The theme that flows through Genesis 6 is that Noah was obedient to God in all he was and did. This devotional reading looks at Noah getting the notification of the impending flood and his response to God’s commands.
Nuggets
- God had made up His mind that He would punish the wicked by destroying everything that breathes – and nothing was going to change His mind.
- God passed judgment on the wicked, but He rewarded Noah because of his faithfulness and obedience.
- Noah was completely devoted to being obedient to God.
- God wanted enough provisions on board to feed His people, knowing it would just be the eight in Noah’s family.
- Noah was completely devoted to being obedient to God.
Up to this point, Noah probably had a normal life. Sure he probably had highs and lows.
But now, Noah was going to get hit with a major life change. How was he going to react when the going got tough?
Let's Put It into Context
To read devotions in the Creating Everything theme, click the button below.
Devotions in the Creation’s Do-Over series
Impending Flood
“Look! I am about to cover the earth with a flood that will destroy every living thing that breathes. Everything on earth will die” (Gen. 6: 17 NLT)
God had made up His mind that He would punish the wicked by destroying everything that breathes – and nothing was going to change His mind.
God shared His plans for destroying the earth with the one that He was closest to – Noah. The world was wicked, and every living thing would be destroyed.
True, Noah already knew he and his family were going to be saved because he already had the dimensions of the ark. He knew he was safe.
But I bet Noah’s heart still hurt. All those cousins, maybe even some brothers and sisters – they would be gone.
It also is amazing that Noah didn’t question what rain was. Some believe that it hadn’t rained yet. “… For the Lord God had not yet sent rain to water the earth…” (Gen. 2: 5 NLT).
It is believed that God had encased the earth in a canopy. The resulting greenhouse effect would have provided dew.
Maybe. Who knows? That is one for the UNR book – understanding not required.
Browne thought it was the perfect image to show the wicked where they were in their spiritual walk. They were perishing in the waves and depths of their sin.
Resource
Too many people think they are going to escape the consequences of their actions. Unfortunately for them, they think it is only their physical actions that will be judged – if any judgment at all is going to take place.
News flash. Judgment for their spiritual condition is coming.
God will hold off punishment for sin only for so long.
Just as the wicked did not escape the flood waters, they did not escape the consequences of their sins. They were cut off from God and spiritually dead.
They only way they would have escaped was to join Noah in his faith. Only that would secure a ticket on the ark.
God sent the flood because of the spiritual condition of the people. Wicked is a term that is used interchangeably with sinner.
It seemed like it was a huge ark for eight people. That doesn’t seem like many for animal care.
But then, Noah wasn’t like Abraham and tried to bargain for the salvation of those around him. He accepted their fate as punishment for their lifestyle of sin.
Noah didn’t talk back — at least not what is recorded. He built.
Fuller made a great observation. Instead of building the ark, why didn’t God just take Noah as He did Enoch?
Instead, Noah was singled out from everyone else. Fuller told us why. He wrote,
“If he had been destroyed with the world, God could have taken him to Himself, and all would have been well with him; but then there had been no public expression of what he loved, as well as of what he hated.”
Resource
Gray added a nice little tidbit. The warning didn’t come directly to the others. It was only given to Noah.
Resource
True, the wicked may have not known what a flood or rain was any more than Noah did. But Noah took the warning as an absolute truth. They didn’t when Noah told them.
No one else bought a ticket for the ark.
Is that the same as those who won’t believe Jesus is God’s Son because He didn’t physically come to them personally? Not everyone believed when He did.
God’s Covenant with Noah
“But I will confirm my covenant with you. So enter the boat — you and your wife and your sons and their wives” (Gen. 6: 18)
God passed judgment on the wicked, but He rewarded Noah because of his faithfulness and obedience.
We talked about this already. “But Noah found favor with the Lord. This is the account of Noah and his family. Noah was a righteous man, the only blameless person living on earth at the time, and he walked in close fellowship with God” (Gen. 6: 8-9 NLT).
We also talked about the fact that Noah was the only righteous man God found. That means the triplets didn’t get the same classification.
But they – and their wives and mother – were given an ark ride because of the righteousness of Noah. This was part of Noah’s reward here on earth.
No, I don’t think it means that we can grab onto someone’s coat tails for salvation. That has to be a personal confession.
But for this time, they were safe.
I like how Browne described it. He wrote,
“The eight souls saved from the deluge are types of that little flock which rides safely and triumphantly, though the floods lift up their waves and the billows break over them. And their safety is assured to them, because they are in Christ.”
Resource
Since we know the rest of the story, we know that Shem and Japheth were obedient to God. We know Ham wasn’t.
But here, they were described as being in Christ.
In the midst of judgment, God showed Noah and his family mercy. God is in the business of being merciful.
God made a covenant with Noah because he was the one righteous man on earth. As part of that covenant, He gave Noah a blessing.
Fuller explained what God was telling Noah. He wrote, “To say, ‘With thee will I establish My covenant,’ was saying in effect, ‘I will not treat with thy ungodly posterity: whatever [favor] I show them, it shall be for thy sake.”
Resource
Yes, God loves everyone unconditionally, but love isn’t enough. We have to be obedient in order to be blessed. He will bless us for His sake, not ours.
Animal Travelers
“Bring a pair of every kind of animal — a male and a female — into the boat with you to keep them alive during the flood. Pairs of every kind of bird, and every kind of animal, and every kind of small animal that scurries along the ground, will come to you to be kept alive” (Gen. 6: 19-20 NLT)
God made provision for the animals.
We’re going to talk about the animals two more times, so I am going to focus just on what it says here.
Verse 19 talks about a pair – singular – where verse 20 talks about pairs – plural. That gets addressed later when Noah gets more specific instruction.
Let’s just say that God made sure every animal species would be represented on the ark, and every animals species would have the means by which to repopulate the world. He didn’t want them to come off the ark and not be able to go forth and multiply because there were two males or two females.
That would have killed the species.
The animals came to Noah. He didn’t have to round them up.
That was probably a good thing. He didn’t have to take time out of building the ark to be animal wrangler.
Food for the Ark Occupants
“And be sure to take on board enough food for your family and for all the animals” (Gen. 6: 21 NLT)
God wanted enough provisions on board to feed His people, knowing it would just be the eight in Noah’s family.
Verse 21 stopped me. We are so quick to say that Noah was witnessing during the 120 years that it took to build the ark.
That is our marching orders. Those orders will not change until Jesus returns.
- “And then he told them, ‘Go into all the world and preach the Good News to everyone’” (Mk. 16: 15 NLT).
- “Therefore, go and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Teach these new disciples to obey all the commands I have given you. And be sure of this: I am with you always, even to the end of the age” (Mt. 28: 19-20 NLT).
But even before the first board was sawed for the ark, God didn’t tell Noah to prepare for anyone else but his family.
God was done with the wicked, even before the rain came down and the floods came up – even before one nail was cast into the ark.
This makes it obvious. God will shut off our opportunity for salvation.
He had already condemned the rest of the population. He was no longer drawing near to them.
But still, as Noah was building the ark, he was preaching. If the wicked people weren’t his audience, who was?
Remember, we said the triplets weren’t born when Noah started building the ark. Noah had to raise them in the way of the Lord.
The triplets were his audience.
So, I would say Burns was wrong. Noah was a successful preacher. His three sons and their wives got tickets on the ark. Shem, in fact, was the ancestor of Jesus.
Resource
Noah’s Total Obedience
“Noah did this; he did all that God commanded him” (Gen. 6: 22 ESV)
Noah was completely devoted to being obedient to God.
Look at Noah. God knew what was coming when Noah didn’t. Noah probably had no clue as to what a flood was — because rain was a new concept. He may not have any idea what a boat was.
Ooo, baby. We’re the circumstances sounding dire or what?!?
Didn’t matter what Noah did or didn’t know. Didn’t matter how things looked. One day, God said to him. “Height, width, and depth. Do it.”
Noah’s response was, “Good plan.”
Noah could have started strong but fail to persevere. With all the mocking going on alongside the strenuous labor, he could have easily thrown up his hands and quit.
Noah didn’t.
God wanted to save him, but Noah still had a choice. He could have said, “Bad plan.”
But then Noah would have been deep sea diving without the wet suit – just like everyone else.
The whole purpose of the ark was to save lives. That is the business God is in — salvation. He sent His Son to die on a cross so that we could accept the gift of salvation.
God always knows what is needed to save His creation — even if we don’t know or are too independent to follow His guidance.
God will always provide for His saints. We just have to submit and obey — even when it is beyond our understanding.
God already has our lives planned out before we are born. We still have the choice to do what He says or not, but He — as all-knowing God — already has those choices figured into the plan.
So, when God says something, do we listen? Usually not.
We decide we know what is best. We get scared about what God asks us to do. We tell ourselves He couldn’t possibly know what is best because He doesn’t know how we feel.
We’re good at snow jobs, aren’t we?
For some of us, it boils down to we don’t want anyone else making the decisions for us. We know how to get to where we are wanting to go.
The control must remain in our hands at all times. We know what is best for us.
The kicker is that God does know what is best for us. Remember, He has that plan for us.
The things God is going to call us to are going to be hard. Persecution hard. Mockingly hard. We could lose lots.
We have to obedient until the end. “But the one who endures to the end will be saved” (Mt. 24: 13 NLT).
Noah taught us what to do.
- Be righteous.
- Be ready when God calls.
- Don’t talk back.
- Obey the first time.
- Follow God’s directions to the letter.
- Put in the work to get it done.
- When the going gets tough — for whatever reason — keep on going.
- Praise God at the beginning, during, and at the end.
Ooo, baby. When God calls us to something we don’t like, obey. When God’s work takes longer than we think we signed up for, obey.
God wants the ending to be a happy one. And if we do follow His specific instructions, we are much happier than if we go off on our own.
Hasn’t that been proven that in the past?
Making the Connections #1
Have you ever been so fed up with the world that you wished a flood would engulf them? Or have you prayed for fire and brimstone to destroy them as it did Sodom and Gomorrah?
We want an Act of God to take out everyone who is making our lives miserable in some way.
Parker expanded on that. He wrote,
“The idea may be put roughly thus: Bring together all prisoners, all idlers, drunkards, thieves, liars, and every known form of criminal; take them out into the middle of the Atlantic and sink them there, and at once society will be regenerated, and paradise will be regained.”
Resource
Well, sorry to say, that is probably a human way to think. But it doesn’t work that way.
But Parker was talking about eliminating all wicked people again, not just the ones we think are harassing us. He estimated that within half a century, the wicked would be back on this earth.
I don’t think it even took that long. It was somewhere in the 350 years that Noah lived after the flood.
We do know that Ham – aka the father of Canaan – brought wickedness back into the world. His sin was great enough that Noah cursed him in his Last Will and Testament blessing.
“Then he cursed Canaan, the son of Ham: ‘May Canaan be cursed! May he be the lowest of servants to his relatives.’ Then Noah said, ‘May the Lord, the God of Shem, be blessed, and may Canaan be his servant! May God expand the territory of Japheth!
May Japheth share the prosperity of Shem, and may Canaan be his servant.” (Gen. 9: 25-27 NLT).
Making the Connections #2
Parker made a great point. He wrote, “Water cannot drown sin. Fire cannot burn out sin. Prisons cannot cure theft and cruelty. We must go deeper.”
Resource
It isn’t the water itself any more than it is the fire that destroys the I’m-going-to-get-you attitude of ungodliness.
Baptism does not save us from our sins. It shows our obedience but doesn’t take away our sins.
In other words, we can’t think that turning over a new leaf and doing good deeds will gain us salvation.
Fire has no effect on sim. That is logical.
Making the Connections #3
Yes, God has absolute control over the natural world.
- He made it.
- He sent the ten plagues, all using the natural world as the foundation. He controlled rivers, animals, weather, and even death.
- He caused famine, sometimes by holding off the rain.
- He calmed the storms.
I like the first two purposes Gilfillan listed. He wrote,
- “It [the flood] swept away an effete and evil generation, which had become of no use, except to commit sin and thus deprave and weaken the general stock of humanity.
- “The flood was calculated to overawe mankind, and to suggest the idea that other such interpositions might be expected when they were required.”
Resource
God didn’t destroy the earth and all living things without a purpose. That purpose was to further His kingdom of peace.
Making the Connections #4
God created us. He has retained control of us.
Yes, we make our own decisions — and are punished for decisions that make us disobedient to God.
God isn’t going to make His command unintelligible. He isn’t going to ask us to do something we can’t.
Oh, we may think we can’t, but how do we grow if we keep doing the easy stuff?
How Do We Apply This?
- Accept Jesus as our Savior while we have the opportunity.
- Obey God and do His work.
- Keep working until God says we are done.
- Keep working when the going gets tough.
- Obey God and spread His message through our marching orders.
- Witness to others by both what we say and do.
- Pray for faith like Noah’s.
- Don’t argue with God, just believe.
- Show God our reverent fear.
- Be obedient to gain the blessings.
- Keep our courage.
- Accept that our success is in our obedience, not the outcome.
- Obey God because of love, not fear.
- Obey all, not just some, of God’s commands.
Resources
Father God. Thank You for showing us how You punish those who are disobedient to You. We need to know that You will – in the fullness of Your time – crush sin. We commit to be obedient and walk with You. Amen.
What do you think?
Leave me a comment below (about this or anything else) or head over to my Facebook group for some interactive discussion.
If you don’t understand something and would like further clarification, please contact me.
If you have not signed up for the email providing the link to the devotions and the newsletter, do so below.
If God has used this devotion to speak with you, consider sharing it on social media.