Sunday
Morning Bible Study
December
10, 2006
Introduction
A preacher, ending his sermon, announced that he would preach on Noah and
his Ark on the following Sunday
and gave the scriptural reference for the congregation to read ahead of time. A
couple of mean boys noticed something interesting about the placement of the
story of the Flood in the Bible. They slipped into the church and glued two
pages of the pulpit Bible together. On the next Sunday, the preacher got up to
read his text. “Noah took unto himself a wife,” he began, “and she was” - he
turned the page to continue - “three hundred cubits long, fifty wide and thirty
high.” He paused, scratched his head, turned the page back and read it
silently, turned the page. Then he looked up at his congregation and said,
“I’ve been reading this old Bible for nigh on to fifty years, but there are
some things in it that are hard to believe.”
I hope that over the next couple of weeks, you’ll find that the story of
Noah is not one of those “hard to believe” things.
:1-12 Preflood wickedness
:1 Now it came to pass, when men began to multiply on the face of the
earth, and daughters were born to them,
We talked last week about the extreme lifespan that people lived before the
flood. The average man lived to be 912 years old. This would lead to a
population explosion.
If we assume that the average time between generations was ninety-four
years; the average family size was eight children; the average age was only five
hundred years old; at that rate, at the time of Noah’s flood, there were 137
billion people living on the earth. I’m
not saying there were that many people, but that’s where the numbers lead you.
:2 that the sons of God saw the daughters of men, that they were beautiful;
and they took wives for themselves of all whom they chose.
sons of God – Who is this referring to?
1) The line of Seth. He was the head
of the godly line.
2) Angelic beings
Except for the occurrence of this phrase twice in Genesis 6, the phrase is only
found three other places in the Old Testament, all in the book of Job, and they
refer to angels, but not to normal humans.
Some disagree with this idea because Jesus said that in heaven angels “neither
marry nor are given in marriage” (Mark 12:25).
That may be a good objection, but Jesus doesn’t say that angels are
incapable of sex, He simply said that in heaven they did not marry. The context
of Jesus’ comments had to do with the status of a dead woman who had lots of
husbands, and the question of whose wife she was – Jesus’ focus was on
marriage, not procreation.
There might be a case made that these are specifically “fallen” angels, the
ones identified by Jude as those who “did not keep their proper domain” (Jude
1:6)
I think this idea has merit, especially in light of what seems to be the effect
of these marriages, the “giants” produced (vs. 4).
:3 And the LORD said, "My Spirit shall not strive with man forever,
for he is indeed flesh; yet his days shall be one hundred and twenty
years."
There could be a couple of interpretations here:
1. It could be that God means that His Spirit wouldn’t always be inside of
man because man would die. And then God says that man’s lifespan would one day
be 120 years instead of the 900 year lifespan (even though lifespans don’t go
below 120 until the end of Genesis, 13 generations later).
2. A better idea is that God is saying that He isn’t going to put up with
man’s rebellion forever. There would be an end to God’s patience. And it seems that
the 120 years was the length of time God gave mankind before the judgment.
This may mean that Noah was building the ark during this 120 year period. This might help to explain how Noah was able
to build such a large vessel. It took
115 years to get the permits and 5 years to build it. J
:4 There were giants on the earth in those days, and also afterward, when
the sons of God came in to the daughters of men and they bore children to them.
Those were the mighty men who were of old, men of renown.
:5 Then the LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and
that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.
(Ge 6:5 The Message) God saw that human evil was out
of control. People thought evil, imagined evil—evil, evil, evil from morning to
night.
:6 And the LORD was sorry that He had made man on the earth, and He was
grieved in His heart.
:7 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."
:8 But Noah found grace in the eyes of the LORD.
Lesson
Grace
grace – chen – favor,
grace, charm, or acceptance. It comes from the word chanah, meaning to bend down, a superior person bending down to
help an inferior one.
This is the first time the word “grace” is used in the Bible. It will not be the last.
In the Old Testament, the word is not only used for how God shows favor on
certain people, but we can catch a taste of its flavor by seeing how people
showed “favor” toward each other. The
word is found 6 times just in the book of Esther…
Es 2:15
…Esther obtained favor in the sight
of all who saw her.
Esther was a beautiful, sweet gal.
People liked her.
In the New Testament, the word seems primarily aimed at the kind of favor
that God shows toward His people. We learn
that grace is “unmerited favor”.
That unmerited favor is centered around Jesus Christ. We do not deserve the things Jesus has done
for us.
(2 Cor 8:9 NKJV) For you
know the grace of our Lord Jesus
Christ, that though He was rich, yet for your sakes He became poor, that you
through His poverty might become rich.
We know our entrance into heaven, isn’t based on our good works, it’s based
on the favor that God has shown us by sending Jesus to die for our sins.
(Eph 2:8 NKJV) For by grace you have been saved through
faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God,
Because of Jesus’ sacrifice for us, we are allowed to be
forgiven if we will only trust God.
Noah found grace.
Was Noah’s grace unmerited? I find it
interesting that the description of Noah being a good guy comes after Noah finding grace.
Some of us are constantly trying to earn God’s favor. What if you already have it?
I find it interesting to think that Noah was saved by grace.
He and his family survived the flood because God in His
grace showed Noah how to build the ark.
Paul learned in his life that when difficulties came, God wouldn’t always
take the difficulty away. But God would
never stop loving Paul and God would never stop showing grace to Paul. And that was enough for Paul.
(2 Cor 12:9 NKJV) And He
said to me, "My grace is
sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness."
Therefore most gladly I will rather boast in my infirmities, that the power of
Christ may rest upon me.
For Noah, God didn’t take the flood away, but God allowed Noah to rise
above the flood. He could trust in God’s
grace toward Him.
:9 This is the genealogy of Noah. Noah was a just man, perfect in his
generations. Noah walked with God.
(Ge 6:9 The Message) …Noah
was a good man, a man of integrity in his community…
Noah didn’t live like the people in his world.
:10 And Noah begot three sons: Shem, Ham, and Japheth.
:11 The earth also was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with
violence.
:12 So God looked upon the earth, and indeed it was corrupt; for all flesh
had corrupted their way on the earth.
Corruption. Violence. Does any of this sound familiar? Jesus said,
(Mat 24:36-39 NKJV) "But of that day and hour no one knows,
not even the angels of heaven, but My Father only. {37} "But as the days of Noah were, so also will
the coming of the Son of Man be. {38} "For as in the days before the
flood, they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until
the day that Noah entered the ark, {39} "and did not know until the flood
came and took them all away, so also
will the coming of the Son of Man be.
Jesus said that the time of His return would be similar to the days of
Noah.
Jesus said that this included “life as usual”. People did all the things they usually did –
eating, drinking, etc.
But we also see some other parallels with the days of Noah.
1. Population explosions (6:1) – the
earth is getting more and more crowded.
I remember learning about the danger of overpopulation back in grade
school, 1.5 billion people ago.
2. Moral corruption (6:5) – thoughts
of evil – think about how perverted our society has gotten. The coming of the internet has caused an
explosion of corruption. TV,
movies. Lifestyles.
3. Violence (6:11) – do you remember walking to school as a child? Do you allow your children to walk to
school? Why not? We don’t live in a very safe world.
It makes me wonder just how close we are to Jesus’ return.
:13-22 Flood Preparations
:13 And God said to Noah, "The end of all flesh has come before Me,
for the earth is filled with violence through them; and behold, I will destroy
them with the earth.
Was the flood a global flood or a local flood?
Some very good folks feel that the flood was only a local flood. They feel
that it just isn’t scientific to think that the entire world could be flooded. Their
thought is that there isn’t enough water to flood the entire earth. Their
thought is that to Noah, if he lived in a valley in Mesopotamia,
between the Tigris and Euphrates
rivers, and everything he saw was flooded, he would conclude that it was a
worldwide flood.
If you hold these views, I don’t wish to argue with you, but please allow
me to challenge your ideas.
Concerns about a local flood:
1. The language used in
Genesis 6-8 seem to indicate that the flood was a global flood.
“The end of all flesh” (Gen. 6:13). Those are God’s
words to Noah.
(Gen 7:22
NKJV) …all that was on the dry land, died.
I believe that human language is meant to convey a message. If we can’t agree
that words mean what they mean, then it would be impossible for any of us to
communicate. If Noah’s testimony was that God said these things, then why would
God say things He didn’t mean? Why would He allow Noah to be deceived in
thinking it was a worldwide flood when it wasn’t?
When God says that all men are sinners, does He really
mean that just “some” are sinners?
When God says that the consequences of our sin is death,
does He really just mean that we’ll have a difficult time?
When God says that we need to believe in Jesus, does He
really mean it?
Be careful about playing with the meaning of language.
Perhaps you believe that the story of Noah is simply a fictional story
because it seems too impossible to be true.
If you believe this because you don’t think there is any
rational evidence for a flood, be sure to come back next week when we begin to
peek into the volumes of evidence that is mounting for the flood of Noah.
If you believe this is a fictional story simply because
you have a hard time believing things about God, I’d encourage you to stick in
there. We’ve all been there. Your unbelief really hurts nobody more than you.
2. Move - If it was a local flood, why didn’t God just tell Noah to move? That’s
what God did to Lot. Why
take all the animals along? If the flood was only local, there would be animals
in other parts of the world.
3. God’s promise – After the flood, God gave mankind the rainbow as a sign
that He would never again destroy every living creature through a flood (Gen.
9:12-15). If the flood was local, is the promise local? If that was the case,
then God has since broken His promise by lots of local floods that kill lots of
people. If the promise wasn’t about local floods, then this promise was kind of
silly because why would God promise not to kill every living creature with a
flood if He didn’t do it the first time?
:14 "Make yourself an ark of gopherwood; make rooms in the ark, and
cover it inside and outside with pitch.
ark –We think of the ark as a boat, but the term might be better
translated for us as “box”. An ark is a
box that contains something. Noah’s ark
contained people and animals. Moses’ ark,
the Ark of the Covenant, contained the Ten Commandments.
:15 "And this is how you shall make it: The length of the ark shall be
three hundred cubits, its width fifty cubits, and its height thirty cubits.
A cubit is roughly 18 inches, or, a foot and a half. Some suggest that a cubit might be as big as
24 inches (we’ll use the 18 inch cubit).
The ark would have been 450 feet long, 75 feet wide, and 45 feet high.
We know from modern engineering that the ratio of length-width-height,
30x5x3, is the optimum design for maximum stability in rough seas. It would be almost impossible to capsize.
:16 "You shall make a window for the ark, and you shall finish it to a
cubit from above; and set the door of the ark in its side. You shall make it
with lower, second, and third decks.
Sillyness
Q. If the ark was built in three levels, and the top story had a window to
let light in, how did they get light to the bottom two stories?
A. They used floodlights.
:17 "And behold, I Myself am bringing floodwaters on the earth, to
destroy from under heaven all flesh in which is the breath of life; everything
that is on the earth shall die.
:18 "But I will establish My covenant with you; and you shall go into
the ark; you, your sons, your wife, and your sons' wives with you.
Just eight people survived the flood of Noah.
:19 "And of every living thing of all flesh you shall bring two of
every sort into the ark, to keep them alive with you; they shall be male and
female.
:20 "Of the birds after their kind, of animals after their kind, and
of every creeping thing of the earth after its kind, two of every kind will
come to you to keep them alive.
Noah didn’t have to go out and find the animals; God would have the animals
come to Noah.
Two of every kind – Two of each specie. There would be no need to have two
of every kind of dog, just two dogs.
:21 "And you shall take for yourself of all food that is eaten, and
you shall gather it to yourself; and it shall be food for you and for
them."
Not only was Noah to make room for the animals, but he was to gather food
for the animals.
It’s possible that God may have caused some of the animals to go into
hibernation during the flood, cutting down on the amount of food needed.
:22 Thus Noah did; according to all that God commanded him, so he did.
Lesson
Obedient Faith
The role of faith in Noah’s life.
(Heb 11:7 NKJV) By faith Noah, being divinely warned of things not yet
seen, moved with godly fear, prepared an ark for the saving of his household,
by which he condemned the world and became heir of the righteousness which is
according to faith.
Noah’s building of the ark required faith. It had never rained before. The
idea of a worldwide flood probably seemed preposterous to the people of Noah’s
day. But Noah believed in an unseen God. Noah believed the message that God had
given him. And Noah responded by doing what God said.
Is God asking you to do something?
Perhaps God is asking you to start trusting Him. Perhaps God is asking you to trust Jesus. Perhaps God is asking you to trust His grace.