4For if God did not spare the angels who sinned, but cast them down to hell and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved for judgment;5and did not spare the ancient world, but saved Noah, one of eight people, a preacher of righteousness, bringing in the flood on the world of the ungodly...
That "if" clause also refers to the deliverance of Lot from the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah.
So, if God destroyed the sinful and rescued the righteous, verse 9 reminds us...9then the Lord knows how to deliver the godly out of temptations and to reserve the unjust under punishment for the day of judgment...
By recognizing our sinfulness, we can gain a greater appreciation of our need for a Savior. God has been very thorough throughout the pages of His Word to point out to us what pleases Him and what does not. He has given us insight into His nature - that judgment accompanies sin. But, He has illustrated for us His faithfulness to those who call upon His name. In the 2nd Peter passage, this includes Noah, who was saved from God's wrath because of His faith in Him. We can be heartened as we think about the God who desires to rescue and restore us, the One who loves us so much that He sent His son to be our substitute for the punishment we deserved.
In Hebrews 11, we see some verses that address the nature of faith, and read about quite a few examples of faith in God. Picking up in verse 6, we read:
6But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.7By faith Noah, being divinely warned of things not yet seen, moved with godly fear, prepared an ark for the saving of his household, by which he condemned the world and became heir of the righteousness which is according to faith.
On this day of a significant weather event for Central and South Alabama, I thought I would call your attention to what you might refer to as another huge weather occurrence - perhaps the largest and most impactful in the history of the world. 40 days and 40 nights of rain, the fulfillment of the promise of God's judgment upon the sinfulness of the whole earth, an event that God has promised will never take place again.
Leading up to this day, the weather experts have been attempting to plot the movement of this winter storm and the possible amounts of snow and ice that we can receive. In the days of Noah, God telegraphed what He was about to do and instructed Noah to make the necessary preparations, giving him specific details about the construction of a large boat, an ark, that would house the 2 of each animal type, as well as Noah, his wife and his 3 sons and their wives.
Noah has been in the news lately - not only is there a major motion picture coming out this spring, reportedly somewhat based on the Biblical account, but recently, there have been news stories about the discovery of a tablet describing the ark. CBN News reports that archaeologists say writings on an ancient tablet confirm there was a global flood and an ark that carried animals.
A recently deciphered 4,000-year-old clay tablet, discovered in modern-day Iraq -- which is ancient Mesopotamia -- reveals striking similarities to the biblical account of Noah. The tablet describes a massive flood that destroys the earth and instructions that animals should be loaded onto the craft "two by two."
The tablet differs from scripture in its description of the ark. It tells of a giant round vessel, two-thirds the size of a soccer field. In the book of Genesis, God commands Noah to build a longer vessel, providing specific dimensions that are not round.
Experts say other ancient civilizations adapted versions of Noah's story to their own cultures.
The tablet is on display at the British Museum in London, and engineers hope to build the vessel following the ancient instructions.
Tim Chaffey should know about arks. Ken Ham of Answers in Genesis introduces him as a writer and researcher for the Ark Encounter project at the Creation Museum in Cincinnati. He has responded to this "discovery". Here are some of his thoughts, from the AnswerInGenesis.com website:
He says that Irving Finkel of the British Museum, who publicized the tablet, as well as the journalist who wrote the story from the Associated Press, push the long-discredited “documentary hypothesis,” meaning that they believe Genesis and much of the Old Testament was largely composed during the time of Ezra following the Babylonian exile. Therefore, they automatically assume that the author (or compiler) of Genesis merely copied the Flood account from the Babylonians.
The documentary hypothesis is based on discredited evolutionary assumptions about the history of writing and is filled with fallacious reasoning. As such, any theory about the relationship between this tablet and Genesis based on the documentary hypothesis is highly dubious. Furthermore, Jesus Himself nullified the documentary hypothesis by attributing the books of the Law to Moses in several places...Jesus Christ treated Noah as a real person, the Ark as a real boat, and the Flood as a real event...The testimony of the all-knowing Son of God takes precedence over both the opinion of a 21st century cuneiform expert at the British Museum and boat-building instructions recorded on a four thousand year old clay tablet.He believes that "...this is just another archaeological find that corroborates the biblical Flood account. It is only reasonable that people in cultures the world over—being descended from the eight people that got off the Ark—would recall various versions of the Flood in their cultural memory and traditions. Hundreds of flood stories have been found in cultures around the world. While many of these contain legendary embellishments, it is very obvious that many of them refer back to a real event described in Genesis, many of the details of which were passed down through the generations. Consider some of the other information on Finkel’s tablet that was briefly mentioned in the article:
- A god instructed a man to build a giant boat (two-thirds the size of a soccer field in the tablet); compare with Genesis 6:15.
- The boat was to be reinforced with wooden ribs; compare with Genesis 6:14.
- The boat was to be covered in bitumen; see Genesis 6:14.
- The animals were to board the boat two-by-two; see Genesis 7:9.
- The purpose of all of these things was to survive a devastating flood; see Genesis 6:17."
When you hear about news stories or discoveries that have Biblical overtones, it can motivate us to search the Scriptures. And, Answers in Genesis has given us solid information as we consider the authenticity of God's Word. It is clear that various cultures have a version of a Noah story, which lends credence to the concept of a global flood, just as the Bible says.
Noah's story is carried throughout the Word of God. And, his story can speak mightily to us today. For one thing, it is a story of God's faithfulness. Even though the world was doomed to destruction because of sin, Noah was counted to be faithful. God had no intention of wiping out humanity and starting over completely - He found a man who was devoted to Him and used his family to further the human race.
The story also illustrates to us God's view of sinfulness. Mankind, which was created for fellowship with Himself, had departed from His ways and essentially was under a death sentence because of sin and rebellion. The Bible is clear that we deserve eternal punishment for our sin, but Jesus came to rescue us from that death sentence and to deliver us into life.
Noah was given specific instructions. God shared with Noah what He was about to do. So often, the ways of God can be a total mystery to us. And, we recognize that His ways are higher than our own. However, He does not want us to walk in darkness - that's why He has given us His Word and His Holy Spirit to guide us. He has told us in the book of James that if we lack wisdom, that we should ask God, who will give us wisdom "liberally". The book of Proverbs can teach and inspire us to seek Godly wisdom. When we feel lost and lack faith, we can turn to the Lord, who can bring clarity and peace to us.
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