January 21st

In Genesis chapter 6, God calls on Noah, a man of faith and obedience, to build an ark to endure the flood. Genesis chapter 6 emphasizes how sin was rampant on Earth and God was very displeased; He, therefore, seeks to erase the evil that has populated His Creation. Following the eating of the fruit from the tree of knowledge of good and evil, God said to Adam and Eve that they will work very hard throughout their life until they die and become dust again- “for dust you are and to dust you will return”. In chapter 6 God repents His Creation seeing that humanity is corrupt, violent, and sinful. Rather than completely erasing it, He sends a flood to cleanse humanity. The flood symbolizes the cleansing of the earth from evil that entered the world through the first sin which occurred in Genesis 3. The themes of freedom, reason, pride, shame, and sin brought out in Genesis 3 carry on to Genesis chapter 6. Noah’s virtues directly contrast those of Adam and Eve in that he is obedient and righteous and never questions God’s instructions. It is important to note that the death and sin that entered the world when Adam and Eve disobeyed God in the Garden still carried on to Noah and his descendants. For example, Original Sin is still present in all of humanity along with being mortal beings. Like Adam, Noah must also be fruitful and multiply and take care of God’s creation. Overall, after analyzing Genesis Chapter 1-11, the variation on the theme of the condition of human nature and its relationship with sin(and with God) is clearly a fundamental part of Genesis.