Noah And The Great Flood

Questions This Sermon Answers:

1. Why did God send the flood?

Genesis 6:5 gives God's diagnosis: "The LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually." This is the most comprehensive description of human depravity in Genesis — total, pervasive, continuous evil. God's decision to bring the flood was not capricious but judicial: He is the righteous Judge of all the earth (Genesis 18:25), and the flood was the execution of justice against a world that had fully rejected Him. 2 Peter 3:6 confirms: "the world that then existed was deluged with water and perished."

2. What does it mean that Noah found "grace" in God's eyes?

Genesis 6:8 uses the Hebrew word hen — grace, favor, unearned acceptance. Noah's righteousness (Genesis 6:9) was the fruit of this grace, not its cause. The order is theologically crucial: grace precedes righteousness; election precedes obedience. Noah was righteous because he had found grace; he did not find grace because he was righteous. Westminster Confession 3.5 affirms that God's election is "of His mere free grace and love, without any foresight of faith or good works... as conditions, or causes moving Him thereunto." Noah is one of the Old Testament's clearest examples of sovereign, electing grace.

3. What was the theological significance of the ark?

The ark was the sole means of survival from the flood's judgment — there was no other way. All who were not in the ark perished. 1 Peter 3:20–21 explicitly applies the ark's logic to baptism: "when God's patience waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was being prepared, in which a few, that is, eight persons, were brought safely through water. Baptism, which corresponds to this, now saves you." The ark is a picture of Christ — the one place of safety from divine judgment. Those who are in Christ are not merely protected from judgment; they are carried through it.

4. What does the flood reveal about God's justice?

The flood demonstrates that God's patience has limits and His justice is real. Genesis 6:3 suggests a one-hundred-twenty-year window — Noah building the ark was a century-long sermon in wood (Hebrews 11:7 calls him "a herald of righteousness"). The world ignored it. When judgment came, it was comprehensive and global. 2 Peter 3:7 applies this directly to the final judgment: "the heavens and earth that now exist are stored up for fire, being kept until the day of judgment." The flood is not ancient anomaly — it is prophetic preview.

5. What is the significance of the rainbow covenant?

The Noahic covenant (Genesis 9:8–17) is God's promise not to destroy the earth by flood again — a covenant made with "all flesh," not just Israel. The rainbow is the sign of this covenant. Its theological significance is enormous: God has bound Himself to preserve the created order until His purposes are complete. The seasons will continue, life will continue, the stage will remain set for redemptive history. Calvin writes: "The Lord does not merely promise in words but establishes a visible symbol that His covenant will be firm and lasting." The rainbow is God's signature on the world's preservation.

6. How is Noah a new Adam?

After the flood, the world was effectively reset: the corrupted generation destroyed, a righteous remnant preserved, a new creation emerging from the waters. God blesses Noah with the same commission given to Adam: "Be fruitful and multiply" (Genesis 9:1; cf. 1:28). Noah planted a vineyard — an agricultural new beginning. But Noah's drunkenness (Genesis 9:21) quickly reveals that the problem was not environmental (the corrupt world) but internal (the corrupt heart). The flood did not solve the problem of human sin — it demonstrated its depth. Only the new birth can do what the flood could not.

7. What does Noah's drunkenness teach?

Genesis 9:20–27 records Noah's drunkenness and Ham's disrespect — a rapid descent from the heights of covenant renewal. It teaches that even the most righteous people remain sinners after their greatest experiences of grace. Noah, survivor of the flood, preserved by God's grace, the first person God made a covenant with after the Fall — still sinned. The incident also introduces the curse on Canaan, which sets the stage for the later conflict between Israel and the Canaanites. The "new Adam" of the post-flood world was as fallen as the first — pointing forward to the need for the true new Adam, Jesus Christ (Romans 5:14–15).

8. How does the flood point to the final judgment?

Jesus explicitly invokes the flood as a picture of His return: "As it was in the days of Noah, so will it be at the coming of the Son of Man. For as in those days before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day when Noah entered the ark, and they were unaware until the flood came and swept them all away, so will be the coming of the Son of Man" (Matthew 24:37–39). The flood is the paradigm case of sudden, comprehensive divine judgment on a world that has refused to hear the warning. Noah's ark is the paradigm case of salvation through the one appointed means of escape.