Several years ago, the Journal of the Royal Institute of British Architects carried an article which discussed some of the technical problems Noah could have had in building the ark. Let me read to you some excerpts from that article.
The Lord said to Noah, “Where is the ark which I commanded you to build?”
And Noah said to the Lord, “I have three carpenters off ill. The gopher-wood supplier has let me down – even though the gopher wood has been on order for nearly 12 months. What can I do, Lord?”
And God said to Noah, “I want that ark finished in seven days and seven nights.”
And Noah said, “It will be so.”
And it was not so. And the Lord said to Noah, “What seems to be the trouble this time?”
And Noah said unto the Lord, “My subcontractor went bankrupt. The pitch which You commanded me to put on the outside and inside of the ark has not arrived. The plumber has gone on strike. Shem, my son who helps me on the ark side of his business, has formed a rock group with his brothers, Ham and Japeth. Lord, I am undone.”
And the Lord grew angry and said, “And what about the animals, the male and the female of every sort that I ordered to come to you to keep their seed alive upon the face of the earth?”
And Noah said, “They were delivered to the wrong address, but should arrive on Friday.”
And the Lord said, “How about the unicorns, and the fowls of the air by sevens?”
And Noah wrung his hands and wept, saying, “Lord, unicorns are a discontinued line; you cannot get them for love or money. And fowls of the air are sold only in half-dozens. Lord, Lord, You know how it is.”
And the Lord in His wisdom said, “Noah, my son, I know. Why else do you think I am sending a flood to cover the earth?”
I’m sure Noah faced a lot of frustration in his day, and not just in building the ark. Noah was a godly man in an ungodly world much like our world today. Yet, he was able to survive and thrive in such a world.
How? And how can we, as followers of Christ, thrive in our world today? Well, if you have your Bibles, I invite you to turn with me to Genesis 6, Genesis 6, where we see how Noah did it in his day.
Genesis 6:1-3 When man began to multiply on the face of the land and daughters were born to them, the sons of God [i.e., the kings and rulers] saw that the daughters of man were attractive. And they took as their wives any they chose. Then the LORD said, “My Spirit shall not abide in man [or better, shield man] forever, for he is flesh: his days shall be 120 years” (ESV).
In other words, man has 120 years before God is going to wipe him off the face of the earth.
Genesis 3:4 The Nephilim [or giants] were on the earth in those days, and also afterward, when the sons of God came in to the daughters of man and they bore children to them. These were the mighty men who were of old, the men of renown (ESV).
What we have here is a gross abuse of power. In Bible days, kings were called “sons of God” (Psalm 2:7; 2 Samuel 7:14). In fact, many rulers considered themselves to be gods, until the flood came. Then they found they couldn’t hold their breath very long. You know what I mean? These are powerful men with an insatiable lust for sex. They are grabbing all the young women they can, filling their harems and indulging themselves. It is a gross abuse of power – sexual harassment at its worst.
Then there was pervasive demonic activity. Did you notice the children born to the kings? According to verse 4, they were “Nephilim” or giants, “mighty men of renown.” There is something unusual going on here, something supernatural and demonic.
Henry Morris suggests that demons entered the kings mentioned here and altered their gene structure such that they produced abnormally big and strong children. I believe that Satan’s demons were infiltrating the human race in an effort to destroy the “seed of the woman.” You see, God had told Satan that the “seed of the woman” would destroy him someday (Genesis 3:15). So Satan is going to do anything and everything he can to stop that from happening.
The New Testament makes it very clear that demons were a big part of the problem in Noah’s day. 1 Peter 3:19-20 speaks of Christ who “went and preached to the spirits in prison who disobeyed long ago when God waited patiently in the days of Noah while the ark was being built.” 2 Peter 2:4 goes on to say that in the days of Noah, “God did not spare angels when they sinned, but sent them to hell, putting them into gloomy dungeons to be held for judgment.” Evidently, when God sent the flood, he also sent some demons to hell.
Noah lived in a day with rampant sexual harassment and pervasive demonic activity.
He also lived in a day of continuous evil. People went from bad to worse in a society hell-bent on wicked, sinful practices.
Genesis 6:5 The LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually (ESV).
In Genesis 1, God looked on His creation and saw that it was good. Here, God looks on His creation and sees only bad. People are not falling into sin accidentally. They are constantly and deliberately planning to sin. “EVERY intention of the thoughts of [man’s] heart was ONLY evil CONTINUALLY.”
Noah lived in a day with rampant sexual harassment, pervasive demonic activity, and continuous evil.
He also had to endure increasing violence. Skip town to verse 11.
Genesis 6:11-13 Now the earth was corrupt in God’s sight, and the earth was filled with violence. And God saw the earth, and behold, it was corrupt, for all flesh had corrupted their way on the earth. And God said to Noah, “I have determined to make an end of all flesh, for the earth is filled with violence through them. Behold, I will destroy them with the earth (ESV).
God is only going to complete the process the people have started. They are destroying themselves, so God is just going to speed up the process. Instead of letting them die a slow agonizing death, He will put them out of their misery quickly.
Noah lived in a day with rampant sexual harassment, pervasive demonic activity, continuous evil, and increasing violence.
Sounds a lot like our day, doesn’t it? Every day, it seems, you hear of someone in a position of power abusing women, most recently the Cuomo brothers and many others.
The occult is pervasive in our society. According to a recent IBIS Market Research Report (April 2021), the psychic services industry—which includes palm reading, astrology, aura readings, fortune telling with a deck of cards, and mediumship—is now worth $2.2 billion annually in the Untied States (IBIS World, Psychic Services Industry in the US - Market Research Report, April 9, 2021, www.ibisworld.com/ united-states/market-research-reports/psychic-services-industry).
On top of that, morality has gone from bad to worse. Behavior which was reprehensible just 10 years ago is now accepted and even celebrated.
And violence in our major cities is on the rise again. The New York Post recently reported that, according to the FBI, homicides rose by about 30% nationally in 2020 compared to the previous year. It was the largest one-year jump since the bureau began keeping records. 2021 is even worse. The New York Post in that same article said, “At least 12 major US cities have already set historical murder records in 2021” (New York Post, “A dozen US cities set annual murder record,” December 8, 2021, https://nypost.com/2021/12/08/a-dozen-us-cities-set-annual-murder-records).
LIKE NOAH, WE LIVE IN A CORRUPT WORLD, UNDER GOD’S CONDEMNATION.
Genesis 6:6-7 And the LORD regretted that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him to his heart. So the LORD said, “I will blot out man whom I have created from the face of the land, man and animals and creeping things and birds of the heavens, for I am sorry that I have made them” (ESV).
God was grieved that he made human beings. Literally, He “breathed deeply.” He sighed. He was greatly disappointed in his creation. 1,500 years before this, God had made man righteous and holy. God had created people for a relationship with Himself, but these same people chose to rebel. Now, they have gotten so bad, God has no choice but to wipe them off the face of the earth and start over.
Do you think God enjoyed it? No. Verse 6 says, “It grieved Him to His heart.” And I’m sure God’s heart is grieved as He sees the judgment that must come in our day, as well.
So how can we survive and thrive in such a world? How can we combat the evil forces of our day and protect our families from their destructive influences? How did Noah do it? Look at verse 8.
Genesis 6:8 But Noah found favor in the eyes of the LORD (ESV).
Noah found grace and compassion from God.
Genesis 6:9-10 These are the generations of Noah. Noah was a righteous man, blameless in his generation. Noah walked with God. And Noah had three sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth (ESV).
And God said to Noah…
Genesis 6:14-22 Make yourself an ark of gopher wood. Make rooms in the ark, and cover it inside and out with pitch. This is how you are to make it: the length of the ark 300 cubits, its breadth 50 cubits, and its height 30 cubits. Make a roof for the ark, and finish it to a cubit above, and set the door of the ark in its side. Make it with lower, second, and third decks. For behold, I will bring a flood of waters upon the earth to destroy all flesh in which is the breath of life under heaven. Everything that is on the earth shall die. But I will establish my covenant with you, and you shall come into the ark, you, your sons, your wife, and your sons’ wives with you. And of every living thing of all flesh, you shall bring two of every sort into the ark to keep them alive with you. They shall be male and female. Of the birds according to their kinds, and of the animals according to their kinds, of every creeping thing of the ground, according to its kind, two of every sort shall come in to you to keep them alive. Also take with you every sort of food that is eaten, and store it up. It shall serve as food for you and for them.” Noah did this; he did all that God commanded him (ESV).
Noah obeyed God. He believed God enough to do what He said, even if it didn’t make sense. After all, building a huge barge in your backyard is not something most sane people would do. But it was important that Noah do it, and that he do it exactly as God instructed.
God told him to build the boat 450 feet long, 75 feet wide, and 45 feet high, to cover it inside and out with pitch to waterproof it, and to construct it with three decks and a roof 18 inches above the top to allow for ventilation. The ark had to be big enough to hold all the animals, and it had to be safe enough to stay afloat in rough seas.
Dr. Henry Morris once calculated the volumetric capacity of the Ark at 1.4 million cubic feet. Based on that figure, he surmised that the ark was able to hold more than 125,000 sheep-sized animals, which by the way is bigger than the average sized land animal.
There are less than 18,000 species of animals living today. Double that figure to allow for species that are now extinct. Then double it again, because God told Noah to take two of each on board. That makes 72,000 animals on the ark. Add a few thousand more to allow for the five extra animals in each “clean” category that God later told Noah to take on the ark (7:2-3).
That gives you 75,000 animals on a ship that can hold 125,000. Henry Morris points out that only 60% of the ark’s capacity was used for the animals. That left plenty of room for food, supplies, and living quarters for Noah’s family (Henry Morris, The Genesis Record)
The ark was plenty big to do the job and it was plenty safe, as well.
It wasn’t until more than 1600 years after Christ that anyone understood the reason for the ark’s dimensions. At that time, in the 17th century in Holland, a pious shipbuilder, Peter Jansen, reasoned that if God had designed the ark, it should be the ideal plan. So he built a ship based on the plan of Noah’s Ark. It wasn’t as large, but it was of the same proportions, six times as long as it was wide, and the height one-tenth of its length.
People laughed at him, probably just like they did at Noah. But after Peter Jansen launched his new boat, they discovered that it would carry one-third more freight, that it would sail faster, and that it was much safer than the old type. In fact, it was virtually impossible to capsize, requiring a 90% tilt to do so.
That’s why modern ships today are built on the same general plan of Noah’s Ark, with very little variation (Henry Morris, The Genesis Record).
God knew what He was doing when He gave Noah his instructions. I doubt that Noah understood everything God told him to do, but Noah did it anyway. He obeyed God’s command to build an ark. Then He obeyed God’s command to enter the ark.
Genesis 7:1-5 Then the LORD said to Noah, “Go into the ark, you and all your household, for I have seen that you are righteous before me in this generation. Take with you seven pairs of all clean animals, the male and his mate, and a pair of the animals that are not clean, the male and his mate, and seven pairs of the birds of the heavens also, male and female, to keep their offspring alive on the face of all the earth. For in seven days I will send rain on the earth forty days and forty nights, and every living thing that I have made I will blot out from the face of the ground.” And Noah did all that the LORD had commanded him (ESV).
Seven days before there is any sign of rain, Noah, his family and all the animals enter the ark! Now, that took faith. You have to realize that it never rained before Noah’s flood, according to Genesis 2:5. Noah never saw rain before, yet he does exactly what God tells him to do, even though it must have sounded strange to him. “Water coming out of the sky—what’s that?”
It took faith for Noah to build the ark. It took faith for Noah to enter the ark. It took faith for Noah to obey God, and that’s what it’s going to take for you to live in a self-destructive society without destroying yourself. It takes faith. If you’re going to face the evil around you day in and day out, then…
FACE IT WITH FAITH.
Face the corruption that surrounds you with a strong confidence in God. Trust God enough to do what he says, even if it doesn’t make sense.
In other words, have a faith that works. Have a practicing faith, a faith that turns your beliefs into behavior, a faith that turns your creeds into conduct.
It is not enough to agree to a doctrinal statement, you must apply that doctrine to your lire. You believe God is holy? Then BE holy yourself. You believe God will provide? Then GIVE sacrificially. You believe God is love? Then FORGIVE the one who hurt you.
Parents, don’t just SEND your kids to church, BRING them to church and demonstrate the importance of your faith by participating in it. It is not enough to SAY you believe. SHOW you believe by doing what God tells you to do.
Francis lived in a land dotted with chapels, churches and abbeys, each dedicated to one saint or another. A few were well kept, but most were neglected and run-down. Each had a priest who depended on the generosity of the local people to sustain him, in a day and age when the church was racked with corruption going all the way to the top.
One day, Francis decided to go for a walk in the country. On that walk, he stopped in a little run-down church in San Damiano, Italy, less than a mile from his home. The walls were crumbling all around him, and the priest there eked out an existence. He didn’t have enough money to buy oil, let alone a lamp, to burn in the church.
Francis made his way to the front of that dark church to pray. Then in the middle of his prayer, he sensed Christ talking to Him: “Francis, go and repair my house, which, you can see, is all being destroyed.”
Francis was “more than a little stunned.” His biographer says that he left the church “trembling and stuttering like a man out of his senses.” He had never heard God speaking to him before.
Even so, he pulled himself together and vowed to obey God as quickly and as literally as he knew how. He found some masonry, mortar, trowels, and other supplies, and began repairing the church he had been praying in.
Later, this same Francis, from the little town of Assisi, Italy, became the key figure in a 13th-century revival of the church. And for a time, God used him to stem the tide of immorality all across Europe. But how did he start? He started with the little chapel less than a mile away from his home.
A lot of times we wish we could change the world, but like Francis of Assisi, we would do well to start with what is right in front of us. Put your faith to work and do the little thing God asks you to do. Then let God change the world (Mark Galli, Francis of Assisi and His World, Lion, 2002; www.PreachingToday.com)
Francis of Assisi repaired a church and brought revival to 13th century Europe. Noah built a boat and preserved the human race. What is God asking you to do?
If you’re going to combat the forces of evil in our day, if you’re going to protect your family from destructive forces, if you’re going to make a difference in your world, then have a faith that works, a practicing, living faith.
More than that, have a faith that waits. Have a patient faith, a faith that endures, a faith that keeps on going no matter what.
It took Noah over 100 years to build the ark (Genesis 6:3). At any time, Noah could have given up. He could have gotten tired of the ridicule from his neighbors. He could have gotten tired of working in the hot sun day after day after day, but he kept on going. He continued on in patient faith, believing God’s Word, even though nothing happened for more than 100 years.
You do the same. Keep on going even when you don’t see tangible results.
Japanese Marathon Runner Shizo Kanakuri competed in the domestic qualifying trials for the 1912 Stockholm Olympics. Kanakuri set a marathon world record, so the Japan Olympic Committee selected him as one of the only two athletes that they could afford to send to the event that year.
However, Kanakuri shockingly disappeared during the 1912 Olympic marathon race. He had had a rough 18-day-long trip to Stockholm, first by ship and then by train all through the Trans-Siberian Railway and needed five days to recover for the race. Then, weakened by the long journey from Japan, Kanakuri lost consciousness midway through the race, where a local family cared for him. Kanakuri was embarrassed by his "failure," so he returned to Japan without notifying race officials.
Swedish authorities considered him missing for 50 years before discovering that he was living in Japan. In 1967, he was offered the opportunity to complete his run. He accepted and completed the marathon in 54 years, 8 months, 6 days, 5 hours, 32 minutes and 20.3 seconds, remarking, "It was a long trip. Along the way, I got married, had six children and 10 grandchildren." (“Shizo Kanakuri,” Wikipedia, Accessed 6/19/21; www.Preaching Today.com).
Talk about perseverance! But the Bible is full people who finished their races after long periods of waiting or even after failure. Noah spent 100 years building the Ark. Moses spent 40 years in the wilderness before God used him to lead the people of Israel out of Egypt. Peter denied Christ and went back to fishing before Jesus called him back into ministry. John Mark bailed on Paul and Barnabas during their first Missionary Journey, but then later became useful in ministry and wrote the Gospel of Mark.
So no matter what has happened or not happened, whether you have failed or not, don’t give up! Trust the Lord and Persevere!
If you’re going to survive and thrive in a world hell-bent for destruction, then you must face it with faith. Face it with a faith that works, and face it with a faith that waits. Trust God enough to obey Him, and keep on obeying Him until your faith is rewarded with sight.
Carol Kent put it this way:
When despair tries to take me under… I choose life.
When I wonder what God could possibly be thinking… I choose trust.
When I desperately want relief from unrelenting reality… I choose perseverance.
When I feel oppressed by my disappointment and sorrow… I choose gratitude.
When I want to keep my feelings to myself… I choose vulnerability.
When nothing goes according to my plan… I choose relinquishment.
When I want to point the finger… I choose forgiveness.
When I want to give up… I choose purposeful action. (Carol Kent, A New Kind of Normal, Thomas Nelson, 2007; www.PreachingToday.com)
What will you choose today?
