Accountable Before Our Creator
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Introduction
Introduction
The Reason for God’s Judgment (vv. 1-4)
The Reason for God’s Judgment (vv. 1-4)
A. Why the interruption between the account of chapter 5 and the Flood?
The beginning of chapter 6 outlines the circumstances that triggered God’s reaction to destroy the Earth in a global flood
Then the Lord said indicates something about verse 2 caused God’s reaction in verse 3.
Increased population
Chapter 6 begins approx. 1500 years after creation
The population of the earth is exploding
If the growth rate pre-flood was equal to that in 2000 (0.012), there could have been 750 million people at the time of the flood.
If we increase the growth rate by only 0.001 (0.013), it would put the world’s population close to 4 billion people.
B. The Sons of God — 3 Theories
Theory 1 — Sons of God refers to the godly line of Seth intermarrying with the ungodly line of Cain
This seems like the natural approach to the text. We go from the line of Cain and Seth, to seeing how those lines eventually intermarried.
Problem:
How do we know everyone in the line of Seth was godly?
We know some people in the line of Seth died in the flood, so obviously not everyone was godly.
Would this invoke this expression of anger from God?
Theory 2 — Sons of God refers to angels who have taken on human flesh and had sexual relations with women (producing hybrid offspring)
Sons of God often refers to angels throughout the Old Testament
Problem:
30 “For in the resurrection they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like angels in heaven.
Theory 3 — Sons of God refers to fallen angels (demons) who possessed human men and had sexual relations with human women (producing a hybrid of human/demon offspring — mighty men of renown)
In the New Testament, we see some interesting verses which possibly allude to this theory:
Peter connects sinful angels and spirits with the time of Noah
19 in which also He went and made proclamation to the spirits now in prison, 20 who once were disobedient, when the patience of God kept waiting in the days of Noah, during the construction of the ark, in which a few, that is, eight persons, were brought safely through the water.
4 For if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but cast them into hell and committed them to pits of darkness, reserved for judgment; 5 and did not spare the ancient world, but preserved Noah, a preacher of righteousness, with seven others, when He brought a flood upon the world of the ungodly;
Jude affirms angels (demons) left their proper domain
6 And angels who did not keep their own domain, but abandoned their proper abode, He has kept in eternal bonds under darkness for the judgment of the great day,
If theory 3 is correct, you have a situation where the human race is literally being corrupted/polluted from the outside.
Possibly an attempt by Satan to corrupt the “seed” of the woman.
Such a situation could have resulted in the measures acted out by God.
Possibly the source of ancient legends concerning gods or ancient beings producing offspring with humanity.
The Titans were a race of sons and daughters from Uranus (heaven) and Gaia (earth) that ruled during the legendary Golden Age
The Titans were banished to Tartarus (Gk. — deep place), a deep, gloomy pit or abyss used as a dungeon of torment and suffering (1 Pet. 3, 2 Pet. 2, Jude 6).
Problem:
Genesis tells us the Nephilim lived before and after the Flood.
In Numbers 13, we learn there were giants (Nephilim) in Canaan. Are they the same Nephilim? We don’t know.
In dealing with a disobedient world …
God limits His patience
God laments the sin of His creation
God lavishes favor on the righteous
God leads a faithful remnant away from His wrath
I. God Limits His Patience (vv. 1-4)
I. God Limits His Patience (vv. 1-4)
A. My Spirit shall not strive with man forever
120 years
Is this a limit to all human life? Or a time limit until God will flood the world?
It is hard to apply this to everyone since we see evidence of people living longer than this after the Flood
Abraham lived until 175
Isaac lived until 180
Jacob was 147
Likely God setting a limit until the time of His judgment — 120 years = the time of the Flood
We see a similar instance in Jonah 3, where Jonah proclaims Nineveh has 40 days to repent and turn to God.
God is not a vindictive God who is waiting for the moment He can punish us for our sin
God is patient — it means God endures, suffers long with us in our sinful state.
God’s is holding back His judgment on the earth because His desire is that no one would perish.
9 The Lord is not slow about His promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance.
This beautiful truth should resonate deeply with us when we truly examine ourselves.
15 It is a trustworthy statement, deserving full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, among whom I am foremost of all.
Why does Paul say he is the worst of all sinners?
Because Paul understood himself better than anyone else, and he recognized the incredible patience God had with him. We should also recognize the incredible patience God has with us.
B. God loves you more than you can possibly imagine
We learned you were fashioned in the image of the strong, mighty, powerful God.
We seen God’s grace and faithfulness even in the midst of sin
But here is the problem:
There is coming a day when God’s patience will expire
8 The Lord is compassionate and gracious, Slow to anger and abounding in lovingkindness. 9 He will not always strive with us, Nor will He keep His anger forever.
Despite God’s warnings, many will not listen
37 “For the coming of the Son of Man will be just like the days of Noah. 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 understand until the flood came and took them all away; so will the coming of the Son of Man be.
II. God Laments the Sin of His Creation (vv. 5-7)
II. God Laments the Sin of His Creation (vv. 5-7)
A. V. 5 — “Everything they thought or imagined was consistently and totally evil.”
It is hard to wrap our heads around this statement
Don’t we consistently see our culture getting worse?
B. V. 6 — “So the Lord was sorry that He made mankind.”
How does this verse fit with the sovereignty of God? Doesn’t God know everything? Did God change His mind?
19 “God is not a man, that He should lie, Nor a son of man, that He should repent; Has He said, and will He not do it? Or has He spoken, and will He not make it good?
God did not change His mind. He knew when He created the world this would be the result.
God was grieved. He was grieved because the human beings He created in His image were rebelling against Him.
What does this tell us about God?
It tells us God possesses intense emotion.
God takes no pleasure in the death of the wicked. We saw this last week in the book of Ezekiel:
11 “Say to them, ‘As I live!’ declares the Lord God, ‘I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but rather that the wicked turn from his way and live. Turn back, turn back from your evil ways! Why then will you die, O house of Israel?’
We often struggle with the judgment of God. We struggle with the enormity of eternal punishment. We read about God’s judgment and it breaks our hearts. But it breaks God’s heart as well.
Why does it break God’s heart?
Because God is deeply moved by the pain and suffering sin causes. We see an example of this with the story of Lazarus:
28 When she had said this, she went away and called Mary her sister, saying secretly, “The Teacher is here and is calling for you.” 29 And when she heard it, she got up quickly and was coming to Him. 30 Now Jesus had not yet come into the village, but was still in the place where Martha met Him. 31 Then the Jews who were with her in the house, and consoling her, when they saw that Mary got up quickly and went out, they followed her, supposing that she was going to the tomb to weep there. 32 Therefore, when Mary came where Jesus was, she saw Him, and fell at His feet, saying to Him, “Lord, if You had been here, my brother would not have died.” 33 When Jesus therefore saw her weeping, and the Jews who came with her also weeping, He was deeply moved in spirit and was troubled, 34 and said, “Where have you laid him?” They said to Him, “Lord, come and see.” 35 Jesus wept.
Because God in His holiness must punish sin
5 The Lord descended in the cloud and stood there with him as he called upon the name of the Lord. 6 Then the Lord passed by in front of him and proclaimed, “The Lord, the Lord God, compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in lovingkindness and truth; 7 who keeps lovingkindness for thousands, who forgives iniquity, transgression and sin; yet He will by no means leave the guilty unpunished, visiting the iniquity of fathers on the children and on the grandchildren to the third and fourth generations.”
Knowing what He must do, because of His holiness, God is grieved over the state of humanity.
III. God Lavishes Favor on the Righteous (vv. 8-13)
III. God Lavishes Favor on the Righteous (vv. 8-13)
A. God showed favor to Noah on account of his righteousness
I read some commentaries this week who argue, wrongly, that God arbitrarily chose Noah.
Scripture makes it abundantly clear both here in Genesis and the New Testament that Noah was a righteous man who walked with God.
Does righteous mean Noah was perfect?
Absolutely not! Scripture testifies no one is without fault. We see an abundantly clear example in Romans:
23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,
In fact, when we get to chapter 9 we will see even in his righteousness, Noah still sinned.
Righteous means Noah’s heart was completely given to God:
2 Chronicles 16:9 (NASB95)
9 “For the eyes of the Lord move to and fro throughout the earth that He may strongly support those whose heart is completely His.
B. Righteousness
In the Hebrew, there are two primary words for sinner that are used:
One describes someone who sins occasionally
The other describes someone who sins habitually
With the word righteous, there is only one possibility:
A person who is habitually righteous
Noah had established a lifestyle in which he sought God continually, even in the midst of a sinful generation.
This is why Noah is characterized as not only righteous, but blameless. In other word’s Noah’s actions matched his faith, his righteousness. This, of course, draws out attention to James’ words:
17 Even so faith, if it has no works, is dead, being by itself.
C. A completely sinful generation
Everything was corrupt. The entire world and everything in it has been polluted by this virus called sin and God must deal with it.
D. The heart of God
Remember that in spite of the open rebellion against God, God’s desire is that no one would perish.
So what does God do?
He tells Noah exactly what will soon unfold: that all of creation opposes God and He will wipe them away.
IV. God Leads a Faithful Remnant Away From His Wrath (vv. 14-22)
IV. God Leads a Faithful Remnant Away From His Wrath (vv. 14-22)
A. Instructions for building the Ark
Built from Cyprus wood
“Cover/Pitch” in tar
The Hebrew word here is kaphar meaning “to cover over, to propitiate, to ransom, to atone.”
Without covering, the Ark would not have survived
Dimensions
300 cubits long, 50 cubits wide, 30 cubits high
A cubit is the length from the elbow to the tips of the fingers. Obviously this means there are different cubit lengths.
The Ark Encounter in Kentucky chose to use the cubit length found in Hezekiah’s tunnel (17 1/2 in). But they also noticed many ancient building projects (e.g., temples, pyramids, etc.) were built using a “royal cubit,” where you add the width of 4 fingers. So they used a 20.4 inch cubit.
510 feet long, 82 feet wide, 51 feet tall
1.88 million cubic feet
110,000 sq. feet
Equivalent of 522 standard railroad boxcars or 11.33 Olympic swimming pools
Built for preservation, not transportation
“Only an ark of biblical dimensions could survive a flood of biblical proportions.”
Scientific study by KRISCO, South Korea (1993)
Compared 12 hull designs
No shape outperformed the biblical model
If the proportions were modified, it rendered the vessel unstable, prone to fracture, or dangerously uncomfortable
Biblical proportions are still used in the marine industry today
B. Capacity of the ark
How could all those animals possibly fit on the ark?
V. 17, 20 — Firstly, Noah only brought birds and land animals
In other words, Noah did not have to bring marine animals with him
Secondly, God created animals according to kinds
Noah would have only had to take one of each kind of animal, from which we see a rich variety today
e.g., Noah would have only needed one pair of the dog kind
Estimated the ark would have only needed to care for 6,700 animals
Fewer kinds, young, and small animals
V. 21 — Thirdly, smaller animals means less consumption
C. God’s faithful promise:
God will destroy the world with a global flood
But, God establishes His covenant with Noah
God makes a promise that He will protect Noah, his wife, his sons, their wives, and the animals throughout the flood.
Numbers 23:19 (NASB95)
19Has He said, and will He not do it? Or has He spoken, and will He not make it good?
Conclusion
Conclusion