Genesis 6:1-22 • Noah and the ark

Ark Encounter • https://arkencounter.com/

Genesis 6 is in my opinion, one of the saddest sections of the entire Bible. After about 1556 years, the corruption of mankind has become so great, that God is going to reboot the earth. Just turn it off and start over. Spray wash it so thoroughly that all the layers of paint from the past are gone. He will preserve one man, his 3 sons, and their wives. And a representation of all the animals and birds of the earth. From a human perspective eight people will be called on to replenish the entire earth.

• We will see a contrast being the vile sinfulness of mankind, with the total righteousness of one man.

• We will explore a variety of failures of the people, and the faithfulness of one person.

• And we will see the great burden God puts on Noah, the one man in that time who "walked with God"

► Let's break the passage into chunks and then I'll sum up what we see at the end...

Gen 6:1-22 → 1Now it came about, when men began to multiply on the face of the land, and daughters were born to them, 2that the sons of God saw that the daughters of men were beautiful; and they took wives for themselves, whomever they chose. 3Then the LORD said, “My Spirit shall not strive with man forever, because he also is flesh; nevertheless his days shall be one hundred and twenty years.” 4The Nephilim were on the earth in those days, and also afterward, when the sons of God came in to the daughters of men, and they bore children to them. Those were the mighty men who were of old, men of renown.

• A quote from the Moody Bible Commentary... • “Few places in the Bible have engendered as much discussion and debate among interpreters as these four verses, with the debate centering primarily on the identity of the sons of God and the daughters of men.”

Rydelnik, M. A., & Vanlaningham, M., eds. (2014). Genesis. In The moody bible commentary (p. 55). Moody Publishers.

► "Sons of God" and "daughters of men" – 4 views…

1st – Angels mating with women.

 → The Bible says that angels aren’t given in marriage, but it doesn’t say they can’t have sex (I think it’s implied).

→ If this was the case, then why weren’t any other non-angel families spared?

2nd – Righteous male descendants of Seth marrying sinful female descendants of Cain.

→ No Biblical text identifying the descendants of Seth being any more righteous than anyone else.

3rd – Early “kings” creating harems (polygamy).

→ Again, if this were the case, why are all being judged, when only a few are in error?

4th – Just normal men marrying normal women.

→ This would make the most sense, at least from the standpoint of universal disappointment on God’s part with mankind.

→ Rom 3:23 • “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.”

► "The Nephilim"…

→ The word is only used twice in Scripture – here and in Num 13:33, where the spies from Israel saw what they perceived to be giants.

→ The root word in Hebrew means “fallen ones”.

→ These are not necessarily the children of the “sons of God” and the “daughters of men”.  → They are probably just some really big guys, and because of their size, they aren’t intimidated by anyone, so they are considered “mighty men”.

► "120 years" – 2 views…

1st – God would reduce the lives of men to be no longer than 120 years.

2nd – The flood won’t come for 120 years.

• Suffice it to say, that as hard as this section is to be understood, we definitely get the impression that God is unhappy with the situation.

5Then the LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great on the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. 6The LORD was sorry that He had made man on the earth, and He was grieved in His heart. 7The LORD said, “I will blot out man whom I have created from the face of the land, from man to animals to creeping things and to birds of the sky; for I am sorry that I have made them.” 8But Noah found favor in the eyes of the LORD.

• If the last section was somewhat hard to understand, this one is not.

• This is such a contrast to what God said when He had finished creating everything - Gen 1:31 ”God saw all that He had made, and behold, it was very good.”

• The utter despair that He must have felt when it had come to a point where out of all the millions, if not billions of people who walked on the earth to this point, that none but Noah wanted to have anything to do with God.

9These are the records of the generations of Noah. Noah was a righteous man, blameless in his time; Noah walked with God. 10Noah became the father of three sons: Shem, Ham, and Japheth.

• "These are the records of the generations of Noah." This is one of several breaks that all start with "these are the records of..." that we will see throughout the Old Testament.

• Noah is the stark contrast to the rest of the world...

► "Noah was a righteous man,..." - Noah was living in a way that did not contradict the holiness of God.

► "blameless in his time;..." - not very many people could have this said about them in the course of history.

► "Noah walked with God." - the only other person that this is attributed to is Enoch, who because he "walked with God" (Gen 5:21-24) was spared death and taken straight to heaven to be with God. Noah, while qualifying for this bonus prize, will be asked to stay for a specific purpose. To replenish the earth.

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.

13Then God said to Noah, “The end of all flesh has come before Me; for the earth is filled with violence because of them; and behold, I am about to destroy them with the earth.

• God confides in Noah "I am about to destroy them (all flesh) with the earth."

14Make for yourself an ark of gopher wood; you shall make the ark with rooms, and shall cover it inside and out with pitch. 15This is how you shall make it: the length of the ark three hundred cubits, its breadth fifty cubits, and its height thirty cubits. 16You 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. 17Behold, 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.

• God commissions Noah to build an ark. I'm sure Noah was thinking, "what in the world is this for?" And God even gives Noah specific instructions...

► "gopher wood" - we really don't know what type of wood this is, but it must have been both sturdy AND pliable. And water resistant!

► "make the ark with rooms" - in order to keep the animals separated.

► "cover it inside and outside with pitch." - this is tar or something like it that would fill in all the seams and cracks to make the vessel watertight.

► dimensions... a "cubit" is about the length of your arm from the elbow to the end of your middle finger - 18" to 21". At 18" that would make the ark 450' in length, 75' wide, and 45' high. That's roughly 100,000 square feet.

► "window" near the top.

► "door" in the side.

► 3 "decks".

• Most all pictures of what the ark might have looked like, show it looking like any other boat, similar to the picture above. But keep in mind, this vessel didn't have to sail or travel anywhere. It just needed to float. It could have been nothing more than a giant rectangle - all straight sides. It would have been easier to build. And it would have also provided the maximum amount of space for all the animals. From a floating standpoint, it might have even been more sturdy on the water, having such a large flat bottom. But we don't know.

• What we do know is that in Gen 5:32 it says that "Noah was five hundred years old,...". In Gen 7:6, we are told that "Noah was six hundred years old" when the flood began. So if Noah's commissioning to build came right after his 500th birthday, then it took him 100 years to build the ark. Can you even imagine the derision and mockery he and his family would have to endure during this time? "Hey Noah, don't you think it would make more sense to build your boat down by the sea?"

18But I will establish My covenant with you; and you shall enter the ark—you and your sons and your wife, and your sons’ wives with you. 19And of every living thing of all flesh, you shall bring two of every kind into the ark, to keep them alive with you; they shall be male and female. 20Of the birds after their kind, and of the animals after their kind, of every creeping thing of the ground after its kind, two of every kind will come to you to keep them alive.

• Take your family, and a male and female pair of every animal, and bird, and "creeping thing".

• "two of every kind will come to you to keep them alive." - Noah didn't have to go and collect the animals. At the right time, they would come.

21As for you, take for yourself some of all food which is edible, and gather it to yourself; and it shall be for food for you and for them.”

• Noah is instructed to take food for the voyage. I'm assuming they ate vegetarian on the trip. Unless maybe they had roast unicorn!

22Thus Noah did; according to all that God had commanded him, so he did.

• Noah, while possibly not fully understanding what the future was going to look like (it'll be bad, whatever it is), and not paying heed to any negative comments by other people mocking his efforts, was faithful to follow God's instruction completely.

• The degradation of the earth, because of the vileness of mankind, has reached a point that God is going to eradicate everything and start over. But rather than just go back to a "formless and void" state as is mentioned in Gen 1:2, God is just going to wipe out everything except Noah, his family, and a representative of all the animals, so that rather than recreating everything, He will just be refining everything. I'm sure the post-flood earth probably looked a lot different than the pre-flood. No more canopy in the sky, which would lead to the growing of polar ice caps. Perhaps entire mountain ranges have been pushed up and ocean depths carved out. What would the plant life look like after a year under water? The whole place must have looked like a post-hurricane or a post-tornado landscape. But as we will see in the future, it will be survivable. And life will go on.

• Our very lives can be like this scenario. There is a part in each of us that should be totally eradicated. A vileness inside that can never enter the presence of God. God gives us the opportunity to invite Him to come in to our very lives, to wash away that vileness, and to give us a hope for a new life with Him, both now and in eternity. Sure, we'll still stumble and fall in this life, as we'll still struggle with what we were before we met Jesus. But if we've accepted Jesus into our lives, He holds us, and keeps us as His own, until that day, when we leave our old bodies behind, and enter into heaven, to a new life free from sin and full of joy.

Photo from Fast Company • https://www.fastcompany.com/3061679/i-built-noahs-100-million-ark

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