PRH-04 The Right Direction

I recall a time when I was teaching in the Ukraine, and had only a few minutes to reach my destination by Metro. I rushed to the station, ran down the stairs and jumped on the train just as the doors were closing. It was going to be a ride all the way across town, so I sat back to catch my breath and relaxed for a few minutes. Then after a while it suddenly dawned on me. I had taken the train going in the wrong direction! Now naturally, the next metro station was miles away, and it took forever to reach it. By the time I got turned around and started back, it was clear that I was going to be very late. I can remember thinking to myself, “Well, this situation isn’t all I had hoped it would be, but at least now I’m going in the right direction.”

I guess that’s the way it is in most areas of life. Our situations are never perfect, and most of the time they’re not even close. We face lots of problems and challenges everywhere we go. Yet, we all know that it is still better at least to be going in the right direction, rather than the wrong way.

We have entitled this lesson “The Right Direction,” and in it we are going to explore Genesis 6:9–11:9 where we will discover the direction God established for his people to follow after the great flood in the days of Noah. As we will see, in these chapters of the primeval history, Moses gave the people of Israel a clear direction to pursue. It may not have been all that they wanted, but it was ordained by God to bring them toward great blessings. And this portion of the primeval history is very important for Christians too, because we should be following this same direction as well.

Our study of Genesis 6:9–11:9 will divide into three parts: first, we will examine the literary structure of these chapters; second, we will explore their original meaning by discerning why Moses wrote this material for Israel; and third, we will look to the New Testament for guidance in applying these chapters to our lives. Let’s begin our study of the right direction by exploring the literary structure of these chapters.

Genesis 6:9–11:9 is a large portion of the primeval history, and it may be outlined in a number of different ways. For our purposes, we have segmented these chapters into two main parts. The first section includes 6:9–9:17, and we have entitled it “The Flood of Deliverance.” In this part of Genesis, Moses described the flood of Noah’s day. The second part of this material is Genesis 9:18–11:9, which we have entitled “The New Order.” It describes several crucial events that took place after the flood, and which set enduring patterns that characterized the world after the flood. To gain a better understanding of the literary pattern of these chapters, we will look into both of these major parts. Let’s begin by examining the structure of the story Moses wrote about the flood of Noah’s day.