As absurd as it is for a child to attempt to take his parent’s place, it’s even more absurd for people to attempt to take God’s place. Yet that’s what happens at the Tower of Babel in Genesis 11:1-9. This passage has valuable lessons for us about people and about God–these lessons will help us rightly align our lives in relation to him.

When we come to genealogies in the Bible, we often lose sight of the fact that those people are not so different from us. They had the same dreams and grew up in the same world we grew up in. And the way that God regarded them then is the same way that he regards us now. Genesis 10:1-32 tells us about the people of the nations after Noah. How God regarded those people speaks to how he regards us, and we need to know it and live accordingly.

People who survive traumatic events are often changed by them. And when it came to those who survived the traumatic event of the flood, we might wonder how they were changed. Our study of Genesis 9:18-29 shows us how the people who survived the flood were changed and the ways it impacts our lives today.

In the original creation, when God parted the waters and made people and creatures to fill the world, the goodness of God was on display. And in the recreation after the flood, when God parted the waters to have people and creatures fill the world, the goodness of God was on display once more. But God’s actions after the flood show us even greater dimensions of his goodness. Genesis 8:20-9:17 shows us what these new dimensions of God’s goodness are and how we can benefit from them.

Every pronouncement of God’s judgment in the Old Testament is also a pronouncement of God’s mercy. This is true even in the flood. Our study in Genesis 8:1-19 on God’s mercy at the flood tells us about God’s mercy in general. This passage shows us the ways God works in the lives of those he saves.