Old Testament

Genesis 8
Noah & the Flood
Marcus Honeysett
August 2010
 3. Therefore, while disaster is a call to us to help
Introduction others, it is also a call for repentance, for those
We cannot think about the biblical flood of Genesis immediately affected in Pakistan and also for us
8 in August 2010 without also thinking with sorrow
Now, when we come to the story of the biblical
and concern about the natural disaster currently
flood, it is easy to assume it was something like we
affecting so many in Pakistan. We cannot hear about
see in Pakistan at the moment. Indeed current
so much suffering and not weep and pray for mercy
events might help us to see the Genesis account in
for the living and the dying. We pray for
a helpful light. When I was growing up we used to
governments and aid agencies and many of us will
visit my great aunt in her old farmhouse. Most often
want to express our compassion by giving through
as kids we went to play in the fields because the only
one or other.
toys she had in the house were a Noah’s ark playset
that was old enough that it might actually have come
Disasters and suffering on a national scale inevitably
out of the ark. With happy, smiling Mr and Mrs Noah
prompt questions about where God is in all of it and
and lots of happy animals. Isn’t it funny how we
why he doesn’t prevent it. After all, isn’t he meant
think it is a story that children will appreciate and
to be loving? Did he send it? Or maybe he isn’t
tint it with that rosy glow of happiness at being
powerful to change things? We don’t have the time
rescued and with cute animals?
this morning to answer such questions with the
depth they deserve, but I want to give three
I think the TV at the moment is waking us up to the
observations before we consider Genesis 8 further.
fact that it was nothing of the kind. Plain and simple,
it is a terrifying account. Everyone in the world died,
1. I don’t believe that what is happening in Paki- apart from 8. And those 8 all lost friends and
neighbours and watched the end of the world
stan is specific judgment from God on specific
happen in front of their eyes. And though they were
sins. When a tower fell on people in Siloam, rescued do you imagine that all those days sealed
Jesus was asked “is it because they are more into the ark not knowing what was going to happen
sinful than anyone else” and he said it wasn’t were emotionally light-hearted? They were
devastated, anxious, anguished and feeling at the
2. However, he also said that all death is the judg- end of themselves all the time. It is not a happy tale,
ment of God on the universal sinfulness of hu- it is a tale of judgement.
mankind. Those who perished in the power
collapse weren’t any more wicked than those And that is the thing that sets the biblical flood apart
from the current events, or from any current natural
who didn’t. Those who escaped weren’t any
disaster. The Bible clearly portrays this as God
less in need of repentance and turning to God
unleashing full-scale judgment on the world in
because they escaped death on that occasion. response to the rebellion and sin of humankind. And
So Jesus went on “when you hear about such then recreating – we might almost say with a new
things make sure you repent, because every Adam – afterwards. In Genesis 1 it says that at
person sins and every person deserves death as Creation God separated the waters above from the
a result.” Only God’s mercy is currently keeping waters below and made the ground. Now, he
removes that separation and the waters that had
anyone on this planet alive in the light of our
been constrained are let loose in a perfect storm of
guilt and his judgment overwhelming power. If you want to see what God

It is not a happy tale, it is a tale of

judgement
thinks about godlessness this is a good place to look.
If you want to see God’s completely righteous, pure,
Real World Faith
blameless response to the sin of people – of you and
me – this is a good place to look. At the start of chapter 8 he and his family are sealed
into the ark. They don’t know what will happen to
While it is not the cute children’s story that my them. That is an extreme but authentic picture of
Aunt’s toys might have suggested, it is a story that real-world faith. In the middle of acute pain and
is simple enough for children to grasp. We can sum struggle all they can do is wait and rest on the rescue
it up very simply in two point: all people sin and all of God, though they don’t know when it will come
people deserve judgement. When God’s holiness or what it will look like. We know the rest of the
confronts our sinfulness then the result is terrifying account, but they didn’t. When disaster befell Job
destruction, perhaps even more terrifying because and his family it is easy to say “we know it all worked
it is right and there is therefore no appeal, no out in the end” but he didn’t know that. It was
comeback, no get out clause. terrible. And yet he – and the Noah family – wait on
God. There is nothing they can do.

I’ve told the story before here of the tortured

Has God’s Purpose Failed?
However… God had purposes in making Mankind,
and those purposes aren’t complete by the time of
the flood. Therefore the judgment can’t be the last
word. God doesn’t intend to have a completely
cleansed world with no people. He doesn’t intend
to start again and make new creatures to relate to
him. And God doesn’t paint himself into a corner
where he has to obliterate everyone in order to deal
decisively with sin.
In grace, pure, outrageous, wonderful grace, he
chose Noah. Not because Noah didn’t sin. He did.
Sure he was righteous and blameless according to
the standards of everyone else around him, but not
objectively before God. We will hear next week that
Noah continued to sin after the flood as did his
family. But Noah did want to walk with God and did
want to do what God commanded. Noah was a born
again person and found favour in the eyes of the
Lord.
pastors who said to me “in the West when you suffer
you want answers. So you talk about God, complain
about God and then dismiss God because you can’t
figure out the answer. We Africans on the other
hand live with suffering every day and we have
learned to talk to God, complain to God and then
worship God even when we don’t have answers.”
That is the difference between faith and unbelief in
the face of calamity. Some of us are facing calamity
at the moment, we are full of grief. But we don’t
grieve in the same way as those who have no hope.
Rather than walking away we cast ourselves on our
father like little children.
And God Remembered Noah
And God remembered Noah. Structurally that is the
high point of the story. You know after this that
everything will resolve. We need to take care with
this word “remember”. When the Bible says that
God remembers it doesn’t mean he had temporarily
forgotten Noah. It means he now takes account of
and puts into action his plans for him. When I
remember something it doesn’t necessarily mean
something immediately happens. When God

We don’t grieve in the same way

as those who have no hope
remembers, his remembering has concrete physical There will be a final judgment when the earth
consequences. doesn’t endure, but until that time while there may
be disasters and intimations of judgement they will
God caused a wind to blow over the surface of the be localised.
Earth. It might bring to mind for you the breath –
the Spirit of God hovering over the waters of the And so ends the story of Noah and the flood. Well
deep at creation. Or how God breathed on the Red actually not quite, because in the New Testament
Sea and caused it to pile up in a heap to let Moses the Apostle Peter uses the narrative of the flood to
and the Israelites cross over. The rain stops, the make two very important applications for Christians.
flood recedes and by use of the raven and dove Noah I want to look quickly at the both, so please turn to
discovers that dry land has reappeared. Finally they 1 Peter 3:18-22.
leave the ark. A tiny number of people in a new
world.
Getting Rescued by God
A New Commission The thrust of those verses is this: Noah and his family
who walk with God by faith – who had consciences
God gives them a commission very like the one he pledged to him - were rescued from God’s wrath and
gave to Adam and Eve – let the creatures be fruitful given new life. And anyone today who turns to God
and multiply and increase in number. And in 9:1 to and puts their faith in him and pledges their
Noah “you be fruitful and increase and fill the earth.” conscience to him – symbolised by baptism – will
But… it isn’t quite the same as Eden. Because they similarly get rescued by God from his wrath and
start again with sin already in the world. And given new life with him. You will be saved now and
therefore two very important things happen as soon for eternity from the wrath against sin that
as they leave the ark. destroyed the world in the days of Noah.

The first, in v20, is that Noah built an altar and

sacrificed. That is important for two reasons. First it
tells us that the right response to getting rescued by
People Don’t Think God Will
God is commitment and consecration to God. Judge
Second it tells us that sin still needed to be dealt
with. That’s why they had sacrifices right up until Now read 2 Peter 3:3-7
Jesus’ final perfect sacrifice. Sin resulted in the flood.
It isn’t decisively dealt with until Jesus, so Mankind This says that many people scoff at the idea of God
is still under threat from the judgment of God. The judging the whole world, precisely because they
response then was that they had to walk with God. deliberately forget that God did it previously at the
The right response now is that you have to walk with flood.
God by bowing to his Son Jesus Christ who takes
away sins. In other words we are meant to read about the flood
and realise that God is fully committed to
The second thing that happened as they left the ark judgement. The judgement against all sin in the
was that God made promises to Noah. More about future is as secure as the fact that he has already
this next time, but here he covenants no more done it once. With the difference that in the past he
global-level judgments as long as the earth endures.

People scoff at the idea of God

judging because they deliberately
forget he did it at the Flood
did it with water while in the future he will do so by
fire, reserved for the day of judgement and
destruction of people who do not walk with him.

So Peter says “when you read about the flood it

should make you realise that you need to be rescued
from God’s judgement and wrath now, and you need
to be rescued from the final judgement and
destruction that are coming on people who don’t
walk with him in the future. If you don’t realise that
you haven’t understood why God sent the flood in
the days of Noah at all.”

An Urgent Plea
The reason the account of Noah is in the Bible is to
benefit us, not with a cutsy story about animals, but
with an urgent plea to turn to God so that the fate
that befell everyone else on the planet at that time
doesn’t befall us.

God still hates sin. We still sin. And therefore

without God’s solution are in terrible danger like in
Genesis only worse. But God has provided a total
remedy. Hebrews 10:14 says that by one sacrifice
Jesus declares those who trust in him perfect in the
sight of God. It says that he sprinkles consciences to
make them clean, just as Peter said “when you read
about the flood it should make you urgently want a
clean conscience before God.” It says by God’s will
Christians have been made holy through the sacrifice
of Jesus Christ on the cross, once for all.

The story of God’s flood and the coming of God’s

son both teach the same thing. We are sinful, God
will perfectly judge sin. We must come under God’s
rescue and have him sprinkle our consciences to
make them clean. We have to become Christians if
we aren’t already if we wish to walk with God in the
safety of new birth and new creation.

The Story of God’s flood and the

coming of God’s Son both teach
the same thing

Noah and the Flood Marcus Honeysett 08.10