[THE FOLLOWING IS A SERMON STEVE PREPARED AND
DELIVERED FOR OUR HOME CHURCH]
Building of Noah’s Ark
Genesis 6:9-22
Today I am going to be covering Genesis 6:9-22. Last week we learned about the time leading up to the Lord’s decision to send a great flood. I am not going to focus on that time, but I am going to quickly review those verses in order to set the stage for today’s teaching:
Gen
6:5-8: And God saw that the wickedness
of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of
his heart was only evil continually. And
it repented the LORD that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at
his heart. And the LORD said, I will
destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth; both man, and
beast, and the creeping thing, and the fowls of the air; for it repenteth me
that I have made them. But Noah found
grace in the eyes of the LORD.”
So the evil of man had reached a point where the Lord decided to start over. Push a giant “reset button”, if you will. But He decided to preserve one man’s family – which shows the incredible grace of God.
In verse 9 we read:
“These
are the generations of Noah: Noah was a
just man and perfect in his generations, and Noah walked with God.”
By worldly standards there were at the time mighty men on the earth – men of renown – but by God’s standards there was only one man worthy of any merit: Noah. As it says in 1 Sam 16:7:
“Man looketh on the outward appearance, but the Lord looketh on the heart.”
Noah was described as “just” - meaning he did what was right and fair. He could be trusted to judge rightly.
Furthermore, he was described as “Perfect in his generations” – I’m not exactly sure what this means, but I’ve also seen it described as blameless. Probably, like Job, it meant he walked uprightly and kept short account of sin.
“Walked with God” – the only other person the scriptures say this of after the Fall was Enoch, Noah’s great-grandfather.
Noah was walking uprightly in a world overrun with sinners. But as it says in 2 Chr 16:9:
The
eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to show himself
strong in the behalf of them whose heart is perfect toward him.
The events involving Noah’s ark demonstrate that verse about as clearly as any I can think of.
However, lest we lift up Noah too much for his own glory, he would probably agree with Paul in 1 Cor 15:10, in saying:
By
the grace of God I am what I am; and his grace which was bestowed upon me was
not in vain; but I labored more abundantly than they all: yet not I, but the
grace of God which was with me.
Moving along, verse 10 tells us:
“And
Noah begat three sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth.”
Looking back at 5:32:
“And
Noah was five hundred years old: and Noah begat Shem, Ham, and Japheth.”
If we try to work out the chronology here:
Therefore either the 500 years in 5:32 was just a rounded number – which seems unlikely given the very precise timekeeping associated with the flood chronology – or it was Noah’s age at the time God gave him the command to build the ark. Which, interestingly enough, was about 20 years after God decided to flood the earth. That lends credence to the hypothesis that Noah found favor in God’s eyes after the flood had been decreed.
I find it interesting also, that apparently Shem, Ham, and Japheth were all born after Noah began his work on the ark. Being 500 years old, one would think that he would have already had other children. Perhaps he had spent his life without the Lord and had lost his previous children to the world. Now, having come to faith, and fearing God enough to believe him and set out on this huge task, he brought up his next three sons in the fear and admonition of the Lord.
Continuing on with the text:
The
earth also was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence. And God looked upon the earth, and behold, it
was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted his way upon the earth. And God said unto Noah, “The end of all flesh
is come before me; for the earth is filled with violence through them; and
behold, I will destroy them with the earth.
(Gen 6:11-13)
The earth, referring especially to the people on the earth, were described as corrupt and violent. Corruption is to take something which was intended for good and turn it into something evil. Mankind was made in the image of God and was created to bring glory to God. Instead mankind had been so thoroughly corrupted that rather than bringing glory to God, they brought Him pain and sorrow instead.
It is interesting to note here that God says the “end of all flesh is come before me”. Evidently this does not include Noah and his family, and the animals on the ark – especially since He is speaking these words to Noah. This should be a caution to us to not take a verse out of context or to the exclusion of other verses. Sometimes wooden literalism is not the correct interpretation for scripture. In this case, for example, by “all flesh” means the vast majority – 99.999%.
Also, by the same token, we can not know for sure whether “all flesh had corrupted his way upon the earth” included Noah. Since the “all flesh” in the following sentence definitely did NOT include Noah.
In any case, the earth had become thoroughly violent and corrupted because of the sins of mankind. And God was going to destroy them all and start over. Note that animals are never explicitly described in scripture to have sinned or to be capable of sin – they were not created in God’s image and only do what comes naturally to them. However the sins of mankind were going to cause punishment to far more than just mankind.
Besides the animals, Noah and his family were also going to have to go through a rather miserable period. These should be reminders to us that sin affects far more than the person who committed the sin. The sins of others, and our own sins, affect those around us and those who will come after us.
(Gen
6:14-16) “Make thee an ark of gopher
wood; rooms shalt thou make in the ark, and shalt pitch it within and without
with pitch. And this is the fashion
which thou shalt make it of: The length of the ark, shall be three hundred
cubits, the breadth of it fifty cubits, and the height of it thirty
cubits. A window shalt thou make to the
ark, and in a cubit shalt thou finish it above; and the door of the ark shalt
thou set in the side thereof; with lower, second, and third stories shalt thou
make it”.
I don’t believe anyone knows for certain what gopher wood was. I saw guesses of cedar or cypress – but they were just guess.
As for the word ark: I
found that in the OT, the Hebrew words for ark in Noah’s ark and the ark of the
covenants are NOT the same. Noah’s ark
was Tebah which means “box”. The
So basically, God told Noah to build a box. But not just an ordinary box. It was to be a HUGE box. A cubit is about 18 inches, so this box was to be 450 feet long, 75 feet wide and 45 feet high. That is about half the width of a football field, 50% longer, and 5 stories high. We tend to think of the ark as a boat, but aside from the fact that it floated, it was not at all like a boat. It had no rudder and no sails or oars. It would float along completely at the mercy of God.
I read one commentary which mentioned that the 6:1 length to width ratio of the ark was the same as modern ships. But we shouldn’t be surprised to find that what engineers discovered 1000s of years later to make for a stable ship would have been obvious to God – the Supreme Engineer.
One commentary I read worked out that the ark was so large, that you could fit 522 standard railroad boxcars in it. It would have been capable of carrying about 125,000 sheep.
As far as I know Noah did not have any power tools with which to work. This was a monumental task!
(Gen 6:17-21) “And, behold, I, even I, do
bring a flood of waters upon the earth, to destroy all flesh, wherein is the
breath of life, from under heaven; and every thing that is in the earth shall
die. But with thee will I establish my
covenant; and thou shalt come into the ark, thou, and thy sons, and thy wife,
and thy sons’ wives with thee. And of every
living thing of all flesh, two of every sort shalt thou bring into the ark, to
keep them alive with thee; they shall be male and female. Of fowls after their kind, and of cattle
after their kind. Of every creeping thing of the earth after his kind; two of
every sort shall come unto thee, to keep them alive. And take thou unto thee of all food that is
eaten, and thou shalt gather it to thee; and it shall be for food for thee, and
for them.
So not only was God telling him to build this gigantic box,
but he is also putting on him the responsibility of keeping representatives of
all of the animal kingdom alive.
As we learned earlier, it took Noah about 100 years to build the ark. I’m sure that this job occupied most of the next 100 years of Noah’s life. It would have cost most of his time, most of his effort, probably most of money, and most of his friends and earthly credibility. It was an incredible test and testimony of his faith. As it says in Hebrews 11:7:
By
faith, Noah, being warned of God of things not seen as yet, moved with fear,
prepared an ark to the saving of his house; by the which he condemned the
world, and became heir of the righteousness which is by faith.
So what was Noah’s primary motivation? Fear. But not fear of man – rather fear of God. Noah knew that his life, the lives of his family, and in fact almost all life on earth depended upon his obedience.
I’m sure he endured all kinds of ridicule from unbelievers. Most likely he was building this ark far from the sea. There was no-one else to back him up or to encourage him in this endeavor.
Another thing we know that Noah was doing during this time was prophesying. As it says in 1 Pet 3:18-20.
For
Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might
bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the
Spirit. By which [that is the Spirit]
also he went and preached unto the spirits in prison; which sometime were
disobedient, when once the long-suffereing of God waited in the days of Noah,
while the ark was a preparing, wherein few, that is, eight souls were saved by
water.”
This is not the easiest passage of scripture to dissect, but I believe it is talking about the Holy Spirit preaching through Noah while he was working on the ark. It also talks about God’s longsuffering in waiting for the ark to be built.
Why did God give Noah this task? We know the Lord could have built the ark himself with just a word. He also could have preserved Noah and his family alive in any of a number of other ways. But God chose to work through a man. Even though it meant that the man would have to work hard for many years. It also meant that God would have to suffer with sinful humanity for 100 more years. God’s ways are best and He knows best what to do. As it says in Isaiah 55:9:
For
as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways,
and my thoughts than your thoughts.
Perhaps He did it this way to test Noah. Perhaps He did it this way to grow his character.
I believe there are quite a few lessons to take from this.
As parents it is often easier to do things ourselves than to slow down and involve the children in the process. But it is sometimes better to do things the harder or longer way for the purpose of including our children, and helping them grow through the task.
Sometime in our lives we may be asked to do something that seems absolutely impossible. Or perhaps something that seems possible but is going to be a huge amount of work and we don’t feel up to the task. But as we know from Mathew 19:26: “With God all things are possible”. Or, again, from Ephesians 3:20-21:
Now
unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or
think, according to the power that worketh in us, unto him be glory in the
church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end. Amen.”
As we can see here, God was patient. Noah just had to continue along and trust both that God was going to follow through in destroying the earth, and also that He would wait until Noah had completed the ark before doing so.
Again as parents, or even as older siblings, we need to be patient in allowing those we are discipling to have the opportunity to try and to fail and to learn. Sometimes it can be hard watching someone suffer over something that we know we could easily rescue them from. But sometimes that is the most loving thing to do.
______
One reason that we can know for certain that God had in working through Noah was described in the Hebrews verse we read earlier. Again it says in Hebrews 11:7:
By faith, Noah, being warned of God of things not seen as yet, moved with fear, prepared an ark to the saving of his house; by the which he condemned the world, and became heir of the righteousness which is by faith.
So one reason God used Noah in this way was that God used Noah to condemn the world. They saw what he was doing, they heard his preaching, they had their chance at repentance – they rejected it.
They were an example of those described in Romans 2:4-9, who
despisest
“the riches of his goodness and forbearance and long-suffering; not knowing
that the goodness of God leadeth [them] to repentance. But after [their]
hardness and impenitent heart[s] treasurest up unto [themselves] wrath against
the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God. Who will render to every man according to his
deeds: To them who by patient continuance in well-doing [think of Noah
here] seek for glory and honor and
immortalit -, eternal life: but unto them that are contentious , and do not
obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness - indignation and wrath, tribulation
and anguish, upon every soul of man that doeth evil.”
This passage is all the more sobering when we realize that it was written for us in the present age. The Lord is coming back. Do you live your lives in godly fear of that fact? Do I?
As it says in James 5:10
Take,
my brethren, the prophets, who have spoken in the name of the Lord, for an
example of suffering affliction, and of patience.
By his willingness to suffer in obedience to the Lord, Noah
condemned by contrast those who lived only for their present life.
Romans 12:2 tells us:
be
not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your
mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of
God.
We often read about and admire the prophets in the Bible. But do we think about the suffering they had to endure. Both physical and emotional suffering. They were usually rejected and scorned. Are we prepared for that? Is not God’s approval worth more than the praise of man?
As it says in James 4:4:
“Know
ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? Whosoever therefore will be a friend of the
world is the enemy of God.”
Noah chose friendship with God over friendship with the world. And we should be glad because we would not be here today if that were not the case.
It is kind of heartening to know that we are actually learning about one of our direct ancestors here. The last one we can know for sure of in the Bible.
Let’s look in some more detail at the direction given to Noah.
Going back to 6:18, God says:
But with thee will I establish my covenant; and thou shalt come into the ark, thou, and thy sons, and thy wife, and thy sons’ wives with thee.
We can see God’s immense mercy here. We don’t hear anything specifically about how well Noah’s wife, Shem, Ham, Japheth, or any of their wives walked with God. We know from later on that Shem and Ham were more noble than Japheth – but that is about it. The text makes it pretty clear that the other seven on the ark were there because of Noah. When we commit to walking uprightly before the Lord – others will likely benefit from it as well. Just as sin affects other negatively, grace and righteousness affect other positively.
An example of a passage in the NT that relates directly to this concept is 1 Cor 7:12-14:
If
any brother hath a wife that believeth not, and she be pleased to dwell with
him, let him not put her away. And the
woman which hath a husband that believeth not, and if he be pleased to dwell
with her, let her not leave him. For the
unbelieving husband is sanctified by the wife, and the unbelieving wife is
sanctified by the husband: else were your children unclean; but now are they
holy.
This is obviously not speaking of the unbelieving husband or wives being eternally saved by their relationship with their spouse. Each one is responsible for his own relationship with the Lord. But rather it is talking about temporal blessings – blessings in this lifetime.
Moving along to verses 6:19-20:
And
of every living thing of all flesh, two of every sort shalt thou bring into the
ark, to keep them alive with thee; they shall be male and female. Of fowls after their kind, and of cattle
after their kind. Of every creeping thing of the earth after his kind; two of
every sort shall come unto thee, to keep them alive.
We see here that the animals would come on their own to Noah to keep them alive. The Lord would chose and set apart the right animals and send them to the right place at the right time.
Just as today the Lord continually moves and affects things in the world, but in ways that may appear ordinary – so He did then. Two of each type of animal just seemingly decided of their own accord to start heading to wherever Noah lived. And God destroyed the world with what appeared to be natural events involving water. We do not want to be likened to the evil and adulterous generation that asked Jesus for a sign, all the while missing what He was doing right before their eyes. We need to have eyes to see God at work in our midst. The generation during Noah didn’t, they only saw the natural things around them, and they were destroyed for ignoring the warnings.
The Lord here clearly states his purpose in wanting the animals on the ark. He wanted two of every sort, male and female, to keep them alive. Just as He was bringing mankind to the brink of extinction, so He would be doing to the animal kingdom as well. Specifically he lists fowl, cattle, and creeping things. One could assume that the fish would take care of themselves. I’m not sure how the freshwater/saltwater issue was handled, but I trust God to have figured that one out.
In verse 21 it says:
And
take thou unto thee of all food that is eaten, and thou shalt gather it to
thee; and it shall be for food for thee, and for them.
This is a small verse, but implies a great deal of effort. Enough food to feed all of the animals and his family for a year needed to be prepared and gathered. The Lord looks after and protects those He loves, but He doesn’t always make life easy on them.
And the final verse we have sums it up. In verse 22 we read:
Thus did Noah; according to all that God commanded him, so did he.
And in so doing he condemned the rest of the world.