Introduction
The question was asked, “Who in the Bible displayed financial wizardry?” The answer: “It was Noah. While the whole world was in liquidation, he kept his stocks afloat!”
As I did a search on the Internet on “Noah’s Ark”, I came across a webpage where there was a colourful picture of the Noah’s Ark with the title: “Everything I Really Need to Know I learned from Noah’s Ark. Then it was followed by these statements:
Plan ahead. It wasn’t raining when Noah built the ark.
Stay fit. When you are 600 years old, someone might ask you to do something really big.
Don’t listen to critics. Do what has to be done.
Build on high ground.
For safety’s sake, travel in pairs.
Two heads are better than one.
Speed isn’t always an advantage. The cheetahs were on board, but so, were the snails.
If you can’t fight or flight – free flat!!!
We may smile at these statements, but do you know something? What God really wanted Noah and his descendents to know is not mentioned in the list. God told Noah immediately after he left the ark about the conditions under which he and his descendents were to live. Unfortunately, most Sunday school lessons and adult bible studies rarely deal with any of the stipulations of the covenant God made with humanity through Noah. All we learn and remember about the flood story was the sign of the covenant – namely the rainbow; nothing about its content. Nevertheless, I shall leave the sermon on Genesis 9 where God speaks to Noah immediately after the Flood. Rev Orr will be preaching on it.
I believe the story of the God’s announcement, Noah’s preparations and patience during the Flood, here in Genesis 6 – 8, have much to offer us lessons from the faithlessness of humanity, faith of Noah, the Flood and God’s faithfulness.
The FAITHLESSNESS of Humanity
My Spirit will not contend with man forever, for he is mortal; his days will be a hundred and twenty years…. The LORD saw how great man’s wickedness on the earth had become, and that every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil all the time. (6:3, 5)
Before the Flood story, the author of Genesis gives us a glimpse of what was the situation and condition. What prompted God the Creator and Preserver to announce His intention to destroy everything that breathes on the earth and in the air?
After the First Murder in Genesis 4, chapter 5 gives us a genealogy, tracing the faithful line of Seth, the “appointed (4:25), all the way to Noah, “the deliverer” (5:32). At the end of Genesis 4, where the results of sin and hatred had permeated Cain’s family, there is hopeful comment about Seth and his posterity. So, at the earliest stages of human history, there were two types of people: those who were faithful to the divine image conferred upon them, and those who were violent and godless; in other words, Seth’s line versus Cain’s line.
The genealogy in Genesis acts like a kind of fast-forward button, bringing in haste the appearance of Noah, who would act as the turning point of human history.
The author of Genesis includes a strange short account about the “sons of God” marrying “the daughters of men” any of them they choose (6:1). Many people readily identify the “sons of God’ as the fallen angels or demons who married human women. If that being true, then we have record here in Scriptures of the enmeshing of demonic and human rebellion against God, which will culminate in the final all out war in the Book of Revelation.
There are others who choose to understand the “sons of God” to be “godly sons” of Seth, meaning members of Seth’s faithful lineage, who intermarried with “worldly daughters”, the evil descendants of Cain. Such intermarriages would have diluted the godly lineage of Seth.
There is still another alternative, which I am more inclined to take. The “sons of God” here could mean those in authority − kings, princes and governors; they abused their position and power against the people by demanding and exercising the right to spend the first night with any woman who is being married. Such practices existed in the ancient world. In ancient times, kings were regarded as sons of deity and that authorities were occasionally designated deputies or representatives of the gods. The phrase in 6:2 that “the sons of God…married any of them they chose” would suitably describe such practices.
If the exercise of the first night is indeed the sin, the guilty ones were then the people in authority. This theme fits well with the progression of sin in Genesis 1 to 11: individuals (Adam and Eve) family (Cain and descendants) community leaders (sons of God) everyone (Flood and Babel).
Interestingly, Jesus makes reference to Noah and the Flood in Matthew 24:37−39. Before reading to you these verses, let me say that I don’t believe Jesus is talking about fallen angels and demons that were guilty in days of Noah.
As it was in the days of Noah, so it will be at the coming of the Son of Man. For in the days before the flood, people were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, up to the day Noah entered the ark; and they knew nothing about what would happen until the flood came and took them all away. That is how it will be at the coming of the Son of Man.
Jesus specifically mentions marrying and giving in marriage as a principal activity that constitutes the sin of the people in the days of Noah. In this understanding, human beings were not the victims under the oppression of fallen angels and demons; human beings were the villains who perpetrated some kind of lawlessness among them.
Whichever line of interpretation you take, the point is clear, sin and evil had reached such a scale that the Lord God was prompted to do something about it.
• The Prevalence of Sin and Evil Among Humanity (6:5a). The first half of verse 5 of chapter 6 describes how extensive sin and evil had spread in the days of Noah. Everyone had been recruited in the rebellion against God except one man and his family, Noah. If you want to imagine the prevalence of sin and evil in the days of Noah, you simply need to sit down while everyone else in this hall stands up. You represent Noah and his family, while the rest of the congregation the men and women who were bent on doing evil and violence.
• The Penetration of Sin and Evil Within the Human Soul (6:5b). The second part of Genesis 6 verse 5 reveals the ugly power of sin in that it the heart of the problem of sin and evil in society lies in the mind and heart of every individual member. Such is the intensity of sin’s contamination, contaminating every human faculty. In Romans 1:18−32, Paul mentions almost every part of human body in his mention of humanity’s sin that incurred God’s wrath. Perhaps, as Presbyterians we might say that here we see the first glimpse of the doctrine of the total depravity of humanity when God says about humanity, “that every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil all the time.” If you want to know how depraved or wicked the human mind and heart can be, think of 911 in 2001. It terrifies me that how on earth these terrorists could conceive of the idea of turning passenger planes, vehicles of transportation into vehicles of terror and destruction. When I caught the first glimpse on the TV screen, of how the two planes plunged into the twin towers of the World Trade Centre in New York, I thought to myself, “What evil and wickedness this is? What has become of the world?”
• The Prevention of Spread of Sin and Evil by Limiting the Mortality of Humanity to 120 years. There are some who interpreted that the 120 years refer to the grace period before the Flood. But, I am more inclined to interpret it as God’s limiting the spread of sin and evil by limiting the mortality of humanity to 120 years. God says “his days will be one hundred and twenty years”, which should be rightly and simply understood as referring to our life span being limited to that number. Now we may ask the question why then we do not see the immediate effect of this limit of 120 years on the patriarchs subsequent to the Flood? Well, I can only say that the patriarchs, as God’s chosen ones, enjoyed the favour of a longer endowment of the Spirit of God that gave life.
Now, at this juncture, it is important to note that the pervasiveness of sin and evil over the face of the earth and its permeation within the human soul cause much pain and grief to God. God’s grief was not mushy-mushy because the pain and grief accompanied His announcement and action of judgment. Here is the beauty of God’s character, that He finds no pleasure in the death and destruction of the sinner.
The FAITH of the Noah
But Noah found favor in the eyes of the LORD…. Noah was a righteous man, blameless among the people of his time, and he walked with God…. Noah did everything just as God commanded him.” (6:8, 9, & 22)
Yet, all was not lost as there was one man who found favour with the Lord, Noah. He was considered righteous by the Lord “among the people of his time, and he walked with God.”
Let me summarily mention some of the qualities of Noah’s faith as a measure for our own faith and walk with God:
• Faith Involves Receiving God’s Revelation – i.e. Listening with Attention and Intention to Obey. I don’t know about you: it amazes me to read about a 500 year old man listening attentively to God’s announcement of His intention to destroy human beings and animals. God’s revelation to Noah was more than just about the judgment but also the detailed instructions as to how the Ark, the vehicle of salvation of Noah and his family, was to be built. God did not draw up a blueprint or engineering diagram showing how the Ark should look like and how it should be built. So, Noah listened attentively with the intention to follow strictly God’s instructions. This is worlds apart for many of us today in listening to God’s Word; we are inattentive and indifferent, with not real intention to follow up on what we have read and heard. We are paying attention to what we are going to buy and what we are going to eat for lunch after the service.
• Faith Involves Responding to God’s Revelation – i.e. Building the Ark. Faith is not mere intellectual assent or agreement to a set of beliefs and creeds. Faith begins as a noun but it must become a verb ultimately. Noah’s faith resulted in a two-step action. The first step involved him building the ark. Without modern machinery, we imagine it must have taken him a long, long time to build the Ark. Though there was a gap of about 100 years between God’s announcement of the Flood and the arrival of the catastrophe, we must not think that Noah was preoccupying himself all the while with the building of the Ark.
• Faith Involves Resting Securely on God’s Revelation –Entering the Ark. Noah’s faith in become a verb is completed with his entrance into the Ark with his family. It inspires me to learn that Noah was so confident about God’s promise and power that he went into the Ark with his family. It is one thing for Noah to obey God by building the Ark according to God’s strict stipulations, but is quite another for him to walk into the Ark, entrusting his life and that of his loved ones to God’s protection and provision. It is one thing to lend intellectual agreement to the design and capability of the airplane, but it quite another for you to walk into the plane and fly in it. When you do that, your faith in the plane is complete. Similarly, do our faith in God leads us to entrust not only yourselves but also our loved ones into the promise and power of God to save us and to supply our needs.
• Faith Involves Reciprocating God’s Mercies – i.e. Offering Our Bodies as Living Sacrifices (Romans 12:1–2). Another beautiful characteristic of Noah’s faith is that he reciprocates God’s mercies by setting up an altar to offer Him burnt offering as soon as he got out of the Ark after the Flood. Noah did not busy himself lamenting over his losses (jobs, houses, cars and investments). Or for that matter, was he busy thinking about what he should do to rebuild his life and recover what he has lost. No, none of these thoughts! Uppermost and foremost in Noah’s thought after the loss was to offer worship to God. It was just about a couple of weeks after the devastating Tsunami swept across the Indian Ocean. I was moved by what I saw on the TV screen the villagers in Sri Lanka who had gathered on the shores to offer prayers and sacrifices to their gods even when their lives are still in ruins. The Tsunami had just hit these villagers a couple of weeks ago and everywhere around was still in ruins. Surely, the most pressing and pragmatic thing to do for them is to start working to rebuild their lives and regain what they had lost! Typical thought of a Singaporean urbanite! As a Christian, if I had been one of the victims among the fishing villagers, what would I do? Go to the beach and build an altar to worship God?
Another way to reflect on this attribute of Noah’s faith: Do we express our faith this way, with ever readiness to look for God’s gracious acts in our lives and to look for ways in which we may express our gratitude to Him? Another way to put it: Do we live our lives with such an attitude of offering up of our bodies as living sacrifices (like the WHOLE burnt offering in the OT) to God in the light of His mercies to us in Jesus Christ by not dealing with us what our sins deserve? Is God able to smell the sweet aroma that comes from our life of working at worshipping Him and worshipping at work?
The FLOOD
Finally, after more than a hundred years, the Flood that was announced did come. Woe, what a flood, unparalleled in the entire history of the world! The Flood lasted for more than a year. First, it rained “cats and dogs” for forty days. Second, the waters covered the mountains 20 feet deep for more than 150 days. Third, the Flood began to recede after 70 days and the mountain peaks began to reappear. Fourth, it was about 380 days since the Flood came that the lands of the Earth were dry once again.
• The Cause for the flood was Divine judgment on godlessness. As mentioned earlier, the cause for the Flood was Divine judgment on humanity’s godlessness; though the cause for Flood may also be geologically explained. Science can only explain how the Flood happened but it can never tell us why it happened.
• The Complete Destruction of everything except for those inside the Ark could only be brought about by a global flood – subterranean and atmospheric waters.
I am no geologist but the little that I know is that there are waters beneath the surface of the earth. Thus, the “fountains of the great deep” seem more consistent with subterranean or underground water pushed up from large, deep, underground cavities rather than relatively small terrestrial springs. This prevailing is entirely consistent with subterranean fountains issuing water to the oceans with, no doubt, tsunami of continental proportions crisscrossing the globe and leading to gigantic tidal waves on reaching the shorelines of any exposed land.
• The Coming Final Judgment will not be by waters but by fire (2 Peter 3:7). Jesus and the NT writers make several references to Genesis, particularly the first eleven chapters. Earlier, I made mention of Jesus’ reference to the days of Noah in Matthew 24:37−39. Similarly, the apostle Peter makes mention of the lawlessness and wickedness in the days of Noah to warn his readers about spiritual complacency and taking for granted of God’s patience for people to repent. In 2 Peter 3:3−9, he warns:
3 First of all, you must understand that in the last days scoffers will come, scoffing and following their own evil desires. 4 They will say, “Where is this ‘coming’ he promised? Ever since our fathers died, everything goes on as it has since the beginning of creation.” 5 But they deliberately forget that long ago by God’s word the heavens existed and the earth was formed out of water and by water. 6 By these waters also the world of that time was deluged and destroyed. 7 By the same word the present heavens and earth are reserved for fire, being kept for the day of judgment and destruction of ungodly men.
8 But do not forget this one thing, dear friends: With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day. 9 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.
Interestingly, both Jesus and the apostle Peter make reference to the wickedness in the days of Noah to underscore the coming of a Final Judgment Day. Both also speak of the nature of God’s judgment that it will be sure and sudden and swift. Thus, Jesus and Peter are calling listeners and readers to believe, repent and be reconciled with God while there is still time. The difference between God’s judgment in the days of Noah and that of Coming BIG ONE lies in the means. In days of Noah, God destroyed life by waters but in the coming Final Judgment, God will do it by fire.
Though the apostle Peter explain that the apparent delay of God’s judgment is a display of God’s patience, many people in our day treat it as an evidence of the Bible’s Judgment Day as hoax, So, like Tsunamis and tidal waves, God’s judgment may seem remote and unlikely, but when it comes, it will come suddenly and swiftly, catching everyone by surprise.
Many church fathers rightly see that the Noah’s ark that saved Noah the righteous and his family foreshadows Jesus Christ. Those who are in the Ark is saved from God’s aquatic wrath and judgment and so similarly, those who are seeking refuge in Jesus Christ by repenting of their sins and turn their lives over to Him as Lord, they will be saved from the fiery wrath and judgment of God in the near future.
Friends, you may say that you are not as wicked and lawless as those living in the days of Noah and in our day, yet by the Bible’s definition, you and I are born sinners. The essence of sin is not lying, stealing, and killing, which are just manifestations of the principle and power of sin in us. Sin, in essence, is autonomy or self-rule, you and I living a life with no regard to God’s rightful rule in our lives.
The FAITHFULNESS of God
One of the things that stand out in the Flood Story is God’s character, particularly His faithfulness. Speaking of God’s faithfulness, I am referring to the fact that God is committed to keep His promises and that He is always consistent with His character, e.g., His hatred for sin and His holiness.
• Revealing: Without God’s initiative in revealing Himself and His plans to us, we will be left in the dark groping, not knowing what, where and why. The God that Bible presents is One who always seek to communicate Himself and His plans to humanity. When God speaks, we must respond!
• Judging (GOD IS Holy): God makes distinction between the righteous and the wicked. Make no mistake about it, in God’s eyes, there are only two groups of people, those who belong to Him (i.e. have established relationship with Him) and those who do not! Which category are you in today?
• Covenanting: God remembers those who are His because of the Covenant He makes with them – i.e. He shall be their God and they shall be His people. The language used in Genesis 8:1 speaks of God remembering Noah and all that are in the Ark as a matter of fact. Rather, the word “remember” in Hebrew speaks of affective knowledge. Again, we are reminded of the truth that God distinguishes people by their relationships with Him. Consistently throughout the Bible, God is speaks to reveal His purpose of gathering men and women, regardless of race, language, social class and nationality, to enter into an eternal relationship with Him that begins here and last through eternity. The Bible presents Jesus Christ as the climax of God’s revelation (Word becoming flesh), embodying all that God is! This is what Hebrews 11:1–3a declares to us: “In the past God spoke to our forefathers through the prophets at many times and in various ways, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, and through whom he made the universe. The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word.”
Truth for Life:
• God does not eradicate sin and evil in the meantime but He restrains them. As we live in a world with increasing evil, do we stand firm in our belief that God is still in control and that evil is restrained?
• God has placed the godly people within morally degenerating society so that the testimony of God’s holiness is clear and courageous. Is your witness and mine clear and courageous in the sight of the people around us – family, friends and colleagues? Or, are we living by majority and popularity?
• God speaks and He expects His people to respond by trusting and obeying Him. How is attitude when it comes to reading/studying the Bible and listening to it being preached and taught? Are you a careless or careful listener and doer of the Word?
• God has demonstrated His mercies towards us once and for all in Jesus Christ. Noah seeks first to offer up burnt offering to the Lord in heartfelt gratitude the moment he stepped out of the Ark. Do you, with heartfelt gratitude, offer up daily to the Lord your body as a living sacrifice, which like a whole burnt offering in the OT, involves all aspects of life
• God makes a clear distinction between those who are His and those who are not when it comes to His promises to bless and to judge. Are you INSIDE or OUTSIDE of the ARK (i.e. JESUS CHRIST), preparing to face the oncoming FINAL JUDGMENT? Do not wait till God’s patience runs out, as in the days of Noah! Repent and be reconciled with God through Jesus Christ so that you need not fear the coming Judgment Day
