Wednesday, February 13

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Genesis 6:9-22

This is the account of Noah and his family.

Noah was a righteous man, blameless among the people of his time, and he walked faithfully with God. Noah had three sons: Shem, Ham and Japheth.

Now the earth was corrupt in God’s sight and was full of violence. God saw how corrupt the earth had become, for all the people on earth had corrupted their ways. 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. So make yourself an ark of cypress wood; make rooms in it and coat it with pitch inside and out. This is how you are to build it: The ark is to be three hundred cubits long, fifty cubits wide and thirty cubits high. Make a roof for it, leaving below the roof an opening one cubit high all around. Put a door in the side of the ark and make lower, middle and upper decks.  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.  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.  You are to bring into the ark two of all living creatures, male and female, to keep them alive with you.  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.  You are to take every kind of food that is to be eaten and store it away as food for you and for them.”

Noah did everything just as God commanded him.

There’s an old story about a preacher who went swimming in the ocean and got caught in a strong current. Fearing he would soon drown, he cried out to God for help. Not long afterward fishing boat went by and the captain called out to the preacher offering assistance. The preacher responded, “No thanks, God will provide.” Soon a helicopter flew overhead and the pilot called through a loud-speaker offering to pick the preacher out of the ocean. But the preacher replied, “No thanks, God will provide.” But eventually his strength ran out and the preacher drowned.

Upon his arrival in heaven he approached God and said, “Lord, while I am overjoyed to be here, I have a question: when I cried out to you for help, why didn’t you save me?” To which God said, “What are you talking about? I sent you a boat and a helicopter, what else did you want me to do?”

The story of Noah is a story about the judgment of God on human sin, but it’s also a story about the provision of God for human sin.

First: God provided a warning. Throughout the Old Testament the pattern is quite consistent. God gives his people the commands of his word. They disobey. Then God sends a warning through a prophet or prophets that if the people don’t repent and change their ways, judgment is coming. 

We tend to think of Noah as an old man who loved animals; but look at how the Bible describes him:

Noah was a righteous man, blameless among the people of his time, and he walked with God. Genesis 6:9

…if he did not spare the ancient world when he brought the flood on its ungodly people, but protected Noah, a preacher of righteousness… 2 Peter 2:5

According to Genesis, Noah spent some 120 years building the ark. Evidently, he did more than pound nails! As a “preacher of righteousness” Noah was likely taking every opportunity to explain to anyone who would listen why he was building a boat in the middle of the desert! 

Second, God provided an object lesson. For over 100 years Noah’s boat rose plank by plank, nail by nail, in full view of anyone who cared to pay attention. When you think about it, there’s only one reason to own or build a boat, and that’s to float it on water, a lot of water. It was the perfect object lesson for Noah’s preaching, “Judgment is coming!’ Or, to borrow a line from comedian Bill Cosby, “How long can you tread water?”

Third, God provided the means of salvation. One of the most profound and sad lines in the Bible is Genesis 7:16:

Then the Lord shut him in.

This simple sentence communicates a great deal. It tells us that God, not Noah, shut the doors of the ark. This protected Noah from the terrible responsibility of closing the door of salvation on many. But, beyond that, it also tells us that before that moment, the door of the ark was open. For over 100 years, the door was open. For over 100 years Noah preached the righteousness of God along with the warning that judgment was coming. And over the course of those 100 plus years, not one person responded to the warning, not one person that we know of responded to the preaching of Noah, not one person responded to the opportunity; not one.

The simplest answer to the question, “Why weren’t more people saved on the ark?” is, “They didn’t want to get on board.”

Brian Coffey