Noah walked with God

Good morning. I want to congratulate you on your diligence and coming in the midst of the weather here. This morning, we want to just continue to make available what we did last week, and that is Mike had a book called The Lamb that he gave free of charge to those with young children. or expecting young children soon, okay? For example, Ben and Kate here.

And so at any rate, if you did not get a copy, because I think we ran out, see Mike. Mike, can you raise your hand back there? See Mike after the service, and he'll want to be sure to fill that in. And then once we've met that kind of first priority, There may be some available for others as well. And you can see Mike about what the conditions would be for that. But either way, if you're interested, see Mike after the service.

OK. One of the things that we've done here since we began our study in Genesis is we've wanted you to have Genesis on your mind. And one of the ways that we did that was from the very start. We put it this way. We wanted you to memorize Genesis. And do that by just remembering two sets of four words. And so can you say these with me? Creation, Fall, Flood, Nations. And then the next set of words, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph. And if you've memorized those eight, then you've got the whole book memorized. You've got it covered. Alright? Oh boy. Okay.

When we come to, and we're embarking on it now, when we come to the story of Noah and the ark, one of the things that I've observed is that that's a particular kind of topic about which there's a great deal of entertainment themes. An example would be the Irish Rovers who some decades back did this little thing and they associated it with a unicorn and why we don't have unicorns anymore. Real cute little song and I won't try to imitate the Irish accent there but Bill Cosby also did another, you know, routine and you may be familiar with that. You know, it's the how long can you tread water, right? Another one, it's one of my favorites, is this little cartoon of Noah trying to catch the woodpecker, okay?

And so anyway, that also is a... A real fun one. And then just last year, there was a movie. I haven't seen it, so I can't recommend it one way or the other. But it's been interesting to see that this is a common theme of jokes and cartoons and songs and comedy routines.

But when we come right down to it, Genesis chapter 6 starts this section, chapters 6 through 9. of Noah, and the flood, and the ark, and everything that goes along with it. And as Gene read it for us, it becomes pretty clear, this is actually rather serious. And we'll see that as we go through the passage here.

To start with, and this is contained on page one of your handout, if you're joining with us here, that number in the corner is the page number on your handout, so you can track with us. Genesis 6, the first seven verses, tells us about how evil the human population had become, about how totally wicked in the generations from Adam down to Noah.

And of course, by this time, you're talking about 10 generations directly from Adam to Noah. In contrast, the verses 8 through 10, the verses immediately through following, talk about Noah and his sons and that Noah walked with God. And as you see it, I think it's the verse that's quoted in your bulletin as well. It repeatedly states that Noah walked in a way contrary to the rest of the world. And in fact, Noah, as we see quite in comparison to last week's passage and theme, Enoch walked with God, says it twice. It also says of Noah here, Noah walked with God. And I think what's extraordinary is a lot of the names and the genealogical details are given, and not much else is said. But of Enoch, he walked with God. Of Noah, he walked with God. That's pointed out as distinctive.

The next verses, 11 through 12, return to the total corruption of the human species. Just absolute, across-the-board corruption of the human species. And then the last verses, 13 through 22, is where God tells Noah that he is going to destroy these sinful masses upon the earth with a flood and that Noah should begin building an ark.

Now this chapter and the next one have associated with them some big questions. Alright? Now what are these big questions? Some of those questions are who are the sons of God? in this passage, who are the daughters of men and who are these Nephilim? Now, next question that kind of crops up, could things actually get so bad that God would wipe out almost every living thing on the planet? Is it possible that things could actually get that bad? Another question that comes up, was the flood just a big regional flood? It was something that was just sort of a big event for an area Or was it over the entire earth? That's a question that crops up here. But we're not done. How could all those animals fit into one ark, okay? And could eight people take care of all those animals for a little bit more than a year? So those are some questions. We're going to begin addressing them this week and continue on addressing them in the next week as well.

Now, the sons of God, the daughters of men, these Nephilim. Let's talk about that first. There are, in fact, a few different views about who are these beings, sons of God, daughters of men, the Nephilim. And so there are three primary views and some variations on them. One of them is that the sons of God are fallen angelic beings who took on the form of male human bodies and with human women produced offspring. That's view number one. Another view is that the godly line of Seth, that's what we saw in chapter 5, those would be understood in this view to be the sons of God, the intermarried with the ungodly line of Cain, that would be the daughters of men according to this view. And then a third view that shows up here is despotic human rulers, those would be ones who would call themselves sons of God, married many wives and had wicked dynasties as rulers.

And that's another view and that these offspring from all these then would be Nephilim. A variation on the first and the third views there is that fallen angelic beings possessed the bodies of men and these men took the daughters of men as wives. So that would be a variation on those views. In each view, regardless, the offspring were these Nephilim, the mighty men who were men of old, men of renown.

And none of the views, as you look at them over, none of those views answers all the questions we might have. Now why might that be? This was a unique time, wasn't it? It was a unique series of events. We have no way to go back, other than what scripture reveals, to find out more information about these. We just don't have the ability to go back behind the flood and get additional information.

So what information we have is what we have. But the other factor is that our understanding of who these beings are isn't critical doctrinally either. It is not a pivotal doctrine. It's not something that we put down in our doctrinal statement and say, boy, this you've got to believe and understand.

There is a supplement that summarizes these views and the variations and gives some of the pros and cons. That supplement is available as a handout on the cabinet to the right as you exit this room. And so feel free to take advantage of that. That, along with all the other supplements we have available, are full-color handouts. But if we get beyond this part where we say, well, this may be a little bit unclear, here is something that is very clear. If you look at the passage that Gene read for us and then add to that the next couple of verses after that, Genesis chapter 6 is really clear on this point.

The evil of mankind during this period of time had spread from one end of the population to the other, except for what we'll see in the family of Noah, wickedness was rampant. Top to bottom, left to right, all over the place. This pervasive and widespread evil, it wasn't just superficial. It wasn't just on the surface. They were filthy, gross, and rotten to the core. The heart, it says, the thoughts of men were only evil continually. The heart was rotten to the core. Every single person from the inside to the outside. Noah and his family were the only exceptions. Here's what the Lord had written about Noah in Genesis 6-9. Noah was a righteous man. Blameless in his time, Noah walked with God.

And considering the description for all the rest of the people on the whole planet, that is amazing. That is extraordinary. Imagine the world that is described here, the thoughts of men were only evil continually. That doesn't leave much room for anything better, does it? The thoughts of men were only evil continually, and here is Noah in sharp contrast to that. He was a righteous man, blameless, walked with God. Wow, what a difference.

Noah was singled out by the Lord to be warned about this flood, to build the ark, and to preserve essentially himself and seven others, so a total of eight people on this ark. and the pairs of animals and some additional animals for sacrifice at the end. Here is what Hebrews 11 has to say about Noah. First verse 6 puts it this way, and without faith it is impossible to please him for he who comes to God must believe that he is and that he is a rewarder of those who seek him. By faith Noah, that's a key thing, by faith Noah being warned by God about things not yet seen in reverence prepared an ark for the salvation of his household by which he condemned the world and became an heir of the righteousness which is according to faith. It is by faith that Noah was saved and it is by faith that Noah followed through on the things that God revealed to him. Now, got a few sort of somewhat mundane questions, not entirely. How big was this flood? Okay? How big was it?

Well, there are those who would argue for a regional flood, just a local flood. Oh, it was just a small problem. Or there are even some who would say, oh, this is too much. It must be just a legend. But what's clear from what God has revealed in his word is that this is a worldwide in scope global flood.

The entire earth was covered by this flood. Now, why wasn't it local? Let's touch on a few reasons. First of all, it covered the highest mountains in the area. That's not a small flood. That's not just local. It covered the highest mountains and we're talking, you know, very high.

Secondly, it lasted over a year and we'll go into the reasons why that argues for a global flood and not a small one. And next week we'll kind of go into the chronology of what was involved in that little over a year time that Noah and all the rest were on the ark. And then the other point is that the arc was really big.

This isn't just getting a canoe and wait till it quits raining, okay? This is a big, big structure, a large boat. Now, the other question that comes up is why not just travel outside the flood zone? If it's just a small, small flood, just walk a little ways.

Let me give you an example. If Noah and those with him and any other animals were to walk 20 miles a day for let's say five days a week, give a couple days off. Let's say they only did that for 40 weeks out of the year. So you got another 12 weeks to just, you know, sightseeing, okay, vacation.

That's pretty cushy. That's not too bad. And then you do it for 120 years, because remember, that's how much notice the Lord gave them. That means almost a half million miles of travel is possible at that rather relaxed rate. That's something like a couple dozen times around the earth. I think that's plenty of time to walk away from a local flood.

No problem. So, why not just travel out of the flood zone? Oh boy. Yeah. There are also other biblical reasons. Genesis 6 and 7 uses extreme terms repeatedly to describe the flood. For example, all or all flesh. How all is all, right? Every or everything. And those terms get used again and again. And finally, everywhere under the heavens. All these terms are what we call superlative. Everything is included.

Now here we have also Peter, the Apostle Peter in 2 Peter, compared the flood of Noah's day with a final end of the present heavens and earth. This present heavens and earth, he says, will be melted with great heat. How do you compare that in scale to a little local flood? There's something else that I would point out, and that is that if you work out the numbers, and I won't try to do that in front of you, but being a former engineer, I just can't leave this thing alone.

Healdsburg, California. It wasn't that long ago that that's where Beth Echol got married. So here's Healdsburg, California taken from a satellite view. Over here, Upstream of where Beth Echo got married is where I designed a dam. It's been there for almost 30 years and went through the whole flood hydrology, extremes of weather and ground conditions and even was required by the state division of safety of dams to go through a calculation what happens if the dam breaks. Well all those calculations and analysis of the most extreme conditions, The big flood that went through it was over in hours and days. We're not talking even weeks. So to have a flood that lasts for something over a year, that's no local flood. The scale is wrong. Let me give you another example.

In 1952, there was a flood on the Mississippi River. In the upper Mississippi River, the ground was frozen. When in early April, April 6th through 9th, there was intense rain in this upper part of the Mississippi River basin. And then by the 17th, so about a week and a half later, the flood reached its peak. So we're talking a week and a half, large flood, reached its peak. By April 22nd, I was born. That was the worst part of the disaster right there. By early May the water was back to normal. Within a month it went from normal up to the peak and back to normal.

This is for a large area. Basically the largest river system in the United States is right there. In fact we're a part of it right here in the Denver area. And so here is a flood, a regional flood, a local flood, and it's over and done in a month. As a matter of fact, the worst of it is over and done in less than that. And so it would be an example. We recently had the Katrina hurricane. It will take years to catch up with the damage, but the flooding part of it was over in less than two weeks. In terms of the actual event with water inundating everything. Now, how about this question?

How big was this ark? The ark, the Bible says, is 300 cubits by 50 cubits by 30 cubits, assuming one and a half feet or 18 inches per cubit. And there could be some variation on that. That's 450 feet by 75 by 45 feet. And so that would be its dimensions. But dimensions for a ship can be given in different ways.

And given that, one of the key purposes of the ark was to preserve and provide space for the animals inside. Those could be inside dimensions. The dimensions for the ark could have been those inside figures. And this ark cross section would give you an idea.

It had three stories inside and also accommodations for ventilation and for light to get in there. With rooms for the people and animals and all the supplies. We'll get into this a little bit later, but animals would only be filling up about half, approximately half of the ark. The rest of it would be available for people and supplies and actually room to walk.

Okay. The ark was large enough that only in modern times have we come up with ships approaching the size of the ark that Noah built. And here's some examples and comparisons here. Yes, the Titanic was larger, but that was only within recent times too. Here is a larger picture of the cross section that seems to fit with what the Bible describes there.

And again, there's actually adequate room for all the animals that needed to be there. This is another handout that's available in the cabinet to the right if you'd like to take advantage of that. So feel free. We also have more of last week's handout, which some of you may have missed. And if need be, you can sign up for additional copies. What about all the animals? We talked about these animals. Well, first of all, There are about a million species on the earth.

Only about 5% of them need to have been on the arc. The others able to survive, at least sufficient numbers to be able to survive through the flood, that they wouldn't need to be on the arc. So with those approximate figures, we also have some other factors to consider. There may have been other factors that limited the impact and some of those might be, Only a pair of each of the kinds needed to have been on the Ark, of those that needed to be on the Ark at all.

Why do I make that distinction? It's not a matter of having one of every species, but one of every kind and of every category. If you look in other parts of, for example, Deuteronomy, where it talks about the animals that they could eat and could not eat, In the Jews food laws, they would use the word kinds and that's not at the species level. It varies but a lot of times it was at a level of about four or five levels up.

That also greatly reduces the number of animals that have to be on the ark. Additionally, those could have been younger ones. Younger ones being smaller. And unless they're like teenage boys, they don't require as much food. Right? Okay. The other thing that scripture makes clear is they came to Noah miraculously.

That's in Genesis 6.20. So their coming was not a matter of Noah and his sons running out and trying to find all these animals and trying to push them into the ark that they didn't know they were supposed to go to. They were brought miraculously. There was a miraculous migration.

It is possible, although scripture does not say, so we have to leave it at that point. It's possible that some of the animals, or many of them, could for some or even all of the time have been hibernating. Again, that would be a miraculous event if that were the case. But that would also reduce the load from having to deal with, okay, feed this animal, then that one, and then also take care of what's left out the other end when they're done eating. Okay.

A great deal happened physically. What about the spiritual insights? Was this all just one big physical event or is there something spiritually going on here? What we see is the spiritual and moral conditions on planet Earth followed the course of natural fallen man of the race of Adam. Isaiah 53, 6, all we like sheep have gone astray.

It was the pattern of all those who were in Adam. The flood in Noah's day did not increase death. It only changed its timing. All the beings that died in the flood would have died anyway, but it made that death take place all within one narrow period of time.

The other aspect of this that really stands out is Noah's walk with God was by faith. Our walk with God by faith, which has things in common with every single believer, and something in common even with Noah here, may have, in fact, a different outcome in calling in terms of service and life.

What do we mean by that? Last week we talked about Enoch walked with God. So God said to Enoch, Enoch, I'm going to flood the world and you've got to build an ark, right? No. Enoch walked with God, and God took him out without death. Noah walked with God, and did that mean the same thing for him? No. Noah got assigned to something different, and I think that's something for us to realize as believers. The Lord intends that every single believer walk in fellowship with Him, but that doesn't mean that we're all called to exactly the same patterns of life and outcome. It may, in fact, translate to different things for different people, and it may mean different things in different times of our lives.

I once was talking to a mother who had three very busy little boys, and she said, you know, you talk about ministry and it is everything I can do to keep up with these little boys. And I said, that's great. That's your ministry. That's exactly what the Lord's called you to. Watch those little boys. That's full-time ministry. And so the Lord has called us to different things. Now those kids are all grown up. And her life is now quite different.

The Lord will have us through different parts of life, living out our walk with God in different ways. The Lord will have us in different places, going through different kinds of things. While the Lord intends all of us to walk with Him, to walk in fellowship with Him, it may translate into different things in the course of life. A great many things are certainly going to happen to us in life, aren't they? There's quite a variety.

One of the interesting things as you get older is it's real easy to start saying, well, I remember, until you get to the point where you can't remember. It's real easy to come up and say, well, I remember this and I remember that, and life begins to accumulate all sorts of things large and small, doesn't it?

And they change in character over time. Little kids, all of a sudden they aren't little kids anymore. My grandmother, I remember her saying, you know, when little kids are small, they walk on your feet. When they get older, they walk on your heart. Life changes, doesn't it? But even with all these countless people, Lots of events, different things happening, large and small.

God takes notice, and did you see it in this passage? God takes notice of those who walk with Him, who put their trust in Him. That's what gets His attention. Isn't that interesting? We have all sorts of things that hit the evening news. We have things that hit the headlines. We have things that grab our attention. If you want to know what grabs God's attention, It's faith in Him and walking with Him.

That gets His attention. That's what God made note of. That's what God had recorded here in Scripture for our benefit and for His glory. This is amazing stuff. Because we think of, okay, this person gets awarded Citizen of the Year, and this poor person got elected to that, and this person gets this honor, and we'll make note of those things.

But what does God look at? This person walked in fellowship with me. This person put his trust in me. And isn't it amazing? Their life may look in different ways to everybody else, but God notices who trusts him. God notices who walks with him. That's what gets his attention. And it may not make the evening news. It may not get the headlines on the paper. But that's what gets God's headlines. That's what he looks at.

Now, this is, I think, key principle. Especially as we look at Enoch, who walked with the Lord, and the Lord took him out of this world that was troubled. Now we look at Noah, and the Lord's going to take him through a lot of trouble. And this is the key point.

God may take you out of the madness, like he did with Enoch, or take you through it, but no matter what, He will do it." Got that? God may take you out of the madness or take you through it, but no matter what, He will do it. This is key stuff for us to remember. As we look at these passages, we can look at lots of details and study the words. Key principle right here.

The Lord may have you in all kinds of situations in your life right now. Some of them small, some of them large. It may be a trial that's just chronic. You may be looking at it and saying things just don't get any better than this. But no matter what situation you're in, this principle is key.

God may take you out of the situation that you're in, or He may say, no, I very much intend to have you go through it. But no matter how big, how small, how difficult, how easy, how great, how awful, no matter what, He will do it. He will pull it off. He's faithful.

You see, God doesn't stand at the finish line of life. He isn't standing there with his notebook out, and you cross the finish line of life and you're all done. He doesn't say, well, how'd you do? God doesn't do it that way. He's not waiting at the end, having you report on how you did.

His desire is for intimate fellowship with you. Fellowship between you and Him. in the midst of life's race, well before you get to the finish line, every step of the way, no matter what. No matter what. No matter what happens to us, oh boy, there's a variety of things that can happen to us. No matter what obstacles we encounter along the way, oh boy, I wasn't expecting that. No matter what we've done or what we haven't done, things that we did or things that we failed to do. It doesn't matter.

His desire is for you and I to walk with Him and fellowship with Him all along the way. Whether He takes you out of the problem that you're currently in or He has you go through it. Walking with Him is what He takes notice of. Walking with Him is what gets His attention. And that's a wonderful thing, isn't it?

The Lord is not interested in our trying real hard to be a good Christian. The Lord is not interested in that. He wants you to trust Him and walk with Him, whether He takes you out of the trouble that you're currently in, or whether He takes you through it. Because either way, He will do it, won't He?

Let's pray. Lord, we thank You as we look at this passage. We can count upon Your faithfulness. We can count upon who You are. We can trust You. And what a wonderful thing, we can walk with You, whether You take us out of the trouble that we're in, or whether it's Your very intent that we go through it. And Lord, thank You that You're a faithful God and that we can trust everything into Your hands and look to You to do it. In Jesus' name, Amen.