²⁰ Then the LORD said, “The outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah is so great and their sin so grievous ²¹ that I will go down and see if what they have done is as bad as the outcry that has reached me. If not, I will know.”

²² The men turned away and went toward Sodom, but Abraham remained standing before the LORD. ^{[e] 23} Then Abraham approached him and said: “Will you sweep away the righteous with the wicked? ²⁴ What if there are fifty righteous people in the city? Will you really sweep it away and not spare ^[f] the place for the sake of the fifty righteous people in it? ²⁵ Far be it from you to do such a thing—to kill the righteous with the wicked, treating the righteous and the wicked alike. Far be it from you! Will not the Judge ^[g] of all the earth do right?”

²⁶ The LORD said, “If I find fifty righteous people in the city of Sodom, I will spare the whole place for their sake.” Gen. 18:20-26

Sodom and Gomorrah are two cities that stand out above all others in their infamy.  Even modern secular conversation is frequently dotted with allusions to “fire and brimstone” and the very names of these two cities.  Indeed, sexual acts of violence, sexual deviance and sex crimes are called sodomy – deriving their name from the city of Sodom.

Our first introduction to Sodom and Gomorrah is when the two angels who visit Abraham leave him and head toward the cities.  As the text says, God had heard an “outcry” over the exceptional wickedness of the people there.

This is an intriguing thought – that God hears an outcry about evil on the earth.  From where does this outcry originate?

We may well recall that Cain’s murder of his brother Abel (the world’s first act of violence) resulted in an outcry to God:

¹⁰ The LORD said, “What have you done? Listen! Your brother’s blood cries out to me from the ground. Gen. 4:10

In John’s Apocalypse, we have a similar thought:

⁹When he opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slain because of the word of God and the testimony they had maintained. ¹⁰They called out in a loud voice, “How long, Sovereign Lord, holy and true, until you judge the inhabitants of the earth and avenge our blood?” Rev. 6:9-10

The martyrs cry out to God to avenge  the shedding of their blood, and God experiences the pain of seeing man’s wickedness on a daily basis.

God is a righteous judge, and a God who feels indignation every day. Psalm 7:11

Imagine the din that must reach God’s ears continuously – the blood of war dead, the murdered, the aborted, the cry of the abused, the outcast, the oppressed.   To think that our Father hears this outcry daily and continues to tolerate the existence of mankind is an amazing testimony to His forbearance.

All of this is a reminder of man’s abiding wickedness before God and God’s right to judge us for it.  In our text, God is depicted the same way He was in the tower of Babel account – He stoops down to observe man’s deeds.  This  underscores how God is high and lifted-up over His creation and that He has sovereign reign over man’s affairs.

Another lesson of interest here comes from Abraham’s “bargaining” with God and what this tells us about man’s condition.

Abraham appeals to a sense of justice (surely God would not wipe out the righteous and the wicked together) and asks God if He will not spare the cities for the sake of fifty righteous people.  He repeats this request until he whittles the number down to a mere ten.

Abraham’s motives might have been simply to protect his brother and his family in this bargain.  Then again, he may have truly thought, “Surely there must be other righteous among the wicked of Sodom and Gomorrah”.  God certainly knew, and we find God allowing Abraham to bargain with Him for the sake of a handful of “righteous” people.

It does not appear that Lot was not participating in the great evil of the cities.  He and his family seemed to be a refuge of relative goodness among wicked and perverted men.  However, God’s definition of righteousness is quite different from ours.

In the account that follows in chapter 19 of Genesis, we encounter Lot, his wife, two daughters who are unmarried, and two daughters who are married.   This is a total of eight people (assuming no children) who are potential candidates for saving – ironically the same number of people who found refuge on the ark.  However, of these, Lot is unable to convince his sons-in-law to bring their families with him, and only Lot, his wife and two unmarried daughters flee the city.

Here’s the sobering question.  Putting aside the relative innocence of Lot and his family (they were apparently not participants in the violent and perverted crimes of the city), were these four individuals really righteous?

Let’s take a closer look at these four “righteous” people after they flee the city:

• Lot’s wife disobeys the command of the Lord and is turned to salt (Gen. 19:26)
• Lot allows himself to become drunk with wine…twice (Gen. 19:33-35)
• Lot’s daughters have sex with their father in his drunken state (Gen. 19:33-35)

Why is this story of Sodom and Gomorrah in the Bible?  First of all, it is a historical account of the origins of God’s chosen people and the other nations associated with them.   The children conceived by Lot’s daughters go on to become the Moabites and Ammonites.  Both of these peoples would have antagonistic relations with Israel in the future.

Notice how similar this story is to the Noah account.  Noah was warned of impending destruction, but he was only able to convince some family members to go with him.  He was delivered from the destructive wrath of God.  Immediately afterward, he became drunk and indecent in his tent.  His son committed some act of disrespect concerning his drunken and naked condition, resulting in a curse delivered by Noah.  The curse would result in animosity between the Jews and the Canaanite people.

In both of these stories there is a greater lesson about man’s wickedness and God’s judgment.

Man is hopelessly unrighteous before God.  Even the “righteous” few in this story turn out to be just as flawed as the people God destroyed with fire and brimstone (and flood).

As it is written: “There is no one righteous, not even one; Rom. 3:10

The details of the destruction of these two cities is a sobering reminder of the reality of the wrath of God.  Jude refers to this account in his epistle:

⁵Though you already know all this, I want to remind you that the Lord delivered his people out of Egypt, but later destroyed those who did not believe.⁶And the angels who did not keep their positions of authority but abandoned their own home—these he has kept in darkness, bound with everlasting chains for judgment on the great Day. ⁷In a similar way, Sodom and Gomorrah and the surrounding towns gave themselves up to sexual immorality and perversion. They serve as an example of those who suffer the punishment of eternal fire. Jude 5-7

We must take away from this account a sense of our own culpability before God and our reliance on His grace to save us. We are His to judge, and we are His to save.  God’s salvation of Lot was an act of grace.  The text tells us God preserved Lot and his family because of God’s covenant with Abraham, not because of Lot’s righteousness:

²⁹ So when God destroyed the cities of the plain, he remembered Abraham, and he brought Lot out of the catastrophe that overthrew the cities where Lot had lived. Gen. 19:29

In short, God came to Lot (a sinner) with a message of salvation.  It was Lot’s belief that led to his salvation – a belief that resulted in action.

Another important principle is this one.  As Abraham petitioned God on behalf of the city, he not only asked for God to save his family, but also the entire city for the sake of a few righteous people.  Abraham assumed (and rightly) that God would be willing to save the many for the sake of the few.  The odd thing is that Abraham doesn’t take this all the way down to the obvious end where Abraham would say, “God, what if there was ONE righteous person?”  Maybe he lost his nerve; the text doesn’t say.  From the way things were going, we can have no doubt  God would have said again, “Yes, for the sake of one righteous person I will not destroy the city.”  In fact, we know this to be true because this principle – that God would allow many sinners to be saved because of the righteousness of ONE other person points us clearly and directly to Jesus.

¹⁸ Consequently, just as one trespass resulted in condemnation for all people, so also one righteous act resulted in justification and life for all people. ¹⁹ For just as through the disobedience of the one man the many were made sinners, so also through the obedience of the one man the many will be made righteous.  Romans 5:18-19

God’s wrath is a terrible thing.  Praise God that we can avoid the terror of His wrath if we place our obedient faith not in our own “righteousness”, but in His saving work through the righteousness of Jesus Christ.  Because of His faithful, sinless life, many will be saved.

¹⁰ Then the LORD ^[c] said, “I will surely return to you about this time next year, and Sarah your wife will have a son.”
Now Sarah was listening at the entrance to the tent, which was behind him. ¹¹¹² So Sarah laughed to herself as she thought, “After I am worn out and my master ^[d] is old, will I now have this pleasure?” Abraham and Sarah were already old and well advanced in years, and Sarah was past the age of childbearing.

¹³ Then the LORD said to Abraham, “Why did Sarah laugh and say, ‘Will I really have a child, now that I am old?’ ¹⁴ Is anything too hard for the LORD ? I will return to you at the appointed time next year and Sarah will have a son.”

¹⁵ Sarah was afraid, so she lied and said, “I did not laugh.”
But he said, “Yes, you did laugh.” Genesis 18:10-15

The Bible is simply uninterested in painting its characters in their best light.  This is just one small reason we can rely upon its veracity.  It is real.

God promised Abraham and Sarah they would have a son.  Lest we be unfair, we should note that Abraham also laughed when he was first told this.

Then Abraham fell on his face and laughed and said to himself, “Shall a child be born to a man who is a hundred years old? Shall Sarah, who is ninety years old, bear a child?” Gen 17:17

Abraham and Sarah took matters into their own hands by Abraham fathering a child through the maidservant Hagar.  When the subject came up again, the Bible says Sarah laughed in her doubt as Abraham did.  To make matters worse, she lied right in the face of God by denying she laughed when the LORD called her on it.  Just imagine…these two are held up as some of the most “faithful” people of the Bible (cf. Hebrews 11) – the two people through whom all the nations of the earth would be blessed.

Unlikely as it may have seemed, the news was true.  Isaac, the miraculous son of promise would indeed be born within a year’s time, and he held the key to God’s fulfilling all the other promises He had made to Abraham in their covenant.  God may use the most unlikely of people to accomplish His divine plans, but they come to pass just the same.

Many years later, another miraculous son of promise was born to another unlikely couple in Abraham’s family line.  Mary was a young, unmarried woman engaged to Joseph, a simple Jewish carpenter.  The Abraham and Sarah story is really a shadow of this greater miracle God would work and the greater son of promise who would ultimately fulfill the covenant with  Abraham.

Like Abraham and Sarah, Joseph and Mary were informed by God that she would bear a child in a miraculous fashion.  Let’s focus this study on the two women and notice that Mary’s overall reaction is quite different from Sarah’s.  Mary accepts the news with an incredible display of graciousness and faith.

In a profoundly subtle way, this demonstrates the gospel.  Abraham and Sarah had faith – the Bible says they did.  However, their faith was immature and shallow.  They were still heavily relying on their own ability to do what God said He would do.  This is why Abraham and Sarah attempted to fulfill God’s promise through Hagar.  They were relying on their own works to accomplish God’s purposes.

Later, when God reiterates His promise (in the Genesis 18 citation above), Sarah laughs.  Why?  Because she is weak in faith.  She is still relying on her own human efforts to accomplish God’s purposes for Him.  She only sees the impossibility of the aged bodies of her and her husband producing offspring, not the fact that God can do the impossible.

On the other hand, Mary replies with trusting faith in what God promises.  She is at first naturally bewildered, simply stating:

³⁴And Mary said to the angel, “How will this be, since I am a virgin?” Luke 1:34

Gabriel reminds her that with God nothing is impossible, and unlike Sarah’s lie in an attempt to save face, Mary quickly accepts the news from the angel in trusting obedience:

³⁸And Mary said, “Behold, I am the servant of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word.” Luke 1:38

Why didn’t Mary laugh like Sarah?  First, let’s not be too hard on Sarah.  She had never heard about an old woman, a barren woman or a virgin giving birth.  She had never heard about God parting the Red Sea, about the plagues of Egypt, about the Exodus, about the miracles in the Wilderness, the defeat of Jericho, etc.  Mary had the advantage knowing the rich history of God fulfilling His promises in miraculous ways.

Still, this illustrates the folly of a works-based theology when it comes to God’s promises to us and His expectations of us.  Relying heavily or solely on our own efforts to accomplish what God has promised ultimately results in doubt and despair at our hopeless inabilities.  This is a disobedient spirit that disguises itself as an obedient one.   We think we are being obedient because we are working so hard, but we are in fact disobedient because we have placed our faith in something besides God.  We have placed faith in ourselves.  True faith in the sufficiency of God’s work, on the other hand, results in peace of mind and a genuinely obedient spirit.

This amazing story from Genesis points us smartly to the good news of God’s plan for man’s response of faith to His grace and to the miraculous son of promise in whom our faith and hope for salvation will lie – Jesus Christ.

² But Abram said, “O Sovereign LORD, what can you give me since I remain childless and the one who will inherit ^[c] my estate is Eliezer of Damascus?” ³ And Abram said, “You have given me no children; so a servant in my household will be my heir.”

⁴ Then the word of the LORD came to him: “This man will not be your heir, but a son coming from your own body will be your heir.” ⁵ He took him outside and said, “Look up at the heavens and count the stars—if indeed you can count them.” Then he said to him, “So shall your offspring be.”

⁶ Abram believed the LORD, and he credited it to him as righteousness. Gen. 15:2-6

Abram’s faith is marked by a clear realization that God is control of all things.  He says, “you given me no children”.  He then calls God, “sovereign LORD”.  Clearly Abram knows who is in control of his destiny.

The promise made in this passage is quite remarkable.  In the short term, God is simply promising to Abram that he will become a father by natural means.   He won’t have to leave an inheritance to a servant.  God tells him his descendants will be like the stars – innumerable.  The Israelites will number in the millions and will be a mighty nation.

The long-ranging significance of this is profound too, for the descendants of the man who would soon be called by God Abraham (with more significance as to his “fatherhood” status) would truly far exceed the Jews by ethnicity.

¹⁶Therefore, the promise comes by faith, so that it may be by grace and may be guaranteed to all Abraham’s offspring—not only to those who are of the law but also to those who are of the faith of Abraham. He is the father of us all. ¹⁷As it is written: “I have made you a father of many nations.”^[c] He is our father in the sight of God, in whom he believed—the God who gives life to the dead and calls things that are not as though they were. Rom. 4:16-17

Paul tells the Roman church that they (Jew and Gentile alike) are the sons, the heirs of Abraham.  But how can this be?  What is the connection that makes men and women of all nations part of the lineage of Abraham?

A very simple statement is made here in Genesis chapter 15, but one of the most profound importance in understanding God’s redemptive work.

⁶ Abram believed the LORD, and he credited it to him as righteousness.

Furthermore, all who come to God in this simple, trusting and obedient faith are heirs to Abraham.  It is faith, not blood that makes us his heirs.

²⁰Yet he did not waver through unbelief regarding the promise of God, but was strengthened in his faith and gave glory to God, ²¹being fully persuaded that God had power to do what he had promised. ²²This is why “it was credited to him as righteousness.” ²³The words “it was credited to him” were written not for him alone, ²⁴but also for us, to whom God will credit righteousness—for us who believe in him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead. ²⁵He was delivered over to death for our sins and was raised to life for our justification. Rom. 4:20-25

It is by Abraham’s faith that he was justified in the sight of God.  Abraham was not a perfectly righteous man.  Indeed, his roots were in pagan idol worship, but his eyes were opened to God and he had faith in His promises.  God in His gracious plan of redemption “counted” Abraham’s faith for righteousness.  He credited Him with righteousness he didn’t possess in Himself.

Even so, we who place our faith in the true seed, the true son of promise – Jesus – are credited with righteousness.  We enjoy the benefits of His righteousness.  Jesus lived out the law perfectly.   The perfect lamb of God was the perfect sacrifice.  We are covered in His blameless and perfect blood so God sees our unrighteousness and sin no more – only the perfection of His son who died in our place.

We offer God nothing.  The soul we return to God is hopelessly stained with our own sins.  It is by His grace and His willingness to allow our faith in Jesus as credit for righteousness that allows us to live in anticipation of the Promised Land of His presence.

¹⁸ Then Melchizedek king of Salem brought out bread and wine. He was priest of God Most High, ¹⁹ and he blessed Abram, saying,
“Blessed be Abram by God Most High,
Creator of heaven and earth.

²⁰ And blessed be God Most High,
who delivered your enemies into your hand.”
Then Abram gave him a tenth of everything. Gen. 14:18-20

Here in the midst of the tale of Abraham we encounter one of the more truly intriguing characters of the Bible.  Melchizedek.  His origin is as mysterious as his name.

He is called King of Salem (the Genesis Rabbah claims this is a reference to what is now called Jerusalem), and he is also called Priest of God Most High.   He raises many interesting yet unanswered questions:

Who ordained him priest of God, and what did that mean?

What was this place called Salem like if ruled by such a figure?

Why is there not a more significant account of his actions recorded in Bible?

Elements of these questions have been debated.  Some claim Melchizidek’s status as “king of Salem” is a mistranslation, others suggest this entire section was simply inserted later into the Pentateuch.  Still others have worked out details of Melchizedek’s life based on speculation.

In keeping with our purpose here, this is one of those adjuncts to the course of the story that seems insignificant until it comes to full light later in scripture.

The only other references to Melchizedek are in Ps. 110:4:

¹ The LORD says to my Lord:
“Sit at my right hand
until I make your enemies
a footstool for your feet.”

² The LORD will extend your mighty scepter from Zion;
you will rule in the midst of your enemies.

³ Your troops will be willing
on your day of battle.
Arrayed in holy majesty,
from the womb of the dawn
you will receive the dew of your youth. ^[a]

⁴ The LORD has sworn
and will not change his mind:
“You are a priest forever,
in the order of Melchizedek.”

And several times in Hebrews:

5 So Christ also did not take upon himself the glory of becoming a high priest. But God said to him, “You are my Son; today I have become your Father. ” 6 And he says in another place, “You are a priest forever, in the order of Melchizedek.”  7 During the days of Jesus’ life on earth, he offered up prayers and petitions with loud cries and tears to the one who could save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverent submission. 8 Although he was a son, he learned obedience from what he suffered 9 and, once made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey him 10 and was designated by God to be high priest in the order of Melchizedek. Heb. 5:5-10

19 We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure. It enters the inner sanctuary behind the curtain, 20 where Jesus, who went before us, has entered on our behalf. He has become a high priest forever, in the order of Melchizedek. Heb. 6:19-20

¹This Melchizedek was king of Salem and priest of God Most High. He met Abraham returning from the defeat of the kings and blessed him, ²and Abraham gave him a tenth of everything. First, his name means “king of righteousness”; then also, “king of Salem” means “king of peace.” ³Without father or mother, without genealogy, without beginning of days or end of life, like the Son of God he remains a priest forever. Heb. 7:1-3

Melchizedek is such a direct link to the Savior, it makes any discussion of him meaningless without engaging this point.

When the Hebrew writer explains the supremacy of Christ over everything Judaism has to offer, he uses the character of Melchizedek as a reference.  The point is simply this: 

Melichizedek’s lineage is not of the ordained, Aaronic/Levitical  lineage of the Jewish priests.  His priesthood is extra-Levitical, thus eternal. Jesus is a priest after the “order of Melchizedek”.  As a result, Jesus’ priesthood is superior.

The Hebrews account makes a mysterious statement about Melchizedek’s family tree, stating “Without father or mother, without genealogy, without beginning of days or end of life, like the Son of God he remains a priest forever…”.

The speculation from this text that Melchizedek had no parents and never died is, I believe, unfounded and unnecessary.  Of course this point is the fodder for Melchizedek’s mystique.  I believe the writer is simply saying there is no record of Melchizedek’s life – neither his beginning nor his end.  Thus, his priesthood was not based on anything temporal like human lineage.  It stands forever on its own merits.  Jesus is a priest of this same “order”.  Independent.  Without the need for a priestly lineage.

The Hebrew writer underscores the supremacy of Christ again by pointing out that the Jews’ greatest father – Abraham – paid homage to this Melchizedek, giving a portion of his goods to him.

In addition, the offering of bread and wine by Melchizedek is rich with foreshadows of the bread and wine offered by Christ:

53 So Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. 54 Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day. 55 For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink. 56 Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him. John 6:53-56

²⁶While they were eating, Jesus took bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to his disciples, saying, “Take and eat; this is my body.”

²⁷Then he took the cup, gave thanks and offered it to them, saying, “Drink from it, all of you. ²⁸This is my blood of the ²⁹I tell you, I will not drink of this fruit of the vine from now on until that day when I drink it anew with you in my Father’s kingdom.” covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins. Matt. 26:26-29

So we see again how the story of man’s redemption is woven deep into the texture of the historical account of God’s people.  As seemingly obscure characters come and go, we find amazing significance even in this brief encounter of Abraham with the King of Salem.

We see in this a picture of our own encounter with the true King of Righteousness and King of Peace.  We see the one who offers the bread and wine of His body and blood to celebrate a victory – His own victory over sin and death.

We see Jesus.

¹ The LORD had said to Abram, “Leave your country, your people and your father’s household and go to the land I will show you.

² “I will make you into a great nation
and I will bless you;
I will make your name great,
and you will be a blessing.

³ I will bless those who bless you,
and whoever curses you I will curse;
and all peoples on earth
will be blessed through you.” Gen. 12:1-3

Abram is the father of the Jewish nation.  Abram, which means “exalted father” certainly fits the bill, but after God’s intervention into this man’s life, he becomes known as Abraham, meaning “father of many”.   The reason for the name change is quite clear from God’s promise to him.

Surely the most intriguing thing of all in this passage is the last expression in verse 3 – “all the peoples of the earth will be blessed through you“.  Imagine for a moment that you are reading the Bible just like you would read any other book (beginning to end) and for the very first time.  What would you be thinking at this point?  You would want to keep reading to find the fulfillment of this promise.  This just adds to the already-building expectation of Eve over God’s promise to undo the curse of the garden.

How will all peoples on earth be blessed through this one man?  Intriguing, isn’t it?

Those familiar with the Bible and who are quite accustomed to routinely dropping into it at various places know where the story is going.

We have already examined foreshadows (some more shadowy than others) to Christ, but this expression:  “and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you“  should pique the interest of even the most casual reader.  The simple answer, of course, is that Abraham is the ancestor of Jesus Christ.

Allegorizing everything in the OT into something in the Christian era can get dangerously out of hand – just read some of the early writers of Christianity (Augustine, for example).  However, I would be remiss if I didn’t note at least a vague similarity between God’s direction to Abraham and God’s sending of the incarnate Son of God.

1. Jesus left His “country” and His “father’s household” did He not?
2. Jesus went into a “land” God would show Him by the will of God did He not?
3. In Jesus a “great nation” of God’s elect people would be established would it not?
4. Through Jesus “all the peoples of the earth would be blessed”, would they not?  (See our last post.)
5. God has blessed with His Spirit those who bless Jesus and cursed those who curse Him has He not?  (See I Cor. 12:3)

Of course we will see true type/anti-type in the story of Abraham and Isaac later, but this simple allegorical consideration should not be entirely overlooked.

Jesus in many senses mirrors Abraham – sent by God into a land foreign to His home in the heavenly realm so He might become the highest blessing to all men of all nations for all time.  At the very least we can say God is consistent in the way He goes out of His way to bring man into a right relationship with Him, which brings us to our next point.

The other important consideration as it relates to our redemption is that Abraham’s call is God’s unilateral act of grace – not that Abraham didn’t have a choice in responding, but it was God who made the first move.  Abraham was not the most righteous of men.  In this very chapter we see his tendency to lie when he encounters trouble.  In fact, God chose Abraham from amongst a pagan people:

² Joshua said to all the people, “This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: ‘Long ago your forefathers, including Terah the father of Abraham and Nahor, lived beyond the River and worshiped other gods. ³ But I took your father Abraham from the land beyond the River and led him throughout Canaan and gave him many descendants. Josh. 24:2ff (emphasis mine)

Abraham was not a perfect man – he was a sinful man, but He responded to God in faith.  God credits his faith as righteousness:

For what does the Scripture say? “Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness.” Rom. 4:3 ESV

As we continue our study, even in this brief introduction to the life and character of Abraham we see a foreshadow of Christ and an example of how redemption is the story God’s grace in action.

⁵ But the LORD came down to see the city and the tower that the men were building. ⁶ The LORD said, “If as one people speaking the same language they have begun to do this, then nothing they plan to do will be impossible for them. ⁷ Come, let us go down and confuse their language so they will not understand each other.”

⁸ So the LORD scattered them from there over all the earth, and they stopped building the city. ⁹ That is why it was called Babel—because there the LORD confused the language of the whole world. From there the LORD scattered them over the face of the whole earth. Gen. 11:5-8

America has been called the “melting pot”.  Indeed, the Emma Lazarus poem engraved on a plaque inside the Statue of Liberty famously invites freedom-seekers of all nations to unite on her shores:

“Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!” cries she
with silent lips. “Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore,
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”

This American ideal of political unity among a diverse people is a noble goal, but it actually serves to highlight a more important biblical truth: The world is marked by division.  Fortunately, the history of redemption is God’s story of division and reconciliation.

Of course the reason for division of one man from another is ultimately man’s primary problem – sin.  The sins of pride and hatred separated Cain from his brother.  A combination of sins including drunkenness, disrespect and idle talk placed a wall of division between Ham and his father and brothers.   The sin of pride and arrogance became the point of a divine act of division between peoples and nations, as recorded for us in Genesis 11 quoted at the beginning of this post.

In Genesis 10, we get a little preview of what is coming in chapter 11, as the genealogies of Noah’s three sons are outlined for several generations.  Along the way, certain key names are dropped of special significance to the Jewish reader (e.g. the Philistines, Canaan, Sodom and Gomorrah, Nineveh).

The point of chapter 10 is to set the stage for the great historical record of what God would do through His chosen people, with the ultimate end being Christ Himself.

On Chapter 10 of Genesis, Martin Luther commented as follows:

This very chapter, even though it is considered full of dead words, has in it the thread that is drawn from the first world to the middle and to the end of all things. From Adam the promise concerning Christ is passed on to Seth; from Seth to Noah; from Noah to Shem; and from Shem to this Eber, from whom the Hebrew nation received its name as the heir for whom the promise about the Christ was intended in preference to all other peoples of the whole world. This knowledge the Holy Scriptures reveal to us. Those who are without them live in error, uncertainty, and boundless ungodliness; for they have no knowledge about who they are and whence they came. (emphasis mine)

In Genesis Chapter 11, we have the account of the “Tower of Babel” as another clear example of man’s wicked heart:

⁴ Then they said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city, with a tower that reaches to the heavens, so that we may make a name for ourselves and not be scattered over the face of the whole earth.”

⁵ But the LORD came down to see the city and the tower that the men were building. ⁶ The LORD said, “If as one people speaking the same language they have begun to do this, then nothing they plan to do will be impossible for them. ⁷ Come, let us go down and confuse their language so they will not understand each other.” Gen. 11:4-7

While the building of a city seems somewhat innocuous in itself, God sees through to the core issue.  His statement, “…nothing they plan to do will be impossible for them” reveals His foreknowledge that mankind so united would only increase more and more in acts of self-glorification and pride.  In His grace, God acts to impede the rapid degradation of mankind (like that which occurred before the Flood) by confusing the language of man.

The text shows no obvious sign of resolution at this point…or does it?  The chapter ends with the appearance of the most important name to appear in the Genesis record so far – Abram – and a peek ahead at the resolution to the divisive nature of sin.

³¹ Terah took his son Abram, his grandson Lot son of Haran, and his daughter-in-law Sarai, the wife of his son Abram, and together they set out from Ur of the Chaldeans to go to Canaan. But when they came to Haran, they settled there. Gen. 10:31

The import of Abram in the story of Christ need not be repeated here for anyone who paid the least bit of attention in Sunday School.

The history of redemption is replete with problems brought about by the sin of man and solutions brought about by the grace of God.   As for the ultimate sign of God’s resolution of division, let’s look at this passage:

¹When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place. ²Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. ³They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. ⁴All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them.

⁵Now there were staying in Jerusalem God-fearing Jews from every nation under heaven. ⁶When they heard this sound, a crowd came together in bewilderment, because each one heard them speaking in his own language. ⁷Utterly amazed, they asked: “Are not all these men who are speaking Galileans? ⁸Then how is it that each of us hears them in his own native language? ⁹Parthians, Medes and Elamites; residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, ¹⁰Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya near Cyrene; visitors from Rome ¹¹ (both Jews and converts to Judaism); Cretans and Arabs-we hear them declaring the wonders of God in our own tongues!” ¹²Amazed and perplexed, they asked one another, “What does this mean?”

¹⁴Then Peter stood up with the Eleven, raised his voice and addressed the crowd: “Fellow Jews and all of you who live in Jerusalem, let me explain this to you; listen carefully to what I say. ¹⁵These men are not drunk, as you suppose. It’s only nine in the morning! ¹⁶No, this is what was spoken by the prophet Joel:

¹⁷” ‘In the last days, God says,
I will pour out my Spirit on all people…

²¹And everyone who calls
on the name of the Lord will be saved.’

Acts 2:1-12,14-17,21

On Pentecost, God miraculously undoes what He did at  Babel – not in literal sense (He does not abolish different earthly languages), but in a spiritual sense.  Instead of dividing men by their languages, He unites them by bringing one universal message intended for and understood by all languages.  Similarly, the miraculous spiritual gifts of tongues in the church served as a further sign of the inclusion of men of all nations in the Kingdom of God through Christ.

So what about America the melting pot?  Think again.  Let’s read how Paul so beautifully describes the “melting pot” of the church and gives us a picture of  e pluribus unum (“out of many, one”) in the highest order:

¹¹Therefore, remember that formerly you who are Gentiles by birth and called “uncircumcised” by those who call themselves “the circumcision” (that done in the body by the hands of men)— ¹²remember that at that time you were separate from Christ, excluded from citizenship in Israel and foreigners to the covenants of the promise, without hope and without God in the world. ¹³But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought near through the blood of Christ.

¹⁴For he himself is our peace, who has made the two one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility, ¹⁵by abolishing in his flesh the law with its commandments and regulations. His purpose was to create in himself one new man out of the two, thus making peace, ¹⁶and in this one body to reconcile both of them to God through the cross, by which he put to death their hostility. ¹⁷He came and preached peace to you who were far away and peace to those who were near. ¹⁸For through him we both have access to the Father by one Spirit.

¹⁹Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and aliens, but fellow citizens with God’s people and members of God’s household, ²⁰built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone. Eph. 2:11-20

E pluribus unum!  Soli Deo Gloria!

^“20 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. ²¹ 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.” Genesis 8:21 NKJV

^“12 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: ¹³ I set My rainbow in the cloud, and it shall be for the sign of the covenant between Me and the earth. ¹⁴ It shall be, when I bring a cloud over the earth, that the rainbow shall be seen in the cloud; ¹⁵ and I will remember My covenant which is between Me and you and every living creature of all flesh; the waters shall never again become a flood to destroy all flesh.” Genesis 9:12-15 NKJV

If there is ever any question about the real condition of Noah’s soul, it is answered here.  Even though God has seen a workable specimen of humanity in Noah (as we discussed previously), it is truly by grace that any representative of sinful mankind is allowed to survive the flood.

God knows that even “righteous” Noah has a fallen nature and that this cleansing of the human race has not entirely wiped out the problem of sin.  Man’s heart is inclined to sin “from his youth”.   It is no wonder that even centuries later, the Apostle Paul continues to cry:

“O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?” Romans 7:24

Like the story of the Garden, what we have post-Flood is something of a fresh start to the story of redemption.  The basic theme of man’s fallenness is highlighted by God Himself in His innermost thoughts (i.e. “the LORD said in His heart”).

Let’s pay careful attention to what happens next.  Despite man’s condition, God makes a promise of redemption.  The story of our redemption is always one of a problem and a promise.  We have a sin problem and God promises deliverance.

Let’s note at this point that Christocentric reading of the Old Testament is not bound to finding a type/anti-type or looking (sometimes spuriously) for allegories.  A Christ-centered reading of some texts revolves around recurring themes that ultimately bring the reader to Christ.  This happens in Genesis 8.

The passage quoted earlier notes four important themes:

1. Man is a sinful being in danger of judgment
2. A sacrifice pleased God
3. God covenantally promises to preserve man from utter destruction
4. God gives a symbol of His covenant

The Noah story continues to tell the consistent story of redemption.  Man is sinful, but God allows for his salvation.  This never changes.  The pleasing sacrifice offered by Noah and the covenant and sign are also recurring themes foreshadowing how the ultimate sacrifice will one day be required to establish the ultimate covenant to redeem man once and for all.

This theme continues when God’s chosen people are delivered from the Angel of Death through the sacrifice of the Passover lambs.  A covenantal relationship is established shortly thereafter with the Passover meal as the sign of God’s deliverance.

Is there any need at this point to outline the sacrifice of Christ, the covenant He establishes for all mankind, and the symbols of this covenant relationship?

These themes of the redemption story are plain and unambiguous, and they still ring true in the 21st century.  As a result, Paul can answer his own haunting question:

^“24 O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? ²⁵ I thank God—through Jesus Christ our Lord!” Romans 7:24-25a

“And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.” Gen. 6:5 (KJV)

At the end of Genesis 5, we noted how Noah’s father lamented the cursed state of man’s existence.  The ground had been cursed by God, requiring ceaseless labor on the part of man.  Man longed for the curse to be lifted.  Let’s remember it was man’s sin that brought about this situation.

In Genesis 6, we can see how man had progressively spiraled downward in his sinful state.   There has been much speculation about the meaning of the “giants” on the earth and the reference to “sons of God”  sleeping with the “daughters of men” and their offspring the “mighty men” or “men of renown”.

Some have suggested these mighty men were the offspring of disobedient angels and mortal women and that the flood was meant to wipe out this race which was unintended by God.  This is interesting to think about, but it smacks loudly of Greek mythology.  Others have noted the descriptions of the ungodly family line of Cain and the apparently more godly line of Seth immediately precede this passage.  These folks suggest the “sons of God” are the godly lineage of Seth, while the daughters of men are the more sinful descendant daughters of Cain – akin later to Israel’s intermarriage with heathen nations.

This author simply cannot explain this bizarre passage, but my leanings are towards the latter explanation.  No matter what it means, the point of this passage is not the minutia of these kind of details.  Its point is to record for its readers the state of man within God’s redemptive history at this particular point in time – and what was the state of man?

Rock bottom.

Things were so bad, the Bible says something about God’s character it rarely says – he regretted.

“Then 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 on the earth, and He was grieved in His heart.“ Gen. 5:5-6 (NKJV)

The emphasis should perhaps be put on the phrase “He was grieved in His heart”.  He was more than sorry.  God’s love for His crown of creation was great.  He longed to have a truly obedient son among men, but none could be found…and it grieved Him.

But then something incredible happened.  Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord.  The passage calls him a “just” man among his generation.  This concept that Noah was “just” (some translations render this “blameless” or “righteous”) must be taken in its context.  At first blush, it seems to imply that God looked around and found somebody whose righteousness somehow required God stop and reconsider his plan to destroy mankind.

Was Noah without sin?  Anyone who has read Paul knows this can’t be true.  Was Noah better than the others around him?   In a practical sense, maybe, but not in the theological sense.  Noah was a sinner too; and although he may have had a heart somewhat inclined toward God , it was no less an act of God’s grace that he worked with Noah at all.

The temptation here is for us to believe Noah somehow earned God’s favor and then make self-application of this text like this:   “If I am blameless like Noah, I too can find grace in God’s sight.  So I’m going to try really really hard to be like Noah.”  Let’s get this straight – Noah deserved death as a sinner just like every man.  He did not earn God’s choice to save him, nor do we.  God has always saved by His divine grace.

Reading this passage as an example of faith for our own lives (i.e. “I should be like Noah”) is a nice byproduct of this story, but it is not the main point of Genesis 6.  So why was this story recorded?  To tell us something about our redemption.  This passage very explicitly brings us to Christ – the true Noah.

• Noah was called blameless among his woefully sinful peers (in spite of his faults we see later).  How much more is Christ the truly blameless man walking amongst a crooked and perverse generation?

• Adam failed to be an obedient son of God.  Noah was treated as if he was the obedient son God was looking for.  How much more is Jesus  truly the obedient Son of God?

• Noah was a “preacher of righteousness” (2 Pet. 2:5) who likely endured humiliation before a scoffing crowd of onlookers so that others could be saved.   How much more is Jesus the true Noah who preached righteousness and through whose humiliation others are saved?

Jesus uses the Noah account to warn the Jews about the destruction of Jerusalem (Matthew 24: 36-39).  That city was destroyed because of the Jews rejection of Christ .

The Hebrew writer shows that the faith of Noah and other OT characters testifies to Christ (see our blog post The Great Cloud of Witnesses).

Furthermore, Peter uses the Noah account to testify to our salvation through Christ:

18 For Christ also suffered once for sins, the just for the unjust, that He might bring us^[e] to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive by the Spirit, ¹⁹ by whom also He went and preached to the spirits in prison, ²⁰ who formerly were disobedient, when once the Divine longsuffering waited^[f] in the days of Noah, while the ark was being prepared, in which a few, that is, eight souls, were saved through water. ²¹ There is also an antitype which now saves us—baptism (not the removal of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience toward God), through the resurrection of Jesus Christ, ²² who has gone into heaven and is at the right hand of God, angels and authorities and powers having been made subject to Him. 1 Pet. 3:18-22

The Noah story is interwoven deeply into the fabric of the Bible’s whole story of redemption.  It clearly points to our desperate need for a Noah-figure to prepare an ark of salvation from the sure destruction that awaits this sinful world.  It clearly points to our need for salvation through the true Noah – Jesus Christ.

¹This is the book of the generations of Adam. In the day that God created man, in the likeness of God made he him; Gen. 5:1 (KJV)

The dreaded genealogical listing.  What bible class student hasn’t cringed at the request to read a genealogy?  The more one digs into the Bible, however, the more interesting reading a genealogy becomes.  They are chock-full of vital and interesting information.

In Genesis 5, we have a list of names descending from Adam to Seth and so on until we come to Noah.

Along the way, some interesting nuggets present themselves.  For one, we see the brief reference to Enoch walking with God and then vanishing from earth.  He simply “was not” because God “took him”.  In addition, a little mathematical research reveals that Methuselah appears to have died the year of the flood.  Did he die in the flood?  Did God postpone the flood for a week to allow his natural death (as some have suggested based on Gen. 7:4)?

As interesting as these may be, the redemptive-historical significance of this passage is even richer.  Here, we see that the curse of the Garden is still at the forefront of the mind of man.  It overshadows everything and prompts two distinct responses.  1)  Faith and hope in God , 2) Disbelief and self-reliance.

When Noah’s father, Lamech names him “Noah”, he makes an interesting statement:

²⁸And Lamech lived an hundred eighty and two years, and begat a son: ²⁹And he called his name Noah, saying, This same shall comfort us concerning our work and toil of our hands, because of the ground which the LORD hath cursed. Gen 5:28-29 (KJV)

Lamech obviously thought about the curse every day.  Other men likely recognized the curse, too, but with a different response (response #2 above).  Lamech responded in faith and hope that God would fulfill his promise to lift the curse…just as Eve had expressed at the birth of both Cain and Seth (see our posts  The Spear and the Vapor and Another Seed).

Again, names are important in the Bible.  Noah’s name literally means “rest” or “comfort”.  Lamech’s statement and naming of his son is the perfect setup for the story that will follow in the next few chapters.

God’s plan to redeem man from his fallen condition and fulfill his promises to crush the head of the enemy is developed richly in the narrative that follows.   The seed of woman will indeed triumph – beginning with Seth and then to Noah, who (as we will see) points vividly to the saving work of Jesus Christ.

The Genesis account is full of holes.

How can an orthodox believer and adherent to the old Reformer’s motto “sola scriptura” say such a thing?  When we say the Genesis account is full of holes, this is not to imply a deficiency in the veracity of the text – only that the text doesn’t tell us everything we want to know.  This is a key in understanding all of scripture.  God never promises to tell us everything we want to know (take a look at God’s response to Job’s questioning).  Instead, God tells us what we need to know; and precisely what we need to know is how God worked out the problem of man’s sin.  This is what biblical theologians commonly call “redemptive history” or a “redemptive-historical” approach to the Bible.

We bring this point up now because the spread of humanity from the Garden is somewhat of a mystery.  Where did all these people come from?  Was the land of Nod populated?  If so, by whom?  Where did Cain’s wife come from?  These questions are simply not answered.  It is in this setting that we found the sad account of Lamech.  As noted in our last post, his story illustrates the utter depravity into which man had sunk.  After this account, we are brought back by the Genesis writer to consider the immediate family of Adam and Eve once again.  Why?  To continue the history of redemption.

Adam and Eve conceive, and Eve gives birth to a third son – Seth.  Seth means “appointed”.  Eve memorialized her choice of this name:

²⁵And Adam knew his wife again; and she bare a son, and called his name Seth: For God, said she, hath appointed me another seed instead of Abel, whom Cain slew. Gen. 4:25 (KJV)

Eve seemed ever-aware of the truth of God’s promise that her seed would crush the head of the Enemy.  From her exclamation “I have gotten a man from the Lord” over Cain to her proclamation of  “another seed” over Seth, Eve’s words are significant.  In this light, Eve is reminiscent of Mary, the mother of Jesus, of whom we are told:

But Mary kept all these things, and pondered them in her heart. Luke 2:19 (KJV)

Eve was correct, as it is from Seth’s lineage that the Savior ultimately will come.  Fittingly, it is first said of Seth’s descendants that men turned to God.

²⁶And to Seth, to him also there was born a son; and he called his name Enos: then began men to call upon the name of the LORD. Gen. 4:26 (KJV)

The promises of God are firmly-established in this first book of the Bible.  Although His name is not spoken for centuries to come, the story of the Redeemer is deeply interwoven into the narrative history of early man.  It’s really too obvious to miss.