Awash with good people - part 2 of 3 (Stage 7)

Genesis 6: 9, 10, 11, 12 & 13; ''These are the generations [This is the genealogy ] of Noah: Noah was a just man and perfect [blameless] before God.  And Noah begat three sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth.  The earth also was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence.  And God looked upon the earth, and, behold, it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted his way upon the earth.  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.''

God had given mankind every chance to mend his ways; Enoch had warned the people:

Jude 14 & 15; ‘’And Enoch also, the servant from Adam, prophesied of these saying, Behold, the LORD cometh with ten thousands of his saints, To execute judgement upon all, and to convince [convict] all that are ungodly among them of their ungodly deeds which they have ungodly [ungodly way] committed, and of all their hard [harsh things] speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against him.’’

God's Spirit had been striving with them trying to get them to see the right way to lead their lives:

Genesis 6: 3; ''And the LORD said, My spirit shall not always strive with man, for that he also is flesh: yet his day shall be one hundred and twenty years''

And Noah had preached righteousness to them;

2 Peter 2: 5; ''And spare not the world, but saved Noah the eighth person, a preacher of righteousness, bringing in the flood upon the world of the ungodly.''

Now, ''Noah was a just man and perfect in his generations''; the root for the Hebrew word just means conformity to an ethical or moral standard.  In a corrupt world Noah was not merely the best of a bad generation, but alone amongst his contemporaries, he whole heartedly looked towards God.  In the Hebrew the word we translate as ''Perfect'' has the idea of ''completeness''  - or that which is entirely in accord with the truth or fact.  

Noah then, like his godly ancestor Enoch ''walked with God''.  He separated himself from the wickedness of his contemporaries and chose to follow the LORD.  Consequently, God would spare Noah and his immediate family from the destruction to befall his fellow man and directs Noah in what he must now do:

Genesis 6: 14, 15, 17, 18, 19 & 22; ''Make thee and ark of gopher wood; rooms [literally: compartments] shalt thou make in the ark, and shall pitch it within and without with pitch.  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.  And behold, I, even I, do bring [am bringing] waters upon the earth to destroy all flesh, wherein is the breath of life, from under heaven; and everything that is in the earth shall die.  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.  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. Thus did Noah; according to all that God commanded him, so he did.''

If a cubit is 18 inches the the ark was huge;  450 feet long, 75 feet wide and 45 feet high with three decks.  It's shape was more like a chest, not a ship, which emphasis it's sole purpose  - to provide shelter and an orderly existence for a variety of creatures.  Furthermore, its shape would mean it did not have to be launched but could just wait and float upon the water as the level rose.

According to Genesis, Noah was 600 years old when the flood came; and, considering Genesis 6:3 (above), he must have been 480 years old when God informed his that He was going to destroy the earth; Noah died when he was 950 years old.

Genesis 7: 1, 11 & 12 ''And the LORD said unto Noah, Come thou and all thy house into the ark; for thee I have seen righteous before me in this generation. ... In the six hundredth year of Noah's life, in the second month, the seventeenth day of the month, the same day of all the fountains of the great deep broken up, and the windows of the heaven were opened.  And the rain was upon the earth forty days and forty nights. ... And they went in, went in male and female of all flesh, as God commanded him: and the LORD shut him in.''

''And the LORD shut him in'' the expression beautifully shows God's fatherly touch; at the very brink of judgement God acts to ensure that Noah and his family were preserved.

But,  for everyone else ''...the great deep...'' and ''...the windows of heaven...'' describe a vast upheaval of the sea-bed, and torrential rain.  Hence the waters above and below the firmament are merged again as if the very work of creation has been reversed in bringing back a featureless waste of waters:
 
Genesis 1:7; ''And God made the firmament, and divided the waters which were under the firmament  from the waters which were above the firmament: and it was so.''

This reversal of the creation process emphasises the gravity of God's judgement, through the Flood, on mankind.

In due course and under God's direction the waters receded:

Genesis 8: 1 & 2; ''And God remembered Noah, and every living thing, and all the cattle [animals] that was with him in the ark: and God made a wind to pass over the earth, and the waters assuaged [subsided], the fountains of the deep and the windows of heaven were stopped, and the rain from heaven was restrained.''

''God remembered Noah'' the verb remember refers to the special attention or personal care that God gives to His own.  The verb is used the same way concerning Samson, Hannah and with Abraham  - for Lot's benefit.

Genesis 8: 8, 9, 10 & 11; ''Also he [Noah] sent forth a dove from him, to see if the waters were abated from off the face of the ground. But the dove found no rest of the sole of her foot, and she returned unto him into the ark; for the waters were on the face of the whole earth: then he put forth his hand, and took her, and pulled her in unto him into the ark.  And he stayed yet another seven days; and again he sent forth the dove out of the ark; And the dove came in unto him in the evening, and lo, in her mouth was an olive leaf plucked off [freshly plucked]: so Noah knew that the waters were abated from off the earth.''

In bringing back the freshly plucked olive leaf the dove provided Noah and his eagerly awaiting family with a sign that God's physical realm, the earth, was being prepared and on the verge of being ready for the habitation of God's people once more.

One last thought: when Jesus was baptised and received the Holy Spirit at the start of his ministry, the Spirit came down from heaven to anoint him in the form of a dove.  This was a sign for John the Baptist that God's spiritual realm was on the verge of being prepared ready to be newly inhabited by God's people:

Matthew 4: 16 & 17; ''And Jesus, when he was baptised, went up straightway out of the water: and lo, the heavens were opened unto him, and he was the Spirit of God descending like a dove, and lighting upon him:  And lo a voice from heaven, saying, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.''

 Next week - ''Awash with good people - part 3 of 3''.