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JANUARY 5
DAY 4: How significant is the Flood in the overall biblical history?
The Bible treats the Flood as a worldwide event directly brought by God as a judgment on the
sin of humanity.The flood hangs like a warning cloud over all subsequent history. Fortunately, that
cloud also holds a rainbow of God’s promised grace.
Conditions in Noah’s day were ripe for judgment.“Then the LORD saw that the wickedness of
man was great in the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil contin-
ually”(Gen. 6:5).This verse provides one of the strongest and clearest statements about man’s sin-
ful nature. Many other verses make it clear that God had every reason for radical action: Jeremiah
17:9,10; Matthew 12:34,35; 15:18,19; Mark 7:21; Luke 6:45. Other notable Scriptures on the world-
wide flood brought by God include Job 12:15; 22:16; Psalms 29:10; 104:6–9; Isaiah 54:9; Matthew
24:37–39; Luke 17:26,27; Hebrews 11:7; 1 Peter 3:20; 2 Peter 2:5; 3:5,6.
The Flood illustrates several important aspects of God’s character and God’s relationship with
His creation: 1) God retains ultimate control of world events; 2) God can and will judge sin; 3) God
can and does exercise grace even in judgment; 4) An even more universal and final judgment will
be carried out on the world based on God’s timetable.

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January 5 descendants after you, and with every living
creature that is with you: the birds, the cattle,
and every beast of the earth with you, of all
that go out of the ark, every beast of the earth.
Genesis 9:1–10:32
11 Thus I establish My covenant with you:
So God blessed Noah and his sons, and Never again shall all flesh be cut off by the
9 said to them: “Be fruitful and multiply, waters of the flood; never again shall there be
and fill the earth. And the fear of you and the a flood to destroy the earth.”
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dread of you shall be on every beast of the 12 And God said: “This is the sign of the
earth, on every bird of the air, on all that move covenant which I make between Me and you,
on the earth, and on all the fish of the sea. and every living creature that is with you, for
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They are given into your hand. Every moving perpetual generations: I set My rainbow in
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thing that lives shall be food for you. I have the cloud, and it shall be for the sign of the
given you all things, even as the green herbs. covenant between Me and the earth. It shall
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4 But you shall not eat flesh with its life, that is, be, when I bring a cloud over the earth, that
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its blood. Surely for your lifeblood I will the rainbow shall be seen in the cloud; and I
demand a reckoning; from the hand of every will remember My covenant which is between
beast I will require it, and from the hand of Me and you and every living creature of all
man. From the hand of every man’s brother I flesh; the waters shall never again become a
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will require the life of man. flood to destroy all flesh. The rainbow shall
be in the cloud, and I will look on it to remem-
6 “Whoever sheds man’s blood,
By man his blood shall be shed; ber the everlasting covenant between God and
every living creature of all flesh that is on the
For in the image of God earth.” And God said to Noah, “This is the
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He made man.
7 And as for you, be fruitful and multiply; sign of the covenant which I have established
Bring forth abundantly in the earth between Me and all flesh that is on the earth.”
And multiply in it.”
8 Then God spoke to Noah and to his sons
with him, saying: “And as for Me, behold, I 9:16 the everlasting covenant. This covenant
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establish My covenant with you and with your with Noah is the first of 5 divinely originated
covenants that are described as “everlasting.”
The term “everlasting” can mean either 1) to
the end of time and/or 2) through eternity
future. It does not include eternity past. The
9:6 For in the image of God. The reason man other four such covenants include the follow-
could kill animals, but neither animals nor ing: 1) Abrahamic (Gen. 17:7); 2) Priestly (Num.
man could kill man, is because man alone was 25:10–13); 3) Davidic (2 Sam.23:5); and 4) New
created in God’s image. (Jer. 32:40).
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