The Ark in the flood

Genesis 6:11 to 7: 16

Many people know of the Flood, the Ark is a popular toy, but how did it happen and what are the spiritual lessons? Disasters capture the public imagination, blockbuster films are made like Titanic, Armageddon etc. There have been terrible tragedies all through history. 14 million died in a famine in China. There has been Pompeii, Krakatoa etc. we live in a world where there has been disasters. However, nothing compares to this. What is described in Genesis 6 to 9 is the greatest natural disaster in history.
1. WHY DID THE FLOOD COME? – verse 13
God declared something. He was horrified at what the world had become. God was going to cleanse the world, this is the language of a surgeon cleansing diseased flesh.
2. WHAT WAS THE ARK LIKE? - verse 14
It was just an enormous container. The word Ark is used twice, here and of the container Moses was put in. It was not a boat that needed power or that could be steered.
a) There is a patent design given – verse 15. It was long and narrow and stable. Studies show that it was incredibly stable and was difficult to capsize, it had 100,000 square feet of floor space. It was not until 1868 that a boat as big as this was built – the Great Eastern.
b) There is a promise given – verse 17. A solemn promise. Noah would be a new beginning, a second Adam.
c) There is a precise passenger’s roster – verse 19. It could hold 125,000 animals the size of a sheep. Large animals could be young or immature ones. People laugh at this, how could dinosaurs fit in. There are 18,000 species today, say 36,000 then allowing for extinctions. That is 72,000 creatures. Sheep are a good median size. Different breeds are often the results of intense inbreeding, like crossing dogs.
d) How could they all get on together on board? How do you catch wild animals? Animals migrate and sense danger. God can make animals obey his will, we do not know how. But animals do act in a particular way – like migration.
e) There is an explicit cargo list – verse 21 , eight people could have fed and watered 16,000 creatures. Many animals bodies shut down in winter, they hibernate due to fear sir get reduce the intake of food and water. Waste products could have accumulated beneath the animals. There are answers to how Noah dealt with the animals.
3. WHO WENT INTO THE ARK? – see Chapter 7.
Noah listened to God and obeyed him.
a) All who believed God. Christians are those who listen to God and obey him. Romans 10:17. Noah is a wonderful example of a believer. He trusted the invisible God more than what he saw, many people do not believe what God has said about the past and the future believe. People do not come to God for safety. Noah had the faith to swim against the stream. Our society is anti-Christian, it is against the Christian faith, it takes strength to swim against the tide.
b) Eight of Noah’s family close family – the number of the redeemed is going to be immeasurable, but only a minority at any one time. Christians may be a minority but they belong to the greatest kingdom on Earth.
4. HOW GREAT WAS THE FLOOD?
7: 11-12. It was universal, some say it was localised to the middle east. There are many ancient flood stories. Geologically, there is much evidence.
a) There was a release of the underground water. Possibly volcanic eruptions released water. The ocean floors moved up.
b) The other source of the water was ‘the windows of heaven’, it rained for 40 days and 40 nights continuously. The volcanic eruptions helped to cause this.
c) Where is the water now? In Psalm 104:4 we have a possible answer. The earth’s surface changed. If it were level, the world would be covered by water to a depth of 1.7 miles.
d) What is the evidence? On the tops of Everest are fossil layers. Mountains, landscape, fossil graveyards, coal seams, there is abundant global geological evidence for it. The Grand Canyon could have been formed in the floods. Animals entombed in ice, coal layers formed by compressed plants swept away by the flood. There are reasoned scientific evidences that confirm the Genesis account, that it is a sober account. Jesus and the Apostles testify to their belief in it.
5. HOW DOES THE BIBLE USE THIS EVENT TO TEACH?
Was it an extraordinary extravaganza of terror? No, we need to learn lessons from the man and the flood.
a) The Ark in the flood is a preview of the ultimate judgement when God sends Jesus as judge at the end of human history. Any humanitarian disaster should make us think one day we will all be judged. People tend to forget death is inevitable – Hebrews 9:27, this world decays – 2 Peter 3:7; judgement is coming to all – 2 Corinthians 5:10 and Matthew 25:3l-3, Acts l7:30. We like to see people receive justice and for people to be judged. The flood tells us God will act a judge on all people who have lived in the world. On the Titanic people thought they were on an unsinkable ship, they lived happy, carefree lives. The designers did not put enough life boats on and an iceberg did for them. Do we have a lifeboat.
b) The Ark in the flood is a figure of Christ. 1 Peter 3:20 speaks of Christ like an ark. Christ provides for our salvation. He is the only safety in judgement. We are secure in Him. We must come before it’s too late. We should be safe in Christ, our anchor will hold in the storms of life, in the moment of death and in the day of judgement. The only was we can be sure of getting to Heaven is to cling to the Lord Jesus, to enter his safe ark. God must deal with sin, he did it during the flood, he will do it on the day of judgement. Noah was safe in the ark. We can be safe in the Lord Jesus.