The Flood of the whole world part 2 Gen. 6:14-7:3

Introduction

In Genesis 6 we are introduced to the wickedness of the world and the righteousness of Noah and his family. While God looked on the world to destroy it, Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord.

While the world was full of wickedness, Noah lived a life above reproach. Because of the way he lived while God was going to destroy the earth his family would be saved.

Not only were the people corrupt, but the earth was corrupted by mans sin as well, therefore God was going to destroy man with the earth.

Tonight I want to look at the blueprint for the ark, the covenant made with Noah, the contents of the ark, and the reason Noah was allowed on the ark reiterated.

The Blueprint of the Ark vs. 14-16

The Material vs.14a

The ark would be made out of Gopher wood.

Though not clear most commentaries would say it was probably cypress or cedar wood.

The ark was pitched inside and out meaning it was sealed on the inside and the outside to help it float.

The pitch is a picture of Christ as it pictures a protective covering against the waters of judgement.

The floor plan vs. 14b

the Bible says that they were to make rooms or nests in the ark. They would need plenty of rooms for the animals to stay in while on the ark.

The dimensions vs 15

the length of the ark was 300 cubits which would be around 510 feet

The breadth or width of the ark was 50 cubits which would be around 85 feet

The height of the ark would be 30 cubits or around 50 feet.

Often times when we think about Noah’s ark we think of it as the flanograph lesson we had growing up, but it was a huge ship that would house many thousands of animals.

The last part of vs. 16 tells us that the ark would be three stories tall.

The window and door vs. 16

The window was one cubit and would likely of been used for ventilation and light.

The door on the side of the ark was closed once after all the animals and Noah’s family was in the ark, it was also only opened once after the waters receded and they were released.

The door is also a picture of Jesus as our saviour, as it was the only way to be saved.

Jesus said I am the way, the truth and the life, no man comes to the father but by me.

God’s Covenant with Noah vs. 17-18

There was a flood promised vs. 17

The reason for the flood was the fact that man was only evil continually and they had corrupted the earth as well with their sin.

The flood had a purpose vs. 17

to destroy all flesh, wherein their is the breath of life, from under heaven

to destroy everything in the earth

The pre-flood world would be much different from the post-flood world.

The covenant promised vs. 18

There had been two covenants already made up to this point.

The Edenic Covenant Gen 1:26-30 Gen 2:16-17 This gave Adam and Eve everything to have dominion over and eat except one fruit which was on the tree of the knowledge of Good and Evil

The Adamic Covenant - Genesis 3:14-19 This Covenant promised a redeemer in Jesus Christ who would pay for the sins of the world

Here we come to the third covenant which will be further explained in Genesis 8-9:17, called the Noahic Covenant.

The first part of the covenant with Noah is that he, his wife and his sons and their wives would be saved from the flood on the ark.

God promised to establish a covenant with them!

The Contents of the Ark vs. 19-7:3

The requirements for the animals

Every living thing of all flesh would have at least two representatives on the ark.

The purpose of two was to keep them alive, remember sin was still in the earth and though Noah was a just man and perfect in his generation he still had sin because every man inherits his sin nature from his father.

I say all that to say that the purpose of saving these creatures and Noah, Shem, Ham, Japheth and their wives was not to create a sinless world after the flood. If God wanted to do that he would’ve just destroyed everything and started over.

God made a covenant that their was a redeemer coming and if that covenant wouldn’t have been true no one would be able to get to heaven, so God would use Noah and his son’s to replenish the earth after the flood.

The two representative would be male and female.

Remember that without a male and female there can be no life.

Their purpose after the flood would be to replenish the earth and they could only do that by having a male and a female representative.

Notice in Genesis 1 that God created male and female and they were commanded to replenish the earth and here God would give the same command again.

The other animals represented vs. 20, 7:2-3

There would be 7 of every type of bird

there would be 7 of every clean beast (the animals that could be domesticated and could be used for sacrificial offering) they were to bring seven for three pairs and one would be used as a sacrifice when they left the ark

The beast that were unclean would have two representatives, 1 male and 1 female

there would be 2 of each creeping thing of the earth on the ark as well

They were commanded to get food for themselves and all the animals on the ark as well.

The reason all the animals were brought on the ark was “to keep seed alive”

This statement proves that this wasn’t a local flood but a world wide flood. If it was local God could have moved Noah, his family and the animals he was to save away from the flood zone, but the flood filled the whole earth and we are still seeing evidences of the flood today.

The reason Noah was allowed on the ark reiterated vs. 22-7:1

Chapter 6 ends with the statement Genesis 6:22 “Thus did Noah; according to all that God commanded him, so did he.”

When God told Noah to so something he did it.

We can learn a lot of lessons from Noah.

Noah had never heard of or seen rain, yet he built an ark to the exact specs that God told him too, gathered the animals just like he was told and anything that wasn’t mentioned in the account that God told him to do as well.

Sometimes I feel like we have been so spoiled by God, that we have to have almost perfect conditions to follow what he says to do

Hebrews 11:7 “By faith Noah, being warned of God of things not seen as yet, moved with fear, prepared an ark to the saving of his house; by the which he condemned the world, and became heir of the righteousness which is by faith.”

In verse 1 of chapter 7 we see another reason that God chose Noah

God saw his righteousness before him in this generation

Noah was justified by God which we see when Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord. Noah would receive righteousness the same way we do and that is it is imputed through our belief in the Gospel. Noah looked forward to the Gospel and we look back at it today.

Noah found grace through his belief in Jesus, and we can too all we have to do is trust him.

Conclusion

Noah trusted God enough to build an ark in preparation for a flood when there had never even been a drop of rain on the earth. How much do we trust him today?