“The Flood” (Genesis 6:9 - 8:19) | 5/3/20
Genesis 6:9 - 8:19 | 5/3/20 | Will DuVal
This morning we continue our journey through the first book of the Bible, GENESIS. Last week we noted a recurring pattern that is beginning to emerge in the narrative whereby God graciously provides something GOOD, sinful man finds a way to mess it up, and then God responds BOTH with justice, yes, but also with even MORE GRACE, unmerited favor and mercy.
We saw it with Adam and Eve - God provided the Garden; they chose the fruit instead; so God kicks them OUT of the Garden, but graciously provides sacrifice as a means of atoning for, and saving, their lives.
We saw it with Cain - who corrupted his sacrifice, then killed his brother Abel; God kicks Cain out too, but once again graciously marks him with a hedge of protection, and provides him with a NEW home, the birth of human civilization.
But Cain and his lineage subvert God’s gift of society; and yet again, God responds by graciously providing “another offspring” to Eve, a third son, Seth.
But despite a few promising patriarchs in Seth’s line, we hear at the open of ch.6 that even his progeny are now engaging in physical relations with fallen angels turned demons, the “sons of God”, in an attempt to once again, become like gods themselves. I covered that, in our “Ask the Pastor” podcast last week, but we ended the SERMON with the most damning declaration of human depravity, the most DIRE diagnosis of the extent of human sin, in all of Scripture: “The Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.” And the passage continues on to say, “the Lord regretted that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him to his heart. 7 So the Lord said, “I will blot out man whom I have created from the face of the land, man and animals and creeping things and birds of the heavens, for I am sorry that I have made them.”” And for a moment, it appeared as though all hope for humanity had been lost. But then we read v8: “But Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord.” And this morning, God offers us one of the most POWERFUL displays of his continued justice AND grace, in all of Scripture, here in the story of the Flood.
Once again, out of the rubble and the wreckage of humanity’s sinful rebellion, our perversion of God’s gracious provision, God in his unfailing MERCY steps in and sovereignly chooses to save a righteous remnant; we read in v9: “Noah was a righteous man, blameless in his generation. Noah walked with God.” Now, it’s important to recognize right at the outset - and this will become painfully obvious when we get to the end of chapter 9, where we discover that Noah’s rap sheet includes both public intoxication AND indecent exposure - that Noah is NOT perfect! John Piper explains: “‘Blameless’ in the Old Testament doesn't always mean sinless. A man is ‘blameless’ if he does not persist in his blameworthy actions, if he hates them, turns from them, and comes to God seeking mercy (cf. Job 1:1 - “Job… was blameless and upright, one who feared God and turned away from evil.”). Neither does ‘righteous’ mean sinless. In the Old Testament, a ‘righteous’ man is a sinner who hates his sin, turns from it, trusts God, pursues obedience, and enjoys acceptance by grace. (See Psalm 32:1–2 “Blessed is the one whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. Blessed is the man against whom the Lord counts no iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no deceit.” (Piper, “God’s Covenant with Noah”, sermon, Nov 27, 1983). And we’ve been highlighting God’s GRACIOUS provision all along; if Noah had been truly PERFECT, there would have been no need for God’s “GRACE”; grace is un-deserved favor. Un-earned blessing. Romans 3 says NONE is perfect, no not one. Make no mistake: Noah NEEDED God’s grace. In fact, some English translations like the good ole KJV, render this Hebrew word here as: “Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord.” We’ll return to that point later.
But I wanna do 3 things this morning; First, we’re simply gonna READ the story together, the WHOLE Flood story, from chapters 6-8, it’s gonna take awhile, so get your legs warmed up now, if you plan to stand with me for the reading of God’s word today. That’s part 1. Then in part 2, I want to WARN you of 3 potential ways I think we can get this story WRONG, misinterpret or at least miss the POINT. And finally, in part 3, we’ll consider how we OUGHT to interpret it, specifically, I think there are 3 main points God wants to drive home for us in the Flood story.
So first things first, let’s read it together, beginning in Genesis 6, v9 and ALL the way to ch.8, v19, if you want to follow along in your Bibles at home:
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,[c] 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.[d] 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,[e] its breadth 50 cubits, and its height 30 cubits. 16 Make a roof[f] 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.
(ch.7:1) Then the Lord said to Noah, “Go into the ark, you and all your household, for I have seen that you are righteous before me in this generation. 2 Take with you seven pairs of all clean animals,[a] the male and his mate, and a pair of the animals that are not clean, the male and his mate, 3 and seven pairs[b] of the birds of the heavens also, male and female, to keep their offspring alive on the face of all the earth. 4 For in seven days I will send rain on the earth forty days and forty nights, and every living thing[c] that I have made I will blot out from the face of the ground.” 5 And Noah did all that the Lord had commanded him.
6 Noah was six hundred years old when the flood of waters came upon the earth. 7 And Noah and his sons and his wife and his sons' wives with him went into the ark to escape the waters of the flood. 8 Of clean animals, and of animals that are not clean, and of birds, and of everything that creeps on the ground, 9 two and two, male and female, went into the ark with Noah, as God had commanded Noah. 10 And after seven days the waters of the flood came upon the earth.
11 In the six hundredth year of Noah's life, in the second month, on the seventeenth day of the month, on that day all the fountains of the great deep burst forth, and the windows of the heavens were opened. 12 And rain fell upon the earth forty days and forty nights. 13 On the very same day Noah and his sons, Shem and Ham and Japheth, and Noah's wife and the three wives of his sons with them entered the ark, 14 they and every beast, according to its kind, and all the livestock according to their kinds, and every creeping thing that creeps on the earth, according to its kind, and every bird, according to its kind, every winged creature. 15 They went into the ark with Noah, two and two of all flesh in which there was the breath of life. 16 And those that entered, male and female of all flesh, went in as God had commanded him. And the Lord shut him in.
17 The flood continued forty days on the earth. The waters increased and bore up the ark, and it rose high above the earth. 18 The waters prevailed and increased greatly on the earth, and the ark floated on the face of the waters. 19 And the waters prevailed so mightily on the earth that all the high mountains under the whole heaven were covered. 20 The waters prevailed above the mountains, covering them fifteen cubits[d] deep. 21 And all flesh died that moved on the earth, birds, livestock, beasts, all swarming creatures that swarm on the earth, and all mankind. 22 Everything on the dry land in whose nostrils was the breath of life died. 23 He blotted out every living thing that was on the face of the ground, man and animals and creeping things and birds of the heavens. They were blotted out from the earth. Only Noah was left, and those who were with him in the ark. 24 And the waters prevailed on the earth 150 days.
(ch.8:1) But God remembered Noah and all the beasts and all the livestock that were with him in the ark. And God made a wind blow over the earth, and the waters subsided. 2 The fountains of the deep and the windows of the heavens were closed, the rain from the heavens was restrained, 3 and the waters receded from the earth continually. At the end of 150 days the waters had abated, 4 and in the seventh month, on the seventeenth day of the month, the ark came to rest on the mountains of Ararat. 5 And the waters continued to abate until the tenth month; in the tenth month, on the first day of the month, the tops of the mountains were seen.
6 At the end of forty days Noah opened the window of the ark that he had made 7 and sent forth a raven. It went to and fro until the waters were dried up from the earth. 8 Then he sent forth a dove from him, to see if the waters had subsided from the face of the ground. 9 But the dove found no place to set her foot, and she returned to him to the ark, for the waters were still on the face of the whole earth. So he put out his hand and took her and brought her into the ark with him. 10 He waited another seven days, and again he sent forth the dove out of the ark. 11 And the dove came back to him in the evening, and behold, in her mouth was a freshly plucked olive leaf. So Noah knew that the waters had subsided from the earth. 12 Then he waited another seven days and sent forth the dove, and she did not return to him anymore.
13 In the six hundred and first year, in the first month, the first day of the month, the waters were dried from off the earth. And Noah removed the covering of the ark and looked, and behold, the face of the ground was dry. 14 In the second month, on the twenty-seventh day of the month, the earth had dried out. 15 Then God said to Noah, 16 “Go out from the ark, you and your wife, and your sons and your sons' wives with you. 17 Bring out with you every living thing that is with you of all flesh—birds and animals and every creeping thing that creeps on the earth—that they may swarm on the earth, and be fruitful and multiply on the earth.” 18 So Noah went out, and his sons and his wife and his sons' wives with him. 19 Every beast, every creeping thing, and every bird, everything that moves on the earth, went out by families from the ark. This is the word of the Lord (LET’S PRAY...)
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Part 2: How we get this story WRONG - I’ll give you 3 ways Christians have often misread the Flood story, with 3 contrasting pairs of false dichotomies. A “false dichotomy” is when someone says, “You have to either interpret the passage THIS way, OR that way”, NEITHER of which captures the full truth.
1a) The FIRST way we get it wrong is by turning the Flood into a kid’s story. Now, perhaps, parents - you’ve got kids watching along with you at home right now. That’s GOOD. I hope you do. I suppose the Flood CAN be a children’s story, in the same way that a faithful Christian farmer might bring his young daughter with him to help slaughter the pigs because he wants her to understand the cost of eating bacon. In that sense, YES - this is absolutely a story that our kids NEED to hear. But the problem comes when I say, “The Flood”, or “Noah’s Ark”, which is NOT the title of this story, by the way, but you hear “Noah’s Ark”, and many of you picture THIS… a story about happy, smiley animals, when what you SHOULD be picturing is THIS… a man and woman being pummeled by waves, surrounded by the lifeless bodies of others drowned all around them, while they desperately try to push a fourth child up onto the last hilltop left in sight, a rock forebodingly being shared with a mother tiger and her cubs. While vultures circle overhead. Donald Miller ponders: “My Sunday school teachers turned the Bible narrative into children’s fables. They talked about Noah and the ark because the story had animals in it. They failed to mention this was when God massacred all of humanity… Can you imagine a children’s book about Noah’s ark complete with paintings of people gasping in gallons of water, mothers grasping their children while their bodies go flying down white rapid rivers, the children’s tiny heads being bashed against rocks or hung up in fallen trees? I don’t think a children’s book like that would sell many copies.” (Blue Like Jazz, 30-31)
1b) And YET, we ALSO miss the point of the story if we FAIL to RECEIVE it with CHILD-LIKE faith. Remember, Jesus said “whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child shall not enter it.” (Luke 18:17) That doesn’t mean BLIND faith; it doesn’t mean we plug our ears and turn a blind eye every time we find something in the Bible we don’t like. CHILD-LIKE faith is a simple, humble TRUST in the Lord. Listen: God is big enough to handle your questions and doubts. God knows I’ve got mine. In fact, this story featured prominently in my own master’s thesis paper at the conclusion of my divinity school work, the height of my own atheism. Let me just read you an excerpt from my capstone paper: “I [find] it difficult to believe a six hundred year old man built a wooden supertanker capable of accommodating millions of species of animals (plus dinosaurs?) so he wouldn’t drown in the 4.5 billion cubic kilometers of water that would have been needed to cover the top of Mt. Everest. Furthermore, I [do] not want to accept the theological implications of a story in which God is content to annihilate the entire human race, save eight people.” (DuVal, “Biblical Literalism”, 7) That was ME, 10 years ago almost to the DAY. Maybe you’re like me; I’ll be honest: I STILL have trouble believing some of the details of this story. And we could get bogged down this morning debating the tensile strength of gopher wood, the geological fossil record, where 4.5 billion cubic KILOMETERS of water could have possibly come from...
But let me just try and cut through ALL that by asking: Do we believe there really is an all-powerful God behind this story, who has already proven he’s capable of creating an entire universe in 6 days? And if SO, then why would space on an ark, or a lot of water, or getting 2 of every animal to parade voluntarily right onto the boat, why would ANY of that prove to be an insurmountable PROBLEM for God? If you get your kicks off this stuff, off “PROVING” that the Flood not only could have happened, but that it DEFINITELY happened, then knock yourself out. PERSONALLY, I’d rather just receive it in faith; Admit that there are some pretty incredible, literally, “un-believable” details to this story, that I simply have to accept on faith.
2) And that leads us to the SECOND way we get this story wrong: by overemphasizing EITHER its literal nature, OR its symbolic nature, to the exclusion of the other. Some Christians get SO dogmatic about the literal, non-fictional, historical nature of this story that they miss the point! After all, the apostle PETER in the New Testament interprets it symbolically: “God's patience waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was being prepared, in which a few, that is, eight persons, were brought safely through water. Baptism, which corresponds to this, now saves you...” (1 Pet 3:20-21); Peter claims the flood was a SYMBOL, an ANALOGY, a METAPHOR, pointing forward, to Christian baptism. Now, lest you think I’m questioning the historicity of the Flood, while we’re still in the NEW Testament, let’s turn to Matthew 24 and recognize that Jesus himself attests to the LITERAL nature of the Flood; when discussing His second coming, his future return to the earth, Jesus remarks, “But concerning that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father only. 37 For as were the days of Noah, so will be the coming of the Son of Man. 38 For as in those days before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day when Noah entered the ark, 39 and they were unaware until the flood came and swept them all away, so will be the coming of the Son of Man.” (vv36-39) So according to Jesus, to question the historicity of the Flood, is to question the literal return of Jesus for His Bride. And that’s a pretty core doctrine; that’s week 10 of 10 in our current Christian Foundations class. So we get ourselves in trouble by OVER-emphasizing EITHER the literal OR the symbolic dimensions of this story. It’s not either-or. But both-and.
3) Lastly, the third way we get the story WRONG, is we make it all about EITHER God’s JUSTICE, OR all about His GRACE. I always try and listen throughout the week to others’ sermons on the passage I’m gonna be preaching the following Sunday, and I was STRUCK this week by how POLARIZED the TITLES of others’ messages were on this passage. Here’s a sample of some of the titles in the Gospel Coalition sermon library; on the ONE hand you’ve got titles like:
(Justice) “The Flood of Judgment”, “The Power of Divine Judgment in the Global Flood”, “Man and Sin”, “Is the World a Safe Place?”
(Grace) But on the OTHER hand, there are also titles like “The Salvation of Noah”, “God Makes New Beginnings”, “Noah’s Ark of Faith”, and perhaps most to the point: “Grace found Noah”
So which is it? Is this story about God’s WRATH against sin, or His MERCY toward Noah? Should we focus on God’s JUSTICE, in finally giving fallen, sinful man what we deserved all along,; or focus on God’s GRACE, in sparing us as a species by saving Noah.
The answer, once again, is BOTH. And that brings us to…
Part 3: How we OUGHT to interpret the Flood
You know, if you ever have questions about how to interpret ANY story from the Bible, you know the best commentary there is, on the Bible? THE BIBLE! We call this principle “Sola Scriptura”; “Scripture ALONE” is inerrant, as the word of God, it makes no errors, therefore Scripture alone will interpret ITSELF infallibly; just let Scripture interpret Scripture. Speaking of our Christian Foundations class, we’re gonna be discussing that very doctrine more here at 10:45; I hope you can join us.
But as you might expect with a story of such cataclysmic and world-altering proportions, the Flood account is pretty important, and it’s referenced MANY times in the Bible, some of which we’ve already read, but I want to point you to just THREE PASSAGES in the time we have left, that help us discern what this story is REALLY all about.
The first is 2 Peter 2:5-9. Peter is writing to reassure a church being harrassed by the heretical, self-serving FALSE TEACHERS that those apostates will ultimately PAY for it, and that God will also save and preserve godly, true believers to the end. He writes: “if he [God] did not spare the ancient world, but preserved Noah, a herald of righteousness, with seven others, when he brought a flood upon the world of the ungodly… then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trials, and to keep the unrighteous under punishment until the day of judgment.”
TWO key points there:
#1 - God executes RETRIBUTION.
Retribution means “repayment according to merits or demerits, especially for evil.”
In other words, JUSTICE. God is JUST. God will not let evil go unpunished.
Peter declares: “if God didn’t spare the ancient world… when he brought a flood to wipe out ALL the ungodly…”, you better believe there’s a day of JUDGMENT coming for these wicked false teachers as well.
And friends, you can draw all the smiling cartoon animals you want, but there is no getting around the fact that the Flood is a story about God’s WRATH against sin. God TELLS us so himself, back in Genesis 6. He’s not a capricious, erratic God, who creates and wipes out worlds on a mere WHIM. God carefully, thoughtfully takes stock of the situation - “every intention of the thoughts of man’s heart was only evil continually” and so he decides: “the Lord regretted that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him to his heart. 7 So the Lord said, “I will blot out man whom I have created from the face of the land… for I am sorry that I have made them.”” (vv6-7)
And just in case you missed it, God repeats it again in vv11-13: “Now the earth was corrupt in God's sight… 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...”
And again in v17: “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. ”
And again in ch7: “in seven days I will send rain on the earth forty days and forty nights, and every living thing[c] that I have made I will blot out from the face of the ground.” ” (v4)
And again... later in ch7: “all flesh died that moved on the earth… all mankind. 22 Everything on the dry land in whose nostrils was the breath of life died. 23 He blotted out every living thing that was on the face of the ground...” (vv21-23)
And God will remind us TWO MORE TIMES again NEXT week, in chapters 8 and 9, as well - It’s ALMOST like God is HIGHLIGHTING the fact that He REALLY really hates SIN!
Because He DOES. God hates sin, and God WILL execute justice. And I wonder how much of the world’s confusion about this is a result of the church today failing to CONFRONT people with the dire reality of their situation. Hell has become a four-letter word in many churches, even so-called evangelical churches today. After all, they say “You catch more flies with honey than vinegar,” so many pastors sound more like used car salesmen now than Bible preachers; they don’t DARE mention Hell, or God’s wrath against sin, or divine justice and retribution, lest they get branded as a hateful, intolerant fear-monger. Instead, we’ll just “LOVE” people into the Kingdom. The gospel of LOVE sells better than the truth about sin. God LOVES you. God loves you unconditionally.
You tell me: DOES God love everyone unconditionally? Here’s what MY Bible says:
Psalm 11:5 “The Lord tests the righteous, but his soul hates the wicked”
Psalm 5:5 “The boastful shall not stand before your eyes; you hate all evildoers.”
Leviticus 20:23 “you shall not walk in the customs of the nation that I am driving out before you, for they did all these things, and therefore I detested them.”
Hosea 9:15 “I began to hate them. Because of the wickedness of their deeds I will drive them out of my house. I will love them no more; all their princes are rebels.”
Malachi 1:3 “Esau I have hated.”
Friends, God REALLY hates sin. And a gospel without any recognition of sin and its rightful punishment - Hell - isn’t just no gospel at all; it doesn’t even make any SENSE! How do you make sense of a gospel that says “JESUS SAVES” without something for Him to save us FROM!? What do you do with the truth that “JESUS FORGIVES” if you’ve got no sin to be forgiven OF!?
No. God hates sin. And he WILL execute retribution.
BUT, #2 - God ALSO offers us RESCUE.
2 Peter 2 ALSO promised: “ “if God preserved Noah, a herald of righteousness… then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trials” today as well.
Genesis 6:8 - Noah found GRACE, unmerited FAVOR in the eyes of the Lord. And how do WE find grace today, find favor, in God’s eyes TODAY?
1 Peter ch.3; we glanced at it already, but this one’s worth taking a second, closer look at: “Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit… God's patience waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was being prepared, in which a few, that is, eight persons, were brought safely through water. Baptism, which corresponds to this, now saves you, not as a removal of dirt from the body but as an appeal to God for a good conscience, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ” (vv18-21). Now, Romans 6 tells us that in baptism, we are united with Christ; and Peter, in effect here, says that when we become united with Christ, JESUS becomes like our ARK, that we climb in to be spared the WRATH of God, his righteous wrath against sin; instead, now Jesus brings US safely to God. He reconciles into right relationship with a holy, perfect God. Not “as a removal of dirt from the body”; there’s nothing MAGIC about baptismal water. The physical act of baptism is just as symbolic as JESUS being our saving ARK. Baptism is a symbol of an INTERNAL spiritual transformation in the heart of the believer, who has repented of their sin, and trusted in Jesus alone - HIS sacrificial death in my place on the cross, “the righteous for the unrighteous”… HIS resurrection from the dead which purchased MY OWN new life, a “clean conscience” before God. Friends: JESUS is God’s rescue plan; HE bore the FLOOD of God’s wrath in order to bring you safely to God the Father.
But listen: his salvation is not for everyone. It is ONLY for those who,
#3 - RESPOND IN FAITH. God CALLS us, to respond in faith.
Your third and concluding NT interpretive passage is Hebrews 11:7 - “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.” Genesis 6: Noah was a righteous man, but the author of Hebrews here explains that it was actually his FAITH being CREDITED to him as righteousness. Noah was a sinner, in need of grace, just like everyone else. What was different about him? When God called, Noah RESPONDED, in faithful obedience.
I never realized until studying this week, that we don’t hear Noah speak a SINGLE TIME in all 3 chapters of the Flood story. Not a peep. GOD speaks, and Noah simply LISTENS and ACTS. He TRUSTS God, and he OBEYS. God says: “I want you to build an ark… here are its dimensions… load up millions of animals…”
And without a word, “Noah did this; he did all that God commanded him.” (6:22)
Friends: do you know how God is calling YOU to respond to his grace this morning? It’s really quite simple. There’s a beautiful story about a Philippian jailer in Acts ch.16 but for sake of time, I’ll cut right to the point. The jailer is at the end of his rope, and in desperation he turns to the apostle Paul and Silas, his prisoners, and asks ““Sirs, what must I do to be saved?” And they said, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved” (vv30-31)
So I ask YOU this morning: have YOU believed in Jesus, and responded to his offer of saving GRACE, by putting your FAITH and trust in Him? Let’s pray.