Intro and Reading of Genesis 1-11

Well, it's exciting for me to be able to start a new book in a new place, so to speak, back here and as we turn our attention this morning to reading the first 11 chapters, that wasn't just because that's the maximum amount of chapters we could fit within the time we normally have for reading

God's Word and for the sermon, but it's actually a natural break within the narrative of Genesis and what

I want to do this morning is give an introduction to these first 11 chapters and perhaps maybe a slight introduction to how we are approaching

Genesis in this series. As was already mentioned, Genesis is the book of beginnings, that's what the term

Genesis means, beginnings, with that infamous opening phrase, maybe the most infamous opening phrase in book history, in the beginning, and I've been given 10 minutes,

I'm going to push that to 10 -ish minutes as best I can to introduce our time in this series.

The first book of the Bible, perhaps the most controversial and debated book of the

Bible, Derek Kidner says, there can scarcely be another part of Scripture over which so many battles, theological, scientific, and historical, have been fought.

Raise your hands if you're under 30 years old, if you're under 30, raise your hand, nice and high.

Okay, listen to this, Martin Luther once wrote this about Genesis 1, the first chapter is written in the simplest language, yet it contains matters of the utmost importance and very difficult to understand.

It was for this reason, as Jerome asserted, among the Hebrews, it was forbidden for anyone under 30 to read the chapter or to expound it for others.

So if you're under 30, in the ancient world, according to Jerome, you could neither read nor explain

Genesis 1. That's how difficult the chapter is. We're dealing with deep work, in other words, in this series, and we're not just dealing with Genesis 1.

The beginnings are not something we read for 50 chapters and then leave behind.

They continue throughout the whole Bible, in substance, in quotation, in theme, in design.

What we have is the foundation of Scripture, and the foundation of all that Scripture reveals.

All of Scripture, but all of history, all of life, all of salvation, and therefore, all of eternity.

All of that is contained, in one form or another, within the book of Genesis. When we say that Genesis is a foundation, what are we saying?

What is a foundation? What is the foundation of a building? A foundation determines the contours of what the building is going to look like.

You can't build a building beyond its foundation. The foundation establishes the height, the weight that it can sustain, the shape of what's to be built.

Genesis is that kind of foundation. It's the foundation of the revelation of the triune

God, His identity as He is in Himself, but also His relationship to us, as our

Creator. But then it also begins to unfold the redemption that this triune

God has brought about, beginning immediately after the fall. And so we encounter the triune

God, not only as our Creator, but also as our Redeemer, also as our Savior, and our

Shepherd, and our Consummator. All of that is contained within this book of Genesis.

So how are we going to approach it? How are we going to work through the book of Genesis at this time?

How do we approach the beginnings? Well, we're not going to do what we've done in the past, which is really being careful to cover or touch upon just about every verse.

Think of how we went through the Gospel of Mark. We really left no stone unturned as far as verse by verse goes.

That's not what we're going to be doing in this series on Genesis. We're going to be doing big picture reading.

We're going to be reading more for the themes, more for the theological display, than the verse by verse.

So we won't read it, in other words, reactively or apologetically, which

I think is how most of us perhaps are familiar with reading Genesis or approaching it. For most of the modern era, for the past two centuries at least,

Genesis has been reduced to a battlefield about human origins and cosmology.

One way or another, whether you like it or not, we can no longer read Genesis without the specter of Charles Darwin and evolutionary theory in the background.

That has colored and shaped the way Christians read Genesis, whether we choose to allow that or not.

I'm thankful that God has gifted teachers and warriors on that cultural battle line.

It's an important battle line to defend what the Bible has said about the origins of man and the origins of creation and the folly of thinking that, as a famous apologist that I've been enjoying lately,

Jeff Durbin says, that fish can become philosophers. So I'm thankful for that. I don't want to take away from that.

If that's where you've normally flexed your time in Genesis, thank God for that. But that's not how we're going to be approaching our time in this book.

For our purpose in this series, we want to see the larger flow of Genesis' narrative.

Primarily, J .V. Fesco writes, primarily, this is an important word, primarily, not exclusively, but primarily,

Genesis 1 -3 is not about science, not about the history of the world.

It's the entry point to the person and work of Jesus Christ. The main themes of the

Bible are all established in the book of Genesis. Traditionally, the way we break down the major themes of the

Bible, you can add or take away, but generally speaking, theologians agree, if you could only choose four words to define all of the

Bible, it would probably be these, creation, fall, redemption, consummation.

Creation, fall, redemption, consummation. Think about this. The first three of these, creation, fall, redemption, begin in the very first three chapters of the very first book of the

Bible. That's how foundational this is. The first three chapters are the keystone to all of the redemption that follows.

But those first three chapters are a small proportion, not only of the

Bible, but even of the book of Genesis. Thematically, the chapters we're about to unfold in the weeks to come are the massive tectonic plates of all that follows biblically, all that follows in our understanding of God's activity in the world to bring lost sinners to himself.

But proportionally, within the narrative of Genesis, they're actually quite small. You can make a good argument,

I would subscribe to this argument, that they're not even the main point of Genesis, narratively. So we're going to be considering Genesis 1 through 11.

That's a natural break, as I said. The natural break takes us from creation to the aftermath of the flood and God's judgment upon Babel.

This whole period is what we call the primeval history. And then we begin what we call the patriarchal narratives, beginning with the call of Abraham in chapter 12.

So 1 through 11 is primeval history from the Latin, primus evis, the first age.

Along the way, this is what we're going to see. The mystery and awe of God creating everything out of nothing.

What we call ex nihilo creation. The image -bearing authority of humanity and its calling upon man and woman to expand

Eden to cover the earth with God's glory. We're going to see the tragedy that echoes in every human drama and tragedy ever since.

Anything that could make you well up as something tragic has its origins in paradise lost. The fall.

We're going to see the proto -evangelium, the first promise of the gospel in Genesis 3 verse 15.

We're going to see the first fratricide, a brother murdering a brother. We're going to see the use of technology and how that's used for evil and the abhorrence of evil.

If we zoom in on that, this is a major theme for our time in Genesis 1 through 11. The spread of sin.

What began in an act of disobedience in the garden now spreads to all of mankind. We see that spread so profound that God will relent that he had ever made man.

He regrets literally that he grew. I repent that I have made humanity. And he wipes the earth with the flood.

We're going to see, in other words, God's judgment brought through sin. It's meta -judgment.

The flood is what we would call de -creative judgment. Don't look at the flood as though here's my punishment for sin and I've chosen the flood, but really a worldwide earthquake or a worldwide tornado would be easily substituted.

The point is I'm just going to judge through a natural disaster. That's not the case with the flood. As we'll see,

God was, in a sense, undoing creation. He says, I relent that I've made man, and then he takes the dry land that he had separated out of the waters, the chaos waters, and he begins to plunge them back into it.

It's de -creation. I'm bringing the order that I had established when I separated these things, and I'm plunging it back, submerging it.

It's utter judgment, and it becomes the type of that final judgment on that last day, according to 2

Peter. God's grace is then the second theme that we want to pay attention to.

So first, God's judgment is brought through sin. But this is the amazing thing. Even with the narrative of the fall, we find this.

Though God's judgment is brought through sin, God's grace is brought through judgment. That's going to be a theme we return to again and again.

Did God submerge the earth back into the chaos from which he created it? Yes. But in doing so, he spared

Noah and his family. He saved humanity, and he re -established it. God's judgment is brought through sin, but God's grace is brought through judgment.

One last thing. We want to remember that Genesis is the foundation of the Gospel. To make it memorable, no

Genesis, no Gospel. No Genesis, no Gospel. The Gospel begins with Genesis 3 .15

and God's promise of the serpent crushing seed to the woman. I suspect when you go through, even this morning maybe, but I suspect when you go through your

Bible in a year reading program, and you come to Genesis 5 or Genesis 10 or Genesis 11 or some of the genealogies and numbers,

I suspect you get a little bit loose with your reading, don't you? Maybe you skim, you do a sort of token reading.

Oh yeah, Salmon, yeah, or Paxad, okay. And maybe you just flip entirely. Well, there's a bunch of names and you just flip.

That's great, has no bearing or application on my life or my understanding of the book of Genesis, right?

Well, we're going to see why these genealogies, these generations are so important. They're the backbone and ribcage of the book of Genesis.

Genesis has a structure of generations or what we call Toledos. And it's crucial to understand the flow of the book.

There's 11 occurrences throughout the whole book. We're going to see three of them really this morning. And they're bookmarks, so to speak.

And they all come out of Genesis 3 .15 and God's promise to the seed. God's promise has everything to do with the redemption that unfolds.

So pay attention. Let your ears perk up when you hear the phrase, these are the generations.

It's all about the promise to the seed. And when he goes, when we begin in chapter 12 forward, we'll see whenever God promises a covenant of redemption, of grace with the patriarchs, he always says, and to your seed, and to your seed, and to your seed.

That will be important. Adam, Noah, Noah's sons, Shem, Shem, Ham, and Japheth.

Terah, the father of Abraham. That's where we're going. So keep chapters 12 and following in the back of your mind by this very structure of generations.

God promises Abraham a seed who will bless the nations.

God promises Isaac through his seed, all the nations of the earth will be blessed.

God promises Jacob that through his seed, all the families of the earth will be blessed. Why is this important?

Remember what we established at the start in Genesis. We have the entry point to the person and work of Jesus Christ.

And so we come to the end of chapter 11 and we're on the doorstep of what I would argue is the center of the book of Genesis.

The central purpose. We come to the end and we'll see this morning

God's judgment upon Babel. And he's taking again that judgment that comes through sin.

He wipes the earth clean with this flood, but he saves one family through it. And now technically all of humanity is this one family again.

One tribe. One tongue. And then as they spread, the descendants of his son spread, they begin to become wicked again.

And they create the original evil empire, as it were, Babel. Very important theologically through the rest of scripture.

And what does God do? Again, he brings judgment upon that sin and he divides their tongues and thereby creates different tribes, different tongues, different cultures, different nations.

And that's how grace enters in through that very judgment. And so I close asking you this question.

If Genesis is the entry point to the person and work of Jesus Christ, to answer this question in your mind,

I'll give you a moment. Why did Jesus Christ redeem us?

Just answer that question in your mind right now. There's many different ways to answer that. Why has

Jesus Christ redeemed us? This is what

Paul's answer would be, at least one of his answers. And he writes this to the Galatians in 3 .13

and 14. Christ has redeemed us so that the blessing of Abraham might come upon the nations in Christ Jesus, the

Gentiles. Okay, so as I said earlier,

I'm going to ask all that are able to rise and join me in reading the first chapter of Genesis together corporately.

Genesis 1. In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.

The earth was well formed and void, and darkness was on the face of the deep, and the

Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters. Then God said,

Let there be light, and there was light. And God saw the light, that it was good, and God divided the light from the darkness.

God called the light day, and the darkness he called night. So the evening and the morning were the first day.

Then God said, Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters.

Thus God made the firmament, and divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament.

And it was so. God called the firmament heaven. So the evening and the morning were the second day.

Then God said, Let the waters under the heavens be gathered together into one place, and let the dry land appear.

And it was so. And God called the dry land earth, and the gathering together of the waters he called seas.

And God saw that it was good. Then God said, Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb that yields seed, and the fruit tree that yields fruit according to its kind, whose seed is in itself on the earth.

And it was so. And the earth brought forth grass, the herb that yields seed according to its kind, and the tree that yields fruit, whose seed is in itself according to its kind.

And God saw that it was good. So the evening and the morning were the third day.

Then God said, Let there be light in the firmament of the heavens to divide the day from the night, and let there be it for signs and seasons, and for days and years.

And let there be for lights in the firmament of the heavens to give light on the earth.

And it was so. Then God made two great lights, the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night.

He made the stars also. God set them in the firmament of the heavens to give light on the earth, and to rule over the day and over the night, and to divide the light from the darkness.

And God saw that it was good. So the evening and the morning were the fourth day.

Then God said, Let the waters abound with an abundance of living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the face of the firmament of the heavens.

So God created living creatures, and every living thing that moves with which the waters abounded according to their kind, and every winged bird according to its kind.

And God saw that it was good. And God blessed them, saying, Be fruitful and multiply, to fill the waters in the seas, and let birds multiply on the earth.

So the evening and the morning were the fifth day. Then God said,

Let the earth bring forth the living creatures according to its kind, cattle and creeping things and the beasts of the earth, each according to its kind.

And it was so. And God made the beasts of the earth according to its kind, cattle according to its kind, and everything that creeps on the earth according to its kind.

And God saw that it was good. Then God said, Let us make men in our image according to our likeness.

Let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.

So God created man in his own image. In the image of God he created him.

Male and female he created them. Then God blessed them, and God said to them,

Be fruitful and multiply, to fill the earth and subdue it. Have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth.

And God said, See, I have given you every herb that yields seed, which is on the face of all the earth, and every tree whose fruit yields seed.

To you it shall be for food. Also to give peace of the earth to every bird of the air, and to everything that creeps on the earth, in which there is life,

I have given every green herb for food. And it was so. Then God saw everything that he had made, and indeed it was very good.

So the evening and the morning were the sixth day. We praise the

Lord. You may be seated. And I will continue our walk this morning through the first eleven chapters with chapter two.

Genesis chapter two. Thus the heavens and the earth and all the host of them were finished.

And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had done. And he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had done.

Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because in it he rested from all his work which

God had created and made. This is the history of the heavens and the earth, when they were created, in the day that the

Lord God made the earth and the heavens. Before any plant of the field was in the earth, and before any herb of the field had grown.

For the Lord God had not caused it to rain on the earth, and there was no man to till the ground.

But a mist went up from the earth and watered the whole face of the ground. And the

Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living being.

The Lord God planted a garden eastward in Eden, and there he put the man whom he had formed.

And out of the ground the Lord God made every tree grow that is pleasant to the sight and good for food.

The tree of life was also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

Now a river went out of Eden to water the garden, and from there it parted and became four riverheads.

The name of the first is Pishon. It is the one which skirts the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold, and the gold of that land is good.

The Delium and the Onyx Stone are there. The name of the second river is

Gihon. It is the one which goes around the whole land of Cush.

The name of the third river is Hiddekel. It is the one which goes toward the east of Assyria.

The fourth river is the Euphrates. Then the Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to tend and keep it.

And the Lord God commanded the man saying, Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat.

For in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.

And the Lord God said, It is not good that man should be alone. I will make him a helper comparable to him.

Out of the ground the Lord God formed every beast of the field and every bird of the air and brought them to Adam to see what he would call them.

And whatever Adam called each living creature, that was its name. So Adam gave names to all cattle, to all the birds of the air, and to every beast of the field.

But for Adam there was not found a helper comparable to him. And the

Lord caused a deep sleep to fall on Adam. And he slept. And he took one of his ribs and closed up the flesh in its place.

Then the rib which the Lord God had taken from man he made into a woman, and he brought her to the man.

And Adam said, This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh.

She shall be called woman because she was taken out of man. Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.

And they were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed. Chapter 3

Now the serpent was more cunning than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said to the woman,

Has God indeed said, You shall not eat of every tree of the garden? And the woman said to the serpent,

We may eat the fruit of the trees of the garden, but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden

God has said, You shall not eat it, nor shall you touch it, lest you die.

And the serpent said to the woman, You will not surely die, for God knows that in the day you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.

So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree desirable to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate.

She also gave to her husband with her, and he ate. Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew that they were naked, and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves coverings.

And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the

Lord God among the trees of the garden. Then the Lord God called to Adam and said to him,

Where are you? So he said, I heard your voice in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked, and I hid myself.

And he said, Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree which I commanded you that you should not eat?

Then the man said, The woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me of the fruit, and I ate.

And the Lord God said to the woman, What is this you have done? The woman said,

The serpent deceived me, and I ate. So the Lord God said to the serpent, Because you have done this, you are cursed more than all cattle and more than every beast of the field.

On your belly you shall go, and you shall eat dust all the days of your life. And I will put enmity between you and the woman, between your seed and her seed.

He shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel. To the woman he said,

I will greatly multiply your sorrow and your conception. In pain you shall bring forth children.

Your desire shall be for your husband, and he shall rule over you. Then to Adam he said,

Because you have heeded the voice of your wife and have eaten from the tree of which I commanded you, saying, You shall not eat.

Cursed is the ground for your sake. In toil you shall eat of it. All the days of your life, both thorns and thistles, it shall bring forth for you.

And you shall eat the herb of the field, and the sweat of your face you shall eat bread. Till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken.

For dust you are, and to dust you shall return. And Adam called his wife's name

Eve, because she was the mother of all living. Also for Adam and his wife the

Lord God made tunics of skin and clothed them. Then the Lord God said, Behold, the man has become like one of us, to know good and evil.

And now, lest he put out his hand and take also of the tree of life and eat and live forever.

Therefore the Lord God sent him out of the garden of Eden to till the ground from which he was taken.

So he drove out the man, and he placed cherubim at the east of the garden of Eden, and a flaming sword was turned every way to guard the way to the tree of life.

Chapter 4 Now Adam knew Eve his wife, and she conceived and bore

Cain, and said, I have acquired a man from the Lord. Then she bore again, this time his brother

Abel. Now Abel was a keeper of sheep, but Cain was a tiller of the ground.

And in the process of time it came to pass that Cain brought an offering of the fruit of the ground to the

Lord. Abel also brought of the firstborn of his flock and of their fat.

And the Lord respected Abel and his offering, but he did not respect Cain and his offering.

And Cain was very angry, and his countenance fell. So the Lord said to Cain, Why are you angry, and why is your countenance fallen?

If you do well, will you not be accepted? If you do not do well, sin lies at the door, and its desire is for you, but you should rule over it.

Now Cain talked with Abel his brother, and it came to pass when they were in the field that Cain rose up against Abel his brother and killed him.

Then the Lord said to Cain, Where is Abel your brother? He said, I do not know.

Am I my brother's keeper? And he said, What have you done? The voice of your brother's blood cries out to me from the ground.

So now you are cursed from the earth, which has opened its mouth to receive your brother's blood from your hand.

When you till the ground, it shall no longer yield its strength to you. A fugitive and a vagabond you shall be on the earth.

And Cain said to the Lord, My punishment is greater than I can bear. Surely you have driven me out this day from the face of the ground.

I shall be hidden from your face. I shall be a fugitive and a vagabond on the earth. And it will happen that anyone who finds me will kill me.

And the Lord said to him, Therefore, whoever kills Cain, vengeance shall be taken on him sevenfold.

And the Lord set a mark on Cain, lest anyone finding him should kill him.

Then Cain went out from the presence of the Lord and dwelt in the land of Nod on the east of Eden.

And Cain knew his wife, and she conceived and bore Enoch. And he built a city and called the name of the city after the name of his son

Enoch. And to Enoch was born Irad, and Irad begot

Mithujael, and Mithujael begot Methushael, and Methushael begot

Lamech. Then Lamech took for himself two wives. The name of one was

Ada, and the name of the second was Zillah. And Ada bore Jabal, and he was the father of those who dwell in tents and have livestock.

His brother's name was Jubal. He was the father of all those who played the harp and flew.

And as for Zillah, she bore Tubal -Cain, an instructor of every craftsman in bronze and iron.

And the sister of Tubal -Cain was Nama. Then Lamech said to his wives,

Ada and Zillah, hear my voice. Wives of Lamech, listen to my speech.

For I have killed a man for wounding me, even a young man for hurting me. If Cain shall be avenged sevenfold, then

Lamech seventy -sevenfold. And Adam knew his wife again, and she bore a son and named him

Seth. For God has appointed another seed for me instead of Abel, whom

Cain killed. And as for Seth, to him also a son was born, and he named him

Enosh. Then men began to call on the name of the Lord. Chapter 5

This is the book of the genealogy of Adam. In the day that God created man, he made him in the likeness of God.

He created them male and female, and blessed them and called them mankind in the day they were created.

And Adam lived 130 years and begot a son in his own likeness, after his image, and named him

Seth. After he begot Seth, the days of Adam were 800 years, and he had sons and daughters.

So all the days that Adam lived were 930 years, and he died.

Seth lived 105 years and begot Enosh. After he begot

Enosh, Seth lived 807 years and had sons and daughters. So all the days of Seth were 912 years, and he died.

Enosh lived 90 years and begot Canaan. After he begot Canaan, Enosh lived 815 years and had sons and daughters.

So all the days of Enosh were 905 years, and he died. Canaan lived 70 years and begot

Mahalalel. After he begot Mahalalel, Canaan lived 840 years and had sons and daughters.

So all the days of Canaan were 910 years, and he died. Mahalalel lived 65 years and begot

Jared. After he begot Jared, Mahalalel lived 830 years and had sons and daughters.

So all the days of Mahalalel were 895 years, and he died.

Jared lived 162 years and begot

Enoch. After he begot Enoch, Jared lived 800 years and had sons and daughters.

So all the days of Jared were 962 years, and he died.

Enoch lived 65 years and begot Methuselah. After he begot

Methuselah, Enoch walked with God 300 years and had sons and daughters.

So all the days of Enoch were 365 years, and Enoch walked with God, and he was not, for God took him.

Methuselah lived 187 years and begot Lamech. After he begot

Lamech, Methuselah lived 782 years and had sons and daughters.

So all the days of Methuselah were 969 years, and he died.

Lamech lived 182 years and had a son. And he called his name

Noah, saying, This one will comfort us concerning our work and the toil of our hands because of the ground which the

Lord has cursed. After he begot Noah, Lamech lived 595 years and had sons and daughters.

So all the days of Lamech were 777 years, and he died.

And Noah was 500 years old, and Noah begot Shem, Ham, and Japheth.

Chapter 6 Now it came to pass when men began to multiply on the face of the earth, and daughters were born to them.

But the sons of God saw the daughters of men, that they were beautiful, and they took wives for themselves of all whom they chose.

And the Lord said, My spirit shall not strive with man forever, for he is indeed flesh.

Yet his days shall be one hundred and twenty years. There were giants on the earth in those days, and also afterward.

And the sons of God came into the daughters of men, and they bore children to them. Those were the mighty men who were of old, men of renown.

And the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.

And the Lord was sorry that he had made man in the earth, and he was grieved in his heart.

So the Lord said, I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth, both man and beast, creeping thing and birds of the air.

For I am sorry that I have made them. But Noah found grace in the eyes of the

Lord. This is the genealogy of Noah. Noah was a just man, perfect in his generations.

Noah walked with God, and Noah begot three sons, Shem, Ham, and Jacob.

The earth also was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence. So God looked upon the earth, and indeed it was corrupt, for all flesh had corrupted their way on the earth.

And God said to Noah, The end of all flesh has come before me, for the earth is filled with violence through them.

And behold, I will destroy them with the earth. Make yourself an ark of gopher wood, make rooms in the ark, and cover it inside and outside with pitch.

And this is how you shall make it. The length of the ark shall be three hundred cubits. Its width fifty cubits, and its height thirty cubits.

You shall make a window for the ark, and you shall finish it to a cubit from above, and set the door of the ark in its side.

You shall make it with lower, second, and third decks. And behold, I myself am bringing floodwaters on the earth, to destroy from under heaven all flesh in which is the breath of life.

Everything that is on the earth shall die. But I will establish my covenant with you, and you shall go into the ark, you, your sons, your wife, and your sons' wives with you.

And of every living thing of all flesh you shall bring two of every sort into the ark, to keep them alive with you.

They shall be male and female. Of the birds after their kind, of animals after their kind, and of every creeping thing of the earth after its kind, two of every kind will come to you to keep them alive.

And you shall take for yourself of all food that is eaten, and you shall gather it to yourself, and it shall be food for you and for them.

Thus Noah did according to all that God commanded him, so he did. Chapter 7

Then the Lord said to Noah, Come into the ark, you and all your household, because I have seen that you are righteous before me in this generation.

We shall take with you seven each of every clean animal, a male and his female, two each of animals that are unclean, a male and his female.

Also seven each of the birds of the air, male and female, to keep the species alive on the face of all the earth.

For after seven more days I will cause it to rain on the earth forty days and forty nights, and I will destroy them, or I will destroy from the face of the earth all living things that I have made.

And Noah did according to all that the Lord commanded him. Noah was six hundred years old when the floodwaters were on the earth.

So Noah with his sons, his wife, and his sons' wives went into the ark because of the waters of the flood.

Of clean animals, of animals that are unclean, of birds and everything that creeps on the earth.

Two by two they went into the ark to Noah, male and female, as God had commanded

Noah. And it came to pass after seven days that the waters of the flood were on the earth.

And the six hundredth year of Noah's life, and the second month, the seventeenth day of the month, on that day all the fountains of the great deep were broken up and the windows of heaven were opened.

And the rain was on the earth forty days and forty nights. On the very same day

Noah and Noah's sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth, and Noah's wife and the three wives of his sons with them entered the ark.

They and every beast after its kind, all cattle after their kind, every creeping thing that creeps on the earth after its kind, and every bird after its kind, every bird of every sort.

And they went into the ark to Noah, two by two, of all flesh and which is the breath of life.

So those that entered, male and female, of all flesh went in as God had commanded him.

And the Lord shut him in. Now the flood was on the earth forty days.

The waters increased and lifted up the ark and it rose high above the earth. The waters prevailed and greatly increased on the earth.

And the ark moved about on the surface of the waters. And the waters prevailed exceedingly on the earth.

And all the high hills under the whole heaven were covered. The waters prevailed fifteen cubits upward and the mountains were covered.

And all flesh died that moved on the earth. Birds and cattle and beasts and every creeping thing that creeps on the earth and every man, all in whose nostrils was the breath of the spirit of life, all that was on the dry land died.

So he destroyed all living things which were on the face of the ground, both man and cattle, creeping thing and bird of the year.

They were destroyed from the earth. Only Noah and those who were with him in the ark remained alive.

And the waters prevailed on the earth one hundred and fifty days. Chapter 8

Then God remembered Noah and every living thing and all the animals that were with him in the ark.

And God made a wind to pass over the earth. And the waters subsided. The fountains of the deep and the windows of heaven were also stopped.

And the rain from heaven was restrained. And the waters receded continually from the earth.

At the end of the hundred and fifty days the water decreased. Then the ark rested in the seventh month and the seventeenth day of the month on the mountains of Ararat.

And the waters decreased continually until the tenth month. And the tenth month on the first day of the month the tops of the mountains were seen.

So it came to pass at the end of forty days that Noah opened the window of the ark which he had made.

Then he sent out a raven which kept going to and fro until the waters had dried up from the earth.

He also sent out from himself a dove to see if the waters had receded from the face of the ground.

But the dove found no resting place for the sole of her foot. And she returned into the ark to him.

For the waters were on the face of the earth. So he put out his hand and took her and drew her into the ark to himself.

And he waited yet another seven days. And again he sent the dove out from the ark. Then the dove came to him in the evening.

And behold, a freshly plucked olive leaf was in her mouth. And Noah knew that the waters had receded from the earth.

So he waited yet another seven days and sent out the dove, which did not return again to him anymore.

And it came to pass in the six hundred and first year, in the first month, the first day of the month, that the waters were dried up from the earth.

And Noah removed the covering of the ark. And it looked, and indeed the surface of the ground was dry.

And in the second month, on the twenty -seventh day of the month, the earth was dried. Then God spoke to Noah, saying,

Go out of the ark, you and your wife and your sons and your sons' wives with you. Bring out with you every living thing of all flesh that is with you, birds and cattle, and every creeping thing that creeps on the earth, so that they may abound on the earth and be fruitful and multiply on the earth.

So Noah went out, and his sons and his wives, and his sons' wives with him. Every animal, every creeping thing, every bird, and whatever creeps on the earth, according to their families, went out of the ark.

Then Noah built an altar to the Lord, and took of every clean animal and of every clean bird, and offered burnt offerings on the altar.

And the Lord smelled a soothing aroma. Then the Lord said in his heart,

I will never again curse the ground for man's sake, although the imagination of man's heart is evil from his youth, nor will

I again destroy every living thing as I have done. While the earth remains, see time and harvest, cold and heat, winter and summer, and day and night shall not cease.

Chapter 9 So God blessed Noah and his sons and said to them, Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth.

And the fear of you and the dread of you shall be on every beast of the earth, on every bird of the air, on all that moves on the earth, and on all the fish of the sea, they are given into your hand.

Every moving thing that lives shall be food for you. I have given you all things, even as the green herbs, but you shall not eat flesh with its life, that is, its blood.

Surely for your lifeblood I will demand a reckoning. From the hand of every beast I will require it, and from the hand of man, from the hand of every man's brother

I will require the life of man. Whoever sheds man's blood, by man his blood shall be shed.

For in the image of God he made man. And as for you, be fruitful and multiply.

Bring forth abundantly in the earth and multiply in it. Then God spoke to Noah and to his sons with him, saying,

And as for me, behold, I establish my covenant with you and with your descendants after you, and with every living creature that is with you, the birds, the cattle, and every beast of the earth with you, of all that go out of the ark, every beast of the earth.

Thus I establish my covenant with you. Never again shall all flesh be cut off by the waters of the flood.

Never again shall there be a flood to destroy the earth. And God said, This is the sign of the covenant which

I make between me and you and every living creature that is with you for perpetual generations.

I set my rainbow in the cloud, and it shall be for the sign of the covenant between me and the earth.

It shall be when I bring a cloud over the earth that the rainbow shall be seen in the cloud, and I will remember my covenant, which is between me and you and every living creature of all flesh.

The water shall never again become a flood to destroy all flesh. The rainbow shall be in the cloud, and I will look on it to remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is on the earth.

And God said to Noah, This is the sign of the covenant which I have established between me and all flesh that is on the earth.

Now the sons of Noah who went out of the ark were Shem, Ham, and Japheth. And Ham was the father of Canaan.

These three were the sons of Noah, and from these the whole earth was populated. And Noah began to be a farmer, and he planted a vineyard.

Then he drank of the wine and was drunk, and became uncovered in his tent. And Ham, the father of Canaan, saw the nakedness of his father and told his brothers outside.

But Shem and Japheth took a garment, laid it on both their shoulders, and went backwards and covered the nakedness of their father.

Their faces were turned away, and they did not see their father's nakedness. So Noah awoke from his wine and knew what his younger son had done to him.

Then he said, Cursed be Canaan, a servant of servants, he shall be to his brethren. And he said,

Blessed be the Lord, the God of Shem, and may Canaan be his servant. May God enlarge

Japheth, and may he dwell in the tents of Shem, and may Canaan be his servant. And Noah lived after the flood three hundred and fifty years.

So all the days of Noah were nine hundred and fifty years, and he died. Chapter 10

Now this is the genealogy of the sons of Noah, Shem, Ham, and Japheth. And sons were born to them after the flood.

The sons of Japheth were Gomer, Magog, Madai, Javan, Tubal, Mesek, and Tyrus.

The sons of Gomer were Ashkenaz, Ripeth, and Togmara. The sons of Javan were

Elisha, Tarshish, Kittim, and Dodanim. From these, the coastland peoples of the

Gentiles were separated into their lands, everyone according to his language, according to their families, into their nations.

The sons of Ham were Cush, Mizram, Put, and Canaan. The sons of Cush were

Sheba, Havilah, Sabta, Rehama, and Septica. And the sons of Rehama were

Sheba and Dedan. Cush begat Nimrod. He began to be a mighty one on the earth.

He was a mighty hunter before the Lord. Therefore it is said, Like Nimrod, the mighty hunter before the

Lord. And the beginning of his kingdom was Babel, Erech, Achad, and Calna, in the land of Shinar.

And from that land he went to Assyria and built Nineveh, Rehobother, Kala, and Resan between Nineveh and Kala, that is, the principal city.

Mizram begat Ludim, Ananim, Lehebim, Neftuhim, Pethrusim, and Kesluhim, from whom came the

Philistines and the Kaphtarim. Canaan begat Sidon, his firstborn, and Heth, the

Jebusite, the Amorite, and the Girgashite, the Hivite, the Arkite, and the Sinite, the

Arvidite, the Zamorite, and the Hamathite. Afterward, the families of the Canaanites were dispersed.

And the border of the Canaanites was from Sidon, as you go toward Gerar, as far as Gaza, and then as you go toward Sodom, Gomorrah, Adma, and Zeboim, as far as Latia.

These were the sons of Ham, according to their families, according to their languages, in their lands, and in their nations.

And children were born also to Shem, the father of all the children of Eber, the brother of Japheth, the elder.

The sons of Shem were Elam, Asher, Arphaxad, Lud, and Aram. The sons of Aram were

Uz, Hul, Gether, and Mash. Arphaxad begat Selah, and Selah begat

Eber. To Eber was born two sons. The name of one was Peleg, for in his days the earth was divided, and his brother's name was

Joktan. Joktan begat Amodad, Shelef, Hazarmaveth, Jirah, Padaram, Uzal, Dekla, Obal, Ebimeel, Sheba, Ophir, Havilah, and Jobab.

All these were the sons of Joktan. And their dwelling place was from Misha, as you go toward Sephar, the mountain of the east.

These were the sons of Shem, according to their families, according to their languages, in their lands, according to their nations.

These were the families of the sons of Noah, according to their generations in their nations. And from these the nations were divided on the earth after the flood.

Chapter 11 Now the whole earth had one language and one speech. And it came to pass, as they journeyed from the east, that they found a plain in the land of Shinar, and they dwelt there.

And they said to one another, Come, let us make bricks and bake them thoroughly. They had brick for stone, and they had asphalt for mortar.

And they said, Come, let us build ourselves a city and a tower whose top is in the heavens.

Let us make a name for ourselves, lest we be scattered abroad over the face of the whole earth.

But the Lord came down to see the city and the tower which the sons of men had built. And the

Lord said, Indeed, the people are one, and they all have one language. And this is what they begin to do.

Now nothing that they propose to do will be withheld from them. Come, let us go down and there confuse their language, that they may not understand one another's speech.

So the Lord scattered them abroad from there over the face of all the earth. And they ceased building the city.

Therefore its name is called Babel, because there the Lord confused the language of all the earth.

And from there the Lord scattered them abroad over the face of all the earth. This is the genealogy of Shem.

Shem was one hundred years old and begot Ar -Paksad two years after the flood. After he begot

Ar -Paksad, Shem lived five hundred years, and he begot sons and daughters. Ar -Paksad lived thirty -five years and begot

Salah. After he begot Salah, Ar -Paksad lived four hundred and three years and begot sons and daughters.

Salah lived thirty years and begot Eber. After he begot Eber, Salah lived four hundred and three years and begot sons and daughters.

Eber lived thirty -four years and begot Peleg. After he begot Peleg, Eber lived four hundred and thirty years and begot sons and daughters.

Peleg lived thirty years and begot Ru. After he begot Ru, Peleg lived two hundred and nine years and he begot sons and daughters.

Ru lived thirty -two years and begot Sarug. After he begot Sarug, Ruh lived 207 years and begot sons and daughters.

Sarug lived 30 years and begot Nahor. After he begot Nahor, Sarug lived 200 years and begot sons and daughters.

Nahor lived 29 years and begot Terah. After he begot Terah, Nahor lived 119 years and begot sons and daughters.

Now Terah lived 70 years and begot Abram, Nahor, and Haran.

This is the genealogy of Terah. Terah begot Abram, Nahor, and Haran.

Haran begot Lot. And Haran died before his father Terah in the native land, in Ur of the

Chaldeans. Then Abram and Nahor took wives. The name of Abram's wife was

Sarai, and the name of Nahor's wife, Milka. The daughter of Haran, the father of Milka, and the father of Iska.

But Sarai was barren. She had no child. And Terah took his son

Abram and his grandson Lot, the son of Haran, and his daughter -in -law Sarai, his son

Abram's wife, and they went out with them from Ur of the Chaldeans to the land of Canaan.

And they came to Haran and dwelt there. So the days of Terah were 205 years, and Terah died in Haran.

Now that we've completed reading Genesis 1 through 11, we'll have a short time of interaction. Obviously, there's not a whole lot of application you can interact with.

Maybe you found a baby name for you pregnant ladies in the midst of that reading. But perhaps we could spend some of this time, if you have any questions or comments, that's fine, but maybe you could reflect on what stood out to you, maybe something that you're excited to learn more about, maybe because you've looked into it or maybe it was new to you and it kind of struck you during the reading.

This time is just a little loose and flexible for comments and things like that, reflections.