July 6 – Genesis 5:1-6:8, “This One Shall Bring Us Relief”
July 13 – Genesis 6:9-8:22, “Go Into the Ark” (Michael Kelley preaching)
July 20 – Genesis 9:1-29, “I Establish My Covenant with You”
July 27 – Genesis 10-11, “Let Us Build Ourselves a City”

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When I was a kid, the Nintendo gaming system had revolutionized the idea of playing video games at home. No longer would kids have to go to an arcade and put quarters into a huge machine – they could now compete against their friends right from the comfort of their living rooms. I remember coming to resent the ready availability of the reset button. The only two buttons on the first few consoles were “power” and “reset.” So if you were in the middle of a game and things weren’t going your way, you could simply hit reset, and suddenly, you had a fresh start. So when one might happen to be losing badly, it was only a matter of punching the button, and all was even again. No matter how lopsided the score was previously, after punching the reset button, it was back to 0-0. Now that my own kids are old enough to play video games, they sometimes refer to this phenomenon of sudden reset as “rage quitting”… 

Life, of course, has no reset button. As much as we would like to be able to start over after making bad choices, we must live with the very real consequences of our actions. But for the high and holy, sovereign Lord of all creation, reset remains a very valid option. In this second half of the primeval history of the world in Genesis 5-11, we see “reset” of sorts. But God’s decisions are never rash, petty, or selfish. Far from “rage quitting,” God is continuing to work out his good and loving purposes for creation.

Back in Genesis 1:28, God created a “very good” world and charged humanity with having “dominion” over it – filling the world with the glorious image of God. Adam and Eve were told to “Be fruitful and multiply.” But by the time we get to Genesis 6, humanity has become so depraved that they are only multiplying evil. Everywhere that humans go in the world, they bring wickedness and violence. These early humans were pioneers that only brought sin to new frontiers. 

But the Lord did not abandon his plan to fill the earth with his glory. He would still preserve and provide for his beloved human race. Ten generations after Adam, a son was born, Noah, a name that means “rest” or “relief.” The evil of humanity had only led to suffering on the earth. But Noah’s father said of him, “Out of the ground that the Lord has cursed, this one shall bring us relief from our work and from the painful toil of our hands” (Gen. 5:28). 

What we see in the Noah story is that the Lord, in his righteous holiness, judges the world by cleansing it with a massive flood. But “Noah walked with God” (Gen. 6:9). Through him, the Lord would create a way to continue the human line that would, eventually, lead to the Savior of the world. The ark that Noah built served as a preview of the salvation that Jesus would one day bring. God delivers those who trust in him, blessing them as he rescues them in order to bring them to Himself and to commission them to serve as vice-regents in his Kingdom, making earth more like heaven and less like hell. 

While we may not be able to hit reset in our lives, God can. He did it for Noah and his family, and he can do it for us today. If only we will hide ourselves in the ark of his salvation, freely provided for us through Jesus Christ. I pray that we all will see the saving power of the Lord at work in our lives, keeping us from disaster and delivering us into God’s good purposes.

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Grace and peace,