Understanding God: He Honors Parental Decrees Then Noah built an altar to the Lord, and took of every clean animal and of every clean bird, and offered burnt offerings on…
Understanding God: He Honors Parental Decrees
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.” – Genesis 8:20-21
In continuation of our series on understanding the nature and character of God, another of His personality attributes that we shall focus on today is the fact that He listens to parents, and He honors their decrees over their children, be that good or bad.
History abounds with accounts of parents, male or female, who had engineered the destinies of their children, positively or negatively, through their utterances. There are also a number of examples in the Bible where parents have made certain declarations concerning their children, either in joy, in annoyance, or in pain, and those decrees have come to pass. This is because God has placed the destinies of the children primarily in the mouths of their parents and secondarily in the mouths of prophets, who can either establish a parental blessing or reverse it in cooperation with the parents or as an oracle of God.
For our reference today, we see from the above passage of the Bible how Noah came to live out the destiny decreed concerning him by his father, Lamech, hundreds of years later. We had earlier read about how Lamech made a rather unusual declaration concerning his son, Noah, when he was born.
Lamech lived one hundred and eighty-two 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.” – Genesis 5:28-29
Lamech made this statement when he had Noah at the age of 182 years. He then went on to live for another 595 years. Between the years that Lamech died and the year that Noah was called by God, the earth had become even more corrupt, with everyone doing his or her own thing, much to the vexation of God.
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. 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. – Genesis 6:5-8
This passage ends on a rather interesting note because while the whole earth was perverted and displeasing God, there was no indication before this time that Noah was any different from the rest of the world. However, he found grace in the eyes of God. In other words, even though Noah himself might have been sinful and corrupt like the rest of the people, he, in particular, found grace (favor unmerited) from God that distinguished him from everyone else and singled him out for God to walk and work with.
Although the next verse following this passage describes Noah as a just man, he did not attain his upright nature until he was first a beneficiary of the grace of God. In other words, Noah came to be known as just, perfect, and walking with God only after he had found grace in the eyes of God (Genesis 6:9).
Why was Noah’s case different? Why did he come to be distinguished in an era filled with sinners and perverts? The answer is simple, because his father had made a decree concerning him when he was born that he would be the one to offer comfort to the earth concerning the curse that God had placed on the grounds after the disobedience of Adam and Eve (Genesis 3:17-19, Genesis 5:28-29).
Thousands of years after the curse of the ground and six hundred years after his father’s prophetic declaration, Noah indeed fulfilled this destiny by virtue of the force of the spoken word or the influence of a parental decree.
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. – Genesis 8:20-21
That this scenario played out as it did was a testament to the power of a parental declaration and the important role a parent’s utterances wield in the life and destiny of a child because God listens to them.
For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea. – Habakkuk 2:14
Understanding God: He Starts Afresh So God blessed Noah and his sons, and said to them: “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth. – Genesis 9:1 Another lesson we…
Understanding God: He Starts Afresh
So God blessed Noah and his sons, and said to them: “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth. – Genesis 9:1
Another lesson we can learn from God’s attributes is that He starts afresh. He is not a God who is afraid to appraise performance and then use the insights learned from there to start afresh or anew.
The scenarios leading to the flood that wiped out the entire earth represent an example of God taking a dispassionate look at the evolving dynamics of His own works, particularly the human race, and admitting to Himself that they had metamorphosed into something entirely different and unrecognizable from His original intent, thus necessitating the need for a system format, a total cleanup of sorts so that He could rebuild.
The flood episode that followed this realization was God doing something practical about eliminating a faulty or defective product line He had in hand in the form of humans and other live forms around then. With the deluge, God wiped out everything, except for Noah, his family the animals and birds that were housed with them in the ark.
After the flood, however, and with everyone else and everything else gone, except those preserved in the ark, God made a fresh start. He started with the remnants in the ark. With them, He started His own version of Project Rebuild by blessing humankind, represented by Noah and his family, and then setting new rules of engagement for them, as seen in Genesis 9:1-17. If you compare this passage with Genesis 1:26-31, when God started the first project, you will see striking similarities between the two instances.
The important lesson here is that God, in His omniscience, did not hesitate to admit that His process had gone awry and contrary to expectations at some point and then moved to start again, afresh and anew. As Henry Ford famously said, “Failure is simply the opportunity to begin again, this time more intelligently.”
Therefore, if God can admit mistakes as to His works (Genesis 6:5-7) and see the need to redo the whole thing all over, what makes us think we can do without?
For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea. – Habakkuk 2:14
Understanding God: God of Accountability 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…
Understanding God: God of Accountability
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.” – Genesis 9:9-11
Another attribute we can learn from God is that, in addition to learning from His own processes and making amends using insights gained from His evaluation, He also holds Himself accountable to ensure that the process does not fail again. He is a God of accountability.
You may wonder why this is so since we are talking about an all-knowing, all-powerful, and all-sufficient God here. Well, while God is Alpha and Omega, the Beginning and the End, and knows the end of all things from their beginning, He pretty much gives the power of agency to His creatures, particularly humans, to manage the proceedings or do things their own way by making choices and decisions or taking steps and actions, that will either ensure their predestination or have it turned out differently, by their own doing or undoing.
This statement will perhaps answer one of the questions that believers, non-believers, scholars, philosophers, scientists, and others have asked across the ages about God’s influence and role in terrestrial outcomes.
The LORD is the God of the beginnings and is the God of endings. But He does not meddle much in the proceedings and the dynamics that ensue between those two ends. Otherwise, we might as well all be puppets controlled by the whims of a puppeteer up there, not the free moral agents that He created us to be.
The truth is we are all creatures of will, with the ability to decide how our outcomes and ends would be through the choices, decisions, and actions we make ourselves.
It was because of this freedom that the human race turned into something else, contrary to the original design of God when He first created them, which thus necessitated the need for a wipeout. Now, having done that with the flood and seeing how the clear-out played out, God felt He could do better next time in His management of the human race:
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
With this declaration, God resolved to correct two decisive actions He had taken before then. First, He was reversing the curse He placed on the earth’s surface after Adam and Eve’s mistake. Second, He was never going to destroy all lives on the earth again in a wholesale fashion as He did during Noah’s time—not with the flood, not at all.
Now, this passage was a product of God thinking to Himself. He made a new resolution about humans and what the new world order would be. But He had not communicated that to anyone yet. However, He needed to commit Himself to this. Therefore, He voiced out His thoughts to Noah and his family:
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.” – Genesis 9:8-9
It gets more interesting because God did not just get Himself accountability partners in Noah and His sons, He also instituted a memento that would help both Him and them to remember His promises:
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 waters 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.” – Genesis 9:12-17
This shows us that accountability, as a value, was first exhibited by God. He had to commit Himself to not destroying humanity again, as there was no guarantee that they would live in accordance with His standards since they are free moral agents. Also, this passage shows us that the practice of having accountability partners was first instituted by God when He made a promise He was bound to keep to Noah and his sons.
Lastly, God also created the very first reminder,accountability tool, visual cue,motivational trigger, or commitment device that would make it hard for Him to break His promise to the earthlings. This He did in the rainbow, which He made an everlasting ordinance that would remain even when His initial accountability partners are no more.
Now, isn’t this the classic way we ought to approach accountability?
For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea. – Habakkuk 2:14
Understanding God: He Does Not Condone Nonsense And they said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city, and a tower whose top is in the heavens; let us make a…
Understanding God: He Does Not Condone Nonsense
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. – Genesis 11:4-8
As we continue exploring God’s personality, another lesson we can learn from Him is that He does not condone nonsense, particularly to the extent that such conflicts with His will and plan.
God had just completed a total overhaul of Project Earth with the flood, which required that He wipe out the defective creatures He then had in hand after the fall in the garden and the cursed earth they had to operate in afterwards. Even though the former generations were gone, God did not lose sight of His mandate for humanity to subdue and fill the earth. This was part of His initial communication to Adam (Genesis 1:28). It was also one of the first things He told Noah when He started afresh (Genesis 9:1).
Meanwhile, here comes humankind again. After multiplying enough, they started having a different idea of their own. Rather than fulfilling the mandate of God, handed to their forbears, to proliferate across the earth, they wanted to stay in one place instead. Hear them: ‘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”’ (Genesis 11:4).
They did not want to leave their comfort zone. They wanted to stay in the same place. And rather than spread out, as God wanted, they were only thinking of building high-rise structures that would rise as high they could get to accommodate their increasing number of people. They were not contemplating branching out to other parts of the earth where they would have to break grounds and level the highs in order to build new structures. God was not happy about that.
‘So the Lord scattered them abroad from there over the face of all the earth, and they ceased building the city’ (Genesis 11:8). God came down and mobilized His hosts to confuse their communication, and that put an end to the project for sure. God is still very much in the business of scattering and scuttling structures today, particularly schemes and affairs that do not align with His will. He does not condone nonsense and does not suffer fools gladly.
For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea. – Habakkuk 2:14
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. Then 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.” – Genesis 11:1-7
Another interesting lesson we can learn from God’s mode of operation, as seen in this passage and many others like it, is that He regularly consults His council before making a major move or undertaking an important endeavor.
It is instructive that God, who is all-sufficient and all-knowing as we know Him to be, is this way. But there are many traits and attributes of God that seem lost to humanity, even to the most ardent of His worshippers. Yes, we know Him to be the Almighty and all-powerful, but there is certainly more to Him than that, as we have been highlighting through this devotional. God is much more than what we imagine Him to be. He is more than what is preached to us at religious gatherings.
On His penchant for consulting, it is instructive that God, who has the most important decisions to make and the highest responsibility to shoulder, is also the One who arguably consults the most before making His moves. When He was about to make the most important of His creatures, He did not just declare them into being like He did His previous works. Rather, He started by first engaging His council, saying, “Let Us make man 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” (Genesis 1:26).
From our main Bible reference today, when He came down to earth and saw the edifice that humanity was building at Babel, He also consulted His council to intimate them on what He would do. The passage reads: ‘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…’” (Genesis 11:6-7). This indicates that God first came down, saw what was going on and then went back to His hosts in heaven to consult them on what He wanted to do to solve the problem. Then He invited them to come down to earth with Him to execute His plan.
Of course, He could have gone ahead and done what He considered best. After all, He is the Ultimate God, and no one can question Him. But that He did not do so became an important lesson and another of His legacies for us lesser mortals: If God, who could have done without counsel, did not, why should anyone who does not have the benefit of omniscience do so?
For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea. – Habakkuk 2:14
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