Later this month the government is due to publish a leaflet because of its concern about the high levels of teenage pregnancies. In the leaflet parents are encouraged NOT to make very much of moral issues as they talk with their children! Surely the very concern about teenage pregnancy itself is a moral concern but parents mustn't try to foist their ideas/prejudices upon their offspring, certainly not if their ideas are moral ones.

Given our society's propensity for rejecting any moral restraint coming from outside ourselves it is perhaps surprising that the story of the Flood and Noah's Ark remains as popular as it does. I wonder just how many books have been published over the years dealing in one way or another with this Bible story. One online Christian bookstore in the currently lists over 100 titles in its children's section alone!

Well I guess we understand why the story remains popular – most folk fail completely to understand what it is really all about. They fail to see the moral issues that are highlighted so very clearly for us. And what about you? Do you see them?

In a moment we will consider some of the moral factors that lie at the very heart of the story without which no real sense can be made of it.

If we listen to the story as it is told in the Bible we'll find that there are some serious issues that we should consider. The story is far from being a twee little story about animals and colourful rainbows! It is a story that declares that:

· God is sovereign in the world that He has made

· God is a distinguishing God who does treat people uniformly in the same way – here He destroys the entire world population while saving just one small family group and that because of His choice of just one man – Noah.

The Bible does not present the story of the Flood as some imaginary or fictional event but as an historical reality – even little incidental details that add nothing to the story a it is told and which are not included for any symbolic reason point to this.

Eg. 7:11 "In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, in the second month, on the seventeenth day of the month, on that day all the fountains of the great deep burst forth, and the windows of the heavens were opened."

The fact that most cultures have as part of their folklore an account of a great flood points to the reality of the original event – why else should such a story be found in such disparate societies?

Morality Matters

While our government may want to play down matters of morality in reality morality matters very much indeed. As we open our Bible's to read this account of the Flood it is impossible to fail to see this very simple fact.

Noah

In 6:9 a new section begins in the Book of Genesis "These are the generations of…" and at once we are given a description of Noah. But it is not a Mills and Boon description of a man with rippling muscles and flowing locks of hair! No, in 6:9 we are given a moral description of the man and what a man he turns out to be! (This description is partially repeated in 7:1).

ü He was a righteous man. The words used suggest that horizontal relationships are in view. Noah was upright and honest in the way he related to other men and women. He was proper and correct – here was man you could trust.

ü He was blameless in his generation. Now the words describe more his attitude towards the Almighty. We're not to read the words as though they are suggesting that Noah was a perfect man without sin – there is only one such person described in the Scriptures and it is not Noah! What we are confronted with here is the fact that Noah conducted himself with integrity – he was wholehearted in his dealings with God.

ü He walked with God. This is just the second time that such a description is used in the Bible and it won't be used much more! Noah was in the mould of his great grandfather Enoch who had walked with God before him.

And Noah lived out this kind of lifestyle in the midst of a society that was rapidly spiralling downwards as sin ever tightened its grip upon the human race producing more and more corruption and violence upon the earth.

How could this be? What was special about Noah? What set him apart from those round about him? Well, we won't find the answer by investigating his psyche or by attributing it to some particular advantage in his upbringing – we will find the answer in v.8 though. Noah had been favoured by God! Grace had found him out and now Noah had become the man he was – he was able to live a Kingdom lifestyle because the King had granted Him the grace he needed.

Noah's World

Having looked at Noah we've seen he was described in moral terms. The same is true when we turn to consider the society in which he lived.

We don't know whether the immediate culture was agricultural or technological. We don't know whether it was primarily rural or urban. What we don know is its moral characteristics.

As God looked down on the world He had made He no longer saw a world with which He was well-pleased but He saw a world that grieved and disgusted Him. The characteristics that caused Him such pain and distress then have not been eradicated from our contemporary societies!

v.11 - the earth was corrupt and filled with violence.

v.12 - the earth was corrupt – the way of all on earth had become corrupted

v.13 - the earth is filled with violence

God would patiently put up with this corruption during the time for the construction of the ark – but something would soon have to be done.

Judgment

The story of the Flood makes it very plain that having seen what He has God determined to destroy the guilty ones.

6:13 "And God said to Noah, “I have determined to make an end of all flesh, for the earth is filled with violence through them. Behold, I will destroy them with the earth."

6:17 "For behold, I will bring a flood of waters upon the earth to destroy all flesh in which is the breath of life under heaven. Everything that is on the earth shall die."

The rottenness of life on earth did not leave the Lord indifferent as He looked out on His world. He held, and continues today, to hold men and women responsible for the way they live their lives. In His time He calls them to account. In Noah's day one of those times came about and the Flood was God's judgment upon a sin-sick world. The Lord warns us today that He has not changed – sin still grieves Him sorely and His patience will not continue for ever. There is a judgment coming – the final judgment – not this time another flood but a destructive judgment of fire!

The people of Noah's day continued unmoved and unconcerned until it was too late and they were carried away by the Flood. Let not that be our experience!

The judgment of the flood seems to involve a deliberate reversal of God's creative activity. In Gen.1 order was brought to the original chaos as God made a series of separations. The earth was separated from the seas – the waters above were separated from those below. But in the flood these separations are brought to an end. The earth is swallowed up by the waters and there is no longer this separation of waters as the windows of heaven are opened and the rains fall while the fountains of the deep burst forth.

God is preparing a major make-over, a new beginning. He was to make a new start in a cleansed world. Noah and his family would take the place of Adam and Eve in the renewed world.

As God deals with us in the NT era we too are renewed in Christ – new birth spells a new beginning that will come to full fruition with the return of the Lord in Glory.

God

Although we regularly talk about the Flood and Noah's Ark the Bible presents God to us as the principle protagonist. And it because of this that the moral questions are ones that are really important.

As we read the account we are constantly presented with a God who is active.

· It is God who speaks 6:13; 7:1 – did you realize that none of Noah's words are recorded until the flood has come and gone?

· It is God who sees – vv.10-11

· It is God who commands just what must be done:

1. the construction of the ark and all the specific details related to it vv.14-16

2. the collection of animals, birds and foodstuffs 6:19-7:10

· it is even God who in His loving care shuts the door of the ark behind Noah

· it is God who makes promises – the establishment of His covenant with Noah 6:18 – this is the first time that the word covenant appears in the Bible but what an important concept it is!

A Covenant is a binding agreement – there are various types of covenant and include a legal contract such as rental contract; a political treaty; a marriage. In each case terms are agreed and the parties are bound by them.

God in establishing His covenant with mankind does not enter into some form of negotiation or bargaining procedure but simply lays down the terms which must be followed by the beneficiaries. The covenant God establishes is not the result of some collaboration between Him and men but uniquely by God's free grace.

In this way we are able to see the truth of the statement that in the midst of wrath God remembers mercy! The flood has been announced – a just response to the wickedness of the earth – but the LORD freely promises deliverance and salvation to Noah.

The LORD still deals with by covenant – Jesus Christ has instituted the New Covenant by His blood. We have been considering Sunday mornings how all spiritual blessings belong to the Christian is so far as they are in Christ. Christ has secured our salvation – we have nothing to do to procure it – all the response we need to benefit from this wonderful grace of God is to receive it by faith and trust Him.

Having come to Him in faith we then go on to live transformed lives of obedience which declare that the promised blessings of God are indeed ours.

In Noah's case as he responded to the covenant promises with faith he was at once involved in the lengthy and costly business of ark building a task that lasted many years and probably exposed him to much ridicule as he preached righteousness to an unconcerned generation. What will it mean for us? Impossible to answer in detail but it will obedience to Him on a daily and ongoing basis!

You may be wondering how on earth it will ever be possible to live such a life as that. Well we are able to do so because His grace is mighty:

· He changes our hearts to love Him

· He gives us new desires to please Him

· He fills us with gratitude

· He transforms our lives with the divine energy we need to keep His commands.

Conclusion:

The flood was no chance event, no mere natural disaster. It was an instance of divine judgment.

Over and over again the Bible the Bible highlights the seriousness of sin and the fact that God will judge sin. The flood is just one of those examples of when the Lord's wrath is poured forth.

We must learn from this and from every subsequent example of the Lord's judgment. If judgment seems slow in coming don't misread God's patience for God's ignorance and indifference. His patience is designed to give you the opportunity to repent (2Pe.3:9-10).