Through the Bible with Les Feldick

LESSON 3* PART 2 *BOOK 2

Noah: The Ark of Security

Genesis 6:1 – 7:10

Please, turn to Genesis Chapter 6. We are going to pick up right where we left off in our last lesson. For those who join us on television, we just love to have you find a Bible. Find a place where you can sit down and just share these things with us. Learn to study! After all the only reason I teach is to try to help people to study the Bible on their own. To be able to understand what it says, why it says it and to whom it says it.

In our last lesson, we were talking about that whole human race that had become so wicked. Had become so corrupt that God actually got to the place where He said He was sorry that He had made man in the first place. And, that He was going to have to do something – drastic. Then in verse 8 now as we continue on in Genesis chapter 6:

Genesis 6:8a

“But Noah…”

I always emphasize to my classes over the years, watch for that little three lettered word – b – u – t . It’s just a conjunction. But in our English language it usually denotes what I call the flip side! Even though on the one side we have seen the demise of the human race because they have just been going down the tube. But, the flip side was, there was still this one man, Noah!

Genesis 6:8b

“…found grace in the eyes of the LORD.”

Always remember, God has been a God of grace from day one. And, even though we speak of our particular Church Age as the Age of Grace, yet, that doesn’t mean that the attributes of the Grace of God started with the Church.

If you will, remember when Adam and Eve had sinned and had sewn on their aprons of fig leaves and yet the minute God approached them in the Garden, where did they go? They ran and hid! Well, what prompted God to go and find them? His Grace!

God is a God of Grace! That’s one of His attributes. So, here again, even though the human race, for the most part has totally turned against God and have put Him out of their life, yet, we’ve got this man Noah to whom God could extend His Grace.

Genesis 6:9a

“These are the generations of Noah: (remember, Noah comes out of the line of Seth and later Shem) Noah was a just man (he was a believer) and perfect…”

Now the word “perfect” in the Bible, if you look at the Hebrew and the Greek; and I don’t claim to be a scholar in either one of those disciplines, but I can go to a Greek or Hebrew dictionary and can find that the word translated “perfect”. At least in the King James Version NEVER means a sinless perfection.

The word perfect simply means a spiritual maturity. You want to remember that the Christian life, the spiritual life begins, and the New Testament makes that so clear that we are babes in Christ. Peter writes as new born babes desire the sincere milk of the Word that you might grow thereby.

Paul refers to the believers of his day as not being capable to digest spiritual meat. Well, what had they been on? They had been on milk and so many times over the years, I will tell people coming into my classes that the first thing that you going to have to do is get off the bottle. The milk bottle. You are going to have to throw that milk bottle away because we are going to put you on a diet, hopefully, of meat.

Now, the same way here. The word perfect doesn’t mean that Noah was sinless. But, he had a mature spirituality like no one else of his day and time. So he was perfect:

Genesis 6:9b

“… in his generations, and Noah walked with God.”

He had fellowship with God. He communed with Him. He was a man of Faith! Verse 10:

Genesis 6:10

“And Noah begat three sons, Shem, Ham and Japheth.”

They become important names after the flood when we see the whole earth will be populated once again from those three men. Ham, Shem and Japheth and we will cover that in detail when we get to it.

Genesis 6:11a

The earth also was (what?) corrupt…”

I don’t have to define the word corrupt, do I? When we think of something as being corrupt, we think of it as being vile. It is something that just simply turns us off; whether it is a corrupt politician or whether it is a corrupt garbage can out there waiting to be picked up.

Corruption is something that is abhorrent. Now this was the civilization just before the Flood. It was corrupt! It was rotten to the core! Read on, verse 11.

Genesis 6:11b

“…before God, and the earth was filled with (and again I like to emphasize the next word. With what?) violence.”

We hear a lot about television lately as being filled with sex and violence. Well, what do we think of as violence? Murder! The killing of human beings by other human beings. That’s violence!

I read again the other day, where foreign movie markets don’t think our movies, which we think are already awful, are bad enough. If there are only three or four killings in a movie, they won’t even look at it! So we can count ourselves fortunate again, for living in America, We at least haven’t gotten quite as bad as the rest of the world.

The rest of the world wants movies that are just filled with violence and filled with nudity. Filled with pornography and as yet you see, America, thank God, hasn’t swallowed that completely.

But, here we are before the flood and this is the picture. It was a society that had just gotten totally corrupt but the epitome of that corruption is violence or murder.

What I like to impress on anyone that I teach with regard to this civilization before the Flood and again let’s look at a verse of Scripture, I want you to see it with your own eyes. Go back with me to Matthew chapter 24, verse 36 where Jesus, during His earthly ministry, is speaking of the end of the Age.

I always like to again remind my students that when Jesus spoke in His day and time, He gave no hint, He gave no indication that there would be two thousand years intervening between His first coming and His second coming.

He never let that even be hinted at. So, He spoke of it as something that was not too far into the future. So in Matthew chapter 24 beginning with verse 36, He says:

Matthew 24:36

‘But of that day (that is, of the end of the Age as we think of it) and hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels of heaven, but my Father only.”

Here I like to stop for just a second. It always becomes so apparent when someone reads that verse; then Jesus didn’t know! Oh, didn’t He? What do you think? Sure He did! Because in John’s gospel, what does he say regarding Himself and the Father? Hey, We are One!

Now, the reason Jesus said this and He was not being facetious. He was not putting out misinformation as, we like to call it today, He wasn’t lying when He said that no man knoweth but the Father.

Always remember that Jesus on the one hand was TOTALLY man but on the other had he was TOTALLY God and by virtue of that fact He never let the two interfere. In other words, at no given time, when He was operating in the human did He let His Deity interfere with that humanity. He could have, but He didn’t.

When He got tired. When He got exhausted, He could have just let the Deity part of Him overtake and rejuvenate Him and so forth. But what did He do? He rested! He slept. He played the role of the human.

But, on the other hand, He was totally God. See? He never let the two interfere. What we have to look at when He makes a statement like this in verse 36; I know that this is a departure from Genesis for a moment, but this is the way that we cover every aspect of Scripture as we go. Here we have the Lord Jesus speaking from His human side when He says that no man knoweth.

From His God side, He knew! But, since He was speaking from His human side He could honestly say, no man knoweth the time or the hour but my Father only. That’s just “a little aside.” But, He and the Father are One so of course He knew. He could have told the disciples exactly at what day and time certain things would take place, but He didn’t. Now verse 37. This is where we are connected to Genesis.

Matthew 24:37-39

“But as the days of Noe were, so shall also (that is the events and the economy and the activities of mankind) the coming of the Son of man be. 38. For as in the days that were before the flood they were eating and drinking, (there is nothing wrong with that. And they were) marrying and giving in marriage, (there is nothing wrong with that) until the day that Noe entered into the ark. 39. And knew not until the flood came, and took them all away; so shall also the coming of the son of man be.”

Let’s just bring that up into our own time. I think all of us are agreed that the return of the Lord Jesus is verily at the doors. Now we don’t set dates. We don’t know when it will be but we know it is getting close and the more the Middle East broils, the closer the end is coming!

Then all we have to do is look at the world in general again. What is the world all hung up on? Materialism. Just materialism. A constant pressure to buy and to own “things”. The constant pressure to have something that as yet you don’t have, but oh, you’d better have it, or you won’t be “living”!

Not only that. It is such tremendous activity! Everybody is so busy! And guilty! We are all guilty of it. We are SO busy! I am always amazed that night after night people find time to come my classes. And, I will mention it once in a while, I am just surprised that everybody is here on a week night because everyone is so busy.

Well now, look at it. We are in the same situation. We are busy eating and drinking. Satisfying the demands of the flesh and there is nothing wrong with that. And we are busy with the marriage of friends and loved ones and we go to weddings and all these things and all the preparation. But, it all just adds to that hyperactivity that man finds himself in tonight.

So it was, before the Flood. They were just so involved. They were just go, go, go, go, go! And we are in the same thing today! But, you see, Genesis tells us a little more. Come back to Genesis. That in the midst of all this activity and I think it’s the activity that precipitates so much of the wickedness.

In fact, maybe I’m a little odd and I won’t deny that. I can be watching a newscast and I will see these riots and they are out in the streets, and kids are throwing rocks or stones or bottles. Do you know the first thing I ask myself? Why aren’t those people at home!? If they were at home, you wouldn’t have all this turmoil in the streets! Isn’t that about right?

Well, why aren’t they home? Because they are too hyped up to just spend an evening at home with Mom and Dad. They have to be out burning up that energy. So it was here. These people were just burning up their energy and along with it, you see, they had inflicted upon themselves such a demise in the fabric of their society that they were murdering one another in unprecedented numbers.

The violence was getting so tremendous that God had to look at unborn generations and what did He see? That these children as yet unborn, as soon as they would come in to that kind of a society, what did they have to look forward to? Probably being murdered because it was becoming so common. Or, becoming a murderer themselves.

So, God says, I have to put an end to it for the sake of the unborn generations! Now that is the way I have to look at it. It has just become so awful that it can’t continue. We are fast approaching the same thing in our own day and time. Continue on to verse 12.

Genesis 6:12a

“And God looked upon the earth, and, behold, it was corrupt;…”

I have mentioned for the last several months, even as we have been teaching on television, that whenever the Bible repeats itself almost to the place we think, well why does it have to say it so often? It is for a purpose. And that purpose is to get our attention. Or the word we use is for “emphasis”.

This is for emphasis. To help us understand that this generation was vile! It was corrupt!

And don’t forget it. Alright, let’s read on.

Genesis 6:12b-13

“…for all flesh had corrupted his way upon the earth. 13. 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.”

Now, a couple of lessons ago, I alluded to a little paperback book and I couldn’t remember the author’s name. I remembered the title. Well, I went home and looked it up and in case you want to write it down, if you want to go to you library, it is an interesting little paperback to read. The title of which was “WE ARE NOT THE FIRST” and it was written by a gentleman whose name was Andrew Tomas. I think maybe he was an Englishman, I’m not sure.

If you get a chance, find that little paperback, WE ARE NOT THE FIRST. He is without a doubt NOT a Bible believer. I think it is evident from some of the statements that he makes. But he draws all of his information from archaeology and other items of antiquity going all the way back into the archives of some of the ancient Eastern religions where those priests had things that, as I read the book, I couldn’t help but think, well I think it is very possible!

Ham, Shem and Japheth as young men, going into the ark may have taken a few of those things with them. And they came out on this side of the Flood and it ended up finally in the hands of some of these Far Eastern Oriental religions. I have no trouble with that. He points out in that book the technology that existed at some point in time on the earth.

Again, he doesn’t allude to the Flood. He never mentions Noah’s Flood. All he says is that sometime in our past man evidently went into space. Man had rockets. Man had storage batteries. He had the internal combustion engine. They found bits and pieces. I mentioned it a few lessons ago, and a few of you couldn’t quite believe it! Where they had found bits and pieces of a spark plug. Not just laying in the soil someplace, but imbedded in rock!

And, all these things show us that at some point in our human history there were people who had tremendous technology. Like I said, he never alludes to the Flood, and I will tell you why. Turn back to II Peter chapter 3. These are good verses to just sink you teeth into, if I may use that expression, because it is SO on the mark! Where Peter writes beginning with verse 3:

II Peter 3:3-4

“Knowing this first, that there shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts, 4. And saying, Where is the promise of his coming? (Have you heard that before? I have. I hear it every day. Well now wait a minute Les, the world’s always had war. The world’s always had earthquakes. The world has always had pestilence from time to time. That doesn’t really mean anything. Well, you see that’s the scoffers’ line. Where is the promise of His coming?) for since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation.”

People say, there is nothing different. But, read on!

II Peter 3:5a

“For this they willingly are ignorant of,…”

Now if someone is WILLINGLY ignorant. What does that tell you about them? They have no desire to learn and if they heard it, they would just say, “Hey, I don’t believe it. Don’t tell it to me!” They are willingly ignorant. They don’t want to know the truth.

In other words, I’ve always liked to use the illustration of electricity. I know enough to be able to hook up a light switch. And I know enough electricity to wire a few things and I had a little of it in physics in my days gone by. But, nevertheless, when it comes down to the nitty gritty of the knowledge of electricity. I am ignorant!

But now, I am not willingly ignorant. In other words, someone hasn’t said “Les, if you will just take the time, I will teach you all about electricity. And if in that situation I would say “No, I don’t want any part of it!” Then, I would be willingly ignorant. But as it is, I am ignorant simply because I have never been exposed to it.

Look at this again. Peter is writing by inspiration that mankind is going to be willingly ignorant of one great historical fact. And what is it?

II Peter 3:5b-6

“… that by the word of God (as a result of God’s word of judgement) the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of water and in the water: 6. Whereby the world that then was, being overflowed with water, perished:”

In plain English, what are they willingly ignorant of? Noah’s Flood! They will not accept the fact that his world at one time was totally demolished and destroyed and renovated by Noah’s Flood.

I always like to remind my classes, I have never had anyone refute this. I don’t think you can find a single college or high school text book in either the literatures or the history or in the sciences, that will ever maintain the fact of Noah’s Flood. They will not do it.

They are sometimes mentioned in literature. In fact, I was a guest teacher for a college literature class several years running because the textbook used the first chapter of it’s course studying the first six chapters of Genesis. It was the only literature that alluded to the Hebrew Nation. Then they would go to other books of literature for various other people.

But, anyway, never will textbooks of high school or college or anywhere else, ever make a statement that they would agree with Noah’s Flood. They just totally ignore it and if they are brought to a point where they have to say something, they deny it. They will never admit that there has been a point in time where this world was utterly destroyed.

The amazing thing is that the Flood is in the myths or the legends of every major culture on this planet. It was in the Babylonian culture that there was a great deluge. And, of course, in their legends and myths, they always have it that one of their own was a survivor.

The South Sea Islands, the Polynesians had a legend of a great universal flood. But, their chief happened to survive in some kind of a bath tub, and then was able to bring about the Polynesian people.

South America, the Incas. They had it in their culture, that there was at one time a great flood. And so in all the great cultures of the world it’s there. It came from someplace. And it is near enough in it’s description that when you come back to the Biblical account you can say that’s where people got it. It actually happened and somehow along the line it was handed down.

But our intellectual community. Our scientists for the most part, now not all but some, reject the fact of the Flood. So, they are willingly ignorant of it.

I also said with regard to this tremendous technology, long before I saw this little book by Andrew Tomas, I had taught, and anyone who had been with me a long time knows that I have, that from Ecclesiastes chapter 1 I can only come up with one reason for the Holy Spirit putting this in the Word of God.

Ecclesiastes chapter 1 verse 9. Again, it is repeated in chapter 3 verse 15. But look at chapter 1 first, verse 9 where the Word says:

Ecclesiastes 1:9

“The thing that hath been, it is that which shall be; (now watch the language) and that which is done is that which shall be done; and there is no new thing under the sun.”

This was being written when Solomon’s kingdom was at its height of glory. When Solomon was doing things that for a long time our contemporary people couldn’t believe that he had accomplished. But now we know that he did.

Solomon here was writing that everything that was apparent in his kingdom was not new. It has been here before. But he also leaps into the ages to come and he says everything that will happen has already been here before. Now turn to chapter 3, if you will, verse 15.

Ecclesiastes 3:15

“That which hath been is now; and that which is to be (that is in the future from Solomon’s point in time. Remember the Scripture is eternal. The Scripture just leaps the centuries. It leaps the millennia and yet Solomon can write..) hath already been;…”

When I take those two verses in their context and really look at what it says, then I have to say that whatever technology we think we have today that is brand new, it’s not new at all. It’s all been here before.

I am of the total conviction that this generation from Adam until the Flood had tremendous intelligence. They were living up to 900 and so years. Adam lived 930 years and Methuselah 969 years. And everybody contemporary lived that long.

Imagine the great men of today who have to accomplish everything almost within 40-45 years for the most part. What if they could go for 900! Look at the technology that these people could bring out. And they did! I am convinced of it. Then after I read this gentleman’s paperback book, I know that by the time we get to the Flood that they had a technology that was just unbelievable.

But along with that technology, what had happened to them spiritually and morally? They went down the tube. Down, down. Up technologywise and down otherwise until finally God had to destroy them.