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The Flood

Genesis 7:1-8:19

-Have you ever done a deep dive into church history? It’s a miracle the church has survived!

-Persecution from Rome, corruption in the Middle Ages, schisms, splits, and fights, Enlightenment, rationalism, even Twitter, Facebook and Tik Tok, yet Christians still continue spreading 

-Almost as if God has a plan/purpose to history

READ/PRAY

1. Continued Commands (7:1-10)

-God’s commands toward Noah continue in 7

-last week ended “Noah did all that God commanded.”

-A few corrections from our Sunday school versions, or maybe the Hallmark special, or maybe even the recent Noah film starring Russell Crowe! 

-Nowhere do we see how long it took Noah to build the ark (500 when he had his sons, 600 when the flood comes)

-Text doesn’t say Noah’s friends/neighbors mocked him because of this giant boat

-Unlike the most recent edition, was not because of a lack of earth care (text actually talks more about how humans are treating each other)

-Saw last week the idea of Noah being righteous

-Ties into Hebrews 11 – hall of faith. Begins by tracing the storyline we’ve been studying in Genesis. Creation – Abel – Enoch – Noah 

-Without faith it is impossible to please Him. Have you ever thought about that reality? No matter how “good” (however you define that) someone is, without faith in God it’s useless. 

-All the events we’re reading about throughout Genesis MUST be out of the overflow of the faith in your life, because if you don’t have that faith, you will not be pleasing God. Faith was the precursor to Abel’s sacrifice (thus that Cain did not have faith), faith was the precursor to Enoch’s walk with God, faith is even the precursor to Noah’s obedience that we saw last week.

-Notice it’s not BLIND faith, as in a leap into nothingness (seems like most modern action movies have that one scene where the main character is running away from the bad guys, sees a waterfall/cliff/edge of the building coming up and takes a blind “leap of faith” into the oblivion and always survives) instead it’s a faith that is rooted in reality and history evidence. If the tomb isn’t empty, you need to find a different religion, because everything we believe hinges on that fact

-That faith will lead us to trust God even when it’s difficult! Just think of the faith it took Noah to trust God to build an ark when there hadn’t been any kind of torrential downpour like this (or ever again as we’ll see next week!) So for you, where is God call you to have faith to be obedient to Him where you’re struggling to trust Him? It could be a pushy boss, an annoying neighbor, a wayward child, an unbelieving spouse, or maybe it’s none of those things and He’s calling you to be content and thankful right now. Whatever your circumstances, God calls us to continue trusting in Him, putting our faith hope and confidence in Him, like Noah.

2

-Not just 2×2 for the animals, 7 pairs of CLEAN animals

-Potentially to be used for sacrifices, but this is setting up the eventual Levitical law that comes about later in the OT, the way God’s people are to be set apart

4

-Then God tells Noah exactly the timing of the incoming destruction: 

-He’s got 7 days to get everything situated in the boat, the rain will come for 40 days/nights with 1 purpose: to blot out every living thing from the face of the ground.

-This may lead you to ask the question: why does God kill everyone and everything that He made? Doesn’t that make him evil? Great philosophical question/discussion, can’t fully explain it, even with an entire sermon devoted to it, but here’s some things to think through:

1- there are standards/norms that everyone believes/holds to, that when someone comes along that behaves outside those standards, there are consequences. If you speed, you risk a fine! There’s been conversations recently about (don’t watch it!) but Dave Chappelle doing a new Netflix special where he makes a joke about trans people, then I heard about a newer term TERF (trans-exclusionary radical feminist) which includes someone like JK Rowling and Martina Navratilova. If you don’t fit within these cultural norms/ideas, you’re cancelled. (If you struggle with anything of the LGBTQ please come talk to me! We ALL have sins we’re wrestling through, but we’re called to not carry that alone) 

They’re using doctrinal ideas, even though they don’t know it! Total depravity, but no hope of atonement or redemption

2- That leads to the question, even as we see this taking place in the culture around us, who gets to set those standards? Government, individuals, groups, cultures, businesses? God! Since we’ve seen God is the creator, He gets to set the standards/norms and call others to obey them. Therefore, people will flourish ONLY IF they obey Him

3- Since God is the creator, and He has set the norms, there are consequences for someone choosing to live outside of those boundaries, culminates in eternal separation from Him.

4- This all comes about because of the Fall. Not how God intended things to be.

-Once again, we see Noah living according to the creation mandates. Noah is completely obedient to God’s commands (seed of the woman!) 

6

-How old was Noah when this happened? 600. I can barely even begin to wrap my mind around that number. Just turned 33, I think of how much I’ve changed since 23, or 13, that’s only 10 or 20 years ago! Could you imagine living for 600 years? Imaging being born in 1421 and living through today. America was a nobody on the global stage, even 100 years ago! 

-Anyway, Noah’s obedient through his 600^th year of life, he and his family, and animals go into the ark, then comes the flood.

• The Waters (7:11-24)

-Part of the reason Noah’s age is listed is he’s serving in the kingly role in this text. 

-As you read through the rest of the OT you’ll find significant events measured by the life of the King. So “when he had been ruling for 25 years, the earthquake came.” In this case, the flood is the significant event (obviously), Noah is king

-Notice the timing of this event. Not only does it list the year, it lists the specific day that the floods came. Just like the resurrection in the NT, Moses is interested in preserving the historicity of this event.

-Think about how this day would have been for every other person on earth at the time. There was no warning, they would have gotten up just like every day before, prepared to go about their daily lives just like they’d done every day before.

-Think back to (if you were alive then) 9/11. You most likely, just like me, got up and did the same things you did every day. Eat breakfast, brush your teeth, get dressed, I went to school. Weirdest school day of my life! I had never even heard of the “World Trade Center” before that day. 

-That’s one of the biggest takeaways we need to be aware of today from Noah’s story. In Matt. 24, Jesus is speaking at the Mount of Olives about the signs of the end of the world. The world was clueless as to where the world was heading! 

-What’s unique about our time is unlike Noah, God has commissioned us to go tell everyone where the world is going! There is an end that’s coming, and we need to be ready for it. Keep that in the back of your mind, we’ll come back to that idea at the end.

-2 descriptors of where this flood is coming from: fountains of the great deep, windows of the heavens.

-An incredible deluge of water. If you’ve ever been to Niagara Falls and ridden the Maid of the Mist boat out it’s overwhelming how much water is pouring off! The sound, the spray. Imagine sitting under that for 40 days/nights.

-One of the things about weather is it changes. Every place I’ve lived has said “You know the weather here, if you don’t like it just wait 5 min.” Could you imagine the same weather for 40 days in a row: 100% chance of rain…again (like the Lego movie)

-Water pouring down from above, exploding up from below.

-Vs. 16 – notice that even the animals are obedient to God! Noah, his family, and a smattering of animals are the only people on the face of the earth who obey God. Who shuts the door? God does. Even in the midst of the destruction of the world, God continues preserving His people, a remnant of faithful worshippers who were obedient to Him. Because of that fact, why would we worry when other inferior people try to destroy us? God will continue working!

-The waters continue pouring down from above and up from below, and the ark floats and carries the 1 faithful family (and animals) through safety. This water was so great that it even covers the mountains.

-If you think back to Gen. 1, on day 2, God separated the 2 waters from each other creating “heaven” Here in Gen. 7 God is taking things back to their primordial state. The waters are no longer separated, He is re-creating the entire world with a second Adam

-If you did watch the 2014 ‘Noah’ this was the 1 scene that captured the biblical sentiment incredibly well. Vs. 21 says “All flesh died.” That concept is hard to translate to our minds with 1 sentence. But could you imagine sitting in the ark hearing the destruction of the world you’d known your entire life (in Noah’s case 600 years) 

-There’s a tendency to sanitize biblical stories, and then the sanitized versions become embedded in our minds. This wasn’t a traveling zoo where Noah got to live with his animal buddies. This was the de-creation, the destruction of everyone. Friends, neighbors, family members died. 

-These waters covered the world for 150 days. No rudder, nothing in sight, just Noah, his immediate family, and an ark full of animals. Do you think they saw the decomposing bodies? This must have been a feast for the carnivorous sea animals! I’m not trying to be crass, but I do want us to realize the humanity/reality of this story! 

-But that’s not the end of the story. God hasn’t forgotten or left Noah to struggle through this on his own. And that’s how chapter 8 starts:

• The Waters Subside (8:1-19)

-That word remembered is vitally important for you to remember, brother and sisters! The reality is for any of us who are in Christ, we are NEVER alone. It’s not as if God had forgotten about Noah, God’s not sitting up in heaven chillin out, maxin, relaxin all cool, when suddenly he looks down and spits out his drink because he sees the ark floating along. God has a plan for this. After the 150 days of this de-creation of the world, God begins interceding, could even say re-creating, the entire world. 

-Church, you never know what God’s going to do with you by you remaining faithful and obedient to Him. Even when storms and floods are thrown at you, even if you’re the only one left, God is doing something that you may have no clue until you persevere through it. 

-To clue us in to the fact that this is a re-creation of the world, the same language is used as in Gen. 1 “wind” same Hebrew word ruach as in Gen. 1:2 “The Spirit of God was hovering over the water.”

-Just as the first creation involved the Spirit of God, so the re-creation involves the same Spirit (and that exact same Spirit is involved in our re-creation when we’re saved and brought from death to life through the indwelling power of that same Spirit) 

-God also shuts off the “fountains of the deep and windows of the heavens” and the water starts disappearing. The finally, 5 months later, the ark comes to rest on/in the mountains of Ararat. 

-Again, another clue to the idea of re-creation. After this tumultuous season, Noah and the ark “rest”

-After waiting another 40 days, Noah sends out a raven, then a dove.

-No one’s really sure why the raven was sent, an unclean animal, could feed of any decaying carcasses as it waited for the water to recede, but not really sure why/purpose behind it. 

-First time the dove is released she comes back, second time she comes back with a “freshly plucked olive leaf.” And the last time she’s gone! But Noah’s still waiting for God’s commands. Even as he has survived the de-creation/destruction of the whole world, he’s still faithful and obedient. 

-Again, the specific days are recorded, 1 year, 10 days after the waters poured out, the earth is returned back to its’ intended state.

-Finally, it’s time for the introduction of Noah to the rest of the world. After all these previous events, God speaks to Noah again commanded him to “Go out!” 

-Very similar language to what we saw in 7:1. “Go into” vs “Go out”

-Not only are they supposed to go out, they’re commanded to bring out every animal that was on there with them. And then we see another creation mandate “be fruitful and multiply on the earth.” Another reminder, God is re-creating the whole world! This is meant to be a new Eden, a new opportunity, a fresh start with Noah and his family.

-God speaks, Noah obeys. “So Noah went out.”

-God speaks in creation, “And it was so.” God speaks to Noah, and it’s so

-Noah is reintroduced to the world, and then the rest of the creatures are reintroduced to the world. 

-Notice that the text says everything “went out by families” What a cool picture that would have been! Seeing each creature come down with their other half, 2 by 2 or 7 by 7 (for clean animals) 

-This story, while it really happened, is also meant to be understood more fully by us today to represent baptism. This connection is made by Peter in:

–1 Peter 3:18-22

-How are we brought to God? We saw the connection to faith earlier. Here we see the need for baptism, just like Noah was saved through water.

-Faith in Christ leads to obedience in baptism today. Entry point in the life of a believer. Baptism doesn’t save, but it signifies your obedience to Jesus’ commands. Have you been baptized? 

-Once you have been baptized, the rest of our life is spent in preparation. Church, Jesus is coming back! We don’t know when, but we know He will return. In the meantime we:

-Rooted in God’s Word (need to know God’s commands to obey them)

-Live a worship-filled life by demonstrating the fruit of the Spirit (faithfulness and gentleness) 

-Witnessing to the watching world (proclaim with our words, and make sure our life matches what we preach to the best of our ability)

-Practicing the lost art of hospitality – being a welcoming community