Genesis 6-10
6:1-2 – Sons of God, daughters of men. Why the distinction?
6:3 – God says, “Enough with you guys!”
6:5-8 – Our sin hurts God, to the point here where he’s ready to throw in the towel.
6:9 – Again the distinction, Noah walked with God.
7:11-12 – I can remember a point being made about Noah’s perseverance, noting it took 100 years to build the ark. It says that he was 500 when his sons were born (triplets?) and 600 when the flood came, but it doesn’t mention when he started building.
7:17-23 – Can you imagine being in the ark, watching the waters rise. Were there men nearby, pounding to be let in? How hard it would be to ignore them, and face the realization of what just happened when the pounding stopped.
8:11 – 278 days under water and the tree is able to sprout a leaf?
8:20 – After what was surely a miserable year in the ark, Noah’s first thought is to give thanks to God.
8:12-22 – One man’s gratitude turns God’s heart to make such a long enduring promise. God is moved greatly by our own faithfulness and gratitude. Surely there have been times in the world since that have reminded God of the days of Noah. Yet he hasn’t broken His promise, he’s let us be as evil as we want.

Genesis 4-5
4:4-5 – It’s clear here that, even from the beginning, that it’s the heart that matters to God, not just obedience. It’s not clear what made Cain’s offering unacceptable.
4:7-9 – Notice how quickly Cain abandoned God’s advice about sin. Says something about his heart and his respect for God.
4:13-16 – God set Cain apart (protection), even in his punishment. Why? He certainly had every right & reason not to. What does that say about God’s heart and love for His people that he not only listened to Cain’s whiny & disrespectful complaint but He honored it! God went beyond the call to take care of Cain’s heart.
4:16 – What does “Out of the Lord’s presence” mean? They weren’t in Eden (paradise with God) anymore. Were there areas where God wasn’t or perhaps He was physically present near Eden and not so in other areas?
4:26b – Then they called on God’s name. Is the Bible making a distinction between physically with God an simply calling on His name? Pure speculation.
5:21-24 – Enoch ‘walked with God’. If the Bible is making such a distinction, it wasn’t because it was impossible. Enoch stands out in this list for that. His life is much shorter that the others. Was God sparing him from the toil and suffering of this world?

Genesis 1-3
The account of creations doesn’t seem to be precisely chronological. Verse 2 says that Earth was created ‘formless and empty’, yet day and night, defined by the relative positions of the Earth and Sun, isn’t created until Day 3. The sun is a day later. How was there ‘day and night’ before day 4? It’s hard to be literal here if you examine it too closely. It seems that to take a stand on a literal 7 day creation is problematic because of that. The clear thing is that God created. How he did it or for how long is more difficult.
1:30 – Were we all vegetarians in the beginning?
2:4-7 – Implies that man was before the plants (contrary to chapter 1) but v. 8 says that he put Adam in a garden.
2:9 – Two special trees.
3:1-5 – Satan did not use outright lies but half-truths, arguably more powerful.
3:10-13 – The blame game.
God’s heart?
Loved Man enough to give them access to the tree of life – eternal life.
Loves us enough also to give us the choice to not stay ignorant of the harsh realities of life – the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. But warns of the consequences of pursuing that path.
Protects the purity of Eden by removing Adam and Eve after they ate and knew of evil and might then bring into that special place.
Keeping them away from the tree of life could be seen as a blessing – With the knowledge of evil, eternal life could be a curse.
God wanted to shelter Man from sin, but not at the expense of free will.