Sermon Tone Analysis

*Genesis 6:9-17…* These are the records of the generations of Noah.

Noah was a righteous man, blameless in his time; Noah walked with God. 10 And Noah became the father of three sons: Shem, Ham, and Japheth.

11 Now the earth was corrupt in the sight of God, and the earth was filled with violence… 12 for all flesh had corrupted their way upon the earth… 13 Then God said to Noah, I am about to destroy them with the earth.

14 Make for yourself an ark… 17 And behold, I, even I am bringing the flood of water upon the earth, to destroy all flesh in which is the breath of life, from under heaven; everything that is on the earth shall perish.”

*Commentary*

            Most people have heard of Noah, but unfortunately he has been mythologized through the centuries, relegated to children’s books.

But the account reads, “Noah was a righteous man, blameless in his time… he walked with God.” First, Noah was “righteous.”

This doesn’t mean he was perfect, but the word pertains to being above reproach – one who conforms to moral~/ethical standards of behavior.

As such, Noah was also “blameless” in his time.

This word refers to “completeness,” and it’s used to describe the sheep brought to the Lord as a sacrifice in the Book of Leviticus – they were to be “without blemish.”

Of course this word doesn’t describe Noah’s outward appearance but his character – it is unblemished, and he is “blameless.”

The final phrase that describes Noah is the summation of the previous two adjectives: Noah “walked” with God.

Noah wasn’t just a “good” man; he also walked with God in that he had a personal relationship with Him.

Many people can be described as moral and blameless, but unless they walk with God all of their good deeds are as filthy rags in the sight of God (cf.

Isaiah 64:4).

This is the goal of all who call on the name of Jesus Christ for salvation.

It’s not just a confession, it’s a “walk.”

Noah’s walk with God is noteworthy as it is mentioned by Isaiah (54:9) and Ezekiel (14:14, 20) who lists Noah as one of the three most righteous men who ever lived.

Luke also notes that Noah is in the official line of Christ (3:36).

So he’s not mythological; he’s “righteous & blameless.”

Noah’s three sons (Shem, Ham, and Japheth) were fathered when he was 500 years old (Gen.

5:32) – 20 years /after/ the 120 year decree in Gen. 6:3 because Noah was 600 years old when the floodwaters came (7:6).

God would repopulate the earth through Noah’s sons.

Shem is the Jewish Patriarch, and this is why they are known today as “Semites.”

Verses 11-12 once again point to the “corruption” (literally “rottenness”; “rubbish”) on the earth during Noah’s day.

It was filled with “violence” (/Hamas/) – the same Hebrew word for the Palestinian terrorist group associated with Islamic /Jihad/.

The earth is still filled with them!

As a result of this corruption and violence God tells Noah in verse 13 that He will destroy not only the people who are corrupt but the earth as well.

Now Noah is told to build an “ark” – a really big boat – so as to avoid God’s judgment.

Verse 17 is God’s words to Noah about how that judgment will come about: floodwaters to destroy all flesh which contains the breath of life that He Himself gave to that flesh; everything shall perish according to the word of God in verse 17.

 

*Food for Thought*

            The ark Noah was to build for his own salvation and that of his family is akin to Jesus Christ who delivers those who enter into Him for salvation.

Hebrews 11:7 says, “By faith Noah, being warned by God about things not yet seen, in obedience prepared an ark for the salvation of his household…” In the same way that God’s wrath was poured out on the wicked generation of Noah’s day, but was withheld from righteous Noah, so it will be in the end of time when God’s wrath is poured out on all who do not call upon the Lord Jesus Christ alone for salvation.

In the same way that the ark alone provided salvation for Noah, Jesus alone offers salvation to all.

*Genesis 6:14-16… *Make for yourself an ark of gopher wood; you shall make the ark with rooms, and shall cover it inside and out with pitch.

15 And this is how you shall make it: the length of the ark three hundred cubits, its breadth fifty cubits, and its height thirty cubits.

16 You shall make a window for the ark, and finish it to a cubit from the top; and set the door of the ark in the side of it; you shall make it with lower, second, and third decks.

*Commentary*

            The ark Noah was to build was going to be a spectacular sight and feat that would preserve he and his family.

Gopher wood is and unknown type of wood, and the NIV calls it “cypress” wood because it was a type of wood used by the shipbuilders of old due to the fact that it won’t rot easily.

It was to have rooms, a window, a door, and three decks.

The biblical cubit is equal to 18 inches.

This means that the ark Noah built was at least 450 feet long, 75 feet wide and 45 feet high.

That’s one and a half football fields in length!

This ark was the largest boat ever built up to the 19th century when metal ships began to be built.

The ark’s size was six times longer than it was wide, but the norm of the ancients after the Flood was ten to one.

The proportions of Noah’s ark are the same used in modern-day ship building.

The “unsinkable” Titanic was 823 feet long by 98 feet wide and had a cargo capacity of 45,000 tons.

Though this is a bit larger than Noah’s ark (longer and wider) it’s noteworthy of the similarities.

The six to one dimension ratio of Noah’s ark gave it outstanding stability, making it almost impossible to capsize.

The stability came as a result of the low center of gravity.

The cargo made the boat extremely heavy, and the deeper it sank into the floodwaters, the more stable it became.

The ark was never meant to be a boat to navigate, for it had no rudder.

It was simply designed to float on the surface of the waters and preserve the lives of Noah, his family, and the animals God brought to him.

Some have noted that the three decks Noah built housed Noah, his family, and the lighter animals on the first deck, the larger animals on the second, and the third for the ballast & waste.

The capacity of the entire ark was right at 1.4 million cubic feet of cargo space.

This has been equated by scholars to 522 railroad stock cars – about five miles long!

Given that the average size of all animals is a single sheep, this means that the ark could contain 130,500 animals.

One man who worked for Union Pacific Railroad claims that the average number of full-grown animals capable of being loaded in one standard stockcar is: cattle—about 25; hogs—about 75; and sheep—about 125 per deck.

This means that at least 250 animals of the size of sheep could be accommodated in a standard two-decked stockcar.

However, in light of the fact that there are only about 18,000 different kinds of animals on the earth /today/ (not the sea) this means that the ark didn’t even need all the room it had.

Drs. Henry Morris & John Whitcomb in /The Genesis Flood /reveal that of the land-dwelling /mammals/ that exist today there are about 3,500; of the /birds/ there are about 8,600; of the /reptiles/ & /amphibians/ there are about 5,500.

Since there were two of each on the ark, this means that the numbers must double.

Now Noah is left with about 36,000 animals to house on a boat that has enough room for over 130,000!

And none of these numbers reflects the many extinctions of animals that have come about through the centuries.

*Food for Thought*

Noah’s ark was quite a boat.

He had over 100 years to build it, but he had God’s helping hand and provisions to guide His way.

In the same way God taught Noah the way of salvation in the ark, He has also done so in His inspired Word – the Bible.

God has given us the way of salvation in Jesus Christ alone, and like the ark, Jesus is the only way a man can attain it.

*Genesis 7:1-5…* Then the LORD said to Noah, “Enter the ark, you and all your household; for you alone I have seen to be righteous before Me in this time.

2 You shall take with you of every clean animal by sevens, a male and his female; and of the animals that are not clean two, a male and his female; 3 also of the birds of the sky, by sevens, male and female, to keep offspring alive on the face of all the earth.

4 For after seven more days, I will send rain on the earth 40 days and 40 nights; and I will blot out from the face of the land every living thing that I have made.”

5 And Noah did according to all that the LORD had commanded him.

*Commentary*

            God tells Noah in Genesis 6:18 that He will establish His covenant with him (explained further in Gen. 9:9-17), and Noah obeys all that the Lord told him to do in building the ark, taking his family upon the ark, and loading two of every land-dwelling animal on the ark in Genesis 6:22.

Noah is said to have obeyed all that the Lord commanded of him in 6:22, 7:5, and 7:9.

Obedience to God is the true mark of all men and women who truly “walk” with God.

In Gen. 7:5 above, God told Noah to enter the ark that he had built (this is now 120 years after God had originally spoken of judgment on the earth in Gen. 6:3).

Verses 2-3 speak of the clean animals coming by “sevens” – a new twist to what was originally said to be just two (6:19).

There is no indication in Genesis about which animals are clean and unclean.

This is made very clear under the Mosaic Law but not here.

Possibly Noah already knew which animals were acceptable for sacrifice, but the reader is not informed.

At any rate, Noah is to bring in one pair of each unclean animal, male and female, and he is to bring in seven pairs of what he deems are clean animals.

This makes perfect sense when we understand that these animals will be used for food and sacrifice, and if there was only one pair preserved on the ark, then Noah would render each one that he ate and~/or sacrificed extinct the moment he did so.

This is clearly one of the main reasons he is instructed to bring seven pairs, both male and female, of the clean animals.

Verse 3 also gives the obvious reason why God preserved animals along with man when He says that they are to “keep offspring alive on the face of all the earth.”

God didn’t reconsider His formation of man and animals.

He loved His creation and preserved a remnant on the ark.

Verse 4 shows that Noah entered the ark seven days prior to the rains.

God tells him specifically that it will begin to rain after seven days, but Noah must have wondered what “rain” actually was.

After all, it had never rained on the earth before.

The earth was covered with a vapor canopy that kept it at a uniform greenhouse-like constant temperature, and the ground was watered by a mist that rose up from the earth (Gen.

2:6).

This rain was going to last for 40 days and nights so as to “blot out” all living things from the face of the land.

The verb literally means “to destroy,” and that is exactly what the Flood did (the fossil record attests to massive death in a worldwide catastrophic event that produced so many fossils at one time).

It is important to note that if all the clouds on the planet dropped their moisture, they still could not produce enough water to rain for 40 days and nights.

It’s also noteworthy that all the moisture in the clouds today could only measure up to 2 inches of rain worldwide.

Thus, this rain that produced the flood was the collapse of the vapor canopy and the explosion of “fountains of the great deep.”

*Food for Thought*

            The final phrase in verse 5 says, “And Noah did according to all that the LORD had commanded him.”