Building an Ark

Introduction

-{Did anyone study further Genesis 6:1-8 and what it might mean?}

-From what began as a creation that perfectly fit what God originally intended, sin defiled what God had made. Over time, the effects of sin shown themselves in various ways. Cain murdered Abel and things like that, and instead of getting better, each succeeding generation seemed to get worse and worse.

-Then the beginning of chapter 6 tells of an incident between the Sons of God and the daughters of man. Whatever you may take that to mean, it just exacerbated the situation to the point that the intention of the thoughts of man’s heart was only evil continually, and wickedness grew and grew.

-God finally had enough. He regretted making man because He was grieved to the heart by their rebellion and sin, so the Lord decided to blot out mankind from the face of the earth. And yet, Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord. And we continue the story from there...

Genesis 6:9–22 ESV

9 These are the generations of Noah. Noah was a righteous man, blameless in his generation. Noah walked with God. 10 And Noah had three sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth. 11 Now the earth was corrupt in God’s sight, and the earth was filled with violence. 12 And God saw the earth, and behold, it was corrupt, for all flesh had corrupted their way on the earth. 13 And God said to Noah, “I have determined to make an end of all flesh, for the earth is filled with violence through them. Behold, I will destroy them with the earth. 14 Make yourself an ark of gopher wood. Make rooms in the ark, and cover it inside and out with pitch. 15 This is how you are to make it: the length of the ark 300 cubits, its breadth 50 cubits, and its height 30 cubits. 16 Make a roof for the ark, and finish it to a cubit above, and set the door of the ark in its side. Make it with lower, second, and third decks. 17 For behold, I will bring a flood of waters upon the earth to destroy all flesh in which is the breath of life under heaven. Everything that is on the earth shall die. 18 But I will establish my covenant with you, and you shall come into the ark, you, your sons, your wife, and your sons’ wives with you. 19 And of every living thing of all flesh, you shall bring two of every sort into the ark to keep them alive with you. They shall be male and female. 20 Of the birds according to their kinds, and of the animals according to their kinds, of every creeping thing of the ground, according to its kind, two of every sort shall come in to you to keep them alive. 21 Also take with you every sort of food that is eaten, and store it up. It shall serve as food for you and for them.” 22 Noah did this; he did all that God commanded him.

-We see that v. 9 begins a new section of the book of Genesis. It uses the toledot phrase, reading THESE ARE THE GENERATIONS OF NOAH. The story will now focus on Noah and what God used Him for.

-We find something different about Noah compared with everybody else that was on the face of the earth at this time. It says that Noah was a righteous man, blameless in his generation, and that he walked with God. Everybody else, for the most part, was wicked and evil, constantly in rebellion, and were pagan idolators who ignored Yahweh God. Noah stuck out like a sore thumb in the world of his day.

-None of this means that Noah was sinless, but he was different from most everybody else. His good character was often referred to in Scripture. For example:

Hebrews 11:7 ESV

7 By faith Noah, being warned by God concerning events as yet unseen, in reverent fear constructed an ark for the saving of his household. By this he condemned the world and became an heir of the righteousness that comes by faith.

-Noah’s righteous character was lauded in Jewish literature. I mentioned 1 Enoch last week. That book says this about Noah:

The Old Testament Pseudepigrapha, Volume 1 (Chapter 67)

In those days, the word of God came unto me, and said unto me, “Noah, your lot has come up before me—a lot without blame, a lot of true love. (1 Enoch 67:1)

-Because the Jews regarded him so highly as a model of righteousness, they even came up with fanciful stories about his birth. For example, again in the book of 1 Enoch:

The Old Testament Pseudepigrapha, Volume 1 (Chapter 106)

And after some days my son, Methuselah, took a wife for his son Lamech, and she became pregnant by him and bore him a son. 2 And his body was white as snow and red as a rose; the hair of his head as white as wool and his demdema beautiful; and as for his eyes, when he opened them the whole house glowed like the sun—(rather) the whole house glowed even more exceedingly. 3 And when he arose from the hands of the midwife, he opened his mouth and spoke to the Lord with righteousness. 4 And his father, Lamech, was afraid of him and fled and went to Methuselah his father; 5 and he said to him, “I have begotten a strange son: He is not like an (ordinary) human being, but he looks like the children of the angels of heaven to me; his form is different, and he is not like us. His eyes are like the rays of the sun, and his face glorious. 6 It does not seem to me that he is of me, but of angels; and I fear that a wondrous phenomenon may take place upon the earth in his days. 7 So I am beseeching you now, begging you in order that you may go to his (grand)father Enoch, our father, and learn from him the truth, for his dwelling place is among the angels. (1 Enoch 106:1-7)

-Even though these are legends, they remind us along with the Scripture that Noah stood out. And these should be a reminder that in our dark days, the world is looking for people who will stand out from it in the righteousness of God.

-But because God decided to grant favor and show grace to Noah, it would be through him and his sons that humanity would continue in a reborn earth. Noah would be a new Adam. The sin nature still followed Noah and his family because they were human, but through them would come a new start.

-This was needed because again, for emphasis, vv. 11-13 talk about how corrupt the earth had become. It was lawless and full of violence. It says that all of flesh corrupted their way. Not only was humanity affected, but every living creature was affected—the corruption of sin spread like a cancer throughout creation. Everything was defiled. The only recourse, according to God, is to destroy everything except the remnant that God would preserve in what He was about to have Noah do.

-I find the phrasing at the end of v. 13 very interesting. God says, “I will destroy them WITH the earth.” God was going to use His own creation against them. The earth that humanity corrupted with their violence would turn against them, rebelling against their violence. God was going to use the elements of the earth to cleanse the earth of the filth of sin.

-But God would save a remnant, so He instructs Noah to build a vessel that would contain and carry the ones that He would save. In English this vessel is called an ark. The Hebrew word that is used is used only here in the story of the flood and it’s used in the infant story of Noah where it describes the basket baby Moses is placed in when they try to save him from Pharaoh’s wicked order to kill all infants. The term probably literally means box. Someone described what Noah had to build as more of a houseboat. It definitely was not a boat or ship like we think about it.

-God gives Noah specific instruction on how to make this ark. He is to make it out of gopher wood, which actually is an obscure term that most scholars are unsure of—the Hebrew word only occurs here. It needed to be good, solid, yet buoyant wood to hold all those animals and still float. There were to be rooms in the ark for all of its occupants to live in. The ark was to be covered in pitch inside and out so that it would be sealed water tight—don’t want the ark to spring a leak anywhere.

-This is no small vessel by any stretch of the imagination. This vessel would have taken a long time to build. The Bible gives the units in cubits—300 cubits long, 50 cubits wide, and 30 cubits tall. A cubit is probably somewhere in the 17-21 inch area. That would make this ark, this houseboat, roughly 450 feet long, 75 feet wide, and 45 feet tall. I have not been to the ark display by Ken Hamm in Kentucky, but I assume that is about what he made the replication to be. Think about that—it’s as long as 1 1/2 football fields. It’s still a lot smaller than modern day cruise liners, but experts agree that it would have been large enough and strong enough to weather the storms and disasters that caused the flood and would not have capsized. They also estimate that there would have been about 95,700 sq. ft. of deck space to accommodate all the occupants.

-If I am understanding the instructions in v. 16, the interior of the ark had three decks inside of it. Then in the top of the ark, a roof was placed that probably would have had about a 1-cubit overhang. The top of the ark would have been flat which would not have been ideal in such a deluge, so a pitched roof was added to protect it from standing water at the top. A door was placed in the side for the occupants to enter.

-In v. 17 God again reiterates the reason—He is going to destroy almost everything with a flood. Sea creatures will still live, but everything else that will not be on the ark will die. God, in righteous anger, will judge the earth for the wickedness that has defiled the land. As one author stated:

Genesis 1–11:26 ((1) Announcement of the Flood and Instructions for the Ark (6:13–22))

Its massive destruction shows God’s wrath in the face of unbridled sin and the utter dependence of life on the grace and pity of God.

-In v. 18 there is a great contrast—the verse begins with the word BUT. In contrast to the destruction that was about to come, God is making a covenant with Noah. God is confirming His prior covenant with creation through Noah. God is giving Noah a promise of security—God would begin anew through Noah. God will save Noah and his family through the ark and humanity would begin again. God explains in following verses what the plan is in saving all the species of the earth so that the earth can be repopulated.

-But verse 22 is so important. NOAH DID ALL THAT THE LORD COMMANDED HIM. Noah believed God’s words of warning as well as His words of promise. God called Noah to do something that sounded strange to the rest of the world. But by faith, Noah obeyed what God told him. And therein lies our response. Faith leads to obedience. We have the whole revelation of God at our disposal. We have been given an inspired look at who God is, what He has done, what He has promised, and what He has called us to do in response. In light of God’s Word, just like Noah, we ought to do all that the Lord commands us. First, by coming to faith in Christ. And then demonstrating our love for Him through obedience....