For All Generations To Come

Genesis 6, 7 & 8

Joel Miles

January 14, 2024

With a friend, your family or in your small group, discuss the following questions:

1. Read Genesis 6:8-22. Why do you think it is important that the first mentions Noah receiving God’s favor (i.e. grace), before it mentions his righteousness and obedience to build of the ark? 
2. How else have we seen this pattern in the Bible of God’s loving grace preceding our faith and obedience? (Note: think of Adam and Eve, Israel’s salvation out of Egypt and the giving of the Law, David and Goliath, and Jesus’ grace to us). Why does this matter for how we understand our relationship with God?
3. Read Genesis 3:15. Why do you think God’s grace was given to Noah? How does this show his commitment to us?
4. The only time the word “ark” appears in the Bible is in this story, and when Moses’ mother places him in a “basket” to be saved from murder in Exodus 2:3. Since the first readers of Genesis would have been the Hebrews who were saved out of Egypt by Moses, how would this similarity between Moses and Noah helped the first readers understand Noah’s role?
5. Read Genesis 6:17-22; 7:14-16; 8:1, 13, 17 and 9:1. Compare those verses to Genesis 1. What do you notice? What does this show us about what is happening in the flood narrative? How does this help us understand why God choose the method of flooding the world?
6. Why would God choose to recreate/restore the world, with humans, rather than destroy us? What does this tell us about God and how he feels about us? Read Genesis 8:21. How does this add to our understanding of God’s commitment to us?
7. How does the logic of Genesis 3:15 and Genesis 8:21 ultimate lead us to the cross and resurrection of Jesus? 
8. Do you ever feel like you are not good enough for God? Do you ever feel like others are good enough for God? Do you have friends/family that feel like they are not good enough for God? How does this text encourage us to think differently? How can you encourage one another with the message of how much God loves you?