In the beginning

One simple way to outline the First Book of Moses is to divide it into three parts:
Chapters 1-11 The earliest history of the human race
Chapters 12-36 Abraham and Isaac and Jacob
Chapters 37-50 Joseph
Moses suggests another way to outline this book by the ten passages where uses the Hebrew
wordtoledoth. Moses is the only biblical author who uses this Hebrew term. In English Bibles it
is often translated “generations,” but in each context the meaning is something like “the
continuation of the history of” something or someone who has already been introduced.
Genesis 2:4 The heavens and the earth
Genesis 5:1 Adam
Genesis 6:9 Noah
Genesis 10:1 The sons of Noah
Genesis 11:10 Shem
Genesis 11:27 Terah
Genesis 25:12 Ishmael
Genesis 25:19 Isaac
Genesis 36:1 Esau
Genesis 37:2 Jacob
The heavens and the earth are created and introduced in chapter 1, and then the toledoth in
chapter 2 gives us “the continuation of the history of the heavens and the earth” which
culminates in the more detailed account of the creation of Adam and Eve.
Notice that Adam is introduced in chapters 2 and 3, and then the toledoth of Adam comes at
the beginning of chapter 5, which gives us “the continuation of the history of Adam” by listing
his descendants all the way down to Noah.
Noah is introduced at the end of chapter 5, and then the toledoth of Noah in chapters 6-9 gives
us “the continuation of the history of Noah” in the story of the Flood and the promise of the
rainbow.

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Noah’s three sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth, are introduced in the story of the Flood, and then
the toledoth of Noah’s sons in chapter 10 is “the continuation of the history of Noah’s sons,”
which tells us which nations are descended from each of the three sons.1
Shem is certainly included in the toledoth of the sons of Noah, and he gets an additional
toledoth of his own because the Messiah will come from his family line.
At first it may seem surprising that there is no toledoth of Abraham.Terah is Abraham's father,
and Terah’stoledothisthe story of Abraham and Sarah, which is“the continuation of the history
ofTerah.”
Ishmael, the firstborn son of Abraham,is introduced in chapter 16.The toledoth of Ishmael in
chapter 25 is brief because the Messiah will not come from his descendants.
Isaac is introduced in chapter 21, toward the end of thetoledoth of Terah.The toledoth of
Isaacin chapter 25 is “the continuation of the history of Isaac,” which tells us more about Jacob
than it does about Isaac.
The story of Esau is intertwined with the story of Jacob in the toledoth of Isaac. The toledoth of
Esau in chapter 36 is a relatively brief “continuation of the history of Esau,” which documents
that he is the father of the Edomites.But the Messiah will not come from his family line.
Like Abraham, Joseph does not get his own toledoth. Jacob's toledothtells us how his story is
continued in the life of his son Joseph.
A toledoth is not a biography in the modern sense. We notice that the toledoth of Adam in
Genesis 5 begins with the creation of man and ends with God expressing His grief about ever
having made man (Genesis 6:6-8).In a similar way, the toledoth of the sons of Noah begins with
the survivors of the flood and ends with the building of the Tower of Babel and the confusion of
tongues. Yet, despite God’s disappointment at human disobedience, the line of the Messiah
continues via Shem to Terah.
Moses shows us where the path parts when the toledoth of Noah’s sons is followed by a
separate toledoth of Shem, and the brief toledoth of Ishmael is followed by the longer toledoth
of Isaac, and the brief toledoth of Esau is followed by the longer toledoth of Jacob. In each pair
of toledoth the line of the Messiah consistently comes second.
+ + +

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In Ham’s lineage, the names tip us off that this is not a normal family tree. Among the children
of Ham, we see some conspicuous names: Cush, Egypt, Put, and Canaan (Genesis 10:6). These
are not merely names of children; they are the names of nations. The descendants of Ham
through Canaan show up throughout the history of Israel (Genesis 10:16–19).This is a list of
enemies of the future nation of Israel, the nations that will be the thorn in her side throughout
the entire Old Testament.
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Critical scholars regard the first eleven chapters as myth, but of course we accept these
chapters as history. (In English we like to say that history is “His story,” but I am not sure if that
translates into Telugu.) The New Testament makes it clear thatAdam is not a mythical
character. Saint Luke traces the genealogy of Jesus all the way back to Adam (Luke 3:23-38).
Jesus asked the Pharisees, “Haven’t you readthat at the beginning the Creator made them male
and female?” (Matthew 19:4). The Apostle Paul says, “Death reigned from the time of Adam to
the time of Moses, even over those who did not sin by breaking a command, as did Adam, who
was a pattern of the one to come” (Romans 5:14).
Genesis begins with God. He is not like the gods of the Fertile Crescent. The Bible never asks or
answers the question, “Where did God come from?”The Bible simply says God is the only one
who “creates.” The Hebrew word for “create” (bara) is reserved almost exclusively for God in
the Old Testament. Humans never create. We can make, fashion, form, shape, or build things,
but we cannot create anything. God is the Creator, who is somehow both plural and singular.
The Hebrew word for “God” (Elohim) is plural, but we translate it as “God.”
In the beginning God was already there.What was God doing before He created the universe?
The question overlooks the fact that God created time when He created the universe.
The Bible begins with a simple sentence that asserts an absolute beginning for the whole
universe: “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.” Hebrew has no distinct
word for “universe” or “cosmos.” The “heavens and the earth” is a figure of speech called a
hendiadys, where two words are used to speak of a single reality, the universe.
God created all things by the power of His word. Ten times in chapter one we read, “And God
said…” (Genesis 1:3, 6, 9, 11, 14, 20, 24, 26, 28, 29). We worship our Creator because “By the
word of the LORD were the heavens made, their starry host by the breath of His mouth. …For
He spoke, and it came to be; He commanded, and it stood firm” (Psalm 33:6, 9). The Apostle
John likewise declares, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the
Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through Him all things were made; without
Him nothing was made that has been made” (John 1:1-3). We cannot verify this by means of
the scientific method. “By faith we understand that the universe was formed at God’s
command, so that what is seen was not made out of what was visible” (Hebrews 11:3).
The Creator is eternal. Our world is not eternal. People who doubt or deny the existence of God
often take for granted that matter is eternal. Either way, faith is required. There is no scientific
way to prove that God exists. There is no scientific way to prove that something other than God
has always been here.There is no scientific way to answer the question, “Where did our world
come from?” Some people believe the Bible. Some people believe there was a “big bang.”
Some Christians are eager to harmonize the Genesis account of creation with Charles Darwin’s
theory of evolution. They say the word day can be understood as a long period of time.

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It is certainly true that the Hebrew word yom and the English word day(and the Telugu word for
day?) can be used to refer to an indefinite period of time. King Solomon does not limit a day to
24 hours when writes, “In the day of prosperity be joyful, and in the day of adversity consider:
God has made the one as well as the other” (Ecclesiastes 7:14).In a similar way we use the
expression “in Jesus’ day” to refer to His earthly lifetime.
The first time Moses uses the word yomin Genesis chapter one, he uses the word twice with
two different meanings in the same verse. “God called the light day, and the darkness He called
night. And there was evening and there was morning, the first day” (Genesis 1:5). The name
God gives to the period of light is the same name Moses uses for the combination of one period
of light and one period of darkness - clearly an ordinary 24-hour day.
When God gives the Ten Commandments to Moses on Mount Sinai, He provides His own divine
commentary on the creation week, “Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. Six days
you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the LORD your God. On
it you shall not do any work, neither you, nor your son or daughter, nor your manservant or
maidservant, nor your animals, nor the alien within your gates. For in six days the LORD made
the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but He rested on the seventh day.
Therefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy” (Exodus 20:8-11).
Some of the same people who want to lengthen the days in Genesis chapter one also want to
shorten the years in Genesis chapter five. Moses says, “All the days that Adam lived were 930
years…all the days of Methuselah were 969 years” (Genesis 5:5, 27). If the days in Genesis
chapter one are many years long, how long are the days in Genesis chapter five?
Two chapters later, Moses tells us that the great flood began “in the six hundredth year of
Noah’s life, in the second month, on the seventeenth day of the month.” There is no question
about the meaning of the word yom in this context. Furthermore, Moses immediately goes on
to say, “On that day all the fountains of the great deep burst forth, and the windows of the
heavens were opened. And rain fell upon the earth forty days and forty nights. On the very
same day Noah and his sons, Shem and Ham and Japheth, and Noah’s wife and the three wives
of his sons with them entered the ark” (Genesis 7:11-13).
Moses gives us a lot of names and dates. Moses is writing history. Moses clearly knows how
long a day is and how long a month is and how long a year is. If modern scholars find this hard
to believe, that tells us more about them than it does about Moses.
+ + +
Archbishop James Ussher used Genesis chapter five and other biblical genealogies to calculate
the age of the earth. In 1650 he published a book that proposed that God created the world in
4004 BC. We can appreciate his diligent efforts, but we must remember that Moses did not
provide this genealogy so we could figure out the age of the earth.

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Moses wants us to see how God kept His promise to Adam and Eve.Moses wants to document
the family tree of the Messiah.
It is interesting that in chapter five Moses provides ten names to get us from Adam to Noah,
and in chapter eleven Moses provides ten names to get us from Shem to Abraham. Moses
evidently likes the number ten. We have already noticed the ten toledoth. And, of course, in the
book of Exodus, God will give Moses the Ten Commandments!
If God created the world in 4004 BC, that would mean that Abraham stands half-way between
Adam and Jesus, but we can’t say that for sure.
Consider this: Saint Matthew provides a genealogy from Abraham to Jesus, and Matthew likes
the number fourteen as much as Moses likes the number ten. Matthew says, “All the
generations from Abraham to David were fourteen generations, and from David to the
deportation to Babylon fourteen generations, and from the deportation to Babylon to the
Christ fourteen generations” (Matthew 1:17).
Matthew says Joram was the father of Uzziah (Matthew 1:8) but when we read the
history recorded in II Chronicles chapters 21-26, we see that Matthew has skipped three
generations (Ahaziah, Joash, and Amaziah). Matthew realizes that people will notice
this. He is not trying to fool anybody.He simply wants to give us fourteen generations
between King David and the Babylonian Captivity.2
Both Moses and Matthew are writing by inspiration of the Holy Spirit, but they do not seem to
be primarily interested in the question of the age of the earth. If God wanted us to know
precisely when He created the world, the Holy Spirit could have inspired Moses to tell us.
God certainly knew that people would be curious about the age of the solar system. But instead
of giving us a date for the creation week, Moses simply says, “In the beginning…”
Moses was born in Egypt and educated in the Pharaoh’s palace, but he makes no reference to
the calendar of the Egyptians. Moses is writing long before the Romans devised their AUC
calendar. The Latin phrase ab urbe condita means “from the founding of the city” of Rome.
Obviously, Moses is writing before the Julian Calendar and the Gregorian Calendar were
invented. The Holy Spirit wisely inspired Moses to write simply, “In the beginning…”
Moses says in the beginning “the earth was formless and empty.” This description provides a
reason to outline the creation week like this:

2
Similar questions arise when we try to figure out the chronology of the judges and the kings.
Some of the judges were apparently contemporary with each other. When a king died in the
middle of a year, the same year counted as the last year of his reign and the first year of the
next king’s reign.

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 Formless Empty
Day 1 Light Day 4 Luminaries
Day 2 sky and water Day 5 birds and fish
Day 3 land and vegetation Day 6 animals and Adam & Eve

Day 7 The Sabbath

In the original Hebrew text, the first sentence is seven words (Genesis 1:1). The first week, of
course, like all other weeks ever since, is seven days. The seventh day is the first day that God
blessed. The seventh day is emphasized because it is mentioned three times: “And on the
seventh day God finished his work that he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all
his work that he had done. So God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it God
rested from all his work that he had done in creation”(Genesis 2:2-3).
At the end of the creation week the Sabbath was instituted; the sanctity of the Sabbath was
reaffirmedat the end of the building of the Tabernacle. In both cases something holy came into
existence. One was a sanctuary in time, the other a sanctuary in space.
The connection between God’s “rest” on the seventh day of creation and God’s “rest” later in
the Tabernacle suggests that God not only rested from His work on that first Sabbath, but also
entered into His “rest” or “resting place.” God was enthroned when Heconsecrated the “cosmic
sanctuary” which He had created.3The realm provided by God for His creatures was filled in a
special way with the sanctifying presence of the Creator.
According to Genesis 2:2, God sanctified the Sabbath. Exodus 29:43 indicates that God will
sanctify His Tabernacle. How does God sanctify His sanctuary? He says, “The Tabernacle shall be
sanctified by my glory.” After the Tabernacle was constructed and “the work was finished,”
God’s glory filled the sanctuary (Exodus 40:34-35). Just as God sanctified time after His creation

3
After His six days of creative activity, God “rested” on the seventh day (Hebrew shabat in
Genesis 2:2; and nuakh in Exodus 20:11). Elsewhere in the Old Testament God’s “rest” (or
“resting-place”) [Hebrew menukhah; related to the verb nuakh] is equated with Mt. Zion (the
city of Jerusalem), and in particular with the place of the sanctuary or temple (for instance
Isaiah 66:1-2).
Note especially Psalm 132:8, 13,14: “Arise, O LORD, to your resting place [or ‘rest’; Hebrew
menukhah]; you, and the ark of your strength. . . . For the LORD has chosen Zion; he has desired
it for his habitation. This is my resting place [or ‘rest’; Hebrew menukhah] forever: here will I
dwell; for I have desired it.” Solomon quotes these words of Psalm 132 almost verbatim in his
prayer at the dedication of the Temple (II Chronicles 6:41-42).

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work was finished, by filling the seventh day with His presence, so He sanctified space (the
Tabernacle) after its work of construction was finished, by filling it with His glory.
The seventh day is the only object of sanctification in the entire book of Genesis.God is holy,
and the only thing He made holy was the sabbath day. Moses says Adam and Eve were made in
the image of God (Genesis 2:26) but Moses never says God made them holy. The sabbath day is
the crown of creation. Since the sabbath day is already holy, God commands us to keep it holy
(Exodus 20:8).
God designed the sabbath day to be that holy time when He and the people He had created could enjoy
sweet fellowship with each other. This suggests another way to outline the creation week with an
emphasis on time.

TIME HABITATION TIME INHABITANTS TIME

Day 1 – day & night  Day 4 – festivals  Day 7 – sabbath
Day 2 –  Day 5 –
water & sky birds & fish
Day 3 – land  Day 6 – animals
& vegetation Adam & Eve

Day four obviously stands in the middle of the week. As God creates the sun, the moon, and the
stars, He says, “Let them be for signs and for seasons and for days and for years” (Genesis 2:14).
The translation “seasons” is unfortunate. I am curious to know how it is translated in your
Telugu Bible. The same Hebrew word is used for the Tabernacle when it is called the Tent of
Meeting. It is also used for the festivals that are celebrated at the Tabernacle. The translation
“festivals” works very well here, since the dates for the festivals were set according to the lunar
calendar used by the Jews. “Let them be for signs and for festivals and for days and for years.”
Moses describes day four of creation week in a beautiful and orderly way that can be outlined
like this:
To separate the day from the night (verse 14)
For signs, for festivals, for days and years (verse 14)
To give light on the earth (verse 15)
God made the two lamps to rule the day and the night (verse 16)
To give light on the earth (verse 17)
To rule the day and the night (verse 18)
To separate the light from the darkness (verse 18)
The Hebrew word for the two lamps in verse 16 is the same word Moses uses for the seven-
branched candlestick in the Tabernacle. The sun and the moon are the heavenly lamps that God

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placed in the heavens to call His people to come and worship Him (Psalm 19:1-6). They shine on
us the way the menorah used to shine on the twelve loaves on the golden table in the Holy
Place. This illustrates the Aaronic benediction (Numbers 6:24-26).
+ + +
Adam and Eve were God’s “image” in His cosmic temple. Later the “image” of a god was placed
in pagan temples. It is significant that the “image” of the pagan god was a lifeless statue, while
God’s image was comprised of living human beings, made in His likeness. The images in pagan
temples were supposed to have dominion over their worshipers. Adam and Eve were given
dominion over the rest of creation.
In the Garden of Eden Adam was responsible to guard and keep the garden (Genesis 2:15).After
the Fall, this responsibility is transferred to the cherubim, who in a role-reversal are charged to
protect the garden from its original guardian (Genesis 3:24).
The Lord willlater be depicted as enthroned between the cherubim (compareII Samuel 6:2
andIIKings 19:15). The Lord was present in the Holy of Holies, separated from the Holy Place by
the veil that was “made with cherubim” (Exodus 26:31).
The reason why Adam and Eve are created in the image and likeness of God is so that they can
enjoy fellowship with the Creator in a way that the other creatures cannot. God’s purpose in
creating Adam and Eve in His own image is ultimately fulfilled in the sabbath.
Yes, the sabbath is a day of rest for both people and animals (Exodus 20:8-11). The
animals rest while their masters worship. However, some animals become sacrifices
when their masters worship God. Animals do not worship in the same way we do.
+ + +
When you picture the garden of Eden in your mind’s eye, is it on top of a mountain? Moses says
a river flowed out of Eden and divided into four rivers. The Pishon River watered the whole land
of Havilah, and the Gihon River watered the whole land of Cush. The Tigris River flows east of
Assyria, and the fourth river is the Euphrates (Genesis 2:10-14). The law of gravity dictates that
rivers always flow downhill.

Water/chaos Mountain/altar City of man Water/chaos Mountain/altar City of man

Genesis 1:2 Eden’s garden Cain/Enoch The Flood Mount Ararat Tower of
Genesis 4:17 Noah’s offering Babel

Ur of the Mount Moriah Genesis 25:6 Red Sea Mount Sinai Golden Calf
Chaldees Binding Isaac to the east

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After the death of Solomon, Jeroboam set up golden calves at Bethel and Dan in opposition to
the Temple in Jerusalem. At this time Jeroboam also established “the high places” to worship
idols (I Kings 12:26-33). Where did he get these ideas?
In a similar way the pagan Greeks said their gods lived on Mount Olympus.
+ + +
Next question: Do we all agree that the garden of Eden did not cover the whole earth? After the
fall, God drove Adam and Eve out of the Garden of Eden (Genesis 3:24). Where did they go? Is
the garden of Eden one place? Is the garden a smaller place within a larger space called Eden?
Did God drive them out of the garden, but permit them to remain in Eden? After Cain killed
Abel, Cain “settled in the land of Nod, east of Eden” (Genesis 4:16). Did Cain live east of where
his parents were living?
Notice that movement eastward is consistently movement away from God.
Adam and Eve – Genesis 3:24 Cain – Genesis 4:16
Tower of Babel – Genesis 11:2 Isaac’s half siblings – Genesis 25:6
Notice that movement westward is consistently movement toward God.
Abram leaves Ur of the Chaldees and moves westward to Canaan.
Entrance into the Tabernacle courtyard/Holy Place/Holy of Holies is from east to
west. Joshua leads Israel from east to west across the Jordan River into the Promised
Land.
The pattern continues in the New Testament.
The Magi come from the East to Jerusalem to worship the newborn King of the Jews.
In the book of Acts the Gospel moves from Jerusalem to Asia Minor to Greece to Rome.
+ + +
First God forms Adam, then He builds Eve.After the creation of Adam and before the creation of
Eve, God says it is not good for Adam to be alone. Think about this for a moment: Adam was
with God and with the animals. But God says Adam is alone and God says this is “not good.”
God is not satisfied when Adam has an individual relationship with his Creator. If Adam is alone,
there can be no marriage. If Adam remains alone, there can be no church, where two or three
are gathered in Jesus’ name (Matthew 18:20).Furthermore—sorry pet lovers—no animal can be
Adam’shelper, at least not like Eve will be.
There is a palpable tension between Genesis 1:31, “God saw all that He had made, and it was
very good” and Genesis 2:18, “The LORD God said, ‘It is not good for the man to be alone.’” It is
not yet sinful, but something is missing.This tension is relieved when we hear Adam say, “At
last! This one is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh” (Genesis 2:23). When God brings Eve
to Adam, the “not good” vanishes. The first words uttered by Adam that are recorded for us in

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Holy Scriptureare the joyous poetry of his wedding day (Genesis 2:23). This happy chapter ends,
“Adam and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed” (Genesis 2:24).
The story keeps right on going from the last verse of chapter two to the first verse of chapter
three. “Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the Lord God
had made.”
Several Hebrew words can be used to describe a crafty, clever, or wise person. The Hebrew
word (arum) that Moses uses to describe the serpent sounds very much like the word he used
to describe the naked wedding couple. Indeed, this looks like a play on the words naked (arom)
and crafty (arum), anticipating that the serpent wants to make themawkwardly aware of their
own nakedness. Wise King Solomon teaches us in Proverbs 14:15 that the wise (arum) person is
one who doesn’t naively believe just anything, and yet that’s precisely what happens here.
Two trees in the garden of Eden are given special names, the Tree of Life and the Tree of the
Knowledge of Good and Evil (Genesis 2:9). Adam is free to eat from the Tree of Life. God warns
Adam not to eat from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. “In the day you eat of it you
shall surely die” (Genesis 2:17). Martin Luther calls the Tree of Life Adam’s sacrament. The bad
news is that Adam eats from the wrong tree. Adam eats death rather than life.
Adam and Eve are newlyweds. The serpent strikes up a conversation with Eve, and Adam is
there (Genesis 3:1-6). “Did God really say you shall not eat of any tree in the garden?” The
question is addressed to both of them; you is plural. Adam is content to let Eve do the talking,
and she starts out well. “We may eat the fruit of the trees in the garden.” The serpent wants to
talk about what God has forbidden, but Eve wants to talk about what God has provided. They
have more than enough to eat. There is plenty of variety on the menu. God does not expect
them to eat manna day after day after day.
This puts God’s warning into its proper context. “You shall not eat the fruit of the tree that is in
the middle of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.” Eve is frequently criticized for
adding “you shall not touch it.” This detail is not mentioned when God warns Adam not to eat
from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil (Genesis 2:16-17). God gave this command to
Adam before He created Eve. How does Eve know what God said? Did Adam tell her? Did God
repeat this commandment after He created Eve in a conversation that Moses does not record?
Either Eve is reporting accurately what she has heard from God, or she is not. Did she sin before
she ate the forbidden fruit? If she makes an unwarranted addition to God’s commandment,
why doesn’t Adam correct her? Is Adam’s silence a sin of omission, committed before he eats
the fruit offered to him by his wife?
We don’t know for sure, but Eve deserves the benefit of the doubt, because the Eighth
Commandment demands that we defend Eve and speak well of her and put the best
construction on what she says. The Bible does say that she was deceived (I Timothy 2:14) but

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that is not the same thing as saying she lied. The Apostle Paul blames Adam (Romans 5:12)
without even mentioning Eve.
Did God tell Eve (and Adam?) not to touch the forbidden fruit? Does Eve tell the truth, or does
she embellish the truth? We can’t say for sure. But we can say this: The Bible includes many
other examples of an initial report of what God said that is supplemented by a subsequent
report. Matthew’s account of Jesus healing a paralytic (Matthew 9:1-8) does not mentionthat
the paralytic was lowered through the roof, but we know this from the more detailed account
in Mark 2:1-12. The Gospel of John records many things that Jesus said which are not recorded
by Matthew, Mark or Luke.
We need not call Eve a liar. The serpent is the liar. “You will not surely die.” He flatly contradicts
what God has clearly said. Then the serpent embellishes his lie by saying something that is
technically true. “God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be
like God, knowing good and evil.” Their eyes are opened (Genesis 3:7) and God says, “Behold,
the man has become like one of us in knowing good and evil” (Genesis 3:22).But even when the
serpent says something that is true, he twists it into a lie. The serpent deceitfully implies that
opening their eyes to know good and evil will be a good thing, but this is the Fall.
Adam and Eve know what good is, but they have no experience of evil. The implication of God’s
warning is that it will be better for Adam and Eve if they never learn what evil is. God wants to
protect them, as we often do our best to shelter our own children. God wants Adam and Eve to
trust that He knows better than they do. Life will be better if they do not discover what evil is.
How does Eve decide what to do? “She saw that the tree was good for food, and pleasing to the
eyes, and desirable for gaining wisdom” (Genesis 3:6). She knew what God had said, but she
trusted her eyes rather than her ears. The Apostle Paul explains, “We walk by faith, not by
sight” (II Corinthians 5:7) and “Faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of
Christ” (Romans 10:17). It was not a surprise that the forbidden fruit looked good, because all
that God had made was very good (Genesis 1:31). But Eve was not free to eat anything that
looked good to her. She knew what God had said. The serpent bluntly contradicted what God
had said. Eve trusted the wrong voice. She ate from the wrong tree. She gave some to Adam.
Adam knew what God had said. Adam was not deceived (I Timothy 2:14). Adam joined his wife
in her sinfulness. At first the man and his wife were both naked and they felt no shame, but
now their eyes were opened, and they sewed fig leaves together to hide their nakedness from
each other (Genesis 2:25 and 3:7). Marriage hasn’t been the same since.
Adam and Eve heard God coming. He was walking in the garden as a gentle evening breeze
cooled the garden after a warm day. Rather than rejoicing at the prospect of fellowship with
their Creator, Adam and Eve were afraid. They tried to hide from God. They were not thinking
clearly. God called, “Where are you?” Did Adam realize that when he answered God’s question
God would know where to look for him? Of course, God would have known where to look if
Adam and Eve had stayed silent. Maybe Adam realized that it was futile to hide from God.

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Shortly before this, Adam had let Eve answer the serpent’s question, but now Adam answers
God’s question. “I heard the sound of you in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked,
and I hid myself.” Adam does not mention that Eve is with him. Is he trying to protect her?
God asks, “Who told you that you were naked?” Adam offers no answer to this question. “Have
you eaten from the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?” It is a simple yes-or-no
question, but Adam does not simply say yes. Instead of trying to protect his wife, Adam blames
her. “The woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me fruit of the tree, and I ate.” This
is not repentance.
God knows that Eve is there. He asks her, “What is this that you have done?” She blames the
serpent. “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.” This is true, but this is not repentance.
God is calling Adam and Eve to repentance, but they are scared, and they respond with excuses.
God is not ready to give up on them. He turns His attention to the serpent. “Because you have
done this, cursed are you above all livestockand above all beasts of the field; on your belly you
shall go, and dust you shall eat all the days of your life. And I will put enmity between you and
the woman, and between your seed and her seed; he shall crush your head and you shall bruise
his heel” (Genesis 3:14-15). This, of course, is the first Gospel promise. It is also the first divine
curse. God curses the serpent and his seed when He gives the first Gospel promise to Eve and
Adam.
Seed comes from the man. Since we know what God will do to keep this promise, when we
hear of the Seed of the woman, we may hear the promise of the Virgin Birth. Did Adam and Eve
understand that? They have yet to conceive their first child, but they were much smarter than
we are. At least they must have understood that the Seed of the woman would do for them
what they had just demonstrated they were not able to do for themselves. The Seed of the
woman would recognize the serpent as the enemy. The Seed of the woman would not be
deceived. The Seed of the woman would not trust what the serpent said. The Seed of the
woman would crush the serpent’s head. Yes, the serpent would bruise his heel, but when Jesus
died on the cross, He defeated the serpent. “It is finished!” And, of course, on the third day the
Crucifixion is followed by the Resurrection.
When Adam and Eve fall into sin, their worship is disrupted,but the Father will sacrifice His Son
to restore mankind to the original purpose of the sabbath. Jesus suffered under Pontius Pilate,
was crucified, died, and was buried. He descended into hell.On the third dayHe rose from the
dead. He ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of the Father. Jesus will come
back to take us to the place He has prepared for us in His Father’s house. There we will worship
Him as Adam and Eve did in the Garden of Eden before they fell into sin.
The Sabbath is not an afterthought to give us a break from the burden that work imposes on
sinners after the Fall.The Sabbath is rooted in creation—first practiced by God himself!
Everything Jesus did to redeem us testifies to the ultimate significance of the sabbath.

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A noteworthy aspect of Sabbath rest is that all people are treated alike. The rich and the poor,
the king and the peasant, the master and his slave are equal for one full day ofeach week (and
on certain holidays).No one can require anybody else to work on the day when God commands
everyone to rest. Worship is not only something we do together, it is also a foretaste of the
feast to come. Worship is one thing we do now that we will also do in eternity.
+ + +
The language of Genesis 3:7 echoes again and again.In the book of Genesis, the same sad story
is retold at least twice more. After being promised children innumerable as the stars, like Eve
who takes and gives the fruit to her husband, Sarai takesand gives her fruitfulservant Hagar to
Abram who “listened to her voice” (Genesis 16:1–3). After having been told by God that “the
older shall serve the younger,” Rebekah takes and gives Esau’s clothing to Jacob in order
todeceive her blind and aging husband Isaac. When Jacob hesitates,Rebekah says, “Listen to my
voice” (Genesis 27:8, 15–17).
By contrast,when Joseph is propositioned by Potiphar’s wife, he is the first man in Genesisabout
whom Moses says, “He would not listen to her” (Genesis 39:10).
+ + +
On Day Six of the creation week, God blessed Adam and Eve and said, “Be fruitful and multiply
and fill the earth” (Genesis 1:28). After the Fall, this blessing continues to reverberate as Moses
records three acts of procreative sex to punctuate the sad storyline of chapter four. “Now
Adam knew Eve his wife, and she conceived and bore Cain” and “Cain knew his wife, and she
conceived and bore Enoch” and “Adam knew his wife again, and she bore a son and called his
name Seth” (Genesis 4:1, 17, 25). In a world of sin and death, God gives the gift of new life.
+ + +
Who taught Cain and Abel how to worship? Cain was a farmer and Abel was a shepherd. Was
their father their pastor? Moses does not explain how they knew what to do. Moses simply tells
us what they did. “Cain brought to the Lord an offering of the fruit of the ground, and Abel also
brought of the firstborn of his flock and of their fat portions” (Genesis 4:3-4).
Where did this worship service take place?Were Adam and Eve present when their sons offered
sacrifices to God? Moses does not tell us, but if the family is living in Eden, east of the garden,
as we considered before, there may be a parallel with the Tabernacle.
Consider the possibility that the garden corresponds to the Holy of Holies, and the rest of Eden
is like the Holy Place. The Most Holy Place is separated from the Holy Place by a curtain that is
embroidered with cherubim (Exodus 36:35). On top of the Ark of the Covenant was the Mercy
Seat, the throne of God. Bezalel “made two cherubim out of hammered gold at the ends of the
Mercy Seat. He made one cherub on one end and the second cherub on the other end. At the
two ends he made them of one piece with the Mercy Seat. The cherubim spread their wings

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upward, overshadowing the Mercy Seat with their wings.The cherubim faced each other,
looking toward the Mercy Seat” (Exodus 37:7-9).
When Aaron entered the Most Holy Place on the Day of Atonement to offer blood on the Mercy
Seat, he moved from east to west. There were cherubim to guard the way and to watch over his
worship. In a similar way, when the LORD God drove Adam and Eve out of the garden, He
placed the cherubim at the east entrance to the garden “to guard the way to the Tree of Life”
(Genesis 3:24).
Before they fell into sin, do you picture Adam and Eve standing before the Tree of Life and the
Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil in the middle of the garden as they worshiped on the
sabbath day? They were to eat of the Tree of Life and refrain from the Tree of the Knowledge of
Good and Evil. After they fell into sin, the cherubim stood guard over the way to the Tree of
Life. Did Adam and Eve bring their sons to see the cherubim4 and tell them about the two trees
in the garden? Did they offer sacrifices at the entrance to the garden?Were they able to see the
Tree of Life?
The reference to the “flaming” sword recalls the visible presence of God’s glory which in later
Judaism is called the Shekinah (from the same Hebrew verb shakanfeatured in the footnote).
The eastern entrance of the garden, guarded by the cherubim with flaming swords, thus
becomes the post-Fall sanctuary, where the Shekinah glory is revealed.
The Menorah, the seven-branched candlestick in the Tabernacle was a stylized almond tree
(Exodus 25:31-36).Almond trees are the first to bloom in the spring in the ancient Near East,
making them natural symbols of life and fertility. The use of almond flowers to adorn the
Menorah is significant, evidently pointing to the Tree of Life in the middle of the Garden of
Eden (Genesis 2:9). Did Eve and Adam eat almonds rather than an apple?
+ + +
We do not know exactly where Adam and Eve and Cain and Abel met for worship. We do know
that the LORD had regard for Abel and his offering, but for Cain and his offering He had no
regard (Genesis 4:4-5). How did Cain and Abel know this? Did God speak to them? Did the LORD
say, “Abel, I am well pleased with you and your offering”? Was Cain’s offering met with silence?
Once again, worship at the Tabernacle may provide a helpful parallel. Aaron conducted the first
service in the newly constructed Tabernacle. “And fire came out from before the LORD and
consumed the burnt offering and the pieces of fat on the altar” (Leviticus 9:24). The LORD will
also send fire from heaven when Solomon dedicates the Temple (II Chronicles 7:1) and when
4
The cherubim are “placed” (Hebrew shakan), the same Hebrew verb Moses uses for God’s plan
to “dwell” (shakan) among His people in the Tabernacle (Exodus 25:8), and from the same root
as mishkan, the Hebrew word for the Tabernacle (Exodus 25:9 plus more than ninety other
times in the Pentateuch).

Page | 14
Elijah presents an offering on Mount Carmel (I Kings 18:38). Perhaps God demonstrated His
approval of Abel and his offering in a similar way. Maybe Cain’s offering simply remained on the
altar like the offering presented by the prophets of Baal. We do not know how God showed that
He was well pleased with Abel and his offering, but the difference between Cain and Abel was
clear to Cain and Abel – and probably to Adam and Eve.
Genesis says very little about Abel, but the New Testament tells us, “By faith Abel offered to
God a more acceptable sacrifice than Cain, through which he was commended as righteous,
God commending him by accepting his gifts. And through his faith, though he died, he still
speaks” (Hebrews 11:4).
+ + +
Cain was angry and jealous. His face fell. God did not give up on Cain. “Why are you angry and
why has your face fallen?” God knew the answer before He asked the question. God was calling
Cain to repentance. Modern translations of verse seven do not make this as clear as it could be.
The New International Version says, “If you do what is right, will you not be accepted? But if
you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must
master it” (Genesis 4:7).
This translation makes it sound like sin is a person who is crouching at your door. But the
Hebrew word for “sin” can also be translated as “sin offering” (Leviticus 4:3). Furthermore, the
Hebrew word for “crouching” is more often translated as “lying” (Psalm 23:2). Therefore, an
alternative – and I think better – translation would be: “a sin offering is lying at the door.”
The Hebrew does not say “your door,” but only “door.” Which door? Is it the door of Cain’s tent
or the door of his heart? It makes more sense that the sin offering is lying at the door of the
sanctuary, at the place where offerings are presented to God (Exodus 29:42-43). This particular
sin offering is lying at the door of the sanctuarybecause the LORD wants to provideatonement
for Cain.Do you picture a sin offering lying before the cherubim and his flaming sword?
The next question is: Does a sin offering desireto have Cain? The story here in chapter four is all
about Cain and his brother Abel. An alternative translation would be “his desire will be to you,
and you will rule over him.” This sounds very much like God telling Eve, “Your desire will be for
your husband, and he will rule over you” (Genesis 3:16). Chapter three describes the damage
done to marriage. Chapter four describes the damage done to brotherhood. We know what is
coming with Ishmael and Isaac and with Esau and Jacob. Sibling rivalry seems to center on the
primacy of the firstborn.
The LORD God warning Cain to do what is good runs parallel to His warning to Adam and Eve
not to eat from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. Instead of learning from the sad
experience of his parents, Cain falls deeper intosin. The first murder in the history of the world
is doubly tragic because Cain kills his own brother. We could say that Adam and Eve lost both of
their sons on the same day. Not only do they grieve for their dead son Abel, but also for their

Page | 15
living son Cain, who is sent away from them and condemned to be a restless wanderer on the
earth (Genesis 4:12).
God does not sentence Cain to death, but Cain says,“My punishment is more than I can
bear.”After the great flood, God will instruct Noah,“Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man
shall his blood be shed” (Genesis 9:6). Cain lived long before Noah.Why was Cain cursed to
wander? Wandering is not the death penalty. But Cain is worried about two things: wandering
and being killed.
Wanderingmakes his vocation as a farmer more difficult. A farmer needs to settledown and
work the land year after year. Cain’s very livelihood, the way he knows how to survive, is
already difficult because God has cursed the ground (Genesis 3:17).Wandering makes farming
even harder.
Who would kill Cain? His parents? Cain’s fear of being killed implies there are other people who
have not previously been mentioned.
We do not know what Cain imagines his fate will be, but God’s graciousmark of protection
amazes us. After murdering his brother, Cain’s punishment is not an eye for an eye or a tooth
for a tooth (Exodus 21:23-25). On the contrary, God promises him, “If anyone kills Cain, he will
suffer vengeance seven times over.” Then the Lord put a mark on Cain so that no one who
found him would kill him (Genesis 4:15). We are reminded of God’s gracious promise to Adam
and Eve when they failed to repent.
Why did God do so much for Cain rather than protecting Abel from his jealous brother? God
talks to Cain, provides a sin offering for him, and then sends him off to wander. God protects
Cain’s life with a special mark. God could have intervened on Abel’s behalf. So why does God
protect Cain, but not Abel?The same question comes up again when God warns Joseph to take
the child Jesus and His mother to Egypt, while the holy innocents of Bethlehem are slaughtered
by wicked King Herod. It is the perpetual question people continue to ask today.
Many thoughtful writers have attempted to answer this question. Their books and sermons are
often gathered under the impressive-sounding term “Theodicy” – which literally means they try
to “justify God.” I trust that sounds upside down to you. We don’t justify God; He justifies us.
Under the Law, justification is based on merit, but the Gospel announces that“we are justified
freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus” (Romans 3:24).
+ + +
Genesis 4:26 marks the natural ending to the stories of Cain, his descendants, and Seth. It also
raises the question,“What does it mean to ‘call upon the name of the LORD’”? This phrase is
used to describe Abraham’s and Isaac’s worship in four other passages (Genesis 12:8; 13:4;
21:33; and 26:25). We notice that Abraham and Isaac “call upon the name of the LORD” right
after setting up an altar. The NIV footnote says this phrase can also be rendered “proclaim the

Page | 16
name of the LORD.” The compact Hebrew phrase evidently includes both prayer and preaching.
Worship has always been and will always be the combination of proclamation and prayer.
+ + +
The toledoth of Adam begins in chapter five. Moses reminds us of three significant factors
which he has already told us (Genesis 1:27-28): God created man in His own image, and God
created both male and female, and God blessed them (Genesis 5:1-2). God’s blessing, of course,
was, “Be fruitful and multiply.” The genealogy in chapter five documents the fulfillment of
God’s blessing.
Moses traces the line of Adam down to Noah. Noah means “relief” or “rest.” Lamech explains
why he has named his son Noah, “Out of the ground that the LORD has cursed, this one will
bring us relief from our work and the toil of our hands” (Genesis 5:29). This reference to the
curses of Genesis 3 is a foreshadowing of the Flood.Somehow the Flood will relieve mankind of
the curse of the ground, which could imply relief from death and/or relief from agricultural toil.
However,relief from the curse comes in an unexpected way.
After exiting the ark, Noah offers up one of each clean animal as a burnt offering.Noah did not
doom these animals to extinction because he had brought seven pairs of each clean animal on
the ark (Genesis 7:2).
The LORD responds to Noah’s sacrifice, “Never again will I curse the ground” (Genesis 8:21). It
might not be how Lamech expected it to happen, but his prophecycame true.
The ark coming to rest on Mount Ararat (Genesis 8:4)provides an interesting word play, since
Noah, whose name means “rest,” rides the ark to its resting place. We are also reminded that
God rested on the seventh day of the creation week.
Furthermore, as Noah and the ark came to rest on Mount Ararat and then Noah offered
sacrifices to the LORD, at the dedication of the Temple, King Solomon prayed, “Now arise, O
LORD God, and come to your resting place” (II Chronicles 6:41) and then Solomon offered
numerous sacrifices to the LORD (II Chronicles 7:1-5).
+ + +
In Genesis 1, God blessed Adam and Eve, “Be fruitful and multiply,” but now, man is multiplying
evil (Genesis 6:5). Seeing the increase of impenitent human wickedness, the LORD says, “I am
grieved that I have made them” (Genesis 6:7). Divine sorrow is prompted by human sin.
“The sons of God saw that the daughters of men were beautiful” (Genesis 6:2). We are
reminded that Eve noticed that the forbidden fruit was pleasing to the eye (Genesis 3:6). The
sons of God seem to be the descendants of Seth, who believed in God. The daughters of men
seem to be descendants of Cain, who did not believe in God. The intermarriage of faith and
unbelief may have been an attempt at evangelism, but it is preferable for conversion to come
before the wedding.

Page | 17
Although God’s patience is growing thin, He proclaims 120 years of grace before He will send
the Flood. This divine announcement has also been understood to mean that after the Flood
the average human lifespan would be reduced to 120 years. Perhaps both are correct.
Who are the Nephilim?They are people of great size and strength – “heroes” in the eyes of their
contemporaries. English Bibles call them “men of renown.” The Hebrew text calls them “men of
the name” (Genesis 6:4). Having a great name will be a significant theme that carries into the
story of Babel and Abraham.
The people who propose to build the Tower of Babel want to “make a name for themselves”
(Genesis 11:4).But it is Shem’s descendant, Abram, to whom Yahweh promises, “I will make
your name great”(Genesis 12:2). Moses wants us to recall that Shem was Abram’s forefather,
and Shem’s name means “name” in Hebrew. That’s right, Shem is a man named “Name” (like a
guy named “Guy”). The builders of Babel wanted to make a name (shem) for themselves, but
the LORD’s plan was to use a man named “Name” to produce Abram, and God promises to
make Abram’s name great.Do you see how Moses is making fun of the foolishness and futility
of Babel’s boast?Today we don’t know any of their names.
+ + +
After the Flood, God blessed Noah and his three sons, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the
earth” (Genesis 9:1). The Table of Nations in Genesis chapter ten documents how this came to
pass. We are reminded of God’s initial blessing upon Adam and Eve (Genesis 1:28) and the
fulfillment of that blessing in the toledoth of Adam (Genesis 5).
Our first impression of the Table of Nations might be that Noah’s sons and grandsons were
obedient to the LORD. As they multiplied under God’s blessing, they spread out and established
numerous nations. But the narrative of the Tower of Babel explains what God did to scatter
them. They multiplied and filled the earth not because of their obedience, but despite their
disobedience.
Where did the people of Babel come from? Ham was the father of Cush, the father of Nimrod.
The beginning of Nimrod’s kingdom was Babel, Erech, Accad, and Calneh, in the land of Shinar”
(Genesis 10:6-10). Babel, which is in the land of Shinar (ancient Mesopotamia, modern day
Iraq), consists largely, although not entirely, of people descended from Ham. That information,
found only in this genealogy, makes a sizable difference in how we interpret the story.
Shem is the father of the Semites, from whom the Messiah will come. We have already noticed
that Shem is included in the toledoth of Noah’s sons (Genesis 10) which comes before the
Tower of Babel. We have also noted that Shem has his own toledoth (Genesis 11:10-26) which
comes after the Tower of Babel. The careful reader will notice that the two toledoth of Shem
are not identical. First, we are told that Eber had two sons, Peleg and Joktan. During Peleg’s
time the earth was divided (Genesis 10:25). The division seems to be a reference to the Tower
of Babel, because the firsttoledoth follows the line of Joktan(Genesis 10:26-29) but the second

Page | 18
toledoth follows the line of Peleg down to Terah and Abram (Genesis 11:16-26). This may imply
that Joktan and his family cooperated with the sons of Ham in the construction of the Tower of
Babel, while Peleg and his family did not.
Genesis 11 begins, “And people migrated to the east, found the plains of Shinar and settled
there.” If we did not skip over all those strange names in chapter ten, we now understand that
this was not all of humanity; this is the story of Ham’s children. At the end of chapter nine,
Noah pronounced a curse on Ham’s son Canaan.We have reasons to expect bad things from
these people.Nimrod will lead some of the sons of Shem astray.
The construction of the Tower of Babel was evidently an act of unbelief. After the Flood, God
promised Noah that He would never do it again. But God’s promise was not good enough for
those people. They wanted to have some place to go if the water ever started rising again, so
they determined to build a tower that would reach to heaven - just in case. So, God confused
their language and scattered them across the face of the earth.
And yet, even in the midst of judgment, we can see God’s mercy. The variety of cultures and
the diversity of languages has made our world a very interesting place. Anyone who has done
some traveling can testify that firsthand contact with people who live and think differently than
we do is a wonderful thing. It opens your eyes to new possibilities, and it can also enrich your
appreciation for your own native land.
Many Christians have noticed that the miracle of speaking in tongues on Pentecost (Acts 2)
looks like a reversal of the curse of Babel.Rather than seeing Pentecost as the reversal of Babel,
it may be better to see Pentecost as the fulfillment of what God began at Babel.
The miracle of the first Pentecost can teach us that it is possible to hang on to what is
distinctive about ourselves without completely isolating ourselves from those Christian brothers
and sisters who speak a different language than we do. Yes, the disciples were given the ability
to proclaim the Gospel in languages they had never studied or spoken before. But notice that
the diversity of languages was not undone. The variety of human cultures and societies
remains. The Gospel crosses over these boundaries without removing them.
+ + +
Adam initially walked in communion with God. Genesis 2:15-22 implies this and Genesis 3:8
verifies it. Likewise, Enoch (Genesis 5:22) and Noah “walked with God” (Genesis 6:9). But when
Adam and Eve sinned, they were driven from the presence of God (Genesis 3:24).After Cain
killed Abel, Cain “went out from the LORD’s presence” (Genesis 4:16). The Floodis
thecomprehensive removal of people from God’s presence. The LORD says, “I will wipe
mankind, whom I have created, from the face of the earth” (Genesis 6:7).
This can teach us that sin is more than disobedience to an abstract legal code; sin is a slap in the
face of our heavenly Father. God takes our sin personally because we have betrayed Him. From
the beginning He wanted only the best for us, but when He warned us, we ignored Him and

Page | 19
listened to the voice that always lies to us. Jesus says the devil “was a murderer from the
beginning, and has nothing to do with the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies,
he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies” (John 8:44).
Sin is rebellion against the truth; lies and murder go together. That is why departure from God’s
presence is death, as God warned Adam, “You must not eat from the Tree of the Knowledge of
Good and Evil, for in the day you eat of it you will surely die” (Genesis 2:17) and as Cain
instinctively understood, “Whoever finds me will kill me” (Genesis 4:14). By the time of Noah,
the world was drowning in sin. God finally decided to wash them all away and start over.
The land that emerged from the primeval ocean (Genesis 1:9) is submerged in the great flood
and reemerges afterwards. Since all subsequent humanity stems from him,Noah is a kind of
second Adam.
Initially judged to be righteous and blameless (Genesis 6:9) Noah falls into sin as Adam and Eve
had fallen before him. When Adam ate the forbidden fruit,he became aware of his own
nakedness and tried to cover it up (Genesis 3:6-7). Noah drank wine from the fruit of the vine
andunwittingly uncovered himself.As the LORD God had provided garments of skin to cover
Adam and Eve (Genesis 3:21) Noah’s sons covered his nakedness (Genesis 9:23). But Noah’s
sons are set at odds with each other (Genesis 9:22-27) in a manner reminiscent of Cain and
Abel. The Flood has not solved the problem of sin and God is not surprised. But God promises
never again will He destroy them all in a flood – even though every inclination of man’s heart is
evil from his youth (Genesis 8:21).
+ + +
Not only is Noah a second Adam, Noah is also a proto-Moses. As Noah had been given detailed
instructions for building the ark, even down to specifications regarding clean and unclean
animals,Moses was given detailed instructions for building the Tabernacle. These parallels
suggest that Moses saw a comparison between God saving Noah and his family during the forty
days andforty nights of rain and God offering salvation to the children of Israel during the forty
years of wandering in the wilderness.
Building the ark was not Noah’s idea, and building the Tabernacle was not Moses’ idea. Both
the construction of Noah’s ark and the construction of the Tabernacle were directly
commissioned by God. This is even more significant once we realize that these are the only two
times in the entire Old Testament thatthe LORDordered something to be built.God’s detailed
instructions for the ark are followed by the even more elaborate instructions (Exodus 25-27) for
the building of the Tabernacle. That is not accidental. People’s lives will depend on both being
properly built.
Both the ark (Genesis 6:22) and the Tabernacle (Exodus 39:42-43)are built precisely as God
commanded. Such scrupulous obedience is almost as rare as these two construction projects.

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Nowhere in the flood account does Noah speak, however God speaks to Noah seven times
(Genesis 6:13-21; 7:1-4; 8:15-17; 9:1-7, 8-11, 12-16, 17). The pattern is that God speaks, and
Noah does as he is told (Genesis 6:22; 7:5). The double statement emphasizes Noah’s strict
obedience to God’s instructions. This echoes the Genesis 1 pattern,“and God said”followed by
“and it was so” (Genesis 1:7, 9, 11, 15, 24, 30). The ark is a smaller version of the earth.
Significantly, the ark is the same basic rectangular design as the Tabernacle. This suggests that
as the earth was created to be a temple, the ark of Noah is a temple. This is in tune with
Christian art through the ages, which commonly uses the ark as a symbol for the church.
Floodwaters and wilderness are the two most prominent Old Testament symbols for chaos.
Both the ark and the Tabernacle are mobile, one on sea, one on land; they are used to carry
God’s people through the waters/wilderness of chaos. The people of God move in a secure and
ordered way through a world of disorder on their way to the new creation. On the first day of
the new year the floodwaters dry up and the covering is taken off the ark (Genesis 8:13), and on
the first day of the new year the Tabernacle is set up for the first time (Exodus 40:2).
Both Noah (Genesis 6:8) and Moses found favor in God’s sight (Exodus 33:12-17).The same
Hebrew word is used for Noah’s ark and for the basket in which Moses, like Noah, was set
afloat on the chaotic waters (Exodus 2:1-10).
While it is difficult to be certain as to what type of wood was used in building the ark, most
commentators identify it as being cedar. The early Jewish Aramaic translations (Targums)
identify it as cedar.If this is the case, it is the same material that Solomon used in the
construction of the temple (I Kings 9:10-11).
Unfortunately, due to our familiarity with the Noah story, we naturally assume the ark was an
ocean-going vessel.But the ark was a rectangular vessel, having neither rudder nor sail nor any
other navigational equipment, and not requiring the services of any sailors. The ark was a
building. It was designed to float, but it was a building.
The statementthat“the ark floated on the surface of the water” (Genesis 7:18) is not suited to a
boat, which is navigated by sailors, but to something that moves in accordance with the thrust
of the water and the wind. Similarly, the subsequent statement that“theark came to rest upon
the mountains of Ararat” (Genesis 8:4); this is easy for an ark to do, since its bottom is flat and
horizontal, but not so easy for a ship.
Prior to the invention of sea-worthy vessels which could carry sailors and cargo across the
Mediterranean, most boats were made of skin or reeds and were designed to float through
marshes or along the riverbank. They were used for fishing or hunting and would not have been
more than 10 feet in length. If the original creation of dry land (Genesis 1:9-10) was a single
continent, destined to be broken up during the Flood,there was no good reason to build large
ships in the middle of Pangaea.
+ + +

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Noah took seven pairs of every clean animal in the ark (Genesis 7:2). Once the Tabernacle
wascompleted,onlyclean animals were to be brought as an offering to the LORD.
The presence of clean and unclean animals on the ark has profound ramifications since after
the flood Noah functions as a royal priestly figure. He sacrificesburnt offerings to the LORD.The
LORD smells a pleasing aroma and promises that never again will He destroy every living
creature by water. This promise is repeated for the sake of emphasis (Genesis 8:20-22; 9:11).
The sign of the rainbow has been repeated countless times since the days of Noah. Biblical
Hebrew doesn’t have a word for “rainbow.” The sign of God’s promise is just “a bow in the
clouds” (Genesis 9:12-16). Think bow and arrow. As the bow arches up to heaven, the string lies
along the horizon. When God inserts an arrow into His bow, the tip of the arrow points at Him.
Never again will there be a flood to destroy the whole earth. God knows and God says the Flood
did not solve our problem. Instead of sending another flood, God shoots an arrow at Himself.
God loves sinners so much that He voluntarily sacrifices His only begotten Son on the cross to
pay the debt of our sin, which could never be washed away by a million worldwide floods.
+ + +
In the beginning the Earth emerged from the waters and into the light. God the Father, the
Word, the Spirit were there, speaking, creating, hovering inthe darkness overthe surface of the
waters as the light appeared in response to the divine voice.
After summoning water and lightinto existenceout of nothing, God separates the waters above
the firmament from the waters under the firmament. Water is essential to life. About 60
percent of our bodies are water, and 71 percent of the Earth’s surface is covered by water. Life
depends on water.
The creation of newlife begins in the waters of the Jordan River, with the Spirit of God
descending and remaining upon the Son and the voice of the Father expressing His pleasure.
Our new life in Christ begins in the baptismal waters.
Deliberately echoing Genesis, the Apostle John opens his Gospel, “In the beginning…” It does
not take long for him to highlight the contrast between the darkness and the light which cannot
be overcome(John 1:5). The Apostle John records the testimony of John the Baptizer, who bears
witness to the light. Neither John is the Light. They can only point to Jesus, who is the Incarnate
God who “pitched his tent” and “tabernacled” among us(John 1:14).
Jesus walked from Galilee to the Jordan to present Himself to John for baptism. The length of
this journey indicates the firm intention of Jesus, who took it upon Himself to approach John.
This was not John’s idea. Matthew alone tells us that John humbly confessed his own need to
be baptized by Jesus and questioned whether Jesus needed any baptism at all. John was not
entirely wrong, butJesus patiently answered, “Let it be so now, for it is proper for us to do this
in order to fulfill all righteousness” (Matthew 3:15).

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The Eastern Orthodox churches sing a hymn in honor ofJohn the Baptizer. John objects to
touching the head of Christ, “the unapproachable Light.” John says,
That these people may learn who you are,
Must I then, Savior, expose to danger
My poor hand by thrusting it into a brazier?
Once Uzzah stretched out his hand
To steady the Ark, and he was cut off.
Now, if I grasp the head of my God,
How will I not be burned bythe unapproachable Light?
The answer to John’s heartfelt and reasonable question is that John does not dare to approach
Jesus, but Jesus approaches John and asks John to touch Him.
ByHis submission to a baptism of repentance, the Lord Jesus sanctifies all baptisms for us.The
Father, seeing that His Son has taken the first steps onHis journey to the cross, publicly
declares, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased” (Matthew 3:17). Just as God’s
first response to creation’s first step was, “And God saw that the light was good,” (Genesis 1:4)
so upon seeing His Son, “Light from Light,” descend into the waters,the divine approbation is
spoken to Jesus and to John and to all.
The darkness in Scripture is associated with sin, and turning from this darkness, repentance,
means illumination. The divine Light shines into the darkness of our hearts, He speaks to us, and
the “sun of righteousness arises with healing in His wings” (Malachi 4:2)to fulfill all the
righteousness needed in the world, so that our heavenly Father may indeedbe well pleased.
Saint Peter teaches us to see the connection between the waters of the Flood and the water of
Holy Baptism. Peter says, “God waited patiently in the days of Noah while the ark was being
built. In it only a few people, eight in all, were saved through water, and this water symbolizes
baptism that now saves you also – not the removal of dirt from the body but the pledge of a
good conscience toward God. Baptism saves you by the resurrection of Jesus Christ, who has
gone into heaven and is at God’s right hand – with angels, authorities and powers in submission
to Him” (I Peter 3:20-22).

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