Where Is Jesus In The Old Testament #2 “The Account Of Noah And The Flood”

I. The Gospel First Gives Us The Bad News. We are far worse than we think! (Gen 6:5-7) We see in particular…

  • The intensity & extent of evil (the evil is great and it fills the earth!)
  • It is internal -- it's not just external evil acts! (every inclination of the thoughts of his heart)
  • The absoluteness of its sway (it's only evil all the time) Please note: The phrase "it grieved God that He made man" is an "anthropomorphic way of saying that "the development of mankind frustrated the end for which God had placed man on the earth." Geerhardus Vos
  • But even in giving us the bad news God is being gracious -- He is warning us of our true condition! Is our real problem “sins” or is it “sin”? In many Evangelical circles it has been popular to define sin as “conscious, voluntary acts of transgression against known laws.” But Richard Lovelace well reminds us that, “The structure of sin in the human personality is something far more complicated than the isolated acts and thoughts of deliberate disobedience commonly designated by the word. In its Biblical definition, sin cannot be limited to isolated instances or patterns of wrongdoing. It is something much more akin to the psychological term “complex”, an organic network of compulsive attitudes, beliefs, and behavior deeply rooted in our alienation from God… Sinful thoughts, words and deeds flow forth from the darkened heart automatically and compulsively, as water from a polluted fountain.”
  • And here we see His patience (Gen 6:3) when God says He won't contend with man forever but his days shall number 120 years. Many have thought this meant 120 years would be the life expectancy of man but what it actually means is that even though He is grieved, God is giving 120 years before He sends destruction by the flood. What was going on during this time period? From 1&2 Peter we learn that Christ was preaching through Noah the "Preacher of righteousness."

II. God Is Going To Destroy The World But Noah Found Favor (or grace) In God's Eyes (6:8) But why?

Is it because he is righteous and blameless? (6:9) Did he earn favor with God? The rest of the Bible would lead us to say no, but actually Gen 6-9 has some good reasons for believing that Noah is saved not by his righteousness but by God's free, unmerited grace!

  • The Bible says Noah found favor with God (vs. 8), and that he was blameless (vs. 9)
  • Butwhich is the cause and which is the effect? Are there any clues in the text? Yes there are! Notice that Gen 6:9 starts a new section (the phrase "this is the account of" appears 10 times in Genesis and always marks the beginning of a new major section.) So we need to connect vs. 8 with verses 5-7 and not with verse 9. When we do this, we see more clearly the deliberate contrast that Genesis is making. All men are only evil all the time but Noah found favor with God! Gen 6:9 gives a summary of Noah's life not a theological rational for why Noah found favor in God's eyes! We know that Noah is not perfect because of the account of his drunkenness and exposing himself at the end of chapter 9, and yet the summary of his life in 6:9 says he is blameless and righteous. How do we explain this?
  • It helps to know that these two Hebrew words do not mean absolute moral perfection! As Gordon Wenham (in his excellent commentary on Gen) says, "Righteous ... is the most general Hebrew term to describe good people... Someone called good in English would be described as righteous in Hebrew. So, in describing Noah as righteous, he is being pointed to as a good man who lived [basically] according to God's standards of behavior." He goes on to point out that "blameless" is a rarer, more intense term. The text also says Noah walked with God (like Enoch) -- and not even Abraham is said to walk with God, he is said to walk before God. Wenham concludes, "It thus appears that there is a progressive build-up in Noah's characterization: he was a good man (righteous like the majority of the Israelites.) More than that, he was blameless, the goal of all but achieved by few. Finally, he walked with God like Enoch, the only man in Genesis to have been translated to Heaven."
  • The Theological Word Book Of The OT also helps us understand this word blameless, and shows that it doesn't refer to absolute moral perfection by pointing out that Job in Job 9:20 says (in a more literal rendering of the Hebrew) "Though I be blameless, He (in Hebrew it and he are the same word) shall prove me guilty." Even Job, who is also described as blameless (in Job 1:1) knew that he was not morally perfect! (see Job 7:20-21, 9:2, 10:6, 14:16-17, 42:6)
  • Even Noah knew it was grace that saved him - thus he responds by offering a sacrifice to God (Gen 8:20)

III. We see the importance of fleeing the coming wrath in God's appointed way

  • No salvation outside of the Ark (and notice that there is no way to steer the ark, it has no rudder -- they are completely at God's mercy!) Did you know there are 3 arks in the Bible and they all have to do with deliverance? Noah's ark, the Ark of the Covenant, and the basket (lit. ark in Hebrew) that Moses’ mother puts him in when she puts him in the Nile River to avoid his execution.
  • Being blessed of God requires that men and women get into the tent of Shem (9:27) Huh? The point to this is that salvation will come through the seed-line of Shem --- Shem is the ancestor of Christ! This points to the fact that salvation comes only through Jesus -- there is only one way!

IV. Salvation Comes Through Death! Noah is as good as dead without God's grace but God in His mercy singles him out to be saved. Later in the ark, again Noah is as good as dead, there is no dry land, "but God remembered Noah" and sent a wind to make the flood recede to save Noah from the jaws of death again. (8:1) We see a new birth of the earth and the human race after death, and that's why Peter (in 1Pet 3:18-22) uses Noah and the ark as an illustration of baptism -- which is a sign of death and new life by God's grace.

V. God's Promise To Never Destroy The Earth By Flood Again

A. He makes a covenant with Noah (Gen 9) but this is not a plan "B" for God. It is not a replacement of the covenant of creation we see in Gen 1:28! Notice the continuity with the original commands (be fruitful and multiply, and subdue the earth) in what God tells Noah in Gen 9:1-3. God's commands have not changed, though He has expanded them (vs. 4.) Notice God's covenant is not just with mankind because God is concerned about more than just human souls! Again we see the Biblical basis for a world and life view. God is concerned with His whole creation and so should we be!

B. God lays down His battle-bow. The rainbow is actually just "bow" in Hebrew and is the word used for a battle-bow (a serious weapon of warfare!) In the flood we see God the Warrior executing vengeance upon His enemies but now He promises to set down His battle bow! This "bow" in the sky is a solemn sign that points to the great promise of Isaiah 54:9-10 (speaking of the new heavens and the new earth.) Check out Hosea 2:18-19 as well! Here we have the images of the covenant with the whole earth and God abolishing the battle bow linked with God's promise to betroth His people to Himself forever. What we see in the rainbow is God's pledge in the gospel.

C. But how do you reconcile Gen 6:5 with Gen 8:21? In the 1st passage, man's evil is given as the reason for the flood, in the 2nd passage (although the NIV obscures this by translating the word "for" as "even though" instead of "because") the reason for not destroying the world again by flood is given as "because every inclination of man's heart is evil from childhood." How do we resolve this seeming contradiction? The key is in the phrase "from childhood" in 8:21. God knows that judgment won't cure the sin problem -- but does man? Gen 6:5-8 shows that God knew how serious the sin problem was but did mankind? We think that punishment and self-contempt can change our hearts but God knows this won't do it -- because the ultimate punishment of death and destruction didn't take care of the sin problem! We see this in the account of Noah's drunkenness, sin is still in his heart even after the flood! Thus we learn that Noah is not the savior, there must be another solution!

Conclusion: The Covenant Of Preservation

A. Manslayers (human or animal) are to be punished (Gen 9:5) God sets down His law to curb sin and specifically the sin of murder. He does this to guard man's life and thus protect the seed-line so that the Messiah can be born. He's so serious about this that He even warns animals about killing mankind!

B. Judgment doesn't cure sin -- there must be another solution! We often fail to believe this, thus we beat ourselves up and pour contempt on ourselves (or our friends and family) to try to guilt ourselves (or others) into reforming. In reality kindness leads to repentance (Rom 2:4)

C. Noah is preserved so that the seed-line of the Messiah will be preserved. God is intent on keeping His promise in Gen 3:15! The OT is the story of the great lengths God has went to keep His promise. Thus when we read the OT our primary focus should be on the promise-keeping (the Bible uses the term "covenantal") God! When we sing "Great is thy faithfulness" we are praising Him for His "hesed" (sometimes translated "loving kindness" sometimes translated "faithfulness") His covenant, promise-keeping love!

D. God is preserving the seed-line until the day when He will again pick up His battle-bow and destroy His Son on the cross! Then the promises of Is 54:9-10 and Hosea 2:18-19 will be secured! The Noah account teaches us about God's wrath against sin, and it teaches us about His gracious character see in delivering Noah and his family from His justly deserved wrath. God is teaching us here about the punishment sin deserves, about His grace and He is pointing us to His ultimate solution to the sin problem which will reconcile His justice and mercy forever!