Years passed, and many generations of people lived and died, until a time came when people had forgotten God. They did not resist evil but allowed it room in their hearts. They began to hate, and hurt, and cause each other misery and pain. God looked at what had become of the people he made—made to be like him—and was filled with sorrow. “Enough!” he cried. “It’s time to start again. Creation is ruined. I’ll wash it all away.”
But there was one person who did not join in with the evildoers. His name was Noah and he had not forgotten about God. So, God made him the center of his plan to put everything right.
“You know how bad things are—the world is full of violence and hatred,” God said to Noah. “This is what I’m going to do. I’m going to send rain and floods to destroy the earth. You must build a boat. Build it out of the finest timber, coated inside and out with tar so it will be watertight. It needs to be huge—wider and longer and taller than any boat you have ever seen. Gather your whole family together—your wife, your sons, and your daughters-in-law. Then bring the animals into the ark—a male and female of every kind. You will also need food for them all.”
“Now I make you a solemn promise—a covenant. I will keep you and your family, and all the creatures that sail in your ark, safe. So, get to work!”
Noah did just as he was told. He built the huge ark on the dusty earth far from the sea. When he finished, he stepped back. It towered above him. Then, as he was looking up, he saw the bright sky filling with thick, black, swirling clouds. Noah hurried to gather a male and female of every creature in creation. He led the animals into the ark two by two, through grey stinging rain. It fell day and night, night and day. The streams and springs became bubbling, muddy fountains pouring out water from the deep. The blue sky was blotted out.
The rains swamped valleys and plains, and crept up the sides of the mountains, until all was swallowed up in black, endless water. As they drifted helplessly over it, Noah and his family knew that all living things left behind on the land had been drowned. They were alone on the ark. When, after 40 days, the rain finally stopped, the silence was as cold as the waters.
Noah’s family loved their precious cargo of animals: the only other living, breathing creatures left on the earth. They fed them and cared for them. As they did so, a wind blew, and the waters began to sink slowly down. Then, one day, they heard the keel of the ark beneath them scraping and shuddering. The ark juddered to a halt, for it had struck the top of a mountain.
Every day they scanned the horizon, longing for land, and after many weeks they saw distant purple mountains breaking free of the water. Noah waited 40 more days, then set a raven free. It crisscrossed over the waves, looking for somewhere to perch. But there was nowhere.
A week later Noah tried again, sending out a dove. It came back with an olive twig. Noah held the bird tenderly in his hand, hope rising within him.
A week later he sent the dove out again. This time, it did not come back. It must have found somewhere to perch. At last, the flood was drying up! Noah’s face broke into a wide smile as glistening land slowly emerged and dried.
Still they waited and waited. Then, at last, the flood had gone, and they opened the ark; and out tumbled the people and all the animals, the birds, and all manners of tiny creatures. Noah’s family danced and laughed as the animals leaped and stretched, and the birds soared in the sky. How good it was to feel ground under their feet again. To have space to run and breath freely. It was over, and time to give thanks. So, Noah piled up rocks to form and altar and made an offering to God. Then the sun broke through the clouds and a perfect, shimmering rainbow appeared.
God said, “Remember this great promise, this covenant, I am making with the whole earth. Never again will the waters become a flood that destroys all life. When you see a rainbow, remember this promise!” So, the people smiled again, blessed by God, who told them there was to be no more killing. God said that they should live, grow, and prosper. It was to be a new beginning under God’s bright promise.
In her brilliant book, The Bible Story Retold in Twelve Chapters, British author and poet, Andrea Skevington, presents this creative retelling of the Noah and the ark narrative. With artistic imagination and vivid detail, she cleverly captures the essence of one of the most famous stories in the whole Bible.
The story of Noah’s Ark has been told in myriads of children’s Sunday School classrooms. It has appeared in multiple movie versions and animated films. It has been painted as murals on many nursery walls. And a full-sized ark has even been replicated as a tourist attraction in Kentucky. But unfortunately, the theological significance of this extraordinary story is often overlooked.
Today, I would like for us to consider the two central theological themes of this story. First, we will examine Genesis 7 where God destroys the wicked world but redeems it through the obedience of one man. Second, we will consider Genesis 8 where God recreates the world after the judgment and forms a covenant with his people. Both of these themes foreshadow God’s judgment, redemption, and recreation through his Son Jesus Christ in the New Testament era! I want us to see how Noah’s Ark still applies to our lives today!
1.) God destroys the wicked world, but he redeems humanity through the obedience of one man. (Gen. 7)
Back in Genesis 6 we learned that Noah was a righteous man, blameless in his generation. While the rest of the world walked in wickedness, seeking to gratify their selfish desires, Noah walked with God—and he found favor in the eyes of the Lord. God gave him the unconventional command to build a massive multi-tiered ark because he was going to pour out his judgment and destroy the earth with a great flood. But God told Noah to take his family and two of every kind of animal onto the ark. And notice the last line of Genesis 6—“Noah did this; he did all that God commanded him.” Unlike Adam and the rest of the human race, Noah obeyed God’s command.
Look at Genesis 7! After Noah built the ark, God told him that it was now time to board the boat because the great flood would begin in seven days. Have you ever wondered why God gave Noah seven days to get on the ark? That’s right! Like most trips, God knew that it would take Noah’s wife at least six days to pack her suitcase!! Nah, the real reason was that it would take considerable time to get all of the animals on the ark. Notice verses 5 and 9, where the author of Genesis reiterates, “And Noah did all that the Lord commanded him” and “as God had commanded Noah.”
The rest of chapter 7 describes the flood that arose because God burst the fountains of the great deep and opened the windows of the sky, pouring rain upon the earth for forty days and forty nights. The waters rose above the mountains for 150 days and blotted out every living thing: the birds of the air, the beasts of the field, and every human being that God had created. Apart from those who were safe in the ark, every living creature was washed away!
The epic story of Noah’s ark highlights God’s justice and grace! When the people whom God had created for his own glory turned their backs on him and wanted nothing to do with him anymore, it was his divine prerogative to bring judgment against them. In keeping with his attribute of justice, God judged the wicked world with equity and fairness. After all, what is the proper punishment for sin against a holy and eternal Creator? Death! The wicked world, which had embraced a life of independence, arrogance, violence, sexual exploitation, and murder, deserved eternal death!
But even in the midst of his just judgment, God displays his mercy and grace! He was extremely patient with his people; he announced his judgment beforehand and gave them a long time to repent from their sins. And when he could have wiped out the whole world forever, he chose to redeem humanity through the obedience of one man.
Does this theme sound familiar? Noah’s ark is a foreshadowing of what God has done for us in the giving of his Son Jesus Christ! Every one of us is guilty of sin against our holy and eternal Creator! We have all contributed to the wickedness in this world by lying, stealing, cheating, and manipulating to get what we want. Many of us are also guilty of violence, anger, bitterness, laziness, workaholism, and various forms of sexual sin. We all deserve death! But God is so patient with us! He has given us so many opportunities to repent from our sin. He has given us the hope of redemption through the obedience of one man, Jesus Christ. Jesus suffered on the cross to pay the penalty for all of our sins and to rescue us from God’s wrath during the final judgment! But like Noah’s family, we must put our faith in God’s plan of redemption!
2.) God recreates the world and he forms a covenant with his people. (Gen. 8)
After God destroys the wicked world through the great flood but redeemed the human race through Noah’s obedience, Genesis 8 shows us how God recreated the world and formed a covenant with his people. The author of Genesis drops another hint of God’s grace in 8:1, when he says, “But God remembered Noah and all the beasts and all the livestock that were with him in the ark. And God made a wind blow over the earth, and the waters subsided.” After 150 days afloat, the ark landed somewhere on the Mountains of Ararat, at the intersection of modern-day Turkey, Armenia, and Iran. Thus, God faithfully kept his promise to Noah.
But before the water fully receded and the ark rested, Noah opened the window of the ark and sent out a raven and then a dove to see if the earth was ready for habitation. The raven went out and never returned, as the mountain tops and the carcasses floating upon the water afforded both resting-places and food. After that, Noah let a dove fly out three times, at intervals of seven days. The first time it returned quickly, signifying that the water was still high. The second time it returned in the evening, having remained out longer than before, and brought a fresh olive-leaf in its mouth. Noah perceived from this that the water must be almost gone, though the ground might not be perfectly dry, as the olive-tree will put out leaves even under water. The fresh olive-leaf was the first sign of the resurrection of the earth to new life after the flood, and the dove with the olive-leaf a herald of salvation. The third time, the dove did not return; a sign that the waters had completely receded, and the earth was ready to be recreated. Thus, the raven and dove has become a symbol for restoration. The dove and the olive branch have become symbols of peace.
When Noah and his family left the ark, God told Noah to release the animals so that they may swarm the earth and be fruitful and multiply. Noah worshipped God by building an altar and making sacrifices. And God blessed Noah and his family and told them to be fruitful and multiply the human race across the face of the earth once again. Thus, after God judged the earth, he embarked upon his own mission of recreating it.
The author of Genesis highlights this recreation theme by selecting remarkable parallels between Adam and Noah, between the first creation and the second creation. First, Adam is the father of humanity before the flood; Noah is the father of humanity after the flood. Second, both worlds are created out of a watery chaos. Third, they both walked with God. Fourth, they both ruled over the animals. Fourth, they were both commissioned by God to “be fruitful and multiply.” Fifth, they both have three named sons. Among their three sons is judgment and hope—we saw judgment with Cain and hope with Seth—we will soon see judgment with Noah’s son Ham and hope through Noah’s son Shem. It was time for the Creator to recreate!
Just as the story of Noah’s Ark foreshadows God’s plan of redemption through the obedience of his Son Jesus Christ, so the story of the flood foreshadows the final judgment and recreation of the earth at Jesus’ Second Coming. In Matthew 24:37, Jesus himself made this connection when he said, “As it was in the days of Noah, so it will be at the coming of the Son of Man.” The great flood reminds us that Jesus will one day return and judge the wickedness of the world once and for all.
Every human being will stand before the judgment seat of Christ and give an account of their deeds on earth. As a shepherd separates the goats from the sheep, Jesus will separate the elect who put their faith in him from the non-elect who refused his free offer of grace. The non-elect will be sentenced to eternal punishment in hell and the elect will live forever in the new heavens and earth—the recreated world—the new Garden of Eden—where there is nor more sin or death or disease or pain or suffering or tears of any kind. God will walk wit his people once again in a perfect paradise forever.
As we see how God judged the world through the great flood, may our souls be prepared for God’s final judgment day! As we see how God saved the human race through Noah’s obedience, may we respond to God’s offer of salvation and redemption through the obedience of his son Jesus Christ. And as we see how God recreated the world after the flood, may we look forward to the day the God recreates the heavens and the earth sets our weary souls to rest in his perfect paradise!
I began this sermon by reading Andrea Skevington’s retelling of the Noah’s ark narrative; let me conclude by reading her poem titled “Like Noah’s raven, and the dove.”
Can I let hope fly, send out birds
to brood and hover
over the chaos,
like Noah, with the raven,
and the dove?
For too long, there
has been nothing
on the horizon,
no fixed point
on the Earth’s
endless circle.
How would you ever know
if the water was falling,
or rising?
So can I now find courage to
cup birds in unsteady hands –
raven-black,
dove-white –
and throw them upwards
one by one?
To let fly a dark hope
even though there is
nowhere for it to rest,
even though it returns
like a gift
that comes back unopened.
Can I try again
and again,
in case something
living and growing has
pierced this water,
until finally a gentle bird
does not return.
Until, at last,
there is somewhere
other than this poor boat
for it to land.
May I have such birds to release.
May I let them fly, like Noah,
with the raven, and the dove.