The Book of Genesis is the outline of God's plan of creation and redemption. God made everything and found them good. Chapters 1 and 2 describe the creation story. Chapter 3 tells the story of the root and the fruit of sin that ends up with the first murder happenning in the very second generation through the killing of Abel by his own brother Cain. "Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned." (Romans 5:12). As the result of the sin of Adam, all men are now born in sin.
As we come to Chapter 6 of Genesis, we see the result of sin pervading as a pandemic to the whole human kind passing from generation to generation resulting in the destruction of the world in the form of a flood. "The Lord saw how great the wickedness of the human race had become on the earth, and that every inclination of the thoughts of the human heart was only evil all the time." (Genesis 6:5). In other words, man was going to be killing each other and would destroy the creation because of their evil lives. Flood was only a sign of the destruction that would have happened regardless. But for the flood that came as a means of grace, humanity still exists.
There are many references to the flood and the ark of Noah in the New Testament. Lord Jesus mentioned about Noah in Matthew 24:37-39 (also in Luke 17), Jesus said, “As the days of Noah were, so the coming of the Son of Man will be. For in those days before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day Noah boarded the ark. They didn’t know until the flood came and swept them all away.” The writer of Hebrews refers to Noah as a man of faith int he list of heroes in Hebrews 11:7, often is called Faith’s Hall of Fame: “By faith Noah, after he was warned about what was not yet seen and motivated by godly fear, built and ark to deliver his family. By faith he condemned the world and became an heir of the righteousness that comes by faith.” The apostle Peter mentioned Noah and the flood in 1 Peter 3:19-22. In this passage he drew parallels between the floodwaters in Noah’s day and the waters of baptism, which symbolize salvation.
Peter mentioned Noah again in 2 Peter 2:5-10. He stated that if God didn’t spare the world in Noah’s day when He sent a devastating flood, or spare the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah in Lot’s day—but still rescued both Noah and Lot from His wrath toward the unrighteous—“then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trials and to keep the unrighteous under punishment until the day of judgment, especially those who follow the polluting desires of the flesh and despise authority” (quoted portion from vv. 9-10). In 2 Peter 3:3-9, Peter refers to the flood yet again in a discussion of people who deny the Lord ever will return. Jesus’ having not appeared is not evidence that He never will return, but evidence that God is patient with the unrighteous, wanting them to repent and become the full beneficiaries of His grace.
God grieves over sin. “The Lord was sorry that He had made man on the earth, and He was grieved in His heart." (Genesis 6:6). It should not be misconstrued that God made a mistake and then regretted. The word used here means “grieved” or “indignant rage.” God grieved over the sin and the pending destruction looming upon human kind. The flood was just a sign of God's control and authority over his creation. Above all, the flood and and the Ark and the rainbow all stand out as a reminder that God controls history and God is gracious. It is a story of the marvellous grace of a loving God, as opposed to an angry God who destroys.
Noah was building the ark and preaching the good news of God's grace at the same time. He preached the message of the grace of God so that all who will repent, can find safety in the ark of Grace. He was doing a carpenter’s job and a preacher’s job just as Jesus did on this earth. Jesus was born as a carpenter’s son who preached the good news of grace and forgiveness of God. He is the Son of the great master carpenter, who created the universe, who came to rebuild the ancient ruins and the places long devastated; and he will renew the ruined cities that have been devastated for generations. (Isaiah 61). He repairs the breaches and builds up old waste places (Isaiah 58:12).
Noah’s real ark was no cruise ship. I would not think anyone should have selected the ark as a place of residence, nor would have chosen to live in a place sealed, with only one door and one window to it, and a great menagerie of birds, and beasts, and reptiles inside. But it gave divine protection, provision and safety for Noah and family. Today we live in a world of quarantine and shut downs. Many are upset about the limitations of freedom of movement, wearing masks and other social distancing rules due to the COVID-19 pandemic. We do not like it when we are told to do or not to do something. Any law that is enforced without conviction will be met with resistance. We human beings are guided by reason and experience. Moral laws are similar. It is not to be followed by punitive measures, rather by an acceptance of reasoning experience with common sense. The message of the ark of Noah is a call to be separated. The message of the Bible runs contrary to many societal views and hence a separation would be necessary in many cases. Good is to be separated against evil, justice against injustice, love against hatred and good behaviors against those like addictions.
Our value system is eroding. Archbishop William Temple of Canterbury put it this way: "The world, as we live in it, is like a shop window into which some mischievous person has got overnight, and shifted all the price-labels so that the cheap things have the high-price labels on them, and the really precious things are priced low. We let ourselves be taken in. Repentance means getting those price-labels back in the right place." The Christian life starts with renunciation, but it is just as much about embrace. It is surely turning away from the "normal flow of life" as we usually know it. But that turning away brings with it a clear message of turning toward in our repentance — toward God and places outside our normal comfort zones, and toward the possibility and experience of relying on spiritual support for our very sustenance.
Noah was glad for the quarantine, since it was the Lord that shut him in to protect from death. When we find ourselves sometimes shut out from the world, we feel alone, remember that there is God who watches and will have deliverance coming our way soon. Our days are almost, if not like the days of Noah. "Buried with him by baptism into death just as Christ died and as Christ is risen from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we also may walk in newness of life." (Romans 6:4). God separated light from darkness, He separated the waters and the land. He separated the skies from the earth. God separates good from evil. There is no darkness in Him, and no evil can be present in His sight. God's people are the witnesses to this separation, not as the people of privilege but as humbled recipients of God’s grace.
Catherine Booth, the wife of William Booth who founded the Salvation Army said, "The waters are rising, but so am I. I am not going under, but over." There may be times when the storms come, and the flood waters rise, and we’re standing on our toes to keep our head from under water. God will be there, and will lift us up above the waters. In the midst of chaos and confusion, loneliness and lostness, God is there to protect us.
