Noah
5Yahweh saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of man’s heart was continually only evil. 6Yahweh was sorry that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him in his heart. 7Yahweh said, “I will destroy man whom I have created from the surface of the ground—man, along with animals, creeping things, and birds of the sky—for I am sorry that I have made them.” 8But Noah found favor in Yahweh’s eyes. 9This is the history of the generations of Noah: Noah was a righteous man, blameless among the people of his time. Noah walked with God. 10Noah became the father of three sons: Shem, Ham, and Japheth. 11The earth was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence. 12God saw the earth, and saw that it was corrupt, for all flesh had corrupted their way on the earth. 13God said to Noah, “I will bring an end to all flesh, for the earth is filled with violence through them. Behold, I will destroy them and the earth. 14Make a ship of gopher wood. You shall make rooms in the ship, and shall seal it inside and outside with pitch.
In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. The world he created is a beautiful masterpiece with nothing lacking in it. He made it so perfectly that even our advanced science cannot uncover its secrets, and that tells us how limitless his power is. This world was made through God, and not one thing that was made came into being without him. He created the whole universe by his word, a perfect work that no one, however brilliant, could imitate.
People, made in the likeness of God’s image, were created as precious beings who would share in his glory. But Adam did not grasp how deep God’s love was, and so he was taken in by Satan’s scheme — that he could become like God — and committed the sin of pride. Adam was to live with God at the center; but once he ate the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, he came to believe and follow what Satan said, and he lived with himself at the center.
When this world, created by his word, lost its light, Satan came to rule it with darkness, and because of sin both people and nature fell under a curse. The world is racing toward its end like a car whose brakes have failed. The day when the great city Babylon is judged for its sin is drawing near, and the only way to survive is to go into the ark.
The ark Noah built is the only way life can be preserved. The ark does not mean a church building, or the act of attending church. The ark was built by God’s word and so it is a refuge; in the same way, boarding the ark is believing in Jesus Christ and living a life that matches his words. Believers who follow Christ can live only by being separated from the world and from Satan and staying in Jesus Christ. To keep people from boarding the ark, the world says that holding worldly power makes you safe; but God has said that power unconnected to Jesus Christ is worth nothing. This world will certainly come under the judgment of Jesus Christ, and that is why he told us to let it go.
Genesis 6:8-13
8But Noah found favor in Yahweh’s eyes. 9This is the history of the generations of Noah: Noah was a righteous man, blameless among the people of his time. Noah walked with God. 10Noah became the father of three sons: Shem, Ham, and Japheth. 11The earth was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence. 12God saw the earth, and saw that it was corrupt, for all flesh had corrupted their way on the earth. 13God said to Noah, “I will bring an end to all flesh, for the earth is filled with violence through them. Behold, I will destroy them and the earth.
The world had fallen so far that it could not be restored, so God had no choice but to bring judgment. But before the judgment of the flood, the salvation of the people he had made in his own image was already planned, and so God called Noah. Through Adam, Enoch and Methuselah, Noah had learned that God alone is the one to receive praise and worship. He had heard God’s plan from the fathers of faith, so he also knew heaven and judgment well.
After Adam fell into Satan’s scheme there was not one righteous person in the world; there was no one who understood, no one who sought God, all had turned useless, and there was not one who did good. Into a world that full of evil God called Noah, and he commanded him: judgment is coming soon, so build an ark. Noah had heard from Methuselah how fearsome God is and he knew it; but when the command actually came to him, his heart must have gone numb.
Still, once the command came, Noah gave up his own life in order to build the ark. He knew that if God had determined to judge the world the judgment would certainly come, and that is why his mind must have been full of thoughts about how people might be saved. Those who chased after the world went on enjoying their daily lives, with no idea how great a judgment their own sin had brought on. Watching them, Noah worked hard at the ark, thinking that perhaps once it was finished they would climb aboard. Later he saves his whole family; look at that, and you see that when God commanded him to build the ark, Noah must have begun building at once, without a moment’s hesitation.
The sun beat down while Noah built, and people laughed and jeered at him; but he worked all the harder for a day of judgment whose date he did not know. Among those who mocked him were close friends and brothers, and there must also have been some who pitied him as he begged them to board the ark and live. Rain from the sky just then would have given his words weight. But God, unlike Noah with his aching heart, sent no rain, so that nothing would interrupt the building of the ark. God’s thoughts and human thoughts are as far apart as that.
The nearer the ark came to completion, the more Noah’s grief outweighed his joy. How can I get them onto this ark? Even the animals are going aboard — how can I save those precious lives? Turning that over must have been agony for him. But they were hard, and would not listen to a word he said. God is spirit, so they could not see him; and since they did not believe in God, they would not have believed a judgment was coming either. Getting people to believe in a God they cannot see is as hard as that.
Whether people mocked or persecuted, whether they married and were given in marriage as if no judgment were coming, the ark went up and the hour for the world to go under the water drew near. A thing is not absent because you cannot see it; a judgment is not canceled because you do not believe in it; a thing does not fail to exist because it will not fit in your hand. The judgment God has fixed will certainly come, whether people believe it or not, and the believers who kept their faith will see that promise with their own eyes.
You too know, as Noah did, that judgment is coming on the world. The world is judged because sin has flooded it, and the world we live in now is corrupt enough; God’s judgment has come very close. If that is so, then like Noah, who gave his whole life to building the ark, you must tell people — even under persecution — that boarding the ark of Jesus Christ is the one way to live. If you believe that the history of the world is being fulfilled exactly as the Bible records it, then you must have pity on the souls of those who persecute you and preach the Word boldly.
Genesis 7:15-17
15Pairs from all flesh with the breath of life in them went into the ship to Noah. 16Those who went in, went in male and female of all flesh, as God commanded him; then Yahweh shut him in. 17The flood was forty days on the earth. The waters increased, and lifted up the ship, and it was lifted up above the earth.
From here on, I would like you to picture a scene: the door of the ark between them, Noah standing inside and the people standing outside, looking at one another. They were people Noah had loved, and people who had loved Noah; but they did not believe him when he said that boarding the ark was the one way to live.
They had watched the enormous ark actually going up, and some had even helped; but they could not believe that the world was going to be judged by rain, so they had no intention of boarding. Rain drowning the world made no sense to them, so they trusted their own judgment and stayed off the ark. What do you think was in Noah’s heart the moment the door closed? Right up until it shut he called their names over and over, telling them to come aboard; and watching them refuse to come, he must have wept until his chest ached. He knew that the people waving and laughing out there would all be dead in a little while, which is why he must have shouted with everything in him for them to get on the ark.
Even now people do not believe in the second coming of Jesus Christ, and they will not believe that he created the whole universe by his word in six days, or that he made a living person out of dust. The world blocks this truth with the theory of evolution, but truth can never be covered over. It is very hard to preach the gospel to someone who does not believe Genesis 1:1, that in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. I have seen people burst out laughing when they heard that dinosaurs lived alongside human beings. All of this is fact, and a little interest and a little looking will show it plainly; what is frightening is that the judgment of the world will certainly be fulfilled, whatever they believe.
Believers do not look at people under judgment and take pleasure in their own salvation. Not believing in the judgment finally means not believing in God, and so Noah must have grieved as he looked at them. You will know that when Jesus entered Jerusalem to take up the cross, he looked at the city and wept.
Jesus knew that terrible persecution lay ahead for the Jews, and that is why he told them; but they did not believe him. His words were in fact fulfilled in the great suffering they endured under Rome. Once a person has strayed from God’s word, has no spiritual eyes to see the world with and no ears to hear what the Holy Spirit says, the truth can be heard and still not register. So you must receive God’s leading and his grace; but your faith is needed too, your effort to live by the Word you have heard and learned and know. The door of the ark is still open and Noah is still shouting himself hoarse for people to come in; going inside while that is true is the only way to live. There is opportunity until the Lord returns, so live by faith and preach Jesus Christ.
Noah built the ark with everything he had. He spent time and care on his children so that boarding the ark would seem to them the natural thing to do, and he must have lived the life of an honest father so that they could trust him. Do you think Noah had a life of his own? If he had complained that everyone else got to live their own life and asked why he alone had to live so hard, the ark would never have been built. He believed in the end of the world as though he were watching it, so he did not complain. The God Noah saw is everlasting and infinitely perfect, and therefore able to judge the world he created. The people of the world enjoy their pleasures and call themselves happy. But Noah knew that the ark floating above the world was life itself, and that is how he was able to carry his calling.
When the time God had fixed arrived, the door of the ark slowly closed, and the people standing face to face with Noah began, little by little, to disappear from his sight. With a thud the door shut completely, and Noah, blaming himself for the souls he had failed to save, must have wailed aloud. Inside, Noah was weeping; outside, the people were probably waiting, expecting that if no rain came Noah would open the door himself and walk out.
I want to ask you something in all seriousness right now. Are you someone inside the ark? Or are you someone standing outside it, watching? God knows the answer, and so, most likely, do you.
The people mocking Noah at least had a moment to think while the rain was falling, and time to pound on the door of the ark. But Jesus Christ returns like a thief: at the sound of the trumpet the believers are caught up into the air, so those left on the earth have no moment to think and no chance to turn back. Now, while God is letting you hear the news of his coming and giving you time to repent, is when you must turn.
Genesis 7:11-12
11In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, in the second month, on the seventeenth day of the month, on the same day all the fountains of the great deep burst open, and the sky’s windows opened. 12It rained on the earth forty days and forty nights.
Rain alone, falling from the sky, would not have submerged the world. The deep springs under the ground burst open and a staggering volume of water shot up over the land, and an enormous rain came down from above as well. The laughter of the people who had been waiting for Noah to come out stopped. The sound of marrying and being given in marriage, the boasting about land bought and fortunes grown, the boasting that my child is the strongest man in the world, a great Nephilim warrior — all of it stopped. Boasting exists only while the world exists, and so do power and possessions. As the water rose there must even have been people who plunged into it to gather up their gold and silver and jewels.
Inside the ark, where nothing could be heard but screaming, what do you suppose Noah did? With people dying out there, would he have rejoiced that his own household of eight had lived? More likely he blamed his own helplessness at not having pulled those dying lives to safety, and prayed a prayer of repentance to God in tears. While he was building he must have thought, surely this world will not really go under? surely it will not be only my family who board the ark? But when the whole world actually went under the water and eight people were left alive, only then would he have grasped how fearsome God is.
May you never forget how awesome and how fearsome God is. God is not someone you worship when you feel like worshiping and treat as you please when you do not. If God is the one who judges in a single moment this world that you take to be everything, then you must obey his word — that salvation comes only through believing in Jesus Christ — as Noah obeyed.
At last the ark was lifted off the earth, and as it drifted on the water for a hundred and fifty days, the ark, carrying his wife, his sons, his sons’ wives and the animals, became the whole world to Noah. Nowhere in it were the brothers, friends and relatives who used to say his name warmly.
I have thought about this loneliness of Noah’s for a long time, trying to understand it. The loneliness of not being able to mix with people who would not recognize his faith, and the fight with himself — wanting rest and not resting, having to build — when I think how hard that must have been, I feel sorry for him. Nothing is harder or lonelier than a person who cannot enjoy any ordinary human freedom and must decide and judge and carry the work alone before God. Seeing himself always saying things that had nothing to do with the people around him, people with no interest in the Word, he must have been afraid that he was cutting himself off. And watching people keep their ears shut while he called himself hoarse telling them to board, what he felt was less frustration than fear, because he knew how they would end. As they jeered that Noah was out of his mind and refused to take the Word in, they must have looked to him like people already dead. By now any hope of really meeting another person was gone.
Friends, if you believe God truly, you may be cut off from the world like this and you may feel very lonely. Sinning a little less than the world does is not the same as keeping the faith. The faith of a believer who has been saved is this: staying inside the ark and not listening to the noise of the world.
The world runs on, careless of what means it uses. Believers are the people who must not only refuse to mix with it but build an ark besides. And while they live at that pace, they must carry one duty more — preaching the gospel, to get even one more life aboard the ark. That is a believer’s life.
Genesis 9:19-21
19These three were the sons of Noah, and from these, the whole earth was populated. 20Noah began to be a farmer, and planted a vineyard. 21He drank of the wine and got drunk. He was uncovered within his tent.
The rain stopped, the ark drifted on the water for a hundred and fifty days, and only after another hundred and fifty days, once the water had begun to dry up, did the ground appear. God told Noah to open the closed door and come out; but Noah could not bring himself to open it, and two months passed before he left the ark.
When Noah was in danger God shut the door of the ark with his own hand; but once it was safe outside, he told Noah to open the door and come out himself. Entrust your life to God and he will act himself in every emergency; but what you can handle on your own, he waits for, just as he waited here. Noah must have needed time to prepare himself to face a new world. When he opened the door, what spread out before him was not somewhere beautiful like the garden of Eden where Adam had lived, but a filthy world that had been under water.
Noah looked around and around, half hoping, and there were still only eight. How great a shock it must have been to see a wasteland such as he had never seen before. If Noah had been a man who never grasped God’s will and went after the life of the world, he would probably have lost his mind. But Noah had always lived as one dead to the world and stood unshaken in his faith, and that is how he could bear it. Worship was his ordinary life, and so the first thing he did on coming out into the world was to build an altar to God and offer a burnt offering.
Noah escaped the judgment by faith, but he was a human being, and there was no helping the emptiness, the hollowness, the missing of people and the loneliness. Not one of the friends he had been so close to was there; there was only himself. However good the relationships you build in this world, on spiritual matters you cannot walk one road together, and that is why you must have a faith that sets you on the rock, so that you are not wounded. Noah survived a judged world, but he could not simply be glad. Yet the wedding feast that believers will one day come to will be joyful enough that no one there will even notice who is missing, so there is no need to be afraid.
Noah planted a vineyard so that he could offer sacrifices to God, and because the drinking water was bad he used wine as his drink; he must have had rather a lot of it, because he got drunk and fell asleep. Believers, like Noah, also have moments of discouragement that have nothing to do with their faith. Suffering met in the course of life shakes them, and sometimes they lose heart and weep. You too, keeping your faith with all your strength, may collapse as Noah did when you lose your health, or suffer over money, or run into a problem in this world too big to handle. Noah had been running in faith and had fallen down for a moment; that is all right. It is all right to cry that it hurts when it hurts and that it is hard when it is hard. Rather than rebuking Noah, God did not wake him but waited quietly until he recovered and got up. God is the one who comforts you when you weep that running in faith is too hard and too lonely, and who holds you by the wrist so that you do not fall for good.
But the world can mock believers in their pain, just as Ham mocked his exhausted father. God himself did not rebuke Noah for stopping a while under the strain — and yet his son Ham exposed his father’s shame. When a believer who has been living by faith stops for a while and rests, God does not forgive the person who mocks that believer. Ham would not cover a father who had lived by nothing but God’s word and was hurting with a human pain too heavy to bear; and so Ham was cursed, and even his son Canaan, who was not yet born, was cursed with him.
God took the believer who lives by faith and had fallen for a moment into his arms, and forgave him. Our Father is the one who then rebukes anyone who dares to mock his child by the world’s standards. And Jesus Christ is the one who keeps you from shame, so that you need not work at gaining worldly power to cover your own.
Building the ark of salvation must have been hard for Noah. But when the whole world was destroyed, the ark guarded Noah’s life and kept his family alive. Jesus died on the cross so that he could become the ark of salvation. Nails driven through him, pierced by a spear, water and blood poured out to the last — that love of his is love given free. Only give thanks for that love, and you can board the ark of salvation, share in the glory of God, and receive eternal life.
Noah obeyed the Word, so he saved his family and became a father of faith. May you obey the Word as he did and bring many lives aboard the ark of Jesus Christ. You believe that in this harsh world Jesus Christ alone becomes the ark; may you preach the gospel more loudly than Noah did, and may you be precious believers who receive the special grace of God.