46. Noah and the Faithful God: Genesis 6-9

G' day and welcome to Stories of a Faithful God.

I'm Dave Whittingham.

The story we're going to look at today is laughable to most people.

The things it says about humans is laughable.

The things it says about God are laughable.

The historical events it describes are laughable.

And because people laugh, they don't take sin seriously.

They don't respond to God the way they should.

The history of what happened with Noah and the flood should stand as the greatest warning ever given.

And yet that warning is ignored.

The reason the warning's ignored isn't because of science or historical evidence.

It's because deep down people think they're good.

Or if they think they're bad, at least they're better than some other people, which amounts to the same thing.

If God's their enemy, then the problem must be with God.

But really, there's no way they deserve to be punished by God.

And he's certainly never done anything to show that they deserve punishment.

What a disaster to ignore the truth of what God tells us.

If you don't know the danger, you'll never look for the God given rescue from that danger.

And that rescue is so good.

So will you listen?

Will you learn?

Will you know the joy of heeding the warning God tells us?

Let's listen now as I present to you our next episode of stories of a faithful God.

At the end of our last episode, there was some hope for the human race.

We followed two branches of Adam's family.

The first one from Cain, led to violence, arrogance and murder.

The second line though, through Shem, that led to people calling on God and walking with God, and even one man, Enoch, actually not dying, but being taken away by God.

The account of this family continued on three more generations after Enoch to a man named Noah.

When he was born, his father Lamech said, this one will bring us relief from the agonizing labour of our hands and caused by the ground the Lord has cursed.

His birth is a blessing and a hope that the curse will be eased.

A curse that the Lord placed on the land because of human sin.

In chapter six of Genesis, any note of positivity is shattered.

It begins with one of the strangest statements in the Bible.

Chapter 6, verse 1 says, when mankind began to multiply on the earth and daughters were born to them, the sons of God saw that the daughters of mankind were beautiful and they took any they chose as wives for themselves.

Whatever's happening here in whoever these sons of God are, their actions anger God.

They seem to be the Last straw for humanity's evil.

He says in verse three.

My spirit will not remain with mankind forever because they are corrupt.

Their days will be 120 years.

Pretty much everyone who's ever read this passage has wondered what on earth is going on.

Perhaps the most well known explanation is that these sons of God are angels coming down to intermarry with human women.

I think there are a few problems with that.

But the biggest problem is that if these fallen angels are the ones kicking off all the evil, why does that lead to judgment on humanity?

And why is there no judgment mentioned for the angels?

A better explanation is that these sons of God are godly sons.

They're men who have been trusting and following God.

We've just been looking at the family of Seth.

They seem to be people genuinely concerned about living for and with God.

So what do these sons of God do wrong?

It can't be marriage in general, because marriage is good.

It's been created by God.

The problem is who they're marrying.

They're undiscerning.

They aren't interested in finding wives who trust God like they do.

They just want the prettiest model on the shelf.

This will become a huge problem for Israel later on when they intermarry with people who worship false gods.

That leads them to worshipping false gods themselves and abandoning the true and living God for Christians.

The Apostle Paul tells people who want to get married in 1 Corinthians 7 that they should marry a fellow believer, a genuine partner in serving Christ.

For these sons of God in Genesis, they're looking for a trophy wife, not a godly wife.

They commit sin in the same way Eve did.

Eve had seen that the fruit was beautiful.

She took it and she ate it.

Now these men see that the women are beautiful.

They take them and marry them.

Up until now, God's graciously delayed the consequences for sin for a very long time.

God said if they eat the fruit, they'd die.

And they have been dying.

But after centuries, 700, 800, 900 years, they've lived such long lives that people today often disregard these passages.

It's so different to our experience.

But it was different because God allowed it to be different by giving them such long lives.

He gave them time to repent and turn back to him before they died.

But now his grace has to give way to his concern to limit their evil.

His life giving spirit will withdraw from them.

They'll become less godlike and more fleshlike.

Their attempt to become like God has led to them moving further away from that goal, not closer.

God sets a limit of 120 years, which isn't necessarily hard and fast.

A few people have lived longer than that.

God allows Abraham to live up to 180 years.

But in general, 120 years is a limit that most of us will never reach.

In fact, outside Genesis, the only person we're told about who does reach 120 years is the super godly Moses.

But then even he too dies.

Verse 4 is another verse that people really puzzle over.

We're told the Nephilim were on the earth both in those days and afterward.

When the sons of God came to the daughters of mankind who bore children to them.

They were the powerful men of old, the famous men.

Again, there's a fairly common go to explanation that the Nephilim are giants, or at least very tall.

They might be tall, but I don't think that's the key to understanding them.

There are two things about these men which are significant for what's to come.

One is that what we have translated as the powerful men can literally mean mighty or warriors.

In other words, they're men of war and violence.

And violence is one of the biggest problems of mankind.

The other thing that's mentioned is that they're famous men, or more literally, men who have a name.

A famous name, a well known name.

Later on at the Tower of Babel, one of the key sins of the people there is that they want to make a name for themselves.

They exalt themselves trying to outdo God.

So as strange as this beginning to chapter six is, it seems to be highlighting the extent of human sinfulness, that even the godly men are valuing pretty brides over godliness, that the strong men are violent and warlike, that people are making a name for themselves to become like God.

In verse five, God tells us what he sees as he looks into the human heart.

And it isn't pretty.

In fact, it's completely damning.

Verse 5 says, when the Lord saw that human wickedness was widespread on the earth, and that every inclination of the human mind was nothing but evil all the time.

Could it be more emphatic?

Every inclination, nothing but evil all the time.

It'd be easy to read that and think, wow, things must have been really bad back then.

I'm glad it's not like that now.

But actually the New Testament tells us that the same is true about humanity.

Now.

Romans 3:10 says, There is no one righteous, not even one.

There is no one who understands.

There is no one who seeks God.

All have turned away.

All Alike have become worthless.

There is no one who does what is good.

Not even one God looks into the human heart deeper than we can see when we look superficially at the outside.

And he sees evil and it hurts him so much.

Genesis 6.

6 says, the Lord regretted that he had made man on the earth, and he was deeply grieved.

Remember, he'd made us in his image to represent him and live for him and be like him.

But when we tried to do that without him, we just became evil, every single one of us.

And so the Lord passes judgment and hands out the consequence that fits the crime.

Because the creation has turned against the Creator, it's time that they become uncreated.

Yahweh says in verse seven, I will wipe mankind whom I created off the face of the earth, together with the animals, creatures that crawl, and birds of the sky, for I regret that I made them.

The destruction or uncreation of the world is set.

We're given one tiny glimmer of hope, though a tiny light in a world of darkness.

Verse 8 says, Noah, however, found favour with the Lord.

And with that we start a new section where we see a family story.

First we saw the records of the heavens and the earth, then the records of Adam, and now we see the records of the godly man, Noah.

Verse nine says, these are the family records of Noah.

Noah was a righteous man, blameless among his contemporaries.

Noah walked with God and Noah fathered three sons, Shem, Ham and Japheth.

The only other person we've heard of walking with God was Enoch, the godly man who never died, but who was taken away by God.

Noah clearly is a truly godly man, so different to everyone else.

Verse 11 reiterates the judgment we heard before.

It says, now the earth was corrupt in God's sight and the earth was filled with wickedness.

God saw how corrupt the earth was, for every creature had corrupted its way on the earth.

The consequence is uncreation.

If the creation won't live as creation, but rebels against the Creator, then it has no business existing.

God tells Noah in verse 13, I have decided to put an end to every creature, for the earth is filled with wickedness because of them.

Therefore, I am going to destroy them along with the earth.

The destruction that God's about to send is a flood.

It seems that heaps of ancient cultures had some cultural memory of this flood.

One scholar studied 175 of these stories.

Modern people laugh at the idea, but those closer to the event knew it happened.

Interestingly, though, in those stories, the problem is the gods.

In the Sumerian poem the Epic of Gilgamesh, a God sends the flood because humans are so noisy and they're disturbing the gods.

In the Greek myth, Zeus sends the flood as punishment to some of the humans because they're making war.

But the reason they make war is because Zeus made them warlike out of a jealous vendetta against them.

These are exactly the sorts of explanations you'd expect from sinful human minds.

Humans aren't the problem.

Gods are.

We're just victims.

Genesis has been showing us, though, that God is not the problem.

In fact, if humans had stuck with God, life would have been amazing.

The problem is our rejection of God.

That's what's led to suffering and fear and ultimately destruction.

The destruction won't be total, though.

God's chosen the faithful Noah to be a kind of saviour.

He won't save all those who've rejected God, but he will save enough of the life on Earth to make a new beginning again.

That's so different to the ancient myths where some human gets tipped off that one of the gods is sending a flood so they can sneakily prepare.

In real life, the God who's sending the judgment is also the God who saves.

He wants the world to continue.

He wants to preserve Noah.

And so he tells Noah the plan.

He tells Noah to make not a boat, but an ark.

The English word ark comes from an Egyptian word meaning wooden box or coffin.

I assume that's why English translators have translated two completely different boxes as ark.

We have Noah's ark and the Ark of the Covenant, which we discussed in the Exodus and 1 Samuel series.

Interestingly, though, the Hebrew word for those two items aren't the same.

The word used for Noah's ark only occurs in one other place.

It describes the small vessel that the baby Moses was placed in to escape Pharaoh's genocide.

Like Noah, Pharaoh, he's a savior who's kept safe inside a box that floats on water until God says it's safe to come out.

The box God tells Noah to build is long and thin like a boat, which gives it the sort of stability a boat needs.

It's 450ft long, 75ft wide and 45ft high.

Or, if you've embraced the joy and wonder of the metric system, 137 metres long, 23 metres wide and almost 14 metres high.

It has three decks, a roof that doesn't quite reach the walls, but probably overhangs it, which must help with the smell, and a door.

What it doesn't have is a sail or oars or a rudder.

This is why it's an ark, not a boat.

Once Noah's inside, he'll have absolutely no control over the vessel.

It'll be entirely in the hands of God.

God's asking Noah to trust him.

Unlike Adam and Eve, who thought God was lying to them, he says to Noah in verse 17, understand that I am bringing a flood, flood waters on the earth to destroy every creature under heaven with the breath of life in it.

Everything on earth will perish.

But I will establish my covenant with you, and you will enter the ark with your sons, your wife and your sons wives.

You are also to bring into the Ark 2 of all the living creatures, male and female, to keep them alive with you.

Two of everything.

From the birds according to their kinds, from the livestock according to their kinds, and from the animals that crawl on the ground according to their kinds will come to you so that you can keep them alive.

Take with you every kind of food that is eaten.

Gather it as food for you and for them.

God's giving both warning and a promise of blessing.

The last time we heard about animals, each according to their kinds, was in chapters one and two.

God's telling Noah, I'm going to start a new creation with you.

So will Noah believe him?

Will he stop whatever else he's doing to build this enormous box longer than a football field, gather up all the food for all these animals, recruit his family to join him, all on the basis of the promise of God?

Thankfully, he does.

Noah believes that God's faithful, so we're told in verse 22.

And Noah did this.

He did everything that God had commanded him.

Humanity's been condemned because one couple thought that God was faithless, and everyone else followed in that lie.

Now humanity and the animals will be saved because one man's made a different decision, a better decision, a decision that better fits with reality that God's word can be trusted.

When the time for judgment is close, God expands on his previous command.

Now, as well as the single pair of every kind of animal, Noah is to take seven pairs of every clean animal, not physically clean, but those designated by God as ritually clean.

It's kind of strange to see clean and unclean animals mentioned here, because the proper distinction between these type of animals is only given at Mount Sinai.

This seemed to be another connection that shows the importance of Israel in God's plans, not just later, but from the beginning.

In chapter seven, verse one, God tells Noah, enter the ark, you and all your household.

For I have seen that you alone are righteous before me.

In this generation, you are to take with you seven pairs, a male and its female of all the clean animals and two of the animals that are not clean, a male and its female.

And seven pairs, male and female of the birds of the sky.

In order to keep offspring alive throughout the earth.

Seven days from now I will make it rain on the earth.

40 days and 40 nights.

And every living thing I have made will I will wipe off the face of the earth.

Up until now, Noah's had no idea when the flood will happen.

Now it's all going to happen in seven days.

And just like before, we're told in verse five, Noah did everything that the Lord commanded him.

Noah was 600 years old when the flood came and the water covered the earth.

So Noah his his sons, his wife and his sons wives entered the ark because of the floodwaters from the animals that are clean and from the animals that are not clean, and from the birds and every creature that crawls on the ground.

Two of each, male and female came to Noah and entered the ark just as God had commanded him.

Noah is right to trust God because God's faithful.

Seven days later, the flood waters arrive.

Just in case anyone thinks this is a metaphorical flood, God is very specific about the time this happened in history.

Verse 11 says, in the 600th year of Noah's life, in the second month, on the 17th day of the month, on that day, all the sources of the vast watery depths burst open.

The floodgates of the sky were opened the and the rain fell on the earth 40 days and 40 nights.

On that same day, Noah and his three sons, Shem, Ham and Japheth entered the ark along with Noah's wife and his three sons wives.

They entered it with all the wildlife according to their kinds, all livestock according to their kinds, all the creatures that crawl on the earth according to their kinds.

Every flying creature, all the birds, and every winged creature according to their kinds.

And two of every creature that has the breath of life in it came to Noah and entered the ark.

Those that entered, male and female of every creature entered just as God had commanded him.

Then the Lord shut him in.

It's so clear that God's the one preserving Noah and his family and the animals.

God gave the warning.

God told him how to build the box.

God told him when to get in.

God sent the animals to him and then God shut them in.

In verse 17 we read the flood continued for 40 days on the earth.

The water increased and lifted up the ark so that it rose above the Earth.

The water surged and increased greatly on the Earth.

And the ark floated on the surface of the water.

Then the water surged even higher on the Earth.

And all the high mountains under the whole sky were covered.

The mountains were covered as the water surged above them more than 20ft.

Every creature perished.

Those that crawl in the earth, birds, livestock, wildlife, and those that swarm on the Earth as well as all mankind.

Everything with the breath of the spirit of life in its nostrils and everything on dry land died.

He wiped out every living thing that was on the face of the Earth, from mankind to livestock, to creatures that crawl to the birds of the sky.

And they were wiped off the Earth.

Only Noah was left and those that were with him in the ark.

And the water surged on the earth.

150 days.

I was once given some good advice about checking to see if a children's Bible is faithful.

I was told just turn to the Noah story.

If the kids Bible makes it sound like a nice story about animal preservation, don't bother with it.

This is a story about the judgment of God, of the uncreation of his creation, of the delivery of death that God promised would happen if people rejected Him.

Their only source of life, the murder and violence and cruelty and evil that lives in every single human heart, this is the consequence.

It's a consequence that extends even to the animals.

They rule because those who are ruled always face the consequences of the actions of those who rule.

If only humans had ruled under the rule of the good, perfect, loving God.

Instead of trying to grasp his rule for themselves, now the world that he created from the waters has been returned to the waters.

A vast, endless ocean, just like when the world began.

Except for one small difference.

This time, floating on the ocean is a box.

A box filled with life.

A box of salvation.

Under the protection of God, the Lord could have second thoughts and just let them drift to their deaths.

But that's not in his character.

God sees them.

He remembers them.

He and we're told that he sends a wind to pass over the earth.

The Hebrew word for wind is exactly the same as the word for spirit and breath.

You may remember back in chapter one, just before God kicked off his creative activity, his spirit or breath hovering over the water.

Now in Chapter 8, the presence of this wind or breath or spirit is about to bring life again.

As the wind blows, the water begins to recede.

We often think of the flood as having been caused by the rain.

And it was.

But it was also caused by waters rising up from under the ground.

Now, in chapter eight, verse two, we're told the sources of the watery depths and the floodgates of the sky were closed and the rain from the sky stopped.

The water steadily receded from the earth, and by the end of 150 days, the water had decreased significantly.

The ark came to rest in the seventh month, on the 17th day of the month on the mountains of Ararat.

So the box settles in this very real place on the mountains of Ararat.

It's important to know that that's not what today is called Mount Ararat.

Instead, it's quite a large region, centering around modern Armenia.

Of course, the bottom of the ark scraping the earth isn't the same as the flood being over.

Noah, his family and the animals still have to wait.

By the first day of the 10th month, the tops of the mountains are finally visible.

And still Noah waits.

He waits another 40 days, the same length of time the rain had fallen and the waters had risen.

The first 40 days have been waiting for the death of the world.

This 40 days is waiting for its resurrection.

After the 40 days, Noah opens a window in the ark and releases a raven.

It doesn't really come back to the ark, it just flies around until the earth has dried up.

It may be because a raven is an unclean bird in Old Testament lore, and it's symbolising the removal of uncleanness.

That or the bird is just a bit thick.

Then Noah decides to send out a dove, one of the 14 he has on board.

Because doves are clean animals.

The dove flies around but can't find anywhere to rest, so it flies back to Noah in the ark.

Noah waits seven days, just like the seven days of creation.

Then he sends out the same dove again.

In those seven days, it seems that the new creation has begun.

The dove flies away and again returns.

This time, though, it brings proof of life.

There's a fresh olive leaf in its beak.

The trees have felt the pull of the sunlight and sprouted leaves to drink up its rays.

Noah waits another seven days, releases the dove again, and this time it doesn't return.

It's gone to live in its new home.

Verse 13 tells us in the 601st year, in the first month, on the first day of the month, the water that had covered the earth was dried up.

Then Noah removed the ark's cover and saw that the surface of the ground was drying.

By the 27th day of the second month, the Earth was dry.

Noah, his family and the animals have been shut in the Ark for one year and 11 days.

They haven't even seen outside.

It seems that wherever the window was that the birds flew from, it was too high for Noah to see from.

Now he's finally looked out.

And just like God raised dry land from the waters in chapter one, so now he's made the dry land again.

And after one year and 11 days of being locked safely away in the ark, God says this to Noah in verse 16.

He says, Come out of the ark.

You, your wife, your sons and your sons wives with you.

Bring out all the living creatures that are with you, birds, livestock, those that crawl on the earth, and they will spread over the earth and be fruitful and multiply on the earth.

And just like Noah's been obedient every time God's spoken before, so he's obedient again.

We're told in verse 18.

So Noah, along with his sons, his wife and his sons wives, came out all the animals, all the creatures that crawl and all the flying creatures, everything that moves on the earth, came out of the ark by their families.

What an astounding sight it must have been.

So much life and yet such fragility.

Only one pair of every unclean animal, only seven pairs of every clean animal.

Certainly the last thing you'd want to do in that situation is kill some of the animals.

And yet that's precisely what Noah does.

He takes some of every kind of clean animal and sacrifices them as burnt offerings to the Lord on an altar he's built especially for this occasion.

There'd be no animal preservation society in the world that would recommend that.

And yet Noah trusts God.

He knows that the future of these species is in God's hands.

In the Old Testament law, burnt offerings are given for two reasons.

Firstly, to say thanks to God.

And Noah is thankful.

God saved him and his family and through them, the human race.

He's kept them safe in their giant box with no sails and no rudder.

He's brought them to a safe landing in a new creation.

God's also saved all these animals so each kind can be preserved.

There's so much for Noah to be thankful for.

The other purpose of a burnt offering is was as a sin offering.

The animal takes the death on behalf of the sinner, so the sinner can be forgiven.

And although he has no requirement to, God accepts this sin offering from Noah.

Verse 21 says, when the Lord smelled the pleasing aroma, he said to himself, I will never again curse the ground because of human beings, even though the inclination of the human heart is evil from youth onward.

And I will never again strike down Every living thing as I have done, as long as the earth endures, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter and day and night will not cease.

That's an astounding promise when you consider the statement at the heart of it.

Did you hear it?

Did you hear what God said about humanity?

He said, I will never again curse the ground because of human beings.

Even though the inclination of the human heart is evil from youth onward.

You see, the floods change nothing in the human heart.

What was true about sinful humans before the flood is just as true after the flood.

God fully expects the world to be just as bad.

Even though he's starting again with the man who's literally the godliest man on the planet.

There really is no one else like Noah.

He's the absolute best.

But Noah is unable to save us.

He's unable to change us.

He too carries inside him the sin of Adam.

And as great a saviour as he is, I mean, he makes this sacrifice that leads to God promising to continue the world.

He's the father of a new family of humans.

But even though he's the best possible saviour available on the earth, we're going to need a better savior.

Thankfully, the hint of where that Savior may come from is seen in the real savior of this story.

Despite humanity's sin, it's God who saved Noah and his family.

It's God who rescued the animals.

It's God who continues with this world despite its rebellion against him.

Now he's promised to continue the pattern of the world until the end, not striking down every living thing like he's done this time.

Every breath we take, every day we live, every moment we exist is by the grace of this saving God.

Continuing the world also means faithfully sticking to the greater salvation plan God has in mind.

A salvation plan that would actually change people's hearts.

A salvation plan that'll cost God the greatest sacrifice of all time.

You might expect God to become tougher on humans after the flood.

You might expect him to say, okay, I'm letting you live, but no more Mr. Nice Guy.

You've got to earn your place on this planet.

In fact, though, God becomes even more generous.

Instead of increasing curses, he increases blessing.

First, God blesses Noah and his sons with the same blessing he gave Adam and Eve.

In chapter nine, verse one, he says, be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth.

Then he establishes their rule over animals even more firmly.

He continues in verse two, the fear and terror of you will be in every living creature on the Earth, every bird of the sky, every creature that crawls on the ground, and all the fish of the sea, they are placed under your authority.

Even though animals do kill humans, it's the exception, not the rule.

They usually only attack when threatened or confused.

In Australia, sharks occasionally attack surfers because from underneath, a surfer paddling out on his board looks like a turtle.

And most snake bites in Australia occur when someone's trying to kill the snake.

The level of power humans have over other animals, though, is astounding.

There is no other creature like us because God's given us that power.

That power, even now, extends to what we can eat.

God actually increases the menu so that we're more blessed than the first humans.

He says in verse three, every creature that lives and moves will be food for you.

As I gave the green plants, I have given you everything.

Although there may be good reasons for some people to be vegetarian, the reason can't be that it's sinful to eat meat.

This is a blessing given by God.

There is one qualification, though.

God says not to eat meat that still has its blood in it.

The blood represents the life of the animal, and it seems, out of respect for that life, it's not to be eaten.

In our 1 Samuel series, we saw how the foolish King Saul starved his men throughout a battle, and it led to them being so hungry that they ate raw meat without draining the blood first.

While on the topic of blood, God makes it clear how precious human blood is.

Humans are not animals.

Even though we share some characteristics with them, we've been made in God's image.

We're his representatives on Earth.

So an attack on a human is an attack on God.

Our value doesn't come from ourselves, it comes from God.

And now God says if a human or animal kills a human, they should die.

In verse six, God says, whoever sheds human blood by humans, his blood will be shed.

For God made humans in his image.

Murder, of course, was committed by the first human ever born, Cain, and also by his descendant, Lamech.

It's part of the violent outworking of human evil, the desire to be like God and have the authority of God over life and death.

Ironically, by reinforcing the penalty for murder here, God's also affirming the value of humans, a value that might have been thought to be lost by the Fall.

The value of being like God in His image.

In this second round of creation, God's saying that humans still have a very high role in his plans.

It's so sad that humans try to grasp after Godlikeness without God, it leads to violence and evil.

When we rest in the Godlikeness we've been given, though joined to the God in whose image we've been made, it leads to life and joy and blessing.

In continuing the new creation theme, God reiterates the command he gave to humans back before the fall.

He says to Noah and his family, but you be fruitful and multiply.

Spread out over the earth and multiply on it.

To help them in that task, God makes a promise.

He binds himself to an agreement never to destroy the world by flood a second time.

Even though humans will continue in their evil, their God given task will not be interrupted by such a vast calamity again.

Not because they deserve it, but because of God's kindness.

So God says in verse nine, understand that I am establishing my covenant with you and and your descendants after you, and with every living creature that is with you.

Birds, livestock and all wildlife of the earth that are with you.

All the animals of the earth that came out of the ark, I establish my covenant with you that never again will every creature be wiped out by flood waters.

There will never again be a flood to destroy the earth.

And God said, this is the sign of the covenant I am making between me and you and every living creature with you.

A covenant for all future generations.

I have placed my bow in the clouds and it will be a sign of the covenant between me and the earth.

Whenever I form clouds over the earth and the bow appears in the clouds, I will remember my covenant between me and you and all the living creatures.

Water will never again become a flood to destroy every living creature.

The bow will be in the clouds and I will look at it and remember the permanent covenant between God and and all the living creatures on the Earth.

God said to Noah, this is the sign of the covenant I have established between me and every creature on the earth.

A rainbow is beautiful in lots of ways.

It's beautiful to look at.

It's scientifically beautiful to think about how light refracts through water droplets to create such a masterpiece.

The most beautiful thing about it though is that it's the sign of a promise from the faithful God.

When you see it, remember that God's kept that promise now for thousands of years.

Although human evils continued in every heart, God's mercifully stayed faithful to his word.

And that's so wonderful.

And yet God could be accused of being unjust, unfair.

The flood wasn't an aberration or an accident or a violent outburst from a spiteful God.

It was justice.

The right and proper consequence meted out to evil, rebellious humanity.

God deals with this need for justice in two ways.

Firstly, through the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ.

On the cross, Jesus takes the penalty for the sin of all those who trust him.

Even more than the flood, the cross shows the monstrous nature of sinful rebellion against the Creator.

If you thought that the destruction of almost every living soul on earth was big, it's nothing compared to the death of the one through whom they were created.

We were made in God's image, but he's the perfect image of God, the exact representation of his being.

We're creatures.

He's the Creator.

We hear from Yahweh, he is Yahweh, we're dust.

He is the eternal God, God the Son 1 with God the Father and God the Spirit.

Comparing our value with his is like comparing the number one with infinity, or even 8 billion with infinity.

It just doesn't compare.

And so for Jesus to have to die in order to rescue us from sin shows just how monstrous our sin is.

Jesus prayed on the night before he died.

My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me.

And if it had been possible, if there had been any other way to save humanity, the Father would have done it.

But there wasn't.

As well as showing how terrible our sin is, the cross also shows God's utterly loving commitment to saving people.

In the Flood, God put to death almost everyone on earth.

All he had to do was kill eight more people.

They were sinful too.

They deserved it.

We'll see in the next episode.

Even Noah has the same sin in his heart.

It would have been so easy for God.

And if he'd done it, then Jesus would never have had to die.

But then no one would ever be truly saved.

The devil's head would never be crushed.

Sin would never be overcome.

As it is on the cross, people are truly saved from sin in a way that the flood never could.

Not just through winning forgiveness, but through but by putting to death the sinful nature of all who trust Jesus.

The ark physically saved people.

But the cross reaches into the heart, kills sin, and gives us a new heart that wants to live in obedience to our Creator and Saviour.

The other way God deals with sin that hasn't been punished yet is through Christ's resurrection.

In the resurrection, God declared the Lord Jesus Christ to be judge of all the earth.

And the clock is ticking for when he'll come to judge.

The fact that Jesus rose locks in the coming judgment.

The time in between is God's gracious allowance of time for people to put their trust in Christ and be saved.

In Acts 17, the apostle Paul is speaking in Athens.

He says in verse 30.

Therefore, having overlooked the times of ignorance, God now commands all people everywhere to repent because he has set a day when he's going to judge the world by righteousness, by the man he has appointed.

He's provided proof of this to everyone by raising him from the dead.

At that time, some people laughed, but some people believed and were saved.

Today, people still laugh.

They think the idea of the coming judgment is a joke.

The Apostle Peter warns us about this in 2 Peter 3:3 he says, above all, be aware of this.

Scoffers will come in the last days, scoffing and following their own evil desires, saying, where is his coming that he promised?

Ever since our ancestors fell asleep, all things continue as they have been since the beginning of creation.

They deliberately overlook this by the word of God.

The heavens came into being long ago, and the earth was brought about from water, and through water, through these, the world of that time perished when it was flooded by the same word.

The present heavens and earth are stored up for fire, being kept for the day of judgment and destruction of the ungodly.

Dear friends, don't overlook this one fact with the Lord.

One day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years like one day.

The Lord does not delay his promise, as some understand delay, but is patient with you, not wanting any to perish, but all to come to repentance.

But the day of the Lord will come like a thief.

On that day, the heavens will pass away with a loud noise.

The elements will burn and be dissolved, and the earth and the works on it will be disclosed.

You see, God is faithful.

He is faithful when he says he'll save, and he's faithful when he says he'll judge.

He's proven both of these things in the past so we can be confident of what he'll do in the future.

If you're listening to this and you've never put your trust in Jesus, or you've called yourself a Christian, but you've never really turned your heart from sin to Christ, now's the time.

God's being exceedingly gracious, giving time for you to turn away from sin and back to trust and obedience in Him.

He's so committed to salvation, he sent his one and only Son to die in our place.

Don't throw away this astounding gift.

Repent from sin and come to Christ.

If you are a follower of the Lord Jesus, don't give up.

People will laugh, they'll scoff and say you're wasting your time.

But remember what God's done.

Remember the flood and remember the Ark.

Jesus is our ark, our salvation, our hope, our transformation.

Live in joy and obedience to him, our Savior and King as you wait for his return.

Back on the mountains of Ararat, Noah and his descendants are about to begin the task of repopulating the world.

As they spread, so will their sin.

God will show his grace again though and this time the kind promises he makes will set the course of the rest of salvation history.

But that's a story for next time.

Thanks everyone for listening.

If you have any questions or comments please get in touch@faithfulgod.net I'd love to hear from you.

Also it would be great if you could take the time to leave a review or comment or five star rating on whatever platform you're listening on.

Keep trusting Jesus.

Bye for now.