Unit 2 · Big Choices Go Wrong

The Bible’s first book is Genesis. Chapter 6 tells a short, puzzling story. It says the sons of God came down to earth. They chose wives from the people there.

Long ago, a Jewish writer named Josephus read this story. He said the sons of God were angels. The old book 1 Enoch says they were heavenly ones too. Some Bible scholars today, like Michael Heiser, think so as well.

Other readers see it another way. Some think the sons of God were people, not heavenly ones. Readers still talk about this story today.

Genesis 6 says things on earth went wrong. People were not kind. They hurt each other. The story says the earth was full of violence. That means hurting.

The story says God saw it. God was sad in his heart. The story says God planned a new start for the world.

The old book 1 Enoch tells more. It says the heavenly ones taught people things that led to hurting. One wrong choice can lead to more.

One man was different. His name was Noah. Genesis 6 says Noah walked with God. That means he stayed close to God and listened.

The story says God told Noah a big flood was coming. God told Noah to build a big boat. The boat would keep Noah’s family and many animals safe.

Noah did all that God told him. Genesis 6:22 says so. It can be hard to listen when others do not. Noah listened anyway.

The big boat is called an ark. Genesis 6 says it was very long. It was made of wood. It had a roof, a door and three floors inside.

God told Noah to bring animals. Two of each kind came, a male and a female. Some kinds came in sevens. Noah brought food for everyone too.

Noah’s family went in too. There was Noah and his wife. There were his three sons and their wives. That makes eight people.

The rain came. Genesis 7 says it fell for forty days and forty nights. Water covered the land. The ark floated on top. Noah’s family was safe inside.

Then the rain stopped. The water went down slowly. Noah sent out a dove. It came back with an olive leaf in its beak. Now Noah knew. Dry land was coming back!

Noah waited for God to tell him. Then his family stepped out onto dry ground. The animals came out too.

Noah and his family stood on dry land. Then, the story says, God made a promise. God promised never again to cover the whole earth with a flood.

God gave a sign of the promise. The sign was a rainbow in the clouds. The story says when the rainbow shows, God will remember his promise.

In the Bible, a big promise like this is called a covenant. The story says this one was for Noah, his family and every living thing.

Genesis 5 tells about a man named Enoch. He lived long before Noah. He was Noah’s great-grandfather. The Bible says Enoch walked with God.

Long ago, people wrote an old book about Enoch. It is called 1 Enoch. Most Bibles do not have it. The Ethiopian and Eritrean Orthodox churches keep it in their Bible.

1 Enoch tells more about the heavenly ones in Genesis 6. It calls them Watchers. Very old pieces of this book were found in caves near the Dead Sea. Many scholars study it today.

1 Enoch chapter 10 tells how God sends good angels to help. God tells Noah to get ready. God stops the Watchers from doing more wrong. Then the book looks ahead to a clean, new start.

In Genesis, the rainbow shows up again and again. Each time, the story says, God remembers his promise. Many Jews and Christians see the rainbow as a reminder of it.

A promise is something you can count on. Keeping a promise shows care. You can keep promises too, like helping at home or being a good friend.

After the flood, Noah’s family grew and grew. Genesis 11 says everyone spoke one language. They all used the same words.

The people found a flat land called Shinar. They made bricks and baked them hard. They said, let us build a city and a tall tower. Let its top reach the sky.

They wanted to make a big name for themselves. They did not want to spread out over the earth. But God had told people to fill the earth.

Genesis 11 says God came down to see the city and the tower. God saw what the people were doing.

Then, the story says, God mixed up their language. One person said a word. The next person did not understand it. They could not work together on the tower.

So the people stopped building. They had to scatter to many places. The city was called Babel. The name sounds like a Hebrew word that means to mix up.

Genesis 10 is a long list of names. It shows how Noah’s family grew. Noah’s sons were Shem, Ham and Japheth. Their children had children, and on and on.

Each big family became a nation. A nation is a large group of people. They share a land and often a language. Jewish tradition counts seventy nations in the list.

Today the world has about 7,000 languages. Some are spoken by millions of people. Some are spoken by only a few. Each one is a way to share ideas.

Deuteronomy 32 is a song in the Bible. It tells how God split the people into nations. It says God gave each nation its own land.

Very old copies of this song were found near the Dead Sea. One says God set the nations by the number of the sons of God. The old Greek Bible, the Septuagint, says angels of God. Many Bibles say sons of Israel.

Some Bible scholars, like Michael Heiser, think God let heavenly ones watch over the nations for a time. But God kept one people for himself. Other readers think the verse is only about people.

Genesis 11 ends with a family from a city called Ur. One man in that family was Abram. Later God gave him a new name, Abraham.

In Genesis 12, God spoke to Abram. God said, leave your home and go to a new land. I will show it to you. Abram listened. He packed up and went.

Look where this story sits. It comes right after Babel. The people at Babel wanted a big name. In Genesis 12:2, God says he will make Abram’s name great.

God made Abram a big promise. Genesis 12 says God would make his family into a great nation. And more. Through him, all the families of the earth would be blessed.

To bless means to do good for someone. So the promise was not just for one family. It reached out to every nation, even the ones spread out at Babel.

Later, the New Testament points back to this promise. Galatians 3:8 calls it good news for the nations. Many Christians read it this way. Jewish tradition honors Abraham as the father of the Jewish people.

At Babel, the people wanted a big name for themselves. Then the story says their words got mixed up. They could not understand each other. The work stopped.

Working together takes care. It helps to take turns. It helps to listen all the way to the end. Then everyone gets a say.

Think of a class building a tower of blocks. One child adds a block. Then the next child does. Everyone waits. The tower grows, one turn at a time.

In Chicago and all over Illinois, families speak many languages. You might hear Spanish, Polish, Arabic or Chinese on the bus. Each language comes from a family’s story.

Someone may speak a language you do not know. You can still be kind. You can smile. You can point and show. You can learn one of their words.

The Babel story ends with people far apart. Abraham’s story starts a promise to bless every nation. Being kind to people from every nation fits that promise well.