Noah and the Ark 1. Part two.

 

Noah and the Ark 1. Part two.

 

Bible Reading: Genesis 7:1-24; 1 Peter 7:17.      

“Now the flood was on the earth forty days. The waters increased and lifted up the ark, and it rose high above the earth” Genesis 7:17.

 

          The covenant implied in Genesis 6:18 might be interpreted as salvation for Noah conditional upon his building and entering the ark, which obligations he fulfilled found in Genesis 6:22.

          On the other hand, it may be that this passage simply makes reference to the covenant which God made with Noah after the flood, and which he sealed by a new sign of the rainbow (Genesis 9:9-17; Isaiah 54:9).

          But the main features of this covenant were that it was entirely instituted by God, that it was universal in scope, applying not only to Noah and his seed after him, but to every living creature, that it was unconditional, and that it was everlasting. In its God undertook from his own free loving kindness never again to destroy all flesh with a flood.

 

1.    Noah, during the flood.

 

          For a period of one year and seventeen days Noah and his family (“eight souls”), plus male and female of every species of animal, lived in the ark, tossed about, but safe. It was a mighty change; the earth was cleansed by water.

 

1.    Outside the Ark.

Scientists suggest that the entry of a large terrestrial body into the earth’s atmosphere unloaded sub-zero ice creating our arctic and Antarctic zones. This impart knocked the earth off balance, its axis now out of line; its gravitational pull unleashed “all fountains of the great deep,” its massive pressure broke up the vapour-canopy that hung above the earth (Genesis 1:17) producing a “greenhouse effect” of even temperature and moisture distribution.

          The result was a forty-day deluge of rain. All this added up to a universal flood, rising above the mountains and burying the earth under a vast volume of water, fifteen cubits (that is above the height of man or beast) 1 Samuel 17:4, higher than the highest peak.

          How it happened we do not know, only God said, He would “flood the world” and it was done.

 

2.    Inside the Ark.

All was well. This “ship of fate” rode the tempest. The company had comfortable quarters (rooms in Genesis 6:14 should be “nests”). Some stabilizing action preserved them from accidents, while Divine refrigeration kept their supplies fresh.

          Air-conditioning (Genesis “Noah opened the window of the ark which he had made”), kept them “hale and hearty,” which God imposed restraint kept the animals (a mixture of wild and tame), from combat. What a time it was!

          Twelve months shut in with God, while the world outside perished in floods of lethal water. They were truly “saved by water” as Peter put it (1 Peter 3:20). For the Ark, designed by Deity did not founder or leak. It landed after its service completed, on Mount Ararat (Genesis 8:4).

Noah and the Ark 1. Part one.

 

Noah and the Ark 1. Part one.

 

Bible Reading: Genesis 6:1-22; Matthew 24:37-38.

“So the Lord said, I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth, both man and beast, creeping thing and birds of the air, for I am sorry that I have made them. But Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord” Genesis 6:7-8.

 

          The name Noah means; to rest, comfort, to bring relief. Credited with a life of 950 years (Genesis 9:28). Noah was a righteous man (Hebrews 11:7), and had a close communion with the Lord God, as is indicated by the expression he “walked with God” Genesis 6:9. He is described as without fault among his generation, who had all sunk to a very low moral level (Genesis 6:1-5; Luke 17:26-27; Matthew 24:37-38), and to them he preached righteousness (2 Peter 2:5), though without success.       

          Noah was blessed with a great length of years. He was 50 years old when his first son was born (Genesis 5:32), 600 years old when the flood came (Genesis 7:11) and died at the age of 950 (Genesis 9:28-29). With Genesis 6:3 and 1 Peter 3:20, these verves would allow Noah 120 years to build the ark and to preach righteousness. The longest sermon ever preached, and yet stills no fruit. For only Noah and his three sons, and the four wives were saved and entered the ark (Genesis 7:7; 1 Peter 3:20).

 

1.    Noah, before the flood.

 

          Noah is the second father of humans, in the tenth generation from Adam. Sin depopulated the earth; Noah and his sons repopulated it, through this goodly patriarch the world was given a second chance.

 

1.    Corruption.

Society was self-indulgent; defiled in thought, debased in deeds, and defiant in words (Jude 15). There are four marks of decline of the people seen.

 

A. Unlawful, forbidden sexual trading (Genesis 6:2 “The Sons of God, and the daughters of men”). In unholy union.

B. Contamination with occult powers (Genesis 6:2 “The Sons of God”), were fallen angels.

 

C. Breakdown of all authority “violence filed the earth.”

 

D. Gross materialism (Luke 17:27), having no thought of God.

          The unnatural mixture of the satanic and the human produced “giants,” monsters were the results of the genetic upheaval caused by “angels which kept not their first estate” Jude 6.

          God was gracious He gave them another 120 years! But they grew worse, and not better. Grace was rejected, which left only justice to be faced.

God then decided to blot out the whole corrupt generation. The rottenness of humanity grieved Him; but it also drove Him, as “Judge of all the earth,” to action.

 

2.    Commendation:

One bright spot in this dense darkness was Noah. Five things are said about Noah.

 

A. He “found grace in the eyes of the Lord,” all salvation is by the grace of the Lord God.

 

B. He was “just,” that is he lived a straight life.

 

C. He was “perfect,” he was wholehearted in his devotion to the Lord God.

 

D. He “walked with God,” as his great grandfather had done, in close and blessed communion.

 

E. He believed in God's warning of judgement to come (Hebrews 11:7).

 

F. He not only accepted God's word, but he acted upon it and “prepared an ark to the saving of his family.”

          What a structure it was! Built according to precise marine proportions, this massive houseboat compared well with modern liners. At God's command he stocked it with food for his family and fodder for the animals, two of each species which he gathered and loaded in their many stables and folds.

          In all this he “condemned the world” who rejected his testimony as a preacher of righteousness (2 Peter 2:5). Their unbelief damned them!

 

3.    Calamity:

They may have mocked Noah, for he was building a ship inland; so, they ridiculed him, for rain was unknown to them (Genesis 2:6). But he persevered. But the day came when God invited him into the ark and shut the door. The “world that then was, being overflowed with water, perished” 2 Peter 3:6. But Noah and his family were saved.