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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." ~ Genesis 6:13-16
Today, we continue our study of Genesis 6 where rebellious man has drawn a line in the sand, and God had no other choice but to warn sinful man to turn back to Him or they would face certain death. It only took ten generations before God had to start considering the destruction of sinful man. One hundred and twenty years later, God had to judge sin and death because if He did not, sin and death would win. And death was required because in order for man to know the life of God once again, sin had to be overcome by life. Without this plan, there would be no hope for our eternity and we would be trapped in sin and death forever. But, since God has intervened by sending His Son to die on the cross, sin and death has been defeated by life.
In v. 13 of today's passage we read, "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.'"
In the days of Noah, human wickedness was growing out of control and as a result, the entire world was to be destroyed. If Noah didn’t find grace in the eyes of the Lord, there would have been none for you and me. And when the world finds itself very soon in the coming tribulation period, very few will come out at the other end having trusted in the grace of God. The deceptive powers of the enemy will be incredibly strong during that time known as Jacob's trouble according to Jeremiah 30:7. In fact, the Lord Jesus said in Matthew 24:21-22, "21 For then there will be great tribulation, such as has not been since the beginning of the world until this time, no, nor ever shall be. 22 And unless those days were shortened, no flesh would be saved; but for the elect’s sake those days will be shortened."
The increase of corruption and violence in a society are always the mark of an impending disaster. When they become widespread and intense in character, they mark the imminence of collapse. History confirms that this is always the way God acts in society. Man is by nature a fully dependent being, therefore, we must depend upon God for our very breath. We are the most dependent of creatures, even more so than the animals. We lack even the instincts which animals have. Yet, fallen man denies this most important point of life and we are forever trying to assert our ability to do everything for ourselves. All of us lack the rationale, the intelligence, and the knowledge to control our lives. We have deluded ourselves into thinking that we have the ability to live apart from God.
Whereas Enoch, the first man in the scriptures of whom it says, "he walked with God" was directly taken out of this world to heaven to be with God, God rescued Noah and his family through the flood in the ark. Just as in Enoch and Noah's day, even in today’s wicked world, the grace of God is to be found. Until then, believers in the Lord Jesus must be about His business telling people about God’s offer of forgiveness through His Son's death on the cross. Grace is to be found, but better it be found now, before the time of Jaco's trouble comes. Looking for grace while one is looking for enough food to feed oneself inevitably leads to hard choices that most people will fail at in the end.
In v.14-16 of today's passage we read, "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."
As indicated by today's passage the ark was 450 feet long, 75 feet wide and 45 feet tall. The ark had three decks, all spaced fifteen feet apart. It is calculated that there was 100,000 square feet of deck space in the ark. There was 1.4 million cubic feet of storage space or the equivalent of 522 normal size train cars. And it could have easily accommodated 125,000 animals the size of sheep. Experts say at the time, there were less than 17,600 species of mammals, birds, and amphibians on the earth. When we double that number, because God instructed Noah to include two of each animal on the ark, we have 35,000 animals on the ark. And, they had to have five of the clean animals for the sacrifices for the 371 days that they were on the ark. So, there were no more than 79,000 animals on that large boat. And given its size, there was plenty of room, because it could have accommodated 125,000 animals the size of sheep.
It was the grace of God that caused Him to give to Noah this blueprint for the ark. Noah didn't know anything about building large boats. This was a huge undertaking. Nothing like this had ever been built. Noah didn't understand the displacement of solid objects in water. He didn't understand that if he had something solid and it weighed slightly more than the same amount of water that it's going to sink unless he displaced the water by moving its weight around. This is what Noah did when he hollowed out the wood for the ark. Noah didn't understand to do that, no one did. God, of course, knew it and He gave Noah the directions on how to construct the ark.
The ark was was made of gopherwood which was probably cedar wood. The words "gopherwood" and "pitch" are both from the same basic Hebrew root, which means "to cover." Thus the ark was made from "atonement wood." The ark was "pitched" or made water-proof, with "gopherwood" which was a picture of "atonement." The Hebrew word used for "atonement" speaks of forgiveness of our sin and being made right with God. Atonement is the most prominent theme of the Bible and it is used here to point us to the redemptive work of the Lord Jesus who went to Calvary's cross to not only cover our sin but to have them removed from us.
