Text: Genesis 6:13-22 (NKJV)
13 And God said to Noah, “The end of all flesh has come before Me, for the earth is filled with violence through them; and behold, I will destroy them with the earth. 14 Make yourself an ark of gopherwood; make rooms in the ark, and cover it inside and outside with pitch. 15 And this is how you shall make it: The length of the ark shall be three hundred cubits, its width fifty cubits, and its height thirty cubits. 16 You shall make a window for the ark, and you shall finish it to a cubit from above; and set the door of the ark in its side. You shall make it with lower, second, and third decks. 17 And behold, I Myself am bringing floodwaters on the earth, to destroy from under heaven all flesh in which is the breath of life; everything that is on the earth shall die. 18 But I will establish My covenant with you; and you shall go 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 after their kind, of animals after their kind, and of every creeping thing of the earth after its kind, two of every kind will come to you to keep them alive. 21 And you shall take for yourself of all food that is eaten, and you shall gather it to yourself; and it shall be food for you and for them.” 22 Thus Noah did; according to all that God commanded him, so he did.
Devotional Thoughts and Commentary:
Without establishing this right now, imagine a situation where you did not know what rain was. Every morning there was a very heavy dew, but no rain. Now, some guy shows up shouting about a dew that comes down all day so heavily that all the land will get covered with water. Ok, maybe not understanding rain or floods is a little incomprehensible for us today. Imagine you are in the middle of a desert and it isn't even the part of the year where there is a little rain. A guy is shouting about how a huge flood is coming. How silly he must seem! In Noah's day, they didn't understand the idea of rain, let alone a worldwide flood. For that matter, he was preaching about living righteously and God's coming judgment for at least decades and up to 120 years (2 Peter 2:5, "preacher of righteousness"). At first, some may have wondered if there was something to it, but after 50 years of nothing happening, he must have seemed ludicrous. Building and building. And building. And building. Noah was, to his contemporaries, a lunatic. They didn't need the God he kept talking about and there certainly wasn't any "flood" coming that needed such a huge boat, or so they thought.
God tells Noah that the end to the human race as it existed at that time ("all flesh" was idiomatic for the human race), except as provided in verses 18-21.In order for righteous Noah and his family to escape such destruction, they had to be obedient to the specifics of what God had commanded. The theoretical questions arises about what would have happened if Noah had decided to make it a little bigger, thus disobeying God. I don't know, but I suspect that God found Noah righteous knowing that he would obey. Thankfully, Noah did obey the details of what God commanded, despite the long years of ridicule and hard work.
According to the scholars Whitcomb and Morris, the dimensions of the ark were 437.5' x 72.92' x 43.75' for a total deck area of 95,700 sq. ft. and a volume of 1,396,000 cu. ft. The sheer size of this and gathering of animals is a very strong argument against what many claim must have been a local flood (theory to be examined more in depth in later posts). This boat is roughly the size of the huge oceanic transport ships used today.1 The literally translated "gopherwood" was most likely what we would call cypress today.
Note verses 17 and 18. God promises destruction on the living things of Earth when one of my favorite Bible words makes its appearance- "but." Despite our human failures, there is a "But I" or "But God" to fall back on. He is merciful. He is longsuffering. He made a covenant with Noah to preserve humanity when He was under no obligation to do so. Praise the Lord!
Then, as God finished speaking, we see in verse 22 that Noah obeys. This is immediately and a direct response. No negotiating, no complaining, and no arguing. I think this is an excellent model of obedience for us to follow.
- The Genesis Flood by Whitcomb and Morris, 10.
Obey God like Noah- immediately and without question. Today, we don't have the voice of God speaking to us audibly out of the heavens, but we do have the Bible (the Word of God). Every time we encounter the Word of God, we either move closer to God by reacting rightly toward it in obedience (of thought or action) or we move further away from Him by reacting wrongly, again in thought or action. The challenge is to react rightly when you see something in God's Word to obey it. Sometimes things in it seem ridiculous or too much, but remember what was expected of Noah here and consider Jesus as in Hebrews 12:1-3.
Take some time in prayer today to praise God for His mercy (not giving us the judgment we deserve) and longsuffering. He would be upright in annihilating each of us anytime we sin, but He doesn't. In fact, He forgives us freely based on the personal sacrifice of Jesus on our behalf.
Other Studies from Genesis
"Herme- what?" How to Understand the Bible
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