Active Faith

Today we are continuing in our Genesis series: From Dust to Life. In Genesis 6, God warns Noah of the impending judgment coming on the earth, but He made a way for the salvation of Noah, his family, and the plethora of land animals. In chapter 7 the author doesn’t focus on Noah's building skills or his ability to work with animals but focuses on Noah’s life of faith and the lives of those who were saved as a result of his obedience.

Noah listened to the Lord and did all that He had commanded him: to build an enormous ark, and then gather his family, the land animals, and all the provisions onto this ark. His determined faith saved his family and preserved the animal kingdom. But Noah didn’t build this ark just for himself, his family and the animals - it was for the salvation of others.

Has anybody ever seen the movie, Evan Almighty? It was a modern-day Noah and the ark story where God (Morgan Freeman) comes to Evan (Steve Carell), a congressman, and tells him to build an ark because of what’s coming. This guy tries to ignore God over and over again but can’t get away from him and so he gives in and builds the ark. He’s totally ridiculed by everyone as he builds this ark because the sun is shining every day everyone thinks he’s a nutcase. It does have a happy ending though.

But in reality, Noah preached about what was coming the whole time he was building the ark but nobody except his own family believed him. 2 Peter 2:5 tells us that Noah was a preacher of righteousness. He warned the people of the known world about the judgment to come but no one believed him, no one was saved.

Chapter 7 doesn’t seek to give us a scientific understanding of how everything happened but theological reasons for why all this happened. There are various views within mainstream Christianity about the age of the earth, the age of the patriarchs and the scope of the flood. Each view seeks to present viable explanations without compromising the authority of the Scriptures.

The question is: How did the ancients think when they wrote down historical accounts? We know that they didn’t think in terms of chronology. One scholar pointed out that not one culture at that time thought they needed an accurate chronological account back to the days of creation. There was no objective criteria for recording the era or year or decade. This would explain why there are great gaps in the open genealogical records. The author used the same format as other cultures did in recording important people and the series of events, but he didn’t borrow any of the content from these cultures. The Bible is unique in its content from the time of creation on.

When we look at the text:

? What is God teaching us from this flood account?

? What principles do we see repeated again and again?

? Is this life final or is it preparatory for the next?

? How do we see things end for those who don’t believe?

? Can men and women pursue immorality and hedonism with reckless abandonment, ignore God’s warnings and come out unscathed?

As we read through the flood narrative the answers will become clearer.

Gen 7:1-24

Then the LORD said to Noah, “Come into the ark, you and all your household, because I have seen that you are righteous before Me in this generation. 2 You shall take with you seven each of every clean animal, a male and his female; two each of animals that are unclean, a male and his female; 3 also seven each of birds of the air, male and female, to keep the species alive on the face of all the earth. 4 For after seven more days I will cause it to rain on the earth forty days and forty nights, and I will destroy from the face of the earth all living things that I have made.” 5 And Noah did according to all that the LORD commanded him. 6 Noah was six hundred years old when the floodwaters were on the earth. 7 So Noah, with his sons, his wife, and his sons’ wives, went into the ark because of the waters of the flood. 8 Of clean animals, of animals that are unclean, of birds, and of everything that creeps on the earth, 9 two by two they went into the ark to Noah, male and female, as God had commanded Noah. 10 And it came to pass after seven days that the waters of the flood were on the earth. 11 In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, in the second month, the seventeenth day of the month, on that day all the fountains of the great deep were broken up, and the windows of heaven were opened. 12 And the rain was on the earth forty days and forty nights. 13 On the very same day Noah and Noah’s sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth, and Noah’s wife and the three wives of his sons with them, entered the ark— 14 they and every beast after its kind, all cattle after their kind, every creeping thing that creeps on the earth after its kind, and every bird after its kind, every bird of every sort. 15 And they went into the ark to Noah, two by two, of all flesh in which is the breath of life. 16 So those that entered, male and female of all flesh, went in as God had commanded him; and the LORD shut him in. 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. 18 The waters prevailed and greatly increased on the earth, and the ark moved about on the surface of the waters. 19 And the waters prevailed exceedingly on the earth, and all the high hills under the whole heaven were covered. 20 The waters prevailed fifteen cubits upward, and the mountains were covered. 21 And all flesh died that moved on the earth: birds and cattle and beasts and every creeping thing that creeps on the earth, and every man. 22 All in whose nostrils was the breath of the spirit of life, all that was on the dry land, died. 23 So He destroyed all living things which were on the face of the ground: both man and cattle, creeping thing and bird of the air. They were destroyed from the earth. Only Noah and those who were with him in the ark remained alive. 24 And the waters prevailed on the earth one hundred and fifty days.