NOAH AND THE FLOOD

You have probably noticed as I have. It is raining a lot! One of the grandsons asked me if we should be building and ark.

Genesis 6:5 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 regretted that he had made human beings on the earth, and his heart was deeply troubled. 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 regret that I have made them.” 8 But Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord.
9 This is the account of Noah and his family. Noah was a righteous man, blameless among the people of his time, and he walked faithfully with God. 10 Noah had three sons: Shem, Ham and Japheth.
11 Now the earth was corrupt in God’s sight and was full of violence. 12 God saw how corrupt the earth had become, for all the people on earth had corrupted their ways. 13 So God said to Noah, “I am going to put an end to all people, for the earth is filled with violence because of them. I am surely going to destroy both them and the earth. 14 So make yourself an ark of cypress wood; make rooms in it and coat it with pitch inside and out. 15 This is how you are to build it: The ark is to be three hundred cubits long, fifty cubits wide and thirty cubits high. 16 Make a roof for it, leaving below the roof an opening one cubit high all around. Put a door in the side of the ark and make lower, middle and upper decks. 17 I am going to bring floodwaters on the earth to destroy all life under the heavens, every creature that has the breath of life in it. Everything on earth will perish. 18 But I will establish my covenant with you, and you will enter the ark—you and your sons and your wife and your sons’ wives with you. 19 You are to bring into the ark two of all living creatures, male and female, to keep them alive with you. 20 Two of every kind of bird, of every kind of animal and of every kind of creature that moves along the ground will come to you to be kept alive. 21 You are to take every kind of food that is to be eaten and store it away as food for you and for them.” 22 Noah did everything just as God commanded him.
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. 20 The waters rose and covered the mountains to a depth of more than fifteen cubits. 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. 24 The waters flooded the earth for a hundred and fifty days.
8 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.
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. 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. 22 “As long as the earth endures,
seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night will never cease.”
8 Then God said to Noah and to his sons with him: 9 “I now establish my covenant with you and with your descendants after you 10 and with every living creature that was with you—the birds, the livestock and all the wild animals, all those that came out of the ark with you—every living creature on earth. 11 I establish my covenant with you: Never again will all life be destroyed by the waters of a flood; never again will there be a flood to destroy the earth.”
12 And God said, “This is the sign of the covenant I am making between me and you and every living creature with you, a covenant for all generations to come: 13 I have set my rainbow in the clouds, and it will be the sign of the covenant between me and the earth. 14 Whenever I bring clouds over the earth and the rainbow appears in the clouds, 15 I will remember my covenant between me and you and all living creatures of every kind. Never again will the waters become a flood to destroy all life.
Lesson 1. Don’t miss the boat. How terrible was it for those who missed getting on Noah’s Ark? There were no last-minute arrivals allowed. God had Noah, his family, and the animals get on the Ark and then He “shut them in.” There were no rain clouds visible when he told them to get in. They got in by faith, when it looked foolish. Only eight people made it; millions drowned. If you’re going to get into the Ark, you need to get in now before the storm arrives.
Lesson 2. It wasn’t raining when Noah built the Ark. For Noah, through his faith, he had to overcome many doubts. There was the uncertainty of building the Ark and all the animals coming to him, but even the means of the destruction of the entire planet being covered in water because of rain had never happened before. We’ve never seen a rapture. Many would tell you that such an event is impossible. They would have told Noah the same thing. But Noah didn’t care if it was impossible, he still believed God and made preparations. A lot of people want to see signs. They are always looking for them. A comet passing by Earth. They want to wait until they see the sun darkened, the moon dipped in blood, and the stars exploding out of their orbits before they get right with God.
Lesson 3. Stay physically and spiritually fit. Noah was 500 years old when God asked Noah to build a vessel 1 1/2 million cubic feet with a capacity of 569 modern railroad cars. The floor space of the Ark was over 101,000 square feet. It was the largest vessel ever built until the late 1800s. Noah had already served God and done God’s will for 500 years. He stayed ready and willing even into his old age
Noah wasn’t only fit physically, he was also spiritually fit, that is, he stayed in such a close relationship with God that he could be directed, daily, on the specifics of his huge task. Noah was prayed up, sensitive and full of the Holy Spirit. His mind focused on God, even though he lived in a corrupt and degenerate time. If we want to be ready, we must stay spiritually alert and full of God’s Word and Spirit. There’s no room for dabbling in the world. We must stay pure and holy, for God says, “Without holiness no man/ woman will see the Lord” Hebrews 12:14. John said, “All who have this hope in him purify themselves, just as He is pure” 1 John. 3:3.
Lesson 4. Don’t listen to the critics; just get on with the job.
This is probably one of the difficult to implement especially if you are surrounded by people who are busy criticizing everything that you do. Critics are everywhere, sometimes they are even your own relatives or friends.
Lesson 5. No matter the storm, when you are with God, there’s always a rainbow waiting. Ask for guidance from the Almighty, he will help you get through whatever obstacles you are facing right now.
There’s a beautiful rainbow waiting at the end of your journey. Keep the faith!