THE FLOOD (Genesis 6:17 to 8:5)

God could have destroyed all mankind by any method He chose, He could have used the sword of an angel, as He did when He destroyed all the first-born of the Egyptians, and the camp of the Assyrians.  If God had chosen that as His method, then there would only have needed to be a mark set upon Noah and his family for their preservation. 

But God chose to do it by a flood of waters, which would drown the whole world.  God chooses the rod with which he will correct us, His children, just as he chooses the sword with which he will cut off his enemies.  Notice also that this was not an accident, or the result of global warming, God is in control, He chose the method of judgment.  

Then, notice the expression, “I, even I, do bring a flood.” God is saying, “I am infinite in power, and therefore, I can do it.  I am infinite in justice, and therefore, I will do it.”  These are powerful words that speak of the deity of God and the sovereign right He has to condemn and judge all of creation.  God created man, therefore, He has the sovereign right to destroy man.

Yet “the Lord said unto Noah, Come thou.”  God was already in the ark.  Salvation was simply the shutting in of all the saved with Him.  What it meant for Noah to be “in the ark” with God is what it means today for the believer to be “in Christ.”  It means that between the saved and the storm were the judgment proof timbers of the ark.  It also means that between the believer and God’s wrath is Christ.  Christ bears the storm for all those who now find their safety in Him.

Noah and his family had to take one step of faith.  They had to make a total commitment of themselves to the salvation that had been procured for them at the cost of God’s only Son’s life.  Apart from that act, salvation would have been offered in vain.  

This invitation is extended by God to man.  It is extended to everybody, not just a select few.  It urges man to avail himself of the perfect provision God has made for his preservation.  The story of the flood tells us that this invitation of God is also given in a time of overwhelming judgment and doom.

Click on the play button to hear a message on the Flood, and where God said Come! And Noah responded by saying “Just as I am, I come.”  

This is a live recording of The Master’s Class Bible Study at LifeChange Church Wichita, KS.

Amen.