Gen 6:1-8 NASB Now it came about, when men began to multiply on the face of the land, and daughters were born to them, (2) that the sons of God saw that the daughters of men were beautiful; and they took wives for themselves, whomever they chose. (3) Then the LORD said, "My Spirit shall not strive with man forever, because he also is flesh; nevertheless his days shall be one hundred and twenty years." (4) The Nephilim were on the earth in those days, and also afterward, when the sons of God came in to the daughters of men, and they bore children to them. Those were the mighty men who were of old, men of renown. (5) Then the LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great on the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. (6) The LORD was sorry that He had made man on the earth, and He was grieved in His heart. (7) The LORD said, "I will blot out man whom I have created from the face of the land, from man to animals to creeping things and to birds of the sky; for I am sorry that I have made them." (8) But Noah found favor in the eyes of the LORD.

• Let's not focus on the details of what is described in verse 1-4 since it is impossible for us to fully understand. However, what do you see as a theme what man was doing in these verses?

• What was the relationship between God and His creation as described in verses 5?

• What about God's character do you see inverse 6?

• What did God plan to do in verse 7?

• What changed in verse 8?

• What does this reveal to you about God's relationship with man and specifically with Noah?

Gen 7:1-14 NASB Then the LORD said to Noah, "Enter the ark, you and all your household, for you alone I have seen to be righteous before Me in this time. (2) "You shall take with you of every clean animal by sevens, a male and his female; and of the animals that are not clean two, a male and his female; (3) also of the birds of the sky, by sevens, male and female, to keep offspring alive on the face of all the earth. (4) "For after seven more days, I will send rain on the earth forty days and forty nights; and I will blot out from the face of the land every living thing that I have made." (5) Noah did according to all that the LORD had commanded him. (6) Now Noah was six hundred years old when the flood of water came upon the earth. (7) Then Noah and his sons and his wife and his sons' wives with him entered the ark because of the water of the flood. (8) Of clean animals and animals that are not clean and birds and everything that creeps on the ground, (9) there went into the ark to Noah by twos, male and female, as God had commanded Noah. (10) It came about after the seven days, that the water of the flood came upon the earth. (11) In the six hundredth year of Noah's life, in the second month, on the seventeenth day of the month, on the same day all the fountains of the great deep burst open, and the floodgates of the sky were opened. (12) The rain fell upon the earth for forty days and forty nights. (13) On the very same day Noah and Shem and Ham and Japheth, the sons of Noah, and Noah's wife and the three wives of his sons with them, entered the ark, (14) they and every beast after its kind, and all the cattle after their kind, and every creeping thing that creeps on the earth after its kind, and every bird after its kind, all sorts of birds.

• Why did the Lord select Noah?

• What does righteous mean? (tsaddiq (843a); from the same as H6664; just, righteous: - blameless (1), innocent (1), just (5), man that the righteous (1), one in the right (1), right (2), righteous (164), righteous man (19), righteous men (2), Righteous One (2), righteous one (2), righteous ones (3), righteously (1), who are in the right (1).)

• How would you feel if God said the same thing to you today? What would you do?

• God saved clean and unclean animals – what does this tell you about God's relationship with his creation? Why didn't he just start over? Why didn't he leave the unclean animals to be destroyed?

• What does this reveal about God's relationship with Noah. Who can assess righteousness before God? Was it obedience that made Noah righteous? (Hebrews 11:7) (Galatians 3:11, Hab 2:3-4)

• What do you see in the behavior of the family? What was the family's relationship with Noah and God?

THEME for RELATIONSHIPS

CHARACTER OF GOD

APPLICATION