Genesis 6:1-13 - Noah And His Times
Genesis 6:1- Noah And His Times
People like to make joke about Noah. For example:
Have you ever wondered why Noah didn't swat both flies when he had a chance?
What instructions did Noah give his sons about fishing off the ark? Go easy on the bait, boys, We only have 2 worms.
But Noah is a real person. Jesus speaks of Noah as a real person who actually lived. He didn't speak of Noah in a joking manner. Look at Matthew 24:36.
Jesus Christ is talking about the last days. He says there is a way to tell to tell what the last days will look at.
Matthew 24:36-39
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 the coming of the Son of Man will be just like the days of Noah. 38 “For as in those days which were before the flood they were eating and drinking, they were 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 shall the coming of the Son of Man be. NASV
I want to tell you something, we do not know the hour or even the day that Jesus Christ will return, but we can know the seasons and the signs.
I want us to look at the sings of Noah's time. There are at least 7 sings.
FIRST -- IT WAS THE DAYS OF INCREDIBLE ACHIEVEMENT.
Genesis 6:1-4
1 Now it came about, 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 beautiful; and they took wives for themselves, whomever they chose. 3 Then the Lord said, “My Spirit shall not strive with man forever, because he also is flesh; nevertheless his days shall be one hundred and twenty years. 4 The Nephilim were on the earth in those days, and also afterward, when the sons of God came in to the daughters of men, and they bore children to them. Those were the mighty men who were of old, men of renown. NASV
Here are a mighty group of men who were able to make a reputation for themselves. Don't think of these men as stooped over cave men who could only grunt. These were brilliant men. Even today we wonder at the engineering feats of the early Egyptians who built the pyramids.
Today we are in possession of ancient artifacts with writing so small that the only way we can read it with a microscope. There are walls that composed of stones so massive, that even today we would have great difficulty in moving the stones. Think of the engineering marvel of Noah's ark. Take a close look at it.
Genesis 6:14-16
14 “Make for yourself an ark of gopher wood; you shall make the ark with rooms, and shall cover it inside and out with pitch. 15 “And this is how you shall make it: the length of the ark three hundred
cubits, its breadth fifty cubits, and its height thirty cubits. 16 “You shall make a window for the ark, and finish it to a cubit from the top; and set the door of the ark in the side of it; you shall make it with lower, second, and third decks. NASV
The ark had to weather the worst of storms that the earth had ever face.
Look at Genesis 7:11
Genesis 7:11
11 In the six hundredth year of Noah's life, in the second month, on the seventeenth day of the month, on the same day all the fountains of the great deep burst open, and the floodgates of the sky were opened. NASV
Now think of the Engineering marvel of Noah's ark. do you think that you could build a ship that could stand the very worst of storms that the earth has ever know?
Compare Noah's day with our day. Here we live in a day where there is a vast explosion of knowledge and ability.
FIRST -- IT WAS THE DAYS OF INCREDIBLE ACHIEVEMENT.
SECOND -- IT WAS A TIME OF GREAT APOSTASY.
Genesis 6:5-6
5 Then the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great on the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. 6 And the Lord was sorry that He had made man on the earth, and He was grieved in His heart. NASV
Notice the word imagination
KJV “inclination” NIV “intent” NASV
The Hebrew word means to mold or fashion. There was a purposeful molding of man's thoughts.
Just like today. Did you know that your though life is constantly being molded and shaped by the world?
That's why the advertising world will pay over a million dollars for a 30 second commercial. They know that the message they send across the airwaves will mold the thinking of millions of people. And it works. In many homes of Christians you will find CD's cassettes video tapes that contain language and pictures so bad that the record and video tape industry has to put warning labels on them.
The first playboy magazine that come out had a centerfold basically showing a women hiding behind a towel. Today you can go to the grocery store and there at the check out stand you can find a cover girl that is more revealing then the first playboy magazine.
How did it happen? It happened because our minds have been molded to become accustomed to sin and be involved in sin.
That's why revival is so need in our country today.
Romans 12:2
2 And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect. NASV
Notice in verse 6 what the Bibl
Genesis 6:6
6 And the Lord was sorry that He had made man on the earth, and He was grieved in His heart. NASV
What was it that grieved God's heart? It was that the sin of mankind knew no restrains. What do you think would happen if the Christian community began to marry the unbelieving community. We would begin to act like the unbelieving community and the children of that marriage would like unbelievers.
The result would be chaos. There would be no ethics.
Just how bad was it? Well Genesis 6:5 says:
Genesis 6:5
5 Then the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great on the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. NASV
Notice in verse 5 says, "THE LORD SAW..."
Just 5 chapters back in chapter 1, the Lord saw only good. How could the world go so quickly from good to bad? What happened?
I remember hiking up in Snowqualme Pass, I came across a section of numerous small boulders that were piled up. It looked as though someone had just dumped huge boulders in a pile. What actually happened was that all these huge boulders once several large rocks. As the winter snow and rain fell the water got between the cracks and crevices in the rock and then froze. The small hairline cracks
would get bigger each year until the freezing action over hundreds of years split the larger rocks into many smaller one's.
That is how sin works. It creeps into the crack and crevices of our lives and continues to work there until all is destroyed.
Do you know how the little cracks and crevices start in our lives? God tells us in Genesis 6:5
Genesis 6:5
5 Then the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great on the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. NASV
Every sin beings with an evil thought. Remember when Jesus was speaking to the religious leaders. The religious leaders thought that a person became contaminated by eating "unclean food." But Jesus taught that a person becomes contaminated not by what goes into them, but by the state of their heart which all sin emerges.
Matthew 15:17-20
17 “Do you not understand that everything that goes into the mouth passes into the stomach, and is eliminated? 18 “But the things that proceed out of the mouth come from the heart, and those defile the man. 19 “For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, slanders. 20 “These are the things which defile the man; but to eat with unwashed hands does not defile the man.” NASV
And once our heart is under the control of sin, there is something else that happens. God tells us what it is in verse 5.
Genesis 6:5
5 Then the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great on the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. NASV
Sin become epidemic, wide ranging. Sin destroys everything it touches.
Imagine a person going to a doctors office and while they are there, they become thirsty. Since there is a water cooler there, they take a paper cup and begin to fill the cup up with water. But they notice that the cup of water becomes to foam up. So they ask the doctor if it is possible for something else to be in the cup. The doctor is horrified. And says yes, "That is the missing diphtheria solution!" The person immediately put the cup down. But why" Wasn't the water pure? Yes the water is pure. but the cup was dirty. Everything that comes in contact with the cup will be contaminated.
It is the same way with sin. Sin that comes out of the heart will contaminate everything.
That's why is says in:
Jeremiah 17:9
9 “The heart is more deceitful than all else And is desperately sick; Who can understand it? NASV
Sin becomes a way of life.
Look at verse 5 again.
Genesis 6:5
5 Then the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great on the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. NASV
FIRST -- IT WAS THE DAYS OF INCREDIBLE ACHIEVEMENT.
SECOND -- IT WAS A TIME OF GREAT APOSTASY.
THIRD -- IT WAS THE DAYS OF LAWLESSNESS.
Genesis 6:11-13
11 Now the earth was corrupt in the sight of God, and the earth was filled with violence. 12 And God looked on the earth, and behold, it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted their way upon the earth.
13 Then God said to Noah, “The end of all flesh has come before Me; for the earth is filled with violence because of them; and behold, I am about to destroy them with the earth. NASV
Ted Bundy said just before he died, The stuff that I looked at is so tame compared to what is available today.
In New York a man will killing people and then eating their bodies.
FOURTH -- IT WAS THE DAYS OF ADULTERY.
Genesis 6:2
2 that the sons of God saw that the daughters of men were beautiful; and they took wives for themselves, whomever they chose. NASV
Scholars are divided as the interpretation of this verse. One of the major interpretations is that demons had sex with human beings. ?The other major interpretation is that the believers of that day married
unbelievers. What ever the proper interpretation was, it was a time of sexual adnormality.
Now here is what is interesting. Jesus linked the days of Noah with the days of Lot. Look at Luke 17:26-30.
Luke 17:26-30
26 “And just as it happened in the days of Noah, so it shall be also in the days of the Son of Man: 27 they were eating, they were drinking, they were marrying, they were being given in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark, and the flood came and destroyed them all. 28 “It was the same as happened in the days of Lot: they were eating, they were drinking, they were buying, they were selling, they were planting, they were building; 29 but on the day that Lot went out from Sodom it rained fire and brimstone from heaven and destroyed them all. 30 “It will be just the same on the day that the Son of Man is revealed. NASV
Just as God destroyed the world with a flood, and just as God destroyed Sodom and Gomorah with fire and brimstone, God will judge still judge sin.
FIFTH -- IT WAS A TIME OF INSENSITIVITY.
Genesis 6:3
3 Then the Lord said, “My Spirit shall not strive with man forever, because he also is flesh; nevertheless his days shall be one hundred and twenty years.” NASV
That means that the Spirit of God had been seeking and speaking to the hearts of Noah generation, but their hearts were like stone.
Proverbs 29:11
11 A fool always loses his temper, But a wise man holds it back.
I heard about a man who got a job as a breakman on a freight train. they said, You will have to be on call. So get a room somewhere close by and we will call you.
He he got a cheap room. In the middle of the night all he could hear was the roar of the train. He jumped up in his bed and said, "I'll never be able to sleep here." But the next night when he head the same train roar by, he opened his eyes a little bit but when went back to sleep. It was a week or two until he could not even hear the train.
What I'm saying is this. After a while our hears get dull to the calling of the Holy Spirit.
There is a time, we know not when, a place, we know not where, that seals the destiny of men.
Several years ago, just outside of Decatur, Texas, a young man came to know Jesus Christ as his Savior. He lived on a large ranch with several other workers. One day as he was riding his horse one of the other guys began to make fun of him saying, "So your not going to hell?" And everyone laughed. And the same man began to mock him again by saying, "Just where is hell?" And everyone laughed again. The new Christian said, "I don't know. All I know it is where lost people go without Christ." And everyone laughed again. Then they road off about 150 yards and the fellow who had
been mocking horse slipped and did a somersault and not only did the horse crush him, he also broke his neck and died instantly.
Do you know where hell is? For this one fellow it was 150 years from where he asked the question. Where is hell?