Noah and the Flood

1. Genesis 6:1-9:17 Noah and the Flood

2. Key Points In the flood, God destroyed sinful people. Jesus destroyed sin, once and for all through his death and resurrection for all people. God used water in a flood to drown sinful humankind. In Baptism, God uses water to drown my sin, giving me eternal life through Jesus

3. Introduction In December 2004 a tsunami killed hundreds of thousands of people in Southeast Asia. In August 2005 Hurricane Katrina left New Orleans underwater. How would these disasters compare to the universal flood that God sent in Noah’s day?

4. How would you respond? A friend says, “I just don’t believe that Noah could have built that ark with the primitive technology they had then. And how could a flood cover the entire earth?”

5. Genesis 6:1-4 Who are the “sons of God” and “daughters of men”? What’s the big deal about them marrying? 1 When men began to increase in number on the earth and daughters were born to them, 2 the sons of God saw that the daughters of men were beautiful, and they married any of them they chose. 3 Then the LORD said, "My Spirit will not contend with man forever, for he is mortal; his days will be a hundred and twenty years."  4 The Nephilim were on the earth in those days—and also afterward—when the sons of God went to the daughters of men and had children by them. They were the heroes of old, men of renown.

6. Genesis 6:5-6 Why is God not happy with the people living on the earth? Look at the clues given in verses 1-6 again to see how the people before the flood lost sight of their God given purpose and goals. 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. Genesis 6:1-6 1 When men began to increase in number on the earth and daughters were born to them, 2 the sons of God saw that the daughters of men were beautiful, and they married any of them they chose. 3 Then the LORD said, "My Spirit will not contend with man forever, for he is mortal; his days will be a hundred and twenty years."  4 The Nephilim were on the earth in those days—and also afterward—when the sons of God went to the daughters of men and had children by them. They were the heroes of old, men of renown.  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.

8. Matthew 24:37-39 What were faithless people doing when the flood came? What similarities are there with our current world? 37As it was in the days of Noah, so it will be at the coming of the Son of Man. 38For in the days before the flood, people were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, up to the day Noah entered the ark; 39and they knew nothing about what would happen until the flood came and took them all away. That is how it will be at the coming of the Son of Man.

9. Genesis 6:7-8 What does it mean that Noah “found favor in the eyes of the LORD?” 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.

10. Scripture interprets Scripture Hebrews 11:7 By faith Noah, when warned about things not yet seen, in holy fear built an ark to save his family. By his faith he condemned the world and became heir of the righteousness that comes by faith.

11. Genesis 6:8-9 and 7:1 What motivated God to save Noah? Why again was he called righteous?

12. Genesis 6:11-17  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. 14 So make yourself an ark of cypress [c] wood; make rooms in it and coat it with pitch inside and out. 15 This is how you are to build it: The ark is to be 450 feet long, 75 feet wide and 45 feet high. [d] 16 Make a roof for it and finish [e] the ark to within 18 inches [f] of the top. Put a door in the side of the ark and make lower, middle and upper decks. 17 I am going to bring floodwaters on the earth to destroy all life under the heavens, every creature that has the breath of life in it. Everything on earth will perish.

13. Genesis 6:18-22 18 But I will establish my covenant with you, and you will enter the ark—you and your sons and your wife and your sons' wives with you. 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."  22 Noah did everything just as God commanded him.

15. How could all the animals fit in the ark? Length 450 Feet (~150 Meters) Width  75 Feet (~25 Meters) Height 45 Feet (~15 Meters) Volume  1,396,000 Cubic Feet Gross Tonnage       13,960 Tons Capacity 522 Railroad stock cars Capacity     125,280 Sheep-sized animals Genus Couple Thousand Less at the time of the flood For example, 2 dogs contain variations for all other dogs today Animals      16,000 Individual animals necessary Cubit around 18-21 inches (150x25x15 cubits)

16. Genesis 7:1-5 1 The LORD then said to Noah, "Go into the ark, you and your whole family, because I have found you righteous in this generation. 2 Take with you seven [g] of every kind of clean animal, a male and its mate, and two of every kind of unclean animal, a male and its mate, 3 and also seven of every kind of bird, male and female, to keep their various kinds alive throughout the earth. 4 Seven days from now I will send rain on the earth for forty days and forty nights, and I will wipe from the face of the earth every living creature I have made."  5 And Noah did all that the LORD commanded him.

17. Genesis 7:1-5 How does God plan for the future? How does God plan for the immediate needs of Noah and his family?

18. Genesis 7:6-10 6 Noah was six hundred years old when the floodwaters came on the earth. 7 And Noah and his sons and his wife and his sons' wives entered the ark to escape the waters of the flood. 8 Pairs of clean and unclean animals, of birds and of all creatures that move along the ground, 9 male and female, came to Noah and entered the ark, as God had commanded Noah. 10 And after the seven days the floodwaters came on the earth. Where is God’s grace found here?

19. Genesis 7:11-16 11 In the six hundredth year of Noah's life, on the seventeenth day of the second month—on that day all the springs of the great deep burst forth, and the floodgates of the heavens were opened. 12 And rain fell on the earth forty days and forty nights.  13 On that very day Noah and his sons, Shem, Ham and Japheth, together with his wife and the wives of his three sons, entered the ark. 14 They had with them every wild animal according to its kind, all livestock according to their kinds, every creature that moves along the ground according to its kind and every bird according to its kind, everything with wings. 15 Pairs of all creatures that have the breath of life in them came to Noah and entered the ark. 16 The animals going in were male and female of every living thing, as God had commanded Noah. Then the LORD shut him in. Do you see God’s grace again?

20. 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

21. Scan Genesis 8 What does it mean – God remembered Noah? What did the dove coming back with the olive branch prove?

22. Genesis 8:20-22  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. 21 The LORD smelled the pleasing aroma and said in his heart: "Never again will I curse the ground because of man, even though [j] 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.“ How does this promise of God impact your view of global warming?

23. Scan Genesis 9 Why did God send a rainbow? In what ways does God provide proof of his love and forgiveness for us today?

24. 1 Peter 3:18-21 18For Christ died for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God. He was put to death in the body but made alive by the Spirit, 19through whom also he went and preached to the spirits in prison 20who disobeyed long ago when God waited patiently in the days of Noah while the ark was being built. In it only a few people, eight in all, were saved through water, 21and this water symbolizes baptism that now saves you also—not the removal of dirt from the body but the pledge of a good conscience toward God. It saves you by the resurrection of Jesus Christ,

25. Power of Baptism Third: How can water do such great things?It is certainly not the water that does such things, but God's Word which is in and with the water, and faith which trusts this Word used with the water. For without God's Word the water is just plain water and not baptism. But with this Word it is baptism, that is, a gracious water of life and a washing of rebirth by the Holy Spirit.Where is this written?St. Paul says in Titus, chapter 3, "God saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us generously through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that, having been justified by his grace, we might become heirs having the hope of eternal life. This is a trustworthy saying.

26. Respond “It seems so cruel that God would destroy all those people and animals in the flood. How could he choose to save only eight people and still be a good and gracious God”

27. God Calls Abram Genesis 12:1-9 Next week