Noah part 4
Scripture
Genesis 7: Then Yahweh said to Noah, “Enter the ark, you and all your household, for you alone I have seen to be righteous before Me in this generation.
11 In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, in the second month, on the seventeenth day of the month, on this day all the fountains of the great deep split open, and the [h]floodgates of the sky were opened.
13 On this very day Noah and Shem and Ham and Japheth, the sons of Noah, and Noah’s wife and the three wives of his sons with them, entered the ark,
19 And the water prevailed more and more upon the earth, so that all the high mountains under all the heavens were covered.
21 And all flesh that [o]moved on the earth breathed its last, that is birds and cattle and beasts and every swarming thing that swarms upon the earth, as well as all mankind.
8 Then God remembered Noah and all the beasts and all the cattle that were with him in the ark; and God caused a wind to pass over the earth, and the water subsided. 2 Also the fountains of the deep and the [a]floodgates of the sky were closed, and the rain from the sky was restrained;
4 In the seventh month, on the seventeenth day of the month, the ark rested upon the mountains of Ararat.
We are returning this morning to the story of Noah after a two week pause. We had a great time and a time of refreshment on our trip to Georgia. We got to see some relatives. And we got to see a different part of God’s creation. One of the places we visited was the aquarium in downtown Atlanta. It is the largest aquarium in the U.S., the fourth largest in the world. We saw all kinds of sea creatures; sharks, the whale shark, Beluga whales, dolphins, sea lions, and more. So, even on our trip, my mind kept going back to the Biblical story of our origins, and of the worldwide flood.
And there’s something that you can’t get away from when you visit places that profile nature. I believe in God who created all that we see in six days. And when I look at sea creatures I see the evidence of God’s design, and when I look at mountains and rips in the landscape, I see evidence of the worldwide flood.
But the managers of the tourist attractions always present an evolutionary explanation. For example,
The explanation for the evolution of whales is a problematic. If you follow the story of the supposed evolution of all life, you know that supposedly the first life arose in the water, as single-celled organisms. Then, over millions of years, and by the mechanism of “survival of the fittest,” sea animals which breathe underwater and land animals that breathe air developed.
The problem with the whale is fitting it into the evolutionary tree. It is a sea animal, but it has to come out of the water to breathe air periodically or it will drown. And it is a mammal, so it would seem to be related more to land animals.
So, what is the evolutionary answer to this problem? They propose that there was an original animal that evolved from the sea, became a land animal, walking around on four legs that evolved over time, and then for some reason, that same land animal then returned to the sea, and evolved into a sea creature that nursed its young and breathes air like a land animal.
My big question is how?
I have an easier time believing in a creator God when I look at the wonder of the world, than believing some of the contrived stories that evolutionists make up. So, as Scripture states, even creation declares the glory of God. So, since we are approaching Scripture from a standpoint of belief in its account of history, the next question we ask is; “So what?” So, what if the Bible is true, what does that mean to my life. That’s where we look at the Word for its doctrine.
What doctrinal points have discovered so far?
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.
Today we pick up with the last two points; redemption is offered by shed blood, and the story of the days of Noah is a foreshadowing of what the end times will be.
Now, the next point really returns again to the way of salvation. Remember that God has been building a precedent from the beginning of creation. The precedent is that sin is atoned for with a blood sacrifice offered in faith. God sacrificed an animal to make Adam and Eve clothes. They had made for themselves clothes out of fig leaves. God made them clothes from animal skins. This was the first death in the world. It aptly illustrated for Adam and Eve the truth that is later presented in Scripture;
Hebrews 9: 22 And according to the [a]Law, one may almost say, all things are cleansed with blood, and without shedding of blood there is no forgiveness.
Later, Adam and Eve’s son Abel brought of the best of his flock for a blood sacrifice. God looked on his offering with favor but did not look favorably on Cain’s bloodless sacrifice. And now, as we conclude the flood story, we find another blood sacrifice taking place. Noah exits the ark.
I. Back to the blood
20 Then Noah built an altar to Yahweh and took of every clean animal and of every clean bird and offered burnt offerings on the altar.
What can wash away my sin? Nothing but the blood
Remember that God commanded that 7 of each of the clean animals be taken on the ark. Now, there are two prevailing interpretations of this number 7. One is that, of the clean animals there were 7 each taken on the ark. In other words, God told Noah to bring on the ark 3 pairs of every clean domesticated animal; sheep, goats, cows, chickens, etc. and then one more of each of these animals. The explanation for this number is two-fold. First, it’s as if God had already made the preparations to have an animal for sacrifice of every clean animal, and second it would leave 3 pairs of each clean animal to begin the farm after the flood.
But there is a second interpretation I came across. This interpretation would have Noah bringing 7 pairs of each clean animal on the ark. In order to help you understand where they get this number, let me read to you a direct word by word translation of Genesis 7:2.
“Of every animal clean you shall take with you seven seven a male and his female and of animals not clean are two a male and his female.”
Notice that the word seven is written two times. But notice that when it is talking about the number of unclean animals, it simply says two, not two two. Some interpreters take this to mean that there were seven pairs of every kind of clean animal, and just one pair of each of the unclean. That would mean that Noah brought 14 sheep, cows, chickens, etc. on the ark, and that he sacrificed some of every clean animal when he exited the ark. I am actually preferring this second interpretation right now, because it seems to make greater sense. It would be God’s provision of a bigger herd of clean domesticated animals to raise, once Noah and his family exited the ark, and started life in the devastated post-flood earth. But regardless of how many of each of the clean animals there were, 7 or 14, Noah made a blood sacrifice on an altar when he exited the ark. Why?
“The great Bible teacher of yesteryear, William Evans, noted, “Cut the Bible anywhere and it bleeds.” The blood of Jesus stains every page, every book, in both testaments. Evans observed that “the atonement is the scarlet cord running through every page in the entire Bible”; it “is red with redemption truth.”
“He must have pointed to highlights like Abraham’s near sacrifice of his son on the very mountain where Jesus, the Son of God, would die centuries later. He probably told them how the exodus from Egypt prefigured our exodus from the slavery of sin, made possible by His death.
I can almost hear Him describing the blood sacrifices of Leviticus, the servant prophecies of Isaiah predicting Christ, and so many psalms long considered to be messianic in nature.Actual scarlet cords show up in Scripture with some interesting overtones.
The garments of the high priest and the curtains of the tabernacle in the Old Testament included scarlets threads. Many have seen these usages as prefiguring the atoning work of the future Lamb of God, Jesus Christ, through His shed blood.
When an advance team of Jewish spies scouted out Jericho and almost got caught, a faith-filled ex-prostitute named Rahab helped them to escape through her window via a scarlet cord. They promised her when the day of Jericho’s destruction came, she and her family could be identified for rescue by hanging that rope from her window on the wall of the city.
The scarlet cord—the color of blood—was a sign of her faith that led to her salvation. The cord, for Rahab, worked much like the smeared blood on the lintels and doorposts of Jewish homes in Egypt on the night of the Passover decades before.The main theme of the Bible is Christ.
He’s the hero of the story because His sacrifice on the cross provided salvation for mankind. The “scarlet thread” of redemption is interwoven through the entire story and can be seen in the many accounts of biblical history that tell His story.
It weaves together the hides of the animals slaughtered in the Garden of Eden to provide garments for Adam and Eve.
It snares the ram provided in Isaac’s place on Mount Moriah.
It stains the doorposts in Egypt and trickles down the altar in the tabernacle in the
wilderness and the temple in Jerusalem.
That blood-red cord binds the Old Testament to John the Baptist’s introduction of Jesus as “the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world,” and to the beams of a Roman cross at Golgotha, where Jesus declared, “It is finished!”
Though Jesus had a miraculous birth, though He performed many nature-defying wonders, and though He taught the most sublime truths ever proclaimed, none of these provide salvation, and none are the focal point of His ministry.
The epicenter of all history, especially redemptive history, is the cross.
Bethlehem’s baby was born to die! The Bible even refers to Jesus in its final book as “the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world” (Revelation 13:8). In other words, before God made the world, He made the plan to save the world. And why blood? Because “without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness” (Hebrews 9:22 niv).
Isaiah 53:4 Surely our [d]griefs He
Himself [e]bore, And
our [f]sorrows
He [g]carried; Yet
we ourselves esteemed Him stricken, [h]Smitten
of God, and afflicted. 5 But He was [i]pierced
through for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities;
The chastening for our peace fell upon Him,
And by His [j]wounds we
are healed. 6 All of us like sheep have gone astray, Each
of us has turned to his own way; But Yahweh has caused the iniquity of us all
To [k]fall on Him.
A blood sacrifice was made that foreshadowed the Jesus’ blood sacrifice. And God made a promise.
21 And Yahweh smelled the [i]soothing aroma; and Yahweh said [j]to Himself, “I will never again curse the ground because of man, for the [k]intent of man’s heart is evil from his youth; and I will never again strike down every living thing as I have done.
9: 11 Indeed I establish My covenant with you; and all flesh shall never again be cut off by the water of the flood, and there shall never again be a flood to destroy the earth.”12 Then God said, “This is the sign of the covenant which I am giving to be between Me and you and every living creature that is with you, for [g]all successive generations;13 I put My bow in the cloud, and it shall be for a sign of a covenant between Me and the earth.14 And it will be, when I bring a cloud over the earth, that the bow will be seen in the cloud,15 and I will remember My covenant, which is between Me and you and every living creature of all flesh; and never again shall the water become a flood to destroy all flesh.16 So the bow shall be in the cloud, and I will look upon it, to remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is on the earth.”17 And God said to Noah, “This is the sign of the covenant which I have established between Me and all flesh that is on the earth.”
Here’s something interesting. God says, “I will never again bring this worldwide flood.” Why? Because “the intent of man’s heart is evil from his youth.” Isn’t that the exact reason why He flooded the earth to begin with, because “that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually?” But now He says that that is the reason not to flood the earth.
God brought the flood because of the evil heart of man, and He promised not to
I think the reason gets back to grace. God showed grace to Noah. Not because He was perfect, but because He chose to. And now God chooses to show grace to the world, not because they deserve it, or because they will never again get as bad as they did in Noah’s day, but because God chooses to extend grace.
22 While all the days of the earth remain, Seedtime and harvest, And cold and heat, And summer and winter, And day and night Shall not cease.”
Do you know what these verses remind me of?
Acts 17: 29 Being then the offspring of God, we ought not to suppose that the Divine Nature is like gold or silver or stone, an image formed by the craft and thought of man.30 Therefore having overlooked the times of ignorance, God is now commanding men that everyone everywhere should repent,31 because He has fixed a day in which He will judge [r]the world in righteousness [s]through a Man whom He determined, having furnished proof to all [t]by raising Him from the dead.”
It's as though the worldwide flood was a stark and visual reminder to the world of God’s judgment of sin, and now that He has shown them that, He sets about on the task of bringing the Savior from sin into the world. The next major story in Scripture is that of Abraham who is the father of the nation of Israel, the birth nation of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Isaiah 54:8-10 In [a]a flood of fury I hid My face from you for a moment,
But with everlasting lovingkindness I will have
compassion on you,”
Says Yahweh your Redeemer. 9 “For [b]this is like the days of Noah to Me,
When I swore that the waters of Noah Would not [c]overflow the earth again;
So I have sworn that I will not be furious with you Nor
will I rebuke you.
10 For the mountains may be removed and
the hills may shake, But My lovingkindness will not be removed from you, And
My covenant of peace will not be shaken,” Says Yahweh who has
compassion on you.
The last of the flood story foreshadows a coming Savior. In the flood, God unleashed a harsh judgment against sin. Now, He prepares to bring in the Savior; “the Lamb of God” who will shed His blood to “take away the sins of the world.” We know that day came when Jesus was born, and then died on the cross for our sins. But the last doctrinal point that we want to consider about Noah is one that Jesus made.
II. The days of Noah are like the end.
Matthew 24:37-39 For just as the days of Noah were, so the coming of the Son of Man will be. 38 For as in those days before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark, 39 and they did not [a]understand until the flood came and took them all away; so will the coming of the Son of Man be.
Matthew 24 is often called “the Olivet Discourse,” because Jesus sat down with His disciples on the Mount of Olives and answered their questions about His second coming, and the end of the world. And when I say “the end of the world” I mean the end of the current state of the world. The Bible tells us that Jesus is going to physically return to this world a second time, and that the world, as we know it, will end. He will come and begin His reign over the world. All current powers, governments, rulers, and authorities will be removed, and Jesus will reign. Nature itself will be transformed. Now, it is not my intent to go into great detail here about what that world will look like. But that new world will begin with Jesus’ return. And in Matthew 24, He says that the situation of humanity, right before His return, will be like the situation of humanity during the “days of Noah.”
What does it mean that the world we be like the days of Noah before the second coming of Christ? Well, I believe there are two basic ideas at play here. The first is described in a statement on
“When Jesus says that it will be the same as it was in the days of Noah before His coming, He is referring to the fact that the world will be just as wicked and evil as it was during the time of Noah.”
“During the days of Noah, there was no one who looked to God except for Noah. The people of the time were wicked and vile.
They had no respect for God and chose to indulge the sinful nature and worship false gods. Instead of looking to the Lord and living in repentance, they were wicked and were unashamed of their actions.
Since the world had grown to be wicked and evil, God told Noah to build an ark for him, his wife, his sons, and his sons’ wives.”
That is a common interpretation of the days of Noah. The end times will be wicked like the days of Noah were. Nobody was righteous except Noah. God looked over the whole earth and found that every single person in it was only seeking what was right in their own eyes, continually. There was only evil in every heart. Nobody sought God.
As evidence of that, violence and bloodshed was everywhere. And the world was corrupted. That means that even that which was the good gift of God, they make impure. 2 Timothy 3 gives us more detail. See if any of this describes our world today.
3 But know this, that in the last days difficult times will come. 2 For men will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, blasphemers (of God), disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy, 3 unloving, irreconcilable (unable to make peace), [a]malicious gossips, without self-control, without gentleness, without love for good, 4 treacherous(betrayers), reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, 5 holding to a form of [b]godliness (still religious in some form), but having denied its power. So, the end time days people will be like that. I don’t know about you, but I see a lot of those characteristics in the world, what’s worse I see them in the church, even worse, I see them in my own heart.
That is the first thing that characterizes “the days of Noah.” And the end times will be like those days in looking at the evil of people. But the second thing that characterizes the “days of Noah” was Jesus’ main emphasis in this passage when He brings up Noah’s days. You have to look at the context of when Jesus mentions Noah. He mentions Him in verse 37 of the chapter. That means He has already spent 36 verses describing the Tribulation; God’s 7 year time of judgment by plague against the world. He’s already described His 2nd coming.
So, verse 36 to the end of the chapter is really Jesus wrapping up His teaching on the end. He is now succinctly answering His disciples’ original questions.
3 Now as He was sitting on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to Him privately, saying, “Tell us, when will these things happen, and what will be the sign of Your coming and of the [a]end of the age?”
When is it going to happen, and what signs do we look for to know it is near? And what does Jesus say?
36 “But of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father alone. 37 For just as the days of Noah were, so the coming of the Son of Man will be. 38 For as in those days before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark, 39 and they did not [y]understand until the flood came and took them all away; so will the coming of the Son of Man be. 40 Then there will be two in the field; one [z]will be taken, and one [aa]will be left. 41 Two women will be grinding grain at the [ab]mill; one [ac]will be taken and one [ad]will be left. 42 “Therefore stay awake, for you do not know which day your Lord is coming.
Do you know what Jesus to His disciples as they asked “when” and “what signs?” He is saying, “you can’t know.” “There are no signs.” And He compares it to the days of Noah. This is the main reason He brings up Noah. In the days of Noah, was there anybody but Noah and his family who believed that a worldwide flood was coming? No. Noah told them. They didn’t believe him. Noah pointed to the sin of the world that God would judge, and they were unrepentant.
Look at what Jesus says about the world of Noah’s day. “they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark.” They were going about life. Nobody was wringing their hands, fasting and praying in remorse over their sin, asking God to save them from the flood. They were getting married; the ultimate sign of optimism about the future.
So, how will we know when the end, the final days of God’s judgment will come? What will be the signs? People will be becoming increasingly evil, and life will proceed like normal. And then God’s judgment will begin.
Incidentally, some will look at this passage as a description of the rapture of God’s people before the judgment comes. They look at verses 39-41 as a description of the rapture of the righteous. This is not a description of the rapture of the righteous. Follow me here.
38 For as in those days before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark,
In that verse, who is “they?” The evil people of the world who would die in God’s flood judgment.
39 and they did not [y]understand until the flood came and took them all away;
In that verse, who is “they and them?” The evil people of the world who would die in God’s flood judgment. What happened to them?
the flood came and took them all away;
They were taken away by the flood.
Now let’s read on.
so will the coming of the Son of Man be. 40 Then there will be two in the field; one [z]will be taken, and one [aa]will be left.
This is a comparison between the days of Noah and the end times. In the days of Noah, the people described as “taken” or “took” were the evil people taken away by the flood. In Jesus analogy two people will be working together in the field, and in a moment, just like in the flood, the evil one will be struck by God’s judgment, and the righteous one will be protected.
41 Two women will be grinding grain at the [ab]mill; one [ac]will be taken and one [ad]will be left.
Two women will be at work grinding grain, and judgment will strike the evil one and leave the righteous one. If you are going to be faithful to the words of Scripture, you have to be consistent in recognizing that the verb “took” or “taken” does not refer to a person being snatched away from the world to go to be with God in heaven. It refers to being taken away by a judgment.
You say, “how can judgment strike one person, but miss the person next to them?” It happens all the time. One person contracts the plague, and the another person in their house is untouched. One person gets struck by lightning, and the person next to them is unharmed. One person in a car accident dies, another walks away without a scratch.
But what is Jesus main point in comparing the days of Noah to the end times?
42 “Therefore stay awake, for you do not know which day your Lord is coming.
How fitting that these were the last two points regarding the story of the flood in Scripture. They present two sides of a coin. Just as in Noah’s day, his message was, judgment day is coming, but what can wash away my sin, nothing but the blood. Our prayer is that no one who hears this message adopts the spirit of the days of Noah, and just ignores the warning, going on eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage.
Call on Him while He may be found.
Psalm 32:5-7 5 I acknowledged my sin to You, And my iniquity I did not cover up; I said, “I will confess my transgressions to Yahweh;” And You forgave the [a]iniquity of my sin. Selah. 6 Therefore, let every holy one pray to You [b]at a time when You may be found; Surely in a flood of great waters they will not reach him. 7 You are my hiding place; You guard me from trouble; You surround me with [c]songs of deliverance. Selah