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Skip Heitzig: This is Connect with Skip Heitzig. Thanks for joining us today. Here at Connect with Skip, we love helping you understand God's Word and apply it to your life through clear, practical Bible teaching and real encouragement. And if you'd like help to keep growing in your walk with Jesus, sign up for Pastor Skip's free weekly devotional. You'll receive biblical insight, teaching highlights, and exclusive resources designed to help you stay strong in your faith, all delivered right to your inbox. Signing up is quick and easy, and you'll be glad you did. Go to connectwithskip.com and join the list today. That's connectwithskip.com.

Guest (Male): Now, here's more about an unforgettable journey with Skip and Lenya Heitzig. Have you ever dreamed of visiting Israel? Lenya and I want to invite you to join us for a life-changing journey through the land of the Bible in April of 2027. You can walk where Jesus walked, you can worship on the Sea of Galilee, you can celebrate baptisms at the Jordan River, and we're going to share communion at the Empty Tomb. You'll also have the option to attend the Epicenter Summit in Jerusalem where I'll be speaking alongside of Joel Rosenberg, Greg Laurie, Anne Graham Lotz, Jack Graham, and more. So, join us April 5th through April 16th. You can learn more today at connectwithskip.com/israel.

Skip Heitzig: Now, let's dive into today's teaching from Pastor Skip Heitzig. So we understand that worship, giving should involve at least some amount of sacrifice. David, when he was offering something to the Lord, he offered to buy the threshing floor of Ornan. We'll get to that much later on. And Ornan said, "No, no, no, let me give this to you. You're going to build a temple for God. Man, it's, it's on me. It's yours. Have it." And he goes, "No, no, no, I'm going to pay for it." "No, David, you can have it." "It's for God." David said, "Listen, I'm not going to give to the Lord anything that doesn't cost me something."

Skip Heitzig: I've got a feeling. There's to be some amount of sacrifice. So it was in this one, there was a quality to his offering. Second, there was the character behind the offering. You know, if we wonder why did God accept one and not the other, Hebrews 11 gives you the answer. "By faith Abel offered up a more acceptable or excellent sacrifice than Cain." And if you look at verse 7, there's a hint of that. In verse 7, God says, "Why are you so bummed out? If you do well, will you not be accepted?" "And if you don't do well, then sin is lying at the door."

Skip Heitzig: In other words, you're not doing well, you're not living right. And I God will never separate the offering from the one who offers it. You can worship me but I always look at the worshiper along with the worship itself. I don't just say, "Man, that guy can sing! Ooh, he's got his hands raised and it's so loud and he's into it." I look at the life behind it. So both of those are at play, the quality of the offering and the character behind the offering. So, he was angry. Cain was so angry that his countenance fell and he kills Abel.

Skip Heitzig: It is now the what you would call first murder. I'm calling it the second murder in history. Technically, it's the first homicide, man killing a man. But I contend it's the second murder. The first is when Satan destroyed the relationship of intimacy that God had with his ultimate creation, man and woman. That was the first murder. Satan, the Bible says was a murderer from the beginning. So he murdered that relationship, and Cain killing his brother marks the second murder. So Cain killed Abel, and Cain wasn't able to hang out anymore. He's banished and kicked out. And so verse 25 picks up the line of Seth.

Skip Heitzig: When we get to chapter 5, the whole chapter is the line of Seth, the third child born to Adam and Eve, Cain, Abel, and now Seth. So it's the genealogy, chapter 5 of Adam through Seth to Noah. And just glance over the chapter. Just look at some of the names in there. When you look at chapter 5, it looks like a bunch of boring names stacked one on top of the other. Verse 1, "This is the book of the genealogy of Adam, in the day God created man, he made him in the likeness of God." Now I'm not going to read the whole chapter, but I do want you to know this, chapter 5 covers 1,500 years.

Skip Heitzig: Just this chapter. Chapters 1 through 11 cover about 2,000 years, and the rest of the book of Genesis between 3 to 500 years. Just this chapter in its genealogical records is 1,500 years. But the chapter is like walking through a graveyard. It says, "And he died, and he died, and he died, and he died." It's over and over, it's repeated in this chapter. Verse 2, "He created them male and female and blessed them and called them mankind." The Hebrew word there is, "He called them Adam." Isn't that interesting? Male and female, he didn't call them the Adams' or the Adam's family, but he calls them collectively the singular Adam, man.

Skip Heitzig: Translated mankind in our version or in a more politically correct translation, humankind. But the word is, "He called them Adam," on the day that they were created. Now, when God names them, that's an indication that he has dominion over them. Naming them means God has dominion. Inasmuch as God said to Adam, "You get to name all the animals. You're going to have dominion over all the animals in the world, over all of the creation, you are the, you're the head, you're the crowning creation." But God names them, indicating his dominion over them. "And Adam, verse 3, lived 130 years and begot a son in his own likeness, after his image, and named him Seth."

Skip Heitzig: From this verse on, the line of Cain is dropped and the line of Seth is focused on and picked up. Verse 5, "So all the days that Adam lived were 930 years, and he died." Go down to verse 25, "Methuselah lived 187 years and begot Lamech. After he begot Lamech, Methuselah lived 782 years and had sons and daughters. All the days of Methuselah were 969 years, and he died." People always ask this question, "How is it possible for people to live that long? Are these false numbers? Uh, are these much, much, much, much shorter years so it's really a normal lifespan? How on earth could they live that long?"

Skip Heitzig: It is believed, and I think the best explanation is, before the Flood, there was a water canopy that surrounded the earth, sort of like a thermal blanket, a mist that would produce uniform temperatures on the earth. Uh, there would be no rain on the earth 'cause the earth was watered not by rainfall, the Bible says, but by a mist that came from it. And also there would be no mass air movements, no wind. But with that canopy, that thermal blanket came the filtration of all the ultraviolet rays of the sun or at least most of the ones that would be harmful. It would produce a moderate and healthful condition. Now, this is going to drop off after the Flood. You'll see it.

Skip Heitzig: The lifespan goes down because that water canopy is broken up. Now, the word Methuselah, everybody knows Methuselah is the oldest Jew in the Bible. But most people skip over what his name means. It's a very interesting name. The name Methuselah literally means, "When he is dead, it shall be sent." "When he is dead, it shall be sent." What's fascinating if you do the chronology, you discover that 969 years after Methuselah came on the scene was the year the Flood happened. Now, isn't that an interesting prophecy?

Skip Heitzig: "When he is dead, it shall be sent." Now imagine being Methuselah's parents. When he is dead, it shall be sent. Methuselah has a cold. Oh my goodness! You know, and if the neighbors knew that that little boy was a walking prophecy, "Are you kidding? We'll babysit. We'll help out. We'll give him vitamins." You know, we want to do everything we can to keep Methuselah alive for as long as it's possible. But one day he would die. And in the year that he died, we believe from the chronology is when the Flood came, which takes us to the third of the four events, and that is the Flood on the earth.

Skip Heitzig: That's chapter 6 through 9, verse 1. "It came to pass, when man began to multiply on the face of the earth, and daughters were born to them." The lifespans because people lived so long, the long lifespans would cause a rapid increase in population. Two scientists, named John Whitcomb and Henry Morris, have figured that if you take the genealogical tables from Genesis, calculate longevity that is provided for here and the average number of kids for per family, at the end of 18 generations you could have 774 million people on the earth and their reckoning by this math is by the time of the Flood, there would be well over a billion people on earth.

Skip Heitzig: So, "They began to multiply on the face of the earth." What makes this interesting is Jesus said, "As it was in the days of Noah, so shall it be in the coming of the Son of Man." Today, there are 7.6 billion people. By the year 2150, it is estimated, the highest estimates 28 billion people on this planet. We are multiplying on the face of the earth. Verse 5, "The Lord saw the wickedness of man was great on the earth, that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually."

Skip Heitzig: "And the Lord was sorry that he made man on the earth, and he was grieved in his heart." "And so the Lord said, 'I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth, both man and beast, creeping thing and birds of the air, for I am sorry that I have made them. But Noah found grace or favor in the eyes of the Lord.'" I love the Living Bible. It says, "But Noah was a pleasure to the Lord." Now, I deliberately skipped a hot potato issue in this chapter. And that's the issue of the sons of God and the daughters of men, the Bene Elohim, if some of you know that argument.

Skip Heitzig: I'm always asked, "What were they? Who were they? Were they demons? Were they sons of Seth?" And there are books written about that. I'm going to skip over that for time and just say, listen, the big picture is more important, that Satan so corrupted the earth that it reached into virtually every part of society. That's how bad it was, and that is why God judged the earth.

Skip Heitzig: You're listening to Connect with Skip Heitzig. The Bible is a big book, 66 books filled with history, poetry, prophecy, letters, laws, and more. It's easy to lose sight of how it all fits together. That's why Pastor Skip Heitzig wrote his new one-year devotional, "Soaring Above It All." It gives you a panoramic view of Scripture, helping you understand the key people, events, and themes from Genesis to Revelation while deepening your walk with God. Request "Soaring Above It All" as our thanks when you give $50 or more today to help Connect with Skip share clear, verse-by-verse Bible teaching with people everywhere. Give now at connectwithskip.com/offer or call 800-922-1888.

Skip Heitzig: Now, here's more from Pastor Skip. Verse 14, "Make yourself an ark of gopher wood." That's thought to be cypress wood, very hard, very durable. "Make rooms in the ark, cover it inside and outside with pitch." Verse 17, "And behold, I myself am bringing floodwaters on the earth, to destroy from under heaven all flesh which is the breath of life. Everything that is on the earth shall die. But I will establish my covenant with you. You will go into the ark, you and your sons, your wives, your sons' wives with you, and of every living thing of all flesh, you shall bring two of every sort into the ark, to keep them alive with you. They shall be male and female."

Skip Heitzig: Genesis 7, verse 17, "Now the flood was on the earth 40 days. The waters increased and lifted up the ark, and it rose high above the earth." That's why I believe it's a universal flood. "The waters prevailed and greatly increased on the earth." "And the ark was, the ark moved about on the surface of the waters." Now folks, this is a lot more than just a lot of rain. It was rain from heaven, but also it says, "The fountains of the deep," the subterranean vaults of water all over the earth that God had originally made were broken up. And it was a great cataclysm that filled the earth.

Skip Heitzig: "The waters prevailed, verse 19, exceedingly on the earth." "And all the high hills under the whole of heaven were covered. The waters prevailed 15 cubits upward, and the mountains were covered. And all flesh died that moved on the earth, birds and cattle, beasts, every creeping thing that creeps on the earth and every man." So every man, every woman, every creep died. All the creeps that creep, and all in whose nostrils was the breath of the spirit of life, all that was on the dry land died. Now let that verse sink in. Everybody died. This is a sober verse.

Skip Heitzig: This is the future of all sinners. Destruction in a holocaust of judgment. You say, "Well, the Flood's never going to happen." You're right. There'll never be another Flood on the earth. The next time God will judge the earth though and it will be by fire, Peter said. But it will happen. Chapter 8, the Flood stops. Here's what's interesting, there are 270 cultures out there that have records of a Flood. From Egypt to Babylonia, to Persia, to Greece, to the Hindu countries, and Chinese cultures, there are Flood narratives.

Skip Heitzig: And they're strikingly similar with their own variations, and that is because they're all myths. But they all play off the singular event that is true recorded in the Bible, the Universal Flood. What's interesting is that a significant number of them say that it was God judging the earth for its sinful behavior, its wickedness. Now the Ark was 450 feet long, 75 feet wide, 45 feet tall with a displacement of 20,000 tons, or roughly the size of the Titanic. It had three decks, which would make the volume 1.5 million cubic feet.

Skip Heitzig: The capacity of this vessel was equivalent to 522 railroad cars. Some estimate the Ark could accommodate 18,000 species of animals. And if you were to make the total of animals on the Ark 72,000 creatures, that's less than 60% of the total volume of this boat. Amazing, isn't it? The Flood subsided after 150 days. Noah was on this boat for a total of 371 days. I can't begin to imagine the smell. In chapter 9, when it's all said and done, God makes a covenant.

Skip Heitzig: The Noahic Covenant, or God's covenant with Noah. He says, "You, your three boys, Shem, Ham, Japheth, fill the earth, multiply." And now God adds meat to their diet, where previously they were just vegetarian. Now God commands them to eat the animals as they populate the earth. Also, part of the covenant is the protection of human life, which includes capital punishment as a direct order from God. And now we come to the last section, and we'll close with this, chapters 10 and 11, the fallout from the rebellion of man.

Skip Heitzig: After the Flood, a new social order arises, human government. That's not only a new social order, but there's a new physical order. The vapor canopy is removed, that thermal blanket that I just talked about. And man's lifespan is significantly shortened. Also, some believe that the atmospheric pressure is cut in half after the Flood. And one of the reasons is because there are pterodactyl fossils on the earth. Those flying dinosaurs. And by design, they couldn't fly unless the atmospheric pressure were twice what it is today.

Skip Heitzig: Now that's not a big deal because a lot of people contend they never really flew much. They were sort of like road runners, kind of ran a lot and then flew a little bit. And then or a peacock, flew a little bit and then stayed on the ground most of the time. Don't know, don't care. What happened after the Flood? Noah's three sons. Now watch this, he has three sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth. That's what this chapter focuses on, the next couple of chapters. They had a lot of kids. And chapter 10 is called the table of nations.

Skip Heitzig: 70 nations come from these three boys. 26 from Shem, 30 from Ham, and 14 from Japheth. Just look at verse 1. "Now this is the genealogy of the sons of Noah, Shem, Ham, and Japheth. And sons were born to them after the Flood." Now Japheth is highlighted in verse 2 through 5. He was the father of the Indo-European races, people from Europe, people from Iran, India, and Central Asia can trace their heritage back to Japheth. Verses 6 through 20 are the records of Ham.

Skip Heitzig: Ham is responsible for the populations of Africa in the Middle East, including Egypt, Ethiopia, Libya, and the Canaanite civilizations that inhabited Israel before they got there. Verses 21 through 31 is Shem. Shem produced the population of Assyria and Syria as well as those in Asia Minor. Now get this, the rest of the book of Genesis focuses on the line of Shem. So, one line, Cain is eliminated. Seth is focused upon. Now the rest of the book, one lineage, one genealogical record, one people group is highlighted.

Skip Heitzig: Look at verse 21. I want you to look at a single word, a single name, "Eber." Do you see that in that verse, "Eber"? Look again, verse 24. "Our facts sad." I just had to say that word. "Our facts sad." Don't ever name your son that. "Begot Sala." That's a little better. "And Sala begat Eber." Eber, it is thought that the word Hebrew comes from the word or the name Eber, and that the original language this lineage of Eber spoke was the language of Hebrew. This is the source of the Semitic group called the Jews. Now, God said something. He said, "Fill the earth," right?

Skip Heitzig: "Be fruitful and fill the earth." He said that to Adam, he said that to Noah. In chapter 11, they decided not to spread out but to get together and coalesce into a super state. Look at just a couple of verses and we close. "Now the whole earth had one language and one speech. It came to pass as they journeyed from the east, they found a plain in the land of Shinar, and dwelt there." That's Mesopotamia or Iraq. Verse 4, "And they said, 'Come, let us build ourselves a city, and a tower whose top is in the heavens. Let us make a name for ourselves, lest we be scattered abroad over the face of the whole earth.'"

Skip Heitzig: Verse 7, God responds, "Come, let us go down and confuse their language that they may not understand one another's speech." Now, there are separate languages, which divide them up, which is what God wanted them to do in the first place, fill the earth, spread out, don't coalesce. So, their ethnicities and