Today we are continuing in our Genesis series: From Dust to Life. In Genesis 6, God warns Noah of the impending judgment coming on the earth, but He made a way for the salvation of Noah, his family, and the plethora of land animals. In chapter 7 the author doesn’t focus on Noah's building skills or his ability to work with animals but focuses on Noah’s life of faith and the lives of those who were saved as a result of his obedience.
Noah listened to the Lord and did all that He had commanded him: to build an enormous ark, and then gather his family, the land animals, and all the provisions onto this ark. His determined faith saved his family and preserved the animal kingdom. But Noah didn’t build this ark just for himself, his family and the animals - it was for the salvation of others.
Has anybody ever seen the movie, Evan Almighty? It was a modern-day Noah and the ark story where God (Morgan Freeman) comes to Evan (Steve Carell), a congressman, and tells him to build an ark because of what’s coming. This guy tries to ignore God over and over again but can’t get away from him and so he gives in and builds the ark. He’s totally ridiculed by everyone as he builds this ark because the sun is shining every day everyone thinks he’s a nutcase. It does have a happy ending though.
But in reality, Noah preached about what was coming the whole time he was building the ark but nobody except his own family believed him. 2 Peter 2:5 tells us that Noah was a preacher of righteousness. He warned the people of the known world about the judgment to come but no one believed him, no one was saved.
Chapter 7 doesn’t seek to give us a scientific understanding of how everything happened but theological reasons for why all this happened. There are various views within mainstream Christianity about the age of the earth, the age of the patriarchs and the scope of the flood. Each view seeks to present viable explanations without compromising the authority of the Scriptures.
The question is: How did the ancients think when they wrote down historical accounts? We know that they didn’t think in terms of chronology. One scholar pointed out that not one culture at that time thought they needed an accurate chronological account back to the days of creation. There was no objective criteria for recording the era or year or decade. This would explain why there are great gaps in the open genealogical records. The author used the same format as other cultures did in recording important people and the series of events, but he didn’t borrow any of the content from these cultures. The Bible is unique in its content from the time of creation on.
When we look at the text:
? What is God teaching us from this flood account?
? What principles do we see repeated again and again?
? Is this life final or is it preparatory for the next?
? How do we see things end for those who don’t believe?
? Can men and women pursue immorality and hedonism with reckless abandonment, ignore God’s warnings and come out unscathed?
As we read through the flood narrative the answers will become clearer.
Gen 7:1-24
Then the LORD said to Noah, “Come into the ark, you and all your household, because I have seen that you are righteous before Me in this generation. 2 You shall take with you seven each of every clean animal, a male and his female; two each of animals that are unclean, a male and his female; 3 also seven each of birds of the air, male and female, to keep the species alive on the face of all the earth. 4 For after seven more days I will cause it to rain on the earth forty days and forty nights, and I will destroy from the face of the earth all living things that I have made.” 5 And Noah did according to all that the LORD commanded him. 6 Noah was six hundred years old when the floodwaters were on the earth. 7 So Noah, with his sons, his wife, and his sons’ wives, went into the ark because of the waters of the flood. 8 Of clean animals, of animals that are unclean, of birds, and of everything that creeps on the earth, 9 two by two they went into the ark to Noah, male and female, as God had commanded Noah. 10 And it came to pass after seven days that the waters of the flood were on the earth. 11 In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, in the second month, the seventeenth day of the month, on that day all the fountains of the great deep were broken up, and the windows of heaven were opened. 12 And the rain was on the earth forty days and forty nights. 13 On the very same day Noah and Noah’s sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth, and Noah’s wife and the three wives of his sons with them, entered the ark— 14 they and every beast after its kind, all cattle after their kind, every creeping thing that creeps on the earth after its kind, and every bird after its kind, every bird of every sort. 15 And they went into the ark to Noah, two by two, of all flesh in which is the breath of life. 16 So those that entered, male and female of all flesh, went in as God had commanded him; and the LORD shut him in. 17 Now the flood was on the earth forty days. The waters increased and lifted up the ark, and it rose high above the earth. 18 The waters prevailed and greatly increased on the earth, and the ark moved about on the surface of the waters. 19 And the waters prevailed exceedingly on the earth, and all the high hills under the whole heaven were covered. 20 The waters prevailed fifteen cubits upward, and the mountains were covered. 21 And all flesh died that moved on the earth: birds and cattle and beasts and every creeping thing that creeps on the earth, and every man. 22 All in whose nostrils was the breath of the spirit of life, all that was on the dry land, died. 23 So He destroyed all living things which were on the face of the ground: both man and cattle, creeping thing and bird of the air. They were destroyed from the earth. Only Noah and those who were with him in the ark remained alive. 24 And the waters prevailed on the earth one hundred and fifty days.
There are over 200 hundred recorded stories or myths about a major flood in ancient cultures from every continent. There are flood accounts found in ancient Egyptian texts, in the records of different African tribes, Native American texts, Aztecs, ancient Near East, China, India, Iran, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Philippines, Siberia, and in ancient Greek texts. Many of these stories align with the flood account in Genesis on several points such as:
• the destruction of the earth
• God saving one righteous man
• building a vessel and animals boarding the vessel
• the type and shape of the floating vessel itself
• a small group of survivors
• sending of birds
• a rainbow and
• animal sacrifices.
What are the chances that these cultures spanning the globe would have a record of a worldwide flood event with such similar details?
The oldest known recording of a global flood is the Babylonian Epic of Gilgamesh from the 18th century BC. Some have assumed that because the Babylonian story is the earliest account, that the Genesis account is based on it and not actual history. But as Kenneth Kitchen, a widely respected ancient Near East scholar and Egyptologist wrote:
The common assumption that the Hebrew account is simply a purged and simplified version of the Babylonian legend (applied also to the Flood stories) is fallacious on methodological grounds. In the Ancient Near East, the rule is that simple accounts or traditions may give rise to more elaborate legends, but not vice versa.
Why are all these stories so similar? Some think that missionaries had spread this story to various cultures but that does not explain the pre-Christian era accounts. Others take the view that Noah’s descendants, as they began to populate the earth again, were the ones who started to build the Tower of Babel. After God confused their languages and they were scattered as people groups around the globe, the story of the flood was shared, until it became distorted and embedded in their respective histories. However, what is also interesting is that besides the major flood account, there are stories with many of the same details about the Fall of mankind and the Tower of Babel in different cultures and world religions.
As we have said earlier, the Bible is not a scientific text and doesn’t address questions about the age of the earth, the fossil records, what happened to dinosaurs, etc. But it does speak about the story of God's continuing plan of salvation for the human race tracing it from Adam up until this time of Noah and throughout the Scriptures.
In chapter 7 we see:
? Noah’s determined faith
? People’s passive denial
? God’s great deliverance
1. Noah’s determined faith
Noah was called righteous and found favor with God because he walked with God, lived in fellowship with Him, and had faith in Him (Gen 6:8-9). For the second time, we see Noah's life contrasted with nearly everyone else on the earth. Noah’s character was one of faithfulness and active obedience to the Lord and his obedience foreshadows the faith of Abraham who believed God and was called righteous. Both Noah’s and Abraham’s faith was the evidence or outworking of their relationship with Yahweh. Yahweh's name means “I am who I am.” This name speaks of the God who is always present, self-existent and self-sufficient. All others are dependent upon Him for life, breath, and their very existence. He is dependent upon no one. Yahweh has many attributes, He is the ancient of Days, Eternal, He calls all things into being, He is merciful, gracious, and wise. Noah had placed his faith in God and believed Him when He said He was going to bring judgment on this wicked generation. He believed God and so he prepared the ark (Gen 6:22).
In Genesis 7:2-5 Yahweh calls Noah and his family to go into the ark and to bring seven of every clean animal, male and female into the ark. Besides these clean animals, he was to bring two of every other kind of animal including wild animals and things which crawled on the ground. We’re not sure how Noah gathered the animals but there are many theories from migratory instincts to God calling them to Noah. Again, as in chapter 6, we see that by faith, Noah was determined to do all that the Lord commanded him.
Though it appears that Noah and his family went in right away, they didn’t enter the ark until the 7th day - just before the waters let loose. Why did God wait seven more days before the flood? We are not sure but the Midrash, a Jewish commentary, speculates that it was a time that God expressed His grief for the world or that God was giving this short respite as the final opportunity for repentance. Peter speaks about God’s incredible patience waiting for the ark to be built, giving people time. Peter reminds us:
The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance (2 Pet 3:9).
When Noah and his family entered the ark on that last day - the door which had been opened for many years was closed by God. This must have been a terrible day for Noah, knowing what was about to happen to everyone outside of the ark. This raises some questions:
? Wasn't anyone concerned, watching Noah build this colossal vessel and watching all the animals go into the ark?
? What were these people doing all this time?
This leads us to a second observation. People were living in:
2. Passive Denial
Jesus gave us a vivid portrayal of the situation as it was back then and what it will be like when He returns. He said:
For the coming of the Son of Man will be just like the days of Noah. For as in those days before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark, and they did not understand until the flood came and took them all away; so will the coming of the Son of Man be (Matt 24:37-39).
People were following their ordinary pursuits. Despite the distress and upheavals, despite the warning signs, oh well, life goes on: people eat, drink, and get married. But people were caught unawares, when it happened, no one could evade it, and only those who had made advance preparation escaped.
Is this a picture of how we live in today? How often do people ignore warnings until it’s too late? It made me think about the dams that burst in Libya six months ago which killed more than 20,000 people. Warnings about the dam were ignored for years. Even for us here in Vienna, we are a six-hour drive from a country that is being devastated by war and we just go on with our day, despite the distress and upheavals going on in the world around us.
Let’s look at things from a spiritual perspective, from God’s perspective. Not one of us in this room knows how much time we have on this earth until we die or until Christ returns. But we can choose to either walk with God with a determined faith to do what we know He’s calling us to or else live in passive denial about what’s happening in the world or even in our own hearts. But though we are called to live with a sense of urgency, we aren’t to live with anxiety.
For evangelism yesterday and we went out to the park to share the gospel and invite people to the upcoming Easter events. My wife and her friend spoke with an atheist who listened politely but also quite intently. However, in the end this person wasn’t open to asking God to show them the reality of His existence. That is her choice and it’s not our job to convince anyone of the reality of heaven and hell – that is the Holy Spirit’s job. There are people from every nation in our neighborhood, we had many good conversations yesterday - you’d be surprised how open people are to the gospel.
My question for all of us is: In this day and age, is our faith a reflection and outworking of our relationship with an ever-present, all-powerful, gracious, merciful, all-wise God? Are we convinced about the urgency of our time? God has issued warnings about the precarious times that are coming and that are already here. We have to continually be checking the foundation of our faith because everything in the world will seek to undermine it. It is with this sense of urgency that God calls...
• Moms and dads - to teach your kids how to live and to set the example because if you don’t the world will.
• Young adults – to make Christ the source of your life, peace, purity and joy and not let your fulfillment come merely from academic achievements, having money in the bank, platonic relationships or placement in a company.
• Married couples – to make the Lord the foundation of your life and the center of your relationship so that when the storms come you won’t be moved.
In this worldwide flood account we are studying, we see that God gave each person an opportunity to believe but, tragically, they remained passive towards God and the time for repentance had passed. God, not Noah, shut the door of the ark. When the flood came, every human being outside Noah’s immediate family perished. Yet in the midst of this great darkness, we witness:
3. God’s Great Deliverance
In vv. 11-17 we see that on the very day they entered the ark the fountains of the great deep burst open, and the floodgates of the heavens poured out. Water came down from above and there was a great upheaval from the depths below. This deluge continued for 40 days until the world was overtaken, and wickedness was removed from the earth.
In a way it was a recreation - Noah and his family, the animals, had a new beginning. As the ark rose out of all the destruction, God was taking them from dust to life and eventually they would find a place of rest. This was a testing time for Noah and his family as they waited patiently in the ark for God’s leading. They probably needed the 150 days to process all that just happened. Then the waters began to subside.
How does this passage speak to us today? We see that one man’s determined faith and obedience saved his family and the animals from ultimate devastation and destruction. This was a foreshadowing of Jesus Christ, whose righteousness will save us for all of eternity if we accept it. We can believe that God's great deliverance will save us from our sin and certain destruction forever. We know that God rescues the righteous from the day of trouble, He rescues those who have placed their trust in Him and only in Him will we find rest. We also know that if we are obedient to what God has called us to, He can use our lives to rescue others from devastation and destruction.
The ark was not just built to house Noah, his family, and the animals but for others to come in. This is God’s heart, that His house would be full and that we would go out to the highways and byways and compel people to come in while the door is open, while there is still opportunity. Like the ark, the church is God’s testimony to this world of the reality of Jesus Christ and all He has done for us. God calls us to come and when we place our faith in Him, we are walking through that door to salvation.
Do we understand the importance of an active faith? When we see everything we do and the way we live like building the ark, it becomes a testimony to others of the life we have in Christ. We want other to come to Jesus while there is time because we know that one day God will shut the door.
