STUDY THEME: BECOMING WHAT GOD WANTS ME
TO BE. 7-14-02"GOD WANTS ME TO BE FAITHFUL." GEN. 6:1-8:1; HEB. 11:7
GENESIS 6:5-7, 8-11, 12-14, 22; 7:1-6; 8: 1, HEB. 11:7.
PLEASE OPEN YOUR BIBLE TO GENESIS 6.
In order "to become what God wants us to be," God’s Holy Spirit must work in us to produce LOVE, JOY, PEACE, LONGSUFFERING, KINDNESS, and GOODNESS. As if that were not enough, God wants us to be FAITHFUL. He empowers us to be faithful in the face of temptation, opposition, and crisis. God also enables us to be faithful in our relationship with others.
In a secular worldview, faithfulness is considered to be relative subject to personal wants and self-interest. In this view, people trust few individuals, governments, and institutions. Cynicism dominates the secular approach to life. Being faithful is not always a priority. In the biblical worldview, God empowers people of faith to be faithful.
The Scriptures present our Lord as the perfect example of faithfulness. In Psalms 36:5 the Psalmist wrote: "Thy Mercy, O Lord, is in the heavens; and thy faithfulness reacheth unto the clouds." Again in Ps. 89:1 we read " I will sing of the Mercies of the Lord forever; with my mouth will I make known thy faithfulness to all generations."
In last Sundays’ lesson, the good King Josiah did everything possible to deliver the nation Judah from the terrible moral depth to which the previous kings had led them. The nation had already passed the point of no return. Despite the spiritual revival of Josiah’s day, at his death the nation was taken captive, and deported, by the Babylonians.
As we turn to Genesis 6 we find many people had lived and died in the period between Adam and Noah. As the worlds’ population increased its wickedness also intensified.
God saw the evil of humanity, was grieved by it, and decided to destroy all people, except for Noah and his family, because this righteous man walked with God. The Lord told Noah what He was going to do and commanded Noah to build an ark. Noah did everything that the Lord had commanded him to do. When God called Noah and his family into the ark, they came in, and the Lord kept His promise to deliver them. Noah believed in the faithfulness of the Lords’ word and showed his faith by building the ark.
These verses describe the terrible plight of human society prior to the flood. After the fall of humanity as a result of the disobedience of Adam and Eve, people continued to choose their way over God’s way. Verse 5 is the strongest statement of human depravity found in God’s word and describes what God saw. Verse 6 describes what God felt when He looked at His creation. He no longer saw it as "very good." Instead God saw the great… wickedness of the men and women He had created. Humanity had become completely corrupt and taken over by sin. The words only, every, and all the time emphasize the total wickedness of the human heart. "Inclination" implies design or purpose. People deliberately planned to sin. It was the pattern of their lives.
The condition of humanity well depicts the total depravity of that generation. Notice that it involved their actions (wickedness), their imagination, and their thoughts. Notice also the words that describe the extent of each of these: every… continually…great…. There is no depth of evil more comprehensive than this. Everything that humans imagined, thought, or did was of the worst kind; and this behavior went on continually.
Sin not only caused men and women to suffer, but it also brought pain and sorrow to God Himself. God had not made a mistake in creating people, His highest creation. Their wickedness, however, moved the Lord deeply and prompted Him to take a new course of action.
Verse 7 records the decision God made. The word translated destroy (‘blot out,") means, "to erase by washing." God intended to wash away not only humans but also animals and birds. Why include them? Because they were caught up in the consequences of human sin. The sins of human beings blight nature itself.
This does not mean that God regretted making a mistake, but that He was sorry for the sinful choices of humanity. Whereas the heart of the people before the flood was filled with evil, the heart of God was filled with pain over their sins. "God’s response of grief over the making of humanity, however, is not remorse in the sense of sorrow over a mistaken creation; our verse shows that God’s pain has its source in the perversion of human sin. The making of ‘man’ is no error; it is what ‘man’ has made of himself…. The intensity of the pain is demonstrated by the use of naham elsewhere in Genesis, where it describes mourning over the loss of a family member due to death. But his is not regret over destroying humanity; paradoxically, so foul has become mankind that it is the necessary step to salvage him.
In verse 7, He finally decided to destroy all mankind and all the creatures He had created. He would wipe them from the face of the earth. God did not make His decision without feeling. He was grieved over the sinfulness of those He had made. Their evil hurt Him and demanded His righteous judgment. Though the Lord determined to destroy life on the earth, He also gave a grace period of 120 years. During this time Noah built the ark and preached righteousness. 2 Peter 2:5 says he called men and women of his time to repentance. Sadly, no one outside of his family responded to his message.
In Verse 8 the word "grace" is used the first time in the Bible. It means " the unmerited favor of God." Noah and his family were saved by grace, as were each of us. Eph. 2: 8-9 "For by grace are you saved, through faith, and that not of works, lest anyone should boast." Noah and Enoch are the only two antediluvians of whom it is said, "they walked with God." In verse 9 it spoke of the genealogy of Noah.
According to Usher, Noah was born BC 2948 and died BC 1998. He was the 10th from Adam through Seth, and was born 126 years after the death of Adam and 14 years after the death of Seth. He was contemporary with Enos for 84 years and with Terah, the father of Abraham for 128 years. His history is given in Genesis 5-9. Noah had 6 living ancestors that could have known Adam. Noah’s three sons, Shem Ham, and Japeth, were not born until Noah was 500 years old. (Gen. 5:32)
Noah, who lived 950 years, was the son of Lamech who lived 777 years; and the grandson of Methuselah who holds the world’s record for longevity. He lived for 969 years, and the great-grandson of Enoch who did not die but at age 365 years was raptured. Noah was tenth in decent from Adam in the line of Seth. He received his name meaning "rest" because his father Lamech foresaw that through him God would comfort the race and partially alleviate the effects of the Edemic curse. Noah was uniquely righteous in a totally corrupt age.
When Noah was 480 years old, 120 years before the flood, he was warned of God that the world would be destroyed by water. (Heb. 11:7). He was then given exact instructions in Gen. 6: 14-16 for building the ark. While engaged in this colossal task, he warned men of the coming catastrophe.
2 Peter 2:5 "God 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." His life spoke of righteousness as he called people to repent and avoid the flood judgment.
Good men, living in desperate times, are not overlooked by God. Their character at such times, are a contrast, a rebuke, and a testimony. Noah was 500 years old when God began His special work in his life. And he lived in the worst of times. No one would have thought he could make much of a contribution, but he did.
Verse 14-16 gave detailed specification for building the ark. It is to be made of gopher or cypress wood with pitch to keep it from leaking. It was to be in the form of a chest. In verse 15 it was to be 450’ long, 75’ wide and 45’ or 3 decks high. These are the same proportions but only about 1/2 the size of a modern day ocean liner. It was to be 5 times the length of the Mayflower.
In Verse 18 God made a Covenant with Noah that his family would be preserved if they would enter the ark. In Verse 19-21 Noah is given instruction as to how he was to load the ark. It would take a week to load everything. Noah was commanded to take into the ark his wife, his three sons, Ham, Shem, and Japeth and their wives, himself and a pair of every living thing to keep them alive.
Verse 22 succinctly describes Noah’s response to all that God commanded him, so did he. This emphasizes the faithfulness of Noah. His faithfulness was seen in what he did. Second Peter 2:5 calls Noah "a preacher of righteousness". The implication is that he preached to the people during the years of the ark’s construction. The people of Noah’s day were told of the coming flood, but they did nothing to prepare for it. In Luke 17:26-27 Jesus said, "As it was in the days of Noah, so shall it be in the days of the Son of Man. They did eat, they drank, they married wives, they were given in marriage, until the day that Noah entered into the ark, and the flood came, and destroyed them all." This probably tested Noah’s faithfulness to keep on preaching anyway.
The instructions in 7:2-3 clarify, rather than contradict those of 6:19-20. In 7:2 Noah is instructed to load pairs of seven each of the 10 animals considered acceptable for sacrifice in the Book of Exodus. These would be used as food and sacrifice.
One week before the flood Noah led his family into the ark and then God supernaturally directed the animals, "which went in unto Noah into the ark, two and two of all flesh, wherein is the breath of life". (Gen. 7:15) Noah had aunts, uncles, brothers and sisters that probably drowned.
Verse 13 is the first time the text indicates clearly that the Lord spoke directly to Noah. God informed Noah that He intended to make an end of all flesh. God explained that the earth was filled with violence through its sinful people. The Lord told Noah, "I will destroy them with the earth."
Why would God bring such a flood? There are several reasons. (1) God is sovereign over all creation and frequently uses nature to judge mankind. (2) The flood was the most effective way of purging the world. It would wash it clean so that no trace of the wicked could be found. (3) The flood was used of God to start a new creation. The first creation with Adam is paralleled here by the second with Noah. Out of the seed of Noah God had determined to people the earth once more with a race that would not be so wicked as the one He had destroyed. Noah probably wondered what would happen to him and his family for they had sought to be faithful to God.
The flood came in Noah’s 600th year, increased steadily for 40 days, until the water had reached a depth of about 221/2 feet. It maintained its mountain covering depth for 110 days, and then subsided sufficiently for Noah to disembark in the mountains of Ararat after another 221 days. During all this time, "God remembered Noah, and every living thing—in the ark" (Gen. 8:1), implying that God did not leave the task of caring for these creatures entirely up to Noah. Noah lived 350 years after the flood, dying at the age of 950 years. In Genesis 6:3 God reduced the length of man’s life span to 120 years.
Just 1 year and 10 days after the deluge began, Noah came forth out of the ark, built an altar and offered burnt offerings. If Adam was the first founding father, Noah was the second, for with him the human race made a fresh start. Adam knew Methuselah for 243 years. The first 2157 years of history are covered by 3 men whose lives overlap ; (Adam, Methuselah, and Noah.)
The writer of Hebrews included Noah in the roll call of God’s great heroes of faith. By faith Noah responded to the word of God, acting in obedience to the Lord’s commands. God warned him about things not yet seen. The verb warned has the force of an authoritative command. Noah obeyed the Lord’s command about building an ark. The "events not yet seen" point to the flood, the symbol of divine judgment. No one had ever known of such a catastrophe, nor was there any sign of the flood. Noah, however, was convinced of the certainty of the events that God had revealed to him. "Faith is being… certain of what we do not see" (verse 1). Noah’s faith caused him to act as though the unseen, future events already were beginning to happen.
Noah acted in holy fear, that is, out of reverence and awe of God and His commands. Noah’s godly fear made him immediately obey God’s specific commands regarding the ark. He built an ark. Noah’s purpose in building the ark was to save his family, literally, "for the salvation of his house." Noah wanted to deliver his family from the danger of the threatened deluge. His faith saved his entire household.
By his faith in action Noah also condemned the world. This may mean that Noah’s life of faith and faithfulness to God rebuked his godless generation. Or, the words may refer to Noah as a preacher of righteousness (2 Pet. 2:5). Noah’s 120-year building activity itself could have served as the primary element in his preaching of God’s judgment on sin and His grace in providing deliverance. Noah’s contemporaries rejected God’s warning by their unbelief, leading to their condemnation.
By Noah’s obedient response of faith to God’s warning concerning an unseen future, Noah became heir of the righteousness that comes by faith. Heir has the sense of "possessor." Noah possessed righteousness. God declared Noah righteous because of his faith. Noah is the first person in the Bible to be called righteous. He believed what God said and acted on it.
NEXT SUNDAY FROM EXODUS 18, NUMBERS 12 AND HEBREWS 11, WE WILL LEARN "HUMILITY" FROM MOSES, THE MEEKEST MAN IN THE BIBLE. A.V. DAUGHERTY 07-14-02