooperate together positively.
In short though, in Hebrew we see again that God acted graciously. How? God descended down and put a stop to the building before Man would have made things worse for himself!
The Torah – RCS Connection
Gen. 8:21 Rom. 7:18, Phpns. 4:18
Gen. 9:3 Rom. 14:2, 1 Tim.4:3
Gen. 9:4 Acts 15:20, 29
Gen. 9:6 Mt. 26:52, 1 Cor. 11:7