Day 3: Noah's Ark

 Today's reading: Genesis 5 & 6; Psalm 136.

We get a listing of the descendants from Adam to Noah, about 10 generations. Adam himself is said to have lived for 930 years total (Gen 5:5). His descendants are said to have had slightly lesser lifespans, but still far greater than our own today. The "sons of God" (either the godly line of Seth or possibly rebel angels) married "daughters of men" (6:2), and we see the mysterious Nephilim who were mighty warriors of old (6:4). God ends the extremely long lifespans of man and fixes his years to no more than 120 (6:3). It's honestly difficult for me to know what to make of all this. I enjoy a good myth, but how this figures into Scripture is beyond me. It's enough, I suppose, to accept what was passed on, and perhaps I'll gain a better understanding in the future or in the hereafter. 

Next, we see that "the wickedness of man was great in the earth" (6:5), with it only getting worse. God decided to end all life through a Great Flood, save for Noah and his family, along with a selection of animals, to begin anew. He instructs Noah to build an ark to carry them all in during the coming Flood, and Noah "did all that God commanded him" (6:11-22). We know from St. Paul that all of Creation was corrupted by the Fall (Rom 8:19-22), which means that Adam's sin not only impacted humanity but also affected nearly everything in this life. Given the low state of man at this time, along with the corruption of Creation, all of this may have influenced God's decision about the Flood.

At this point, today's reading in Genesis ends.

In Psalm 136, we have a beautiful hymn of praise. As the Ignatius Bible states in the footnotes:

It is a litany of the Lord's marvelous works in the past, all of which reveal his goodness and mercy and love... Its dominant theme, which gives hope to the People of God in all ages, is repeated 26 times in the refrain: "his mercy endures forever," which was probably an antiphonal response sung or chanted in the Temple liturgy... Psalm 136 is known in the Talmud as "the Great Hallel" and is sung today at the Jewish feasts of Passover and Hanukkah. (p. 947)

This Psalm closes with:

O give thanks to the God of heaven,

    for his mercy endures for ever.