Genesis 7-9

I am sure you have heard the phrase, “If you always do what you’ve always done you’ll always get what you’ve always got.” This is old-fashioned common sense that applies to many areas of life. Let’s say you own a shoe store and no matter the economy, you always sell about the same number of pairs of shoe every year. You wonder why your shoe sales never increase. Your sales might be flat because you run the same advertisement in the same newspaper week after week. Do you see? You always do what you’ve always done. The other common sense phrase that goes with this idea is the definition of insanity: doing the same thing you’ve always done and expecting different results. What if a research scientist did this? What if a person conducted the exact same experiment every day for five whole years? They never changed any variables, they never tried anything different—just the same testing every single day. Not only would this person be fired long before the five year mark, I really think they would go insane even before they were fired!

As parents, we get stuck in ruts like this when disciplining and training our kids. We want them to start doing a positive behavior or to stop doing a negative behavior, but we never alter the way we are teaching or disciplining them. Imagine a conversation you might have with a parent like this.

“I don’t know what I am going to do with my daughter. She simply refuses to make her bed in the morning.”

“Every morning when she doesn’t make her bed, I scold her and then I end up making it myself.”

We can easily get stuck in a rut as parents and we often need to do something different to solve the problem. Sometimes we have to do something radically different. Would you agree that the problem that God encountered in Genesis chapter six was a huge problem and that his solution was a radical one? Let me remind you of the problem in 6:5 The Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. (ESV) The problem was enormous and the solution was radical—I will wipe mankind, whom I have created, from the face of the earth. (6:7)

We can all agree that this was an enormous problem with a very radical solution. But here is a question that we don’t usually ask of Noah’s flood—did it work? Did the worldwide flood and judgment do anything to stem the tide of wickedness? I don’t think you can get a more radical solution to an enormous problem, but did it work? The same day that Noah, his family and all of the animals left the ark, God said, “I will never again curse the ground because of man, for the intention of man’s heart is evil from his youth.” (8:21—ESV)

So tell me—did the worldwide flood do its job in terms of stemming the tide of sin? Isn’t that how we typically think about this flood story? We imagine that because humanity was so bad, God took a small group of righteous people, killed everyone else, and started creation over with good people. Be honest—isn’t this the way we have understood Noah and the worldwide flood? We think that what God did to the planet is what we do to computers. If the computer is acting up, we reboot it. If it is hopelessly filled with viruses and junk then we wipe the hard drive clean and start all over. This is how most people view the flood story—that God wiped the slate clean and started all over. So, did it work? Not, it did not, because the minute they stepped off of the ark, God declares that “the intention of man’s heart is evil from his youth.” It was not a reboot of human civilization. The worldwide flood was not an attempt to purify the human race and start with a more righteous progeny.

(Moreover, I think the NIV has a wrong translation of 8:21. The NIV reads “Never again will I curse the ground because of man, even though every inclination of his heart is evil from childhood.” In contrast, the ESV follows the KJV and reads, “I will never again curse the ground because of man, for the intention of man’s heart is evil from his youth.” Do you see the difference? In the NIV God says that he will never again destroy the earth even though man’s heart is evil, but in the ESV God says he will never again destroy the earth for man’s heart is evil. The two meanings are quite distinct. In the NIV God is saying, “even though man is evil and I should destroy him, I choose not to do so.” But the meaning of the ESV is this: “I will never destroy the earth in this way because man is evil.” In chapter six, total depravity was the cause of judgment but in chapter 8, total depravity was the cause of mercy. In other words, without mercy, every hundred years or so God would have to start all over again. The judgment of the flood, as drastic as it was, did not solve the problem of total depravity, because it was never meant to do so.)

What then are the lessons of the flood? The first two weeks I showed how the flood illustrates the total depravity of man and the justice and mercy of God. This morning I want to fill out the other lessons to be learned from the flood using the acronym of RAINBOW. I am usually not one for acronyms, much less corny acronyms, but this time I think it will help us remember the full meaning of the flood.

For this principle we will turn to how Peter used the flood event to make his point.

⁴ For if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but sent them to hell, putting them into gloomy dungeons to be held for judgment; ⁵ if he did not spare the ancient world when he brought the flood on its ungodly people, but protected Noah, a preacher of righteousness, and seven others; ⁶ if he condemned the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah by burning them to ashes, and made them an example of what is going to happen to the ungodly; ⁷ and if he rescued Lot, a righteous man, who was distressed by the filthy lives of lawless men ⁸ (for that righteous man, living among them day after day, was tormented in his righteous soul by the lawless deeds he saw and heard)— ⁹ if this is so, then the Lord knows how to rescue godly men from trials and to hold the unrighteous for the day of judgment, while continuing their punishment. (2 Peter 2:5-9)

Peter used two examples of people who were rescued—Noah and Lot. Do you see why he used these examples? Verse nine, then the Lord knows how to rescue godly men from trials. This is one of the clear lessons from the flood. The language of this verse could be misleading. “The Lord knows how to rescue godly men from trials”. But is this a matter of knowledge—of knowing how to do something? If I said, “I know how to drive a car,” I would be making a statement about my knowledge or ability to drive a car. But Peter’s statement is much more than knowledge or ability—it strikes to the very character of God. Of course God knows how to rescue people. Of course God has the ability to rescue people. But equally important is the fact that God has the power to rescue people and the desire to save them.

Peter’s statement attacks the problem of evil. Atheists and agnostics say: if God is all-powerful and all-loving, then why does evil still exist? Why doesn’t God simply eliminate evil? They conclude that God is either not all-powerful or not all-loving, or both. They use the existence of evil to attack the character and even the very existence of God. But Peter makes the comforting claim that God is both all-powerful and all-loving. He knows how to rescue Godly men from trials and two amazing examples offered are that of Noah and Lot. And his line of argument is from the greater to the lesser. If God can rescue Noah and Lot even though they were surrounded by utter depravity and godlessness, then surely God can rescue you from your small problem.

Think for a moment about the most difficult problem you are facing right now. If you’re fortunate, your biggest problem might be fairly small. But for many of you, your biggest trial feels overwhelming. It may be causing you to lose sleep. You may fret and worry so much that you don’t even remember what it feels like not to worry. Some of you may have even started to question the character of God. Do you have the problem in the front of your mind? Now tell me this? Is your problem bigger than a worldwide flood? Is it more difficult to rescue you from your trail than it was for God to rescue Noah from his? Compared to Noah and Lot, it’s a small thing for God to rescue you from your trial.

But then why doesn’t he? If it is such a small thing, why doesn’t he do it? If I could save your life by exerting the amount of effort it would take for me to walk across the street, wouldn’t I be morally obligated to cross the street and save your life? Then why doesn’t God do the equivalent of lifting his pinky finger and rescue me from my trial?

Let me answer that question with a question for you. How many of you have ever practiced a magic spell or incantation? Have you ever gathered a large cast iron pot, filled it with water, started a large fire underneath it, began to dance around the boiling pot underneath a full moon, added an eye of newt, one or two magical frog legs, some toadstools you bought from a bridge troll, a fingernail of a leprechaun and just for good measure, a pinch of pixie dust. And because you added all the right ingredients and mouthed the right words, you gained control of a magic spell that brought you power and good fortune.

Anyone? Do you mean to tell me that no one has ever done this before? Then why do we think we can manipulate God by our actions or good works? We may not realize what we are doing, but think for a moment about some of the reasons we think that God should rescue us from our trials. God should rescue me because I am a good person, because I go to church and serve him, because I changed careers and became a pastor, because I try to avoid the things he doesn’t want me to do, because I am a good parent, because I provide for my family, because I give money to the church. The list could go on and on. The point is that we think God owes us something because we have done something for him. We’re a pretty good person and we love Jesus and we try to follow him, so why doesn’t he give us what we want? In witchcraft and paganism you do certain things so that you can manipulate the spiritual realm and get power and good fortune. I tell you, what pagans do is no different than the way we try to manipulate God to give us what we want. The ultimate expression of this kind of thinking is the health and wealth gospel where you put a thousand dollars in the offering plate and expect a magic genie to pop out and give you three wishes. We may not be caught up to that extreme, but if you think that God owes you something because of something you have done, this is nothing less than an attempt to manipulate God for your own ends. This is paganism. But since we are Christians, we throw a little Jesus into the boiling kettle and come out with Christian paganism. Christian paganism is still paganism. No matter what you call it, manipulating God is still manipulating God.

So, please be careful when you are facing some kind of a trial. There are two opposite errors. One is to think that God cannot rescue us or doesn’t care about us. The rescue of Noah from the worldwide flood reminds us that God can rescue you whenever and wherever he sees fit. But the opposite error is thinking that we can somehow manipulate God to give us what we need, or what we think we need. Last Sunday, Tim Chaffey shared just a small piece of his cancer story. Did you catch what he said to his wife Casey the night he thought he might die? Thinking he might never see her again in this life, he told her, “Don’t blame God.” Behind those words was a deep trust which said, “God could rescue me from this leukemia if he wants to, but if he chooses not to rescue me, don’t blame him. He is good and right and cannot make a mistake.”

Also, I love this verse written by Paul very near the end of his life. The Lord will rescue me from every evil attack and will bring me safely to his heavenly kingdom. (2 Tim 4:18) His entire ministry was one long example of being rescued from endless attacks and near death experiences. He had confidence that God would rescue him from every evil attack because he had done so in countless situations. But with the same confidence he wrote, and will bring me safely to his heavenly kingdom. Do you see—Paul viewed death as the ultimate rescue by the Lord? Paul knew that God would rescue him from every trial on this earth and one day very soon he was to be rescued from this earth. For the believer, death is the ultimate rescue.

OK, we are only on the first letter of our seven letter word, so let’s keep moving.

This principle comes from the last verse of our previous passage: if this is so, then the Lord knows how to rescue godly men from trials and to hold the unrighteous for the day of judgment, while continuing their punishment. (2 Peter 2:5-9) And also from 2 Peter 3:5-7.

⁵ But they deliberately forget that long ago by God’s word the heavens existed and the earth was formed out of water and by water. ⁶ By these waters also the world of that time was deluged and destroyed. ⁷ By the same word the present heavens and earth are reserved for fire, being kept for the day of judgment and destruction of ungodly men. (2 Peter 3:5-7)

In both cases, Peter used the worldwide flood during Noah’s day to warn of a future coming judgment. Please note that his warning of a future judgment assumes that the flood was a worldwide event. If it had been a local flood, what Peter wrote doesn’t make any sense and he should have written something like this.

⁵But they deliberately forget that long ago by God’s word the heavens existed and the earth was formed out of water and by water. ⁶By these waters also the local geography of that time was deluged and destroyed. ⁷By the same word a localized area is reserved for fire, being kept for the day of judgment and destruction of a few ungodly men.

Can you see the importance of accepting the clear Biblical evidence of a worldwide flood? God’s future promise of a judgment is inextricably linked to the past judgment of the flood. Did you realize that you could use the flood catastrophe to share the gospel? We can use the story of this past, worldwide judgment to warn others of the coming judgment. Have you ever seen a gospel tract that uses Noah’s flood? You could write such a tract and you can use this judgment to warn of the coming judgment.

But you may be thinking, “most people don’t believe that the Bible says about a worldwide flood, so such a tactic would never work.” Let me show you parts of an old story and you tell me where it came from.

Does this sound familiar? Do you know where it came from? It sounds like it came from Genesis 6-9, doesn’t it, but it actually is taken from one of the better known flood stories called Gilgamesh.[1] Did you know that there are hundreds of ancient flood stories from cultures all over the world? How do you think all of these varied cultures all got such a story of a worldwide flood? Because it actually happened. As people spread over the world after the tower of Babel, the story of the flood also went with them. Over the years, many of the details of the stories were altered, but a few of them, like this one, have a nearly exact reproduction of Noah’s story.

But should we warn people about a coming judgment? Isn’t that kind of a negative way to share the gospel? Shouldn’t we just tell people that God loves them and had a wonderful plan for their life? If you are inclined to think that announcing a coming judgment is not the right way to go, listen to the words of a famous atheist. Penn Jillette is one half of the famous Vegas magic act, Penn and Teller. Penn is an avowed atheist. He has two Nevada license plates with the words ATHEIST and GODLESS. [2] When he signs an autograph, instead of adding “best Wishes” or something like that, he add the phrase, “there is no god.” [3] Listen to how Penn tells about an experience he had with a kind, Christian man who had given him a Bible.

“I’ve always said that I don’t respect people who don’t proselytize. I don’t respect that at all. If you believe that there’s a Heaven and Hell, and people could be going to Hell, or not getting eternal life, or whatever, and you think that it’s not really worth tellin’ them this because it would make it socially awkward—and atheists who think that people shouldn’t proselytize,—“just leave me alone, keep your religion to yourself”…How much do you have to hate somebody to not proselytize? How much do you have to hate somebody to believe that everlasting life is possible and not tell them that? If I believed beyond a shadow of a doubt that a truck was gonna hit you and you didn’t believe it, and that truck was bearing down on you, there’s a certain point where I tackle you. And this is more important than that.”

Isn’t this what Penn is talking about? I can invite someone to follow Christ, but if they have no idea about a final judgment as a punishment for sins, why would they feel a need to be forgiven by Christ?

[1] Gordon J. Wenham, pp. 163-164, Comparison to major (Mesopotamian) flood stories, especially Gilgamesh

[2] http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/14.11/faces2.html

[3] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Penn_&_Teller