Why Did God Destroy The Earth? Series

"Why did God destroy the earth?" Gen. 5-9

(The beginning of destruction)

Pastor Bob Hunter

Springwater Church

Today I want to put the wraps on the first segment of our series called "The Beginning." We’ve been studying the book of Genesis. Also known as the book of origins. The world as we know it has it’s genesis or starting point in this book. And that’s why the Bible is a book like no other. There is no other source of information quit like the Bible, when it comes to understanding how the world and it’s problems came into existence. The Bible stands apart as the only authoritative document on these matters. There is a lot of theory going around, and a lot ideas about how the world came to be, but no real facts, or detailed explanations that can rival what we find in the Bible.

So today I’m going to conclude our series on the beginning with the story of Noah. He is perhaps one of the best known characters in the Bible. You can make conversation with a stranger on the street by mentioning the story of Noah. The flood event and Noah’s miraculous escape from it has fascinated people for centuries.

(Read Gen. Ch. 6:1-8) and comment… God told Noah to build an Ark, it was a huge project, a mammoth undertaking. From beginning to end it took a 120 years. Have you ever been given an impossible task? Let’s suppose you show up for work Monday morning and in walks your boss or supervisor. At that time you are given charge over a project that is so huge and overwhelming that you begin to break out in a nervous sweat wondering how your going to complete it. Now you know how Noah must have felt. God gave Noah a project that was enormous in size. Building the Ark was no small task.

I can only imagine Noah’s initial response.

You know what I think Noah suffered from? I think he suffered from stress and anxiety. God tells you to build an Ark out in the middle of nowhere, the scope of the project doesn’t appear to make sense. In addition to that, you are given a preaching assignment to fulfill on the side. I don’t thing we have any idea how difficult the two of these must have been. God told Noah to preach a message of repentance to the people of his day. Sadly, nobody listened, there was not a single convert? Indeed God calls us to do some pretty difficult things doesn’t He? I just can’t imagine how stressful these responsibilities were, year in and year out for 120 years. The rejection, pain and ridicule must have been crushing to Noah’s mental health. If I were Noah I probably would have had a nervous breakdown, annually. One a year for 120 years! I would have been a complete basket case. How do you stay focused under that kind of pressure. Preaching is a hard enough task. Imagine preaching to people that aren’t the slightest bit interested in hearing what you have to say. That’s enough to drive anybody crazy.

Sadly, at the very end of those years, Noah witnessed the horrible destruction of the very people he poured his heart out to. His final moments on the old earth were marked by sadness and serparation. Imagine a crowd of people outside your door perishing as the rains persist and the water level rises. Many of whom you know by name and warned about this very event.

So why did God do it? Why did He destroy the earth, and rescue only a small remnant of faithful people? Why did God allow this to happen? There must have been reasons, what were they?

Reason #1 is this:

1. Man was rotten to the core.

I mean it was really bad, morally & spiritually. Things were falling apart. The world was filled with violence, corruption, illicit sex, organized satanic activity. The Bible says, "Now the earth was corrupt in God’s sight and was full of violence. God saw corrupt the earth had become, for all the people of the earth had corrupted their ways.." Gen. 6:11,12 Things were so bad that even God in all His mercy couldn’t bear to look at it anymore. It broke His heart to see what happened to creation. The days of Noah were a living hell. Noah preached for a 120 years and people ignored Him. The book of Peter in the New Testament says that God was long suffering toward people in the day of Noah, He gave them more than ample opportunity to turn from their wicked ways and they just didn’t do it. They loved darkness rather than light.

There is a human tendency in this world to ignore the reality of judgment. We casually dismiss the consequences of our actions in favor of complacency. People living in the day of Noah, ignored the words of warning and resisted the idea of judgment. So reason number #1 for the destruction of the world is pretty straight forward one: Man was rotten to the core and God was fed up with it. Something had to happen, it just couldn’t continue because God’s Holiness demands justice. In other words, He doesn’t allow sin to go unanswered. Reason #2