MESSAGE BY PASTOR DANIEL PARK
FROM BETHANY BAPTIST IN RICHMOND, BC.
I invite you to pray with me, Father God hear our prayer, and we humbly cry before you as it's written, "Whatever you ask for in prayer, believing, you will receive" (Matt: 21 -22) and yes! we believe in you, we trust in you, and yes, we believe you are the maker of miracles. we are asking for healing for our dear members of our family and also dear friends who are suffering from illnesses in their lives fighting and suffering under a lot of pain, You know them by their names; (Gaby, Vicky, Nancy, Tere, Liz , Gloria, Stevie, Les, Miguel, Socrates, Kate, Sara's mom, Monika) as your precious children, strengthen them their faith in you with a miracle in their lives oh! Father God hear our prayer, and we also pray for all the people around the world especially the children, who are suffering from wars, devastation, hunger, pain, hate and disbelieve in you, we ask beloved Father God to strengthen their faith in you we know that you love them so much oh Father God hear our prayer, we ask you in the name of Our Lord of Lords and King of Kings you beloved son Jesus Christ. AMEN!
After Adam and Eve sinned, the world became wicked, full of violence and wrongdoing
God, saddened by humanity’s choices, decided to flood the earth
But He found Noah, a righteous man who followed God. God instructed Noah to build an ark and bring his family and animals on board
They entered the ark, and God sealed it shut
Rain fell for 40 days and nights, flooding the earth
Noah, his family, and the animals were saved
After the flood, God made a covenant with Noah, promising never to flood the earth again, and set a rainbow as a sign of His eternal goodness and faithfulness
I have heard people ask and remember myself being quite scandalized at the thought of God punishing and destroying His creation relatively soon after creating everything
While the events of Noah and his ark, and the flood are not all about cute animals and children-friendly,
Neither is it a only story of God’s wrath and punishment as a lot of people read it as
It actually shows us the never-ending goodness of God
As we see that God Loves, God Saves, and God Promises.
God’s goodness never ends because He LOVES
A key concept for understanding the narrative flow of the whole Bible is that the righteousness of one can count for the many.
The story of Noah is first time we see this in the Bible.
Gen.6:9 This is the account of Noah and his family. Noah was a righteous man, the only blameless person living on earth at the time, and he walked in close fellowship with God.
Noah is described as a righteous man, the only blameless person on earth at the time
- and he walked in close fellowship with God
Being righteous is often misunderstood as being pious or holy
Maybe even “perfect,” but in a religiously snobby way
Always being right
Righteousness or being righteous simply means being in right relationship with God
Right can mean good, healthy, or “correct” - though it may not sound very intimate
Or doing justice to a person or relationship
Might be where we get the phrase “do right by someone”
As Australian as I am and comfortable in the western context, I can still be pretty Korean
I cringe whenever my kids address adults by their first name
This is the kind of “correctness” I’m talking about
It may sounds like distancing formality, but it is showing the proper respect to someone because you care for them or want to show that you care for them.
Noah was blameless in his relationship with God that is described as a close fellowship
This close fellowship involved complete trust - also known as faith
22 So Noah did everything exactly as God had commanded him.
Noah did everything God told him to even though Noah did not fully understand what was going on and and how things were going to turn out
Noah trusted the immediate directions without questioning how things would turn out later on.
Noah’s righteousness was in response to God’s righteousness - which comes first and is a little different
God’s righteousness is when He keeps His covenants, or promises, and acts accordingly
and is completely predicated on His love for His Good creation
So despite His special creation disobeying Him, God will always keep His promises and and do whatever is needed to help people continue to have a right relationship with Him
So with Noah’s family and the ark, God is providing a place refuge for His righteous remnant
2. God’s goodness never ends because He SAVES
How do you explain what an ark is?
A BIG boat
But this explanation is also flawed because a boat is a watercraft that can be sailed - controlled
Noah’s ark had no engines, sails, oars or rudders to be controlled by people
This was intentional to show that God was the only one in control
and the only One that will save them
The word for “Ark” only appears twice in the bible - for Noah’s Ark and with Moses
The basket Moses was put in to save him was the same word used for Noah’s ark
And the word for the ark itself is not originally Hebrew - it’s actually an Egyptian loanword - a word borrowed from a different language
Korean was a BUNCH from English
Like Orange, tunnel
English and French share a lot both ways
The weekend in French is Le weekend
From French we get 'Rendezvous', 'ballet', 'entrepreneur', ‘café
So the Egyptian word for “ark” means “sacred shrine, sarcophagus, box.”
So you get that Noah’s ark was not like a cruise ship.
A sarcophagus is a stone coffin from ancient times, and was a sort of vehicle into the afterlife - from one life to the next…
Do you see where this is going?
And cutting a long explanation short, the ark is structured as a symbol of Eden and the Tabernacle
The Tabernacle is the tent-temple compound God commands Moses to build after they come out of Egypt and slavery
In fact, Noah’s Ark and the Tabernacle are the only 2 things that God expresses commands to be built in the first 5 books of the OT
It shouldn’t be called Noah’s Ark, it should be called God’s Ark
The Ark is like a mini-creation and Eden to be saved in a world that was going back to a state of chaos like before the creation
Not just creation and Eden, but the Tabernacle - which is where God dwelt along His people on earth
The Ark is a temple, which represents God’s presence with His people
The Ark is not a symbol of punishment and mass murder as some people would like to describe it as
The Ark is all about the goodness of a loving God who is remaining righteous with humanity that is rejecting Him, and saving them from complete annihilation and death
3. God’s goodness never ends because He PROMISES
The restoration of people and animals to the land after the flood is both a re-creation and a new creation
Noah, his family, and the animals exit the ark on the first day of the calendar—the new creation coinciding with the start of the year
This pattern recurs throughout Scripture
When Noah gets off the boat, his sacrifice marks him as the righteous and blameless intercessor who will devote himself to God
God accepts his sacrifice, but he notes that humanity is no different now than before the flood
This is ironic because Noah and his family are the only people around!
Noah’s sacrifice in Genesis 8 is the first time a sacrifice is offered on behalf of people
But Noah’s sacrifice does not placate an angry deity.
Rather, Noah’s obedience and faithfulness to God’s instructions qualify him to be a new “Adam” and a royal priest who offers up a valuable sacrifice on behalf of the new humanity
God announces that even though the land is under a curse, that is, fallen because of sin and death, God is not going to treat the land and its people as under the curse
In Genesis 3-6, we see humanity has polluted God’s good world with innocent blood, resulting in the collapse with the flood
But instead of letting the land remain under that curse, God is going to give the gift of hope and salvation instead
He will maintain order so that the seed of the woman can arrive and undo the power of the curse.
Noah, and humanity is saved in order to worship, to offer the sacrifice that gives God pleasure and enjoyment that turns curse into blessing
God knows that people will still be disobedient, but He remains righteous and faithful to keep His promise from the very beginning, until the curse of sin is destroyed forever
God does not give new promises
God’s promise is eternal and the all-sovereign one makes sure it will be fulfilled
God’s promise that His Good Creation will live with him in good and right relationship forever
Noah is a kind of preview of Jesus
and the events surrounding Noah and the Ark represent our salvation through Jesus Christ, God’s own son
Who came to represent all of humanity in our disobedience and separated from God
To teach us the goodness of God
And show us the way to salvation and right relationship with God
So that we can live born-again as God’s children.
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