As earth’s population grow, murder, lust and evil spread their tentacles into every aspect of creation. While God saves Noah and his family, ample warnings sound out to the rest of the world.
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Snapshot
- Objectives
- The Times
- First Prediction of Doom
- A Few Good Men
- Abel – Committed in Living and Giving
- Enoch – Close Communion
- Noah – Clean Character
- Held on to God’s word
- Heeded God’s warning
- Had a Heart for worship
- Inside the Ark
- God’s covenant with Noah
- Discussion
In this journey...
We understand:
- The “days of Noah” vs. today
- How to stand alone like the righteous few
- God’s warning patterns
- The magnitude of God’s provision
- God’s covenant with Noah
The Darkness Deepens
- Days of dragons, cherubims, giants and dinosaurs
- Men lived long lives, toiling on cursed soil
- Civilization had advanced significantly
- Does this sound material of fairy tales?
- Wickedness abounded. Genesis 6:5, 6
The Times
- Population at the time of the flood would have amounted to several billion people.
- Adam and Methuselah were contemporaries.
- Cherubim guarded the Garden of Eden
The Times – The Cherubim
- Ezekiel 1: 5b ‘they had the likeness of a man.
- v.6 And every one had four faces, and every one had four wings…
- 10 As for the likeness of their faces- four had the face of a man, and the face of a lion, on the right side: and four had the face of an ox on the left side; and four had the face of an eagle. (KJV)
The Darkness Deepens
Genisis 6:5……
every imagination and intention of all human thinking was only evil all the time. (Amplified Bible)
The Times-Spiritual Climate
In those days:
- There was no bible
- Few role models
- Lessons handed down orally.
The First Prediction of Doom
At age 65, Enoch became the father of Methuselah, whose name means “when he dies, it (the flood) shall come.”
A Few Good Men
Few men stood apart including:
- Abel – Competent in living and giving
- Enoch – Close Communion
- Noah – Clean Character
Abel – Committed in Living and Giving
- Winning Contribution (Abel) – And the Lord had regard for Abel and for his offering v4
- Wasted Contribution (Cain) -For Cain and for his offering He had no regard v5
(Gen 4:2-16)
Are we acceptable to God?
Is our giving (time, talents, money) pleasing and acceptable to God or do we think it is a waste of our resources?
Enoch – Close Communion
Enoch:
- Walked with God
- Taken by God (Gen 5:21-25)
- Pleased God (Hebrews 11)
- Prophesied Christ’s coming with the saints (Jude 1)
Noah – Clean Character
- Noah means “rest”
- Noah lived to see 10 generations including Abram’s birth
- Patiently waited:
- Decades while building the ark
- Over a year in the ark
- In the ark till earth around was dry – it took 8 weeks
God’s Specifications
Genesis 6:14 So make yourself an ark of cypress wood; make rooms in it and coat it with pitch inside and out. 15 This is how you are to build it: The ark is to be three hundred cubits long, fifty cubits wide and thirty cubits high. 16 Make a roof for it, leaving below the roof an opening one cubit high all around. Put a door in the side of the ark and make lower, middle and upper decks.”
What did the Inhabitants and Animals eat in the Ark ?
- God instructed Noah to carry food into the ark Gen 6:21”You are to take every kind of food that is to be eaten and store it away as food for you and for them.”
- God was running the show and ensured everyone’s needs were provided.
Inside the Ark
It is estimated that around 8000 species of animals (possibly including young dinosaurs), were in the ark and occupied only half or one third the space.
Noah – Held on to the Word
“Noah did everything just as God commanded him” Gen 6:22
Noah – Heeded God’s Warning
This required:
- Trust
- Courage
- Obedience
- Willingness to stand alone
Noah – Heart for Worship
- Noah’s first action on coming out of the ark was to build an altar to God
- In response, God, via the rainbow, covenanted with Noah:
- Never to destroy the world again
- To remove (apparently) the curse of the soil given to Adam
Never agains
Genesis 8:21 The Lord smelled the pleasing aroma and said in his heart: “Never again will I curse the ground because of humans, even though every inclination of the human heart is evil from childhood. And never again will I destroy all living creatures, as I have done.
22 “As long as the earth endures, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night will never cease.”
Recap
- Abel – Committed in living and giving
- Enoch – Close Communion with God
- Noah – Clean Character
- Held on to the word
- Heeded God’s warning
- Heart for worship
- God’s covenant with Noah:
- Curse of soil removed
- God’s promise never to destroy world with flood.
- God allows non veg food consumption.
Days of Noah
Matthew 24:37-39 ‘But as the days of Noah were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be. For as in the days that were before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered into the ark, and knew not until the flood came, and took them all away; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.’
Discussion: God’s Covenant with Noah
1.In what ways do you see similarity between those days and our current times?
2.What lessons do we learn from Enoch, Abel and Noah?
3.What warnings do we need to heed?
4.How are we, in a similar way to Noah’s ark, protected today? (1 Peter 3:20,21)
References
1.Search for Noah’s ark – Matthew Kneider