Genesis 6

The death of mankind is not only physical, it is also moral and spiritual. One evidence of our deep trouble is that we are more interested in what is concealed than in what has been revealed. We may imagine that in heaven we will finally have the answers to all of our questions about the Bible and our own lives. Could it be that when our inner corruption is completely healed we will have no interest in what God has not revealed because our ears will long for what He has chosen to speak to us? I wonder. I suppose there is some irony there.

What God does reveal about mankind very early in the Scriptures is that the evil within our species was not just a problem among a few bad people. Cleansing the earth of all wickedness would not simply come from identifying a murderer like Cain, and then bringing him to justice. The problem of sin was deep and universal.

People were having sons and daughters for many centuries, the earth was being populated, and evil was growing. Beyond the visible wickedness on the face of the earth, evil existed in places that people could not see, among those angels that had rebelled against the Lord. Angels can be referred to as “sons of God,” and so can men. The “sons of God” did something bad here. It could be that demonic powers were in league with those men who thought of themselves as beyond constraints, the demigods convinced of their own great renown. Like Lamech in the line of Cain, one woman was not enough for such heroes. They took for themselves wives, any that they chose. Whatever the details of moral decline, the Lord would not stand for it. The lives of human beings would be no more that 120 years.

There was much evidence of abuse everywhere, but the Lord always knows more than can be gathered before human judges who weigh evidence. He knew of the depravity of all the descendants of Adam in a deeper way. He knew that every intention of the thoughts of the hearts of men was only evil continually. So much so, that God expresses His own deep grief concerning the creation of mankind, and His determination to bring His eternal judgment against sin before the final Judgment Day that would one day come upon the earth. The Lord determined to save only a very small remnant from among the descendants of the line of Seth, and thus to blot out all the rest of mankind, the entirety of the line of Cain, and almost all the creatures on the face of the land. Only Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord. The Lord showed His grace, or “favor,” to Noah, and through association with Noah, to his wife, his three sons, their wives, and the animals that would form the seed of a new world.

Noah was counted as a righteous man. He walked with God, listening to His instruction, and obeying the voice of the Lord. Like Enoch before him, and many others who would be counted as followers of the Shepherd of His chosen flock, Noah walked in the way that God led, and God counted him as blameless in that generation.

The earth around Noah was far from blameless. It was covered with the violence of the proud, who will use whatever force they have to grab what has not been given to them; to steal, to kill, and to destroy. Everything was polluted because of the moral and spiritual decadence of mankind.

Therefore God announced to Noah a plan for judgment and salvation. He revealed His own settled determination to make an end of all flesh. When any land is filled with violence, when the powerful use their force to abuse the people that they are supposed to protect, the Lord is not happy. He will not stand by forever when men and angels destroy the innocent and reward the guilty. He will take action.

God spoke to His servant Noah, a man who listened to God's voice and who walked in the Lord's ways. He instructed Noah to build an ark that would be a very conspicuous testimony to a coming day when water would cover the dry land in a way that had never happened since the days when God pushed back the seas causing the land to first appear.

God told Noah to build a vessel that would have its own story to tell. It would be a holy sanctuary in which those who believed the voice of the Lord could take refuge, together with their families. This ark was a Tabernacle, and Noah was a Moses who assembled it. It was a Temple, and Noah was its Solomon. It was a church, and Noah was the forerunner of the Messiah who would one day say, “I will build My church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.”

God told Noah exactly how to build this place of refuge to withstand the storm of the coming judgment. Christ, the Cornerstone of a greater sanctuary, has given us His Word concerning the ark of our day, His body. We do well to hear His voice, and build this great worldwide assembly according to His specifications. To be outside that ark is dangerous.

There is a judgment of God coming that is far worse than the flood. The very existence of the church throughout the world is a plea to all men that they should call upon the Name of the Lord, and thus take refuge in Jesus Christ in the assembly of His people while there is still time. He is the only Savior who is in accord with the specifications of God. He is our safe place of refuge for all who would pass safely through the coming distress and live forever in the new world of resurrection.