The Beginning - 3 - Noah

Today is the third week in our “The Beginning” series looking at Genesis. Two weeks ago we looked at creation, last week we looked at Adam and Eve and today we are going to look at Noah.

The account of Noah, although only a few chapters on from what we were looking at last week takes place many generations, and hundreds of years after Adam and Eve ate the fruit from the tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil.

In this time humanity had really turned away from God. Virtually all of the world’s population were living lives that were evil. This really upset and angered God to the extent that he regretted creating them all together. We see this in Genesis 6 : 5 - 8.

However there was one man who was still good in God’s eyes, and had remained loyal to God despite everyone else turning their backs on God. This man was Noah.

Noah would have stood out like a sore thumb, and would probably have felt like the odd one out throughout his life but he didn’t let that influence his loyalty to God and stood firm anyway.

With this in mind we are going to play a game.

Like in the game, when everything around us is trying to influence us to do things that we know to be wrong it can be hard for us to even stand still and remain loyal to our values and faith in God.

Then if we take it a step further, not only remaining loyal to God but actively pushing forward with the work that God has in store for us, even when it doesn’t make sense. As we see in this next passage, this is exactly what Noah did in Genesis 6 : 13 - 22.

Let’s just think about what we have just read. You have one old man (he was about 500 years old at the time), and his family living in Egypt, miles away from the sea.

This guy is then told by God to build an absolutely enormous boat out of wood. This boat was huge, about 135 meters long. This is the size of 1 ½ football pitches! It was 23 meters high, which is taller than a 7 story building.

Obviously this would have been hard work, but it also would have taken a very long time to build, probably decades of hard graft. All of his friends and neighbours would have thought he was insane. After all he was building a giant boat in the middle of a desert, and was claiming that a flood was coming.

Actually going through with building the ark took real faith. Getting up day by day to build something which defied logic, just because God told him to took guts, and dedication.

How do you think you would react if you were in Noah’s shoes?

God chose Noah, because he had lived a life pleasing to him.

But Noah also demonstrated his faith by trusting God, and building the Ark when it did not make sense.

Sometimes it seems like the situations that God is allowing to happen, or as in the case of Noah, the instructions that God gave did not make sense. This is when faith comes in.

God might not be telling you to build a giant boat, but there might be something that you feel God is calling you to do, but you are not too sure about. Or maybe something has happened, which has made you wonder “Why has God, who loves me let that happen to me”

Whatever this thing might be is “your ark”. What you are going to do is write this down in the middle of your piece of paper.

As we can see from our arks, we all have situations in our life where we have questions. Questions either asking why God wants us to do something, or why he has let it happen.

What we are going to do now is pray together and ask God to give us the faith to carry on even when it doesn’t seem to make sense.

Now on the outside of the Ark, write on your ark. I trust God even when it doesn’t make sense.

God does not always reveal his plan to us. Sometimes we need to step out, and trust God without knowing the full picture.

After Noah had built the Ark God sent a flood, it rained for 40 days. The whole Earth was under water for over half a year! If you want to read this part of the story you can find it in Genesis 7 and 8 (or days 7 & 8 of the Bible Challenge).

We are now going to fast forward to the point when the flood water went down and Noah was able to open the doors and let his family and all of the animals off the Ark which had been their home for so long. Genesis 8 : 18 - 22 and Genesis 9 : 7 - 15.

What are the key things that we see happening in in this passage?

The promise that God made to Noah on this day was just one of many that God has made between himself and humanity. All with the purpose of building a relationship between himself as a holy perfect God and a not perfect humanity.

Can you think of any other examples where God made covenants or promises with humanity to help them live in relationship with him?

The promise that God made with Noah is just part Gods eternal plan for creation.

It might not all make sense but as we have seen, with faith that is ok.