Where Is Jesus In The Old Testament #3 “The Account Of Noah And The Flood”
Introduction: Setting the context
1. Genesis 4: Cain kills Abel, things deteriorate quickly after the Fall
2. Genesis 5: Death reigns ("and he died") but there are 2 hints of grace
· Enoch (vs. 24) escapes death! Very intriguing -- the possibility exists! "Enoch walked with God; then he was no more, because God took him away."
· The prophecy made about Noah (whose name means comfort) by his dad. Noah will be involved in reversing the curse, involved in God's plan of redemption! 28 When Lamech had lived 182 years, he had a son. 29 He named him Noah and said, "He will comfort us in the labor and painful toil of our hands caused by the ground the LORD has cursed."
The Gospel In The Account Of Noah (Genesis 6-9)
NIV Genesis 6:1 When men began to increase in number on the earth and daughters were born to them, 2 the sons of God saw that the daughters of men were beautiful, and they married any of them they chose. 3 Then the LORD said, "My Spirit will not contend with man forever, for he is mortal; his days will be a hundred and twenty years." 4 The Nephilim were on the earth in those days-- and also afterward-- when the sons of God went to the daughters of men and had children by them. They were the heroes of old, men of renown. 5 The LORD saw how great man's wickedness on the earth had become, and that every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil all the time. 6 The LORD was grieved that he had made man on the earth, and his heart was filled with pain. 7 So the LORD said, "I will wipe mankind, whom I have created, from the face of the earth-- men and animals, and creatures that move along the ground, and birds of the air-- for I am grieved that I have made them." 8 But Noah found favor in the eyes of the LORD.
9 This is the account of Noah. Noah was a righteous man, blameless among the people of his time, and he walked with God
10 Noah had three sons: Shem, Ham and Japheth. 11 Now the earth was corrupt in God's sight and was full of violence. 12 God saw how corrupt the earth had become, for all the people on earth had corrupted their ways. 13 So God said to Noah, "I am going to put an end to all people, for the earth is filled with violence because of them. I am surely going to destroy both them and the earth. [Then God tells him exactly how to build it] and then God explains: 17 I am going to bring floodwaters on the earth to destroy all life under the heavens, every creature that has the breath of life in it. Everything on earth will perish. 18 But I will establish my covenant with you, and you will enter the ark-- you and your sons and your wife and your sons' wives with you. 19 You are to bring into the ark two of all living creatures, male and female, to keep them alive with you. 20 Two of every kind of bird, of every kind of animal and of every kind of creature that moves along the ground will come to you to be kept alive. 21 You are to take every kind of food that is to be eaten and store it away as food for you and for them." 22 Noah did everything just as God commanded him. So Noah builds the ark, they all get in it, with all the animals, the flood comes and wipes out everything and Noah, his family and all the pairs of animals are in the ark. We pick up the story in Gen 8:1
8:1 But God remembered Noah and all the wild animals and the livestock that were with him in the ark, and he sent a wind over the earth, and the waters receded. finally it is time to come out of the Ark. We pick up the story in vs. 15 Then God said to Noah, 16 "Come out of the ark, you and your wife and your sons and their wives. 17 Bring out every kind of living creature that is with you-- the birds, the animals, and all the creatures that move along the ground-- so they can multiply on the earth and be fruitful and increase in number upon it." 18 So Noah came out, together with his sons and his wife and his sons' wives. 19 All the animals and all the creatures that move along the ground and all the birds-- everything that moves on the earth-- came out of the ark, one kind after another. 20 Then Noah built an altar to the LORD and, taking some of all the clean animals and clean birds, he sacrificed burnt offerings on it. 21 The LORD smelled the pleasing aroma and said in his heart: "Never again will I curse the ground because of man, even though every inclination of his heart is evil from childhood. And never again will I destroy all living creatures, as I have done. 22 "As long as the earth endures, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night will never cease."
Genesis 9:1 Then God blessed Noah and his sons, saying to them, "Be fruitful and increase in number and fill the earth. 2 The fear and dread of you will fall upon all the beasts of the earth and all the birds of the air, upon every creature that moves along the ground, and upon all the fish of the sea; they are given into your hands. 3 Everything that lives and moves will be food for you. Just as I gave you the green plants, I now give you everything. 4 "But you must not eat meat that has its lifeblood still in it. 5 And for your lifeblood I will surely demand an accounting. I will demand an accounting from every animal. And from each man, too, I will demand an accounting for the life of his fellow man. 6 "Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed; for in the image of God has God made man. 7 As for you, be fruitful and increase in number; multiply on the earth and increase upon it." 8 Then God said to Noah and to his sons with him: 9 "I now establish my covenant with you and with your descendants after you 10 and with every living creature that was with you-- the birds, the livestock and all the wild animals, all those that came out of the ark with you-- every living creature on earth. 11 I establish my covenant with you: Never again will all life be cut off by the waters of a flood; never again will there be a flood to destroy the earth."
12 And God said, "This is the sign of the covenant I am making between me and you and every living creature with you, a covenant for all generations to come: 13 I have set my rainbow in the clouds, and it will be the sign of the covenant between me and the earth. 14 Whenever I bring clouds over the earth and the rainbow appears in the clouds, 15 I will remember my covenant between me and you and all living creatures of every kind. Never again will the waters become a flood to destroy all life. 16 Whenever the rainbow appears in the clouds, I will see it and remember the everlasting covenant between God and all living creatures of every kind on the earth." 17 So God said to Noah, "This is the sign of the covenant I have established between me and all life on the earth."
Then we have the sad account of Noah after the flood, he plants a vineyard, makes some wine and gets drunk. And he exposes his nakedness. His son Ham (the father of Caanan) sees him and scorns him, which is sin because his son is scorning God's image-bearer. But Noah's other 2 sons cover him up.
24 When Noah awoke from his wine and found out what his youngest son had done to him, 25 he said, "Cursed be Canaan! The lowest of slaves will he be to his brothers." 26 He also said, "Blessed be the LORD, the God of Shem! May Canaan be the slave of Shem. 27 May God extend the territory of Japheth; may Japheth live in the tents of Shem, and may Canaan be his slave."
28 After the flood Noah lived 350 years. 29 Altogether, Noah lived 950 years, and then he died.
I. The Gospel First Gives Us The Bad News. We are far worse than we think! (Gen 6:5-7) We see in particular…
· The intensity & extent of evil (the evil is great and it fills the earth!)
· It is internal -- it's not just external evil acts! (every inclination of the thoughts of his heart)
· The absoluteness of its sway (it's only evil all the time)
Please note: The phrase "it grieved God that He made man" is an "anthropomorphic way of saying that "the development of mankind frustrated the end for which God had placed man on the earth." Geerhardus Vos
· But even in giving us the bad news God is being gracious -- He is warning us of our true condition! Is our real problem “sins” or is it “sin”? In many Evangelical circles it has been popular to define sin as “conscious, voluntary acts of transgression against known laws.” But Richard Lovelace well reminds us that, “The structure of sin in the human personality is something far more complicated than the isolated acts and thoughts of deliberate disobedience commonly designated by the word. In its Biblical definition, sin cannot be limited to isolated instances or patterns of wrongdoing. It is something much more akin to the psychological term “complex”, an organic network of compulsive attitudes, beliefs, and behavior deeply rooted in our alienation from God… Sinful thoughts, words and deeds flow forth from the darkened heart automatically and compulsively, as water from a polluted fountain.”
· And here we see His patience (Gen 6:3) when God says He won't contend with man forever but his days shall number 120 years. Many have thought this meant 120 years would be the life expectancy of man but what it actually means is that even though He is grieved, God is giving 120 years before He sends destruction by the flood. What was going on during this time period? From 1&2 Peter we learn that Christ was preaching through Noah the "Preacher of righteousness."
II. God Is Going To Destroy The World But Noah Found Favor (or grace) In God's Eyes (6:8)
But why?
Is it because he is righteous and blameless? (6:9) Did he earn favor with God? The rest of the Bible would lead us to say no, but actually Gen 6-9 has some good reasons for believing that Noah is saved not by his righteousness but by God's free, unmerited grace!
· The Bible says Noah found favor with God (vs. 8), and that he was blameless (vs. 9)
· But which is the cause and which is the effect? Are there any clues in the text? Yes there are! Notice that Gen 6:9 starts a new section (the phrase "this is the account of" appears 10 times in Genesis and always marks the beginning of a new major section.) So we need to connect vs. 8 with verses 5-7 and not with verse 9. When we do this, we see more clearly the deliberate contrast that Genesis is making. All men are only evil all the time but Noah found favor with God! Gen 6:9 gives a summary of Noah's life not a theological rational for why Noah found favor in God's eyes! We know that Noah is not perfect because of the account of his drunkenness and exposing himself at the end of chapter 9, and yet the summary of his life in 6:9 says he is blameless and righteous. How do we explain this?
· It helps to know that these two Hebrew words do not mean absolute moral perfection! As Gordon Wenham (in his excellent commentary on Gen) says, "Righteous ... is the most general Hebrew term to describe good people... Someone called good in English would be described as righteous in Hebrew. So, in describing Noah as righteous, he is being pointed to as a good man who lived [basically] according to God's standards of behavior."
Wenham goes on to point out that "blameless" is a rarer, more intense term. The text also says Noah walked with God (like Enoch) -- and not even Abraham is said to walk with God, he is said to walk before God. Wenham concludes, "It thus appears that there is a progressive build-up in Noah's characterization: he was a good man (righteous like the majority of the Israelites.) More than that, he was blameless, the goal of all but achieved by few. Finally, he walked with God like Enoch, the only man in Genesis to have been translated to Heaven."
The Theological Word Book Of The OT helps us understand this word blameless, and shows that it doesn't refer to absolute moral perfection by pointing out that Job in Job 9:20 says (in a more literal rendering of the Hebrew) "Though I be blameless, He (in Hebrew it and he are the same word) shall prove me guilty." Even Job, who is also described as blameless (in Job 1:1) knew that he was not morally perfect! (see Job 7:20-21, 9:2, 10:6, 14:16-17, 42:6)
· Even Noah knew it was grace that saved him - thus he responds by offering a sacrifice to God (Gen 8:20)
III. We see the importance of fleeing the coming wrath in God's appointed way
· No salvation outside of the Ark (and notice that there is no way to steer the ark, it has no rudder -- they are completely at God's mercy!) Did you know there are 3 arks in the Bible and they all have to do with deliverance? Noah's ark, the Ark of the Covenant, and the basket (lit. ark in Hebrew) that Moses’ mother puts him in when she puts him in the Nile River to avoid his execution.
· Being blessed of God requires that men and women get into the tent of Shem (9:27) Huh? The point to this is that salvation will come through the seed-line of Shem --- Shem is the ancestor of Christ! This points to the fact that salvation comes only through Jesus -- there is only one way!
IV. Salvation comes through death! Noah is as good as dead without God's grace but God in His mercy singles him out to be saved. Later in the ark, again Noah is as good as dead, there is no dry land, "but God remembered Noah" and sent a wind to make the flood recede to save Noah from the jaws of death again. (8:1) We see a new birth of the earth and the human race after death, and that's why Peter (in 1Pet 3:18-22) uses Noah and the ark as an illustration of baptism -- which is a sign of death and new life by God's grace.