Week 6: Noah's Vineyard and the Tower of Babel

Lesson Information

Title:  Noah's Deliverance and the Tower of Babel

Objective: 

Resources:

• Fr Daoud Lamei on Genesis
  • Arabic with English notes below
  • https://notes.morcous.com/books/genesis/page/11-genesis-7-9
  • https://notes.morcous.com/books/genesis/page/12-genesis-10-12
• Fr Tadros Yacoub Malaty - Genesis Commentary
  • https://www.dropbox.com/s/zpat4ujj5q6p7o6/Genesis%20%28Small%29%20-%20Father%20Tadros%20Yacoub%20Malaty.pdf?dl=0 (Short one)
  • https://www.dropbox.com/s/f6o1ujr3kcj7wxm/Genesis%20-%20Father%20Tadros%20Yacoub%20Malaty.pdf?dl=0 (More Details)
    
• St John Chrysostom on Genesis
  
  • https://www.dropbox.com/s/2nh6ekts33si8fu/074%20St%20John%20Chrysostom%20-%20Homilies%20on%20Genesis%201-17.pdf?dl=0 

Reading:

• Genesis 9-11

Key Verse:

Lesson Structure

Read Genesis 8:20-9:7

• "Be fruitful and multiply"
  • God reaffirmed the same command given to Adam and Eve - "Be fruitful and multiply"
  • This shows that the world after the flood is considered a "new Creation"
    
    
• Allowance to Eat Meat
  
  

Read Genesis 9:8-17

• Covenant
  • What is a Covenant?
  • What is the sign of the Covenant?
    
    
• What are the Biblical Covenants?
  • Noah
  • Abraham
  • Moses
  • David
  • New Covenant (the Lord Jesus Christ)
    
    
• Who are considered the "people of God"?
  • Started with one man - Adam
  • Now it's one family - Noah
  • Then it's a tribe - Abraham
  • Then a nation - Moses
  • Then a kingdom - David
  • Then all nations - the Lord Jesus Christ

Read Genesis 9:18-29

• First mention of drunkenness or alcohol
  • Noah, who walked with God as a friend, whom God revealed His great plan to, who found grace in the eyes of the Lord, who was the ONLY man in the whole world that God chose and kept, who lived a life of prayer and sacrifice, who is called just and perfect, a character whose likes would never again be repeated... fell into sin because of alcohol. And yet this doesn't scare people away from alcohol...
    
    
• How do we react when our father (biological or spiritual) makes a mistake? Has a weakness? Does something I don't like?
  • Sometimes we go and tell everyone
  • Sometimes we discard our respect for them
  • Noah, despite his sin, was still valued and beloved by God
  • Shem and Japheth worked together for righteousness... sometimes we come together and work on gossip and stories and backbiting
    
    
• Why was Canaan punished and not Ham?
  • Most of the Fathers consider it is Canaan who saw Noah in his nakedness, and not Ham
  • Especially since Noah "knew what his younger son had done" (whereas Japheth is the youngest) 
    
    
• The curse is pronounced on Canaan
  • The Canaanites come from Canaan
  • Abraham (and thus, the Israelites, and most importantly, the Lord Jesus Christ) come from Shem
    

Read Genesis 10

• The important part of this Genealogy is the names. These are the nations that are eventually dispersed and populate the globe. So keep track of familiar names because there is likely a city or a country named after them. This chapter is called the Table of Nations.
  
  
• Mizraim (son of Ham) - this is where the name "Misr" for Egypt comes from. This son is the one who went down to north Africa, and from whom the Egyptians come.
  
  
• Canaan (son of Ham) - this is the father of the Canaanites
  
  
• Eber (son of Shem) - this is where the word "Hebrew" comes from. He is the grandfather of Abraham
  • Eber has two sons - Peleg and Joktan
  • This chapter gives the genealogy of Joktan, but we will have the Genealogy of Peleg in the next chapter since he is the grandfather of Abraham
    
    

Read Genesis 11:1-9

• Why did they want to build a tower?
  • Pride
    • To make the top in the heavens
    • To see "what God sees"
  • To escape the wrath of God in the case of another flood
    
• Why didn't God like their tower?
  • God isn't against towers or construction - but we always have to ask if I am doing something to glorify God, or to glorify myself/seek out my own glory
  • "Let us go and make a name for ourselves"
    
    
• Confusion
  • The Lord wants us to be one with Him and each other
  • "that they all may be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You; that they also may be one in Us" (John 17:21)
  • But unfortunately, they had no interest in unity with God, and so the Lord scattered them in confusion
  • The word "Babel" means confusion
    
    
• Pentecost
  
  • The Fathers saw the Tower of Babel as an anti-type of the Day of Pentecost
  • On Pentecost, all the nations came together and the disciples spoke in tongues and all become one with Christ when they were baptized becoming the One Body of Christ.
  • On the Tower of Babel, all the nations who were together started to speak different languages because of their rejection of God, and they were dispersed.
    
    
• Importance of Communication
  • We can take this opportunity to discuss the importance of communication with each other, with our parents, with our servants, with our priest, etc.
  • Communication is the basis of love
  • Communication with God is the basis of my relationship with Him - that I talk to Him, and hear His voice when He speaks to me

Read Genesis 11:10-32

• Genealogy to Abram
  
  • Notice how this genealogy doesn't say any names that don't matter. It only says the names of the lineage of Abraham. Everyone else is simply "sons and daughters"
    
  • The names mattered in the last Genealogy (Genesis 10) because it's a Table of Nations - to understand where every nation came from. But in this one, they don't matter
    
  • Abraham's brothers are mentioned by name because they are important
    • Haran is the father of Lot
    • Nahor is the father of Rebecca (wife of Isaac)
      
      
• No need to discuss the movement of Terah from Ur of the Chaldeans to Haran, that will be covered at the beginning of the next Unit (Abraham)

Review questions:

Homework: