“Flood Insurance”
Genesis 6:5-13
This amazing story of this man named Noah covers 4 chapters in the book of Genesis. Noah is perhaps one of the best known characters in all the Bible. If you were to ask a stranger on the street who he was they would likely be able to tell you. Although I did see that Jay Leno in one of his on the street interviews ask a man who Joan of Arc was and he replied that it was Noah’s wife. And he was serious. In Genesis chapter 6 God told Noah to build ths ark. Huge project. From start to finish it took about 100 years. The ark was 450 feet long. That is 1.5 times the length of a football field. Not only would this be an incredible amount of work, no power tools. Power tools were used even to construct this set. Noah had none. But I think that even more than the incredible amount of work, we have to also consider the awesome amount of faith this project would take. Several factors I think of...
(1) The place where he built it. If God were to ask me to build something like this I would think he would tell me to build it near the water. Perhaps out by the gulf or maybe near the ocean. That way everyone would get a visual image of why they needed to board the ark. But instead God told him to build it on the backside of a desert. Dry land.
(2) The conditions when he built it. Now het this because it’s important. At this time in history it had never rained. Never. Yet God was telling Noah that not only was it about to rain so much that all life on earth, everything under the heavens would be destroyed. It wasn’t raining when Noah built the ark.
(3) The people of that day. You may believe that we live in wicked, sinful times. I do. But the scripture tells us that one of the conditions for Christ’s return is that things will be as they were in the time of Noah. Hard to imagine they were worse but they were.
Now all of this combined.... Noah is here in a desert building this ark, it’s never rained before, sin is rampant, people were actually laughing at him for what he was doing. Now God says I want to give you one more assignment. I want you to preach a sermon to all the people on the subject of repentance. On how to get their lives right with God. Big task. If you have never stood before a group of people to tell them that how they are living their lives is all worong then you can’t imagine how difficult it is. And when he did preach the message not one person responded. Preaching can be difficult of no one’s listening and no one cares what you have to say.
Jesus used the conditions of Noah’s day as an illustration of a world that was completely blind to the evil that was all around them. Noah lived in some very dark days. And that’s why Noah stood out. Noah chose to live a different life than the crowd and as a result he stood our like a lit candle in a dark room.
In verses 8-9 we find four things that make Noah a hero that are worth modeling our lives after. The Bible tells us that (1) Noah was righteous. In the Hebrew language that basically meant that he treated people right. When the rest of the world was looking out for #1 Noah had his mind on other people. A righteous man does the right thing. (2) Noah was blameless. Not only was his relationship with people right his relationship with God was right also. Noah had one goal in life and that was to please God. (3) Noah walked with God. This is what that means. Noah’s relationship with God controlled the direction of his life. Nothing mattered more than his faith. (4) Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord. The story of Noah reminds us that God is not only a God of Judgment, He is also a God of mercy/grace. God is not only a judge, he is also a Savior.
The Big Picture here is that this story leaves us with 3 truths that we really need to learn/remember.
(1) God is in control. The government is not in control. Science is not in control. Evil is not in control. You and I are not in control. God is.
(2) Because God is in control, he is patient. Ever thought about that? When things get out of control we grow very impatient. But God doesn’t because He is in charge.
2 Peter 3:9 (NIV) The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.
God waited many years before He sent the flood. He wanted to see what people would do. He waited while Noah built the ark. He told them what was going to happen. Gave them a chance to change. God never brings judgment unless the He first warns us. He is patient.
(3) We are accountable. Too many of us just live for the moment. As though there’s no tomorrow. We don’t take into account that there will be a day of judgment. Toward the end of the 19th century Alfred Nobel, who was a chemist from Sweden woke up one morning was reading the paper and went to the obituary section when he was startled because there was his own obituary. That would get your attention. He read the words “Alfred Nobel, the inventor of dynamite died yesterday. He devised a way for more people to be killed in a war then ever before and he died a very rich man. Just one problem. He wasn’t dead. Actually it was his older brother who had died but a reporter had somehow gotten it wrong. But it had a profound effect on him. He decided at that moment that he wanted to be known for being rich and for developing a better way to kill other people.
So he initiated the Nobel peace prize, it’s an award for people who help foster peace in the world. Listen to what he said, “every man ought to have the chance to correct his own obituary in midstream and write a new one.” How would your obituary read if it appeared in tomorrow’s newspaper? How would you be described by someone else? The message her in this passage is simple , it is not too late today, but tomorrow it may be. Why wait?
