Bible Journaling - Genesis 8 & 9

We started the story of Noah in Genesis 6 already and we continue it in today's blog when we look at Genesis 8 & 9. In Genesis 6:11 we read that mankind had become more evil than God was willing to overlook: "Now God saw that the earth had become corrupt and was filled with violence." He then decided to wipe everyone out, aside from Noah and his family, so that He could start over with what He had started in Genesis 1. In Genesis 7 we see that Noah and his family entered the ark he had been instructed to build, along with a whole lot of animals, where they waited for seven days before anything happened. I can just imagine the derision and scorn this poor man must have endured during those seven days, from even his own family! We are familiar with the story of the flood that wiped everything and everyone out. We pick this story up in chapter 8 today.

I insert a page in the Bible when I do today's blog. It is not because I wish to add anything to the Bible. It is simply so that I can include a poem I had written on the Flood back when I was still in university. The poem is called Ark-eology.

God had a plan with the ancient world
He made it into a big round mould
He sat back and smiled at a job well done
Along came Satan and he spoiled the fun

Noah's time was a big disaster
People didn't heed the voice of the Master
Genesis six tells us the story
of how God saw the world and how He felt sorry

He decided to wipe the people from the earth,
when He noticed Noah and He saw a new birth.
God signed the blueprint for a total destruction,
then He wrote the plot for a new redemption.

Noah built an ark, forty-five feet high
Then he entered in and waved the people goodbye
God opened the taps in an abundant way
and "head above water" was the order of the day

Now what can we learn from such a bad ending?
That God saved the world from a danger pending.
But how can you say a thing like that?
He actually let them burn in their fat.

He did this in order to save all men.
Yes, every single last one of them.
He knew that they would live in sin
So He wiped them out, so He could start again.

Now I understand what you're trying to say.
If God didn't do it, we would go astray
With Noah alone the only righteous one
The days of goodness were as good as gone.

an original poem by Miekie (Marietjie Uys)

Genesis 8 and 9 look like this in the Inspire Praise Bible.

I prepare the pages with Zellen Clear Gesso.

Once dry, I use pastel pens to colour the picture in the right hand margin.

I colour the banners with metallic water-soluble colouring pencils, which I then paint with water.

I outline the writing inside the banners with a fine liner.

The finished picture.

I find a paper that seems to suit the theme. It is slightly to big, though.

I crop the page to the desired size.

I then use three fountain pens with different colour inks to rewrite my poem on the page.

I stick some transparent stickers on the page to put the finishing touches on it.

I then realize that this page has not yet been treated for bleeding. I hastily treat the back of the page with normal white gesso, as this page is stark white at the back.

I then draw a picture of the stranded ark on top of a mountain peak in my Bible. The mountain is still surrounded by tumultuous waters. This is because Genesis 8 recounts the story of how everyone was released from the ark after the earth had dried sufficiently.

I colour the ark with Inktense pencils, which I paint with water. I alter the shape of the ark slightly to make the picture slightly more comical. This is not done to take away from the gravity or seriousness of the chapter. It is simply a more interesting picture to look at than the normal depiction of the ark. I am not concerned with rendering the ark accurately. I will leave that to those who consider themselves experts at this sort of thing.

I colour and paint the mountain.

Lastly, I colour and paint the water.

I now move into chapter 9 with my drawing. In this chapter God makes a covenant with Noah, his family and the animals that He will never again destroy the whole earth with a flood, killing everyone on it. As a sign, He placed a rainbow in the sky. This was to serve as a reminder of the covenant God has with mankind. I draw the rainbow on the page.

The rainbow is then painted in water.

I now find some shiny blue tape with which to fix the additional page to the Bible.

It is carefully stuck in place so that it won't cover any of the Bible's text.

I also found this pretty transparent sticker of a dove with a leaf in its mouth among my stickers. I put the sticker in the Bible.

These pages are now done.

When I turn the page over, my layout now looks like this.

When Noah exited the ark, he started planting and growing food. We are told that he planted a vineyard. When he had made wine, he got drunk and passed out naked in his tent. Conflict arose in Noah's house as a result of his Canaan's reaction to this and Noah ends up cursing Canaan. This becomes important later on when we learn that the Israelites are to establish themselves in the land of Canaan after the exodus from Egypt. The Israelites trace their ancestry back to Shem. I choose to depict Noah's endeavours in agriculture and wine-making in a picture. However, I borrow from the Holy Communion when I depict this, because I want this picture to double up as a reminder of the covenant that God had made with mankind, as both of these events are told in chapter 9.

I use Artists' Pitt pens to colour the picture.

Further colouring.

As my colours are limited, I also make use of ProMarkers.

When I colour the cup, I leave some spaced white to create the illusion of light being reflected off the cups.

I colour the leaves on the bunch of grapes.

The grapes are also sure to reflect light.

I then colour the background with a Derwent Inktense pencil and paint it in water. I paint a very faint blue on the opposite page as well.

The completed page.

The completed page when I turn one page back.

You can watch a short compilation video of the steps above on YouTube:
https://youtu.be/YV5GZHwG17Y

Unless otherwise indicated, all scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright 1996, 2005,2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois, 60188. All rights reserved.

Inspire PRAISE South Africa edition copyright 2017 by Christian Art Publishers, PO Box 1599, Vereeniging, 1930, RSA. All rights reserved.

Marietjie Uys (Miekie) is a published author. You can buy my books here:
You can purchase Designs By Miekie 1 here.
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