Our word for today is actually two words both can be translated earth, land or ground. The first one will sound familiar to you. אֲדָמָה earth, ground, land. It is used 222 times in the Old Testament. And it sounds like Adam that is because it shares the root word אָדָם Man, Adam. We see both in Genesis 6:1 where אָדָם man begins to multiply on the face of the אֲדָמָה earth. Our word for ground is just Adam with an ending on it so where Adam lives you could say or more accurately where he came from. You have to love the play on words from God when he creates Adam back in chapter 2 of Genesis. So Genesis 2:7 “Then the Lord God formed a אָדָם man from the אֲדָמָה dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being.” He takes him from the earth or dirt and names him dirt. I think the point is God wants to remind Adam, and us where we came from. אֲדָמָה is used twice in Genesis chapter six. Our other word for today is אֶ֫רֶץ earth, land, ground. It is used 2,493 in the Old Testament. So this is the word used most often when you see our word for earth, ground, land. It is used 11 times in Genesis chapter six. So God is drawing attention about the earth in this chapter by using both of these words so many times.
Not only did God create people but he created the whole earth for the benefit of people. This place of life that God created called the earth was where life was to be lived. How was God treated for his wonderful work of creation and generosity towards all that he made? He was betrayed and sinned against. This same place now would become the place of death. Why? Because of the corruption caused by sin against God. Notice how God references where this corruption is taking place and where the consequences of this sin and corruption will be taking place. Genesis 6:11-13, 17 “Now the אֶ֫רֶץ earth was corrupt in God’s sight and was full of violence. God saw how corrupt the אֶ֫רֶץ earth had become, for all the people on אֶ֫רֶץ earth had corrupted their ways. So God said to Noah, “I am going to put an end to all people, for the אֶ֫רֶץ earth is filled with violence because of them. I am surely going to destroy both them and the אֶ֫רֶץ earth … I am going to bring floodwaters on the אֶ֫רֶץ earth to destroy all life under the heavens, every creature that has the breath of life in it. Everything on אֶ֫רֶץ earth will perish.” God wants us to notice that the place he created for life people like you and me corrupted it so that it became a place of death.
That’s the bad news. The good news is that Jesus came to give us life. Just as God provided salvation for Noah and his family in Genesis 6, he has provided salvation through His son Jesus. Noah shows up in the New Testament in 1 Peter. 1 Peter 3:20-21 “When God's patience waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was being prepared, in which a few, that is, eight persons, were brought safely through water. Baptism, which corresponds to this, now saves you, not as a removal of dirt from the body but as an appeal to God for a good conscience, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ.” Noah is referenced as a picture of baptism, where Noah and his family were separated from the corruption on the earth and the consequences of that corruption's death. They were saved. We are also separated from the corruption of sin and saved by our trust in the resurrection of Christ. Baptism is about God saving us from the consequences of our sin and God cleaning our conscience. God has the power to do this regardless of how corrupt the people in the land where we live are. And no matter how bad things may get on the earth where we live God loves us, is for us, and his power is at work in us.
