Noah’s Name and the Rest of the Story - Episode 120

Carey Griffel: [00:00:00] Welcome to Genesis Marks, the spot where we raid the ivory tower of a biblical theology without ransacking our faith. My name is Carey Griffel and welcome back to another episode, and this time we're gonna be going from what we were talking about last time into the flood narrative.

Last week part of the conversation was about the toil and the labor that is the result of Genesis three. We're gonna talk a little bit more about that because that word, which again is 'itsabon, is used in relation to Noah.

And I'm still laughing today because in my Facebook discussion group, Spencer Owen had put the picture of the priest from the Princess Bride with a quote [00:01:00] that said, "twoil, twoo twoil, will fowwoww you foh-evahhhh. And so we're gonna actually talk about that. Did Noah actually give any relief or rest from the land? That is one of our major questions for today, so thanks Spencer for that. I'm still laughing about it.

If you haven't joined my Facebook discussion group and you happen to be on Facebook, which I understand if you're not, but if you are, please come and join me at my Facebook discussion group, which is really easy to find.

All right, so let's go ahead and get into the text here. We have Genesis five, verses 28 through 29, which say quote, Lamech lived 182 years and became the father of a son. Now he called his name Noah, saying this one will give us [00:02:00] rest from our work and from the toil of our hands arising from the ground which the Lord has cursed. End quote.

So your translation might be a little bit different. That was the NASB 1995 version. So the word we're kind of focused on here is the word toil, 'itsabon. And as I said, this is the same word that we have back in Genesis three. It's a very rare word in the Bible. So let's talk about this hope for Noah. A couple of points to mention first.

Lamech said that Noah will give us rest. So this is a corporate thing. Now you might have heard that the word Noah is related or the same as the word rest. That's something we're gonna be really digging into a little bit here because that's true, but there's really a [00:03:00] strange artifact here in this passage. In the NASB, it says, this one will give us rest from our work. Right? Okay, so the word rest there is not a bad translation, but I think the word translated as rest is not the best translation here. Really, it could be relief or comfort.

Another point to keep in mind is how often people want the idea of toil from Genesis three to be about physical corruption of the Earth and really how was Noah supposed to do anything about that? What really was the expectation here? And how would an ancient person think about this? And how should we think about it?

How was Noah to give rest or relief? Did he fail in that [00:04:00] quest or did he actually give them that?

Another question that is interesting is the question of whether or not the toil that we're talking about from Genesis three, and that's also mentioned here, does that have anything to do with the rest of creation and the normal Sabbath that is practiced historically?

So let's talk about these words for a little bit. The word here is, nacham, which means rest or really comfort or relief. Can also mean to relent. This is the word that God said he was sorry that he had created man.

Now if we're tracking along the theme of rest throughout the section, we have the resting of the Ark on Ararat after the flood. Now that is a different word. That is the word that would be translated as [00:05:00] rest properly.

So we don't have the term Shabbat here, but is the idea parallel? Because remember that as good as word studies are and tracking words throughout scripture, we can't neglect the concepts that are involved. And there are places in scripture where these concepts, especially in the New Testament, are married together.

Another thing I want you to think about here is what about the idea that the curse of the ground had something to do with people and violence? We're gonna keep that in mind and we're gonna consider it, but I also want you to remember that larger picture and keeping in mind that the wonderful thing about metaphors is their layered meaning. So it doesn't have to be an either or, but it can be a both and. And if Genesis [00:06:00] forms a microcosm of the rest of scripture, then the metaphors can relate in very important ways here to actual historical events or things like violence.

Another thing I've mentioned before is the question of the curse of the ground being mitigated or solved by the purification of the flood.

In Genesis eight, verses 20 through 22, we have quote, then Noah built an altar to the Lord and took of every clean animal and of every clean bird and offered burnt offerings on the altar. The Lord smelled the soothing aroma. And the Lord said to himself, I will never again curse the ground on account of man for the intent of man's heart is evil from his youth. And I will never again destroy every living thing as I have done. While the earth remains, seed time and harvest and cold and heat [00:07:00] and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease. End quote.

You can notice that it is right here where we have God saying, I will never again curse the ground. Now, that doesn't say explicitly that the curse was over. Maybe this is God saying he will never again intensify the curse or re-curse it. Right? Like we have Genesis three and we have Genesis four with Cain who was also cursed with the ground problem.

But it is possible that what we have here is the undoing of the curse, especially because I want you to note this language of seed time and harvest.

Alright, before we get into some historical interpretation, I do want to talk just a little bit about Sabbath and our ideas of Sabbath today because I think this does relate, and this should be part [00:08:00] of our matrix of thinking for the topic. Now, I was raised in a culture and a time and a faith tradition that said that Sunday was the Sabbath and therefore we shouldn't work on Sunday. And again, I grew up in LDS culture and there's still a very strong LDS influence, although it is really weakening and lessening and getting to be far less than it was when I was growing up. The other day. In fact, in a local group I saw that one of our grocery stores that is a more local grocery store, that some of their locations are going to start being open on Sunday.

And of course in the comments in the local group, you have some people who are like, yeah, finally. And then you have other people who are probably primarily and predominantly LDS, who are lamenting the fact that, oh no, another business has fallen [00:09:00] and the grocery store ought to be able to stay closed and to give their employees the time off. And all of these ideas right?

Now I know there's a few other cultures out there that really have this emphasis on Sunday Sabbath rest kind of idea. But it's interesting. I just took that for granted when I was little. Like everyone who was Christian would have that view. That's not the case for everyone, but there are some out there who think that, right. And it's interesting to me that we have conflated the idea of Sabbath with the day of assembly, which would be the Sunday fellowship. They're not the same. That doesn't mean it's not a good idea to rest on that day. They do have some historical crossover in history.

I'm going to read a quote from the New Ungers Bible Dictionary. It says, Ignatius of Antioch evidently addressed a church [00:10:00] of mixed character since he spoke of some who were brought up in the ancient order of things who have come to the possession of a new hope, no longer observing the Sabbath, but living in the observance of the Lord's Day. There is neither in this writer nor in the Barnabas epistle, an intimation that Sunday was regarded as in any way a substitute for the Jewish Sabbath. Nor yet a continuation of it. Rather it was a new institution. It is however impossible to determine the time of its beginning. No impressive enactment like that in the case of the Decalogue was needed. Not until the fourth century do we find a statement intimating that the Jewish Sabbath with its sanctions and duties was transferred to the first or the Lord's Day. The observance of the Jewish Sabbath in churches of the Jewish Christians continued [00:11:00] for the first five centuries. In the east, both days were celebrated with rejoicing. In the west, the Jewish Sabbath was observed as a fast. End quote.

So a couple of points here is that they're not conflated in the early church. But we do have precedents at the fourth century at least, where there was a conflation. So we have kind of both things going on in church history. Sunday isn't a replacement for the Sabbath, but at the same time, I'm not gonna tell anybody that it's bad to rest on Sunday or to consider that in similar form as the Sabbath, and there is some historical precedent for that.

Okay, so moving on to historical interpretation of Noah, bringing rest or relief to humanity. We have Ephraim, the [00:12:00] Syrian, who says, quote, Enoch begot Methuselah, and Methuselah begot Lamech, and Lamech begot Noah, whose name means relief in Hebrew and Syriac. Lamech prophesied about his son and said, this one shall bring us relief from our work and from the toil of our hands and from the earth which the Lord cursed. His offerings will be pleasing to God, who because of the sin of the Earth's inhabitants, will destroy in the waters of wrath, the buildings that we have made and the plants over which our hands have toiled. End quote.

Okay, I want to really point out here that he is mentioning specifically buildings and plants, and that's going to relate to some further things that we'll say later.

Now here's a quote from Origen, and he says that this quote really should be about Christ [00:13:00] and not Noah. Origen says, quote, by ascending through the individual levels of the dwellings in the Ark built by Noah during the flood, one arrives at Noah himself, whose name means rest or righteous, who is Jesus Christ. For what Lamech his father says is not appropriate to the ancient Noah. For this one, he says, shall give us rest from the labors and the sorrows of our hands and from the earth that the Lord God cursed. For how shall it be true that the ancient Noah gave rest to that Lamech? Or to that people who are then contained in the lands. How is there a cessation from the labors and sorrows in the times of Noah? Jesus only has given rest to humanity and has freed the earth from the curse with which the Lord God cursed it. End quote.

Okay. So it's interesting because there's a very hard [00:14:00] line there. Sometimes things in the Old Testament are talked about in a very allegorical way, as in Noah being a type of Christ. And Origen kind of goes that direction. But he also really makes a hard line distinction and says, no, that Noah really didn't give us rest and that he couldn't have done it, and that only Jesus can do that.

Another interesting quote, and I can't remember if I read this before in an episode or not, but I feel like I really need to read it here. This is from Ephrem the Syrian again, and he's talking about Noah and his virtue.

Ephrem the Syrian says quote, after recounting the 10 generations from Adam to Noah, Moses said Noah was 500 years old and begot Shem and Ham and Japeth. During this entire time, Noah was an [00:15:00] example to his sons by his virtue for he had preserved virginity for 500 years among those of whom it was said, all flesh crafted its path. End quote.

So now we are going to ask, rest from what? Now, it's not a surprise that we're gonna be getting into Messianic typology when we have that answer, but we can look at the specifics of this. And keep in mind that it doesn't have to be an either or. Noah could have given rest without giving the ultimate example of rest that we get from Jesus, right?

So a couple of questions about what they expected the rest was for or from. One suggestion is that they weren't having a weekly Sabbath. But of course were not using the word Sabbath here. So I think we can kind of set that [00:16:00] option to the side.

We could be getting rest from problems with agriculture. And here there's quite a few particulars that people like to bring out, including the vineyard after the flood. Finally, we have wine! Which immediately caused a problem, but it's also different and kind of nuanced, and we can keep in mind that scripture and especially Genesis, love to do this spiraling thing, where we have the same event, but slightly different.

Also, super interesting to note is that if rest is obtained, then it is via work that rest is obtained. Noah builds the Ark. Noah plants the vineyard. And note those two things, building and planting. And yes, there was some inaction [00:17:00] and provision within sacred space as Noah waited on the Lord's pleasure or patience to be remembered when he is inside the Ark in the middle of the flood. But note that on either end of the event of the flood, we have work, the building of the Ark and the planting of the vineyard.

Another thing that you will see very frequently in regards to rest and Noah is an emphasis on the godly line.

This is from the Preacher's Outline and Sermon Bible. It says, quote, Noah brought comfort to the human race in at least four ways. A. Noah preserved the human race through the flood. B. Noah preserved the godly line through the flood. C. Noah preserved the hope for the promised savior. This he did by [00:18:00] preserving the godly line, for the godly are the ones who believe and look for the savior. See Titus two 12. And D. Noah preserved the hope for the deliverance of the earth, which God had cursed. Again, this he did by preserving the godly line, it is for their sake that God shall deliver the earth from the curse. See, revelation 21, 1 through five. End quote.

Note that this really doesn't mention the actual curse of the ground. It is all about the godly line.

Now, what about Messiahship? The announcement of the birth of Noah seems to be occasion for a prophecy, right? And Noah seems to be a type of Christ. We have salvation and deliverance. We have salvation and deliverance through the waters. Just like in [00:19:00] baptism. There's a covenant all over the place here in Genesis nine. And compare that with Luke 22, verse 20, which has death and wine involved.

Okay, and what about what I said before about violence? The word rest is quite frequently connected to the word shalom or peace. And there's a lot of other things that we could talk about with the violence here in a little bit.

But first let's get into the specifics of Noah's name. Again, it's related to the word rest. But the word rest that is most closely associated with Noah's name is not used in Genesis 5 29. This word is nacham. Noah and nacham sound a little bit alike, but they don't quite sound as alike as [00:20:00] Noah and nuach, which is that word for rest that we have with like the Ark resting on the mountain.

So Noah and nuach, which is the formal word, rest, sound very alike. Okay. But in Genesis 5 29, what we have is Noah and nacham or comfort or relief. And again, they kind of match, but only kind of. So it's a little bit strange that the actual word rest isn't used when that one matches so well.

But we will see that the word nacham does suggest a change from one state to the other. Like there's an emphasis on that we might say.

The IVP Bible background commentary says quote, Genesis 5 29, comfort [00:21:00] us. The name Noah means rest, bringing out again the importance of this motif in the ancient near East. The Mesopotamian gods sent the flood because the disturbances of the human world were preventing them from getting rest. So in that case, the flood provided rest for the gods. Here, Noah is rather associated with bringing rest for the people from the curse of the gods end quote.

Or at least that's the contrast that we could see there, right? Because of course, the gods are not causing the flood. We have the creator God, who is involved here.

In his book The Universal Story, Genesis one through 11, Dru Johnson brings out the idea that, quote, whatever we want to say about the flood story, according to Genesis, it somehow [00:22:00] relieves man of the curse of the dirt, which could imply relief from death and or agricultural relief. End quote.

Now this word nacham that we have in Genesis five can often be associated with emotions. Like in Genesis 24 67, where Isaac was comforted after his mother's death.

Now let's disambiguate the word nacham and the word nuach a little bit more. In Job three 17 and Deuteronomy 25 19, we have the word nuach, which is physical rest, either from suffering, like in Job or from war, like we have in Deuteronomy. The Septuagint translates nacham or Noah's comfort, as katapauo, which means to cause to cease, [00:23:00] which is much more closely related to nuach, showing that some saw Noah's role as bringing a cessation of hardship.

The Lexham Theological Word book says, quote, in the midst of the sufferings and struggles of existence, people may long for rest. Rest requires a safe place. So the concept may be used to indicate peace like in Deuteronomy 25 19 or Second Samuel seven, one. And possession of land on which to rest, such as in Joshua one 15. The promised land symbolizes God's promise of rest after Israel's time of wandering in the wilderness. Death as the ultimate end to all earthly striving is also regularly described as a time of rest, as in Job three 17 and Revelation 1413. [00:24:00] End quote.

Now we might ask if death always is presented as a bad thing, if it can be called a time of rest. We've touched on Job three quite a bit with Mike Chu in episode 65 and 66, and it's not necessarily a pleasant passage, so I suggest go check out episode 65 and 66 with Mike Chu, if you haven't yet. But with Revelation 1413, it's a little easier to see how it might be okay, but then again, that is after Jesus, not before.

All right, I will leave you with the passages about land and war to go look at yourself. You can go check out Deuteronomy 25 19. Second Samuel seven verses one through seven, where incidentally David plans to build a temple. And so we have, again, [00:25:00] building, sacred space, rest from all enemies. Really interesting parallel to the flood there. And we have Joshua one verses 10 through 18, where Joshua assumes command and we have land and war and rest is promised once those are established. You can also go look at Deuteronomy 12 verses one through 11 and Hebrews four, one through 16, which does connect Sabbath and Joshua, and the entering of the land and David. That one's a really interesting passage to look at.

But back to Noah's name, the New International Commentary on the Old Testament, this is by Victor Hamilton, says, quote, Lamech is the only father in this chapter who provides an explanation for his son's name. [00:26:00] He named him Noah, saying this one will bring us relief from the agonizing toil of our hands. The problem here is that the explanation does not fit the name. If it had, we would expect the text to read. Noah, this one will give us rest. End quote for a second because I want to read the footnote here. Footnote 28 says, quote, this is precisely what the Septuagint has done in its translation, will give us rest. Accordingly, many have amended the Masoretic text nacham to nuach. End quote.

Okay, back to the body of the New International Commentary on the Old Testament, it says, nor does the name correspond to the explanation. If it had, we would expect the text to read, [00:27:00] he called his name Nahamen, this one will bring us relief.

End quote again, because I want to read the footnote for 29 here with Nahmen, which says quote, Hebrew proper names with nacham in them are attested. The best known is the king, Menachem. Throughout this whole section of Genesis, there is an extended paranomasia that could be called a leit motif. Thus we have Noah. Shall bring Relief. The Lord was sorry, but Noah found favor. The ark came to rest. There was a place to set her foot. There was a pleasing odor. End quote.

Okay, so all of those words are related.

Back to the New International Commentary on the Old Testament. The main body of the text here says, [00:28:00] quote, the suggestion to amend the Masoretic text and make it conform to the Septuagint is ruled out by the fact that nowhere else in the Old Testament do we find a direct object after the causative form of nuach. Instead, we would need a preposition following the verb. Nor is it helpful to avoid the explanation completely and simply take Noah to mean pleasant or pleasing person. Perhaps the relief that is found here, if any, is the renewed gift of the vine in nine 20 and the introduction of viticulture indicating a lifting of God's curse on the ground. Does Lamech already see the possibilities that his son will be a second Adam? Or should we understand Lamech's words, not as an insight into the future, but as a desperate call and hope for some kind of relief from the life of misery and servitude? In [00:29:00] other words, is he speaking indicatively or subjunctively? Cassuto interprets Lamech's words as a wish rather than a prophecy, but there is bitter irony here too, according to Cassuto. Comfort, nacham, does come with Noah, but it is a different kind of comfort. What comes is the Lord's repenting desire, nacham, to destroy humanity. Thus, Lamech's wish turns into a nightmare. A hint that nuach and nacham are close in meaning to each other may be found in the parallelism of the two in Ezekiel five 13 where it says, my anger will be spent, I will assuage my fury against them and get satisfaction. This parallel lends some support to the proposition that Genesis 5 29 is not necessarily fanciful [00:30:00] etymology. End quote.

Okay. So there is a lot there isn't there? But one of the ideas we can draw out from it is that, first of all, we can't just change the word comfort into rest in the Hebrew because the associated grammar doesn't allow it. And what that means is that it wasn't just a scribal error, like it wasn't just accidentally changed into a different word.

Second point here is that the fact of the vineyard might be that indication of God's curse on the ground being lifted.

A third point is that maybe Lamech was only expressing a hope and not a prophecy.

And yet another point is that maybe he did get what he wanted, but it wasn't in the form that he wanted it, and the form of relief was destruction or ruin.

Okay, all of [00:31:00] those are interesting perspectives and possible ideas. Now, what if Noah wasn't really named Noah?

Here's an interesting quote from Rashi, who is a medieval Jewish commentator. He says that the term here is that quote, He will ease from off us toil of our hands. For until Noah came, people had no agricultural instruments and he prepared such for them. The earth had brought forth thorns and thistles when they sowed wheat in consequence of the curse imposed upon Adam. In the days of Noah, however, this ceased. This is what is meant by the word to comfort, then. You do not explain it in this manner, but from the root, the meaning you give to this expression will have no application to the name, comforter, Menachem. End quote.

But an even step [00:32:00] further from that is Louis Ginzberg's, the Legends of the Jews. This is a book that was published between 1909 and 1938, and it is a synthesis of Jewish tradition that brings together rabbinic literature, Midrash, Talmud, medieval Jewish writings, and some pseudepigrapha.

Ginzberg was a prominent Talmudic scholar and member of the Jewish Theological Seminary in New York. And so he wrote this, and I don't know if I should read the whole thing, but the whole thing is so interesting that maybe I'll just read the whole section.

Okay, so this is from the Legends of the Jews. Quote, "Methuselah took a wife for his son, Lamech, and she bore him a man child. The body of the babe was white as snow and red as a blooming rose, and the hair of his head and his long locks [00:33:00] were white as wool and his eyes liked the rays of the sun. When he opened his eyes, he lighted up the whole house like the sun. And the whole house was very full of light. And when he was taken from the hand of the midwife, he opened his mouth and praised the Lord of righteousness. His father, Lamech, was afraid of him and fled and came to his own father, Methuselah.

"And he said to him, I have begotten a strange son. He is not like a human being, but resembles the children of the angels of heaven. And his nature is different and he is not like us, and his eyes are as the ray of the sun. And his countenance is glorious. And it seems to me that he is not sprung from me, but from the angels. And I fear that in his days, a wonder may be wrought on the earth. And now my Father, I am here to petition thee and implore thee that thou mayest go to Enoch, our father and learn from him the [00:34:00] truth, for his dwelling place is among the angels.

" And when Methuselah heard the words of his son, he went to Enoch to the ends of the earth and he cried aloud and Enoch heard his voice and appeared before him and asked him the reason of his coming.

"Methuselah told him the cause of his anxiety and requested him to make the truth known to him. Enoch answered and said, the Lord will do a new thing in the earth. There will come a great destruction on the earth and a deluge for one year. This son who is born into thee will be left on the earth and his three children will be saved with him. When all mankind that are on the earth shall die and there will be a great punishment on the earth, and the Earth will be cleansed from all impurity. And now make known to thy son Lamech that he who was born is in truth, his son. And call his name Noah for he will be left to you. And he and his children will be [00:35:00] saved from the destruction which will come upon the earth.

" When Methuselah had heard the words of his father, who showed him all the secret things, he returned home and he called the child Noah, for he would cause the earth to rejoice in compensation for all destruction. By the name Noah he was called only by his grandfather, Methuselah. His father, and all others called him Menachem.

"His generation was addicted to sorcery and Methuselah apprehended that his grandson might be bewitched if his true name was known. Wherefore, he kept it a secret. Comforter suited him as well as Noah. It indicated that he would be a consoler, if but the evil doers of his time would repent of their misdeeds. At his very birth. It was felt he would bring consolation and deliverance.

" When the Lord said to Adam, cursed is the ground for thy sake, [00:36:00] he asked, for how long a time? And the answer made by God was, Until a man child shall be born, whose confirmation is such that the right of circumcision need not be practiced upon him.

" This was fulfilled in Noah. He was circumcised from his mother's womb. Noah had scarcely come into the world when a marked change was noticeable. Since the curse brought upon the earth by the sin of Adam, it happened that wheat being sown, yet oats would sprout and grow. This ceased with the appearance of Noah. The Earth bore the products planted in it, and it was Noah who, when he was grown to manhood, invented the plow, the scythe, the hoe, and other implements for cultivating the ground. Before him, men had worked the land with their bare hands.

"There was another token to indicate that the child born unto Lamech was appointed for an extraordinary [00:37:00] destiny. When God created Adam, he gave him dominion over all things. The cow obeyed the plowman and the furrow was willing to be drawn. But after the fall of Adam, all things rebelled against him. The cow refused obedience to the plowman, and also the furrow was refractory. Noah was born and all returned to its state, preceding the fall of man.

" Before the birth of Noah, the sea was in the habit of transgressing its boundaries twice daily, morning and evening, and flooding the land up to the graves. After his birth, it kept within its confines and the famine that afflicted the world in the time of Lamech, the second of the 10 great famines appointed to come upon it, ceased its ravages with the birth of Noah." End quote.

A lot of interesting stuff there, including some connections with Atrahasis and [00:38:00] famines in regards to the flood.

Okay. Just because I know you guys would like me to read this next part of this book, I'm going to read into the section called, The Punishment of the Fallen Angels.

This is again from the Legends of the Jews. It says, quote, "Grown to manhood, Noah followed in the ways of his grandfather Methuselah, while all other men of his time rose up against this pious king.

" So far from observing his precepts, they pursued the evil inclination of their hearts and perpetrated all sorts of abominable deeds. Chiefly, the fallen angels and their giant prosperity caused the depravity of mankind. The blood spilled by the giants cried into the heaven from the ground, and the four archangels accused the fallen angels and their sons before God, whereupon he gave the following orders to them.

[00:39:00] "Uriel was sent to Noah to announce to him that the earth would be destroyed by a flood, and to teach him how to save his own life. Raphael was told to put the fallen angel Azazel into chains, cast him into a pit of sharp and pointed stones in the desert Duadel, and cover him with darkness. And so was he to remain until the great day of judgment when he would be thrown into the fiery pit of hell and the earth would be healed of the corruption he had contrived upon it. Gabriel was charged to proceed against the bastards and the reprobates, the sons of the angels begotten with the daughters of men and plunged them into deadly conflicts with one another.

" Shemhaziah's ilk were handed over to Michael, who first caused them to witness the death of their children in their bloody combat with each other. And then he bound them and pinned them under the hills of the earth where they will remain for 70 generations [00:40:00] until the day of judgment to be carried thence to the fiery pit of hell." End quote.

There's a whole lot more information after that if you wanna go check out this book. It is available online and maybe I will remember to put a link in the comments.

Let's look at the word biblical commentary, which says quote, "As is often the case in the Old Testament, the etymology is not scientific. It is simply associated with the name because of its similar sound. Here, he will bring us relief, echoes Noah. The final vowel, u, is akin to O in Noah, and rhymes with the next Hebrew word, from our work, and more loosely, with our hands. The terms for rest relief and repentance, work or making the Ark, and the [00:41:00] land are all important in the next few chapters and are associated with Noah's mission. Most obviously, Lamech's remarks look back to the curse on the land, but the very terminology he uses obliquely hints at Noah's future achievements, namely his construction of the and his planting of a vineyard. Lamech's remarks find a more distant parallel in the Atrahasis epic, where the Gods send various plagues on earth, culminating in the flood in an attempt to stop the noise made by mankind." End quote.

All right, so that kind of summarizes a lot of what we've been talking about right here. Now I want to read Walter Brueggemann's Genesis commentary, and again, this is a bit long, so forgive me for that. But I like a lot of what he says here.

Brueggemann says, quote, "Most important in the [00:42:00] chapter is Lamech's anticipation of Noah. While this verse is commonly regarded as an intrusion in the chapter because of the name used for God. It offers the most inviting expository possibility in the chapter.

" Number one, the anticipated help will come from the ground cursed by God. The statement is obviously a careful theological link with these earlier narratives. In Genesis three and Genesis four. It asserts on the one hand that God has not abandoned his intentions for the cursed earth. On the other hand, help must come from that very ground and not as spirit or from heaven. The salvific promise shows how earthy and earthly the Bible is. Indeed, this is a hint of incarnational faith. The affirmation that relief comes from cursed ground [00:43:00] reflects a way of thinking that easily runs towards crucifixion and resurrection in the New Testament. As help comes from the place of curse, so life comes from the reality of death. Cross reference Galatians three, verse 13 and 14.

" Number two, the Hebrew name Noah probably means rest, that is, serenity in God's safe world. But the name Noah ( rest) cannot be linked to the verb relief as is claimed in the RSV rendering of Genesis 5 29. The Hebrew word rendered relief, nacham, in the RSV is continually rendered " comfort" elsewhere, such as Psalm 23 4, 71 21, 86 17, Isaiah 49 13, and 66 13. [00:44:00] Most familiarly, the word is used in Isaiah 40 verse one, to announce the end of exile and the inversion of the fortunes of Israel. That rendering is more appropriate here. Linked to the consequences of Genesis two through four, it is the task of Noah to end the banishment of the man and woman and of Cain. He is to invert the sorry situation and cause a homecoming. Thus Noah is to do for humanity just what second Isaiah announced for Israel, then in exile, cross-reference Isaiah 54, 9 through 17. These connections are not remote if Genesis five is priestly and therefore exilic. The text would then date as a near contemporary of second Isaiah.

" This anticipation of the work of Noah, placed in the mouth of Lamech, is a gospel announcement. [00:45:00] Noah is a gift of the God of all comfort, second Corinthians one verses three through seven, and is already a way in which God sends his comforter, cross-reference John 14 26, 15 26, and 16 7. The motif of comfort appears in various texts of Genesis each time at a break point between life and death, Genesis 24 67, 27 42, 37 35, 38 12, and 50 21. In a way more intentional than most of these, our verse places, Noah, at the turn from death to life.

"Number three, the comfort promised by Noah is to reverse the destiny of living with the consequences of sin. As we have suggested, the RSV translation is a poor [00:46:00] one because it sounds like rest from work, but that is doubtful, for work as such is a proper vocation of humankind, as we have seen in Genesis one and two. Rather what is anticipated is deliverance from the sorry situation which human ingenuity has wrought. Thus, while Israel may pray for the work of our hands to be established in Psalm 90, verse 17, there must also be prayers for the deliverance from the work of our hands. In these ways, the chapter provides links between the hopes of creation and the reality of human sin. Noah holds promise of a new beginning in which the hopes of creation are not qualified by the realities of human choice. The words of Lamech are good news, daring to hope for a break in the sequence. That break comes by the power of God in human form." [00:47:00] End quote.

I really like that commentary. He brings up so many interesting points, and again, it's not that there is no emphasis on work and work from the ground, especially. Because I think that there is. But this is being formed as not the only thing that is going on. And if you are so focused on the curse of the ground and this emphasis on what is supposedly happening with the corruption of the world and creation, which is an idea that has been seen for so long. Remember what I was reading about before with the Jewish commentaries. There is a lot of supposition about how Noah was going to relieve the people from the curse of the ground and this terrible work. And so you have those ideas like [00:48:00] Noah inventing farming equipment and things like that to make people's lives easier.

Keep in mind that there's not a whole lot of detail as to exactly what people's lives looked like, right? How do we know the way people lived before the flood? From the perspective of the biblical commentary, right? I mean, we can go into archeology and look there and we can try to harmonize that with the biblical account, but I think that's not the point here.

I think if we're going that direction, we're missing a massive thing because if Noah is a type of Christ, I mean, Jesus didn't go around inventing technology to make people's lives easier, right? Uh, that's not the kind of idea we have with the ultimate rest. So it's just really strange to me how there is such an emphasis on the physicality of the [00:49:00] curse of the ground that we tend to give from Genesis three, and then we jump into the New Testament and Messianic context, and suddenly that's not there anymore or it is, but we'll just kind of shove it in wherever we can. Just like some of these ancient commentaries, try to give reason as to how exactly Noah was supposed to do this thing. And it doesn't seem like it's a coincidence or an accident that Noah is not just referenced with rest but relief, which is very similar, and yet it's got that little bit of a shift in it, doesn't it?

And the things that Brueggemann brings out in relation to this account and the account of the exile is absolutely fascinating, right? So if we think about more than what is going on with just agriculture, [00:50:00] agriculture being a metaphor or a figurative example of what this looks like, then suddenly we have a more complex situation, right? Because we have the situation of the flood, which is brought because of what? Because of violence. Because people are so violent. And God cleanses the earth with the flood and he recognizes that people are still violent. And so something has happened with Noah to actively change that.

It's complex because we just want one single answer and we want it to be this literal proposition. And I'm not saying that there can't be anything about agriculture or ground or anything like that, and I'm not saying that Noah brought a perfect relief. But this is what I think we should do, is I think we should read what we [00:51:00] have in the first chapters of Genesis side by side with the rest of scripture.

See, we tend to start in Genesis and we just shoot off through the rest of scripture as if it's only a chronological narrative. And in that sense, you have one thing that leads to another thing that leads to another thing, and that is kind of what's going on. But at the same time, what's happening is a parallelism between passages and between times in history. And that doesn't have to require God mechanizing everything and being the chess master and making it all happen himself, but it's a way to look at history and that's really helpful when you see how much things like typology exists in scripture, right?

Like if Noah is a type of Christ, then that doesn't mean he is Christ. It doesn't mean that he is going to do [00:52:00] everything that Christ does. It means that what he is doing is one thing that Christ is doing. It's not an either or. Either Noah was the perfect Messiah or he wasn't. But rather, how was Noah a Messiah?

That is the question I'm going to leave with you kind of today is how was Noah a Messiah? It's still very possible that what Lamech said about Noah really wasn't a prophecy and it was more in line with a wish, or it could have more to do with God's destruction rather than what Noah did to give people rest. But I will suggest to you that there is more than that going on. And again, think in terms of both and and not either or.

I mean, this is the same kind of thing that I will [00:53:00] say about the work of Jesus himself. It is not that Jesus came to do one single work. I mean, it is a single work in the form of what it is. But it's not one single thing that he had to do because if it was that simple, he probably could have done it as a child and not had his whole life and his whole ministry and all of the things that were going on there. If Jesus' death was the only thing, he could have been killed as a child and his work would've been done. That's not what we see, and that isn't the complete work of the Messiah.

And so here's a few things I will leave to you to consider in all of this. How can we bring together these ideas of curse relief, rest, Sabbath violence, Shalom. On the one hand, we need to [00:54:00] disambiguate the terms so that we see them clearly and realize that nacham, comfort, is not the exact same thing as nuach, or rest, but at the same time, that doesn't mean that there's no relationship between those things. So one thing you can do is go and do a word search with each of these words and see what kinds of characteristics these words have in the places that they show up. Okay? So that's one thing and one way you can do that.

And then also realize that the Hebrew Bible is Hebrew, right? And you go into the New Testament and it is now Greek, but there is the Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible that you can look at and compare with that Hebrew version. So there's a little bit of difference there, but simultaneously, just because the New [00:55:00] Testament is Greek, it still has those really Hebraic ideas to it as well.

And also I suggest going back into that passage in Hebrews four and having a really close look at all of the things that are going on there. In fact, I'm gonna go ahead and read that to end here because I have a whole other section that I could get into right now, but I'm gonna leave it for next time so that we can really dig into this connection in particular with Noah and Cain next time.

But let's go ahead and read Hebrews four, one through 16. It says, quote, "Therefore let us fear if, while a promise remains of entering his rest, any one of you may seem to have come short of it. For indeed, we have had good news preached to us just as they also, but the word they heard did not profit them because it was [00:56:00] not united by faith in those who heard. For we who have believed, enter that rest. Just as he has said, as I swore in my wrath, they shall not enter my rest. (That's a quote from Psalm 95.) Although his works were finished from the foundation of the world, for he has said somewhere concerning the seventh day, and God rested on the seventh day from all his works, and again in this passage, they shall not enter my rest. Therefore, since it remains for some to enter it, and those who formally had good news preached to them, failed to enter because of disobedience, he again fixes a certain day, today, saying, Through David, after so long a time, just has been said before, today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts. For if Joshua had given them rest, he would not have spoken of another day after that. [00:57:00] So there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God. For the one who has entered his rest, has him himself, also, rested from his works as God did from his. Therefore, let us be diligent to enter that rest so that no one will fall, though following the same example of disobedience. For the word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and be able to judge the thoughts and intents of the heart. And there is no creature hidden from his sight, but all things are open and laid bare to the eyes of him with whom we have to do. Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the son of God, let us hold fast. Our confession for we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who has been tempted in all things as we [00:58:00] are yet without sin. Therefore, let us draw near with confidence to the throne of grace so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need." End quote.

All right, well, I hope you have fun with this passage and tracing those trails back through scripture in the Old Testament. And I can't help but point out explicitly that a sword is mentioned in this passage, in relation to entering rest, in relation to all of these ideas.

Now, if you guys have any questions, I would love to hear them. I would love to dig into any of these little details if you have something in mind that I can kind of trace for you or chase after.

There is a lot of Messianic content that we didn't get into here, and if you're not a reader of Hebrew, I understand it gets pretty hard to disambiguate [00:59:00] words, especially when they're a little bit similar and there's this crossover, but two things can be true at the same time. It can be true, both, that we need to disambiguate and have these words mean separate things, because they do mean particular points that we can find in relation to the whole, but also look at that whole concept and try to frame things in relation to bringing together the concepts that are under each of these words that are related. Because we see that actively happening in places like Hebrews four, right? It's not this either or a thing. It's we're gonna loop all of this stuff together and put it into the same basket. And so like, how can you say that Jesus only came to do one thing when you have all of these different pieces that are brought together in him?

Again, I hope that's really [01:00:00] helpful and interesting to you. I will have some interesting points continuing this theme with work from Genesis three to Genesis four and into the flood and the Noah story in particular.

Thanks as always for your listening, for your sharing the episodes with other people who might enjoy these. Thanks for coming into my discussion group and participating there. Or you can also contact me through my website at genesis marks the spot.com, where I would love to hear from you and you can sign up for my newsletters, which sometimes are non-existent because that's a hard thing for me to get to.

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