Preparation for Judgment

Genesis 6

We come here to yet another politically incorrect account in the Word of God. As far as the majority of academia and the "Intelligencia" of this world are concerned, the historicity of the Biblical Flood of the book of Genesis is a myth. On April 8, 2007, on the Discover channel, there was a special on the biblical Flood of Noah that supposedly systematically tore the biblical account limb from limb. The following were some of their major points:

     1. First, a prominent engineer was trotted forth who said that, given the size of the ark and that it was made of wood, there was no way it could have survived the stresses of actually floating. He stated that it absolutely would have immediately began to leak and then break apart as soon as the water lifted it off the ground (this was followed by a simulated graphic depiction of the ark breaking up and sinking beneath the waves).

     2. Second, another "scientist" was brought forth who said that, given the number of creatures that were required to enter the ark, it would have taken 30 years to load them all, not the 7 days that the Bible says it took. He further stated, with great authority, that many creatures would not have been able to fit in the ark given its dimensions.

     3. Third, a geologist came on to state that there was no evidence at all of a universal flood ever having occurred on planet Earth. In fact, he stated, there is overwhelming and indisputable evidence to the contrary.

     4. Fourth, another so-called "expert" testified that the biblical account could not pass as a rational historic text because, if such a thing had actually occurred, the atmosphere would have been so saturated by water that its mere weight would have crushed the lungs of every living being on earth.

     5. Fifth, it was stated that other “experts” say that the story of the Flood in Genesis was actually written in the 6th century b.c., having been copied from flood legends and myths from the various flood legends of other ancient civilizations.

     6. Sixth, they addressed the question whether there was any truth at all to the biblical story of the Flood. The answer was a condescending and qualified, “Yes”. The conclusion was that the Bible’s account was an exaggeration and embellishment of some other event that took place in ancient history. Here, they built their case on the clay tablet writings found at Nineveh in 1851. Specifically, George Smith’s decipher of one of them, the Epic of Gilgamesh, in 1872, which contained the story of a great flood. They also cited an even older Mesopotamian story of a flood found in the Epic of Atrahasis. The conclusion was that these legends spoke of an historic, but merely local, flood from which the Bible had drawn its mythical account.

     7. Seventh, they concluded that they believed that Noah actually was an historic person. According to PBS, Noah was a Sumerian (the people who invented writing). He was a fellow who had a shipping business up and down the Euphrates river. One day there was a huge local flood, due to excessive snow melt in the headwaters of the Euphrates river.  Quickly, this Sumerian Noah was depicted as getting his family and 260 of his animals on board his boat to ride out the flood. It was interesting how this literary license was so freely used and put forward as fact.

The above biased and unscientific conclusions show how adamantly opposed modern man is to the biblical account of the Great Flood in the book of Genesis. It is summarily dismissed out of hand as ridiculous and, most of the time, it is a closed subject that is not even up for discussion. Their mantra is that it is religion and not science. In reality, nothing could be further from the truth. The biblical Flood is substantiated by an avalanche of scientific data available to those who are willing to take an unbiased look at the evidence all around us. But, man’s attitude towards God’s judgment of the world that then was has historically been one of denial. Even back in the first century, the Apostle Peter says this was the case. As you have it in II Peter 3:5-6...

"For this they willfully forget: that by the word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of water and in the water, by which the world that then existed perished, being flooded with water."

In spite of current popular scientific opinion and the pressures of political correctness, the truth is that God did judge the ancient world with a universal flood. Consider the following scriptures.

"Will you keep to the old way which wicked men have trod, who were cut down before their time, whose foundations were swept away by a flood?" Job 22:15-16

"But as the days of Noah were, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be. For as in the days before the flood, they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark, and did not know until the flood came and took them all away, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be." (Jesus’ words) Matthew 24:37-39

"For 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; and 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..." II Peter 2:4-5

Here are some other scriptures where the Bible testifies to the historicity of the Genesis Flood: Isa.51:9; Ezek.11:14; Heb.11:7; I Pet.3:20; II Pet.2:5; Matt. 24:37-39; Luke 3:36.  Now, let’s look at it.

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6:1-3

"Now it came to pass, when men began to multiply on the face of the earth, and daughters were born to them, that the sons of God saw the daughters of men, that they were beautiful; and they took wives for themselves of all whom they chose. And the LORD said, ‘My Spirit shall not strive with man forever, for he is indeed flesh; yet his days shall be one hundred and twenty years.’"

There are two important things to note in this passage.

            1. First, as early man multiplied on the earth, two distinct lines developed.

Our passage refers to the two lines as the sons of God and daughters of men. This was alluded to back in 4:26, where we read that after the birth of Enos, men began to call themselves by the name of the Lord. Seth's line (the sons of God) and Cain’s line (the daughters of men) both continued to increase on the Earth until the day came in which their populations had increased to the point that they began to regularly inter-marry. This resulted in the deterioration of the human race into total ungodliness.

Let’s step aside here for a moment. I would like to point out that there is another popular view amongst evangelical Christians that pops up from time to time that says the term, "the sons of God" in Genesis 6, refers to angels in accordance with its use in Job 1:6. This view sees a race of part angel and part human developing prior to the flood that necessitated God’s eradication of them. This interpretation should be rejected on several grounds.

                   a. First, when the term “sons of God” is used to refer to angels in the Bible, it always refers to good angels.

                   b. Second, when Jesus addressed the subject of whether or not there was marriage in heaven, he said...

"You are mistaken, not knowing the Scriptures nor the power of God. For in the resurrection they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like angels of God in heaven." Matthew 22:29b-30

Angels are spirits and Jesus specifically said that they do not marry. Nor do we find them desiring to have sexual relations with man anywhere in Scripture (nor could they, being spirits and humans being flesh and blood).

                   c. This interpretation that sees angels cavorting with human women is an obvious outgrowth of Greek mythology.

In Greek mythology, you will find all kinds of stories about the gods pursuing such relationships. In my opinion, such speculations have no place in biblical theology. 

                   d. At best, this is a view that hasn’t a shred of Scripture to back it up.

The view is based entirely on this one verse in Genesis 6. Hermeneutically speaking, this is a big "no-no". The basic rule of Scriptural interpretation it violates is the one that says, "never build a doctrine on an obscure passage of Scripture."

                   e. The Lord specifically says in verses 3 and 5, that his problem was with man ... not half men half angels.

            2. Second, there is some very important theology to ponder in the Lord's statement here, "My Spirit shall not strive with man forever, for he is indeed flesh; yet his days shall be one hundred and twenty years."

Basically, God is saying, "I'm not going to fight with these people any longer. I’m going to give them another hundred and twenty years and then ... that’s it. That is all the time I am going to give them." Notice that it says that God’s Holy Spirit wrestled with men prior to the flood. God’s Holy Spirit is, and always has been, involved in speaking, confronting and convicting each and every individual of the human race. Here is a scripture about that ongoing ministry of the Holy Spirit as it relates to our day. Jesus said...

"Nevertheless I tell you the truth. It is to your advantage that I go away; for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you; but if I depart, I will send him to you. And when he has come, he will convict the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment: of sin, because they do not believe in me; of righteousness, because I go to my Father and you see me no more; of judgment, because the ruler of this world is judged. I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. However, when he, the Spirit of truth, has come, he will guide you into all truth; for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak; and he will tell you things to come. He will glorify me, for he will take of what is mine and declare it to you." John 16:7-14

Although the passage above, in John’s gospel, refers to the ministry of the Holy Spirit today, it is indicative of his ministry towards men in the past as well. He has always been involved in speaking to the hearts of ungodly men and women as is so clearly stated in our Genesis text when God says, My Spirit shall not strive with man forever”. God has been striving and striving with men and women throughout history. However, in the days of Noah, he drew a line in the sand. He said that his striving with that generation was coming to an end. He would only continue to do so for another 120 years. After that, stiff-necked and unresponsive man was scheduled for judgment and would be destroyed from off the face of the earth. During those final days before the Flood, Noah built the ark and the Lord used him to preach to his generation. Then, the end of all flesh came just as God had said it would. As you have it in II Peter 2:5...

"...and 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..."

How important it is for men and women to listen while God is speaking. There will always come a day, you see, when his speaking will stop and his judgment will come.

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6:4

"There were giants on the earth in those days, and also afterward, when the sons of God came in to the daughters of men and they bore children to them. Those were the mighty men who were of old, men of renown."

This is a greatly misunderstood verse. It is not referring to the offspring of the angel/man marriages view we discussed earlier. The root Hebrew word translated giant here is Nephal. It means "to fall upon." It is not talking about giants, although there probably were some at that time. The thrust and meaning of this verse is that, as a result of the intermarriage of the godly line of Seth with the ungodly line of Cain, a violent and notorious race of men were produced. And, they were not good. The Hebrew word used here for renown (shem) carries, as one of its secondary definitions, the meaning “base” or “infamous”. I believe that is the correct nuance here. Just as it is in our day here in America, the intermarriage of the godly with the ungodly inevitably resulted in a baser and baser and more and more violent population.

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6:5-7

"Then the LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And the LORD was sorry that he had made man on the earth, and he was grieved in his heart. So the LORD said, ‘I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth, both man and beast, creeping thing and birds of the air, for I am sorry that I have made them.’"

There are at least two things to note here.

           First, the longevity of man (most living nearly a thousand years) did not result in their turning to God.

The great longevity of men in that previous world only resulted in greater wickedness of unprecedented and unparalleled proportions. They merely became sophisticated sinners of great, persistent and violent evil. As our text says, every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.

           Second, the statement here, "the LORD was sorry that he had made man on the earth…" does not intimate that God felt he had made a mistake when he made man.

God never makes mistakes. Rather, this is speaking of the depth of sorrow of heart that God felt when he beheld the evil that men were perpetrating due to the hardness of every human being that populated the Earth at that time. This is an example of an anthropomorphism (the use of a human expression to get across an important point from God).

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6:8-10

"But Noah found grace in the eyes of the LORD. This is the genealogy of Noah. Noah was a just man, perfect in his generations. Noah walked with God. And Noah begot three sons: Shem, Ham, and Japheth."

These verses begin with a wonderful statement relating to God’s dealings with man. Let me ask you a question? Would God have been justified had he wiped out the entire human race ... including Noah ... at that time? The answer is, yes. Our text pointedly says that even Noah himself required the grace of God to escape God’s impending judgment! Grace is defined as "unmerited favor". Was Noah a good man? Yes, I am sure he was … by human standards. But, from God’s point of view, Noah was a sinner like all the rest. He would need God's grace to survive God’s impending judgment. Just as you and I, dear brother or sister, have needed it to survive the next judgment that is scheduled for our world. As you have it in Ephesians 2:8-10...

"For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them."

And again in I Thessalonians 1:10...

"...and to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, even Jesus who delivers us from the wrath to come."

Noah was also his workmanship, you see. He was a man who received grace from the hand of his loving God. Furthermore, our text says that Noah was a just man. That is, he was a saved man. He had been justified by faith just as saved folks are today. As you have it in Romans 5:1-2...

"Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom also we have access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God."

Finally, notice here that it is said that Noah walked with God. The wonderful spiritual legacy of Noah’s great grandfather, Enoch (5:22-24), had found its way down to the great grandson as well. May I say to you, dear saint, there is no greater epitaph that can be written of a child of God than this. It’s written here that Noah enjoyed a real relationship with his God on a daily ... no ... a moment by moment basis. Noah walked with God. Do you walk with God? Micah 6:8 says...

"He has shown you, O man, what is good; And what does the LORD require of you but to do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God?"

This is where it is at, beloved. Real relationship with the living God on a continuing basis is for the taking, just as it has always been. He desires to walk with his children. Oh that his children would desire to walk with him, aye? Noah did. Enoch did. May I say a word about serving the Lord here? You know, often God’s people become so busy serving the Lord that they forget to walk with Him. Somehow, they just don’t have time for a real, warm and fulfilling relationship with their God. There's just no room for Him in their busy schedules. What a tragedy. That’s what happened to the Ephesian church, by the way. You can read about it in Revelation 2. Jesus said they left their first love! Don’t leave your first love, beloved. Guard your walk with God at all costs. It must come first. It’s the main thing.

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6:11-13

"The earth also was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence. So God looked upon the earth, and indeed it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted their way on the earth. 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."

My, how God hates violence. Twice here, he sites violence as the ultimate cause of his impending judgment. It is noteworthy that all wickedness and ungodliness in man ultimately deteriorates down into violence. All sin leads to this common denominator. I am amazed at the level of raw violence that is sweeping our world today. It is everywhere about us. We see it on an unprecedented scale. It is reported that in Mexico, for example, more people were murdered in the drug wars down there in 2008 than all of the lives we have lost in the Iraq war! Suicide bombers, death squads and beheaders running rampant in our world today. Violence is everywhere. We see it glorified on TV ... in the movies ... in our video games … and sports. It stalked forth on the campus of Virginia Tech in 2007 and thirty two people were randomly and heartlessly slaughtered. The killer, a young man named Cho, died with the words "Ismail Ax" written in red ink on one of his arms but no one was sure what it meant. Personally, I believe it is the name of his demon just as Rahab was the name of the demon behind ancient Egypt as recorded in the Bible (Ps. 89:10; Isa. 51:9). This continuous rise of abject violence in our world today should be a real eye-opener to the people of God. It is strong evidence that the sand in this world’s timer is running out, beloved. Jesus prophesied...

"But as the days of Noah were, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be." Matthew 24:37

From the continuous wanton murders of innocents by Islamic terrorists to incidents of murder in school classrooms in the United States ... the common denominator is the same ... violence. It is greatly increasing in our day. Surely, the coming of the Lord draws near. Surely, we are very close to the closing of this age and the coming Tribulation (Rev. 6-18) which will culminate in our Lord’s Second Coming as predicted by him in the verse above. This was the way it was in Noah’s day and it is the way it is in our day, as well.

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6:14-18

"Make yourself an ark of gopherwood; make rooms in the ark, and cover it inside and outside with pitch. 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. 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. 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. 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."

There is a great deal of good information on the particulars of Noah's ark in Christian literature today. One good source that comes to mind is The Genesis Flood by Dr. Henry Morris. The ark was approximately 450 feet long by 75 feet wide by 45 feet high and Noah was instructed to build it in three stories. Basically, it was a huge barge. It wasn’t constructed to sail. For God’s purposes, all it had to do was float. Noah was instructed to use pitch so that all the seams between the planks were water proofed both inside and out to prevent leakage until the water had caused the wood to swell enough to take care of that itself. Pitch, of course comes from trees and there was a huge abundance of trees in the first world where Noah lived. Our present oil and coal reserves are ample evidence of that fact.

The window that God instructed to be built into the ark was for ventilation purposes and can be pictured as circumventing the entire top of the ark just under the roof and all the way around. 

From the dimensions of the ark, we can calculate that its capacity was approximately 1,396,000 cubic feet. This would equal the hauling capacity of approximately 522 standard boxcars of a standard freight train. The taxonomist, Earnest Mays, lists 17,600 species of mammals, birds, reptiles and amphibians on the Earth. Putting these two statistics together, one can easily calculate that there was more than ample room for all the living creatures that God placed in the ark.

A question is often raised, "Were dinosaurs on the ark?" The answer is, yes. Evolutionary scientists today all agree that the demise of the dinosaur came as a result of one great single catastrophe. The latest theory is that a great meteor or asteroid hit the Earth and so changed the atmosphere and climate of the ancient world that all of the dinosaurs died off at one time. These scientists are right about one thing. The extinction of the dinosaur was due to a single great catastrophe. But, the catastrophe was the Flood, not an asteroid. The dinosaurs that left the ark found themselves in a radically different world from which they had come. Its climate, especially in the Far East, where the ark came to rest, was no longer conducive to support dinosaur life. Some dinosaurs, of course, lasted longer than others after the Flood but the end result was the same. Their world had changed too radically for them to survive any longer. Their warm uniform climate and universal lush vegetation was gone forever. The dinosaurs truly belonged to the world that was, not the world as we know it today. As for them being around for a while after the flood, there is evidence in the Bible that dinosaurs lived concurrent with man after the flood. In the oldest book of the Bible, (written after the Flood during the age of the patriarchs) Job describes one of them...

"Look now at the behemoth, which I made along with you; He eats grass like an ox. See now, his strength is in his hips, and his power is in his stomach muscles. He moves his tail like a cedar; The sinews of his thighs are tightly knit. His bones are like beams of bronze, His ribs like bars of iron. He is the first of the ways of God; Only He who made him can bring near His sword. Surely the mountains yield food for him, and all the beasts of the field play there. He lies under the lotus trees, in a covert of reeds and marsh. The lotus trees cover him with their shade; the willows by the brook surround him. Indeed the river may rage, Yet he is not disturbed; He is confident, though the Jordan gushes into his mouth, though he takes it in his eyes, or one pierces his nose with a snare. Can you draw out Leviathan with a hook, or snare his tongue with a line which you lower? Can you put a reed through his nose, or pierce his jaw with a hook?" Job 40:15- 41:2

"Can you fill his skin with harpoons, Or his head with fishing spears? Lay your hand on him; remember the battle; never do it again! Indeed, any hope of overcoming him is false; shall one not be overwhelmed at the sight of him? No one is so fierce that he would dare stir him up." Job 41:7-10

"I will not conceal his limbs, His mighty power, or his graceful proportions. Who can remove his outer coat? Who can approach him with a double bridle? Who can open the doors of his face, with his terrible teeth all around? His rows of scales are his pride, Shut up tightly as with a seal; One is so near another that no air can come between them; they are joined one to another, they stick together and cannot be parted. His sneezings flash forth light, and his eyes are like the eyelids of the morning. Out of his mouth go burning lights; sparks of fire shoot out. Smoke goes out of his nostrils, as from a boiling pot and burning rushes. His breath kindles coals, and a flame goes out of his mouth. Strength dwells in his neck, and sorrow dances before him. The folds of his flesh are joined together; they are firm on him and cannot be moved. His heart is as hard as stone, even as hard as the lower millstone. When he raises himself up, the mighty are afraid; because of his crashings they are beside themselves. Though the sword reaches him, it cannot avail; nor does spear, dart, or javelin. He regards iron as straw, and bronze as rotten wood. The arrow cannot make him flee; slingstones become like stubble to him. Darts are regarded as straw; he laughs at the threat of javelins. His undersides are like sharp potsherds; He spreads pointed marks in the mire. He makes the deep boil like a pot; He makes the sea like a pot of ointment. He leaves a shining wake behind him; one would think the deep had white hair. On earth there is nothing like him, which is made without fear. He beholds every high thing; he is king over all the children of pride." Job 41:12-34

Another question that is often raised is the size of the animals that entered the ark, especially in connection with the dinosaurs. I have heard such comments as, "Are you crazy, do you realize the size of a Argentinosaurus hinculensis? It was 70 feet tall (about the size of a six-story building) and 120 feet long (about three long school buses end to end) and weighed 100 tons! Are you saying that there were two of those on the ark!?

 

"Or, how about Gigantosaurus carolinii, T-rex’s larger cousin! He was 42 to 46 feet long and weighed a good 8 tons! How could the ark accommodate two of those dinosaurs?" The answer to these objections becomes obvious if you really think about it for a minute. Where is it written that it was full-grown adult animals that entered the ark? If Argentinosaurus hinculensis and Gigantosaurus carolinii came into the ark as infants, or very young, the problem is solved, is it not? Do you think the God who made them and brought them into the ark, didn’t think of that? Also, keep in mind that the vast majority of the dinosaurs were actually very small creatures … not large. Take for example Compsognathus longipes. It was about 3 feet long and only weighed 6 or 7 pounds. The myth that all the dinosaurs were gigantic, violent creatures is Hollywood hype ... Jurassic Park stuff ... fiction not fact.

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6:19-22

"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. 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. 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. Thus Noah did; according to all that God commanded him, so he did."

Some years ago, I recall seeing a depiction of this event on television. Noah was portrayed as chasing the animals this way and that, diving ridiculously after the animals and often falling headlong in the mud in the process. Eventually he was seen as successfully dragging a pig on board, as I recall, as it squealed loudly and put up the maximum amount of resistance. It made for good comedy but was not aligned with the facts of the Bible. God himself brought the animals aboard the ark two by two ... not Noah. All that Noah and his family had to do was watch and perhaps secure the doors of their cages, if indeed they had them. What an incredible sight this must have been. It is truly unparalleled in world history. From every direction and quarter the creatures came to the ark. Those that lived in faraway reaches no doubt began their strange journey months or even years before hand. Yet they all arrived at the precise time and, in orderly fashion, entered the ark voluntarily. It must have been an ominous sight as well, if any of the local population were looking on.

Another objection arises here as to the amount of food that this would have entailed to feed all these animals for such an extended period of time. Notice that Noah was instructed to gather food of all food that is eaten for him and for the animals. This was a tall order in itself, was it not? And, I have heard another objection concerning the manure this would entail from all these creatures and the resulting supposed logistical impossibility of disposing of it. By way of answer, just let me say that we who believe in the God of the Bible also believe in the miraculous. So much for the objection on the Discover channel where the engineer testified that Noah’s ark would not float. It is important to understand that the entire event of the Flood was filled with supernatural occurrences beginning with the arrival of the animals at the ark. Noah was instructed to gather all types of food that man and beast might eat. Notice that he was not instructed to gather it in quantities sufficient for a daily intake over the period of the full year that they would be in the ark. In fact, he was not told how long they would be in the ark at all! The incident of Elijah and the widow comes to mind here as recorded in I Kings 17. Let’s look at it. The Lord said to Elijah...

"Arise, go to Zarephath, which belongs to Sidon, and dwell there. See, I have commanded a widow there to provide for you. So he arose and went to Zarephath. And when he came to the gate of the city, indeed a widow was there gathering sticks. And he called to her and said, ‘Please bring me a little water in a cup, that I may drink.’ And as she was going to get it, he called to her and said, ‘Please bring me a morsel of bread in your hand.’ So she said, ‘As the LORD your God lives, I do not have bread, only a handful of flour in a bin, and a little oil in a jar; and see, I am gathering a couple of sticks that I may go in and prepare it for myself and my son, that we may eat it, and die.’ And Elijah said to her, ‘Do not fear; go and do as you have said, but make me a small cake from it first, and bring it to me; and afterward make some for yourself and your son. For thus says the LORD God of Israel: 'The bin of flour shall not be used up, nor shall the jar of oil run dry, until the day the LORD sends rain on the earth.' So she went away and did according to the word of Elijah; and she and he and her household ate for many days. The bin of flour was not used up, nor did the jar of oil run dry, according to the word of the LORD which he spoke by Elijah." I Kings 17:9-16

Although our text does not implicitly state that this was the case with the food that Noah gathered on the ark, I believe that it is definitely implied. Miraculous intervention by God on the behalf of Noah and the animals was the order of the day in this entire event. I might add, there is also the possibility that the animals were put into a partial or complete state of hibernation by God during their year-long stay on the ark. In any case, when we meet Noah one day, it will be a delight to ask him about the details of many of these things. Until then, we must just keep in mind who God is and what he can do ... not what finite and unbelieving man thinks he cannot do. Here are a couple of scriptures in that regard.

"But Jesus looked at them and said to them, "With men this is impossible, but with God all things are possible." Matthew 19:26

"Behold, I am the LORD, the God of all flesh. Is there anything too hard for me?" Jeremiah 32:27

One final thought here before we leave this sixth chapter. In the midst of judgment, God always prepares a place of refuge for his own. For Noah and his family, and all the animals and creatures, it was an ark. Today, the place of refuge is Jesus Christ. Only those who are on board in him are safe. Noah’s ancient world perished in a judgment of water. Our world will perish in a judgment of fire. Everything we see about us ... civilization and culture ... architecture and transportation ... science and knowledge ... forests and mountains ... seas and nature ... man and beast ... birds and fish ... stars and galaxies ... everything ... is scheduled for judgment. And, the only place of safety, like Noah’s ark, is in Christ. Here are a few pertinent scriptures.

"But the heavens and the earth which are now preserved by the same word, are reserved for fire until the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men." "But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night, in which the heavens will pass away with a great noise, and the elements will melt with fervent heat; both the earth and the works that are in it will be burned up. Therefore, since all these things will be dissolved, what manner of persons ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness, looking for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be dissolved, being on fire, and the elements will melt with fervent heat?" II Peter 3:7,10-12

The Apostle Paul writes to the believers in Christ at Thessalonica...

"And you became followers of us and of the Lord, having received the word in much affliction, with joy of the Holy Spirit, so that you became examples to all in Macedonia and Achaia who believe. For from you the word of the Lord has sounded forth, not only in Macedonia and Achaia, but also in every place. Your faith toward God has gone out, so that we do not need to say anything. For they themselves declare concerning us what manner of entry we had to you, and how you turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God,and to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, even Jesus who delivers us from the wrath to come."

Are you in? Judgment by fire is coming. You think not? Noah’s generation thought not as well. Get in the Ark! Jesus saves, my friend. He is the only refuge and place of safety from the judgment to come.