02 NOACH (Rest); Gen. 6:9-11:32, Mat. 3&4

[Bruce Bertram]

11Now the earth was corrupt in the sight of God, and the earth was filled with violence. 12God looked on the earth, and behold, it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted their way upon the earth. (Genesis 6:11-12 NASB95)

Uh oh, here comes trouble. Noah is said to have found favor or grace in the eyes of the Lord, but apparently, he's the only one. The text doesn't tell us that his sons were righteous or not, but they and their wives get to go along for an Ark ride anyway. God tells us just before this that He is going to limit man's years to 120, which some take to mean lifespan and some take to mean the amount of time Noah had to build the Ark. In any event, the Ark is very large, measuring about one and a half football field lengths (450 feet), about one and a half football fields in width (75 feet) , and something like four or five stories tall (45 feet), assuming an 18-inch cubit. That is a big boat. Several things to note: the animals were all probably young ones, and probably all vegetarians (remember all the living creatures were eating plants?) so Noah didn't have to worry about predator problems. The ark is built from gopher wood, which is of uncertain origin (i.e. we don't know), and has better than 100,000 square feet of space. It has been estimated that perhaps 50,000 animals would've been enough to cover all the species, which would fill only 37% of the Ark.

Noah is 600 years old when he and his family enter the ark, along with two of every kind of land-dwelling creature and seven pairs of clean animals plus birds. The fountains of the deep are opened, and the floodgates of the heavens along with them. It rains for forty days and nights, until the water covered the mountains by 23 feet or so. This lasts for 150 days, then starts to reverse. In Genesis chapter 8 the water starts to recede because God causes winds to blow, and the ark comes to rest on the mountains of Ararat in the seventh month, then in the tenth month the tops of the mountains become visible. About 40 days after the ark comes to rest, Noah sends out a raven, which just keeps flying and doesn't come back to him. Then he sends out a dove, which does come back because she can't find a place to land. He waits a week then sends her out again and she comes back with an olive leaf. Another seven days and she doesn't come back, indicating it is probably safe to go out (remember the ground would've been saturated with water and not easy to walk on). In the first month of Noah's 601st year he takes the cover off the ark and the land is apparently dry. In the second month they leave the ark, and the first thing Noah does is offer sacrifices to God of some of the clean animals. God smells the pleasing aroma and promises never to destroy every living thing as He has done, again.

In Genesis 9 Noah gets a repeat of the "be fruitful and multiply" command, but with the difference that all creeping things will be in dread of people, and every moving thing that is alive is to be food, except for creatures with blood still in them. To remind everyone that God will never destroy everything with a flood He gives the rainbow as the visible sign of His promise. From Noah's three sons the earth is to be repopulated, Shem, Ham, and Yaphet, apparently Canaan having already been born to Ham. Noah plants a vineyard and gets drunk on some of the wine, uncovering himself in his tent, and Ham sees him. He tells his two brothers, but instead of doing the same thing they walk backwards and cover Noah with a robe. Upon waking, Noah, knowing what his son Ham had done to him, curses Canaan and blesses Shem and Yaphet to the effect that Canaan will be their servant while their tents increase and Yaphet dwells in the tents of Shem. In Genesis 10 there are lists of Noah's sons and grandsons and so on, from which all the nations of the earth are defined. A similar list is in 1 Chronicles chapter one. Some highlights are that the territory of Canaan also included Sodom and Gomorrah (verse 19); Nimrod, a "mighty hunter before the Lord," was one of Canaan's descendants; and in verses 15-18 there is a list of people, some of which were destined to be wiped out by Israel (see for instance Exodus 23:23, Numbers 13:29 and Deuteronomy 20:17). Mizraim, also a descendant of Ham (brother to Canaan), is to become the people of Egypt.

Genesis 11 gives us the account of the building of the city that will come to be known as Babel meaning "confusion." In those days there was only one language, and God sees the people building the city and tower on the plain of Shinar, which suggests that they will be able to do anything they set their minds to (remember that mostly their thoughts are evil), so God confuses the language and scatters the people all over the place. In the next section of Genesis 11 is a refined genealogy for the descendants of Shem, going all the way down to Abram. Abram marries Sarai, who is barren. Lot is mentioned as the nephew of Abraham, and Abraham's father Terah moves the family (including Lot since his father died) from Ur of the Chaldees to the land of Canaan.

Speaking of a lot of water, like the flood, and wicked people getting more wicked, in Matthew 3 John comes baptizing people for remission of sins. Notice that the first recorded word out of his mouth is, "repent." He gladly baptizes all who come to him from Jerusalem and the Jordan area, except for some of the Pharisees and Sadducees, whom he calls "snakes" (hearkening back to perhaps the serpent). He tells them to bear fruit in keeping with repentance, if that is what they are really doing. He announces that though he baptizes with water, One is coming who will baptize with fire. Jesus shows up soon after, and John thinks that he shouldn't do the baptizing but that he should be baptized instead, yet Jesus reassures John that he should permit it to "fulfill all righteousness." So John baptizes Jesus, the heavens are opened and the Spirit in the form of a dove descends on Jesus while a voice declares, "This is my beloved son, in whom I am well pleased."

Jesus is led by that Spirit deep into the desert as He fasts for forty days and forty nights. The Adversary comes to Him with three challenges to prove He is the Son of God: make stones into bread to feed Himself; throw Himself off a building so the angels will catch Him, and worship the Adversary to gain the kingdoms of the world. For each challenge, Jesus answers with the Word of God: He doesn’t live by bread alone but by every word of God; He will not test God; and He will worship God only. The Satan leaves Jesus and is attended to by angels. Jesus hears that John has been arrested, so He moves to Capernaum. Matthew continues extensively quoting the Old Testament in order to show that Jesus is fulfilling prophecy left and right. Again, it seems the first public message that is spoken by Jesus is like John’s – ‘repent.’ Jesus begins to collect disciples, starting with Simon Peter and Andrew his brother, and James and John the sons of Zebedee (also called the ‘sons of thunder). He travels around Galilee to the synagogues, teaching and preaching and healing all manner of physical ailments and demonic problems. He is followed by a large crowd from the Decapolis and Jerusalem, Judea and even beyond the Jordan.

Shalom
Bruce

[Bruce Bertram]

Check out the 'breath of lives' and the works of the Spirit throughout the Word.

Shalom

[Bruce Bertram]

Noach; Genesis 6:9-11:32; Isaiah 52:13-55:5; Matthew 3&4

3Know this first of all, that in the last days mockers will come with their mocking, following after their own lusts, 4and saying, “Where is the promise of His coming? For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all continues just as it was from the beginning of creation.” 5For when they maintain this, it escapes their notice that by the word of God the heavens existed long ago and the earth was formed out of water and by water, 6through which the world at that time was destroyed, being flooded with water. 7But by His word the present heavens and earth are being reserved for fire, kept for the day of judgment and destruction of ungodly men. 8But do not let this one fact escape your notice, beloved, that with the Lord one day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years like one day. 9The Lord is not slow about His promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance. (2 Peter 3:3-9 NASB95)

Somewhere around 1,700 years (using the times mentioned in the genealogies) has passed since the first days of creation. Now God erases nearly everything He made. All of every man’s thoughts (except Noah’s) are only evil continually, and God is tired of the corruption. There have been a few bright spots here and there, perhaps more than we know about. But it hasn’t taken long for the serpent and the men who serve him to render perfection nearly worthless. God uncorks the heavens and the earth and releases enough water to kill everything that breaths in order to cleanse the planet.

After the flood everyone is still speaking one and the same language, and presumably shares much the same culture and tradition. The ‘boat people’ of the flood live for several hundred years after the deluge. They are at least able to communicate the basics of what happened to most people, so that the story (even if corrupted) later becomes part of all cultures. Everyone is aware that God destroyed the antediluvians because of wickedness and disobedience. Yet they gather in unity on the plain of Shinar to build a city and make a ‘name’ for themselves anyway. It isn’t God’s name they want, it is their own. Just like the gods they worshipped were not God, but like the city and the ‘name’ were made by their own hands.

Perhaps the terror of God’s judgment through the flood is still uppermost in the minds of those who want to maintain unity in spite of God and God’s laws. Terror might also have turned into anger, driving them to build the city and tower of Babel as a center for unity and a monument to defiance. In other words, the Babylonians wanted to make a ‘name’ together as a slap in the face to God. They were saying in effect, “We’re here and we refuse to worship You and there’s nothing you can do about it.” Of course, this plan is not without its drawbacks, not the least of which is that they are trying to fight God who cannot loose. They apparently thought that by sticking together they could beat Him anyway. They overlooked the fact that all the others who fought God before the flood had unity also, and died in unity under the waters.

The people before the flood were in ‘unity,’ and the people of Babel were unified too, all right, but in each case it was a unity in defiance of God. That’s why He wiped out the antediluvians and scattered the tower builders. In the first case there was no chance for repentance, but in the second case He granted a bit more grace. Perhaps by being scattered they’d get lonely and turn to Him. In each time period the problem wasn’t between religious people and non-religious people either, because everyone is religious in one way or another. Even atheists have a form of religion (it just involves themselves more directly than other religions). Unity problems are not so clearly marked as between Jews and Gentiles, or between Catholic and Protestant either. No, unity is not determined by which religion or denomination you belong to, but by submission and obedience to God.

John the Baptist and Jesus in Matthew 3 and 4 come preaching repentance from disobedience, and let’s remember: they are preaching to the religious people. They also are in the minority, and also get accused of lack of unity. Interesting, isn’t it, that the people who seem most often to get accused of lack of unity are the ones telling others to join with God? In addition to pleas for repentance there are warnings of coming destruction for those who will not repent and join God’s unity movement. Repentance means to forsake the apparent unity of the majority in disobedience and join the smaller group that is in unity with God. This is the critical difference in the preaching of unity between people like the Babylonians or Pharisees and Noah or John or Jesus. It is also a critical difference nowadays. Many people (usually religious) are preaching unity, but it is not a unity based on God’s Word. The unity they preach is denominational, or cultural, or dogmatic; anything but plain and simple obedience to God through His Word.

Jesus systematically goes by God’s Word as He contends with Satan in the desert, replying to each partial truth the Deceiver throws out with the fuller truth of the whole Word.

4But He answered and said, “It is written, ‘MAN SHALL NOT LIVE ON BREAD ALONE, BUT ON EVERY WORD THAT PROCEEDS OUT OF THE MOUTH OF GOD.’ ”

7Jesus said to him, “On the other hand, it is written, ‘YOU SHALL NOT PUT THE LORD YOUR GOD TO THE TEST.’ ”

10Then Jesus said to him, “Go, Satan! For it is written, ‘YOU SHALL WORSHIP THE LORD YOUR GOD, AND SERVE HIM ONLY.’ ” (Matthew 4:4,7,10 NASB95)

What a beautiful testament to the unity of the Word and the ability of a believer to use it to maintain his own unity with God!

It’s a good thing for us that Noah and family didn’t desire unity with the world. I’m sure he was tagged as a trouble-maker and all around spoilsport by the ‘unity party,’ because he just wasn’t fitting in with the world around him. He was probably even accused of a lack of ‘love’ because he didn’t ‘love’ the people enough to join in with their revelries and debauchery. I’m sure he was labeled a false prophet because the destruction he was talking about didn’t come for a long while. He was mocked and scorned, all the way up till the door closed and the first raindrops fell. If he had a church, it was sparsely attended, that’s for sure. His ministry, if he did any preaching, was almost a complete failure by today’s standards of mega-churches. A Billy Graham he definitely wasn’t. All he managed to save was his immediate family. Except that, through his simple obedience, he was literally in one sense able to save all of humanity.

Remember this as you walk with Him. When you get mocking criticism from other religious people for ‘lack of unity’ because you are so presumptuous as to teach His Word and His Ways, think of Noah and the Babylonians. Just because the critics claim to follow God doesn’t mean they really do. The proof is in their actions and in their reaction to the Word. As our buddy Pete says above, there is another flood coming, but this one won’t be cold water; it will be raging fire. It behooves us to maintain our position of unity with God even when it looks like it’s taking Him longer than we thought to bring it about. His delay is an extra measure of grace allowing all to come repentance that wills it. Sometimes it’s lonely being on the fringes or out in the desert, but God is with those who pursue unity with Him at whatever it costs.

Shalom

[Bruce Bertram]

Genesis 6:9 – 11:32; Isaiah 52:13*– 55:5; Matthew 3 and 4; Mat. 24:36-44; Luke 17:26-37; Acts 2:1-16; 1 Peter 3:18-22; 2 Peter 2:5

“Come, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters; and he who has no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without price. Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread, and your labor for that which does not satisfy? Listen diligently to me, and eat what is good, and delight yourselves in rich food. Incline your ear, and come to me; hear, that your soul may live; and I will make with you an everlasting covenant, my steadfast, sure love for David. (Isaiah 55:1–3, ESV)

The boat that Noah builds at the direction of God is the first love boat. Not like a cruise ship or a TV show filled with actors, this one is the genuine article. There is nothing redeeming about the entire world at this time except for Noah and his family. But God works with what is available. In love He instructs Noah to build an ark that will protect and carry a remnant of people through the destruction that takes everyone else.

When they disembark, God makes another loving gesture, with a one-sided covenant between us and Him. A one-sided covenant is another name for a promise. A covenant is a promise by the party of the first part (God) when there is no performance requirement on the party of the second part (which would be all people in this case). In other words, God doesn’t say He will do thus and so if we do thus and so. He just says He isn’t going to destroy us with water again.

I establish my covenant with you, that never again shall all flesh be cut off by the waters of the flood, and never again shall there be a flood to destroy the earth.” And God said, “This is the sign of the covenant that I make between me and you and every living creature that is with you, for all future generations: I have set my bow in the cloud, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between me and the earth. (Genesis 9:11–13, ESV)

This promise is a continuation of the promise from Genesis 3:15 (another one-sided covenant). God had said there would be a “seed of the woman” to come and repair the breach between us and Him. There might’ve been some concern in Noah or his family (or future generations) that the promise was in jeopardy now. He promises that He is continuing that plan, and adds to it more detail and reassurance.

Noah’s remnant had just experienced an object lesson about the wrath of God. There is an undercurrent of implied or threatened destruction when dealing with Him, because in His holiness He cannot abide imperfection. And we know we aren’t perfect. He is love, and He is also justice. He wants to walk in the Garden with us again, but it has to be under right circumstances. We can get the impression from Him, especially when reading about events such as the flood, that if we step out of line even a little we will be destroyed. In a sense this is true, but people who continue to think this way aren’t paying attention.

Noah’s ark is really God’s ark. He didn’t have to save anyone. He could’ve erased everything and started over. But He is a God of His Word, and the ark was the assurance of that. The promise of reconciliation given just after the first parents repudiated His rule is real and valid. His plan for reuniting man and Himself will continue through Abraham, Israel, and David until it bears firstfruits in the God-man, seed of the woman Jesus the Christ. His love is unwavering, though humans constantly waver. He protects believers, carrying us through the destruction, saving us from the grave and permanent separation from Him in the lake of fire.

For the mountains may depart and the hills be removed, but my steadfast love shall not depart from you, and my covenant of peace shall not be removed,” says the LORD, who has compassion on you. (Isaiah 54:10, ESV)

The Promise, realized in Jesus, is still in effect. God is still working to bring all of His people together with Him again. Soon there will be another disaster. More destruction. It won’t be by water, but by fire. This destruction will come suddenly, just like the flood. The Son of Man will return, and because people are not paying attention to God’s Word, because they are not living it, because they have removed themselves from Him, they will be taken.

For as were the days of Noah, so will be the coming of the Son of Man. For as in those days before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day when Noah entered the ark, and they were unaware until the flood came and swept them all away, so will be the coming of the Son of Man. Then two men will be in the field; one will be taken and one left. Two women will be grinding at the mill; one will be taken and one left. Therefore, stay awake, for you do not know on what day your Lord is coming. (Matthew 24:37–42, ESV)

No, this taking is not the rapture. The context is the flood, and according to verse 39 in the above reference those who were living life unaware did not understand until the flood came and “took them all away.” The ones “taken” are killed, not raptured. This probably refers to the reaping mentioned in Revelation.

Then I looked, and behold, a white cloud, and seated on the cloud one like a son of man, with a golden crown on his head, and a sharp sickle in his hand. And another angel came out of the temple, calling with a loud voice to him who sat on the cloud, “Put in your sickle, and reap, for the hour to reap has come, for the harvest of the earth is fully ripe.” So he who sat on the cloud swung his sickle across the earth, and the earth was reaped. Then another angel came out of the temple in heaven, and he too had a sharp sickle. And another angel came out from the altar, the angel who has authority over the fire, and he called with a loud voice to the one who had the sharp sickle, “Put in your sickle and gather the clusters from the vine of the earth, for its grapes are ripe.” So the angel swung his sickle across the earth and gathered the grape harvest of the earth and threw it into the great winepress of the wrath of God. And the winepress was trodden outside the city, and blood flowed from the winepress, as high as a horse’s bridle, for 1,600 stadia. (Revelation 14:14–20, ESV)

The Promise, Jesus our Messiah, will reap the earth, and the clusters will be taken and thrown into “the great winepress of the wrath of God.” There will be no boat for these. They will have spurned God’s love, so will only be left with God’s righteous anger that destroys. They will and have bid ‘bon voyage’ to the ark that would save them. Jesus or Yeshua, whose very name means salvation, is the Ark, the Promise, the love of God personified, and the only means of rescue from the wrath to come.

Even so come, Lord Jesus. So shall it be.

Shalom
Bruce