Sermon
Builders
in the Bible:
Noah
Finishing out the summer… I’ve put together a little
series I’m calling Builders in the Bible. I think I have building on the brain; at the University we’re underway with a
pretty huge building project. The 45,000 sq/ft Health and
Of
course God is the first builder
we find in the Bible, building the heavens and the earth, creating everything
we know. And He built us, through the first humans Adam and Eve. His Word, in
Genesis, says that He created us “in His image.” We understand that to mean a
whole lot more than we merely look a little like God… but that we’re made to be
something like Him.
I think
one of the ways that we are created in His image is that we are created to be creative.
God is certainly creative; He is the creator. And we who are created
in His image are made to create, to build stuff, and to work.
God, of
course, creates perfectly… we, on the other hand, so easily get off track. This
is evidenced in the first episode of building mentioned in the Bible, the
building of the
So, we’ll start with the one we know: Noah.
It turns
out that the evil and wayward ways of God’s prize creation, we humans, didn’t
end with
5 The Lord saw how great man’s wickedness on the earth had become, and that every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil all the time. 6 The Lord was grieved that he had made man on the earth, and his heart was filled with pain. 7 So the Lord said, “I will wipe mankind, whom I have created, from the face of the earth—men and animals, and creatures that move along the ground, and birds of the air—for I am grieved that I have made them.” 8 But Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord. [1]
But Noah
found favor in the eyes of the Lord!
We do all know Noah. Noah and his
We even have Noah jokes. Here’s a cartoon I found. For
another laugh, how about this joke?
The Lord spoke
to Noah and said, ''In six months I am going to make it rain until the whole
world is covered with water and all the evil things are destroyed. But, I want
to save a few good people and two of every living thing on the planet. I am
ordering you to build an ark.'' And, in a flash of lightning, he delivered the
specifications for the ark. ''OK,'' Noah said, trembling with fear and fumbling
with the blueprints, ''I'm your man.''
Six months
passed, the sky began to cloud up, and the rain began to fall in torrents. The
Lord looked down and saw Noah sitting in his yard, weeping, and there was no
ark.
''Noah!''
shouted the Lord, ''Where is My ark?'' A lightning bolt crashed into the ground
right beside Noah.
''Lord, please
forgive me!'' begged Noah. ''I did my best, but there were some big problems.
First, I had to get a building permit for the ark's construction, but Your
plans did not meet their code. So, I had to hire an engineer to redo the plans,
only to get into a long argument with him about whether to include a sprinkler
system.
''My neighbors
objected, claiming that I was violating zoning ordinances by building the ark
in my front yard, so I had to get a variance from the city planning board.
Then, I had a
big problem getting enough wood for the ark, because there was a ban on cutting
trees to save the spotted owl. I tried to convince the environmentalists and
the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service that I needed the wood to save the owls, but
they wouldn't let me catch them, so no owls.
''Next, I
started gathering up the animals but got sued by an animal rights group that
objected to me taking along only two of each kind.
''Just when the
suit got dismissed, the EPA notified me that I couldn't complete the ark
without filling out an environmental impact statement on Your proposed flood.
They didn't take kindly to the idea that they had no jurisdiction over the
Supreme Being. Then, the Corps of Engineers wanted a map of the proposed flood
plan. I sent them a globe!
''Right now,
I'm still trying to resolve a complaint with the Equal Opportunities Commission
over how many minorities I'm supposed to hire. The IRS has seized all my assets
claiming that I am trying to leave the country, and I just got a notice from
the state that I owe some kind of use tax. Really, I don't think I can finish
the ark in less than five years.''
With that, the
sky cleared, the sun began to shine, and a rainbow arched across the sky. Noah
looked up and smiled. ''You mean you are not going to destroy the world?'' he
asked hopefully.
''No,'' said
the Lord. ''The government already has.''
Everyone knows about Noah in one way or another, whether
that is from deep theological study or from a coloring book… and it turns out
that most of us believe the account that we read in our Bibles. An ABC News
poll revealed that 2/3 of Americans believe that the account of Noah and the ark
as presented in the Bible is literally true. That is twice as many than who
believe in ghosts or UFOs (34%) and nearly three times as many who believe in
reincarnation (25%).
I’m one
of those who believe this literal account. Now there might be a few of you who
have your doubts… this whole flood and ark thing may just seem a bit too far
fetched. My guess is that if you do have doubts, you’re likely to keep them to
yourself since sometimes we Christians make it seem like you can’t be in the
club if you don’t buy all this. If you have doubts, relax:
·
I’m not
going to spend anytime trying to prove this today
·
This
isn’t the sort of thing really worth arguing about anyway
When we
face our creator in eternity, I’m confident that we won’t be grilled on our
intricate understanding and unwavering convictions to a literal 6-day creation,
or just how the flood worked and how Noah became a father to us all. You’ll
notice that we don’t have a creedal statement that includes Noah… not even in
the longer ones like the Nicene Creed we read today.
There is
history and science in our Bibles, but this book is neither primarily a history
text nor a science text. The Bible is God’s Word meant to teach us about Him
and our relationship to Him. The history and science in this story is
fascinating, but what is more important is what this story reveals to us about
God and our relationship to Him. So what do we find in lessons from Noah?
We can learn a great deal about God and his relations
with us through this account… the story of Noah, and the animals, and his
family, and the flood and the rain and the ark. So… lessons from the ark, or
ark-ology (to quote Wayne Kraise). Walking right through the passage starting
in chapter 6, we first see that God prizes righteousness. He valued
it in Noah, and God despised it in His creation: humanity.
9 This is the account of Noah.
Noah was a righteous man, blameless among the people of his time, and he walked with God. 10 Noah had three sons: Shem, Ham and Japheth.
11 Now the earth was corrupt in God’s sight and was full of violence. 12 God saw how corrupt the earth had become, for all the people on earth had corrupted their ways. 13 So God said to Noah, “I am going to put an end to all people, for the earth is filled with violence because of them. I am surely going to destroy both them and the earth.[2]
God’s
wrath results from corruption (lack of righteousness), and Noah’s salvation,
along with the salvation of his family, is a result of righteousness.
It is
worth noting that Noah’s righteousness is directly related to his relationship
with God (v.9).
God gives us work
14 So make yourself an ark of cypressc wood
Although
certainly an enormous endeavor, the ark seems to be the easy part.
19 You are to bring into the ark two of all living creatures, male and female, to keep them alive with you. 20 Two of every kind of bird, of every kind of animal and of every kind of creature that moves along the ground will come to you to be kept alive. 21 You are to take every kind of food that is to be eaten and store it away as food for you and for them.” [3]
This
part of the task seems not only extremely difficult… I think it would be
impossible without God’s intervention.
This
brings us to another important point.
God cares for creation. He had no desire to just nuke the whole thing, to blast the planet out of existence like
some scene from Star Wars. It was just the corrupt humans that had to go.
In the
beginning, in the Garden of Eden, God put Adam and Eve in charge. Now God was
charging Noah with the care of God’s creation.
As
illustrated in that little joke earlier, there are those who go way overboard
on prizing the creation… but this passage should remind us that we have
God-given responsibility to be good stewards of His creation.
God desires obedience
22 Noah did everything just as God commanded him. [4]
A number
of times in the extended passage, the text specifies that Noah did precisely
what God commanded. Noah is held up as an example to us of one who is obedient.
Obedient even when the work is difficult (or even impossible). Obedient even
when Noah couldn’t understand the whole story. Obedient even when all the
details of how everything would work out wasn’t apparent.
God is
worthy of praise, and adoration. He’s worthy of sacrifice… and He is worthy of obedience.
I think obedience might very well be the highest
and most meaningful act of worship.
God provides protection
17 For forty days the flood kept
coming on the earth, and as the waters increased they lifted the ark high above
the earth. 18 The waters rose and increased greatly
on the earth, and the ark floated on the surface of the water. 19
They rose greatly on the earth, and all the high mountains under the
entire heavens were covered. 20 The waters rose and
covered the mountains to a depth of more than twenty feet.h i
21 Every living thing that moved on the earth
perished—birds, livestock, wild animals, all the creatures that swarm over the
earth, and all mankind. 22 Everything on dry land
that had the breath of life in its nostrils died. 23 Every
living thing on the face of the earth was wiped out; men and animals and the
creatures that move along the ground and the birds of the air were wiped from
the earth. Only Noah was left, and those with him in the ark.
24 The waters flooded the earth for a hundred and fifty days. [5]
Ask the
average man on the street how long Noah was in the ark, and he’d probably say
40 days and 40 nights… but that was just the rain. The flood lasted for five
months.
Obviously,
God protected by warning Noah ahead of time, and giving him instructions to
build an ark, and filling it with provisions.
But let’s
think about this just for a moment. Just try to imagine the violence that God
unleashed on the earth. Water from above and below, floods that covered the
entire earth to a depth that reached above the mountain tops. It was violence
that wiped out every living thing from the ground. What manmade structure could
withstand this kind of storm?
We’re
not talking about the USS Ronald Regan, a steel hulled, nuclear powered, modern
marvel of engineering. I’m not convinced that even the Regan would have
survived.
The ark
was wonderful, but I can’t imagine that it would have survived apart from God’s
provision of safety. This is a story that illustrates God’s miraculous power
and protection.
God deserves worship
15 Then God said to Noah, 16 “Come out of the ark, you and your wife and your sons and their wives. 17 Bring out every kind of living creature that is with you—the birds, the animals, and all the creatures that move along the ground—so they can multiply on the earth and be fruitful and increase in number upon it.”
18 So Noah came out, together with his sons and his wife and his sons’ wives. 19 All the animals and all the creatures that move along the ground and all the birds—everything that moves on the earth—came out of the ark, one kind after another.
20 Then Noah built an altar to the Lord and, taking some of all the clean animals and clean birds, he sacrificed burnt offerings on it.[6]
Noah was
an example to us in obedience; here Noah is an example to us in worship. The
first recorded act of Noah once delivered from the ark, and everything
associated with the ark, was an act of worship. Noah couldn’t escape the plain
fact that God was gracious to Noah and his family. God’s provision of salvation
demanded worship. So Noah, in the presence of his family, offered worship to
God.
God keeps his promises
Noah’s
worship was met with God’s promise.
21 The Lord smelled the pleasing aroma and said in his heart: “Never again will I curse the ground because of man, even thoughj every inclination of his heart is evil from childhood. And never again will I destroy all living creatures, as I have done.
22 “As
long as the earth endures, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat,
summer and winter, day and night will never cease.” [7]
God
promised to never do this again, and later in chapter 9 we see that God gives
the rainbow as a symbol of His mercy.
God promised
Noah that he and his family would be saved and proved Himself to be faithful.
Now God makes this promise to Noah and all humankind.
So What?
We can
take away each of these points with us; they all apply to our lives and work.
Let’s
focus for a moment again on this one simple point: God gives us work.
In this
story we can imagine all sorts of spectacular ways in which He could have
destroyed humanity yet spared Noah and a remnant of all the animals. But God
chose to do it all in a way that included some work for Noah. And that is
usually the way it goes with us too. So we too should take seriously the work
God gives us.
We can think of work in a variety of spheres.
We
probably first think of our work with God, or God’s work, in terms of ministry
stuff. The kinds of things we do in or associated with church. That is a good
place to start. It is good to be reminded that God normally does His work with
and through His people. God delights in putting His church, the Body of Christ,
to work.
If you’re
a regular part of this congregation, there’s something for you to do around
here. (Hospitality, Usher, Singers, Alpha, …)
But all of our work can be, really ought to be, for
the glory of God. It is worth noting that God called Noah to what we might
classify as secular work. God didn’t
call Noah to be a prophet, priest, or preacher; God called Noah to be a
shipbuilder, and zoologist.
We can take note also of the prominence of Noah’s
family. God will likely not call any of us to build Him an ark… but for many of
us He calls us to build a family.
And finally, we should be mindful of the work of our
own walk with God. The Bible, in describing Noah, says that he walked with God.
Can that be said of us? I’m afraid that to be honest I would have to say that I
stumble around following God.
But we keep at it, taking our steps toward God
and the life He calls us to lead. We take courage from His Word, as recorded in
James, that as we draw near to God, He draws near to us.
In all
of this work we can apply what we learned from Noah, that:
·
God is
looking for righteousness and obedience
·
It is
all really impossible work without His guidance and provision
We, like
Noah, owe God our best work. And once we have done our best, we can rest in
God’s faithfulness and provision. In everything we take our steps with Him and
toward Him, and we look to God to provide.
Let’s seal these lessons in prayer together this
morning.