Noah ... Week V
Genesis 6: 11- 14a
Now the earth was corrupt in God’s sight and was full of violence. 12 God saw how corrupt the earth had become, for all the people on earth had corrupted their ways. 13 So God said to Noah, “I am going to put an end to all people, for the earth is filled with violence because of them. I am surely going to destroy both them and the earth. 14 So make yourself an ark …
The time had arrived, man’s fate was sealed and judgment had been passed. It was ark building time.
God had waited as long as He could, it was time to set the ‘wheels in motion’ to use a cliché.
Did Noah know how to build boats? Probably not… actually the correct answer is most likely not “probably” but somewhere closer to ‘most assuredly not’.
What sinister delight does God get from asking us, mere mortals, to undertake tasks for Him that we are not capable of even attempting, let alone accomplishing?
Think about the thoughts that must have ran through Noah’s brain… ‘ a WHAT!’ …. “You want ME to build a boat?” … “I’m in the dessert!” …. “A boat? Here?” …. “how big?”…. “a WHAT!?” …. “I can’t build a boat, I have no idea about those things”…. “A WHAT?”
The more you walk with God, the more likely you are to be asked to accomplish an impossible task for Him. Seems He does not like to ask us to do what we already know we are good at. He wants us to do what we stink at… and usually it’s in public. (Oh, I need to add a piece of my mind here - apparently there's a field of 'thought' that is teaching believers that God expects nothing from them .... we are to wallow in His grace and know that we cannot - read should not- expect to have any tasks assigned us from God.... hello??? did they forget about Paul? Barnabus? Jonah?.... OH, God expects lots from us.... He doesn't always get it, but He expects obedience. No- we are not earning our salvation, we are following His lead..... doesn't expect anything from us! Really.... did they forget about the Fruit we produce....People, please know your Bible for yourself- apparently you are not always going to get the truth at church)
Just a tidbit of personal info here … in university I hated (and I do mean hated) speaking in class. So in my final year, when the class sizes had dropped from the huge lecture hall sizes of 200+ down to a sparsely filled room of 10, I enrolled in a course that unbeknown to me involved each student giving one of the lectures for the class. Needless to say, as soon as the professor assigned us our lecture dates, I immediately ran over to the Admin Office and withdrew from that stinking class. I can’t remember what I replaced it with… but whatever it was it did not involve giving a lecture or any public speaking. I probably would have failed my last year, rather than speak or teach in front of those 10 people.
Needless to say, God had other ideas. Long story- short… you can’t shut me up now! I still get nervous, the hands shake, my face gets red, but I LOVE it … If I can teach about God, give me an audience and I will speak.
God is not ‘sinister’ in His motives – He is loving. He loves us too much to let us be comfortable, content with the status quo, humdrum… He wants us to experience life to the fullest, to be alive- even if terrified at what He’s called us to do … To believe Him and to fulfill our purpose in Him.
That’s what this life is all about isn’t it? It’s not about being comfortable and cozy, happy and rich, it’s all about Him… or it should be. You see, if you do what the Lord is asking you to do, no matter how insignificant it may seem, regardless of whether it makes perfect sense to you at the time, He will use you to bless others.
Noah could have mustered up 10,000 reasons why building a boat in his back yard was foolish, but he didn’t… though I’m sure at times he had to wonder “What on Earth is God doing asking me to do this… Did I hear Him correctly?” Noah’s family members were blessed (saved from the flood) because he was obedient.
Now let me say this, sometimes if you refuse God’s prompting, He will choose to use someone else and bless them instead of you…. Do you really want to miss God’s blessings? I wonder how many times in my life this has happened… I think I’ve seen it at times, and I kicked myself… but it’s a lesson for the next time…. We’d better learn quickly!
What is God calling you to do that you are absolutely terrified about? Stop giving Him excuses right now! … it’s called faith for a reason. HE is ALWAYS FAITHFUL. If He’s called you, He will equip you. Always has- always will…. He’s GOD.
Oops… sort of took a rabbit run there (to quote a cousin of mine :o)
I guess it all ties into the Noah story for today though. God asked Noah to do something unheard of. Something Noah wasn’t even trained to do. Did he even have the tools for the job, or did God provide then too?
So Noah… you’re building an ark in your backyard, now we know you are crazy.
Put yourself into this old familiar story. Sometimes we read it so quickly, and it’s so familiar we could tell it without even opening the scriptures… but we forget to experience it and really understand what was happening during this time.
Noah’s Day was not a good period in history. God tells us that the whole earth was corrupt and the people were violent and nasty. Do you think they just let Noah go along day by day happily building this bemouth of a boat? Don’t you know they ridiculed him, mocked him, maybe they made it hard for his family to go out around. How long could you endure being mocked and harassed? We are such thin skinned people. And the generations following us are much more so. We have been so brain washed with this ‘tolerance’ doctrine of the devils, that we cannot stand up under the weight of someone else’s disapproval of what we say or do. We are taught that we need to be accepted by everyone… which means that we can’t offend anyone else, so we all have to act, and believe the same.
Stop that baloney right now.
We do not need to be accepted by anyone except God. If you are truly living a Godly life, one that honors God and gives glory to Him, here’s a news flash …. You will not be accepted.
The world will disown you because you do not belong to it, and sadly many ‘Christians’ and ‘churches’ will turn their backs on you too, because you are causing too much trouble- not fitting in with all their plans.
Jesus clearly explained that in the New Testament.. who caused Him the most trouble? The religious leaders… He told us, we are not of this world, and that the world will not love us … they did it to Him, they will certainly disown us too.
Noah must have been persecuted and harassed and mocked on a daily basis… certainly reason enough to throw the hammer down and walk away from this crazy plan.
But Noah didn’t, in fact we are told later on that Noah did everything exactly as the Lord commanded him. We should strive for no less. Pick up your hammer and start pounding!
When God told Noah it was time to build the ark, He didn’t just give Noah free range… God had a specific set of plans for how the ark was to be built. That is what I want to settle our thoughts on today… yes, I finally got to the point of today’s lesson … told you before that I like to ramble!
Look at verses 14-22, chapter 6
14 So make yourself an ark of cypress[c] wood; make rooms in it and coat it with pitch inside and out. 15 This is how you are to build it: The ark is to be three hundred cubits long, fifty cubits wide and thirty cubits high.[d] 16 Make a roof for it, leaving below the roof an opening one cubit[e] high all around.[f] Put a door in the side of the ark and make lower, middle and upper decks. 17 I am going to bring floodwaters on the earth to destroy all life under the heavens, every creature that has the breath of life in it. Everything on earth will perish. 18 But I will establish my covenant with you, and you will enter the ark—you and your sons and your wife and your sons’ wives with you. 19 You are to bring into the ark two of all living creatures, male and female, to keep them alive with you. 20 Two of every kind of bird, of every kind of animal and of every kind of creature that moves along the ground will come to you to be kept alive. 21 You are to take every kind of food that is to be eaten and store it away as food for you and for them.”
22 Noah did everything just as God commanded him.
When we study the Bible we find many ‘types’ of Christ in the verses throughout the Old Testament.
A “TYPE” is a shadow of something in the OT that will be completed (fulfilled) in the NT.
Here’s the definition from www.gotquestions.org :
Typology is a special kind of symbolism. (A symbol is something which represents something else.) We can define a type as a “prophetic symbol” because all types are representations of something yet future. More specifically, a type in scripture is a person or thing in the Old Testament which foreshadows a person or thing in the New Testament.
The Ark is a ‘type’ of Christ … it is a symbol of what Christ will be when He comes in the New Testament.
This symbol helps us understand Christ better.
In what ways is the Ark a typology of Christ? (when I copy and pasted from Word, the bullets messed up- they all turned into "1"s ... )
- Divine Provision: In the ark, God, out of His grace, mercy and love provided a means of escape from the coming judgment for mankind. In Christ, God, out of His grace, mercy and love provided a means of escape from the coming judgment for mankind. It was God’s idea and He alone provided it for Noah (for us).
- God’s Own Design: When God told Noah to build the ark, He gave Noah the specific details and design. He did not leave it up to Noah to design his own ark. God designed the means of salvation for us, through Jesus His Son, He does not leave it up to us to decide how we want to be saved.
- Refuge From Divine Judgment: the ark was a place of safety. It was the only place one could escape from death. Jesus is the only safe refuge from the penalty of death, from the coming judgment of sin. Acts 4:12 Neither is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved.
- God Invites Man to Come In: Noah was invited into the ark to be saved, personally by God. Gen 7:1 And the LORD said unto Noah, Come thou and all thy house into the ark…. We are personally invited to come to Jesus to be saved.
1. The ark was covered with ‘pitch’ both inside and out: I didn’t talk about this point in Sunday School Class-but it’s so amazing I had to include it here- We are told (Gen 6:14) Make thee an ark of gopher wood; rooms shalt thou make in the ark, and shalt pitch it within and without with pitch
The normal word for “pitch” in Hebrew is zetteth (or so I’m told). However the word used in this verse is kaphar/ kopher… (this is usually a sign that God is up to something special)
We need to know that every single word of this Book, the Word of God, the Bible, is in fact inspired by God himself. We may miss many of the subtleties of the words used because we do not have a background knowledge of Hebrew or Greek- but know that every word is important because it was inspired of God.
Pitch … doesn’t seem to be a word that holds much ‘religious’ significance. Black tar, sticky, stinky even… I think of roofing tar.
The word inspired of God in this verse that was translated as ‘pitch’ is Kaphar/kopher …. It means to coat or cover with pitch.
But it also means, and is most often translated as: make an atonement, propitiate, to cover sins, ransom, the price of a life, make reconciliation ….
How’s that for eye opening. If we ever begin to look at the Bible with anything less than awe, we need to be slapped up side the head- for lack of a better term. God is in this thing everywhere and in ways we can’t even begin to imagine... this is His story. It is so full of Him.
The pitch made the ark safe. Without it the ark would have sunk. Oh, it may have floated and bobbed around for a little while, but in the end it would have sunk to the bottom with all life lost. The pitch was what was needed – and the ark became the safe refuge from the judgment of man’s sinfulness in the day of Noah.
Jesus’ death on the cross was what we call in churchinese the ‘atoning death’… on that cross He “made an atonement” – in that His death paid the full cost of the penalty of our sins.
Look at the other meanings for the original Hebrew word used in this verse:
Propitiate: means to appease- or to gain (regain) the good favor of
Ransom: Christ paid the ransom for your life. Had He not paid the ransom, you would not have been saved… because the price was too high and you could not have afforded it.
Make Reconciliation: to settle or to resolve, to restore an intimate relationship.
It was going to be through Jesus that we were to be ‘pitched’- our sins covered, the ransom price paid by Him, His death was the atonement for our sin, He is our propitiation, and His death reconciled us to God.
Just as the pitch secured the seaworthiness of that ark – it is through Jesus' work on the cross that we are secured in our salvation.
Through Jesus we too are ‘pitched inside and outside’. We are made secure, we are sealed.
See Ephesians 4:30 And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, with whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.
Ephesians 1: 12 so that we who had already put our hope in the Messiah might bring praise to His glory.
13 In Him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation—in Him when you believed—were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit. 14 He is the down payment of our inheritance, for the redemption of the possession, to the praise of His glory.
1. And our final way in which the Ark is a type of Christ:
There was only one door in the ark. There was only one way in.
With Christ it is the same.
There is one way of salvation, one door through which all must pass through in order to get in.
God designed the ark with only one door, God designed the way of salvation with only one access point- Jesus.
This will be our lesson topic for week 6 - One door- One means of Salvation.
Hold on tight, it’s beginning to get a little rough!
Blessings Friends,
Nancy
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