Pages

Wednesday, February 6, 2008

Noah's Ark and the Flood

Today we will discuss the story of Noah’s Ark and the great flood, which comes to us from the Genesis 6.

God looked upon the earth and saw the wickedness displayed by man and decided to wipe out his most cherished creation. It is with that motive that he created the great flood. God was ready to eliminate His creation all together, but then had a change of heart. He spotted one righteous one among His flock. It was Noah who inspired God to save His creation.

With a change of heart, God told Noah to build an ark to save his family. Then He told Noah to gather a male and female of all living creatures and save them on the ark as well. Noah finished the ark just as the rain started – a rain that lasted forty days and forty nights. Other than those saved on the ark, every living creature was destroyed in the flood. Finally the rain stopped and the waters receded, allowing the ark to come to rest safely on Mount Ararat.

When Noah disembarked from the ark, he immediately built an altar and worshiped his Creator. He asked God’s forgiveness for his sins, and for the sins of all disobedient mankind. God was pleased by this act of pure obedience and promised never to destroy all living creatures again.

Imagine the fury that it must have taken for God to decide to destroy all of mankind, His greatest creation. Imagine the sinful defiance of man necessary to drive God to that decision. It is with this fury in kind that many have mistakenly spoken of the wrath of God. But who brought this decision about? Not God, my friends. It was His own creation acting out against Him. God was merely trying to destroy the disobedience. To regain control over His greatest creation.