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

Good Grief

Scripture: Genesis 6:1-8

Structure:

  • Introduction
  • Genesis 6:1-4 – God’s limits
  • Genesis 6:5-8 – God’s grief
  • Conclusion

Introduction:

Good morning everyone.

When you pour concrete you have a certain amount of time to spread and smooth the mix while it is still wet. But once it goes hard you can’t work the concrete anymore. It has gone past the point of no return.

It’s similar with clay. While the clay is wet and soft the potter can turn it and shape it on his wheel. If the clay doesn’t form the shape he wants at first, he can just add some more water and reshape it. But once the clay has set he can’t reform it anymore. It has gone past the point of no return.  

Today we continue our new sermon series on the story of Noah. Last week we heard about Noah’s genealogy. This week we learn a little more about the state of the world, and the state of God’s heart, shortly before the flood. People had become hardened in their evil ways – like concrete or clay they had gone past the point of no return. From Genesis 6:1-8 we read…

When human beings began to increase in number on the earth and daughters were born to them, 2 the sons of God saw that the daughters of humans were beautiful, and they married any of them they chose. 3 Then the Lord said, “My Spirit will not contend with humans forever, for they are mortal; their days will be a hundred and twenty years.”

4 The Nephilim were on the earth in those days—and also afterward—when the sons of God went to the daughters of humans and had children by them. They were the heroes of old, men of renown.

5 The Lord saw how great the wickedness of the human race had become on the earth, and that every inclination of the thoughts of the human heart was only evil all the time. 6 The Lord was grieved that he had made human beings on the earth, and his heart was filled with pain. 7 So the Lord said, “I will wipe from the face of the earth the human race I have created—and with them the animals, the birds and the creatures that move along the ground—for I am grieved that I have made them.” 8 But Noah found favour in the eyes of the Lord.

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

God’s limits:

Have you ever tried to play a game of patience with some of the cards missing?

Have you ever tried to play a game of Scrabble with some of the letters missing?

Have you ever tried to finish a jigsaw with some of the pieces missing?

It’s frustrating isn’t it.

In some ways Genesis 6, verses 1-4 is like that. We don’t have all the pieces and so we can’t get the full picture. We are left guessing about the details.

For example, in verse 2 we read about the sons of God who married the daughters of men. Who were these ‘sons of God’?

The only other time that exact same phrase ‘sons of God’ is used in the Old Testament it refers to angels, heavenly creatures (in Job). Consequently, the early church fathers interpreted ‘sons of God’ to mean fallen angels.

We see this concept of fallen angels in the 1998 film, City of Angels, starring Nicolas Cage and Meg Ryan. In this film, an angel called Seth falls in love with a human woman and gives up his immortality as an angel in order to be with her. Sadly, the woman dies soon afterwards and Seth is stuck on earth.

The 2014 film version of Noah’s story, starring Russell Crowe, took a similar interpretation, portraying the ‘sons of God’ as fallen angels called ‘Watchers’ who roamed the earth looking for redemption and a return to heaven.

Most modern Biblical scholars don’t see it this way though. I suppose the idea of fallen angels mating with human women to produce some kind of half angel, half human hybrid[1] seems a bit far-fetched in a rigorous academic environment. So, as an alternative, the experts are more inclined to interpret the ‘sons of God’ as human rulers, sort of like kings or tyrants. They do this on the basis that kings and rulers in the ancient world were sometimes referred to as the ‘sons of God’. Not that people necessarily thought of human kings as divine. It was more a way of acknowledging their status and authority to rule.

Verse 4 tells us the Nephilim were on the earth in those days. The identity of the Nephilim is another puzzle to us modern readers. Apparently they were the offspring of the ‘sons of God’ and human women. In any case, the Nephilim were famous as mighty men and heroes of old. In the book of Numbers, they are associated with giants.

The ancient Jewish readers may well have known what was meant by the ‘sons of God’ and the ‘Nephilim’ but those pieces of the jigsaw are lost to us now, so we can’t say with any certainty who they were. 

What we do know is they were creatures of God; they were not divine nor even semi-divine. And God was not happy with them. If you take the view that the ‘sons of God’ were fallen angels, then these angels had crossed a boundary, between heaven and earth, that they shouldn’t have. And if you take the view that the ‘sons of God’ were human rulers, then these tyrants were oppressing people in an organised way. They were sort of like mafia bosses. God needed to put some limits in place for the well-being of his creation.

With this in mind, we read in verse 3 of Genesis 6 that God said: “My Spirit will not contend with humans forever, for they are mortal; their days will be a hundred and twenty years.”

Reading this in most English translations it sounds like God is putting a limit on the human life span of 120 years. The problem with this interpretation is that some people born after the flood lived longer than 120 years. The Bible tells us, for example, that Abraham lived to be 175.

It could be that the 120 years is a general rule, for which God is free to make exceptions, as in the case of Abraham. Or, it could be the 120 years doesn’t refer to human life spans, but rather to the length of time God would wait before sending the flood. We do notice in other parts of the Bible that God gives people fair warning and an opportunity to change before executing his judgement.

Either way, God’s grace is evident in the limits that he sets. If we take the 120 years limit to refer to human life spans (allowing for the odd exception) then God is actually limiting the spread of evil. If the ‘sons of God’ are not allowed to live too long, then their evil regimes and oppression are also limited. Imagine the damage that would be done if Hitler or Stalin or some other fascist dictator was allowed to live for 900 years or more. It doesn’t bear thinking about. God’s judgment and his grace go together.

On the other hand, if we take the 120 years to refer to the time God planned to wait before sending the flood, then God’s grace is evident in the opportunity he gives for people to come to their senses and change their wicked ways.

Perhaps the more important thing to focus on here is that life is God’s to give and take as he thinks best. God says, “My Spirit will not contend with humans forever, for they are mortal;  

To be mortal means we die, we don’t live forever. The bodies we are given in this life wear out eventually.

The only reason we are alive is that God has breathed his Spirit into us. Our life is on loan from God. God is free to take back his Spirit (his breath of life) whenever he wants. When God takes a life it isn’t murder. He is not taking something that belongs to someone else. He is taking back what was always his in the first place.

The mistake we human beings always seem to make is thinking that our lives, our time, our bodies, our money, our everything else belongs to us and is ours to do with as we want. But your life is not your own; it belongs to God.

Imagine you are a high flying business executive and your boss gives you a credit card for your expenses. You can legitimately use this card to fill up the work car with petrol, to pay for your hotel room when you have to go on a business trip, to wine and dine clients and to pay for any other work related expenses.

Of course, your boss is the one paying the bill. So if he sees you have been using the credit card for things that are not work related, he has every right to cancel your credit and give you the sack.    

In giving us life, it’s like God has given each of us a credit card. We are free to use the card to buy almost anything we want but there is a limit on that card. We can’t go beyond the limit. God gets the credit card statements. He sees what we buy. He sees the way we spend our life. And if we spend ourselves in a way that is harmful and doesn’t serve his purpose then he is entitled to cut our credit.

Now God is generous and he doesn’t usually give people the sack the first time they mess up. But he is still our boss. He’s the one paying the bill, not us. We are here at God’s expense. We need to be careful to not take advantage of his goodness.

Human beings, in the days of Noah, were misappropriating the life God had given them. People generally were not spending their lives in service to God. They were using the credit card of their life to oppress and abuse others. God is generous and patient but, in his wisdom and grace, he imposes limits. There is a day of accounting with God.

Jesus made this very clear in a number of his parables – in particular the one in Matthew 25 about the Master who entrusted his three servants with large sums of silver. Two of the servants doubled what they had been given and were allowed to keep it when the master returned. The third servant buried his silver in the ground. The master was not happy with him and he lost it all.  

The silver in this parable represents the life and gifts God has given us. The point of the story is not to use our lives to make lots of money. The point is that we should use the life we have been entrusted with to serve and glorify God.

God’s grief:

Sometimes we read the Bible in the same way we might look into a mirror. We just see our own reflection. That’s not always a bad thing. In fact, looking into a mirror can be helpful if we are looking a bit scruffy and need to brush our hair or have a shave. Just as long as we look away when we’ve finished.

Other times though the Bible functions less like a mirror and more like a lens or a telescope that helps us to see God more clearly.

Genesis 6, verses 5-8, act like a mirror and a lens simultaneously. They reflect the human heart and they show us God’s heart at the same time.     

Verse 5 reads: The Lord saw how great the wickedness of the human race had become on the earth, and that every inclination of the thoughts of the human heart was only evil all the time.

The English language doesn’t really have a single word to do justice to the ancient Hebrew idea of the human heart. In English we think of the heart either literally (as a pump in our chest for circulating blood and keeping us alive) or we think of the heart metaphorically as the place where our emotions come from. We tend to associate the heart with tender or romantic feelings.

But to the ancient Hebrew mind the human heart isn’t just a container for emotions. The human heart is also where thoughts, and moral decisions come from. We could say the heart is the seat of the will. The heart is like the rudder or steering wheel of the soul. Our heart determines the direction we take in life, whether we are aware of it or not.

When we talk about giving our heart to Jesus, what we mean is letting Jesus be the pilot or driver of our life. Letting the hand of Christ take hold of the rudder of our soul to set our life in the right direction.

In Matthew 15:19 Jesus said, “For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony and slander. These are what make a person ‘unclean’.”  

Returning to Genesis 6, when God saw the great wickedness of the human race; in other words, when he saw the injustice, the immorality, the murder, the oppression, the slander and so on, he traced all that bad behaviour to its source and it led him straight to the human heart.     

God saw that every inclination of the thoughts of the human heart was only evil all the time. It is difficult to imagine a worse indictment.

If the human heart is like a rudder for our soul, then this means the human heart was continually in the grip of evil. It wasn’t like people only made bad choices half the time. They kept making bad choices all the time. The rudder of their heart was jammed toward violence and greed.

The comprehensive state of evil in Noah’s day foreshadows the Godlessness of society in the days leading up to Christ’s return.

In 2nd Timothy chapter 3, the apostle Paul writes…

But mark this: There will be terrible times in the last days. 2 People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money,boastful, proud, abusive,disobedient to their parents,ungrateful, unholy, 3 without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, 4 treacherous,rash, conceited,lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God— 5 having a form of godliness but denying its power. Have nothing to do with such people.

Returning to Genesis 6. Verse 6 tells us,The Lord was grieved that he had made human beings on the earth, and his heart was filled with pain.

Wow. This is what we call the pathos of God. When I read this verse I feel like taking a moment’s silence.

Think about it. The Scripture does not say that God was angry because of the wickedness of the human race. No. It says he was grieved that he had made human beings. He was not enraged. He was filled with pain. The evil heart of humankind deeply affects the loving heart of God. As Walter Brueggemann observes, ‘What we find here is not an angry tyrant but a troubled parent who grieves over the alienation.’ [2]

God is our Father. He is our parent. His heart toward us is love. 

First the Lord saw. He saw the rudder of the human heart was constantly directed toward evil all the time.

Next the Lord felt. God did not just take a quick peek at the human heart. He took a good, long, hard look and in doing so he made himself vulnerable. He felt the grief and pain of human injustice.

Then, having seen and having felt, the Lord decided what he would do. From verse 7 we read: So the Lord said, “I will wipe from the face of the earth the human race I have created—and with them the animals, the birds and the creatures that move along the ground—for I am grieved that I have made them.”

Sometimes people say to me, ‘How could God do that? How could he kill all those people in the flood, not to mention the animals and birds as well?’

While I can understand why people might ask this question, it bypasses what the text is saying. It is not just the world that is in crisis here, it is the very heart of God. The Biblical narrative is more concerned with the deep grief within God.

The flood story is about the hurt God endures because of his wayward creation.

For the people who drowned their suffering was over. For God it continues. We see the suffering heart of God in the person of Jesus on the cross.

The flood story is not primarily about us – it’s about God.

God took no pleasure in the flood. God did not want to drown his creation. I expect he would have preferred to repair the situation if he could. Sadly, things had gone past the point of no return. Like concrete (or clay) humanity had gone hard and become set in its ways – people were no longer malleable. The Lord was left with little choice but to start again.

When an animal dies in a river its rotting carcass contaminates the water downstream. You can’t drink from the river without getting sick. So you have little choice but to remove the dead carcass; then the water can flow clean again.

If human history is like a river, then the wickedness of the human race in Noah’s time, was like a rotting carcass in the stream of human history. God had to remove the corruption and decay so that humanity down-stream wasn’t poisoned. I imagine if God had allowed things to carry on as they were the suffering would have been even greater.

Conclusion:

Our reading this morning finishes on a note of hope. In verse 8, after God has decided to wipe out his creation, we read…

But Noah found favour in the eyes of the Lord.

It seems Noah was the exception to the rule. Unlike his contemporaries Noah’s heart (the rudder of his soul) was not always directed toward evil. Noah allowed God to steer the course of his life.

Last Sunday we heard how Noah’s father, Lamech, said his son would bring them relief. Lamech may not have realised the full meaning of what he was saying. It’s not just us human beings who are pained by sin. Our sin causes God pain as well. As a righteous man Noah was able to offer some relief to God.  

The fact that God’s heart can be grieved by human behaviour also implies that we can bless God’s heart by the choices we make, we can bring joy to his heart.

What can you do this week to bless God’s heart?

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?

Who might the ‘sons of God’ refer to, in Genesis 6:2?  Why do you think the writer of Genesis mentions them?

Why did God set a limit of 120 years? In what ways do we see God’s grace in the limits he sets? 

Where does life come from and who does it belong to? How are you using the credit card (of life) that God has given you? 

What does the Bible mean by the human heart? How does the human heart affect God’s heart?

Why do you think God decided to bring a great flood on the earth?

In what way did Noah provide some relief for God? In what way might you be able to bless God’s heart this week?

[1] John Walton uses the term ‘hybrid’ in his NIVAC commentary on Genesis, although he doesn’t support the view that the ‘sons of God’ were fallen angels.

[2] Refer Walter Brueggemann’s commentary on Genesis, page 77.

Tawa Baptist

Noah’s Genealogy

Scripture: Genesis 5

Structure:

  • Introduction
  • Noah’s genealogy
  • Enoch’s walk
  • Lamech’s hope
  • Conclusion

Introduction:

Good morning everyone.

At some point every child wonders, ‘Where did I come from?’ This is a very good question. It has to do with identity and belonging. The thing is, a parent never knows when their child is going to ask this question.

If the child is quite young, then parents may feel a dilemma. Do I tell them the scientific facts, which could scare and confuse them, or do I make up a fanciful story like, ‘the stalk delivered you’? Unfortunately, neither of these options really addresses the underlying question of identity and belonging.    

Parents in the ancient world of the Bible had a better strategy. They wisely pointed to the family genealogy or whakapapa. By telling their children about their ancestors, parents gave their kids a sense of belonging and identity.

Today we begin a new sermon series on the life of Noah. Noah was the bloke who built the ark and saved the animals from the great flood. In Genesis chapter 5 we read about Noah’s genealogy. I imagine when Noah was old enough to ask, ‘Where did I come from?’, his father Lamech probably gave him this answer…    

This is the list of the descendants of Adam. When God created humankind,he made themin the likeness of God. 2 Male and female he created them, and he blessed them and named them “Humankind”when they were created.

3 When Adam had lived one hundred thirty years, he became the father of a son in his likeness, according to his image, and named him Seth. 4 The days of Adam after he became the father of Seth were eight hundred years; and he had other sons and daughters. 5 Thus all the days that Adam lived were nine hundred thirty years; and he died.

6 When Seth had lived one hundred five years, he became the father of Enosh. 7 Seth lived after the birth of Enosh eight hundred seven years, and had other sons and daughters. 8 Thus all the days of Seth were nine hundred twelve years; and he died.

9 When Enosh had lived ninety years, he became the father of Kenan. 10 Enosh lived after the birth of Kenan eight hundred fifteen years, and had other sons and daughters. 11 Thus all the days of Enosh were nine hundred five years; and he died.

12 When Kenan had lived seventy years, he became the father of Mahalalel. 13 Kenan lived after the birth of Mahalalel eight hundred and forty years, and had other sons and daughters. 14 Thus all the days of Kenan were nine hundred and ten years; and he died.

15 When Mahalalel had lived sixty-five years, he became the father of Jared. 16 Mahalalel lived after the birth of Jared eight hundred thirty years, and had other sons and daughters. 17 Thus all the days of Mahalalel were eight hundred ninety-five years; and he died.

18 When Jared had lived one hundred sixty-two years he became the father of Enoch. 19 Jared lived after the birth of Enoch eight hundred years, and had other sons and daughters. 20 Thus all the days of Jared were nine hundred sixty-two years; and he died.

21 When Enoch had lived sixty-five years, he became the father of Methuselah. 22 Enoch walked with God after the birth of Methuselah three hundred years, and had other sons and daughters. 23 Thus all the days of Enoch were three hundred sixty-five years. 24 Enoch walked with God; then he was no more, because God took him.

25 When Methuselah had lived one hundred eighty-seven years, he became the father of Lamech. 26 Methuselah lived after the birth of Lamech seven hundred eighty-two years, and had other sons and daughters. 27 Thus all the days of Methuselah were nine hundred sixty-nine years; and he died.

28 When Lamech had lived one hundred eighty-two years, he became the father of a son; 29 he named him Noah, saying, “Out of the ground that the Lord has cursed this one shall bring us relief from our work and from the toil of our hands.” 30 Lamech lived after the birth of Noah five hundred ninety-five years, and had other sons and daughters. 31 Thus all the days of Lamech were seven hundred seventy-seven years; and he died.

32 After Noah was five hundred years old, Noah became the father of Shem, Ham, and Japheth.

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

Noah’s genealogy:

How well do you know your ancestry? How far back can you go? Can you name your grandparents, your great grandparents or even your great, great grandparents? I can’t go back any further than four generations. I know the names of my great grandfather and great grandmother on my mother’s side. Albert & Nellie were born towards the end of the 19th Century.

I imagine some of you can go back a lot further than that, while others may not know anything about your ancestors. Whether you know your family tree or not, the Bible tells us our identity and belonging (as human beings) is found in God. Verses 1 & 2 of Genesis 5 tell us…

When God created humankind,he made themin the likeness of God. 2 Male and female he created them, and he blessed them and named them “Humankind”when they were created.

This tells us that while men and women may be different in form and function and temperament, we are not different in status or worth or value. Women and men are of equal value and both are needed to represent God’s image.  

To be made in the likeness of God does not necessarily mean to look like God physically. To be made in the image of God is to be given noble status. We are supposed to act as regents who represent God (the King) in this world. We are God’s ambassadors and stewards on this planet. The way we relate with each other and the rest of creation is meant to reflect the character of God. 

For example, when we love our neighbour and care for the environment we are representing the likeness (or image) of God. But when we act in ways that are unloving or abusive, then we are not representing God’s likeness.

In some ways humanity is like the moon. Just as the moon reflects the light of the sun, so too human beings (together) reflect the glory of God. Sometimes the moon reflects the light of the sun fully (as when we see a full moon). Other times the moon only reflects the sun’s light partially, if at all. Sometimes we human beings reflect God’s image well. Other times we do a pretty poor job.

Either way, we are still God’s image bearers, reflectors of his glory. Sin and the fall of humankind does not stop us from being made in God’s image, although it does tarnish God’s image at times.

The book of Genesis names three of Adam and Eve’s children: Cain, Abel and Seth. Adam & Eve probably had other children too but we are only told about three of them. In Genesis chapter 4 we read how Cain killed Abel. Adam and Eve then had another son called Seth. Noah was descended from Seth.

If you think about it, you are lucky. You have won the lottery just by being born. If any one of the thousands of generations of your forebears had died before becoming a parent, you wouldn’t be here. Some of your ancestors have survived war, famine, the black plague and all sorts of other terrible tragedies, just so you could be born. So you, each one of you, has beaten the odds. Although it really had more to do with God. It is because of his great love and providence that you are here.   

The genealogy in Genesis 5 doesn’t just tell us about Noah and where he came from. It tells us about God as well. In particular Noah’s genealogy points to the faithfulness of God. Even though human beings rejected God. Even though Adam and Eve ate the forbidden fruit, God still blessed humanity by supporting life through the generations.  

There are ten generations named from Adam to Noah. In the Bible ten is a number which symbolises wholeness or completeness or fullness. The list of Noah’s ancestors in Genesis 5 shows that God did not short change humanity. God is patient and faithful. God blessed human beings and gave them every opportunity to live full lives and make good.

We notice a repeating pattern with the way Noah’s genealogy is presented. With each generation we are told the name of the ancestor, how old they were when they had a son, how long they lived after the son was born and how many years they lived in total, before they died. This points to God’s personal care and concern. Each life is valued by him. Each person is remembered by name.

We are struck by the longevity of the people in this list. Most of Noah’s ancestors lived for over 900 years each. Different commentators have tried to explain these long life spans in all sorts of weird and wonderful ways, none of which are convincing. While God could easily support quality life for 900 plus years, if that served his purpose, humility requires us to admit the limits of our knowledge and not be too dogmatic with our interpretation.

A better question to ask might be what does it mean to live well? I don’t think life can be measured in years alone. Perhaps life is measured by the legacy we leave for others. Or perhaps the love we give is the best measure of life. Jesus only lived 33 years before he was killed and yet the legacy of love that he left has endured for more than 2000 years. Jesus had no biological children and yet he has literally millions of spiritual children.

It seems to me, the long life spans point to the idea that God is generous and wants to give abundant life. As Jesus said, I have come that you might have life in all its fullness.

Two individuals in Noah’s genealogy need special mention: Noah’s great grandfather Enoch and Noah’s dad, Lamech.

Enoch’s walk:

Robyn and I really enjoy walking together. One of the silver linings of lockdown was that we got to go for a walk around Tawa most days. The weather was pretty good in April. Walking is life-giving. It is good for you physically, of course, but it also opens windows in your mind and creates connections with people. Walking helps you to feel less alone.

Enoch was the seventh generation from Adam and he broke the mould. From verse 21 of Genesis 5 we read…

21 When Enoch had lived sixty-five years, he became the father of Methuselah. 22 Enoch walked with God after the birth of Methuselah three hundred years, and had other sons and daughters. 23 Thus all the days of Enoch were three hundred sixty-five years. 24 Enoch walked with God; then he was no more, because God took him.

Twice in these verses we are told that Enoch ‘walked with God’. It doesn’t say what Enoch did for a job or what kind of camel he drove. It doesn’t tell us how much money he made – or what he built. It doesn’t list any of his achievements. It simply says he walked with God. Sadly, this expression is rare. Noah may be the only other person of whom it is said, he walked with God. [1]

What does it mean to walk with God?

When you walk with someone you stay close to them – near enough to have a personal conversation – you go where they go. To walk with God, therefore, implies a relationship of intimacy and righteousness. It means following God, going where God leads, doing life God’s way.

Jesus walked everywhere with his disciples. When Jesus called his disciples he said, come follow me. In other words, walk with me, be near to be me so we can have an on-going conversation. Learn from me.

Walking with God requires humility; you need to keep your feet on the ground. As the prophet Micah famously said, ‘What does the Lord require of you? To do justly, to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.’

Walking implies movement, transformation, change, going on a journey. But it is a journey that is unhurried – it’s walking, not running. There is a rhythm in walking with God, where we find ourselves in time with Him. 

Verse 24 of Genesis 5 tells us that after walking with God, Enoch was no more because God took him away. Enoch did not die – he was raptured by God. To be raptured is to be transported (sort of like ‘Beam me up Scotty’). When Jesus returns in glory we, who trust in him, will be raptured (or transported) to where he is. God took Enoch away. There is only one other person in the Hebrew Bible to be raptured like this (without dying) and that was the prophet Elijah. [2]

Enoch broke the mould. He did things differently from his ancestors and those around him. Jesus calls us to break the mould too. When Jesus said to his disciples, ‘You are the salt of the earth’ and ‘You are the light of the world’ and ‘Be holy as God is holy’, he was saying, ‘Be distinctive. Don’t blend in with the world around you. Break the mould. Be different in a good way.’ The only way we can do this is by ‘walking with God’.

Enoch’s life stands out as a beacon of hope. He demonstrates that sin and death do not always have the last word. Enoch points to Jesus who shows us how to walk with God. Jesus has defeated death.  

Lamech’s hope:

The other person to mention in Noah’s genealogy is his father, Lamech.

Now, to avoid confusion, we need to be clear about which Lamech we mean. We are not talking about the Lamech, in Genesis 4, who was descended from Cain. He was a nasty piece of work. Cain’s Lamech was hell-bent on seeking revenge and his revenge overstepped the mark.

The Lamech we are talking about was descended from Seth and, in contrast to his cousin, Seth’s Lamech expressed hope, not revenge. When Noah was born his father said of him…

“Out of the ground that the Lord has cursed this one shall bring us relief from our work and from the toil of our hands.”    

God had cursed the ground when Adam and Eve disobeyed him and ate the forbidden fruit. God did not curse people, he cursed the ground. This doesn’t mean that God put a hex or a magic spell on the ground. It simply means that God removed his protection and favour from the ground, with the consequence that humankind would have to work a lot harder to get the ground to yield food.

Lamech is tired of working the cursed ground. He longs for relief from the hard labour God has sentenced them to and he imagines his son, Noah, will be the one to bring that relief. The name ‘Noah’ sounds like the Hebrew word for ‘relief’ or ‘rest’. [3] It seems that Lamech did not fully realise what God was going to do through Noah.

Lamech’s hope, that Noah would bring relief, is thought to find its compliment in Genesis 8:21 when, after the flood, Noah offers a sacrifice to God and the Lord is pleased saying, “Never again will I curse the ground because of man.” [4]

When I was kid we watched a movie called The Fantastic Voyage. It was a science fiction story in which a submarine crew are shrunk to microscopic size and venture into the body of an injured scientist to repair damage to his brain. Cool aye. The surgeons can’t fix the problem from the outside, they have to get small and fix it from the inside. I won’t spoil the ending for you. They are probably due to do a remake sometime.

Walter Brueggemann makes the observation that Lamech’s prophetic hope hints at incarnational faith. “The affirmation that relief comes from cursed ground… runs toward crucifixion and resurrection… As help comes from the place of curse, so life comes from the reality of death.” [5]

In other words, God doesn’t fix the problem of sin from the outside, like a mechanic working on a car or a jeweller fixing a watch or a surgeon removing cancer. No, incarnation means God gets small and fixes the problem from the inside. In Genesis, God uses his creation to fix his creation. That is, God works through the flood waters and through Noah to renew his creation.  

Eventually though, God would embark on his own fantastic voyage. He would make himself small and become a human being (in the person of Jesus), in order to bring relief from the curse of sin and death, from the inside out.   

Conclusion:

You may wonder why I have chosen to start this sermon series with Noah’s genealogy? Well, mainly because that’s how the Bible starts it.

On its own, the account of the flood is a tragic story of judgement and death. But heard in its proper context, the flood story is redemptive. In Genesis 5 we read of the ten generations from Adam to Noah and in Genesis 10 we read of the generations born from Noah’s three sons, after the flood. By sandwiching the flood story between two genealogies we are reminded of the generous way God supports and continues and prospers life.

In Luke 10:20, Jesus refers to a different kind of genealogy – a spiritual genealogy. He says to his disciples, “…rejoice that your names are written in heaven.”  As Christians our identity and belonging are found in Christ. Jesus knows you by name. You belong to Christ and, when you put your trust in him, your name is written in the family tree of heaven.

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?

How well do you know your ancestry? How far back can you go? As human beings, where does our sense of identity and belonging come from?

What does it mean to be made in the image (or likeness) of God?

What does Noah’s genealogy indicate about God? Similarly, what might the long life spans in Genesis 5 indicate about God?

Why is walking good for you? What does it mean that ‘Enoch walked with God’?

How might we break the mould? That is, how might we live in a way that is distinctive or different from the world around us?

How does God choose to redeem his creation?

[1] Genesis 6:9

[2] 2 Kings 2:11

[3] Refer Derek Kidner’s Tyndale commentary on Genesis, page 82.

[4] Refer John Walton’s (NIVAC) commentary on Genesis, page 280.

[5] Refer Walter Brueggemann’s Interpretation commentary on Genesis, page 69.