Stop The World, I Want To Get Off! Series

STOP THE WORLD, I WANNA GET OFF! (GENESIS 6:5-9)

A friend e-mailed me these insightful pointers on Noah by Don Kryer of Frontline Fellowship that has “Things to Learn from Noah and His Ark” for its subject:

(1) Plan ahead. It wasn’t raining when Noah built the ark. (2) Stay fit. When you’re 600 years old, someone might ask you to do something really big. (3) Don’t listen to critics. Do what has to be done. (4) Build on high ground. (5) For safety’s sake, travel in pairs. (6) Two heads are better than one. (7) Speed isn’t always an advantage. The cheetahs were on board, but so were the snails. (8) If you can’t fight or flee -- float. (9) Take care of your animals if they were the last ones on earth. (10) Don’t forget that we’re all in the same boat. (11) When the doo-doo gets really deep, don’t sit there and complain – shovel! (12) Stay below deck during the storm. (13) Remember that the ark was built by amateurs and the Titanic was built by professionals. (14) If you have to start over, have a friend by your side. (15) Remember that the woodpeckers inside are often a bigger threat that the storm outside. (16) No matter how bleak it looks, there’s always a rainbow on the other side. (17) DON’T MISS THE BOAT!!! (Don Kryer, Frontline Fellowship)

The Lord commanded Noah to build an enormous ark, one and a half football field long and nine standard rooms high, on an extra wide house lot. In seven days the animals voluntarily came to Noah (7:15) - seven of every kind of clean animals and a pair of every kind of unclean animals (7:2). After Noah had done his part, the rain poured forty days non-stop (7:12) and the waters rose twenty feet over the mountains (7:20) and flooded the earth for the next 150 days (7:24) before receding the next 150 days (8:3), but Noah, his wife, his three sons and their wives did not get off the boat for another two months (8:6, 10, 12).

God delivered Noah and his family because Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord (6:8). How does one do that? How are we to remain in God’s favor in an atheistic society, before an antagonistic people, in an abominable world? Noah was a man of inspiration, of perspiration and aspiration. He was a righteous man who attempted to save others and he walked with God.

How are we to be the salt and the light of the world, ambassadors to the world?

Inspire Others by Your Inward World

5 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 The LORD was grieved that he had made man on the earth, and his heart was filled with pain. 7 So the LORD said, "I will wipe mankind, whom I have created, from the face of the earth--men and animals, and creatures that move along the ground, and birds of the air--for I am grieved that I have made them." 8 But Noah found favor in the eyes of the LORD. 9 This is the account of Noah.Noah was a righteous man, blameless among the people of his time, and he walked with God. (Gen 6:5-9)

I asked my wife when I was preparing this message: What is the difference between this world and Noah’s? How are we different and what does the clause “that every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil all the time” in verse 5 mean?

Doris was surprised by the question. After all, like Noah’s generation, violence, depravity and chaos are the order and norm today. She recovered and said: “That is a good question. I never thought about that. I think the difference is that not only were wickedness and evil present at that time, but love and care were totally missing. Our present world, corrupt as it is, still has some good qualities remaining.”

That sums up Noah’s generation. Not only were immorality and violence present and love and honor absent, but remorse and correction were unlikely, derided and opposed. All negative and no positive or redeeming quality. Every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil all the time (v 5).

Noah was a righteous man, one of a kind and a candle in the dark. His inward world was an inspiration. He was one of three, along with Job and Daniel, to define and personify the word “righteousness” (Ezek 14:20). Further, he and Job were the only biblical characters known as blameless (v 9) – godly men marked by the integrity of character, the fear of God and the abhorrence of evil (Job 1:1). He was a shining light in the darkness, a shimmering star in the night, a single spark lit and aflame for God.