Noah – Decreation

De-Creation.

Text: Genesis 7

Genesis 7 is a factual account of the flood.  The day of God’s judgment is come, and the probation of mankind upon the earth is at an end. Like a judge sitting on the bench, professionally and precisely weighing up the evidence in his summing up, without emotion he passes sentence and decrees punishment. Judgment must happen and justice will follow and everyone will be able to say they get what they deserve. We could summarise the chapter in four brief statements:-

Noah Believed and Obeyed. V1 & V7

Hebrews reminds us of this.  ⁷ By faith Noah, being warned of God of things not seen as yet, moved with fear, prepared an ark to the saving of his house; by the which he condemned the world, and became heir of the righteousness which is by faith.

The command that was issued

• Come into the ark. And the Lord said unto Noah, Come thou and all thy house into the ark; for thee have I seen righteous before me in this generation. The invitation was issued by God, but not to be refused. It was a direct command:-
• Based on Righteousness through faith.
• Extended to Noah’s family. They were all there on the basis of righteousness.
• Extended again to include a remnant of every living thing.

What the ark symbolises. Now, to get a proper perspective on this, we must remember the general principle that everything in the OT points us to Christ. The ark, is to be seen in that light, and we are to ask, ‘What does this tell us about Jesus?’  The ark is a ‘type’ of Christ.

The response. Noah did all that the Lord commanded him.

• Obedience! 4 times in tese verses, we read that Noah obeyed. That’s what marked Noah out from the other people.  Noah obeyed God. The others disobeyed God.  
• Noah went into the Ark. v7 And Noah went in, and his sons, and his wife, and his sons’ wives with him, into the ark, because of the waters of the flood.
  • What a challenge that must have been. A huge floating coffin with no light! Full of animals. The work the heat the smell, the darkness.
  • What faith and trust. Seven days they were locked up in that thing. No sign of rain 4 For yet seven days, and I will cause it to rain upon the earth forty days and forty nights; and every living substance that I have made will I destroy from off the face of the earth. What a test of faith.
  • What a blessing! To be in the Ark with his wife and family. Wouldn’t that be the greatest blessing of all? To know that the family are all gathered in?  To know that come the day of judgment none of our children or their children will be outside of Christ.

Noah has trusted God and has obeyed him. He’s in the ark. He’s safe and so is his family. Now look what happens next.

God Closed the Door.

V16 And they that went in, went in male and female of all flesh, as God had commanded him: and the Lord shut him in.

Now this part is important. God closed the door. Noah didn’t close the door. Remember that this is one of those aspects of the construction of the ark that points us to Christ.  There is only one door into the ark, – just ONE WAY.  There is no other way to be saved.  Jesus said, ‘I am the way, the truth and the life, no man cometh unto the father, but by me.’  He didn’t say, ‘I am A way’…  The Ark had a door in its side, a great riven gap, – John 10:9 I am the door: by me if any man enter in, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out, and find pasture.  Jesus had a spear thrust into his side, and forth from that flowed blood and water, and the only way to be saved is through the shed blood of Christ.  Now think about that door to salvation being closed for ever…

• It’s a weighty door. The assurance of eternal security is beyond the capacity of man. How could Noah have managed to lift a heavy wooden structure – wide enough for an elephant, covered in tar?   It is God who closes us into Christ!  He shuts us in!
• It’s a protecting door. The door is closed and Noah can’t leave! He’s rescued!  He’s in the ark. Nothing can make him leave and nothing can pluck him out if it for the door is shut. Noah can’t open the door and step outside into danger. Just as in Christ we are safe forever and nothing or no one can pluck us from his hands.
• It’s an excluding door. I wonder as the rain began to fall when judgment day came, how many of the unrepentant sinners stood at that door, knocked at it, pleaded for it to be opened, clawed at it with the fingernails bleeding … but the door was shut.

God has shut the door and in doing so that has prefigured the final judgment and separation when the sheep and the goats will be divided up forever.

The Rain Came Down and the Floods Came Up.

There was a deluge.  I wonder how it happened  Here’s what we do know.  We know:-

• The method of the flood. We call it ‘Decreation.’ God created this world, and when he created it he divided up the waters from the land. Genesis 1:2 ² And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. Genesis 1:  In this act of judgment he simply reversed that creative act. 11 In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, in the second month, the seventeenth day of the month, the same day were all the fountains of the great deep broken up, and the windows of heaven were opened 12 And the rain was upon the earth forty days and forty nights.18 And the waters prevailed, and were increased greatly upon the earth; and the ark went upon the face of the waters.    2 Peter 3:5-6
• The magnitude of the flood. It was total, worldwide devastation.  Not a local flood, seen from Noah’s viewpoint, as some suggest, but a worldwide cataclysm. 19 And the waters prevailed exceedingly upon the earth; and all the high hills, that were under the whole heaven, were covered.  20 Fifteen cubits upward did the waters prevail; and the mountains were covered.
• The duration of the flood. 17 And the flood was forty days upon the earth; and the waters increased, and bare up the ark, and it was lift up above the earth.  Forty days must be significant. It’s not a code for anything, there’s nothing mystical here.  The children of Israel were 40 years in the wilderness.  Jesus was tempted forty days.  RC Sproul suggests that the forty day number is symbolic of a new beginning.  There’s another number, 150 days, and again Sproule thinks that the 150 days of flood waters prevailing upon the earth included the 40 days of rain.  24 And the waters prevailed upon the earth an hundred and fifty days.

The important thing is that when God pours out his wrath upon sin, it is total, and it is utterly effective, and it is inescapable.  But there is the promise of a new age.  Compare this with 2 Peter 3:¹² 

Sinners Perished under the Terrible Wrath of God.

Why?  What an unreasonable thing to do!  Everyone died.  Men, women, children, babies..  We all die, for the wages of sin is death.  There is a time to die, and for those who perished in the flood, that time had come.  Warning had been given and ignored.  Let’s stop being obsessed with blaming God for taking people out of this world, for we all must leave it.  Let’s start preparing for eternity.  So see here:-

• The effectiveness of the flood. 21 And all flesh died that moved upon the earth, both of fowl, and of cattle, and of beast, and of every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth, and every man: 22 All in whose nostrils was the breath of life, of all that was in the dry land, died. 23 And every living substance was destroyed which was upon the face of the ground, both man, and cattle, and the creeping things, and the fowl of the heaven; and they were destroyed from the earth:
• The survivors of the flood. and Noah only remained alive, and they that were with him in the ark.

Peter warns us that a day like this will come again, not with water this time but with fire. 2 Peter 3:10  There’s the challenge!