In Jesus Holy Name April 27, 2008
Text: Genesis 6:5-8,13-18 Redeemer
“Noah: What Happened to All the Unicorns?”
Today our world is colored and shaped through the lens of a camera. Television affects us all. Through television we gain knowledge about our world, our history and geography. We are entertained by National Geographic Specials or the Disney Channel. We gain almost instantaneous information and pictures from Afghanistan, India or anywhere our reporters happen to be.
Commercials can also entertain us and motivate us to purchase specific merchandise. There are always commercials that stay with us longer than others. One of my favorite commercials is an advertisement for Reeses’s Peanut butter cups. It’s a short commercial.
Two men, dressed in mid-eastern clothing, are sitting inside an adobe or stone building. There’s excitement in their voice. One is sitting with a large jar of peanut butter and other is holding a bar of chocolate. They have just made a discovery by combining the taste of the chocolate and peanut butter.
They are very excited and say: “Let’s tell Noah!” The scene shifts to the window where one sees rain pouring down and one hears the clap of thunder. “Well, let’s wait until the rain stops.” The narrator then states: “the world had to wait another 3000 years to discover the taste of chocolate and peanut butter.
The commercial was created with a sense of humor, to encourage you to make a decision. They want you to buy Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups. The commercial idea was based on a story in Genesis 6-9. Genesis tells the story of a man name Noah. It is a story about a decision and divine judgment.. (Read Genesis 6:5-8)
Humanity was filled with wickedness. Men and women were consumed with evil thoughts and actions. Your daily newspaper carries the endless evil actions of human beings in our own community. The judgment of God came against evil and all humanity, except for Noah, “Who found favor in God’s eyes.”
Martin Luther wrote: “In the midst of sin and punishment grace intervenes to (save the human race.) God allowed grace to prevail so as to modify His cruel and final threat.”
The story of Noah and the Ark is really a story about God’s judgment against sin and evil behavior, and about God’s grace. God is holy. He can not be contaminated by sin. Holiness describes both the majesty of God and the purity and moral perfection of His nature. Holiness is one of His attributes; that is, holiness is an essential part of the nature of God. God’s holiness if perfect freedom from all evil. We say that gold is pure when all dross has been refined from it. In this manner we can think of the holiness of God as the absolute absence of any evil. (The Pursuit of Holiness p. 26 Jerry Bridges)
When people hear or read the story of Noah and how God destroyed the human race with the exception of Noah’s family, they might think that God is unfair. They might question God’s actions and wonder why a “good “God would destroy so many. This is the devil’s lie. This is what the devil said to Eve. He essentially told her: “God is being unfair to you.” If God is perfectly holy, then we can be confident that His actions are always perfect and just.
Because God is holy he demands perfect holiness in all of His moral creatures. It cannot be otherwise. He cannot possibly ignore or approve of any evil committed. He cannot relax for one moment or wink at sin. Because God is holy, He hates sin. Hate is such a strong word we dislike using it. We reprove our children for saying they hate someone. God hates sin where ever he finds it, in saint and sinner alike. At the time of Noah the whole world had become evil. God simply invokes his righteous judgment.
To again quote Luther: “In the midst of sin and punishment, God allowed his grace to prevail…” and the human race was saved through Noah and his family.
During the past few Sunday’s we have noted from Genesis that the human race can be traced through two fundamentally different approaches to life. The descendants of Cain who chose to live without God and the descendants of Seth, who “walked with God.” While the descendants of Seth were not free of sinful behavior, their choice in life was to “walk with God.”
But as time passed, the separation gradually disappeared until it ultimately culminated in intermarriage between the believers and unbelievers. Abandoned by the restraining Spirit of God, the descendants of Seth eventually chose to turn their backs to God. We see the same reality in our own world. We know of grandparents who were active in their worship of God. But maybe their “baby boomer” children drifted away from God. They drifted away from prayer except in a crisis. The children stopped attending church and SS. They stopped telling their own children about God. And now, the grandchildren, or great grandchildren only hold to the cultural knowledge that there is a “Supreme Being”, but they don’t know much about Him. (or Her).
God saw that the wickedness of man was great on the earth and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil… God looked at the earth and his verdict was guilty. God said: “I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth”. It was the only way of saving His creation. Genesis tells us that “Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord.”
(Read Genesis 6:9-14)
The capacity of the Ark is estimated to be 1,518,750 cubit feet. The estimated 7000 species of animals to be house would have occupied about half the capacity. Today, scientist will argue about the validity or historical possibility of the flood. Others can debate the possible discovery of Noah’s Ark on Mt. Arart. Some will wonder if all the animals could really fit in the ark? Others will ask why some animals were left behind? Well, we know that there are no unicorns to this very day…..Why? because they were playing their silly games!
When the animals were in the ark, God fractured the fountains of the deep. And the waters above the firmament were set free and torrential rains fell, tidal waves washed over the earth. (7:17-24) It had never rained on the earth before Noah entered the ark. Genesis 2:5,6 tells us “…The Lord God had not sent rain on the earth….but streams came up from the earth and watered the whole surface of the earth.”
The Flood changed the earth. Archeologist have found bones of Greenland reindeer in New Jersey, Hippopotamus bones in France and England, Coral fossils which grow only in tropical waters have been found in the Artic Circle. The remains of thick forest, and fig palms and mammoths with food in their mouths and stomachs have been found in Alaska and Siberia. Skeletons of whales, marine animals have been found in Michigan and 440 feet above sea level in Ontario. Either the land was lowered or the seas raised and covered the earth.
When the waters receded there was an immediate change in weather and an eternal winter began in parts of the world that at one time was abundant with trees and plant life. (see Gen. 8:22) (Worlds in Collision, Earth in Upeaval, Sea People by Immanuel Velikovsky)
Some have asked….Why did Noah not place the dinosaurs on the ark? Noah didn’t load the ark…. God did. God said…. “the animals would come to Noah. (read Genesis 6:20 & 7:8) God made the decision of which animals would survive the flood, not Noah.
In the Gospels Jesus sites the judgment of God in Noah’s day. He warns us that there will come another day when God will judge Satan and the earth. (Matthew) “As in the days of Noah so shall it be at the coming of the son of Man. For as in the days before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day Noah entered into the Ark..so shall the coming of the Son of Man be.”
The Ark was the only refuge from the physical tempest. Jesus is our only refuge from the coming wrath of God. As all who were outside the Ark perished so all who die outside of Christ will perish in an eternity isolated from God.
Listen to the words of Peter. (read I Peter 3:18-22,18)
The crucial question: “How can I be saved from my sin which God hates? How can I be saved from God’s wrath?” Where is my Ark? God’s grace intervenes offering baptism, and water, and faith in the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
What have we learned from Adam and Eve and their encounter with God in Genesis 3? What have we learned about God and Cain from Genesis 4? What have we learned about God from Noah in Genesis 6-8?
God is a God of grace. “God himself covers the nakedness of Adam and Eve, covering their disgrace. They stand accepted, forgiven by God’s sacrifice, assured of his protection and care. They also learned God’s punishment for rebellion. They are required to leave the Garden of Eden, but given life. Punishment is delayed. Cain is permitted to survive his moment of sin. He is banished from the soil, his family, he turns his back on God, but he is permitted to live. God in His grace even provides Cain with a mark of protection. Likewise the verdict of total annihilation for the population of the earth is suddenly mitigated by the undeserved mercy and grace of God. “Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord.” (Gen. 6:8) (from The Form and Meaning of the Fall Narrative by Norman Habel)
By the grace of God humanity is permitted to live. Punishment is delayed, as Luther puts it, “in the midst of sin and punishment grace intervenes for Man’s sake; God allowed grace to prevail so as to modify…” his demand for holiness and justice.
The Apostle Paul understood this “grace” of God when he wrote:
“…since we have been justified through faith we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace which we now stand…. You see, at just the right time when we were powerless,….while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” (Rom. 5)
