Firm Foundations: Noah part 1

Firm Foundations: Noah

Chapter 6: Now it happened, when men began to multiply on the face of the land, and daughters were born to them, 2 that the sons of God saw that the daughters of men were good in appearance; and they took wives for themselves, whomever they chose. 3 Then Yahweh said, “My Spirit shall not [a]strive with man forever [b]because he indeed is flesh; [c]nevertheless his days shall be 120 years.”

5 Then Yahweh saw that the evil of man was great on the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. 6 And Yahweh regretted that He had made man on the earth, and He was grieved [d]in His heart. 7 And Yahweh said, “I will blot out man whom I have created from the face of the land, from man to animals to creeping things and to birds of the [e]sky; for I regret that I have made them.” 8 But Noah found favor in the eyes of Yahweh.

We have arrived at one of the most dramatic stories in the Bible. The story of the worldwide flood. The story of Noah and the ark. At right off the bat, this story is not taken seriously. Among non-Christians, this story is regarded as a fairy-tale. It is mythology. And often the Christian view of this story is little better. Most of the time, in Christian settings, the story of Noah’s Ark is portrayed as a cartoon, or caricature.

I typed Noah’s Ark into my internet search engine, and the first pictures that popped up were of children’s toys. A little wood boat with oversized elephants, giraffes, and Noah standing on the bow. Playmobil has a set you can buy. There are toddler books, and cloth arks that you can stuff with animals. The most frequent picture is of a line of animals going two by two up a ramp into the vessel. Sometimes they are exiting the boat after the flood with a rainbow framing the scene. Even our songs seem to trivialize the story.

The Lord told Noah: There's gonna be a floody, floody The Lord told Noah: There's gonna be a floody, floody Get those children out of the muddy, muddy Children of the Lord
Rise and shine And give God the glory, glory Rise and shine And give God the glory, glory
Rise and shine And give God the glory, glory Children of the Lord

The lyrics get even more profound.
The Lord told Noah To build him an arky, arky Build it out of gopher barky, barky Children of the Lord
He called for the animals, They came in by twosie, twosies Elephants and kangaroosie, roosies
It rained and it poured For forty daysie, daysies Almost drove those animals crazy, crazies,
Then Noah he sent out He sent out a dovey dovey Dovey said "There's clear skies abovey-bovey"
The sun came out and It dried up the landy landyEverything was fine and dandy, dandy
Animals they came off They came off by three-sies three-sies Grizzly bears and chimpanzee-sies
That is the end of, The end of my story, story Everything is hunky dory, dory

source: https://www.lyricsondemand.com/miscellaneouslyrics/childsongslyrics/riseandshinelyrics.html

Now, I’m not disparaging the benefits of teaching children this story using pleasant visuals and songs. But the real story of Noah’s ark was not a cartoon. It was a catastrophe on a global scale. It was terrifying, violent, and brought death to millions of people. And even for Noah and his family it was no picnic. Over one year they were confined to a bobbing boat on a worldwide ocean caring for a floating zoo. And even when they disembarked, it wasn’t like getting off a pleasure cruise and arriving at a hotel for a beach vacation. It was more akin to getting off on a bare and torn landscape after a category 5 hurricane has come through. There was destruction everywhere. When you consider the death and destructiveness of the flood it is astounding that we have mementos of it as mobiles over our baby’s cribs.

I continued my search of the web for Christian characterizations of the flood and I turned to Christian T-shirts. I thought, surely in the Christian adult T-shirt section of the bookstore, we’ll find a serious look at Noah’s flood. These are the designs I discovered. One T-shirt read; “Need an ark? I Noah guy.” The next was Noah informing a unicorn that they were out of space on the ark.

We have often trivialized the story of the ark in Christian circles. But regardless of where we have been, as we take another look at this story we are doing so with a fresh set of eyes. As we fly over the Bible, we are looking at the foundational doctrines of the Christian faith. So, our question about Noah, the ark, and the flood is…what is the point? What is the foundational truth or truths to be discovered?

Let me tell you where we are going. I want to first give you the story in a nutshell. Then I want to go back to key parts of the story and uncover the foundational truths. Here are the foundational truths we will uncover.

1. Mankind lives up to his sinful nature. 2. God doesn’t relish punishment. 3. It is still, by grace that you are saved, by faith. 4. God provides the way of salvation. 5. Sin always has consequences. 5. It is the blood that brings remission of sins. 6. The end of the world will be like the days of Noah.

Prayer

First, here’s the story in a nutshell. In the beginning, God created everything, including the first man and woman who chose sin over God. 1600 years after the creation, man has to work the land for survival. But the generational effects of sin are not completely apparent. Men live long lives, and use those many years to indulge their desires. The world, humanity has strayed far, far away from God. What began as simple disobedience in the Garden of Eden, grew to the first murder one generation later, then multiple murder 5 generations after that. There are very few among the people who give a thought to their creator. Here’s how Scripture describes the scene.

This indicates that the marital relationship had disintegrated to choosing a partner based on looks and lust. Spiritual considerations were cast aside.

3 Then Yahweh said, “My Spirit shall not [a]strive with man forever [b]because he indeed is flesh; [c]

God looked out over the landscape of the multiple millions of humanity and found none who seek Him, or seek anything other than their own gratification.

Chapter five goes on to say,

11 Now the earth was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence. 12 And God saw the earth, and behold, it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted their way upon the earth.

In seeking only his own desires, mankind determines that achieving their desires should come “by any means necessary. He will steal, kill, kidnap, destroy, assault, bite and fight to get what he wants. There is no compassion, no true love in the world. As Scripture would say later,Psalm 14:2-3 The Lord looked down from heaven upon the children of men, to see if there were any that did understand, and seek God. 3 They are all gone aside, they are all together become filthy: there is none that doeth good, no, not one.

So, God determines to destroy it all.

7 And Yahweh said, “I will blot out man whom I have created from the face of the land, from man to animals to creeping things and to birds of the [e]sky; for I regret that I have made them.”

God determines the last day for humanity. He turns the hourglass to count down 120 more years before He floods the earth.

But there is one man on the earth, who does walk with God. His name is Noah.

8 But Noah found favor in the eyes of Yahweh.

9 These are the generations of Noah. Noah was a righteous man, [f]blameless among those in his generations; Noah walked with God.

So, instead of destroying it all, God determines to start fresh with this man. And He will use Noah to build a vessel that will save him, his family, and a remnant of all animal life on the planet.

Then Noah built the ark and gathered the animals. It took 120 years. At God’s command, he and his family enter the ark, and then begins the deluge. They are on the boat, bobbing on the worldwide sea for over a year. In the end, the waters recede, and Noah and his family, and the animals exit the ark, and repopulate the world.

That’s the story of Noah and the ark in a nutshell.

Now let’s turn to focus more on the foundational truths of the story. Some of them we’ve heard before.

I. Mankind is driven by a basic evil nature.

There are three words used to describe what man’s nature had become; fleshly, violent, and corrupt. And they describe the ruination of all three relational aspects of mankind; how man relates to himself, how he relates to God, how he relates to his fellow man. The first is fleshly; how man relates to himself; his drive, internal motivation.

These are the first words in this passage used to describe the nature of humankind.

“the sons of God saw that the daughters of men were good in appearance; and they took wives for themselves, whomever they chose.”

He is driven by his desires. “See a beautiful woman,” “I want her.” “I will take her as a wife.” It is a simple description of living life at its lowest level. I have a fleshly desire, and I fulfill it. This describes an animalistic existence. It is a long way from the first man and woman, who God brought together, and Adam exclaimed, “She is flesh of my flesh, bone of my bone.” God’s design was for a spiritual and physical union. It had now become physical unions driven only by lust. God summarizes a description of man’s nature;

3 Then Yahweh said, “My Spirit shall not [a]strive with man forever [b]because he indeed is flesh;

“He is flesh.” The sum of a person is his flesh. The Spirit that connects to God is dead. All he wants is to eat, drink, sleep, fulfill his sexual desires, see new things, taste new things, feel new things, and titillate his mind. That’s the first word. The second is the word corrupt. It means “spoiled, destroyed, marred, ruined” and then it adds the words “before God.”

11 Now the earth was corrupt before God….12 And God saw the earth, and behold, it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted their way upon the earth.

For something to be ruined or corrupted, it has to have had a good original purpose that is now gone. When I say, “This shirt is ruined!” I mean that it was originally good. It served a good purpose. It was good in appearance. But now something has happened to it that has destroyed it for use in it’s original purpose.

Humankind’s original purpose was to be in a relationship of worship, service, and love with God. But now, because of sin, and a persistent rejection of God’s standards, humanity is ruined for that purpose.

And they are described in terms of their relationships with other people.

and the earth was filled with violence.

https://www.bibleref.com/Genesis/6/Genesis-6-11.html

“The Hebrew word translated "violence" here is hā'mās'. This implies more than just the kind of brute force attacks we think of when we hear the English word. This can also include injustice, oppression, and cruelty. The term also suggests the effects physical violence has on a person or group which has been violently conquered: oppression, deprivation, and misuse. Men of the pre-flood world are not only disobedient to God, they are harsh and abusive to each other.”

And we are not surprised by this, because we’ve already seen that with man’s spirit dead, he has no communication with God, and that which was in him that called him up to a higher life, isn’t there. He can’t do more than be the sinful person that he is. I found quite a few verses that describe man’s nature in the rest of Scripture. Apart from the Spirit of God, we are spiritually dead and blind.

Romans 6:6 knowing this, that our old self was crucified with Him, in order that our body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be slaves to sin;

Romans 8:5 For those who are according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who are according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit.

Galatians 5:19-21 Now the deeds of the flesh are evident, which are: immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, disputes, dissensions, factions, envying, drunkenness, carousing, and things like these, of which I forewarn you, just as I have forewarned you, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.

Romans 8:7-8 because the mind set on the flesh is hostile toward God; for it does not subject itself to the law of God, for it is not even able to do so, and those who are in the flesh cannot please God.

1 Corinthians 2:14 But a natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually appraised.

John 3:6-7 That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not be amazed that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’

And that same doctrine is expressed rather simply in the flood story.

5 Then Yahweh saw that the evil of man was great on the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.

What is sin?
Man calls is an accident, God calls it abomination. Man calls it a defect, God calls it a disease.
Man calls it an error, God calls it an enmity. Man calls it a liberty, God calls it lawlessness.
Man calls it a trifle, God calls it a tragedy. Man calls it a mistake, God calls it a madness.
Man calls it a weakness, God calls it willfulness. Moody Monthly.

So the first foundational truth that the flood story teaches us is that Man’s sin nature leads to destruction and judgement. The second truth…

II. God doesn’t desire or relish judgement.

When we read histories of times of God’s judgement, we may envision God in heaven gleefully unleashing His retribution against mankind. Many portrayals of God, or gods are of vengeful, uncaring, and unfeeling gods or God. But that is not sound Biblical theology. Even here in the story where God floods the entire world, it begins with this…

6 And Yahweh regretted that He had made man on the earth, and He was grieved [d]in His heart.

This story uses words for God such as “regretted,” “grieved,” “sorry,” “ ”repented” Twice this verse tries to express the remorse of God. And this is not the only place that tells us that God grieves over sin.

Psalm 78:40 How often they rebelled against Him in the wilderness And grieved Him in the desert!

Isaiah 63:10 But they rebelled And grieved His Holy Spirit; Therefore He turned Himself to become their enemy, He fought against them.

Ephesians 4:30 Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.

So, the first emotion signified from God when looking over the corrupt and disobedient world is not anger, but remorse and grief.

But why did He grieve? Didn’t He know that that would happen? We are told that God knows everything, past, present, and future. The Authorized Version says that God repented. How can He repent? Well, He can’t in the way we think of it. I think what it means is that God had sorrow over the sinfulness of mankind. The word “repent” is a poor choice because it implies to us that God took one action, and later decided that He shouldn’t have done that, He wished He hadn’t made man. This flies in the face of what we understand about God from the rest of Scripture.Numbers 23:19 God is not a man, that He should lie, Nor a son of man, that He should repent;Malachi 3:6 “For [a]I, Yahweh, do not change; therefore you, O sons of Jacob, [b]are not consumed.James 1:17 Every good thing given and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or [a]shifting shadow.

And we are not the first, neither will we be the last to grapple with this idea.

https://biblehub.com/commentaries/genesis/6-6.htm

“Verse 6. - And it repented the Lord. Yinnahem; from naham, to pant, to groan; Niph., to lament, to grieve bemuse of the misery of others, also because of one's own actions; whence to repent”

"The repentance here ascribed to God does not properly belong to him, but has reference to our understanding of him (Calvin). "The repentance of God does not presuppose any variableness in his nature or purposes" Keil). "A peculiarly strong anthropathic expression, which, however, presents the truth that God, in consistency with his immutability, assumes a changed position in respect to changed man" (Lange).

Does that clear it up for you?

But regardless of how we answer the question, “How can God be sorry that He made man?” there is one thing this short verse tells us; God does not, and did not relish judging and punishing people. God is not an angry power that is looking for the opportunity to knock us off our pedestal, to wipe us off the face of the earth.

Instead, it describes God as sorrowful and grieving over man’s sinfulness. God’s desire is that all of His creation will become everything that He designed us to be. And when they don’t, He is grieved at that loss. He doesn’t want to punish.

1 Peter 3: 9 The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.

1 Timothy 2:3-4 3 This is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, 4 who desires all men to be saved and to come to the [c]full knowledge of the truth.Ezekiel 33:11Say to them, As I live, declares the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way and live; turn back, turn back from your evil ways, for why will you die, O house of Israel?Isaiah 45:22“Turn to me and be saved, all the ends of the earth! For I am God, and there is no other.

God does desire to punish. The story of the prodigal son is evidence for that. The story of the prodigal son was a parable Jesus told illustrating God’s relationship to sinful people and religious people. The father in the story represents God, his older son are the religious, his younger the sinful. This how the story goes…

Luke 15: 11 And He said, “A man had two sons. 12 And the younger of them said to his father, ‘Father, give me the share of the estate that falls to me.’ So he divided his [f]wealth between them. 13 And not many days later, the younger son gathered everything together and went on a journey into a distant country, and there he squandered his estate living recklessly. 14 Now when he had spent everything, a severe famine occurred in that country, and he began to be impoverished. 15 So he went and [g]hired himself out to one of the citizens of that country, and he sent him into his fields to feed swine. 16 And he was desiring to be fed with the [h]pods that the swine were eating, and no one was giving anything to him. 17 But when he came to himself, he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired men have more than enough bread, but I am dying here with hunger! 18 I will rise up and go to my father, and will say to him, “Father, I have sinned against heaven, and before you. 19 I am no longer worthy to be called your son; make me as one of your hired men.”’ 20 So he rose up and came to [i]his father.

But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and felt compassion, and ran and [j]embraced him and kissed him. 21 And the son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.’ 22 But the father said to his slaves, ‘Quickly bring out the best robe and put it on him, and put a ring on his hand and sandals on his feet, 23 and bring the fattened calf, slaughter it, and let us eat and celebrate, 24 for this son of mine was dead and has come to life again; he was lost and has been found.’ And they began to celebrate.

It has been noted by many that the younger son left his father and chose a life of sin. And yet the father still loved him. It says that the son was returning to his home and “while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and felt compassion, and ran and [j]embraced him and kissed him.” And though the son offered to come as just a servant, his father “said to his slaves, ‘Quickly bring out the best robe and put it on him, and put a ring on his hand and sandals on his feet, 23 and bring the fattened calf, slaughter it, and let us eat and celebrate,” That is the heart of God toward sinners. He desires their repentance and grieves over their sin.