E100-03

The Flood

Genesis 6:5—7:24

My Commentary

You are encouraged to go through steps or process scripture in these steps:

• Pray = in anticipation of what God wants you to discover. Lord, I want to learn more today about what the Bible says about You and Your ways in the world.
• Read = Genesis 6:5-7:24 with purpose look for what God is trying to communicate. You may want to read out of several translations and highlight key words.
• Reflect = on the context and put yourself in the shoes of people at that time. How does the world today compare with that in Noah’s time? What would God say about it? Do you ever feel like Noah as you try to live the right way today? Why?
• Apply = information without application is fruitless. Decide on some practical steps you can take for fulfill what God wants you to do.  What are 2–3 practical steps you can take to make your world a better place this week? Jot down a realistic plan to act on one of them.
• Pray = yielding to God to empower you to do what the word convicted you to do.  Ask God how you can be like Noah, someone whose life is consistently reflecting God’s priorities and values.

For deeper Bible study and more resources go to my Commentary Blog notes.

For other parts of the Essential 100 Scripture Series, click on the link with the topic #E100.

#Flood

Blameless among the People of His Time

From 365-Day Devotional Commentary, The.

(Gen. 6:9-22)

Noah is one of the most impressive men of the Bible. He lived in a totally corrupt society. Yet he himself was committed to godliness and succeeded in living a blameless life. Even more impressive is the fact that when told by God to build a giant ship in a time when rain was unknown (2:6), Noah immediately set out to do so!

Noah and his sons cut and shaped ton upon ton of beams to form a keel and skeleton. They sawed uncounted thousands of planks for siding. They planted, gathered, and stored crops to serve as food for themselves and the animals God would bring when His time was right. And all the time they must have suffered the ridicule of their neighbors, who came to listen to and scoff at mad Noah's predictions of water about to fall from the sky and destroy them all.

How long did Noah and his sons labor? Genesis 6:3 tells us. When God made His decision to judge, mankind was given 120 years. It was during that time Noah and his sons accomplished their herculean tasks. And during all that time Noah bore the jokes made at his expense. He ignored the loud whispers he was intended to hear. And he kept on working, surrounded by the tittering laughter of his neighbors. Despite it all, Noah remained faithful. He had heard God speak. And Noah "did everything just as God commanded him."

Chris, the teenage son of our pastor, Richard Schmidt, can understand the pressure on Noah. In the locker room he was ridiculed for his determination to remain sexually pure. "It's what I believe," he said, "and it's what I'm going to do."

Probably you can understand too. There are so many in our modern world who laugh at people who have heard God's voice and try to do "everything just as God commanded." Imagine! Noah knew just that pressure, from everyone, and for 120 years! Yet Noah remained faithful. And you and I can remain faithful too.

Peter gives us a special insight into what Noah's faithfulness meant. Yes, Noah's faithfulness to God's word meant deliverance for himself and his family. But 1 Peter 3:19-20 suggests that by the agency of the Holy Spirit Christ Himself spoke through Noah in the long decades that "God waited patiently" for Noah to finish his assigned task.

How important our faithfulness is. As we like Noah bear up under the pressure brought on us, Christ by His Holy Spirit speaks through us to the very persons who laugh and doubt. And this time, they may respond!

Personal Application

Our faithfulness when others jeer speaks more powerfully than the words of the most gifted preacher the world has ever known.

Quotable

"Sin is first pleasing, then it grows easy, then delightful, then frequent, then habitual, then confirmed; then the man is impenitent, then he is obstinate, then he is resolved never to repent. And then he is ruined."—Bishop Leighton