Noah: God’s Rest Button

Introduction/Scripture

Introduce the series….

Genesis 6:5–8 NIV

The Lord saw how great the wickedness of the human race had become on the earth, and that every inclination of the thoughts of the human heart was only evil all the time. The Lord regretted that he had made human beings on the earth, and his heart was deeply troubled. So the Lord said, “I will wipe from the face of the earth the human race I have created—and with them the animals, the birds and the creatures that move along the ground—for I regret that I have made them.” But Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord.

Genesis 8:18–22 NIV

So Noah came out, together with his sons and his wife and his sons’ wives. All the animals and all the creatures that move along the ground and all the birds—everything that moves on land—came out of the ark, one kind after another. 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. The Lord smelled the pleasing aroma and said in his heart: “Never again will I curse the ground because of humans, even though every inclination of the human heart is evil from childhood. And never again will I destroy all living creatures, as I have done. “As long as the earth endures, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night will never cease.”

Pray.

I am a little bit of a nerd. I love to gain information. Part of it is a curse because I can approach a subject and want to learn everything possible before doing anything about it. It makes sermon prep sometimes exhausting because, I have a few other things to do during the week than to spend 40 hours researching. (I know some of you think writing a sermon is all that happens during the week). I am kidding. Sort of. Because of my nerdyness I love when you have difficult questions. Questions that give me pause. Huh…let me get back to you.

I got one a few months ago about the Noah story. It was during the altar’d series so I think we preached on the altar that Noah builds after all of this and the question was: If Noah brought every animal on board in pairs. Then got off the boat and sacrificed a couple of the animals for the burnt offering at the altar, then did he eliminate that species from existence?

A perceptive question.

The story of Noah is difficult for many reasons. First, to our modern minds, this story really does seem like an elaborate children’s story. It has all the ingredients. Hero, conflict, super-human feats, Rainbow in the sky. To critics of scripture, the story is ridiculous, and those who believe it are even more ridiculous.

It is also difficult because theologically it raises some difficult questions about God. God appears to be very emotional, almost human in his actions, losing patiences and deciding to wipe it all over and start again.

Video games: One of my guilty pleasures is Video games. I have always loved sports games. FIFA (soccer) is one of my go-tos. STERBS. When I would get frustrated…I would reset the game and start again.

Like a child frustrated with something their building and wiping it all out.

Is this how God acts?

Background

Some background is needed before we alleviate some of the stress of these questions:

Genesis as background:

Up to this point things have not gone well. Genesis 1-2 presents the good creation. Man and woman created to be imagers. Physical 3-dimensional breathing, thinking, feeling, images of God to rule and steward over God’s creation. Then in Genesis 3, the imagers spoil that by trying to be God, essentially. And it spirals. Siblings killing one another, scandal, betrayal, cheating, one and on.

Before you ask me about Genesis 6:1-4, and the Nephilim having kids with the “daughters of God” we just do not have enough time. It is first family Sunday, not sure I would even try to unpack whatever is happening there.

The bottom line is things are jacked up. So far from what was intended in the beginning.

2. Second piece of background that I think is important. This is not the only flood story. Did you know that there are numerous other stories about this flood from other religions of the day? The best known one is called the Gilgamesh Epic. Tells of a babalonian god named Enlil who essentially gets tired of humans because they are too loud so he takes them all out.

These different stories could be describing an actual flood that took place from different worldviews.

It is possible the whole world flooded.

It is possible this populated region flooded and this is how they made sense of it.

What is most important is the flood story of the bible provides some critical theological lessons.

3 Main themes:

The faith of one is sufficient

When it seems that everything and everyone around you has lost their collective minds, your faith matters. Noah has to build a ship that the world has never seen before. He has to endure accusations of his mental well being in the story from his own family and friends. He starts collecting animals. And this one man’s actions are blessed. The creation of God is reestablished.

Friends, when we look out in the world, it looks like everything is spinning out of control. Your faith, your actions, your obedience, it is not insignificant.

Social media this week: time to block some people.

In God’s economy, the one or the few is sufficient. One person’s faith, one church’s faith, even if the numbers are insane.

This is the kingdom of God in the gospels:

the size of a mustard seed, or a little bit of leaven in the bread.

The kingdom is built by the few walking working quietly in their faithful obedience.

God is very serious about Evil

The temptation is to spend our time worrying that God’s reaction was too intense, unfair, exceeded the crime…and really that is a defense mechanism to deflect.

Let me pick on husbands: (that is safer)… it is like a husband that directs attention at a wife’s reaction rather than ponder the validity of his own brokenness that caused the problem in the first place.

I think the genre of literature and the authors of Genesis are personifying God in a way to tell the story, but at the end of the day we know that God despises imagers living out evil.

Judgement:

God will allow judgement to happen. In judgement, the righteous are separated from the wicked. The wicked are exposed in judgement. Here me, I believe the Church in our nation is enduring a season of judgement where the wicked are exposed and the righteous are the ones that are silently going about their calling of faith and loyalty to Jesus.

The story of the flood should make people aware of God’s judgement. I know we equate God with love. I know these scenes in the bible do not jive with our Vacation Bible School faith. Rather than brush the hard things under the rug, see now that God despises the distortion of the good creation. God despises the distortion of the good in me and you. The most loving thing God can do is to not allow that to rule the day.

This leads to the final point:

God will not sit on the sidelines

Genesis 6-8, tells us that God will not sit on his hands. He will act and do something about it. Will it look the same? No…

Genesis 8:21–22 NIV

The Lord smelled the pleasing aroma and said in his heart: “Never again will I curse the ground because of humans, even though every inclination of the human heart is evil from childhood. And never again will I destroy all living creatures, as I have done. “As long as the earth endures, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night will never cease.”

God will not allow this to happen again, but instead of a flood of judgement, God would come in the person of Christ and take on the flood of evil in the cross. Making a way for anyone to experience the lifeboat of grace. To find life and the fullness of life.

And when Christ returns and recreation is completed, final judgement takes place. The evil, brokenness, sin, and injustice will be washed outside of the city walls.

Conclusion:

Mustard seeds and water lines by Karen Milioto page 52

Hurricane Katrina And the devastation of flooding. The political mess became fodder for conversation. The author was working on disaster relief when she got a text message. This text message lacked context and help:

She was mad and pushed the phone away and then looked up at her dad:

“He had on his tall green mud boots and stood in front of our window fam, swigging a bottle of water. He was drenched in sweat and looked a bit aged. The world needed more people like my dad. Louisiana needed more people like my dad. I needed more people like my dad. We needed people who, even from across the country, understood the need for people with a willingness to pull on their boots and get into this murky mess with us.”

More people like Noah.