Noah's Obedience: Remaining in God's Protection

By RANDY WHITE, D.Min.

Founder and CEO

Noah had more than 100 years of experience in obedience by the time he went in the ark with his family and the animals that God had instructed him to take in order to keep all the kinds that He had created alive during the flood year.

These were difficult things to do, as we have seen, yet Noah was faithful to do them. What an example he is for us who may not be nearly as willing to be obedient to the clear commands of Scripture.

Notice that we begin this time with two verses that describe Noah’s age:

And Noah was six hundred years old when the flood of waters was upon the earth (Gen. 7:6).

In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, in the second month, the seventeenth day of the month, the same day were all the fountains of the great deep broken up, and the windows of heaven were opened (Gen. 7:11).

The last time we heard about Noah’s age, he was 500 (cf. Gen. 5:32). Thus, 100 years have gone by. We can guess that his three sons must have been at least 100 years old, as well.

Look what Noah and his family did next—in faithful obedience to God:

And Noah went in, and his sons, and his wife, and his sons’ wives with him, into the ark, because of the waters of the flood. Of clean beasts, and of beasts that are not clean, and of fowls, and of every thing that creepeth upon the earth, There went in two and two unto Noah into the ark, the male and the female, as God had commanded Noah (Gen. 7:7-9).

Notice the emphasis—and even the repetition—regarding the way that Noah’s family went with him and followed his example. We hear several times about “his sons, and his wife, and his sons’ wives with him” (v. 7). Scripture is emphasizing that it is only these eight people that God was saving. I do not believe that Noah was inviting anyone else to come with them into the ark.

Rather, the purpose of the Lord in coordinating all these events was expressed in this statement:

Then God said to Noah, “The end of all flesh has come before Me; for the earth is filled with violence because of them; and behold, I am about to destroy them with the earth” (Gen. 6:13, NASB).

We are so used to seeing the world through our own focus that we are tempted to read our experience back into the Biblical account. But we must allow the text to speak purely for itself.

Now, notice the beginning of the flood in verse 10. It would come about after a final warning given a week in advance:

And it came to pass after seven days, that the waters of the flood were upon the earth.

This was not a naturalistic flood like we might experience today. It seems like the water came instantaneously. That bring us back to verse 11. The opening of “the fountains of the great deep” was a one-time experience that we cannot even imagine today. Prior to this time, it had never even rained (cf. Gen. 2:5-6).

During and after the flood, there were cataclysmic changes taking place. Many of these changes were the result of pressure from these waters. We see also from verse 11 that “the windows of heaven were opened.” This would have involved the collapse of the vapor canopy or water firmament (Gen. 1:6-8). This was just a great gushing up of water from underneath, and a falling down of water from above, that the people on the earth—my hunch is—they did not last 30 minutes! Perhaps this happened as soon as the door of the ark was closed.

Verses 15 and 16 state:

And they went in unto Noah into the ark, two and two of all flesh, wherein is the breath of life. And they that went in, went in male and female of all flesh, as God had commanded him: and the Lord shut him in.

Although I do not believe that Noah was inviting anyone else to come into the ark, I do think that there is a similarity between God shutting the door to the ark, and God shutting the door of opportunity to hear the gospel at the end of this age. We see that truth revealed in Luke 19:13 (NASB):

And he called ten of his slaves, and gave them ten minas and said to them, “Do business with thisuntil I come back.”

Genesis 7:17-24 clearly describes a global flood. That is what the text so plainly says. And that flood brought about the death of every person and land animal that was not inside the ark.

This is really kind of a violent story. We often present it in an artificially tender way. We even use Noah’s ark to decorate a baby’s nursery. Yet, when you think about it, why would we decorate a baby’s room using an event that brought destruction to the entire earth?

But the ark was also wonderful, because God used it to save humanity. The devil was trying to destroy humanity. But the Lord was sending a Redeemer to save humanity!

Our minds, though, may wish to strip away the harsh parts of the true Biblical story. We need to be careful not to do that.

The environment that we live in today, after the flood, is so different than it was before the flood. What exactly would happen when Noah finally stepped off of that tremendous ship into that new environment?

Questions like that will be the subject of our future lessons, based on the true Word of God. In the meantime, may we be like Noah—obedient in every regard in the things that we are commanded to do.

Editor’s Note: This blog article is taken from the following sermon, which you can watch in its entirety here:

(To be continued)

All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the King James Version.

Scripture quotations marked NASB are taken from the New American Standard Bible^®,
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by The Lockman Foundation
Used by permission. (www.Lockman.org)

Photo within the article is by Paul J. Scharf