If you build it, they will come
Genesis 6:11-22
GENESIS 6:11-12
“Now God saw that the earth had become corrupt and was filled with violence. God observed all this corruption in the world, for everyone on earth was corrupt” (Genesis 6:11-12 NLT). This differs from how God described the world when he first created it in Genesis 1:31. “God saw all that he had made, and it was very good. And there was evening, and there was morning—the sixth day” (Genesis 1:31 NIV).
People like to give God a hard time about the flood, saying that it was overkill—quite literally— to wipe out the entire global population, which was likely up to four billion by that time and only allow eight people to continue to repopulate the world. But everything had gotten so bad that the human race was wholly saturated with evil. All of their hearts were filled with this stuff all the time. If these people had been allowed to continue and produce children, they would have gotten perpetually worse until they destroyed themselves. So, God did the only thing he could do after exhibiting great patience with them. He gave them over to their choices even though that was not his perfect will for them. The people were destroying themselves. They had left the knowledge of God and were no longer abiding with him. They were so depraved that they sent themselves up to be killed because the world was filled with injustice, violence, and moral iniquity.
GENESIS 6:13-22
So God said to Noah, “I have decided to destroy all living creatures, for they have filled the earth with violence. Yes, I will wipe them all out along with the earth!”
“Build a large boat from cypress wood and waterproof it with tar, inside and out. Then construct decks and stalls throughout its interior. Make the boat 450 feet long, 75 feet wide, and 45 feet high. Leave an 18-inch opening below the roof all the way around the boat. Put the door on the side, and build three decks inside the boat—lower, middle, and upper.”
“Look! I am about to cover the earth with a flood that will destroy every living thing that breathes. Everything on earth will die. But I will confirm my covenant with you. So enter the boat—you and your wife and your sons and their wives. Bring a pair of every kind of animal—a male and a female—into the boat with you to keep them alive during the flood. Pairs of every kind of bird, and every kind of animal, and every kind of small animal that scurries along the ground, will come to you to be kept alive. And be sure to take on board enough food for your family and for all the animals.”
“So Noah did everything exactly as God had commanded him” (Genesis 6:13-22 NLT).
Ken Ham of Answers in Genesis writes, “A ship this size would have the same storage capacity of about 483 standard semi-trailers, capable of hauling at least 120,000 sheep. Noah was commanded to take more than just sheep, which gives you an idea about the capacity of the Ark. He was commanded to take two of every land-dwelling, air-breathing animal and seven (possibly pairs) of some. And notice that these were kinds, not species. That is a common mistake made by critics of the historicity of Noah's Ark. “Kind” is at about the level of “family” in our modern classification system, narrowing the number of animals that would have needed to be taken.
H continues, “While there are many land-dwelling, air-breathing animal species, there are only about 1,398 (the true number could even be a thousand or so) such kinds, including extinct ones. This means Noah only needed to bring around 6,744 animals onto the Ark. While some animals are quite large, many of these are very small, with the average creature being about the size of a sheep. So, there was plenty of room on the Ark for a few thousand animals, Noah and his family, and the supplies they would need to survive the year-long voyage.”
This is not the far-fetched story modern myth would have you believe. The God of the universe knew exactly how big the Ark needed to be and how many animals would be on it. He gave Noah 120 years to build it and then got himself to make sure that all the animals came to him so that he would not have to gather them. “If you build it, they will come.” Noah built it, and they did.
FINAL THOUGHTS/APPLICATION
God supplied the reason he destroyed almost all of humanity before the flood except for eight people. The world had become corrupt because of the giant offspring produced by demons and human women. Also, the hearts of all people were saturated with evil. Jesus said the days before his return would mirror those Before the Flood. I'm not saying that our world is that bad yet. There is a much larger remnant in this world than eight people, but it is still a remnant. Let us remain aware of the signs of the times.
Noah modeled the proper response when God commands something. God told him to build an ark and gave him plenty of time. Noah did what God said, and he and his family were saved from what would happen. We will never face a global flood again because God promises later, after it's over, that he will never destroy the world in the same way again. But genuine faith still produces external results.
Genesis 6:18 is the first use of the word “covenant” in the Bible, a word frequently used in the Bible. The biblical covenants include but are not limited to the Edenic (Genesis 2:16), Adamic (Genesis 3:15), Noahic (Genesis 9:16), Abrahamic (Genesis 12:1-3), Mosaic (Exodus 19:5), Preistly (Numbers 25:10-13), Israel (Deuteronomy 30:3), Davidic (2 Samuel 7:16), and the New Covenant (Jeremiah 31:31-34).