The Berean Pursuit
Now when men began to multiply on the face of the earth and daughters were born to them, the sons of God saw that the daughters of men were beautiful, and they took as wives whomever they chose.
So the LORD said, "My Spirit will not contend with man forever, for he is mortal; his days shall be 120 years."
The Nephilim were on the earth in those days-and afterward as well-when the sons of God had relations with the daughters of men. And they bore them children who became the mighty men of old, men of renown.
Then the LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great upon the earth, and that every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was altogether evil all the time. And the LORD regretted that He had made man on the earth, and He was grieved in His heart. So the LORD said, "I will blot out man, whom I have created, from the face of the earth-every man and beast and crawling creature and bird of the air-for I am grieved that I have made them."
Noah, however, found favor in the eyes of the LORD.
This is the account of Noah. Noah was a righteous man, blameless in his generation; Noah walked with God. And Noah had three sons: Shem, Ham, and Japheth.
Now the earth was corrupt in the sight of God, and full of violence. And God looked upon the earth and saw that it was corrupt; for all living creatures on the earth had corrupted their ways.
Then God said to Noah, "The end of all living creatures has come before Me, because through them the earth is full of violence. Now behold, I will destroy both them and the earth.
Make for yourself an ark of gopher wood; make rooms in the ark and coat it with pitch inside and out. And this is how you are to build it: The ark is to be 300 cubits long, 50 cubits wide, and 30 cubits high. You are to make a roof for the ark, finish its walls a cubit from the top, place a door in the side of the ark, and build lower, middle, and upper decks.
And behold, I will bring floodwaters upon the earth to destroy every creature under the heavens that has the breath of life. Everything on the earth will perish. But I will establish My covenant with you, and you will enter the ark-you and your sons and your wife and your sons' wives with you.
And you are to bring two of every living creature into the ark-male and female-to keep them alive with you. Two of every kind of bird and animal and crawling creature will come to you to be kept alive. You are also to take for yourself every kind of food that is eaten and gather it as food for yourselves and for the animals."
So Noah did everything precisely as God had commanded him.
Then the LORD said to Noah, "Go into the ark, you and all your family, because I have found you righteous in this generation. You are to take with you seven pairs of every kind of clean animal, a male and its mate; a pair of every kind of unclean animal, a male and its mate; and seven pairs of every kind of bird of the air, male and female, to preserve their offspring on the face of all the earth. For seven days from now I will send rain on the earth for forty days and forty nights, and I will wipe from the face of the earth every living thing I have made."
And Noah did all that the LORD had commanded him.
Now Noah was 600 years old when the floodwaters came upon the earth. And Noah and his wife, with his sons and their wives, entered the ark to escape the waters of the flood. The clean and unclean animals, the birds, and everything that crawls along the ground came to Noah to enter the ark, two by two, male and female, as God had commanded Noah.
And after seven days the floodwaters came upon the earth. In the six hundredth year of Noah's life, on the seventeenth day of the second month, all the fountains of the great deep burst forth, and the floodgates of the heavens were opened. And the rain fell upon the earth for forty days and forty nights.
On that very day Noah entered the ark, along with his sons Shem, Ham, and Japheth, and his wife, and the three wives of his sons- they and every kind of wild animal, livestock, crawling creature, bird, and winged creature. They came to Noah to enter the ark, two by two of every creature with the breath of life. And they entered, the male and female of every living thing, as God had commanded Noah. Then the LORD shut him in.
For forty days the flood kept coming on the earth, and the waters rose and lifted the ark high above the earth. So the waters continued to surge and rise greatly on the earth, and the ark floated on the surface of the waters. Finally, the waters completely inundated the earth, so that all the high mountains under all the heavens were covered.
The waters rose and covered the mountaintops to a depth of fifteen cubits. And every living thing that moved upon the earth perished-birds, livestock, animals, every creature that swarms upon the earth, and all mankind. Of all that was on dry land, everything that had the breath of life in its nostrils died. And every living thing on the face of the earth was destroyed-man and livestock, crawling creatures and birds of the air; they were blotted out from the earth, and only Noah and those with him in the ark remained.
And the waters prevailed upon the earth for 150 days.
But God remembered Noah and all the animals and livestock that were with him in the ark. And God sent a wind over the earth, and the waters began to subside. The springs of the deep and the floodgates of the heavens were closed, and the rain from the sky was restrained. The waters receded steadily from the earth, and after 150 days the waters had gone down.
On the seventeenth day of the seventh month, the ark came to rest on the mountains of Ararat. And the waters continued to recede until the tenth month, and on the first day of the tenth month the tops of the mountains became visible.
After forty days Noah opened the window he had made in the ark and sent out a raven. It kept flying back and forth until the waters had dried up from the earth.
Then Noah sent out a dove to see if the waters had receded from the surface of the ground. But the dove found no place to rest her foot, and she returned to him in the ark, because the waters were still covering the surface of all the earth. So he reached out his hand and brought her back inside the ark.
Noah waited seven more days and again sent out the dove from the ark. And behold, the dove returned to him in the evening with a freshly plucked olive leaf in her beak. So Noah knew that the waters had receded from the earth.
And Noah waited seven more days and sent out the dove again, but this time she did not return to him.
In Noah's six hundred and first year, on the first day of the first month, the waters had dried up from the earth. So Noah removed the covering from the ark and saw that the surface of the ground was dry. By the twenty-seventh day of the second month, the earth was fully dry.
Then God said to Noah, "Come out of the ark, you and your wife, along with your sons and their wives. Bring out all the living creatures that are with you-birds, livestock, and everything that crawls upon the ground-so that they can spread out over the earth and be fruitful and multiply upon it."
So Noah came out, along with his sons and his wife and his sons' wives. Every living creature, every creeping thing, and every bird-everything that moves upon the earth-came out of the ark, kind by kind.
Then Noah built an altar to the LORD. And taking from every kind of clean animal and clean bird, he offered burnt offerings on the altar. When the LORD smelled the pleasing aroma, He said in His heart, "Never again will I curse the ground because of man, even though every inclination of his heart is evil from his youth. And never again will I destroy all living creatures as I have done.
As long as the earth endures,
seedtime and harvest,
cold and heat,
summer and winter,
day and night
shall never cease."
Bless the LORD, O my soul!
O LORD my God, You are very great;
You are clothed with splendor and majesty.
He wraps Himself in light as with a garment;
He stretches out the heavens like a tent,
laying the beams of His chambers
in the waters above,
making the clouds His chariot,
walking on the wings of the wind.
He makes the winds His messengers,
flames of fire His servants.
He set the earth on its foundations,
never to be moved.
You covered it with the deep like a garment;
the waters stood above the mountains.
At Your rebuke the waters fled;
at the sound of Your thunder they hurried away-
the mountains rose and the valleys sank
to the place You assigned for them-
You set a boundary they cannot cross,
that they may never again cover the earth.
He sends forth springs in the valleys;
they flow between the mountains.
They give drink to every beast of the field;
the wild donkeys quench their thirst.
The birds of the air nest beside the springs;
they sing among the branches.
He waters the mountains from His chambers;
the earth is satisfied by the fruit of His works.
He makes the grass grow for the livestock
and provides crops for man to cultivate,
bringing forth food from the earth:
wine that gladdens the heart of man,
oil that makes his face to shine,
and bread that sustains his heart.
The trees of the LORD have their fill,
the cedars of Lebanon that He planted,
where the birds build their nests;
the stork makes her home in the cypresses.
The high mountains are for the wild goats,
the cliffs a refuge for the rock badgers.
He made the moon to mark the seasons;
the sun knows when to set.
You bring darkness, and it becomes night,
when all the beasts of the forest prowl.
The young lions roar for their prey
and seek their food from God.
The sun rises, and they withdraw;
they lie down in their dens.
Man goes forth to his work
and to his labor until evening.
How many are Your works, O LORD!
In wisdom You have made them all;
the earth is full of Your creatures.
Here is the sea, vast and wide,
teeming with creatures beyond number,
living things both great and small.
There the ships pass,
and Leviathan, which You formed to frolic there.
All creatures look to You
to give them their food in due season.
When You give it to them,
they gather it up;
when You open Your hand,
they are satisfied with good things.
When You hide Your face,
they are terrified;
when You take away their breath,
they die and return to dust.
When You send Your Spirit,
they are created,
and You renew
the face of the earth.
May the glory of the LORD endure forever;
may the LORD rejoice in His works.
He looks on the earth,
and it trembles;
He touches the mountains,
and they smolder.
I will sing to the LORD all my life;
I will sing praise to my God while I have my being.
May my meditation be pleasing to Him,
for I rejoice in the LORD.
May sinners vanish from the earth
and the wicked be no more.
Bless the LORD, O my soul.
Hallelujah!
Once again Jesus entered the synagogue, and a man with a withered hand was there. In order to accuse Jesus, they were watching to see if He would heal on the Sabbath.
Then Jesus said to the man with the withered hand, "Stand up among us." And He asked them, "Which is lawful on the Sabbath: to do good or to do evil, to save life or to destroy it?"
But they were silent.
Jesus looked around at them with anger and sorrow at their hardness of heart. Then He said to the man, "Stretch out your hand." So he stretched it out, and it was restored.
At this, the Pharisees went out and began plotting with the Herodians how they might kill Jesus.
So Jesus withdrew with His disciples to the sea, accompanied by a large crowd from Galilee, Judea, Jerusalem, Idumea, the region beyond the Jordan, and the vicinity of Tyre and Sidon. The large crowd came to Him when they heard what great things He was doing.
Jesus asked His disciples to have a boat ready for Him so that the crowd would not crush Him. For He had healed so many that all who had diseases were pressing forward to touch Him. And when the unclean spirits saw Him, they fell down before Him and cried out, "You are the Son of God!" But He warned them sternly not to make Him known.
Then Jesus went up on the mountain and called for those He wanted, and they came to Him. He appointed twelve of them, whom He designated as apostles, to accompany Him, to be sent out to preach, and to have authority to drive out demons.
These are the twelve He appointed: Simon (whom He named Peter), James son of Zebedee and his brother John (whom He named Boanerges, meaning "Sons of Thunder"), Andrew, Philip, Bartholomew, Matthew, Thomas, James son of Alphaeus, Thaddaeus, Simon the Zealot, and Judas Iscariot, who betrayed Jesus.
Then Jesus went home, and once again a crowd gathered, so that He and His disciples could not even eat. When His family heard about this, they went out to take custody of Him, saying, "He is out of His mind."
And the scribes who had come down from Jerusalem were saying, "He is possessed by Beelzebul," and, "By the prince of the demons He drives out demons."
So Jesus called them together and began to speak to them in parables: "How can Satan drive out Satan? If a kingdom is divided against itself, it cannot stand. If a house is divided against itself, it cannot stand. And if Satan is divided and rises against himself, he cannot stand; his end has come. Indeed, no one can enter a strong man's house to steal his possessions unless he first ties up the strong man. Then he can plunder his house.
Truly I tell you, the sons of men will be forgiven all sins and blasphemies, as many as they utter. But whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will never be forgiven; he is guilty of eternal sin."
Jesus made this statement because they were saying, "He has an unclean spirit."
Then Jesus' mother and brothers came and stood outside. They sent someone in to summon Him, and a crowd was sitting around Him. "Look," He was told, "Your mother and brothers are outside, asking for You."
But Jesus replied, "Who are My mother and My brothers?" Looking at those seated in a circle around Him, He said, "Here are My mother and My brothers! For whoever does the will of God is My brother and sister and mother."