David Pawson - Genesis 5

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THOUGHTFUL THOUGHTS 28.8.26  BY JOHN DUNNING.

GENESIS Part 5 - “THE SIGN OF NOAH”

A). INTRODUCTION

One of the saddest verses in the Bible is the one where God says He regretted making mankind, (6:5-6). It doesn’t say God regretted making the animals;- He only says He regretted making man.

At first, we read that even the animals were vegetarian, (Gen. 1:30), but St Paul noted that ever since the “Fall”, the whole of creation suffered, (Romans 8:22). After mankind went their own way, everyone and everything suffered. God decided He couldn’t stand by any longer, watching the depths to which mankind had sunk, He decided to do something about it. We read all about it in Gen. 6-10 which tells us about the great flood, (which many cultures around the world have stories passed down about, in their culture.)

Whilst the first five chapters of Genesis cover hundreds of years, mainly about Adam and Eve’s family, in chapter 6 we see the depravity and cruelty that God’s creation had fallen down to, resulting from man living without God, to the point where God could no longer stand aside watching it all. So…

B). THE FLOOD

The flood reset the clock. God started again. However, there was one man and his family who were living righteously, who was exempt from that judgement, which was of course, Noah, who was saved out of the flood. God extended grace to Noah and his family, to escape the sentence passed down on everyone else.

God’s rainbow covenant with Noah…

After it was all over, God provided an unconditional covenant that He would not flood the whole earth again. The rainbow would be the sign between God and man on that promise. As that covenant was unconditional it is called a “general covenant”, meaning it still applies to us all today. God also promised that there would always be seedtime and harvest for mankind. God has kept His promise by always providing enough food for the world – but mankind has not been sharing it equally. 

Official figures show that there is one third more food in the world than is required to feed everyone. (Remember the EU “food mountains” which was used to feed Russia at the end of the “cold war”?)

On the news now we hear of the grain mountains in Ukraine, feeding Africa. (Not to mention the USA’s gifting of grain around the world to trouble spots, under a programme called “USA Aid”.) 

Next time you see a rainbow, remember that God called it “The sign of the covenant”, (Gen.9:12 ff.) The rainbow is a covenant that God for His part will provide enough food.

c). THE COMING JUDGEMENT 

Then we see that Jesus uses that story of Noah and the flood as a sign… In Luke 17:26ff we read this, 26 “Just as it was in Noah’s time, so it will be in the Son of Man’s time. 27 People were eating, drinking, marrying, and being given in marriage right up to the day when Noah went into the ark. Then the flood came and destroyed all of them. 28 So it was in Lot’s time. People were eating and drinking, buying and selling, planting and building. 29 But on the very day when Lot left Sodom, fire and sulfur rained down from heaven and destroyed all of them. 30 The day when the Son of Man is revealed will be like that.”

Jesus says that Noah and the flood should warn us of the judgement to come. The fact that Jesus used Noah and the flood as an illustration about the judgement to come, shows us that Jesus believed in the Genesis account but also of the judgement to come.

So when Jesus warns us that the “flood” is a sign of the judgement to come, it means we must take it seriously, by responding to the gospel message. 

- “The sign of Noah”

We are also told in Matthew 25:31-46 that Jesus will be the judge on that day. We see from the group of people drowned in the flood, who are then given a second chance, (1 Peter 3:18-19), that God goes out of His way to judge all, fairly… But what we need is mercy, because if justice were the only factor, we would be doomed. 

What we need is the answer God provided…

- “The just shall live by faith”

In the “Old” Testament God provided another covenant, we call the “Old Covenant” until it was “completed”, or “finished” by Jesus on the cross, (John 19:30),  bringing in the “New Covenant”. 

But even under the “Old” Covenant, we learn from Habakkuk (2:4) that “the just shall live by faith”, but more literally it says that those who  are “just” (i.e. righteous), will survive by continuing to live faithfully. The writer of Hebrews, (10:38), picks up on that verse in Habakkuk 2:4, that the righteous will live by being faithful, and applies it to the new covenant. 

Even Jeremiah had the answer when he said “If you seek Him, He will be found by you”, (Jer. 29:13).

St Paul also picks up on that principle (in Romans 1:17 and Galatians 3:11), about the righteous living by their faithfulness, which brings us to the cross of Jesus, next… 

- Fairness

What we learn in 1 Peter 3:18-20 that although those who died in Noah’s flood were given a second chance - it was the exception to the rule, on the grounds of fairness. Jesus does say in a parable that once we have died there is no second chance. However, back in time, those that died in Noah’s flood were treated differently to the rest of mankind, by being judged before they had died naturally. The world was judged before the Day of Judgement. Although they had been judged fairly, they had been treated differently to the generations that came after Noah, because God judged them before they died naturally. Matthew picks up on this. He adds extra information to what Peter tells us about Jesus preaching in the place of departed spirits, when His body was in the grave. Matthew adds that many were resurrected and were seen walking around in Jerusalem, (Matt 27:52-54). No wonder 3,000 were open to responding to Peter’s sermon at Pentecost, after that event!

D). THE ANSWER - 

Jesus brought in the New Covenant. Jesus told us that there would be a judgement, to warn us to get right with God. And what is more, He came to provide the answer on how to make that possible. 

As we need the mercy of God, now we see how Jesus came to make that possible. 

He came to save us from our sin and we need to obey what He said to Nicodemus that we must be “Born Again”, (in John 3:16). What does that mean? 

Peter summarised (in Acts 2:38) what to do to join God’s family where he tells us to repent, (like David in Psalm 51), be immersed (like John the Baptist), and receive the Holy Spirit, (like the disciples at Pentecost.)

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Do share this study with your friends…

This is John Dunning signing off from “Thoughtful Thoughts” for another week.

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PS. To help pray for the ‘suffering church’ see;- https://barnabasfund.org/nz/pray/daily-prayer/#previous-dates

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If you would like to know how to find peace with God, listen to the podcasts at this link…

https://www.inspirational.org.nz/pages/johns-devotionals-podcast

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For a message on Hearing God, called “The Cost of Discipleship”, 

visit this podcast link https://share.transistor.fm/s/1263bbab

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