The Book of Genesis
week 10
Chapter 6:13 - 22
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note: all scripture is from the NKJV unless noted otherwise
Ø Gen 6:13-16 13 And God said to Noah, "The end of all flesh has come before Me, for the earth is filled with violence through them; and behold, I will destroy them with the earth. 14 "Make yourself an ark of gopherwood; make rooms in the ark, and cover it inside and outside with pitch. 15 "And this is how you shall make it: The length of the ark shall be three hundred cubits, its width fifty cubits, and its height thirty cubits. 16 "You shall make a window for the ark, and you shall finish it to a cubit from above; and set the door of the ark in its side. You shall make it with lower, second, and third decks.
Could you just see Noah right now as God was talking to him, telling him that He was about to destroy all flesh on the earth. He didn't say, "all flesh but you Noah", until later.
I looked up Gopherwood in the Bible and this is the only time it is mentioned in the Bible.
Gopher = Hebrew word: gopher go'-fer
Root: from an unused root, probably meaning to house in
1) Cypress, gopher, gopher wood 1a) Wood of which the ark was made
And From theVines dictionary the word "Pitch" means:
Part of Speech: Verb
Hebrew Word: kapar
Usage Notes: "to cover over, atone, propitiate, pacify." This root is found in the Hebrew language at all periods of its history, and perhaps is best known from the term Yom Kippur, "Day of Atonement." Kapar is first found in Gen. 6:14, where it is used in its primary sense of "to cover over." Here God gives Noah instructions concerning the ark, including, "Cover it inside and out with pitch".
Most uses of the word, however, involve the theological meaning of "covering over," often with the blood of a sacrifice, in order to atone for some sin. It is not clear whether this means that the "covering over" hides the sin from God's sight or implies that the sin is wiped away in this process.
So we have wood and covering or atonement, does this sound familiar? How about the cross?
· 1 Peter 2:24 who Himself bore our sins in His own body on the tree, that we, having died to sins, might live for righteousness--by whose stripes you were healed.
· Gal 3:13 Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us (for it is written, "Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree"),
Referring to:
· Deut 21:22-23 22 "If a man has committed a sin deserving of death, and he is put to death, and you hang him on a tree, 23 "his body shall not remain overnight on the tree, but you shall surely bury him that day, so that you do not defile the land which the LORD your God is giving you as an inheritance; for he who is hanged is accursed of God.
Jesus Christ who created time, the earth, and all the heavens.
He, who knew no sin, became sin for us; He became a curse for us.
Jesus bore on the cross the sins we now live.
Remember a couple month's ago we talked about how much sin Jesus bore on the cross?
Well, if I were to sin only 10's a day for 40 years that is 146,000 sins that Jesus bore for me alone.
Now if I were to sin 10xs an hour for 40 years, then Jesus bore 3,504,000 sins on the cross for me.
And if you multiplied that be 3 billion people for 40 years you would have 1,051,200,000,000,000,000 (14 0's) sins that Jesus bore on the cross. And that's just for the last 40 years.
Multiply that by 2000 years you would have 2,102,400,000,000,000,000,000 (17 0's) sins that Jesus bore.
Can you get a little bit of an idea how much sin Jesus took on the cross? And our numbers are very conservative.
But Jesus never complained, or asked why? It's is just because He loves us that much.
So next time you don't think God cares about you, or Jesus will never except you, just remember this number, and if you subtract your original number of sins, that still leaves
2,102,400,000,000,000,000,000 (17 0's) that Jesus bore on the cross.
Yes you are special, 3 ½ billion times special to God.
· Psalms 65:1-3 1 Praise is awaiting You, O God, in Zion; And to You the vow shall be performed.2 O You who hear prayer, To You all flesh will come.3 Iniquities prevail against me; As for our transgressions, You will provide atonement for them.
· Psalms 79:9 Help us, O God of our salvation, For the glory of Your name; And deliver us, and provide atonement for our sins, For Your name's sake!
· Gal 1:3-5 3 Grace to you and peace from God the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ, 4 who gave Himself for our sins, that He might deliver us from this present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father, 5 to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen.
God provided atonement for Noah and his family, a total of 8 people
· 1 Peter 3:20 who formerly were disobedient, when once the Divine longsuffering waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was being prepared, in which a few, that is, eight souls, were saved through water.
But now God has provided atonement to salvation for not just 8 people, but hundreds of thousands, even millions of people. We may be very shocked at the number of people who do not bow to Satan, but bow to the Lord Jesus and will be in heaven with us.
I am so amazed when I go to another church or see Christians on TV or on the radio and even the Internet.
We seem to get caught up in our little town that we forget that there are hundreds of thousands of Christians out there that Love the Lord just like us.
Then we get caught up in our own little church forgetting about the world outside and the thousands that are dyeing everyday with out Jesus.
It reminds me of a song by Petra that goes,
Another sleepy Sunday, safe within the walls.
Outside a dying world in desperation calls.
But no one hears the cries or knows what they're about
The doors are locked within, or is it from without?
Looking through rose colored stained glass windows
Never allowing the world to come in
Seeing no evil and feeling no pain
Making the light as it comes from within so dim.
Out on your doorstep lay the masses in decay
Ignore them long enough, maybe they'll go away
When you have so much, you think you have so much to lose
You think you have no lack, when you're really destitute
You can't save the whole world, but how about at least one person?
· Micah 7:19 He will again have compassion on us, And will subdue our iniquities. You will cast all our sins Into the depths of the sea.
This week a little girl called the Christian radio show "To Every Man an Answer" and asked about this verse. She wanted to know if God has cast our sins into the sea, if that is why it's so dark there.
There were around 3-5 Billion people around in Noah's time, and God was about to cast sin into the sea.
All this was done out of love for us. "For God so loved the world."
· 1 Peter 4:8 And above all things have fervent love for one another, for "love will cover a multitude of sins."
· 1 John 4:10 In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.
Back to Genesis:
Ø Gen 6:17-21 17 "And behold, I Myself am bringing floodwaters on the earth, to destroy from under heaven all flesh in which is the breath of life; everything that is on the earth shall die. 18 "But I will establish My covenant with you; and you shall go into the ark--you, your sons, your wife, and your sons' wives with you. 19 "And of every living thing of all flesh you shall bring two of every sort into the ark, to keep them alive with you; they shall be male and female. 20 "Of the birds after their kind, of animals after their kind, and of every creeping thing of the earth after its kind, two of every kind will come to you to keep them alive. 21 "And you shall take for yourself of all food that is eaten, and you shall gather it to yourself; and it shall be food for you and for them."
Here we finally see Noah breath a sigh of relief as God say's, "You shall go into the ark, with your family."
God was also establishing a covenant with Noah at this time.
Establish means to "rise up or stood".
Covenant means a "pledge".
Somewhat like we do to stand when the flag is presented and we say the pledge of allegiance. We pledge faithfulness to our country.
God is standing and making a pledge. But what was the pledge God made?
We have to look further ahead to find out.
· Gen 9:11 "Thus I establish My covenant with you: Never again shall all flesh be cut off by the waters of the flood; never again shall there be a flood to destroy the earth."
We will look at this in a couple of weeks.
God told Noah that you will bring two of every animal into the ark, why two?
Remember at this time there were billions of people on the earth, and it all started with two. One male and one female, and since animals reproduce faster then humans, why have more then that?
Think about it, if you had a bunch of each kind of animals, how big would the ark have to be? And how hard would it be to take care of all those animals?
Go knew what He was doing.
Also notice it say's two after their kind, not two of every kind.
One set of dogs, not every breed of dog.
Look at verse 20 again:
20 "Of the birds after their kind, of animals after their kind, and of every creeping thing of the earth after its kind, two of every kind will come to you to keep them alive.
Do you notice something? How about the fact that Noah did not have to go get the animals, but they came to him.
Also at the end of the verse, we see that Noah had the responsibility of keeping them alive.
Imagine if you were given the task of having to keep all the different types of animals alive.
If one died, then that species would never be here on the earth again.
· 21 "And you shall take for yourself of all food that is eaten, and you shall gather it to yourself; and it shall be food for you and for them."
Talk about canning and jarring fruit. Looking at this, it appears that Noah was a vegetarian since he was instructed to bring only two of each type of animals, that does not mean extra cows and chickens for steak and eggs, and no extra pigs for the bacon.
We may also assume that the animals were vegetarian also.
Ø Gen 6:22 Thus Noah did; according to all that God commanded him, so he did.
Noah was obedient, how about you?
Noah had the task of making a huge boat, filling it with animals, gathering food for his family and the animals, and all the while having to deal with the world and their snide remarks.
Noah made no excuses, he didn't say, "I don't have time, I have to watch this show on TV" or,
"I'm not worthy, choose someone else"
How about, "I have my family to take care of, I don't have time for you right now God"
And even, "I have to many trials in my life, I'm so bogged down with them, I'll do it after they're over, OK God?"
No, no excuses from Noah, just obedience.
So next time God asks you to do something, remember He could have asked you to build an ark!
Gen. 6:19 "And of every living thing of all flesh you shall bring two of every sort into the ark, to keep them alive with you; they shall be male and female.
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