Genesis Chapters 6-8: Rebuilding the World With God

Note: PRS.work is a plug-and-play video Bible Study. Everything you need to connect the Bible to your work is in the video above. Feel free to press play and just listen. Or follow along with the transcript below.

• To download a transcript of the Theology of Work Bible Commentary for this session, click here.

• For tips on leading this session, click here.

Introduction

Welcome to PRS.work, a video series that helps us hear the Bible together at work. In this video you'll hear a brief introduction, a Psalm read as an opening prayer, a long passage from the Bible, and a commentary about what this means for work, workers, and the workplace. When the video ends you can discuss how this applies to your work.

Today’s Public Reading of Scripture recounts the story of the great flood, from the first book of the Bible, Genesis. The story opens with God’s grief over the wickedness of humanity. Out of a passion for protecting the goodness He created, God washes the world clean, while protecting one blameless human, Noah, and his family.

God gives Noah work to do to help remake the world. Noah must build a massive arc, according to God’s designs. God instructs Noah to gather representatives from all the world’s animals, along with enough food and water to sustain them during a long voyage.

Noah executes his tasks faithfully, and God protects him while the floods rage. When the waters recede, Noah gets a fresh start on dry land. He begins by making a sacrifice to God, and God promises never again to destroy all life on earth.

Before reading along to a dramatic recording of Genesis chapters 6-8, we will begin with Psalm 93 in prayer.

Psalm 93

The Lord reigns, He is clothed with majesty;
The Lord is clothed,
He has girded Himself with strength.
Surely the world is established, so that it cannot be moved.
² Your throne is established from of old;
You are from everlasting.

³ The floods have lifted up, O Lord,
The floods have lifted up their voice;
The floods lift up their waves.
⁴ The Lord on high is mightier
Than the noise of many waters,
Than the mighty waves of the sea.

⁵ Your testimonies are very sure;
Holiness adorns Your house,
O Lord, forever.

Genesis 6

Now it came to pass, when men began to multiply on the face of the earth, and daughters were born to them, ² that the sons of God saw the daughters of men, that they were beautiful; and they took wives for themselves of all whom they chose.

³ 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.” ⁴ There were giants 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 in the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. ⁶ And the Lord was sorry that He had made man on the earth, and He was grieved in His heart. ⁷ 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.” ⁸ But Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord.

⁹ This is the genealogy of Noah. Noah was a just man, perfect in his generations. Noah walked with God. ¹⁰ And Noah begot three sons: Shem, Ham, and Japheth.

¹¹ The earth also was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence. ¹² So God looked upon the earth, and indeed it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted their way on the earth.

¹³ 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. ¹⁴ Make yourself an ark of gopherwood; make rooms in the ark, and cover it inside and outside with pitch. ¹⁵ 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. ¹⁶ 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. ¹⁷ 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. ¹⁸ 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. ¹⁹ 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. ²⁰ 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. ²¹ 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.”

²² Thus Noah did; according to all that God commanded him, so he did.

Genesis 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. ² You 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; ³ also seven each of birds of the air, male and female, to keep the species alive on the face of all the earth. ⁴ For after seven more days I will cause it to rain on the earth forty days and forty nights, and I will destroy from the face of the earth all living things that I have made.” ⁵ And Noah did according to all that the Lord commanded him. ⁶ Noah was six hundred years old when the floodwaters were on the earth.

⁷ So Noah, with his sons, his wife, and his sons’ wives, went into the ark because of the waters of the flood. ⁸ Of clean animals, of animals that are unclean, of birds, and of everything that creeps on the earth, ⁹ two by two they went into the ark to Noah, male and female, as God had commanded Noah. ¹⁰ And it came to pass after seven days that the waters of the flood were on the earth. ¹¹ In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, in 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. ¹² And the rain was on the earth forty days and forty nights.

¹³ 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— ¹⁴ 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. ¹⁵ And they went into the ark to Noah, two by two, of all flesh in which is the breath of life. ¹⁶ So those that entered, male and female of all flesh, went in as God had commanded him; and the Lord shut him in.

¹⁷ Now the flood was on the earth forty days. The waters increased and lifted up the ark, and it rose high above the earth. ¹⁸ The waters prevailed and greatly increased on the earth, and the ark moved about on the surface of the waters. ¹⁹ And the waters prevailed exceedingly on the earth, and all the high hills under the whole heaven were covered. ²⁰ The waters prevailed fifteen cubits upward, and the mountains were covered. ²¹ 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. ²² All in whose nostrils was the breath of the spirit of life, all that was on the dry land, died. ²³ So He destroyed all living things which were on the face of the ground: both man and cattle, creeping thing and bird of the air. They were destroyed from the earth. Only Noah and those who were with him in the ark remained alive. ²⁴ And the waters prevailed on the earth one hundred and fifty days.

Genesis 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. ² The fountains of the deep and the windows of heaven were also stopped, and the rain from heaven was restrained. ³ And the waters receded continually from the earth. At the end of the hundred and fifty days the waters decreased. ⁴ Then the ark rested in the seventh month, the seventeenth day of the month, on the mountains of Ararat. ⁵ And the waters decreased continually until the tenth month. In the tenth month, on the first day of the month, the tops of the mountains were seen.

⁶ So it came to pass, at the end of forty days, that Noah opened the window of the ark which he had made. ⁷ Then he sent out a raven, which kept going to and fro until the waters had dried up from the earth. ⁸ He also sent out from himself a dove, to see if the waters had receded from the face of the ground. ⁹ 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 whole earth. So he put out his hand and took her, and drew her into the ark to himself. ¹⁰ And he waited yet another seven days, and again he sent the dove out from the ark. ¹¹ 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. ¹² So he waited yet another seven days and sent out the dove, which did not return again to him anymore.

¹³ 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 looked, and indeed the surface of the ground was dry. ¹⁴ And in the second month, on the twenty-seventh day of the month, the earth was dried.

¹⁵ Then God spoke to Noah, saying, ¹⁶ “Go out of the ark, you and your wife, and your sons and your sons’ wives with you. ¹⁷ 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.” ¹⁸ So Noah went out, and his sons and his wife and his sons’ wives with him. ¹⁹ Every animal, every creeping thing, every bird, and whatever creeps on the earth, according to their families, went out of the ark.

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.

²² “While the earth remains,
Seedtime and harvest,
Cold and heat,
Winter and summer,
And day and night
Shall not cease.”

Pause for Reflection

Now we'll take a moment to reflect silently on what we have just read and heard in Scripture.

Rebuilding the World With God

From the Theology of Work Bible Commentary on Genesis

Some situations may be redeemable. Others may be beyond redemption. In Genesis 6, God laments the state of the pre-flood world and its culture, and God decides to start over.

"The Lord was sorry that he had made humankind on the earth, and it grieved him to his heart. So the Lord said, "I will blot out from the earth the human beings I have created…” But Noah found favor in the sight of the Lord.” (Genesis 6:6-8)

From Adam to us, God looks for persons who can stand against the culture of sin when needed. Adam failed the test but sired the line of Noah, "a righteous man, blameless in his generation" (Genesis 6:9). Noah is the first person whose work is primarily redemptive. Unlike others, who are busy wringing a living from the ground, Noah is called to save humanity and nature from destruction. In him we see the progenitor of priests, prophets, and apostles, who are called to the work of reconciliation with God. We also see the work of those who care for the environment. To greater or lesser degrees, all workers since Noah are called to redemption and reconciliation in their various occupations.

Noah’s first task is a building project. And what a building project the ark is! Against the jeers of neighbors, Noah and his sons must fell thousands of cypress trees, and then hand plane them into planks enough to build a floating zoo. This three-decked vessel needs the capacity to carry many species of animals and to store their food and water. Despite the hardship, the text assures us that "Noah did this; he did all that God commanded him" (Genesis 6:22).

In the business world, entrepreneurs work against conventional wisdom to come up with new products or processes. They must be able to tolerate risk and take a long-term view, without getting hung up on short-term results. Noah faces what at times must have seemed like an impossible task, and some biblical scholars suggest that the actual building of the ark took a hundred years. It takes faith, tenacity, and careful planning to persist in the face of skeptics and critics. Today, innovators, entrepreneurs, and those who challenge prevailing opinions need a source of inner strength and conviction. When confronted with opposition and discouragement, they must turn to prayer and to the counsel of those wise in God.

For more than half a year, Noah, his family, and all of the animals bounce around inside the ark as the floods rage. When at last the flood subsides, the text echoes Genesis 1. God blows a “wind” over “the deep” and “the waters” recede (Genesis 8:1-3). The text emphasizes the continuity of God’s creation, and yet it is also, in a sense, a new world, reshaped by the force of the flood. God was giving human culture a new opportunity to start from scratch and get it right. For Christians, this foreshadows the new heaven and new earth in Revelation 21-22, when human life and work are brought to perfection within the cosmos healed from the effects of the Fall.

In this redemptive work, God assigns a human being the task of saving the animals and repopulating the planet. People have not been released from God’s call to "have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the air and over every living thing that moves upon the earth" (Genesis 1:28). God is always at work to restore what was lost in the Fall. In doing so, God uses humanity as his chief instrument. People are fallen but are also in the process of being redeemed. By partnering in God’s work of restoration, we become active participants in our own redemption.

On dry land, Noah's first act is to build an altar to the Lord. God binds himself to a covenant with Noah and his descendants never again to destroy the earth by flood, and God gives the rainbow as a sign of his promise. He repeats his blessing that Noah and his sons will “be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth” (Genesis 9:1). He also affirms his promise of provision of food through their work, and sets requirements for justice among humans and for the protection of all creatures.

Although the earth and its people go through radical change, this story shows two things that remain consistent: 1) God’s blessings for humanity, and 2) God’s purpose for work.

How does this apply to your work?

• To download a transcript of the Theology of Work Bible Commentary for this session, click here.

• For tips on leading this session, click here.