Aug 07, 2016
Genesis 6:12-7:16


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http://zachadams.org/genesisofgrace/genesis6_12-7_16.mp3

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Outline:


Since Adam and Eve sinned and were therefore expelled from the Garden of Eden 1600 years of human history bring us to the events of Genesis 6. Last Sunday we began our examination of this chapter by pointing how throughly wicked and perverse this God-rejecting world had become… “Every intent… Only evil… Continually!”


While it is true that God’s judgment was nigh (in 120 years He would “destroy man”), it’s important we reiterate God’s motivation behind this coming judgment. Please keep in mind Genesis 6 does not paint a picture of an angry God. Instead, the text presents a God forced to act out of love for mankind. If Satan’s contamination of the human gene pool continued to progress unabated His very plan for man’s salvation would be thwarted.


As a matter of fact, the very notion that God’s “Spirit was striving” with man communicated the idea that judgment was a matter of last resort! This Hebrew word “strive” we find in Genesis 6:3 literally means “to plead a cause.” God was pleading man with man to repent. And yet, though it was clear man’s rejection of God was irreversible and judgment inevitable, Genesis 6:8 presents a glorious reality… “But Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord!” 


From God’s grace demonstrated to this man Noah independent of the man himself we’re told he was subsequently made “righteous,” declared “perfect,” afforded the opportunity to “walk with God,” through his faith in God’s Word was able to be obedient “to all that God commanded him,” and in the end was saved by God from this coming judgment. 



Genesis 6:12-22, “So God looked upon the earth, and indeed it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted their way on the earth. 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. Make yourself an ark of gopherwood; make rooms in the ark, and cover it inside and outside with pitch. 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. 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. 


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. 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. 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. 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. 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.” Thus Noah did; according to all that God commanded him, so he did.”


Genesis 7:1-6, “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. 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; also seven each of birds of the air, male and female, to keep the species alive on the face of all the earth. 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.” And Noah did according to all that the Lord commanded him. Noah was six hundred years old when the floodwaters were on the earth.”



In order to unpack everything that’s being discussed in these verses I want to break up our examination of these things into three distinct topics…

1. God’s judgment… The Flood!

2. God’s plan for salvation… The Ark!

3. Noah’s involvement… Obedience!


First, let’s look at God’s judgment… 


Genesis 6:7, “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…” 


Genesis 6:13, “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.’” 


Genesis 6:17, “I Myself am bringing floodwaters on the earth, to destroy from under heaven all flesh in which is the breath of life; everything on the earth shall die.” 


Genesis 7:4, “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.”


These verses are crystal clear on three important points: 

1. The result of this coming judgment was that all man, land animals, and birds would be completely destroyed. Note: This excludes fish and marine life.

2. God would accomplish this judgment through a global flood. Not only would it be impossible to yield the intended purpose behind the flood if it weren’t global in nature, but the remaining portion of chapter 7 leaves no other plausible conclusion.

3. The judgment would be enacted by God Himself. In addition to the phrase “I Myself” found in Genesis 6:17, four times we find the phrase “I will” connected to this coming judgment. There is no doubt as to God’s direct involvement in what was to occur. 2 Peter 2:4-5, “For God did not spare the angels who sinned, but cast them down to hell and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved for judgment; and did not spare the ancient world, but saved Noah, one of eight people, a preacher of righteousness, bringing in the flood on the world of the ungodly.”


Secondly, let’s look at God’s plan for salvation… 


In order to save Noah, his wife, his three sons and their wives, as well as “male and female” representatives of “every living thing” we’re told in Genesis 6:14 that the LORD instructed Noah to “make yourself an ark of gopherwood…” Describe this Ark.





Q: How would all the animals fit into the ark?


For starters, it should be pointed out with these dimensions in mind the Ark would have contained 1.4 million cubit feet of space which would be the equivalency of 522 railroad cars. If you consider that the average size of a land animal is smaller than a sheep, the Ark would have been large enough to carry 136,560 sheep in half of its capacity, leaving plenty of room for people, food, water, and whatever other provisions were needed. Note: It was not until 1858 that a boat bigger than the ark was built… The Titanic.


Beyond this… The key to our understanding of what’s happening here is this word associated with the animals used over and over again in our passage - “two of every kind.” The Bible does not claim every animal or even every species existed in the Ark. Side question… Were the dinosaurs in the Ark? Yes, but only a kind of dinosaur.


Q: How did Noah collect all of the animals for the Ark? Look back at Genesis 6:19-20, “And of every living thing of all flesh you shall bring two of every sort into the ark, to keep them alive with you… Two of every kind will come to you to keep them alive.” The passage clearly states that God would supernaturally bring the animals to Noah and then it would be his job to put them into the appropriates sections of the Ark.


One more thought about the animals before we continue… It’s interesting that in Genesis 7 God makes this interesting classification of “clean” and “unclean” animals before He later expounds upon these classifications in the Levitical law. In Genesis 7:2, “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; also seven each of birds of the air, male and female, to keep the species alive on the face of all the earth.” 


It appears the idea that not everything was acceptable to God as a sacrifice predated the Law and was known as such to Noah. It’s therefore only logical that these things had been communicated to Adam and were passed down generationally through the lineage of Seth. It is God alone and never the laws of man that determine what is clean and unclean.




Before we move on I want to point out how this plan for salvation began… In Genesis 6:13, after concluding that judgment was unavoidable, we’re told, “And God said to Noah…” This plan by which Noah and his family were going to be saved from the divine judgment of God carried forth on the wicked world was not a corroboration. It wasn’t a scheme Noah and God teamed up to hatch. The plan for salvation was God’s and His alone. Furthermore… What I also find fascinating about this text is how God then decided to communicate this plan for salvation to Noah? His Word… “And God said.”


Which leads us to Noah’s involvement… While God was going to judge the world and He was going to provide a way of salvation, Noah still had a role. We’re told in Genesis 6:22 that, after these things were revealed through God’s Word, “Thus Noah did; according to all that God commanded him, so he did.” And yet, this is really only half of the tale. In Hebrews 11:7 we’re given a more complete picture as to what was the primary driver of his obedience. We read, “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.”


Understand what is was that caused Noah to be saved… God spoke, he believed what God said, and then by faith Noah acted upon this belief by being obedient to God’s commands! For the next 120 years Noah built an ark, filled it with food, loaded it with the animals God provided, and then boarded it with his family before the rains came. It’s easy to read through this story and overlook how incredible this reality really is!


I want to speak to the men for just a second, because there is an important lesson we can’t avoid. God spoke to Noah and his family was saved why? They believed their father was following God! I can’t help but imagine that what testified of Noah’s faith in God’s Word was not just the words he shared with his family, but instead the life he then lived! Noah’s faith was real, respected by his family, and ended up being contagious, because it  was the kind of faith that spawned a conviction yielding to action. Men, always know your kids will emulate the faith you live more than the sermons you preach!


It’s interesting that in Genesis 6:18 we have another first in the Bible. God says to Noah, “I will establish My covenant with you…” When we talk about a “covenant” we rightly understand it as “an agreement between two willing participants” - i.e. marriage. And yet, what’s different about this is that it wasn’t a covenant made between God and man, but instead a covenant God made for man. “I will establish My covenant with you…” not “we” and “ours.” It would appear that, because Noah would be spared judgment, God is telling him it would now be through his lineage the Savior of the world would descend.



Genesis 7:7-12, “So Noah, with his sons, his wife, and his sons’ wives, went into the ark because of the waters of the flood. Of clean animals, of animals that are unclean, of birds, and of everything that creeps on the earth, two by two they went into the ark to Noah, male and female, as God had commanded Noah. And it came to pass after seven days that the waters of the flood were on the earth. 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. And the rain was on the earth forty days and forty nights.”



As it pertains to the flood itself we’re given a few interesting details that demand our attention. First, we’re told “the rain was on the earth forty days and forty nights” as a result of “the window of heaven being opened.” This phrase “being opened” spoke of something being “thrown open.” Scholars believe that what’s being described here was the loosing of this canopy of water vapor that resided in the earth’s atmosphere causing torrential rain showers.


Additionally, it should be noted that the earth was flooded from what also appears to be some type of geological event when the “fountains of the great deep were broken up.” This phrase “broken up” spoke of a violent “tearing apart.” Because the earth was watered from a midst that went up daily many believe the crust of what at the time was one supercontinent (Pangea) splintered allowing torrents of water to flood the earth from below.


Though impossible to say with any type of certainty it’s not outside the realm of possibility that an astroid may have hit the planet causing this tectonic splintering, volcanic and seismic activity, with the subsequent debris fields yielding massive changes to the atmosphere. Some even believe this may have caused the earth to tilt on its axis.



Genesis 7:13-16, “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— 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. And they went into the ark to Noah, two by two, of all flesh in which is the breath of life. So those that entered, male and female of all flesh, went in as God had commanded him; and the Lord shut him in.”



It’s amazing that there was only one door into the Ark… Only one door man could walk through to be saved from the coming judgment. The same dynamic remains today. In John 10:9 Jesus said, “I am the door. If anyone enters by Me, he will be saved…” John 14:6, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me."


There are those who find such a claim to be narrow-minded and intolerant… Only one way to be saved… Only one way to heaven… Only one way to God! And yet, from my estimation one way is not intolerant at all. As a matter of fact, one way is more than any of us deserve. It’s only by God’s amazing grace there is anyway we can be saved!


Don’t miss this significance of this phrase… “The Lord shut him in!” According to 2 Peter 2:5, in addition to building the ark, Noah was a preacher of righteousness. For 120 years Noah spent his time preaching to the world of not only a better way, a coming judgment, but of a way to be saved! I can hear Noah preaching and pleading, “This is the door to salvation and it’s wide-open to any who’d enter!” Sadly, in his 120-year ministry no one listened to him.


Matthew 24:37-39, “As the days of Noah were, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be. 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, and did not know until the flood came and took them all away, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be.”


All the way up till the main event itself the door to that Ark remained wide-open for anyone who’d believe and enter; however, there came a point of no return when the Lord shuts the door. In Revelation 3:7 we read, “These things says He who is holy, He who is true, ‘He who has the key of David, He who opens and no one shuts, and shuts and no one opens…’”

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