Chapter 8: From Noah to Babel to Abraham
chapter 8
from
Noah to
Babel
to Abraham
As the ark comes to rest, a new era in the history of man begins. Again from a unified beginning (in the family of Noah) the course of man’s history runs to divisions–the divisions of Babel, for example–and yet man comes closer to the time when the basic divisions of man will be healed.
The Ark Comes to Rest
In Genesis 8:2 we read, “The fountains also of the deep and the windows of heaven were stopped, and the rain from heaven was restrained.” That is, both sources of the flood water were shut off. “The ark rested in the seventh month on the seventeenth day of the month, upon the mountains of Ararat” (v. 4). Ararat, as mentioned in 2 Kings 19:37, Isaiah 37:38 and Jeremiah 51:27, is the land of Armenia. Assyrian documents likewise speak of the kingdom of Ararat. It is not a mythical land by any means, but one that is well known in both past and present history.
Throughout chapters 7 and 8 a very careful chronology is recorded: “This happened on such a day, and that happened on such another day.” The warp and woof of spacetime history continue to be woven. Thus, there was a time when the ark came to rest and a geographical point at which it happened in the land of Armenia.
Another sort of corroboration for the historical nature of this event occurs in Genesis 8:7-9: “And he sent forth a raven, which went forth to and fro, until the waters were dried up from off the earth. Also he sent forth a dove from him, to see if the waters were abated from off the face of the ground; But the dove found no rest for the sole of her foot, and she returned unto him into the ark, for the waters were on the face of the whole earth: then he put forth his hand, and took her, and pulled her in unto him into the ark.” The form of the narrative gives the impression that something really occurred. It doesn’t sound like a myth or a story.
There is, for example, a notable difference between the account here and the epics of Homer. In Homer the characters have little psychological depth. Erich Auerbach in Mimesis stresses the contrast between the Bible’s presentation and that of Homer. He says that the heroes in Homer’s epics arise each morning as if it were the first day that the world began, while the biblical account has a valid, psychological depth which emphasizes historicity. In reading the Bible we do not feel that we are dealing with cardboard situations, and this passage in Genesis 8:7-9 is a good example of this.
We read that Noah put out his hand and he “caused the dove to come in unto him in the ark” (this is more accurate than the King James rendering). Then the dove is sent out again: “And he stayed yet other seven days; and again he sent forth the dove out of the ark; And the dove came in to him in the evening; and, lo, in her mouth was an olive leaf pluckt off: so Noah knew the waters were abated from off the earth” (vv. 10-11). This is one of those biblical events that men keep as a symbol even after they quite openly say they no longer believe the Scripture. The dove with an olive branch in its mouth is universally used to signify peace. Incidentally, too, it is another indication that people are ignorant if they do not know the facts of the Bible, for so many of these symbols assume a comprehension that derives from the Scripture itself.
When Noah had learned that the waters had abated, he “removed the covering of the ark” (v. 13). This is a sharp contrast to Genesis 7:16 where we read that when Noah had entered the ark, “the Lord shut him in.” God shut the door, sealed it and closed the possibility for further entrance. But Noah himself was able to open it when the right moment came. Then God specifically commanded that Noah go out from the ark, and he did so (vv. 15-19).
Noah’s Sacrifice
When Noah had come forth from the ark, he made a sacrifice: “And Noah builded an altar unto the LORD; and took of every clean beast, and of every clean fowl, and offered burnt offerings on the altar” (Gen. 8:20). As we have pointed out, we constantly come to situations in the Old Testament, especially in Genesis, where men have knowledge that we would not expect them to have. In other words, God has taught them things that are not recorded in Scripture. We cannot assume that just because a certain knowledge is not recorded in Scripture that we can make an absolute negative that they did not have such knowledge.
The Life Is in the Blood
It is in chapter 9 that we first find God specifically giving the animals to man for food: “And God blessed Noah and his sons, and said unto them, Be fruitful and multiply, and replenish the earth. And the fear of you and the dread of you shall be upon every beast of the earth, and upon every fowl of the air, upon all that moveth upon the earth, and upon all the fishes of the sea; into your hand are they delivered. Every moving thing that liveth shall be food for you; even as the green herb have I given you all things” (Gen. 9:1-3). At the time of Noah, therefore, God expressly said that meat was open to them for food. It was all right for them to eat the flesh of animals.
But there is a limit: “But flesh with the life thereof, which is the blood thereof, shall ye not eat” (v. 4). Blood, as is shown in the later writings of Moses, specifically in Leviticus, is tied up with the life of the animal and it is reserved for atonement. They were commanded to be careful at that point.
Likewise, we see why God commands capital punishment: “And surely your blood of your lives will I require; at the hand of every beast will I require it, and at the hand of man; at the hand of every man’s brother will I require the life of man. Whoso sheddeth man’s blood, by man shall his blood be shed: for in the image of God made he man” (Gen. 9:5-6). God commands capital punishment simply because of the unique value of that which the murderer has killed. When a man is murdered, an image-bearer of God is killed. Man continues after the Fall to be in the image of God, and that makes murder heinous indeed. Modern man who relates himself to the machine and to the animal does not really understand the tremendous stature of man and therefore he sees no reason why murder is inherently different from any other crime.
Capital punishment was, however, not to be administered carelessly. For example, we could consider God’s commands concerning the cities of refuge as the Jews came into a new land and became a state there (Num. 35:9-34; Josh. 20:1-9). A careful distinction was made between premeditated murder and a mistake or an accident. In the case of a clearly demonstrated premeditated murder, a man commits a serious crime because he has taken it in his own power to destroy a unique and tremendous being–one that stands as qualitatively and not just quantitatively different from all else.
A New Step in the Covenant Relationship
So far in our study we have covered two steps in the covenant relationship, the covenant promises of God to fallen man. The first, in Genesis 3:15, though not explicitly referred to as a covenant, is certainly a promise. It was a promise made to man concerning the coming solution of the problems which derive from man’s rebellion against God. The second step occurs in Genesis 6:18-19 as God is talking to Noah: “But with thee will I establish my covenant; and thou shalt come into the ark, thou, and thy sons, and thy wife, and thy sons’ wives with thee. And of every living thing of all flesh. . . .” That is, God is saying, “With you and with every living thing I will establish my covenant.” It is worth noting that this is the covenant which God in Isaiah 54:9 refers to as parallel to a further covenant he is making with the Jews. That is, God points back to the covenant with Noah that he made in history in order to stress the certainty of further promises to the Jews that he is making in history at a later time.
Let us examine the Noahic covenant in some detail. First, it is an everlasting covenant. “And the bow shall be in the cloud; and I will look upon it, that I may remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is upon the earth” (Gen. 9:16).
Second, it is established both with Noah and his descendants (vv. 9, 11-12) and with “every living creature” (vv. 10-12, 16). God is making a covenant not only with man who can understand it but with the beasts who cannot understand it. Verse 13 generalizes it even further: “I do set my bow in the cloud, and it shall be for a token of a covenant between me and the earth.”
If we remember what we saw in Romans 8:19-23 concerning God’s promises with regard to all creation at the time of the second coming of Christ, God’s care of all creation in his covenant here in Genesis will not take us by surprise. It is a part of the total scriptural framework.
The sign that marks the covenant with Noah is the rainbow (v. 13). Sometimes it is assumed that the Bible suggests that rainbows had never existed before. There is no reason why this needs to be the case. For one thing, later on there are two other signs given to mark covenant promises–circumcision in the case of Abraham and baptism in the case of Christians. But neither of these two tokens was new. They had been used by many people before and were simply given a Jewish or a Christian meaning–a definite meaning from God himself. This may, therefore, be true for the rainbow as well. God may simply have given it a new meaning. It is possible, however, that completely new physical conditions existed after the time of the flood and that the rainbow was a new thing. The Bible does not tell us, and either way would fit what these verses say.
Each of the covenant signs is appropriate, the rainbow specifically contrasting with circumcision, the covenant sign given to Abraham. The latter was a sign in man’s body and was totally appropriate because man alone was involved; it marked an individual as one of the covenant people. Here, however, more than man is involved, and so the sign is not given in the body of Noah but in the sky, that which “covers” the whole of that to which the covenant applies–man and the rest of creation as well. Consider the aptness of the sign of baptism in the New Testament. In the Old Testament the father in a special way worshipped for the whole family, and thus the covenant sign of circumcision was appropriate. In the New Testament the wall of partition was broken down, and women as well as men now come directly to God, worshipping equally and immediately before him. Hence, the covenant sign of baptism is appropriate.
Often at L’Abri we have long discussions about the fact that man, if he is only rationalistic, cannot really be sure that the sun is going to rise tomorrow morning; all he has is statistics and averages. The Christian can be sure. His certainty is not only based upon the observation of ten million sunrises, but on the total structure that gives a sufficient answer and, in that structure, the promise of God. As long as the earth goes on in the era in which we are, we can be sure of this: The sun will rise and the sun will set and the seasons will come in their natural and proper place. For this is the promise of God: “While the earth remaineth, seedtime and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease” (Gen. 8:22).
A New Step in the Messianic Prophecy
The first Messianic prophecy is Genesis 3:15, that the seed of the woman shall bruise the serpent’s head. A specific woman will be involved, but the promise, as far as its application is concerned, is as wide as the whole human race. Later it becomes clear that this one who will fulfill Genesis 3:15 will come through the line of Seth and not through the line of Cain. And in the present passage, Genesis 9:26-27, we see a further detailing: “And he said, Blessed be Jehovah, the God of Shem; and let Canaan be his servant. God enlarge Japheth, And let him dwell in the tents of Shem” (ASV). In other words, the promise that was first given to all men is now narrowed to the Semitic peoples. The Semitic peoples are a large group, related by language, living in what we now call the Near East. Yet, these verses in Genesis make plain that though the promise will be fulfilled through the Semitic people, it is actually open to the whole human race. It is simply that the Semitic people will be the channel–the cradle, as it were–the conduit out of which the whole of mankind will have a blessing.
Genealogy Not Chronology
Chapter 10 again brings us to the genealogies, and as we have said before, the genealogies themselves make it evident that their purpose is not chronology. For example, Genesis 10:2 speaks of a man bringing forth countries: “The sons of Japheth; Gomer, and Magog, and Madai, and Javan, and Tubal, and Meshech, and Tiras.” Gomer, Magog, Tubal–these are countries. Verse 4 depicts a man as bringing forth peoples. This is clearer in the Hebrew where the 
endings indicate the plural. God is saying, “Do you want to know the flow of history? It’s the flow of history that is important, and this is it.” In verse 7 a man brings forth places, because Cush, Seba and Havilah are places, not people. And verse 13 has endings again; peoples are bringing forth peoples rather than individuals bringing forth individuals. Verse 15 indicates a man bringing forth a place. Finally, in verses 16-18 we are told that the various tribes, the Jebusites, the Amorites, the Gergasites, etc. came from one man–Canaan. Even though some individuals are named here, and not all are tribes, it certainly seems to me that to take these genealogies as chronology misses the mark.
The Generations of the Sons of Noah
In Genesis 10:1 we turn again to the literary form these are the generations of, this time in relationship to the sons of Noah: “Now these are the generations of the sons of Noah, Shem, Ham, and Japheth: and unto them were sons born after the flood.” Beginning with verse 2, again the unimportant is dealt with first and quickly–with sufficient, true propositional truth–but quickly. Then the record turns to the more important line, Shem’s, that flows on throughout the rest of the Bible.
We have seen that the literary form these are the generations of runs through the entire book of Genesis and makes it a complete unit. Therefore, to treat the book of Genesis as less than a literary unit, to divide Genesis into two halves and read the two halves differently, is totally arbitrary. The only way to escape this is to say that the phrases these are the generations of were added by a final redactor (editor) as some of the documentarian higher critics do. But this argument rests on subjective decisions based on naturalistic presuppositions; it demands a final redactor who puts things in an order which fits their theories, their naturalistic position. Here the theory generates the data. The redactor would not be necessary if the weakness of their theory did not require him.
We have just spoken of the second literary form that emphasizes this same thing; namely, that throughout the whole book of Genesis, the factors not central to the main purpose of the book are dealt with first and quickly, and then the record returns to the central theme and treats it at length. These two literary forms together mean that we should approach the whole of Genesis with the expectation that the whole is to be read in the same way, from the first chapter to the last, before and after the time of Abraham. It could properly be said that these two factors make Genesis one of the most unified books in the Bible. In the light of this, anyone desiring to read parts of Genesis with a different form must give a clear reason why he does so. The witness of the New Testament makes this doubly certain: In every one of its references to any part of Genesis it takes the material to be normal space-time history, down to the small data. It always deals with the events in normal, straightforward, literary form.
We come in Genesis 10:21 and 11:10 to the line of Shem, because his is the important line. At 10:25 we read: “And unto Eber were born two sons: the name of the one was Peleg; for in his days was the earth divided.” This may locate for us in the line of Shem the time when the division at the tower of Babel took place. Verse 32 sums up the flow lines from the three sons of Noah: “These are the families of the sons of Noah, after their generations, in their nations: and by these were the nations divided in the earth after the flood.” This verse and Genesis 9:19 indicate that the entire human race as it now stands came specifically from the three sons of Noah.
Babel
The next stage in the flow of history is an interesting and important event. It occurs in a place that is clearly delineated–the land of Shinar which is Babylonia in its widest sense. Genesis 11:1 reads: “And the whole earth was of one language, and of one speech.” In the flow of history language was one. There was a common language among the descendants of Noah.
This isn’t surprising, considering the tenacity with which men hold onto language. In Switzerland, for example, there are four languages and there is a language group clinging firmly to each one. Within one of them, the Romansh, there are about 60,000 people speaking two dialects, and this situation could continue practically forever. Therefore, that men with a common origin are speaking one language is to be expected.
Verse 4 makes what might be called the first public declaration of humanism: “And they said, Go to, let us build us a city and a tower, whose top may reach unto heaven; and let us make us a name, lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth.” We have already found this sort of humanism in the family of Cain, but what a strong humanistic statement this is! Let’s make a name for ourselves so that we can maintain a human unity and we can achieve social stability.
In verse 7 God acts into this situation: “Come, let us [note the communication among members of the Trinity] go down, and there confound their language, that they may not understand one another’s speech” (ASV). The basic confusion among people is expressly stated to be language–not the color of skin, not race, not nation. Language is the key to the divisions of the peoples of the world.
The Bible indicates here, as it does constantly in the early chapters of Genesis, that all of the divisions of the whole world are a result of sin and the righteous judgment of God. Men said, Let us make a name for ourselves lest we be scattered, and then as a result of this attempt to make a unity on their own basis, “the LORD scattered them abroad from thence upon the face of all the earth” (v. 8). And this he did on the basis of their own speech.
Thus another division has emerged–not just one between man and God, man and himself, man and man, man and nature and nature and nature, but also between the men of the earth in their nations with implications that reach out into racial and cultural divisions, linked to linguistic differences. And all of them are rooted in the same source–the sin of man. Here at the tower, and always, man seeks to be autonomous.
The word Babel is interesting because it is given two different meanings. Genesis 11:9 says: “Therefore is the name of it called Babel; because the LORD did there confound the language of all the earth.” In Hebrew the word Babel means confusion. The Babylonians themselves used the word to mean “the gate of God.” So the Babylonians said, “We are the gate of God,” and the Jews said, “No, you are confusion.” Throughout Scripture, right up to the book of Revelation, the concept of Babylon stands crucial, Babylon saying, “We are the gate of God,” and the Bible answering, “No, this is the place where the basic confusion of language occurred. You are confusion.” Our own word Babylon is simply the word Babel with a Greek ending.
The Generations of Shem
Genesis 11:10 takes up the generations of Shem as the Bible carries us still further along in the general flow of history. Here again we need to deal with the problem of genealogy and chronology. There are a number of things to notice.
First, in the Septuagint (the Greek translation of the Old Testament dating before the time of Christ) an extra name (Kainan) is recorded in verse 12. Kainan is stated to have lived 130 years, the phraseology fitting into exactly the same form as the other names. The intriguing thing (this is purely speculative) is that if this name does belong here, then this genealogy contains ten steps, the same number as the genealogy of the prediluvians in Genesis 5. One wonders, therefore, if this is a parallel to the genealogy of Christ in Matthew 1, where names are left out and then it is stated that there are fourteen generations from Abraham to David, and fourteen generations from David to Babylonian captivity, and fourteen generations from the Babylonian captivity to Christ (Mt. 1:17).
People often ask how Genesis 11:10 ff could not be a chronology with all the detail it contains, for example, in verses 12-13: “And Arphaxad lived five and thirty years, and begat Salah: And Arphaxed lived after he begat Salah four hundred and three years, and begat sons and daughters.”
In Matthew 1:8, as I have pointed out, there is a tremendous jump in the genealogy. There could have been no mistake involved in making this jump, because the people who recorded these things knew the genealogies very well. Matthew 1:8 reads: “And Asa begat Jehoshaphat; and Jehoshaphat begat Joram; and Joram begat Uzziah” (ASV). But we saw, by comparing this to 1 Chronicles 3:11-12, that Uzziah’s father, grandfather, and great-grandfather are omitted in Matthew’s genealogy. So there is a lengthy break here. Therefore, what this passage in Matthew is really saying is: When Joram was a certain unnamed number of years old, be begat someone who led to Uzziah. And then, after Joram begat that unnamed individual, Joram lived a certain number of years and died.
But for the sake of the illustration let’s be a little more imaginative and read it like this: “When Joram was 30 years old, he begat someone who led to Uzziah, and then Joram lived a certain number of years, had other children, and died.” That is what this portion of Matthew 1:8 means. It does not state the number of years, but it does give us the form. And this is precisely the form we find throughout Genesis 11. In other words, the word begat in Genesis 11 does not require a first-generation father-son relationship. It can mean, fathered someone who led to. Adding this phrase to the genealogy in Genesis 11 would not change the situation at all. For example, if you added such a phrase to Genesis 11:14-15, then you would have exactly the same situation as in Matthew 1:8, because it would simply say that Salah begat someone who led to Eber. That is precisely what Matthew 1:8 says about Joram and Uzziah. Consequently there is no reason to let Genesis 11 change our conclusion that the genealogies do not constitute a chronology.
People have asked why the details are added. The best answer that has been given, I think, is simply that they form a parallel with the prediluvians where the ending of the form was and he died. The present passage doesn’t say and he died, but it seems to involve the same mentality. The details are given, and he lived so many years, and then of course he died. The important names were the ones that were given, for they show the line.
When we realize that these genealogies give no guidance as to dating, we can understand why Professor B. B. Warfield said, “It is to theology, as such, a matter of entire indifference how long man has existed on earth.”
In the flow of history in Genesis 1–11, therefore, I feel there really is no final discussion possible concerning dating. On the Bible’s side there are the questions we’ve just considered, and on modern science’s side there are certainly many questions as to whether science’s dating systems are accurate. As I said in regard to the use of the Hebrew word day in Genesis 1, it is not that we have to accept the concept of the long periods of time modern science postulates, but rather that there are really no clearly defined terms upon which at this time to base a final debate.
The First Correlation with Secular History
In Genesis 11:26 we come to an entirely new situation because here there is a reference to the man Abraham to whom we can assign a specific date. We move from biblical history that is not open to correlation with secular history to biblical history that is open to such correlation. This does not imply that what has preceded is any less historic than what is recorded from this point on. But with Abraham we can assign an approximate date–2,000 B. C.
In Genesis 11:28 we are told that Abraham came from Ur of the Chaldees. We know a good deal about Ur of the Chaldees at the time when Abraham lived there and before because of the excavation that was done by Sir Charles Leonard Woolley in 1922 and 1934. We know, for example, that these people worshipped the moon goddess, but that they were far advanced in civilization and culture. Abraham was not just some strange wanderer, a Bedouin from the back side of the desert who didn’t know anything. The excavations show us that the houses were made of brick and were whitewashed for aesthetic purposes. They stood two storied high. In the larger houses there were up to ten to twenty rooms. They had wonderfully equipped kitchens, a good plumbing system and sanitation. From the evidence that has been found, some people have thought that perhaps they taught cube root in their schools. The University of Pennsylvania has a cup dating two centuries before the time of Abraham that shows the magnificent workmanship these men were capable of. This cup is so marvelously made that no one today can surpass it, and it indicates the luxury of that place. Woolley’s excavation volumes covering the Royal Tombs show pictures of the same marvelous work in gold and in alabaster as well.
In Genesis 12:1-3 we read: “Now the LORD had said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country [that is, from this highly cultured place], and from thy kindred, and from thy father’s house, unto a land that I will shew thee. And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing: . . . and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed.” The Apostle Paul in his letter to the Galatians quotes from this section of Genesis and carefully ties what he is saying into the promise given there: “Even as Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness. Know ye therefore that they which are of faith, the same are the children of Abraham. And the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the heathen through faith, preached before the gospel unto Abraham, saying, In thee shall all nations be blessed. So then they which be of faith are blessed with faithful Abraham” (Gal. 3:6-9).
The promises of God, reaching back to Genesis 3:15, are coming by the time of Abraham into an even more clearly delineated area. The solution, which will be appropriate to the real dilemma of man and will take care of the consequence of guilt before a holy God who exists, will come through Abraham. After Abraham the flow of history goes on, and the promise through the Old Testament continues to become clearer. We come finally to that last prophet of the Old Testament line, John the Baptist, who, when Jesus came and the moment of fulfillment was at hand, said, “Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world” (Jn. 1:29).
The Flow of History: The Significance of Man
Thus the flow of history continues. History comes from someplace. History is going someplace. We are not born without a background. And there is a solution to the dilemma of man in the midst of history. What a contrast to modern man who has come to the awful conclusion that history isn’t headed anywhere simply because he doesn’t know that the history in Genesis 1-11 is true! But that goes for all of us. We too must listen, if we are to understand.
Many events happened before we were born and many others that we cannot remember occurred in our early life. If we are to know about them, our parents or others must tell us. A multitude of things which occurred before my time and are personally important to me I must learn from others. History is involved–things which really happened but which I must be told by another. It is exactly the same with the whole human race.
Historical knowledge is extending back further and further as we find older writing and as our excavations and our understanding of the artifacts increases. Secular history can tell us much about our past as a human race, and therefore our own place in it. But no matter how much writing we turn up and translate, no matter how many excavations we make and how many artifacts we study, secular history has not unearthed a clue to help explain the final “why” of what we find.
All the way back to the dawn of our studies we find man still being man. Wherever we turn–to the caves in the Pyrenees, to the Sumerians, and further back to the Neanderthal man burying his dead in flower petals–it makes no difference: Everywhere men show by their art and their acts that they observed themselves to be unique. And they were unique, unique as men in the midst of non-men. And yet they were as flawed with the dilemma of man, divisions of all kinds, as we are today.
So, just as a child needs to be told something of his personal history, mankind needs to be told of its history. Unless we are told about our beginnings, which secular study cannot trace, we cannot make sense of our present history. Twentieth-century man is looking at something–himself and the facts of history. He knows that something is really there, but he doesn’t know what. This is exactly what Genesis 1–11 tells him. These chapters give the history which comes before anything secular historians have been able to ascertain, and it is that pre-secular history which gives meaning to man’s present history. Imagine a little child who hasn’t yet been told that he is indeed the legitimate heir to the throne. He lives in pauper’s rags. Then somebody comes and tells him his previous history and he takes his rightful place. It is exactly this that we need. And it is exactly this that the history of Genesis 1–11 gives. It sets in perspective all the history we now have in our secular study.
Some people assume that one can spiritualize the history of the first eleven chapters of Genesis and it will make no difference. They assume that they can weaken the propositional nature of these chapters where they speak of history and the cosmos, and that nothing will change. But everything changes. These chapters tell us the “why” of all history man knows through his studies, including the “why” of each man’s personal history. For this, Genesis 1-11 is more important than anything else one could have.
In these chapters we learn of the historic, space-time creation out of nothing; the creation of man in God’s image; a real, historic, space-time, moral Fall; and the understanding of the present abnormality in the divisions that exist between God and man, man and himself, man and man, man and nature and nature and nature. These chapters also tell us the flow of the promise God made from the beginning concerning the solution to these divisions. This is what Genesis 1-11 gives us, and it is climactic. Naturalistic, rationalistic history only sees the results. If I am to understand the world as it is and myself as I am, I must know the flow of history given in these chapters. Take this away, and the flow of the rest of history collapses.
If a man attributes a wrong cause to the dilemma and divisions of men, he will never come up with the right answer no matter how good a will he has. Man as he stands since the Fall is not normal, and consequently the solution must be appropriate to what we know to be the cause of his problems and his dilemma. A mere physical solution is inadequate, because man’s dilemma is not physical. Nor can it be metaphysical, because the problem of man, as we know it in Genesis 1–11, is not primarily metaphysical. The problem of man is moral, for by choice he stands in rebellion against God. And any appropriate solution must fill this moral need.
He who is the seed of the woman has bruised the serpent’s head. But what good is that to us if we will not listen? If we won’t listen, we won’t understand.