GE 6:11 Now the earth was corrupt in God’s sight and was full of violence. 12 God saw how corrupt the earth had become, for all the people on earth had corrupted their ways. 13 So God said to Noah, “I am going to put an end to all people, for the earth is filled with violence because of them. I am surely going to destroy both them and the earth. 14 So make yourself an ark of cypress 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 450 feet long, 75 feet wide and 45 feet high. 16 Make a roof for it and finish the ark to within 18 inches of the top. Put a door in the side of the ark and make lower, middle and upper decks.
That is one big ship. 150 metres by 50 metres say and 30 metres high.
All wood, made of cypress wood – or as the AV says Gopher wood.
Coated with a sealant of oil like stuff called pitch.
Huge.
How big, about the same size as the Spirit of Tasmania for those who have gone to Tassie, Bigger than a footy field, higher than Centro. This is some feat for a man who is 500 years old.
It had three decks or floors,
He left just enough air at the top between the roof and the walls for some ventilation.
How possible was this?
Some people say it was the largest ship until 1838.
Could he have built it?
Depends on how much help he got from God. If it was God’s will for him – he could build it. Depends on your view of God’s assistance in these kinds of things. If God could make the world surely he could help a guy make a big boat, or rally a big barge.
Did it happen? – the bible says so.
Big point for us.
- God can help us do huge things – if it is His will.
GE 7:1 The LORD then said to Noah, “Go into the ark, you and your whole family, because I have found you righteous in this generation. 2 Take with you seven of every kind of clean animal, a male and its mate, and two of every kind of unclean animal, a male and its mate, 3 and also seven of every kind of bird, male and female, to keep their various kinds alive throughout the earth. 4 Seven days from now I will send rain on the earth for forty days and forty nights, and I will wipe from the face of the earth every living creature I have made.”
All the animals.2 of every kind of being to keep them alive throughout the earth.7 of every clean animal (that’s cows and sheep and stuff you can eat)
Could they all fit? No idea. That is a lot of space on the ark, but an aweful lot of animals. What about the dinosaurs, did he take them too????? Did he say just 2 dinosaurs not two of every different type, what about dogs, was it two dogs or 2 German Shepherds, 2 poodles, 2 labradors. Well I don’t really know but from my reading during the week, I think the experts say that 2 dogs went – representatives of the whole dog community.You get the idea, these experts say that representatives of the whole species and the changed when they got out. Now I don’t know about breeding and such it could be, maybe just could be right and if there is a possibility then we can’t rule it out.
Big Point for us.
- God works a way for it to happen if it is His will.
4 Seven days from now I will send rain on the earth for forty days and forty nights, and I will wipe from the face of the earth every living creature I have made.”
Hey isn’t God cool, he lets them know when the weather is going to change – better than the forecasters these days. No, he tells them when the punishment will start.
Remember why this is all happening – we talked about it last week. The flood is God’s response to continued sin. This is punishment. If you aren’t on the ark, then you haven’t a hope.
Big Point for us.
- Being in God’s will is the safe place to be.
GE 7:13 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.
Noah did as God said and God did as God said.
Notice all the way along – Noah did what God said. (6:22, 7:5)
God kept His side of the bargain.
Notice again what happens when every animal was in. God closed the door. Salvation is always an act of God, not an action of man.
God closed the door, He made them safe from the judgement. He does it time and time again, look at the Passover, God provided a way for the people to be safe, if they had the blood on their doorposts they were safe. Even our own salvation – it is God’s action, Jesus took our place.
Big Point
- Our salvation is up to God. – Let Him do it.
GE 8:1 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 heavens had been closed, and the rain had stopped falling from the sky. 3 The water receded steadily from the earth. At the end of the hundred and fifty days the water had gone down, 4 and on the seventeenth day of the seventh month the 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.
God remembered. God didn’t leave them to their own devises. He cleansed the world, then remembered Noah, but hey they were in there a long time. What was going on in there. The smell, who cleaned out after the elephants, what about food, did they have enough. Obviously so. It worked, God’s plan worked.
Big Point
- Let God’s plan work. Don’t rush it, don’t change it – let Him work.
GE 8:6 After forty days Noah opened the 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 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. 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.
How cool is this story, Noah wants to know if there is dry land out there. So he sends some birds out for a fly. But notice the last one. The bird came back with an olive leaf. So the plants had started to grow again. God had provided an environment for them to live in when they came out. Plants for food had already started to produce fruit.
Big point for us
- God will supply for us our needs, when we need it.
GE 8:15 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 upon it.” GE 8:18 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 the earth–came out of the ark, one kind after another.
Notice, they didn’t come out until God said to. We see here a total reliance on God’s instruction. And too notice the instructions. Let the animals out so they can multiply. God’s plan was for a new start for these animals, and for man kind.
We see that in the next verses.
GE 8:20 Then Noah built an altar to the LORD and, taking some of all the clean animals and clean birds, he sacrificed burnt offerings on it. 21 The LORD smelled the pleasing aroma and said in his heart: “Never again will I curse the ground because of man, even though every inclination of his heart is evil from childhood. And never again will I destroy all living creatures, as I have done. GE 8:22 “As long as the earth endures, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night will never cease.”GE 9:1 Then God blessed Noah and his sons, saying to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number and fill the earth. 2 The fear and dread of you will fall upon all the beasts of the earth and all the birds of the air, upon every creature that moves along the ground, and upon all the fish of the sea; they are given into your hands. 3 Everything that lives and moves will be food for you. Just as I gave you the green plants, I now give you everything.
God isn’t going to do that again. He won’t flood the world. But too notice what God does, he again gives man responsibility for God’s creation. V2 & 3. The picture is that God gives man responsibility for God’s world.
Big Point for us
- Act responsibly with God’s earth.
So where has all this taken us?
- God can help us do huge things – if it is His will.
- God works a way for it to happen if it is His will.
3. Being in God’s will is the safe place to be.
4. Our salvation is up to God. – Let Him do it.
5. Let God’s plan work. Don’t rush it, don’t change it – let Him work.
6. God will supply for us our needs, when we need it.
- Act responsibly with God’s earth.
All big points, all require our attention. All area about doing what God requires of us.
It is now a matter of implementation in our lives.
As Noah did – in 7:5 GE 7:5 And Noah did all that the LORD commanded him
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