Second Of Four Things That Will Change Your Life...obedience Series

Four Things that Will Change Your Life Series 2…Obedience…

(Summarize Gen 6:1-12…)

Gen 6:13 ¶ And God said unto Noah, The end of all flesh is come before me; for the earth is filled with violence through them; and, behold, I will destroy them with the earth.

14 Make thee an ark of gopher wood; rooms shalt thou make in the ark, and shalt pitch it within and without with pitch.

There are some things we should understand about Noah…

He is the father of three sons…Shem, Ham, Japeth.

Age… 500 yrs. Old…When God told him to build the ark. He would live to be 950, so his life is half over…and

It took 100 years to build the ark…

No doubt people probably mocked him for building it once they found out from Noah what it was for. It didn’t just happen overnight. Over the course of those 100 years the people see this strange thing being erected…and they probably thought that Noah had gone crazy!

But, what people thought, didn’t change what God said!

God told Noah…build an ark.

And, over the next few verses God gives him detailed instructions as how to build it, the size of it, how to cover it…and even tells him where to put the door and the window.

This thing was huge…

Size of Ark:

45’ Height (three stories)

75’ Width (two church buildings wide, and then some)

450’ Length (9 church buildings long)

We do not know Noah’s former occupation, what he did for a living…but, I can pretty well guarantee that he was not a boat builder.

This task, this command that God gave to Noah…it was monumental, it was impossible, it was unimaginable, it was incomprehensible…(it was beyond belief).

But, that is always the realm that God likes to work in!

And, that is still where God likes to work today for those who are willing to join Him.

So, if that wasn’t enough for Noah to take all in…God gives him some more things to think about…

17 And, behold, I, even I, do bring a flood of waters upon the earth, to destroy all flesh, wherein is the breath of life, from under heaven; and every thing that is in the earth shall die.

Can you imagine what is going through Noah’s mind when he hears this?

God is going to destroy all the earth…and, he is going to do it by floods of water and rain.

Noah had never seen rain. Noah wasn’t a boat builder, nor weatherman either.

Understand that in the days of Noah before the flood the atmosphere of the earth was different. There was a canopy over the earth and the earth was watered basically, by a dew, forming on the ground. It had never rained before, and it had surely never flooded before.

God tells Noah in vs.

18 But with thee will I establish my covenant; and thou shalt come into the ark, thou, and thy sons, and thy wife, and thy sons’ wives with thee.

Noah’s thoughts have to be going wild in his head. All these things that God is wanting him to do…it seems like too much!

But, yet, there is still more…

God tells Noah, also, “Oh, by the way Noah…” vs.

19 And of every living thing of all flesh, two of every sort shalt thou bring into the ark, to keep them alive with thee; they shall be male and female.

21 And take thou unto thee of all food that is eaten, and thou shalt gather it to thee; and it shall be for food for thee, and for them.

Again, imagine what Noah might have been thinking, (or at least what I would be thinking if I were Noah…)

“Great! You want me to build this huge boat thing!” “Which will take like, forever to do…”

“You’re going to destroy all living things upon the earth!”

“You want me and my family to get on the boat…because it is going to rain and flood, and I don’t even really know what that means…but, it doesn’t sound too good!”

“And, you want me to not only take my family, but also I am supposed to take two of every kind of animal that walks or flies…and put them on the boat with me!”

“It sounds like a very wonderful, romantic cruise God…I’m sure me and my wife will enjoy the getting away for a few days.”

(“However, I do like the buffet thing with all the food, God (nice touch)…that will be nice.”) (“Hmm…a big boat, a nice cruise, all you can eat buffet…that has potential.”)

Now, I do not know if these things entered the mind of Noah at all or not.

Again, if it was me…these things would probably have filled my mind a few times as I tried to understand everything that I was being told.