Sunday, October 21, 2018 - New Heights Christian Church, Kent, WA - Pastor Micah AdamsonTitle: Genesis - Introduction: Judgment (The Flood)

Text: Genesis 6:9-8:22Genesis 7:1 (NIV84)

5 The LORD then said to Noah,“Go into the ark, you and your whole family, because I have found you righteous in this generation.

Introduction to Genesis 6-8: Genesis is the story of Adam (and his 3 sons), Noah (and his 3 sons), and Terah (and his 3 sons).

o Genesis is divided into 10 sections called: Toledoths (Heb.), Genesises (Gr.), or Genealogies.o Noah is introduced at the end of the 2nd Toledoth, recording the results of Adam’s line Genesis 5-6a.

Genesis 6-9, contains the 3rd Toledoth in Genesis, which records the results of Noah and the flood.o Noah is the only character in Genesis whose story is told in the Toledoth named after him. o Noah’s story is a really just a 4 chapter pause in the 20-generation genealogy from Adam to

Abraham, with 10 generations found in Genesis 5 and 10 more generations found in Genesis 10-11.o Noah’s story ends at the end of Genesis 9 with the final repetition of the words “and then he died”.

Even though in Genesis 1-2, God created the earth, and all the creatures in it, very good and put Adam and Eve in a good garden and put them in charge of the whole earth…o When we get to Genesis 3, and people sin, we tend to think that God overreacted by punishing them

so harshly for just eating a fruit and we’re glad that God didn’t immediately killed them for their sin. But then, in Genesis 4, one of their sons kills his brother, and again gets off without being killed, and

soon, his descendants are all killing each other, and bragging that they can always get away with murder. o And, we start to realize that something is seriously wrong, and God’s going to have to do something.

Then in Genesis 5, everyone dies, and it leads to Genesis 6, where everyone is only evil all the time. o By now, even as sinful humans we’re getting ready to admit that God would be right to punish sin.

Genesis 6-8 is the story of the judgment for sin, which people deserve, but haven’t gotten yet. o Notice that the flood isn’t going to fix people, it’s just going to punish them.

Pre-Flood: “Every inclination of the thoughts of his heart is only evil all the time.” (Gen 6: 5) Post-Flood: “Every inclination of his heart is evil from childhood.” (Gen. 8:21)

o Noah is the only exception. He’s an example, both of a person who is rewarded for his righteousness, and of a person who is saved as the recipient of God’s favor/grace through faith (Gen. 6:8-9).

Notice: This 3rd Toledoth is a de-creation and re-creation story, which repeats the events of the first creation using the same language and the same order that you should recognized from Genesis 1-2.

Genesis 6:9-12 (NIV84)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. Noah’ righteousness stood out especially compared to the rest of the people of his generation.

o Noah walked with God like his great grandfather Enoch had, and like his descendants Abraham/Isaac would, meaning that they knew God personally as a friend (Gen. 3:8, 6:9, 5:22, 17:1, 24:40, 48:15).

Poor Shem, Ham, and Japheth don’t get described as righteous/blameless/walking with God.o Neither does Methuselah who lived to be 969, dying in the year of the flood (Gen. 5:27).

Genesis 6:13, 17-22 (NIV84)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…. 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.

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Genesis 1-2 creation categories are used here: Heavens, Earth, Waters, living creatures with the breath of life in them, male and female, wife, sons, o God is going to destroy the world with water, which He originally used to create it (Gen. 1:2).o People got all life on earth in trouble, but God is going to save the animals through people (Gen. 3).

The rest of the earth aside from righteous Noah is described as being corrupt and violent (Gen. 4-6).o God’s solution is to destroy both the people and the whole earth along with them.

Notice: God didn’t wash the whole earth out of the heavens with a blast of water and create a new one.o God killed it and brought it back to life. That’s what God loves to do (1 Pet. 3).o That’s what God did with Jesus, does with us, and will do with the world at the end (2 Pet. 2-3).o To argue that we shouldn’t care for the earth since it’s just going to burn someday, is like arguing

that murdering people isn’t wrong since they’ll all die someday. We shouldn’t treat the earth either as all there is or as unimportant. The truth is more complex.

o This is God’s world, He created it, He likes it, and He preserved it when He destroyed it last time, and will make a new heavens/earth next time too (Is. 65:17, 66:22, 2 Pet. 3:13, Rev. 21:1-2).

Genesis 6:14-16 (NIV84)14 So make yourself an ark of cypress wood; make rooms in it and coat it with pitch inside and out. 15 This is how you are to build it: The ark is to be 450 feet long, 75 feet wide and 45 feet high. 16 Make a roof for it and finish the ark to within 18 inches of the top. Put a door in the side of the ark and make lower, middle and upper decks.

Size: Even with a life size replica of the ark, reference images still help me better understand its size.o Shape: Ark = Box/Chest

Volume: 300 cubits x 50 cubits x 30 cubits = 450k cubic cubits OR ~1m cubic feeto Floor Space: 300 cubits x 50 cubits x 300x50 x 3 floors = 45k square cubits OR ~100k square feet.

Could hold ~125k sheep sized animals, but probably had >25k (ICR, MacArthur). Proportions: 6x as long as wide, ~2x as wide as tall = similar to modern ships (Grudem).

o Seaworthiness: Impressively floatable dimensions for an author like Moses wandering around in the desert, especially as opposed to the cube “ark” described in the Gilgamesh Epic (Grudem). It sounds like the ark floated about half way down into the water so they could tell that it cleared

the tops of mountains by at least half the height of the ark ~20 feet (Gen 7:20).

The Creation Week vs. The New-Creation Year: People and animals spent 370-377 days on the ark, following time markers given in a chiasm (Grudem).

o 7 days before the flood = Animals on the ark before people got on. 150 days at sea = 40 days of rain + 110 more days before landing. 150 days on land = 40 days before sending birds + 110 more days before opening the ark.

o 70 days after the flood = People and animals on the ark. Continue to listen for echoes of the creation story from Genesis 1-2 as we read Genesis 7-8.

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Genesis 7:1-10 (NIV84)1 The LORD then said to Noah, “Go into the ark, you and your whole family, because I have found you

righteous in this generation.2 Take with you seven of every kind of clean animal, a male and its mate, and two of every kind of unclean animal, a male and its mate, 3 and also seven of every kind of bird, male and female, to keep their various kinds alive throughout the earth. 4 Seven days from now I will send rain on the earth for forty days and forty nights, and I will wipe from the face of the earth every living creature I have made.”

5 And Noah did all that the LORD commanded him. 6 Noah was six hundred years old when the floodwaters came on the earth. 7 And Noah and his sons and

his wife and his sons’ wives entered the ark to escape the waters of the flood. 8 Pairs of clean and unclean animals, of birds and of all creatures that move along the ground, 9 male and female, came to Noah and entered the ark, as God had commanded Noah. 10 And after the seven days the floodwaters came on the earth. Genesis 1-2 contain all of these creation categories: male and female, animal kinds, birds, animals, and

creatures that move on the ground, man and wife, and children. In Genesis 1-2, God told man to care for animals and brought animals to man to name.

o In Genesis 7, animals miraculously came to man to be saved. The creation story started supernatural, but led to God’s care for nature by natural means.

In Genesis 1-2, 7 = Complete. Creation was completed in a week.o In Genesis 7, the complete number of birds and clean animals arrives in a week.

Clean = able to be sacrificed (Lev. 1-7) + able to be eaten (Lev. 11).o There’s no explicit instructions in Genesis up to this point about what animals to sacrifice.o Nor, is there explicit permission to eat animals until after the flood (Gen. 9:2-3).

There might be conversations between God and man about this which aren’t recorded in Genesis, or this could be God revealing what kinds of animals are clean.

Genesis 7:11-24 (NIV84)11 In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, on the seventeenth day of the second month—on that day all

the springs of the great deep burst forth, and the floodgates of the heavens were opened. 12 And rain fell on the earth forty days and forty nights.

13 On that very day Noah and his sons, Shem, Ham and Japheth, together with his wife and the wives of his three sons, entered the ark. 14 They had with them every wild animal according to its kind, all livestock according to their kinds, every creature that moves along the ground according to its kind and every bird according to its kind, everything with wings. 15 Pairs of all creatures that have the breath of life in them came to Noah and entered the ark. 16 The animals going in were male and female of every living thing, as God had commanded Noah. Then the LORD shut him in.

17 For forty days the flood kept coming on the earth, and as the waters increased they lifted the ark high above the earth. 18 The waters rose and increased greatly on the earth, and the ark floated on the surface of the water. 19 They rose greatly on the earth, and all the high mountains under the entire heavens were covered. 20 The waters rose and covered the mountains to a depth of more than twenty feet. 21 Every living thing that moved on the earth perished—birds, livestock, wild animals, all the creatures that swarm over the earth, and all mankind. 22 Everything on dry land that had the breath of life in its nostrils died. 23 Every living thing on the face of the earth was wiped out; men and animals and the creatures that move along the ground and the birds of the air were wiped from the earth. Only Noah was left, and those with him in the ark.

24 The waters flooded the earth for a hundred and fifty days. Genesis 1-2 categories of wild animals, livestock, and creatures that crawl on the ground are here again.

o We’re reminded that birds belong in the air/sky/heavens (Gen. 1:20).o Humans are described as Mankind/Adam (Hebrew) – (Gen. 1:27).o Were reminded that our life comes from God’s breath being in our nostrils (Gen. 2:7).

But, we’re going back even earlier in the creation week before the creation of birds, animals, and man.o This is the complete destruction of the heavens and earth created in Genesis 1-2.o The water comes down from the sky and is reunited to the water below and dry land disappears.o Now, we’re back to Genesis 1:2 when there was only water covering the face of the earth. o Even the heavens, the earth, and the seas will have to be separated from each other again in order for

God to start a new creation. It’s hard to see the connection between the creation of the heavens/sky, earth/land, and seas/deep/waters

in Genesis 1 & 8, since we don’t use the same word for “Spirit/Wind” in English like they do in Hebrew.o In Genesis 1, God sends His “Spirit/Wind” over the waters to oversee the creation of the earth.

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Genesis 1:1-2 (NIV84)1 In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. 2 Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.

o In Genesis 8, God sends His “Spirit/Wind” over the waters to re-initiate the creation of the earth.Genesis 8:1-2 (NIV84)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. 2 Now the springs of the deep and the floodgates of the heavens had been closed, and the rain had stopped falling from the sky. Watch what God does next with the separation and re-population of the heavens, earth, and seas.

Even the order matches Genesis 1. o Water stops coming from the heavens, restoring the sky as a separation from water above and below.o The water on earth goes down and dry land appears.o The birds repopulate the sky before mankind and animals return to the land.

And don’t miss, the birds confirming that the plants came back first, along with the dry ground.

Genesis 8:1-22 (NIV84)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. 2 Now the springs of the deep and the floodgates of the heavens had been closed, and the rain had stopped falling from the sky. 3 The water receded steadily from the earth. At the end of the hundred and fifty days the water had gone down, 4 and on the seventeenth day of the seventh month the ark came to rest on the mountains of Ararat. 5 The waters continued to recede until the tenth month, and on the first day of the tenth month the tops of the mountains became visible.

6 After forty days Noah opened the window he had made in the ark 7 and sent out a raven, and it kept flying back and forth until the water had dried up from the earth. 8 Then he sent out a dove to see if the water had receded from the surface of the ground. 9 But the dove could find no place to set its feet because there was water over all the surface of the earth; so it returned to Noah in the ark. He reached out his hand and took the dove and brought it back to himself in the ark. 10 He waited seven more days and again sent out the dove from the ark. 11 When the dove returned to him in the evening, there in its beak was a freshly plucked olive leaf! Then Noah knew that the water had receded from the earth. 12 He waited seven more days and sent the dove out again, but this time it did not return to him.

13 By the first day of the first month of Noah’s six hundred and first year, the water had dried up from the earth. Noah then removed the covering from the ark and saw that the surface of the ground was dry. 14 By the twenty-seventh day of the second month the earth was completely dry.

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.”

In Genesis 1, the sun, moon, and stars were created mark off days, months, seasons, and years.o God now promises to restore normal growing seasons on earth for as long as the earth endures.o But, notice that God doesn’t promise that the earth will endure forever.o There is a hint at final judgment even in this post-flood restoration.

This is a new creation and Noah is a new Man/Adam (Heb.) who is commanded to fill the earth up again.o But, there’s a problem left over from the first Adam, every inclination of man’s heart is still evil

from childhood.o God isn’t going to flood the world again, but not because we don’t deserve it, but because God has

graciously promised not to completely destroy the world again… until the final judgment.

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Apologetics vs. Application: Incidental details like the detailed timeline of the flood and feasible dimensions for the ark, turn out to be

a good indication that Genesis 6-8 records a real story.o The task of apologetics is to defend the faith by giving reasons to believe (Jude 3, 1 Pet. 3:15).

If you aren’t convinced that this story could possibly be true, please let me know.o The task of application is to apply the faith by exploring the implications of believing that it’s true.

Once apologetics ends, application can begin.

How does the rest of the Bible apply the story of Noah? Moses: God gave instructions for building Noah’s “ark” to save his family in a covenant (Gen. 6:18).

o God gave instructions for building the “ark” (different word) of the covenant to save Israel (Ex. 25).o Moses was saved from the water in an “ark” (same word) made of reeds covered in pitch (Ex. 2:3).

Judgement: The flood is often used as example of God’s judgment in the NT. o 2 Peter 2-3 uses the flood as an example of the fact that God can, does, has, and will intervene in

judgment on the whole world. The whole world will be judged by God again someday. Not, but water, but by fire.

o In Matthew 24 and Luke 17, Jesus used Noah’s flood as an example of God’s judgment foretold but ignored, just as the end of the Old Covenant was and as the end of the world will be. As with the flood, the final judgment will catch people off guard not because they haven’t been

warned to repent of their sin or given the chance to escape punishment, but because they ignored the warnings and the offer of salvation.

Salvation: Noah’s escape through the flood is also used as an example of salvation by faith in the NT.o 1 Peter 3 surprisingly says that the water of the flood saved Noah, not just the ark.

Noah died to the world and the world died to Noah when the flood washed his old life away. Jesus died and rose again to save us and offers to kill our old selves and bring us back to life. The 10 plagues destroyed Egypt as a punishment on the Egyptians, but the destruction of Egypt

also helped the Israelites be willing to leave their slavery for the Promised Land. The loss of worldly goods can be a blessing in disguise and a means of God saving us.

o Isaiah 54 uses Noah as an example of someone who was graciously rescued by God’s promise. God’s covenant with Noah is an example of God’s grace in His covenant with Israel, and God’s

grace in the New Covenant that God foretold after his people broke the Old Covenant.o Ezekiel 14 uses Noah as an example of someone whose righteousness can save others.

2 Peter 2 uses both Noah and Lot as examples of righteous men who lived their lives among sinners who were destroyed while they were saved along with their families.

But, in Genesis 9 and 19 both the stories of Noah and Lot end with their own moral failings and their families falling even farther into sin.

o Hebrews 11 uses Noah as the example of saving faith right before Abraham. Noah’s righteousness came not only by his own goodness, but from his trust in God.

Was Noah saved by his righteousness or by God’s grace?Genesis 6:8 (NIV84) Noah found favor in the eyes of the LORD.Genesis 6:9 (NIV84) Noah was a righteous man, blameless among the people of his time. All the “you’s”, calling Noah righteous in Genesis 6-8, are all singular.

o Noah is the righteous one, but Noah’s family gets to go with him on the ark. Adam and Eve’s unrighteousness got their whole family line into trouble.

o But, Noah’s righteousness saved his whole family. It’s often said that God doesn’t have grandchildren…

o That’s true in so far as everyone has to put their own faith in Jesus in order to be saved.o But, in another sense, God has lots of grandchildren. The Bible is full of stories of families saved or

lost by the actions of their parents. o Even people who are first generation Christians, have spiritual parents who shared Jesus with them.

We who have godly parents/grandparents have a great privilege of receiving faith in Christ as an inheritance from them (2 Tim. 1:5).o We who have children/grandchildren have a responsibility to pass faith in Jesus to them (1 Tim. 5:4).o But, Noah’s righteousness goes beyond being an example for us follow…

Noah’s righteousness is an example of how Jesus’ righteousness saves us.

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Noah is both an example of reward for righteousness and of receiving God’s grace: I’ve heard it suggested that the story of Noah is a good test of the theology of a children’s Bible.

o It would be simple but incorrect to say that Noah was good so God saved Him. Therefore, you should be good too so that God will save you too.

o But it would also be simple but incorrect to say that Noah was evil and God chose him totally at random to be saved by grace. Therefore, you’d better hope God picks you at random too.

The problem with both of these interpretations is that we’re trying to find ourselves in the Bible without trying to find Jesus first and then ask how we relate to Him.o I’m tempted to say that we are a little bit full of ourselves.o But, as people created in God’s image, perhaps we are right to assume that if there is a hero in a

story, we are called to be the hero.o We just forget that as descendants of Adam we are also born as the villains in the story.

We think of ourselves like Harrison Ford.o Harrison Ford is usually typecast as the hero in movies, but he’s usually also a bad boy.

We know we’re sinners, but we think our sins just make us more interesting characters.o Occasionally, Harrison Ford is cast as a true villain, but that’s usually a surprise ending.o But, in “Sabrina” as you’re trying to decide if Harrison Ford is just a bad boy or truly a bad guy this

time who’s going to hurt Sabrina, she suggest another option: maybe in this story Harrison Ford is actually the damsel in distress. Here’s the secret to understanding Genesis 6-8: You’re not Noah. You’re not the hero.

You are the damsel in distress. Noah as the hero is a type of Christ. He saved the world by his righteousness (Gen. 6:9).

o You’re not righteous enough to save yourself, let alone to save the world, or even your family.o But, we’re going to find out next week in Genesis 9 that not even Noah is Noah, only Jesus is.

Jesus is the only person who always did what was right all the time and always will.o Jesus is the only one with perfect righteousness that can be credited to our account.

Grace = unmerited/undeserved/unearned favor.o Noah received favor from God (Gen. 6:8).

And, ultimately, grace is the only kind of favor that fallen people can receive from God.o We can’t earn God’s favor, but Jesus did!

And, Jesus offers to trade His righteousness for our sin (2 Cor. 5:21). We’re saved by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone.

o But, we learn from Noah as a type of Christ that we aren’t saved without righteousness.o We need someone else’s righteousness to save us.

Noah is playing the hero: Jesus, in this object lesson.o We are either the rest of the world, who are the villains who perish for our sin…o Or, we are Noah’s family, who are the damsels in distress saved because of the righteousness of the

head of our family. (Noah’s son’s wives even married into his family!)

Conclusion: Personal Application Who are you in this story of judgment and salvation?

o Do you think you’re the hero who can save yourself and others by your own righteousness?o Are you still one of the villains in the story who deserves to be destroyed?o Or, are you willing to give up on being either the hero or the villain and be the damsel in distress by

admitting that you need to be saved? Do you believe that God is planning a final judgment of the whole world like the flood?

o Are you in the ark of Jesus’ righteousness by faith in His death and resurrection?

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