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Compare and contrast the Abrahamic covenant
Compare and contrast the Abrahamic covenant
Meaning and importance of a covenant in the old testament
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Even when God is at his most extreme anger, he finds a way to show grace and mercy. We can see the truth of this statement over and over in the times of Noah and the flood. It’s around 2348 BC and there is violence everywhere. “The Lord saw that the wickedness of humankind was great in the earth and that every inclination of the thoughts of their hearts was only evil continually “(Genesis 6:5). God is saying that humans have stopped thinking (about the Lord) or following the Lord completely and going on about their business. When God saw this he “was sorry that he had made human-kind on the earth, and it grieved him to his heart” (Genesis 6:6). The word “sorry” in Genesis 6:6 is translated to the word “Nacham” in Hebrew. One of the definitions of this word is the word “repent”, and if we look at synonyms for repent we find the word “compassion”. In Genesis 6:7 God says “I will blot out from the earth the human beings I have created- people together with animals and creeping things and birds of the air, for I am sorry that I have made them.” Again we see the word “sorry” which leads us back to compassion. The definition of the word compassion in the dictionary is sympathetic pity and concern for the sufferings of others. This means that God changed his mind and was going to show compassion. These three verses show a lot of evidence that God is showing mercy and grace. In Genesis 6:8 God says “But Noah found favor in the sight of the Lord.” The word “favor” is translated in Greek to “Charis”, which is then translated to the word “grace”. This verse once again shows the grace of God. He could have easily just killed every single man but instead he shows his grace and mercy to save Noah and his family because Noah listened to God. ... ... middle of paper ... ...teous. When you have Satan’s angels roaming the earth trying to cause all the violence possible we can say that Noah lived in very hard times. Noah was the only man that was righteous during his times and I think that was very, very hard to do when everyone around you is partying and doing whatever. God killed everyone on earth but had mercy on Noah because he understood that Noah faced tough times and God showed grace and mercy by saving him. If it were not for the God’s grace and mercy that had saved Noah and his family, we would not be here this day. The grace and mercy that God showed Noah was an enormous amount and it saved all of us humans today. There are many messages that can be taken away from the flood but the grace and mercy of God is most important because not only did it save Noah’s life but it also saved the human race from being completely wiped out.
... passage to suggest the essential role natural evils play in this story: "People who do not believe in God do not, of course, see our living to ourselves as a result of a prehistoric separation from God. But they can be aware – and it is a part of God’s plan of Atonement that they should be aware – that something is pretty wrong and that this wrongness is a consequence of the intrinsic inability of human beings to devise a manner of life that is anything but hideous" (203). Nowhere does experience prove this inability of human beings to escape the hideousness of the world more than in the case of natural disasters. They have existed as long as the human race, and though it may be possible for a person to delude him or herself into believing he or she is living a good life in a seemingly good world, no one can deny the horrible dangers that natural disasters present.
In the first chapter of God Behaving Badly, David Lamb argues that God is unfairly given a bad reputation. He claims these negative perceptions are fueled by pop culture and lead many to believe the lie that the God of the Old Testament is angry, sexist, racist, violent, legalistic, rigid, and distant. These negative perceptions, in turn, affect our faith. Ultimately, Lamb seeks to demonstrate that historical context disproves the presumptuous aforementioned. In addition, he defends his position by citing patterns of descriptions that characterize God throughout the Old Testament. “Our image of God will directly affect how we either pursue or avoid God. If we believe that the God of the Old Testament is really harsh, unfair and cruel, we won’t want anything to do with him” (Lamb 22). Clearly, they way Christians choose to see God will shape their relationship with Him.
The book of Genesis is the story of creation according to Hebrew text, God creates the world as a paradise, a lush green world that is good, a world that is right, God himself is presented as being caring and fair. However later on there are many stories within Genesis which question God's morality towards his creations. The supposedly just God is at many times shown to be petty, deceiving, and unequal in his treatments towards his creations. As a result of God's own duplicity the men he created covenants with, God's numerous prophets and their respective bloodlines, themselves are often two-faced and unjust. Because of God's: ill treatment towards men, his favoring of certain individuals over others, and his own prophets being devious, God is in actuality a shallow and unfair being. Therefore God's actions in Genesis show that it is his own morale wrongs which create an imbalanced and chaotic world, one which is filled with cruelty and injustice.
...en dominion over animals, which is completely different. Dominion would mean that mankind were the keepers of animals, looking after them essentially. With Noah, God specifically says that the animals will fear man, and they will provide mankind with food. Once again, this forces us to ask why God didn’t just do this in the first place, with Adam? Once again this indicates not a plan on the part of God, but more like him throwing things together on the fly.
In an evil world sprinkled with undeserved blessings, humans seem to strive to make sense of why it happens. As a result, it could seem logical that our “real God,” who is powerful and loves us unconditionally, shows grace to those who are obedient to Him. When reading the Old Testament in this context, there are several stories that could help reaffirm the idea of a god who shows his grace to those who seek Him.
The story of Noah’s Ark begins with God being upset at mankind's wickedness. He decides to destroy it with a flood. God new Noah was righteous and told him to build an ark so he would be safe from the rain. Noah did so and took aboard his family and pairs of every kind of animal. It rained for forty days and nights, until the highest mountains were covered. Then God sent a wind and the waters receded, and the...
2. What do these passages about the Noahic covenant tell you about God's relationship with people?
The Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that very imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And the Lord was sorry that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him to his heart. So the Lord said, “I will blot out man whom I have created from the face of the ground, man and beast and creeping things and birds of the air, for I am sorry that I have made them.”
In the first book of the Bible, Genesis, God can be seen as having a sort of bi-polar attitude. In the beginning chapters God is shown as a caring person when he is creating the earth and when he talks about how he wants Adam and Eve to succeed and do well and how he gives Adam a companion, Eve because he feels Adam will be lonely. As the book unfolds God becomes very angry with how his world is turning out. Sin has been introduced and humans seem to be falling away from the righteous. This upsets God and he creates an idea that he will flood the world so that only Noah and the people and animals inside the ark will live. His intentions seem horrible, trying to kill humans because they have sinned, but in reality he is trying to free the world of sin so that the remaining humans will live wonderful lives free of pain and despair. The flood can be seen as both a positive and negative thing. To non-believers they may find fault in the idea that God felt that he had to punish the world as a result of how sinful the people of earth had become. To help promote their ideas they could use statements from the Bible such as this one when God's feelings are stated about how he seems to be dissatisfied with the people of earth, "The Lord was grieved that he had made man on the earth, and his heart was filled with pain" (Genesis 6:6). It can also be revealed when God states, "I am going to put an end to all people, for the earth is filled with violence because of them. I am surely going to destroy both them and the earth" (Genesis 6:13).
The roles of Noah and Utnapishtim in the Flood Myths are quite similar. There are several differences regarding the two flood myths, but the general idea behind the two remains consistent. In the Mesopotamian Flood Myth, the Gods were overwhelmed by the amount of humans that existed on Earth and were unable to sleep due to the noise of men. So they decided to "exterminate mankind." While in the Hebrew story of Noah and the Flood Myth, God grew tired of the evil that had plagued mankind and engulfed the earth. So God decided to start the world over to undue the mistakes of man. Both of these stories display an attempt by the Gods to start the world over to cleanse the earth. Both Utnapishtim and Noah were spoken to by Gods and asked to build large boats from which all who were to be spared would seek shelter during the storm. Both men were allowed to spare the lives of their family via the safety of the boats. Also, the method used by the Gods in these myths are the same, the skies would rain down upon the earth flooding the land and killing all who were not ordered onto the boats.
When Noah was fifteen, he went to college. He was really excited because there were teachers to meet, books to read, and lessons to learn. Noah was going to go to Yale University. The day he finally left, Noah was sad about leaving his family. His father helped him unpack. Noah's roommate was Oliver Walcott. In June of 1776, Noah got a letter from his father saying that there was going to be declaration of independence for the country from Great Britain. The letter also said there was going to be war. For the second year of college everyone was talking about the war. Noah wanted to help fight the British. A few days later, Noah got really sick. Noah had smallpox. Luckily, Noah got better really soon.
...o I have created…’” (Gen. Ch 6, line 12) God tells this to Noah, explaining that he will end the lives of all in order to cleanse the land. The Hebrew belief that their god had the power to end all forced the people to be fearful and respect their covenant with the lord.
The flood story that is told in The Epic of Gilgamesh has the same principle as the story of Noah told in the book of Genesis in the Bible, but there are some major differences. In the epic, Utnapishtim is immortal and, although Noah was extremely old when he died, he wasn’t immortal. Utnapishtim was a human, but because he saved mankind, Enlil said, “Hitherto Utnapishtim has been a human, now Utnapishtim and his wife shall become like us gods.” (Gilgamesh 11.206-207) In the Biblical story, God told Noah that he was going to send a flood and asked him specifically to make the ark in order to save mankind. In Genesis 6:13-22, God tells Noah why he’s flooding the earth and exact instructions to build the ark. “13 So God said to Noah, “I am going to put an end to all people, for the earth is filled with violence because of them. I am surely going to destroy both them and the earth. 14 So make yourself an ark of cypress[a] wood; make rooms in it and coat it with pitch inside and out. 15 This is how you are to build it: The ark is to be three hundred cubits long, fifty cubits wide and thirty cubits high.[b] 16 Make a roof for it, leaving below the roof an opening one cubit[c] high all arou...
Wrath and salvation (Greathouse, 119). His wrath is a current reality, found in Romans 1:18. Yet in spite of the unfaithfulness of humanity, God is capable of keeping his covenant promise by “reestablishing his lordship over creation” (118). He takes sin’s power and breaks it; making the sinner clean and reconciling the broken relationship. Different from the justice seen in the daughter of Zeus, God’s justice is here seen as being equivalent to his righteousness. “A righteousness only God can provide” (118). The saving power of God, which is put forth as a part of his righteousness, is equivalent to his integrity. “He acts in complete conformity with his character” (119) as loving and