The Lord’s Overwhelming Flood
I. Of Judgement II. Of Grace
Genesis 6:9–22
9 These are the generations of Noah. Noah was a righteous man, blameless in his generation. Noah walked with God. 10 And Noah had three sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth.
11 Now the earth was corrupt in God’s sight, and the earth was filled with violence.12 And God saw the earth, and behold, it was corrupt, for all flesh had corrupted their way on the earth. 13 And God said to Noah, “I have determined to make an end of all flesh, for the earth is filled with violence through them. Behold, I will destroy them with the earth. 14 Make yourself an ark of gopher wood. Make rooms in the ark, and cover it inside and out with pitch. 15 This is how you are to make it: the length of the ark 300 cubits, its breadth 50 cubits, and its height 30 cubits.16 Make a roof for the ark, and finish it to a cubit above, and set the door of the ark in its side. Make it with lower, second, and third decks. 17 For behold, I will bring a flood of waters upon the earth to destroy all flesh in which is the breath of life under heaven. Everything that is on the earth shall die. 18 But I will establish my covenant with you, and you shall come into the ark, you, your sons, your wife, and your sons’ wives with you. 19 And of every living thing of all flesh, you shall bring two of every sort into the ark to keep them alive with you. They shall be male and female. 20 Of the birds according to their kinds, and of the animals according to their kinds, of every creeping thing of the ground, according to its kind, two of every sort shall come in to you to keep them alive. 21 Also take with you every sort of food that is eaten, and store it up. It shall serve as food for you and for them.”22 Noah did this; he did all that God commanded him.
Prayer: Dear Heavenly Father, grant us to repentance and faith in your Word, that we might be granted safe passage from this life to the next for Jesus’ sake. Amen.
Dear Fellow Redeemed,
Of the many biblical accounts that unbelievers and even Christians question, the account of the flood is at the top of the list. In college, I took a course on Evolutionary Biology and one of the topics we covered was the flood. I remember my professor asking the question—what geological and biological evidence would we expect to see if Genesis is correct and there really was a global flood? He wrote, if there really was a flood, “We should expect to see deep canyons and river valleys caused by events of a magnitude that we don’t see happening anywhere today. We should expect also to see evidence of the rapid burial and death of billions of living organisms. In fact, this is exactly what we see. Now, our interpretation of these facts will differ from evolutionists who believe that these landforms and fossils were created over billions of years from much smaller events. But the data itself is exactly what we would predict if the Bible is true. We find fossils of sea creatures on top of mountains. How did they get there?” (2019 ELS Synod Convention Essay, Holbird).
Recently, when my wife and I visited Arizona and I saw the huge mountains and valleys, and interesting formations in the rocks, I couldn’t help but think how the very formation of things point to a biblical flood. When we look at fossil records, the very order in which we find the simplest organisms to the largest mammals corresponds exactly to what we would expect to see from a worldwide flood. But this is not the only evidence. For those interested, when I send out my sermon link, I will also attach a link to the convention essay that I quoted from.
Yet, the most important reason we believe in an historic worldwide flood is because Jesus himself confirms it. Jesus uses the history of Noah as an example of what Judgement Day will be like, “And just as it happened in the days of Noah, so it will be also in the days of the Son of Man: they were eating, they were drinking, they were marrying, they were being given in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark, and the flood came and destroyed them all” (Luke 17:26–27). Jesus is God and he does not lie. As certainly as a worldwide flood took place, so too will Christ return to judge the living and the dead.
As we think about the Flood, one important question is—what led God to this judgement? We know from our study of Scripture, how the sin of Adam not only brought death and sin into the world, but also divided mankind into two separate camps, the godless children of Cain and the God-fearing descendants of Seth. These two families were apart for some time. However, as they began to spread in the earth, the sons of Seth saw that the daughters of Cain were beautiful, and they began to marry them (Genesis 6:2). This ultimately led God’s faithful believers to slowly give up the faith. Instead of choosing a wife who would encourage them in the faith and seek to glorify God, they were more concerned about looks. This is a lesson in itself about the importance of marrying a God-fearing spouse.
The violence and the terrible moral and religious condition on the earth led God to say, “I will blot out man whom I have created from the face of the land, man and animals and creeping things and birds of the heavens, for I am sorry that I have made them” (Genesis 6:7).
God would destroy the world he had made. Because of their unbelief and rebellion against him, God would judge those who were condemned already (John 3:18). Yet, even in his righteous judgement of the world, we learn, “But Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord” (Genesis 6:8).
Noah is truly an amazing figure in the Old Testament. Our lesson said, “Noah was a righteous man, blameless in his generation. Noah walked with God.” In a world that was completely opposed to God, unbelieving and wicked, Noah trusted in God. He was righteous through faith in the promised Messiah, the Seed of the woman who would crush Satan’s ugly head. He was a faithful OT believer.
And God would use Noah as his preacher. The apostle Peter calls Noah “a preacher of righteousness” (II Peter 2:5). He preached law and gospel not only with his mouth, but with his chalk line and level, his hammer and saw as well. We learn from Scripture that Noah preached for 120 years to the people. The building of the ark itself was a sermon, warning people of destruction, and showing that they could be saved only by taking refuge in the ark.
While God would destroy the world, he showed grace by giving them 120 years to repent. But what did Noah have to show for his faithful preaching? Only himself and seven others from his family boarded the ark. Consider how Noah would have been mocked. He was building an ark where there was no water! He proclaimed a worldwide flood when it had yet to even rain on the earth! And it took him 120 years to build it! The earth had never been destroyed so why would it be now? Faith trusts in God’s word even when it defies human reason and popular thinking. After God instructed Noah what to do our text says, “Noah did this; he did all that God commanded him.”
When the time had come, Noah and his family boarded the ark. The waters would burst forth and cover the earth. Yet, the great mystery of it all was that God used this judgement of the sinful world to be the salvation of his faithful people. In the same moment where many were condemned, he raised to safety those who trusted in his word. Scripture says, “By faith Noah, being divinely warned of things not yet seen, moved with godly fear, prepared an ark for the saving of his household, by which he condemned the world and became heir of the righteousness which is according to faith” (Hebrews 11:7).
The Lord’s overwhelming flood of judgement was at the same time the Lord’s overwhelming flood of grace. God did not abandon Noah and his family along with the rest of the unbelieving world. He provided for him. He saved him through the ark, lifting him from flood waters. God keeps his promises to his believers. Heaven and earth fall away, but his words will never fall away.
Like Noah’s generation, there are many today who do not believe that there will be a life after this or a judgement day. Like Noah, God’s faithful people are labeled as ridiculous, foolish, and childish for believing God’s warning. Of course, it’s easy for us to fall for this trap. It’s been almost two thousand years since Jesus ascended into heaven and ever since then the Christian Church has been waiting for his return. We have witnessed the signs that Jesus described before his coming—wars, rumors of wars, plagues, hate, eclipses, natural disasters, and more. It might be a temptation to think—these things have always happened. But our Lord wants us to be ready. Jesus tells us to stay awake!
We know that Christ will come again. We might not have a man building an ark to tell us, but we have the signs. Yet our Lord doesn’t tell us this to scare us, but to comfort us. Jesus said, “Now when these things begin to take place, straighten up and raise your heads, because your redemption is drawing near.” We can have peace at our Lord’s second coming, because of his first coming when Jesus came in humility. For our Lord who will come to judge the living and the dead is also the one who was born in a manger, a carpenter from Nazareth, who rode on a colt the foal of a donkey, a beast of burden, as he carried the burden of our sins to the cross.
We don’t have to fear God’s judgement, because Christ was judged in our place. Scripture says, “He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world” (I John 2:2). His arms spread out on the cross show how he opens his arms to the whole world. It does not matter who you are—every man, women, and child, rich or poor, strong or weak, good or bad, Jesus invites to his kingdom. Jesus says, “Amen, amen, I tell you: Anyone who hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life. He is not going to come into judgement but has crossed over from death to life” (John 5:24).
God made a promise to Noah. He would save his family. Even though God told of the oncoming destruction, God gave Noah a sign—the ark. What looked completely foolish and unhelpful to the world, was the method for saving Noah and his entire family. God has promised to save us as well—and he has given us a sure proof of our salvation, something on which we can rely.
Peter writes, “For Christ also suffered once for sins, the just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive by the Spirit… when once the Divine longsuffering waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was being prepared, in which a few, that is, eight souls, were saved through water. There is also an antitype which now saves us—baptism (not the removal of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience toward God), through the resurrection of Jesus Christ” (I Peter 3:18–22).
Have you ever noticed how many sides our baptismal font has? Eight. How many people were saved in the flood? Eight. Just as the ark saved those who trusted in God, so too does baptism save us. Scripture says, “He saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that being justified by his grace we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life” (Titus 3:5–7). God loves you and he wants you to be saved, which is why he has given us the gift of baptism so that we might become children of God and heirs of heaven.
You have God’s word of warning. Christ will come again to judge the living and the dead. But you also have Christ’s promise, “He who believes and is baptized will be saved” (Mark 16:16). We learn from the flood, that this world will not last forever. The things that we think are immovable move and fall. But there is one thing that will never change. Jesus said, “Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will not pass away.”
If you trust in God’s word, the world might take you for a fool as it did with Noah. But you will find favor with God. So may God give us wisdom to be fools to the world, and wise toward him, trusting in his word, repenting of our sins, and raising our heads with confidence for Jesus’ sake. Amen.
1. Through Jesus’ blood and merit
I am at peace with God;
What, then, can daunt my spirit,
However dark my road?
My courage shall not fail me,
For God is on my side;
Though hell itself assail me,
Its rage I may deride.
2. There’s nothing that can sever
Me from the love of God,
No want, no pain whatever,
No famine, peril, flood.
Though thousand foes surround me,
For slaughter mark Thy sheep,
They never shall confound me,
The vict’ry I shall reap.
Amen!