Elstree and Borehamwood to become a Christian Community
In the previous episode we read about the world’s first murderer, and God’s mercy shown towards him. We also read of a man boasting he had committed murder and expected God would blest him more than Cain.
Genesis 5 is worth reading as it reminds us that death, being inevitable, is worth preparing for.
Chapters 6 through 9 should also be read as they are the subject for this episode.
Genesis 6:5 says the Lord saw the wickedness of man was great on the earth, and every intent of his heart evil.
It seems wickedness was no longer being carried out by the odd individual but had become the culture of the day.
Man had been given the opportunity to live in innocence and to be guided by his own conscience. Neither produced a desirable result.
Since neither innocence nor conscience was a sufficient motive for man to live right. He was now going to experience judgement.
We are informed Noah was a just man and blameless among his contemporaries, and fellowshipped with God.
Only 8 persons were spared God’s wrath. Only a minority will be spared when judged in the last days, as both Jesus and the Apostle Peter reminds us.
Will you be spared is the question you need to ask yourself.
Noah is given detailed instructions concerning the barge he is to build. Modern boat builders say the dimensions are perfect.
There was only one door to the ark (or barge). This signifies there is only one entrance to security.
Thus fore-shadowing Jesus Christ who declared “No one comes to the Father except by me.”
To escape the flood waters a person had to act on what Noah preached and risk the ridicule of friends by entering the ark by faith as their was no evidence of impending disaster.
When God tells us to do something outside our experience or comfort zone, we need to be like Noah and do it.
The ark is a ‘type’ of Jesus. Unless we are willing to confess Him as our Lord and Saviour, which may well invite ridicule from our family and friends, we too cannot be saved.
Many scoff at the idea that all the land and flying animals could fit in the ark.
To demonstrate the impossibility, some museums display boards showing hundreds of different species of dogs.
Genesis I refers to kinds ten times, and you might find it enlightening to count the number of times the word kind appears in chapters 6 and 7.
Every species of dog, whether a wolf or a corgi came from one original kind of dog. Kinds can, and do, lose, or have atrophied, some of their genes (by ‘copying errors’ or ‘mutations’), giving rise to species, either naturally or by man deliberately breeding them to achieve certain results.
It has been calculated the number of kinds would probably only have filled about a third of the ark, leaving plenty of room for food and Noah’s family.
“What about the dinosaurs?” Like alligators they start small and, unlike many animals, don’t stop growing (until they die!).
Many assume the world was flooded by 40 days and nights of rain and wonder if that could have been enough to cover the high hills.
The Bible tells us in Psalms that the hills rose and the sea sank, and scientists have confirmed that at some time in the past that has happened, though there is no consensus whether it was a few thousand, or many millions years ago.
Genesis 7 tells us the fountains of the deep burst open. These fountains produced more water than 40 days of continuous rain.
There were volcanos under the sea, which produced water, as well as on land, and their evidence still exists today.
I will explain the importance of these volcanoes in the next episode, and how they brought about Climate Change.
Genesis 7:16 Tells us God himself shut the door on Noah. This should remind us we must come God’s way and not our own.
Remember Cain and Abel’s offerings? (Episode 4).
The whole world was flooded so we should not be surprised that marine fossils are found on the top of the tallest mountains, e.g. the Himalayas.
The Flood also can give us an understanding of the different rock layers we see in deep canyon’s or gorges.
Fossils need to be buried quickly to exist today, and the flood waters turbulence would have quickly buried many animals.
When Noah and his family came out of the ark he built an alter to offer sacrifice as a thank offering to the Lord for their preservation.
For Noah to sacrifice animals at a time like this was a real ‘sacrifice’, for food would be in short supply for a time.
How do your thank offerings compare?
God makes a promise in Genesis 8:21. “I will never again curse the ground for man’s sake . . . . . . nor will I again destroy every living thing as I have done.”
He also makes another promise in 8:22. “While the earth remains, Seedtime and Harvest, Cold and Heat, Winter and Summer, Day and Night, shall not cease”.
‘Earth remains’. We will cover the question of when ‘earth ceases to remain’ in a future episode. Next time we will concentrate on Climate Change.