Then God Remembered Noah: Genesis 8:1-22

Genesis 8:1-22: "1 Then God remembered Noah, and every living thing, and all the animals that were with him in the ark. And God made a wind to pass over the earth, and the waters subsided. 2 The fountains of the deep and the windows of heaven were also stopped, and the rain from heaven was restrained. 3 And the waters receded continually from the earth. At the end of the hundred and fifty days the waters decreased. 4 Then the ark rested in the seventh month, the seventeenth day of the month, on the mountains of Ararat. 5 And the waters decreased continually until the tenth month. In the tenth month, on the first day of the month, the tops of the mountains were seen. 6 So it came to pass, at the end of forty days, that Noah opened the window of the ark which he had made. 7 Then he sent out a raven, which kept going to and fro until the waters had dried up from the earth. 8 He also sent out from himself a dove, to see if the waters had receded from the face of the ground. 9 But the dove found no resting place for the sole of her foot, and she returned into the ark to him, for the waters were on the face of the whole earth. So he put out his hand and took her, and drew her into the ark to himself. 10 And he waited yet another seven days, and again he sent the dove out from the ark. 11 Then the dove came to him in the evening, and behold, a freshly plucked olive leaf was in her mouth; and Noah knew that the waters had receded from the earth. 12 So he waited yet another seven days and sent out the dove, which did not return again to him anymore. 13 And it came to pass in the six hundred and first year, in the first month, the first day of the month, that the waters were dried up from the earth; and Noah removed the covering of the ark and looked, and indeed the surface of the ground was dry. 14 And in the second month, on the twenty-seventh day of the month, the earth was dried. 15 Then God spoke to Noah, saying, 16 'Go out of the ark, you and your wife, and your sons and your sons' wives with you. 17 Bring out with you every living thing of all flesh that is with you: birds and cattle and every creeping thing that creeps on the earth, so that they may abound on the earth, and be fruitful and multiply on the earth.' 18 So Noah went out, and his sons and his wife and his sons' wives with him. 19 Every animal, every creeping thing, every bird, and whatever creeps on the earth, according to their families, went out of the ark. 20 Then Noah built an altar to the LORD, and took of every clean animal and of every clean bird, and offered burnt offerings on the altar. 21 And the LORD smelled a soothing aroma. Then the LORD said in His heart, 'I will never again curse the ground for man's sake, although the imagination of man's heart is evil from his youth; nor will I again destroy every living thing as I have done. 22 While the earth remains, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, winter and summer, and day and night shall not cease.'"

Then God remembered Noah. These are the words of glad tidings after all of the words of destruction that were spoken of by God. God had shut Noah and his family up into the ark. There they remained throught the 40 days and nights of flooding, and throughout the entire time it took for the waters to recede from the Earth. I am sure that after being boxed up in the ark, with no place else to go, that Noah and his family were ready for it to all be over with. They were probably even tempted to think that God had forgotten about them. Perhaps, they even felt they were going to live out the rest of their lives in the ark. But Moses in his first book, commonly called Genesis, tells us that God remembered Noah. This is a proclamation of God's grace and mercy.

And in reality this was God's plan all along, to save Noah and his family, and thereby save the whole human race. God destroys that which is evil and corrupt, so that that which is righteous and pure may have free course and abound. Here again, in this narrative of Noah and his family, is a picture of our Lord Jesus. Our Lord and Savior takes the corruption and the evilness of mankind, all of his sinfulness, both original and actual, and destroys it on the tree of the cross. Then he places his holy family, that is all of Christendom, His lovely Bride, into the holy Ark of Christendom. There He doles out the gifts that He won by His death, that is, forgiveness of sins, eternal life, and salvation, through the means of grace, that is, those means by which He imparts those gifts. Those means include preaching, absolution, baptism, communion, and the mutual conversation and consolation of the brethren. Through these gifts the Holy Ghost, creates and sustains faith and life in all those who use them and trust that God actually works through them.

In this way, God remembers us. He remembers our lost and fallen condition, and having shut us up into the holy Ark of Christendom, through baptism, and the other means of grace, brings us out of the Ark and onto the dry land of our heavenly home. By these gifts He shows His grace, that is, He freely gives these gifts, without any merit or worthiness on our part. He also shows us His mercy by these gifts, that is, He doesn't treat us the way we deserved to be treated, which is with punishment and eternal death, but rather gives us the reward that belongs to Him, which is life and salvation.

This evenings reading ends with another proclamation of good tidings. That is that God will never again destroy the Earth. The One True God declares:

"I will never again curse the ground for man's sake, although the imagination of man's heart is evil from his youth; nor will I again destroy every living thing as I have done. While the earth remains, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, winter and summer, and day and night shall not cease."

That means that God will not only not destroy the Earth, nor will He let it be destroyed. Until the Last Day, God will keep things going; both "seedtime and harvest, cold and heeat, winter and summer, and day night." This passage is a declaration against all the global warming fanatics. God, in His divine providence, that is, in His watching over all creation, all the time, will not let anything happen to it. Even on the Last Day, God will not destroy the Earth, but rather, replace it with a new one, as our dear Lord Jesus relates through the Blessed Evangelist St. John in His Revelation.

These cries of the end of the world, and utter destruction of the world, are really no different from the cries and sorrows that could have arose from being cramped up on the ark. They are the cries of the faithless, who only trust in themselves their abilities. True faithfulness never trusts in itself. It's absurd if you think about it. "Have faith in yourself." That's like saying, "Have faith in your faith." Faith needs an object to grasp onto, to believe in, it never believes in itself. That is why for Noah, his faith grasped onto to his Savior and God, and he believe that He would save him. Noah truly believed that God would not forget him, that God would not destroy him, nor keep him cooped up in the ark for the rest of his days.

Such faith is what is lacking these days. We need to stop trusting in ourselves, there is no salvation there anyway. You cannot trust in what is corrupt, to bring about purity. Instead we should rely on God, trust in Him that He will deliver us from all harm and danger, that He will guard and protect from every danger. Even the dangers of "global warming," nuclear holocaust, meteors crashing into the Earth, the poles reversing polarity, or whatever other danger the faithless ones want to put in front of us, in order to lead us away from our reliance on the One True God, Father, Son and Holy Ghost.

He has promised that He would not leave us nor forsake us, that He would always guard and protect us. Noah stands as an example of God's grace and mercy. He did not forget Noah, He will not forget you.

May God's peace be with you!

Deacon Dulas

Only Noah And Those Who Were With Him in the Ark Remained Alive: Genesis 7:1-24

Genesis 7: 1-24: "1 Then the LORD said to Noah, 'Come into the ark, you and all your household, because I have seen that you are righteous before Me in this generation. 2 You shall take with you seven each of every clean animal, a male and his female; two each of animals that are unclean, a male and his female; 3 also seven each of birds of the air, male and female, to keep the species alive on the face of all the earth. 4 For after seven more days I will cause it to rain on the earth forty days and forty nights, and I will destroy from the face of the earth all living things that I have made.' 5 And Noah did according to all that the LORD commanded him. 6 Noah was six hundred years old when the floodwaters were on the earth. 7 So Noah, with his sons, his wife, and his sons' wives, went into the ark because of the waters of the flood. 8 Of clean animals, of animals that are unclean, of birds, and of everything that creeps on the earth, 9 two by two they went into the ark to Noah, male and female, as God had commanded Noah. 10 And it came to pass after seven days that the waters of the flood were on the earth. 11 In the six hundredth year of Noah's life, in the second month, the seventeenth day of the month, on that day all the fountains of the great deep were broken up, and the windows of heaven were opened. 12 And the rain was on the earth forty days and forty nights. 13 On the very same day Noah and Noah's sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth, and Noah's wife and the three wives of his sons with them, entered the ark--14 they and every beast after its kind, all cattle after their kind, every creeping thing that creeps on the earth after its kind, and every bird after its kind, every bird of every sort. 15 And they went into the ark to Noah, two by two, of all flesh in which is the breath of life. 16 So those that entered, male and female of all flesh, went in as God had commanded him; and the LORD shut him in. 17 Now the flood was on the earth forty days. The waters increased and lifted up the ark, and it rose high above the earth. 18 The waters prevailed and greatly increased on the earth, and the ark moved about on the surface of the waters. 19 And the waters prevailed exceedingly on the earth, and all the high hills under the whole heaven were covered. 20 The waters prevailed fifteen cubits upward, and the mountains were covered. 21 And all flesh died that moved on the earth: birds and cattle and beasts and every creeping thing that creeps on the earth, and every man. 22 All in whose nostrils was the breath of the spirit of life, all that was on the dry land, died. 23 So He destroyed all living things which were on the face of the ground: both man and cattle, creeping thing and bird of the air. They were destroyed from the earth. Only Noah and those who were with him in the ark remained alive. 24 And the waters prevailed on the earth one hundred and fifty days."

The narrative of the Flood shows God's judgment and mercy. God judges the whole earth to be worthy of destruction, and so He sends a flood. This should serve as a stark warning to us! "All in whose nostrils was the breath of the spirit of life, all that was on the dry land, died." We learn from Dr. Martin Luther's Small Catechism that, "God threatens to punish all that transgress these Commandments. Therefore we should dread His wrath and not act contrary to these Commandments." * This is a commentary on Exodus 20:5, "I, the Lord, thy God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate Me." * What that means, is that God takes His Law seriously. He does not want people neglecting or breaking His commandments. What that also means, is that He will punish those who transgress against His Law.

What does that mean for us? It means we should take God's commandments seriously too. Especially those of us who claim to love Him and want to do His will. We should study His Law, so that we know what to do, and not to do, and live by them. We should teach them to our children, and place them on our hearts, on our walls, and keep them ever before us. However, we should never think that we are saved by our keeping of the Law. Only One Man was perfect, and that was our dear Lord Jesus, only He kept the Law perfectly. We fail often, daily. And when we do we should confess our sins, to God, or our minister. When we repent of our sins, and confess them, and promise to amend our sinful ways, we receive absolution, that is, forgiveness of sins, from our minister, just as if it came from God Himself.

I am quite sure that at the time of Noah, there were many people, like today, who did not believe that they were all that evil. After all, everybody else was probably doing the same things, and unfortunately, we have this bad tendency to judge our works according to our neighbors works, that is, by our fellow man's works. This leads to one of two things, pride or despair. Pride comes when we look at our neighbors works, and think, "Well, at least I'm not as bad as that guy." Despair comes upon those who look at their neighbors works, and think that they will never be a good person. They say to themselves, "I wish I was as good as so and so." But we should not be comparing our works to any other man's works. Instead, we should trust in Christ's works on our behalf. Our dear Lord Jesus, fulfilled the Law perfectly for us. And better yet, our Father in heaven, took out our punishment upon our dear Lord Jesus. And so, our keeping of the Law, really stems from our love for what our Lord did for us. We desire to keep the Law because of what He did. And when we fail, we have an intercessor before the throne of heaven, who pleads on our behalf for us--our dear Lord Jesus, who sits at the right hand of the Father, interceding for us.

This is why Noah is saved. It wasn't because of his righteousness, but because of his faith in God to redeem him, inspite of his sinfulness. And this faith was reckoned to him as righteousness. This is why the world is destroyed in a flood, because they lacked faith in God, they trusted in themselves and their works. They thought they were not all that bad, that they were acting just like everybody else. This is why Christians don't act like everybody else, why they obey God, because they believe that He is their Lord and Savior, and that He will keep His promise to punish those who remain in their sins, even as He punished those at the time of the Flood.

But God shows His mercy in this pericope as well. He saves Noah and his family. We see from the text that God even closed the door for Noah, shutting him up into the Ark. We see that He protected Noah, and all of His creation, by saving two of each kind of living thing. Again Noah is a figure of the promised Christ. Noah is shut up in the tomb of the Ark, just like our Lord Jesus is shut up in the tomb. Both our dear Lord Jesus and Noah are carried through death, one real, one seeming, to life again on the other side. This also is a picture of baptism. In baptism, God saves us, we are placed into the Ark of Christendom, and He carries us through the Flood of this life to our eternal home. He counts us as righteous, because we believe that He has called us by baptism, and enlightened us with His gifts of forgiveness of sins, eternal life, and salvation, and sanctifies and keeps us in the one true faith. That faith is that our dear Lord Jesus fulfilled the Law perfectly for us, and suffered and died for us, so that we might have eternal life with Him.

This evening we rejoice in this gift. We rejoice that God has shut us up through the water of baptism, into the Ark of Christendom, and guides and protects us through this valley of tears, until we come home to live with Him in heaven.

May God be with you!

Deacon Dulas

* Translation from Doctor Martin Luther Small Catechism and An Explanation of Christian Doctrine based on Doctor Luther's Small Catechism, Edited by Markku Sarela, Published by The Confessional Lutheran Church of Finland, 1999. Scripture quotations from the King James Version, 1611.

I Will Establish My Covenant With You: Genesis 6:9-22

Genesis 6:9-22: "9 This is the genealogy of Noah. Noah was a just man, perfect in his generations. Noah walked with God. 10 And Noah begot three sons: Shem, Ham, and Japheth. 11 The earth also was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence. 12 So God looked upon the earth, and indeed it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted their way on the earth. 13 And God said to Noah, 'The end of all flesh has come before Me, for the earth is filled with violence through them; and behold, I will destroy them with the earth. 14 Make yourself an ark of gopherwood; make rooms in the ark, and cover it inside and outside with pitch. 15 And this is how you shall make it: The length of the ark shall be three hundred cubits, its width fifty cubits, and its height thirty cubits. 16 You shall make a window for the ark, and you shall finish it to a cubit from above; and set the door of the ark in its side. You shall make it with lower, second, and third decks. 17 And behold, I Myself am bringing floodwaters on the earth, to destroy from under heaven all flesh in which is the breath of life; everything that is on the earth shall die. 18 But I will establish My covenant with you; and you shall go into the ark--you , your sons, your wife, and your sons' wives with you. 19 And of every living thing of all flesh you shall bring two of every sort into the ark, to keep them alive with you; they shall be male and female. 20 Of the birds after their kind, of animals after their kind, and of every creeping thing of the earth after its kind, two of every kind will come to you to keep them alive. 21 And you shall take for yourself of all food that is eaten, and you shall gather it to yourself; and it shall be food for you and for them.' 22 Thus Noah did; according to all that God commanded him, so he did."

This evening's reading tells us that Noah was a just and perfect man; that he walked with God. Noah is a picture of another just and perfect man, our dear Lord Jesus. That Noah walked with God, doesn't just simply mean that he went for walks with Him. It means that Noah did as God desired. He was in complete fellowship with Him, walking in all His ways. Noah is contrasted by the rest of the world. "Indeed it was corrupt." Noah is the only one who is righteous, and so God plans to destroy that which is corrupt, through a flood.

One can see two images in this narrative. The Cross of our dear Lord Jesus, and our baptism. In the Cross, God destroys all that is corrupt in mankind. Our Lord Jesus stands as both the Victim and the High Priest, offering Himself to the Father, as a sacrifice for all of mankind. He dies, we live. He suffers, we go free. We who are corrupt, suffer no punishment. He who is just and perfect, suffers our punishment. Like Noah, our Lord Jesus is also place in a type of Ark, but He is only in this Ark for three days; it is His tomb. Noah is carried through the death of the world, to life again after the flood. Our dear Lord Jesus is carried through the Tomb and death and, even hell, to life eternal.

The Cross and the Tomb, as well as the Flood, are all pictures of our Baptism. We are buried, through the waters of baptism, into Christ's death. For us Christians, this is our death. It is the death of all that is corrupt in us, that which we inherited from Adam. But just as we are brought out of the waters of baptism, so are we brought out of sin and death, so that now we have forgiveness of sins, eternal life, and salvation in Christ Jesus alone. Noah too was buried in the waters, carried safe and sound through those waters, to life again on the other side.

This is the covenant that God makes with Noah. That he will live with Him. And it is the covenant that God has made with us. He fulfilled this covenant through His Son's death on the Cross. And He makes us a part of that covenant through our baptism. When we receive the Flood of baptism, God places us into an Ark. He places us into the Church. Perhaps you have wondered why the main seating area in a church building is called the Nave? Nave, is the Latin word for ship. And in most historic looking church buildings, if you look up at the ceiling, the ribs of the  arches look like the underbelly of a ship. The Church is the ship, or to say it another way, the Ark, that carries those who have been called out of corruption, and put on the perfection of our dear Lord Jesus, to our heavenly home. We are carried through this sea, this life of death and trouble, to our eternal home.

This is God's covenant with mankind, this is His covenant with you. Rejoice at your baptism, and rejoice that when you come to the house of God, you are being carried through this flood of life, and nourished by the preaching of the Gospel, and by the very Body and Blood of Jesus given in bread and wine. And these gifts of God to you will sustain you, and strengthen you through this vale of tears, until you reach your heavenly home.

God's peace be with you!

Deacon Dulas

This One Will Comfort Us: Genesis 5:1-32

Genesis 5:1-32: "1 This is the book of the genealogy of Adam. In the day that God created man, He made him in the likeness of God. 2 He created them male and female, and blessed them and called them Mankind in the day they were created. 3 And Adam lived one hundred and thirty years, and begot a son in his own likeness, after his image, and named him Seth. 4 After he begot Seth, the days of Adam were eight hundred years; and he had sons and daughters. 5 So all the days that Adam lived were nine hundred and thirty years; and he died. 6 Seth lived one hundred and five years, and begot Enosh. 7 After he begot Enosh, Seth lived eight hundred and seven years, and had sons and daughters. 8 So all the days of Seth were nine hundred and twelve years; and he died. 9 Enosh lived ninety years, and begot Cainan. 10 After he begot Cainan, Enosh lived eight hundred and fifteen years, and had sons and daughters. 11 So all the days of Enosh were nine hundred and five years; and he died. 12 Cainan lived seventy years, and begot Mahalalel. 13 After he begot Mahalalel, Cainan lived eight hundred and forty years, and had sons and daughters. 14 So all the days of Cainan were nine hundred and ten years; and he died. 15 Mahalalel lived sixty-five years, and begot Jared. 16 After he begot Jared, Mahalalel lived eight hundred and thirty years, and had sons and daughters. 17 So all the days of Mahalalel were eight hundred and ninety-five years; and he died. 18 Jared lived one hundred and sixty-two years, and begot Enoch. 19 After he begot Enoch, Jared lived eight hundred years, and had sons and daughters. 20 So all the days of Jared were nine hundred and sixty-two years; and he died. 21 Enoch lived sixty-five years, and begot Methuselah. 22 After he begot Methuselah, Enoch walked with God three hundred years, and had sons and daughters. 23 So all the days of Enoch were three hundred and sixty-five years. 24 And Enoch walked with God; and he was not, for God took him. 25 Methuselah lived one hundred and eighty-seven years, and begot Lamech. 26 After he begot Lamech, Methuselah lived seven hundred and eighty-two years, and had sons and daughters. 27 So all the days of Methuselah were nine hundred and sixty-nine years; and he died. 28 Lamech lived one hundred and eighty-two years, and had a son. 29 And he called his name Noah, saying, "This one will comfort us concerning our work and the toil of our hands, because of the ground which the LORD has cursed." 30 After he begot Noah, Lamech lived five hundred and ninety-five years, and had sons and daughters. 31 So all the days of Lamech were seven hundred and seventy-seven years; and he died. 32 And Noah was five hundred years old, and Noah begot Shem, Ham, and Japheth."

The geneology from Adam which leads to Noah, contains one striking detail, and that is the ages of these offspring of Adam. I get asked the question all the time of why these men lived so long compared to our life spans. Many theories have been put forth, but the reality is that the reason why we don't live as long as these men is the affect of sin upon both mankind and nature. Sin, death, and the devil, have completely enveloped the world, and they have left it in darkness and despair. Death surrounds us all the time, we are always hearing of someone who has died. For Christians, we can take comfort in the Resurrection from the dead, just as our dear Lord Jesus rose from the dead on the third day. But for those outside of Church; those who do not believe that our dear Lord Jesus fulfilled the Law of God, which they cannot, nor are able to fulfill, or are not that bad to merit condemnationon their behalf, and suffered and died in their place, and now gives us forgiveness of sins, eternal life, and salvation, through the preaching of the Word, and the adminstering of the Sacraments, have no hope for a Resurrection from the dead.

 

Such was the case of the men of the world before and at the time of Noah. But the one True God shows His mercy, by giving to this lost generation the gift of a baby boy, named Noah. Noah means "rest." Noah was meant to be the rest for this lost generation. And Noah fulfilled that task, by preaching to the people of that generation, the warning of God of a flood which would destroy the whole Earth. But as we learn, they did not heed that warning.

 

The One True God, has sent His Son, to dwell in our flesh, so that we might have "rest." Rest from the terrors of sin, death, and the devil. And He sends out to this fallen generation His ministers, those who embody the message Noah, proclaiming all to come into the Ark of the Church, to be rescued from the flood of sin, death, and the devil. This Ark of Christendom, carries us through this life, we enter through waters, the waters of Baptism, and are carried through the means of grace, to our eternal home, where live not just for several hundred years, but for all of eternity. And unlike this life which is fill with dread and trouble and strife, our eternal life is filled with joy and peace, and indeed, rest.

 

So this evening we take our rest in the comfort of Noah, the comfort of the Ark, the Ark of our salvation.

 

God's peace be with you!

 

Deacon Dulas