Tawa Baptist

God Remembers

Scripture: Genesis 8:1-19

Structure:

  • Introduction
  • God remembers
  • Noah waits
  • Conclusion

Introduction:

Good morning everyone.

Can anyone tell me, what is the word we use to describe the point at which a seesaw balances? I’ll give you a couple of seconds. [Wait]

That’s right, the point at which a seesaw balances, is called a fulcrum  

We find fulcrums everywhere. The hinge in a door is a fulcrum. Likewise, your hip, knee and shoulder joints act as fulcrums for your bones. A fulcrum allows movement and change.

The word ‘fulcrum’ can also be used metaphorically to refer to a person or thing that plays an essential (or pivotal) role in an activity or situation. For example, a teacher may be described as a fulcrum for a student’s learning or a common love of fishing might be the fulcrum for a friendship. This microphone is a fulcrum for my voice.  

Today we continue our series on the story of Noah and the great flood.

Last Sunday we heard how God instructed Noah to enter the ark, with the animals, and then the flood came.  This morning’s passage (Genesis 8) is a fulcrum passage – the rain stops and the flood waters recede. Everything pivots on God remembering Noah.

From Genesis chapter 8, verses 1-19, we read…

But God remembered Noah and all the wild animals and the livestock that were with him in the ark, and he sent a wind over the earth,and the waters receded. 2 Now the springs of the deep and the floodgates of the heavenshad been closed, and the rainhad stopped falling from the sky. 3 The water receded steadily from the earth. At the end of the hundred and fifty daysthe water had gone down, 4 and on the seventeenth day of the seventh monththe ark came to rest on the mountains of Ararat. 5 The waters continued to recede until the tenth month, and on the first day of the tenth month the tops of the mountains became visible.

6 After forty days Noah opened a window he had made in the ark 7 and sent out a raven,and it kept flying back and forth until the water had dried up from the earth. 8 Then he sent out a dove to see if the water had receded from the surface of the ground. 9 But the dove could find nowhere to perch because there was water over all the surface of the earth; so it returned to Noah in the ark. He reached out his hand and took the dove and brought it back to himself in the ark. 10 He waited seven more days and again sent out the dove from the ark. 11 When the dove returned to him in the evening, there in its beak was a freshly plucked olive leaf! Then Noah knew that the water had receded from the earth. 12 He waited seven more days and sent the dove out again, but this time it did not return to him.

13 By the first day of the first month of Noah’s six hundred and first year, the water had dried up from the earth. Noah then removed the covering from the ark and saw that the surface of the ground was dry. 14 By the twenty-seventh day of the second monththe earth was completely dry.

15 Then God said to Noah, 16 “Come out of the ark, you and your wife and your sons and their wives. 17 Bring out every kind of living creature that is with you—the birds, the animals, and all the creatures that move along the ground—so they can multiply on the earth and be fruitful and increase in number on it.”

18 So Noah came out, together with his sons and his wife and his sons’ wives. 19 All the animals and all the creatures that move along the ground and all the birds—everything that moves on land—came out of the ark, one kind after another.

May the Spirit of Jesus illuminate God’s word for us

There are two things I want to highlight from this morning’s Bible reading: God’s remembering and Noah’s waiting. First let’s consider God’s remembering. God’s remembering is the fulcrum which changes things for the better.

God remembers:

There’s a programme on TV 1 called The Repair Shop. In this programme people bring along a family heirloom or some other beloved belonging that has seen better days and leave it with a group of craftspeople who restore the old item to something close to its former glory.

It might be an antique bicycle or a teddy bear or a doll or a clock and the workers at the repair shop re-member it – they literally put it back together the way it used to be. The show normally ends with the grateful owner looking at their treasured object, with tears in their eyes, amazed at the wonderful work that has been done in restoring it.

When reading the Bible, we need to keep in mind that the words we read (in English) are a translation and something of the meaning is often lost in the process of translation. The word remember is a classic example.

We tend to equate remembering with recalling a thought we had previously forgotten. For us, remembering is generally a mental exercise and nothing more. But for the ancient Hebrew people (who wrote the Old Testament) remembering was far more than recalling something in your head. Remembering involved actually doing something practical. Remembering may start in your mind but it’s supposed to find expression in your hands and feet.

In the Old Testament remembering is more akin to repairing, restoring, regathering, repenting and renewing. Putting things back together again, the way they are supposed to be – sort of like they do in The Repair Shop.

To use another example, if you cut your finger off, then you literally re-member your finger by having a surgeon sew it back on your hand.

When God gave Moses the 10 commandments, the Lord framed the fourth commandment by saying: “Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy…”

Remembering here doesn’t just mean recalling something in your head. Remembering is an act of obedience; ceasing work to allow your body, soul and relationships to be restored or repaired. The Sabbath is a kind of Repair Shop for the human soul. On the Sabbath, we re-member what’s important. We put our perspective and priorities and relationships back together in the right place.

The Old Testament concept of remembering isn’t totally foreign to us though. To some extent we still remember in the way the ancients used to.

If someone in your family has a birthday, you remember them by buying them a present or baking them a cake.

Or if one of your friends ends up in hospital, you remember them by visiting and cheering them up.

Or you might remember the poor by sponsoring a child through World Vision or donating to a food bank.

We remember the environment by recycling and reducing our carbon footprint.

And you remember your marriage vows by staying faithful to your partner in marriage.

The establishment of the Waitangi Tribunal in 1975 was one way the NZ government sought to practically remember the Treaty; by providing a means for Maori to find resolution for Treaty grievances.

During lockdown we remembered our neighbours by observing physical distancing and phoning people to check up on them.        

Later in the service today we will share communion together. When Jesus instituted communion he said, ‘Do this to remember me’. By remember me he didn’t just mean, ‘think about me in your head’. He meant re-member my body, the church. As in, come back together (regather) as a community of faith. The fact that we actually do something physical when we share communion (like eating and drinking) shows that Biblical remembering is more than just a mental exercise.  

Communion is the sign of the new covenant with God, established by Jesus. Therefore, to remember Jesus is to keep the new covenant. It is to maintain our obedience of faith in Jesus. And where we have messed up, remembering means repenting and putting things right. To remember Jesus is to ensure he remains in his proper place as Lord of our lives.

Genesis 8, verse 1, is the fulcrum verse in the account of Noah and the flood.

But God remembered Noah and all the wild animals and the livestock that were with him in the ark, and he sent a wind over the earth,and the waters receded.

This is the pivotal verse. It is God’s remembering that changes the situation. From this point onwards the destruction of God’s judgement swings the other way toward renewal and a fresh start for creation.

It’s not that God had forgotten about Noah and the animals in the ark. God was mindful of them the whole time. As Derek Kidner observes, God’s remembering combines the ideas of faithful love and timely intervention. [1]

God’s remembering of Noah is expressed in a real and physical way by his stopping the rain and sending a wind to dry up the waters. Those of you who are familiar with the creation account in Genesis 1 will recognise the parallels. Verse 2 of Genesis 1 tells us that in the beginning, the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep and the Spirit (or wind) of God was hovering over the waters. The flood waters represent chaos. God’s remembering of his creation restores order to the chaos. Noah is the new Adam. 

There are other parallels with Genesis 1 as well, but I’ll let you figure those out for yourself. 

One of the things we notice about God’s remembering here is that it is a process. God’s remembering doesn’t necessarily produce instantaneous results. It’s not like God clicked his fingers and, voila, the water instantly disappeared. No. It took months for the water to steadily recede, for the land to dry out and the vegetation to regrow. In the meantime, Noah had to wait.

Noah waits:

What we notice about Noah’s waiting is that it is purposeful and not passive. Noah isn’t just sitting there in the ark, with the animals, twiddling his thumbs. He’s not just waiting for the water to go down. Noah is waiting for God to give him the green light to leave. Noah’s waiting is purposeful, not passive.

You may have heard of the marshmallow experiments, conducted by Stanford University in the 1970’s. In these experiments a child was put in a room with a marshmallow in front of them and told that if they waited until the grown up came back they could have a second marshmallow. So, it was either one now or two later.

Subsequent marshmallow studies showed that trust was one of the main reasons children would wait for a second marshmallow. If the child was led to mistrust the adult doing the experiment, they would grab the marshmallow sooner. But if they were led to trust the adult they were more likely to wait. 

Noah may have been like one of those kids who could wait long enough for the extra marshmallow. Noah was able to wait because he trusted God. He knew God was reliable and would deliver.    

Noah’s waiting was purposeful, not passive. It was resourceful, not resentful. He demonstrated patience and meekness in waiting. His heart is to trust and obey God.

I’ve spoken about meekness before. Meekness is not weakness. Meekness is power under control. In fact, meekness requires great strength of character as it combines gentleness with self-control. And we know what Jesus said about the meek: they shall inherit the earth. In other words, they get the marshmallow in the end. Noah certainly inherited the earth.

Although Noah had many opportunities to leave the ark, he waited until God said it was okay to leave.

When the ark came to rest on the mountains of Ararat, in the Lake Van region of Eastern Turkey, Noah had been on board for about 150 days, which is around 5 months. That’s a long time to wait in cramped and smelly conditions. As the water receded and land became visible, it would have been tempting for Noah to get out for some fresh air and to stretch his legs but he doesn’t. Instead Noah waits for God, for another 150 days.

Like I keep saying, Noah’s waiting was not passive. Noah’s waiting was purposeful and active. Noah looked forward in hope and anticipation to the time when God would set the captives free from the darkness of the ark.

We see Noah’s hopeful anticipation in what he does while he waits. Noah does three things: he opens a window, he sends out birds to test the waters and he takes the roof off.

Studies have shown how prisoners, with a window in their cell, tend to maintain better mental health than prisoners who have no window.    

Verse 6 of Genesis 8 tells how Noah opens the window he had made in the ark. Sometimes we might feel like God has forgotten us. Sometimes the winter of our discontent seems to drag on and on. Sometimes our prayers seem to go unanswered and our faithfulness unrewarded. We may feel like God is absent and we are in the dark. When it feels like that, open a window. Let some light in so you can see. Let some air flow through so you can breathe. Slow down. Let yourself look at the mountain tops. Dream a little. Recover a sense of the bigger picture. Let your perspective return.    

Verses 7-11 describe how Noah sends out first a raven and then a dove to do some recon-nascence for him. The raven doesn’t bring him any good news, so he sends out a dove. In verse 9 we read: But the dove could find no place to set its feet because there was water over all the surface of the earth; so it returned to Noah in the ark. He reached out his hand and took the dove and brought it back to himself in the ark.

That last sentence there shows us something of Noah’s gentleness with the dove; reaching out his hand to bring the dove back into the ark. It provides a beautiful picture of a man who cares about God’s creatures in a personal way. Noah is a greeny – perhaps a bit like the character Cooch, in Murray Ball’s cartoon Footrot Flats.

Seven days later Noah sends the dove out a second time. This time it returns with an olive leaf in its beak. Olive trees are very hardy – they are difficult to kill. They are the kind of tree that survives a flood. The fresh foliage is a sign that the vegetation is recovering, so the animals will have something to eat.

A week later when Noah sent the dove out it did not return, which showed that God’s renewal of the land was almost complete. But still Noah waits for God’s word.

The dove over the flood waters reminds us of the Holy Spirit descending on Jesus over the waters of the Jordan river, after Jesus’ baptism. [2] Just as Noah’s dove proves itself sensitive and discerning, a guide to those waiting for God’s new creation, so too the Holy Spirit is like a dove to us; sensitive and discerning, gently guiding us as we wait for the new creation Jesus brings.

The third thing Noah does, as he waits in hopeful expectation of God’s renewal, is he removes the covering of the ark. He takes the roof off in other words. This is a quiet act of courageous faith on Noah’s part. To remove the covering is to take a risk and make oneself vulnerable. What if the rain started again? Removing the roof is a statement that Noah believes the storm will not return.

Taking off the roof also allows Noah to get a broader view of the situation than his little window afforded him. Even though Noah could see the ground was dry, he still does not disembark. Noah continues to wait for the word of the Lord and finally God says to Noah, ‘Come out of the ark and let the animals out too…’ and Noah obeyed God.

Conclusion:

You know, in some ways, our experience of lockdown was similar to Noah’s experience as he waited in the ark. Like Noah, our waiting was purposeful, not passive. We weren’t as restricted as Noah was of course, but we did have our wings clipped. Our recent experience gives us some understanding for Noah’s situation and his waiting.

While I don’t want to talk too soon, it seems that God has remembered us here in New Zealand. Relative to the rest of the world we have much to be thankful for.

Globally though, the world is still in a time of waiting for the ‘flood’ of new COVID cases to recede. We pray for the fulcrum of God’s mercy.     

Questions for discussion or reflection:

What stands out for you in reading this Scripture and/or in listening to the sermon? Why do you think this stood out to you?

What does the Bible mean by remembering? How is this different from the way we (today) tend to think of remembering?

What happened as a result of God remembering Noah and the animals in the ark?   

What parallels do we notice between the account of creation in Genesis 1 and the renewal of creation in Genesis 8?

How do you feel about waiting? Is it something you find easy or hard? Why is that do you think?

What helped Noah in his waiting? (What did he do?) What might help us in our waiting? For example; when we feel trapped in a dark place, how might we open a window to the let the light and air in?

In what ways does Noah’s dove point to the Holy Spirit at Jesus’ baptism?

Is there someone or something you need to remember, in the Biblical sense of that word? What might this mean you need to do?

[1] Refer Derek Kidner’s commentary on Genesis, page 92. 

[2] Refer to Luke 3:22 for an account of the Holy Spirit descending on Jesus at his baptism.

Tawa Baptist

Be Prepared

Scripture: Genesis 7 and Luke 17:26-27

Structure:

  • Introduction – be prepared
  • Fact or fiction
  • Global or regional
  • Random or intentional
  • Conclusion – be prepared for Jesus’ return

Introduction:

Good morning everyone.

When I was about 9 or 10 years old I was a cub scout. One of the things they taught us at cubs was to be prepared. Be prepared for anything. And to help us be prepared they sometimes did spot checks when we turned up for our weekly den meeting.

There were three things a cub scout needed to have on them to be prepared and these included a handkerchief, a pencil and three 2 cent pieces. The value of a handkerchief and a pencil need no explanation. They are helpful in all sorts of situations. But some of you may be wondering why we always needed to carry three 2 cent pieces. Well, that was the cost of a phone call from a public phone booth in those days. If you couldn’t fix the problem with a pencil and a handkerchief, then you could at least phone a friend for help.

I don’t know what Cubs and Brownies are supposed to carry with them these days. At a guess I imagine a handkerchief, a smart phone and unlimited data.  

Today we continue our series on Noah. A couple of weeks ago we heard how God told Noah to build an ark because the Lord was sending a great flood on the earth. And Noah did all that the Lord commanded him.

This morning we hear what happens when the flood comes. At the beginning of Genesis chapter 7 God tells Noah to be prepared because the flood will start in seven days’ time. During that seven days, pairs of animals and birds come to Noah and board the ark. We pick up the story from verse 11 of Genesis 7…

11 In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, on the seventeenth day of the second month—on that day all the springs of the great deep burst forth, and the floodgates of the heavens were opened. 12 And rain fell on the earth forty days and forty nights.

13 On that very day Noah and his sons, Shem, Ham and Japheth, together with his wife and the wives of his three sons, entered the ark. 14 They had with them every wild animal according to its kind, all livestock according to their kinds, every creature that moves along the ground according to its kind and every bird according to its kind, everything with wings. 15 Pairs of all creatures that have the breath of life in them came to Noah and entered the ark. 16 The animals going in were male and female of every living thing, as God had commanded Noah. Then the Lord shut him in.

17 For forty days the flood kept coming on the earth, and as the waters increased they lifted the ark high above the earth. 18 The waters rose and increased greatly on the earth, and the ark floated on the surface of the water. 19 They rose greatly on the earth, and all the high mountains under the entire heavens were covered. 20 The waters rose and covered the mountains to a depth of more than twenty feet. 21 Every living thing that moved on land perished—birds, livestock, wild animals, all the creatures that swarm over the earth, and all humankind. 22 Everything on dry land that had the breath of life in its nostrils died. 23 Every living thing on the face of the earth was wiped out; people and animals and the creatures that move along the ground and the birds were wiped from the earth. Only Noah was left, and those with him in the ark.

May the Spirit of Jesus illuminate God’s word for us.

The core message of today’s sermon is, be prepared. Alongside this core message to be prepared, Genesis 7 also raises a number of questions for us modern readers. For example, is the flood account in Genesis fact or fiction? What was the extent of the flood? What creatures were on the ark? How did all the animals fit? And how did Noah keep the lions from eating the zebras?

Some of our questions find an answer in the Biblical text but not all of them. The Bible was written thousands of years ago in a different culture from ours, by people who had a different way of thinking to us and a different knowledge base.

The writer of Genesis was primarily interested in telling us why the flood happened and what the flood reveals about God. The sorts of scientific and technical questions we might raise today were probably not even on the author’s radar. So we need to be careful not to try and make the text say things that it was never designed to say.

We can, however, use our reason and look at other evidence based sources to address some of the concerns of modern readers. I do this in the interests of helping you to be prepared. Who knows, one day you may find yourself in a conversation with someone who wants to know whether there were any dinosaurs on the ark.  

Fact or fiction:

One question people sometimes ask is whether the flood story is fact or fiction. Is it describing a real historical event or is it a fairy tale?

If you are sitting in a movie theatre and you see the words on the screen: “A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away…” you know you are about to watch a Star Wars movie. Star Wars is not real; it is science fiction. You are not there to learn information about the past. You are there to be entertained.  

And if you hear someone begin a story with: “Once upon a time…” you know you are about to hear a fairy tale. Although the story itself is not true you know it probably contains some moral lesson, some eternal truth.  

But when someone begins by saying: “On the 3rd February 1868 a violent storm swept across much of the country…”  you know this is not a made up story; this is non-fiction, and you are about to hear the historical account of a disaster. In actual fact there was a great storm in 1868 which swept across New Zealand causing flash floods and taking the lives of more than 40 people. [1]

Likewise, when the news reader on TV says: “Breaking news… we cross now live to our reporter…” you know what you are hearing and seeing is real. This is not entertainment, nor are you likely to learn some great pearl of wisdom. You are simply being informed of current events; history in the making.

Our reading this morning, from Genesis 7, begins with the words: “In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, on the seventeenth day of the second month—on that day all the springs of the great deep burst forth, and the floodgates of the heavens were opened. 12 And rain fell on the earth forty days and forty nights.”

This style of writing, with a very precise date and a description of facts, tells us that whoever wrote Genesis wants us to know the great flood is something that actually happened. It is not a made up story. What you are about to hear describes a historical event. [2]

The gospel of Luke describes the birth of Jesus in a similar way. Although Luke doesn’t give a precise year or date, he does name the emperor of Rome and the governor of Syria when Jesus was born, so we know it happened in history.

Now we don’t know exactly what year B.C. the great flood happened. Our records aren’t that good. But we do know, from the way the flood account is written, the human author wants us to think of it as fact, not fiction. He wants us to take our relationship with God and the world seriously. We need to learn from the great flood. Human actions have real consequences.      

Of course, the way the human authors of the Bible did history is not exactly the same as the way modern historians operate. They don’t follow the same rules. Events recorded in the Bible have a theological meaning. The Bible isn’t merely trying to inform the reader of certain facts. The Bible is using historical events to reveal some truths about God and humankind. What’s more, Biblical accounts of historical events are often communicated in an artistic way, using poetic license. These days, historians are more scientific, more precisely measured, in their approach.     

Returning to the question of whether the flood in Genesis is fact or fiction; when we look outside the Bible we find that many ancient cultures have a flood story as part of their collective memory.[3] The various versions of the flood story are different but the fact they are commonly found around the world may indicate there was a significant natural disaster in the early stages of human history. This event was then passed on, in story form, from one generation to the next, as a way of remembering and making sense of what happened. 

Global or regional:

If we say the flood happened in history then the next thing people today often ask is: what was the extent of the flood? Was it global or was it regional; perhaps the known world at that time? Most experts I’ve read are reluctant to commit to an answer on the extent of the flood, so we shouldn’t be too dogmatic on the position we take.

The Biblical text says, in verse 19, ‘The waters rose greatly on the earth, and all the high mountains under the entire heavens were covered.’ 

Then in verse 23 we read, ‘Every living thing on the face of the earth was wiped out…’

When we hear that we think, the flood must have been global then. But there are problems with that option.

The first problem is that the human author of Genesis did not necessarily think of the earth in the same way we do. John Walton says that people in the ancient Mesopotamian world thought of the earth as a single continent surrounded by mountains. [4] And beyond the mountains was the celestial sea, whatever that is. That means the human author of Genesis would not have known about Australia or New Zealand or America or China or Russia or any of those sorts of places.

Given that the human author of Genesis probably had a much smaller understanding of the earth than we do, it could be the flood he had in mind covered the known world at that time, which is still a relatively large area.       

As we learned when we did the series on the creation account in Genesis 1, God does not deem it necessary to correct our understanding of science. He accepts our limited perception and accommodates our understanding.

So far geologists have found no physical evidence for a global flood that dissipated as quickly as the flood described in Genesis. Although they have found physical evidence for significant flood events in the Middle East. That’s not to say a global flood could not have happened. It’s just that we haven’t yet been able to find physical evidence for it. Maybe in 20 years’ time we will find data that supports a global flood? 

A scientist by the name of Glenn Morton found geological data which shows that five and half million years ago the Mediterranean Sea was not there. It was in fact dry land. The water was naturally dammed up at Gibraltar. This natural dam feature suddenly collapsed causing a break more than 3,000 feet deep and 15 miles wide, filling the Mediterranean basin in less than 9 months. [5]

The water that flowed into the Mediterranean basin covered an area of 964,000 square miles. That’s over nine times the size of New Zealand. That volume of water, rising quickly, would have easily precipitated torrential rain for at least 40 days, if not longer.

We don’t really know when Noah lived. The flooding of the Mediterranean basin was probably before Noah’s time. In any case, this scientific data demonstrates that a flood of massive proportions did happen in the ancient world. But that wasn’t the only flood. In his commentary on Genesis, John Walton, who provides very solid scholarship, says this: 

In the mid-1990’s geologists and oceanographers began investigating a huge catastrophic flood in the region of the Black Sea. Their findings indicate that in about 5500 B.C. there was a sudden rise in water level in the Mediterranean, which brought a thunderous waterfall through the Bosporous and into the Black Sea. Over the course of a year it flooded out 60,000 square miles of land… [6]

(To put that in context the South Island of New Zealand is 58,000 square miles.)

Prior to this time fossil evidence shows the Black Sea was a fresh water sea. The salt water flooding in from the Mediterranean turned the Black Sea salty.

Could this be the flood that was described in Genesis 7? Maybe, but we can’t be sure. Humility requires us to admit the limits of our knowledge.

A couple of weeks ago we heard about the dimensions of the ark. Although the ark was an enormous vessel, even by today’s standards, it probably wasn’t big enough to accommodate pairs of every animal and bird on the planet, plus all the food and water they would need for a whole year.

The question of which animals were on the ark logically depends on the extent of the flood. If the flood wasn’t global then only those animals in the vicinity of the flood waters needed to board the ark. In other words, if the flood covered the known world at the time then kangaroos living in Australia and Moa living in NZ didn’t need to be on the ark.

And as for the question of whether dinosaurs were involved the answer is no. Scientists tell us that dinosaurs became extinct millions of years before human beings came along. Contrary to what you learned by watching the Flintstones, dinosaurs and humans never co-existed.

The good news is you don’t have to commit to a particular point of view on these sorts of issues. Your salvation depends on what you believe about Jesus, not on whether you think the flood was global or regional. It’s not worth arguing about.    

Random or intentional:

I said earlier the human author of Genesis was really more interested in answering the question of why the great flood happened. And the answer he gives, repeatedly, is that it was God’s judgement on humanity’s corrupt and violent ways. It wasn’t so much that God wanted to destroy his creation. I believe God works with the choices we make, but sometimes our choices leave God with limited options.

So the great flood in Genesis was intentional. It was not random. It was controlled by God to achieve his purpose; cleansing the earth of evil and bringing renewal to his creation. This then begs the question of whether other natural disasters are also examples of God executing his judgement on people.

Well, the short answer is ‘no’.

While God did intentionally use the flood waters to cleanse the earth in Genesis 7, it does not automatically follow that he always works through natural disasters. Most natural disasters, whether it is a flood or an earthquake or a volcanic eruption or a storm, or whatever, are not intentional acts of judgement. The great flood in Genesis seems to be an exception to the rule.

In the normal course of events, earthquakes happen because that’s the way God has made the earth – he has designed it to move. The earth, with its tectonic plates, is one of God’s creatures; it is a living thing. When the earth moves it is simply being itself – it is doing what God created it to do. Without earthquakes we wouldn’t have dry land and mountains. From our perspective earthquakes can be frightening but they are not personally targeted at people or cities. Generally speaking, earthquakes are random. The most we can do is be prepared.

In December last year Whakaari / White Island erupted. There were 47 people on the island at the time. 21 people were killed and the other 26 suffered injuries. I don’t believe that was an intentional act of God against those people. I think it was a random event and the people on the island were simply in the wrong place at the wrong time – they were unlucky. White Island erupted because it is an active volcano and that’s what volcanoes do from time to time.  If you are going to step onto an active volcano, then you have to be prepared to take the risk. We can’t blame God for that one.  

You know many Christians are uncomfortable with the idea of randomness or luck. In fact, ‘luck’ is often a taboo word in churches. Some people have a tendency to think that God is tightly controlling every little detail of their lives. And it is understandable that we might think this way because the message of the Bible is that God is sovereign. God does have a plan and purpose for his creation which he is working out. Life is not totally random.

Furthermore, God does sometimes get involved in the details. We call that providence. In verse 16 of Genesis 7 we read that God got involved in the details by shutting Noah in the ark. Apparently Noah didn’t prepare a way to shut the door from the inside, so God did it for him.

But just because God gets involved in the details sometimes doesn’t mean he is micro-managing everything all the time. If we think God is tightly controlling every little detail of our lives, then we set our faith up for a fall. If something goes wrong, then we either blame God or we blame the government or we blame ourselves; when actually it was no one’s fault, it was just bad luck. 

It is more helpful to think: that although God is ultimately in control, he allows his creatures (both human and non-human) a certain amount of freedom to be themselves. And when God does that; when he lets the earth quake, when he allows volcanoes to erupt, when he gives human beings freewill, there is (unfortunately) some collateral damage. [7]

With freedom comes mess. This world is not always safe. This life is not always fair. But ultimately, God is able to make things right.  

This is not to absolve human beings of all responsibility. Our actions do have an effect on the environment. We are capable of making already naturally occurring events worse. For example, if we listen to the scientific community, then global warming is making weather patterns more extreme. Production of plastic is polluting the oceans and intensive farming methods are poisoning waterways.

So there are some things we can do to mitigate the risk of natural disasters. For example, we can design buildings that stand up in an earthquake, we can stop producing so much plastic and we can reduce our carbon foot print. We can prepare for a better outcome, in other words.

Conclusion:

Returning to Genesis 7. In verse 23, we read that: Every living thing on the face of the earth was wiped out; people and animals and the creatures that move along the ground and the birds were wiped from the earth. Only Noah was left, and those with him in the ark.

This is incredibly sad not to mention terrifying. No one wants to think God is capable of that kind of mass destruction, but he is.

Part of Jesus’ message is that judgement is coming on the earth for the people of this age. In Luke 17 Jesus says this: 26 “Just as it was in the days of Noah,so also will it be in the days of the Son of Man. 27 People were eating, drinking, marrying and being given in marriage up to the day Noah entered the ark. Then the flood came and destroyed them all.

In the context of Luke 17, Jesus is talking about his second coming in glory. He is saying to his disciples, life will be carrying on as normal and then the end will come unexpectedly; so be prepared, be ready like Noah was, because I could return at any moment.

Jesus’ return is not fiction; it is future fact. He will return one day.

Jesus’ return is not regional; it will be global, to the ends of the earth.

And Jesus’ return is both intentional and random. It is intentional in the sense that God has planned for it to happen. But, from our point of view, it is random in the sense that it could happen at any time.  

In Genesis 7 it was only Noah and his family who were saved but the good news is: through faith in Jesus anyone can be saved from the next judgement. 

The ark Jesus is building has plenty of room for everyone.

We prepare for Jesus’ return by getting our lives right with God. By cultivating a living relationship of faith in Jesus, through prayer and action. By listening to Jesus’ teaching and obeying his call on our lives.

Questions for discussion or reflection:

What stands out for you in reading this Scripture and/or in listening to the sermon? Why do you think this stood out to you?

What sorts of question does the Genesis account of the flood raise for you? Can you find an answer for your questions in the Bible or do you need to look elsewhere?

How does the text of Genesis 7 indicate the flood account is fact and not fiction? What evidence do we find outside the Bible for a great flood in ancient times?

What claims does Genesis make about the extent of the flood? How might we best understand these claims, in light of reason and the scientific evidence available to us?

Why did the great flood (of Noah’s time) happen? Why do natural disasters happen today?

Do you believe God allows some degree of randomness or luck in this world? Why or why not? What is the risk of believing God tightly manages every little detail of life?

How do you feel reading Genesis 7:23?

How did Jesus interpret Noah’s flood, in Luke 17? What can we do to be prepared for Jesus’ second coming?     

[1] https://nzhistory.govt.nz/culture/new-zealand-disasters/timeline

[2] Refer Bruce Waltke, Genesis, page 139.

[3] Flood stories are found in most ancient cultures, except Africa where they are rare. 

[4] John Walton, NIVAC Genesis, page 327.

[5] Ibid, pages 329-330.

[6] Ibid, page 330.

[7] Refer Terence Fretheim’s book, ‘Creation Untamed’, page 73.

Tawa Baptist

God’s plan to preserve

Scripture: Genesis 6:9-22

Structure:

  • Introduction
  • God’s plan to preserve
  • Noah’s obedience of faith
  • Conclusion

Introduction:

Good morning everyone.

Abraham Lincoln once said: “Give me six hours to chop down a tree and I will spend the first four hours sharpening the axe.” 

I suppose the point is, work smarter, not harder. Plan ahead to give yourself the best chance of success.

Of course, those four hours of sharpening require quite a bit of patience. The temptation is to just crack on with the job using a blunt axe. But in those four hours, the wood cutter is also thinking: does this tree really need to come down? And if it does, what is the best way to bring it down safely? And once it is down, how will I use it?   

Today we continue our series on Noah and the great flood. Last week we heard about the grief God experiences as a consequence of his wayward creation. When God looked at the rudder of the human heart and saw it was set toward evil all the time his heart was filled with pain.

This morning we meet Noah and we learn what God plans to do about the mess the world is in. This is our third sermon into this series and we still haven’t got to the flood yet. In some ways it seems like God is spending a lot of time sharpening the axe. This shows the Lord (Yahweh) was not acting rashly or in the heat of the moment. He was acting carefully, with patience and control.

From Genesis 6, verses 9 to 22 we read…

9 This is the accountof Noah and his family.

Noah was a righteous man, blameless among the people of his time, and he walked 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 corruptthe 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 wood;make rooms in it and coat it with pitchinside and out. 15 This is how you are to build it: The ark is to be 450 feet long, 75 feet wide and 45 feet high. 16 Make a roof for it, leaving below the roof an opening 18 incheshigh 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 Twoof every kind of bird, of every kind of animal and of every kindof 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.       

May the Spirit of Jesus illuminate God’s word for us.

There are two main ideas I want to highlight in this passage: God’s plan to preserve a remnant and Noah’s obedience of faith. First let’s consider God’s plan to preserve a remnant.

God’s plan to preserve:

To preserve something is to keep it safe from destruction or decay. For example, you might preserve meat by keeping it in a freezer. Or you might preserve peaches by putting them in a can. Or you might preserve bananas by slicing them up and dehydrating them into banana chips.

In Norway there is a global seed vault (in the Arctic circle) which stores hundreds of thousands of varieties of seeds. This seed vault is designed to ensure the preservation of seeds during large-scale regional or global crises.

Preserving food is one thing but people may also want to preserve their relationships. You preserve a relationship by staying in touch with that person, keeping the lines of communication open and maintaining a mutual commitment to one another’s well-being.

On the one hand, the flood story is about God’s judgment in destroying his creation because it had become corrupt and violent. But at the same time it is also about God’s very careful plan to preserve a remnant, in order to restart (or re-seed) a new creation. In fact, today’s text pays more attention to God’s plan of preservation than it does to the destruction caused by the flood. The focus is on the lengths God goes to, to save and renew his creation.

The idea of God preserving a faithful remnant is repeated throughout the Scriptures. For example, during the time of Elijah, when it seemed like the whole nation had turned its back on God, the Lord tells Elijah he has preserved 7000 people for himself who have not bowed their knee to Baal. God also preserved a faithful remnant through the Assyrian invasions of Israel and later through the Babylonian exile. [1]  

One thing we notice about God’s plan to preserve is the detail. We are told about the dimensions of the ark, the building materials, the sorts of animals that were to go into the ark, the kind of food they were to take with them and so forth. If we were to read further into Genesis chapter 7 we would come across quite a bit of repetition of this detail and we would notice some very precise dates and time frames.

All of this detail regarding God’s plan, to bring a flood and preserve a remnant, tells us a number of things about God himself:

For example, God is not in a hurry to bring judgement; he is patient and his actions are considered.

Also that God does not over react in the heat of the moment; his response is careful and measured.  

But most of all it shows God’s judgement is just and merciful.

Other ancient cultures also had a great flood as part of their collective memory. In at least one of those pagan versions of the flood story the gods (plural) brought the flood because of over population. There were too many people making too much noise and so the gods, who didn’t really care about human beings, became irritated and drowned them all. There was no justice or mercy involved in their decision. It was capricious and thoughtless. As is typical of a pagan theology, this leads one to the hopeless conclusion that life is completely random and unfair and meaningless.

The Hebrew flood story is quite different from the pagan flood stories though. The God of Israel wasn’t angry; he was grieved and in pain for his creation. The God of Israel didn’t bring the flood to control over population or to keep the noise down. God loves his creation and commanded people to be fruitful and multiply. The Lord God brought the flood to control the spread of violence. Israel’s flood story reveals a God who is different from the pagan gods of the nations. A Jewish / Christian theology leads one to the hopeful conclusion that while this life is not always fair, our God, who is just and merciful, slow to anger and full of compassion, is able to make all things new.

The other thing we notice about God’s plan to preserve a remnant is that it involves a human being. God does not act alone in preserving his creation. The Lord, who is relational, makes a covenant with Noah. In fact, God’s plan depends on Noah’s obedience of faith.

Noah’s obedience of faith:

Let me tell you a story. Once there was a wealthy business man who purchased a block of land and built a kiwi-fruit orchard on it. There was quite a bit involved in transforming the property. First he had to clear the ground of gorse and other weeds and level out the earth. Then he sowed grass seed, put in fences and shelter belts. Next came all the strainer posts and wires for training the kiwifruit vines and lastly he planted the vines themselves.

Building from scratch like that was an expensive investment. It took time and patience for the vines to grow and mature to the point they were able to bear fruit.

This business man had a good heart and wanted to run his orchard in a way that was kind to the environment, so he did it organically. Rather than chemical sprays he used companion planting and bio-diversity to control pests. And he wasn’t just a Queen Street farmer, doing all the calls and paper work from a distance. He lived in the community and walked through his orchard every day.     

Sadly, a virus got onto his property and infected one or two of the plants. Eventually almost all of the vines became infected. As the fruit matured it became evident that the plant was sick and when you tasted the fruit it was revolting. Once the virus got in there was no way to get rid of it.

The orchardist was deeply grieved over what had happened to his vines. It wasn’t so much the money he had lost. He was so rich the money didn’t matter to him. It was more the death of the dream. He had invested so much time and energy and love into it. What he had intended for good was actually doing harm. Reluctantly the owner of the orchard knew there was nothing for it – he would have to pull out all the vines and destroy them. He didn’t want to do this but what choice did he have.

As he was walking through the kiwifruit canopies thinking about this he came to a single plant. This particular vine looked different to the rest. It looked healthier somehow. Out of curiosity he tasted the fruit and it was good, like a kiwifruit is supposed to taste.

The orchardist decided then and there he would preserve a cutting from this healthy vine and use it to start a new orchard. Most men would have walked away and not bothered to risk it all again. But this man was not ready to abandon his dream.  

You can probably see the connections between my little allegory and the story of the flood. God is like the wealthy business man who builds the orchard. The orchard represents God’s creation and the vines are human beings. The diseased fruit represents the corruption and violence of human beings. While most of the vines bear bad fruit, Noah is the exception. Noah bears good fruit and so God decides to preserve Noah and his family in order to start again with a new orchard, a new creation. 

Genesis 6, verse 9, tells us that Noah was a righteous man, blameless among the people of his time, and he walked with God. This is high praise indeed. The Bible doesn’t say this about many people.

To be righteous means to live in right relationship with those around you. A righteous person is fair and just. They have a good moral compass.

The word translated as ‘blameless’ literally means to be whole or complete. So the idea here is that Noah has a whole hearted commitment to righteousness. [2] This does not mean Noah was perfect. Later on (after the flood) Noah gets drunk, but that seems to be out of character for Noah. For the most part Noah did abstain from sin.

We are told Noah walked with God, like his great grandfather Enoch. The Bible only says that of two people. Noah was a rare individual indeed. As I mentioned a couple of weeks ago, to walk with God means to stay close to him – near enough to have a personal conversation. Walking with God implies a relationship of intimacy and righteousness. It means following God, going where God leads, doing life God’s way.

The fact that Noah and Enoch both walked with God shows that God is not a Queen Street farmer. He is not running things remotely – he is on the earth, walking among the vines of his kiwifruit orchard.

To people of Jewish and Christian faith, Noah is a hero. But probably to the people of his own time Noah was a bit of an odd ball. A bit weird, a bit strange.[3]

Noah lived what it means to be salt & light in his world. He was distinctive, different, not bland. G.K. Chesterton makes this comment about people like Noah…

A man with a definite belief always appears bizarre, because he does not change with the world… Millions of mild black coated men call themselves sane and sensible merely because they always catch the fashionable insanity, because they are hurried into madness after madness by the maelstrom of the world.

Because Noah walked with God the Lord confided in him, telling Noah about his plan to preserve a remnant. God instructs Noah to build an ark. The Hebrew word translated as ark here is used seven times in the instructions to build the ark and seven times in the report of the subsiding waters (8:1-14). [4] This precise symmetry reveals something of the poetic artistry of the Genesis account of the flood. The only other time the same Hebrew word for ark is used in Scripture is in Exodus 2. The baby Moses was placed in a miniature ark in the river Nile.   

God tells Noah what kind of wood to use in making the ark. Older translations say it was gopher wood, but we don’t really know what gopher wood is so modern translation say it was cypress wood, which is an educated guess.

The wood is to be coated in pitch, which is a water proofing agent. God also gives Noah the dimensions for the ark: 137 metres long, 23 metres wide and 14 metres high. That’s an enormous vessel by the standards of Noah’s time. Interestingly, we still use similar dimensions for large ocean going ships today, so we know the ark would have been sea worthy.

You often see pictures of Noah’s ark with a nicely rounded keel and bow but it may have been more practical for Noah to simply make the ark in the shape of a rectangular box, sort of like a coffin.  

God does not give instructions for Noah to make a sail or a rudder, just a door in the side and some ventilation near the top. The ark is literally a container at the mercy of God and the flood waters. God is not asking Noah to be a sailor but he is asking Noah to be a carpenter and a zoo keeper.

In verse 18 God says to Noah, “…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…”

This is the first time in the Bible that we find the word covenant. A covenant is a sacred agreement entered into by two parties who already know each other. A covenant is not supposed to be broken, ever, but if it is broken then certain negative consequences result.    

God made covenants with other people throughout history as well. He made a covenant with Abraham, with the people of Israel, with king David and, through Jesus, he makes a covenant with us. Whenever we share communion we remember our covenant with God. The rainbow in the sky is the sign of God’s covenant with humanity and the rest of creation, through Noah. Likewise, communion is the sign of God’s covenant with believers, through Christ.

In verses 19-21 of Genesis 6, Noah learns why he is to make such a large ark; it isn’t just for him and his family, it’s like a seed vault for two of every kind of bird and animal as well as every kind of food that is eaten.  

After God has spoken, we read in verse 22 of Genesis 6 that Noah did everything just as God commanded him. This phrase is repeated again a few verses later in chapter 7. The writer of the flood story wants to highlight Noah’s obedience of faith.

By obedience of faith I mean trust in God; taking God at his word and acting on that trust in real and practical ways.

One of the observations made by pretty much every commentator is that Noah is silent throughout the account of the flood. Noah doesn’t say anything the whole time until after the flood is finished.

Noah does not ask God any questions, nor does he intercede with God for the people around him. Apparently he agrees with God that things have got out of hand. Noah doesn’t complain while he is stuck on the smelly ark for over a year, nor does he offer any words of lament for the people who have died. He doesn’t even speak words of thanksgiving or praise when the ordeal is finally over. He simply sacrifices some animals to God without saying anything. 

The only time we hear Noah open his mouth is after he gets drunk and wakes up with a hangover in Genesis 9. Clearly, Noah’s actions speak louder than his words, such is the character of his faith.

In considering Noah’s obedience of faith we are mindful of the cost of that obedience. God did not build the ark for Noah. He told Noah to build it himself. We are not told how long it took, but it must have taken a sustained effort over many years. Noah would have had to cut down large trees, mill them, coat them in pitch, transport the timber to the building site and then construct the ark. Presumably he got his sons to help him, but even so, it is a lot of work by hand.

It’s not like Noah could drive down to Bunnings to buy a kitset and put it together with power tools. Nor is it like the film Evan Almighty where God delivers the building supplies to Evan’s house. Noah’s boat building was hard graft, just as our life of faith can be hard graft at times.

Noah reminds us of another carpenter, the carpenter of Nazareth.  In Matthew 13:44 Jesus tells a pithy little parable: “The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field. When a man found it, he hid it again, and then in his joy went and sold all he had and bought that field.”

Jesus’ parable here illustrates Noah’s obedience of faith. Noah risked everything on God’s word and it resulted in his salvation as well as the salvation of his family and the birds and animals.

Conclusion:

It’s interesting to me that God involved Noah the way he did. It shows that God works from the inside to renew his creation. He doesn’t fix things from the outside (like a mechanic working on a car). No, God gets small, he gets detailed, and works through a human being to preserve a remnant.      

By doing it this way, God was giving humanity a choice: whether to live or die. Noah chose life. What will we choose?

Let’s stand and sing Cornerstone as we prepare for communion.

Questions for discussion or reflection:

What stands out for you in reading this Scripture and/or in listening to the sermon? Why do you think this stood out to you?

  • If you have six hours to chop down a tree, why might you spend the first four hours sharpening the axe?
  • What are some practical things we can do to preserve our relationships with others? Is there any relationship in particular you think might benefit from a bit of preserving at the moment?
  • Why do you think the writer of the flood story in Genesis spends so much time focusing on God’s plan to preserve a remnant of his creation?
  • What might God’s detailed instructions to Noah show us about God?
  • What does it mean that Noah was righteous and blameless? How do you think Noah would have been perceived by the people of his day?
  • What do we mean by the term ‘obedience of faith’? How did Noah work out his obedience of faith? How is God calling you to work out your obedience of faith?

[1] Refer Bruce Waltke, Genesis, page 157.

[2] Refer Bruce Waltke, Genesis, page 133.

[3] Refer John Walton, NIVAC Genesis, page 332.

[4] Bruce Waltke, Genesis, page 135.