DAY THREE:

Noah's Ark

Genesis 6:5-7:24

Good morning! Thank you for all of your responses to our study. They've been very helpful to me as I work on the sermon for Sunday. I know that a lot of people "lurk," that is they read but prefer not to post any comments.  That's perfectly fine! If you'd like to share your thoughts with me privately you can send them to my e-mail address: martin.radcliff@gmail.com.  

Now on to today's Scripture.  This is where we begin to skip parts of the Bible in order to hit the high points in 100 readings. I'll briefly fill in what we've skipped.

Yesterday we saw Adam and Eve evicted from the Garden of Eden. They must now make their way in a much less hospitable environment. Chapter four begins with the birth of their first son, Cain, and then reports the birth of their second son, Abel. Cain killed Abel, luring him out into the open field. When God confronted him and asked where Abel was, Cain replied with a phrase that's a part of our language to this day: "Am I my brother's keeper?" The Lord banished Cain, who moved away with his wife to begin a new life. The genealogy of Cain's descendants follow, with hints of increasing depravity with each generation.  The chapter concludes with Eve bearing a third son, Seth. The chapter ends with thee words: "At that time people began to call upon the name of the Lord." God preserved a faithful remnant in the midst of an increasingly dark world.

Chapter five is where people usually get bogged down when they read the Bible.  It's the dreaded "begats." It's a list of Adam and Eve's descendants through Seth. We see some astronomically long lifespans.  Adam was 930 years old and Methuselah had the longest life in the Bible at 969 years.  We see the phrase "and he died" over and over again. No matter how long they lived, they still died. It's a reminder to us of our own mortality. It's also a reminder that God cares about us individually. We don't know anything about most of those listed, but God had their names recorded to teach us that He cares about everyone.

Now on to Noah! As one generation succeeded another, the lines of both Cain and Seth showed more and more depravity. Finally God had had enough! Verses five and six are powerful: "The Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.And the Lord regretted that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him to his heart." God's heart was broken! The creatures whom He had created in love ignored Him and abused one another. This is a reminder to us that God is grieved when we sin.

There was one man, however, in that generation who was different. "But Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord." His name means "rest." The word translated favor is rendered grace in the King James Version. Grace is, in fact, favor with God, a favor that we cannot earn but which He freely gives us. God graciously chose Noah for what must have been the most ambitious construction project the world had seen up to that point.

God told Noah that He was going to destroy the world with a great flood. He commanded Noah to make an ark. The word in Hebrew means "box," and is the same word used of the basked that carried the baby Moses. This box was certainly bigger than a breadbox!  The measurements are in cubits, which is the length from the elbow to the tip of the middle finger, roughly 18 inches. Thus the ark was 75 feet wide, 45 feet tall and 450 feet long! Noah was to fill that ark with two of every kind of bird and animal, along with enough provisions to feed all of them.  What a job! And imagine the ridicule that Noah and his sons endured from the ungodly people around them. But they completed the ark and the animals came in. Then we read in 7:16 "And the Lord shut them in." Once that door was shut, no one else could enter the ark. Everyone else was doomed. I think God Himself shut the door to spare Noah from doing it, knowing that he was condemning the rest of the world to death. This is a reminder to us that a day will come when God will close the doors of our lives.  Hebrews 9:27-28 says, "And just as it is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment, so Christ, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time, not to deal with sin but to save those who are eagerly waiting for him." Jesus is our ark, our place of safety, from the God's righteous judgement for our sins!

The rains came, for forty days and nights. The waters rose and the ark lifted off the ground. There was no means to steer the ark, so they drifted. When the rain finally stopped, it took 150 days for the water to dry up. We pick up the rest of the story in tomorrow's reading.

Jesus said in Matthew 24:36-39, “But concerning that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father only. For as were the days of Noah, so will be the coming of the Son of Man. For as in those days before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day when Noah entered the ark, and they were unaware until the flood came and swept them all away, so will be the coming of the Son of Man." The first part of the story of Noah is a warning of God's coming judgment and a call to repent. Tomorrow we'll see the other side of Noah's story, which is a bright promise for the future.

Thank you again for all of your thoughts! This is turning out to be quite an interesting study.