From the Start - Part 16 | The Flood (A Genesis Sermon Series Part 17)

All right, we'll go ahead and turn to Genesis Chapter 7.

Genesis 7 · chapter mention

We will finish off Chapter 7 today as we talk about the

flood. Nearly every indigenous culture

has a flood story. Some of them vary quite a bit

from the others, but some have a number of characteristics in

common with the story of Noah's flood.

There's Erdu from Summer, Etcherhasis from Acadia, Utna

Pishtim in the Epic of Gilgamesh, Hindus, Alaskans,

Greeks, Africans, Native Americans.

They all have flood stories as part of their origins.

Now of course we don't we don't read these ancient stories and

and give them equal credibility with the biblical flood

accounts. The differences between the

accounts in some instances are far too extensive.

But the presence of flood accounts the world over causes

us to stop and consider whether they might all be Speaking of

the same events. Only they view the flood through

a different lens. As people multiplied and spread

throughout the world, their remembrances and thoughts

regarding God's motive might have shifted.

They might have lost track of who God actually is and instead

chased after other false gods, gods who acted actually in a

capricious anger. And it's against this backdrop

that that Moses sits down to write Yahweh's accounts.

And it serves as a sort of rebuttal to these other accounts

that were already circulating around the ancient Near East at

the time. Last week, as we began the flood

narrative, we looked at the command that God gave Noah to

build an ark. He and his family took decades

to build it in. The day finally came when God

told them to go into it along with all the animals so the

earth could be repopulated after the flood.

So God told Noah he would he would send rain in seven days

and it would rain for 40 days and 40 nights.

In Chapter 7, verse 5 revealed Noah did all that the Lord

commanded him. That's the introduction to the

flood narrative. And then the chapter continues

to reiterate what was already stated.

As we look at verses 6 through 10, we see preparation for the

flood. Read there in your Bibles, if

you would, beginning at verse 6. Noah was 600 years old when the

flood of waters came upon the earth, and Noah and his sons and

his wife and his son's wives with him went into the ark to

escape the waters of the flood of clean animals and of animals

that are not clean, and of birds and of everything that creeps on

the ground. Two and two, male and female,

went into the ark with Noah as God had commanded Noah.

And after seven days the waters of the flood came upon the

earth. Now when we talk about the

flood, it's one of those things that critics of the Bible and

critics of Christianity love to mock.

This week I saw a video of Bill Maher mocking Christianity

because of our belief in the flood.

His assessment that was that Christians don't want real

answers that science can provide and he labeled the accounts of

Noah and the ark as childish and a made-up story.

When we read this passage, it comes across as though Moses

believed it was actually true. He used all sorts of details to

point to a historic event. He used all sorts of details to

point to a historical event that actually happened.

The flood was an actual event posited in an actual time and

place in history. The other creation and flood

stories don't communicate their events in in the same manner

that Moses does in Genesis. The text is remarkably specific.

It says Noah was 600 years old when the flood began.

Tells us he and his family, his sons, his wife and sons wives

all went into the ark. Clean animals, unclean animals,

birds, creeping animals, male and female pairs, they all went

into the ark. And then seven days after Noah

and his family went into the ark, the flood began.

Moses wrote about the flood in a very matter of fact manner.

The text is relaying historical events to us and this continues

through the rest of the flood narrative.

Even through the rest of the book, really.

Verse 11 references the 17th day of the second month in Noah's

600th year, a very specific date, and it rained for 40 days

and 40 nights. It says the extent of the

flooding is noted so that the reader understands how much

flooding there actually was, and that living things died as the

waters prevailed on the earth for 150 days.

These are all important details intended to communicate a

historical event. As we consider the factual

nature of this account, there's something that stand out that

stands out to me. For decades there was.

There was impending doom on the horizon.

Noah fathered Shem, Ham, and Japheth after he turned 500

years old. Some quite some feats, right?

But then sometime after that, God commands him to build the

ark. And the shortest estimate is

that it could have taken 75 years to build the ark, perhaps

even longer. So for at least 75 years, Noah

withstood the ridicule of the people.

For decades, the people watched. They watched Noah building the

ark for decades. And they didn't change.

They didn't repent. You see, sin is persistent.

Sin is persistent. To be honest, when I think about

this, I'm astounded. How could someone watch this guy

and his family build an ark for 75 years and not stop to

consider the purpose or or reason in the ark and ask

questions? I mean this guy in presumably

his family live differently than everyone else.

Noah was a beacon of light in in the midst of a dark generation.

But as far as we can tell, no one stopped to ask why are you?

No, why are you really doing this?

What? What do you know that we don't

know? Who is it that you are

following? Tell us about this God.

No one asked about Yahweh. The only thing sinners think

about is self. You can't reason sinners into

saving themselves. Try as me we might.

We can't scare the sin out of people.

Sin is deep in the life of the unregenerate person and they

can't short of the Holy Spirit's working.

Sinners can't climb out of sin. Just think about the fact that

back on Page 3, conditions were perfect for humans to make the

right choices. Even then they couldn't make the

right decisions and they treated good for bad.

God's wisdom for their own redefining of right and wrong.

Sin ensnares us and getting out of its net isn't something that

we can do on our own. The power of sin's grip is

persistent and is why God sent the flood.

Looking at verses 11 through 16, there we see the beginnings of

the flood in the 6th, 100th year of Noah's life, in the second

month on the 17th day of the month.

On that day all the fountains of the great deep burst forth, and

the windows of the heavens were opened, and the rain and rain

fell upon the earth 40 days and 40 nights.

On the very same day Noah and his Shem, and Ham, and Japheth,

and Noah's wife, and the three wives of his sons with them,

entered the ark. They and every beast according

to its kind, all the livestock according to their kinds, and

every creeping thing that creeps on the earth according to its

kind, and every bird according to its kind, every winged

creature, they went into the ark with Noah, two and two of all

flesh, in which there was the breath of life.

And those that entered, male and female of all flesh went in as

God had commanded him, and the Lord shut him in.

Now the heightened literary structure of the flood narrative

does a bit of bouncing back and forth between concepts and

themes. It says the flood started and

then it'll say Noah went into the ark.

And then it says the flood started again.

The scholars will tell you there's, there's a chiastic

structure here that is, that is telling us what the point a

chiasm is something where we present a theme, we'll call it

A. And, and as the story goes

along, the story will continue in that.

And at the very end, A will be mirrored with a prime and then

the next thing is B and then we'll see that mirrored with B

prime and then C&C prime. And it all points to what God is

trying to tell us. And we will see the the top of

that chiasm. We'll see that next week as we

enter chapter 8. But for now, everything is

building up towards that point. And so so we're, we're learning

more ever every little detail is coming along here in the

narrative. Now these verses drill down into

what verses 6 through 10 generalized verses 6 through 10

were we're more general, kind of like chapter 1 was a general

view of creation and then chapter 2 drilled down into it.

That's kind of a little bit of what's happening here.

So, as these verses do, it's important to take note of the

fact that this is the only spot in the flood narrative where

Noah's sons are named. Explicitly naming Shem, Ham, and

Japheth draws a connection between the genealogies of

chapter 6. If you'll remember, chapter 6

went through and this person had this person and this person, and

then it got to Noah. And it didn't just stop there.

It said Noah fathered Shem, Ham, and Japheth.

So naming them is a connection between, between the genealogies

and then when they will exit the ark later on in a couple

chapters now, it reminds us that this family, this particular

family that is on the ark is descended from the righteous

line of Seth, the the right genealogy, if you will, the

right line. They're descended from that

line. And in the future of the whole

world rests with this family and these three sons who are the

progenitors of the nations. Now on the same day when no one,

his family entered the ark, the animals also entered the beast

according to their kinds, male and female.

Now, Moses language here, if you were paying attention, you, you

take notice of this language and you realize this is the same

language that was used back in the creation story.

So it draws us back to creation. At the beginning of creation,

everything was created and reproduced according to their

own kinds, right? Various beasts, livestock,

creeping things and varieties of birds.

All of these, everything that had God's breath within them was

now represented on the ark by reproducing pears.

And the text explicitly calls out each of these categories.

As our minds are drawn back to the first page of creation, it

serves to remind us that all is not lost.

All is not lost. There's still hope and

opportunity. The seed of the woman is still

alive, and someday things will be made right.

This is important because as a whole, humanity had failed to

listen to God. They were disobedient and set on

evil. But these animals, they were

obedient to God. He commanded them to enter the

ark, and they did. Their obedience to Yahweh excel

the rest of humanity who was not on the ark.

Now once all flesh chosen for deliverance obeyed, then God did

his part and he shut them in. He He did what Noah couldn't do

and he he sealed the ark by closing its door and this

signaled God's divine protection.

This was God's divine protection.

The inhabitants of the ark, the the humans and the animals were

all under God's protective care. He closed up the vessel in the

fate of these passengers was entirely in his hands.

They they couldn't remember. There's no rudder.

They they can't decide where they want to go.

They are entirely relying upon God.

The facts. The text tells us.

The precise day this happened grabs me.

It's doing more than just saying hey, this was a real day in

story. It is doing that, yes, but the

declaration it was on the 17th day of the second month of

Noah's 600th year reminds me of other historic moments.

We intuitively know when 911 happened.

Of course you'll say September 11th, yes, but you know that it

wasn't just September 11th. You know that it was in 2001.

If I asked you when Pearl Harbor was, many of you would

immediately respond that it was December 7th of 1941.

And if I asked when D-Day was many of you don't even have to

stop to think about the fact that it was on June 6th of 1944

that the Allied forces landed at Normandy and and set in motion

what would become the freedom of Western Europe from Nazis.

We we have these dates etched into our minds.

We don't forget about these kinds of things and surely the

flood. It's one of those dates you do

not forget no one. His family would always remember

this dates. You can't forget something like

this that so that is so completely unprecedented in

history in which unequivocally changed the world.

On this specific date, the 17th day of the second month of

Noah's 600 year, the heavens were opened and the fountains of

the great deep burst forth. Now we know that a heavy storm

for even a few hours can, can do tremendous damage and then let

alone a few days and then you throw in 40 days and 40 nights,

the damage can be absolutely catastrophic to the local

terrain, to the wildlife. And and in our societies, rain

can just vast amounts of water destroy buildings and

structures. So here it rains for 40 days and

40 nights, torrential rainfall. And also at the same time, water

is coming up from the fountains of the deep, is what it says.

Now this wasn't just geysers spewing scalding water into the

air or or springs bringing water up to the Earth's surface.

When the text speaks of the deep, it's referring

specifically to oceans. There may well have been oceanic

earthquakes and volcanoes that tore apart the Earth's crust in

a violent explosive upheaval, causing water to go everywhere.

The oceans were angry and they were churning for for about 5

months. As we think about their world

being inundated with water, it's good to remind ourselves of what

the their literal worldview, how they saw the world in the

ancient Near East. It's good to remind ourselves of

of what it was like from their perspective, the world looked

something like this picture. Here you have the earth, that is

the dry land, the the columns of the earth, the the oceans.

Remember God had God had put in place, say a firmament,

firmaments to separate so the waters above from the waters

below. And So what exactly that was we

don't know exactly, but this is kind of how they viewed the

earth in Moses day. They perceive the sky as being

this kind of Dome that stretched from one end of the sky all the

way across to the other end. We don't know what the earth was

actually like at this point in time.

It was. It was different than than what

it is now. It was different back in the 1st

chapter when God had gathered gathered all the waters together

into one place, and so presumably all the land is in

one place as well. It's possible some of this

picture was reality in the waters from both below and above

the earth all combined to create this massive flood.

So this leads us to look at the floods extents, the culmination.

This is the culmination of the flood that we're going to read

about here in verses 17 through 24.

Verse 17, the flood continued 40 days on the earth.

The waters increased and bore up the ark and it rose high above

the earth. The waters prevailed and

increased greatly on the earth, and the ark floated on the face

of the waters. And the waters prevailed so

mightily on the earth that all the high mountains under the

whole heaven were covered. The waters prevailed above the

mountains, covering them 15 cubits deep.

And all flesh died that moved on the earth.

Birds, livestock, beasts, all swarming creatures that swarm on

the earth and all mankind, everything on the dry land and

whose nostrils was the breath of life, died.

He blotted out every living thing that was on the face of

the ground. Man in animals and creeping

things and birds of the heavens. They were blotted out from the

earth. Only Noah was left, and those

who are with him in the ark and the waters prevailed on the

earth 150 days. So here we see how bad things

got. Again, there's a good amount of

detail here which signals to us that this is a real event.

The flooding that is the the waters coming up from the deep

as well as the opening of the heavens continued for 40 days,

and the ark had no issue being lifted up off of the earth in

such a deluge. Verses 19 through 20 then tell

us how high the waters rose. All the high mountains under the

whole heaven were covered. The waters prevailed above the

mountains, covering them 15 cubits deep.

All the mountains were were they were overwhelmed by the water,

and the water was 15 cubits or 22 1/2 feet above the mountains

of the effects of this were to be expected right, and in line

with what God had said was going to happen.

All living flesh was blotted out.

All living flesh was removed from the face of the earth.

Birds, livestock, beasts, all swarming creatures that swarm on

the earth. All mankind.

So the reboot, this, this new beginning was now contingent

entirely on those who were in the Ark.

Any conversation about the flood necessarily involves a a

discussion of its extent for this.

For the sake of this message, I'll distill everything down to

2 views. Some will argue for more nuanced

positions of of both views, but the argument is really between

two positions, and I suspect that in this room we may have

both positions represented. I don't know that for a fact,

but it's possible. So was the flood global, or was

it merely local in extent? First of all, the dominant view

in Christianity is a global flood.

This view comes from a plain, literal reading of the text.

Our text says all the high mountains under the whole heaven

were covered. The waters prevailed above the

mountains covering them 15 cubits deep.

A plain reading of this of these verses is that all the mountains

on the entire globe were covered under the water, and even the

highest mountains had water 22 1/2 feet above their summits.

That's the plain reading of the text.

God had ripped open these springs and geysers and and

other fissures to spout abnormal volumes of water from deep

inside the earth. This rending of the waters of

the deep caused cataclysmic changes in the Earth's

topography, which included newly formed mountains.

As the. As the tectonic plates shifted

and and mountains were thrust upwards, massive erosion was

seen on the earth and the continents we know today were

formed out of one single continent.

Those who believe in a global flood assume significant

theological, theological, geological changes after the

deluge. Now some will argue that there

was a a canopy covering the Earth and some will say there

wasn't a canopy. That's up for debate.

We know there was some sort of firmament.

What that was we don't know. But so this this canopy, some

will argue, prevented rain from falling.

So we had never rained before this moment as as the canopy

holds back the rain and this canopy bursts and and helps

supply much of the water for the flood.

Rain was now part of the Earth's water cycle.

Some other changes included sedimentary rock being quickly

laid down, as well as the creation as the mountain ranges

are created. We can point to the fact that

you can find marine fossils at the tops of some mountains, even

the top of the world, Mount Everest, as proof of a global

flood. Speaking of the fossil record,

Ken Ham, who is, I would say, the biggest advocate, the most

popular name in global flood apologetics, Ken Ham says the

fossil record is billions of dead things buried in rock

layers laid down by water all over the earth.

This, he says, is it's dramatic evidence of the historicity of

Noah's flood. So all these things point to a

catastrophic and practically instant change in the Earth and

fossil record. Obviously, the only humans to

survive the flood were Noah's family.

And every creature on Earth is descended from the animals that

were on the ark. Even dinosaurs are said to have

been on the ark. And everybody's always thinks,

oh, dinosaurs couldn't go on the ark because they always think

of, you know, the ones that are several stories tall.

Well, they don't start that way. They start well.

I don't, I don't know how big some of those were, but there

are much smaller younger versions that could have been on

the Ark. Now, the other viewpoints for

the flood is called a local flood.

Theologians who hold to this perspective believe in a flood,

and they're also trying to faithfully interpret Scripture

in a manner that is consistent with what Moses audience would

have understood. That is, that is one of their

main arguments. One writer I came across said

when looking at Scripture, it's very important not to just read

it with our modern perception. We need to consider the context

and point of view of the people of that era who wrote it, and

most importantly, try to understand God's perspective as

much as we possibly can. Scripture isn't the problem,

it's how we interpret it. That may be the cause of

misunderstandings. Now, the majority of those who

hold to the local flood perspective believe it was an

absolutely massive flood. However, it didn't impact all of

the continents of the world. It stayed localized within a

region like Mesopotamia or the Tigris and Euphrates River

Valley. The whole of the Earth's

population would seemingly be centered there in that region.

So the flood could still be said to have been universal, but not

global as in around the entire globe of the earth.

Therefore, the annihilation of sinful man only, according to

this view, only involved flooding the known world of

their time. This view reinterprets the

phrase All the high mountains under the whole heaven were

covered to mean that they were overwhelmed or they were

drenched with water. This is based on other uses of

the word Ke$ha. If you want to arrive at this

conclusion, you have to do a bit of research and understanding.

Hebrew. They also believe that that

covering them, that is covering the mountains 15 cubits deep

should actually be translated as 15 cubits upwards on the

mountain. So starting from the mountains,

15 cubits upward on the mountains due to the use of the

word maal necessitating a translation of deep instead.

Now when talking about the creation days and views

regarding creation, I said it's important to understand that

that godly Christ following theologians can be found on both

sides of the discussion, and that's applies here as well.

We don't judge someone as not Christian or or a liberal based

on their views of creation or on their view of the flood.

This is a secondary issue and not an issue of top importance.

Was there a flood? Yes, I would say that is an

issue of top importance, that there was a flood because God

was doing something and starting humanity over.

But one can hold to either a global or local flood and be

faithful to the words of Scripture.

Your view of the flood's extent doesn't determine your salvation

or anyone else's. Both perspectives believe in

something absolutely catastrophic and which could

have only been performed by God. They both view the flood as God

working to purge humanity, to purge the earth of its evil, and

then God vowing to never do that again.

I'll also add that whichever view you land on, there are

questions to address. If the flood was global, really

where did all the water come from and where did it go so

quickly if it was really covering all the mountains?

If you believe in a local flood, you have to consider whether

humanity may have moved beyond the region, whether doing so

would circumvent God's purpose and plan to restart everything

through this one family. Local Flood person also needs to

come to grips with the fossil record and marine fossils being

found in places where we wouldn't expect them to be, as

well as determining how does an ark come to rest on a tall

mountain. There are questions to be

navigated. So what do we do with this

message? I suspect nobody in here is

going to go home and build an ark.

If you do, that's really cool. I want to see it make it make it

the right the right size. Like like the one in Kentucky.

That would be awesome. But no, actually, let's build an

ark of sorts. What was the ark?

The ark was a means to preserving this family.

It was it was rescuing them from God's judgment on the earth.

The ark rescued them. So build an ark and invite

people to believe in Jesus. That's a metaphorical ark.

You can build an ark. Go ahead.

Invite people to believe in Jesus.

Share the gospel with them. Invite them to invite them to

church. That is one of the easiest steps

to take. This is such an awesome place to

be. We have plenty of room.

Invite people to come worship with us.

Come hear the truth of God's word.

Engage in spiritual conversations with people.

Ask deep questions, ask about their faith.

I love that I was talking with, with Mike Finley just yesterday

and he's talking with someone and he's always trying to where,

where can I squeeze this in? How, how can I move the

conversation to the gospel? So they're talking, he says,

well, what about eternity? And, and, and the person just

kind of kind of says, we'll come back to that.

And the conversation never got there.

So, so now Mike has this, this need to, we need to finish that

conversation. We need to get to talking about

eternity, work conversations towards the gospel.

It doesn't always have to be a full gospel presentation, but

broaching issues of faith. Salvation comes only through

Jesus and we we can be that arc of sorts.

We can be the conduit to help bring deliverance to someone, to

help bring freedom from God's judgement.

Second, trust in God's protection.

Trust in God's protection. Noah and his family threw

themselves entirely on God's grace.

The only reason they were going to get through the storm was

because God said He would save them from it.

There will be storms in our lives that are much greater than

anything that we can handle, and the only way we'll weather them

is if we cling to the salvation God has given us in Jesus.

So we trust in Him for eternity and we trust in Him to get

through the storms of life. Right now.

The flood is definitely not a light matter.

We've looked at some heavy stuff when you consider all the

people, all all the creatures that were destroyed in the

flood. And for some people, it might

challenge your faith. Is that is it really necessary

for that to happen? Is that really have to go that

way? Did he have to destroy

everything? Yes.

But that's not the whole picture.

God was still working in the midst of the flood.

He was saving a people who would be his own possession, a people

who would be treasured above all the others in the world and the

ones through whom rescue for humanity would come.

Let's bow our heads and close our eyes.

God, as we close our time this morning, some of this can can

feel a bit academic to just talk about the flood and, and what

happened and, and how how the floodgates of heaven opened up

and and the waters of the deep came forth and how everyone and

everything that was not on the ark was destroyed.

But God, you, you were working in the midst of that moment.

You're still working, protecting your people, your people, out of

whom one day salvation would come.

So God would. Would we be diligent to to

point, perhaps as as Noah did, he, he, he tried to point people

to you, to your salvation? Would we be diligent to point

people to Jesus Christ our Savior?

We have protection. We have everything we need in

you life. Provision, a future, a future

beyond this life that is just absolutely glorious and

wonderful. Would you give us opportunities

and give us the eyes and ears to know, to be sensitive to those

opportunities and to step into them faithfully and point people

to you? Thank you for this time.

Maybe we'll be transformed by your word.

It's in Jesus name we pray, Amen.