J.W.Weeda

     This Bible study/sermon dear brothers and sisters in the Lord Jesus Christ are about Noah and the worldwide flood.  First we want to know for ourselves who was Noah?  What kind of person was Noah? Why was the Lord with Noah? But Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord. Why was this? Was he better than other people in his time when he lived on earth? Before we answer this questions let’s see what kind of situation the earth was when Noah lived.  We open our Bibles in Genesis 6 verses 5 and 6 were we read: “And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And it repented the Lord that He had made man on the earth, and it grieved Him at His heart.” What do we read? From the fall of man, the first man, we see descendants from Adam, and they are sinners and their wickedness became great in the earth. We see thus that every thoughts of man’s heart were evil and this continued the whole time. The earth was filled with crimes. It was so corrupt before God. Because of evil thoughts of man’s heart, therefore God was grieved at His heart.  In this situation God changed His mind toward man whom He had made. He changed His attitude towards man because man has changed his attitude toward Him. The attitude of man became evil, wicked and so corrupt that God decide to intervene in a catastrophic judgment. In verse 7 of Genesis 6 we read the following: “And the Lord said, I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth; both man, and beast, and the creeping thing, and the fowls of the air; for it repented me that I have made them” So man, beast, creeping things, fowls of the air had to be destroyed. We don’t read about fish. How God would destroy the world with everything thereupon?  He would destroy it with a flood, a worldwide flood that would come all over the earth and every man, beast and creeping thing and fowl shall be destroyed by it.  But we see in verse 8 the following verse: “But Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord. Who was Noah? Noah was the tenth generation after Adam. He was a descendant of Adam. Methuselah was his grandfather and Lamech his father. And this Noah found grace. So Noah was a just man. What does that mean? He was justified or righteousness. Of his own? Was he better than the other people around him? No he was a sinner too! What differed him with other people in his time was that he was a preacher of righteousness. We can read this in II Peter 2:5: “And spared not the old world, but saved Noah the eigth person, a preacher of righteousness, bringing in the flood upon the world of the ungodly” So Noah was a preacher of righteousness, that’s why he found grace in God’s eyes. Noah was perfect in Gods eyes and walked with God.  In Genesis 6:9 we find the following verse: “These are the generations of Noah: Noah was a just man and perfect in his generations, and Noah walked with God”  Like Enoch Noah pleased God . We know from the Scriptures that he preached 100 years of the righteousness of God to the people without result because no person repented in that time as far as we know. It was by faith! We read in Hebrews 11:7: “By faith Noah being warned of God of things not seen as yet, moved with fear, prepared an ark to the saving of his house; by the which he condemned the world, and became heir of the righteousness which is by faith.” Righteousness which is by faith. From Romans 4:5 we can learn: “But to him that worketh not, but believeth on Him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness ” Only believing in God , by trusting God can man be justified and his faith is counted for righteousness. Noah believed in God and told about Him to people he met everywhere he went and that they too could also believe in the same God Who had made the whole world in 6 days and everything what is in it. “The earth what God had made was so corrupt, for all flesh had corrupted his way upon the earth” Genesis 6:12. It was full of sin. And listen now what God said unto Noah. In verse 13 of the same chapter we read: ”And God said unto Noah, The end of all flesh is come before me; for the earth is filled with  violence through them;  and, behold, I will destroy them with the earth”  All flesh here in this verse means all animals, men and any creature other than man. It would be a world-destroying cataclysm.  We read in II Peter 3:6 the following verse: “Whereby the world that then was, being overflowed with water, perished”.  After this God asked Noah to build an Ark. In verse 14 we read: “Make thee an ark of gopher wood; rooms shalt thou make in the ark, and shalt pitch it within and without with pitch”  So Noah had to build an ark, a huge structure in which Noah and his whole family and all other occupants would be saved from the destruction of the flood worldwide. 

    Here in the Netherlands  a Dutch man , Johan Huibers, a believer in Christ,  made a replica of the Ark of the Bible. He made the full sized replica of the Ark of the Bible. A couple of months my wife Anneke and I were there to visit it. He lays in a harbor in Dordrecht (South west of the Netherlands) If you see this Replica it’s really gigantic! You have really the impression how the original Ark was in the time of Noah.  This man Johan builds this replica with others in 3 or 4 years. This replica is famous over the whole world! His purpose is to evangelize to people and bring people in contact with the Bible, Gods Word.  The wood to build this replica, because most of the structure is from wood, came from Scandinavian countries like Sweden.

       The ark in Dordrecht, The Netherlands

     Noah had to build that Ark. It had to be made with gopher wood. What is gopher wood? We do not exactly know what is gopher wood. What we know is that cypress wood was a lot used in Biblical times and also found in the area where the ark had landed after the worldwide flood.  It must be very hard wood and waterproof because of the flood! And then God gave instructions about how big this Ark would be. In verse 15 of Genesis 6 we read: ”And this is the fashion which thou shalt make it of: The length  of the Ark shall be three hundred cubits, the breath of it fifty cubits, and the height of it thirty cubits”  To be specific it was 438 feet long, 72,9 feet wide and 43,8 feet high. The Ark had three stores and each store was ten cubits high and all the decks were divided in rooms for all the animals that would be in the Ark.  This wood of the Ark must be impregnated with pitch. A covering!  The Ark had also a window, an opening for daylight. And also a door in the side of it, only one door!  If you compare this with Christ, the Ark is a type of Christ! 

We read in John 10:9 the Lord Jesus Christ said there: “I am the door; by me if any man enter in, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out, and find pasture” 

In verse 17 of the same chapter we read: “And , behold, I, even I, do bring a flood of waters upon the earth, to destroy all flesh, wherein is the breath of life, from under heaven; and everything that is in the earth shall die”  This flood would be mighty because we read the waters will be upon the earth. This flood is not to compare with other local floods that later would follow.  When God had said this to Noah He told him in verse 18: “But with thee will I establish my covenant; and thou shalt come into the ark, thou, and thy sons, and thy wife and thy sons wives with thee” Because Noah believed in God now God established a covenant with Noah and his seed (his sons). They would enter in the ark when the worldwide flood would begin.  The rest of people would not enter in the ark! God would destroy all of them in the flood! Not only Noah and his family did god into the ark, also beasts. We read in the verses 19 and 20 of Genesis 6:“And of every living thing of all flesh, two of every sort shalt thou bring into the ark, to keep them alive with thee; they shall be male and female. Of fowls after their kind, and of cattle after their kind, of every creeping thing of the earth after his kind; two of every sort shall come unto thee, to keep them alive”  All the beasts, small animals, large animals like elephants, dinosaurs, giraffes, also creeping animals, insects, fowls were going into the ark. The big ones were maybe young beasts. How did they come into the ark? The Lord told Noah that the animals would come unto the ark so Noah had not to take care of that and had not to call them all. God would send all the animals to the ark. In verse 22 of the same chapter we read: “Thus did Noah; according to all that God commanded him, so did he”Noah was a man of strong belief! He obeyed God complete! The tasks God gave him were difficult and not so nice to do but Noah never questioned it or complained to God.  God had a good fellowship with Noah because of his simple belief in Him. Noah was righteous in God’s eyes. We read in Genesis 7:1: “And the Lord said unto Noah, Come thou and all thy house into the ark; for thee have I seen righteous before Me in this generation” So Noah build the ark in one hundred years. God gave him the instructions how to made this. After this century God in Genesis 7:1 spoke again to Noah. God saved Noah and his house and all the animals that He brought into the ark. So Noah and his family went into the ark and all the animals and we read in Genesis 7:2-3 about the animals and later in the chapter how they came to Noah into the ark.  One week left when the flood should come. Than the flood came and the waters prevailed and increased greatly upon the earth; and the ark went upon the face of the waters. Genesis 7:18. All the flesh died  that moved on the earth, both the fowl, cattle and beasts and every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth and every man (verse 21). 40 days was the flood.  150 days the waters prevailed upon the earth. After that God remembered Noah and his family and all the beasts with him in the ark and He made a wind to pass over the earth and the waters as-swaged. Genesis 8:1. At last it was one year when everything on earth was dry. The ark rested upon the mountains of Ararat (In the Middle East). God blessed Noah and his sons and said unto them: “Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth.” Genesis 9:1  God told more to Noah and in verse 6 of the same chapter we read: ”Whoso sheddeth man’s blood, by man shall his blood be shed: for in the image of God made He man”  In verse 11 we read: “And I will establish my covenant with you; neither shall all flesh be cut off any more by the waters of a flood; neither shall there anymore be a flood to destroy the earth.” God gave His token for this: the bow in the cloud” verse 13. This is the rainbow!  Finally the ark is a type of Jesus Christ. In Him we have life, eternal life and we are save in Him. God saved us through His Son Jesus Christ. He died for our sins on the cross on Calvary, was buried and rose on the third day according to the Scriptures I Corinthians 15:3,4. Colossians 3:3 tells us: ”For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God”  Again we are saved in Christ forever and  He shall save us from the wrath . In I Thessalonians 1:10 we read “And to wait for His Son from heaven, whom He raised from the dead, even Jesus, which delivered us from the wrath to come”  Before the tribulation period of 7 awful years on earth, we  as believers in Christ shall be caught up into heaven. We end this study with the famous verses of I Thessalonians 4:13-18: “But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that ye sorrow not, even as others which have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him. For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep. For the Lord Himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first. Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air; and so shall we ever be with the Lord.” Till that day when the Lord will come for us (His secret coming) we are God’s ambassadors and we have to bring the good News of God’s grace to people II Corinthians 5:19-21