Bible Study Week 2
Part 2
The Righteous Family Preserved
Faith and Obedience
While God made a way of escape for Noah, He required obedient faith on Noah's part. God gave Noah specific instructions on how the ark was to be built. God decided the type of wood (gopher), the size (three hundred cubits long, fifty cubits wide, and thirty cubits high), and the number of doors (one) and floors (three). The Lord even told Noah how many animals to take into the ark. He was to take thee clean beasts by seven and the unclean by twos. (See Genesis 7:2)
One Plan Escape
What if Noah, like Cain, had decided to do things his own way? What if he had used a different type of wood, or changed any other detail of God's plan? His family would have perished in the flood along with the rest of sinful, disobedient humanity. God has never spared those who were disobedient to His Word. Because of Adam and Eves sin, the first human couple had to leave the beautiful Garden of Eden. Because of Cain's sin, the Lord set a mark upon him and banished him from His presence. Because of the sinfulness of the human race, the whole world except Noah and his family were destroyed. As God said, "My spirit shall not always strive with man" (Genesis 6:3)
Noah was a preacher of righteousness (II Peter 2:5). Evidently, Noah not only prepared for his family but warned others as well of the impending judgment and their need to repent and obey God. His message went unheeded, however. God in His longsuffering, was waiting for humankind to repent. (See I Peter 3:20)
The end result was, "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 (Hebrews 11:7)
>>> Why do you think Scripture notes the saving of Noah's entire family?
The home is still the place to start the devotional life before God, and it is still important to preserve life within the family.
The Place of Safety
One week before the Flood, God led Noah and his family into the ark. The Lord also directed the animals in, after which He shut the door (Genesis 7:15-16). Noah was six hundred years old (Genesis 7:11)
The rain began to fall, and the fountains of the deep were broken up. Steadily, the depth of water increased for forty days. The water continued to cover the mountains for 110 more days. At the end of 150 days from the beginning of the Flood, the ark rested upon the mountains of Ararat. Two and a half months later, the tops of the other mountains became visible.
After forty days, Noah opened the window and sent out a raven and a dove. The dove found no place to land and returned to the ark. After seven days, Noah sent the dove out again, and when it returned, the bird had an olive leaf in its mouth. Finally after an additional seven days, Noah sent forth the dove again, and it never returned.
Noah Receives a Promise
After a year and seventeen days, God told Noah, together with his family and the animals, to leave the ark (Genesis 8:13-18). One of the first things Noah did upon leaving the ark was to build an altar upon which he offered burnt offerings to the Lord.
The Lord said, "I will not again curse the ground any more for mans sake; for the imagination of mans heart is evil from his youth; neither will I again smite any more every thing living, as I have done. While the earth remaineth ... day and night shall not cease" (Genesis 8:21-22)
This was not the end of God's communication with Noah, however. As He had commanded the first man and woman, God told Noah and his family to multiply and fill the earth (Genesis 9:1). He said that from that time forward, animals would fear humans and be used by them for food, except for the blood (Genesis 9:2-4).
To Noah and his sons God said, "And I, behold, I establish my convenient with you, and with your seed after you; and with every living creature that is with you, of the fowl, of the cattle, and of every beast of the earth with you; from all that go out of the ark, to every beast of the earth. And I will establish my covenant with you; neither shall all flesh be cut off any more by the waters of a flood; neither shall there any more be a flood to destroy the earth. And God said, This is the token of the convenient which I make between me and you and every living creature that is with you, for perpetual generations: I do set my bow in the cloud, and it shall be for a token of a covenant between me and the earth." (Genesis (9:9-13)