Session 8 Noah

 I.   Noah in real time & Space

II.  Post-Adamic world had come full circle Matthew 24:38-39

     A. Noah's flood as an epoch divider?

1. The Adamic age comes to an end

       a. Noah = "rest"

       b. The Sumerian Kings List

2. An historical flood?

                              a. The Gilgamesh Epic

                              b. The Story Atrahasis

                              c. The Sumerian Flood Story

III. Judgment comes in the form a "de-creation" event

      A. Genesis 7:11-12

      B. The great tehom bursts open and the earth is returned to a watery chaos

IV. Restoration comes in the form of a "re-creational" and universal covenant

      A. Genesis 9:1-7

1. Edenic mandates repeated, but this time in a fallen world

2. Made with all flesh and even with the planet itself. re-establishing contact between God and man in a fallen world

3. Oath promise of the rainbow

B. Genesis 9:24-27

1. Canaan = "to be subdued"

2. Japheth = "to increase"

3. Shem = "name"

4. An etiological map of the holy land

V. Where does the Noahic covenant leave us?

A. The people of God: the offspring of Shem

B. The presence of God: with Shem's offspring

C. The place unidentified

Tehom is a Northwest Semitic and Biblical Hebrew word meaning "the deep" or "abyss". It is used to describe the primeval ocean and the post-creation waters of the earth. 

Jesus came to undo what happened in Eden

Biblical Record	Sumerian Kings List
	kings before the flood long reins, after - shorter reins
Genesis: 10 patriarchs - average age 858 years	8 kings - average rein of 30,000 years
base 10 number system	base 60 number system
these two records relate to the same events
Semitic: term for ethnic cultural or racial group People of the middle east and the horn of Africa

Biblical authority is proved by: 3 different societies telling the same story.

Sumerian Kings List and others, Sumerian flood story

writing is developed at this time

Native American and Aboriginal peoples have flood stories in their culture.

Rescue- rebuilt with Noah read Genesis 9:3-5

Everything that lives and moves about will be food for you. Just as I gave you the green plants, I now give you everything. “But you must not eat meat that has its lifeblood still in it.  And for your lifeblood I will surely demand an accounting. I will demand an accounting from every animal. And from each human being, too, I will demand an accounting for the life of another human being.

Session 7 God's Final Intent

Heaven From the book The Epic of Eden:

 Revelation 21-22 reveals that God's final intent is to restore humanity to a state of fellowship with Him, free from the consequences of sin and death, in a New Jerusalem that embodies a perfect dwelling place with Him.

The Tree of Life, which reappears in the New Jerusalem, symbolizes eternal life, healing, and the restoration of access to God's presence, akin to its role in Eden.

Originating in the throne room of God the Holy of Holies it brings life back to a fallen earth. Ezekiel 47:12 by the river on its bank, on one side and on the other, will grow all kinds of trees for food. Their leaves will not wither and their fruit will not fail they will bear every month because their water flows from the sanctuary, and their fruit will be for food and their leaves for healing. Hmmm...when did we last encounter a tree of life?

The New Jerusalem 

• This brings us at last to Revelation 21- 22 the end of the story. The biblical author is describing heaven as a new earth. The garden has been restored, the primordial deep (“chaos”) has been defeated, and Ezekiel's City/Temple is being lowered from the heavens to serve as the residents of the redeemed. Hear the voice from the throne ringing out into the silence and grief of Adam's wasted world: “I am making all things new!” Revelations 21:5 The Creator speaks and the earth and its inhabitants are finally free.
• Healing has come; mourning is past; death is no more. This is the New Jerusalem purified and whole. And with the New Jerusalem comes the presence, and God himself shall be among them.
• Then he showed me a river of the water of Life clear as Crystal coming from the throne of God and of the lamb, in the middle of its street. On either side of the river was the tree of life, bearing twelve kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit every month and the leaves of the tree were for healing of the nations. There will no longer be any curse; and the throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it, and His bond servants will serve him and they will see his face and his name will be on their foreheads and there will no longer be any night and they will not have need of the light of the lamp nor the light of the sun because the Lord God will illuminate them and they will reign forever and ever.
• The New Jerusalem (what we know as “heaven”) is all that the city of the man in Eden was meant to be. In fact it is Eden a fruit-filled paradise animated by a cosmic River and graced by the tree of life.

God's original intent is his final intent. Eden was the perfect plan, and God has never had any other. His goal was that the people of God might dwell in the place of God, enjoying the presence of God. This is all our heavenly father has ever wanted for us. And everything that lies between Eden's gate and the new Jerusalem, the bulk of our bibles, is in essence a huge rescue plan. In fact, we could summarize the plot line of the Bible into one cosmic question: " how do we get Adam back into the garden? " In Genesis 3 humanity was driven out; and Revelation 21 through 22 they are welcomed home.

Rock Climber Metaphor

In the Climber Metaphor, the climber represents humanity's fallen state, needing a series of rescues and interventions to restore him to health. This metaphor illustrates how God acts through covenants and ultimately Jesus to redeem humanity from sin.

Although designed to live out their lives in Eden, humanity chose rebellion instead. The result was the fall with all of its horrible repercussions. Like a rock climber having fallen from a great height, Adam now lies broken and bloody on the ledge of a cliff - too far from the top or bottom for a simple rescue it will take a series of rescues to bring this climber to safety. Let's pursue this metaphor for a moment. A climber who has experienced this sort of accident is too injured to do anything to help himself; he is probably unconscious. So someone is going to have to repel down that precipice to reach him in his need. That someone will need to do emergency first aid, brace the climber's neck and strap his battered body into a litter so that he can be hoisted back up or down the face of the cliff. But this is only the beginning of the rescue. An airlift will be needed to get this man to a hospital. Emergency surgery will be necessary to stop the bleeding, remove the irreparable organs and splint the bones. And now the real vigil begins. Placed in ICU on a respirator and IV, will our climber recover? the rescue of Adam is much the same as this metaphor. The Bible teaches us that redemptive history did not happen in one fell swoop. Rather, God has been leading humanity back to Eden by means of a sequence of steps, a series of rescues, a series of covenants. To mix metaphors, with a covenant of Noah the paramedic successfully reaches the fallen climber; with the covenant of Abraham triage is done and the climber is lowered down the cliff; with the covenants of Moses and David the airlift is accomplished and surgery begins; with a covenant of Jesus the surgery is successful and the vigil begins dash will our rescued climber endure to the end? The rest of this book is dedicated to detailing each of the covenantal administrations of this great rescue plan. Each step of the story, each state of the rescue may be organized under one of six covenants. Figure 5.6

Even in the New Jerusalem are the bookends of redemptive history. God's original intent is his final intent and everything that lies between is one extraordinary rescue plan.

Lesson 6 God's Original Intent

EPICALLY PROFOUND 

The following bullet points are taken from the book The epic of Eden.

•  If humanity would simply acknowledge the innate authority of the Creator, would recognize that they were tenants and stewards in God's garden, they would live in paradise forever. But if they had to have access to every part of the garden, if they had to "be free" to choose their own rules and decide for themselves what was "good and evil," if they had to be autonomous of the authority of the great King, then they would die. The choice was autonomy, the covenant was broken and the curse was enacted. 
• Adam is the collective Hebrew term for "humanity."
• Adam and Eve are free to do anything except decide for themselves what is good and what is evil. Yahweh reserves the right (and the responsibility) to name those truths himself.
• This was Adam and Eve's perfect world. An entire race of people stretching their cognitive and creative powers to the limit to build the society of balance and Justice and joy. 
• The blessing of this gift? A civilization without greed, malice or envy; progress without pollution, expansion without extinction. A world in which Adam and Eve's ever expanding family would be provided the guidance they needed to explore and develop their world such that the success of the strong did not involve the deprivation of the weak. Here government would be wise and just and kind, resources plentiful, war unnecessary, achievement unlimited and beauty and balance everywhere. 
• Yet, as with all covenants, God's perfect plan was dependent on the choice of the vassal. Humanity must willingly submit to the plan of God. The steward must choose this world; for in God's perfect plan, the steward had been given the authority to reject it. 
• The first aspect of Eve's curse involves childbirth. The second aspect of Eve's curse: Genesis 1 makes it clear that Eve was designed as Adam's co-regent. In every fashion Eve is presented as Adams equal in Genesis 1. But with the fall, this mutuality is shattered. 
• With the fall this ideal partnership was transformed into the competitive grappling of two hungry souls. They still desperately need and desire one another, but they are no longer able to live their lives together with the same mutuality. Rather, they are now locked into a competitive relationship, each vying for control of the other, contending for the resources that now appears so transient.
• As Adam had the advantage of size and strength, and Eve was still constrained by her desire for hearth and home, the centuries testify to the fact that Eve's longing for her husband will too often result in her willing participation in her own oppression and abuse. A relationship that should have been characterized by mutual self-sacrifice, productivity and joy will create instead the deepest of frustration and pain. 
• There is not a marriage on this planet that has not felt the Aftershock of this curse.
• Adam's curse: Adam was a farmer. He was meant to have full Joy in this role because every plant he touched, every inch of soil he tilled, bore exactly the harvest he desired, and more. But with the fall, Adam's authority over the cultivatable land was shattered. Adams careful and creative tilling of the Earth became toil, that at times was more than he could bear. And worse, the land could be fruitless. Adam's curse was not work, it was fruitless work.
• The Earth rebelled against humanity as part of the fall. 
• Genesis 3 we see that because of the rebellion of the earth and the expulsion of Adam and Eve from God's presence, humanity will now live their lives in an adversarial world with a constant, knowing undercurrent of dread that there will not be enough, that their labor will not meet the need. This is the curse of Adam - limited resources an insecure future in a world that no longer responds to the commands of humanity.
• The ones made to rule the cultivatable Earth will now become fertilizer for it. That's perfect order has been turned upside down.
• The loss of the presence: Genesis 3:23-24 therefore the Lord God sent [Salah] him out from the garden of eden... so He drove man out; and at the East of the garden of Eden he stationed the cherubim and the flaming sword which turned every direction to guard the way to the tree of life.
• The final scene of this heartbreaking drama is that Yahweh drives his children from his presence, and the place that Adam and Eve were privileged to protect is now protected from them. 
• Adam has lost yahweh, and now the people of God will live in exile from both his place and his presence. The verb in verse 23 salah is the same verb one uses to divorce a wife or disown a child. By their own choice, Adam and Eve are separated from their creator.
• The seven days turned upside down: what we've seen in the curses of Genesis 3 it's not merely the spewing of random penalties in response to a bad decision, but the reversal of intended benefits. Those made in the image of God and designed to live eternally will now die like the animals; the earth, which was designed to serve will now devour; the bringing forth of life will now produce death. In other words, the perfect seven-day structure of Eden has been turned upside down, thrown into a tailspin by the treason of God's stewards. 
• Romans 8:19-23 for the anxious longing of the creation waits eagerly for the revealing of the sons of god. For the creation was subjected to fertility, not of its own will, but because of Him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself also will be set free from its slavery to corruption into the freedom of the glory of the children of god. For we know that the whole creation groans and suffers the pains of childbirth together until now. And not only this but also we ourselves, having the first fruits of the spirit, even we are selves grown within ourselves, waiting eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our body.
• This text is reiterating what Genesis won through three has already taught us, that God's first perfect plan was cast into futility by Adams choice. Therefore the entire creation (over which humanity had been given) "not of its own will" but because of Adam's. 
• In sum, when the stewards of Eden are returned to their proper place in God's perfect seven-day structure by means of the recreative power of redemption, when their treasonous choice is reversed, so too will the cosmos be" freed from its slavery to corruption," and returned to its pre-fallen state.
• We are not merely waiting for our personal deliverance, we wait for the day when all of creation will be" born again." 
• And what is the "freedom of the glory of the children of God"?  The passage tells us it is "our adoption as sons, the redemption of our body." In other words, the sign that our redemption is accomplished is the moment that our death-ridden bodies are resurrected into the ongoing state of eternal life. 
• According to Dr. Meredith Kline, this text in Romans communicates that the adamah (ground or Earth) is as repelled by Adam's presense within it as we are. Adamah is groaning in childbirth even now, longing for the day when the child is delivered, when Adam is raised up from the dirt" our adoption as sons the redemption of our body." Romans 8 makes it clear that the goal of redemption is far broader than the simple salvation of the individual. Redemption is a cosmic plan of cosmic proportions. God's plan is that all creation will be "saved" from the effects of sin.

Lesson 5 Treaty

 Richter mentioned a chart of treaty in last week's video. I'm pretty sure that is in this week's lesson on pages 70 to 71.

• Through this Covenant relationship, through this treaty that Yahweh offers to Israel, Israel is given the Idea of national identity.

• They didn't have a national identity before, as they were a tribal outfit, an extended family.

• The thing that has forged them together is their common suffering, but at the foot of Mount Sinai by means of the Covenant document, Yahweh makes them a nation.

• God is suzerain,  Israel is the vassal. 

• God communicates the idea of monotheism. This is critical, the Israelites don't understand monotheism, and really it's going to take them a while to get this straight. The average citizen sitting in the pew isn't going to get it straight for a long long time, and that's evidenced by all sorts of material, culture, and archaeological evidence. We've still got statues to Ashra dropping into the average citizen's house in 8th century Judah, unfortunately.

• God uses a political form to communicate to this theologically challenged outfit what monotheism is all about, and how it works. “I'm the only one here, yes, you've been taught about other Gods, but I am your suzerain you either give your loyalty to me or there will colloquially speaking, be hell to pay."

Mega Huge Idea!!

This had so many lightbulbs going off in my brain! It was such a huge aha moment for me! The Old Testament is making sense to me more than ever before.

"Matthew 26: 27-28. It is Passover. Jesus and his 12 disciples have gathered to celebrate the ritual meal. Every Jew everywhere was required to gather and commemorate the miracles of The Exodus. To remember that great and terrible night when the blood of a spotless lamb marked, who would live and who would die, when the 10th plague." Passed over" the houses of the Israelites but struck down the first born of Egypt. It was during this" last supper" that Jesus instituted the communion meal. When he had taken a cup and given thanks, he gave it to them saying,' drank from it, all of you; for this is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for forgiveness of sins." Do you hear the echo of Exodus 24? Moses said," this is the blood of the covenant"; Jesus said," this is my blood of the covenant." This echo is not coincidental, nor was it missed by its first century audience. Rather, on that Passover night, Jesus announced to his disciples that something greater than The Exodus was about to transpire. By means of oath and sacrifice. Another rabble of slaves was about to be transformed into God's covenant people. As Moses sprinkled the blood of the bulls upon the people of Israel in order to ratify the Sinai covenant, so Jesus distributed his own blood that night to ratify a New covenant. And this time the oaths were not sealed by." The blood of bulls and goats and the ashes of a heifer," but by the blood of God the son. Moreover, the slaves who were freed from their bondage by this New covenant were not delivered merely from Egypt, but from death itself. In this New covenant, the Lord of the cosmos has served as both suzerain and sacrifice."

The Epic of Eden by Sandra Richter

The Epic of Eden Lesson 4 The Concept of Covenant

Summary

• The biblical writers were theologians who consciously organized their material in a systematic fashion in order to communicate certain Central truths. We need to rediscover their system and allow their system to organize our closets.

• The covenant is a major structuring principle of our scriptures. A covenant was much like a contract 

• Fictive kinship Israel's patriarchal culture in which an individual's privileges and responsibilities within the bêt ’āb, the tribe and larger society were predetermined by their lineage, gender and birth order. This was how the ancients ordered their world.

• Establishing a relationship of privilege and responsibility with someone who was non-kin that person would have to make kin out of non-kin. This was accomplished by means of fictive kinship. Both parties agreed to act like family. (think marriage and adoption)

• Egypt and Mesopotamia were the superpowers who regularly sought for control of Canaan; Israel's territory (Canaan or Palestine) 

• In the days of the divided monarchy, this tiny strip of land housed, the Israelites, Judahhites, Philistines, Phoenicians, Moabites and a dozen other small tribal groups.

• Two sorts of international alliances: the Parity Treaty (made between equals) and the Suzerain/Vassal (treaty made between greater and lesser powers).

• Parity Treaty: responsibilities of both parties typically limited to military alliance against an outsider (covenant partner spoke of each other as brothers)

• Suzerain/Vassal Treaty: One party clearly more powerful than the other had right to demand submission of weaker Ally. (Partners spoke of each other as Father and son or Lord and servant) 

• Make a covenant ("cut a berit") with us (Joshua and the The Gibeonites).

• A berit always involved oaths, ratified by  of animals ("May what has happened to these animals happen to me if I fail to keep my oath")

• Genesis 15:9 Abram participating in a covenant with Yahweh: " oh Lord God, how may I know that I will possess the land?"  Genesis 15:8 Yahweh answers in a way that he knows Abram will understand - cow, goat, ram, dove, pigeon for sacrifice as when people cut a berit.

• Abram supernaturally induced sleep - A great darkness fell upon him (an appearance of the deity in physical form) What happened at Sinai when God descended upon the mountain in material form to communicate with his people. Genesis 15:18 God passed between the torn and bloodied parts of the sacrificed animals.  "May what has happened to these animals happened to me if I failed to keep my oath" 

• Abram didn't fail his promise, but the children of Abraham did. Whose flesh was torn to pay the price for this broken covenant? The God man, Jesus Christ, the representative of humanity and the embodiment of Yahweh whose flesh was torn to appease the broken stipulations of the oath taken.

• Covenants are the terminology associated with the international politics of the ancient near East, and the Bible is describing Israel's relationship to Yahweh in terms of a berit. Suzerain and Israel has become his vassal.

• Yahweh has become Israel's sovereign Lord and Israel His servant. Israel will demonstrate this three times a year, every year, when every male was required to appear before Yahweh with his tribute in hand. If Israel fails to obey the stipulations of the covenant, their sovereign Lord will surrender Israel to her enemies. But if Israel is faithful, Yahweh will defend her against all military and economic afflictions. In this manner, the nation of Israel will retain the land grant of the Great King.

• In sum, we see that the word covenant carries more semantic cargo than most Bible readers would ever guess and Yahweh, the great teacher, selected this well-known secular image in order to teach his chosen people about himself. So significant. Is this concept of covenant to the Bible that the biblical writers utilize it as a major structuring principle for both the history and theology of redemption. 

The Epic of Eden Lesson 3

The Bible in Real Time and Space

Richter acknowledges the complex geography in the Old Testament, but she clearly points out its importance. She suggests streamlining all the locations into three main areas: Mesopotamia, Israel, and Egypt, which is a great way to manage what's important and organize it all.

" We are organizing the story of redemption as the biblical writers have, around five major eras. Each of these five eras is associated with one key player (Adam, Noah, Abraham, Moses and David) organize the plotline of the Old Testament. Three general areas (Mesopotamia, Israel and Egypt, set the stage."

Adam God offers Adam and Eve everything a human could desire. He installs these two, made in his image, as the stewards of his perfect world. But as we all know, humanity rejects God's plan, choosing autonomy instead and they are evicted from Eden. Thus Adam's world is birthed with all of its pain and chaos. So too is the story of redemption birthed. For with Adam's choice, God's plan of rescue begins.

Noah

The flood served as a period of history that divided the Adamic Age to the current one. Noah's chosen Shem was the salvation of our fallen race.

Abraham

Abraham is the offspring of Shem and the next step in God's redemptive plan. He is known as "the father of the Jews" because his descendants will become the nation of Israel. This is where we step into datable history. He brought his bêt āb to Canaan (which would later become Israel). His son Jacob took his bêt āb and followed Joseph into Egypt.

Moses

Moses the child of a Hebrew raised with Egyptian royalty. Driven from Egypt because of his loyalty to his own people. Moses leads God's people out of slavery and into a new life. When the sea parts, tens of thousands of the offspring of Abraham step into freedom. At Sinai this group is transformed into a nation and the journey to the Promised Land begins.

David

David was born into an era in which Israel has not yet evolved into a centralized government. This new nation is still governed through its tribal leaders. The people's first choice was Saul the Benjaminite who turns out to be a horrid disappointment. Yahweh removes him and appoints David, with whom the actual dynasty begins.

Space

Some basic geographical information will transform the way we read and understand the Old Testament. Remember, we are going to organize ourselves around three general regions: Mesopotamia (which housed the nations of Assyria and Babylonia), Israel (which is also known as Canaan and Palestine) and Egypt. All of these regions may be found in the Fertile Crescent. What made this region fertile was water. The Tigris and Euphrates rivers toward the east, the Jordan in the center and the Nile in the west transformed desert and stone into farmland and pasturage. This swath of habitable and arable land served as the backdrop to the peoples and narratives of the Old Testament.

Mesopotamia

• means "the land between the rivers"
• east of Fertile Crescent
• writing first developed here in c. 3200 BC
• cradle of civilization
• setting for Noah's flood
• biblical writers apparently understand it as the setting for the Tower of Babel
• Abraham leaves Ur in Mesopotamia to find the promised land

Canaan

• Canaan/Israel/Palestine
• served as the only land bridge between to Mesopotamia and Egypt
• Abraham spent most of his life in Canaan

Egypt

• after several generations Abraham's kin found their way to Egypt
• Joseph and his special coat
• for many years Joseph lived in Egypt as a slave, then prisoner and then a political advisor
• Jacob discovers Joseph is still alive, takes his kin to Egypt and stayed, eventually becoming slaves to Pharaoh.
• Moses leads the people out of Egypt to Mt. Sinai, then Moab
• sets up the reformation of the people of God
• Moses transferred leadership to Joshua and Israel began to make preparations for the conquest of the Promised Land

Canaan Revisited

• successful assault on Jericho (books of Judges and Joshua)
• Israel spent next several hundred years wrestling indigenous people for governing control in the land
• Under King David Israel Israel gains control of all the land promised to Abraham
• Under David's grandson, Rehoboam, fissure between northern and southern tribes develops and country torn apart by civil war
• divided kingdom 931 BC Israel in the north (various kings/dynasties), Judah in the south (Davidic dynasty) 1 and 2 Kings
• to avoid divided monarchy confusion see map below and remember that the temple and David's dynasty continue in the south in Jerusalem.

Mesopotamia Revisited

• northern and southern kingdoms eventually became victims of conquest and exile

• in 722 BC the Mesopotamian superpower, Assyria, captures Samaria (capital of northern kingdom) resulting in the 10 lost tribes of Israel never returning home again. 2 Kings 17
• 130 years later southern kingdom suffers same fate at the hands of Babylonia
• David's kingdom swept off into exile by Nebuchadnezzar II
• the remnant of the faithful in Babylonia did return
• 538 BC Jews released to go home rebuilt the community in and around Jerusalem and temple rebuilt. This is the era of the birth of the modern religion of Judaism

How is your closet coming?" 

The Epic of Eden A Christian Entry into the Old Testament. 2008