God Directs Noah To Make An Ark. Series

October 29, 2013

Commentary on the Book of Genesis

By: Tom Lowe

Lesson I.D.3: God Directs Noah to Make an Ark. (Gen. 6:13-22)

Genesis 6.13-22

13 And God said unto Noah, The end of all flesh is come before me; for the earth is filled with violence through them; and, behold, I will destroy them with the earth.

14 Make thee an ark of gopher wood; rooms shalt thou make in the ark, and shalt pitch it within and without with pitch.

15 And this is the fashion which thou shalt make it of: The length of the ark shall be three hundred cubits, the breadth of it fifty cubits, and the height of it thirty cubits.

16 A window shalt thou make to the ark, and in a cubit shalt thou finish it above; and the door of the ark shalt thou set in the side thereof; with lower, second, and third stories shalt thou make it.

17 And, behold, I, even I, do bring a flood of waters upon the earth, to destroy all flesh, wherein is the breath of life, from under heaven; and every thing that is in the earth shall die.

18 But with thee will I establish my covenant; and thou shalt come into the ark, thou, and thy sons, and thy wife, and thy sons' wives with thee.

19 And of every living thing of all flesh, two of every sort shalt thou bring into the ark, to keep them alive with thee; they shall be male and female.

20 Of fowls after their kind, and of cattle after their kind, of every creeping thing of the earth after his kind, two of every sort shall come unto thee, to keep them alive.

21 And take thou unto thee of all food that is eaten, and thou shalt gather it to thee; and it shall be for food for thee, and for them.

22 Thus did Noah; according to all that God commanded him, so did he.

Introduction

“The secret of the Lord is with them that fear Him and He will show them His covenant” (Ps. 25.15). When you walk with God, He speaks to you through His Word and tells you what you need to know and do. Christians are more than just servants who do His will; we’re also His friends who know His plans: “You are my friends if you do what I command. I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master's business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you. (John 15.14, 15). God’s plan involved three responsibilities for Noah and His family. The study of this section will be built upon those three responsibilities, which are:

I. God confides in Noah (v. 13)

II. Building an ark (vv. 14-17).

III. Trusting God’s covenant (v. 18).

IV. Gathering the animals (vv. 19-22).

Commentary

Part I. God confides in Noah (v. 13)

13 And God said unto Noah, The end of all flesh is come before me; for the earth is filled with violence through them; and, behold, I will destroy them with the earth.

God is going to send a Flood, and I would like to mention here several reasons why the Lord chose that method:

I. God is sovereign over all creation and frequently uses nature to judge mankind.

II. The Flood was the most effective way of purging and cleansing the world. It would wash it clean so that not a trace of the wicked would be found.

III. The Flood was used by God to start a “new creation.” The first Creation with Adam is paralleled here by the second with Noah. The dry land appeared as the water receded, and eventually the ark came to rest on Ararat (Ge. 8.4). When Noah was finished with the arc God commissioned him to be fruitful and multiply (Ge. 9.1) and to have dominion over the earth (Ge. 9.2), just as He had told Adam (Ge. 1.26, 28). Noah planted a garden (Ge, 9.20), whereas God planted a garden for Adam and Eve (Ge. 2.8). But sin had tarnished the race. Adam and Noah were contrasted; whereas Adam’s nakedness was a sign of righteousness (Ge. 2.25), Noah’s was one of degradation (Ge. 9.21) and He ended up cursing his grandson, Canaan (Ge. 9.25-27).

Man had a promise of a Redeemer and he was told that there was coming a Savior on the earth. That is what man should have been looking for; instead of that, he turned from God to do whatever he wanted to do.

God had provided a sacrifice for Adam and Eve, and we find that a great, eternal principle was put down with Cain and Able. These two boys, Cain and able, stand as the representatives of two great systems, two classes of people: the lost and the saved, the self-righteous, and the broken spirited, the formal professor and the genuine believer. That is what the human race consisted of at this time.