“Five Favorite Old Testament Stories: Noah’s Ark”
Genesis 6-9

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Pastor Kevin Vogts
Trinity Lutheran Church
Paola, Kansas
Eleventh Sunday after Pentecost—August 8, 2021

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.  Amen.

During August we are having a series of sermons on “Five Favorite Stories from the Old Testament,” stories which are very familiar to us, but maybe you don’t know what they really mean, for you and your faith.  We began last week with “In the beginning . . .  ,” the story of Creation.  This morning, we continue with an account that is often considered just an entertaining children’s story, but it has a deeper message for all of us, “Noah’s Ark.”

The events leading up to Noah’s Ark begin shortly after the creation of Adam and Eve and their fall into sin, with the tragic story of their sons Cain and Abel.  You may recall that God accepted Abel’s sacrifice, but not the sacrifice of Cain.  In his jealously Cain committed the first murder, killing his brother Abel. 

Hebrews explains to us WHY Abel’s sacrifice was accepted but not Cain’s: “By FAITH Abel offered God a better sacrifice than Cain did.”  Abel’s sacrifice was accepted by God not because it was in some way intrinsically better in itself, but because he offered his sacrifice in faith.  “By FAITH Abel offered God a better sacrifice than Cain did.” 

And not just some generic faith in God, but specifically Abel had faith in the promise given to Adam and Eve after the Fall into sin, that one of their descendants would be the God-man who would come into the world to crush and defeat that old serpent Satan.  Abel’s sacrifice was acceptable to God because he trusted this promise of the Messiah.  On the other hand, Cain’s sacrifice was not accepted by God for only one reason: because he rejected and did not believe God’s promise of a Savior.

After the death of Abel, God gave Adam and Eve another son, Seth.  Seth’s descendants carried on this Messianic faith, while Cain and his descendants moved away and carried on in their unbelief.  These two classes of humanity, the believers and unbelievers, the Sethites and Cainites, also called the Sons of God and the Sons of Men, set the stage for the next great story in the book of Genesis. 

“When men began to increase in number on the earth and daughters were born to them, the sons of God saw that the daughters of men were beautiful, and they married any of them they chose.”  Having been separated for generations, the increasing human population brings the descendants of Seth and Cain, the believers and unbelievers, back together again, and they begin to intermingle and intermarry. 

“Then the Lord said, ‘My Spirit will not strive with man forever, for he is also is fleshly.’”  The results of this intermingling was that the believers, the descendants of Seth, were being led astray from the Messianic faith by temptations and allurements of the flesh.

“The Lord saw how great man’s wickedness on the earth had become, and that every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil all the time.  The Lord was grieved that he had made man on the earth, and his heart was filled with pain.  So the Lord said, ‘I will wipe mankind, whom I have created, from the face of the earth. . .  But Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord.” 

What was different about Noah?  Noah and his family were the last of the Sethites who hadn’t been led astray, the last of the believers who still had the old time religion of Adam and Eve and Abel and Seth, who trusted in the promise that one day God would send the Messiah.

The Lord adds, “Yet their days shall be one hundred twenty years.”  That was the length of time it took Noah to build the Ark.  The Lord held off the destruction of the world that long, to give sinful humanity one last chance, as St. Peter says, “God waited patiently in the days of Noah while the ark was being built.”

St. Peter tells us that in addition to building the Ark, Noah was “a preacher of righteousness.”  For one hundred twenty years, as he built the Ark, Noah also preached the Messianic faith and called the people to repent and believe the Gospel.  As St. Peter says, “He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.”

St. Paul says in 1st Corinthians, “These things happened to them as examples and were written down as warnings for us.”  So, in the story of humankind being led astray, and finally being destroyed in the Flood with only eight souls saved in the Ark, there are examples and warnings for us. 

Still today, the world is spiritually divided into two classes, believers and unbelievers.  Jesus put it this way: “For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it.  But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.” 

Still today, the world is constantly tempting alluring you to leave the narrow way and follow it on the sinful path to destruction.  But, Jesus says, “Enter through the narrow gate.”

Still today, the world scoffs and rejects the true religion, just as they scoffed and rejected Noah, the preacher of righteousness, for one hundred twenty years.  As Jesus said, “All men will hate you because of me, but he who stands firm to the end will be saved.”

Still today, the end is coming, as St. Paul says in Acts, “He has set a day when he will judge the world.”  And as Jesus says in today’s Gospel Reading, “Heaven and earth will pass away . . .  As it was in the days of Noah, so it will be at the coming of the Son of Man.”

“But Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord. . .  Noah was a righteous man, blameless among the people of his time, and he walked with God.”  In the midst of our sinful world, how can YOU find favor in the eyes of the Lord?  The same way Noah did.  Not because you’re perfect or even better than anyone else.  As St. Paul says in Romans, “What shall we conclude then? Are we any better? No, not at all! . .  All alike are under sin.  As it is written: ‘There is no one righteous, not even one.’” 

Noah did not find favor with God because he was perfect; he too was a sinner, as is seen from some events recorded after the flood.  So, what does the Bible mean when it says, “But Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord”?  Hebrews explains, “Without faith it is impossible to please God . . . By faith Noah, when warned about things not yet seen, in holy fear built an ark to save his family. . .  and he became heir to the righteousness that comes by faith.”  Noah and his family were still sinners, but through faith in God’s promise of a Messiah their sins were forgiven and they were declared righteous in God’s sight.  There’s a bumper sticker that puts it this way: “I’m Not Perfect, Just Forgiven.”

St. Paul says in 2nd Corinthians, “Now is the time of God’s favor, now is the day of salvation. . .  God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself, not counting men’s sins against them. . .  We therefore implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God.”  That is the message Noah preached for one hundred twenty years, the Gospel, the Good News that the Messiah God had promised was coming.  Still today, God is calling you to repent and believe the Gospel: “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you shall be saved.”

St. Peter writes, “God waited patiently in the days of Noah while the ark was being built, in which only a few souls, eight in all, were saved through water, and this water symbolizes Baptism that now saves you also.”  The story of Noah’s Ark is a real, historical event, not just an ancient fable or a fanciful children’s story.  These things really did happen just as they are recorded in the Bible.  But, these events also have a symbolic meaning pointing forward to your salvation.

The waters of the Flood symbolize the waters of Holy Baptism, as St. Peter says, “this water symbolizes Baptism that now saves you also.”  Just as the Flood washed away sinful humanity, Holy Baptism washes away your sins, as St. Paul says in Acts, “Be baptized and wash away your sins,” and in Ephesians, “Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word.”

The Ark symbolizes the Holy Christian Church, as Martin Luther explains in our Collect for the Day, which he wrote.  The Church is like a ship, sailing through the raging, destructive flood of this life; all who trust in Christ are the passengers, kept safe in the ark of the Church on the voyage to the new world of heaven. 

That is why the main area of a church building is called the “nave,” the Latin word for “boat,” from which we also get “navy.”  A traditional church nave like ours is actually shaped like a big boat, often constructed with heavy wooden beams, like the Ark that Noah built.  Hebrews calls Jesus “the Captain of [our] salvation,” and the very shape and construction of our sanctuary symbolizes that the Church is a spiritual ship and we are the passengers, with Christ as the Captain on our journey through this world.  As the hymn says, “Jesus, Savior, pilot me over life’s tempestuous sea.”

Noah and his family, who remained faithful in the midst of an unfaithful world, symbolize you, and your family.  Like Noah, be a faithful spiritual leader and example for your own family.  As St. Paul says, “Bring them up in the training and instruction of the Lord.”  The greatest testimony to Noah and his wife is that in the midst of an unbelieving world they raised their sons with faith in the Messiah.

There are so many things for life in this world that it is important for you to teach your children, but it is MOST important that you pass on to them faith in Christ as their Savior, so they will have eternal life in the world to come.  As Psalm 78 says, “We will tell the next generation the praiseworthy deeds of the Lord.”  Like Noah and his wife, in the midst of an unbelieving world, by your word and example bring your children up in the training and instruction of the Lord.

St. Peter says, “If he did not spare the ancient world when he brought the flood on its ungodly people, but protected Noah, a preacher of righteousness, and seven others . . .  then the Lord knows how to rescue godly men from trials.”  The Flood symbolizes all the trials and troubles that you endure in this world.  In his commentary on Genesis, Luther explains how after being tossed about by the waves and storms, shut up in the Ark for over a year, Noah must have felt great despair, feeling God had abandoned him.  Luther says that is how HE has often felt himself, in times of trial and struggle.  But, as St. Peter says, “the Lord knows how to rescue godly men from trials.”  The account of the Flood says, “The waters flooded the earth . . .  But God remembered Noah and . . .  the waters receded.”  In the same way, when you feel overwhelmed by the storms and floods and winds and waves of life, trust in the Lord and he will rescue you.  As Psalm 144 says, “Stretch out your hand from on high; deliver me and rescue me from the mighty waters.”

Finally, the Lord placed into the sky a rainbow as a sign of his love.  Several times in the Bible a rainbow is used to represent the glory of the Lord.  Ezekiel writes of his vision of God, “The radiance around him was like the appearance of a rainbow in the clouds . . . This was the appearance of . . . the glory of the Lord.”

The rainbow following the Flood is symbolic of our Lord Jesus Christ himself.  Just as the rainbow reaches down from heaven to earth, our Lord Jesus Christ came down from heaven to earth, and was made man for us and our salvation.  The rainbow appearing to Noah after the Flood is a reaffirmation that God has not changed his plan of salvation for the world, a reaffirmation of the promise, first given to Adam and Eve, that one day he would send the Messiah, his own Son, who like the beautiful rainbow would one day come down from heaven to earth, to be our beautiful Savior.