Noah’s Ark
Published by Stanley Pouw in 2019 · 31 March 2019
Tonight we study Genesis 6:13-22. We already know that God is going to destroy the world. That message in the first 12 verses tell us that judgment is coming. Repeatedly God the eternal and holy creator and sustainer of the universe acts in history in two ways: one, sinners are judged, and two, He rescues redeemed sinners from judgment. That is the story of Scripture of redemption.
Now Genesis 6 - 9 describes the flood. This is a worldwide cataclysmic judgment that wipes out all of humanity and is essentially a preview of the final judgment of history. In the New Testament, Jesus in Matthew 24:37-39, and Luke 17:26-30, describes the future judgment of the coming of the Son of Man as being like the judgment of the days of Noah.
As we have learned, about 1650 years into human history, the flood came. God destroyed the human race, drowning them all and that was the model for what He will do in the end by fire. We are now 4500 years plus past the flood and that judgment has not yet come but it will. And there are many Christians who reject the biblical record of a world-wide flood in the Bible.
There is this new wave of theology that basically says that people all over the world who never read the Bible or hear the gospel are going to be saved because God is just too kind. He's just too merciful to destroy all these people. Well if you think that's true then you have a difficult time explaining how God drowned the entire world in the time of Noah and saved only eight.
But it is true that in judgment God always distinguishes between the wicked and the righteous. He did so in Egypt. God gave instruction about putting blood from the Passover lamb on the door posts, and if those people showed their obedience by putting that blood there, the angel of death would pass by their house while the first born children in other houses were killed.
Even the Lord Jesus spoke of this distinguishing in judgment. He said that the Father had committed all judgment to Him in John 5:28-29, “the hour is coming in which all who are in the graves will hear His voice 29 and come forth—those who have done good, to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil, to the resurrection of condemnation.” God always distinguishes those of us who belong to Him.
By the time you come to the life of Noah, humanity was totally and constantly wicked. God decided to destroy all humanity but not without distinction. So having determined that He will destroy He informed Noah of the fact that He was going to destroy the entire world but spare Noah, his wife, his three sons and their wives. And through that, God preserved His original promise to Adam.
Now how is God going to protect Noah and his family in this holocaust? The answer to that is a real historical account but you also have a wonderful picture of how God rescues His own in the midst of judgment. In this account Noah never says anything. He doesn't speak in Genesis six, seven, eight and nine until the flood has come and gone.
And when he does finally speak the first words that come out of his mouth are a curse on his grandson Canaan. And what we learn through these chapters that this is all about God not about Noah. This is all about sovereign purpose. This is all about the almighty, holy God acting, judging and saving. Noah never says anything but he does everything God commands him to do. And there is the proof of that righteousness.
For the first time God speaks in verse 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.” God is personally telling Noah of the coming of divine judgment. And the only response that Noah has through the whole account is to do exactly what God tells him to do.
Now we go to the rescue in verses 14-16. God knows the heart of Noah. He knows that Noah and his family are righteous. He knows His own purpose for them and so He tells Noah to do something. Remember He hasn't said anything about a flood yet. He hasn't said anything about water. And Noah built an ark in the middle of the land, out where there was no sea.
Verse 14-16, "Make for yourself an ark of gopher wood," this isn't a boat. “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 You shall make a window for the ark, and you shall finish it to a cubit from above; and set the door of the ark in its side. You shall make it with lower, second, and third decks.”
So God starts by telling him how to make an ark. It's the word ‘tebahin’ in Hebrew. It means a big box. Noah knew what a boat was but that's not what God told him to build. He said build a big rectangular, wooden box. It wasn't designed to sail and it wasn't designed to be propelled. It was only designed to float. There were no oars, there were no sails, and there was no navigator. It was just a very big box.
Now this word ‘ark’ is rarely used in the Old Testament. Only one other time it was used in the Exodus 2. This is the story of Moses. To protect Moses his mother in Exodus 2: 3-4 says, "So she got him a wicker ark," same word. "A little box made out of reeds and covered it over with tar and pitch. “4 And his sister stood at a distance to find out what would happen to him." They didn't know.
There wasn't any guidance system on it, it was just there in the river. And remember the story; the daughter of the Pharaoh came down to bathe at the Nile with her maidens walking alongside. She saw the ark, same word, among the reeds, sent her maid and brought it to her and you know the story from there. God controlled that little reed basket that floated Moses above the water.
In both cases God protected these arks from death by drowning. And He provided that for two outstanding men. Noah, who was to be a father of a new humanity and Moses who was to be a father of a new nation. Noah who was to lead his people into a new world and Moses who was to lead his people to a new place. Two preachers, two leaders of a new people were preserved from drowning by an ark.
The material, back to Genesis 6, was gopher wood. We have no idea what that is. Now building a box is one thing. Building a ship is another. And nobody had built a ship that big. This is massive. And Noah was not a ship builder. But this wasn't a ship. The plan was simple; make it 300 cubits long, 50 cubits wide and 30 cubits high and that's it. There were no angles, no curves, just a box.
This was an immense task. That is a huge rectangle made out of wood. It's unlikely the family itself could build anything that huge so he probably employed a group of people who were skilled in building. And then the Lord gets a little more complicated, I want you to make rooms in there, compartments, thousands of them. And those rooms are on a series of three decks. And then you have to caulk it with pitch.
Now let's look at the size of the ark. It has to be 300 cubits long, 50 cubits wide and 30 cubits high. A cubit is about 18 inches. So this is 450 feet long, 75 feet wide and 45 feet high. It's a rectangle with a flat bottom, flat sides and flat ends. The ark is the largest floating vessel ever built until the 19th century. It was unheard of. No one could imagine or expect building a vessel so huge.
What shipbuilders learned after building ship after ship through human history is that it's critical for a ship to be stable in the water and it has to have a certain ratio. This still is the standard for large ships. And the ratios are from 6:1 to 8:1in length to width. Well do you know that the ark ratio was 6:1? Noah was not a ship builder and nobody ever had seen a boat that big, but God knows.
Henry Morris who is an engineer and a scientist concluded that the ark was so stable that it would have been turned completely vertical before it would tip over. Also it gives it a third more cargo capacity than a similar ship with a sloping hull. And the gross tonnage of the ark would be 14,000 tons. Its internal space was 100,000 square feet. And its total volume, 1.5 million cubic feet.
The ark was sufficiently large enough to carry two of every species of air breathing animal in the world. And you could do it on half the deck space. And the rest was for Noah and his family. And five additional pairs of animals, we'll find out later, who were designed for sacrifice. Only God would have the concept of building something so big that was able to float. It was 120 years before the flood came.
This to me is evidence of the integrity of the inspired character of Scripture. If Moses had invented the flood story, they never would have imagined or designed a ship that big in the ancient world. They never could have designed this from any experience they had. But God told Noah to build a flat bottom barge with no rudder; the Lord would be the rudder. And everybody in the family was going on a cruise.
A cruise with no ports and it was going to last 371 days. Verse 16 said, “You shall make a window for the ark, what was that? Well the word ‘soharis’ is used here and it's used also in Genesis 8:6 at the end of the 40 days when the window of the ark was opened. The rain came down for 40 days and then the rain stopped. By that time the earth was so flooded that they were there for a year before the floods completely subsided.
It seems to connect with some ancient sources meaning light. Some have translated that as a covering. It's better to see it as a window or better an opening. Verse 16, "You finish it to a cubic from the top." So the roof is sloped and where the roof comes out and extends past the sides of the ark there is an opening of 18 inches. Ventilation all the way around is probably the best way to understand it.
It was under the overhang and could be covered with some material during the rain. And that material could then be rolled up or removed when the rain had stopped. So there would literally be an 18 inch, a foot and a half, opening all the way around that entire ark, interrupted only by the posts that were holding up the roof providing light and ventilation.
And then Noah is told to make a door. The middle of verse 16, "Set the door of the ark, just one door, in the side of it." Many people have seen this ark as an analogy to the Lord Jesus Christ in whom there is salvation. It is also true that He is the only door available but He actually is the ark of safety and judgment. And they only needed one door and once they shut it, nobody was going to get on the ship.
So Noah doesn't know about the animals yet; he hasn't heard of that but we do. And the Lord then tells him why. Verse 17, “And behold, I Myself am bringing floodwaters on the earth, to destroy from under heaven all flesh in which is the breath of life; everything that is on the earth shall die.” Here is the word flood, ‘mabule’. It is a term used only in Genesis 6-9 to describe this massive, worldwide deluge.
It refers exclusively to the Genesis flood. It is only used one other time in all the Old Testament. God reserved this word and the one other time that it's used is in Psalm 29:10, "The Lord sat as King at the flood." In a reference back to this event. So this is a unique word, an isolated word used only for this flood. This is the flood of all floods, such a flood that cannot be compared to any other kind of water disaster.
This flood, the Lord says he's bringing on the earth to destroy all flesh in which is the breath of life. Again the Scripture is very specific. Genesis 7: 21-22, “And all flesh died that moved on the earth: birds and cattle and beasts and every creeping thing that creeps on the earth, and every man. 22 All in whose nostrils was the breath of the spirit of life, all that was on the dry land, died.”
So this is limited to all air breathing creatures, excluding those who are under water. And he says it again at the end of verse 17, "Everything that is on the earth shall perish." Now how can people conclude there was only a local flood? There are about 75 references in these four chapters that make it impossible to conclude anything other than this was global. It speaks of the death of humanity.
Another reason it's a worldwide flood is because of the depth of the flood. The flood was at least above Mt. Ararat which is 17,000 feet high. All over the globe you can find evidences of the flood. God says in 1 Peter 3:20, "God drowned the whole world and saved eight souls," Jesus said when the Son of Man comes it's going to be like it was when the flood came. He will destroy the whole world of the ungodly.
The Lord says in verses 18-19, “But I will establish My covenant with you; and you shall go into the ark—you, your sons, your wife, and your sons’ wives with you.” God knows exactly who is to be judged and who is not. Noah was justified in verse 9, "He was righteous.” “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.”
The language in verse 19 sounds a lot like the creation language of Genesis 1. Now remember the animals, "You shall bring two of every kind into the ark." You don't have to go find them because the Lord is going to collect them for you. Verse 20, "Of the birds after their kind, the animals after their kind of every creeping thing of the ground after its kind, two of every kind shall come to you to keep them alive."
Then in verse 21-22, “And you shall take for yourself of all food that is eaten, and you shall gather it to yourself; and it shall be food for you and for them.” 22 Thus Noah did; according to all that God commanded him, so he did.” And they were all still vegetarians. And God spoke to Noah in this section seven times. A true believer is marked by a life of obedience, right? Let us pray.