♰ Bible Study by Abouna Angelos Genesis 6+7: The Flood Review Genesis 50 Chapters 4 Big events that changed history and determined humanity’s fate • Creation ch 1-2 • Fall ch 3 • Flood ch 6-9 • Division of nations ch 10-11 4 Patriarchs 3 Covenants Genesis 6: The Flood The Five Questions: • God • Church • Commandment • Prayer • Meaning 1. God. Theology of Divinity. What does this story tell us about God? God asks us to do our work. What we can do, God will not do. We need to do it. We don’t wait for God to do it. God could have preached the Gospel to the earth, but he was happy to have Peter, Paul, et al to do it. Man has to be participating in salvation. It is a foreshadowing. Man is not going to save us without us. Humanity has to be partner with God in salvation. How can we apply that in our life? Galatians “If it’s all work, there is no grace. If it is all grace, then there is no works.” We need the involvement of humanity, otherwise the commandment will have no effect. Unless we provide our energy and sacrifice, it is not a natural thing. 2. Church. What is the Church? Why do we need to have a Church? What do we do? The ark is the church. Who is inside the ark is saved. The church is the ship that moves through time, from generation to generation, to eternity (cf CS Lewis, Voyage of the Dawn Treader). What does the ship reach at the end? The sea of lilies, representing new life, rebirth, resurrection. The church is a vehicle that carries us through time to reach our destiny, resurrection (end of the creed). It encompasses all animals, clean and unclean. All humans are called to the church. All tongues, tribes, nations, races. Covenant established with you, and you shall go into the ark with you, your sons, your wife, your sons wives, and you shall bring two of every living thing, after its kind, to keep them alive, and food to keep them and you alive. Not generalized. Very specific. Salvation is through couples. Male and female of humans and male and female of animals. Renewing the covenant of marriage (broken by Adam and Eve) through the ark. Starting over again with a new Adam and a new Eve. Paradise. Through the covenants, GOd is progressively adding more to the covenants. Now the children and their pets are added. Later when he goes to Abraham, it will include a whole tribe, servants, slaves, Eleazar, chief servant, part of that covenant. Then Moses, an entire nation. Kingdom with David. Christ: opening covenant to all humans, tribes and tongues, the universal church. There is one genus, one creature that will not be killed. The sea creatures. That is one of the symbols of Christians. The live in the world, but they are not of the world. They are not killed by the flood. Live fish swim against the current. So the fish are on God’s side. That is why the early Christians drew a fish. 3. Commandment. What is required of me? What should I (not) do? God had specific ways of designing his buildings. God has his own specific plan. Consider the tabernacle design. 4. Prayer. How can I pray, communicate with God? A man cannot come to God without his family. If a person is drawing him away from God, he cannot succeed. He has to come with his people. Otherwise he will not really be able to play. If Noah had left his family behind, he would have been distracted. God is interested in saving whoever we are responsible for and whoever we care for. God specifically said I am interested in saving you and everyone you are responsible for. Christ: unless a man “hates” his mother and father, ... Is that a contradiction to honor your father and mother? We have an attachment to our family. Father image. Mother image. We are controlled by them. We look at the world through their eyes. Sometimes that prevents us from pursuing spiritual fulfillment with God. Example, a young person who wants to pursue a consecrated life but realizes that the parents wants to see a normal life with spouse and children. They cannot pursue that life because they do not want to grieve their parents. Maybe the parents are not holding them back. It may be the child’s own projection of the parents minds is the problem. 90% of the cases is our own projection. Jesus is not saying disown your parents. He is saying cut that attachment. Grow up. Be free to follow God. Then you are much better in taking care of your parents! We look at them from the eyes of Christ! When Mary received the news, “Behold your cousin Elizabeth is with child for 3 months,” why is the angel mentioning Elizabeth? The trigger may have been the question, “How can this be?” Mary was not asking how the ovuum would be fertilized. She was asking how people in this culture are going to treat her without a husband. Tough situation. She immediately the coming two years which could be hard. First the holy spirit, second the power of the most high (who can hurt you; don’t worry), third behold Elizabeth is pregnant (her hiding herself is no help; she might benefit from your closeness; you might benefit from her companionship; you belong to each other at that time, so miraculous is the pregnancy of you both). Jesus says “woman” “woman” but he carried her and gave her to John. He cut the human attachment and built a divine, spiritual attachment. When we leave the human aspects so that we can re-take the divine aspect. THe needy, clingy, selfish, self-centered attachment we leave in order that we take up the divine attachment of honor them. we honor our parents bc christ wants us to not bc we need them. We don’t think of the family as “for us.” We are not fulfilled by the family. We are fulfilled by God. We are “for them.” As a Christian, we unify everything. There is no division. I’m not losing when I serve. Christ feeds all of us as we meet in His name. We don’t have to go on a limb and do something extraordinary to be fulfilled. “Blessed is giving more than receiving.” You take a lot through working for Him. Hypothetically if one asked St. Mary, “Don’t you want your son to be with you and take care of you in your old age,” she might say: “I am for Him. He is not for me. He is for you.” What did Jesus do after he fed the 5000? Brother: “Brother, what should we do to be saved?” Peter: “Repent and be baptized!” 5. The story itself. What is the meaning of this story? Chapter 7: The Great Flood In Coptic Holy Week there are 5 + 5 hours. In the ninth hour, each day: Mon: Gen 1-3, the creation of eden and the fall. Tue: Gen 6-7, male and female, renewing the covenant Wed: marriage of Isaac (when the servant went to get Rebekah) image of Christ Thu: covenant of Abraham, marriage of Abraham and God Fri: Christ, the New Adam, dying on cross, the soldier spearing him on right side, blood and water coming out. When Jesus gave up the spirit, bowed his head, he became the New Adam, blood = eucharist, water = baptism, coming out of his side as the New Eve, history of salvation. This is very profound when you read this theme each day’s successively deepening covenants until you reach the resurrection. As Christ loved the Church, you men love your wives. Mystery in its highest form. Note that the wedding Haggadah was done at 3pm the ninth hour. The church sees at that hour all these covenants between couples. Jesus left his father and mother and joined the wife, the church, to be one with her. Numbers Seven (7) • The number of swearing an oath. • The most important ingredient in a covenant. • Both husband and wife put their hand on the Bible with a bond that will not be broken other than by death. • Number of days from the time Noah entered ark until rain started. • Clean animals God is binding a covenant for Noah, that he will take care of him and his family, that he will not abandon that ark, as long as they are inside it. God closes the door. That is the beginning of the divine intervention. Forty (40) • number of renewal • number of years a generation • number of days moses fasted to receive the commandments • number of years of moses’s wandering in desert • Elijah • number of days with disciples before ascension • time of preparation and renewal • time of moving from one stage to another • one life has to go, another has to start • an old earth has to be done away with, a new one has to start • moving from a human life (carpenter) to a divine life (priest)