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November 6, 2016 |
| Noah | ||
At the age of 600, Noah was the only righteous man left on earth. God saw all others of mankind and said "every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually" (Genesis 6:5). God decided to destroy everything that had the breath of life1. God was going to destroy all life with a great flood. He told Noah to build an ark that would preserve his life and that of his family and the animals. Then God sent a flood that covered the highest mountains and all life that was not on the ark was destroyed.
We all know the story of Noah, at least we think we do. Likely we've heard it so many times that we are tired of hearing it and think that there is nothing more to learn from it. There is more going on in that story, though, than most people realize and that is what we will look at in this lesson.
Noah's father was Lamech. When Noah was born Lamech said "This one will give us rest from our work and from the toil of our hands arising from the ground which the Lord has cursed" (Genesis 5:29). The name "Noah" means "rest".
After Adam and Eve sinned God cursed the ground saying "Cursed is the ground because of you. In toil you will eat of it all the days of your life. 18 Both thorns and thistles it shall grow for you; and you will eat the plants of the field. 19 By the sweat of your face you will eat bread, till you return to the ground" (Genesis 3:17-19). Prior to that time life had been easy for them. The earth naturally grew food for Adam and Eve and all they had to do was pick and eat.
During the flood the ground is ripped up and the curse is removed. Afterward "the Lord said to himself, 'I will never again curse the ground on account of man'" (Genesis 8:21). We may think that it is a struggle to get our daily bread but apparently it was worse in Noah's time.
One result of Noah and the flood was that the ground was no longer cursed. Not only that but God also allows mankind to eat meat from then on. Lamech's prophecy is fulfilled.
In Genesis, Noah is never presented as being a preacher, but Peter presents him that way in the New Testament.
And he did not spare the first world but he preserved Noah, the eighth man, a preacher of righteousness, when he brought a flood over the world of the wicked (1 Peter 2:5)
Some people think that the act of building the ark was Noah's silent preaching or testimony and he never preached in words. That doesn't really match up with Peter's words above and it isn't logical.
Peter says "preacher of righteousness" which means Noah took the message of living righteously to people who didn't know it. Building a weird shaped house, as the ark would have appeared to be at that time (boats were unknown), does not say anything about living righteously. Therefore, Noah had to have used words.
We understand that salvation has never come from living righteously. Therefore, Noah would have also preached repentance. That message may have come in the form of, "God has seen the evil you do and decided to destroy all life. He has commanded me to build this floating house so we can survive. Repent and you will be saved."
That brings up an interesting question. How does anyone at that time know what is righteous living and what is evil? We see nothing in the Bible that indicates they had anything like a Bible or prophets. We do know they were expected to live according to their consciences. What then would Noah have preached to them that they would have accepted as truth?
In our time we quote Bible verses, which are accepted as authoritative. As far as we know they had nothing like that.
How did the flood remove the curse that God had put on the ground? After all, the ground wasn't destroyed it was only shuffled around by the water.
The flood was a baptism of sorts. Like any baptism it is a purification; the evil and curses that brings are washed away leaving only the good. We see this through the symbolism of the 40 days and nights of rain because 40 is the Bible's number for purification.
Peter also refers to the flood as a type of baptism. He comes to that point as he talks about what Jesus did when he descended to Sheol after he died on the cross.
And he preached to those souls who were held in Sheol. 20 These who from the first were not convinced in the days of Noah when the long-suffering of God commanded that there would be an ark, upon the hope of their repentance, and only eight souls entered it and were kept alive by water. 21 For you also are alive in it by that simile in baptism, not when you wash the body from impurity, but when you confess God with a pure conscience, and by the resurrection of Yeshua, the Messiah (1 Peter 3:19-21).
Peter says "alive in it". The "it" he refers to is water. So a paraphrase would be "… they were kept alive in the ark by water, and you are alive by water through a simile which is baptism …" Peter's paradigm is interesting in that he credits water with saving Noah. To our way of thinking we credit the ark with saving Noah from the water.
Immediately after stepping off the Ark, God started giving Noah some laws that are now called the Seven Noahide laws. They aren't given as a sequence of laws like the Ten Commandments. They are spread around a little bit like the rest of the laws the Jews were required to observe. That makes them like the two great commandments that Jesus refers to that not near each other in the Old Testament text.
These seven laws are traditionally listed as:2
The Jewish sages have understood since long before Jesus time that these laws were given. Yet most Christians have no idea that these laws existed. That's unfortunate because the New Testament refers to them in a very important teaching that many Christians consequently do not understand. Because of this lack of understanding some Christians, particularly in some of the Messianic communities, are being taught that they must observe the food regulations of the Old Covenant.
This law was given to Noah as a law for all of mankind. It combines laws about the relationship with God, laws about the relationship with mankind, and a food law. It can be seen as a subset of the Ten Commandments and the Jewish food law.
The New Testament reference to Noahide law comes In Acts 15 where the church is faced with a dilemma. Jewish converts to the faith are insisting that circumcision and other Jewish laws be observed by Christian Gentiles. The apostles and leaders are summoned to a council to decide this. The decision is that "it was the will of the Spirit of Holiness and also of us that we would not put upon you a burden greater than those things which are necessary: 29 Abstain from what is sacrificed, from blood, from what is strangled, and from fornication …" (Acts 15:28-29). This is either the oddest collection of Jewish laws or it is a reference to the Noahide laws.
When it is understood that this is a reference to the Noahide laws, it makes complete sense. The council is saying that the laws that God gave to Noah are still the minimum standard for mankind.
This also helps us understand the covenant that God setup with Israel. Out of all mankind, God chose a people to be closer to him than any other people and to be a light to the world. As part of that covenant he became their king and gave them laws that directed every aspect of their lives. He called them to live to a higher standard.
From the time of Moses to the time of Jesus, there were two sets of laws in effect, the Old Covenant laws for the Israelites (and any who chose to join them) and the Noahide laws for everyone else. When the Jews killed Jesus, who was the promise of the Old Covenant, that covenant was destroyed. The wall of separation between Jew and Gentile came down.
But now you are in Yeshua the Messiah, when from the first you were distant, and you have come near by the blood of the Messiah. 14 For he is our peace who made the two one, and he destroyed the wall that was standing in the middle. 15 And he has canceled the hatred by his flesh and the law of commands in his commandments, that for the two, he would create in his Person one new man, and he has made peace. (Ephesians 2:13-15)
From that point in time onward, the Jewish law was no longer "covenantal" but only "instructional". No longer was it required as part of a covenant with God. As Paul says:
But you should abide in those things that you have learned and of which you are assured, for you know from whom you have learned them, 15 and because from your childhood you were taught the Holy Scrolls which can make you wise unto the life in the faith of Yeshua the Messiah. 16 Every writing which is written by the Spirit is profitable for teaching, for correction, for direction and for a course in righteousness, 17 that the man of God will be perfect and perfected for every good work. (2 Timothy 3:14-17)
The story of Noah and the flood also tells us something important about clean and unclean foods. We know that the people of Noah's time did not eat meat and only ate certain plants. It was not until after the flood that God allowed man to eat any meat3
We also know that Noah was commanded to bring a certain number of clean animals aboard the ark and a certain number of unclean animals. So here's the question. If mankind could not eat animals at all, why were some animals clean and some unclean?
Most Christians don't understand this because their experience of clean and unclean foods comes from the Old Covenant only. They see it as God giving the Israelites an arbitrarily chosen list of animals they could eat. The correct understanding is that, from the start, some of the animals God created were unclean to him as food.
Note that God refers to animal sacrifices to him as his food. Therefore unclean animals are not to be sacrificed to him. Noah knew this. When they leave the Ark, Noah sacrifices one of every clean animal4 but none of the unclesn animals.
Now that we understand that clean and unclean have always been according to God's definition for himself, we can understand what happens in the Old Covenant. What is clean and unclean to God becomes clean and unclean to Israel.
Jesus uses Noah's entering into the Ark in an unexpected way, as an example of how things will be at the time of the Second Coming.
But about that day and about that hour no one knows, not even the angels of Heaven, but the Father alone. 37 But just as the days of Noah, so will the coming of the Son of Man be. 38 For just as they were eating and drinking before the flood, and they were taking wives, and they were taking husbands, until the day that Noah entered the ark, 39 and they did not perceive until the flood came and took them all away, thus will be the coming of The Son of Man. (Matthew 24:36-39)
The point that Jesus is making is that the evil people of the world will be doing all their usual things, unaware of what is about to happen. Then at the Second Coming it will be too late, the "door" will be closed, as it was in the Ark.
Somewhat related, it was God who closed the door of the Ark, not Noah. "Those that entered, male and female of all flesh, entered as God had commanded him; and the Lord closed it behind him" (Genesis 7:16).
Many Christians have been influenced by the world. They have accepted what science teaches over what the Bible teaches. One result of that is that they believe that the flood never happened and that Noah wasn't a real person.
In the verses above, both Jesus and Peter refer to Noah and the flood as a real person and a real event.
The Bible describes the lineage from Noah down to Jesus. If you don't believe Noah existed, how can you believe Jesus existed? If the Bible is wrong on Noah, the flood, and the genealogy of Jesus, why would you believe anything it said?
Noah changes while on the ark. The most obvious indication is the way God refers to him. Prior to building the ark, God refers to him as a righteous man. God never refers to any other person that way. It is also said that he walked with God. When he leaves the ark God refers to him as a man of the earth.
There are other signs of the change. Noah begins acting to protect himself - without God's instruction.
God said there would be a window in the top of the ark. In our time we think of the vertical, glass pane windows we know. That isn't likely the case. This was likely more of a skylight that would allow light to come in, fumes to go out, and air to recirculate. Obviously it would have been built to keep rain out.
Neither Noah nor his family could have used it to see out. We know that because Noah opens it someway so he can release birds to go out and be his eyes. Opening it still does not allow him to view out.
Noah opens that window on his own initiative. God has not told him to do it. It seems that Noah has become impatient.
God told him they were going to go on the boat while the earth and everything on it was destroyed. We don't see God telling him how this will all end … or when. In fact, we don't see anything of God communicating with Noah at all after he closes the door of the boat. It seems like Noah is now acting like a man who doesn't trust God, a man who needs to protect himself.
This seems similar to the incident of the Golden Calf. The people get tired of not hearing from God and Moses so they give up and create their own god.
Then God shows up to tell him it's time to leave the ark.
Noah keeps on doing things God didn't tell him to do. Noah plants a vineyard, drinks too much wine, becomes drunk, and lies naked in his tent.
Getting drunk is a good indicator that Noah isn't dealing with some issues. It's easy to imagine what they might be. Everyone and everything he knew for 600 years has been destroyed. As a preacher of righteousness he might have felt the same loses modern preachers feel when members of their flock turn away. He may be embarrassed by the impatience he showed to God. He may feel the pressures of leading his family into a new world.
We also have to wonder what was behind his drunken thought to take his clothes off. Was he confused about how they should live? Maybe he was thinking they should go back to living naked like Adam and Eve did. After all he has just been through a re-creation event that has similarities to the original creation event.
Noah's son Ham finds him in that state in his tent and runs off to tell the others and further embarrass their father. The other sons cover Noah. This may indicate that they were aware of the struggles their father was going through.
In any case, that is the last we hear of Noah, though he lives for another 350 years. He dies 2 years before Abraham, his 10 th generation son, is born. He would likely have been at the Tower of Babel and certainly lived through everything that happened in those years, but he isn't mentioned.
The Christian group called Answers in Genesis has spent the last couple years having a full-size Ark built in Kentucky as a teaching tool. Inside it has three floors as God said it should. Each of those floors is covered with displays that deal with various topics like the tools that would have been used to build the Ark, what the people and animals ate, etc.
This attraction opened this year and has been very successful. It is 510 feet long and keeps people busy all day
We've seen that there is more to the story of Noah and the flood.
1 Genesis 6:17 "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."
2 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seven_Laws_of_Noah
3 Genesis 9:3 "Every moving thing that is alive shall be food for you; I give all to you, as I gave the green plant."
4 Genesis 8:20 "Then Noah built an altar to the Lord, and took of every clean animal and of every clean bird and offered burnt offerings on the altar."