Genesis 6-9: Noah -The Flood
1. Do not look to the scripture to obtain timeline on the Earth and the events. Scripture writers had little concern for that. The Bible certainly does not mislead us about times and dates, but it is not written in such a way as to make it easy for us to always be able to pinpoint them. If this subject interests you, you may wish to read further on Old Testament chronologies and the gaps in them.
2. There is much debate about the identity of the “sons of God” who angered the Lord so much by cohabiting with the daughters of men. This “straw that broke the camel's back” appears, from the Genesis account, to be the final aggravation that brought down God’s wrath upon a totally degenerate society. Two schools of thought exist as to the identity of those sons of God. The first sees this name as a way of identifying the men who were in the godly line of Seth—the ones who in Seth's day “began to call upon the name of the Lord” (Genesis 4:26). When the last of the godly descendants of Adam married and mated with the ungodly descendants of Cain, all vestiges of godliness were finally lost and the world became fit only for judgment. The other, more spectacular theory identifies the sons of God as angels fallen from heaven with Satan, their leader, and whose unnatural lusts for human women produced a race of half-men, half-giants. The exact meaning of the Hebrew word nephilim, which appears in this passage, is not known. Some have thought these to be giants. In order to prevent these half-human, half-demonic creatures from propagating, God took the strong action of destroying the human race, all except for Noah and his sons. This sounds pretty fantastic, I know, but there may be both biblical and extrabiblical evidence for supporting that view. An interesting passage in the little book of Jude (verses 5–7) may shed some significant light on Genesis 6, and if that view is correct, it could account for the ancient legends of Hercules, Achilles, and other great figures of ancient mythology who seemed to be part men and part godlike. Interesting stuff, but don’t spend too much time thinking about it.
3. Three extremely important themes are developed in the Flood account.
The first theme is judgment. The simple truth is that God does judge sin! His patience and his long-suffering nature always give men ample time to repent. Jude also tells us in that same mysterious passage that Enoch, who came a few generations before Noah, prophesied regarding the judgment that was to come. He even named his son Methuselah, which according to some scholars means “when he is gone, it will come.” What would come? The Flood, bringing destruction and judgment. Methuselah lived 969 years, longer than any other human being before or since—more evidence of God’s patience—and oh yes, Methuselah died in the year in which the flood began. Think about even the extraordinary length of time that would have been necessary for Noah and his sons to build an ark, the dimensions of which were about 450 feet long, 75 feet wide, and 45 feet high.
But finally the day came when God, not Noah, shut the door and the time for repentance was past. In the New Testament, in 2 Peter 3:9, Peter tells us that God is “patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance,” and Paul reminds us in Romans that sinful people consistently misread that long-suffering patience and abuse it, not understanding that it is always meant to lead us to repentance. (Romans 2:4). Even God’s patience has a limit, though, and one day he will finally judge all sin. The Flood reminds us of that. (See also Ecclesiastes 8:11; 2 Peter 3:5–9; Matthew 24:36–38—“as it will be at the end of time.”)
The second theme of this passage is introduced with a very simple statement. “Noah found favor [or grace] in the eyes of the Lord” (Genesis 6:8). Noah feared God enough to obey him—enough to believe and act upon a command to build a boat, big enough to contain more animals than Noah even knew existed, in preparation for a rainstorm the likes of which the world would never again see, even though it had never rained previously. But friend, make no mistake, God’s selection (the biblical word would be election) of Noah was not based upon his merit. Even Noah was a sinner and as such he deserved to die. God’s choice of Noah was solidly founded upon the same grace that the New Testament says predestined you from before the foundation of the world to belong to Christ. “Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord.” What I am trying to say is that God’s grace, not Noah’s faith, is what saved him, exactly in the same way that God’s grace meets our faith in the shed blood of Christ and saves us today. In both the Old Testament and in the New Testament, there is only one way of salvation—by grace through faith, just as Ephesians 2:8–9 says: “For it is by grace that you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—not by works, so that no one can boast.”
The third theme is that being the recipient of grace always brings with it the obligation of obedience, and what a wonderful example Noah is for us of faith in action, obeying the word of God under the most hostile circumstances that one could imagine. Hebrews 11:7 says, “By his faith he … became the heir of the righteousness that comes by faith.” First Peter 3 reminds us that just like Noah, we have been chosen by grace unto obedience.
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