Read with Me
Genesis 6:9-22 (HCSB)
These are the family records of Noah. Noah was a righteous man, blameless among his contemporaries; Noah walked with God. And Noah fathered three sons: Shem, Ham, and Japheth.
Now the earth was corrupt in God’s sight, and the earth was filled with wickedness. God saw how corrupt the earth was, for every creature had corrupted its way on the earth. Then God said to Noah, “I have decided to put an end to every creature, for the earth is filled with wickedness because of them; therefore I am going to destroy them along with the earth.
“Make yourself an ark of gopher wood. Make rooms in the ark, and cover it with pitch inside and outside. This is how you are to make it: The ark will be 450 feet long, 75 feet wide, and 45 feet high. You are to make a roof, finishing the sides of the ark to within 18 inches of the roof. You are to put a door in the side of the ark. Make it with lower, middle, and upper decks.
“Understand that I am bringing a flood—floodwaters on the earth to destroy every creature under heaven with the breath of life in it. Everything on earth will die. But I will establish My covenant with you, and you will enter the ark with your sons, your wife, and your sons’ wives. You are also to bring into the ark two of all the living creatures, male and female, to keep them alive with you. Two of everything—from the birds according to their kinds, from the livestock according to their kinds, and from the animals that crawl on the ground according to their kinds—will come to you so that you can keep them alive. Take with you every kind of food that is eaten; gather it as food for you and for them.” And Noah did this. He did everything that God had commanded him.
Listen with Me
Noah was an amazing man. At the time this warning came to him he was more than 500 years old, and he had lived all those years walking with God in an intimate relationship. Out of all the millions of people on the earth at that point, only Noah could truly be said to be walking with God in righteousness. God knew not only Noah’s character, but also that his relationship with God would stand strong through the coming disaster. For that reason, God allowed him to take along with him his wife, his three sons and their wives. Those seven were saved by God’s grace not by merit. And God knew that even their imperfections displayed in close quarters for a long time period would not be able to corrupt Noah.
Because Noah walked in close relationship with God, God was able to share with him His plans to cleanse the world of the moral corruption that had deeply penetrated every person, and had seeped into every aspect of society, and that the destruction would come through an overwhelming global flood. But at the same time, this doom was pronounced, God also declared His gracious deliverance for Noah and seven members of his extended family.
The means of deliverance was to be a massive wooden ship, 450 feet long, 45 feet tall with three internal decks, and 75 feet wide. It was big enough to provide adequate space for not only Noah and his family, but also for pairs of every created kind of animal that lived on the earth. It was large enough to hold food and fresh water for all those on it so that, after the sterilizing flood waters dissipated, the world could be repopulated.
Note that Noah did not have to go out and find the animals that would go on the ark. Instead, God Himself would select the animals and send them to the ark to be loaded. At that time there was a single land mass on the earth (Genesis 1:9-10), so would be easy for the animals to get there. And God would select young healthy animals, making sure that they each had the greatest possible genetic potential, so that as they reproduced and spread out all over the world, the largest numbers of species and breeds would develop and fill the various ecological niches on the renewed earth.
Even though this was a daunting task with a definite deadline, Noah was able to use the clear guidance God gave him (which he had in much greater detail than Moses recorded here) to successfully complete the job. The boat was truly massive, and its construction attracted a lot of attention. As people came to see the project, Noah took the opportunity to warn them of the coming disaster and to urge the people to repent (2 Peter 2:4-6), sadly to no avail.
Pray with Me
Father, two things stand out in this passage. First is that because he walked with you, because he lived in a continual intimate relationship with you, Noah was able to live a holy, incorruptible life even in the midst of a completely corrupt society. How much more should we be able to live that kind of life in our far less corrupt society, and with the abiding presence of the Holy Spirit living at the core of our lives. The second thing is that even though this project was huge and intricate, something that took great skill and great perseverance, you were able to provide Noah with everything he needed to complete it perfectly and on time. Thus it is hard to imagine anything that You ask me to do that would be too hard for me to do with Your presence and Your help. Thank You, Lord, for this encouragement today. Amen