This sermon from Genesis 7-8 covers one of the most well-known parts of the book as Noah’s family enters the ark and the Flood takes place. In this sermon, Pastor Mark preaches on how God saved Noah’s family and how Noah’s first action upon getting off the ark was to build an altar to worship God. He also covers the differing opinions on the case for a global vs local flood, showing once again that there are many open-handed issues in the book of Genesis that Christians can debate but ultimately not divide over.
Does God Punish People for Their Sin?: (The Flood Genesis 7:1 – 8:22)
- God is perfect and created everyone/everything perfect
- Adam & Eve sinned – death to us, curse to creation
- For 1656 years only Enoch walked with God
- LONG LIFE. Everyone only evil all the time 1. External 2. Internal (daily Purge)
- God took Enoch, saved Noah, waited 120 years while Noah preached & prepared
- Only believers = wife, sons/their wives (#8 ppl)
- New Adam, New Eve, New Creation = HARD RESET
Noah’s Family Enters the Ark
Genesis 7:1 Then the Lord said to Noah, “Go into the ark, you and all your household, for I have seen that you are righteous before me in this generation. 2 Take with you seven pairs of all clean animals, the male and his mate, and a pair of the animals that are not clean, the male and his mate, 3 and seven pairs of the birds of the heavens also, male and female, to keep their offspring alive on the face of all the earth. 4 For in seven days I will send rain on the earth forty days and forty nights, and every living thing that I have made I will blot out from the face of the ground.” 5 And Noah did all that the Lord had commanded him. 6 Noah was six hundred years old when the flood of waters came upon the earth. 7 And Noah and his sons and his wife and his sons’ wives with him went into the ark to escape the waters of the flood. 8 Of clean animals, and of animals that are not clean, and of birds, and of everything that creeps on the ground, 9 two and two, male and female, went into the ark with Noah, as God had commanded Noah. 10 And after seven days the waters of the flood came upon the earth.
? 1st rain? In desert?
Ark – Designed by God. Unlike other ancient ships. Shaped modern battleship
3 Levels Taller – Leaning Tower Pisa; Big Ben; Twin Towers; Statue Liberty
-1,400,000 cu ft -522 railroad box cars -2 football stadiums/21 basketball courts
How? 1).120 yrs 2). tools 5:22 Tubal-Cain “forger bronze/iron” Bronze Age
3).Cities 4:17 4). Employees?
1. God speaks, Noah obeys. Noah never speaks 7-8.
2. God tells exactly what to expect & how long to endure
3. Ark prefigures tabernacle, Noah prefigures priest, priest could only enter tabernacle w/a clean offering & Noah does the same to later sacrifice
4. Clean – 1st time category appears = animals Jews eat & sacrifice. SAVED to WORSHIP
=7:5 “Noah did all that the Lord had commanded him” = Family delivered THRU vs FROM
God Brings the Flood
Genesis 7:11 In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, in the second month, on the seventeenth day of the month, on that day all the fountains of the great deep burst forth, and the windows of the heavens were opened. 12 And rain fell upon the earth forty days and forty nights. 13 On the very same day Noah and his sons, Shem and Ham and Japheth, and Noah’s wife and the three wives of his sons with them entered the ark, 14 they and every beast, according to its kind, and all the livestock according to their kinds, and every creeping thing that creeps on the earth, according to its kind, and every bird, according to its kind, every winged creature. 15 They went into the ark with Noah, two and two of all flesh in which there was the breath of life. 16 And those that entered, male and female of all flesh, went in as God had commanded him. And the Lord shut him in. 17 The flood continued forty days on the earth. The waters increased and bore up the ark, and it rose high above the earth. 18 The waters prevailed and increased greatly on the earth, and the ark floated on the face of the waters. 19 And the waters prevailed so mightily on the earth that all the high mountains under the whole heaven were covered. 20 The waters prevailed above the mountains, covering them fifteen cubits deep. 21 And all flesh died that moved on the earth, birds, livestock, beasts, all swarming creatures that swarm on the earth, and all mankind. 22 Everything on the dry land in whose nostrils was the breath of life died. 23 He blotted out every living thing that was on the face of the ground, man and animals and creeping things and birds of the heavens. They were blotted out from the earth. Only Noah was left, and those who were with him in the ark. 24 And the waters prevailed on the earth 150 days.
- 40 – days rain, years wilderness, Jesus post-resurrection
- Creation – Water above/below -separated – now brought together
- Animals – brought to Noah like Adam. Unlike people, obey God
- Noah’s Family – 1). No polygamy 2). Followed his leadership 3). Obey God’s Word
- God – 1. Love (saving mankind) 2. Patience (120 yrs) 3. Justice (shut door)
=Destruction is faster & easier than Building & Rebuilding
Is the Flood Historical or Mythical?
- Biblically, Noah and the Flood are mentioned by Isaiah (54:9), Ezekiel (14:14,20), Jesus (Matt. 24:48, Lk. 17:27), Luke (3:36), Hebrews (11:7), and Peter (1 Pet. 3:20; 2 Pet. 2:5).
- Historically, numerous civilizations (Babylon, Mesopotamia, Sumeria, Assyria, Epic of Gilgamesh, etc.) have Flood stories with similar details – evil people , God/gods bring a Flood, a boat, wife and family and animals brought onboard, birds sent out, people exit and worship God/gods, a rainbow appears in the sky.
- M. Wintemitz (1901) distinguishes 73 flood stories
- Geologically, there are anomalies that could be explained by a Flood (e.g. seashells atop mountains).
God Saves Noah’s Family
Genesis 8:1 But God remembered Noah and all the beasts and all the livestock that were with him in the ark. And God made a wind blow over the earth, and the waters subsided. 2 The fountains of the deep and the windows of the heavens were closed, the rain from the heavens was restrained, 3 and the waters receded from the earth continually. At the end of 150 days the waters had abated, 4 and in the seventh month, on the seventeenth day of the month, the ark came to rest on the mountains of Ararat. 5 And the waters continued to abate until the tenth month; in the tenth month, on the first day of the month, the tops of the mountains were seen. 6 At the end of forty days Noah opened the window of the ark that he had made 7 and sent forth a raven. It went to and fro until the waters were dried up from the earth. 8 Then he sent forth a dove from him, to see if the waters had subsided from the face of the ground. 9 But the dove found no place to set her foot, and she returned to him to the ark, for the waters were still on the face of the whole earth. So he put out his hand and took her and brought her into the ark with him. 10 He waited another seven days, and again he sent forth the dove out of the ark. 11 And the dove came back to him in the evening, and behold, in her mouth was a freshly plucked olive leaf. So Noah knew that the waters had subsided from the earth. 12 Then he waited another seven days and sent forth the dove, and she did not return to him anymore. 13 In the six hundred and first year, in the first month, the first day of the month, the waters were dried from off the earth. And Noah removed the covering of the ark and looked, and behold, the face of the ground was dry.
· God remembered – acting on the previous covenant promise
· Wind to dry ground like Exodus & Red Sea (mini-flood)
· 1). Raven- tough bird/carnivore =signs animal life 2. Dove herbivore = signs plant life
· Dove w/branch = a sign of peace
=Ararat – today across Turkey & Russia, 17k peak, some worship sacred e.g. Armenians
Was the Flood Local or Global?
The Case for a Global Flood
1. Genesis 1:1 says God “created…the earth”, and 7:6 says, “the flood of waters came upon the earth.”
2. A plain reading of the Genesis account seems to report a global Flood.
3. Most Christians throughout history have believed in a global Flood.
4. God can and does do miracles.
5. Geological oddities point to a global flood (e.g. seashells on mountain tops).
6. Human sin cursed all of Creation, so the Flood covered all that was cursed.
7. Cultures across the world have Flood stories including the Babylonians, Chinese, Indians, Greeks, Mayas, islanders of the South Pacific, etc.
The Case for a Local Flood
1. Noah reported what he saw, and he did not see the entire planet.
2. The Hebrew word for earth/land (eretz) can mean anything from the Promised Land to the planet.
3. Genesis was first read by Hebrews in the wilderness returning to the Promised Land.
4. No one lived globally until God scattered them (Genesis 11), so a local flood would have brought judgment on every sinner.
5. Geological oddities (e.g. seashells atop mountains) occurred when God made the mountains from the seas (Genesis 1:9)
6. Despite the earth being 70% covered by water, the amount of water needed to cover Mount Everest is roughly eight times the amount of water on earth.
7. The housing and caring for every type of animal on the earth, including their global redistribution, seems implausible.
=How many people died in the flood? Up to billions (around 8 billion on earth today)
Noah Worships God
Genesis 8:14 In the second month, on the twenty-seventh day of the month, the earth had dried out. 15 Then God said to Noah, 16 “Go out from the ark, you and your wife, and your sons and your sons’ wives with you. 17 Bring out with you every living thing that is with you of all flesh—birds and animals and every creeping thing that creeps on the earth—that they may swarm on the earth, and be fruitful and multiply on the earth.” 18 So Noah went out, and his sons and his wife and his sons’ wives with him. 19 Every beast, every creeping thing, and every bird, everything that moves on the earth, went out by families from the ark. 20 Then Noah built an altar to the Lord and took some of every clean animal and some of every clean bird and offered burnt offerings on the altar. 21 And when the Lord smelled the pleasing aroma, the Lord said in his heart, “I will never again curse the ground because of man, for the intention of man’s heart is evil from his youth. Neither will I ever again strike down every living creature as I have done. 22 While the earth remains, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night, shall not cease.”
1st step walk w/God & family following
- Worship = NOT commanded by God. OUT of Noah’s NEW heart
- Sacrifice = 1st human to sacrifice, possibly God to clothe Adam/Eve
- Burnt Offering – for sin (Lev. 1:4; Job 1:5) vs UNIVERSALISM
- God responds to Noah
=Ark & Sacrifice – point to Jesus Christ.
=Saved to Worship – Revelation song/prayer aroma rises
Peters Prophecy About Noah’s Flood
2 Peter 3:3–7 scoffers will come in the last days…following their own sinful desires. They will say, “Where is the promise of his coming?…all things are continuing as they were from the beginning of creation.” For they deliberately overlook this fact, that the heavens existed long ago, and the earth was formed out of water and through water by the word of God, and that by means of these the world that then existed was deluged with water and perished. But by the same word the heavens and earth that now exist are stored up for fire, being kept until the day of judgment and destruction of the ungodly.
Jesus’ Prophecy About Noah’s Flood
Matthew 24:37-39 As it was in the days of Noah, so it will be at the coming of the Son of Man. For in the days before the flood, people were eating and drinking, marrying…up to the day Noah entered the ark; and they knew nothing about what would happen until the flood came and took them all away. That is how it will be at the coming of the Son of Man.
=LAST DAY? WORSHIP TODAY