To encourage us to be righteous, obedient and faith-filled.
Today I want to look at the the idea of God’s provision for us in the midst of devastation. In no way do I want to minimise what’s been happening in our nation with the floods that have gripped parts the country. This week, by coincidence, I have been reading the account of Noah in my personal devotions. So this has percolated within me.
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. 10 Noah had three sons: Shem, Ham and Japheth. 11 Now the earth was corrupt in God’s sight and was full of violence. 12 God saw how corrupt the earth had become, for all the people on earth had corrupted their ways. 13 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. 14 So make yourself an ark of cypress[a] wood; make rooms in it and coat it with pitch inside and out. 15 This is how you are to build it: the ark is to be three hundred cubits long, fifty cubits wide and thirty cubits high.16 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. 17 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. 18 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. 19 You are to bring into the ark two of all living creatures, male and female, to keep them alive with you. 20 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. 21 You are to take every kind of food that is to be eaten and store it away as food for you and for them.’
22 Noah did everything just as God commanded him.
Over the years the Hebrew world for ark has been disputed.
What is the Ark?
It is not easy to establish the meaning of Ark (tebah) because it appears in only two places - Noah's Ark and the reed basket of baby Moses (Ex 2:3).
Such different objects (a colossal ship and a tiny baby basket) have kept many scholars guessing. Obviously it can't mean either "ship" or "basket" specifically. On the basis of this association there might be a number of meanings - anything from 'boat' to 'life saver'. It does not refer to the Ark of the Covenant.
Tebah could mean a boat, something pitch coated, a certain material, a life preserver, or a certain shape.
Tebah cannot be restricted to a wooden object, a reed object, or have anything to do with size.
Boat or Ship: Hebrew has another word for ship - 'oniyah {on-ee-yaw'}. In 35 of 36 occurrences, KJV renders this as "ship" - e.g. Jonah's escape ship. Obviously the basket in Ex 2:3 is not a ship.
Pitch coating: Both the ship and the basket were pitch coated. Moses called his mother's reed basket a tebah before she coated it (Ex 2:3), which is a minor issue. Linguistically, this option has the same problems as the first point above (boat or ship), there is no good reason to use an archaic term and no logic behind the disappearance of tebah in subsequent writings.
A certain material: The Hebrew clearly states Noah's Ark is made of wood ets {ates} which usually means trees or logs. Moses basket was reeds gome' {go'-meh} which always means reeds, bulrushes, papyrus. Hebrew also has a good word for basket, cal which Moses used whenever he talked about bread baskets and the like (14 times). So they can't be the same material.
A life saver: The purpose of each vessel was to preserve life. This definition is perhaps the most robust since there are no subsequent parallels that involve life preserving objects.
So the ark is the word used for something that saves lives. An Ark is a lifesaving environment God places around us to protect us. So the question is: How do we qualify to enter God’s ark?
There are some principles and things that we can discover about Noah’s account for our lives.
Noah was a Righteous Man
Genesis 6:9 Noah was a righteous man, blameless among the people of his time, and he walked faithfully with God.
There is something about the integrity of Noah that is appealing. He is blameless in the eyes of the people. This may not be as stunning a reference as we initially think. We know that the people are not blameless before God (5). So the fact that Noah is blameless before the people doesn't mean much - people have a tendency to justify their own actions and to justify their own behaviour. So if everyone is doing evil in the eyes of God then their recommendation may not be that important.
Our approach to ethical living cannot be based on what we feel is right in our own thinking. If it is we will end up in all kinds of mess. That’s why our morality has to come from outside of ourselves - from God. We have His instructions and we follow them.
That’s why the Bible is written down - so that when we think God will understand my behaviour we realise that He does, but He demands change and repentance.
We’re also told that he walked faithfully with God (9b).
It seems that the approval of others followed Noah’s faithfulness to God. He walked with Him. Which means he lived very differently to those round him - and they did notice. God noticed too.
Noah loved God when nobody else did.
I’m sure that this must have been difficult for him. I’m sure that it is difficult for us, too. Isn’t it hard to serve God and love Him in a world that is so wicked?
This is testimony to us today that God delivers those who walk with Him and do not corrupt their way.
As followers of Jesus, we are called to relationship with Him and to be pure and devoted to Him.
When we do this, He has promised that He will deliver. Even when we find ourselves in need of deliverance, and we are corrupt in some way, it’s not too late to ask for forgiveness and make our way right with God. Then we’ll receive the deliverance we so desperately need.
Noah Was Obedient
Genesis 6:22 Noah did everything just as God commanded him
We have already established that Noah was
righteous before God. How did he get to be that way? It was because of his obedience to God.
Because we are familiar with this account we lose sight of what He’s being asked to do: to do that which has never been done before! He’s asked to build something by hand no one has ever seen, using a technique no one has ever heard of, round up all living creatures in pairs and slosh about in a smelly ark for a year.
How do we know this was a technique never used before?
It’s all to do with the wood!
The Hebrew word "gopher" is used only once in the Bible, in Genesis 6:14.
God told Noah to make yourself an ark of gopher wood. Because no one knows for certain what gopher means in this context, the King James Version and the New King James Version simply leave the word untranslated and say gopher wood.
Most modern English versions of the Bible translate it as cypress. Why cypress? In trying to solve the identity of gopher wood, some guessed that a transliteration might be involved (kupar into gopher).
It is possible that "gopher" refers to a process or method used to prepare the wood or to construct the ark.
The words gopher and ets (wood) used in Genesis 6:14 are translated in the Septuagint (LXX.)
The Vulgate version translated these same words as planed wood.
Some researchers have suggested that gopher may have referred to a lamination process, which might have been necessary considering the huge size of the ark (450 feet long or more). If true, the correct translation would be laminated wood.
The Christian Apologetics & Research Ministry suggests that the true meaning of the word gopher may be found in a modern dictionary, and that forms of the word may still be in use today. “In the Concise Oxford Dictionary 1954 edition under the word ‘gofer, gaufre, goffer, gopher, and gauffer see also wafer’ it speaks of a number of similar things ranging from wafers as in biscuit making (layers of biscuit) or in a honeycomb pattern, to layers of lace in dressmaking, and hence goffering irons to iron the layers of lace.”
When God asks for our obedience He asks us to do things that we have the talent for - Noah was obviously good with wood - but also He asks us to do things that take us beyond our own abilities
God gave Noah very specific instructions. What if Noah would have said, “Oh, yes, Lord, I got your instructions, but I didn’t do anything with them?” Noah was obedient to the things God had told Him to do.
God expects us to live a life of obedience.
Noah Had Faith
Hebrews 11:7: By faith Noah, when warned about things not yet seen, in holy fear built an ark to save his family. By his faith he condemned the world and became heir of the righteousness that is in keeping with faith.
The African impala can jump to a height of over 10 feet and cover a distance of greater than 30 feet. Yet these magnificent creatures can be kept in an enclosure in any zoo with a 3-foot wall. The animals will not jump if they cannot see where their feet will fall.
Faith is the ability to trust what we cannot see, and with faith we are freed from the things in our lives that make us fearful and entrap us.
I’m sure he had no idea how dramatic the events that were about to unfold would really be. He didn’t realise exactly what the end result would be. He just trusted what he couldn’t see. Because of his faith in God, he
survived, and his family.
Noah had faith that God would keep them safe. God closed the door of the ark, (7:16).
The door was the place of command to come in. It reminds us of Jesus, the door to salvation.
John 10:9: I am the gate; whoever enters through me will be saved. They will come in and go out, and find pasture.
It appears that the door opened from top to bottom like a long gangplank. Noah could not open it nor close it. God did that . Salvation is not man opening up to God, but it is God opening up to man. It is not just man accepting Christ; it is Christ accepting us.
Noah had faith that God would hear him, there was a window - more accurately an opening at the top [see: https://www.apologeticspress.org/apcontent.aspx?category=6&article=1466]
The opening is an invitation to look up! It is situated at the top. It is a reminder that when times are tough we look up, we know that God hears our prayers.
This is how light was let into the ark. It is through Spirit-filled prayer that the light of God is shown into our lives in the midst of the storms.
It is through this opening that ventilation took place - that remind us of the breath of God on our lives.
The opening was where Noah released the birds to find land (8:6-12).
God had control of the door, but Noah had control of the window. God is the One who provides salvation, but it;s up to us to remain in prayer.
Wrapping it up:
What are we to do?
We are to live right.
We are to be obedient.
We are to have faith.
When we do we will live in the ark of God’s provision even in the midst of the storm.
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