UNDERSTANDING GOD IN THE OLD TESTAMENT PART OF THE BIBLE PART 6. God's Goodness in the Flood of Noah

UNDERSTANDING GOD IN THE OLD TESTAMENT PART OF THE BIBLE PART 6. God's Goodness in the Flood of Noah

God can never be known outside Christ. In Christ, we see the true identity of God. We can be certain about the attributes of God in Christ.

1 John 5

20 And we know that the Son of God is come, and hath given us an understanding, that we may know him that is true, and we are in him that is true, even in his Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God, and eternal life.

Any God outside Christ can not be the true God .

So far, we have seen that God does not and can never change . The same God we see in Christ is the God we have from Genesis. It is men due to the darkness in their hearts that couldn’t clearly understand the nature of God before the coming of Christ. So many times, the activities of humans or devils are attributed to God. Kindly click below to read the first parts of this series for the proper understanding of this part.

Understanding God in the Old Testament Part of the Bible

PART 1

PART 2

PART 3

PART 4

PART 5

In this part, we will be investigating the goodness of God in the experience of Noah as recorded in the Bible. The Bible is a complete book on Christ. It is written to show us salvation through faith which is in Christ .

2 Timothy 3

 15 And that from a child thou hast known the holy scriptures, which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus.

The scriptures have the ability to make us wise in salvation through faith which is in Christ. The entire Bible is on Christ as we saw in the part two of this series. The story of Noah and the flood experience is documented by Moses in the Bible to teach us salvation through faith which is in Christ . Even the creation story from Genesis 1 is documented for the same purpose to teach salvation through faith which is in Christ. We already established in this series that in Bible interpretation, we use the epistles (the explanation of Genesis to Malachi ) to see the revelation of the mysteries in Genesis to Malachi. Therefore, to properly understand what happened in Genesis chapter 6 to 9, we must look at what the epistles says about the experience of Noah. Let’s look at

Genesis 6

 1 And it came to pass, when men began to multiply on the face of the earth, and daughters were born unto them,

 2 That the sons of God saw the daughters of men that they were fair; and they took them wives of all which they chose.

 3 And the LORD said, My spirit shall not always strive with man, for that he also is flesh: yet his days shall be an hundred and twenty years.

 4 There were giants in the earth in those days; and also after that, when the sons of God came in unto the daughters of men, and they bare children to them, the same became mighty men which were of old, men of renown.

 5 And GOD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.

 6 And it repented the LORD that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart.

 7 And the LORD said, I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth; both man, and beast, and the creeping thing, and the fowls of the air; for it repenteth me that I have made them.

 8 But Noah found grace in the eyes of the LORD.

 9 These are the generations of Noah: Noah was a just man and perfect in his generations, and Noah walked with God.

 10 And Noah begat three sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth.

 11 The earth also was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence.

 12 And God looked upon the earth, and, behold, it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted his way upon the earth.

 13 And God said unto Noah, The end of all flesh is come before me; for the earth is filled with violence through them; and, behold, I will destroy them with the earth.

 14 Make thee an ark of gopher wood; rooms shalt thou make in the ark, and shalt pitch it within and without with pitch.

 15 And this is the fashion which thou shalt make it of: The length of the ark shall be three hundred cubits, the breadth of it fifty cubits, and the height of it thirty cubits.

 16 A window shalt thou make to the ark, and in a cubit shalt thou finish it above; and the door of the ark shalt thou set in the side thereof; with lower, second, and third stories shalt thou make it.

 17 And, behold, I, even I, do bring a flood of waters upon the earth, to destroy all flesh, wherein is the breath of life, from under heaven; and every thing that is in the earth shall die.

 18 But with thee will I establish my covenant; and thou shalt come into the ark, thou, and thy sons, and thy wife, and thy sons' wives with thee.

 19 And of every living thing of all flesh, two of every sort shalt thou bring into the ark, to keep them alive with thee; they shall be male and female.

 20 Of fowls after their kind, and of cattle after their kind, of every creeping thing of the earth after his kind, two of every sort shall come unto thee, to keep them alive.

 21 And take thou unto thee of all food that is eaten, and thou shalt gather it to thee; and it shall be for food for thee, and for them.

 22 Thus did Noah; according to all that God commanded him, so did he

From Genesis 3, we see that death is introduced into the world by Adam’s transgression. This obviously affected the whole earth that was made for man . As a result of this, man now have a choice to sin. Cain in exploring this choice killed his brother in Chapter 4 of Genesis. Wickedness kept increasing on earth due to sin and death reigning . This brought the destruction of the earth. The sons of God going into the daughters of men are the persons already mentioned in the previous chapters . They can never be angels. This is because Jesus told us that angels/spirits do not marry (Matthew 22:30).

We know that God’s power is seen in salvation not in destruction. We only see destruction when His saving hands are rejected.

Romans 1

 16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek.

 17 For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith: as it is written, The just shall live by faith.

 18 For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth in unrighteousness;

Notice the gospel, the good news about Jesus is the POWER OF GOD UNTO SALVATION not destruction. The rejection of this gospel is where we have “the wrath of God”. So the wrath of God is a figurative way of showing the consequence of men rejecting the love of God . It is the making of a man in his choice of not following God. This was what Moses was portraying in the experience of Noah .

John 3

 15 That whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life.

 16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

 17 For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.

 18 He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.

Condemnation and destruction in wrath is always seen as unbelief and the rejection of God’s love. The case of the flood cannot be an exception.

We have seen in this series that to properly understand the events in the Bible, we must learn how to rightly divide and interpret every part of the Bible. Every part has its relevance in speaking about salvation through faith in Christ.

Back to Genesis 6. Notice verse 8 and 9, among the destruction and damnation of the earth , Noah found grace in the eyes of God.

The word “found” from the Hebrew word mâtsâ means to attain, to discover, to find . Noah discovered the graciousness of God amidst the destruction. Noah found kindness in the sight of God. God was so gracious that He told Noah to build an ark that was big enough to contain everyone on earth then . We obviously know the flood cannot be from God. It was as a consequence of the fall of man and sin and death reigning on earth. Where we see God is in salvation. He is mighty to save. Hence , God is seen in the instructions given to Noah to build an ark for safety. Remember Moses wrote this story to teach salvation through faith in Christ. Let’s see how the epistles portray Noah and the flood experience.

Hebrews 11

7 By faith Noah, being warned of God of things not seen as yet, moved with fear, prepared an ark to the saving of his house; by the which he condemned the world, and became heir of the righteousness which is by faith.

From Verse 1 of Hebrews 11 already established the fact that men had faith in Christ in hope of an event of what they have not seen(resurrection into life only possible through the death of Jesus). This makes this men to carry out certain activities because they believed. So Noah's action of faith on the grace of God was the ark he built. The same ark served as condemnation to those refused to enter . This is what happens today when people reject the sacrifice of Jesus. Men will perish rejecting the same sacrifice and life made for their salvation. Noah for 120 days was a preacher of righteousness. This was what was said in verse 3 of Genesis 6(..yet his days shall be an hundred and twenty years.). This was not talking of the lifespan of humans because people lived more than 120 years after the flood incidence.

Isaiah in his prophecy referenced the incidence of Noah to talk about the goodness of God.

Isaiah 54

9 For this is as the waters of Noah unto me: for as I have sworn that the waters of Noah should no more go over the earth; so have I sworn that I would not be wroth with thee, nor rebuke thee. (Compare)

 10 For the mountains shall depart, and the hills be removed; but my kindness shall not depart from thee, neither shall the covenant of my peace be removed, saith the LORD that hath mercy on thee.

Isaiah 54 announced the effects of what the vicarious death of Jesus talked about in chapter 53. Notice the prophet referenced the experience to show the mercy and unconditional kindness of God not the wrath of God. Where we see God in the flood is in salvation through the ark and restraining another flood from happening.

Let's see the testimony of Peter about Noah.

1 Peter 3

20 Which sometime were disobedient, when once the longsuffering of God waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was a preparing, wherein few, that is, eight souls were saved by water.

Peter in talking about the long suffering of God which is seen in salvation referenced Noah and the ark. The preparation of the ark was out of the kindness of God to save. This is because the world was full of wickedness so they ought to suffer the just recompense of their wickedness. But God out of His mercy made a way out in the ark. The people still didn’t believe Noah .

2 Peter 2

1 But there were false prophets also among the people, even as there shall be false teachers among you, who privily shall bring in damnable heresies, even denying the Lord that bought them, and bring upon themselves swift destruction.

2 And many shall follow their pernicious ways; by reason of whom the way of truth shall be evil spoken of.

 3 And through covetousness shall they with feigned words make merchandise of you: whose judgment now of a long time lingereth not, and their damnation slumbereth not.

 4 For if God spared not the angels that sinned, but cast them down to hell, and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved unto judgment;

5 And spared not the old world, but saved Noah the eighth person, a preacher of righteousness, bringing in the flood upon the world of the ungodly;

 6 And turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrha into ashes condemned them with an overthrow, making them an ensample unto those that after should live ungodly;

 7 And delivered just Lot, vexed with the filthy conversation of the wicked:

 8 (For that righteous man dwelling among them, in seeing and hearing, vexed his righteous soul from day to day with their unlawful deeds;)

 9 The Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly out of temptations, and to reserve the unjust unto the day of judgment to be punished:

Peter in teaching about false prophets who do not believe in Jesus and their just recompense referenced Noah and the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah. Notice the punishment of these men who do not believe but make merchandize of people is sure even as the angels who sinned were reserved in judgement. If God could allow the consequences of the angels , He will not stop the consequences of unbelief.

Notice , verse 5 calls Noah a preacher of righteousness. Noah found out the kindness of God and believed, hence, he built the ark. He also preached to others to believe and be rescued but they didn’t. This same thing happens today. Men who refuse to believe in Jesus will have the consequences of their action in eternal damnation. Notice it is a similar situation for Sodom and Gomorrah. Moses selected those two incidents to teach the consequences of unbelief. We will look at Sodom and Gomorrah in the next part of the series.

In summary, we have seen in this part the goodness of God in that He is mighty to save men. God is never seen as a causative factor of evil and destruction. We know God in Christ Jesus. Jesus never caused any massive destruction while on earth. He never killed any. We can be certain so far that God is yet to commit His first murder. Men will always be destroyed if they reject salvation in Christ. In the old testament part of the Bible, this destructions are recorded as though God caused them. This is because it is in the rejection of what God made available that we see the destruction.

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BY EMEKE MODESTY OBIAZIKWOR

       www.emekemodesty.com

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