Genesis 7/8/9 Notes/Thoughts - Not able to brag- We are continuing to go through the Flood story and we covered trusting Gods word when all else is telling you to join the crowd in sin and foolishness. Today I wanted to look at Noah some more. Mark Vance shared this message at Salt and it has stuck with me so I wanted to explore it again. In the end we didnt choose God, God chose us. If we choose God then we have something to brag about. We could say, I cleaned myself up, I made myself righteous and following God was my idea... Noah is a fine example of why that is in error. Genesis 7 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... 5 And Noah did all that the Lord commanded him. 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. 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 fifteen cubits. 21 Every living thing that moved on land 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; people and animals and the creatures that move along the ground and the birds 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. Genesis 8 1 But God remembered Noah and all the wild animals and the livestock that were with him in the ark, and he sent a wind over the earth, and the waters receded. 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 land—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. 21 The Lord smelled the pleasing aroma and said in his heart: “Never again will I curse the ground because of humans, even though every inclination of the human heart is evil from childhood. And never again will I destroy all living creatures, as I have done. Genesis 9 20 Noah, a man of the soil, proceeded to plant a vineyard. 21 When he drank some of its wine, he became drunk and lay uncovered inside his tent. What did we notice about the passages sited in the 3 chapters of Genesis? in Genesis 7 Noah is called Righteous in his generation and then the waters came and wiped out everything that has breath. Then in Genesis 8 God remembers Noah and causes the waters to recede and dry land to appear and Noah gets out of the ark and builds an altar to the Lord. Then in Genesis 9 Noah plants a vineyard and over indulges in his wine and gets drunk and lays out in his tent naked. What is the connection? If you are familiar with Romans 3:23 - For all have sinned and come short , have missed the mark of Gods standard. Gods standard is perfection. Zero sin. So the question is did God know he was picking a drunkard to do his will? The answer is a resounding YES. Was Noah sinful? Yes. Ephesians 5:18 says not to get drunk on too much wine, which Noah seems to have a problem with. What made Noah different from the people he was living with? This is a hard concept for me to grasp but, the difference was God chose him, sinful, prone to drunkenness human for his own reasons and this is it . When Noah came out of the ark what did he do? He made and altar for the Lord, and one can argue the point that the altar was an altar of thanksgiving, but I am prone to also believe that this altar was an altar of repentance. Noah sacrificed clean animals and birds which is what you saw when Israel was asking for forgiveness for their sins. What did Noah do to deserve to be spared while his neighbors died? NOTHING. Maybe as the rain came down outside of the ark Noah thought to himself? Why am I not out there drowning too? What did I do to deserve to be inside this ark? Ephesians 2 says that it is by Gods grace you have been saved through faith and not by any work you have done so that you will never have any thing to ever boast about. Like Noah, we should have been wiped out with everyone else and it was God who decided to save you. You didnt save you, you are like the guy plucked out of the water by a helicopter with limited seating while your friends and neighbors were left in the water. Here is the thing, why are we so forgetful? If only your life was saved from a huge crowd of people, doesnt that change your outlook on life a little? Like, God there was no reason you should have saved me, there were more people who have their act together than me. I bet there were some people who didnt get drunk like Noah who died in the Flood. Its the great mystery of the cross honestly. That some come to repentance, some do not. Why is our response to Gods great kindness and mercy often responded with grumpiness and accusing God of not being fair? Fairness is letting everyone drown. I cannot save all, than I better not save any. That isnt what happened and we have all of eternity to ponder and celebrate Gods great mercy and grace. Questions of the day. What did Noah really do to deserve to be saved? What about at the end when we find out he was prone to drunkenness? What did we do to be saved? What should our attitude be now?
Posted on: Fri, 08 Nov 2013 13:05:41 +0000
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